A Lesson in Self-Defense (Open)

[Ayakura Alisa]

It was getting late, it seemed. Why was I in this part of the city again? Oh, right. I was trying to look for a specific place, but I took a wrong turn and found myself in the wrong neighbourhood. The area was illuminated only by lampposts and I could feel that, in what I was wearing right now, I could potentially be a vulnerable target. Quickly sauntering through between buildings, I cautiously looked around for any people who might be shady or something. But it looked like I didn't have to worry. Unfortunately, for this particular occasion I was wearing my dress so those who were particularly shady might have thought of me as easy pickings. Of course, I could prove them wrong. I was about to leave the Corner before hearing a "Hey you" from somewhere. Whirling around I saw a man a bit younger than me, though he was taller than me by a couple of inches. Standing next to him were two others, one was quite... weighty, and the other looked to be the brother of the guy in the center.

I stayed silent, but looked at them as I walked backwards to give myself some room. The center guy, the guy who called for me, whistled as I glared back at him in return. They began to approach me. I guess the pleated dress was asking for trouble. I really was in the wrong neighbourhood. The area was open, now. If there were any bystanders or passerby, they would soon realize a fight would break out. Or if I were weak, something far worse. The man licked his lips. "What's someone like you walking around alone like that, huh? Don't you know it's dangerous?" he said.

"I got lost." I simply answered.

"Do you know what happens to girls or women who get lost around here, alone?"

"No." I answered again, bluntly and plainly. My fists were ready to do the talking if something were to happen.

"Bros... show her..."

The two guys standing next to them began to walk forward towards me, leering at me like they were stronger than me. Don't make me laugh. The skinny man, who resembled his brother more than the weighty, stout one, soon hastened his pace and began to bumrush me. With some sort of speed and dexterity he could not hope to match given my past experiences with Shadows as opposed to mere humans like myself, I rushed to the side to evade his charge, grabbed him from the side and literally tossed him behind me, making his back slam against the ground with a crack. The bigger man, who looked at his fallen comrade, and then back to me, cracked his knuckles. He would be more difficult to fight with his bigger stature; I could not simply just lift him.

He began to throw punches at me, but I either blocked them with my arms or side-stepped away. Meanwhile, the skinny guy was trying to get up after I probably fractured some bones with my throw. He groaned to his brother, standing there and watching his two cronies get their asses handed to them by a woman. He looked pretty pissed, and soon ran in himself to join in the fray. Silently and wordlessly, I did not overtly throw any punches or kicks of my own, only reacted and responded to what was thrown at me. Eventually, these three stooges were hurting themselves more than they were hurting me, constantly punching and kicking each other by mistake as they could not effectively or efficiently corner me.

Even schoolyard bullies were more coordinated than this rabble. Eventually, I stopped playing games and kneed the big, stout fellow in his family jewels, causing him to reel over in some large amount of pain and curl up, moaning and crying for someone. I didn't care who. The boss of these two jokers, he was more fierce and slightly more coherent in his movements. But it was nothing I could particularly handle.

Looking back at the corner of my eye wondering if people were watching, I managed to swat away the punches this last guy threw at me and instead easily threw a punch of my own at the guy's face. These three were all very lucky I did not brandish my knife. I didn't want to murder anyone, though. That just wasn't classy. Brutally beating them up to teach them a lesson was good enough. These three were all fallen on the ground, clutching themselves and moaning in immense pain. I sighed and stepped away from them.

"...Are there any more of you pathetic excuses for humans I'm waiting for?" I called out wondering if this man had any backup I didn't know about.

[Kyle Shibata]

((OOC: I couldn't help myself. Too perfect.))

---

Alisa's challenge went unanswered and all seemed well again in the street, save for the three dorks lying on the ground like crumpled pieces of trash.

And then the one who fancied himself the boss of dumb, dumber and dumbest managed to get a hold of himself enough to reach into his jacket for something while struggling to get up. He just never got the chance to spout some cheesy, semi-threatening one liner.

A tall person breezed past Alisa from an alley and in three long strides he had reached chief dumbass. The next moment the guy's legs were dangling in the air and he was making funny gargling noises. Kyle Shibata glared at him while holding him up in the air with both arms as easily as he'd lift a puppy.

"Don't you know it's rude to point shit at people when they've turned their backs, dumbass?" he growled. "Furthermore, what kinda asshole tries to hit a girl unprovoked!? And forcing a lady to get her hands dirty on small-time shits like you and your retard brigade here ain't the manly thing to do."

After shaking the shmuck like that while talking, he pulled him close so that they were face to face. "She may be happy to just lay you out on your asses but I like hearing people scream."

His features went from dead calm to a small but very wicked smirk. The guy groaned and shook his head then raised his hands to show he was giving up. Kyle frowned at him. "Really, man? Tch. Get outta here, chickenshits, and don't let me see your faces again because I'll do more than lay you out. I'm very handy with an axe."

He dropped the porker, who landed on his feet and then fell on his ass with a small whimper. The item he'd tried to retrieve from his jacket, a knife, fell to the tarmac with a little clatter. He glared up at Kyle, probably ready to spout some threatening line. Kyle very calmly whirled around and grabbed the fat guy by the neck, his fingers sinking mercilessly in the thick layer of flesh. He reached out with his other hand and yanked the guy's earring off his ear, eliciting a scream of pain from him.

"I already said tryin' to hit someone when they've got their back turned is rude!" he barked, throwing away the bloody earring as the fat guy backpedaled, cupping his ear and swearing. "If you're gonna fucking do it, then do it right! Now get the fuck outta my sight before I do more than give you bloody earlobes!"

The trio of humiliated thugs picked themselves up in a pathetic series of stumbles and shuffles and hurried off into the evening with Kyle's 'lightning-shooting' glare following them until they disappeared around a corner. When he was sure they were gone, he turned around and... well, he stared a bit. And his face looked flushed, maybe with anger. He was wearing slightly dirty jeans, a black T-shirt and a gray shirt over that. His hands were somewhat dusty. He looked like he'd been working.

"...You okay?" he blurted, sort of frustrated, sort of awkward all together. "You got good moves," he added quickly.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I crossed my arms and yawned but not until a tall familiar figure walked in and started scolding the people I just beat up, further hurting them and saying things that I felt went without saying. It looked like Kyle just enjoyed this sort of fighting. I didn't like to fight with other people that much, but I had to defend myself, so I wasn't exactly happy about the whole situation. But if this would dissuade future attackers from trying to assail me, that would be good enough for me.

"Kyle." I said simply. "I didn't need saving, but I'm fine, thank you very much. What brings you out here at this time of the day? You look like you've been working hard." I continued. I brought out my knife and idly threw it up in the air and caught it as it fell, continuing to look at the taller man, who I swore was a little flushed. I couldn't tell if he was still mad at those three who failed miserably at trying to attack me, or if it was something else.

"As for good moves, well, I was trained for that," I finally said. "If I had gone on a different career path, those three men would have broken some bones already. I was trained to be an investigator, not an assassin."

[Kyle Shibata]

Kyle stared sheepishly as Alisa retrieved a knife from her person and practically played with it in her hand idly. He was actually quite impressed with her attitude. He hadn't stepped in to be thanked or anything, but he hadn't expected her to be so casual about this whole thing.

"Uh, sure," he blurted. "I was doing some handywork on behalf of my uncle around here. I run errands for him," he added and started to try and straighten himself out, as if suddenly conscious of his disheveled appearance.

That she was highly trained, it was obvious and he only now realized how much. He was kind of impressed and at the same time a bit confused. He kind of liked this girl, dammit, and yet he hadn't got the foggiest how to talk to her. Did liking a person always bring about such brain-cell reductions?

"I see," he muttered, though he didn't quite understand completely. "You're... a cop or something? What're you doing around here, anyway?"

He cringed at himself internally. He shouldn't be interrogating her, it wasn't any of his business!

"...If you're lost, I can help. I know this area pretty well," he added awkwardly, again.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I noticed Kyle was starting to become conscious of his appearance as he mentioned a little awkwardly that he was doing some handywork for his uncle, an errandboy. That was fine. Though his sudden demeanor struck me as odd, I figured he was just simply shy around other women. When I told him about my work, he seemed to interpret it as me being a cop. Nope, I was not a cop. Close, but no cigar. "Nah, I'm not a cop. I'm a private investigator. I own the Ayakura Information Network, which my parents left for me ever since they disappeared. Probably got devoured by Shadows," I said, sighing. "I was trying to look for a particular establishment, but I took a wrong turn and somehow ended up here. In my moment of weakness, I realized the place I was looking for was way in the Golden Alice District. That's when those thugs appeared and I had to defend myself."

"You wanna have a chat elsewhere, then? This place is pretty shady. Do you know any nice places around here? I'm not very familiar with this area."

[Kyle Shibata]

Kyle tilted his head a bit at her explanation but nodded. "Oh, a P. I. I see, so that's what you meant when you said you'd look into things back at the restaurant."

Then he paused. "Oh, uh.... sorry to hear about your parents," he muttered, a bit awkwardly.

He didn't mean to sound so callous about it. He just had a really negative view of parenthood and couldn't help letting it slip through sometimes. She seemed to deal with it pretty well, however. That was kind of impressive, actually.

Ah, so she really did get lost, he thought and rubbed the back of his neck.

He smiled awkwardly. "Yeah, sure. I do some work around here often enough that I know the place pretty well. There's a pretty good little coffee bar a block or two away. I was gonna head there, anyway," he said and smirked a bit. "Not as good as my coffee, but pretty damn nice. They've got drinks and half-decent snacks too, if you feel like it."

Congratulations, human, looks like you got yourself a date, Sitri snorted.

Shut up fuzzball, this ain't a date.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I shrugged as Kyle awkwardly apologized. I really didn't know what his deal was, but I guess that was none of my business and not necessarily in my place to question. Soon Kyle spoke about a little coffee bar that was good, he mentioned he was on his way there anyway. So I guess I can join him for that and we could talk if he was so inclined to doing so. "That's good. Could you please lead the way, then?" I simply told him, curtseying politely and pretending to be nice and demure. Of course, he would know better, considering he just watched her knock 3 guys down on their asses...

"We can chat when we're at the place. I'm getting hungry and thirsty after all that."

[Kyle Shibata]

Kyle smirked a bit at her curtsy. Yeah right. Still, he kinda liked her joking attitude... if that's what it was.

"Sure. C'mon."

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and casually strolled down the street. He knew his way pretty well around there and even made a few curt nods and a couple of 'S'up's to one or two people they met, either standing outside shops smoking or walking past. Kyle was fairly known around these parts owning to all the odd jobs he did around town.

The coffee shop he took Alisa to was one of the older establishments in the neighborhood, but still clean and well-presented. It was a bit cramped and the air smelled faintly of cigarettes and old leather - it was actually pretty pleasant in a cozy kind of way. Kyle greeted one of the waitresses as he passed and she beamed at him cheekily.

"Hi Kyle, you on a date?" she said teasingly. "You're making me jealous."

He grimaced at her a bit. "What? No," he blurted. "Hey Owa-san, your wife's hitting on me again."

The bald man behind the bar just laughed and took another drag of his cigarette. "You know Lisa, Kyle. Nevermind her. You and your friend just make yourselves as home."

The waitress pouted at her husband and Kyle shuffled on in and slid into a seat at a table in the back, then gestured to Alisa to have a seat too.

"So, what can I get you kids?" the waitress chimed.

[Ayakura Alisa]

The establishment Kyle took me to seemed decent enough, aside from the faint smell of cigarettes. I'd have to deal with the old leather but other than that, it seemed to be well-maintained despite its evident age. One of the waitresses passed by us and jabbed at Kyle asking him if he was on a date. Kyle looked a little embarrassed and fervently attempted to deny it. I sat opposite Kyle at the table he took us to; it was at the back. The waitress was Lisa, according to the bald man behind the bar who Kyle called 'Owa-san.' It appears that they were married, and probably own the place together. I fidgeted for a moment as soon the waitress asked us what we wanted.

"Um... Would it be alright to have iced coffee with... Hmm. ...What's the recommendation for delicacies here?"

I wondered for a moment because I really wanted to try some of the stuff here.

[Kyle Shibata]

Lisa beamed at Alisa. "Oh honey, we've got great sandwiches but if you want something a little more fancy we've got a pasta kitchen. We're the only place in Mosaic that makes bona fide Cuban Pork Sandwiches and our pasta chef's the best in Mimoza. Let me get you the menu..."

She pottered off to the bar, grabbed a neatly-made little menu and handed it to Alisa with a smile. "What about you, Kyle, what can I get ya?"

Kyle was busy cleaning his hands a bit with a wet hankie from the small pile of packets graciously left on the table along with the coffee menu and toothpicks. "Uh... get me a cuban sandwich and a house Irish coffee. Heavy on the Irish."

"Alright, hon," Lisa chirped.

Kyle then grappled desperately for a topic to talk about. "So... how long have you been a private investigator?" he asked once Lisa had gone to get their orders.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I took a look at the little menu to peruse its contents; Lisa the waitress seemed to take some pride in the establishments' delicacies, mostly focusing on sandwiches and the pasta. Fair enough. I liked that stuff. "Alright. I'll have some of the specialty angelhair pasta along with that iced coffee; thank you," I said to the waitress, smiling softly before turning my attentions to Kyle. He looked like he wanted to talk about something, but finally he asked me how long I've been in the business.

"I formally started when I was... Around seventeen or sixteen, when I finished high school at least. It's been almost a decade," I said. "My training started when I was very young. I was around ten years old or something. My mother taught me everything I knew, though I learned some other stuff on my own. She was a mercenary and an informations peddler after she decided killing wasn't her cup of tea."

[Kyle Shibata]

Lisa beamed at them as she left and Kyle listened to Alisa talk about her training. He was kinda amazed that she'd start her career that early and have that kinda training. And he couldn't stop staring at her - she was a good-lookin' girl. Really good-looking.

"Oh. Wow," he blurted, unsure what to make of the 'after she decided killing wasn't her cup of tea' moment. "Your mother sounds pretty cool. So, uh... what do you do in your line of work? I mean, since the perimeter dropped and all... Phoebe told me something about you investigating this business. Anything I oughta know?"

He then cringed at himself a little. He should stop asking questions and let her do some talking -- but she didn't really seem like the talkative type, either. What the heck should he do?

Please God, let me stop sounding like a dork, just for one day. Please, for fuck's sake.

[Ayakura Alisa]

Kyle complemented what I assume was my late mother, probably because I basically implied she kicked lots of ass before she disappeared into the middle of nowhere. Soon, he awkwardly asked me what I did in my line of work, and told me about investigating what was going on right now. He asked me if there was anything he ought to know regarding the current situation. "Like I mentioned, I'm a private investigator. Usually, I'm given a mark or something that I need to investigate from a client. Sometimes, I'm given several marks, and this is where I..." I coughed. "Have to stalk people, sometimes. I'm paid a handsome sum for my work and recently, I've taken to trying to investigate the true nature of this Shadow business," I looked around and wondered when my drink would come.

"I'm sure that since you awakened, you may have also noticed the aggressive Shadows that have come out on the outside. Currently, I am trying to investigate where they're coming from but up until now, despite having basically been everywhere at this point, my evidence remains inconclusive. It certainly doesn't help that there are those that are able to masquerade as perfectly functional and normal human beings, until they reveal their true nature." I said, alluding to the presence of Shadows like Gin.

"On that note though, I can't help but wonder if you've been looking at me funny. Do I have some dirt on my face?" I asked innocently.

[Kyle Shibata]

Lisa came around with Alisa's order first, carrying with her her usual cheery smile. "Enjoy your meal," she chirped, and hurried off to presumably get Kyle's.

Kyle'd been busy listening to Alisa, blinking at just how capable she sounded. Also... the business with the Shadows - she sure made it sound more complicated than he had ever thought it was.

"Uh, yeah. They're all over the place," Kyle muttered. "I uh, awakened a little before that dumb pair of Shadows crashed the mall last full moon..." he added, somewhat embarrassed of his evidently 'nooblet' rank.

Then he shrugged. "You mean like that Gin thing Phoebe's cozy with?" he blurted, then smiled wryly. "Man, don't tell her I said that. She's been freaking out whenever someone implies she's getting chummy with Shadows. She's too damn nice for her own good. One of these days that butterball will get herself killed."

Of course, he didn't really believe that. He'd seen Phoebe take on Shadows bigger than her and pound them into the ground and take some pretty heavy-handed hits and still get up for more. It really irked him, actually, because he didn't think he could hold a candle to her quite yet. Then again, tanking wasn't his style.

Her last observation though, made Kyle start and be blanched a bit. Holy shit, had he been that obvious?

"N-no, I ain't staring," he blurted, wide eyed and yet sporting a confused frown. "It's just... I feel weird, I keep asking all these dumb questions and you're just happy to answer. Shouldn't you like, ask me some stuff?"

Fortunately, he was saved from further embarrassment by Tina's arrival with his order. Well, for now, anyway.

[Ayakura Alisa]

Looks like my meal was delivered first, and I silently nodded and smiled at the waitress who came over to bring it. Playing with a fork beforehand, I had taken a quick morsel out of my pasta to get a taste of how it was. Pretty decent stuff. The right texture, and the sauce was quite... zesty. Yes, it was not bad at all. Anyway, Kyle mentioned that he did indeed awaken, but the way he mentioned it struck me as curious. It almost sounded as if he was afraid of being seen as a greenhorn. That couldn't be helped when you were still growing in power.

"I'm sure Phoebe has her own reasons for keeping Gin alive," I told Kyle. "Don't hold it against her. I need that kid alive as much as she does - A dead Shadow with that much intelligence is useless for my investigation." I weakly smiled as I made sure to be assertive that I was here to gather intelligence and not to blow up shit, though I was very capable of actually doing the deed. Eventually, it looks like my last quip got to the best of him as he blanched a little. I'll let him go for now.

"Don't worry," I said to him. "I haven't thought of anything yet. I'm not usually one for personal questions, anyway, though I wonder... You are still a student with work on the side, or are you done with education?"