Scene #9036:

Owner	Pose
Timespace Riders	The Demon King and his faithful retainer display a marked eagerness in inviting Natsuki to their home. 9 5 DO--"Kujigoji-do"--is a home partially repurposed into a clock repair shop. It's nestled in a mostly commercial area of Tokyo, at the end of a winding street reserved for cyclists and pedestrians, which remains busy for most of the day. The plot of land is modest but picturesque, in a cozy way. A small garden and an ivy-clung Japanese elm greet her on her approach, as does a bicycle leaned against the first step of the two-storey house's small patio. Signage resting on a corrugated metal facade near the front door of the two-story shop displays its name, while a woodblock leaned against the opposite side displays hours. The inside of the shop bears warm, wine-red walls with white trim. Display cases full of clocks rest against these walls--this was probably a dining room, before the place was made into a storefront. There's even a round wooden table and a couple of chairs here. A middle-aged man with short, salt-and-pepper hair works on a radio from the early 2000s rather than a clock, the top of his head just visible above the quaint curves of the just-noticeably outdated thing resting on the counter. There's a slight family resemblance to Sougo, and it seems that preferences for loud shirts run in the family, too. Junichiro wears a grape button-up with gold paisley print and a matching vest. The 'ding' of the bell alerts him to a new customer. Junichiro Tokiwa is used to all manner of visitors by this point--even if Natsuki is in her chimeric form, he smiles amiably at her in unbroken social stride. "Oh, hello! What can I do for you today?" And that smile might even widen a little bit, when the nature of her visit is revealed. He's proud of Sougo--and happy that people want to see him. Sougo and Woz can be found in the next room over--warm yellow walls and hardwood floors, with a long table and enough chairs for several people to sit at it. An end table in the corner is the resting spot for a silver tower display, which itself holds all of Sougo's Ridewatches--those mysterious, futuristic pocketwatches he uses to transform and change armors. Woz is doing a bit of cleaning with a feather duster, while Sougo looks up, glowing, from a book on the history of Haiti, and closes it, setting it on the end table with the silver tower. "Hi, Natsuki," he beams. The smell of food lingers in the air; Woz shoots her a proud, knowing smile over his shoulder as he tidies up. "I hope you came with an appetite for more than just our gifts, Lady Nue. I took the liberty of preparing some libations--would that my own cooking is worthy of the same high praise you gave the Apex's cuisine." "How've you been?" asks Sougo, leaning forward in his seat.
Natsuki Nuki	After the events near the Osaka Aquarium, Minato had lingered a little while longer before, with the Core Medal he retrieved from Poseidon. When, eventually, the Concord members finished their impromptu potluck under cover from the rain, he had engaged in a little stiff socialization with his fist closed tight around the medal... Until he needed two hands to accept his portion and eat properly. Forced to choose in a soft way, he had finally pocketed the medal in his windbreaker jacket and broke a thin smile. Still trying not to confirm (or, at this point, deny) their interest, he instead had lingered and relaxed by degrees. At the end of the night, which he stuck around for until the terminus, when it was just Natsuki, Sougo, Woz, and Minato helping Kukuru clean up, the Kamen Rider of a potential future took a moment to bow at the waist in the rain. His windbreaker pattered with dots of dark wet that beaded and ran down the blue. His eyes stared at a bulb-lit darkslick concrete path, and his arms were straight to his sides for the waist-deep formal bow. "Thank you." Minato begins, somber-deliberate. "There's still things I have to do, for myself, and for the people that depend on me." He rises, the little smile that had been nonpresent on his serious face retained, remaining. "After, though... If you need help, I think-" His eyes flick from Sougo, across Natsuki, to Woz. "-you know where to find me." --- It was days after that 'Natsuki Nuki' arrived at 9-5 DO, comfortably walking the Tokyo streets with a pleasant smile across her face and a confident strut to her walk. 'Dressed' in the form of a white haired Japanese woman with golden orange highlights let fall naturally past neckline with a bowl of bangs framing her head, the two peeking-soft orange and earth brown ears atop her might throw fancy headphones except for how they gently flick and adjust with the wind and the motion of her hair are just one of the tells that she's not some normal local woman. The soft brown 'mask' that bridges her eyes is set over the soft point of a gentle triangle of a nose, and her arms end in hands with prominent black claw-nails, but the loudest tell from beneath her light suflower yellow jacket and above her short-of-knees length black skirt is the swaying serpent-tail that follows in her wake. She carries a wood-sided box with both hands, shifting it into one to approach the front walk and contemplate the entrance. Ringing the doorbell with a nail-push and standing back, the 'almost normal' (not normal at all) Natsuki smiles a sharptoothed grin at Junichiro as she's received. 'Oh, hello! What can I do for you today?"' "This is a watch repair shop, yes?" Natsuki asks pleasantly-expectant, pauses, and then throat-caught songbird laughs. "I'm here to see Sougo and Woz - and the repairman."
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki enters the formal shop area, striding into the shop while her tail coils around her side and from the eyeless spade-head seaming a single black-and-red eye open to stare unblinking at Junichiro, stable on the swaying spinal pivot. Placing box onto counter, she places a hand atop and turns. "These are from my collection, but they haven't worked since I acquired them. As a repairman, do you fancy challenges?" Inside the crate, across several museum-grade layers, is a collection of small and medium timepieces, from modern and tasteful gold watches with shattered faces, to well-loved cucco clocks whose only remaining trait in disrepair is a beautiful jay in jade, to yet more esoteric and antique artpieces. All told, a menagerie of projects and things needing intense appraisal. "I have an inventory of this, so you can hold onto it while you do your estimation." Natsuki asides, and with a pat of the box and a wave to Junichiro in passing (and a shuttering of the tail-staring eye), to slip into the side room. --- "Hello, Sougo, Woz!" Natsuki skips over, bouncing from ruffled-socked foot to the other to offer the pair a confident sway-into seat greeting, grinning at the idea - the present act - of Woz with a featherduster making things just slightly more perfect in maintenance and anticipation: of her! That's how she seems to take it, at least, crossing legs with a showing kick-out flourish and steepling her hands together. Even without her full 'Lady Nue' presence on display, it's certainly the same woman with the same tells, down to her flowing-clicking clawtaps. "I've been splendid!" She preens, tapping index claws together. "Becoming a Partner has meant I could relax a little more, stretch more, enjoy more of what I earned, but it's also the first step in more. So, I'm enjoying a small break before starting my next projects. And you?"
Timespace Riders	Junichiro is, of course, happy to help Natsuki, but absolutely delighted to be working on proper timepieces--especially of the caliber contained within the box she's brought. "There's no watch I can't fix," he says proudly. Reaching for his glasses, he dons them and peruses the inventory--that'll keep him occupied and very happy for a while yet. "Kind of the same, I think," says Sougo, "Even though I guess I'm... still kinda preparing to be king." His brown eyes flick towards the book. "Some kinds of work can be fun, you know? I love history. And I think it's a requirement for being a good king." Woz beams proudly at Sougo. "I am most pleased for your assistance," he then offers towards Natsuki. "It is always satisfying to know that one has bridged a certain shortcoming; that one's enemies have less stable footing than the day before." "Your little mask is really cute," says Sougo idly, drawing the lines on his own face with an index. He basks in the thought for a moment, warmly regarding her--and then his eyes alight. "Oh! Your presents! Did you want those now, or would you wanna wait until after lunch?"
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki has the approach of a rich and generous friend, bearing great treasures to offer a fine choice of them to the skilled artisans. A patron, a provider, she knows the particular roles to play towards those like Junichiro. Just from the cursory inspection of the shop she had been convinced of the resident artisan's quality. His oath, that there's no watch he can't fix, leaves Natsuki well-assured... The uncle-or-grandfather won't be bothering the boys and her for a while yet. To draw away attention, one used bait of course. "The same?" Natsuki asks, mild surprise opening her bright red eyes as Sougo is reflected in them. "That's not what I expected quite at all, Sougo. Of course, working on things you're passionate about can be fun, but -- I'm surprised you're still preparing. The only way to gain experience in something is doing it." Woz, on the other hand, draws Natsuki's arms to layered-over cross fold against the table, framing her as she leans forward slightly, eyes panning with a sly-smug knowing. "That, would be more what I was expecting." She warble-giggles, nodding after. "I hope, Woz, that your new power allows you to par-ticularly," Purring-warm and tone-curling, her pause is all syllabic emphasis. "-prove someone wrong about your believed lack." And if he has done deeper research on their mentee, Woz would know particularly why that delighted the curse-chimera. 'Your little mask is really cute,' Put off from her more sinister-smug hopes with active flattery, Natsuki snaps back onto Sougo while he traces his face and smiles as broadly as either boy had seen, lips riding soft dimpling cheeks as her eyeteeth hung over her bottom lip. She basks as he does, lifting her hands to arch under her chin and rest there, birdsong in the periphery of her breath. "I know. I kept it on purpose." She answers, with the warm weight of an admitted truth. But then, presents! And food, which she has been softly excited for after Woz brought her to the hyper-luxe French eatery at the Apex and then decided to claim himself a challenger. "Oh, why not both at once?" She asks, slightly a question. "Unless..." Eager, but back to chin-balanced-on-hands smirking. "Would there not be room at the table for all of it and us too?"
Timespace Riders	The only way to gain experience in something is doing it. "That's true," Sougo nods. "But knowledge is just as important as experience, and I'm going to get plenty of experience when I take the throne. You wouldn't want to trust plastic from a chemist who didn't study, would you?" He smirks. I hope, Woz, that your new power allows you to par-ticularly prove someone wrong about your believed lack. Woz puts the feather-duster on the end table. His lips curve in a thoughtful frown as he turns to address Natsuki. "...we do not always have the luxury of proactively addressing our shortcomings. My Demon King and I have known on occasion the sting of defeat--but also the warmth of forward motion." "You are my ally now, Lady Nue, and I would be glad of this even without the knowledge that you were once someone I would be Kamen Rider to. That 'someone like you' can exist, as you are, is a not insignificant source of inspiration to me--a tangible reassurance of the rightness of my work." He dips his head forward in a gentle bow. "It is my hope that we may be a source of the same for you, in whatever measure we are able." "If you will excuse me, I shall prepare the afternoon's meal--and our gifts to you." He excuses himself to enter the kitchen. The retainer returns first with a purple velvet pillow, upon which there rests a lacquered wooden box. He takes a knee and presents it to Natsuki, head bowed. Inside there are two compartments. One is a potential future, torn from the book Woz carries--sacrificed willingly for Natsuki and bound in a purple ribbon. The other is a Ridewatch--Sougo's first, the Zi-O Ridewatch, a tangible act of placing the first steps of his journey in her care. In this way, both of their legends are intertwined with hers.
Natsuki Nuki	"Of course, of course," Natsuki agrees, still warmly enamored by the praise for her appearance and coming down from that slowly. The soft logic exchange of orderings is usual to her, habitual, the sort of debate between great masters affected by someone a few years out of high school. Of course, she speaks to the cherubic-sunny serenity of Sougo, and so king to chimera there is an alignment just on topics and tone. "But the throne is yours, certainly, and you are refining yourself for that ascension. And I don't know if I trust chemists in general, but, that's why I have people to check the products for me. I do most of my own mixing, you see, Sougo, so I have little need to trust chemists." The amusement of such expressive-familial idea-jousting is calmed to an assured smirk when Sougo favors her with one, and Woz slides in without duster and explains for himself. This topic - of 'luxury', particular and specific, draws her whole attention. Behind her, her tail wiggles and writhes as if she is about to pounce on something -- but not either boy. Something bound in memory, her agitation apparent in the flick of gold-orange ears. "I would hope, now that the Concord has sponsored and supported me, that luxury would be a promise." She admits, just a little tight. "But, I understand, Woz. If there had been a 'Kamen Rider' for me," Red eyes track to the silver spire, studded with Ridewatches, as if resting there. Her face doesn't show the same agitation, not as distinctly, but she is elsewhere in memory. "... It would still be up to me to realize my own path." 'It is my hope that we may be a source of the same for you,' "It's reassuring," Natsuki admits, skipping back over Sougo too look specifically at the bowing Woz, smiling faint-fanged at the depth of his respect. "That you understand why I am the way I am. If you think up more ways, of course," Reaching over, Natsuki's black-nailed index lightly lifts Woz's chin from his floor-look to get back to looking at her, and too address the man directly and not 'his respect for her'. "I would be happy for you to show me, Woz." While he rises to leave, Natsuki readjusts herself in her seat, tugging her yellow jacket lapel to a slightly more artfully framing way, running claws through her hair and smiling at Sougo. She doesn't wait long for Woz to return with a lacquer box. Lifting the pillow whole and moving it to the table, Natsuki sets it before herself, so Woz and Sougo might equally watch her, then with delicate shift of both thumbs at the top, unlatches and opens. The first, a purple ribbon, she lifts from the box like the delicate examination of an ancient and precious scroll, eyes scanning the threads, the cloth, the spun-bound future. "Once upon a future, there was a Demon King of Time, and his name was..." Woz. A future willingly sacrificed, a page torn with intent from the book and offered up as fine prize and feast for a white-haired monster. With reverence, Natsuki shifts a sharp-clawed thumb to her hair to flick-slice open her hair-tie, only to shift back with a careful wrap and re-tie her hair with the generous purple bow that tails down her yellow jacket. The second item, she pulls out of the box looking at Sougo, a quirk of the brow. This one, she understands more closely, having seen almost a dozen others on the rack, and seeing Sougo's belt transformation several nights prior. Pulling out the Ridewatch, she examines the object, thumbing the ring with ratcheting click until it presents the fully-revealed face of Zi-O.
Natsuki Nuki	"A transformation item?" She wonders, and closes her hand around the face to gently lower it back into box and click the top shut. "It's a beautiful, kingly gift." She answers, but her brows stay inquisitively quirked. "I won't question such an offering." But it sounds like she has Major Questions. The scheming yokai seems genuinely torn on the object, both deeply flattered and topically agitated. "If it happens, Sougo, that this gift is necessary for you..." As a Partner, now, as an ally, as someone equal, as someone who had just been told they were understood and seen by another for who and what they were without judgement - with praise and adoration, as someone with an intuition about treasures and legends, Natsuki struggles with her bubbling-black feelings of wild selfishness. She should take them all and make the whole of it hers, and then there would be no problem, no pain but she hears this only as a sibilence within and knows it a vizier-voice of her own. "Simply offer me something equal, then, and I will understand. To destroy yourself to please me is... not what a Partner should do."
Timespace Riders	I do most of my own mixing, you see, Sougo, so I have little need to trust chemists. Sougo seems amused by that answer, though still passionate enough about his position to indulge in further conversation. "Haha. Let me put it this way--I don't think something is really mine until I have it in my hand. And I don't want to hold Time in my hand until I'm sure I can keep a hold on it with more than just a strong grip." "Some kings are king because they're the best at using force to hold onto the throne. I know I'll have to do that--it's pretty hotly contested. I want to be the kind of king his subjects don't want to give up. I know I can take it, when I'm ready--even if I wasn't born to be king, I have the Concord with me. But I want to be the best me I can possibly be, when I do." To destroy yourself to please me is... not what a Partner should do. "Hm... that's sweet of you to say, Natsuki--and I agree. If it helps..." He rocks slightly in his seat, pleased with the shape of the idea before he speaks it. "I didn't really think of it as spending myself or destroying myself--to me, that's a little piece of my story. The first chapter, which I'm past, at this point." He leans forward, chin propped up on his hand, admiring her. "You could also call it the first few verses of my legend, couldn't you? Growing yours is important to you. I thought..." His brown eyes twinkle. "If it helps you, I'm happy for mine to be part of yours, for however long." A platter is held in the returning retainer's hands, carrying three deep rice bowls. Atop pillowy white helpings of rice steamed to fluffy perfection is a sauteed helping of onions and thin-sliced beef. A sweet-savory broth smelling of mirin and nutty sake pairs well with these offerings. Chopsticks are laid out for Natsuki, Sougo and the retainer himself, who quickly flits back into the kitchen to shed his apron.
Natsuki Nuki	"It's something I appreciate about the Concord." Natsuki explains, eyes on the box while Sougo speaks of power. "There's no illusion that it's power that matters. It's power that starts legends, and power that defines..." Natsuki had not often been in this place, this spot, this particular arrangement with an 'equal'. Equals were new, not above or below or authority or inferiority. The 'agitation', the discomfort that streaks her absolute audacity like a tiger's stripes, clears in stages, and finally, a 'hyoooh' of a sigh, while Woz leaves to retrieve lunch. "... what places things within your hand." She finishes, lifting the lacquer box off of purple pillow and turning it over in her grip. "A world in the span of your palm," Claws rise like towers and curl slightly around the box, shifting the sides about its contents with the softest of clatter-taps. "And not what your eyes see, or your heart wants. Power defines the world, and those who have it, define power." There's an odd effect, as she closes hand around box and places wrists upon pillow to clasp hands together - squeezing palm to palm as the box 'disappears' without wood-stress or lacquer crack, until Natsuki is palm to palm and the box is gone. She smiles, lifting somber red slit-pupiled eyes to take in Sougo with a different look than Osaka or Elysium. Not sitting on his lap across the table and smug-assured about it, or a producer moving through a stage-set. "Well," "I did ask for it." She admits, showing more of 'Natsuki' than the held image of any 'Lady Nue'. Someone with strong beliefs on the order of things, And that what must not be traded away. Woz's return with picturesque rice bowls has the closed-palmed chimeric woman's hands lifted in an eager clap that sweep pillow aside for ease of placesetting, sitting back and smiling up and admiring down with a long breath before picking up chopsticks with an easy grace, holding for Woz to return. She just has one comment while the retainer zips off, for Sougo alone again. "Don't tell him, but I like this food a lot more than French."
Timespace Riders	Don't tell him, but I like this food a lot more than French. Woz returns to the table to find Sougo mischievously smiling at Natsuki. "Did I miss something humorous, sire?" smiles Woz. "You had to be there," says Sougo with a playfully affected take on Woz's coy demeanor. The food is extravagant even in its relative simplicty, because Woz is the one that cooked it. Natsuki can tell that much just by the fluffiness of the rice and the quality of the tender beef. The gyudon, with its little side soup, still makes for a filling meal in the way that only a home-cooked dish can. Much in the way the haute cuisine restaurant had refused the same, Woz himself refuses to skimp on portions only because the ingredients were exactingly chosen. "Thanks for the food, Woz," says Sougo, along with a little gesture of thanks. Woz holds his head upwards, ever so slightly, basking in the praise before inclining his head. "Of course, my Demon King." "I appreciate that about the Concord, too," muses Sougo between measured helpings. "Not that I don't appreciate the Paladins or the Watch--I've sure worked with both of them plenty of times. But one wouldn't approve of me ruling the way I want to, and the other wouldn't have the resources to make it happen. This is the best possible place for me, and I'm glad it is, because there are some really great people here." He beams at Natsuki. "Plus one more, now..."
Natsuki Nuki	"Had to be there." Natsuki agrees, clapping her hands in a reflexive and very traditional offering over the bowl with a quick bow of 'thanks', though it's certain she's not thanking the Buddha, Hachiman, or Inari. She might just be thanking Woz for his efforts, though. Maybe. Lifting chopsticks in soft claw-caught cheers as she carefully cross-sections a first load down through a gyudon piece through the rice, Natsuki does one bite savoring the meal without accessory or condiment. Far more than any clapped hands she meticulously breathes in, lifts, and samples one perfect unadulterated bite as intended by chef, and then reaches to lift cup of glaze too lips to sample that without chasing away the flavor of the meat and meal. Finally, with a nod, she gives a sworl drizzle of mirin sauce to the bowl, not all, but to her own taste, and goes at it with a native's loud enjoyment. Ending in pace with Sougo, Natsuki takes a deliberate moment to close chopsticks and lay them down on their little ceramic rest. "Hmm." Natsuki teases out, shifting from clear and palpable famished enjoyment to a lip-clearing and napkin wiping demure composition. "It was... okay." And she manages to hold that, for a dragging few seconds, before she bursts out in birdsong amusement after gauging the retainer's reaction. "Okay, okay. It was wonderful - and I could tell it was made for me, rather than some dish devised to be good for everyone. But, I grew up in Osaka. Of course I like gyudon more than French food!" Patting her lap with calming amusement, she nods more somberly. "The Paladins disagree with us. The Watch... Well, I came up from Acquisitions, Sougo. Internal track. I'm not turning traitor on myself for friends: I don't have to." That she thinks of the Concord as a part of 'herself' might be novel for the boys, but it might also make a perfect kind of sense. If she was an audacious, selfish yokai - how else could she treat another as an equal? "I'm pleased to say you both are quite the proof that I don't have to."
Timespace Riders	It was... okay. Were it someone who Woz did not develop such an admiration and respect for, someone whose ambitions and tastes did not meet his exacting standards, Woz's reply would be a characteristically-him variant of 'skill issue.' But she can see the calculations going on behind his politely disappointed expression. The 'skill issue' was his, that an exhaustive list of adjustments and techniques is being considered in real time-- And then the joke is laid plain. Woz looks a mix of put upon and relieved. Sougo's playful nudge dulls a bit of the former. "Naturally," says Woz, endearingly gathering up his dignity like a cat that tried a particularly daring leap and failed, "It shall be my pleasure to prepare any dish you please in the future, Lady Nue." I'm pleased to say you both are quite the proof that I don't have to. "That feels really good to hear, Natsuki," gushes Sougo with a wide, whole-hearted smile, his head bobbing once with vibrantly warm enthusiasm. "I'm... closer, than I've ever been, I think, to what I want--to being the me I want to be. So I'm glad that you're here to see that." A small little portion of the silver display tower behind Sougo is reserved for Woz's watches. Woz isn't a traditionally heroic Kamen Rider, even if all of the little potential futures he's gathered are potential heroes. To him, they are as much meditations on himself as they are temporal footprints: Quiz, the trivia master, fights for an answer to the world, but Woz mantles his power with truths and falsehoods of his own emotions. The newest among them is the Aqua Miridewatch--the certainty of purpose that allows him to cut through even the stormiest sea. Natsuki will, for Woz, be an ever present reminder of the rightness of that purpose--not only for who she is, but for her role in helping secure that power.