infinite_reflection | April 15th

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campus,
open rp

April 15th

April 2nd, 2012, early morning

It would be sunny today. She could tell. Despite a fine fog clouding the streets of Okachi so early in the morning, it would definitely be sunny later in the day. Why was she going to school so early in the morning, anyway...? Hikari Endo of class 2-F had been in a fog for days now. She hadn't been getting much sleep or much of anything done. But today was the first day of school, so of course she had to go. It was like her mind was stuck in a daze – she often found herself standing aimlessly in front of her bathroom mirror and completely unsure of how she'd gotten there.

So far she was the only one on the path to school. Her footfalls were heavy against the cement and seemed to echo unnaturally. One of her hands rose to rub at the side of her head as she heaved a sigh. “What in the hell is wrong with me...?”

April 2nd, 2012, morning

Eh? What? The girl blinked, fluttering her long lashes. She was staring at her own reflection in the bathroom mirror. Crisp morning sunlight filtered through one of the windows, casting her shadow out against the bathroom tile in an almost ominous fashion. Come to me...

Her eyes went half lidded. Had she heard that correctly? She raised a hand to lightly brush her finger tips against the smooth surface of the mirror. It rippled like a pond that had been disturbed, and her reflection smiled. Hikari didn't seem to notice. Everything was fuzzy... She wanted to sleep forever. Come. The reflection in the mirror beckoned her forward, and she obediently climbed on top of the sink counter.

With her forehead leaned against the cool glass she exhaled... And fell through.

April 9th, 2012, early morning

How long had Hikari been waiting here, on top of the elementary building roof? She was drenched from the mist of rain that had been falling for the last several hours. Strands of her long black hair clung to her face as she stared dully out at nothing. The bags under her eyes were huge, and her shoulders were trembling ever so slightly. She'd asked Kiyomi Katsuragi, a fifth grade teacher, to meet her here this morning. The teacher came reluctantly, holding an umbrella.

“Endo-san, you promised you wouldn't call me like this anymore... What's the matter with you? You don't look well.”

“Call me Hikari. You always used to call me Hikari,” Her voice was hollow.

“Well I can't anymore! We agreed to this! You understood!” Kiyomi backed up as the slender framed Hikari advanced. She was slouched oddly, but her eyes were intent upon the teacher's face.

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall...”

A scream tore through the morning quiet and then cut short.

April 15th, 2012, afternoon

Strangled sobs were vaguely audible from the girl's bathroom on the second floor of Eizou Academy. Class was in session at the moment, however, so no one had come. She was lucky that way. The state of the bathroom was quite a sight to behold. The mirror that spanned the entire left wall was shattered in spots. Splatters of blood marked the glass and dripped to the counter. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” Mumbled words from the hysteric girl sitting on the tiled floor. There was a lot of blood, and it was easy to guess that it was all hers.

Sunshine brightly illuminated the blood on the stalls and the floor, and glinted off of the shard of mirror firmly in Hikari's hand. Her body was in a bad state and her skin had gone a sickly pale. The shard of mirror was lifted and plunged into the torn up flesh of her thigh over and over while she sobbed out the words 'I'm sorry'. Eventually she slumped against the tile, whispering the word 'Kiyomi' before her eyes shut for good.

She'd written messages into the tile and onto the stalls, all in blood.

mirror, mirror, on the Wall,
push them down
and wAtch them fall

i'm sorry Kiyomi

rEflections

yoUr shadow

Please don't go

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“Oh! Oh, I'm hungry. Let's get a bite to eat?” She adjusted her grip on her bag and peered down either side of the mall with a thoughtful little squint of her eyes. “...Pastries. I know a really good pastry shop. How do you feel about splitting some carrot cake?” At the mention of carrot cake one of her hands rose to her cheek to hold it as if she were in a swoon! “They make reallly good icing, too~ Ahh~.”

Hmmm... He wasn't a big fan of carrot cake, but Miho seemed pretty excited about it. Greg took one for the team (or just himself?) and gave her a slow nod. "Uhh, sure. That sounds good, lead the way?" His head was on a swivel while the swooning girl led him further into the mall; this was awfully crowded. He'd never really liked crowded places, especially noisy ones, and this was no different. Hopefully the pastry shop would be less crowded on the inside... Though, if it was popular, probably not. "Is it always like this, uh, after school?"

“Mhm, usually. After clubs and stuff...” The walk to the pastry shop didn't take too long! The mall was definitely crowded, though. All four floors were full of bustling crowds and shoppers... There was a very high volume of highschoolers, too. It appeared this mall was quite popular. Fortunately for them both, the pastry shop wasn't too packed – in fact, it was quite the opposite.

An old lady at the til greeted them warmly, smiling fondly at Miho in particular. “Back again Mi-chan? Will it be the usual?” The girl nodded enthusiastically! “Can you please cut it in half? I'm sharing it with my friend today.” The old woman smiled and nodded, and then went about fetching them an extra big slice of carrot cake. “My treat, G-san.” Yen was exchanged for deliciousness in the form of cake, and then the bespectacled girl bowed slightly to the woman behind the counter.

“This cake is the best, I guarantee it! Let's walk and eat?” Miho offered Gregory his slice, giving the shop-owner a wave!

Oh, clubs weren't even over which meant this was just going to get worse. Greg was very pleased to find the shop they were going to mostly empty, though, and seemed to visibly calm just a bit when they got inside. The lady at the counter obviously knew Miho, he figured she was a regular, and the boy was reaching for his wallet when she offered to pay. He had no real choice and just accepted! "Oh, uh... Yeah, sure, we can walk." After taking the slice, Gregory stepped in time with her and they got to moving.

Greg was fine with following her, she probably knew the mall better, and took a cautious bite of his carrot cake. He wasn't usually a fan, but it ended up being pretty all right! "Hmm. What else is there, uh, here? Besides the normal mall stuff... What's popular, I meant."

“Popularr? Hmm.” She took a big ol' bite out of her carrot cake, sighing happily at the sweet and savoury flavour. No where else made cakes these good, it was like Heaven on Earth. “The arcade! There're lots of games there. I actually went with Ren-chan not too long ago. We did a fighting game, and then took purikura~.” She smiled at the memory! “It's going to get really, really crowded in here, soon.. Are you okay with that? I'm bad at crowds sometimes.”

The arcade sounded like a place he'd enjoy, and possibly a reason to come back here at some point with or without someone to hang out with. Greg had passed it a few times on his very short visits here, but never actually gone in! "I, uhh... I'm pretty bad with crowds too, so. If it gets bad we can find someplace more quiet, huh?" The boy sort of regretted that after he'd said it, it sounded really weird. Also, a little creepy. Hopefully Miho wouldn't take it odd? "Uh... So, yeah."

Topic change! Quickly, yes. Gregory cleared his throat while they walked. "What kind of games do you usually play..? I'm, uh... A pretty big fan of the rail shooters. Where you hold the gun and all that, y'know?"

Someplace more... She blinked as both of her brows rose. What did that imply? Surely Greg wasn't hitting on her? Her cheeks flushed regardless, and her lips parted and then shut. H-hmm. Hm. “Oh! What g-games? Games? Ahha, ah... Fighters! Blazblue, tekken, street fighter~.” Awkward topic out the window, and back to something Miho actually understood. “I'm really bad at shooters, but.. Can we play one anyway? It sounds fun.”

Greg was all right at fighters, but certainly not spectacular. He'd seen how good Miho was at the Tekken game she likely hadn't picked up in ages, and that meant she'd be even better at current arcade games. Getting one's butt kicked in those sorts of games was never fun! At least the girl didn't seem like the trash-talking and elitist type, huh? "Uh, sure, we can do both. A fighting game and a shooter, I mean. I know it's kinda old, but Time Crisis is probably my favorite..." There hadn't been a new one in quite a while! Arcades almost always had one of the old machines, though.

It didn't take them too long to get there, and Gregory at least had finished his half-slice of carrot cake by the time they'd arrived. The place looked a little crowded, but these places always were so the boy had come to expect it. Several machines looked open regardless, though they would probably fill up after clubs let out... They'd have to get their gaming in real soon! "So, uh, which first? You know the place better than me, and all that."

“Street fighter! If you're okay with that.” She had already finished her cake and was happily making her way to an empty street fighter console. “I'm going to use Chun-Li, so~. She's my favorite in this series.” Oh, she was already jamming coins into the machine. It looked like Miho was quite excited to play with him! "Time Crisis after?"

Greg followed her to the arcade machine, looking around and marveling at the sheer size of this place. Arcades in America were more of a niche thing (for total losers), but it seemed like a lot of students had no problem showing their faces here. Hmmm! Street Fighter it was, a game that he was actually current on and could maybe play well, and the boy was quick to choose his favorite character. "Guile it is, uh... Heh. Guess it's not surprising that I'm choosing the American." He just liked the guy, okay? "I'm better at this than Tekken, so..!" Hopefully he wouldn't eat those words.

“I’m better at this than Tekken, too.” Oh boy oh boy, was that a hint of smugness in her otherwise usually kind voice? If he looked to her face he’d see a grin slowly spreading across her lips as she chose the platform in which to instrument Gregory’s doom. Rather catchy music picked up and Miho’s gaze was intent on the screen.

3…

2…

1…

FIGHT!

Apparently time not spent studying was time spent playing fighting games and rpgs at the arcade, because she seemed to know every goddamn combo Chun-Li had. The first round went by in a blurr… and she got a perfect KO. Twice.

He may have over-estimated his skill a bit, to be fair. Greg wasn't quite used to a fight stick, he didn't have the money to blow and felt a controller worked just fine, and Miho seemed like she was more used to it! The result was a pretty shameful defeat at the hands of what must have been an almost tournament-ready opponent, and Greg was left a little stunned by the second time the announcer yelled 'PERFECT!'. Fuck.

"Uhh... Well. Do you trick all your friends into Street Fighter, huh?" Thankfully the boy didn't sound upset or anything, that was more playful... Or as playful as he could get. "You play this a lot, don't you? You're, uhh... Really, really good." Needless to say, he didn't want a rematch! Greg conveyed this by taking a step back and rubbing the side of his head. He really did get his shit handed to him!

“Hahaha- East meets west and curbstomps west all over town! Miho abruptly cut herself short, cheeks flaring pink and eyes going wide. Whoopsies, she’d gotten a little too into that, there. She smiled apologetically and inclined her head to Gregory. “Well.. Not trick, really. I’m sorry.. I get a little too enthusiastic, is all.” She looked a little sheepish now, as one of her fingers curled into the tip of her braid.

“You can beat me at Time Crisis, now! If you want. I’m really bad at shooters, ehe..”

Well, that was kind of funny to see from Miho. Gregory snorted at the sudden trash-talk (it was just a part of the 'fighting game community', as it were, and he expected it) and noted the vague symbolism there. Chun Li's Chinese, but the message was the same! "Getting enthusiastic is, uh... Part of gaming, y'know. I'd be doing the same if I shut you out like that, heh." Time Crisis had less of a system to win with, granted there were points involved, but it'd hardly be as impressive as a double-perfect! Still, Gregory was sure of his victory there especially since she'd mentioned she was pretty terrible at those sorts of games.

Still, Greg needed a little cooldown period after getting his ass handed so thoroughly to him. "How about we do that, uh... Purikura thing? I'll pay for this one, since I sort of owe you."

“Oh! Do you mind? I mean, I can pay, I have..” Lots of money? An unfair allowance? Those all felt a bit odd to say, so she simply trailed off a tid-bit awkwardly. “Well, aha, that is. Just let me pay, okay? I don’t mind, trust me.” It was better to dote on others rather than be doted on, in any case. With that in mind, Miho turned and signaled Greg to follow her. “There’s a set of booths outside the mall, but there’s one in the back of the arcade I like the best! It’s got the most options, ehe. I’m going to give you bunny ears, or mouse ears, is that okay?” Probably not! But she was gonna do it regardless. Purikura was fun like that.

Miho got an odd look with her insistence, but he thankfully didn't pay it too much mind or argue any further. "Uh, sure then. If you're sure, anyways." The arcade sure was crowded... Yeah, he'd thought about that when they came in, but he was still stuck on it! Who knew this many people liked to play games? Publicly, too, and not just dumb sports and shooting games. "This place is all right. I might, uh, have to come back here... Pretty often." It beat spending money on point cards for his phone.

It made sense that the one in the arcade would be the best, at least to Greg. The place was made just for things like that, camera-booths included! The thing itself looked a little less... 'Fancy' than he'd expected, honestly, but what mattered was the inner workings he supposed. To be honest, though, he didn't really understand the draw... It was just a camera with rudimentary photoshop built in. Maybe he'd figure it out as they went. "Uh, you can do whatever you want to me, I guess. I'm not really good at making things look, uhmm... 'Cute'." What a surprise!

“We have to take pictures, first, ehe. We choose a backdrop.” She’d already entered money into the machine once they’d entered. Her fingers deftly flipped through several options, and a backdrop behind where they would stand for the pictures slid down into view. Shoujo bubbles! “And then we select lighting and skin glow and stuff.” Beep beep, she was selecting a bunch of options. “It lets you select what you want in advance for each picture, so you can do them all in a row really quick…”

There was a little ‘X’ marked on the floor in tape for them to stand on. “Annd now we pose!”

Greg stood back to watch a master at work, or so it seemed. She breezed through the several menus full of options impressively quick, and obviously knew exactly what to do. Better than him who knew literally nothing, so he'd defer to her expertise. The backdrop looked a little... Cutesy, but he had a feeling it was the least of his worries as that sort of thing went. "Huh? Oh... I just stand--"

Too slow, he'd just stood up into a less relaxed position and there was a sudden flash. It caught him with a slightly startled face, adjusting his tie and looking altogether pretty bad. The next flash caught him with the annoyed expression of 'oh, what the hell' that followed, and then finally he was on the X and in a decent position! Christ! "Dammit."

Well! That was two pictures Greg would never get back. They’d certainly be humorous on the finished product. “Ehehe, come on, do a victory sign with me?” Miho stuck her hand out with her fingers splayed in the typical ‘V’ of a peace sign. He wouldn’t have much time, because the machine was already going off! Actually, poor Greg would find, throughout purikura, that it took the eight pictures she’d payed for in pretty rapid-fire succession.

She lead him through some cutsie poses though, and all in all she was quite pleased with how they looked when it came time to decorate. “Um, so! Now we pick stamps and stuff to put on. Or you can write things. It’s really cute. Do you want to decorate together?”

"All right, uh--" He managed to get the peace-sign up, granted with a very ill-fitting and slightly bored expression, and then somehow kept up despite the quick pace going on there. When they were done Greg relaxed with a little huff, rolling his shoulders and then looking to Miho. "Faster than I expected, uh, heh. I'll be more ready next time... Uh, if there is one." The photoshop-esque part sounded interesting enough...

Greg moved to Miho's side near the little screen and shrugged. "Sure, I'll give it a shot. It's, uh... You're probably gonna do most of it." Still, it was a process he wanted to see.

“It's really easy, ehe.. You just select which picture you want to play with.” She tapped the one with Greg pulling a bored peace sign with the pen attached to the console. “And then um... You can select all the different stamps and stuff! Or writing style and borders and so on. It's cute.” She was already going through the stamps, a little smile lighting up her face. A pair of bunny ears were promptly attached to her own head, and then a big ol' pair of wolf ears were attached to Greg's.

“See?”

Looked easy enough, like clipart but a lot more cutesy and... Japanese, go figure. "Real cute, uh, yeah. I'd make a pretty bad wolf, I think. Don't look particularly vicious." Greg kept his hands in his pockets and watched her go, having no problem with doing things that way. He wasn't exactly the most creative guy in history, and coupled with general laziness it meant he'd rather sit back and watch Miho do all the work, too. "So, do we... We both get pictures, right? Like, copies."

“I can print us off two pages!” She nodded her head in an affirmative nod, cycling through more clip art. Within minutes each of the eight pictures they’d taken was decorated and spruced up. Miho seemed to be fond of pink and flowers, as those were prevalent throughout all the pictures.. Hmm! With one last look through them, she hit ‘PRINT’ and then gestured Greg to follow her outside of the booth.

“They’ll come out here.” There was a slot. “It’ll take a few minutes, though.. Um! Thanks for doing that with me, they’ll make good memories.”

Miho was pretty fast and efficient as this kind of thing went... 'This kind of thing' being adding clipart to pictures, but she definitely seemed practiced regardless! Greg nodded when she hit the print button and then followed her outside to the small printer. Looks like they had a bit to wait, huh? "Oh, uh... No big deal. I dunno where I'll keep them... Somewhere in my room, probably." He did have a lockbox where he kept a few important things, but this hardly seemed like it absolutely needed protection... Eh, still, it'd work. Maybe he'd cut one out and shove it in his wallet, too, for good measure.

"How are you doing? Uh, just... Y'know, asking. Your apartment freaked out at all lately?" He was joking, of course... Hopefully she didn't say yes. A little small talk while it printed..!

“I’ve been good.” She nodded, one hand absently rising to tangle into the tip of one of her braids. “Um, ehe.. Besides all that of course. I haven’t heard from Seiya today, though.. My apartment’s been normal! Mostly normal, anyway. I freak out whenever the power flickers.” Miho made a face at that. “It shouldn’t flicker at all, but nothing really out there has happened, s-so.”

The machine hummed quietly as it went about printing their pictures off. It was a comforting noise, in her opinion. “How about you? You’re okay, right?”

"I was gonna head to, uh... Yamada Mart on the way home, so I'll see her there. I'll tell her you say 'hi' and all that." Greg was honestly pretty happy that the poor girl hadn't been terrorized anymore... Miho seemed pretty easy to frighten, in all honesty, or at least easy to work up. "And I'm glad. Whatever it was didn't hurt us, so... Maybe it, uh. Like, it can't or something." Since their upperclassman's little elevator stunt, he was more inclined to refer to this as a real thing and not just their imaginations. On that note, he was very happy that the mess of horrible shadows that got slaughtered in the corridor had no way of getting to their side! ... Or he was pretty sure, anyway. Ehheh.

One set of pictures was done, and Greg plucked that up to move beside Miho and let them both check 'em out. Thanks to her impressive purikura skills, they were all quite colorful (and full-to-bursting of animal ears and hearts).

“Ahh! Jeez! This is so cute!” Miho’s attention jumped right from the less than pleasurable topic and onto the very adorable purikura they’d taken. “They came out so well. You look like a grumpy old wolf man in these.” She grinned slightly as she divided the pictures up. “This half is yours, this half is mine. That’s aright, right?” It was an equal amount.

“Treasure these. Purikura is the best!”

It was fun enough, kinda, but Greg didn't really 'get' this whole purikura thing. It was pictures! Pictures were nice he guessed, but he'd hardly make an after school activity out of them... Hmm. Still, it was nice to have some with a friend(?) if only to show his father and make it look like he was acclimating well. Gregory was fitting in surprisingly well, actually, so he didn't even have to lie to his dad at this point... Weird. It really wasn't like that back in America!

"Uh, yeah, I will. Thanks, I'll keep one in my wallet or something." Another glance at his half and then the boy slid it into his backpack to deal with when he was home. "Is there a game store around here, do you know? The new, uh..." Well, he didn't want to say it. Greg was 17, he shouldn't be playing... "Err... The new Pokemon's out soon. I gotta lock in my pre-order, is what I'm saying." Embarrassing!

“Oh! Ehe, of course there’s a gaming store. It’s on the second level, um.. Right above the arcade, actually.” Miho shifted on her feet a little bit, though, as she dug her cellphone out of her pocket to check the time. “I should probably get home.. I should probably review the notes from class, s-so.” The girl bowed to Gregory, smiling at him when she straightened back up. “Let’s hang out again soon, okay? Will you be able to find the store?”

"Oh, it's just right up there? That's easy... Uh, I can definitely figure that out." Now that he thought about it they'd done a fair bit today, so Greg couldn't exactly be upset that she had to go. Still, hanging out with what he could maybe probably definitely call 'friends' had become fun in its own way... "Sure, soon sounds like fun. As long as we're not, uh... No Street Fighter, all right?" The boy managed an expression other than 'bleh', a sort of sheepish smile, and rubbed the back of his head with that.

“How about BlazBlue, or Tekken, then?” She smiled at him in return, though hers was a fair bit less forced and rather happy looking. Miho bowed to her classmate, braids swooshing forward with the exaggerated motion. “Um! I'll see you later then, G-kun. I had fun hanging out. Goodluck with pokemon!”

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April 15th

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