Match of the Millennium

Description: Tairyu runs into Velvet Blue while doing some debt collecting.

[VELVET BLUE]
This part of Japan's most famous and large city happened to known as the 'wrong side of the tracks', or the 'right' side, if you were up to no good, or perhaps looking for some action--and we're not talking sports or videogames.

This was the den of drugs, prostitution and also gambling--not that the latter was particularly illegal in Japan--'fruit machines' as they were called were in lots of places. Think more high stakes poker games, and illegal kinds of betting in bars and clubs. This also wasn't too far from the old once-intended theater district, which was now host to massage parlors, cabaret theaters and bars that catered to various special tastes.

It was also the sort of place one could an everyman down on his luck, trying to make his last paycheck grow with a little betting--or perhaps just swilling away his dividends on whiskey. There was something to be had in every corner... though what you find might not be necessarily what you wanted.

[TAIRYU]
In a particular alleyway just outside of a paticular... cathouse, let's call it, the echo of blow rings out.

A man in an expensive-looking black suit falls to the curb, amongst the piled up trash there, with a pained cough-- while the shadow of another looms over him.

"I don't particularly like this, but there are rules, you know?" Growls the deep baritone of Tairyu, cracking his knuckles there while he stands over the man. "And even more so if you try to beat up the guy who has come to collect on a debt."

The man on the ground rises up right then, in a desperate bid of resistance, and aims a fierce, practiced punch towards Tairyu's face...

Only to be met by an all-too-casual uppercut right into his solar plexus, leaving him crumbling on the floor.

"...Seriously. This could have gone so much more painlessly." Not that the man probably has much of a consciousness let to heed the words with.

[VELVET BLUE]
A pair of yellow, cat-like eyes loom over a nearby rooftop at the sounds of bone cracking, a slow dance of a different kind. Not the type that one would expect in a place like this--especially not in this part of town.

There is the sound of some rustling above and something could be heard hitting the pavement from outside the alley and then proceeded by what sounded like boots--heeled boots, clacking against the pavement of the alley.

"You aren't just out here by yourself," came a voice--and Tai might be able to see a flash of what looked like deep purple long, heeled boots--attached to some humanoid figure coming closer, out of the shadows and into another light from above, illuminating them.

Yellow cat-like eyes, for sure--long ribbed pointed ears, like an animal--but that perhaps wasn't the weirded part--the long black full body suit with fur ruff around the shoulders, visible beneath a long black coat--and the long purple boots, the kind one might find in a club into vinyl dancewear. Of course, the voice and shape of the face would tell him he wasn't dealing with some freaky darkstalker chick--it might confuse Tai for a second, to be fair.

"Let me guess, he borrowed a library book too long," Velvet cast a glance to the man on the ground, then back up to Tairyu.

[TAIRYU]
"Hmh?" The sound is low, but loud enough to be heard -- signalling the realization of someone close by even before the figure in the darkness speaks up. It's right on time with the debtor falling down onto the ground in a limp pile of unconsciousness. And thus, right on cue with the figure calling out first, he cranes his neck to peer back over his shoulder.

Upon getting that first sight - the silhouette of the eared figure - he turns himself around the rest of the way then, with his brows knitting together.

"...The hell..." He mutters once he's fully facing the figure, and they're stepping further towards the open. Instinctively, he bends his knees slightly, feet turning subtly along the ground. "...Are you supposed to be?"

[VELVET BLUE]
"What's the matter, you never saw a guy with a tail before?" Velvet asked, raising a brow at Tairyu, clearly not afraid--but his statement also underscored the surreal nature of the situation--not only could Tai see a blue spaded tail sticking out under the hem of that long jacket, but there was also the fact Velvet had fangs, and was wearing some kind of shade of dark blue lipstick. Ruh roh.

"I'm a darkstalker, duh--and what did this poor sap happen to do?" Velvet frowned and crouched down, trying to get a better look at the poor man on the ground, even taking out a small pen-sized light to shine a light over him.

"I work around here, I also like to look after the old theater district, whatever this guy did, well... it's none of my business, but..." it was evident there was sympathy for the poor bruised and bloodied individual on that face. The yellow cat-like eyes peered back up at Tairyu, seeming to have their own illumination, and therefore stick out from the rest of the face far better in the low light. Come to think of it, so did the white ivory teeth--which might make one think of the Cheshire Cat.

[TAIRYU]
"... I can see *that*." Tairyu's seen enough Darkstalkers lately that he can well enough recognize one as such. Unless if it's actually a robot but-- that's a completely different matter, that. Either way, that doesn't seem to fully answer Tairyu's question either way, but he doesn't press on it. He remains standing there, turning just so that Velvet can get past him and down to studying the unconscious man.

"He just made some wrong decisions, that's all," rumbles Tairyu while he straightens up in his stance again, leaning his head from side to side to stretch out his neck. "Not being able to pay debts is one thing, straight up refusing even when you could is just asking for trouble. Not that I threw the first punch anyway."

"What of it?"

[VELVET BLUE]
"Don't we all," Velvet said with a confident voice, reaching down with long, dark-nailed hands to grab the man and hoist him up, sitting him up against the alley, sliding their right hand down the man's face. As the darkstalker concentrated, the skin of the man's face began to glow with a weird blue light--before fading, leaving unbruised and healthy skin behind. This continued as the performer slid a hand down the man's face to his chin--before letting his hand drop. Healing him?

"Well, he's a lot less worked over than I thought he'd be--considering someone like you got ahold of 'em," Velvet smirked a little. "You sure you weren't going easy on the pure schmuck?" Velvet crossed his arms, leaning back away from the two. "You are with one of the local families, right? Considering that suit..."

[TAIRYU]
Tairyu's brows remain burrowed down and together while Velvet does... whatever on earth he does, that ends up resulting in the bruises seemingly washing away. "I don't make a habit of crippling people for life over money," he grunts out, casting his eyes off to the side for a moment with a click of his tongue made against the roof of his mouth.

Once the Darkstalker has set leaning back, Tairyu too crosses his arms, with slightly narrowed green eyes moving back to watch him carefully. "You already know the answer to that, right? But I still don't get what you're supposed to be. Some darkstalker lurking in alleyways waiting soothe up people who get beat up on alleyways?"

[VELVET BLUE]
"Not usually--that's taxing for me to do--what you just saw, it's a lot harder to restore life than to remove it," Velvet clears his throat, as if having to compose himself after doing that. It probably did take some strength to do so, which probably wasn't the best of ideas given their not so safe location.

"I told you--I look after the old theater district, and I work around here--cabaret clubs, shit like that--I try to keep Syndicate from roughing everyone up, if I can, not /every/ Darkstalker just wants to hurt people, you know," Velvet shakes his head with a sigh.

"Though you don't seem like you're too into this 'yakuza' thing if all you did was crack one of his ribs, or did I... interrupt you two?" Velvet teases just a little bit there, arching a brow.

[TAIRYU]
"I see." Tairyu's brows loosen up a bit there, though the faint hint of a scowl in his resting face still remains there in spite of it while he considers Velvet. "You're not *that* different then. Just go about things... differently."

Something he says brings out a sharper reaction from the Yakuza, however. The words "Don't assume to know what I am like," are nearly outright growled out before he calms down again. "...And definitely don't compare me to the Syndicate goons without any principles beyond their own gain."

[VELVET BLUE]
"Not that different from what...? You never saw a darkstalker in boots like these, I take it," Velvet could apparently be a bit of a smart alleck at times, before shaking his head. "Ah well, least you didn't--" Velvet is then stopped by the taller, more muscled figure growling at him, causing the darkstalker to open his eyes wider a bit, partly in alarm.

"Well hold on there now--no reason to uh... blow this out of proportion," Velvet looks askance back down at the poor guy on the ground.

"Y'know, like what you did to that guy's face--" Velvet seemed to be trying to calm the man down.

"I could use more wise guys like you around the theater district, if you're ever around Kubukicho or the like, you could hit me up," Velvet flicks a card out of their jacket, holding it out to Tairyu.

The card said 'Velvet Blue, cabaret & drag performer' followed by a number. This was of course a more... civilian identity for the darkstalker. No dark one had a freaking business card.

[TAIRYU]
"Tch..." Tairyu at least doesn

"Tch..." Tairyu at least doesn't show any agression towards Velvet beyond that brief verbal outburst-- at least not intentionally. His looks paint him so deeply as Yakuza and his presence alone may exarberate all of that inadvertantly. Still, he makes an effort in showing a more calm state, even if some frustration remains.

It doesn't stop him from catching the business card from the air between two fingers, and giving it a curious, long peer. And then up at Velvet. And down to the card again.

"...And what kind of thing would I hit you up for, exactly?" he asks right as he slips the card into an inner breast pocket of his jacket. "... No offense, but I'm not exactly, uh... Into that kind of thing." Somehow, he manages to sound entirely deadpan when he makes this particular declaration.

[VELVET BLUE]
"Ideally I'd want you around to hit things, since you're not exactly very interested in hurting people, I noticed--I could use someone around the area with a little more... morals, I suppose, if you're not like the Syndicate shovelheads... and you know, if you ever need someone with supernatural healing powers, well," Velvet gestured to himself. "I'm pretty good at that," Velvet smiled and walked past Tairyu with a bit of a sashay in their step, the heeled boots click-clacking.

"To be fair, you didn't look like it--though you wouldn't be the first Yakuza to wanna hire me, either way," the performer grinned at him, shaking his head a little.

"Think about it, strong man," Velvet seems to be making his exit now, though he's still within earshot.

[TAIRYU]
"...I suppose that will depend on circumstances," mutters Tairyu, letting his arms unwrap while VElvet's sashaying their way towards the opening of the alleyway. His own posture is loose enough right then at least, to show that any kind of violence isn't under consideration right now.

Eyes are rolled at those passing words, however. "Told you, it ain't really my kind of thing..." He mumbles, with a low sigh.

"But... I'll think about the other things at least. When I have my freedom again."

Log created on 19:37:21 07/12/2020 by Velvet Blue, and last modified on 17:48:38 07/13/2020.