[OOM] Shiragiku City.

[orange_lily]

They emerge out on a rather nice plaza with a fountain and, on the far side, an ice cream shop. It's a sunny morning, and people are rushing about on their way to work, in business suits and practical clothing, and it looks to all the world like a busy, normal city.

(The perceptive may note that sitting atop the fountain is a statue. Those who are more perceptive might notice that it's kind of a weird statue - it's bronze, male, corded with muscle in the style of Grecian statues of Apollo, but hairless and with its facial features only roughly carved in: Vague hollows for eyes, only a slight suggestion of a mouth, lumps for ears.

It has three faces like that, one in the regular place and one on each bicep. There are wings on its back, stretched out wide.)

"So, dude, this is Shiragiku City," Yugo says cheerfully. "It's a pretty nice place. Kind of reminds me of Futo without the wind turbines."

Comments

[herr_bookman]

Autor blinks, taking in the sights. The clothes are a little different, as he'd become used to what Yugo wears. The statue is decidedly odd. "Who does the statue commemorate? And why are there faces on its arms?"

Still feeling the effects of his spaghetti-legs, Autor cuts a path to the ice cream shop.

[orange_lily]

"I'm not sure the statue commemorates anyone," Yugo says. Then, squinting at it: "It's kinda creepy, though."

That's another tally mark in the 'something is seriously wrong with this city' column.

He follows Autor towards the ice cream shop, though, tugging his wallet out of his pocket.

[herr_bookman]

Autor makes a mental note to sketch and research the statue as soon as they get back up on the mountain--if he can remember it. His head is drooping, and he yawned twice on their way down. But he can't run out of energy when there's a city to explore, so it's best not to acknowledge any of that. Nor the way he melts into his chair.

He orders the cheapest thing on the menu--a simple chocolate cone, for novelty's sake--and turns to Yugo. "So how can I pay you back for this? And not just the ice cream, but the trip?"

[orange_lily]

"Dude, you've already gotten me some pretty handy intel. Don't sweat it," Yugo says, ordering a double raspberry cone and quickly paying. He settles down next to Autor, passing the boy's ice cream over. "You don't have to pay me back for stuff, you know, dude."

[herr_bookman]

Autor shakes his head and gratefully accepts his treat. "Don't be silly. Of course I do. You're giving me a great opportunity," he says. To his delight, the cool chocolate is perfect after kickboxing. "I get to see a new world, and I'll be taking Soukichi's lessons back with me to practice."

The boy's cocky smile fades, just a bit. Strangely enough, he's almost shy. "So gathering that information was useful," he muses. The boy knows it was, but he almost sounds like he still doesn't believe it. "I can do that, then."

He buckles down to conquer his ice cream with the same determination he faced the punching bag this morning--but his fight soon moves to that of keeping his eyes open.

[orange_lily]

"Of course it was useful," Yugo says, nudging Autor lightly.

If he notices Autor falling asleep, he doesn't mention it - but possibly he just thinks the boy could use a moment to rest his eyes.

(Or, equally possibly, he's been distracted by silently flirting with a woman on the other side of the shop.

We may never know the true answer.)

[herr_bookman]

As is true with most things flirtatious, Autor doesn't pick up on that at all. Oh, after a few minutes of staring, he would have picked up on something--but he didn't have a few minutes.

He's plum tuckered out, and it's through luck alone that his forehead doesn't plop! right into his ice cream.

[orange_lily]

He gets around a minute of sleep before someone brushes past him on the way to the counter. The someone in question is dressed, perhaps somewhat conspicuously, in a heavy coat and a cap.

The owner of the shop is in the middle of taking their order when the someone leans over, grabs them by the neck, and hisses: "Let the fear of death drive you to despair."

If Autor's not awake by now, the screaming as the someone transforms into something tall, slender and metallic, with sharp claws and the head of a chicken, might do the trick.

[herr_bookman]

The first thing Autor notices is the screaming which wakes him up. The second is that his ice cream has become a sticky mess on the table. Oh.

But the newborn monster attacking innocent people attracts his attention, and how.

Autor leaps up from his seat, putting the table between him and the shop. He reaches into his pockets and--wait! Where are my grenades? Where's my sylladex?

It takes the horrified boy a moment--just one, long enough for the creature to cut through the crowd separating it from him--to realize, I left them back on the monastery.

"Yugo!" he cries, eyes wide and jaw locked with terror. Then he runs, faster and harder and more than ever thought he could--even if he hadn't kicked a punching bag and walked down a mountain.

[orange_lily]

Yugo is rather grateful for the people fleeing - but he has to get the Phantom out of the shop, and fleeing people means that the door is blocked.

Once Autor's outside, he might hear the sound of Yugo's disk chirping "Whirlwind, please," before the top of the shop bursts open in a shower of roof tiles and timber, and a Phantom comes spiralling out of it.

(In case he thought he was safe, though, the plaza is now surrounded by ghouls, a dozen or so of them spread evenly around it and moving in.)

[herr_bookman]

"Whirlwind, please," Yugo's disk chirps, and Autor immediately drops behind a stone bench, shielding his head. He scoops up a rather large piece of glass to use as a makeshift shiv and crouches. A rough count of the ghouls trailing in from the sides sinks his stomach.

They're not... going after Yugo? Autor thinks, watching them herd everyone to the center and bludgeon bolder members of the crowd unconscious. No. They're keeping people from leaving.

Desperate, he glances around the plaza, searching for a better improvised weapon than his shard of glass, and finding that everything is either stone pavement or bolted down. I can't assume they can't fly, he thinks, eyeing the interconnected roofs of the plaza. There are, he finds, a few spots to climb up. If he can make it past the ghouls. But I have to try.

Autor grips his blade and bolts for the ladder closest to him and furthest away from the advancing demons.

[orange_lily]

Luckily, ghouls are slow - not as slow as a shambling zombie, but considerably slower than a fleeing teenage boy, so while one makes a lunge for Autor as he bolts for the ladder, they don't make it in time.

Nearby, the Cockatrice (because how many mythological creatures are there with the head of a chicken) Phantom manages to escape the whirlwind, and a moment later Yugo rises up through it, rotating his disk around.

"Henshin." The choral music it emits is - loud, but probably more striking is the magical circle that slides over him, and the whirlwind of blindingly bright, glowing feathers that follows.

Yugo emerges a moment later, armoured, propelling himself through the air towards Cockatrice on jets of hellfire.

Ghouls might not be very fast, it seems, but they can climb ladders, and at least one looks to have singled Autor out, clambering up the ladder after him.

[herr_bookman]

Autor notices Yugo through his peripheral vision, but has a few more pressing concerns. Like scrambling up a ladder to avoid severe damage to his head.

The boy squawks as he lifts his foot out of a ghoul's swipe and turns, landing on the roof. He grips the tiles to give himself enough leverage to shove the ladder down. His shiv was lost in the mess, but he got a good enough look at the stone-skinned creatures to realize it wouldn't be any good.

The second ladder is significantly more difficult to push down--there are three climbing up--but he makes it. But the third ladder is further away, and he doesn't realize until he gets there that it's attached to the roof.

"What!" he cries, and then he's off again. The ghouls may be slower than a fleeing teenage boy, true, but he's lagging, and losing energy fast.

[orange_lily]

"Rising: Slash Strike," Yugo's disk calls out, somewhere amongst the blur of red and green that is his aerial battle with Cockatrice, and there's a flash of light and fire that is probably close to blinding to anyone nearby, and an explosion.

A ghoul emerges onto the top of the building, and starts moving over the rooftops. It's about halfway along when Yugo lands behind it, grabs it around the shoulders, and snaps its neck, causing it to dissolve into greyish dust.

"Dude, are you okay?"

His tone is very much one of someone who rather urgently has to go deal with the other eleven ghouls.

[herr_bookman]

"Yes! Go!" Autor says, waving. His tone is very much one of someone who rather would prefer that Yugo go deal with the eleven other ghouls.

He overcompensates, however, in his gesture, and has to crouch and dig his fingers into the tiles in order to not slide off the roof.

[orange_lily]

Yugo pauses for a moment, just to make sure Autor's not going to slide off the roof, then takes off again.

Lifting his sword, he scans it quickly over his disk, and as the disk starts chirping out words again, the blade catches fire, spirals of bright red and orange flames billowing around it.

He throws it and it spins through the air, turning into something not unlike a buzzsaw made of fire as it cuts through the ghouls one by one and then returns to Yugo's hand.

As the ghouls dissolve, people don't really waste any time in fleeing, except a few who try to pull unconscious friends or family along with them. Yugo, for his part, lands by Autor again.

"... So, er, sorry your visit turned into a skirmish."

[herr_bookman]

Autor shakes his head, mute, until he finds his tongue again. "Not at all," he croaks, legs shaking as he pulls himself to a more secure position on the tiles. "I wanted to learn what your world was like, and this is a big part of it."

He offers Yugo a watery smile. "I don't think I'll be able to hike up the mountain, though."

[orange_lily]

"I totally don't mind carrying you," Yugo says. After a pause: "Speaking of, we should totally get off this rooftop, you look like you might fall off any second, bro."

[herr_bookman]

Autor's grip hasn't yet relented on the roofing material of choice, but he reluctantly realizes that Yugo's right. "Right. The third ladder is attached. Give me about an hour. If I don't fall off by then, I'll crawl over there myself."

[orange_lily]

Yugo's expression is - for obvious reasons - unreadable, but he crouches and moves to pick Autor up: Slowly and gently, because a squirming Autor is liable to be disastrous.

"I said I didn't mind carrying you, dude."

[herr_bookman]

In fact, Autor almost does squirm. Almost. But once he realizes what Yugo's trying to do, he clings wherever he can find purchase.

Glancing at the roof's edge reminds him of a ghoul, ready to drag him off by his ankle. The kid presses his face into the hard angles of the armor and releases a choked-off breath.

Luckily for him--and probably no one else--he regains the ability to speak halfway up the mountain. "This is ridiculous," he huffs, the grumpy kitten once again. "I'm some sort of sweaty, cramping, damsel in distress."

I will never, ever leave my grenades behind again.

[orange_lily]

Yugo hopes the grumpiness means Autor isn't too traumatised by the experience.

"Dude," he says agreeably, "you totally are. And yet I was informed that damsels in distress breathily extolled the virtues of the rescuers, and you have totally not yet done this."

Did - did Soukichi lie to him?

"You could probably use some more sleep, huh?"

[herr_bookman]

Is your inability to detect sarcasm a virtue? Autor thinks uncharitably, and then relents. He doesn't think Yugo will drop him. But he might dangle him by the ankl--no, ankles are a bad thing to think about--and let him hang loose for a while.

Plus he likes Yugo. Doesn't he? Autor thinks--which takes a surprising amount of concentration--that it is difficult to like anything right now. And also, on a much deeper level that he'd like to pretend doesn't exist, that he might be being a prat.

"Yes," he says thickly, shivering a bit from the vacuum left by his adrenaline rush. "I probably could."

[orange_lily]

Yugo nods, and makes a beeline for Autor's room. Once he's set Autor down on the bed, he dismisses his armour, giving the boy a long, concerned look.

"I'm sorry. Again. About the attack."

[herr_bookman]

"Dun worry about it," Autor says through his yawn. He has just enough pride to jump--or roll--onto the bed. "I had fun."

Yugo could--nope, too late. The kid's already out. He doesn't even bother kicking off his shoes.

[orange_lily]

Yugo takes a moment to tuck Autor in, then heads off to find Soukichi and Yuriko. They're going to want to discuss Cockatrice.