[SS] The Ramen Stand

As Koyoko was handed the money, he stuffed it into his apron pocket and sighed a bit. While he was waiting for him to hand it over though, the air molecules that was surrounding the megaphone didn't appear to be doing any damage...however, the insides were actually being snapped and crushed to the point the megaphone could no longer function, as he pressured air inside instead of doing it on the outside. From a third person's perspective, no one would be able to see any change unless they were to open the megaphone or actually try it.

"One more thing..." He handed him the megaphone. Suddenly he twirled him around by grabbing his shoulders quickly. "WHAT THE HELL DID I SAY ABOUT USING YOUR POWERS!? He fumed as he side-kicked Kazuki into the portal, the portal immediately closing as he collapses into it. Koyoko sighed, lowering his leg and brushing some loose hairs out of his eyes.

"Wow kid...Can't control yourself can, ya?" The Jacketed man snickered a bit, as he dug into his pocket pulling out his wallet. He looked like he was actually amused at what transpired.

"...Whatever, I don't need to explain myself to any of you." He stuffed his hands into his pockets, and walked back into the stand, seeing the man slid the bowl and yen over to him.

"Whatever you say pal. I'll be headin' off then." The man shrugged. He stood up, flicking open his phone and dialing a number, that smile still not leaving his face as he walked down the sidewalk. Koyoko grabbed it and put it into his apron pocket for a moment, before taking all the money out and putting it into the register.

"We'll be closing in a bit...I can't leave until you all leave so if you have any last minute orders, say so now." He announced as he leaned against the back counter, watching them.

"One more thing..." The cook at the ramen stand handed Kazuki the megaphone. Suddenly the cook twirled him around by grabbing his shoulders quickly. "WHAT THE HELL DID I SAY ABOUT USING YOUR POWERS!?

Saito jumped back a bit at the sudden kick, he saw Kazuki fly through the portal. Deciding that it would be best to not cause any trouble, Saito sat back down and went to work on his ramen, thinking of something else to say.

"WHAT THE HELL DID I SAY ABOUT USING YOUR POWERS!?".

Kazuki looked away from the megaphone he had been handed and up at the cook who had just started screaming, only to receive a swift kick to the gut. The kick had enough force that it sent Kazuki stumbling back through his portal. As Kazuki exited the portal he tripped on the welcome mat in front of his dorm and hit his head on the door, breaking his concentration and causing the portal to close behind him.

Kazuki groaned as he rubbed his head.

"Ouch!" Kazuki said out loud, "That stupid cook didn't have to go and kick me for that, and I didn't even finish my last bowl of ramen."

Kazuki took his key out of his pocket, unlocked his door, and walked into his dorm. He felt like giving that cook a piece of his mind. But first he decided that he would get an aspirin for the headache he now had.

"I'll go yell at him in a bit", Kazuki thought to himself "The exit point for my portal is still at the stand so I can head back at anytime, but first I want to get rid of this headache".

"Are you fine with working under someone who can't even be at their workplace when the place gets busy?" She quickly pulled her wallet out and put the money on the counter. "Not that it's my problem."

She quickly shot a glare at the jerk that surely hadn't made much of a good first impression on her and left, somewhat hoping that he would become mute one day and never touch a megaphone again.

That said, she probably didn't want to see a megaphone again now, thanks to him and the bunch of desperate idiots trying to get it...

"Are you fine with working under someone who can't even be at their workplace when the place gets busy?" She quickly pulled her wallet out and put the money on the counter. "Not that it's my problem." As the girl walked off, sending off a last minute glare toward shark face, Koyoko let out a 'hmph' at her comment, knowing very well that this job wasn't doing him any favors. As he picked up the money, he started to wonder why he bothers tolerating that foolish old man who's running the joint. Besides money, which he can surely get somewhere else, there was none.

"Haaaa..." He let out a sigh as he stuffed the yen into his apron, and rubbed his forehead a bit. He decided he wasn't going to wait for last minute orders and would wait for everyone to finish what they were eating so he can clean the plates, close the stand, and go home.

.
...
.......

After roughly a half an hour later, everyone had left the stand and Koyoko began shutting the the place down for today. It had gotten rather dark at this point, but not too bad that he couldn't see, but it made things just a little difficult for him when it came to identifying which street he'd be on if he were to make it home.

"Whatever...I'll just use the GPS on my ph-" As he pulled out his and turned on the screen, he stopped for a moment hearing something...agitating. As if metal was being dragged against the ground. He can hear it, just down the street in front of him. It was too ominous for his comfort so he turned to leave in the other direction, but then another noise started to play sound. Wood or something kept tapping against the ground now, perhaps a bat? Koyoko then felt very threatened and turned on his air displacement six sense. His glowing blue eyes widened when he realized he was actually surrounded. There was at least 10 figures approaching, all holding something as if they were weapons. He gritted his teeth a bit, realizing he was in actual danger here.

"Oooooh Esper boy!~ Why don't you give my buddies some entertainment, huh?! We're just out looking for fun!" He heard a familiar voice. The man in the jacket who was earlier at the ramen stand was at the other end of the street, taunting him and cackling with his 'buddies' as they approached.

"...Skillout..." He muttered to himself, as he started to think of a way out of the predicament he's in. Koyoko also cursed himself for revealing his power at the stand earlier, being that it was what got him into this situation.

Koyoko was outnumbered, and only being a level 2, he can easily tell he'll be overwhelmed trying to fight these guys. So he had to make the first move before they did. Being that all the routes are blocked, except the alley way, he had to make an attempt of escape. But then he sensed it. Someone was in range of sixth sense, just around the block. He bit his lip and turned of his sixth sense. Perhaps if he made enough ruckus and co-motion, they would call anti-skill or the very least judgement.

"Haaa look at this kid? Just standing there. Probably shit his pants already! Hahaha-" Koyoko sent a large pressured amount of air and launched it right into the taunting thug approaching, sending him flying down the street, and hopefully in the line of sight of the stranger he's counting on. The other skillout, hesitated at Koyoko's sudden first move, but then they all charged in unison, letting out some sort of battle cry or growl. Got into a stance, looking back and forth to see which group would reach him first.

"Well I'm going to die now, aren't I?" He spoke in anxiety as he had managed to pressure enough air, to sent another person flying down the street again, before they were on top of him.

Imae briefly stopped in the middle of her stride, her hand digging down into a purse dangling from her side as she pulled out an extremely slim phone that extended out in a single smooth flick. A sigh that contained all of Imae's pent up exhaustion escaped her lips and she casually went about pressing through the buttons on her phone to call up a map of the area. "I could have sworn the station was around here... and it got dark so fast... Even if the buildings look nice all this modern glass design looks the same in the dark."

Imae vented her own frustration at getting lost during her shopping trip on the architecture itself rather than accepting her own blame. Squinting as she stared at the dimly lit screen in the middle of the sidewalk, she was none the wiser of what was going on just around the corner. The voices didn't reach her, the soft taps of bats against pavement were just common background sounds with how far away they were, but the definitive and out of place woosh of air suddenly exploding made her look up. "Gashoo?" Imae instinctively repeated the sound under her breath as if confused by the onomatopoeia.

Her eyes would go wide as suddenly a human body threw itself through the air and landed in a rough tumble before painfully coming to a stop against a light pole. "W-what the?!" A panicked look quickly over took the pale face of the girl with the braid, her hand went limp around the phone and before she realized it the electric device began to slip. She had to frantically grasp and grab to catch it before it wound up on the pavement, quickly moving now as she hugged the device against her chest while running up to the corner to peek around it in the direction the boy came from.

"Looks like some sort of gang fight... Even in a nice part of town like this?" Imae sighed as she felt almost disillusioned when normal human problems surfaced in Academy City, a place that billed itself as so perfect had so many normal issues still lining its street. Glancing back to the wrecked body of the first person who had flown off, a second burst of air would send another random thug tumbling off in a random direction. The sound made her hair stand on end as she realized it was a fight that included espers. Not having really ascertained from the distance that it was a one sided fight due to how dark it was.

"These guys... they really are the worst." Imae pulled her phone out, quickly flipping over to an app that had the judgement logo stylized into a little square. A few quick presses was all it took to send out an alert about the disturbance. Snapping the phone shut the braided hair of the student swayed as she boldly stepped out into the street. Her hand shuffling through her purse as she then drew out a paper roll of coins. Thick silver metal poured into her hand as she tore open the end, singling out one in particular as she raised the impromptu weapon out in front of herself and then gave it a bold fling in the direction of the scuffle.

A soft sound of sparking cut out first and then something similar to an electronic rendition of a zip, the metal coin glossing over and then suddenly growing bright before it exploded like a miniature hand grenade to grab the attention of everyone in the area hopefully. Imae was standing there now, a stern look on her face while she were the famous white and blue uniform of Nagatenjouki like it was a banner of confidence. Her phone was held out in one hand and another coin was ready in the other. "I don't know what your problem is, but I'm sure Judgement will have all the time in the world to sort it out for you once they respond to my call." Honestly she should have just sat back and waited on Judgement to make the first move, it wasn't her place to get involved, and yet she felt something inside of herself telling her that it was unforgivable for these ruffians to be carrying on like this.

Koyoko was only several seconds away before all the grunts would be on top of him. He pressured air into his right hand and prepared for the worst. He doesn't have time to building a pressure shield around him, nor will it last if they all attack cooperatively with each other. He had no choice but to use his maneuverability and advanced agility to avoid them the best he can. This is going to end badly either way... He thought before a loud explosion can be heard, and they all stopped in their tracks in alarm.

Their first thought was that something exploded in one of the nearby buildings, although that wouldn't make sense why it would explode unless it was some extreme coincidence. Koyoko felt the air disruption coming down the street and looked past the thugs and can see a slightly darkened figure of a girl, unable to get complete details but can tell she's wearing white and blue school uniform.

"I don't know what your problem is, but I'm sure Judgement will have all the time in the world to sort it out for you once they respond to my call."

Koyoko felt a slight wave of idiocy come from her, feeling a bit unease knowing fully well that she could've been either a bit discreet, or just wait for judgement to arrive. And for some reason, he felt like she didn't really know who these guys are, which makes things worse given that Skillout are in some ways more skilled then the average goon in an ally.

"Shit. We better leave, man." One of the guys murmured to the jacketed man, the leader of the group.

"Shut up." He replied sternly before turning to her with a smirk on his face. "Judgement?! What do you think they are going to find besides two corpses?!" He taunted, tapping a black metal bat to his hand. "This esper asshole here needs to be taught to know his place, so if you'd like to join in on the lesson, feel free!" The surrounding thugs chuckled and laugh, three of them stepping away from the group and started to walk up ominously. "Teach her some manners, fellas!" He cackled as he turned back to Koyoko.


Koyoko heard the fast foot steps coming from behind, as the situation became worse within a flash. Not only was he in trouble, but so was the girl, and frankly, he wasn't sure how she can possibly help out. Was she and esper? Or was that noise some cheap firecracker? Either way, someone's probably going to get hurt. As he felt the presence behind him about to swing something at his side, he quickly stepped forward and twirled around, the g-force of the swing forcing the Skillout to swing his arms to the side, his face distorted in rage, missing his target. Koyoko didn't bother to wait, cause in a split second, he sent his fist right at his skull. The thug flinched back.

"Why you little!" He growled, slowly regaining his footing, but was stopped as Koyoko zipped up to him and kicked him in the back of the knee, before spinning around and sending a strong heel to his back. He wasn't knocked out but he was certainly strained. Another pair suddenly came up to his side, as he quickly side stepped away from a knife, being cut through the air. He quickly took the pressured air in his hand and sent it right to his side, as the ruffian was sent skidding against the pavement and into a building wall, collapsing there.

"Damn roaches..." He growled as the last three from the rear group charged him at the same time as he got into a fighting stance, reading to counter.

After about a half an hour Kazuki's headache had subsided.

"All right then, time to give that cook a piece of my mind."

Kazuki stepped out of his dorm and re-opened his portal that currently led to the ramen stand. He stepped through only to see that the cook wasn't at the stand anymore. It looked like he had closed up shop. Kazuki sighed and was about to head back home disappointed when he heard a commotion coming from down the street. Kazuki ran down the street and stumbled into a group of armed thugs attack a kid with white hair. After a second Kazuki realized that it was the cook from the stand. The cook seemed to be fending them off for the moment but would soon be overwhelmed by their sheer numbers.

"Well this is no good." Kazuki shouted at the group of thugs attacking the cook, gaining their attention. "This cook owes me a bowl of ramen for the one I didn't finish eating, so I would greatly appreciate it if you stepped away from him so he can make me my ramen."

As Koyoko ducked under someones arm and punched another mans abdomen. He can faintly hear some yelling toward the sidewalk, but he was too focused on the battle to notice. He quickly grabbed the winded man by the neck and flipped him over his shoulder, slamming his back into the ground. The third Skillout swung the bat roughly at him, and quickly rolled out of the way to get some distance. Koyoko then put his hand behind him and gave a violent throw up toward the sky, a gush of wind coming from under it and sharpened the current to the point where it cut the bat in half, width wise. The Skillout panicked, and threw what was left of the bat at him. Koyoko simply maneuvered around it as he pressured air molecules into his palm again, and launched it at him in high velocity. However, he tripped over the already unconscious thug and the pressured attack actually went and hit Kazuki, sending him down the alley, a good 20-30 feet.

"Aaaa-....." Koyoko felt an awkward sweat come down the back of his head, as he realized he hit someone other than the Skillout thugs. "...Whoops.." He growled to himself, before getting shocked back into battle, getting his straight in the back with a lead pipe. He winced loudly, as he stumbled forward and spun around clumsily to refocus on whoever struck him. Letting his guard down at a time like this was not something he can afford.

Kazuki was airborne. A powerful pressurized blast of air had slammed into Kazuki and sent him flying down the alleyway. It looked like the cook had missed the skillout thug and hit him instead. Luckily, Kazuki didn't slam into any of the ally's walls so he was unharmed. Kazuki jumped back to his feet just in time to see the cook clubbed from behind with what looked like a pipe.

"Ha, serves you right for kicking me earlier." Kazuki thought to himself "however I still can't have you dying on me before I get my ramen"

Kazuki created two portals, one next to him and one right behind the thug that had just attacked the cook. Kazuki reached through the portal, grabbed the thug, and pulled him through the portal.

"I thought I told you to step away from the cook," Kazuki said with a grin on his face as he kicked the thug's head against the wall, knocking him unconscious. Kazuki then picked up the pipe the thug had been holding.

"I'll just be borrowing this for a second," Kazuki said to the now unconscious thug. Kazuki took the pipe and hurled it back through the portal. It flew right past the cook and nailed another of the skillout thugs right in the gut.

"Hey, that actually hit one," Kazuki exclaimed with mild surprise evident on his face.

Koyoko blinked a couple times, realizing the thug had just been struck from a pipe hurled from behind him. He was slightly confused, but then jumped back into situation head first. He quickly ran up, sending a hard wind to send the pipe laying on the ground, back into the chin of the pained antagonist. Koyoko then quickly caught it and spun his torso around, sending it right into his temple. He was knocked out cold in practically an instant. He panted roughly as soon as the last thug fell, while the others were distracted by the esper girl who ran off to distract them probably. Koyoko looked to the boy who he had blasted. He looked completely idiotic with that grin on his face, and his failed recognition of what is actually happening. He decided he would play nice for once and nodded thanks, with a slight smile.

(Hidan No Aria OST- Track 7)

"Now you've pissed me off..." A crack sound is heard, Koyoko's shoulder recoiling back with a splat of blood, crumbling to the ground with a cry of pain. He breathed hoarsely, as he realized he had been shot. He glanced over to see the jacketed man with some sort of side arm with him. Did he have that gun the entire time? Doesn't he have just a bat? The man looked exasperated. Furious even. He had watched his men crumble just like that, and three of them gone missing because of the esper girl. "I won't let you brats make a fool out of me!" He quickly moved the gun toward Kazuki and fired three rounds at him. They were impulsive and messy, but Kazuki was in the open as well, and he could get shot at this rate, just like Koyoko. "I was going to have my fun with you. Take my time and maybe let you go after you've been traumatized. But now all I want to see is your mangled corpses on the street!"

Koyoko felt a newer and more potent wave of adrenaline. The sort of which you can only get when you've seen death's face. He quickly pressured air under his feet and launched himself toward the sidewalk and nearly crashed against the wall, shrinking himself behind a vending machine.

(Shit, nonono! I miscalculated the possibility that they might have something more devastating!) He scolded himself, making such a crucial mistake, as he felt the cloth around his shoulder darken. He felt sweat go down his cheek, grinding his teeth as the man walked slowly toward him, keeping his gun toward the alley way, which he couldn't see through since the corner was in the way.

Kazuki looked on as the cook quickly dispatched the thug who had been hit with the pipe, using said pipe. Kazuki saw the cook give him a quick nod of thanks, then Kazuki turned his head away to see if the girl was still around, however, his attention was quickly drawn back to the cook as a loud cracking sound rang out. The cook had been shot!  

"I won't let you brats make a fool out of me!" A man in a jacket yelled as he pointed his gun towards Kazuki.

"Shit!" Kazuki thought as the man fired off three shots in his direction. Kazuki quickly through up a portal to the only location still available... His dorm.

"Looks like I got it up in time," Kazuki said with a sigh. "Although there might be some bullet holes in my door." He then felt a warm liquid slowly run down his arm. Blood. It seemed that the first shot the man fired had made it to him just before the portal opened, luckily it had only grazed his arm. Kazuki dispelled his portals giving him a clear line of sight to the man in the coat. Kazuki was furious. The bullet had put a hole in his hoodie.

"Hey asshole!" Kazuki yelled at the man, his eyes full of rage. "This hoodie was limited edition, and you go and put holes in it!" Kazuki opened a portal next to both him and the man in the coat. Enraged, Kazuki grabbed the unconscious thug and hurled him through the portal at the man.

"Your going to pay for that."

As Kazuki threw the body, the Jacketed man face contorted in annoyance as he stepped around the projectile. "Fuck off!" He yelled in anger as he started firing rounds into the portal. Koyoko examined the machine he was hiding behind, it didn't seem to be held down by anything, but no one in their right mind would steal something so heavy under the security surveillance of Academy city. He quickly backed up a bit, and exhaustively put both hands onto the side frame of the vending machine. Air hissed like a soft whisper as it started to collect and pressurize under his palms.

"Come on...Come on..." He ushered, as the jacketed man reloaded his gun after firing his last eight rounds toward Kazuki's portal. He turned toward Koyoko's position again and snickered as he rose his pistol, able to get a shot on his back. Koyoko was at his limit at this point, maybe even a bit past that. His head was aching and throbbing at an irregular pace. He was pushing himself too hard, but it was either that or dying. But he has never actually tried pressurizing two different areas, which would be his left and right palms.

As the man pulled the trigger, the vending machine suddenly went flying toward him, the bullet ricocheting off the frame due to an odd angle on impact. "The he-" The man barely managed to speak as he dropped to the ground to dodge it. The machine crashed and clanged against the sidewalk, the glass frame shattering and sending the glass shards all over. Before the man can recover, Koyoko jumped up, his right hand still having the pressurized air he prepared ahead of time. "Shit!" He quickly stood up as a blast of air was sent right at him. He managed to only get grazed by the blast, stumping backwards as Koyoko rushed toward him, eyes glowing a menacing blue. "You little-!" Koyoko's main objective was to get him in two hits, but the plan obviously faltered and now his main concern was getting the gun away from him. He didn't have time to pressurize air since it'd take too long, so he has to result in staying too close for him to shoot.

The man swung the bat around maniacally as he tried to hit Koyoko, who agilely dodged most of his attacks. Every time he tried to just shoot him, Koyoko would either dash around or hit his arm hard enough to recoil the muzzle away from his body, sometimes sending off a round. Meanwhile, Koyoko would manage to put up small jabs and kicks to slowly weaken him. The man would grunt and grimace every time he is truck. In the head, knee, chest, back etc. He just couldn't keep up. Suddenly the gun was sent flying off as Koyoko managed to loosen his grip and knocked it up in the sky. Now he just has to get to it before he does, however...

"You ain't going anywhere, twerp!" The man rawred as he swung the bat again, managing to hit Koyoko's wounded shoulder, who recoiled harshly.

The man in the jacket had managed to dodge the body thrown at him and proceeded to fire the rest of his clip into the portal. As soon as Kazuki saw the man aim at the portal he dove to the ground, the bullets whizzing over his head. Kazuki glaced up from the ground just in time to see a vending machine go flying over the man and crash into the sidewalk. The cook closed in on the man and engaged him in close quarters. It looked like he was doing alright until the man landed a blow with his bat to the cooks shoulder. Kazuki ran through his portal and tackled the man to the ground away from the cook.

"I am so done with you!" Kazuki snarled at the man he had pinned to the ground. " You put a hole in my limited edition hoodie, your attacking the best ramen cook I've found in this city, and all your damn shooting has made my headache come back."

Kazuki quickly glaced upwards to set the location for a portal. He the created one directly below the two of them and they tumbled through, emerging about eight meters in the air. They started to fall. Kazuki kicked the man away from him and quickly prepared and executed a short teleport towards the ground. Due to the distance limitations on the teleport Kazuki didn't quite make it all the way to the ground and fell the remaining short distece, landing not so gracefully on his stomach as the jacked man continued to fall a few meters away.

The man fumbled and rolled, scrapes and burns forming on his skin from grazing against the harsh asphalt. His body felt weak and exhausted from all the damage he had taken from Koyoko's beating, and the teleporting brat only made it that much worst. As his body settled to a stop, he shakily gripped the unforgiving road and trembled as he tried to get up, the side of his head having a clear gash, seeping warm blood down his cheek. "I'll...Fucking..." He growled as he tried to give out another menacing threat, until he heard a click from behind him, and warm metal touching the back of his skull. His eyes widened slightly as he froze in his tracks.

"You'll do what exactly?" Koyoko words stabbed right into his spine, the man's loaded sidearm right in his hand. When Kazuki pinned him down, he had a good window to retrieve the weapon. When he noticed what was going on, he just backed away until Kazuki was able to weaken him enough to get the better of him. "I'm wondering if I should repay for shooting my shoulder...The pain is troubling as you can guess..." The man felt the feeling Koyoko had felt earlier. Fear. One wrong move and his worthless life was over. Paranoia set in, starting to believe the kid had the guts to finish him on this dirty street, when in reality, Koyoko didn't want to deal with going to court for killing the guy. Like he could afford a good lawyer.

The man ultimately bowed his head in subservience and surrendered. Just in time for judgement officers to arrive. Koyoko quickly put the sidearm into his coat pocket, not wanting to get in any trouble with simply having it in his hand.

"Oi, teleporting moron. You still alive over there?" He did land on his stomach after all. It's similar to getting punched in the gut and having the wind knocked out of you.

Kazuki gasped as he landed on the ground. The wind had been knocked out his lungs. Kazuki turned his head to the side and watched as the jacked man tried to get up after crashing into the asphalt. The cook walked over to the man an pointed the man's gun at him. It looked like this fight was over. With the arrival of judgement on the scene the cook put the gun in his pocket. Best not to let judgement see it.

"Oi, teleporting moron. You still alive over there?" The cook called out to him.

Kazuki rolled over on to his back and sat up. He felt like giving the cook an explanation that portals and teleporting were two fundamentally different things, but decided not too. Instead he just let out a quick "yeah" while getting to his feet.

"And I have a name you know," Kazuki continued "it's Kazuki, nice to meet you Mr. Cook". " By the way, you kicked me threw my portal before I could finish my last bowl of ramen, so I'll be back tomorrow for a replacement." Kazuki said with a grin on his face. Kazuki went to make a portal to his house, but realized he had dispelled it during the fight.

"Oh well," Kazuki thought "judgement probably has questions for us. Maybe I can hitch a ride from one of them so I don't have to walk".

Koyoko gritted his teeth a bit, as he felt his shoulder throb and swell. He had almost forget about the wound, adrenaline dulling the pain for the duration of the brawl. Antiskill soon showed up after some judgement officers, being the official police of Academy city this was to be expected. They began arresting and securing the goons as Judgement officers escorted him to an ambulance they had prepped earlier. He took it easy as he was instructed, passing by what used to be the vending machine...The one he used to get out of a tough spot. It was completely ruined, and might as swell be in a junk yard.

"Man, who trashed it? Someone's going to be getting billed for it." One of the young Judgement recruits commented as they helped him toward the ambulance. He only let out a dry laugh, looking the other way.

"Yeah...Sucks for them...heheh..."He nervously responds, only imagining the bill he'd receive. If he admitted his own faulty action, he might as well get evicted, he's cutting corners as it is, plus what about the hospital fees! And on top of that, he officially decided to quit his job as soon as he gets the chance to text his worthless boss. Oooh if only he had launched the vending machine into the unfortunate stand. It would've been the best message to relay to him.