Chilled to Perfection (Invite Only)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

(OOC: Rei no Kaado, me and Mugen, blah blah blah you people know this by now I mean we've been doing this plot with mostly Invite Only threads for like three months now)

"...So in a nutshell, I'm really, really, really, really sorry about how I acted the other morning, and would like to apologize for my behavior."

Souji bowed to the employee running the register. She sighed.

"Look, sir, just take your coffee," she said. She pushed the steaming hot beverage forward. Souji had already paid for the drink, so it was just a matter of him stopping what he was doing and going away. After all, they had other customers.

"Er, right. Again, really sorry," Souji said. He picked the coffee up and walked over to a table. Incidentally, it was the same table he'd sat at when he'd been waiting for his coffee the previous day.

There. I fixed what you did yesterday, Souji growled at Izanagi. During that brief time Izanagi had been in control, he'd gone to this coffee shop, and proceeded to make an ass of himself about being poisoned by the coffee from this very shop. Even if it had been Anpu who had slipped it in, Izanagi couldn't believe that their security was so lax that they had missed a kid with long white hair slipping into the back.

Just drink the coffee already. I'm starving.

Okay, one? Coffee isn't a food, it's a beverage. And two, you're a god, and on top of that, you're just a spirit of sorts attached to my psyche. You technically can't be hungry, Souji replied back. And besides. It's gotta cool.

I'm not a 'spirit of sorts attached to your psyche'.

Well, you are now. Blame your ex-wife for that. Y'know, if it wasn't for her, you probably wouldn't be in this situation. Souji said. He pulled the top off and stirred the coffee a bit.

So I awakened sooner than normal. It doesn't change what the end result will be, Izanagi stated. By the way, I have to say it must suck having your birthday on New Years.

I don't mind too much. I never liked the hubbub of birthday parties and stuff anyways. With my birthday on New Years, everyone's too bothered with the festivities to really remember. So I don't have to ever worry about inviting anyone or anything like that, Souji said.

You really were introverted before Inaba. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Souji stopped stirring the coffee.

Well, you were my Shadow, I guess you would know, Souji said.

[mugenginga]

A man by the name of Geoffery sighed as one of the workers at the coffee shop talked to him. He'd caught wind of the customer complaint recently. Jeff as he was known to just about everybody had gotten rather annoyed at the time of the report. He wasn't the quickest thinker in the world, and he'd been sick the day the incident had occurred. He'd had a police officer question him that day to. Takahoshi or something of the sort? Usually he was good with names, even the foreign ones after coming to the Island, but the implication that someone had been poisoned in his shop had set him on edge.

He hadn't expected the teenager who had made the complaint (and threat, from what he'd gathered) to return to the shop. Let alone apologize like the mess was his fault. He kept his patience when he was told, but he was a bit irritated. They should have given him a drink on the house. He had no idea how someone had managed to poison a customer, but if he ever found out who it was he was going to rip them a new one.

After being told the teenager had returned, he came out to the counter and pulled some money from the cash register. At least he could give the kid a free drink now. It would hardly make up for being poisoned, but at least it was something. He thought for a moment and pulled out a bit more, covering the drink from the day he'd been poisoned as well. He walked out from behind the counter and approached the counter when he heard the bell hooked to the door ring.

Kisa stopped cold as she let go of the door. It closed behind her from its own weight. Her eyes got wide and she turned towards the table Souji was sitting at. And then felt bad for being rude. It was him. The one she felt two presences from. Still felt two presences from. The silver haired teenager seemed a bit annoyed, and she assumed it was at her. She bowed quickly as a sort of apology. Jeff was almost at Souji's table when he saw her, the money clutched in his hands.

"Oh, Kisa! Here for your father again?"

"Yes, Madison-san," she said politely.

Jeff rubbed the back of his head, "Aw, jeez. How many times do I hafta tell you to call me Jeff? Ya don't need to attach any kinda honorific to it. Not like your dad's here, y'know?"

"I am very sorry, but I couldn't do that!" Kisa said. She did seem sorry, but more relaxed than she had just been moments earlier, or even the other day she Souji had met her, "Hello again, Seta-san. Are you feeling better today?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

In any case, I'm more worried about Nyarlatho-- Izanagi suddenly stopped talking as he saw two people approach Souji. One was the girl from the other day. The other person looked like an employee. Get your head back in the game. There's people talking to you.

Souji's eyes lost that unfocused look as he looked up from his coffee and observed the situation around him. Oh, it was that girl from before. And the other guy looked like an employee. Souji smiled at Kisa.

"Much better, thanks," Souji said. He looked over at the person whose name Souji had just barely caught. Jeff. Well, this guy did look American. And then Souji looked down at the money Jeff had clutched in his hand. "You don't have to give me anything; it was my own fault."

I still don't like her, Izanagi said.

[mugenginga]

"Oh, you know him, Kisa?"

Kisa looked up and shook her head, "Not really. I only met him yesterday."

"Well, go ahead and have a seat. Now, Mr. Seta was it?" Jeff turned back towards Souji. He doubted Seta was his first name, he'd known Kisa long enough to know she didn't run around using first names, especially for people she just met, "Ya don't hafta take the money. But I can't really take a profit after what Mr. Takahoshi said happened to you. If ya don't want it, feel free to leave it on the table here. I'm sure someone will pick it up."

Jeff put the money down on the counter. He looked at Souji for a minute, decided the teenager didn't want to talk, and headed towards the back of the shop. The money had had put down was, surprisingly enough, in yen. There were bills and coins there, but the amount was what he had paid for the coffee today and what he had paid for the coffee during that ill fated encounter. If Souji knew anything about conversion rates, he'd realize Jeff had aired on the side of Souji, meaning he'd gotten back a bit more than he probably should have.

Kisa headed over to another table. She managed to stumble at one point, and glanced back towards Souji. She couldn't shake the feeling that whatever else was with Souji was looking at her. She smiled with a look of apology and hurried over to a table in a corner. She didn't notice a hard plastic case slip out of her vest pocket and hit the floor with a faint clack. She sat down and looked towards the counter, still as of yet unaware she'd dropped something.

What she had dropped was rather interesting. Sealed in a rather high quality looking hard plastic case was nothing other than a Duel Monsters card. The case looked like it would be possible to open, but one would need a screwdriver. The case had landed so that the front of the card sealed within would face up. It might raise an eyebrow from Souji.

Because the card sealed within the case was a Japanese copy of a Blue Eyes, White Dragon. It wasn't like he'd ever seen Kaiba's cards, but only one thing seperated it from those from this side. The coding on the card different from the three Kaiba owned. It was still, however, a first edition and the name of the card was still written in gold foil kanji. If Souji looked at the back, he'd see a significant difference from the cards Yuugi owned. The pattern on the back was vastly different and rather than an "I2: INDUSTRIAL ILLUSIONS" in the upper left would be a "KONAMI", and the kanji in the lower right corner that read Duel Monsters had quite a bit more to it, instead matching the logo for the second series anime.

Those overly versed in the specifics of the Japanese Duel Monsters game would pick up on other things. It was from the set known in Japan as "Legend of the Blue Eyes White Dragon". It wasn't a recent set by any means, but it wasn't one of the first. It had come out after the Duel Monsters version of the anime had started in Japan, clearly evidenced by the logo on the back. It looked to be in mint condition as far as one could tell from the case. Not that Souji would. Atsuro probably wouldn't be able to tell that much.


(OOC: HERE HAVE PICTURES OF THE FRONT AND BACK THAT I RESEARCHED FOR THIS. XD
Front: images1.wikia.nocookie.net/yugioh/images/7/79/Blue-EyesWhiteDragonLB-JP-UR.jpg
Back: images4.wikia.nocookie.net/yugioh/images/d/da/Back-JP.png )

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji had been about to object again before Jeff left. He sighed and picked up the money. He really didn't want to take it, but at the same time, he was running low on cash. What without Dojima to support him and the fact that he didn't have a job of any kind here. At least back in Inaba he'd had all of those various part-time jobs. He sighed and pocketed the cash.

Souji looked up as he heard something clack against the floor. He looked in the direction he'd heard the sound from, and saw a plastic case. Souji stood up and walked over to the case. He picked it up and examined the card within. It looked like one of those Duel Monsters cards Yuugi and Atem owned, but there were a few differences. Mainly with the back. Souji couldn't remember the back being that detailed. He looked over at Kisa, and walked over to the table she was sitting at. Souji held the case out to her.

"I think this is yours," Souji said. "Funny. I didn't think you'd be into Duel Monsters."

[mugenginga]

Kisa jumped badly when Souji spoke her name. She looked up, her eyes showing he really had frightened her when she saw what he was holding out. She gasped and took the case with a bit more force than her apparent personality would indicate as normal. She was out of her seat and bowing in less than a second.

"Thank you, thank you, omigosh I'm sorry and thank you!" She straightened up, "Oh... I'm not... I mean, not really. Not much, anyhow. I'm not very good at it and my father doesn't approve. But this," she held up the card, "Is kind of a lucky charm, I guess. I know it sounds weird but I kind of... resonate with it? I'm sorry, I sound like an idiot... Wait, they have Duel Monsters in your world? That's amazing! Oh, am I bothering you? I'm so sorry!"

She was almost annoying. She seemed to be apologizing every other sentence. However, a bit of a different personality seemed to be evident from before. Mentioning Duel Monsters seemed to have picked her up a bit. There was also a hint of untruth about her mentioning she wasn't really that into it. She looked embarassed, as if she'd done something to be ashamed of. She wasn't looking Souji in the eyes, in any case. Nothing changed the fact she'd used "sumimasen" twice in less than two minutes.

(OOC: Sumimasen means "I'm sorry" but its more like "I am sorry for being an inconvenience/troubling you" - Its a form of apology when you've done something stupid or are very much at fault, such as committing a bad faux pas)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji sighed. She obviously wasn't telling the truth about not being into Duel Monsters, but with the sound of her father, she probably didn't like mentioning the truth. She sure apologized a lot too.

"Yeah. I've never really been into it, but a few of my friends are," Souji said. He took a sip of his coffee. Still more than kind of hot.

"Resonates with it"... The cards that your friends use have something like spirits in them. I doubt it's something like merely identifying with that card, Izanagi commented. Talk to her more. She's still bothering me. She might be the avatar of whatever god that card's supposed to represent.

"I bet your father wouldn't like me either... Mind if I sit here?" Souji asked.

[mugenginga]

Kisa looked at him blankly. He wanted to sit with her? She hesitated, but decided to err on the side of being polite and nodded. She adjusted her dress and sat back down. Her father had sent her to get coffee, so she couldn't stay here long. But it meant it was unlikely he was going to walk in on her and find her talking to a strange guy. Strange, her father wouldn't know the half of it.

"He really means well, but sometimes he is a little overprotective," she glanced towards the door, "Go ahead. I won't be here for long, though. He doesn't like me to waste time."

Souji had no way of knowing this, but her father wasn't really abusive. He was not unknown for skirting the boundaries in terms of psychological abuse, but he never really managed to cross it. She glanced at the counter. There was a pretty good line, Jeff usually wasn't this busy. It might take him a while, but the man was nice enough to help her explain to her father when that happened.

"How long have you been on the Island?" she asked.0

Souji didn't seem like someone who'd been there his whole life. Really, she didn't know more than a few people that had. It felt like a less lame question for small talk than talking of the weather. Which it had been a bit warm this year, usually a bit of snow had fallen.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"It's fine, I probably need to get going soon anyways. Though I've got time to talk," Souji said. He sat down in a chair across the table from Kisa, and placed his coffee in front of him. He wasn't sure he likd the sound of her dad, but he'd never met the guy; how could he know?

"Not long," Souji said in response to Kisa's question. "A couple months, I guess."

He took another sip of his coffee. He could tell there was something up with this girl. She definitely wasn't as normal as she looked, but considering the kind of people Souji typically got involved with, that didn't surprise him in the least.

She has powers. Probably spirit sense, based on how she keeps looking at you. She can sense my presence, but I don't think she's noticed anything off about you yet. As far as the card, the card itself isn't all that special, but it's special to her for more of a reason than she realizes. It's still entirely possible she's an avatar of some sort. As far as her father, he is, as she said, overly protective of her. If I had to take a guess, she was born on the Island, and he's worried about her. Either that, or she arrived on the island a fair bit of time ago, and her father became overly protective as a result of their arrival, Izanagi said. He had detected part of that using his own powers, the rest was his own deduction.

[mugenginga]

"...oh," she'd been right.

She always found it harder to talk to people who weren't native. A couple of months meant he probably thought he was going to get back home, and she found that was a rare occurrance. The ITS wasn't as handy as many people wished it was. She looked down at the card.

"I was born here. My parents are both from a Japan, though. Different ones, but similar enough. My mother says that's why my dad acts the way he does. Apparently the Japan of his world had ideas about how girls should act. Um... oh, you said you had friends into Duel Monsters? I heard the game was based on an anime, but I've never seen it... The Island only really gets original stuff, aside from things like DVDs and such people have on them when they come here."

Kisa more than confirmed Izanagi's suspicion when he had talked. In fact, that's why she'd taken a while to respond. She had looked up suddenly as he began to talk, looked a bit guilty and apologetic, and then looked away. For all she knew, Souji didn't know about the presence attached to him. And if he did, he probably wanted to keep it private. A few months meant he might now know that kind of thing wasn't that unheard of on the Island.

It wasn't that he had an attached presence. Its that what she could sense rubbed her a bit wrong. She wasn't sure why, she never was with these kinds of things. It probably didn't like her. She was rather focused on the card as she talked. She looked up towards the counter. The line was almost gone, so she'd be able to go soon. She didn't like the way she kept feeling stared at, and she didn't want to make Souji feel uncomfortable by knowing about the presence. She wasn't aware that she let out a slight sigh.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji flinched as Kisa looked up at the exact moment Izanagi started talking. She could sense him; Izanagi had been right. On more than a few points. Souji had wondered about that until he remembered what Izanagi kept saying about latent abilities. It sucked having something attached to him that he still couldn't figure out how to fully surpress.

"I should probably get going soon. It was nice talking with you, Kisa," Souji said. He stood up. With how long he'd been there, the others were probably already at the apartments.

...That's it, Izanagi said. I sensed something like her presence from that deck that Kaiba person had on him. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but it's her. And based on the power levels of that card, and how Kaiba had talked before... I wouldn't put it past that Kaiba person to have that card she had in the case in his deck.

"Power levels?" But if that's the case, then she's the spirit of some card or something? Souji asked.

It's entirely possible, Izanagi said. Let's go. She rubs me the wrong way.

[mugenginga]

Kisa stood up along with Souji. Which was a bit weird, it was usually guys who stood along with girls. The reason why became clear enough as she bowed. In that odd way she had of letting her hair conceal her face.

"I'm very sorry if I delayed you, Seta-san. Please take care."

In truth she was relieved he was leaving. She could probably solve the whole situation if she just asked Souji about the presence. She didn't think it liked her, but maybe if she could figure out how to talk with it...? She felt glad she was still in the bow, so Souji couldn't see her face. She was frowning at herself. No, it was better like this. Although she did keep running into him, he wasn't the person that she kept picking up on. That was bothering her quite a bit, because she felt worried every time she sensed it. Worried in the fashion of someone she cared about, oddly enough.

"Kisa, I'll be out there in a few minutes!"

Kisa stood up and turned her head, "Alright, Madison-san!"