Reiko Akoga, Lotus Kodama Bonkura

Civvie Stuff
Name: Akoga, Reiko. Her school nickname is a simple portmanteau and pun, Akogare, which means longing.
Age: 15. In other words, highschool freshie.
Sex: Girl.
Nationality: Japanese. Heck, born in Osaka, complete with the accent. Now lives in Tokyo.
Occupation: Student and bookie.
Species: Human.
Celebrity Claim: Her Japanese voice actress would be Asuka Shibuya, and her English voice actress would be Julie Ann Taylor. Her magical girl form has the appearance of Lotusmon from Digimon.
Hair color/style: Naturally chestnut and naturally straight, though dying and style changes happen frequently. She only seems to like tails and curls, but we are talking anything from a simple back one to the ridiculous twin drills, which she is particularly fond of.
Eyes: Brown.
Description:
Her height and weight isn’t out of the ordinary for a Japanese school girl. She’s gone though her growth spurt early, but is probably through growing. She’s approximately 155 cm (5’1”) in height and 48kg (106 lbs.) in weight. So, she has very petite frame in comparison to most other character here, and her features are generally soft. The most notable exception is her sharp, prominent chin, which she is selfconscious of. Bazzongas with a capital b. Her skin is clear for a teenager, but how well her teeth are cared for is a different story. But the Japanese, like the British, don’t have kind of dental care obsession that Americans have.

On to fashion, she’s got a very particular style. Even though sailorsuits are becoming rarer are rarer for school, and being replaced with Catholic school style uniforms, she loves them. “School uniforms are the new black”, and apparently so are flowers and lace. And for her and makeup, less is more- not for the typical reasons, but because she has the habit of going overboard. With her being active and bubbleheaded as she is, her face will frequently be messed up the time she gets home without her noticing.

But the one accessory that she’s never without is her teru teru bozu charm, which is simply a white cloth covering a rubber for the head, a string tied to section a body, and a smiley face scribbled on it with sharpie. Looks sort of like a ghost.

Hero Stuff
Name: Lotus Kodama Bonkura.
Type Of Hero: Magical Girl. I’m not connecting her with or basing things on any particular series, trying to be original as I can.
Henshin Device/Sequence: In comparison to those of riders, her Henshin Device is pretty unremarkable. It is a simple teru teru bosu charm like you’d find just about anywhere in Japan, though she the first step of the transformation is to hold to her chest, close to her heart. The traditional shout of “henshin” is replaced with the original chant that eventually evolved into the nursery rhyme so dear to her:

“Fine-weather priest, please let the weather be good tomorrow.”

From there, her entire body flashes white as it morphs.
Forms:

• Form Name: Lotus Lady Kodama Bonkura. Bonkura for short.
  Appearance:
  dma.wtw-x.net/DMA/DigimonStands/Bandai/Lotusmon.jpg
  
  First off, the body itself is different from how Reiko’s is normally, the form of a much older, taller and, ahem, fuller woman. If that isn’t crazy enough for you, her skin turns purple.
  
  When it comes to the outfit, as you can guess, there is much in the way of mimicking the lotus in terms of outfit, particularly the petals from hoops in the shoulder, see through borders on top of the… top, and hair styling. It has it’s share of puff frills on the shoulders, sleeves and two layered open skirt. With a number of black fringes and white frills. To makes things worse, it even has fishnet stockings. Over all, the principal color are purple and white. Finishing things off, she has a hat shaped in same wateringcan spout shape of a lotus seed along, her blong hair obscuring her face. It’s all very baroque to say the least.
  Transformation: Very simple. When her body starts to glow, it looks like it is melt, loosing it’s shape and drooping down. Quickly, it build’s itself up, molding into the new formand finishing the glow when it is done.
  Weapons and Abilities:
  
  Nelumbo:
  
  Her lotus staff can shoot a high pressure stream of water carrying small pieces of sediment, following the same principles of super erosion often used in cutting metal. One might mechanically think of it like rider with a machine gun.
  
  It can also shoot out a seed into the ground, be it earth, metal or concrete. And she can only have one of these out at a time, though they are short lived, dieing if not used within several turns. Any turn of her after the seed is shot, she can let go her control of her body, making it, wrinkled and lifeless and transferring her consciousness into the seed, which can rapidly grow into a new in the shape the previous one was in before the seed was made. So, mechanically, this is used negate the damage of an attack that would be normally be difficult for her to dodge or as a way of playing dead.
  
  Obviously, it can look pretty weird with a bunch of dead Bonkuras scattered across a battle field. Luckily, these don’t revert back to her normal form; they can’t be used to reveal her identity.
  
  Renkon:
  
  The snakelike staff is destructive and looks that way when used, but is actually used to assist others in battle. When “thurst” into someone, there is neither pain or a wound. The parts of the staff that look like that should have gone into the target are broken down into medical, magical energy, which can only enters the target when that close. This energy temporarily removes the pain their ability to feel pain. The good thing about this is that it lets them push themselves past their bodies tell them are their limits. On the other hand, the body lets these bars for good reason; the few people who are born unable to feel pain aren’t exactly famous for living long lives. Luckily, her nature powers allow her the medical prowess to attend to her overhauled warriors. It can also be used on herself.
  
  It can alternatively shoot out a tiny, animal-like seedling that tries latch onto opponent. Over time, say two turns for what would be equivalent to something equivalent to normal rider armor, the parasitic plant drills grows rapidly, slowly draining the body of strength. It’s roots contain a numbing agent that makes that make the entry into the body painless, and finding time in the middle of a battle to pull it out can be difficult, but is by no means impossible. The extent of the sapping is never truly crippling enough to count a strong warrior out of a fight unless we are talking an especially arduous battle. Defeating her makes the plant wither and die, or she can simply will it off in typical magical girl mercy. She can activate this ability while Renkon is in “stuck” inside someone, though since this will usually require shooting in an arc, aim can tricky.
  
  Finisher(s):
  Bozu Blades is activated by a simple chant, the end of the nursery rhyme.
  
  “Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
  Do make tomorrow a sunny day
  But if the clouds are crying
  Then I shall snip your head off”
  
  And finally,“Bozu Blades!”
  
  The result is very appropriate. If Renkon’s pain ignoring ability is being used one someone, it teleports back into her hand. She crosses her arms I nfront of her chest and lets go of her staves. Instead dropping to the ground, they float and transform into blades, sort of. The staves themselves stay the same, but a rectangular sheet of water forms upwards, staring at the tops of the staves. The two new floating weapons each sweep in opposite opposing simultaneously. In other words, it’s like a chopped at by a gigantic pair of shears.
  
  

Other Equipment:

• Looks simple wooden block with a leaf stuck on one side. It is just small enough to fit in your pocket. If Reiko puts her index finger on the leaf, it turns into a traditional wooden backpack medicine drawer.
  
  

Inside Stuff
Personality:
She is full of energy and upbeat, simply augmenting what is an emotional roller coaster governed by often bad intuition. Whistles while she works, especially if you replace “whistle” with chugging some sort of caffeinated beverage. And with all her energy can come a little burn out. She needs the feeling of being “centered” and daily me time, meditation that usually involves her lucky charm is a part of that. She is very irritable if someone interrupts it, and very low energy if she doesn’t get that time at all in a day. Then again, the later also applies to her when she hasn’t had her caffeine yet. She can’t exactly say she loves the world he lives in, but there is always something interesting, always another mystery. She’ll abandon something at the tip of a hat if something just doesn‘t “feel right“, if she can‘t feel like she‘s moving in a forward direction. Taken too far, her mind wanders a bit of everywhere. He hasn’t found any one thing or person that’s truly important to her yet, expect Sachiko, who’s ship has sailed if it was even in port in the first place, but optimistically believes that searching is just as important as actually having “it”. However, she’s convinced that getting her powers was fate, and that she can really make her mark with them, but what kind is the problem. She’s yet to even really them much yet. She’s currently not against using these powers for the greater good as well as a little personal gain.

In conversation, her sheer high pitch and speed of his speech would make it hard for anyone to hear him at all if she didn’t over compensate with volume, almost like a Chihuahua. To top it of, she still hasn’t been able to get rid of her Kansei regional accent. She’s a good listener, verbally and nonverbally, and will often quickly try to match who she‘s talking to. Other times she has the tendency to try just a little too hard to make people like her, and as a result will be insincere, saying only what she thinks the other person wants to here. Not to mention clingy. And when her judgment of people sometimes goes haywire, it really goes haywire; she’ll stubbornly stick with these judgments. She’s very trusting and starving for attention, which makes the concept of a secret identity annoying for her.

And all of that might mislead one into think that she is meek, though one might be surprised to find out she almost seems to know where her towels is. Her own schoolwork is generally very well organized and filled and punctual, even if her study habits are not the best . Perhaps it’s all that artificial energy at work. You’ll be sure to know when this put to use, whenthe light bulb comes, because you’ll be sure to hear what is commonly known as the noblewoman’s laugh. You know, the maniacal and annoying “Oooh! Ho! Ho! Ho!” with the palm of one’s hand pressed against the chin. In other words, she becomes a schemer, ready to take charge. With her imagination, her plans are usually too big for her to carry out by herself.

And this is two sided. One on hand, but on the other hand, she’s beginning to become a bit of a gambler and conwoman, partially because of the crowd she’s currently hanging around with. She won’t admit to growing a little greedy, but her waster is just active as the horder; a shopaholic, she’ll blow through cash on things she doesn’t need. But on the other hand, she’s the kind that is more than eager to help others with her schemes, whether you like it now. And while this usually isn’t as much of desire or care for that person as it is wanting the satisfaction being able to tell herself she did right, even when her greed is her goal, she’ll at least try not to involve someone too much in her schemes if can’t think of a way that they can benefit from her success, the ends justifying the deception

But lastly, like anyone else, she has her secrets, other than the whole magical girl and secret identity thing. Obviously, there are her shady dealing’s with her school’s delinquents, but she’s also recently come to terms with being gay, think it will be best to stay closeted, afraid to even go an with the S Class excuse while she’s in highschool. And although this partially just from being a teenager, along having with no actual romances under belt along with reading a lot of in girl’s love manga, her feelings of hopelessness in this, she has very idealistic, unrealistic expectations of romance. On no circumstances ask for advice on matters of love unless you are looking for a laugh And it’s not entirely uncommon of her to daydream of (obviously) warped version of her females friends in relationships (this will be a gag); it is something she is embarrassed about. But, of course, this is only in addition to daydreams about her own imaginary girlfriend, whom she she cast as the Mary Sue leading lady of fan fic she post on the web. (Another gag, with the hamiest writing I manage.)

Strengths:

• Her methods are much trickier than those of your average rider or ranger. So, those used to fighting their like are likely to not initially have a clue as to what to expect. And, an even further departure, she even provides support to allies on the battlefield.
  
• Supernaturally tied to nature. Comes with the territory of being the kodama, or forest spirit. The most beneficial part of this for her allies is that becoming the kodmama instantly gave her an extensive knowledge of herbal medicine, these working much faster and effectively than normal. She has a telepathic empathy to nearby plantlife, a big variable on the “weather” of her mind being the health of plants. And this has already stressed her out and given her share of headaches. But at the end of the day, unlike Whip and his ilk, she thinks having super powers is pretty damn sweet.
  
• Management. Granted, only one in twenty six women in the Japanese workforce hold management positions, so now wasting this in civvies job. Nonetheless, her organization of a gambling rink shows prowess. It is altogether possible that she could be the mastermind of a team or someone who works out the kinks and details of their plan.
  
  

Weaknesses:

• Conventional combat. She has no skills in close combat, and her levels of strength and agility are simply what one would expect from your average Jane. She hasn’t even been trained how to shoot, so even her aim can be laughable at times.
  
• Lack of temperance, the crampons made of justice on the icy terrain of moral choices. K is in a vulnerable stage of development, and not just because of her age. There’s a lot in her that could lead her down the path of super villany. She’s likely to think she’s doing what is right, but go to misguided extremes. Heck, she was already doing some shady stuff in school, her laugh is only none notch away from being evil. On the other hand, she may be manipulative, but she is also easily manipulated herself. She’s on a thin rope.
  
• It’s almost invariable that she’ll be a handful to deal with in a team; she may very well be more trouble than she’s more trouble than she’s worth in terms of personality.
  . Let’s look at it this way. She’s got an annoying laugh; an attention whore; her being a yuri fangirl means she has yuri goggles, which means she’ll be spacing out a lot and will freak out/moe squeal at the slightest unintentional subtext; she requires constant caffeine; a liar; naïve; stubborn. And that’s just for starters. Yeah…

History:

A prologue; Or, How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Lotus.

Like many born in the 70’s, Reiko’s mother, Yasu, was abandoned in a coinlocker as a baby. She was rescued and adopted by a caring family, but has known to have constant health problems. Despite the setbacks she’s made a name for herself as a professional in the Women’s Go League, her husband a simple salary man.

Because of all this, Yasu wanted to do for some other kid what was don for her; Reiko was both given up while still in her infancy. Reiko’s parents were determined to make her succeed from an early age. When Reiko wasn’t studying, she was being taught Go, and ancient but constantly evolving board game. Occasionally, Yasu would take her daughter to see Takarazuka plays with her as a reward for hard work. And while Reiko did grow to love the shows, they weren’t the real reason such outings were a reward; they were a meeting place. It was at these shows that Reiko met an girl named Sachiko. To put it simply, Sachiko was like a cool big sis. Just before a big exams, Reiko became completely zonked- the only thing that helped her pass was Sachiko visiting to encourage her to carry on, making a special charm as a reminder, a weather charm called a teru teru bozu. A charm that became part of Reiko’s daily rituals. They consist of what is basically a psuedonurseyrhyme about the charm:


“Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Do make tomorrow a sunny day
Like the sky in a dream sometime
If it's sunny I'll give you a golden bell

Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Do make tomorrow a sunny day
If you make my wish come true
We'll drink lots of sweet rice wine

Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Do make tomorrow a sunny day
But if the clouds are crying
Then I shall snip your head off”

Okay, It probably wasn’t exactly the best charm or chant, as Reiko only passed by the skin of her teeth. And thus, she couldn‘t get into the academy that was part of the plan, instead going to a normal middle school. Yasu went into overdrive as an education mama in attempt to compensate this. But Reiko was disappointed for a different reason: a transfer in her father’s job meant she had to go to different school than Sachiko.

With her mother’s strict schedule, and thus no Sachiko, for Reiko’s first year of middle school, she became very introverted. The only real fun she had was occasionally playing with the old men at one of the Go salons, which she encouraged, and was a good excuse to get out of the house. It was here that she as approached by a member of the middle school Go club, Tadashi, the vice president. The daughter of a pro was certainly welcome, but he was also impressed by her own skill. And it was in this club that she became somewhat popular. She was definitely one of the better players alright, but the many of the kids just wanted to get close to her mother, with the exception of Tadashi. These friends were nothing like Sachiko was, but she just got used to it, taking what she could get. She's given into a few, trying to schedule them teaching games with her mother, but she eventually grew very fond of teaching the new members herself, and many of these new recruits became genuine friends. The club is also where her nickname started, as a joke after a particular stunning defeat by Tadashi.

As Reiko continued to be part of the Go club, Yasu became, for once, hopeful in her daughter, loosening her reigns a bit. And so, Reiko became insistent on trying to rekindle her friendship with Sachiko. They’d both changed a lot, but tried to anyway. Sachiko now seemed to have her own problems, and thus couldn’t exactly be the Obiwan she used to be for Reiko. Moreover, she had to balance her time between her new boyfriend and Reiko. Even though she thought the guy was nice, Reiko grew to really, really hate him really, really fast… really; she couldn’t even explain why. Once things got heated, they all knew it was best for the friends to just cut ties. This only made Reiko fight harder in one of the Amateur Go tournaments the next day, and even though she lost, there was quiet the surprising development: Tadashi asked her out. He was her best friend, and he was on his darn knees: it was embarrassing. But she said yes, and after a few weeks, she was showing him of to Sachiko, blatantly trying to make her jealous; it didn't work and even Tadashi said Reiko was acting like a jerk.

The bridge to Sachiko burned to ashes, things with Tadashi became a little awkward. Reiko didn't know- no, scratch that. She didn't want admit, why she didn't really like him, made worse because of how infatuated he was with her. Nonetheless, most of their dates somehow or another ended u with them going to the Go Salon, so she did rather enjoy them. On one in particular, Tadashi was deeply concentrated in a game with one of the stronger of the regular name Hajime. She was just as eager to play him as Tadashi was, and found herself getting bored as their game dragged on.

Eventually, Reiko reached to read a manga that Tadashi brought with him and laid down. She had no clue what it was at first, and it was pretty likely nobody else knew other than Tadashi. She found herself blushing after only a few pages, and put it away before anyone could see her. It wasn’t long before she paid a few boys to buy the entire series for her and keep their mouths shut about- it surely wasn’t something she wanted everyone and their mother know about her reading.

Cocky with whatever twisted pride a guy fresh out of highschool could get from after beating a middleschool kid, Hajime thought he could beat Reiko too, whispering to her that he’d give her 6,000 yen if she could beat him. She couldn’t refuse that kind of money, and won. This became regular series of bets between the two, and most of the time, she came out on top.

It wasn’t long until some of the middleschool’s delinquents figured out what she was going and got real interested, and she became a member of the pack in no time. Together, Reiko and the delinquents have started to use the Go club as the subject of their own mini underground gambling ring. And in return, she makes sure that a portion of the profits from this and some of the other activities of her new delinquent friends, such as bootlegging, to help fund the Go club. Only a few select member members know what is going on, and luckily, one of them is Tadashi, and a few of the delinquents have joined the go club, making it less conspicuous to deal with them.

Then, on break one afternoon, Reiko took a stroll though the forest to clear her head. There she found a stumbling, wounded old woman. After the initial shock, she listened to him when he told her to reach into his pocket. What she pulled out was a wooden block with a leaf over it. The old woman turned it into a medicial pack and gave the girl instructions on how to stop the bleeding.

After that, Reiko helped her to her cabin filled with a all manner of scrolls talisman. Creepy as it was, Reiko asked about them. The oldwoman thought about it, staring Reiko in straight in the eye for what seemed like an eternity and eventually began to rabble on Reiko didn’t believe a word. For all she knew, hermitess was probably senile. She couldn’t think of much an explanation for the magically transforming medicine box, but that wasn’t convince her of all the craziness being said. Besides, even though she was no expert on youkai legends, she was pretty sure that wasn’t what a kodama was. That was more like a tengu or something. But it’s just ingrained in Japanese thought to respect you elders, so she just smiled and nodded.

Life continued as normal, but from that day on, she made it a habit to go by the forest almost every day to check up on the old lady, who at least claimed her named was Masako. As they chated on, Reiko began to pick up that Masako was very biter and angry, but desperately fighting to believe in the idealistic. And mixed in was the occasional talked of the assumed delusion. Diagrams and explanations of spells, along with tales of her fighting evil and using her powers to solve normal people’s normal problems. She also seemed to be obsessed very, very few plants (only three species are known in real life) that can regulate their temperatures, ”warm blooded plants”. It was all very captivating to Reiko; she actually wanted to believe in it.

Any maybe because of this, she was very open about her own on spilling the beans about about her own life and problems. Masako was very critical, eventually giving the nickname of Bonkura, an old gambling term than now just roughly means idiot, numskull, etc.

As Reiko’s last year of middle school came to a close, she gradually started to step down from her power in the rink, giving Tadashi more and more. She stated that it was all because of how much she believed in him, and him being a much more respected amoung players, but that was far from it. But he may be clueless. This hasn’t stoped her partici[ating in the gambling itself and has in no way severed her ties with deliquents. But getting the rink up and running again in her and Tadashi’s new high school is proving very difficult.


Not long after the start of her first year in highschool, one of her rounds at Masako’s cabin turned out to be very eventful. The old woman was very clear: she hadn’t been really able to be the kodama for years, far too weak from age, and wanted Reiko to pick up the mantle, just as she had did from a previous kodama and so on. Apparently, this was the intention all along, even before they had met. Masako claimed to be Reiko’s biological grandmother, and eventually had tracked her grandchild down, magically luringing her to the woods. It hadn’t worked as fast as expected, so she tried to see if she could relive her heroine days; that didn’t work as hoped either. But everything was in place, having supposedly taught her protégé everything needed during the previous visits. Reiko had acted like she believed, asking questions with vigor. Masako seemed to actually believe the lies, until Reiko asked about her “real parents”. The objection was that while the girl didn’t show, she loved her adoptive parents, and wouldn’t ever think of them as not being her real parents. Her biological parents were just a couple of strangers. It took a while, but Reiko admitted Masako was right. The two really had gotten to know eachother.

But there was still the matter of proof of all the things that Masako has said, even though she already techinically agreed to becoming the kodama. THe old woman told Reiko to take out her most valued possession, already knowing it was the teru teru bosu, and to think of the most pleasant memories that came to her mind. That was easy. That was skill the Takarazuka days with Sachiko all those years ago. After that, the words of the chant came of the chant then simply came out of her mouth, even though she couldn’t quite explain why. She transformed for the first time. Masako smiled at the form, telling the new kodama of the special title that came with the form and commenting that she hoped that Reiko would become as pure as lotus flower.

Reiko had her change of heart, but now Masako stubbornly refuses to help any further. All she wants to do now is to live her final years in

This leaves the new Lotus Lady Kodama Bonkura out on her own. Her own lessons. Her own decisions. Her own adventures.

Anything Else:

I hope the history didn’t seem that weird for a magical girl character. I wanted things to feel like the first few episodes of a normal shojo drama anime until things got supernatural. And her personality is not really meant to segue too far of from your generic Usagi/Bunny/Serenity type, I just wanted to add enough grey to make her feel realistic and hopefully just a tad funny.

The sample RP is probably not the best representation. Why? I was tired as hell, but I think it gets the job done.

I was also kinda clueless on hwo to balance things since I knew I had to make her work a lot different than the riders but still be on their level.

Sample RP:

Standing before Reiko weren’t the girls she knew from school. They weren’t the girls that asked her to go out on the town with them. Or at least they sure didn’t look it. Their usual looks were typical for onna bancho: uniforms purposely out of regulation. Skirts were either too short or too long. Neckscarves were untied. Sleeves always, always, always, rolled up. Initially, this was sacrilege to Reiko’s all time favorite article outfit, but after getting used to it, this change had her mouth agape, and then sighed in relief: they wouldn't be recognised by anyone at school. They wore matching gothic lolita dresses. Was this awkward on grils who usually looked like they could beat the snot out of you? Yes, but they looked almost normal. Actually better. Reiko studied the place patterns, she’d have ask them what brand that was, or maybe.

“You okay, Akorage?”

The fog of Reiko’s mind faded, the hustle and bustle of the city came back. They were in front of the mall.

“What, me? What’s that with you, Michiko? If it wasn’t for you I’d be shopping Mujirushi Ryohin! Let’s go before your dad finds out you swiped his credit card!” She said in her outdoor voice, which wasn’t any different that her indoorvoice, as she was already dashing to the door.

“Don’t mention it. If he were smart enough to notice that, he’d be paying his best worker enough so that you’d never have to know what a department store looks like!” Michiko countered as they tried to catch up.

Michiko’s father was actually Reiko's dad’s boss. Michiko was loaded, and thus very fun to go to the mall with. Not that this had been done before. Michiko wasn’t normally like this. Michiko was this nice. Michiko was a hardass fighting delinquent. But Reiko wasn’t willing going to question this and happily went with the flow. By shop number twelve, Reiko was limping. Her boxes stacked over her head, and her bags obstructed one’s view of her legs. But before that, be could have swore she saw a red smudge on her sock. However, she thought it was safe to assume it wasn't blood because it took far more than three Power Thirst before your sense of pain was numbed. Nonetheless, she dropped all her spoils when she heard a familiar voice and name.

“Think Hajime’ll like it? You’d think someone like him wouldn’t be so picky,” said one of the girls, putting Reiko on the train back to reality town. Sure, there were other Hajimes, but she knew these girls, and they were delinquents whether you liked it or not. Compared to Reiko or Michiko, this girl didn't have it well off; didn't exactly want to meet up with the guy because she wanted to. Reiko may not have been quite like either of them, but she still liked to think of herself as one of them anyway.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Reiko lied, and then didn’t as she noticed a few surprised looks, “He and I used to play together at the Go salon all the time. So, where would are you two go, the pachiko parlor”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” The girl sighed, which gave Reiko a wonderfully awful idea.

"Ooh! Ho! Ho! Ho!” Reiko gave her noblewoman's laugh as she grabbed her friend, charging into the next section of the store with no regard for her possible bloody/ketchup splattered foot, "Follow me. I know what'll make him freak out!"

Thirty minutes later, Michiko sat at one of the tables in the food court, relaxing under a umbrella, sipping a cola and chowing down n the cheap, puffy corn snack known as a umaibo. All that cash and proper breeding, but the no good punk had all the sophistication of… a no good punk. She couldn’t stop laughing when They were what appeared to be a 20’s American flapper girl and a sentient pile of walking bags and boxes.

“Whoa, Akiko, can you do the Charleston? Yo, Akogare, you’ll get me broke if you keep going like that. Besides, ‘ shop till you drop is just an expression,’” Machiko shouted as stopped banged on the table.

“I don’t need my legs, just some my new shoes and a cola.”

Michiko offered her’s (the later, no the former, of course), Reiko’s eyebrows rose, as she noticed that there was still lipstick on the edge. But with the minimal hesitation, she snatched it and chugged it down. After that, she began to notice Akiko’s butchering of dance itself, which Michiko soon joined, tired to do so herself. She tripped, fell, spilled her stuff everywhere, again, and laughed with her friends about it.

It was all good fun, but Reiko’s walk home was special.

The sun was nearly setting and the hustle and bustle of the city was the same as always. But there was a sound as if from the edge of hearing, though she could swear it was coming from behind her. And it sounded like Akkiko. With an aboutface and a counter productive jog in place, Reiko ran for. The noise became louder and eventually laughter. It led her down into an alleyway.

With Akkiko was Hajime, same as he ever was. Reiko’s brow furrowed, her fist shaked. She had just heard about that scheduled, compensated date, but actually seeing it lit the fire. Reiko simply thought of the man was scum, scum whom she could easily get money out of, but scum nonetheless. Reminded of the laughs, she regained her composure. Part of her wanted to think that Akkiko was having fun. Sure, it was a dark alleyway, but just your normal fun.

Then Hajime placed his hand on the wrong spot.

Reiko had heard and read about enjo kosai in the paper, but thought the detailed ones were just the worst of all cases or that it was mere yellow journalism she had read. But this was the real deal. What was Akkiko thinking? Was it just regular thing? How desperate was she? How many of the other delinquent girls had gone through that too?

Surely Michko could rip him a new one. But Michiko wasn’t there. Nobody was. They had yet ot notice here. And there she was, just watching Hajime take advantage of one of her friends. It was decided. She took a deep breath, held her teru teru bozu up to her heart, and went to her happy place.

“Fine-weather priest, please let the weather be good tomorrow.”

But they still didn’t notice her, so she tried to make her entrance as dramatic as she could: a simple side step into the middle of the alley. Did she try her darnedest to make it a dramatic side step? Yes, but her acrobatics weren’t super, so it was pretty mundane and clashy with the baroque costume. Hajime stopped, but he and Akkiko just stared in confusion at the stranger.


“That’s some creative cosplay you got there, missy.”
“I, Lotus Lady Kodama Bonkura will-“
“That name is way too long.”
“As I was saying, you rapscallion, I’ll show you what’s cosplay!”

It was a simple flick of the Renkon, and it was all over. Bonlura knew it wasn’t fair, but this was personal. She had a score to settle here. Hajime flinched but eventually had another slow, kurfussled look on his face. It wasn’t until he looked down that he noticed the roots finding their home in his chest, the leaves now bursting out of his shirt. His arms flailed around like a madman, he screamed, and then feinted form the fright. He was just a normal guy. She simply stood there, and threw her head back and laughed her noblewoamn’s laugh.

You did good, Reiko.You did good. Grandma Masako would be proud.

Akkiko scrambled. She patted the wet, unconscious body of Hajime down, then proceeded to swipe his wallet and scram. Bonkura was stunned to saw the least, mouth agape. This was one of Reiko’s best friends. She couldn’t bring herself to do any anything. Besides, that sucker could run.

“Grandma Masako would be proud?”, Reiko mumblingly questioned herself, back to normal and stalking out of the alley. This kodama heroine thing was tricky business. Or perhaps she needed new friends. As a final let down, she noticed that her bags were gone. All of her new clothes. All of the cash that came from Michiko’s sudden burst of generosity with her father’s money. Poof.

Sigh.

I guess Mujirushi Ryohin is all fine and good.