Description: Honoka Kawamoto is just your average Japanese girl thrust into a big and exciting life traveling with the circus. Hanging out with her friends by day, and entertaining the public by night, she tries to have the average schoolgirl life in spite of her zany day to day adventures. This time, Honoka's best friend (who is definately not a lover you bakas) Zach Glenn wants to hang out with a robot. Fortunately for Honoka, she has a friend working for HitBit who has a whole bunch of robots! But Honoka is going to find out just how much trouble having a robot is gonna be! (The cover shows Honoka dressed in a schoolgirl uniform, at a robot factory of some kind. Several Combots are passed through an assembly. A grandfatherly and erudite looking Yoshiaki is wearing a labcoat, gesturing towards the robots. Honoka has a finger in her mouth, shocked and surprised at all these robots. Zach Glenn is with the tour as well, dressed in a school boy uniform and a pair of cat ears and a cat tail twitching behind him, but he is mischievously playing with some switches and dials while both Honoka and Yoshiaki are distracted) (50 yen)
The request was... interesting, to say the least.
Yoshiaki Shirata was the President of the Product department of HitBit Incorporated. On top of managing the HitBit devices for the Rumble in the Streets tournament, he had another duty: manage and design the software infrastructure and implimentation of the newest product from their parent company Violet Systems: Combot. While many other men were involved with Combot, it was Yoshiaki's core product that allowed fighter data upload directly from the HitBit devices, straight into a Combot framework. You could literally train a Combot to fight, and it would be able to imitate your mastery own mastery. The implications were... incredible. You could get a personalized bodyguard or security force with the level of martial expertise that would normally take -years- to master. Already, there was a high demand for Combots within other circles.
What pleased Yoshiaki was that this request was from the Twilight Circus.
The response was quick. Yoshiaki had some limitations on what could and could not be arranged; obviously he couldn't customize a new Combot on a simple 'inquiry' level. But what was clear that Yoshiaki was -very- willing to talk to the Twilight Circus representatives at his personal office at HitBit Incorporated. They could set up the time, Yoshiaki could be always available for anybody from Twilight Circus. Whoever may be reading the request at Twilight Star Circus, however... may detect the faintest hint of sleaze. It wasn't clear how there was sleaze in it, the words themselves were professional.
But there was just that faintest presence of something, something horrible on the horizon.
Twilight Star Circus is run by an assortment of individuals, most of which have business degrees instead of an innate sense for performance. It's not -just- the performers after all; without people to run the logistics such as management, property rental, food and supplies, and legal needs, well, it'd just be a bunch of people dancing on the street. After all, you can't just plant a three-ring big top tent just -anywhere-.
That said, sometimes the office types don't exactly grasp the -point- of the circus. Business folks are objective; performers are subjective. So that's one reason that Junko Furukawa, the Finance officer of Twilight Star Circus, has asked for their star juggler, Honoka Kawamoto, to accompany her along for this meeting.
Well, not the only reason. The King of Fighters team may be a promotional vehicle for the Twilight Star Circus, but Honoka is clearly the team captain. Her long black hair, marked by distinctive pink highlights, hangs down to her shoulders for this meeting. The juggler's casual clothing -- most notably, the rose-colored jacket -- stands in marked contrast to the prim and proper, navy blue pantsuit of the 5' tall finance officer who walks in with her. Honoka smiles brightly as she looks around the HitBit offices, with a smile that might be considered 'vapid'; Miss Furukawa's dispassionate frown is oriented straight ahead as the office assistant leads the pair back to the conference room with Mr. Shirata.
Honoka has been here before. But it'd be difficult to make any connection between the bookish features of Shoko Shimizu and the ebullient performer as she practically glides through the halls. Honoka's mannerisms, her taste in clothing, and even her general appearance are completely different from those of the woman who was taking notes here just a couple months prior.
Upon entering the room, Miss Furukawa is the first of the pair to speak. "We spoke on the phone, Mr. Shirata -- it is a pleasure to meet you in person." She bows graciously -- a move mirrored a full second later by Honoka. "I hope you don't mind, I have brought our King of Fighters team captain, Miss Honoka Kawamoto."
Honoka meets Yoshiaki's gaze as he speaks, bowing a second time. "A pleasure to meet you," she echoes, her smile growing even brighter.
Approaching the office was no better.
Both woman could -feel- a haze as they approached the room for the meeting. A kind of smell that you could feel; the kind you could only experience to understand. As they entered the room, they could see the thick-glasses man sitting at the table... with piles of books, papers, and tablet computers around him. The haze was strongest in here, as the man rises up. If Honoka's smile was growing brighter?
Yoshiaki was the damned sun.
"OH MY GOSH I CAN'T BELIEVE I CAN FINALLY MEET YOU!" Yoshiaki moves around the table, hand directly out for Honoka. It was damp. The hand was damp, and extended to shake Honoka's. Or awkward side hug, if she didn't take the bait. "When I heard that Twilight Star Circus wanted to talk to me about my work, Miss Furukawa, you have no idea how happy I was. But the fact you brought -her- along," He gestures at Honoka, before going back to his pile of stuff. "I can't even- let me explain." And he reaches for a book on the table.
And then he shows her his collection.
"I -adore- the Twilight Star Circus!" He begins, as he opens the scrapbook. A real scrapbook, not a digital one. An -official- one, gotten right from the Twilight Star online store. It shows some of the pictures he had. Several was right at the circus itself, taking pictures of the various highlight stars in the show. Several were high angle shots of Elise the fortuneteller. But most of them... were with the star acrobat Honoka. Her dressed as Godzilla, her fighting in The Crack for Donald Trump, even some of her auditions photos were there. Yoshiaki was almost trembling with delight. "Who doesn't know about the star acrobat fighter Honoka Kawamoto? You are a star! So wonderful to watch in action, and with all those diablos! You are incredible! I am still sad I couldn't see you in action in the Rumble Tournament, fighting it out with... with Ayame, and Maki." The Japanese licks his lips real quick, as he shuts the scrapbook. "But there has been a huge rumor going on, and I need to confirm, before we go any further."
""Is it true you guys are going to be putting forward a team for the King of Fighters tournament?!"
Honoka is used to the smell of this sort of... haze. Working in a circus means that not only does she have to tolerate the body odor of the unwashed masses, but she also has to tolerate the body odor of several dozen performers who work much, much harder than those people directly underneath scorching hot spotlights. If her nose weren't attenuated to such odors, she'd have a tough time smiling for... well, -anyone- in her performance.
Miss Furukawa, though? Her distasteful frown couldn't get any more frowny without incurring an injury of some sort.
The juggler accepts the hand, knowing full well what happens if she does not accept. Which is to say, she'll casually lean out of the way if the man even so much as -tries- for a hug, ensuring that any attempt to push the gesture further registeres as 'battery' rather than a mere attempt at validation. Oddly enough, Yoshiaki is -not- the worst fan she's ever encountered -- and as a public figure, she's good at maintaining her smile despite the indignity of a sopping-wet hand, curling her fingers up by her side. Her hand will dry, but an offended fan can lose -way- more business.
Though, she begins to reconsider her personal policy the more Yoshiaki keeps rambling on about her circus. On and on and on. And the photos are -definitely- cringe-inducing -- both Honoka and Junko begin to blush at the number of photos dedicated to their 'sister' Elise.
Still, while Junko is beyond the capacity for speech, Honoka wears a practically unflappable grin, subtly wiping her hand on the scrapbook as she looks through the pictures. "My, my -- you must've been to, like, a dozen shows to get all of these wonderful photos... this was from our Chichibu show, and this one here from Nagano..."
Junko stifles a cough, shuffling her feet uncomfortably as she glances around the room. Surely, -surely- there are other scrapbooks with equally cringeworthy photos of -other- popular attractions...
With the mention of Ayame and Maki, Honoka raises an eyebrow. It's poor form to -correct- someone, but that doesn't mean she can't acknowledge the true statements. "Maki -was- quite the challenge... But there weren't any good seats there in person, so you probably got a better view from the stream."
Junko coughs again, and Honoka looks over at her with a querying expression. She looks back at Yoshiaki just in time to notice the licking of his lips -- which would be the one thing that causes Honoka's smile to falter, eyebrows lowering and lips pressing into a line.
A King of Fighters tournament.
"We are -close- to making it official -- if you could keep it on the down low we'd appreciate your discretion?" Honoka tucks her hands behind her back, which has the side benefit of parting her mostly-unzipped jacket in the front in what appears to be a seemingly innocent gesture.
Junko sniffs. The air is nigh intolerable to her, and unlike Honoka, she has almost no tolerance to the scent at all. She looks around for the nearest window.
"We were wonderin' if we could maybe, like, -borrow- one of your ComBot robot thingies, to get some extra practice in before the King of Fighters tournament. Elise sure told me lots about her fight with Miss Ichijo, but she's real hard to get hold of these days with all the reporters and whatnot. She might even be in the King of Fighters as well, you know..." Talking with Yoshiaki gets a bit easier when she has a goal in her questioning -- that is to say, she's wondering how much the man knows about the secretive viper of the Meian Jinja. And even if he keeps quiet, the read on his emotional state would be a goldmine of information in itself.
For the love of everything, there was a window.
It was right behind Yoshiaki.
The man was almost swooning as the hand is shaked. Adjusting his glasses, the sneering smile was coming as the man sweats and grows more excited. "Oh, I know you fought Maki, but you didn't fight Maki AND Ayame! That would have been the greatest! The three of you, battling it out, as we kept track of the fight through the HitBits... it just makes me wild!" The man closes the scrapbook, and places it back on the table. "Of course! I won't tell my messageboard all about this! This will be our secret! Imagine me! Keeping secrets with Honoka! EEEEEe heee heeee" The man cackles, as he quickly palms around for ANOTHER scrapbook.
"I would love to be able to loan you one!"
He pulls out another scrapbook. "I have all kinds of models in place right now." He begins, as he opens it for Honoka to see. Each of the pictures have... what looks like Combot in a different outfit, with different weapons. AY4M3, well and publically shown in the Rumble tournament, is in one of them, posing in front of a shrine. Another, labeled M4K1, is dressed in a leotard and armed with tonfas, standing on the dark and gritty streets. A third, labeled Blue Mary, is dressed in a red tank top and leaned forward, ready to grapple anybody right by the docks. In fact, there seemed to be a Combot for every female fighter that had participated in the Rumble tournament for more than one round. Nagase, Lita, Alice Nakata, and several Gedo High students. There was even one for Elise, dressed in her fortune teller garb. There was only one labeled section that lacked a picture.
*Honoka Kawamoto*
"Obviously, I am missing one of them, due to incomplete information, but hey! It's not like you guys need a Honoka!" He laughs an awkward laugh, as he traces his finger on the missing picture. "But yeah, pick you Combot! We can figure out the terms of the exchange from there. I mean, I read those King of Fighter rules pretty indepth, and while I can't see anything on Ayame, there is stuff on people like Athena and Maki and I heard there might even be a ninja team! But see, we can probably get you guys wired up to HitBits, and then keep track of all your performances! It would be a fantastic sponsership! And well..." He touches the missing spot in the scrapbook again.
"As you can see, we're missing a Honoka Kawamoto!"
Junko stares listlessly at the window as Yoshiaki talks. It -would- be right there. She feels like she is about to -die- in here. The finance officer shares a meaningful glance with Honoka, whenever the psion spares her a moment. And she bows hastily to Yoshiaki. "Please forgive me, I will be right back." And obeying all the necessary pleasantries, she excuses herself to the little ladies' room for a much-needed breath of fresh air.
Honoka had nothing to do with that feeling of nausea, of course.
So he's agreed to loan them a Combot. Great. But there is one thing that strikes Honoka instantly upon glancing over the scrapbooks: the female/male ratio being an even 1:0. She glances over with a vapid smile, nodding with mute appreciation for the stylized clothing practically glued onto each automaton -- leave it to engineers to take all the life and energy out of each subject pictured. She starts to ask who one of the Combot models is supposed to represent, but her eyes widen slightly upon reading the 'BLU3 M4R1' tag underneath it.
It barely even passes a resemblance, as far as Honoka is concerned.
Honoka flips further through the journal, her expression more neutral and guarded until she reaches the Gedo students. Particularly Saya. Who she knows to be only 15...
Her lips seal into a thin line.
She looks back up to meet Yoshiaki's leering gaze.
"I was kinda hoping y'all had one of Daniel, maybe. Or... any of the guys. You know, since Combot doesn't look that... " She waves her hand from side to side, her lips barely able to suppress an awkward giggle: "... all that -female?-"
Honoka pauses, deliberately. Her cheeks turn a bit pink, as a hand rockets up to cover her mouth. "I -- I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude -- was that weird of me to say? I just... mean they look -nice-, but some of them are more of a stretch than others. Ahehehe..."
There are lots of subtle suggestions that the data relayed by Honoka's HitBit suite was incomplete. Possibly even corrupted. But she cheerfully sidesteps the request for her personal data -- much like she declines similar requests from creepy audience members at the circus. The professional performer can appear to be remarkably dense at times, as a defense mechanism.
She turns the page back to the AY4M3 model, indicating it with an open hand -- even pointing at a mere simulacrum of a human might be considered rude in polite Japanese culture. "Out of the ones you got, this one would suit our needs just about perfect." She laughs lightly, her cheeks beginning to return to their usual color. "I just got one question though: do we need to have the HitBits on when we fight one of them? I mean, this is supposed to be for our training, and we don't wanna broadcast our strategies to just anyone..."
At first, Yoshiaki looks confused, trying to process just what Honoka was saying.
He doesn't stop Junko from leaving; all his attention was on Honoka right now. In fact, as she leaves, the man inches a tiny bit closer to the acrobat. Her reactions to the pictures, though, just seemed to confound him. The man was frowning, deep in thought at the giggling girl. His face begins to burn. And yet, his expression was unknown.
And then, a steadily dawning look of elation.
"YES! YES! Oh yeah, the men! Just a second!" Was Yoshiaki's babbling as he quickly grabs another scrapbook. Pulling it out, he opens it up. And there, Honoka could see that... that Yoshiaki also had the men that fought more than two rounds. The first one was, in fact, Daniel. Combot had on a mustache and suit, and was reaching towards the camera with grabby claws, with a dark forest in the background. "Yeah, if you wanted more of a male experience, we definately have those!" He points to the various figures in their outfits. L33 and V10L3T were both in various stages of undress; one was reclining on a red velvet sofa, with several puppies covering where his genitalia would be, while V10L3T had a rose between its figures, acting as if it was sniffing it delicately. G4n was there in his Gedo uniform, and a Ryu was there as well, headband and all. Skullomania was of course included, though, strangely enough, HitBot was missing. The last one, of course, was Z4CH, dressed in what looked like a catboy outfit with a little striped tail at the end.
"The L33 one is our most popular, of course!"
Those words come out from Yoshiaki, a wild smile on his teeth. "A lot of the rich old ladies in town love having a L33 escorting them... for their own safety of course! But you'll be surprised about how popular the D4N13L model is, especially those who are afraid of being attacked by young ladies! And of course Z4CH definately appeals to certain demographics as well." Yoshiaki nods firmly. "I don't blame you for going with AY4M3, she's my favorite too! Now about the HitBit stuff, of course we wouldn't want that while training." He reaches out to put a clammy, sweaty hand on Honoka's shoulder.
"I definately care about your privacy!"
Well, that just happened.
Honoka feigns pleasant surprise at the -new- scrapbook that's placed before her. But inside... well. That Daniel is much, much more accurate to her memory of the detective than any photo she's seen. The caricature is... unsettling actually.
The L33 and V10L3T are significantly more worrisome, however: the juggler's expression betrays a bit more of unease towards the new subject matters. But... there's a term for these things.
"These make me feel... um... what's... what's the word...? Uncanny... valley...?"
That is not the term. Not even close.
Honoka glances back down towards Gan, and Ryu, and Skullomania -- all of whom she was able to fight in the past few months, under one condition or another. Their likenesses are... more readily obvious than many of the females. Unnervingly so.
She closes the scrapbook, moving her hand back towards AY4M3. She seems ready to discuss them, but her curiosity is piqued.
She doesn't get to act on it immediately though, as there's a hand on her shoulder.
Honoka turns to stare directly at Yoshiaki's eyes. Her smile falls. And, for an instant, her eyes become -very- scary.
Studies on infrasound have shown that exposure to a 17 Hz vibration produces feelings of anxiety, uneasiness, extreme sorrow, nervous feelings of revulsion or fear, chills down the spine, and feelings of pressure on the chest. No tone is produced -- but the net result is similar. Palpable. And, momentarily, -very intense-.
"... Tell me, Mr Shirata," implores Honoka, her voice ringing out as a bell against the oppressive dread mood which seems to have crept into the room. "What sort of demographics does Zee-four-see-aych appeal to? How are you, um, marketing and selling them?" Her eyes narrow, even glinting somewhat in the light reflected from the window behind Yoshiaki. "I mean... for one, I surely don't remember signing -my- likeness rights away, just the photo and video releases. Likeness rights are... pretty important to the circus, and that's one of the things Miss Fu--"
The door opens, and Miss Furukawa steps back inside. Her face is slightly damp. And she has a face mask on. "... Please forgive me, I may be coming down with something and I do not want it to spread." She glances back at Yoshiaki, and then to Honoka. "... Have you two gone and reached a deal without me?"
She smiles.
The expression does not suit her.
Honoka presses her lips together, lowering her eyes somewhat, and then turns back to Yoshiaki with a hopeful smile, casually sliding the male-combot scrapbook out of the way even further -- precariously, to the point that the slightest jarring motion might send it falling off the desk. "I think so, yes? AY4M3 looks to be just about perfect for our practice needs. Where do we go from here, Mr. Shirata?"
The expression change comes with Yoshiaki's own.
As she frowns, the elation on the man's face fades. And the frown turns into pure rage. The man didn't know why, but he felt utterly terrified by the strong, assertive presence of what was once a mild-mannered, sweet acrobat. So intense, so... commanding. She could practically tell Yoshiaki whatever, and the man knew that he would end up obeying like a puppydog. As the door begins to click open, and Honoka press those kissable lips together, Yoshiaki can only sputter quietly.
"S-s-so... tsundere!"
And with that, the door opens. The man clears his throat a bit, adjusting his steamed up glasses nervously. How did they get steamed up."Oh, well, I think she has picked out a good model. Though uh, actually, uh, Honoka seems a little confused about stuff, and I think we need to discuss a bit about that. I pretty sure you understand the arrangement better, but Honoka seems very tsu- very upset about the business of it."
The man goes into the pile, pulling out a stack of stapled papers.
"Ah, here we go. Lee was expecting someone was gonna bring that up; I might as well get ahead of it now, since he'll be upset if I didn't try to!" He places it on the table. "Ownership of your personal image is a serious matter, and I wouldn't want one of the best acrobats in the world to be mad at me over this. But if you look at, uh. Look at... uuuuuh..." He sifts through the contract. "Uuuuh... yeah, right here." He flips over the offending page, and shows a highlighted section. "Yep! You can go through there, but pretty much this was the liability contract to make us responsible for all the damages and stuff, to make sure that if something happens, we would be responsible for any damages; that's why HitBit... uh, ended up taking a pretty solid bath with some of the fights. I mean, we're doing great, just not on the books." He grins broadly.
"But we only have limited ownership with your likeness rights for it!"
He taps the contract merrily. "Yep, part of that grants ownership of pretty much all the data that passed through those devices, and through that I- we would own the Honoka Kawamoto image. Except well, we don't have enough info to replicate your incredible diablos arts, and since you are one of the -only- people who has that fighting style, we can't even fill the gaps like I did with some of the fighters." Yoshiaki nods firmly, grinning. "Like perfect example, the real Ayame doesn't have a Laguna Blade move." The man begins to speak faster and faster. "But what I did is take one of my favorite Animes, Slayers, and borrowed it from a character named Lina Slayers. She's a wizard from the land of Zelgadis, you see, who fights the evil Mazoru Lords with her boyfriend Gourry. She's really awesome, and I felt that she really connected with the cool shrine girl powers of Ayame, so I just inserted that right in! And believe me, I tried to fill H0N0K4's gaps, watching as much footage as I could, but it's almost impossible to replicate your awesome style!" %
He actually begins to blush now.
"And well, I had hoped that with this little exchange, I might have gotten the data, but well..." He trails off, pushing his glasses up his nose. "I think you guys might not have gotten that info from Lee, which is weird, because Lee said he was really vocal about it with you guys, but like, I dunno. Mr. Chaolan kind of does his own thing, and we let him, cause he's the boss. Anyways, don't worry about the HitBit stuff Honoka. I'll let you borrow one of my spare AY4M3 I keep on record for demos and stuff." He smiles broadly at both women, as if he said only things that made sense.
And stuff.
'Tsundere.' Honoka has encountered the word before, but the definition was so trite and uninteresting that she'd made a point of forgetting it.
Until now, of course.
The man pulls his hand away, though, so the psychic compulsion to instill feelings of dread into the man wasn't all for naught. It's played off as a legal battle -- one which, naturally, she cares even less about than the fanciful adjectives bandied about by the otaku subculture. The dere-dere mood, in other words, lasted only as long as the man was touching her shoulder in a more intimate manner than she'd preferred -- replaced by the more jovial, amicable smile that she shares with Junko Furukawa.
She holds that smile, even as the pseudo-legal discussion follows. There's... something -very- suspicious with the way Yoshiaki is holding this information just at arms' length from the ladies -- almost -daring- them to snap back and bite his hand. But Honoka, instead, takes Junko's hand -- deferring to the expertise of the financial officer. Both HitBit -and- the Twilight Star Circus have lost a great deal of money in this tournament, and they stand to gain a lot more if they play their cards right. If.
In turn, Junko knows to leave this matter with the lawyers. Beneath her face mask, Junko's smile turns into its typical frown, though that expression is conveyed only through the lowered eyebrows. "That is... fascinating, Mr Shirata, but I'm sure Miss Kawamoto will be happy to experience the Laguna Breed firsthand, isn't that right?"
Honoka smiles faintly, and nods. Her other hand raises, sweeping the black and pink tendrils out of her eyes. The look -is- different from the one she'd worn for her Rumble In The Streets -- and it'll be interesting to note whether Mr Shirata even -attempts- to market her current rose-colored look versus the one they should have the legal rights to. As she isn't wearing a HitBit -now-. The juggler flashes a bright charming smile back at Yoshiaki. "You've negotiated rights with the Slayers people too, then? This sounds really exciting."
She really doesn't mean it one bit.
"Great, I really look forward to testing out the battle system! We're trying to make sure that we're ready for whatever the tournament throws our way..." Honoka looks around the room, but her eye lingers on the empty spot in the book. The one left, almost -deliberately- for her to address.
"Hm. Well, I'm sure I can leave you with -some- data." Honoka gingerly reaches into her pocket, retrieving a gold Sharpie. And with an eager fluorish, she places her flowery signature upon the empty rectangle, just like those she leaves for just about -any- fan upon a signed photo. "We're in Toyama next week, are you planning to come visit us?"
Never leave on a -bad- note, she figures.
The smile fades slightly when she mentions the Slayers people legal stuff.
"Oh. OH." He mutters, jaw slackening. Shaking his head, he goes back to his smile. He had forgotten about that. Aaaagh. But all his attention was on the cutest acrobat ever."I can't wait until you test it... test it..." What was she doing with that sharpie. Eyes wide, he suddenly squees as he realizes what she was doing. "
And she signs it.
"Oh, wow Honoka! That's incredible!" He touches the spot. "This is even better than having my own Honoka-themed Combot! I will send AY4M3 over right away, Honoka! I can escort her right to your next show, personally." It. He meant it, right? He nods, winking at Honoka in the least sleazy way he could muster. "Cause you bet I'm gonna be there!"
"I already have the tickets, to bring my girlfriend with me!"
Judging from the way Yoshiaki responded when Honoka threw out her 'innocent' acknowledgement that all the proper rights have been acquired... well, that's telling. Honoka shows no appropriate visual sign to show that her statement was anything -but- innocent, though she does share a brief glance with Junko.
The finance officer's eyebrows raise up at the complete disavowal of a -cost- for this service, but considering the considerations made to legality up until now, she would not be surprised if cost ends up figuring into this somehow. Thankfully, she'd already arranged for a small nest egg for keeping the star juggler and her little 'fighting team' happy -- 'Just do your job and don't question the talent!' is what her boss always says. She folds her paperwork up as the deal seems to be nearing completion.
The juggler bows her head with a smile -- she's used to effusive praise for her simple gestures, and this is really no exception. Though, of course he -would- touch the spot in the 120 seconds it takes for the gold Sharpie ink to set in on a clear surface. Smudging it.
That's his problem now, she reminds herself.
She normally takes a moment to gather her thoughts, in keeping with the country bumpkin persona she'd held all throughout childhood. Here, it pays off in dividends, as the juggler was about to compliment him on his gusto in getting to the very next circus show -- only to realize that he's -bringing AY4M3 to the show-.
Honoka smiles brightly. She's had practice. "Wonderful! We'll save the best seats in the house for you. Just make sure to get there early, okay?"
The private seats. With black curtains keeping them away from the riff-raff.
"It is a date!"
Yoshiaki gives Honoka a wink, and a shake. And the deal is made. The two women would be escorted out. But Yoshiaki... Yoshiaki had some last business to take care of. Once Honoka and company are gone, he would look at his scrapbooks, and smile to him. Right at the smudged signature. And there, he would pull out his cellphone, and call a number.
"Hello sweetie!" He cooed into his cellphone. "Great news! I got to meet Honoka just now! You know, from the Twilight Star circus? And not only are our tickets gonna get us seats, but the very best seats! VIP! We just got to get there early." He is quiet for a moment. "I knew you would love it! Oh, I just can't wait to get home, and smother you with love." And then he laughs.
"Beep boop to you too, numpkins!"
Log created on 13:14:07 05/20/2016 by Lee Chaolan, and last modified on 13:26:50 05/28/2016.