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Kenji Kawasaki	It's not often Kenji Kawasaki gets out and about anymore. Oh, sure, he used to a lot, when he didn't have responsibilities, jobs, and things he had to get done. Back when he was just a punk delinquent, he went out all the time, stayed out way after hours, drank, did all the things you're not supposed to do...he was a maverick, a rebel, a loose cannon who played by his own rules, all that jazz. He was a bancho-thug-gang-leader-type without a gang, because no gang would willingly put up with a guy who scared them as bad as he did.      He lived like he didn't care about tomorrow.      But ever since he was recruited to Shinra, he kind of...does. It's the little things. He feels a sense of responsibility towards the world. He helps people. He does something worthwhile, and that makes life worth living. He has to be at least a little responsible, even if, deep down, he's still the same punk kid he's always been.      But today he's decided to get out and about. He walks down the streets of Akihabara, the night sky drowned out by the countless lights, hands in his pockets, uniform over his shoulder. People give him a wide berth, instinctively understanding that this guy is somebody you don't screw with. The crowd parts a little bit to give him room to walk.      Respect. It's a feeling he hasn't enjoyed often, lately. He's a small fish in a big pond now, and it's a little bit scary, though he'd rather die than admit it. Without Koujin, he might've been able to remain ignorant, but...but the time in which he could pretend he was a big fish is long-since over.      So he walks, aimlessly, through the streets.
Allenby Beardsley	Allenby never got out. She never left the care of her team and had only stepped outside of her world once so far. But today was /different/. Today she happily ditched her team after finishing the usual round of training-though mostly just healing today following yesterday's intense fight-and /left/. Sure, she'd come back to her team and responsibilities later.     But for now? Allenby was free and alone. She's not so free as to be lost, though and in fact this world was purposefully chosen since it was an Earth that had not been ravaged by misuse and Gundam Fights. Undaunted by the residents, tonight she walks among them, ignoring whatever looks her blue hair gets her.     Where Kenji gets a wide berth from everyone, Allenby herself seems to be the exception. She doesn't part with the others at all and, in fact, shoulder checks him as she passes. Though her own body shape looks slight, she's a pretty solid obstacle to bump against.     "Whoops~!" she offers, cheerful to the point of sounding rather flippant. "Sorry!"
Kenji Kawasaki	Kenji isn't a slouch, but Allenby is a custom-made killing machine, and without Koujin fused to him, Kenji is...well, Kenji's a street punk. He's a decent fighter, but Allenby outclasses him by a degree that's frankly scary. She exists for the purpose of beating up the best fighters in the entire world in a brawl to make Sweden win.      He hits the ground. There's a *thud* as he lands, and his jacket falls out of his hands, landing on the wayside. Around them, people seem to part even further, as if aware that these people are in a different world altogether, and that this world is not one to which they belong...and don't want to.      "The hell kind of apology is that?" Kenji demands, getting to his feet and slinging his jacket over his shoulder, "Were you just not looking where you were-"      He pauses.      Unfortunately, despite his bancho-thug-street-punk leanings, Kenji was raised to be nice to girls. Call it chivalry, call it sexism, call it being old-fashioned, but Kenji was raised specifically to respect women, and he does.      But, at the same time, you didn't just let people push you over.      Kenji goes silent, staring down at Allenby for a moment as contradictory thoughts run through his head. What to do in a situation like this?      "..."      Kenji sighs, scratches the back of his head, and looks away, his face a bit red. "...it's cool. You just...weren't watching where you were going, right? Ton of people and junk. I'm not hurt, so..."      He shrugs, dismissively.      "But you should watch where you're going!"
Allenby Beardsley	It's probably a strange sight for bystanders to see too-a much smaller teenage girl knocking over the likes of Kenji. At first glance, Allenby doesn't really look like the kind of person that could destroy someone in a hand to hand fight. A more careful inspection would allow the bystander to notice the lean, compact muscle on her outlined by the blue bodysuit she wears.     She's about to go on her way when Kenji calls back at her. A little surprised and perhaps blind to her previous tone in her apology, she turns around to face him. "What?"     Oh great, now he's staring down at her awkwardly. What is she supposed to do about this? Social interaction wasn't exactly prioritized in the Neo Sweden School of Gundam Fighting. "/What/?" she prompts a little more urgently all through his silence, stepping a bit closer to him. His earlier words were confrontational enough to make her think that a fight was impending. But now it flip flops, away from that, then right back into confrontational.     She gets in even closer to him-uncomfortably close so she can peer right up at the street punk. "Yeah?" She's not intimidated but she's not really aggressive either. In fact, she's grinning. "And what if I was? Maybe you weren't watching where you were going."
Kenji Kawasaki	"Tch!"      The immediate first reaction of all street punks is 'tch' when they're called out on something. It's a good, all-purpose sound of annoyance. It's guttural, but also high-pitched, but also a whistle all at once! You really can't do better.      Allenby gets up in Kenji's face. It's red. It rapidly gets redder as she casually violates his personal space, something that, sharing his soul and body with a cosmic entity, he's already had violated more than enough times in the recent past. Kenji stumbles back a bit as she closes, his face hot enough to make Kojin look cold.      "Th, the hell! I was...I wasn't...I mean, I..."      "Tch!" He repeats, shoving his free hand in his pocket in what is probably meant to look vaguely tough and aggressive but ultimately just looks kind of goofy, particularly with his jacket slung over his shoulder. Like Allenby, it's easy to tell that Kenji is somebody who fights a lot, though not *nearly* to the same extremes - he's got a lot of scars on his arms, and plenty of definition under his tee-shirt. Unlike Allenby, Kenji understands, vaguely, the concept of Social Graces.      Besides. Xiaomu told him that, in this kind of situation, you should be Apologetic. She didn't have a boyfriend with her, after all!      "...yeah, maybe I wasn't," Kenji sighs, trying to bring down his burning-hot face, "Sorry. Are you okay?"      That question sounds exactly as stupid to him as it does to anyone else immediately upon leaving his mouth. He shuffles for a moment, well aware of this.
Allenby Beardsley	Poor personal space. Allenby's aware of the concept but as something everyone else but her was afforded. She knew other people would be bothered by it and would probably be even MORE bothered by it if they knew what Allenby could do once she's inside someone's personal space. Just watching his reaction amused her even more but getting in close did tell her something that she suspected. This guy WAS a fighter. How fun would it be to fight another person so soon? Right here!?     "You're pretty tall." she points out. "I bet you didn't even see me coming."     It doesn't take much more needling and teasing from Allenby to get him to at least concede defeat to that point. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. I should be asking you if you're fine since you kind of flopped onto the ground there." There's a pause, "Are you fine? Er. Okay. Are you okay?" At least at this point it doesn't seem like 'fight immenent' anymore, no doubt disappointing the bystanders that were hoping for something."
Kenji Kawasaki	Kenji, at five-foot-eight, is a little taller than the average Japanese adult male, so he hasn't been called 'tall' very often in his life. Ironically, most of the people who've called him tall? Girls. Unfortunately, Kenji, being staggeringly bad with women, has never realy known how to capitalize on something like that.      This is no exception. "Y, yeah," Kenji agrees, like a lion caught in a trap, "You're, uh, pretty short. And, like...rock-hard, apparently."      NO WAIT THAT WAS PROBABLY A STUPID THING TO too late.      Somewhere, Kojin was laughing at him, which only increased his annoyance, embarassment, and frustration.      "Yeah...uh, yeah, I mean, I'm fine. I'm cool. I guess you got me in my center of gravity or something." Again, it sounds as lame as he thinks it does. "Sorry for, uh...for calling you out and sh-, and stuff. I didn't know you were a girl."      There's another beat. "...not that it matters, I mean, it's still...rude to crash into people, would've done the same if you were a guy, and junk."      "...shi-, shoot. Let me start over. I'm, uh, I'm Kenji Kawasaki. Sorry for bumping into you; wasn't watching where I was going. Glad you're okay. I'm totally fine, it was nothing. Sorry I yelled at you." It's a little forced, but it's at least the words he intended to say, and none of them sound completely pants-on-head moronic!      "Are you a foreigner? You look kinda new around here. And Akiba can be kinda rough later on."
Allenby Beardsley	Allenby's definitely on the shorter end of the spectrum. There might even be stunted growth involved-or /meddling/ of some kind. Having Kenji so bluntly point this out gets her a nonchalant shrug but the follow up comment about being rock-hard? That gets a raised eyebrow. Her expression does little to soothe his embarassment, no doubt.     She smirks. "Oh, so you ARE admitting to not noticing me there." Allenby teases relentlessly, "Or else you definitely would have noticed I was a girl. I mean, I definitely look like a girl to you, right?"     She lets him fumble around more, embarassed, before she cuts in with her own introduction, "I'm Allenby Beardsley. And I am a foreigner! Well, actually, I'm not even from this world at all. I came in through the warp gate to explore this place today. It's pretty crowded and pretty...alive."
Kenji Kawasaki	The hell!      "Of course you look like a girl!" It is at this point that Kenji's primary character flaw, Impulsive, kicks in, likely much to his future misery, "You've got boobs and stuff, you're obviously a girl! What kind of moron could mistake you for a guy, huh?! I'm not BLIND! God damn!"      He's kind of pissed off for a moment, in classic hothead sense, before her words make it through his ears and into that thick skull. First, it tells him that she's not just a foreigner, she's not from This World. Second, it tells him that whatever world she is from probably doesn't have enough people that crowding and personal space and things like that are an issue. Third, it tells him her name.      ...dammit, now he feels bad.      He looks like he feels bad, too. He just slumps a bit and sighs. "Oh. Sorry. About that, I mean. I, uh, I didn't know. This is your first time to Akiba, huh? It's usually way worse...I think there must be a sale somewhere. Uh, you're not...like, lost, right? You know...vaguely where you're going, and stuff? Akiba's a pretty big place."      "And most people don't just come here to wander around aimlessly...like...you come to buy stuff, or see sights, or..."      "...I guess that's what wandering aimlessly is, huh."
Allenby Beardsley	Oh boy.     Any other girl might have slapped him for that little outburst. Allenby, instead, laughs. She laughs throughout his anger, holding her stomach as she does. By the time Kenji has coolled off, she too is stopping. "Oh, that's not what I meant but it's still great!"     Of course, the slumping could be interpreted as embarassment over being laughed at. That's a common human reaction, after all. "It IS my first time here!" she says cheerfully, "I wouldn't say I'm lost because I'm currently not stuck trying to find a place I need to be!"     She snickers at him again, "You're right, that does sound a lot like wandering around aimlessly. What about you, what are YOU doing out here? You don't seem like a tourist to this place."
Kenji Kawasaki	He was sort of expecting to get slapped. He's visibly surprised when he isn't. The fact that she's doubled over, laughing, is...is that good? Is that bad? Damn! Why are women literally unreadable to him?!      "S, so you're just touristing, huh," Kenji attempts to bring the conversation into some line that isn't either horribly insulting or horribly bizarre or horribly embarassing, "Yeah, no, I'm not a tourist. I, uh, I live here. In Tokyo, I mean, not in Akiba. I'm here 'cause..."      "..."      "...some of my coworkers wanted me to pick up some stuff, and I'm not really busy. Some donuts and some soup ingredients and some muffins and the new Shonen Jump. So I'm in Akiba to grab the Jump and then I was gonna swing over to find a convenience store."      He shrugs. "Coworker's sick, so...I'm helping out."      That's not REALLY a lie.
Allenby Beardsley	"It's just that with the noticing and you sayin' that you wouldn't be saying what you said earlier and-" Allenby lets out another brief laugh before waving her hand in a dismissive manner, "Eh just forget it! Don't worry about it! Hahaha." At the very least she can tell, by posture, when someone has been rattled and thrown off their game so to speak. It's at that point she's supposed to take advantage of her opponent and FINISH THEM! But this wasn't a fight, this was an awkward social situation in public.     "Yeaaaah, just touristing. Or visiting. Spectating? I don't like the word tourist, it doesn't get you a whole lot of respect, you know?" She shrugs, watching him as he fumbles through explaining himself.     Fortunately for Kenji, Allenby knows very little about Japan's cities so she can't really comment on how far he might have drifted. The most she knows is 'Tokyo is a city in Japan and it is big.' "Huh, so you're a local. Good, then I can follow you around a little. I bet you know what's worthwhile in this city."
Kenji Kawasaki	This girl is so weird.      "If...if you say so," Kenji decides finally.      "Uh, yeah, I can see that. Tourist does kinda make you think of idiots with cameras in those stupid-looking shirts, right?" Kenji pulls on his own shirt like he's trying to pantomime Hawaiian Shirts, "People who don't even speak the language but think talking /LOUDLY AND SLOWLY/'s enough to get you t' understand 'em?"      "Yeah...yeah, spectating might be a better word. Or just looking around. Or visiting. Pretty much anything other than tourist, I guess."      Kenji is silent for a moment when Allenby offers to follow him around. He looks away, his eyes not meeting hers. "Uh, yeah, that's cool, I guess. I mean, I'm just going to get some stuff...if you're really that interested in Mr. Donut, yeah, we can...hang out for a while."      Kenji...hasn't hung out with a lot of girls.
Allenby Beardsley	"Yeah, exactly that. I like to think that I'm too smart for that." There is just a touch of arrogance in Allenby's tone. "And I can understand you just fine, but, well, bein' an 'Elite' or whatever means I get to cheat." Sounds like somewhere along the way the Translation Effect was explained to her which did clear up a lot of confusion.     She watches him carefully, seeing that breaking of eye contact. Yep, she still has him off balance. Success! Social interaction is easy!     Allenby forcefully joins the party.     "Sure." she shrugs, "I like donuts. C'mon." she turns away, prodding him with an elbow. "Let's go, then."
Kenji Kawasaki	"Probably," Kenji agrees in a low, muttered tone. The arrogance is not missed. It's pretty obvious. She's got a...an /attitude/ to her, an attitude that only a Certain Kind Of Person gets, and it's noticable. It's got him a little more on edge than he might otherwise be in a similar situation...but then, how could you get in a similar situation *without* those personality elements? It's not like this sort of thing just happens any old day. It takes a special blend of arrogance and self-awareness, and possibly ignorance, to make it go.      Still, it wasn't like she was *bad*. Just kind of...pushy.      "...you were gonna follow me even if I said no, huh?" Kenji finally asks, used to this sort of treatment from Kojin. He starts walking down the street next to her, eyes front. Now that she's walking with him, Allenby gets to appreciate being on the other side of the Bancho Line, where people who can't shoot menchii beams aren't even bothering to interact with them, or look them in the eye, or walk near them. It makes walking down the street a lot easier!      As they walk, the street signs of Akihabara flash before them, advertising all sorts of things. It might be a little overwhelming to Allenby, but Kenji treats it like it's the most normal thing in the world, paying little attention as they round the corner into Mr. Donut.      "So, uh, you're an 'Elite', right? So that's why you understand me?" Kenji points at himself, then at her. "You said you were from, uh..."      Kenji thinks about it.      "Did you say where you were from? You just said outta town, right?"
Allenby Beardsley	Whatever strange mixture of factors came together to get Allenby this way is going to be a mystery for now since she doesn't seem inclined to elaborate on her smartness or alleged superiority over Hawaiian shirt-wearing tourists.     "Maybe." she says without hesitation, "It depended on whether you continued to act weird. If you started ignoring me I probably would have left to go do something else." Allenby bluntly points out as she walks alongside him. It also doesn't take her long to notice that people are avoiding both of them now.     It's pretty weird. Allenby, in spite of all of her terrible Gundam Fighter power, is the opposite of intimidating-looking. Nobody went out of their way to avoid her until now and that's due to Kenji being there.     Kenji seems to be at home with it so it's clearly something that happens to him all the time.     "Yeah. That's what everyone calls them, I guess? Oh, yeah, I didn't say what world I was from, did I? Did I say I was from this world even...? I'm not from this world, I'm from a different Earth. One with space colonies for every country." She gestures to the sky, "Me, I'm from Neo Sweden."
Kenji Kawasaki	"I wasn't acting weird!" Kenji snaps, maybe a little bit fiercer than he'd intended, "I was acting totally normal! You're the weirdo!"      "Tch!"      He likes that sound.      Kenji is perfectly at home with people avoiding him. It's a multiversal truism: you don't want to make people wearing black leather angry if you can't back it up. Most people can't back it up. It's not even that he's a well-known thug, or that he's particularly known AS a thug. He's just...he's got that...that /thug/ aura floating around him.      "Everyone calls 'em?" Kenji asks, tilting his head at Allenby, "Who's 'everyone'?" He's not being sly. He's legitimately uncertain which side of the line Allenby falls on, and, like someone with a modicum of training from a secret government agency, knows better than to declare his allegiance first.      ...      He double-takes.      "Wait, space colonies? Like, people living in space? For real? That's crazy!" He turns around to face her, getting a better look at her as he does so. "You're from /space/? You don't look like it! And, Swedish?"      He'd read something about Sweden /somewhere/, right...?      "Uh, jeez. I'm just, uh, I'm just a local kid from Tokyo. That's pretty heavy. Seriously, people live in space where you're from?"      He's sort of stuck on that. "Is that why you're like goddamn iron? Are space people heavier because there's no gravity or something?"
Allenby Beardsley	"No, you were acting weird." Allenby insists despite his fierce tone. "Especially around me. You were off guard, I could tell." Even at being called a weirdo, she just shrugs. She doesn't look upset or offended about it at all.     Maybe she believes him?     "Everyone? Everyone everyone. It's term everyone uses to call strong people that venture out into the multiverse." she says in a maddingly nonspecific way. "It's what the Union and Confederacy use too."     She clasps her hands behind her as they walk, "Welllll I was technically born on Earth but I was taken to the colony at an age so young I don't really remember all THAT much about it. People live in space if they can get there. Not everyone can afford to leave Earth to get to the colonies."     His last question gets a raised eyebrow. "...what? Iro-oh, you mean my muscle? It's 'cause I train to fight every day, I guess! I'm a Gundam Fighter which means I fight for my country in the Gundam Fight, which is how the countries choose who rules everyone every four years." She says this with practiced ease, as if this is something she's had to explain a LOT lately. (She has.)
Kenji Kawasaki	"I'm not acting weird!"      Before they get stuck in a loop, Kenji shakes his head fiercely, locking his eyes on her. This time he is DETERMINED not to break eye contact. DETERMINED. ABSOLUTELY DETERMINED. He will NOT...break...      ...      She's just relentlessly cheerful. It's hard to stay angry at somebody who barely notices you're angry. It's a lot of energy to point in one direction, and unlike Kojin (who does it for fun), Allenby doesn't even appear to realize that he's annoyed. If she is, she's doing a very good job hiding it under her relentless cheer.      He turns around to the counter. "Uh, hey. A dozen donuts to go, and...uh..." He glances at Allenby, then digs into his wallet and stares at it. It was polite, right? You paid for a girl when you got food with a girl. He sighs. "..and whatever you want. Like...split a six or something?"      He runs down a list of very specific donuts (Xiaomu and Reiji have specific tastes, being a Kyosuke and an Excellen...and unfortunately that makes him the Bullet), then sits down at one of the little tables and drums his fingers against it, staring at Allenby. "So you fight people for money and fame, huh? Sounds like fun, I guess. If you're good at it, you might as well do it, right? Although you seem kinda young for somebody fighting in a thing like that."      Tick tick tick tick.      Bing.      A lightbulb lights in Kenji's head.      "Wait, so you're a /professional/ fighter?" There's a note of excitement creeping into his voice, "Not, like, you learned out on the street, but had actual masters and stuff?"      This is more important to him than space.
Allenby Beardsley	At last, he meets her eyes! She keeps it on him, matching his DETERMINED BANCHO ANGER with that cheer. Against someone trying to actually intimidate her, it's no doubt quite infuriating. She doesn't shrink or look away. If she does realize he's annoyed, she's definitely not showing it.     When Kenji has looked away, Allenby's looking away too, digging through one of the pockets of her pinkish-purple vest, evidently getting some money of her own. She looks up as he asks him what she wants, "Sure, let's split a six. Get lots of different kinds to try." She pulls out...yen? Well at least she knows well enough to get currency swapped.     She sits down at the same table and looks at him. "No, I fight because my country wants to win the Gundam Fight. I guess I'll get fame out of it. I actually didn't realize it could be /enjoyable/ until recently." She leans against the table with her elbow, propping up her chin with her hand. She lets him think on that for the next few minutes, a distant look on her face as she reflects just how weird that sounded.     To his eventual conclusion: "Oh, yeah, totally professional and legit. They've brought in a bunch of different guys over the years to teach me all sorts of arts and systems. Currently I don't have anyone, though."
Kenji Kawasaki	Being angry at someone who doesn't recognize you're angry is more work than it could possibly ever be worth.      Kenji sighs and nods, counting up his own cash. He's got enough for their donuts and Xiaomu and Reiji's, probably...if he's careful he might have enough for the Jump, too...      Sorry, muffins. You're gonna be a casualty of the poor man's budget.      "That's...actually pretty cool," Kenji admits, "That you've been trained and you want to help your country and stuff. Uh, we don't...have stuff like that here, and if we did I don't think I'd qualify - there's some really tough guys in the professional brackets, and all. Plus, I didn't...actually get taught or anything."      He shrugs.      "So do you, like, live with your masters or something? Travelling and learning martial arts and stuff like that?"
Allenby Beardsley	Allenby's cheer continues even as she unknowlingly deprives a man strapped for his cash of his hard earned money. But then again, it's not something that's happened to her very often either. "You know, you might be the first guy to buy me something to eat. Well. I mean. Like /this/." she gestures with both of her hands.     Her cheer seems to gradually fade, little by little, as the subject of training and masters is further expanded on. This is /especially/ the case with Kenji's line about 'helping her country.' "It's not something that I chose, actually, it just kind of happened over the years. There were a lot of candidates for it but I was the one that came out on top. What do you mean by professional brackets...for what? Judo? Akido? Illegal underground street fighting?"     She sounds pretty serious about that last one too like it would be a totally normal thing.     "No, the Masters would come and stay with me and my team for a little while during the teaching process. I haven't really...traveled much, actually. I spent most of my time on a military base." She seems to forcefully inject a bit of that cheer back into her words: "Looks like Unification's going to change that, though!"
Kenji Kawasaki	Kenji's hand stops on his wallet.      Wait, *what*?      "Uh," Kenji offers, working his jaw thoughtfully. He had a girlfriend already, didn't he? Well, he had a /date/. That wasn't really the same as having a girlfriend, and only really sad people thought that kind of thing. But he had a *date* with Glitter, and he was probably not supposed to go out and eat with other girls when he was scheduled to date somebody! But at the same time, was this really the same thing?      Was it kind of the same thing?      Kenji frowns, fingering the cash in hand.      "Uh, like...professional brackets," Kenji shrugs, "Like Judo and Akido and stuff I guess. The illegal underground street fighting isn't...really...professional, is it? Since it's...illegal?"      Besides, he's a government employee. He can't do that kinda thing.      "Oh, you're a military girl?" Kenji blinks. "You don't really...seem like it. You're kinda..."      Kenji makes a motion with his hand. "Like, /way/ upbeat."
Allenby Beardsley	It doesn't seem like Allenby finds anything wrong with making this observation out loud. Perhaps she just lacks a filter? Or interaction with other normal humans? She isn't even watching for his reaction to her remark which might suggest that she just made it without thinking about it too hard. At least in this moment, she isn't /actively/ trying to mess with him!     "Oh, alright, THAT kind of pro stuff then." she shrugs, unaware of his employment details. "You kinda looked a little like the illegal underground street fighting type for some reason. I think it was because everyone seemed to get out of your way when you walked."     She half smiles when he remarks that she's nothing like a real military person, "Heh, thanks, I'll take that as a compliment, Kenji. I mean, it's like, I'm still young so I guess it's something they let me have, right? Maybe they'll try to squeeze it out of me when I turn eighteen and have to actually enlist."     She waves her hand a bit, "So what about you? You don't look enlisted but I'm guessing you fight something."
Kenji Kawasaki	"I'm not an illegal underground street fighter! At the absolute worst I'm a high-school punk! ...no, dammit, that's not what I meant! I mean, I'm...ugh, goddamn." Kenji rubs his brow and puts the money on the counter. "I'm just, I get into a lot of fights and leave school a lot. I'm a delinquent, I guess. Technically."      Kenji looks slightly embarassed by this, and shouts an order at the Mr. Donut guy, who seems familiar with him enough to just give him a wave and a thumbs-up. Kenji turns back to Allenby and sighs. "I get in fights with other punks a ton, I guess. It happens pretty frequently. People hear I'm tough, wanna fight me, I get ambushed on the way to school, I beat the crap out of them, and I don't feel like going to school anymore."      Something clicks in his head.      "Wait, you're a professional fighter for your nation and you're not even eighteen yet?"
Allenby Beardsley	"Oh, you're a professional high school punk, then." Allenby finally concludes with a little bit of disappointment. It sounds like she isn't too terribly impressed. Then again, she should have figured given his questions about masters and training. "And you get jumped by scrubs every day. That sounds like a real pain in the ass, actually, I'm sorry."     Allenby knows all about being stuck fighting unworthy opponents.     He makes the realization that, for all she's become, she's actually quite young. Allenby shrugs like it isn't a big deal. "I'm not, no. I've been training since I was maybe...four? Five? Over a decade, I know that."
Kenji Kawasaki	"I'm not a *professional*! I don't *want* to do it and I don't get paid!" Kenji counters as the donuts slide over the counter. He puts their donuts down on one of the tables and sits down across from her, popping the box open. He snags a glazed and takes an irritated bite, filling his mouth before he says something he might regret.      She's kind of a pain, but she doesn't seem like she's intentionally being a pain, just...kind of...oblivious. Ugh. That was, in a way, its own kind of pain in the ass.      "Jeez. Four years old?" Kenji shifts, "That's pretty rough. Why'd they pick a four-year-old for something like that? I mean, is this what you wanted to do or something? Did your parents decide for you or some shit?"
Allenby Beardsley	"...oh." Allenby sounds doubly disappointed now. It wasn't just because he clearly didn't like fighting but it was also something that felt familiar to her, especially as other topics he brings up start to lessen that almost supernatural cheer the blue-haired girl has about her. So much so that...     ...she spends a long amount of time eating her donuts in silence after he asks those questions about her training.     "I was picked because I was there and didn't have the parents. I'd just lost them and if they hadn't taken me in, I would have been left to fend for myself on Earth." Allenby says, sounding rather uncomfortable now. She stares at her hands for a long time. "It's all really melodramatic, isn't it?" She turns away from him abruptly. "I oughta go. You probably didn't come out here to be dragged down by some random stranger."
Kenji Kawasaki	.../dammit/.      Now he feels like he kicked a puppy. He just, man, Kenji just *can't win* with this girl! He watches her go silent and sighs, slumping back against the chair and rubbing his face.      "...it's not like I wouldn't fight professionally if I *could*. I mean, I'm good at it, and stuff. It's just, I'm not a pro thug or anything. I don't rob people. I just...I dunno. I keep getting in fights because people keep hassling people in front of me."      "I'm that kind of guy. The kind of idiot who just can't stay quiet if somebody's in trouble in my sight, even if it gets the shit beaten out of me."      Kenji slumps forward. The bit about her parents really hits him, too. He's quiet for a moment, then shakes his head.      "...nah. Look, it's...it's cool. I mean, it's neat, that you're as young as you are but as strong as you are. You could do a lot of stuff with that kind of power. And..."      Kenji mutters something under his breath. Allenby can probably hear, 'but you're kinda cute so it's not like it was a downer.'      "B-but I'm kinda seeing somebody, sorta! Maybe. Ish. So don't get the wrong idea! I mean, I'm cool to hang out, but, I mean..." Kenji waves his hands in front of his face animatedly, "But I'm not, like...I might be..."      "...shit, I dunno. Anyway, it's...it's fine. You don't have to go or anything. I got nothin' to do and nowhere to be, and...it sounds like you don't either."      He shrugs and offers her one of his donuts. "Might as well make the most of it."
Allenby Beardsley	As awkward as Allenby was with 'the social' thing, even she can gather that she's inadvertantly made Kenji feel pretty uncomfortable. A small part of her feels bad if only because the truth was so lousy and she had to really reach for something to relate to this guy with. Maybe she should have tried the video games angle?     "That's pretty good of you." Allenby offers distantly. "To stand up for other people like that, you know?"     She shifts and turns to look at him again, his muttered commnent not going unnoticed by the Gundam Fighter. It brings a small smile to her face. "What? Buying a girl some donuts doesn't mean you're dating where /I'm/ from so just cool your jets, Kenji. It's gotta be at /least/ dinner, I mean, come on." She looks at the offered donut for a long moment before taking it. "And, hell, right now...there's nowhere else I'd rather be, I guess! Uh, not because of you, I mean, it's just that I don't have anything to do right now."     Okay so maybe her team was worrying about her or needed her to run some tests or /something stupid/ but that's not on her mind right now at all.
Kenji Kawasaki	Kenji is quiet for a minute.      "I guess," is all he says around his donut. He fumbles with it as she mentions buying dinner, and hurriedly checks his phone. -okay, he had some time before the place closed, he didn't have to run to the corner store to pick up soup stuff. With a relaxed sigh, he snaps his phone shut and stows it back in his jacket pocket.      "Yeah, well, it doesn't mean that here!" He adds, "Just, making sure you don't...I don't know, I don't /do/ this kinda thing."      "..."      He tilts his head back against the booth and stares up at the ceiling, draping one arm over the edge. "Nowhere else to be, huh...nothing else to do."      Yeah. He understood that. He didn't like to talk about that kind of thing much, but Kenji's terrible at hiding his emotions. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Even if it's not his real heart, he's got...there are certain...there's expectations of the archetype, and he plays them well.      "Heh. Well, at least you chose a good place to hang. Akiba's always loud. Twenty-four seven. Video games and all that kinda thing, pretty much constantly. It's a tech hub, after all. If you're into that kinda thing, it's basically paradise. All the new games come out here first, and tons of free promo stuff comes with 'em."
Allenby Beardsley	"You're lucky, man, I was half-considering picking at you for that." She smirks and playfully punches a shoulder. "Like a 'we've exchanged donuts, we are married now as per my culture' sort of thing. You know I bet there's a world out there where that's /actually a thing/ come to think of it." She laughs and bites into the donut, now wilfully ignoring Kenji as he squirms. She's not SO oblivious that she can't tell he's uncomfortable now, clearly thinking about this date he's got set up later.     "Yeah." she says after finally finishing up the donut. Something else catches her attention as her mind starts to wander back to her accomodations with her team. Something Kenji mentions as he describes Akiba.     "Video games?" she says, perking, "Oh, yeah, I'm way into that stuff. All kinds, too, but I like the ones that need like actual /reflexes/ to play. Fighting games, FPSes, stuff like that."
Kenji Kawasaki	"Yeah, I'm sixteen," Kenji points out, "Anywhere in the multiverse that's okay with that is somewhere I don't wanna be. I'm not really into making the major life decisions on a whim thing. I'd probably punch anybody who insisted on it."      "Yeah, there's...there's video games all over the place. Akiba's, like, electronica paradise. People from everywhere on the planet come to Akiba to hang out and buy the latest stuff." He blinks at her.      "Ah...you'd probably get along really well with one of my coworkers. She's really into games, too." Kenji shrugs a little. "Never really been my thing, but if I was gonna play any of 'em, I'd probably play the same kind. 'cause you wanna play something that's useful, right, not just get a boring story shovelled to you. You can read a book for that. You can't read a book and train your hand-eye."
Allenby Beardsley	"I'm seventeen. My major life decisions get made /for/ me." Allenby grumps. "I'll settle for just being secret friends with you. That works, right?" For a brief few seconds she smiles at him again before looking away. It seems at this point she's aware that the whole feminine attention thing is actually not gelling to well with this guy and it's starting to become more awkward instead of hilarious. Maybe teasing sorta-strangers wasn't such a good idea.     "Then I'll probably hang around here for a while yet. You...well, you gotta go get that stuff from the store for your coworkers, right?"     Ah, so bonding over video games was mostly out then: "Yeah, right on. I can't stand games where you're sitting around watching cutscenes all the time. If I wanted to watch a movie, I'd watch a movie and not slog through the latest Neo-JRPG. Though where I'm from they've really advanced in the whole VR department. There are even some fighting games out there that mimic a mobile trace system." Allenby punches at the air in front of her. "So any move your body makes you do in the game! But even those can get kind of old after a while."
Kenji Kawasaki	"Heh. Yeah, I hear that a lot." Kenji doesn't know about life decisions being made for him!      "The, the thing about major life decisions. Not the secret friend thing. I don't...even know what that is. Why would you need to secretly be friends with me? Is this a girl thing, or...?" Kenji scratches the back of his head, uncertain whether or not he's just stepped back into the dangerous and forbidden world of GIRL LOGIC. GIRL LOGIC is a terrible thing for a teenage guy, especially one as closed-off as Kenji is.      "VR, huh? That sounds like it'd actually be fun. I'd like to see that." Kenji leans forward, obviously intrigued. "So you have, like, whole-body VR where you can just put on a helmet and gloves and you're in it? And people fight with those? That sounds really cool."      He frowns. "Boring? How so?"
Allenby Beardsley	"No, it's more like if you are friends with another girl that girl you are going to go out to dinner with is going to be suspicious. She'll probably think I'm /competition/ for you or something. So until you sort that stuff out, secret friends. Don't mention her to me and...uh, I won't try to talk to you on that broadband channel or whatever." Though Allenby figures Kenji isn't on it since she's never heard him speak on it.     "See." she taps her head, "I've thought this through."     A nod follows, "That's pretty much exactly what it is. You can fight each other or computer opponents but most of the time you'll see people fighting each other. Since, you know, fighting without actually getting hurt." She shrugs, "It gets kind of old for me since after a while nothing poses a challenge."
Kenji Kawasaki	Kenji isn't on it, because Kenji has common sense.      "Ah...oh. Yeah, that's..." Kenji crosses his arms and frowns. "That's a good point. I should...probably get this all sorted out before I say anything about you anywhere. But, wait, won't that make her suspicious if she and I *do* start going out, and then I introduce you? Isn't that, like, really bad?"      Both hands go to his head, ruffling his hair. "Mannn, this stuff is a huge pain."      The ruffling really didn't do anything to his hair. He sits back and crosses his arms, looking at her as she mentions how nothing poses a challenge. "Well, yeah, I mean, you're a nationally-ranked fighter. I can't imagine dumbasses at the arcade are really threatening to you. But what about, like, shooters and stuff? Are you that good at *shooters*, too? Or what about fighting somebody who actually knows how to fight on your level?"
Allenby Beardsley	"Nah, it wouldn't be bad. I mean once you start going out she'll have more confidence that she 'has' you. Me showing up suddenly in the middle of some mature relationship won't cause problems."     This moment of completely incorrect wild-ass guessing is brought by Allenby.     Now donutless, Allenby leans back with her hands behind her head, "They really don't, no. Shooters I'm alright at...I mean, not as good as fighting games since guns really aren't part of the usual armament I work with. But...fighting someone actually on my level, now THAT'S fun. Like...really fun. The most fun I've had in a while." Or ever, maybe. "Though you wouldn't really...get that, would you? You fight because you need to."
Kenji Kawasaki	The wild-ass guess goes right over Kenji's head as exactly that. He crosses his arms. That sounds logical enough. OK. Sure. He had no reason to suspect that logic was anything but logical in the strange world where women are concerned.      He nods.      "I like fighting," Kenji replies, a bit defensively, "I'm not nationally-trained or anything but it's not like I don't have fun doing it. It's a rush. And helping people's a rush, too. I mean, I don't go picking fights with people or anything, but..."      He shrugs. "I dunno. I mean, whatever you find fun, as long as the other guy's okay with it, or deserves it, you know?"
Allenby Beardsley	"../oh/. Oh, uh, that's not the impression I was getting earlier." Allenby scratches the side of her head, looking confused, realizing that she's just not so great at reading people. "I mean you just said you had all these clowns coming up to fight you and that can't be any fun. I mean, especially if there wasn't any challenge any any idiot thought they could beat you up."     She pushes away from the counter and stands, walking around him to his other side. "Helping people..a rush. Hmmm."     She looks like she's trying to grok how that would work out.     "Right, right, of course. Not fun fighting someone who's unwilling. In fact I'm preeeetty sure that's called bullying. Aaaaanyway, I want to check out some of these games you were talking about. So I'm gonna go do that." Allenbby makes it sound like she's not expecting him to follow.
Kenji Kawasaki	"It's..." Kenji waves his hand. "It's complicated." He can't really tell her that he enjoys TURNING INTO A GOD OF FIRE, after all. That's *weird*. And Kojin would show up and start ribbing him about going for two girls at once and all the other stupid shit Kojin liked to say, and Kenji really didn't even want to tempt it.      But the truth was that he loved that power. Even if he didn't like fighting, being able to do the things Kojin allowed him to do...it was freeing, and intense, and he wanted to pursue that. It was /cool/. And, well...sometimes you just wanted to fly into the atmosphere and see the world from on high.      "I'll...tell you about it later, when I know you better," Kenji decides finally as she stands up. He follows her, picking up the donuts and walking after her.      "Sure. Sounds cool. I've got plenty of time before the shops close - convenience stores are all-night."
Allenby Beardsley	Allenby gives him a skeptical look at that. 'It's complicated' was the kind of answer reserved for relationship questions and marriage problems, not on whether or not fighting was cool. This was clearly a little suspicious to her.     But she seems to let it go, especially when he promises to tell her more later.     She's actually a little surprised when he decides to follow her, guessing she hasn't made things TOO awkward for him earlier. "Great! That means you can be player two!" She seems pleasantly excited by this and doesn't seem to be in that much of a hurry getting anywhere. Allenby will meander if left without input on where to go by Kenji.
Kenji Kawasaki	Kenji, for a guy who doesn't play a lot of games, knows all the arcades in Akiba. He's spent a *lot* of time here. It's a place full of people, and that means that it's a place full of punks, and that means that it's a place Kenji feels particularly at home. Indeed, as he guides Allenby into one of the many arcades (this one set up with a full-fledged DDR pad), there's a bunch of unpleasant-looking fellows loitering off to the side. Kenji doesn't spare them a glance.      "I figured this is the closest we've got to full-body games. I'm not exactly..." Kenji scratches the back of his head.      "...well, I mean, I'm not bad at it?"
Allenby Beardsley	Kenji again proves the advantages of making friends with a local. She won't have to wander aimlessly for long because he can point out right where to go. She doesn't seem at all intimidated by the composition of people around her-punks or not. There are very few, if any, people that Allenby is afraid of aat this point.     Compared to the earth of Future Century, a lot of the games here qualify as delightfully retro. "Ohhh, DDR, it's been a while since I've seen one of those!" she remarks, immediately gravitating to that machine. "What it turned into where I'm from is pretty different, yeah, but I can appreciate the classics." She turns to him, "Oh, so you actually play? I haven't played this version in foreeeever."     She tugs on his arm, grinning, "C'mon, we'll do it together, it'll be fun."
Kenji Kawasaki	'Retro' is probably not the word Kenji would use, but he's not from space.      "Uh, yeah. I'm okay at it. I've got a pretty decent sense of rhythm. I mean, I'm not awesome, but-"      Allenby grabs his arm and drags him onto the machine with minimal protest. Kenji takes a minute, then nods. "Yeah, okay, sure. DDR's fun."      He digs into his pocket and pops some change into the machine, stretching as it powers up. "I mean, I haven't done this for a while, but...it's like riding a bike, I think."      "...not that I do that much either..."
Allenby Beardsley	Poor Kenji, this is clearly one of those moments where he wasn't going to get a choice, was it? Allenby takes special note of the coins being put in the machine for future reference and also takes a moment to stretch a little bit. She doesn't do a full-blown warmup but she does make sure her hamstrings are warmed up.     "I don't recognize any of these songs either-okay, except that one." she points at Max 300, the token 'hardest song on the machine'. "So you're gonna have to pick. You're paying anyway-uh, though, let's not do that one because it has been a while and I remember that one being balls-to-the-wall hard."
Kenji Kawasaki	It was.      Kenji has a lot of those. He's learned to live with them without much complaint.      It's how you get through life with a god attached to your soul, working for a secret ghost-hunting organization alongside a fox-girl and her kung fu onmyouji boyfriend.      The ability to not complain and just go with it is basically a requisite survival skill in Shinra.      "Uh," Kenji admits, because he only dimly remembers these from pre-high-school stuff, "Yeah, that one's fine." Of course she'd pick the hardest thing. Of course.      Kenji flips over to it and braces himself. He could FLY with Kojin fused to him, he could TELEPORT, he could SHOOT FIRE. How hard was dancing on a video game-      Oh, damn, that pace!      Kenji does an admirable job keeping up. He's not great at it, just as he said - he's so-so, about average for a Japanese teenager. He can keep up with MAX but he's not scoring a ton of PERFECTs; by the same token, he's not totally failing it. He's staunchly decent! (He could probably do any of the other songs on pro, but this is MAX, and MAX is suffering).      It's the most DDR he's done in years. But he's not sweating at the end of it!
Allenby Beardsley	'Let's not do that one' and he goes and picks it. Revenge perhaps!?     Admittedly, Allenby can't remember the last time she played DDR like this since her world has taken to full body motion dancing games now. But if there's anything she has going for her in here, it's the hand-eye (feet-eye?) coordination and the reflexes she has. Where a lesser person would fail the song, she keeps it up, even getting some decent 50+ combos going in the process.     Once the song is over, she lets out a breath, "Oh wow, you didn't fail it either! Nice! I was afraid we'd be out our mone if we picked that as the first one." She takes a moment to look Kenji over.     He's not even broken a sweat after that which is pretty impressive to Allenby. She makes an appreciative sound before forcing her attention back to the machine.
Kenji Kawasaki	Kenji doesn't sweat much anymore. Being fused with a Fire God makes sweating from exertion...difficult.      But she doesn't need to know that.      "I was pretty sure I was gonna," Kenji admits, "I missed like...ten of them. I'm surprised the machine didn't drop me but I guess my score was high enough that I didn't get screwed over? I dunno, I thought it dropped you if you missed enough beats. Maybe I got just enough."      He actually grins as they turn back to the machine. It's probably the first actual smile he's had all night. Okay, so this wasn't so bad.      "Think it's your turn to pick the song," he adds, "Pick whatever, they're all pretty much the same as far as I'm concerned. I don't remember any of these beats."      "'spretty fun, though."
Allenby Beardsley	In this case it works in his favor: Allenby assumes Kenji's so awesome that he can get through MAX 300 without breaking a sweat. Sure, he didn't full combo the whole thing but that's still pretty impressive. But they he goes and says that:     "Looks like you hit enough notes that you didn't fail the song. I mean, if you did you'd get an E afterwards and I'd get whatever I got." Allenby points out, looking to him and noticing him /smiling/. Aww. She looks away before he notices her noticing him.     "Oh, I know just what I want." Allenby scrolls through the selections and immediately settles on Burning Heat, a song from Gradius. Because Konami. "Here we go, this one is great." Allenby sets her difficulty to hard on this one, though, since it's not MAX 300 and thus not insane on Normal.
Kenji Kawasaki	Kenji leaves it on Normal. He's not up to do crazy shit like Hard, not after that. He was barely confident he could keep up with MAX.      Kenji stretches out a bit as she picks the song again. This is probably the longest he's ever spent with a girl in this context, and it shows - the longer they hang out the less awkward he's been, and the less aggressive he's been about it. When the song starts up, he's actually trying (not that he's doing much better - statistically speaking he's doing about the same as he did on MAX, which is to say 'meh', maybe a little better, but he's way under the curve for skill). They're starting to draw a crowd, too, largely because that's the sort of thing that always happens in Japan. Chanting, cheering, and applause, even for a pair that's just not doing that great.      The added publicity, however, immediately gets Kenji off the machine once the song's done, without looking at his score (it's bad). The crowd disperses after a couple mean looks, leaving Kenji shaking his head.      "It's like everything's friggin' public these days, god. Is it this bad in space? Do people just, like, crowd around and shit all the time?"
Allenby Beardsley	It hasn't gone unnoticed that Kenji isn't acting as weird as before. It's definitely not pointed out, though, because Allenby is occupied by other things right now: in particular she's busy trying to kill it on the DDR pads. Unfortunately, it really has been a long time since she's played this song on this difficulty and it shows. Her score is actually lower than Kenji's at the end.     She's also actually sweating now. She doesn't seem to mind, actually, since the blue form-fitting bodysuit of hers is made out of material that breathes and allows sweat to evaporate rather than soaking the material itself. "Whew..." She hadn't noticed the crowd that gathered, not until they start cheering. Her reaction to it is completely opposite: she waves to them cheerfully.     But that stops when Kenji immediately leaves. She frowns and follows him, leaving the machine open to whoever wants to poach the third song.     "Yeah pretty much actually. It happens out here in the multiverse too, I've discovered!" She follows after him a little bit. "Like I ask someone for a fight over the broadband and suddenly everyone wants to know if it's going to be televised. Or they actualy show up to watch. Hey are...you alright?"     She seems a little sad. She was having fun back there.
Kenji Kawasaki	Of course somebody poaches the third song. OF COURSE. A free game in an arcade? Yeah that's gonna get poached ASAP.      Kenji doesn't seem to care. When they take to the streets, he shrugs. "I dunno. I just hate crowds. It's a pain, having to deal with huge groups of people. Guess I just like my privacy."      He rubs his face. "Sorry. I was having fun. Just...I hate that trend of people to come by and stare."      Kenji shrugs. "People are obsessed with being bystanders, I guess, even if shit doesn't involve them at all."
Allenby Beardsley	"Ah. That is worth protecting." Allenby asides, knowing this because she pretty much has no privacy of her own. "Privacy that is." Still, she can't help but still look a little sad. "Eh, next time we hang out it'll have to be uh..."     She trails off. 'Somewhere less public' sounds kind of suggestive.     "Something not an arcade, I guess." She too shrugs, "So...uh...yeah." The awkwardness is back again, she's not sure what to do about his discomfort, especially since she wants to go back into that arcade.     "But this was fun. I still think we should do...I guess something again sometime?"
Kenji Kawasaki	Kenji looks at her for a long moment, silent, like he's thinking about something.      "...yeah," he decides finally, a smile spreading across his face as he thrusts his hands into his pockets, "Yeah, I'd like that. We'll do something some other time. Maybe you can show me around space or something next time.
Allenby Beardsley	"Oh yeah, sure, I can take you up to the colony as my guest or something." At least Allenby hopes she can pull that off. "And you can see space. It'll be great." She lifts a hand in that cheerful wave of hers again, "Anyway I'm gonna go hit some more of those games. I'll see you around, Kenji!"     Then as quickly as she first ran into him, she's heading back into the arcade.