I need a hero

[slappingchick]

WHO: Keiko and Blue
WHERE: Streets
WHEN: This afternoon
WARNINGS: Nada
SUMMARY: Keiko gets into trouble and Blue comes to help.
FORMAT: Words

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[soldieringblue]

The goal of that afternoon had been, as days previous, to seek out notion of Hiei. The demon's presence went missing not long ago without witness or source, leaving questions in his place. Of course, the easiest explanation was the machine, but...Blue couldn't sit comfortably with it, not until he was certain he'd turned over every stone in the City. If his oversight became a cause for his friend's suffering, he couldn't consider forgiving himself. Hiei would have searched likewise (though with greater ease, that third eye of his).

A nagging, tense feeling began to overtake him as he flew, combing the colors of thought and feeling from on high. At first, he thought it was the notion of being close to what he wanted, but as he scoured, that familiar mind was nowhere nearer, but his unease only heightened. What was he overlooking-?

[slappingchick]

Smack.

The ringer leader of the group had made a move to grab Keiko's arm, igniting her fury further. She'd slapped him across the face with enough force to surprise the men, causing them to take a moment before they moved in. Keiko's face reddened and she hit the nearest man with her bag. People from the street stopped and stared.

"Stay away from me! And you guys! Don't just stand there!"

[soldieringblue]

It was like someone snapping their fingers, flashing in his peripheral like the wave of a hand. The heat that spiked from the slap wasn't only on the hoodlum's face. Blue's attention was drawn to zone where the atmosphere began a quick shift from the average to tense. He floated to a hovering halt and turned to face the direction of the disturbance. It didn't take long after that to realize just what it was that he'd been missing.

Keiko...Like a bullet, Blue streaked down from the sky, faster and faster the more he absorbed the increasingly dangerous mood, as driven by adrenaline as Keiko's own actions. He would have slowed, let his feet touch the ground before confronting the situation, but the last time he had entered a dangerous situation too gently, he had held a child in her last moments. Never again, if he could help it

[slappingchick]

Keiko's head snapped around, startled by Blue's sudden entrance. She took a step back herself, unused to seeing aggressive behavior from him and a little thrown off by it.

"Blue?" She asked uncertainty. She tore her eyes away from him when her attacker dropped her wrist from his hold. The confusion drained from her the second she focused back on the group, quickly being replaced by anger. "Oh so you listen to him."

The group had already turned its attention to the Mu, some looking nervous at the sudden display and some growing annoyed. They stood between Blue and Keiko defiantly. "What did ya say punk?"

[soldieringblue]

"I was very clear," Blue responded. The only motion from him came in the form of a gesture with his hand, indicating the startled strangers who had ceased passing by and ignoring.

"There are many people here who could recognize your faces and voices; it would not be difficult to have you punished for harassing that girl." No association was claimed; it seemed safer that way. The City was full of self-proclaimed heroes, wasn't it? It made things simpler.

"Walk away."

[slappingchick]

The majority of the men, glancing between each other and mumbling about not wanting to fight any 'imported freaks', walked past Keiko with a dirty looks. Keiko glared back at them, biting her tongue to keep from shouting at them. She turned back around, arms crossed, and shot at heated look at the back of the group's ringleader's head. "You heard him."

The man still stood in front of Blue, still in stance that suggested he would fight at any given second. His expression, however, was uncertain. "I wasn't doin' the lady any harm, we were just talkin'. Why don't ya go help some grannies across the street or somethin'?"

[soldieringblue]

As the man spoke, Blue's gaze trailed to meet Keiko's, seeing the color of her frustration at being hassled and wound up by the unruly bunch. But no harm, physically, seemed done, and he took relief in that.

"If she wishes to talk," Blue replied, mild, as he looked back at the man, "then she will follow you as you leave. Now, please go."