Description: At four in the morning local time after that night where Howard Rust and his teammates passed the time at that resort place, Ryo Sakazaki makes good on the recorded request that he call back as soon as possible. As always, Yuri's actions are bringing both men a whole lot of trouble, but perhaps things will work themselves out...
Ryo has had a whole lot of stuff to deal with lately. There's been the troubles at home. The fact that he /missed King of Fighters signups/. The ever-present weirdness between him and King. Heck, there's even been slightly more weird than usual challengers at the dojo lately! Ryo is not normally one to resent this, but the fight with Cammy had just been odd.
This might be why Ryo had put off responding to Howard's message right away. He was /tired/ of dealing with Yuri and Takuma and all their attendant craziness. When all is said and done, though, Yuri /is/ his sister. He has a duty to look after her.
He just knows this is going to bite him in the ass somehow. Call it pattern recognition.
So, having finally found a quiet moment, at about 4am Africa Time, Ryo punches in the cell number for Rust. So help him, if Yuri has managed to get herself maimed in the few days she's been out there...
At 4 AM, Rust is trying to sleep. It's been tense for him, knowing full well what he's about to go up against in his first - and, given how infrequent they all are and his advancing age, might even be his last - King of Fighters fight. Can he individually match the famous Russian wrestler Zangief? Can he really?
His cellphone's ringtone is loud enough to serve as its own alarm. It takes about three rings for him to stir awake, wearing only an undershirt and some boxers with the card suit of clubs adorned on them, clumsily reaching around on the nearby nightstand for the phone before he flips it open.
"Hello," he addresses so incredibly tiredly. He's only had about three and a half hours of sleep thus far.
Ryo isn't really worried about the fight; although he has taken the time to look it up. Wrestling against a team which has not one, but TWO practitioners of Kyokugen Karate on it? Well, Zangief was famous, and El Fuerte is an up and comer .... it wasn't likely to be easy, but he has faith that Rust could pull through. Such is the Kyokugen Way!
"Hello, Howard." Ryo says, taking a deep breath, "I figured I had better call you after I received your message." There's a heartbeat, before he adds, with a hint of concern to his voice.
"First things first. Yuri hasn't been kidnapped yet, has she?"
"Y-Yeah, that's... that's, all right," he replies immediately to Ryo deciding to call him after his message, the great differences in time zone aside where he's being woken up in the middle of the night... but, at least they might be able to square this away. At least it's not the dad on the phone.
"Uh... no, she hasn't," the older man grunts.
There's an audible sigh of relief down the phone. That had been something that he'd been worrying about. "Good. Good." Ryo says, running his hand through his hair. Then, he starts to pick his words a bit more carefully.
"Look. I know you probably didn't have much say about this. But, you are the Team Leader. That means, Yuri is your responsibility." In some ways, it was good, now Ryo is actually thinking about it. Maybe if Yuri did manage this, Takuma would start seeing her as a young woman. Of course, then he'd have to stop worrying about her all the time too... but... baby steps.
"Dad is going to find out about this, sooner or later." He adds, "But, if you can bring her home safe, he probably won't be too angry. Just, be careful. Weird things happen at these tournaments sometimes. And you know how Yuri can be..."
The man's quiet as he listens to what the worried brother communicates. The thing about being the team's leader, Yuri being his responsibility... oh, yeah, he sure as hell been having to watch after her very closely. She's single-handedly responsible for making this trip a whole lot more tense and difficult.
"I'm, I'm not tryin' to hide any of this from your dad," the old man says, "if, if I was in his position, Ryo, I'd be... I'd be worried sick too. That's why I said where, where we were after we stopped gettin'... just, moved everywhere 'round Africa."
Ryo hesitates for a moment. "Well, I can respect that, Howard. I'm glad. I figure, if me or Dad go out to try and bring her back, we're just going to make things worse. So, I'll leave her in your hands."
Okay. Try to trust his sister to Rust. He can do that. Probably. Now. Next horrific piece of business.
"There's something else though. A girl came poking around the dojo after you the other day. She said she was trying to help you find something stolen? It sounded fishy to me."
Wait, they're not going to take her back? He's stunned where he sits on his bed. Well, Ryo's not going to personally come for her, which... in some ways makes it worse, because now /Takuma/ probably will. Takuma is probably not going to stand down to any of Ryo's opinions. His head sinks a little more thinking about it. "I'll, I'll make sure she remains okay," he adds quickly.
When Ryo goes on about a girl poking around the dojo... oh, he's sure he knows who she is. "Ryo, that girl... that girl's dangerous, she's been," he grunts, he's much too tired for this Cammy bull again, "okay. She's with... she's with some very, very dangerous people. She's got this... this fascination with a kid named Quon. So much that she's just... she's just bringing nothin' but trouble, playing god damn innocent when we, we damn well know what things she's up to... she's broken into my apartment at least, at least once, made mention that she could look, look into my /bank account/," he seems to emphasize this, "and, and when my address book got /stolen/ she got, she got the audacity to start tryin' to, trying to /cry/," he just slaps his forehead thinking about it.
"I don't want to hear /anything/ 'bout it from her." He puts these words down as strongly as his tired voice can convey.
Ryo actually laughs at that. "Hell yeah she's dangerous, Rust. What, you and this Quon kid have fought her? I'm impressed! She actually managed to beat me!"
The Kyokugen Master actually sounds like he's relaxing a bit now. Having listened to Rust's concerns, he knows at least that the old man is taking things seriously. That's a good thing! "I thought I was going to have to warn /you/ about who she's working with. You better be prepared to face her though. I know for a fact they'll be involved in this tournament. I thought she was snooping around to try and figure out how strong you and Yuri are."
His voice drops again, more serious. "I know those guys play for keeps, Howard. But you are a student of Kyokugen now. In the tournament, fight hard, give it your best, don't let them get to you." A heartbeat. "But if anyone. /Anyone/. Starts trying to screw with you or your teammates outside the fight? Don't forget you've got friends you can call on. If something serious happens, you've got backup. But I'm sure you can handle it. You're stronger than you let yourself think, Howard. You've worked /hard/ for this."
There's no room for question in his tone. This is a given. Kyokugen doesn't mean letting your friends stand up to evil without all the help they need.
"I, I personally, uh, haven't," he's not sure about Quon's end if the two have had any friendly spars or not considering her utmost complete fascination with him. He slumps a little more on his bed at mention that they'll be involved with the tournament, which is... worrying news, though at this rate it's entirely possible they'll be eliminated well before they'll have to face them.
It's great timing for that pep talk from Ryo. He /is/ a student of Kyokugen now, even as Ol' Rusty - that rusted length of pipe that for whatever reason is getting to have its own pillow next to where the man was sleeping - is to be wielded at the tournament. Will Takuma - hell, even Ryo - take it as a grave insult against the lessons they taught him?
"Thanks," he mumbles at the end of all of that. "Anyway, if it's... if it's any reassurance for Yuri. I, I don't know if she's been vaccinated against the diseases that, that are common here. I've been watchin' her like a, like a /hawk/ for any signs... and, and I made sure to get her homework notes from her teachers over the phone. I'm makin' sure she gets her studies done while she's out."
Kind of reminds him of Miu, how she seemed to be giving up a whole lot of academic ground for the sake of... getting stronger for someone? He's still not really sure how to put two and two together with that outburst, but, it's probably best not to dwell on that for now.
"And, and I gotta say, she's... she's going to be fighting tomorrow. Even if I said no, she'd... she'd just shove whoever I'd have put instead out of the way and done it anyway."
Ryo smirks quietly to himself. Yeah, that's Yuri. Consequences be damned, she'll throw herself into whatever she puts her mind to. In a strange kind of way, he's proud of her for that. She always has so much /spirit/. That's commendable. He just, really, really hopes that this tournament doesn't change that.
"Well. Don't you worry about a thing." He says, cheerfully. "The fighting is the fun part of the tournament. You get out there, and show them who you are. This is your time in the spotlight! I know you'll make me and Dad proud. You've come a long way since you joined us. I ... can't say I know much about the others on your team, but I know Yuri is going to come out swinging as hard as she can."
He chuckles, shaking his head. "You know, I almost feel sorry for the other guys. But I feel a lot better having talked to you. Now. You've got my number. Don't hesitate to call if you need anything, alright? I don't care if it's as little as Yuri coming down with malaria, or as big as that creepy blonde girl stealing Quon's underwear, I'll be happy to help back you up."
The fun part of the tournament, indeed, although the man - even with Ryo's confidence - does have plenty to worry about. He's waited virtually all his life for this, /this is his chance/. It may be his only one! The cheerful tone that Ryo takes is pretty relaxing, truth be told, although a part of him wonders if Takuma is just clutching the tail of a plane to get here as soon as possible.
"I, I will," the teacher says, although he's sure he hasn't heard of /girls/ stealing underwear from /boys/. That'd be... a new one. He probably couldn't put that past Cammy as it is anyway. Female underwear thieves. That's... that's a new one entirely.
He'd hesitate to call Yuri coming down with malaria a /small/ thing, though.
"One, one last thing," he tells Ryo, "I told Yuri this up front tonight, so... if you or your dad show up, 'n decide she's goin' home... I told her, I ain't gettin' in the way. But I'm makin' sure she at least gets this in, I... I know how much it means to her. But, I'll make sure she stays out of, out of trouble."
Ryo again finds himself hesitating. He doesn't really know /how/ Takuma is going to take this. He wouldn't be surprised if ... Mr. Karate was involved somehow. It could all get very messy. On the other hand, he knows for a fact that Takuma is in Japan for at least as long as it takes for him to fight /his/ Team Fight, right?
"Well... Dad is fighting in the tournament too." He says, bluntly. "He's not likely to rush out there before your fight, I think. His match is here in Japan. If I were you... I'd just hope that you don't wind up fighting his team in the tournament. I'm not sure how much he can actually /do/ though. If he tries to make Yuri quit, the tournament organizers might not like it. That could be seen as cheating."
Could it? Well, he's not sure /what/ the rules actually say about that sort of thing, but it makes sense to him.
"'s the same organization that, that let Yuri just... walk up to the committee, claim she's on my team... and not call me 'bout it until I'm arguin' with the airlines over somehow purchasin', y'know, five tickets when at the time I thought there'd be only, only /four/," the shop teacher laments out loud. This might be why the Pacific Resistance managed to get a team together into KoF despite none of them being of adult age in Japan. "Soon as I get, soon as I get an opportunity, Ryo, I'm gonna give those guys what for."
Cripes, the other guys on his team are so lucky that he's around to handle all these absolutely annoying organizational niceties for them. It's a complete and utter pain in the ass, on top of... everything else.
"Anyway... Ryo, thanks, thanks for callin' me back, but... 's four in the morning, need to be up in, in three hours... gotta get what rest I can."
"Sure thing, Howard. You rest up, and get out there tomorrow to show them your Kyokugen Might!"
In order to encourage this (because he knows how hard it can be to rest up before a big fight), Ryo actually hangs up on Rust right away. It sure would be nice if he could take some of the pressure off the troubled teacher. But, what could he do? Other than track down that strange girl and beat her to try and keep her away from the team, there's not much it is in his power to do. Well. Hopefully, just knowing that Ryo is rooting for him will do something...
Log created on 14:43:54 02/10/2011 by Rust, and last modified on 15:59:51 02/10/2011.