Kabuki Street Community School

[Yuko Kubo]

After lunch on Friday the 8th, a large number of fights were reported among the tougher local girls in various parts of the school. Several were sent to the clinic with minor injuries. Before the end of the day the culprit was apprehended and sent to Yuko's office. The principal shut the door and the conversation that followed was in tones too low for passers by to determine any of the nature of it.

Nevertheless for the remainder of the day rumors circulated that the sudden rash of fights was the work of some reactionary new unit of delinquents, and ranged to extremes such as wild rumors of a cyborg delinquent created by a mad scientist with connections to the city government. Principal Kubo was quoted as saying these rumors were 'preposterous beyond belief'.

[Yuko Kubo]

Following her meetings with two students apprehended for the fighting, Yuko stepped out of her office with a sheet of paper in hands. She sighed, moving over to the attendance desk. There she took up the pen and scrawled in the names Asami Ito and Yuzuki Kuwabara into the day's detention list that would go out to the needed teacher who would oversee the afternoon. Once that was done she went out the main office door into the corridor, approaching the bulletin board where the schools officially sanctioned clubs posted. Taking a spare push pin from the cork, she pinned the page she held to the board.

-11/9, the brassband club: Rappapa-, the page read. Under that headline was a signature, Asami Ito - president. Beneath that in a different handwriting the signature of Yuzuki Kuwabara. Her own signature of approval for the club had been added a line below. The lower left quadrant of the page was taken up by a printed symbol, a stylized red and black floral crest. The principal gazed at it for a moment before returning to her office with a private chuckle after the door closed behind her.

[Asami Ito]

With the brassband club officially created there was nothing stopping her from claiming a spot for her own within the confines of the school. The spot chosen would be perfect, at least by her standards, and would do well with what she wanted to do. The far side of the building which housed the schools swimming pool — what had been used for storage would be emptied after her request was made on Friday, and it's there that she stepped into the former-coaches-office-turned-storage-room to take in the sight of it without the clutter of old gym equipment.

The main room itself was small in a way and perfect for an office, though there was a door which lead into a secondary room; a secondary room meant for storage compared to the whole of the former office space itself. Asami stepped through the door and gave it a look after flipping on the light. It would be good enough for her — there's space for a couch and possibly a few other things, while the old office room itself was spacious enough to allow two or three people to use it as a small workplace, but there wouldn't be bigger desks and the like cluttering up space once she began the process of directing the furnishing efforts.

"Yuzuki." She directed the girl with voice and soon after a pointing of a finger. "Put it there."

Yuzuki was leaning with her shoulder resting against the frame of the opened door of the office-turned storeroom, holding a carefully folded piece of fabric in one hand and a bag from the Kabuki Street hardware store in the other. She pushed away from the threshold with her shoulder to step up beside Asami, looking at the place where the self proclaimed sukeban of the school pointed. "Right" she said with a nod, moving over to stand on tiptoes to set the line in place along the back wall. Once she was sure that it was close enough to level, she carefully draped the red banner with the floral logo of the Brassband Club: Saikyou Budouha Shuudan Rappapa. She took a step back, making certain once more that the banner was straight and even. "Well, that's it" she said as she turned to Asami. "It is started now."

[Yuzuki Kuwabara]

Yuzuki was trying to keep quiet, but made some small sound as she was placed on the club room couch. Apart from that the whole side of the school was quiet enough to hear the humming sound as the pool's pump kicked on, vibrating through the former-office walls slightly as it cycled. There were several cuts on her face, and though there were fresh blood drops on her uniform top and she'd been face down in a red puddle on the tiles, even the deepest of them above her eye seemed to be strangely closing up on its own though when first inflicted it had been a wide cut. The delinquent's large eyes turned up, looking for Asami. The swelling seemed minimal there, though the skin was bruised dark across the bridge of her nose. "How bad?" she asked, sounding tense and frightened as her slender hands clutched at the sukeban.

The way the wound had been closing on its own was something Asami noticed without much delay, which is why her actions hadn't appeared hurried as she began to open up the first aid kit; at least until she had to reach up to grasp at clutching hands to pull them away. "Kuwabara.. calm down, your wounds aren't bad." Though she first needed to get through the process of disinfecting the areas and washing things out, which she did thanks to a pop of a bottle and a dabbing of a cotton ball.
The one who inflicted this on Yuzuki was in the room as well, and looked rather damaged as well with her lip had been cut. She let out a soft huff then turned to leave with the partings words of, "I'm going to the nurses office.. I'll come back later." before leaving.

The part-youkai yanki relaxed, hands lowering once Asami grasped at them to pull them out of the way. They came to rest on her own stomach, folding there. The assurance of the sukeban's voice seemed to calm her, enough so that she was still even as the dabbing of the cotton ball made her grimace a bit. She heard the soft huff from her opponent, tension lifting her shoulders and making her teeth clench together. Once she had left, Yuzuki's jaw relaxed and she asked worriedly. "Will I have a scar?

"Probably not." It could use more words -- something along the lines of: you seem to be healing fast enough.., but she didn't add that on. With the area disinfected she'd pop open a bottle of ointment and begin to carefully settle it here and there along where the cleaned cuts had been formed. "The cream should make sure of that.."

Yuzuki looked a little ashamed, as it was unflattering of her delinquent character to be concerned about her looks. But clearly the idea had unmistakably upset the gate guardian. There was a hint of unease remaining, mostly due to having lost a fight that she had thought she was winning up to the very end when the tables had turned. No doubt with the fights the previous night and the two she had won in the morning she had gotten well accustomed to coming out the winner and this loss had put a few cuts in her pride as well as her face. Still, the reassuring words from Asami seemed to restore some sense of calm, and the ointment that was settled with great care along her various hurts diminished the pain as soon as it was in place. Her eyes slipped shut from the relief and her chest finally heaved a bit under her uniform top as she took a deeper more normal breath. "That feels better" she said in a soft voice, eyes opening to look at the leader with gratitude.

"Your uniform took damage, by the way... I suppose you'll have to get it tailored." The comment came after she set a bandage over the first of the cuts, only to begin the process of peeling another from its wrapping so she could do it again for the second -- and so on with the third down the line; though the larger cut couldn't be easily covered by a bandage so she used clean gauze and medical tape for that. "Sit up," She'd say while taking a bottle of simple pain reliever out from the package and began to undo the child protective cap. "Are you upset that you lost?" The question may have come out of the blue there.

"My uniform got torn?" Yuzuki asked, having not even noticed. "What was that that she did?" she wondered vehemently, still unsure how such injuries had resulted from what had seemed to be just ordinary punches. She thought that over, being still and ceasing talking so that Asami could place the bandages. She sat up slowly when told, in case any dizziness or sickness came to her head. None seemed to, and she looked at Asami then the botttle she was opening once she was sitting up on the couch again. "Yes, I'm upset" she admitted in a quiet voice. "She won. I can't take that from her. But if she joins I'm the bottom of the group now. It hurts to go from second to third."

"She used the wind." Explaining it in small detail, which didn't seem to help detail wise; but she thought it got the point across either way. "She'll be joining, as a Heavenly Queen.. it's boring that she didn't want to fight me, but I suppose that's how is." She was somewhat disappointed, and while her expression might have seem void of such a feeling, there was a hint of it there. "She's Majisu. Tanaka Reira, I saw her back on Earth from a distance, but she used the same abilities then as she does now." Passing over the two pills she took from the bottle. "She was a Heavenly Queen there as a freshman, but left after two years.. so this is where she went.. You did well, Yuzu. Your duty as gate guardian is to ensure only the strongest can face me.. you've brought Rappapa a strong new member.. through defeat, you have made Rappapa even stronger.. The gate guardian may be at the bottom, but their job is the most important.. you are the first line of defense, the first test.."

"The wind.." Yuzuki nodded, wincing a bit and lightly touching the bruised bridge of her nose between her eyes. Her eyes seemed focused all the while however, without any sign of potential concussion. "Why doesn't she want to fight you?" she wondered, not as disappointed as Asami seemed to be, but more confused. "Majisu.. that makes her special?" she murmured as she took the pills that Asami handed her, holding them in her palm for the moment. Her large eyes raised again to Asami's, looking startled at the idea she raised. "I'm needed." she declared, more a statement. "But I need the club too.."

"If I recall correctly.. she did not fight the Rappapa leader of Majisuka either.. she simply wanted to be a Heavenly Queen.. the position of sukeban is something not everyone wants," Though she leaned back to rest against the couch, though she made no motion to move Yuzu away from her. She instead looked toward the window that was covered for the moment; the one which looked out toward the pool. "Majisu is important.. When people hear Majisuka around here, they know what it means.. To have her as a heavenly queen, and to say she fears fighting me, it sets an image in their mind.. A girl from Majisuka does not want to fight the sukeban.." her voice trailed.. and for a moment, a grin appeared on her lips. A rather unhinged one as her eyes stared off in an unfocused way. ".. They'll feel that is disrespectful, and they will come to tell me that with their fists.. and I will crush them." She paused though the look remained -- at least until her eyes ticked to the side to look toward Yuzu, and her grin faded to return the neutral/tired look to her features. "And you have Rappapa.. you're my gate guardian."

When she wasn't moved away from Asami, she leaned to rest her back against her even while the sukeban rested back against the couch. The chain of fights had left her exhausted and there seemed little strength left as she relaxed against her so that the back of her head could settle against her arm. Her eyes looked up and didn't recoil away from the grin or the unfocused look, remaining still. "Well, she insulted me, but if she's needed I will ignore it.." she said, pleased expression fading in the face of the usual neutral look she saw. "I need you too, as well as Rappapa" she added, gaze turning away for a moment.

What came wouldn't be words but instead the feeling of Asami's hand coming to settle atop Yuzu's head. She kept it there while her lips remained unmoving and her eyes settled on the covered window once again. "You have me. I am your sukeban, after all." is what finally came after almost a minute of silence on Asami's end. The talk of insulting though, she pondered this and spoke back. ".. Insult her back then, but I'll have to order that you two are not to fight one another seriously.. I need you both strong to fight for me."

Yuzuki found that the minute passed comfortably, even with Asami silent, as the hand settled atop her head caused her large eyes to slip shut again and her breathing to settle into a comforting rhythm in the rise and fall of her chest under her torn and blood spotted uniform top. "It's good then. Just, nothing better happen that makes you leave us" she said, in a voice that was slurred a bit from the drowsiness that had settled over her from the day of fights and present relaxation. She didn't grumble at the order that was passed down to her. "Alright then. I promise" she agreed, even though having to agree to it made her teeth clench for a moment.

"I have no need to leave.. I will crush those who stand in my way, and you will be there beside me when I do it. You're my Heavenly Queen, where I go -- you follow." She explained this as if it were the most logical thing in the world; as if saying the sky was blue. A fact. Her hand moved from Yuzuki's head and settled within the confines of Asami's own lap, but she did not move from the couch. "Rest now. You're tired and need to recover."

Whatever notion had caused her mind to worry was fully put to rest by the matter of fact logical way that Asami explained and assured her. She took the pills that she held in her palm and swallowed them presently without moving her head, though her head tipped back a bit against the sukeban's shoulder as she did. The reminder of her fatigue saw Yuzuki yawn now, her hand covering her open mouth while her jaw stretched. "I am tired" she agreed. "I can just rest my eyes for a few minutes.." she decided, and soon after they closed the rise and fall of her chest took on a slow steady rhythm as she dozed off.

(collaboration with Asami's player with thanks! )

[Yuzuki Kuwabara]

Early Wednesday morning, Dec. 4

Yuzuki's footfalls sounded hollow had an echo quality on the tiles of the pool room, but were also a bit unsteady. This was because the delinquent was clutching a small but slightly cumbersome Christmas tree in one arm, her other secured in a white sling. She made her way to the door of the Rappapa club room, managing to shift the burden of the tree enough to get her fingertips on the door handle and push it open.

As she stumbled forward into the room, to the surprised looks of the other heavenly queens she declared suddenly with a look of panic. "It's toppling! Help!" Reira was closest, and put down her book to hurry over and grab the tree from the shorter gate guardian. "Hm, where?" she asked, raising brows to Yuzuki. Yuzuki looked over at the far wall, where their banner was hanging. "In the corner there!" she decided, dropping her backpack which once spilled on the table proved to contain nothing but the ornaments for the tree. "I'll go get Asami, and we'll decorate it" she declared.

[JohnCole]

Home Economics Teacher John Cole was out from Tuesday Dec. 10 – Thursday Dec 12. The arrival of a substitute teacher stopped his students immediate search for their teacher who was prone to disappearing acts, but typically discovered in the back of someone’s car in the school parking lot.

He’d arrive back ‘at work’ on Friday, Dec 13th, rolling into the classroom in a wheelchair with a broken pelvis.

When asked about what happened, he’d give a smug look and say, “It was worth it.”

[Mallory]

Classics Teacher Mallory Maeda managed to arrive to her morning class on time this Tuesday, though she appeared pale. She put on Disney’s “Hercules” for both her morning and afternoon classes and graded papers.

When she overheard student Yuzuki Kuwabara sniffling in class, she sent her on an errand to drop off papers for her (read: get some tea and nap in the brass band club room).

[Eregor]

Life Sciences teacher Eregor Túr Gairdín held a special seminar on marine biology today. The highlight of the session was the dissection of an octopus.

[Roka]

Mr. Maeda will be taking a leave for a procedure and associated recovery for two to three weeks according to his memo to Yuko Kubo. The substitute teachers have been provided with his notes for enough history lectures to fill at least three weeks.

[Mallory]

Mallory Maeda is absent this week due to “health reasons,” though school officials are not commenting on whether it is linked to any rumors. Substitute Classics teacher Safiya al-Bahur will be taking over for the duration.

[Eregor]

The staff of Kabuki Street Community School would like to take this opportunity to confirm that, yes, the person currently acting as Life Sciences teacher is, in fact, the same Eregor Túr Gairdín that has served in that post since the school opened last semester. Any concerns about secret kidnapping conspiracies are entirely unfounded.

[Yuzuki Kuwabara]

Even with warmer temperatures, the wind blowing off the river was strong enough to make Yuzuki’s eyes water as she stood on the rooftop of the low building within sight of the bridge. The gate guardian had a blue backpack of equipment slung over her shoulder as she looked over the concrete walls that formed the riverbanks along this section. There seemed to be enough light to make out some of the opposite bank where she was staring.

Tomo was having some trouble assembling the harpoon gun, from the sound of things, grunting quietly as pieces clicked and clattered. “The wind isn’t good right now. Do you see the terrorist cell?” She looked up from the black steel harpoon with four hooked barbs to stare at the far bank.

While Tomo assembled the harpoon gun Yuzuki was rummaging in the backpack for the ration meal package she had swiped from the Kabuki Street armory, opening the outer carton and searching inside. “That harpoon rifle looks horribly complicated,” she remarked while triumphantly holding up the foil container of liverwurst. “It won’t explode will it?” she asked, eyeing the contraption nervously. Her head turned back to the far bank and the dilapidated house perched there. “I don’t see anybody. But they could be inside. Maybe upstairs...”

Tomo ignored her question about the harpoon as she finally managed to load it. “Ecoterrorists don’t like the high ground,” she opined — sure as Yuzuki was that this was a death cult behind all the magical troubles recently, Tomo had her own theory. “They like to keep close to Mother Earth.”

With that decided in her mind, she aimed at what appeared to be an attic window, waited for the wind to stop... and fired. The harpoon sailed across the river on a tether, embedding in the wooden slats of the window on the Old Market side. She gave the tether a firm tug and looked in satisfaction at the now open attack window — the barbed arms of the grappling spear had extended, long enough to grip into the window frame. She waggled her eyebrows at Yuzuki like Groucho Marx and got to work tying the end of the tether around a chimney, tightening and locking it. “Get the gloves and harnesses,” she grunted as she worked.

Yuzuki seemed skeptical for a moment. “Ecoterrorists… well, I guess it makes sense. Freezing up the harbor would stop the fishing boats. And the trees overgrowing the park saves the trees.” It seemed she was warming up to Tomo’s theory of the purpose behind the magical disturbances. She was too pleased with the placement of the harpoon and line to think further on it, nodding silently and producing the heavy gloves and climbing harnesses from the backpack. Once she had them in place she slipped the container of liverwurst into the pocket of her sukajan and prepared to climb.

Crossing the river by a long steel tether was no easy feet, and it was the work of several harrowing minutes dangling thirty feet over dark water cluttered with docks and flatboats that got them to the other side. Tomo led the way, and as she shimmied along the line up to the roof’s edge, she looked back and put a finger to her lips at Yuzuki.

Above the sounds of the wind flapping the rigging of small boats, the creaking of wood in the water as waves lapped at the bank, they could make out frantic thumping, a number of distressed voices, and the infernal cries of some hellish creature. It was likely this commotion had given their attic entry some cover.

Demon summoning, Tomo mouthed to Yuzuki, and climbed onto the roof by the broken window. The attic was cluttered with old boxes, but there were gaps in the floorboards that showed flickering candlelight coming from one story beneath them, occasionally blocked by bodies moving in front of the light.

Yuzuki’s eyes were wide as she reached the rooftop and heard the commotion, gaze fixed on the words that Tomo mouthed to her. The gesture had been effective at keeping her quiet and she nodded silently before following into the attic. When she noticed the gaps in the floorboards she crouched down to peer between them.

Down below, six men and women in emerald green robes were scurrying around the floor of a large room, shuffling side to side with their arms wide as if they were trying to stop a running back, minding their feet around a complex seven-pointed ritual circle with burning offerings of tuna and catnip. A man with a sack and a rope stooped down to try to tackle his quarry, a black cat with big green eyes, and howled in pain as it let out a hellish yowl of its own and scratched his nose before darting away.

“I told you to flip over that ottoman, Frank!” yelled a woman holding a wave-bladed dagger inscribed with cat skulls as she turned to track the creature. “Just... stay by the door, and everyone else, let’s rush it on three! One... two...!”

Yuzuki blinked owlishly through the gaps in the old floorboards at the chaotic scene in the room below, for a moment so perplexed by the unexpected circumstances that she couldn’t even react. She glanced to Tomo, and seemed prepared to mouth some question judging by the lifted brows. But then just after the cultist below reached the count of two there was an alarming loud crack from the strut she was perched on as the partially rotted wood snapped and gave way. It went too suddenly for the delinquent to even attempt to arrest her fall, plunging at once along with the splintered boards and falling directly into the midst of the scrambling cultists.

Everyone stopped advancing on the cat at once (currently leering at them from beneath a moth-eaten ottoman and hissing), including Frank, who hopped back on one foot and pointed at Yuzuki as he howled in alarm. The woman near him shoved him over in disgust and stalked forward, giving Yuzuki little time to pick herself up.

“New plan. We sacrifice her and get a seeker demon to catch the beast for us—”

At which point Tomo dropped down from above, landing on the woman’s shoulders from behind, digging her heels into her gut and pressing her hands into her face. The woman began to convulse wildly as if she’d just grabbed a power line, and the rest of the cultists let out a discordant battlecry and rushed the two interlopers.

The cat simply leapt up onto the ottoman and groomed its paw as it watched them.

With Tomo’s shocking attack taking her most immediate assailant out of action, Yuzuki had time to scramble to her feet as the remaining five cultists began their charge. In the flickering candlelight they faltered a bit as Yuzu’s shadow suddenly seemed to multiply, first two then four shadow delinquents that circled from her position around their flanks. Frank, in the lead stumbled as his eyes tried to track the phantasms, causing the green robed man behind him to collide with his back. The impact sent him staggering forward, directly into a powerful kick that drove the sole of the younger Kuwabara’s boot into his midsection. The force of the blow launched him back into the robed figure behind, sending both of them tumbling into the ritual circle inscribed floor.

Several of the candles went out as the tumbling cultists smothered them, and Tomo leapt over them and off the back of the woman convulsing on the floor. She wheezed when a cultist wound up and cracked her in the side with a wooden board, staggering back. There was a growl from the delinquent, but she held back from her impulsive lunge, advancing instead for two quick left-hand jabs. The follow-up right hook impacted the board and shattered it, and the man frowned and put his arms up defensively.

The next two jabs he deflected with his raised arms, and when Tomo wound up another hook he put his hand out and grinned as he caught it easily—

There was a sound like a thunderclap when it impacted, and he dropped to the floor unconscious.

Another green robed woman was approaching Yuzuki cautiously, holding her curved dagger in front of her to keep the delinquent at a distance. Backing away, Yuzu held up her hand as if to attract the summoner’s attention then lowered it - causing the remaining candle light to flicker more rapidly. Dazzled and blinking, the cultist let her dagger’s point drop a bit, her free hand rubbing at her eyes. Yuzuki lunged forward quickly and grasped the woman’s wrist to divert the dagger’s blade and drove her fist into her assailant’s chin.

No sooner had she fallen to the floor than another cultist was advancing towards Yuzuki’s back, grasping a crude spiked mace in his large hands. Tomo grunted as she gave him a sharp kick in the back of his knee, which staggered him and served to get his attention, too. He gave the weapon a couple of twirls to get it going, charging forward for a bash—

Instead Tomo caught it under her arm, a couple of spikes scraping across her back as she wrenched his arm, pivoted, then tossed him onto Frank and another cultist attempting to pick themselves back up. There was a collective wheeze as all three had the wind knocked out of them at once. Tomo looked over her shoulder to look critically at the damp, bloody spots through her jacket, then made a slow circuit around the room, punching and kicking heads to make sure any recovering cultists stayed down for now.

Yuzuki took a deep breath once she saw that Tomo had subdued the remaining cult members. She didn’t seem to notice that she was standing on one of the unconscious conjurer’s hands as she peered at the blood on Tomo’s jacket. After she determined that her friend was moving too well to be seriously hurt Yuzuki’s eyes turned to the cat grooming its paw on top of the ottoman. She checked the pocket of her jacket, finding the foil container of liverwurst there, luckily undamaged in the fight. “Hungry, kitty?” she asked, while peeling the container open.

It seemed the black cat was hungry, as when Yuzuki set the food down on the floor it slowly advanced and began to sniff the treat before sitting down to eat. The delinquent watched the cat enjoying the meal, and glanced to Tomo. “She likes the delinquent rations” she reported.

Tomo was in the process of looting the cultists, all of them either unconscious or too dazed to resist. Most of them were wearing normal clothes under their robes, and she’d already created an impressive pile of coins, bills, and keys from their pockets. She was thumbing through the keys when Yuzuki mentioned the cat, and eyed it for a long moment. “Maybe if we let Asami name it, she’ll accept it.”

Yuzuki let the cat sniff her hand, then cautiously gave it a stroke of fingertips between its ears. The cat seemed relaxed by then, and began rumbling and pacing around the delinquent, rubbing itself on the gold fabric of her jacket. “That’s a good idea,” Yuzuki agreed. “Plus we can tell her she’s a good fighter, so she should be allowed to join.”

“Plus we’ll be bringing back two cars,” Tomo said, unhooking two car keys and holding them out. She took a long moment to patiently share slow blinks with the cat, then looked to Yuzuki. “Holden or Vauxhall?”

Yuzuki thought it over for a moment as she continued to stroke the cat. “Holden,” she decided. “Maybe if I’m lucky it’s a ute,” she said with a laugh, rising and taking the key.

Tomo cracked a grin at her and took a minute to look around the room as Yuzuki bundled the cat up in her jacket. “Okay. We can drive to Dockside, get the tether, then take the cars to Saori’s garage for cleaning, then get cat things for the club.” It sounded like a long night, but Tomo nodded decisively to herself at the plan.

She cast one more look around the room, then stepped on the cult leader’s head as she followed Yuzuki and the unnamed cat out.

( written with Tomo's player! )

[Velen Ilnaren]

Copies of the following note were posted in the KSCS teachers' lounge and music room.

Music teacher Velen Ilnaren would like to announce his engagement to Pearl Fand, his longtime love and dearest friend. No date has been set at this time.

The news explained why the atmosphere in the music room had been so upbeat for over a month. Most of the students in the band and choral classes were delighted with the news, although at least one of the altos was seen to be crying in the restroom after reading the notice.

[Yuzuki Kuwabara]

Yuzuki frowned as she stopped the truck across the street from the Dockside warehouse entrance, setting the brake as she looked over to the construction site across the curb from the chosen parking spot. "Should only take a second to pick up these boxes for Fujiko.." she said, looking over the seat to Reira. "I don't like this part of town though. We better arm ourselves!" Having declared that, the gate guardian reached back to retrieve Lucky's sword from the space behind the truck seats, slipping the saya through the canvas webbing belt she wore around her waist over the gold jacket. Once she was satisfied it was secure she opened the drivers door and stepped down to the curb and started to walk toward the door of the deserted looking building. She reached to her jacket's inner pocket, taking out the invoice Fujiko had given them in order to pick up her restaurant supplies.

"Do you really think something is going to happen?" Reira spoke almost absently in response to Yuzuki's worry as her main focused looked to be on one of the few model kits she bought from the Anchor before they arrived here. With one of them already open she was in the process of reading through the instructions; though that was then put on hold as she set the paper back inside the box before closing it. The passenger side door of the truck opened and, one boot after another, she'd leave the car behind.

Reira slid hands into her sukajan and looks around. With the weather as cold as it is, she honestly wanted to be back at the club room right now beside the heater. "Let's hurry and get this over with.."

Yuzuki grinned, realizing she couldn't fool Reira. Still, she shivered a bit when she opened the warehouse's front door. "No, but I like wearing the sword and feeling important" she admitted as she handed the invoice over to the disinterested clerk who pointed her to a pallet in the corner where the stack of six boxes for Fujiko waited. She stacked up three of them and lifted them up to head back to the truck. "See" she said, looking over the top of the stack at Reira. "We can get it in one trip" she assured as she moved to the truck bed to set the food crates in.

Carrying meant she had to remove hands from her pockets... and they were trying to stay warm in there; but a single trip is better than waiting around for Yuzuki to come back and hoist up what remained. The last three boxes were for Reira to claim, and she let out a bit of a sigh as she squatted down and readied herself to keep her back straight and lift. This wasn't her first rodeo with this kind of job, though she did step a little faster as she headed back over to the truck.

Reira passed by some stacked stone on the way over... and soon felt something pricking her. For a split second she was attempting to register what it could be -- but that's before the pain ran up her arm and caused her body to start freezing up. A sound escaped past her lips, something like a yelp but it was cut off half way as she found herself tensing up even more. The boxes she held were what hit the ground first, and Reira soon after.

What crawled out from the rocks had been not one, not two, but three large scorpions. Reira was able to react the best she could before her opposite arm seemed to fall out of her control all together: by controlling the chilled air to quickly rip into the scorpion on the far right. Pieces of the scorpion were ripped away, a leg along with half of a claw and a bit of its rising stinger, but the loss of control she had during the process wasn't enough to end the creatures life quick enough.

The injured scorpion didskree out in pain and began to flail what remained of its tail, along with clamping at the air - here and there - with its one good and one half-severed pincer.

"Yu.." She managed to say before her voice was lost.

Yuzuki was arranging the crates in the bed of the truck, the scurrying sounds covered by the scraping of the cartons on the metal flooring. The boxes that Reira had been carrying hitting the ground had her spinning around quickly. She had to cross the back of the truck that was blocking her sight of the way they had come.

Her eyes widened as she heard the sounds of fighting and Reira's voice calling her, catching sight of the rushing large scorpions. Her expression looked horrified, but the sight of Reira unmoving got her feet in motion soon to rush toward her. Her hand drew the sword from the saya as she got close, slashing at the flailing injured scorpion even as her feet skidded to a halt between the monsters and her friend. The remaining claw half and the stinger were sliced away in one sweep of the bright maneki-neko engraved blade.

When the other two began to scurry forward toward her and the poisoned Reira she took a two handed grip on the sword, screaming defiantly at the creatures. She rushed forward to meet them, stabbing the sword point out between the lead scorpions claws to impale it.

With one of the scorpions dead, the second awkwardly fidgeting and unable to walk right, this left the third on its own as it lashed out at Yuzuki with its stinger! These were creatures of instinct, so seeing two of its brethren dispatched didn't give it any reason to retreat.

Reira's fingers clinched as she felt the venom continue to pump through her body as she tensed more and more.. and it started to become harder to breathe. She could be heard in the back almost gasping; in short, quick breaths that weren't leading much air into her. Eyes growing wide, as best as they could, in panic -- though the expression on her face wasn't exactly registering it. Calm down, calm down.. she tried to tell herself, but it was getting harder and harder as more fear began to set in.

The sword was stuck for a moment in the dispatched scorpion, leaving Yuzuki desperately tugging at it as the third lashed its stinger toward her. Her eyes were wide and terrified as her head turned, though the sword came free just in time to send her toppling backward and out of the path of the darting stinger. She fell onto her back and scrambled, though not quickly enough to keep the scorpion from striking her leg with a claw.

She screamed in pain as the serrated claw sliced through the legging and the skin above her knee, but managed to keep her grip on her weapon to give it a swift swing toward the scorpion's stinger that was lashing out again toward her as she was held by the strong claw. The blade split the scorpions tail and diverted the stinger away, long enough for Yuzuki to reverse the momentum and slice the damaged stinger away. The creatures second claw lunged forward, the tip piercing Yuzuki's gold sukajan and inflicting a wound on her ribs. Screaming again she reversed her grip on the sword and plunged it downward. The claw released her leg as the scorpion was finished off.

Seeing the remaining scorpion that couldn't walk well, Yuzuki's eyes focused on it and soon shadows shifted in front of it to block its sight of the poisoned Reira and allow her to limp over behind it. Once she was in range she swung the sword overhead and brought it slicing downward to finish off the injured creature that Reira's wind attack had mangled.

She was clutching at her injured and bleeding side as she looked around wildly to see if any more of the monsters were around. "Reira!" she shouted, alarmed. "Gotta get out of here! To the hospital!" She hoped desperately they might have an antidote to the rock paralysis poison, returning the ichor-stained blade to the saya so she could have both arms free to lift Reira onto her shoulder.

The hardest part of lifting Reira was that her body didn't seem to budge. She couldn't bend into Yuzu -- it would seem as if she were frozen how she fell. With the twitching and spurting of ichor from the wounds that have claimed them; a new sound was introduced as quick, heavy footsteps brought some warehouse workers onto the scene.

"Dammit, it happened again!" One of them called out. A few more responded, but the words were quickly drowning each other out before a louder voice said, *"WE NEED HELP HERE! BRING SOME OF THAT ANTIDOTE!"

It appeared as if this hadn't been the first attack caused by these scorpions.

"Don't worry, girly, we got ya'.. Mark, call the damn ambulance already!" the worker went from attempting to console Yuzuki to yelling out at another man who was in the process of pulling out his phone and making the call.

"I got it!" Another came onto the scene carrying a vial full of something liquid green. "Just put her down,"

Yuzuki was making a muffled sound of effort as she tried picking Reira up, especially as her injured leg kept giving out. She was so focused on her task of trying to evacuate her friend that it took her a moment to register the sounds of the warehouse workers approaching. For a moment she snarled and stood over Reira protectively until what they were saying registered. Then she nodded and gently set Reira down again on the pavement, flopping down on her butt with her bleeding leg extended awkwardly in front of her to rest.

"Thanks.." she managed to stammer as the worker came into view with the vial of antidote. She was keeping an eye on Reira still, and taking her scarf from her neck to press to the cut on her knee tightly while watching the workers call for the ambulance and tend to Reira.

"It'll be fine.. Jus' need to.." The oddity of it all was the fact that the guy who took charge had just shoved a few fingers into Reira's mouth in an attempt to ease her jaw open.. there was some strain, but he opened it just enough to allow an easier passage for the antidote vial to be poured inside. There had to have been something magical about the blend, as a few whizz-pops of energy started to crackle after the liquid as Reira felt her throat begin to relax so the greenish liquid could begin its travel down into her stomach.

This wasn't a quick and miraculous process though, but Reira's form wasn't as stiff as before and her chest was rising and falling a little better. The worker was careful as he set Reira down, even easing off his own jacket for the girl to use as a pillow for the time being as the sound of sirens could be heard coming in the distance. "Your friends gonna be fine," He'd say with a smile to Yuzuki before adding on, "Let's put more pressure on that.. Open the damn gates!" he yelled out after as some of the surrounding men broke away so the ambulance could get where it needed to be without anything getting in the way.

Yuzu was watching the administration of the antidote and seemed concerned enough with Reira's difficulties that the pain of her wound was ignored. When she saw her friend begin to breathe more easily she slumped forward a bit in relief. The relief was all the more when she heard the sirens of the ambulance getting close. She allowed the worker to help her with the scarf, eyes closing. "Thanks for helping. Someone will come to get the truck," she assured. "And to clean up."

She grimaced from the pain in her leg and side, but looked over to check how Reira was doing. "Hang in there Reira" she called over. "Once we get out of the emergency room we'll get these stingers and get paid!"

"The body seizin' up like that.. it's exhausting. Thanks for takin' them out, they caught a few of my guys yesterday but got away before we could take care of 'em." Needless to say, he wasn't going to have anyone claim the prize in place of the girl -- she put in the work, so she deserved it; at least that's how he saw it. The ambulance came into view finally and quickly came to a stop close by the scene.

It didn't take long for the team inside to leave the ambulance and get to work on assessing the situation. With Reira put onto a stretcher and brought into the back, the third on the team had looked over Yuzuki before helping her into the ambulance as well.

Weakly, Reira was able to get let out a quiet word as they started driving away. "Thanks..", she told Yuzuki before her eyes closed.

[Asami Ito]

"Got a notice," the voice belonging to Reira brought Asami from her bored slumber in the back room of the Rappapa Club Room.

While Asami didn't answer verbally, the half-lid expression that found her features said she's listening.

"The dragon head," the summed up explanation of the note sounded better than going over the full few paragraph long letter. "The coaches don't want it out in the hall, they said it's fine in the club but it's causing an issue."

"It's clean." The sukeban answered finally.

Reira just slapped the paper some with the back of her hand.

Asami's expression switch to one sporting a not-so-amused look. "No one ever goes down the hall.."

That's the truth of it. No one but the members of the club used the hall. The only things within the small corridor (which led to one of the multiple exists from the indoor pool building) was the club room itself and a single uni-sex bathroom with a chemical washing station inside.

"They want it down by Friday." Reira continued, "They've turned a blind eye to a few things, you can at least give them this." This is why she acted as Asami's council. The others in the club would have sided with the sukeban and most likely rallied to keeping it there. It's a good thing, in a way — it has Asami thinking more on it.

"Bring it into the club and replace it with a banner." she decided. Asami punched that Bronze Wyvern to death when it interrupted the clubs trip down to Cadentia, but it wasn't worth visiting the office or some other nuisance..

Truthfully, she thought it looked better looming over the television anyway.