Match of the Millennium

Description: Nako has a surprise visitor - Dr. Maeda (and Max). While Nako is at first untrusting, she's offered an opportunity she can't turn down... especially with the possibility of adventure!

[NAKO]
Nako Irie, Taiyo's resident Darkstalker, is not actually that hard to find.

She lives in one of the brownstone apartments with her 'adoptive parents', who own and operate one of the small comfortable coffee shops in Southtown Village. Technically they aren't even married, because that's not legally recognized in Japan. Haruki Irie and Reika Tachibana are, on paper, business partners. Who share a house, along with their 'daughter' Nako.

Nako does not work reguarly at the coffee shop because... well, she's not very good at it! She may have skills, but being a barista is not one of them. Sometimes she gets roped into cleaning but she'd rather not, and so she frequently makes herself scarce instead of ending up clambering around and cleaning the windows or something.

Which is why she's out and about! Right now she is just wandering from small shop to small shop with no particular plans. She must have come from school because she's still in her uniform, with a pair of leggings added to the normal design. She might be known as a fighter but there's no sword today - just her!

[MAX]
It has been many years now since Darkstalkers ceased to be objects of fear and wonder. The first portal to the Makai tearing open reality and shattering humanity's belief that they understood the universe took place over a decade ago. That small invasion proved to be a catalyst, the excuse that dozens of ancient hidden societies and creatures of legend needed to cast off their masks and emerge from the shadows - some to haunt mankind, some to protect it.

So while the sight of a catgirl in a school uniform wandering down the street draws no stares of wonder or fear, neither does the pair of NOL soldiers marching along the opposite side of the thoroughfare in their iconic blue uniforms. Unlike the scattered civilian traffic, the two soldiers cast sidelong glances at Nako as she idly meanders towards whatever destination has piqued her interest. They do not pause in their stride nor does their gaze linger overlong but even such small gestures carry subtle meaning. While the average citizen might have come to accept their presence there are yet those who harbor lingering grudges and mistrust.

However, it is not the unease of narrow-minded bigots that keeps Dr. Maeda hidden in the shadows. She's dealt with fools of all kinds in her line of work. Annoying, certainly, but never more than minor impediments to progress. But the past year has seen fit to remind her that there are those who consider her choice to leave the secret organization of which she was once an esteemed member to be a crime for which there is little forgiveness. Despite its dissolution and the public condemnation of the U.N. for even conceiving of such a thing, the GEAR program yet retains a few die-hard loyalists. And such zealots have never let bygone ghosts lie in peace.

The scientist watches with quiet patience as the two soldiers patrol down the street and eventually vanish from view. Only then she does turn her head to regard the small figure huddling behind a large wastebin, so thoroughly hidden by the shadows that only a pair of faintly glowing pink feline eyes give away her presence.

"The coast looks clear. Let's..."

The first sentence has hardly left her mouth before the huddled figure explodes into motion. A flash of purple fur rockets straight up, scaling the side of the building so quickly that its practically a blur of color, there and then gone in the blink of an eye. Dr. Maeda's mouth slowly closes and the words of caution she was about to utter die stillborn on her tongue, her lips pressing into a thin line of annoyance and resignation.

She had expected this but that made it no less frustrating to deal with. Keeping her ward safe often meant leaving her couped up for weeks at a time. Letting the rambunctious creature back out into the world was like opening the door for an outdoor cat that had been kept inside for the winter. There was only so much she could do to restrain herself.

The purple blur resolved itself into a small girl as it whipped sideways over the edge of the building's wall and landed on the roof. Max's lips pulled back into a wide grin, fangs flashing in the afternoon sun. Her arms flexed, unnatural cords of powerful muscle rippling beneath the bulging furry forearms of her chimeric body. It was exciting to be outside again! The sights, the smells, the feel of the air on her face! She always relished these opportunities to run free, which seemed few and far between since her time on the island. Her mother had her reasons, of course, old enemies that would take any opportunity to enact revenge upon her. And, unlike some of the other humanoid GEARs, she isn't exactly hard to notice.

The small girl shakes her head, casting such thoughts aside for the moment. Now isn't the time to be worrying about such things! There's an opportunity here, one which she hasn't had for a very long time. Max's grin widens as she darts into motion, skittering over to the edge of the roof to peer cautiously down at the street.

It only takes her a few moments to locate her target. While Darkstalkers might not be unusual sights these days, they're still pretty rare, and there's only one that happens to be walking down this particular street. With a single powerful leap, Max bounds over to the next building, creeping along the parapet like a predator stalking its unwary prey. With inhuman speed and grace, the bio-weapon quickly gains on then overtakes her target, bounding ahead to the building in front of Nako's apparent path.

Taking a death-defying plunge over the edge of the wall, the GEAR's long feline tail snaps out, wrapping around the railing of a fire escape as she plummets towards the hard concrete below. Her tail goes taut as it extends but a quick application of chimeric magic turns the prehensile appendage into a stretchy almost elastic state. Like a bungee cord, it stretches as she falls, slowing her descent more and more until finally bringing her to a brief halt less than a foot in front of the meandering Darkstalker.

"Hello!"

Max dangles upside-down in front of her target, a Cheshire-cat grin full of sharp teeth stretching almost from ear to ear. She has only enough time to wave with her massive clawed hands a couple of times before the tension in her tail snaps her back up into the air like a rubberband. A few seconds later gravity reasserts its dominance and she drops back down in front of Nako again, still grinning like a cat who got the cream.

"I'm Max!"

[NAKO]
If Darkstalkers weren't at least a little bit accepted, Nako would never have been able to attend Taiyo. Even as is, it had taken her quite a while! There were worries - was she dangerous? Whether or not she *meant* to be, there was always that risk, amplified in her case because of her amnesia. Who was she, really?

She still stands out. There's nothing that can be done about that! Fortunately, enough people consider her cat ears more cute than menacing tha she can get by with a big smile a lot of the time, though the snake-like tail is a little less cute to some people. And the nails. Just because Nako likes to paint them and doesn't scratch does not mean they aren't a little pointed, a little claw-like...

In the last year or so, she's caused no real problems, though. She even entered the NFG, which went well enough on her part - she certainly didn't cause any more problems than most of the competitors! So she is accepted, if not always perfectly. Japan *was* attacked, after all. Some people have longer memories than others, and not all of them distinguish between Darkstalkers, Gears, and other scary things that go bump in the night. Nako's strategy is to try to be as not-scary as possible.

Nako keeps half an eye on the NOL soldiers but doesn't bother them, and in turn they don't bother her, mostly because a teenaged girl looking at a display for a new phone isn't really a problem. Not that Nako doesn't HAVE a phone, of course! But it's a little older.

She is distracted enough by it that she is completely surprised when a purple figure drops out of the sky in front of her!

"Ah!" Nako takes a startled step back just as Max dangles in front of her... for a moment, until she springs right back up. Nako follows her movement, looking up at where Max is hanging from before she drops back down again.

Her eyes are a little wide. She's startled, not afraid of the other Darkstalker, but - "Who are you? Max? I've never seen you before...!" A beat. "Aren't you dizzy hanging upside down? All the blood goes to your head AND everything else flips around - "

If Max's tail starts to pull her back up again, Nako watches her bounce upward. "And that happens!" she says, more loudly, before Max drops again.

What is another Darkstalker doing here? she thinks. She knows there are others, of course - she's even met a few! But generally she just doesn't run into them on the street! Was the other one looking for her? ...has she seen her NFG matches? Some of those were worse than others...

[MAX]
Nako can't see it, what with Max being yoinked back up into the sky by her springy tail, but her reaction of surprise fills the small girl with absolute glee. The little troublemaker has always found amusement in jump-scaring the unwary, her inhuman appearance causing everything from shock to absolute terror. The looks on their faces are always hilarious and Nako proves no exception, even if she isn't technically a human.

"Nope!", Max responds, answering her new friend's worry about potential disorientation due to her unnatural position. The whole problem with blood rushing to your head only matters when you actually -have- blood. And while she does have something similar to blood keeping her organic bits healthy she's more of a golem than a biological creature. One of the many perks of being an engineered life form. Of course, all of that is way too much to get out in the couple of seconds she has before bouncing out of range again so she settles on a simple one word answer.

The next time Max dips into conversational range she finally releases her grip on the railing above and extends her arms above her head, neatly dropping into a handstand. She remains like that for a couple of seconds, grinning at Nako like a circus performer putting on a show as her tail retracts and shrinks into her tailbone until its completely gone. The thick bulging muscles on her forearms shrink back down to normal proportions as well and the bright purple fur seems to retract into her skin or simply vanish into the ether leaving a, mostly, normally looking young girl standing on her hands. Of course, her skin is still a shade of pale purple and her irises an unnaturally neon fuchsia in hue but otherwise she looks completely human now.

Rolling sideways into a cartwheel, Max pops up onto her feet and does a quick spin to put a final flourish on her performance, arms going wide as she proudly chants, "Ta daaah! Cool trick, right?"

[NAKO]
Nako may not have been frightened by the way Max looks, precisely, but she *was* startled by her sudden appearance, and that's just as good for a jump scare! You never expect a purple catwoman (or whatever... Nako isn't very sure) to fall out of the sky at you!

And Nako is pretty sure she has blood, so there's one difference between her and Max - even though she's got no idea what blood type she might possibly be. Not that she realizes this. But hanging upside down isn't fun for a whole bunch of other reasons. It's disorienting!

Nako had thought about just holding Max still if she was going to try to talk instead of trying to follow her bouncing up and down and up and down... but when she hops off she doesn't have to. Though the shapeshifting is a new trick. Nako can't do that! She thinks. She tries to pull in her nails just in case she never thought about it right before.

...nope, nothing happens.

"It's a pretty cool trick," Nako agrees. "And so's the changing!" It would certainly make her life easier if she didn't have to try to fit clothes around a tail - wait, it's probably actually *harder* if the tail leaves and comes back, Nako realizes; never mind. Her own snake-ish tail curls halfway around one of her legs, almost self-consciously.

"But, uh..."

Nako trails off. Then: "...hi?" She's still a little confused as to why Max was here. "Were you, uh... lost? Because I live around here, but we don't get a whole lot of Darkstalkers just dropping in like that..." That's not an exaggeration. None of them have ever dropped in QUITE like Max. "Though I get why you might want to talk to another one?" She looks around, hastily, to see if someone's listening. She's certain there were people LOOKING, Max is pretty eye-catching especially when she's doing acrobatics.

(Nako does not do acrobatics. She never learned how to cartwheel. It doesn't look THAT hard though...)

[MAX]
Max smiles smugly at the praise, putting her fists on her hips and thrusting her chest out like some kind of super-hero posing for the cameras. It's a little bit less heroic that she has to smirk upward at Nako, being half a foot shorter than she is, but her diminutive size has never done anything to hamper the little chimera's spirit.

"Nope!" she declares again, seeming strangely enthusiastic. "Not lost! Also, not a Darkstalker. I'm a GEAR! Though I guess it can be hard to tell just by looking sometimes."

Well, if people weren't staring and giving them a wide berth before, they sure are now. Ky Kiske and the Sacred Order have done a lot of work to try and salvage the image of GEARs as something more than mindless bio-weapons but outside of the country of Ilryia there are few who share his optimistic views. Japan, of all places, is not where one goes to find pro-GEAR sentiment. To simply declare that openly, Max is either very strong or very foolish.

Considering she doesn't immediately start looking worried about the reactions of everyone around them, it's probably the latter, what with NOL headquarters being in this very city.

"My mom wanted to talk you," she continues, offering a proper explanation for the purpose behind her surprise ambush while raising the question about how a bio-weapon has a mother. "Not sure what about but she doesn't go outside very much so it's probably important."

Bending sideways to peer around Nako, the girl scans the street behind them and her face lights up almost immediately.

"Oh, there she is!"

Somehow maintaining her balance despite being half-tilted over, Max waves enthusiastically to a middle-aged Japanese woman making her way closer. Having ditched her lab coat in favor of a slightly less obvious jacket, Dr. Maeda hardly stands out at all among her countrymen. Only the narrowed eyed glare of discontent that she fixes onto her wayward ward and the fact that she's moving towards them instead of hurrying away sets her apart.

"She's not nearly as fast as I am," Max says as she straightens up and turns to regard Nako again, "but that's not her fault since she's just a human. So I came to meet you first so she could catch up."

[NAKO]
Nako isn't even all that tall, really. Five foot three isn't SHORT in Japan, sure, but she's no giant! So she's not used to having people look a half foot up at her. She feels like she should step back just to give Max a bit more room, but she's preeeeetty sure Max would just walk right back into her personal space at this point. The pose makes her grin, though. She can't help herself. Nako watches superhero movies too...

"A Gear...?" Max is *definitely* the first one Nako has met. She feels like taking a step back for a different reason - but she doesn't! If she doesn't want people to be afraid of her, the first thing she can do is not be afraid of them. Right?

(Needless to say, Nako has never been to Ilyria.)

"Your mom wanted to talk to me?" The fact that Max has a mother is, perhaps, not the weirdest part to Nako. Nako is also a nonhuman who has parents who she isn't biologically descended from - she knows she's adopted! So Max could just as easily have been adopted, even though she didn't think Gears normally call people 'mom'... or maybe there's another Gear somewhere around here? Until Max adds that her mother is human, Nako gets a mental image of a bigger, toothier Gear.

No, the weirder part is that somebody she doesn't know wants to talk to her for reasons she also doesn't know. That doesn't happen often, except occasionally with fighting planners, now that NFG is over and her name is out there.

Nako straightens up when the woman Max indicates starts to come over. That must be her. But she speaks to Max, first: "I don't know about 'only human', but it's okay if she's not that fast..." Nako is pretty sure she's not as fast as Max either! At least, it probably wouldn't occur to her to jump off the roof to get down quicker, even if she is guilty of climbing into places she probably shouldn't be once in a while.

But something occurs to her... is this an ambush? It's the weirdest ambush ever if it is, but Nako can't help herself from thinking it, though she can't think of WHY it would worry her right now. She looks uncertain for a moment before she puts a cheerful smile on her face for Dr. Maeda as she comes over.

[MAX]
Dr. Maeda, as it turns out, is the polar opposite of her 'child'. Where Max seems to be a font of boundless energy who speaks with her entire body, she moves with a sharp purposeful gait wasting no effort on pointless motion or gestures. As she approaches the dour expression on the woman's face remains firmly fixed despite Nako's attempt to welcome her with a smile. Her features are attractive, if muted, with no visible sign of make-up to accent her natural beauty. Long brown hair is parted into a pair of twin tails, each one draped over one of her shoulders. Though she's ditched her lab coat for the sake of subtlety, the pair of high-tech lab goggles hanging loosely around her neck make for an obvious conversation piece.

Narrow almond eyes skewer the GEAR with a disapproving glower that makes Max wilt like a vampire being exposed to sunlight. But she doesn't unleash the barrage of verbal reprimand that's welling up inside of her, knowing full well it won't do anything to alter the little rascal's behavior. Instead, she turns to regard Nako with a deadpan stare, seeming to size her up like a specimen awaiting dissection.

"My apologies for any discomfort Max may have given you. She's developed an unfortunate taste for introducing herself in such a flamboyant manner."

Whatever chastisement Dr. Maeda's glare had imposed upon Max seems to vanish quickly and she sticks her tongue out, winking cheekily at Nako.

The scientist leans forward in a slight bow, introducing herself with a curt gesture.

"Dr. Eiko Maeda. Former researcher for the UN."

[NAKO]
Nako does not recognize Dr. Maeda. Which is not a surprise at all. She wasn't expecting to! But it's always worth checking..

Nako is clearly being friendly, though. She's smiling, but in a way that doesn't show her teeth, because she has a bit of fang that sometimes peeks out and she's trying not to. She's standing in a way that makes her look unthreatening - just a teenager who's run into an adult she doesn't know at all.

She doesn't much like the look she's getting from Dr. Maeda in return. It makes her feel like... Nako isn't sure. Uncomfortable, though. Like she's being judged on something she didn't even really do. It faintly makes her think of a bad dream she's had, though not lately, so the details have kind of slipped her mind by now.

"No, it's fine," Nako says, and while she isn't precisely planning to defend Max she finds herself doing it anyway. "She just surprised me, that's all! I'm not used to people showing up quite like that." Her smile gets aimed at Max instead, this time. She saw that wink!

Former researcher? Nako stiffens, looking a little less comfortable than she did a moment ago. And she wasn't that comfortable! She gets nervous sometimes and Dr. Maeda is making her more nervous than usual. Is she being studied? Is that what that was?

"My name is Nako," she introduces herself in response. "Nako Irie. Um, but you might have known that already..." She trails off, gathers herself, and continues!

"What can I do for you, Doctor Maeda?"

[MAX]
Unfortunately, the poor doctor -is- used to having the daylights scared out of her by Max's fascination with sudden dramatic appearances. While she has managed to discourage such behavior at home the devious little trickster finds every opportunity to 'introduce' herself to the unwary in much the same manner as she did with Nako. Perhaps it's her inhuman nature that allowed the girl to weather the jump scare with more stoicism than most. She had to start getting the postal service to drop her deliveries off at the end of the street after the first dozen or so workers filed complaints.

If the scientist takes notice of Nako's reaction to her profession it doesn't show on her face. She's used to people being afraid of her - or, more often, being afraid of what they think she is. The people responsible for creating GEARs had mostly gone into retirement or vanished entirely, most likely being recruited by various entities to continue their research in secret. Maeda wasn't naive enough to think that the public denouncement of the Special Projects division in the wake of the Judgement incident was enough to fully deter further experiments. That she hasn't been approached yet herself is either an indicator that she's covered her tracks better than she thought or that her public appearance alongside Max in the NFG has made her too well known to harass.

She regards the Darkstalker in silence for a few long seconds, contemplating the best approach. She'd come up with a dozen different fabrications while planning this interaction, each equally complex, each designed to obfuscate her intentions. But recent circumstances had gifted her with something far more convenient and much less likely to fall apart under scrutiny - an opportunity.

"I know a fair bit about you, Miss Irie. Everything that is publicly available," she says, waving a hand through the air. A faint blue glow of power flashes across the surface of her fingertips and a small holographic display appears hovering in the air between herself and the girl. An image of Nako's photograph from her school ID sits in the upper center of the display with several boxes of text neatly sectioned out around it, each containing various bits of her personal data.

The first few fields are nothing out of the ordinary. Name, age, height, weight. The school she attends and her current grades. The clubs that she's joined and the name of the small coffee shop owned by her adoptive parents.

But as the dossier begins to scroll through further pages the information contained within grows more personal. Details about her fighting style and the weapon that she uses. The composition of the blade and design schematics, break downs of her movement speeds and reaction times for each technique that she's used in the past. Biometric data such as average heart rate and blood pressure when she's under stress. There's even samples of her blood that have been analyzed down to the molecular level.

The display remains visible for several seconds, giving Nako the time to realize the sheer depth of scrutiny that she has been placed under by this mysterious scientist. Then Dr. Maeda waves her hand again and the magical hologram vanishes back into the aether.

"And much that is not."

[NAKO]
It certainly does help that Nako is less likely to be afraid of Max's appearance. Startled, sure! And she was; she wasn't expecting someone to jump out at her, and she probably would have felt better about it if she'd had her sword with her (though it's good she didn't because she might have drawn it, and while Nako uses a blunt sword, it still stings). But the actual existence of a purple feline person is more surprising than scary, really!

She's far more worried about Dr. Maeda. Coming to the attention of a strange scientist just seems like it might be a problem. Especially one that works on (worked on) Gears...

Nako's discomfort grows when Dr. Maeda looks at her in silence. Is something wrong? Is she about to get grabbed right off the street and handed over to NOL or thrown into a black lab? Her pose doesn't change much, but her scaled tail unloops from around her leg at around the same time her ears flatten down slightly.

"Hey, that's my school ID!"

Nako recognizes it, of course. It's not that weird to see, but she's pretty sure that Taiyo doesn't just hand those out to other people unless it's important. Same with the rest of the early entries: 161 cm, age best-guessed to 17, her clubs and her home.

With a little 'eep', Nako tries to use her hand to cover some of the other non-height measurements (including her weight!) as well as her home address, and just ends up sticking her hand through the hologram. She's not THAT heavy but she's not a super lightweight either, and she likes to keep that OFF her fighter display, thanks! And she doesn't want people bothering her parents. "Don't just put all that out there in public!!"

But the rest of it...

Nako's wooden sword (because she likes an oak bokken, more like a club than a sharp blade... it's less likely to hurt somebody badly, even though she's strong enough to make it a real weapon anyway). Her maneuvers and her heart rate and her blood type and a bunch of other things that Nako doesn't know enough science to understand, all just out there where anyone can see!

"How did you even GET this? That's private! *I* don't know some of these things!" Nako stops trying to use her hand to block the hologram, which didn't even work very well anyway. "Why are you spying on me...?"

She's definitely not happy about it. The tension is visible in the way she stands and holds herself. Fight or flight? She hasn't decided!

[MAX]
"Observational extrapolation."

After a moment, the scientist remembers who she's talking to and exhales through her nose. Dealing with laymen is always tiresome. People complain about big complicated language as if she uses her vocabulary just to sound smart instead recognizing the incredible amount of time it saves everyone when you can condense a complicated topic down to a few words.

"I analyzed the footage of your fights. You can learn a great deal more than most people think by simply watching someone, particularly in regards to martial combat. The things they do. And the things they don't."

Dr. Maeda's voice remains calm and conversational, ignoring the obvious distress that her unusual insight has created. Her deadpan expression and monotone voice give off the impression of a bored teacher chatting up a co-worker at the water cooler rather than a rogue scientist, whom many would happy classify as mad, accosting a seemingly innocent school girl.

"It's quite fascinating, really, the science behind the locomotion of the human body. But I suppose you aren't actually human."

Behind Nako, the small Gear has dropped into a feline crouch, her powerful senses directed at the street around them. As much as she enjoys conversations, explaining complicated things is her mother's wheelhouse; keeping watch is hers. Many of the curious onlookers think twice about sticking around as the bio-weapon's sharp gaze falls upon them, the unblinking neon stare unsettling even in her mostly human form. It's like being sized up by a lion at the zoo only there isn't any glass or bars to keep the monster from actually following through on whatever wild thoughts pass through its head.

"As for your biometrics." The scientist taps a finger on the thick technological goggles hanging around her neck. "The combination of magic and technology has allowed for a great many advances. Taking someone's pulse from a distance is child's play if you have the right tools."

As for Nako's final question, which is arguably more important, the doctor finally breaks her gaze away from the Darkstalker's face and gazes down the street. She's never been very good at lying. What she's about to say are mostly half truths but she still doesn't like looking people in the eye when speaking anything but solid facts.

"The reason I joined the Special Projects division was to keep humanity safe from the threats posed by supernatural entities. My opinions on how to do that diverged from those of my superiors, so I took Max away before she could be polluted by their hatred. Since then I've spent a great deal of time trying to find ways to help humans and non-humans co-exist."

It has often been said that the best way to conceal a lie is by mixing it with a healthy measure of truth. This tactic has served her well thus far and she continues to make use of it, spinning the pretty web that will ensnare this new little fly.

"Your circumstances intrigue me, Miss Irie. While you have shown no difficulty in assimilating into human society, your lack of memory regarding your origins is rather unique. Darkstalkers tend to be quite aware of where they came from, considering the options are either the Makai, an alternate dimension, or some form of long-term concealment."

[NAKO]
'Observational extrapolation' is actually something Nako understands, long words or not. She does some of that every time she watches another fighter herself, just without the benefits of measurements or devices. She does it by eye!

And it's not useless. She's learned enough to help her in her fights before, after all! It just feels different when it's a scientist doing it to you, and so in-depth. And some of the information doesn't have anything to do with her fights, so she must have gotten them the other way, like her school records.

Nako stops trying to cover the hologram with her hands as she hears Max settle down behind her. There's no real way Nako can turn to keep an eye on both Max and Dr. Maeda at the same time, but she does take a little step and turn a bit to try! Her ears perk up as she at least listens to Max even if she can't quite see her.

And Dr. Maeda, too...

Nako isn't sure why Dr. Maeda is looking away from her. Sometimes SHE gets flustered and can't meet someone's gaze, but even after knowing Dr. Maeda for only a couple minutes she cannot imagine the other woman ever being flustered. But she doesn't consciously think about it, either.

Her tail flicks once as she listens. She helps humans and non-humans coexist? Nako glances over to Max then. "Is that right?" she asks the other Darkst - no, the Gear. Just because Max looks like a Darkstalker to her doesn't mean she is.

But she answers Dr. Maeda afterwards. "A lot of people can't remember their history!" Nako says, which is an exaggeration... but she's not the only person in the world with amnesia either. She rarely talks about her history this far back - not knowing more is kind of uncomfortable!

She does, though. "I don't know where I'm from, but I live here now. It would be nice to know, I guess, but I have a life, at least! Since they let me go to Taiyo..." She's definitely one who *wants* to assimilate into human society. She just wants to be a normal teenager... or at least a normal fighting teenager, these days. (That's not that unusual though! There are plenty of people who like that lifestyle. Even if for different reasons than Nako, who seems to have an instinctive grasp of how to use her sword...)

"So, um, I think I'm co-existing pretty well!"

It's half-true, at least! Nako's shown herself to fit in well enough at Taiyo if she plays the role of gutsy student, cute mascot or pretty kemonomimi, no threat to anyone outside a scheduled fighting match. If she acts safe, in other words. But how much of that is her and how much of that is the role she has to play - well, that's a different question! She wants to be more than the part-animal freak... she wants to be accepted as much as anybody else.

[MAX]
Max's head snaps back towards Nako upon being addressed, her reaction far more animal than human. She stares at the cat girl for a moment in unblinking silence as she mentally rewinds through the last few seconds to understand the question. Then her smile returns, lips peeling back to reveal her own pointy fangs without any apparent concern how others might react to seeing them.

"Yeah! Mom spent years teaching me all sorts of stuff about how to fit in with humans."

The Gear tilts her head to the side, expression thoughtful as she reminisces.

"Mostly I watched a lot of movies and read stuff on the Internet. I didn't really get to meet anyone until we joined that contest on the boat. But Mom argued with a lot of big tough people about treating me normally. Some of them got mad but there were lots that were excited to meet me! Like my friend, Tanwen! She's a dragon, she is."

Dr. Maeda remains silent while Max engages with the conversation, happy to let the more sociable creature try to calm the Darkstalker down with her rambling stories. Regardless of how much trouble her wanderlust causes, the Gear has always been extremely loyal and fought just as hard to defend the scientist and her motives. People tend to be more trusting of the bio-weapon than they are of her, which would be odd if it wasn't literally what Max was designed for. Small and cute; excitable and eager to befriend; deadly and without human remorse. The perfect infiltrator.

"Of course."

Dr. Maeda steps back into the conversation once Nako tires of her ward's babbling, her soft voice as placating as she can make it.

"Were I under the impression that you were making no effort to assimilate we wouldn't be having this conversation." She shakes her head, turning to look the Darkstalker in the eyes again. "In the interests of furthering your efforts on that front, I bring an opportunity that you likely would not have access to elsewhere."

"We're going on an adventure," Max proclaims excitedly, unable to contain herself any longer. "Back to the island of fire!"

Dr. Maeda frowns slightly and flicks her eyes at Max but doesn't reprimand her beyond that quick look.

"The former Isla Zaca of NFG fame, to be precise. According to the somewhat jumbled message that was sent to Max by her young draconic acquaintance, Tanwen has taken it upon herself to organize an expedition back to the island. Several veteran fighters have been... convinced to join in this escapade, some of which have had extensive dealings with the supernatural."

[NAKO]
Nako is only half a catgirl, though she tends to draw more attention to it because, well... snake tails tend to make more people uncomfortable than cat ears and slightly unusual eyes!

She does listen to Max and feels a certain degree of kinship there. Before Nako went to school, that's exactly what she did - watched movies, read books, had Internet access. It might not have given her the *best* view of human society, but it certainly equipped her to get by in a way she probably couldn't have before.

And she does trust Max, or at least more than she trusts Dr. Maeda, at the moment. Whether it's because of Max's skill with infiltration or not! Nako, after all, is somewhat the same way, though she doesn't have a Dr. Maeda steering her; friendly, eager to please, not particularly scary-looking. Though she does have more of a sense of morals, maybe.

"A dragon!" Nako has seen some of last NFG's matches, of course - none in person but she got to watch the broadcasts. She is at least somewhat aware of Tanwen and her nature and she brightens at Max's confirmation. "Maybe one day I'll meet her."

Maybe sooner than she thought.

"You're going on an adventure?" she asks, looking from Max to Dr. Maeda and meeting her eyes right back this time. "Oh, to Isla Zaca? I've never been there," which is one of the most obvious things she's said, "so I don't know much about it besides what they put on TV..."

Dr. Maeda is talking about an opportunity. About gathering people to go there, some of who are fighters, and some of which know a lot about the supernatural. Her eyes widen slightly, but she doesn't want to look TOO eager!

"I'm listening!" Nako still sounds pretty eager to hear the rest of it.

[MAX]
Well, things are going more smoothly now. It would have been easier if she could have just started with that but randomly being asked by a stranger to embark on a safari to a lava-covered island that's serving as the prison for some kind of demon kami seemed less likely to have any better reception. Not that the girl seems to be aware of that particular detail and the doctor isn't about to bring it up. Now that they've gotten the introduction out of the way the rest should be smooth sailing.

"It's nothing too complicated. It just seemed that giving you the chance to interact with some others who have ties to the occult might prove beneficial. Perhaps you'll learn something about your origins. If nothing else, it will be an opportunity to pick the brains of more experienced fighters. You can think of it as a training camp, of sorts, if you like."

Behind her, Max pipes up once again, thrusting a fist enthusiastically into the air.

"Adventure!"

Her head tilts again as a thought occurs to the Gear.

"We'll have to pick a class for you. I think I'm a monk, because I fight with my hands. You have a sword so you'd probably be a fighter."

Max gives the Darkstalker a once over, seeming to notice the snake-like tail for the first time. She stares at it unblinking for a few moments then tilts her head the other way.

"Your sword is more of a stick though. And I think we already have a fighter. Maybe a druid?"

[NAKO]
It's true that Nako probably would not have listened if Dr. Maeda had immediately brought up Isla Zaca and that there might be things of supernatural interest there. But after hearing her for a while... well, Nako still doesn't trust her. She's not THAT innocent! But she does trust Max a little more, and she's at least willing to hear Dr. Maeda out, so that's good enough, isn't it?

And honestly? Bringing it up as a training camp where Nako can talk to people who might know more than her is enough to hold her interest, not just catch it. It's a pretty good idea, honestly! She's been wanting to get some more training in since NFG Rivals ended, and at least Tanwen is someone she'd like to meet. The possibility of learning more about Darkstalkers - maybe even herself - makes it even more appealing. But she can't be TOO enthusiastic about it!

"I'd want to talk to my parents first," Nako says, with a little more firmness. There's a smile, though. "But it doesn't sound like a bad idea." She can take care of herself - she's a fighter, after all! - and with the Japanese school year breaking in March, she won't even miss too many classes, which makes it a much easier sell to everybody involved.

Yeah. She's pretty sure she can make this happen, if she wants to...!

Max's suggestion makes Nako frown instead. "A druid? I couldn't be a druid! I like computers, and my phone, and all sorts of things. And they shapeshift, anyway," Nako points out. "YOU shapeshift. I don't! Maybe you're the druid...?" Nako has never thought about it before.

So what is she? "Maybe... no, I think I might have to be a fighter," Nako admits, once she has a few moments to think about it. "I think you can have two of those. I don't know all of them, though. I only know a little!" She does read her fantasy novels, but she's never played D&D - just some video games. "So maybe I'm something else. I'd have to think about it."

Nako looks back at Dr. Maeda afterwards. "I guess you know my phone number already," she says, frowning at the thought of all the information about her that the doctor has. She feels pretty exposed by that... "But maybe you should give me yours, so that once I talk to my parents I can get back to you. Or whoever I need to!"

[MAX]
"Oh."

Max ponders this new perspective for a moment, running through what little she knows about Dungeons and Dragons. Tanwen let her look at the rule book for a little while but she mostly skimmed through the text, far more interested in the elegant artwork of armor-clad knights and strange monsters. If shape-shifting is a druid thing then that probably fits her better.

"I guess that makes sense. We'll have to ask Tanwen to make sure. She's the expert on this stuff."

Nako's request to confirm the invitation with her guardians first earns a quick nod from Dr. Maeda. She expected the girl would need permission first, or at least desire it, and there's no harm in letting other people know their destination. With Junko cast into the volcano and sealed by the NOL the island's only real hazard these days are the active molten vents - an obvious and therefore easily avoided hazard.

"Naturally."

The scientist lifts one of her hands again, blue energy flowing out of her sleeve and onto the back of her hand in the shape of a mystic sigil. She gestures vaguely in Nako's direction and a thin gossamer strand of light extends from the tip of a finger and spears into the Darkstalker's clothing, seeking out her phone. Information flows into the device, a new entry in her contact list appearing magically in the most literal sense.

"If your parents wish to make further inquiries, they are free to contact me."

[NAKO]
Nako's grasp of Dungeons and Dragons is filtered through novels and video games - she's never looked at the actual rules! - so Tanwen is apparently the expert they'll all need to go to. Though, there's something funny about asking a dragon how to play Dungeons and Dragons... it's amusing enough that Nako can't hide a smile about it. "I guess we will!"

While Nako is sometimes a little oblivious, or a little less clever than she could be, even she isn't about to go poke a molten vent, so those hazards are probably not much of a concern. Unless the volcano changes, anyway. But she's not going to be the one to bother any seal!

"Great, so what is it?" Nako reaches for her phone so she can enter whatever number she's given when Dr. Maeda does magic at it instead - the light goes right into her pocket as she starts to pull it out, almost causing Nako to drop it in surprise.

Look, just because she's a Darkstalker doesn't mean she does magic! The only kind she knows is some of her sword techniques. And those could be chi... Nako isn't entirely clear about all of the differences, having never had an expert to ask or any real training that she can remember!

"You could have just told me..." Nako holds her phone a little suspiciously, as if Dr. Maeda read the texts and history off it instead of just adding her own entry to the contact list. Nako's going to have to check that later.

Still holding her phone in one hand, Nako gives a slight bow to Dr. Maeda. She's being polite, at least. "Then I'll be in touch soon!" she promises. "I'll head home and talk to them about it."

And, unless Dr. Maeda (or Max, who Nako smiles at again) has anything to say to stop her, that's exactly what she's going to do!

Log created on 15:20:46 03/05/2026 by Nako, and last modified on 18:14:40 03/14/2026.