1316/Disrespect

Disrespect
Date of Scene:	18 March 2024
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Kyouka owes Fuyuko a beer. Fuyuko calls it in after Beryl thrashes her in Scene 1307.
Cast of Characters:	Fuyuko Yuuhi, Kyouka Inai

---

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
    TXT to Kyouka= hey.
    TXT to Kyouka= i want that beer.
    TXT to Kyouka=fml.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
TXT to Fuyuka= ok. usual place?

    The usual place is, in fact, a ramen joint and not an actual bar. A storefront in downtown Mitakihara, it's tucked down an alleyway between two larger buildings, a venerable old shop that was probably here long before this segment of the city became the built-up metropolis it currently is. It's not fancy and it's not expensive, but the ramen is good, the beer is cheap, and the two have been coming here since before they could legally drink. For the ramen, of course.

    Kyouka is waiting for Fuyuko outside the door, leather jacket on, arms crossed. Sunglasses perched on her face despite the late hour. Given that this is the first time they're seeing each other after a big blowup, one might think she'd be anxious. She doesn't look it though.

    What's one more fight, after all?

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
    TXT to Kyouka=yeah

The usual place is the ramen joint they favor, with food hot and rich, beer that's cheap and cold. And yeah, maybe they've been haunting this place like a pair of ghosts since long before they could drink.

Drinking is what Fuyuko is here for now, even more than the ramen. Kyouka will see her coming - she's walking almost normally, a hitch in her stride from the bruised ribs she still has to treat gingerly. They're better than they were - she can take a deep breath - but the kid had warned her to be careful for good reason. When she catches sight of Kyouka, she tips her head in acknowledgement.

She's changed out of the business attire from earlier; she's dressed down, especially for her, in black jeans and a dark green shirt, a black jacket lined with fur to keep the cold out. If she's nervous, she doesn't look it - if anything, she just looks irritated.

"I'm gonna tell you about my day, and I don't want to hear an I told you so, got it?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka watches Fuyuko approaching, her gaze steady from behind her glasses. Grey eyes take in the other young woman, and no, that hitch in her step doesn't go unnoticed. Kyouka knows the way Fuyuko moves, should move, nearly as well as she knows herself. Maybe better, since she can't observe her own movements regularly- she can tell she's hurt.

    Still, she doesn't demand explanations at once, nor does she move to help Fuyuko- unless you count opening the door for her so that the two can enter. "Fairly sure I haven't told you anything about you job, at least recently, so you're safe from that." She says. She doesn't ask if Fuyuko is okay. The answer is self-evident.

    And she doesn't want any more punches exchanged this evening.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Yeah, but when I tell you what happened, you're going to be tempted," Fuyuko says dismissively, and then, "You planning to take the sunglasses off when we get inside, or is granny going to be shaking her head again?"

She doesn't actually care about the sunglasses and they both know it - but when she's irritable - and she is irritable, everything is worth picking at. Granny is the shop's proprietess, probably as old as the shop itself, definitely three times their ages, at least, a woman who didn't ask for IDs or anything else besides decent manners and the cash they owe for their drinks.

So they take a spot at the bar in the tiny place, and they put in their orders, and only when the promise of coming beer is made does she say, "Balance is a fucked up son of a bitch, and I want his head on a rack."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka gives Fuyuko a look (from behind her sunglasses). She doesn't take them off. Granny shakes her head.

    Some things never change.

    Spots are claimed. The place always seems to be mostly empty, which makes it ideal for this sort of meeting though it does make one wonder how granny stays in business. There's only two other people in the whole place, and they're seated far enough down the bar that eavesdropping, even if they wanted to, is unlikely.

    Kyouka orders a bowl of ramen and a beer, and good to her word, she pays for Fuyuko's. She isn't rich, but this place isn't expensive, and she can afford to pick up the tab when she has a reason to. Like promising to do so after apologizing for hitting her best friend.

    "We already knew that." She says with regards to Balance. "What does that have to do with your job? Did he.. do something?" She hesitates because she's not even sure what Balance could do to hurt Fuyuko. In her case, he just shows up and yells at her.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
The tonkatsu ramen with extra meat and bok choy will go a ways to soothing Fuyuko's temper, if not her bruised ego. She snorts at Kyouka's question, understanding the hesitation, and when the beer comes, she throws back half of it in a long, long swallow.

"No, but if the son of a bitch had loosened the leash I would have been the one kicking Beryl's ass instead of the other way around." And that confidence, no, that arrogance? That's one of the things that drove Fuyuko and Kyouka's compatriots mad, and the clearest sign that Fuyuko is indeed the other side of Kyouka's coin.

Who has chill around here? Not Fuyuko.

"She threw a fit at one of the brats fucking Balance wants me training, and d I get a fraction of my own fucking power to save her? Nope. Nothing. Just the shields, same as usual, up against Director fucking Beryl of all people."

Pride would usually prevent her from admitting she'd been thrashed, but Mamoru Chiba's the one who healed her, and he's Kyouka's problem more than hers. She wouldn't put it past him to mention the incident, and then Kyouka's know anyway. At least if she bitches first, she can assert her own pride.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka knows the feeling of that helpless limitation- the knowledge that she could be so much more, should be so much more if not for the fetters of the promises she made to remain herself. She said as much regarding Sunbreaker herself, actually, after Naru had been kidnapped. 'If this was five years ago, I'd have painted the alley with her' or something to that effect. The sentiment is one she's well familiar with.

    Her eyes narrow at the mention of Beryl, and she pauses with chopsticks halfway to her mouth. She knows the name, knows the person it belongs to. By reputation, if not personally. "She's one of the big dogs over there, isn't she?" She asks, already knowing the answer. "So what, she was messing with one of your kids and you stepped in? That's-" she doesn't say 'that's not like you', because it is like her. It's like both of them. She realizes it and stops mid-sentence.

    A moment later, "She... hurt you for interfering?" Her eyes on Fuyuko again, sweeping her up and down. She doesn't know Mamoru had already healed her, so to her eyes, it can't have been that bad. But there's still something dangerously restrained about the question.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
If she had her true power, if she was herself, if she was whole, she would have succeeded. She might not have defeated Beryl in outright combat, but she'd have torn that crystal apart, she'd have been been able to get Sunbreaker out, she wouldn't have left the kid to suffer.

That's what Fuyuko believes, in all sincerity. There's no cope about it, as the kids would say - it's just an earnest and admittedly overblown sense of her own abilities. Confidence, earned over years of fighting, winning, and fighting again.

The fact that she couldn't fight back - not in anyway that mattered, because her hits weren't the ones knocking people into walls now were they - is what makes her want to climb walls.

Her face tightens when Kyouka starts that sentence, and she tightens her jaw when she decides to leave it, nodding shortly.

"Kid has a mouth. I don't know what she actually did, to piss her off, but she's one of the big bosses, and she threw me out a window for trying to get the kid out." She scowls, draining the rest of her beer and calling for another. "Like I was a fucking desk."

Kyouka won't understand that reference, but does it matter?

And then -

"I called Chiba. Told him I owe him one," this, reluctant, but, true. "I'm fine, just pissed."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka listens to this account in silence. She can feel an echo of Fuyuko's frustration- she knows those same feelings, if not from the exact same scenario. The feeling that you could do more, if only. That it's wrong and it sucks that all that experience and power they've worked so hard to build up over most of their lives can't be used in a practical sense.

    She's not going to claim teaching the kids doesn't have merit. Of course it does. But being forced to stand by and watch while they fought and sometimes lost was a feeling she didn't think she would ever get used to.

    She gets a bit of a shock when Fuyuko mentions that she called Mamoru and got healed already. Because she knows that whole 'switching sides' thing is still a bit of a sore spot. She knows what in order for Fuyuko to have done that, it must have been a lot worse than it looks now.

    Her own jaw tightens. Most people probably wouldn't be able to notice. It's relatively subtle, at this stage. But her jaw tightens and her back goes rigid, and she's gripping those chopsticks awful tight. Fuyuko would notice. She's pissed. "She hurt you." She mutters, a dangerous edge to her voice.

    Fuyuko doesn't need her protection. She knows that. It doesn't make her less angry about it.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
The expressions play out over Kyouka's face, unreadable to most, an open book to Fuyuko. Understanding - of course, understanding, because Kyouka is Stellar is Kyouka, just as Fuyuko is Lacuna is Fuyuko, their magical identities as real - if not more - than their civilian ones. She doesn't regret her choice, selling her soul to a devil like Balance, but that doesn't mean she isn't bitter about how steep the cost was.

Especially now.

Understanding fades to shock, and Fuyuko knows it's about the admission that she'd sought help - and from Mamoru, of all people. The switching sides is a sore spot, a professional annoyance, because the shift in power meant more work for Fuyuko, more hunting. The DG Girls, Obsidian's newest project - hiring them has been almost as irritating as figuring out how to officially hire on a pack of teenagers such that she could file employment paperwork with violating too many laws.

But she'd needed the help. It's why she admits Mamoru can call in a favor, because yeah, she'd have lived without the help, but she'd have been worse off, and more so than she was willing to be in the midst of Obsidian.

And finally there's anger, and Fuyuko cuts her gaze to Kyouka, eyes sharp.

"Yeah, she did," she says, "And you're not going to do anything stupid about it."

She knows that tension, that anger, that edge. That voice had accompanied the death of plenty of monsters, the pranking of plenty of theoretical allies who couldn't long stand the pair of them."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Fuyuko," Kyouka says, her voice like the edge of a knife, "She doesn't get to hurt you."

    Only I get to do that. It's not spoken aloud, but the sentiment is obvious. It's less fucked up than it might seem, and Kyouka is fully confident that Fuyuko understands it. They are linked. Two sides of a coin. Sisters by destiny, if not by blood. They fight, they hurt each other. But it's not the same.

    Sometimes they get hurt in battle. Also not the same. Because they almost always win those battles in the end. Being hurt, being disrespected by someone and then just letting them get away with it? It doesn't matter that it happened to Fuyuko and not to herself. Maybe it matters even more. Maybe she's even shocked by how it makes her blood boil.

    "No respect." She mutters softly, stabbing her chopsticks into her ramen again, eye downcast. She's still tense. Still angry. But she's grown up enough, now, not to explode in the middle of the ramen shop.

    Barely.

    "These fuckers have no respect for you. For us." She takes a deep breath, picking up her beer. Her grey eyes are like steel as she glances over the rim of the glass to Fuyuko. "It's not right."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"She did anyway," Fuyuko says, cold as ice, just as brittle. It's not blame, or petulance, just a matter of fact statement. In Kyouka's world, maybe it is that they are the only people allowed to hurt each other. But in Fuyuko's world, she was handily crushed, and if she wasn't strong enough to rescue Sunbreaker, she certainly won't be strong enough to avenge herself.

"Of course they don't," she shakes her head in response to Kyouka's anger, her frustation. "When it comes to mundane professional matters, they'll respect me, but when it comes to the real work? Their real priorities?"

She shakes her head.

"I knew there was a chance I'd get my ass kicked. I'm not happy about it, but it is what it is." And she tips back her beer.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "It's not right." Kyouka insists, and Fuyuko will likely recognize another familiar tone in her voice- stubbornness. That belligerent refusal to accept reality if it differs from her conception of what things should be like. Often this is an advantage. Numerous have been the occasions when Kyouka should have lost a fight, but has simply refused to go down because she was just too damn stubborn to admit she was losing.

    Just as often, it gets her in serious trouble, when she refuses to recognize that some fights simply can't be won.

    "You know, we were out here doing this shit, keeping this city standing years before most of these cocky assholes were even thinking about casting a spell or stealing some energy. If not for us there would be no city for them to do it in." Her voice is heated, and it's obvious this isn't just about Fuyuko's recent run-in with Beryl. It's something that she's been stewing on for a while. She jabs at some chashu pork in her ramen bowl with her chopsticks like she's impaling an enemy.

    "I'm not joining your refrain of 'none of it mattered anyway', Fuyuko. I think it mattered a damn lot. So it kills me when we, either of us, don't get the respect we're due. You were there with me, standing beside me, how many times to keep this goddamn city standing? This bitch wouldn't have an office to torture kids in if not for us. Whole damn place would just be a smoking crater."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"What's right doesn't change the way the world works," Fuyuko says, stabbing her chopsticks into her ramen, recognizing that stubborn tone and hating it.

That voice is the voice of trouble.

"Yes, we busted our asses to save this city a dozen times over. Yes, we saved the lives of a horde of ungrateful and ignorant bastards. In the end it doesn't matter. We were just two more trees in the forest, two more waves in the ocean - what we did is no more impressive than what anyone else before us did, and what anyone else after us will, because you and I both know there's no winning this battle."

Despite her words, there's seething anger in her voice, old frustrated given new fire, fed on green wood that belches more smoke than heat.

"We're the only people who know what happened, and we're the only ones who care. Everyone else has their own problems, that matter to them a hell of a lot more."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "What's right should change how the world works!" Kyouka snaps, loud enough for the old lady behind the counter to give her a look. It's a look she's gotten before- pipe down or get out. "Making what is right what is is practically the job description!"

    She gives granny a look which is apologetic yet unquelled, before slamming her chopsticks down onto her bowl. She's seriously pissed off. "I'm not saying that our instances of heroism were more worthy of respect than anybody else's. But not being unique doesn't mean that they're not worth that respect in the first place." She stands up, scowling fiercely. "I would give all due honors to those who did what we did before us, if I knew their names. And I will give them to those who do it in our stead now that we cannot. But I will not stand by and let anybody, no matter who they are, take it for granted."

    Luckily she already paid, so the fact that she's about to storm out of the place (no doubt to granny's relief) will not also stick Fuyuko with the bill. "No winning this battle? Let me tell you something, Fuyuko." She leans down, staring into the other young woman's face. "The fact that you think like that is why you could never beat me."

    And then she is storming out, snagging her jacket and heading for the door.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
The muscle in Fuyuko's forehead bunches. Her chopsticks, mercifully still stabbed into her noodles, aren't snapped in half by the clench of her fists.

She could point out that she'd beaten Kyouka in half of their fights, that they'd gone back and forth on trading blows, that their powers melded, that their wills were matched, that the difference was that Kyouka thought the world should bend itself to her will and Fuyuko thought they should take what they wanted from the world -

But instead she just steals the chashu from Kyouka's abandoned bowl and snorts in disdain.

"I'll take another beer. That one's off to get her ass kicked."

She's not altruistic enough to hope Kyouka never runs into Beryl. If she wants to shoot off at the mouth, why not enjoy the consequences?