By the time he'd gotten to the area where the fight had taken place, Ichiya was mostly recovered from being spun into a wall by whatever that one attack had been. Toyotama was just beginning to pick herself back up out of where she'd been pounded into the pavement. Literally. There was a little indentation in the street's asphalt that bore an uncanny resemblance to the staff-wielder.
"I'll get that brat next time," said Toyotama before beginning to cough blood up.
"He damn near did a Level 1 on you," observed Ichiya.
"Must be a Support-type," concluded Kakizaki, reaching for his cellphone.
"Isn't this your wallet?" asked Oriha, holding up something that had been placed on Toyotama's back that had just fallen off.
Kakizaki's eyes widened ever so slightly as he realized that, yes indeed, that WAS his wallet. He found his MBI card and identification hadn't been touched, nor his credit cards, but his money was missing.
"I don't know the prices and such that well, so I'm going to ask which of you two is best at the local finances," said Jiraiya, hustling the small crowd along.
"What's going on anyway? None of this makes sense!" said Naruto.
"Okay, today's third lesson. Food first, then we'll sit down and get some answers from our new local friends," said Jiraiya, going into his "teacher mode". "We're in an unfamiliar area. Befriending the locals and getting information from them is MUCH better than wandering around without a clue. I know that's your preferred method of operation, Naruto, but I've got experience in this."
"Oh shut up," grumbled Naruto.
Katsuragi and Akitsu exchanged a glance, slowing for a moment, then quickly caught up again.
"So what is this place?" asked Naruto as Jiraiya stopped before a pair of glass doors.
"Burgers," said Jiraiya, pointing. "They have them in Cloud and a couple of other areas. Two pieces of round bread with meat and some local variety of vegetables in the middle."
"No rice?" asked Naruto. "No ramen?!"
Noting her Ashikabi's distress, Katsuragi began looking around. "Ah. There my Ashikabi."
"Eh?" asked Naruto, looking where the short-haired girl was pointing. "What?"
"Okay, fine," said Jiraiya with a shrug. He started walking in that direction. "Ramen it is."
Naruto grinned and gave Katsuragi a thumb's up, which caused the Sekirei to straighten a bit and feel all warm-and-fuzzy.
Jiraiya stopped abruptly. "You know, you could introduce yourself and tag along. I don't bite. Unless Akitsu here asks really nicely."
The ice-generating Sekirei blinked, tilted her head slightly and seemed to consider carefully. "Ah."
A tall youth a few years older than Naruto and a couple of decades younger than Jiraiya stepped out from behind a street-side display.
"I sensed you at several times," said Jiraiya, "you have an interesting chakra."
"You're going to want to keep your magic undercover," responded the youth. "Out of sight of cameras and other prying eyes. Drawing attention to yourself can be VERY bad."
"You're welcome to come along," said Jiraiya. "I find I have a large number of questions, and a big appetite for answers."
"Not as good as Ichiraku's," pronounced Naruto.
"That's after your third bowl," pointed out Jiraiya.
"I stand by my opinion," retorted Naruto.
"Is that a ninja-eating special technique?" asked the redheaded boy.
"No, just Naruto's complete lack of manners," said Jiraiya. "Now, are you part of this 'Sekirei Plan' thing?"
"I have no idea about that," said the youth. "I just noticed what was going on and investigated. I've met one of these Others."
Jiraiya didn't miss the subtle emphasis. "'Others'? You mean nonhumans?"
"Wha?" asked Naruto.
"Sekirei aren't human," supplied Akitsu softly.
"I was about to contact her when I noticed you were approaching, I decided to watch and see," said the redhead.
"Well, my name is Jiraiya, the gallant, the Toad Sage, one of the Three Legendary Ninja of the Leaf Village."
"What about a low profile were you saying earlier, Pervy Sage?" asked Naruto.
"I've never heard of the Leaf Village," said the redhead. "Shiro Emiya."
Jiraiya nodded. "This is Naruto, my apprentice. A proud, sometimes too proud, genin of the same village. We've been displaced in space/time."
"Oh," said Shiro, blinking and then looking around them. "You're not with any local group of magic-wielders then."
"No, I take it that's something like a ninja village," said Jiraiya. "Oh. Don't worry about the people nearby. I used a low level wind technique. Prevents casual eavesdroppers."
"Yeah, I noticed that being cast after our order arrived," said Shiro thoughtfully. "Interesting spell."
"It's a fairly common one," said Jiraiya, one shoulder coming up slightly in a half-shrug. "It won't help against a number of ninja techniques but it just reduces our conversation to a background buzz as far as anyone trying to listen in normally would be concerned."
"You were getting around to teaching me that one?" asked Naruto.
"About the time your chakra control developed to the point where you can do a Rasengan with one hand and no shadow clones, yes," said Jiraiya.
"Oh," said Naruto, slumping a bit.
"So you know a lot about this world, Shiro Emiya," said Jiraiya, "but nothing of these 'Sekirei' or their 'Plan' - but here we have two who might be able to answer a few questions."
"If my Ashikabi wishes me to answer, I shall," said Katsuragi quietly, glancing at Akitsu and then Jiraiya and finally back at Naruto.
"How about first we go with 'Ashikabi'?" asked Jiraiya, reaching out and pouring himself a bit of tea. "What exactly does that mean?"
I hadn't been sure of what was going on, following the scent of honey mixed with wintergreen in the park when I caught the scent of the two who had been approaching.
The honey-smell I was associating with these not-humans was not present with these two.
One was a young boy, blonde and blue eyed, but with mostly asian features except he also had odd lines on his face. Wearing orange that was only a few shades darker than a safety cone. His scent was... ramen? And something else. Darker and edgier and for some reason brought to mind foxes. Maybe a kitsune in human form or human and descended from a kitsune?
The old guy was wearing a fairly proper-looking suit, complete with vest and jacket. Except that the tie didn't look right somehow. His smells were more complex and tougher to sort out. Old blood, paper, and frogs? Regret?
I watched them from a distance, and though the old man seemed to glance my way every so often he didn't make a move towards confronting me.
Which caused me to consider. They didn't seem like Enforcers, for one thing I'd have expected them to be adults and for another they would have charged after me immediately.
Kitsune-boy was somewhere around fourteen. He hadn't spotted me hiding. The older guy could still be an Enforcer, but didn't smell right and was more interested in the honey-girl.
Only that they might still be from the Clock Tower kept me from getting closer when I got a good look at the girl. The only way she could look more like some girl who'd been abused and then thrown aside by an attacker was if she had had a subtitle proclaiming that.
Still, the two had talked to the girl and some Reinforcement of my hearing allowed me to overhear the conversation. It also gave me the given names of the two. "Jiraiya" and "Naruto" and that the latter was an apprentice of some kind.
A fog spell came out of nowhere and I couldn't see suddenly. Hearing was unaffected. More terms that weren't familiar. Shouts and declarations. One, in the sound of Naruto's voice, had declared them both to be 'ninja' of some kind.
What followed later was the two wandering around, with the older guy pickpocketing drunks that he carried or assisted to shelter. Not exactly outstanding citizens, but not necessarily evil or anything.
The kiss and the wings had caught me a bit off guard. Now the older guy and the younger one both had girls hanging around them.
More spells, being performed with a quickness and lack of props that made them formidable opponents were I to go against them. Though the kid would probably be the easier of the two to take down if they really were up to no good.
The young one had no combat presence. The older one had a definite combat readiness about him.
And, as the big guy had indicated, finally there were some answers forthcoming.
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(Posted Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:01)
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