Survival Of The Fittest

Kyoto really hoped no one would walk in the store and see him. No one from school, anyway. It was one thing for strangers to see him in a store like this-they'd likely never see him again. At most, if they had car trouble later, they might recognize him at the garage, but other than that there was no chance.

But someone from school seeing him in a Hot Topic? He wasn't really sure if he'd get to live that down.

[[Kyoto Aizawa Pregame: START]]

He wasn't there for himself, of course. If he had to buy anything from the store for himself, he would've bought it online and not risked people actually seeing him. But he'd wanted to find a gift for Toshi, and trying to buy anything online ran the risk of his younger brother spotting him while searching, so Kyoto chose to go out to the store in the mall.

And was it really his fault the store had some genuinely good merchandise? At the very least there were things that Toshi would love to have. Pokémon, Disney, Ghibli, Marvel, Star Wars-give Toshi a spending spree on the online store and he'd be in Heaven.

So, despite having felt reluctant as Hell to be in such a place, he went in and went straight to looking at the anime merchandise. Mainly the Pokémon and Ghibli stuff-even if there wasn't much that would actually interest Toshi. Turns out, in-person locations don't have as many good products as the online store.

But at least Kyoto had found a shirt Toshi would like. He'd loved Detective Pikachu, and though he'd have to grow into the shirt, he knew that wouldn't be a problem as far as Toshi was concerned. He'd see the Pokémon wearing the detective's hat on the front, love it, and probably put it on immediately.

Now he just had to check out and head back home.

((Quentin Skinner Pregame Start))

Quentin was a weeb and he was proud of it. Weeb being the official acronym for Western English Extra Bongabonga. He had no idea what weeb stood for, but he was a proud one. So proud of it that he was wearing his ahegao hoodie in the Hot Topic. People gave him shit for it being sexual an all, but honestly, it looked very rad. The aesthetic of it was lit and everyone who disagreed was a fucking prude or so.

While browsing the shelves for more merchandise for his collection his eyes spotted a familiar face. It was someone from school. That japanese kid, he didn't know his full name, but Quentin could swear a character from Death Note had a part of his name.

That dude didn't seem like he was into nerdy shit, he seemed more like a jock (or like, an emo-jock. Is that a thing?), so Quentin was surprised seeing him here. And hey, he looked at Pokemon stuff. Quentin loved Pokemon. Maybe the jock also was into Pokemon Go as much as Quentin was? Or maybe he went even further and played all the old games. Or he went even deeper and know what a Nuzlocke is. Quentin sensed a potential new friend.

"Heeeey! What're you checking out?"

Do you know those moments when you wish you could just...spontaneously combust? Or maybe just fade out of existence entirely? You know those moments?

Kyoto wished he could experience every one of those imaginary deaths in that moment, rather than deal with the reality that was happening.

He held back the curse word that was very close to leaving his mouth. Of course someone would try to get his attention. Of course. And it sounded like someone from school. Wasn't that just wonderful?

Then Kyoto really looked at the guy, and he wondered about the viability of throwing himself off the second floor of the mall. He would never actually do it, obviously, but seeing someone wearing a jacket like that in public, addressing him? The idea of being grounded for breaking a limb to escape this situation didn't sound half as bad as staying where he was.

But Kyoto had his self-control. Enough to keep from bolting out of the store and stealing the shirt in his hands, so long as it meant getting away from this guy. Enough to keep him from barking out a response to fuck off and make a scene. And enough to keep himself from visibly cringing just at the sight of this guy.

Not enough to keep him from squinting his eyes at this guy, though, already beginning to fold up the shirt in his hands.

"A shirt for my brother."

Just let that be enough to make him go away. Please.

Ah, a shirt for his brother. Lame. It wasn't for himself, then.

That didn't mean he didn't like Pokemon either. Who didn't like Pokemon, really? The dude looked kind of shy, but Quentin could get it out of him.

"Have you watched the movie? I haven't been able to, but I'm stoked to see it, to get like all the twitter memes."

Quentin pulled out his smartphone from his pocket.

"Hey, what's your Pokemon Go friend code?"

He should've just gone to the shop online. Toshi would've probably seen that he was gift shopping, but Kyoto would've taken having to explain Santa wasn't real over looking at this guy's jacket for more than five seconds.

"Yeah. It was alright."

Before he could even hope that was enough to really drive away the guy, he decided to make Kyoto's heart skip a beat. How the Hell did he know he had Pokemon Go on his phone?! Had the guy developed psychic abilities just to annoy him or something? And he'd managed to keep that one a secret for the most part! It meant letting Toshi handle his phone whenever they went out to catch something, but risking it getting dropped always seemed better than letting anyone see him play the game directly.

But somehow the guy that wore and ahegao hoodie in public, with no shame, had figured out one of his secrets.

He needed to get out of this. Fast.

He ran a hand over his face. "Look-do you want something from the garage? You're next tire change at half-price? A free oil change?"

'What do I need to give you to get out of this?' was the question he all but said.

Quentin logged onto the app and exclaimed: "Whoa, there's an arena nearby!"

Then Quentin tried to process whatever Kyoto was talking about: the garage? Free oil change? What the heck was that dude talking about.

"Uh, sure! I'd love to."

Quentin said without knowing the dude in front of him was a mechanic.

The one thing that would go right today: attempts at bribery, apparently. Not that Kyoto would question it.

Putting the shirt over his shoulder, Kyoto took a scrap of paper out of his pocket-he paid cash at the food court so he could sacrifice the receipt-and a pen out of his other pocket and quickly jotted down 'One free oil change + half off the next tire change.'

The writing was a bit messier than normal, but it was still legible, so it was good enough for him.

"Alright, you keep this a secret, and you'll get both next time you come to the garage."

Kyoto offered the paper as he slipped the pen back into his pocket.

"Deal?"

Kyoto didn't have time to wait for an answer. Take too long, and someone else from school might see him talking with this fucking embarrassment of a human being. Was it a harsh comment? Maybe, but when he was wearing a hoodie like that? The guy wasn't doing himself any favors in being respectable.

He shoved the paper in the hands of the guy-he wanted to say his name was Jerome?-before making his way to the counter, making his purchase as quick as possible, and getting out of that store like a bat out of Hell.

Toshi would enjoy the shirt, or his name was Hattori Hanzō. And it wasn't.

[[Kyoto Aizawa continued elsewhere]]

((Quentin Skinner continued elsewhere))