Japan: Tokyo

Tokyo is the Capital of Japan. It is the largest Metropolitan area in the world. It's the home of the Japanese Imperial family; please don't blow it up, Japan will be angry. There are gigantic robots of all kinds, here, and I'm sure there's more...odd stuff, somewhere. Mostly, it's just like any metropolis, just filled with Japanese people.

For most of her life, Virgilia had wanted to travel the world and Asia was one of her favored destinations. Exoticism and whatnot. So to her surprise the city was surprisingly modern; amazing what a world war can do to spur a country into technological action.

The travel from Vegas to Tokyo was surprisingly quick. It took, what, a few seconds?

"So... of all the places to go, why Japan? I'm fine with it, personally, just a touch confused."

Moving forward with her, holding her less like she weighs very little and more like she just isn't being held at all, he makes his way through the city. At his massive height of 6'3", along with the stature that doesn't hurt, most people move themselves out of his path. Several look his way, whispering to eachother, but he takes little notice of it.

"It's night, first of all. Secondly, it's a large city, so there has to be a bloodbank. Third, it's very rainy; the cloud cover ensures that she won't be likely to die any time soon, even when morning inevitably comes. Really, it was just the first thing that came to mind; I don't come here very often, anyway."

Moving himself down a side street until he comes in front of a large building with a blood drop insignia on it, the doors are locked and wrought with iron. Moving himself forward and opening the iron locks as though they were vapor, he makes his way inside.

"...gracious..." To break locks with such ease... yeah, Zealot was definitely not one to fuck around with. "You do have a point. Hmm..."

She looks over to Signal; still asleep, it seems like. Actually, she seems to be stirring a little bit. Maybe the smell of blood nearby is waking her up?

"Lucy," Virgie whispers towards the vampire. "You awake yet?"

From when she passed out to when Zealot arrived with both cousins in hand to a Japanese blood bank, Signal had been... entrenched in a rather intense dream.

She didn't move much because it was easier on the stamina supply, but the smell of chilled blood woke her up, thankfully at the one part of the dream she didn't like.

Signal raised her head and looked around. Pretty dark, and... ughhhh why is Zealot's blood so obnoxious-smelling.

"Huh-wha... uh, yeah, yeah I am. Why'd you ask?"

Simply walking forward until he comes to the freezer and bringing his shoulder to bear in order to ram through it, he places Signal down on the floor and moves to retrieve a blood pack. Rather than feed it to her, he simply moves his hand up and lobs it into her, moving away towards the wall.

Signal sits up and holds the blood pack in her hands, biting through the bag and feeding. Slowly but surely, she can feel her energy returning to her. Her left leg, missing whatever is below the knee, begins to regenerate starting with the bones and muscles. Refreshing, though the dull pain returns. She can deal with it, though, there's still a bit of adrenaline pumping through her veins.

"...Hey Virgie," Signal says, "I bet you're real sad to see me reduced to this. Aren't you?"

That was a hard question to answer. Being a vampire, it's inevitable that Lucy would want—...no, that she would need blood to survive. Robbing blood banks, while a touch immoral, is still the better option when the alternative is...

"Lucille, you could murder an entire city and, I will be disappointed, but I am still family and I love you no matter what."

She looks over to Zealot, immediately spitting out, "But don't ever interpret that as allowing it to happen or forgiving her for it. If, um, she does decide to do that."

Bringing himself to the side of the freezer and pressing into it until he brings his forehead against the cold wall, he closes his eyes and sighs.

"You don't need to cast false anger upon people in order to alleviate my wrath; hypotheticals don't bother me much. As for your love, I doubt it would matter. Were she to do something like that, she would be given a trip to the sun."

Moving himself away from the wall and stepping out of the freezer, he shifts his gaze around the interior of the blood bank.

As the blood bag is fully drained of its contents—not even a drop remains inside—Signal begins to watch her leg, and then her foot, grow back at a steady pace. Like before with her arm and hand, she flexes her leg, her foot, and then stands up to test it. It stings a bit, but it works fine. The chunk missing from her hip grows back much faster since nothing vital was hit, and finally her right shoulder and arm begin to grow back.

"I really hope losing this arm doesn't become a thing or anything."

Moving himself out into the cool Tokyo night, Zealot floats there, just above the ground, pulling his arms into a cross across his chest. The massive amount of muscle plating his body, coupled with his lack of cape, makes him seem less airborne than he really is, despite his current floating status. Shrugging and calling back into the bloodbank,

"I'm sure. Don't do anything unheroic."

Virgie watched with a kind of fascination as Lucy's limbs slowly grew back to full functionality and form. It was definitely a plus to being a vampire; but she wondered if decapitation could be recovered from in the same way. What then?

"So... Zealot. You wish to know what happened in Vegas, correct? Do you want everything that happened before or during the riot?"

Shifting his head back slightly to look at her, he nods. Eyes that can see the electrons of an atom stare down into hers-not glaring, but still...a natural blue, but...horrifying. Not a "Piercing gaze" or "Steely glare" as though Zealot were doing something himself in order to make them less palatable to look at, something just doesn't seem very human about them.

"I heard a decent amount, but I'd like to know more."

"Very well, I'll start from the beginning. About a few hours before the riots, someone from the government by the name of Nicholas Eniac dropped by my neighborhood; he had some questions about Lucy and her powers and I instead redirected him to where her parents worked since they were the witnesses of the event. Some time later, Saho Mange drops by, and I confirm some things for him about Signal, and he takes his leave. Not even a few hours later, there's a feed I receive from my news RSS: 'BREAKING NEWS, Las Vegas, Nevada: a massacre at the Golden Nugget Casino has happened. Confirmed deaths are Marcus and Danita Lagrange, related to the famous Lucy 'Coin Girl' Lagrange.'"

Lucy, upon hearing this, cringes.

"As this appears, another feed pops up: 'Riots in Vegas, cause unknown.' So I pack up what I can and run out of my house, hoping to get out of the city. I place a few Eyes around Vegas to see if I have any escape options, and I see him. The vampire. Signal arrives, they both get in a fight, and I realize there's something I have to do. Saho comes back and has a jet rammed into him, or tries to, and... the vampire becomes a giant bat, swinging at her with his claws, screeching and attacking... all to kill Lucy. With the help of Saho, I give Lucy precisely the weapon she needs: a massive tree with its roots covered in silver leaf. The vampire looked like he was about to blow up, so I teleported him to Death Valley in the hopes that no one died. I checked any news sites I know of on my phone soon after, and sure enough nobody died when the vampire did.

"And that's all I know."

"Uh-huh."

Floating there disinterestedly for a moment before moving himself down and touching his feet to the ground, he walks off of the small Tokyo side street and onto a larger one. Still in view of Sigil, he stands there; people stare at him as they pass by, whispering to eachother. Most seem to recognize him, either by the costume, the face, the hair; anything. They all continue walking, but none come within 5 feet. Not moving for a moment until turning his head back, he looks at Sigil as though expecting her and Signal to follow them.

Virgie looks at Lucy, walks up to her, and taps her on the shoulder. She gets up, looks at her cousin, and both exchange glances. They hug each other, the hug itself lasting a few seconds, and both then look at Zealot. Lucy and Virgie follow Zealot, noticing that anyone outside has also begun to take a gander at them... mostly at Lucy, though, because her right arm just regenerated its shoulder and is now half-way done with the upper arm (and Virgie, for whatever reason, is extremely unpleasant to look at).

Moving down the street for a small while before looking into a large shop, seemingly selling comics, Zealot stops as he sees a design in the window that looks...quite a bit like his costume. Narrowing his eyes before stepping back and moving away, he briefly considers hitting something with Mt. Fuji before walking on down the street.

"I hate Japan. Is there anything you wanted to do, here?"

Virgie and Lucy both look at each other, then at whatever it was Zealot was looking at.

Lucy recognized this place. She figured they were probably near Akiba and this was one of the district's many... comic book stores. Noticing the cover had Zealot on it, she wondered what the contents inside were. She then noticed the "+18" label and giggled. Hahaha, oh wow. She didn't even need to guess now. (Well, now the question became: solo or...?)

Virgilia, meanwhile, was confused and answered, "No, not really. ...Actually, could you find us a park? Preferably with a nice, big tree in it?"

Closing his eyes for a moment and listening...listening...he opens them in a flash. Moving towards the both of them and grabbing them roughly by the shoulders, the strength of the act doesn't seem to be...intentional, just inherent, like someone trying to grab onto vapor. Moving himself up to float in the air, several people look up, but none point or particularly gawk; it's Zealot, after all. Him flying is nothing very new in Japan, apparently. They always do give people odd powers.

"Shinjuku Gyoen works."

Flying forward at a lazy pace towards the park with a name that was hard to spell the first time, Zealot peers down at the city below. For all that he may hate the...eccentricities and eroticisms of these people, they were human. There was nothing within him for them but the need to protect, and love. Well, no, not that kind.

The park was very pretty, even at night. Not a lot of people were here, aside from a few drunk salarymen and the occasional OL stuck with them. Virgie spots a pretty big tree and runs towards it, taking out her black book. She pulls out ☉ and lets it sit in the air; the symbol eventually gives off a bit of light, enough to let Virgie see the bark of the tree and to take out a black market from her other pocket. She draws the symbol of Janus on it, this time enclosed in a circle much like the ones found on her Eye. Making sure that the symbol and circle are both right, she cups the solar symbol in her hand and a laser fires from the center dot, carving the Janus sign and circle into the bark.

Lucy, meanwhile, keeps watching her arm regenerate; the elbow is now there and her hand is about to grow back. "...Zealot, were you listening to the fight? Between me and Valencruz? And... everything before that?"

Zealot looks out over the water of a nearby pond, kneeling next to it and beginning to look into it; he stares at his reflection specifically, bringing a hand up to his jaw. Caressing it gently, he closes his eyes.

Haven't had to shave, yet. It's been weeks. Just...don't feel very human, anymore. It doesn't matter. I-...I'm still here to protect them. I will protect humanity, no matter what.

Frowning, slightly, he turns his head to look at Signal as he hears what she says.

"Yes. I was. I listen to most things. I try to pay attention to your voice."

"...oh. Well then." He said most things, which worried Lucy more than she wanted to feel because then the question becomes: what did he hear and what did he NOT hear?

"Would you like to hear my side of the story, then?"


Virgie was done carving the symbol; it didn't take long and she had attracted some attention from a few men who had been curiously watching her. They began to speak in their language which, to Virgie, was just a confusing mix of vowels and consonants with the occasional loan word that she could understand ('rei-zaa' was one of them). As she turned around to see who they were, the men then began ogling her. For a society known to be polite, they sure can be mean. "Wow, rude." She walked over to Zealot, dismissing the solar symbol and the men left.

"No, I mean-...sure."

Briefly considering informing her that he meant most things on the planet, not most of what she'd said, he stood himself up and turned to look down at her. Then remembering that she could just hear his thoughts and probably knew about that now, he just shrugged and continued speaking.

"Tell me what you'd like to tell me."

"I was in New York, minding my own business and meeting some fellow supers. Surprisingly, they were all very receptive of me being non-human but that's not the point. As I'm with one when he assists me in robbing a blood bank, he shows me to a place where I can rest when the sun rises, and out of the blue is Saho Mange, a man who calls himself the World's Greatest Detective and somehow knows too much information about me. He starts rambling on and on, tries to attack and kill me, and then he mentions his phone. I take a look and I see my dead parents. ...A part of me thinks, holy crap, I need to head to Vegas right now and kick Valencruz' ass but a part of me denies this and thinks, 'eh, good photoshop.' Then I see the news line he brings up and... I feel so terrible. I ignored the previous warning he sent me, thinking it was all a bluff and... well, eventually I head to Vegas, I fight him, impale him with a silver-tipped tree, and... even now, Saho was right. I could have prevented this. I..."

As her right and left hands completely regenerate, she buries her face in them.

Virgilia looks on. She knew? She knew all this time? "Why didn't you stop him, then?"

"You saw why. I was near my wit's end when you two provided that stake. If neither of you were there, I..."

"Not during Vegas, before then."

"...I didn't know where he was, for one, and I didn't know if he was bluffing, for another. And... it's very hard to do anything without feeling terrible for having someone watch over you, criticizing and judging, and..." She grasps her right arm.

"Does it still hurt? From the fight with the bat?"

"...no. I was thinking of before that. Before I was even in New York."

Crossing his arms and looking down at her, Zealot simply sighs. His head shifts from both of them several times; it's obvious that he knows what Signal is talking about, and the lack of care he gives for it is, as well, pretty obvious. Biceps surging with power seeming enough to destroy a continent, they suddenly just-stop. They relax, and fall to his side.

"Yes. I was thinking about that, too. I need to ask...why do you feel terrible? Criticism typically induces fear. So does judgement. Why does it just make you feel...bad?"