"Honestly, if I want to stand a chance against her I'm gonna have to pick something up." [i]Even if they're handguns...[/i] she discreetly tried to angle the barrels away from anyone and put them on the porch instead of her lap. "And besides, I'm pretty good at not freaking out." Jak said, "usually." it was true, despite the fact that she was remaining calm in her words, she wanted to throw down the guns, and bolt out of the house. That stunt Sonya pulled was fresh in her mind, and it scared her. The fact that Naoto was sitting next to her and having this pleasant conversation right now was impossible.

The nonsense Sonya was spewing about flames and Guardians terrified her. She knew it would make her a target. These Mafia types were going to kill her if she made a wrong move, and if she was tough enough to face them, then they would never stop coming for her. The idea of being a mafia member right here and now was scary. What if she had to kill someone? No, no. Naoto would be the boss apparently and he didn't seem capable of putting out a kill order on anyone. It'd be fine.

"Mmm. Don't worry. No matter what happens, it'll all work out in the end. Worrying about these things just takes up brain space for other things. Like seeing if we can actually beat Sonya, for example. If you're too far in your own head you'll only be thinking about losing." Jak leaned back on her hands and waited. "But..." she said in a hushed voice, so only Naoto could hear, "if you ask me, we don't stand a chance against her. Not even if we rushed her all at once."

Her smile fell for a moment. She was deadly serious. If Sonya could land from a few stories up without being hurt, what did that say about what she normally did? It said she was a professional. Jak didn't know what she specialized in, but it wasn't croquet. High schoolers like them were just flailing their arms around compared to what Jak guessed Sonya usually faced. The fact that she had weapons like swords and guns out for them to use proved either arrogance or her skill compared to theirs. Jak figured it was the latter. It was like when the other team let them have a few runs, she could always see subtle things wrong with how they acted. The signs the umpire gave, the hand signals of the coaches, how high the ball flew, it was all a game to drag it out or finish them off. Jak had seem professional baseball players, and they moved a lot differently from what Jak had seen her classmates move. Sonya was like that, the air of confidence and the movements of a professional.

Jak swallowed her fear. Sonya would go easy on them, right?