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Susumu Riku

"I'd inform you of the chances of you walking away from this unscathed, but i'm positive you wouldn't like them."

0 · 731 views · located in 2073 Tokyo, Japan

a character in “The Perfect Race”, as played by Ashes-6695

Description

Image Name: 進 陸 Susumu Riku (Susumu- advance, proceed. Riku- land)
Nickname: "Just Riku is fine."
Role: Male 3
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Appearance: Neither incredibly tall nor thick, it's a wonder why Riku is so skilled in a fight. At a first glance, one might say he is nothing special, and pass over him without a second glance. It's upon further inspection that Riku's physique becomes more noticeable as a piece of humble artwork. His features compliment each other courteously, and his slight frame and gentle appearance mask his undeniable ability to fight. His large, slightly down-turned eyes are mainly a rich brown, but hold hues of golden in them that glint in the sunlight. Though his hair is a pale neutral tone, his lashes are thick and dark, holding contrast to all of his delicate, pale features. His lips are gentle and full, with a light reddish tint, and his face holds a very slight jawline. His beautiful face, in fact, is quite gender-neutral. Though very lean, his body holds many compact, almost unnoticeable muscles, and he is far from weak. Though his combat style allows him to make the maximum amount of damage using the minimum amount of force, and he probably wouldn't need to express his strength unless going up against a very tough opponent.
Love Interest: N/A at this time
Sense of Fashion: Riku doesn't really care all too much about what other people think of his clothes. Though some of his outfits appear as though he threw on a muscle shirt and pants blindly, other outfits of his can be quite elaborate and make him seem charming or cute or cool. There seems to be little rational behind the variety in his outfits, but he simply doesn't think the clothes make much of a difference. He doesn't see why someone should make such a fuss over it.
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 117
Color: Hair, neutral, pale blond. Eyes, Golden Brown. Skin, pale. Favorite color, Red.
Occupation: N/A at this time.
Likes: Picking unnecessary fights, Listening to music constantly, Reading, Being alone, Sitting and relaxing, Taking things easy, sweet foods, cats
Dislikes: Obnoxious people, loud people, people who think they can sing but can't, excessive noise, bad literature, large dogs
Fears: He can't swim, and won't go anywhere near large bodies of water.
Hobbies: Picking unnecessary fights, pick-pocketing people just for the heck of it, Reading, Sitting in a high place and watching other people
Catchphrases: "Shut your mouth, you're leaking stupid all over the place." "Go away." "Sorry, the odds are against you."
Fake Life History: Riku remembers having such a regular life. He recalls moving to Japan from Germany when he was about four years old, though memories from such a time are vague. He even remembers a bit of German, though once in Japan his parents had quickly transitioned to the Japanese language around the house. He'd had a small family to begin with, and by age seven his mother had died of some form of cancer. Riku could remember grieving, being so sad at the loss, but upon looking back, could hardly understand the emotion at all. His father turned to drinking, and Riku turned to staying out of his house as much as possible. As he aged, his skills with fighting and combat only heightened, until he was able to fight back abuse from his father. He developed a weariness of people, and a determination for being independent, no matter how much he would have rather been around others. Now assured that everything he once knew was fake, he's trying to determine a different kind of life for himself, but keeps being reminded of how untrustworthy other people are.
Secret: That he's afraid of water. A fear isn't exactly cool, nor is it manly in any way. So he'd prefer to just steer clear of it at all costs, and pretend it doesn't exist.
Severity of Faulty Emotions: Riku's emotions come in sudden, powerful waves that are difficult to fight off or hold back. Though in plenty of situations, he holds his composure and finds it difficult to even fathom having such emotions, when they come, they come. His body is slowly beginning to adjust to having the emotions constantly, little by little, though it is unnoticeable at first. But because Riku tries his hardest to ignore the emotions, since they can be a bit of a distraction, when they do come out, it is overwhelming.
Other: Weapon of choice // headphones of choice (the grey ones but with red instead of green) // {more to be added}
Image

So begins...

Susumu Riku's Story

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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"...I stress that this is your last warning, Mr. Natsume," The grey-bearded principal urged, his gruff voice simply tired of allowing Riku to slide by with his behavior. "One more fight, simply one, and you will be expelled for good..."

Riku fingered his split lip. It wasn't as if the other boy's punches could get past him, but the point of a meaningless fight was mutual pain, not simply to show off. Riku had allowed his defenses down for the weaker, less skilled boy, just to keep the fight going. There was nothing else that he was interested in at school. It was stupid. He didn't care about the principal's warning. It didn't matter. The odds were that the statement was a lie, like the last two times the principal had told him such a thing, and he didn't care even if the old fart spoke the truth. Expulsion would be just dandy with him. Better than school, anyway.

"Now, Mr. Natsume, your father has been notified of this incident, and I will leave it up to him for your home punishment, as for your detentions, i find it only fair that-"

Riku let the meaningless ramble hit him like a bunch of nonsensical murmurs. It wasn't hard with Japanese. He could tune it out easily and make his brain work as if he could only recall German. Though, his German wasn't too hot either. While his Japanese held remnants of an accent, no matter how hard he tried, his German was simply childish, and he sounded like a five-year-old, despite understanding most of it. An exchange student had come from Germany a few years ago, and when speaking to her, though she was impressed at his past and his comprehension, she found the way he spoke laughable. Cute, even.

Something caught his eye suddenly. Black wavered in his sight in front of the old man.

Riku stared at it, his narrow blue eyes widening. He stood from his seat and slammed his hands onto the desk, trying to get a better look at it.

"Mr. Natsume?!" The principal shouted, unaware of the spectacle.

"Don't you see it?!" Riku shouted, pointing his finger yet trying not to touch it. "It's right there!! Look, you old coot!!"

"Mr. Natsume!!" The principal shouted once again, slamming down his fist. "Take your seat and calm yourself this instant!!"

Riku gritted his teeth, pushing the papers off of the principal's desk. "You blind old bat!! Forget it, I'm out of here!!"

His outburst was nothing short of a tantrum, but the old coot, could he really see nothing? Perhaps it's my imagination, Riku thought, biting his already raw lip as he stormed from the principal's office and ignored the teachers trying to halt him. He stomped his feet heavily as he walked, staring at the walls that were now speckled with the small black holes. People stared at him like he was crazy, they leaned over and whispered to one another. What is going on?! Am i going insane?! His wild thoughts continued, running through all of the possibilities as he escaped the school building and began running. He didn't bother to worry about running into the people on the streets. They didn't matter, they couldn't see it. His worries about suddenly being insane were suddenly accompanied by the worry that it was reality. That it was truly a horror only he could see.

The sidewalk narrowed to being the side of cracked road that signaled his approach on his crappy little neighborhood. He slowed, taking a look around. At least there were few people here to watch his breakdown. Riku watched as the black voids meshed together, split, and meshed together again with another black void. They grew larger, and occupied more space, and-

Riku collapsed to the pavement as he attempted to put his weight down on his left leg. He clawed at the cracks in the pavement, digging his fingers in and bending his knee to try to push himself upward again. He had to keep moving, he had to-

His eyes looked back, his leg dissipated into blackness at the thigh, gone. A black hole in the ground had consumed it.

Riku screamed in terror, squeezing his eyes shut a moment and opening them once again to stare wildly at anyone. "Please!!" He called, letting himself collapse, and reaching his hand out to a couple. "Help me!! Please!!" He watched the vision fade and his last sight was the two smiling and whispering. They saw nothing. Only a boy crying for help from nothing.

. . .


Riku's eyes flashed open to slightly distorted room. His eyes couldn't settle on one particular thing, but chose to try and witness everything at once. Images came in blurs. He jolted slightly, the sensation of being underwater processing finally. His eyes widened and his hands slammed against the glass as he eyed the surroundings to the end of the glass and the beginning of the exit. Panic rushed through him though his body processed it differently. He simply wanted a way out, and a way out quickly. He let himself sink to the bottom, and pushed against it with his feet, clawing upward on the glass to get the rest of the way up. He pushed at the lid immediately, and suddenly grabbed the edge of the tube.

Riku's body convulsed with the shock, though his body didn't react to the pain regularly. He found himself simply thinking, hey, that hurt... and continued to grab it again.

This time, he held back any reaction, and hefted himself up to the air. He took a deep breath and immediately covered his nose. What a god-awful smell. He wished he hadn't caught a whiff of it at all!

Riku sat on the edge and examined his surrounding thoroughly, now that he'd escaped the fluid. Five others crawled from their tubes, nude, were already awakened. It would seem that he was a little late... But..... Nude?? He looked down to examine his own body. He was completely exposed, his pale skin free of all the 'battle scars' of his fights and his abuse. His unnaturally long, pale blonde hair clung to his body in most places, the moisture of the liquid weighing it down. He was so... different.... He felt so different.

He turned to examine the lid beside him.

"Susumu Riku, huh?" He muttered, processing his new name. He fingered his lip, golden-brown eyes widening at the stunning lack of being split, but what else had he expected?

He began reading yet another inscription....

NINGEN NO KAMI
HUMAN-GODS

Ningen no Kami is the name of the new species of humans that are sleeping dormant in these tubes right now. They have been in these tubes since they were embryos and will awaken once they have reached the age of eighteen. These tubes are called Shikenkan and are basically their mothers' wombs. Ningen no Kami are the "perfect humans" that excel in everything,and specialize in up to five things. They have been genetically altered to look flawless and beautiful in every aspect, and will be used as our organization's successors in order to plot the next revolution, making Japan the world's ruler. Like in Las Vegas, What happens in here, stays in here.


"Perfect, huh?" He muttered, and looked down toward the ground. He let his body drop, but his feet connected with the ground clumsily, and he slipped slightly, reaching out with his hands to lean against his 'mother' to regain his balance. He straightened, not feeling the embarrassment he should have felt at his fumble, and brought his hands away. If that thing was his mother, he surely wanted nothing to do with 'her'.

Riku pulled his hair in front of him, recalling a little bit of 'I shouldn't be nude in front of other people', to cover his exposed genitals. He hugged it in front of him, not caring about his bare ass, and began slowly approaching the others, not speaking. He would see what they would have to say first.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Karasu 'Crow' Hōno Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Inoue Shin Character Portrait: Ayano Aoi Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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Miki turned around, her virgin hair soaked in the mysterious liquid slapped the Shikenkan and slid down to the immaculate floor as she turned. Looks like everyone's out. She noticed that a person- she couldn't exactly figure out anyone's sex at the moment, for it was too dark and the only lighting was the ominous blue glowing Shikenkans which barely helped enough to figure out her surroundings. The person appeared to have a deep, yet playful violet hair color, which had also grown ridiculously long. The person walked up to her and finally broke the silence, besides the sounds of the sloshing in the Shikenkans, and looked up at the girl. "We need to get out of here." She was taken aback by the deep voice, all she's heard so far was her girl-voice, so of course she'd be surprised. So there's a boy.. I should greet him! She sat there for a moment with a blank face, and finally burst out, "Hi! Nice to meet you! I'm Miki, written with the characters 'beautiful' and 'precious'. Haha, conceited much, aren't I? What's your name?" A sudden hollow sound of impact broke through the conversation, followed by another male voice, deeper than the purple-haired boy. "This Shikenkan...is not my mother." Her eyes darted to the source of the voice and found another person in the faint, blue darkness. He had jet-black hair, of course its outrageously long too. "Is it me or is there only boys-" A silent slap of water interrupted, followed by another voice, this time, female. "Hello," Miki turned towards the relaxed voice and let out a sigh of relief. "Did you all just wake up here too?" "Ah-ha. So there is another female!" Miki smiled brightly in the dim room. "Nice to meet cha!" She stopped when she heard a girl mutter bitterly about something.. Perfection? Miki turned towards the quiet voice to see a girl with silver hair that shone in the eerie blue light. "Hi there!" she shouted out to the shining pair of metallic-purple eyes that penetrated the darkness. "What's your name? You should join us here!" She yelled, oblivious about the approaching late-night research scientist. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw yet another person. The person appeared to have blonde hair, like her. The stranger sat down, the dripping blonde hair rustled along, revealing his chest, confirming that he was a male. "Hey! You should join us!" she waved, not caring that her hair-dress/towel/wrap had slipped when she had turned earlier.

She stood up, too quickly, and slipped off of her "mom", falling down on top of someone. "Ack, sorry about that." She shifted and felt her chest slide smoothly against someone's.. And it was not a girl. Miki, being the dense girl she is, just slid off calmly and asked, "Ah, are you okay? Wait.. Who is this?? I can't really see." The room went silent for a moment, only to let the "newborns" hear the clacking of someone's shoes. The footsteps rose like a crescendo, steadily rising the tension in the room with every step. Just at the zenith of the tension, the sound stopped, and the lights outside flashed on. Miki's heart was practically jumping out of her throat in the suspense. Cold sweat was blending with the mysterious water that she was covered in and slowly slid down across her fair skin, making her shiver. She stared, wide-eyed, at the shadow of the stranger's feet at the door and clung onto the nearest person. She heard the jingling of keys and silent sinister laughing. The loud sound of a giant vault lock rung in her ears, she clung on closer to the person. Adrenaline rushed through her blood, and finally, a shout broke the tension. It came from outside..? "Hey! What are you doing?! This room is to not be disturbed until the next secret tour! Go home before you get killed!" The instant the word "killed" was uttered, Miki heard the sound of shoes taking off at top speed. She sighed in relief as the lights shut off and the room went silent. The clock buzzed, and all of a sudden, some kind of steam filled the air. The Shikenkans appeared to suck them up and the water turned even more blue. Miki jumped and looked at the clock. 6:13 AM. "What?! It's already passed about half an hour?!" Then something finally panged in her head. School. "Ah! Shouldn't we go to school? I wanna go to school! Can I?" she smiled, giddy. She stood there anticipating, her hair covering her important parts, most of her chest, and her "area".

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Karasu 'Crow' Hōno Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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Miki stopped to absorb Ayumu's cold words and then replied, "Well, I for one would want to try to live as a normal human, even if I'm different. Anyways, -nice to meet you..." she paused thinking for a moment and smiled, "A-y-u - c-h-a-n!" She noticed Ayumu was probably wondering about her bright mood, after years of living with a poker-faced family, the least she could do is read body language and tone of voice. "Haha, if you're wondering why the he- I mean the the heck I'm so happy is because I'm finally out of that hellhol- I mean terrible world. And Crow, you seem pretty strong, help me with something." Miki climbed back into her Shikenkan, feeling slightly different as she entered, and then drifted down to the eerie blue light that was attached to the bottom. She took a good look at it and attempted to pry it from the contraption. "Okay, the lights aren't built in, they're just glued in, so could you guys try to pry it off of the Shikenkans for light? And Crow, try looking around the room with your light for a way out." Hmm, this is not just any normal super glue.. Of course, since this is 2073, not 2014. Miki gulped down some of the mysterious liquid and felt something surge up, but then quickly die down.

She scratched at the glue and then noticed a box in the corner, barely visible in the dim lighting. She quickly got out of the tube, avoiding the electrical edge, and flipped open the box. The dull cardboard box contained a piece of paper on the top, and a pile of weapons underneath. She quickly dumped the contents and pulled back her hair. The paper flew up into the humid air, and floated down into Miki's lap. The curious girl peeled the paper off of her thighs and squinted to read it in the eerie blue light.

Congrats! Looks like if you've found this box, then you must be a Ningen no Kami!

Miki stopped and stared at that one sentence in shock. [i]What..?!
She continued to read in the dim light and felt a dagger cut into her leg slightly.

I know what you're thinking, What the hell?! How...?! Psh, don't worry! I'm your supporter! And the reason why I know you, a Ningen to Kami found it is because I've secretly injected a drug that allows you to see items that I've specially crafted in order for only select few to be able to see! But no worries, the weapons are visible, the box is not! Anyways, I cannot reveal my identity, but I am always going to watch you. -Sōzōnushi

Crimson blood trickled quietly down the girl's leg, creating a small puddle. The mysterious water that was in her hair dripped onto the wound and the would closed instantly and healed without a trace. What the...?! Miki shook off the newly-learned knowledge and picked up the dagger that was stained with her blood and swiftly jumped back into the Shikenkan, scratching and cutting at the glue until the light popped off. Miki resurfaced and cut off the electricity, making it easier to access the Shikenkan. Miki stared at her outrageously long hair, which was only being an obstacle, and shrugged it off. The pile of weapons sat there, still untouched sitting next to the small puddle of blood. Her eyes immediately darted to a dark chrome chain with a weird object on the end, and she impulsively pulled it from the pile. The object had four adjustable holes to place the fingers in and a switch to flip open a curved blade which wrapped around the knuckles. Perfect. She curiously pressed another button, in which the sleek chain morphed itself into a chain of blades which sliced a part of her leg in the process. "What the-!" She quickly probed at the button again, which morphed it into a chain with protruding needles, which stabbed her leg once again. "Ouch!" Pressing the button once again made it into it's sleek chrome self. Miki tied the light to her chain and retracted the chain enough to hold onto the light.

She rummaged through the countless pile of weapons and found yet another box. She opened the box and emptied the contents once again. There were six small bottles that appeared to have necklace chains attached to each. Each bottle had it's own color: one shone with light shades of red, darkening at the bottom, topped with a scarlet ribbon, another glimmered in a warm chrome orange with a tiny golden star charm that dangled from the neck of the bottle, another that was clear, yet foggy, and glowed in an silvery ivory color, and a small, clear, crystal ball dangled from the neck by a silver thread. Another set seemed simple, yet pretty, one that was a opaque blue with specks of pink camouflaging in the glass, another was a blazing opaque red, another that was a mysterious opaque jet black, yet it still glowed a deep violet. Miki plucked the orange one instinctively and hung it around her neck comfortably. She dived into her Shikenkan to heal her wounds and noticed her bottle actually trying to float in the anti-buoyant water. "I should probably keep some of this healing water..." she mumbled to herself as she popped off the lid. Soon enough, the bottle was vacuuming up the entire Shikenkan and she shut it quickly so she could climb out. "What the.. How in the world can this little bottle which is as small as my finger fit so much water?!" Miki began to see odd green waves of light radiating from the walls of the Shikenkan and finally figured out the puzzle. "So it's not the water that's giving that surge, but those rays! Either way, those rays must mean no good.." Miki curiously wandered to the Shikenkan next to hers, and read the owner's name: Susumu Riku. The blonde guy? She opened her bottle inside of his water, and nothing happened; it didn't even empty out! She sat on the rim, avoiding the electricity, befuddled. She opened it and looked her quarter-empty Shikenkan, noticing the water was beginning to weakly make it's way to the bottle. Is this bottle supposed to be for me?! Miki shut the bottle and the water ceased to move. The girl scurried to the pile of bottles and randomly choose the opaque red one, popping it open and then looking around, to see Susumu Riku's water reacting. "What the f*c-!" she dropped the bottle, surprisingly, it didn't break. Miki stood there, stark-naked with only her hair to cover herself, her light-chain, the bottle in hand, and her dumbfounded face.

[TnevdaNai, umm.. The scientist didn't enter, and the Ningen no Kami are currently locked in the room!]

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Karasu 'Crow' Hōno Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Inoue Shin Character Portrait: Ayano Aoi Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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One of the girls of the group was beginning to draw up all the attention she could grasp from the others. Riku found it odd how giddy and excited she seemed, despite the situation. He almost wanted to turn around at that point and leave the group alone completely. But it was no use; the girl locked eyes with him, too, and addressed him directly. He sort of wished he'd gone unnoticed.

But there she was, calling "Hey! You should join us!" and probably expecting him to do just that.

If he hadn't been so full to the brink with plain simple not-caring, he would have ignored her. But the situation seemed to call for cooperation, and making enemies wasn't going to do Riku any good. So he simply gave up and approached the rest of the way. He'd get this girl later if she ended up giving him a headache, which he estimated would happen sooner or later.

He stayed quiet, coming up to the group and staying on the edge of things, getting as best a look as he could in the lack of lighting to see the others in the room. There was the peppy blonde-haired girl, along with two others, and then two other boys. One sported vibrant hair, which caught Riku's eye pretty quickly, while the only thing to really catch his attention on the other boy was the fact that he was obviously taller than both Riku and the purple-haired kid. But it did spark a little curiosity about height in Riku. He gave a glance around at the other girls. He was about the same height as most of them, maybe slightly shorter or slightly taller, depending on the girl. And.... he was beginning to hope that perhaps these girls were just really tall... But that seemed unlikely.

Damn, he thought, biting down on his lip. Even if his lip wasn't raw and bleeding at this point, it would be soon. Habit would assure him of that. This means i'm short, doesn't it? He gritted his teeth, glaring at the taller boy in the room. He had to loom over Riku by a good half-a-foot, give or take, and it was beginning to draw out a little light envy.

Why couldn't they just make my body like the one in the fake world?! He thought jealously, straightening his back and stretching his neck as far as it could go, but just coming out disappointed further. He even lifted the heels of his feet of the ground slightly and tried to balance on the balls of his feet, but dropped down shortly after and looked away. Being bothered about not being a big tough guy wasn't going to do much. After all, Riku didn't need to be big and tough to fight in the first place. His style was built around the least amount of force with the maximum amount of damage. A light body would be good for evasion as well. But he still found himself looking at the other boy for comparative height as well. This one seemed about the same height. Any difference in stature would have to be measured by a third party. At least there was still the minute chance of being, like, a centimeter taller. But there was also the chance of being slightly shorter and his disappointment simply growing. He agreed with himself to leave the topic alone.

Riku suddenly drew himself back into reality, doe eyes trailing to a light source and listening with a touch of anxiety to a conversation on the other side of what must be the way in or out of the room. A way out... He repeated to himself. at least that isn't half bad...

But he still found himself frozen, listening intently and hugging his long hair in front of him a little tighter.

"Hey! What are you doing?! This room is to not be disturbed until the next secret tour! Go home before you get killed!" Someone called at the event that was taking place just beyond the exit, and the other person scattered. The light source disappeared.

Riku's body relaxed. At least the threat - if it could really be called a threat - was nullified.

But the talking started up again... Something about school, coming from Miki. He was only half paying attention in the first place to the comment, but found himself commenting back, regardless.

"What kind of person wants to go to school?" He scoffed, and made a mental note to himself that all the so-called 'perfect' in the world couldn't get rid of the way he fumbled on the pronunciation of certain words. It got unnoticed by some people, but some words just got him, and people would wonder what kind of accent he had, or if it was even just a speech impediment. Most of his word fumbles were subtle, just little mispronunciations or incorrect vowel sounds. A person not really paying attention probably wouldn't notice. But even with having lighter, more delicate sounding voice than he used to, he was glad to still have the same basic speech patterns. It was like losing everything you owned in a fire, and finding that there was just one little keepsake in the ashes that was preserved. It kind of made him feel good.

Another girl in the group seemed to clash with Miki's statement pretty instantly, and started going on about some kind of nonsense about there might not even be a school. The word 'sifi' came into the speech and Riku finally got the gist of what on earth she was going on about.

Oh, great, he thought sarcastically. Just what we need, a conspiracy-theorist si-fi buff....

Riku opened his mouth to retort to her about what an idiotic theory that was, but suddenly shut his trap. He had no reasons to deny what she was thinking, actually, and the whole deal about waking up in a big laboratory inside a big tube did seem to qualify as a possible government conspiracy.... So he simply decided to ignore the comment and disprove it later. Even he knew when to shut up. Even if he could be a bit of a hot-head.

"I'm Hitori Ayumu. Let's all just introduce ourselves, and then figure out some sort of way to get out of here quiet-like." She said suddenly.

Well, Riku supposed the task seemed rational enough. Better than calling out, 'hey dude, yeah, you!' to everyone. And trying to identify people by features probably wasn't going to fly well. Riku wasn't even positive of what he looked like now, aside from apparently being shorter and having blonde hair... He was about to answer to that, too, but the conversation went on without him. Oh well, someone would bother trying to learn his name eventually, wouldn't they?

He watched Miki suddenly start going for the shinkenkan again, something about lights, and asking the violet-haired boy, Crow, for some assistance. But then came a request for the others to try and get the lights out of their own Shinkenkans. Riku scowled, hugging his hair a bit tighter and giving a glance back at the sloshy liquid in his own. No way. Not a chance in f*cking hell. He was not going back in that thing! It had been freaking hard enough to get out. Sure, it wasn't really water, and he was already positive there was going to be no drowning and asphyxiation inside - after all, he'd spent 16 years of his life in that thing, hadn't he? - but there was something about being submersed that still bothered him. It was still far to much like drowning. He wanted nothing to do with it.

Miki crawled back out and suddenly started dumping the contents of a box she'd found onto a pile on the ground. Well, this, he felt, couldn't be as bad as investigating that Shinkenkan. Riku took a few steps over and came up behind her, peering at the contents that she'd scattered on the floor. Seemed like a shit-load of weapons.... And good ones at that. But that was another confusing point. Why put weapons in here with their little experiments? It hardly seemed like a rational decision in the least, unless they were trying to get everyone in this room to fight their way out through people who probably had much more advanced weapons. In a fight like that, everyone in the room would probably end up down for the count, and then where would the scientists be after that?

The scent of blood tinged the humid air, and Riku looked at Miki again. Oh, great, she was a clutz, too. Brilliant... And how many times was she going to get her leg sliced before she realized that she was letting her skin get a little too close to sharp objects? As she got up, though, He noticed that her wounds had closed. That was quite a surprise, but he figured it had something to do with that odd fluid.

Well, as long as she wasn't dripping blood all over the place with an open wound, he figured he didn't have much of a reason to pay too much attention, and headed over to the pile to inspect what there was. Though another girl, the one who seemed to clash so easily with Miki, was inspecting the weapons too. Riku recalled that this girl was the conspiracy-theorist, Ayumu. Her attitude seemed much-to-be-desired, too, and he figured a conversation with her would probably not end well, so he gave her little more than a couple glances, and tried to focus on the pile. He noticed Ayumu pick some sort of sword up from the pile out of the corner of his eye, sort of like what Miki had done with that odd looking chain, and tried to see if any weapons appealed to him. Normally, he fought hand-to-hand. A weapon in one hand was a dead give-away where an attack would come from, and Riku knew that from experience. Fighting a person with a weapon was occasionally easy, and he could determine what kind of defenses and moves to put down in order to disarm the person, and then they were useless against him. But he found himself picking up a weapon anyway.

It seemed like a staff, almost, at first - black, and metallic, with chrome patterns that reminded him of something futuristic and star-wars-y. Though, he wasn't quite sure why star wars came to mind exactly. He'd only watched those once as a kid, with German subtitles. He just had liked to watch the fight scenes. But he almost expected a big read beam to come shooting out one end. He inspected the odd weapon a little while, unsure of why he'd picked it up in the first place. Honestly, what was it even used for--

He stopped turning the thing in his hands and noticed a slight seam in between what seemed like two halves of the object. After a moment of considering, and biting his lip, he pulled the two halves apart, revealing the blades that each half concealed. Each side was both a blade, and a sheath for the one on the other side. Now this he could work with. Weapons that simply extended his blows, but an attack or block could still come from either side. Twin swords. The weapon seemed good enough for him. Nice.

He re-sheathed the blades back into each other, bringing them back into one staff-like weapon, and held it down at his side in one hand. It was nice, but the size was hardly convenient. He'd need some sort of holster or something for it. Well, after he got clothes of course. That was more of a priority than convenient carrying of a weapon.

But that Miki girl seemed to be a it again. What was she doing now? He watched her suddenly suck up a good portion of the liquid in her tank with some sort of vial, and his doe-eyes only widened. What the f*ck?! How the hell did that make any sense?!?! Suddenly the girl hopped back out of the Shinkenkan and grabbed another vial-thingy, this one being a firey, opaque red color, and suddenly, the liquid inside the Shinkenkan that Riku had come out of had a sort of.... reaction with it being opened. The Girl dropped the vial suddenly, but it didn't break. Which was... odd.... to say the least...

Riku walked over to her, bending down and picking up the small vial. He closed it and watched the reaction of the fluids from the Shinkenkan die down. His attention turned to the vial a moment, looking at it and inspecting the design. It was appealing to him, at the very least. He'd always loved the color red. But it was difficult to study in such abnormal and little lighting. Who could say if perhaps it were more intricate a design that he could completely tell?

Riku averted his gaze and looked at Miki. "Soo, what? This one is mine then?"

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Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Karasu 'Crow' Hōno Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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Pop! That was the sound of Miki repeatedly popping the cap of her vial on and off, force of habit. The girl sat there and watched as a few of the others picked up their weapons and bottles, following as she did. Miki stifled a laugh at Ayumu's remark and then redirected her eyes towards Riku, who had already finished choosing his weapon and had retrieved his bottle, inquiring whether that bottle was for him. "Obviously," the girl replied while smiling, "Otherwise that bottle wouldn't have attracted your water like a high-powered magnet!" She held up her bottle towards the blue light, and admired it's faint azure glow that was peeking through the blazing oranges. The golden star made a soft clink as it rattled against the glass and snapped her back to reality. "So are we going or what?" Crow broke the silence with his sparkling excitement, ready for anything. Miki smiled deviously and replied, "Let's smash down this place and leave it exploding as we leave like in the movies..!" She equipped her chain and began to search for a way out, she wandered around until she crashed into a pole, and she looked up, to discover an air vent.

Miki excitedly turned around and grinned, "Guys! I found an air vent! But it's really high..." She peered at the vent that was 10 feet out of her reach and nimbly, with the flick of her wrist, latched her chain around on of the flaps and secured it. She turned around and called towards the others, "Hey! I found a way out!" And yanked off the cover with the help of her blade function.

EDIT: I choose the vial colors based off of the color section in your character application!

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Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Inoue Shin Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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"Obviously," Miki had replied to his question, smiling for some odd reason. "Otherwise that bottle wouldn't have attracted your water like a high-powered magnet!"

Riku pursed his lips, a simple little act of annoyance, and gritted his teeth a little at the comment. Obviously, he thought, but found himself muttering out the rest of what he thought under his breath while the girl seemed to focus her attention on something else.

"Oh, obviously!" He mocked sarcastically, rolling his eyes and acting just part childish and part hot-headed. "Because I was totally paying attention to everything you were doing and exactly what these vial thingies are supposed to do! Obviously!" The little outburst was mainly under his breath, but he figured that with his quietness and all the different tasks that were at hand, he would get away with it. After all, that Ayumu girl was throwing sarcasm and retorts like it was nobody's business. Riku figured what he said would go completely unnoticed as everyone progressed.

He fiddled with the vial in his hands a second, and suddenly made a move like he would have to pocket the item. But of course, the only action he achieved was running his knuckles against bare flesh. Oh, yeah, he thought, re-positioning his unnaturally long hair that hung over his shoulder to shield more private areas in the front. No pants...

Riku chewed his lower lip just a moment, and figured the best way to keep it from being another thing to carry was to wear it.

........Well, Riku wasn't exactly the necklace-wearing sort of guy. He tried to assess other options for securing the object, and figured that it wouldn't make too bad of a bracelet. As far as jewelry went...... Yeah, this was still pretty girly.... But it didn't really seem to cross his mind, and he looped the black chain around his wrist until it fit snugly, and he was sure that it wasn't going to be falling off or bothering him the entire time. He already had one thing to carry; and he didn't need anything else.

After a moment, he turned back to the other's giving a gaze up at what was the center of all their attention this time around. An air vent. He stared in disbelief as a couple of the others started shimmying up the pole and crawling in.

Seriously? An air vent? He continued staring, coming up to the air vent and staring up at it as if it were the oddest thing he'd ever seen.

The tall boy went up first, followed by Ayumu, who made a few more bitter comments before going up, then Miki.

Riku gave a disappointed look, letting his shoulders slump down.

"An air vent? You've got to be kidding me." He voiced, staring up at those who had already gone up. He sighed. "Just perfect. Wonderful. And with my luck, I'm probably going to be back at the end of the ass parade, aren't I? Or at least someplace in the middle or behind a dude. Oh, yeah, the naked ass parade through a vent is going to be totally charming."

Half of the sentences came out dripping.... no, no, they came out oozing with sarcasm. But that was simply just Riku trying to get a point across. He'd said a whole hell of a lot worse in that fake world. But addressing everyone, he was able to completely assure himself that the remnants of his accent that he'd had in the fake life were still sticking around. As comforting as it was, he hoped no one asked about it. People normally could be pains in the ass about that sort of thing.

Riku stepped closer to the air vent anyway, walking over to the pole, since no one else was about to go up yet, and staring up a moment more. Now how was he going to do this? The weapon he'd plucked from the pile - more because he thought it was cool than anything else - was a bit bulky, and occupied all the space in his left hand. After another moment of lip gnawing, he figured the best way was to toss it up first, and hope for two things. One, that no one already up there would get a big metal stick to the head, and two, that someone might break it's fall anyway so that it didn't hit the air vent with a loud, metallic clang. That would surely blow the group's nude and sexy escape plan (haha)....

He got in a position, and thrust the weapon upward like a javelin, letting it land inside the vent however it wanted to land and on whatever it wanted to land on, be it people or metal, and focused on making his own way up the pole.

He gripped the pole and moved upward steadily, surprised that even with a slick body, making his way up wasn't as difficult as he expected. His lightweight body was easily lifted upward and maneuvered up with muscles he didn't know he had after the first examination of his body. He was surprised at how well toned he was, despite how lean and fragile he had appeared to be. Though he was still pretty disappointed about that aspect, having the weaker appearance was actually a good defense. No one would expect so much power out of his blows; they'd go easy on him and let their own defenses down. Not too bad.

He made his way up and grabbed the edge of the vent, pulling himself away from the pole and hefting himself into the vent with the others. Riku scooted as much as he could from the edge with the others in the vent, giving a peek back down just once. Just a couple more people to come up and they could get moving. After a quick glance around the vent, he picked up his weapon once again from where it was. He just wanted to start moving; this vent and all the people were making him claustrophobic.

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Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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"Get your mind out of the gutter and hurry up. The more time to spend in this damn tube, the more likely it is we'll get ca-" Ayumu was cut off, her sentence ending in a startled squeak, as she barely managed to catch the thrown weapon before it impacted with her face, which doubtless would have made so much noise that they'd all have been caught.

"What the hell were you thinking, you idiot?!?" The indignant Tsundere hissed, barely resisting the urge to slap the gleefully idiotic pervert who had nearly creamed her with a thrown staff, only managing this incredible feat of restraint because, deep down, she knew that any noise would get them noticed. So, no matter how tempting it was, she couldn't...

Damn well she couldn't! To hell with being caught or not. She was pissed! He had nearly bashed her skull in, and was probably staring at her more sensitive regions right now! Drawing back her hand, she punctuated her statement by lashing out with a powerful slap across the cheek just as the idiot finished pulling himself up into the vent. Given her lack of physical strength, this wouldn't do much besides sting, but that hardly mattered to her at this point.

"Get a clue and think before you do things next time, idiot!" She growled, turning and moving away. "And don't let me catch you staring at my rear!"

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Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Inoue Shin Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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"Oi!" reprimanded Shin,staring at the two people who were making so much noise.The commotion would attract attention...unwanted attention.

"Shut up.Both of you.And,girl,is your rear or your survival more important at the moment?If you want to get caught,then go ahead and get caught yourself,don't drag us,especially me,with you.So stop making so much noise,you're just as loud as the staff.And you," he stared at the sarcastic blondie "make less noise from now on.Unless you want to stay with this girl here."

And with that,he started moving forward.Thankfully his long hair managed to cover his behind rather well.

"...the first thing I'm going to do is grab some clothes." he muttered under his breath.

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Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Inoue Shin Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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Riku flinched back from the slap, staring at Ayumu with widened eyes. It didn't hurt that much, really, but it was just the shock of suddenly being slapped that got to him. It was a bit of a surprise. He hadn't expected to come up suddenly and get a big fat smack to the face, even if he had just recently had a rant about asses.

"Get a clue and think before you do things next time, idiot! And don't let me catch you staring at my rear!" Ayumu had growled at him as she started moving away.

He gritted his teeth, letting his eyes narrow and his surprise fade.

"gutter? Look, honey, all I did was voice complaints," He retorted to her earlier comment as he had been heading up. He kept his voice quiet, but expressed his aggravation and annoyance completely noticeable. "You wanna hear me get dirty, I can give you dirty." Riku's main issue was just the accusation that his comment had been pervy or 'in the gutter,' as Ayumu had put it. He figured she was going to get on his nerves a lot at this point. "And If you weren't paying attention, i was expressing how I wouldn't be enjoying the ass parade, not about being excited to stare at girl's butts while i crawled through a vent. Now that would have been a pervy comment."

He sighed, letting the short moment of rage fade. "I guess, in hindsight, i probably should have warned you guys about me throwing this thing up here first, but i was under the impression that someone would catch it. It was a little too bulky to hold it while I climbed up here."

But now that taller dude was cutting in. Riku started to regret going a little too far... Well, he started to, anyway. It already happened; can't take it back now. And it was kind of nice to blow off a little steam.

"Shut up.Both of you. And, girl, is your rear or your survival more important at the moment? If you want to get caught, then go ahead and get caught yourself, don't drag us, especially me, with you. So stop making so much noise,you're just as loud as the staff. And you," he gave a stare at Riku "make less noise from now on. Unless you want to stay with this girl here."

Riku gave a narrow glance back at him. "All i did was throw a big metal stick. I am interested in no one's naked rear end, and I was falsely accused of so!"

He pursed his lips, looking away again. It wasn't like he minded being the bad guy in a situation, but if he was going to get reprimanded, he would want it to be for something he actually did. Maybe he could humor Ayumu and her belief that he was obviously obsessed with her more private areas later. Thing was, he really wasn't thinking about it. He still wasn't thinking about it. But it seemed to tick Ayumu off. Yeah, sure, he'd love to give her a run for her money. Though, Riku wasn't exactly one to pick enemies with girls all too often. Getting them on edge, that was a different story. And far too easy to do.

He watched the both of them start moving. Well, perhaps, it seemed, he'd ticked off tall-boy, too. Maybe - no, no, no. No picking fights. He could pick fights with strangers once he was out of here and fully clothed. No need to get on anyone in the group's really bad side. Arguments were okay, but he didn't need enemies here. He didn't even want any. He just needed something to burn steam off with. Needed an outlet. He promised himself he'd find himself one once he was out. He had to keep his priorities in order, here.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Karasu 'Crow' Hōno Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Inoue Shin Character Portrait: Ayano Aoi Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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Miki blinked and scooted on until two familiar voices began bickering. Ayu-chan and Riku. Ack! The worst combination! The tsundere and the potty-mouthed grump-face. Ah, what should I do..?! I'm not good at these kind of situations! Miki fumbled around until the tallest of them all finally broke them up. The small girl sighed in relief and lowered her voice. "Thanks.." She paused replaying her memories, "Oh, you never mentioned your name!" she said. "Come to think of it, aren't we short one person?" Miki looked around and counted. Two girls, Ayu-chan and I, and then three guys, Crow, Riku, and the tall guy! Eep. Where's the silver-haired girl?! Her head pivoted around and looked for a head of silver hair, but no avail. "Sh*t.. Where's the other girl?!" Miki blurted, soon clapping her hand over mouth, listening to her flawless voice echo quietly in the vents. She shook off her worrying and quietly muttered to herself, "She can follow our trail of water right..?" Miki continued to scuttle on and heard a gruffly voice nearby, and then looked around frantically, making sure they weren't caught already. She sighed briefly, only to be interrupted by the voice speaking up again. Her hand groped around in the darkness, and she grabbed someone's arm by accident. She quickly jerked back with a quick "Sorry!" and crawled on.

Miki's hands and knees were getting a bit sore; they've been crawling around for at least twenty minutes now. A tiny light flashed on in the distance, and Miki recklessly briskly crawled towards it, crashing into a small mesh screen. She rubbed her face and chest, which now had an odd mesh pattern on her skin. Her chain jingled as it unraveled onto the metal surface. Miki quickly yanked it up and retracted it back in. "Hmm..." She stared at the restraint from freedom and it finally hit her. Her chain's pocket knife! Miki fumbled around with her chain until the blade finally flipped out, barely penetrating her raw, unexposed skin. She sliced the mesh as if it was butter, her hands shaking in excitement, and shoved the mesh to the side. The vent appeared to be big enough to stand up for her height, and Miki carefully stood up, her knees super sore from crawling. She began walking quietly with wobbly legs, and then grew to a solid, well-postured brisk walk. Her eyes sparkled as she got closer to the light, it seemed a lot more different than the ones that were in that tiny dark room. Miki whipped out her knuckle-blade and cleanly slashed at the weak lock. She leaped out recklessly, at first, the sunlight blinded her, but she absorbed it's warmth, opening her eyes. She floated briefly, her long, golden hair was a parachute, and she saw a massive school building below her. There was a sign that was.. Growing? She finally noticed that she was falling, and read the words that flashed by her. Seisei Hofuna Academy. The girl expected a harsh impact, but instead crashed into a... Person?! She looked up at the uniformed blonde boy who cushioned her fall. She heard the oh-so-familiar sound of a gun hitting the concrete and blinked, still holding her unraveled chain, which was now entangled all over her bare body. She looked around to see the vent that she came from... Twenty-five stories up. Her face paled as she began searching the boy for injuries. "Ahh! I'm so sorry! A-Are you hurt?!" She mumbled, obvious to her being stark naked.

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Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Susumu Riku Character Portrait: Shirasaki Yuuka
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Riku followed the trail of naked butts somewhere in the middle. He averted his eyes as best he could from the ass in front of him as best he could, staring off into the darkness and trying to pretend that he was not amid a caravan of naked. But it was hard, to say the least.

Suddenly, the vent opened into an area big enough to stand in, and he let out a small sigh of relief at no longer being face to butt with someone else. Gosh, and that whiny girl had the impression he was some creep who would enjoy it? What the hell!

He focused on trying to strain his eyes through the darkness, to follow the heard of teenagers though the darkness. Riku stayed on the edge of the group, trying to spy what might be going on, and then a violent pound echoed through the space. The clang of metal on metal rang in his ears. A weak lock dropped to the ground, and a door was pushed open with a light creak.

Riku squinted as the light flowed inward and blinded him. His pupils narrowed to small points suddenly, trying to adjust to real lighting as it enveloped the darkness he had been used to since waking. As his eyes finally began to process the sights, he caught just the smallest glimpse blonde hair and that bubbly girl Miki falling down from the entrance. He stared with doe eyes, finally adjusted to what seemed to actually be a normal amount of daylight. Did she seriously just leap out the door and plunge downward? Well, obviously the door they found wasn't quite at ground level, now was it. But talk about taking a sudden course of action. The girl hadn't given a thought to it at all, had she? She just threw herself out that door like the building was engulfed in freaking fire. Talk about sudden.

He took a few steps, pushing past another person and trailing over to the door. He grabbed the edge where the wall ended and the doorway began for support and leaned over the edge, trying to get a better look at the distance, and partially to see if Miki had fallen splat on some concrete.

Nah, she was fine.

But it seemed that she'd dropped on some poor unfortunate sap wait never mind no he wasn't. Poor and unfortunate Riku's ass; that guy just got a freaking miracle! A naked-ass perfect somewhat-human girl just fell from the sky into his lap! What was poor and unfortunate about that?! Well, maybe he hit his head when she landed on him and he had a terrible concussion or something. Or maybe if he wasn't straight or even bi. But he almost expected that once the guy came around to responding to what just happened, some lame 'did you just fall from heaven' pick up line was going to come out of his mouth. Well, not really. There were few people who would really do that. But it would have been pretty funny.

And no, no, no; Riku would not have been the guy to do that either. Well, maybe to be witty and ironic or something, but he would really not be the person to suddenly start hitting on a naked girl who fell on him. First thing to do would be get her naked ass in some clothes. Duh.

But he figured it would be best to follow the move, though obviously, without the whole part about crash landing into a guy. Riku straightened back from the ledge and turned, beginning to lower himself over the edge backwards so that he could still hold on. What seemed to have once been a ladder for an escape from said door was little more now than a rust stain on bricks and a few holes where it used to be attached. Seemed dropping was the only way to go, huh?

He let himself dangle out of the door and off of the ledge by his fingertips for a short while, then pushed off the wall and let himself fall - which was contradicting nearly every thought of self preservation in his body.

Riku remembered the whole bit about bending his knees lightly to absorb the shock when he hit the ground so that his legs didn't snap from underneath him, but he didn't quite grasp his balance, or, lack there of.

Though he smiled with the relief as he landed, grateful for the lack of dying, the relief was short-lived. He waved arms in a last second attempt to stay upright, but tilted backwards, landing flat on his butt with a light "oof!"

Riku pursed his lips and rubbed his slightly sore buttocks. Not that the pain bothered him, but it was there. He pouted and moved his hair to re-cover the parts he'd prefer didn't show, and looked back over his shoulder to take a look back at Miki and the guy she struck down, but he didn't bother to start getting up yet. He still needed to regain his bearings. The world still seemed unstable, like the minute he stood, he was going to fall back down again.

He drew his arms around himself, giving a glance skyward. The sun shown, but a light breeze sent quivers though his body. His body quaked slightly. Riku looked back ground level and gave a light sigh. Damn did he need some clothes. Maybe he could steal some gym clothes from the dude Miki landed on. It was worth a shot.

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Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Susumu Riku Character Portrait: Shirasaki Yuuka
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A brief "Oof!" broke the silence, snapping Miki back to reality. She muttered a quick "Sorry, I have to go!" and was off. Her bare feet were getting slightly calloused by the concrete as she dashed off, her immensely long hair streamed behind, but since she was a Ningen no Kami, instead of dragging behind on the ground, her agile movements made her golden hair almost flow behind as if she were flying. Her body, now out of public eye, was bare, white, and the ideal shape, as explained before. Miki exhaled in relief, her naivety was obvious to anyone who's 'normal' in Tokyo, and gathered her light (both literally and visually)hair, looping it around her body as a cover-up once again. She closed her eyes, unbeknownst that someone was following her, and dashed off once again, to go look for the others. Hmm, I think I heard Riku's voice somewhere around.. Here! She popped her head around a corner and saw the familiar golden hair of Riku, and her face instantly lit up in joy. The girl began to jump out towards him, shouting, "Rikuuu!" until she felt her head being violently yanked back by her hair, the hair-made cover-up quickly was unleashed in a large, billowing action.

"Ack!" This isn't just a simple 'Oh, my hair got caught in the fence!' pull.. Oh sh*t! A gloved hand covered her mouth and an unfamiliar voice hissed at her to shut up. She slowly turned around to what appears to be a man wearing sunglasses and a mask, and shrieked in the person's glove. Impulsively, the girl spun around and did a reverse roundhouse kick to the man's head, knocking off the sunglasses. He scowled at her and pulled a gun from his trench coat, and spat, "You b*tch!" She nimbly jumped over him and held her pocket knife to his neck, getting slightly grazed by a bullet in her forearm in the process. "What kind of city is this..?!" she muttered to herself. "Any woman who dares to take a step outside is bound to be attacked, so if you waltz around stark naked, then you practically are asking to get raped!" the man hissed back. Miki went pale, at both the shock of reality, and the fact that she was at a stalemate. This is my last chance.. Her blade cut into the man's skin hesitantly, making him scream and shoot, fortunately, Miki ducked just in time to avoid it. The girl idiotically let her guard down, and within a few seconds, she was being pinned down, gun against head, and all weapons out of reach. No..! There's only one thing to do.. Miki clenched her eyes, wincing at the sound of a zipper, and screamed at the top of her lungs.

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Character Portrait: Karasu 'Crow' Hōno Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Inoue Shin Character Portrait: Susumu Riku Character Portrait: Shirasaki Yuuka
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A bullet whistled by, shooting right through the rapist's hands like butter. Miki watched as the man was shot two more times, and was on the ground now, crumpled up in agony. She blinked and then noticed the savior as the person she had crash-landed on before. "Are you okay?" Miki sat there for a second, and started giggling briefly. She looked up and pulled back a 6 foot long lock of gold hair and couldn't help but to ask, "Wait, you're not going to ask why I'm stark naked in the middle of the city? Or why I have Rapunzel's hair?" she heard someone running towards the three, counting the half-dead guy, kinda, and she looked up at the familiar figure of Shin. "Don't mind if I just take his clothes..." Shin was already stripping the man of his clothes and handed Miki his shirt that was slightly splotched with blood. "That should be large enough to cover your body." Miki slipped the over-sized shirt over her body and tied her chain around her waist to at least cover the blood, and to make it look like she didn't just walk out in a shirt. She peered at the normal human guy who had a gun in his hand and smiled, "Sorry, I was being rude earlier, thank you! Now if only I could find some underwear.." Miki was surprised by someone pulling her up, even though Shin and the mystery hero weren't close to her, and turned around to see Crow, wearing brand-new clothes. "Got any plans?" Crow had asked her, looking at the now half-naked rapist man and back at her, patting her head with a brief "Oh." Miki silently stifled a laugh at what he was probably thinking and then replied, "Hmm, not sure, but the checklist is certain, one, we need some real clothes to blend in at least a little, two, we- well the girls can keep their hair long, well the guys will have to chop off their amazingly long Rapunzel hair, and three, we need to get a home, like you said." Before she could continue, Crow was already darting down another alley, and she was left with an outsider who she's indebted to, and a fellow Ningen no Kami.

"Well, Shin, we need to find the others! I know where Riku should be, and Crow is just down the alley, and I have no freaking clue where Aoi and Ayu-chan went..." she turned towards the normal human and flashed a smile in the inappropriate setting. "I have to go now, and if you need me to do anything for you, then just look for a girl with very long blonde hair! See ya!" And she was off. Miki dragged Shin along with her and located Riku. "Shin, you and Riku try to find the others while I go look for some clothes, money, and a place. She nimbly sprinted off, her golden hair glowing like a fire trailing behind her in the sunlight. She heard the familiar chatter of girls and the smell of fast food. Ah-ha. The mall. She followed the sounds and smells and was led straight through the sliding doors. The smell of coffee instantly punched her in the face and she spotted a Starbucks right across from her. She walked into the cafe, expecting people at the tables, on their laptops and socializing, but was instead met by many lines of people waiting at some machine that makes your coffee/cappuccino/frapuccino. Sounds of the coffee being poured into cups and cream being sprayed onto drinks filled the air as the people who were simply there for free internet sat there with their drinks and were either using 3D tablets or hologram tablets. She blinked and stepped outside in confusion. "W-What happened to the baristas and t-the display cases full of sweets?!" She quietly shook that off, reminding herself that this was the future, not 2014.

The befuddled girl began to wander around the mall, where the normal giant halls were replaced with human conveyor belts and even segways were being used by practically half the crowd! She could only smell unfrozen foods everywhere and was shocked by the sudden smell of something that was actually being handmade! The excited girl wove her way through the crowd and walked through a pair of doors that read: ONLY PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL ACCESS MAY ENTER. She eventually found herself watching a woman in the mid-thirties happily garnishing some fresh baumkuchen. Miki suddenly burst out, "May I try one?" And the woman turned around in shock. "How did you get in here?! Get out!" The blue-eyed girl deviously grinned and replied, "Only if you give me a piece of baumkuchen and ten grand, in cash." The woman opened her mouth to scream for security, but Miki swiftly clapped a hand towel over the woman's designer lipsticked mouth. "Now, I know you have much more than that since actual baumkuchen ovens are extremely expensive and that you're wearing a ridiculously huge twenty-karat diamond ring. Now silently obey as I make a special recipe that will erase your memory, just to make it easier for you." She securely tied the rag around and over the woman's mouth and locked all doors. Miki opened and rummaged through many cabinets, pulling out various jars of spices and even some supplement powders. Within minutes, a small bottle of clear liquid was ready and all evidence was eradicated. The girl grabbed the woman's purse and snapped it open, to see it loaded with thousands of dollars, of course all the bills were one-hundred dollar bills, talk about filthy rich. Miki grabbed three or four thick stacks and neatly stuffed it in her vial. The woman watched in terror as Miki approached her, and was knocked out cold with a simple pressure point. The girl dragged the woman into a chair and positioned her to look as if she fell asleep. Miki took the bottle and forced the concoction down the woman's throat, leaving most of it behind for future use.

Miki strolled into what seems to be a 2073 version of Macys, and tapped on one of the coordinator's shoulders. "Excuse me, could I purchase the exact outfit that mannequin is wearing? The coordinator turned around, and he instantly grabbed Miki's shoulders. "Miss! You have the look, the body, and the style to be our next model! You don't need to wear those drab clothes, here, I'll fix you up." the man was actually a designer for some big company, and with the snap of his fingers, a group of people swept Miki into a room, a few women began stripping her of her weapons and clothes. "Woah, hey hey hey, I can do it on my own! Geeze." Miki shoved the assistants out of the dressing room and disguised her weapons as normal everyday items. She stepped out, and instantly a crowd of people attacked her, brushing her hair, holding hundreds of different pieces of clothing against her, and the make-up assistants were stunned by her perfect skin. Well, I'm not a Ningen no Kami for nothing, but will these people just f*** off, just for a second?! When she had snapped back to reality, she was wearing some kind of flowy white sundress, and her hair was untangled. Miki sat there, with her vibrant vial glittering against the white, and looking like a real mannequin, and stood up, grabbed a beige satchel, and stuffed everything else that she owned in there. She turned around, with a mask of elegance, and left the room in a breathtaking second. She quickly regained her usual self, and dashed back to where she had left Shin and Riku in wood-colored sandals. People stared at her long, golden hair and her stunning sundress wherever she went, and Miki didn't exactly like it. "Dammit, I wanted to blend in, not stand out!"

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Character Portrait: Inoue Shin Character Portrait: Ayano Aoi Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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He watched as Miki ran off,her blonde hair flowing so naturally,that it actually looked fake.Then he looked at Riku.

"I remember where Aoi was.As for Ayumu...She was behind me,and in front of you.You should know where she went.We'll split up and look for both of them.Crow should be able to do fine alone.We just have to remember to..." he looked around,and pointed at a store. "...meet up in this location."

He started walking away before he remembered something and turned back to stare at Riku.

"And for all things that are still right,please don't end up in an argument with her again."

And then he was off,walking at a brisk place.The jacket he had stolen was flowing unzipped,exposing his chest.He wasn't worried about that anymore,seeing as how his privates were covered by the pants he stole.He tried to recall the path that they had ran from,and the previous location of the building from which most of them jumped off from.And sure enough,he found Aoi,still stark naked.Thankfully nobody was around.He walked over,removed his jacket and placed it around the girl.

"Found you.The other Ningen no Kami are planning to meet up.Come with me.And...you're going to need clothes.The jacket can't cover you entirely." he began walking away,then stopped.Without turning around,he spoke to Aoi,"It's pretty screwed up outside right now,Miki nearly got raped.So you stay close to me,at all times.Understand?"

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Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Inoue Shin Character Portrait: Susumu Riku Character Portrait: Shirasaki Yuuka
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Riku suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when he suddenly heard his name called. He looked that way and began slowly making the effort to stand up, but before he was even up half-way, on one knee and pushing off with his hand, Miki was snapped back, yanked backward by a man with sunglasses. Riku watched the scene with wide eyes, though he seemed little more than lightly surprised. By the time he stood upright, the scene was gone, and though he processed what was happening, his mind had a light lag in processing what it meant. That was, until he heard her scream.

He went to move in the direction she'd been dragged off, but stepping a bit too heavily on his left foot than he even needed to in the first place, a shock of pain reverberated through his body and he swayed over to the other leg. It seemed that despite the bending of the knees action he'd taken on his way down from the building, he'd clearly injured the leg slightly, and landed on it the wrong way. But it wasn't really a time for that, now was it? The injury was small. Just a stress placed on the bone and the muscles. Easily healed, and easily avoided. He just had to step lightly, which he would have found himself doing anyway, but accidentally stepped heavy. It would seem he was still overestimating and underestimating certain aspects of his body's capabilities.

Riku swayed into motion again, but there was that guy again, the one who'd gotten crash-landed into by Miki, running off at the sound of her shriek. He stopped in his tracks, letting his weight hang on the right leg and watching as ammunition-school-boy ran off to go play hero. Yeah, she'd be fine. After all, at this point, Riku probably would have been too late to go after her and be of any help. The other dude could handle it just fine. Instead, Riku's eyes fixated on the bloody guy on the ground that regular-guy had been about to shoot again. That dude didn't seem like he was going to need his pants while he was bleeding out to death, so Riku swayed in his direction.

The half-dead guy stirred lightly as Riku approached, but Riku easily shut him up, pulling the two halves of the black metal staff apart and putting one blade at the man's throat. "Come on now, you're practically dead already," Riku told him, bending but keeping the sword at his throat, and beginning to pull at the man's pants. "You won't need these where you're going."

Riku succeeded in pulling them off and backed away from the man, giving looks around cautiously at the street he was on. Didn't seem to be crowded, but Riku backed off into the closest alley, anyway, pulling on the pants. They were big on him, to say the least, but they did the job well enough. They covered what they needed to, even if they did have a few bloodstains on them. Re-sheathing the blades back into each other and placing the re-formed staff into one hand, he used the free hand to fish around in the pockets for - Ah-ha! - a wallet. He pulled it out and started fishing through, taking just a moment to push his unnaturally long blonde hair - beginning to lay in long waves now that it was dry for the most part - over his shoulder, and then started tossing things like fake IDs and medical cards and business cards to the ground like garbage. He started flipping through a few credit cards, and, though he figured they were unusable without the right pin number, he put them back in the wallet. And then he opened the pocket where the cash would be stowed. Though it mainly consisted of smaller bills, the sum in the end was hardly bad, and acquiring more would be a piece of cake. For now, Riku stashed the wallet back into his pants pocket and walked calmly back to the same general area he'd been in before, trying to recall the direction everyone else had gone off to.

He stopped, listening to a few gunshots sound. Well, business seemed to be taken care of over that way, though he couldn't be sure who was getting the bullets to the flesh. Either way, it seemed that a situation had been resolved. Though, in certain circumstances the outcome being worse than others.

Riku pushed the long strands of hair out of his face again, and narrowed his eyes. Okay, now that he had to get rid of. It was just being a pain in the ass. He unsheathed the twin swords from each other once again, holding one in such a way so that the blade faced backwards, not about to cut anything, and used that hand to begin sizing up his hair, pulling all of it into the one hand. He was about to chop it with the other blade when suddenly Miki and that tall black-haired dude, Shin, came trailing over to him, and he lowered his hand from his hair.

Miki came by and stopped for what seemed like all of a few seconds. "Shin, you and Riku try to find the others while I go look for some clothes, money, and a place." She said, and promptly dashed off, gold hair flowing behind her.

"I remember where Aoi was.As for Ayumu...She was behind me,and in front of you.You should know where she went.We'll split up and look for both of them.Crow should be able to do fine alone.We just have to remember to...meet up in this location." Shin said, pointing at a building.

Riku nodded unenthusiastic, until he finally processed what Shin was saying. "Wait what? Why do I hafta go look for that Ayumu girl?" He grumbled, narrowing his eyes and crinkling his nose cutely, though Shin didn't seem to notice the comment. All he did was turn back around and tell Riku not to get in a fight with her.

This made him pout even more.

"No promises," He muttered, crossing his arms and narrowly avoiding scraping the blades against the bare flesh of his arms, and watching Shin disappear again.

Riku raked his mind, trying to recall what exactly happened to Ayumu in the process of escaping. Come to think of it, she wasn't there in the small room, and... well, she wasn't there for most of the butt parade. That's right, Riku recalled. Ayumu split after a little while. She went up a different vent. He looked up to report the news of it being hopeless to re-locate her to Shin, but he was already off. Oh well, no other way to go about the job than to take a look, huh? If he didn't find her, he didn't find her. That would be the end of that. If he did find her, well, then he could get her saying herself that she wanted to be left alone. That would be just dandy too. From the way things seemed around here, and the attitude that simply made Riku want to piss her off even more, Riku would be just fine with letting her fend for herself. But as long as she said it herself, Riku didn't have to walk back to everyone having found nothing, and have them all off on a wild goose chase. But she'd split a while ago. Finding her might not even be so easy...

But he found himself going anyway, hands back at his hair to begin the process of cutting it off again while he walked, and finally slicing the ready blade through the blonde waves like butter. The hair came off in his hand, and he gave a momentary pause, sheathing the blades back into their staff-form and taking a look at the thick grip of hair he had before taking a stop at the nearest dumpster and tossing it inside. The cut was hardly professional, and sliced through uncleanly at the base of his neck, and the top of his shoulder blades, slightly longer in the front strands and any strands he'd had a loose grip on. Without the extra weight of the rest of his hair, the slightly shorter strands in back waved more, and even flipped outward slightly, cutely. The longer strands in the front hung in uneven waves. But this would never do. The hair still hung in his face, falling in front of his eyes and crossing past his entire face. Putting the metal staff under his arm, he undid the chain with the small red vial from his wrist and used it to tie up the top half of his hair, in a sort of half-up half-down look that was more common on girls. He figured the small black chain would end up getting tangled in his hair, but this was no time to rob a little girl of a scrunchy. Not that he would want to either.

Satisfied with his clear line of sight, he brought the big metal staff back down into his hand and started walking again, checking for signs that a bitchy naked girl had passed through the area. Well, there was clue number one, he thought, stopping at the corner of an alleyway. A drunken man near some trash lay there missing an article or two of clothing. Big giveaway was that he lacked pants. Riku figured that that was a good sign that he was headed in the correct direction.

He ignored looks at him as he walked. He figured he probably looked a little odd, especially walking around shirtless with a girl's hairstyle and a big metal stick. He supposed he must have had a girlish face, too, because the shocked look came around right when they looked at his bare chest. Damn, no hopes for being manly, then? He sighed, bumping into someone passing the opposite way and sliding his hand in to pickpocket them. He apologized with a light "sorry" and they were far too distracted at giving him odd looks to either say 'its okay,' or 'sorry,' back. Riku didn't expect them to notice their wallet was gone though. He was a great pickpocket. It was just like fighting. Once he was beyond their defenses, it was easy. They could do little to stop the move, and his slight of hand made it undetectable. The light-weight, compact body that didn't seem threatening in the least also helped. That guy probably wouldn't notice his wallet was gone for a while.

Riku paused, listening to what sounded like a piano playing, but was at a distance a little to far to be sure of. He opened the wallet, took the cash, and stowed it away in the other wallet he'd already had in his pocket, and tossed the second wallet to the wind, moving his head to locate the sound. Call it a Ningen no Kami's weird intuition, or just the face that Riku was curious, he followed the sound to a little down-in-the-dirt bar and diner. He peeked in the windows first, and recognized the long mess of Black hair that was Ayumu's. And he almost felt disappointed that he'd actually found her. Oh well.

He trailed over to the door and pulled it open, slipping inside quietly and leaning his back against the door frame. The door swung closed slowly behind him. Riku listened to the melody quietly, and though he was impressed, none of that showed on his face. In fact, he looked quite bored, like this was the kind of live performance he heard everyday. Which of course, he didn't.

He pulled the hem of his pants up, slightly, and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her to be done so he could pull her away from.... whatever it was she was doing, and see how this was going to go. More than likely, she was going to stick by herself. Why wouldn't she? But at least he wouldn't need to go back and tell everyone he couldn't find her.

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Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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Ayumu had just finished the last line of the song when the last strains of a jingling of bells and a rather annoyed voice behind her alerted her to the fact that someone else had entered.

"We're not open yet, kid. And put a shirt on before you come in here. No shirt, no shoes, no service. Read the damn sign." Well, this quickly drew Ayumu's attention. There could be only one sort of person who would come into a diner like that. Turning around, she confirmed her fears. It was that annoying guy from before. He had tried the Tsundere's patience enough already, and him coming in and crashing her little plan was the last straw. How the hell had he even found her, anyway?! The chances of him just stumbling across where she was were astronomically low. Had he been tailing her this entire time? As soon as she next had the chance, that stalker creep was going to get it.

Just pretend you don't know him. This'll solve itself, Ayumu thought quickly. With a well-crafted mask of a calm smile, she turned to face the man behind the counter. He nodded approvingly.

"You're good, kid. I might just hire you for that performance alone. You'd be the best entertainer we've ever had," the store owner said with a slight laugh. Ayumu simply smiled.

"Oh, I'm sure you're exaggerating. I'm not that good," She said modestly, not forgetting her manners in her jumbled, confused, out-of-time, out-of-place state. The man merely grinned back.

"Whatever you say," he said, putting several dishes on a small rack behind the counter. "So, what's your name? It's kind of awkward to just call you 'kid.' Oh, right, I suppose I should introduce myself, too. I'm Rinnosuke."

"Hitori Ayumu," She replied. "Does that mean I'm hired?"

"Eh, sure, why the hell not. Just fill out this form, and we'll see about hooking you up with a job of some sort," Rinnosuke said, holding up a small slip of paper and a pen. Dutifully, Ayumu headed across the room and began to read it over. Name, birthdate, and so on and so forth. Well, while she had to make up a few things to match the new world she had found herself in, she soon had it filled out, and ignored the blot on her vision that was Riku - who Rinnosuke periodcally yelled at to come back later and bring some more clothing with him - as best she could. Handing back the now completed form, Rinnosuke raised an eyebrow.

"16?" She had faked her age, since she was only 15 and there was probably some sort of labor restriction for people under age. "That's a bit young to be on your own."

"It is. It's... kind of a long story, though. I'd rather not talk about it," Ayumu said with a sadness that was more genuine than faked.

"I see. Street kid, huh?" He asked vaguely. "Y-yeah," She answered with a nod.

"I see. You need a place to stay, too? There's a little apartment closet above the shop. I don't use it. It'll cost some of your paycheck, though," Rinnosuke gestured to a small door in the back corner, presumably a staircase leading up onto the second floor. She noticed a door on a small balcony up there that probably led to the aforementioned room.

"That would be great!" Ayumu said eagerly, smiling with relief. This couldn't have gone better if she had seen the future and planned it.

"Alright, then. Sounds good," He said, stamping the form and sliding it into a small filing cabinet after adding a small clause about room and board. "Well, I think this counts as my good deed for the month. Karma can kiss my ass." Ayumu chuckled.

"Thank you, Mr. Rinnosuke," She said gratefully. He just "pshaw"ed her. "Just call me Rinnosuke. Honorifics like Mr. make me feel old," He replied. "Well, business starts in 20 minutes. While this might be a bit nonstandard, it's also nonstandard to employ kids on the spot just 'cause they can play a mean piano, so you're starting immediately. I've had enough trying to run this joint all by my lonesome. People always said I needed a pretty waitress, anyway. Just do something about the hair, okay Rapunzel?"

"Believe me, I plan on it. Is there some sort of uniform I should wear?" She asked, heading back behind the counter and glancing around at the small kitchen there. She didn't recognize any of the bizarre appliances and special ovens she saw, but, judging by how advanced everything looked, and the fact that Rinnosuke had somehow managed to run such a large diner by himself, she had to guess that these machines were probably very, very efficient.

"Yeah. I have a couple shop uniforms in the back closet, just in case I actually ever got anyone to take me up on my job offer. That bloody sign's been up for half a year, you know, and you're the first person I've actually gotten to apply. You'd think that a no-questions-asked job offer in a city like this would attract more attention." The last part he grumbled mostly to himself. Ayumu followed his directions, and, sure enough, found a simple black skirt, white blouse with a white and red ribbon to tie the collar, and a smart red vest with the name of the establishment, "Rinnosuke's Downtown Diner" proudly displayed upon its breast. Noticing two identical uniforms and having a blaze of sudden inspiration, she removed the ribbons from their collars and instead used them to tie her abnormally long hair in a temporary pair of twintails. That would solve her grooming problem temporarily, which meant all she had to do now would be change into her new uniform and get ready for her new job. As she stepped into a small employee bathroom in the back and began to change, she marveled at how easy it had been. She had expected to get the job, but a no-questions-asked offer with room and board offer on top seemed too good to be true. It looked to her like her bad fortunes were finally turning around, a prospect which she didn't dare to hope for.

A few minutes later, her makeover was complete, and having claimed a pair of black shoes and tall white stockings from the closet (Rinnosuke thankfully hadn't noticed that she was barefoot) she emerged once more, satisfied with her new appearance.

"Well, I gotta say. Those irreverent little pains can't complain about me not having a pretty waitress anymore. You look great, kid. I'm sure everyone'll think Christmas came early," Rinnosuke said approvingly, sizing her up. She smiled with a slight bit of pride. She had always been a fairly plain girl in her fake life, so although being "perfect" had its downsides, she supposed she could at least look forward to some advantages as well.

"Thank you, Rinnosuke," She said, smiling cheerfully. "I'll go put my belongings up in the room upstairs. Please excuse me for a moment," Giving a courteous bow, she quickly retreated into the stairwell, and headed up to the dark second floor. Walking along a dusty, empty balcony, she made her way to the door she had seen before, and, poking it open, glanced in.

The room was small, and very sparsely decorated, with various tables and chairs folded up against the walls. It was bedroom and bathroom rolled into one, with a small toilet and shower in one corner and a simple mattress in the other. What space wasn't devoted to storing excess furniture or housing the various accommodations of the room was completely empty. The walls were blank and white, but Ayumu felt that this was paradise compared to what she had expected. It sure did beat a cardboard box by the side of the road, and for that, she was grateful.

Tossing down her sword and clothes on the bed, she hurried back downstairs. Well, it looked like she had a job to do. There was no time to waste just sitting around. She just hoped Riku the stalker would get the hint that she wasn't interested in whatever it was he wanted and would be gone by the time she reached the downstairs floor. She was in no mood to deal with a thoughtless creep like him.

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Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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Riku gave a displeased, but bored looking stare as the geezer behind the bar shooed him out. He stood for a little while longer, instead, watching the girl and the dude make nice-nice with the business. But when the man shooed him out once again, he gave a light shrug and ducked back out the door, leaning against the door frame on the outside instead, peeking in the window periodically to see what Ayumu was doing and if he could pull her away from it.

What a pain in the ass. This girl really was going to be one hell of a person to talk to, wasn't she? He just needed to get her confirmation that she wanted to be left alone. Honestly, that's all he was asking for. Not being around her would be the greatest gift in the world. As long as he had this one legit excuse for why he wasn't dragging this girl back, he wouldn't have to deal with everyone else bugging him about why he couldn't find her.

The next time he poked his head around to look in the window again, Ayumu had disappeared, and the old coot behind the counter was giving him a pretty pissed off look. Well, Riku was sort of loitering. But he simply leaned back against the door frame again and tried to ignore the guy. He and the well-aged didn't mix well. People with an ounce of maturity and adult-hood thought his attitude and hotheadedness were too much to bear. He always got fed up with them, and they with him. It was best to avoid them, rather than get into a furious argument over who's more stupid. But eventually he was timing his peeks in the window at just the right time so that the guy behind the counter didn't see him. He passed the time watching a few people pass by, but eventually the boredom was a bit much to take. He figured Ayumu must have been taking her sweet time doing who-the-hell-knows-what.

He took a few steps away from the door frame and took a look around. It was a little quieter around here, at least, without all the rush of girls getting raped and rapists getting shot by school boys. But it didn't seem like the greatest part of the neighborhood, now did it? Japan seemed pretty.... Down now-a-days. It seemed rough and violent. The violent part was much more his style, but taking it out on girls was a little over-kill.

He took a look back over his shoulder at the window again, and noticed Ayumu coming down a narrow stair way near the back. Bingo, there was his best chance.

Riku hurried inside the building once again, smiling as courteously as possible to the displeased man behind the counter.

"Entschuldigen Sie mich," He said in German, hoping he could slide by with pretending he didn't speak Japanese well enough to understand the man, and hoping that the man didn't understand German. "Entschuldigen Sie mich!"

He sped over to Ayumu and grabbed her by the arm, tugging her in the direction of the door with yet another "Entschuldigen Sie mich," before hauling her through the door and finally letting go of her on the other side.

Riku waited for the door to swing shut behind them before talking again.

"Okay, look, Ponytails," He started out, addressing her with the new nickname of 'ponytails' mainly because she was wearing them now. "I'm about as happy to see you as you are to see me right about now. So the less crap you give me now, the sooner we can get on with our lives."

He let out a small sigh, just a bit of expression of how much he really wished he hadn't found her at all. "Miki just decided she wanted everyone to get found, and it just figures that Shin decided for some reason that I had any sort of clue where you went, so I got told to look for you. The only reason I actually did find you was because you left a nice little trail marker of a half-clothed hobo. Then I heard some music and low and behold, here you were!" He held up a hand and gestured to her like it was amazing. Not that he'd wanted to find her in the first place. "But yeah, all I need is confirmation from you that you're all set on your own so I'm not going back completely empty handed and we can both go on our merry ways. Got it?"

He crossed his arms over his chest impatiently. All he wanted was a simple answer so he could get out of there.

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Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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Ayumu had just arrived on the first floor in time to hear Riku - who, to her annoyance, was still there - say something in German - "Excuse me," if she remembered right, her German not being very good and her hatred of the language in its entirety being rather strong - and then grab her by the arm and drag her out. As soon as they were outside, Ayumu raised her arm over Riku's, bringing it around his wrist in a small circle and then pushing swiftly down, forming an Aikido position known as Nikkyo. This would force back his muscles - rather painfully - and force him into a kneeling position unless he reacted fast enough to pry her hand away from his wrist. However, she moved rather quickly, and the distance she needed to move was very small. If he tried to rise after she had already completed her movement, he would just be further hurting his own wrist, although Ayumu had the courtesy to hold back enough not to risk breaking the targeted bone if her target moved carelessly.

"Rule number one: don't stalk me. Rule number two: don't touch me. Rule number 3: don't interrupt me when I'm in the middle of something. Oh, and also, don't do ALL OF THE ABOVE without first acquiring such necessities as a SHIRT. If you wanted me to tell you to go away, then fine. I'm just fine on my own, thank you very much," The Tsundere said rather irritably. Only after she had finished talking did she let go of him, and then she stepped back, crossing her arms. "Now scram, before Rinnosuke thinks I'm part of some gang of half-naked German stalkers," She added for emphasis before heading back inside and slamming the door.

"Sorry about that, Rinnosuke," She said, scratching her head nervously. "Seems he mistook me for someone else." The old man, having seen her perform her counterattack, only raised an eyebrow.

"Well," He said in an amused, sarcastic tone. "I must admit I'm curious who he mistook you for."

The Tsundere only chuckled nervously, and then quickly set about making sure all the tables and chairs were in order. She needn't have bothered, as Rinnosuke had long since finished setting up shop, but she would rather get the discussion off of what had just happened. Ningen no Kami be damned. For now, she was just going to live as normal a life as possible.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Hitori Ayumu Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Inoue Shin Character Portrait: Ayano Aoi Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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Riku's eyes widened with light surprise as Ayumu's hand connected with his wrist and she dug her fingers in, pressing into pressure points and bringing him down. It's not like he resisted in going down. If a fight had taught him anything, resisting the energy was the worst thing to do. It just made the blow slam harder into you and you had to endure it. Absorbing the energy and moving with it was best when you were trying to be passive. He could take it and not take it any harder than he needed to. Piece of cake. The best way, of course, was to redirect the energy and turn it back at the other person. But like hell he was about to do that. He just let himself go down onto one knee, letting the left one stay there bent instead to keep his weight off of it.

First, he'd gotten hounded on arguing with her already, twice at least, and he figured pounding the girl into the ground was also on the no-no list. Not that he would hit a girl anyway. Sure, maybe he'd hit Ayumu, but that would only make her more bitter. And the way she was acting, she was already going to end up bitter, alone, and spitting on puppies. Just as long as she didn't hate on cats, Riku was just dandy with that. Second, what was he supposed to do? Wrist-role away the hand, grab her wrist, yank her inward, dig a finger into a pressure point of the elbow to stress a lock while twisting her arm and bending her over, and then slam his elbow down on her shoulder-blade to dislodge her shoulder? As easy as it would have been, no. No he wouldn't. He'd probably break her shoulder clean off, and then he'd have to deal with the whole just-beat-up-a-girl deal. And either way, any aggression back at this girl was just going to make things worse. Not that a passive attitude made things any better either. Honestly, did she not even hear him when he asked her kindly to skip all the crap so this could go through easily? Did she just want to try to piss him off enough for him to actually start being aggressive back at her? This was her second hit at him. He'd really done nothing wrong, but this girl felt it her business to believe that his actions and words revolved around some silly obsession with her? Juvenile. Self-centered in the worst sort of way. And all that aggression could be misinterpreted for a crush, if coming from, say, a junior high student. But this girl seemed to be stuck in those sort of phases, so why not?

But aside from psychoanalyzing her behavior far more than he needed to, Riku found himself criticizing her attack technique as well. The grip was firm, the move was effective. But Ayumu wasn't going as strong as she could. She was showing mercy, and for someone she probably deemed stupid. Which happened to be another childish trait - the solid belief that you were better than everyone else and had no reason to listen to them or consider that they may have as much intelligence, if not more, than you did - and could also lead to the inability to see reason. But if she meant to hurt him, she should have done so, and allowed him to take the pain in whichever way he decided to take it. Mercy was weakness. Even that little bit of it, that probably wasn't even a conscious decision. "Pathetic..." He muttered, not even sure if she would pay attention. "If you're going to hurt someone, you shouldn't hold back."

But Ayumu was going off on some pointless rant now to acknowledge the advice, and probably would have been far too full of herself to accept it either. Whatever. Let he use half the force on someone when she actually was depending on it and let that guy be violent enough to pound her into the dirt. Had Riku been that kind of person, she'd already be on the ground, and Riku would have already walked away quietly.

"Rule number one: don't stalk me. Rule number two: don't touch me. Rule number 3: don't interrupt me when I'm in the middle of something. Oh, and also, don't do ALL OF THE ABOVE without first acquiring such necessities as a SHIRT. If you wanted me to tell you to go away, then fine. I'm just fine on my own, thank you very much," She said, flaunting those traits that Riku really no longer saw as provoking a follow-up argument, but just saw her making a fool out of herself for thinking so flatly. He supposed she had no concept of what civil meant. Not that he'd been particularly kind with his own words for her, but at least he was calm and reasonable.

He stood calmly, brushing off his pants like being on the ground hadn't been a big deal. In fact, the whole situation really hadn't been such a big deal. But Ayumu must have decided she wanted to make it into one for some reason. Damn was it easy to get this girl's goat. It's like she wasn't keeping an eye on that damn goat in the first place. Or like she was holding out a sign that said 'go on, take my goat. I love it when people take my goat.' Figuratively speaking, of course.

"Now scram, before Rinnosuke thinks I'm part of some gang of half-naked German stalkers," Ayumu said, and turned around and headed back to the door. Riku snickered before the door even shut behind her with a slam.

Yeah, because he would totally stalk someone like her.

"Oh, that's funny," He said aloud for no reason at all, beginning to walk back down the street. "Like I would want anything to do with someone with a personality so dreadful!"

He shook his head, pocketing his hands and continued down the way he had come. Just about time to break the news to oh my god its a kitty cat.

Riku stopped dead in his tracks, staring wide-eyed at the little white cat slinking out of an alley way. It was scruffy, and collarless, but that didn't mean it wasn't someone's pet. He discarded the information as unimportant and approached slowly anyway. If there was one sort of living creature he liked, it had to be cats. They were independent and intelligent, and they could deal with or without company. That and they were cuddly and soft. But Riku wasn't about to admit that them being cute was one of the reasons he liked them. He put out his hand and watched the cat jolt to look in his direction, startled.

"It's okay, kitty-chan, I won't hurt you," He called softly, trying to approach a little slower and crouching slightly, though both actions at once were hurting his left leg which still felt sore from the impact of falling. He figured he could try massaging it with that liquid later.

The cat sniffed the air cautiously, and moved close enough to sniff his fingertips gently. Riku stood perfectly still, hoping he wouldn't frighten the kitty off. After another few moments, the cat brushed up beneath his hand affectionately. Maybe perfect made him liked by animals or something. Either way, he was pleased as punch. He pet the cat a few times, and, upon the realization that everyone else was probably over at the rendezvous point before he was, scooped his hands under the light animal and picked it up. He could at least cuddle the kitty a little while longer. He could always let it go later and it would be able to find it's way back home pretty easily. Chances were, it wasn't like he could particularly keep it. Someone would tell him to get rid of it sooner or later because that would just be his luck, but he could keep it as long as he could.

Riku got into moving again, holding the warm kitty against his chest and walking a little swifter to make up for lost time. By the time he got there, Miki, Shin, and Aoi were already there. He quickened pace for a few more strides, then slowed to a regular pace and came up next to them. Kitty-chan fidgeted and Riku loosened his grip, thinking that the cat was going to run off, but it decided to crawl up onto his shoulders and lie down, long tail swishing back and forth at his right shoulder and head looming over the left. The cat leaning into his neck. Apparently, the cat liked him enough to stay. That was comforting.

But he took a look at Miki as he approached. Jesus. Who did she mug? A movie star? Damn.

"Hey, sorry that took so long," Riku apologized. "I managed to Find Ayumu. But it didn't end well. She decided she wanted to attack me, and, well, obviously I wasn't going to be violent back. That would be dumb. And honest, I didn't do anything remotely bad. She just refuses to actually pay attention to what someone is saying, and likes to make a big deal out of everything even when I calmly asked her not to. She also seems to think that everything is revolving around her. But long story short, she wants to be left alone, and I say we let her. Less chance of me deciding that hitting a girl is okay..."

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Karasu 'Crow' Hōno Character Portrait: Ryori Miki Character Portrait: Susumu Riku
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With a yawn, Crow got up from the bench he was at. People stared and stared at him the whole time he sat, as all the crows casually flocked to him. For some odd reason, crows had always flocked to him, but that was probably why his nickname was crow. He stood up, and the crows instantly flew away, shocking a small girl with some sort of balloon. The girl dropped it, and ran off, following it. WIth a sigh, Crow started making his way to the alley, where they were supposed to meet. Only a few of them were there as he stuck to the shadows, before stepping out.

"Wow, Miki. Rob someone famous, did we?" he said with a grin, crossing his arm slowly as a crow landed on his head. The boy looked up quizzically, obviously trying to see what was on his head, before assuming it was just a crow and relaxed against the wall. He smiled, his hands going up to his hair to take the bird in his hand. His finger softly petted the bird's head, a sort of sad smile on his face, before he looked up slowly, his eyes lingering on the bird. "I overheard you speaking to. . . whoever. So, you found a place for us to see? D'accord."

Crow sighed, maybe at his habit of adding something french to his sentences. Did people even speak french in this world? He'd seen some of the technology, and he suddenly perked up when he thought about the technology of this age. He'd overheard someone saying iPad 12. iPad 12! He started talking really quietly, sort of shy. "Have you seen the technology here? It's amazing! It's like, holograms, and everyone has one, and it's so amazing! And-" Crow's voice had built up and he flapped his hands, as the crow sat on his head.

He stopped himself short, running a hand through his hair awkwardly and letting out a nervous laugh. "Ahaha. . . sorry. I'm babbling. Again.". This was the first time he'd even seemed so excited in front of them. If only Chase was there. He understood him. Earlier, he'd seen someone who looked like Chase, and he'd ran up to him, spinning him round. The guy had looked at him awkwardly before dashing off, and Crow could only sigh. He brought out a dagger, one he'd found near some sleeping guy, and brought it to his hair, cutting it short. Obviously, not too short. He cut it at about neck length, making his mind up. He could just save up money later and have a haircut then. He didn't want to cut it too short and have to live with a horrible haircut until it grew out. The long, gradient purple hair sat in his hands as he stared at it, before chucking it behind him. "Don't need that." he said simply.