10-29-2017, 11:39 AM
The pair walked down the street casually, Hijiri with the sheathed katana leaning against one shoulder, and Leon with his blaster holstered at his waist, his helmet under one arm and his shades on in its place. Kroll's idea was that they should all try to 'look cool' in front of the public...
The Battle Rabbit had sunglasses of his own, but given the often-dim lighting down on Tier Five, he had opted not to wear them. It seemed kinda silly. Besides, he figured he looked cool enough normally.
They'd been at this for just over ten minutes so far, and hadn't come across any crime as of yet. What they had seen, though, were a lot of ordinary citizens; traffic seemed to be moving unusually well, so that was nice, as it meant the didn't have to inspect every vehicle they passed. There were plenty of people walking the pavements as well; which may have been part of the reason the roads were less packed. Many of them, being denizens of Tier Five, were prone to nervousness around the members of the Empire Peace Division; whether due to actual involvement in criminal activities or just out of a general sense of mistrust for their motives and methods... not everyone liked the idea of a high-security utopia like Tier One, if the cost of safety was losing their privacy.
Though a surprising number of people apparently weren't bothered by them, and there were even those who gave them smiles. It seemed that some of the ones who had noticed their little procession through the streets with their captives the other day had shared the story, and in the area around their barracks, at least, the knowledge that the Empire had actually done something about one of the local gangs which strangled businesses with their protection rackets, dealt drugs freely in these neighbourhoods, and frequently murdered anyone who got in their way, must have given them some optimism.
They tried to appear friendly, as Kroll had insisted. Surprisingly enough, Hijiri soon realised that his partner was much better at this than he was. He'd been expecting the crimson-haired man to mope around sullenly the entire time, but he now saw what the others meant when they said that Leon could be charismatic enough when he put in the effort. It also explained why it had been he and Priya who had been the ones Kroll chose to work on persuading Sarah and Kevin to help them.
He smiled and even waved back on occasion, doing a brilliant job of concealing his true feelings. Beside him, Hijiri would make the attempt every so often, but for the most part he remained as serious as ever. But then something unexpected happened; someone approached them.
It was two someones, actually. A pair of boys who couldn't have been older than thirteen or fourteen sidled into the street from one of the many, many dingy alleyways which riddled Tier Five, sometimes seeming so frequent an occurrence that they appeared to take up almost as much space in total as the buildings they circumvented.
One child was brown-skinned, with spiky black hair and silver eyes, whilst the other was pale, blue eyed and wore his blond hair in a not-so-manly-looking plait which reached his waist. The first wore a grey hoodie with black tracksuit bottoms, whilst the second had on an ice blue t-shirt and three-quarter length cream trousers. In addition, they both wore black trainers.
The kids were on the other side of the wide street, but as soon as he saw them the blond boy shook the other by his shoulder and pointed their way, saying something excitedly, though they couldn't hear a word of it over the noise of the traffic. The silver-eyed one didn't seem all that bothered, but when his friend grabbed his hand and dragged him out on the the road, he followed along without complaint.
Numerous vehicles skidded to a halt, horns blaring, and somewhere in the distance, Hijiri was sure he heard a crash of metal upon metal. He winced. Well, so much for avoiding congestion today.
Somehow having survived to reach the other side, the more eager-looking kid hauled the other along after him as he approached them.
“You were the ones who took down that casino yesterday, right!? What are your names!? I heard you were the ones all wearing sunglasses for some reason! What's that all about!? Are you allowed to do that!? I thought it was illegal to not wear a helmet for stormtroopers or something!? Was it hard!? Were they really tough!? Is it true you're a Prime!? That's so cool! Can I see your sword!? Do you have superpowers!? My mum says Primes all have superpowers! Can you show me!? Pleasepleaseplease-!”
With no preamble, and apparently forgetting about his friend the moment he came within a few metres of them, the pale boy had rushed the rest of the way alone and immediately started blurting out every question that popped into his head as he ran. Realising that they weren't going to get out of this without either being rude – which Kroll didn't want – or actually entertaining these two until they left, the pair came to a stop.
Leon spoke first, giving them a bright smile, “Hi there, I'm Leon Nash, and this is Corporal Takanomiya Hijiri. His name's backwards, by the way.”
“It's not backwards, just different from yours. It just happens that we do things a little differently where I'm from, that's all.”
“Details, details.” the stormtrooper replied, waving a hand dismissively. The Battle Rabbit sighed, but Leon continued as if he hadn't heard, “And yeah, kid, we did just that... though we lost a full dozen stormtroopers during that raid, so they most certainly were tough... of course, none of us died.”
“Huh?” asked the sullen one, sullenly, as he closed in the last few paces at a walk, “What's that supposed to mean? You do realise that just wearing a dumb pair of sunglasses instead of a helmet doesn't stop you being a stormtrooper, ri-? Wait...”
He'd cut himself off halfway through saying 'right?', and they soon found out why, when the first one spoke up hardly an instant after the other had closed his mouth, as if he'd had the exact same thought.
“Does it!? OMG! Do they kick you out of the EPD for wearing sunglasses!? Are you rebels now!? That's harsh! I can't believe they'd fire you all for something so minor as that! We should make a petition! Are you mad at them!? Don't worry! We'll help you get your jobs back! Somehow! I promise we will!” the kid turned to his friend – who was currently engaged in rolling his eyes – grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him roughly, “We will, won't we, Hughie!? Come on, tell them we will!”
Leon laughed, which surprised the Rabbit, since it was all he could do to keep an expression of utter incredulity from creeping across his face. That was quite the conclusion to jump to... not to mention, that loud kid babbled way too much.
“No, no, it's nothing like that, I just meant that no one in our particular group of stormtroopers died; we're the ve- elite stormtroopers. Way better than the normal ones. That's why our boss, Sergeant Iechtelsteir, told us to wear the shades instead of our helmets. They make us stand out from the other 'troopers, y'know...? Although, now that you mention it, it probably would be for the best if you didn't report this to Imperial Command... not that you're ever likely to get the chance, but still... we really are supposed to stay in uniform, after all." Leon had been about to use the word 'veteran', before deciding that 'elite' sounded cooler.
“What about you!? Don't you have to wear a uniform too!?” this time he addressed Hijiri.
“Nah, Primes get an exception from that kinda thing. I may be a member of the EPD, but I'm not actually a stormtrooper, so I get to wear basically whatever I want.”
“And you chose a suit?” asked the moody teenager, as he carefully pried his counterpart's hands from his shoulders, “Lame.”
“Lame, huh? I'll show you lame...” he turned to the excitable one, “you wanted to see my superpowers, right?”
“Oh yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah!” He nodded. A lot. So much, in fact, that his braid swung around wildly as he did.
“Wait, no, don't-” was all Leon got out before giving up, and even that was too late for the Rabbit to hear it. The moment the kid had answered him, Hijiri had taken off, jumping straight up, dozens of metres into the sky, and at the apex of that leap, his whole body suddenly burst into a bright white light, momentarily, before his True Form was revealed. Clad in this, his much cooler outfit, the Battle Rabbit floated slowly down to earth; having reduced his weight enough that he could land as gently as possible. Mostly just because it looked better that way.
When he did, he noticed Leon covering his eyes with one hand and shaking his head forlornly, the blond kid looking up at him with starry eyes, and the black-haired one glaring off into the distance, deliberately not meeting his gaze... somewhat petulantly, it seemed to him.
“Tch. It wasn't that cool.” muttered the boy, even as his friend who stood next to him practically bounced up and down with excitement.
“Uh-huh, sure, whatever you say.” The Battle Rabbit wasn't buying that kid's statement for a moment. He was well aware that his transformation looked totally epic, with or without some moody teen's approval.
“And what's with the bunny ears, huh grandpa? You into that kinky roleplay shit or something?” 'Hughie' obviously wasn't letting him off easily here, seemingly particularly annoyed that his friend was so interested.
Before he explained all that, though, Hijiri turned to Leon, who seemed awful put out by something... because they weren't interested in him anymore? “Nash, what's up?”
“What's up? You just jumped something like fifty metres into the air and started glowing like a fucking lightbulb. Don't you realise what that means?”
“...” Hijiri thought it over... “No, not really.”
“Look!” he gestured wildly around them. People were still hurrying on their way as they walked the streets, and car drivers still honked their horns as they waited for the traffic to get moving again... but some of the pedestrians had changed course and were headed their way, whilst many of the nearby drivers had lowered their windows to hear what was being said... they were drawing a crowd.
“I'd hold off on explaining your whole origin story thing for a couple minutes at least, if I were you, unless you want to have to repeat it again from the start as soon as you're done, since it seems our audience is about to get quite a bit larger... so yeah, thanks for drawing all their attention.”
“Ah. Oops.” Hijiri had the decency at least to look embarrassed.
“Oh, and by the way, I'm blaming you if we don't get this patrol finished on time.”
The Battle Rabbit had sunglasses of his own, but given the often-dim lighting down on Tier Five, he had opted not to wear them. It seemed kinda silly. Besides, he figured he looked cool enough normally.
They'd been at this for just over ten minutes so far, and hadn't come across any crime as of yet. What they had seen, though, were a lot of ordinary citizens; traffic seemed to be moving unusually well, so that was nice, as it meant the didn't have to inspect every vehicle they passed. There were plenty of people walking the pavements as well; which may have been part of the reason the roads were less packed. Many of them, being denizens of Tier Five, were prone to nervousness around the members of the Empire Peace Division; whether due to actual involvement in criminal activities or just out of a general sense of mistrust for their motives and methods... not everyone liked the idea of a high-security utopia like Tier One, if the cost of safety was losing their privacy.
Though a surprising number of people apparently weren't bothered by them, and there were even those who gave them smiles. It seemed that some of the ones who had noticed their little procession through the streets with their captives the other day had shared the story, and in the area around their barracks, at least, the knowledge that the Empire had actually done something about one of the local gangs which strangled businesses with their protection rackets, dealt drugs freely in these neighbourhoods, and frequently murdered anyone who got in their way, must have given them some optimism.
They tried to appear friendly, as Kroll had insisted. Surprisingly enough, Hijiri soon realised that his partner was much better at this than he was. He'd been expecting the crimson-haired man to mope around sullenly the entire time, but he now saw what the others meant when they said that Leon could be charismatic enough when he put in the effort. It also explained why it had been he and Priya who had been the ones Kroll chose to work on persuading Sarah and Kevin to help them.
He smiled and even waved back on occasion, doing a brilliant job of concealing his true feelings. Beside him, Hijiri would make the attempt every so often, but for the most part he remained as serious as ever. But then something unexpected happened; someone approached them.
It was two someones, actually. A pair of boys who couldn't have been older than thirteen or fourteen sidled into the street from one of the many, many dingy alleyways which riddled Tier Five, sometimes seeming so frequent an occurrence that they appeared to take up almost as much space in total as the buildings they circumvented.
One child was brown-skinned, with spiky black hair and silver eyes, whilst the other was pale, blue eyed and wore his blond hair in a not-so-manly-looking plait which reached his waist. The first wore a grey hoodie with black tracksuit bottoms, whilst the second had on an ice blue t-shirt and three-quarter length cream trousers. In addition, they both wore black trainers.
The kids were on the other side of the wide street, but as soon as he saw them the blond boy shook the other by his shoulder and pointed their way, saying something excitedly, though they couldn't hear a word of it over the noise of the traffic. The silver-eyed one didn't seem all that bothered, but when his friend grabbed his hand and dragged him out on the the road, he followed along without complaint.
Numerous vehicles skidded to a halt, horns blaring, and somewhere in the distance, Hijiri was sure he heard a crash of metal upon metal. He winced. Well, so much for avoiding congestion today.
Somehow having survived to reach the other side, the more eager-looking kid hauled the other along after him as he approached them.
“You were the ones who took down that casino yesterday, right!? What are your names!? I heard you were the ones all wearing sunglasses for some reason! What's that all about!? Are you allowed to do that!? I thought it was illegal to not wear a helmet for stormtroopers or something!? Was it hard!? Were they really tough!? Is it true you're a Prime!? That's so cool! Can I see your sword!? Do you have superpowers!? My mum says Primes all have superpowers! Can you show me!? Pleasepleaseplease-!”
With no preamble, and apparently forgetting about his friend the moment he came within a few metres of them, the pale boy had rushed the rest of the way alone and immediately started blurting out every question that popped into his head as he ran. Realising that they weren't going to get out of this without either being rude – which Kroll didn't want – or actually entertaining these two until they left, the pair came to a stop.
Leon spoke first, giving them a bright smile, “Hi there, I'm Leon Nash, and this is Corporal Takanomiya Hijiri. His name's backwards, by the way.”
“It's not backwards, just different from yours. It just happens that we do things a little differently where I'm from, that's all.”
“Details, details.” the stormtrooper replied, waving a hand dismissively. The Battle Rabbit sighed, but Leon continued as if he hadn't heard, “And yeah, kid, we did just that... though we lost a full dozen stormtroopers during that raid, so they most certainly were tough... of course, none of us died.”
“Huh?” asked the sullen one, sullenly, as he closed in the last few paces at a walk, “What's that supposed to mean? You do realise that just wearing a dumb pair of sunglasses instead of a helmet doesn't stop you being a stormtrooper, ri-? Wait...”
He'd cut himself off halfway through saying 'right?', and they soon found out why, when the first one spoke up hardly an instant after the other had closed his mouth, as if he'd had the exact same thought.
“Does it!? OMG! Do they kick you out of the EPD for wearing sunglasses!? Are you rebels now!? That's harsh! I can't believe they'd fire you all for something so minor as that! We should make a petition! Are you mad at them!? Don't worry! We'll help you get your jobs back! Somehow! I promise we will!” the kid turned to his friend – who was currently engaged in rolling his eyes – grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him roughly, “We will, won't we, Hughie!? Come on, tell them we will!”
Leon laughed, which surprised the Rabbit, since it was all he could do to keep an expression of utter incredulity from creeping across his face. That was quite the conclusion to jump to... not to mention, that loud kid babbled way too much.
“No, no, it's nothing like that, I just meant that no one in our particular group of stormtroopers died; we're the ve- elite stormtroopers. Way better than the normal ones. That's why our boss, Sergeant Iechtelsteir, told us to wear the shades instead of our helmets. They make us stand out from the other 'troopers, y'know...? Although, now that you mention it, it probably would be for the best if you didn't report this to Imperial Command... not that you're ever likely to get the chance, but still... we really are supposed to stay in uniform, after all." Leon had been about to use the word 'veteran', before deciding that 'elite' sounded cooler.
“What about you!? Don't you have to wear a uniform too!?” this time he addressed Hijiri.
“Nah, Primes get an exception from that kinda thing. I may be a member of the EPD, but I'm not actually a stormtrooper, so I get to wear basically whatever I want.”
“And you chose a suit?” asked the moody teenager, as he carefully pried his counterpart's hands from his shoulders, “Lame.”
“Lame, huh? I'll show you lame...” he turned to the excitable one, “you wanted to see my superpowers, right?”
“Oh yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah!” He nodded. A lot. So much, in fact, that his braid swung around wildly as he did.
“Wait, no, don't-” was all Leon got out before giving up, and even that was too late for the Rabbit to hear it. The moment the kid had answered him, Hijiri had taken off, jumping straight up, dozens of metres into the sky, and at the apex of that leap, his whole body suddenly burst into a bright white light, momentarily, before his True Form was revealed. Clad in this, his much cooler outfit, the Battle Rabbit floated slowly down to earth; having reduced his weight enough that he could land as gently as possible. Mostly just because it looked better that way.
When he did, he noticed Leon covering his eyes with one hand and shaking his head forlornly, the blond kid looking up at him with starry eyes, and the black-haired one glaring off into the distance, deliberately not meeting his gaze... somewhat petulantly, it seemed to him.
“Tch. It wasn't that cool.” muttered the boy, even as his friend who stood next to him practically bounced up and down with excitement.
“Uh-huh, sure, whatever you say.” The Battle Rabbit wasn't buying that kid's statement for a moment. He was well aware that his transformation looked totally epic, with or without some moody teen's approval.
“And what's with the bunny ears, huh grandpa? You into that kinky roleplay shit or something?” 'Hughie' obviously wasn't letting him off easily here, seemingly particularly annoyed that his friend was so interested.
Before he explained all that, though, Hijiri turned to Leon, who seemed awful put out by something... because they weren't interested in him anymore? “Nash, what's up?”
“What's up? You just jumped something like fifty metres into the air and started glowing like a fucking lightbulb. Don't you realise what that means?”
“...” Hijiri thought it over... “No, not really.”
“Look!” he gestured wildly around them. People were still hurrying on their way as they walked the streets, and car drivers still honked their horns as they waited for the traffic to get moving again... but some of the pedestrians had changed course and were headed their way, whilst many of the nearby drivers had lowered their windows to hear what was being said... they were drawing a crowd.
“I'd hold off on explaining your whole origin story thing for a couple minutes at least, if I were you, unless you want to have to repeat it again from the start as soon as you're done, since it seems our audience is about to get quite a bit larger... so yeah, thanks for drawing all their attention.”
“Ah. Oops.” Hijiri had the decency at least to look embarrassed.
“Oh, and by the way, I'm blaming you if we don't get this patrol finished on time.”
![[Image: Hijiri_Name_Sig.png]](https://image.ibb.co/k1H7Hd/Hijiri_Name_Sig.png)