♫ Every day's great at your Junes ♫

[greaterdays]

Who: Nanako Dojima, OPEN
Where: Junes
Summary: Nanako heads to Junes to do her usual grocery shopping, but finds something a little more unusual.
Warnings: Possible fangirls.

Nanako loves Junes.

Mays is all right, but nothing truly compares to the magic of Junes. No one had been happier than she was when it appeared and reopened in Hinoto-ri, not even the Junes Trilogy fangirls.

Even though Yu is out of the hospital now, he's still busy with work most of the day, so Nanako takes care of the grocery shopping for him. Hinoto-ri may be far bigger than Inaba, but Nanako at least, is confident she can handle shopping on her own. She takes care to still follow her Dad's rules. She only goes during the daylight, and as an added precaution, has her COMP ready to call for help if she needs it. Triple backup is her Persona, but she hasn't mastered the use of the commlink ability yet.

Her plan is to first check out the sales on vegetables (cabbages are half price, and there are some good, if blue, tomatoes...) and then collect bread and other foodstuffs. She usually gets some raw ingredients and some things that are already prepared, so that her Big Bro doesn't have to cook for every meal.

But today, her eye is caught by a new display at the entrance. The table is covered in hardback books, but what's more striking, is what's beside the stacks. There's a large cardboard cutout of a familiar person... except his hair is grey, he has antennae, and he's wearing a Junes apron without a shirt.

Nanako stops and stares at it for a moment before it dawns on her. This must be the book someone wrote about Yosuke. Only the cover of this one says "part 2", so now there's two books? And the picture on the book cover doesn't look like Yosuke. Actually, it looks more like someone else.

Too curious now, Nanako approaches the stacks, turning one of the books over to look at the back cover. There's one question on her mind.

Why are none of the people in the pictures wearing shirts?

Comments

[thewunderkind]

Shopping for food and taking care of herself was a new experience for her. But hey, when in Orange Star (or in this case, Hinoto-Ri), Lash figured she might as well start...understanding this stuff out. Junes in general seemed like a good place to begin this new adventure; she'd heard about it from all the messages about a Junes Prince or whatever, and it looked like there was a good crowd.

Yet the first thing that also catches her eye, apart from the fact this place didn't seem to sell guns, explosives, cyanide or anything remotely dangerous or fun, were those two books she'd heard that weird silver-haired guy read from.

Huh. So this was...fictional entertainment. She took the first book, squinting one eye as she held it up, as if somehow it would empower her with all its terrible knowledge.

"Pfffft lame! This is what they call fun here?" She looked down at whoever was nearby, a bunch of fangirls, and this smaller kid who was probably about Commanding Officer Colin's age (seriously that guy couldn't be more than ten). Ironically, it did mean she treated Nanako as she would anyone else regardless of age. Unfortunately it also meant she treated her as anyone else regardless of age, which meant not that great in general.

"Hey Pigtails! D'you even read this? What's so great about guys without shirts anyway?"

[greaterdays]

"I don't know?"

Nanako is confused by suddenly being asked the question she was asking herself, from a stranger no less. She puts down the book she was about to open and looks at Lash. "Maybe it's really hot outside in the story."

[thewunderkind]

"Hmmm....let's see!" She opens up the book and starts reading the parts aloud, ignoring the strange looks from the people next to her.

"‘This way,’ he murmurs and abruptly is inside me...wait, wait inside him? How do you get inside someone?" Silently, she read a few more sentences before throwing the book back into the pile, shrugging.

"BOOOORING! It looks like it's happening in someone's cabin in the woods. What's a werefox anyway..." She she looked at Nanako again, as her eyes lit up in recondition. "Wait! You're a Visitor too, aren't you, Pigtails?"

[greaterdays]

Lash this is an innocent little girl you're reading to! Which means she doesn't have any idea either. All she knows about foxes is that one lived at the shrine back home.

"Um... That's right. Do I know you?" She doesn't recognize this woman, so maybe she's Big Bro's friend? "...And I'm Nanako, not Pigtails."

[dreamsonwings]

Seeing not only one but two huge stores stocked to the walls with goods is something Sora hasn't seen in ages. Normally food was at a minimum and the only way to get meat was to hunt down some mad cows or cougars. So naturally, the woman would be like a kid in a candy store and actually run down the aisles in search of what to buy. Using money was something she needed to get used to after going from bartering and scraping anything she could.

The workers there really did have to wonder about all these Visitors running around...were they all like her?

Then Sora noticed the display of books in a certain section as well as a young girl taking a closer look. Who was the weird guy with the hair and alien bobbies on his head? Well, maybe the girl knows.

"Excuse me, but what is that?"

[greaterdays]

"Um, well..."

Nanako isn't really sure how to answer this. She doesn't know anything about the story itself, after all. "It looks a lot like my friend Yosuke, but the hair's different."

forgive me comment spam 1/???

[dreamsonwings]

"A friend of yours? He must be really amazing to have someone use him as inspiration for a character."

Oh poor Sora, unaware about the book's true nature as she picks up a copy and skims through the pages...

2/???

[dreamsonwings]

...

"Huh?"

[von_schweetz]

As Nanako checks out the new book, another girl comes waltzing through the entrance, fiddling with a change purse inside the front pocket of her hooded sweatshirt.

She catches sight of the stand too, and joins Nanako in looking over the books. "Whoa, what have we here? Is this a power up?!"

[greaterdays]

Power up? Nanako immediately thinks of television shows, and the bursts of energy heroes get to let them use their ultimate attacks.

...That doesn't seem like it has anything to do with the display though. "I think it's just a book."

[von_schweetz]

"Oh." Well, that's kind of disappointing. At least it has pictures on the cover. "These guys at top look like the soldiers and cy-bugs in Hero's Duty got smashed together in a blender." Vanellope remarks with a grin. She replaces the book, not paying it much interest.

"There are much more interesting things here than this, you know!"

[greaterdays]

"I know... But that picture looks like my friend." She points to the silver-haired alien dramatically leading the parade of other aliens. "Big Bro said they wrote the book about him, but he wouldn't let me read it. It looks like it's full of big words, anyway."

[justanothermachine]

It had been a while since Rock had opted to go to a store - without Dr. Light around, there wasn't much need for shopping, since he didn't eat. He couldn't go out and get E-Tanks here, and his solar reactor worked just fine at keeping him energized. (Though admittedly he did miss having E-Tanks around just for there being something to drink.) However...having just one set of civilian clothes for going out-and-about wasn't quite working out well. Unfortunately, it took him about a month to realize this.

Roll would nag his ear off for going this long, he just knew it...

So today, he's gonna go to this Junes place! Though he entered the wrong entrance, whoops. Ah well - there's plenty of time to find what he's looking for.

On the other hand... Huh. There's that book series. Rock walks up, a few feet from Nanako, and peers at a copy of it himself - and he's got a similar question on his mind. And one of those guys looks like someone he met when he showed up.

"What a weird book..."

[greaterdays]

"You think so too?"

Rock doesn't look that much older than Nanako herself, so she feels more confident in suddenly starting a conversation. "The pictures are really weird. Especially that one!" She points to the cardboard cutout of 'Yosokue Urameshi.'

[justanothermachine]

"Yeah! The whole...thing is weird, really - the words, the pictures, the subject matter. Whatever it's about, some guy said I was too young to be told about it," Rock explains, gesturing to the book in his hand, as well as the cardboard cut out as he speaks.

[greaterdays]

"That's what my big bro said, too. I don't really get it." Nanako frowns, but then perks up again. "He said we can go see the movie, though!"

[trombeoverride]

Ratsel has been shopping for a while, and has amassed a cart full of enough raw ingredients to feed a large group as he walks by Nanako on the way out.

"Miss, have you been separated from your parents? I'm not sure that book is anything interesting."

[greaterdays]

Nanako is never quite sure how to answer the 'where are your parents' question, considering it makes everyone awkward when she does. So instead she avoids it. "No, I'm fine. I'm here to buy the groceries."

[trombeoverride]

"Ah, well the tomato things seem to be fresh today. Also the rice in the bag with the pink label seems to be the best for sashimi."

He nods as the light pings off his goggles then peers at the book.

"I'm not sure that's a good cookbook though. Or a good book."

[seasidecherry]

Nagisa's stopped in primarily to see what kind of place this Junes is. She's relieved that it seems to be a pretty normal store, despite what those weird books were called.

She needed to do some grocery shopping, so after a quick sweep through the music section to see if there was anything worth picking up, she headed through to get what she needed. Nagisa picked out the ingredients for curry, some eggs, some bread, and a carton of milk, then turned towards the checkout.

...only there was a display of those books, and someone who was clearly too young to be reading them staring intently at them.

"That book really shouldn't be out like that," she says, as she approaches. "It's too weird to have just sitting around."

[greaterdays]

"Why's it too weird?" Nanako doesn't know the warning signs of a book with shirtless men on the cover. "I mean, it does look really silly. Nobody's wearing a shirt!"

[belfire]

"Whoa, Nanako, I don't think that's a book for you."

Oh hey, look it's that guy you had over for a cookery lesson before. Kazuya wasn't in his usual cape attire, for some unknown reason, and had a shopping basket hanging from the crook of his arm, filled with what appeared to be packets of junk food, and wrapped up plastic of raw meat. A weird mix.

He swiftly moved over to her, although he didn't take the book from her. H-Hey, his demonic strength was a bit iffy at times...

"It's kinda, um, adults only."

[greaterdays]

"That's what Big Bro said..." Well not in those exact words, but the same result. You big kids, always spoiling her fun. "But it's about Yosuke. I wanna know what it's like."

She points to the cardboard cutout of her 'friend' next to the books.

[belfire]

"Yosuke?" Kazuya looked at the cardboard cutout, and had to damn near bite his tongue to stop the laughter. Oh, that poor, poor bastard.

"Y-You know that guy?"

[genkibot]

[Pushing a shopping cart with ALL THE FOOD is a blue-haired woman with a happy grin. She has an all new human body to eat things with now, so the best way to figure out what works out the best is to try every single food this place has to offer.

Someone might want to point out she might not have the budget to do this though.

But that's besides the point! While straining to push the heavy cart, she passes by Nanoko staring at a display for a book.]