Post by Rhythm on Oct 27, 2018 14:16:29 GMT -4
Her stomach growled.
It couldn’t be helped. She was new to Tokyo and didn’t know quite where to go to get cheap food. That hadn’t stopped her from stopping a mugging a few minutes ago, though all she’d received was a muttered ‘thank you’ as the guy left, still clutching his stomach from the attack she’d stopped. With the police contacted and the perpetrators tied up near the entrance of the alley, Ashley decided that maybe some light dumpster diving would alleviate some of the hunger that gnawed at her stomach.
A few minutes later found Ashley Aran at the back entrance of a fast food joint. The aroma was delicious, though the smell of rotting garbage already hung low over the place. Ashley didn’t mind; food was food and if she had to go to a dumpster to find it, so be it. It wasn’t always going to be this way, she knew, but that knowledge didn’t stop her from feeling sorry for herself. The dark skinned woman found a light half eaten meal in the dumpster and devoured it immediately, the burger going down harder without anything to drink with it. Regardless it was delicious, and Ashley clapped her hands together to brush off any excess seeds from the bun and then her mouth to get rid of the ketchup that had gotten on her face.
“Come on, over here. He should be alone…”
Ashley tilted her head and looked back into the alley. She was sitting on the side of a dumpster where no one could see her but she could see everything clearly. Three men were making their way up the alley now, their intentions clear as they put on ski masks. One was carrying a large duffel bag that Ash was certain contained tools for your average breaking and entering. The martial artist let out a breath before banging her head back against the dumpster. She’d done her good deed for the night, why now?
“Come on man, it shouldn’t be that hard!!” One of the men was messing with the door with some kinda tool while the others stood watch. “What’s taking so long.”
“He changed the code,” the one fiddling with the door answered. “He said he was going to do it tomorrow, I don’t know…”
“Well hurry, we need to get off the street.”
“Yer in an alley, ya pancake.” Ashley stood up and pulled out her headphones from the inside of her front hoodie pocket. “Not the street. And you picked the wrong fast food join to rob.”
Tapping the side of her headphones found the right track that Ashley needed. The music was low so she could still hear, but the activation of her Quirk made her eyes flash a gold color for a fraction of a second before they turned back to their normal mismatched selves. The thugs looked at each other only for a second before they rushed in to attack.
It was over in a minute, though Ashley was pretty sure it felt much longer to those that were getting their asses kicked. Still, her strength was augmented right now and her punches and kicks were no real match for Quirkless human. When it was over Ashley stood over the groaning humans and shrugged before going to the first and rolling him onto his back before she reached into his pocket and took out his wallet. Finding some bills in there she took them out and dumped the wallet back onto the would-be robber. She repeated this process until she had a cool one hundred and three dollars.
“You robbed us? Heroes…don’t rob!” one of the men gasped. “You…you…”
“Yeah?” Ashley raised eye eyebrow as she pocketed the money. “Do ah look like some kinda Nancy-boy hero ta’ya, guy?” Ashley quirked her lips back and forth before she turned her back on them. “Cops are on’deh way. Hang tight.”
“Wait…wait!!” the one that had spoken, the only conscious one, spoke out and sat up, holding his ribs. “If…if you let us go I’ll tell you something real good!! Where you can get lots of money…and other stuff too!!”
Ashley stopped and looked back at the criminal. He was desperate, but it wasn’t fear of going to jail. He had the look of a guy who was cornered with very little options available to him. She’d seen the look on the guys she fought in Thailand who had been forced into the underground arena. They didn’t want to fight. They were there because they were forced or coerced into it. This guy gave off the same vibes, and Ashley felt herself relent. She knew a hardened criminal when she saw one, and this guy wasn’t.
“Like?”
“Like this was just a distraction,” the man babbled, eager to spill the information he had. “The manager, he owns a large chain of these joints. He has tons of money, but he’s cheating on his supply. He gets them for super cheap because they ‘fall’ off the back of a truck. But he also fixes his books to make it look legit. I…I was going to blackmail him, to let him know that I know…”
“Huh.” Ashley frowned. This certainly seemed like juicy news, though she was the wrong person to give it to. She wasn’t a pro, she wasn’t even a hero. “Gotta say…not interested.”
“WAIT!!” The man cried again, diving forward to catch Ashley’s foot and held onto it tight. “He…” there was a pause, and the man put his forehead on the ground. “He…he’s a pervert. The manager. He gets other crooks to capture people…he send them to others, as slaves. Their minds are gone, they remember nothing…”
She sighed and waited, listening as the man sobbed. She really didn’t know what to do with this information. Ashley thought herself a good judge of character but taking everything into account seemed like the man was simply talking to save his own skin. A movement caught her eye and she watched as the man put a hand into his pocket and pulled out a picture he had inside.
“My daughter. Please…”
She looked at the picture, then at the man. “Why should ah believe’ya?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at him. The man looked up, then got up to his feet after detangling himself from Ashley’s leg. Ashley looked at him in the eye now, though he was much taller than she was. “Yer tellin’ stories…”
“It’s all true!!” he said through gritted, throwing up his hands in frustration. “I told these two his safe was full and he only withdrew the cash once a week to fully deposit it at his bank. The days he picks are random but I knew this one by peeking into his ledger. I thought…I thought he might tell me where my Sophie is…”
Ashley heaved another sigh, a large one just to let the guy know how much trouble he was asking of her. She looked him up and down quirked her lips again before looking back to the door they were originally trying to break into.
“Get outta here,” she muttered. “These two stay. Ah’ll…ah’ll figure somethin’ out.”
The man was gone like a shot and Ashley stood there for a moment in the almost empty alley with two unconscious criminals. So…the manager of this fast food joint peddled in people, did he? Ashley growled, the sound coming from the back of her throat deep and heavy. She didn’t like the situation much, as she still had her own problems to contend with, but it looked like she’d hafta do some investigative work to see if the information she got was any good.
A week later found Ashley sitting across the street from the fast food joint, called Fast Burger, sipping a coffee she was pretty sure was way overpriced but still tasted delicious. She’d never been one for investigating and such like she saw on the television, but basic knowledge was good enough at this point. No one really noticed her, not in a place as busy as Tokyo. The past week had been…stressful. It was really difficult to know how or where to begin in situations like this, but she’d made due with her limited knowledge. She’d written down times the manager, named Tanigawa Manzo, had left and come back to his work. She’d found out where he lived, who his family was, all that junk. She just didn’t know what to do with all the information she had.
Should she confront him? Corner him when he was alone? Go to his house, she he knew that she knew where he lived? She got up from the coffee shop she was at and started to walk around, a habit she’d formed while taking this…‘case’. Sometimes it felt like she was drowning since she felt so in over her head. Still, that man’s little girl was somewhere and he did look sincere about it. Could he have been lying? Had she misjudged? Her gaze went back to Fast Burger as she walked past it, then she stopped as she looked down the alleyway those three idiots had tried to break into. There she saw a white van with no windows on the side or back.
She narrowed her eyes as a lumbering figure emerged from the restaurant, then looked around. He was at least eight feet tall and had to duck when he came out of Fast Burger, then again as he got into the white van. She’d only gotten a glimpse of him but just that split second made the feeling in Ashley’s stomach drop to the floor, made her grit her teeth. She’d seen that guy before, each time she passed the police station. His name was Rugged, a Quirk user who specialized in brute force tactics and brutalizing human police. Ashley stood there for a moment before she made up her mind. The things that man told her a week ago plunged through her mind and before she knew it she was walking across the street headed right for that white panel van. Reaching up she touched her ever present headphones and smiled as she activated her Quirk. Eyes flashing molten gold for just a moment, Ashley ran towards the alley, absolutely no plan in place for this encounter.
But what else could she do?
It couldn’t be helped. She was new to Tokyo and didn’t know quite where to go to get cheap food. That hadn’t stopped her from stopping a mugging a few minutes ago, though all she’d received was a muttered ‘thank you’ as the guy left, still clutching his stomach from the attack she’d stopped. With the police contacted and the perpetrators tied up near the entrance of the alley, Ashley decided that maybe some light dumpster diving would alleviate some of the hunger that gnawed at her stomach.
A few minutes later found Ashley Aran at the back entrance of a fast food joint. The aroma was delicious, though the smell of rotting garbage already hung low over the place. Ashley didn’t mind; food was food and if she had to go to a dumpster to find it, so be it. It wasn’t always going to be this way, she knew, but that knowledge didn’t stop her from feeling sorry for herself. The dark skinned woman found a light half eaten meal in the dumpster and devoured it immediately, the burger going down harder without anything to drink with it. Regardless it was delicious, and Ashley clapped her hands together to brush off any excess seeds from the bun and then her mouth to get rid of the ketchup that had gotten on her face.
“Come on, over here. He should be alone…”
Ashley tilted her head and looked back into the alley. She was sitting on the side of a dumpster where no one could see her but she could see everything clearly. Three men were making their way up the alley now, their intentions clear as they put on ski masks. One was carrying a large duffel bag that Ash was certain contained tools for your average breaking and entering. The martial artist let out a breath before banging her head back against the dumpster. She’d done her good deed for the night, why now?
“Come on man, it shouldn’t be that hard!!” One of the men was messing with the door with some kinda tool while the others stood watch. “What’s taking so long.”
“He changed the code,” the one fiddling with the door answered. “He said he was going to do it tomorrow, I don’t know…”
“Well hurry, we need to get off the street.”
“Yer in an alley, ya pancake.” Ashley stood up and pulled out her headphones from the inside of her front hoodie pocket. “Not the street. And you picked the wrong fast food join to rob.”
Tapping the side of her headphones found the right track that Ashley needed. The music was low so she could still hear, but the activation of her Quirk made her eyes flash a gold color for a fraction of a second before they turned back to their normal mismatched selves. The thugs looked at each other only for a second before they rushed in to attack.
It was over in a minute, though Ashley was pretty sure it felt much longer to those that were getting their asses kicked. Still, her strength was augmented right now and her punches and kicks were no real match for Quirkless human. When it was over Ashley stood over the groaning humans and shrugged before going to the first and rolling him onto his back before she reached into his pocket and took out his wallet. Finding some bills in there she took them out and dumped the wallet back onto the would-be robber. She repeated this process until she had a cool one hundred and three dollars.
“You robbed us? Heroes…don’t rob!” one of the men gasped. “You…you…”
“Yeah?” Ashley raised eye eyebrow as she pocketed the money. “Do ah look like some kinda Nancy-boy hero ta’ya, guy?” Ashley quirked her lips back and forth before she turned her back on them. “Cops are on’deh way. Hang tight.”
“Wait…wait!!” the one that had spoken, the only conscious one, spoke out and sat up, holding his ribs. “If…if you let us go I’ll tell you something real good!! Where you can get lots of money…and other stuff too!!”
Ashley stopped and looked back at the criminal. He was desperate, but it wasn’t fear of going to jail. He had the look of a guy who was cornered with very little options available to him. She’d seen the look on the guys she fought in Thailand who had been forced into the underground arena. They didn’t want to fight. They were there because they were forced or coerced into it. This guy gave off the same vibes, and Ashley felt herself relent. She knew a hardened criminal when she saw one, and this guy wasn’t.
“Like?”
“Like this was just a distraction,” the man babbled, eager to spill the information he had. “The manager, he owns a large chain of these joints. He has tons of money, but he’s cheating on his supply. He gets them for super cheap because they ‘fall’ off the back of a truck. But he also fixes his books to make it look legit. I…I was going to blackmail him, to let him know that I know…”
“Huh.” Ashley frowned. This certainly seemed like juicy news, though she was the wrong person to give it to. She wasn’t a pro, she wasn’t even a hero. “Gotta say…not interested.”
“WAIT!!” The man cried again, diving forward to catch Ashley’s foot and held onto it tight. “He…” there was a pause, and the man put his forehead on the ground. “He…he’s a pervert. The manager. He gets other crooks to capture people…he send them to others, as slaves. Their minds are gone, they remember nothing…”
She sighed and waited, listening as the man sobbed. She really didn’t know what to do with this information. Ashley thought herself a good judge of character but taking everything into account seemed like the man was simply talking to save his own skin. A movement caught her eye and she watched as the man put a hand into his pocket and pulled out a picture he had inside.
“My daughter. Please…”
She looked at the picture, then at the man. “Why should ah believe’ya?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at him. The man looked up, then got up to his feet after detangling himself from Ashley’s leg. Ashley looked at him in the eye now, though he was much taller than she was. “Yer tellin’ stories…”
“It’s all true!!” he said through gritted, throwing up his hands in frustration. “I told these two his safe was full and he only withdrew the cash once a week to fully deposit it at his bank. The days he picks are random but I knew this one by peeking into his ledger. I thought…I thought he might tell me where my Sophie is…”
Ashley heaved another sigh, a large one just to let the guy know how much trouble he was asking of her. She looked him up and down quirked her lips again before looking back to the door they were originally trying to break into.
“Get outta here,” she muttered. “These two stay. Ah’ll…ah’ll figure somethin’ out.”
The man was gone like a shot and Ashley stood there for a moment in the almost empty alley with two unconscious criminals. So…the manager of this fast food joint peddled in people, did he? Ashley growled, the sound coming from the back of her throat deep and heavy. She didn’t like the situation much, as she still had her own problems to contend with, but it looked like she’d hafta do some investigative work to see if the information she got was any good.
A week later found Ashley sitting across the street from the fast food joint, called Fast Burger, sipping a coffee she was pretty sure was way overpriced but still tasted delicious. She’d never been one for investigating and such like she saw on the television, but basic knowledge was good enough at this point. No one really noticed her, not in a place as busy as Tokyo. The past week had been…stressful. It was really difficult to know how or where to begin in situations like this, but she’d made due with her limited knowledge. She’d written down times the manager, named Tanigawa Manzo, had left and come back to his work. She’d found out where he lived, who his family was, all that junk. She just didn’t know what to do with all the information she had.
Should she confront him? Corner him when he was alone? Go to his house, she he knew that she knew where he lived? She got up from the coffee shop she was at and started to walk around, a habit she’d formed while taking this…‘case’. Sometimes it felt like she was drowning since she felt so in over her head. Still, that man’s little girl was somewhere and he did look sincere about it. Could he have been lying? Had she misjudged? Her gaze went back to Fast Burger as she walked past it, then she stopped as she looked down the alleyway those three idiots had tried to break into. There she saw a white van with no windows on the side or back.
She narrowed her eyes as a lumbering figure emerged from the restaurant, then looked around. He was at least eight feet tall and had to duck when he came out of Fast Burger, then again as he got into the white van. She’d only gotten a glimpse of him but just that split second made the feeling in Ashley’s stomach drop to the floor, made her grit her teeth. She’d seen that guy before, each time she passed the police station. His name was Rugged, a Quirk user who specialized in brute force tactics and brutalizing human police. Ashley stood there for a moment before she made up her mind. The things that man told her a week ago plunged through her mind and before she knew it she was walking across the street headed right for that white panel van. Reaching up she touched her ever present headphones and smiled as she activated her Quirk. Eyes flashing molten gold for just a moment, Ashley ran towards the alley, absolutely no plan in place for this encounter.
But what else could she do?
