Settling a Debt (Yori)

"Really?" Cicilia questioned, genuinely surprised. No time for VIDEOGAMES!? WHAT KIND OF CHILDHOOD DID SHE HAVE!? Evidently a busy one as she would explain a moment later. The German would glance over her shoulder with an almost pitying look, sad that someone was so busy they had no time for recreation. Sayumi wandered back into the livingroom, asking if "Street-Fighter" was some kind of boxing game. The question left Cicilia dumbstruck.

"Seriously....? You've never even heard of Street-Fighter...?" She called from the kitchen, adding the last couple touches to her Roudalin. She still had to cook that bacon... "Well... There are... I think 2 boxers in there, Balrog and Dudley, but it's more of a general fighting game than a boxing one. Some real martial arts, some fake ones like... uh... 'Shadalooism' It's really fun once you get the hang of it, but there's a bit of a learning curve."

Scooping up her creation onto a plate, the boxer went back to the fridge and withdrew two pieces of bacon, throwing them on the pan to the sound of a loud snarl of a sizzle. Ah the smell of bacon... It'd take at least a minute or so for the meat to cook through on one side so Cicilia made her way into the living room as well, watching as Sayumi prodded the beanbag like it was some kind of sleeping animal.

"Its all about combos and knowing your moveset, how each moves counters others and so on. It kind of encourages you to play every character or against ever character so you know what your up against each time. It's one of my favorites." She smiled softly recalling all the good memories that game had brought her.

"Its a good game. I think you'd like it."

Sayuri 'hmm'ed at the explaination, crouching down to pick up the game case and turn it over. She was mostly looking at the pictures... just assuming Cicilia's version has German text. "Does it have any wrestlers in it?" She asked curiously, crawling on her hands and knees to the console before kneeling before it. She reached out, dropping her finger down to turn the system on. "Boop."

While she had never really owned a console, she had when she was younger played handhelds. Her phone even had a few games on it, though those were mostly fun because of how cute they were. She scooped up a controller as she shuffled backwards on her knees to plop back into the bean bag chair. "Are you good at this one?"

Oh... that's right... She did leave the German text on... At least the announcer still spoke English when the courser scrolled over the options.

"There are a few... Zangief... Honda... R.Mika... But wrestlers weren't really my style. Was more of an Oni or Evil Ryu kinda person." The game stared up with a quick "boop" from Sayumi, bringing her to the home page. There, the first option would be to start up a new campaign and at the bottom, training mode. Cicilia couldn't help but smile as the girl flopped down in the beanbag not unlike how the boxer would after a long day or a brutal match in the ring.

"I'm okay. Beat the story mode a bunch of times but I never got around to playing against others. The internet here is terrible so playing online isn't the best." Cicilia shrugged before heading back into the kitchen, scooping the bacon onto the plate as a side. There it was! Lunch was ready. Grabbing another plate, The German unpacked the sushi they got from the local japanese restaurant, placing two rolls on her own plate and three on the other. Snatching up her knife, she cut into her beautiful adaptation of the German cuisine, slipping a small bit onto Sayumi's plate while giving herself a little more, leaving about half on the counter in case either of them wanted more. Same with the Sushi.

"Food's Ready."

She'd walk in, a plate in each hand, placing the Lavender cutie's on the desk upon which the TV sat, not wanting to interrupt her gaming. Cicilia herself would flop down on the floor beside her, taking a sushi-roll between her fingers, eyeing it skeptically. Raw fish, huh? Well... if Sayumi said it was good, she might as well try. The Boxer plopped it into her mouth and chewed, her skeptism only increasing as she ate. It wasn't bad... It was... different...? She didn't hate it by any stretch of the imagination. Cicilia had worse before by far but she was surprised by the different flavors Sayumi had brought to the table. In fact... she might actually like it.

"Good call on the sushi." Cicilia smiled. "It's delicious, but nothing like I expected."

Sayumi sank back into the beanbag, perched at an odd angle she wasn't entirely sure how she had managed. She navigated the menus slowly, looking down at her controller to check the buttons before pressing them. Training mode. That's how any good fighter started, right? She was no exception to the rule. She quietly navigated the roster of characters, giving them a curious look over. She stopped briefly on El Fuerte, the luchador was easy to recognize as a wrestler. She tapped a button to try and pick him... only to find herself back at the main menu. Wrong button. Whoops.

Her cheeks reddened slightly, peeking back to hope Cicilia hadn't noticed the blunder as she went back into the training more. She navigated through the roster again, passing over the luchador as if he were the cause of her previous misfortunes. Her head tilted as she curiously eyed Sakura. She looked like she had some spunk, so she actually selected her with the right button. Once in the checkerbox training stage, she quietly got a handle for the controls, within no time she had mastered the ability to not stand still.

That was for punches... these were kicks... but they weren't the same kind of kicks. Oh, she can hit that guy. He wasn't moving at all, so she hit him a few more times with the various punches and kicks. Sometimes he seemed to block and she wasn't sure why. She wound up hopping around a lot, hitting random buttons and not accomplishing much of note. "I think I remember something like this from way back when. Only it didn't look all 3dish. They have these ones at the arcades?"

She leaned back in the beanbag, a bit to far actually. She threw her head back to look at Cicilia upside down, the towel flopping to the floor. "Yeah, we got some makizushi, which is that type of sushi wrapped in the seaweed and the rice on the outside. There are a few ways to serve sushi, and that's like, the popular beginner way." She took a brief break from beating up the immortal training dummy to bring her her plate into her lap. Given they had gotten this as takeout, she supposed she could leave her normal sushi etiquette at the door. She was actually a bit thankful they hadn't been able to sit down at an actual sushi place. Cicilia's lack of decorum with the local culture would have likely landed them both in trouble. She pinched her fingers around one of the sections of eel roll she had requested, popping it into her mouth.

Cicilia smiled widely, amused by Sayumi's miss-click but she didn't say a word, only reaching out and placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, thinking back to her first time with a system like this. Ah, she didn't even know what the pause button was... Those were the days. She watched the adorable lavender fiddle about with her controls, choosing Sakura to be the avatar of her learning process. It was like reliving her first time with the game watching Sayumi... Experimenting with the punches and kicks, learning what button did what and how to get around the dummy's guard... It made her contemplate just how far she's come as a gamer... if only for a moment.

The cutie leaned back in the beanbag, it's near amorphus nature giving way to her position, allowing her to stare at Cicilia from an upside-down angle.

"Oh yeah. Street-Fighter 1, 2 and, 3 were in the arcades but that was a WHILE ago. Other games have taken over since."

Taking a quick break from her gaming, the Japanese beauty joined Cicilia in their meal, munching on their sushi happily.

"Beginner's roll, huh?" The German snickered, wondering what exactly was the next step up from this. No seaweed and more rice? Or no rice and more Seaweed... The possibilities seemed endless.

"Seriously though... Thanks for not wasting my money, Sayumi. I think someone else given the same deal would've exploited it to... like... the fullest extent. I appreciate it..." She smiled warmly scooting a little bit closer.

"I remember the American with the bushy eyebrows from the arcade, he could light people on fire. Pretty sure that is cheating, even in a street fight." She popped another segment of well into her mouth, very thoughtful of not speaking while eating. She suckled a bit of sauce from her fingertips. "I remember there was a game with a bear too. Can you be a bear in this?"

"Yeeeeeah... Plain sushi is just the fish on a small bit of rice. Very simple, very clean. I like them all though. " She turned the strange German delicacy over onto it's side, eyeing it cautiously. "What does it taste like?" She didn't look sold still based on the look. The pickles we're a definite point of contention.

"It was no problem. I just figured I could get more money out of you with beating you again later." She said that all very nonchalantly, rather convincingly. Uncharacteristic of her... Because she was joking. Just playing it very straight. Sayumi gingerly picked the wrapped item between her fingers, had Cicilia not made it herself, she likely wouldn't have tried it. Swallowing hard she closed her eyes and took a generous bite.

"Oh yeah. That's Ken Masters. Like Ryu, the posterboy of the game, but different a bit. The fire's just a little added effect." Cicilia took another bite of sushi, the sour-esk flavor of the sauce growing on her substantially. It was her experience that white-rice was bland, tasteless, almost like water given a solid, ricey form. She was more used to wild rice or yellow rice, never getting into it's whiter variant. Now, she could see she was horribly horribly HORRIBLY mistaken and wouldn't be one to turn her nose up at any passing japanese places from now on.

"Not in this game, no, but the game you're thinking of is Tekken. There's a spinoff where they cross Street-Fighter and Tekken though and the bear's there: Street-FighterxTekken. Go figure. Think his name's Kuma."

Cicilia nodded, guessing correctly that the apparent "next level" of sushi was one with less rice and more fish. Ugh... the raw fish. It was more the concept really than the execution. As was stated before, the taste was good but now that she remembered it was raw fish, she had to slow her roll (pun may or may have been intended) a little bit, get used to the idea. It seemed that Sayumi has having just as much trouble with her own dish, flipping it around cautiously before asking what it tasted like. Yeah... The boxer remembered how utterly thrilled the lavender cutie had been at the idea of Roudalin... She really did feel bad making her eat something she didn't like the thought of.

"Well... The taste of beef will hit you first, followed by the bacon and onions. The meat will be stronger than the vegetables easily, most of their juices evaporated in the pan. The pickles are kinda weird. Their flavor's gonna be less strong than the others, mostly hiding behind the onion and are mainly there for that extra crunch. I made sure to use less in there this time. The amount of pickles are kinda... controversial in this dish. I like them, but a lot of people don't. I wanted to be safe."

"HA! Not likely." Cicilia scoffed as Sayumi mentioned beating her again. "I know your game now. It's not going to be so easy for you next time." Perhaps a bit of an overstatement. You'd have to be an expert of the sport to know someone's style just after a couple fights. Still... it wouldn't be incorrect to say that she was getting an idea.

Cicilia herself took a bite of her Roudalin and immediately, her face lit up, the multitude of flavors hitting her in waves. Delicious...

"What do you think?" She asked, clearly content with her creation.

"Oh, so it's not real fire, just for show. I guess that makes it better. He'd be a pretty bad master if he had to light people on fire to win... he'd be a pretty bad person if he lit people on fire period." She had still been prodding the German dish at this point. "That's a shame. I liked the bear." She nodded along as Cicilia described the dish, feeling slightly less frightened by the meat log stuffed with things. "I have many tricks." She spoke in a stage whisper conspiratorially.

She had gone all in with that bite. There was no swallowing early, no way to spit it out petite and ladylike into a napkin. She sat there, chewing and stewing on the taste, nose crinkled a bit, one eye closed. She looked like she was focusing REALLY hard to piece all the flavors in her mouth together... and the textures as she chewed. She was still somehow chewing her own as Cicilia talked up a storm and managed to take her own bite. This was awkward all of a sudden. She thumped a fist lightly to her chest, swallowing hard. With a small gasp for air, she gave a nervous smile and a thumbs up. "It's... very different. Very unique. Thanks... for sharing it with me."

Sayumi meekly cleared her throat, for the time being setting her plate aside again in to turn towards the TV. "Um... could I have a glass of water, please?"

"Oh...?" Cicilia questioned, poking the girl in the side as she made allusions to her hidden techniques. "So do I... Care to make a trade?"

Yup. That's about what she expected. Sayumi seemed less than thrilled with the dish she'd been given, actually struggling to get down one bite of the thing. It was actually rather dramatic the way she struggled to get the thing down her throat, as if Cicilia had just revealed she put chopped human meat in there instead of beef but somehow, with a bunch of chest-thumping, the German dish finally hit her stomach. Given that reaction, Cicilia would've been happy if it just stayed there. Really, she thought what she'd made was GOOD and yet here, Sayumi was, choking on it as if it were poison... That hurt a bit... Well, German food wasn't for everyone she supposed.

"You're welcome. Thanks for trying it." Cicilia said, her voice shockingly neutral. It took all her willpower to not let the aching sting of defeat into her voice which, in turn forced her voice into a restrained, almost mechanical tone.... Damn it. That probably gave it away just as much. Frustration began to seethe in her mind, almost like a burning steam that seared the inside of her sinuses and tugged at her patience. Cicilia hated to lose. She hated it when she was wrong... In this case, she was right and it STILL hurt. Ugh... She needed to go back to the gym sometime this evening... Dismantle another punching bag.

"Yeah, sure."

The boxer set her plate aside (not before grabbing another sushi-roll) getting to her feet and heading to the kitchen. Stuffing the roll in her mouth, she opened a cabinet, withdrawing a small plastic cup before heading to the fridge. She took out a jug from within the kitchen appliance filled with fresh water. She filled up the cup about 3/4's full before putting the jug back and walking into the living-room once more, handing the cup to her friend.

"There you go." She sighed, sitting herself down once again. That was her fault... Not the fact Sayumi was thirsty, mind you, but that she had to eat something she clearly didn't want to. She just wanted to be nice, share something with her since they were getting sushi anyway but Cicilia refused to see the discomfort with what she was offering. She quietly brooded, her expression hardening slowly as time passed, her anger directed inward.

"I don't believe you." She gave a soft hmph, to emphasize her statement, giving Cicilia a look. "Not sharing my secrets. Nyeh" She stuck out her tongue. She held it like that for a small while before breaking character with a giggle.

She tried to pretend Cicilia hadn't been so dejected by how well her cooking was received. She wanted to like it... well, that wasn't true. It was more that she felt bad for not liking it, because Cicilia had worked hard to make it for them. She had no way of knowing if she didn't like the dish itself, or if Cicilia was a terrible cook. Both options seemed like a bad path to walk down. She was in an unwinnable scenario. It felt entirely unfair to both of them.

"I mean it... Thanks for sharing. You have to try new things, right? Maybe they don't all go so well, but you still try them." She took the glass with both hands with a gracious nod, sipping quietly. She tucked her legs in, sitting cross legged on the beanbag chair so she didn't seem to rest at an angle anymore.