Description: With the government of Japan overthrown to replace in the new Republic of Ezu, the future of the island nation is left in the hands of tyrants. The students of Taiyo High refuse to let the coup take hold of their future, and organize their own uprising. But Honoka isn't left in the dark of the student's activities...
These were trying times.
The auditorium of Taiyo High was bustling. Not with students. Well, not just with students. With Mt. Fuji and the political instability roaring through the nation, Taiyo High was currently no longer in session. Despite this, the auditorium was filled to the brim; elegantly dressed Seijyun High students were beside leering Gedo High students, the elderly martial artists were beside the street-smart kids that doubled as championship fighters. Even the dead were rumored to be amongst the crowd, and all were chattering and murmuring, the auditorium alive for why they had come here.
"Oi! Shut up!"
That was the bark that breaks the chattering. Standing on the stage, dressed in a blue jacket with blue shorts, was the hot-blooded Batsu Ichimonji. The spiky-haired student with a creeping widow's peak had his hands balled into fists. Scratching at the bandage on his cheek with those fingerless red gloves, he stomps his foot as he continues. "Good! About time you shut up! You all know why we are here."
"We gotta save Japan!"
The teenager shakes his fist, looking out towards the back. "This Republic of Ezo stuff is bullshit! Complete bullshit! And we all know its bullshit! This Empress Honoka is a joke! She is actually a clown! And it isn't a coicidence that all the previous head honchos got killed off! This is a coup! And we are gonna stop it!" He stops his ranting, turning a bit red in the face. Turning to his right, he scratches the back of his head, voice dropping lower.
"Uh, right Hinata?"
Stepping forward on the stage, Hinata gives an emphatic nod as she looked out across the gathered crowd. Despite the fact that school had been out of session, her school uniform was on full display, as much a message of defiance as comfort.
"That's right! There's always people running around thinking that they know what's best and that they can take as much power as they want without caring about how it hurts people."
As she speaks she whips her hand up in front of her, clenched down tight in a fist as she continues. "But what they don't understand is that they don't have the strength to hold us down. Not when they try to use force, not when all of us agree to stand together. When we work as a team, nobody has a chance against us!"
The schoolgirl's enthusiasm tends to be rather infectious, and even before she's finished speaking, a large number of Taiyo students are already letting out shouts of affirmation. It spreads as a murmur, especially through the younger people in the audience, but its far from complete; more cynical pockets dot the crowd, not yet impressed.
Cynicism is there, but there's something a little different as well, in the corner of the auditorium. After all, Brett wasn't a student in any of the Southtown schools. In fact, most of his interactions with said school were with the two on stage right now, addressing the crowd. It's hard to say that Brett had any real skin in the game here aside from general altruism.
And even with Brett's usual and sacrificial nature, the ordeals lately have worn away at him in a way. Less the results of the end of the world as they keep calling it, but the involvement of the spheres. He held one of them at one point, and despite it no longer being in his possession, the effects and the nature of how he lost said sphere have done a number on his confidence.
And while coming here, and remembering the kind of hot-blooded enthusiasm coming from the schools here, and Taiyo especially, he still finds himself finding it hard to get into the same fervor. But at least he allows himself a smile, something he hasn't been doing much of the last few weeks. At least he's managed to get a shower, something he hadn't done in a few weeks before arriving in Southtown either....
Another figure watches from the sidelines as the young rebels announce their displeasure of current events in the auditorium. Well, to be more accurate, Ibuki is watching from the rafters. Sprawled out on one of the wide metal beams that span the length of the large building's roof, the teenage ninja quietly observes the proceedings as she nurses a bottle of water.
The thin black cloth that typically covers her lower face to protect her identity hangs loosely around her neck, the stifling heat being more of a concern than being discovered at the moment. Her mouth is the only part of her body that isn't covered in a fine layer of black ash from her efforts to gather intelligence. She looks more like a chimney sweep than a stealthy Japanese warrior in this state but her uniform was always drab so it's not a huge difference in her mind.
This business with the coup was something of a shock to her entire clan. Riots and looting were to be expected but clearly someone had taken advantage of the chaos on a far grander scale than anyone could have anticipated. It's not like she particularly owes her allegience to the Japanese government but to have someone brazenly murder the entire ruling body and set themselves up with a title like 'Empresses', well... it did not seem like the start of a fantastic new regime.
Hinata had a better way of saying things.
Batsu stands aside, arms crossed, glaring out into the crowd. Nodding along with Hinata's words, he was scanning the audience. Watching them. Reading their expressions. And he didn't like some of the stuff he saw. He could see the cynics, the people who were insecure. He even locked eyes with Brett. Body trembling, he lets Hinata finish up, and as the cheers come, he lets them also die down. Only then, uncrossing his arms, he raises a fist to the audience.
"Knock that off!"
Batsu didn't have patience for this kind of stuff. He reaches into his jacket, and pulls out a wrinkled newspaper. "I see you out there. You don't have your heart in it. You are afraid that we won't be able to overthrow them, that we won't be able to make the stand. And that there are things going GOOD right now. Like increased rations! And you know what?"
"I don't care."
Batsu balls up the newspaper, and throws it on the stage. "These are the people who will assassinate those that are in their way. These are those kind of people. They will bribe you with food, make you feel safe, and secure. And all it will cost is your freedom. And once you spend away your freedom? Well then you no longer get that extra food. You will need to do some favors for them, without pay. And when you resist? They will kill you then. If we are going to fight for our freedom, we have to fight for it now! Before they plant that seed in every person's heart, that maybe, maybe life is so much better."
"With your head in a yoke!"
It certainly is an interesting partnership between the fiery guys of Batsu and the optimistic energy of Hinata, especially without the calm, calculating effects of Kyosuke to stand between the two. The two were taking turns, building off each other, and if nothing else it wasn't easy to ignore.
"You can't just have people running around taking control by killing people! I don't care what sort of craziness is going on in the world. We've heard news stories about what's happening elsewhere, like in Metro City... but this isn't the first time that things have been bad."
The energetic girl points out to the crowd, slowly trailing her arm across the assemblage of both fighters and normal citizens. "Everytime something like this happens, all it takes is brave people to stand up and realize that they have the strength to right these wrongs. To stand up, together, and refuse to be taken advantage of by those selfish, greedy individuals who consider them nothing but pawns in some greater games."
She whips her hand back around, sticking her thumb out at her chest. "I, for one, refuse to lay down and accept things like this. I refuse to let somebody take advantage of me, and I refuse to let somebody take advantage," she swings her hand out again to point even more dramaticly, "of the rest of you! Those of you who aren't strong enough to stand alone... we'll help prop you up. This is not a burden anyone must shoulder alone!"
This was hardly the most ideal situation. After all, he had left a frozen wasteland of a gulf and instead arrived at an ash-covered city in the center of a coup.
But with the increased fervor that Batsu and Hinata infuse in their speech to stand up ffor something, he found himself shaking off his despair little by little more and more. It's not a total recovery, mind...but he's able to finally bring himself to stand up again, slowly pulling himself up from the corner he'd been curled in. He still remains against the wall, for now. But he still looks a bit more awake now, listening to the fiery Taiyo duo get more and more fired up, between Batsu's near screaming, and HInata's sheer effervesence.
Looking around, he starts taking stock of the rest of the crowd a bit. Unlike him, most of them have some stake in this. While he's not about to go just as hotblooded as the others at this point, he finds himself incrreasingly curious how the rest of the kids are going to react.
"But we can't just stand up here and talk... we're going to have to take real action," Hinata's tone settles a bit to a level of seriousness.
"As it stands, there are more people standing with the so-called Ezo Empire than we have right here... It's easy to get excited and rush in head first without a plan, but we can't risk it in this situation."
Hinata takes another step forward, standing practically on the edge of the stage as she looks across the crowd, "Our first step needs to be creating a safehold here in Southtown. We need to take out their outposts in and around the city, take down the checkpoints. When we have the outposts, we'll be able to get control of the food reserves and the city's power. As far as I can tell, the best way to do that is to form teams and hit as many as we can all at once so that they won't know how to react."
Light floods in through the rear of the auditorium as the doors are thrown open. Two figures are silhouetted in the light, but they couldn't possibly have been the ones throwing the door open -- that was done by the army of ten armed guards, five on each side of the backlit figure pushing a girl seated in a wheelchair. An IV drip bag hangs to one side, carried by the attendant in white; a heart monitor, beeping lightly, is affixed to the other side of the wheelchair.
Guards march in, continuing to flank the wheelchaired figure as the attendant in white pushes her forward. Tromp, tromp, tromp -- the guards dressed in bright royal blue are all moving in complete synchronicity, the ten pairs of boots perfectly timed with one another.
It may take a while for the twelve to reach the center of the room -- it's not like wheelchairs are meant to be pushed at a jog, or even a brisk walk. But they make it there eventually, guards stopping a few feet back so that the wheelchair and her attendant land in the middle of the cone of light cast by an overhead floodlamp, casting the two into vivid relief. The seated figure is one of Taiyo's own -- the ridiculously long white headband should be a telltale sign.
The white-clad attendant wouldn't be easily recognized -- at least not until she steps backward, bowing to Batsu and Hinata, and then to the rest of the crowd. And when she removes her nurse's hat, two long bangs of red spill down to frame her face.
"Seriously. You couldn't wait just a few more minutes? We came as quickly as we could." Did she get mic'ed up? How did this woman learn to speak so loud? Well, listen, you work at a circus long enough, you =learn= how to project your voice, that's how.
Honoka, the self-declared Empress of the Republic of Ezo, exudes no small share of mirth. "But please. By all means. Cripple the citizenship of Ezo as best you can. It only hurts your own case."
As the doors are thrown open by armed guards, Hinata immediately takes a few steps back and pulls into a defensive stance. She watches cautiously as the marching feet part the crowd, and it's not until they're nearly at the stage that the energetic girl's eyes go wide with alarm, stepping back to the front of the stage.
"Sakura?!"
Shock doesn't last long as it's replaced by a simmering anger. "I'm not the one who decided to overthrow a country with murder! I'm not the one who only rules at the barrel of a gun!" She points dead on at Honoka now, "This isn't Ezo, it's Japan! You have no right to hold this country hostage!"
This is not how Sakura would have rejoined her friends. She would have returned a conquering hero, or at least under her own power. But, to be frank, the fight with Honoka... messed her up. Badly. She'll stand again, walk again, and fight again, but she still needs time to heal. And, of course, the people of the hospital were in no condition to ignore 'Empress Honoka's orders.
The parts of Sakura's face that are not bandaged are flushing crimson with shame and embarrassment, her eyes downturned--a very unusual look for the girl, almost as unusual as her having been swathed in so many bandages and things. She bites her lower lip, then looks at Honoka and utters, as heartfelt as she can, ".. thank you." She.. has to thank her at least for getting her out of the hospital--as she said she would.
The look in Sakura's eyes is condemning of Honoka, but not angrily so--mostly sad. Seeing Hinata there brings a bit of a smile to Sakura's lips, but not too much of one--cancelled out by this absurd situation. She...
... she doesn't have anything to say. Not right now.
Batsu had control of himself.
His temper did flare. But that was to inspire. Without Kyosuke, it was hard to control himself. Hinata kept him leveled out. But when those blue-suited guards come in, he forgets about plans. Balling his hands into fists, he moves forward on the stage, ready to meet these challengers.
And then he saw Sakura.
The teenager's face turns red. His eye twitches. After a few steps, he takes a leap down from the stage, and is running across the auditorium. "You monster!" He roars. "What did you you do to Sakura? Who the HELL do you THINK YOU ARE!?" Body flashing with energy, he was storming right to those guards, right to Sakura, right to that so called Empress, a fight on his mind.
Unless someone stopped him, he was going to start a fight right there.
Ibuki sighs as the two rather boisterous individuals continue to rant rather loudly, their voices carrying and rebounding through the accoustically-designed space with a surprising amount of clarity. It's almost like they're shouting right in her ears. This does nothing to help her relax which in turns does nothing to improve her mood. After nearly a week of searching through the heat and the ash she'd be more than happy to just curl up in a dark corner and sleep for the rest of the day. Looks like she picked the wrong dark corner.
She is about to allow her eyes to slide shut, atleast taking solace in that slight bit of respite, when the doors fly apart to admit the small entourage of armed figures. Instinctively, she pulls her mask up over her face and crawls to the edge of the rafter, peering down at these new arrivals with a sudden feeling of uneasiness. Her gut instinct proves to be correct.
The ninja's almond eyes widen slightly as she takes in the sight of the wounded girl, matching her features to her name only a moment before Hinata's surprised cry confirms her thoughts. The anger with which the small girl greets the other woman must mean that she is the one responsible for all this turmoil: the so-called Empress, herself.
Ibuki's gaze narrows on the former performer, her focus intensifying as all of the fatigue from the previous days seems to melt away. Finally, she has a real target. The question now is what to do about her. She rubs her thumb over the familiar surface of a kunai, the sharp metal edge grazing the surface of her skin, only just now realizing that she's drawn the deadly weapon into her grasp out of sheer instinct.
She glances at the blade and frowns slightly. Killing people isn't her style; not when she can help it. There might be a peaceful solution to this mess buried underneath the chaos. For now, she just continues to watch, ready to act on a moment's notice if things get out of hand.
Unfortunately, Brett clearly isn't so up on the current events. Sure, he knows the country has been taken over by a coup...but the wheeling in of a headbanded girl who Brett quickly recognizes as Sakura Kasugano, and the 'nurse' supposedly revealing herself as something other than a nurse kind of goes over his head. It's only when the Taiyo students, especially the two on stage, react with shock and anger, that Brett gets a bit clued in as to what happened. And after that run in with the curry contest in Thailand, Brett knows just how tough Sakura can be.
It's this that prompts Brett to finally move, quickly moving to the stage to try and cut Batsu off, with whoever from Taiyo who knows the tempermental student better enough to help hold him back.
"Whatever's happening, this isn't going to be the best time to break bad," he says softly, voice raspy as if he hadn't talked in forever.
"You are welcome, Sakura Kasugano." Informal, detached... not unlike the rest of Honoka's treatment of the hero of Southtown.
Addressing Hinata with her stage voice, the Empress repeats, "Hostage?" She pauses a beat to allow a small smile, and continues with a level expression to Hinata. "Hostage... A curious term. What would -you- call it, Miss Wakaba, when a country subjugates an entire culture, dooming it to six generations of successively decreasing relevance to the point that there may be =fifty= of that culture left?"
Honoka pauses, no doubt hearing the multitude of jeers and boos of those assembled, taking a moment to affix her level-headed gaze upon Batsu, before turning back to Hinata. Waiting for the outcry to calm down, she smiles and offers, "Democracy, Miss Wakaba. You -former- citizens of Japan called that 'democracy.'"
Honoka steps back from Sakura's wheelchair, turning her back on the stage. She strides the long walk back to the back door, guards shadowing her as she withdraws a small object from her sleeve. A yo-yo. And she's 'walking the dog,' as she calmly strides out.
Surely, things are being tossed at her at this point. The yo-yo's more than effective enough to swat such bothersome nuisances aside.
And no, Batsu, she didn't answer you one bit.
Sakura's gaze travels from Hinata, to Batsu, to Brett, to Honoka. And she tries to stand up. She doesn't -quite- get there... and so she thumps back into her seat and clears her throat. "Don't..." It's.. a plea. But it's directed at Batsu, Hinata, and the rest. Not at Honoka. Her brown eyes clear as she looks at her friends.
"This isn't..." She coughs. "This isn't the time..." She fades off, a little, then reaches down and starts wheeling herself away from Honoka, towards Batsu and the group. She isn't a prisoner.
Those guns... Sakura knows what they can do. And these men won't be as unskilled as the men she fought. These will be real soldiers.
It takes Brett to keep Batsu from screwing the pooch.
Oh, in a fight between Batsu and Honoka? That wouldn't be pretty for the Empress. But it wasn't just between them. Ten guards, armed to the teeth, could just as easily open fire in the crowed theater. To focus fire on Batsu himself. A lot of innocent lives would have been lost. It was noble, even wise of Brett to stop Batsu.
For the benefit of the others, at least.
As the bulky hockey player puts the hot-blooded teenager in check, Batsu flails his arms, struggling fiercely into his grip. "Let me go!" He barks, glaring towards the smug Empress. "You DARE insult this country's rich heritage? You DARE insult JAPAN!?" The teenager grows more violent, threatening to shake Brett to pieces as the American does everything to hold him back. He stares like a wild animal to the others, the rest of the audience holding back. To Hinata. To... To Sakura.
This isn't the time.
Batsu doesn't calm down. But he isn't violent now. He doesn't resist Brett holding him back. "Thanks." He states bluntly to Brett, driving his hands in his pockets. His face was twisting in disgust, teeth gritted in rage. And to the Empress, he tries again, calling her out.
"What do you want!?"
While Batsu is the obvious contender for willing to explode, Hinata isn't one to stand around idle in a situation where her friends are being threatened. With no one to hold her back, she's right on the edge of the stage, as close as she can possibly be to the newly crowned Empress while maintaining her elevated positon.
"And you think that the way to fix problems like that is with violence and fear?" The sunshine girl's looking rather storm cloudy at the moment. "You think that the crimes against your people justify all of what you're doing? If you do, then you're an idiot!"
Hinata continues to stand at the edge of the stage, despite her size managing to appear large from posture alone. "All you've done now is make yourself the bad guy! All you're doing is making everything worse. Do you think that your family would want to see you pointing all these guns at people? Do you think your family would be happy to know that you murdered people just so that you can sit on a throne and become a monster?!"
The girl takes a slow breath, then lets it back out. "Please... just realize that you've made a mistake. Surrender Japan back to the people... help us bring back real safety from the insanity that's been tearing the world apart. We don't need to hate each other..."
It's good that Brett knows how to push people around. Even if what he's doing more suited for an American Football lineman than a hockey winger, he's still more than capable of keeping Batsu back before he explodes. At least, unless fists started to fly. And it's a good thing Batsu seems more angry enough to simply flail over the Minnesotan's shoulders than use anything resembling technique for now.
Once Batsu has calmed down enough, he nods to the student before slumping back against the stage. He's still not exactly full strength, but he has enough to look up to Honoka. Hearing Hinata, he sighs and nods. His raspy voice comes out again, still not projecting anywhere near as well as Honoka's. "Hinata's right. Look around at everything. The city is covered in ash. Thailand is frozen over to the sea floor. Everything is going crazy. This is the time to come together and ensure everyone's survival, not try and pick at the carcass and call yourself king...."
Pausing in her completely and totally peaceable withdrawal, the Empress raises her voice once more, the echos carrying clear across to the stage. "Children, please, please, you're allowing the Empress of your fair nation to steal your thunder -- most unintentional. But let your actions speak louder than my words. Let the people see you defenseless and scared, let the people see you as victims lashing out against me. Rally together... and depose me... while your world crumbles to pieces."
Honoka resumes her stride, her guards hastening to race her to the door. but her voice carries on. "Have you even paid attention? A man is reshaping Metro City through SHEER WILLPOWER ALONE, and you want to depose ME? A /circus performer?/"
Stepping through the doorway, she turns around once again to address Batsu and Hinata. With a smile. "Such... a waste of talent. I want you to fight the true evils threatening our country. If you'd please, Sakura?"
The cavernous doors to the auditorium slam shut once more.
Batsu wants to punch her so hard, that her words will be replaced by punches.
Still furious at the Empress, Hinata's words only inspire him more. But he restrained himself. Her arrogant words, her cocky nature. Body trembling in rage, he only WATCHES her as she walks away with her guards. And not one to let someone else get the last word, Batsu gives a rapier rebuttal as the doors slam shut.
"Screw you!"
Batsu turns back over to Sakura, his expression still gritted. "Sakura!" He starts, walking towards his fellow student. She was more Hinata's friend than Batsu, but there was a collective BURNING SPIRIT that all students of Taiyo had to share. Approaching his wounded companion, he kneels down to her, reaching out for her hand. "What did she do to you? Who did this?"
"I promise I will BEAT UP whoever did this to you, Sakura!"
With the immediate threat removed, Hinata's attention turns back toward her friends. Or in this particular incident, one of her best friends. She leaps down off the stage and then crosses the space to Sakura in a few seconds with concern quite evident on her face.
"Do you need any help, Sakura? I'm sure I could find Kyoko or someone to help you." Between the two, Batsu has the rage handled while Hinata's clearly settled into open concern.
Well, if she was curious about the kind of person who would declare themselves Empress and try to disperse the state of Japan in one fell swoop, Ibuki's curiosity has been satisfied. It's all she can do to keep her temper restrained. One flick of her wrist, that's all it would have taken. But then the soldiers would have retaliated and everyone here would have been injured or killed. She can't have that on her conscience, nor would any of her masters approve. Despite the golden opportunity missed, there will be more.
With a twirl of her fingers the sharp throwing blade vanishes back to whence it came, disappearing into one of the inner pockets within her dogi. Once the 'Empress' has left, Ibuki turns her attention to the injured girl below even as her friends swarm about to show their concern. She finds it strange that someone willing to kill so many would show charity like that; or perhaps it was just some form of publicity stunt, an attempt to show that she's not all bad or inspire fear into any would-be dissenters. Judging by the reactions, it didn't do either of these things.
"Well, I guess there's no reason for me to stay out of this any more now that I know what I'm dealing with."
Hopping to her feet, Ibuki takes a step forward and drops from the rafters, plummeting silently to the stage as everyone turns their attention elsewhere. She slips into the crowd and, a few moments later, is standing between Batsu and Hinata as if she has been there the whole time.
"Well, gotta say, you've looked better, Sakura."
Recently, Yuri had been busy helping out as best as she could in Southtown, dealing with those in the refugee centers and whatnot. But today, instead of helping out in the refugee center, Yuri has been here at her high school trying to help those who she could. She'd been giving encouragement to her classmates and trying to make them feel better. Unfortunately, while things had been happening, Yuri had been out of the area, dealing with personal matters, although whether that was coincidental or not is unknown. The fact remains, Yuri returns just as Honoka is leaving, and she only catches bits about what was going on.
At first Yuri seems a bit angry, but then she realizes that there's nothing she can do, and she sighs, looking down at the ground for a few moments. Then she looks up and walks down to where Sakura is and tries to offer a smile of encouragement. But it's clearly forced, and it's obvious Yuri can't think of anything to say right now.
As suddenly new bodies start to show up around Sakura, Hinata takes in the new arrivals (or at least faces she hadn't seen previously in the crowd). She straightens up and looks back at Ibuki and Yuri. "Maybe we should give her some room... move her out of the auditorium and into the clinic or something."
She even manages another glance back over toward the door that the "Empress" had recently exitted through. "I have to say... I was kind of hoping maybe she'd be a reasonable person. Holding people at gunpoint isn't keeping anybody safe or solving any of the real problems here, but it was like she thought that her idea was the only way to solve anything..."
Oh great, ninjas.
As more of the individuals stand up from the crowd, the moment should be more inspiring. Yuri, of the Kyokugen Dojo, was a huge contribution; to have the dojo in their corner would help secure their strength. Much better than that terrible Todoh-Ryuu dojo. But with Ibuki, Batsu was wary. Ninja were an unpredictable lot.
He had his father to look at, for example.
Still, if she was here for Sakura, that was not the end of it all. "What are you here for?" Batsu says furiously, his hands still balled up into fists. This was Batsu being diplomatic. Maybe Hinata should sort things out. Turning back towards Sakura, he shakes his head. "I don't even think she will be safe in a hospital, as long as she has those goons." He points at the door, barking loudly.
"She is nothing without her goons!"
The teenager goes back into a rant. "If I wasn't held back, I could have brought down her entire Ezo republic in two punches, maybe three! Don't you see? For all her bluster, for all her talk, she can't stand up to any one of us! The only thing standing in our way are her goons! The military isn't loyal to her, just like how none of us are loyal to her! And that's what we will need to do next, after we secure our bases! He have to take down the thugs that are enforcing her rule!"
"And do it without threatening the good people of Southtown!"
Brett had been simply leaning against the stage, still looking like he could use a bit of recovery, though clearly nowhere near as bad as Sakura was. He was just fatigued from travel and...well, holding the concentration of total despair, really. But as he sees others start to walk up and make themselves heard, he's able to pull himself back up to his feet. Just in time for Batsu to start going off again.
And prompting Brett to swing his arm back at Batsu. Not hard, mind. He's not strong enough to fully punch him anyway. Just enough to get his attention. "It's not a chance worth taking to test it all. A crowd full like this, it's not worth risking them just going off." He groans a little, leaning himself against the stage again. "Part of not threatening people is also not putting them in harm's way if you can help it."
"If we're not supposed to put people in harm's way, then what do you suggest? Sitting back and doing nothing while a mad woman holds the reigns of the nation?" Hinata turns to look Brett in the eyes. "We're all already in harm's way with somebody sitting at the top that can't imagine that using assassin, murder, and opression aren't the best tools to keep us safe from whatever's going on out there!"
Her brow knits into an angry 'v' as she waves over toward the door. "If she really wanted to help people, she could have asked for help. She could have tried to bring people together, but instead she shows up making threats and trying to convince us that we're the badguys here when she murdered everyone in charge of the country!"
Ibuki holds her hands up in surrender at the sudden show of aggression aimed her way. She takes a single step backwards in the face of Batsu's flaring temper, looking genuinely surprised by his unprompted outburst. Then again, she did have that effect on people sometimes when she just popped out of nowhere.
"Uh, woah, easy there! I come in peace, Earthling. Settle down, alright?"
The girl sighs behind her mask, rubbing the back of her neck when Brett intervenes. Her gaze shifts back to Sakura for a moment but the pitiful sight just makes her feel a mixture of annoyance and sadness that is difficult to deal with right now. All of the exhaustion that she managed to push aside earlier has come back twice over, wearing down on her normally hardened resolve.
"I've been hanging around for a while now trying to figure out what was going on but... I don't know. I just missed probably the best chance I'll ever get to take that woman down."
Normally, when things were getting this heated, Yuri would be quick to pick a side and take that side, attempting to defend her friend(s) from whoever was opposing them. Of course, in a situation like this, it might be hard to tell who's right and who's wrong. But today, something different happens with Yuri. She doesn't attempt to take sides or point at someone and tell them to stop. Instead, she raises her hands and speaks firmly.
"Everyone, please, calm down!" Yuri says in a loud voice. "We know that there's a huge problem here in Southtown, but if we fight about it now, we're never going to solve our problem!" Yuri speaks in a manner that still has a hint of what she's always been like, but there's something different about Yuri today. "We need to come together and work this out! We're all in this for a common cause, so we shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves." She gives a stern look at Batsu at the last part.
Brett looks back at HInata as she turns toward him, looking a bit flustered for some particular reason before looking down. He rubs the back of his head, sighing a little as he tries to find some way to respond to that. His head is still a bit muddled to make any kind of impassioned speech after all. "I mean that...you know...provoking her at that point would've been bad. Guns trained on everyone. We might've been able to win a fight there, but how many people who couldn't fight could've gotten hurt? There's gotta be some way to put the fight to her without putting the people that can't do fighting in the way."
He looks around again, watching as people were trying to tend to Sakura. "And if she's trying to paint anyone against her as the bad guys, isn't it a good idea to do our best to look like good guys even when she's trying to say otherwise?"
"Well, she's not here to provoke anymore," Hinata says, her tone calmed down as she tries to put the point of the meeting back on track. "But what I was saying before she stormed in here with her soldiers is still true, we need to kick her and her goons out of Southtown... and then after that we can work our way up to knocking her off her trone."
After that is a thoughtful pause, rubbing her chin slightly, "Of course, we might need to think about things a bit more now that she knows what we're up to. We might not be able to just storm out way into her outposts and beat up all of her thugs. We'll have to be a lot sneakier... like going in through the back door and then beating up all her thugs."
It was now a conspiracy.
Batsu glares at Brett. "You can't just give up like that!" He growls. He brings up those fists to the American. "We don't have any time to be cynical! We don't need to look like good guys, when she is marching her goons in the street! If I had half the mind, I'd punch you right in the-"
And Yuri calms things down.
As the Kyokugen martial artist eases things down, the hot-blooded teenager eases down. Lowering his fists, he turns his back on Batsu, crossing his arms. "Feh. You are right. Ibuki, is it, right?" He nods at the ninja. "We need to work together. You keep tabs on Honoka. We don't need her walking all over where we are, ready to strike at any time. What's stopping her from sending assassins at us, or blowing us up with missiles! And the rest of us?" He moves his hands around.
"We need to start securing territory for a Free Japan!"
Well, she's not accomplishing anything productive here that's for sure. Ibuki just nods at the suggestion without putting up much of a fuss. Truth be told, she was planning to do something like that anyways. Who knows, the 'Empress' could be haughty enough to think herself untouchable and open her guard. People think they are ready for anything but there's no security system or guard patrol that's managed to stop her yet.
"Sure, I can do that." She let's Batsu think it was his idea. It might make him less aggressive in the future. "I'm just one ninja but I should be able to keep any soldiers or assassins from sneaking in during the night. At the very least, you should have some warning if they try something. I'll set up some simple snares and noise traps. Just, uh, don't go wandering around the rafters or service exits, okay?"
She doesn't wait for a response. Ibuki takes her leave, turning to slip in amongst the bodies of students gathered around and within a moment or two she's simply gone, not wanting to prolong any further conversation while everyone is still worked up. Atleast this way she has something to focus on, maybe it will help distract her from how tired she is.
"So, if we're in agreement that we have to do something... then I suppose that makes us a formal resistance, huh?" Hinata looks around amongst the small circle of more vocal individuals, then looks out into the crowd as a whole.
Once more her voice raises up to fill the entire auditorium, bright, energetic, and optimistic. "We're all here because we know that Honoka is bad for Japan, and we know that we have to put a stop to this. We also know that she's aware of us. Her hope is that we'll be too scared to continue to stand up, but we can't let this end here."
Her hands clench into fists in front of her. "People like Honoka have tried to hurt many of us in the past... and it might look impossible to stand against this time, but the problem with trying to control a large area is... there's even more people to rise up, and you can only reach out so far. If all of us agree here and now to stand together... to refuse to bow down to some jerk just because they've got scary troops running around with guns, there's no way she can really put a stop to us..."
The energetic girl continues to look around the auditorium, making careful note to look those who seem uncertain in the eye, her expression not threatening, but bright and hopeful. "We can free Southtown! We can free Japan! We can save the world!"
She thrusts both of her hands up into the air, index and middle fingers forming a trademark 'V."
"VICTORY FOR SOUTHTOWN!"
Log created on 18:53:37 09/21/2014 by Batsu, and last modified on 00:34:24 09/22/2014.