2308/Ninjaphobia

Ninjaphobia
Date of Scene:	02 July 2020
Location:	NYU Kimmel Center
Synopsis:	A god and a ninja talk current events.
Cast of Characters:	Alexander Aaron, Chizue Nakamura

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Alexander Aaron has posed:
    Three hours past noon and the college quad is hectic. Bustling with activity though not as much as during the regular school year, yet Summer classes are still in session and the people that travel back and forth outside of the Kimmel Center in Washington Park seem so terribly busy.
    There are people moving from one class to the other, or down along the street to the many food trucks that sell their comestibles. Some students are gathered to chat and discuss. Yet the blond youth that's settled under an old oak tree in that park, just of away from that iconic fountain, seems content to be focused on the task of reading.
    A thick book is settled across his knees, proclaiming its title on its spine though that spine is obscured by his leg. He's taking his ease, leaning to the side with his gaze at times straying from the task at hand. Lifting up to consider those near, to watch people, to indulge in the peace the moment gives.
    From afar he blends into the crowd easily. That shock of blond hair might stand out. But his clothes, blue jeans and a black t-shirt... and white sneakers. They are hardly things unseen in the crowd of students. But if one were looking for him, and had to find him, it's the eyes that would give him away. Hazel in color but pale. Yet as he looks around where he's seated, they're bright with curiousity.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    They were looking for a short cut, and as far as Ninja jobs go this should have been pretty mundane. Three foot slinking around amidst the labyrinth of underground service tunnels, and far from the few battle hardened professionals the Foot still had left. It should have been a milk run, except they'd stumbled into a near force of nature. Now it was just two, panting as they sprinted blindly down dimly lit corridors until coming to an abrupt end in a service closet.

    The duo start to turn back, until the light in the passageway abruptly goes out, and from the depths of that perfect subterranian dark comes a shape. Hard angular edges like origami almost, formed into the shape of a polygonal animal's head. There it appears, lit with the softest of red hues as if floating amidst the dark. Slowly rising from the floor to a Ninja's full height, before turning to regard the duo. "You should look at this as an opportunity, Make your ancestors proud."A voice washed through a dozen electronic filters all but growls, and well the fear washes over into terror quickly enough. Something raw and uncontrolled, animal panic.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    The way Alexander perceives the world is different than anyone else. Not simply from the way his mind allocates its emotions in its curiously different way. Nor how he views people, the world, the future. But more in the way that with him having ascended to his role as Phobos, there is an eternal constant feeling of the world around him. The steady heartbeat of the world's fear a low lying rumble that rings distantly at the edges of his awareness. Sometimes able to be ignored, but ever-present.
    Only now there's a rush of feeling that takes him. The realization that somewhere nearby there is someone whose mind is awash with fear and terror. Someone who shares that feeling with someone else nearby, an utter primal thing that was first seen when mankind was in its infancy and they saw the glow of eyes beyond the halo of their campfire. Wild fear. And the realization of one's own mortality.
    It's a curious thing that draws Alexander up short. Frowning the book is pushed aside, set down upon the ground beside him. He reaches for the ESU blue backpack he totes around and stuffs the book inside of it, zips it up, then slings it over his shoulder. Quickly he gains his feet and looks his surroundings over. No clear path to follow, only some hint that whatever it is... is coming from down there. Somewhere.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    Ninjas are supposed to be composed, but well the Foot's training and recruiting standards have been garbage for a hundred years. So these two knuckle heads don't slow down and puzzle out the smart play, they do the stupid thing instead. They draw their swords and rush foreward, diving into the black. There is much shouting and wild swinging, stumbling and cursing until the distant tunnel lights become visible and the pair break into a dead sprint towards it. A service exit dumps the pair out into the bottom stairwell of a building on the quad, and the duo take a moment to catch their breath.

    So relieved that the duo momentarily forgets to ask the really important question here, where their attacker has gone. Not that she takes terribly long in announcing herself, as the lights flicker and go dark. A flash of movement in the darkness, and the blow is delivered. That glass blade finds the sweet spot at the base of the skull, and for a moment the Foot goes stiff. His head swifting around, driven like a corpse puppet by the dagger driven into his skull. "As cowards then."

    The remaining foot hurls his blade ineffectually towards his former comrade, before bolting over the railing and sprinting up the first few stairs. He gets about halfway up the first flight, before a shard of glass hurtles into the back of a knee and he goes down in a heap. Crawling desperately towards the first landing.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    It is just as that second falls that she may become aware of him. Of the door opening in that building and the stairwell above. Drawn toward that fear that had flared and then flickered out, only for its companion terror to now be rendered impotent and crawling upon the stairs upwards and upwards.
    She'll see him then. The youth in those jeans and the t-shirt, looking somehow entirely out of place in this moment of mortality, but somehow at ease despite the violence. His head turns from the fallen, offering no help, no surcease to that terror nor offering of solace.
    Instead those curious eyes focus beyond, trying to discern his attacker. For whomever that might well be, assuredly will be more interesting to him than this fallen fleeting flame of life before him.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    That mask peers up from the ground floor, and for all the world it looks as if suspended in mid air. It's vacant eyes fixed silently upon Alexander for a moment, before that soft red light simply winks and it's gone. "Curious, are we?"That voice floats out of the dark below, even as everyone's favorite ninja ascends the stairs slowly. All but invisible in the low light, and well as it steps up to that first landing? Only the barest hint of an outline becomes apparent.

    The remaining Foot cranes his neck around to watch the spectre, only to find his end. A transparent sword blade driven neatly through his nasal cavity into the base of his skull, as clinical a kill as a sword can provide surely. The resulting blood spray is sufficient to briefly freckle that near perfect optical camo, and stain a length of that glass sword. Then slowly comes the glow of that mask oncemore, a grinning raccoon dog. "Friends of yours, young man?"A twist, and that blade is withdrawn.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    A hand lifts a little, to protect from the possible spray of the blood but the spatter goes as she expects it, wishes it. And for now not on him. Normally any student she confronted there upon this campus would take such a display... such a tableau as a creation of madness and rush off in terror.
    Yet that blond youth stands there as his head tilts to the side, those curious hazel eyes flowing over the lines of that camo that he can perceive, then the blade in her hand. She can read his stance, that calm loose way he holds himself. Not a hint of trepidation, almost otherworldly in that way. Yet ready to move, to strike if needs be.
    His head cocks the other way and he tells her in accentless Japanese.
    << You are Haga then. >>
    A statement, then a slight twist at the corner of his mouth, a hint of a smile. << Showy. >>

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    <<And you are well informed.>>That sword is lifted to rest in the crook of her free arm, before she slowly draws it through. Letting the camo fade away, replaced with perfect matte black. Neat black tabi sneakers, amored leggings, and then well the rest is hidden under a mixture of some sort've soft shell and a waist length hooded cloak. That sword though, remains more difficult to discern. Katana-like in the broad scheme, but it remains almost fully transparent safe for a tiny ribbon of metal along the cutting edge.

    <<I am the Haga Kunnoichi known as 'The End', ninth sword to the honorable Jade court.>>Finally letting those voice filters drop, as she lifts a hand to pluck that mask free. The armored faceplate beneath it still carries the telltale scuffs from a trio of bullet impacts, but the trio of blue diamonds within a circle is plainly visible enough.<<It would appear you have me at a disadvantage however, not sure I recognize you.>> Her voice is uncharacteristically soft, and well that Tokyo accent isn't obscured in the least.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    Curiousity. It's the first thing she might have been able to identify in the eyes of that blond youth. Finally something... human and recognizable in the being before her. It's that curiousity and that smile that settles into place upon his lips. There is no hesitance nor aversion because of the gore and death. Though assuredly there may well be questions in the future. Whether or not they receive answers is another thing entire.
    "Owari." He says and then he steps down a step. Another. To be on level footing as her as he lowers his eyes and his head in a small bow.
    << I am Alexander Aaron. Known to some as Phobos. For a time known to those of the Takamagahara as their general of war. >> But then he switches to English, and she'll hear his earth tone of voice slip to a more down to earth tone with a hint of the mid-west to it.
    "But feel free to call me Alex."
    He offers a hand.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    Theres a moment there, after she replaces that mask with a dull magnetic -tink-. A moment where her attention seems focused, god knows where. "I hope the Grass Cutter is treating you well, Alex." No bowing, no formalities. She simply takes the offered hand, and returns the shake with a somewhat firm decidedly business-like grip from those tacky high-tech gloves. "Had I known, I'd have given you more of a show. Not that these guys are capable of much, out of shape and untrained almost all of them now."

    "I'm afraid I've already cut down most of what they tried to pass off as experienced warriors, but at least they usually had the spirit."Half turning to nudge the dead body aside her with a shoe. "They just run now when I arrive, makes things terribly inconvient. End up having to chase them down, takes forever more than anything."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "Well," Alexander turns his head to the side and considers the fallen, then the one further down. "If you didn't have a penchant for theatrics it might be easier." He starts to step down, another few steps as he looks upon the downed foot clan ninja. He lifts a hand to his shoulder and rubs there idly, perhaps some remembered moment causing a sense memory to return.
    He looks to the side toward her, "But then you would not be Haga."
    He gestures with the other hand, indicating the fallen. "Is this your task here?" He motions toward the dead and cocks his head to the side as he looks at her curiously. "To end this clan? Or is there something else on your agenda as well?"

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "The Hand and the Foot were declared outlaw some two hundred years ago, but things have been more pressing at home. Rivalries, courtly politics, clan warfare, the usual things."She offers casually. Stepping back against the wall without so much as a sound. "But then they made bad decisions very publically, and so they resolved that somebody should do something about it."Theres a tiny little shrug there beneath her cloak.

    "And so I have come, and I will remain until both clans are no more. The Hand seem to have retained their wits for the most part, but the foot?"Nodding towards the dead. "They recruit drug addicts, and indoctrinate them with other chemical compounds. They're physically unfit, drug addled and cowardly. They're hardly even Ninja in the loosest terms, just common bandits with cheap Chinese swords. I keep killing them as fast as I find them, but there always seems to be more."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "Mmm," Some hint of hesitance there for some reason, something unsaid. But for now Alexander keeps it to himself whatever it may be. The strange youth gives her a nod as he looks across the way toward her and he says. "I..." He gestures with a nod toward the school, the city beyond this small shelter they have, though it was none to those who ran her in terror. "Am a student here."
    His lips twist a little, "And I have a class to attend." For some reason the surreality of it seems to amuse him as he tells her. "But afterward would you like to talk and tell me more of what has passed? I have been..." He glances down at the dead and then back up toward her. "Out of the loop for a good bit of time so far."

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "An honor, and one I am happy to oblige for the Lord of Fear. I am however just a lowly ninja, so I'm not clued into the nuances of some things."And slowly she extends a hand, and with the snap of her fingers produces a simple blank business card. "I could see about setting up a meeting for you with the Kami if you'd like, or snagging one of the Mail Foxes for you as well?"

    Casually she sheathes that glass blade, letting herself slowly fade back into near invisibility. "Also a word of advice, I would suggest you invest in some better security for your phone. I've taken the liberty of adding a number you can reach me at, under "Super awesome best Ninja of all time"."And well she hasn't clued him in on the other minor change, but thats half the fun right?