Akemi Meets Hideyori (Log3)

Hideyori Arai shakes his head once as he did not even know why he was here. Having returned back to Port Island to test a few things, he brushed his hands over his hair as he did not seem to be thinking clearly. Standing in line at the counter for now, he placed his order.


        "Two duck burgers. Large order of fries. And do you have some Mad Bull in stock?"


        Dickering with the clerk for now, some smartassed punk, he felt a familiar tingle at the base of his neck. Hm.

Akemi Ohashi Akemi at a fast-food joint. An unusual event. The cost-benefit ratio of going to somewhere like that was far, far inferior to, say, anything else, not to mention the degradation of something so obviously American in inspiration. But, her plane had come in late, and airline food was one of the few places less cost-effecient sources of calories than fast food.


         It wasn't especially crowded. Akemi looked at her watch. Plenty of time before the Dark Hour. For certain definitions of "plenty". Being caught out then would really not do much good for her psyche.


         She queued up behind some vaguely intimidating sort of guy. The hell do you even get at a place like this? Duck burgers? Ridiculous.
Hideyori Arai finished the order, the burger with extra pickles..."I said extra and if I have to complain to the corporate office I will" he barked at a pimply faced teenager, as well as the fries and the Mad Bull and Nastea. Sufficiently satisifed with his food object for now, he turns around and spots someone. Who, he does not know.


        He does manage to pass by Akemi for now and almost accidentally bump into her. Should she be willing to pick up on his resonance, there will be something akin to a faint smell of incense against him.


        Finally, as his own watch began to beep furiously, he moved to sit down in a booth. Looking at the watch, e curses. "Fuck. Got to get home soon"

Ridiculous. This is what happens when you let humans do a job so clearly meant for machines. How long until the Dark Hour? Not long enough. Never long enough, now that Akemi thought about it. Well, if she was going to have to stumble home through the coffins and the blood and the moon and the monsters, she might as well do it on a full stomach.
A sort of weird sensation came over Akemi. A sensation in lieu of stimuli provoking it. Of course she was hallucinating. Running away to Hungary hadn't actually solved anything. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Still going crazy. Maybe it was just cologne, or something, Akemi knew it wasn't, somehow.


         "Hey, uh. Whatever's most popular," she mumbled to the employee, and then had to refresh the underpayed girls memory of what was the most popular entree at "Wild Duck Burger". The seconds before the Dark Hour ticked away as she waited for her stupid, overpriced, American food meal.

Hideyori Arai slowly looks at the woman as she is standing there for now, the food being ordered. A small sigh as he tears into his burger. "Hey" he called out to Akemi. "You may want to hurry up." he added. "Or come see me when you're done. Whatever."

Someone was talking to her. Not at school and he wasn't family. People didn't usually talk to her- the clothes, the hair, the bags, and the way she seemed five layers removed from whatever's going on around her tended to do that.

         "Uh. I- um. Is this- are you hitting on me?" she asked. Shit. Hoped it wasn't.
Hideyori Arai shakes his head as he looks at the woman. "Is there someone else who I would be talking to?" he asks. Looking at the woman as he waves the Nastea cup. "Get your drinks and come sit down" he added. Tearing into the food for a moment longer, his own unkempt look being more than enough to help get the point across before he added.

        "And I know you smelled what was about me" was almost said in a whisper.

        That wasn't an answer. Well, fuck it. There's worse fates than talking to some guy who has the hots for her until the Dark Hour came and she could jog back home unfettered. Except for the monsters, but if one of them showed up... okay, so the odds of another tall guy showing up and scaring it shitless were pretty low, but


         She grabbed her stuff indiferrently and plopped down.


         "Right. What can I do for you? Need help with a lab, or something? You don't look like the Fra Mauro type."
Hideyori Arai looked at the woman a moment longer. "I know Wantanabe-san from the University and I think I know a couple of students. However.." he shakes his head as he tears into the Mad Bull for now. Draining it, letting it go through his system, he looks back at the woman.


        "I am not here to talk to you about it. And I am 'ware of a problem which is about to happen" he replied.


        With a small glare to the man behind the counter who delivered her food, he turned his head to face the bookworm. "So tell me. Is there a reason you're trying to book it home before.." he leans in and whispered.


        "Hour 13?"

Akemi Ohashi exhales in relief. It's sort of weird that she should be less apprehensive about some shady guy talking to her about that time than she was when she thought that guy wanted in her pants. Unless he's lying. Nothing to do about it.


         "O-oh. I misread this situation," she said as she folded her hands and her gaze focused intensely.


         "Right, then. I'm Akemi Ohashi. I recommend that we compair notes, nem?"

Hideyori Arai laughs softly. "Yes, we should" he replied. "Don't get me wrong. You are cute but..." he waves his hand as he pulls out a Tarot card and showed it to Akemi. "And don't worry about people here not being able to hear you or not. Most of the time.." he looked about. "Most of the time people here don't give a damn unless you're naked gyrating ont he table."


        He cntinued to eat as he added. "Hideyori Arai. Freelancer and familiar with Hour 13"
Akemi Ohashi Akemi picked at her food. It was awful, obviously, but thinking about the Dark Hour did tend to sap her appitite regardless.


         "R-right. So, insofar that I know, it comes after midnight every day, but only in Port Island, and most people are coffins. I'm not, and apparently neither are a handful of people. Nothing that runs on electricity works, water turns into blood, the moon is creepy, and monsters roam the streets," she says quickly. Inhale, exhale. "That's about it. Anything to add?"


         At that moment, she finally congnized the tarot card. "Like, what's that, for example?"
Hideyori Arai laughs. "Water turns into blood. Food is rotten" he replied softly. "And I am one of a few people. It's not limitd to Port Island" he added as he takes a sip of the food. A small shrug of his shoulders as he added. "Sumaru is also located within the Dark Hour, or it affects there..and.." he sighs softly. "There's someone else who has the potential who stalks it."


        The card pointed out as he added. "Are you familiar with Tarot or.." he slowly broke the card. Though invisible to those whom cannot see it, Akemi should be witness to a Persian male standing almost shadowy behind Hideyori.
It wasn't nakedness and gyrating on the table, but it sure was close. Akemi screamed as though her hand was lit aflame.


         "What the fuck?!" She shouted as the Dark Hour commenced, mercifully shielding her from the consequences of her loss of composure. She jumped out of her chair and scrambled onto the counter. "The fuck is that! Why is he just standing there?!"

Hideyori Arai shakes his head a moment longer as he sees the Dark Hour, or some of the last remnants of the traces. A small sigh escapes his lips as he snaps his fingertips and Melchor disappears. "You should know of my Persona by now" he growled softly. "Or any Persona" he added.

Akemi Ohashi spits "Persona?" out with her customary distain for the English language. "I've read stuff from Jung. I've heard the word. That's not some outmodded psychological concept, that's a ghost."

Hideyori Arai shifts as he looks at the woman. The tone and the tongue shifts back to what is the native language. "Persona. You know from Jung that it is the inner mask for a person" he added. The Tarot card in front of him, in the mark of the Hierophant, is visible as he continues to eat, and the noise behind people cotinue.


        "How are you aware of the Hour?" he asks softly. "I thought you knew about it, and how people with Persona were able to deal with problems?"

Akemi Ohashi breathes heavily, trying her best to calm herself down. "All that I've told you. I. No, I just sort of assumed that people like us stayed inside and tried not to die. You can... You can fight monsters with that thing?" she asked. A moment passes.


        "Can I get one?"

Hideyori Arai grunts as he looks at Akemi. "Great" he replied idly as he looks at the woman. "Want to tell me, I guess..just precisely how you managed to find out?" he asks. The card is kept in his pocket for now as he continues to eat the burger.


        Her question is ignored for now before he answers. "Tell me how you knew of the Dark Hour, and we will see. But tell me..do you smell anything against me or around me?"

Akemi Ohashi thinks about the question. "Yes. But maybe it's psychosomatic. I mean, if I expect to smell something I might well think I do," she says at length.


         The other was much easier. "Okay, so. I've been noticing that stuff stops working at midnight ever since I moved here for school. Thought it was a recurring dream coupled with sleepwalking, but after a while that explaination kind of fell flat. So I asked students at my school if they'd had similar dreams, and this one girl filled me in. A little bit. Didn't mention any "Persona", of course. And then, this one time I was walking along the street, when this little puddle of dark stuff started chasing me. I tripped, but this guy walked up and the thing ran away. He promised to explain it but... I guess I passed out, and when I came to he was nowhere to be seen. And I've been in Hungary for the last couple months avoiding this shit," she said. "Maybe that was 'TMI'", she said, shuddering in revulsion at the English, "But, you know. That's the whole story I guess."

Hideyori Arai nods his head. "So someone saved you" he replied softly. A small sigh escapes his lips as he nods. "Yeah, someone here, a Professor Wantanabe, told me the same thing. That once a day, a compressed hour goes through one minute where..." he waves his hand. "Strange stuff happens. Where you find things like demons, and shadows...people's repressed urges" he added softly.


        Waving his hand once, he added. "Persona are people's.." he sighs. "People have to handle themselves, the good and the bad. Those who can can deal with it. You could call it.." he waves his hand. "Magical if you will"

Akemi Ohashi asks "magical?" she asks. "A while ago I would have scoffed, but. Time travel and monsters. Summoning some sort of spirit to do battle with them is, I guess, just the logical conclusion. How did you get yours?"

Hideyori Arai shakes his head. "You can call it magical, or preternatural" he replied softly as he sighs and keeps his eyes closed for now. When they open, he did hear the beep of the watch to let him know that there was about a half hour before it began. Sipping the Nastea, he replied.


        "Remember, most of this is for the person to understand. To accept whom and what they are, good and bad and.." he shrugged. "I guess strive to improve. There are those who are comfortable with the darkness to permeate and to be..demented little shits. You must also understand besides Shadows.." he makes a small sketch of Japan using ketchup on a napkin.


        "We're here. Here on Port Island there are the monsters which attack people." A fry is used to draw inward. "Sumaru has those monsters but also demons..demons are like a person's Persona but more raw and animalistic in nature. They can be helpful or a hinderance" he added softly.


        Finally listening to the woman, he added. "I had my fortune read by a man with a long nose. I understand later he was a part of a 'Velvet Room'..a spot for Persona users to gather and receive..help though not outright help with their problems"

Akemi Ohashi brings out her notebook and pencil. "Persona- good, self improvement. Shadows- bad, shits. Demons are real and not evil by default. Long nose man gives personae- investigate? Velvet room- help?" she says as she writes. Bad habit. "Okay. Got that."


         Another long-neglected throught bumped in her head. "You... you said someone stalks the Sumaru dark hour. What sort of stalking?"

Hideyori Arai shakes his head. "I do not know" he replied softly as he saw the person making notes. "I would also advise you keep that to yourself, the notes you are making. Even if someone's standards of good are not what society calls normal..as long as the person has a new resolution in their heart.." he shrugged. "Or if..and I mean if..the resolution meets with the goals.." he shrugged. "Persona happen. I got mine by the Fortune Telling. Others..play a Personae game. And yet." he shrugged.


        "One can be handled by a group of people here. And summoned. Others, a near death experience triggers it"

Akemi Ohashi 's face lights up. "Not going to share the notes- who'd believe me?" she mutters as she continues writing. "Persona users- not always good," she says. She raises her head to face Hideyori. "Who's this group?" she asks? "They know what's going on here? They give people Personae?"

Hideyori Arai laughs as he looks at the woman. "I can tell you but.." he shakes his head. "For now I think I blew your mind, no?" he asks. A small sigh escapes his lips as he leans back. "And nobody gives people Personae. Some who have the ability, as I get it.." he shrugged. "They're not the coffins. Or they survive a trip in a TV...do not ask" he added as he waved his Mad Bull, seeing a question form.


        A nagging question forms. "But I want to know.." he replied softly. "Why had your Persona not awakened yet?"

Akemi Ohashi 's brow furrows. "Is it supposed to have? My mother would never let me go to a fortune-teller even if I wanted to, I've never been on TV, I have no idea what a Persona game is, and no group of people have ever talked to me about this stuff. Never almost- wait, that time with the Shadow. Sort of almost died. But maybe it's just never had cause to show itself- that Shadow was never that close," she thinks aloud, and then closes her eyes so she can think normally. "If I do have a Persona, how would I cause it to come out?"


         Probably something unpleasent.
Hideyori Arai snorts as he finishes his Mad Bull. "Die. Or come close to it. Or if you can pull it off..survive a trip into the TV or have someone tell you. Hell" he replied as he finished his Duck Burger. "I may have told you too much as it is"

Yeah, Akemi more or less called that one. Nothing more unpleasent than dying. "Monsters wander the streets at night and there's only one thing capable of effectively opposing them and you're worried that you've told me to much about that thing? I don't see how that's even possible."

Hideyori Arai looks at the woman as he stabs a fry in her direction. "You don't get it do you?" he asks softly. A small sigh escapes his lips as he leans back, finishing his food. "Far as I can see, there are about three or four groups which deal with this" he added. "And what I say, if I tell you.." he added. "You don't know this unless they confirm it or you can show me you get a Persona to deal with this"

Akemi Ohashi purses her lips. He's offering to share something... shady with her, probably. And yet... she'd always been raised to value knowledge, whatever the price. Even... even if that selfsame knowledge might get her killed. And she was probably overthinking it- how bad could it be.
Akemi Ohashi says, "Of course. Never heard it."

Hideyori Arai nods his head. "Great" he replied as he leans forward.


        "The first thing you should know is that there are some in the Government aware of what's going on. Not the SDF. Department 4. They have their own units, as well as auxillary members, and they are Persona users. So if the cops are aware, you can imagine if the Persona using cops deal with people who break the law. I know a couple there and have tipped them off to some problems which have happened" he began.


        "Now you also have to consider there are some people based out of Kirijo's group. You know, the Kirijo family?" he asks drily. A small wave of his hand. "My first interaction with them both was when the Kirijo people went to get their person being detained by Department 4. I'll not go into it but both sides were at fault" he added.


        He rose, returned with two cups of water, and a can of Mad bull for him. The water given, one of the cups, to Akemi, before he sits down. "The damned user who roams Sumaru during the Dark Hour is someone who might work the underside of the city. I myself am.." he sighs. "Loosely associated with a group called Katgutsuchi. Some Yakuza types, some freelancers, and some on the darker side of the law. You also need to consider a group in Inaba but I've never met them as well" he added.


        "So. Questions, so far?"
"Cops, corporations, gangs? No scientists?" Akemi asks. Well, she hopes to rectify that as quickly as is humanly possible. "Well, fuck that."


         Another one of those delayed reaction moments. The Dark Hour, and sleep deprivation, does that. "So you're, what, in a gang? Work with a gang? The hell does the /Yakuza/ want with this? Don't tell me you're doing hits when nobody can trace it, with an impossible murder weapon?" Fuck. Should not have given him the idea if he hadn't had it yet, somehow.
Hideyori Arai snorts as he looks at the woman. "One group does, one group does not. I am of the ones who do not. And this Corporation has it's own scientists, as well as the Government"

Akemi Ohashi relaxes a bit. Better to be hanging out with... some murderer's cheerleader than the murderer itself. "Thats, that's good, at least. So, this... this hour 13, does it end? I can't help but think that there's a reason for me to have this... I mean, to stay not-a-coffin at this time. What do i do from here?"

Hideyori Arai looks at Akemi a moment longer as he snorts. "I do not know" he replied softly. "So I don't or cannot answer you in that regard" he replied. A small sigh escapes his lips as he looks at the woman before nodding. "Regardless...that's the current information I know of"

Akemi Ohashi says, "Riiiiiight. I'm- uh, I'm sorry. This is a lot. You've been supremely helpful. Do you have addresses on these groups, maybe? Or, something."

Hideyori Arai hands out his business card. "I am Hideyori Arai. And.." he shrugged. "You can talk with me anytime you have questions" he advised.

Akemi Ohashi takes the card and tucks it into a pocket on her labcoat. Insanely useful, it was. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will likely come calling on you- I do not endeavor to stop until I've unraveled this thing's mysteries. If there's monsters about, and they can hurt and kill, I'm going to see to them getting put back in their place. And if you can help me with that- I owe you my most ardent gratitude."

Hideyori Arai looks at the woman a moment longer. "I am not your salvation in this" he replied softly as he looks at the woman. A small shrug of his shoulders as he sees her put his card in her jacket pocket. "But I will give you answers. Realize for now on the supernatural.." he shakes his head. "I would give you a chance to speak with some people but I do not know enough. As it stands.."


        The Mad Bull is finished. "As it stands right now, until you have that experience, you can gather iformation but.." he shrugged."

Akemi Ohashi smiles. "Regardless, you have done me a service. I will find these groups- they're large clusters of people who don't turn into coffins and... I guess, smell off? Can't be altogether too difficult," she says. She bows and turns to leave.

Hideyori Arai says, "Be careful. Some may decide to detain you. Be discrete or..when you manifest I can introduce you to friends of mine."

Akemi Ohashi chuckles. "I'll do my best to get the thing out. Go bungee jumping, maybe- that might be enough to convince me that I'm about to die," she says as she leaves the crappy restaurant, daring not show the terror deep in her soul. It says something about a situation when the Yakuza presented the most readily available solution to a problem.