It is a dark and stormy night in Tokyo. In fact, one might call it a tempest, or turbulent, or a raw, unseasonable rain. In Britain, they might just call it a pisser. Whatever it would be called, very few people have a good reason to be out on the streets tonight, with most of them inside, either at home or inside whatever building they prefer. However, that would be most people.
A wide, purplish-pink umbrella with a cartoonish looking skull motif on top is bobbing down a side alley, completely shielding an undisguised, white-haired Kukai-N, who has added thick blackish-purple rubber galoshes to her normal outfit, and seems to be quite content to be outside. The water is much less cold than her natural temperature, so for now she is happy to ignore it as she walks along, peering into the corners and sides as if looking for someone. Which she probably is. She doesn't tend to be looking up, however.
Someone does notice her(?) from above, however. The umbrella doesn't exactly make her hard to notice, afterall, and even less hard to recognize for people who know the girl's habits. Or the habits of the girl this person is inhabiting, anyway.
So, a moment later, the voice of an adolescent male echoes from above, calling out, "Hey." And the moment the girl looks up, she finds a dark figure above there-- hanging upside down with his legs looped backwards around over a sign that extends from the building to signal some business that has an entry to it from the alley-side. Clad in a dark hoodie with it's hood flipped up over his head - or down, considering the upside-down status or whatever - with bright-green eyes peering from underneath towards the girl, arms loosely folded together. He is really *entirely* too casual about this, considering his current positioning.
Kukai-N blinks as she hears the sound of someone calling to her... from above? The umbrella pitches back and Kukai-N peeks out just in time to see... Ikuto?! Wait, no. It's hard to see in the darkness and rain past his hoodie, but Kukai-N can pick out brown hair and a different facial structure.
She steps to turn and face him. Huh. Who was this guy? Something about his face tickles at the back of her mind, but right this second she can't quite place him. He seems to know her, however, which is bad. Kukai-N can't place him at all. Still, though. She'd made a promise to Norie-K to try and not screw up her life that much, so.
She cocks her head and looks up at him, holding her umbrella up. "Hello up there. How are you?"
"The same as usual," declares the figure from above, and now he draws his hand over to slide the hood down-- up? Back? Something. To reveal his face to her-- very definitely not a local. Caucasian. But his expression is very much the same as her-- perpetually neutral. Lacking in any obvious emotion, certainly. Maybe the memory of his face is present in the back of her head, from when the body's original inhabitant was still there. "You're hunting? You don't usually have the umbrella with you. It makes you... stand out a lot, you know."
Kukai-N stares at the face for a second and then sees a familiar, friendly face next to it, and she places him. This is Alexis, Naru's ex-boyfriend! Oh, right! She knows who he is now!
Wait. .... Wait. There was.. something... chikuso.
This was the boy Norie had saved from death by turning him into a vampire. Right. Kukai had heard that story back.. before. She stares up at him for a moment, blinking a few times, a little suprised to see him and maybe a little something else. But she shakes her head and clears her mind.
"Yeah. Well I keep hoping it'll draw people to me. Or make me look less dangerous. Something. And I figure the only people out are the ones most worth draining." She looks away. "I'm trying to improve my diet."
"Creepers, huh?" says Alex above. "That... does make sense. Yes." He shifts his weight over then, so that he comes rolling over from the sign and falls down from the sign, rolling himself around in mid-air so that he lands on his feet instead of his head.
"I tend to end up feeding on gangers mostly," he admits, while his hands go sticking down to the pockets if his hoodie. "They cause enough trouble they tend to deserve it. Hmh." His eyes scan over the other end of the alley, for a moment, before his green gaze lowers down over to her, again. "I suppose you have a lot easier time attracting people like that to you, right?"
Kukai-N nods and then watches him drop down. When he lands she moves over, offering the cover of her umbrella to him. "I found a mugger the other day. But..." She coughs. "I have recently been... lucky? ... enough to have several magical meals. Mostly given, too. I have been extra hungry lately, though, so it all evens out."
She nods and looks up at him. "Creeps, yakuza, gangers, criminals, and the random gropy otaku." She makes a face. "I felt sort of bad for that last one. He hadn't committed a crime yet, but I didn't know where he was planning on putting that hand." She nods down the alley. "Shall we keep walking while we talk?"
WIth the mention of a 'gropy otaku', Alex blinks his eyes in bemusement at Norie(?). "... Maybe we should get you one of those whistles they give to elementary school kids," he suggests-- mostly as a joke, but the tone he has doesn't really carry it over very well.
"We can walk," he goes on to say, but he flips the hood up over his head again. "Will have to be careful, though. In case someone not-magic recognizes me." Alex had mentioned to Norie before that there was most definitely a missing person report out on him-- who knows if that memory is carrying over.
He peeks at her from under the hood quickly, and asks, "Extra hungry?"
Kukai-N snorts. "Please. I can take care of myself. Perhaps they should get a whistle to blow in case of vampire attack..." She looks depressed at the idea, but keeps on walking.
She nods and keeps walking - she's not sure why, but she shifts so he's to the inside of the alley, away from prying eyes. "We'll be careful. So. How are you doing?" She sighs and nods. "Without going into detail I am having to burn a lot more energy on an average basis than I usually do. Maybe a little less than keeping my disguise up all the time. So I'm having to eat quite a bit."
"Hm...? I'm alive for the time being, at least," Alex offers all too non-chalantly to her question, with a slow roll of one shoulder under his hoodie. Normally, he's tall enough that he'd hardly be concealed just by her presence alone, but perhaps the umbrella is large enough to make up for it.
Either way, he frowns visibly under the hoodie, over her words. "Why is that?" He asks, bluntly. "Usually something like that would be a bad sign. Did something happen to make you leak more?"
Kukai-N sighs and nods. "It's better than the alternative." She shrugs and keeps walking, pacing along, looking into side alleys and the like. "Well... like I said, without going into detail - which means I don't want to go into the details - I'm expending a lot more energy. It's... nothing major. At least, nothing that won't be fixed in a few weeks. But it is what it is right now."
She stops as they walk past an alley, and she peers down towards the far end. "...hmm. Are those people moving around down there?" Sure enough, there seem to be a few figures flitting around next to a rear door to some business, the rain pouring down around them.
"...?" Alex actually sends a confused look down to her, head tipping down and to the side enough that he can settle both of his eyes on her as they blink, slowly. "What's that? Usually you tell me about these things..." He frowns slightly after that. "You know I'll help you too, if I can."
But, his attention is turned along from that conversation when she suddenly stops, and he follows her gaze to the alleyway. "...Yes," he says simply, eyes narrowing slowly. "Some businesses aroudn here are open at all hours, but..."
Kukai-N reaches up and pats his side, trying to pacify him, without looking up at him. "It's ok. I promise. I'm just dealing with something. And I know you would, just like I would help you. But it's not a big deal. I just wanted to mention it."
She hmms, then nods at his words. "If you're hungry, I can wait here. I'm sure I'll be up most of the night looking for more, in any case. How do you feel?"
"'Not important'..." Alex repeats, and the frown deepens for just a moment htere. Still, the focus is primarily on the people along the alley-side door, regardless, and he wrinkles his nose in brief consideration. "I am not particularly hungry," he says. "But I could use some. What about you?" He looks down at her. "I can make it quick. Just feed from one and leave the others subdued for you."
Kukai-N notices the frown, but decides to let it drop if he will. That'd be best.
She hmms, then nods. "Sounds good. Let me see what you can do, eh? I haven't seen you in action recently. And yes. One or two for you, since you are doing the work, and whatever is left for me."
One of the figures at the end of the street is looking around, and spots the two figures standing underneath the umbrella. He lets out a quiet call inside the door of the building, while one of his friends pulls something from his pocket. A knife, most likely, or other small weapon...
"I'm not much of a show-off," Alex says, even as he takes a step forward from the girl, and his hand tugs lightly at the hem of the hood to make sure that it's more or less concealing his features even when turned towards those figures. "...But. I won't need to bother channeling more energy here than I naturally do."
That being said, he pads his way towards the grouping, calmly-- and just as calmly he calls out, "Now what are you doing over there? Are you robbing the place or is this some yakuza meeting spot for a drug deal or something?" He peeks out from under the hood, towards the brief flash of a weapon. "...Not that it really matters, does it?"
Kukai-N shrugs and then steps to one side, letting him advance through the rain towards the curious people. "Ok. Well it'll be fun watching someone work, in any case. Go ahead."
The figure with the knife growls. "Kid, you and your little girlfriend have found the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sorry to have to do this, but.." He moves towards him, as the other one behind him stays back, still unsure. Two more faces appear in the door, wearing black ski masks and carrying black duffel bags - thieves or something similar, certainly. Kukai-N would jump for joy and clap her hands if she felt those emotions - a whole pack of villains to feed off of!
"Yare, yare, that's the best line you could come up with?" Murmurs Alex with an exasperated sigh. "I guess you're not Yakuza, then. Those guys usually at least make an effort of coming up with something cool to say before they go to beat someone up."
That all being said. When the knife-wielding thug comes along to thrust the blade at him, the german boy is immediately moving in counter-- a sidestep to bring him just to the side of the thrusting arm, and the hands previously in his pockets seem to have instantly left them to grab onto the hand holding onto the knife -- and jam an elbow into the masked man's face. Moving on further, his body twists and turns to send both himself and the thug spinning around, but by the time he's revolved to face the others, the knife is already in his hand-- or rather, flying from his hand, towards the leg of one of this poor guy's friends, only for him to swipe his own foot along the legs of the one he's likely broken the nose of to send him toppling over, and immediately go dashing to the other three.
Certainly, his change into a vampire has given a natural enhancement to his strength and reaction time even whne he isn't actively channeling Dark Energy into empowering himself-- but the moves aren't borne of that. Those came from before.
The knife ganger jabs the blade at Alexis and suddenly finds himself being yanked sideways, and his jaw crunches under the assault of that elbow. He lets out a surprised, agonized whine through his nose as his feet go out from under him and he collapses to the ground, knifeless and suddenly much less interested in fighting instead of holding his ravaged mouth.
The other three suddenly start and panic as they see one of the tougher people they know swept aside like so much trash. One of them tries to dip back inside the building, but the sideways duffle bag in his hands sends him caroming backwards onto his rear. Meanwhile, the other ski mask drops his bag and is fumbling in his pockets, as the third guy runs towards Alex with a yell!
Kukai-N follows along politely behind Alex to kneel besides the first opponent and places a hand on his shoulder. "Hakeru." The man suddenly stiffens and gasps as Norie's painful, icy cold energy drain sucks the positive energy from his body, ensuring that he won't be getting back up to attack Alex from behind...
Alex is faster, as it turns out-- at least fast enough to shoulderslam himself into the thug that decided to try to come for him first. His body ducks down just enough that he goes underneath the man's arms, and brings his own about him to hoist him up after bashing himself into the man's midsection-- and continuing to sprint forward, still, only coming to a stop suddenly to send the lifted-up man flying through the air towards the thug fumbling through his pockets with enough force that both of them are going to be tumbling to the ground.
Even there, he doesn't stop-- instead leaping off after the fourth one, that tried to make his escape, hand going to grab at the back of the man's head. "Let's end this already," he growls. "One-on-one, I can just do this."
"Leeren."
Alex's method of energy drain is hardly gentle or subtle, as a result of him not being as experienced with the effort as others of his kind are. It's painful enough to cause the man to scream out in pain for the whole one second of time before the german lets go-- and simple lets him slump down to the ground in a limp pile of unconsciousness.
The shoulderslam rattles the brain of the ganger approaching him, enough to where when he swings his punch it goes well over Alexis and he staggers forward into the hoist. He lets out a surprised gasp, and then a yelp, matched by the third thug who crashes onto the ground!
The fourth thug is getting to his feet when he feels that hand on his head and then that painful, icy cold sensation running through him. He goes to yell, but it chokes off a second later into a tiny whimper, the man shuddering and going limp before Alexis.
Kukai-N moves over to the other two, still tangled up with one another and then gives Alexis a mirthless smile. "How nicely arranged, both just here like this. Thank you." She lunges down, umbrella still in one hand, digging one knee into the bottom man's side as she presses the other down onto the ground. "Hakeru!" Both of them spasm and make muffled noises of pain as Kukai-N takes a large jolt from both of them, pushing them towards weakness, and then slows the drain to a more reasonable rate, moving them towards unconsciousness.
She stands, after a minute, and then looks around. "Do you have a hankerchief or something similar? Or see a rag or anything?"
After the thug's slumped from his hand, Alex turns to step towards the pile the other two have formed-- and more importantly, Norie. Or the person he's perceiving to be Norie, anyway.
Still-- when he looks down at her, there's a faint frown of confusion present there. He feels like *something* is off, but he can't quite put his finger on what that is. Either way, with her request, he digs his hand down into the pocket of his hoodie, and draws out-- pretty much exactly that. A hankerchief, holding it out towards her. "Sometimes I need to wipe fingerprints," he offers in explanation. "Usually I have gloves. But sometimes..."
Kukai-N cocks her head questioningly at Alexis, then shrugs and takes the hankerchief. "Thank you~ That's what I had in mind." She digs in the back pocket of one of the thugs, then pulls out a cell phone with the hankerchief and flips it open, dialing the emergency number. "Hello? Officer? I just saw four men break into the back door of a building. I don't know where I am. Can you track this phone? You can? Good! Come get them, please?"
Without hanging up the phone, she flips it closed with the hankerchief and gently tosses it into the open door of the building. "Good. Come on, let's get out of here. This lot can rot in prison." She turns and heads back up the alleyway, holding the umbrella back into position for Alexis to join her if he wishes.
The frown remains there, still, but... by the time she's done with the phone, he at least makes an effort at letting it fade away for the time being. "...Mh," he sounds out in response to her, and tugs his hood a bit lower again, as he steps to move after her and besides her. She can just keep the umbrella to herself, mind you.
"Probably hospital before the jail," he mutters, sheepishly. "At least with the first guy. I think I broke his jaw."
Kukai-N nods, then shrugs and holds the umbrella over herself. "He shouldn't be breaking into places and being that sort of person. It will do him good to be away from society for a while."
She takes a breath, then lets it out. "...Well that takes care of my dinner for the night, I think. I should be heading home, I suppose." She looks over at Alexis, then leans over and pats his back with one hand. "Thank you. I appreciate this. More than you know."
"I don't exactly feel sorry for him," Alex point sout with a quiet scoff-like of a sound somewhere within his throat.
The hand coming to pat at his back, however, brings him to a stop again, and he turns his head slowly to peer at her, with... slightly widened eyes, actually. And he blinks several times over at her, in apparent surprise.
"...Any time," he says after a moment, however, rather than trying to question... well, okay, he does ask one thing; "Are you sure everything okay?"
Kukai-N nods in agreement. "Yup." She stops as he does and blinks. Was that too much? She goes still all over and lowers her hand, holding it still against her side. Oh lord, his eyes are widening and he looks surprised. This may be the part where she breaks and runs.
"...Yes. Yes, everything's fine! I'm just fine and dandy, and ... look, worry about yourself, ok? I said everything was fine!" Kukai-N sputters out in annoyance and continues down the alleyway, galoshes stomping through the puddles harder than before as she marches on through the slowly easing downpour.
"Wha..." Is all that Alex manages to let out before Norie(?????) is effectively making her escape. Well, realistically, he could certainly catch her while she's just stomping through rather than actually running or such, but he seems to be more caught in just staring after her in complete confusion rather than actually going after her.
It lasts long enough that she's actually gone off already by the time that he catches his thoughts. And even then he's just blinking at a wall for a moment before the sirens start echoing in the distance, prompting him to jump off to a rooftop nearby and *haul ass*.