Just a normal night

Waves crashed across the white sandy beach, the tide rising up across most of the beach. The bright moon extended its unblocked gaze across the entirety of Seaside heights, causing the ocean to react to its mysterious influences. Most of the beach was deserted, save for a few random straglers or star crossed lovers spending a romantic night on its shore. Not many people ventured down here to the coast, especially after dark, no, the main attraction here was the massive strip built into the side of the mountain across from the sea. Thousands upon thousands of shops, attractions and goods could be found here, it was one of the most popular places in the Donburi District.

Because of the mass amount of people one would think this to be a semi clean and decent area, and for the most part it was. Just normal people shopping, hanging out and having a good time. You think it would be hard to get away with things due to the crowd, however it was because of the crowd that allowed crime to prosper, the strip was so massive and cluttered crime could happen right in front of you and you would most likely miss it. Drug deals, robberies, selling of information and even murder could take place right under your nose and you would never even know it.

Tonight was a normal night at Seaside heights, people were strolling around taking in the night air, enjoying themselves as they shopped, partied or just hung out with friends. If one paid close attention they could spot the occasional drug deal, or be lucky enough to spot a pick pocket in action, but to the untrained eyes all was well in the night. The cover of darkness held many secrets, and tonight one of those secrets would be a lone trail of foot prints across the sand. If you were to follow these foot prints you would be unlucky enough to find two men, both in black robes speaking in a hushed voice. It was a short conversation, that ended with one man walking the way he came, creating a second trail of foot prints, and the other walking away from the coast, to a unknown set of caves.

Zerion stepped up onto the wooden board walk that ran parallel with the wall of shops. The long black he always wore was drawn shut across the front, and the hood pulled over his head, hiding his bright blue hair and most of his face. He stamped his feet twice, to knock off the sand that remained from the beach, then slowly made his way up several flights of wooden stairs until finally reaching one of the many levels of the area. Zerions bright blue eyes scanned the ever growing crowd, then settled on a local coffee shop.

Pushing one of the fabric flaps aside he stepped into the coffee shop, surveyed the shop then took a seat at the bar. Placing a single slip of paper on the counter he waited, making no eye contact with the waiters behind the counter. Several seconds later the slip was picked up as descretly as possible, and a small cup of warm water replaced it. The young man turned, picked up the cup and began to sip the beverage. He would randomly look across the shop and even stare at the door for a bit. Slowly sipping on his water.

It was definitely a great night for people watching. With such a large crowd you never knew what you would find. Whether it is a typical drunken nobody, or even a prominent member of the Konpaku clan all are on parade tonight. The bright lights of the stores were mesmerizing and the light of the moon was enchanting. It was a true blend of colors on one side, yet it was a simple contrast of shades on the other. The crashing waves of the water were black, except for the white caps they each wore. The slight chill beat at the bones of those unfortunate enough to not have brought extra layers. Blake was unfortunately one of them.

With his people watching cut short, Blake entered the nearest store which just so happened to be a coffee shop. As he entered the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans filled his nose. Though he didn’t have the money to pay for anything, he naturally reached into his pocket to check. Still, when he tried to wrap his hand around something all he got was some stray lent. Blake sighed, still jostling with his unfortunate situation. Almost all money this genin made was kept by his parents. He had dreams of one day opening a private practice, but if he couldn’t even pay for a cup of coffee there was no business in his future. Finally admitting defeat, Blake’s cunning kicked in. He decided that he would conveniently see a long lost relative outside after he had finished his coffee. He would go out to greet them and would forget about his coffee bill. The plan was perfect in his eyes. Lower City cunning had finally found its way into the genin’s brain. Blake went a few rounds with the idea of being a criminal, but decided criminals were people who harm others, not petty thieves. Assured, Blake sat to enjoy a hot cup of coffee.

When the waitress came over, Blake ordered a hot coffee. He decided to resume his people watching while he was waiting. Blake was sitting in a booth right next to the window, so the task was easy enough. He saw one man down ten bowls of ramen at a vendor across the street. It couldn’t have taken the man five minutes. “Here you go. Nice and hot,” the waitress said as she slid the coffee on the table. After thanking the young waitress, Blake shifted his view to the people inside the shop. One person sparked Blake’s curiosity. They were donning a black robe which seemed out of place in the cheerful atmosphere of the boardwalk. What’s more, the person stood alone and barely shifted his gaze. Another thing Blake noticed was the person was drinking with their hood still on. Blake was very interested in this person and wanted an opportunity for a closer inspection. When it came, I can’t say Blake was very happy, in fact he was more worried.

The waitress returned to ask if everything was alright. Blake said everything was fine, but then remembered a crucial flaw in his plan. The tip! How could he have forgotten about the tip? Blake’s thoughts went into a wild frenzy. He stood up and began pacing around the coffee shop. He wondered if that made him a criminal. What if the girl needed the tip for food? What if she was saving up money for her brother with a rare condition? “Am I no worse than someone who harms another,” was Blake’s final thought before accidentally slamming into the robed man.
“Sorry,” Blake said.

Waves came crumbleing in, leaving a white trail of sea foam, which seemed endless, only interrupted by a few gathering of rocks. On such a gathering sat Isui. He had been sitting there since the sun had set, and where his fascination of the warm blurry colors of the sun stopped, his fascination of the crystalclear twinkleing stars began. Isui sat bent over a small scroll, and quickly scribbled down pages of symbols on it, writing with his bare index finger, which he, from time to time, dipped in the small bottle of ink he had placed beside him. He looked from up at the stars and down to his parchment, as if he was reading the stars, like one would read a newspaper, and write the same things on his scroll. Suddenly he stopped, and ripped the piece of the scroll, and held it out in a stretched arm. Looking at it thuroughly, reading it few times, Isui validated the poem, before he folded it together and put it in one of his pockets, hidden on the inside of his green poncho-like cloak. Isui stood up, and jumped down to the beach, where he started walking towards home again. He wasn't in no hurry though, since he didn't really want to go home. He pulled out a harmonica from another of his hidden pockets and started playing a simple tune. He followed the rythm of the waves' crashing, and as he walked there slowly in the moonlight, it seemed almost like a solemn ritual, for something that couldn't be described in one word.

Isui reached the lights of the buildings, and stopped playing. The rythm of the waves were too far away, and the noise from the bargaining shopowners were no environment for art. Isui walked up towards the mainroad, where he could get home easily. Wandering down the road, is eyes caught a line of shops, serving food and drinks. Isui looked curious into one of the shops. It was a common coffee shop. Isui stood there for a bit, wondering what to do, and finally decided that a cup of tea would do him good before he went to sleep.

As he walked in, Isui felt the warmth he didn't know he lacked. Sitting in the sunset, and seeing the stars come out, you rarely noticed the graduately decrease in temperature, especially when you have your mind elsewhere. Isui walked up to the bar "A cup of green tea please," Isui said to the clerk, and held up a few coins from his pocket, that turned out to be sufficient. Isui looked around, and his eyes instantly fell on a man sitting by the counter. The man was probably around Isui's age, but it was hard to make out since he was draped from top to toe in black clothes. Isui recieved his tea, and took a sip. Isui was about to greet the man nearest to him, when a third costumer came bumping into the other.
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Spoiler:

Hikari sat alone in the back booth of Kohi Coffee Shop for the past half hour. He sat alone with his dark black hair behind his ears letting his royal blue eyes stand out as they gazed across the room, back to his outfit to make sure he looked okay, to the door, then back around the room. He was waiting for Ayaka, and even though they were not dating, he wanted to impress her and make it known that he was possibly interested. He was terrified of it though. There friendship was all he had, what if things were messed up or got awkward. Hikari did not know how he could handle being left and heart broken like that. But he remained positive, and he straightened his green tie resting on his black button down shirt. A nice pair of khakis, a black belt, and black loafers completed his outfit. It was obvious that he was interested in her by appearance for the sole fact that Hkari seldom wore neck ties. They just were not his thing. Easy for someone to strangle you or get an easy advantage. At this thought, Hikari grabbed the tie and loosened it slightly and unbuttoned the top most button of his shirt and let out a sigh of relief from the pressure being relieved from his neck.

The young chuunin eyed the door and saw more people walk into the shop and sit down at the bar, some at booths, and some just standing around sipping on teas. Hkari was in the back, sipping on an iced water. He did not want to cause a foul scent in his breath before Ayaka got there or even while she was there. As the third of the most recent people walked in, he stared at this suspicious guest to the shop as if he knew him or was adored by him. Mesmerized. Thats exactly what this boy was. As soon as he saw the man ogling over the cloaked guest, another bumped into him. Hikari could not help but let out a chuckle at the sight of this odd event. It sure was something to distract him from his nerves and keep him calm.

Hikari might have laughed a bit too loud, but the people probably would not have noticed. Hikari hoped he had played it off very calm and not noticeable, but he did have a tendency of being a bit too loud when he should simply keep his chuckles to himself. Even at such an odd series of events.

Raizou was confused as to why he was wandering around the city at night, was he walking around just to feel the cool breeze across his skin? Or was it something else? Ah! He had somewhere to be! The young boy walked down the street aimlessly, well, not aimlessly, but he was obviously lost. Raizou had a very important meeting to attend to tonight and it would not end well for him if he was the last person to show up. He sighed to himself quietly as he walked down the street, the clickity clack of his scythe on his back gave him a rhythm to walk to; a beat to step to. Raizou quickened his pace slightly as he began to realize what time it was. He probably was the last one to show. It was weird, not only did Rai only know one person at this thing or whatever that he was going to he was probably the youngest there.If they bully me they are going to regret it. Finally, Raizou made out the small establishment that was the Kohi Coffee shop. He opened the door slowly and felt the whoosh of warm air from the coffee shop almost blow the hood from his cloak off. Raizou's eyes darted around the room quickly, hidden from prying eyes by his dark cloak. He walked slowly and sat at the counter and said nothing.

What the hell was going on? All he wanted was a quite night of water drinking and thinking to himself, but for whatever reason, fate decided to just ruin his night. He hated to be bother on his best of days, and even though he was not in a bad mood, it was still a very bad thing to bother Zerion when it was not urgent. Most of his allies would get punched even when they were ordered to report to him. So for this child who had just stumbled into him, oh it was not going to end well. Some child who had been sitting in the bar had just knocked into him while trying to flee the shop. The teen looked down at his half empty cup of water for a second, sighed then stood up and glared right at the boy. He could hear a soft shy "Sorry" Escape the boys mouth. Zerion glared into his eyes for a second, hesitating from his orginal plan of action.

At this point he took in every detail of the shop that he could. There were to many people around for a scene, and quite a few had already taken notice of Zerion and this boy. For one there was the man who had just walked in and seemed to be ready to engage in conversation. There was also the nicely dressed man in the corner laughing, most likely at him. And finally there was the man with a nice scythe sitting in the booth, all focusing on the two. Zerion saw something int he boys eyes, the one who had bumped him. So instead of yelling, or assaulting the boy Zerion averted his gaze to the waitress who was now standing behind the two. He took out a small slip of money and tossed it to the woman. "There, that should cover this idiots bill, and the tip" The woman caught the many, gave a very disgruntled sigh and moved on to another table.

Before speaking to this boy he shot a glance at each of the other people watching him, the one who had walked in, the sharply dressed boy and the boy with the scyth. This glare was a warning, a sort of sign that he knew they were there. Then out of no where, he nodded his head to the door, as if he might have been signaling some one to meet him out side. Then he grabbed the collar of the boy in front of him. " Alright you little punk, we are going to take a walk outside ok? You have a debt to me now and i will insure it is repaid. " He let go of the boys s*** and walked right out of the door, paying no more attention to anyone else. The boy better have followed or things would get much worse for him.

The robed man looked deeply into Blake’s eyes as if examining him. Blake could help but notice how blue his eyes were. The eyes seemed intent on finding a major fault in Blake, but they must have found something different. Slowly the man’s eyes began to soften and Blake felt relieved. However that feeling was quickly undone. As Blake looked around the room, he noticed all of the eyes were on him. He quickly followed the gaze of the man he had just bumped. Blake’s eyes locked with a different man laughing. Blake’s eye twitched and the different man’s laughter began to stop. “Who does he think he is laughing at?” Blake thought. Blake turned back to the hooded man just in time to see him take out money. He tossed it to the waitress. Blake couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. For some strange reason this man paid for the tea of a stranger that had just bumped into him. Blake couldn’t help but asking himself, “What’s the catch?”

"There, that should cover this idiot’s bill and the tip"

The waitress just sighed, and Blake sighed as well. What a lucky break. But Blake still held his suspicions, and they were reaffirmed after watching the man look at certain people around the room. Blake had had a little too much for one night, but it didn’t look like he was going to be able to escape. And why should he? He owed this robed guy, at least the price of the beverage if not more. As Blake was thinking of a way to repay him, the robed man nodded to the door. Uh-oh.

Having a stranger grab you by the collar and ask you to step out side with him is usually a bad thing. It is even worse if they happen to utter this little phrase here: "Alright you little punk, we are going to take a walk outside ok? You have a debt to me now and I will insure it is repaid." But Blake felt that it was his duty to repay the man, so when the man let go of Blake’s collar he scurried behind him. Blake tried hard not to think about anything, which was a difficult task indeed. Blake stopped as the man continued. Blake moved his gaze to the ceiling, and one small thought squeaked out “Thank you, but don’t kill me.”

As the man opened the door, Blake felt the cold air blow into his face. Something about this night told Blake to trust the man, but it wasn’t an easy thing to listen to. Finally strong in his resolve Blake lowered his gaze back to the closing door and caught it before the cold was blocked out. He pulled the door open and walked with a slight spring in his step. He caught up to the man, who hadn’t made it very far, and walked beside the man's right shoulder. Blake wasn’t sure if he should let this next piece of information slip through his lips, but it did any way. “I’m Blake.”

Isui witnessed almost in shock how the situation unfolded from there. The man in dark attire was obviously mad at the boy who had bumped into him, and now suggested that they took it outside. Isui for one knew what the outcome of these things usually were, and it didn't calm him down that the man was so mysteriously dressed and the ways he reacted. The cloaked guy was obviously better prepared than the younger, and the whole situation just didn't seem fair. At first he waited for the other guests to do something. The other guests seemed to either not care, or simply be amused by what was going on. Isui sighed. For one, he wasn't in the mood for tention in any kind, but he didn't like it when people were treated unfair, especially because they were in a bad position. Isui had been there, comming from one of the lower casts, and having dealt with monarchists personally, resulting in him being lethally dammaged, and the one of higher cast, walking away without any consequences. As he thought back on this experience, a small fire lit inside isui (metaphorically speaking). The door closed behind him, and Isui returned to the coffee shop rather than drifting through his memories. Isui sighed. He couldn't just stand by. He spun around and marched over to the door, which he with a firm grip opened.

Isui stepped outside, and looked after the two. They hadn't gone very far. Isui raised a hand and shouted to gain their attention, mostly directed at the cloaked man. "Hey!" Said in a raised voice, loud enough to reach the two, going somewhere unknown. "I have had it with these aggressive people running wild! I have been experiencing some wild stuff lately, always including some crazy bloodthirsty ninja, making a big deal out of nothing. I am tired of it. For once it isn't happening to me, and this oddly enough makes it easyer for me to stand up and say something." His mouth ran aong with his mind, as he made his way to the others, graduately adjusting his voice to fit the distance, "I don't care who you are, I don't care what you've done and I certainly don't care what cast or rank you belong to, but I won't let you step on this boy because he was clumsy, no matter how disrespectful you find it. He just bumped into you, no need to make a big deal out of it." Isui finnished in a sort of upgiving tone.

Isui knew he had just stepped into another pile of trouble, and his habit of doing so, was half the reason for his unfortunate encounters, but he was simply fed up with the ways things worked around here, and didn't feel scared to take action.

Hikari saw the events that just unfolded before him unfold even more, if that were even possible. The man in the cloak had quite the temper and things were getting pretty heavy. The cloaked man started yelling and he practically yanked the boy who bumped into him outside. Soon after the other man who adored the cloaked one started yelling too. "What the hell is going on here?!" Ran through Hikari's mind. This was just too weird. Hikari did not want the cloaked man to beat up that guy just for bumping into him. He even said sorry. What a freaking lunatic.

Hkari stood up and began to follow them outside while the third man was finishing his sentence with:

"...no matter how disrespectful you find it. He just bumped into you, no need to make a big deal out of it."

Hikari looked around and nodded and said calmly as he walked up to the cloaked man and the boy, "Hey guys, I am Hikari. There really is no need to be so rash about the whole situation. It was an accident and I will even spot you the ryo for everyone's drinks. Let's all go back inside and get some drinks and just laugh about all of this guys. How does that sound to everyone?" Hikari tried to make friends with everyone after "The Return" so this was something he was used to. He really did not want a fracas to start or anything similar. It really wasnt even worth a fight. Over some coffee and tea? Really? Not even worth it guys. Not. Even. Worth it.

All of a sudden the little coffee shop went silent. Strange, it was just so full of happy conversation and laughter. Now it sounded as if though someone had just kicked a puppy. Raizou turned his head slightly to see what was going on. Apparently, the guy who was sitting next to Raizou got bumped into and it cause sort of a confrontation. Although Raizou never saw what initially happened he couldn't be sure, he was too busy lost in his only world within the coffee shop. ...You have a debt to me now and I will insure it is repaid." The cloaked man who had been sitting next to Raizou said as he led the other man out the door. Raizou turned his small head slightly in confusion causing his scythe the clack slightly. It just kept getting weirder and weirder for Raizou, some other random guy chased the cloaked man and the young man out the door. Intrigued, Raizou slid off of the counter stool and walked out after them into the night.

As Raizou neered the door, he could hear voice through the door""...no matter how disrespectful you find it. He just bumped into you, no need to make a big deal out of it."In his haste to pursue the two people who were more than likely to get into a fight, Raizou bumped into the boy who had followed the two. "Oof! Hehe sorry, my bad" He said as he would continue around the boy to pursue the other two people. Raizou could see them in the distance, they were not that far away so Raizou began sprinting towards them. Raizou was running so fast his hood almost blew off so he had to grab it and hold it so that his identity could be a secret. "WAIT FOR ME!!! Raizou called after the two of them. He would reach them in a matter of seconds. He was now within earshot.

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