soniaroadsqueen | Tokyo, Japan, Monday

Portalocity was weird. Ringo hadn't really traveled with them much, so this was something of a revelation for her. Somehow booking a reasonable late-morning departure from Fandom resulted in a just-after-dawn arrival in a small park a couple of miles from the apartment she shared with her sisters. Of course, despite that, all three of them were waiting.

Rika, with her knowing, motherly smile, managing to look like a carefully-styled model even this early. Mikan, tomboyish hair cropped short and sticking out every which way, smirking mischievously and tapping her foot with nervous energy. Ume, seated on a bench playing with her dolls, but glancing up and meeting Ringo's eyes when she arrived.

With a grin, Ringo dropped her bags and rushed forward into a big group hug, melting into the group for a moment. All worry and stress disappearing in the blink of an eye.

"Now then," Rika said as they eventually disentangled themselves, "why don't you introduce everyone, and then we can go get some breakfast?"

[ooc: For those along for the ride. NFB for distance.]

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Dante shrugged. "You're what, twenty?" he said.

"Flatterer," Rika accused. "Try twenty-four." So, you know, practically ancient.

She grinned at him. "You hit on everyone you run into?"

"Just the hot ones," Dante said, "The ones that don't make me want to punch 'em."

"So does Ringo make you want to punch her?" Rika chuckled.

"What was that?" Ringo asked, looking over at where Rika and Dante were talking.

"Never mind, Ringo," Rika said, shaking her head.

Dante let out a soft snort. "I don't think Ringo really cares about much more than racing those AirTrek," he said.

"She might surprise you." Rika paused, looking thoughtful, then grinned suddenly. "Then again, maybe not. She's always been pretty dedicated, you know?"

"I got her to go dancing, like, once?" Dante said. "Treated it like she was keeping score."

"You did?" Rika's expression softened slightly. "I hope she had fun. She hasn't really had a lot of chances for that. We made her grow up too fast."

"'Cause of the weird inline skate fighting thing?" Dante asked, blinking.

Rika sighed. "Yeah. She became Queen too early." She shook her head. "Never complained about it either."

... He was just going to stand here blinking for the rest of the day, wasn't he? "Ringo's royalty? Fuck me."

Rika stared back for a moment, trying to figure out why he looked so surprised. Then a look of realization came over her, and she burst out laughing. "Well, she's AirTrek royalty, at least. The Kings and Queens are the recognized best riders of their respective styles. And for years now, the Thorn Queen has also been the leader of Sleeping Forest, which is the oldest, and often considered the most powerful, team."

"Yeah, she doesn't talk about that shit," Dante said, finally just shrugging. "Besides getting all weird about beating people up."

"Hmm." Rika chewed on her lower lip for a moment. "She had to do a lot of hard things as Queen," she allowed. Then she looked over at Dante curiously. "I take it you haven't met Crazy Apple yet, then? If Ringo's not talking about her time as Queen, she's probably trying to keep her at a distance."

In lieu of a 'nope', Dante just brought up his shoulders and dropped them in a shruggy motion.

"Well, you'll know if you do," Rika allowed. "If you run into Ringo wearing a smile that doesn't really reach her eyes, be careful. I mean," Rika shrugged in return, "you look like you can probably handle yourself, but Crazy Apple is dangerous, especially if she decides you're a threat for any reason."

"She did get kinda weird a few weeks back," Dante offered, after a couple of seconds.

"Oh." Rika sighed. "That's too bad. Was there anything going on? Talking to her on the phone, I've gotten the impression that Ringo's been much happier not having to be that person, but maybe she missed it or something."

Which would be okay, if that's what Ringo wanted, but Rika sort of wanted her sister to get a childhood of some sort while she could.

"Bunch of ghosts showed up and started bugging us with crappy visions and shit," Dante said. "She went all crazy-eyed."

"Ah." Rika looked over at her sister, eyes narrowing. "She neglected to mention that last time she called home." Apparently someone needed talking to.

"Well, if you saw her that way, maybe you've got a feeling for why I'm glad you got her to go dancing? Ringo deserves to have some fun for once."

Dante looked that way, too. "I dunno," he said, "She doesn't really wanna talk about anything besides those skates most of the time. What happened to her?"

"Well, we made her Queen when she was eleven, and that made it her job to make sure no one could climb the Tower. It wasn't enough to beat anyone who challenged her, she had to, well, crush them. There were dozens, maybe hundreds, of promising riders who quit AirTrek after facing her."

She sighed. "Never complained about it, but I know it wasn't what she wanted to be doing."

"Which I'm glad of, really. I mean, I would have been a lot more worried if my little sister liked crippling people for the crime of challenging her."

"Yeah."

There was a very long pause.

"That's fuckin' weird. Or something else. I'm not sure."

Wasn't like he had a normal childhood, but he was still pretty positive regular people didn't go around crippling other people at eleven.

Rika twitched a small smile. "Weird is probably a fine description," she allowed.

"But, anyway, that's why I'm glad you got her to go do something fun and harmless. So... thanks."

Tokyo, Japan, Monday

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