Description: A very unfortunate mugger is seconds away from death at the hands of the Einherjar Initiative's rageful spearbearer, and Korea's own self-proclaimed Champion of Justice springs onto the scene just in time to witness it; will there be any survivors when righteous rage and unconditional justice collide?
Ichiro Oe is in a foul mood.
Not that the young warrior has been very happy and cheerful since the events of the war on Southtown, but as the striking figure dressed in the black uniform of the Einherjar Initiative stalks the streets of downtown Southtown it is fairly obvious that he is ready for a fight, if not straight up looking for trouble. Oe's recent shot at revenge didn't go exactly to plan as he fell to the Shadaloo operative Vyle yet again, and since the moment he laid eyes on that vicious punk Ichiro has felt even less like himself, and more, he suspects, like that violent monster that he had become at the hands of SIN.
The face of the large metal round shield strapped to the young fighter's back reflects the warm orange glow of the setting sun as the sun slowly gives up its struggle against the darkness. Ichiro knows how it feels. "He's lucky..." Oe mutters as his thoughts drift to the micro-tracker that Adelheid injected into Vyle after knocking him unconscious. If it were up to Oe, the spear fighter would use the device to hunt the vile luchador down as soon as possible and take another shot at vengeance, but the others have convinced him that they'd be better served by letting the lucha libre fighter lead them to bigger and more dangerous game. "...I'll have him soon enough..." the Einherjar Initiate promises himself even as his lone right eye focuses on a shady looking man running towards a middle-aged woman walking alone on the quiet sidewalk.
"No!" Oe growls as the thug rips the lady's handbag from her arm and makes for a nearby alleyway as the woman screams. "You're not getting away that easily you SCUM!" the young champion of justice sneers as he rips the shield from the harness on the back of his uniform jacket. Slipping the shield onto his left forearm, Oe reaches into the recesses of the round shield's inner curve and draws forth a short weapon, about a foot and a half in length. "You DARE prey on these people, AFTER ALL THEY'VE BEEN THROUGH?!" Oe roars as he begins to trot toward the fleeing criminal, causing the thug to glance back over his shoulder in fear. Extending the spear's hi-tech haft to a length of over a meter long with a flick of his wrist, Oe points the weapon at his prey and launches three quick bolts of golden energy down its length and toward the purse-snatcher. At such a long distance away from the target, it's not really a surprise that the first two blasts of chi impact the pavement at the man's feet, throwing up shards of cement and dust as they strike; the third bolt finds its mark, however, slamming into the criminal's back and knocking him to the ground with a cry of anguish.
"There. You see? Do you see what it is like to be weak and afraid?" Oe asks darkly as he strides over to the fallen man and plants his foot squarely on his chest, pinning the thug to the ground with his powerful leg muscles. "Southtown will be a better place without you around to do the same to its citizens..." Lifting the ancient spearhead to the man's throat, a small satisfied smile crawls to the young man's lips as he prepares to rid the world of one more piece of trash; it is as if an itch is about to be scratched, an itch that has possibly been bugging him since he was 'cured' of SIN's BLECE treatment, maybe?
THIS AFTERNOON:
In May Lee's Southtown home, the living room couch and floor are both covered in not manga depicting various scarf-bearing Japanese heroes, but floppy American comic books featuring none other than Batman. She happened across a tantalizingly bright cover while shopping for new DVDs the previous day, and while the tone is in all ways muddier and darker than what she's used to, certain chords are /still/ struck. The relentless drive for justice, the incredibly cool gadgets, the costumery, the respect. And anyway, it isn't as if there aren't a few shadows being cast by some of her favourite tokusatsu offerings, they just happen to be cast across sunlit streets and bright, colourful Rider armours instead of dark back-alleys.
Nothing is really perfect, when it comes right down to it, unfortunately.
HERE AND NOW:
Running across the rooftops of Southtown, May Lee(, Champion of Justice) is doing her best to stick to the shadows provided by air conditioning units, chimneys signs and whatever else will have her in the hopes of remaining unseen by the superstitious and cowardly criminals below. Usually, she sticks to ambling idly or /maybe/ jogging along the sidewalk if she's going to go looking for good deeds to do, and even that's unusual as being a student at Gedo High for a brief time did a lot to make vigilante justice rather unpalatable to her, but tonight, she is /inspired/.
As she leaps from behind a billboard to land atop a massage parlor, she strikes a pose for basically nobody with her knees tucked up near to her chest, her right arm thrust forward and her left held close against herself. Her scarf flutters madly in the wind, and for just a split-second she's almost frozen in silhouetted tableau, her broad and goofy grin unseen from all but the closest of distances.
When she lands, she has to clap a hand over her mouth to keep herself from giggling, because should she /actually/ run across an evildoer, it simply wouldn't do to be in the throes of girlish mirth. And as it so happens, no sooner does she shush herself than she does indeed encounter an evildoer, in the form of a thug snatching--
Wait, is that a spear? Is a one-eyed boy shooting at -- pinning, even -- that criminal?
The Korean heroine's sneakers slide to a halt along the rooftop overlooking Ichiro and the would be mugger, sending a fine shower of gravel down to bounce off of the sidewalk below. She sucks in a deep breath, straightens her back, then quickly looks around before darting to conceal herself partly behind an AC unit with a barely suppressed squeak of dismay.
"There's no need for lethal force, spear-wielding boy!" she intones in her best deeply uttered heroic voice. She coughs softly afterwards thanks to the rawness it brings on in her throat, and then she quickly adds, "Take him to jail if you want to teach him the lesson due him!"
A scowl flashes across Ichiro's face, a face that was once considered quite cute by his female classmates, but is now marred by a long scar that runs vertically through the young man's left eyebrow before disappearing beneath the simple black eyepatch worn over his empty eye socket and appearing again on the cheek below. "Who are you?" Ichiro spits as his head twists quickly to glance at the pretty champion of Justice before focusing back on the man he intends to kill at his feet.
"I don't need advice when it comes to dealing with scum like him," Oe growls as he gently presses the tip of his spear against the terrified man's soft, squishy throat. "The jails in this town are just as corrupt as this piece of TRASH," the last word punctuated by slight jab of his spear, causing a trickle of blood to run down the side of the purse-snatcher's neck and coaxes a frightened scream from his mouth as the thug faints. "Hmf," Oe grunts with contempt as he draws his foot off of the unconscious man's chest and sends him rolling away from the young spear fighter with a solid kick to his side. "The only way this city, this WORLD, will be safe for the innocent is if garbage like him are dealt with for good!" Flicking the blood from the tip of his spear with a twitch of his wrist, Oe turns to regard the girl with a somber frown. "Now if you'll excuse me... you should probably leave. I don't think you want to see what happens next."
Rather than listen, May Lee performs a dazzling leap from behind her cover, somersaulting in a compact ball as she flies through the air then landing opposite Ichiro with her hands at her sides, her brow furrowed in disappointment and her scarf settled against her back.
"You /think/ you know how to deal with him -- that justice has failed you and failed the city, but you're wrong!" she says fervently. "This city is getting closer every day to being back on its feet, and that includes its jails; killing muggers or anyone else won't undo any of the bad that's happened here! He's as much a part of this city as we are, and all removing him does is take away another person who could be taught to help build it back up again!"
She swallows, and then she reluctantly draws her hands up, fingers straight and palms straight in readiness. Her feet shift into a neutral stance as she looks to Ichiro's one eye, and resisting the urge to grab the end of her scarf and fold it over her chest like a cape she says, "I'm May Lee, Champion of Justice, and you have to trust me! There are better ways than this!"
Shaking his head in frustration as May Lee reveals herself, Oe dismisses her impassioned argument with a wave of his spear. "NO! ...this man isn't part of the city. He is a parasite. A cancer that needs cutting out!" Ichiro grows as the grip on his spear tightens, his knuckles growing white as anger begins to cloud his vision. Breathing deeply to try and settle down his furious temper, Ichiro once again curses Seth15 for opening his heart to such rage.
His one good eye glancing at May Lee's upraised hands, a calm focus seems to settle over the young man's features, as if he senses that the girl won't let him do what needs to be done without a fight. "I'm sorry you can't see that," he says quietly as he takes a step toward the scarf enthusiast, his left arm lashing out quickly as he attempts to knock the Champion of Justice backwards with a solid shield strike, intending to bounce her unconscious off of the alley wall so he can go about his somber duty.
COMBATSYS: Ichiro has started a fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ichiro 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: MayLee has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
MayLee 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ichiro
COMBATSYS: MayLee fails to counter Medium Strike from Ichiro with Blazing Intercept.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
MayLee 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Ichiro
"All this--all of your /anger/ is more destructive to the city than any common criminal could be!" May Lee replies with growing concern. Beyond her simple difference of opinion with Ichiro - which, ultimately, is something that can /totally/ be worked out via conversation, given a chance for people to calm down - the sheer extent of his rage is really quite unsettling. And yet distantly familiar. But mostly, unsettling.
She doesn't have time to think much more about it, however, because she's sent flying backwards to bounce off of a brick wall. She doesn't fall unconscious, tough little thing that she is, but she's somewhat slow to get back to her feet all the same; having the back of your head impact with a hard surface makes cognition difficult.
May Lee's words seem to do little but cause Ichiro's tenuous grip on his temper to loosen ever more as her accusation causes him to tremble with anger. "NO! He -may- just be a lowlife purse-snatcher," Oe admits as he sweeps his right arm wide, his voice dropping to a more sedate tone as he points his spear at the prone thug laying nearby. "But its men like him that eat away at the good of society, that enable the true villains to take hold!"
Satisfied with leaving May Lee struggling to pick herself up off of the ally floor, Oe strides over to unconscious criminal and lifts him into the air by the scruff of his neck. "Even with all of the this city's powerful fighters, all of its so-called -heroes-," Ichiro adds as he peers at the criminal's face, spitting out that last word as if it were a curse, "...this city was brought to its knees by people like this man, and all because those powerful enough to prevent it were more concerned with waving to cameras and making money than hunting down madmen and murderers." Oe finishes as he seems to ponder the thug's fate.
COMBATSYS: Ichiro takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
MayLee 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Ichiro
"/Everyone/ who could was fighting to protect the city!" May Lee exclaims as she gets up to her feet. "I'm sorry that you missed it, I--I'm sorry that you were /hurt/, and that nobody was there to protect you, but if they could have--if /I/ could have, I would have," she says, softening rapidly into sincere concern and regret.
"But this won't make it--or you--or anything better!"
She runs to put herself near enough to Ichiro to put her hands to his arm without much in the way of pressure, at least for now; a gentle tug downwards to try easing him into letting the unfortunate thug down. "All he wanted to do was steal a woman's purse. You're talking about stealing /lives/."
COMBATSYS: MayLee takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
MayLee 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Ichiro
"Hmf," Oe grunts as May Lee speaks of people fighting for the city. "It's easy to fight AFTER innocent blood has been spilled," he adds with a scowl. And where was Ichiro before the war started? Laughing it up and playing with friends? But he was just a child, children aren't responsible for fighting evil and protecting the innocent, are they?
Ichiro's features harden as May Lee approaches and attempts to console him, but a slow gulping swallow betrays the emotion roiling inside the young warrior. Blinking his right eye rapidly as he struggles to keep his stoic composure, the battered and tortured teen slowly gives in to the girl's gentle guiding hands. Lowering the criminal back down to the ground as he slowly regains consciousness; Oe sets his jaw stubbornly and purses his lips before turning to face the beautiful young fighter and slowly but firmly pulling his arm from her grasp.
"I... I hurt people... I think I killed them..." Oe admits haltingly, blinking back tears from his one remaining eye as the half-remembered nightmares that have been haunting him since he was recovered by Adelheid, the only sporadic and vestigial memories he possesses from his time under the control of SIN, run through his mind. "...if I... if I can keep others from doing the same..." Ichiro sighs heavily as he lets the rest of that thought go unspoken; the irony of him denying others absolution as a means to seek his own redemption having finally settled in. "I'm sorry," he says simply. "I hope I didn't hurt you," he adds, changing the subject as he reaches out to gently brush some alley trash and dirt off of the Korean girl's shoulder.
May Lee tenses when the angry Einherjar's rage continues to boil over, but it doesn't stay her touch any. Being this close just... means that she'll be in the perfect position to try and subdue the young warrior should he require it. It makes /perfect/ sense; she's even got the perfect over the shoulder throw plotted out, a weird amalgamation of aikido derived from Batman's artfully unbalancing a member of the Russian Mafiya and tokusatsu derived from every Kamen Rider ever jumping high into the air to land upon a vulnerable opponent feet first.
Somewhere in there, she listens, too. And she takes her gloved hands away from ichiro's arms when they're thrown off. She also relaxes once it's clear that the criminal will get to live another day, and even flashes the briefest of smiles up at Ichiro.
"Did--I'm sure--there was a reason. And look at you, listen to your voice--you can't be such a bad guy if you still care this much, can you?" she quietly wonders after biting her bottom lip momentarily. She starts to say something further only to be caught wordless when her shoulder is brushed clean. Briefly, shoulder throwing crosses her thoughts again but it doesn't seem to be particularly necessary.
She dares to reach towards the inner curve of Ichiro's shield that she may press her hand to his, once she's gotten over her surprise. Her eyes turn up towards the former lacrosse player's as well and she says, "/I'm/ sorry."
A faint smirk rises to Ichiro's lips as he shrugs in response to May Lee's reasoning. "Yeah... I guess I can't be THAT bad if you put it like that..." he replies with a soft chuckle. My my, how his mood has changed; he probably wouldn't be so casual right now if he knew how close he just came to a wicked aikido throw!
Oe's face grows somber as May Lee's hand presses against his. "No, I should be thanking you. If I had killed that man... well it would have been the first... that I remember at least, ...and I don't think I would have ever forgotten it."
Clearing his throat softly, Ichiro lets his hand linger on May Lee's gloved hand for a moment, his eyes fully taking in her appearance with a clear mind for the first time since she ambushed him. "I owe you one May Lee, Champion of Justice," he says finally, his playful smirk returning as he glances behind the Korean girl in time to see the now awaken purse-snatcher making use of this distraction by shambling further into the alleyway. "Oh, by the way. The criminal is escaping," Oe informs her as he lets her hand go to motion toward the fleeing thief.
"We can call it even, then?" May Lee posits with a soft giggle. The mirth fades from her features as she puts her hand to the back of the neck and murmurs, "I was sort of worried, you know, I mean I don't /know/ you, but I don't really see very many people get /that/ angry, like, maybe Master Jhun, when people mess up his katas, or show up late, or don't have their gis on properly, or wear little Kamen Rider pins on their belts, or don't bring him the kind of bubblegum he likes, but not /most/ people. Definitely not people like /you/. I mean, you know, young people, not--not people with--with, uh... with... you know..."
By the time she actually registers that the criminal is escaping, the rapidly paling champion is saved from her potentially awkward moment. She drops her hand from beginning to raise near to her own eye, quickly checks behind herself then makes a small noise like a squeak.
"Hold on!"
She sucks in a deep breath, and then in a burst of speed she's running across the alley way at rather a decent clip. A few tendrils of white lightning chi manifesting themselves in tight coils around her right arm leap towards Ichiro's metal shield, but most stay right where they belong as she charges. Between her dash and the wind that's suddenly come in from nowhere, her scarf is fluttering like a long red flag, only to be blown suddenly upwards when her outstretched hand makes contact with the thug.
"LIGHTNING BLOW!"
Coming to a stop on the other side of the crumpling and once again unconscious man, May Lee leans forward and rests her hands against her knees to momentarily catch her breath, because she actually has the luxury of being able to do so.
Her scarf keeps flitting all about at a weird, perpetually vertical angle, of course.
"Sorry--sorry! I think he's out for a little while longer now! I had to kind of--I think it was just kind of like a taser, so hopefully..." she calls out to Ichiro before hopping back to an upright posture and resting her hands on her hips. She sounds and looks a touch regretful for having even had to do /that/, but it's an overall acceptable level of violence for dealing with fleeing street criminals.
Ichiro simply quirks an eyebrow at May Lee's torrential outpouring, a bemused expression on his face as she rattles on awkwardly. It looks as if he is about to reply, but suddenly the Champion of Justice is off doing what she does best. Wincing slightly at the sight of the girl's punishing lightning attack, Oe can't help but be thankful that he hadn't ended up on the wrong side of her Lightning Blow. "Yeeeah, let's hope he's alright," Ichiro chuckles a touch self-consciously as he returns his spear to its more compact form and stows both it and his shield on his back. Walking over to May Lee, the Einherjar Initiate gives the criminal a probing nudge with his toe. Yup, still alive.
"My name is Ichiro, by the way," he says with a warm smile, probably the first true expression of happiness that he's allowed himself to have in weeks. "Maybe next time we meet we can bust some criminals together. I promise I won't get angry again," he adds with a self-deprecating smirk.
May Lee nods vigorously as concern is expressed for the fallen thief, saying, "I'm plenty careful, because I kind of have to be, because Master Kim would be kind of upset if I accidentally put him in the hospital or killed him or something during training, but he kind of took me by surprise so I had to just kind of wing it." Beat. "He--he'll just be a little well done when he wakes up in his holding cell." Another beat, and then May Lee deflates a little with a small groaning noise and rubs the back of her neck. /Batman/ certainly wouldn't be this tongue-tied after managing to successfully avert a fight. For that matter, neither would Rider Den-Oh, even at his most socially awkward.
Strangely, the length of her scarf has managed to wind up tucked into the collar of her shirt during all of this.
"Nice to meet you, Ichiro," she murmurs as she holds her other hand out for shaking. "Maybe next time we meet, we can, like, have something to eat, or watch a movie, or go shopping?" she tentatively suggests with an upturned eyebrow.
Chuckling warmly as May Lee explains herself, Ichiro simply nods at her appraisal of the fortunate thief's predicament. "Yeah, hopefully that will give him reason to change his ways," Oe replies hopefully as he scratches at the back of his head, sharing in May Lee's awkward moment. What do you say to someone that you just argued with, fought, and are now apparently flirting with? Taking a hold of and shaking May Lee's gloved hand, the young spear fighter briefly wonders what it would be like to shake her bare hand instead, but after watching the lightning burst she laid on that mugger this might be for the better after all.
A slight blush rises to the young man's face as May Lee suggests that maybe they should do something more date-like next time instead. After all of the craziness that he just exposed her to, now she wants to go see a movie with him? Ichiro will never understand women. Though, May Lee is DEFINITLY not an average girl; something that is very intriguing in its own right. "Uhh, yeah, I'd love that... I mean, I'd like to go to a movie or something, for sure!" Oe replies clumsily.
"But yeah, I should probably get back, my friends are waiting for me," he adds as he presses a button hidden under the collar of his uniform coat, signaling the Sky Noah that had been waiting to retrieve him high above the pair. Just like clockwork, a long hi-tech cable descends from the clouds above with a small rung affixed to the bottom. Reaching for the cable, Oe pulls the rope from heaven the last couple of feet down near the ground and steps onto the rung with both feet. Grabbing a hold of the cable and tugging hard, Ichiro gives the winch operator the signal to begin reeling him up.
"Oh, I almost forgot..." Ichiro mumbles while only a few feet in the air above the stylish girl, pulling a small silver disk from his pocket and tossing it down to May Lee. "If you want to get a hold of me press that. My personal cell phone reception up there," he explains cryptically as the winch begins pulling him upwards with amazing speed. "CALL ME SOON!" Ichiro calls out as he ascends, pulling a hand off of the winch cable to wave at the girl as he travels back to the Sky Noah.
May Lee really /isn't/ the average girl, because her grip is really, really firm in the time before the handshake breaks. Of course, she's probably kind of average for a girl who beats people up for, sometimes, money, but that's beside the point. She at least does not suggest perusing some part of the monolithic collection of Kamen Rider DVDs that would push her from 'not average' to 'really, really weird', Possibly because, for all that she is sure that Ichiro is not such a bad guy, he was still like two seconds away from killing a guy on two separate occasions and getting to know him a /little/ better before inviting him into her home is just smart.
Master Kim would be proud, even if it was balanced with a stern look for her contemplating letting any boy period into her home.
Dating or hanging out with people of the opposite sex or whatever in the hell she's going for are actually rather low on the list of things that a proper Taekwando Justice Fighter does, but it's a list that she kind of liberally picks and chooses from /anyway/.
"Your friends? Well, we could walk--" she begins before canting her head slightly at the button press. "Or you could--"
And then, perhaps because a cable just coiled down to earth from it, May Lee actually notices the huge goddamn airship looming above them.
Once upon a time, she saw a real live Panda Samurai mecha, roughly twelve feet tall and strong enough to almost put her in traction by throwing a tank at her. The tenor of her reaction - equal parts shock and unbridled joy - to it are rather similar to what she's experienced now, when faced with an /airship/, with a crew of people to throw ropes down to angry but oddly personable boys with spears.
"Oh my God wait are you--oh of course you have to go /fight evildoers on your airship/, I understand!" May Lee giddily squeals as looks up after the rising Ichiro and holds her hands out to catch the silver disc. "Are you sure I--is this some kind of high tech signal device? Do I have my /very own signal device/ now? Direct to you?! OhmygodwhatifIaccidentallycallyouandyou'resavingtheworldfromterroristsordemonsorraliensorsomethingit'dallbemyfaultifsomethingwentwrong!!"
She takes several deep breaths as she tries to swallow the horror of that last realization, bolstered somewhat by that last shout after she's had a little while to recover. She swallows hard, she pockets the disc quickly and she sticks her right hand up to wave it vigorously back and forth. "I will! Goodbye! Nice meeting you! Don't get hurt saving the world!!"
Once Ichiro is out of sight, she once more squeals, and then she bounces to the downed man to scoop him up over a shoulder without too much effort. Her scarf billows behind her as she then takes off running towards the nearest police station, a grin stretched from her left ear to the right.
"I'm gonna hang out with a superhero oh my God what am I gonna /wear/ I have to tell Chae Lim..."
COMBATSYS: MayLee has left the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ichiro 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Ichiro has ended the fight here.
Log created on 21:52:19 07/02/2009 by MayLee, and last modified on 14:55:57 07/03/2009.