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    1. XLegs 10 yrs ago

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Toma Tanaka - May 3rd | Shinza Shopping Square - Yoshida Book Café

The red-haired boy stood behind the counter, subtly keeping an eye on everyone. Mainly, his attention was on the less-than-honest looking pair of guys who kept stealing glances at a young woman. She seemed to be aware of them and purposely avoiding their attention.

The woman eventually called him over, so Toma made his way to her. "What can I get for you, Miss? he asked with a relaxed smile. Writing down her order, he mentally noted how it was all rather expensive. As he wondered why, the woman answered that thought with her next request.

Her smile was certainly disarming, but after thinking it over for a second and glancing at the pair of guys, he raised his eyebrows at her. "Bodyguards? They hardly seem qualified for a job like that," he commented, a small, amused grin on his lips.

Before Toma could continue, another female voice suddenly addressed him, so he turned to look in its direction. As he did, he saw the girl who was at least a few years younger than him judging by her youthful face, though her height left him a little uncertain as to her exact age.

"Ah, hello, Miss," he greeted. From her next words, he guessed that she was the other person who helped out here that Yoshida had mentioned a few times. "I... uh, I'm not sure. Sort of, I guess..." he answered, but trailed off as she went off towards the counter. It was then that he noticed Alexai, whom he had briefly met at the flower shop when Noboru had been missing. Giving the large man a polite nod and smile, he turned back to the woman he was serving, an apologetic smile on his face.

"Sorry about that," he began. "If those boys are bothering you, I'll ask them to leave. And I'll make sure they don't wait around outside for you or anything." He slipped his notepad and pen into the pocket of his apron, glancing back over at the two, meeting their gaze for a second and causing them to quickly look away. "Although... If you don't think it'll cause too much trouble, I'd wouldn't mind seeing their reactions when they get the bill," he said, looking back at the woman out of the corner of his eye, the slightest mischievous grin on his face.

It was then that the younger girl spoke to him again. "Oh, I believe he's napping in the back. I don't think you need to disturb him, though, I can help you with whatever it is you need," he replied easily.

Toma Tanaka - May 1st

Toma smiled easily as Noboru said he recognized him. The boy's slight awkwardness was not lost on Toma, and it was something the taller boy understood -- it had always felt a little strange interacting with Taiki's friends. Drawing from his past experiences, Toma decided to do his best to put his junior at ease.

"Yup, that's me," he began, slipping his good hand in his pocket and letting the other one dangle. "Oh? I didn't have to go through any sort of facade. Aiko was pretty welcoming the moment I spoke to him. Though I have noticed he can get a little... uh, uppity, I guess." The boy gave a small laugh. "He's a good guy at heart for sure, though."

Toma paused, thinking over how he should go about asking Noboru about his kidnapping. After a moment's deliberation, the only thing that came to mind was to just get to it.

"Yeah, actually, I wanted to talk to you about your kidnapping." The tall boy paused again, letting that statement hang in the air for a second. "I'm extremely glad you turned up unharmed. You probably know, but Aiko had been worried sick about you, and he spent the entire time you were gone looking for you," Toma said with a small smile.

"I'm sure you're tired of being asked about it, but do you know anything about the people who nabbed you...?" Toma glanced away, worrying that his questions would upset the other boy. "I want to find out everything I can about these incidents. To, uh, try and do something about it, I guess--"

As he spoke, his cell phone began vibrating, telling him he had an incoming call. Toma rose his eyebrows in mild confusion as he pulled the phone out. He hadn't received a call on it since arriving in Warakuma, instead having only been texting. Checking the number and thinking he vaguely recognized it, he gave a quick bow to Noboru to excuse himself as he answered.

To his surprise, it was Yoshida, asking him to come in and work at the Cafe.

"Right now?" Toma asked, glancing at Noboru.

"If it's not too much trouble," was the response.

Toma thought it over, quickly deciding that he couldn't say no -- if this kept up, he'd soon officially have a job at the place. "Alright, I'll come over."

Turning back to Noboru, he scratched the back of his neck. "I'm sorry for leaving as suddenly as I appeared, Noboru-san," he began, looking disheartened. "If it's not too bothersome, I'd like to speak with you at another time. And I don't want to impose, but if you ever need any help with anything, I'd be glad to lend a hand, especially seeing as your Aiko's family," he added.

With that, he gave a quick wave and went off.




May 3rd | Shinza Shopping Square - Yoshida Book Café

As Toma walked through town to Yoshida's shop, he unwrapped a small red lollipop and stuck it in his mouth.

This was, what, the fourth time the old man had called him to ask him to help for the day? Toma wasn't complaining -- work was work, after all -- but he kind of wished the man would offer him a proper part-time job. He didn't mind working there. It wasn't very stressful, but there had been more customers in the last couple days, keeping Toma from getting too bored. It was certainly slow enough that Yoshida would be able to take care of everything himself, so Toma wasn't sure why the man kept calling him back, but he didn't think too much about it. As it was now, Yoshida was the one actually making the drinks and running the little business, while Toma took care of everything else, especially keeping the place clean and doing any neccessary heavy lifting. When it came to waiting on customers, they basically took turns.

In short, it was pleasant, if not as intensive as the boy imagined he would prefer.

Toma opened the door into the cafe, causing a small bell to go off, and noticed the two customers, both appearing to be high-school age. He walked by quietly, not wanting to disturb them, as they both were reading.

"Ah, Toma-kun, good day," Yoshida greeted from behind the counter as the tall boy approached.

"Hello, Yoshida-san. I see business is booming," Toma replied with a small nod and smirk.

The man laughed softly. "Could you bring our guests their drinks once I have them finished?" he asked, busy with readying the orders.

Toma glanced back at the two for a moment. "Sure, just let me change quickly."

He stepped into the back room, putting down his bag and hanging up his jacket. After tossing the stick of his finished lollipop into the trash, he slid on a nicer, white button-up shirt over his white t-shirt, and tied a small black apron around his waist. It was plain and simple, nothing extravagant, which was how he liked it.

Toma stepped back out through the swinging door just as Yoshida placed the drinks on the counter.

"Milk tea for the young lady, and coffee for the gentleman," the old man said with two quick points to the cups.

The tall boy scooped them up, one in his left hand and one in his right, which had been healing okay and was becoming more and more usuable by the day. As he stepped around the counter, he heard the boy's voice, speaking to the girl. Toma slowed his walking pace down, hoping to arrive near them during a pause in the conversation.

Which is exactly what happened, just according to keikaku*.

"I'm sorry to disturb you two, but here are your drinks. Milk tea," he said, as he placed the girl's drink in front of her, "And coffee," he finished, giving the boy his, the saucer clinking against the small table. "I'm Tanaka Toma. If either of you need any help at all, feel free to give me a shout." With that, he bowed and stepped away, back towards the counter, noting to himself with an amused half-smile that the old man was gone, likely in the back room stealing a nap.

*(Author's note: keikaku means plan)
Toma Tanaka - May 1st, Morning | Tanaka Household

The light creeping into his room and landing directly on his face is what woke Toma up.

With a small groan, he forced his eyes open, only to flinch from the sunlight and squeeze them shut again, turning his head the other way. After a few moments of blinking and staring at the wall directly next to him, he pushed himself up off his desk. While doing so, he accidentally slightly pushed his mouse, turning the monitor on of his sleeping computer, displaying a post-match screen of the game he had been playing when he had passed out.

Rubbing his eyes, he grimaced at the poor score that was displayed next to his screen name. He exited out of the game, and checked the time as he shut down the computer -- from that, he guess he had gotten almost six hours of sleep. Much better than the usual, though that might have had something to do with the fact that he hadn't slept at all the night before.

As he got ready for the day, roaming the house to eat and clean himself up, he noted once again how quiet his house was. His father was in his workroom, the door closed and not a sound to be heard through it, and his mother was still in bed -- not sleeping, as he had found out a while ago, but just gathering the strength to get out of bed and face another day.

There were three living and breathing people in the building, but the air was nearly always dead. A cloud hung over Toma as he made himself toast, wondering how he should spend the day. The idol group in town came to mind, but the thought stirred absolutely nothing inside him. He didn't have any desire to go see them -- in fact, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that there was nothing he desired to do. Except for maybe kicking his soccer ball around some more, but he had literally spent his entire last two days doing that.

So then there wasn't much choice. He'd go to the concert and hopefully find something to do.

His toast popped up, burnt. He gave it the stink eye for a moment, cursing himself for not paying more attention, before deciding that he didn't really care. He forced the food down and made his way out.




Toma walked on, hands in his jacket pockets, eyes scanning his surroundings. There really had been no point to even leaving the house today, and if he absolutely had to leave the cold quiet, he should've brought the soccer ball. Sure, it wasn't an exciting way to spend Golden Week, but it's the only thing he even sort of felt like doing.

As he let out a quiet sigh, he spotted a short male. Blinking with recognition, he instantly lit up. That was Noboru.

Of course Toma had something to do -- exactly what he had been trying to do for the past couple weeks: find out more about the kidnappings. Starting with one of the kidnappees was about as good a place as any, if a little insensitive. Noboru seemed like he wouldn't be upset by an inquiry about his disappearance, or at least not as much as Leiko, who had also had a friend injured in her incident.

Feeling a spark of excitement, Toma sped up his walking pace to get to the other boy, silently clearing his underused voice.

"Hey, you're Yamamoto Noboru-san, right?" he asked, gently tapping the seemingly preoccupied boy's shoulder and giving a slight bow. "I'm Tanaka Toma, a friend of Aiko's. I wanted to ask..." Toma trailed off, noticing the boy seemed a little worried. "Uh, is something the matter, Yamamoto-san?"
Toma Tanaka - April 27th, Afternoon | Yoshida Book Café

The red haired boy leaned forward on the counter, quite literally twiddling his thumbs as he waited for anyone to enter the store and give him something to do.

As he stared at the shelves across the room, considering grabbing a book to read, he heard a door sliding open behind him and some shuffling. Looking over his shoulder, Toma saw Yoshida entering through the back door, rubbing his tired eyes. When his eyes met the boy's, an apologetic expression flashed across his face as he stepped closer.

"I can't believe I fell asleep like that, I'm sorry," he said before pausing and glancing around. "Did... you look after the store while I was out?"

Toma shrugged. "Sure. I didn't want to wake you," he answered, turning away dismissively.

The old man frowned. "You should have. I need to be awake to run my shop, after all. And I would rather not make a young kid like you feel like he has to waste his time and energy to help out a decrepit old fart."

An amused huff escaped Toma as a small smirk spread across his face. "I wouldn't say you're 'decrepit' yet. You can manage to carry boxes of books still."

"I'm quite close enough to fitting that description," he answered with a scoff.

"Hm, maybe. Anyways, it wasn't any trouble. I stayed because I wanted to. You were only napping for a couple hours, and there weren't too many people to serve."

Yoshida took a few moments to reply, giving something of a defeated sigh. "Okay. Thank you, Toma-kun. I'll include extra money when I give you your pay."

The boy raised his eyebrows, but still managed to look disinterested. "You don't have to, that's not what I was going for."

"Well, I want to. I've got more money than I'll ever be able to use in the time I have left. You deserve it anyway; you're a good kid, from what I've seen."

Toma raised his eyebrows again, though this time it was more because he didn't know how else to react to those words. After a moment, he smiled and replied. "If you insist, I won't turn down extra pay, I guess."

"Turning down my generosity was never an option. Now get out of here and go do whatever it is you kids do these days."

That got another small laugh from the boy. "Sure thing."




April 29th, Morning | Ferrero Mall

Toma strolled around, sipping on his canned coffee, enjoying the spring breeze. Spring was great. And fall, for that matter. Both seasons weren't too warm, nor too cold. The perfect weather for track jackets, and God knew how much he loved his wearing his track jacket.

Over the past couple days, he had seriously been considering visiting Leiko in the hospital, to ask about her kidnapping and see if she'd tell him anything. He decided against it though, since he had only spoken with her once. Not to mention he had the feeling she wouldn't take too kindly to him barging into her hospital room and demanding answers about a traumatic experience mere days after it had happened. She was probably sick of being questioned, and he had no real right to add onto that, despite how badly he wanted to know. He resolved to talk to her at a later time.

And that was essentially the entire purpose of his walk. Along with simply killing time, he kept an eye out for those who had gone missing and turned back up, wanting to stop and talk to any of them. Sure, he could wait until school started again -- that would be a much more reliable way to locate one of them -- but that was several days away, and he didn't feel like waiting that long. And it wasn't like he had anything better to do.

As he finished his drink, he noticed a small sporting goods store. Glancing over, he perked up upon spotting a wall of soccer equipment through the window. Feeling excitement and an irresistible urge welling up inside him, he entered the store and made his way to the soccer section. He was brought back years into the past, remembering all the times he had spent in shops like these, admiring the equipment -- especially the balls and shoes. He had been able to spend hours in such a place, taking everything in several times. That had stopped several months before Taiki had passed away, as Toma had decided to quit competitive soccer to focus on school. It was a decision he'd always sort of regretted since, but still convinced himself it had been the right one -- school, after all, was more important for his future than sports, no matter how much he had dreamed of making it to the big leagues when he was a kid. He missed playing, that much was certain.

Stepping towards and picking up a fancy-looking pair of cleats, he glanced at the price tag and was quickly reminded how expensive these things could get. Smiling to himself, he put them back, before grabbing a ball that looked to be of decent quality. It wasn't the cheapest one there, but it's price wasn't exorbitant either. Besides, he didn't want to skimp on this purchase, and he had the money at the moment.

It had been a long time since he had felt so satisfied while buying an item.

Late Morning | River Bank

It didn't take long for the boy to find himself an out-of-the-way, flat spot of grass right beside the river that ran through the town. The place was plenty peaceful, and even helped relax the recently constantly frayed Toma.

He soon tossed his jacket off, leaving it at the base of a nearby tree, and began kicking the ball around, attempting tricks he hadn't tried in a long time. A few of them took several tries to get right, but he was quickly able to consistently do everything he had been able to do before, much to his happiness. Soon enough, he found himself playing Keep Ups, and seeing how long he could keep the ball in the air without letting it hit the ground, using any part of his body other than his arms and hands.

How many hours had he spent in his life doing this exact thing? Toma wasn't sure, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was in the hundreds. He didn't even know what his record was -- he only knew that it was pretty good.

The game had always been sort of therapeutic for the boy, and it was especially so in this moment. It had been too long. His first attempt of the day had ended at a mere 11 touches, but each subsequent try brought that score up exponentially, until he stopped bothering with counting all together, never dropping it unless he meant to, to take a break or run around a little and try some dekes and tricks.

This was just about the perfect activity for him: it required enough concentration to keep his mind from drifting too far, but not enough to tire him out. And despite how boring it likely seemed to any outsiders, Toma easily lost himself in the game, allowing the time he so desperately wanted to kill to fly by.
<Snipped quote by Amaterasu>

Well yeah there's that. Plus it'd be really confusing if some of the others don't really know said terms...Or the game itself.


That would be the major issue for me. I recognized about 12 words in that post, the rest went way over my head.

But if everyone knew what they were doing, it seems like it could be neat, if a little time-consuming.

I think I'll throw Toma into the tournament, it fits him well enough. I'd say he's a 7 and uses Aigis.

Hopefully we don't have to go too in-depth about the game with our posts, though, because I personally don't know the intricacies of fighting games at all.


Hee-hoo nevermind.
@KoL
You've probably already figured, but I'll be dropping out of the RP. I couldn't post for a while and I sort of lost interest in that time. I'm sorry for taking so long to let you know.
Press 'F' to pay respects.

It was an old piece of junk anyways, it's about time I upgraded.
Sorry for taking so long to post, there were complications.

And by that I mean I dropped my laptop and broke it, and it took me longer to get a new one than I thought it would. Oops :^).
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