Description:
An advantage of being a) rich and b) Japanese is that you know almost everything interesting about places to go and things to see, and many of them know you, too.
Such as, for instance, an upper-class restaurant, which is where Chizuru (and guest) currently are. It's small, and hard to get seating in if you aren't well-known and ask quite some time in advance, which is precisely why Chizuru tends to linger there for very, very long periods of time when she has nothing better to do.
Rose is sitting quite properly, her legs tucked to the side as she sits in front of the traditional low table; she's on her sixth cup of tea, which of course is part of the bargain when you're being treated to an enormous and lengthy set meal. She can almost feel herself gaining weight, although, of course, it is immediately transmitted out in an invisible wave of Soul Power far into the heavens, joining the rest of the Van Allen radiation belt.
"You know," Rose says thoughtfully, "I had no idea there were so many sorts of meat on a fish. You really can tell the difference."
"Oh, yes," Chizuru says, only on cup four. She doesn't drink as quickly, and she comes here regularly; there is always another chance for her to get some. "There really are, although of course on some of them you needn't worry about; they either show up on so small a fish, or they're not quite as tasty. I thought they were big on seafood in Italy?" she asks, curiously.
Rose and Chizuru are probably visible through the window, if you squint. It's a lot brighter on the inside than the outside.
Rose and Chizuru far outstrip most of the fighting circuit in terms of fame and power - those who wield fighting ability on their level invariably gain veritable /legions/ of followers, although sometimes the more flamboyant, weaker fighters can pull a somewhat robust fandom as well, often through more...exotic tactics.
Take Vanessa, for instance, who is not above bolstering the magnitude of her fanclub via simplest expedient of dressing provocatively and stretching at the camera. And occasionally causing a public disturbance in seedy areas of ill repute!
Which is why the poor hostess of this fine establishment is probably a little floored when the red-headed so-called Boxing Queen strides confidently into the upper-class restaurant - her only concession to the establishment's dress code being the slick sports coat thrown on over her usual halter dress shirt - and steps up to the desk. "Hello!" she chimes. "I'm lookin' for a couple ladies I've heard are around here. A Miss Chizuru and R--"
She blinks, looks over, and spots the duo. "Ah! There they are. Don't mind me, I'll introduce myself."
And then she wanders off, toward Our Heroes, looking for all the world like the troublesome American swine she is. If it's any consolation, she looks much less inebriated than the rumors say she should.
"Oh, we are," Rose says to Chizuru, "but differently. We eat all sorts of things that you do, but generally we braise or fry them up a bit, first." She sips more of her tea, setting it down. "I'll have to take you to -"
Of course, someone is approaching, as Rose's immense psychic powers - and Vanessa's blaring donkeylike American voice! - announce. Her head turns to look towards her, smiling slightly. She doesn't call out, but she does raise her tea cup in salute: she sees you! "What a coincidence," she murmurs to Chizuru. "That is... remind me of the name..."
Chizuru has no psychic powers as such, but she detects disturbances a mile away. Vanessa is a disturbance as soon as she enters the restaurant, and Chizuru looks over in that direction even before Vanessa says her name. This is an accident waiting to happen.
She looks Vanessa over as she approaches, considering. "You know," Chizuru says, just as quietly, "I don't think I remember either - Vanessa," she corrects herself, a moment later. See, all that time hanging around the fighting arenas really is good for something.
A disturbance!? How cruel! Vanessa's not a disturbance!
Okay, that's a lie, yes she is.
The redhead isn't turning over any tables, so presumably she's not here to pick a fight - rather, as she slips toward the duo, she offers a big, friendly smile, and pulls one of her hands out of her slacks pocket to wave like she knew these women very well and wasn't, oh, say, a near-stranger intruding on a friendly, private conversation.
"Ladies," the boxer offers, when she enters conversational range. She at least has the courtesy to not broadcast the conversation to the entire room any more than strictly necessary. "I've been lookin' for ya. Mind if I join you? There's somethin' come up that I think you might want to hear."
"Oh, of course, feel free," Rose says, sliding a bit to the side and gesturing at one of the spare cushions. (Take off your shoes, Vanessa!) "Of course, I overlook myself," she amends a moment later, looking to Chizuru. She is, after all, the host.
Rose reaches for the teapot to pour out some into a spare cup, though, for Vanessa's sake. "I suppose you know us both, of course, so introductions are not neccessary," she says while so doing.
Chizuru is a host but not an ungracious one; she even makes sure there is enough room for Vanessa to get up to the table. Food, however, may be in short supply, as they have finished it - but tea is everywhere. You cannot escape tea. Tea is your destiny.
"We have met," Chizuru says, "although perhaps we were not introduced then. I have seen some of your...events, though," she adds to Vanessa. See, a fan. Or, more accurately, someone who keeps an eye on fighters of all sorts in case they mess with things they shouldn't; Vanessa is an extremely low risk of /that/, though. "You clearly know us, however."
Low risk? Well...
...it's always gratifying when Vanessa manages to convince powerful people they don't have to worry about her. It makes her job easier.
"Yep!" the redhead chirps. Perhaps willed by Rose's amazing space brain, or perhaps just actually not as bull-headedly American as she would have you believe, Vanessa does actually slip off her shoes before assuming a position that is at the very least not /completely/ wrong. "Rose and Chizuru. Two of the most renowned fighters in the circuits right now...I've watched some of your fights. You're both pretty impressive." She grins toward Rose, adding, "I still owe you something for helping me out a few months back at that fight at SlamMasters', too. Thanks for that."
She stops for a moment, perhaps about to succumb to her dark fate of transforming into a tea-drinking sissy woman, when she suddenly, reaches down toward her pants' pocket, and says, "I suppose I'll cut straight to the point. Not enough beer around here to bother beating around the bush, I say." She pulls out a piece of paper, which she unfolds quickly, and slides forward for the two women in front of her to view.
It's one of the flyers for the new, mysterious 'teams-only' league that's been buzzing around the backstages of fighting events for weeks. "Have you two seen this yet?"
"Oh, well," Rose says airily, "I am not sure that I would say I am renowned; I have never won a tournament, after all." She does smile at the praise, though. She nods in approval at the comment on SlamMasters', perhaps waving it off inwardly. She takes a sip of her tea, before - paper!
Her eyes flick down to it and she raises her eyebrows, still mid-sip. She swallows afterwards; "I think I have seen this FLYER, but I have not, I admit, entered it. It has not seemed to be... important." Now, though, it does, and she leans in slightly to read more easily.
Tea drinking is not a sign of sissiness. The British drink tea and they used to take over the world, possibly to find new places to grow tea in.
Chizuru leans forward only enough to see what the pamphlet was. She's seen it before, and even has her own copy; she'd never done anything with it, though, because she has no team and no way to get one. "I have," she agrees. "I'd thought of it no further, though. What about it?"
Vanessa merely leans back a little on the cushion, smirking and waiting for the two other women to finish reading and parsing things. "Well," the Boxer says, shrugging, "the short answer is, /I'm/ interested. It sounds like fun. Besides, there's only so much working alone a gal can take." She shifts, attempting to find a more comfortable position - she's not really accustomed to sitting like this. She's done it before, but not often enough that she's able to find the sweet spot on the first try. "I was wondering who to talk to, when I remembered Rose and I'd run into each other before. And seeing you two on the Saturday Night Fight made me get to thinking, it might not be a bad idea."
She shrugs, then, adding, "If nothing else, can't get anywhere if you don't try, right?"
Rose settles back on her cushion at the forwardness of the request. Join a team... but, she reasons, what if she should let them down? She might perish, after all, at any time, and. And...
And, she continues, you are being perfectly ridiculous. Vega seems to exist as some sort of free-roaming apparition, granted. However, YOU still exist, in the flesh, and without even any significant personal woes. You did not die. Perhaps you /cannot/ die, which is more worrisome.
But, the reasoning continues, do you have a reason to say no? Do you think that your desire to inertia and inaction serves anything? Perhaps this, too, is a show of fate's hand. She raises her eyebrows, then, and looks over at Chizuru. "If you are in," she tells the other woman, "I am as well."
Chizuru, being naturally inclined to anything with words, toys with the pamphlet a few moments. She already /read/ it, of course; this is just the delay tactic.
She slides it back afterwards. Her own reasons are a good deal simpler than Rose's; Chizuru is a member of the leagues in the first place as an excuse to watch certain people, people who tend to enjoy fighting and thus indulge themselves. With a team, she can enter in more places than she can without, and she trusts Rose, at least; she does not know Vanessa well or even really at all, but she doesn't feel any particularly vicious energies radiating off of her like she does with, say, Vega.
Her fingertips touch each other as she appears to consider. "I cannot see anything wrong with entering, however loosely affiliated we may be.
Oh, Vanessa has all kinds of inclination toward violence. She's just become very, very good at picking her targets carefully. Sneaking up on enemy shadow syndicates doesn't work when they can see you coming, after all.
But for now, Vanessa's not thinking too much about that. As helpful as powerful allies are for someone like her, the redhead is also just plain looking forward to some interesting fighting. She waits patiently for their responses, offering only a careful grin. It broadens as they affirm their interest, and she leans back a little, easing off. "Good! Seems like it'll be an interesting challenge. I'll look forward to working with you both."
She doesn't move to leave just yet, in the off chance the two whose lunch she's now crashed have something they wish to add.
If nothing else, Rose reasons, they can probably blow Vanessa into her constituent particles if they have to. She picks up her small cup of sake and takes a sip from it, having neglected it for some time. "Oh, well," she says, "don't be in such a hurry to run off. Have a seat and join us, if you like -" Though her eyes flicker over towards Chizuru as she says this, perhaps in case Chizuru doesn't want to spring for expensive sushi for another gaijin.
Chizuru seems entirely unconcerned about it, which is something only the very rich can pull off. Her family has money and she actually has increased it in her lifetime; one meal is generally beneath notice, even if it is at this particular location. She waves Vanessa to actually stay if so inclined. "Please, if you'd like," she says, with that same slight smile she often has.
That would be the big downside to being outnumbered by people stronger than she, yes. Fortunately, she figures it's unlikely she'll inspire them to vaporize her. She's just a hotshot drunk with a penchant for hitting things, right!?
The Boxer glances over as Chizuru demonstrates the power of her superior cash supply. Vanessa offers a chuckle, and approximates an appropriate thankful gesture. "Then, I believe I will. Thank you very much," she supplies. Then she shifts her posture a little - somewhat closer to her usual casual positioning, although she's still at least trying to make a good impression.
Rose picks up a slice of a highly endangered fish with a pair of ivory chopsticks, dipping it in the dashi sauce and then popping it into her mouth. After letting it 'melt' on her tongue for a moment, she swallows, smiling at Vanessa. "Oh, wonderful. Are you at all familiar with Japanese cuisine? They're quite excellent with it, here, even if the time of year requires certain allowances."
Is that a bottle of sake on the table? Yes. Is it possibly cold? Yes. Does Vanessa mind this in her liquor drinking? That's another question entirely.
It wouldn't be highly endangered if people like Chizuru didn't keep buying it. She is doing her part to support the fisherpeople of the world. Aren't you proud?
"I highly recommend - well, most of it," Chizuru corrects herself before she even says it, since she realized that Vanessa probably does not get such expensive things on a regular basis. "However, if you're not used to it, you would be most likely to enjoy - hmm, that."
What she is pointing with one of her own chopsticks to is not only a little less exotic than other things around, it is also incidentally cheaper because of it. /And/ it's not one of Chizuru's favourites, which is more important. "So what made you so eager to join that you would ask strangers for help? Or near-strangers, I suppose."
Vanessa nods a bit at Rose. "Some," Vanessa admits. She doesn't exactly look the type to patronize places like this often - the woman wears a halter top dress shirt, for crying out loud - but she explains, "With all the tournaments based in Japan, it'd be hard not to at least go to a few places like this."
She spies the sake bottle, and after about ten seconds of considering its existance, moves to help herself.
That done, her attention drifts to what Chizuru indicates, and she grins. "Well, then," the Boxing Queen says, "I guess I'll try it!" She moves for the nearest pair of chopsticks that isn't being used, which may or may not have been supplied by attentive waitstaff. They invited her! And she's a dirty American, who knows how much she'll eat!?
Then Chizuru takes the opportunity to ask the very obvious question that Vanessa still hasn't quite actually figured out an answer to yet. She can't very well cite the need for powerful allies while she quietly hunts for a shadow organization's shadow members so she can beat them to a shadow pulp.
Instead, the redhead merely says, "It looked interesting!" with a laugh. "My agent was saying I needed to do some more events, but I didn't have a team and with a couple training vacations, haven't been around enough to meet others. Not to mention..."
She finally grabs a piece, manages to get it with surprising skill for a dirty gaijin toward her mouth, and quips, "You both seem to know what you're doing," before she pops it into her mouth.
"Oh, a little," Rose says, eyes crinkling fondly. "I don't know, though. I cannot claim it is anything other than my abilities and perhaps, oh," she raises her free hand, index and thumb together. "A /little/ training. Simple fortune; not my hard work or effort whatever."
She takes a few bites of rice, meanwhile, before frowning thoughtfully. "It has been a while since there was a tournament," she says aloud, "at least, a major one. There's always the Saturday Night Fights and the Neo League, of course..."
Chizuru only smiles a little at Rose's comments, although she fully agrees with all of it.
Really. Seriously.
Honestly, Vanessa could probably get away with talking about a shadow organization to, of all people, Rose and Chizuru; of all the people in the fighting circuit, they have a fair bit of experience with it. Chizuru doesn't know enough about Vanessa to ask prying questions, though, and unlike Rose, she is not /actually/ psychic. She just fakes it sometimes.
"I wouldn't expect that state of affairs to continue indefinitely," Chizuru says. "I've a feeling it won't be too much longer - although, of course, I have been wrong before, and likely will be again! Why, I'd thought about holding one myself, but there seem to be any number of people willing to do it for me."
Vanessa makes a very slightly sour face at Rose's remarks, partly because she had to train like a dog for years to end up /weaker/ than the other woman, and that's annoying. Still, she recovers quickly enough, slipping back into her usual grin. "Not all of us are so lucky," she adds, lazily, and then glances back over to Chizuru.
Vanessa could indeed talk to the other two about her secret agenda...in time. But Vanessa is only slightly more wise to these womens' secret agendas than they are to hers, and Vanessa was trained long ago only to bark up a tree if something worthwhile is in it. For now, the boxer nods, and says, "It's been quiet, lately. Neo-League and the Saturday Night Fights...though, there was that business with an assassination attempt on Howard, a while ago. Strange...and probably not going to last, oh no. And...well, it's not a /tournament/, but there's that whole.../thing/ going on in Metro."
She pops another sushi in her mouth, wagging her eyebrows in a manner suggesting she may swing by to help. It's not exactly unknown for fighters of her caliber to drop in on disturbances like that.
"I am not sure I would call it luck," Rose says after a thoughtful pause. She then chuckles at the comment from Chizuru as she reaches out to pick up a slice of a roll that has at least sixty dollars' worth of fish in it: "Why not hold one anyway? I suppose you would need a proper goal, and some lead time..."
She then has fish in her mouth, which keeps her from being pithy for a few moments. *hompf*
"Howard," Chizuru says, "has enemies."
That seems to be as much as she'll say about that in public, in /Southtown/, where there are probably people listening to her say it - and, truthfully, she doesn't know much more anyway, and most of what she does know is second- or third-hand. She picks up her tea, although does not actually drink any of it immediately.
"And that, of course, is why I have not done it. I have no goal," Chizuru says, "except my own amusement." And more things she won't talk about in public; Rose already knows a little more, at least. "As for Metro...I have thought about looking into it, but I have faith that their police can handle it. Or their mayor."
"True enough," Vanessa replies, waving her hand around lazily in a not entirely genteel manner. "Mayor Haggar's probably already working on taking care of things!" She brings the sake cup to her lips, chiming, "One thug at a time!" before she takes a good, long drink of the stuff.
That done, she sets the cup down, adding, "Running a tournament takes a lot of resources and manpower. Not something to undertake for your own enjoyment, I'd figure."
She smirks, cocking an eyebrow at Chizuru wryly. "Unless you've got way more going for you than I figured."
"Ah, his honor the Mayor," Rose says casually. "I remember him; is he doing well? Have you spoken with him recently?" She also finishes off her sake, setting it down quite deliberately. Perhaps even suggestively.
"Oh, she has quite a bit," she adds parenthetically after Vanessa makes her insightful comment. "Quite a bit indeed."
Chizuru smiles in that sort of way that people who know more than other people and like looking mysterious do.
Mysterious.
"I have spoken to Mayor Haggar, but not for a few months," Chizuru says. "I thought that it would be best not to bother him if he was engaging in a re-election campaign of defenestration, just in case. Although generally I am not in favour of defenestration, I make an exception for him."
Vanessa's sly look turns more toward unabashedly amused, while Rose comments and Chizuru merely looks mysterious. Well well...what interesting company.
As for Haggar, "Never met 'im!" Vanessa supplies, because the question wasn't directed straight at Chizuru and she's good at being energetic. She doesn't spot Rose signalling with her sake, but doesn't go for her own again, either. She's just met these women and asked something big of them - being a bigger moron than usual would be bad. "I think," she adds, and then chuckles, noting, "Boxer, you know. Memory. But it's hard not to appreciate a man who knows how to deal with trash like that."
"It all depends on who is being defenestrated," Rose says wisely. She also toys with her empty sake cup, perhaps not wanting to look like a drunk. GIVE HER LIQUOR
She looks towards Vanessa. "I could introduce you, if you like. But yes, he's quite a powerful man. A very strong sense of justice, as well; if anything, clearer than my own. But then, we can all learn a great deal from one another."
Chizuru finished her sake, too, but no more appears to be forthcoming. Perhaps that is /her/ hint.
"A very loud man," Chizuru says, "but not in a bad way, really; he just fills up a room, socially as well as physically." Chizuru doesn't. She's happy to be in the background, until of course it is TOO LATE and she can swoop down and -
- well, do the things she does. Probably make clones.
"I believe," Chizuru adds after a moment, "that you would probably enjoy his presence."
"Sounds like my kinda guy, yeah," Vanessa replies. "I wouldn't mind meeting him, sometime." The two have quite a bit in common, after all. She leans back, a little, perhaps pondering what if anything else there is to eat, when her eyes track to Rose's hands, toying with an empty sake cup. CRIMINAL
The boxer says, in the polite tones of a well-bred barfly, "Looks like you're out," and then grabs the sake bottle again, turning to Rose. "More?" Chizuru is hosting, but Vanessa is talented at keeping those present pleased, or at least buzzed enough that they forget what they were upset about.
"Oh, please!" Rose says, holding the cup up with a smile.
She then continues, "It's rather American of him. Not every American's like that, of course, but I find it's rather common in the national character." She looks at Vanessa, adding, "It's hardly a bad thing. I could feel you coming from outside the restaurant, although it was not a terribly specific sensation. It's invigorating!" If imperfect, perhaps.
And that is how the terror began: not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with an expensive late lunch.
Log created on 21:12:56 02/06/2008 by Rose, and last modified on 04:15:50 04/06/2008.