Part 53: Another Welcoming Committee

December 29th, 1986

That night...

Ryo dreams of the mirror again, this time in a shower of blooming cherry tree petals. Obsess much?

Time for work. Well, first, time for play.

Things were going well until the final lap, when that ass in front bumped Ryo into the wall on the 3rd-to-last turn.

The daily grind. I assume the last video of forklifting was exhilaration overload and you simply can't handle another mind blowing edition, so I'll spare you and your adrenals.

Lunch break. It is stipulated that Ryo actually eats here.

Ryo hits up Mark for some friendly conversation.

Just a polite bit of small talk... or IS IT?

The other co-workers don't add a whole lot to Ryo's quest. One guy comments on how he's heard about Ryo's fights and now feels so safe when Ryo's around ( ), another talks about how he's only taken this job because his old company went out of business and he's struggling to care for his kids ( ), another says that this job, where he drives a forklift on a 5 hour work day, with 2 hour lunch breaks and daily raises, is too hard and he "doesn't know how long he'll last" ( ). And then there's this guy.

If you've ever seen the Merrill Howard Kalin cooking show... well, this guy has that same thing going.

Yaaaay race!

Yaaaay forklift!

Ryo's just kinda "Okay, fella." *pat*

Ryo goes off in search of more profitable conversations.

More crazy bum grammar.

Nothing we didn't know alre... wait, did we know this yet? I honestly don't remember. The Mad Angels being sponsored by the Chinese cartel, I mean.

Ha, ha, joke's on YOU! I don't have a family!

Ugh, fine (Ryo actually says something like "I understand" because he's a polite and respectful kid). Well, at least we (maybe) learned something about the Mad Angels which brings us a step closer to tracking down Lan Di. At 2pm it's back to work.

Ryo gets interrupted in the middle of his route again.

This time it's those sailors from Heartbeats.

The kick to the box is for effect.

Ryo says this so calmly it's scary. The exclamation point isn't really appropriate for the tone he uses.

I'm sure this would be hilarious if, you know, we were 5th graders.

Ryo's so cool and casual. One-hand steering casual.

The gate suddenly slams shut!

Wuh oh!

Stooooooop iiiittttttt! I'm telling!

Ryo finally gets around to what they've had coming.

Video

Halfway through the second round I get really fixed on trying to combo the bum's new move into a rear throw, but it doesn't seem to work. How disappointing. It also made the video too big for YouTube because I don't have any video editing or encoding software.

Time for the post-fight interrogation.

So apparently these guys were just stupid sailors out for (a second attempt at) revenge over a bar fight.

Oh, we will.



NEXT UPDATE: Beating Crasher