3576/Settling Debts

Settling Debts
Date of Scene:	27 December 2015
Location:	Kawakami City
Synopsis:	Nero and Kyra pay for Momoyo's lunch as agreed upon for Nero's loss. Yang tags along, as they all bond. Kyra seems to have developed an irrational jealousy for Momoyo even if she otherwise respects her prowess...
Cast of Characters:	626, 880, Yang Xiao Long, 928

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Momoyo Kawakami (928) has posed:
     Standing outside the Gate, it was clear enough how to get to the coordinates for Kawakami City. Momoyo kept one eye on the clock so that the train to Saitama wasn't missed, but beyond that she was the only one waiting. For the time being, she had to keep her friends out of the picture when it came to Multiversal citizens. Explaining to Moro what exactly happened in that televised fight was not a thing she wanted to do right now.

    Dressed in black slacks, a black sweater and a vest for the cool weather, the red-eyed woman toyed with her silver necklace lazily. She wasn't sure what to expect from inviting these two to another Japan just yet.

Nero (880) has posed:
     And through the warpgate came Nero, dressed in a casual red dress, much less extravagant than her usual imperial, yet revealing red and white ensemble. This was a simple pinkish red one piece with ruffled black linings. Simple, yet fitting for Nero. As usual, her blonde hair was tied back in a bun with a red ribbon. Looks like that was never going to change.

     "Behold, Lady Kawakami!" The Servant greeted upon spotting Momoyo, a hand pressed above her chest, at her collarbone. "I, Emperor Nero, have arrived. Not late, not early, but exactly when I needed to be!" ...Even in loss, Nero was still Nero. One could wonder if she even considers that battle a loss at all with the way she was acting.

     "Now! Where shall we be going?"

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang's head pokes out from the portal. "... This... isn't Beacon." she states intelligently, blinking lilac eys as she spots Momoyo and Nero. "Uh, hey... sorry, wrong turn at Albequerqe." she offers with a helpless shrug. She's going to vanish back into the aetherial pathways unless she's stopped.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
Kyra is no stranger to Earth or Japan. The novelty of Earth, compared to the clockwork world of Galianda, has long since worn off a bit. The big bomb sun that supports these worlds will continue to freak her out a little. Even then, she loves to travel. Today is no exception. Mostly.

Ever since Nero was defeated, Kyra has been growly at Momoyo. Today seems to be no exception. "And me." she says, arms folded defiantly. "Kyra Hyral. Master of Nero."

Momoyo Kawakami (928) has posed:
     Momoyo reaches in and pulls Yang by the shoulder. 'Gently' for Momoyo tended to be 'firmly' for other people given her strength. That being said, she keeps an arm around Yang's shoulders and grins. "Ah~, going out on the town with three cute girls. The day can't get any better than this. Especially with her gussied up just for me, hmm, Yang~?" she gestures to Nero. She was teasing the blonde of course, but there was no hint of sarcasm there which meant the joke came from elsewhere.

    Out of the view of Nero and Yang both however, her red-eyed gaze met Kyra's with a smirk. She still didn't fully understand what she was mad about, but now that she had fully recovered, she was going to get some questions answered. "It's only been a month or two since the Gate opened. A lot of people are going to mistake some of us as cosplayers." she explains, moving everyone to the train station to Saitama. It seems she wasn't going to tour everyone around Kawakami City but a neighboring prefecture. Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, everyone would have to purchase tickets and wind through the neighboring city, and some of the alleyways toward the ramen shop Kuma recommended.

Nero (880) has posed:
     "Fool! It is a nice day and I am going to world where such dress is appropriate! I hardly call this 'gussied up'." And she fell for it. "But of course, it is no surprise that you would make the mistake of thinking so." Never is it too late to pat oneself on the back. Never.

     Having been given general knowledge of the way most modern conveniences worked at the time of her summoning, Nero didn't have much issue figuring out how the whole tickets thing worked. Of course, it was up to Kyra to buy them. As a Servant, she didn't exactly make a ton of her own money these days. Not that it semeed to stop her, inexplicably enough.

     After a short time, they'd gotten through the train ride, and through the streets at Momoyo's behest, eventually arriving at some ramen shop in an alleyway. How suspicious. "Strange. To think that such an establishment would be present in this cramped place. Most suspicious." Nero thought aloud, following after Momoyo regardless. She was hardly worried about danger.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
Momoyo will see Kyra frown a bit deeper at the smirk, clearly growing a bit more growly at this. It seems like Momoyo is already good at pushing Kyra's buttons. She does not say anything, but she does unwind her arms and follow along with her servant. Paying is not a problem for Kyra. She seems to have plenty of money.

"Wait, cosplay? As what? This is perfectly normal dress for me!" Everyone loves moogle hoodies, right? "Don't worry, I am sure you can handle anything that might come at us." She pauses, looking at Momoyo. "Almost anything. Hey there Yang."

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Erk.
    Yang's yanked out of the gate and grabbed by Momoyo. She wiggles a bit in that strong grip. She pushes at the red eyed fighter a bit. "Heeey, lemme go!" she grouses, but once released, follows along without much more prompting. "I guess hanging around with you guys for a bit won't hurt." she remarks.

    She's versed in using such machines... but doesn't have any local currency... this may be a problem.

    Kyra gets a smile and a half salute. "Hey Kyra. Still tied up in a knot huh?"

Momoyo Kawakami (928) has posed:
     After straightening out the tickets and dealing with the multiuniversal ATM's that were just barely getting set up in Kawakami City, they arrive at the ramen shop. "My world is a neutral zone for Fed and Union. You can thank my grandpa for that. Apparently it's a rarity for multiverses not to be in some type of total war? So people have been trickling in and out of here. We still have to be careful, but I think it's more of an issue if it gets out to the Multiverse Fed and Union are fighting openly in here than it is two idiots brawling." She says that, naturally, because in her world two idiots brawling with ridiculous superpowers was uncommon but a possible occurence, and she was one of them.

     "It's called a 'local delicacy', Nero. High school students like to hang around local shops where things are cheap and high quality. Newlyweds do it too... but Yamato's brought me here before. I didn't even expect it to be this good." she sits down at a large table with everyone in the large Chinese-looking place. For Kyra and Nero, the menus were familiar or read like old Roman. Yang... was gonna need a little help or a translator from a smartphone.

     "So, Nero." she had at least earned the right to call Nero on a first name basis now, so her tone was back to being tomboyish and irreverent. "Your Praetor has been sulking like you and I are dating now. Did you ever find out why she keeps glaring at me like she's gonna tape a 'Kick Me' sign to my back before showing up here?" she asks, while everyone is figuring out their orders and budgets. Her eyes are set on Kyra's with a feline grin.

Nero (880) has posed:
     "High schoolers, you say, hrm?" Nero mused as they walked through the alley and into the place. It was a chinese looking place. Seemed odd, but then, Nero wasn't intimately familiar with Japan in general, so who was she to judge? Off to a large table they went and were sat down to, and Nero proceeded to have a look through the menu.

     "I see...so this ramen is a type of soup? How quaint! A fitting dish for the common man! Very good!" And nodding to herself sagely, the Servant spoke such brazen words with a huge, satisfied smile on her face. She didn't seem to mind Momoyo calling her just Nero. At least not at this moment.

     "Oh?" Speaking of, the question brought up by that person gave the blonde girl pause, and she looked aside at Kyra. "My Praetor? Well, if I am to hazard a guess, I do recall that she has not been pleased with your manner of acting ever since she bore eyes upon you!" Blunt, but to the point.

     And then Nero laughed. "And what is this? You believe you bested me once, and suddenly, we are dating? Lady Kawakami, I had no idea that this is the way your world's customs worked!" Despite losing, Nero seemed to be having fun, unlike her Master. "HOWEVER! If you wish to lay claim to me, then you must first go through my Praetor!" Again, using Kyra like a shield in a joking manner.

     There was a pause, and then Nero set her gaze upon the aforementioned girl, and then Yang, then back to Kyra. "My Praetor, are you quite alright after all?" It would be remiss of her not to ask after all, even after making a guess.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
"Your arrogance and strength pisses me off!" Kyra blurts out, "And I'm angry you beat Nero! I was hoping she would stop you and knock that ego down but it didn't happen." She slumps a little, her face burning red. "That is what has me mad."

The redness disappears as Nero points out that Momoyo must go through her to date Nero. "What? N..no! You can't! Nero is mine! See?" Kyra removes the fingerless glove on her left hand to show off the three command seals on the back of it. "Uh."

Kyra looks rather nervous though.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Well that's convenient. Yang draws out enough to cover the ticket, and a decent meal with some left over, and follows along. She pulls out her Scroll, and loads up a new Multiversal Translator that recently got released on the DustApp store.

    She scans over the menu and peruses it as it prints up in Remnantese. It's a highly eclectic language, mixing Asian, Cryllic and seemingly Romanic characters together. Truly a terrible Elder God tongue.

    Yang peers at Kyra curiously, brow raised. "Y'know... y'actin' kinda like Weiss right now." she mentions offhandedly. Yang then looks at the seals on Kyra's hand... and snrks. "Wooooow, you went all the way to getting a tattoo for it?" she looks at Momoyo, "THAT'S dedication right there."

Momoyo Kawakami (928) has posed:
     Momoyo continues to snigger with Yang. Her shoulders quake as she waves a hand dismissively. "Oh, geez. Seriously, you don't have to show me. I can see it already."

     She leans in closer to Yang and nudges her with her elbow. "Check it out. Forget the tattoo, their auras are chained. You're used to seeing mine and yours and their guard is down. Take a breath and look at the outline surrounding Nero. Her aura was already as large as mine alone but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. If you count their auras together, Nero is twice as strong as she first looks."

     She explains. Which, only kinda sorta might settle Kyra down, having Momoyo admit Nero's monstrous strength. Even then, Nero couldn't absorb an entire Fuji Smasher in the first fifteen minutes of a fight. "Put your hand away Kyra, we're only teasing you." she lounges back in her chair as everyone's various meals arrive. Momoyo begins eating, which creates a moment of silence for Kyra to regain her composure or stew in... the two Japanese girls and Nero would know not to slurp noodles too loudly, and Momoyo had an extra beef bowl besides, since Nero was paying. So even given Momoyo's thuggish manners, she actually was still pretty even when eating.

     "Kyra. There are three others as strong as I am in Kawakami City. We are known as The Big Four." (It was later explained to Kyra and Nero that it was popular to make Numerical Groups Of Really Talented People in Kawakami Academy as it kept the conversation on-track for gossip.) "I am Kawakami Momoyo, of the North. The others are Ageha Kuki, Mayuzumi Yukie, and Matsunaga Tsubame." she slurps on some noodles. This was starting to sound like a completely telephone'd up version of Yang's power rankings as well. "Any of those three have an equal chance of beating me in equal combat. None have, and I fought all three at the same time." she shrugs her shoulders. "But you can tell just from their auras that they can beat me."

    She points her chopsticks at Nero. "Ask her. She can sense every bit of warrior's bloodline in this land, especially in Kawakami City. She can probably sense every single one of those girls out further than I, and many others. Several are in my group of childhood friends, but there's more, even some in the Kuki Corp. building." she grunts. "Now, if three people as strong as I am can fight me and lose, technically that makes me the 'strongest', but I know the potential of each and every one of them... and Nero as well. Nero can still beat me, nothing has changed just because I won... I have good reason to be proud, and so does she." she shrugs, finishing her speech and letting Nero say her piece next.

Nero (880) has posed:
     Nero shook her head at Kyra's outburst. "Alas. I must apologize for being unable to best Lady Kawakami in this instance, Praetor. Perhaps another time." Yes, there would be a rematch. Sometime. Someday. But not today. Today they would be settling the lunch debt! Oh and speaking of lunch, here came the food. Not that Nero needed to eat, but sometimes tasting things was nice.

     ....That is, if she could get a hang of using these infernal chopsticks!

     But that aside, as the talk of auras happened, Nero listened, and nodded once the subject came to the linked auras of master and servant. "Aha, so you noticed." The Servant spoke in amusement, while still failing to get the hang of the foreign dining utensils. "Indeed, it is as Lady Kawakami says, Lady Yang. I am a being known as a Servant. And Lady Hyral is my Master. As such, she provides me with prana, which sustains my existence, and I in turn protect her from harm with the goal of winning a conflict known as the 'Holy Grail War'."

     That was a mouthful. "There are plenty of other Servants, and they typically come in one of seven classes. Saber, Archer, Rider, Caster, Lancer, Assassin, and Berserker." Nero smirked and gestured to herself. "As you may have surmised, I am of the Saber class." That aside, the mention of the Big Four draws her attention. "Oho. So there are others here that have the same potential that you do, Lady Kawakami?"

     Looking pleased, she glanced off towards nowhere in particular. "I was curious to know if what I was sensing was true or not." And her smile grew. "Interesting. That there would be other warriors in this land with such power. How exciting!" Eventually, she managed to pick up some noodles and slurp them up. Finally. Once she began to get the hang of it, she fell silent for a bit as she tasted the dish before her.

     And then she spoke up again. "Lady Kawakami speaks the truth. My loss in that battle was merely due to a bad decision. Not for any lack of power." Nero smirked, locking eyes with Momoyo. "I imagine that now that we are familiar with one another, a second bout would prove to be much more...entertaining." And then came a wave of the hand. "That is, if Lady Kawakami can truly afford to lose."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
Kyra slips the glove back on, flushing red with embarrassment once more. "Yeah well if Weiss has to deal with super powerful warrior women all the time showin' off then I can't blame her." Kyra looks miserable. "Nero feeds from my MP. Servants need a source in order to exist in the real world. I'm surprised you can see auras, that is a very mage thing."

The explanation only seems to make Kyra a little more dejected. "Yeah...yeah. I guess to be that cocky you have to..well...earn it. Sorry." She falls quiet at that, taking in her ramen in with minimal slurping.r

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang nods to Momoyo. Closes her eyes, then takes a breath, before opening her eyes once more. She's practiced a bit with this sense, and gotten used to the truly monstrous auras of other Elites, so Nero and Kyra's combined aura doesn't make her recoil like the first time with Momoyo at the Dojo.

    Her lilac eyes glimmer faintly as she focuses her Aura to a new purpose, the edges growing red for a brief moment, before she lets the sight fade out. "It's an application of Aura... or, Ki or whatever you call it. I guess it's a moot point." she says, looking over at Momoyo. "Kinda scary thought, there being more people like you around."

Momoyo Kawakami (928) has posed:
     Momoyo shrugs a little with her cheshire grin. "It won't be but another year before Yang can challenge one of the Big Four for their spot. Nero already has the potential. But they are considered the strongest in my world. Who knows how the Multiverse changes the rankings...?"

     "Ah, but my cute friend is having trouble!" Momoyo does her usual bored crap, where she deftly wraps some of Nero's noodles up on her chopsticks and then offers them to the Emperor. The Emperor may or may not interpret it as a gracious gesture of subservience to her for fun, but it was going to annoy the crap out of Kyra, which may have been Momoyo's entire goal. "Say, 'Aaahhh~' Nero..." Momoyo croons. It might look ridiculous to anyone who wasn't the target or Kyra, but now Nero and Momoyo were sharing a... 'moment'. It was completely obvious Momoyo was just dicking around and enjoying her free lunch at this point, however, so each time it happened it was less embarassing to look at.

    "Hmm, so each of those classes means you fight a different way? I think you'll have fun in Kawakami City. You could even transfer in as students if you wanted... but not everyone wants to go through high school again." she muses, referencing Nero and Kyra's older ages relatively. "On the one hand we don't have 'Grail Wars', but on the other hand none of your fights in Kawakami City are life or death unless the Fed starts mischief or Kuki Corp. misbehaves..."

Nero (880) has posed:
     And then the truly gallant Momoyo swoops in to assist Nero with her chopstick related woes! Oh how kind! How dashing! How noble! "Why, thank you very much, Lady Kawakami, however!" She took the offered chopsticks into her own hands, and bit into the noodles on her own. "-I am quite capable of feeding myself! But I cannot fault you for making the attempt. How kind of you, truly."

     The smirk on Nero's face seemed to suggest this was just as much of a game to her as it was to Momoyo. The question regarding Servant classes gets Nero to sober up a bit as she answers. "Yes, the name of each Servant Class serves as a basic assumption of the manner in which they may fight, and what weapons they may use. A Lancer, for example, will typically use some manner of lance or spear, and will be incredibly agile, possessed or long reach, and other such attributes. A Saber will use bladed weapons at short range, and typically possess great attributes all around."

     A pause for more noodles, then she continued. "But it is no good to merely rely on class names. Each Servant has a different weapon, personal combat style, and more importantly; a Noble Phantasm. Which is to say, a spell, skill, or technique otherwise that encompasses their legend." All of that said, Nero put down the chopsticks and took up the spoon, drinking the broth daintily.

     "Oh? Me? Go to school? Hah! What manner of jest is this? Me, Emperor Nero! It is I who firstt instated public schooling, and now I should entertain the notion of going to one? Truly amusing! Ah ha ha ha ha!" Well, that was her laugh for the day.