Trash Bin

Leaning against the the bar, the black haired male seemed to grin while conversing with one of the bartenders, an old friend. Tapping on the glass top with his knuckles, he took the last swig of what remained in a sake bottle before putting it down and taking a few steps toward the door as the club finished up closing. "Miyabigaoka, huh...? Tch, center of Air Trecks my ass." The male chuckled before hoisting an AT back marked with a red and black team sticker on it. Walking across the empty floor, Shuurai could only shake his head, this town a far cry from the Tokyo he had grown to love. 'Less people though...', he commented internally.

"Ora...?" He looked up towards Mukuro while still rolling backwards at a steady pace. Chuckling aloud, his electric blue gaze clashed with his attire and the ATs, but they seemed to hold genuine interest. "Well, well if it isn't the Tar King himself... Mukuro~." The young male seemed to tease, almost like an older brother who hadn't been home in years. Which technically, that was the case. "Welp. Figured I'd better get off my ass and check out what the competition back home was like~. 'Sides, the Abyss Watchers gotta uphold our title, eh?” Now stopped, he shoved his hands onto the pockets of the black overcoat he wore, looking up at the moon.

Throwing his hands up in submission to Niko's equally hard stubbornness, Inabikari stifled a small laugh. The Tar King... Just like the others who were so set in their ways. It reminded him of why he was glad to leave.

Nevertheless, the subject brought up was a tender one. The rider in question had been brought in rather recently and he hadn't had much time to really 'see', the term used by those who felt roads rather than throwing around the term. "I can't say for sure. But there's potential, that's certain~. Worried?"

Jojo landed on top the building in front of the spa. She gazed at the entrance a moment before hoping down, making her way towards the doors. She wasn't her usual self, this was shown by the plain expression on her face. With her head down she paused for a moment, shuffling through the pocket of a large sweatshirt, which belonged to Jirou, looking for the room key she was given during her last visit.

The white-haired Sky Queen of the first generation Gravity Children, Takeuchi Roze, had occupied the majority of her day in a secret location, training what could be called her successor to the Sonia Road. After such bothersome activity, she thought to relax at her favorite hangout, even in the absence of the Flame King who managed it. When she arrived, she was surprised to see another member of the Kujo family. This wasn't one she was familiar with, but one she'd seen in passing a few times, and perhaps shared a few words with on one or two occasions. Roze wasn't really one for entertaining children, but... this one was the sibling of a good friend and companion, so she thought she'd at least play nice. "Yo, Sparky," she said most nonchalantly, adding a pat to the top of the lass' head as she stepped into the building.

The young Flame Queen flinched when she felt a hand being place on her head, she glanced back only to find it was one of her brothers friend. She had a vacant look in her eyes before forcing an smile towards the white haired woman, " Good evening..." she paused before recalling the woman's name, "Roze-nee." She had heard her brother refer to this woman by such, and didn't know another name to address her by. "Do you know if Ichi-nii is here?"

It seemed the young Flame Queen sought a bit of information from Roze when she passed. When an inquiry was provided, the woman turned around to view the child, which she did with a raised brow after having a proper look in her direction. "No. He's... on vacation," she said. In all technicality, the Flame King had simply extended his week-long vacation by an extra month for training purposes, but that was a bit of information that didn't need to be shared. "What's eatin' you, squirt?"

Jojo's face twitched at the news, she'd heard he was away but she wasn't aware it was extended. She hadn't seen much of her eldest brother since she was released from the hospital. As she thought about it she began to recall her defeat, she shook the thought out of her head before speaking, "Oh nothing really I just hadn't seen him in a while, plus Ji-nii invited Satoshi-kun over to drink and watch football. He started yelling at the screen for some reason so I left. Though he forgot to wash clothes again." She said glancing down at the sweat shirt which hung off her small frame like a dress.

Being more direct she spoke, "I wanted to talk about something that happened a while ago is all.", though she tried to sound confident her voice cracked halfway through, causing she smile towards the woman to fall for a moment before resuming her pretend cheerfulness. "Thanks for letting me know Roze-nee. Anyway, I might as well enjoy myself while I'm here right?" she smiled at Roze trying not to let her own thoughts and feelings show on her face.

"Makes sense. He's about the only one of us who'll hang out with that guy," Roze commented on the topic of Jirou having Satoshi as a visitor. Even though the latter had recently showcased a redeeming quality or two, long before that, Jirou had been one of few to acknowledge him as a comrade. Moving right along, Roze let herself into the building, leaving the door open behind her, holding to the assumption that the child would be following suit. "Alright, I'll bite. Talk my head off, kid. I've got nothing better to do anyway," she said in passing. There was obviously something bothering the young Flame Queen, in spite of any efforts to conceal it. If nothing else, perhaps fishing for information could provide Roze with a source of small talk while she relaxed herself.

A thread full of spam, deleted or trashed posts to keep them from breaking up the flow of an existing thread.

Jojo left a trail of flames in her wake, as she landed in front of entrance to the Skytree. She glanced up, trying to see the peak of the tree, yet only when she squinted did she see a glimpse of it. She took a deep breathe before rolling towards the doors. She had made up her mind that she was ready to become the team member her peers sought out. With one push she opened the doors making her way to the second level which the Akatsuki had made their hideout.

"OI! Is anyone home?" She called out hoping to get a response.

450 meters from ground level, within the Tokyo Skytree's secondary observatory which the team Akatsuki called their base, was the silver-haired Blast King of the third generation Gravity Children. The observatory had been heavily modified for incredible living conditions, and thus, the boy sat upon a luxurious couch with an 80" flat-screen television before him, and a video game controller in hand. At the moment of the Flame Queen's arrival to the observatory, he seemed to be enjoying a cigarette while playing a rather fast-paced racing game of sorts. Hearing the child's voice, he peered over his shoulder for just long enough to confirm that this was, indeed, Jolyne. "The fuck're you doin' here? How'd you even find us?"

"Racing? Really... like you don't get enough of that." these were words spoken by a purple haired girl with a short pineapple hair cut. The right side of her hair being pushed in front of her face. Soon enough though her visible purple eye would look over the couch at the girl who'd come to see them. And upon having a quick look at the girl she scoffed. She'd then gracefully shift on to the back of the luxurious couch facing the young blonde lass while the boy played his game. "I am also curious... though there are a couple of obvious answers I'll avoid saying while you tell us." she mentioned perturbed by this entire situation. If nothing else, the small girl in front of her, seemed to be utterly capable of getting under the Dream Queen's skin in recent times, and this seemed to have only gotten worse since the girl's absence.

Jolyne kept a straight face as she was greeted with mild tones of hostility, "Well, it's not often you hear about someone capturing the Skytree." She answered The Blast King, glancing around the decked out arrangements that had been made.
She clenched her fist slightly to regain confidence from the lack of friendliness coming from their tones. She cleared her throat, addressing both of her peers this time, "I wanted to join. For a while I was just acting like a brat, but I am now the teammate that you require of me." Though she kept stable on the outside on the inside she felt uneasy, yet couldn't place why.

"Fuck no I don't! I mean, yeah, I get to race a lot... but I dig cars. It's more about pimpin' the rides than racing anyway; I just gotta make the money to do it." These were the Blast King Hayato's words toward the purple-haired lass. He continued his game-play, but left an ear open for the retort(s) of the Flame Queen. True enough, her words were those of an individual who had found their faults and acknowledged them, but words were only words at the end of the day. He paused, putting the controller on the coffee table thereafter to free himself up for the sake of looking in Jolyne's direction. "So you just wanna join now? And you think you're the member we need, after we went and got somebody else 'cause you were givin' us shit," he said. Before going on an all-out tangent, the Blast King sighed, forcing himself into a moment of possible optimism to fit what morals he expected their team's leader to uphold. "Prove it."

"Uh-huh, I suppose that makes it a bit better. I can see the appeal of customization." the girl went on to say. She was a person who was quite taken with the way things looked particularly herself, so she could see how one would like to change the look of the vehicles they used in a game. Moving right along it seemed that the young Flame Queen was finally trying to do something with herself, but the purple haired girl agreed it'd come a bit too late. Beyond that, this girl appeared to be in worse condition than she had been before. Regardless of this, the Dream Queen would be about as fair as she could be. "Technically speaking the team has all the members it needs to survive. And we work well together so it's about as perfect as we need it to be." she said in an unbiased tone. "I agree with Hayato-kun though, if you want to join up, you're going to have to prove you mean it. To be honest, you don't look like you're capable of much now... even after your self actualization." the purple haired girl mentioned with a single push of that hair out of her face only to have it fall back into place.

Her resolve was firm among other things, "I accept any challenge you've got." she grinned up at the pair of friends. She revved her ATs causing sparks to fly from the wheels, it was a sign that her fire hadn't been put out yet. Despite having such confidence, the uneasy feeling came back to the pit of her stomach. Ignoring the feeling she spoke with valor, "So what's the name of the game?"

"Ugh!" the Blast King grunted as he removed himself from the couch. As per usual, he had been enjoying his game in nothing more than a pair of boxers and a t-shirt, so he took a few moments to himself for the sake of donning proper clothes. Once he was dressed and wearing his Regalia, he rolled toward a very specific window amongs the panoramic set, which he then opened before addressing the Flame Queen again. "We're an E-Class team now, so ya' gotta at least be able to run Hurdle. You know the other tall building next door to this place? That's on the other side of us now. We're going down the Skytree, around it, over to that building, and up to the top. First one on the roof wins, if ya' can manage to not splatter on the ground after we drop from here. I'll give ya' a hint... use the side of the building."

The Dream Queen waited patiently for the Blast King to get dressed. She like everyone else, knew how he enjoyed his gaming time. She almost felt bad for the interruption of it, but she had no interest in the particular race, other than confirming her own theory that the small girl was somehow worse than she had been before. "Hm, I suppose it would be for the best if I tagged along for posterity's sake. I'll keep an eye on the race, it should be at least a little amusing." she said as she walked towards the window as well. There was an assumption being made here, that the small girl would have a problem with the way this race was being run. But, she'd leave this for Hayato and watch its progress.

She waited for Hayato to get his cothing, and as if the uneasy feeling were venom, it began to spread through her whole body causing her to shiver for a moment. Her will was beginning to break as she rode over and looked out the window. Though she had never feared heights before, she somehow felt less confident about the situation. She shook the thought off, remembering that she was stronger since the last time and realized her past mistakes. She swallowed hard keeping a playful grin on her face, "Even I know the basics, ready when you are." She spoke to the pair.

"Pfft! My races are never just amusing. It's fine to admit that you wanna see something really exciting," he said in passing to Mizuki while waving his left hand around overhead. With that stated, he turned back around to the open window. "No use waitin' around. Go!" With this announcement, Hayato leaped through the window and began his descent toward the ground. Due to the precise location of this window, any sort of leap would result in a doomed fall to the ground itself, but Hayato was more than prepared for this first obstacle. With his feet forward, he used his Regalia to create an explosion directly beneath his ATs, launching him backwards and into the lattice-style support structure of the Skytree. With this trick, he was easily able to begin riding downward instead of simply free-falling, and thus, he had more control over both his run and his life. He began racing while backwards when he did this as well, if for no other reason than to see how the Flame Queen would overcome the first obstacle of this course. "Oi, Mizu! Need a bomb?"

The Dream Queen also approached the window when the start was yelled. But unlike the younger member of this group, she fully understood that there was a sheer drop from the window, she prepared to deal with it but as she launched herself from the window she was asked by the Blast King if she'd like a bomb. She seemed at least a little thoughtful if only for a moment. "I don't really need anything, I'll take one... Hayato-kun." she offered allowing herself to fall a little bit while keeping an eye on the young Flame Queen. If she was unable to pass this first test, she'd either need to be saved or she'd find herself falling to her death trying to prove a point. Harsh as she might be on her exterior the Dream Queen would probably not allow a young child's death just to prove a point.