Match of the Millennium

Description: Cherry Aguirre has been assigned, for surely completely unknown reasons, to patrol through Southtown Village and investigate sightings of a masked vigilante using some kind of supernatural powers. It probably should have been a mind-numbingly boring assignment, but-- she actually ends up finding the vigilante.

[DAISUKE]
How exactly does one handle superpowered vigilantes in a world like this? Especially so in a city like Southtown, where the concentration of 'Fighters' is at an almost absurd level. Hell, even some highschoolers have been known to throw around Chi-fireballs, and at least three of the local schools are veritable hotbeds for upcoming professional fighters amidst all the regular kids. Some lone guy extra-judicially taking a fight to the local gang and whipping them into shape with energy projectiles and lightning-fast kicks probably isn't something people even blink at these days.

Still, technically vigilanteism *is* against the law, what with all the judicial responsibility and such. Most of the time the police does end up turning a blind eye, though, on account of making their jobs easier.

But all that asides, there actually is, in this day and age, a masked vigilante stomping around Southtown Village. This might not be entirely that notable, besides the fact that most people in Southtown who get up to acting like Batman or Daredevil or whatever during the night don't actually bother to hide their faces.

But there is a part about reports of this vigilante figure that did come to be of some interest to at least a few officials in the local Novus Orbis Librarium office. All reports indicated that the vigilante in question primarily fights by employing physical manifestations of some kind of energy, but quick analysis of remaining energy signatures in places where they were sighted don't... match most known types.

Except perhaps one. Psycho Power. As rare as that is, and probably usually associated with very, very bad people, NOL probably has some manner of file or two on this particular type of power.

So the understanding that there might be an individual in Southtown with it who might not be already kept in chains by some shadow group or another probably got at least one person in the office salivating uncontrollably.

Not there was a lot of resources actually put into trying to locate the Masked Man of Southtown Village though. And yet somehow, Cherry Aguirre has been roped tonight to patrol through the areas where the individual has been most commonly spotted. There was several good months where there were no sightings or reports of their activity, before they picked up again a couple days ago.

Officially, she has been ordered to investigate the sightings of what was referenced as a "Potentially Rogue Powered Individual" and capture them if possible.

Unofficially, if she does succceed, they're probably going to end up in as a lab experiment somewhere. She probably was *not* told that part though.

Well. At least Southtown Village is much calmer during the night than most of the rest of Southtown. So maybe there'll be much less in the way of trouble than other assignments? After a pretty quiet prowl through the town it might very well seem like she's not going to find anything of note...

...At least until a couple police cars, with sirens alit, curve into an alleyway between two buildings in the more densely packed section of the district. And above, from the corner of the eye, one *might* notice someone actually leaping from one rooftop to another - very much in the direction of *away* from that alley - with a faint flash of greenish-blue energy at their feet helping propel them through the air.

Well. That's a lead.

[CHERRY]
'Somehow,' Cherry has been roped into this patrol.

NOL SOUTHTOWN OFFICE, YESTERDAY:

Unlike most other offices of the Librarium, Southtown's proximity to... a truly stupid number of fighters (and thus a density of supernaturally-powered individuals), plus being a huge sprawling metropolis that is home to a surprising number of multinational business HQs (and thus a density of supernaturally-powered individuals), PLUS proximity to a number of critical sites regarding conflicts between man and... an unexpectedly dense amount of supernaturally-powered individuals...

Means that the NOL Southtown branch is bigger, fancier, and more crowded than most of the branch offices. It also means there's more employees, and more employees means more gossip, which might account for the rank-and-file clerks behind desks currently having a hushed conversation.

"Have you met the new transfer? From one of the American branches?"
"With the red hair?"
"YES. She's so much. Are you in the betting pool?"
"What, the one about her getting fired? I hav--"

This discussion is interrupted by shouting from a nearby office, including a woman shouting "OH YEAH? WELL SHOULD YOU EVEN BE IN THE MYSTICAL POLICING BUSINESS IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT ONE LITTLE STOREFRONT?" before there is the sound of a slamming door and some retreating footsteps. Maybe better to call them foot*stomps*?

The gossip returns in hushed tones. "Doesn't seem a little tacky to be betting on that?"
"Come on, there's no way she'll last more than a couAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The gossip comes to an abrupt halt as an annoyed looking redhead leans over the cubicle, folding her arms over the top of the divider and giving the clerks having this conversation a poisonous smile. "One, you're way louder than you think. Two, my bet in the pool is third week of February."

NOW:

Totally inexplicable how she gets these assignments.

Still, as far as assignments go this COULD be worse, and Cherry does look plenty at home strolling the streets of the Village in a faux-fur wrap over her typical clothes and sipping idly from a peppermint mocha that steams away in a little cafe cup in one hand. "Was this the plan?" she mutters aloud as she walks. "I'm going to be pastorally BORED to death?"

This is when she rounds the corner and almost walks INTO a patrol car; there's a moment of the world holding its breath as she almost drops the mocha in the process before righting herself and looking around. Okay... Japanese police, armed with nothing more than strong language and a uniform. Clearly they're looking for... hello, what's this?

'Flash of light' at rooftop level almost certainly means 'this is not a job for the Southtown PD', and a grin breaks out on Cherry's face. "FINALLY," she bites out, before tossing the coffee cup in a nearby trash can and surveying her options.

...yeah, that should work.

"'Scuse me," the American says with 0 sincerity, as she hops up onto a patrol car, before leaping over and bouncing, Mario-style, off the head of a police officer. "Pardon me." Her jump takes her onto the bottom of a fire escape, which she flips onto effortlessly. "Comin' through."

As she sprints up the fire escape stairs, she's clearly enjoying herself. We'll see if that's still the case once that guy she just springboarded off of finishes the text message he's now furiously writing.

[DAISUKE]
Thankfully, the buildings around these parts aren't terribly tall, so Cherry likely won't take that much time, either, to go all the way up the fire escape.

Up on the roof, though, a figure in a black leather jacket with a red scarf and a black half-face cloth mask lands on the rooftop proper with all the grace of a practiced urban freerunner. An urban freerunner backed by superpowers, sure, but either way. The young, be-masked and be-scarfed redhead does continue on in a sprint to continue for the other end of the roof. But--

He hesitates there momentarily. Daisuke Kubo has actually managed to practice the psychic art of feeling out his surroundings pretty well during his time across the ocean. And that's why he can, much to his surprise, actually outright *feel* that someone is coming up after him for the roof. He did kind of figure someone might try to eventually give chase after him after he's done with one of his would-be-vigilante antics, but he still wasn't prepared for it. He stops there thus with that realization, to look towards the edge where the fire escape will inevitably lead, to briefly consider wether he should... well, just wait and see who exactly is coming.

But then he decides maybe he's best of *not* doing that and just keeping running instead. That momentary hesitation and consideration did, however, give the time for his unexpected pursuer to get up there just in time to see him bolting for the other end of the roof, and making a leap for the *next* rooftop. Much like before, carried less by the kind of muscle strenght some of the local martial artists might possess, and more by a jet-like burst of energy that has blasted from the bottoms of his sneaker-clad feet.

[CHERRY]
Even if it weren't for convenient psychic powers, there's the fact that whoever is coming after Daisuke up that fire escape is doing so at a pace considerably faster than the typical police pursuer. How do we know this? Because at the pace she's sprinting and taking two steps at a time even on narrow fire escape stairs, this means there's a *CLANG THMP CLANGCLANGLANGCLANG THMP THMP CLANG* from the fire escape itself as Cherry heads upwards.

However, good sense on his part means that he's probably already moving when the Idahoan's hand clamps down on the edge of the roof, shortly before the woman herself vaults over the edge of it to land on the rooftop at a crouch. As the redhead (well, the American one) unfolds upwards and takes in her surroundings, she has a second to notice the details: other rooftops perfect for a chase sequence, red and blue light reflecting on the nearby walls between buildings from the police below.

Oh yeah and some dork in a mask running away jet propulsion-style.

"Aw, *come on*," she mutters under her breath before turning in Daisuke's retreating direction and cupping her hands to either side of her mouth. "HEY, YOU. STOP RUNNING OR ELSE." Or else what? Nobody knows!

But, considering that Daisuke almost certainly hasn't stopped and that Cherry didn't bother to wait for a response before taking off after him at a good clip, there's a good chance we're gonna find out.

[DAISUKE]
Stop running, she says. Unsurprisingly, Daisuke does not, in fact, think to do so during his flight across the air between the buildings. Hearing someone actually use the phrase 'or else' is kind of novel in itself though, but indeed-- he's not really wanting to find out what will come as the 'or else'!

But he *does* stop briefly after landing there on the other side. Most people wouldn't try to make that same kind of jump, right? Certainly most police officers wouldn't -- which is what he is kind of expecting to be there behind him. So he, kind of foolishly, takes a few seconds to regather himself, and peek back...

...To see someone who very much does not look like a police officer running after him. And probably by then leaping the same distance he had just cleared too, at that.

"--You're kidding?!"

While the mask does hide his mouth hanging agape for a split second, it unfortunately does not hide the wide-eyed look of shock that the male redhead sports for the instant before he spins around again, in panic, to try to resume his process of getting to the destination of ANYWHERE BUT HERE. His misguided pause there might very well end up meaning, though, that Cherry will have landed on the same rooftop by the time his feet kick into gear to get him into a sprint again.

The next question is if she's going to get herself in arm's reach of him before he gets the chance to go weaving past the chimneys and the air conditioning units and to making another leap to extend the chase.

[CHERRY]
'You're kidding?!'

Folks, she isn't kidding. And despite the sleeveless top, skirt, and boots, the woman is also running like a goddamned linebacker, which gives the definite and probably very accurate perception that if Daisuke does not keep running, she is very literally going to take him right to the end zone, as it were. This means from HIS point of view, the decision to keep running is a wise one. And certainly, she won't try to--

Any thought that leaping across a rooftop would deter his pursuer likely dies on the vine as Cherry quite handily leaps, action hero-style, across the rooftop gaps, landing in a crouch. For a fun additional point of order, she is also doing this -- as can be seen once she's at slightly closer range -- in heels. Not like, spike heels or anything, but there's a definite height/arch to those boots of hers.

And when she stands up, Daisuke is... running again. "Oh, for christ's... fine," the NOL officer mutters, extending one hand as she runs.

Now, Cherry Aguirre is no magic-user, no spellcaster. But, the NOL does teach its field agents a few useful tricks and, more to the point, she is armed with rather more advanced tech than the typical grunt. In spirals of silver light, a curious sword starts to form in her outstretched hand; a long, somewhat thick bayonet-style blade has, near the hilt, a chamber almost like a pistol revolver. Once the weapon is phased properly into real space, the woman's arm flings upward, the blade describing a silver-white arc in the process...

...and a crescent of white-ish light flies PAST Daisuke to, quite neatly, slice a nearby A/C unit in half.

From behind him, he might hear a voice shouting, "I SAID 'OR ELSE'. YOU HEARD THE 'OR ELSE' PART, RIGHT?!"

[DAISUKE]
Daisuke might not feel very confident about a lot of parts about himself, but he does feel decently confident about all the running capability his time spent in track and urban parkour has given him. SO while the tenacity at which this woman - despite being inappropriately dressed for it - is giving him, keeping running seems like the best option still.

At least it does until an A/C unit is disected by solidified light sent from what one can only presume to be a magical sword of some kind. And just like that, all that confidence hastily retreats from within Daisuke, and the boy himself actually stumbles with the shock to the point of damn near falling over completely flat, only managing to save himself from complete embarrassment at the last second by turning to brace himself with one arm on the ground. A complete turn brings him facing Cherry, then, with his once-again-widened eyed staring at her and her sword.

"WHAT IS YOUR DEAL?!" he promptly shouts back, only sounding indignant by accident by way of some kind of stress/shock reflex. "WHO *DOES* THAT?!"

[CHERRY]
Cherry is not, as it were, particularly physically imposing. She is probably taller and heavier than the average Japanese woman, but not by a massive degree or anything. Still, as her warning(*) shot appears to have had the desired effect and Daisuke has stopped running away, she can turn 'full sprint' into 'easy saunter' as she finishes heading toward the tripped-up vigilante, one arm coming up and slinging the sword over her shoulder as she carries it.

Depending on the viewer, this is a surprisingly intimidating posture, all things considered, especially since when she answers, the woman is looking down at the ground. They use low angle shots in movies for moments like this for a REASON.

"So, I haven't been in Japan very long," the NOL officer says, with an offhanded, breezy tone, "but in the US, at least, it's the lady with the big sword who gets first crack at the questions, so why don't we start with: what's your deal, Discount Parkour Batman?"

She doesn't necessarily SEEM like she's gonna try and cut him in half or anything. That's a positive. Right?

(* or, in the case of the second floor apartment now without heat in the middle of January, no warning)

[DAISUKE]
The posture works well enough. And even besides that, it's kind of hard to argue about who gets the first question once you've so aptly demonstrated just what the big sword in question can do. So all Daisuke can really find himself doing while Cherry approaches him is to just faintly make a token amount of backward crawling before she is right upon him.

WHat's *his* deal, though?

"...Um."

For some reason, just that little noise alone sounds like he is genuinely unsure of how exactly what the answer would even be. But after roughly five seconds of waffling over it, he does manage to come up with: "...Just doin' my part for the neighbourhood...?"

There is a subtle shift of motion while he speaks, still. A turning in the propping of his arm underneath him, a bending knee to more properly brace one foot against the ground. Maybe he's preparing himself for potentially bolting again if the opportunity rises.

"I mean-- what are you, a cop...?"

[CHERRY]
Is it a good sign that when Daisuke asks 'are you a cop?' that Cherry's nose wrinkles a bit in the internationally known and accepted gesture for 'ew'? Maybe! After the initial moment of ick, the also-a-redhead shakes said red head and brings her sword arm down, letting the blade smack into the rooftop by the tip, which slams into the surface with the suggestion of considerable weight, making the fact that this lady was swinging it around with one arm like it was a wooden ruler suggestive of numerous potential things, few of them reassuring.

"Well, no. For starters, cops have to respect your human and civil rights." Ha ha! Cherry, you wacky funster, the Librarium officers have to do that too! Right?

...Right?

"Fact of the matter is, kid," she continues, leaning back slightly and crossing her arms over far too ample a chest, "if you're who I think you are, then I'd start working a little harder on your op-sec, since 'hey I jet boosted myself off a rooftop with fancy lights' and 'someone's been beating up gangbangers around here with fancy lights' is gonna get the attention of, say, organizations like the Novus Orbis Librarium. As an example."

Welp.

[DAISUKE]
The fact that Cherry reacts so negatively to the question (or accusation?) is at least a *little* reassuring. At first. It's not so much the way she maneuvers the sword down onto the propping on the ground that lessens that reassurance though. No, it's what she says *after*.

"...Eh?"

The other redhead does not seem like he took that one as a joke.

At least the fact that Cherry's arms are less busy handling the sword now and crossing over together (which, for the record, Daisuke's making a point of keeping his gaze *above* for reasons), the threat of getting cut in twain seems a little less imminent. At least less imminent enough that he feels it an appropriate enough time to set his arm against the remains of the ruined A/C unit and use that support to start pushing himself up the rest of the way from the ground while she's talking.

"And you're... one of them, then...?" He asks, though in the depths of his heart, he kind of figured out the answer to the question before the first word even left his mask-covered mouth. Which in turn makes sweat bead at his brow from more than just the prior exertion of the brief chase.

He probably would have preferred to be chased by a cop, all things considered.

"...So I guess your deal is that you've come to take me in to... whatever it is the Librarium takes people into? Probably not an all-expenses paid night out, huh..."

[CHERRY]
"Well, that's where it gets complicated," Cherry says back, heaving a little sigh (keep that gaze on her face, Daisuke). She seems annoyed, and while the youth standing/rising/crouching/SOMETHING-ing opposite her has no way of knowing it's not about him, it actually ISN'T about him. Sure, she may have a casual disregard for property damage, protocol, and on some occasions international treaty law, the American isn't an idiot. She's seen what the NOL does to beings it thinks of as 'dangerous' or 'intractable' and all of those solutions make that sort-of-a joke she just told about civil rights a little too real.

On the other hand: she really knows nothing about this kid, at all, other than 'there were cops', 'he ran the second someone he perceived was a cop came after him', and 'rocket boot powers'. There really is part of the NOL mission she can get behind: there are plenty of... beings... out there who have crazy powers who absolutely should be in a jail cell at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

"The question is, are you a good witch or a bad witch?" Her tone suggests 'I'm not a witch at all' is not an acceptable answer. One scarlet eyebrow goes up as she regards Daisuke speculatively. "Given that you're like... what, twelve? I suspect you're not a supervillain in the making, but please believe that if I turn out to be wrong about that and have to track you down and kill you afterwards I'm gonna be REAL upset at having been played the fool."

[DAISUKE]
"Why do I gotta be a *witch*...?" grumbles Daisuke still, perhaps against his better instincts considering just the kind of tone the other redhead was giving him just now.

And his choices of reactions just get even worse. He's only just managed to get all the way up to standing on his feet when Cherry makes her guess of the boy's age.

"Wh--" His eyes widen a little again -- but this time, it's not out of fear or the like, seeing as they narrow immediately after. Oh, it's exasperation this time. "Why's that your first guess?! I'm legally an adult!!"

Funny that he felt it necessary to clarify the 'legally' part, though. That could suggest any number of things, including some kinds of insecurities. Insecurities Cherry definitely isn't helping with *at all* right now if they are there.

Despite his protests, though, the exact kind of situation he is in currently isn't lost on him. But on the other hand, Cherry probably doesn't seem like the type who would actually just outright kill him on the spot. Or someone who wouldn't at least give him a chance to get out of getting thrown away into some steel box somewhere. That much he figures, at least, without actually trying to read the woman's emotional energies and surface thoughts. So with all that in mind, he doesn't actually seem like he's planning to make a run for it again. That much shows from his body language while he's leaning with one arm against the remnants of the destroyed bit of property.

"...Will you believe me if I say I'm a good witch? And do your bosses care?"

[CHERRY]
Oh, there is no way on this Earth that Daisuke will like the grin that spreads across Cherry's face when he clarifies he is LEGALLY an adult, that's for sure. Granted, it's not a grin that says 'I'm about to throw you in a magical gulag' so if one is okay handling mockery vs. threats, it's technically good news.

There's a little 'hup' from the American as she hefts her blade out of the roof and then holds it out to the side in the same general arc as her arm was when she summoned it; somewhat expectedly, the same silver spirals whirl around the weapon which promptly phases back out of existence into wherever it is barely-understood magical artifact swords go when they're not on THIS plane of existence. Is this a good sign, though? Reasonably speaking it seems like it should be, all things considered.

"Oh, I probably believe it," Cherry says, with breezy confidence, shrugging her bare shoulders. "Feeling like 'future supervillain' would have had a less dorky response to that crack about your age than 'NUH UH', first of all. As for what my bosses think, well... primarily that's based on the sort of information I bring back to them from my investigation."

The carmined lips twist into a wry smile again. "You feeling me on that one, Baby Batman?"

[DAISUKE]
For all the improvements Daisuke has made with both control over his latent psychic powers and his actual physical capabilities in the last almost two years, he... well. Still isn't that much better with avoiding getting flustered over getting teased/mocked/etc. And that shows just as much here: even with the mask mostly covering his expression, the embarrassed pout is *obvious*.

"S-shut up, y-you're the dork..." Real eloquent comeback there.

Well, at least he's... well, if not exactly relaxed, at least tense for different reasons now, since the sword has been dispelled out into whatever hammerspace Cherry's specific sword calls it's home on it's time off.

While he might audibly *huff* at the moniker of 'Baby Batman' then, he at least has the better mind to not actually actively protest it this time around, lest he make himself even more vulnerable to ribbing from someone he doesn't really even know.

"Fine, I feel you..." He mumbles, though the furrowing of the scarlet brows above emerald eyes still suggests he's not at all happy about being caught like this in the first place. "...So what do we now, exactly?"

[CHERRY]
NO U.

"Solid repartee there, kiddo," Cherry says with a predictable smirk. "Nailed it." Teasing aside, it's hard not to feel... well, 'affection' is maybe overselling it, but a kind of amused interest at people like Daisuke that she encounters in this line of work. The simple truth is that power really DOES corrupt, and half the time it's not a high school-aged proto-vigilante she's finding on the job -- it's cultists, renegade Darkstalkers with even less observance of human rights than the NOL, and all sorts of other baddies who genuinely DO need to be put out or put down for the safety of the world.

Finding a teenage dork in a mask is a refreshing change of pace, frankly.

Turning slightly, Cherry leans against the nearest tall object, which appears to be the entrance down into the building itself from the roof. "Good question. I can't just go back empty-handed, and the only reason I'm out here at all is because... well." A pause, a shrug. "Look, can you just do me a solid and say 'yes miss, I've been beating up criminals in my spare time, and I do with shiny lasers or something' and just get it out of the way? It will make the rest of this conversation go WAY faster, believe me."

[DAISUKE]
"UGH."

Look, while Daisuke might have caught on that it's better not to try to embarrass himself with any more poorly-thought-out comebacks, he still just *had* to make his displeasure known somehow, okay?

This time, it's Daisuke's turn to fold his arms over his chest, though, while she's making her request. There's another vaguely displeased grunt somewhere beneath that mask, and... then he, in turn, shrugs.

"Yes, miss," he repeats, in the same kind of monotone as someone who has been forced on short notice to be put up to act reading uncaringly off of cue notes without even trying to hide it. "I've been beating up criminals in my spare time, and I do it with shiny lasers or something."

He shakes his head right after all that he does go out to complain, "Not really how *I* would have described it, but..."

[CHERRY]
"Obviously, but that's some proof that I'm actually right," the NOL officer says in return, bemused. It's not as if she enjoys bullying Daisuke... okay that's wrong, she is clearly enjoying bullying Daisuke a tiny bit. But still, better that he deal with some vague embarassment at the hands of a rough-hewn American sense of humor than rotting in a proverbial (or literal, Relius Clover works here) dungeon.

It's probably not the best sign that people like Cherry are actually the nice and gentle arm of the NOL.

"You got a name, Robin Boy Wonder?" she asks, suddenly, out of nowhere. "And before you start giving me smartass responses like this is a spy movie, it's not so I can tag you like a shark or anything. But see it from my point of view. Someone's gonna ask what happened on my patrol. I can come up with a multitude of stories for the clerks who keep records on this."

The red-haired lady extends one hand out to the side, palm-up. "There's 'well, I met this kid named your-name-here, but he's just like any other local high schooler that can throw fireballs or whatever, not a problem.'" A pause, and then she extends the other hand. "Or, there's 'well I met some suspicious redhead in a half mask with jet boot powers who was really suspicious, I think we should keep a lookout for that one'."

[DAISUKE]
Daisuke wasn't about to give some smartass response.

...Okay, maybe he *was*. Just a little bit. But thankfully Cherry's well ahead of that to stop him from potentially making a complete and utter fool of himself again.

But that being said, even with her giving her pretty reasonable explanation why it's in his best interest to give a proper name to her, he still seems... well, apprehensive, would be the word.

"I mean... I get you," he mutters, with a wince right after from the slightly-delayed reaction to the implication of what her proposed second option would certainly result in. "But I kinda... don't want my real name in any records anyway. There's a reason I don't go around doing this without a mask."

Admittedly, part of those reasons is just him having hangups about the idea of any kind of fame in the first place. But there are still some very real concerns there too -- like someone from NOL who is much less reasonable than Cherry wanting to grab him for god-knows-what. A scalpel and an experiment table come to mind for him more often than not.

But now that he's at least a faint blip on the radar for CHerry's superiors, trying to stay completely anonymous might not be a reasonable expectation anymore. He understands that much. But...

"... I don't suppose you could get away with a fake name anyway?"

[CHERRY]
That question gets a raised eyebrow. "What do YOU think the answer to that is?" It's not that she's particularly all about the idea of Daisuke being in some database somewhere, but there's a nagging part of her brain that is saying he's not even remotely as anonymous as he thinks he is. After all, we live in a world of constant surveillance, be it by the government or private companies that want to sell your data.

Still. Even if only she realizes it, this IS a negotiation, and there's got to be some sort of way to work this out. Her consternation -- and thinking on the matter -- is probably quite evident on her face to any observers. And if she doesn't bring SOMETHING back from this, it's gonna be her ass.

Actually.

"Look, if I don't bring them *something*, it's my ass on the line," Cherry says, deciding to just put that out in the world. "This the tradeoff: yes, your name is somewhere in the NOL's books, though I'm willing to bet real money that if they were vaguely interested in you, your name is ALREADY there. But, my report says 'some dumb kid with sparkle fingers playing superhero, no real threat' and ideally they leave you alone. That's the tradeoff. Of course," and here, she tilts her head with genuine curiosity, "you could always try your luck beating me down and getting away scot-free."

[DAISUKE]
Wether or not Cherry realizes, the fact that Cherry will be in trouble if she doesn't get something out of him to appease her superiors with *does* strike a chord inside Daisuke. Poor kid can't ever help himself from thinking about other folks' troubles even if trying to do something about them will end up badly for him.

And besides, she is perhaps scarily good at providing good argumentations for why it is also kind of in his *own* best interest to just go along with this. To the point that once she gets around to suggesting the... third alternative, he... well. He doesn't look exactly eager for the thought.

"...I don't really *wanna* fight you," he mutters, glancing off away from the woman. "And I mean... even if I did beat you, that'd just mark me as a threat for the rest of you, wouldn't it? Then there'd be more later."

He sighs. The feeling that stabs at his mind now is the feeling of getting driven to a corner in an argument. And the kind of argument he really didn't want to get into in the first place at that. But he did, so now... all he can really do is admit defeat.

"...Kubo Daisuke," he offers after one more long moment of hesitation. He turns after giving that name, a bit more away from her, as if in shame. "...I'm choosing to trust you on this, okay?" Beat. "...And I don't *sparkle*, for the record."

[CHERRY]
With a faint grin, that gets a nod out of Cherry in satisfaction. "Thanks. I was starting to run out of vigilante superhero sidekick names, to be honest." That's a lie. She probably has an infinite well of popular culture references she could use to make fun of Daisuke, but there's no need for him to know that particular piece of information. She chooses to breeze by 'I don't want to fight you' which, to her ear, has strong 'I don't want to hurt you' harmonics, but his statement after it isn't really off base.

"I mean, not having to slam you into this roof by the head a few times until you're more agreeable makes my afternoon too." Okay, two can play that game, apparently.

There's a distant *VWOOP!* of a police car siren, but it's more of the 'alright, please disperse' sound than the 'we've got them pinned down, sir!' sound. The American turns to look at it for a moment, then turns back to Daisuke. "Well, Daisuke," she begins, exhaling a bit. "My name is Cherry, and I am just thrilled to be able to go back to my boss and tell him that one Daisuke Kubo is just like any of the other billion and a half Southtown schoolchildren who can punch a hole through a man's torso with their mystical powers or whatever. Seriously, why are there SO MANY of you."

A pause, and then a 'what-can-you-do/guess-I'll-die-dot-png' shrug as she continues. "Which is fine, because if my workplace asked me to track down and hound every high school kid with a superhero complex in this town they know I'd quit on the spot." A faint grin, at this. Conspiratorial, even?!

"One piece of advice, though: if you're gonna keep up this Halt Evildoers! schtick, you've gotta get noticed less often. Not every person they send out to find the Sparkle Vigilante is gonna be as broad-minded and helpful as yours truly."

[DAISUKE]
"Why sidekicks...?" Mumbles Daisuke in further complaint -- though the moment the second word has left his mouth, he immediately realizes he is going to regret voicing *that* protest too, if his brief experience with Cherry up until now is going to be of any kind of indication at all.

There is a quiet gulp in his throat though, with the imagery of her idea of how things would go if they ended up escalating. "Y-yeah," he ends up agreeing over the sentiment she carries with it, though. "I'd also rather not, um... go through... that." Not wanting to get slammed face-first into the floor probably isn't a very controversial stance to take in all fairness.

A single finger moves to scratch lightly at his cloth-covered cheek. "Um... I greatly appreciate that you didn't stab me, Cherry-san. For what it's worth. I mean, I also wouldn't really... do the whole punching a hole through someone thing. Even if I could." Could he, though? He hasn't really considered if that would be within the realm of his abilities.

He is perhaps not very eager to put that to the test either.

He does bow his head slightly at the advice she offers as her last point. Even if might partly come out as chiding too, at the same time. "...I'll do my best."

But then, a huff.

"...And I *don't sparkle*."

Log created on 11:50:37 01/06/2024 by Daisuke, and last modified on 09:58:52 01/07/2024.