Persona Series Lights, Camera, Featherman!

Yukari couldn't help but fidget a bit in her seat. It was bad enough that the waiting room she was currently stuck in was filled to the brim with actors, but the personal anxiety rattling within her head made it even worse. Her search for a job to pay her way through modeling school had been anything but successful so far, and in the brunette's last few years of college, she hardly stepped her toe into acting. But even so, she couldn't turn down a proposal as big as a role in the Phoenix Ranger Featherman series, especially since it at least wasn't as revolting as flipping over the grease-filled burgers at Wild Duck.

"…You a'ight?" A sudden voice asked from Yukari's left side, making the young woman jolt up in her seat from sheer surprise. A small snicker could be heard afterwards, making Yukari turn her head to her left. When she did, she saw a young man –probably four or five years older than her, give or take- with a head of jet black hair swept back, and a grin on his face. Unlike a good amount of the other male actors in the room though, he had a noticeable amount of stubble on his chin, along with a bit of peach fuzz on his upper lip.

"Well, you're definitely jumpy." The young man commented, his grin only growing as he did so.

Yukari couldn't help but pout a bit after hearing a response like that, and prompted to elbow him a bit. "Hey, I'm sitting right here, thank you very much." She said with a sly grin as well.

"Alright alright, sorry miss." He replied as he held up his hands in submission, but both his smile and his laughter refused to fade.

Yukari found herself chuckling a bit as well now, and her grin only grew as she did so. The college student continued to do alongside the young man for at least a minute, until she looked around the waiting room again, and saw a legion of actors, who had bewildered expressions plastered right on to their faces, looking at both her and her apparent chuckle mate. Once she noticed that, Yukari's cheeks lit up with a shade of pink, and she sat back up in her seat, looking down at her knees in order to shake off the attention she had gathered.

"Ah, sorry about that guys." The fairly rugged man sitting next to her practically proclaimed, even pointing a thumb directly at himself. "Typical setback of good ol' Shitona arriving anywhere." As he continued to laugh at his own announcement, the other people in the room just simply raised an eyebrow before looking away, leaving a silence to loom over.

_'I'm already getting way too many Junpei vibes off of this guy…'_ Yukari thought to herself with an expression of sheer deadpan. She was going to simply sit back in her seat and pretend that she didn't say anything, until the creaking of the door opening up caught her attention. When the door was opened up at least halfway, a man in a spiffy black suit took a single step out, holding a clipboard up with one hand.

"Yukari Takeba?" Hell asked out as his eyes quickly scanned around the room.

Once Yukari heard her name, she picked her up, and stood up out of her seat. "Right here!"

"Ah, excellent." He said with a smile, and opened up the door as he stepped to the side. "Follow me then."

The young brunette nodded, and stepped through the door, following the man through a fairly long white hallway, walking past several doors as they did so. After taking a right turn and walking into a different hall, the man turned towards a single door on his left, and carefully turned the silver doorknob to open it up. He then trotted right into the room inside.

Yukari followed him, and was immediately greeted by the sight of several people sitting at a folding table to the right. Behind the table, there was a stand for both a camera and a light, illuminating the left, empty side of the room.

"Now then," One of the men sitting by the table said, showing a calm smile as he held a hand out towards the empty part of the room. "why don't you go on and show us what you got for Mayumi?"

Yukari took a silent gulp, feeling the butterflies in her stomach beginning to flutter about again. As she took in a small breath in order to quell those very butterflies, she walked up to the empty side of the room, and looked right at the camera that was set up in front of her. The camera's lens felt like another eye that was looking back at her.

The brunette-haired girl quickly coughed into her fist, recollecting all of what she remembered in the brief description she read about 'Mayumi', and let her shoulders drop.

"Alright evildoers," Yukari proclaimed with a swift change in expression and posture, pointing a finger right at the light shining down on her. "Time for you to face some justice at the hands of Feather Pink!"

A second of silence followed after she declared her pre-transformation quote, Yukari shifted her feet back into a normal stance, and the fiercely determined glare on her face immediately changed into a perky smile.

"Glad to see ya out and about Fumiko-chan! I was getting worried after your rustle with that walking throw rug." Yukari grinned happily with a chuckle, patting an imaginary shoulder as she did so. "Why don't we go chill out around the new shopping district today? My treat too!"

As the late teenager continued with her audition, one of the assistants entered the room with a full tray of fresh coffee for his higher-ups. But without noticing one of the numerous cords strewn about, he tripped on one of them, and sent the coffee cups flying. One of which was hurdling right towards Yukari.

The young woman's eyes widened as her audition came to a screeching halt. Reacting out of instinct, she swiftly lifted her leg right off the ground, and delivered a round kick that knocked the styrofoam cup right back into the wall.

While also pouring boiling hot coffee all over the poor sap of an assistant.

"Oh crap! Are you alright?" Yukari called out as she rushed to the assistant's side in a hurry, alongside the rest of the younger men in the room sprinting up with handfuls of towels. He was soon led out of the room, and then the rest of the assistants began cleaning up the coffee from the floor, while also furiously checking all of the equipment nearby.

As they did so, one of the men stood up from the table, and gave a small clap as a grin grew on his face.

"That was quite the audition Ms. Takeba." He said all too calmly. "You're free to leave now then."

No set of words could properly comprehend the sheer look of bewilderment on Yukari's face from hearing that, but she knew that she didn't have time to talk. Because of that, the brunette simply nodded, and left the small room, hearing the clichéd "Don't call us, we'll call you" as she carefully closed the door.

* * *

><p>Within the Wakatsu Restaurant at the Iwatodai strip mall, Yukari knocked a bell pepper back and forth on her tray with her chopsticks, while her other hand held up her head as it had a sulking face plastered right onto it. Her mind was still filling up with worries over how badly the audition went, and also with anxiety over what other job she can find now that'll pay enough for her to put food on the table.<p>

"Didn't have the best audition I take it?"

Yukari jolted up in her seat again, wondering where the sudden telepath came from, and immediately heard an oddly familiar chuckle. When she looked to her left, she saw the same stubbly young man who addressed himself as Shitona in the waiting room, sitting at the small table right next to hers.

"Don't tell me that you're following me now." Yukari responded as she gave off some serious side-eye. The first reply she got from Shitona was a small, but hearty chuckle.

"Nah, just came over here for lunch as well." He stated with a shrug. "I noticed that you were here too, and I remembered chattin' with you in the waiting room, so I figured I'd just stop by and see how you were, y'know?" With that, he began drumming his fingers as he laid back in the booth.

Yukari simply sighed in response, and looked back down at the remaining bell pepper on her plate. That reaction made the actor sitting next to her lower his smile into a slight frown of worry.

"Something wrong?" He asked in a much more concerned tone of voice. "Audition didn't go too well I take it?"

"If by 'didn't go well', you mean I ended up kicking a cup of coffee into the wall and watched someone get drenched in the stuff, then yeah." Yukari answered quite sarcastically, causing a quick laugh to come out of Shitona's mouth.

"Hah! Well there's something you don't hear every day!" He remarked as a grin came back to his face. "Don't tell me that one of 'em actually threw a full cup of coffee at you!"

"No, it didn't go_ that_ badly." Yukari said with a chuckle of her own, and couldn't resist cracking a smile. "Somebody just slipped on one of the cords and sent a bunch of coffee cups flying through the room." After Yukari finished her explanation, her smile grew once she saw the young grizzled man burst into another fit of laughter.

"Hah! Talk about clumsy!" He commented merrily. "Although I'm surprised that you actually managed to round kick the cup right into a wall. I've been taking karate classes for the past ten years, and even I'm not sure that I could do that!"

"Heheh, well thank you." Yukari felt a small blush tickle her cheeks from the compliment. "I learned it from my kickboxing classes myself. My instructor said I was a natural born kicker after the first few classes." If the chance to talk about her hobby of kickboxing didn't lift Yukari's mood, than the sight of Shitona's face lighting right up at the mention of said hobby certainly did.

"You've been learning a martial art too?" He asked in sheer delight.

"Yup!" Yukari responded with just as much enthusiasm. "It was recommended to me by my therapist a few years ago, so I've been attending a kickboxing class ever since." As the brunette woman continued talking, she placed her chopsticks back down on the plastic tray, and shifted her seat to give her new acquaintance some eye contact.

"Awesome! I always wondered what kickboxing was like myself." Shitona answered with glee. After he did though, his eyes looked up a bit in thought, and he comically rubbed the back of his neck. "Then again, I've been pretty preoccupied by my karate lessons these days." A carefree chuckle left his throat after he stated that. "Heck, I even earned my first degree brown belt when I was twelve."

"Wait… when you were only twelve?" Yukari's eyes widened right up from hearing that someone could earn a belt that high at such a young age. After just a few seconds though, she lowered one eyebrow, and her astonishment faded into confusion. "Hold on a sec, if you're such a martial arts pro, then what were you doing auditioning for a kid's show?"

Shitona let out a laugh at the question, and rose up one finger, like a teacher listing an example. "Well, for one, combat runs in tokusatsu's blood. Anyone running a show like that would need the actors to have at least _some _experience in fighting on the set." Once he finished his sentence, a second finger on his hand lifted up. "And two, because I wanna act. I know that I'm not gonna get every role that I audition for, so the more that I can find, the better."

"Oh…" That was all Yukari could say after hearing all of that, especially since she had only viewed the role as a chance to pay for modeling school. "…Gotta say, I didn't expect you to have quite the passion for acting honestly." She responded honestly, even showing a small smile in the process. "What have you been in then?"

"Well, mostly just the parts of 'Random Civilian B' and whatnot..." Shitona said simply, stroking the peach fuzz on his chin as he did so. However, his stroking soon came to a stop, and his lips perked up into a grin. "…but there is a big exception."

Yukari let out a 'hm?' from the last bit of her acquaintance's statement, and immediately saw him pull out his phone and flip it sideways.

"The quality's a lil crappy, but you should be able to see just fine." He said as he tapped on the 'Videos' app, and scrolled down as he reached the oldest videos on the phone. With an immediate tap of one of 'em, the phone's screen went black aside from a gray bar at the bottom.

As the man leaned in next to Yukari so that she could see the video playing, several lights could be seen, and illuminated a small concert stage. On it, there stood an entire group of young individuals, dressed in very traditional tribal clothing. While the video quality wasn't exactly 1080p, the brunette could definitely see that Shitona was one of the members up on the stage.

After everyone gave a quick bow, the centermost member of the group stood up in front of a microphone stand, and began to hum a low and gentle tone. Once she did, a drumbeat could be heard as well, soon accompanied by both the sound of an idiophone, and the steady riff of an electric guitar.

That was when the others practically erupted into dance, performing traditional dances all across the stage. The woman in the middle was now singing what sounded like an indigenous song as she clapped her hands, and the rhythm playing from the speakers was kicking up.

Yukari's eyes widened as she watched. She had never seen such a performance that blended tribal styles of dance and song with the modern realm of rock music, and yet the one she saw on the phone's screen did so seamlessly.

After a couple more seconds of the performance, Shitona's thumb tapped on the gray bar at the bottom of the screen, and the video skipped ahead to the start of a different song, this time with the tribal drums kicking up a faster beat as the sound of hip-hop blasted from the speakers. The dancing also increased in speed and tempo, but the traditional style and dance hadn't diminished in the slightest.

Shitona grinned from ear to ear as he watched the performance as well. Once the hip-hop began to die down, and the entire audience applauded as the performers gave a bow, the young man pressed a button on the top of his phone, making the screen go black again.

"So, yeah." He said, unable to hide the nostalgic smile on his face. "That's still the biggest performance I've had so far."

"Well I can definitely see why!" Yukari responded with a cheery expression of her own. "Earning a brown belt in karate at the age of twelve is already impressive, but you were awesome on that stage with all of those traditional dances!" Her smile only grew as she heard Shitona chuckle through his smile.

"Aw quiet down missy." He said as his hand rubbed the back of his neck. "You're gonna make me blush!"

Yukari could only grin back at her new acquaintance; he really was another Junpei, but in just about all of the right ways. However, when she felt the vibration of her phone within her left pocket, her facial expression went from of simple merriment to an embarrassed flush of pink on her cheeks.

Once she saw Shitona give her a quick hand wave of understanding, she pulled the device out. When the screen lit up, Yukari's eyes widened in distress when she saw that it was the daily reminder for her college's appointed curfew.

"Ah crap!" The brunette stated in her panic. She stuffed the right phone right back into her pocket, and stood up right out of her seat. "Sorry to jet, but I gotta hurry back to my dorm." Yukari told Shitona as she frantically placed the handle of her purse over her shoulder. "Otherwise they're gonna kill me for being tardy!"

"No worries, I understand." Shitona said quite calmly, while his grin showed that he was resisting the urge to burst into laughter. "But would it be alright if I at least got your name?"

"Huh?" The college girl muttered as she blinked in slight surprise, and turned back to face the young grizzled man. Once she did, a soft smile came to her face. "It's Yukari Takeba."

"Ahh, nice sounding name!" The man said gleefully, stroking his chin before pointing a thumb back at himself. "I go by Shitona Yamamoto myself."

"Yeah, I already knew your first name from your little proclamation back in the waiting room." Yukari replied with a chuckle, and heard that Shitona did the same. With that, she gave her new acquaintance a quick nod, and made for the door so she could get back to her college campus in time.

* * *

><p>As soon as Yukari opened up the door to her dorm room, the young woman immediately flopped on the bottom bunk bed and stuffed her face into the nearest pillow. Once she did, a grueling groan could be heard through the pillow, and Yukari's entire body seemed to sink into the mattress she was lying on.<p>

"Rough time at the auditions huh?" A gentle, but mature sound voice asked from above, making Yukari lift her head up from the pillow. When she looked up, she saw her old friend, and current dormmate, Fuuka Yamagishi, peering down at her from the top bunk.

"Yeah, basically…" Yukari moaned out to her bunk buddy, sulking as she rested her chin back on the pillow. "At this rate, I might just have to resort to burger flipping over at Wild Duck if I even want a chance of enrolling into modeling school…"

"Hey now! Don't give up already Yukari-san!" Fuuka immediately answered fretfully. "Remember, they're gearing up for other shows as well. If this falls through, I'm sure we can find you another opportunity." Once Fuuka told her roommate that, she soon gave her a comforting smile. "So just keep your head up, okay?"

Yukari looked a bit stunned by Fuuka's suggestion, but she soon let out a small chuckle. "You got a point Fuuka." She said with a smile. "I'm not exhausted of opportunities just yet."

"That's more like it Yukari-san." Fuuka responded with glee, and soon lifted her head back up to the top bunk. "Are you ready to call it a night then?"

"Yup." Yukari answered back, and laid her head right back onto the pillow. She heard a quick clap from her friend on the top bunk, and the dorm room's lights immediately turned off. Fuuka's breathing soon went steady, and she began to lull herself into sleep.

But Yukari's eyes were still wide open. Her mind was still racing with a parade of thoughts. The memories of her audition, the embarrassment of witnessing how badly it went, the worry of having to face rejection all over again…

The young woman moaned to herself; all of these thoughts swirling around were already giving her a headache. With a pout, she stuffed her face right into the pillow again, and started counting sheep; a tactic she had learned from Aigis when the android discussed her dreams. All Yukari could do now was get some shut-eye, and hope for the best.

* * *

><p><em>Oh man, it feels so satisfying to write a title that cheesy for a sentai-related story~<em>

_*brickd*_

_Anyway, hello again everybody! SharkOfJade here, and back with a new multi-chapter fic! As I'm sure you've already seen, this is centered on Yukari, and her adventures as a protector of Earth in the newest sentai series, Phoenix Ranger Featherman Victory, both on and off the set. Currently, this is set before the events of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, but it will extend to anfter the events of Ultimax at some point (And don't worry, I'll make sure to leave out as many spoilers as I can)_

_And now, some important things to keep in mind:_

_1. Yes, this story will have OCs, as shown by Shitona. They'll mainly serve as the Featherman actors/characters. If OCs really bother you that much, then you can go find another fic._

_2. I currently don't know if Yukari's character in Featherman has a canonical name, so I'm currently just going with my own. If anybody knows the actual name, please tell me, because I'd rather not delay this story until I've played through Ultimax's entire story mode just to discover a name._

_3. I've decided that this Featherman series won't **just** be a parody of Jetman, because Featherman R already did that. So instead, I'll also be parodying a more recent sentai series (You'll see which one when the time comes~) alongside the stuff I can make fun of in Jetman, so keep that in mind._

_Anyway, that's all from me. Have fun!_

_(I know I will. I FREAKING LOVE SUPER SENTAI *brickd again*)_

_Persona 3 (c) Atlus_


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Persona Series, Adventure, Humor