2025-09-26: Killer Duel
- Log: Killer Duel
- Cast: Miho Ijuuin, Yua Ooshiro, Shiryuu Ryouhara
- Where: Ichibadori Bridge, Rengedai Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: September 26, 2025
- IC Date: Saturday July 21st, 2012 (Forward-dated from OOC date!)
- Summary: The appointed time has come. Miho Ijuuin and Shiryuu Ryouhara engage in a duel, with Yua Ooshiro to ensure there are no interruptions.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho arrived early at Ichibadori Bridge, in order to scope out the locale and give Yua a chance to set up her vigilance. Not that early--about fifteen minutes before the Dark Hour. Miho herself is in one of her usual suits, a fitted jacket over a dress shirt with no tie. Ties are for men, after all. And easy to grab, in any case.
But she also carries with her a long, thin case for a sword. Her green hair is dark in the late streetlight, her expression serious, her brown eyes scanning from place to place.
She is patient, but not uneager; she has wished to see this man for herself...
And a real challenge is something she does not often receive in this way. It is different from the haphazard melees of the New World ORder's demands. Single combat always is.
But she waits now, on the bridge, out of sight of most so as not to invite questions and interference.
"Soon," Miho assures Yua.
"We shall see."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua carries on her shoulder a handbag; it's a little strange to see, hanging against her dancer's leotard, but of course her leotard doesn't have any pockets.
And Yua cannot carry her Evoker down the street so openly.
In those minutes before the Dark Hour, hidden by the bridge, Yua embraces her fiancee, places a kiss to her lips for luck, and murmurs --
"Make him pay."
Ten minutes... five minutes... three, two, one... zero.
A moment past zero.
The sky is cast in a terrible shade of green; the streets past the bridge are occupied with coffins, now, rather than any flesh or blood. Ichibadori Bridge is a footbridge across the river, and no one was passing, at this moment.
Small mercies.
Yua takes her Evoker from her bag, and for the first time it is plain to see the way she opens her eyepatch, to reveal the three pupils of her eye, strange and unnatural and only focusing here in the Dark Hour's light. She holds her revolver-like Evoker up to it... and fires.
"Gretchen!"
The woman in white who appears is clad in jewels, steel bars through her arms like wings. They close around Yua, as Gretchen clasps her hands in front of her, protecting her User in her prison. She is thus protected, at one end of the bridge, safe on solid ground.
"I will halt any interjections from the outside," Yua promises Miho, "and keep your arena clear from his tricks."
Her capacity to control the arena is...
... this, too, is a form of interference.
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
"Ah. It's a good night for drawing blood..."
He is on fairly good time when he arrives like a shot arrow in the night, exactly as intended, exactly on place. He arrives at the far end past the bridge as if the wind carried him -- and the weird part is, there's no ghost-like protrusion yet, no sound of glass shattering, no gunfire. He's just that light on his feet.
The sound of his pristine sneakers, expertly laced and clean, are muted over the lightly arched cobble as he steps up onto the bridge. The point of Ichibadori was that it was a bridge under a bridge, a little shady even in the dead of day, and not likely to have a lot of bystanders locked in coffins. Not that sort of thing bothered Shiryuu, but there were enough variables for one night.
"So. You're Mimi."
The young man is as sharp as shuriken with his words, cut and clipped so precisely it's hard to notice where they bleed. He steps into view, the shoulder-bag at his back slowly shifting as he pulls it higher by the strap in two hands. One hand lifts, and gently rolls free the bound cloth bag set cruciform across the bag's top fold. The himo is loosened with a light hiss, and the fold in the bag drops open. A hand slides inside.
There is a noticeable pause in the way the boy's candor and energy shift, as he slowly comes aware of the crystalline woman in white, as the last vestiges of electricity flicker valiantly over the bridge, the formerly-resplendent electric lanterns struggling to maintain illumination under the weight of the Collective Unconsciousness. Brown eyes flick up, then down to the shielded silhouette just past Miho, what's beneath the eyepatch now revealed.
He works his jaw. A crow cackles, but it is faraway.
"Well. I hear the Ijuuin are the real deal," the onmitsu begins thoughtfully. Getting Takeshi to spill the beans wasn't easy, but he did.
The red bag is a near silent hiss as he slides it off of his saya, the ornamental sage-o dropping loose around the matte lacquer black as he reveals it. The bag is dropped to the side, to flutter like a flag, captive in his hand.
"..But you know what happens if she tries to get in the way," he tells Miho.
"You and me have a few things to sort out."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
The murmured instruction will be remembered. Miho smiles grimly.
But it is indeed a good night for drawing blood. "Miho Ijuuin," Miho introduces herself when the young man sharply speaks. "...We do not have the sort of relationship appropriate to the nickname."
Was that a joke? It may have been, but it was delivered as smooth and sleek as a blade.
A crow, far away... Miho glances to the light, to the Shadow there that will serve as audience.
"Of course," Miho says.
And then, "She is to serve as my second; watch that the rules of honor are obeyed. ...She will not interfere otherwise in our battle."
"For we do, indeed. You have assaulted she who is dear to me..."
"And I have questions as to why. As to you."
She does not move to summon her Persona, but she does unscrew the top of her sword case, extending from it a long, black sabre, with a pointed tip and a cutting edge on either side. But only the last few centimeters of blade really matter.
That, and the point.
She extends the case to Yua to hold, and then steps out onto the bridge, curling her hand about her weapon.
"We will not be interrupted."
"Now..." Miho adopts a ready stance, perfectly execute; her back hand is up, her blade tilted diagonal, her entire body an adept set of lines.
"Will we exchange more words, or blows?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Red light burns like flames, as they fleck from Yua's tri-pupillary eye, beholding the boy who steps in so swordlike.
"You gave me a choice," Yua issues, to him, from within her cage, "and I choose to protect my most important person. Here I stand, vigil-testament to your honesty..."
Perhaps he'll feel it, the way the world warps around them slightly as the streets around the bridge grow difficult to navigate, with or without the proper noun. The arena itself is untouched... but to find it, now, is next to impossible. "... as am I the bell jar."
Gretchen's arms unfurl, as Yua steps forward to receive Miho's sword-case, her tawny fingers brushing over her fiancee's paler fare as she nods firmly to her. "Fight well," she says, with striking lucidity, before she steps back and Gretchen closes her cage anew.
Evoker in one hand, sword-case cradled in the other, Yua bears witness to Miho's perfect form.
And yet...
... still there is fear, in her unnatural eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
Yeah... he feels it.
Not just the strange way the paths shift around the spaces outside the bridge, not just the way the entire bridge is swallowed into the gullet, but the way the 'feel' of the bridge shifts beneath his feet. The feel of Ijuuin, across the way, settling into that practiced, noble stance like a panther, ready to strike.
"Fair enough," he tells them. raising the little pennant of a bag against his face to make a tiny sweeping gesture for peace. Shiryuu is not really the type to dwell once he's determined something is unimportant. It's just the stuff he finds important you have to worry about.
The light struggles still. It should be dead, he finally realizes -- there is a metaphorical gremlin in their midst, a shadow beneath the upper bridge waiting for an opportunity to strike. It wouldn't make much of a difference at all.
They've always known to navigate by the light of the crazed moon.
"I'll give you one answer." Shiryuu replies simply, lifting his sword in front of him, thumb pressing against the guard. Pressure increasing by an increment, the sword's fittings make a soft sound as they pres against the mouth of his sword. The grey-haired boy breathes outward slowly.
"If you beat me."
He drops the bag. Let's go.
The click of his sword from the sheath is explosive. It brings with it a halo of black feathers rippling from the ejection point. It is no gunshot, but the sound of rushing wind and cracked fabric filling the bridge as the boy moves, cutting the aura of feathers right in half as he draws black steel.
She will feel it, the way things are meant to be. The power sags harshly on her Persona -- something in the way the boy draws his sword. Something that sends the taste of old wood and rope rippling through the esoteric space. An ancient thing alighting on the battlefield at the far end, an old mechanical priest with a staff taller than he is.
Something -- Yua can sense -- is meant to be wrapping through the space, but it is tied up and lost in the whorl of space surrounding them.
All that remains is wind, and the shinobi, leaping atop Miho in a whirling cut as if he walked on that wind.
The red bag will hit the ground behind him only when Shiryuu is already far too close.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
OST: Blood for the Blood God - Gunship https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE2UM7dzZlw
Red light burns. Miho waits.
Some things are important. This concerns a number of them. His gesture for peace is acknowledged; Miho can keep this stance as long as is needed. The light struggles... and the pressure builds.
"Terms accepted," Miho answers.
Old wood and rope... Miho has not yet summoned Faust, but she feels the ancient force. Black feathers ripple--
The wind and the shinobi come, and Miho clashes, that whirling cut slamming against the blade of her sabre as she slides it out of its killing stroke. The red bag hits the ground, but Miho is already moving.
"You are fast," she notes.
She steps back, and then lunges, operating with perfect time--she shows no aura, merely expertly placed bladework, empowered by the Persona that waits in the wings for her call.
Slash, slash, thrust--she goes for the leg, to slow his speed, to strike in perfect time.
She need not walk on the wind.
The wind will bend for her.
AS: Weapon! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Sabre Precision on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 2 Hits!
AS: Pressure: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: Miho Ijuuin's turn has ended.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
There is a Shadow, lurking here; Yua is aware of it. (Just as she is aware of the Shadow crawling over a car two streets away -- or the Shadow oozing down a drain into a family home on the other side of the river.) But it is not strong enough to disturb Miho, and so, she does not disturb Miho to slay it.
Click, and Yua cannot but think of the sound of a chain, tightening... tightening... choking.
"Oh!", she gasps, as Shiryuu moves with the wind -- and Miho meets his blade, expertly, in a way which averts her very death. But she cannot allow herself to be distracted by the bladework on the bridge, when, at its other end...
Gretchen's eyeless mask regards the priest; Yua sees him, too. "I abjure you!" She hisses, and something is meant to weave through the space...
... but with each insertion-point it reaches for, Yua meets it with a warping of her own. Every time it tries to weave itself through their creation, there is another weaving, operating against it. The space seems to tremble, warring between one heresy and another, all brought to zero.
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 41 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Sabre Precision.
AS: Paralyze added!
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 61 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Sabre Precision. Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
Steel crashes against steel, and Shiryuu's arm bends slightly into the soak of the blow, catching the full weight of his stroke against her riposte. Legs pinwheel openly in the air to land him on the ground as the Ijuuin king surges back, and then stabs forward in metronome precision. Shiryuu can almost feel the beat in the air, the surge of power as Yua's intensity lays hold somewhere in the back of his mind, drawing Sarutahiko's ire.
There is the sense that the priest beyond that mask is watching Gretchen -- an eerie mechanical derivative, the speak-no-evil to her see-no evil. He moves slightly, and the sound of groaning hemp is omnipresent against her shooing abjuration. Slowly, the weight shifts on the metaphysical bridge with his gait, with the press of his staff. The priest's eyes -- the only thing that can be seen of his face -- moves lower, occupied with the onmitsu's thoughts.
Another second, two, he'll get a sense of the rhythm. Until then...
The response is fast, harsh, quick. Her blade resounds off of his, until it filters through and scores a deep gushing penetration right through the thigh of his pants, sending the shinobi onto his back foot, his weight rolling away from her dominant hand. "Ngh--"
The wind bends for her? Hmnf.. He doesn't retreat. He pinches the spine of his blade in his free hand, using it as a fulcrum. The shinobi rolls into the space with a thrust off of his non-injured leg, following that roll in jangled effect. His fighting style is not the same as sport fencing, and the response is as instant as fighting a starving dog -- the onmitsu's hilt comes up as a check against hers, trying to cut into her space and chase her down. A hammer with his blade's guard to strike at her blade hand, to render it nerveness. A hilt-thrust aimed to the collarbone, to knock her off-balance. Then a push -off- from his uninjured leg starting at the ankle, to spend his blood spraying in an arc over the cobble as he bunches up his other leg and cuts some four feet straight up in the air, flying for Miho's chin with his outstretched knee.
We'll see.
AS: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Strike skill Ryouhara Ninjutsu on Miho Ijuuin! 3 Hits!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 33 Strike damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Ryouhara Ninjutsu. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 25 Strike damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Ryouhara Ninjutsu.
AS: Counter Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 42 Strike damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Ryouhara Ninjutsu. Critical Hit!
AS: COUNTER! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 13 Slash damage in return for his attack!
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho is completely focused; trusting in Yua to handle the battlefield, she bends her attention solely to her opponent and his work. Miho has seen and heard much evil, and today she will speak more if this battle is considered wicked.
The shinobu moves back. He makes a noise. But rather than retreating, he rolls himself forward, and indeed--this is no sport.
His hilt cuts into her space for now, blocking hers as he strikes and strikes. Her blade hand rallies, and soon will bruise but the pain sharpens and focuses her. The hilt-thrust slams against her collarbone but Miho's greater size helps her step back from it, and that push flies for her chin-
He strikes this time, knocking her backward in a maneuver that assuredly would be illegal in any sport.
"Heh," Miho vocalizes. "So that is your way."
"Tricks and brutality."
She backsteps, one-two, and slashes out with her sword as she calls forth--
"FAUST!"
In a flash of red mist, Faust appears, dressed in plague doctor's coat and mask, tall and spectral. The Persona stretches out an arm--and a shield erupts into place before Miho, fading into her in a moment.
Then, Faust stretches forth flames, blue fire igniting on Miho's blade as she cuts, one-two-three, hacking at injured leg, at off arm, at center mass.
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Exploit! Miho Ijuuin can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Tetrakarn on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Almighty damage from Miho Ijuuin's Tetrakarn.
AS: Reflect_Phys added!
AS: Tandem! Miho Ijuuin has used the Fire skill Firebrand on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 3 Hits!
AS: Pressure: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: Miho Ijuuin's turn has ended.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Gretchen meets every sway with her own careful countersway; one, five, ten attempts to desecrate the space, each put to new purpose as they push against Sarutahiko's desecration instead.
Yua pales, to feel his attention dropping down to her, but she keeps herself focused. She must. Even though --
"Oh!" Yua gasps, again, and clutches Miho's sword-case to her chest as his knee strikes Miho's chin. "Mimi--! Deny the grasp that holds under hand!"
A grasp denied through Faust, and Gretchen's skirts flutter, as her own intent sharpens with anger at the sense of him. Yua calls her emotions back to her task, with more ferocity still.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 31 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Firebrand. Critical Hit! Resist!
AS: Counter Best! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 31 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Firebrand. Critical Hit! Resist!
AS: COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 15 Fire damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Avoid Best! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 12 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Firebrand. Resist!
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
"You'd think so, wouldn't you?"
The exchange between blades is almost unseeably fast. It doesn't take more than a breath, the space between the two filled with more attempts to grievously harm the other than entire other duels have exchanged.
She takes it on the chin admirably, Shiryuu would think, if he had the moment to breathe. But the boy lands quickly, his sneakers hitting hard traction to arrest his momentum as Miho cuts back into the space with a quick strike -- almost assuredly to break his offensive -- as her own Persona surges into play, smashing a red-misted field between them and driving the shinobi back another step. Two, now.
Sarutahiko watches Yua closely as she works to keep the onmitsu from extending tendrils into the field. Impassive, silent, judgmental, but his aggession is meted out in the most quiet ways. She can see when the Persona's mood changes, the slightest incline of its head towards the battle, the slow, intense lift of that massively long gohei.
Shiryuu's blade is a perfect match for the blue flames that curtain off of Miho's as she cuts through the aura of flame after him. The flames lick at his heels as he clashes with her first -- and -backflips- through her second, stepping on the flame as if it were a stepstool and launching backwards to scatter the blast everywhere. It puts space between them for Miho's pursuit, cutting through the flames for the second. His persona holds the staff like a sword, lowering through the ground to line up his 'eye' with the boy's stance, sighting down the edge of his blade.
"...but we'll get there," the boy remarks cryptically, before thrusting.
There's perhaps six feet between them by the time all's told, and Shiryuu's thrust is short of range. However, Yua can feel the sudden -jump- underneath the shroud, as a harsh sound like a vinyl scratch ripples through the supernatural undercurrent. Three pieces of wind shoot from the end of Shiryuu's blade as he executes a single thrust, tearing wind that rips through the world as it careens right down the middle of the bridge towards Miho. The wind bullets each represent a different 'rhythm,' tying together into one potent blast.
That rhythm is something new. It's something that causes the tight hemp sensation to reverberate in line to the rotation of those bullets around eachother. It's not a normal wind blast.
And if it strikes Miho, it'll leave a glowing mark, like a scarlet letter.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 34 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Track 1: Samurai (Hitokiri Mix).
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's Weakness Scan! Miho Ijuuin is weak against Light!
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho smiles grimly, still the sportswoman in this terrible duel--as this space fills with killing intent. "I can judge what I see," she says simply--but on the chin is where she took it, and there is a trickle of blood at her lip as a result. Indeed though--she moves to break his offensive, and his Persona smashes that red-misted field.
Miho may bring nuclear flame to bear, but fire is fire, and it would seem that Shiryuu's blade is good enough for them. Clash, clash, a backflip as she steps forward again. He is able to move on the flames, and there--
"Hmmmm."
To get there. That space between them jumps, and Miho does not need to feel the noise--she sees the wind, and she backsteps once more to give herself space to deathwith it. They each have another rhythm, but Miho cuts one short, halving the blast that comes at her--but the rest continues sailing and takes her on the chest. "Gh--"
It reverberates, and the weakness of Faust is knowable now: a weakness to the divine, to sacred things that are the antithesis of his dark deals.
"Interesting," Miho says. "What was that, just now?"
Her shield offers no defense against pure magic; unfortunately, it is not to be used in this for now. "Try it in this way," Miho suggests, and hacks forward across the space--as Faust emerges from her body once again, in red smoke swinging a knife. Blades course through the air between them, a cyclone of slashes inadvisable to dodge.
"Hah!"
She is behind it, already surging forward to break into Shiryuu's space once again.
She does not answer Yua in words, but her continued assault is itself an answer for Yua's honor.
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Gale Slash on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Pressure: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: Miho Ijuuin's turn has ended.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Gretchen is as tumultuous and mad as her User; because, indeed, one is like the other, Gretchen an expression of Yua's heart and mind. But her defence is absolute -- and this cage, too, is a metaphor.
She recognises club music, though she cannot place this tune -- Yua's dance graces nicer establishments than Shiryuu's. "Mimi, look out--!" Yua cries, as here is something she cannot countermand, the beat of three bullets --
"He takes measure of your soul!" She explains, the voice at the end of the radio supporting Miho's deadly mission. "Just as I would!"
But though she would, she does not, because Miho bid her not to interfere. Instead she glowers at Sarutahiko, still intent at her task of unravelling his ropes with her own confusion.
AS: Block Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 82 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Gale Slash.
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
"Hope you're not asking me," Shiryuu comments, tilting his head forward.
He promised a single question answered -- if he was defeated. As it is now, the shinobi stands across from Miho in the tiny space after the nimbus from his tripartite shot coalesces into a shining mark: an encoded kanji, glowing ghostlike over her body, sealed with crawling ghostly veins. It doesn't last long, as Yua properly clocks it.
"Lucky for you," he comments.
"Not all of my jutsu are so easily sussed. You would have used up your wish."
He rests his thumb on the rhythm, on the fibers of that hemp. It shudders, as Faust moves. He doesn't have anyone to 'watch' for him, and so he has to do things on his own. It takes an instant to determine that trying to outpace the flurry of knives is useless, but deflecting only the first few sends the rest sticking into the shinobi, each spectral knife slicing past him in a gale of cutting force that overwashes his sword and leaves even the voluminous sleeves he wears tigerstriped with crimson, driving him back even further. His sword tucks across his back and the boy rolls to avoid becoming a pincushion, coming out of the tumble in a low crouch, silver hair a mess about his head as he pants, the black blade of his sword resting over his injured thigh.
His thumb rests on the flat of the blade, absently listening to a barely perceptible rhythm. It hangs, harsh, hard, as the rolling midline teeters on the precipice of a crescendo.
"...You've going to have to finish it soon," Shiryuu comments breathlessly, as he feels the chasm open beneath him, as the sensation of rhythm underneath his fingertips slowly descend into an awe-inspiring crash and something -entirely- different.
There it is. The beat.
"...If you want to win!"
The boy's hand snaps up, and crushes -- something -- in his hand. There is an -audible- explosion, and paper stabs out of either side of his outstretched hand. An origami matrix, unfurling and tightening to tension in an instant, a string at its back. Paper sings as an anvil's weight is put on it, microtears already forming as the boy nocks -- an arrow?
In an instant, the boy seems to have quick-drawn a full-size yumi from his sleeve, and nocked an arrow to it from his pack. It's made of paper, explosively decompressed -- and is good for exactly one shot. One shot, unerringly placed.
Miho has an instant to respond before she ends up wearing equal parts carbon fiber and a -very- aggressive head in her middle, if he doesn't shoot all the way through her.
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Exploit! Shiryuu Ryouhara can use another Weak skill this round!
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: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Pierce skill Hishinmeisen on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Counter Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 79 Pierce damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Hishinmeisen.
AS: COUNTER! Reflect Phys! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 61 Slash damage in return for his attack!
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"Hmmm. That would've been unfortunate," Miho agrees as to answer. It was for Yua!! It's fine. And Yua does indeed answer for her. He takes measure. "Witness," Miho answers Shiryuu then. "I fear no scrutiny."
But she did not use up the wish. The flurry moves. But Shiryuu continues, persists, rolls and tumbles. Miho smiles, and this time it is not so grim.
"How pleasing," she says. "I would have been disappointed if that had finished you."
But he is right. The beat goes on, and she must finish soon if she intends to win this battle. Exploding paper comes--and suddenly, there is a bow. That shot is fired expertly, perhaps perfectly, and Miho has only an instant to respond. She turns in that same instant, lunging across the distance. The arrow does not pierce through her midsection but cuts against her off-arm with its head. Blood spouts from her sleeve, though the arrow grazes rather than sticking in the meat of her arm. At the same time, she hacks downward with precision, slashing into Shiryuu.
"Fascinating," she remarks. "Tricks, indeed, but more."
The carbon fiber burned against her muscle. But that arm is not necessary in this matter.
"But I too have tricks." She attempts to hook her foot under Shiryuu's knee, and whether she succeeds or not she shoves forward, moving in an arc against Shiryuu's body diagonal, from beneath to above with her sword.
In the next instant, Faust reappears, hovering behind Miho--and black-and-blue chains crash down to sap Shiryuu's spirit.
"Hah!"
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Exploit! Miho Ijuuin can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Weapon! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Black Card on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 3 Hits!
AS: Pressure: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Soul Break on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Miho Ijuuin: Reflect_Phys removed!
AS: Miho Ijuuin's turn has ended.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Cease your arrogance!" Yua snaps, to Shiryuu. "You do not stand over Mimi so easily as to grace her with a wish!"
It's impressive, of course, that Shiryuu is able to do half of Yua's job at the same time as Miho's -- but Yua's credit, of course, is her devotion. She is devoted entirely to her task, and in this way, she prevails...
... though Shiryuu may be able to tell that she would be a formidable opponent in the matter of Navigation, even were her attention split.
(There is a reason why she is such a shining jewel.)
"Mimi!" Yua cries. "He sharpens himself!" Of course, she supposes, he must; surely he could not withstand Miho's might if not for his tricks. But one of those tricks --
"Paper?! What treachery is this!" Yua has the bare moment to gasp, before he looses his arrow, and Yua shrieks as she clutches Miho's sword-case tightly to her chest, her eyes scrunching shut.
She can't bear to look--!
She does, though, a moment later, hearing Miho's voice as commanding as ever, and breathes a ragged sigh of relief to see her unpierced. (Though, her arm...)
"Show him, Mimi!" Yua cries, as she employs her very own tricks.
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
He recognizes the ability of the shining jewel of the Order. Even in the annals of 'that organization.'
He straightens slowly, the paper elements of Hishinmeisen smouldering, catching fire as it burns away to nothing. The fittings of Bankosoujin rattle ominously as Shiryuu holds Miho's overhand stroke harshly at bay, his thigh burning from the prior injury, his arms aching. But the silver-haired shinobi's face is a painted, darkened, burdened viper of a smile.
"Ayo... Ijuuin..." the boy starts conversationally, grimly inserting a bit of levity as if they were not two trained killers trying to kill one another in extremely rigorous fashion.
"... is it cute or is it troublesome when she talks like that," he says of Yua, who is currently bitching out his right ear. He looks personally affronted, just a tad. "ah, sou..."
"I guess there's not that many people who can resist my pureblooded ability, so it's fine, I guess..."
CLANG! The blade shrieks, as Shiryuu manages to deflect it to the side. The young man is devillishly hard to pin down definitively, crossing legs with her briefly in a flash-step-fast work of footplay before deflecting her blade anew, driving the boy back with a 'itt-a!' and -- admittedly, more of a stumble than he'd like.
By the time he stands, he's surrounded in blue chains. They aren't attached directly to him -- instead, he can recognize the lactic acid sear in his muscles when he moves, the harsh burn as he curls an arm. He looks up, the music faraway now, the boy hissing through his teeth. Checkmate.
"Looks like this is it..."
The kannushi slowly lifts the staff in a hand, holding it by the bottom quarter, as he suddenly banks away from Gretchen, the hemp sensation singing as if the priest leapt off of something that simply wasn't there. With a single stroke, he swings mightily. The chains around Shiryuu rattle as the wind is kicked up .. and it begins to rain.
At first, the rain doesn't reach here, underneath the overpass as it were, outside the reach of the schism as it were. But the wind nips at the young man's haori, chilly and cold, and soon that 'memory' is omnipresent. The rain is a memory of cold banal misery, vast and inescapable. Her tampering causes the rain to flow in strange, obscure, crazed directions, but it itself causes that distant shadow to squeal audibly, as if attacked in the night. For Shiryuu? He closes one eye.
When it opens, it is shining blue.
It is a -weird- similarity.
"But see, you're wrong," he answers Yua finally, simply. A low, dark sigh slides past his lips. He -is- tired... he tests his wrist against the cerulean chains, the hilt of his sword lifted.
"I -am- the one who grants wishes."
Slowly, the last light crackles, fading, dimming, and finally dying, as its source is snuffed out. Slowly, the rain turns black, and snuffs out too the rhythm, the beat, and everything else. Soon, it's the only sound, that and the scent of wet hemp and wood. Soon, even Shiryuu's shining blue eye cannot be seen for the torrent black.
Yua feels the shinobi move, feel him lift his sword. And when he moves, it is instantaneous, as he hunts the Faust King down in the rain.
If he touches her, there will be blood.
AS: Tandem! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Wind skill The Winds and Rain of Akita on Miho Ijuuin! 2 Hits!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 60 damage from Exhaust!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara: Exhaust removed!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Avoid Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 96 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita. Critical Hit!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 68 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita.
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara is unable to continue fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Treachery? Of course. Miho would expect no less. She is the shining warrior, the jewel of the Ijuuin family... but he is a shinobi, and she does not expect him to meet her with straightforwrd attacks. ...But they indeed, have attacked in rigorous fashion.
"Cute," Miho is sure to answer for Yua. "She is always adorable. ...But such things are for me alone."
CLANG. Shiryuu is able to deflect, but Miho keeps coming. It is too fast for the eyes to track, still, an even if there is a stumble his counterstrike is enough to prevent her taking advantage.
This is it, he says. Checkmate. ...But Miho knows that the cornered man is the most dangerous.
That staff is lifted--and the chains rattle. The rain reaches even here soon enough, with the wind coming. The 'memory' of rain...
It seems appropriate to Miho, even as the rain dilutes the blood at her lip and arm, sticks her coat to her shirt.
That eye shines blue. Misery is inescapable...
But to Miho, Hell is not to be run from. It is to be fought through.
Miho will have a wish granted. And that wish, this time, is for victory. Only sound is heard, and only that sound. They clash, and they move past one another in the dark.
...Miho takes the slashing wind on her shoulder and at her side, and the blood flows.
But she stands, remaining, turning around to salute with her blade.
"...I understand," she says. "This is your nature, then."
"...I will not collect my answer tonight. I must meditate upon what you have given me already..."
"Faust, attend me."
Miho lowers her blade to complete the salute, and Faust passes a hand over Miho. Her wounds begin to knit...
But the blood she has shed remains in tribute to her foe.
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Exploit! Miho Ijuuin can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Recovery skill Dia on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 79 Recovery healing from Miho Ijuuin's Dia.
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Recovery skill Dia on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Miho Ijuuin's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 78 Recovery healing from Miho Ijuuin's Dia.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"I would trouble you thrice over!" Yua snaps, at Shiryuu, because of course she can snap at him when she can hide behind Gretchen and Miho. "Turn again and again and again, I warp your foul corner! Though he drives me to the ragged edges of trangression, I deny him!"
Does that mean he's making it hard for her, too?
... it probably means he's making it hard for her, too.
(She is, of course, terribly glad to hear Miho call her cute. She will be cute thrice over, for Miho, when Miho is all who can hear her.)
Shining blue to shining red, Yua glares at Shiryuu, as the rain falls down. "Telling a story in a story in a story in a story in a story," she repeats, a record skipping, and her tone damns him though her words are secondary to her efforts.
The record does not break, until --
"MIMI--!!"
Yua shrieks, again, as Shiryuu spills her beloved fiancee's blood. But -- Miho stands, at the end of it. "I--is it over..?" She asks, her voice trembling, as she clutches tightly to Miho's sword-case.
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
"It is," Shiryuu replies for Miho, from the ground.
Slowly, the rain uncolors, going from that all-consuming and torrential pitch-black to something approximating a normal memory of cold rain. As it does, it reveals the form of Shiryuu Ryouhara, laying some ways away behind Miho.
He's not exactly unconscious, but the boy is spread eagle, laying on the ground as if intent on catching up on his sleep. His shoulder bag, mercifully, is dislodged and just under his left arm, his sword tucked across it.
If there was any further evidence needed of his defeat, one of his shoes has come untied, and he is absolutely not going to go anywhere until tying it. Uh, in a bit.
He's quite content bleeding on the ground.
"Well..." Shiryuu thinks aloud, as Miho resolves to ask him a question later. "I suppose that's weird, but fair." Not everything can be a super cool dramatic comeback, honestly.
Shiryuu spares a glance towards Yua.
Well. Not everything can be a cool comeback -for him.-
"I really should have gotten involved in school clubs," the onmitsu muses, painfully..
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Yua shrieks, after screaming her defiance, repeating that tone again and again--
But it is over, as Shiryuu says. The rain changes... and it is merely cold again. Miho nods to Shiryuu, when he answers. He does seem content enough.
"A question is a rare gift," Miho says. "It should be savored properly."
She pauses. "...We will meet again."
Of this, she is sure.
She begins to walk towards Yua. "You should have," Miho agrees. "School clubs are not only a means of involvement in your school community, but a way of bettering your own skills and indeed self."
"...It's lazy, to join the 'go home' club."
"Come, Yua. I must change from these bloody clothes."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
The boy is bleeding. Yua feels a stab of malice, momentarily, as she wonders why she oughtn't just leave him there after what he's done --
-- but she just isn't that kind of killer, the way Miho and Shiryuu are.
"Gretchen, hide us!" Yua invokes, as soothing darkness falls over Miho and Shiryuu, to hide each of their wounds in turn. Her beneficence closes the duel, establishes once more the allied ties between them; there can be no more bloodshed, this night, for the winner stands.
And while Gretchen's shadows cannot knit grave injuries... they will make those cuts easier to bear.
"Would that you spent more time in the world, and less without," Yua offers withering criticism, as Gretchen opens her arms to sweep Miho into her cage as well.
"You were magnificient," she smiles up, towards Miho, before she puts that Evoker to her head again.
"Persona--!"
Yua fires, and in another shroud of darkness, Gretchen and her captured souls disappear from the bridge.
AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Recovery skill Deep Shroud on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended.
AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Recovery skill Deep Shroud on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 93 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Deep Shroud.
AS: Eclipse added!
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
The rain slows to a drizzle, mostly the remnants of water draining from the overpass ahead. It's a little bit of a surprise to him as that pinned butterfly of a Persona casts a concealment over his wounds. Theoretically they should hide him from any further Shadow transgression, if he understood the concept right, and that comes as a bit of a surprise.
He was fully ready to have to get up and defend himself _again,_ if it came to that. Even if Sarutahiko is long since glass powder in the air, the shinobi is not entirely without defense in his incapacitation. He just needs to lay here and rest awhile, before he has to perforate anything else. Right? Right. That sounds good.
Of course, it doesn't stop him from catching stray shots as the theatre girls leave him to his very comfortable starfish on the concrete martial form. The boy thinks about Yua and Miho for awhile. Ruminates deeply on it, even. "...man..."
He sucks his teeth in annoyance, finally deciding to be nettled. "...it's not like I was just doing nothing," he protests, -long- past the point where anyone could hear or exonerate him.