Surprise!

Having been near a simple shrine for only a mere couple minutes, the return to civilization’s bustling cityscape was unusual to say the least. The blue overpass containing two scarlet red rays of light stretched horizontally further than the eye could see, even with usage of a vision enhancing visor or cyborg eye implant. These rays mimicking rails supported the hovertrain as it would practically roam above Kyoto, and onto the next city within the region, though plenty of buildings still stood taller than the horizontal rails themselves. Due to this, engineers would often use surrounding buildings to support and grant power to these rails.

Unlike the traditional trains of old, these advancements created hardly any noise until directly above you, in which their generators were exceptionally loud with static buzzing. This was the case when Xion returned to his new friend Saeko, whose words could not be heard over the next 30 seconds as the hovertrain scorched past them high up.

He held up a hand to his ear, to which she placed her lips directly next to and cupped her hands around.

“Should’ve said you we’re going to dip like that!”

“Sorry!” he shouted back. “Didn’t know I was going to!”

“Don’t worry about it! We should get going!”

“Okay!”

Saeko tugged his arm along.

When they had gotten further away, she let go of his arm as the hovertrain had finally completed its pass.

“You ready to hear about this plan of mine?” There was noticeable excitement in her voice, though that could’ve been a result of the train’s departure.

“Let’s hear it,” he said while rubbing his vibrating ear.

“As part of my job we’re given tools to reach our destinations. So we’re going to visit this guy that supplies me- don’t worry he’s nice, and from there we’ll walk to Daydream and it should be easy.”
“Saeko, I have more questions than I did before.”

“You just gotta trust me. You’re going to have fun!” she nudged him quickly.

“Alright.” After a few moments he asked, “So what's his name?”
“This way,” she’d said, completely ignoring his question. Instead of following the sidewalk and crossing the street, they ventured into an alleyway between two large capsule complexes. There, sandwiched between them was a small dark building that looked similar to a garage. It had a sign covering most of the structure itself. It read:

“TOUGH BUFF’S”
The “S” was barely hanging on.

“Tough Buff,” Xion repeated to himself. “Is that just the name of this place or-”
Saeko ran up the creaky old wooden steps and pounded aggressively against the metal door, resulting in echoing bangs off the surrounding buildings. There was a stack of tires next to her, as well as a fat tabby cat that didn’t care she was there.

“You’re sure this is the place..” Xion said, gently biting his own lip in bewilderment.

“I come here all the time, and he’s ALWAYS sleeping!” Saeko banged against it rapidly again. “Would be nice if someone could actually be up for once WHEN I arrive!” She then knelt down and scratched the cat’s ears. “Isn’t that right, Pudding?”

Beneath the cat’s chin was a glowing collar with a large “P” insignia.

Suddenly a lock slid and the door slid open. A large wide framed figure stood by her. Their entire head was completely concealed beneath a stainless shiny violet mask, his skin an umber, reddish-brown. Both arms were half augmented with more wires, gadgets, and bright lights than skin. This opposing figure was now pressing a direct energy-powered pistol against her cheek, signified by the ionic charge up sound effect.

Xion was left stunned, frightened, unable to act. Last time he sprinted at someone in an alleyway he was almost shot. He looked around for something to at least throw, but could only watch as the light-up gauge on the weapon filled to max. It felt too soon for this to be happening again.

“HAHAHA!” came with uncontained laughter. Saeko suddenly tossed her arms around the imposing figure’s waist, burying her head into their chest. “That was a good one, Buff.”

The mask on the man retracted itself to the sides in an instant, revealing just the man’s scarred face beneath that was also missing a few teeth. Scratches of all shapes and sizes marked him across both eyes, cheeks, and chin. He had a yellow cybernetic eye implanted into his right socket that made a faint sound each time it moved, especially when observing Xion.

“That your boyfriend?” Tough Buff’s voice was aged and crackly as he casually adjusted his aim from Saeko’s cheek to Xion’s direction. “I haven’t approved of you yet for dating.”
“I’m- we’re not-” he could hardly answer properly as his heart was ready to fly away from beating so quickly.
“Oh come on Buff! Don’t harass him like that without introductions.” She put her hands on Buff’s arm and forcefully lowered his weapon. “Meant to tell you Xion saved me and my mom the other night.”

“Is that right?” what was left of his half shaved eyebrows raised. “How so?” Tough Buff holstered his weapon.

“It wasn’t anything special- I mean, I didn’t do much at all really,” Xion briskly spoke as if not to tempt Tough Buff’s trigger hand. He’d hoped not to admit to something so foolish.

“Go on then,” Tough Buff said while leisurely looming down the few stairs between the two, each step creaking beneath his weight. “Tell me.”

Xion inhaled deeply. “Mr- the gunman, I mean, was going to shoot my friend, and he had Saeko by her shirt, so I-”
“You’re not about to say you ran directly at the gunman, right?” Tough Buff now was in front of Xion, close enough that his oily musk could be smelt. “Cause that’d be mindless, right?”

Xion gulped. “I did.”

Silence came.

Saeko watched from atop the steps, clicking her heels as she waited curiously.

Tough Buff then raised his mechanical arm in the air as Xion shut his eyes preparing to be physically ridiculed. The arm came down on Xion’s head and patted him, reminiscent of his old boss, and for a moment he imagined himself back at the warehouse once more.

“Must really like her to do something so dimwitted then,” Tough Buff whispered, which provoked Xion’s eyes to open. Before Xion could even try to respond, Tough Buff then turned to hold a closed fist up in the air. “He’s fine for now. You can go in and find your equipment in the usual locker by my workbench.” He then turned to Xion and whispered, “Any funny business in there and I’ll use you for parts, understand?”

“Yes sir,” Xion nodded before hastily rejoining Saeko and proceeding into the building. Tough Buff watched the two vanish inside. Pudding meowed lazily.

As soon as they entered there was a room cluttered with junk, and in this room was a spiraling flight of descending stairs, which Saeko took down and Xion followed behind. Lodged into each stair were two bright circular white lights keeping the downward tunnel lit.

“What’d he whisper to you about? Actually, before that, maybe I’m better off apologizing first for our, shall we say special humor,” she couldn’t contain her giggling.

“Special is the right word. I’d say we’re far more than even now for me ditching you earlier.”
“Yeah you’re right. I haven’t seen anyone interact with him in years, so I really just forgot what it’s like for new people to meet him. He’s strange…but my kind of strange.”

“I can tell. What’s with the name then? Seems too specific to be a nickname.”
“Oh that is extremely simple. This way!”
Upon reaching the basement level, she proceeded through a narrow clearing between piles of cogs, wheels and gears. There at the end was a desk, along with two other branching paths throughout the messy labyrinth of a room. To no surprise, upon the desk was an incoherent mess, containing a mixture of papers, micronotes, tools, a closed laptop, two bottles of Insomnigone, and one portrait hidden in the back. Saeko took it while carefully trying to avoid causing an avalanche, and gave it to Xion for an overview.

The picture displayed showed a simple boxing ring. The ropes were still physical unlike most modern rings today that used holographic power bars, and in the middle of the ring was a crowd of people. A majority were reporters with microphones and cameras, and some were just ordinary people celebrating the victory of the middleman in frame, Tough Buff.

In one hand he held up a large trophy, while on his opposite shoulder a young girl sat cheering as well. What stood out most to Xion was the distinct lack of enhancements to the champion’s body. An absence of scars, long hair draping down his back, and the presence of a smile. An entirely different person.

“As you can see, we go way back,” she said anxiously, unable to stop moving. “He got the name from his boxing tours in America, and he didn’t know much English so they simply called him Tough Buff based on his looks.”
“How’d you meet him exactly?”

“My parents were good friends of his, especially my dad, so of course we were there for his big match here in Kyoto when it happened. Watching that fight made me fall in love with the sport of boxing, even if I was only 12 at the time. But I can proudly say I was the first person in that ring to cheer him after that right hook KO punch.”

“That’s really sweet,” Xion said, impressed at the imagery. “UUC. Underground, Undefeated, Champion. Incredible.” He glanced around the room to spot the same trophy in the photo, only it was coated in oily stains and nowhere near as glorious of a yellow.

“You should tell him that and you may even get a smile out of him,” she faintly smiled next to him. Taking the portrait, she placed it back in the same exact spot carefully, then turned her attention towards the locker just next to the desk, and searched inside.

“If you don’t know that’s alright, though I can’t help but wonder what happened afterwards.”

“What do you mean?” she spoke while grabbing from the locker’s contents and placing something minute into a rectangular minaudière, which was shoved into Xion’s free hands.

“He looks nothing like he did before,” he said, now gripping the ornamented container.

“Oh. That,” Saeko pondered on, shutting the door tightly. “Don’t know…”

“Somehow I don’t believe that.”
“No really, I don’t. I’ve never asked, so he’s never told. I started working for him after my dad left us, and that’s the extent of it.” There was a noticeably less pleasant tone to her voice than usually, so Xion wouldn’t pry any further.

“So what’s in the box?”

“We can only open it when we get there, so no peeking,” she said, returning to the spiral flight of stairs.

“Really like to tell and not show, don’t you?” Xion chuckled, placing it into his pocket.

“Keeps you interested,” she smirked back at him.

Once they had gotten back up to the floor there was no sign of Tough Buff around in the room they had arrived in, or just outside.

“I’m going to leave a note for him, so it’ll just be a minute.”
Xion took this chance to look around the space since there was time. Similar to the basement area, the room was a cluttered mishmash of broken materials for machinery. Obscured beneath rubbage was a rusted black punchbag, still attached to the stand, and with plenty of wear and tear throughout its structure. There was a subtle urge to uncover it and give a few whacks. Instead he chose not to, ultimately respecting the untidy nature.

However, nearby was a pair of boxing gloves similar to the ones worn in the championship portrait. These were much more practical to obtain, and he easily fit one onto his hand, although these were far too large to comfortably fit, the notion of sporting one of these gloved mitts was priceless.

“Did you ever play any sports?” he turned to ask her. Saeko was hovering over the only cleared spot on a counter, writing onto a note, from a stack of notes, with a small pen.

“No, but I wanted to. The few years I was in school I just was too shy. You?”
“I played baseball. My father actually coached for my school’s team, so that helped a lot.”

“Nice nice. When’s the last time you played?”

“3 years ago give or take.”

“Ever think of playing again?”

“All the time. And I’m sure that anyone who has ever participated in at least 2 sporting events has considered it,” he said with his attention back on the gloves.

“Why 2?”

“Cause I only needed to play soccer once to realize I hated running” he chuckled.

Saeko laughed along with him.

With the note finished, both Saeko and Xion left the cluttered room, but not before Xion had placed the gloves next to the note. It was his kindest way of telling Tough Buff that he was a fan.

It was about 8pm now. The sky had begun to darken, and the many colorful lights began to breathe energy into the encompassing nightlife. Just across the street was Daydream, as designated by its fixation with eyes flashing different colors all across the moderately small building. A line of patrons stretched across the street, so long of a line that there was not only a bouncer for the entrance, but also a bouncer acting as a crossing guard to assure uninterrupted business. Two spotlights mantled on the roof flung their rays of light throughout the sky.

“We’re going in through the sidedoor, right next to that hotel,” she indicated with the point of her finger. There was enough space between both buildings for a parking lot full of cars, and presumably a sidedoor.

“I highly doubt the door is going to be unlocked, so what’s the plan when we get there?”
“That box in your pocket is the answer to your question.”

Xion sighed. There was no point in expecting any heads up until the moment they reached the door.

Making use of the bouncer, they easily made it to the hotel. Cars beeped and honked as pedestrians walked by, to which the bouncer would quiet down by staring at the driver with devious intent. Sure enough, at the end of the full lot was a locked door. It had about 5 different locks on the outside, and assumedly more on the inside. Only those with windows at the top of the hotel overlooking Daydream could barely see them standing around the parked cars.

“Take off your shoes and socks,” she said plainly, already in the motion of removing hers.

“What?”

“You heard me. Hurry before someone shows up.”

Reluctantly obliging, Xion stood barefoot now on the asphalt. She motioned for him to hand over the minaudière he’d been carrying, which he did eagerly with hope to finally get an explanation. Saeko opened it up and withdrew what appeared to be an ordinary tube of red lip gloss.

Xion could only imagine how Kazue would be reacting.

“Hold out your feet,” she demanded, then unscrewed the cap, revealing a brush connected on the bottom, and began to brush the bottom of his feet. This left a warm heated sensation throughout the base of his feet that caused no physical harm, nor did it leave a colored mark. Without a complaint, she proceeded to brush her own, dunking it into the bottle to refresh it.

Returning to the embellished minaudière, she retrieved a roll of light violet tinted paper-like sheets, placed it on the ground, and kicked it towards the building. As it rolled it left a long trail behind it of its violet paper before hitting the wall and stopping.

“Wait for it, 5…4…3…2…” she spoke quietly to herself. Then, the sheet amazingly began to roll up the side of the wall, continuing all the way up out of sight onto the roof. The color then morphed into a transparent violet instead of fully. She returned the tube and brush into the minaudière, and smiled innocently at Xion’s astonished facials. “It’s a little tricky at first, but you’ll have to figure it out fast cause it only lasts for a minute. Hope I see you at the top!” she gave his cheek a kiss before dashing towards the vertical wall. 

The phenomenon of her elegantly running up the side of the wall left him speechless.