[Rail IC] Academy City

[Anyr]

A hollow laugh escaped Jirou's lips before he could stop it. Apparently he was doing an even worse job than usual of hiding his emotions, since a complete stranger had seen through him in five seconds flat. Not wanting to worry the poor kid, he hastily put on his most reassuring smile (which was about as hollow as the laugh had been) and set about changing the subject.

"Nah, just a run of bad luck at the Mahjong table. But enough about me; What about you? You got any troubles you'd like to share?"

[Crafty Cultist]

The Park

The flash bomb detonates in Goliath's face, causing him to stagger backwards, clutching his eyes.

Frank fires several rounds from his tranquilizer gun at the giant. The cone of darkness makes it impossible to aim precisely, but with a target this size accuracy wont be too much of an issue "Now everyone, take this thing down!"

OOC: taking over Goliath to move things along. Time to show off your finishing moves, guys!

[druid91]

Akiyama leans out and throws his soda can as hard as he dares. And is rewarded with a sickening crunch and a roar of pain.

[Terry576]

"Kid you've gotta pay for that!" A shopkeeper was yelling at a boy standing in the middle of a manga shop, absentmindedly flipping through an issue.

"Hm?" The boy looked up momentarily, a stick of pocky sticking out of his mouth.

"Come on kid, just who do you think you are, reading without paying?"

The stick fell from his lips, and he dropped the book. The silverette turned with a grin.

"Who am I? Who am I? I'm the only teenager in Academy City without an affiliation! I'm the child mastermind who rules the streets!"

The shopkeeper stared blankly at the boy with silver eyes. "...Kid, you're talkin' crazy."

A hand ran over the boy's face, crossing his eyes. "And... I'm more than that! The only kid who hasn't ever entered a school... The only one to fight when he has too..."

His arm pointed towards the sky, hand drawn towards his chest.

"And the only person in the history of Academy City to be banned from every casino in the city... twice..."

His hand moved to his waist and he ran his thumb underneath his nose before flashing the shopkeeper a thumbs up sign and a grin. "I'm Fushichou Souji! And I'm gonna keep reading this until I'm finished with it!"

One of the customers sweatdropped at Souji's speech. "Dude... none of that stuff is anything to be proud of..."

Souji glared at the customer. "Hey! I don't talk bad about your monologues, do I! No! I don't! Because it's..." A harumph emitted from his lips. "Rude! Shopkeeper-san, make him apologize!"

Unsurprisingly, Souji found himself outside the shop almost immediately afterwards.

He kicked a rock, his bokken swinging from it's resting place at his back. "Che... They just don't understand."

Looking around, the boy smiled. He loved the smell of the air.

"Ara... I guess I better hit the park! Then I can catch up with Transitive Battlefield off of one of those kids!"

Transitive Battlefield was a bizarrely popular manga series, heavily featuring in:

• Giant Robots
• Swordfights
• Gigantic battles
• awesome monologues
• Weaponized Battlefields

It was widely considered one of the greatest mangas of all time. And Souji planned to read all of them.

...Until the current issue, that is. He grinned as he headed for the park.

[Anyr]

"Bad idea. Trust me, nobody's going to be reading manga in the park right now."

The black-clad girl who'd spoken these words did so while walking past Souji at high speed. She didn't pause even slightly after dispensing her advice, nor did she look up from the portable game system that was clasped in her hands. Heedless of anything but the bleeping screen she continued up the street, leaving behind a wake of annoyed pedestrians.

[Terry576]

Souji stops for a moment, dumbstruck. Not reading manga in the park? But... but where would he get his entertainment?!?!? That was the third shop in the past two hours!

Then he realizes the girl's still moving. "Oy! Wait up!" He runs after her, annoyed by how fast she's walking.

"Geez, why'd you walk so damn fast? Was that really necessary?" He's fiddling with something in his pocket now, presumably a phone. "So, what're you doing here in the city?"

Bizarrely enough, he seems genuinely interested in this random fact.

[Anyr]

The girl's pace slowed not a jot in response to Souji's plea; In fact, it didn't slow for anything at all. Everyone unlucky enough to be in her path found themselves playing an unexpected game of 'Chicken'. If it weren't for her conversation (if it could be called that) with Souji, she would have seemed utterly unaware of the outside world.

"'To get where I'm going quicker', 'no', and 'walking down a street', in that order."

[Terry576]

Souji grins. "So no destination eh? Kinda like me now!"

He extends a hand, keeping pace with her easily. "I'm Fushichou Souji, electric extraordinaire! What's your name Senshu-san?*"

(Senshu - Game (player).)

Souji seems blissfully unaware of how offensive his nickname could be.

[Anyr]

Despite having her eyes firmly glued to her machine, the girl was apparently aware of Souji's proffered hand. In response she suddenly stepped sharply sideways, distancing herself from it in a way that would have seemed fearful if it hadn't been for her deadpan expression.

"Ishimaru Moroe, and I don't shake hands. Do you know how many germs can be transmitted that way? A lot. You should know things like that if you're an electrician; I wouldn't want you fixing things in my house without knowing that."

[Terry576]

Souji grins, placing his hands behind his head. "Nah, I mean that's my ability! Electrokinesis is my thing."

He looks at Moroe contemplatively, curious. "What's your ability Moroe? Is it something really cool? Oh I bet it's telekinesis! Or psychokinesis! Or something totally awesome."

He's babbling by now, rambling off abilities that Moroe might not even be sure exist.

"Maybe you're like a key, and you can unlock people's deaths, or can manipulate the fabric of space time, or..."

[Anyr]

A keen observer might have noted some interesting changes in Moroe's behaviour around this time. Firstly, there was the slight twitch that happened when Souji called her by her given name. Then there was the second, much bigger, one that accompanied his first question. And finally there was the way her formerly rhythmic breathing became more and more irregular the longer he rambled. History will never know how far this disintegration would have gone if Souji had been allowed to continue any longer, because he was suddenly interrupted by:

"Will...You...Please...Change...The...Subject."

Moroe's voice was no longer quite so deadpan as before. If the keen observer from earlier was listening very carefully then they might possibly have deduced that she was (to put it delicately) slightly perturbed.

"Why do you...Why does everyone...Insist on comparing and ranking ever ability under the sun? Why is 'What's your ability?' the only question that's asked Every. Single. Time two people in this city first meet? Is it really so important to find out whether someone has a cool ability? Are you so snobbish about power levels that you can't risk associating with someone whose ability is totally useless? Well? ARE YOU?"

[Terry576]

Souji grins, trying to slaps his new friend on her back.

"Don't be stupid Moroe! What's the point of making friends if I don't associate with certain people!"

He winks at her, arms back behind his head. "Just because someone doesn't have an ability, doesn't mean they're useless! It means they're better than those of us with abilities! We get everything 'cause of what we are, not who we are. People without 'em have to work for everything! That's damn impressive to me!"

He clenches his fist, holding it close to his heart. "My dream is to make it so everyone has to work for what they wanna achieve! That's my hope for the future! If everyone has to work the same, they'll all be the same, right? Espers and regular people could coexist, none of this stupid prejudice between the groups. It'd be great, right Moroe?"

He flashes her a smile, a pure and honest one. He really believes every word he's saying.

Finally he picks up on what she said originally. "Oh... I'm sorry that I made you sad. I've gotta make it up to you somehow. Hmm..."

He broods for a bit, tapping his finger to his chin. Suddenly he snaps his fingers.

"I know! How about one date! Anywhere you like Moroe-chan!" He appears to be dead serious about this.

Elsewhere...

What is 2796 doing currently Agent 7?

"He's... um... he appears to be picking up girls."

You mean 72% of the consciousness of the most scientific mind who ever lived is currently attempting to pick up women? What was he doing before?

"Freeloading in a manga store sir."

...Are you sure you're tailing 2796?

"Quite certain sir."

I loathe the perfect clone with a passion. And so do you.

"Yes sir."

[Anyr]

Moroe once again sidestepped Souji's hand, despite the fact that it would only have touched her long leather coat this time; But that was fine. People were always trying to touch her for one reason or another, and she'd learned to live with it. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said of insanely dense and talkative clowns who couldn't sense a hostile audience if it started throwing knives at them. After taking several deep, steadying breaths, she proceeded to make clear her feelings on this issue.

"Okay, I want you to listen to my words Very. Very. Carefully. Failing to do so could be very hazardous to your health. Are you listening? Good.

First, it's Ishimaru-san. Second, I don't date. Third, I don't like talking about abilities. Fourth, I'm about to lose the level that I'm on, and thus am in a bad mood. Are we clear on these points?"

[Terry576]

Souji picks up on two things: Her name and she's about to lose the level she's on.

"About to lose your level?!? I dunno if I would like regressing..."

He grins at her. "Alright Ishimaru-san! There's only one thing to do then!" His grin grows wider as he flashes her a thumbs up.

"We're gonna train so hard that you level up, thus negating your regression! Let's do it!"

He seems totally unaware that she's in a bad mood.

[Anyr]

Moroe's irritated look gradually gave way to one of honest confusion. What was Souji babbling about no-Oh, riiight. An honest mistake; It was partially her fault for being too ambiguous, but annoying nonetheless. She would have rolled her eyes if they weren't glued to the screen, so she settled for sighing dramatically.

"Game level, not ability level. Remember point three? I'm not going to ban you from talking about abilities and then bring them up myself. And besides, it's not as if regressing would make any difference to my-Never mind. Just talk about something else, okay? Anything else. Please."

[Terry576]

Souji nods, understandingly. He totally hated when he lost at anything, especially at video games. That was always damn annoying. He's fiddling with something in his pocket now, and pulls it out.

It turns out to be about 500 yen.

"Man, I thought that the last would last for longer..."

He probably shouldn't have spent it on manga and ramen instead of real food. He glances over Moroe's shoulder to see what she's playing. "What game is that anyways?"

[Anyr]

The screen was rather hard to make out, apparently being one of those models that needed to be viewed at just the right angle. From the looks of it, though, the game was some sort of first person shooter. Moroe quickly put some distance between herself and Souji, but she didn't seem annoyed by his question. In fact, for the first time she actually looked eager to talk.

"It doesn't have a name; It's what you might call a custom job. Looks simple at first, but has a huge amount of depth. The weirdest thing about it is that it's completely unfair; Sometimes you're up against enemies that don't stand a chance against you, and sometimes there's almost no way to win.

Take this level, for instance: There's a brawl going on between one superhuman guy and an assorted mob. The objective is to intervene and stop the fight without any deaths or major injuries on either side. Unfortunately, your only way of interacting with the level is through a high-powered sniper rifle. That's the sort of game this is."

Despite Moroe's pessimistic talk, she never stopped manipulating the game's controls for even an instant. Even now she slid one of the directional sticks smoothly across with one hand, while rapidly tapping a dark red button with the other.
----------------------------------------

Meanwhile in the park, a new flurry of bullet sped across the battlefield. The various clouds and areas of darkness made it impossible to target anyone, but that was fine. Instead, the shots were aimed at pipes, lampposts and anything else that would produce a good sound when hit. The aim of this was simple: Make those inside the cloud believe that the sniper was now firing blindly, and in doing so start a panic.

[Terry576]

Souji flinches, and for the first time looks actually sort of depressed. That hit kinda close to home.

"R-r-really? Huh. Sounds pretty interesting. Are you doing any good?" He looks genuinely curious about it, despite the tinge of white on his face. Squinting he glares at the game screen.

"Damn... I can't see a thing on your screen Ishimaru-san. How do you even know how well you're doing?"

[Anyr]

As the sun set on Souji's good mood, so did Moroe's sun rise. Her previous tension steadily dissipated the more that she spoke of her favourite pastime, until she started to sound almost friendly. Besides, Souji did seem to be making the effort to learn from his mistakes, and she'd never been able to hold a grudge against people who did that.

"Intuition and experience. There are no neat little scores or achievement lists in this game, so you have to deduce your status and paths to victory from the information on hand. For instance, this level is all about psychology. You're given a really dangerous gun, but can't actually hurt anyone with it. So the only way to win is to scare the enemy into thinking they need to flee, even though there's no real threat. You see the problem? Overplay your hand and they'll realise it's an empty threat; Underplay it and they don't have enough motivation to flee."

[Terry576]

Souji bites his lip. "Huh. That's pretty impressive for such a tiny game. How are you gonna win if you can't even see though? It seems sight would be really important if you wanted to win, but the game's covered in a smokescreen. The only way around that would be an esper ability, but the game's definitely not going to give you an advantage on that level from what you've told me. So you've gotta try and psych everyone out, right? Make them think that you're trying to kill them, 'cause you've got such a damn powerful weapon, and get them to run away."

That's a shocking amount of insight for such a clown.

[Anyr]

"That's the idea, yes. And to be honest, I probably can't win at this point. Thanks to my early carelessness the enemy has control of the field now, and there's not really a way to recover from that. If I'd played better in the beginning, I might have been able to stop things from getting this bad."

Moroe's voice was once again tinged with annoyance, but this time it was directed at herself. She must have really valued her skill at this game, because she acted as if she'd made a mistake in something that actually mattered.

[Terry576]

"Hmmm..." Souji's staring at the screen, concentrating.

"If you can calculate the enemy's last known position, you could probably aim a bullet at an area near him, scaring him off. Otherwise he'll just beat you, right?"

[Anyr]

"Maybe, but if I start firing blindly I could easily beat myself; That's not a risk that I'm willing to take here. Then again, that's what's so great about this game: Everyone has their own way of playing it."

For some reason, a thoughtful expression started to manifest itself on Moroe's face. She spent a little while walking in silence, clearly turning something over in her mind. Finally she spoke again, this time with a genuinely curious tone.

"Let me ask you something. Would you still be suggesting that tactic if the people behind the screen weren't simply clusters of pixels? Just for fun, imagine that this situation wasn't a game; Imagine that you're actually there, with rifle in hand and real, innocent people moving invisibly behind their smoke screens. Would you still risk firing blind?"

[Terry576]

Souji stares at the screen, perplexed. If they were real people? Would he do it then?

No! 2796, no don't do it, don't!

The boy stared impassively as the floating guns behind him pulled their triggers.

"NOOO-"

He shuddered at the half memory, half dream he'd once had. He needed to be in the present, not the past.

"I would... I wouldn't suggest that. Now that people are on the ground, I would probably move closer, or activate some sort of heat-seeking. That way I could see the bodies through the mist and aim for the one who isn't in hysterics, isn't moving. But not to hit him, because you don't want to kill any of them, right? That's the only way to get out of that situation Ishimaru-san. Either that or call in a team who can take down the smoke without casualties."

[Anyr]

Souji's momentary discomfort didn't go unnoticed; Moroe had seen far too many people with that look about them in her time. Without any real warning this casual conversation had taken a turn into some dark surroundings. Even so, she wasn't one to back away from an uncomfortable topic; If Souji was willing to discuss this, so was she. Besides, she was now genuinely intrigued as to the perspective of this apparently not so innocent bystander.

"You're evading the question. There are no heat seekers, moving so close would be suicide and there's no backup to call in. It would be great if we always had the means to get a 'perfect score', but sometimes we just have to play the hand that life deals us. So, Fushichou Souji, how would you play it? Or should that be 'How did you play it?'"

[Terry576]

Souji looked less amused and more serious. "They cheated. So I cheated back. Then the game got a lot damn harder."

A small, depressed smile came over his face. "So I did the only thing I could do. I cheated the world.. I didn't play the game the right way, I played to win. And I won. If winning is what matters right now, then yeah, I guess I did."

He glances at her with a kind of pity, a look on his face that tells a story. A story of betrayal, a story without a hint of hope, until the very end. He looks at her as if he's seen people like her time and time again. "Ishimaru-san, are we still talking about the game? Then I fired blind. I fired blind again, and again, and again. Some bystanders died, but I still won. Because I took out the superhuman on the other side. And that's what the game was-is about. But that was my choice. What's your's, Ishimaru-san? Will you fire blindly into the darkness, or risk a total loss?"

[Anyr]

Moroe didn't hesitate.

"I meant what I said before: On this mission, I'd rather lose..."

So saying, she abruptly halted in mid-step, shut off her game system and placed it back into the folds of her jacket.

"...But we're not really talking about this mission any more, are we? We're talking about the fact that we're both terrible people who've done terrible things."

Her eyes now free to move, she looked directly at Souji for the first time. And those eyes stripped away all remaining pretence, because they were those of a kindred spirit. The charade was over; They had recognised each other for what they were.

[Terry576]

Souji looks at her, rather blankly. He barely had any memories of what happened for the past year or so. "...You're talking like you know me. Personally. But..."

He shakes his head, looking into the distance. "We've never met before, right Ishimaru-san? I can barely remember what I did a few months ago, let alone what happened a year ago. All I get are these... flashes sometimes. Of what I might have done. I woke up in an apartment a few months ago, and that's all I remember."

He looks at her with suspicion. "But... If you know me, that means you're with the project."

Electricity flashes through his hand, and he cuts it off, not wanting to harm anyone with his ability by mistake. "Who sent you. Why? Is 2797 finally done? Or..." He stares at her, a kind of hate in his eyes. "Did they finally decide to finish me off?" He still has a faint amused look to him, but it's lessened by the piercing, calculating gaze he's sending at Moroe.

[Anyr]

It was amazing how quickly a pleasant situation could go sour. A minute ago two normal teenagers had been walking together and engaging in casual conversation; Now those two were gone, and in their place stood a couple of merciless killers staring with careful precision at one another. Ishimaru Moroe didn't quite understand what had provoked this standoff, but whatever the case her opponent clearly wasn't playing around.

In the next few moments she ran through some options in her head: Kill Souji before he could act (approximately 1/3 chance of success); Run and hide (1/4); Stall for time and rely on her comrades to come to the rescue (1/1000); Talk him down (???).

"I really hate levels like this."

Her silent complaint of course went unheeded; No giant glowing selection screen descended from the heavens to let her choose a new opponent or different surroundings. As always, she was forced to stick it out and play the hand that life had dealt. And so, putting on her most placating look, Moroe started to slowly and carefully speak to Souji in the calmest voice that she could muster.

"I'm not with the project. I don't even know what the project is. Nobody sent me. I only know that you've done terrible things because you just told me that you had. I'm not planning to kill you, and if I was I'd have done so from far away instead of coming within range of your powers.

...Are we clear on these points?"

[Terry576]

Souji gives Moroe a quick glance, then drops both his look and his stance, a laugh dropping from his lips. "Ah, Teacher-san always told me I was too quick for my own good..." He gives the girl a grin, the hate gone from his eyes.

"My bad Ishimaru-san. I'm not very good at dealing with others after they drop... certain bombshells..."

He gives her a look of mock disapproval, a twinkle in his silver eyes. "I hope we can still be friends, right Ishimaru-san?"

He offers his hand again, forgetting what she said earlier.