[Miyabigaoka] Takeuchi Manor

[Bloodedge]

Following Usagi's thanks, there was a correction to her words. This girl was accepting of Usagi enough to offer her nickname, which Usagi had virtually no choice to accept."... Hai. Jojo." Usagi had always been a very kind and accepting person. She was quite willing to befriend this girl, even though their interaction was limited to only a tuning session. Of course, said session involved Usagi becoming temporarily bonded to Jolyne's rhythm, and basically becoming her for a moment, but that was another matter to the Pledge Queen.

Jolyne was the first to take off again, and that was fine with Shoichi. This time, he was occupied by his own confusion from her question. "Oro?" he muttered. A moment later, he felt the tear on his face, and reached up to touch his cheek. Looking at his dampened fingers only made the Sky King more confused. "Huh. Never randomly sprung a leak before. Whatever," he said, thinking nothing of it in his own mind. He took off after the girl, slipping his hands into his pockets while on a rather straightforward path with his body leaned forward slightly. "Just gonna take the first move for yourself this time, huh? Strong move, but how about showing me what's different besides a little swaying?" he asked, even knowing what was different already. Having the foresight of someone's Road was one thing, but... seeing it with his own eyes was what Shoichi was after.

[Apollymi]

A large grin was on Chiyo's face as she watched the start-up of this girl's run. She understood principally that it would be a bit of a wait for whatever was new, but... she thought it'd be worth it. Beyond that, Usagi seemed to accept the girl's friendship without any problem and Chiyo also enjoyed that as she did most things concerning her friends. Jojo for her part, seemed to be having quite a good time in front of Shoichi having taken off at rapid pace her twists and twirls kicking up sparks and dragging along as she heated up her regalia. She smirked at Shoichi as she allowed a more complete turn as she ground herself against the outside fence only to spin once more releasing heat and flames as she did so, obviously in honor of her big brother and the run he perfected.

"You gotta be patient. I've been trying to activate my regalia for a minute and it won't let me!" the girl said, but her words weren't of frustration though they came out angry and accompanied by narrowed eyes. No, she was quite happy as she showed off a bit more. Each movement seemed to be drawing the fangs on the front of her wheels further and further down, causing more sparking and more heat. Her regalia seemed to have a slower release than she was used to, but one final grind seemed to bring about the massive flames which built heat within the furnaces of their mechanisms. Doing so caused a great deal of heat to swirl about as they opened up around them. "YOSH!" she spun around and through the flames kicked up small burning sparks alight with heat which was part of their core. Whatever they landed on seemed to kindle rather easily, grass, the fence, even the air around the girl seemed to burn up by use of this. She crossed in front of Shoichi spinning in this moment, and if one happened to look hard enough they'd see it, the flaming long tooth tiger kitten with the burning eye which had become her shadow. She'd arrived, properly at her newest trick.

[Bloodedge]

"Gomen. I've never really been a patient guy, but I'm pumped, is all!" True enough, Shoichi's lack of patience was typically linked directly to his excitement. This situation was no exception. Even now, he could see the production of sparks in Jolyne's run, and it was apparent where her Road was headed throughout this chain of twists and twirls. Her Regalia activated over time, and its ability seemed to stem from the saber teeth on her front wheels. It was interesting to see that she still retained the ability to use the previous form of the Road. "Osu! That's the way to ride, Jojo!" he said, completely ignoring the fact that the area around his house was being set ablaze by these actions. Shoichi himself started weaving to and fro, avoiding flames as he closed the distance between himself and the blonde girl. "Feels good, doesn't it? It looks like it should!" His stride soon carried him to the side of the Flame Queen. He seemed to have no problems at all doing this, but his attention was more focused on the shadow looming over Jolyne than the girl herself. "That's pretty intimidating. You're gonna go far with whatever team you were trying to join. If that doesn't work out for you, though, have an open invite from me."

[Apollymi]

Shoichi admitted to being pumped by the idea of what Jojo could do. She was also pretty excited, so when her flames and embers kicked up to massive proportions she could do nothing but smile brightly. She continued to ride much to the encouragement of the Sky King and she fist pumped while turning. "YOSH! It feels awesome, and like... perfect," the girl exclaimed excitedly as more flames and fire spread around. She turned to look at the man who'd already caught up, and he reminded her distinctly of her elder brother in this moment. He even went so far as to comment on the nature of her Shadow and claim it was intimidating and that she could have a spot on his team if whoever she was looking for happened to turn her down. "Arigatou Sho-nii, but... I don't think they get the option to not have me this time around~" she said. She was in this to be with her friends, she simply had to show them how much she wanted this and everything would be fine, at least this was so in the mind of the girl.

Meanwhile, Chiyo watched as the fires burned and shifted her body slightly, the wheels of her ATs turning against the ground rapid in the immediate vicinity of their house, so as to avoid the building itself catching fire. This was achieved through subarctic temperatures stifling oxygen and thus keeping the embers from igniting. A chuckle escaped the young woman as she too viewed the tiger which was the girl's shadow. "Sugoi! I was right. What a fun kid~" she said happily. She did always enjoy when the really young ended up interesting. In this way she felt that she had helped set this girl on her way, though she was quite happy that Shoichi had been part of this, it'd helped the process along tremendously. While she thought this her expression softened. Jojo having finished her statement to the Sky King took off once more, the turn of her body allowing more of these embers to flutter up before the man only to be lit into a wall of flames right before him as she aimed to pull out ahead in their race, the explosive blast she anticipated being enough to knock him back and take the lead to finish her lap ahead of him.

[Bloodedge]

Jolyne's response to the Sky King's offer warranted a grin. The fact that she was so adamant about joining a very specific team was something he thought would bode well for her in the immediate future. "Atta girl," he replied. Like this, Jolyne was alright. He only wished to see her resolve to claim victory at this point, and she surely showed him this with a testament to her ability as Flame Queen. Embers created by the girl's Regalia ignited to form a wall intended to block Shoichi's path. The blast alone was intense enough to slow his progress, but the grin never left the Sky King's face. He had to react quickly, as to not travel through unfiltered fire, but he'd already limited his options by having his hands in his pockets. Then again, Shoichi was nothing, if not resourceful. He continued forward while looking at the flame wall, and jumped upward. This simple hop spun him around 180 degrees as his center of gravity moved to his upper torso, allowing him to rotate from there and flip over the fires before landing upright. Because of the method used for this rotation, he just narrowly cleared the fire; a few stray strands of hair escaped singing by mere millimeters. Such was a basic principle of his original Road being applied for the first time in ages, but that was the fun in facing new challenges. The smile on the young man's face could not have been any wider. "Osu! I'm gonna be rocking a Glasgow if ya' keep this up!" he shouted. Shoichi was not to be counted out of this race; he was now making headway once more toward the Flame Queen, whom he fully intended to bypass again if nothing was done to stop him.

[Apollymi]

Jojo had made a great deal of headway in this race, but she still wished to win. Chiyo said previously she couldn't win the way she was, but she was quite sure with the way she was feeling right now it was all possible. So she kept on moving glancing back only to see how the Sky King managed to deal with her supposed wall of flames doing some very strange things. "Sugoi!" she muttered but she kept going, lest he be able to catch up, though she figured he would. There was nothing she could about him directly so she kept up her grinds and turns leaving a massive amount of sparks and embers in in way, by the time he would have caught up with her, another flame wall was exploding to his left, but this one was different. It shot off a mass of embers which she intended to have float close to the young man landing on his gear, though seemingly not very hot, and at the last possible second when he caught up to her, she'd ignite it again. This time aiming to blast directly his person and his gear, her intention to give herself the last bit of break she needed since she knew it was almost impossible to directly out speed this young man.

Chiyo watched all of this as she protected their house with a smile. "Fuck, kid shit got me riled up. Now I'm jealous I don't get to go," she said a pout coming to her face. It was always the case that Chiyo liked to be involved with things like what she was witnessing right now. Even so, beyond her direct line of sight, up in the sky atop a seemingly invisible platform a red haired young woman was watching all that took place. And she found herself in awe of this entire situation. 'What a strange group of kids.' she thought absently. Her black leather covered self wearing not ATs but a simple pair of boots with a falcon flying over head of her seeming to carry that which she'd so recently discarded.

[Bloodedge]

Shoichi eventually caught and passed the Flame Queen, though he did not do so alone. He was accompanied on his path by the embers produced by Jolyne's Regalia. The ignition of these embers was a very dangerous thing to deal with, but Shoichi wasn't worried about it at all. While normal ATs - and even Regalia - may have been greatly affected by this maneuver, Shoichi bore the Sky Regalia, which was indestructible against virtually anything on the planet. Only another great Regalia could hope to have an impact against his ATs. He passed Jolyne with a smile as nothing at all happened due to the burning embers upon his ATs. "Oi, save that for the enemies. That's a pretty rude thing to do to a guy in a friendly race, isn't it?"

[Apollymi]

Jojo was more than a little stunned by the fact that the man seemed all but unaffected by her most recent trick usage. To be fair, she hadn't actually tried anything like that before, but figured it would lead to something more than that. "Save it for the enemies, says the guy who just flipped over a literal firewall, without having to stop. Sorry for being right about you totally having that covered and not even slowing down," a scoff was to follow this young girl's statement as she didn't quite know how to deal with the man she was presently racing against. He didn't seem affected by much of anything but that being said there had to be some way to properly get ahead of him. She decided in this moment to take a step backward in the style of her run, still grinding and twisting but in this case creating a straight flow of fire as she moved fast enough to break the sound barrier. In doing so she'd use the heat affecting the air to take off, aiming to launch herself over the Sky King's head with her knees tucked into her chest and flames over his head, only to land on the ground with the additional speed to spin her wheels and keep going as soon as she made foot fall again. Her movements would leave a wall of fire in her wake behind Shoichi and kick up directly in front of him a pile of embers set to immediately catch fire. By her own approximation it should be close enough for him to have to do more than simply out maneuver it and thus give her a bit of time to get some distance between them.

[Bloodedge]

"Well, yeah, but I didn't know my ATs would be alright after they got hit by that flare," Shoichi said as nonchalantly as he said pretty much anything else. His words were truth. Even though the Sky Regalia offered his ATs an immunity to such damages, he had simply been going forward with the intention of finishing this race with or without ATs; that was simply the type of Storm Rider he'd always been. His own abilities would once again have to come into play against the Flame Queen, and it would be none too soon. Her flip over him had left him with a wall of flames at his rear, but the actual problem was the flurry of embers left in front of him when she landed. These embers evolved into flames very quickly, leaving Shoichi yet again in a strange predicament, as his hands were still shoved into his pockets. "Shit!" he said, knowing he didn't have time to react by freeing his hands, unless he intended to stop moving. Of course, pausing was never his intention; he'd even become adjusted to not doing so after a month of training in run fluidity. So... he improvised...

Shoichi's lips pursed as if he intended to whistle, but he rolled his tongue while blowing air from his mouth. Doing so allowed him to create a thin stream of wind to split the flames and allow him passage while his hands emerged from their respective pockets. Once his hands were free, Shoichi spun around and gathered the wind around both walls of fire, redirecting it to create one great guard rail on the outside of the course Jolyne and himself were on. The end of this maneuver saw Shoichi riding this accelerating wall of burning winds sideways, zipping past the Flame Queen once more. "Sugei! I didn't think that would actually work out this time!"

[Apollymi]

A scoff escaped from the young Flame Queen. Regardless of what she thought she was going to be able to do, it seemed that Shoichi had other plans. He seemed to spit out air which parted the flame wall she created, and went on to move it completely around the pair of opponents, going on to ride it along and pass her once more. "WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL!?" the young girl said. She seemed to find something about this man to be uniquely unfair, but also rather interesting and cool. Regardless she didn't have much left to show off in this moment, the only thing she had left was her infinity atmosphere and considering where she was it would be rather easy to start up. "You're not leaving me many choices, Sho-nii..." the girl said knowing she was about to do some massive destruction. But... it wasn't to be.

The red haired woman who'd been content to watch this match before had now seen something worth stopping for. The original reason she'd wanted nothing to do with this young man is because he'd already developed in a way similar to her, so she had nothing to show him. But... what she saw now was a level of improvisation which bordered upon Aomine levels, and beyond that she'd seen a use of wind which didn't come from his hands or body. She couldn't simply let this continue without getting more information and as such she pushed herself from her perch in the sky and did a nose dive which would land her on her feet directly in front of the boy with a hand on her hip and a known bit of sourness to her expression. "No, no, what the fuck was that? This doesn't just get to go on like that didn't happen!" she said seemingly upset and bringing the entire race to a halt as a matter of her own curiosity.