Aoki Hokori

Motive? What motive. What point was there worrying about someone else’s dumb secrets and getting people hurt over them anyway? Okay, sure, she’d been a little curious about the ones she’d gotten, but..  why worry about it. There’s so much other wicked stuff here to look at, anyway, and getting yourself down over a few dead kids and leaked gossip was no fun.

Plus, right now, this performance artist in specific had a very particular mission. A mission she’d taken on to get her out of her grieving funk. A mission, of course, to cheer herself up- who cares about these other punks. She was ducking in and out of aisles and departments, looking for someone. Not just any someone, but her good buddy….

"……Aoki-kun."

Speaking of, where has Tokiyo gotten to? He hasn't seen her all day- which, is understandable, considering this department store is a big fucking place. But seriously, he knows there's some idiot out there that thinks their secret is more important than someone else's life, and knowing his current string of luck, he may as well be their target.

In fact, he feels as if something's... amiss. He just has that vibe. His vibes are usually wrong since he's not a psychic or anything, but he feels this one pretty hard. Like someone's following him. Watching him. Waiting. He whips around quickly, catching a flicker of Tokiyo's clothes in his eye, and he smiles quickly, but it fades just as fast. This is not Tokiyo. That voice is not deep enough. And, well, as if that weren't a dead giveaway, she's certainly lacking in the height department.

Alright. What now. Just… take it, right? He walks over to one of those motorized wheelchair carts and squints. Perfect. Slowly, he removes it from its companions and sits on the seat. How does he work this… before he can figure out, he spots another person in his vision and waves them over to him, leaning over the handle bar things.

"Heeey! Wanna race shopping carts with me?"

He wanders the store aimlessly, half bracing himself for when he turns a corner and gets stabbed with a hunting knife or a broken wine bottle, half embracing that inevitability like yes, holy shit, put me out of my misery.

He frowns. They are so totally going to die here. Who hasn't gone of the grocery store and left wanting to kill someone on a good day? They are all so boned.

The vocalist's aimless wandering eventually leads him to one person, however the number of people that he'd actually like to see right now is at a whopping total of one, and the pin trader is clearly not that person.

"Do I wanna what?"

Is he kidding. Does he wanna race shopping carts? What the fuck. How insensitive. People totally died yesterday.

...But, yes, he totally wants to race shopping carts.

"Hey! Oh, hey. Do- I am really, really, trying to go to sleep. So, do you think you can be quieter? Or maybe just not yell? I know I’m not the only one. So, yeah, just quieter."

He rattles the doorknob- locked of course. Wiping the last of his tears away, he kicks at the door, yelling louder and louder through any sobs that threatened to come out of his mouth.

"Toki-san, you better be in there sleeping and you better not have blood on your hands or I'll never forgive you!"

She better be sleeping. That's right. Yell louder, Hokori.

A voice finally calls out to him, but it's definitely not Tokiyo's. He turns his head. It's that... that kid. Ugh, really, he's gonna tell Hokori what to do now? This late at night and while he's already on edge? That ain't happening.

"…Nothing. It’ll just… Be like I was never there. Not like that changes much anyway."

She grumbles throughout most of her reply before slowly reaching up to pat him on the head. Despite how unsure she actually is about it, she can’t make Hokori any more worried about any of this, that’d be terrible. 

"You’re the star of the show, Aoki-kun. It’ll go on without me."

"Are you serious? You're gonna pull this now? No way, dude. The band's not even really mine!"

The band totally does feel like his, but in an entirely different sense of the word. It's... it's his home. He belongs to it. The whole world is deluded into believing that it's his, anyway. Such is the life of a vocalist, usually. But in reality, it's Tokiyo's band. She started it. He wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for her.

Everyone knows what's wrong, anyway. And it's hitting Hokori just as hard.

"..."

Without even asking permission, mostly because he can't find the words, he slips into the room, pushing her away from the door and kicking it closed behind him. With a click, he can finally choke out the sob that he'd been holding onto since his venture down the hall started. Throwing his arms around Tokiyo's waist and clenching her tightly, he closes his eyes, wailing away into her chest.

Yasue decided she’d go on a walk then, simply because she needed some fresh air and ample time to think. She gently opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind her. The pink velvet floors were still marvelous, she’d give them that… ah! That was another thought to keep her occupied. Why go through all the trouble to—

She bumped into someone. 

The following hours pass in an uncomfortable silence, save for a few 4/5 Dentists (buy our album) songs that he sings to himself as he rolls around in bed, although nothing is there to stop his voice from trembling as he does. He's bored and lonely, and a little worked up after downing two entire packets of konpeito that had been left on his nightstand. With a dramatic sigh, he gets out of bed and gets dressed for the day. Yeah, he's more than a little scared of opening his door and getting stabbed right in the gut, but he's also really fucking bored. It's a small price to pay to not have to stare at these pink walls for the rest of his life.

Well, that doesn't happen when he opens the door. Thank god. Fuck, though, what is he supposed to do all day? How is he going to spread his attention evenly from entertaining himself and not dying? Well, he better find Toki-

Someone bumped into him.

Typical. Okay, she probably should’ve expected Hokori. Good job Toki. 

"…Aoki-kun, god fucking damn it. I wath sleeping," she scolded.

Despite it, she opens the door anyway with a slight frown on her face. In a less annoyed voice, she continues.

"You can sleep when you're dead!"

...which, may not be too far off, all things considered. Shit. He throws his hand over his mouth.

"Just- can I come in?"

Without waiting for a response, he comes in anyway, glancing at the purple walls and the bass bass before seating himself down on the edge of the unmade bed. His features wrinkle at his bandmate's remark- well of course he's impatient. He's got a lot on his mind right now. Drawing his knees to his chest, he looks up to Tokiyo, the pitch in his voice changing significantly to something much higher as he speaks.

"Chill, okay? I'm not in any hurry."

He certainly couldn't wait to get the hell out of this place when he thought he was all alone. Lingering in the back of his mind is the thought that somehow, Tokiyo already figures that much. But he's still not in a hurry to get out, and definitely not in a hurry to meet this "Monogoose"'s schedule.

"Oh really. What do they think, that we just do meet and greets for free? Well. We're not going! [Motherfucker.]"

Hokori still doubts that they were ever kidnapped, but it's probably gonna start feeling that way if they have to meet with some creepy fan that's demanding their audience. With a huff, he crosses his arms. No, he's not going. He's not moving. No sir, not getting out of this spot. He'll wait all night if he has to. He'll wait throughout the whole damn winter.

"Sure thing, buckaroo. Follow me, and I’ll lead you to the scene of the crime."

With a wave over her own shoulder, she turns on a spiked, stylish heel, nearly stumbling, to start heading through the park. This path is pretty familiar to her by now, since she just came from it. As she speaks, she peers over her shoulder at the boy she hopes is following behind. 

"So, lemme guess, you’re going to be at HPA too, huh? Are you excited? You and your bassist showing up here together… that’s pretty cool. It would’ve been real awkward if one of you made it in without the other! Haha!"

"Hell yeah, I'm going to HPA. I dunno if I'm all that excited though. School blows. I mean, that guaranteed success is pretty tempting but Toki-san and I already have that. But I got a vibe telling me to accept the invitation anyway. You don't say no to vibes like that."

The vocalist staggers for a moment once he finds himself matching the idol's stride. Falling behind is fine, he thinks. At least compared to that.

"You think I'd get on board with this without Toki-san, though? Hell no! And I know she wouldn't do that to me either. We're tight as hell. We go way back."

"I'm not signing your grody head bandage. And only if you help me find Murakami Tokiyo.

He repeats the name once more, only to hear one thing that's definitely in his top five- maybe like, seven- sentences that he hates hearing. Okay, geez, he accepted it as truth long ago that there's some truth in the music industry's "no one ever notices the bassist" running joke, but damn it still pisses him off. How could you not know who Murakami Tokiyo is? She's cool. So cool.

She laughs, here; this is probably a joke and not an insulting exaggeration. Toki did sort of come over to her and rip up her autograph and throw a pencil, though. So far, this rock encounter is going…. better?

"An impression? Hmm..."

He's never met Junko Enoshima before, and he's not sure if that fact changes even now. But he doesn't care. All he wants right now is to find Tokiyo. He'll worry about the pleasantries (or lack thereof) later.

"A rockstar tantrum? Yeah, that sounds like Toki-san."

If this girl had given Tokiyo the same treatment she just gave Hokori... damn, he wishes that he was there for that one. The bassist always seemed to have a knack for dealing with those sort of situations better than the vocalist did. That is to say, it's about ten times more entertaining to watch it all go down.

"Relaaax. We're together now and that's all that matters, am I right? No one like, died or anything and we can probably get out just as easily as we got in. However that was. 'S no biggie."

Something gives him the seriously gross vibe that Tokiyo isn't buying it at all. Hokori doesn't exactly have the best track record for being the voice of reason. Nah, that's always kinda been her thing. He certainly has one hell of a capacity to freak out, but for him, just being around Toki does a good job of absolving that. Then again, seeing her start to lose her cool isn't exactly comforting either.

...Message? What message... oh yeah, that little card thing. He didn't care to read it. How can you be expected to read something first thing in the morning when you wake up in an unknown location probably hungover?

"Ooooh, OOOHH! I knew you must be around here somewhere, oh my god. Oh my god, it’s not just her, it’s both of you!  This is amazing- here, hold on. I already have a pen.”

Without offering ANY sort of explanation, the impersonator was far from keeping up her appearances. She dug around in some pockets of her clothes until he found a crumpled map and pencil from the kiosk. Practically shoving it at Hokori, she beamed.

So, oh god, why is Junko Enoshima foaming at the mouth over him. It's okay when it's non-famous fangirls or whatever- they don't know what it's like to be cool. But wow, this is just embarrassing.

It's not just her, it's both of you. Those are the only words that he latches onto, hitting him all at once that-

"Toki-san's here? Hey, does this mean you know where Toki-san is-"

Who the fuck does she think she is, demanding an autograph like that? Does she think she gets special treatment just because she's some famous fashion idol or whatever? Protip: She doesn't.