YSS Shinigami
Commons Mall
1730 Hours
The residential stretch of mall nestled within the bowels of the Sharie-class Battleship was decorated to the brim with traditional holiday lighting and decorations, transforming storefronts into art galleries. The Year-End traditions were coming surprisingly quick as soldiers and civilians came to forget about the war for a little bit.
Among the evening crowd paced a short but shapely Nekovalkyrja, whose bright orange hair stood out like a bobbing candle. Moesashi Yama meandered down the tiled stretch of storefronts and common areas, the multi-colored lights reflecting off her shiny eyes as she took in the surrounding area.
The velvet-toned Nekovalkyrja continued their pace through the merry bustle, shivering lightly as she passed an air vent. As much as she adored a good social function, the year-end traditions brought up sore memories to her. Yama pulled up her uniforms turtleneck collar as she continued looking for someone in the crowd, someone quite important.
That someone was lazily turning one of those revolving displays of sunglasses and as Yama watched, she picked up a pair of aviators and perched them on her angular nose, leaning forwards into the mirror a little.
Chui Fukujima Nima easily stood out from the crowd of tiny Nekos, literally, sporting a Type 33A body and standing at an imposing 5'11". Her jogging bottoms and sports top were coupled with a Type 35 Rikugun jacket, which hung loosely from her shoulders, sleeves absent of her arms which instead opted to be free of their touch. Chocolate-brown hair hung behind her in a simple, bushy ponytail, dyed gradually from halfway in a lighter grey until they turned white at the tips.
The shorter Nekovalkyrja smiled at the sight of the Chui she had promised to meet as she cut across the isle towards her. Yama was wearing a cozy looking type 30C uniform adorned with bright red panels, which contrasted the deep blue skirt that fell to her ankles. She definitely looked like her style was set a few years back. "Chui!" she called out.
The curvy type 33 approached the much taller sister in arms from the side, standing on the balls of her feet. "Moesashi-Heisho, reporting!" The shorter neko smiled broadly, showing all of her pearly white teeth.
Nima seemed to be taken a little off-guard, turning with the price tag of the shades flapping from the motion. "Hi! Good evening, Moesashi!" the officer's eyes lit up in pleasant surprise, slipping the glasses off her nose. As she did, her prominent scar could be more easily seen, starting from partway up her cheek and trailing to the corner of her mouth.
The Rikugun veteran cast her purple eyes across the rather well-formed woman before her, "I take it you're one of my new Rikugun forerunners?" The question was posed with a knowing look, the Chui tilting her head to one side as she spoke. "I love the dress by the way, you don't see many around these days~"
Moesashi nodded, the colorful reflected lighting dancing around her irises. "Yes ma'am! I served on the Legion back in the day, just got back from retraining." She spoke with a rich but understandable accent, like someone who had been away from home for a while. The short Neko smiled, a bit of velvet color rushing to her face as she pressed the thick skirt against her legs. "Thank you! They let me bring my old war skirt back."
Yama rested flat on her feet, looking at Nima. "How are you?"
The taller of the two gave a polite smile, twirling the frame of the aviators in her hand as the fire-haired woman spoke. "Wow, that's pretty neat - I'm not sure we have many reenlisters," the Chui nodded, glancing around after a moment. "I'm actually really thirsty, if you want to grab a drink? You can tell me which Legion you came from and I can shake my head and tut." Nima grinned, twirling the glasses a little slower.
Yama nodded in agreement and spoke chipperly with a light smirk at the joke. "Sure, I could go for a drink!"
At least, she hoped that was a joke.
The commander shot Yama a charismatic smile, sliding the aviators back onto their little hook on the stand. Moving past her substantially more well-dressed companion, she casually shrugged her arms back into her jacket and zipped up the front to the base of her chest. "Let's have a wander then..."
Down the alley, through the bustling crowds a series of coffee shops, pastry confectioneries and more were beautifully adorned with festive lighting. "Do you want to choose?" Nima offered warmly, though her eyes looked as if she would probably read into what Yama chose to pick.
Moesashi followed behind the commander, trying to keep up in the crowd. Yama's eyes widened at the question, looking around the bustling avenue of vendors and unfamiliar shops. "Oh! Humm..." The Nekovalkyrja pondered for a moment, not being too familiar with the ship.
"How about that one!" Yama pointed out a small cafe nestled between two bigger stores, that looked rather cozy. More important to her decision, it had a faux fireplace.
A smile spread from one corner of the soldier's lips until a beaming grin blossomed. "Good choice, that's one of my favorites," the Rikugun nodded in assent, leading the way towards the quaint shop.
"Nice and warm.. Mmm.." she breathed as they stepped through the doors, a blanket of hot air washing over them. It was busy inside but not uncomfortably so, the light muttering of hearty chatter permeating the room.
A lovely table was strangely enough open right beside the false fireplace, which was surrounded by a wrought iron fence in the old Yamataian style. Nima gestured openly to the padded seats around the lovely oak table, raising an eyebrow.
Yama acknowledged the gesture and slid into one of the seats on either side of the wooden table, crossing her legs. "Honestly, I haven't had much time to explore this ship yet." The engineer grinned, glancing over at the fire for a moment. "Its been exciting times."
"Mmm.. The Shinigami is new to all of us, to be honest I've only figured this one as my favorite because I came here a lot for the start of our transit." the officer nodded, "We should have time before we get to Skadi.."
"Speaking of, tell me more about how you got here, Moe-heisho."
There was just the smallest split in Yama's smile for a milisecond. 'Moe-heisho' wasn't exactly a name she wanted to go by. "Well, I was made back in YE 33, for the Third Legion, as a combat engineer protecting the SSS. I... served through and fought in many battles in the Second Mishhuvurthyar War, and was given an Honorable discharge towards the end of my contract." The neko seemed to not want to dwell on the subject of their war service, which given the circumstances of the war, wasn't entirely unexpected.
"I tried adapting to civillian life for a while, failed a startup fireworks company. After that I couldn't resist the urge but to come back to the Rikugun." Yama smiled, cocking her head to the side. "There's not too much I can do better but serve."
"Fireworks?" the taller veteran leaned forwards onto her hands, glancing around absently for a waiter or waitress moseying around the cosy shop. "You went from napalm and cannons to fireworks?" Nima seemed quite interested, sidling up to the fire a little more.
"Well, I tried to." Yama giggled a little bit. "Once you know how to make something go pop, its hard to forget it." The small pyrotechnic leaned back as a waitress eventually found their way to the table. "Sadly for as much as people love the new year, the market was too niche."
"Ah, that's a shame - at least you're back with your sisters in arms, huh?" the scarred woman winked, looking over to the little thing that was their waitress. "A caramel latte please," she smiled, leaning against her chairback. "Third? I hear Shingai-chujo did a good job with protecting the SSS. Have any interesting ops?"
"Yes!" Yama slipped in her order shortly after Nima. "Chai tea, please." The short neko turned her attention back to the casual commander as she heard the question hit her ears. "Huh? Ohhhh..."
Yama's reflective eyes widened slightly as rough memories surfaced again for just a little bit. She remembered some of the operations, some of the worst. Not all of them in the war itself, even. The feeling of freezing crept back up on her as she remembered the endless desert of snow, the explosions, the blizzard.
"Yeah, a few." She said, pulling her hands into the stretchy sleeves of her sweater.
The officer nodded slowly a few times, reading into Yama's body language just enough to see she was uncomfortable. "Combat engineers always seem to amaze me, just when you think something's dead forever they breathe life back into it on the turn of a heel. Can I expect that of you, ..Sashi-heisho?" the brown-grey haired Type-33 ventured, lightening the mood.
Yama grinned. "Of course! Now, my specialty is more in demolitions but I do have field repair experience with the machines we'll be using our there." And just like that, the candle-headed Nekovalkyrja was chipper again.
The waitress, rather unusually dressed in a festive jumper, returned in no time with their bevereges and set them to the table with a light "clink". The Chui shot off a friendly nod but as the waitress went to turn away couldn't help but discreetly cast her eyes across the woman's figure. "I've never particularly seen much life outside of my last few stations. Is civvie life any good? I've heard carnivals are pretty fun."
Yama grabbed her glass, taking a sip from the hot liquid. "Well, it really can be! I've only been to one or two festivals, but they're pretty fun. Lots of people, without too much care." The neko took another sip from the drink, looking back at Nima. "Other than that, it's really just a fair bit of work. If you work for yourself you get to make whatever schedule you want, though."
Yama thought about what her taller relative said, before coming back with a question of her own. The orange glow from the gas fire bounced off her eyes like light-bulbs. "Have you ever been to one yourself?"
"A festival?" Nima's purple eyes widened a fraction at the question, though she supposed it was the logical next question. "Well, I never really understood much around all that. It's always been training and managing my troops, never had much time for it." she admitted with a slightly regretful tone, tracing the rim of her cup with a fingernail. "Isn't there one coming up soon? Lots of decoration about.."
Yama grinned slightly, looking around the place. "It's almost the end of the year. People enjoy celebrating with parties and festivals and lights..."
The little fire-headed neko leaned back in her seat, taking another sip from her drink. "Fireworks, too. I like it a lot, but there's some sore memories with it too. Kind of a funny thing, in'nit?"
Her officerly counterpart leaned into her cushy seat a little more, subconciously mimicing Yama as she did. Bringing her wide-brimmed mug to her lips, the jacket-clad woman took a deep swig.
"Explosions bring some people happiness and some people fear, sometimes both but at different times." she smiled a little at the irony of it. "A guided missile isn't too far from a firework but people have such different reactions to the two."
"That's true..." Yama's voice trailed off as she took another swig of her drink. "It's a shame I don't think we'll be around to see the local festivities, but I guess we all get to celebrate in our own way."
The Nekos eyes trailed off the the lights in the room, before she cleared her throat. "If you wouldn't mind, I can pick up the bill."
Nima smiled and nodded in agreement as the flame-headed veteran before she went on, chuckling "Mhm, we'll get to see the crashing of aether above our heads rather than pastel colours."
"No way!" the brown-grey haired woman shook her head decisively taking another long sip, "What sort of officer would I be if I let my girls take up the slack?"
Yama gave the officer a wide grin, eyes sparkling somewhat literally with orange light. "Thank you!" The Nekovalkyrja was both excited and worried about going back to war, but spending the evening getting to know their commander helped steady her nerves.
"...By the way, have you talked to anyone else from the unit? I've read over all the briefing paperwork but haven't seen any of them 'em. Yet."
The lightly-dressed Chui turned her mug around a few times in her hands, unintentionally causing her biceps to show through her jacket, she was incredibly fit. "Oh, no. You're the first." she smiled warmly, spinning the porcelain another turn gently. "We've got a briefing tomorrow on the situation so we'll all meet each other then. I've been really too busy to meet anyone up to now."
Leaning back in her chair, the brown-grey haired woman gazed into the faux-fire for a moment, then looked back. "If you and I are anything to go off, we're at a good start hmm?" Nima grinned with a hint of humor to her hot-headed companion.
Yama listened and nodded, excited for the launch just a few hours out. The Heisho's round race turned velvet from the compliment, setting her cup down "Why thank ya! I'm looking forward to serving with you!"
The minutes ticked by quietly in the cozy, warm coffee shop. Hearty, light chatter permeated the air as the two Rikugun talked about everything and nothing. They enjoyed the last of their drinks as the crowds outside passed by the windows of the store, all eagerly bustling for their imminent arrival at Skadi.
Commons Mall
1730 Hours
The residential stretch of mall nestled within the bowels of the Sharie-class Battleship was decorated to the brim with traditional holiday lighting and decorations, transforming storefronts into art galleries. The Year-End traditions were coming surprisingly quick as soldiers and civilians came to forget about the war for a little bit.
Among the evening crowd paced a short but shapely Nekovalkyrja, whose bright orange hair stood out like a bobbing candle. Moesashi Yama meandered down the tiled stretch of storefronts and common areas, the multi-colored lights reflecting off her shiny eyes as she took in the surrounding area.
The velvet-toned Nekovalkyrja continued their pace through the merry bustle, shivering lightly as she passed an air vent. As much as she adored a good social function, the year-end traditions brought up sore memories to her. Yama pulled up her uniforms turtleneck collar as she continued looking for someone in the crowd, someone quite important.
That someone was lazily turning one of those revolving displays of sunglasses and as Yama watched, she picked up a pair of aviators and perched them on her angular nose, leaning forwards into the mirror a little.
Chui Fukujima Nima easily stood out from the crowd of tiny Nekos, literally, sporting a Type 33A body and standing at an imposing 5'11". Her jogging bottoms and sports top were coupled with a Type 35 Rikugun jacket, which hung loosely from her shoulders, sleeves absent of her arms which instead opted to be free of their touch. Chocolate-brown hair hung behind her in a simple, bushy ponytail, dyed gradually from halfway in a lighter grey until they turned white at the tips.
The shorter Nekovalkyrja smiled at the sight of the Chui she had promised to meet as she cut across the isle towards her. Yama was wearing a cozy looking type 30C uniform adorned with bright red panels, which contrasted the deep blue skirt that fell to her ankles. She definitely looked like her style was set a few years back. "Chui!" she called out.
The curvy type 33 approached the much taller sister in arms from the side, standing on the balls of her feet. "Moesashi-Heisho, reporting!" The shorter neko smiled broadly, showing all of her pearly white teeth.
Nima seemed to be taken a little off-guard, turning with the price tag of the shades flapping from the motion. "Hi! Good evening, Moesashi!" the officer's eyes lit up in pleasant surprise, slipping the glasses off her nose. As she did, her prominent scar could be more easily seen, starting from partway up her cheek and trailing to the corner of her mouth.
The Rikugun veteran cast her purple eyes across the rather well-formed woman before her, "I take it you're one of my new Rikugun forerunners?" The question was posed with a knowing look, the Chui tilting her head to one side as she spoke. "I love the dress by the way, you don't see many around these days~"
Moesashi nodded, the colorful reflected lighting dancing around her irises. "Yes ma'am! I served on the Legion back in the day, just got back from retraining." She spoke with a rich but understandable accent, like someone who had been away from home for a while. The short Neko smiled, a bit of velvet color rushing to her face as she pressed the thick skirt against her legs. "Thank you! They let me bring my old war skirt back."
Yama rested flat on her feet, looking at Nima. "How are you?"
The taller of the two gave a polite smile, twirling the frame of the aviators in her hand as the fire-haired woman spoke. "Wow, that's pretty neat - I'm not sure we have many reenlisters," the Chui nodded, glancing around after a moment. "I'm actually really thirsty, if you want to grab a drink? You can tell me which Legion you came from and I can shake my head and tut." Nima grinned, twirling the glasses a little slower.
Yama nodded in agreement and spoke chipperly with a light smirk at the joke. "Sure, I could go for a drink!"
At least, she hoped that was a joke.
The commander shot Yama a charismatic smile, sliding the aviators back onto their little hook on the stand. Moving past her substantially more well-dressed companion, she casually shrugged her arms back into her jacket and zipped up the front to the base of her chest. "Let's have a wander then..."
Down the alley, through the bustling crowds a series of coffee shops, pastry confectioneries and more were beautifully adorned with festive lighting. "Do you want to choose?" Nima offered warmly, though her eyes looked as if she would probably read into what Yama chose to pick.
Moesashi followed behind the commander, trying to keep up in the crowd. Yama's eyes widened at the question, looking around the bustling avenue of vendors and unfamiliar shops. "Oh! Humm..." The Nekovalkyrja pondered for a moment, not being too familiar with the ship.
"How about that one!" Yama pointed out a small cafe nestled between two bigger stores, that looked rather cozy. More important to her decision, it had a faux fireplace.
A smile spread from one corner of the soldier's lips until a beaming grin blossomed. "Good choice, that's one of my favorites," the Rikugun nodded in assent, leading the way towards the quaint shop.
"Nice and warm.. Mmm.." she breathed as they stepped through the doors, a blanket of hot air washing over them. It was busy inside but not uncomfortably so, the light muttering of hearty chatter permeating the room.
A lovely table was strangely enough open right beside the false fireplace, which was surrounded by a wrought iron fence in the old Yamataian style. Nima gestured openly to the padded seats around the lovely oak table, raising an eyebrow.
Yama acknowledged the gesture and slid into one of the seats on either side of the wooden table, crossing her legs. "Honestly, I haven't had much time to explore this ship yet." The engineer grinned, glancing over at the fire for a moment. "Its been exciting times."
"Mmm.. The Shinigami is new to all of us, to be honest I've only figured this one as my favorite because I came here a lot for the start of our transit." the officer nodded, "We should have time before we get to Skadi.."
"Speaking of, tell me more about how you got here, Moe-heisho."
There was just the smallest split in Yama's smile for a milisecond. 'Moe-heisho' wasn't exactly a name she wanted to go by. "Well, I was made back in YE 33, for the Third Legion, as a combat engineer protecting the SSS. I... served through and fought in many battles in the Second Mishhuvurthyar War, and was given an Honorable discharge towards the end of my contract." The neko seemed to not want to dwell on the subject of their war service, which given the circumstances of the war, wasn't entirely unexpected.
"I tried adapting to civillian life for a while, failed a startup fireworks company. After that I couldn't resist the urge but to come back to the Rikugun." Yama smiled, cocking her head to the side. "There's not too much I can do better but serve."
"Fireworks?" the taller veteran leaned forwards onto her hands, glancing around absently for a waiter or waitress moseying around the cosy shop. "You went from napalm and cannons to fireworks?" Nima seemed quite interested, sidling up to the fire a little more.
"Well, I tried to." Yama giggled a little bit. "Once you know how to make something go pop, its hard to forget it." The small pyrotechnic leaned back as a waitress eventually found their way to the table. "Sadly for as much as people love the new year, the market was too niche."
"Ah, that's a shame - at least you're back with your sisters in arms, huh?" the scarred woman winked, looking over to the little thing that was their waitress. "A caramel latte please," she smiled, leaning against her chairback. "Third? I hear Shingai-chujo did a good job with protecting the SSS. Have any interesting ops?"
"Yes!" Yama slipped in her order shortly after Nima. "Chai tea, please." The short neko turned her attention back to the casual commander as she heard the question hit her ears. "Huh? Ohhhh..."
Yama's reflective eyes widened slightly as rough memories surfaced again for just a little bit. She remembered some of the operations, some of the worst. Not all of them in the war itself, even. The feeling of freezing crept back up on her as she remembered the endless desert of snow, the explosions, the blizzard.
"Yeah, a few." She said, pulling her hands into the stretchy sleeves of her sweater.
The officer nodded slowly a few times, reading into Yama's body language just enough to see she was uncomfortable. "Combat engineers always seem to amaze me, just when you think something's dead forever they breathe life back into it on the turn of a heel. Can I expect that of you, ..Sashi-heisho?" the brown-grey haired Type-33 ventured, lightening the mood.
Yama grinned. "Of course! Now, my specialty is more in demolitions but I do have field repair experience with the machines we'll be using our there." And just like that, the candle-headed Nekovalkyrja was chipper again.
The waitress, rather unusually dressed in a festive jumper, returned in no time with their bevereges and set them to the table with a light "clink". The Chui shot off a friendly nod but as the waitress went to turn away couldn't help but discreetly cast her eyes across the woman's figure. "I've never particularly seen much life outside of my last few stations. Is civvie life any good? I've heard carnivals are pretty fun."
Yama grabbed her glass, taking a sip from the hot liquid. "Well, it really can be! I've only been to one or two festivals, but they're pretty fun. Lots of people, without too much care." The neko took another sip from the drink, looking back at Nima. "Other than that, it's really just a fair bit of work. If you work for yourself you get to make whatever schedule you want, though."
Yama thought about what her taller relative said, before coming back with a question of her own. The orange glow from the gas fire bounced off her eyes like light-bulbs. "Have you ever been to one yourself?"
"A festival?" Nima's purple eyes widened a fraction at the question, though she supposed it was the logical next question. "Well, I never really understood much around all that. It's always been training and managing my troops, never had much time for it." she admitted with a slightly regretful tone, tracing the rim of her cup with a fingernail. "Isn't there one coming up soon? Lots of decoration about.."
Yama grinned slightly, looking around the place. "It's almost the end of the year. People enjoy celebrating with parties and festivals and lights..."
The little fire-headed neko leaned back in her seat, taking another sip from her drink. "Fireworks, too. I like it a lot, but there's some sore memories with it too. Kind of a funny thing, in'nit?"
Her officerly counterpart leaned into her cushy seat a little more, subconciously mimicing Yama as she did. Bringing her wide-brimmed mug to her lips, the jacket-clad woman took a deep swig.
"Explosions bring some people happiness and some people fear, sometimes both but at different times." she smiled a little at the irony of it. "A guided missile isn't too far from a firework but people have such different reactions to the two."
"That's true..." Yama's voice trailed off as she took another swig of her drink. "It's a shame I don't think we'll be around to see the local festivities, but I guess we all get to celebrate in our own way."
The Nekos eyes trailed off the the lights in the room, before she cleared her throat. "If you wouldn't mind, I can pick up the bill."
Nima smiled and nodded in agreement as the flame-headed veteran before she went on, chuckling "Mhm, we'll get to see the crashing of aether above our heads rather than pastel colours."
"No way!" the brown-grey haired woman shook her head decisively taking another long sip, "What sort of officer would I be if I let my girls take up the slack?"
Yama gave the officer a wide grin, eyes sparkling somewhat literally with orange light. "Thank you!" The Nekovalkyrja was both excited and worried about going back to war, but spending the evening getting to know their commander helped steady her nerves.
"...By the way, have you talked to anyone else from the unit? I've read over all the briefing paperwork but haven't seen any of them 'em. Yet."
The lightly-dressed Chui turned her mug around a few times in her hands, unintentionally causing her biceps to show through her jacket, she was incredibly fit. "Oh, no. You're the first." she smiled warmly, spinning the porcelain another turn gently. "We've got a briefing tomorrow on the situation so we'll all meet each other then. I've been really too busy to meet anyone up to now."
Leaning back in her chair, the brown-grey haired woman gazed into the faux-fire for a moment, then looked back. "If you and I are anything to go off, we're at a good start hmm?" Nima grinned with a hint of humor to her hot-headed companion.
Yama listened and nodded, excited for the launch just a few hours out. The Heisho's round race turned velvet from the compliment, setting her cup down "Why thank ya! I'm looking forward to serving with you!"
The minutes ticked by quietly in the cozy, warm coffee shop. Hearty, light chatter permeated the air as the two Rikugun talked about everything and nothing. They enjoyed the last of their drinks as the crowds outside passed by the windows of the store, all eagerly bustling for their imminent arrival at Skadi.
