Chapter 17: Izumi Miyamura: Xover - Chapter 17
March 4, 2xxx – Izumi PoV
"Izumi!" I looked in Ruby's direction who had shouted for attention. Unlike Taylor, it took Ruby 3 days to gather the courage to call and she had agreed to go out two days later, on Saturday, that is, today, together with Taylor, what, speaking of Taylor, she was following me behind with a solemn expression while scanning up and down, I rolled my eyes.
"Ruby." I greeted as soon as I approached. "Ruby, this is Taylor Hebert, Taylor, Ruby Rose." I introduced them both, Ruby blinked for a few moments before smiling widely.
"Hey Taylor!" Ruby extended her hand in Taylor's direction, that caught her off guard, and certainly me too, I thought she would be more on guard or at least somewhat cautious or self-conscious, apparently not.
"Hi." Taylor replied weakly as she took Ruby's hand, Ruby shook it excitedly.
"Where are we going? You mentioned a mall! Are we going to a cafe? I want one that sells chocolate chip cookies! And milk! You can't have cookies without milk! By the way! You look good Izumi! " Taylor looked even more confused now and I smiled widely.
"because, thanks, you too." rei through my teeth as Ruby smiled widely, I wrapped my arm around Taylor's before walking away.
"Where are we going after the cafeteria? A walk? Arcade?! " Ruby asked quickly before gasping "a weapons store?! Can we go to a weapons store? " she asked excitedly.
"We'll see, let's start by getting there first, we have to take the train." I laughed lightly, Ruby nodded several times, Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall, that was our destination, I had asked Ruby to meet us at the train station just before the train was due to depart, so we simply had to grab our tickets and board.
"So, you never answered my question!" Ruby pointed at me, offended, "your weapons! Swords! Do they do anything special? " she asked excitedly, I shook my head.
"Not really, it has a few curiosities , but nothing special, but they are of very good quality."
" aawww " she huffed, before clearing her throat "I mean, the classics are always good!" she corrected herself awkwardly "and you Taylor? Do you use any weapons?" Or do you use your quirk? What 's your quirk?! "The two of us! " Ruby bounced in her seat.
"I use a sword, also ordinary, my quirk is called Queen Administrator , I can control all insects within 3 BLOCKS of distance." She glared at me, I smiled innocently, I had managed to get Taylor to change the name of her quirk to Queen Administrator , it suited her better. Ruby shuddered and paled slightly.
"Is that… a lot? It's like 300 meters, right? How many can you control? " She tilted her head in confusion, I looked away as I tried to stifle a laugh, Taylor pinched my hip as she sighed.
"Yeah, it's 300 meters." she said defeatedly "and all of them, as long as they're in my range, I can control them all." she said and Ruby's eyes widened.
"wow, that's a lot of bugs." Taylor nodded "that's amazing!" Ruby bounced back in her seat "I mean, it sounds extremely creepy and would definitely give any enemy you fight entomophobia, but it's still awesome!" Taylor allowed herself to smile slightly "and you Izumi?" she asked in my direction.
"Food enrichment, makes meals more delicious." That stopped Ruby stiffly.
"And the cookies? Can you use them in the cookies? " The intensity with which she looked at me made me want to laugh but I nodded in her direction.
"Of course I do, in fact, my mother owns a cake shop, Cake Shop Iori, her quirk works like mine, but only on sweets and desserts." Ruby's eyes widened before standing up.
"Your mother owns Cake Shop Iori?!" She squealed excitedly "Oh my goddesh ! I tried a box of cookies from that bakery and they tasted like heaven! Too bad it's just random, I haven't been able to try them again." Ruby groaned before stopping "wait, you said you can do the same thing, right? " I nodded in her direction.
"Of course, any food will do." Ruby squealed once again.
"Marry me! That way I'll have delicious cookies for the rest of my life! " she exclaimed happily, I could hear Taylor smack her face against her hand as she moaned, I let out a loud laugh, Ruby seemed to finally realize what she had said and blushed deeply.
"Izumi, you are forbidden from using your Quirk on other girls." Taylor growled behind her hand, I laughed even harder.
"Oh my Holy Cookie! I wasn't serious! I mean, it's not like you're a bad choice! You are indeed very handsome! And the cookies! We can't forget the cookies! But- what was I saying? " Ruby asked in panic, I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.
"Let's leave the marriage proposal for later, for now, let's just enjoy the outing." Ruby nodded and shrank in her seat while blushing heavily "Tell us about yourself now, we start with the same thing, weapons and quirk?" I asked her when I saw that she wasn't going to start talking once more.
"Huh? Ah, yeah , ehem , I use a high-caliber sniper scythe! I built and designed it myself! It's called Crescent Rose! " I whistled in amazement, and it was, building a weapon was certainly worthy of praise, more so if it keeps up against the monsters at the gates "and my quirk is called Petal Burst , it allows me to move super fast! Although it leaves rose petals behind after using it"
"Rose petals?" Taylor asked confused, Ruby shrugged.
"It's the same as my mother's, although hers leaves white rose petals, mine are crimson red." Taylor blinked a few times before shrugging as if that made sense, and it did, or maybe it didn't, but people were getting used to weird Quirks, there were some really weird ones out there, leaving petals in their wake was really basic.
After that the conversation became lighter, although it was more between Ruby and I, Taylor was still her taciturn self, but Ruby seemed very enthusiastic about adding her into the conversation so she couldn't stay out of it.
We had a little over an hour of travel, but we finally arrived at Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall.
"Wow, so many people! " Ruby bounced excitedly. "Where do we go first?" She turned to look at us.
"Let's go find a cafe and we can grab something to drink while we look around the other shops, I'm sure they have a gun shop or two" I smiled at her and she nodded happily.
"I wonder if they have Long Island Iced Tea?" Ruby asked dreamily and I stopped stiffly along with Taylor and we stared at her in disbelief.
"Excuse me what?" I asked awkwardly.
"Oh! My mother gave me some of that special tea! I was like, really nervous about today's date! She told me it would help calm my nerves! And she did it! It tasted delicious too! "I've never had anything like that before! I'm sure they'd taste good with some cookies on the side! Not as good as milk, certainly, but it should be passable! " Ruby stammered quickly, and Taylor and I blinked and looked at each other, before Taylor smirked devilishly.
" I'm gonna tell her," Taylor threatened with a wide smile.
"Don't you dare." I hit Taylor in the ribs with my shoulder, but I had a smile on my face too, already wondering where the clumsy and awkward Ruby had gone. "Come on Ruby, let's go find some coffee." Ruby nodded as she began searching through the shops, Taylor quickly sticking to my side as she glared at the crowd of girls as we followed Ruby.
Once we got our drinks, Ruby's a mocha , mine a mocha with extra chocolate and no cream, and for the heretic Taylor, a quad espresso over ice, both Ruby and I looked at her with disgust as she drank that coffee as bitter as her soul.
"Stop staring at me." Taylor growled as she glared at us, Ruby and I shared a smile before sipping on our drinks and nibbling on the occasional cookie.
"Look, there's a gun store over there." I pointed with my chin, Ruby turned her head so fast that I heard it crack, her face lit up, without giving up her drink or cookie, she tangled her arm with mine and began to drag me, and since my other arm was still tangled with Taylor's, Taylor also stumbled while being dragged.
"Let's go!" I let myself be carried away, and Taylor sighed as she let herself be carried away as well, Ruby stopped just as we entered and gasped audibly "look how beautiful!" she practically glued herself to the protective glass as she looked at… an optical sight? Ruby answered my question when she began to explain exactly what it was, if it was an optical sight she wanted for Crescent Rose, with technical details and everything, which, honestly, went over my head, I understood absolutely nothing of what she said.
But to my surprise, Taylor did, and not only that, but she had quite a bit to say, which really surprised me, since when did she know about guns?!
Taylor saw my incredulous look in her direction and gave me a mocking smile before continuing to talk to Ruby, I rolled my eyes playfully, it was good to see that at least they got along, we were looking at weapon parts for almost an hour, it didn't really bother me not having anything to contribute to the conversation, while the technical details were too much for me, much of the rest wasn't, such as their use against the door monsters and their effectiveness.
Obviously we didn't buy anything from the store, Ruby had seen the prices and nearly fainted, so she just bought some gun magazines and a couple of catalogs.
"Look, they had one of Katanas! Just like the ones you used Izumi! " Ruby said showing one of the books she had gotten " mmmm , Meito is a generic term for named swords that have gained fame as a result of being forged by master blacksmiths and/or being wielded by master swordsmen. The most notable of these swords are classified by the "grade" of their quality. " Ruby read the introduction and I nodded at what it said " Currently there are four known "grades" of Meito , from highest to lowest quality they are, Supreme Grade Blades (Saijō Ōwazamono) which are 12, Great Grade Blades (Ōwazamono) which are 21, Skillful Grade Blades ( Ryōwazamono ) which are 50 in total and the Grade Blades ( Wazamono ), unknown quantity. " Ruby bounced excitedly.
" Eh , I had no idea." Taylor said as she looked over Ruby's shoulder, I looked at her in disbelief, was she serious?
" ooohh , there's more than just katanas, here's a naginata ! Murakumogiri , what a weird name." I snorted in amusement, Ruby gasped as she looked at the magazine "here's the sword that cut off Kamish's head! The one Ryoma used! It is a Great Grade Blades, His name is Shusui! It's a black and red sword! So cool!" I could see Taylor stiffen and turn incredibly pale, she moved even closer to the magazine looking at the picture of Shusui, she stiffly turned in my direction, quickly walking over to me leaving Ruby raving about her swords.
"It's a replica right? Tell me my sword is a replica" Taylor pleaded as she murmured in my ear, she was holding my arm tightly, I smiled widely at her.
" Nope , it's completely real, it's Shusui herself." Taylor closed her eyes as if she wished it wasn't true "besides, it's a little late to be reacting like that, I gave her to you almost half a year ago and you never bothered to look up her name." I scolded her, Taylor opened her eyes and glared at me.
"I didn't know you were giving me a national treasure!" she muttered as she growled "I can't use it Izumi, all of Japan knows that sword! I'm a foreigner, they'll kill me if they see me with one of their national treasures! "
"Stop being so dramatic." Taylor glared at me even more, I rolled my eyes "Don't worry, seriously, I got it legally, and I can do whatever I want with it and no person regardless of their importance can have an opinion on it." I tried to reassure her, I could feel her pushing her emotions towards her insects, visibly calming down.
"And how did you get a sword of that quality? I'm sure you don't just get them anywhere." I smiled widely as I approached Ruby.
"Isn't it obvious Taylor? Ryoma gave it to me." I could feel the bugs and Taylor herself completely panicking, but I was already talking to Ruby about swords, this was a topic I could talk about, I looked at Taylor over my shoulder and winked, she had frozen in place with cloudy eyes, my smile grew bigger.
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