[Deleted]

The day found Senri in what was, for her, an unusual location: an antique store. While far from being one of her usual haunts, the subdued atmosphere was one she found restful, reminding her of a library. That aside, she was there on a mission: birthday shopping! Her mother's birthday was coming up, and she intended to find the perfect present... if she could only figure out what it was. So she wandered the small shop under the watchful eyes of a man who seemed at least as old as the curios over which he presided, determined to at least find something that would point her in the right direction. Up and down the neat rows she went, stopping now and then to marvel at some small curiosity that caught her eye. None of them made the cut, however. Not, at least, as something her mother would appreciate. Eventually, she made it to the back of the store, and here she had more success. An assortment of picture frames hung from the wall, each inconspicuously marked with a price sticker. One frame, in particular, drew her attention. It appeared to be and, on closer inspection, was a page taken from a very old Bible. According to the small plaque affixed to the bottom, it was recovered from a King James Version published in the 1620s. "Well now! This is a find, indeed!" Credulous enough, for now, to take its authenticity at face value, she picked it up carefully and attempted to read it. The chosen passage was Psalms 34, and proved to be surprisingly legible once she remembered the idiosyncrasies of older English. She turned toward the entrance but continued to stand there as she studied the leaf. "This is a piece of history I'm holding," she thought wonderingly.

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

365

@skycat

The owner of this shop was known for being a cantankerous old fool who attempted to refuse to pay his protection payments whenever someone came around to collect. It was strange that the old man didn't see the value in it. The last time someone had stolen from his shop they had received broken fingers for their trouble and the item had been returned to the shop a few hours later. No one had attempted to steal from him since. It wasn't as if the man didn't receive the protection he had paid for. And yet every time he would complain, and argue. Sonnet wasn't in the mood for one of her men to come back late after dealing with him, so she went herself.

She didn't bother using the door to enter, teleporting right into the shop, standing opposite the small register area where the man was hunched over a notebook.

"Hello Malcolm."

He jumped. Then closed the notebook hurriedly, Sonnet had already seen the columns of numbers, not that she was all that interested in what he had written down. She was here to collect.

"You're behind on your payments Malcolm, again."

"I'm not paying you anything lady, so you can just go and disappear again back to your boyfriend."

Sonnet's jaw clenched nearly imperceptibly. It wasn't uncommon for people to assume that she was in her position thanks to her gender, that she had somehow slept her way to a position of some influence within the east coast Yamaguchi-Gumi. It wasn't true, she had made it to that position in spite of her gender, even what little respect remained for her father had done little to help her. No, she had reached this position in spite of her gender, her supposed weakness, not because of it.

"You can pay, or we can start taking your payment more forcefully."

He glared at her stubbornly. "You can try"

She shook her head, "I don't want to hurt you Malcolm."

She reached out and tip over what looked like an extremely expensive clock. It fell from the table it had been perched on, shattering instantly as it hit the floor. She stared back at him.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

The man, Malcolm, reached out in useless denial and protest as the clock fell. From behind the counter, of course, there was nothing that could be done, and the clock erupted into splinters of wood, glass, and clockwork mechanisms. "Are you crazy?" he choked. "Do you know how much that was worth? You could have just taken that and been done with it." Behind the disbelief, the stubborn anger he had displayed had not disappeared, only been, for the moment, banked by sheer incredulity.

Senri, meanwhile, seemed to have been ignored and, for the most part, she returned the favor. The conversation impinged only lightly on her awareness, enough to twitch her mental antennae, but not grab her full attention. And then, of course, came the clock's destruction. That, combined with the prior conversation, was enough to snap her head up in its direction. She took a moment to absorb the dispositions of the shopkeeper and newcomer. "And where did she come from, I wonder?" she thought distantly. There didn't seem to be any apology in the newcomer's expression, and she made no move to clean it up, staring at the man instead. There were none of the hallmarks of an accident, but neither was there a violent confrontation, so... Setting aside the frame she held with distracted care, she worked through the logic of the cues before her, until she arrived at a solution, all in the space of moments. "Oh! I know what this is! This is a... a... protection racket, right?" she asked brightly, tapping a fist in her upraised palm in a gesture of triumphant realization. "I didn't know those were still a thing!"

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

247

@skycat

"I don't know, but some people say I am, maybe this would just be easier if you paid up like you were asked. That was me asking nicely."

Her voice was harsh, clipped, with the mechanical tone that betrayed English as her second language. The shopkeeper was still angry however, and showed no sign of paying up. Obviously simply breaking his wares would not be enough to get through to him. The problem was clearly that he wasn't afraid of her. He might have been more afraid had he realised how she had entered the shop. People were very edgy around metahumans in NYC, thanks to the Central Station attack. That or outright hostile to them, although usually in larger groups. Evidently she'd have to make him afraid of her. It wasn't honourable, to intimidate an old man, but he had been given his warning, he had been given plenty of chances.

She was distracted when she heard the voice of another, a customer who must have been browsing in the back of the shop. She rolled her eyes; this just kept getting better and better. Things would have been much more simple if it had just been her and the old man, now she was faced with a wannabe Hero as well.

"This is an antiques shop. And this man is refusing to pay what he owes. Now buy what you're here to buy and leave before you get involved in something that doesn't concern you."

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

The woman's words provoked a quizzical head tilt from Senri before she replied, "Well, yes. What you're doing, though, I meant. Hey," she directed her next words to the shopkeeper, "Why haven't you called the police yet?" The woman's accent did not escape her notice. She heard its warmer echo often from her own parents. Flipping a mental coin, she straightened her back and spoke again, this time in Japanese and with considerably more formality. "<Am I not involved already? You say I should make my purchase and go, but you have a purchase to make, as well.>" She flicked her eyes toward the wreckage upon the floor before meeting the woman's gaze squarely. While it could have been a confrontational gesture, her expression was polite and her tone mild. "<I am Mizushima Senri. What is your name? I cannot just keep thinking of you as 'that woman'.>"

For his part, the shopkeeper moved his hand, slowly and casually, toward the handset on the counter. Clearly, he hoped to take advantage of the woman's distraction.

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

157

@skycat

Sonnet cocked an eyebrow at the girl's use of her native language. She was clearly comfortable in it as well, but her accent wasn't quite native, evidently she was an American, but her parents must be Japanese. "Matsuda Sonnet, nice to meet you, now $%&* off."

She reached out and casually snapped the man's finger. "I wouldn't if I were you, our bill for the local precinct is high enough as it is, it wouldn't do to line their pockets a little more for such a small service as turning a blind eye to this call out. That or I'd have to deal with whoever showed up, and that's just more aggravation than I was prepared for."

The man whimpered behind the counter, cradling his broken finger. "You have ten seconds, or I break another."

She turned back to the girl that had so rudely interrupted her business transaction. "You see what I've had to do now?"

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

Senri's expression was unmoved by Sonnet's dismissal, but the crackling snap of bone and cartilage when she decided to break Malcolm's finger caused an almost imperceptible cloud to fall over it. Her inner thoughts were much less ambiguous. A prayer for peace and guidance circled in her head even as she quietly echoed, "I wouldn't if I were you." She pulled in a breath and picked up the frame she had set aside, with the leaf outermost, before starting toward the front with one arm holding it tucked against her chest. "As it so happens, I do have a purchase to make. It would be much easier if Malcolm had full use of his hands. I can't work the register. Can you?" Her voice remained unfailingly polite, almost apologetic, and her body language remained nonconfrontational. There was no hesitation in her stride, however. Her thoughts were much calmer, underlain by a stream of Bible passages, and she gave a prayer of thanks as she closed the distance to the counter. "I really hope she holds off on any more violence. I can splint his finger, but he'll definitely need to visit the hospital."

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

185

@skycat

Sonnet didn't move as the other girl approached, she could have gotten out of the way, but that could have shown weakness, and she wasn't about to do that, certainly not for some girl who thought it a good idea to get involved in someone else's business. It was deliberately confrontational, and the girl would have to walk around her in order to deal with the man behind the counter. She made no move to stop her however. "Be on with your business then, and leave us with ours."

She had no real interest in damaging the other woman as well, but she would if she had to. Bravery usually caved once pain was applied to the equation, as it had with Malcolm. The stubborn belligerence that had covered his face before had now fled, to be replaced by fear and barely restrained pain. "You can take out what I'm owed while you're about it old man."

As he served the younger woman, he began to pull out additional bills to settle his debt with the Yakuza, piling them haphazardly on the counter between them.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

Senri declined to take up the confrontation that Sonnet offered, stepping around the woman without a word, though she did give a noncommittal nod of acknowledgment. Her approach was calculated on the fly so as to present only the back of her head to Sonnet... and placed herself directly between her and Malcolm. It was risky in more ways than she cared to think about to deliberately turn her back on someone who had already demonstrated the will to employ violence, but she didn't plan to remain that way. She placed the frame on the counter with a sincerely contrite expression which smoothed again even before she fully turned to face Malcolm, presenting a profile that was, if not serene, then something that closely approximated it. Extracting her wallet from a leg pocket, she counted out several bills without even a glance toward Sonnet and passed them over. Not seeming to have heard Sonnet's instruction to Malcolm, she glanced down at the pile of bills on the counter with a faintly quizzical blink and remarked, "Hm... I'm sorry, but this looks like much too much change." She palmed the bills and flicked through them rapidly before pocketing a portion - the correct one, as it happened - and folded the remainder into her left fist, which she rested back on the counter without opening. Then, seemingly distracted by a thought, she said to no one in particular, "I'm a medical professional, as it happens. I can splint that finger. It'll still need an X-ray, but that and a cold pack should help a lot until then." Her right hand brushed a drop pouch briefly by way of indication.

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

352

@skycat

Sonnet watched as the girl blatantly defied her. This was growing rapidly more irritating, and had already taken far longer than it should have done. It was tempting to simply pull out her gun and have done with it here and now, but it would have solved nothing apart from this immediate annoyance. Honestly, she didn't care if this girl splinted the man's finger or not. She didn't care if she reported her to the police. She was here for her money, and she would not, could not back down.

Her attempt to appear innocent was not endearing. "Look, you've got some stupid thought in your head that you can defuse this situation. What you're doing right now is pissing me off. I don't particularly want this to get any dirtier, but it will if you continue to be an idiot. Give me the money I am owed, then you can deal with him."

She really didn't want to hurt this girl, clearly she was trying to do what she thought was the right thing, and in her naivety was only escalating a situation that could have been resolved minutes ago. She wouldn't have had to hurt the old man if she hadn't interfered. Sonnet wondered briefly if the girl might be a new Hero on the stage, which would be an annoyance, but not all that much of a challenge. She was more cautious now around Heroes since she had encountered and lost to Tank, but she had dealt with others in the town, and put one of them into hospital, this girl would be unlikely to pose a threat. Even so, Sonnet adjusted her stance.

She could not leave without the money, her superior might have forgiven her failure with Tank, but if she failed in such a simple task as this she would lose a finger.

"Give me the money, before I do something I will regret."

Her shift in stance allowed her jacket to fall open, revealing the gun holstered at her waist.

The old man hissed at the young woman, "Are you stupid? Just hand it over."

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄