Cafe's are for reading, right? [Open]

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo sat at the table by the window, sipping his steaming espresso. He had a book open in one hand, which he was reading intently. In the back of his head, he knew most guys would be more focused on the girls walking around - and most of the male patrons were - but he'd finally found a good read in the fantasy genre. Besides, this place was on the way home from his new school, so he'd be able to come "ogle" whenever. Besides, while a number of the girls looked decent in their uniforms, only one really looked good enough to distract him from his book for more than a moment - and she was way out of his league. Shaking his head a bit at the guys nearby flirting with their waitresses, he took another sip of his espresso and continued reading. This place really did have the best cup of coffee in town, he'd have to remember to bring one home for his mother.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi looked at herself in the mirror located in the back of the Cafe, the bustle of the cafe continued around her as orders taken and waitresses shuffled past each other. She twisted her body around to get a better look at the maid outfit she was in, taking a moment to straighten the large pink ribbon on the back along with the white ruffled head band. She picked up her tray in one hand, hovering it in her palm at head level as she made her way out of the back room. She ran the battle plan through her head once more, check on her tables and deliver the food, easy. She looked towards her two filled tables. One was an older man, the one who had ordered the coffee and sandwich that she had in her hands, and the other was younger boy that attended her school. The fact that she had to serve such low lifes like that pissed her off, yet she couldn't help but be slightly disappointed in the fact that more customers hadn't requested seating in her sections, most of the other waitresses were full tonight. She did a quick swing by to drop off the food to the older man before retreating away from his table to check on her school mate's table. She contained a snarl as she noticed him completely absorbed in his book, he should be honored to have a her doing even the slightest of things for him. She forced what she felt was a fairly convincing smile as she approached the boy. "And how is the coffee today sir? I hope everything is to your liking?" she cocked her head slightly the smile slowly starting to fade before she caught herself re-plastering her face with the grin. "I can't tell if your trying to be sly and not be caught looking or if you actually enjoy our coffee enough to pay that extra amount to come here." She stated, giving off a giggle. She rested the now empty tray by her hip as she awaited the response of her customer.

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo paused at the sudden intrusion, then relaxed when he realized it was his waitress. He memorized his place on the page before looking up, giving her enough time to not only ask how his coffee was, but also insinuate that he was using his book as a way to look at the girls without being obvious. A sarcastic comment got to the tip of his tongue, and then she giggled. His brain shut off for a second out of sheer cuteness overload, and he blinked twice before actually being able to respond. "Uhm, yeah, the coffee's great... and even though it costs a little more, it's gotta be the best in town. The Cafe in Shinjuku's espresso doesn't even come close, and I don't even wanna bring up WcDonalds' coffee. And, uhm, I'm not really 'sly' enough to have thought of something like that, I only got the book last night and I'm finally getting to the good part." He was rambling a bit, and he knew it. He also felt a bit of heat on his cheeks - he really hoped he wasn't blushing enough for it to be noticeable. He was kinda hoping she'd leave so he'd stop making a fool out of himself, but he was also hoping she'd stick around for a bit... what the hell was going on with him?

[Moiety]

Kiyomi began to edge away from the table giving the boy a bow. "I'm happy that you enjoy the coffee so much." she hastily retracted from the bow trying to resist the urge to gag at the idea of having lowered herself to somebody else. "I would love to talk to you about your book however I need to get back to work. Whenever your ready to pay, feel free to call me over. See you at school, maybe." She scrambled away from the boy, retreating under the cover of her ruse of work in hopes that he wouldn't notice her lack of customers. she ducked into the back room sliding her tray onto the table as she waited for it to get piled on with an order. A few moments passed, boredom began to sink into her. She looked around for a moment her eyes deep in thought before she let out a sigh. "Burst Link." She whispered to herself. Her world tinted itself into an unnatural blue as she was projected out of her body. Now dawning a long purple dress she looked around the back room, watching as even the steam from the grill slid up the walls in what appeared to be almost motionless drifting. She reached a hand out in front of her, a menu popping down as she did so. She slid it over to the challenge tab in hopes to see some names appear. It was as good a time as ever to familiarize herself with this game. She let out a gasp of excitement as she saw a name, she pushed on it to get more information. So lucky! It was a level one, just like her. "Cardinal Commando." She muttered his name out to herself before slamming the challenge button. The world around her melted away as a new one began to construct. Walls began to form randomly in what soon became a mansion of walls and steam. The entire world around her began to smell of coffee as the lighting in the building faded, stains of brown splattered across walls like blood. From what Kiyomi could tell from her peek into the other room there was this back room consisting of one wall dividing the room into two and the main dinning hall which was a large room with low visibility from the steam and darkness, large table helping to obstruct vision. A shiver shot down Kiyomi's back as the stage came into play, the HP bars at the top filling in a grinding manner. Flaming words blasted in front of her face as her HUD updated with the new information. "A new challenger has appeared!" the fiery words dominated her vision for a moment before fading again, leaving her in absolute silence.

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo couldn't keep himself from staring a bit as his waitress walked away - she was really cute. Shaking his head a bit, he flipped his book back open and took a sip of coffee as he settled back into his book. A few moments later, he was interrupted by the world freezing, and coloring itself blue. Before he even had time to process this, the world melted away, and a new one was constructed. The walls arose from the ground, a dull color with brown splatters all over it - he couldn't tell if it was coffee or old blood. The smell of coffee blasted its way into his nose as he surveyed the dimly lit room, now filled with smoke. This must be... Accel World? Protruding forward from his left shoulder was a large red cylinder, his entire body appeared to be made of blocky pieces of red metal, and he was holding a red handgun in his right hand. Two blue gauges filled at the top of his screen on either side, a timer appearing in the middle. On the left, Cardinal Commando, and on the right, Byzantium Empress. Katsuo assumed Cardinal Commando was him, so that meant Byzantium Empress must be his opponent. He knelt behind the nearby table holding his pistol close to his body, and opened the skills menu to see what he was working with here. Let's see... I can shoot my pistol, and fire this cannon, and I have a finisher called "Cardinal Judgement" that I have no clue what it does. No melee attacks, even with this bulky metal body... fantastic. Closing the menu, Katsuo glanced around the area behind him, making sure there was no one in the dining hall... that meant they were in the back room. He stood, pointed his absurdly large cannon towards the entrance to the other room, and willed it to fire. The tip glowed brightly for a moment, then a bolt of energy flew out of it with a muffled thump. The recoil was more than he'd expected, and he stumbled backwards., knocking over a couple chairs and a table before regaining his balance.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi rattled back in surprise as the blast of a canon shattered in front of her a few debris shattered into her skimming her health bar down ever so slightly. "Well, that's a good way to give away your position." she stated in surprise. She reached down for the sword at her side unsheathing the blade with a slow suspense filled hiss. The golden blade glimmered in her hand the fabric covering the handle gave it an almost gentle feel against the fearsome serrated golden edge, she would hate to see how it looked to be on the other side of this lengthy blade. With one foot in front of the other she dashed into the opening to the main room and looked towards where the rocket had fired from. A cyclone of steam swirled from the velocity of the projectile noises of clattering tables and chairs coming from deeper in the room, the darkness keeping whatever she was facing just out of site. She didn't want to stay so far away from her target with an attack like that rocket she had just seen. She put pressure into the tips of her toes and began to dash at full speed towards her assumed target. She held her blades tip out in front of her in case her target came up faster than she could come to a stop, the sword unwavering as she clutched it in between her two hands.

[SaxAppeal]

The steam was swirling around, ruining what little vision he had. Katsuo saw a small amount of his opponent's HP gauge chip off, and widened his eyes a little. He would have seen if the attack had actually hit, so he could only assume that debris did damage... this game was intense. His attention snapped back to the battle at hand as he saw a golden glimmer start to come towards him from the steam, and rather quickly at that. He did his best to sidestep the... whatever it was, but his body seemed heavy and sluggish. He'd only moved a half step or so to the side when the silhouette of his opponent became visible through the fog, the golden glimmer revealed to be - A BIG, SHINY, SAWBLADE SWORD? SERIOUSLY? He snapped his arm up into what he vaguely remembered as a comfortable shooting stance, and squeezed the trigger of his pistol once or twice at the incoming figure.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi realized her mistake as she rushed directly into the range of the gunslinger. With the pistol held almost directly up to her she had no chance of dodging the shot. With a bullet being fired directly into her side she watched in horror as her HP bar was chunked by about a sixth of its max, the blue bar going up in inverse to the reds decrease, she had read her special ability however she was yet to use it yet perhaps thats what the blue bar was? Now that the distance had been closed she had a chance to check out her opponent up close. He looked clunky, she didn't expect him to do much moving around however the giant cannon on his shoulder and that pistol will become pretty annoying if she lets him get any more of those shots off. Kiyomi spun clockwise the force of her blade building up as the whip lash unleashed towards her opponent. Without worrying about connecting she did her best to get out of the way of any counter attacks. Using a quick burst of speed she dashed past the side of Crimson Commander in hopes to get behind him, her sword lazily held out to the side hopping to get a few free scratches against the opponent in case he was too slow to dodge sloth like attack.

[SaxAppeal]

The big blade swung crosswise across his body, dealing nearly a fifth of his health bar in damage. Katsuo cursed under his breath, the sudden pain surprising him. As his HP dropped, the bar below it began to fill. Judging by other fighting games, it was probably his finisher bar, and we was looking forward to when he could test out that "Cardinal Judgement" skill. As his opponent dashed past, he made sure to step away as he turned to keep her in his sight, keeping his body away from that crazy sword of hers. His cannon wouldn't fire, and a small-ish timer popped up in his HUD in red. It still had another 10 seconds, so Katsuo figured this must be the "Cooldown" of his cannon. Making sure to keep the number in mind so he could fire it the second it came up, he continued to back away from the purple crazy lady. He kept his pistol level, and shot in her direction a few times. He was a bit rusty compared to the times he'd shot at the firing range with Ojiisan, but it wasn't too bad of a grouping. She'd have a hard time dodging all of them anyway, even with that speed.

[Moiety]

With fast reactions Kiyomi turned on her heels to face her opponent. She locker her eyes on the raised handgun, she tried to weave out of the way but it was too late, the first two shots found home in her should flattening her health bar down to about 65%. However even with the pain of both shots it wasn't enough stopping power to keep her from swirling out of the way of yet another shot. She looked at the top of her screen, with her finisher bar tauntingly close to capping she felt a rush of adrenaline. She raised the tip of her sword, the end of it leaving hardly any distance between the two of them. With all the speed she was able to spare with one hand plus her now screwed shoulder she jabbed the blade forward attempting to sink the golden saw edge into the chest of her opponent waiting to see how he would escape with the hook like edges of her sword.

[SaxAppeal]

As the little red timer clicked agonizingly slowly down towards :00, his opponent jabbed at him with that FREAKING GOLDEN SAW BLADE. Twisting away as much as he could, Katsuo felt a sharp pain in his ribs on his left side as his HP gauge dropped by another 10%. He knew with the serrated edges, he'd do even more damage if he tried to back away and pull it out, and he'd be set up for an even worse attack when she used her finisher, AND her bar was full. There was only one thing he could think to do in this situation. Leaning back slightly, he grabbed the blade with he free hand, holding her by extension and dealing a little damage to his health bar. Just as his did so, the timer clicked down to :00, blinking wildly - not that he needed the notification. By the time the timer had blinked once, his Cannon was charging up. Katsuo didn't let go of the blade until he felt the familiar recoil knock him back a bit, and his HP gauge dropped by around 5% as the blade tip was ripped forcefully from his side. As his cannon shot exploded, it chunked his HP by another 10% as well. Wincing, he dragged his feet while slowly regaining his balance. This game hurts. A LOT. He settled his legs a little, ready to try and jump away when she used her finisher. A quick glance told him his was also prepped, but he didn't think it would be a good idea to fire it until she used hers.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi came to a wavering stand from the ground her head pounding from the intense pain of the cannon blast. Luckily for her she was just quick enough to raise her left arm to block the projectile. She looked down at her left arm, the unmoving piece of debris lay on the ground, electricity and pain shooting hand and hand out of where the rest of her arm was before the blast from the cannon. She looked around the room in a panic before jolting towards the darkness of the room. She dashed towards the back room however just before entering she continued to along the wall until she was straddling the next wall over. She faced the direction that she believed Crimson Commander was in. "Stalking Servants."  she muttered to herself, her breaths were short and raspy as her blade raised from her side in a diagonal slash it moved to the side slightly before crossing the trail with yet another slash. The trails of purple looked eerie against the darkness of the room. Kiyomi waited in torment, watching for her power to kick in. A moment later and five spectral like needles shot out of each slash. Each of them jolted through the air towards the opponent, corkscrewing and gliding at high velocity. The Byzantium Empress began to sneak along the wall in an attempt to make her way around to the back of where she had left her opponent.

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo aimed over towards the back room's entrance with his pistol, hoping to see that golden glimmer and squeeze off a couple rounds, but he didn't see anything. A moment later, he heard a soft whistling sound coming from his left, and turning to face it, he was hit by a small, dark needle, which exploded on impact. Before he could even react, he was hit by a second, and a third, dealing about 10% of his HP. Backing away, he kicked over a table and tossed it towards the whistling, but not before another 3 shots hit him. Down to roughly a third of his HP, Katsuo cursed under his breath, and it took everything he had not to just curl up on the ground in pain. He slowly walked forward, scanning the area for any sign of his opponent. When he could see the glimmering of her obscenely large blade, he knew this was his only chance. He still had :15 on his cannon, but he was hoping it wouldn't matter. Aiming just above the glimmer and a bit to the left, he hoped that was close enough to center mass to adjust when she moved. "Crimson Judgement!" A slight hiss, and a "THUNK!" sound, and his legs were suddenly rooted in place (surprising him, and confusing him). As the end of his cannon began to glow brightly, Katsuo realized that sound must have been his body stabilizing itself. He thought he saw a bit of movement as the cannon's glow reached a peak, and tweaked his aim slightly in hopes it'd hit - "BOOM!" The glass from the window shattered from the noise of the cannon firing alone, and a massive round was discharged from the end of it. That's... SO COOL!

[Moiety]

Kiyomi heard the sound pistons moving as Crimson Commander finisher bar depleted back to zero. She looked towards where he finisher had flow to, waiting in preparation, her sword held out in front of her. A flash echoed out from the dark steam of the building before an ear shattering blast dominated the room. In the period of a second the room went from deathly silent, now windows shattered and tables splintered as this explosion blasted through the earth. A blast of fire shot out from across the room, a large round coming out from the cannon on the opponents shoulder. Kiyomi threw her sword upwards in a vertical slash. The heartwarming sound of metal on metal had proven that her plan had not been a waste. Half of the projectile shell slammed into the wall by her side, the other half however had met its home directly into her gut. Pain continued to pursue through her body, her vision growing faint as her health bar fell to about 7%. The pain threatened to make her body black out despite her heavy resistance. She looked down at the wound, a new hole had been shredded through the right side of her gut. This is ridiculous! He's the same level as me and I was even able to close the gap against a ranged opponent yet I'm being defeated so easily? Humiliating. Her mind raced to keep thoughts off of the tremendous amounts of pain coming from her abdomen and arm, or lack there of. She put all thoughts of loss behind to the back of her mind as she started to sprint towards her opponent one last time. She raced from the darkness of the room, her arm slung across her chest her blade coiled and ready to strike at the first sign of her opponent. Despite the all or nothing attack the Byzantium Empress' body had been failing her, her once glorious speed faded as she struggled just to keep the rest of herself in one piece. She knew if her opponent had been ready for her strike it wouldn't be the most difficult thing to side step her before taking the final shot into her skull but hesitation was the last thing she could do at a time like this. As soon as her opponent was fully visible in the darkness and steam she unleashed he blade upon him, the long golden saw aimed for the opponents neck.

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo watched his finsher get split in half, and was stunned for a moment. A few moments later, he saw Byzantium Empress running towards him, her blade careening towards his neck. His stabilization posts still hadn't released, for whatever reason, so he wasn't going to be able to dodge. Cursing under his breath, he decided to steal a move from her book. He switched his pistol to his left hand, and threw his right arm into the path of the blade. His HP gauge dropped to around 5% as his right arm was sliced off from the elbow down. He snapped the pistol into position, aimed right at her face, and when the blade touched his neck, he paused. He stood there, unflinching, silent, for perhaps a half second. "This was my first fight. I don't know who you are, and I don't really care, but clearly you know more than I do about this crazy fucking game. If you make a move, I'll pull the trigger. It's up to you on whether you think your blade is faster than a bullet - twice." He chuckled a bit, as she'd already managed to practically deflect his finisher. "I want a draw, because I'm not better than you and I don't deserve the victory. But you definitely didn't earn the win this time. Next time, we'll go to the end, but I'm in the middle of my book, and I'd prefer to not be distracted any further." He used his right stub to pull up the "Draw" command, and hit the "Accept" button - now all she had to do eas hit it. Definitely a gamble, because if she wanted to she could probably kill him anyway.