23 - Crazy Cat Shuffle

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Crazy Cat Shuffle
When: September 20
Where: Shibuya & Ikebukuro, as well as the Far Shore
Summary: The new Crazy Cat mascot keychains are sparking real passion in Tokyo's hot spots. Brawls have broken out over the extra-rare versions, and all of this angst is attracting ayakashi. The gods have been asked to step in before things get out of control.







Crossing Crisis

The Shibuya scramble crossing is always busy, but it's especially wild today. Ten new Crazy Cat vending machines have been installed at the mouth of the alley across from Shibuya Station's exit. Rumors are flying that these machines have extra Blue-Star Cats in them: the very rarest kind! A crowd of hundreds of excited fans have gathered, but the people at the front of the lines are buying lots of cats, and the mood is starting to grow sour as the people at the back of the lines begin to wonder if there will be any left by the time it's their turn.

This crowd needs crossing guards... or just someone who can snag some of those ultra-rare Cats and sell them to the back of the line for crazy cash. Everything a god does is righteous, after all.

Sunshine Struggle

Crazy Cat machines dot the Sunshine City complex in Ikebukuro. The machines here are attracting some particularly nasty ayakashi: jealous little purple creatures with too many legs that stoke buyers' envy and need for more and better collectibles. Under their influence, it's not just the Cats going fast. The local stores are selling out of everything cute on the shelves.

Worse, some of the ayakashi victims are turning to theft when they run out of pocket money. Time to exterminate those bugs before they start a new crime wave.

Taking Stock

Accident? Sabotage? No one's telling, but a delivery truck carrying boxes of new keychains to restock the machines blew a tire and overturned on a major street. Under the influence of those greedy little ayakashi, collectors are descending on the wreck to snag their favorites before the police show up.

The dazed driver doesn't know what to do, the crowd is starting to get violent, and those Cats do look amazingly cute. And appealing. And, for that matter, valuable.

Bad Kitty

The cat keychains are super cute! Even gods or shinki might be tempted to buy one and take it home, but taking these keychains back to the Far Shore will give away their hidden secret. It's not just human envy that's attracting ayakashi to the Crazy Cats. There are ayakashi hiding inside this batch of cute kitty dolls, and bringing them through a shrine to the Far Shore will force the hidden creatures out of their plushie prisons.

They're big, they're mad, and they're hungry. And the Heavens are full of souls that smell delicious.

The ayakashi escaping from Crazy Cat dolls on the Far Shore resemble gigantic (taller than a person at the shoulder) versions of the cute plushie cats, with very real and sharp teeth and claws. They run and attack at random once released from the dolls, so even gods and shinki who did not bring the toys back could be faced with a fight. The patrolling shinki will do their best to hold them back with borderlines, but they need help to rend these crazy cats before they do too much damage!

In Summary:

• Placate the crowds
• Squash bitty ayakashi
• Struggle with temptation
• Defeat the cat invasion
• Have fun~

Comments

[fortunesmiles]

[Komaeda stiffens in what's mostly shock when Mikan hugs him; he really can't remember the last time someone's hugged him, and he suspects that would be true even if he had all of his memories. He just...hasn't been close to people for a very long time, in an emotional sense. And considering how much his classmates had seemed to hate and fear him on the island...he'd certainly never expected to receive a hug from any of them. Not unless it was some form of restraint while they grabbed proper ropes, anyway.]

I...appreciate the concern, Tsumiki-san... [And he does. It feels...kind of amazing, to have someone care so much about whether he lives or dies. The kind of amazing he's pretty sure he doesn't deserve, but absolutely wanted when he first started attending Hope's Peak.] But - aren't you thinking of very different people?

[He looks down at her.] I don't have my memories of any of you back...so I don't really remember being that close to any of you. I mean, not that I really mind that much if you all know, so that's not really a matter of trust to me, but...the classmates I knew didn't remember me, either. And you guys didn't really like me that much...or trust me at all. [He laughs a little.] And considering I tried to kill all of you, I guess that was justified! But what I mean to say is - the people I remember wouldn't have cared. I'm not even sure they would have believed me. Souda-san would probably have said I was just trying to make you all feel sorry for me. You all would probably have put me in a straitjacket to keep me from hurting myself or anyone else, actually...so I think the classmates you're thinking of, the ones who like me for some reason, are very different from the people I knew on the island. And I don't think it would have made a lot of sense to tell them then...and I can't really answer for why I didn't tell anyone back during the time we were in school together.

[He pauses for a moment, absently biting his lip as he thinks.] I suppose maybe I simply didn't want to trouble anyone...or perhaps I was so happy being around so many Ultimates that I forgot about it entirely? Or perhaps I couldn't bear the thought of being pitied by you all... [For someone who said he couldn't answer it, he's still apparently trying to come up with theories.

Then Mikan pulls away from him, and Komaeda finds himself disappointed. Physical affection...it felt so warm.]

My luck's kept me alive this long. As far as I know, it's the only thing that can at this point...

[discerp]

[It's true that Komaeda's always been a bit of a handful. He was strange even back then, but still... He was still their classmate. One that had been brought together with all of the, united by the combined efforts of their homeroom teacher and Chiaki Nanami.

She hesitates, not sure how to speak of it all or explain her thinking] It's... That might be true--we were different, because we didn't have our memories. [And Komaeda's brand of crazy didn't really help.]

But... I don't know. We were all together, we were a group. Classmates...and-- And friends. Any of us would be sad if one of our friends d-died. So... Maybe there's something new here we can try! And-And there's all sorts of magic and things like that... I" sure we can find something to help!

[fortunesmiles]

Well, I doubt anyone was sad when I died in the simulation... [Komaeda smiles, but there's a trace of bitterness to it.] But then I was threatening them with explosives, and trying to kill them, so that's probably my fault. And I guess things might be different with our memories intact...

Is my illness really something I need to worry about anymore, though? Like I said, I don't think it can kill me while I'm a god...and is there any guarantee we're ever going to go back to our old lives in the Near Shore? [Then he pauses, looking thoughtful.] Although I guess you do see me in my future there, don't you? Is that some other version of me, or does that mean I'm guaranteed to go back and live out that future...?

[discerp]

[Mikan had only gotten a brief overview of what had happened after her execution, but she flinches in surprise-- mentally she makes a note to ask for more about that a little later, but right now Komaeda presents a more pressing topic of discussion.

She's not really knowledgeable about these sorts of things, but she struggles to come up with an explanation anyhow.] T...Time travel...? I-I don't know. The Komaeda-san I met after we woke up didn't say anything about this sort of place...

But, then, maybe you--he?--forgot, or didn't get the chance with everything going on?

[fortunesmiles]

That sounds likely enough; memory problems are pretty common for us, aren't they?

And of course, even if I remembered, I might not have said anything. After all, coming up with a story like that out of the blue, with no evidence...you guys would have thought I was crazy!

[It's hard to tell if there's some bitter sarcasm in that statement, or if Komaeda's genuinely oblivious to the fact that most of his classmates already do believe that.]

[discerp]

[Komaeda please.]

Th-that's true... [Mikan is, fortunately or not, too polite to just say that outright to Komaeda's face. If he'd started talking about being a god in another world, they probably would've all just nodded and backed away slowly and chalked it up to whatever dream Komaeda had been having while out.]

But, this means, o-one day we might get another classmate who, um... Who is still...Ultimate Despair... [And then what'll they do??]

[fortunesmiles]

Well, if we do...that won't be too much of a problem, will it? [Komaeda laughs lightly.] After all, I doubt any of us were as dangerous - or contagious - when we were Ultimate Despair compared to Enoshima-chan. And we know that, even with their memories of Ultimate Despair, our classmates ultimately moved past that despair to become beacons of hope again! And you especially know how that happened. So we'll just help them overcome their despair.

[discerp]

M-maybe not as much as Enoshima-san, [And she wishes, for one brief instance, she had the gall to refer to her as something less polite like Komaeda did] but we were all.. Pretty dangerous. But, I suppose... It wouldn't be hard to break that if it was just them on their own...

[None of them had the massive charisma of Junko, after all, and on their own the only ones who could probably actually do severe damage in a short amount of time were Gundam, Nekomaru, Akane, or Peko. Maybe Sonia too, depending on how quickly people fell into line with her command. But thankfully all of them were able to be reasoned with well enough too.

She chews on her bottom lip a moment and speaks softly.] You can only say that, b-because... Because you don't remember... How awful we were...

[But Mikan shakes her head to break free of the darker thoughts.] But, y-you're right! If it's two against one, w-we can definitely help them! If any come in like that, w-we can't let them run lose. It's our r-responsibility to take care of them.

[fortunesmiles]

Why should how awful we were change what I think? [Komaeda's smile appears to be mild as usual, but there's something...cold about it, something implacable. Not in a personal way, but in the way the ocean is cold and implacable if you fall into it from fifty stories high. There's a finality to the way he speaks.] Hope will always defeat despair. The more awful we were, then the stronger the hope to combat us would be. So of course any friends who turn up still as members of Ultimate Despair will be saved, one way or another. We already know their despair can be crushed.

Originally I assumed we were so terrible that there was no saving us at all - that the only way hope could destroy the despair we represented was by killing us. But now, thanks to you, I know that's not true. So we're already not as terrible as I originally thought! And I don't see how knowing exactly what we did as Ultimate Despair would change that. I think I've already thought of us as badly as I possibly could, and I was mistaken! To think that we were like Enoshima-chan, where despair was so much a part of who we were that only death could get rid of it...in retrospect, it was kind of arrogant of me. Only the true Ultimate Despair could have despair so strong that it couldn't be overturned - that the despair itself couldn't be destroyed, only the body that was spreading it.

So, if anything...I overestimated how awful we were from the very beginning, Tsumiki-san. And I can understand your guilt and disgust for our time as Ultimate Despair, but don't give us more credit than we're due for that! We were always inferior copies; we could never have matched Enoshima-chan. Our despair was weak compared to hers, and weak despair isn't something we ever need to fear. At best, it deserves our contempt.