Description: Late night is the perfect time for prowling about, no matter who you are. Arika runs into the Chief of Security down in the lower hull of the Suiryuu, and manages to have a conversation without a verbal cat-fight. As the punk princess is about to feel out the 'plan' with Sakura, they're interrupted by another prowler.
A conversation with Hotaru got the chief of security thinking... just what was Riko doing here in the lower reaches of the ship? There's nothing -dreadfully- obvious... but only because there seems to be nothing but those mystic runes leading to the fore of the boat. Here itself... there are a bunch of electric lights, styled like Chinese paper lanterns, but casting a deep cerulean blue light instead of the more festive red. It seems hopelessly out of place in a militaristic vessel like this, that creepy blue light casting off the steel walls and floor. There are ballast tanks, also, bolted to the floor as additional preparation in case of emergency. The People's Boat is rather prone to such events, after all.
The security chief has seen all this before, though. She's been here for the past fifteen minutes, actually... and it's rather hot and sticky in here now. She's unbuttoned her crewmember jacket, leaving it hanging open for ventilation, lycra sportswear visible beneath it. But, even though she's looking for something... it's not with her eyes, as they're narrowed to slits. A peaceful expression on her face, it seems she's reaching out with her feelings.
Obi-Wan would be proud.
Use the force, Sakura... it's your only hope!
There's reason enough for the Chief of security to be down within the thrumming pulse of engines. A certain punk rock princess has much less reason to be snooping around through the tireless mazes of crawlspaces and machinery. Eerie though the ambiance is, Arika has waited until the cover of darkness to slink down here and dig around for any additional hidden weaponry. All the pieces of their puzzle are falling into place, and plans are nearly set to take motion. Sad, really, that it's taken so long for things to come to fruition, but when one is forced to handle things one doesn't understand fully it's best to go in with as much information as you can find. Thus, she's on the prowl for more information. Dressed completely in a shiny black material, she looks more like she belongs in a dance club than the inner workings of a ship.
Unbeknownst to the diva is the quiet little churchmouse hiding in the darkness, peering at the walls. Sliding through one of the crawlspaces, her flashlight clanks against something made of metal, causing a loud reverberating noise. Gritting her teeth, she holds in the curse that's upon the tip of her tongue and presses the button on the flashlight so that a dim glow shines through.
Stealth is -not- her strong point.
It's actually rather peaceful down here -- the engine has a nice rhythm going, and the steady flow of chi trickling along the seals painted along the walls is... comforting. Once you get past the initial creepiness, anyway. Sakura's trying to concentrate, and the atmosphere is very conducive to it.
Arika banging around in the darkness isn't.
One eyelid cracks open at that sound, as the easily-distracted tomboy glances over her shoulder. Rats don't make that much noise. And when she sees the blue mood lighting catching on Arika's shiny black fabric... well.
"Didn't your folks teach you to knock?" she asks, a bit of her usual smirk evident in the dim lighting.
"Ain't that wot I was doin'?"
Survival instinct #378 - When caught doing something you likely shouldn't be, joke about it like you're meant to be there.
"Got lost in this mess o' mazes back 'ere. Didn't think anyone else'd be up and about..." Arika shrugs her shoulders and glances down the way. Fingers deftly press the button on the flashlight again before she spins it and reattaches it to a little loop on her belt. "Works out well any'ow. Been meanin' to find you..."
Sakura knows darn well that =wasn't= what Arika was doing, but one of the key facets of coolness is a refusal to restate the obvious. Not that Sakura's as cool as she =thinks= she is, but that never stopped her from trying.
"Yeah, well." Kasugano shrugs faintly. "Boat's been kinda quiet tonight, figured if anyone was gonna ram it, I'd know sooner or later."
Snickering, the chief of security turns about to face Arika a bit more fully. "So yeah. You still wanna kill me for dealing with these terrible, terrible people?" Spreading her arms wide, she smiles. "No one'd ever hear it, down here."
Oh, Arika was knocking. Wasn't on -purpose-, but she was alerting others to her presence. In the worst way possible. Oddly enough, the lack of reiteration on the fact that she's a noisy 'ninja' is actually very appreciated.
"Boat's been kind'a quiet for a few days. Pretty sure if someone was gonna ram it again, they'd use somethin' a lot bigger though." She would, if she were attacking it. If at first you don't succeed, try something they aren't suspecting.
"Kasugano, if I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't be lookin' for ya, now would I? I ain't -that- stupid. You'd be much easier to kill when you're fast asleep anyhow." Neutrality reigns through the diva's voice. Something cool and calculating lingers there as well, but Arika's not really a -bad- person. While she's got no problems -saying- something like that, it's probably obvious to anyone that even knows the tiniest thing about her that she'd never be able to carry through with it unless her life or the life of a loved one was in immediate danger.
Quiet for a few days. Ha. Haha. Kasugano's eyes narrow a bit at this -- maybe it was quiet for =Arika=, but the chief of security has had a few more infractions to look after. Responsibility makes one worry just a smidge more, after all... even if the line between 'responsibility' and 'paranoia' is fuzzy for someone new to the security field like Sakura is.
"You're not scaring anyone, y'know." Sakura covers her mouth, snickering. "You don't gotta act tough when other people are watching, but like I said... no one's gonna hear down here." She's joking too, of course, but -- again -- no need to state the obvious. Unlike Arika, she's actually =showing= her good humor.
Fanning herself with a hand, she walks a bit closer to Arika. Getting a bit bothersome to project her voice and all. "What'cha got on your mind?"
Quiet for Arika, indeed. Hard to get people on this ship to flap their yaps, but she's finding information in other ways these days. Stealth, for one. Delegating others to finding it for her, for another. Had she even one iota of the responsibility that the title of 'Chief of Security' is meant to entail, well she's sure things would be busy for her as well. Paranoia on the other hand...
"Heh." Not scaring anyone? Shoulders are lifted in a small shrug, and she walks forward to close the expanse between them. "Who said it's an act?" Raising her right eyebrow, she crosses her arms over her chest and glances around for good measure.
"Kind'a wouldn't mind 'avin' the truth on those weapons. Doesn't seem right that a lot'a them 'ave such easy access. I mean... Naerose..." Had she actually had -good- aim, the red witch could have brought down a civilian vessel when she shot off that rocket.
"If you wanted to kill me, you would've." Kasugano's simply parroting it back to Arika, after all. And, to continue the precedent set in earlier conversation, Sakura doesn't feel Arika needs a reminder of who would likely win in a =fair= fight. ... Of course she's cocky and overconfident as usual in that estimation, but that's beside the point!
"Naerose is smarter than folks give her credit for. If there's a murder in town, most folks wouldn't suspect the village idiot." It's a simple statement, but one Sakura considers true. ... Then again, Naerose =was= her student and all. "But the truth? Heh, you're asking for a whole lot there, ain'tcha? Most I get from Riko is a little half-truth. And Sei..."
Kasugano shrugs, here, glancing at the walls. And their seals, and the blue chinese lantern-replicas. "No closer to findin' anythin' out. I can tell we got energy flowing to the front of the ship, but I'm guessin' the destination's more fun than the journey, this time."
In a -fair- fight? Who's to say? Arika did promise to leave the past in the past though, at least while they're all stuck aboard the pleasure cruise from Hell.
"I know -that-. Wot I meant was that if Naerose can find those bloody things so easily, anyone with 'alf a brain can find them, and use them." Momentarily pausing, she turns her attention to the wall. "Against -you-. Against this ship. Against innocent fishing boats, docks, villages along the way..." Curling her lip up a little, the punk princess exhales a sigh of frustration. Sometimes the 'new' her gets on her nerves. Last year, provided the bazookas weren't being used against -her- she wouldn't have cared.
Things have changed.
"I'll settle for half-truths... 'cause I'm tellin' ya, Kasugano... the stories I've been 'earin'..." Following Sakura's gaze, Arika frowns. "Any idea just wot type of energy it -is-? I 'eard..." Brow creasing, she can't believe she's actually going to repeat what the witch brought up. Realistically it can't be true, but on the Suiryuu who knows? "I 'eard that this ship 'as ways of usin' -our- energy..."
"Eh." Kasugano shrugs. "Not much different than what she has access to -anyway-. She's got what it takes to blow up an entire house by herself, even =without= the bazooka, and... honestly? =Most= of this people do. You do." Kasugano smirks, adding, "If you set your mind to it, anyway."
Oddly enough, that isn't too far off from the next topic Arika brings up. "... Well, the thing is... it's chi." She smiles, for once having a question she can actually answer. "You use it, I use it, just about everyone uses it. Thing you gotta remember, though, is that it isn't =yours=. You 'borrow' it. You borrow air for a moment, get what you need, blow it back out. You borrow water for a little while, and food." Kasugano extends her open palms for a moment, furrowing her brow as she concentrates, a small ball of blue light forming -- in almost the same shade as the blue chinese lanterns strewn around the room. "And you borrow chi, same way -- all you're really doing is drawing it out, funneling it into your hands, hurling it around... and whatever."
Closing her eyes for a moment, Kasugano releases her 'grasp' on the chi, letting it dispel into the air around her. ... Kinda. She's actually focusing on keeping the chi =lit=, so that the blue light can show exactly what's happening to it. And that 'what's happening' is that the chi is being absorbed into the seals, and drawn to the fore of the ship -- just as Sakura was looking for it earlier. She doesn't need to see it -- hence the closed eyes and concentration.
"But, see..." Sakura continues, "it's not being returned now. It's still on loan." The chief of security smiles -- but it's a tight smile, pensive. "For what, I got no clue."
Filing away Naerose's potential access to deadly weaponry (and energy), the diva nods. "Difference is, mate, not all of us use it for destructive purposes."
"Borrowin' energy is fine when it's all said and done. Wot 'bout life force? Though some'd argue that we're just borrowin' -that- too, doesn't mean I want it sucked out'a me any faster." Lids and lashes fall closed over the deep blue eyes after Sakura's chi demonstration and Arika rubs her hands over her face to try and stay focused. Now is -not- the time to be thinking of the devil of Koga and her particular 'tastes'.
"You 'andle the energy very well," she states in a quiet tone. Is that a faint hint of jealousy that lingers in her voice? Could very well be, as the punk princess really doesn't have the time for quiet reflection or meditation in order to perfect her abilities.
"So, it would seem there's a wee problem then, wouldn't it? Energy bein' kept flowin' continuously through the ship without bein' released... the bloody thing could go off at a moments notice and take all'a us with it." Paranoia? You bet.
Meanwhile...
Perhaps not 'meanwhile'. But while Arika and Sakura were having their little below-decks tete-a-tete, other people with other agendas were prowling the halls and byways of the lower decks of the Suiryuu as well. After his unfortunate clash with Nikolai Tippin and subsequent (and disquieting) meeting with Naerose, the ICPO agent has been lying low of late, trying to get off the Ryouhara radar... insofar as that's possible. He still has every intention of getting down to the bottom of this mystery, but he has no desire for his hosts to be any more on edge about his inevitable intrusion into their inner sanctum than they normally would be.
A week seemed like a good amount of time. It also gave him time to restock equipment, get in contact with Interpol, and even make an unscheduled detour into Metro City to deal with Katana (sort of). Hopefully, everyone's forgotten about him by now.
But according to Hotaru and Naerose both, the concentration of the energy the ship is amassing is greatest toward the bottom of the hull... and since Soma's plan was to follow those lines of energy to their eventual source, naturally his 'casual walk' through the ship right now -- not exactly helped by his typical dress being nearly all black and his detective's tendency to walk quietly and carefully -- takes him through those hallways. Sadly, metal deck plates means that anyone just happening to hang around down here can PROBABLY hear him coming, even if he is being stealthy like... well, ninja.
"Thanks!" Kasugano may not want to point the obvious, but she's not above acknowledging a heartfelt compliment from someone averse to handing them out like candy. Regardless, the Ansatsuken Angel =is= rather proud of her innate talent for sensing and manipulating the flow of chi.
"Yeah?" Kasugano smirks -- the revelation that they're all sitting on a ticking time bomb is a thought that occurred to her several weeks prior! "You see why I was shouting so much when that truck ran into us, now?" Well... yes, maybe the ship would've sunk and THAT would've sucked, but the giant chi sink was a threat too.
"I've heard lots of theories too. Maybe they wanna use it as a bomb, maybe they wanna resurrect some elder god, maybe they wanna rejuvenate the long-lost Ryouhara clan... honestly, I've heard so many stories I don't know =what= to believe. Though it could also be that they just wanna give people challenging fights and they need all the energy to do it!"
Kasugano smiles, a bit more consolingly. "It's not life energy they're stealing though. Sure, you may get a bit tired fighting, 'specially down =here=, but it's nothin' permanent." Yet. If it is, you'd know -- but Sakura figures Arika has no trouble getting paranoid on her own.
... But the sound of footsteps coming from the aft side of the room probably =do= add to the paranoia. Especially when the figure's in all black. Kasugano recognizes the face from her security files, and from watching the investigator's SNF battles, but... well, let's let her speak for herself!
"Hey, looks like you're not the only one prowling the ship, Arika..." Raising her voice, which now echoes a bit more, the tomboy calls out, "Hey, you're Soma, right? Don't think we've met... Sakura Kasugano, chief of Suiryuu security." And she bows like a proper young lady should, even if her uniform isn't buttoned up properly, due to the rather humid conditions... "Pleased to meetcha!"
It's true. Arika just doesn't hand out many compliments. -Especially- to people she doesn't trust. Especially to -women- she doesn't trust. Before letting it go to Sakura's head, the diva just shrugs her shoulder and brushes it off as being nothing. Hard to maintain the tough-girl image if she's found to be being overly 'nice' about anything.
"Good thing a few of us were awake and willin' to 'elp out then, huh?" Smirking slowly, she subconsciously rubs fingers over her jaw. Bruising is gone now, but she's not likely to forget that any time soon. "Life energy or not, Kasugano... you -do- agree that somethin' ain't quite right 'ere. That's why--"
Sudden footsteps across the room have her clamming up. Twisting about in a jerky manner, she peers into the darkness and barely makes out a face. Soma. Why does she know that na-- ah. Fought against Drake during a Saturday Night Fight. "Bet there's more than just the two of us skulkin' 'bout, Sakura. They really should have more security wanderin' 'round..."
He's too good to be *completely* flat-footed or surprised; after all, voices carry in this little metal shell. But the sudden notice Sakura and Arika take of him does cause Soma to react, a little... a flexing of the fingers, a tensing of muscles in the arms. An experienced fighter would recognize these as hands getting ready to draw some sort of weapon, though Soma himself appears to be completely unarmed. But the gesture is small, and over in an instant.
"I don't know that I'd call it 'skulking'," he responds smoothly, one dark black eyebrow going up. His voice is a bit of a mismatch with his dark-skinned Indian features; he sounds like an American, all traces of even the British accent common to English-speaking Indians totally gone. He doesn't bow, but he does offer a sort of off-handed salute, hand brushing away from his forehead palm-down, suddenly contrasted to the silver tips of his overhanging bangs. "Or 'prowling'. Though I concede the point that I am indeed Soma." He pauses, taking in the scene. A schoolgirl -- a famous one -- who's out of her element, to his eye... and with ties to the goings-on in Thailand, perhaps. The other, a busty punk rock girl with a rather colloquial accent. Not exactly Starsky and Hutch, are they? And definitely out of place in the bowels of the ship, 'security' or no.
"I suppose it would be gauche," the ICPO agent says at last, "to ask what you're doing here at this hour."
Denial is the first step to admitting you have a problem. There may have been no 'skulking' or 'prowling' but there was a clear case of conspicuous activity on Soma's part! ... And the Chief of Security reserves the right to declare what's conspicuous and what's not.
Kasugano often waives that right.
"gau... gauche? I dunno, you make it sound like a bad thing, so... yeah." Pause. "Wait, =I'm= the security chief, I should be asking you!" Buttoning her jacket up with an overabundance of melodrama, she coughs into a closed fist. With the most falsely authoritative voice she can muster, she thunders, "Excuse me, Mr. Travedi! What are you doing here at this hour?!" ... And shrugs faintly, returning to her tomboy voice. "Us? We're just talking!"
Turning back to Arika, Kasugano raises an eyebrow. "And yeah, =duh=, I never said there was nothin' wrong on this ship. Never! I just said I trusted them to have some respect for us. They aren't killers." Pause. "Otherwise they'd have killed us in our sleep by now, like y'said." Snickering, she turns back to Soma expectantly.
Almost concurrently with Sakura's demand as to what Mr. Travedi is doing here at this hour, the diva snorts. "We're 'avin' a flippin' tea party. Wot the bloody 'ell does it look like we're doin'." Which is when the 'just talking!' can be heard, and the way it all flows together has Arika snickering lightly.
"Not killers? They're sittin' on a bleedin' landmine, Kasugano!" Scratching her temple she sets her gaze upon the markings and then asks, "Or would that be 'oceanmine'?" Whatever it is, it's not -safe-. To -HELL- with bazookas, this much energy could likely blow a hole clear through the Earth!
The raised eyebrow Soma gives Sakura's question in return speaks volumes, or at least chapters, from the encyclopedia of I Don't Recognize Your Corrupt Government. But even if he thinks the Ryouhara are a gaggle of law-breaking, tabi-wearing terrorists who hate our freedom, he respects that they gave Sakura the badge and some degree of authority. Arika, however, gets the other eyebrow raised as well, and it's at her that Soma is looking even as he replies to Sakura's question. "I'm walking... well, that's obvious, but I'm also staking the place out. Our erstwhile hosts do so love to ask us for little battles in the strangest of locations and, you know? This has very little in common with the Love Boat."
He hadn't exactly planned on commenting on their topic of discussion or choice of 'tea party' locale, but since both young women feel comfortable discussing the matter in front of him rather than waiting for him to leave, they're fair game as far as Agent Travedi is concerned... never mind the fact that he could use all the leads he can get at this point. "I don't think the ship is a bomb, if I might venture my opinion. That seems a little unsubtle for our... hosts. But I'm inclined to agree with Miss Fade -- you ARE Arika Fade, are you not? -- on the subject of said hosts. I don't think they give a damn if we live or die... we're simply useless if dead, right now. When that changes..." He shrugs, letting the comment hang in the air.
"Oh, they are =not!=" snaps Sakura with the tone of a gradeschooler correcting a friend on the playground. "If it were that much chi we wouldn't even be able to see straight, standing here. At most we'd only cause a tsunami or something!" Yeah, =that's= less severe.
She'd continue protesting, until of course Soma chimes in with his two cents and dire, dire predictions! "... Man, you two are =depressing!= They =aren't gonna kill us=. They've already..." She almost said the word starting with 'k' and ending with 'idnapping', but Soma... well, she doesn't know Soma. Instead, after a moment of thought, she amends, to Arika, "They've already done some pretty weird stuff to you an' a couple of the others. And really, I've never heard them out-and-out =lie=." And glancing back to Soma, the Taiyo graduate stresses, "And they said they'd keep us safe. We're all... 'agents of Jinchuu', and this is the boat of the people. The boat serves =us=, not the other way around, see?"
Disclaimer: Kasugano's on the Jinchuu payroll.
"But yeah... I think if anythin, you've already got most of the clues they're gonna give. And they =have= hearts -- they're just a little weird. They think they're helping you by putting you folks in rough situations, making you think a little." Cracking her knuckles, she adds, "And Seishirou already knows how much he's helped =me= think, whether he wanted it or not!"
"'course I am. Do I look like someone else?" For the brief moment she turns to face Soma, she locks all emotions, all facial expressions any sign of her 'other' self down as tight as she can manage. Something about the guy is making her extra wary, her voice dropping to an icy neutrality once more. Watchful eyes scan his well-tailored clothing and she quirks a slender eyebrow upward. "Y'don't look like the sort that'd bother with the likes'a me."
Dire predictions and paranoia seem to be getting to Kasugano, and Arika nearly laughs at that. "Kill us? Wouldn't put it past them, really. They -did- toss me mate Eva and a few others down into the garbage bay or wotever one calls it on a ship like this. 'ad the ceilin' comin' in and everything." Waving her hand flippantly, she remarks, "But you know, they'd -never- 'arm us. They just want to put us in these predicaments for the betterment of our souls." Pause. Cult, anyone? "Bet they've got plans to weed out the best and the strongest and create a race of perfect soldiers or some such nonsense."
Sakura is given a rather -odd- look at the mention that the boat serves everyone aboard it. "Guess it's time to start lookin' for clues elsewhere then, hmm?"
"Clues," Soma asks, all innocence, "to what?"
Nobody is that stupid, of course, but the longer he can keep up the illusion he's some opinionated idiot, the better. Plus, Soma has a hidden advantage in conversations that he keeps quite mum about, even to those he trusts. Arika's wariness and anger toward her ninja hosts-slash-captors... Sakura's flippancy... they're tangible, to him, real things he sees as if they were the colors and fabrics of their clothing. It's not something he feels like 'using' -- that's for people far worse than he -- but knowing is indeed half the battle.
"I never said they'd kill us," he says evenly, turning to Sakura. "Only that they don't care if we live or die as long as we're useful. Your employers are terrorists, thieves, and manipulators, Miss Kasugano," the agent of more than just Jinchuu says, suddenly sounding sharp. "With a record from England to Thailand. Or did you not know that?"
There's that word again, 'cult. Sakura's had enough conversations with Arika to know the thought is always on her mind, even though Arika didn't even say it this time. "... Nah, they don't want to engineer us, they just need our blood for a sacred ritual and they need us to be at our peak fighting ability so they can extract it." Raising an eyebrow, she puts her hand over her mouth in a mock gasp. "Oh, crap, I shouldn't have said that!"
Sighing, she glances over to Soma. She can't read minds, or anything but chi flows and body language... and Soma doesn't seem to be that emotive. He's criticizing their hosts too now? ... Sakura starts to get a little irritable at that. "... And I'm a terrorist, thief, and manipulator with four dollars in pennies and maybe a wad of crusty old chewing gum to my name, dependin' on who you talk to." The notion that Soma might actually have =evidence= of the thievery claim seems to have eluded her. "Way I see it, you all seem to be tryin' to convince me to kick Sei and Riko's keisters right off the ship and wave the magic wand of make-everything-okay or somethin'..."
Twirling her finger in the air, Kasugano starts walking to the aft of the ship. "Y'know, whatever, right?! I trust Seishirou and Riko or else I wouldn't be here at all. An' right now... I got a job to do. So 'scuse me."
Stepping her way past Soma, she turns back with a brief glance and an obviously fake smile. "Oh, uh... yeah. Nice meetin' ya."
Nah, that's not suspicious behavior at all!\
"Clues," Arika replies evenly, "to life, the universe and -everything-." Way to quote Douglas Adams, but the diva -really- doesn't trust the suit. Arika's wariness doesn't extend just to the ninja hosts of the Suiryuu, but to pretty much everyone that's set foot aboard -- including to an extremely lesser degree, her teammate.
Locales seem to peak her interest more fully. England predominantly, since getting in touch with a few contacts back in the homeland might make her little information scavenger hunt all the more easy. Thailand has her jerking her head to the side and shooting a glare at Sakura. Odd, isn't it? Innocent little Kasugano just -happens- to be brainwashed over in Thailand and then -surprisingly- gets hired as the Chief of Security for someone with a record there.
Angered by this revelation, the punk princess manages to keep her cool. A faint hint of fiery fury flashes deep within blue irises, but seems to be the only indication that she's agitated.
"Damn it all to 'ell, Kasugano... you've got crusty old chewin' gum and you ain't sharin'?" Remember what was said early about throwing around a joke? Outwardly, it looks like that's what she's doing. Inwardly she's trying to determine whether the whole 'sacred ritual' comment is truthful or not.
She's leaning toward 'or not'. No way Naerose could be -that- close to the truth. Even if she -is-, Arika doesn't really want to think about that at all.
"Would be pretty stupid to kick them off their own ship, wouldn't it? Though, I'd love to know 'ow they acquired it." Suddenly, she's being left alone with the man in the suit and she sends Sakura another -look-. One that says, 'You -can't- be leaving me alone down here in this creep fest with suit boy', but alas, the fake smile denotes that she -is- being left alone. Left with two options - to stay, or to go - the diva decides upon the latter.
Sakura is the lesser of two evils at the moment - the evil she knows. "'ey! Kasugano... wait up!" She too steps her way past the Interpol agent and tries to rush right on up to the other female. "If it ain't too much trouble I'll walk with you a ways. Got a few more questions 'bout energy I'd like to ask you." Grinning, she mirthfully adds, "Don't worry, they ain't 'bout the ship..."
Log created on 22:12:26 09/28/2007 by Arika, and last modified on 14:09:16 09/29/2007.