2025-11-06: Two Bosses, and Tsubasa
- Log: Two Bosses, and Tsubasa
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki, Shiryuu Ryouhara, Ichika Kawase
- Where: Port Island Station - Dark Hour
- OOC Date: 2025-11-06
- IC Date: Mon, Aug 06 2012
- Summary: Ichika and Tsubasa are hanging out when the Dark Hour hits -- and Shiryuu finds Phoenix and Ogre when they're caught out in the station. He intends to take Phoenix for his own... but the Ogre has something to say about that.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Sometimes hanging out is just, you know, hanging out? No real plan. Ichika came back pretty happy, and so they went out to hit the town, and Tsubasa's been hearing about how things are going great with Ryuji.
"Tryin' out goin' steady, huh?", is how Tsubasa affirmed that, though of course Ichika's been talking twice as much as they have. "Cool."
Their firm nods do a lot of talking too, don't worry about it.
Except, like -- thing is -- sometimes you been hanging out in Paulownia Mall all night (sneaking into the nightclub...), and then you end up rocking up to the station right in time for all the coffins to appear, and then, like...
"Guess we missed the last train," Phoenix shrugs, not terribly put out by this revelation. That is, of course, because: "Iwatodai got night busses, yeah?"
Also, you could hear a pin drop into the pools of blood, but don't worry about it.
They wander over to the blood fountain, propping a tabi up on the cobblestone. (Because, indeed, they're wearing their feathery cloak now, complete with those ninja robes. They understand intuitively that they're in danger.) "Fucked up," they reflect, looking down at the wavering water.
And then they look up at the tower teetering high above them -- the one which originates where Gekkoukan was, a few minutes prior.
They grunt, in the back of their throat, as their fingers rap on their knee.
As mercy will have it, they will not have time to reflect too much on the towering tower of doom.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
By the time the club opened Ichika's date was mostly over, but Ichika wasn't at all ready to stop being on the town--and for some mysterious reason, her first pick to hang out with was Tsubasa!
Ichika had a lot to say about it--a few things to say about what hadn't happened yet, too. "I haven't done it like this in a while," she had confided.
Ichika, still dressed in a short skirt and tanktop combo with thigh-highs, optimal Date Gear, happens to be coming to a stop around the blood fountain. She looks it over thoughtfully.
Or well, she was wearing that, a few minutes ago. Now she's wearing riot armor enwrapped with thorns, spray-painted roses, and samurai-style clothing beneath. Her mask is that of an oni, with tall, sharp horns.
"Fucked up," Ichika agrees. "Kinda glad now it was you and me out for the late shift..."
She nudges Phoenix, "Waiting out the Dark Hour for somebody sucks."
But things will surely be fine.
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
The grey wind howls.
It's a chilling, unnatural sort of breeze, of the type that seldom bales through the twisted hour. The sound of a chittering thing in the distance, the chatter of old and ancient crows, the abominable shriek of something inhuman being preyed upon in the distance. The sounds are barely above the norm for the Dark Hour, a space of unspoken danger, but any sound over the mercilessly chilling and hollow silence is truthfully bad news.
The haunting cackle emanates from a bird's blue-eyed silhouette, perched high above on an aged, frayed rope that simply was not there not even three minutes ago. It watches the two, as they chat, though picking out an exact physical orientation for what seems for all intents and purposes like a cast shadow is a practice in futility, the corvid tilt and saccade flick of eyes dancing as it looks down, first with this eye, then the next. A third? It's hard to tell.
The pool of blood reflecting Tsubasa ripples slightly as the wind moves.
Or did something alight on its surface?
The onmitsu does not appreciably change appearance or clothes inside or out of the supralunary space. The white long coat he wears -- now white, and different from the haori he preferred previously -- is only different because he changed before the club. Black gloves on his hands, and a mask pulled to the back of his neck. Otherwise, the pristine Converse collabs he seems to prefer still lead. And as he appears, he doesn't get a single drop of crimson on them.
Appears is about the correct word, as there is no indication that Shiryuu has ever actually -arrived-. He simply appears, in a stirring of the wind, low key and unobtrusive, alighting on the ground in front of the samurai and the ninja as if in mid-step without ever having truly taken a step. The onmitsu's weight settles on the ground only a moment later, the pools of blood between them coming to a standstill as he does.
Grey hair lifts as the onmitsu looks up, one eye still glowing.
"..there you are."
He's already drawn his sword, hanging loose at his side without any clear indicator of intention. It's already dripping something black.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Conveniently, Ichika is Tsubasa's first pick to hang out with, too.
"You can walk it back if it gets weird," Tsubasa assured Ichika, in turn, just because it's important that she knows she has the choice. "But Sakamoto-kun's cool. Reckon ya got a good shot."
Tsubasa's hung out with Ryuji; he was chill. They don't have any red flags to advance to her, and, indeed, they tell her about the pretty damn green flag that was how he rolled with their gender.
And other stuff. Y'know. Like Jun! They saw Jun yesterday! And he's gonna help them figure out how the kitchen works! Jun's cool.
And then -- well --
Then there's a pool of blood and, "Yeah."
Phoenix nudges Ogre back, mindful of the spikes. "Too right. Don't even wanna know how many times ya had to park it an' wait me out."
Apparently, they still don't remember about the one time she didn't have to wait.
No, what they remember is...
"Oi," Phoenix looks up, blue eyes narrowing behind their mask. "Somethins' off." The water is... rippling. The crow...
"Fuck, man," Phoenix takes a step back, putting their hands out to summon a great weight of a greatsword into them. "That's him. The guy I was tellin' ya 'bout -- that ninja what attacked me."
Grasping their greatsword, they swing into a low ready stance, knees bent and weight bowed into the weight of the blade. "Big mistake, fucker," they snarl, lips curling over their teeth. "Shouldna rocked up here. Now you're FUCKED!"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"...Yeah," Ichika says. "I'm a little worried, but it's a good worry, right?"
Jun's great! And now--
"Yeah," Ogre points out, "But there's worse ways to wait it out. Once I had a guy over and--"
Wait?
Ogre turns and looks at the blood rippling. "...There shouldn't be birds here," Ogre realizes as Phoenix points it out. But suddenly, he is there, and the Ogre scowls. Standing beside Phoenix, she hears the identifier. "That so?" she asks.
"Asshole," Ogre says. "...Think your shoes are gonna stop us driving you into the concrete?"
They are nice shoes.
"Nah. You wanna be the boss, you're gonna have to--"
In Ichika's hand appears a big slab of metal--a colorful shield, done up in circus motifs.
"Eat some TEETH!"
So, naturally--
The Ogre just outright charges the onmitsu with a battle cry that shatters the Dark Hour's silence.
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
b
'Now you're FUCKED!'
"Yeah.." Shiryuu starts, "..I don't think so."
To start he isn't very verbose to the pair, committed more to quietly flicking a handkerchief out and wiping his sword. It's actually rather hard to tell that the metal itself isn't dripping off of the edge -- the steel is as black as night, and being coated with something not much darker just serves to obscure the slight variance in the hamon line underneath the sickly moon.
The onmitsu doesn't take any overtly dramatic moves, looking up as he wipes when Phoenix summons that massive sword, and Ogre unfurls a veritable bouquet of circus steel. The edge of Bankasoujin gleams, unspooled inch by inch as that man wipes it clean. Slowly, the handkerchief is whipped dry, as if he were loathe to stick the cloth back into the pocket of his white coat.
"Listen," the young man starts, pointing a finger over the cloth, his hand raising barely over his sword's edge, at his hip. "....you're gonna come with me, when it's all said and done." He's pointing at Phoenix, just over the Ogre's shoulder.
That's when she tears up the space between them, smashing deep into the flat of his blade, catching his momentarily full and undivided attention and forcing him to brace with a massive clash, the flat of his palm and the cloth holding hard against the opposite broadside of his sword. The weight is nothing to sneeze at -- and Shiryuu is driven back on his sneakers, kicking up a plume of dust as the Thorn Boss slams into him.
"...so how many teeth you got left," the shinobi wonders glumly of the person wearing the oni mask. A quick flick of the hand sends the sword rolling, spinning 180 degrees as he shifts his grip on it, turning the edge outward, as he exchanges the flat of the blade for his open palm, pressing fingertips against that shield. He hikes the blade wide, the curved inside of the spine facing inward like a scythe. It's blunt, so it shouldn't be --
Now why are there needles rolling down the flat of his blade?
"... mind the shoes," the onmitsu warns.
There is a sudden, audible -surge- of music through the air. A rattle of brass over an ancient staff surges into play above him, as the sound of an intense, pulse-pounding beat blooms. Suddenly, a burst of wind catches between them, cast from somewhere above. It seems to ground-zero from between Shiryuu's fingertips, as he -pushes- against the shield by dropping his shoulder. At once, he sends a wave of needles at the Boss, flicked off of the edge of his sword -- and plainly aimed to get around the Ogre's shield. The fangs will stab deep, and hit like so much lightning.
By the time the deadlock is broken, a kanji may be glowing on that shield, surrounded with a visualizer that is flashing with the surging Bakumatsu-style shamisen riff that breaks the silence.
Literal music.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Mm," Phoenix nods, sternly, when the Ogre asks confirmation.
Ryouhara points at them, though, and they take a half-step back. "Like fuck I am!" They snap, bristling. "I run with the Ogre, ya got that?!"
And the Ogre, as it happens, is the one who acts first. "FUCK 'IM UP!" Phoenix yells, perhaps taking a moment to comport themself after a threat like that.
There is, though, that music; and at first Phoenix thinks nothing of it, for of course they are mad, how could they not be mad, when have they ever not been mad? It's nothing to worry about. Except, of course, that Ryouhara has a lot to worry about: like the way Phoenix tears their mask from their face, invoking, "IZBUSHKA NA KUR'IH NOZHKAH!"
Worse, Phoenix has figured out how to charge around the fountain. Once they're in range, they plant their foot to heft their blade up, diagonally -- and a giant chicken hut charges from existence to quite literally run Shiryuu down at the same time as they swing. Those chicken legs are more battering than cleaving -- and they're quite heavy, that's a whole house up there, seriously, who let Phoenix have such a big Persona?! -- but luckily, they disappear soon afterwards.
AS: Tandem! Tsubasa Seki has used the Strike skill Dual Smash on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 2 Hits!
AS: Tsubasa Seki regains 5 HP from Regenerate!
AS: Tsubasa Seki's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 34 Strike damage from Tsubasa Seki's Dual Smash.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 34 Strike damage from Tsubasa Seki's Dual Smash.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
The Ogre watches Shiryuu. And he makes his retort. "You want them that bad?" Ogre asks. "They're not going anywhere they don't want to go. And they don't want to go with you."
"So I guess it's not gonna all said and done for a while."
Ogre is pretty good with that shield, insofar as 'battering the shit out of things' is good with a weapon. Her weight drives against his sword, a that question is not as notab le to her as the way he strikes. Needles. And shoes.
"Tch," Ogre answers. "What the--"
Music. Ichika went to the club earlier; Ogre has a different experience. Her pulse bounds all right, and Ogre is sent knocked backward as she holds onto her shield. Then, the fangs stab deep into her arm--some are deflected by her arm, but some sink deep indeed. "FUCK!" Ogre shouts.
She doesn't see the kanji on her shield, obviously; she's not looking at the front.
"Fine. That how you want it?"
"MOMIJI!"
Ogre rips off her mask, and her face is instead obscured by blood and blue flame. She raises her shield to the sky. "You want them? GO GET THEM!"
Thorny chains erupt from around Tsubasa, uncoiling to become a spectral set of shields that fade into the air--and fade into their form.
...But Ogre has to take the new few moments pulling a couple of those needles out to make sure they aren't driven deeper using her shield.
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Recovery skill Thorn Shield on Tsubasa Seki!
AS: Support: Ichika Kawase gains 1 Limit!
AS: Ichika Kawase's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Tsubasa Seki takes 0 Recovery healing from Ichika Kawase's Thorn Shield.
AS: Def_Up and Reflect_Phys added!
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
He's not really 100% sure how he feels that Phoenix is actively cheering for him to get beat up. Envision the plain dismay on his face, deeply nettled. "I suppose that's to be expected..."
Once the grip of four hands is broken, Shiryuu takes a step back, the curve of his sword gleaming in the night as he twirls it end-over-end in his hand, using the flip to get edge alignment again in the heartbeat between this moment and the next.
The kanji surges with the rippling, ancient twang, the bars around it lighting up and spiking hard with the rising beat. 'MIZU,' it shows like a beacon to Shiryuu. "Hn."
If he's right, that does make some sense.
"...the hell are you saying -- oh. no, fuck th --"
Shiryuu is dwarfed by a shadow the size of a house, the thorn chains rippling against the ground as an undercurrent surging around the approaching ninja, their blade lifted up like a kip-up as Shiryuu is forced to play the world's worst quizzing game: What comes first, the chicken or the sword. A lip is raised, as the onmitsu goes to his back foot.
"tch... you're both getting too confident."
A hand raises, and turns the air once.
The sudden, harsh scratch in the music is accompanied by a surge of black, a whipping line of ink-black static as the Phoenix, newly empowered, smashes into a field of absolute black trying to smash Shiryuu into irrelevance. The rolling wave of petals makes it hard to pick out Shiryuu, where he is, or what he's doing. The black static coalesces into a rolling wave of black petals, flowing under the legs of the massive chicken house as it tries to stomp him into nothing, the waves of force causing distortions in the wave. It makes it almost impossible to see.
"....I thought I told you."
Right up until a card is held up in two fingers, -lit- on fire in the dark. It surges right through the black, to try and ignite Phoenix wholesale.
That agonizingly loud ninja might notice the flame blast is just a distraction. He noticed that single moment from before, the surge of anxiety just before they ignited their massive blade.... and now that moment of anxiety figures into a conjured flashfire, surrounded in swirling, static black.
- there's a price in not standing on your own. -
As Shiryuu appears from the black cloud in an instant.
Phoenix has only seconds to know, to understand, to decide, to stop. Otherwise Shiryuu is going to get around them in an instant, and cut into the Thorn Boss behind them.
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Psych!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Shock Noise! Light_Break applied to Tsubasa Seki!
AS: Persona! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Fire skill Agi on Tsubasa Seki!
AS: Tandem! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Slash skill Yozakura Revival on Ichika Kawase!
AS: Aggression: Shiryuu Ryouhara gains 1 Limit!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara: Psych removed!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Block Worst! Ichika Kawase takes 86 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Yozakura Revival.
AS: Mind Up! Tsubasa Seki's SP +8!
AS: Block Best! Tsubasa Seki takes 37 Fire damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Agi. Weak!
AS: Haze added!
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Ogre spells it out, and Phoenix is glad for it; this kid, let's be real, kind of freaks them out. "Fuck were you expectin', red carpet?! YEAH it's gonna be red, we gon' paint with your BLOOD, motherfucker!"
And then Shiryuu plays the world's worst guessing game, and Phoenix barks back: "Fuckin' A, can't do shit to us when we together, shithead!"
Ogre wraps them in a shield of thorns, though, and they bellow a war-cry as they settle in, slamming a fist into the flat of their blade to send it ringing like a gong. "RRrrrrrrarrrrghhh--!!"
Which, well, that would all be great, except --
Except the record scratches.
"Ah, fuck--!" Phoenix swears, shifting back on a foot as their teeth grit. Still they heft their sword, and swing, though as they cut through the scouring, screech-ridden dark, they realise something gutwrenching:
A light in the dark is just more fire.
Light, illuminating the scene, is nothing more than the herald of their own destruction; it announces the pyre, long before it reaches them.
Light, in its essence, is fear.
And so they do not notice the distraction; they do not act, in those split seconds. They freeze. They tremble. "Fuck --"
But the thorny shields Ogre summoned absorb the brunt of the flames; Phoenix might be frozen, but Phoenix isn't fighting here alone.
They turn, then, to realise he is moving past them.
"F--FUCK OFF!" Phoenix yells, as they force themself to move, to lift their greatsword and slam it into Ryouhara time and time again. "You wanna split me off from me people?! Eat shit! Eat shit and shit steel, asshole!"
... yeah, they 'heard' that.
AS: Weapon! Tsubasa Seki has used the Slash skill Greatsword Assault on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 2 Hits!
AS: Aggression: Tsubasa Seki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Tsubasa Seki regains 5 HP from Regenerate!
AS: Tsubasa Seki's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 37 Slash damage from Tsubasa Seki's Greatsword Assault.
AS: Counter Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 40 Slash damage from Tsubasa Seki's Greatsword Assault.
AS: COUNTER! Tsubasa Seki takes 27 Slash damage in return for their attack!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ogre, on the other hand, is used to a Phoenix cheering section, if by another name. But the beat drives forward, and Ogre feels it in her bones.
Heartbeat, heartbeat. Ogre waits for it. But they're getting too confident? "Together, we don't back down," Ogre counters.
...But what she can't protect them from is fire. Ogre grits her teeth as she sees it, the card igniting. She's plenty distracted by it. Swirling, static black--
"Acting like you're a badass for being alone..."
Ogre steps back, breathing heavily; there is blood glinting at her side, though less than there would be if not for her Persona's protection. "It's just sour grapes!"
"You fight on your own because nobody likes you enough to have your back!"
Nevermind the unsettled note to her voice, the unsteady thread in it as the beat continues. This kind of fight is not what she's used to, in more ways than one. How many tricks does this guy have?
...is he really a ninja?
"Momiji, COME FORTH!"
She knows what she's good at. So Momiji appears, a spectral woman in a beautiful maple-patterned kimono, and lifts her clawed hand. Her teeth glint as healing sparkles rain down over Ogre and Phoenix both, suffusing them with energy.
"I got you, Phoenix. He wants to talk about 'price', well, I'm an expensive bitch and I'm coming at him!"
Momiji whirls, extending her other hand and sending a spray of orange-brown rock slamming down towards Shiryuu as Ogre throws out her hand. ...There's a needle still sticking out of the gauntlet.
AS: Ichika Kawase spends Limit on Exploit! Ichika Kawase can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Recovery skill Mediarama on Ichika Kawase and Tsubasa Seki!
AS: Support: Ichika Kawase gains 1 Limit!
AS: Take! Ichika Kawase takes 111 Recovery healing from Ichika Kawase's Mediarama.
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Earth skill Magna on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Ichika Kawase's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Tsubasa Seki takes 111 Recovery healing from Ichika Kawase's Mediarama.
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 82 Earth damage from Ichika Kawase's Magna. Weak!
AS: Bind added!
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
As expected. The fire lets him slip past the Phoenix. Normally, he carries a different card, but since he made his supposition, he made a change. All for that X's sake... it's important.
Not now, but..
Black steel spatters crimson to join a pool at his side. Quietly, and nondescript, he slowly moves his shoe away from the spatter absently. It's going to be a pain to go through them both, especially as the beast of a shinobi-coded punk surges up behind him, an annoyed expression catching the boy for one second before he's almost flattened by the greatsword laid across his middle. Truthfully, it's only by the grace of the black surrounding him and the rhythm of the sheer noise around him that he avoids being permanently crippled with those massive, brutal swings, the first catching him hard and battering him back through a curtain of black before he can recover, haphazardly deflecting the next off of his sword, before shooting off a sharp reply down the vast, flat edge with his own, the next strike throwing him loose....
...right into a field of falling rock. "....fuck."
The next record-scratch shifts and pulses, surging as the winds whirl around Shiryuu. But he can't move fast enough to avoid being smashed into by the rocks, which punch through his air envelope like bullets, forcing him to launch himself into a full somersault, almost smashed into the earth as he leaps into the air, catching the end of one of the falling rocks with his shoes, almost breaking his ankle to triangle-jump loose of the debris field as he inverts in the air, -flicking- the spine of his blade like a tuning fork.
A labyrinth of bridges is there to catch him as he lands, rickety driftwood and ancient rope extending out in every direction and at every angle as he lands roughly ten feet off of the ground, the bridge swaying harshly as he recovers. A slow, sharp breath is taken as his own Persona finally coalesces into full view from the dark at his back -- a vast, mechanical kannushi, wielding a long staff like a sword.
"... hm. What is it to you," he muses at the two from his heightened perspective, gently wiping a thin thread of blood from his mouth, and testing his weight on one ankle absently. "Since I was young, I was surrounded by enemies. Never knowing who was real, and who was there to kill me...."
The bridge sways as the wind buffets it lightly, but it seems to have no effect on the onmitsu's balance. It begins to rain, cold, dreary, each droplet causing the fountain to ripple, until the rain is omnipresent, incessant. There is a surge, a change in the music, the beat, as he lifts his sword.
His mouth is a thin, pressed line.
"...but that's all changed now. Those that I find important... exist in the shadows. My shadows."
They have gathered before him, regrouped. Pale brown eyes narrow. "None of my enemies will ever survive again to find them. Are you 'my enemies?' Because no matter how expensive you are.."
The music twists, tightens. Phoenix will recognize the undercurrent, the shearing, harshly aggressive breakbeat, as the rain and winds slowly begin to overtake the area. Intoxicating grey and black haze begins to leech out the red color from the Dark Hour, the sound beating down and quickening until the crimson pools run clear, shivering. Until it's hard to see a foot away. Only him, above, with that sharp blue eye. He spreads his arms wide.
".... I can afford both of your lives."
That eye disappears. And then Shiryuu descends. For an instant, it feels like he is in more than one location, his blade tracking fast, black lines carving through the ground level, equal parts wind and steel alike.
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Exploit! Shiryuu Ryouhara can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Psych!
AS: Persona! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Recovery skill Track 3: Lock TF In on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Recovery healing from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Track 3: Lock TF In.
AS: Atk_Up, Rage, and Regen added!
AS: Tandem! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Wind skill The Winds and Rain of Akita on Tsubasa Seki and Ichika Kawase! 2 Hits!
AS: Counter Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 73 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita.
AS: COUNTER! Reflect Phys! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 85 Slash damage in return for his attack!
AS: You have 1 more attack in queue!
AS: Counter Best! Tsubasa Seki takes 65 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita.
AS: COUNTER! Reflect Phys! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 93 Slash damage in return for his attack!
AS: Block Neutral! Ichika Kawase takes 72 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita.
AS: Block Worst! Ichika Kawase takes 79 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita.
AS: Block Best! Ichika Kawase takes 57 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Bankasoujin.
AS: Paralyze added!
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"We're a package deal, fuckface!!" Phoenix insists, because if they swear enough then Ryouhara isn't terrifying and they're fine actually.
It's a righteous enough claim; clearly Ogre does make Phoenix more terrifying, even for all she's being targeted right now. They hit like a truck. And yet, saying it like that -- is just a little --
-- telling, isn't it?
"Careful! He pulled this bridge trick before! Shit's gon' get fucky!" Phoenix yells, to the Ogre, as Sarutahiko Okami manifests.
(Yeah, like, he's really a ninja. Legit. Phoenix weren't foolin'.)
Shiryuu makes his declarations as to why he's fighting alone, and Phoenix snaps: "What, you gon' cry 'bout it?!" It's easier to insult a childhood like that, rather than reflect on the fact that somehow, it sounds worse than theirs.
Still... 'his shadows'...
Phoenix can't help but falter, hearing that.
Like, how can they not be creeped out when he wants them?
It's a horrible, twisting feeling in their gut which only amplifies, as their chin lifts, their finger tapping at the hilt of their greatsword. "That fuckin' music... Ogre! He's gettin' pumped to do some real damage, 'ere!"
He can afford both their --
In an instant the Phoenix sees red, charging forward through the dozen echoes of their opponent as their own blade hefts and swings around in a great arc to catch them. The blades slice at their feathers -- and deeper in; if not for the fierce defences of Tsumugi's needlework made manifest in their soul's design, coupled with the Ogre's magical shieldwork, it would surely skewer them.
... it's still gonna leave a nasty mark.
"F--fuck you, man!" Phoenix yells, as they brandish their blade. "You want my ass?! If -- if you kill her, I'll cut off my fuckin' hands, an' you'll get NOTHIN'! The minute she dies, you LOSE! Your call, dipshit!" It's just the kind of dramatic gesture this kind of teenager might commit to if they cared enough; it's evidence of how unseated Phoenix feels, though they stand fiercely still, a testament to brutality.
(The reason they're not hurting bad -- it's because of her.)
"Ogre! I'll carve a path!" Phoenix yells, as they charge ahead of her. Their legs thunder against the ground, before their knees bend and they leap right up onto that bridge; all the better to bring their sword right up, up and over their head in a swing that all but cartwheels them forward -- and which doesn't even end when the sword comes down, as they plant their feet to spin in a wide horizontal arc as soon as they're grounded.
AS: Tsubasa Seki spends Limit on Exploit! Tsubasa Seki can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Weapon! Tsubasa Seki has used the Slash skill Greatest Sword on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Aggression: Tsubasa Seki gains 1 Limit!
AS: You still have 0 regular actions and 1 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Weapon! Tsubasa Seki has used the Slash skill Greatsword Assault on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 2 Hits!
AS: Tsubasa Seki: Haze removed!
AS: Tsubasa Seki regains 5 HP from Regenerate!
AS: Tsubasa Seki's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Best! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 91 Slash damage from Tsubasa Seki's Greatest Sword.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 45 Slash damage from Tsubasa Seki's Greatsword Assault.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 57 Slash damage from Tsubasa Seki's Greatsword Assault. Critical Hit!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara is unable to continue fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
A package deal. "YEAH!" Ogre cheers. Ogre continues where she is--with that field of falling rock. When Shiryuu says 'fuck', she knows that her attack is going to sink home. So the music continues, Ogre remaining unaware for now of the fact that it pulses from her shield. That tuning-fork sound gets in her bones, and Ogre looks up at the strange bridges above. "What in the shit?"
As his Persona arises, he says his tale...
But she's prepared for shit to get fucky, as Tsubasa said. A serious ninja. But, "...That sucks," Ogre admits. "Explains a bit though. Like why you're such a fucking psycho."
And there--His enemies will not survive. are they enemies?
The music twists, and Phoenix moves. But he can afford...
"Tch--"
With all her energy put into defending Phoenix, Ogre has saved little for herself. Wind and steel rage, and in the aftermath, Ogre stumbles, and falls to one knee. "Gh--"
It would be fatal, without her Persona. As it stands, her Persona has converted bloody wounds into terrible exhaustion, and she wavers in place. "Ugh..."
"don't--"
Phoenix offers to hurt themself. "Don't do it! Don't hurt you--"
But the blade comes down.
And down.
"Yeah, he did some damage," Ogre says with a wince, clutching her side. "Asshole."
"...Only reason... we have to be enemies... is that you're creeping on my Phoenix!"
Huff. Huff. She makes no attacks, leaning heavily on her shield on the ground. "And where is that music--"
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
"No," Shiryuu reflects flatly.
"I'm ... going to make you cry about it."
The rain pounds the concrete relentlessly like a stampede of demon hooves, the arcing roll and drop of the intense, surging beat as the young man fills the area with even, black steel. Sword strokes stir windblades the length of cars, scything through stone and iron alike to collide with the broadsides of the weapons. Shiryuu moves ungodly fast -- and doesn't seem to be limited to the same moors of physical movement. It's all too easy to lose track of him, as if he were conjuring projectiles. But no. He moves -- and simply is.
The seething beat crashes hard against shield and sword, the battering edge of a blackblade blurring the lines between rhythm, sound, and force. The young man skids back from the titanic hurl of that heavy blade and the dense hedge of spiritual shields. His eyes, both the brown and the one that flares blue, flicks fast in the exchange. The soles of his shoes bite hard into the slick concrete, cutting short a squealing skid as he twists into an axle retreat, one Converse crossing over another with a four-step of footwork, terminating in his backflip back onto the sway of a bridge, flipping his sword false behind him at his waist.
"-- If you think I won't make use of you without hands ...."
Their blades cross again, the drop of that guillotine fare deflected as the Phoenix rises to meet him on the bridge. The 'angle' changes drastically as the X's weight with that huge blade drops onto it, and it's suddenly, violently clear exactly how steep the angles on those bridges get. Vertigo sets in almost immediately, but the boards hold fast, and gravity very swiftly ceases to be relevant as they surge forward, swinging into another colossal cut. This one catches Shiryuu hard, the young man bracing against the cut with the smoke grey tsuba of his blade. There is a cataclysmic bell rung as steel surmounts steel, and Shiryuu is thrown bodily up the length of the bridge, tumbling end over end over the rope. He lands hard, barely over another curiously inverted strand in the network.
"Ergh..."
Shiryuu stands slow, his sword at his side. The rhythm plateaus above, a crystalline peak giving a reprieve from the intensity. His hand is loose on the hilt of his blade as he straightens, looking down at the wet ragged pole stain of crimson staining the white of his jacket at his side, where the blade fulcrumed around his guard before throwing him wide. The boy is distinctly annoyed. "Tch."
"...there is a consequence to rebelling," Shiryuu points out, as the Ogre goes to a knee behind Phoenix. There is a finality to his words. "If you won't listen.." A flick of the hand, and his blade is turned again from behind his back. He looks towards Ogre. His eye flares blue as he lowers himself into an attack stance. Aching pain sears through his side. But he steps forward as he --
"GYA---hhh!!"
Lightning crackles and stabs across the young man's temple as he's held off from moving, the whiplash violent as it hits his spine, forcing him onto the back foot, one hand slapping tight over his eye. And there he stands, at that bizarre, five o'clock angle before his hand lowers.
Blood trickles from his eyesocket, the young man's face grim.
"I must have used 'it' too much with that last," the onmitsu remarks, metering his breathing. He looks down at the broken driftwood board of the bridge slats beneath him, the step he was about to launch off of. Yeah...
"Looks like you two made me sweat.." The idea is novel to him. And more than a little annoying. "... I'm gonna have to be more careful with my preparations next time."
He's not aggressive, but Shiryuu doesn't appear to be in a hurry. Yet.
"...you should probably go take care of her," he advises Phoenix.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"As if!" Phoenix lobbies back, far more unsympathetic than their companion.
But the flurry of violence and sound that is Ryouhara overwhelms the Ogre -- and no wonder, then, that the Phoenix fights so fiercely in the wake of it, their heart hammering in their chest as they hear her cry out. They want to apologise for that one -- they do -- but they need him to believe it,
...
Somehow, Phoenix wasn't expecting Shiryuu to make it worse. They can't even imagine -- how he'd get anything done if they couldn't hold a blade, but -- "Jus' shut the fuck up!!", they snap back, and the curl of their lips and the sharp edge of their tone are clearly deeply disturbed.
And there -- they come. Phoenix comes to land in front of Ogre, still bristling. "I'm serious!" They snarl, as he insists there'll be consequences. "Don't you fuckin' touch her!" But he turns his blade again, and dares to look at her, and by the time he's settled into his stance they're charging forward AGAIN --
"--?!"
-- at the last second, seeing Ryouhara wracked with agony, Phoenix doesn't slice him in half while he's distracted. No: they wrench their arms sidelong to crash their massive greatsword into the the wooden slats of the bridge he's standing on, instead, shattering the footholds in front of him as they land in a shower of splinters. (Thank God they're cognitive splinters. They'll only be metaphorically be pulling them out of their skin for the next three days.)
... apparently, they're still not willing to risk killing someone threatening her.
"F--fuck off with that 'next time' shit," Phoenix snaps, hefting their sword back up so they can back up and take point in front of the Ogre again. "Jus' piss off back to whatever cult you came from an' leave us alone."
Glancing back to Ogre, they rumble: "You okay...?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Shiryuu moves too quickly. Ogre is many things, but fast isn't particularly one of them, as the music keeps beating on. And the matter of 'use' is mentioned. Ogre scowls, showing teeth--until the rhythm plateaus... and Shiryuu points out the 'consequence'.
"Go ahead and try--"
Ogre starts to lift her shield, laboriously, but lightning crackles around, and she doesn't have to test whether she'd have been able to do it. There's blood from his eye...
"...That's fucked up," Ogre pronounces. "Yeah. You better be more careful."
"...I'm fine," she says to Phoenix instead. "He didn't get me. ...Tch. Dumbass me, I should've healed myself more..."
Ogre is looking at Phoenix, not at Shiryuu, now.
But she moves to extend her hand to her best friend.
"C'mon," she says. "If he's not gonna push it, I don't wanna stick around to listen to his next set."
"Tch. Some 'embarrassing yourself' you did..."
She appreciates Phoenix a lot, in that moment. It's nice, to be supported.
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
Shiryuu lets out a little bit of an exasperated breath.
"That .. wasn't an invitation to agree with me," Shiryuu remarks to Ogre, more than a little nettled by the Thorn Boss. His vibe is clearly offput by the fact that his eye is openly draining tears of blood from the lacrimosal ducts. His eye is half-lidded, once brown and now a flat, pale blue. Little bits of seething black are gathering along the edges of the iris. He lifts up a hand, three fingers out. As if he were about to literally back up a car, he obligingly turns down the music, twisting an imaginary knob in the air and pulling back the levels until the glittering plateau -- and the corresponding drop of the beat -- is hard to discern over the ambient wind. Yeah, it's still a little windy.
He's a little offended that Ichika doesn't want to hear more music. But even so, he had to turn down the volume. He's not really in the best condition to yell across the way. Unlike someone.
"...listen. Don't get it twisted. This isn't over. Take care of your people now while you can."
He glances over to the gaping hole Phoenix left in his bridge.
"...better than your respect for other people's stuff."
It may have been cognitive wood, but it was -his- cognitive wood! Rebel youths are so destructive.
He slides his saya from behind the pack at his back in two pulls, turning to step over the step -he- made. Luckily, he got thrown onto a different bridge as he flick the blood off of his blade, lifting it up and aligning the kissaki with the koiguchi. Tip to mouth, he sheathes slowly. It never actually clicks into the sheath. Well, even if his Persona is hanging on by a thread, banishing the bridges while he's standing on them would suck.
"Anyway. You did good. I'll respect the vibe today... but I'll have you soon. Now gtfo."
He spells it out like that.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"'While I can'... fuck off with that shit. I'm never gonna help you, man." Phoenix is still deeply disturbed by Ryouhara's whole thing, but they take a step back towards Ogre, anyway. "Show up again, an' I'll break your ass an' your shit."
They had a clear opening to break his ass right there, but apparently, the fact that his eye electrocuted him and is now fucking bleeding tears is just -- it's what the fuck, man!
"Like," they add, miles more awkward now they're trying to extend him a scrap of empathy, "your whole ninja thing is cool, sorry your dad decided to gaslight you to death and make you into this freaky-ass killin' machine cryin' blood or whatever the fuck, glad you can get some sweet kicks despite all that? But like -- I'm taken, dude, she got here first, don't call me."
Phoenix dismisses the sword from their hands, so they can take Ogre's hand and hurry her away from the station.
Once the Dark Hour is over, they can take the night bus from somewhere else, you know? Somewhere a little less... ninja-y.
But for now, at least, the sky is still devastatingly green. "It's cool," they assure Ogre, as they go, because they recognise the threat in the lighting, too. "Thanks to you, I'm still cool... don't worry 'bout the Shadows or nothin'. Got yer back."
Just like she has theirs.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"i don't wait for invitations," Ogre remarks back. She's kind of nettled, too! She's still having trouble with being upright at the moment. ...On the other hand, she's not crying blood, so there's that. her eyes remain the appropriate color. So she looks at that, and he turns down the music, until... it's windy. And that's it.
It's not bad music. She's just not in the mood.
"You can respect my ass," Ogre replies to the matter of Shiryuu's stuff. But there is something that gets Ichika's attention.
Taken??? Oh, right. As a subordinate. Right.
"Right," Ogre agrees, and starts away.
"Fuckin' vibes..."
Pause. "They were cool shoes," she admits. "What kind of whacked out ninja has shoes like that, though?"
She leans heavily on Phoenix as they go. "...Okay," she says. "I trust you."