Matoi had no particular hatred of journalists, unlike Mia or Kate: she simply saw them as insects who could be manipulated either way. She could not handle them as she had Kirihara, but the general thrust was still true; they were stenographers of power who would accept lie after easily-seen lie so long as they felt they were closer to its fount & their competitors were not. Urasaria's presidency may not seem like a position that confers much power (not solely measured physically), but most civilians assume that students are essentially a hive-mind, and Matoi at this time was the current… finish the sentence yourself.
But, she felt something was up when they came back to the bookstore the next day, and saw reprints of the magazine. Call it a sense if you must. Before she could expound on it herself, Marisa picked up the magazine and asked her what the new headline under their pictures meant.
"Let me see it." muttered Matoi, flipping through the article and reading it. "(…it's mostly about the three of you last night. It's accusing you of bringing American violence to Japanese soil. I don't even see my name mentioned this time.)"
"What?"
Matoi glanced up. "(The headline is 'American *'Heroes'* on Japanese Soil'.)"
"What?" said Mia.
"(I don't understand what's confusing you about that.)"
Matoi continued like that a few times, realized, laughed, then repeated it in English.
"That one I understood." nodded Samuel.
"It's very annoying constantly switching." muttered Matoi.
"Oh, hey, I wanted to ask you something, too." Marisa held up her glove and Boudoir formed it from memory. "What the hell does this mean?"
Matoi stared at it, blinked, shrugged, said: "I have absolutely no clue. None of those are Japanese letters."
Marisa frowned. "Ugh, I knew I should've like, written it down when I saw it. Some cop asked for my like, autograph last night, and Rin yelled at him when he wrote that down next to it."
"If it helps, I'm sure it was something misogynistic. Japanese men are even more subhuman than American men."
"Damn." muttered Marisa.
The four milled around for a few more minutes, before Mia's phone vibrated.
(Serena) "have you gone to Akihabara? it's full of videogames and stuff, but it looks cool ╮(. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)╭"
"Er, Serena mentioned Akihabara?" said Mia to Matoi. "Is that close by?"
"It's close by train, yes, but I wouldn't suggest going there."
"What's wrong with it?"
"Because it's filled with otakus -- people who are obsessed with anime and manga."
"Damn, what's wrong with anime?" said Marisa.
"Matoi, I lived with Serena for a year, I'm sure I can handle a few cartoons." chimed Mia.
"Because most of it's created to appeal to teenage boys. With any of the popular series, if they have any female characters at all, they're some submissive caricature to jerk off to. Obviously, I can attest to how that affects Japanese girls and how men view them." Matoi glanced at Mia. "But in particular, your protege has a nickname for me based on an anime character. She almost called me it to my face recently."
"Well, whatever it was, I'm sure Serena didn't mean it insultingly." said Mia, a little flummoxed.
Matoi smiled. "Ask her to show you an episode of it. Kill la Kill, specifically."
In this way by forcing Serena's later embarrassment, Matoi felt she won out, and was in a good mood as they went by the metro over to Akihabara. While not yet night, the electronics shopping hub had its nascent glow of anime & videogame advertisements, which Mia frequently took pictures of to send to Serena.
"G-God, it's cold out." Marisa shivered as Boudoir thickened.
Mia glanced behind her to see if anyone was about to walk in to her, had Worldwide's scarabs display her badge above her head, then burst in to red flames (her weakest color) and kept walking. This had the secondary effect of dispelling some of the crowd.
Matoi rubbed her hands together and Wedding's laser flashed between them.
"How are you not cold in that?" said Mia to Samuel.
He shrugged. "I'm freezing, actually, but it's the same reason I don't use an umbrella when it rains. I like the challenge."
"Because you're an idiot, yes." Matoi smirked.
"Oh, this from somebody who tried to spray her piss on me?"
Mia broke into laughter. "Excuse me, what?"
"She didn't realize the smell?" said Samuel to Matoi, who laughed.
"I was using my assigned room for it."
"I- well, god." laughed Samuel. "Well, what I'm referring to was sometime in February or March of my first year. Matoi had asked me if Outcast could manipulate liquids, and I told her I hadn't ever tried it."
"Because I usually vaporized any acids with Wedding's lasers."
"Right. We tried it a few times after and thought there might be something there, but, as you remember, Mia, you were with her for the entire month of March. And presumably, Matoi was not too open about her bathroom habits at the time, which I must assume involved copious amounts of jars before storing them in god-knows-what that room smelled like."
A ratio of disgust & laughter was across both Marisa & Mia's faces, and generally tilted in that order as Samuel continued.
"But I was glad to hear your side of training with her went well, because the first day I came back, she brings me to that room and she has a hose set up into the wall and tells me that today we're dodging liquids. I'd like to point out, that at this time, there was zero proof Outcast *could* manipulate liquids."
Matoi laughed. "Well, I thought you would find some way to do it."
"And I suppose I did."
Mia's flames disappeared before a civilian on their phone bumped into her, and she gestured to move 2x2 -- Samuel & Marisa behind her and Matoi beside.
"Matoi, what's with the chicks in maid outfits?" said Marisa.
"And why are there signs in English?" said Mia.
"Japanese people love English." Matoi glanced at Mia. "If you've seen Americans with poorly-translated tattoos in Japanese, the same happens here."
"That reminds me, I should've had you sign off on it before I got mine." said Samuel.
Matoi checked over him to see there was nothing visible, then said: "If it's where I assume it is, I wouldn't worry: no one is ever going to see it there."
"Jesus." winced Marisa.
"You know, something did concern me, though." said Samuel. "When I went to get it done, the tattoo artist told me that 'before we start, I'd like to introduce you to my wife and my sister', and there was only one woman sitting there."
Mia shuddered.
"As for the women in maid uniforms, they work for a maid cafe. They serve you in those costumes." said Matoi. "Samuel, we're not going inside."
"Well, I'm sure it's a stressful job." nodded Samuel. "Can't imagine the type of people that would want to eat there. Their boss is probably some creep who gets off on that kind of thing. You know, I think we could really brighten their day if we went-"
"-absolutely not." laughed Matoi -
"-we could give them a large tip-"
"-you don't tip in Japan."
Marisa looked around. "Uh, is there anywhere without animes? Like, a place that sells yuri?"
"I- isn't that porn?" said Mia and Matoi laughed.
"It's lesbian manga -- get your mind out of the gutter."
"Yeah, Mia-Mia." grinned Marisa.
"That wasn't what you showed me." muttered Mia. "They were one tongue and three fingers up each other's-"
- Samuel bumped in to Matoi's back - "- I - excuse me -"
- and the others turned -
- as Matoi looked up and immediately began laughing at Samuel's distraction.
An image of an anime woman was projected above, the type that men looked at and wanted to fill with babies. But she could not have babies, she was a cartoon. Some dedicated otakus would still try to, with body pillows that had her image plastered on to them.
"What the fuck?" said Marisa. "Those are like, bigger than her head!"
"I couldn't believe it either." mumbled Samuel and the three erupted in to laughter. "She could put someone's eye out with those."
"G-God damnit, Samuel." muttered Mia.
Matoi shook her head in shame, then resumed walking. "That's precisely why we aren't going to any maid cafes."
"I'd be happy just knowing what show she's on." Samuel exaggerated craning back. "You know, I think it might have an interesting plot."
Mia sent an image of her to Serena, and received back an image of a figurine Yuruko owned of her. It had even less clothes, which was why Serena specified it was Yuruko's and not her's.
"You'll have to settle for Don Quijote." said Matoi as they went inside a Don Quijote; a discount store chain notable in Japan for its ubiquity, and cramped labyrinthian setup of products. They bought various types of Japanese sweets (mochi, sakura candies, chocolates without coma-inducing levels of sugar) and ate them outside, using Mia's blue flames to disintegrate their trash until Daishi called them, and asked if they could return to Ueno.
"(I thought you might like to see this.)" As they kneeled across the table, he passed over a cardboard box. "(Some of the civilians from last night wrote thank-you cards. They've already been checked for safety, though from what I was told, most of their English...)"
Matoi nodded and read one over. "(…it's very poor.)"
"(Yes, it looks like if I were to write one. Still, I hope your squadron enjoys them.)" Daishi nodded. "(And a second bit of good news. The warrant for Katuhisa has been granted - I thought it would be best for you and myself to go there later tonight. Lethal, if needed, and a surprise attack. I... believe your squadron would attract too much attention, however.)"
"(It's fine. Around midnight, then?)"
"(Yes, that would be best.)" Daishi showed her the address. "(Junpei will scout the area and evacuate before we set out.)"
"(...it's in Kofu? On that street?)"
"(Yes. Why?)"
"(I used to live a few streets over.)"
Daishi's eyebrow raised. "(It's a very nice area. I've always wanted to live there, myself.)"
Somehow, though she had never heard it (only read), Matoi could hear the hunter's confession: "My sole crime was finding a million yen for every whale I killed. Before you castigate me, can you say, in my position, that you would not calculate how few you would spare?"
Daishi was indeed correct that Kofu, and where she had lived, was an upscale area that her father had provided the means to for her mother & herself; yet this made her feel more resentful, not forgiving of her father. That he was no two-bit thug meant that his success had supplemented her mother's & her own, allowing his notion to seemingly still crawl upon her mind like an insect upon a corpse. She sought a way to cleanse herself, but had no recourse to do so until she was striding beside Daishi under the night and could again dare to stand in herself as a remote female.
Wearing a hoodie, Daishi glanced behind himself. "(Only ten minutes away. But, yes, I am hopeful we will not need to fight him. We're obviously capable of it, but it would certainly make non-lethality more difficult.)"
"(You think he has a Revenant, then?)"
"(It seems almost certain.)"
"(If only we could have known that a week sooner.)"
Daishi laughed. "(Well, I understand your frustration, which you're not so subtly hinting at - but it's difficult for me to imagine how your system in America works. Especially with the legal immunity, it seems... very fraught to personal interpretation from students, or from presidents.)"
"(Perhaps, but I would rather students have discretion on how to deal with hosts than civilian police.)" Matoi shrugged. "(Though remember that, as I mentioned earlier, America's relationship between the police and students is far more adversarial. I'd have you ask Mia what she thinks about the police if you spoke English.)"
"(Yes, I was briefed on her... family history with that. But I think, as you mention, the primary difference between yourself and I is that I view Japan as an essentially good country, and so however much frustration its laws may bring us, it's still good to make sure they are followed. And I hope I haven't said anything offensive by saying that.)"
"(No, you're correct.)"
Daishi soon came up to one house with keys readied.
"(Flank to the left.)" he muttered, Matoi nodding as he unlocked the door. The two kept their Boudoir-silent-boots on as they came to the backyard, houses around, wooden fence where expected.
With no time to waste, the two rushed left&across the backyard, and as they came up to the fence -
- a dozen projectiles entered their backs and burst out their chest; with the speed of pain the two turned -
- and saw their female foe a hundred feet away, skateboard stalled on the wooden fence.
"(Go ahead.)" muttered Daishi. The two started their charge forward, and as a new set of wooden projectiles shot towards them -
- a volley of missiles flew to the ground and blasted up the dirt; and in to the sudden cloud went the projectiles -
- and fell suddenly limp, speed lost as the two came fifty feet within range; ahead, the woman started grinding down the fence, veering and riding her skateboard their way and beside -
" - Wedding!" shouted Matoi as the woman passed by, missiles chasing after their target -
- and the two sighed as she came out of range, grinding to the fence's end -
- and leaping up, right&away on to Katuhisa's house, hitting the second floor's ramparts, grinding with the speed of sound around -
- and disappearing behind as the two ran up to the prodigal fence, Revenants readied; but the next scene was instant.
The house started to suddenly buckle, walls turning ragged and rusted, and as the building toppled towards them -
- two missiles burst out of Wedding's shoulders, growing to a massive size, and as one struck the home -
- the explosion tore the house in to a thousand shards -
- and the second blasted the rubble away; smoke clearing quick, the two stood again, seeing the prodigal skateboarder leaping out of the ruins towards them -
- and landing on the fence again, starting her grind right away from the two -
- but Matoi laughed as a dozen shockwaves threw the woman back in to them; she screamed as she flew between them -
- and straight through the window of a home behind, still screaming as they lost sight of her. Vision of her directly lost, the two vaulted over the prodigal fence, rushing to the shattered side-window of the next home, seeing the kitchen cleared inside, gas stove within. No time to waste, the two swept inside; and in the next instant -
- the oven exploded outward -
- but a line of missiles flew from Matoi's shoulders, forming a globe and surrounding the growing cloud, Wedding's lasers welding their casings together together -
- and the two nodded relieved as the explosives contained their hellish brethren, seeing the living room up ahead, window at the other end - but they had no time to rest. A familiar grinding began outside the home, and before they could react -
- the window shattered, and in shot the skateboarder, knife readied, and as she passed by Matoi -
- she swept with the speed of light away, knife catching only air as the woman sought the first window -
- but the next scene was instant. Daishi's hands dug in his pocket, swiping out a prepared centipede; a puff of black gas mutated it, tumors lengthening it to a insectile rope as he lassoed it forward -
- and the keen end yanked the woman off her board; she shrieked as she was pulled back, and in the next instant -
- the centipede disintegrated. Her board reappeared as she ollied out the window -
- and disappeared right&outside.
"(Tedious.)" muttered Matoi, relevantly; with a sigh, the two rushed back and in to the living room, front door left. A puff of Kiseru dissolved the door, and in to the street they swept again, running out on to the sidewalk, lawn beside and parked cars on the road -
- which were suddenly launched towards them -
- but a swift slice of Wedding's lasers charred each to cubes, seeing the woman on the other end; anorher automobile shot towards them -
"( - let me test something.)" said Daishi, taking the front -
- and a puff of blue gas halted the car in its tracks, the two nodding as it fell, knowing the sudden speed only applied until it made contact. True confidence now, the two started to the road -
"( - god - shit -) - Kyōsō!" shouted the woman; starting her grind on the sidewalk, and in the next instant -
- the road started collapsing; the sudden lack of support threw them off balance and in, and as a sinkhole formed below -
" - Wedding!"
- a dozen missiles flew above; hand on Daishi's collar, Matoi threw her other hand up -
- inch by inch, the two flew back&behind - but her explosives weren't load-bearing. Only in hand-range of the grass behind, the two started to fall again, sinking death below -
- but the next scene was instant. A puff of black gas hit the grass, mutating it in to a bizarre sapling, hundreds of branches growing outwards -
- and on to one clung the two, saving them as the road collapsed below, wide chasm separating them and their foe as they climbed back to the sidewalk. Their eyes ripped left, seeing their foe there now, a hundred feet still separating the two. A new chasm split the ground between them, three combatants with eyes sharp.
"(You're clearly protecting Katuhisa.)" said Daishi, two on one end and house left, one on one end and original house left. "(Why?)"
No response, the woman's hands swept behind her back -
- and threw a dozen knives with the speed of light forward; Kiseru's blue gas neutralised each, and as they fell -
"( - thank you.)" laughed Matoi, lasers and missiles meeting with each blade; a dozen shockwaves blew them away, and as a line of missiles flew in to the chasm -
- a swift slash of Wedding's lasers welded them solid, forming a bridge connecting the two sides. With no time to waste, the two rushed up upon it, new missiles flying right -
- and Matoi stifled her laugh as the woman dodged left, fleeing in to the lawn of the initial home, and in the next instant -
- a dozen shockwaves at her feet blasted her clear through the front window. Hearing her weakening groan a second later, the two rushed up and vaulted inside -
- to a sure victory meeting their stare, woman crawling away, gushing blood and body cut -
" - K-Kyōsō!" she panted, tapping her blood -
- the two went suddenly blind, losing their sight, still hearing their foe crawling ahead; but their blood chilled as they heard her rise.
"(V-Vitamin A.)" her voice grunted. "(Now n-none of us can see! Half-life - sped up - and iron!)"
- the three started to weaken, still blind, Daishi daring not use Kiseru's gas. Three combatants stepped blindly but silently around, daring not reveal their location, knowing a single missile, puff of gas, or swift knife could end it.
Matoi felt something swipe for her; she swept back and stumbled in to a wall, knowing her foe could hear her then, and in the next instant -
- Wedding's lasers erupted outward -
- she felt it hit something metal to her right; and in the next instant -
- a dozen blind missiles erupted from her shoulders and flew right -
- and the shockwaves blasted someone right&away, feminine scream erupting after the sound of shattered glass -
- and the two regained their vision&energy. Their eyes ripped right, seeing the shattered&bloodied window. They rushed up quick -
- and saw the woman laying still outside.
Matoi nodded, and the two swept out the window. A puff of purple haze filled the corpse's nostrils, leaving two sighing as they realized it.
"(Dead.)" said Matoi and Daishi nodded.
"(Unfortunately. Still, this is an understandable circumstance.)"
"(I'm aware.)" Matoi turned to him. "(It's clear Katuhisa is avoiding us -- someone likely warned him.)"
"(Agreed. It's unfortunate, but this does, at least, ensure the next warrant should come far quicker if needed. Sometimes these things have ways of righting themselves.)"
Daishi stopped as he heard a noise some animal made a few blocks over: likely a pet Junpei had forgotten to evacuate. It reminded him of his own cat, and the side of his face clenched. Aside from the aforementioned encounter, there was also the time where his father & him had searched for her for hours, before his father eventually said to him that they were going home, and that it was better Daishi become inured to loss now when it was only an animal. Sometimes Daishi wondered if he was attempting to grow too much in to his own father's propriety, which seemed to inhabit the men in his family like petulant beasts.
As he had done several times before, he sublimated such thoughts. "(…still. I'll have Junpei take care of this. I had planned on keeping watch for the rest of the night, so if you need rest, then I can call one of Ueno's students here.)"
Matoi shook her head. "(No, it's fine. I'll buy us a few cans of coffee.)"
"(That would be most helpful.)" he nodded.
Matoi left, and after some searching in the nearby streets, found a convenience store still open. As she paid for a few cans of coffee, she could hear Marisa asking her: "Wait, they sell coffee in cans here? That's so neat!"
She found it stupid that this concept would so amaze Marisa, but it made her smirk this time as she stepped outside. She would have patiently explained that it was the same concept as energy drinks in America, and that there were also coffee vending machines: one which Marisa would beg to try and then immediately spit out.
But perhaps it was her own fault for enabling such inane questions, Matoi thought.
As she was walking back, she was close to stepping into eyeshot of her family's old home in Kofu. Many memories were associated with this home: few positive. She decided to avoid its street and felt a cold steady push of remembrance as she detoured into another street, whose scenery she began to recognize. She saw the 7-11 (a convenience store chain originally Japanese) where she would often go to buy a particular flavor of bun she liked, until the formula was changed & thereby never ate there again. There was the cafe, where her mother would take her to after tennis (or Kekkonshiki) practices and eat 'American' food with Moriko & her mother: only later would she learn it had zero authenticity.
There was the alley where Moriko & her once had a knife pulled on them by a group of boys. Partly due to the childhood kidnapping & sexual abuse mentioned by Matoi in Arc 4, Moriko simply shut down when she was sexually harassed: some boys saw this as easy pickings. You would expect it to have been the boys pulling the knife first, but -- well, to not bore you any longer, no, it was not. Matoi had told them that if they harassed Moriko again, she would plant a missile through their skull and that she could disintegrate their bodies with Kekkonshiki's lasers to make sure no one would find out.
Rumors of Matoi's authoritarian attitude would partially garner later comparison to Satsuki Kiryuin of the anime Kill la Kill: the rest being her own appearance. Matoi despised the show for its fundamental immaturity and sexualization of underage girls, even as she might've otherwise enjoyed the comparison.
Still, why one would think a knife could have stopped her is your guess. Yet she now worried how Moriko may have fared after Matoi left Japan, and she could not remember if they had a final conversation before it.
Coming up was the bench where Matoi had first seen a nameless but despised figure for her, who had committed the disgust of eating literal buckets of fried chicken by himself. The scent of the grease & sauce & breading as it smeared on his fingers and fell between their webbing was visceral again, and how he would use his own shirt like a napkin.
The thought of somebody with so little self-respect disgusted Matoi almost more than the actual thing, and she felt that the purpose of men like this was to serve as waystations between great women & men. They were drones whose object was to take care of the planet long enough for others who would truly achieve or attempt something. Decades on, the bench would be excavated as part of an urban renovation project, and no longer would there be this avatar to coax her memory. There would not even be a void, for that implies there had been something prior.
Matoi's misanthropy largely stemmed from that on average, most people were merely average; thus she required individuation, which has always been a problematic fact in societies. The convenience of it was that, logically, there would always be an average shs could be repulsed by and outliers she could admire. She herself was an outlier, for to remind you that the number she quoted at the beginning of the year, 438 kills, represented 3 hosts/week when the academy average was less than 1. That all this was done with Wedding and not a Revenant like Worldwide or Blackburn made it all the more impressive.
But there is always a fear of failure, as there is with greatness in any endeavor. The masses of men do not live in quiet desperation, for that implies most are aware of it. Matoi Kujo is, yet as she walked through Kofu and drew back from her respective time, she had no creative outlet by which to communicate this feeling to another, so she simply affixed it to her mind as she strolled through the evening.
It was at this shoe store Moriko had first been found after being kidnapped. It was also here in 2011 where Matoi had seen her father, where he had--
But she is now in a street where she had never been during her childhood. As she walks back to Daishi, she continues to look around, but Kofu has passed: at least for Matoi. As quickly as it was again, it recedes from her shores of thought, and only later returns via currents of all that was familiar yet presently had no locus.