The spice of culinary club.

[Moiety]

With her back turned towards Katsuo she instantly whipped around to see what the boy was up to. As she turned she saw the pistol aimed at her head. With no other way to react she swung her arms out front of her for a quick slash. However it was quickly met with a blast from the boys cannon. The shot knocked the Byzantium Empress off her feet as her back hastily met the cold metal ground. With her HP bar chunked by around 30% she came to a jumping stand. She quickly scanned over the room finding the Cardinal Commando now perched on a table with his pistol held out. "Don't get cocky!" She shouted out. Him calling her babe pissed her off, her blood levels rose as anger took control of her avatar. She lept towards one of the metal studs in the ground that had previously been a chair. With one foot on the edge of the metal she kicked off yet again jolting her body towards Katsuo. With her blade held out by her side she went for the fly by slice.

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo laughed, his adrenaline pumping. He jumped back and lost another 10% of his HP as he not-quite-dodged the slash, following her with his pistol as he squeezed off a triplet of rounds. Tak! Tak! Tak! He watched the countdown of his cannon carefully, making sure to be ready for his finisher once he had enough of his bar filled. "What, you don't like the various terms of endearment I've been coming up with? All I want is for you to stop looking down on me, Kiyomi. Is that too much to ask?" That last bit had come out with a more vicious tone than he intended, but he didn't really care. Katsuo did his best to strafe around her, keeping the "Staple Gun" leveled. Just before his cannon's timer hit :00, he planted his feet. He jerked his cannon, aiming it at the ground halfway between them to keep her from getting close without some really impressive acrobatics. Bang! The round sped forward, exploding on contact with the ground.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi instinctively raised an arm up to where her eyes were, in a futile attempt to block out the debris from the blast. The pain of two shots from the boys pistol stung as they had grazed her side, another 10% of her HP missing. She began to wait for the smoke to clear. "But don't I deserve it?!" She shouted out to him, she began to pace towards the side, her blade dragging on the metal floor as the sound of metal on metal echoed through the room. "I'm older than you. I'm stronger than you. I'm sure I work harder than you!" Her voice began to turn into a shout as she let out her troubles through gritted teeth. "And I'm faster than you!" She let out one final shout before giving up on waiting for the smoke to clear. She charged through it with her sword coiled for a strike. As she made it through the smoke she saw her target, the opponent standing oh so cockily above her. She went in for the strike, however she did not aim for the opponent, instead her blade reached out for the cannon extension on his shoulder. She needed to get that weapon out of the way.

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo saw the blade heading for the cannon, and couldn't move out of the way in time. The front half of his cannon was sheared off, and a quarter of his HP along with it. He stumbled backwards, and dropped to one knee. He bowed his head and dropped his pistol. Katsuo's voice was trembling when he finally responded. "Of course you do. I'm just a useless piece of trash who couldn't make it through school at Hibiya, even with my mother working there. I got Brain Burst before I left, and I've been too terrified to even challenge anyone. The last time you fought me, I barely managed to keep up, and most of that was pure luck." His body shook as he spoke, and he spit the last few words out. "Just end it already. So I can go, and leave you alone." He bit his lip, squeezing his eyes shut as he was suffered through the memories of his last days at Hibiya.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi held her blade steady as she listened to the boys whining, a snarl crossing her face. Standing at the full length of her arm outstretch along with her blade she was almost six feet away from the boy as she kept her Imperial Sawblade at his neck. "I dont want to hear about your life excuses! You think that just because you were bullied you can give up fighting?" She had almost gone into a full on shout at this point. "Do you know why I put up with working at a place such as the Cosplay Cafe? What, do you think I'm an exhibitionist or something? No! When I was a child my father passed away. My family had no way of taking care of ourselves after that. I went from living in luxury to having to disgrace myself just to bring food to the table. You don't deserve to complain!" She continued to shout through gritted teeth. While this had originally started as her scolding the boy she had moved on to venting her own issues as unseen tears fell down her face. She let out an almost inaudible chuckle. "I can't lie to you though Katsuo, you've grown on me. And I'm sorry but I cant let an opportunity like this fall out of my fingers. In case you had not been informed, when we run out of points the program, and everything that we knew of or learned about involving it are erased from our minds. I just cant afford to let this program uninstall itself." She tilted her wrist enough to turn the blade in her hand horizontal. She didn't bother waiting for the boy to respond, she could only assumed well deserved hatred would come from him. With arm raised she coiled her blade for a final slice. Kiyomi unleashed her weapon upon the boy, the saw like golden blade reaching out for the final slice on the boys neck.

[SaxAppeal]

How... how in the hell do you keep going after that? Katsuo couldn't imagine it. He'd never had a dad, and when his Grandfather had died he'd been silent for weeks. If it was true that Brain Burst uninstalled itself when you lost all your points, he'd have to fight even harder from here on. The blade whistled as it whipped towards his neck, and after a biting pain, he opened his eyes in the clubroom. Katsuo turned and looked straight into Kiyomi's eyes. "I'm sorry. Next time you'll get the fight you deserve." He then looked quizzically at Nanami, who had followed him in his rush to the door. "Um... can I help you with something, Nanami-san?"

[Moiety]

Kiyomi turned away from Katsuo with a swivel. She could feel the tears that had been no more than virtual a minute ago beginning to well up in her eyes. She forced the tears to keep from falling as she let her hands start to fiddle with nothing in particular. She did anything to keep her attention from the boy behind her, doing her best to seem busy as her hands shuffled through her backpack. She waited in silence for the duo to leave the room, she didn't want to talk to them, especially not in person. At least while accelerated there was a layer of metal and violence to cover up her words and emotions. However in the real world she had always found it too painful to talk to somebody about her problems.

[Mecuvalec]

    Nanami was suddenly saw Take-san turn around and say meaningful words to Lum-san, which was quite different from the mood just a moment ago. Lum-san turned around and suddenly started mindlessly rummaging. "Um... Take-san?" Nanami turned back to face him. "Did something... happen...?" she tilted her head quizzically. She could feel lines in her head being drawn. There was only one program Nanami knew that could have matches occur so quickly that was a fighting game, and that was Brain Burst. Also considering what Take-san just said, both him and Lum-san were participants as well as Nanami. But she had no experience with the game, only a written explanation of how the game works. There was no way she could beat veterans. She would have to build up experience on matches soon.

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo paused, not sure what to say. "Well..." His eyes were drawn to Kiyomi, who was really upset. "Basically, I'm a complete moron. She shot me down, and I just kinda gave up. So the plan is, next time, I'm just gonna keep pestering her until she says 'yes'." Katsuo winked at Nanami, hoping she'd realize he was joking. Again, he paused, thinking quickly. "Hey Kiyomi, my mom wants another coffee from your work, can I walk with you over there today?" He figured it'd be a no, but he was hoping she'd let him so he could apologize properly, and hopefully make it up to her. Katsuo felt like a colossal ass, but he wasn't quite ready to give up.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi raised her sleeve up to her eyes and patted at the wells to stop the flow. She wiped the moisture away to the best of her abilities, spots of tears forming on the ends of her sleeves where she had swept at her eyes. She turned towards the two people standing just outside the door a fake new smile plastered across her face. She did her best to avoid eye contact as she made her way towards the two of them, puffiness around the eyes wasn't something you could just get rid of. "Hurry up, I don't want to be late." She gave Katsuo a wave of the hand as she walked by, as if a command to follow her. Kiyomi reached out to the handle twisting the nob, as the portal out of the room began to breach the girl turned to look at the new girl. Kiyomi allowed herself to lean against the door slightly as if to keep it moving ever so delicately outward without rushing it open. "If you have nothing better to do you should come along..." Kiyomi had the girls name down pat, however she forced herself to refrain from blurting it out as she twisted her tongue through her mouth, forcing a look of complexion along her face. "Nanami." She finally finished. "It's not too far of a walk from school and if you're new around here then you might as well come check it out." Kiyomi allowed herself to fall backwards on the door, raising her right foot up and pivoting on her left as she did so as to twist into the first step of a distorted walk.