(no subject)
Jun. 17th, 2013 02:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
topoftheclassPlayer
Name: Breeze.
Personal Journal:semperdormientes
E-mail: kitera.ai@gmail.com
AIM/MSN:AIM: ladypoisin, Plurk:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
Kitera
Timezone: EST/GMT -5
Current Characters in Route: N/A.
Character
Name: Keiko Yukimura.
Series: Yu Yu Hakusho.
Timeline: End of Episode 66: Toguro’s Wish.
Canon Resource Links: Keiko on the Yu Yu Hakusho Wiki, light spoilers within.
Yu Yu Hakusho wiki article, there are spoilers for the series as a whole within.
Keiko blurb on Wikipedia.
Personality: At first glance, Keiko appears to be simply the keeper of her class’s biggest delinquent, always dragging him to school and often the first person the teachers ask about his non-attendance. In reality, she’s much more than this. She is the most academically minded of her core group of friends, although she is also the smartest if you take certain child prodigy’s out of the equation. She shows a deep understanding of the importance of school not only in how she spends countless hours studying in order to get into a prestigious all girls high school, but also in how she drags Yusuke to class and often lectures him about what making it through middle school and high school will do for his life. Further, she is not above tutoring her fellow classmates and friends or answering their questions about homework assignments. Her willingness to tutor however, does not mean those receiving her help don’t have to work to earn their grades. She’ll walk you through a problem or two reminding you of steps in the process but under no circumstances will she do another student’s homework for them or allow another student to copy her completed homework. She firmly believes that that sort of thing doesn’t help anyone learn and only ruins the learning process for everyone. Besides it will be obvious quick that you don’t actually know what you’re doing anyway so why not put in the work if you’ll go to such lengths to cheat.
As if her academic achievement weren’t enough she’s ambitious although not in a power hungry sort of way. She is an active member of the Student Council as her class’s representative. She spends hours after school participating in Student Council meetings and committees. As previously noted she wants to get into a prestigious all girls high school and that alone takes great ambition and dedication. She wants more out of life than to be the daughter of noodle shop owners. She doesn’t really want to make her mark but she does want to make her parents proud and go further and achieve all their dreams for her. She wants to grow up and marry the boy she fell in love with at four while having a good job and raising a family. She doesn’t want to fall into the stereotype of a young woman who lives only to cook and clean for her husband and family although she does enjoy both cooking and cleaning, Keiko is very aware that the world has more to offer to her than simply that one particular role.
Keiko is a largely friendly individual. She befriended Yusuke at a young age and has maintained a long running friendship for more than a decade with him. Her group of friends at Sarayashiki Junior High is diverse and even those she isn’t close to seem to at least treat her with both respect and warmth. It doesn’t seem that anyone really dislikes her. Actually, the closest she get to being disliked is receiving strange looks from classmates when she’s seen speaking with either Yusuke or Kuwabara. Both boys have reputations for being poor students and troublemakers so the fact that she’s friends with either alarms people even when she points out that neither boy is like what the stories say. The fact that she is friends with both of Sarayashiki Junior High’s biggest delinquents speaks to how she refuses to bow to expectation. As far as Keiko is concerned, people are people and no one has the right to tell her who she can and cannot be friends with just because some people have poor reputations. In all truth, she is a better person for being friends with all kinds of different students. While she has ambitious goals knowing people that don’t take school anywhere near as seriously as she does has helped her grow and learn that sometimes it’s okay to take a break and just do something for the sake of having fun.
Keiko hates being lied to, whether directly or by omission. It makes her angry and not above making threats of dishing out physical harm (which is really total bull she only beats up on one person ever). Worse if the lie comes from someone she considers important she feels equal parts betrayed and unimportant. Both are emotions she’s loathe to experiencing and it makes her all the more intent on confronting the person that lied to her. When it comes right down to it the feeling of unimportance kills her more than the feeling of betrayal. That isn’t to say she wants to be everyone’s number one, but certain people (read: Yusuke) have a way of unintentionally making her feel so small by lying to her that it borders on horrifying. Especially since Keiko is not someone who typically measures her self-worth by how a boy treats her. If that were the case, she would have stopped sticking up for and putting up with Yusuke ages ago.
Recently, Keiko has discovered the existence of demons. She was never supposed to find and she’s still dealing with this new world view. In a lot of ways, she still thinks that her week on Hanging Neck Island was a sort of dream. Seriously, demons? While surrounded by them she was outwardly fearless, which was probably a bad idea considering she was one of a very small group of humans to attend the tournament. More recently though she’s gone back to normal life and doesn’t think too much about the experiences of Hanging Neck Island, it’s just easier that way. Besides she’s still not convinced that it wasn’t at least partially a hallucination brought on by bad food or something.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
+ Book Smart
Give her a written exam or quiz her on Japanese history she’ll pass with flying colors. Academics are her thing in a way that few things else are. The gist of it is she’s comfortable as a bookworm that spends hours studying. Or well semi-bookworm she has other responsibilities too that require her attention before she can slip into her bedroom for a few hours to get her homework done. Most of these responsibilities though are tied to her school (Student Council Class Representative) or her parent’s restaurant though.
+ Stern with her friends
Considering that Keiko puts a high premium on people achieving for themselves, she knows how to be strict. It also helps that her bullshit meter has a fairly low setting too. For the most part, she’s aware when people are trying to trade on their friendship for things that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to achieve. She’ll call them out on it and remind them that if they’re willing to put this much effort into cheating that maybe they should redirect that effort into doing things right the first time.
+ Athletic
She might not be considered the most athletic eighth grader, but she definitely of the athletic persuasion. She was fully capable of remaining on the run for a week while possessed humans attempted to kill her six months after Yusuke came back to life. There’s also the fact that can play a mean game of volleyball during gym as well and knock Yusuke unconscious with a single slap. Just how often can a girl come flying out of nowhere and snatch a tiny piece of gum out of thin air like it was absolutely nothing? Not often.
+ Capable of reigning in Yusuke.
Honestly, this has to be some sort of black magic. Not even his boss can get Yusuke to put the brakes on as Keiko can. Okay it’s probably not actually black magic so much as having been his oldest friend. This isn’t a form of control but there are times where she can get him to listen, to look at the situation differently, and at the very least calm down. However, she prefers to use this rare ability infrequently. She isn’t controlling but sometimes he needs a little nudge in the right direction much like anyone else. It’s just normally in the shape of dragging Yusuke to school once every fourteen days.
+ Supportive
She is a great cheerleader. If you need support, she’ll be there waving metaphorical pom-poms and words of encouragement. She will be the most encouraging person possible, because everyone deserves a decent support system.
+ Can cook
Learning to cook was never really a question of if. Since her parents own a restaurant it was more of a question of when and how well. She’s probably not as good as her parents since she helps out between school activities and homework, but she’s still pretty good for a fifteen year old. Not that her proficiency keeps her father from regularly teasing her about how her ability to cook will help her find a husband.
+ Can handle herself just fine when dealing with other humans
Ordinary humans don’t scare. Even possessed humans only gave her pause for a few seconds before she was off plotting how to stay alive with Botan’s help. Thugs and the like on their own tend to make her annoyed more than anything else does. Honestly, she’s not entirely defenseless as some would believe because hi sweet little defenseless teenage girl is so a pipe dream. Please give her a little credit not every situation requires a damsel in distress reaction.
+/- Keiko Slap
While this move is Keiko’s best defensive move she actually doesn’t have much of a love for using it. She’d honestly prefer not to, circumstances however tend to make it necessary whether she’s running from a possessed human or physically chastising Yusuke for being a total jerk (honestly all those skirt flips he has it coming). Considering she isn’t all that fond of violence, the fact that she responds violently in some situations may seem hypocritical. And okay it sort of is, but sometimes there really is no other way to get her point across.
- Damsel in Distress
While she’s perfectly capable of handling herself against humans, those of the not so human biology tend to put her at an extreme disadvantage. It often ends in her running for her life and needing the Spirit Detective to do something drastic to save her. Heck one time she was almost turned into a mindless demon because someone thought it would be fun to use her as bait.
- Miss Responsible
While her sense of responsibility is admirable, it also tends to get in the way of her being a regular teenager. It isn’t so much that her sense of responsibility is over developed so much as she has an extreme love for rules and following them. It doesn’t occur to her that often to bend them or even flat out break them. She was entirely stunned when she hit Mr. Iwamoto despite the fact that it was in self-defense at the time. Rules, expectations, and codes of conduct she follows them to the letter as any responsible citizen would, it can be sort of boring and cause some interesting arguments with friends that aren’t quite as concerned.
- Extremely attached to Yusuke.
She is extremely attached to Yusuke. When Yusuke died the only people to even possibly more grief stricken than her were Atsuko and Kuwabara although it’s sort of hard to tell who was distressed more. A case could probably be made that she is somewhat obsessive with wanting to know when he’s going on a case and wanting to be the first to know, although she isn’t one of those creepy obsessive girls that would kill him if she couldn’t have him. He just means everything to her and she doesn’t like seeing him injured or dead okay.
- Sympathetic/Sensitive
Normally, this would be a good thing, but it leads to her sympathizing with enemies of the Spirit World. It isn’t exactly the best trait to have as it could lead to her potentially being manipulated by said enemies if they had the presence of mind to do so. Honestly, she’s something of a sucker for a sob story.
- Nag
She does not shut up about things that she thinks a person should be doing. Mostly this applies to Yusuke who just about never comes to school. But she will fairly regularly launch into a short tirade about how his lacking attendance makes her look bad as class representative and that she’d like to see him more and that he can’t expect to get a good job if he flunks out of the eighth grade. She only nags because she cares.
- Shuts down when overwhelmed.
In situations where the sensory information becomes too much Keiko will slip into a sort of trance/hallucination where she is dreaming and currently at school like she should be. If she isn’t brought out of it quickly she becomes entirely catatonic and as such completely useless to those around her.
- Has a tendency to say things she doesn’t mean when angry.
Usually Keiko is very good about the whole thinking before she speaks, but when she’s angry and/or was just the victim of Yusuke’s latest prank she tends to say things in the moment. One of her most famous was after Yusuke flipped her skirt and she said “People like you should be strung up in the street” she didn’t actually mean it but she was mad enough that her usually filters didn’t kick in. It’s something of an unfortunate curse.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder.
Starter: Vulpix.
Password: Ginger Snaps.
Samples
First Person Sample:
[The initial sounds coming over the gear is silence except for the sound of the music of New Bark Town. There’s the sound of feet padding softly over wooden floors and the rustling of fabric as the only indications of movement at first and then there’s the unmistakable sound of someone inhaling like they are preparing to speak followed by a soft murmur of “I guess it’s on” before the voice grows louder.]
Can anyone tell me where I am? [There’s a slight quaver in what is clearly a young woman’s voice at first before it smoothes out, anyone not familiar with the speaker probably wouldn’t even realize that she’s forcing calm into her voice like appearing in a random house is normal. There’s a knock on the door and Mom’s voice can be heard albeit somewhat muffled.]
Honey are you up? You’ll be late.
Um what am I going to be late for exactly? [Obviously she isn’t paying attention to the gear anymore although it is still recording the audio as evidenced by her pokemon choosing that moment to speak up.]
Vulpix.
Your journey, dear, with your Vulpix.
[There’s a short laugh from the young woman that sounds vaguely like she’s still confused but attempting to fake it. An explanation from anyone would be great because Mom is obviously not making any sense right now to this girl.] Uh, yeah right.
[And the feed cuts out.]
Third Person Sample:
Keiko was pretty sure she was lost. That was new to her, she’d never felt lost before in her life. The trees looked strange and the grass was making her nervous with all the rustling coming from within. She did not want to know what was hiding in there but if she didn’t cut through she’d never be able to complete her “journey” and hopefully return home. Glancing down at her Vulpix (which she’s since decided to call Kurama) Keiko makes a face before dropping down balancing only on the balls of her feet.
“What do you think Kurama, can we do this?”
The Vulpix for its credit tilts its head at Keiko his eyes big and curious and takes a tentative step toward the tall grass and then another that is surer of itself. It pauses after that looking back at Keiko waiting to see if she will call him back or follow.
“Okay, here we go.” She says with a nod as she gets up and walks into the tall grass with purposeful strides. The worst that could happen is that she’ll have to sprint for the PokéCenter in Cherrygrove. And yes she did familiarize herself with the trainer handbook and the map of Johto before allowing Mom to send her off. She was not going to walk into entirely blind if she could help it, at least not any more blind than she already was. Creepy trees and unnerving rustling noises aside she could handle this.
Unfortunately, for her those eerie mood setting rustling sounds were drawing closer as she waded her way through the wild grass. And the music had changed but she was trying to ignore that at the moment she could think about the weird background music that was everywhere later when she was safe in another town. It would have to be after she completed her first battle as a wild purple rat lunged at her from its hiding place. As if on cue, Kurama jumped in between her and the Rattata blocking its tackle.
The two pokémon stood there staring at each other tense and Keiko bit her lip. To battle or not to battle. She really didn’t like the idea of injuring the pokémon just to keep it from attacking her, but did she really have any other choice. Neither pokémon looked like it was going to back down and she really wanted the Rattata do back down. She had to make a decision soon and as much as she didn’t like it, she chose the route that she really didn’t think was right.
“Kurama, use ember.”
Name: Breeze.
Personal Journal:
semperdormientesE-mail: kitera.ai@gmail.com
AIM/MSN:AIM: ladypoisin, Plurk:
Timezone: EST/GMT -5
Current Characters in Route: N/A.
Character
Name: Keiko Yukimura.
Series: Yu Yu Hakusho.
Timeline: End of Episode 66: Toguro’s Wish.
Canon Resource Links: Keiko on the Yu Yu Hakusho Wiki, light spoilers within.
Yu Yu Hakusho wiki article, there are spoilers for the series as a whole within.
Keiko blurb on Wikipedia.
Personality: At first glance, Keiko appears to be simply the keeper of her class’s biggest delinquent, always dragging him to school and often the first person the teachers ask about his non-attendance. In reality, she’s much more than this. She is the most academically minded of her core group of friends, although she is also the smartest if you take certain child prodigy’s out of the equation. She shows a deep understanding of the importance of school not only in how she spends countless hours studying in order to get into a prestigious all girls high school, but also in how she drags Yusuke to class and often lectures him about what making it through middle school and high school will do for his life. Further, she is not above tutoring her fellow classmates and friends or answering their questions about homework assignments. Her willingness to tutor however, does not mean those receiving her help don’t have to work to earn their grades. She’ll walk you through a problem or two reminding you of steps in the process but under no circumstances will she do another student’s homework for them or allow another student to copy her completed homework. She firmly believes that that sort of thing doesn’t help anyone learn and only ruins the learning process for everyone. Besides it will be obvious quick that you don’t actually know what you’re doing anyway so why not put in the work if you’ll go to such lengths to cheat.
As if her academic achievement weren’t enough she’s ambitious although not in a power hungry sort of way. She is an active member of the Student Council as her class’s representative. She spends hours after school participating in Student Council meetings and committees. As previously noted she wants to get into a prestigious all girls high school and that alone takes great ambition and dedication. She wants more out of life than to be the daughter of noodle shop owners. She doesn’t really want to make her mark but she does want to make her parents proud and go further and achieve all their dreams for her. She wants to grow up and marry the boy she fell in love with at four while having a good job and raising a family. She doesn’t want to fall into the stereotype of a young woman who lives only to cook and clean for her husband and family although she does enjoy both cooking and cleaning, Keiko is very aware that the world has more to offer to her than simply that one particular role.
Keiko is a largely friendly individual. She befriended Yusuke at a young age and has maintained a long running friendship for more than a decade with him. Her group of friends at Sarayashiki Junior High is diverse and even those she isn’t close to seem to at least treat her with both respect and warmth. It doesn’t seem that anyone really dislikes her. Actually, the closest she get to being disliked is receiving strange looks from classmates when she’s seen speaking with either Yusuke or Kuwabara. Both boys have reputations for being poor students and troublemakers so the fact that she’s friends with either alarms people even when she points out that neither boy is like what the stories say. The fact that she is friends with both of Sarayashiki Junior High’s biggest delinquents speaks to how she refuses to bow to expectation. As far as Keiko is concerned, people are people and no one has the right to tell her who she can and cannot be friends with just because some people have poor reputations. In all truth, she is a better person for being friends with all kinds of different students. While she has ambitious goals knowing people that don’t take school anywhere near as seriously as she does has helped her grow and learn that sometimes it’s okay to take a break and just do something for the sake of having fun.
Keiko hates being lied to, whether directly or by omission. It makes her angry and not above making threats of dishing out physical harm (which is really total bull she only beats up on one person ever). Worse if the lie comes from someone she considers important she feels equal parts betrayed and unimportant. Both are emotions she’s loathe to experiencing and it makes her all the more intent on confronting the person that lied to her. When it comes right down to it the feeling of unimportance kills her more than the feeling of betrayal. That isn’t to say she wants to be everyone’s number one, but certain people (read: Yusuke) have a way of unintentionally making her feel so small by lying to her that it borders on horrifying. Especially since Keiko is not someone who typically measures her self-worth by how a boy treats her. If that were the case, she would have stopped sticking up for and putting up with Yusuke ages ago.
Recently, Keiko has discovered the existence of demons. She was never supposed to find and she’s still dealing with this new world view. In a lot of ways, she still thinks that her week on Hanging Neck Island was a sort of dream. Seriously, demons? While surrounded by them she was outwardly fearless, which was probably a bad idea considering she was one of a very small group of humans to attend the tournament. More recently though she’s gone back to normal life and doesn’t think too much about the experiences of Hanging Neck Island, it’s just easier that way. Besides she’s still not convinced that it wasn’t at least partially a hallucination brought on by bad food or something.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
+ Book Smart
Give her a written exam or quiz her on Japanese history she’ll pass with flying colors. Academics are her thing in a way that few things else are. The gist of it is she’s comfortable as a bookworm that spends hours studying. Or well semi-bookworm she has other responsibilities too that require her attention before she can slip into her bedroom for a few hours to get her homework done. Most of these responsibilities though are tied to her school (Student Council Class Representative) or her parent’s restaurant though.
+ Stern with her friends
Considering that Keiko puts a high premium on people achieving for themselves, she knows how to be strict. It also helps that her bullshit meter has a fairly low setting too. For the most part, she’s aware when people are trying to trade on their friendship for things that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to achieve. She’ll call them out on it and remind them that if they’re willing to put this much effort into cheating that maybe they should redirect that effort into doing things right the first time.
+ Athletic
She might not be considered the most athletic eighth grader, but she definitely of the athletic persuasion. She was fully capable of remaining on the run for a week while possessed humans attempted to kill her six months after Yusuke came back to life. There’s also the fact that can play a mean game of volleyball during gym as well and knock Yusuke unconscious with a single slap. Just how often can a girl come flying out of nowhere and snatch a tiny piece of gum out of thin air like it was absolutely nothing? Not often.
+ Capable of reigning in Yusuke.
Honestly, this has to be some sort of black magic. Not even his boss can get Yusuke to put the brakes on as Keiko can. Okay it’s probably not actually black magic so much as having been his oldest friend. This isn’t a form of control but there are times where she can get him to listen, to look at the situation differently, and at the very least calm down. However, she prefers to use this rare ability infrequently. She isn’t controlling but sometimes he needs a little nudge in the right direction much like anyone else. It’s just normally in the shape of dragging Yusuke to school once every fourteen days.
+ Supportive
She is a great cheerleader. If you need support, she’ll be there waving metaphorical pom-poms and words of encouragement. She will be the most encouraging person possible, because everyone deserves a decent support system.
+ Can cook
Learning to cook was never really a question of if. Since her parents own a restaurant it was more of a question of when and how well. She’s probably not as good as her parents since she helps out between school activities and homework, but she’s still pretty good for a fifteen year old. Not that her proficiency keeps her father from regularly teasing her about how her ability to cook will help her find a husband.
+ Can handle herself just fine when dealing with other humans
Ordinary humans don’t scare. Even possessed humans only gave her pause for a few seconds before she was off plotting how to stay alive with Botan’s help. Thugs and the like on their own tend to make her annoyed more than anything else does. Honestly, she’s not entirely defenseless as some would believe because hi sweet little defenseless teenage girl is so a pipe dream. Please give her a little credit not every situation requires a damsel in distress reaction.
+/- Keiko Slap
While this move is Keiko’s best defensive move she actually doesn’t have much of a love for using it. She’d honestly prefer not to, circumstances however tend to make it necessary whether she’s running from a possessed human or physically chastising Yusuke for being a total jerk (honestly all those skirt flips he has it coming). Considering she isn’t all that fond of violence, the fact that she responds violently in some situations may seem hypocritical. And okay it sort of is, but sometimes there really is no other way to get her point across.
- Damsel in Distress
While she’s perfectly capable of handling herself against humans, those of the not so human biology tend to put her at an extreme disadvantage. It often ends in her running for her life and needing the Spirit Detective to do something drastic to save her. Heck one time she was almost turned into a mindless demon because someone thought it would be fun to use her as bait.
- Miss Responsible
While her sense of responsibility is admirable, it also tends to get in the way of her being a regular teenager. It isn’t so much that her sense of responsibility is over developed so much as she has an extreme love for rules and following them. It doesn’t occur to her that often to bend them or even flat out break them. She was entirely stunned when she hit Mr. Iwamoto despite the fact that it was in self-defense at the time. Rules, expectations, and codes of conduct she follows them to the letter as any responsible citizen would, it can be sort of boring and cause some interesting arguments with friends that aren’t quite as concerned.
- Extremely attached to Yusuke.
She is extremely attached to Yusuke. When Yusuke died the only people to even possibly more grief stricken than her were Atsuko and Kuwabara although it’s sort of hard to tell who was distressed more. A case could probably be made that she is somewhat obsessive with wanting to know when he’s going on a case and wanting to be the first to know, although she isn’t one of those creepy obsessive girls that would kill him if she couldn’t have him. He just means everything to her and she doesn’t like seeing him injured or dead okay.
- Sympathetic/Sensitive
Normally, this would be a good thing, but it leads to her sympathizing with enemies of the Spirit World. It isn’t exactly the best trait to have as it could lead to her potentially being manipulated by said enemies if they had the presence of mind to do so. Honestly, she’s something of a sucker for a sob story.
- Nag
She does not shut up about things that she thinks a person should be doing. Mostly this applies to Yusuke who just about never comes to school. But she will fairly regularly launch into a short tirade about how his lacking attendance makes her look bad as class representative and that she’d like to see him more and that he can’t expect to get a good job if he flunks out of the eighth grade. She only nags because she cares.
- Shuts down when overwhelmed.
In situations where the sensory information becomes too much Keiko will slip into a sort of trance/hallucination where she is dreaming and currently at school like she should be. If she isn’t brought out of it quickly she becomes entirely catatonic and as such completely useless to those around her.
- Has a tendency to say things she doesn’t mean when angry.
Usually Keiko is very good about the whole thinking before she speaks, but when she’s angry and/or was just the victim of Yusuke’s latest prank she tends to say things in the moment. One of her most famous was after Yusuke flipped her skirt and she said “People like you should be strung up in the street” she didn’t actually mean it but she was mad enough that her usually filters didn’t kick in. It’s something of an unfortunate curse.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder.
Starter: Vulpix.
Password: Ginger Snaps.
Samples
First Person Sample:
[The initial sounds coming over the gear is silence except for the sound of the music of New Bark Town. There’s the sound of feet padding softly over wooden floors and the rustling of fabric as the only indications of movement at first and then there’s the unmistakable sound of someone inhaling like they are preparing to speak followed by a soft murmur of “I guess it’s on” before the voice grows louder.]
Can anyone tell me where I am? [There’s a slight quaver in what is clearly a young woman’s voice at first before it smoothes out, anyone not familiar with the speaker probably wouldn’t even realize that she’s forcing calm into her voice like appearing in a random house is normal. There’s a knock on the door and Mom’s voice can be heard albeit somewhat muffled.]
Honey are you up? You’ll be late.
Um what am I going to be late for exactly? [Obviously she isn’t paying attention to the gear anymore although it is still recording the audio as evidenced by her pokemon choosing that moment to speak up.]
Vulpix.
Your journey, dear, with your Vulpix.
[There’s a short laugh from the young woman that sounds vaguely like she’s still confused but attempting to fake it. An explanation from anyone would be great because Mom is obviously not making any sense right now to this girl.] Uh, yeah right.
[And the feed cuts out.]
Third Person Sample:
Keiko was pretty sure she was lost. That was new to her, she’d never felt lost before in her life. The trees looked strange and the grass was making her nervous with all the rustling coming from within. She did not want to know what was hiding in there but if she didn’t cut through she’d never be able to complete her “journey” and hopefully return home. Glancing down at her Vulpix (which she’s since decided to call Kurama) Keiko makes a face before dropping down balancing only on the balls of her feet.
“What do you think Kurama, can we do this?”
The Vulpix for its credit tilts its head at Keiko his eyes big and curious and takes a tentative step toward the tall grass and then another that is surer of itself. It pauses after that looking back at Keiko waiting to see if she will call him back or follow.
“Okay, here we go.” She says with a nod as she gets up and walks into the tall grass with purposeful strides. The worst that could happen is that she’ll have to sprint for the PokéCenter in Cherrygrove. And yes she did familiarize herself with the trainer handbook and the map of Johto before allowing Mom to send her off. She was not going to walk into entirely blind if she could help it, at least not any more blind than she already was. Creepy trees and unnerving rustling noises aside she could handle this.
Unfortunately, for her those eerie mood setting rustling sounds were drawing closer as she waded her way through the wild grass. And the music had changed but she was trying to ignore that at the moment she could think about the weird background music that was everywhere later when she was safe in another town. It would have to be after she completed her first battle as a wild purple rat lunged at her from its hiding place. As if on cue, Kurama jumped in between her and the Rattata blocking its tackle.
The two pokémon stood there staring at each other tense and Keiko bit her lip. To battle or not to battle. She really didn’t like the idea of injuring the pokémon just to keep it from attacking her, but did she really have any other choice. Neither pokémon looked like it was going to back down and she really wanted the Rattata do back down. She had to make a decision soon and as much as she didn’t like it, she chose the route that she really didn’t think was right.
“Kurama, use ember.”
