Feel the Beat

[amtrum]

Finally it was the weekend and Mathew was taking his decision to take a bit of a break from his studies seriously. He would do no good on the tests if he was just fried from too much studying. That was why he was here at one of the arcades atop a platform of metal. His eyes watched the screen as the arrows rose up it, his feet moving with the music stepping on the arrows with impressive accuracy. He still had some improvement to do and he couldn't do all of the songs, but this was one of his favorite ways to just unwind. He liked dancing and he liked video games, so what better way to unwind then do both at the same time?

There was a crowd gathered around waiting for their turn, some impressed over how good he was, others scoffing at how much time he must have wasted to be this good, and others still that were better and just waiting for their turn. Then of course there was the group of people that didn't care and just wanted to play.

Mathew wouldn't pay them any mind and would finish his song before getting off of the platform, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he made his way to one of the benches to sit down. Today was a casual day for him, just jeans and a black T shirt instead of a dress shirt and slacks or something. As he sat down he would reach over to his water bottle and take a large drink of it as he looked around the area deciding what he wanted to do next.

[Kagumi Michiyo]

Kagumi had to figure that all the stress would get to her, there was working, then being able to maintain that around the wandering eyes of the whammy house students. So Kagumi gave a long comfortable stretch and put on only her moon rimmed glasses as an extra precaution, " Time for me to unwind." She had changed out into a plain black t-shirt 4 sizes too big for her and baggy blue jeans she knew she had to be careful walking in. she put on flip flops, let down her long unkempt black hair and walked out into the sun

she had wandered for hours to no avail, no new caked or anything, but her eyes had lifted to the sight of the arcade which shone proudly. She grinned, this might be perfect. she had not been in one of these in a long time. She strolled in and arrived to a crowd that was hovering around a dance machine, something she knew she lacked the coordination for. she was smart, but not graceful enough to move that well in a game. She could overhear the chatter of the other people in the crowd and their impatience, but they were relieved when the boy got off of the platform. Kagumi shrugged, she followed to his bench and gave a light warm smile, her hair attemting to curl a curtain by her face.

" Pretty fance footwork you had there, i wish i had that kind of coordination." she said, though her voice didnt sound impressed, she really was.

[amtrum]

Mathew looked over at the girl that sat next to him observing her clothing and hair style. Very baggy clothing and unkempt hair was unusual for a girl, at least all the girls he knew. Most of them liked to look cute with form fitting clothing and spent hours on their hair and makeup. He wasn't quite sure of what to make of her so he decided he wouldn't make anything of her, except note that she is obviously a bit weird. Didn't make her psycho, but she certainly wasn't normal.

"Thanks, I spent a lot of time practicing when I was a kid. Don't let people fool you when they try to say they are naturally good. Most of them play a LOT." He would say with a small laugh.

He was of course choosing to take her statement at face value as a compliment instead of how her tone was saying it. He didn't know if she really meant it as a compliment or not but he was trying to unwind from studying and he didn't want to stress himself out with getting worked up over people's tones and what not.

"And I am sure you could get as good as me or better if you practiced. It is embarrassing at first when you are bad at the game, but when you get good then it is kind of worth it." He would say casually before taking another sip of his bottled water.

[Kagumi Michiyo]

Whomever he was, he like other people whom have met her out of disguise, found her unkempt appearence downright odd. But kagumi was used to the sudden unexpected instances as these, it only kept people interested, this one wasnt thinking she was crazy compered to other instances. she pushed her black hair out of her face and sat down, leaning back and listening to his conversation while craning her neck to observe the strobe and blacklights scattered on the roof of the arcade.

He seemed to avoid taking her exhausted tone into consideration, but just as it did others it must have bugged him a little bit, " yeah I know a kid or two who love that game, but everytime I do it i trip and fall flat on my face," she lifted a foot without looking down from the strobes, " two left feet." She blew a strand of hair from her face, " And ive tried, everytime i was talken to an arcade im forced on there for half an hour, luckily im here by myself today, they wont miss me."

[amtrum]

Well he wasn't going to push her to play DDR, not everyone liked the game and he didn't know her. He really didn't have the right to try and make her do anything. He would take another drink of his water bottle as he silently pondered why she was talking to him. She was probably a bit bored and lonely since she seemed to be by herself. He was content to let her hang around too if that was what she wanted, it wasn't like he had a girlfriend that would freak at seeing him with another girl, even one as odd as this one was. And his friends were still all busy studying, so like her he was also alone for the day.

"Well what about shooting games. Things like Time Crisis and the like? Hand eye coordination rather then hand foot coordination." He would offer, yet another type of game he was good at, though with how much he played video games he was pretty good at most of the types you would find in the arcade. It wasn't like they were hard once you have blown enough money on them to master them.

When he finished his bottle he would toss it in to the trash can next to him before standing up and looking at the girl with a quizzical look to see if she was going to follow him or stay sitting. Either way he would leave for the shooting games from the bench allowing her to follow him or stay sitting on the bench. It didn't make a lick of difference to him.

[Kagumi Michiyo]

Kagumi had been caught by surprise that he let it die, there was usually some coaxing. but she supposed it was probably just a common trait in the whammy house kids alone. She giggled at the thought that she was still considered an oddity by the masses, well luv, you did randomly start a conversation with someone you know nothing about. i'd find it a little off if someone as unnatural as you did that. she had to wonder why he even agreed to talk to her, especially her unruly senseless self. he began instead mentioning other games for her to play and her ears perked up.

" Shooting games." her finger glided in the air counting tiles that shone in the blacklights eerie glow like a sci fi movie, " yeah ive can do those okay, used to go to a shooting range and learn how to fire a gun. this might be fun." she stood to her feet with a swift motion and followed him to the nearest shooting game. he seemed coontent with her, so she had nothing to worry about.

[amtrum]

So she decided to come with him after all. That was fine with him though, these games were more fun when you had someone else to play with. Who knows she might actually be good too. She said she went to a shooting range to learn how to fire a real gun, that was a good sign. He would take his place at the blue gun for the game Time Crisis 3 which was his personal favorite shooting game. It was pretty simple, shoot the bad guys while stepping on the pedal, take your foot off the petal and you would go behind cover and reload.

Mathew would put in some coins to start the game keeping his eyes on the screen as he began to play. He didn't need to look at her to talk to her.

"So whats your name? If we are going to be playing together I should have something to call you." He would say with a slight laugh before going on to introduce himself. "You can call me Mathew by the way." He would add in going first to try and ease her in to it in case she needed too.

He wasn't afraid of giving out his first name personally but some people were, not that he really understood that. He just didn't see anything to fear with someone knowing that he had a common name like Mathew, though it was less common over here in Japan then it was back in America, still there were lots of Mathew's on this planet. And he was a big boy, he could take care of himself if someone tried to stalk him or something.

[Kagumi Michiyo]

Kagumi had been lead by matthew through the bustle of the room and he began to set up the game, for kagumi, she didnt care how many players it was as long as she played the game and played it well. as he put the coins in, she pulled out the red gun and poised herself on the pedal meekly, holding up the bright red gun and in unison they began to play. Kagumi saw things pop up out of the screen and kagumi fired, shooting them down one by one with the poor form of a beginning gunman but the aim of an expert. it was another one of Kagumi's strange anomalies she was known by. she had to learn to keep her cool during these things.

when he introduced himself, kagumi acknowledged it with a quick nod before firing into three more men, " I'm just known as Kage," bang, " but it is a pleasure," bang, " to meet you." bang Bang BANG! her amber eyes flickered as she continued to fire with ease. her hair was now draped around her head and if it werent for the glasses it would be in her eyes. she kept her cool, concentrated, and was still able to talk to matthew without a second thought about it

[amtrum]

Mathew had never touched a real gun in his life but he was a master with this gun. He felt it in his hands almost like an extension of his body. His eyes popping to the places on the screen where the bad guys would appear having almost memorized the game over the years. His gun would fire each shot taking down a bad guy with ease. Sometimes having to use several shots one some of the tougher guys that wouldn't go down in one shot. He was an expert at this game from years of stress relief and hundreds of dollars of wasted money blown on these machines.

"Well Kage it is nice to meet you." He would say calling her by her obviously fake name. But a name was a name and it was better then going 'Hey you!' to her all day.

Because of how the game was set up they each had their own screen and he could see her character across from his just as she could probably see his. He could continue taking down the guys he could see, both those facing him and those facing hers. Shooting at the next target to pop up only stepping off of the pedal to dodge missiles and to reload.

[Kagumi Michiyo]

Kagumi was glad that she didnt share a screen with the boy, because she knew in the back of her mind if she did, he might have to fight her for control of it. as a casual shooter, she always had a way of relaxing before shooting, and getting reaction and reaction time out of the other person, so she and him would have been shooting the same thing, but according to her hearing, the shots sounded almost as if they were in perfect unison.

" If you want, my full first name is kagumi, kage is just a nickname." she continued to fire into the screen and something bigger and more frustrating came up, as if in a trance, she pushed her glasses farther up the bridge of her nose, held on tight, and then said clearly, " Die." before shooting the thing 4 times, once in the head, once in the chest, then the neck, then through what should have been the lung.

[amtrum]

"I think Kagumi sounds nicer." He would say as he continued to fire at the screen more by instinct then anything. He already knew where most things were going to pop up and he has beaten the game several times already. But still it was a nice change of pace to play with another person.

"It's nice to know I am not the only one that decided to take a break from the exams." He would say assuming that she went to college with him. Even if she was only a High School student it was still exam season and he figured it was a safe bet that she was in school.

"Though I have to admit I did do a fair bit of studying, but I thought I should take a bit of a breather from it to recharge. After all if you go to a test brain dead you are not going to do very well am I right?" He would ask with a small laugh as he let go of the petal as they cleared the first level, their scores being displayed on the screen briefly before the game started to go through the "plot" of the game in preperation of the next level.

[Kagumi Michiyo]

Kagumi flashed an appreciative grin at the sound of his reply,"thank you, I hardly use my real name in public any more but if you like the name kagumi than by all means go ahead and call me that," she had to figure if she had enough fake names than one real name would not make a difference, but it surprised her he didn't seem to understand why she needed a list of flase names, a little mor time would make her understand the situation she was in and how dangerous it was for that kind of carelessness, but she felt if he had no idea, what could it hurt?

He seemed to have a ddeper understabding of the game that far surpassed hers, though she flowed through it nicely, the shooting was second nature, she didn't absorb the plotline or anything, she just played the game. She wished she could flow through life the same way, but if she had, she would be dead.

Kagumi relaxed the minute it was walking her through the level and she smiled," yeah, I know what you mean, we really do deserve a break from our lives at the moment. Especially knowing what's coming will be big." She wiped the sweat from her face, was she dreaming, or was it getting hotter in here?

[amtrum]

"You mean with exams and stuff right?" He would ask not quite catching what she was getting at. He didn't think he meant with exams but it was a possibility. All the same he would chance a look away from the screen letting go of the pedal so he was safe behind cover.

His glance would only last a moment before his eyes were back on the screen with his foot on the pedal taking out bad guys one at a time quickly to make up for lost time. After all the game was timed you had to clear each section quickly or it was game over.

"So what do you want to do with your life?" He would ask her keeping his eyes on the screen, his voice mildly curious. "I mean do you have any plans for after school? Personally I will probably get a job with computers. A big job field I know, but it is a stable one that has room for growth." He would say, his father's words echoing in his mouth.

[Kagumi Michiyo]

"yeah," she said quickly, " exams, i'm not as old as you, but i probably have the same stuff." she began thinking about all the work they had given her earlier before she left, " calculus, chemistry and physics, world history, old police reports on famous serial killers and the wierdest cases, we're an odd school," She began to transfer her mind back to the game and began her venture once again for kills. she was surprised that he could easily make up for the time he took just to look at her. She giggled at his mistake,

" I plan on going into the detective business," she said as she shot a guy in the head, " I've been reccomnmended for the police academy, and they plan to take me in after my exams."

[amtrum]

"Detective work? Well that is an interesting field. Not really my thing but still kind of cool. Who knows maybe you will even get put on the Kira case."

He would say with a small shrug as he continued to fire the plastic gun. His eyes were still locked on the screen. Still he was interested, police work had to be exciting with everything that was going on. Even if Mathew did support Kira personally. But he didn't see the justice in a man raping an infant and getting the maximum sentence which would release him when that infant was only 15. He didn't see justice when a man that commited murder was paroled claiming to be a changed man.

Sure, you don't kill kill someone for stealing a pack of gum, but Kira doesn't deal with those people, he only eliminates those that bring society down, rapists, murderers, mobsters. The people that are just better off dead.

"Honestly I don't know if I could do police work. I would be afraid of getting shot or something." He would say with a small laugh as he unloaded his clip in to the digital bad guys on screen.