Survival is Crucial

Chop

"What're you eating?" A young Asian girl asks, her black bob reaching her shoulders, her small frame barely fitting in a booth seat she had sat in beforehand, across from her being Nixon.

"Yua, pass me the salt." She sighed, reaching for salt across the table even though he could easily reach it himself, placing it in front of his plate. Her name is Yua Fukuhara, Nixon's best friend, currently a Judo Practitioner.

"Omelet, huh?"

Nixon nodded as he stuffed his face with eggs and rice, taking infrequent bites of bacon sitting on another plate nearby.

"Conversation..."

"I thought it was a stupid question."

Yua promptly stuck her tongue out in annoyance, looking outside the window seat that they were sat in, staring out to a beautiful beach, palm trees blocking the view some as the sun glistened against its wet surface. "Why'd you want to go to Los Angeles?"

"Thought it'd be a nice little trip for the both of us."

"We could've..." She looked embarrassed for a moment, "Okay..."

"You're terrible at hiding your embarrassment."

"Shut it."

Nixon chuckled a bit, taking another bite from his food whilst carefully examining his surroundings, feeling uncomfortable for some reason. "Wonder..."

"What?"

"Just thinking out loud."

"Okay."

A cute-looking waitress, hips swinging from side to side, comes by, "Would you like anything else?" Her tone of voice was flirtatious and Yua noticed.

"Waffles."

"Alright!" She jotted it down quickly, flipping to another page while jotting something else down. She ripped it out and placed it on the table near Nixon before leaving.

"What?" Nixon was bewildered by this action, examining the piece of paper thoroughly as Yua gritted her teeth, "Why did she give me her number?"

"Nixon."

"Hm?"

"You aren't like you used to be before, remember? Now that you've gotten bigger and s**t all these girls are gonna want t-"

"Ah!"

"What?"

"It doesn't matter anyway," He ripped the paper in two, "I don't need it since I have you."

Yua kissed her teeth, cheeks flushed with red, "Jesus, you're corny."

"It's your fault for falling for those stupid ass lines."

Yua kicked him in the leg causing a light thud to come across the table as he flinched in pain, "Jeez..." In the corner of Nixon's eye, he noticed what looked to be a young girl entering the restaurant - long black hair covering half of her face that reached the nape of her neck, deep sapphire eyes, thin physique - a black jacket thrown over her shoulders as a thin, black wifebeater lays under it, the most standout feature though was her white pants, a capoeira belt tied around her waist. "Capoeira, huh?"

"What?" Yua asked.

"Nothing, a capoeirista just entered, don't see those often."

Yua turns around, arms rested onto the back of her seat, "You're right."

The waitress from before came back, placing down the food Nixon had ordered before, leaving with a brief wink before going over to the capoeirista girl's table. "What would you like ma'am?"

The girl cringed slightly in her seat, slightly hesitant to talk, "I'm a man, 'ma'am'."

She gasped, hand over her lips, "Oh my god! I'm so sorry, how may I take your order?"

"Interesting, that was a guy all along."

"What!?" Yua exclaims in surprise, "That's a dude?"

"Yeah, just heard it now."

"Effeminate boys are in nowadays," Yua commented jokingly.

"Are you into them?"

"No!" Yua denied, chuckling.

"Is he a young child...?"

"Mayb-" The capoeirista got up from his seat, arriving at their table.

"Why are you so curious about me? It hurts my head if you look at me that much."

"Oh, sorry! I just noticed that you're a capoeirista and got curious is all, since I also do Martial Arts and so does my girlfriend here," He pointed to Yua, cheeks as red as apples because of his previous comment.

"Yeah... I've been doing it for a couple of years." The capoeirista looked to be distracted once in a while, looking in a random direction, "Oh yeah, you were wondering if I was a child, I'm not." Promptly leaving, Nixon was left embarrassed.

"Damn... what an attentive guy."

"Surprised he noticed us too."

"Well... you were being obvious about it."

"No, I wasn't!"

"Indeed, you were, you did a full 180 just to look at him."

"Shut up!" She yelled, gritting her teeth as she pinched some skin on Nixon's hand.

After an hour of banter between each other, Nixon eating some food once in a while, they left, the capoeirista did not leave though. Tyche, 20 years old now. The entire time one of the voices had been screaming the loudest for quite some time now, due to this, Tyche had felt some sense of foreboding as it described everyone's steps. Medication makes certain voices quieter, but the ones that have the most positive impact on Tyche are the ones that never go away, taking another pill will only make one quieter, but the one describing medical knowledge of his body will not quiet, ever, but it is rarer than the other voices anyway which makes Tyche feel lucky to some degree.

A young man entered wearing a black suit, tipping his hat, and quickly sitting across from Tyche. "Hi!"

Tyche leaned over the table a bit, his expression becoming more and more serious.

"So, what's happening?"

Tyche doesn't respond.

"Don't talk much?"

"It hurts sometimes if I talk, so I have to keep my speech limited."

"Interesting - like, does your throat hurt or?"

"No, head."

"Okay... okay."

"Who are you?"

The man in black laughed, "Wait a bit."

'He looks Asian...' Tyche thought to himself, the man's thin eyes gliding across the table in front of them. 'He definitely has combat experience, who is this?'

"Don't hurt yourself, you're thinking too hard."

"I'll kick you," Tyche growled in almost a whisper, looking as if he'd kill the man in front of him at any moment.

"Your words speak venom... well! I'll introduce myself!" The man clapped his hands together, a rather sinister grin coming across his face, "I am Dokkaebi, and..." Two more men enter the restaurant. "Let's end this quickly now."