Ryan ferries everyone through shadow to Japan, one person at a time. Whatever the loecal time was in New Delphi, it's now shortly before dawn. Everyone is standing in an alley in Tokyo.
Those who have been to Tokyo before can regonize the immediate area easily enough -- this is Shinjuku.
Those who have not been to Tokyo are amazed that Ryan found a single dark spot beneath all the neon. And while the language isn't immediately clear to all, every store seems to offer something involved with technology. What can be seen in windows looks especially shiny.
Ryan yawns, looking quite tired, and says, "Anything else?"
"Well, here we are, and, ah, where do we go?" asks Tom, directing the question at Tetsuo.
"Sounds like we're headed to this temple, but I haven't got the faintest idea where it is," Tim says, also looking over at Tetsuo. "Is it here in Tokyo?"
Bjorn winces. "Apparently the first thing we need to do is find me some sunglasses," he mutters.
Immediately after he says that, a passing street-cleaner looks at Bjorn's face, jumps, and quickly scurries off.
"Naw, you're good to go, Ryan. Rez, can you go grab Bjorn some sunglasses? And Bjorn, Tetsuo, either of you recognize where we are?"
Dracos
"Shinjuku," Bjorn said. "Pretty close to the station, I think."
"Okay, that's good. How far away is that from Fuji, if you know?"
Dracos
"About two hours by bus," Bjorn replies. "Maybe a little more by train. Either way, we should be able to leave from this station."
"Good to hear." Dracos then waits for Tetsuo to get a chance to answer Hal's question.
Dracos
"Shinjuku," Tetsuo says absently. In Japanese he adds, "This is only a few blocks from where I first crossed paths with the man who ruined my sister." He looks blank for a moment, then shakes his head. "You want to get to Fuji-sama?"
Shinjuku sells almost anything you could want, if you know where to look. Nathan is not terribly surprised to see a vending machine that sells shades of varying sorts, though it doesn't appear ready to accept any of his European, Australian, or US currency. It does have a credit-card-reader slot, though.
"Oh boy."
Nathan picks out the goofiest looking pair of sunglasses he can find, then inserts his credit card and waits for the machine to do something wacky and entertaining.
"I heard they've got parking garages that work like vending machines. I wonder if they've got any that sell cars yet."
The machine spits out some highly Japanese and sugar-coated music as the glasses are dispensed. And when Nathan holds up the almost indecipherable reciept (was a pair of shades worth 2000 Japanese Money Units?) he gets a chance to study the glasses in more detail. They're Subtle, spelled with a capital Not. Those who understand Japanese are treated to a sing-song Mishima Eyewear's Customer Loyalty remix, which lasts about forty seconds.
Tetsuo rolls his eyes, then points to a stack of shades near the top of the rack. He says, "My brothers wore this kind."
Nathan, heedless of Tetsuo's helpful advice, proffers the glasses to Bjorn with a carefully straight face.
"Just because I haven't got eyes doesn't mean I can't see," Bjorn points out tersely, his hand still covering his face. Nathan snickers (though it's more of a giggle, really), and seconds later is passing Bjorn the model pointed out by Tetsuo.
"Right, then," Bjorn says, before Nathan has quite finished actually returning. "Yes," he says to Tetsuo in Japanese, "we would like to head to Fuji-san. Should we just take a train from here, or do you have another suggestion?"
He looks thoughtful. "There are always cameras on trains and in train stations," he says slowly. "There are still busses -- many of them are private, and don't have any cameras at all. The bigger brothers would sometimes go with father on bus-trips, so business could be done. It is expensive to charter one, and that may be noticed, too. It will be fastest by train, but I think most subtle by bus." Then he frowns, glancing down the street as some noisy kids spill out of a storefront, gabbing loudly to oneanother. More quietly he asks, "Are you willing to fight, or do you just need to get there?"
Bjorn exchanges looks with the others, translating for them through the Waking Dream as Tetsuo talks. "We need to get there," he says. "We'll fight if we have to. Why do you ask?"
"Father's house collapsed," he says with a shrug, not meeting Bjorn's shade-covered eyes. "There are still enemies around. I am helping you, but would be happy to punish some of those responsible. But loyalty comes first."
"Right now I think getting to Fuji-sama in one piece is the top priority," Tim avers. "If we have to fight along the way... well, I guess we have to, but I'd rather not go out of my way to look for one."
"And I'd be happy to go out of my way to avoid them," finishes Tom. "It shouldn't be too hard, though, should it? How's our money situation, couldn't we get taxis or rent cars or something?"
Bjorn has been frowning in thought. "Tetsuo," he asks slowly, in Japanese. "Forgive my forgetfulness, but who attacked your father's house?"
Through the Dream, he whispers to the others, Two things we have to remember, I just realized. One is that the yakuza are working, unhappily, with the Cabal right now. If we curry favour with them by helping Tetsuo, maybe we can persuade them to switch sides. And more importantly, the Guide for the Dream of Fire is hiding with the yakuza. Going to Fuji without him doesn't gain us anything. The fact that Tetsuo is here looking for help with a fight right when we want to get the Dream of Fire is probably important.
So basically, you're saying that we should help Tetsuo out now, and doing so will hopefully lead us to the Fire Guide?
What do we know about this guy, anyway? How will we know him when we see him?
Yes, nothing, and I'm not sure, but it'll probably be obvious.
Do the Cabal know about his presence within the Yakuza? Hell, do they know we know where the fire guide is? 'cos if it's obvious to US...
That's a good question. They might, but unlikely -- we got it from Relm, and the Cabal's oracle has been sidelined.
Hmm. Gotcha. Speaking of which, what does the Cabal know about *us*? As in, the Order of Symmetry, and what we've done?
'cos I'm thinking. They probably know about you guys, right? I mean, Nathan, Phillip, etc. But they wouldn't really know much about me and Tim.
They know what you guys want, right? If you fight them, it may become clear to them that we want something out the yakuza. But if us unknowns do it...
There is a distinct impression of amusement through the Dream. You want to fight someone or someones who took out a Yakuza stronghold by yourself?
I'm not actually sure the Cabal knows that we're the Order. We entered the Earth Dream after them, and we formed the Order after their Oracle had been killed. They might not know we're in the game again. Besides, personally? I want the Cabal to know we're in the game, to not be sure of what we're doing. They're in the lead. They're probably complacent. Let's start messing with their minds.
Welllllll, no.
I don't know, I'm not convinced we should be letting them know we're up to something. If they're complacent, they'll probably stay that way- and if we stir them up, that'd make striking them, or getting to the Fire Dream alone all the more difficult.
It'll depend, though. On the guide, and on just what the yakuza situation is...
Letting that aside, the practical aspect is: helping Tetsuo might be the key to getting the Fire Guide on our side, and I want to make sure we succeed, not get another Dreamer killed. And you.
Of course, first let's hear what Tetsuo has to say.
I appreciate the sentiment, comes the rather dry reply.
While getting the yakuza's assistance in the future might be a good thing, aren't getting the Dreams taken care of the real key to this? I know I don't understand this all just yet, but I'm not sure there's all that much *I* can do against whoever's giving the yakuza problems, at least not yet.
Agreed. But we can't get into the Dream until we find the Guide, and we might need to get the yakuza to trust us to find the Guide.
At the least, let's get details. I don't think we've yet been hurt by knowing as much as we can about the situations of others that happen to be nearby...with plenty instances of the reverse.
Dracos eyed the area, half with a tourist's eye, half with the eye of someone else? Well, something like that. Either way he kept up with the group as they continued their lightning speed mental pow-wow along the avenues of the city.
Tetsuo has been uncomfortably avoiding Bjorn's question until the overwhemling silence (to him, anyway, being unaware of the psychic chatter) gets to him and he says, "I am Kishimoto, and my brothers were the Kishimoto-gumi. We served the Yamaguchi-gumi, and my father was graced with the honor of being saiko-komon to the kumichou." He glances sidelong around to see that no one is in earshot, though he still looks uncomfortable. "It was my father's own decisions that brought about our downfall. There were many families in the Yamaguchi-gumi, and my father thought to overthrow the kumichou and take his place. He would do this with the power of the one who...." He trails off, a mask of emotions crossing his face quickly, before he stops in front of a vending machine. He looks angry and pulls a handful of coins from his pocket, buying some Pocari Sweat.
After he calms himself down with a few sips, slouching against the vending machine, he continues. "The one who maimed my sister was going to be the tool we would use. Father did not know how to use his powers, but many people had been sent to collect him. My brothers and I were among them. This one was to be sold by the Yamaguchi-gumi to the outsiders, but my father thought it would be better to keep him for our own purposes, or use him to find someone more powerful and able to better aid his task of overthrowing the kumichou.
"In the end, my own brothers were more loyal to the Yamaguchi-gumi than the Kishimoto-gumi. But you want to know about the outsiders." He chugs his drink, then tosses it at a nearby trashcan, ringing it round the rim before it sinks. "There was a blond man," he says slowly, "who was short. He had a card that said his name was Anderson, but I did not believe it. There was a woman with him, and she was Japanese ... Michiko, I think she called herself. Though that could be a lie, too." He closes his eyes. "One of my brothers told me, when they were gone, and he was drunk, that he'd known Michiko, though. She was, he said, 'the most expensive fuck I ever had, but worth every yen'." He furrows his brow in concentration. "There was a soapland parlor he named...." His eyes suddenly snap open, and turn to look at Bjorn. "It is not far from here. This is what you wished to know?"
Dracos raised an eyebrow slightly at that.
The most beautiful kind of story. So we're with the failed traitors of a the yakuza? I suppose the outsiders are the cabal or some such...but that'd mean that whoever they found was already sold, rather than kept?
Dracos
who blames any stupid crosstalk on the fact it's been ages =p
Probably. I wonder how he feels about being passed around?
Hmm. I'm thinking about just what Relm said before. This guide can sink to any low, has no height he can't aspire too, mocks the contest, surrounds himself with protection... Tetsuo might get us leads into the Yakuza, but it'll be hard to probe deeper if we help him and find ourselves on hitlists. And I have trouble thinking he's in with the traitor.
Not like I care about loyalty within organized crime...
You should. It may be important. Anyhow, as I see it, we've got three tasks and an opportunity to do two at the same time. We should establish some small base of operations here. If we're not one daying it up to fuji, we'll need a place to eat/sleep and also theoretically just be organized around if we need to split up. We also need somewhere private that tetsuo feels safe spilling his guts and any details whatsoever about what, if any, connections he still can rely on. I don't want to go to the unreliable unknown buyers first over finding out what the Yakuza actually knows, if anything. And finally, we should visually scout out that place. Dracos mind-dumped in a manner that was entirely familiar to the group at this point, switching from vaguely paying attention to information gathering.
We should probably pick a spot for the base of operations and then split up from there, some talking with Tetsuo and possibly looking up leads with him and some checking out the brothel. Bjorn, could you ask and figure out with him a good safehouse to work from?
Dracos
Let's go to the soapland, Bjorn weighs in abruptly. It just happens to be right here? "Coincidence is only contrivance." I don't think we can afford to go slow, play it safe. The Cabal and Pax are sneakier than us, they have more resources; the longer we spend in Japan, the more inquiries we do, the sooner they'll pick up our tail. There's a clear and sudden sense of amusement through the Dream. They might be sneakier than us, but I'm willing to bet we've got 'em beat on the sudden shock direct approach. They're going to find out we're here, so let's make their discovery unpleasant for 'em.
Aloud, he says, "Where is this soapland?"
Tetsuo nods slightly and points at an alley. "Through there," he says, "and a few miles past. 'Milky Dream Oppai Paradise' was the name."
Dracos shrugged. Well rare for me to disagree with kicking in the front door.
Dracos
A sense of resignation comes across the link. It's not entirely a bad idea, but you'll pardon me if I stay at the BACK for all of this. I'm still not entirely sure what exactly I can do against armed yakuza at this point.
Have years of swearing at people taught you nothing? But yeah, understood. Hopefully we won't walk into a gunfight.
Dracos nodded at bjorn and Tetsuo as the crew headed down towards the *strikethrough*deathtrap*/strikethrough* soap parlor.
Dracos
Tetsuo leads the way down various poorly lit alleys, ignoring the occasional lady-of-the-night as a come-on is weakly offered. "The place we are going to," he says in Japanese, to break the silence, "is expensive. I do not have enough money to get in."
Bjorn grins at that, a bit viciously. "I didn't plan to pay. I would like to think that by the time I have said my piece, they will most willingly let us in."
Tetsuo nods, frowning. He mumbles to himself and clenches one hand a few times before sticking it into his pocket. Phil notices a flash of light that everyone else seems to miss. Delving deeper, his magic-sight allows him to realize that Tetsuo just grabbed something from very far away, and is now holding it in his pocket. "Hai, oyabun. I'll follow the Derufi-gumi."
Derfumi gumi? Wha? I think Tetsuo just magically swiped an order from his higher ups in the Yakuza.
"The Delphi Gang," more or less, and what?
Ah. Cursed lack of linguistical skill. Dracos replied back.
Dracos
What was this about magic?
He just got a letter or something teleported into his hand and slipped it into his pocket. Dracos clarified.
Well, why don't you ask him? I agree with Bjorn, this subtlety stuff is overrated.
"What have you got in your pocket, Tetsuo?" Bjorn asks, quietly.
The fact that I'm apparently becoming the subtle one is weird beyond measure, you two. Dracos quipped.
Dracos
Okay, perhaps 'subtle' wasn't quite the word. Maybe it was 'oblivious'.
Yes sir, Captain Obvious!... We do have mouths don't we? Dracos tapped his cheek. "There's something lost in the lack of verbal quippage upon the journey taken."
Dracos
"Whatever it was, I think you lost it anyway."
"My, how pink of you. And how silently the hat does ponder as we walk?" Dracos shifted them into idleseque chatter as they made their way down the streets.
Dracos
"You know Drac's desperate when he has to change the subject to 'pink'. It's like Godwin's Law."
Nathan rolls his eyes dramatically.
"I could say the same thing about hats," Tim replies, checking to make sure his is secure. "Sorry, just a bit thoughtful at the moment."
Tetsuo gives a sly smile and produces ... a box-cutter. "My sister sent it to me," he explains. His smile vanishes. "I hope we don't need it."
Sucks to be him, then...
Somewhere someone is making a "The Boxcutter Kid' movie. I swear it.
Dracos
Anyway. What's the plan? Find the soapbox, head inside, and ask for the best fuck there? Maybe yell 'the Order's here, bitches!' while we're at it?
Smash'n'grab? Rampant vandalism? Want to check out the place beforehand, or what?
I was planning on saying, "I want to speak to Michiko," and suggesting that I would eat their faces if they argued.
You can do that?
There's a pause. Possibly. We'll find out, I guess.
Well, then. To Milky Dream Oppai Paradise! And here I thought I'd get to be sleeping with the enemy... you know, there's a lot to be said for the subtle approach.
But, ah, the face-eating works fine, too.
"So," Mark asks in English, with a frown, "do we have any kind of plan?"
Tetsuo looks at him and shrugs blankly.
"Yes," Bjorn says. "We're going to play it by ear." He considers. "Not much of a plan," he admits, "but we're on a bit of a tight schedule, so I have to improvise."
"May you crush my skepticism," mutters Tom.
Mark grunts and nods. Tetsu shrugs again, and leads everyone to an alley that opens up to a courtyard. There's a large temple ahead, and he comes to a halt, pointing to a nearby sign spattered with moon-language (to those who can read Japanese: "Subway").
"Down there are businesses," the young yakuza explains in his native language. "One of them, the one we are looking for, is directly beneath the temple. I have not been there before, so I do not know what it is like inside. My brothers only spoke of the women."
Looking morose, Tom glances at the temple. "Anything noteworthy about that place?" he asks, jerking a finger towards it.
"It is old," Tetsuo offers, after translation. "This," he gestures to the courtyard, "is where I met the man who hurt my sister." He fumes quietly for a minute. When he recovers himself, he says, "It is a temple to Kanon, kami of mercy."
"Not very respectful, are they," Dracos commented, looking down below the temple and attempting, though not expecting much success to get a general sense of the underground area.
Phil is surprised to find that when he tries to look through the road beneath him, his senses go straight through it. About four meters down, there's a tunnel. The new earth-based senses don't let him see into the tunnel, but he can make out its roof and walls quite easily. It lines up with the subway entrance, and smaller conduits (presumably for plumbing, wiring, and air conditioning) also show up to this new earth-vision. There's too much stuff between the current position and the temple to look for a convenient passageway straight down from the temple -- drains, manhole covers, posts which normal sight shows as electrical power poles -- but it's quite likely that getting closer to the temple would be a good opportunity to find out more.
After translation, Tetsuo says, "The greatest mercy around here is probably a discount."
Dracos nods. I can see through the ground here... not perfectly but much better than expecting. I'll try and identify escape or entry routes as we get closer so we know in case we have to hightail it.
He proceeds to keep an eye out for such.
Dracos
Bjorn shrugs. "Not getting much more fun from out here," he comments. "Why don't Tetsuo and I go in to the soapland, while you guys scout out the area? Nathan and Philip can map out the underground, and I'll keep you all up to date on what's going on inside."
"Works. Tim and I could check out the temple," offers Tom. "Open to the public, right?"
"Works. We'll be the ignorant tourists," Dracos nodded in agreement.
Dracos
Tetsuo confirms that the temple is open to the public, even at this hour.
Nathan glances across at Dracos.
"Let's go and have a look around, then?"
"Wait," Mark says, frowning. "Where do I go?"
"And me?" Tetsuo asks.
"Come on with me," says Tom, brightly. "You can give me tips on playing pool, I totally need them.
"Tetsuo was going with Bjorn, wasn't he?"
"That sounds like a plan, no one separate too, anyhow...Bjorn will keep us in touch." With that, Dracos and Rez moved off to begin their scouting of the temple, as always retorting to each other with lame juvenile jests that simply made the best of things.
"Let's go, Tetsuo," Bjorn nods, making his way directly to the soapland with all the lack of shame of a... well... Bjorn.
Bjorn and Tetsuo remain in this thread, all others go to Temple of Love (http://www.soulriders.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1000676#1000676)
Shrugging, Tetsuo leads Bjorn down one of the subway tunnels, and then through a small arcade. Various shops seem to have been set up between the staircase and the actual subway, and one of them is an inviting little shop with a pair of greeters out front. A woman wearing only (it seems) a bathrobe is chatting with a man in a dark business suit, though the man ignores her at the approach of potential customers. "Welcome!" he cries out with a grin. "Welcome, are you here to visit the fabled pallet of desire?"
For a long moment, Bjorn ignores the man, looking past his shoulder as he explores the area with his earth sense. When he eventually deigns to take notice, he stares at the man through his sunglasses, head tilted to the head, before he finally says, in Japanese, "Yes. Yes, I think that I am."
On their way down, Bjorn had been careful to brush up against Tetsuo, and now he reaches through the Dream to Tetsuo's mind. Follow my lead here, Tetsuo, if you will.
To his credit, Tetsuo barely even flinches at the contact. He gives a goofy smile to the man and says, "I've never been before. Big brother here is...." He trails off with a shrug.
To Bjorn's earthsight, the tunnel roof has a layer of earth above it, intersected in places by airshafts and the like. If his sense of where the temple is is accurate, then it is directly above the soapland, and while it's difficult to make it out for certain between the air conduits and everything else, there does appear to be a shaft that connects the temple's basement to the soapland.
"Come in," the man says, his eyes going from Bjorn -- the financeer -- to Tetsuo -- the actual customer, as he sees things. He takes Tetsuo's arm and leads him inside.
The woman with the cigarette shakes her head and says, "Try the green room, I think you'll like it for a first time." She's got a blatantly false smile that doesn't come close to reaching her eyes. Tetsuo gives an uncertain nod before the duo is ushered inside.
The first room within the soapland is a lobby. There's a four pretty young women sitting on couches in pairs. One of the girls is actually a blonde -- looks American, though she's occupied in pouring drinks for a woefully besotted salaryman, while her partner (a slim Asian girl of indeterminate age) giggles at his jokes dutifully.
The other two girls are both chatting about something, but break off when the new customers come in. "Now," the man says, releasing Tetsuo and gesturing towards the back of the room. Hallways leading radially deeper into the brothel line the back wall -- too Bjorn, the place is eerily reminiscent of the Playroom at the Workshop, especially with the subtle 'mountainside' motif that can barely be picked out in the dim lighting.
Each of the hallways is a different color. From left to right they are, white, yellow, green, blue, purple, red, and black. "How much of a man are you looking to become?" He quickly adds, "White is if you'd like to pick one of our two girls here -- Ami or Nonoko," the two girls giggle at their cue, "and black is for more ... experienced customers." He winks. "How much of a man do you want to become?"
"Uh...." Tetsuo looks lost. How should I answer?
Bjorn's perception is lagging behind here, but this doesn't cause him too much problem -- it gives him a bit of a dreamy, inhuman feel. Which is, in the end, the card he's decided to play.
Through the Dream, he lets the others now, In the soapland. Sending over what he can make out of the air conduits, he adds, There's a way down from the temple, I think. Be ready. This place stinks of the Cabal. I don't like it. Aloud, after a pause, he once again lazily turns his attention to the guest. "'A man'?" he asks, amused. "Why would I ever want to become such a thing?"
He takes a step closer to the pimp. Up close, the concealment offered by the sunglasses is poor indeed. The occasional wisp of mist can be seen clearly curling around the edges of the glasses, and when Bjorn makes a lazy gesture with one hand, the cool feeling of fog on a cold day oozes outwards from its path. "Michiko," he whispers.
+Hatbot --> "Bjorn rolls 5d6 for presence attack and gets 19."The pimp's false smile flickers and fades as he steps backwards -- too quickly -- and falls flat on his rear. "T...the blue room," he chokes out. "She's.... With a customer."
The drunken salaryman doesn't react, and the girls entertaining him only glance up, but Ami and Nonoko take sharp note, both jumping to their feet.
"Thank you," Bjorn says with aplomb. "I feel confident, of course, that you will not want to remember that we were here." He smiles genially. "While this is, after all, a place to satisfy desires, I think you would not want to satisfy mine?"
With a parting nod for the two girls, he heads down the blue corridor, with Tetsuo in tow. Unless, of course, you'd rather spend some time with either Ami or Nonoko? I could probably arrange a discount for you.
No thank you, Tetsuo replies. Beneath his verneer of disgust is the genuine expected curiosity of a teenager, but the suggested violence probably puts the kibosh on that.
The pimp nods shakily and doesn't otherwise move.
The blue corridor isn't terribly long, probably about five meters, before it ends at a wide sliding door. Nothing can be heard through it.
Bjorn simply slides open the door and steps in.
Bjorn -- followed almost immediately by Tetsuo -- finds himself ... in an entry way. A large, black coat is hanging from a coatrack. There's a pair of shoes sitting in a shoe locker. And there's another door leading further in, where faint giggling and splashing can be heard. Overhead is nothing but florescent lights and cieling panels, though the lights are flickering occasionally.
Tetsuo looks nervous, and keeps one hand on his box-cutter, and his box-cutter in his pocket.
You've never been on a shake-down before? Bjorn's dream asks Tetsuo curiously. Walk and talk like you own the place.
As he makes his way to the second door, not bothering to stop and change shoes, he continues, conversationally, In a place like this they never lock the doors -- in case the place's security needs to rush in suddenly to deal with the customers. Of course, in this place, with this woman, that might not be the case... but if so, then we've definitely got something interesting on our hands, so we make sure we get whoever else is in there, too. If it's just a usual business transaction, though, let the customer go.
And with that last piece of advice, he opens the door onto the (presumed) bath.
The next room is split in two, and one half of it is a palatial bath. The other half is a bed and a television, basically a stripped-down hotel room, at a glance. In the bath-half, a startled-looking woman wearing nothing more than body lotion is sitting on the tile outside of the furo, next to a man wearing even less of the lotion. He sits up in alarm, face coloring. "What the hell?" he barks.
The man is, at a glance, unarmed. He looks Asian, though he is tall and very stout.
Father told me such work was beneath me, Tetsuo replies vaguely, distracted by the naked girl who's staring at the newcomers in surprise.
"Hey, more than one, and you each pay double," she says with a frown.
Bjorn walks over to the bed, and hauls the sheet up and away from the mattress. Judging with a critical eye, he takes Shinmyouken and slices free a section of appropriate size, and then he walks over to toss it to the customer. "Here," he says, softly. "Take it. Leave. Forget."
The businessman clutches the sheet to himself and grabs the fallen clothing from the floor. He quickly leaves, yelling something about a refund. The woman's eyes narrow. She doesn't seem to be the slightest bit concerned with the fact that she's naked, and after a minute of staring, Tetsuo turns around to watch the door. "What do you want?"
"To talk, Michiko," Bjorn says affably. "Perhaps you recognize my young friend?"
She squints, then shakes her head and says, "I know a lot of boys, he could have been any five of them. So could you."
That just makes Bjorn smile briefly. "Easy to confused; he had many brothers," Bjorn agrees. "Kishimoto."
Her casual disinterest vanishes. "I think we're done here," she says, climbing to her feet and scowling. "The Kishimoto are dead."
Bjorn does not move, and Michiko's movement has brought them close enough for her to feel the cold chill of his Waking Dream even through the steam of the bath. "That is indeed the matter we wish to discuss," he says softly.
Michiko backs up until she hits the tile walls, shivering. "Leave me alone!" she protests. "This was justice -- they killed my father!"
"It is a fool who mistakes vengeance for justice," Tetsuo says quietly, still watching the door. The salaryman is gone. I do not know how much more time we might have here.
"I don't really care about you, Michiko," Bjorn murmurs. "I want to know who planned it. I want to know about the outsiders. You will tell me."
He pauses, head tilted as if listening. "Already there are people on their way to help you. So soon after I came here. Somone thinks you are important." He shrugs. "And so you are, aren't you, Michiko? And they're coming to help, but they can't." With one hand, he reaches out to take Michiko's chin, making her meet his eyes; with the other, he takes off the sunglasses, and gazes at her with writhing pits of Dream mist, a small smile on his face. "Tell me everything, Michiko."
The girl is trembling, obviously frightened despite her attempt at pretending calm. But at the same time, she doesn't crumble, instead she just spits in Bjorn's face. "Go to hell!"
The touch was enough to feel Michiko within the Waking Dream, and Bjorn chooses not to speak aloud. They lied to you, Michiko, he whispers. They used you. Why protect them? Give me the answers I want and I will leave you, no retribution for your actions to ever be taken.
At the mental contact, Michiko tries to flinch away -- a bad move, when she's backed up against the tile wall. She cracks her head against it hard enough to make her eyes water, and her mental reply is shaky. Y...you came back?
Aloud, she asks, "Who are you?"
Bjorn says nothing, but keeps his small smile and continues to hold Michiko's eyes.
Meanwhile, back outside of the soapland, an unlikely group of tourists is following three conspiciously dressed individuals. Tim and Tom come into sight of the men just as they reach the door of the soapland. A quick jog could put everyone into combat in the entryway, anything more subtle is going to require more time.
As it is, one shaken looking guy in a suit is gesturing the trio inside, and there's a woman in a bathrobe with her back turned, talking on a cell phone.
Through Tom and Tim's eyes, Bjorn can see the strangers approach the soapland. "Your 'help' is close, Michiko," he says quietly, echoing the words through the dream. "But they won't be of any help at all. There is still time for me to leave quietly, to disappear." He leans closer. "Tell me where to hunt, Michiko."
They're he-re! Er, things are gonna disintegrate real quick, Bjorn, I give it like five seconds. Fight or flight, for reals.
"Then, I have made my peace," the girl says resolutely, closing her eyes.
"Oh, no," Bjorn says, almost whimsically. "You're not getting off that easily, Michiko. I need to find the people who approached you, and until that happens, no escape for you."
To Tom, Five gets you one that I can make 'em unhappier than they can make me. Let 'em come. Once I get their attention, take them from behind. Let's try and leave one in good enough shape to get answers and names out of him.
Inside: Tetsuo shifts his shoulders uncomfortably, and moves to stand to the side of the door, his ear against the wall to better hear through it.
Outside: Tim and Tom see the businessmen enter the soapland. The distracted girl on the cell-phone is looking the other way, and the greeter doesn't seem to notice the group. "So, uh, what should I do?" Mark asks.
So we're fighting... well, alright, replies Tom, sounding a little peevish.
"We're gonna wait," he adds to Mark, in a low voice. "Bjorn's gonna do something, and then we go in." He glances around for something that might make a decent club.
"Get away from the door, Tetsuo," Bjorn says calmly, putting back on his sunglasses. "Let's avoid any misunderstandings when people start arriving."
As he says that, he steps away from Michiko and the bath, taking a few steps over to pick up a dressing robe, which he passes over to the girl. "Here," he says urbanely. "You might want to get dressed before your friends arrive." He pauses, and then adds apologetically, "I hope you'll forgive the pretense."
Tom and Tim are privy to the following:
http://pishoque.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1000850#1000850
Michiko's clothing consists of a bathtowel, which she puts on after she realizes she's not going to die. Tetsuo looks confused, but steps away from the door as instructed. Now what? he asks.
We wait, Bjorn replies. And if I'm right, we'll then go off to meet the person who had the Kishimoto-gumi ended, and you can ask him why.
A few moments after Bjorn sends that thought, the door is kicked apart, flying into the room. Michiko scrambles into the farthest corner of the room and huddles, hands over her head and curled into a little ball.
There are now two yakuza thugs standing in the doorway, both with drawn knives glaring around angrily. The one on the left has short, spiky, blond-dyed hair. The one on the right has neatly combed black hair. Both are wearing neat black suits (no shades, at least, indoors), and are wearing shoes. Behind them, the other door can be seen also lying in pieces, and beyond that, a trio of other Yakuza thugs looking into the room and watching silently.
Blond-thug then says in Japanese, "Who the hell do you think you are?" He is fixedly glaring at Bjorn, while his companion gives Tetsuo an angry, wordless stare.
"Hello boys," Bjorn greets them, ignoring the rudeness. "Take us to Prometheus."
Inside: There is a moment of hard staring, raising the ambient testosterone level in the room even further, likely setting world records. "Fine," blond-thug says, shaking his head. "Saves me the trouble."
He turns around and starts walking away.
Outside: Everyone aside from Bjorn and Tetsuo is now standing in the tunnel outside the brothel in a group, waiting for some explanation of what's going on.
"Apologies again," Bjorn says courteously to Michiko, before nodding to Tetsuo and following the yakuza out the door.
To the rest of the group, All right. The yakuza are going to take us to Prometheus. Or try and kill me, possibly, but I'm pretty sure it's the former. We're headed out of the soapland. Meet us outside. If they go off in a weird direction, I'll let you know.
The Yakuza -- and there are seven of them in the main room of the soapland -- cluster in a loose formation following Blond-Yak. Just in the tunnel, once Bjorn and Tetsuo clear the entry room (now empty), there's the greeter/pimp, and the same woman in a bathrobe. Beyond them is a conspicious crowd of tourists containing the rest of the Order of Symmetry.
You want us all to meet up with these guys? How's about all of you do that, and I hang around, out of mind, and out of sight. In case something goes wrong.
Tom looks rather bamboozled to everyone else, even as he slips away as the rest of the Order approaches. I'll be around. Just lemme know where you're going so I can follow.
If you fall too far behind, you might need to fight to catch up with us.
Maybe. I don't really need to catch up to you if it's too hard and you're not in trouble, though. You can relay stuff to me, right?
I like that notion. Keeping at least one of us out of sight. Dracos concurred with the rat.
Dracos
I'll stay as well.
OOC: Going to try and see if Super Barbarian Rez doesn't need Stealth and Shadowing right now.
OOC: These skills are currently availible to normal-Rez.
Blond-Thug leads the group of yakuza (and Bjorn and Tetsuo) down the hall, away from the remaining members of the Order. He also produces a cell-phone, barking out quick instructions to have a car or two waiting at the street level.
Dracos eyed bjorn, but, having already had one traumatic and life altering experience by playing prisoner, figured at the least, it wouldn't be that bad. Walking alongside, they headed out behind the Yakuza towards street level.
Dracos
If you guys don't think you can run as fast as a car, you'd better all join the group now.
Out loud, he says, "You might want to get three cars."
It's cool. We can get to whereever it is in a cab later. I saw that credit, Nathan!
I wonder how many plat a cab ride translates to.
OOC: Then I am -acquiring- stealth and shadowing for the meantime.
Do either of you speak Japanese? Or are you hoping that "Follows those cars with gangsters in them, don't worry you won't get shot at" is some sort of universal linguistic invariant?
I don't expect to be able to provide effective backup to you at all. However, if you are wrong, having two people not under the guns of these people may not be a terrible idea.
In agreement. They can play dumb tourists pretty easily if need.
Dracos
You're not going to be able to follow us, and we're probably not going to be able to give you directions. Even if they nicely give us window seats and lots of opportunity to see where we're going on the way to the secret hideout, Japan has no street signs and I don't read it that fast anyways. If you're not with us, and things go wrong, then we're screwed. All of us together, though, are pretty formidable.
And importantly, you've got the warbag. If things start to go wrong, the ability to have weapons with us no matter what they want is a deal-breaker.
Alright. I don't consider this wise, but I'll grant that if it goes pear-shaped you'll need the warbag.
Not that I expect it to help that much if they put guns to our heads.
Fucking... you're the one with the money, too. If this gets fucked up, I guess we'll have to hope my metahuman power is suddenly revealed to be "Get-Out-Of-Dodge-Real-Fast-Prana".
We?
It felt rather self-centered to say 'I'.
Bjorn, you owe me more cookies for putting up with this harebrained crap.
Nathan starts walking over to the tunnel Bjorn went down.
OOC: I did re-offhand the warbag, right?
The Yakuza find a rather sizable group joining Bjorn as they head to the cars apparently.
Dracos
Tim follows along behind Drac, having silently glad the group is sticking together - while Bjorn is capable of conversing in Japanese, he'd rather stick together himself, and it would have made the most sense for him to remain with any outside group - he's the only other interpreter they have at the moment, it seems.
Blond-thug stops at the street level and looks expectant. In short order, an excessive looking Humvee-limo pulls up. Blond-thug and his entourage are all set to climb in and crowd around menacingly.
This plan fails as he turns around and counts the passengers. Scowling in irritation, he whips out his phone and snaps into it, "Make that three cars." Then he hangs up and eyes everyone coolly, putting his shades back on. "This may take a minute."
"It'd be more worrisome if enough cars were already ready," Dracos shrugged. his offhand comment in English, and casually paying attention to who, if any, seemed to follow such. That and whether or not he'd get painfully potshotted for such.
Dracos
In the real world, Bjorn's expression is unchanged: relaxed in posture, and a little half-smile on his face suggesting great comfort for the current circumstances.
The touch of his Dreaming, however, is icy and sharp. Somebody had better take over the talking when we get to Prometheus, he says abruptly.
Fine. I'll try and do mess cleanup. Dracos snap decided back.
Dracos
The cars arrive quickly, another pair identical to the first. The yakuza quickly board, blond-thug getting in the first car.
You know, that ignores actually that those of us who aren't Bjorn can't speak a whit of japanese. Slips into the same car, the rest splitting among the three cars, somehow in sets of 2 or 3 as they got moving.
Dracos
I think he's assuming that Prometheus speaks English.
Nathan sits himself in the same car as Drac.
He most likely does, Bjorn agrees. And I think Tim speaks some Japanese, right? If I have to, I'll translate, but I don't think it'll go well.
Ginrai and Mark, end up in the rear car. The forecar is Nathan, Dracos, and Bjorn. And in the middle are Tom, Tetsuo, and Tim.
This proves not to matter. The Yaks are stoically silent the entire trip, which isn't very long. The vehicles all halt in front of a mansion's private driveway. The Yakuza step out without fanfare, then wait for their passengers.
The house itself is mostly Western-looking with some vague Japanese overtones -- and those are limited to the roof. A blank sheet of wood sits where one might expect a family crest or some other such demarcation, next to the currently closed double-doors.
[edit: Nathan had requested to be in-car with Drac.]
fair enough, and Tim doesn't seem, rightfully, comfortable with being kidnapped by Yakuza. Not that I am, but I suspect I'm getting used to being apprehended by suited individuals.
Dracos takes note of the non-japaneseness of the place as the group gets back together, asking their 'guides' to lead them inwards.
Dracos
This is not the sort of thing I really want to get used to.
Nathan pulls himself out of the car, looking over the area while he waits for the group to assemble.
I wound up here by *resisting* capture. The world is all backwards. Anyway, English is pretty common in Japan. I'm sure they'll have someone around who can speak it if we can't get a consensus ourselves.
Tom gets out the car himself, looking the very picture of stoic manliness!
Maybe he's shaking just a little.
Blond-yak reaches into his jacket and rummages around for a minute. As each passenger is exiting he offers them a cigarette (and a light) wordlessly.
Tom doesn't accept the proferred cigarette, tempting as it is to look smoking-hot.
Nathan just shakes his head in response.
Bjorn takes the cigarette, but not the light, and holds it absently in one hand as he studies the building.
After observation, the building looks to be rectangular, with one long side, and one short side, and about three stories tall. The roof tiles are green, and the house itself is a dark brown. All around the exterior, past the driveway, is a tidy garden with a koi pond -- a fish leaps as Bjorn glances over.
After offering the coffin-nails around, Blond-yak shrugs and lights his own cigarette. He takes one long drag and then blows it upward, just as it begins to rain. With a grimace at the sudden downpour, he marches through the doors, which open as he approach.
The building's interior is brightly lit, and welcoming. It also looks like a traditional Western house, as everyone who tries to remember layouts from anime and manga sees no genkan.
Dracos follows in, disliking the rain and knowing that standing outside pondering the suicidal behaviour of the moment doesn't work.
Dracos
Bjorn follows in, not even considering the suicidal nature of the moment -- because really, it's much more homicidal.
Every step of this journey is an opportunity to watch my life flash before my eyes, complains Tom, as he continues along the road paved with bad intentions.
Look at it this way, Bjorn replies, at least now your flashbacks will be interesting.
Touche, comes Tim's reply as he too heads inside. It'd suck if it ends right as it gets to the exciting bits, though.
that's what makes them particularly exciting. Except for the whole not a thrill seeker attitude. Dracos ran his mental mouth as he continued along, Anyhow, we should be prepared for at least some supernatural folk popping out, compared to the guys we've just been traveling with.
Dracos
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, here. We'll need to get through the Many Suits With Guns before we deal with the Big Boss.
Nathan just ignores the conversation as he follows closely behind the blonde man; the only outward sign of his disquiet that he keeps opening and closing his gloved right hand.
Everyone is led by blond-yak down a hall to a large room. The trailing yaks fall away, though the large room (double-height, with a huge double-door at the far end) has a quartet of guards. These look like typical yakuza from what you've seen so far, except for the lack of shades.
"We'll need to search you before you can enter," blond-yak warns.
One of the guards approaches and asks, "Who first?"
Nathan lets out a derisive snort.
Are we all okay with this, or would somebody like to start something?
Well, if so, tell me now, before I hand over my stuff.
Tom steps forward!
Bjorn reaches out to Tom's shoulder, gently holding him in place. Shut the dog up, he tersely replies to Nathan, before I do.
Nathan just lets out a derisive snort.
"Are you serious? Do you have even the slightest idea what we are and why we're here?"
Blond-yak raises an eyebrow and grins, as if he was hoping for this. "Not really," he replies flippantly. "And I don't think I care, either." The man has a very good grasp of English, all told. "You want to meet with Prometheus? We check you out before you go further."
The guards don't reach for weapons, but they all simultaneously scowl darkly.
That answers that. If he knows anything we'll beat it the hell out of him. Move on three. One . . .
Nathan growls, stepping forward, gesturing angrily. "Fine. Whatever."
Two . . .
He lets his hands drop, stepping closer - trying for a moment to pull something from his other self, hoping that the Stormrider can spare it this time - "We'll be having words with him about this. I don't expect you'll" Three! "enjoy it when . . ."
You're fucking insane!
Tom does not bust out with his gun, or start tearing people up with a knife; rather, he looks for a suitable place to dive for cover!
As he will *surely* need to do so in just a moment.
OOC: The campaign now enters combat time. For the moment, we are at phase zero, everyone with a held action may act -- assuming you pass a dex check. If you fail, you act in dex order. Unfortunately, this also does mean that everyone gets to act in this round.
So, round zero, highest Dex acts first. Because of this, and the circumstances of this combat (our first in the forums, as opposed to IRC) I am going to allow a 24 hour window for everyone to determine their actions/contact me to see which powers/attributes they can borrow from otherselves before we start posting in combat order. Nathan is able to borrow everything except tactical/knowledge skills, and the Ancestral Buster Sword from BarbarianRez.
Edit: Also, for the first round of combat, everyone on the PC side who chooses to make an attack will again a +1 Chutzpa bonus to ANYTHING (except for damage), because in retrospect, I'm impressed that you guys don't have to swagger.
Assuming things really do break out in some horrible mess, Tom is going to find any cover there is, utilize it, and then start shooting.
If there is *nowhere* that could be hidden behind or used as shelter, he's going to... punch the nearest yakuza, then grab him and use him as a human shield! I don't know how that would work under the rules- as a regular MARTIAL STRIKE, and if it's good enough, I can grab him for free? My combat pool will be dedicated to DCV.
Er, lesse if I remember how to do this. That means I should wind up with an OCV of 7 for 5d6 regular damage, and a DCV of 9.
Tim shall produce ye dream-stick and, assuming I'm not immediately targeted, start using it to smack at any non-allied appendage that appears to be holding weaponry of any sort.
If I do get targeted, getting the hell out the way takes first priority.
Dracos, knowing he lacks tools and considering quickly, calls upon the strength of his otherself in the earth realm and his combat skills (14 point str, 8 point +2 ocv swords, 22 points total) as well as the strength of the earth with the intent of grabbing one of the two near the front and throwing him at the two near the back, substituting raw strength in place of any actual knowledge of throwing people.
He'll also put his bonus combat point in OCV.
Dracos
Nathan's action is simple. He swings his arm towards, Blondie, produces the warbag mid-swing, and smashes Blondie in the face with it.
He pulls the following from his otherself:
- Dex +3 (9 points)
- HtH OCV +2 (10 points)
- Sword OCV +1 (3 points)
- Breakfall +1 (1 point)
His +2 from MA pool is going into DCV. His +2 to anything are going similar; his total OCV for the attack will be 9 including the Chutzpah bonus. His DCV should be 10.
He will not call upon the earth totem for fear of putting the guy into a coma.
Bjorn is going to draw Shinmyouken and move to attack the remaining thug in front. From his otherself, he is going to try and borrow:
- Combat senses (17 pts)
- +2 OCV for sword (6 pts)
He is also going to switch from Dream Voice to Perfect Timing, giving him DEX 19 and SPD 3. He'll put all 5 points (3 base, 2 more from the stuff borrowed) of his MA pool into OCV, the one point from Chutzpah into DCV, and use Martial Strike, giving him an OCV of 16 and a DCV of 9. He won't trigger Spirit of Stone, because I can't remember what the max DC Shinmyouken can take is. >.<
-if I fail the dex check to flatfoot the guy, on my action I'll move all my +1s to OCV. I keep forgetting I can fail that.
All players (and NPCs) made their Dex-checks, so the surprise round goes off without a hitch.
+Hatbot --> "Dracos rolls 3d6 for GRAB and gets 9." [3d6=1, 4, 4]
Surging forward, Phil easily grabs the unsuspecting Yakuza thug, who's eyes bug out in surprise. He struggles to escape the mighty (and slightly stone-hued) aggressor.
+Hatbot --> "Dracos rolls 9d6 for contested strength and gets 35." [9d6=3, 6, 2, 6, 1, 1, 5, 6, 5]
+Hatbot --> "GrabbedYakuza rolls 2d6 for contested strength and gets 12." [2d6=6, 6]
Unfortunately for that specific mobster, Phil's grip may as well be made of the very stone he's borrowing power from. He manages to whimper as Phil lifts him off the ground. His eyes flash to the side, where his companion finds himself under attack from another quarter.
+Hatbot --> "Bjorn rolls 3d6 for invisocuttery and gets 9." [3d6=5, 3, 1]
+Hatbot --> "Brian rolls 3d6 for assumed mortality (hit location) and gets 12." [3d6=2, 5, 5]
A thin line of blood splashes out and across the closed door between the two yaks that composed the rear-guard. The one facing off against Bjorn begins trembling as one hand drops to his stomach.
+Hatbot --> "Bjorn rolls 3d6+1 sword damage and gets 15." [3d6=2, 6, 6]
Stun x4 for hit location (60 stun)
His hand falls away as his abdomen spills open, sending his precious internal organs to splatter messily across the floor. The quivering, wide-eyed thug in Phil's hands turns his gaze to his tormenter, just as Phil gives a mighty fling.
+Hatbot --> "Dracos rolls 3d6 for yakflingery and gets 11." [3d6=1, 5, 5]
He has exactly enough time to cry out in alarm as he finds himself thrown directly at the right-most member of the fore-guard.
+Hatbot --> "Dracos rolls 26d6 normal damage and gets 81." [26d6=5, 3, 4, 1, 6, 4, 1, 3, 5, 2, 5, 5, 5, 3, 2, 1, 4, 2, 3, 3, 3, 6, 2, 1, 1, 1]
<Brian> Each of the yaks will take 11 normal, and ... 40 stun.
Then there's a rather crunchy-sounding impact, and two thugs are lying in a boneless pile.
Blond-yak has just enough time to blink and open his mouth, incidentally letting the cigarette fall free, before Nathan rounds on him.
+Hatbot --> "Relm rolls 3d6 for Warbag! FASE! and gets 11." [3d6=5, 2, 4]
+Hatbot --> "Relm rolls 5d6 for >crunch< and gets 20." [5d6=4, 5, 5, 1, 5]
Blond-yak gracefully flies about a twenty centimeters into the air, and then begins falling backwards, his arms flailing as he slams to the floor.
The lone, unmolested yak finds himself being cornered by a speedy Tom.
+Hatbot --> "Sea-Rat rolls 3d6 for martialartery and gets 12." [3d6=2, 4, 6]
+Hatbot --> "Brian rolls 5d6 ratrevenge~! and gets 13." [5d6=1, 4, 2, 5, 1]
Normally, you wouldn't be able to make a grab in the same action as a strike, but the combat's pretty one-sided as things stand, so I'll give it to you this time (hint: Martial Grab).
The thug takes a punch, though he doesn't look happy about it. After that, Tom tries to get him in a grab.
+Hatbot --> "Sea-Rat rolls 3d6 for grabbery and gets 12." [3d6=4, 5, 3]
This Grabs.
+Hatbot --> "Sea-Rat rolls 3d6 contested strength and gets 13." [3d6=6, 2, 5]
+Hatbot --> "Brian rolls 5d6 Martial Escape adds three dice and gets 20." [5d6=6, 6, 4, 1, 3]
But does not Hold.
Luckily, before the thug can contemplate any kind of revenge, he finds himself being attacked by Tetsuo.
+Hatbot --> "Brian rolls 3d6 for THE BCK RETURNS! and gets 8." 12 [3d6=1, 1, 6]
+Hatbot --> "Brian rolls 1d6+1 martial strike and gets 2." 12 [1d6=1]
+Hatbot --> "Brian rolls 3d6 hit location and gets 5." 12 [3d6=2, 2, 1]
Maybe Tetsuo was really artful with what seemed like a spiteful slash to the face. Maybe the yakuza thug is smart, and is just pretending to be K.O.ed. But there's a lot of blood, and he drops to the floor.
There's a moment of horrible stillness, then Blond-yak grunts and snaps into action, reaching into his shirt and pulling out a--
+Hatbot --> "Halbarad rolls 3d6 for sudden attack and gets 11." 12 [3d6=2, 6, 3]
Normally, this would not hit, but Halbarad is a second attacker, so gets a bonus, as well as the target being prone.
--but the pepper-spray is knocked from his hands and clear across the room before he can do anything else. Giving up, he sinks to lay on his back, and groans, looking torn between rubbing his sore hand, and his sore face.
Then it's still and quiet, except for the moans of the conscious.
"I didn't ask if you knew who we are," Nathan growls, "I asked if you knew what we are. Now answer me this, because I'm not sure you know - who is Prometheus?"
"You're right; I don't know," Blond-yak replies, grinning weakly. His teeth are slightly red with blood by now. "But if I did, you can bet your ass I would have known about this ahead of time." His good hand twitches, and then he eyes the still-lit cigarette on the floor, but doesn't make a move towards it.
That guy took what just happened way better than I did. thinks Tom, unknowing that nobody can hear his thoughts!
"I think you're stalling," Nathan responds quietly, "Answer the question."
Dracos shakes his head, eying Bjorn in a put upon manner. "Bad pick, it seems..."
Dracos glanced into the mans eyes...and proceeded to dig on both anything he knew on prometheus and more relevantly, on who might have the answers they actually wanted.
Dracos
"I don't know who Prometheus is," Blond-yak says, his smile not lessening at all.
+Hatbot --> "Dracos rolls 6d6 versus "Hi." and gets 21." 12 [6d6=2, 6, 6, 1, 5, 1]
Phil delves into the thug's mind and rapidly discerns that this is the truth. He also sees that Nathan was right; he figures he's as good as dead, and if you don't kill him, his bosses will. So he's stalling because even though he and four of his friends were taken down, this house is a Yakuza stronghold -- so there's more of them.
As far as what Phil can glean on Prometheus, even though Blond-yak (Sonada Hajime) doesn't know who he is, he knows that his bosses are working very hard to find the Titan. All he knows for certain is that the ones who knew the most were the Yakuza that Tetsuo's family belonged to. Though, that information is theoretically with Hajime's superiors, now, since Tetsuo himself didn't have it.
The BCK himself is just eying the double-doors leading deeper into the house thoughtfully.
Dracos continues, attempting to find who and where would be the superior most likely to know... and any thoughts he'd had on killing said man and how.
Dracos
Nathan turns away at the response and lets Drac do his thing, himself going for the warbag and picking out his bow and quiver.
"I'm sorry about that," he says to the room at large as he does so, "but this was a trap and we didn't have time to discuss it."
+Hatbot --> "Dracos rolls 6d6 awesome and gets 22." 12 [6d6=5, 1, 3, 3, 5, 5]
Phil delves deeper, pushing for something useful. He does get a wealth of information on Hajime's boss -- a man he admires greatly. A man Hajime expects to kill him, currently. Unfortunately, Hajime's actual plan to assume rulership of this specific was to court the boss's daughte. A plan which has so far gotten him juuuuuust far enough to get killed, should it be found out. Not that Hajime expects to survive, anyway. The daughter's name is Minami -- and Phil gets some interesting, if probably totally useless dirt on some eventful dates for Minami and Hajime, too.
"Oh, sure," Hajime says distantly. "Nothing personal, right?"
Furthermore, the boss's name is Inagawa Kakuji -- that is, that's his original name. Currently he's changed his name to Inagawa Seijo. Hajime either doesn't care, or doesn't understand the significance of the name change. And according to what Hajime knows, Kakuji (or Seijo, if you want to irritate him) is right through the doors that Tetsuo is staring at.
"I think the guy we want to be asking questions to is through that door. Probably leaving at the ruckus. Let's move there, hurriedly." Dracos grabs a sword from the warbag to prepare.
Dracos
Seeing that attention is going away from him for the moment, Hajime's good hand slowly begins creeping towards the discarded (and still-burning) cigarette.
"I wasn't talking to you. But sure, nothing personal," Nathan collects the dropped pepper spray and tosses it into the bag, "Anyone else got a weapon request?"
"Tetsuo, you know anything about Inagawa Kakuji?" Dracos asked quickly as the others got ready.
Dracos
"I think I need a bigger gun," replies Tom, eyeing the warbag. "Well, no, I'm good."
Hajime flinches slightly at the mention of the name, but says nothing.
Tetsuo glances at Phil curiously. "He should be in there," Tetsuo says with a shrug, pointing at the door. "He met with my father many times. I did not know he lived here, though." He pauses for a bit, then says, "He has a daughter. I do not remember her name, though."
Bjorn, who has been methodically cleaning Shinmyouken up until this point, comes from behind Hajime and steps on the cigarette, grinding it into the ground. "That sort of thing will kill you," he says pleasantly. "Take my advice and give it up."
Focussing on his perception of the future leaves him no spare energy to be talking through the Dream, and so when he looks over at the others, he speaks aloud. "Let's go quickly. I'll take up the rear, in case they come up behind us. Let Nathan and Tom go first; take down any guards in the room."
"Sure thing! I mean, I've always wanted to be fucking homicdal, makes my day, you know."
Tom marches towards the door and kicks it open, pulling out his handgun and releasing the safety.
OOC: I am actually sinking my points into DCV. But I will trade them for OCV if I'm not blasted as soon as the door opens.
Nathan steps around to get an angle through the door as Rat does so, one arrow nocked to his bow.
OOC: Adjusting influence.
Dex +6 (18 points)
DFC +2 (2 points)
Acrobatics 9+Dex/5 (3 points)
Tom expertly stubs his toe on the sturdy portal.
Tetsuo raises an eyebrow expectantly, then glances to the doors that you came though. "I wonder how long it will take their reinforcements."
Nathan waits for Tom to step back, and lets rip with a firebolt.
The shot arcs into red flame as it slams into the point where the doors meet -- right between the knobs. The shiny brass assembly and huge, smoking wooden cinders explode away from the group, flying into the newly revealed room.
It's pretty sizable, too -- twice as long as the room everyone's in at the moment. As the last skittering chunks of smoking wood come to rest, everyone who's looking into the room can see that there are seven men seated at a table inside, all of them staring at the door in surprise. None of them reach for weapons, though the guy at the head of the table -- Phil's stolen memories let him know that this is Inagawa Kakuji -- says, "I don't suppose that we can settle this with money?" even as he ducks behind the piece of furniture.
The other six men (all standard, uninspired yakuza-dress-code-clones) hold still, waiting for someone else to make a move first.
Rez already has an arrow re-knocked, with a second held between his third and fourth fingers.
"We can settle it even easier. Just tell us what you know about the titan Prometheus and let my friend see your face, then we'll leave with no more violence."
"We don't know that much!" the man exclaims anxiously, almost apologetically. "Look, it's the big chief -- the director of everything. He's the only one who really knows about Prometheus. Whoever controls him controls all of the Yakuza. We've been trying for years to figure out the secret! All of us have!"
"What do you mean 'Whoever controls him controls all of the Yakuza?' Why is he even connected to you all?"
"Prometheus knows things, and what he tells the boss, lets the boss know who needs to be moved aside, and when we should do things like use our forces to help people after earthquakes," the man continues, relaxing slightly, since he's not dead yet. "He's the one who knows how to balance what we do with what people won't tolerate anymore. We might know our own towns, sure, but anyone who wants to expand their territory needs to learn more about their new territory -- except when they've got his advice. Then it's a cakewalk."
"Bjorn, Drac?" Nathan says, not taking his eyes off the people in the room, removes his right hand from the string of the bow and taps his the side of his head three times.
"So all you can really tell me is that he exists, and he's a source of information? Surely you have to know something else."
"We.... We've got suspicions," he says, sweating nervously. "Look, that.... That kid, right?" He nods at Tetsuo, who bares his teeth and plays with his box-cutter -- still bloody from the yak he slashed with it. "A...anyway, he found this other kid, who was supposed to lead his gang to Prometheus's brother. But that whole thing turned out to be a bust, and his gang got plowed under for it, yeah?
"S...so, what we've managed to figure out is that he's somewhere near Fuji-san, eh, that is, Mt. Fuji, because the boss always ends up going there to talk to him. But any tail we plant on the boss turns up dead. We need someone who can watch him ... without being there, if you catch me. The boss is sharp. And until we get past him to Prometheus, we're stuck."
"One wonders," Tetsuo enunciates slowly, "what your 'boss' thinks of you planning this."
The man winces and pales, but keeps his eyes locked on Nathan.
Dracos watches silently, not running his mouth but watching the man's thoughts.
Dracos is trying to get:
A)Surface thoughts during the discussion. What he's thinking but not saying.
B)Any signs that he'd be willing to just let this by and not talk about it in exchange for not being wiped out or looted.
C)Boss' name/location.
D)Anything on Pax/Cabal.
[22:09] <Dracos> roll 6d6 telepathy
[22:09] * +Hatbot --> "Dracos rolls 6d6 telepathy and gets 19." [6d6=3, 4, 6, 1, 1, 4]
Phil digs, but can't get much deeper than surface emotions. The guy is pretty terrified. Even moreso when his eyes bug out and turn to Phil. "Oh," he says quietly. "Well, damn."
"Observant," Dracos nodded back to Inagawa. "Sometimes I like not having to kill everyone but one person to get information. Perhaps you might know another way an arrangement could be made? Truthfully?"
Dracos scanned again, mostly to see if he's tells the truth.
[23:07] <Dracos> roll 6d6
[23:07] * +Hatbot --> "Dracos rolls 6d6 and gets 16." [6d6=1, 5, 4, 2, 3, 1]
Dracos
Kakuji whimpers, and all Phil can ascertain is that fear has escalated to terror. The man is shaking visibly, and his men are tensing up uncomfortably. Whatever is going on, they are very far out of the loop, and everyone knows it.
Dracos tapped the side of his head. "Mmm, not being fair am I. You probably don't know enough, and you know you don't to be even remotely confident in such bargaining, or else you wouldn't be so frightened since you'd think that you had an ace. And we left such a mess coming in. How about it, Kakuji, care to help us work towards a solution that saves some face, possibly gains some profit, and lets you forget we were ever here? Something that leaves us happy and you less unhappy than you are now?"
Dracos
"You could start by telling us when and how often your boss heads out to Fuji." adds Tom, helpfully. "Or, you know, where we could catch up, have a chat."
"Let's make his boss' timetable," Bjorn says coldly. "We'll take him to Fuji."
"Eh?" the man squeaks out nervously.
Bjorn glances at the man, but addresses Nathan when he speaks. "If he's seen going to Fuji, then the boss is going to think he's found a lead on Prometheus, and he'll act." He glances at the yakuza and smiles grimly. "If you play nicely, you might even get what you want."
"And," adds Tom, walking towards the man. "Hell. Gives your mobile. And tell us your bosses details. Name, number, all that crap."
"There's no pattern to it!" the man says, shaking his head quickly. "We keep records, trying to find it, figure every time he's not answering his phone, or isn't at his office, he must be going to see Prometheus. But we don't know!"
Turning to Tom, he nods quickly. "Sure," he says, throwing a cellular phone towards the party at large. "He's the first entry in my phone book -- we call him Oyabun Hakate! Or, Hakate-sama when we meet him in person -- he's very secretive, but we know he lives in the Kansai region. His address is right under the phone number, but it's heavily defended."
"So have your people ever seen him actually -on- Mount Fuji?"
"No, of course not-- On Mt. Fuji?" He blinks, as though the idea never occurred to him. "He gets off at the station closest to Fuji, and then he vanishes. We've never been able to follow him further."
"My faulty assumption," Nathan nods.
"Tetsuo - the blonde outsider?"
"Outsider?" Tetsuo asks with a frown.
Dracos glanced at Rez out of the corner of his eyes.
~um...what are you going on about, Rez?~ A quick question shot out.
Dracos
"Sorry - the man who was with Michiko - Anderson?"
Tetsuo nods slowly. "Yes, him." He turns to look at Kakuji and frowns thoughtfully. "You gave the man a woman, you should know something about him."
Kakuji looks momentarily befuddled before he nods. "Of course," he says. "He was from someone in the states -- someone who wanted to try and take Oyabun Hakate's place. We gave him the girl for a while and let him think we were on his side -- ultimately, we sold him to Oyabun Hakate. He was pleased, and gave us the girl back."
Tom catches the phone, and starts going through it.
"...uh, is that 'bun', as in, grammar? I know that one!"
"Just give it to Tetsuo, Rat."
He then addresses the terrified boss again.
"In any event, just a couple more questions and we'll be out of your hair. You noticed what Philip here," he jerks his head towards Dracos, "was trying to do. You've had experience with that before?"
"Tom," mutters Tom, handing the phone to Tetsuo... and really giving the kid a decent look-over for the first time.
The yak just nods silently, while Tetsuo begins playing with the phone. Tetsuo mutters something disparaging in Japanese, which those who know the language recognize as, "What, he doesn't even know how to type in kanji with a keypad?"
"-Where- have you had experience with that before?"
Tetsuo is a Japanese youth of average height, and aside from the fact that he's wearing a very worn (but clean) school uniform, nothing much makes him stand out from the next one. Average length dark hair, neatly combed back, and a pair of shades tucked into the pocket of his blazer. The same style he got for Bjorn, actually.
"I didn't have them here today," the man says helplessly, shrugging. "We're not without some of our own defenses, though most of them were with his family." He jerks his head at Tetsuo, who scowls.
"Then I've only got one last question, really. If we wanted an audience with your boss . . . how would we go about getting one?"
Bjorn glances over his shoulder at Nathan again. From an angle, the sunglasses do little to hide his eyes. "You're wasting your time. Let's take him to Fuji."
"No," the man says, shaking his head quickly. The yaks in front of him try to look menacing. "I don't need to go to Fuji-san. If you want an appointment with Oyabun Hakate, call him. He's in Osaka. You've already got his address -- it's in the phone."
OOC: Switching Perfect Timing out for Nightmare Presence. Presence: 38.
For the first time, Bjorn looks directly at the yakuza. "I don't remember asking your opinion," he says softly. "Did you phone your boss when you found about outsiders looking for Prometheus? Did you ask for his orders, or for his permission to capture us? Or did you work on your own, hoping to use us to work your way to Prometheus, just like the Kishimoto-gumi?" Briefly, a wintry smile cross his face. "More importantly, what do you think your boss will think?
"So you will come with us. You will help us every step of the way. And if things go well, your boss will be very pleased with you. And if things don't go well, you will still do your very best to help us, and we'll take you to meet Prometheus."
"You came to me!" he protests, not making direct eye-contact. "It's not like that!"
"I don't really care," Bjorn replies tersely, "and I don't imagine he will either. Now. Hard way or easy way?"
Dracos eyed the yakuza impatiently, waiting for their answer.
Dracos
who is alive >_>; And couldn't think of something better to post.
"The hard way," Kakuji replies, as his men go for their guns.
Bjorn says nothing, but simply leaps straight in, moving straight towards Kakuji to take out the goons nearest him.
Swapping out Nightmare Presence for Perfect Timing. As said, I'm going to get as close as I can to Kakuji, taking out anyone who gets in the way or tries to shield him, letting Tom and Nathan take out the ones farther out. Main goal here is to prevent Kakuji from leaving the room, and seeing if taking out his goons will soften his spine a little.
Nathan doesn't hesitate - a firebolt is in the air as he releases his first arrow, and his hands almost blur as he goes for more.
OOC:
I already had an arrow nocked and drawn! >.>
If I need to DEX check this to release it before they get their guns out, my dex is currently 20.
Both my +1s will go to OCV and I'll be rapid firing two fire arrows at two different Yakuza.
My bow OCV is thusly 15, or 13 when rapid firing.
If I get shot at, I'm aborting to DFC.
Dracos rushes along the side, slashing out at the nearest one that isn't having a fiery bolt of death heading towards him.
Dracos
As everyone prepares to fight, but before the Yaks can draw their guns, a form drops from the empty space of the ceiling. A heartbeat later, Mark is behind Kakuji, Chinese sword across the Yakuza-boss's throat. "How hard are we talking?" he asks conversationally, when the Yaks freeze again.
Tetsuo snorts from where he has drawn his box-cutter. "I wondered where he went," the boy mutters in Japanese.
Tom's hand sticks his gun back into his jacket, safety placed back on, and slouches against the wall, his face a tapestry of incredulity, relief, and exasperation.
OOC: Oh, well, if the *NPCs* are going to act, I guess that's okay then too. But they only get a half-XP share, right? Switching back to Nightmare Presence.
Bjorn stops in front of Kakuji. "I think our friend here might have been confused," he says to Mark conversationally. "Us killing all of them was the easy way. The hard way is when we all try to get along and work together to accomplish each other's goals. Peace and harmony is never easy, but it's worth working towards, don't you think?"
"You're the boss," Mark agrees, though the sword doesn't move. The yaks reluctantly, and slowly, place their guns on the table.
Kakuji begins to sweat nervously. "W...what do you mean?" he asks.
"You want to be successful in your organization," Bjorn replies pleasantly. "We want to meet your boss, quickly and with no hassles. If you help us with our goal, then we can try to help with yours."
"We.... We'll need to go to Osaka. I'll need my phone." He looks towards Tetsuo warily. The other yaks look supremely uncomfortable, but there's nothing they can do at the moment.
Bjorn makes a thoughtful noise. "Meeting your boss on his own turf? You're willing to... guarantee that there won't be complications?"
"He only comes out for executions," Kakuji says shakily. "And to talk to Prometheus."
Bjorn puts a companionable hand on Kakuji's shoulder, giving him a friendly shake -- which just incidentally brings his neck dangerously close to Mark's sword. "You know, Kakuji," he says a bit expansively, "I don't really think you're being positive here. I'm presenting you with an opportunity to make it big, and all you come up with are problems and negatives! Don't disappoint me here -- come up with solutions!"
"Hey, I've got an idea! Why don't we just go to this guy's house, break in the door, and ask him to tell us where Prometheus is?" snaps Tom. "I mean, it worked this time, right?"
"That's enough," Nathan says evenly, giving Tom a warning glance, "I'm sure that our friend here as being as helpful as he can be. Making him commit suicide, which it would most certainly be if he called his boss out and things went . . . poorly . . . isn't going to inspire cooperation."
Turning back to the yakuza leader, he lowers his bow. "We want to meet your boss; and we want your help. In return, you keep your life, your boss doesn't find out what you were plotting . . . and once we have our audience with Prometheus, we'll tell you what we know," he waves one hand expansively, "That is as good a deal as you will get. You have the ability to inconvenience us, but we have the ability to destroy you utterly. Instead of that, you give us your assistance we'll give you what you want to know."
"That's great," Kakuji says grimly. "Almost sounds like I have a real choice. I'm already at your mercy, so tell me what exactly you want from me. Make up your minds."
"Tetsuo, give him his phone back."
"How was any part of that unclear?" Nathan's eyes narrow, and his voice hardens. Explaining this again is clearly annoying him, "You will set us up a meeting with your boss. You will come up with a convincing reason and you will do it now. If we decide that you have been unhelpful in any way then what we did to San Francisco we will do to your backyard. I presume I don't need to explain yet again?"
Kakuji takes his phone back when Tetsuo slides it across the table to him. Pressing some buttons, he brings it to his face and says, "Is Oyabun Hatake there?" after a brief pause. "This is Kakuji. Yes, Hatake-sama-" His face pales. He swallows, looking around uneasily. "Yes," he says shakily, while Mark (still holding the sword at the Yakuza boss's throat) raises an eyebrow. "I understand." He presses a button to hand up and clears his throat nervously.
"He's expecting you," the man says. "I am to buy you tickets, and he will have a car waiting for you at the train station when you arrive."
"I am going to have words with Prometheus. Bad ones."
There's a brief pause as Nathan stares Kakuji down.
"Let him go, Mark. We have somewhere we need to be."
Bjorn steps away from Kakuji, and then makes his way out into the antechamber. "How you doin' in here, 'jime?" he asks, cheerfully, pronoucing the name as 'Jimmy'. "Wanted to thank you, looks like everything worked out fine."
Dracos grumbles under his breath about the consistency of being expected as he joins the others in heading out.
Dracos
Tom keeps a wary eye on the Yakuza as he leaves, but when he hears Phillip and Bjorn, they start to *roll*.
The prone Yak grunts halfheartedly in response. In short order, the party finds themselves outside, and unmolested. Probably not a good idea to stick around too long, but a single overly-made up girl in a dress does scurry after the group to offer up a single train ticket -- for an entire car. The pricetag is pretty hefty, and it departs in about forty minutes.
Taking shotgun, Dracos eyed the rest as they began to drive off towards the station. "So, hal, Rat...holding up? And...we should probably assume this is bugged, not that they likely need it."
Dracos
"I could be doing better," replies Tom, sticking his hands in his pockets and wondering where the station is.
"I'm amazed we got away with that. If we're going to *attack* anywhere, can you, like, let me know? So we can coordinate with more than a couple seconds to spare?"
OOC: We don't HAVE a car! :o
IC:
"Yeah, sorry about that. Not the way I like doing things, but, if he didn't know anything about us or Prometheus and he wanted our weapons, it wasn't going to go nicely. I'd rather start the fight on our terms instead of theirs, 'cause that way we win - and if we'd stalled about the weapons at all they would have gotten edgy."
Nathan shrugs. "Snap decision."
"Yeah.. yeah, I see. I get it. Doing things like that is pretty, uh, wrong, though. If this guy-" he points at Phillip- "Can read minds, why bother setting up meetings and stuff like that at all? If he'd gone in and got a look at Michiko- and that totally couldn't be a hard prospect, given her occupation..
"Argh, never mind. What's the plan? We taking this guy up on his offer? It doesn't seem to me like he plans to own us, there'd probably be easier ways than giving us a ticket to where he lives. I think. Still not used to this."
"Yeah, well, a fight wasn't the intention, but I'd rather fight than let them point guns at us. That entire fucking situation went ten miles south of where it should have been. And yes, we're taking him up on the offer."
"Uh-huh. We all going to go at once? I'm kind of uneasy, I don't really get.. well, why they'd *help* us, though I suppose they might not want to try and screw with, er, you."
"I'm really out of patience. He should know who we are and why we're here. If he's intending to make trouble for us, then the only way this is going to end is with us fighting a titan and all the caution in the world won't help us win that."
"Yeah, if the dudes we need to help us don't want to, we're kind of fucked," snorts Tom. "We do have to try, I guess."
Bjorn is dozing in a reclined seat, but he pipes up sleepily. "Didn't send in Philip to mind scan Michiko because he'd need a cover story regardless, an' Pax knows 'im pretty well. Also he would have ended up fighting anyways."
OOC: I am confused as to exactly where we are. I think we've been timeskipped to the train now. If not, and there is something significant going on here, then this is my TIME KOMPRESSION kicking in again, and I am making a comment now for me that will be later for you. Or a comment later for me that is now for you? I think I'm sleeping on the train and making this remark -- when you hear it is not my problem!
"Also, he doesn't speak Japanese, which . . . I wonder if that's a problem."
OOC: Request! Can we be timeskipped to the train? Assuming nobody's going to give us merry hell between there and here.
"Doing all right... mostly just keeping my head down for the moment," Tim replies, tugging his hat lower to cover his eyes. "I don't have enough of a bloody clue what's going on to really say much, so I figure it's better to keep my mouth shut and my ears and eyes open for now."
"tends to be," Dracos remarked.
Dracos
OOC: The car was assumed. Drac's fault. Train car, car, confusion.... I'll say the Yaks conveniently left you a car, with keys. Or maybe they didn't MEAN to leave it, but they did, and you took it.
You had a brief ride, casually noting routes to scenic locations some of you may have visited in the past.
Now you are at the train station.
Stepping out of and abandoning the Yakmobile, the group finds that they have about fifteen minutes before their train departs. It's boarding right now. The plaza is crowded with milling people, most of them hurrying to stand with another group, or anxiously looking for someone they know.
A guard stands beside the banks of automated fare-checking machines, looking very bored.
Pocketing the keys to the car- you never know!- Tom yawns, and fishes out his wallet.
"-oh, right. Hey, uh, have we got any yen? I'm starving."
"I'd rather meet Prometheus first...eat after," Dracos remarked, figuring someone else would offer the yen though.
Dracos
No one has any actual yen except for Tetsuo and Mark. Tetsuo still has the 5,000 he had when he left Japan in the first place. Mark swiped about 20,000 from the fallen while everyone was distracted with chatting up Hajime and Kakuji. That should be plenty to dine on -- if they don't have food on the train. The schedule suggests that it's going to be a four hour ride, just about.
"Presenece of mind. I like it!" Nathan gives Mark a thumbs-up.
"Tetsuo, can you get us to where we need to be? I'm not even going to try and find my way around here . . ."
While the others are talking, Bjorn is trying to keep his face inconspicuously turned downwards. "I'd rather take my chances with food on the train," he says. "Sooner or later someone is going to get a look around my glasses, and I'm not the one bitching about fights."
"Yes," Tetsuo replies, glancing at the ticket, and then the train you are apparently to board. This one has a conductor standing before the entrance, though the train itself doesn't look any different from the others.
Heading in after showing the conductor the ticket, Dracos took a seat in the train car, glancing around it while the others entered. "Well, we've got a ride ahead of us. And..no apparent disruptions from either of them so far."
Dracos
Tom just stares out the window, drumming his fingers on the glass.
"I'll be surprised if something happens on the train, too," he admits. "After we get off sounds the most likely, uh, hotspot. If there is one."
"Mmm, as much as it'd be convenient to send us off somewhere crazy or such for certain folks, you're right. Albeit, I don't expect it logically until we're nearby. After all, why have a crowd in the way or uncontrolled terrain. We should talk about something else though... less bad omens and all that junk."
Dracos
Nathan is leaning back in his seat, his feet up on another seat in front of him.
"Unless someone can see some convenient way of getting food on this thing, I'm going to try and doze. If you got anything you want to ask me, now's the time."
"Can you teach me the bow trick, just with bullets?"
"Don't think I can teach it at all. Ask Relm for a gauntlet . . . wait, what the hell would be the point of a bullet-sized firebolt?"
"Vampires," replies Tom, with utmost seriousness.
"Cross Victor and I don't think it'll save you."
Nathan relaxes back in his chair, closing his eyes. "Anything else?"
"-wait, wait. Waaaaaaaaaaaait. What?"
Opening his eyes again, he turns his head to at Tom.
"You met Victor back in New Delphi, right?"
"Who? Probably. Maybe. I can't remember," replies Tom. "Kind of had stuff on my mind."
"Oh. He hangs out in the mines in New Delphi, he would've been in the computer room. Anyway, he's a vampire, so your gag backfired 'cause we do actually know one and it might just be a valid reason."
"Anything else?"
"I *so* shouldn't have got out of bed three days ago. Or is that six months? I don't know," mutters Tom, stretching back in his chair. "Scary world."
"I can stomp on your world view a little more, if you want," Nathan notes helpfully, still trying to get comfortable in these $#@%ing train seats . . .
"Be careful. Too many revelations might reduce me into a cowardly wreck," replies Tom, quite comfortable in his seat, if not mind.
"I dunno. I've found that it's easy not to be too worried about Yakuza once you kill a few frost giants."
"You know, go to sleep. For my sake."
Nathan rolls his eyes, before returning to his attempt at a doze.
After the bypassing of the faceless conductor who seated the group in the cramped compartment (though, it is luxurious by some standards (evidently, at any rate)), the train ride is mercifully short. At one point, a woman with a pushcart takes orders for everyone, and serves mostly palatable imitations of what was ordered.
Then, before anyone's really had time to more than doze for a few minutes, the train pulls into its final destination, and stops smoothly. The door opens, with a -- surprisingly -- fresh blast of air.
Well, fed is good, even . . . train food.
Nathan, not waiting for anyone else, steps out of the train - his eyes roving the station as he looks for the people he's assuming will meet them.
Dracos joins Nathan outside, ready for the inevitable cold introduction.
Dracos
Outside, everyone can see that they are standing on a train platform -- an outdoor one a few miles from Osaka proper. This place is nice, almost classy. There's also not too many people standing around, though in front of the station is a stretch limo, with a well-dressed yakuza waiting patiently in front of the driver-side-door.
"Well, here we are," mutters Tom. "I sure hope someone knows where this is heading."
He swaggers up to the yakuza nonetheless, replacing a sour expression with something resembling good cheer, utterly forgetting the country that he's in; "Hiya! Ready to go?"
"Sure I know where this is heading. It's almost deja-vu."
Nathan doesn't manage to look cheerful, but he at least manages to not look like he's going to kill anyone.
The man standing in front of the over-sized stretch limo that is (apparently) to be your ride simply adjusts his sunglasses and opens a door for whoever is willing to enter.
"I hope they have something to drink," Mark mutters, clambering in after Tetsuo.
Nathan steps into the car, shrugging. "Well, sometimes I guess hope is all we have, huh?"
"And swords," Bjorn adds, following Nathan. "And guns. And mystic powers. And a generally unhealthy attitude. Also an oracle, and a rain god. And these nifty bracelets."
"Also a bow, arrows, fire, mobile phones, rapier wit and a debt of cookies?"
"Starting to reach at the end, there. Unless whinging about cookies is supposed to be 'rapier wit?'"
"No, just reminding you that you haven't paid up."
"Asked Relm if I should. She said no, very bad karma."
"She did not."
Bjorn scratches his head. "Or maybe I will ask her? Not sure. Anyways, it sounds like the sort of thing she would say."
"No, it sounds like the sort of thing you want her to say. She's on my side, if you recall. She even provided cookies last time."
"Hey, you're the guardian, I'm the priest. I'm pretty sure that makes me senior."
"You're not her priest."
"Sure I am!" Bjorn responds cheerfully. "Sure, the ordination went through Universal Life, but they let me be a priest of whoever I want. She recommended me, which counts for a lot, plus I got all these prophetic vision things goin' on. If that doesn't make me a priest of Delphi, what would?"
"Mind-altering substances and the ability to translate into hexameter verse?"
Bjorn waves a hand dimissively. "That's the old way of doing things. Gotta update for the modern generation. I don't really think I need mind altering substances, and phat rhymes have replaced the hexameter."
"That's rather disturbing. Care to give us a prophecy in that format?"
"Payment up front. Artwork, preferably in bronze, or cash equivalent." He pauses. "Or cookies."
"I gave you some sunglasses earlier."
"For unrelated reasons, and it's payment unacceptable to the Oracle, sorry. You can have 'em back, though."
"Unacceptable to the oracle my ass," Nathan rolls his eyes, "I think she'd approve of seeing you wear them."
"Yeah, well, I don't. I alternate between feeling like an 80s reject and a gangster, and I don't like either. And just because the Oracle likes to see me humiliated doesn't mean that it's a valid payment for a prophecy."
"If the oracle likes it, why -isn't- it an acceptable payment?'
"Tradition!"
"I thought you were just explaining to me how hexameter verse was the -old- way of doing things . . ."
"The art of being a priest is knowing which traditions to keep and which to replace. I wouldn't expect a guardian like yourself to understand."
"So basically, the ones that benefit you are good and the ones that don't are bad?"
"Yup!"
"That's remarkably self-serving, which is a trait most unbecoming in a priest of the oracle."
"My interests are those of Delphi. In serving myself, so do I serve the Oracle."
"So, starving the guardian and denying him sustenance serves the purposes of the Oracle? She gave me cookies."
"Too many makes you fat and unfit for duty."
"..."
Nathan sees Tom looking at the two of them, and stares back.
"What?"
"What do you mean, what?"
"What means exactly what it sounds like. What else would what mean?"
"A unit of electrical power."
"Are you offering me cookies, or any similar sugary baked goods?"
"No! There are no cookies to be had, and no cookies to be found!
"Besides, I don't like cookies much. If I get one of those subway deals, you can have mine."
"Then unless you have cookies to offer, you have no place in this discussion. Fetch some before bothering me again, peon."
"-you're the one who bothered ME! There is no justice anymore..."
"You started it."
"NO YOU!!!"
"You don't have cookies, so I have no obligation to continue this infantile debate."
Nathan looks out the window!
The car houses the debate comfortably; it's a huge stretch limo, and after the cookie talk begins to wear, Mark does find a cache of drinks. He takes a pocari sweat for himself; Tetsuo pointedly takes nothing, not trusting it.
Outside, the landscape slides past unobtrusively. It's late afternoon, almost evening at this point, and the car is not heading to any point within a city. You're enjoying the Japanese countryside, though the few mansions you pass are quite palatial, so if this is any kind of 'neighborhood' (unlikely, given the miles between houses), it's a very rich one. The driver says nothing -- the barrier is rolled up and presumably he can't hear anyone speaking. Nathan has been unable to find any cookies with the drink cache -- the gods must be angry.
Bjorn leans forward to tap politely on the divider.
Uncultured bastards.
There's not really anything to talk about except varied and various pieces of witless banter, so Nathan's just watching the countryside until they arrive - or something interesting happens. Maybe a fire.
The window slides smoothly down, about the same time that the vehicle pulls to one side, passing through a large pair of wrought-iron gates to enter a driveway along a (huge) mown lawn. Beside the gates are very high walls, and in the distance is a house. At least, there is presumably a house, there. Ahead is a hill covered with trees, and the driveway (if it's not really just a long private road, here) leads up that way.
"Yes, Sir?" the driver asks without looking back, in perfectly accented English.
"This is it, then?"
"Yes, Sir." The vehicle rolls smoothly up the hill through the trees, and then to a more proper parking area in front of the house. There's a big circle before the building, and the driver stops before the doors. They're large, double, and appear to be oak. The building is a very Western looking mansion of four stories.
Aside from the driver, who tries to open the car doors for everyone, no one is in sight.
Nathan steps out of the car, but waits for everyone to get out before doing anything else - if the driver goes to open the door into the mansion, good. If he doesn't, Nathan will.
The driver remains by the car, and seems content to stand there impassively, staring blankly forward without blinking or looking at anything specific. His arms hang at his sides in a non-threatening manner.
After admiring the still, quiet, oddly serene scenery for a moment, Nathan goes to open the door. It opens at his touch without resistance for all of its side -- in fact, it seems to be on some kind of silent motor. When one door is unlatched and pushed open, both doors swing inward.
The first room of the mansion appears to go all the way up to the eaves -- the large windows let in an awful lot of light. It appears to be a foyer -- very western, with plush carpeting, a few tables sporting expensive looking vases, tiny statues, and various other pricey nicknacks. Doors lead to either side and further in, and a massive staircase occupies most of the central space leading up to the second floor, where another pair of double-doors stand.
Waiting at the foot of the stairs is a woman with red hair and a nice figure, squeezed somehow into a mock-up of the classic french maid's uniform. A mock-up, because it would be more appropriate for an adult film than anything practical. She tilts her head slightly to one side at seeing Nathan and the others and says (in equally unaccented English), "The master will be with you shortly. Can I bring you any refreshments?"
"No, thank you," Nathan puts his hands behind his back, "We'll just wait."
Nodding, the woman walks in short, sashaying steps to one of the side-doors, which she opens noiselessly before vanishing through.
Once she's gone, the room is eerily quiet and still. Even with the door open, and the driver standing outside, the place feels very empty.
Bjorn's earlier good humour in the car seems to have vanished again. "I don't like this," he half-mutters, half-growls. "Enough with the games."
"Give it time," Nathan shrugs, "if he, or whoever, wants to make an entrance let them. We've made enough of a mess already."
"Classy place. I think I like the staff," reflects Tom, strolling over and eyeing the valuable-looking valuables.
"Larceny isn't polite, you know."
"Neither is *shooting fiery arrows*."
"That's part of diplomacy. Larceny isn't."
"You'd make a lousy politician."
"I'd make an efficient politician."
"At alienating all possible allies? Even HITLER had allies."
Nathan gives Tom a dark look. "We can have this discussion later. For now, I'm going to invoke Godwin's Law."
Nathan turns back to watching the double doors.
This thread now moves to Sympathy for the Devil (http://www.soulriders.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1002073#1002073).