Description: After meetings with Haggar and Sakura about Cody's involvement with Rugal, Megumi leaves a message with Cody's friends, hoping Cody will meet her so she can offer some help to get him out of his situation. Cody shows up expecting a date with someone else, probably Jessica. Hilarity does not ensue.
Shrine
Odd. Placed in a small clearing of forest, almost in the middle of nowhere, is a small Shinto shrine. It consists primarily of a miniature building and the lengthy, stone walkway leading down to the stereotypical stairway. The entire place, however, seems to be in disrepair, and isn't in the least occupied...and hasn't been for some time.
Cody enters the shrine area by way of the path from the outskirts.
Cody has arrived.
It's late afternoon, early evening. Still plenty of sunlight even if it is starting to show the earliest signs of giving way to the night. Out in a cleared area of this forest at the edge of Southtown, someone's waiting.
Megumi's sitting just outside the shrine building, one foot extended outward while the other leg rests beneath it, knee against the ground; a posture that will let her quickly get up if she needs to. Out of options for getting in touch with Cody, she left messages with his friends, hoping he'd hear. Hoping he'd come here.
Cody had heard, alright. Unfortunately, certain details had been omitted when he was informed, and so he hurries through the forest towards the area he was told to go to, carrying a bag of breathmints and shoving a handful into his mouth every few steps, chewing violently.
Whatever he thought was going to happen, though, obviously isn't, as he bursts into the clearing and sees not Jessica waiting for him but Megumi. He doesn't so much slow as keep going for a few moments and then simply abruptly stop, staring intently at the girl before frowning and saying, "Oh, if hoo." As he does, various bits of mint and whole mint drop out of his mouth. Swallowing is impeded by surprise.
Megumi notices that look. She'd been waiting rather calmly and patiently, but she noticed how Cody looked at her like that, and her own attitude mirrors that now; she looks a little disappointed...and 'quiet.'
But she gets to her feet, taking a moment to dust off her shorts. "Yeah, it's me. Cody, I know what's going on. At least, I know most of it. But I want to hear the rest. I don't like what's going on...because it doesn't sound like you at all."
Cody doesn't say anything for a moment, chewing thoughtfully a few times and then swallowing before speaking. "Know which what's goin' on?" he asks, cautiously. "Because, you know, there's... lots of things going on. At any one time, right? It's like the whole... chocolates thing."
"..." Megumi just gives Cody an odd look for a few seconds. Not answering right away. "I'm talking about Rugal. Haggar told me some of it, I figured out more of it on my own, and Sakura's telling me you attacked her..." Her voice is pretty light right now. Clearly not all that happy right now. Not angry either, but probably more...upset would be a good description.
She begins walking over towards Cody, stopping about four feet away if he doesn't move. "None of those things sound like you...they don't 'feel' like you, either. Why are you helping Rugal Bernstein?"
"Oh, yeah," mumbles Cody, looking away. Reaching up to scratch at his nose with a thumb, he mumbles a few incomprehensible things before recollecting himself, looking back, and explaining, "Well, what else am I gonna do, right? The dude busts me out of prison and is all, 'Hey, you work for me now.' I didn't really have much... choice."
"I thought it was something like that...so he's blackmailing you into it?" Megumi's still not very elated about this discussion, but she had a pretty good idea of what to expect even before Cody showed up. "What exactly is going on?" Cody may be looking away, but she's staring straight at him.
"Uh. I guess that's one word for it," agrees Cody, with a cough. "It's not really that, though. It's more like... well, you've seen Big Mike fight, right? He's tougher'n me and Guy. And this Rugal dude, he _pasted_ him. It was like when I fought that old dude, Aura or whatever. I mean, it wasn't totally one-sided, but it was pretty brutal."
Megumi has no clue who Cody's talking about with this 'old man Aura' stuff. Her confusion is shown with just a light head-shake before she gets back on-topic. "So...it's more or less power? If you don't serve him, he'll kill you or tear you up? Is that it?" Her tone is still very light, those last questions sounding like inquiry for inquiry's sake, rather than rhetorical accusation.
"Pretty much, yeah," confirms Cody, with a nod. "It's not like they'd be less powerful without me, right? I'm just doing things they'd have other people do if I didn't... you know, do them. So it's stupid to even think about risking my life to get out."
Megumi's staying right where she is, hardly even doing any idle motions. "You're working for a group that doesn't value your life at all. And doing things that make more enemies for you. Sooner or later someone will want revenge, or take you down while you're carrying out orders for Rugal. He doesn't care about you." She's just guessing on that one, but it's a reasonable guess.
"So you're working in a situation where you have no friends helping you. None at all. Just a group that tells you to obey or die. Can't you see where that'll go if you keep being their lackey?"
"Look, I know, alright?" snaps Cody. "I just... I'm working on it, okay? I don't _want_ to work for these guys, but maybe dying in awhile is better than definitely dying now. Besides, I haven't even attacked anything yet. That thing with Sakura, I think her name was, that was a misunderstanding, is all. Kinda."
"Sakura, yeah." Megumi's quick to confirm identities here. "I think the words she used were that you tried to take her pants. I'm guessing she was being literal about it." A short pause as she gathers her thoughts. "All you're doing is prolonging it, Cody. Making it take longer. Working as the lackey for a big crime ring, can you think of /any/ good outcomes? You're not leaving...only because of how strong this Rugal is, right? Is there anything else?"
"No... no, that's pretty much it," repeats Cody, nodding several times before hurriedly continuing, "But look, I said I was working on it, alright? Just stay out of it. You might get hurt if you mess around with dudes like him."
"Cody?" Megumi's giving him one of those looks, the sort you get when you say something really obvious or really baffling. "Haggar said the same thing. I'm not quite as mixed up with it as you are, but I already am involved in it. Him, Iori, Vice, Mature, Bison, Billy Kane, Styles, that guy with the mask and claw...I've already pissed off most of 'em somehow or another, and they're all in the same racket."
So she's wrong on some of the factual details there. She doesn't sound any less convinced of what she's saying. "And besides, do you really think this is a one-way thing? You help save an entire city from the worst of organized crime there, and now you're gonna have to fend for yourself when some other crime ring decides to take over your life, make you do stuff that's not you? Do you honestly think that's how it works, Cody?" Now she's starting to sound a little more worked up. More firm, as she goes into that tirade.
"I ain't a hero," protests Cody, frowning and looking away. "And this is my business. I ain't just gonna get other people involved. If a bunch of other guys want to... you know, fight evil or whatever, okay, cool. But I'm not part of their crew and they're not part of mine."
Megumi presses this. She steps in and to the side, ducking down a little so Cody has to look at her; and if he just keeps looking away from there, she'll keep moving. "Okay. So you won't accept help because of that, huh? Kind of ridiculous. But let's forget about Metro City for a sec."
"What about me? The stuff you've done directly for me. I can think of a thing or two that I owe ya for. And I'm already involved, so don't tell me you don't want to see me get hurt by this. I'm tellin' ya flat out, person to person, I wanna help. I want to help you fix this."
"Look, there's... you can't..." argues Cody, looking back at the girl as a result of her unspoken insistence and reaching up to scratch at his head, distressed. "If you... okay, look, how would you help even if I let you, huh?"
Megumi's first response is a little casual. "Who knows." Yeah, that's a big help. "But I can do stuff. You can't go back to America because it's a federal case, right? So you have to stay out of America...means you need somewhere to stay. I can arrange that if you need it. As for Rugal coming down to smite you? I..."
This next suggestion, she's not too sure about. She takes a step back from Cody, no longer all that inclined to be in his face. "I can help you fight him. And I think others will too. I know they will, if I talk to 'em. We can make it not worth his trouble. So long as there's people helping you out directly, it makes it a lot harder for him to force you to do things."
"He's got friends, too," points out Cody, shaking his head. "He's also got, like, a giant Goddamn boat. I mean not even like a yacht, this thing's a battleship. You know, like the board game. Besides, it can't be that good an idea to go up against this dude and his crazy secretaries and stuff with, like, schoolgirls."
Megumi doesn't look...entirely pleased with what Cody said. "Gee, thanks. Glad to see you still think I'm some fragile prissy doll. But if you won't take my help, there is another option. Krauser. Strolheim. Far as I know, he doesn't particularly like Rugal's employees...I bet he'd feel the same way about Rugal himself. And Krauser's good. Real good."
Megumi's irritation at what she took as an insult fades away. "I think we should talk to him. Maybe you could work as a teacher there or something, until this gets sorted out. He might go for it."
"I just... look, I'll think about it, okay? But I'm not going to commit to anything right now. I'll see how safe it'd actually be there. I'll... do you have, you know, a house or something? -- Hell, of course you do. Gimme your phone number, I'll call you or something," Cody stammers, at length.
Megumi reaches into her pocket, pulling up a piece of paper. "Given this out so many times I've started carrying a few as really cheap equivalents to business cards..." She holds it out for Cody to take. Name, phone number, and address; Apartment 401 at Gorin Heights complex right here in Southtown. "Krauser owes me a prize anyway. Student at Strolheim, my ass. If you do want to stay there and need a little extra justification, I can try to use that with him. But whatever you figure out...let me know, okay?"
Her face goes back to that 'quietly upset' expression she had earlier, "I don't like seeing you like this. So please let me know. Do something to get out of this."
"I'll work on it, okay? Don't worry about me," insists Cody, taking the paper, looking over it quickly, and then sticking it into one of the pockets of his jeans. "Everything'll work out for the best. You just wa-"
He's cut off by a digital-sounding guitar riff from one of his pockets, which brings about a grimace. "Aw, ass."
Megumi has a very quick retort to that, even as Cody's phone rings. "I am worrying about you. That's why I'm here, y'know. But it looks like you have a call, so, later." She moves to walk past Cody, aiming to leave. Leave Cody with just himself, his phone, and this empty shrine.
"Later," agrees Cody, waiting for a moment for Megumi to get a fair distance away before pulling the phone out of his pocket, glaring at it for a moment, and then sighing and simply letting it ring, stumbling over towards where Megumi was sitting earlier and dropping heavily onto it, rubbing at his eyes with one hand.
Log created by Megumi, and last modified on 18:26:43 03/07/2005.