Aika would have responded, if she could have, but the queens were already there congratulating her on her win - and over the Queen of Fortune, no less!  She really<em>was</em>a good luck charm.  The Tennin did her best to handle all the new-found attention she was getting; in the back of her mind, she told herself that this was probably going to be the way of things for her at the street races, now - if people had known Miku this well, then as someone who had 'beaten' her, she was going to be even more famous!<br/><br/>Just then, the crowd of race queens swept both herself and Joy along, towards the man that had won the race thanks to her, Ichiro.  Within no time at all, Aika found herself pressed up against him, turning her face back to look at Joy and seeing a wash of cell phones and digital cameras aimed right at them as they posed in victory.  Aika could feel her nipples starting to stiffen as at this closeness, she could smell Ichiro.  Thankfully, as her chest was pressed into his, nobody else would be able to see them.  She-Aika felt a hand on her face, and discovered it was Ichiro's as her face was tilted upwards to look at the taller street racer.  And then the next thing she knew, she and he were kissing right there, in front of<em>everyone</em>, the feeling of embarrassment burning into her brain, but she was a bit too engrossed in Ichiro to pay it<em>too</em>much open attention.<br/><br/>There would be talk on the street race circuit tomorrow - not just of the queen who had propelled someone to victory over the Queen of Fortune, but also of the fact that maybe,<em>just maybe</em>, she and her champion had a thing going...but tomorrow was not today, and there were still a few hours left in it - hours that would be spent back at the Shrine, relaxing and preparing for tomorrow's efforts in the city.<br/><br/>____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>The next thing both of them knew, Joy and Aika were back at the Shrine, heading into the hot spring to relax.  Aika - like Yuyu - waited until she was at the edge of the water to remove her towel, but Joy really didn't seem to care all that much about showing off.  "Oh, Joy-senpai.  It's good to see you, too."  The cute Fire Ryuujin smiled at her as they took their places in the pool of warm water, but at the question about her and Nori, there was a little bit of an awkward silence.  "It was...nice."  There was something a bit more there, but any further discussion was short-circuited by a new voice that joined them inside.  Miku.  She slid down into the water near Yuyu, her long hair secured up so that it didn't dangle in.<br/><br/>"You're here," Aika simply stated.  "Of course I am.  I wouldn't be much of a queen if I didn't keep my word, would I?"  The Air Ryuujin looked at the two Exalted fighters.  "There's things we have to discuss...but those do not need to be tonight.  Perhaps tomorrow morning?"<br/><br/>As for them, they got a pop-up prompt in front of them.<br/><br/><div align="center"><tt class="bbc_tt">Training: +10xp</tt></div><br/>Aha.  Aika had been wondering about that.  Training was supposed to give you a small amount of experience, but they hadn't gotten it afterwards, like when they had fought in the Shopping District.  Any XP from Training came at the end of the day...good to note.<br/><br/>Once they had dismissed that (and they were free to make edits to their character sheet, though Aika would note that the 10xp they had just gotten for training was a +10 next to her current pool of it, so that obviously meant she would need to spend it on Taekwondo...), they would notice that both Miku and Yuyu had sizeable "!" icons over their heads...something they needed to talk about, maybe?