[Rail IC] Academy City II: Electrokinesis Is Love~

[Anyr]

Kin looked less than impressed by Tobio's account. As far as she was concerned, it was clear that this boy was just exaggerating the danger so as to impress people, and not particularly well either.

"This 'Astraphobia' doesn't sound that remarkable. Academy City is already crawling with Electromasters; What makes this one so special? Aside from *Snnrk* shooting bullets out of the air, that is..."

[AnimeKid]

Tobio looks at Kin quite seriously as he voice instead of being nervous gains a strong quality, "Did you not just here me say about how many of our people were killed 4 years ago by this very same person? Do you honestly think that I would lie about something this serious? Well let me tell you something, I have no idea why you are are upset with me ma'am but whatever it is keep it with me and not the case I am working on. I will not allow you to downplay the bravery and sacrifice those in the past made and I will most certainly not allow you to slander my friends who are also risking their lives on this case! So whatever problems you have with me are fine, but keep them with me! Tobio had injected more and more anger and passion into his tone without raising his voice at Kin. His silver eyes were glowing as he glared at Kin and inadvertently stopped restraining his aura of cold. It extends to its full extent of a twenty meter radius and temperature of 0 degrees Celsius.

[Terry576]

Her face brightened momentarily. Soujis' plan was indeed convincing, and would, at least in the near future, probably not lead to disastrous consequences in the form of either dying or having her house blown up. Her fingers inputted the command, the 'tick-tack' sound of fingernails touching plastic keypads filling the room. For now, the apartment and its' surrounds were more-or-less silent, the inhabitants generally not being present at noon on a Monday. A few moments after Ina finished typing her message, she got a reply.

"Okay. Done. They said okay, and to be careful."

She then heaved a sigh of relief.

"S...So, what now, Fuschichou-sama, Ryuu-san? Uh, I don't think we could go out now, they know your face..."

Souji sneezes, several times. "Either the chase is back on, or somebody's thinking about me! Cool, eh?" He grins. "Oh we can go outside in about..." He checks his watch. "Three hours, fourteen minutes and twenty six seconds. Or we could wear disguises. I could easily pick up some contacts from around here and we could leave. Contacts and a wig. No offense Ryuu-sama but you're kind of... not as stand-outy as me. You don't get a fancy disguise. Maybe a hat or something. And a different uniform."

[Anyr]

Kin unconsciously took a step back (possibly forcing Krystal to do the same), completely staggered by this transformation. What had happened to the shy, unassuming boy who she'd been berating a few seconds ago? In the face of his gaze her own eyes dropped, unable to meet it. With a shock she realised that her fear was apparently so great that she was actually shivering; Until, that is, she saw her breath become visible in the suddenly freezing air. Almost automatically, Kin's lips started spitting out an apology in the most formal and serious diction she knew, aimed at trying to defuse this situation before they all froze to death.

"I wholeheartedly apologise for giving the i-impression that I was insulting the memory of the dead. Rest assured that this was most certainly n-not my intention. I of course have nothing but respect for those who would give their lives in the service of their f-fellow citizens."

[AnimeKid]

Tobio upon seeing what was happening to the girl and her fear of him he immediately started his breathing exercises to reign in his anger and powers. He sometimes forgot how powerful he was. The cold starts receding as his powers come back under his control. After completing this task Tobio looks at Kin his eyes still strong in thier conviction but not brimming with anger. "*sigh* I'm sorry, I should have controlled myself better. I would perfer if you would apologize because you are truly sorry for you words and not out of fear of me. That was just my aura I have to keep it under a tight leash in order to make sure that it doesn't get out of control like this. I am truly sorry and I would like to at least try to become good aquactices even if this event prevents us from becoming friends." He holds out his hand to her to show her that he means no ill will and that he is sorry.

[KerfuffleMach2]

((Argh, ninja!))

Krystal's eyes went wide at Tobio's outburst. Kin taking a step back did pull her a distance, but she continued to watch Tobio.

And it wasn't just the cold and the tone of his voice keeping her mind occupied. She was also processing all of this information. And the fact that just yesterday, she met a man who matched the description. He didn't seem like any kind of killer.

Krystal watches to see if Kin will shake his hand or not.

[Anyr]

For a few seconds, Kin just stared apprehensively at Tobio. At last she awkwardly stretched past Krystal and took the offered hand with her free one. To the surprise of nobody, she chose not to use her power on it.

"Um, a-apology accepted. No hard feelings."

At least, none that she'd say out loud. Though the air was now warming up again, she gave another shiver and absent mindedly huddled up closer to Krystal. Tokiwadai's uniforms may have been aesthetically pleasing, but they weren't exactly designed with heat retention in mind.

[AnimeKid]

Tobio sighs as he says, "Again, I really am sorry. I didn't mean to make you fear me or hurt you in any way." Tobio struggles to think of a better way to apoligize. He then snaps his fingers as he activates his powers conciously to chill a vacant section of the store. When he does this thanks to the law of the conservation of energy he has to redirect the heat that he is subracting from the area to something else. This case being the two girls who are still a little cold warming them up gradually. After they reach a good temperature he reaches into his backpack and pulls out two of his ice cream sandwiches offering them to both girls. "Ice cream sandwich?"

[KerfuffleMach2]

Krystal doesn't shy away from the huddling, though she doesn't move to support it, either.

Then, with her free hand, she slaps her own forehead. Shoot! We need to get back to class. She turns to Tobio. It was nice meeting you Tobio. We should get together again, hang out or something.

Come on, Kin. We gotta go! She will try to lead Kin away, back to their school.

[Anyr]

Kin almost lost her balance as, for the first time, she suddenly became the one being pulled. Since Krystal hadn't resisted being lead around, Kin had forgotten that being linked like this went both ways. They were already halfway down the street before she thought to put up a fight.

"Hang on a minute! After everything that's happened, I'm really not ready to just head straight back to school. Besides, don't you remember how everyone was acting when we left? I bet the teachers are still too busy restoring order to even think about teaching classes. Let's stay away a while longer, so that we don't get caught up in the rush and blamed for something. That's sensible, right?"

[AnimeKid]

Tobio shrugs as he puts the ice cream sandwiches back in his backpack as he turns back to Mei and Soujiro who undoubtedly have puzzled faces.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Krystal stops, sighs, and turns to Kin.

If you don't want to go back to class, I won't force you, okay? But I want to. So...could you let go of my hand?

[Anyr]

Kin gave a sigh of her own, and with that time almost seemed to rewind. For a while it had looked as if the two of them were forging an actual connection, but of course that wasn't true. In reality they'd simply given up on trying to solve their fundamental differences and moved on to something light and superficial. At the end of the day, they were still two very different people with very different views of the world.

With the same expression of disappointment that she'd worn earlier, Kin made one last search of Krystal's face for any sign that their time together had done anything to change her opinion. And then, without another word, she finally released Krystal's hand, turned and walked away.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Krystal sensed the disappointment in Kin's look. As the other girl started walking away, Krystal thought on that.

Ah, screw it.

Kin! Wait, hold up! If the other girl stops, Krystal will jog to her. Okay...as long as you promise me you'll try to stay focused in school more...we can skip the rest of the day...I guess...

Obviously, this was an unusual decision for her. But, she seemed determined to do it.

[Anyr]

Kin did indeed stop; Then she listened; Then she spun around; And then she pulled Krystal into a very close, heartfelt and inescapable hug. When at last she stepped back again, her melancholy smile had been replaced by one which shone like the sun itself.

"It's a promise."

[KerfuffleMach2]

Krystal returned the smile.

Okay, good. I'll hold you to it, too.

So...um...what should we do?

[Lord-Cao-Cao]

((OOC: APOLOGIES FOR MY LATENESS I JUST FINISHED MY LAST EXAM YEAHHHHHH))

Mei let out a little laugh as Tobio passed the gun to Sojiro.

"Don't worry about it, Tobio-kun, I was really, really bad when I started playing these, haha. Freaked out at nearly everything...But like hell I'd let myself lose to Kouta-nii. Practice makes perfect, after all."

It really was odd seeing a tiny, girly-looking girl blaze away at hordes of zombies with mind-boggling speed.

(Later)
__________________________________________________ ______________

Mei and Sojiro had just finished the game. Like, the whole game. Of course, Sojiro had to be 'revived' a couple of times and had roughly managed to keep pace, but Mei had not even died once. She let out a small, girlish whoop of joy as she saw her name at the top of the list. Even as she did so, Sojiro, already bored of having Mei slaughter everything on the screen in seconds, turned around to look at Tobio and the girls. And let out a long, impressed whistle.

"Charmin' the ladies already, are we, my man? Didn't think ya had it in ya. You got good taste; I like the gaijin-the white girl. She has 'nice legs'."

He said the last part in surprisingly fluent English, earning him a punch on the arm from an irate Mei.

"That's rude, Reijo. Just because you have a fondness for white girls doesn't mean you can say whatever you like about them."

"What!? I was paying her a complement...Besides, looks like those two kind of ...aren't into guys anyway."

He let out a disappointed sigh, raising his hands in self-deprecation.

"They're Tokiwadai, too, so they're probably both ojou-samas...Ah well, plenty o' fish in the sea, as they say. In any case, Tobio, my man, who do ya wanna play DDR against first?"

Neither of them had any idea how badly they were going to get massacred.

__________________________________________________ _______________

Ina paused as she considered Soujis' words. Going out with a dangerous criminal? And with another girl? What a...What a magnetic, powerful forbidden-fruit this boy was. Her heart raced in her chest-She secretly supposed she didn't mind if she had to share him with Ryuu. Even in the short time Ina had known her, she had decidedly she already liked her. What an adventure this was going to be...And she had something which could help them get about it.

"Ah...Um, Fuschichou-sama...I have something which...Uhh, could help you...Hair dye and colored contacts, and uh, I have spare clothes for Ryuu-san to wear...We're around the same size, so they should fit, yeah...And one for you too, Fuschichou-sama. Where ...Where do you plan to go?"

She looked embarrassed as she mentioned that she had a spare set of clothes for Souji. In reality, they were a set of clothes that her ex-boyfriend left at her house one night and then totally forgot about. Perhaps they were a little big for Souji-Her ex was certainly broader in the shoulder than he was, but it was better than nothing. As for the dye and the colored contacts...? Well, they were from her ganguro days, not too long ago-Mementos that she hadn't found the will to finally get rid of, until now.

[AnimeKid]

Tobio was with Mei on her reprimandation of Soujiro. He then grins to himself as he says,"Mei had all of the fun last time, so why don't you and I go Soujiro." He leads him over to the machine as inserts the money. Instead of starting easy and working his way up, not so any more. "Soujiro what you said back there was demeaning and rude. So I'm going to have break legs for that. Don't quit on me now. This Tobio was completely different fiery, confident and smooth. The transformation had occurred the moment he stepped on the dance pad. Soujiro was sooooo screwed. He hit master mode and quickly picked a song. As the game started Tobio was going strong rarely if ever missing a beat and getting mostly perfects with a few greats.

[Lord-Cao-Cao]

Sojiros' face was a contortion of sweat, confusion and sheer panic. There was simply no way he could keep up with this madman-He was as good as-no, better at DDR than Mei was as at shooting games. Before today, he thought he was pretty good at DDR.

He thought wrong. Today, he saw the real meaning of 'good'.

"Fffffffffffffffffffff-I lose."

And then he lost, throwing up his hands in complete and utter defeat. Behind him, Mei stared in awe as Sojiro stepped off the pad.

"T...There's no way I can beat that! Wow, Tobio-kun, you're quite possibly the best player I've ever seen at this..."

She genuinely looked really impressed. A goodly number of bystanders, having watched the spectacle, began clapping with approval. They were cheering him on, calling his name! Still, they waited for him to finish, although Tobio would be able to tell that a few of them were eager to challenge him.

[Lady Serpentine]

Ina paused as she considered Soujis' words. Going out with a dangerous criminal? And with another girl? What a...What a magnetic, powerful forbidden-fruit this boy was. Her heart raced in her chest-She secretly supposed she didn't mind if she had to share him with Ryuu. Even in the short time Ina had known her, she had decidedly she already liked her. What an adventure this was going to be...And she had something which could help them get about it.

"Ah...Um, Fuschichou-sama...I have something which...Uhh, could help you...Hair dye and colored contacts, and uh, I have spare clothes for Ryuu-san to wear...We're around the same size, so they should fit, yeah...And one for you too, Fuschichou-sama. Where ...Where do you plan to go?"

She looked embarrassed as she mentioned that she had a spare set of clothes for Souji. In reality, they were a set of clothes that her ex-boyfriend left at her house one night and then totally forgot about. Perhaps they were a little big for Souji-Her ex was certainly broader in the shoulder than he was, but it was better than nothing. As for the dye and the colored contacts...? Well, they were from her ganguro days, not too long ago-Mementos that she hadn't found the will to finally get rid of, until now.

Ryuu steps closer to Ina, ready to follow her to the clothes, and smiles.

"Thanks. I was wondering how we'd get that stuff when we couldn't go anywhere."

She found the contacts, and that Ina had clothes that would fit Souji, a bit odd, of course. But she didn't really see the point in asking about them, at least not now, as having them seemed to be embarrassing for Ina. After all, there'll be time enough to ask later, when Souji's not around, if it seems like she's more comfortable with the topic then.

[AnimeKid]

As the match finishes the scores are put up as Tobio finds out he beat high score as made obvious by the machine's declaration. He only beat it by 125 points but that was still an aacmplishment to him. As he put in the initials BOT his old score moved to the second position while his new one took first, both surpassing the scores below them by a good margin. He pats Soujiro on the pat in a show of good sportsmanship,"Good game Soujiro, you did better than I expected. Now no more rude words okay?" He smiles playfully as he says this showing he just messing with him. He then hears Mei's complement and he flashes the victory sign accompanied by wink, he is obviously having fun. "Arigato! Mei-chan! Okay then any other challengers please step on the pad." He flashes a gigawatt smile, well at this new Tobio was still nice just more confiden.

[Anyr]

Krystal returned the smile.

Okay, good. I'll hold you to it, too.

So...um...what should we do?

Kin answered the question while twirling around Krystal in a perfect circle, like a ballerina on rails. The other girl's decision to stay seemed to have supercharged Kin in a way that even the strange gas hadn't been able to manage.

"Everything! Let's eat and play and dance and sing! Let's climb Kilimanjaro, build sandcastles in the Sahara and break the bank at Monte Carlo! Let's live!"

[KerfuffleMach2]

Krystal laughed a little. Wow. You're enthusiastic. I think we should stick with doable goals. You know, stuff around here.

[Atrum-Persavor]

From the corner of her eye, Mei notices something in a dark, abandoned corner of the arcade.

The light there was bending in a weird, unnatural way-

Except that it might be natural for Academy City, if one factored in AIM fields.

Shirogane Ren appears a split-second later, removing his Judgment armband from the jacket he's wearing. He sneaks up on both Sojiro and Gotou in the back, before tapping them on the shoulder, dropping his voice and whispering to them.

"Techies say they'll take some time to track down 2796. He blew quite a few cameras, so they're doing a logfile recovery and reconstruction to get a timeline map. So we have, let's see... An hour at least. House of the Dead or Blazblue?"

Gotou shivers when he hears the word "Blazblue".

"Don't jump me like that, man... And dude... How do you hit an arm with a kick..."

[Anyr]

Kin put her hands on her hips and tutted in mock disapproval. Limiting oneself only to the possible was such a conventional way of thinking.

"'Around here', eh? Okay, how about we try and find the Imaginary Number District? Or break into that weird windowless building in District 7? Wait wait wait, let me guess: Still too outlandish. Okay, Miss Sourpuss, why don't you try suggesting something?"

There was no actual bad feeling emanating from her; She was clearly just playing around.

[Lord-Cao-Cao]

One by one, challengers took on Tobio, and one by one, they all lost. Nobody even really came close. It only took a mere twenty minutes for all the would-be champions to realise that they didn't really stand a chance. Still, Tobio had wowed the entire crowd at the Arcade-Even the store owner had come out to look. When he finally stepped off the pad, he would be met with Shirogane Ren talking and bantering with his teammates.

"Hah, you? Beat me? At shooting games? That's retarded, even for a dumbass like you. You can't even beat me at BlazBlue. But then again, what should I have expected from a guy like you? Leaving your teammate to deal with Daisuke. How did you manage to find us, anyway?"

Even though she was insulting him at least once in virtually every sentence, Tobio would know she didn't mean any of it. She was smiling even more strongly than she was before, and laughing merrily. As much as she pretended to hate her partner, it appeared as though she was, in fact, very fond of him. Yes, to the point of pretty much unconsciously holding onto his arm; although Sojiro made a very obvious point of not pointing it out.

__________________________________________________ _______________

"No proble, Ryuu-san...Sorry about the colour of some of these clothes, by the way...Ahah...I used to be a bit of a silly girl not too long ago, yeah."

The clothes did fit. But Inas' choices of clothes were about as good as her interior decorating skills; That is to say, absolutely terrible. Many were in a horrible, gaudy colour or design, indeed reminiscent of a tacky ganguro style, but there were acceptable clothes in there, you just had to pick them out yourself.

Meanwhile, the pair of clothes she had for Souji were indeed a little too large for him, but they were already baggy and nondescript, so it wouldn't look too badly out of place.

And she had a lot of hair dye, many in unnatural, eye-searing colours.

__________________________________________________ _______________

As Moroe wandered around the area near the hospital, she would have spotted a small, odd group of well-dressed figures with varying uniforms walking past her. A few had Judgement armbands around their shoulders. Still, they did not appear to pay much attention at all to her, being too preoccupied with conversations amongst themselves. And why should they? After all, she had nothing to do with them. At least, perhaps until she overheard their conversations...Many of which, disturbingly, involved finding new and creative ways to torment a recently hospitalised individual. An individual whose name was apparently 'Nimori Shougo'.

As they passed each other, however, one of their number-A lanky, shades-wearing kid carrying a curved Western sword for some reason, turned and called out to her.

"You're Ishimaru Moroe, aren't you?"

He gave a little giggle, absolutely packed full of spiteful glee.

"I have to say, he has good taste."

And without another word, he turned back again and continued walking alongside his group. If Moroe turned to look at them, she would have noted that they were heading directly to the hospital that she just left.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Kin put her hands on her hips and tutted in mock disapproval. Limiting oneself only to the possible was such a conventional way of thinking.

"'Around here', eh? Okay, how about we try and find the Imaginary Number District? Or break into that weird windowless building in District 7? Wait wait wait, let me guess: Still too outlandish. Okay, Miss Sourpuss, why don't you try suggesting something?"

There was no actual bad feeling emanating from her; She was clearly just playing around.

Krystal smiles, showing that she realizes that it's all a joke.

Well, I still wanna know where the comic store is. Maybe you could show me that?

[AnimeKid]

Tobio steps off the pad as he becomes his old self again. He looks towards the ecstatic Mei and the enigmatic Ren. He doesn't point out there closeness but he does subtly smile at it. It would seem Daisuke was able to see how close they were as well, so that was what it was about Ren that made his blood boil. He walked towards his friends as he says, "Ah, Ren-san. Do they need us back or is there something else that needs attention?" His posture is a little straighter and he had managed to resist twirling a piece of his hair for a whole 6 seconds. Well it was definitely progress. Still Tobio thought to himself that he had more excitement in this one day than he had in his whole life. At least he had friends to share it with now. It is then that his face darkens as he remembers the threat of Astraphobia. He then swears to himself that he will not allow his friends to die, even if he has to give his own life.

[Anyr]

Krystal smiles, showing that she realizes that it's all a joke.

Well, I still wanna know where the comic store is. Maybe you could show me that?

"Your wish is my command, oh strait-laced one."

Kin then proceeded to half run, one quarter skip and one quarter dance down the street, presumably in the direction of a comic book shop. With surprising speed for such a frenetic gait, she made good time in reaching it, and soon she was standing in front of a particularly high class building which looked nothing like a comic shop. Instead of rushing inside she stepped to the left and motioned for Krystal to enter first.

"Behold, my lady: Our long quest is at an end."

Spoiler

Show

As Moroe wandered around the area near the hospital, she would have spotted a small, odd group of well-dressed figures with varying uniforms walking past her. A few had Judgement armbands around their shoulders. Still, they did not appear to pay much attention at all to her, being too preoccupied with conversations amongst themselves. And why should they? After all, she had nothing to do with them. At least, perhaps until she overheard their conversations...Many of which, disturbingly, involved finding new and creative ways to torment a recently hospitalised individual. An individual whose name was apparently 'Nimori Shougo'.

As they passed each other, however, one of their number-A lanky, shades-wearing kid carrying a curved Western sword for some reason, turned and called out to her.

"You're Ishimaru Moroe, aren't you?"

He gave a little giggle, absolutely packed full of spiteful glee.

"I have to say, he has good taste."

And without another word, he turned back again and continued walking alongside his group. If Moroe turned to look at them, she would have noted that they were heading directly to the hospital that she just left.

Moroe did indeed take note of their direction, but made no move to follow. There was really no point. These people were clearly the same vicious, heartless gang that Shougo had been talking about before. Their motives were equally transparent: Without question, they planned to crush him beneath their heels, along with anyone else who happened to get in their way. As much as Moroe wished things were otherwise, she knew that confronting them about this would achieve nothing. So instead she just stood there, for all appearances powerless to stop these horrible people from harming the man who had leapt to her defence. How tragic.

Meanwhile, a seemingly innocuous cleaning droid trundled along one of the roads which lead away from the hospital. By pure coincidence this happened to be the same road on which the gang were using to go towards said hospital. To citizens of Academy City, the little droids generally went unnoticed; Tourists and other visitors pointed them out excitedly, but to the average inhabitant they might as well have been invisible. Even when this one passed through the middle of the group instead of going around it, only the most paranoid or curious of people would be likely to give it much thought.

And then it happened. With no warning except a slight crackling noise, the little droid started to emit a vast amount of electricity from its entire surface. Fingers of lightning were suddenly dancing through the air around it and grounding themselves on anything (or anyone) that would conduct their flow. Oh cruel fate, to have such a catastrophic malfunction happen just as the droid was surrounded by these poor, helpless people! Thankfully they all seemed to be relatively healthy teenagers with no heart problems, so the voltage probably wouldn't kill any of them. It would, however, probably leave them unconscious and in a great deal of pain. What a horrible accident...

[Terry576]

Ina paused as she considered Soujis' words. Going out with a dangerous criminal? And with another girl? What a...What a magnetic, powerful forbidden-fruit this boy was. Her heart raced in her chest-She secretly supposed she didn't mind if she had to share him with Ryuu. Even in the short time Ina had known her, she had decidedly she already liked her. What an adventure this was going to be...And she had something which could help them get about it.

"Ah...Um, Fuschichou-sama...I have something which...Uhh, could help you...Hair dye and colored contacts, and uh, I have spare clothes for Ryuu-san to wear...We're around the same size, so they should fit, yeah...And one for you too, Fuschichou-sama. Where ...Where do you plan to go?"

She looked embarrassed as she mentioned that she had a spare set of clothes for Souji. In reality, they were a set of clothes that her ex-boyfriend left at her house one night and then totally forgot about. Perhaps they were a little big for Souji-Her ex was certainly broader in the shoulder than he was, but it was better than nothing. As for the dye and the colored contacts...? Well, they were from her ganguro days, not too long ago-Mementos that she hadn't found the will to finally get rid of, until now.

Souji pales. Hair dye? Hair dye? But that would get rid of... no. It wouldn't happen. There would be another way.

"Ah... rather than dye my hair, I'll just wear this hat! I keep in my pocket, just in case I feel like it's a good time to hat it up. And also because I don't want to dye my hair. Sorry Ina-san." The last bit of his sentence was very, very quiet, and the hat seemed to be part of a matching set to his uniform. He puts it on, and it covers his hair rather well. It appears to be a black hat with a strap around the middle, puffing up the upper half of it, with a pretty little gold emblem at the front of the strap. It has a shorter than average brim, and only the tips of Souji's hair stick out. Not that it really matters. In Academy City odd hair colors are... fairly common, and it's not like they're going to pull aside ever person with silver-ish hair. Particularly if he doesn't have the silver eyes.

"How do I look Ina-san? I think it'll be better once I have the colored contacts and the other clothes though!" He walks off to change into the extra set of clothes. They are a tad big, but not enough to be overtly noticeable. Looting through her house, he does eventually find a set of blue contacts. Perfect. Putting them in, he walks back out, twirling.

"Oh yes, this is spectacular. Nobody will ever guess who I am now! Brilliant Ina-san! Now, where should we go..." He bites his lip, tapping his foot, thinking. What to do, what to do, what to do. Finally, he snaps his fingers.

"I know! Let's go to the arcade! I think I got my AIM Field under enough control that I can finally beat that stupid shooting game I've been meaning to try."