If Only Ducking Worked [OPEN]

[Hiyami]

That time had come around again. Yes, that's right. That time. The one that typically had Hiyami cringing in despair and a complete and utter reluctance to do so.... But she had to.

That's right. Hiyami Sena Mitsukiri had to go shopping.

At least it's not that bad, she tried to console herself. It's only groceries. There's no way it can be that bad, right?

Which was, surprisingly, a great relief. Groceries, however annoying and heavy and a pain in the butt they may be, actually served a purpose. They entered through your mouth, were completely obliterated and forced to give up their treasures - nutrients and whatnot - and then not so discretely discarded.

As it was, she'd forced herself to get out of bed, follow her morning routine, dressed herself in her typical extra large gray T-shirt and jeans. Socks and underwear were a given. Then, she grabbed a wad of bills and her wallet. The wallet went in her front left pocket, and the bills in her right. She'd sighed, deciding to skip breakfast - maybe she'd grab something on the way back.

Besides, she felt a bit like junk food. and there was no law against rewarding herself for braving the store. She nodded to herself as she slipped her sneakers on. She left, careful to lock the door behind her.

The key went around her neck on one of the chains that weren't really chains.

About ten minutes found her at the grocery store, doing her best to resist all the junk food. The only thing that kept her from wasting her precious money on it was the fact that the last time she'd stupidly done it, she'd gained weight and fat, and she'd felt sick the whole time.

Twenty minutes in and she had all her ingredients. An hour in line and she had her bags in hand. She was just about to cross through the park when she she heard loud shouts. She'd glanced around, a bit nervous. Loud shouting was never good. It usually preceded injuries. Injuries hurt, and she didn't particularly like pain.

She reconsidered her route and decided to take some side streets. Besides, the shouts had been coming from the park.

And then, about halfway home, she found herself cursing her stupidity as her bags went flying as she ducked. A gang fight had broken out around her, and though she'd ducked, she'd still managed to get caught up in it. They were moving, though. When they'd started - when she'd first ducked, she'd been just on the outskirts, hoping they'd hurry up to finish and leave.

Unfortunately, it had worked much the contrary. Instead of leaving they were closer.

And then, just when she'd thought it couldn't get any worse...

"Hey look, it's a girl!"

[Jay]

Well, you know what? Jay happened to be involved in the fight!

Even worse, he was the one fighting the gang. The components of the evildoers; four teenagers fresh from Japan, were convinced he'd done something wrong. After a few moments of mean-mugging each other, the Japanese doing more of it than Jay, they'd decided to attack, and Jay used his limited Japanese to try and repress them; to no avail.

"Tomare!" he shouted, as he dodged a punch. But they did not understand him, or they weren't Japanese, because they carried on. Ducking under a kick, Jay gripped the guy's ankle and stood back up, forcing the guy into a standing split. There was a sickening crunch as something bent more than it was supposed to, followed by a shriek. After more mean mugging, yelling, and shit, Jay decided it was enough. He didn't (actually, he didn't know if he could) want to take on a gang.

But they took off in pursuit, and he found himself seemingly chasing after a poor girl gripping her groceries.... "Hey look, it's a girl!" one of them shouted, which surprised Jay. They speak Engrish?! As he continued to run, he could say but one thing to the girl:

"Run!"

[Aureus]

What a tiresome summer. The last two months had seen Aureus split his time between his usual training, work at the local movie theatre as an apprentice projectionist and lead guitarist in a band called Infinity Milk. The work was interesting and rewarding and he always loved playing guitar, but the hectic schedule was starting to wear on the college student-to be. Yes, everything was set for him to attend the San Francisco Art Institute: mountains of paper work had been meticulously filled out, orientations had been dutifully attended, auditions had been aced, and shopping had been done. Today, however, the dull-eyed boy felt was the perfect time for him to relax and shirk some of his responsibilities.

Staring off the side of the building, Aureus surveyed the urban landscape of roof tops, scaffolding, fire escapes, and balconies to plot his route for the day. It was a nice sunny day and everything was dry, so he wouldn't have to worry about slipping during his run. Once he was satisfied, the teen took a few steps back and began his simple warm up consisting of various stretches and one hundred jumping jacks. Covering his frame was a simple, red, rundown T-shirt with a few holes in it, a loose pair of worn jeans, a gray beanie, a pair of running shoes, and his trademark studded gloves. With a final, deep intake of breathe, the ex-Pillar ran towards the edge of the building at full speed.

His muscles were flexible and loose as he approached the boarder of concrete and open air only to grow taut for a split second before the boy launched himself into oblivion. Aureus could only enjoy the liberating sensation of free fall for a few moments before he compressed his body and prepared for the landing. With his arms off to the top left, the teen hit the ground and immediately tucked into a roll to absorb the impact. Seamlessly, he continued into a run and kicked off a building on the roof to vault himself over a fence topped with barbed wire. Hopping over an AC vent, he leaped over to some scaffolding and descended the structure when shouts from below caught his attention.

It was a familiar scene: a gang of teens chasing down two others. Aureus really wasn't in the mood to play spiderman, but came up with a plan just in case his intervention was required. Maneuvering across the street to a parking garage, he grabbed a plastic container of gas. He still needed a glass bottle, but maybe he wouldn't need it. For the time being he decided to get lower to the ground.

[Hiyami]

Hiyami whimpered when she heard it getting closer - and then she'd heard a single word - "Tomare!" It sounded close. And it was Japanese for stop. Heavily accented and badly spoken Japanese. She peered over a box to see four Asians chasing another.

At this point, the Asian power that all Asians have let her decipher their races. The one who'd called out was easily spotted seeing as four Japanese males - teenagers mostly - were advancing on him. The one that had called out seemed to be Korean. She frowned. Well that was messed up. It obviously wasn't a gang fight, and though four on two wasn't any better than four on one with a bystander, she'd made to stand up. Then the boy had started heading for the exit.

"Run!" he called to her, apparently having heard the guy that caught her.

Believe me, she had no intentions of sitting still when she'd been found out. Still, she'd scrabbled to save her groceries when one of them had stepped on her bag.

"You unbelievable asshole!" she'd shrieked before grabbing something - anything, really - and throwing it at his head. It missed, as she'd figured it would. She had terrible aim. She also noted that she'd thrown a rock.

Oh, and it was about this point where she'd realized that the guy was making a grab for her.

Hiyami dodged before using her crouch as a kick off to get the hell outta there.

There were a couple of problems with this, though. First, Hiyami was by no means fast. At all. Second, she typically lost any race she'd ever had to endure, and she'd always been last to manage the mile-long run when it came to physical education. In short? She was screwed.

Oh, and that wasn't all. Third? Her balance was already far gone and her legs protested the movement, having gone numb as she'd been hiding.

The result? Instead of lunging forward, away, and to safety, as she'd intended, Hiyami instead managed to fall flat on her face.

"Uh oh." she muttered as she rolled onto her back. As she'd expected the guy she'd yelled at was just above her.

Instinct kicked in and she rolled away just as he stomped on the ground right where her chest had been. She winced as she considered what could've happened to her before trying to get to her feet. I say trying because she tripped over her own feet and practically fell into another box.

At this rate, they could just go after the other guy. She could probably beat herself up plenty.

[Jay]

Crunch.

"You unbelievable asshole!" the girl shrieked as her purchases were turned to ruins; courtesy of one of the wild youth. Not Jay though. He was a high class man, down to his squeaky clean white sneakers. Nevertheless, he sure didn't feel high class now, being chased by a gang and all. How did I even get myself into this? he thought to himself as he made a 180 degree, rushing back to maybe help the girl.

Nooo! The last thing I want to happen is to be involved in some kind of gangbang scandal. Fuck! Rushing forward as fast as he could (which was pretty fast; he was just faraway by now), he watched helplessly as... the girl beat herself up? It was pretty comical, and Jay had to stifle a laugh as he pumped his legs. As the girl what, fell over for the third time, Jay was within range, and it was here he decided to unleash his ultimate attack.

Jumping off with both feet as he dashed forward, he flung his legs out for a devastating...

FALCON KICK!

[Aureus]

From his new vantage point, it was much easier for the dull-eyed boy to see what was taking place. From what he could tell there were 6 Asians running down the alley. The girl seemed to be frightened and one of the guys looked like he was protecting her. Maybe they were a couple, maybe it was some gang related thing. In any case, it seemed like the two could use some assistance. Dropping down into the alley, Aureus quietly approached the group. Luckily, the assailants were distracted by the one boy's Cpt. Falcon impression.

These days he wasn't much for words when fighting random thugs. It was easier just to deal with them silently. Once he had gotten about ten feet or so behind the three boys, Aureus deftly popped the cap off of the plastic container and tossed some of it's contents onto the trio. The action also provided a nice line of fuel from him to the kids. Bending down, the ex-Pillar ignited his right index finger and touched the trail of petrol. The flame greedily sped from him to the three gasoline covered thugs. Hopefully they remembered to stop, drop and roll. Capping the jug once more, Aureus tossed it over a fence. It wouldn't be wise to leave it sitting around where someone could grab it.

[Hiyami]

It could easily be said that Hiyami didn't particularly play video games. This meant that she was entirely clueless when the boy that had originally told her to run returned with an interesting twisty-kick thing..? Hiyami had simply blinked, thinking the boy something of an oddity. And then, not even a couple minutes later, she found herself watching the remaining attackers catch on fire.

"What on earth...?" her wonder didn't last long and she saw her groceries also ablaze. "Shit!"

It was with evil, evil eyes that she glared at the burning attackers. "You....! You're the reason for my dying groceries!!"

And, amazingly, it was at this point that Hiyami picked up a pipe of sorts - it had been behind the boxes - and got to her feet.

"Give me my money back, you stupid baka-faced ahou!" she shrieked, before downing the one right in front of her with a rather nice smack.

And the guy went face down on the ground, and Hiyami dropped the pipe.

"Jerk!" she muttered, before grabbing the remains of her groceries - not that there was much that hadn't been broken or shattered by the fall, or even set aflame.

"Thanks for coming to help, by the way," she said calmly to the two boys. "I don't know what I would've done."

Never mind that the three boys that were happily on fire were, you know, still behind her as she turned with a bright smile to them. Oh, and the one that had been downed by the... falcon kick thing.

"I'm Hiyami. Nice to meet you!"

[Jay]

"Give me my money back, you stupid baka-faced ahou!"

Jay raised an eyebrow as he watched the girl pick up a pipe and slam a motherfucker down with it. Both eyebrows raised, impressed, as the girl went to gangpei mode, beating the shit out of that guy. Over what? Groceries? Well, she wasn't as bad as Jay, I suppose. I mean, Jay's put people in comas for ruining his kicks. He then noticed several people on fire or some shit.

No way she did that too, he thought, confirmng his suspicions when he saw another kid pop out from nowhere. OMG ANOTHER ENEMY. FALCON PUNCH?! His mind was distracted by the girl, who had gone out of gangpei mode, and back to normal. "Thanks for coming to help, by the way. I don't know what I would've done."

"I'm Hiyami. Nice to meet you!"

"I'm Jay. It's a pleasure."

[Aureus]

It was funny; now that the danger had been all but removed, the little Asian girl found her angrier side and smacked one of the thugs across the face with a pipe. Christ...wonder what she's like in bed. *Sigh* Aren't you meeting up with some groupie later? Yeah, but still... The schizophrenic boy argued with his other half. The three firebugs were still flailing about and Aureus decided to make sure they stayed down.

Bending over, he picked up a broken wooden beam. "Oh, I'm Aureus." He said to the girl before letting loose with a nice, strong swing to the stomach of the boy in the middle, next he smashed the skinner one in the legs, and finally he decided on broken ribs for the last kid. Because the girl had been complaining about her groceries, the graduate snatched a wallet from the most well dressed boy. Pulling out one hundred dollars, he walked over and handed it to Hiyami. "Hope that covers it." He said with a small smile. Setting the wallet aflame with his glove, Aureus tossed it back onto the boy he'd taken it from.

[Hiyami]

Hiyami nodded at both of them, grinning as they introduced herself. She watched as the second one that had helped - she guessed he'd been the one with the fire - calmly beat the crap out of the three guys. She winced at the last blow.

"Ouch." she muttered, absently touching her ribs.

Then, the boy with the big wooden stick went to one of the boys and grabbed his wallet. He pulled a hundred dollars and brought them over to Hiyami.

"Hope that covers it," he said with a smile.

And for Hiyami? Yeah, she reacted to that all right.

"You're damn right it does~!" she half sang, half squealed in glee. And then, before the poor boy could protest - just after he'd set the wallet on fire - she glomped him.

And believe me - when she glomped someone, it wasn't a half-assed glomp. Of course, it wasn't a glomp that squished the living daylights out of anyone, either. It was, simply put, something like... 'give me your face so I can hug it!'

Which typically equated in the glompee's face in her breasts. I mean, none of them had ever complained to her about it, so she figured it was no big deal. Her being the absent minded type - and the kind that didn't really like bodily contact... A glomp was a complete and total 'OMGTY<33' kind of thing.

Yep. Mr. Aureus's face? Meet Hiyami's boobs.

[Aureus]

The dull eyed boy was barely able to register the girl's response before she glomped him to all hell. Any thoughts he may have had were replaced by the realization that the Hiyami's chest was pressing into his face as he lay helplessly on the ground. The situation just seemed a tad out of place. Usually it occurred in some type of bedroom at night following a moderate consumption of alcohol. Well...that was fast. ...Yeah? I guess so. I'd give them a...3.5/5 Eventually Aureus managed to squirm his way out from under her. "Well you certainly are a friendly one, eh?" He inquired while getting to his feet.

[Hiyami]

"Well you certainly are a friendly one, eh?" he asked her as he got up, and Hiyami released him, grinning broadly.

"You just covered my grocery bill for next week, too! Some sort of thanks was necessary!" Then, still grinning, just as broadly as ever, she sauntered over to Jay and kissed him on the cheek.

"And that's for savin' me.[/b]" she told him, before cocking her head towards Aureus. "He got all of his in that hug."

Then, pausing for a moment, she nodded to herself.

"Shall we relocate? We can go to a cafe! My treat!" she said, gleefully waving the money in the air.

[OOC: It's short. T_T I'm sorry.]

[Jay]

My word!

Jay watched in surprise, mild amusement, and maybe even disgust as the girl suddenly took the wallet thief's head, and stuffed it into her chest. He wasn't sure how to feel about that; her personality reminded him too much of those ditzy girls in mangas and animes, and honestly? Jay found them annoying, so he wasn't sure how to feel about Hiyami at the moment. Of course, he was only further confused when she ran to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Hnn, a little too friendly...

"Shall we relocate? We can go to a cafe! My treat!" Jay raised an eyebrow, and stole a glance at the other guy. Should he take this offer? Jay's paranoia senses were going off the roof. She's going to lead us to some place for a threesome and then she'll kill us and take our shit. Those kids before were just decoys. But he reasoned it out, and he's like NAH!

Even then, with a growing sense of dread, he nodded, accepting her offer.

"That sounds alright."

[Aureus]

"Well, that's my good deed for the day." Aureus said to no one in particular as Hiyami rewarded the other boy with a kiss. She's an odd one, reminds me of... Max? Or maybe uhh...what was her name, the one we met that once, got a burger with. Emi, I think, can't remember. Ah well, I guess some caffeine and a biscuit would be good. he thought while slowly stretching out his arms. "Sounds good to me. You know any good places around here?"

[Hiyami]

Hiyami froze, pondering the words. She didn't actually know of any good places. She'd tossed the offer out on a whim, but she'd never really ventured out of her house long enough to bother looking around for one. After all, she wasn't the coffee-type. Or socializing type, for that matter. What had gotten into her?

She blinked owlishly at the both of them. "Er, no, actually. I don't really pay attention to the cafes and stuff in the area. I don't know what's good and what's bad.... But if memory serves me correctly," she was remembering a cafe - a Starbucks? - that was just a block away, "There should be a Starbucks place around the corner."

Then, she belatedly realized that some people held a grudge against the place for some reason or the other - military, she remembered. "Unless you'd like to go somewhere else?"

[Note: True story. >< Apparently, a soldier wrote and asked for a supply of coffee since Starbucks is delicious, but they wrote back saying they wouldn't support the troops because they didn't support the war. Apparently, the gov't retaliated in the most peaceable way possible, so a lot of the soldiers I know boycott the place.]