5891/New York Ninja Night

New York Ninja Night
Date of Scene:	09 April 2021
Location:	New York Harbor
Synopsis:	Bakeneko makes a second appearance as an underground cage fighter. A tapout leads to a rather sore loser who prefers to settle differences with firearms. Fortunately, there's a dramatic ninja lurking nearby to run interference!
Cast of Characters:	Katsumi Oshiro, Chizue Nakamura

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Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
This makes the second night Katsumi visited this shady establishment. The establishment in question? A non-descript warehouse in a shady area of New York City, huddled in the corner of a harbor. Nothing good happens here after nightfall. But it's the perfect setting for Katsumi - known to this group as Bakeneko - to try to hone self-control. Well, and make some money on the side. Jennifer Walters doesn't need to know. And she thinks she's getting better at it.

Following a successful fight, she decides to dip out early. The moon lingers high over the horizon, silvery puffy clouds drifting listlessly amidst an ocean of stars. The waters are calm, no ships coming in, and everything silent.

A gentle breeze rolls through the city, rustling blueblack tresses. Katsumi runs a hand through the silky follicles, brushing it over her shoulders. She's feeling pretty good. Productive, even. Maybe slightly hopeful. Life /can/ get back to normal if she keeps this up. She begins making her way down the harbor, alone, to her knowledge. That is, until a pair of men round a shipping crate on her. Lagging a little behind is a blonde, thickly-muscled female, snarling. Those who watched the recent fight would easily identify her as Katsumi's unfortunate opponent.

"Seriously?," asks Katsumi in a confident deadpan. "Getting your ass kicked once isn't enough? Gotta get your kissing cousins a helping, too?"

"Shut up!," hisses the woman. "Everyone knows the moves you pulled is fake. You cheated. Drugged me."

"...Fake?," asks a quietly offended Katsumi, slender eyebrow arched. "Now I have to kick your s*** in on principal. Line up, let's get it over with."

She takes an aggressive step forward, only for one of the men to step in and lift the barrel of a pistol beneath her chin. That immediately changes things, Katsumi's inhumanly-hued eyes widening and hands instinctively raising. "A-ah, easy..!"

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    Theres no wordy preamble, there's no entrance music to announce her arrival. Just one more shadow amongst the darkness, slowly taking shape from all but thin air. That mask blinks to life like it may as well be neon, followed by the rest of her. A softly lit purple wireframe of a person, wearing a polygonal animal mask like something that escaped from an SNES game. That scarf blinks into life next, brilliant bright yellow swaying in the non existant breeze over one shoulder. The rest of the costume is quite new of course, but the scarf is a trademark of everyone's favorite Tokyo based street brawler.

    "Come now, getting your ass beat once a night should be enough for just about anyone."That voice comes out in a digitized growl, no doubt tailored to be just about as intimidating as somebody Owari's height could be. One hand lifting to produce a sheathed sword from seemingly thin air, moving with a definite "frame rate" that makes her look all the more out of place here in three dimensions. Slowly her stance widens, free right hand reaching across to rest on the hilt of that neon lit sword. "Come on, play with me.."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro, or otherwise known as Bakeneko, is ushered back a number of steps at gunpoint. "Y-you're gonna /shoot/ me? Cuz I won a fight?," she asks, unable to keep the waiver out of her voice. "Isn't that a- a bit much?"

"It's for real out here," says the blonde. "Out here, you cross the wrong person and you wind up d-"

A new challenger has arrived. All heads turn in Owari's direction, each one ablink. None of them expected ninjas. A couple puzzled glances are exchanged amidst the males, before the woman just shakes her head and points to the intruder. "Ice that dumb broad."

Both males angle pitols on Owari with the intent to open fire. With the gun no longer jammed beneath Katsumi's chin, she dashes back and dives behind a shipping container in a frantic attempt to reach cover.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    Those pistols whip around and the lightworks just, vanish in the blink of an eye. In broad daylight she'd be a mighty tough target for sure, but that perfect black camo and the dim lights certainly don't help. It makes that superhuman dash all the harder to judge as she hurtles in after the gunmen. A zig and a zag, before that sword comes out and gets burried in his stomach. Now whilst the blade is dramatically too dull to -cut- the hit itself is likely enough to warrant a trip to the hospital, nevermind the brilliant flash of blue-white electricity that immediately sends him to his knees amidst the smell of ozone and burnt flesh.

    Gunman may have just hit the ground, but his compatriot is still shooting of course. His gunplay however is cut short as a flash of glass comes across the open air, and his gives a blood curdling scream. Pistol dropped as he stuggles to get a grip on the glass shuriken freshly burried into his thigh. Not that he gets very far mind you, before simply slumping to the ground in a heap.

    "Sorry I broke your toys, how about I break you now?"And on comes the lights, slowly that outline comes back up before resolving into an almost cell shaded look. That Tanuki mask now clearly snarling, as it swings around to rest on, well the sore looser of course. "You don't need all those teeth in your pretty little head, do you?"

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro is very content to remain hidden and freaking out, huddled behind the shipping container. This is certainly no appropriate look for a girl who just beat wholesale rear in an illegal fighting pit minutes ago, but those are with fists and stuff! Not guns!

Down goes Thing 1 and Thing 2.

The blonde woman, herself, looks to be in pretty rough shape. She's visibly marred and scuffed, what might have been a passingly appreciative face suffering the dings of a few extra hard hits. But truth be told, she's salty not because she was knocked out. She's salty because she /tapped/ out. Katsumi needed to test her ability to refrain and be careful with limbs. This woman was her guinea pig. She didn't appreciate it.

She, however, is also severely unarmed. She falls back a couple steps, visibly worried. "Hey, calm down, our problem isn't with you!"

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "Fight or flee, nobody has time for your bullshit."Comes Owari's immediate response, as she casually kicks those pistols away. That sword whooshing audibly as she resheathes it with a flourish, that flowing yellow scarf bursting into life once again right on cue. Mask rolling off to one side as she half turns away. "Come on what'll it be, or do I need to bust your skull in just for wasting my time?"

    That said well Owari doesn't approach just yet, she simply folds her arms and watches. Granting this particularly sore looser a clean avenue of escape, if she wants to take it. "What'll it be -Karen-, a soft food diet for the next nine months or cowardice? The world's waiting..."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
The threat is enough to make the blonde woman snarl and shift forward, but a quick glance to her writhing cohorts convinces her it's a bad idea. She turns and promptly flees. As far as Owari is willing to let her go, at least.

The conversation has Katsumi peeking her head around the corner of the crate to get a look at what's going on. Both assailants are down, and the blonde woman is fleeing. The ninja-person-thing is still standing, and with enough presence to mouth off. But what's the plan from there? Will she be coming for /her/ next?

With a squeak, Katsumi hides her head behind the crate again.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    Owari seems content to simply watch the Blonde bail, you can blame Spider-man for that for sure. Anyway she lifts that sheathed sword up to tap-tap-tap against her shoulder for a moment, before deciding the henchmen have likewise been sufficiently educated for the time being. That mask rolling around to lock onto to where Katsumi is hiding.
    "Relax, I'm an -actual- hero so no I'm not going to bust you for a little cage fighting. God knows I've done it myself before, so promise I won't even give you the stern lecture or whatever it is I'm supposed to do in America."Theres a roll of those cell shaded eyes on the mask, because of course there is. "Mind if I ask you a few questions on the down low, nothing super serious yeah?"

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro peeks her head around the container again, cautious. Everything appears to be put away, at least. No threats? This is two for two that things have gone very sideways here after her fights.

"Are they dead?," asks Katsumi, bobbing a finger towards the incapacitated thuggery. After seeing them still moving, she concludes, "Guess not."

Another pause, and she's finally slinking out of the container's shadow. It's not unlike a raccoon being coaxed out of hiding, her tepid steps and guarded body language considered. If she recognizes Owari, she doesn't yet speak on it.

"U-um," she begins nervously, pausing to try to swallow some of that tension. "..what's up? What's on your mind?"

To speak of her own accent and cadence? It's remarkably clean and of a metropolitan flavor, bearing only a faint lilt to color it.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "They don't deserve the honor that it'd be to die by my sword, so naw they're just hurt real good."She punctuates that answer with a kick to one of their heads, which is sufficient to illicit a pained groan. "Anyway, hey thanks and you can just chill alright?"And well suddenly devoid of any of that digital growl, her voice is fairly soft and outfitted with a distinctly Tokyo accent.

    "Anyway you seen any Ninja types prowling around down there, anyone ask you to join any ninja type outfit or anything?"That mask at least blinks over from a snarl to a decidedly dopey grin, which may or may not actually be more disturbing. "Oh goodness look at me, I'm being terribly rude aren't I? Well I am the kunoichi called 'Owari", there are other names but Owari works for the states."That big flowing yellow scarf, yeah not exactly subtle either.

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Japanese accent? Distinctly so, in fact? Notable yellow scarf? It rings familiar bells, but the name being very, very different leans her a little more towards coincidence. Or possibly even a copycat. After all, a yellow scarf isn't /that/ unusual. She may need more to go on. More to the point, she never followed superheroics of her homeland too closely. It certainly wasn't as prolific as it seems to be in the States, and she had more than enough going on in her personal life to keep her attention.

"<No ninja, no one trying to recruit me>," Katsumi replies in Japanese. She has every reason to believe she can use her native tongue here, and frankly, it's been sorely missed. It lacks the fun and flare of casual profanity that English offers, but still! "<Owari, sure, that doesn't sound ominous at all. I'm->," she pauses. There's a look shot to the warehouse, then back to her. "<Did you see me fight?>," she diverts.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "<<Part of it, admittedly I was a little distracted at the time.>>"Comes the easy reponse in, well Japanese. "<<I saw the tap out, but I'm afraid I missed most of it. Crowd seemed surprised, so I'm guessing when she's not running away from Kunoichi she's some sort of tough girl?>>" Shifting that sword casually from shoulder down to her belt before looking for someplace to park herself. A metal fence post works for leaning, thankfully.

    "<<Well if you do happen to hear of anyone talking about it, let me know please? Allegedly they've been trying to recruit from cage fighters, and well most don't realize what they're getting into.>>"And a little shrug at that. "<<I didn't come up with the name, or any of the things people call me. Just fortunate to usually end up hanging out with the cool kids, so don't read too far into it. >>"

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
"<...Bakeneko.>" It's the name Owari may have heard circulated during the fight. She doesn't trust the world of masked violence too much. Or at all. Best to keep things simple and cautious. "<That's what they call me here.>"

She finally moves a little closer, head tilting to regard the heap she'd left them in. "<It's not safe here, is it? She might come back with more. And these two might get more guns...>," she carefully steps over one of the thugs on her way to the cyberninja. But once at that closer proximity, she lets the subject change. "<I don't know who she is. I've only been here twice. But I guess she is. Hit me a couple times>," harmlessly, "<and it seemed sort've rough. But no ninjas. You're the only ninja I've seen. You're more like a Fortnite ninja or something though, aren't you?>"

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "<<We don't have a uniform, but I'm the real thing.>>"Theres a little roll of the head at that, as that suits slowly drains of it's color. Whats left is, well it's -hard- to tell. Jet black on jet black, but theres a Poncho and some sort've vaguely polygonal mask. Theres a pair of swords at one hip, armored gauntlets and thin gloves. Jet black leggings, what looks like skate shoes and knee pads. Boring in otherwords, and well black on black makes details tough to suss out. "<<Would you rather I wear something more revealing, and brightly colored for no reason?>>"

    And well finally she shoves off the fence post, glancing around finally. "<<Ok I'm going to get on a rant at this rate. Look if you see hear of anyone talking about that nonsense, do me a favor and let me know? I'd consider it a favor, of course.>>"Theres a shimmer as she starts to slowly fade into the background. "Oh sure probably best for you, Demon cat. I'll be seeing you."And with that, she steps back into the shadows and begins to all but melt away.

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
"<Totally>," replies Bakeneko with an unabashedly cheeky smirk. Teasing and sass. That's what makes her feel more at ease in any situation. Japanese isn't her native tongue - it's trolling.

Gloved hands lift in a mild gesture that isn't quite dismissive, but more acknowledging of the others departure. That is, until she mentions seeing her. That spooks her a little; and seems to jar something loose. "<Hey wait. Actually there was something. Ninjas attacked this guy's house when I visited for Christmas. I don't have all the details, but...>"