[hr][h1][i][color=cornflowerblue]Shizuka Takashiro[/color], &[/i] [b]Henry Olin[/b][i].[/i][/h1]
[i][sub](Written in collaboration with [@UrbanEvolution])[/sub][/i]

[hr][hider=Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ OST - Emptiness][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OQAOrKYVsY[/youtube][/hider][hr]

Shizuka knew that the incident at Knightdale wasn't the end of it all - it's faint, but the feeling of dread was still there in his guts. The meeting with Holly at the bar, while it gave him another...convenient source to gather [i]inside[/i] information (she's a NEST agent!), their conversation posed more questions to the teen: Holly was oddly cryptic with her words, every line she spoke felt like they hid something ominous beneath them (aside from her rather strange way of talking - she spoke rather slowly for such a young person).

By the time he exited the bar (though a little annoyed that no one asked why an [i]underage[/i] guy could walk out of a freaking bar in broad daylight all thanks to his white hair), it was well past lunchtime - a check at the time on his phone stated it's close to three - and he realized he was hungry. He needed food.

The Japanese boy put his hands into the pockets of his short-sleeved dark green hoodie and walked down the streets, looking for somewhere to fill up his growling stomach.

[hr]
Henry Olin, of all things, was tired.

The day had been surprisingly long all things considered. He'd been running around HQ doing paperwork and making sure Sonya and Trevor were all settled. He and Max had been swamped with damage reports and the Governor of South Carolina had called into question his moral authority to organize such a risky mission, and whether he was prepared for the potential repercussions. Then he gave Trevor a general tour, shot some guns, got into a fight, took Trevor home, and then got stitched up.

He needed a drink.

These days had been hard. Since the whole fiasco a few weeks ago, NEST's reputation had plummeted. Where people used to follow without a second thought, they now questioned purely because they wanted to be safe in NEST's motives. Few people trusted them like they used to. And for good reason, he'd admit. But that didn't change the fact that there was always a new group picketing them every other week and that he got glares here and there from some of the citizens.

That's why he had driven himself here, to Chinatown.

People...always seemed friendlier to him here. He was the closest thing to a dragon Verthaven had, and he was very much the posterboy of Chinatown with how often he frequented the district. The days were colorful and people often had...a toughened but kind look on their faces. He admired those of Eastern decent because they had something about them that the slightly more cushy western lifestyle lacked. They held their kids to higher standards and worked hard. A very much no-nonsense culture, which he liked.

But there was also the fact that Chinatown had a fairly large population from the Korea and Japan aside from the Chinese. And honestly, that was the closest thing to home he'd had in...god, almost seven years now. He hadn't seen either of his sisters so long. 

Come to think of it, Sam or Joy probably had a family. He could have nieces or nephews and not be the wiser. He knew Sam had gotten married, but he hadn't heard much from them since. He'd been in Death Valley for a long time. Most of the family probably thought he was dead.

Now he [i]really[/i] needed a drink.

As Henry walked down the streets, clad in a gigantic brown leather jacket overtop and equally massive collared dress shirt, and for the bottom, he had a pair of gargantuan jeans. Per the usual, he wore no shoes. He had decided to dress more casually today over wearing his NEST apparel. He wasn't going to get into a fight in Chinatown.

He was heading to a place that he always went to whenever he wasn't feeling...himself. Sometimes the medication he took didn't work and he just...needed to let himself drift.

He turned at the ever familiar Fisher Alley and there it was in all it's glory. Not a strip club ran by the White Spider Society (which he had been getting a [i]lot[/i] of emails from lately), not a bar, but a small and quaint Chinese dim sum restaurant named 'The Blue Bamboo'.

When he walked inside he was met by the smiling face of a small Chinese woman who was more than likely no more than eighteen. Her name was Huian. Not an evil bone in her body.

Henry sat himself, which was the style of this restaurant. A few waitresses would come down and distribute food in that beautiful dim sum fashion, and he'd eat what he'd like (which was usually all of it), amaze everyone with his incredible ability to eat literally everything, make their paychecks for a month with the bill, and be on his way. His routine, when he was feeling down.

Shizuka finally settled with dim sum - it's teatime now anyway - and The Blue Bamboo was just a few steps away. He hastened his pace, upon entering he waved off the waitress who greeted him (she gave him a strange look - because of his hair, no surprise there) and saw something he wasn't expecting at all. Ignoring the waitress' weak protest, he moved towards the table and whistled at the one seated there. "Wow... It's a goddamn Godzilla."

Henry looked up from the book he had brought along, Eleanor and Park. With his index and thumb claw he lifted his reading glasses off of his face and turned to the direction of the sound. A young man, probably high school age, with a pompadour of Asian decent. Henry raised an eyeridge and snorted.

"Chinatown, kiddo. Godzilla's from Japan," Henry stated. He waved the kid over to his table, trying his best to seem as inviting as he could for being what most people considered a monster.

Shizuka sat down next to the big guy. "I know, but this Chinatown doesn't really feel like China. And you do like a scaled-down version of the Godzilla on screen. I'm so hungry!" The sight of food before him reminded him of his empty belly. His eyes zoomed to the prawn dumplings - his favorite whenever he was in Hong Kong. "Can I help myself?"

"That's what dim sum is," Henry stated, motioning to the food with an open hand. "They'll come by with more things for us to try as we eat." he stated, in case the boy didn't know what dim sum's serving style was.

Shizuka rolled his eyes at the lizardman's comment but said nothing, expertly picking up the dumpling with a chopstick before he stuffed it whole into his mouth. After a moment, Henry placed his bookmark and closed his book, and offered his gargantuan hand for the young man to shake.

"Henry Olin... And please don't stand up and bow. We might be in Chinatown, but we're still in America." Henry stated, predicting what the boy would do most likely before the boy himself knew he was going to do it. To be fair, it was a fairly common thing in this part of town, but he didn't want to make the boy feel like he needed to get out of his seat to produce a formal introduction.

Shizuka couldn't help smirking - for a fleeting moment Henry sounded a lot like his aunt. There was a short - and awkward - pause where he had to put down the chopstick to return the hand - or rather, [i]claw[/i] - shake. (He almost tried to use his left - the woe of being ambidextrous.) "Shizuka. Looks too realistic to be just a cosplay, so I guess you're a Meta too?" He continued to help himself with more dim sums, this time it's braised chicken feet - or better known by the [i]nicer[/i] term 'phoenix claws'.

"Take a guess, kiddo," Henry stated, leaning back in his seat and swishing his tail some, bringing the end up to the table and using it to lift a bowl of soul up to his face.

Shizuka shrugged at Henry's response. Glancing at his chopstick, he thought it would be best to keep the conversation going - well, partly to cover up the fact that he was pretty much eating half of what's on the table and realizing he wouldn't have the money to pay for all this (he still hadn't clear his debt with Cindy yet!). "And you're definitely no ordinary Meta - too nice, and too professional. Almost like a cop or something."

He paused to pour himself some tea; he cringed slightly after giving the teacup a sniff - he wasn't a great fan of pu'er - but still drained its contents in one swing. "Verthaven is supposed to be a coastal city - close to the Pacific Ocean and all - with loads of sunny beaches and a much cooler climate than standard tropical areas. Funny that ever since I came here it rained even harder than those places near the equator. The storms ain't normal - maybe even the handiwork of some really angry Meta." He turned his head and looked straight into Henry's beady reptilian eyes. "People are suddenly disappearing in the middle of all this showers... Ain't we all curious about what exactly is going on here?"

Henry snorted. "It's gotten the attention of NEST, that's for sure," Henry stated, looking out the window of their booth next to them at the rain's almost eternal shower.

"California's gotten more rain this year than the last ten years combined. Florida be damned," Henry stated, taking a drink of his tea. He noticed the kid looked nervous as he ate. But not nervous due to his presence. Probably in the monetary department.

"It's on me, Shizu." he said. "Don't worry about it. I have money to spend." he said, suddenly not feeling like getting drunk in front of the young man before him. Henry sighed, disappearing in the showers. If only the showers were the problem. "Kid, I hate to say that people have been going missing in this city before the showers. They'll go missing during them. They'll go missing once they're gone too." Henry said, deflating, in his seat. Crime never slept. Even during a rain shower. Someone was probably getting mugged right now now that he thought about it.

Good. Shizuka knew he should be feeling more thankful that the money issue was out of the way, but with that it became the least of his problems now. "I'm not talking about those daily muggings - like you said there's no end to them anyway. What I meant is those Meta-specific murders that occur whenever it's raining - in which all of them died pretty horribly with their hearts gorged out of their chest." He did consider asking Holly about this, but in the end he felt that Henry was a better shot - ever since that episode with Cindy he learned to trust his gut feelings more. "What if I tell you that I am a survivor to bear witness to that?"

Henry leaned forward in anticipation, resting his massive head on hands and leaning on his elbows. "Oh?" he commented. "Do tell," he urged. If Shizu here knew anything they could know what they were going to be up against when it came time to deal with the rain issue. Any information at all would help. Any clue, any lead, could potentially save lives.

Shizuka drank another cup of tea before he began. "Remember the massive blackout at Knightdale a week ago? That's when I met Cindy - she was shouting at something. Then we're attacked by Purple Eye." He rubbed his chin as he recalled the incident. "Some weird monster with octopus-like tentacles, an orb armor with one purple eye in the middle...and coated with disgusting slime.

"At first it was just one, which Cindy took it down with her glass power. When we're leaving, another four chased us down. Of course, she was the one who killed all of 'em." It was partly right, but ultimately it was still that chick who did the finishing blow, plus he wanted to continue keeping his ability a secret. "When they died they just dissolve away. I guess those were just minions - there should be someone else who's the main commander or something." He closed his eyes. The rain, the tentacles and slime, the way they dissolved... He wondered if this culprit's ability had attributes to water---

Then a sudden realization hit him. It was [i]so[/i] obvious: it's either the sea, or the sewers underground. Shizuka didn't like where this was going... [i]Shit.[/i]

Henry lowered his gaze to look at the table. He wanted to say something. This kid had been through a lot more than it looked. He was coping well. That was good. He opened his mouth to speak a few times, but stopped himself. Then, finally words escaped his jaw.

"Listen Shizu, I---" he said, trying to find the words to handle the situation in the most diplomatic fashion as to not bring back any emotional memories from the poor kid. Then, suddenly his phone went off. His eyes diverted down to the familiar I.D. of 'Pectoral Muscles' and he would have laughed had the situation been more light-hearted. "I...gotta take this," he said.

Henry wordlessly left about six twenty dollar bills on the table and grabbed a pen from his pocket, writing his number on it and leaving it for the boy. [i]Call me if you need help[/i], he mouthed to the young man, winked, and then he strutted out of the restaurant into the rain once again that night.

Hopefully Shizu would call or text him, just in case they decided to take the storm investigation...further.