[Miyabigaoka] Takeuchi Manor

[Bloodedge]

When Shoichi passed Jolyne and took in her reaction to his efforts, he wore a massive grin. He had nothing but confidence in his ability to win this race, but winning wasn't the primary purpose of this race; the most important thing was to see what Jolyne had to offer. It seemed she was prepared to show up to this race in her best form at last, as prompted by Shoichi's most recent maneuver, but he would not be permitted to see exactly what the girl had in store for him. Shoichi's most direct predecessor from the first Trophaeum Tower had been in the sky above all along, and she chose this time to descend in front of the young Sky King. His path along the flame wall allowed him to pass over her, but by hopping off his speedy travel method, he landed beside the red-haired woman instead of continuing onward. "Chikushou! I was about to see something awesome!" he griped. His excitement had almost reached critical levels in seeing this new form of the Flame Road for himself, but having it interrupted even for a moment was already putting a damper on his happiness. "So what's up? What are you even talking about?"

[Apollymi]

Jojo came to a skidding halt, kicking up a great number of embers which fizzled out as they landed on the ground around these sets of individuals. The young blonde girl grinned happily as it seemed that Shoichi was upset that they'd been interrupted, it gave her a slight boost in her confidence at the moment, even knowing that the Sky King seemed to simply be an excitable individual. "I mean, I'm happy you were excited, but... you probably wouldn't have been if I'd actually done what I was thinking about..." the young girl said managing to look just a little bit sheepish. It likely would have burned down the house, or sank it into a lava pit.

Regardless of this fact, Suzume was now standing directly beside the Sky King due to his own mechanization. She found herself scoffing because it was unfathomable to her that this young man didn't know what she was asking about. "How? Seriously, how did you split those flames without your hands?" she asked seeming to have some great amount of problem with what she'd seen. "I was content just to see this out, because I could have flipped over the flame wall, but... really, what the hell?" she asked Chiyo found herself rolling up to the trio as well. "Actually, I was sort of wondering the same thing..." she mentioned.

[Bloodedge]

"Huh?" Shoichi said in a very exaggerated manner, even going so far as to lean forward and look Jolyne in the eye. "Fuck all that! If it's awesome, I wanna see it!" True enough, Shoichi hardly cared for what happened to the surrounding area - even the house. After all, he'd been left without one for a very long time until recently, due to another battle he'd been involved in.

Speaking of involvement, it soon became obvious that Suzume had not descended for the sake of having a race of her own. Instead, she came wishing to know how he'd managed to clear the flame wall without the use of his hands to move the wind. Chiyo approached, followed by Usagi, and both also expressed curiosity. "Hai. I couldn't see anything past the wall behind you," the Pledge Queen added. Hearing all of these questions, Shoichi raised his head and placed a hand upon his chin. "Oh... yeah, that. I used my mouth. My tongue game is legendary, y'know?" he said, prompting an immediate reaction from the Link Tuner of the bunch, involving her face reddening while she looked away in a hurry.

[Apollymi]

"YOSH! Next time!" she said seemingly fine with the idea that he was fine with his house potentially being destroyed for the sake of seeing something new. Beyond this there was extreme curiosity expressed by all present about how the young man had cleared the flame wall he'd come to find directly in front of him. Of course as he went on to answer, the face of the Pledge Queen reddened immediately and she went on to avoid making eye contact. Suzume's own eyes widened in shock and disbelief, at the nonchalance at which such a statement was spoken. To her credit Chiyo had the straightest of the faces present. Not a single movement of anything in her visage shifted, whether this was because she couldn't argue with statement or not would be left to the interpretation of all present. But the last voice to speak, would be that of Jojo, who just managed to seem really confused.

"What? Why did everyone go quiet? Why is her face red? What does that even mean?" The confusion in the young girl's face made Chiyo's eyes widen and shift down to her side. "Fuck! Ya' know what... How about I walk ya' home? We can go for ice cream at this spot I like in Downtown Tokyo on the way..." she said which seemed to make the girl happy beyond reason. "I know that place, it's awesome, Ichi-nii took me there a while ago! Later guys!" the girl said as Chiyo breathed a sigh of relief, finding it amazing how easy it was to distract children. "I'll be back later, Ja... minna." And just like that Jojo and Chiyo were headed off to Tokyo to drop the girl off at home and see to it that she didn't get into any trouble. Suzume managed to recover a few moments later though she'd also immediately forgotten there was a kid present. "Okay, that caught me off guard, that's some on the fly thinking... is that what you were up to, hanging out with our Delinquent? Figuring out how to do shit like that?"

[Bloodedge]

The shock of all present did not bother Shoichi at all; he was quite used to such things by now. The end result of all the surprise going on, though, was an offer by Chiyo to escort Jolyne out of the area. With that being accepted, Shoichi offered a wave to the departing lasses. "Hai hai. Catch ya' next time, Jojo," he said. In the very next moment, he found himself wondering when - and why - he'd started referring to the young teen by such a name. It felt natural, so he hadn't questioned it before, but he now had time to think about it. Of course, Shoichi wasn't offered much time. Suzume continued to question him, asking this time if his training with the first generation's Water Queen was what allowed him to develop such resourcefulness. He took a moment to consider the truth, or lack thereof, to this assumption. "Err... no, not really. I got better at doing stuff without stopping, but I've pretty much always been like this." When this was said, Usagi regained her composure well enough to reenter the conversation after clearing her throat. "He's right. Sho-kun has been through many tuning sessions because of sudden changes to his Road, until the Sky Regalia."

[Apollymi]

A nod of the young girl's head would accompany her leave as Chiyo rolled along beside her happy to hear out whatever she had to say as long as the most recent words out of Shoichi's mouth weren't the topic of conversation. As they moved along it seemed the group at large was able to move on in conversation and Suzume stood with her arms crossed under her chest as she heard out what Shoichi had to say. His statements that he'd pretty much always been this way, aside from learning how to do things without stopping from Jinx made her left brow raise. Even so, Usagi soon piped in to contribute to the honesty of the young man's statement. "Uh-huh... that's perfectly reasonable," said the Storm Queen. "So your road randomly changes, and you just roll with it right into the next thing?" she asked as if skeptical. 'I didn't drink enough for this...' the redhead thought as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Was I right to assume you had vacuums too?"

[Bloodedge]

Shoichi wasn't quite sure why this line of questions was coming from the Storm Queen, but he was happy to answer any she had for him, for whatever reason. Her next query was one only seeking confirmation about the nature of his Road. Technically speaking, Shoichi's Road had alternated between numerous variants of wind-type Roads over the years. This was simply due to the Road he was born with, or rather, the original variant passed down to him by his mother. "Well, yeah. Wing Road and all, y'know? As long as my wings are set up for it, I can fly on whatever kind of wind I want," he clarified. Such was simply the difference between the Road of Wings, and the simple Roads of specific Winds. Eventually, Shoichi was standing with his hands resting upon his hips. This was how he chose to remain while answering Suzume's question regarding his ability to use vacuums. "Hmm, yeah. I started trying those out during the training. I'm pretty good at them now, but I had a couple of hiccups before. I... sorta kinda went inside them myself to give me a crazy speed boost, but I didn't really think it through. Jinx had to blow up my legs to stop me from totally wrecking myself."

[Apollymi]

Shoichi seemed apt to answer Suzume's questions. She made the assumption that this was at least in part due to the other personalities he possessed as both of those individuals would in general answer her questions, though obviously one more than another. His explanation that he was capable of doing anything with the wind that his wings allowed made her left brow raise slightly. "As long as your wings, are set up for it huh? Bird references..." she said seeming to think about it more. She supposed what she'd seen of this young man's run led her to believe that it was indeed just a very open ended interpretation of the sort of road she had herself.

He went on to explain that he'd been using vacuums for a while but had a couple of problems with them, one of which was him moving through them and causing himself enough problems that Jinx felt the need to stop him. "Sou ka, that's what she meant..." she said thinking about Jinx's explanation of what the young Sky King was actually like. She supposed if he was stupid enough to do that to himself he likely wouldn't hurt anyone else on purpose. Even so, she had to be completely sure, it was also interesting to note that the Water Queen used the body exploding trick on this young man with no lasting affects on his person. "She used that trick on you? I watched her do that to a dude earlier and I thought someone was gonna die, fucking wishy washy bitch," she mentioned only to think about it more and double back. "Wait a minute, you jumped through a vacuum, are you fucking stupid?" she asked genuinely concerned, an amount of concern which would likely seem a bit unwarranted given she barely knew this young man.

[Bloodedge]

"Eto... I wouldn't really call it a bird reference. Everybody has wings," Shoichi said as a matter of fact from his own perspective. Any and everyone who moved with or against the wind had a pair of wings in various shapes and sizes, and Shoichi could see those wings. It was this simple matter that made him regret using the vacuums in the way he did during training, as doing so essentially stripped him of his wings for the duration of the stay in each vacuum. His only justification was that perhaps he would have no choice at some point in the future; it was best for him to at least have an alternative in his repertoire. "Yeah, I was pretty fucked up for a little while, but it's really not as bad as it sounds. Maybe it's because I was so pumped," he mused. With that matter addressed, he moved on to the topic of his vacuum usage. "I jumped through a couple of vacuums. Well... I think I had over a dozen, and I kept hopping from one to another. I know it was pretty stupid, but I was in the Zone back then... I just wanted to keep the fight going."

[Apollymi]

Suzume managed to look confused, but she didn't believe she was alone in this confusion. She figured this was some obscure reference of the Second Generation, she couldn't help but look at him with both of her brows drawn together. "Is this one of those things I want to question?" she asked herself and the world at large. Shoichi went on to explain the situation which ended him on the receiving end of one of Jinx's more deadly tricks. And his explanations made this woman's eyes widen just a little. 'Okay, gets in a fight with someone he thinks is interesting, fucks himself up trying to keep it going... this is seeming less and less like a problem the more I hear...' she thought quite consciously. When this was added to what she'd seen as far as his race with the young Kujo Jolyne was concerned she could honestly say that even people presently less skilled than him weren't in much danger from the young man, nothing he'd done, despite the level of outrage she'd suffered at seeing it, was dangerous to the young girl he'd been facing. "Yeah it was pretty fucking stupid..." was all she said, though she couldn't really fault the young man for having fun.