Description: *Season Two, Episode 24* Next Week on the Lovely Amazon Shinobu, heading toward the inevitable showdown with LiX, Shinobu goes to close some loose ends with none other than the Red Witch, can our heroine obtain the blessed Milkshake +1? And elsewhere Sylvester and Roberto have set a date, but someone is going to be left on the alter! Everyone will be talking about this sensational episode!
Rush hour is upon Chinatown, and so many cars face the trouble of the jam. People swarm the sidewalks as well, and it's a very busy day. Despite all this, however, the squeal of wheels stands out amongst the din, as Shinobu maneuvers the small red scooter between the cars with all the caution of a drunkard... or maybe a lemming. As she comes to an intersection, the red light flickers on quickly, and she slams the brakes... looking all set to t-bone a pickup. Kicking her foot down, the bike does a ninety-degree skid, actually driving up the side of the truck briefly before crashing back down again. Spinning out, she keeps ahold of the thing until it comes to rest against the curb, and Shinobu drapes over the handles, looking all kinds of swirly-eyed.
That was a cool trick, a really really cool trick. At least that is what one onlooker seemed to think. This onlooker matched the scooter too, except for well, dents and such, the scooter had clearly been abused before, that is, it was clearly being abused now, but the witch watching, not so abused.
*clap clap* really really great applause, like someone was seriously impressed. Someone in a red dress, dark shades and a witches hat. Does she not recognize Shinobu? Well who knows, but she gives an appreciative whoop and continues,
"Hey, that was awesome, what is that trick called? And can you show me? Can you can you?"
"Eh? Trick?" Shinobu looks down at the bike. "I think it's magical..." She looks up to Naerose, tilting her head as she falls silent. Then, getting off the scooter, she pulls it up onto the sidewalk and out of the traffic. "Hmm... ah...", she says, looking up. "... call it the Shinobu Dash Rush!", she concludes with a wide grin.
She gets a look of realization, and then leans towards the aforementioned witch, narrowing her eyes a little, and then stands back up straight, continuing to grin.
Leaning on her staff, Naerose looks over at Shinobu and grins back at her. A moment is taken to fix her shades, pushing them up her nose a little and then consideration is given before she finally asks,
"Hey, are you still learning from Sakura? She's a good kid!" Free milk and cookies,
"I havn't seen you in so long, I feel like this is some sort of reunion, hey what team you with these days Shinobu?"
Isn't that Naerose's bike? Maybe she got better at flying on her broom or something that made her not feel too inclined to demand it back?
"Eh? I guess so... but... I've learned from other people, too!" Shinobu scratches her cheek with a finger, and then echoes, "Team? I haven't done that kind of thing in a long time." She shrugs, and grins. "There hasn't been a King of Fighters tournament in a long time, anyway... I got into the World Warrior tournament, buuuut..."
Trailing off, she looks away.
"Yeah, don't worry about that tournement stuff. Unless .. " The witch trails off, who knows what she was going to say, maybe she watched too many video games or something and liked being vague and mysterious. Or maybe she just lost her train of thought cause what comes next out of her mouth is,
"So whatcha been up to? " A bright happy smile and bouncy air about her, before instead of you know, waiting for a reply? She goes on to talk about herself more,
"I've been doing some fight comentating, okay, not really, but like reporting.. Hey, I should do a piece on you. Are yo ulooking for love? Cause sex sells."
"I was busy training for the tournament, of course!", Shinobu says, holding up a fist. She relaxes her hand, though, saying, "I know it doesne't prove anything, but... I still wanna be the best!" She swings her arms, kicking out the kickstand almost subconsciously to keep the bike from crashing down.
"Love?", she says, looking almost confused by the suggestion. "I haven't really had any time to worry about stuff like that...", she says with a slight blush, rubbing her neck.
"Star crossed lovers seperated by a sense of duty and honor? So who is the lucky stud? And have you defeated Sakura yet? Young student kills her master in an attempt to prove herself, though the fatality was an accident, the battle was serious from the beginning. She professes her only regret that her master did not surrender when she had clearly lost. Anything like that?" Naerose asks brightly and pulls out a notepad, already writing some of it down, then her eyes drift to the scooter. Such a useful tool, for doing tricks and stuff. She'd almost hate to ask about, but you know she's gotta.
Staring for a long moment, Shinobu echoes, "Lucky... stud? I don't really understand what you'retalking about... and... ah, I haven't killed Sakura yet..." She frowns as she folds her arms. "Wait, that isn't what I mean!", she quickly adds, unfolding her arms to raise her hands in a 'stop!' gesture.
"Did somebody really get killed?", she asks, pursing her lips. With a puzzled look on her face, she leans forward to look at the notepad.
"I don't think anyone got killed.. Hey about the scooter, didn't I like.. I dunno say something about getting stronger after giving it to you because you took my hat off and held it out of reach of me or something until I was able to get it with my broom..? I dunno why I keep thinking that," Naerose replies, before tucking her notepad away, into her hat to an anxious Sylvester who starts instantly knawing it to confetti. She loses more note pads that way. Meanwhile her eyes, well shades anyway, shine a little while maintaining a smile for Shinobu.
"I think you said something about getting stronger, yeah..." Shinobu says, looking a little more serious. "Have you really trained since then?", she asks curiously. "I don't really remember it too well, though." Touching her lip for a moment, she looks thoughtful. "I don't think I exactly asked for the bike... but it's fun, so thanks!" She gets her goofy grin again, giggling a little.
"I did train, all sorts, now I'm so strong that I could even defeat.. I could even defeat, hey who was that guy we all teamed up against? Rudeal? Something like that. I bet I could beat him now." Naerose says with a confident, well over confident, grin and pumps a broom filled fist.
"Hey, can do any other tricks?"
"Ehhhh?!" Shinobu says in surprise. "Really? I'll have to see what!", she says with a faithful, perhaps even... gullible grin. "Tricks, though? I don't really like to trick people unless I have to...", she says, her grin fading. "Oh! Unless you mean moves or something like that, I made up some new moves." She brings up her fist of challenge. "Like my Shinobu Cannon!"
Shinobu Cannon? Naerose scratches her head and stares at Shinobu, "You mean like a new attack? You have a new attack?" Her jaw practically drops at this and Naerose just stares at Shinobu,
"Oh you have GOT to show me, show me show me, hey wait, I need a shot," She pulls her camera out of her hat, thwarts an escape attempt by an abused bunny and points the disposable camera at Shinobu.
Momoko heads north to the Southtown Village.
"More than one... ah... you haven't...", Shinobu says, trailing off again, and then looks both ways before waiting for the passerby to provide a gap. Then, she crouches down low, but only for an instant before bursting forth, leaving a cloud of dust and gravel skittering out behind her as she goes into a what might be akin to the shoryuken or the shoouken. However, it's tilted /way/ forward to a horizontal angle, making her into more of human rocket forward a moment, spinning over once in midair before landing in a skidding crouch and slowly standing up again, looking a little unsteady. "Like that!"
More clapping, then Naerose decides to take a picture, she tottally missed the move, "Hey, have you challenged Sakura yet? I bet you could beat her, then you could start teaching me the Shinobu umm.. Shinobu move of victory?" Naerose totally doens't know what Shinobu calls her attacks, but she likes free stuff.
"You know and have me help you clean up your home, " More like mess it up and eat the food, though she already has a place to live.
Laughing nervously, Shinobu admits, "I don't really think so hard about what I can do... I don't know if I'm good enough to be a sensei anyway, but I could show you /how/ I train!" She puts her hands on her hips, and tilts her head. "Ah, I don't think I can really let you stay, I live at school, you know!" She loosens her stance, raising a hand to her shoulder. "Where have you been, anyway?"
"All over, " Naerose says with a vague gesture of her hand, "And I still live over with Niesje who teaches at the Gedo place. Sometimes I visit cause there is equipment I can umm borrow. Oh and I try to make some money on the side." Naerose says and then offers a smile and a thumbs up.
"So how do you train?" This is one of those questions you ask with great care and attentiveness for it will likely hurt. Very soon.
"Niesje?", Shinobu echoes, looking bewildered once again, and then steps away. "Well, I do stretches and then I run across town at least once a day!", she says with a proud grin. "I have at least three smoothies or so when I do that and I do like... three hundred or so squats and about two hundred situps and I climb a tree and then I practice my punches in the woods and my kicks and I also meditate too kinda I'm not all that good at it and then I break some rocks and sometimes I carry the bike around and then sometimes I carry stuff for some of the shops across town and then there are pushups and pullups and leg lifts and hops..." She folds her hands behind herself. "... and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. And you?"
"Oh well.." Naerose starts, looking clearly a little embarassed by that, "I .. fly around on my broom! It's really hard and takes all sort of concentration and work. " Actually she crashes since she can fly about as well as a bird with a broken wing. No real lift. However ironically enough, trying to fly, being one of the harder arts to master, certainly is no skimp out on training, even if it sounds like it is.
"And I.. practice my broom techniques and watch Ti-bo videos and I do the news!" Yes, news reporting, the truly dangerous field that is.
"Yeah, looks like I do more than you huh Shinobu."
"I guess...", Shinobu says, obviously humoring Naerose with and embarassed expresion. "But you can fly! That's gotta be cool!", she says, leaning forward. "I can only jump real well. Even with my power belt, I can't fly or anything." She folds her hands behind her head. "Maybe I can get you to teach me that, huh?", she says with that wide grin again.
"Wait, you didn't know I could do that?" Naerose asks in utter shock and surprise, I mean they only been on the same team!" The witch leans against her broom and considers Shinobu for a moment then nods slowly.
"Okay, but what will you show me?"
"Ah..." Shinobu giggles, not answers the question, and then says, "I thought I showed you something... well, I can show you my Shinobu Kick, too!", she says, bringing up her leg as if about to do an axe kick... and slowly lowers it. "It's really strong."
"You didn't show me how, just that it works at all." Naerose replies, apparently wanting a lesson in return, but then starts to think about what she is saying, what would come next, the fact is, if she goes down this road she'll have to give a flying lesson,
"You know what. Umm, flight is hard, the first thing you will need is a magical broom." Which Naerose doesn't herself actually have.
"Where do I get a magical broom?", Shinobu asks eagerly, bringing her hands before her and folding her hands in front of her chest. "I don't really know where they sell them... maybe at a broom shop?" She looks thoughtful. "I don't really know the way to London, though...", she muses, as if it were only a hop, skip, and a jump away.
"Where do I get a magical broom?", Shinobu asks eagerly, bringing her hands before her and folding her hands in front of her chest. "I don't really know where they sell them... maybe at a broom shop?" She looks thoughtful. "I don't really know the way to London, though...", she muses, as if it were only a hop, skip, and a jump away.
"Oh yes, London, yoyu need to find some magical alley behind a pub right? I got mine after watching something called 'Kiki's delivery service', but I bet you could find one some other places too." Naerose says gleefully sure she's getting out of this one and after all, if Shinobu finds a magical broom then it could probably be easily enough done, the teaching part. Right?
Nodding, Shinobu puts a hand to her chin. "I'll have to look for it... thanks!" She smiles, and then steps back onto the scooter. "I'll find you as soon as I do, okay?" Leaning over the steering spot, she says, "But it was good seeing you again... Naerose, right?"
"Yeah great seeing you Shinobu, " Naerose says with a bright smile, shades and wave. Now the best part is once Shinobu actually leaves something will happen. She'll stand there and realize a minute or two later that .. oh well nevermind, if she could fly on her broom she wouldn't need the scooter! Or she could steal a new one..? No matter.. On wait. Matter!
Pulling up the kickstand, Shinobu starts the motor up, and then... swings right in front of a car, cutting it off admist the sound of a honk, squealing brakes, and a "Bye!" Watching her zig and zag back onto the road, it might seem remarkable that there's even a scooter left after all this time. But then, quickly enough, Shinobu's gone, vanishing between two trucks and zooming off.
Log created on 16:56:40 03/20/2007 by Naerose, and last modified on 09:22:24 08/19/2007.