cute sushi lunches.

[goesberserk]

Who: Heiwajima Shizuo and Orihara Izaya; Amalthea; Maya Fey (OPEN)
When: December 20th (daytime)
Where: Wandering around Sector 4
Summary: Shizuo caught the news about a new sushi restaurant and is now on a mission to find it. Plus, getting a lay of the land might be good.
Warnings: Should be pretty tame so long as he doesn't get pissed off.

Comments

[goesberserk]

A defense attorney... So a lawyer, right? Shizuo didn't know much about that sort of thing, but as far as he could remember, that was the sort of person who tried to argue that people didn't commit a crime. Which could be good or bad, depending on if the person was really innocent.

It wasn't the sort of thing he wanted to get into an argument about, though. From what little he knew of Maya, he didn't think she would be the type to get involved in anything as immoral as keeping criminals on the streets, but...

"Well, if he'd stayed focused on his job even while you were injured, he wouldn't be much of a man, would he," Shizuo commented in a matter-of-fact tone. To get a young girl involved in something like that was iffy enough. Shizuo didn't know if she'd ended up injured because of her friend's profession, but either way, it wasn't something that could just be ignored.

Part of him wanted to ask her for more details on how she'd ended up hurt, but he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. So maybe it was better to stick with the glasses.

"...Still cool, yeah," he eventually said with a nod. "They'd probably fit him better."

[acemedium]

That comment surprised her a little. To be honest, Nick's manly moments were kind of rare, but...

"Yeah, but... I mean, I recovered pretty well. Aside from the first few days. And I'm really grateful for all the time he spent with me, but..."

Whether or not he wanted to bring it up, she found herself talking about it, regardless. He was a pretty good listener, and it felt easy to talk to him. "...He can't just stop his life because some creep tried to kill me. I mean, it's bad enough he blamed himself for it when it totally wasn't his fault." She frowned. "He's got to take care of himself, instead of worrying and fussing over me all the time."

That was... a bit more than she intended to say. Self-consciously, she fell quiet, and took off the glasses to fiddle with them.

"Yeah, I think so... They'd probably work for him."

And then she saw the price. Yikes.

"W-Woah!"

[goesberserk]

While the girl had a point, Shizuo still thought it was someone's obligation to look after a friend or someone they were supposed to protect if they were injured. This lawyer clearly hadn't run himself broke just because of what had happened to Maya, so it wasn't like some concern was out of the question.

Then again, Shizuo knew that he didn't like people fussing over him that much, either. Mainly because it was always the wrong sort of person who did it, like that doctor...

Shaking his head in order to stop him from thinking about that, he paused as something else she'd said registered. "So it was a person who attacked you? Not the monsters?" She'd brought it up, so he didn't feel quite so bad asking about it. Who the hell would attack someone like her? Shizuo had a hard time believing that Maya had done anything to deserve it.

But then the girl was back to looking at the glasses, and the way that she let out a startled noise distracted Shizuo from his own troubling thoughts. "Ehh?"

[acemedium]

Maya let herself dwell for a second as well... She was just relieved that Phoenix had forgiven her. And she hoped he didn't still blame himself, like he was prone to doing.

"Ah... yeah. He's not exactly human, but... he's a Newcomer like us." She did look a little uncomfortable, but she didn't have any reason not to answer. Plus, he was new himself, wasn't he? The least she could do was warn him. "Um, most of the people here are nice... there are just a few that are really, really dangerous. That guy is one of them."

She puffed her cheeks out - pouting right at the glasses. "Look at how much it is! That's waaaayy too much! No one's gonna buy it at that price!"

[goesberserk]

So it was someone else who had been brought here. Well, if people like that flea were around, then it figured that there would be others like him too. Shizuo knew that Izaya wasn't capable of badly injuring anyone himself, but he could certainly make others do it if he wanted to. He winced his eyes closed for a moment and shook his head. He didn't need to keep thinking about that.

He'd noticed the way she'd said something about her attacker not being human. Shizuo had been referred to as such before, so it was possible that whoever it was just had some sort of unexplainable power. "Yeah, I know someone else like that," he said eventually. "But this guy, was he at least put in jail for hurting you?" If he wasn't, then Shizuo wasn't going to be able to stand for it.

All of this serious talk made him less and less interested in the glasses, but it was what they were here for. He glanced at the price himself, knowing that it was way out of his (nonexistent) budget. Still, part of him wished he had the money to help her out, but he wouldn't have even had it back home. Half of his paycheck usually went to random repairs.

"Should we look for another one, then?" he asked as he glanced down the display. There were many others to choose from, after all.

[acemedium]

"You do?" She glanced up at that. "Ah... Well, there are some people like that here."

And at the second question, she rubbed at her head. "I, um... I think I fainted as he was finishing me off, so I don't know what happened. I was pretty out of it after that, and plus, he wrecked my NV. I couldn't check the network until I got a new one."

She'd heard a few things, but not all of them made sense. "Um, I heard that he ran away after. And that someone tried to fight him, but I don't know how it went. People are looking for him now to arrest him, but he's still hiding somewhere." She paused, "I don't think he has any reason to attack people off the street, but... You should still be careful, Mr. Shizuo."

Back to the glasses (although the serious talk had knocked her enthusiasm down a few notches), Maya nodded. "There's got to be a pair on sale or something!"

[goesberserk]

There were people like that everywhere, so Shizuo wasn't too surprised to hear that Siren's Port was no different. If they'd only brought well-meaning people into this place, then it probably wouldn't have been so bad. But instead, there were people like the flea or the guy who had decided to attack an innocent girl.

Shizuo assumed that she was innocent, anyway. He didn't even want to consider the idea that she'd done something to provoke whoever had attacked her, though the result made it clear that she'd had no way to defend herself -- which was bad enough.

It looked like her attacker still hadn't been caught, which also bothered him. That happened more often than not, of course; the flea did all sorts of terrible things and never had to really pay for any of it. That had to do with the fact that he only traded information, though.

Granted, Shizuo knew he probably deserved to be locked up his fair share of times, but that was a whole other issue.

"Don't worry about me," he said with a shake of his head. "Why did he attack you in the first place?" If the guy wasn't the sort to just randomly lash out at people, then what had happened in Maya's case?

Any attempts he would have liked to make to lighten the mood had failed, but he still wanted to make sure that she found what she needed, and so he started to wander through the store with an eye on the price of the glasses rather than the look of them.

[acemedium]

Maya toddled after him as he looked around. She was quite good at bargain-shopping, so her eyes were naturally trained to hunt for "special" stickers.

She found herself worrying more than often nowadays. She didn't really know this guy too well, but he had been really nice to her (and it would suck for him to end up in her position, or worse.) In the end, though, she was little more than a stranger to him. She wasn't about to push it.

Why indeed. That was a question she wasn't entirely sure she knew the answer to. "Ah, it's kind of a long story..." This had been an ongoing thing, after all, and she wasn't about to bog him down with the details.

"Basically what it boiled down to was me being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And he blamed me for something someone else did to him and tried to kill me."

She paused, bits and pieces of both attacks floating to the forefront of her mind. He'd been enjoying himself both times - she remembered that well. "Or maybe it was just funner to take it out on me. I don't know."

As if she'd ever understand what went through Grimmjow's head. He made less and less sense each time she saw him. Their last conversation seemed to imply he wasn't quite finished with her, but the most she could hope for was that he didn't go attacking anyone else. And that was probably too much to hope for.

Maya sighed - the entire thing had terrified her before, but now she was just... resigned.

[goesberserk]

Shizuo was just as used to trying to get a deal, seeing how his income wasn't exactly plentiful. He spotted something on a part of the display that probably would have been hard for Maya to reach; for that reason, he grabbed it for her and handed it over for her to examine. He didn't know if it was the sort of style she was looking for, but it was cheap.

He thought so, anyway. He was still trying to get the currency here all straight in his head.

The moment that she mentioned it being a long story, Shizuo wondered if it had been a bad idea to ask about it in the first place. That pretty much wrote out for him in bright letters that she didn't want to talk about it. In the end. she gave a brief version that got the main facts across.

So it had all been bad luck, then. Still, what stood out to Shizuo the most was that she knew that the attacker had been trying to kill her. He hadn't just decided to beat her up because something had pissed him off (and why attack someone who was uninvolved, anyway?) -- he'd been hoping to kill her.

That's what really bothered him. Shizuo forced out a breath and shook his head. "Someone had better find him soon..."

Shizuo knew that it wasn't his job to go chasing people down, but this was getting slightly personal, even if Maya was only an acquaintance at best. Still, it was the principle of the thing; he knew it was wrong, and he wanted it to be stopped somehow.

[acemedium]

Talking about it (without the other party constantly going "Maya why didn't you tell me? Maya I could have protected you.") gave her mixed feelings. Mostly, it felt like a relief, like she was getting a load off of her chest... But she found herself shuddering as she remembered. If she never had to see his snarling face again (especially that close), it would be too soon. She took the pair of glasses with an absent-minded "Thank you." and turned them over without really looking at them.

"Yeah, I hope so..." She frowned, trying to pull herself out of those thoughts, "I.. just.. I'm worried he's going to hurt other people. I-I'm sure there's at least one other person he wanted to kill. And he..."

She shook her head suddenly, realizing she was being rude. This guy came to help her shopping and she just kept talking about that psycho? "Ah, I'm sorry, Mr. Shizuo. I didn't mean to be so gloomy. Most of the people here are great, there are just a few you have to look out for."

[goesberserk]

It was hard to know whether or not the girl wanted to talk more or if she'd rather they move onto another subject, but the more Shizuo heard, the more he agreed that this guy needed to pay. Getting himself involved could just lead to another disaster, but he still felt like he should offer some sort of assistance.

So long as he was cursed with his strength and his anger, he might as well make some use of it.

"If he ever tries to bother you again, let me know, all right?" Maybe it wasn't his place, but he couldn't just allow something like that to happen. Especially since he probably had a decent chance of standing up to whoever this jerk was.

"Anyway," he said with a shake of his head. It would probably be best if they got out of the store soon so he could have a chance to light up again. "How do those look?"

[acemedium]

She was momentarily floored. He barely knew her, and he was offering his help?

"Ah, I... Thank you." She struggled for a second, touched and trying to figure out how to respond. Her face broke out into a grateful smile, and it was softer than her usual grins.

"Really, thank you, Mr. Shizuo. That's really very nice of you."

The truth was that Grimmjow was already still on her case. But as long as it was just talking on the NV, she could live with it. Even if he'd said she was interesting (And anyone who watched any movies would know that being called "Interesting" by a guy like that usually meant "I'm going to hurt you some more".)

"I really appreciate it... It's okay, though. That guy is scary powerful, and I wouldn't want you to get hurt, you know? It would suck if you ended up in the hospital too or something." Or worse.

She finally gave the glasses a real look over. "Oooooh... not bad, not bad at all! And the price isn't bad, either! You have a good eye, Mr. Shizuo."

[goesberserk]

The fact that she was thanking him so profusely was enough to embarrass him. Shizuo hadn't thought of it as a big deal. It just seemed like the right thing to do. When someone had a guy as cowardly as that coming after them, the only logical step would be to try and stop it from happening again.

In the end, he only shook his head and glanced away, not sure how to accept all the gratitude. He didn't offer things like that for the appreciation that it earned, but only because he knew it was what should be done.

It had been a long, long time since someone had expressed any concern over his physical health -- to the point that it could really only remind him of his childhood and the way his parents had begged him to try and stay out of trouble. He still felt some guilt over the way he'd forced them in and out of hospitals with his condition, but...

"That won't happen," he said with a shake of his head. "My body is tougher than it looks." Which was why people had at one point underestimated him, but back in Ikebukuro everyone had learned. This place might be a different story.

The compliment about his choice of glasses just made Shizuo blink and shrug. "I don't know..." All he'd done was pick the first thing that he'd caught sight of that looked cheap enough. It was nothing special.

[acemedium]

He seemed... embarrassed? Although it was hard to tell. Either way, she felt a little embarrassed herself.

Maya thought he looked pretty tough, but tough enough to take on Grimmjow was another thing entirely. He was being pretty frank about the whole thing, so she had no reason to doubt him, but. "Ah, really? Do you..."

She paused in thought briefly. Almost everyone here (except her) had some kind of power, right? "Do you have powers?"

The glasses were actually pretty cool, and she put them on herself and made her "intimidating" face again. Yeah, right. "How do I look?"

[goesberserk]

It was still odd to hear people talk about "powers" here as if it was something common. Shizuo still didn't know how all of that worked, but other people had to be different the way he was to survive when those monsters were around. It seemed clear that it was simple enough to stay safe, but what if something went wrong?

"I guess so," he said as he rubbed at the side of his neck. "It's not as good as it sounds, though." There were things he could do that no normal human could do, but the price was steep.

He didn't know why Maya insisted on trying the glasses on herself when they weren't for her, but Shizuo still humored her, looking her over for a moment before nodding. "Looks good."

[acemedium]

Either she'd become distracted by the discussion or was intentionally trying to nudge the conversation away from Grimmjow. Either way, she still seemed lost in thought.

"Most people here do," she responded. "Either from home, or... Well, the Core gives people powers, too. It weirded me out a lot at first but I got used to it."

Of course, if he had powers, he was already used to it, right? And "not as good as it sounds" - what did he mean? Had he run into trouble? Normally her rampant curiosity would get the better of her and she'd ask all those things outright, but it occurred to her it might be rude to do that. And he'd been so nice to her... She made an effort to be encouraging, although she had little idea what powers he had (durability?).

"Well, maybe it won't be so bad here? Like I said, most people have them, so..."

She really was curious, but it was probably best not to pry for now.

"Really? Maybe this is it, then. Let me check for a second!" she stopped near a mirror to stare herself down.