Description: The soup isn't the best and may in fact be too late to meet the local customs for New Year's Day. While it may still be apt, the log title is not actually talking about the soup.
It was a quiet early evening, and she had nowhere to be. Thus, Ibuki found herself leaning against a brownstone not too far from Taiyo High...now what would a young girl be doing out alone at this time of day near a school that is not her own? The ninja teen is checking out guys of course! Her school uniform standing out only simply because it doesn't match the Taiyo one, she stands happily admiring the boys she deemed to be hotties, occassionally taking quick pics of them with her cell phone for later and deeper analysis of their cuteness!
Due to her boy watching, Ibuki's not really paying as much attention to her surroundings and the small amount of attention her antics are getting from some of the Taiyo students, though mainly at this point it's merely muttering about if anyone knows her, or if she's a new girl...basically typical gossip for something like this.
And so Mr. Rust remembers the fifth thing he was supposed to do today, he was supposed to cook some soup for a friend over in Taiyo. The concoction in question isn't... the best he could do, but he had little to no time when he remembered. To say nothing about the beating Kyokugen practice has been putting him through. It's impossible to mask his soreness and injuries, a visible limp as he heads up towards Taiyo High.
It's early evening, yeah, but at least one person there works late - the person he's supposed to be delivering soup to! The older man has the dish carefully wrapped over the top, and while it's not particularly warm at this point, late is better than never, right? Right?
He dreads the yelling over shoddy workmanship in this regard.
As he approaches the front gates, he doesn't really think much of anything of the girl in another school's uniform, considering how often kids from other schools stop by Pacific. Nothing seems out of place here, except for himself - a foreigner, and not a kid.
One of his knees pop very loudly as he passes by Ibuki.
For her part, Ibuki is equally as unaware of Rust as he starts to pass by her towards the front gates...then his knee pops and the girl spins smoothly to face him, then getting a good look at him she blinks a couple times and vaguely remembers running into him somewhere before. She wracks her mind for a moment before the mall comes to mind and she snaps her fingers, "Hey!" She waves gently with a smile on her face, "Are you lost..."
Her voice kinda dies away as she gets a good look at him and the obvious pain he's in from his soreness and injuries, "Umm do you need any help with that at all?" She asks a bit concerned especially noting that he had a limp and the wrapped up dish in his hands looked like it might be adding to his pains, "It'd really be no trouble at all!" She enthuses cheerfully.
Ibuki does note the fact he's a foreigner and not a kid but since she's been in Southtown she's been seeing a large number of foreigners, so the only warning bell is the not kid part but he appears to be delivering food of some kind maybe he's some sort of food delivery guy? She chirps with her hands out offering to hold the wrapped item, "Long day of deliveries?"
The shop teacher slash delivery guy (if only for today) takes a moment to realize he's being addressed by a girl that... kind of looks familiar? It's been a while if it is. He deals with a lot of young people here and there, most of them students, others locals.
"Huh? Uh... n-nah, I'm, I'm good, thanks," he clears his throat, "just, uh... just martial arts classes, today was... well, some things, uh, some things knees aren't meant to take."
More specifically, a senior instructor by the name of Marco hit the wrecking ball too hard and it flew off and got him in the knee. It hurt. A lot. But he's still walking so that was of course fair game to continue to be kicked in said knee in a spar. All in all, it's a bad day to be any one of Howard Rust's overworked knees. Well, moreso than usual. The guy doesn't give them much of a break out of bad, bad habit.
"Nah," he shakes his head at mention of long day of deliveries, "just... just a lot of, lot of li'l errands today. I teach over at, at Pacific," he adds as though he needs to dignify what he normally does - perhaps this is what stands between him being able to go home and rest and being asked to do some other menial task he is much too tired and hurt for.
Putting a finger to her chin, Ibuki nods slowly, "If you're sure? It really wouldn't be a problem for me at all?" She pauses though as he says it was due to some martial arts classes, "Then wouldn't it be best for the uninjured girl to do it than for the injured person?" She smirks playfully as she says this.
She folds her hands behind her back and rolls forward and backward on the soles of her shoes while they continue their talk. Her face gets a little embarrassed as he says he's a teacher, "N-not that I meant any disrespect sir!" She stops rolling on her feet and holds up her hands waves them in front of herself, "I was just trying to help....though if you teach at Pacific why are you running an errand over here at Taiyo?" Again a finger is put below her chin as she looks thoughtful, "...Did you lose a bet sir?"
"N-Nah, don't want... don't want anyone runnin' off with it," he says. Even though it is probably, on the whole, not very good as far as soups of that kind go! The older man stretches out one of his legs with a wince, as if he were pushing against her coy but largely kind and thoughtful ideas on sheer willpower alone.
"Well, uh... y'know, as Pacific is a school 'bout... 'bout the world community," he drones, the tiredness in his voice from a long day readily apparent by how his tone of voice wavers in and out of mumbling and accidentally catching his tongue on certain words to the point he pauses and sometimes repeats himself.
"'n... yeah, I lost a bet," he concedes with a slightly hanged head, a bet he was going to be called on if he didn't get this friggin' soup over to the person in question right about now!
"Actually, uh... hey, while we're here, didn't I, uh... didn't I meet you back in that, that... that shopping center?" He tries to jog his memory, pointing a finger out from his left hand and shaking it a little to the extent he can when he has two whole hands full of soup bowl.
"Fair enough then sir!" Ibuki enthuses, as she folds her hands behind her back but refrains from anything else as rolling on her feet might be seen as childish. She gives him another once over as if judging how good of condition he was in, but the look passes and is replaced with a mild bit of scepticism, "Mmmhmm." Then he finally admits that he had lost a bet she chuckles gently and nods, "I thought so!"
Tilting her head, "What sort of bet did you lose to be sent all the way here to give someone food?" Her eyes flicking from the obviously tired man to the school and back again, "One of the staff here I'm guessing?" Is she grilling him for information or just genuinely this curious? Who knows?!!!
"Hmm?" She blinks as her interrogation is derailed, "Yes, we have actually you were looking for a...specialty item, if I remember correctly." She politely demures away from what /exactly/ he'd been searching for, "Di-did you ever manage to find it?"
A look shows that he's still dealing with joint problems and that he's probably ready to just go home, flop on the nearest mattress - couch or bed or otherwise - and just call it a day. Worse comes to worse, she could probably kill him easily if her ninja superiors demanded his immediate silencing for whatever reason.
He grunts at the chuckling as he limps along towards the front gates with the usual sort of stubbornness of someone knowing there's really no other way out of this particular - if mundane, in the big picture - predicament.
"Yeah, someone I know, see... we were watching baseball, and... and hey, I say, I'd bet a meal if a team won, 'n... y'know, they didn't win." A complete upset, that seemed to happen simply because he thought it was as sure as a free meal of some kind.
It was actually a rerun.
"Huh? That thing, uh," he can feel sweat coming on his brow as his horrible combover, somewhat dramatically, shudders against a breeze that goes through at the moment the young girl has to ask him that ever so sensitive Guy Question.
He clears his throat and shakes his head, "didn't, uh... didn't have much luck there." It sounds of a simple touch of disappointment, but perhaps what he is really looking for is best not said out in public.
Ibuki smiles gently, "You really do look tired though, and I think you should rest up once you finish this delivery." Her voice is very gentle as she says this, not even remotely considering that her ninja village would send her to kill the man for any reason, "So let's go deliver it!" She enthuses inviting herself to go along apparently.
Nodding her head slowly and knowingly, "Hmm, perhaps gambling is not for you then sir." She tilts her head to look at him, "In this case at least luck didn't favor you at all." She states the obvious, "Then again this could be the exception to your normal luck." She muses.
Ibuki's fairly good on the uptake and she clearly realizes that the subject is a very serious one for the man, she holds in the giggle that starts to worm its way up her throat as the wind and fate seemed to tempt her by comically illustrating the reason for his quest that day by causing his hair to shudder. Her face for that moment is utterly blank but no hint of the giggle escapes either.
"I'm sorry to hear that sir, perhaps next time you'll have better luck." She quickly offers hope for his eventual success.
"That's... that's the plan," he says with another nondescript nod as he walks along with a particularly enthusiastic girl in tow. Well... uh, he guesses it wouldn't hurt. It's a pleasant change from the fact that it used to be where every other teenage girl was out to murder him for whatever reason.
"Yeah, in... in most cases, it... really... isn't." That's a good lesson for any youngster to learn when it comes to gambling away hard-earned (or hard-begged) cash, really.
"Ah... yeah, thanks." He says with sufficient quickness on the matter, as though he were ready to hurry onto some other subject such as... say... delivering the soup. He walks at a very slow and measured pace, so unless Ibuki is particularly patient she will probably find this walk terribly long and boring in comparison to scoping out cute guys.
"Actually, uh... don't think I said my name," he thinks aloud. "It's Howard Rust. Uh, Rust is the, the family name. Howard's the given." This is something that gets confused a whole lot, even by himself because when he's signing forms sometimes it's not clear if they want it in Western name order or the one they use here.
Ibuki grins, "Good, I was going to be worried if you weren't going to rest." She leaves it at that as they begin to walk very very slowly through the school, getting looks from some of the students leaving a bit early from club activities. The ninja girl folds her hands behind her head and looks up at the sky as they walk, nodding her reply to the statement of gambling not being smart, and then something occurs to her.
"Sir, isn't it a bit too late to be delivering lunch...and it's a little too early for dinner as well....and that looks too much to be a snack?" The point of her questiong being the implication he's either very early or very late with this delivery. She looks over at him from the corner of her eye to take in his reaction to the question.
As for her boy scoping action, Ibuki is a master of gathering information and being aware of her surroundings, so...she's totally using her peripherals to keep the beefcake coming! Every so often her head snaps another direction as a particularly cute, in her opinion, boy passes into view.
"Ah! It's a pleasure to meet you Rust-sensei." Ibuki grins slightly lowering her arms and hands to her side again, "You can call me Ibuki, It's my given name." She oddly doesn't give her family name at all but then again maybe she's just being cautious, I mean there could be a lot of girls named Ibuki in Japan afterall.
"It's... it's been a long day," he's sure he's said something to this effect as he walks the halls of Taiyo to the looks of a few other students. A couple probably know who he is already, he's been around Southtown for years as a teacher over at Pacific, and Pacific and Taiyo have had some particularly heated rivalries in the sports. "Either way, 's... 's gotta get there." He stops to re-adjust his hold of the bowl, as he can feel it slipping a bit. He kind of wishes he remembered this soup before he did everything else today.
Life's not easy when you're a responsible adult with a lot of little errands to do throughout the town.
One of his elbows makes an unpleasant creaking noise as he bends it slightly in going down a hallway - coincidentally, right as the young girl introduces her by her given name. "Well, nice to meet you, ah, Ibuki-san."
He's overly careful with the honorifics here, if only because one of the Japanese teachers got fired at Pacific because someone thought the use of '-chan' meant they were hitting on them. It was total BS, but, what could you do other than to really be careful with what you say and do?
He stops in his tracks. "Wait a sec, uh," this is an incredible long shot for the reason that, yes, indeed, Ibuki is a fairly common given name for girls out and around Japan, a finger pointing out from one of the hands that holds the bowl, "this is, uh, this is unlikely but... you wouldn't know a, a Quon Chen, would you? Chinese kid, fighter... really flashy."
Something that was said earlier by a certain other person starts sending a chill down his spine.
"You've mentioned that." Ibuki chuckles lightly at Rust's response, for her own part Ibuki is a relative unknown so it seems that the students are more staring at her than Rust though he's certainly getting looks as well, Rival Schools and all. "Agreed!" She picks up her pace a bit and walks backwards down the hall while facing Rust, she barely avoids crashing into anyone for the moment.
She chuckles again and gives a slight bow as he says it's nice to meet her. Then as she straightens up he asks his next question and Ibuki's face scrunches up slightly in thought, then she snaps her fingers, "I actually do happen to know someone by that name, though I thought he was a video game fan, didn't know he was a fighter or anything!" She sounds amazed about that fact for a long moment.
She pauses midstep backwards puts her hand to her chin, "Why do you ask? He a friend of yours?" She smiles widely and her head flicks to the side as a particularly cute guy walks by and she pulls out her cell phone and snaps a quick pic before she looks back to Rust.
Video game fan, yeah, that's a match then - something that a part of him really hoped /wasn't/, but, how in the hell do the odds come up like that? The first 'Ibuki' he finds, she's probably what that person was talking about.
Maybe he really should take up gambling after all.
He slows down at about the same time she pauses to ask him out of genuine, smiling curiosity. The look on his face is the stark opposite, the one of a man surprised and maybe even a little horrified at what that might mean.
For all he knows, this Ibuki is exactly just an ordinary girl living a perfectly ordinary teenage life, and if what that person from earlier in the morning said is true, then...
"Uh... yeah, he is, but," he clears his throat, thinking about how to say this. It's going to sound melodramatic and laugh-worthy almost no matter how he puts it, but that's not going to stop him - he's seen the lengths Quon went through to try and escape that person and their cohorts.
"Listen, uh, what I'm gonna tell you, it's... it's really important," he says as he frees up a hand and moves the bowl of soup to the hold of one single arm - something that's not particularly advised, admittedly - as he stops in the middle of a hallway.
Oh how Ibuki wished she were a ordinary girl living a perfectly ordinary teenage life, things would be so so much easier for her! Unaware of what Rust has to say she just stands there waiting for his response to her question, though the look on his face puzzles her slightly. Then she smiles and nods, "He seems pretty nice, though...I think my friend Cammy might like him or something." She chuckles and beams, "She gets very embarrassed around him too, it's too cute!" She rattles on chipperly.
"Hmm?" She looks up from her own ruminations and blinks at Rust, "Okay? Well what is it?" She sounds curious mainly due to his very serious tone and the obvious discomfort unrelated to weariness in his voice all of the sudden.
"Y-You know her already?" Well, shit, it's too late, he curses on the inside! She's already in and close enough to be 'a friend.' Here he was, almost feeling relieved - in a sort of odd way - that he found the Ibuki that Cammy was talking about right on the very same day she mentioned her, and now the way Ibuki talks, it's clear that...
He starts to think better of saying anything. His eyes wander a bit, perhaps to make sure there aren't any suspicious people lining the halls. Hell, knowing Cammy, she might be /right there/ given how much she loves to drop in uninvited on just about anything, anytime, ever.
He exhales loudly as he realizes there's really no going back on this. "Cammy. Her. The one that, that's been followin' Quon around." He clarifies, to make sure they're on the same page. "She... she's in with some, some really dangerous people." He nods his head, as if to put emphasis towards this. "Really, really dangerous people.""
"Of course, she's the one that introduced me to Quon...she's a little odd sometimes but I think at her core she's a nice girl." Ibuki admits after a moment of looking thoughtful about how best to respond to that question. She adjusts her massive ponytail, as she thinks about what he's said so far.
Her features scrunch curiously as she notes his eyes wander the hall but being a ninja she's already been keeping careful observations of the area around them, not that she's let that on or that they were at the moment totally clear of any 'additional company'.
"Mmmhmm?" Ibuki's eyes again focusing on Rust, "Really?!" Ibuki's eyes widen, "Is she in some sort of trouble or something?" For once her features harden and actually look something aside from curiousity or happiness, concern is written on her face, "Cause I want to know right now if she is?!"
Ahh, keep it down! He tries to signal this with his free hand by lowering it down a few times, once more looking around the hallways as if to ensure she's not about to drop in - it may amuse Ibuki that a man at least twenty years her senior has not mastered the arts of perfect awareness of one's surroundings for him to be checking constantly with overt movements of his head.
"N-no, no," er, actually, maybe yes? It's kind of tricky to quantify it when she is a part of a dangerous organization that seems to be rolling their eyes and dropping casual threats to Quon about what will happen if he ever hurts her - it's gotten bad enough that even Sagat has come to /him/ for help in seeing Quon's maturation as a fighter.
"Ahh, it's... it's kind of tricky," he says, "she... she really likes Quon, I mean, I'm not... I'm not doubting that's genuine, but," he clears his throat as he lowers his voice a little more, how is he going to put this, "let's say she's... she's part of a very, very nasty gang, and... and trust me, you want to be, to be very careful 'round her."
He's hoping he's getting this message through, but the way her tone changes to seriousness instead of flippantly laughing him off - thus far, anyway - is somewhat reassuring.
She's too worried to keep it down her face shows this fact as well as she gives him a mild annoyed look for basically shushing her, her head shakes as she looks him over, "Don't worry we're alone right now, I'd know if there was anyone else here." Her tone absolutely serious and without a shred of doubt in her voice. She folds her arms across her chest and leans forward as the man finally continues.
"She's not?!" She lets out a relieved sigh and leans back, a small smile coming back to her face as she waves a hand at him, "Don't worry me like that okay?!" She starts to chuckle and turn to head down the hallway obviously thinking it's time to return to getting the soup to its destination.
Then he goes and continues, Ibuki's face shows her confusion for a moment as Rust babbles slightly, "Well...yeah she's strange but I think she genuinely likes him too." She raises and eyebrow, "But?" Then he says she's part of a gang, "She's in a gang? What sort of gang?" Her eyes locked onto the man while she waits for a reply.
They're alone? He doesn't think for another second about how Ibuki might know that the two of them are alone, but he nods slowly at this as he re-adjusts his hold on the soup for yet another pop from an elbow. Maybe he shouldn't be standing around trying to give cryptic warnings for much longer.
He's not sure how to communicate this whole picture effectively without saying absolutely everything, knowledge of absolutely everything is going to get her in deep when his entire goal is to try and get her to /avoid/ getting into deep. After all, she's an ordinary girl, isn't she? Quon and himself can both fight, sure, but it's doubtful the two of them could take on the entire Shadaloo army - or even one of their lieutenants.
The way she stares at him is unsettling, but reaffirms she is definitely hanging onto his every word like it's a serious deal. Which it is - but maybe she might be taking it as idle gossip worth sharing? Who knows.
He clears his throat again. "Sorry, my throat's dry, but... yeah, she is, it's... it's international." That's about as close as he thinks he can get to saying it outright without completely ill effect. "The point I'm, I'm trying to make is," he leans it a bit closer, "the people she's with are... they're very, very dangerous, okay? So you need to... you need to be really careful around her."
He can only pray this message is getting through, given the improbable chances of having met who Cammy was talking about within a day's time without actually looking for her.
Ibuki keeps her calm amazingly well, she's neither really upset or visibly distrubed other than her intense stare and lack of a smile she's practically her usual self right now. She waits patiently for his response not pushing him in anyway to hurry up, he is older and in bad condition right now to do otherwise would be very selfish of her.
Though he may or may not be a lieutenant, Ibuki had already faced and defeated Adon of the organization that they were indirectly discussing, not that she was really aware of that, other than some of the very big name fighters Ibuki was relatively unware of the fighter community, mainly due to the isolation of her village and the fact she spent any time free from training focusing on other things. However, her village had taught her to recognize and avoid some of the nastier elements in the fighting world but again she'd need the name before she puts everything together...
"So it's a really big gang that's dangerous?" Ibuki continues as he closes the distance and informs her of the fact they are dangerous, she frowns for once, "...can you tell me if Cammy's a part of them because she wants to be or not?" Ibuki's eyes seem to be deadly serious about this question it'd likely be unwise for Rust to not answer it.
Though while she waits for the reply other than the look she backs off and relaxes, she's taking it seriously but it seems she's thinking something over while they are talking as well.
If only he knew what Ibuki was already aware of - what she /is/ - a lot of this ambiguity could be avoided. As it stands, this is just a largely ordinary high school teacher - occasional bouts of nigh-invincibility notwithstanding - speaking to an ordinary girl of whom he really doesn't want to burden with specific knowledge of extremely dangerous people. Just enough to guide her away from potential harm, and give Quon one less thing to worry about in life.
One less thing for /himself/ to worry about in life.
He nods at mention of the really big gang that's dangerous, that's what they sure as hell are in the simplest terms imaginable. It's the weighted question that Ibuki gives him that gives him a bit of pause, but that stare suggests in no uncertain terms that she wants to know exactly what this means in so far as her and her membership goes.
He's not sure what to say. She laments not having people like Quon among her ranks, and yet, she is really fascinated and appreciative of him. But she hasn't just turned tail and eloped on them, has she? He has no idea what the social dynamics in there are like, beyond the sheer threat her interests in him represents when they have the attention of one of the most dangerous men to ever live.
When she relaxes and backs off, he thinks to say something as he clutches the soup a bit tighter. "If I have to... if I have to hazard a guess, she doesn't... dislike what she is."
With his answer, Ibuki relaxes the rest of the way and a slow smile spreads across her face, "Well if that's the case then I have no problems." Ibuki nods to herself more than to Rust, "I'll have to ask her myself to find out for sure obviously but for now I guess I'll be fine with it." The teen then gets completely back to her peppy self turns around, walks backwards so that she's even with Rust and points forward...
"I believe we've got a delivery to make!" She chuckles and starts to walk that way seemingly not even concerned about it anymore as though it never happened. She hums a little to herself for a few moments before finnally she speaks up again, "Thank you for the warning, I'll be careful." And with that she refrains from mentioning it again.
"So Rust-sensei...are you a fighter too?" Ibuki tilts her head backwards over her shoulder as they walk towards their goal.
No problems? Actually this is a really, really big problem, he winces at her smile while making sure the soup hasn't spilled any - well, his arms aren't moist so one supposes that much is still good, for a day that hasn't been completely good.
He stretches out his especially sore leg for one good pop or two as she charges ahead with the cheerful declaration of making a delivery, yeah, might as well do so and head on home, he thinks to himself as he takes in a deep breath wondering if he just gave this girl a measure of safety or just got her into mortal danger, even with her thanks about the warning that comes out of a playful hum almost like a bipolar reaction. He just nods.
"I, uh... yeah, actually, I am." He says in a low voice, which is especially weird when he says what he's about to in a tone that in theory should be considering how much weight it carries! There's a whole lot suggesting to the contrary. His age, the joint problems, the sluggishness of his movement...
"'m gonna be in the, the King of Fighters tournament." He clears his throat again. "Got a whole team 'n, 'n evreything."
Ibuki's a ninja she lives for putting people off balance and while she's back to her usual sunny self on the outside she's got some serious thinking to do on the inside, the thank you was intended to put him at little ease so he knew she was actually thinking it over and appreciated. She thinks of her odd new friend Cammy for a moment, and wonders about her a bit more than she had up to this point...
"I thought you might be, it seems everyone around here is." She sighs and shakes her head. Then her head turns back around, "Well I think we're getting close to your goal...so I'll stop here." She turns to face him as he mentions the tournament, "I see, well it seems that we'll be meeting again soon enough then Rust-sensei, good luck and get some rest!" She winks takes a quick step past him and utterly vanishes from the hallway as though she were never there, it seems the girl has a few secrets of her own!!!
Log created on 02:36:27 01/02/2011 by Rust, and last modified on 06:50:16 01/02/2011.