From Sailor Moon Flash!
| Featuring: | Sae, Tsukuru Mariko |
| IC Date: | March 2002 |
| Status: | Completed |
| Summary: | Sae heads to Akihabara to repair her cellphone, and runs into a rather unusual senpai. |
All right, next stop on my list: Akiba. Tsukuru Mariko had just gotten off the bullet train and was headed for the Akihabara district to check on a few things and maybe do a little bit of shopping. Although I wish that Akiba had more shops like Baby the Stars Shine Bright...that was an amazing place. It was unusually chilly for February, and so Mari was glad that she was wearing such thick stockings. She'd worked and saved for weeks to buy herself some dresses and individual pieces that she could mix and match to begin her new Lolita craze. And...she found she'd really liked the clothes. They weren't as bright or as breezy as her usual outfits, but they were perfect for chillier weather.
"Except for the whole dress thing," she mused to herself as she bounced onto the sidewalk and looked around.
Once again, Mariko was drawing a lot of looks, but thankfully since there were other people dressed in costumes as wild as (or wilder) than hers, there were less than usual. She was wearing a deep red velvet dress trimmed in red lace and ribbons with long white sleeves also trimmed in lace and bows at the cuffs. Over that she had a black and white fur-trimmed coat with a little cape, so she was very warm. And her boots were also trimmed with a little fur just under her knees, so that was even better. Mari shouldered her backpack (which was in the shape of a rabbit) and felt the reassuring weight of her laptop Baka on her back as she started off down the street in search of an adventure.
It wasn't that Sae was lost. It was that the place she'd looked up online hadn't given better directions, and Sae sighed, circling the block for what seemed the eighth or ninth time since she'd arrived in Akihabara. A hand reached up, and she rubbed her forehead, sending a glare the way of someone who jostled her as they passed. It wasn't worth it. She could come back before work, after school, when there'd be less people around--
But the dead weight in her hand wouldn't go away either. The blonde looked down at the cellphone in her hand, the screen black. She'd accidentally dropped it in a mop bucket at work, and as it was really the only reliable way for her work to get ahold of her, she had to have one. Her eyebrow twitched slightly, and she crammed the now useless piece of plastic into the back pocket of her jeans, stuffing her hands into the front pocket of her sweatshirt. If she was cold, she didn't notice, probably because she'd been walking forever.
Another sigh, and Sae started the rounds again, pausing every now and then to look at the signs on the outsides of the shops.
"Oh come on," she muttered to herself. "I know I bought it here in Akihabara!! Where the hell is the store?!"
Mariko had just been debating going into one of the stores to look for a new computer game and finding something to eat when all of a sudden she heard someone muttering, which quickly turned into a shout. Something about a "where's the damn store". Hm, well, maybe I can help. And even if she couldn't, Mari thought that she could help make the other person's day better at least. So, with a shrug of her backpack and a flurry of ribbons and brown hair, she hurried over to the blonde girl.
"Hello," she said politely, with a friendly smile. "I don't mean to be rude, but you sounded kind of lost. What store are you looking for here in Akiba? Maybe I can help?"
Oh wow, her hair is BLONDE! Mari couldn't help but glance at it with wonder. She'd wanted to dye her hair back to purple for so long now, but until she got her own place, her parents refused to let her do it. That is so cool.
Sae jumped at the sound of the voice behind her, and turned abruptly to face the girl who'd snuck up on her. Her initial reaction was to say 'no thank you' and walk away, but.. She really had no idea where she was going. It couldn't hurt, right?
She fished the cell out of her back pocket, and held it up, annoyed (though more at the phone than at the strange girl). "The cell store. I dropped this one in a bucket of water.. and it doesn't work anymore. I know I bought it here, but I can't find the store again."
Pause. And then Sae looked rather confused, but only for a brief second. The hell? The girl probably just thought she was some middle schooler who needed help. Why was she accepting it? And then the thought to just go with it crossed her mind. The fast she got to the store and got what she needed, the faster she could get home and get back to her homework.
"May I see?"
And Mari took the phone from the other girl and examined it closely. She recognized the brand name, but not the store it was from. Well, there's one way to solve this problem. Although how the phone became broken made Mariko laugh.
"You dropped it in a bucket of water? Well, at least it would be proper to give it a burial at sea, like some tragic lost hero," she sighed at the image, but quickly handed the phone back and slung her bag off her shoulders. "Come on, come on, let's sit down and I'll see what I can find. It's almost like a treasure hunt."
And she went to the nearest bench and plopped down. Mari unzipped her bag and brought out a sleek black laptop from inside. On a sticker on the back was a nametag with the whole, "Hello my name is" on it and the kanji for "Baka" written in clear, bold writing. Mariko opened the laptop and booted up her internet browser.
"Now, what was the brand of your phone again?"
"Aa, uh.." Sae was caught more off guard by the sudden disappearance of the phone in her hand, than the girl herself. Confused once more, she followed Mariko over to the bench, and sat next to her, blinking widely at the laptop, and then at the screen. "Uh, it's a DoCoMo," she replied, rubbing her head a bit. "An AQUOS SH905..."
"Can you really find it? I tried to look it up on the internet, but the directions just said 'Located in Akihabara'." A disgruntled snort came from the shorter girl, and she stuck out her lower lip a bit, peering over Mariko's shoulder at the screen.
"Let's just see what Baka can dig up, then we'll find out where it's sold," Mariko said with a smile as she began to click and search. "Oh, I'm Mariko by the way. Tsukuru Mariko. And this is my laptop Baka."
Aptly named in some cases. And she searched through the site, frowning as she sorted through all of the information. "Let's see...according to this the AQUOS SH905 is sold in Akiba. The question is where.." When she couldn't find any specific directions to a store that sold that brand of cell phone, she scowled and glanced around at the different buildings.
"Well, since I can't find anything pertaining to directions, we're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way..." and she closed her laptop and put it back in her bag. "We ask around."
Sae nodded as Mariko introduced herself.
"Fukumoto Sae. It's nice to meet you," she replied, bowing as much as she could while sitting down. She scowled at the webpage -- still as helpful as it had been earlier -- and threw up a hand, shaking her head. "They really need to get better directions on this site!" She muttered, standing up.
Sae was about to thank the girl for her help, when she heard the proverbial 'we'. She flustered a bit, waving her hands. "You don't have to do that, it's okay, really. You've already helped..."
"I've got nothing better to do," Mariko said with a smile as she leaped up, her velvet and lace skirt swishing around her knees. "And besides, I know Akiba like the back of my hand. Think of it as an adventure, like you were a detective searching for the missing diamond of an heiress, or a peasant challenged to find a needle in a haystack to wed the Emperor's child. It'd be fantastic!"
Besides, Sae looked like she could use a friend, especially if she was going to be wandering around Akiba all by herself.
"Besides, I was only going to wander around and see if they had any new empire-building games out, this sounds like a lot more fun."
Dazed by Mariko's downright perkiness, Sae blinked at her a couple of times before finally nodding in response. What else could she do? This girl obviously wouldn't take no for an answer.. and besides, she seemed so... nice. And genuinely nice, not 'oh, you poor thing' nice. It was incredibly weird, to say the least, that she felt a little bit comfortable with her, and she fell into step next to Mariko as they headed back into the fray.
"Empire-building..?" She was a gamer? Sae's eyebrows went up a bit; she probably should have guessed, from her clothes. "I've never played those.. I don't really have time.."
Here she was, willingly hanging out and having a conversation with a total stranger.
Well, someone would be proud of her if they knew! Sae just.. didn't know who.
"You don't? That's okay, not a lot of people do," she smiled as she looked around, wondering where to start. "I barely have time myself, what with school and homework and the gaming club after school. Not to mention minding my hellspawn of a little brother."
Her expression soured at the mention of her younger brother. Mari hated Haru with ever fiber of her being and took great joy in beating him at video games, especially in front of his friends. Since he liked arcades so much, she often went there too...just to show him up and humiliate him. Even though he was ten and she was sixteen and that wasn't really mature...Mariko savored every minute of her victory.
"I like empire-building because it gives you a real challenge. You have to plan not only five steps in advance, but ten, twenty even if you want to prevent ramifications such as the locals rising up or outside invasions, and it involves a lot of quick thinking," she paused when she came across the AKKY main store and beamed. "Let's start here, what do you say?"
"Gaming club?" Sae raised a brow, but didn't say anything beyond that. Honestly, she was too annoyed at her phone to tease the girl next to her, shrugging a little. "I don't have any siblings," she replied, somewhat quietly. Family wasn't a pleasant subject, as far as she was concerned.
Sae glanced up when Mariko spoke again, furrowing her brow a bit at the AKKY store. She didn't think this was it, but what could it hurt? "Sounds good."
Mari trotted inside the store as soon as she got the affirmative and brought Sae with her. She looked around for a store clerk or customer service, something that could help with the phone. Finally, she spotted a desk off to the side and started towards it.
"Hello," she said brightly to the clerk. "My friend's cell phone has been damaged and she's in search of a new one. Only trouble is, we're not sure which store sells the model. Could you take a look at it?"
And without waiting for an answer, she beckoned to Sae. "Show him your phone, hopefully he can help us."
The blonde handed the clerk her phone, glancing around as she did so.
The clerk, who was obviously already annoyed at having to be at work anyway, wasn't really happy with the two girls and he handed the phone back without even looking at it, looking at Mariko down the bridge of his nose.
"Does this look like a Cell Phone store to you?"
Sae snatched it out of his hand, throwing him a look. "You don't have to be rude, you know," she said, shoving her thumb into her belt lip and cocking a hip to the side. "If you don't know, just say so."
Mariko huffed slightly at the man's rude attitude. If there was one thing she didn't like, it was people who looked down on her. Mari assumed he did it because she was dressed in Lolita, and she jabbed a finger in his direction.
"You, my good sir, should learn better manners towards customers. Just because you have to be at work and we don't doesn't mean you should take your grumpy attitude out on us. Hmph," and she whirled around, her skirt swishing almost in defiance as she turned to Sae. "Let's go ask someone else. Preferably a manager."
"I am the manager," came his retort as the two walked away. Sae rolled her eyes a bit, glaring down at the piece of useless plastic in her hands once more, wanting to just throw it at someone in sheer frustration at it. But that would have garnered attention, and she was already getting enough with the Lolita next to her.
"Where to next?" Sae asked, glancing sideways at the taller girl.
"Well, let's try the one next door, shall we?"
Mariko adjusted the straps on her back carrying Baka and sighed. I really should consider trading him in for a slimmer model. There were so many stores...and if every person was a charmer like that one back there, they'd be in trouble.
"And let's hope that the next person we as will be a bit more friendly," she chuckled a little. "If there was ever a case of male hormones, it was that one."
The shorter girl nodded a little, trailing behind slightly. The next store wasn't a cellphone store, but the person they flagged down therein was a little more helpful.
"Oh, I have this same model," he said when Sae offered the phone and questioned him about it, nodding a little. "You're looking for the DoCoMo store, right? There's one on the second floor of this building, just head up the escalator."
A small smile tugged at the corners of Sae's mouth, and she nodded in thanks. "Alright, thanks."
As he walked away, Sae turned to the taller girl, shrugging her shoulders a little. "Well, that was easy."
Mariko nodded in agreement, grinning at Sae, and adjusted the straps to Baka, shaking her hair out of her eyes. "Yeah! I'm glad he wasn't so PMSy," she replied, tilting her head a bit. "Do you need anything else?"
Shaking her head, Sae bowed to the older girl, reaching up and scratching the back of her neck. "No, thanks. Thank you very much for your help," she trailed off, glancing over her shoulder. So close, and yet so far! She wasn't even really listening to what the other girl was saying, but she caught the tail end of it, and turned to look sharply at her.
"..attend Chuo Gakuen, so if you want to do something sometime--"
"Chuo Gakuen?" The shock was evident on Sae's face, and she put a finger to her chin, frowning a little. "I'm a first year, there.."
"Really?! That makes you my kouhai! That's totally awesome -- I'll see you at school, okay?!" And before Sae could react, Mariko's arms were around her in a big hug, squeezing her tight. "See you Monday~!" She cried out as she turned and vanished into the crowd a hand raised in a wave.
The blonde stood there, staring in the general direction the other girl had gone, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. A quick glance up at a clock made her notice what time it was -- if she hurried, she could still make it home in time to catch the last half of that new dorama starring MatsuJun.. a small blush crossed her features, and she turned and hurried into the store, setting the incident aside in her mind.
