Hustlin' & bustlin' (Shou/Open) [Tokyo]

Woo! As expected to Tokyo, there's a looooot of people moving around especially at the evening hours where most workers are already beginning to pack up and head home. Shou was just hanging right around Shinjuku, which honestly has a lot of things she could see and for a traveler like herself, time wasn't an issue to hang around here for a few days. There may be some concerns with accommodations but she'll just figure it out along the way afterwards.

Still, she didn't have much goal in mind than to explore every nook and cranny, and since it was the evening, maybe she could find something nice in a city as rowdy as this one.

She inhaled and then shouted with high energy.

"Let's go!!! Yummy food! Fun places!"

Not minding what others that passed by think of her for shouting to herself, it was just to hype herself up before she starts moving around the city.

A little odd, yeah but how do you think she managed to travel across Japan? Pure energy.

There were many people in the world that kept a confidence, or an ignorance, of the dangers each night held. They wandered along cheerfully, in bliss, and unaware of the realities of the world. Izumi worried for those people, like this young girl shouting into the night air, catching the eyes of everyone her voice reached. Unlike the girl, for some people, the night was not a source of fun or entertainment. The neon lights lining that began illuminating certain businesses were reminders of the shadowed alleys, the shady punks lining the streets. It was just unsafe.

Luckily, it wasn't exactly too late to get the girl off the street and quiet her down. Izumi stepped out of the alley and behind the energetic young thing. She leaned down and spoke suddenly in her ear. "Careful now, young lady," Izumi said, standing up straight after letting her presence be known. She smiled kindly at the young girl. "Shouting like that may not always draw positive attention to yourself. You don't want to draw the wrong type of person to you. You could get hurt."

A.

All of the sudden, in the midst of hyping herself up, Shou was dragged off of the streets. At first, she thought it was the police for acting suspicious and was already about to get locked up for a bit the very moment she stepped foot into the city.

But it was different than what she thought.

The one pulling her off the streets, at first glance, was a beautiful woman.. no, lady? Well, the feeling of this person was giving off was that of an elegant, high class lady so she couldn't help but think of that.

Wait wait wait, that wasn't the point. Hearing what she had to say, it seems that she just pulled off the streets since it was apparently dangerous especially during this time. She quickly nodded her head as a sign of understanding before Shou spoke up.

"Alright, alright, I'll be careful."

Smiling back and laughing awkwardly, she continued.

"Sorry about that, thanks. What's so dangerous about this place though? I mean, its not much to beat up a shady guy or two."

Shou lifted one of her arms and proudly flexed it, even though in reality, she had no muscles to speak of.

"See! They ain't a match for me! Hehe."

The girl was either confident or arrogant, Izumi wasn't sure which. No matter, she kept up that gentle smile she allowed to grace her lips. It was a mask, a masterful performance of caring, right? At least that is what she convinced herself. Who cares? As long as it convinced the girl the same way it had everyone else she met. A part of her wondered why she felt the need to even catch this girl's attention if she didn't care, but she mentally waved that question off.

Izumi chuckled, but then glanced over her shoulder. There was a single group of men that seemed to be paying attention to the two of them. Was it Fu or herself? Fu was cute, young, and Izumi at least looked wealthy. On the other hand, it could have been completely innocent. Why find out? Why even chance it? Izumi looked back to the young girl and smiled. "It's still better to be careful than reckless. You never know when someone stronger is going to decide you're they're target."

Izumi thought for a moment. "You were yelling about food, yes? Are you hungry?"

"If I can't fight, I'll just run."

Shou smugly answered, fully confident of her ability to escape if a situation calls for it since she knew very well that in terms of combat power, she doesn't have much. Heck, unless they are some sort of speedy superhuman, she would be as slippery as a goddamn cockroach to catch.

To Shou, she doesn't have any sense of distance and gave a few pats to Izumi's shoulder while laughing, assuring that if it comes to worst, she'll just do something about it.

Her eyes glittered when she was asked about food, immediately getting closer to the woman in front of her and answered.

"Yes!"

Pulling herself back, she continued on.

"You see, how can you have enjoy life without having good food? It is an essential part of having fun."

Showing a big smile on her face, it was as if she is preaching about food but it is true - food is essential for humans to survive or starve to death and since its needed to stay alive, why not make the most of it? Still, before going off into her own world, she focused her attention back to the elegant woman before her and asked her a question.

"What about you? Being in Shibuya and all? Or are you a fellow food enjoyer as well?"

Izumi kept her cool, a soft smile, barely visible on her lips. When the girl touched her, Izumi's smile widened just a bit. It wasn't a genuine smile, but there weren't many that could tell. She had mastered the performance of normalcy. So, she asked the girl about food and watched her eyes brighten. The girl had been yelling about it while walking down the street, so her excitement was expected.

"I come here from time to time. There are a few good restaurants I enjoy visiting," Izumi said, glancing over her shoulder once more. The street was clearing a bit and that group was inching closer. Izumi looked back to the girl and smiled. "Why don't you have dinner with me? There's a nice ramen place a block up the way."

Shou sneaked a couple of glances around her; noticing a group of.. pretty unpleasant-looking people that was a distance away from them. She is pretty stupid but isn't that dumb either, considering her experience in traveling so she is aware of the dangers especially alone as a girl. She gave those group the benefit of the doubt earlier, maybe hanging around and didn't meant harm but that was out the window when they started going closer than necessary. She wasn't sure if Izumi noticed or not and kept acting as per usual to not alert her too much about it.

"Heck, really? Its my first time in this city since I'm just traveling around. If you know a good place for a chomp, then let's go!"

Giving a few pats behind Izumi's back, she gave the woman a gentle push from the back to gesture to bring her to the ramen place that she mentioned earlier.

What to do with the suspicious group of people? Well, she isn't that much of a fighter.

Since they are just right behind them, Shou silently tapped the floor behind them and suddenly, the ground behind suddenly caved right in and large amounts of smoke was poruing out, effectively cutting off the path towards them and their vision of them. It was Shou's power - "selling" off the ground behind them and "buying" the smoke.

Turning around, the girl pretended to be surprised about what happened and spoke up.

"Eh~? Good thing we moved away from there. Looks like the road was pretty bad. Oh well~"

Moving her attention back towards the woman in front of her, she continued.

"Let's go have that ramen you talked about!"

Though Izumi's mind was more on those behind her, she was taken off guard by the young's girl's excitement for food. She wasn't expecting to be pushed along and almost stumbled while doing so. She quickly regained her composure until she felt an increase in power from the girl. A moment later, the ground collapsed between the two of them and the would-be pursuers. Izumi's eyes widened, both impressed and surprised that the girl could do that so quickly. It also seemed the girl wanted to keep her involvement in that on the downlow. Understandable. She may get in trouble for just collapsing a street. Though, no one was harmed, so oh well.

Izumi relaxed a bit and nodded. "Sure, it's just this way. Let's go. I'll even pay." she said, leading the girl about a five minute walk away from their current location. They came to the ramen shop. It was decently busy, but not bad. They were able to find free seats almost immediately. "So, tell me, what exactly did you do to the street?" Izumi asked quite bluntly. "And careful about speaking too loudly."

"Oh riiight! Let's goooo-!"

Well, it was good that she didn't question anything about what happened earlier.

Or so she thought.

When Shou was led to a decent-looking ramen shop filled with people, she could already smell the aroma of just.. heaven. It has been awhile since she had any proper food other than just sandwiches and on better occasions, maybe some fish but this.. this was good. Though once she sat down with the woman, Shou realized really quickly that she celebrated a little too earlier.

"Ah~ You noticed."

With a smile on her face, she placed her elbow against the table and leaned her chin against her fist before continuing on.

"You're pretty smart!", she said as she reached out her other hand and gave the woman in front of her a nice pat on the head and continued to answer her. "It isn't anything impressive, nothing to worry about."

Shou couldn't help but give off a few giggles - rather impressed that she was caught for caving in the road from earlier. She thought she was sneaky about it and blamed it on bad conditions but somehow, she was found out. She doesn't know how the woman did it but she somehow did it so either she is just a really observative person or maybe, someone who is just like her that has powers.

"Maaaan~ I thought I'd win the oscars for acting like an absolute pro."

The aroma of the shop was wonderful, a perfect blend of spices permeating the air. While that was pleasant, Izumi was distracted by a need to pick a specific place to sit, one where she had her back to a windowless wall. That's where they sat, and then she asked Shou her question. The young girl must have expected her not to ask, or assumed Izumi hadn't noticed. Unfortunately for Shou, Izumi was pretty observant and the quick raise in energy before it happened made things clear.

"Yes, I noticed," Izumi said. "You must be more careful. If someone stronger, and with a certain type of authority, was in the area, they could have grabbed you up."

This young girl was rather touchy. Izumi leaned back away from her hand. "I'm not fond of being touched," Izumi said. "Take no offense by it. It is nothing personal. I just don't like it." Izumi took a deep breath and quickly moved that conversation on. "You hid it well to many, but I was standing right next to you." Izumi said. "I appreciate the help, so thank you for dealing with them. I was worried I'd have to."

A woman came a moment later and asked about their order. Izumi ordered a simple bowl of one of their popular ramens, nothing too special. The waitress then turned to Shou and asked for her order. Once the woman got both, she left. Izumi took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair, while eyeing people in the room.