FalloutJack

「 Persona: Reflections 」

Hakuro Kuroda

Mentionings: @PrankFox

It's always hard to tell with Hakuro, but most people found him harmless enough, unless he was actually out to cause some damage. Most people he found to be decent enough, though. It was always they Hatto-san's way to gravitate towards people of interest who might have something to say on life or impart something useful or interesting about the world. For instance, Hakuro had been doing a food-related podcast, and had therefore gone specifically to a couple of small-but-dedicated establishments, plus a fortune cookie manufacturer, to get some insight. Back to the present, though, Kenzan had clearly been through this before, but he was apparently giving our hatted boy here the reins to decide. The curio shop was actually closer since it was IN town and the bookshop was on the edge of residential, but the bookstore had the towels, and it wasn't MUCH farther because this was still a small town. Kenzan was fine either way, and so was he. A fairly-even split.

Well...I know how to handle this.

From his pocket, Hakuro produced an American quarter. It was left behind by a guest of the Kuroda Inn. For no reason other than the fact that it was there, he considered it lucky. It also reminded him of the Batman villain, Two-Face, but the fact is that the hatted youth just hated to strain over decisions that need not take up so much time. It was much quicker and easier to just allow fate to decide in the form of a simple coin toss and just follow the ruling made. If you don't like the results, just do the other thing some other day. It wasn't an important decision, right? Hakuro decided alot of random things by this method, but not when it was a dire decision. It was mainly to eliminate INdecision when weighing the outcomes didn't help any, like now. So, he said "We'll decide this way." and flipped the quarter into the air. It spun for a hot second before landing in the palm of his hand on Tails.

"Bookstore, it is."

That was another thing about the Hatto-san. He didn't always explain the rules of this game. Still, with the two of them basically committed to the act, the doors would be opened and they would dash out against the rain!

Needless to say, the two of them would brave the storm at the speed of GO, heading to the bookstore at light speed (or close enough), though the rain didn't let up, and may have even strengthened as they arrived at the location. Hakuro stepped in, removed his hat and coat, and asked for a towel, which he offered to Kenzan, as the other boy was no-doubt by the time he got there.

"So! What's good today?"

April 25th...

"Wait a minute. The date's wrong on this thing. How did that happen?"

April 24th, 2025

When Hakuro woke up this morning, he found the date wrong on his phone, which was weird, though stranger things had happened. No matter. Minor phone issues aside - it was probably an accident - he got up and prepared for the day unabated. Hakuro lived in a small apartment complex located in the residential district of Fujihama. The rooms were nothing special, but they were comfortable for a single person, with at least accommodations for a guest longterm or a small gathering for the hell of it or what have you. Naturally, when he got up, Hakuro checked the Hatto site. Nothing special going on. The idiot troll from before was still making noise, but mostly people were razzing him or ignoring him. 'Hatto has spoken' seemed to be a repeated theme, with gifs of Dead Poets Society going "O Captain, My Captain!". That put a smile on his face.

The school day was nothing to write home about, or write here about. Hakuro's classroom didn't have an infamous derpy teacher like Classroom 2-B. Oh yes, he'd been hearing about Miss Okamoto, alright. She definitely DID NOT seem like someone to get to know in the proper light, and today...he would learn just how bad that could get. Fujihama High had an unofficial message board and chatroom that regularly saw venting about the bad things that happened to someone, regardless of how serious it was. It was about a half an hour before the end of the day, when things in 3-A were winding down, that the topic exploded.

BURNING TOPIC: 2-B OR NOT 2-B? THAT IS THE QUESTION!

Hakuro arched an eyebrow when he saw it, and then as he read further on...what? The whole class? Impossible. A teacher doesn't have that power unless this were a classroom of delinquints, and last he checked, this wasn't Cromartie High School! You might make an argument for Nagi, but one thing Hakuro noticed about her was that she wasn't trying to bring that into school. At least...not so far as he was aware. Still, this was madness... The history teacher wasn't even that good a teacher, and according to the thread, all of this was over - of all things - a stupid doodle. This was unacceptable. As soon as class let out, he got moving. People normally watching Hakuro as he left usually saw him dash out or something to go for his hat and coat. He was still doing it, but he was actually moving in simple purposeful strides while his thumbs were sending messages. Messages to whom? Why, to his peers, of course, to the people on the scene whom he could contact with ease, especially those he'd put on his frankly-extensive contact list.

Azuma, tell me what happened in 2-B.
What was this picture, exactly?

Kai, I need to know what the rules are for school expulsion.
The EXACT rules, as they are written.

Rina, can I ask you to talk to someone in Student Council?
I know one of 'em is in your classroom, but I forget which.

This went on, with only a certain pause to put on the hat and coat. He stood by an outlet out of the general school traffic after that and plugged his phone into it so he wouldn't run down on batteries when he needed to get out messages. Hakuro was having effectively a dozen conversations to try and gather different angles on this situation. Azuma was the only 2-B student he had on phone, because of a recent favor which - Surprise, surprise! - was down to a bad history lesson. He helped him out a little, and thus managed a fairly-decent grade. The point was, though, that he had to get information piped in around the classroom to filter out the false information from the true. He also wanted to know the exact rules because there just couldn't be a single reason for which a teacher could actually just chuck an entire classroom into the bin. You can't punish all so severely for one person producing what is essentially an unflattering, but smirk-worthy picture. And as for the Student Council? It seemed like it was probably best for someone with a bit of clout in the main office to come to the Principal in protest, to give information indicating that Miss Okamoto was overstepping her boundaries ALOT. This could not be allowed.

Not in this town, not here and now, not while I have something to say about it. I'm coming after you, lady, and believe me, you won't just be humiliated by a simple picture. This whole school should expell YOU.

「 Persona: Reflections 」

Hakuro Kuroda

Mentionings: @PrankFox

Kenzan's reaction was priceless, leaving the hatted youth snickering a little as the question was asked.

"Come on. Not while you're listening to music. D'you know how many people hate that?"

A little thing about the Hatto-san: He lives in a world that both pushes the boundaries, but remains respectable at the same time. It was a trait that most people couldn't hate, because he was not harmful by nature. So, for instance, he was one who collected alot of information. He knew things about a number of students in this school. Mainly, it was habits and background blurbs that he could either corroborate himself through observations or hear from another whose statement - whether they knew he was around to hear it or not - would confirm it as true. Thus, there were a number of things he knew about people that he could rattle off with ease, such as...

Hatto Notes

Ebina Hoshiko is good-natured and kind, as well as a lover of baseball caps, but all of this is offset by the falaity that is her grades.
Munehisa Nara will defend your cause to the hilt if the cause is just, and he seems to enjoy art, or at least drawing quite a bit.
Sakai Kenzan is distant and doesn't like to be disturbed, yet he isn't anti-social per se, just not particularly social by nature.
Chen Akio doesn't talk much, and he seems to be observing people around him alot, so he may be figuring out how to approach them.
Saboru Masashi is the kendo master, not just be practice, but in philosophy, going through life as the proverbial samurai of old.
Tanimoto Akira is very PINK, and I'm not sure why, but she seems a nice enough person.
Nakano Nagi is not to be written about, because if she's reading this right now, I know you'd force me to eat my hat if I did.
Shirasawa Asumi claims that she can be 'too much' at times. She means overwhelming with her personality. It happens, sometimes.

And to that end, it allows Hakuro to get away with a minor tease involving not bothering Kenzan in the usual way, because he hates talking to people when he's listening to music. You learn something about people, you have an 'in' with them, some means to break the ice and converse with them like normal. Hakuro himself wasn't normal, and Kenzan really knew that because they were in the same class, but because he was never so outlandishly addressed by anyone, he has to ask the why. Putting away the notepad, the hat-and-coat stepped on over to the doors, which had people walking in and out of it, inspecting the storm before he turned back to Kenzan.

"There's only one way to do this, and that's at the speed of GO. The question is, 'Go where?', though. I've an inkling for the curio shop, myself, but given the storm, you might want the bookstore. I was out on a day like this over there, and they like to offer the use of a towel in case of heavy rain. Protects the books."

He wasn't sure if anyone else knew what he tended to pick up in the time he's lived in this town. Some things were known while others were not. Kenzan might never have gone to the bookstore in the rain, after all. Maybe he didn't know. Hakuro liked to know what people knew anyway, so a test here and there never hurt to find out. And yes, that IS part of why he might be showing off a little.

「 Persona: Reflections 」

Hakuro Kuroda

Mentionings: @PrankFox

He was there at the front area by the lockers, checking out the site on his phone. It was what you'd expect. All the usual topics were being dominated by talk of the Prime Minister, plus complaints that the site was being dominated that very topic, a few stupid fights that the mods could handle, and...Hakuro stopped.

What the fuck? 'Hatto-san Too Afraid To Open His Mouth'? Am I being trolled?

Worse. It was a rant. It was long-winded, but it boiled down to the user complaining that the site about Hakuro's 'Go anywhere, do just about anything' attitude was cowering before the Prime Minister issue by not talking about it. Ugh... Typical. Some guy on the internet trying to tell the content creator how to make his content. There was a fairly-normal line in the sand between the parties for and against this argument, with some saying it'd be nice if they could hear from the Hatto-san himself about it, if even just a little. That part, he found reasonable, and typed something up before linking it to the thread.

The Topic That's Really Over-Talked About.

USER: Hatto-san

Okay, so there's been some talk on the message board (some of it louder than necessary) about the topic we all know everything about that can be known, the death of the Prime Minister. Some of you want me to do an episode on it, and to those people, I have just one question:

What the smoldering heck am I suppose to talk about in it?

It's been about a week now, and literally everything that has been known has been said by everybody about it. More than that, there's been any number of speculations and theories, personal examinations, and just plain wild rumors about same. What in the everloving world am I suppose to say that hasn't already been said, even for sake of content? There is no content to be found, nothing new to be said, and no particular reason for me to make an episode on it.

I don't mind you guys using the board to about the Prime Minister and the events surrounding his death yourselves, but I got nothing. The Hatto Ken Ko-to Show will not be broadcasting anything unless there is something I actually find out that you or anybody else does not know. And short of storming the Diet Building, I have no idea how that's ever going to happen. If I learn anything, sure, but without something real to go on, there's nothing to tell.

Yours Hattedly,
The Hatto-san

That done, Hakuro put his phone down and started messing with his notepad as he heard a locker slam and saw Kenzan hanging out in his 'I'm not here' spot for avoiding attention. It never worked, and not because Hakuro kept spotting him (although he did), but because avoiding detection required you to blend into the background, be invisible by not being so easily spottable. He seemed to be trying to wait out the storm, but...Hakuro's forecast for the day suggested that this would last all day, which meant that Kenzan was in for a long wait, a wait of boring. There was only one thing to do. Quietly, the Hatto-san moved from his position to the spot just out of the taller boy's line of sight, then proceeded to write in his notepad. Afterwhich, Kenzan would receive this message in Haiku:

This rain will not end.
Like Sisyphus on the mountain,
Your fate is sealed.

What will you do, then?
Hunker down in this place of noise,
or run like hell?

In any case,
I'm bored as hell and need a break.
Join me, or stay here?

「 Persona: Reflections 」

Hakuro Kuroda

April 21st, 2025

As the rain continued to pile on outside, one floor up in Room 3-A, class had also let out. Several students began to talk freely or do a stretch as they got up from their seats. In the middle of it all, one student remained largely motionless, glaring forwards.

Our world has been thrust into darkness.

Ah, he's doing a bit. Quickly, Hakuro pulled out his phone and pressed a button to play some music.

The country is in chaos, held in the grip of a power it could never withstand.

He stood up, listening to the sounds from outside.

It's raining again...

Stepping outside the classroom, he headed the downstairs as the music from his phone continued to play.

Only I have the power to weather the storm. Only I can beat back the onslaught of forces unknown.

People were mainly talking about the Prime Minister, as they had the entire week, while he made his way to the lockers. Hakuro Kuroda looked fairly normal, not standing out much at all when he was in uniform, or even in his street clothes. But when he donned the items in his locker...

The rains have met their match, for I am...the Hatto-san.

All at once, Hakuro stopped the music and put away his phone, for now. He was ready for the Drama Club, once it organized for this year. They were a little late to the scene because - as expected - people were feeling drama from a different source, entirely...

"I can't believe he did it live on television..."

"Didn't anyone notice anything beforehand?"

"How did he even hide a gun from his own security?"

The Prime Minister's death... Hakuro didn't know what to think of it. The last thing he wanted to do on the Hatto Ken Ko-to Website was make an episode using that for sensationalist content. The internet was choking with it, anyway. Reaction videos, commentaries, speeches... Even foreign Let's Players were talking about it. He didn't want to, because his site was dedicated to the lighter side of life, the more interesting bits and even some of the strange. If he put that on there, even just to air it out, it would be forever be a stink bomb on the site that would hang over him forever. But even then, he couldn't stop his followers talking about it on the message board, asking him to talk about it or do some kind of video. He could take a look at the unusual manner in which it had all occurred, take apart the scene to try and find something wrong with it, but unless he somehow discovered something that a billion other people couldn't...

Forget it. I'm not going down that path. I don't even need to flip for it. Some things - the most important things - you never leave to chance.

So, for the moment, he was hanging out in the halls, not far from the stairs. He could head out into the bad weather for a laugh, but he wanted to see if something was going on around the school before committing to that. Hakuro sighed, looking at the recent news again. No, even the authorities - who were all over this - didn't know anything, and he wanted to know, himself: Why? Why did he do it? Why did he look so haggard? It WAS strange. Nobody seemed to know anything prior to the fact. Hakuro hated to be in the same boat as everyone else, left wondering at the mystery, and yet...it was indeed a mystery, and it begged to be solved.

Things ARE pretty dark, right now. Hope it doesn't last.

「 Persona: Reflections 」

Enter Hakuro Kuroda

The Return of the Hatto-san!

NAME: Kuroda, Hakuro

AGE: 17

GENDER: Male

ARCANA: Fortune

APPEARANCE:

Kind of like this. It's a good picture, but not quite there. Hakuro is a young man (5'9"), seemingly of Japanese descent with light skin and short black hair. He is actually from Okinawa, originally, and he has grayish eyes. His build is fairly-average, but he does do alot of running, jumping, and climbing, per his usual outdoor activities that we'll get into later. The odd bruise, bump, or scrape would not be unusual a sight on him, though Hakuro would tell you himself that he could've been alot worse off.

Generally, his attire will be a mix of certain popular styles alongside the decidedly normal and mundane. Hakuro doesn't tend to stick out much on average, despite some decent looks, but that is because the usual thing that draws attention to him is the clothes he wears while traveling around and doing activities for the Hatto Ken Ko-to (Hat-And-Coat) website. He dresses in the hat and coat combo seen on traditional Japanese investigators, especially in shows. It's a theme that he adopted, and so people find him more recognizable when in-character than his normal street clothes.

PERSONALITY:

Hakuro does not live to just be his alter-ego, the traveling Hatto-san, but he has noticed that the eccentric behavior (which he does for fun and content) does tend to draw people in more than his usual self. It's not exactly something he wrestles with. It's more a case of something he's gotten into to alleviate boredom, a bit of harmless escapism. Well...sort of. Let's start at the beginning. When you're a kid and you don't get many permanent friends, you tend to feel isolated from society. The reason why will be explained more in history, but needless to say, Hakuro needed his imagination in overdrive to pass the time. This feeling was what led him to want to travel around and live away from home, reaching out to others, to know many more people and see many more things. He wanted to take it all in while he still had the chance. The eccentric behavior came later, mostly as a laugh, but it led to other things.

For instance, Hakuro tended to use his activities to investigate things around the areas he found himself in. Some of these were harmless, others might've gone a little too far, but no real harm was done. He'd lucked out. The point is that he likes to have his finger on the hub of what's going on, and that means sneaking around, picking up rumors and possible intrigue. He doesn't do anything terrible with it, but he has, on occasion, been the bearer of news, both good and bed. He has also been known to play jokes on others, and is generally giving because the life he leads has him comfortably well-off. Being morally-decent, but sometimes offbeat and up for a laugh, can lead to some strange and amusing situations...which is how he likes it.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

The reason for it all is quite simple. He was bored. There were other reasons, but boredom was the first to bat because of where he lived and how his life was set to be. Hakuro was born on one of the Okinawan islands, an area which is isolated from the island of Japan and, in fact, any mainland at all. It is a tiny speck on the Southern Hemisphere of the entire world, this island, and it is here that the Kuroda family owns a modest and marginally-successful inn resort. Mainly, it's a place to stay while you take in the beaches and the natural beauty and landscape of the island, but for Hakuro it was just home, as well as work. Fortunately or unfortunately, this place was his inheritance, meaning that once he came fully of age, he would have to run it.

That didn't weigh on him as much as you'd think. Not as a kid. No, as a kid, he began to wonder if the ocean might swallow him up before he got to see much of the world. (Imaginations will do that to you.) Hakuro had to get creative with activities to keep him amused, since the only friends he would have close by was any of the few people actually living on this island...and, of course, guests. That didn't leave him with much, but as his parents tended to notice these effects on him, they agreed to help him out. Once he was old enough to travel on his own, he could explore Japan and take in all the things that he was missing. As a rule, he had to keep up his education, though, and he couldn't put himself in financial debt, which includes bad trouble with the police.

It was one particular train trip, where he was in a hat and trenchcoat, that another passenger asked him what he was doing. He said "I'm traveling incognito.", to which the passenger replied "No you're not. You're traveling in hat-and-coat." as a joke, and they just got to talking during the ride. This led Hakuro to believe that this breakout journey for himself could be shared by others. They might find it entertaining. Why not? He did. So began the Hatto Ken Ko-to website, or The Traveling Hatto-san, as some fans called him. His antics as a character in video and podcast became...known. He wasn't super popular, but he had followers, people who enjoyed themselves. That was all well and done, of course, but he DID need a central area to continue his education.

This is where he entered the Fujihama area. It was small, relaxing, and out of the way. When he removed the hat and the coat, he wasn't recognizable because he seemed normal-looking without it. He arrived in town about a year before our current events, so Hakuro has been established as someone around town, though he spends time traveling up and down the train lines, sometimes, or catching a ride somewhere. It's his thing, just as rumormongering is his thing. He is one of the people who saved a recording of the Prime Minister's death, and every now and then, he puts his mind to it. What happened to him? Was he ragged because of something that was done to him? Or was this degenration something natural to HIM? Like with his travels and his other investigations, Hakuro wanted to know.

TRIVIA: Hakuro tends to equip himself like some sort of private eye. No gun, but a pen, notepad, cellphone for recording, and the like are usually on his person for these things. Another item he carries with him is an American quarter dropped by a tourist. He prefers to flip a coin whenever a decision that isn't easily resolved crosses his path, and just abides by the toss accordingly. It's quicker that way. He has an internet fan following of a few thousand people who like his exploits, as well, and...he doesn't like spiders.

OTHER: Hakuro has a VERY long contact list. His activities put him in contact with alot of people, here and there. Sometimes, when you need something, he might know someone to call.

Also, I could have any number of cool themes for Hakuro in general. I don't want to be stapled down to one. But for battles, I like to make this one as his default.

「 Persona: Reflections 」

@Ambra

「 Persona: Reflections 」

@Ambra I mean, Persona 5 had mostly girls, so it's not like there's a necessary balance.

「 Persona: Reflections 」

Ah, Velvet Room colors. Seems fair.

「 Persona: Reflections 」

Duly noted, about that and the possible evil team of evil.

「 Persona: Reflections 」