He's the first to look away, cheeks red. His eyes are beautiful. Human. They burn with a resolve he hopes he can find within himself when the chips are down. Scratching the back of his neck, he looks out the window. Countryside has given way to the outskirts of another city that never sleeps. Goldenrod is well named. Lights dance like fireflies against a gray backdrop.[break]
"You watched the Spectra trials, yeah?" He asks, as if an admin would miss those for the world. "The gods we fought...they've all made people their avatars, yeah?" The word avatar leaves a curious taste on his tongue. There's probably a cleaner word for it in his native tongue, but the dog is forced to adapt.[break]
"Do you think it's gonna try and make someone its avatar? I think so...and I think all these humans think they have somethin' to gain from it. It'll ruin them like it ruined that flower lady." A conductor announces the train has arrived. It comes to a stop. The dog stands.[break]
"It ain't far. There's a motel across the street from the place. We can stake it out, plan our route. Time it so we can run back to the station and get out before they know we're here."

"She smells bad." That is the only way he can communicate his feelings on that. Other matters require their attention. Beyond the rain clouds, a blood moon rises.[break][break]
When he bursts into the motel and demands a certain room, the receptionist hesitates at first. She hesitates until she recognizes his swagger, his style, and the open blade. Once a Hasegawa, always a Hasegawa. Thinking him one of their goons, she makes a phone call. Arrangements are made. They have their key within minutes. She doesn't even ask them to pay.[break][break]
Once inside the room, he rushes to the window, raises the blondes, pulls out binoculars.[break][break]
"Looks like I thought it would." He points out a path along rooftops. From the angle of this window, there's a clear path. The structure's a few buildings down. A quick trip back to the roof, a few jumps across more rooftops, and they're back in the train station.[break][break]
"Hmm...looks like the next train's due in two hours. We start the op in an hour and forty-five. Five minute run. Five minute fight. Five minute run to the train platform. We'll be out before Yumi's folks know they're missin' a sword." Kicking up along the windowsill, a blush edges at his cheeks.[break][break]
"If - uh - if that works for you, Senpai." Bowing his head in deference to his superior, he scratches the back of his head and looks out the window. "How do you uh, kill time? When you gotta wait for an op to start?

"Cards." The dog admits, sitting down and pulling out packs from his breast pocket. One is just what he described - playing cards. The other, cigarettes. This lowly creature has never taken his human counterpart for a smoker. Dogs pick up curious habits from their packmates, and the retainers of the Hasegawa indulged themselves in all sorts of vices. This habit affords him the right to say he got off light. Some threw themselves into dark things, pits which no man or beast can claw their way out of.[break]
"Usually just solitaire. Killing people for Yumi n' Rocket's lonely work. More guys, more chance for trouble." He lights up, breathes in smoke that will one day kill him if he makes it to MARILYN HASEGAWA's age, and holds it there. It's a sweet burn, placing him wholly in the moment. It chokes him, and the restraint upon his airways reminds him, inexorably, that he is alive and present. Conscious awareness of his own life is new to him, an intrusive and distracting thought placed there by a Galarian dream.[break]
"We can play blackjack, or Unovan hold 'em. I know plenty of games. Heh. Used to clear those suckers Yumi's dad employed like it was nobody's business, back on my days off." But he never connected with them, not like he connects to this bright star or those other high beings in his orbit.[break]
"After you do whatever you wanna do to get ready.