8013/Chillin ninja style

Chillin ninja style
Date of Scene:	27 September 2021
Location:	Owari's hideout
Synopsis:	Chizue and Maddie talk about lightsabres
Cast of Characters:	Chizue Nakamura, Madison Evans

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Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    Into a tiny ugly windowless building marked as a telephone switching center, up an elevator tagged out of service and past god only knows what unseen security devices? Thats where Owari's lair sits, as dark and silent as anyplace can be in NYC. At least until she hits the lights, and floods the expanse with light, revealing everything anyone could ever hope for in a Ninja hideout.

    Racks upon racks stocked with rifles, shotguns, pistols, body armor, explosives and melee weapons Owari's taken off of foes. No less than eight 55 gallon drums filled nearly to the brim with ransacked smart phones, nevermind the racks and racks of laptops and desktop hard drives she's got sitting just in cold storage. The Haga stuff lies beyond, separated by a few nearly identical black motorcycles in various states of repair. Server racks, 3d printers, lathes and mills, 3d carbon fibre looms, drill presses and large wired up stations stocked with all manner of whatever techno wizardry is necessary to keep her gear running. Whole racks of the familiar glass swords, but also similar knives, spears, pole axes, whole bins full of those neat glass needle shuriken. Racks of semi-transparent firearms, magazines and distinctive caseless ammunition.

    Theres a whole wall stocked with endless variations of her trademark masks, racks crammed with chest and thigh rigs and ready racks of pre determined load outs for goodness knows what. There are of course more than a few of those trademark maid outfits stocked in the corner, and more than a dozen bright yellow scarves along. Of most immediate concern however, is the little partitioned area tucked away in a corner, where she's laid out a neat low kotasu, a single armor rack, a fridge and a mess of laptops and cellphones left littered across the space.

    Owari leads through the bounty with a sigh, lifting off her helmet with a low hiss of pressure and a sigh as it's finally pulled free. "You hungry? I don't keep anything fancy here, but I've got tea too if you fancy it."Casually hanging that lid on the rack, before setting her swords on the stand and leaning forward to unhook the box on her back and tug the thing free. A pair of cables get run into the wall, before popping off the square semi-transparent box on top and setting that aside. "And you can come here if you need to lay low anytime of course, just make sure you aren't followed for obvious reasons. Take forever to get new servers built..."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Nothing //fancy//?" Madison counters in a quiet voice, as she turns a full circle, her gaze slowly tracing over the array of weapons, motorcycles, and other tools of Owari's trade, her eyes a little wider than usual. "This is nuts," she murmurs. "My mom would flip her top if she knew I was in a room with a bunch of... of //guns// like this! She hates guns."
    She keeps following in Owari's footsteps as she adds, "Tea would be nice, though. And, I mean, some little snacks or something if you got anything? Doesn't really matter. I can't imagine why I'd ever have to hide in here, though. It's not like I have any enemies or anything."

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "//Yet//, you don't have enemies //yet//. Start trying to change the world, and you'll end up with plenty. If you're thorough most won't have an opportunity to do anything with all their anger, but sooner or later you find somebody who you just can't manage to get rid of."A moment more spent peeling herself out of that suit, before she snags a oversized T-shirt and a pair of gym shorts. Making no effort now to hide the vivid inkwork covering her arms and legs, a mixture of Tanuki, gold coins and japanese characters.

    "As for the guns, well I don't really know where the whole "Ninja only use swords" meme started. One of the oldest accounts of ninja involves somebody shooting a corrupt lord with a rifle, Ninjas love guns. Even the Koga and Iga Ninja have been strapped as far back as guns have existed, Ninja are pragmatic above all else. Use whatever works, yeah? Tradition that impedes the mission, is to be discarded."The electric kettle is started, before she goes to dig around in the fridge. Casually tossing an apple and an orange towards Madison, before sinking down in front of the table with her own fruit and a little sigh. "Before you leave, we need to get you a mask and a weapon. Don't let me forget, alright?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison catches the apple, but fumbles the orange. Before it can hit the floor, though, she turns the palm of her hand towards it, inhaling - as the orange rises up to meet her hand. She grins with satisfaction at her success - before dropping down to sit by the kotatsu.
    Without removing her shoes. Oops - faux pas there.
    She settles her fruit down on the table and starts peeling the orange before asking curiously, "A mask? Like... one of yours? With all the augmented reality stuff? And, umm... what kind of weapon? I thought I already had two." Wooden ones, but weapons nonetheless - this was already established, after all.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "No, the helmet's too much for a human brain to really handle. I turned off about ninety percent of the output when I let you wear it, you'd have a seizure if I left it at normal."She rolls her shoulders, plucking a small pen knife from..well god knows where she had it honestly but she neatly slices that apple never the less. "I'll cast you a animal mask like I wear over mine, when you figure out your own identity and everything we'll figure that out but I just want to get you something simple to keep your identity safe. As for the weapon, well wood isn't good for street use. Everyone says it's fine but I did it for awhile, and it -sucks-. So I made you something tougher, and dull."

    And a pause as she pops a slice in her mouth, peering back towards the electric kettle for a moment. "Spidey thinks I'm being too rough on you, showing you too much specifically. Giving you too many options, being too scary I suppose. You understand why he isn't equipped to have an opinion on the matter, yes?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "...aren't you human?" Madison asks with bafflement, wondering if there was some sort of... language barrier issue at play there. That was a very strange thing to say.
    As Owari starts talking about Spidey, though, Madison's shoulders hunch a little, and she stares down at the orange in her hands, focusing on the task of peeling it rather than looking at her teacher. "No," she answers quietly. "I don't. And- and what if I agreed with him...? Does my opinion not matter either?"
    So - he did try to talk to Owari after all. She was convinced he'd forgotten... And as much as she'd rather run and hide instead of having this conversation, she knows that's a cowardly reaction. Jedi aren't cowards. ...right?

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "I was created in a test tube."She states quite plainly, peering back after Madison. "I have a Mother and a Father, but I am quite far from human. I've got some actual raccoon-dog mixed in, along with a bunch of other stuff. I'm quicker than a human, better endurance, heal much better from injury, I don't actually have any cool powers or anything. I'm just sharper than a mortal human Ninja can be, which means I'm about on par with my peers who are magically enhanced."

    "As for Spidey, well here's the thing. He's almost fast enough to catch a bullet, he can lift a bus with one arm without breaking a sweat, and he has extra-sensory perception. I don't know if he's actually bullet proof, but when we trained my punches and kicks hurt me dramatically more than they did him."She lets that hang out there as she rises to snag the kettle. "Back in Japan my old partner was the most powerful Witch in Japan, and I routinely fought with an actual divine Kitsune. Neither could take him in a fair fight any day of the week, I don't think either of them could even -touch- him if he took it seriously."

    "You and I however, are in a different class entirely from somebody like Spidey. One dude with a pistol, one lucky bastard with a knife we missed. Hell a bad jump between buildings, rickety railings, hell black ice on the sidewalk is enough to potentially kill us."And slowly she returns with a pair of plain white mugs, it's the plain bagged stuff but green tea is green tea right? "More importantly if we get into a fight and it turns out the dude is outside of our weight class, neither of us has the mobility to just flee any encounter we want whenever we want to. We're stuck there, in the middle of that and we've got to be skilled enough and fight dirty enough to just survive."

    "You get a say, I get a say."And a pause as she dunks her tea-bag a few times idly. "Your first go the other night, was dramatically more dangerous for you than just about any fight he's //ever// had. He does not understand the peril any of this poses to us, or with how little margin we win our fights. He can be as gentle and non-violent as he wants, thats what his power allows. We have to be more realistic, more pragmatic and sometimes that means we have to be dramatically meaner just to survive."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I guess that all makes sense," Madison agrees quietly, glancing up briefly as the tea is set in front of her. She picks up the tea bag by its string - dunking it up and down a few times. Does this actually help it brew faster? Not really. "I just- when you said it was just a little street fight, I didn't expect- I didn't want to see something like that," she admits. "It was awful, and it gave me nightmares, and my mom kept asking me what was wrong and I- I couldn't even tell her." She shifts uneasily in her set, still idly dunking and swirling the bag of tea.
    "I want to stay safe, and I still want to learn. I just- I really don't like seeing stuff like... that. I didn't want to see that guy... die. Even if he was a very bad dude."

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "We're going to see dead bodies, horrific injuries, every foul thing men can do. You want to do this, you're going to see all of it. It's ugly and terrible, and all unfortunately part of the job."And a pause as she sips curiously. "When you see something terrible you need to be prepared, so that you can maintain your focus. You are nothing but the next victim, if you lose yourself in the moment. The fact that it causes you anguish isn't weakness of course, it's testament to the strength of your moral fibre. It's good that it makes you uncomfortable, it means you're a good person. Learning to acknowledge what you see without becoming distracted by it is an important skill however, one which can keep you alive."

    "When you grow up a ninja they introduce these things to us very early, I watched my mother kill a man when I was maybe eight? I killed my first man at thirteen, all of which is before the expensive training and equipment gets involved."And another slow sip. "They do this because if we cannot compartmentalize, we can be discarded. Of my generation of twenty children, I am alone. Even amongst Ninja I am notably more comfortable with violence than they, so I am unfortunately a clumsy teacher in this regard. Likely some flaw in my creation has impacted my neurological development, I do often have difficulty feeling empathy for others."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Yeah, well, if I need to be prepared I- I wasn't. You didn't even //warn// me," Madison points out - some anger leaking into her voice, at last. "I don't want to see stuff like that - not right now. And if you think there's something I need to learn that makes- you know, seeing stuff like that necessary right now you could at least- you should've at least told me. Alright? That's what I think."
    That said, Madison shoves a piece of her orange into her mouth - perhaps to keep her from saying anything else. Or maybe she's just eats to cope with her emotions - it's hard to tell.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "Verywell, in the future we will discuss it beforehand."And a sip of her tea once more, letting the silence hang for a moment. "Have you put any thought into what sort've name or costume you want to fight in? You don't have the killer instinct to play the Ninja game, and I get the distinct notion you don't want to put on the stocking and aprons to play street fighting maid? In the short term I was going to suggest a cat, Kitsune are a bit of a let down when you -actually- meet one. They're all -dorks-, and you should absolutely tell them I said that directly to their face. //Especially// if they're the real divine sorts."And no, she does not seem to be kidding.

    "In Tokyo at least cat girl heroines are sort of everywhere, absolutely everywhere. It's not a bad sort've generic first step, but I'm not sure what you cool kids are into over here I suppose."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Okay. Good," Madison agrees. Somehow, that wasn't as absolutely horrible as she expected it to be - that was a relief. Even if Owari hadn't actually //apologized// - like Irie and Spidey seemed to think she should. She lifts her cup for a sip - puzzling over the rest of Owari's words with a furrowed brow.
    "Kitsune? Those are like - those magical fox things?" They're real? ... huh. "Well, the obvious thing would be to dress as a Jedi - but I think if I did that my mom would at least suspect it was me and that would worry her and make her mad at me, so..." She frowns in thought. "So, no, actually. I haven't thought about it too much. Dressing up like some animal, like a cat or something, seems sorta random. Could just be like... a generic superhero costume with like a star or something on the front, but..." That's hardly the most exciting idea ever, either.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "There are a few types, the Ninja are divine servants of the goddess Inari. They're her personal Ninja, and remarkably dangerous sorts. If you have cause to meet one, you should immediately tell them you are my student. Honorable sorts they are, they will spare you from their trickery. Look like big foxes walking upright, many tails. I know of at least one who prowls North America, though you're unlikely to ever see him unless he wants to be seen."Which is sort've typical for a Ninja really. "They're the only other Ninja who fight dirty, almost as dirty as Haga Ninja do."

    "Well cat -mask-, if the outfit is low key enough you can sort've get by without too much notice. Show up in a whole themed getup and everyone wants to know who you are, what's your tragic back story and so fourth."She hmmms softly, snagging her phone for a moment spent fiddling before turning the phone around. Oh hey a familiar maid with a yellow scarf, standing next to a woman in a long black dress and a classical witch's hat."Swipe right, that's from like two years ago? Big charity photo shoot, about two hundred Heroines and Villianess got together for a big fund raiser. The woman in the black and red is Lady Centipede, my big arch nemesis."

    No joke a few photos later there she is, a beautiful woman dressed like she's right out of the Edo period save for the red centipede motif on her Kimono and the pair of swords on her hip. Standing there right next to Chizue, or well the Yellow Scarf Buster. All smiles for the camera, talk about surreal right? "Maybe see something that inspires you?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I'll, uhh... keep that in mind," Madison promises. "...so you know a lot of kitsune, and they know you?" she asks - as she starts idly flipping through the photos, studying some of the images with a thoughtful look on her features.
    "I'm not really - I dunno - a designer really, and just pointing at something and going 'Oh, I like that!' and just stealing it seems like- I dunno. Well, like stealing, obviously," she says idly as she continues to flick through the images. Then she pulls out her own phone, doing a quick search, and after flicking through several images, pushes it towards Owari. It shows Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars - but not in one of her more iconic outfits. "What about something like this?" she asks.
    She starts pointing some of the things she likes about it. "It looks easy to move in. Nothing that'll get, you know, caught on anything of give someone something to grab onto. It's got like - guards built around the hands and wrists. Not sure I'd want to actually leave my arms exposed like that but- anyways. Yeah. Whatcha think?"

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "Who do you think makes all the Ninja blades, the guys sitting under waterfalls, or the Foxes who walk around smug in their divine superiority? I'm Haga's one field Ninja, so yes they know me."Once that phone is set aside, she digs about for a photo. Yep thats a big multitailed fox, with a graffiti'd assault rifle and a lacquered chest plate inlayed with gold. Wearing a mixture of modern tactical gear and traditional kimono, and a smug sense of superiority that bleeds through the phone. "That's Ito, the radiant glow isn't a phone effect."nevermind that he's shoving food in his mouth, and has rice stuck to his nose.

    "Alright yes, ok that looks....reasonable."She concludes comfortably. "Do you want to start training for dual swords?"Is immediately where she takes it, no hesitation. "I'd suggest a backpack, because pockets are awesome but I know a seamstress who could work something like that up without too much trouble. Probably want to take the armor up to the elbow, but I don't have a problem with that at all. Mask wise what are you thinking, hankerchief and ballcap is always easy."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Umm. I dunno. Maybe? Isn't it better to learn how to deal with one first?" Madison asks in an uncertain tone. "I mean- well. I have some friends who are trying to maybe make like real lightsabers for me. And I was kind of thinking that maybe - well, if it's even possible - to make one that's longer, that would be the main weapon - that doesn't cut like a lightsaber, really. It's more for stunning or shocking someone. With a second, smaller blade that //does// cut. Because sometimes it'd be nice to just cut a lock open or- well. Who knows what happens, you know? It just might be nice to have cutting as an option."
    See? She has put at least a //little// thought into this.
    "I dunno about masks, though, Just- whatever makes sure my mom can't recognize me." Yes. She's still worried about her mom more than enemies...

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "Well cutting is easy with the right technology.."Chizue rises slowly and gives her shoulders a slow roll. "Alright lets see whats actually possible, I have some stuff laying around if you want something like a light sabre."And well with that, she grabs her suit and starts changing right there. "Dual blade fighting is much easier and much harder, it's honestly better suited to defense than offense. You make yourself very difficult to hit, and almost impossible to get inside of. However it's tiring, and it's very difficult to get blows in on an opponent who knows what they're doing."

    That backpack goes on with an audible click, followed by her swords. "These things are easier to see and understand than understand based on pure theory, bring your tea and I will show you."And down comes that helmet. "Just don't get too close when I light up, stray currents can be painful at how output."

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison's gaze follows her as she starts getting ready for- well, honestly, she's not entirely sure what. As she's invited over, though, she rises with her tea, moving over towards her, but keeping a good arms length away. She takes a sip from her tea before asking, "How hard would it be to learn both?" she asks curiously. "Is it possible to switch, you know, from one style to the other - on the fly, as it were? I mean, I could drop my second blade, fight with just the one - and then call my second one back into my hand again when I need it," she points out.
    Jedi are such cheaters.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "You need two smaller blades ideally for two weapons, and I mean yes Musashi fought with full sized swords but you're not Musashi."Theres an open area not too far from the partition, and it doesn't take long to set up a few rolled up tatami mats with a single chunk of rebar poking up through the middle. This done Owari steps back a few yards, before glancing towards Madison and slowly drawing her sword. It's more or less a Katana in size and shape, but made out of what looks like glass. "This blade is called the "Gambler's lore", it's composed primarily of a hyper conductive meta material with no name. This is the highest power example of this technology we've built so far. Unpowered it's just a club.."And a twist of the wrist, and it takes on an immediate smoky violet hue. "With a little juice it can deliver very painful electrical injuries, a blow to the head is usually enough to down a foe in one stroke."

    That backpack humms to life, as the blade finally erupts in brilliant purple plasma. Ok maybe it's not exactly a "light-sabre" in the traditional sense, but holy cow does it look like it."At this length I have distance."She half turns towards the target, extinguishing the blade and quickly returning it to it's sheathe. "Now watch closely."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Well - but if it was a real lightsaber - the blade wouldn't have any weight," Madison points out. "...if the blade doesn't have any weight, then does it still matter how long it is?" she asks - genuinely curious.
    Of course, that curiosity changes to eager interest - followed by something akin to awe as the blade really powers up. "That is so... cool! Can it cut through, like, //anything//?" she asks in an eager tone. Everyone keeps saying lightsabers aren't possible - but here it is! ... well. Not quite. But a close proximity, anyways!

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "When i find something it can't cut through, I'll let you know."And with that she's off. She's a lot faster than she used to be, and well all suited up she's at best an indistinct blur rushing towards the tatami. Then comes the draw, that sword igniting the moment it hits the air and sailing in a brilliant purple blur through three tatami mats, before hurtling back in the opposite direction and taking down another inch off the targets height. Chunks of rebar hit the ground still partially wrapped up in tatami, white hot and immediately bursting into small flames. With a single artful roll of the wrist she flips the sword off, and all but throws it back into the sheathe without taking another step forward. "Now look at where I am, and look at where the targets are. Average American male has an arm length of aproximately three feet, I'm well outside of that see? So even on a miss, I can't be easily grabbed."
    Nevermind the bits of burning mat on the floor of course, she extends a gloved hand towards the target to make things easier to see. "A long sword gives me time, and it makes it easy to dive in and adjust the range I'm attacking on the fly in real time. The best defense is actually just dodging the attack entirely, I need space for that right?

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Duuuuuuude," Madison murmurs quietly, sounding suitably impressed. She actually stands there with her mouth gaping for a little bit - before she clicks it shut, and has to run back through her mental tape of what Owari just said to be able to reply. "Umm... yeah. I mean, makes sense. That, umm - having a longer sword would... But when you fight with two swords, it's always two short swords? Instead of a long one and a short one? Is it just 'cuz the swords are to heavy to be held by just the one arm? Or is there another reason?"

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "Leverage."She answers immediately. "Longer sword takes more to stop and start of course, but consider what it does on an impact. I need to be able to just -take- any recoil generated, because we can never -assume- the blade made it through. We're spending range and getting defense, to offset the loss in range we have to increase the violence of action and that gets tiring."And a moment spent, exchanging her blades for a pair of shorter swords from a nearby rack. One gets clipped to her waist as per usual, whilst it's twin gets clipped to the bottom of that backpack."These are much older examples, so discard the worry over cutting power and just focus on the range and the time it takes for me to get in tight alright?"Hands moving to rest on those hilts.

    Owari sinks down low, leaning forward as she eyes up those targets. One hilt gripped reverse (icepick) and her right hand holding the hilt conventionally. "On your go, student.."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "What if it's not meant to cut //through// it?" Madison asks simply. "What if it's meant to stun, so it doesn't need to cut through? Does the leverage still matter?"
    She watches as Owari switches weapons, curious about the way the plugs them in to what she can only assume is a power supply. Rather than saying 'go,' she takes a sip of her tea. Lowers it. And is lifting it to her lips for a second sip when she says, "Go," instead.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    Superhuman reaction speed is put on full display, exploding forward through the thin smoke and she's at the target in no time. She delays the draw until she's right up close, striking with one blow and following up an instant later with the other before turning her attention towards the second target which gets slashed four or five times in a singular fluid wave of blows before she stops. "Alright same time elapsed, notice I'm elbow distance from the target now. Not a comfortable forty inches or more, I have to be right up tight."And a casual little flick towards the third tatami mat, left totally untouched. "With both hands always full, I can't throw shuriken or grenades either of course."

    "If I am banging my sword against something, I need both hands to make sure It stays in my hand."She pauses a moment, casually flipping one of those short swords around to balance the tip against her fingerpad. "Think about this, how many hands do you hit a baseball with? How good does that bat feel when you really cream the target, kind of hurts right?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I guess that's true," Madison agrees in a thoughtful tone. Unless the stun-saber is just as intangible as a real lightsaber? But she won't know that until someone manages to make one. She takes another sip of her drink before asking, "Which way do you think I should learn first?" she asks - seeming genuinely curious as she studies Owari.
    "I mean, pros and cons to everything, yeah? But I just don't know very much about fighting yet to - you know. Make a very informed decision."
    She moves over to one of the cut pieces on the floor, nudging it curiously with her foot - and then checking the bottom of her shoe to see if she'd managed to melt it like that one time camping beside a metal campfire ring.

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "I had planned on having this conversation much later, but since we're already here? I think you should learn all of them, but if I were to design a weapon for you."And with that she flips the blades around and slips then away before moving towards one of the racks. "I remember there was a dude with a double bladed light sabre, right?"Out comes a smooth black metal pole and a pair of, well ok they look sort of like two black metal rods with a looped end on the bottom of each."I have a few bad guys yet to steal from, I suspect one of them might have some of the solutions I need. Right now there's not enough battery power and the locking mechanism is a little clunky."That bar goes on her back with an audible -click-, before she bangs the two bars together and produces a shower of sparks and a single thick arc of electricity for a few moments. "Right now they can shock good enough, but they can only discharge for about two seconds continuously before the capacitors need time to recharge. These have a switch built in that recognizes my suit, and you'd need to fight with insulated gloves for sure. Cool enough so far?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison watches all of this curiously while supplying the name without so much as a moment's thought. "Darth Maul." But he's a bad guy. She doesn't want to look like a //bad// guy? But she wouldn't - right? As long as the blades weren't red.
    Whoa
    "That's.... okay, that's pretty cool," she admits. "But - um, how long does it take to recharge?" she asks uncertainly. "I mean, two seconds isn't a very long time. And- well, I mean, I guess pummeling a guy with sticks still hurts, but... I dunno."

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "A few seconds, too long. Still you can use them like Kali sticks, I made them as tough as I could so you can wail on somebody with them even without the shock. So they're "OK", but not perfected. Still these are -ninja- weapons, so it's basically against the law to be simple or conventional. First off the entire rod is hot, so handle it without gloves and you're going to get shocked. Makes it difficult to take them from you, but the tricks.."And carefully she collects two in one hand before snagging that longer pole and pushing the lanyard hole'd ends into either end with an audible -click-.

    Ok so now she's got, well an electrified quarterstaff by the looks of it. "Ok so inside there is a big fucking spring and a cable reel, which I'll show you in a moment. Even without an electric charge though there is enough wallop to knock somebody out cold, cuz it'll fire out one of these electric doodads at about a hundred fifty miles an hour without much warning. Now it's retained on a big kevlar line with about fifty foot of cordage, and there is -another- big ass spring ready to rewind it. Otherwise we have a lovely double ended shock stick, which we'll still want to wear gloves for of course."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Okay. I can see why you said 'Maul' now," Madison remarks, watching as Owari assembles the weapon. She takes another sip of her tea - it was almost surreal to be sipping tea while doing this. "And I guess because of the coil thing - it wouldn't work to have it just divide into two pieces in the middle, instead of three pieces?" she asks. "...whatcha mean it fires electric doodads at //a hundred and fifty miles an hour//? That's like... way faster than a fastball, yeah?" She doesn't know much about baseball. But she thinks that's true... "And how do you aim it? I'd be afraid of like.... hitting some passerby or something."

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "Aiming is hard, and it's not remarkably accurate but.."She half turns, holding the staff casually with one hand. Then -CRACK-, one end goes hurtling downrange to plough into the target with an audible -CLANG- and a shower of sparks as the staff end discharges against the rebar. Then a tug, and the cable reels the staff end back in with an audible -clunk-. "Well I want to make it small enough to fit into a backpack eventually, but This is an early build."Turning the thing to rest one end against the concrete floor. "Like for now it's too long for either of us to use, and the reel mechanism is much bigger than I wanted. So I've got a lot of work to do, but this is just to see if I can get it working before I bother trying to refine it."

    "I mean the diameter is a little too wide for good stick work, it's heavy, the balance is funny. All things I'll solve eventually, though you can have Spidey take a look at it if you want. He's a clever guy too, might come up with something I havent thought of. Three two foot tubes would be about right for your height, should be about six foot-ish in the end."Theres a little shrug there. "What do you think, worth the time?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I mean. Seems at least worth exploring. It //is// pretty cool," Madison agrees. "And it seems dangerous without, you know, being as deadly as a sword." Which she has been discovering is a problem for her.
    But is it a //lightsaber//?
    ...let it go, Mads.
    "So you design all these weapons yourself?" she asks curiously. "How'd you learn how to do all that? Can... //I// learn how to design weapons too? You use," she gestures around the room, "All this stuff to do it?"

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "Theres about fifty engineers behind me, who do all my work. They design most of the things I use, but I do my own modifications. I do build my own hacking hardware, code my own software."And a reach back to unhook that backpack, which she just offers over. "That, is all me. Oh and the explosives, I do almost all that myself too from scratch. You haven't seen it I suppose, but I tend to use a lot of explosives as it's not something most bad guys are really setup to handle due to how uncommon it is."

    That box is, well a carbon fibre shell with one outer edge covered in ports and little wire reels. Theres a rectangle simply stuck onto the bottom edge, and another folded up bit of semi-transparent plastic and steel on top. "Most powerful computer under about a hundred ten pounds, will slice through just about any commercial security in seconds and powered by a radio-isotope thermal reactor. No moving parts inside, shielded magnetically and against any RF so it's basically invisible. I'm the nerd of the family, not the swordsmith unfortunately."And a half turn to break that staff down and put it away. "Folding silenced handgun on top there, and the box on the bottom holds my lunch."

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison takes the backpack, hefting it curiously to test the weight - then tries slipping it on to see how it feels. At the mention of her lunch - she lets out a quiet giggle. "Don't want to forget that!" she agrees brightly. More seriously, a moment later she asks, "How often - um - do you missions go that long? That you, you know, need to bring a lunch with you?" she asks. "When we went and got the bat back," well, and beat some guys senseless and left them for the police, "we didn't need a lunch."

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    The pack weighs, seemingly nothing at all. It sort've vanishes once worn. "Most ninja work has nothing to do with the sword, or fighting at all. Most of it involves sneaking around, breaking into places, stealing things, learning things, sabotaging, planting evidence, setting traps and then leaving without any evidence. Sometimes that means waiting inside a wall, or hanging from a ceiling for hours until the right moment presents itself. Sure we do other stuff, but we appear where we shouldn't be at the worst possible time, having taken the time to cheat and tilt the field in our favor. So bring lunch, you never know how long it'd take."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I'd probably like drop my juice box by mistake," Madison mutters quietly - before brightening to add, "But then I could just pick it up again, even if I was hiding in the ceiling." So long as it didn't make someone //look up// and see her. While taking, she turns in place, tilting her body this way and that - as she tests out how the backpack affects her movement and balance, all while trying to remember she still has half a cup of hot tea in her hand.
    Huh. She'd have expected the backpack to have more affect than that.
    "But I guess that all makes sense. I'd get soooooo bored, though. You don't get bored?"

Chizue Nakamura has posed:
    "Patience is a weapon."Snagging her swords casually, and leading back towards the little alcove. "Anyway my tea is getting cold, and I've yet to have my own little snack. So sit your butt down, and I'll fire off an email to my seamstress see if she's looking for work right now. No promises of course, she's a woman in demand but she owes me a few favors."