Description: While Ran waits for the bus, she ends up briefly sharing her bench with another young woman on a fact-finding mission.
In this era of unusual events and frequent protests, Action Teenage Reporter Ran is dynamically waiting at the bus stop! Well, she's standing just inside the little booth thing you find at bus stops. It protects from the random things that are wont to fall from the sky, in this period. But, even in these circumstances, she's always alert and looking around for an interesting subject for an article.
What with the world doing its best to convince all of the various small creatures skittering about on its surface that it might be tired of supporting their existence, there is no shortage of news-worthy events to be found. The real challenge perhaps lies in finding anyone who has the time to read an article about the seas rising up to swallow cities whole or ash falling like snow in Antartica across the large majority of Japan with everyone busy dealing with the actual consequences of the chaos that has taken root.
That doesn't mean fact-finding expeditions are useless, though! If someone knew what was actually going on here then maybe something could be done about it. It is for this precise reason that Ibuki is still here when the majority of her clan has evacuated to somewhere less on fire. Their duty to the land has always been a self-imposed perogative; no one forces them to intervene when evil rears its ugly head, nor are their missions funded by some special interest or wealthy benefactor. No one would ever even notice if they were to simply disappear to a safer place since very few people even know they exist at all.
The temptation to be elsewhere is not one that has escaped the young ninja completely. The constant downpour of gray smoke and black soot has nearly blotted out the sun completely and yet the heat that is trapped within from the volcano's fury is far worse than even the most blistered summer afternoon. She does not sweat as much as she should, however, her rigorous special training for dealing with hostile environments compensating atleast somewhat for the discomfort, but the soft sheen on her skin is a clear indication that even she is suffering in this climate.
Even more frustrating than the heat, however, is the utter lack of information to go on. Even if Mt. Fuji was a ticking time bomb, the chances of its eruption occuring at the same time as all of the other disasters are astronomical. No, there is some greater evil at work here, but so far she's found no clues as to what that might be. Perhaps it's time for a little break.
There is a soft whoosh of displaced air next to Ran, a soundless gust of wind so slight as to feel like little more than a warm breath upon her face. Ibuki reclines on the bench with a long sigh, practically seeming to appear out of thin air; one moment the small bus stop hut is empty save for Ran and the next she has a companion.
"This heat is something else, huh."
Ran keeps looking ahead of herself, then replies, "Everything is something else." She finally turns towards Ibuki, and decides to slump on the bench as well. "Too much weirdness going on at once. I clearly have to figure out what this is going on. Even if this means I'll have to pull a Pliny the Elder." She whips out a small folder from her backpack, lets her head fall backwards, and, open-mouthed, she fans herself with the item. "Too much is off, it's hard to detect the pattern." She tugs at her collar, wipes some sweat, and then slowly raises her gaze to look ahead of herself. "But I just have to do it. I... I /cannot/ stop. Believe me, I tried. I had already evacuated, but I couldn't take it." Then she glances sideways to Ibuki. "And what's your excuse for being around here?" she says. Out of habit, she has already absent-mindedly extended a microphone towards Ibuki, even though her arm is slightly limper than usual.
When the young reporter casts her gaze towards Ibuki she finds not an individual that looks like they were pulled right out of a Hollywood ninja movie sitting next to her but simply another student, perhaps in her last years of highschool from the girl's apparent age. Ibuki's uniform doesn't match any of the standards that can be found in Southtown, sporting neither Taiyo's conservative design nor Gorin's athletic gear. She also doesn't look the sort to belong to Seijyun's strict dress-code, nor is her attire rich enough to indicate that she might be associated with Justice High. And, as she is clearly not an American, it's very unlikely that she's with Pacific either. Perhaps she comes from further up north, judging by the short cut of her skirt to deal with the more humid climate.
Ibuki glances sidelong at the microphone is curiosity but doesn't bother to swat it away. There's nothing a little chat about the current climate can do to harm her secret identity. "Weird is a pretty good word for it. Never thought that I'd be around to see the great Mt. Fuji go up like that. They always talk about dormant volcanos coming back to life in school but you never really think things like that will affect you. It's kind of like hearing about people winning the lottery. I guess I just wanted to look around and see if there is anything I can do to help."
A bottle of water is produced from the small schoolbag sitting next to her on the bench, its contents vanishing quickly down her parched throat. She saves about half of it, however, turning to offer the rest towards Ran with a faint smile. "Here, you should keep hydrated. This heat will get to you if you're not careful."
Ran hesitates for a moment, then, with a smile, she accepts the bottle. "Thanks...", she says, and chugs down some of the liquid. She wipes her brow again, exhaling, then she temporarily places the microphone on the bench. She reaches into her own backpack, and offers a second bottle of water. "I try to. Here, I guess it's gift exchanging time." Now that she's more free to move, she picks up the microphone again, and points it to Ibuki again. "By the way, I am Ran Hibiki, from the Taiyo High School Newspaper. Mind if I have an interview? If you prefer to keep this private, by all means, we can go that w-"
Ran's sentence is interrupted by a bus passing by. Not only it failed to stop, it just kept on going. "HEY!", exclaims Ran, her head following the vehicle. "As if we didn't have enough weirdness... catch!", she exclaims, throwing her own bottle at Ibuki (but holding onto the one Ibuki gave her), and springing up to run at breakneck speed after the bus. "YOU COME BACK NOW! WHAT IS UP WITH YOU!?"
Ibuki looks somewhat surprised when the fresh bottle of water is offered back her way, not quite expecting to be making an exchange here, but she accepts it without complaint. Obviously this girl is smart enough to keep some survival supplies on hand so she'll probably be fine.
"Oh, uh, thanks. I'm Ibuki," she replies, tucking the fresh bottle into her satchel. "I live near Kyoto but I've heard of your school. I guess it couldn't hurt to give an interview but I'm not sure I have much of interest to offer that you can't see for--huh?"
Her gaze lifts up as the bus trundles on past without slowing, head swiveling on her neck with a look of confusion. "That's strange. Maybe they... woah?!"
Ibuki tucks her legs up under the bench as the reporter girl takes off like a hurricane, kicking up a cloud of ash in her wake in a cartoonish fashion that adds to the thick smog left by the vehicle's passing. "Guess, she really wanted to catch that bus..." When the curtain of soot settles back down the bus stand is empty, the agile ninja vanishing as quickly and quietly as she appeared.
Log created on 15:03:15 09/19/2014 by Ibuki, and last modified on 16:20:45 09/19/2014.