[CHUCK MCCOY]

✧ RIP ✧

There is a small cat cafe in one of the rougher bits of downtown Tokyo.

Kitsch, cutesy place. Outdoor bistro chairs hella outta place with the sludge this side of the city coughs up, vibrant coffee mugs and stray cats of all sorts prowling about the tables. They’re doin’ somethin’ right for this neighborhood, putin’ cats up for adoption and havin’ a safe space for kids n’ stuff. Somewhere they can laugh n’ just be themselves, to the hum of steamed milk n’ smell of fresh-baked croissants. So that’s why, when I had a single delivery task to drop off a parcel of litter for them from the store, I ended up stayin’ for a few hours!! Restocking supplies, fixin’ they ice machine and even bussin’ tables!! My big blue ass, bussing tables! Doesn’t look right, ain’t it?!

“How’s your lattes? Can I get anyone another?” the owner asks a young couple, dirty dish rag slung to her waist. Disheveled bangs haphazardly bounced back and forth across her forehead as she spoke, a smile nonetheless coming through her wizened face. “You kids also see the cats we have up for adoption today? We got all our calicos spayed as of last month and they’re ready for a new home!”

Maybe I’d steal one for my wife!! I circle the indoor part of the cafe, collecting dirty dishes on a platter. Besides the couple, there were a few students eyeballs-deep in their textbooks, prolly studying for their upcoming summer courses. Then a few kid kids, maybe the owner’s grandkids or just kids who found a place instead of the streets. An old man with his newspaper off in the corner. N’ someone else I hella almost missed! “Done with that, miss?” I ask, reaching out for her dishes if she was.

tag: Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

With every minute that passed the belief that she was the butt of some kind of cosmic joke was growing larger and larger. Today hadn't started off well and it'd been getting progressively worse and worse. First there was the fact that the police somehow got tipped off to her location, forcing her to flee out of the second floor window of a dinky motel at 5 am to escape capture. Then there was the fact that she had to take the most elaborate route imaginable to shake off pursuers -not the cops, a completely unrelated second group, because why not- causing her to have to walk for over two hours to cross a distance that should've been covered in less than ten minutes and finally there was the fact that the sale she tried to make a few hours later fell through.

Although 'fell through' was putting it nicely, the deal was dead in the water before she ever got there. After all, how big was the chance that an undercover cop wanted to buy firearms from her? No, that had been another bust, quite literally in fact. It was good that she'd been prepared for something like that, changing out of her outfit and into a subtle disguise by shedding her eyepatch and coat, replacing it with sunglasses and a shirt to avoid being recognized the moment she'd gotten out of their encirclement. Her second-in-command, Hans, had even claimed he knew a place she could lay low for a couple hours where no one would ever expect her to be. She should've known better by now.

A cat cafe.

Of all things, a cat cafe. He wasn't wrong that no one would expect her to be there, of course, but that didn't make him less of an asshole. She let out an annoyed huff just before Chuck asked his question.

"Ah'm done with aboot fookin' everything roite now, but yah, go fer it." Retsu answered while pushing the plate towards him and taking another sip of her double espresso. She had the feeling she'd need the energy for whatever else life was gonna throw her way.

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Tags: CHUCK MCCOY

[CHUCK MCCOY]

✧ RIP ✧

Milky white eyes stayed fixed on her. There is a saying, somethin’ bout how the damned end up findin’ each other. That’s why Villains always get in the wrong place at the wrong time, squared up with another piece of work in close quarters. But I ain’t thinkin’ anythin’ like that in the moment. She was a kid. Well, maybe ‘cause I was becomin’ a dad, everyone vaguely my age or younger than me looked like a kid. Shirt, sunglasses indoors, the scrunch of violet eyebrows like lightning over the mountains. She hisses out her words, the unique accent tippin’ me off to the fact she was different. Ain’t like UAU kids, maybe just like kids in this side of town. Left out for dead in the wilds of the world.

“Wasamatter?” I scoop up her plate. “Cat piss on your boot?”

Then I yawn hella obnoxiously, sitting my ass right down across from her!! Dishes on the platter clank together as I do, nearly almost breaking. Ain’t matter to me. A fat hand splays out on the table as I gesticulate, hella loud as always!!

“Ion only been here three hours n’ that shit happened to me too!! I’m going to have to throw this whole getup out when I get home! That smell hella never goes away.” I never expected myself to want to be someone a stranger could talk to, ‘bout their problems or this n’ that. With my kids on the way it was all the more glaringly obvious what I ain’t, n’ it was like I was trying to catch up in lightning time to skills that I ripped right off my soul in the pursuit of power. Empathy, learning to listen to other people besides my gorgeous wife!! What was I even doin’?

I ain’t hear it, but it was then a subtle THUD hit the shoddy roof of the cafe.

tag: Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

"Ya know, ah wouldna be surprised." Retsu replied while looking at her shoes just in case. They were still dry, luckily, giving her a bit of hope that today wasn't entirely doomed to continue going down the drain. Of course, that's when the conversation continued. Because there was nothing quite to make her day better like small talk. Her eye twitched. If she made a scene chances were that much higher that the cops would find her, she'd have to play along right now.

"Look on the bright side, great way ta avoid 'nnoying conversations on ta way home." She snorted. "Come ta think of it, why'dya work in a cat cafe if ya kent handle stuff lahk that?"

Retsu courteously ignored the way he just sat down at the table with her. It was her loss if she minded it. Her attention was briefly drawn to the cats that were up for adoption. A moot point. She didn't exactly have a place to even keep one. Nor was she around enough to actually take care of another living being. Yeah, it wasn't a good idea in the slightest nor was she interested.

...She really wasn't, okay?

"Hmm, ya hear something?" She asked while clearing her throat, more to divert her own train of thought than to actually make conversation. The fact that there was in fact something to be heard was a funny coincidence and not something she actually noticed.

------

Tags: CHUCK MCCOY

[CHUCK MCCOY]

✧ RIP ✧

I was feelin’ bad. At her sullen words, the way she peered down at her shoes. Like the cat piss was the cherry on top of a world takin’ the piss out of her!! I ain’t know what to say, or just then I definitely said the wrong thing! Her words clicked in my tiny brain far too late n’ by then my eyes were ballin’ outta my head!! I hella sucked at this conversation thing! A twitch worked at my right eye, fist ballin’ up in faux anger. “HEY WHADDYA SAY YOU BRAT?!” A couple heads turned our way. Tho not all, this was prolly part for the course for this neighborhood. “Whatcha callin’ an annoyin’ conversation?! I’ll have you know I ain’t even work here!! I’m an unpaid labourer n’ I can handle anything that comes my way!! I WORK WHERE I WANT!!”

I stopped on my lil spiel. The way she was looking up at the cats… it was hella hard to fake somethin’ like that. Like she ain’t just ignoring me. Then she said what she did, clearing her throat, and my eyebrows perked up. “I ain’t hear nothi-!!”

The kid was right on point. That same second, dust and broken tiles deluged the cafe as a killer cat came down. Somewhere between the size of a bike n’ a car, twisted bulging mounds of muscle pounced forward, covered by thick, unruly tufts of light hair. A growl ripped from its maw, vortex of fire spinning between massive incisors. The kids are screaming. I’m so slow to react, ain’t realize it’s got its jaws sunk into the arm of the old lady until she’s screaming, arc of blood smattered against the floor.

“OBACHAN!!” I’m up and out of my chair, running towards her before quickly turning behind me, “get outta here, kid!!” Even if she did want to, that ain’t so easy. The roof was of poor make n’ came down in more places than one, huge chunks of material effectively blocking the entrance. There’s a real panic now.

tag: Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

Retsu glared at Chuck's fist as if she could will it away. "Ah'd ask if y'r hard a' hearin' but given that y'r shouting ta someone sittin' roite in front of ya ah guess that'd be a dumb question, nah?" She scoffed. It wasn't like she even said this was the annoying conversation. Implied, sure, but it wasn't her fault that he chose to accurately interpret it that way. "Why da fook would ya work unpaid? Dere's a word for dat and it's called slavery, pretty sure that's fookin' illegal." 

Even she didn't stoop so low as to enslave her employees. Sure, some might argue that coercion and indentured servitude were the same thing but that was a load of bull. In fact, the last person who said that wasn't saying anything else anymore at all. Funny how that worked. 

Her eye twitched when the ceiling collapsed, bringing back another memory of a victory she didn't remember all too fondly. What was next, some guy with a sword would be present without her realizing it? Someone's arm would get- yup, there it was. She let out a string of curses under her breath. Sick and tired of getting past traumas shoved in her face she considered what to do as she stood up, slinging her duffel bag filled with a normal amount of assault rifles -if anyone asked- over her shoulder as she did. 

She still had the combat knife strapped to her back in case things got too troublesome to resolve unarmed but...

...the creature wreaking havoc wasn't exactly what she was used to fighting. Oh well, not her problem.

"Dere a rear exit 'ere?" She asked in the same tone of someone asking what time it is. Stepping closer to get a better look she confirmed her earlier hunch. Yup, that was a cat, wasn't it? Big, mean looking and with a maw full of daggers. Yup, a cat. "Where da hells did this place even find one dis big?"

------

Tags: CHUCK MCCOY

[CHUCK MCCOY]

✧ RIP ✧

I grit my teeth!! This girl was givin’ me a whole existential crises n’ high blood pressure to boot!! She was wicked, clever, n’ had a bad attitude that prolly saved her life. Aweshit, what the hell would I do if my kids talked back at me like that. Get angry?? I ain’t know! But I couldn’t react the same ways, do the same damn things. I bring my fist back in as I cross my arms, thickass eyebrows twitching up a storm. “Okay Ms. Thing, you gotta point!! I’m sorry for shoutin’ at you, alright? That was uncalled for.” Like poison out my mouth! Then I heard what she said and my lifeless eyes softened a shade. “Maybe I’m used t’doin’ it. Unpaid work n’ all, heh,” I added in, scratching the back of my head n’ lookin’ away. Eighteen to twenty-two. Four years I’d been under the thumb of a hellacious gang, pulse of everythin’ I did tuned to their violent misdeeds. Countless deaths, robberies, my girl was out gettin’ her degree n I was on the other end of the law. Never ‘gain, I had said, n’ here I was burnin’ hours at a cafe I’d never been, doin’ things for people I’d never known. Old habits die hard or somethin’?

I was still hella curious about what she had going on. I missed her string of curses as all hell came down with the roof, ain’t have the reflexes to see the twitch on her eye recalling trauma. Everyone on this side of town had a reason to be sour. ‘Specially now. But what was hers?

Right then another two arms burst out of my shoulder socket, all four latching onto the great kitten’s maw to pry it from the old lady. Her screams ring in my ear, deafeningly loud n’ I ain’t blame her a sec. It’s like pulling a superheated titanium anchor from the ocean floor, stupid amounts of strength to get this thing to budge n’ when it does, it pounces right onto me. A millisecond too late and she’d chomp me in two!! I swear, nerves bulging from my arms and forehead as I tried to keep level with this thing!!

“T-there’s an exit right here!!” All the lil kids are lookin’ up to Retsu, like she’s Mother Theresa with wicked cool mauve eyes behind her shades. There’s something hella magic ‘bout someone who stays calm during distress. “I-it won’t budge!!” The steel door’s indented by a few supply boxes that fell, all jammed up together. The kids are atop each other tryna move it n’ it won’t give!!

I heaved in, words ground out low. “R-resource c-competition.” I ain’t all that smart but when you’ve lived in a dog eat dog world you start to get it. I had a feelin’ this ain’t a cat of the cafes, maybe one that saw what was offered n’ decided all of that was for her. Crabs in a barrel or somethin’, cept for a litter. “Pigs ain’t give a rat’s ass ‘bout this side of town,” I started, wrestling the beast, “no way in hell they got resources for animal control!” It was hella bad. This kinda quirked-up animal shows up on the grounds of UAU n’ it’s national headlines. Here? Ain’t anythin’ out of the blue.

I eventually pry it off, throwing it back towards the counter, away from everyone. Its massive body takes out the espresso machine, whole shelves of plates n’ glasses rainin’ down. It shakes its head, snarls at a frequency that sends ice down my spine, and opens up its mouth again, breathing in. Hey, what’s in its mouth?! FIRE?!

“■■■■!! Incoming!!” I ran to pick up table, prop it up as a shield for her and anyone near!!

tag: Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

Retsu refrained from commenting on the man's habits any further. It was hardly her place to do so after all, the only thing it'd accomplish was cause more trouble. She had plenty of that already, in fact, she was pretty sure she had enough to last her several lifetimes. Which made it all the more fun that even here it seemed to find her. Sighing when she spotted both exits being blocked off she wondered how this place passed fire safety inspections. She knew how she passed it but she doubted the old lady in charge threatened the inspectors' families, didn't seem to be the type for that.

"Get 'n a side of a box each 'nd lift with y'r legs!" Retsu shouted at the group of children clustered around the blocked rear exit. It wasn't slavery if they 'volunteered' and she didn't give a damn about child labor laws. 

"Are ya tellin' me another cat cafe sent this thing here?" She deadpanned, completely misunderstanding Chuck's words. Retsu had never put much thought in the competition between cat cafes of all things but even so she doubted it was that intense. Then again, who knew? She'd have said the same about the pizza dough shipping industry mere months ago. That was before she raided several trucks and eventually blew up a factory. 

"Even the fookin' cats have quirks now?" 

At this point she was more exasperated than surprised. Of course the universe would find new and interesting ways to put her down, because why not. Retsu pushed down a groan as she stepped behind Chuck, more than happy to use both the table and him as shields. Somehow she doubted the kids would have the door freed up fast enough for her to get out before she got involved further which, unfortunately, made this whole thing her problem after all. It wasn't because she was annoyed that even the animals had quirks now, certainly not. 

Either way, she'd have to act soon. Animals had pack instincts right? She vaguely remembered reading something like that. Or, well, hearing someone else talk about how they read something like that. The moment the fire stopped she'd leap out from behind the table, swat the big cat on the head and give it her meanest glare. Surely that was likely to work and not at all get her mauled. Gods, she hoped not. Rui would never let her live that down.

------

Tags: CHUCK MCCOY

[CHUCK MCCOY]

✧ RIP ✧

Speaking of that old lady…

“OBACHAN!!”

She was screamin’ bloody murder but hella ain’t out. Holding her now limp right arm, she heaved in n’ out from somewhere behind us, doin’ something I ain’t see at the moment. My focus just then was on propping up that table as a shield, searing hot flame battering the material and near instantaneously melting it. Shit. Heart thundering through my ears, I tossed the near-wasted material towards the kitty’s mane and heaved in again, this time lumbering up another table, another countertop, anything I could get as a barrier between us and what felt like the surface of the sun. Meanwhile, the kids are doing exactly as Retsu says - pushin’ n’ pullin’ and I just hella wished I had a duplication quirk in that moment. Seeing their lil faces contorted, struggling, the adult couple comin’ up behind them and having the same luck was the worst image. In reality, this all passes in a fraction of a minute, but for them, it’d live on in their heads in infinite hellacious loops.

Her words are a saving grace at the moment, a smile cracked over my face despite mountains of sweat pouring down it. Havin’ regen ain’t make me resistant to fire or the effects of near-heatstroke, nothin’ even close. “W-what?! That ain’t what I meant at all!!” I squeeze my hand in n’ out, momentarily battering away the pain of their first layer burned off. “How the hell are ya gonna be so sassy n’ senseless at the same time that ain’t allowed!!”

We needed a miracle. Somethin’. Luckily, she went up n’ did something hella wild, stupid and Heroic all at the same time. Soon as she leaps up from the table, I’m runnin’ to the door, pushing people out the way to get the boxes moved. Time seems to stop as Retsu and the great beast glare each other down, a wicked rumble throttling through the thing’s chest.

“Aright,” I scream, pushing the kids through the door, “you n’ you n’ you n’ you!!” My arms are bleeding. Hella got knicked from the fat cat earlier, lightnin’ fast, n’ I ain’t realize. “G’on, get!”

“Hella smart move, kid-” I turn, the cat’s gonna pounce on her-!!

Only to snap its attention to a sudden hiss.

I turn.

There’s the old lady, a cigarette snug between her lips with a giant steel tank in her one good arm. Murder’s in her eyes, deadass center on the cat.

“You are a BAD kitty. You’ll take my arm but you’ll never take my dignity. Ruckus. Mayhem. Death. You think you want to start all that, in my cafe?” She chuckles n’ I feel my soul go cold. “Like you can be somebody bigger than all the rest just because you have a quirk.”

I realize what’s happening too slow. Standin’ there, meanin’ to grab Retsu but numb.

“May this be your last life, witch.”

She drops the cig into the tank and ignites the place skyhigh.

tag: Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

Ignoring the old lady's suffering Retsu snorted at Chuck's response. Sassy and senseless wasn't allowed, huh? Come to think of it, most of the people she knew that were like that were on the wrong side of the law. Maybe he had a point. She doubted it though given that he was clearly mistaken about her being senseless. That said and done she stepped out and glared at the four legged murder machine, almost feeling its rumbling growl in her bones. 

Gangsters and animals weren't all that different. Sure, the thing was growling up one hell of a storm but she didn't doubt for a second that it was all just posturing, even as the cat reared back to prepare for a lunge. The hiss drew her attention just as fast as it did for the big cat, albeit for different reasons. As an engineer, and especially as an engineer specializing in making stuff go boom she was no stranger to gas tanks nor what it sounded like when the nozzle was wrenched open.

"Hey..." Her eye widened when she realized what the owner was planning moments before she finished her monologue. "There's sti-" ...ll cats inside. 

...Why did she care. She didn't, did she? Were there even still cats inside? Chances were they scrambled away to hide the moment the big one dropped in. Whether that was inside the room or outside of it Retsu had no way of knowing. Besides, it was hardly her problem, right?

Her body moved before her mind did, rushing towards the window instead of trying to join the herd trying to get through the rear exit. She never liked doors anyway. What was up with places telling her where she could and couldn't go? Damn inanimate objects weren't gonna control her actions.

A wave of heat washed over her as she crashed through the window, shards of glass raining down all around her when she landed with a heavy thud. The hefty duffel bag she was carrying slammed into her back adding a second impact to her meeting with the ground as well as reminding her she really should get up and away from here before any cops came to check the situation out.

Besides, it wasn't like the only other person still in there except for the owner would be in that much trouble. Call it a hunch but Retsu didn't think the chance was all too big that she had ran into two completely unrelated people with four arms so chances were this one had a quirk much like the one she saw in the junkyard. Casting a brief glance back at the cafe before she slipped into an alley she wondered whether the big cat had made it out too. It wouldn't surprise her, honestly. She'd be sleeping with one eye open for the next few days just in case.

------

Tags: CHUCK MCCOY

[CHUCK MCCOY]

✧ RIP ✧

I still think ‘bout it, months later.

Ain’t in a ruminating way. Villains like us see so much you just gotta up and bury it soon as it comes. Killing, destroying, whatever. But this - flashes of fire, time frozen as the cig descended into hell - sometimes sinks its teeth into me when I least expect it. Find myself wonderin, n just how the hell I get outta there?? N’ what happened to the girl? I was hella too slow to catch in the moment that she jumped it for the windows. Super smart, right? Why ain’t I think of that when it was all happening? It wasn’t till much later that I started makin’ connections. That thick accent, long rolling amethyst hair, the punk attitude that told me she ain’t takin’ shit from the world - that might’ve been the girl from the junkyard!! ‘Cept with a pissy attitude, no manic grin!!

Anyway, I had pretty bad burns that took a couple weeks to recover from. Seared left side of my ribs and upper thigh, arm just as pretty. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, so maybe I managed to jump for the exit just in time. Driving through the neighborhood ‘gain, I still had all these tiny lil thoughts in my tinier brain that I had tucked away. Did that chick really like cats after all? What was her deal that day? All those kids make it out okay? N’ just who the hell was that old lady, anyway?

My wheels purr to a stop a block away from the cafe. I see it now, the burned up exterior not yet recovered nor torn down, wreaths and flowers hung up this way n’ that with crosses all over. Te old lady’s picture in a frame, weathered by the elements. In loving memory of… I blink, hands numb over the wheel. Our Hero.

I may have driven away with a few tears.

tag: Bakiri Retsu

[Fanthes]

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✨MISSION SUCCESS!✨

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✓ More like Catastrophe Cafe! Amazing job you two, loved reading this!! Also congratulations on both capping out on exp for the month of November!! [break][break]

+ 7.500 EXP!

[break]
Chuck - 6.000 // 13.500[break]
Retsu - 5.250 // 12.750

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Tag: CHUCK MCCOY, Bakiri Retsu

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