Ambush Interview

    It's deep in the night in Shibuya, the sun having long since settled below the horizon behind the wood-and-stone walls of the town. The patrols atop the walls and through the streets, while at an ebb, remain vigilant, the lamps that line the paths keeping the darkness at bay.

    Not so much the sloped wooden rooftops of the Japanese-styled buildings that make up the town - only the moon dimly illuminates the tops of the structures. And even the gaze of the moon doesn't fall on the silhouetted, masked figure that crouches on the darkened side of one of the kirizuma, silently scouting the streets below...

    "Come on... show up, already..."

    ...Well, not entirely silently, after all.

    It's not unusual for Fukaziroh to be out late at night thanks to her sometime profession of Messenger and her... hobby of trying to share information between groups that don't always see eye to eye on a lot of things. In some cases she might ride on into town late at night and find a spot to collapse and sleep off the road dust. Well, more likely wash first and then sleep, depending on how exhausted she is. Actually, even more likely eat, wash, then sleep. Fuka has her priorities after all.

    "GOOD NIGHT EVERYONE!" cries the happy little drunk sylph, pushing her way out of the inn after a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Today was NOT a working day. Well, of course she did work, but not to late hours. No, she's been thoroughly enjoying herself. In such times she sometimes just rents a room at the inn, but this is Shibuya, home of the New World Alliance. A group of which Fuka's a proud member, and therefore a place she can call her own. No, she's not nearly drunk enough to have trouble walking home. Not staggeringly so, just happy and tipsy, and patting a rounded belly like she's been enjoying food more than drink besides. Unless of course that belly's just full of alcohol and the smallish fairy has some remarkable tolerance or something... who knows?

    The glimmering points of green hovering in the shadows above the darkened gables fall on the tipsy sprite below as Fukaziroh calls out from the inn.

    "Ah... target acquired."

    The figure stands up straight atop the roof, still wreathed in black save for the faint gleam of flesh along bare arms. Hands press together, two fingers extended in classic nin pose as ninjutsu is invoked.

    *WHOOSH*

    Suddenly, the same figure is standing directly in front of Fukaziroh's path, revealed by the light of the street lamps as a puff of mystic shadow blows away on an unseen wind. It's a girl - probably not that much taller than Fukaziroh, but seeming taller due to the proximity in which she appeared - one clad in a light, form-fitting black breastplate, a red dragon mask, and the telltale bracers, baggy cloth pants and tabi of a shinobi. A sheathed sword hangs from her red sash - not drawn, at least.

    "Nin nin," the kunoichi intones coolly.

    Then, a couple of seconds later, she adds, "I mean, hi!"

    The fact that her smile is hidden behind the visage of an angry dragon undermines any attempt to alleviate the intimidation element of Raiza's arrival.

    Somewhat befuddled due to her wits being slow - well, especially slow after an evening of partying - it takes a moment for Fuka to react. She stumbles slightly, recovers, then brings her arms up before her. And begins to applaud. "That was a wonderful entrance!" she claims enthusiastically, looking the kunoichi up and down. Not leering, no, but taking in details. "Are you here to murder me then? A Palace Lands dragon-girl sent to *take care* of me?"

    The little sylph doesn't seem particularly worried about that possibility, but neither does she look like she's readying for a fight. No, she seems actually somewhat contemplative. "Or are you here to KIDNAP me? Oh, take me back to your hidden lair and do horrible things to me, torture me to learn my secrets! Or seduce me!" she gasps. "That's it, isn't it? You want to have your way with me! Alas, such a terrible fate!"

    No, she doesn't sound actually serious about any of this. There's more than enough exaggeration in her tone to make it probably pretty obvious she's not actually considering any such thing seriously, and is just screwing around and making jokes. Probably.

    As Fukaziroh starts to applaud - then launches into an exploration of the ninja's motives - Raiza at first maintains her pose in silence, but slowly relaxes her stance, slouching at the hips, head canting to one side behind her mask. Her right hand reaches up to scratch at the top of her head through her dark brown hair.

    "I -"

    "- uh -"

    "- wha? -"

    A few half-hearted attempts to interject are made before there's finally a moment of quiet for her to fill:

    "- Nnnnooo?"

    A sweep of her hand pushes the mask to one side of Raiza's face, revealing most of her features, including a faint scar on her cheek and a single bright green eye. The expressiveness of her mien is certainly much more lively than that of the mask, and right now it looks somewhere between confused and physically ill.

    "I mean, I don't really do that kind of thing anymore."

    Her face reddens to match her mask after a moment, and she adds quickly, "...I mean, the rando pee-kay thing! I never did the other stuff!"

    Focusing on Fukaziroh as her expression becomes more serious, she says, "You're Fukaziroh, the commentator from the duellist tournament last year, right?"

    Fuka peers at the kunoichi with skepticism, though inwardly she's probably grinning like a madwoman. The reaction is perfect, as is the blush, and not at all uncommon when someone's faced with Fuka being, well, Fuka. Maybe she'll relent and go easy on Raiza soon, but that depends on forthcoming reactions.

    She does frown and nod in acknowledgement of the rando PK comment. While Fuka loves duelling and duellists, she's not much for PKing. Or for anyone who gets their kicks out of ruining someone else's fun, for that matter. Death is definitely NOT fun! But it's not long before she is amused again and seeking more mischief. "Fukaziroh the announcer?" she asks rhetorically. "Not Fukaziroh the near-legendary enchanter, breaker of a thousand hearts? Terror of a thousand gnolls? Not gnoll hearts mind you, that's not why they're terrified. That's actually kind of ew and forget I even said it! Why YES in fact I AM she, the ... uh, the announcer. Call me Fuka." she offers.

    A kunai is produced from somewhere behind Raiza's back, but not held in an aggressive posture - rather, it seems to be an idle animation of sorts, a tic wherein she flips the throwing dagger between the fingertip of her right hand as she stands with arms folded beneath the curves of her breastplate, gaze resting dubiously on Fuka's face.

    "Okay, already forgotten," Raiza willfully accepts the command. Do sweatdrops animate on ETO? If they did, she'd probably have a well-formed one on her brow at this point. Her tone, however, quickly shifts back to business-like as she holds the kunai upright, the ring at the end held between two fingers.

    "So, you -are- the Fuka I was looking for, then. Cool! I'm guessing that that means that you'll be announcing at this year's tournament too, right? I bet you have an idea of who's signed up for it so far. I bet you've even been brushing up on your knowledge of the duellists. How they like to fight, things like that? The kind of stuff an announcer would want to know...?"

    As faux-casual as she may sound, there's certainly a leading edge in the kunoichi's voice.

    It's a good guess, as Fuka has of course been doing exactly that! And helping, behind the scenes at least, to arrange a few things for the tournament. It's one of the big reasons she's in Shibuya right now in fact. She is, however, immediately on her guard from the question. She's not exactly against people trying to dig for information. She'd do likewise in a duel after all, and is in the middle of specifically training to predict and defend against a diverse range of attacks... which requires a certain cunning and foreknowledge. Plus of course she does her research on the fighters, though mostly to know exactly how they prefer to be titled in the matchup. Or, sometimes, what exactly they *don't* prefer to be known as.

    "Well..." she allows, peering at the kunoichi. "Most of them fight with weapons. And spells!" Fuka claims, as if this is a wonderful revelation. "There's bound to be a few godfists though, and they mostly tend to use their fists. But not their gods, funnily enough. Isn't that funny, don't you think?" she asks cheerily. "I mean I'm a heavy blade and Frank isn't particularly heavy. I mean sure, about two kilograms, but I'm stronger than I look!" she insists, posing and showing off arm muscles. Which, given her sylph body, tend to be svelte and lean rather than bulky. She *does* have muscles, certainly, given her impressive physical attributes. The game attributes that is, not feminine attributes. Just not anything that would justify a bodybuilder's posing.

Gwen is still in town and comes across both Raiza and fuka. The towering woman once again comes up. She's still clad in her old heavy blade outfit and just is a twitter at the moment. She looks at the pair for a moment. Though the there's Gwen's frame which could not be farther from Fuka's as she looks the pair over.

"Fuka! Raiza! Hey what are you two up to?!"

    The expression on the kunoichi's face is increasingly terse as Fuka launches into A Beginner's Guide to Elder Tale Online Class Combat. Bewilderment turns to a bitten lip as Raiza twirls her kunai faster and faster.

    "Are you..." Raiza's eyes narrow as she searches her memory for the word that she's heard applied to this kind of situation. "...filibustering me?"

    Before that question can be answered, Gwen walks up - a familiar face, having been added to Raiza's list only the other day or so. Raiza stops twirling her kunai and clasps it in her hand as her posture relaxes slightly.

    "Oh, hey, Gwen! I was just pumping - I mean, I was just interviewing Fuka here about the kinds of things she does for the duellist tournament. She's one of the announcers," she says with her best innocent smile.

    "Filibustering you?" Fuka says, her voice full of insincere innocence. "I don't even know you!" she concludes triumphantly. She may not be sure what that means, but that won't stop her from treating it as innuendo! "Besides I don't even know your name!" she complains. Then pauses, rewinds what she just heard. You can almost see the loop running through her mind.

    "Oh hi Gwen!" Fuka chirps sunnily. "RAIZA here just appeared out of nowhere like she was going to ... well, probably not murder or kidnap or seduce me. PROBABLY. And we got talking! She has some really cool magic!" Fuka notes. "Also what do you think about that armour? Professionally, I mean?"

Gwen says "Good to see you Razia and really? She was pretty great lat time very enteraining as an announcer. Oh I see so you just met and .. seduce? Fuka I doubt many people in the whole of Yamato could surive you in bed."

Gwen smirks, wait did she just go Morri or is she just proving she really is Morri's daughter? Either way she seems in good? Which armor? Your's? Raiza's?"

    "No, no - filibuster is when someone talks a lot without -" Realising that it's difficult to elucidate further without potentially appearing disparaging, Raiza's exasperation fades, and she trails off, "- saying... a lot."

    The ninja folds her arms under her breastplate with a huff.

    "I definitely wasn't going to murder or kidnap or seduce Fuka! Appearing out of nowhere to have a casual conversation with someone is just a class feature for ninjas like me. And so is disappearing out of nowhere to find something to deal with a headache. I'll get back to both of you later - we still need to run that dungeon, Gwen!"

    She turns to Fuka.

    "I'm Raiza," the kunoichi says, sliding her mask back over her face and positioning her empty hands in front of herself in the same shinobi pose she arrived in. "I'll see you at the tournament - if not sooner."

    For some reason, her tone seems to end up making the last three words sound slightly threatening. Maybe it's just the mask. Then:

    "Nin nin."

    A thunderous boom erupts as Raiza suddenly launches into the air, spinning away over rooftops and into the inky night above the light pollution from the surrounding streetlamps.

    "Oh, I was just heading home after a bit of partying~" Fuka grins, belatedly giving a real answer to Gwen. She nods sagely along with Raiza's explanation too. Raiza really doesn't need to worry. Fuka's used to being disparaged. If done in fun she actually enjoys it!

    When Raiza bounces off in a flash of lightning she sagenods. "Very nice. A shame she has a headache. She should drink more water!" Fuka advises. And grins at Gwen. "You're right, I'm an ANIMAL in bed." she agrees shamelessly. "I just want to be pet, and maybe fed too!"

Gwen says "Oh I see, sounds like you had fun then Fuka!"

she listens to Raiza as she gets ready to head out and then do so in a lot of style. She calls out.

"We do we should see what else we can get to drop in there to be sure! I'll keep in touch!"

She looks to Fuka for a moment. She then start to laugh at the joke.

"Well played."

Gwen pauses for a moment looking at Fuka.

"So food? Shall we get something from Pela's? Come on it will be on me!"

With that Gwen will attempt to drag Fuka off for food!