first ofuda (action)

[pyreseer]

Outside Crookston academy

[A teenage Japanese girl sits on a bench, just outside the school gates. She's got a book in her hands--it looks like it's in English, in fact by the cover art it looks a lot like Lord of the Flies--and she's scowling at it. She'd quite obviously rather be anywhere than here.]

Little Tokyo

[As it turns out, there's a Books Kinokuniya in Little Tokyo, which is where our girl is just leaving from with the current issues of Ribon, Nakayoshi, Margaret and, oddly enough, Weekly Shonen Magazine now stashed away in her backpack. She'll linger a little on the streets, eying the plastic food in restaurant windows.

More than anything else, she looks homesick.]

Comments

Little Tokyo

[spanish_superhero]

[A Latin-looking teenage boy is wandering Little Tokyo for the first time, and he is paying more attention to the sights than where he is going. This is how he ends up bumping into Rei, quite hard, right before profusely apologizing with a thick Spanish accent.]

"Ay! Señorita! I am so sorry!"

((NOTE: Though I doubt it will come into play here, it should be noted that Antonio emits an energy field that suppresses mystical and extra-dimensional powers within 5 feet of him.))

Re: Little Tokyo

[pyreseer]

[And Rei's just going to stare at him, because she feels... weird and she's not entirely sure why. Is this what other girls feel around boys? Why is this supposed to be a desirable feeling at all?]

It's okay. Do not worry.

[Her accent is pretty thick.]

Re: Little Tokyo

[spanish_superhero]

[He scratches his head in an embarrassed manner.]

"I am new to this city, I have not seen a place like this before."

[He gestures about, indicating that he is talking about Little Tokyo.]

"I was looking at buildings instead of where I was going."

Re: Little Tokyo

[pyreseer]

I'm too. [New here, she means.] But you should look in front of you.

[Because seriously, she's just as new and she hasn't run into anyone yet]

Re: Little Tokyo

[spanish_superhero]

[He nods.]

Yes, I should. I am sorry.

[He holds out his hand.]

I am Antonio. Sorry to be meeting you in such a manner.

Little Tokyo

[talktothedoll]

[Although eating is kind of a pointless endeavor when you're a Greeed, old habits die hard, and Maki's walking through the streets of Little Tokyo with a grocery bag. If you're going to make pointless food, it might as well be familiar pointless food. The doll perched on his arm is holding an identical bag of miniature food, because Little Tokyo is also the only good local place for Maki to find Re-Ment miniatures. He probably looks just a little strange as he walks right on by her.]

Re: Little Tokyo

[pyreseer]

[Oh. Oh. Whoever this doll guy is, he's seriously bad news. Rei can feel it. (That little doll is also pretty bad news himself.)

She's just going to follow him. And maybe slip a hand into her bag to make sure the ofuda she made a couple days ago is still there.]

[talktothedoll]

[Maki doesn't seem to have noticed that he's been followed, but he'll duck into an alley. See, the fishmonger he got this packet of fish from really hated his job and desired a better one, and such desire makes for the best Yummies...]

[pyreseer]

[Oh yes, it's still there. Gosh, this guy is so very obviously bad news. She wishes Phobos and Deimos could have come with her to America. They'd be reassuring to have with her as she tails this creep.]

[talktothedoll]

[Maki pauses and removes a fish from his bag of groceries. A coin slot of some sort has appeared in the side of this fish. Surely this is all natural and nothing at all odd will happen when he sticks that weird silver coin he's holding in his other hand into the slot.]

Outside Crookston

[candothismuch]

[This was a part of the city Eiji hadn't been to yet. Though he had quite a bit on his mind so he was a little distracted.]

What am I going to do?

[He's more or less talking to himself here and doesn't really pay much attention to who else was around him.]

Re: Outside Crookston

[pyreseer]

[Rei was almost too busy with the stupid English book and the stupid English school children and their stupid signal fire to really pay attention to anyone walking by her, but then she hears that voice and it's perfectly familiar and it's one she hasn't heard in years.

She peeks over the top of the book.

It is him.]

Eiji? What are you doing here?

[She speaks in Japanese, of course.]

[candothismuch]

[He halts in his tracks and then slowly turns his head.]

R-Rei?

[What was his little sister doing here?!]

since all the dialog will be in japanese is it okay if i don't italicize it?

[pyreseer]

[Part of her, the part of her that's still ten, wants to hug him. But the rest of her, which is a dignified fourteen-year-old and Not At All Happy with him, wins out and so she just crosses her hands in front of her and glares.]

It's been four years, Eiji. And nobody's heard anything from you. Not Papa, not my Grandpa, not our Grandfather, nobody. What have you been doing?

[Besides wandering around. But that went without saying.]

Sure.

[candothismuch]

[He flinches a little.]

Uh--well....

[Besides becoming a Kamen Rider, almost getting turned into a Greeed, and then setting back out to look for a way to bring back his friend? .... Wandering really is all he's been doing.]

Crookston; i'm sorry for him

[okayeverybody]

[We interrupt your regularly scheduled reading to bring you: Rei, having an argument with himself.]

[Which is to say, there is a tall, slender man in far too many layers for the weather walking by, speaking with his hands and in a voice that changes pitch and cadence with every sentence.]

I'm telling you, it's fishy! [The first voice is brusque, coarse, and clearly irritable. The man's arms wave wildly as he speaks this sentence, only to have him inhale slowly with his eyes closed and walk straighter just after.]

"Fishy" makes this sound entirely less important than it is, Jin. [This voice sounds older, more collected, and is softer but no less deep.

Re: Crookston; i'm sorry for him

[pyreseer]

[Rei glares at the man. She's trying to read the stupid book her tutor assigned her. She doesn't need some stranger talking to himself and interrupting her.]

Reading here.

[Her accent is thick but her words are still understandable.]

wheeze

[okayeverybody]

[He starts and comes to a stop at Rei's words, turning to look at her in alarm. He boggles for a moment, and then steps closer to her to speak in the first tone.]

Oh? And isn't this a public street??

[He had an arm raised, not as though to strike her, but because he'd waved it through the air as though making a point. He promptly pushes the arm aside with the other, standing and tutting under his breath.]

...my apologies, I hadn't noticed there was someone here.

[And now his voice is quieter and milder, different from the previous two.]

Re: wheeze

[pyreseer]

[Rei cranes her head around to see if the man has one of the cell phone ear pieces, because that would suddenly make this encounter make a little more sense. Alas, she cannot see one.

This guy doesn't seem evil or anything, which is good, but still. What the heck is with him?]

Was here the entire time. I was here.

[You know what? This guy looks like he's probably Japanese. Maybe he speaks it.] Nihongo o wakarimasuka?

[okayeverybody]

[He quirks an eyebrow at her peering, looking over his shoulder as though she were looking past him instead of trying to discern if he had ears in his wild mop of curls.]

[He quirks his mouth to the side and nods, bowing slightly in apology. Sometimes being crazy was really, really inconvenient.]

[And then he stands upright abruptly, startled by her question.]

...Aa, mmn. Wakarimasu.

[Though he wasn't exactly sure why he understood Japanese.]

[cardsflippedup]

[Let's make this even stranger. It appears Tomoki is in Little Tokyo checking up on something work related (So he says.)]

[He's easy to pick out because his Japanese is actually pretty terrible and when he has to use to it to ask someone a question it's almost painful to listen to. Somehow, he manages to find out what he wants and writes it down in his notepad.]

One more lead...

[That guy with the American accent sure does have your brother's face.]

[pyreseer]

[Yeah, well, bad Japanese or not, she's going to be using that language when she runs up to him.]

Eiji? What are you wearing?

[Those are normal people clothes.]

[cardsflippedup]

[???? Tomoki turns to stare at the girl who just ran up to him. He was pretty sure he didn't know her and she was speaking in pretty quick Japanese for him to really catch what she said. He really needed to buckle back down on his language books. This was kind of embarrassing.]

[He offers her an awkward smile.]

Sorry. I do not speak good Japanese. What is i--

[He cuts of mid-sentence cause he finally registered what she called him.]

You think I'm Hino. [Was this going to turn into a trend?]

[pyreseer]

[What the--

This is disconcerting. This is really disconcerting.]

You are not Eiji?

[Her English is thickly accented.]

Why do you look like Eiji?

[cardsflippedup]

[Okay, he was right. He sighs a bit, ruffling his hair.]

That's a really good question and it's not one I have the answer to yet.

[He holds out his hand for her to shake.]

Sorry- My name's Tomoki. Tomoki Chino.