Birds Of A Feather [Alastair, Natsumi]

Alastair watched her react to his advice with some visible confusion, the kind that implied that his message had not been understood rather than taken poorly. So he tried to think quickly about how else to summarise it, and to speak with less metaphors in general.

“Even without speaking, you can be loud. Handing out flyers and making sure to build up a rapport with people may seem innocuous at first, but it can quickly spiral into a much bigger footprint if people relay your message. I heard about you via word of mouth, for example, so others might too.”

He tried to clarify the issue but perhaps it would still struggle to find purchase with poor Natsumi. Still, he expected to be walking off by the time she offered to accompany him, so that was a welcome surprise. The vestiges of a smile slowly creeping their way across his neutral features as he indicated for her to follow and began to lead the way.

“There is an office not far from here, we will head there and that should suffice.” His explanations were still rather cut and dry, but that did not seem to faze him, “What brought you to the City of Light anyway?”

Whether Natsumi has the mind to understand something like this would have to be discovered another day. Frustration or confusion caused her to push it off andn ignore the flyer thing. Oh well. There were more important things to deal with now. She hurried up along his side and watched him curiously. Seeing the small smile, she narrowed her eyes, a slight curiosity behind them.

"You know, you should start with that," Natsumi said, pointing at his face. "Smiles make people feel calm. Why you gotta be lookin' all grumpy the whole time you talkin' to me. Makin' me wonder whether 'er not you trustable."

Alastair could tell what she was going to say before it even left her lips. It was a topic that many had attempted to broach him about over the years, and the truth was that he was generally quite a dry person. His face naturally rested in a frown and he had to work to bring that back into something neutral, pushing it beyond that was something he reserved for those whose company he knew well enough to enjoy it. But that was not what he would say.

"I did not wish to seem overly friendly, as that might have been seen as an attempt at manipulation. It is a serious situation, and I would wish for you to see my sincerity clearly."

He certainly could have taken them to the office in a faster way, but he did not wish to spook her by taking any shortcuts or backstreets so stuck to the main roads. He had also slowed his pace to allow her to walk alongside him as she appeared to wish, as his natural speed was a little too fast for pleasant conversation. Still, it didn't take them long to arrive at the office. It was not exactly an imposing building, hardly any different from those around it, but the Vandenreich logo was on the doors and Alastair scanned his pass when prompted to open the way for them.

"We should be able to find a quiet room in here. Do you want anything to drink? Water or a coffee, even?"

This guys was just another grumpy red haired man! That was all Natsumi got out of that! Wonder if red hair was a curse? Thinking back, yeah, maybe it was. All the red haired men she met were mean or grumpy in some way. She would have to avoid them from now on. She suddenly appreciated her brown hair a lot better.

Arriving at the building, Natsumi looked up, left, right... Okay, so this wasn't horrible. It was different than the buildings she had been in before, at least a little bit.

"Uh, coffee... Wait, no. Water. Wait, no. Can I have a soda? Coffee turns teeth brown and water tastes bad," Natsumi said, obviously repeating the words of another person, even if true. She must have learned that from somewhere.

Nodding along with her suggestion, Alastair guided Natsumi into a small office with a large window that overlooked the nearby street though was tinted to prevent those outside from looking in. It did not appear to be an interrogation room, but there was not much furniture beyond a desk and some chairs. She did not exactly look comfortable, but who would be in this situation, so he was quick when he nipped out to grab their drinks. In a couple of minutes, he returned with a steaming coffee for himself and a brightly-labelled can of soda that was apparently called 'Fruits'.

"There you go, there was not much of a selection so I grabbed one that I recognised. Now, I hope you do not mind but I will just run some formalities."

He settled into a seat, indicating for her to take one opposite if she had not already done, and pulled out a tablet-sized device on which he began to make some short notes when a response was given or an indication of one was recognised.

"Do you want to state your name for the record? It will not be made public without your permission, but it may assist in our internal affairs regarding the issues you are raising. Then, when you are ready, please elaborate on the claims alluded to in these pamphlets. Be as detailed as you like, and I may chip in to ask for the occasional clarification but that is just part of doing my due diligence."

Natsumi wasn't the most comfortable, but who would be? When he stepped out, she hurried to the window and pressed her face against the glass to look out over the city. When he came back, she rushed back to her chair and pretended like she wasn't doing anything, though she knew she was caught. She took her drink with a light smile and opened it up. She took a drink before they began the interrogation.

"My name for the record is Natsumi Asakura!" she smiled, enjoying her drink. It wasn't exactly clear that she knew what "for the record" actually meant. "You mean the flyers, right? I put the stuff about the Duvalier Group on them. When I was little, they got me from my family. I don't know how, but I was told once they bought me. Like, my family was poor and they sold me to get their own house and car."

"Since they got me, I stayed in one building and they forced me to train my whole life, until I escaped during this big attack on the city we were in. Then I crossed the ocean on my own; they sent this mean guy after me, so I had to run away from him. He didn't follow me into the water. I was there until I found a ship and they took me on board and we ended up in Tokyo. What else do you need to know?"

Alastair could hear the rapid shuffling of feet as soon as he returned to the room, the urgency with which she had moved was all too clear, and yet there was no reaction from him. He too had once marvelled at the sights of the City of Light and, even though they were only a couple of stories up, the view from the room still gave at least some level of elevation and understanding of the surrounding urban area. Taking his seat wordlessly, he sipped at his cup of coffee even as the steam still bubbled atop it without flinching. The scalding liquid certainly did not seem to bother him in the slightest, though it was hard to enjoy an office brew.

"So you were sold to the Duvalier Group by your parents? How long ago do you recall this happening? Do you remember your family, their names and place of residence if possible? Anything you can recall that might help us track them down, even visual descriptions."

He did not seem all too engaged with this line of inquiry though, as there was never going to be a paper trail for them to follow on a deal like that. It was an unfortunate ordeal that she had undergone, but they would not find any clues by chasing ghosts. They needed something a little more concrete, like this building, but even that might well be buried now.

"Were you the only child at this facility, or were there more of you? What were they training you to do? Was the building destroyed in this attack or were you just able to escape in all the chaos? Are there any staff members that you can recall clearly? Identifying features, names they went by, anything."

Natsumi watched the steaming cup of coffee do nothing to him with wide eyes and a slightly dropped jaw. Maybe he can't feel it... Natsumi chose to say nothing... for now. Then, the desired line of questioning started. It was time to tell!

"I was big enough to reach a doorhandle, but not big enough to look over a counter," she explained. She held out a hand parallel to the floor, somewhere between two to three feet above it. She also shook her head 'no' to the rest of the questions. "No, was too lil' to remember all that. Only reason I even know is cause a nurse told me. She wasn't supposed to though; she didn't come back after that."

"Nuh'uh," Natsumi shook her head. "There were eight or nine others at the same time, but dozens over the years and years. They changed when someone lost a fight and couldn't continue trainin', but a couple of us kinda grew up together. Kazuki and Haruka were with me there the longest, but I was the longest even before them. I stayed cause I never lost... If you lose, you don't come back." There was an almost menacing look in Natsumi's eyes, and the sound of her voice darkened, as she seemed to relive those memories. The implications were clear.

Fingers tapping away at the little device, Alastair's eyes occasionally darting downward to make sure that his typing was accurate, a detailed little report was being written up. When she mentioned the fighting, though, there was a pause. His gaze narrowed, rusty eyes momentarily studying her with a piercing intensity that they had lacked before, and then the typing resumed. A flick of the wrist as he moved onto a separate page, a different line of questions now.

"So this was combat training then? You were being taught how to fight, but was there ever any purpose for this process?" He paused, gauging her reaction as carefully as he could. "Were these physical brawls, or did you fight using other means?"

She certainly did not appear to carry the signs of a hardened warrior, but he had learned not to judge a book by its cover in this line of work. Some of the toughest people he knew were the ones that had hardly a scratch on them, though that did include himself now too. The use of his Vollstandig had robbed him of the scars that he had once worn proudly, now his pale skin was practically without blemish. The perfect image of a noble knight, he supposed.

"Yeah, I'd reckon their was some purpose for all the fightin', but they never let us know no how. We were told to do what we was told and that's it. You fight hard; you fight to win. You don't fight, you don't eat. You fight and you lose, ain't no one seein' you again. Ain't ever seen no one come back from losin'. Not ever."

Natsumi was definitely not the look of some hardened soldier, but these days looks could not be counted on. She seemed as calm as anyone would be. There were no hints of lies or deception. She was just tellin' it like she believed things were.

"I think you mean fist fights," Natsumi said, the "physical brawl" confusing her for a moment. "Fist fights wasn't mainly the thing they wanted, but they did somehow. It depends from kid to kid, ya see. I can't fight like that. I learned some over time. I can defend myself on the streets just fine, but when they wanted me fight to my fullest, it was with my mind. I knew someone who fought with vines, the long leafy jungle kind. I knew another who fought with things he put in people's minds, make 'em see things that ain't there type thing. My fightin' is more like..."

Natsumi looked around the room for something useful. She wanted to find something here to give an example of, but she didn't want to get in trouble for breaking anything. She couldn't exactly show how she fights if she didn't use her power like she was on the offensive. She decided to give in to a quick, meager demonstration of how her power worked. The rest, he could imagine on his own.

Natsumi just lifted the chair and tables they were sitting on about two feet off the ground. "Don't go freakin' out," she said, watching his reaction. "I ain't gonna hurt no one who listens to me." She held them there for a few seconds and calmly placed them back down on the floor. "I can do that to a person too. I can do that to thinks lot heavier or farther. Most fist fighters... they can't get near me."