soul_logs | [Open] Taking over the High Scores

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[Open] Taking over the High Scores

Characters: Bakura Ryou & anyone else near, in, or around the arcade
Location: The arcade
Rating: ...N for nerdy?
Time: Feb 17th, afternoon & evening
Description: Uncomfortably familiar weird stuff is starting happen around Bakura in addition to the drama across the hall, so he's avoiding dealing with it by sinking far too many quarters into machines at the arcade.

It had started when he noted that something he had left in the fridge to have for the next day had been missing. He didn't pay it much mind and had just assumed that he had absentmindedly eaten it the night before. But it seemed like it kept happening... And things he was sure he had put away properly were winding up in other places entirely.

Like they had back in Tokyo.

But he wasn't losing any time this time. Sure, he still would lose track of time when he was playing his games, but realizing that it was suddenly 2am and he had finished the game was different than realizing that it was 5pm and he couldn't remember where he'd spent the last 2 hours. Or why he was in a different part of town than he'd started.

Rather than think on it, after finding the drawers in his dresser looking almost as if someone had been searching through them, he'd headed out to the arcade. What better way to avoid a problem than to play games, right?

Of course, the fact that he was still there, packing away high score after high score on his favorite games after the sun was starting to set when there a possibly serial killer lurking out there, was it's own problem, but when had he ever given things like that any consideration?

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He blinked, and found himself wandering over as well. He'd made a point to tell Minato to tighten the claw's grip a little so people could actually win what was inside. He'd lost more than a few claw machine games as a little kid due to the flimsy grip...

But he was interested, right here and now. Was he going to nab a Jack?

While every claw game was just a little bit different, the skill to get something out of one was the same, and Bakura had quite a lot of practice. With almost expert precision, he maneuvered the claw, tapping the joystick lightly to get it juuust where he wanted before pressing the button, watching with a big smile as the claw lowered, talons gripping firmly around the middle of one of the rotund dolls.

"Heeeeh, this one has a good grip to it!" he grinned as the doll was ferried over. "I wasn't expecting it to get it the first try!"

...Was the grip too tight, or was he just that good?

"Arisato-san was tellin' me the claw grip's too light. Guess not..." And now that he thought about it, it seemed he thought better of ordering the claw machine that let you catch live lobsters.

Because, really.

Likely a mix of both, though Bakura's natural affinity for games, plus his utter love of them gave him a bit of an advantage.

He rubbed the back of his neck a bit sheepishly before carefully crouching down to retrieve the doll. "Most of the time the grip is really loose, so it takes at least two tries when it's stuffed toys like this one. I think I got really lucky with this one too!"

He hummed his acknowledgement.

"Well, congrats, man. I'm sure the guy that made 'em's feelin' pretty good that people are winning the Jack Frosts."

...Whoops. Uh. He shrugged.

"Least, that's what he calls 'em. I guess they kinda look like snowmen."

"Un, they do, a bit! Like a cartoon of a snow monster, almost!" Bakura smiled happily at the doll. "So you know the person who made them, then?" he asked, tapping one of the bells lightly.

"Yeah, he's... an all right guy. Kind of an asshole at times, but he's workin' on it," he replied off-handedly.

"Anyway... it's late and I was gonna start headin' home anyway. You done here? Two people makes it a little harder for a killer t'pick a target."

Bakura couldn't help but smile at that. It seemed a common sort of trend... "You'll have to tell him that he did a really amazing job making these," he smiled, finally looking up from the doll to check his watch. "That late already...! I didn't realize... Un, that sounds like a good idea, as long as it's not out of your way?"

He shook his head and turned sidelong. He still had a few waking hours left in him, but tonight just seemed like one to call a little early, sit on the couch and piss around on the DEMISE Network.

"I got nowhere else to be. Which building?"

"7th of Death City Heights," Bakura smiled, again toying with one of the small bells on the doll. He was going to have to find a place for it that Ulthar couldn't get it to attack it, especially with the bells!

"So you're next door then," he remarked casually with a shrug. That wasn't out of the way in the slightest.

"Let's get goin'." He turned and went for the exit. Tifa would have fed the cat by now and probably headed off to work at the bar, so he'd probably have the evening to himself.

"Really?" Bakura smiled as he began to follow. "In one of the other buildings?"

"Number six. Got some friends livin' in seven." No harm in talking about that. Besides, talking helped to pass the time, make the walk back faster.

But Kanji was keeping his eyes peeled down the dimly-lit streets. Who knows when that creep might jump out with a knife?

"Really?" Bakura smiled happily, paying... very little attention to his surroundings past making sure he was on the sidewalk and avoiding anything that might trip him up. "Maybe someone I know?" Though he was mostly familiar with the people on his floor... but Keroro and Eve were on the first floor too...

"I dunno... y'got Kuzunoha Raidou, Arisato Minato, then there's Shirogane Naoto." He shrugged as casually as possible. Minato was something of a social guy, even with how weird he was. He also ran the arcade, so if anything Bakura might know him.

...Unless this guy was a detective, even if he didn't look like one, but who knew?

"Raidou-san's just down the hall from me, one of my co-workers too," Bakura smiled warmly. "And Shirogane-san helped me out in morning training. That person works at the Agency too, right?" He was pretty sure he'd seen him around...

Well, how 'bout that.

"Yeah, he does. Ain't surprised, though. He was a pretty damn sharp detective back home, too. The cops didn't know their asses from their elbows."

And yet, if they had had this conversation just days before, Bakura'd have still just been a pastry chef, instead of an agency apprentice.

He covered a small laugh. "Hopefully they're a bit better here. Aren't they supposed to work with detectives, instead of be replaced by them?"

"I guess so. The case was weird, though... no evidence, no clues. They called him in because the local detectives were stumped."

Of course, what Naoto did later on was still so stupid and dangerous and he's frowning a bit just thinking about it. She better not do something to that effect to lure out the killer. It left an icy ball in his stomach.

"Long story, though."

Bakura nodded slightly. "Sometimes those sorts of things can happen. Normally when something out of the ordinary gets involved. He manged to figure it out, then?"

"Turns out the guy we-- the cops nabbed wasn't the right one. The real guy was still out there somewhere, probably laughin' his ass off as the whole town thought the whole thing was over. Long story short, Naoto-kun busted the whole case wide open."

He nodded. "The real guy was found n' locked up."

The slip didn't go unnoticed, but Bakura wasn't the type to pry into something like that. "Heeeh, that was pretty good, being able to figure it out when everyone else had the wrong one!" he smiled. "Good that he got the right bad guy."

"The guy turned out to be a cop. Ain't that some shit?"

Though, he was probably the reason the cops were so stumped, the whole TV world thing notwithstanding. Pretending to be a bumbling loser while erasing any ounce of evidence with CSI knowledge was a pretty damn good cover-up.

"I always say you can't trust a cop; assholes runnin' around, lookin' for any excuse to wave their badges or guns around at people. That don't sit well with me."

"Eh? Really?" Bakura blinked, eyes a bit wide. "I though that sort of thing only happened on TV...."

Though really, considering that the closest thing to a run in with a police sort of agency was Pegasus's security force...and they weren't exactly the picture of upstanding citizenry....

"You'd think so, right? That was reality for us. Dude was messed up."

...And here in this world, he was now one of the Kishin. What he wouldn't give to be able to walk right up and punch that skeezy, leering face right now.

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...so that wasn't really the icon I had meant to use there, whoops.

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