Sleipnir's Slippery Slope

[ioha]

As Voigt had promised, Ryohei was soon contacted by the mysterious Junker called Sebastian Goldig. He expected some kind of voice transmission to his comm systems, but the middleman sent an old-fashioned text message to the rusty CSV:

"I'll be at Yanagi in exactly one week. Go to the bar at 3 PM, New Tokyo time, and order two Sakes."

Ryohei was eagerly awaiting the meeting with the Junker. He imagined one of the important pilots, with a big, shiny Pirate Transport maybe, a rich one, that would help him reach his goal.

He couldn't know none of this would be true.

As the week had gone by, Ryohei did as ordered and went to the bar, a bit too early. He wanted to scout the location, in order to get a feel who this person might be. The room was empty, leaving him and the bartender.
Having no choices left, he ordered two Sakes. Right then, someone tapped on his shoulder.

"Yo. Ya must be that Yamamoto-guy, eh?"

Holding the two cups of Sake in his hands, Ryohei was turning around. Standing before him was a boy, certainly younger than him and - this surprised him the most - shorter than him.

"What... who are you?"

Ryohei was sure he knew everyone living on Yanagi, and he had never seen that guy before.

"Huh? Thought the old man told ya ma name. Goldig, man, Goldig!"

"You... no, you are kidding, I am to be contacted by an important Junker, you look like you're 17 years old!"

"16. Man, and I am important." The boy snatched the two Sake cups from Ryohei and walked to the next table. "C'mon, c'mon, let's talk! Call me Sebastian!"

Startled, Ryohei followed the boy. As he sat down, Goldig just put away the second cup of Sake.

"Aaaah. Those Kusarian drinks're good, ya know." He grinned and eyeballed Ryohei. "Now, ya're the wannabe Dragon, eh? Ya sure don't look like it y'know."

Ryohei blushed. "But... how can you help me?"

"Me? Oh, I've got a couple o' connections, ya know" Sebastian said and his grin grew even bigger "but first, how 'bout ya show me those rare metal plates the old man spoke off?"

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Sebastian Goldig | Carlos "Coyote" Wells | Joshua Cooper
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