[ACTIVE/VERY OPEN] intro part deux

[sortalonewolf]

Characters: Kotarou Inugami and whoever shows up!?
Content: The littlest dogboy shows up (again) with no idea what's going on. LET US SEE WHAT HAPPENS THIS TIME
Location: Not far from a dumpster, apparently
Time of day: Late afternoon
Warnings: none, currently

Comments

[crimson_nanaki]

Nanaki walked down the street nervously, a bag of recently collected supplies around his neck. He had only a little fear of the crabs as they were when he first arrived, but now that they'd suddenly seemed to have grown and become more vicious he was on a constant alert whenever he went out. Before, he had been able to fight them, now he had to depend on outrunning and out-maneuvering them instead. Not that he wasn't good at it, but it was certainly more inconvenient.

He slowed as he approached an alleyway. A good place for one of them to lurk. He perked up his ears and listened for any kind of noise. About all he could smell was an old dumpster overpowering everything else. Except maybe there was something? He wasn't sure. Then he heard a few soft sounds, completely unlike the hard clattering sounds made by the crabs. Nanaki hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided whatever it was probably wasn't a crab and peeked cautiously around the corner.

[sortalonewolf]

Hearing the thing getting closer, Kotarou tensed up, and when he saw the large shadow starting to turn the corner, he attempted to lunge forward using his super speed technique-! But he only managed to take an awkward leap and nearly fell flat on his face. Flustered, and hoping that whatever creature it was that was rounding the corner didn't see his slip, Kotarou steadied himself against the wall of the alley.

His eyes widened a bit when the new-thing peeked around the corner. Oh man... Imagine battling that! Kotarou resisted the temptation to lunge for it again with an attack - no, he had to actually analyze him first. Right. Analyze. He couldn't mess up his first fight in the magic world (It had to be the magic world, there was nothing like this at home).

The youngster donned a haughty smirk, narrowing his eyes and setting a hand on his hip. "So what the heck are you supposed to be?" Kotarou demanded, starting to slowly walk toward the newcomer, but trying to stay far enough out of range so that the thing wouldn't take him off

[crimson_nanaki]

Oh. Well that wasn't what Nanaki had been expecting, which was impressive, given that he wasn't sure what he had been expecting in the first place. Certainly not a person who also seemed to be part animal, looking a little like something Hojo might have been attempting to create, just for the fun of it. But the young person didn't seem troubled in the least by his dual nature - fully embracing it, in fact, judging by the show of claw and teeth. Very curious.

Nanaki rounded the corner, set his supply bag on the ground and looked at the strange person quizzically.

"Supposed to be? I am just what you see," he answered, enigmatically. He dodged the question because he never really liked being asked. He also refrained from asking it himself, even though he badly wanted to for the first time in recent memory. "My name is Nanaki. Did you just arrive here?" he asked.

[sortalonewolf]

"Just what I see, huh..." Oh. Well that response certainly dampened his fighting spirit. He expected maybe a roar, or something at least a little ferocious. The half-demon relaxed from his 'threatening' posture somewhat, then replaced his grin with a half-smirk and pointed at himself with his thumb, "I'm Kotarou."

He stared at Nanaki for a moment longer, still trying to figure him out. Was he - some kind of cat, maybe..? Hn. For a moment, he wondered if this Nanaki guy was at all in league with Fate, and eyed him with suspicion.

"...I guess I did. Where are we?"

[crimson_nanaki]

Nanaki smirked a little as well, amused at how quickly Kotarou's mood had shifted, remembering what he had been like at that (apparent) age. He could tell that he was still under suspicion, but that was normal. He didn't even really mind and took the opportunity to scrutinize Kotarou in return, still intrigued by the seemingly half-wolf nature of the boy.

He continued his usual strategy of being as calm and polite as possible, although the more time they spent hanging around, the more likely it was that something unfriendly would find them.

"This city is called New York and it isn't entirely safe," Nanaki said, looking down the street to his left and then his right. "It's best to be outside as little as possible," he explained.

[sortalonewolf]

"Haah..? New York!?" There's a place in the magic world called New York, too? Weird. "It isn't? Why not? -Eh, are you nervous?" Nanaki was apparently making sure to keep an eye out; Kotarou figured there had to be some pretty big baddies hanging around to scare someone who looked like Nanaki.

Not that this bothered Kotarou at all. In fact, it was pretty exciting. His smirk darkened and his eyes shifted around, more than ready for something cool and dangerous to pop out at him.

[crimson_nanaki]

"I'm merely being cautious. Let us keep moving and I'll explain" Nanaki said, looping his bag back around his neck and heading off in the direction of his current apartment. Between the supply center and his own place he'd already found several good escape routes and hiding places - some he'd found from necessity, others he staked out just for future reference.

By the sound of it, Kotarou recognized the name of the city. "I'm cautious - or nervous, as you say - because New York has been dominated by several extremely large monsters and many more smaller ones that still roam the streets," he explained. It probably sounded far fetched, but hopefully the rubble all over would support the truth. "The large ones aren't very active most of the time, but the smaller ones are still quite big and extremely dangerous." Nanaki stressed this last point. He could tell Kotarou was looking for a fight. Between the two of them they might actually fare alright, if Kotarou could actually fight as well as he seemed to think he could. Nanaki

[sortalonewolf]

"Just askin'," He said, dropping his arms to his side and following Nanaki, looking up and around as well as he walked.

"'Monsters'?" Kotarou echoed with a grin, "What kind? I mean - how big are we talking here? Sharp teeth, spikes, acidy spit - any dragons?" Hmm... did that mean Fate had a bunch of super bad monsters under him now? ...Whatever, Kotarou was sure that he and his companions would be able to take them on (once he found them).

[crimson_nanaki]

"The people here call them crabs, although they look more like bugs. Ten legs, claws, and huge jaws. Their bites are particularly dangerous. Anyone who is bitten becomes extremely ill. If it goes untreated... well it only gets worse," Nanaki said. He was getting quite used to explaining all this, with how often new people arrived in the city.

"As for the size, they used to be about the size of... well about as big as I am actually. But recently they've gotten much larger. More around the size of-" He stopped abruptly. There was a clattering ahead of them. About a block away, one of the crabs emerged from behind a building.

"About the size of that," he finished, whispering. "I think it would be best to cut through an alley here, avoid it if we can," he continued, still whispering. Whether or not Kotarou would go with that, though, he had no idea.

sorry for the delay D:

[sortalonewolf]

"So, just don't let them bite ya'. Got it." Kotarou stopped just after Nanaki, following his gaze to the new creature. Still grinning, Kotarou turned towards it.

He acted as if he didn't even hear Nanaki's suggestion, and he probably hadn't. "Wooaahhh.... That's the small one? You're right, doesn't look like a crab to me... But it's really cool-! I'll bet I could take it down really easy, though- you wanna try, too?" This place is so awesome! Already he'd seen two mega-awesome-looking future rival-potential candidates...!

Quickly, Kotarou crouched down and picked up a small, rounded piece of rubble and hurled it in the crab's direction, though it stopped short of actually hitting it. He hadn't been trying to, though, so he just readied his claws and shouted, "HEEYYYY! Crabface! You hungry?"

no worries, stuff happens :3 (plus TWO edits because I don't know how to post.)

[crimson_nanaki]

"No, I don't want to try-" Nanaki tried to protest, but it was too late. Kotarou had already gotten the crab's attention, and it seemed pretty irate about it. He gaped in shock for a moment, then brought a paw to his face in a show of exasperation. Kids these days, he thought, as if here weren't technically barely at the end of adolescence himself.

Nanaki set his supply bag down and prepared himself, waiting for the crab to come into leaping range, fur raising and claws baring. The crab barreled down the street at them angrily.

"The joints and the underside are slightly weaker," Nanaki advised, his tone seeming calm except for the slight growl working it's way into his voice. He didn't like this in the slightest, but he would at least be able to see what the part-wolf boy could do. Hopefully as much as he thought he could. But there was no time to think about what would happen if he couldn't, the crab was already upon them, hissing furiously.