Lockdown

A few days had passed since team Jadebrand's Drop Volley victory against team Hummingrose, and they were all hanging out at a restaurant, the sun having gone down several hours ago at this point. The strange figures' numbers had been thinning out more and more with each passing day.

"You guys noticed those weird guys too, right? Kinda weird how they're just up and vanishing" the twerp—he had introduced himself as Yoshiro—said. "It feels ominous."

"Oh come on, that's ridiculous," Chizuru countered. "Clearly if they were gonna do something they'd've done it already."

"Chizuru's got a point" Riko said. "It feels weird that they wouldn't just come out and challenge us. They've been here long enough to know that's how we do things around here."

"But what if that's not how they do things?" Izumi chimed in. "Isn't it possible that they're from someplace where they handle things differently?"

Chizuru stretched her arms, groaning a bit as she did. "Pshhh, it'll be fine. What kind of backwater would they need to be from in order to resort to anything other than Drop Volley anyway? It's barely even worth considering."

"I guess so, but I can't stop worrying about the possibility for some reason."

"Aw c'mon Izumi, you beat the hell out of Yoshiro and I, not to mention who-knows-how-many other teams. If anyone can handle something like that happening, it'd be you two."

"We're not the ones I'm worried about though. If push comes to shove, Chizuru and I can handle ourselves. I'm worried—maybe not about you guys, but about Tetsuya and his ramen place, or about this restaurant. I'm worried that something's gonna happen that irrevocably changes this town. I like what we've got here, and I don't want it to end."

The table went silent.

As if to break the tension, their server came back, arms full of food. "Grub's up! Got some tasty treats for you here."

"Thanks Tsubame!" Chizuru said to the server, grinning ear-to-ear. "C'mon Izumi, no point in being down when you've got some tasty treats in front of you."

The food looked delicious. Chicken karaage deep fried to perfection. Curry rice with vegetables glistening enticingly under the artificial light of the restaurant. Omurice perfectly folded, with a little squeeze bottle of ketchup to go with it. A beef bowl, steamy and enticing.

Barring the obligatory "thanks for the meal," the table stayed silent as everyone tucked in, the sounds of their eating dwarfed by the sounds of chatter elsewhere in the restaurant.

All that chatter quieted down real quick when someone came barrelling through the door.

"Evacuate! Evacuate! There's a commotion in the central square, and some people've said that they're gonna be taking over Hyper-Tokyo using some kind of weapon! They said something about making everyone fall asleep!"

"Woah woah, calm down Itsuki. You need to breathe." Tsubame said, before turning around to shout "Everyone stay calm! Everything is under control!"

The reactions of the onlookers betrayed who was a regular and who wasn't, with the regulars being much more composed, as though this wasn't much more than an inconvenience, while the non-regulars were freaking out, wondering what was going to happen.

Izumi cocked her head. "Hey Chizuru, you recognise that guy?"

The guy in question was sat at one of the booth tables near the corner, only barely visible amongst the sudden crowd of non-regulars, still sitting, and was feigning disinterest. On the outside he was the picture of calm, with half lidded eyes, mimicking the nonplussed air of the regulars, but he was bouncing his leg, drumming his fingers on the table in front of him. Nothing definitive, but he definitely seemed to be more nervous than he was letting on.

"Now that you mention it, I don't. He does look at little bit out of place" Chizuru responded. "He's dressed better than those shady guys from a few days ago, but he's still wearing all black and shades of grey, as though he wants to fade into the background. You think there might be a reason for that?"

"Maybe..."

"Well let's go ask then! What could go wrong? We'll be back in a jiffy."
Chizuru said, the last part directed at the other two sitting at the table, who both shrugged as if to say "do what you want," completely unperturbed by the commotion near the door.

Chizuru grabbed Izumi's hand, pulling her up from where she was sitting, moving in the direction of the suspicious guy. They promptly sat down in the booth, across the table from him.

"I don't think I've seen you around before. What're your thoughts on all this?" Chizuru asked.

He jumped a little bit when he heard her voice. "Ah! Um. Well. It doesn't seem great, but it seems like she..." he gestured in the direction of Tsubame. He sounded kinda weird as he was talking, as though he wasn't quite used to making the right sounds.

"If Tsubame's got it under control then what's got you so worried?"

"Uhh..." He looked around anxiously. "I just... have to go to the bathroom, and I'm too nervous to ask anyone where it is."

"Oh, if that's all you're worried about, then no worries," Chizuru said with a smile. "They're right down the hall there."

"Ah, thank you. I'll uh, I'll be right back then." he said before scampering off down the hall where the bathrooms were.

Chizuru sighed. "Geez, skittish little thing, huh."

"You don't think he's connected to everything that's going on?" Izumi asked, getting settled in the corner spot that Chizuru has trapped her in, turning to the side and bringing her feet up to rest on the bench. The window behind her showed its usual view of the street, but the normally clear view was shrouded in a thick purple fog—probably the work of that weapon thing that Itsuki was talking about, not that they really needed to worry about that.

Footsteps down the hall betrayed the guy's return.

"Say, what's your name? I can't just keep calling you 'that guy' in my head."

He flinched. "It's uh, it's Jacob." His hands couldn't stop moving as he forced out an answer to the question. "Say, why do you two, as well as a bunch of others here I guess, seem so unconcerned about the magic bomb that just went off in the main square?"

"Magic bomb?" Izumi replied. "You mean that thing that Itsuki was talking about? We don't need to worry about that in here. Tsubame's Tag will keep us safe, so you can just relax for a bit. After all, if that 'bomb' is using what I think it is, then this should dissipate by morning. If it's not, then we'll have a pretty big problem on our hands, but it looks an awful lot like old man Hiroki's Tag. It'll be a mess once it clears and we need to deal with the fallout, but for now there isn't much more we can do other than sit here and wait. So," Izumi squinted at Jacob. "What's your deal?"

He wilted under her gaze. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, look at you! You clearly think you've done something wrong, you flinched when we asked you for your name, not to mention that it's kind of a weird name-"

"Izumi!" Chizuru chastised.

"I'm just saying it how it is! Either this guy's got the world's guiltiest conscience, or something's up! Maybe both! I know you weren't going to say anything about it Chizuru, which leaves it to me. So. What's your deal?"

He cringed further with each accusation, folding into himself.

"Izumi, stop. you're clearly scaring him," Chizuru said, pulling her companion down from the looming position she had assumed, her knees on the bench, leaning across the table to tower over Jacob. It took a moment for Chizuru to get her back in her seat. "Sorry Jacob. Izumi's got a point though. You're not exactly doing yourself any favors with your whole..." she gestured vaguely at him, "everything, really."

On hearing that, Jacob looked away, mumbling something under his breath.

"hm?" Izumi and Chizuru vocalized in unison.

"Oh, uh, it's nothing. Really. I just don't have much self-confidence, I guess."

Chizuru put a hand up to her chin, thinking. "Hmm. It sounds like you need to make some friends."

She grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of the booth, walking over to where Riko and Yoshiro were still sitting.

"Heya! Welcome baack" Riko said, her voice pitching up as she held the last syllable. "Who's the new guy?"

"His name's Jacob, apparently." Izumi replied, squishing into the far end of the booth so that Jacob and Chizuru could file in after her, in that order, sandwiching Jacob between the two girls. "He's an absolute bundle of nerves though."

Riko eyed him. "So what's with your getup?"

"I- uh, it's-" he stammered, to which Riko gave a knowing smirk.

"I think I see what it is. Whatever you think you are, you're good in my books."

Jacob looked up very slightly from his slump. "Uh, thanks, I guess?"

"Don't mention it. The name's Riko, and I'm here if you need me."

Izumi and Chizuru exchanged confused glances behind Jacob's back.

"Say, uh Riko, these two," he gestured to his sides, "mentioned something about Tags. I think this might be a stupid question, but what are those?"

She reached across the table to pat him on the head. "A stupid question is just a good question draped in a lack of knowledge. " He didn't look too pleased about the head pats, but Riko continued regardless. "Tags are a subset of magecraft that can only be done by certain people. You can think of them as unique skills. The fog outside is probably old man Hiroki's. It's a good thing Tsubame's got a Tag that keeps her patrons safe from harm. There's not much beyond that. Although I guess there is the fact that someone's work and their Tag tends to line up in strange ways, but that could just as much be the Tag's influence on the job as much as it could be the tag predicting its host's future work environment, so there's no real reason to think that there's precognition happening, and yet the idea is so enticing."

Tsubame approached the table. "As much as I'm sure you all love the sounds of your own voice, it's closing time." Chizuru started to speak up, but Tsubame silenced her with a gesture. "I'm not gonna throw you out on the streets. That would be reckless. You guys can spend the night if you need, but most people need quiet in order to sleep."

"You got is boss." Izumi said, giving a lazy thumbs-up. "We'll keep it down."