A new season, a new home.
This was it. Her time in Dallas was now officially over. As Akane sits down on the park bench and watch the crowd of people walk besides her, the woman can't help but feel a little... empty. Ever since being adopted by Vega, the safety was shunted all over the world. From her native Japan, her elusive agent would constantly ferry her to her villa in Switzerland whenever she wanted to keep a closer eye on her. Sure, she'd spend the school year in Japan, but increasingly more and more of her breaks were spent in a country where she didn't even speak the language. Not to mention being dragged along to buisness meetings, primarily in the United States, but honestly all across the world as she needed. Vega brought her to the ultimus in Panama City and, in a last minute gift due to the participating team, Xi'an-- where Akane could see her childhood Silverbacks lose in heartbreaking fashion. The bronze skinned woman also dragged Akane to Florence's ultimini even after Dallas was eliminated, where she ended up meeting her girlfriend. And of course, who could forget the fact that games in the International Simulation Football League, and thus the Developmental Simulation Football League by proxy, were played internationally? For two seasons, the Japanese woman wasn't just shunted all across the United States, but also Mexico (where she also played her prospect bowl in), the United Kingdom, and Australia.
The point is, Akane has been all over the goddamn globe at this point. She's increasingly been seeing less and less of her native Kyoto, as the demands of being an international celebrity have grown on her. The safety has felt nothing but dread over just how rootless she has been the past few years. Akane may have mixed feelings about Japan itself, given how suffocating society there is. Everyone has to be prim and proper, keeping up the face society gave them, and it initially wanted to throw her away when Akane's inner rage prevented her from playing on those puppet strings. But, at the same point, when Akane would step into the forests to the north of the ancient capital, she knew it was home. There is a certain ethereal grace and beauty to the greenery that surrounded the city that Akane simply never could find outside of the country. And even in downtown Kyoto, there was a certain connection to the past, of what Akane imagined was a better time than this modern hellscape she lived in, that kept her grounded. America in particular unnerved her in how unnatural its cities felt, and San Jose, and the Bay Area as a whole, felt more like that.
Now, to its credit, San Jose reminded Akane of home more than Dallas did. The mountainous coastline of California is geographically a lot closer to the geography of Japan than the unnaturally flat hellscape that was central Texas. Not only that, but due to said geography, there wasn't as much of that creepy sprawl that suffocated the Earth. The Santa Cruz, Diablo, and Marin mountain ranges served as a clear hard boundary of where sprawl can go. Not to mention, of course, the bay itself. The end result was one metro area defined by rolling elevation, nestled in the hills, not unlike a city back in Japan. And much like her native Kyoto, the Bay Area was unique in that it was less one city, and more multiple cities that grew so large that they combined into one defacto mega city. In the case of Kyoto, this was the Keihanshin-- the union of the ancient capital of Japan mixed with the neighboring cities of Osaka and Kobe, which makes up one continuous urban landscape. The Bay Area is the same-- San Fransisco was the historically prominent city, but at this point have almost effectively merged with nearby San Mateo, Hayward, Fremont, and Oakland to make one large urban area in all but actual governance. Oh, and of course, San Jose itself. The reason she was there, and perhaps the new heart of the Bay Area in the 21st century. Much like how Osaka has arguably eclipsed Kyoto as the heart of the Keihanshin.
Of course, just because they are similar, doesn't make them the same. The Bay Area was not as vertical as a Japanese city. San Jose in particular could be argued to be closer to an extremely dense suburb more than a city proper, with the amount of single residency homes that make up the city. The Japanese woman had not escaped fully from the hell that was American urban planning. Furthermore, while there was certainly more green area existing on the outskirts of the city than Dallas did, it still lacked that certain half-untouched nature that the forests north of Kyoto had. The mountains surrounding the Bay Area are more tame than the ones near Kyoto, and as a result, humans have tamed said mountains themselves. Quite a fair bit has admittedly been reserved for parks and other green amenities, but there's just no dense woodland that the Yajin was looking for. The closest would be the forest making up the Mount Tamalpais park, in the north of the bay. But again, Akane would be lying to herself if she said it was the same.
However, she wasn't in Mount Tamalpais. She was in San Jose. The extra dense suburb. And Akane, bluntly, hasn't been impressed with what she's seeing. If you, a few years ago, told the Yajin that she'd be living in the heart of Silicon Valley, the beating heart of the technology sector of the world, she would have screamed at you. Talk about total anathema to everything that she holds dear in life. Perhaps a bit hypocritical coming from Ms. Worldwide over here nowadays with her constant flying, but no, Akane still thinks the infomation revolution has mostly ruined society. Not only is the ecological cost of mining rare earth metals to build all the technology the masses take for granted is just externalized and ignored by consumers, but the damage constant, unending communication far beyond the intended social limit imposed by evolution has effectively destroyed human society in the safety's eyes. Humans were not meant to be this interconnected, this hyper expansive and all consuming of the world around them, and sooner rather than later, the consequences of their actions will come back to haunt humanity. Our society is not sustainable, and will come crashing down eventually.
That being said, Akane was a football player, not some kind of magical agent of Gaia's vengeance, so there isn't exactly much to do on the issue other than to shove the cognitive dissonance of her own role in it all and just focus more on how much she hates living in San Jose. And that's not even touching the drama about how the Sabercats weren't even one of her top destinations in the first place! Even as late as the night of the draft itself, she would have never imagined herself ending up in San Jose. So imagine the woman's displeasure that not only did the teams she thought were going to draft her passed her up, but she would instead going to the area of the world that Akane had previously written off as emblematic of everything she hates about modern society.
She didn't take the new particularly all that well, to put it lightly.
But of course, she had to make her peace with it now. She couldn't have stayed in Dallas forever. The Developmental Simulation Football League was exactly that, developmental. It existed to serve as a feeder into the main ISFL, and in that sense, the owners of San Jose had thought that Akane had acclimated enough into the world of international American football to be ready to start terrorizing the fields of the big leagues. Akane wasn't exactly sure what part of her developed-- its not like she was running the gridiron like she was in her college days even at the end of her second season, but perhaps that is her own self loathing talking. She was starting to sack again, she was leading defensive backs in the DSFL on fumbles, and from what she learned from Vega, apparently even was in possession of the lowest receiver catch rate of any true safety with more than a hundred targets last season. Perhaps she has developed after all?
Regardless of her own self-doubts, the warrior in her didn't care. She could have regressed physically and she'd still want a chance to prove herself regardless. Dallas seemed to want to pigeonhole her into a mostly coverage-based specialist, when her expertise was always about quickly intercepting threats on the field and snuffing the living daylight out of them. San Jose, from her limited time preparing for the big leagues, seemed to be far more excited for her to take this role back for her. They finally designated her as a box safety-- the only one in the entire league at the moment, and seem ready to let her rip on enemy offenses. A maniacal grin erupted on Akane's face even thinking about the copious violence that she was about to unleash on the ISFL. Those fools aren't ready for her.
For now, though, Akane slowly starts to rise from her seat. It was good to collect her thoughts, but she came down here for a reason. Nostalgia for home. San Jose still had a thriving Japantown in the residential area. While perhaps smaller, and less overtly Japanese, than the San Fransisco or Los Angeles equivalents, it still was one of the largest in the United States as a whole. And Akane couldn't lie, she was definitely interested in at least exploring it. So she's been trying to walk around, seeing what she can find. Unforunately, befitting San Jose's reputation of being mostly a glorified mega suburb, its Japantown was perhaps more barren than she was expecting. There was quite a few Japanese themed restaurants and stores, a couple of community centers, and a Shinto-Buddhist temple--the last one Akane will definitely need to visit at some point at least-- but not really any major centerpiece public attraction for her to check out. Nothing like the massive Japanese gardens in Little Tokyo or San Fransisco's Japantown. Even Hayward has one, but as far as the safety can tell, Akane hasn't found anything more than just lowkey American-style parks.
As the safety starts to walk around again, her eyes glance around the residential district. It's definitely not an encapsulation of Japan in the United States, but at the same point, it clearly isn't just a normal neighborhood either. It feels like a weird mish mash of the two. But not in a combined way, but like, literally shoving the two right next to each other. It was weird, but she couldn't deny it had its charm to it. If only there was anything really to actually do here. Maybe next time she'll take the BART down to San Fran to see the larger Japantown there. For now though, Akane could probably at least do a snack for now. Maybe she should pull into one of those convience stores and grab something to eat on her walk. Maybe they'll have a bento box or something. It'd be amusing to say she had one in the United States.
Akane wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting as she walked into the convenience store, but as she walked into the dingy hole in the wall, she certainly wasn't expecting everyone to practically stop what they were doing to stare at her. Was there something on her face? Her clothes? What the hell is going on-
"Oh my god," one of the voices, a young man about her age, whispered in Japanese, perhaps louder than he intended.
His friend also cried out, "It's the Yajin!"
Nearly the entire store started to break out in excited hollering, as Akane was nearly instantly swarmed by fans. The safety's cheeks blushed red in embarrassment; all she wanted to do was pick up some light refreshments and start heading back to her apartment. Instead, her reputation absolutely preceded her. She was the biggest star in Japanese college ball; its not unrealistic some of that fanbase followed her over to the other side of the pond.
"I can't believe you're finally here in San Jose!"
"You were so amazing in the Koshien Bowl! I was there!"
"I can't wait to see how a real team ends up using you!"
Akane didn't know what to do in this situation. Even for a woman normally defined by her rage, she couldn't be mad at the fact that she had fans. If anything, getting noticed like this is exactly the big pick me up that she needed given her mental state. At the same point, she just wants lunch! Can't she just have some privacy?
"Hey," Akane said, trying to regain her composure, "One at a time."
The safety would end up spending far more time than she bargained for, trying to talk to the small crowd that gathered. Of course, they all wanted to talk about how much they loved her play, talking a mixture of her time both on the Dallas Birddogs or, as it mostly turned out, the Kwansei Gakuin Fighters. There was also a few round of selfies, even an autograph or too, before Akane could finally make her way to do the purchases that she came for in the first place. Making her way to the shelves with the drinks, her eyes couldn't help but glance at the copius amount of Saruta Splash that was in stock. Huh. Honestly, it makes sense it was being sold outside of Dallas, especially in an area that clearly was excited to see her play, but there was a part of her that still couldn't help but find it a little odd. Still, Akane couldn't help but grin a little seeing the red energy drink, and even though she kind of normally disliked the taste of it, felt like picking up a bottle of it for once. If you think about it, she was kind of paying herself for the drink, at least part of it, so why not? After grabbing her bento-- she picked one that focused on teriyaki beef that looked especially appealing-- the safety walked up to the cashier, who was similarly awestruck. One last selfie with the woman before Akane could actually grab her small bag and start heading back on the street.
San Jose was not Kyoto, nor should she ever expect it to be. But in those few brief seconds inside the store, it felt like Akane was back in college again. As she collects her thoughts while trying to return back to her apartment, she once more couldn't help but grin some more. Maybe California won't be so bad after all? Maybe this is the place where she finally revitalizes her career, and becomes the terror on the gridiron again? Unleashing the terror of the box safety back on the league? The Yajin certainly hopes so; she's been tired of all these false starts over the past two years. It's time the fools in this league start fearing the number four again.
This was it. Her time in Dallas was now officially over. As Akane sits down on the park bench and watch the crowd of people walk besides her, the woman can't help but feel a little... empty. Ever since being adopted by Vega, the safety was shunted all over the world. From her native Japan, her elusive agent would constantly ferry her to her villa in Switzerland whenever she wanted to keep a closer eye on her. Sure, she'd spend the school year in Japan, but increasingly more and more of her breaks were spent in a country where she didn't even speak the language. Not to mention being dragged along to buisness meetings, primarily in the United States, but honestly all across the world as she needed. Vega brought her to the ultimus in Panama City and, in a last minute gift due to the participating team, Xi'an-- where Akane could see her childhood Silverbacks lose in heartbreaking fashion. The bronze skinned woman also dragged Akane to Florence's ultimini even after Dallas was eliminated, where she ended up meeting her girlfriend. And of course, who could forget the fact that games in the International Simulation Football League, and thus the Developmental Simulation Football League by proxy, were played internationally? For two seasons, the Japanese woman wasn't just shunted all across the United States, but also Mexico (where she also played her prospect bowl in), the United Kingdom, and Australia.
The point is, Akane has been all over the goddamn globe at this point. She's increasingly been seeing less and less of her native Kyoto, as the demands of being an international celebrity have grown on her. The safety has felt nothing but dread over just how rootless she has been the past few years. Akane may have mixed feelings about Japan itself, given how suffocating society there is. Everyone has to be prim and proper, keeping up the face society gave them, and it initially wanted to throw her away when Akane's inner rage prevented her from playing on those puppet strings. But, at the same point, when Akane would step into the forests to the north of the ancient capital, she knew it was home. There is a certain ethereal grace and beauty to the greenery that surrounded the city that Akane simply never could find outside of the country. And even in downtown Kyoto, there was a certain connection to the past, of what Akane imagined was a better time than this modern hellscape she lived in, that kept her grounded. America in particular unnerved her in how unnatural its cities felt, and San Jose, and the Bay Area as a whole, felt more like that.
Now, to its credit, San Jose reminded Akane of home more than Dallas did. The mountainous coastline of California is geographically a lot closer to the geography of Japan than the unnaturally flat hellscape that was central Texas. Not only that, but due to said geography, there wasn't as much of that creepy sprawl that suffocated the Earth. The Santa Cruz, Diablo, and Marin mountain ranges served as a clear hard boundary of where sprawl can go. Not to mention, of course, the bay itself. The end result was one metro area defined by rolling elevation, nestled in the hills, not unlike a city back in Japan. And much like her native Kyoto, the Bay Area was unique in that it was less one city, and more multiple cities that grew so large that they combined into one defacto mega city. In the case of Kyoto, this was the Keihanshin-- the union of the ancient capital of Japan mixed with the neighboring cities of Osaka and Kobe, which makes up one continuous urban landscape. The Bay Area is the same-- San Fransisco was the historically prominent city, but at this point have almost effectively merged with nearby San Mateo, Hayward, Fremont, and Oakland to make one large urban area in all but actual governance. Oh, and of course, San Jose itself. The reason she was there, and perhaps the new heart of the Bay Area in the 21st century. Much like how Osaka has arguably eclipsed Kyoto as the heart of the Keihanshin.
Of course, just because they are similar, doesn't make them the same. The Bay Area was not as vertical as a Japanese city. San Jose in particular could be argued to be closer to an extremely dense suburb more than a city proper, with the amount of single residency homes that make up the city. The Japanese woman had not escaped fully from the hell that was American urban planning. Furthermore, while there was certainly more green area existing on the outskirts of the city than Dallas did, it still lacked that certain half-untouched nature that the forests north of Kyoto had. The mountains surrounding the Bay Area are more tame than the ones near Kyoto, and as a result, humans have tamed said mountains themselves. Quite a fair bit has admittedly been reserved for parks and other green amenities, but there's just no dense woodland that the Yajin was looking for. The closest would be the forest making up the Mount Tamalpais park, in the north of the bay. But again, Akane would be lying to herself if she said it was the same.
However, she wasn't in Mount Tamalpais. She was in San Jose. The extra dense suburb. And Akane, bluntly, hasn't been impressed with what she's seeing. If you, a few years ago, told the Yajin that she'd be living in the heart of Silicon Valley, the beating heart of the technology sector of the world, she would have screamed at you. Talk about total anathema to everything that she holds dear in life. Perhaps a bit hypocritical coming from Ms. Worldwide over here nowadays with her constant flying, but no, Akane still thinks the infomation revolution has mostly ruined society. Not only is the ecological cost of mining rare earth metals to build all the technology the masses take for granted is just externalized and ignored by consumers, but the damage constant, unending communication far beyond the intended social limit imposed by evolution has effectively destroyed human society in the safety's eyes. Humans were not meant to be this interconnected, this hyper expansive and all consuming of the world around them, and sooner rather than later, the consequences of their actions will come back to haunt humanity. Our society is not sustainable, and will come crashing down eventually.
That being said, Akane was a football player, not some kind of magical agent of Gaia's vengeance, so there isn't exactly much to do on the issue other than to shove the cognitive dissonance of her own role in it all and just focus more on how much she hates living in San Jose. And that's not even touching the drama about how the Sabercats weren't even one of her top destinations in the first place! Even as late as the night of the draft itself, she would have never imagined herself ending up in San Jose. So imagine the woman's displeasure that not only did the teams she thought were going to draft her passed her up, but she would instead going to the area of the world that Akane had previously written off as emblematic of everything she hates about modern society.
She didn't take the new particularly all that well, to put it lightly.
But of course, she had to make her peace with it now. She couldn't have stayed in Dallas forever. The Developmental Simulation Football League was exactly that, developmental. It existed to serve as a feeder into the main ISFL, and in that sense, the owners of San Jose had thought that Akane had acclimated enough into the world of international American football to be ready to start terrorizing the fields of the big leagues. Akane wasn't exactly sure what part of her developed-- its not like she was running the gridiron like she was in her college days even at the end of her second season, but perhaps that is her own self loathing talking. She was starting to sack again, she was leading defensive backs in the DSFL on fumbles, and from what she learned from Vega, apparently even was in possession of the lowest receiver catch rate of any true safety with more than a hundred targets last season. Perhaps she has developed after all?
Regardless of her own self-doubts, the warrior in her didn't care. She could have regressed physically and she'd still want a chance to prove herself regardless. Dallas seemed to want to pigeonhole her into a mostly coverage-based specialist, when her expertise was always about quickly intercepting threats on the field and snuffing the living daylight out of them. San Jose, from her limited time preparing for the big leagues, seemed to be far more excited for her to take this role back for her. They finally designated her as a box safety-- the only one in the entire league at the moment, and seem ready to let her rip on enemy offenses. A maniacal grin erupted on Akane's face even thinking about the copious violence that she was about to unleash on the ISFL. Those fools aren't ready for her.
For now, though, Akane slowly starts to rise from her seat. It was good to collect her thoughts, but she came down here for a reason. Nostalgia for home. San Jose still had a thriving Japantown in the residential area. While perhaps smaller, and less overtly Japanese, than the San Fransisco or Los Angeles equivalents, it still was one of the largest in the United States as a whole. And Akane couldn't lie, she was definitely interested in at least exploring it. So she's been trying to walk around, seeing what she can find. Unforunately, befitting San Jose's reputation of being mostly a glorified mega suburb, its Japantown was perhaps more barren than she was expecting. There was quite a few Japanese themed restaurants and stores, a couple of community centers, and a Shinto-Buddhist temple--the last one Akane will definitely need to visit at some point at least-- but not really any major centerpiece public attraction for her to check out. Nothing like the massive Japanese gardens in Little Tokyo or San Fransisco's Japantown. Even Hayward has one, but as far as the safety can tell, Akane hasn't found anything more than just lowkey American-style parks.
As the safety starts to walk around again, her eyes glance around the residential district. It's definitely not an encapsulation of Japan in the United States, but at the same point, it clearly isn't just a normal neighborhood either. It feels like a weird mish mash of the two. But not in a combined way, but like, literally shoving the two right next to each other. It was weird, but she couldn't deny it had its charm to it. If only there was anything really to actually do here. Maybe next time she'll take the BART down to San Fran to see the larger Japantown there. For now though, Akane could probably at least do a snack for now. Maybe she should pull into one of those convience stores and grab something to eat on her walk. Maybe they'll have a bento box or something. It'd be amusing to say she had one in the United States.
Akane wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting as she walked into the convenience store, but as she walked into the dingy hole in the wall, she certainly wasn't expecting everyone to practically stop what they were doing to stare at her. Was there something on her face? Her clothes? What the hell is going on-
"Oh my god," one of the voices, a young man about her age, whispered in Japanese, perhaps louder than he intended.
His friend also cried out, "It's the Yajin!"
Nearly the entire store started to break out in excited hollering, as Akane was nearly instantly swarmed by fans. The safety's cheeks blushed red in embarrassment; all she wanted to do was pick up some light refreshments and start heading back to her apartment. Instead, her reputation absolutely preceded her. She was the biggest star in Japanese college ball; its not unrealistic some of that fanbase followed her over to the other side of the pond.
"I can't believe you're finally here in San Jose!"
"You were so amazing in the Koshien Bowl! I was there!"
"I can't wait to see how a real team ends up using you!"
Akane didn't know what to do in this situation. Even for a woman normally defined by her rage, she couldn't be mad at the fact that she had fans. If anything, getting noticed like this is exactly the big pick me up that she needed given her mental state. At the same point, she just wants lunch! Can't she just have some privacy?
"Hey," Akane said, trying to regain her composure, "One at a time."
The safety would end up spending far more time than she bargained for, trying to talk to the small crowd that gathered. Of course, they all wanted to talk about how much they loved her play, talking a mixture of her time both on the Dallas Birddogs or, as it mostly turned out, the Kwansei Gakuin Fighters. There was also a few round of selfies, even an autograph or too, before Akane could finally make her way to do the purchases that she came for in the first place. Making her way to the shelves with the drinks, her eyes couldn't help but glance at the copius amount of Saruta Splash that was in stock. Huh. Honestly, it makes sense it was being sold outside of Dallas, especially in an area that clearly was excited to see her play, but there was a part of her that still couldn't help but find it a little odd. Still, Akane couldn't help but grin a little seeing the red energy drink, and even though she kind of normally disliked the taste of it, felt like picking up a bottle of it for once. If you think about it, she was kind of paying herself for the drink, at least part of it, so why not? After grabbing her bento-- she picked one that focused on teriyaki beef that looked especially appealing-- the safety walked up to the cashier, who was similarly awestruck. One last selfie with the woman before Akane could actually grab her small bag and start heading back on the street.
San Jose was not Kyoto, nor should she ever expect it to be. But in those few brief seconds inside the store, it felt like Akane was back in college again. As she collects her thoughts while trying to return back to her apartment, she once more couldn't help but grin some more. Maybe California won't be so bad after all? Maybe this is the place where she finally revitalizes her career, and becomes the terror on the gridiron again? Unleashing the terror of the box safety back on the league? The Yajin certainly hopes so; she's been tired of all these false starts over the past two years. It's time the fools in this league start fearing the number four again.
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