enter the dragon

'Oh.' He thought, wondering if she had picked up on it. His shoulders squared and he stood by, nodding at her offer. He no longer looked sulky but there really wasn’t much change to his expression other than a sort of spacey look as he regarded her silently.

"Meat skewers…"

There was a little more light in his eyes now. Meat skewers sounded really good. The thought made him almost drool as he reflected on her words.

"Huh? Help people..?"

If she'd made somebody who didn't deserve to be sad sad just because of a comment made carelessly, she wouldn't be able to live with the guilt. 

"Yeah, you just started at the pet shop so I'm not surprised you don't know me yet," she answered with a chuckle. She'd been allowed a quick break from work to focus on college applications and that was around the time he'd been taken in.

"I eat meat skewers at this cool stall nearby! They're the absolute best! Really good and hearty, and they don't skimp on the servings either," she stopped herself before she could scare him away with the meat enthusiasm.

"I'm Chie, by the way. C'mon, let's go pay for these things first!"  

"Yeah, Ren’s my Allmate. He’s a pretty nifty phone and GPS device but he’s also my best friend."

The blue pomeranian moves closer to the girl, his little puff ball of a tail wagging at the attention as she continues to pet his fluffy head. He gives one quick bark before speaking again.

'Hello. It's a pleasure to meet you.'

Aoba leans forward, cupping his mouth with one hand so it looked like he was telling the girl some sort of special secret.

As far as she knew, weren't Allmates kind of expensive? She was stuck with her obnoxiously green phone for now.

Chie leaned in to listen to the boy's advice. Ah yes, a weak spot she could take advantage of! Nodding vehemently at the blue-haired youth's 'secret', she reached over and scratched the area behind the sentient puffball's ear. When the small dog rolled over she could not resist the squeal.

“I’m sure you’ll be a great teacher,” he nodded, dusting off the front of his shirt despite the fact that he would most likely be ending up on the ground at some point unless she decided to take it easy on him. As the girl announced that she was going to start him off with a basic kick, Minato watched her demonstration quietly and nodded again when she was finished. She made the kick look about as easy as could be, although he could almost feel his muscles begin to ache in protest at the thought of repeating the same maneuver. Perhaps stretching or something first would be in his best interest.

Then, all too quickly, it was his turn. With a quiet, somewhat nervous laugh, Minato shook his head before finally attempting the kick himself. Although he hadn’t put that much power into it, his muscles cried out at the sudden assault. His lack of physical activity was catching up to him, and it took all of his concentration not to over-balance and topple gracelessly to the ground as he returned his leg to its original position. With a wince, Minato glanced back at the brunette and laughed again.

The martial artist chuckled sheepishly, putting her fists to her hips. In her eagerness, she'd forgotten to properly prep him! Yeesh. Thankfully he seemed to be a lot more levelheaded than she was- otherwise he would have walked way from this with a severely sore body. What kind of teacher would she have been then? "Oh yeah, I should've made you stretch first! Good thinking, young grasshopper!"

Forgetful Chie. Typical, really But at least he didn't make fun of her for it.. "You're gonna have to stretch a lot, in fact! Cuz we're gonna use every single part of your body! It's the only way to go about it if you wanna learn the trade."

The rest of the afternoon passed by in a blur. Minato lagged at first, probably because he wasn't as active as she was but he was a very quick learner and he picked up on everything rather quickly. His eagerness to learn under her tutelage did not go unappreciated, of course and she'd made sure to not hold back on the encouragements. At the end of the first session, she was raring to go eat something and refill her tank.

"Man, I'm starving!" The short-haired girl fixed a glance at Minato and smiled. She guessed she took him being a bit sweaty as a sign of accomplishing what they set out to do that afternoon.  "Wanna go grab a bite? There are a bunch of awesome food stalls along the length of the lakeside." 

     "I can explain it all once we get him back. Chances are since the day is over and nobody’s been eaten yet, there isn’t anyone in that building that could possibly get maimed… other than maybe a stray janitor." Those particular employees were expendable at best, so he didn’t care much for the safety of the dead end cleaning staff. The diffusing cloud of students thinned out as the seconds ticked by. Most of them couldn’t get far enough away from this place, having better things to attend to rather than playing kiss ass with the authority figures to scrape their averages off the ground.

     Virus sized the building up. Fairly large. In open public view. Mid afternoon. Now would be a good time to strike and infiltrate the building before the main doors started closing for the night. They might end up locked in and stuck playing the extreme rendition of Jailbreak, but it would probably work out since on the way out they’d have an adorable snake sidekick. It would be just like Scooby Doo without half the cast. Only Freddy, Velma, and Edgar Allan Poe’s choice for the quirky animal partner.  

     "Thank you so much for offering your help. My name is Virus. Now… you know this school much better than I do, so do you think you could lead us to a place where we could get in without drawing too much attention?" Anything would do. A window, a locked back entrance that a good snap with a bold cutter could fix, a vent from the roof, the whole nine and a half yards. He’d been there and done that sort of tricky business so many times he swore he could see his own footprints in every stealth based tactic ever made. Going in through the front door and fast talking their way past any loitering teachers would be too tedious. Clearly busting in like criminals was the way to go!

"Oh, uh, I'm Chie," she replied, trying and failing to keep the shakiness out of her voice. She cleared her throat- heroes never stuttered in the face of danger! There were civilians to rescue! And an undoubtedly massive, menacing, hungry snake to find. That last part she wasn't as enthusiastic about, but what else was there to do?  Sneaking into the school after hours and helping a shady-looking man find his snake hadn't been on her agenda for the day, but there was very little room for backing out now. 

"We could go in through the back, but it might be guarded by this time of the day," she answered after taking a quick moment to weigh her options.   While not exactly an expert at criminal activity, she did know the school's layout like the back of her hand. Shortcuts were needed for someone who was often late to class.

"So...I'm thinking our best bet is to sneak in through the unused garbage chute and into the cafeteria. The place should be empty by now, I hope. Let's get going, then!" It was perfect, really- she'd used it before when she'd left her jacket in the girls' locker rooms and the school had been deserted for the night. All she wanted was to get this over as quick as possible.

Ignoring his last line for the sake of her sanity and attempting to make sure he didn't see her blanch, she led him to the side of the school building, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. With a grunt, she hefted open the metallic panel that led into the dark, sloping garbage chute that would serve  as their makeshift entrance. She glanced at the stylishly-menacing and menacingly-stylish man questioningly. "So...wanna go first...?" 

                                       Might as well explain it to her.

A pop-up...? So that was what it was? Disguising itself as a reminder to update the computer's antivirus software was kinda low. "Oh...well that's the first time I've heard of that kinda virus protection system. I totally thought the pop-up was meant to update the antivirus protection thingy..." That was what it had said, at least.

[♚] The unbearable warmth of summer was definitely getting to him now and a tired sigh slipped past the heir’s lips as he attempted to balance the two thick books he held in his arms, finally stepping out of the library. Unfortunately for him, his chauffeur wasn’t available at the moment and the blond would rather be caught dead than risk getting kidnapped by taking a cab with a stranger for a driver. He felt his mobile phone vibrate in his pocket but he didn’t bother to answer it, more than sure that it was one of his blockmates, inviting him to something ridiculous.

He was aware that most students his age or younger will be spending their summer vacation doing something ridiculous and time-wasting for the sake of entertaining themselves and Togami will most certainly have none of that. He’d rather do something worth his time— something productive such as taking summer classes to finish as much  units as he could which evidently explained the textbooks he held.

A halt was immediately put to his steps once his cerulean hues caught sight of a soda vending machine. He blinked twice. A friend of his explained to him what it was once and even watched him use it though Togami had never really tried it for himself. Taking a few steps closer, he examined the cold beverages displayed behind the glass which only worsened his thirst. He could really use a drink right now considering all the heat. 

So how did he use this again? He pressed a button here, did he not?

She was about halfway to her destination when she realized with a start that in her hurry to get out into the streets, she'd forgotten her water bottle at home. Terrific. Water was pretty much her lifeline during her training. It was important to prioritize getting a source of hydration before all else- luckily enough, she remembered a vending machine was close by and she hurried over.  

The martial artist slowed to a stop when she spotted a young man standing in front of the source of her watery salvation. For some reason, he was...pressing a whole bunch of buttons. There was no way he was going to get a  drink if he kept doing that. Or was it not working at all...? Maybe she'd go and lend him a hand- this particular machine has never failed her so far, but there was a first time for everything.

At that point in time, he had half a mind to tell the elderly off but knew all too well how that would end. Mixing Elliot’s ill temper with elders was basically sticking a figurative ‘hey, put me in jail!' sign. exaggeration - maybe, but this is Elliot. Figuring it wasn’t worth the trouble, he shrugged it off and roamed around until winding up in the Fountain District: a street that was lively as its citizens.

And he was willing to exert actual effort into rescuing this stray kitty despite getting worked up over being asked if it was his; she would give him credit for that. He could have easily walked away and left it alone, but he was here, wasn't he? And if she didn't know better, it looked like he cared more than he was willing to show.

Staring up at the thee that suddenly seemed way too high up, Chie swallowed her anxiety. A helpless cat was in need of rescuing and she didn't think she would be able to go to bed that night if she didn't at least make an attempt to get it to safety. And besides, this stranger was willing to help, so what was the harm in trying? She took a quick sip of her protein shake, as if it would help in their mighty rescue mission, before throwing it into the nearby bin and nodding at him, stretching her arms in anticipation. "Okay, let's rescue this poor cat!"

"I-I KNEW THAT!" How embarrassing! And now she was laughing at him too! He blushed and looked away, pouting. "I wasn’t scared! It came out of nowhere! ‘s all!" He now knew he would never be able to face her again. Except he would have to in order to make her all these.. meat dishes she wanted.

At the mention of kung fu, Chie's eyes lit up and an even bigger grin stretched across her face. She followed after the boy obediently until she was walking in pace with him.  "Yup, for as long as I can remember!" She could honestly talk about kung fu all day if given the chance, but he was an acquaintance and she didn't want to scare him off with all this talk. Finding her way out of this labyrinth alone was...well, scary, to say the least, especially with her sense of direction. Or lack thereof.

Still, she couldn't help but run her mouth off a bit.

"I've been watching movies since I could think! Still do, actually. I have a pretty big dvd collection- I can lend you a couple, if you'd like!" 

And all too suddenly he brought up the topic of her having a boyfriend. Which was laughable in itself, really. A blush lit up her cheeks and she shook her head. She wasn't Yukiko- boys did not swarm to her in droves, and even if she liked someone, she's never really confessed to them, mostly because she's never liked anyone to the extent that she'd go through the trouble of building up her guts and telling them about it. Things like relationships and liking people were certainly not her forte.

"Oh, no, I don't have one..." she trailed off. "A boyfriend, I mean." Her shoulders shook with a light laugh. "Never been confessed to, never confessed to anyone myself! So yeah."

Brown eyes glanced around quickly, looking for any potentially familiar pathways. It was useless- all this foliage started to look alike after a while. Chie stole a glance at Yata out of the corner of her eye. "Do you...have a girlfriend?"

When she looked over her shoulder at Eric, he was...sulking? Did she say anything wrong...? Oh. The way she worded her excuse must have set him off. She did have a tendency to run her mouth off at times, saying things without meaning it, and the telltale pang of guilt meant she had to say something to right it.

"No.. It’s fine."

Eric had no intentions whatsoever to clean up the mess. He knelt down to snatch up a bag for himself after carefully considering which of those that lay there were top shelf only, how he was deducing this was a mystery. The blonde chanced a peek at her from under his hood.

"What happened here?"

A voice from behind him startled him into spinning around to stare right at one of the uniformed employees of the supermarket. As they assessed the situation, the staff’s eyes fell upon the two and Eric shuffled backwards to stand behind Chie.

"… It was like this when I got here."

She was about to suggest putting these back was the right thing to do when a voice interrupted her and before she knew what was happening, Eric had scurried to stand behind her, totally not looking suspicious at all or anything. "Huh? Wha-"  

She blinked, assessing the situation for a second before finally catching up.

"Oh...oh. Y-yeah!" she addressed the bewildered employee, shaking a  hand holding a popsicle nonchalantly. "Some kid probably bumped into it, or something! You know how kids are these days, always running into things and getting into trouble! Not very useful members of society if you ask me!"

"… Oh."

Perhaps he’d been a little too quick to judge and throw icy stares at. Without looking at her, Eric picked up the bag of spicy hot cheeto’s that he assumed was one of the ones belonging to the higher shelves and after getting to his feet, he held it out for her.

"Here."

"Uh, thanks a ton!" She had recovered from her initial dumbness and was back to her sunny self, beaming at the other. Mostly it was because she now had two of her favorite snacks safe in her arms. 

The blonde pushes the bags off of him and sits fuming in one spot over the situation like a child having an internal tantrum in his head. He then looks around to make sure he hadn’t been seen nor heard but as he spots someone he’s initially alarmed but quickly shrugs it off with a look of indifference. 

The martial artist had been walking through the chip aisle, looking perfectly content with a popsicle in one hand and on the hunt for a specific variety of chips when a blond guy knocked down a bunch of bags in his valiant effort to reach for one that was obviously out of his range. Chie, being the epitome of  finesse, stopped in her tracks and stared. Realizing he was talking to her with a somewhat intimidating look,  she jolted.

Admittedly, she kind of caught his interest too.

Kind of short (like everyone else when they stood next to him in comparison but still) which automatically made her a little cute. Not exactly feminine, but what garnered his attention the most might have been just that. He’d never met someone so absorbed with that style of fighting before — never mind a young girl, who he assumed was around his age more or less. It was kind of fascinating. So sue him.

Her next question tugged him from his thoughts, and the Joestar couldn’t help but raise a brow in response, letting out a soft snort of amusement.

  "Hah? Not really." 

Probably not the answer she was expecting, given the sheer size of him. But it was the truth. Apart from a visit to the gym every once in a blue moon, everything else was purely down to good genetics and getting into more fights with anyone stupid enough to piss him off — which was pretty easy to do considering his ridiculously short fuse — than he could remember. 

At his mention of her beloved hobby- no, lifestyle, Chie grinned and  waved a sheepish hand. It wasn't everyday she met somebody, much less a stranger, who showed interest in what she loved doing.

"Ah, well, I've been practicing since I was little! Partly for self-defense, partly because I wanted to copy Bruce Lee." She let a short chuckle pass through her lips before an idea passed through her mind. "Oh hey, do you wanna maybe go hang out after this? Unless you have somewhere you need to be, of course! That is, if you don't mind...?"

   This had to be the longest and most exhausting day of Elliot’s life. First, his alarm clock didn’t fulfill its utmost purpose; wake him up. Secondly, his inadequate culinary skills nearly led to the incineration of his home  (which would have been tragic considering the five other occupants, give or take a few) - in his haste to get to work on time, only to get mixed into a scuffle with the other employers. ‘ Of all the rotten luck, no— more like stupid karma. ‘

And now he finds himself wandering aimlessly through the bustling streets of the Fountain District; no particular destination in mind, just a quiet place to soothe his nerves. After walking for a few blocks, he found a bench that was uninhabited and plunked down. Exhaling softly, all the tension in his muscles and just the entire day in general, melted away. Feeling quite at peace with the world, a quiet hum escaped his lips without consent. Along with it, a sole leaf landed on Elliot’s head causing him to glance up; a tree smack dab behind him. An eye twitching in what could only be annoyance as his moment of reverie was disturbed, but was snapped back into reality by a familiar mewl. 

    ’ A cat? ‘

She'd been walking down the Fountain District with a protein smoothie in one hand when she spotted a boy calling out to...a tree. Well, the noises he was making wasn't really 'calling out'- they were more along the lines of "cat drowning and yowling". Curiosity piqued, Chie turned her gaze up to the branches of said tree, looking for the cause of this boy's visible distress. Sure enough, a small cat was looking down at him from the safety of the branches, obviously not buying into his coaxing, like all cats had a tendency to do. That would probably explain why she was more of a dog person.

But still, a distressed animal was a distressed animal and this one obviously needed saving. The heroic instinct n her kicked in and the martial artist hurried over, stopping a few feet from the boy. "This your cat?" she asked him, her expression a perfect portrayal of 'I am here to save the day, citizen!' 

A loud mew broke in before the boy could say anything back to her and Chie glanced at the furball stuck in the tree, the epitome of pathetic. It didn't look well-fed, and the blond guy standing near her looked well-off, so it must have been a stray. Well, it was either that or he just didn't take good care of it, but she decided to reserve her judgments. "Hm...I can try and climb it, but...well, I haven't climbed a tree in a while."