Unfinished Business, A DFRPG game in Osaka

[Steel Mirror]

Osaka, Japan
June 20
11:00 pm

Suetsukata
The dining room was a buzz of talking, growling, laughing, and singing (sometimes it was hard to tell the four apart) laid beneath the ambience of clinking glasses and the sizzling grill. Not even counting the private booths hidden in the back of the room, the bizarreness on display in the establishment was dizzying.

A pair of toads the size of full-grown men were sharing drinks at the bar, wearing loincloths and small, pointy black hats. Behind them, a being that looked like ambulatory pile of golden straw was making its way unsteadily back to its table, where an icily beautiful yuki onna had just recomposed her makeup and was awaiting its return. Across from them was a group of seemingly normal men in contemporary clothing, though closer examination revealed that they all had massively overgrown beards inside which various birds and small mammals could be seen nesting, occasionally darting down to the table to grab a morsel to eat. Towards the back of the room, a French melusine in town on business was talking excitedly with a representative from the local onmyo school over glacial water cocktails. The melusine was one of the fae, and not reared with mortal proprieties, and her garb of only a scrap of flowing water had been turning heads all night.

It was, in other words, just your regular summer dinner rush. Maybe it was a little bit busier than usual, as summer in Osaka meant festivals, and festivals meant that the spirits were making a little extra thanks to all the temple offerings and fervent prayers released into the Nevernever. When the spirits were happy, Suetsukata thrived, and that was just fine with Kuramoto Kaito.

Kaito was, at that moment, standing in the kitchen inspecting dishes as they were readied to be taken to a few special customers. The inspections probably weren’t necessary, strictly speaking. Irori, their chef and fire kami, was a professional, an artisan in the hearth, and he had forgotten more about fine dining than most chefs ever learned. But it paid to be a little extra careful in an establishment that counted vampires, sentient volcanic eruptions, and plain mortals alike among its regular customers, where dietary restrictions from one group to another could be a little more serious than your average peanut allergy.

So Kaito inspected, while his star waitresses Natalie and Awa waited for clearance to take the food to customers. One set of plates was going to room 2, where some sort of sensitive negotiations were occurring between the Blue Monks and a foreign dignitary named King Percival. Ghostis, a sometime ally of both Kaito and Natalie, was overseeing the negotiations as a neutral arbiter. Kaito didn’t know what was going on in that room precisely, but he had a knack for telling when things were serious, and he wanted to be sure that their food (and they had ordered a lot of food) was perfect. Nothing helped establish a productive mood in negotiations like a satisfied body and mind.

The other set of plates were for the party in room 5. That party was much more rambunctious, and made up entirely of normal humans, albeit humans that had honed their skill with a katana in service of the local yakuza families. They could be a terror out on the streets of Osaka, but respected the peace and the traditions of Suetsukata as well as any signatory of the Accords. Today they were celebrating the admittance of a new batch of new blood into their ranks, and were accordingly festive. Their order was also huge, mostly consisting of booze and grilled meat. There were enough glasses and dishes between the two rooms that Kaito would have to help the girls carry them to the rooms if he wanted them to be on time, and he knew that the swordsmen at least would not be happy to be kept waiting.

While Kaito finished up his inspections, Awa was chatting with Natalie. “I swear, another one of those Yakuza creeps puts a hand on my butt, I’m chopping off his pinky and plopping it into his sake. Why is it that humans are always the worst customers? And they have the nerve to call us monsters!”

They were behind the small cloth curtain that separated the dining room from the kitchen area, which was enchanted so that nobody could hear their chitchat. So Awa could speak freely, which she always did. She was speaking to Natalie and not really including Kaito, but she wasn’t trying to avoid letting him overhear either.

“Natalie,” Awa said, with a pleading tone in her voice. She put her hands together and gave Natalie a begging look. “You take room 5, please? I can’t stand going in there again. I’ll owe you one . . . I’ll carry out the tray the next time an akanami orders something from the bathroom menu. Pretty please?”
”We don’t accept any renegotiation or delay of this contract. We concluded negotiations and delivered our portion of the payment in good faith, and the terms of the agreement are clear! The domain of Listeneise is completely responsible for fulfilling its half of the contract in a timely manner, new leadership notwithstanding. We demand that the goods be delivered forthwith!”

Or at least, that’s what the creature’s words meant. When it spoke, it was in a mumbling, low-pitched voice interspersed with the occasional screech that sounded sort of like a refrigerator motor that was trying to cough up an angry kitten.

King Percival, new ruler of the domain of Listeneise and sovereign of all its subjects, did not understand a single word the small, blue, one-eyed man was saying, nor anything that its three identical-looking brothers had said all night. Being King came with a lot of perks, including many powers he still understood only poorly, but here in neutral ground none of that powers let him understand the odd speech of the Blue Monks, a tiny race of Japanese fae.

That’s why he had an interpreter, the inscrutable man known as ‘Ghostis’. Ghostis was sitting in the same small, private room as Percy and the four Blue Monks, seated at the head of the small round table. Percy and the head of the monks were facing each other across the table, with empty plates and glasses littered around the area as evidence of their several hours of fruitless negotiation.

Ghostis had picked up enough of the Blue Monk tongue on a previous exploit (it wasn’t that different from Okinawan, once you got the guttural atonals straight), and so he had offered his services to try and reach a compromise on this situation before the misunderstanding expanded into something serious. It had been slow going so far.

The crux of the issue was simple. Percival, as the head of Listeneise, had been unexpectedly thrust into the role of presiding over all its affairs. Some of those affairs included relations with other supernatural powers, including contracts and other agreements signed by his predecessor, a nasty piece of work indeed. Supernatural contracts tended to recognize the position, i.e. the King of Listeneise, rather than the holder of the position, i.e. one Percival Low rather than the departed Augustine Lagios. That meant that Percival was responsible for fulfilling agreements that Lagios had agreed to.

Percy’s footman in Listeneise had explained it to him back in the Nevernever. In the supernatural world, this was seen as a reasonable stipulation for a contract. After all, one didn’t want to do their part of a bargain only to find that the other party had wiggled out of having to pay by the simple expedient of killing one ruler and replacing him with another. And that was understandable. So far, so good, if a bit of a pain in the arse for Percy.

The problem came from what the ‘payment’ constituted in this particular contract. Four human women, all virgins before the age of majority, all to be delivered to the Blue Monks as brides. Apparently this kind of payment was common hat for Lagios, a White Court vampire who fed on vulnerable human beings. But it was proving to be a bit of a sticking point for Percy. If he didn’t deliver the ‘payment’, or at least get the Blue Monks to agree with some alternate compensation, they would have a legitimate grievance against Listeneise, and that would necessitate violence. And as his footman had described it, even his considerable powers as King could be fatally hampered against someone who had a legitimate grievance of a broken contract. As new and inexperienced as Percy was, a straight-up fight was something to be avoided.

He just needed to find out how to wriggle out of this.

“We want our wives, tonight!” demanded the Monk, looking at Ghostis impatiently with his one eye and waiting for the placid man to translate.
http://s22.postimg.org/ob18ri3w1/yokai_monsters_ao_bozu_by_loneanimator_d5ooqzq.jpg

The Cosplay Cafe

The group by the door being loud were just punk kids, but they smelled like blood. Hero recognized their type; they had probably been ganging up on someone too weak to defend themselves before stopping here for a drink and some sweets. There wasn’t a lot, but the smell was unmistakable, even over the scent of cake and tea and cheap perfume. One of the waitresses smelled like blood too, but not fear. She was a little slow to run drinks to her side of the cafe, was probably her time of the month.

It wasn’t something he wanted to know about her, but being a vampire was like that. Since being changed he saw (or heard, or smelled) the world in a different way, and the urges of his Thirst were very often at odds with what his mind wanted. For now.

“Hey Hero, are you listening?”

His attention snapped back to the man who was talking to him, Gai. A friend from both baseball and aikido, Gai was a big . . . guy, a teacher at the dojo and a second-baseman for the baseball team Hero had played for. Gai had been in the military and spent some time in England for work, and he had been a welcome friend back when Hero had first moved to Osaka.

Now he looked worried, though in a manly, ‘I’m not going to say that I’m worried I’m just going to pretend I’m only giving you a hard time’ kind of way. Japan might be in a different cultural galaxy than the Naval Academy, but people were still people. Gai had asked Hero out to this place, a rather ridiculous cosplay cafe, on the pretext of checking out the cute young girls. Hero suspected, though, that Gai was checking up on him. And who could blame him? Hero hadn’t exactly been around much recently, and hadn’t told any of his friends why. What was he supposed to say? Hallmark didn’t have a card for ‘I’ve been turned into a vampire by a blood dragon and asked to refound a bloodsucking nation’, and even Japanese didn’t have a set formal ritual for that situation.

“Welcome back to Earth, Hero. I was asking how your mother has been. Is she feeling any better? My wife says that she can get some more of that medicinal tea if you’ve gone through the first box. We haven’t seen you for so long you must be needing some more soon.”

As he spoke, Gai raised a hand to try to flag down one of the waitresses. He tried to get the attention of a foreign-looking girl, who was dressed in a very nice outfit that could make a guy think that, even if Gai was a bit ridiculous for asking to meet in a place like this, at least he chose a good one. Man, the guys at back at the Academy in Annapolis would have been kicked out of a place like this in thirty seconds.

Gai had been a great help to Hero in the time since he moved to Japan, and to his mother too. Hero felt that he owed the man some kind of explanation, or even just an excuse. But what was he supposed to say?

It was a busy day, but that meant that there were lots of interesting people in the cafe, and it was always nice to meet new people. Unfortunately they were short-staffed tonight, as another waitress just didn’t show up, which combined with how Hina hadn’t been in all week meant that there were three girls to do the work of five, but Yuki thrived on challenges like that. As her mother used to say, you can’t work your way to the top without doing some work!

So she was stretched pretty thin, but she had it under control. She had to take care to make sure that her regulars still got to see her and chat with her, though, it was one of the things the cafe was famous for, and her regulars paid a good portion of her salary. Plus, they came in so faithfully just to spend some time with her, it was her responsibility not to disappoint.

Especially Haruto, the nice man in the corner who worked for the local train company, and came in to see her every weekend. He always seemed like sort of a lonely person, though very polite, and he tipped very well. He looked especially down today though, and had barely said a word to her beyond his order even though he’d been at the cafe for almost an hour. Maybe part of it was that he was sitting next to a big bunch of rowdy hooligans; he was shy enough that they might be putting him off his tea. She should probably go and talk to him a bit to see if he was still okay, it seemed the nice thing to do. Of course, she had a million other things to pay attention to right now, and the kitchen was late to get the food out again. It looked like it was going to be a long night.

[Captain Carrot]

<First, let's see if we can fulfill this contract without feeling like bastards afterwards.> (in English, to Percy)

"Gentlemen, the king has no intention of breaking this contract, but he must always have an eye on his reputation. A king cannot be compared to a dog, honored Inugami notwithstanding. Therefore, he will need your assurance that these wives will be treated with honor and respect; trained in their expected duties as one would school a new employee, rather than a wayward servant, and courted as a gentleman would, such that the household will be conducive to the proper raising of children. The view of traditional marriage as the husband being head of the household and instructing his wife must have instruction conveyed with affection and patience, and obedience should be to a worthy superior."

Ghostis fervently hopes that the Blue Monks won't be creepy-ass bastards; if he has good reason to believe the women will be treated well, he can go to Osaka's homeless shelters and offer four women a weird but most likely better life than what they probably have in store with a clean conscience. He searches his memory to recall the general behavior of Blue Monks; would they be insulted at the implicit challenge to their honor, and would they attempt to lie about their marriage practices to gain the benefits of a contract, if said practices did not fulfill his requirements? He also keeps a close eye on their body language -- how upset are they, exactly? Are they liable to lose their tempers and escalate the situation if things don't go to their liking, or are they temporarily worked up?
Rolled 3 for Lore and 2 for Rapport on those checks

Hmm. The wives are mostly a status thing, but it wouldn't be hard to argue that treating them well would be better for bragging rights. Blue Monks' wives didn't tend to live very long, but only because the Aobozu were bad at taking care of them, not malice. Something about their urgency didn't sit quite right, but that would, with luck, not be a problem, and could be explored in greater detail if need be.

"Remember, moreover, that a wife brings far greater respect and esteem to her husband if she is clearly of sound mind and body. Scorn is heaped at the mate of a woman with missing teeth, a ragged kimono, and dirty feet, while bows are deep to a long-established harmonious coupling."

[Hemnon]

Yuki loved feeling busy. it took the mind off of unwanted thoughts and it made her feel like she was doing her part of the workload. She had already noticed Haruto, as well as the rather loud and rude Hooligans, and thus made her way, on rollerskates and all, over to the table with the hooligans first. She knew that if she went wrong on this, Haruto might end up feeling even worse, so instead Yuki planned her approach to be more 'Over All', rather than directly pointing out specific people.

swirling to a halt infront of the Hooligans' Table, Yuki flashed them a genuine smile and said: "Excuse me, I do not mean to sound rude or anything, but would you all be so kind as to lower your voices a little bit? Everyone here are trying to enjoy some calm and relaxed social-time after all. But on another note, can i get you all something else, if you're done with what you have?" She asked, clearly trying her best to make everyone happy.

I guess this would be a Rapport Roll to try and get the Hooligans to see my side of things? if so, here's the roll.
Rapport skill is at Good (+3).
[roll0] = 0-1+0-1+3 = +1 total.

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito nods with satisfaction. Irori had done his job perfectly, as always. It had been a somewhat hectic night, with all the visitors of both the mundane and supernatural variety and their competing demands, but it had been handled the same as it had for the past thousand years.

Of course, handling it meant delivery everything on time, and it looked like that might be a bit of a challenge. He could have used more staff, but Suetsukata wasn't exactly the sort of place for a clueless mortal to pick up a part-time job. They would just have to make do, as always. "Awa, you take Room 2. Just get a bottle of sake and something for them to snack on for now - the gyoza will probably do. They'll hopefully be too interested in whatever they're talking about to be serious about eating. Natalie and I will take Room 5; they'll be a bit more demanding about receiving their refreshments." Not to mention that the Yakuza would probably be a bit more leery of laying a hand on Natalie, at least if she brought her predatory self to the fore. Nobody got to survive in a criminal gang for very long by messing with somebody that triggered that primitive response deep down that let you know: you're dealing with something that can and will eat you.

Kaito hefts a crate of beer and a plate of skewers and walks to Room 5.

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

Half of the kids kept talking while Yuki addressed them, but the guy closest to her looked at her as she spoke. In fact, he looked her up and down, then smiled appreciatively. He gave her a sleezy grin when he met her eyes again.

"Sure, babe. We'll keep the noise down. Guys. GUYS. HEY!" He smacked one of his friends, who was laughing with the rest of them and ignoring him, on the back of the head. "Guys, the nice lady is asking us to keep it down. Think of other people, huh? They're trying to relax here." His friend, who was a little overweight and looked like he was used to being smacked by the other guy, was about to say something, but then he saw Yuki. He and the rest of them got a little quieter, but still kept on talking at a level above the general ambient sound in the cafe.

The kid who had been talking to her already smiled at Yuki. He was well-built, had bleached tips on his hair, lots of black in his wardrobe, and generally looked like either the cover of a pop album or an ad for a hair stylist in Shibuya. His dialect was distinclty Osakan, with shades of arrogant street punk thrown in for good measure. "You speak really good Japanese for a foreigner. Are you a student or something?"

[Hemnon]

Yuki smiled widely as their overall tone-level was lowered down, even if it WASN'T down to the level of everyone else. "Thank you very much for respecting everyone else~" She responded prior to getting questioned about her etnicity.
She blinked a bit, her eyes behind her glasses clearly indicating that she felt a bit cornered. "Um, i actually dunno. My Adoptive parents are Japanese on Father's side and British on my mother's. I think im of the same mix, but i do not know. i don't remember much before i was adopted at 8 years old." She replied, directing her gaze up at the Boy's own eyes, knowing that her glasses will stop that 'Thing' from happening again. And then with a quick twirl, she turned herself 90 degrees on her rollerskates turned her hips slightly so she was still looking towards the Hooligan-boys, giving them all a pleasant smile before saying: "If any of you need something, don't hesitate calling. The Name's Yuki btw~" She said, pointing at the nametag pinned onto the maid-uniform covering her nicely shaped body... and well-developed chest.
Yuki then gave herself a little puff forward and halted next to Haruto, slinging herself into the empty seat in front of him, resting her head in her hands that she'd rested down against the table. "Hello Mister Haruto, How are you today? Can i get you something else? a piece of cake maybe? or a fresh cup of tea?" She asked him, her ever-present smile there on her lips. She brushed back her white hair from her face, clearly wishing she'd remembered to bring a hairband or some such to tie up her hair into a ponytail like she usually did, but due to being called in at work earlier than usual, she had totally forgotten to bring one. So for now she had to go Commando, so to speak, with her hair.

[LordHavelock]

Hero's preoccupation was only half focused on the smell of blood; just as strong was the undercurrent of predatory instinct that accompanied it. Back at the academy, there was a certain amount of pride one took in being a midshipman, a student (not a townie), and in your year's class or crop, and that extended to standing your ground in the face of 'trespassers', but it was at the best of times all in good fun. As far as he'd been able to determine, there was nothing 'fun' about the not so subtle drive he now possessed to protect his hunting grounds from interlopers, and to keep cowed the prey which lived within. 'I can't even imagine thinking in those terms a year ago.' he reflected, and that frightened him as much as anything. Professor Brand, had always taught him to keep his thoughts guarded, lest they give rise to action in any number of ways, but now even that was called in to question. 'How do I know those punks over there aren't like me? Just better at hiding it . . . ?'

But then, Gai was calling him back to reality and he realized he had still been listening pretty acutely despite his mind being other places. "Oh? Yeah, I mean, I'm sure she would want some more. If she knew it was helping." He looked a bit sheepish as he scratched the back of his head, his ash blonde hair having grown out in recent months, at least from the close cropped military style that had been his standard cut since 'Hero' was 10. "You know how she is Gai, she doesn't want anything special to help her get through this. So I just switched it out with her usual tea and told her I'd started buying a new brand, one that I liked better. Still can't believe she bought that considering how bad it tastes." He laughed and took a pull at the coffee in front of him, catching a look at the only other foreign looking person in the establishment. Fortunately for her, it was the kind of mixed heritage which could be considered cute and exotic at the same time. 'Hero' had no such luck; as if an unpronounceable name wasn't enough, he looked positively alien walking down any street here in Osaka. Scratch that, he looked like a giant alien, standing a handful of centimeters under 2 meters and weighing in a whole weight class higher than the next heaviest player on their team behind Gai and himself.

"I know how she feels though on a deeper level though. She'll never be able to continue on as a Marine in her previous capacity, and I think a medical discharge might come closer to killing her than that IED did." He shook his head. 'At least she had a career. I don't even know if I could pass a physical exam to be admitted any more . . .' Hero thought, the greatest irony being just how physically 'fit' he was compared to before.

[Steel Mirror]

Hero

Gai laughed at Hero's comment on the taste of the tea. "That's how you know it's good for you! You see this," and he gestured to the tall, empty glass of what had been iced milk-tea a few moments earlier. "This is delicious, which is how I know it's killing me slowly. And I'm going to get another one." He kept trying, fruitlessly, to get the attention of one of the waitresses. The place seemed to be pretty short-handed, considering how busy it was. The mixed waitress looked like she was trying to deal with the rowdy kids, who seemed to be extra interested in her.

Gai shrugged and gave up on that for the moment. He turned back to Hero with a slightly more serious expression. "I know it's been hard for her, I really do. And you've been a good son, your sister has been a good daughter. You mother is very lucky to have you two to help her through this."

"But you have to spend some time on yourself, too. We haven't seen you around recently anywhere, you could have been shipped out to Yemen or Russia or something for all we've seen of you. I talked to Sakura the other day, she said that you two had a kind-of date and then you disappeared off the face of the Earth! She was worried she did something to offend you."

"We have a game this weekend, and our batting order has never been the same since we lost our star hitter. What do you think? Want to come down to the park and show those Kyoto jerks some American home run power?" He smiled and bobbed his eyebrows. "If I tell Sakura that you are playing, maybe she'll go to watch the game."

Yuki

Haruto bowed very politely as Yuki checked up on him, blushing slightly. "Ah, y-yes, please." He opened the menu and pointed to their weekly special, a tea set menu that was one of the most expensive things they offered at the cafe. Haruto always seemed to gravitate towards the expensive things; he claimed that he felt bad for taking up so much of Yuki's time when he came to visit. Considering that he'd already bought three cups of tea, a slice of cake, inarizushi, and some sweet biscuits, he was going to be spending quite a lot today. About 20,000 yen, in fact, which was a lot even for him.

And yet despite that, he still seemed more reserved than usual. Usually he managed a smile and a little bit of small talk whenever she visited his table, but other than pointing at his selection ont he menu he was silent.

[Hemnon]

Yuki had a worries look in her eyes for a second before lightening up a little again. "Um... Haruto, is something the matter? you don't look too well." She asked, concern in her eyes. She had kept her voice low enough to keep the conversation private of course. Her deep, Lovely green eyes were looking up at Haruto's own eyes, trying to catch some eyecontact, hopefully so she can catch a hint of what's wrong. Eyes are the windows to the soul after all~

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

Haruto quickly averted his glance, but more out of nervousness than trying to evade engaging with her. He thought for a moment, then seemed to come to a decision. His sat up in his seat and squared his shoulders as though he'd just put down a heavy burden.

"I . . . I hear things about . . . this cafe. And about you. Things that sound a little . . . weird." He looked across the cafe at a group of men and women with cat ears and tails chatting over an order of curry. Those people actually were mortals, just in cosplay, but there had been cat spirits in the cafe before, so it wasn't a completely crazy suspicion to have.

"I'm worried I'm going crazy, and I just needed to talk to someone about it."

[Hemnon]

Yuki blinked a little confused, surprised at Haruto's words. Sure she had seen some stuff and had a wizard sorta tell her what was what... but about HER? She wasn't anything special though. it's not like she was an ancient spirit that protected a children's Ward in a hospital, or a Daemon from hell.
"Well, sure, i can agree with you that a few odd people come here. Trust me on this, Haruto, it's not like you're going crazy or anything." She said with a smile, clearly being quite serious about it. Although perhaps she was a little vague on the details.
"I don't know everything, and it's not like i can recommend that you ask more deeply. But if you feel that you know more, please, just ask. I'll answer what i can if it will put your mind more at ease~" She continued, clearly indicating a warning here. She didn't want him to rush into it, but at the same time, she was worried for him. He did like very skittish and out of it. "So. Which question comes first? but please remember that I don't know everything."

[LordHavelock]

Gai might have been trying to encourage him, but the fact was Hero knew better than how good a son he had been. The incident with the Yakuza last month had very nearly exposed his secret and worse, gotten his younger sister hurt. She was the real victim here, especially since it was her left covering for the absent son and taking care of their mother while he ran 'errands' for the Professor. It hurt Hero's head to try and wrap himself around everything he had scene since, and he knew that was the part Gai would never understand. 'It's like you have to have lived for centuries just to buy in to the whole mess in the first place.' He'd been initially skeptical, as anyone would have, but there was no way he could deny it after seeing the Professor for what he truly was, and since accepting his fate, there was a deeper part of him that knew what he had seen was only the tip of the iceberg.

'Abhorrax' Just thinking those few syllables caused a twinge at his breast, just over his heart, where he bore the brand. But then, Gai was continuing with another name which put him almost as equally on edge. "No, no it was nothing Sakura did." Hero replied, trying to sound convincing, "It was just . . . I don't know, the way I left things with my girl back in the states I don't want to jump the gun on anything else." That was a lie he was more used to telling at least. His 'girl back home' had been an early developed ploy since coming here as a way to defer the attention of any girls interested in having a 'hunky American boyfriend'. Sakura had been the first real date he'd gone on since arriving in Osaka, but after he'd received the mark, a sort of way to return to normalcy for Hero. It had almost gone horribly wrong though, as Sakura's blatant affections had set off all his worst instincts, and his mark had nearly fully manifested in the cafe they had gone to.

The prospect of a game though, the chance to slug some balls over the fence, pound the dirt and run the bases . . . "Don't worry about mentioning the game to Sakura. I'm sure she'll here about it after I send those Kyoto boys home in pieces." Hero slugged his fist in to his open palm and held up his hand for Gai to do the same. 'Why shouldn't I?' He thought, 'Maybe sports can be a good outlet for the power. A controlled setting. Hell, if I used my full strength on the field I bet there'd be scouts for the majors all over me.' Not that professional sports had ever really appealed to Hero, and besides, he'd no idea how his blood would show up now on any kind of test they might run (screening for drugs or steroids). Better to keep it under wraps, and just be the biggest amateur hitter the district had scene in a good long while.

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

Yuki's kindness was rewarded with a small smile. Haruto looked around again, as though to be sure that they were alone. It was a crowded cafe, so it wasn't exactly ideal privacy, but everyone else looked involved in their own conversations. Except for the guy at the table full of loud youngsters, who was openly watching Yuki from a dozen meters away, but he probably couldn't overhear anything from there. Still, Haruto leaned in and pitched his voice lower before speaking again.

"I work for JR," he began, referring to the public company that ran most of the commuter trains in Osaka and more widely in Japan. Yuki already knew that, she'd seen him in his uniform plenty of times and chatted with him about trains before, but Haruto seemed to want to start from the beginning. "I usually run the morning commute, but about three months ago I had the opportunity to pick up another shift, at night. It was better pay for a job at a less hectic time, so I jumped at it."

"It's a very strange shift, though. First of all, even though it operates from Nanba on green line, the train is called the 'Black Line'. It's the only train that is called that. The train leaves from Nanba station at midnight precisely, and runs until dawn. That was the first strange thing I noticed; all train schedules are very precise, down to the minute, so that the customer can always rely on the train arriving at the precise right time. They should be able to set their watch to the arrival. Yet, the Black Line runs until dawn, changing a few minutes every day, never lasting the same amount of time."

"On top of all that..." His voice trailed off, and he looked uncomfortable. "It's strange. I run the train, I pick up commuters, I make the announcements about where we are stopping next, and all the other things that you do on a shift. I can remember doing that every night, but it's always . . . fuzzy. I could tell you whether it was a busy night or a quiet one, or if anything unusual happened like having to stop if there is something on the tracks, but I can never remember any of the specifics. I couldn't tell you what anyone looked like, or even what the rail stations looked like. I do my job in kind of a haze, and then I go home."

"Nobody really likes to talk about the Black Line, and it is good pay, so I tried not to think too much about it. Until recently." Haruto bent over and began rolling up the leg of his pants. "Something has been happening for the past four nights that makes it hard for me to keep ignoring it."

He rolled up his pants to reveal a normal, somewhat hairy, but overall average leg. Average except for the five wounds, each perfectly circular with the circumference of about a pencil, that were arranged in a star pattern across the back of his thigh. At a glance, they looked to be exactly evenly spaced, and each one was also rather deep, like something had scooped out a little half-sphere of flesh, leaving the skin behind strangely cauterized. It was a singularly bizarre wound.

"I have no idea how I got this, but I've gotten a new one, identical each time, after every Black Line shift I've done for four nights. I had no idea who to talk to about it, and my supervisors don't want to hear about it. My shift starts in an hour, and I've run out of ideas of what to do."



Hero

Gai shrugged at Hero's talk of Sakura and not wanting to get involved, and if Hero knew him he was probably holding back a desire to set him up with her. Gai seemed placated by Hero's acceptance of the invitation to the game, though. "Great! I'm telling you, those Kyoto Sharks guys are real jerks, they're always looking down on us just because we haven't won a match against them for a few years. We're going to show them."

Gai pulled out a pen and began excitedly filling Hero in on the opposing team, including stats on their star pitcher, their strongest outfield players, hitters to watch out for, and all the other minutia that only a truly devoted baseball player or fan could call up at will from memory. Gai was a youngish man still by most standards, but he had been around for long enough that he was getting towards being a manager himself soon instead of a player, and his strategic talk about the Kyoto Sharks seemed to indicate that he would make the transition well.

Hero's attention to the baseball talk was split, though. He couldn't help but notice that the punk kids were starting to increase in volume yet again, and the one that looked like their leader was still looking unblinkingly at the waitress who had asked him to quiet down. Hero recognized that look. It was the look you saw on a crocodile before it snatched a water buffalo at the watering hole. Unwillingly, he smelled the blood in the air again, coming from the kid.

If you'd like, give me an awareness check to notice anything else of interest about this situation. If you have another skill that you think might be useful, feel free to roll it and give me your justification, and if I like it I'll use that roll, too.

[Hemnon]

Yuki licked her lips a bit. she wasn't very knowledgeable about this, but to her it sounded very much like a standard 'Vampire' attack. Although she did not know if it worked like the movies or books. "I don't really know what would have done that to you. It sounds like something out of those Western.-style horror movies, Vampires you know.... but is that even possible though? i mean, sure some strange things happen and not everyone are 'normal'. But actual Vampires? I really do not know" She said, suckling at her lower lip a little bit. "But the best advice i can give? Don't go to work today. If you can't remember what have happened all night, repeatedly, with wounds you cannot explain.... well I'd say: Do not go. it's not worth it. Will you promise me that you don't take the night shifts anymore? please, It sounds very scetchy and unsafe. So please don't do it. It's worth neither to extra money OR your own safety. I wish i knew someone i could refer you to about this.... Only the owner of this cafë might know something, but that person is a real nutcase if you ask me." She finised off, trying to keep it Light, but still retaining the seriousness in her warning.
Her eyes looked like a pair of big, Emerald moons behind her glasses.

[Steel Mirror]

Kaito and Natalie

"Thank you, boss. You're the best!" Awa grabbed a dozen drinks and a plate of dumplings with surprising ease, then glided smoothly towards the opening to the rest of the restaurant. Kaito and Natalie could here her chatting smoothly but politely to various patrons as she passed them on the way to the private rooms. Her speech was far more formal and even her voice pitched higher and more sweetly with the customers than it had been with the staff. Well, she was a professional after all.

Kaito shouldered a wide tray stacked with plates of skewered meat and spring onions, and set out for the other major private group. Natalie followed in his wake with several expensive bottles and enough dried squid to bait a tuna trawler. As they passed through the dining room, various spirits and clued-in mortals gave Kaito a respectful dip of the head. He was their host at the moment, which engendered a certain consideration in anyone who took part in the supernatural world, but he was also a figure of some repute in Osaka and the environment. Even if he hadn't ever had important interactions with the creatures in the room, chances were that someone in his ancestry had, and this was the type of crowd to remember such obligations.

They made it through the relaxed group of patrons and to private room 5, where a more boisterous party was going on. Only a thin paper door stood between them and the group inside, and shadows and movement were easily discerned within. Natalie and Kaito could already hear someone singing along to 'Shake it Off' in badly, badly accented English. Natalie knocked on the door to let the people know that they were entering, then pulled aside the sliding screen so that they could deliver the snacks.

They were greeted with quite the scene: the table in the center of the room was lying in two pieces, split down the middle by a mighty blow. Plates and remnants of food were scattered across the floor, and most of the two dozen people in the room were pressed up against the walls and away from the mess. There, in the middle, were two people with swords, glaring at each other across the wreckage. Both were dressed in samurai-style robes with their upper bodies bare, revealing an impressive coverage of vivid Japanese style tattoos covering almost every square centimeter of skin below the neck. One, a man, looked to be no older than 18, and had bleached hair. The other, a woman, could have been 14 or 20, had short hair tied into a warrior's knot, white bandages wrapped tightly around her chest, and an expression that spoke bloodlust and bloody murder.

The tableau froze for an instant as everyone turned to look at Kaito and Natalie, standing in the doorway.

[Steel Mirror]

Percy and Ghostis

The Blue Monks huddled together in council to discuss Ghostis' words, while King Percy looked on and contemplated his next move. Or maybe he was contemplating what ridiculous contortions his life had gone through recently that left him negotiating with pint-sized blue cyclops about mail-order brides.

Though it was hard to see into the middle of the group as they bickered, Ghostis could see the flash of something light in one of their hands, and the rustling of paper. At one point, two of them seemed to fight for possession of whatever the object was, and he could plainly overhear a protest of <"You'll tear it!"> from a third Monk. They growled and muttered at each other fiercely until their leader finally shouted them down. He turned back to the two humans and spoke.

<"We know about wives! We are not fools. Do you think we would go through all the trouble to fulfill our terms of the bargain, only to let the payment for our labors shrivel from neglect? We will care for them and ensure they are healthy, and our clan will be the envy of all Kansai!">

His brothers nodded fervently in agreement as he spoke. Ghostis noticed that one of them was still clutching the object from before in its hands, though it was enveloped in its robes so he could only make out that it was some kind of paper. Maybe a scroll, or thin book.

<"We were promised that Listeneise could provide us with such wives. Do you say now that your kingdom will go back on its word?">

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

Haruto blinked in surprise, struggling with words for a moment. Finally he managed, "Not go to work? Just . . . not show up? That's . . . I could never . . . " Words failed him for a few moments more.

Japanese society was renowned the world over for how seriously people took their work, but even those people who knew that stereotype might be surprised with the degree of dedication and passion that train workers had for their positions here in Osaka. It was a hard thing for an outsider (outsider being defined here as 'anyone who isn't a worker for JR or a like-minded train fanatic') to understand, but train conductors had a reputation for professionalism and seriousness. It was how a hundred different trains running for twenty hours a day and moving millions of people at a time could run so smoothly that the train stops were accurate to the minute. There were tales of conductors showing up to work with a broken arm, or the day after surgery, or while suffering from horrible food poisoning.

Judging from his expression, Haruto seemed to be very much of that sort of opinion about the importance of his work. "I couldn't do such a thing! The train, my coworkers, all the customers. They all depend on me!" From his tone of voice, you might think he was talking about being in charge of containment at a nuclear reactor rather than a train, but he was nothing if not genuinely horrified at the thought.

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito's face freezes into a look of shock for a moment before slowly wrenching itself into a polite smile. "Excuse me, honored guests, we are here with your food. We regret that our shoddy table seems to collapsed - if you would give us but a moment, we will retrieve a new one for you so that you may all enjoy your meal together. It is such a pleasant activity to eat together, is it not? Over good food such as this, what sort of enmity could hold, and who would be rude enough to draw blood at such a celebration?"

He begins to set down the plates on various side tables, giving time for the armed and angry yakuza to sheathe their swords and save face.

[Steel Mirror]

Kaito

Behind Kaito's shoulder, Natalie the waitress had dropped one of the sake bottles. Her hand was clenching and unclenching, and Kaito noticed that her fingernails seemed elongated and sharpened. They clicked softly as they bumped into each other, and glinted with an almost metallic sheen.

Fortunately none of the other people noticed; they were too busy focused on Kaito and the two swordsmen. If Kaito noticed the tension in the air he didn't give any sign, bustling efficiently and determinedly with the food he had brought with him.

A wheezing laugh could be heard from the furthest corner of the room, audible thanks to the fact that nobody had dared to move since Kaito came in. A dozen heads turned in unison to face the source, a middle-aged Japanese man dressed in a ridiculously expensive western-style suit. In his left hand he held a cigar, but his right sleeve was flat at his side. He'd lost the arm in some disagreement a few years before, at the same time that he'd gotten the scars that marred his face. Despite that, he was still known as the deadliest and most accomplished swordsman in Southern Japan. His name was Takahiro but, this being the yakuza, he was also known by another name: Yaro. Roughly translated: bastard. Apparently he had been dubbed as such early in his career by a rival gang, and the name had stuck. He seemed to enjoy it.

He was enjoying himself now, too. "The innkeeper is right! You two should keep it down indoors, some of us are trying to drink." Yaro handed his cigar to a young man who was sitting next to him, then took a drink of sake from the shallow cup sitting at the table nearby. The young man then handed back the cigar, and carefully refilled the cup with sake. Yaro took a puff, savoring the flavor. "Now put away those swords before you wreck any more of this shoddy furniture. I know you don't want to put our host to any further inconvenience."

The boy with the sword immediately straightened, and sheathed his sword. He bowed twice, once deeply to Yaro, and once to Kaito. "Please, Kuramoto," he said. "It was not your furniture at fault, it was my own clumsiness. I am young and inexperienced, and I've been celebrating perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. I'm not used to the strength of the drinks you serve. Accept my apologies, and I will pay for the damage we caused." His words, while formal and proper, did not seem especially sincere. He was acting a part, probably for the benefit of his superior, but at least he was calming down.

The girl, on the other hand, wasn't putting on any act at all. Her sword remained out, her knuckles whitening with the strain of gripping the hilt. She stared at the guy's exposed back for a moment, body tensed, and it seemed that she might strike. The bleach-haired guy managed to shoot her a look out of the corner of his eye, and shot her a wink even as he finished speaking his apology to Kaito.

She narrowed her eyes in a look that promised that 'this isn't over', but she put her sword away and stalked out of the room in a huff. Despite the fact that she was wearing soft slippers (shoes were left at the front of the restaurant), she managed to stomp her way towards the bathrooms loudly.

Yaro chuckled again, wheezing a bit as he did. "Well, show's over everyone! Now someone take over on the karaoke machine, Hida's voice is hurting my ears!" The assembled people, most of them younger than twenty, by the looks of it, started milling around again, several of them moving to help clean up the broken table as Kaito and Natalie continued to lay out the food. When Kaito approached to take away some empty bottles and replace them with new ones, Yaro spoke. "Sorry about that, my friend. You know how kids can be when they are celebrating. I swear every year they get younger and stupider, but I can't blame anyone. I'm the one who trained them!"

[Halae]

Natalie

Natalie suppresses a growl in her throat, cutting it off before she does more damage to the situation. The claws retract, becoming normal fingers once more as she reaches down for the dropped sake bottle. Best to play the part of a worried waitress, rather than a bouncer. Kaito seems to have this situation well in hand, after all.

For the moment she moves into the room, going about to collect empty dishes and the like. The cups she leaves though, unless Kaito wants to cut them off, given the rampant unpleasantness here. During her transformation, though, she shifts a bit. As much as she may appreciate men finding her sexy, she doesn't want to be groped, particularly by this crowd.

Natalie transfers out the claws to give herself supernatural speed. All the better to dodge grabby hands with.

[Steel Mirror]

Natalie and Kaito

As Natalie moved around the room, she mostly managed to avoid the worst of what Awa had warned her about. The kids managed to keep their hands to themselves, even if their eyes did a bit of wandering. Several of them were laughing about the almost-fight, and a group of them were gathered around the bleached-hair kid, joking with him about it. Natalie noted that every one of them had tattoos visible just under their identical loose-fitting robes, though some of them were considerably less extensive than the full body-covering shown off by the boy and the woman who had just left. About two thirds of the people in the room were men, the rest women, but they all talked and laughed together and were about the same age. From what she could recall, they were celebrating some kind of graduation. Maybe it had something to do with the shiny, brand new swords that each of them had at their sides.

In any case, their distraction meant that she could do her job with little interference. She cleaned up some of the spilled food from the sadly departed table (a genuine antique work of art, like pretty much all the furniture in Suetsukata), wrinkling her nose a bit at the strong smell of vinegar that hit her all of a sudden from something or other that must have spilled. Irori was a great chef, but there was no accounting for taste. Somebody must have ordered one of the weird things off their seemingly endless menu.

As she was reaching for a scattering of half-chewed bamboo skewers, a hand reached down and grabbed them first. Looking up, she saw the smiling face of the bleach-haired swordsman who had been part of the faceoff when they first walked in. "I'm sorry for making your job harder, my lady. Allow me to help you with cleaning up the mess. It's the least I can do to apologize for putting you to such an inconvenience."

[Halae]

Natalie

In her mind, Natalie is looking over the man curiously, wondering what his angle is. He'd barely stopped himself from attacking the other person. One had to wonder what he was doing now.

"It's quite alright, really. I don't mind a little extra work," she says, smiling nicely. Despite her evidently Japanese face, she has a thick American accent, but her grammar is just fine. She'll continue going about her business as a waitress, though the man may find her looking at him now and then with curiosity.

If he insists on helping, Natalie won't stop him, but it is her job after all, not his.

[Steel Mirror]

Natalie

The guy blinked in surprise when Natalie spoke. The accent seemed to throw him, and when he spoke again it was more slowly, with clearer enunciation. "I didn't know you were a foreigner, you look Japanese. Where are you from?"

Behind him, some of his friends were pointing and talking. "She's a foreigner! I didn't know they had foreigners working at Suetsukata. Isn't this supposed to be a really old-fashioned place?" One of the others muttered, to general amusement, "I hear foreign girls are easy. Looks like Ken is aiming for another conquest."

As Natalie tidied, a few of the yakuza occupied the space she had just cleared and began throwing money down and calling out to each other. One of them, a young woman, stripped off the top half of her robe (what was with these people and going shirtless?), again revealing a tight wrap of white cloth, and began shaking a set of dice inside one of the restaurant's lacquered rice bowls.

[LordHavelock]

Hero's attention to the stats was more a compliment to Gai's thorough research than his own interest. "Slot me in at shortstop." He briefly interrupted, "If you move yourself to cover first we'll have everything covered but the pop-flies, and even then, I'll be able to make up the distance getting between third and wherever they land." He was more than confident that he could make both the third, second, and left field men superfluous all on his own, and really the temptation was not to ask Gai to put him in at pitcher, with his new reserves of stamina and magnified strength. 'Don't want to hurt poor Satoru's hand as catcher.' he thought.

The rowdiness of the table at the front however had his attention once more, and even managed to pique his sense beyond just sound and noise. Directing his gaze, he couldn't help but feel maybe he was the shark now, sniffing out blood wherever it might have been spilled.

"Hey Gai, do you recognize any of those kids? They from around here?" He asked, already half out of his chair, trying to catch the eye of any of their number.


Alertness to feel out the punks at their table: [roll0]

[Halae]

Natalie

"A few things. First, despite being raised in America, I'm Japanese. Second, I can understand you perfectly well, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't speak to me like a lackwit. And, finally, if you want to seduce someone, tell your friends not to mutter insults within earshot of the girl in question," None of this is untrue. She's Japanese right now, after all.

Unless stopped, she'll proceed to leave the room, making it clear that Ken's friends blew it for him. She'd had no intention of sleeping with the man in the first place, but it wouldn't hurt to put him in his place a little. No doubt being chided by a serving woman is going to give his friends something to laugh about.

[Hemnon]

Yuki looked rather let down by Haruto's choice...
"*sigh*, it's up to you. I just have a bad feeling about this is all. Haruto, before i go continue my shift, will you allow me to look into your eyes. You'll... see stuff. and I'll see it as well. I guess you could call it 'seeing your soul'. I just want to make sure, but if you don't want to, it's fine. Just... just look into my eyes deeply, if you wish to do this." She said, voice shakey but honest.

[Captain Carrot]

Ghostis

"The history of the Aobozu indicates otherwise, and makes the claim difficult to take on faith alone. King Percy has not indicated in any way that Listeneise will abrogate the contract. I formally request that you moderate your language, and reveal the document you are attempting to conceal."

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito nods his head. "It is no trouble, Takahiro. Your man's words were appropriate. You can let him know later that he does not have to make any monetary compensation." One of the hazards of running a supernatural inn and bar was that things tended to get broken, a lot. A spell to mend items was one of the first bits of magic any Kuramoto inheritor learned.

He withdraws and goes over to Natalie. "I believe you should go see if the bathrooms are cleanly."

[Steel Mirror]

Kaito and Natalie

Ken's friends looked abashed for a moment, but quickly and nimbly transitioned to making fun of Ken for his misfortune. Natalie heard her boss's suggestion on her way out, and resignedly headed to make sure that Suetsukata's restrooms were clean. It beat spending more time with these jerks, anyway.
Behind her, visible for just an instant, Ken's eyes flashed with a moment of fury and a glint of something bestial, completely at odds with the cool, polite exterior he was working hard to project. It was gone in an instant.
Ken turned back to his friends and endured their hooting and joking, tossing a few barbs back their way to give as good as he got.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Yakuza basically ignored Kaito, letting him get where he needed to go and not getting in his way, but not doing much else to acknowledge his presence. It was the lot of the host, to be respectfully ignored (unless something was going wrong), and Kiato was very used to it.

After he attended to the last of the things requiring his attention, Kaito took the used plates and cups he had gathered and moved toward the door, but Takahiro "Yaro" was standing in his way, cigar still burning slowly. His attendant was standing behind him, holding a thin sword-sized object draped in a voluminous length of white cloth.

"Thank you for your patience, my friend. It would be a serious pain in the neck if word got out that I was letting my kids run wild in an honorable establishment such as yours. But then, you've always been known as a man of impeccable discretion." He jerked his head to indicate the boy with the sword, and then added in a lower voice, "Speaking of which, I have something for your museum. An . . . item of rare quality, let's say. I don't think it would be safe to leave it anywhere else, and I know that you have some passing interest in artifacts of this kind. Would you honor me by going downstairs so that I could show you what I mean away from curious eyes?" Indeed, some of the yakuza were shooting interested glances their direction, though the kids seemed at least smart enough to look too interested in what their boss was whispering about.

Natalie

Natalie walked into the women's restroom, where at least nobody was actively insulting her. The restroooms in Suetsukata were a compromise between modern technology and old-fashioned reliability. Plumbing had been added some time in the eighties, but there was still a mix of Western-style fixtures and more old-style arrangements. The wash basins at least were minimalistic and very new-looking, though their style could have been sleek ultramodern or classic understated Japanese elegance; at times the two were hard to tell apart. The ambience was rounded out by a number of potted plants, bonsai, and a tinkling water feature fed by an actual underground spring. It was about the nicest restroom facility you were ever likely to see, and the room out in the baths behind the restaurant were even better.

Still, it was a lot easier to appreciate it if you weren't the person in charge of cleaning it.

Natalie peeked around to make sure that things were clean and none of the soaps were empty. Behind her, in the only stall that was closed the walls suddenly shook with a heavy impact, rattling the lock on the door. "No, it's too early. If I try to do it here they'll all turn on me, and there would be nothing I could do to stop them. I'm telling you, we have to be patient. He'll give us a reason soon enough." It was a woman's voice. Maybe even a girl's. She sounded pretty young.

Ghostis and Percy

The speaker for the Monks bristled, but couldn't seem to come up with a retort in time. He settled for a frustrated growl, but before he could launch on another prideful rant, the Monk holding the paper object tugged on his sleeve and whispered something into his ear. It seemed to mollify him somewhat, though he still glared with his one eye at both Percy and Ghostis as he made his reply.

<"I don't see how this is any concern of yours, but if this will help assuage your foolish and unfounded concerns, then we will share its secrets with you. Please, do not touch. It is a valuable relic of our clan, the foundation of our return to glory, and the item which set us upon the path to securing wives in the first place."> He waited a moment for Ghostis to give the translation to King Percy.

The other Aobozu began shifting from foot to foot in excitement as the remaining one reached deeply into his sleeve to pull out the artifact in question. With great reverence, he placed it onto an empty spot on the table between the negotiating parties, then bowed his head in a display of respect and awe.

It was a fairly old, somewhat rumpled magazine with a front cover depicting a fit young woman wearing next to nothing, and looking extremely happy about that fact. Headlines in brightly colored characters were splashed all over the cover like neon signs competing for space on Dotonbori road, trumpeting such important messages as "The secret to perfect skin! (What the cosmetics industry doesn't want you to know!)", and "9 ways to leave him begging for more!". It was clearly a magazine that had been much-perused and appreciated, judging by how rumpled the pages were, but considering that the date on the magazine was 1997, it must have been well cared for to last as long as it had.

<"So you see, honored King. We know the secret of all 'seven things women secretly wish their man would do,' and we have furthermore secured those supplies and garments that 'every girl has to have this spring'."> He allowed the two humans in the room another moment to appreciate the majesty of the document before them, gloating at this clear trump card in their negotiation. <"I presume that this lays to rest any concerns you may have about our knowledge and preparation to care for the wives to which we have every claim."> As he spoke, he excitedly flipped through the pages of the sacred text, jabbing a finger enthusiastically at the articles to drive home his point.

That's when there was a knock at the door. A moment later, one of the elegantly clad young women who worked at the restaurant slid the door open, a few drinks in hand. "I have some refreshments for you, honored customers..."

She took in the scene. Four Blue Monks, looking excited and worked up. Two foreign men, leaning over to look at something on the table in the middle of the room. And on that table, a crumpled magazine full of scantily clad women that the lead Monk was pointing at and triumphantly shouting about.

"Or you know, I could give you some privacy and come back later..."

[OrganicEvil]

Percy looked down at the magazine. He frowned. And at last, for the first time since negotiations had opened, he spoke.

<"You've got to be ****ing ****ting me.">

It was utterly ludicrous. He had somehow become ruler of, god help him, an honest to god fairy kingdom and was therefore now responsible for sending four teenage girls to their inevitable death by neglect because a bunch of cyclopean Smurfs had accidentally found an issue of Cosmo. Completely insane. He almost laughed. The entire thing could have been a joke, except that it didn't make enough sense. A stupid joke, then. Still, this whole thing could have been avoided if they'd simply happened upon a copy of, say, Sports Illustrated instead.

He thought he had a general idea what the Monks were saying, but nevertheless he waited for Ghostis to translate before replying, once again in english. <"That may be so, gentlemen. But do you know the 'Nineteen Genius Tips for Brides Who Want to Do Their Own Wedding Makeup,' or the 'Eleven Exercises That Will Make Your Booty Pop?'">

[Captain Carrot]

Ghostis

"That is fairly reassuring, gentlemen. But who better to know what women want than a woman?" Ghostis smiles disarmingly, and gestures to the newcomer.

<"Young miss, would you care to share your opinion of the advice given in that publication? Please be gentle, as the Aobozu have somehow gotten the idea that it is a sacred tome.">

[Steel Mirror]

Hero

Gai looked up from his ultra-beat-the-no-good-Sharks napkin and followed Hero's gaze. He frowned. "I don't recognize them, per se, but I know the type. Damn punks playing like they're bad. They're not, but they're stupid enough not to realize it until the hurt someone for real, or end up pissing off someone who won't take it lying down." He didn't say exactly who that might be, but the implication was pretty clear. Yakuza. They were a huge problem in Osaka recently, and apparently getting bigger.

Hero of course knew that there was a lot worse than Yakuza out there.

He was looking intently at the kids, and only the one with the J-pop hair was really paying close attention to the waitress. The rest of them were being obnoxious and loud, but not putting out the same creep vibes that the guy was putting out. Until . . .

Yuki

"Ooookay," said Haruto, voice quavering. He wasn't quite comfortable being this close to Yuki, especially with her looking straight into his eyes, taking off her glasses, not blinking...

Yuki was suddenly standing on a street corner, somewhere in the city. There was a crowd of people hurrying in every direction, dressed in business suits and talking on their phones, everyone in a rush to be somewhere. Yuki stepped off the sidewalk and onto a tiny strip of lawn as people shouldered their way past, feeling that she was the only one who wasn't intent on a destination.

Well, maybe not the only one. In the grass, a kid about eight or nine years old was sitting down, surrounded by toy trains of all shapes and sizes. Anime trains, scale model shinkansen trains, old fashioned steam train toys, even some wood blocks cut into rough facsimiles of boxy train cars, all of them were set up in a complicated but somehow extremely organized pattern laid out on the green lawn. While people bustled around on the sidewalk only a few feet away, he carefully choreographed their comings and goings, darting at times between the legs of the passing adults to shuttle important cars from one side of the pavement to the other. "No, you're the blue line," the little boy said to one of the rail cars after a businesswoman jogged by in a hurry and kicked it a few feet off its track. "You don't stop at the acorn station until 3:17 in the afternoon!"

Yuki looked around a bit more, and noticed that there was one more thing of note in the area. The house that the child was playing in front of looked like a standard urban apartment, at a glance, but once she had a chance to take a closer look, she could see signs of rotting. It looked like the foundation was sagging in one of the corners, paint was peeling off around the windows and behind the gutters, and the windows on the front door were shattered. Bugs could be seen darting furtively to and fro in the shadow of the building.

As the vision began to fade, Yuki could faintly overhear the sound of someone shouting inside the house, and the sound of plates and glasses shattering as they were thrown across the room. Colors dimmed to black and white and the shapes blurred together, and she could just hear the sound of someone sobbing inside.

Through it all, the child kept pushing his trains along their paths, making 'choo-choo!' noises, and smiling in a world of his own.

Haruto fell backwards in his chair, slamming into the ground and breathing hard. "Wha?" he asked. "How did I . . ." He rolled over, face drawn and pale, looking wildly around the room and pinching himself on the cheek as though trying to wake up from a dream. "What's going on?"

Hero and Yuki

Haruto made a lot of noise as he fell to the ground, attracting attention from all over the cafe. Even more shocking for Hero, though, was the sudden stab of hunger that lanced through him as the man fell. For a moment he was worried that the man might have hurt himself in the fall, that he might be reacting to freshly spilled blood. It wasn't quite the case, though. He didn't smell any blood in the air, and besides, his animal thirst wasn't directed at the man on the floor.

It was directed at the waitress.

She was standing there, glasses off, a sympathetic look on her face. For a split second the only thought in Hero's mind was how easy it would be to bound across the room, get to her before anyone could respond, and end this torturous thirst in a single moment of violence and freedom. He could feel his skin crawling, his body trying to change shape to react to the thirst, his teeth sharpening against his tongue in anticipation. If he didn't get control soon, he felt sure that it would be visible to anyone looking at him.

Out of the corner of his eye and with the edge of his rationality, he could see that the punk kid with the fancy hair was feeling something similar. Like Hero, he was looking at the waitress with undisguised hunger. His eyes had taken on a bright red glint, and he suddenly seemed a little too tall for his clothes, his arms and legs a bit longer and disproportionately lanky than they had been before. Even his friends swivelled their heads, in a single synchronized motion, to stare at Yuki as she stood there in front of Haruto, trying to regain her bearings.

"I h-h-h-have to go," Haruto said, reaching into his wallet to leave a stack of bills on the table. "My w-w-w-w-work starts soon." He refused to look anywhere near Yuki's eyes, or even her face.

[Hemnon]

Yuki blinked a few times, managing to sort out the strange images her head had been filled with. The gaze hadn't lasted long enough for her own soul to be revealed as well, Haruto had paniced and managed to break the gaze beforehand.
Yuki was a bit disoriented and felt a slight pain in her temples, but other than that, she felt alright.

As Haruto began storming out, Yuki tried to follow. She wanted to explain, to calm him down and make it all good again. So she swiped her glasses back on and set off after Haruto, too distracted and upset to even go ask for a break first.
She headed right for the door as well, making sure not to stumble or fall should she accidentally bump into someone.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven was walking through Kyoto, slightly sweaty, having just finished the day's workout at the Kin'niku no jiin or muscle temple, a gym and dojo catering to those with more then human abilities and the few vanilla mortals that were able to keep up with them. He had been complaining to one of the guys about not having had a decent cappuccino since he left Europe 6 months ago, and was advised that one of those ridiculous maid cafes he had heard about nearby actually served a good one. So he asked directions and headed there, feeling the perpetual gazes that followed him, but not overly bothered by them.

When you're half again as tall and 3 times as heavy as most people, they tend to stare. Add to that the long, braided red hair and beard, the fierce and primitive looking tattoos covering his upper arms, neck and showing on his scalp, the fact that his forearms were larger then most people's thighs and covered in scars, and that all of that was very visible given what he he was wearing (a tank top with "I can handle your snatch" printed in english on it and shorts).... Let's just say not many people were used to see sights like that wander around Osaka, even though he was steadily gaining a small following among the city's wrestling fans.

Lost in thought, he opened the door to the cosplay cafe and had to hunch to pass through, when he felt something bump him.


As Haruto hurriedly walked out of the cafe, he bumped into the veritable mountain of a man who was walking in and fell on his rear with a surprised little yelp. He looked up to see a friendly smile on the fierce looking face and a hand the size of a small ham offering him a hand up. Sven opened up, in slightly broken and oddly accented japanese

Sorry sir, let me help up

[Space Lawyer]

"Of course, Takahiro. I will have to ask that your attendant remain outside though - given the nature of some of the items in my collection, the fewer people that see them, the better." Not to mention that every person he allowed in presented a risk of lowering the powerful threshold that the Kuramoto family had spent so long erecting.

Kaito leads Takahiro down the stairs, coming a heavy wood and iron door, engraved with with wards in various languages and plastered in ofuda. Opening it allowed air to rush in (a simple spell replicated the negative air pressure used in biohazard labs), but also allowed a wave of energy out. All but the dimmest of pure mortals could feel it, as their hairs stood on end and sharp crackles sounded. The place itself was dimly lit, with the glow coming from all around. Taking an interest in individual objects would increase the lighting around them (at least those that didn't react poorly to illumination). The rows of shelves, cubbyholes, and chests stretched far back into the gloom.

Unlike the bar and inn above, this place was not designed to place supernatural beings at ease. It was a place intended to control and lock down the energies that swirled about. The fact that the only sign of such concentrated magic was an outpouring of energy from the door was a testament to the efficacy of the design. Being in this place made many beings of magic uncomfortable, as they could feel their very essence being tampered with, being thwarted. It was only a long degree of exposure that made Kaito feel at ease here.

Kaito steps into a circle inscribed on the floor and mirrored above. It was a quarantine circle, intended to keep the energy from a new item from interacting with the rest of the objects, and to ensure that an unexpected release would be contained, harming only those in the circle. While it surely posed a risk to the examiner, forcing all the energy into such a small area like a shaped charge, allowing it freedom could be a catastrophe.

"Takahiro, please step into the circle and show what interesting thing you have brought here."

[Steel Mirror]

Sven, Yuki, Hero

The little man bounced off of the hulking, bearded Westerner like a rubber ball of the side of a mountain. The Japanese man shook his head and looked up with wide eyes at what he had run into, then politely declined the hand up.

"I apologize greatly for my clumsiness," he said with a bow once he had scrambled to his feet. "And please forgive my abruptness, but I am in a hurry. Excuse me." He squeezed between Sven, who was still holding the door open, and the frame, and set out into the brightly-lit Osaka night, walking quickly, and turning into an alleyway with a sign that pointed to the nearest metro station.

Immediately behind him from within the cafe, a young woman whose ethnicity Sven couldn't quite place hurried towards Sven. Her outfit placed her as one of the workers at the restaurant, and her expression was worried.

Kaito

Takahiro seemed annoyed for a moment when asked to leave his footman behind, but he nodded at the man, took the cloth-swaddled bundle from him, and followed Kaito underground. He bowed respectfully before crossing into the circle, then placed the object on a table within.

"It's another cursed weapon for you," he said as he used his one hand to peel back the white fabric. When the cloth fell away, it revealed a rather thin, straight blade in the Chinese jian style. The scabbard was adorned with an intricate phoenix motif, and the guard was styled to look like dancing flames.

http://s10.postimg.org/p36aqzp7d/jian.jpg

"This one was particularly nasty. Got it off a hotshot Thai kid who was working his way along the coast, challenging swordsman to duels and killing them when he won. Thought he was hot stuff when he was killing my kids, didn't seem so high and mighty once I taught him a thing or two." As he spoke, he was very careful not to touch the sword himself. "I had to kill him a couple times; something about the blade kept healing him, even when I took his hand and gave him a cut that should have plopped his intestines into the street. Some kind of fire kept pouring out of the blade and possessing him, or something."

He shook his head to clear the memories. "Some of my kids thought this sword could be useful, but I'm not fool enough to mess with blood magic." Blood magic was what someone from the White Council might refer to as black magic, and was generally highly addictive and self-destructive. Even the yakuza tended to hesitate before going for something like that. At least, the smarter ones. "Standing orders from the higher ups are to take anything like this that we find to you. So here we are."

The blade sat on the table, seemingly just another weapon, but even without a detailed examination or the use of any magic, Kaito could tell that it was not something to take lightly.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

(BTW, what season and time of day is it? I seem to have missed that)

No problem

Sven shrugged as the conductor hurried out and, deciding it was none of his business, he stepped in the shop. The waitress there looked like she was about to go after the man. If so, Sven will simply step aside and wait for somebody to take care of him, if she stays in he will wait for her to assign him a place. Once there he looked dubiously at the chair before pushing it to the side and settling down in seiza position

Hello miss, am told you serve coffee good here? And do you have menu in English, I do not read Japanese

[Hemnon]

Yuki halted right at the exit, extending a hand out past the giant brute. "Haruto Wait! let me explain!" she called out sadly and then sighed, knowing full well she'd have a hard time catching him now... she shouldn't have done that. She shouldn't have tried to force that image, that truth upon him.... Then hit the realization that someone big enough to scare off Godzilla was standing right infront of her.

She blinked a few times as she heard that half-bad Japanese being spoken.
With a light shake of her head, she decided to make it up to Haruto the next time he comes back... if he comes back.

with a genuine light smile, still a bit bleak from what had just happened, Yuki looked up at the Hulk-Junior Newcomer, adressing him in Good Ol' British. "Hello sir, Welcome to the Café. Yes we do indeed serve Coffee, among other things, if you follow me then i can show you to your seat and bring you a menu. I can easily translate it for you as well, if you'd like~" she said with a only slightly forced smile and made her way back inside the café, showing Sven to the table Haruto had been sitting at smd gave Sven a gentle bow before skating on her rollerskates off to get a menu, returning infront of Sven barely 20 seconds later opening it infront of him, going through the menu, item by item~

[thorgrim29]

Sven, at the cafe


Sven smiled at the corner of his eye at the waitress's reaction, even on her skates her head didn't reach his chest, and the look on her face as she took him in was amusing.

Sven also switched to English, and paid very close attention to the translations. He was having a hard time picking up Japanese (well, hard time for a polyglot, for a regular person being where he was after 6 months would be pretty amazing) and was trying to improve it.

Thank you for the help, Japanese is a tricky language... I've been here almost 6 months now and I can barely ask for directions.

Sven's english was very odd, he was fluent in it but he'd never met anyone who could place him by his accent alone beyond "vaguely germanic". That made sense of course, he had learned English on his mother's estate back when Shakespeare was beginning his career as a playwright and had recently spoken it mostly with americans.

He was just ordering a cappucino when his stomach rumbled loud enough for Yuki to hear it. He laughed

Guess I forgot to eat this evening.... Surprise me would you?

[Steel Mirror]

Ghostis, Percy

The waitress inclined her head in puzzlement at Ghostis, and said "I'm very sorry Mister Ghostis, but I don't speak any English." She waited patiently (eyes remaining fixed away from the magazine on the table) while Ghostis translated King Percy's words . . . with a bit of diplomatic softening, for the Aobozu. The monks weren't big ones for irony, though.

<"Our booties are not what is at question, here! Our brides will have swimsuits and at-home-spa-kits to draw the envy of the gods!">

As Ghostis translated their response for Percy, then rephrased his request to the waitress in Japanese so that she could understand, she hid her mouth behind her sleeve. Percy and Ghostis could hear choking noises coming from behind her shapely, elegant hand, but her eyes remained calm and professional.

"If it is my opinion you seek, honored customers, women want many different things from a partner. We are not obi," she said, referring to the traditional sash worn around the waist of a kimono, "cut to one size and equally suited to wrap around any frame. A union of two partners who are not trimmed to fit is doomed to be restricting and suffocating, or loose and uncomfortable. There is no formula, nor," and she stifled another giggle behind her sleeve, "a sacred list that can bridge the gap between ill-fitting partners. One must be circumspect in choosing one's companion or invite disaster."

Her words seemed to enrapture the Aobozu, and for once so far in the night they were quiet. Or well, it might not necessarily have been her words that caught their undivided attention. True to her own speech, her clothing was extremely well cut to fit to her body, and there at least was one union that seemed harmonious and beautiful.

Then she completed her inspiring oration by concluding, "Though if it is only tonight that you are concerned with, there are many hostess clubs and soapland establishments on the other side of town that I hear are quite satisfactory. If you like our cook Irori can share with you some of his favorites." She managed to give her deferential tone of voice a distinct 'boys will be boys' tint, including Ghostis and Percy in her offer as a matter of course.

[Steel Mirror]

Hero, Yuki, Sven

Gai was watching as the guy in the train worker uniform stumbled his way out, bouncing off a massive specimen of humanity in the process. "Wow, guess he had enough to drink," he muttered. Fortunately, he was too distracted by the commotion to notice anything going on with Hero.

Yuki saw to placing Sven's order with the kitchen staff, then told the other girls that she'd be gone for a few minutes. Technically she was owed a break every two hours, and she hadn't taken one all night since they were so busy. She hurried out the front door, trusting her instincts to guide her to where she needed to go. Hopefully she'd be able to at least explain enough to Haruto that he'd know she was on his side.

Unseen by Yuki, the punk kids rose as one the moment she walked out the door, and followed her with purposeful strides. Most of them were grinning or elbowing each other in the ribs. The one with the trendy haircut had a smile so wide and wild that nobody else in the restaurant dared look at him as he passed. His eyes were still glinting red, like the redeye effect you'd see in an overflashed photograph, and his footsteps seemed to hit the ground with more weight than his relatively slight frame would suggest.

Sven and Hero were the only people in the room who could even see that much; nobody else wanted to look him in the eye as he stalked after the waitress.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Anyone looking at Sven would have seen his body language radically once he spots the punks following Yuki. He had been calm, relaxed, and passively observant of the situation. He was now very focused, his movements somehow both sharper and more fluid, and he moved like what he was, the well trained survivor and victor of dozens of fights to the death. He took several deep breaths and stretched a bit as he rose and put a few banknotes on his table to cover the coffee (that had actually been quite good, so he drained his cup as an afterthought).

Unfortunately, he didn't have any weapon on him. Fortunately, the punks looked like they might, so he was expecting to acquire one soon enough. He grasped the hammer pendant he had hung to his neck on a silver chain for an instant and strode to the door with a determined and long gait, shaking the glasses of nearby tables.

Lore on the punks : [roll0]

((I'll let you handle the first impression between our character Havelock))

[LordHavelock]

It said much about the focus of his intent that Hero barely even noticed Sven's entrance, but he was somewhat more used to dealing with brawny westerners than most Japanese, if not ones so ostentatious is Sven. No, instead he was having trouble keeping his fevered instincts in check, and already the brand over his heart was flaring to life. The last time he'd let it get out of control there had been no hiding either the brand's existence nor his own physical changes, and he couldn't let Gai get caught up in all this. Still, for the moment the brand seemed content to smolder, but he felt the creeping lines of fire spreading out across his chest and shoulder, and knew he needed a channel for rage.

"Gai, I think there is going to be trouble right now. Maybe we can teach these punks a lesson ourselves, not leave it to some yakuza enforcer who'd leave them in worse shape." He looked over his shoulder to the table, "You got my back?"

Though he was asking in earnest, Hero wasn't prepared to wait on Gai, and besides, he needed to have some words with the lead punk which were best not overheard by anyone else before things got rowdy. Taking several long strides to emphasize both his height and bearing over the kid with the j-pop haircut, setting himself firmly between the red-eyed thug and Yuki, without even acknowledging her presence any more. It took every ounce of his will, but so long as he focused on this as a territorial dispute, a contest between him, and this low-life parasite to see who had the rights to do what here, he was confident he didn't have to make it about actually feeding those impulses any further. 'I have to keep it under control.' He thought, 'This is just about establishing myself. He's the punk, the hotshot, the worm who has to be shown his place. Has to be shown what it costs to cross me, or poach on whatever I decide is mine, let alone right in front of me.' he'd fought similar bouts back in the states, usually in the boxing ring at school, with upper classmen who thought he was just some upstart, or hot-shot underclassmen who thought they could bump off the 'Big Hero' of the academy. He couldn't escape the fact that this was something different though, something more, not just about establishing intent, or reputation, but about dominance. His predatory instincts wouldn't let it be about anything else.

"Step aside, chaff." He uttered as he cut through the pack of followers towards the leader, speaking in Japanese but not bothering at anything approaching an accent.


An Overcome action with Presence to convince the other punks to stay out of whatever is about to go down: [roll0]

[Steel Mirror]

Hero, Sven

The other punks let Hero push past them, not making any moves to challenge him as he stalked up to the leader. Hero caught up only a single step from the still-swinging glass doors, and the lead punk finally looked at him and seemed to process his words.

"Eeeeeeh? You talking to me, gaijin?" Mr haircut gave Hero such a comically overdone glare of intimidation that he might as well have been auditioning for a role in a cheap Hong Kong action flick. He drew himself up to his full height, just shy of six feet, and pushed his overpriced jacket back with his shoulders so that he could show off his bowflex-perfect abs straining through his tight white shirt. Hero spotted a bulge in the guy's left jacket pocket that could have been a phone, but might also be a knife or other weapon.

Behind Hero, Gai was so impressed with the kid's posturing that he audibly sniggered. That didn't seem to help the punk's mood.

"What are you doing, gaijin? Don't you foreign idiots know to watch where you're walking? Why don't you go back and drink your coffee before I make you regret it."

At that moment, Sven lumbered into the picture, casting a shadow on both Hero and the Punk leader. The punk looked at him, but his presence only made him smile wider. "My my, you kick over a stone and all you foreigners come crawling out, like roaches. Do you want me to squash you, little roaches?" From Sven's perspective, the punks looked like trouble, but the man standing in their way looked like something else. Unlike them, he wasn't throwing his weight around with bluster and noise. He wasn't wasting time with displays of dominance. He didn't move like a punk.

If Sven had to guess, this guy looked like a predator. And there was the small matter of those fangs showing when he spoke, and the faint smell of something burning in his presence.

[thorgrim29]

Sven, just outside the cafe

Sven raised an eyebrow and looked at Hero speculatively. Slight morphological shifts and almost palpable rage and aggression? If he didn't know better he'd almost say that the kid looked like one of the infected members of the Fellowship of St-Giles. And was that a hint of dragonfire he could smell in the air? Odd. And what of the leader of the punks with his too-thin limbs and glowing red yes? In his experience glowing red eyes were almost never a good sign. What was he, a minor japanese demon, some kind of changeling or scion? No matter, the punk looked like he was headed for a fall if he took on the eurasian youth, and his cohorts seemed like normal human scum, given confidence by their leader's strength and their collective ability to harass young women and old people. Not so dissimilar to the small bands of thugs and deserters that had roamed Germany during the 30 year's war then, dangerous in numbers but soon shattered when faced with serious resistance.

If the waitress had not been involved he would have been content to watch the fight from the sidelines and answer some of his questions, but sadly she was.

He started by 2 sentences in English, the first to Yuki, the second to Hero

Miss, I think this is about to get ugly, you'd better go back in.
Your friend is watching buddy, and I'll bet he doesn't expect what you're about to do. Keep that in mind.

Then, in his heavily accented Japanese, to the leader of the punks.

Why are less worth people always the most racist? Leave waitress alone, and I have no stake in fight, should be fun to watch. Keep bothering her, and we have problem, I end problem by throwing you through a wall

This was all said very matter-of-factly, as if the punk's defeat and need for a full-body cast was a forgone conclusion and the fight itself was barely worth considering.

Using intimidate for threat on the leader (and the flunkies might get some spillover if I roll high I guess): [roll0]

[LordHavelock]

Hero paid no nevermind to Sven, figuring it was Sven backing him up in any sense as he narrowed already darkening eyes on the leader of the pack. "You act like Gaijin haven't been running this island since the Meiji, baka." 'Hero' replied with all the swaggering bluster he could muster as a Westerner far out of his element. Gai might take offense, but if he could make it out to this jack-ass (whatever else he might be) that this was a trans-pacific turf war and nothing less (or more) he could convince himself it might well satisfy his more predatory side.

Reaching out, in a motion nearly too fast for the eye to follow Hero grabbed the lapel of the leader's jacket while he busied himself showing off in such an ostentatious manner and spoke honestly, nearly in to his ear, "I am Champion to the Dragon of Blood and Fire; declare yourself or suffer in ignominy."

[Steel Mirror]

Hero, Sven

The kid sneered, and reached up to grab Hero's wrist. His grip was impressively strong. "Never heard of you." He tried to break Hero's grip by twisting his arm with sheer force, and Hero could immediately tell that this guy's strength was beyond just working out or using one of those stress balls a lot. The guys eyes shone even brighter red, though you could almost dismiss it as a reflection from all the neon signs lining the road.

It wasn't crowded, it being late, but there were cars driving past and a couple of people on their side of the street were giving the group a wide berth as they walked past. Not a private place for a fight, if things were going to get spooky, but at least the waitress had managed to make it away before the punches flew.

Hero struggled to keep the kid from taking control of their little grapple.

Initiative:
Punks (2)

Mr Haircut
Aspects:
Stress
Physical:

Flunkies x4
Aspects:
Stress
Physical:

Scene Aspects: Exposed to the PublicRolling Might for the punk kid:
[roll0]+4=3
So he's strong, but not lucky :smallsmile:


Yuki

Yuki zipped around the nearby corner and headed right towards the most obvious direction for Haruto to go: the nearest train station. The path led her down a fairly wide and well-cleaned alley that was nonetheless considerably darker and sketchier than the main road upon which her cafe was located. As she hurried past dumpsters and trash bags left out for pickup later that night, she heard the rustling of crawling things in the rubbish and the splashing of tiny feet through puddles of stagnant water. The night was warm and a bit muggy, which let the 'interesting' smells of the alley hang in the air and really permeate every breath.

Fortunately, despite her unglamorous surroundings, she caught up to Haruto without incident. She spied him from several meters off. He was leaning against a signpost right in front of one of the train station entrances. Nobody else was in sight. His head was buried in his arms and he didn't notice her approach at all.

[Hemnon]

Yuki sighed out with relief and approached Haruto slowly, rolling along slowly and safely, making sure not to cause a disturbance and frighten Haruto even more.
She halted about 2 meters away, Trying her best to gather up a bit of courage before calling out to Haruto.

[Space Lawyer]

Katio puts on thick gloves before handling the sword. Some of these curses were potent enough to take hold simply by contact. He takes the sword by both hands, bringing it up to his eyes. One thing was immediately apparent - this wasn't some ancient artifact sword. "First thing, you and your superiors were wise to bring this here. There is definitely a curse of some sort on it, and not one you should take lightly. Second, this sword is newer, no more than 30 years old."

He turns it around and around examining the craftsmanship. He turns the sword over, letting it slide out of the scabbard onto the table, rather than drawing it. He takes it blade first to examine the sword itself. So many of the sword curses could be activated by drawing or wielding the weapon. "There are a couple people I have in mind who could make this. The problem is narrowing down who would make it. This isn't some kind of accidental curse - it is very deliberate, and part of the forging. First is a Chinese smith named Xue. The sword design and phoenix markings make him a very good candidate. Second is a local named Daitengu Hoshijiro. I'm not sure why she would be making cursed Chinese swords, but if the city is experiencing trouble with cursed weaponry, a local source would make the most sense."

[LordHavelock]

Hero was growing increasingly suspicious of the source of this wannabe bruiser's strength as he gripped his arm. It sure as hell wasn't coming from muscle mass or athleticism, but it was difficult to believe something with the same kind of power he had faced (and now possessed) would be masquerading around as such a low-life punk. Regardless, he was clearly no trained fighter, and overconfident besides, with the grip on Hero's arm being his first mistake, and maybe his last.

Shifting his weight and his grip, Hero brought his opposite hand up to lock the bopper's arm up in a serious hold (one that might get him disqualified if this were an akido or wrestling tournament) and swung his body inside his opponent's guard, setting him up for an shoulder-wrenching, cross-body throw that would send him colliding in to his own flunkies.


Establishing a Grapple with Might: [roll0]

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven was content to watch the fight for now, but kept an eye on the flunkies. If they seem about to interfere with the contest or to pursue Yuki he will attack them, trying to go for debilitating injuries that leave little permanent damage, like dislocated shoulders or broken arms

[OrganicEvil]

"There you have it, gentlemen," Percy said. "From a lady's own mouth. What Say you to that?" Privately, he made a note to have a word with the cook later. Since this whole 'king' thing started, he'd been getting even less than usual. He was pretty sure that wasn't how it was supposed to work, but then, very few things about his new position had worked out as advertised.

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

Haruto spent a long minute stabilizing his breathing as he leaned against the sign post, while Yuki did the same from her vantage point some distance behind him. The only sounds in the alleyway were the distant rumblings of traffic from the busy downtown streets. It felt like the two of them were completely alone in this little corner of the city.

At some point, Haruto seemed to regain control of himself. He pushed back from the post, took a deep breath to steady himself, and fished around in his coat pocket. He pulled a huge ring of keys out of his coat with a jangle, and started slowly descending the steps of the train station entrance and out of the alleyway.

Sven, Hero

Hero's move worked perfectly, catching the arrogant punk completely unprepared and sending him flying straight into his nearest friend. Both of them fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs and curse words, and the others scrambled all over themselves to help them up.

What didn't happen was any noticeable damage to the kid's shoulder from the throw. Hero wasn't necessarily trying to do permanent damage, but the simple fact was that a move like that was more likely to cause some serious injury to an unprepared opponent than not. A normal person would be lucky to get away without a dislocated shoulder, and at the very least would be in enough pain to notice it. But the kid scrambled to his feet, yelling angrily at his own friends on the way, with little apparent discomfort beyond embarrassment.

Well, Hero already knew this guys wasn't exactly normal.

"Fine? You want it to be that way?" He reached into his coat pockets with both hands, where Hero had noticed an object pressing through the fabric before. When his hands came out, he was wearing a matching pair of ginormous steel knucklebusters with ridges on the leading edges that were styled to look like little claws. Hero caught a glimpse of a tiger stripe motif as the weapons reflected neon from the street lights. "This isn't a very private place to kick your a%&, so let's do this quick. I'll try to finish you off in time for the cops to get here and take you to the hospital!"

He shouted the last words as he leaped towards Hero, arcing in an impressive 8-foot high standing jump before falling, fist first, straight towards Hero's face.

Meanwhile the flunkies were looking on (and still helping one of their number to his feet). A couple of them shot looks towards the direction Yuki ran off in, and took a few steps that way, but Sven walked calmly to block their path.

Initiative:
Hero (2)
Punks (2)
Sven (1)

Mr Haircut
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OX

Flunkies x4
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OX
OO
OO
OO

Scene Aspects: Exposed to the Public*This will be the official start of combat for Hero! Sven, Gai, and the lackeys are still sitting out for now, but I imagine that could change soon. Hero loses the initiative tie because of the coin I just flipped, meaning that the flying anime punch is coming straight for him! I'm also going to preroll some defensive dice rolls for the baddies, to save time in the future.

punch!: [roll0]+3=1
on a hit, this is a Weapon 4, so dodge like a pro!

defensive rolls just in case (use in order if needed):
[roll1]+3=3
[roll2]+3=4
[roll3]+3=2

Ghostis, Percy

The Monks turned to each other once again and engaged in heated discussion. The keeper of the Cosmo made sure to carefully and reverently recover the sacred text first, glaring suspiciously at Ghostis and Percy as though they wanted anything to do with the tattered old magazine. "Is that all you need of me, gentlemen?" asked their waitress politely. Her eyes clearly said, 'Can I leave now?'

The Blue Monks turned back. <"Very well! You have convinced us that a wife is not a thing to be sought in haste. You are, however, still obligated to fulfill your terms of the contract.">

<"We will therefore agree to an extension of the deadline by a period of three days, during which you will seek out women for us to meet with in order to evaluate compatibility. We will conduct such meetings here, at Suetsukata, as neutral ground. Naturally, as this is an extension of your obligations under the original contract, you will continue to pay for our accomodations, as well as any further arrangements that need to be made for these interviews.">

The lead Monk looked Percy directly in the eyes as Ghostis translated, then added, <"Or would you prefer that we simply declare the terms of the contract violated, and seek redress through the provisions of the Code Duello?">
If you guys want to attack their bargaining position more directly, there are always social attacks and maneuvers. Just in case, I'll throw up a reminder stat block to keep track of them.

Aobozu
Aspects: Horny Blue Cyclops Midgets*
In A Rush To Seal The Deal*
Stress
Social: OO

Kaito

"Hoshijiro? Not a chance." Takahiro seemed amused. "That stuck-up woman would rather chew off her own fingers than see her family's techniques perverted into something like this thing." It made sense that Takahiro would know about Daitengu Hoshijiro. She was reputed to be the finest sword maker on the planet, descended from a long family of such sword makers. Her own great grandfather was the man who supposedly reworked Fidelacchius, the legendary holy blade, into its current form when it was partially destroyed.

More than that, her family kept alive the ancient traditions of both Japanese sword making and Japanese sword wielding. Takahiro here was the leader of Osaka's largest band of sword-wielding thugs, though he did it with his own brand of rough and ready honor. Hoshijiro, on the other hand, was the leader of Osaka's oldest school of swordsmanship, and only took on one or two apprentices at a time. The devotion and honor of the Daitengu sword school warriors was unsurpassed in all of Japan, and they were known to protect the island from supernatural threats in a similar (if smaller in scope) way to how the Knights of the Cross defended parts of the Christian world.

"Anyway, from what I heard Hoshijiro had her own little duel a few nights ago, and took possession of some blood magic infused weapon off a guy who was killing children up in Tokyo. Heard about it from some friends up North." He tilted his head in puzzlement. "In fact from what I heard, she was going to bring it down to hand off to you first thing. She doesn't have any love for blood magic, nor does she want a cursed blade any closer to home than I want this one tempting my kids. Are you saying she hasn't been down here to drop it off?"

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven made an appreciative sound at Hero's move. The young man had talent to go with his strength and ferocity. Even so, the flunkies seemed confident enough in their boss' victory to leave mid-fight, so the punk probably had something up his sleeve. And there it was, an impressive set of knuckle dusters, sure to lend even a glancing blow potentially deadly power. He looked down towards the flunkies he has just blocked and rumbled quietly

No no, watch fight only, or we fight

[Hemnon]

Yuki finally managed to gather up some courage and uttered out in a stammering voice, slowing rolling along after Haruto. "M-mister Haruto, sir? Please, i beg you, let me explain." She said loud enough for him to hear, keeping a distance of 'personal space' between the two of them, to let Haruto feel more 'in charge and safe'.

[Steel Mirror]

Sven, Hero

The two kids, one guy and one young woman, shot each other nervous glances. Then the guy pulled out a fork-tipped taser from his pocket, switching it to life with a bzzzzzzzRGHHHHHHT sound and the sudden tang of ozone. The lady pulled a long chain from her bag and wound it quickly along her right arm, then produced a narrow blade with her left. None of those weapons looked as fancy as those their leader had.

The third guy who was outside, Gai, who had followed Hero, took a few steps to stand next to Sven. "Guess we fight," he said as he cracked his knuckles.

The kids didn't look excited about it, but the woman lashed out with her chain-wrapped fist while the boy lunged clumsily with his taser towards Sven's center of mass.

Boy attacks Sven: [roll0]+2=4
Woman attacks Gai: [roll1]+2=-1Initiative:
Hero (2)
Punks (2)
Sven (1)

Mr Haircut
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OX

Flunkies x4
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OX
OO
OO
OO

Scene Aspects: Exposed to the Public*

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

Haruto turned quickly, surprised by the sound of Yuki's voice. The turn came at a bad time, as he was just taking another step down the stairs, and Yuki saw his eyes widen as the ill-advised stumble turned into a full-fledged fall. "Eeep!" he cried out as he tipped over backwards, landing on his rear end and sliding the last three stairs down to the bottom of the subway entrance. He landed sprawled on his back on the dirty tile floor staring up a the ceiling with his arms and legs splayed out.

Fortunately he didn't seem too injured, though it couldn't have been a comfortably experience, certainly. He let out a world weary sigh and didn't move to get up.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven nods at Gai

Guess so....

Sven cursed himself for neglecting to drill bare-fisted against an opponent with a knife for the last few months as the taser slips though his guard and shocks him near his hip. To the hooligan's wide-eyed horror he simply chuckled

I may keep that, better then coffee to wake up

before grabbing for his wrist

Fist modified by 1 by might to initiate a grapple: [roll0]

[Hemnon]

Yuki yelped out as she saw him go down the stairs rather ungracefully.
She hurried on along towards Haruto and the stairs, halting at the top of them, looking down. "Mister Haruto, are you alright!?" She called down to him, looking rather pale and already in the middle of sideways walking down the stairs while still in her rollerskates, wishing she'd taken on her SHOES before running off like that... but she couldn't help herself. she felt the NEED to go along, RIght away and she didn't know why she couldn't resist that urge... so now she had rollerskates on, awkwardly walking down the stairs towards a man sprawled out on the floor. Oh well, The Lord Provides... And She's got one heck of a Wicked Humor XI

Oh well. FInally reaching Haruto, she knelt down and gently snapped a few times next to Haruto, checking for functioning reflexive responses first. "You alright Mister Haruto~?" She asked, hesitant affection in her voice, scared that he might have hurt himself when she shocked him.

[Captain Carrot]

Ghostis

"Relying on first impressions would, in this case, be a bad idea, I think. The King shall consult a diviner to find the proper wives for you, which should not require your input, though personal artifacts would likely help. You may return here in three days."

To Percy: <"Let's hope we can find a matchmaker and four women before time is up.">

Ghostis bows to the waitress. <"My thanks for your help, young miss. These gentlemen were greatly edified by your explanation.">

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito frowns. "No, she hasn't been by. This may be an even larger problem than I thought." He carefully returns the scabbard to the sword, and leaves the weapon on the table to be further studied. "I think at the very least, I'll need to pay her a visit."

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

"I'm . . . alive," Haruto said in response to Yuki's worried query. He struggled to push himself up to a sitting position. Yuki couldn't see any real injuries, and he didn't seem to have hit his head. He might be sore for a couple of hours, but he probably wasn't hurt in any meaningful way.

"My body is alright," he said, not looking into Yuki's eyes. "But then the fall might not be the most dangerous thing to happen to me in the last fifteen minutes." He sat on the floor, with Yuki crouching nearby, and averted his gaze from her completely. He didn't sound accusing, or even very upset. He just sounded uncertain.

Kaito

Kaito led Takahiro out of the downstairs vault and back into the restaurant above. Takahiro couldn't resist the chance to oggle a few of the items on the way out; there certainly was enough there to be a distraction. As Kaito closed the doors and reactivated the various wards and alarms stored within them, Takahiro gave a quick shiver. "That place gives me the willies, and I don't mind saying it. What I wouldn't give to spend some time with some of those artifacts, though!" Kaito finished rearming the defenses with a soft touch to exactly the right ofuda and a whispered word in his chosen evocation language, and the two men continued walking.

Takahiro kept up the chatter as they re-emerged in a hallway that lead to the dining room. Everything in Suetsukata sounded normal, which was a continuous comforting symphony to Kaito's honed innkeeper's instincts. "Is it true that you have the magical fan that was used to create the first Divine Wind? The one that repelled the Mongol invasion fleet in the Kamakura period?"

[Hemnon]

Yuki breathed out more securely now that it was quite clear that Haruto was alright.
So Yuki decided to sit down next to him, looking at him with her kind eyes, awaiting him to say or do something to break the silence~

[LordHavelock]

Hero spared only a single glance in Gai's direction as the J-Pop wannabe put on a pair of weapons as lethal as they were ridiculous. 'Does this kid think he's in an action movie or something?' More and more he was getting the distinct impression that whatever had endowed this punk with his supernatural strength and toughness, hadn't necessarily clued him in to what was going on out in the night, 'And anyone with less of a clue than me is twice the fool or worse, a patsy, for it.' His crew at least seemed more of the average street-tough variety and Gai could handle himself . . . Hero's eyes went wide as he finally registered the giant who was sidling up alongside the second-baseman to tower over the chain and taser armed punks. 'Guess they've got that covered then.'

Time spent sizing up the situation was time Hero didn't waste listening to 'Supercuts' threats, and as he leapt in to the air, Hero shifted his weight forward and ducked low, under the strike. Timed right, he'd be able to duck underneath the blow, and clip the thug's lower body in a textbook rugby tackle, and with all his focus and supernatural strength focused on the effort, Hero pushed forward, keeping his legs working and his shoulders forward.


Athletics to dodge Haircuts Attack: [roll0]
Athletics to get underneath his guard and Create an Advantage (Laid Out, Flat): [roll1]

[Space Lawyer]

A soft smile plays on Kaito's lips. "I would discourage you from spending too much time with the objects in that room. After all, it is they that have created the atmosphere you find unpleasant. As for the fan . . . I have many fans, all of which claim legendary origins. Some of these are true, many are not. I simply hope to never have cause to determine the truth of such things."

Of course, the storeroom did in fact contain the sacred fan. Katio even knew where it was, stored with with other objects of such breathtaking power and heavy history far back in the catacombs. He had long ago learned to be circumspect though in regards to letting others know exactly what was down there.

"Now then, I believe you have a celebration to attend to. Do not worry yourself about the unseen world for tonight; instead, celebrate with your underlings."

[Steel Mirror]

Sven, Hero

Hero dodged the kid's flying punch adroitly, getting in under his guard with a hunched shoulder. Unfortunately the thug was much lighter on his feet than Hero had expected. Instead of being taken flat-footed, the kid was already rolling out of the way when Hero tried to tackle him. Hero managed to clip the kid pretty good in the stomach, but even as he wheezed a few times to try and get back his breath, he was already swinging aggressively with his knuckle dusters. He threw another obvious blow, this time an uppercut that Hero could see coming from a mile away, though it was also clearly backed by enough power to be very painful if it landed. His eyes were now clearly glowing with a fey red light, and his smile was so wide and excited that it made is face look distorted.

Meanwhile, his friends had made the decision to stay out of his fight with the scary foreigner, at least for now. Unfortunately, there was another scary foreigner standing square in their way in the other direction, and they would have to sort him out before pursuing their original target: the young waitress.

"Ow owowow!" Sven's massive hand was clamped firmly around the taser punk kid's wrist. His fingers easily wrapped around the entire wrist to form a fist around it, like a normal person grasping a broom handle. He hadn't even started squeezing that hard yet; the punk had managed to keep a grip on the taser so far, but he looked panicked as he struggled to get free. He flailed with his free hand against Sven, trying to break the much larger man's grip, but his blows were barely distracting, much less painful. He clearly didn't have the kind of super strength that his leader was showing off a few meters away.

Numbers could make up for a lot of difference in strength or skill though, and the other two thugs were already closing on Sven. One of them produced a small black cylinder, snapping his wrist so that it telescoped out into a police-style nightstick. The other circled around wide of Sven, leaning over as he went to scoop up a handful of dirt and bark chips from a nearby planter. The two newcomers continued to calmly circle Sven until they stood on opposite sides, though their expressions and their constant glances toward their stuck friend revealed their unease about whether getting into this fight, even with the odds on their side, was a good idea. Their friend gave them encouragement, though. "Holy crap guys, help me out, this guy's grip is-ow owowowow!"

Nearby, Gai and his female assailant continued their dance. Gai seemed to be taking pretty good care of himself, and was clearly biding his time and fighting defensively until he got an opportunity to attack his knife-wielding foe safely.
Initiative:
Hero (2)
Punks (2)
Sven (1)

Mr Haircut
Aspects: Almost Laid Out*
Stress
Physical: OX

Flunkies x4
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: Handful of Dirt: OX - Fighting Dirty*
Knightstick: OO - Flanked*
Taser: OO - By the Arm*
Knife and Chain: OO

Scene Aspects: Exposed to the Public*
So Supercuts is attacking Hero with a normal, if superpowered, series of punches. Weapon: 4
[roll0]+3=2

The guy with the taser is trying to wrench out of Sven's grip; roll might against his roll to keep it.
[roll1]+3=3

The other two are spending this round making declarations in preparation for next round; they establish the aspects "Flanked" and "Fighting Dirty" on themselves by rolling their fists and Alertness, respectively. EDIT: They are successful.
[roll2]+2=2
[roll3]+2=2

Gai and his attacker continue fighting, but I won't clutter up our posts with his rolls unless and until they become immediately important.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven tsked when he saw the 2 other young thugs close in on him in formation. Well, at least they had some skill at fighting together even if they were unused to a serious challenge. He'd once had bikers throw themselves at him one at a time in a bar in america... What a disgrace that had been.

Idiots are keeping me from watching the interesting fight....

He thought as he revised his course of action. He'd been planning on taking the youngster squirming in his grip out first, but he wouldn't have time with the other two closing in on him. He bent down slightly to grasp up the punk's thigh with his left hand and slid right hand up to his armpit and lifted him over his head with barely a breath of effort before throwing him on the punk with the nightstick.

As discussed with Spenser, tagging the "by the arm" aspect to fists. Fists count as weapon 2 because of inhuman strength: [roll0]

[Steel Mirror]

Ghostis, Percy

The waitress bowed politely to the room at large before shuffling back to the door, bowing once again, and leaving. She looked quite relieved to be going.

The monks looked disappointed to see her gone, but turned back to the humans to conclude the talks. <"Very well, a matchmaker," the leader said. "But we do insist on staying here in Osaka. The better to be conveniently situated should any further complications arise in the completion of our contract."> He didn't seem disposed to negotiate on that point. The four yokai rose as one, and then left the room without any of the pleasantries normally expected during negotiations. It was a clear insult, though one that passed below the threshold of what would be considered actionable by all but the most prickly supernatural powers. Or maybe they were just rude.

With the talks concluded (for now), Ghostis and Percy had the room, and a large tab, to themselves. It was just like the monks to leave without paying anything, but then they seemed to be under the impression that Percy was paying for everything for them. Considering that he was the one technically breaching a contract at the moment, there might not be much he could do about that.

Kaito

"You're probably right, innkeeper. I have enough to worry about in this normal, seen world of ours without adding a whole other planet of troubles on top of that. Still," and his characteristic easy smile faded for a moment, "I wish you luck with Hoshijiro. If she didn't bring you the weapon she must have had a good reason . . . but a good reason for her to go back on a promise means something really bad must be going on. Be careful." He bowed, put his lackadaisical smile back in place, and turned to head back towards the private room that his racous group of Yakuza was slowly destroying. His personal assistant was waiting right behind him, and passed Takahiro a still-smoking pipe before falling effortlessly into step behind him.

For a moment, Kaito was left without anyone pestering him. The dining room was still buzzing, rumbling, and growling contentedly. On the other side of the room, Awa was leaving room 3 with some haste, though her perfectly placid professional expression was firmly in place and she was smiling and circulating with all the customers as she always did. Even as he watched, the doors to room 3 slid open, disgorging the quartet of grumpy Aobozu who were renting out one of the rooms in Suetsukata's inn. They looked unhappy, but then they were Aobozu. They were almost always unhappy about something.

The restaurant seemed to be running smoothly. Which is probably why he shouldn't have been surprised when someone in the direction of the bathrooms started screaming.

Yuki

A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed as neither Yuki nor Haruto spoke, but neither of them seemed to want to stand up either. The station lights were flickering in the late night gloom, and a few bugs were buzzing idly against the green Exit sign located just above their heads. Yuki realized that the station was actually closed; a large metal gate was closing off the underground walkway.

Finally, Haruto spoke again. "So," he asked with deliberate slowness. "What exactly are you?"

[Hemnon]

Yuki

A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed as neither Yuki nor Haruto spoke, but neither of them seemed to want to stand up either. The station lights were flickering in the late night gloom, and a few bugs were buzzing idly against the green Exit sign located just above their heads. Yuki realized that the station was actually closed; a large metal gate was closing off the underground walkway.

Finally, Haruto spoke again. "So," he asked with deliberate slowness. "What exactly are you?"

Yuki blinked at that sudden question, getting a light pink glow in her cheeks. "Uh.... I'm Human. I just... have a quirky thing about direct eye-contact i guess. But i dunno how to truely describe it... i CAN show it. just like before... but you will see ME instead of yourself if you don't break contact forcefully like before. I do not want you to get hit like a frighttrain, as before. It'll show you the Truth of who and what i am.... But i AM Human though... i can't be anything else, right?" She told Haruto, her expression open and slightly lonesome. It was clear that she wasn't trying to trick Haruto or anything. She just merely wanted to show Haruto what she's having a hard time explaining.
She was unsure if she would see the same once more of Haruto's soul, or if the image would change, cuz she had never tried to Gaze the same person more than once.

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

Haruto frowned. "So, are you like, a psychic or something? Can you read my mind?" He paused. "Because what I saw...I felt like you were there, too. Watching the same thing." He was still averting his eyes from hers. "I don't know if I want to do something like that again."

[Hemnon]

Yuki

Haruto frowned. "So, are you like, a psychic or something? Can you read my mind?" He paused. "Because what I saw...I felt like you were there, too. Watching the same thing." He was still averting his eyes from hers. "I don't know if I want to do something like that again."

Yuki chuckled at THAT question. "No, im not psychic... I've met a magic-user before who told me i had a sort of 'soulgaze', although it is unique compared to others. I've also heard that you can't really read someone's mind without using magic for it and that is illegal or some such, if i remember correctly. And yes, i was there. i saw what you saw. But do you want to finish the gaze? I just wish to convey who i am to you... But if you'd rather not, then I will respect that choice." She replied back earnestly, not wanting to cover up what it'll be like to do again, but she didn't know everything about her gift... so she didn't want to sound overtly knowledgeable about it either. It was just a Natural thing for her.

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

"You met...a magic user?" Haruto asked, nonplussed. "I suppose that I specifically asked you about this sort of stuff. To be honest, I was expecting something simpler. Like, maybe going to a shrine, or burning an offering or something." He finally looked at Yuki again, though he avoided meeting her gaze long enough to start anything happening. "So if I...soulgaze you again, I'll see you? The opposite of when you saw me?" He seemed to give it some thought, though he was still shocked enough that it probably all still seemed unreal. Getting smacked in the face with the supernatural could do that to a guy.

"Does this mean you're like, a magical girl or something?" For the first time since the soulgaze, his voice was tinged with something other than shock or numb stupefaction. His eyes glinted with a hint of excitement.

[Hemnon]

Yuki

"You met...a magic user?" Haruto asked, nonplussed. "I suppose that I specifically asked you about this sort of stuff. To be honest, I was expecting something simpler. Like, maybe going to a shrine, or burning an offering or something." He finally looked at Yuki again, though he avoided meeting her gaze long enough to start anything happening. "So if I...soulgaze you again, I'll see you? The opposite of when you saw me?" He seemed to give it some thought, though he was still shocked enough that it probably all still seemed fake to him. Getting smacked in the face with the supernatural could do that to a guy.

"Does this mean you're like, a magical girl or something?" For the first time since the soulgaze, his voice was tinged with something other than shock or numb stupefaction. His eyes glinted with a hint of excitement.

Yuki furrowed her brow a bit. "Um, yes, i met a magic user... or at least She told me she knew a bit of 'the art'. and as far as i know, burning incense and doing offerings doesn't really work unless you wanna do stuff like summon things to our World, or some such. As for the soulgaze, then yes i guess that is what will happen. But you broke off mid-gaze, so i dunno if your soul will be visible once more or if we can even Gaze again as it is. I really do not know much of how it all works, but yes i guess you'd see me as who i truely am." She replied.
Hearing the Magical Girl question, Yuki couldn't resist giggling. "Ahaha, no no, I'm not a Magical Girl. I can't cast spells or anything like that. Not a Wizard or whatever you'd call it. I'm just a regular Girl. I work at a Cosplay Café and do freetime work at local shelters and such. But back to the original subject. Would you like to finish the Gaze? if you would like to do so, then lets return to the café to do it... it's kinda spooky here in my opinion." She replied with a chuckle, trying for lighthearted, but sincere.

[LordHavelock]

In terms of subtlety or tactics, this punk we sorely lacking. 'But neither has a hammer when you use it to drive a nail.' Here reminded himself, as Super-Cuts proceeded to telegraph what could well have been a jaw breaking blow, if Hero could not avoid it in time. The ability to perceive an opponent's blows was only useful if one was simultaneously able to avoid, counter, or weather them, and at this point, the agent of the Blood Dragon was only confident about the first two. The sheen in his opponents eyes and increasingly manic expression on his face were no more reassuring, but they did convince Hero it was time to stop playing coy. Sidling right in a move to dodge the uppercut, Hero brought up his guard, and met the next strike from his opponent forearm to forearm, no longer backing off or deferring to the punk's initiative while waiting for an opening. 'Time to make my own opening.' He thought, and couldn't help but let his lips curl back in a predatory grin, fangs in full view to anyone who might be standing to the side of their little bout, as he unleashed a flurry of closed fist strikes that would have left even a professional pugilist reeling.


Defend using Athletics: [roll0]
Invoking my boost to Attack using Fists: [roll1] with a +2=5, and another +2 for potential Stress Inflicted.

[Steel Mirror]

Sven, Hero

The thug screamed as he flew through the air, narrowly missing his ally with the nightstick but slamming full on into a trash can sitting by the edge of the road. He tumbled into the street, followed by the rolling trash bin. A car screeched and swerved to avoid him, grinding to a halt sideways in the middle of the road. As the disoriented thug staggered to his feet, the driver of the car started honking and yelling through his open window.

Meanwhile, the two thugs attacked Sven from opposite sides, the one behind him leading the way with a half-hearted haymaker at Sven's exposed back. It was obviously meant to be a distraction, but Sven just as obviously had to move to counter it or take the blow straight on. The moment he began to shift, the guy with the nightstick leaped in, swinging hard for his kneecap, even as the original guy did the expected thing and flung the handful of dirt right at Sven's eyes. They seemed to be betting everything on that single attack to cripple Sven before his size and experience could come fully into play.

Hero was making good progress in his fight, landing half a dozen blows against a foe who was now clearly on the defensive. The guy seemed to have some training, at least. He was leaning into the blows properly, defending his core with upraised arms and moving slowly backward as Hero advanced so that he could deny him the ability to land a decisive hit. He was also tough as hell. Even with his defensive footwork, some of the hits Hero was throwing would have dazed most anyone. This punk was clearly feeling it, but the same thing that lent his blows strength seemed to be letting him push through the pain, as well.

"Sh&!," he muttered as Hero pressed his advantage. "You're pretty strong, aren't you? This is hardly pathetic at all." He launched his counterattack, firing off punches wildly. Again his strength was intimidating, but his technique was simplistic. He attacked with the knuckle dusters alone, ignoring kicks, elbows, or any other kind of attacks in favor of endless heavy blows.Initiative:
Hero (2)
Punks (2)
Sven (1)

Mr Haircut
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OXOX

Flunkies x4
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: Handful of Dirt: OX - Fighting Dirty*
Nightstick: OO - Flanked*
Taser: OX
Knife and Chain: OO

Scene Aspects: Exposed to the Public*Attack for Supercuts:
[roll0]+3=3

Maneuver by Dirt Guy to add "Blinded by Dirt" to Sven. You can defend with Athletics, or Endurance, or possibly another skill if you can justify it.
[roll1]+3=4

Attack by nightstick guy, tagging both aspects they added last turn. Weapon: 1 If the above maneuver succeeds, he will also tag that aspect to give this an additional +2 on top of what he already did.
[roll2]+3+2+2=6

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

"I'm not sure I want to head back to the cafe," he said running his fingers through his hair. "I kind of made a big scene back there, I don't really want everyone looking at me and talking about what just happened. Anyway, I have to work pretty soon, and..." He trailed off and was silent for a moment, then exclaimed, "Work! Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot what I originally came to see you about! With that hallucination and...whatever it is you do, I guess it just got pushed out of my head. This means I'm not crazy, right? Something magical must be happening to me! Is it monsters? Demons? Ghosts? Aliens? Do you know what's been happening to me?"

[Hemnon]

Yuki

"I'm not sure I want to head back to the cafe," he said running his fingers through his hair. "I kind of made a big scene back there, I don't really want everyone looking at me and talking about what just happened. Anyway, I have to work pretty soon, and..." He trailed off and was silent for a moment, then exclaimed, "Work! Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot what I originally came to see you about! With that hallucination and...whatever it is you do, I guess it just got pushed out of my head. This means I'm not crazy, right? Something magical must be happening to me! Is it monsters? Demons? Ghosts? Aliens? Do you know what's been happening to me?"

"I do not know, Haruto. I've already tried my best to tell you... it can be vampires though. at least that's what sounds most likely, what with the loss of memory and bitemarks, etc. And it's not Hallucinations i cause. it's a gaze upon the SOUL. Who you are deep inside, underneath the ego, self-induced lies, unwillingness to face the truth, etc. it strips all the veils away and shows what's really beneath. Or at least that's how I've had it described for how a 'normal' soulgaze works. But please, listen to me, don't go to work today, for your own sake and mine. If it's about the money, I'll pay what you'd loose from a day off if need be. I just don't wanna see anyone end up hurt or some such." Yuki uttered, wholeheartedly sincere and Compassionately.

All Them Rollz (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19323632&postcount=157)

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Rolls first:

Defense vs dirt (endurance): [roll0]
Defense vs nightstick (fists) :[roll1]
Retaliation (fists) :[roll2] weapons 2

(wow, those are terrible rolls.... Oh well)

Sven's last attack had left him open, and his opponents were quick to take advantage of that fact. First, one threw stuff in his face and then the other landed a solid hit to his midsection, bruising a rib. (taking the mild consequence to make the 8 shift hit (9 - armor 1 from inhuman toughness) into a 6 shift hit. In his surprise, Sven could only lash out clumsily against his tormentor.

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito yells to Awa "Stay here and keep everything going." while he himself rushes to the source of the screaming. I swear, if this is because one more filth spirit decided the bathroom was a buffet. . .

[Captain Carrot]

Ghostis

<"No offense, but you should probably just stay here. I'll handle finding a matchmaker and brides."> he says apologetically to Percy, and leaves with the Aobozu.

Ghostis sees Kaito almost immediately, and is about to ask him about supernatural aid when he hears the scream. Kaito bustles along to the source, and he has little choice but to follow.

[Steel Mirror]

Kaito, Ghostis

As the patrons of the restaurant craned their heads around to look at the source of the cries, Kaito and Ghostis were already in motion. Awa swung immediately into action, asking the customers to remain calm and seated. Still, Kaito felt the hair on the back of his neck standing up, a telltale sign of an increase in ambient magical energy. Whether it was from the sudden increase in tension and emotion from the various creatures in the dining room, or perhaps from the source of that scream, he was about to find out.

Kaito was first around the corner and into the low-ceilinged hallway that led back to the restrooms. The decor here was designed to be soothing and harmonious, with the sourceless sound of a gently bubbling brook lending the narrow passage a feeling of serenity. Under normal circumstances that was the idea, anyway. Any serenity that might be found there was broken once again as the scream, pitched like a high man's or low woman's voice, rang out once again. It was coming from the men's room.

Even as Kaito took a few steps, the air temperature suddenly plummeted to freezing, and then kept going. Kaito and Ghostis' next exhalations puffed clouds of vapor into the air, and the babbling sound of flowing water was replaced by the cracking, popping sounds of rapidly forming ice. Frost blossomed on the wall right next to the door to the men's room, racing towards the floor and ceiling and rapidly growing into a small forest of jutting ice shards and hanging stalagmites as long as Kaito's forearm.

Just as Ghostis and Kaito drew close to the door, there was a huge crash. Weakened by the extreme cold and covered in frost, the door exploded into a cloud of splinters across the hallway. In the center of the debris field was what looked at first glance to be a man in a Western-style suit, with dark brown skin and a bald head. His lips and ears were adorned with a bewildering array of piercings, and his eyes were a striking golden color. He was also covered in blood, and his left shoulder was transfixed by a glittering spear of red-streaked ice.

Once again, the scream rang out from within the room, but this time Kaito and Ghostis could make out a few enraged words. "Die, you animal!"

Initiative:
Other folks: 4
Kaito:
Ghostis:

Mr Freeze
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OO

Baldie
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OOXO (-2) Stalag-smited*

[LordHavelock]

After the last exchange of blows, Hero was no longer listening. The sights around them, the street, the cars, the buildings were all slipping away as an increasingly red haze began to gather at the edges of his senses. From the start, it had been easy to ignore the words, but now it wasn't just a matter of focus, of discipline, it was the intensity he felt, the blood pumping through his veins after letting go of his initial restraint and the feeling of strength and ferocity that accompanied the strength he felt in his limbs. Gai was gone, the Teutonic giant was gone, there was only the laughably unprepared fool before him, who dared to think he could challenge the likes of Hieronymous Rayner. More than that though, was the feeling of his opponent's blood pumping through his veins, and it was all Hero could do to tell himself that's not what this was about. Those precious few moments of distraction though could cost him, in a battle as closely matched as this.


Athletics to Dodge: [roll0]
Fists to Attack: [roll1]

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

Haruto seemed overwhelmed by everything Yuki was saying. He held up a helpless hand as she talked about vampires, soulgazes, or her paying him for a shift. It took him a moment to formulate a response. Yuki could tell that she was getting through to him with her obvious concern, but he also was obviously trying to find the words to respond.

"I won't pretend to know about all of that...or vampires, or anything to do with this. It all seems so crazy. But I guess I'm not exactly surprised; I knew something weird was going on at work, I was just too embarrassed to ask anyone about it." He struggled with words for a few more moments. "But you're wrong about why I do it. It's not just the money. It's my job. My responsibility. People rely on me. I know it must sound silly...maybe you can't understand."

He looked frustrated. "But you have a job, too. I know I'm only a customer, but I've been seeing you for a while now. I see how much you care about people, even when their problems really have nothing to do with you. If you knew that you could help someone, even if it was inconvenient or dangerous for you, wouldn't you try to do what you can, anyway? Wouldn't you live up to your responsibilities first?"

"I know I must sound like I'm crazy, like I'm some sort of train fanatic that tries to make his job sound more important than it is. But I know, deep down, that I'm doing something important when I do my job. Something that helps people. And I know you are trying to help, and you probably are way more qualified than I am to talk about this sort of thing, but I can't help but feel like I need to do this."

[Steel Mirror]

Kaito, Ghostis

Despite how painful the wound must have been, the man scrambled to his feet and faced the shattered entrance to the bathroom in a hunched-over, animalistic position. He bared his teeth in a snarl and reached with his good hand to grab the ice spear and wrench it out of his arm. Steam rose from the fresh blood and frost crawled across his fingertips, and he tossed it to the side to clatter at Kaito's feet. The voice coming from within the room rose again, and he made a warding motion (somewhat inhibited by his single arm) against the next assault.

A gust of frozen wind blasted out of the room and against the man with enough force to send a swarm of the recently-formed icicles against him like a storm of spears. Somehow the man kept his footing against the onslaught, the wind seeming to lose pressure an instant before it hit where he was still making warding symbols with his hand. A few of the ice projectiles found their mark, splattering the wall behind him with yet more blood, but he smiled as they struck. His mouth and chin were covered in dark blood, as though he'd coughed up a liter of it and all over the front of his shirt, but he still seemed to be ready for more.
Initiative:
Other folks: 4
Kaito: 2
Ghostis: 1

Mr Freeze
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OO

Baldie
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OXXO (-2) Stalag-smitedRoll me a separate Alertness roll, if you will, as you act. Difficulty is 1, but you get more information if you hit 3+. You can also roll lore or any other purely observational assessments for free if you want to focus on any other aspects of the situation to see what you can see/recall/infer.

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito clenches his teeth. Who the hell were these punks fighting in the middle of Suetsukata? Right above the bar there was a sign that anyone capable of reading could understand: "Accorded neutral ground". That meant quite a few things, and on the top of that list was no fighting.

The wizard sweeps his arm with trailing gust of wind. "Cover your ears, old-timer." The copper rings spark as he snaps his fingers.


BOOM!

The air around each of the combatants detonates in blinding light and deafening sound.

[Captain Carrot]

Ghostis

"Gentlemen."

He strolls casually into the room.

"As you should be aware, this establishment is designated neutral grounds. This means that combat is prohibited here. As proprietor and signatory to the Accords, the wizard is legally empowered to execute both of you without trial, and he is fully prepared to do so at this time. There would be no legal recourse for your employers. I suggest you stand down and explain your grievances."

Deception roll: 6

[Steel Mirror]

Hero, Sven

The nightstick wasn't a fancy weapon, but it was brutally efficient when used properly. The blow to the knee was a cheap trick, and it worked. Sven could feel something in his leg popping as the weapon struck home. Against a less stout opponent, it could easily have shattered a knee.

But this was Sven, and while the strike robbed his next blow of its power and control, he was far from out of the fight. The thugs looked surprised that he wasn't on the ground, screaming, but it only took a second for them to leap back to the struggle. This time they scented his vulnerability, and they gave up on the careful coordination in favor of a new tactic: a storm of wild blows from two directions that didn't let up for even a moment.

In his fight, Gai finally got within his opponent's defenses, knocking the knife away from her grip. She managed to whip the chain across his face in return, forcing him to stumble back with a bloody lip, but he probably came out ahead in that exchange, all things considered. The fourth and final thug, the one with the taser, stumbled around the side of the car that had almost run him over and started yelling at the driver, eventually reaching inside through the open window to shock the poor guy with his taser. He dragged the drooling man out of the driver's seat and dumped him onto the road before climbing behind the wheel, himself.

Hero's opponent finally managed to defend himself against an attack, and smiled widely. Hero was past listening at this point, but the guy seemed to love the sound of his own voice. "You're slowing down, gaijin. Your attacks aren't getting to where they need to go, anymore." He darted in and out a few times, testing, but for once he seemed to be holding back on his strength in favor of probing Hero's defenses. "You having trouble keeping it up already? I'm just getting started!"

Initiative:
Hero (2)
Punks (2)
Sven (1)

Mr Haircut
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OXOX

Flunkies x4
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: Handful of Dirt: OX
Nightstick: OO
Taser: OX
Knife and Chain: OO

Scene Aspects: Exposed to the Public*For Sven, the two are just straigh-up attacking. The guy with the nightstick is going to tag your consequence for +2.
[roll0]+3=1
[roll1]+3+2=6

For Hero, the guy is foregoing an attack this turn in favor of a maneuver. This is actually a deceit roll against a social or other skill of your choice; he is basically trying to distract or provoke Hero, sensing that he's losing control of himself in this fight. Not that he might like what happens if Hero ever does lose control...
[roll2]+2=2

[Steel Mirror]

Kaito, Ghostis

The blast of evocation did more than just create a distracting (and painful) display of sound and light. The frost and ice crusting over the hallway shattered under the sheer power of Kaito's spell, as though Suetsukata itself was shaking itself free of the invading magic. Where a tornado-strength gale of arctic wind had barely ruffled the suit of the man in front of them, the sound forced him back to his knees, where he sat stunned for a moment, blinking mutely at the two men standing in the hallway. The wind died immediately, and the yelling coming from within the restroom could no longer be heard.

After Ghostis made his announcement, the man let both of his arms fall to his sides as he bowed his head in submission. "I not meaning your offense," he said in accented Japanese, speaking in the slightly too-loud voice of someone whose hearing is not working at full capacity, for the moment. He was wobbling a little bit on his knees, but he seemed to barely take notice of the horrendous injury to his shoulder. "I am attacked, not meaning the combat in your territory."

From within the bathroom, Kaito and Ghostis could hear a groaning noise, as the last of the icicles on the ceiling fell to the floor and shattered.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven managed to turn away the fist coming from the now unarmed thug, but the nightstick wielding one once again managed to land a hit. Sven managed to take it on a meaty biceps (it was a 5 stress hit since the natural armour cancels the weapon 1, no consequences taken) and minimize the damage. Wanting to take his time with the surprisingly talented one he turned his attention back to the unarmed punk, aiming to take him out

Attack: [roll0]

[Steel Mirror]

Kaito, Ghostis

At the innkeeper's request, Ghostis walked past the already-melting ice shards to peek into the bathroom beyond. The normally beautiful room was likewise covered in ice, and a rather effeminate man was lying on his back in the middle of the room, staring at the ceiling with glassy eyes. He was wearing a formal black outfit somewhere between a set of robes and a business suit, and a thin rod made of dark wood and covered in ancient pre-kanji Japanese characters laid at his side, discarded. He moaned again when Ghostis walked in.

Thanks to the mess and the frost coating every surface, it took a moment for Ghostis to realize that something was wrong. From one of the enclosed toilet stalls (practically a room in itself), red ice was spread out along the frozen floor like a creeping fungus. Blood. Frozen blood. Tracking back along the crimson path, Ghostis saw a pile of bloody robes, a foot covered in frost, and finally a body. It was lying half on the floor, half propped against the toilet. There was no head. The upper body and rib cage was ripped almost in half down the middle, bisecting the clavicle as though some mighty blow had struck straight into the neck and down through the chest. Viscera was spread across the floor and around the stall, covered in a layer of ice. Even the walls of the stall were splattered in gore.

Staring at the carnage, Ghostis started to get the feeling that maybe the Aobozu weren't going to be the most vexing issue that he encountered today.

[Captain Carrot]

Ghostis

"Not to impugn your abilities, my friend, but I don't think you did all this," he comments to Kaito. "I'm having a difficult time imagining what could, frankly. I was going to ask you for directions to a heavy-duty matchmaker, but this will probably take precedence for a few hours." Keeping his composure (and stomach contents in place) was not a tremendous challenge, but this sight definitely ranked in the top hundred most gruesome things he'd seen in seven thousand years.

[LordHavelock]

Hero's opponent finally managed to defend himself against an attack, and smiled widely. Hero was past listening at this point, but the guy seemed to love the sound of his own voice. "You're slowing down, gaijin. Your attacks aren't getting to where they need to go, anymore." He darted in and out a few times, testing, but for once he seemed to be holding back on his strength in favor of probing Hero's defenses. "You having trouble keeping it up already? I'm just getting started!"

Hero used the moment's respite while Supercuts made probing attacks and continued to mouth off. He felt more than saw that Gai was handling himself, the blood drawn from his opponent hardly a concerned, especially while his instincts continued to tell him they were small fry, scavengers living off the leavings of whatever prey this pissant j-pop wannabe's preternatural abilities earned him. Somewhat disconcerting was that he knew Gai was truly no better off, if to his own mind preferred; like the rapacious beast which flared in him regarded Gai as one of his, but by no means an equal deserving of respect. For the moment though, that had no bearing on putting down the loud mouthed upstart in front of him, and with a snarl, Hero momentarily dropped his guard, his eyes not flashing red as his opponents, but deepening, pupils and whites swallowed up in a pool of vermillion nothingness, from which amber slits burned brightly. "No . . . !" Came a voice he hardly recognized, accompanied by a growl which roiled out from Hero's chest as his muscles tensed visibly and his veins showed out from the skin of his arms and neck, "You are finished . . . Now!"

Rushing the thug not quite headlong, his hands snapped forward in a series of brutal jabs, knuckles white and protruding as Hero clenched his palms so hard as to draw his own blood. The red haze resolved in to a sharp perspective, still colored but seeming to highlight the weakest points of his opponent, where but a modicum of force would draw his vitae to the surface. Nor did he relent, turning this latest attack in to a full blown onslaught as he kept driving, legs pumping, throwing elbows and shoulder blows, and even a full fledged headbutt all towards the front end of the car now occupied by his flunkie. Hero intended to leave no quarter for his foe, seeking to end this now before he truly lost his cool.


Defending with Discipline: [roll0]
Attacking with Fists and Invoking Dripping Red Legacy, and Sanguine Resolve to send this punk bloodied and disoriented in to the street: [roll1] +4 = 8 [+2 Physical Stress from Hammer Blows]

Fate Pool: 3 (-2 for Invocations) = 1

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito grimaces, feeling his stomach churning. "What could have happened here? For now, we need to take these two and keep them here until we get answers. Take the wizard somewhere to lay down until he is fully conscious again. I'll go prepare a ward to seal off this room until we can give it a proper examination."

He goes over to the ghoul first though. "I'm in a rather foul mood now, and running very short on patience. What is your name, who is your master, why are you here, and what happened in there?"

[Steel Mirror]

Hero, Sven

Sven swung once again at the kid who had attacked from behind him, and the punk's luck finally gave out. With a brutal chop, Sven broke the kid's arm and pushed him into the wall, leaving him to flop onto the sidewalk while curling into a stunned fetal ball. It was a clean break at least; kid would be fine. He'd definitely have something to remember the fight by. Sven was now free to turn his attention back to the guy with the nightstick. That punk looked a little pale at the sight of his friend in such pain, but he turned his uncertainty quickly into anger. "You'll pay for that, big guy," he said with his jaw jutted out. "That guy is my brother. You never should have messed with my family!" He swung back into motion, this time jabbing with the nightstick like a sword, going for Sven's vulnerable eyes and belly.

Hero had finally dropped the pretense of normality, driving the punk kid back with a superhumanly brutal onslaught of attacks. The kids defenses were crumbling, and his smile had lost its mirth and bloodlust. Now he had an expression of surprise and growing fear, as Hero got attack after attack past his half-hearted defense.

Then Hero headbutted the guy in the face. He felt the kid's nose break on contact with his forehead, and a chip broke off of one of the punk's teeth with the force of the hit. The kid staggered back and collapsed onto the hood of the car, barely managing to stay even that close to upright. His hair was a mess, his face covered in blood and getting worse as the nose began to really bleed in earnest. He still had one fist up in a defensive posture, but his other arm was hanging at his side.

"You aren't human," he said accusingly. The fire from his previous boasting was gone, but the undercurrent of disgust and resentment had reached new heights. "She was right about you foreigners. You're all monsters." Then he gave a tired, but triumphant smile to Hero, who was standing above him, right in front of the car's hood. "Fortunately she taught us what to do to monsters."

The engine of the car suddenly revved to life, roaring in the night. The bad guy hunched over and then leaped straight up in a four meter standing leap, easily clearing the top of the car. With him out of the way, Hero had a suddenly clear view of the fourth and last punk, sitting behind the steering wheel with a wide smile on his face. In the passenger seat, a pretty young woman in too much makeup was screaming and struggling with her seat belt. The engine roared again and the car shuddered as the punk popped it into gear, and a ton and a half of Japanese rally car went speeding directly at Hero.

Initiative:
Hero (2)
Punks (2)
Sven (1)

Mr Haircut
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OXXX (-2) Hair All Messed Up * (-4) Broken Nose*

Flunkies x4
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: Handful of Dirt: OX
Nightstick: OO
Taser/Car Punk: OX In The Car
Knife and Chain: OO

Scene Aspects: Exposed to the Public*Ok, so that car attack roll is also tagging the fragile aspect that Supercuts set up on Hero last round; the distraction was actually just to get time for his friend to get into position to ram Hero with the car, and Hero moved right into position. The punk in the car is also tagging an aspect he set up earlier, In The Car. Fortunately he's not a great driver, his base skill being +1, but it's still a dangerous attack as the car itself is a weapon: 3.

Car attack roll (weapon 3): [roll0]+1+2+2=4

And then the punk attacks Sven again
[roll1]+3=0

[Hemnon]

Yuki sighed with held-back annoyance at Haruto's stubbornness, but her face retained that gentle expression without it looking fake.

"Look, Haruto, i know you wanna make sure that the passengers on your Watch remain safe. but ou told me yourself you can barely remember anything that happens during your workhours on the Black Line, You're physically hurt each time and you wouldn't even have been able to save the Passengers. So putting yourself in harms way, just because you feel obligated to do so is irrational and frankly very dangerous. If you COULD do a difference right now, I wouldn't try and talk you out of it, but since you repeatedly have been exposed to something horrid that blanks out your memory, physically harms you and you have no idea who and what is doing this to you. I would compre it to having a Cop walk lonely into a Mobster's Den blindfolded, deafened and shouting "you're all under arrest, cuz imma cop and no one knows i am here." Please Haruto, see reason. If you just think about you, you'd need some aid from people 'in the know' to deal with this. and it sounds like you need someone that can hit heavy and knows how and where to hit. So please, Come on back to the café and we can talk further, cuz this neighborhood is giving me the creeps..." She said and nervously half-giggled at the last remark, clearly MEANING what she said about the neightborhood not being the nicest of places.



Empathy Roll to Social Attack Haruto.

Spends a Fate Point to gain a +2 to this roll by Invoking the Temporary Location Aspect: "Spooky Night In The Spooky Neightborhood"


[roll0]=-1+0-1+1=-1

Empathy Skill = +4
Ongoing Bonus from Potent Prayer: +1
Location Aspect Invoked: +2

Total: -1+7= 6

[Steel Mirror]

Ghostis, Kaito

The man was still crouched on the floor, not moving. As Kaito spoke, the crouching man's ruined shoulder trembled in a most disgusting manner and then popped back into its socket, by itself. The man cracked his neck with an expression of slight pain, as though the act of re-knitting a shoulder was no more of a discomfort than working out a muscle cramp. His face was drawn and the skin around his eyes particularly was wrinkled and sunken, almost skeletal, but it seemed to smooth over and fill out as Kaito looked on.

He bowed gracefully after Kaito's question, and answered with choppy language but a respectful tone. "My name is Charles Bensoussan, honored host," he said. His accent while speaking his own name was clearly French. "I am come here on behalf of my Lady Natalia Raith to explore for business chances, and to meet with partner business. I am using the restroom when I find this corpse already dead, and suddenly this man sees and attacks me. All unprovoked. I am doing nothing to break <accorded neutral territory>." For the last three words he used the Latin phrase, a common affectation for beings and functionaries from the Old World of European supernatural traditions.

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki

Yuki's torrent of words washed over Haruto. His expression got increasingly more concerned as Yuki talked up the danger, and he looked completely grim by the time she was finished. He did, however, latch on to one thing that she said at the end of her plea. "Some aid from people who know more? Are you saying that you are willing to help me?" He seemed to wrestle with himself internally for a moment, then he finally got to his feet with an air of having reached a conclusion. "Ok. You've convinced me, I guess. If it really is something to be worried about, I'll give up on the shift tonight."

"I want to talk to these people as soon as I can though, because I don't want to lose my job, and I don't want to put my coworkers to too much of an inconvenience. Or our customers. Do you think there is any chance that we could find these people soon?"

[Hemnon]

Yuki nodded at Haruto's question. "If i can, yes, I'll help. But i only know about people from the café, idunno if there's other places in town for 'those in the know' though.... but i guess we can take a shot and getting some help there for now. maybe some info about Black Line. But we can't just walz in and ask around loudly, there's people at the Café that's not in the know, so we got to keep what we already know close to heart. I've seen what can happen if you start blabbering up about ghosts, gouls and Daemons. You get a oneway ticket to the looneybin." She replied as she got back up to her feet... or rather, to her rollerskates and helped Haruto back up as well. And then she realized a problem: The only way up from here would be the stairs they both went down... and rollerskates aren't made for stairs...

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven easily dodged the next blow and, seeing his opponent had overextended himself, countered with a quick punch to the floating ribs and heard a cracking sound that seemed to finally take the wind out of the kid's sails.

Fists to attack, tagging the aspect "overextended": [roll0]

He dropped his baton to clutch at his midsection and looked about to cry at the unexpected pain and humiliation. Sven had enough experience at battle to know the young man was not going to be a threat any more and, with a look of disgust mixed with pity looked down on the pair.

I'm sure your parents are much pride of you two... Don't move, got to finish this before police arrive

Sven picked up the nightstick and twirled it around a bit, it looked like a children's toy in his hands, but he was glad to have a weapon handy. He looked at the remaining fighters, trying to decide which of the two young men needed help the most

[Steel Mirror]

Sven, Hero

Sven quickly took stock of his allies' situations. The one that seemed normal, or at least hadn't shown any kind of ability beyond the normal, was continuing his patient fight with the young woman with a chain wrapped around her fist. He seemed to be doing fine, though Sven could easily end that standoff with a few moments' attention. The woman was so wrapped up in her battle that she hadn't yet noticed that her allies had gone down.

The screeching of tires from the other direction attracted Sven's attention, however, and he turned to look to where the lead punk and the other foreign Samaritan were battling. A car was just accelerating forward in an attempt to run straight over the foreign guy, with the taser punk from earlier apparently behind the wheel. The lead punk wasn't visible in that split second until Sven realized that he was in the middle of a ridiculously high leap, hanging in midair as the car raced forward directly beneath him.

[LordHavelock]

Without even blinking, Hero's gaze followed the badly beaten punk's arc in to the air, with a solemn resignation to finish the fight, and send him licking his wounds to wherever he would be out of the way and not threatening Hero's turf again. The fighter in him knew that such a leap could only be a distraction, and not much in the way of a temporary reprieve, but the rev of the car's engine brought him back to what their intent was. 'Don't back down.' Came the voice in the back of his mind, 'You are the only true predator here, the top of the food chain, and these chattel need to be made to know that.' The words were not so easily dismissed this time, in fact, it was one of few moments Hero had ever felt them as words at all, and he knew his control was slipping. Still, there was a point to be made here and he would need every ounce of strength to make it, no matter the source or the cost.

Setting his feet in a broad stance, Hero dropped low to the ground, though his eyes remained fixed on Mr. Haircut, then the punk driving the car in turn, and before the car had even gained a more than a few moment's momentum, Hero was ready. His hands wrapped underneath the front bumper, crumpling a portion of the thin metal their with his forearms, as he lifted with all his strength, teeth bared in a snarling grimace, though not a breath was wasted on anything except the intense feat of strength which was now his sole purpose.


Defend with Might by lifting the car's front end off the ground: [roll0] +3 = 8
Success with Style!

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito takes a deep, long, calming breath. "Fine. I will have to ask you to stay here until your apparent foe awakens. A murder is, of course, not a common occurrence in this place, and I would like to be able to reassure Osaka's community that such things will be swiftly and thoroughly dealt with."

This would really be a disaster were it not handled properly. A grisly murder like this in Suetsukata would have every faction pointing fingers and eager to shed any suspicion cast upon them. By whatever means necessary.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven's eyes widened as he saw Hero stop the car and begin to lift it, an impressive feat, and one even him would not have been certain to match. Hero's appearance and facial expression, however, left him rather dismayed, if the kid had been a member of the Fellowship Sven judged his tattoos would have been bright red by now, and his fellows would be dog piling him to subdue him until he regained control. There was every possibility that Hero was going to win the fight and do something rash. Therefore, the appropriate course of action was to bring the fight to an end as soon as possible. He moved towards the girl fighting Gai and, taking advantage of her distraction used the nightstick to attempt the mother of all charlie horses on the back of her left thigh, hoping to take her out of the fight without landing her in the hospital

Weapon to hit, tagging her "focused on my fight" aspect for a +2, weapon 3 attack: [roll0]

The attack succeeded, and the young woman almost passed out from the pain. Sven thought he might have slightly broken her thighbone.

[Steel Mirror]

Sven, Hero

As Hero strained both his physical might and his metaphysical heft, the front of the car lifted completely off the ground. The vehicle lurched to a halt as the front wheels lost their purchase on the ground and proceeded to spin furiously and fruitlessly in the air. The punk with the nice hair was coming down from his impossible leap, but things hadn't gone as he'd intended. Instead of landing gracefully on the pavement after the car drove out of the way, the car was still there, stranded in place by the unexpected strength of their opponent. The punk came back down onto the top panel of the car, which was angled backward thanks to Hero lifting the front end up.

"Shiiiiiiii-" THUMPHe landed on one leg, awkwardly, and it folded beneath him as he tumbled back over the car and out of view. Hero could still see the other punk in the driver's seat; he was staring at him with wide, unbelieving eyes, and his foot must have still been on the gas pedal. The wheels kept up their wild spinning, and the air filled with the scent of burning engine oil, hot metal, and to Hero's nose, fresh blood.

The woman in the passenger seat had finally had enough. She managed to unbuckle the seatbelt and get the car open, all while still screaming. She tumbled unceremoniously out of the car and onto the ground below, hitting hard and then crawling slowly away. Unfortunately, because of the way she fell, she was directly beneath the raised metal of the car. If Hero dropped the vehicle in the next few moments, she would be partially crushed by the weight. Also, of course, the car would finally continue its belated charge and slam into him. He was safe for the moment, but only as long as he kept up the superhuman feat of strength. And the front fender was already groaning and pinging as it struggled to take on the weight of the entire front half of the shuddering car...

Supercuts was hidden from Hero's view by the car, but Sven could see him. He staggered up to his feet in the street, shaking his head, and took a few limping steps in a random direction to recover his wits. A handful of other cars had stopped in the street or were reversing away from the spectacle, one of them backing directly into another truck in its haste to be away from the battle. Supercuts looked around, and finally noticed his allies fighting Sven. Or rather, noticed that they weren't in any sort of condition to continue the fight. Cursing again, he looked around and saw how much attention he was getting. With a hateful look at Sven, Gai, and in Hero's general direction, he took the better part of valor and began sprinting (with an uneven wobble thanks to his messed up leg) into the dark alley along the side of the cafe, in the direction towards the nearby subway station.
Initiative:
Hero (2)
Punks (2)
Sven (1)

Mr Haircut
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OXXX (-2) Hair All Messed Up*; (-4) Broken Nose*; Sprained Ankle*

Flunkies x4
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: Handful of Dirt: OX
Nightstick: OO
Taser/Car Punk: OX In The Car
Knife and Chain: OO

Scene Aspects: Exposed to the Public*, Innocent Woman in Harm's Way*

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Wasting only enough time to bark a quick Get her out! in Gai's direction Sven hurried to the car and helped Hero keep it up, using his longer reach to get a grip on the car's body instead of it's abused bumper, easily keeping it aloft, for now

[LordHavelock]

The smallest hint of a smirk played at Hero's lips as Supercuts toppled down on to the roof of his car with his ankle giving a satisfying twist at just an ankle to indicate he was now easy prey. This quickly turned in to a snarl of frustration as his foe began to make his escape. Fortunately, the tower of muscle was there to pick up the slack of the vehicle, and then Hero was already in pursuit. He cast a final look at the punk in the car who had tried to ran him, and spared just enough time to point at him and glare as he rushed off in the direction of the limping j-pop wannabe.


Athletics to chase, using my free Invoke on his Sprained Ankle: [roll0] +2 =

[Steel Mirror]

Hero

Maybe Hero saw as he ran off in pursuit, or maybe he was too focused on his quarry to realize it, but Gai was looking at him with wide, shocked eyes. Maybe he could believe the hugely built foreigner could lift up a car, but Hero? By himself? While the car was not only moving but barreling straight for him? For the moment, he was frozen with uncertainty.

Hero was gone though, and running down the dimly lit alley. By seedy alley standards, this one was a pretty nice one. It didn't smell like piss, for one, which was a strong point in its favor. It was pretty muggy and warm, and the scent of fresh trash hung strongly in the still air, but all in all it could have been much worse.

There was also, of course, the smell of blood. Hero could have chased the punk with his eyes closed by following the sound of his shuffling retreat, the crunch of his steps as he blundered through piles of trash and splashed through shallow puddles in the street. The kid's injured leg was slowing him down, and even with his head start Hero caught up with him easily. Nearby, a sign for the train station provided the only dim light in the abandoned alley.

Realizing that he wasn't likely to win a footrace, and bloodied to the point where a continued fight hardly looked like a better option, the punk gathered himself for a leap, trying to use one of his superhuman standing leaps to make it onto a fire escape set into the building nearby. Unfortunately he was still being slowed down by his injuries, and Hero was close. There was just enough time for Hero to reach out and stop his leap from taking him to the high ground.
Initiative:
Hero (2)
Punks (2)
Sven (1)

Mr Haircut
Aspects:
Stress
Physical: OXXX (-2) Hair All Messed Up*; (-4) Broken Nose*; Sprained Ankle

Scene Aspects: Dark and Smelly*Athletics for the jump:
[roll0]+6=6

you can oppose this with about any combat skill; all you need to do is knock into him before he has a chance to jump and try to escape using that. You'll also have your full round to act after rolling, so you can decide an actyion and execute it regardless of the result of this opposed roll.

Sven

The other combatant sprinted off in pursuit of the leader of the gang while Sven took the full weight of the car himself. The driver of the car, the guy who had tried to zap him with the taser earlier, finally seemed to realize the situation he was in. His allies were down, his leader fleeing, and the person in front of him was a massive guy who had shrugged off a taser hit and seemed happy to lift a car half off the road. The punk flinched when Sven met his eyes, then took his hands off the wheel in an 'I give up' gesture. The car engine subsided into an even rumble, though the wheels kept spinning freely from momentum.

The woman beneath the car was being slow. Really, painfully slow. Fortunately Gai seemed to have shaken lose from his earlier shock. He came running from the side and took her gently by the shoulder, guiding her calmly but firmly out from under the car and to relative safety under the cafe awning.

In the meantime, people from the cafe, from the stopped cars, and even a few passer-bys had grouped up, as urban crowds do, and were muttering in awe at Sven's display of superhuman strength. Before Sven had a chance to figure out what to do with the car, camera phones were flashing and someone began talking excitedly about the 'Osaka Viking', one of the stage names that Sven had performed under during his months in the Japanese wrestling scene.

Oh well. At least his promoter would be excited about this.

Yuki

Haruto walked carefully up the stairs, still a little tender from his tumble earlier, and didn't notice Yuki's hesitation until he was halfway up. He looked down and realized that her skates made the climb a bit difficult, and finally gave a little smile. "Oh, I am sorry, I didn't realize you still had those on. Do you need any help getting up the stairs?"

He didn't notice the sounds behind him of a pair of feet pounding down the alley in a chase, or the heavy breathing and scuffle as the quarry was finally caught up with by the hunter.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven let out an annoyed grunt as he was suddenly supporting the full weight of the car and he almost simultaneously started seeing people with their phones out. Loss of anonymity was once again proving itself to be what he disliked the most about the 21st century. He jerked his chin to the right while looking at the driver, signaling for him to get out of the car. At this point it seemed he wouldn't have a choice but to deal with the police, but he really wanted to catch up with the punk and the vampire-like young man before doing so and he didn't trust the driver not to try to run him over if he put the car down right now. If he does not comply, Sven will slowly start lifting the car higher, clearly threatening to tip it.

((don't know if you want me to roll anything here, maybe might? If so here's my roll [roll0]))

[LordHavelock]

Hero snarled as the punk figured he could get away, and in the dim light of the alley, the smouldering brand which had continued to web it's way outward along his left arm and chest was now dimly visible beneath his shirt, and the smell of ashes was in the air. As the punk tried the same old trick again, leaping to what he was sure would be relative safety, Hero leapt after him in a diving pounce to knock him out of the air, all his predatory instincts alive and on fire at the prospect of finally bringing down his wounded prey.


Athletics to Block Mr. Haircut's jump to the Fire Escape; Using my two free tags on his remaining Consequences: [roll0] +4 = 6

[Captain Carrot]

Ghostis

"I can help with that, if you wish. For the time being, I believe I still have more of a name in the larger community than you do. While you set that up, however, I would appreciate directions to a skilled matchmaker, for the Aobozu."

[Steel Mirror]

Hero

Like a scene straight out of a Hong Kong wirework kung fu scene, the punk soared a few feet off the ground, only to have Hero catch his injured leg in one iron fist and slam him back towards the pavement. Hero landed on his feet after his short pounce and skidded a meter across the alley floor, feet kicking up a short spray of filthy water from a shallow puddle as he went. The kid tried to land on his feet, but the injuries from the fight were finally catching up to him. He landed off-balance, stumbled forward clumsily, and ended up sliding on his stomach through that same shallow puddle until he crumpled gracelessly into a bag of trash that had been propped against the alley wall.

He stopped there and didn't move as the bag split open and spilled what looked like the refuse from a restaurant kitchen all over his back. The alley was suddenly quiet, though Hero could hear the sounds of honking car horns behind him and the distant, muffled mutterings of the crowd in front of the cafe that he had left behind. The only light in the alley was a solitary streetlamp a few paces ahead, which illuminated the Osaka Metro Station sign that hung above a stairway which led down into the underground and out of sight.

It looks like this fight went to Hero.

Sven

After Sven raised the car and shot the punk inside a warning eyebrow-raise, the kid let out a panicked 'meeep!', and practically fell out of the driver side door and onto the pavement. Gai grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back onto the sidewalk, pinning him there once he was safely away from the car, and wrenching the punk's arm back and into a lock that kept him restrained. Not that the kid looked like he was interested in putting up any kind of fight, anymore. Seeing your enemies take on a speeding car by hand in a contest of strength and winning really takes the fight out of you.

And, of course, the camera-phones were all flashing and people were now audibly talking to each other about the 'Osaka Viking'. Even customers from the cafe were getting in on it from behind the protective glass in front of the cafe (in retrospect, it was practically a miracle that nobody had gotten thrown through the glass, or driven through it, in the fight).

For this moment, though, the police hadn't arrived yet. He knew he would probably have to deal with them eventually, but Sven had a minute or so to duck down the alley and follow the punk leader and the mysterious other guy. Despite being in the middle of a fairly busy and well-patrolled area of the city, the alley was dim and silent, and gave the feeling of being more isolated and creepy than you would expect in the center of Osaka. It was the kind of place where bad things could happen without anyone being the wiser. It was the kind of place that gave even normal, vanilla mortals a creepy feeling, even if they never knew why.

And all he had wanted was something to eat.

Yuki

As Haruto gingerly helped Yuki up the stairs, one step at a time, there was a sudden crashing sound from above them, in the alley. Haruto froze, raising a curious eyebrow, and listened.

There was the sound of a couple of heavy footfalls, and then something like a heavy object being dragged across the ground. Then silence.

Haruto glanced nervously up, then back at Yuki. He gave an uncertain smile, still supporting her my one arm so that she didn't roll backward down the stairs or anything. "What do you think that was?"

[Steel Mirror]

Kaito, Ghostis

Kaito and Ghostis made sure to remove the fallen onmyoji and the still-healing ghoul and place them somewhere to await closer questioning- in separate rooms, of course. The last thing they wanted was for the man to come back to his senses and instantly start up the Frozen routine all over again. Suetsukata's second waitress, a westerner named Natalie, took up station watching over the unconscious ice sorcerer. The ghoul was watched carefully by Rina, Kaito's pet dog and also Suetsukata's shrine guardian and general mascot. Both of them were capable enough to keep those two troublemakers (and possible Accords violators) out of further mischief while Kaito and Ghostis took a moment to examine the scene of the battle.

Although supernaturally created, the coating of ice and frost in the bathroom were more than just ectoplasmic constructs. The sub-zero temperatures were dissipating already, now that the magic to fuel them was gone, but the ice would have to melt naturally or be removed purposefully before the bathroom would start looking like itself again. The body, too, was covered in that layer of frost, which made a detailed examination of it difficult. Still, quite a bit could be gleaned from a careful visual inspection.

The body was mangled unbelievably, far more that it seemed a normal person should have been able to accomplish without a chainsaw or some heavy equipment. The head was not only removed, it wasn't anywhere to be found. At least, not in any recognizable shape. The damage wasn't done cleanly, either. The shoulders and chest were a bloody mess, with the upper torso split almost into two down the middle, as though someone had grabbed both arms and pulled apart until the body ripped down the center like a gory, incredibly disturbing wishbone.

Below about the waist the body seemed mostly intact, revealing the first clothing that wasn't too torn up and soaked in gore to be recognizable. The pants looked like they belonged to an expensive dark business suit, and the fancy leather shoes were of the same general theme. The arms were likewise relatively untouched, though they lay disturbingly twisted and far apart from each other as a result of the ruin that was once this person's chest and upper body. On one hand was some kind of ring, gold-colored, though details couldn't be made out through about a half inch of solid ice.

Spilling out from the top of the bifurcated body, and spread nauseatingly around the bathroom stall to stain even the walls and the ceiling, were what must have been the poor guy's internal organs and viscera, as well as enough blood to make a person wonder how a human body could contain that much. The chill in the air and the ice all over made it hard, again, to see any details for now. On the plus side, the cold kept the smell down. There was still the whiff of death and offal in the bathroom, like the smell of spoiled meat mixed with an open latrine (and Suetsukata's bathrooms were always kept nicely scented and scrupulously free of offending odors), but once the place started thawing it would get seriously rank fast.

Well. This was a fine mess. With first impressions out of the way, Ghostis and Kaito were free to poke, prod, and investigate to their heart's content. Or at least, to until their heart couldn't handle it anymore.

Well, hopefully you still remember the basic set-up after the long break, and hopefully this gives you enough info to start your investigation. Skill checks are obviously called for here, and I'll let you call those out and justify them however you see fit, but to start with lets get three skill checks from each of you:

-A Contacts or Alertness check difficulty 4 (Kaito gets a free tag on this one for being the owner of Suetsukata) to see if you recognize this guy by recalling seeing him earlier in the night in these same clothes.
-A Lore or Contacts check difficulty 3 to see if you recognize that ring, after a slightly closer look.
-An Investigation check difficulty ? to see if you pick up on general environment stuff. The higher you roll, the more I'll give you, though not all of it is guaranteed to be relevant! This one could also give you an aspect or two of the scene or the attacker.

And then feel free to go and roll your own skill checks and ask me whatever you like about the scene!

[Hemnon]

Yuki's breathing had sped up a bit at the sounds she and Haruto both had heard and all her instincts screamed just one thing: Run.

"H-haruto, i think we should turn around and find another way.... get back down, put me down and then we just RUN.... I got a really bad feeling about whatever might be up there... so please, turn back down the stairs right now, please." She voiced out softly both intently, controlled fear could be heard in her voice.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven decided to continue ignoring the camera phones and the impending police and media presence. He carefully put the car down and headed off towards the alley, simply telling Gai:

Stay here, I go look for your friend

He walked into the alley, purposefully walking loudly, and called out:

Berserk guy, rapist *******, you in there?

After taking a few steps in he spotted Hero and the punk. In the kind of voice one uses to calm a skittish horse he tried to reason with Hero, hoping he wasn't too far gone. He spoke in English, being fairly certain Hero was not Japanese after hearing him talk

The police are coming and there's witnesses. A lot of people filmed me but I don't think you're compromised. If it's just about a bunch of punks getting knocked around you shouldn't get in trouble, if there's a body it's another matter and I'm not taking the fall. So let's make a deal, don't kill him and get away. I'll try to keep you out of the official story. In exchange you meet me at Neutral Ground, Suetsukata, in 2 hours. If I can't make it because I'm in custody I'll call, ask if Sven Karlsen left a message. We'll have a beer on you and you'll explain to me how you're still alive after the Red's were exterminated. Deal?

[Steel Mirror]

Kaito, Ghostis

Kaito had the nagging sense that he recognized this guy. Leaning down to get a closer look (and ignoring the dripping gobs of organs that were literally steaming in the chill air), he recognized the outfit (at least what was left of it). His name was Hakase, and he was a pure mortal man in his middle years who taught history and anthropology at Osaka university. He knew a tiny bit about the supernatural, enough to usually know how to stay out of trouble, though that last part seemed sadly to no longer apply. He was a sometime customer of Suetsukata, but Kaito always got the impression that the man was more interested in the restaurant's history than any of its significance as neutral ground or a meeting place for any supernatural faction.

Kaito had also thought that the man had always shown good sense in studiously avoiding any involvement in any supernatural entanglements, but he was given even more information to doubt that. As he carefully adjusted the arm so that he could get a better view of the ring (the body was covered in frost, but it wasn't itself frozen; beneath the ice it was still squishy, if a bit cool). He managed to get a good look at the ring, and realized that he recognized it, too.

http://s14.postimg.org/c8xs0q3q9/Venatori_Symbol_Crop.jpg

An eight-sided star circumscribed by a pair of serpents eating each other's tails, the twin gods Ra and Osiris in their neverending cycle of destruction and renewal. A symbol of ancient and hidden knowledge.

The symbol of the Venatori Umbrorum. Well, it seemed that mild professor Hakase had had some particular hobbies.

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito just slowly shakes his head. These Venatori were knowledgeable, he had to admit, but messing around with the vampire courts was something that seemed a little beyond their capabilities. They were also tight-lipped and paranoid, so it was going to be such an absolute pleasure dealing with them. For now though, the real problem was going to be getting the body dealt with. The police would ask too many inconvenient questions, and the more knowledgeable ones were more accustomed to turning to Kaito and his ilk in these sort of situations anyways.

The bathroom had to be sealed off until such a time as the body could be examined and disposed of properly. Kaito really did not want a gaki hanging around. He steps outside and with a few swift motions conjures a cold wind to circulate in the room, keeping it cold (and keeping the smell in).

The next step would be the wizard. The ghoul was hopefully well-trained enough to know not to anger the local power groups by running away from a murder.

Discipline: [roll0]

[LordHavelock]

Every inch of Hero was ready to go for the kill. His prey was down, weakened, unable to continue the pursuit, and most of all, bloodied. Crouching over him, the gaijin's hand shot out to wrap around the punk's neck, nails pressing against his jugular and carotid so he could feel the thrum of the warm blood pumping through his veins. It was like electric current, the connection between him and his prey, and after drawing so heavily on his preternatural abilities during the conflict, he felt their proportionate need to feed in response, the raw hunger which sought the only appropriate fuel for a predator of Hero's magnitude. Then however came the whiff of brimstone and scorched flesh, rising from his left arm and chest, the burning sensation he had pushed away to the back of his mind, and he saw that his left sleeve was smoldering. Flecks of ash departed it accompanied by tiny sparks of warm light, and all of it was just the outward reflection of the scorching heat which thrummed through his veins and muscles, edging outward from the mark on his chest.

Hero coughed to hide a gasp as the toll of his exertions began to catch up with him, but held on tight to Mr. Haircut's neck, just without the previous intent to bleed and drain him that he'd had a moment ago. He settled his shoulders and knelt, rather than crouched to look the punk right in the eyes. "Who the hell are you, and how did you think you could compete with me?" He asked.

The mountain of a man was entering the alley now too, and Hero waived his over with his left hand by way of response, letting him see the effects of the mark on his arm and the glistening traces of ember. "Deal. No bodies, Neutral Ground, Sven Karlsen." Hero replied, his voice hoarse and his mouth dry. He was suddenly parched but he still wanted to get some answers from this punk. "Should make for some good publicity, eh?"

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Relieved that Hero seemed to have gotten the upper hand on his urges, Sven relaxed slightly.

Recognized me? Yeah my manager will be thrilled, of course he'd think it's great if I end up locked up for a few days... Wrestling, sometimes the absurdity of it catched up to me.... Anyway, do you know what that ******* is? I'd bet on some kind of scion but I don't know the Japanese side of the Nevernever very well. I think he mentioned a woman while you were fighting, and something about foreigners not being human? Why don't you ask him, my Japanese isn't so good.

[LordHavelock]

Sven

Relieved that Hero seemed to have gotten the upper hand on his urges, Sven relaxed slightly.

Recognized me? Yeah my manager will be thrilled, of course he'd think it's great if I end up locked up for a few days... Wrestling, sometimes the absurdity of it catched up to me.... Anyway, do you know what that ******* is? I'd bet on some kind of scion but I don't know the Japanese side of the Nevernever very well. I think he mentioned a woman while you were fighting, and something about foreigners not being human? Why don't you ask him, my Japanese isn't so good.

Hero glanced over at Sven as he managed to talk through several thoughts at once. It was endearing, both hearing English spoken aloud by a stranger and the way the hulking musclebound titan seemed to nearly trip over himself with the words every now and again. The student in him immediately hearkened back to several fellow athletes he'd known over the years in the same vein as Sven. None of them quite so toweringly built of course, but most of them enjoying the peaceable simplicity that being so damned big had allowed them too in the course of their lives.

"Recognized why so many locals should have their phones out so fast. I'm called Hero by the by. You better get back out there, maybe pose a bit and give them a big westerner belly laugh. Should put most folks at ease." He spared a glance and a quick smile for Sven, taking his eyes off Supercuts for only an instant.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Better if I come back with him, less questions. Ask him about his protector and leave.

[LordHavelock]

Sven

Better if I come back with him, less questions. Ask him about his protector and leave.

"You show this guy to the police and there's no telling what he'll do or say. Better if it looks like he made a clean escape to everyone but you and me." Hero replied. "I promise Sven, zero body count. On my honor."

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Not worried about that, worried about what he'll do...

He let out a frustrated grunt

Fine, have it your way. How much does your buddy know?

[Captain Carrot]

Ghostis

He takes a deep breath and prepares to make the shift again. Diplomacy wasn't so important now -- he needed to observe, and remember the old superstitions, the patterns of mystic mumbo-jumbo that everyone followed when the church wasn't looking, way back in Paris, the filthy, crowded city of thirty thousand. Details were everything when Ghostis survived by picking locks and snatching purses, and while he might not always be focused on them enough to see them consciously, a good memory would serve.

He'd spent enough time in the inn that day to have had a decent chance of encountering the man -- what would have stood out to him as a thief?

The ring . . . Ghostis took a good long look, and closed his eyes, letting the glyphs roll around in his head. Did they adhere to the 'rules' he'd learned a thousand years ago? Was there a structure he could pick up?

One last slow walk around the room seemed to be in order. Not drawing conclusions yet, no, but seeing what was there and what wasn't.

4, 0, and 1: bleah (http://orokos.com/roll/305634). Not much help there.

[LordHavelock]

"We'll find out soon enough. Be seeing you." Hero replied, as he flipped the thug over his shoulder and made his way deeper in to the alley with intentions to interrogate him.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven walked back out of the alley calmly, muttering under his breath one of the only bit of Shakespeare that ever appealed to him.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. Time for my the next scene then

The young man with the unlikely name of Hero seemed trustworthy enough to keep their appointment, and that meant that Sven had to draw all of the attention on himself, something he had never had much trouble doing. He stepped into the streetlights with a frustrated look on his face and called out

Last one get away! Everybody here ok?

[Steel Mirror]

Sven

Leaving the spooky alleyway and the suspect behind, the large Viking quickly regained the attention of the crowd- and the two police officers who had just arrived on foot. The sirens in the distance were getting closer, and he noticed that Hero's friend was ministering to a few of the thugs that Sven had handled a bit roughly.

When the police saw Sven, their eyes got big and they took an unconscious step back, but then the smaller, younger one swallowed and took a step forward. "Sir, please sit down against the wall and put your hands in front of you," she said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs. She was armed, if you counted a knightstick and possibly a can of pepper spray as arms, but she had no firearm. "We need to ask you a few questions about what is going on here."

The camera phones flashed and clicked.

Hero, Yuki

At Yuki's urging, Haruto's eyes grew wide and his supportive grip on her elbow tightened in panic. "You think...that something up there...is dangerous?" He swallowed, his voice growing shrill. "Like you mean, like you were saying?" His voice was growing steadily louder, and when he finally finished his last question as he stood there paralyzed, it was loud enough to carry out of the staircase. "A vampire?"

Hero was walking further into the seclusion of the alley when he heard someone from below street level, in the staircase nearby. "A vampire?"

Ghostis, Kaito

Ghostis made his careful circuit of the room trying to see the place like a thief. Of course, his first impressions were hampered by the fact that someone had thoughtlessly come along after the crime (presumable after, he reminded himself: don't make any assumptions yet) and covered it in a layer of frost.

As he did so, he also thought back on the clothing that this guy was wearing. He remembered seeing him, as he came in the door for negotiations earlier in the evening. He'd even seen the man around the city, he was an academic of some kind. Tonight, he had been at the restaurant alone, as far as Ghostis knew. Usually arriving alone at Suetsukata meant that a person was waiting to meet with someone. Perhaps Mr Kaito, or someone on his staff, knew who this man was supposed to be meeting with. It was at least a place to start.

Unfortunately his analysis of the scene didn't turn up much else of use. It was singularly horrific, though the gore alone did little to phase Ghostis. From all appearances it could only have been accomplished by someone with fantastic strength and bloodlust. That ghoul that they had captured sprung immediately to mind, though it claimed innocence. Other than that, he had little insight to top what Kaito had shared.

On some level though, something about the body felt wrong. He was no doctor, or well to be more precise he wasn't thinking like a doctor at the moment, but something about the way the body was sitting was just wrong. Wrong beyond the obvious carnage factor. Did it look posed? Was there something artificial about how the intestines were spilling out of the torn-in-half chest? He looked at the steaming pile of innards on the frozen-over body and couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing...

As Ghostis completed his look at the room and Kaito finished his sealing spell (it would only last until sunrise, but that would still work for now and he could renew it in the morning if necessary), Natalie, one of the restaurant's waitresses, walked up to the bathroom door.

"The sorcerer is awake, boss," she said, keeping her eyes from gazing into the room as much as she could. "He says he wants to talk to you."

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Good luck getting those around my wrists little miss

Sven thought before going to stand against the wall. He help up one hand in a placating matter before reaching into his pocket slowly

Wallet

He takes his wallet out of his pocket, takes out hi ID and hands it to the policewoman before sitting down and continuing, in his halting japanese

So sorry officer, japanese not so good, Do you speak English? Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Out of the languages he was comfortable with, english and german were the ones more likely to be spoken by japanese people, so he though he would give it a try. If he was unlucky he would ask to call his manager to act as an interpreter, this was not the time to let his poor command of the language land him in a cell for the evening.

Before she answered he looked pointedly at the handcuffs

Handcuffs not necessary, also too small

[Steel Mirror]

Sven

The officer approached carefully while her partner spoke into his radio, reporting the general situation and asking for medical backup.

She blinked as she tried to put the cuffs around Sven's wrist, only to realize that he was telling the literal truth. The cuffs simply couldn't reach around his wrist, and the little metal bar flapped uselessly about an inch from completing the cuff along the tanned skin of his wrist. "Huh," she said.

"Speak Japanese," she managed to say, sternly, though her strong Osakan dialect made her even harder to understand than most Japanese people. True, lots of the people that Sven met were from Osaka, but many of them toned down the dialect when dealing with foreigners or even Japanese from other parts of the country. Her strong regional tone made her sound a little more like a rube, but it also made her harder for him to understand.

She examined his ID while the bystanders continued to gossip. "This man," she said, motioning to Gai, the person who had participated in the fight but was apparently not 100% clued in, "says that you were just protecting yourself. These kids looked pretty banged up, though. Why did you fight them?"

Instead of doing the whole rigamarole, we can expedite things somewhat by having you roll a social skill to try to prove to the police that you aren't at fault, here. Social skill of your choice, though I may recommend that Intimidate might not be the best option here. :smallwink:

Police Presence roll opposing yours:
[roll0]+2=1

EDIT: so not that hard to beat!

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven shrugged at her answer and, slowly, answered the question as best he could

Waitress went out of cafe, they were following, thought they were going to... hurt her, told them to go another way, attacked me. Many against few, was not able to...... restrain as much as prefer. Still, alive, young, will recover.

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito

Kaito pinches the bridge of his nose, slowly inhaling . . . then exhaling . . . inhale . . . exhale. "Ok, I'll go talk to the sorcerer who thinks he can throw magic around in Suetsukata without serious consequences, and inform of him of just how stupid that notion is." Little wisps of cold wind, crackling with static, swoop around Kaito until he wills them calm.

The sign downstairs was unambiguous. Any sort of violence here was unacceptable. It would be damn interesting to find out what sort of reason the sorcerer had for attacking the ghoul. If ti was anything but self-defense . . .

[LordHavelock]

Hero, Yuki

At Yuki's urging, Haruto's eyes grew wide and his supportive grip on her elbow tightened in panic. "You think...that something up there...is dangerous?" He swallowed, his voice growing shrill. "Like you mean, like you were saying?" His voice was growing steadily louder, and when he finally finished his last question as he stood there paralyzed, it was loud enough to carry out of the staircase. "A vampire?"

Hero was walking further into the seclusion of the alley when he heard someone from below street level, in the staircase nearby. "A vampire?"

Hero froze, hearing the word 'vampire' spoken aloud in the alley from what could only be an individual failing to conceal themselves at the bottom of the stairwell. Slinging 'Supercuts' unceremoniously to one side, he stretched and tried to clamp down on his hunger a bit further, taking a deep breath to ease the grinding of his teeth, hoping the oxygen would help to clear his head. What he really wanted was to spend an hour or two oxygenating and getting some vitamin D; maybe in a green house or indoor gardens (the kind with the UV lamps). It was really the only thing which helped put him at ease, and allowed him to push the drive to kill and feed all the way from his mind, especially when the weather was so dreary otherwise.

"Whoever is there, come out now. No one will get hurt, you have my word of honor." He said aloud, putting his hands up in a placating gesture. He then repeated the statement in English, hoping he'd be able to convey a little more peace-ability in his native tongue.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

The policewoman was none too impressed at Sven's explanation, and was considering whether or not she had tie-wraps in her car or if she should call another 5 or 6 agents to get him to the station for questioning. So far the big brute seemed cooperative, but she knew she would not be able to stop him herself if he decided not to be.

Thorgrim used a fate point to invoke the scene's "Exposed to the public" aspect, it's super effective!

Just then, a man in his mid twenties who looked like a typical japanese college student muscled his way through the crowd to talk to her

Wait! He's telling the truth, I saw everything, well, most of it anyway

Sighing, she motioned him to go on

Do you know who that is? That's the Osaka Viking, the most successful wrestler Osaka has had since Sumo Hattori retired 15 years ago. I've seen him perform 5 times, and believe me if he'd wanted to he could have twisted these punks up like pretzels. He didn't even use his finishing move, Thor's Hammer, on them. Anyway, the story. I don't know how but I didn't notice him when he came in, but I saw the incident. The pretty waitress, Yuki, was following an old salary-man out, geezer seemed upset, and this bunch of punks started following her out, they seems like they were up to no good, especially their leader, who got away. I was sure they were going to attack her, maybe even rape her, so I was about to call the police when the Viking, that guy there and another guy, tall, looks maybe half-japanese, stopped them. The leader and the tall guy fought for a bit, they were very fast, almost like anime or something, and then the other punks continued going after the waitress. The viking told them that if they went after Yuki he was going to stop them and then they attacked him. One of them tased him and he didn't even flinch, threw him in the garbage can, then fought two others for a while as the other guy was fighting the girl. He took them out then hit the girl in the leg. I though it was over so I was tweeting the whole thing, but then I heard tires and the tall guy and the viking were holding the car up so it wouldn't crush the lady! Then the tall guy ran off after the head delinquent, letting him hold the car alone! The thug driving it got out, he put the car down and ran after the other two, then he came back. It was awesome!

Sven could just shake his head in embarrassment at this gushing account, at least he had mostly missed the obviously magical parts of the fight.

[Steel Mirror]

Ghostis, Kaito

The sorcerer was sitting in the private room when Kaito entered, eyes still looking a bit glassy from the stunning evocation that Kaito had laid down. Once Kaito had closed the door behind himself, the man bowed low, formally, and spoke. "I apologize most abjectly and throw myself upon your mercy, master innkeeper," he said, in overblown formal Japanese. While his words were apologetic, his tone was skirting the border of being almost surly. "I hope that you do not hold my actions against the honorable Onmyoji clan, as it was my responsibility alone. I, Shigeru Nagano, and I alone bear the weight of my misdeeds."

He was silent for a few moments after his words as he got up from his bow, though his face showed clearly that he wanted to say more. Finally, he burst out in a much less formal, more modern stream of words. "But I was just defending myself! That beast murdered a man and was eating his insides!"

[Hemnon]

Yuki looked slightly paniced and began fiddling with her rollerskates, thinking that they were a rather dumb thing to wear when you need to run away.

"I dunno, but we gotta hurry!" she hissed as she finally got the rollerskates off and cast her glances left and right, up and down. Everywhere. Feeling like she was being ensnared in a trap.

[Steel Mirror]

Yuki, Hero

"Whoever is there, come out now. No one will get hurt, you have my word of honor."

As Yuki fumbled with her skates, Haruto simply stood, paralyzed, and grew paler by the second. "Oh my god, this is real." He reached hastily into his pocket and rummaged around, finally pulling out a can of some kind of self defense spray in one shaking hand. The label read "Animal Repellent".

Looking fearfully up at the top of the stairs, he whispered to Yuki "These keys that will take us into the train station." He handed her the ring of keys that he'd had out ever since she first came upon him in the staircase. "You take them and get inside, I'll hold the vampire off!"
For Hero, this is a TN 2 alertness check to hear what is being said.

Sven

The police officer looked a bit dubious at the mention of the 'Osaka Viking' and 'Thor's Hammer', but when the superfan's eyewitness testimony was echoed by several of the other people present, she finally allowed Sven to stand up. A few paramedics arrived and began sorting out the punks (no major injuries, though the man whose car was wrecked had a panic attack), and two of them gave Sven a once-over. Like most locals, they were daunted by the sheer size of the man, and looked relieved when there was nothing wrong with him. "I don't even know if he'd fit in the ambulance," one of them muttered as he left Sven and moved on to Gai.

He noticed that the police were all still eyeing him suspiciously, but being watched was much better than being taken down to the station and locked up. Times changed, and the world was open and interconnected in a way that would have been simply unimaginable when Sven was young, but everywhere and in every time the law still got suspicious when foreigners were involved in trouble. He'd have to watch himself extra carefully for a while. The sharp-eyed police officer that had questioned him originally continued to watch him suspiciously as she went about helping to clean up the scene.

"Um, excuse me, Mr Viking?" Sven turned to see his superfan, who had just gotten him out of hot water with the police, standing hopefully next to him with a felt-tipped pen and what looked like a text book on biochemistry. "I'm sorry to bother you, but that was just amazing! I know that wrestling is just entertainment, but I always thought that the best wrestlers actually stood for something more than just the show-and I was right! You're a hero! I've already put that video of you lifting the car on Twitter, and it's been retweeted like, ten thousand times!" Oh great. Well at least it was free publicity. Maybe now his agent would get off his back about recording that commercial for that pillow shaped like anime girl butts.

"Anyway," the man continued, growing a little shy and averting his eyes. He held out the text book and the pen in a characteristically Japanese, almost supplicating gesture. "I would be very honored if you gave me your autograph, Mr Osaka Viking!"

[Hemnon]

Yuki just grabbed Haruto's hand and dragged him along back down the stairs, rather than running off on her own. "The heck you will! This isn't some Blade-movie. When scary hits down, you run and run FAST." She hissed and didn't care of Haruto had any objections to this.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Inwardly, Sven's embarrassment was mounting, though at least this time the praise was for some actual combat, not just play-acting.

Wonderful, at this rate this whole thing will get back to my grandfather and I'll never hear the end of it. Or worse, Odin will send one of the Valkyries to scold me. Though I wouldn't mind seeing Hildr again now that I think about it...

Outwardly, Sven smiled and took the book. He asked the kid his name and signed ''To my friend XXX, thank you for your help, Sven Karlson the Osaka Viking''

He handed him the book back, gave him a playful slap tot he shoulder and said

Tell you what, I have match in 2 days, give your name at the door and you'll have first row ticket. Bring a friend, or better a girlfriend heh?

[Space Lawyer]

Kaito gives a look that is somehow a mixture of boredom and annoyance. "You attacked someone who wasn't harming you, because he was harming someone who was clearly already dead. Even if that is what actually happened, that isn't self-defense." Kaito points to the walls. "Then, we come to the issue of where you are. Do you think I would really just let a ghoul get away with eating someone in my inn? You insult me by implying that I would let such a thing go unpunished. We also have to consider that under the Unseelie Accords, your clan is responsible for your actions. Do you understand what that means? By attacking that ghoul, in neutral territory, without apparent imminent risk to yourself, you just started a feud between your clan and whatever group that ghoul happens to be with. You need to think very quickly of why I shouldn't just hand you over when they inevitably demand it, because they have every right to do so, and I have responsibility to comply."

[Steel Mirror]

Kaito, Ghostis

The young wizard swallowed as Kaito spoke, breaking out in a cold sweat but managing to keep a scowling, defiant facade of an expression on his face. Judging from how his hands were shaking, though, he wasn't even fooling himself with that one.

"That's not...it broke the truce first...my comrades will not let you...a monster!" Each time he began a line of defending himself, he trailed off as though realizing how faulty it was. As the truth of his situation dawned on him, he began to breathe more shallowly and faster. "Oh by the kami, what is this? I...I thought I was defending myself against a monster. But it did kill someone, didn't it? If it broke the Accords first, then I was only defending Neutral Ground by punishing it!"
If you want to roll any social skills, feel free. You may also ask questions of course! He's in a pretty cooperative mood at the moment, assuming that the cooperation is likely to save his skin.

[LordHavelock]

Yuki just grabbed Haruto's hand and dragged him along back down the stairs, rather than running off on her own. "The heck you will! This isn't some Blade-movie. When scary hits down, you run and run FAST." She hissed and didn't care of Haruto had any objections to this.

Hero sighed and after a quick glance to make sure Supercuts was still out cold, and another deep breath, sprinted down the alley at a break neck speed to head off whoever was in pursuit, cutting them off at the top of the stairwell. A champion sprinter, and marathon runner back in his academy days, it was no mean feat for him to outrun an salary-man and a girl on rollerskates, and he hardly needed to draw on his bloodborne abilities for this. In fact, he made a point of trying to push them down, even if it cost him the extra effort he would normally pour in to crossing the finish line or breaking away from the pack.

"Stop, please! I'm not a vampire! Not really, or not yet . . . it's complicated!" He called out, but then decided to suspend diplomacy, "It'll only be more trouble for everyone if you run! There's worse things out there than me. I just saved that girl at the maid cafe from who knows what fate at the hands of that juiced up goon and his crew of miscreants!" Hero of course had no idea he was talking to the very woman in question.


Athletics to Head-Off Haruto and Yuki: [roll]4d3-3[roll]

[Captain Carrot]

Ghostis

He frowns, attempting to recall the Accords' relevant clauses.

"It is certainly possible that if the ghoul killed someone on the premises of the inn, immediate action against it after the fact would be allowable, even in absence of consent from the proprietor. Perhaps there is a psychometrist we can consult to determine what happened in the last twelve hours in that room? Also, some medical texts would be quite helpful -- something is bothering me about that body."

Shifting from one set of past skills to another wasn't always a simple matter of breathing deeply and recalling former instincts. There was no book for thieving that Ghostis was aware of, and that's not how the good ones learned anyway. Stealing, and getting away with it, was to a large extent about the moment, and being in tune with one's body. Retrieving the habits from medical school and residency, however, meant straining his eyes and mind, becoming logical and methodical. Meditation would work, but not as well as those paper talismen.

[Halae]

Natalie

Natalie, of course, is left with the corpse in the bathroom. She scratches her head, trying to figure out the best course of action - can't leave it here, it'll rot. Can't just dump it, the mundanes will find it and call the police, and that'd be bad for Suetsukata as a whole. 'Eat him,' her instincts say, 'it's a fresh kill, and you haven't eaten anything all night.'

She sighs. That won't do; his people will want a proper burial for him, ignoring the obvious ethical and moral problems with consuming a man whole. So, that means the best she can do is find a place for him until they come get him. Can't take him to the morgue, the normals will ask questions. Can't leave him here, he'll rot. So, the cellar. There's a freezer down there he can be stored in, for the moment.

Natalie will plant an "Out-Of-Order" sign on the door go and get a few cleaning supplies from downstairs - a tarp, a jumpsuit, gloves, a mop and bucket, that sort of thing. Then she'll take the whole lot back upstairs and transform herself slightly for muscle mass, and go about carrying to body, wrapped in a tarp, down to the cellar where he'll be chilled enough not to rot before his people can come with him. then she sets about the dirty work of cleaning up the bathroom. Slow-going, but that's why speed and strength are helpful for situations like this, letting her scrub and clean things more effectively, before all the blood stains.

Sometimes, this job really sucks.

[Steel Mirror]

Natalie
Suetsukata

As Natalie worked, the melting ice in the room and the defrosting gore combined to make quite the mess. Water was everywhere, the slush on the ground made it treacherous just to walk through the room, and as the temperature increased the smell of death started to assert itself.

On her trips back and forth to get the cleaning supplies, Natalie noticed that the dining room was full of unhappy guests, several of whom were looking less and less human as their distress with the current situation grew.

The water nymph who had been charming one of their guests earlier (in fact, she had been eating with the same young man who was now being interrogated by Kaito and Ghostis) now wore an expression like an enraged storm. Any liquid within a few meters of her was sloshing around in the various bowls and cups as though each was in the middle of its own private ocean squall, slopping up over the brim and forming little miniature waves.

There was also a frustrated-looking man with wolfish features, and fur gradually sprouting from his face and neck to match his overgrown beard. A few people, maybe vanilla mortal humans, were huddled in one corner of the room trying to look small and avoid attention. Most of the room was like that. Everyone looked uncomfortable, some of them looked downright hostile, but so far nobody had been allowed to leave.

Awa, the other regular waitress, walked up to Natalie, glancing at the mops and water and wrinkling her nose. She spoke in a low voice. “I don’t want to rush you or anything, and I don’t mean to pile on when so much is going on, but do you think you can talk with the boss about whether we need to keep all these customers here?”

She looked around at the unhappy room. “I get that something bad happened, and we want to be sure to catch whoever was responsible, but these customers aren't happy, and I'm worried about someone snapping and making this whole situation worse, soon."

Ghostis, Kaito
Suetsukata Private Room

The young onmyo, Shigeru apparently, nodded at Ghostis’ “good cop” commentary. “That’s right! I was acting in defense of the Accords, not to attack them!” When Ghostis brought up the possibility of an object reader to corroborate his version of events, he nodded vigorously. “The leader of my order surely knows somebody who could divine the events of the past, and show that I am in the right. If you contact him, I know that my honor will be proven.”

Sven
Outside the Cosplay Cafe

The fan bowed in deference and sheer celebrity-awe, but he was soon replaced by half a dozen other adoring fans. The cops tried to keep them back for a while, but the sharp-eyed female officer that had been hassling Sven before eventually waved for the oversized Viking and his adoring entourage to be allowed to go on their way.

“Just stay in town, Mr Karlson. We may have a few more questions for you as we investigate,” she told him on the way out.

In the meantime, the battered kids were taken to the hospital or the police station, and several officers began walking down the alley and setting up a perimeter around the area. According to their talk over the radios, which Sven overheard, they were setting up a perimeter and searching for the missing gang leader and Hero, the man alongside whom Sven had just fought.

Sven was now free to go, but it sounded like the cops wouldn’t be happy until they found the other man and the lead punk. Cops might not be able to stand up to the supernatural world in a fight, but they were pretty good, in general, at investigating and tracking down a suspect. Unless Sven’s guess was wrong, his new friend down the alleyway was going to have more to deal with than just an unconscious punk very soon.

[thorgrim29]

Sven

Sven nods at the police officer and hands her his card

Thank you officer, here is my number. If you find something or need something, let me know? Don't want to fight anti-foreigner punks all the time. Also, if you want drink sometime, call me.

Sven departed with a beaming smile at the obviously smart and strong-willed policewoman, caught a cab to his appartment and, after a shower and a change of clothes, headed out to the Suetsukata for his "date" with Hero, this time with a few knives concealed on him in case the punks' backer wanted to even the score.

((so yeah, feel free to have Sven enter the scene when you want))