Rika actually duels Toyomiko and loses due to being distracted.
Current IC time is: Sat Jun 22 08:40:05 2002 - Day
Near Layer 2, Angelic Layer Training Center — Piffle Princess
The large and spacious hall is lit brightly with sunlight coming through the glass wall that overlooks the street. On the floor, four Layers are arranged in a long curve, with two chairs beside each - and most are busy and full of action, as Angels fight and onlookers cheer. You are standing within viewing distance of Layer number 2.
By the far wall of the hall corner, a counter with a terminal stands right below the railing of the upper floor, and a smiling attendant rents out the layers.*
Rika
This girl fits the textbook definition of ‘cute redhead’, and while she’s unmistakably asian, her relatively pale skin and dark green eyes, coupled with flaming red hair cut in a pageboy style make it easy to forget about it, especially since there’s no sign of hair dye. She does seem to wear some makeup on her face, still posessed of soft, childlike features, but it’s hard to trace just what did she do with it - there isn’t much. Overally, she resembles a fox - lithe and slim, and generally small, since she’s rather short.
Her outfit consists of a pure white short-sleeved shirt with a wide open collar, showing off her collarbones and the delicate skin of her neck, and bright red jean shorts, suspended on two straps. The shorts only go halfway down the thigh, leaving lots of the leg surface open. Her feet in red socks are hidden in new-looking red and white sneakers, and a dark green ribbon bow serves her as a tie.
Keiya
This angel’s special. Tall, thin, imposing, wide in his shoulders… many others are such, but most of the male angels are dressed in outlandish costumes of varying taste, this one wears a suit - a slick, pure black of the night darkness, the cut common to the wear of businessmen and managers, white shirt, and a matching black tie. His hair is also black, a long flowing ponytail stretching halfway down to the floor, and the outstanding jaw on the rugged, masculine face gives him a rather vicious expression. His right hand is clad in a black leather fingerless biker’s glove, while the left hand is perpetually hidden in his left pants pocket, giving his posture an arrogant look.
Toyomiko
Long luxurious black curls spill down this young lady’s back almost to her waist, lovingly styled in wide, sweeping ringlets in the back, and shorter curlier ringlets at her bangs, an occasional strand left almost artfully loose to swirl of it’s own accord amidst the more organized curls. Framed amidst this ocean of hair is a classically oriental heart shaped face, flawlessly pale skin and almondine eyes colored a deep purple, a tiny pert nose and thin lipped mouth. Her figure is trim and fit, standing just a bit taller than the average girl her age, adding a bit of gamine grace to her lines, as do the feminine curves finally starting to fill in just so.
She wears the uniform of an Eriol Gakuen high school student, a white and blue sailor fuku complete with scarf and alternately blue and white colored pleated skirt. A tacky medal clipped on one breast and large blue cuffs add an almost militaristic feel to the uniform, from the Napoleon era, let us say. She has tailored her skirt so it falls about a little more than midway between thighs and knees, just long enough to not be obscene, but short enough to draw the occasional glance from the right sort of person. White baby doll shoes and baggy blue stockings which come to about midcalf round out the uniform.
She wears expensive adornments for a firstyear highschool student. About her neck is a golden chain, a rather nice looking pocketwatch hanging on the end of it, engraved with her name in delicate looking kanji. Constantly held near her hand by a strap about her wrist is a rather pristine looking Canon Optura 200MC Digital Camcorder, the standby light almost constantly blinking, unless she is holding it up to film something. Which she seems to do a lot of.
Rika is sitting there and practicing after school, imagine that. Instead of the balls, her opponent is a shimmering holographic figure, dangerous and demonic-looking… then again, Keiya is scarier, and the new biker’s fingerless gloves on his hand look quite odd.
The brightly lit training center does not possess many shadows, and yet in the midst of them, Rika is being watched, by not one, but two pairs of flashing purple eyes. Yessss… Rika.. the time has come. The time… FOR YOUR DEFEAT!
Big and small purple eyes flash, and Toyomiko literally leaps out of the shadow’s into the spotlight, a trick only true rivals seem to have mastered, her laugh splitting through the training center even as she appears. ‘OOO~HO~HO~HO~YA!’ and she strikes a pose, a finger pointed challengingly at the redhead and her angel. “SO.. Rikacha~n, you have answered my challenge. -I-.. Fukyou Toyomiko.. shall not lose today!” She shifts, hand drawing back to close into a determined fist, pointing with the other one, complete with shooshing sound effects, her little angel somehow staying perched on her shoulder all this time. “Maeki Rika.. SHOUBO DA!”
If it all seems very sudden, well… this is the way rivals work.
Rika responds in her style. Which involves snapping the camera at Toyomiko before anything else - SNAP! She then taps a button on the layer control panel, wiping the holographic opponent out of existance, and rises to face her rival, pointing a sharp finger in perfect symmetry, “So bring it on and suffer at my hands again, OOOHohohohoho!” she yells, a shark-like grin on her face.
“It is YOU who shall suffer at MY hands, Rikacha~n!” The raven haired rival cackles, plucking her little dark haired and bright robed angel off her shoulders. “Asuka… my faithful servant, IKEEE!” And just like that she tosses the angel at the layer, throwing her shoulders back and cackling gleefully. Um… Toyo? Tooooooyo.. you forgot something. Asuka crosses the powered up boundary, and little purple eyes flash, but that’s about it. No headset equals no input signals. The little angel falls in a boneless heap on the layer, looking rather worthless. Does it bother Toyomiko in the least? Of course it does not! She cackles gleefully all the way over towards the other seat, picking up the headset and settling it on her head. She must get headaches, laughing like that.
Rika doesn’t miss this moment, snapping off a picture of Toyomiko laughing beside her limp angel. Life is made out of little triumphs like this! “I think you’re doing this in a wrong order.” Rika comments nonchalantly, as her smoking dark-suited angel develops a thin smile and puffs out a cloud of smoke.
Toyomiko just cackles gleefully all the while, settling the headset around her raven ringlets and powering up the headset. On the layer, the little robed angel springs up, her purple eyes flashing in an eerie parody to her deuses, and she unfolds her pink feathery fan, covering her face up to eyes with it, and throws her head back. “UUU~FU~FU~FU~YA!” There is only one way to shut her up… bytheway. Take a guess what it is?
Asuka
Barely half the standard height of your usual angel, Asuka must surely be one of the smallest angels on the layer. Large purple eyes dominate her pale complexioned face, raven black hair piled on top of it on a pair of buns styles to resemble large round horns sticking out of either side of her head, purple ties holding them in place, a pair of strands left artfully undone to fall on either side of her face.
She is sheathed from the neck down in oversized priestess robes, red and purple and black, arms and legs completely obscured from view amidst the oversized outfit, although one of her hands somehow manages to clasp a purple feathery folding fan.
Rika just ignores the laugh. Her eyes go slightly out of focus, as if her soul somehow left the body, infused into her dark magican… and on the layer, Keiya, without saying anything, produces out of thin air a strip of paper with a weird pattern drawn on it meticulously in red ink. Pausing - he has ample time while Toyomiko laughs - he lights it from his cigarette and lets it go. Immediately, it floats upwards in the wind, towards his opponent, and explodes when it reaches the center of the layer, producing a blinding SNAP flash that fills the layer like a glass of pure light.
Angel and dues both cackle insanely, oooo~ho~ho~ho~ and uuu~fu~fu~fu filling the layer. Of course, Asuka hasn’t…. done much, yet. She just stands there cackling as the magician angel does his little trick, although both dues and angel are startled at the flash of light, and Asuka goes tumbling backwards away from it.. and lands right on her rear. Not that it seems to bother her in the least. She picks herself up, respreads her fan, cackles, and then runs right at the far larger angel, little fists windmilling as she builds up steam. u~fu~fu~ya!
On the layer, Keiya is so much larger than Asuka that it’s not even funny. He presses his right hand against an imaginary surface in front of him, and Asuka’s blows highlight a pentagonal protective barrier around him, causing multiple sounds of fists beating upon thick, impenetrable glass. Keiya is pushed back a tiny bit, but that’s about it. Finally, he decides that enough is enough and pulls the cigarette out of his mouth. As he crushes the butt in his hand, a yellow glow of power lights up inside, and he just swings the hand down to land the explosive light of force on Asuka’s head.
Little fists rain down blows on the barrier, the pink fan somehow folded up and dissapears beneath the sleeves of those oversized robes. The angel very much looks like a little girl throwing a tantrum. She looks like she is paying nary a bit of attention to that glowing fist. But the purple eyes of her dues flash beneath the tinted headset when it swings her way, and Asuka leaps into the air, robes flutters over Keiya’s face as he can feel her dainty little feet touch the top of his head ever so briefly, then PUSH as she flips over and behind him, landing, that fan magically unfolded and in front of her face again. UUU~FU~FU~FU~YA!
On the layer, Keiya is quite swift himself, even though his much larger size probably reflects on his speed. He makes a step off to the side, moving like a dark shadow, and instead of his head, it’s his fist that Asuka’s little feet push off. And that fist glows with the yellow ball of power once again as he twirls around and tosses it carelessly into Asuka’s face.
On the layer, Keiya once again presses his hand into an imaginary pane of glass, and Asuka’s leg hits the pentagonal protective barrier with a loud BOMMM very much resembling a bell. Keiya just grins inside his defense and produces a lit cigarette out of the inner jacket pocket. Pausing, he takes a puff on it, and fills the pentagonal column with smoke.
On the layer, Keiya lets go of the barrier and stretches to his full height while his opponent laughs. Smirking, he looks up into the air and waves his hand down in a sweeping gesture. A cloud of darkness forms above his head quickly, darkness with speckles of blue light, and with a hissing sound rains a stream of black arrows towards Asuka.
UUU~FU~FU~FU The little priestess angel keeps laughing right up to the moment the arrows start to rain in her direction, purple eyes flashing once again. Fan folds up, and there is a rustle of robes as the lithe little angel leaps into the air, right over the arrows and the cloud that formed them, and dropping like a tiny little rock right in Keiya’s direction, hand flung below her, ready to crack his angelic skull wide open! FUFUFU! He was sloppy!
On the layer, Keiya just ducks down, letting his tiny opponent pass above his head, and twirls around to face the little priestess, smiling mysteriously and puffing on his cigarette. No, that didn’t work. Behind her visor, Rika’s grin widens, very close to a winning smile.
Once again that little angel lands in a lump of robes, and once again she leaps to her feet, fan extended. UU~FU~FU~FU~YA She waits for the attack to come, and when one doesn’t, both pairs of purple eyes flash in unison, and the fan is folded so it can be pointed at the silent magician. “Tired already, Keiyacha~n~” the little angel’s voice mimics Toyo’s speech and tone almost exactly, just an octave higher. “Tsuyoi~gozaru~na~” Well, Toyo doesn’t usually speak ancient dialect, but apparently she could! Funny though, she doesn’t make any move to attack, either. Well.. she’s new at this.
On the layer, Keiya folds his arms on his chest and puffs on the cigarette silently. Finally, he speaks, for the first time ever uttering a coherent syllable that isn’t part of a spell incantation, “Just give up.” he says in a hoarse, low, masculine voice, so very different from Rika’s.
Eileen
School time for Eileen Patterson has never been so much fun! Where else can the shy yet genki English-featured young brunette wear such a cute sailor fuku? It’s cosplay at school, and everyone’s doing it! Over her pale mint undershirt with it’s high collar, she wears Eriol Gakuen’s high school uniform, with wide blue collars and cuffs accented with gold piping, blue stockings, and shoes with buttons up the side! The rest of the outfit, aside from the blue pleats in her short skirt, is a pristine white, accessorized with a wide blue band wrapped lightly around her right upper arm, Eriol Gakuen’s crown logo emblazoned proudly over it, and a medal over her right breast, who’s ribbon also supports the blue and gold accent scheme. Eileen adds her own touches to the look, including a thickly braided ponytail that extends all the way down to her ankles, a small plastic SD Duo Maxwell keyfob hanging off her left hip, a Sailor V love chain bracelet peeking out from her left sleeve, and long bangs that can easily cover her left eye, and her entire face if she bows her head.
Eileen sprints in from the other Layer, and skids to a halt, breathing heavily, and not looking terribly happy at all. Vision blurred by tears, she doesn’t see the layer battle nor the combattants, and instead makes her way to a seat as far from anyone as possible.
The request from the magician just makes the little raven haired angel’s cackling redouble in volume. “MAKENAAAAI DE GOZARU NA!” comes at the tail end of the laughter, and that pink feathery fan is pointed threateningly, before the little priestess flings herself bodily at the larger angel, in what must presumably be a kick. It just looks like a lot of chaotically flapping robes, though.
On the layer, Keiya once again raises his hand to make the imaginary barrier, and as the robes swish along the virtual glass and the leg that’s in them BOMMs at the protective pentagon, Rika smiles once again. “Nope.” she says. She’d notice Eileen but she’s kinda busy here…
Kaya
A light skinned girl with dark purple eyes and red brown hair that goes down to her shoulder faces you. You notice she is about 5 feet 3 inches tall and looks to be very fit. As you look you notice that she has muscle in her arms and legs. She seems to be the genki type of girl. She is wearing a Eriol Academy Middle School uniform and a hat that looks to be made of straw with a sunflower in it.
Kaya briefly notices someone crying in the far back of the room.. Walking fast she walks up to Eileen and asks in a concerned tone, “What’s the matter Eileen?”
Eileen has now curled up in the corner, and is sobbing quietly into her knees. The question asked, all she can manage in reply is “…baka…eishi…sniff” She clutches her angel Sentaku close, almost desperately.
Hikaru, eat your heart out, because Asuka is smaller, just as persistant, and hits for even less! And has a pink feather fan. Pink feather fans are VERY cool. Toyomiko misses Eileen’s entrance too, which is lucky for Rika, otherwise the raven haired rival might just have upstaged her by rushing to the gaijin’s side first. Wouldn’t that have looked silly? Her attention is focused entirely on the layer though, flashing in unison with her angels once again. “Out of tricks, Keiyacha~n?” she teases at his lack of counter-attacks, and launches herself bodily at him again, once again in something resembling a kick. Honest.
On the layer, Keiya just takes the full power of Asuka’s ‘hit’, which doesn’t even push him back. He stares darkly at the small angel and smirks, tossing his cigarette out of the layer boundary, where it promptly disappears. As if nothing of consequence happened, he pulls yet another cigarette out of his inner jacket pocket - yet again, already lit - and puffs on it with the most condescending facial expression this model of angel face allows.
Nawar
This girl has a curious mix of asian features.. her skin, a gentle milky brown. She stands taller than most of her peers, as if nature wanted to give her slightly slanted glowing hazel eyes a better view to admire the wonders in this world. While she’s by no means a heavyweight, all-around she does have a more filled out figure than many of her peers leading to a healthy set of soft curves. Her fingers, naturally long and delicate seem calloused, the nails cracked or worn down and likely caked with a few flecks of soil. A faint aroma of earth and plants surrounds her and the sturdy, woven cloth bag she never lets out of her sight.
She wears a light, flowing dress about her body. Though it reaches down to her ankles, there is enough room in it to allow unrestricted movement. The deep green colour of ivy is dyed into the fabric which seems to have a natural tendency to develop small crinkles to form along the dress, leaving what almost looks like the veins you’d find on leaves. All in all, a very lively looking outfit.
Nawar wanders into the eastern hall of the Piffle Princess.. she’d never made it this far before. “Yatta!” she says to congratulate herself. Lately she’s been gaining a bit more confidence around people, having met many here who have welcomed her and drawn her out. As she looks around at the action on the four different layers, a girl curled up in the corner crying catches her eye. Ah! Is she hurt? Nawar moves quickly to her side, “Ano.. miss, are you in pain?”
Kaya looks in disbelief at Eileen, thinking that something horrible must’ve happened. She sit’s herself down next to Eileen and asks, “What happened between you and Eishi? You can tell me..”
Eileen is drawing quite the crowd it seems. Through her small sobs, she says, “…iie, not…not hurt…jus…sniff…Eishi…h-happened again…nobody…nobody believes me…sniff…”
Paper cuts might be more painful than her actual attacks, but the little angel is hitting and hitting and hitting, and she hasn’t been touched yet. Which is good, because there isn’t much but air beneath all those floofy robes. Her cackling laughter resounds still throughout the layer, and she follows up the kick with a quick jab of that pink feather fan right at the magician’s neck. Or as close to it as Asuka can actually reach.
Kaya blinks and says “What happened again? What? Please tell me!”
On the layer, Keiya just takes the hit once again, and it doesn’t seem to do much to him. How pitiful! “Owari desu.” the dark magican says hoarsely, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and drawing a large pentagram in the air with the glowing tip. The lines of the imaginary figure fill with smoke, solidify and glow, and as he finished, the figure falls right over Asuka’s head, encasing the small angel in a barrier glowing slightly with milky white. Keiya waits a few moment, takes another puff of his cigarette and slams his fist in the fingerless glove into Asuka’s jaw.
Nawar doesn’t know what’s going on, or really what people are supposed to do in a situation like this.. but whenever she’s feeling sad abba-jaan well… Nawar nods her head, then reaches over to Eileen and holds the girl to her chest and begins to hum a tuneless song.
Eileen tries to speak, but again, she’s choked up with sobs. She can’t seem to stop, though she’d like to tell Kaya. The girl seems so friendly… However, she stops sobbing for a moment to blink at this situation that’s just developed with Nawar with an incredulous expression. “….n-nani?” She manages. Wow, that was pretty effective. Sobs still occasionally burst from her, but for the moment, she’s not actively crying. “….g-gomen…” she says finally, realizing this is meant to soothe her. “…g-gomen-nasai…i…i…i just got blamed again….for something…i didn’t do…and again…it was someone i thought was a friend…sob….’m i gonna lose them all…?”
No dodging this one. One moment the little priestess angel is cackling maniacally, and although purple eyes blink when they catch Keiya’s statement, there just isn’t enough time to react. OR IS THERE?! Little purple eyes flash as the magician charges fullbore at her, and the fan and her hands dissapear into the folds of her robe, her movements and blurred and confused. That fist smashes into her jaw, little hands still moving in lightning quick motions, and the angel goes flying backwards almost over half the layer, hey, she weighs NOTHING and that was a hard hit! She tumbles in a boneless lump on the layer, unmoving, the damage bar on the scoreboard changes to a flashing ‘Calculating damage…’ on her side of the board. Funny though. Why is Toyomiko grinning like a maniac?
AH-HA! It looks like she left a little present for Keiya while he was landing that strike! A little ofuda paper is now attached to his forehead, dangling in between his eyes, ‘makenai’ spelled out on it in ancient calligraphy. The damage bar updates at this moment, and the bar drops, and drops.. and STOPS! Just a little sliver left. “UUU~FU~FU~FU~YA!” resounds across the layer from amist that lump of robes, and Asuka springs to her feet yet again, spreading her battered little fan in front of her face, then folding it and pointing it. “-I-.. Asuka, shall not lose to the likes of YOU!”
On the layer, Keiya steps back, the pentagram trap fading away and tears the ofuda off his head. Studying the calligraphy, he tears the paper into itty bitty pieces in contempt, which takes a considerable time.
Kaya looks confused but still tries to put the parts together. “So you just got blamed again for something you didn’t do And it happpened again with someone you thought was a friend and now you think you’re going to lose all your friends?” she says. “I think I get it! But what on earth did you get blamed for? she asks as she gives Eileen a little hug to comfort her.
Nawar shakes her head, giving up on trying to comprehend the complicated situation.. there are still many intricacies in people she just does -not- get. “Ano.. gomen, wakaranai.. a friend blamed you for something and now they’re not a friend.. or are they, demo.. ahh!” She cries out, frustrated with her lack of experience. “People are so hard to understand sometimes! I.. don’t really know what to do.. abba-jaan, he just holds me and it makes me feel better.”
Asuka u~fu~fu~fu’s all the while Keiya is ripping up her hastily written ofuda, taking the time to dust her robes off, patpating the dust off her bottom, and carefully fixing those horn-like curls of hair balanced on either side of her head. She folds and unfolds her fan, paying nary a bit of attention to Keiya all the while. When she is satisfied, she finally looks up, giggling, and pointing her fan, her voice sickly sweet. “Doushitano gozaru na, Keiyacha~n? All out of power? Shall I tap you on the nose and claim my victory? u~fu~fu~fu~” She wriggles one of the sleeves of her robe just enough so her dainty hand sticks out of it, and flicks it in his direction. Gyah. She’s a pain in the posterior.
Eileen nods softly, to both her comforters’ comments. “…hai..sniff gomen…i’m being such a burden…gomen…” But she doesn’t wish them away…aside from Rika, it’s been a little time since someone else showed sincere kindness to her. “…i was involved in a fight a few days ago…this guy…ichiro no baka, started yelling at us sniff for no reason…and it got worse from there…i did the best i could, b-but…yuuzensan, then eishi….they both keep telling me that it was my fault…”
Kaya nods and beckons for more….
On the layer, Keiya sneers. He isn’t about to lose to pathetic taunting of that little mousy angel, while Rika only grows more withdrawn and her eyes seem less focused, concentrating on her angel. This probably is the reason she still didn’t recognise Eileen’s sobs behind her back! Keiya stalks over to Asuka, slowly, not in any hurry, staring into her eyes all the while… and once he’s close, he swings his leg at the nuisance.
Nawar nods as well, she’s smiling, though a few tears creep into her own eyes as Eileen’s emotion bleeds through to her. “Ano.. what did they say?”
Mousy, yes, but quick. Asuka all but dances around the foot, making the kick look almost painfully slow, ducking under and around the leg and with a little backflip that seems almost for show, she lands squarely behind that much taller magician. Hey, so far he’s only been using that barrier thing up front, but can it work behind? Surely not! “Konna shoubu KATTA!” Asuka exclaims, purple eyes flashing, and she launches herself in yet another full body kick, although this time she takes just a moment, setting herself, and really focusing. And then, she launches!
A thought occurs to Nawar and she reaches into the cloth bag at her side then pulls out a small burlap pouch and hands it to Eileen.. out of which wafts a lovely smell, a mix of lavender with something else that gives the fresh scent a small sharpness to it.
On the layer, Keiya takes this one particular attack in a rather unfortunate moment, when he’s off balance because he’s still kicking, and so, tumbles down in a most ungracefull manner. Rolling away from the annoying little priestess he stands up and glares back.
Okay, so she can’t actually win in one strike. She’s not Hatoko or Shirahime, for heaven’s sake! Asuka is more of the paper cut type, and the little blows keep coming, with her last strike such a success, she does the same again, launching herself at the strong and silent type angel, hands dissapearing into the folds of her robes, and coming up with that fan yet again, flipping it over so she can ram the butt of it into Keiya’s chest. If she can’t do enough damage, she’ll have to win on critical hits!
On the layer, Keiya tumbles back once again, and slowly crawls back to the standing position. He takes the cigarette butt out of his mouth and crushes it between his palms. Folding the fingers into a complex mudra, he starts to chant: “on asanmagini unhatta, on asanmagini unhatta…” The white glow of the layer darkens, behind Keiya’s back, the shadow behind him grows longer and darker… And suddenly it splits into tiny bits, becoming a flock of black crows, each screaming in it’s own voice, beaks glistening in the fading light. Must be a hundred, no less. And all of them head for Asuka.
“Uu~fu~fu, so you’ve finally decided to fight me, neeee?” Asuka teases across the layer at the chanting magician, borrowing lines from hundreds of bad samurai movies. When the crows appear, though.. she looks surprised, gasping, “Kyaaaa! Crows!! I HATE CROWS!” And the little angels start running around the layer in circles, all the little crows chasing her, “Kyakyakyakya!” Her circles take her in an ever closing circles around Keiya, until she winds up literally right next to him, stopping and turning and swinging her fan at the hundreds of crows coming her way. Funny.. none of them actually hit her. As they dissapate, she turns toward Keiya, suddenly right in his face, and beams. “ZA~RE~GO~TO~” she let’s him know, about the crows, and her little fist draws back, and aims right into his stomach.
On the layer, Keiya would block. Or dodge. But after Rika started the crow summoning, she took the time to finally look around and see who’s crying behind her back. The crow summoning is an automatic script anyway, she doesn’t have to control it… and that is when she spots Eileen. Without thinking, she pulls the visor off her head, leaving Keiya to be punched out by Asuka, jumps out of the chair and darts towards her crying friend, her angel and her rival totally forgotten.
All ready to assume her triumphant pose, Toyo was not expecting this to happen, and she throws off her headset at the same time. “MOOOU.. nani shite no, Rikacha~n?! I was about to win!” Poor Asuka of course collapses in a lump after this, and even though the scoreboard flashing ‘ASUKA - WIN!’ across it, Toyo is chasing after the redhead, waving her hands in the air and complaining. “Mooou~u.. you can’t just get up and walk away.. that’s not fair! Accept your defeat!” Grumble grumble. She hasn’t quite figured out where Rika is going yet.
Rika glares at Toyomiko over her shoulder, “Toyomimi, I’ll fight you next time, but right now just SHUT UP!” she yells. After a little thinking, she even adds, in a much weaker voice, “…please?”
“Uresai jya nai YO!” Toyomiko shoots right back, little hands balled into fists. It’s about this point she notices the crying gaijin, and she actually blinks her purple eyes, looking confused, for a moment. ..GASP! Does she actually have a shred of compassion in her? How un-rival-like! Well, she probably does owe her victory to the gaijin for showing her how angels are actually supposed to be treated, so juuuuuuuust this once, she’ll be nice. But she’s NOT doing it for Rika, that’s for sure! “This isn’t over yet, Rikacha~n..” she mutters to herself, stalking back to the Layer to retrieve her little priestess, and after oo~ho~ho~’ing at the fallen Keiya, stalks off up the stairs. Rika can say what she wants, Toyomiko was VICTORIOUS!
Eileen shakes her head, not wanting to talk about it more, just saying, “…they took his side sniff every time…both of them…” She rubs her eyes, and it’s at that moment that she notices the scent, and shifts a bit. She sniffs it and asks curiously, “…ano…what is that?”
Kaya nods understandingly and says, “It’s lavander… Anyway what were they blaming you about? Pardon me for asking cause I know it may be rude and asking too much….”
Daisuke
Standing at about 5′2″ and definately looking thin for his age, Daisuke holds himself much taller than he actually is. Even so, for someone who is so easily amused, his face relaxed looks actually quite serious. However, in a heartbeat, a smirk can be placed on his face in no time flat. His eyes, when not hiding behind sunglasses, are a piercing emerald green. His hair is black with purple highlights and actually quite straight. It seems it has been recently cut though into a basic crew cut. His face looks pretty normal if it werent for a crescent scar on his cheek. Currently, he is wearing clothes that must have been chosen by a girl. His pants are khakis, although slightly big, just barely held up by a belt. His shirt is a simple white button down shirt that is tucked in but not as neat as it could be. This is topped off by a pair of white sneakers which also look brand new.
Daisuke decides he wants to do some practicing. Noticing that the letter was not found, he placed it back in his pocket as he makes his way down to the layer. What’s this? He blinks. There’s Eileen…in the corner. It looks like she was crying. Well, at least he didn’t do it! He smirks at the thought of this. He wears his sunglasses as he glances at Eileen. Since you can’t see his eyes, his smile might be hard to read.
Rika nonchalantly pushes through the crowd, ignoring whatever sensibilities she might offend in this manner. She just walked out on her rival, you’d think she cares? Reaching Eileen, she grabs her friend by the shoulder, “Airin, what happened?” Looks like Eileen will have to explain everything again.
Nawar beams as Eileen asks what her gift is, though as Kaya passes it off as something simple and mundane she scrinches her face.. “Hai, lavender is part of it..” she says succinctly, “demo, it’s much more than that! There are other herbs inside which make it a much nicer scent..” she beams once again as she continues “I give it to our patients, it rarely fails to help people feel better.”
Eileen sighs softly, and leans into Rika’s hand, her best friend’s here. And these two seem to honestly care…she takes a small breath and accepts the Lavender gift. “…arigato.” For Kaya and Rika’s benefit, she says, “…ano…remember the fight we had with ichiro no baka, rika? …eishi tried to tell me, just like yuuzen-san tried to tell me, that i was wrong…that it was -my- fault. he goes up there, and he insults us, he says horrible things about you, and he tries to steal your camera, and it’s -my-fault…and they wouldn’t listen….and …and….”
Daisuke twitches slightly. Fine, don’t notice he’s here and talk about him like he isn’t here. Unfortunately it doesn’t occur to him that Eishi and Akito both stood up for him. Curling his fists, before he can even stop himself, he walks over to Eileen. Crossing his arms he bites his tounge and visibly twitches as he fights off to say something horrible. Finally, he just replies, “I could say something…but I won’t!” He bites his tounge again before he takes out the note and drops it near Eileen. “Just read the dumb letter…”
Kaya sighs readily and it was lucky she had been sitting down in a chair, otherwise she would’ve slumped down to the floor. She nods to Eileen saying, “It’s okay…. It’s okay….”
Rika just sighs. “…had to have been expected.” she comments, bending down to pick up the letter for Eileen and totally ignoring the loudmouth youth. She didn’t forget how Eishi started his first conversation with her with an insult, nor did she like Daisuke any more since she first met him. “Let’s go somewhere, Airin.” she says, pulling gently on Eileen’s shoulder. “I’ll feed you icecream and a story about how I lost a match to Toyomiko.” she says nonchalantly. “If nothing else, this might distract you from thinking about the morons.” she grins slightly.
Nawar listens to the entire proceedings, not being able to add all that much to them.. a bit absently and quietly she says “Yuuzen-san.. that boy who was on the floor of the cafeteria?” simply following a line of thought aloud as she sometimes does.
First, Eileen blinks as the baka makes his appearance. Then she watches the note drop. Then Rika asks, and Eileen has to say,”…ano…rika, i can’t leave them here…they helped…can they come too?” Eileen looks at the two girls who came to her side originally, and rubs her eyes one more time. “…haa…gomen!” She apologizes one more time. “…ano…i don’t know your names yet. …patterson airin desu.” She gestures to her self, and would bow if she weren’t still in a position very similar to curled up.
Daisuke nods to Nawar, “Hai…you helped us…thanks for that time…” His eyes narrow at Eileen. He’s trying not to say anything but he just can’t help it, “So are you looking for pity or something, Patterson-san? And here I was apologizing to you in the letter…”
Kaya looking suprised introduces herself, “Mitsukaze Kaya desu…”
Rika glares at Daisuke, but says nothing, sticking his letter into the pocket of her shorts, since Eileen’s obviously not up to reading it right now. “Maeki Rika desu.” she says to Kaya, completing the formal circle of introduction and tugs Eileen on her arm again, “Come on. And you girls come with us too. My treat.”
Nawar shakes herself from her reverie in time for Eileen’s introduction, “Watashi no namae wa Aino Nawar-desu. Aaah! Maeki-san, konnichiwa! Arigatou once again,” she grins and emits a ‘gweeheehee’ then says “I sometimes play the game you gave me, it’s tough though.”
Eileen wipes her eyes once more time, then glares at Daisuke. “…pity? i lost another friend because of you, ichiro-san, just now! does your wrung out apology include an apology for that?” She’s so flustered by this that she forgets Nawar’s comment, and just nods to Rika. “…hai, let’s go…” forgets Nawar’s comment, and just nods to Rika. “…hai, let’s go…”
“What do you mean…I ruined your friendship…?” Daisuke snaps at Eileen with a lot of acid on his tounge. “I don’t believe I tell people who they can or cannot be friends with!” His hands curl into fists as he turns quickly at Rika, “You better make sure she reads it! And I mean what I said from the bottom of my heart…okay?!”
Rika smiles to Nawar’s comment about the gameboy, and darts back to the layer for her angel and bag. She quickly returns to lead Eileen out to the cafeteria, making a point to plot a wide curve around Daisuke, only bothering to throw a glance at him. A disgusted glance.
Nawar looks between Daisuke and Eileen switching between the two until Rika takes the lead out to the cafeteria. In fact she continues to do so until the two girls are almost out of the room.. then with one final glance at Daisuke, she moves quickly to follow.
Cafeteria — Piffle Princess
The cafeteria of Piffle Princess shop is not an example of a generic fast food establishment - rather, like everything else in here, it keeps in style. Three tables are scattered around the room, and there’s a couple of bar stools too, but the important thing is the menu. Displayed on bright panels above the counter, it almost exclusively consists of pastries, ice-cream, soft drinks and candy.
The whole cafeteria section is about a floor above the Angelic Layer Training center, and sometimes people look down onto the Layers over the railing at the edge.
Rika enters the cafeteria, dropping her bookbag on the table in the middle and telling the two girls, “Sit down, I’ll be back shortly.” She darts to the counter and returns soon with a tray with three king-sized bowls of chocolate sundae.
After Nawar catches up and they enter the cafeteria she follows Rika’s request and sits down at the table. When she returns, there’s a bit of a pained look on her face as she sees the ice cream.. she’s tried it before apparently and it was way too sweet.
At your table, Eileen sighs softly. “…gomen, i’ve just had so many problems lately…thank you for helping me, aino-san…” She runs her hands through her hair, then fishes out a box of pocky from her gym bag, pulls out a stick, and offers towards Rika and Nawar the box.
At your table, Rika picks up a pocky stick and dips it into her icecream before pulling it out and biting a piece off. “That reminds me.” she pulls Daisuke’s letter out of her shorts pocket, slightly crumpled since she just sat down with it in there. “I wonder what the firstborn of idiots wrote as his apology.”
At your table, Nawar follows Rika’s lead with the pocky, as she takes a bite she smiles.. a little sweeter than she might have liked, but not anywhere near as bad as the ice cream. “Nandemonai Patterson-san, I like helping people if I can. Though I’ve never been able to help with anything but injuries or sickness before.”
At your table, Eileen takes a scoop of the ice cream with her spoon, then asks curiously before putting it in her mouth, “…ano, are you a nurse then, aino-san?” She takes a look at the note, then sighs a bit. “…ano…not yet…i’m not ready to deal with that yet, again.
At your table, Rika drops the letter on the table and sets her bowl of icecream nonchalantly on it. “Well, it’s not like it will change anything anyway.” she says, taking a spoonfull of icecream and sticking it into her mouth.
At your table, Nawar shakes her head towards Eileen, “Iie, abba-jaan.. aah, otousan, is a healer. He taught me about healing with plants and herbs, I help him with his patients sometimes when he needs it.” She neglects to mention that he -tried- to teach her all he knew of both traditional and western medicine but the only parts she was only ever interested in pertained to her plants. Nawar’s eyes widen a bit in shock though as Rika puts her bowl on top of the letter, “Aaa..aa. Maeki-san, you put your ice cream on the letter.. ano, it could ruin it…”
At your table, Eileen nods softly in response to Rika’s mentioning. “…hai.” She watches Rika hide it under the bowl, then turns to Nawar. “…ano, so you’re an herbalist, and a nurse sometimes then. ano, that’s very nice of you!”
At your table, Rika shrugs at Nawar’s comment, “Reading it will only serve to respark the conflict once again, don’t you think?” as she takes another spoonful of icecream. “At least, if he wrote one to me, I wouldn’t open it.” she adds. But nobody wrote an apology letter to her, even though it was her camera that was the point of conflict the last time. Strange…
At your table, Nawar shakes her head, confused “A.. ah, I’m not sure, the only person I’ve ever had a fight with was abba-jaan and if he wrote me an apology it would make me happy.. it would mean he didn’t want to fight anymore…”
At your table, Eileen sighs softly and buries herself in the intent of enjoying ice cream, and occasionally crunching into pocky. Right now, it is the last thing she wants to think about. “…gomen…ano…can we talk about something else?”
At your table, Rika dips the spoon into the icecream once more time. She was about to respond something to Nawar, but instead she falls silent and gags herself with the spoon. Figuratively speaking…
At your table, Nawar is feeling reeeallly uncomfortable right now. She doesn’t know what to say, and so doesn’t.. “Aah.. I’m going to go grab some hot water.” So stands up, brushes off her dress and heads to the counter.
At your table, Nawar is feeling reeeallly uncomfortable right now. She doesn’t know what to say, and so doesn’t.. “Aah.. I’m going to go grab some hot water.” So stands up, brushes off her dress and heads to the counter.
At your table, Eileen sighs softly and says, “…ano, i did mean something else…gomen…”
At your table, Rika shrugs, as Nawar leaves, “Well, I don’t think talking about Toyomimi is more interesting anyway.” she comments.
Nawar orders her hot water and then returns, though as she walks she eyes the exit once.. wishing she could just run off, but not wanting to offend. As she gets back, she reaches into her bag and takes out another pouch.. sprinkling some leaves into the cup and then stirring it with a spoon. “Aah, so do you play angelic layer too Patterson-san?”
At your table, Eileen nods softly, “…hai. ano…sentaku and i practice every day if possible. it’s one of my favorite hobbies…ano, do you?”
At your table, Rika remains silent, pretending to be occupied with her icecream, and listens to whatever the others have to say.
At your table, Nawar nods vigorously, then leans her head down to smell her tea.. closing her eyes and breathing deeply in and out once. The smell never fails to calm her nerves, once done she reaches to her bag for a small strainer and filters out most of the leaves. As she does this she continues, “Hai, we’ve only lost once so far! I really like it because it lets me meet so many people.” . o O ( I just wish they didn’t act in such crazy ways sometimes, I guess even normal people don’t understand each other sometimes.. )
At your table, Eileen giggles a little, a bit cheered by this. “…ano, you play angelic layer too? rika and i both play. you must be good if you’ve only lost once! sugoi…!” She reaches over, and takes Sentaku from behind her gym bag, and stands her on the table, perhaps unintentionally in a cocky, self assured style. “…this is my angel, sentaku.” She’s named her angel ‘chosen’.
At your table, Rika still says nothing. Instead she leans back in her chair, and swiftly pulls out her small camera, taking yet another picture - this one of Eileen and Nawar chatting with Sentaku on the table between the icecreams. She isn’t about to get her angel out right after she lost to her worst enemy…
At your table, Nawar ‘oooh’s at Sentaku, the angel looking very foreign to her with the strange metal things on her arms and odd costume. After lifting her cup, blowing on it to cool and taking a sip of the heavenly drink she reaches into her bag once again and takes out her own angel. “This is Drasil, I thought of the name because of the old legends of the tree of life, Yggsdrasil. People say he’s special for what he can do that other angels can’t.. I think he’s special just because though!” With that she hugs her odd angel tight.
At your table, Eileen blinks at this angel. “…ano…it’s…it’s an ent! how did you get an ent! that’s soo cool! …ne rika, show her your angel!”
At your table, Rika sighs and pulls the coffin-like case with her angel out of her bag. Opening it, she demonstrates the dark-suited magican without particular enthusiasm - mostly owing to the fact that his suit isn’t in the best of order after the recently lost duel. One interesting feature that wasn’t on him the last time Eileen saw him are the fingerless biker-style gloves on his hands…
At your table, Nawar smiles, sort of, at the new angel on the table.. “a bit kowai…” she says, letting her thoughts slip again. Shaking her head she turns her smile back to Eileen, “Ne, Patterson-san.. would you like to play angelic layer with me?”
At your table, Eileen waves her hand a bit. “…ne, ano, next time, aino-san? i just had a duel with eishi…and then that …thing…afterwards…i’m a little tired.” Finally Eileen catches on to what’s wrong with Rika, as she sees the state of keiya. “….a-ano…gomen…did you say toyomimi-san won?” Then something else clicks. “…haaa!” she exclaims quietly, all of a sudden, “…gomen, rika! i-i couldn’t let her treat her angel that way…i had to show her her angel wasn’t a tool….!”
At your table, Rika shrugs, “Well, she called her angel a faithful servant, so I’m not sure how much this worked.” she says nonchalantly, refraining from further comments and keeping up a blank expression which hides something else. Closing the coffin-like case and hiding it back in the bag she adds, “She barely won, but she still won.”
At your table, Nawar nods, “Hai Patterson-san, next time!” then to Rika she grins widely and says “You’ll win next time for sure!” before taking another large sip of her tea.
At your table, Eileen hrms softly. “…ano, we’ll have to train together, rika. i think it’s still partly my fault…ano, it’s good that you only barely lost then. i could certainly help you get back at her…?”
At your table, Rika smiles to Eileen, “Thanks.” she says, but doesn’t add anything else.
At your table, Nawar is content for now to simply sip further at her tea.
At your table, Eileen thinks about things for a while in the content silence. She munches lightly on pocky, and scoops up the last of her ice cream as well.
At your table, Rika continues eating her icecream for a while, in the same silence, until she can see the letter through the transparent glass bowl. Pulling the unfortunate envelope out, she offers it to Eileen again with a questioning expression on her face, “…?”
At your table, Eileen reads it aloud. “…’dear patterson-san…i am sorry i upset you the other night. i should not have said anything. and you had a right to slap me like you did. it doesn’t matter to me if you want to be friends or not. i just hope you can forgive me for what i did someday. let’s be civil … at least for sensei’s sake. sincerely, ichiro daisuke.’” Eileen pauses for a moment, and doesn’t comment.
At your table, Rika develops a pecuillar disgusted grin on her face, but doesn’t say anything either.
At your table, Nawar’s eyes are still closed, absorbing the contents of the letter but not seeing Rika’s face. She gives a small nod, but otherwise for now remains silent and waits for Eileen to speak.
At your table, Eileen puts the letter down, and looks thoughtful. She says, “it feels sincere…it’s very clumsy…and I should get mad since in another way, it might look like he’s only apologizing to for akito’s sake…but i think the baka actually meant it….he still makes me terribly mad…but he’s no longer worse than ararune-san i think…ano…” she turns to her friend for guidance. “…rika? what do you think?”
At your table, Rika just shrugs, “Suppose you accept this apology. Will you be able to speak with him then?” She clearly isn’t that convinced of the sincerity of this letter.
At your table, Nawar opens her eyes and looks to Eileen, she hasn’t been asked her opinion so havers for a few moments. She says quietly, “i.. im not, aa.. aahh i think you should just wait and see..”
At your table, Rika says nothing, probably, being in favor of a harsher decision still. But she still has icecream, and so, uses it to refrain from speaking.
At your table, Nawar beams at Eileen, her advice helped! After a few moments she says, “People can be crazy sometimes, but I’m glad abba-jaan let me leave.. glad to be with you guys now.”
And the three made more smalltalk, before leaving in their separate ways.
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