Rika scares Masamune into spilling ramen and he tries to pass it for a random soup explosion.
Current IC time is: Sat Oct 05 2002, evening
Noodle Shop
This noodle shop looks like many others. An open air service area set in front of a kitchen with an awning to protect to the customers from the weather. The customers can look into the kitchen to watch the cooks perform their magic while eating noodles. There are only a few places to sit, as this is only a small stand. A bar and a pair of tables allow customers a place to eat if they wish to stay.
As you step under the red and white stripe awning, the smells from kitchen swirl around you. The server stands behind the counter, greeting the customers and presenting them with the delicious creations from the kitchen.
A menu hangs on the wall that seperates the kitchen from the bar area.
It’s snowing, small cute puffs of white falling from the sky slowly, a thin layer of them everywhere it can reach. Beautiful, but cold and unusual.
Eileen
Right out of an anime spaghetti western, the outfit this gaijin is wearing today hearkens back to days of saddleback gunfights, prairie skimming wagons, and priests walking around with huge crosses slung over their shoulders. (I did say anime spaghetti westerns, after all!) The layered outfit the English featured girl sports has a dramatic cape, that would be reversible were it not for the flap that gives the garment the look of a dress shirt. It’s a beautifully subtle midnight blue inside that matches her bow tie and stockings and compliments her gray-blue eyes. However, the rest of the attire is a brilliant white.
In a move generally acknowledged as rare for those who know her, the shirt beneath the half-cloak is rather form fitting, though this can only be seen when she moves enough to sway that heavy flap out of the way. It has three midnight blue braided ropes traversing the upper part of her promising chest horizontally, a high, loose collar that comes up nearly to her chin, and long, cuffless sleeves that come up to her wrists. The mini skirt she wears is hardly conducive to any sort of athletic activity, seeing that it hugs her toned legs very well…up til about a third of the way down, where it ends and her stockings continue. She accessorizes the outfit with a pair of slim, gold bar earrings and a stylish pair of soft white leather shoes with zipper tops that extend up past her ankles.
Eileen is sitting at table two, blushing a little as she makes slurping noises, the customary way to enjoy the piping hot bowl of udon before her. Chopsticks in her right hand, she carefully pulls the noodles up a little at a time. To her side, an angel perches on the table, with red metal cylinders encircling her forelimbs.
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.
She is wearing a winter coat, a pure deep coca-cola red wool which has a white fur collar and cuffs to it. The fur is either natural or at the very least a very high quality artifical affair, and she looks very much like a Santa Claus’ redhead assistant - if he had any, that is. The coat ends halfway through her thighs, revealing the deliberately faded blue jeans, which widen at the bottom, offering only a glimpse of the blue and white sneakers on her feet.
On her back is a fancy-looking black backpack, which, beside the obvious hundred and a half pockets sports what looks like decorative Angelic Layer style wings on the sides.
An unusual hairband rests upon her hair - a silvery, thickish metallic object with glistening chrome parts. It looks very pretty, almost like jewelry, but very weird. And it has leds.
Rika edges into the area from behind a wall like a red ghost, a patch of blood upon the white of the snow… ever thought of the Santa Claus this way? beep snap goes her headband. Creeping upon Eileen from the back, it looks …well, creepy.
Masamune
The first thing to greet any viewer’s eyes, so long as the person is not focusing on the neck down, are the long locks of Masamune’s deep purple hair, which has been evenly and parted to both sides. The said mat of hair is an odd shade of violet dark enough to be mistaken for black, were it not for the glowing, indigo hue reflecting off its surface. Overall, Masamune is a rather handsome boy, bearing a fairly tall, trim frame; the culmination of years of strict martial arts training and a healthy metabolism. Kurosawa’s face, in proprtion with his body, is slightly angular and handsomely chisled, though his features are still rounded as a sign of his youth. Also as expected, his face comes included with a thin, stretched mouth, proportinally narrow nose, and a pair of narrow, yet strangely friendly, hazel eyes. The boy overall appears perpetually tired, yet at the same time perceptive and full of life.
Meanwhile, the mostly forgotten, indigo-haired boy named Masamume also joins some of the restaurant-goers. Currently, the teen is hunched over his own bowl of steaming ramen, shoveling the ribbons of salty noodles with his chopsticks like a starved hog in heat (if a starved hog in heat could eat ramen with chopsticks, that is). Too busy enjoying his hearty, partially liquified meal, the purple-haired boy takes no notice of the stealthy — and slightly creepy — Rika. Nope, he doesn’t notice her at all. Nosiree.
The english girl seems not to notice her friend coming up behind her. As intent as she is upon enjoying her udon however, it comes as no surprise. It appears the novelty of having authentic udon has yet to wear off on the exchange student, as she seems to be enjoying the food a little more than most people would. She finally sits back a little with a content, private exclamation of, “…uwaaaah…sugoi…!” There’s still plenty left in her bowl, so this is likely just a breather.
Rika leans down quietly to Eileen’s ear, a small red shadow behind the white of her cape, a picture out of the spaghetti western gone horror movie if you let your eyes go just out of focus. “Enjoying?” she whispers deeply in a voice so unlike her usual one that it might not even get recognised by Eileen of all people.
Masamune suddenly shudders, nearly dropping his chopsticks in the process. “Oh no…” he mutters to no one. There is a great, sinister, yet strangely familiar peril within the walls of this once, peaceful noodle restaurant. Every twitching hair upon the hazel-eyed boy’s neck rises to attention, as if grasping out to this aura of fear. Something approaches…
Eileen jumps in her seat, and lets out a startled little, “aaaaah!” both hands fluttering to her heart immediately, her chopsticks still clenching a string of the flour-y noodle. Thankfully, her sudden deathgrip on the chopsticks neatly snipped the noodle in half, saving her white outfit from possible stain-inducing splash. Green eyes wide, she blinks and turns to Rika as she backs away at the same time. Then she blinks, then reddens a bit more. “…rika! you scared me…!!”
Rika giggles innocently, covering her mouth with her hands cutely, “Have you considered wearing glasses with rearview mirrors? Though, knowing you, you’d probably forget to look into them.” she says, and giggles more, shifting somehow from the sinister and dangerous blood spot to the cute and innocent Santa Claus suited girl.
Well, on Masamune’s side…
“UWAH?”
SPLOOSH
“AAAUUGHH!”
It’s best you use your imagination on this one…
Eileen laughs softly to herself at Rika’s words. “…hai, i probably would…” She says, still blushing, before blinking and looking over in concern to Masamune and the horrific sound that just came from his direction. Green eyes go wide. “…haaa! Are you ok?”
Rika turns at the sound and her headband goes beep snip… and instead of reaching out to help she naturally reaches into the backpack behind her back. For the camera, no doubt.
And so, where everyone expects Masamune to be, so Masamune is present. The indigo-haired boy’s ramen-drenched form is sprawled mostly against the ground, his upper body leaning upright against the legs of his chair. Noodles, assorted greens, and several fish cakes decorate a small radius around him, though much of it is adorned ON him. Masamune himself just sits/lays there. He blinks with confusion, but his “shocked” expression leaves something to be desired, like this were a common occurence. “Wow…” Masamune ponders out loud. “Soup never did that before…”
Eileen just sits there and blinks at Masamune, as if trying to figure out exactly what the heck happened to him! It almost seemed like the soup leaped up and pounced on the unfortunate blue-haired boy. “….a-ano….” she finally says, working through her utter confusion. A glance back at her udon makes it clear she wonders if her soup’s going to do that too. “…ano…” she says again, looking back at Masamune. “…daijoubu? ….what happened?”
Rika already pulled out her big camera and doesn’t stop at taking a shot, fish, greens and all. SNAP “Was this an incident of soup violence?” she inquires curiously, as if she expected it all the time.
Masamune sheepishly scratches his cheek, which also removes a soaked, green sprig from his face. “It’s kinda funny, actually,” he begins. “I was eating when I got this really wierd vibe. Then the ramen just…well…exploded.”
Eileen blinkblinks at this, then turns to Rika, as if silently inquiring if this wasn’t just the thing the redhead was looking for. Then she turns back to Masamune with yet another blink. Impossibly, it seems she’s now forgotten about her udon, which gradually chills beside her. “….ano…it….exploded…?”
Rika keeps pressing the button, SNAP-SNAP-SNAP “What kind of vibe?” she inquires in a businesslike tone. “Do you get this sort of vibe often? Do you think the vibe is connected to the soup explosion or that they were unrelated coincidences?” she keeps pressing on.
Masamune chuckles a bit. “Trust me, it’s one of those mysteries of life.” After a bit of shifting and picking away the noodles from his hair, the boy slides back and pushes himself to his feet. Then, as if completely ignoring what had just happened, he reaches over for his chopsticks and the bowl of remaining ramen and begins to eat once more (after all, no point in wasting good food, right?). “I’m not sure about the vibe…just felt like something evil was approaching,” Masamune manages to say between bites. “So how have you two been doing?
Eileen blinks at Masamune’s very abrupt and otherwise sudden change. The poor girl’s eyelids are getting quite the workout today! She glances at Rika once more, then mouths the words, ‘cover up?’ before glancing back again at Masamune. “…ano…pretty good…demo….” more blinking ensues. “…demo…” Yet more blinking.
Rika skitters over to the other side of Masamune’s table and leans down a bit to peer inquisitively, SNAP “Something evil?” she asks, not taking the ‘I’m not sure’ for an answer.
Masamune, by this time, has already finished the remainder of his meal and sets it gently back down onto the table. He then moves his hand slowly towards the glass of cola next to the bowl, which has kept intact, unlike the soup. “Well, that’s good to hear,” the purple-haired boy says, lifting the glass to his lips. After a few good gulps, he speaks again. “Oh, Airin-san, I saw your tournament matches on TV. You’re doing really good and I hear you’re starting to get a small fanbase. I hope you’ll win your next match.”
Of course, Rika doesn’t go noticed, however, as Masamune follows the camera’s movements, even flashing a pose with his fingers positioned in the familiar “V” shape. “Well, for one thing…cameras,” he says, smiling.
Rika turns the flash up a bit and pushes the button again, flooding the noodle show with a small puddle of light. “Cameras?” she retreads. “…Are you hiding something?” she adds suspiciously.
Eileen blinkblinks. . o (My eyes hurt…) “…ano…arigato. demo…a fanbase?” Then her confusion turns once more to the ‘evil’ being covered up. She narrows her eyes through her dark brown bangs at Masamune. “….a-ano…gomen if i’m wrong…but…are you hiding something?” This she asks somewhat at the same time as Rika, giving the question a tremendously eerie aspect.
Masamune raises his hand up in defense, though he still smiles in his usual, friendly (though not always assuring) way. “Oh, I’m not hiding anything, really!” He retorts. The purple-haired boy pauses for a minute, then leans slowly towards Eileen, hands cupped between her ear and his mouth. <”Didn’t you know that cameras steal souls with every picture they take? I have a ward on me that protects me, but…you seem to be in the line of sight too, Airin-san…”>
Eileen blinks at Masamune’s words, and shakes her head a little, saying a bit uncertainly, “…ano…i don’t think that’s the case…d-demo…how do you have a shield to prevent this…?” She pauses for a few moments, then remembers an interesting event she and Rika shared a while back. Her eyes widen a little, then she glances once more to Rika.
Rika grins her famous, smug, shark-like grin. “Oh, which is why I have all my pictures backed up so many times - so that the souls would be safe! So what are you hiding anyway, hmmmmmm?” she inquires, blinking her eyes cutely. You just PRAY Toyomiko doesn’t crawl out of the woodwork now.
Masamune looks to Rika, scratching his head with sincere curiosity. “Hiding? Well, I might be, but I didn’t know I was supposed to be hiding something.” As for Eileen, he’ll just stick around and see what happens. Heck, even he has to pull a practical joke sometimes.
Eileen blinks once more, but this time it’s at Rika. “…ano, you’re not serious, right…? souls don’t get captured by cameras….that’s just silly….” She sounds a bit unsure now, however. The english girl turns to Masamune. “…ano…you are hiding something…?”
Rika smiles a blank smile at Eileen, it’s hard to tell whether it was meant to mean ‘yes I’m serious’ or ‘no I’m not serious’. Whether they are captured by cameras or not, she certainly makes sure to keep them safe and in her grasp as Eileen can probably attest. “Oh yes he is. He is trying to convince me that the exploding soup has no special significance.” she grins at Masamune sneakily.
“Well, it doesn’t, does it?” Masamune attempts to reassure, though it’s more than obvious that he’s beginning to have his doubts. He glances at the empty bowl upon the table, then at the other two. The hazel-eyed boy shrugs, smiling playfully. “I dunno…maybe I’m being haunted by bad luck spirits?”
Rika dooesn’t stop at that. “And what other incidents of that can you list?” she inquires, shooting off another picture. SNAP She’s just itching to use the pictures she has of Masamune on a dart board if he doesn’t respond in full, that’s obvious.
Masamune rolls his eyes up and gazes at his long, indigo-bangs, just as if he is staring into his own mind. “Well…let’s see…one time, by cola can exploded…another time I was mysteriously launched out from the noodle shop…then there was the time that birds got into my apartment and stole one of my CDs…” With each incident recited, he counts them off by unrolling his fingers.
Rika listens patiently as a led on her headband blinks bright red. “Sounds a bit too minor when compared to exploding soup, don’t you think?” she mentions curiously.
Masamune shrugs. “I know, it’s wierd….but whatcha going to do about it?” Understanding, isn’t he? =P
Rika shrugs innocently, “Print up every picture I have of you and call an onmyoji to interrogate.” she says as if it’s nothing special, like she does it every day between lunch and dinner.
Eileen finally gives up on the conversation for now. There’s way too much to be comprehended here, and she can’t ask Rika with Masamune around what she thinks of it all. This is an involved discussion for another time. Eileen breathes a sigh therefore, and turns, only to be confronted with her now lukewarm udon. She blinks once more, then smiles, then starts eating her noodles once more, oblivious, purposefully for once, to the conversations around her.
Masamune opens his mouth in preparation to say something, but then he is suddenly interrupted by a muffled, digital chime. Obeying the call of the mechanical harpy, the boy reaches into his pocket and fishes out the object in question — a silver cellphone. He immediately flips it open, effectively stopping the computerized jingle, and begins to push diligently on the dialing pad with his thumbs. The tiny, rectangular monitor of the device flickers with lights and colors, and quite a bit of text.
Satisfied with his search, Masamune sighs and closes the cellphone. “Well, looks like I’ll have to go,” he says. The indigo-haired teen smiles and waves to both Eileen and Rika. “See you at school tomorrow!” With that, he is gone.
Rika looks at the back of the fleeing Masamune, “I’m not calling the onmyoji, I’m doing it myself, definitely….” she mumbles under her breath.
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