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Majima Goro Welcome to Kamurocho. It's the evening of Christmas Day, and with a brief rainfall, the roads are lightly glistening with water, reflecting the cheap neon lights of Tenkaichi Street.

The hometurf of Goro Majima, arguably, sure. But just because he's an Elite, doesn't mean this is his uncontested playground. Going through the streets of Kamurocho with an ounce of obvious strength--especially being Visibly an Elite, means every two-bit thug who wants a name for himself is going to come at you. It's almost trite, and rote.

And it's not happening, tonight. It's some kind of Christmas Miracle, but there's barely a man with a Yakuza pin on. The high school deliquents just seem to be staying home for Christmas Dinner.

This is, perhaps, unusual. Following the instructions Majima gives leads along a fairly straightforward path from the southwest corner of Kamurocho to the northeast. Big Boss's operatives are being lead straight to the construction zone of Kamuro Hills, suspiciously empty except for a single man in a hard hat, wearing a....
Wearing a bright red santa suit, his bat wrapped in glowing Christmas Lights. There's a bright white present with a ribbon on a small table next to him. He looks at his wrist, as if he has a watch on.

In the distance, in the center of the Kamurocho distance, lights turn on the upper floors of the Millenium Tower, the obvious, tremendous standout skyscraper in the city. Someone, apparently, is keeping an eye on events down here?

"... Who cares what these 'Elites' are doing? They can watch the message just as plain as anyone else. In fact, make it bigger." A click.
Big Boss There's nary a sound through the construction site. Machinegun Kid has waited a long year, and is surprised that the gun...is located in Kamurocho.

He thought it was in Grand Dorado! He planned a huge heist, took it through several steps, found it failing every single time against the city's security, and was on the twelfth revision when he got the call.

Now, though, he can sneak through a construction site. Dressed in a bandana and facemask, as well as his Outer Heaven camoflagued uniform, the mercenary slips up the western side of the construction site using parkour skills, silently tiptoes across, and approaches from behind where Yakuza Claus is waiting. He looks at the present first - is it big enough to be an Actual Machine Gun?

Assuming so, and wanting to see what's in it regardless, Machinegun Kid drops down, his impact making the first sound of noise, as he goes to grab that present and try to open it. He's armed with a pretty large revolver, in case things get violent, and Boss taught him the basics of CQC, so.
Kale Hearthward There's a newcomer. Not just to Kamurocho but to the multiverse in general.

Kale Hearthward, East Wind of the Gale Emperor's Regalia, Wielder of Breath Weapons Periactus, Gobo, and Tabtrack; Paladin Trainee, and most recently Multiversal Sightseer. Kamurocho is, apparently, The Place to Be, or at least A Place to Be. The Sights! The Shopping! The Pachinko Parlors!

There was something in the tourism pamphlet about organized crime and random encounters, but he skimmed over that part.

He also has yet to really realize that a bird person walking around with fantasy clothing on and multiple swords strapped to his back is going to attract second glances. More for the bird person and fantasy clothing parts, presumably, this being Kamurocho.

Regardless, he's having a good time. There's a shopping bag under one arm full of local trinkets (including a Pocket Circuit starter pack), and a bit of street food in hand. This has been a nice evening, and it's helped him forget some of his recent troubles.

His course happens to have him take a shortcut through the construction site, approaching at a different angle than Machinegun Kid - but arriving at nearly the same time. And so he's witness to a man in a red suit, and another person going after a present on a table next to the man in the red suit. And with this one glance and no further context, he draws what he is certain is the right conclusion.

"Oh! I know this ritual!" he says to himself, and runs forward, carelessly dropping his food as he goes.

"Hey!" he calls, as he approaches, and then leaps through the air, attempting to jump onto and latch onto Majima and get into position where he's sort of sitting in the Yakuza's lap, though with Majima standing instead of sitting it's more of a self-imposed semi-Fireman's-carry where Kale is hanging onto Majima's shoulders.

"Me next! Santa, I've been a good boy this year! So now I get to tell you my Christmas wishlist!"

Checklist item: Participate in local rituals: complete.
Yuuki Kuran Kamurocho, the glittering neon red-light district (now more of a peppermint stripe-light district) and Yakuza paradise is still located in Japan. There are still some traditions to be respected when it comes to the celebration of Christmas. Familial traditions!

A black-and-silver town car pulls up, the most Excessively A Yakuza-or-Cabinet-Minister vehicle possible in Kamurocho on christmas evening. A woman in a white coat with black frill and fluff hood slides out of the side of the car, black stocking and heeled shoe wetly clipping into the pavement.

She beckons a man out, white of hair with matching white coat, carrying a briefcase apparently manacled to his wrist from the vehicle.

And then all of the illusion breaks when the woman spots Santa-san and breaks into a bright smile and a big, overexaggerated wave. "Majima-san! Maaaaajima! You're all out here cold and alone. Zero, we need to save this man. This poor, cold Santa Majima-san."

Yuuki points at the extremely Elite briefcase chained to Zero's wrist. "We need to do some business with you."
Zero Kiryu The ironic thing is, this is one of the few times that Zero had seriously considered dragging Yuuki out instead of the other way around. He didn't much care for the office christmas party atmosphere of Elysium Apex this time of year, much preferring something quieter.

... Well, this is quieter than that, in a way. At the very least, the atmosphere is more comfortable to Zero than 'office party'.

He climbs out of the car, stepping in close against Yuuki's side and unfolding a large umbrella to stave off the persistent drizzle. In response to the priority that's immediately presented to him, he holds his umbrella momentarily between neck and shoulder while popping the manacle off of the briefcase with two fingers.

This is not *remotely* physically feasible.

"Ah, well... this is the only winter tradition that survived this country where we came from," he says, cracking the briefcase for a fleeting instant so that Majima can see what's inside.

It is a ridiculous quantity of fried chicken. As it is Christmas in Japan, it is simply not possible to get today unless you'd already prepared for it.

Zero shuts the briefcase again a moment later as if he is in fact flashing a giant stack of cash instead of a briefcase full of heart failure, and offers it to Majima.
Ben d'Tarkanan      There's a man strolling through the streets this evening who may not be from around here. The biggest tell that he isn't is because he's on horseback--a white horse, no less. His clothes are finely spun and warm, but they're decidedly not contemporary, and appear to mark him as being from somewhere vaguely in eastern Europe. A heavy, woolen brown longcoat is held fast with a colorful sash in lines of yellow, brown and red. Beneath it, there's a patterned long sleeve shirt in red and white. His slacks are tucked into thick leather boots.

     Despite not being from around here, this man is imminently comfortable. Hanging at his hip is a sword with an unusually long handle compared to the length of the blade. The pommel features some sort of tentacled, grinning, many-eyed monster. It's peacebound, currently, a festive red ribbon tied around the weapon's grip so as to prevent a draw. That can change, but the streets do seem mostly free of Kamurocho's famed hooligans this Christmas Day.

     Ben has availed himself of what street food he can, given the holiday. With something--likely fried or on a stick, possibly both--in hand, his first stop sightseeing is that Milennium Tower. There's to be a duel today, between one of that Boss fellow's men and Master Majima. It wouldn't be gentlemanly at all to intervene, nor to show up at the fight and leave. That tower would offer a good vantage point, however, and he can easily watch from on high for a moment before arriving 'fashionably late' to the fight afterwards.

     Someone else may have had the same idea, as he notes with an interested expression and his free hand on his chin. Taking up the reins of the animal with his slightly off-color hand, he clicks his tongue and beckons the animal towards the Tower. He'll hitch his horse wherever it seems feasible to do so, and isn't above fashioning a hitching post from thick ice as dense as metal, if need be. After, he'll stride into the lobby of the tower and attempt to make his way to the floor with the lights on.
Karlan Nobles After hearing so many stories about Kamurocho's neon streets and wildlife roaming around every corner, Pramanix's curiosity has gotten the better of her. Finishing her work at home had taken some time, but there was little need to convince anyone back home to let her see the place for herself.

Mostly because nobody back home knows she's even out here tonight. With only a bit of skulking around, she's managed to make it to the construction site for the long awaited showdown, donning a festively red coat of her own that looks suspiciously similar to the blue one she's always favored during her outings: Fluffy, dense, and unmistakably fancy while doing just enough to disguise her tail as a fashionable belt rather than a tail. With few recognizable faces matching the voices, though...

Well, it should be fine. She can always learn who's who from context, and it's not like she's the only one here to watch the festivities. Her ears perk up a bit when she hears Yuuki calling out to Majima, putting two and two together when she goes towards Baseball Santa.

"Do your best out there!" She calls out with a pleasant and only mildly excitable tone, looking up at the rain with a disapproving frown. "Is it really too warm for snow? That won't do..." She unhooks the ceremonial bell from her hip as she ringing it gently, calling upon the power of her faith to make it snow for real upon the construction site. A light, gentle snow that just barely sticks on contact with the ground, to really set the stage for a merry brawl. It might also carry the scent of fried chicken further than intended, but...

It's Christmas. It's probably fine.
Majima Goro The Machinegun Kid's stealth rolls are impressive.
He is absolutely not noticed by the zero security on watch tonight. He is certainly not noticed by Nishida, who is safely ensconced at home with his own fried kitchen he reserved four months in advance and spent his paycheck on along with this really nice beer.

In fact, only one man notices the Machinegun Kid, a large, stocky man of either Japanese or Korean descent, standing in the shadows of the Kamuro Hills construction zone. He's wearing a suit, and he pulls out a cell phone and says...something, quietly.

One might think he's alerting Majima, who is definitely guarding a machine-gun-sized present box. But Majima does not answer his phone. Instead, he is left carrying a giant-ass bird person, while his bosses present him with fried chicken, and somebody makes it snow in one of those romantic ways where a Korean romantic movie might break out at any moment.

The coast is largely clear for the Machinegun Kid, in terms of Majima not noticing him. Whether Yuuki, Kiryu(not that one), Kiryu(not even here), Kale, or Pramanix do, though, that's another issue.

"They've got a helicopter? What? Do you think it's a setup?"
"They can't know we're in here," the reply comes, from within the Millenium Tower.

Speaking of which, Ben finds himself entering..a perfectly normal lobby to a skyscraper. There's maybe a security guard or two, but it seems pretty legal to walk right in and hit the elevator buttons. In fact, going to the floor just below the one that was lit is perfectly accessible without any kind of fancy keycard. It's almost like this is a fairly popular office building, and not the kind of place where you have final confrontations where the building blows up and it rains yen.

Majima, back at the Construction site, cackles wildly. "Ah, ya all shouldn't have. ..And I ain't sure who you are," He says to the bird with swords, "..But fuck it. Once this machine gun shit's dealt with, maybe I'll even take a bird out for presents on Christmas. Why the fuck not? I'm celebratin' bein' done with this stupid shit!"
Big Boss The present box is opened. Inside is a well-polished, well-maintained light machine gun. Machinegun Kid whistles as he removes it out of the box, checks it, loads it, and then turns around towards Majima. He does not point the gun at him.

"Yeehaw, pardner." Announcing himself, he gives a wave. "Sorry about your fight and all, but I got a mission at 0600 and I don't really want to be here." He taps his radio. "Pequod, we're out. Touch down."

One hand goes limp to the side, while the other slings the LMG over his shoulder.

"Is that KFC?"
Kale Hearthward Kale looks around at the people approaching 'Santa'. "Oh, sorry, did I cut in line?" he says.

Then some more brain cells fire off.

"Oh, wait, okay. You're not a Santa. You can see why I was confused, though," he says as he gets off of Majima.

"You know, the red suit. You might want to change clothes," he suggests. "Otherwise you'll probably run into people making the same mistake I did. But I'm going to take you up on presents, if that's a serious offer."

Substories             193
It's Christmas, Giant Bird


He stands aside and lets those 'businessmen' approach with their briefcase, pointedly not looking at it after the contents are revealed.
Ben d'Tarkanan      The security guards get a cheerful wave as Ben strides into the elevator. When the doors close, he pauses to examine the array of buttons. It looks like he can get nearly everywhere but the spot he's arbitrarily decided to be the best vantage point--the floor in question is inaccessible to the average visitor here, without some sort of special dispensation.

     The sight of it elicits a chuckle from Ben. "Is that so?" he asks no one in particular. With a sly smile, he presses the button for the highest available floor. But he doesn't ride the elevator in a conventional way. Inside the enclosed space, there is a faint red glow, emanating briefly from the back of the necromancer's neck. It winks out in an instant, as Ben vanishes with it, leaving, to the naked eye, a seemingly empty elevator.

     There's time enough for the voices to make just one barb as he leaps straight up.

-Liar.-

     He wills himself to ignore it as he passes through the solid matter of the elevator, phasing back into physical space just as his feet touch the metal roof of the enclosure. The shaft is dark, and the necromancer is still invisible. As the elevator reaches its destination, there is a muted ding below him. Perhaps someone on that floor might be confused to see an empty elevator which no one called for. It's of no concern to him. He leaps, this time sideways, kicking off the wall of the elevator shaft to land with his back to the doors of his true destination. There is another ignored barb from the voices, as he backs silently through the closed doors, and into the floor that would otherwise be denied him.

     Still invisible, Ben takes a look around. Who could be up here, sequestered away from the prying eyes of the public?
Yuuki Kuran As it begins to snow romantically, Yuuki heaves a great big happy sigh and leans against Zero's arm, while Santa Majima entertains the aspirations of a bird hero. "This is much better than the office party. When I saw Majima didn't make it I knew what had to be done!"

She laughs, at that. "Escape immediately using him as an excuse. You weren't missing much. I like the chicken more. Reminds me of a warm family dinner. Party food..."

Yuuki makes a face. "I can't help but feel like I'm eating something so good it's dishonest, like it's politics for taste."
Karlan Nobles The jingling of Pramanix's bell is rather fitting considering the situation, and the fact that this is all just setup for some kind of fight between Majima and Machinegun Kid doesn't seem to bother the bell-ringer in  the slightest. No, she's just here to enjoy the festivities, and she even laughs lightly at Kale's antics followed by Majima's reaction to said antics.

"It almost seems a shame to fight with this pleasant mood, but if it's a friendly duel, then there's nothing to worry about. He does seem to be running a little late, though..." There's a slight hint of concern as Pramanix takes a slow look around, watching out mostly for machine guns and/or leather vests. It's not until Machinegun Kid actually speaks up that she notices him and his lack of vest.

At least he has a machinegun now.

As Pramanix has more time to process things, however, there's a brief tenseness on her face as she looks from Yuuki's and Zero's gift of chicken next in such close proximity to Kale. That look awya certainly seems to confirm her suspicions, but at least Machinegun Kid seems to have other ideas besides fighting to steal attention away from that uncomfortable topic!

"Eh? Wasn't this meant to be a friendly duel? Unless..." Pramanix furrows her brow, looking from the LMG to the opened box. If Majima was guarding that, perhaps...

This was just a complicated gift-giving situation after all. Or is it something deeper? There has to be something else underneath all this. After seeing Yuuki lean into Zero with that snowfall, Pramanix chuckles softly into her coat and keeps her gentle bell-jingling snow ritual going as she heads closer to the small gathering, trying not to look too focused on anything in particular while doing a rather bad job at not looking like she's watching Majima and Machinegun Kid intently.

"Is politics for taste a thing that happens? I've had my suspicions after watching some off-world programs, but... Really?"
Majima Goro The large man on the phone speaks simply. "No. It is the way of these Elites. They are bumbling children playing in a sandbox."
"Our man in the tower is waiting. Has he arrived yet?"
"No. But I do not think we need him anymore. Not yet."
Click.

Ben finds himself successfully sneaking up on a man who...clearly doesn't matter. He's a Korean man, looking out the window of the Millenium Tower, with a cell phone in his hand. He's got a green tactical jacket on. He just screams and breathes low-level goon, and he's talking into his phone somewhat hurriedly. "No. The fight hasn't started yet. There's just a crowd gathering. The helicopter does not seem to be aware of our placement. What do we do?"
"Count to ten, and bring honor to our dead. Death before dishonor."
"Understood." A click, and the cell phone is put away, replaced by some sort of clear remote control to something. "..Hana. Dhul. Sehtt.."

Meanwhile, on the ground of Kamurocho, another Korean man in an identical green jacket peers up at the floating helicopter from an alleyway, before ducking back inside. Something is being coordinated.

MEANWHILE, SUBSTORY 193

Majima laughs it off, mostly, waving his hand at the bird man with the swords. "A ha ha, well. I'm out here givin' gifts on Christmas, ain't I? Don't that make me Santa?"
He turns around to face the Machinegun Kid, and his expression becomes..darker.

"..Eh? Y'think you can just fuckin' bail on me like that? Sorry, Yuuki. Kiryu. Bird. --whoever the fuck ya are over there." Pramanix gets a handwave.

"But I ain't lettin' this fuck cheat me outta -my- Christmas Present." His knife is drawn, and Majima adjusts his hard hat. "Come on. Sound fair? Ya even got bullets in that gun, don'tcha? Drink some fuckin' coffee in the morning, and--"

He stops, raising a brow as he looks past the Kid, at..a figure about twenty or thirty feet away. "...Th' fuck is Terada doin' here...ah, well. Work that out in a minute. COME ON!"
Zero Kiryu "No," Zero says to Kale. "This sort of thing... even as a child, it didn't appeal to me much. Not that it survived in this particular form. Even so, we weren't 'in line', we just brought "Santa" several meals."

If he notices anything at all amiss, he doesn't give any sort of outward sign. It's only when Machinegun Kid actually engages the people assembled verbally that he acknowledges him at all.

By shrugging. Zero is not uncertain that he had a briefcase full of KFC, he just doesn't care enough to give a coherent answer.

"Well..." He looks down at Yuuki, adjusting the umbrella to better deal with the snow and lightly leaning back against her. "I was about to just pick you up and leave, but you had this idea."

To Pramanix, he asides, "Somewhat. There is a taste and texture to it, but it's not something that could be related to somebody who doesn't have a palate similar to ours. I doubt you do."

In answer to Majima's apology, he shakes his head. "We came on a whim. These are your plans. If you require Concord assistance..."

In other words, he's assuming that things aren't -that- far askew if all that's going on is Majima needing to go out of his way to stab a guy that isn't being combative enough.
Big Boss As Majima turns darkly towards Machinegun Kid, a few things happen. He notices the guy behind him. His helicopter pilot, Pequod, notices the Mysterious Korean Goon watching the helicopter. As the inheritor of the Pequod title, she calls it in, and begins trying to circle around towards the construction site. While that's happening...

"You brought a fucking ambush. And also..." He radios in a thing, and then points to Terada. "The head of a Yakuza clan? A shitty head, too? Really?" He does not blunt that for Terada.

Instead, his limp hand goes for a grenade, pulls the trigger, and tosses it at Majima. It detonates, releasing smoke to blind his one good eye, as Machinegun Kid goes to barrel into Terada and push him out of the way, flipping him onto the ground if he's at all combative.

MGK's gonna try to then parkour up, and hopefully get a ride on a helicopter!
Ben d'Tarkanan      Count to ten? Honor our dead? That device... it looks too dangerous to allow the countdown to continue. If this man is an enemy of Majima's, then he's an enemy of Ben's, too--but Ben has a code which prohibits simply striking even his enemies from behind. The invisibility spell drops, and he speaks a command.

     "Stop." It's best when using mind-altering magic to be as direct as possible. "Drop that device on the ground. Kick it over to me." The moment it's within his personal space, Ben nods, kneeling to pick it up without taking his eyes off of the man. His sword is still peacebound, and yet he carries himself with all the confidence of a man with one unsheathed and ready to swing.

     "Very good," he says with a smile. "Now, old chap, I should very much like to know what you intended to do with this. You see, I'm rather fond of one of the men down there, and if your intentions should be untoward, I shall be quite cross with you."
Majima Goro     Loading ... Please do not turn off your MUSH client or PC ... Loading ...

The goon is not particularly mentally powerful. He does..hesitate, a moment, but he puts the control down, and he slowly kicks it over. "We are going to show the Tojo Clan that we will not be forgotten. *This building* will be our message. Death before dishonor." Sure, he should probably be taking the threat more seriously, but something about the necromancer is making him feel very strangely pliant.
But at any rate, he's not going to do something to Kamuro Hills, apparently, where the fight's happening. That's strange...

At any rate, the smoke grenade goes off. Majima stumbles backwards, having expected, you know, a gun, possibly a bullet, you know, the good times. The Kid also finds it very easy to knock ^Yukio Terada over. There are a number of small 'bang' noises. There's a scream that...seems honestly like more damage was done than just a man being toppled onto his ass. But, you know, there's smoke everywhere, so it's hard to tell what's going on, exactly.

Ten seconds have passed. The cell phone on the goon begins to ring. It's a basic ring, no fancy sound or anything. It's very, very clear he was supposed to have done something by now.

It's the lack of anything that leads another man, as the New Paquod circles around, to step from an alleyway. He's got a rocket launcher. It's primed. Aimed. And without so much as a single quip, a single rocket is launched at the Machinegun Kid's helicopter.

Once the smoke from the grenade clears, Yukio Terada will be lying on the snow-covered ground, very clearly bleeding out from multiple spots on his chest. You know, the kind you get from being shot in the torso repeatedly. Y'know, that *has* a chance of being lethal.
Big Boss Pequod is bored. What is Majima doing down there? Boss doesn't think this is his work, but who would have thugs spotting out the Watch? It's gotta be.

"Buddy, you're a boy, make a big noise, playing in the street, gonna be a big man some day. You got mud on your face, you big disgrace, kicking your can all over the place, singing-"

As she sings along to her cockpit radio, her eyes go wide as the rocket suddenly comes up on radar. Grabbing her parachute, she opens the door and-

The helicopter goes careening towards the ground, quickly becoming a fiery wreck.

Someone just made a Mistake.
Karlan Nobles Zero gets a clueless stare from Pramanix as he speaks just vaguely enough that it's obvious she gets almost none of what he means. At least, not in the actual sense, as she chuckles softly and nods after a few moments, looking from Zero to Yuuki and back again. "I think I understand... As long as it works for you, though, that's what matters."

She never did introduce herself, did she? "Ah, my apologies, friends. Pramanix, Saint of Karlan. Don't go too overboard now, alright? Even with talented medics on standby..."

Wait. Medics? She doesn't know any of these people. "... Some of you /are/ trained in triage or field medicine, right? Or healing arts?" Her gaze jumps from Kale to Zero to Yuuki to Machinegun Kid to Majima, apparently in the hopes that one of them gives her some kind of affirmative signal.

Regardless of what happens there, however, she turns right back to Majima just as the smoke grenade goes off, and everything starts happening a bit too quickly for her to comprehend what's going on. The blood-curdling scream definitely isn't what she was expecting, and she rushes over to Majima as she tries pulling him down, trying to keep them both low-ish to the ground while she tries to get her bearings straight.

Also, marginally being a distraction. "Are we under attack? Who... Wait. Is that...?" The sight of the shot-up Terada has Pramanix's hackles raising, but the sight and sound of the helicopter going down has her getting right back up. The anger over the radio goes ignored for the time being as Pramanix rings that bell more steadily, more loudly, and with far more gusto than she had earlier, bringing down a heavier blanket of snow centered onto the flaming wreck.

With any luck, she can at least contain the fire. If it doesn't explode again within the next couple of seconds, she starts scoping out the wreck to see if there is indeed anyone still inside that might need extraction.
Kale Hearthward Kale's brain throws up a flashcard from the deluge of information he's attempted to absorb in the scant time he's been out in the multiverse.

(His information-absorbing efforts were hindered somewhat by spending some of that time tuned into a broadcast channel, hoping to get some cultural knowledge, and not realizing that it was showing a 24 hour marathon of the Christmas Story movie on repeat, and not realizing that it was repeating till three loops in. He didn't get a lot of relevant information, in other words.)

(He *did* manage to crack the cypher for the Radio Orphan Anne Secret Society, though.)

"Hang on," says Kale, having a brief coughing fit from the smoke until he can wave it away enough to get some fresh air. "Hang on, did you say Concord? I think..."

He tries desperately to recall the political briefing part of the training.

"We're at... cold war with you? I think?"

More smoke clears. There's a man, shot dead several times on the ground.

"Or did it just become a hot-"

The pun dies on his tongue as he looks up. There's a crashing helicopter, one that just got hit by some sort of explosive.

There's no hesitation. Recent aircraft crashes have greatly soured Kale on the concept of crashing aircraft in general. He takes off, his boots firing like jet engines as he blasts off on a straight line to intercept the falling helicopter, right-hand sword drawn.

A momentary glance into the falling copter to see that there's no one inside of it - he looks up, and sees Pequod parachuting down, and kicks off from the falling copter's frame to intercept her instead.

"Evening - alive and alright?" he calls, matching her velocity while glancing around for other threats. "Need an escort down to the ground?"
Yuuki Kuran 'Aren't we at cold war with you?' Kale asks Yuuki Kuran, snow-dusted and smiling, thinking about chicken and family and how badly Majima Goro is about to beat Machine Gun Kid for being a hotshot on Christmas.

She believes this is the cheap action movie going on. She doesn't know Ben diehard'Tarkanan is operating in the Millenium Tower. She's missing the good part.

Instead, when the smoke is filled with gunpowder and splotches of blood, she's on edge. "I believe that we may be currently at 'hot war' with you?" She muses, as the helicopter explodes and begins tumbling towards the earth. She expects an answer out of Kale anyway, but only has a dotted outline where the Birdventurer used to be.

"Zero, could you... see if you can..." Yuuki trails off, sighing and rubbing her bright red eyes. "...fix everything? I'd rather eat before it gets too cold."
Ben d'Tarkanan      Death before dishonor, is it? "Very well," says Ben in a cordial tone, with a nod of his head.

     That cell phone is ringing--meaning that 'dishonor' is probably on the line here. This is the point where someone who wasn't obsessed with looking like the good guy all the time would press for more information. You know, like, 'who sent you.' Unfortunately, it's Ben. "I shall give you a chance to preserve your honor, my good man. A duel," he says, patting the sheathed sword at his hip. "To be fought until one of us yields. If you're without a weapon, name it and I shall provide it to you." If necessary, he'll escort this fellow all the way to the nearest purveyor of illicit weaponry, putting himself in an even worse position as he trusts the word of an enemy to guide him there safely.

     Either way--once it's clear that both parties have weapons, Ben begins. He makes use of his sword, tugging the festive ribbon away so as to unsheath it. Unless his opponent yields, Ben will absolutely fight to the death, using dirty tricks ranging from knees to the gut, to scraping the sword against the ground to fling hot sparks into his opponent's eyes, to stomping on his feet. If his opponent should die, well... too bad about not getting any useful information, but at least the intangible honor of a person he's never met (who would really, really be better off alive and in Majima's hands) was satisfied.
Zero Kiryu If Zero understands what Pramanix put together from his statements, he doesn't see fit to say anything about it. There was a time when he might've snapped at the suggestion that something like that was a choice of his, but it's been a while since that time passed.

Chaos erupts. Anti-vehicle weapons are deployed, and an important figure happens to turn up and get shot to hell and back immediately. The smell of blood fills the air, excessive and fatal. Not yet, but inevitably. It's too much for a person to stand losing without immediate attention. Gaping chest wounds will do that.

Through it all he stands fixed in place, presenting as little more than one half of a couple that had gotten caught out in the middle of a shitstorm. By the time the smoke that was intended for Majima clears his eyes are gleaming a dangerous, hungry red.

He sighs.

"I'll see what I can do," he says.

Instead he steps towards what is rapidly treading towards becoming a cooling corpse, extricating himself from Yuuki's arms. With each step he takes what looks like a seed deposits itself in his wake, and they begin to sprout and grow-- rapidly becoming a wall of trees that surround and ensconce the bleeding Yakuza chairman.

The sudden copse of trees shakes angrily. Their needles -- they're pines, because that is simply appropriate -- rustle dangerously, threatening something beyond what they present at first glance.

Closing his hand, Zero kneels beside Terada. When he opens it again there is a fruit there, around the size of a fig, ruby red, beating. It is not quite a heart, but the comparison is impossible not to draw.

He jams the fruit into Terada's mouth.

Bite down and you live. Leave it and you die. But if you do bite down, you owe me, and won't be able to lift a finger to oppose me. Zero's psychic voice booms-- probably a distant echo, to a dying mind.
Majima Goro Majima's not hard to pull to the side. He's busy staring at the corpse of Terada with a disbelieving expression. It's then that the phone comes out, and he starts screaming across Multiversal bands.
Big Boss has a real solid argument that it's 'too convenient' that someone blew up his helicopter and someone shot Terada. Majima thinks it's too convenient that Big Boss is ready to go with 'why it's not his fault.'

Terada coughs, looking up at Kiryu, with the strange fig. His face contorts with something--some sort of rage, and he turns to spit it out, before going still. Well. At least he has some dignity in his dying moments, clearly. Or, maybe, the terms and conditions weren't suitable. It's a mystery, but there's an ambulance driving up anyway, and masked medics rushing out. Not the police, strangely--just the ambulance. But it IS Kamurocho, and as we all know, the police are Strange around here.

While Terada's hurriedly, almost methodically, brought onto a stretcher, and wheeled away, Majima just stares down at the smoke grenade. He still hasn't gotten up.

"...Fuck. Y'know, shows me to play fair, eh?" He sighs.

Meanwhile, Ben And The Goon. The man just looks at Ben, taking off his ring. There's a strange sort of pearl embedded into it, and it's removed from the setting, and immediately swallowed.

There's a moment, before he falls to his knees, foam erupting from between his lips as he falls over. Nope.

As for the helicopter, the good news is, it lands pretty much smack dab in an intersection. We're not going to have to Never Forget, and certainly nothing so ridiculous as it accidentally crashing into the Millenium Tower. There are going to be a lot of obnoxious roadblocks in the morning, by all means.
Karlan Nobles After hearing (and later seeing) that Pequod is not in the helicopter, Pramanix saves herself a bit of effort in not having to actually pull any doors open. There's little comfort to be had with the chaos that's erupted, however,  and she doesn't even question what it is exactly that Zero is doing with that sudden tree and fruit to the bleeding Terada.

It might just be confirming her suspicions from earlier.

Whatever the case is, she's received new orders from Big Boss, and the least she could do to cap off her first night out in Kamurocho is make sure everyone affiliated with her even loosely gets out safely. After throwing another blanket of snow over the helicopter to help contain the fires, she reattaches that bell to her hip, then regroups with Machinegun Kid.

If that means she has to push or carry him along, she'll try. She'll fail miserably at the latter, of course, but she'll try at least for a moment. "You have some explaining to do once we're back. I don't doubt your words, but we'll need to be sure to convince everyone else."
Zero Kiryu Zero nods towards Terada and withdraws his hand, lifting -- momentarily -- the man's arm at the wrist, as if to check for a pulse. A slithering feeling follows, as a thin tendril of vine winds its way up Terada's arm and disconnects from Zero's fingers.

He rises as the ambulance arrives, his trees literally parting to allow their passage. But he does follow towards the ambulance, observing intently for a long moment-- during which time another branching vine slides away from his foot beneath the ambulance, and attaches itself to the undercarriage before beginning to grow upwards.
Yuuki Kuran Through all this, Yuuki frowns into her phone. It had all happened so fast. Didn't it?

She had remembered Majima, holding his knife, and the Kid, drawing his smoke-bomb. The sort of fight Majima was all to eager to give to the Kid, who was all too willing to ask for it.

Gun?
Bazooka?

If Yuuki didn't know that it was Big Boss' helicopter in the air, how would Majima? How would the clans around them?

Of course, the Big Boss could have arranged for the shooting of Terada.
But why would Big Boss shoot his own helicopter?

"Hnnn, this puzzle is too complex... I thought Majima's world was just money and fights!"

Chicken uneaten, blood on the streets, and a declaration of war.

"Merry Christmas." Yuuki Kuran offers, emptily, to Majima Goro.

It doesn't feel very merry. "We'll make this right."
Kale Hearthward Kale has a brief misadventure where Pequod gets away before he realizes he should probably detain her and ask her some questions. Warpgates themselves are still very new concepts to him, also, and he's not sure how to tell where she's gone.

A few moments later, Kale returns to the construction site - this time landing on a convenient bit of scaffolding to pre-acquire the high ground in case he ends up needing it.

"So..."

"Hot war?" he calls down to Majima. "At least between the Watch and Concord? I just want to make sure I'm reading the situation right."

His eyes glance over - the plastic bag holding his shopping ripped open when he took off at jetspeed, and his purchases - including the Pocket Circuit starter kit - are scattered across the ground of the construction site. He'll have to go hunt them down later.
Ben d'Tarkanan      The goon kills himself with some sort of suicide pill. "Ah, the fastest yield I've ever coaxed!" That counts.

     "Now, to put a stop to this war business..." Ben points his sword at the corpse and utters another command. "Attend me." A lance of sickly green energy shoots from the blade to the corpse, clouding as it passes into black wisps of smoke which briefly leave a foul scent on the air. It strikes the body of the goon, which convulses again and rises like a puppet lifted by its strings. The warmth of life is absent this thing, its eyes glazed over as a cadaver's.

     Beckoned by the necromancer, the goon zombie clumsily marches over to the elevator and uses its keycard to call it. The two of them then ride to the ground floor. As the doors open, Ben sheathes his sword and re-ties it before exiting. With his zombie in tow, he again gives another cheerful wave to the guards in the lobby. "Merry Christmas!" Now would be the time to be fashionably late to that fight of Majima's.

     He arrives to find something entirely different than what he was expecting, with nothing in the way of answers save 'there was a third party and this mindless corpse is him.' The only other tangible thing he has to offer for his buffoonery is the phone on the ambulatory body, likely with some missed calls, and, of course, that little detonator.
Majima Goro Majima is left sitting in the snow. He doesn't do anything as Terada's taken away. He's just gritting his teeth for a while, until Yuuki grabs his attention. He slowly gets to his feet.
"Money and fights? Yeah, sure. When the gettin's good." He slams his chest with a fist, coughing out some smoke. "...But, y'know? It's always around Christmas. Always around Christmas this *fuckin* shit'" He slams his fist into a nearby girder, "fuckin' happens. Alright. That's fine."

And everything is, in fact, fine, up until Ben shows up with a zombie. Majima actually looks mildly excited to see a zombie, smiling broadly, before he realizes--
"Wait."
"...Shit, Ben."
"Ya brought me a fuckin' *double* zombie. How the fuck didja pull *that* shit off?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4Pvk4DnSyw

Chapter End. Would you like to save?