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

[KerfuffleMach2]

Tobio smiles back at her as he says, "Hello Krystal-san, I hope your day has been well so far." When he sees Kin's reaction to Carver's power he says, "Well it must truly have been a wonderous sight to behold if it makes Kin-san smile so much."

I'm doing good. She seems a little bit more at ease at the moment. Since she isn't worrying about getting back to class anymore, Krystal is just enjoying the day now.

Tobio will probably notice that her hand is being held hostage by Kin at the moment.

[Terry576]

Ryuu is fairly good, though she has a tendency to take risks at times. That said, Souji is probably quite a bit better than she is. But she should be able to survive, and can probably manage to pull him out of any tight spots he gets into, though the more of those there are, the more likely that she'll die, as she'll ignore threats to herself in favor of helping him.

Souji clucks his tongue as Ryuu gets to the lower range of health. "Ryuuuuu-samaaaaa, I can take care of myself! You don't need to waste life for me!"

He seems a tad upset by her antics.

[AnimeKid]

Tobio chuckles as he sees that she is enjoying herself at the least. He then sees her hand and says, "It would seem that Kin-san is very possesive of you isn't she?" His voice is light although slightly nervous. It would probably still surprise Krystal that he could joke in her presence seeing as he could barely speak without a stutter before. Unless he was well and truly angry.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Krystal decides not to comment on the lack of stuttering. That could embarrass him more.

Krystal chuckles. Once she grabs something, it can't slip out.

[Lady Serpentine]

Ryuu nods, and leaves him to his own devices, focusing on those attacking her.

She'll likely dispatch them without losing too much more of her health, and, in the future, only pick off those that get close to Souji if it won't risk her unduly.

[Cole10000]

Carver hearing this Grins and says.

"Bow chicka bow wow."

[Anyr]

Rather than taking all with good humour as she'd done last time, Kin seemed profoundly uncomfortable. She shot Krystal a sincerely apologetic look, but still didn't release her hand. Clearly she wasn't doing this to get attention, or to tease her new friend. Her gaze then swept from Carver to Tobio, and it was clear she didn't relish their comments either.

"Could we please drop this subject? Surely there are more interesting things to talk about..."

[AnimeKid]

Tobio rubs the back of his head a small shamed look on his face. "Sorry Kin-san. I shouldn't have teased you. It just slipped out when I was talking to Krystal-san. I'm sorry"

[KerfuffleMach2]

Krystal starts to feel bad for Tobio a little.

Aw, come on Kin. He didn't mean anything by it.

She nods towards Carver. He did, obviously, but Tobio didn't.

[Cole10000]

Carver raises his hands in surrender,

"Alright, alright I'm sorry it's obviously a very personal matter. I won't prod anymore, but if theres a problem you do have two members of judgement here you could ask for help."

[Anyr]

Kin settled down, somewhat placated. For want of something better to do she started picking awkwardly at her remaining food, although ironically that just made it more obvious that she was using only one hand.

[AnimeKid]

Tobio finished off his ice cream sandwich and was about to start on another one when he remembered that he was with company and that he should at least offer as to not be rude. Man skating really turned him into a different person. Pulling out three ice cream sandwiches he says, "I know you guys are eating already but feel free to have an ice cream sandwich if you want one."

[KerfuffleMach2]

Oh, thank you. Krystal smiles as she takes a sandwich.

So, um, Carver...do you remember why you were in the ceiling of the dressing room yet?

Well...that was an abrupt change of subject.

[Cole10000]

Carver just shrugs and says,

"I still have no idea, but in the grand scheme of things that still isn't the oddest situation I ever found myself in. Number one is still when I found myself in an old castle in the woods on a trip to europe and there were a bunch of fully armored knights fighting each other. Man was I glad I knew how to use a sword or one of 'em might've taken my head off. But that's another story, and very off topic. I doubt I'll remember until the time comes to remember so no need to rush it."

[AnimeKid]

Tobio raises an eyebrow at hearing where Carver was before saying, "Well that can't be good for your neighborhood reputation." He then slaps his hands over his mouth as he realizes how that can be taken before saying, "I-I mean you were in the ceiling of a dressing room. That can't have been good for you or these ladies considering it must have gave them quite the scare." Luckily Tobio has enough tact to keep his voice down when saying this.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Krystal chuckles again.

It's a little strange if this keeps happening. Don't you think?

[AnimeKid]

Tobio lets out a nervous chuckle as he says, "I think I'm just a little too relaxed. I've always been more comfortable on my skates than I have on my feet. It always felt more natural to me, I always felt more free. However the switch does leave me a little off sometimes."

[Anyr]

Now that the conversation had turned to other topics, Kin's mood quickly swung back into the positive zone. Carver's story about the knights succeeded in firing up her imagination again, and she quickly forgave his earlier teasing and went back to staring at him. Intellectually she knew that his fanciful tales were far more likely to be fiction than fact, but...What if they weren't? What if he really had seen all these wondrous things? Maybe if she stayed close to him, she'd be able to find out.

[Terry576]

Souji cheers in delight as the last zombie dies. He'd drawn a crowd. More so on his side then on Ryuu's - but a crowd none the less.

They too let out a cheer, then dragged Souji away. "What's your naaame? That was a great game you played there~"

Souji panicked for a second, then picked out his favorite alias. "Fu-Nakamura Rei."

And by his favorite alias, it was renowned. The Card Shark. The Con Artist Extraordinaire. None of it was proven, but Rei Nakamura was well known that Judgement was wary of the name. Wary enough that, say, any Judgement members standing nearby would watch Nakamura-san. Closely.

"Nakamura-sama you were really good at that game! How long did it take you to get so gooood~"

Souji grins, and begins discussing House of Dead with the group of people who had dragged him away.

[Lady Serpentine]

Ryuu smiles, and starts to walk out of the building, preffering to be outside, in the sun and the wind, while she waits for Souji to get away from the crowd.

[Terry576]

As Souji continues chatting, elsewhere, the tracking finishes.

[Headquarters]

"You've tracked the latest electric distrubances in School Garden?"

"Yes, but-"

"Where were the most recent?"

"There were several in an arcade but-"

"He's there."

"But it's an arcade sir! It's not impossible for a bunch of electronics to malfunction in that small of an area!"

"Four at once is. He's there. Inform Judgement and Skill-Out. Now."

The radio operator hesitated. He felt... wrong, sending so many people after one boy, even if he had sent several operatives to the mental ward. But he still did it.

"...Attention Skill-Out and Judgement. Astraphobia has been located at the arcade in the School Garden. Do not engage without back-up."

And so the hunt was on again.

Arcade

Meanwhile, Souji was avidly making motions as he describes playing the game to the crowd surrounding him, and begins to make it into a story.

"Alright Blue-san, you're the zombie okay? And Green-chan, you're the helpless damsel, got it?" The two nod, one a boy in a blue shirt, the other a girl wearing green leggings, both grinning widely. Souji turns to the crowd.

"As the zombie slowly approached Green-chan, she began to grow worried. How could she best a beast that didn't feel pain? It dragged itself closer, closer..." As he spoke, "Blue-san" groaned and limped closer to "Green-chan", who looked more and more frightened.


"But then, when everything looked at it's worst... and the zombie opened it's mouth to bite..."

The scene continued, and Souji began to draw a crowd. A rather large crowd, compromised of most of the Arcade. And still the story went on, as a boy in a red shirt, stage-punched the boy in blue.

"The girl's savior understood what he had been told! To survive, he had to defeat the beast! But only if he could defeat the beast within!"

And so, Souji's story continued, the crowd oblivious of the new orders for Judgement and Skill-Out.

However, Judgement members in the arcade were very aware of the silverette in a hat, with mischievous blue eyes.

[AnimeKid]

Once again Tobio's headset sparks to life as he listens in to the new lead. His eyes then widen as he hears Astraphobia's location. His friends were there! However it would be no good if he went in guns blazing and therefore alerting Astraphobia. No he had to play this calm and cool. Tobio's face schools itself once again into his serious concentrated look. He then turns to his company and says, "You'll have to excuse me, a new lead just came up and I need to leave immediately. I hate to leave on such short notice but duty calls." He lifts Krystal's other hand and kisses the back in a proper gentleman farewell. He then gives a low bow to Kin and a clap on the shoulder to Carter as he skates towards the arcade with thoughts of finally making sure that Astraphobia can't hurt anyone else in mind.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Krystal wasn't exactly sure how to react to having her hand kissed. Clearly, she didn't expect it.

Kin might find Krystal's reaction amusing. She just kind of stares after Tobio, mouth slightly open.

[Cole10000]

Seeing Tobio run off Carver decides to get up and go as well.

"Well ladies it's been fun, but I should probobly get going as well. There's a little business about some joint field trip that I'm supposed to be asigned to and I want to see whats going on with that."

After taking a few steps he looks back and adds

"Oh, and if you ever want to get a hold of me for whatever reason, be it for personal matters or something that involves judgement, just go up to the Academy's front gate and ask for me"."

[Anyr]

Ironically, Kin was too caught up in dreaming about Carver's stories to register that the man himself was leaving. By the time her drifting mind had caught up with current events, he'd already vanished. Finally realising that she'd just let her holy grail slip away without a fight, she leapt up and frantically scanned the area for signs of Carver. But alas, it was too late; He was gone. Dejected, Kin slumped back into her seat.

A quick glance over at Krystal revealed that her own conversational partner had also left at some point; It seemed that both Kin and her new friend had been abandoned. Ah well, at least they still had each other.

"Soooo...What now?"

[KerfuffleMach2]

Kin's question pulls Krystal back to reality.

Huh? Oh, um... She shrugs. I have no idea. I don't really know too many places to hang out around here.

[Anyr]

"And I know so many that it's hard to choose between them. In that case..."

Kin abruptly leapt to her feet again and blurred into motion, dragging Krystal along in her wake. After a few steps, though, she just as abruptly halted. Her eyes flicked down to their linked hands, and she gave her companion an apologetic look.

"Er, sorry. How about we just stroll around until we think of somewhere to go?"

Assuming that Krystal was agreeable, Kin would then set off at a much gentler pace.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Kyrstal chuckles a little. Sure.

She seemed to find Kin's little quirks funny. Even though they were a little bit inconvenient at times.

Hey...if we really are gonna do this hero thing...we need some kind of place to work out of. Like a hideout or something.

[Anyr]

"A hideout? Hmm. I've got plenty of hiding places, but most of them are really hard to reach without the right Esper ability. Besides, they're not exactly 'secret base' material. Let me think..."

For a while Kin walked in silence. It took her an embarrassingly long time to think of a solution which many others would have considered blindingly obvious.

"Got it! Believe it or not, Academy City has a whole industry devoted to solving this very problem: Private salons. For a premium, privileged teenagers like us can rent a completely anonymous and well furnished hideout. Most kids just use them as a way to hide from their parents, but we should be able to do better than that. Sound good?"

[KerfuffleMach2]

Krystal raises an eyebrow in confusion.

Private salons? What, they're called Rent-a-Hideout or something? That seems...odd, really.