Description: Roberto and Natsu catch up on events when Roberto finds himself saying good bye to his rival and both Roberto and Natsu find themselves saying hello to an ally.
It's a fine day outside of Taiyo High. The sun is just starting to turn the sky from brilliant blue to melancholy orange. Only the dedicated club members are still drifting around the school yard. Most of the students home by now.
Natsu is one of the faithful. Along with her usual garb, she has a sweat towel draped across her shoulders. Natsu is standing near a bench near the front of the school, drinking a water and watching the other students go through their routines. It's nice to be back in Japan, after all.
Roberto can be considered one of the other faithful. He can be seen walking away from Dome Arena glancing to and fro as if he's trying to hide from someone. And any Taiyo student privy to rumors would understand why considering he's been forced to become the boyfriend of Gabriel Kai. And one of the duties of the boyfriend is to walk her home after soccer practice.
In the process of sneaking away from Gabriel though he trips and falls flat on his face. When he looks up he notices Natsu, a large smile on his face. "Natsu! It's good to see you. Quick! Hide me!!"
Natsu looks down at Roberto. This isn't usual for him. Her face turns up into a quizzical look, her mouth and nose twitching to one side. She relaxes her knees a bit, crouching down into her usual stance, and looks warily around the school yard.
She turns her head over her shoulder, her eyes still out front, "Why? Who's after you?" She looks around. This is seriously confusing Natsu.. Roberto isn't usually one to back down from a fight.
If it were a fight it would be completely different issue altogether. As things stand, it's more of a problem with Cupid getting totally f***ed-up and aiming his arrow at the wrong person with poor Roberto being the one to pay.
"I'm trying to avoid having to walk my 'stalker' home." After a few moments Roberto gets back up to his feet with a semi horrified look on his face. "I didn't even know I was dating her and suddenly I'm her fiance? Natsu, I'm too young to get married." Roberto takes a deep breath and returns to the calm, rational Roberto that Natsu is probably used to as he says, "If you won't hide me, atleast give me advice on how to deal with this crazy chick. I've even had crazy news reporters coming to me about this. It's only a matter of time before Ran gets involved."
Natsu can't help but turn her face up into a smirk at that. "So," She begins, placing one hand on her hip, and tossing the water bottle into the bag, "It's finally time for me to mediate on your fights?" She grins, and looks around the school yard. "I'm been in America, you know... Who is this..Stalker of yours?"
"Ran's back around? And that other news reporter chick?" She shakes her head, "A lot sure changes." She smiles, "I don't have much advice for crazy chicks. Maybe you could find someone to date that you actually like?" She shrugs, smirking, "You can walk me home today..."
"I wish I had known. I was in America for a couple SNFs and the Preliminaries for the World Warrior Tournament. As for the stalker, her name is Gabriel Kai. She has a bit of reputation for being a religious zealot." He gestures in front of him before he begins to walk and talk. "Damned if I know why she's after me."
Roberto glances over at Natsu again as she shakes her head. "I haven't heard much from her lately but like I said though, it's just a matter of time. The crazy reporter in a witch's costume showed up at my apartment and when I asked her to leave, she went for my door. And considering my brothers safety, I had no choice but to forcibly remove her from the premises." He shakes his head as he continues, "She somehow found out about Gabriel and me. She ended up photoshopping our faces onto underwear models... badly." After Natsu advises him to find a girl he does like he touches his chin for a moment and then nods, "Fair enough but what will keep her from interfering with those dates."
Then as he walks he looks up slightly at Natsu, "Sure. Right now, it'll be nice to walk home with someone who's not trying to marry me."
"Gabby is your stalker?" Natsu smiles a bit as she hears this, "She's a nice girl! You two would make a great couple!" She giggles at this, and pats Roberto on the back, "Come on. Let's get out of here before the Photo Club shows up." She winks over at Roberto, so glad to be on the giving end of the relationship jabbing for once. She starts out walking away from the bench, picking up her back as she does so. Her eyes are darting around, looking for the 'enemy presence'... As it were, anyway.
"Yeah yeah... Gabriel and I a great couple? And next you're gonna tell me that Shoma doesn't make you all warm and fuzzy inside." He wasn't even gonna start the relationship jabbing but after that remark, it's on now!!!
Roberto is likewise is glancing around Taiyo's campus for that 'enemy presence.' Though Roberto's a tad more jumpier and if the leaves ruffle the wrong way he's gonna prepare to goalie dive into the bushes.
Enemy presence? Well...if you consider a large, black, and likely American man about 6'3" in a cycling jacket and shorts an 'Enemy presence'...then yeah, they might notice him. However, Heavy D! hardly bears any ill will toward the two Taiyo sports stars. In fact, he seems to be around, holding a note in his hands, rubbing the back of his head as he tries to ask most of the departing students about...well....
"Excuse me...know where I can find a...Natsu Ayuhara?" he asks one particularly geeky looking boy who he has at least a foot on.
Dusk? Wuh oh, that definatly means that it's almost time for dinner. And the school cafeteria that Sean Matsuda goes to is actually pretty darn far away! Well even still that's where Sean is headed now, and having come from.. Uh.. A certain someone's house, it happens to bring him passing by Taiyo today with his trademark(??) red, blue and white basketball signed by himself in hand. Woah and hey look at that, there happens to be a face he hadn't seen a while since he was spending all his time training at Ken's! Jumpy? Well it's not like Sean can tell, in fact while not being very fast, he seems to be in Roberto's blind spot so he bends slighty at the knees, jumps, and shoots for a three. Right atop the goalies bean hopefully!
Natsu grins, and looks around as she hears her name. It's often that fans come from around to find Natsu, but they're usually not so... Well, adult. She glances over, watching Heavy D talk to the boy, who undoubtedly knows who I am, and points over in our direction as soon as the name is heard. No doubt as Heavy D walks away the boy stumbles over his feet, dropping his books again.
This is how Natsu manages to miss the incoming projectile aimed at her friend. SOme protector she'll likely turn out to be!
Roberto doesn't see the ball coming and it bounces off his head with a dull thud, and then the ball bounces in front of him and slightly off to the side. The ball in front of him triggers the goalie reflexes and he dives to clutch the ball in his hands as he dives over the shrubbery.
As the Taiyo soccer star is about to continue to hide when he realizes that that Basketball could only come from one person. Roberto's rival from Pacific, Sean Matsuda. "Hey Shane! Long time no talk!" Well he has heard of that nickname from secondary sources. He's entitled. He glances at Natsu as she moves towards D! readying himself to jump in if need be but he's continuing to make his way towards Sean with a smile.
Heavy D! blinks as the kid trips over his own feet and drops his books. "...Hey, sorry about that," he says, pondering whether to help the kid first or move over toward Natsu. He finally decides on helping pick the books up, handing them off to the clumsy kid before looking up to Natsu. Tall girl...even by American standards. Hell, he barely has a few inches on her. "...Natsu Ayuhara?"
Well hey, if by chance Natsu isn't the world's best bodyguard, she is pretty goo- er, intimidating looking, right? That's gotta count for something!
Sean gives a small grin to the goalie, which faulters when he dives into the bushes. What?
"... Uh. Woah?" he finally says when he's adressed, brows furrowing to the infamous mixed up named, "Geez, Tron, you know I hate that name! Give me a break, will ya? How the heck have you been, I noticed you've been getting back into the fighting scene lately." Himself, he's fairly fresh from the World Warrior but.. Well there's nothing for him to brag about there. His fist extends to meet the goalies. Respect knuckles, baby! Though his eyes do on ocassion wander to look to Natsu. That.. That's a tall girl.
Natsu is caught flat footed at, seemingly from out of nowhere Roberto is attacked! Man this chick is crazy. She whirls around, crouching down again, ready to fight. Then she sees the Roberto, instead of kicking someone in the face, is waving and smiling.
She hears her name called, then. She whirls back around, and puts her fists up. She looks over then, her breathing already in that slow, rhythmic breathing that she uses to fight. She looks up.. and up at Heavy. Her probing eyes search anything she can out of his face. Not ready to let her guard down yet... "Yeah?" is all Heavy gets.
"You get to call me Tron. It's only fair that I call you Shane, right?" Roberto extends the knucks in return and glancing at the basketball before speaking up again, "Yeah. I ended my hiatus when I went up against Mimiru. I did better than I thought I would in the World Warrior tournament. I didn't think I would get past the Prelims let alone as well as I did against Kyo. I wish we could've went up against each other though." The goalie rolls the basketball in his hands a bit when he sees the signature his eyebrow.
The goalie analyzes the basketball player carefully before letting his face lighten up a bit, "You dropped something you goof ball." He has a bit of grin before it gives way to laughter and mirth growing with every second and then there's silence for Sean's response.
D! recognizes that kind of apprehension. He's seen it before in fights, as well as in those that felt...well, threatened by him. Usually, they deserved it, but in cases like this, he's not looking for a fight. Even if what he IS looking for is somewhat related to fighting. "I heard a lot about you. YOu have a unique kind of fighting style too, I hear. Sports based, right?"
Sean thinks on this for a moment. In fact, he takes a good long moment to think on it, all for about roughtly 7.5 seconds until he slumps his shoulders a bit in defeat, "Bah.. All right fine, I'll give you that. And yeah, that would have been sweet but you know what? That's finals material or something, like.. Like Ken vs Ryu. Like.. Hugo vs Alex. Stuff like that. I still can't believe you fought Kyo, that's insane. I heard he's a real douche and uh.."
Sean can't help but grin again to Roberto's amusement though, he can't help but laugh a little himself. But his expression fals a little more serious, as he rubs the back of his head, "Actually man, I need you to keep that. Do you have a soccer ball to trade or what?"
Natsu looks up to D. She knows she can't pull herself all the way up to his impressive height. None the less she pulls herself out of her usual fighting pose to stand straight up. She crosses her arms in front of her chest, her taped fingers gripping each side of her red Jacket. She nods, "Yes. I'm a Volleyball player by choice, a fighter by necessity..." She looks .. up at D. Which is mostly a new experience. "I seem to be gathering stranger fans..." She comments, taking a guess at why he's here.
"Keep it? What for?" Roberto at this point has a sneaking suspicion but he doesn't want to voice his assumption and be completely wrong. Nevertheless Roberto reaches into his duffle bag and produces a soccer ball of his own and holds it out for Sean. A look of mutual seriousness on his face.
Just as strange as it is for Natsu to have to look UP to someone, D! finds it strange to find a women he doesn't have to hurt his neck to look down to from this close up. It's funky to be honest. "Right. I heard a lot about it. Strange but effective, from what I heard. I've got a proposal for you anyhow: how'd you like to join up a fighting team?"
"Because, man, I don't want you forgetting our epic battles and whatnot due to coming upon some other chump. That ball right there will let people know the real deal. Well.. So long as they realize it's not from a girl, but anyway," Sean takes the ball back in turn, and shakes his head, "Anyway you might or might not have heard, but there was a big ol' storm down in my area of Brazil. Darn thing tore up my parents place, and got my mom hurt so.. uh.." he rubs the back of his head, "I'm going to be heading home for a while until things straighten out, man. I was about to go get packed."
Natsu looks at D. She never thought that her fighting was THAT spectacular. She looks him over, "Umm.." She feels compelled to fill the air between them with something. Noise. Anything. Her eyes dart around as her mind tries to catch up with the moment. "I've never really thought about it before, to be honest with you." She shakes her head, "What's the catch? What's the terms? What should I be asking?" She girl is quite flush now. Natsu is honestly flattered. She never thought she'd get noticed for that, anyway.
Heavy D! shakes his head. "No catch. I'm just interested. See...I was part of a team for King of Fighters originally. We were the US representatives. The thing about the whole team was that we ended up representing different sports. I did boxing, the others were from Basketball and Football backgrounds. We kept together after KoF, but Brian...the football one...went back to trying to do semi-pro, while Lucky decided to go on a journey. One of those kung-fu things, if I remember. So the idea of joining up with other sports fighters just seemed like a natural thing."
The tall girl nods at D, listening to what he says.. "Well. I'm very flattered." She smiles, the flush of her cheeks leaving a bit as she gets over herself just a bit. "What would be involved? I'm very interested in improving my fighting." At this she thrusts one of her fists into the air, "Sports based.. you said... What sport do you practice?" SHe grins a bit, adjusting the weight of her sports bag on her shoulder.
"Really? I better call my family down there and see if they're ok..." There's a look of deep concern. Not only for his friend's family but his own and while they aren't as immediate as Sean's family. "Well while I'm sure Pacific is gonna miss ya, it should be comforting for you to know that Pacific is in good hands. Someone was trying to stir up that school rivalry thing we had going on. Someone took the head of our mascot a short time ago. Shortly after I received a note saying that I would have to beat someone from Pacific to get it back. I fought a guy named Boman to a draw and shortly after it reappeared. Do what you've gotta do, and make sure we get another chance to fight. Looks like it'll come down to me representing Brazil for the both of us." Roberto extends the knucks once again. "And you better not stop training, you got it, Shane!"
"Training, that sort of thing. Not to mention the occasional team tournaments. Just like how King Of Fighters works," D! says. It's not really that complex, to be honest. "It's not like there's official membership or anything. I just wanted to get a team together while Lucky and Brian were gone. Which...reminds me. Do you know anyone that does the same kind of sport fighting?" Then comes the question about his own sport. "Boxing. It's...a bit more standard then fighting with basketballs like Lucky did, but...it's still a sport."
Sean nods, "Yeah, though really if there was a problem I sure they would have given you a call.. But never hurts to check, right?" the student raises his fist again to meet Roberto's, and actually has to chuckle a little again toward the antics between the two schools. That's just plain nutty.
He wishes he could have seen it though, he wasn't aware new people were coming in! "Well it isn't the first challenge and we both know it won't be the last but that's good news to hear. And yeah, looks like I have to leave it up to you to represent. Don't let me down! And dude, when I get back, I'm probably going to be champion quality, so you'd better watch out, you know what I mean?" The soccer ball is tossed from hand to hand, and a final nod is given as he backs off, "Be easy, Tron! I'm outta here like a bald man!"
And he is, too. Off into the sunset our hero goes.
Natsu nods, "Well, there's several folks around here that ended up fighting when..." She trails off.. "Well, when it became necessary." She shakes her head, and gestures over her shoulder. "Roberto." Pointing out Roberto, "Is quite adept at it. There's a few other people around here.. Shoma. Momo..." She lists off some names, "I haven't seem too much of them recently, however.." A sort of worried expression moves across her fact at this, then she shakes her head, "But yeah. Roberto would do well." She sees Sean wander off. Great timing that. She's certainly not insensitive enough o call out right now, letting Roberto have his moment.
Heavy D! raises his eyebrows a bit. "Necessary?" he asks. Sounds like a whole big story. One that might not be one to talk about right now. He then looks over toward the goalie as Natsu points him out. "...let me guess. Soccer?" he asks. Just from the gloves, D! gets an idea. It was either that, or handball, and...well, who plays handball, to be honest?
Natsu nods, "Of course." SHe smiles, and looks over at Roberto, to see what he's doing. " I'm not sure what that was all about, but now may not be the best time." She smirks. "How do I get a lond of you? And where do we practice?" She drops the bag off of her shoulder, and assumes a bit more of a rlaxes posture, leaning back a bit.
Roberto glances at the basketball one more time and puts it into his duffle bag with a bit of a sigh before heading towards Natsu and D! and gives him a nod, "I hope I'm not disturbing anything." There's a slight frown on his face and he turns in the direction Sean left with a slight frown before returning his attention to D! And while he isn't short by most standards he has to admit that it's weird looking up to both Natsu and D! but nevertheless will be paying attention to what they both have to say.
Heavy D! nods. "Right..." When he's asked about how to get a hold of him, D! quickly pulls out another piece of paper, this time with a pair of phone numbers: an American phone number, and one that Natsu might recognize locally. "THe top number is my one back in Metro, but the other is the gym I usually head to when I'm in town. You can try either one, and I'm usually around for the SNFs, so the gym's a good bet." He then looks to Roberto, giving the goalie a once over. "So you fight soccer style?"
Natsu takes the card, and steps back.. She's been to America enough, and especially recently. So she knows both numbers.. She nods, and takes it.. "Domo." She bows her head, then lets Heavy talk to Roberto.
"Yeah, you could say that." Roberto glances at the a piece of paper handed to Natsu for a moment and looks to D! "I was a bit surprised how useful the hands of a goalie are in a fight. Learned how to convert those skills when the time came to use it but then after receiving an injury while fighting," Roberto stopping in mid sentence to clutch his arm as a bit of unconscious action. "I found myself teaching myself how to play striker and the SNFs I've been participating in recently have been teaching me how to apply those skills that position requires to that style."
Heavy D! hrms, scratching his chin. Almost sounds like how Lucky found a way to apply his fast break skills as well as his massive vertical jump into his own fighting style. "Interesting. Sounds like you'd fit into the team as well," he says. TOo bad he doesn't have a copy of his number to give Roberto too...
"Team, you say?" Roberto raises his eyebrow at that seeing as he seemed to have caught the tail end of the conversation. He glances over to Natsu for a moment before returning his attention to Heavy D! "You're forming a team, eh?" He rubs his chin again as if pondering it.
Natsu smiles and looks over at Roberto. "Yeah. I think it's an awesome idea." She grins, "More practice. Plus I can steal all of his knowledge!" SHe grins, "I'm certainly interested. So whenever you want to train together, I'm down..."
Heavy D! nods. "I asked Ms. Ayuhara about joining up, and when I asked about other sports fighters, she pointed you out," he says. "Interested?" he asks Roberto, the goalie already seemingly considering the thought.
"Well it's nice to meet you." Roberto extends a goalie glove clad hand towards D! with a smile. Then the soccer star turns towards Natsu, "Natsu has my number and she can give me your contact information that way." He pauses for a moment as he glances at the way Natsu and himself were originally headed before the basketball hit his head. "Anyway I'm totally game for joining up with you. Anyway I should probably head home to take care of my little brothers."
Heavy D! nods, taking the extended hand in a firm handshake. "Heavy D!. What's...your name?" he asks, not sure if he got Roberto's full name...or even his first.
After the hand is released, he moves a couple steps towards Gorin Heights and turns back towards D!. "Roberto Miura" He smiles and towards the two and begins continuing his walk home. His steps are a bit slow. Perhaps Roberto might've overdid it at soccer practice this evening.
Log created by Roberto, and last modified on 21:56:45 03/18/2007.