Blood dripped down, ever so slightly from his leg. Like raindrops trailing down a car’s window. "I got everyone out of here. I won." “I won” is cope, plain and simple. He was liable to pass out at any moment now, his eyes slightly dilated. He remembered his boast to his now roommate Zaya, that they were gonna take on the world, and everyone needed to get out of their way. A tear welled up in one eye, and he blinked it away.

Her stab at his leg proved ineffectual, glancing off one of the chrome exhaust pipes protruding from his calf muscles. He still instinctually flexed and twitched, and looked scared. His ability to dodge was slowly failing him.

As she sprung forward, still bearing down with broken chopsticks, he ended up falling back onto his ass, legs arched at perfect 90 degree angles.

Koontz went for his neck, clearly out for blood. All Ikki could manage in this state was to jerk his head forward, trying to take a blow to the head if it meant sparing his neck and ultimately his life. The two chopsticks still connected, pushing his nose aside and hitting a vein in his forehead. Blood shot out of his nose and his face, and his vision went bleary."What do you want, anyways..."

He definitely needed to be stopped. Ikki just dumped all of that onto Yasu, and maybe in the process let his own lack of ambition show. He very well could be an acceptable target for Yume's scolding too..

Nonetheless, that left out one last thing he felt like he had to say. Ikki slowed down to make a turn on the track, fighting for eye contact. "--There I go again. Do you still have a camera with you?"

How far do you run before taking a break. It didn't dawn on Ikki to say this while he was yapping earlier, and he felt a little embarrassed. His eyes widened a bit with concern. Ikki continued to slow his roll a little, already trying for eye contact with those vending machines. "If your body's tellin' you to stop, you stop. Just call it a day, and try again tomorrow. Take it easy, but take it, I guess. That's the only way to make any progress."

Nyx’s reaction kind of had Ikki feeling himself. That school bully and star athlete came out. He jumped and pumped his fist like he scored a goal or something, before wincing and glancing at his leg for a second. "Can’t handle similes? Do you read, like at all?" He knew he was cooked. Ikki couldn’t keep this up forever. But the building was evacuated. Blood loss and his own sheer momentum had him slightly dizzy. A blow to the head could knock him out.

Provoking her was fine though, he knew he could lose here and be fine. Everyone was out of the building, he did his job. Ikki spaced out for a second, recalling his past. A kid rolling with bikers, using his quirk with a skateboard. Having it turned on him as a weapon on a routine patrol. He looked afraid for a second, before snapping out of it.

Taking the chopsticks out meant increasing the amount of blood leaving his leg, sure. But Ikki didn’t need something hindering his movement like this.

Ikki couldn’t help but keep using his injured leg, trying to put it in harm’s way to try and spare the other one. He’d limp home, if it came down to it. Ikki sprang forward, stopping just short of Koontz. He cocked his leg back, before throwing it up and diagonally, twisting his upper body in the opposite direction to put more spin on it. He aimed it at her ribs, but nonetheless dodging, catching his leg, or throwing an elbow at his ankle to disable his foot was totally in the cards for Koontz. It looked slightly stilted, trying to compensate for less force coming from his thigh muscle by flexing his calf and using his leg like a whip."This is like… Yasu-kun’s split personality. I see you’re still a furry."

Nyx had at this point given up on civility. On keeping up their little game. "--Tch." She reeled her leg back, loading a fierce kick for his inner thigh, something that’d definitely contribute to a hamstring injury if it connected. Ikki produced a motorcycle revving sound, hand diving under the table and parrying her foot. "I gave you a chance to deal with TPD later, instead of tangling with me now. I tried, I really did."

Her nails dug into his arm. His forearm drew drops of blood, as her nails connected with a vein. One of the downsides of being fit, people never missed a vein. Nurses loved him. She clasped his hand. Ikki tried to get a grip on her ankle. She could probably kick out of it, but it was worth a shot.

The venue started to slowly clear out, some hiding in the back and some dashing out. Ikki took this chance to dig his heels in, and fire up those engines. He attempted to roll out of his seat and onto the ground. Standing too fast would’ve left him light-headed, but he needed to do this on his feet.

He put those dukes up, hands balled up at about chest height. Ikki had a steely look in his eyes. Somehow, that mask he wore that obscured his eyes reflected his furrowed brow. The gentle hum of an idling engine rippled through him. "Get up."

Ikki felt her eyes on him. He shrugged his shoulders, before going back to flexing his tongue with his mouth shut, to make his jaw pop out, model-like. The amber light of the station hit them both as they debarked from the train. He looked weirdly fired up, all this family talk coming to the fore.

"...We're not our parents. We don't even look like 'em. So you're gonna get your name out there."

Ikki raised a hand gently, as if asking for permission. He'd hope for a chance to emphatically clap her upper back to try and get her amped up, but he wouldn't press the issue if she declined. "We're gonna start doing that here and now."

"...If you think you need my energy, just do it. I'll understand." The two made their way up the steps, the amber late-afternoon sky greeting them. Zaya's comment gave him pause. "We kinda like fighting eachother, at this point."

Street lights slowly hummed to life, and what looks like a mall nearby had hard footprints leading into its grey tiles, something between a person's stride and tire-marks on concrete.

Ikki walked through the automatic doors, seeing their mark down the end of the hall, wearing a patchwork white denim jacket with matching shorts. It looked like Yuu was wearing TV static. His black hair fell around his face in a bedhead style. He stood with arms folded, watching the two. A voice just a hair lower, a baritone, came out. "I see. I see. Rally here can't do anything by himself. Did she pick your clothes out too?"

He couldn't help but think to his homeroom. To Yasu, as cool as they might be, and a sea of nobodies. And his frat, where he was just everyone's annoying little brother. "--I dunno. I swing that way, like a little. But the guys are kinda dumb. Like, one of 'em's the cute dumb, but we go to class with like, twenty kids who should pro'lly retake Trig and Algebra. But I'm not some coward who draws the line at a tall woman." He spat that last line out. Felt like a "tch... whatever!" was on the tip of his tongue, even if it didn't come out.

He lead the two across the street, downhill one block. The odd security camera across different shops would catch the two, unless she made an effort to walk in their blind-spots. I left all the clues for you, detective. Ikki couldn't help but know that it was over for him, and that expecting others to fix this was pointless. ”Well, I'm hungry, and I already know you'd kill me if it came down to it."

The amber light continued. The mix of steam rising out of the kitchen and a bartender pulling well shots gave the whole thing a sit-down restaurant vibe. Ikki stepped aside to a booth, and hailed someone over. Vissel Kobe and Cerezo Osaka were going at it on a TV overhead, the faint chatter of a soccer announcer barely punching through the ambient noise of a typical sports bar. "Slide me the Ajitama: I'm talkin' bamboo shoots, mushrooms, scallions, softboiled eggs. Whatever draft beer you got, I'm not picky." He felt like he was yapping, and turned to Nyx. "If you want a side for the table, I'll get it."

He was a mess. His eye-mask was Robin-esque, not obscuring anything save for his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. It was expressive though, she could see him clearly dart his blanked out eyes aside and look flustered. "--While you're still here, and while I'm definitely gettin' mixed signals. Do you think I have a shot with this person at school?" He didn't elaborate, at all.

He was cooked. It was so over. It has never been more over than it is right now. The gears in his mind started turning. He knew Shinjuku like the back of his hand. There were plenty of late night dining options, catering to college kids and salarymen trying to have a pit stop on their bar crawl. And this'd be a golden opportunity to get more CCTV shots of her, even if he had no hope of doing anything. Ikki lead with one foot, pointing to a building with three neon signs sticking out the side, and amber lightbulbs polluting the dark night. ”We're already in Shinjuku... Ramen Nagi is open 24/7, it's half of a bar rented out."