Japan: Tokyo

Sitting down at the stand and keeping a straight face, Zealot shrugs; it seems a bit obvious that, while he enjoys anime, he's not the biggest person to talk about it.

"I never particularly enjoyed manga. Junji Ito's stories are dissatisfying by definition-they are horror in which one can expect all to be dead by the end. It's a cosmic horror archetype. Compare to Lovecraft, with less of the prolix description; he attempts to replace that with detailed art, and mostly succeeds, but in the end he just doesn't have the ability to create endings very well, and for cosmic horror, it's difficult."

Zealot is a 50 year old man who has had time powers for most of his life. The amount of knowledge he has on useless things would make the collected masses of 4chan stammer.

"Uh. Ton-jiru."

"Not all of his stories are like that; a lot of times they just deal with the bizarre and nobody actually dies, but I do agree. I still think his best work was with Gyo and Amigara, but that's just me." Towards the chef: "Um, whatever he's having."

"Same here."

The chef nods and turns around to prepare the soup.

"So, once we return to the states... what then? You're apparently apprenticing under Zealot, Lucy, so where do you live now?"

"..."

Shifting himself slightly on the chair, Zealot continues staring up into the night sky of Japan.

"I wouldn't figure either of you for the kind of people to eat Ton-jiru. Besides that, apprenticing is an...odd way of putting it. I suppose it works, though."

"To be honest I have no idea what it is I'm ordering. I think the closest I've ever gotten to this kind of soup was... remember that one restaurant? With the tables and the...?"

"The hibachi tables?"

"That's the one. It was good, really good, but I've wanted to try the authentic stuff."

"Me, too..." Lucy sighs. "At least we can now. And, by the way. Why did you want to find a big tree?"

"Simple: I wanted to carve a stable version of my Janus symbol so if I ever wanted to come here again, I could. And if I ever needed a place to escape."

"...hm. And if whatever you're escaping follows you?"

"Won't let 'em. Simple as that."

The chef hands the three their soup along with some disposable chopsticks, muttering "Enjoy" and letting them be.

Staring down at the soup for a moment, Zealot's face twitches; he becomes immediately aware of the fact that he hasn't eaten anything for several days, at least. It's just...not something he needs to do, anymore. Hunger never bites at him. Beginning to eat the soup, he frowns, before looking over at Signal.

"Can you even eat normal food?"

Lucy looks at Zealot, then at the soup, and begins to eat it as well. She responds: "I can, but... well, for one, I can't feel heat or cold, and for another all flavors just seem... dull. Not to the point where it's unenjoyable, no, but there's a definite difference. I remember asking my grandpa, when I was a kid, what it's like to eat with dentures and he replies that the taste is just never the same."

"Terrible shame." Virgie begins to eat the soup as well; definitely better than whatever the states are serving up.

"Yep. And most of the energy I would normally get from food just goes into fueling my psionic abilities rather than to bodily functions, so it's not an entire loss."

The chef listens on; he can't understand most of what the three are saying, but lots of the words he does recognize are sounding major bells in his head. He looks at Lucy in particular with a kind of disdain that only seems to get stronger thanks to Virgie's... "buff." Staring intensely at Lucy, he asks in a hushed voice, "...akumadesu?"

"What was that?"

"Nani mo..." he grumbles.

'Oh no,' Virgie thinks, 'it's happening again.'

Continuing to eat, the food doing...little to nothing, really, for his physiology, he sighs and continues looking down into the soup.

"I can still taste. There's not much point in eating, though, is there? It's just something to do that's human, really, isn't it?"

Looking up at the man as he begins speaking, Zealot sighs and opens his mouth; taking in a large breath, he yells speaks, the sound directed firmly at the man.

"No. Mind yourself and your shop before you get hurt."

The shout surprises them both, but they keep on eating.

"...I'm not surprised that he asked that."

"Really now?"

"I'm just wondering how he understood enough to ask in the first place."

"Ah... still, you're not worried?"

"We're not exactly in a city of faith... or, of strong faith, anyways. We're far enough from any temples that it's fine. Plus, I don't think Shinto or Buddhism have symbols of faith. Aside from a torii or, well, the Buddha."

Lucy and Virgie finish their soup and the chef simply says, "No, no, on the house." He throws a scared glance towards Zealot, then back to the ladies. "Really!"

"Make it a policy never to accept gifts from people I dislike."

Throwing 20 dollars onto the stand's table before hefting himself up and turning, Zealot begins walking back into the Tokyo streets. Looking back at them as he walks, Zealot shrugs before speaking.

"So, there seems relatively little to continue doing, in Tokyo. Disregarding the fact that the entire population of this place, present company apparently included-"

He looks over at Signal as they pass in front of another...rather mature comics shop, an apparently just in issue featuring his new, rather large form along with...someone looking quite a lot like Signal. If a gun would work, he'd probably shoot himself. Saying the next words with an odd mixture disdain and condescension, Zealot doesn't stop his movements.

"Wants to have sex with me, what do you suggest we do from here? Still can't return to the United States until the sun goes down."

Signal looks at the cover of this comic, giving it a long, hard stare. (Wow, they even got the hair streak right!) The chest is... significantly bigger, though. She's suddenly reminded of the binder she's wearing, and... wow, the lips are bigger, too. And... uh... wow. Wow.

She peers further into the store, or at least in whatever is on display and... is that a Justice hug pillow? Really?

"Zealot," Lucy says in a surprisingly meek voice, "I'm scared. I... I didn't know people thought of me that way."

And then she realized: if there's porn of her with Zealot, there's probably porn of her solo. And if that exists, then...

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa" Lucy buries her face in her hands and floats in the air, completely and utterly embarrassed. GJ, Japan.

"Wow, I... I've never seen Lulu that embarrassed before."

"Yeah, you get used to people making pornography of you, eventually. I think the time was...the very first time I entered the internet. Yeah, that's something I'm not getting out of my head any time soon. Anyway, you're adorable. Japanese people eat all that stuff up. I wouldn't worry about it too much."

Deciding to make it far, far worse, Zealot knows what he must do. Moving up and flying into the air, he grabs Signal and pulls her back to the ground, holding her against him with a single arm.

"She's not very hard to make blush. I could probably do it with a bag of marshmallows and a silver trumpet. The trumpet has to be silver, though. Anyway, do you want to go into the store and confront your fears? Huh?"

Holding her out with a single hand and looking directly into her eyes, he doesn't really seem to care much either way what she decides.

"I, I, I, um...." Oh no, not again. "Awawawawa, no please no." Signal is shaking her head and shielding her eyes, but she knows, oh how could she when she can read Zealot like a book. As they say in Moonland, shikata ga nai.

Virgie can't help but giggle. They do seem like a perfect fit, even if Zealot is a bit more... "You don't mind if I follow, right?"

"Virg, help."

"No can do, gotta face your fears like everyone else, Lulu."

This was beginning to sound uncannily a lot like the comic which was causing all the fuss. Patting her on the head and putting her on the ground next to him before grabbing her hand and pulling her inside, he moves her over to the superhero adult racks. ...Zealot had an entire section. Apparently, he was very...well liked, for his various insanities. A lot of various items on Justice, but nothing adult-even in Moonland, he wasn't to be fetishized. Stopping to look over his own selection and frowning at the...well, options, he eventually comes to a few featuring him with Signal.

"I didn't expect there to be this many. Apparently, the goggles made you pretty popular. Huh, y'know, I can't even tell if they used Asian magic to determine what your real bust size was or if they just decided to oversize them."

Yeah, this was less about facing her fears and more about seeing if she could get so embarrassed that she'd burst into flames, at this point.

"I-i...it's probably th-the latter... they love to make their... their t-tomboys busty for some reason." She looks around; there's even figurines of Zealot and some other supers. A doe-eyed Sugar Shock surrounded by streams of candy, a muscled Zealot and Justice standing side-by-side, reminiscent of Hokuto no Ken, and... Signal and Valencruz. What. What. How did this even happen. HOW.

Lucy's head twitches to the side. Her hands clench up at the sight of that godforsaken vampire, but... calm down, calm down.

She picks up one of the books, starting at the right and going left because that's just how they print it here. As she reads each page, her face morphs from curiosity to bewilderment to horror to utter embarrassment. "Wha... but that... and his hand... nononononono." She slams the book shut and puts it back on the shelf.

Virgie, meanwhile, is looking through what looks like a crossover section of comics. She spots one of Signal hugging some kind of girl in a red and white outfit, hair done up in a frilly bow. "Hmm..."

Signal, in trying to look away, spots another figurine of her. There's a sign underneath it, though she can't read what it says. "Uh."

"You shouldn't stutter, so much. You'll be fine. That's something we should probably talk about, by the way-your...actual si-wait, what about my hands?"

Looking over at the shelf as he moves with Signal, he brings his hand up and flexes his fingers, slightly. Moving up behind Signal and staring at the figurine himself, he just offers a shrug. Moving himself back to lean up against a wall, his gaze feels its way across the store, looking over all the figurines within it and finding himself vaguely unsatisfied. Moving himself over to Sigil and looking over those crossover comics, he comes to a few small items on several series, but nothing he'd particularly like to mention. Moving back over to Signal and placing a hand on her shoulder, he'd stare down at her.

"So, fears faced?"

"...I guess. I mean, I... I want to feel flattered, and yet..."

"Don't worry too much about it, Lucy. Such is, uh... what was it called? Rule 43, you said?"

"34."

"Right, right."

Lucy hurries out of the shop, her normally pale face... well, not flushed, but its color is definitely different than what it is normally. Virgie follows, casually strolling out and noting the street of where this shop is.

"So, you finally told him about your chest?"

"Wh-what!? NO!!"

"How does he know then?" Virg looks genuinely curious.

"I don't know!!"

Walking out of the ship after him, Zealot shakes his head in response to their disbelief. Looking over at Signal and Sigil, he has a vaguely incredulous look of his own.

"It's as if you don't seem to understand my current powers. I can hear a cell split. I can see the protons of an atom. I can hear and isolate the voice of every person on Earth. Did you really believe I wouldn't be able to notice that, when she walked, something that should be in the movement wasn't? That I wouldn't notice what she was wearing?"

Stopping to lean up against a filth encrusted wall, he shrugs, looking down at the ground and kicking a Japanese can of...weird looking soda away before looking up at them and beginning to speak.

"I'm not sure why she didn't tell me, anyway, if the Venus charm you placed upon her was honest. Generally, that's the type of thing one would eventually find out, in a relationship. I mean, probably not one in which I'm involved, but still."

The can ends up somewhere in Alpha Centauri.

"Well, her confession was honest. But her chest issues..." Lucy glared at Virgie; she shrugged back. "No, that's something she wouldn't mention normally with the level of charm that I used."

"Still..." Lucy crosses her arms over her chest and looks away.

"Is it really that bad if he knows?"

"...kinda."

Virgie sighs and shakes her head. "So what now? We could go into the mountains; wasn't there an image of the Buddha carved into one?"

Lucy's face brightens up. "...yeah. Yeah, there is, actually. Ancient marvel of the world and all. Let's go then." Lucy floats in the air and begins to lift Virgie when... "...huh. That's sad."

"What?"

"For such a dense population, Tokyo is... very unhappy."

"Not even surprised."

"Chest issues? Hm. Personally, flat women, uh-"

Frowning and moving himself from the wall, he looks up into the sky, angling his view towards the mountains; he attempts to look at and see them close up, going over the composure of the rocks, before shrugging.

"Not my favorite thing. Not the reason you're thinking, just some stuff that happened in the past. Don't worry too much about it."

Moving back over before going into the sky and grabbing Lucy by her waist with a hand, he lifts her up and shrugs while lifting Sigil with the other one. Blasting himself forward, car alarms go off all over the street that they leave; nothing actually explodes, but it's quite a noise. A few seconds later, they're in the mountains.

"Don't see why you'd have a problem with me knowing, anyway. Feel like telling me why it matters?"

"..." Lucy looks away.

"We'll just leave it at her not feeling so good about her self image. Don't know why, though, she looks great in a dress."

"Virg."

"Hm?"

"Mater erat migale."

Virgie gasps, hands going to her mouth. "Lucille! That's Latin!!"

Lucy simply glares at Virgie.

The mountains are gorgeous: forests intentionally left untouched save for traditional decorations such as a few trees marked with shimenawa and shide. It really looks like nothing has changed over the centuries that this forest has grown in. Meanwhile, in the distance, the distinct skyline of Tokyo can be seen. What a contrast, for sure.

Lucy looks into the forest, focusing on her hearing. Crickets, the cries of foxes, what sounded like a raccoon, and other sounds in the distance she can't discern. "This place I like. I could seriously just... live here and relax."

"Were it not for the lack of food."

"..."

Letting Sigil down but keeping his hands on Signal and wrapping them around her in order to pull her up to where he is and allow her to look
around from a higher height (She can fly, Zealot.) as he touches down on the ground, Zealot shrugs and pats her on the head.

"I think people look awful in everything. For posterity's sake, I'll be nice and say that Signal looks adorable. Really, though, I'm sure she looks fine to...humans of the general populace. Apparently, I look good to people, something I've never particularly understood."

Allowing the sounds that flit through Signal's ears to enter into his own, he closes his eyes to collect his thoughts-every single cricket's call, the location of each fox, everything. Taking in a deep breath before opening his eyes again, he looks out over at everybody else. Still holding her, the eye closing and deep breath seemed as though they'd be easily...misconstrued, by Signal.

Lucy feels... weird that she's being carried by Zealot like this. The view is amazing, yes, but... she begins to fidget around, even after she's petted, telling Zealot, "Ah, this view is nice, but...well, Zealot, you're, um, you're the... the paragon of masculinity! A living, breathing, immortal Adonis, even. And... wow, I live with you. That... um..."

Virgie watches from below, pulling out a solar symbol and holding it as if it were a flashlight. "I'm going to miss her," she mumbles.

"That's..." Lucy watched as Zealot's eyes closed and he took a deep breath. If her heart could beat it'd have burst out of her chest in antici...

"Lulu, you alright up there?"

"..."

"...Lulu?"

...pation. Lucy goes unresponsive again, eyes crossed and lips forced into a frown.

Not letting her go, he just looks over at her confusedly, petting her hair gently to try and get her out of the stupor. Obviously, this just makes her stupor far worse, but still.

"Yes, you do live with me; you belong to me, as well."

Not really helping the whole 'Try not to make Signal lose her spaghetti thing' here, Zealot.

"And of course I'm the paragon of masculinity, that's just how my powers work. Is something wrong? You seem...unwell. As for you, you're...uh. You're great, I suppose? You're a female monster attempting to fight her nature by not eating people. You also have psychic powers. Physically, I'm sure you're attractive."

Pulling his hand forward and allowing it to slip down the blonde streak in her hair, Zealot just isn't very good at calming Signal down.

"Oh dear..." Lucy shrugs and sits down, shining her light on anything in the woods. Some animals skitter away as soon as they're spotted, but others are curious, perhaps due to Virgilia's magical affinity. Japan seems to be one of those "tuned" places, right? She gets up and begins to walk into the forest. Wow, these trees are tall. The ropes marking off certain trees from others makes her think what they're for, or even what the rope and paper signify.

Lucy, meanwhile, snaps out of her unresponsiveness faster than last time, if only to say, "Ah, I'm fine, I guess. 's just. Well, to be held like this, and... when people tell me I'm attractive, it's just because of my chest, and... well, you can SEE my actual size and, and..." Lucy looks around frantically, then noticing something. "Where'd Virgie go?"

Continuing to pet her hair, Zealot shakes his head, sighing. Tracking where Sigil goes by the sounds of her footsteps and the animals that approach her, his eyes stay locked on the night sky. Animals mostly avoid wherever he goes; whether it's just that he's a large man, or something to do with his powers being borne from the pure essence of entropy, however, is unknown.

"She's walking around in the forest. As for you...I can't see your actual size. I know you're binding them, and I know it's likely extensive. I have no idea how big they actually are; I'm not omniscient. Besides that, there's plenty of things to think you're attractive, for. Your eyes, for one. Or the blonde in your hair, I suppose. Personally, I've found the fact that you're unwilling to give up-at least, in the face of things that aren't me, most attractive; and I don't really find anything attractive. Flat chested women irk me for reasons entirely non-sexual; your chest would not be what I found attractive about you, whether you bound it or not."

Man, this was gonna end badly for everybody.