Description: Namie and Miki catch up on what's been happening recently.
It's noon on Sunday, and it's suprisingly nice out. This means everyone's outside, and the streets are a little busy. It's a little harder to get into the abandoned dojo than usual - if one cares about keeping it a secret, at least.
Miki is lying on the roof of the dojo, resting the back of her head on the palms of her hands, staring up at the sky. She's wearing a different kimono than usual - yellow silk with a fractal green/blue design. A couple of wrapped bento boxes sit next to her.
It's nice to spend a few minutes relaxing in the sun, even if relaxing is not really her thing. She yawns, showing off her fangs momentarily - but there's no one around to see.
Sunday's are great because it means no school, so once her day off homework is done Namie leaves her home and heads towards the dojo. When she gets there she grins, looking around to make sure no one is looking before back fliping up onto the tall fence, arms held out to the sides as she balances atop it with one heel for a moment before flipping again to the ground.
It takes her a moment to spot Miki, grinning when she sees her on the roof, and moves to join her, scrambling up one side of the building and leaping off it a bit to catch the roof, dragging herself up afterwards. When she comes into view it's obvious she's not wearing her Taiyo uniform, instead a black and red striped shirt and a white and red polka dotted skirt, leggings underneath matching the skirt. Her scrunch, of course, also matches- red to stand out against her hair.
As her friend relaxes she moves closer, shimmying and dancing while twisting from side to side, singing wordlessly to the tune of the theme song played at Tiger Masks first Neo League fight, ending by jumping and spreading her arms wide, "Duh duh-duh!!"
At least she's smart enough not to just shout 'Tiger Mask!' out here in the relative open.
Miki smiles up at Namie without showing her teeth, but the smile falters somewhat as she starts singing along to the tune of the theme song.
"While I appreciate the feeling behind coming to my match, it seems to reveal my identity unneccessarily. I'd complain further, but I've been telling a lot of new friends about my identities, and one of them is inevitably going to betray me." She suddenly smiles, and springs up to her feet, trying to grasp her friend's hands in her own.
"Namie, I made so many new friends!"
A short pause, and her expression turns more serious.
"...Also, it turns out there's been a villainous organization invading some of the schools around here. And one of them may have captured me for a bit. So... watch out for that."
The faltering smile causes Namie’s to brighten even more, knowing it means her friend definitely noticed her out there in the crowd. When her friend jumps up so quickly and takes her hands she laughs and hops a couple of times, beaming widely at her friend’s excitement and joy.
"You have? That's so great, Miki!" She leans forward and makes to draw her friend into a quick hug if she'll allow it, pulling back a moment later. "I hope I can meet them soon!"
Then at the other news she tilts her head a little, "Invading them? How do you mean? That sounds kinda crazy... but not any more than what I found out!" She makes a face while her head tilts from side to side, humming a bit while mixing up this new information in her head. "I wonder if the people who captured you are the same ones that are giving people weird dreams. Oh! I haven't told you that yet, have I? The weird memories people are having about being stuck in a tube? They're dreams! And the only way people are all having the same dream is if someone is putting it in their heads, right? I know because it happened to me! I guess I just passed out and when I woke up I'd had a dream about it."
Namie gives her friend another bright smile, obviously not at all worried about the implications. Of course right after she changes the subject, placing her hands on her hips, "You should have known better than to think I wouldn't show up and cheer for you! It was your first professional fight and you definitely deserved to have a friend their rooting for you. ...and why do you think someone is going to betray you? I'm a little hurt if you think I'm the one that'd do that." While her tone is serious she sticks her tongue out briefly at the end.
Miki hugs Namie back with her muscular arms - maybe a bit /too/ strongly, she's excited. She smiles at her friend, showing her teeth and fangs as she pulls back, then quickly remembers herself and shifts back into a placid close-mouthed expression.
"Well, some of them are a bit strange... one of them wants to kill all humans. But I'm sure he'd make an exception for you!"
"I don't think they're dreams. The same girl I saw attacking another Seijyun girl for no stated reason - although she specifically stated she was not in love with the girl... also attacked me. She attacked me in what seemed like a dream, but she destroyed that gold kimono I used to wear. However, when I awoke, the kimono was gone."
"Therefore, we can conclude there's a fairly high probability that it was not in fact a dream."
"Namie, you aren't going to betray me on /purpose/, you're going to do it by something like showing up to my league match and someone putting two and two together. Or humming my theme song in public." She blinks. "Oh! I made friends with a Taiyo teacher. Miss Jira Kasagi-san of the Fight Safety Club. She seems nice, she made me dinner and everything." A short pause.
"...she's not the one who wants to kill all humans, though!"
Namie might be a little uncomfortable with the strength of the hug, but she doesn't complain if so. After all, it merely means she is that much closer of a friend! "Kill all humans? That's a little extreme," she comments with a quirked eyebrow. "Though if he does tell him to kill everyone at once so we don't have to suffer. ...I'm not sure I'd want to be the only 'human' left anyway, Miki. And besides, if someone wants to extinguish my flame it's not like I'll just let 'em, right?" She gives her friend a grin.
She then puts on another thoughtful expression as the fight and loss of the kimono are explained. "That's... well, maybe there are -two- villainous groups attacking the schools. If we're lucky they'll get in each other's way. Also, are you sure she didn't drug you before she fought you? That'd totally make it feel like a dream. ...I think." She gives a shrug and a winning smile, "I've never done any drugs!"
A short pause, "Except laughing gas at the dentist. Hehehehe... they don't let me have that anymore." She giggles for a few moments as if in reverie.
Sighing softly a shake of her head is given, "I won't betray you even on accident! Or at least I'll try not to. Besides, this isn't public. And if you're that worried about it I should just be seen doing something with Tiger Mask, then it'll be no problem if I cheer for her!" A few moments later she breaks out in laugther, Ď don't think Kasagi-sensei could destroy the world if she wanted to! I've been thinking of going and checking out her Fight Safety Club for the yearbook, though. They're definitely going to get a page, and it'll let me see what it's all about!" About the dinner she grins a bit and asks, "Ohhh, is she a good cook? I'm in one of the classes she assists for, so it'd be good to know how seriously to take her advice."
Miki nods enthusiastically. "Oh, I agree! I'm hoping he'll calm down a little after killing off the people he feel turned him into a monster." She pauses, smiles. "But other than wanting to kill off all of humanity, he's really sweet! And he has a cute pet crow! You'd like him!"
"Two different supercriminal organizations attacking the schools at the same time seems /unlikely/, although not impossible. As far as I'm aware she didn't drug me, but fighting her without using Shinma was too much for me." Her foot starts to go through a rotting section of the roof, and she falls forwards onto all fours for a moment before rising back up, re-orienting herself on a slightly more stable part of the roof.
"She's a very good cook. I prefer raw meat these days, but for cooked food, it wasn't bad at all." She pauses. "...I wonder if eating raw meat feeds the Tiger too. Perhaps I should stay away from eating such things if I'm trying to reduce it's influence over my body." She pauses, tilts her head a bit to one side. "...As if she could destroy the world...." She shrugs a bit. "Well, that's something to ask her, I suppose, rather than me. She's a good deal stronger than she looks, at least."
"It's too bad he isn't more like you," Namie laments, "If turning him into a monster gave him the power to kill people he probably wouldn't want to kill them for it, that way! ...though I'd kinda be sad if you were a complete monster. But then if he made friends with you, I guess he probably isn't either. Oh! What did he name his crow? You're right, a cute crow is pretty fun."
A small headshake is given and Namie shrugs her shoulders lightly, "That's true, but neither is one supercriminal organization attacking the schools. I guess it's less likely, but the fact there's even one raises the odds quite a bit!" She blinks a little then as Miki seems to stomp right through the rotted roof. "...you know, we should patch that. If the rain gets in the whole place is going to collapse." A little tap of her chin then, "Maybe we should patch the whole place up! Not so good that someone else wants to use it though; at least not on the outside. Though come to think of it I don't think I've ever actually gone inside. We should sometime!"
She crosses her arms thoughtfully, "Maybe I'll have to get her to cook for me sometime, too! She seems nice enough in class so I bet she would if I asked." On the comment of raw meat maybe feeding the tiger she grins a little, "You should test it! And maybe feeding it isn't a bad thing? It could be that if you feed it with raw meat you don't have to feed it with human energy. Or not as much?" Another quick nod and a reiteration, "You should test it."
"It's name is Tset. Or it is now. I thought you'd want it to have a name." Miki tilts her head a bit to one side, disquieted by something that Namie said, but continues on for the moment.
"It'd be dangerous to go inside. You can't just jump off it if it starts to collapse if you're on the inside." Because jumping off a collapsing building is perfectly safe? She's silent for a long moment. "I could probably hire some people to come in and patch it up. But I'd worry if we did stuff like that, the owners might realize that this place still exists again."
"I think the human energy helps to /suppress/ the tiger energy. I'm not sure eating raw meat would do the same thing. But staying on good terms with the tiger energy does seem like a good idea, so I should definitely eat raw meat sometimes. Assuming it's even vaguely sentient. But if that starts to make me change again..."
She shrugs a bit, looks back to Namie.
"...What do you mean by 'complete monster', my friend?"
Namie just grins when told she'd want the pet to have a name.
When she's told the inside of the building is dangerous she quirks an eyebrow, "Less dangerous than to be standing on it. Our weight could bring it down. Besides, if we did anything with it the first thing should be to make sure it's stable. I'm serious about that hole, though, at the very least we need to cover it up somehow before we leave. The owners will remember it exists if it collapses into a heap!"
She starts wandering over the roof, looking for loose bits of roofing and examining the hole that was punched into it, trying to find a quick way to patch it up. "You should try to be on good terms with it! If you can you should even try to be friends with it. It might be hard, but I bet it's possible if it's alive."
Looking up from her examining she meets eyes with Miki, "I mean if you wanted to kill everyone and didn't want to have any friends, and wouldn't listen to what anyone had to say. That'd be pretty monstrous, right?"
"...Maybe. I'd rather be friends than enemies with anything sharing my body." TMiki looks back into Namie's eyes, although for once it seems she's slightly uncomfortable doing so. "I don't think I'll ever want to kill everyone or not have any friends. Having friends is one of the few things I'm sure about." She swallows, and is silent for a long moment, finally looks away.
"Probably is safer off of the roof." She hops off it back onto the ground, making a soft noise as she lands on the ground below on all fours.
She stands up, back to Namie, and is silent for a long moment. "Namie... if this tiger starts changing my body, and I don't like a human anymore, will you still be my friend?" She bites her lip. "Or will you think I'm a monster?"
Namie rolls her eyes a little when Miki hops off the roof. "You don't have to treat me with kid-gloves. I know you're not scared about getting hurt yourself, so there's no reason to stop coming up here now." She goes back to her makeshift patchwork, sliding some tiles around so there's no longer a gaping hole. "There. It'll probably still leak, but at least the inside won't completely flood."
She stands back up and then falls forward, tucking into a roll and using the slope of the roof to propel herself off rather than jumping, rolling another couple times in the long grass before popping up to her feet. "Just because you got a bunch stronger doesn't mean I suddenly got weaker!" she states with a grin.
As for the question? "Well... I think I would, but I can't say for sure. If it happened all at once it'd be pretty dramatic and I might not actually recognize you. If you end up as a tiger in the zoo I'm sure I'd at least come visit you and talk to you if you sat by me!" She gives a little smile, then turns thoughtful again. "More seriously? I'll definitely try to be your friend. The more different you look the harder it might be to treat you the same… but I won't think you're a monster just from that. I'd only think that if you started being a horrible person. As long as you're still Miki, you're my friend!"
Miki nods, not looking back. "A realistic way of viewing it. Although even if I was full tiger, as long as my mind was mine I'd be able to communicate with you somehow." She pauses. "I'm not worried about myself, because my body heals very quickly on it's own now. I may look like a human, but my mind has never been that of a normal human, and now neither my body nor spirit are normal, either."
She tilts her head a bit to one side. "Are you saying I'm not a horrible person now? I don't get those kinds of distinctions." She turns back to Namie, meeting her eyes with a bit of determination. "If I killed people who deserved it, would you think I was a horrible person?"
"I think I need to be willing to kill or at least main people so badly they can never fight again. Unless you're willing to take action, power is meaningless, and the ultimate power is violence."
"You're my best friend, Namie, and you aren't weak. But, I think ultimately you have a weak person's view of the world. I refuse to think like that. Good and just for the sake of good and justice, evil for evil's sake... these things all seem more and more hollow to me. I should help people when I feel like it and destroy people when I feel like it. I think... good and evil are just a matter of perspective."
"I don't think you're a horrible person, Miki. You can be selfish, but that's hardly abnormal. 'Normal' isn't what I'm talking about, though. I just don't want to be friends with people who hurt other people for no reason or for really bad reasons. If you killed someone and you thought you had a really good reason for it I wouldn't hate you, though I'd probably still wouldn't be happy about it." Namie reaches up and scratches at the back of her head, taking in a breath and letting it out slowly.
"I've never really thought very much about things like that, though. I guess when I didn't have a friend who was really strong I didn't have to. Good and evil probably are mostly perspective like you said, but there is such a thing as right and wrong- like not taking things that don't belong to you, and not being cruel to someone just because it makes you feel better about yourself."
She puts on her thinking face again for a moment before snapping her fingers, "Ah! I've got it. You always wanted power, right? But you would never go beat up a kindergartner real bad because it made you feel powerful. You definitely could have if you wanted to, but you didn't."
Miki considers this for a moment. Like, really considers this. Maybe she's now wondering if she should beat up a kindergartener? "It's true, I haven't beaten up a kindergartener. I figured I've already beat up sufficiently weaker people than me. Besides, I didn't really want to beat up that kitten." Did... did she beat up a kitten?
"Things belong to people because they or their ancestors were strong enough to take them. You know why this land doesn't belong to the Ainu? Because they got crushed. If America really wanted, they'd have this land now, and we'd all be their slaves. Instead, we're only their servants." She holds up the two bento boxes she brought with her in one hand, like a prize seized at a cost in blood. "The strong take what they want."
"That's why there's no such thing as right and wrong property-wise. As for being unneccessarily cruel... people are often unneccessarily cruel to make themselves happier. They just aren't so forthright about it. What do you think it means to spend money on luxuries when people are starving? I don't see any particular problem with being more direct about it, I just don't particularly enjoy it."
Namie shakes her head a little and gives Miki a perplexed look, "You missed the point. What you said is technically true, but there's a difference between 'can' and 'should'. I never said you can't steal things, I said it's wrong if you do. Like... morally and ethically!" She looks somewhat confused herself, not really sure how to get her point across and not entirely willing to spend the effort to do so.
She walks over and makes to take one of the bento's from Miki if she'll give it over, afterwards going to find a nice spot to sit down against the wall of the building. "If you're a nice person I'd like you a lot more than if you were a cruel one, you should probably know that much about me by now. Anyway... can we talk about something else? All of this war and misery stuff is going to make me sad."
Miki tilts her head a bit to one side and stares at Namie, looking equally perplexed by 'morals' and 'ethics'. "Todays 'morals and ethics' were decided by those who were strong enough to put them in place, though, is what I was saying? Usually, they benefit those in power? I don't see any inherent value beyond strength in that...?"
She nods a little as Namie says she'd like Miki better if she was nice - it's something she had kind of expected, really, otherwise she would've talked about her attempts to be cruel in more depth. She smiles as the Taiyo Student asks to talk about something else.
She holds out one of the bentos towards Namie as she walks up to take it, and smiles without showing her teeth."Well, we wouldn't want you to be sad. What do you wish to talk about, my friend?" She walks over next to Namie, and sits down next to her, leaning against the wall as she does, and opens up her own bento box, readies her chopsticks.
Inside the bento box are small portions of sea bream, abalone, crab, octopus, prawns, pike conger, trout, eel, duck, eggplant, egg, small potatoes, pumpkin, lotus root, burdock, ginger, and white rice, all carefully prepared and arranged. Miki is quite good at food aesthetics, but from a taste, one can tell an actual chef made it, since she is not particularly great at flavors.
"No one had to tell me what was morally right or wrong," Namie replies short comment while accepting the bento. After she sits down and carefully opens it up, eyes widening a little when she sees it's contents. "Wow, you really spared no expense this time!" She picks up her chopsticks and tries a few of the pieces, having a hard time deciding what order to eat it in so that it might taste the best.
She makes a soft hum when asked what to talk about, finishing her current bite of food first. "Oh! Did you know I'd been back to Seijyun? I saw a Taiyo student beating some people up and I was gonna admonish him for making my school look bad, but he ran away! Naturally I chased him, but he ran -all the way across town-. I barely kept up with him. Anyway he had the gall to jump the gate at Seijyun! I goofed up though and didn't follow right away, so he got away. I think he cut across campus, but anyway I met Yurika Kirishima there! She's pretty nice, if shy. I know one thing though, if I ever have lunch with you there again, I wanna do it in the flower garden! It's so pretty~." She gives her friend a bright smile before eating a piece of octopus.
Miki stares at Namie for a moment as she says that, pondering if this means that Namie absorbed culture without even thinking about it, or perhaps Miki is fundamentally missing something as a human.
...Maybe both?
She eats a bit more rapidly than her friend, going from top to bottom, left to right, slowing down to savor the meat and fish, and eating the rest politely but perhaps a little quickly. Her teeth are almost invisible as she does this, as is her practice.
"So the school makes up part of your identity? I'm not sure I really care about Seijyun except for practical reasons. It's fine if it burns to the ground." She nicely leaves out 'along with everyone in it'. Not that she wants everyone in Seijyun to die, she just wouldn't mind. "What did that boy look like?
"Yurika Kurishima... Maybe it would be nice to meet her, if she's nice. Although if she's super weak, maybe it's pointless...?" She blinks, remembering another conversation, and turns her gaze back to Namie. "That reminds me. I was talking about romance with Kasagi-sensei. Are you in love with anyone, my friend?"
Namie blinks a little and stares at Miki for a few moments. How is it that they'd never talked about such an important topic. "H-how could you say something like that?!" she asks, sounding flabbergasted. She points her empty chopsticks at herself, and then at Miki, "What school we belong to says a lot about who we are! The uniforms we wear tell people who see us what group we're a part of. Going to a school isn't just about learning, it's about being a part of a greater community! To say that it'd be okay if your school burned down you wouldn't cry... It's horrible!"
As she speaks she waves her hands, and thus chopsticks, around to express herself, though her voice sounds more passionate than appalled at Miki. She stands up, then, and holds her hand over her heart, "I am a part of Taiyo, and Taiyo is a part of me. As fellow students we belong to one another! Should one bring glory upon themselves, they bring glory to us all! And likewise should they shame themselves, we share in there shame. Were it to burn down it'd be as if a part of me had died... at least until I helped rebuild it."
She clenches her hand into a fist, and then shoots it into the air, "Together we fellow students stand as one, no matter that which may come!"
After holding this pose for a moment she drops back to sitting and eats another bite of food.
"He looked tall, and strong. I couldn't really see all that much else because of the crowd, and after that I was just doing my best to follow him." She looks over to Miki and smiles brightly, "You should meet her! She seems shy, but I wouldn't say she's weak. She seems a little like you, actually. Like she's unsure quite where she wants to take herself."
On the comment of love she closes her eyes and laughs happily, "You're so silly, Miki!" She answers the question with her own, "If I was in love with someone do you think I wouldn't have already told you?"
Miki stares at Namie, eyes wide as she talks about her deep loyalty and connection to Taiyo. She slooowly raises her chopsticks to her mouth, with a piece of octopus between them, puts it in her mouth, chews, swallows. "Kasagi-sensei seemed to feel similarly about schools."
"I didn't know you were so in love with your school. So I guess... I think it's better not to assume? You could have been 'oh of course I am in love with someone' if I had asked. Since we haven't talked about such things, I don't know if you're the sort of person to talk to them." She's silent for a long moment.
She looks up at the sky. "If Taiyo's that important to you, then I suppose I have some interest in seeing it not destroyed as well. I still don't care about Seijyun, though. To me, it's just a building full of people." She ponders this. "I don't care about any community for it's own sake. Seijyun students caring about each other for being Seijyun students just seems to fortity the underlying power structure, and I don't want to rely on others for my power. Still, this Kurishima seems more and more worth talking to."
She looks back to Namie. "How do you know he was a Taiyo student if you don't know who it was? Have you looked at the yearbooks to see if you could place him?"
"I wouldn't say it's love. Well... maybe platonic familial love? School spirit is very important, so if you don't care about Seijyun... maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be after all! It sure is a pretty school, though." She then shakes her head and lets out a little sigh, "I'm pretty open with people who are open with me, so since you've told me many of your secrets of course I'd tell you mine."
Namie has a few more pieces of food before looking over to Miki, "Community is important. What communities you're in is a big part of how many judge your worth... though now that I think of it you don't really care much about what other people think, do you? Hm. Communities are important, because standing together with others makes everyone stronger. You've heard the saying 'greater than the sum of it's parts' right? It's like that."
And the Taiyo student she saw? "Simple!" she replies with a grin, "He was wearing a Taiyo uniform."
Miki shrugs. "Well, I don't care about Southtown either, except for a few people I care about who live inside it. Or Japan. So I might not be a great example for the greatness of Seijyun, such as it is." She picks up a piece of bream, looks down at it for a long moment. "I've learned some secrets recently that aren't my secrets, but rather other friend's secrets, so I haven't told them to you." It dissapears into her mouth.
"I want to be strong all on my own. Having comrades and allies is fine, and friends are great, but I don't want to have to rely on the strength of others for my entire life. Either as individuals or societies."
She slowly turns her head back to Namie. "...Look it up in school yearbooks or records. It's possible you'll find him there. It's also possible it's a false flag operation - someone trying to avoid detection by putting on Taiyo's colors and shifting the blame to them."
Namie frowns a little at Miki's first comment and eats some rice to cover it up, before shaking her head and laughing again, "That's okay. I don't want to find secrets out through hearsay! It isn't right to trust things like that unless you hear it from the person themselves." Then she nods a little bit. "I understand. You don't have to be a part of a community or society if you don't want to, but there's a lot of people that do and put a lot of value on it like I do."
She sets her bento down afterwards, making sure her chopsticks aren't in any food before stretching her arms up above her head. "That was good, but I think you brought a bit much for me." After giving a little yawn and relaxing back against the wall she smiles, "I would have, but I didn't get a good look at his face. And that's true, but if so it was even more important for me to try and chase him down. Too bad he got away, or I'd have gotten my answers!"
Log created on 00:48:06 01/27/2015 by Namie, and last modified on 00:27:33 02/15/2015.