Match of the Millennium

Description: Detecting danger down below, the Demon Queen swoops in to save the day... from the Yakuza who's already saved the day. As is so often the case, misunderstandings beget violence.

[TAIRYU]
Within a certain grocery store, trouble has come abrewing. Five biker gangers, armed with baseball bats and knives have come harrassing the owner, demanding money from the register while shoving various goods from the shelves into their backpacks. Thankfully, there weren't many customers present at the time, so the gangers in question don't get many additional pockets to empty there, too.

But, there was one curious customer by the magazine stall. Casually reading through a sports magazine, even during the first moment or so of the gangers hollering through. A young man in black suit pants and a black blazer jacket over a red, collared button-up shirt. Looking up from the magazine only once one of the gangers comes up and taps the tip of his baseball bat to the underside of his chin. "Oi, Hanekawa-San," Katashi Tairyu calls out to the owner, thus, even while he stares back at the ganger, instead of responding to the demands to turning over his own pockets. "You still have the same insurance for the shop, right?"

Roughly one minute later, the front window of the store shatters into an explosion of glass shards as a result of a man in a leather jacket flying through it from the inside before slumping onto the curbside, unconscious.

Inside, the store's turned into a bit of a mess, too, with a shelf or two knocked over, products spread out all over the floor with another knocked out man on the floor by the freezer with his head pinned in between the sliding glass door and it's frame, and another slumped over a counter with his head... in a microwave oven?!

And finally, two men facing each other. Well. In a manner of speaking. One's stumbling back from a hit to his now-bloodied nose, and the other is Tairyu. Armed with a baseball bat that he sends swinging into the side of the unfortunate soul's head, sending him flying and knocking against the wall.

"Good grief," grunts Tairyu, with the final thug left hiding behind a nearby shelf, and spins the bat around by his hand until it's brought to resting in a prop over one shoulder. "No respect at all these days."

[LYRAELLE]
==*== MEANWHILE ==*==

"Yes, I know it feels like it's been weeks. I haven't forgotten about you guys! Business has just been really serious lately, you know? I wouldn't be very responsible mistress if I dragged you guys some of the places I've been~"

Hundreds of feet above the city, the Dark Queen soars through the sky, like a black bird silhouetted by the afternoon sun to those on the ground. She's speaking into a hands-free phone piece as her green eyes lazily scan the Southtown streets below.

"Oh, bee tee dubs, start looking into what it takes to campaign for mayor in a Japanese city. You know, like if you have to be a citizen or whatever. Get in touch with a lawyer if you have to. Just bill it to the business account.

The sound of shattering glass somewhere down below causes Lyraelle's elf-like ears to flick, and her eyes shift in that direction.

"Thanks, Red! You're a peach. Talk to you later, something just came up~"

==*== PRESENTLY ==*==

The first thing that likely announces the Demon Queen's presence is the large shadow cast over the store through the freshly ventilated shop window; the extended bat-like wings create a silhouette not unlike the signal used to summon a certain sometime syndicated superhero. The next would be a sweet, melodic voice ringing out through the store:

"Yoohoo~"

There's a crunch of glass and other debris underfoot accompanied by the click of stiletto heels on hard flooring as the pale, pink-haired, and black-horned hell-babe steps inside, dressed in her usual low-cut leotard, thigh high boots and matching gloves. She looks around the place casually as her wings fold behind her, her lips pursing before her eyes finally fall on Tairyu.

Her face lights up with a smile as she raises a hand to wave at the sharp-dressed Yakuza.

"Hi there~"

[TAIRYU]
"Hmm?" The sense of abnormally blocked sunlight is enough to catch Tairyu's attention, and distract him away from looking for the final thug. Not that he probably is planning on doing some desperate surprise attack, but he couldn't know for sure on that. Slowly, his head turns over to direct his green eyes to find... oh, what the hell.

"... Eeh?" The sight of Lyraelle leaves Tairyu staring, with his mouth left slightly opened from surprise with one brow furrowed down and the other arched up high over his forehead. He just stares for several good silent seconds, like his brain isn't quite managing to catch up properly with parsing the information presented to it.

"...What are you supposed to be?"

[LYRAELLE]
The corners of Lyraelle's lips curl into a smirk at Tairyu's reaction, and she shifts her weight onto her left hip and rests her right hand against her waist as her wings stretch briefly.

"Well, in general I'm supposed to be Her Infernal Majesty, Demon Queen Lyraelle, Sovereign of House Darkheart, Supreme Archduchess of Lyraelland, and whatever other titles I happen to lay claim to," the demonette rattles off languidly, arching her back and lacing and flexing her fingers over her head before relaxing again and looking more directly at Tairyu.

"But 'cute girl in a sexy demon costume' works, too, and it's usually easier for small-minded thugs to wrap their brains around."

She lifts her chin in a slight, but haughty manner.

"Of course, I'd imagine they think of me as 'that bitch with the hellfire,' once they get to know me better."

The succubus' arrogance seems to break into a little giggle, her left hand coming up to cover it. After a moment, she contains herself and gazes at Tairyu, green eyes lighting up.

"Ooh, you're better-looking than the usual garbage that I clean up. This is gonna be fuuuun~"

[TAIRYU]
The absolutely flabbergasted expression on Tairyu's face does recede some-- though the demon-like woman in front of him rattling off all those titles leaves him looking a measure of bemused, still.

And then, brows knit together in idle confusion. "...That's not a costume...?" He mutters, more to himself than as an actual question directed to her. "Hah..." His posture relaxes a measure, and he idly adjusts the balancing of the bat on his shoulder. "And here I thought another Darkstalker was trying to play a prank on me."

But then? Then his eyes widen a bit, over the succubus' laterr words. "'Clean up'?" He repeats the two words, before realization hits in, and... "OI! Hanekawa-San!" He calls off to the side, towards the counter. "Get out through the back door! Hustle!"

Attention snapping back towards Lyraelle all over again, he shifts one foot back, posture lowering to a more prepared stance all over again, brows furrowing into a scowl while his eyes set into a sharp focus on her. "Tch... Didn't think someone like you was gonna come as reinforcements to some two-bit store robbers..."

[LYRAELLE]
Hanekawa-San wisely heeds the words of the young yakuza. However, Lyraelle's sharp ears prick at the sound of the shop owner's feet beating their way out. A quick flick of the succubus' right wrist and a green whip of infernal flame blazes into being in her hand, snaps back, and -

*KRAK*

The apparently tangible fire-whip wraps around the store owner's ankle, tripping him off his feet and abruptly ending his attempt at egress. A tug on the whip drags Mr. Hanekawa a couple of feet closer before the whip releases him, curling back down to lick at the floor as Lyraelle lowers her arms at her sides in a fighting stance.

"Nah ah ah, no easy getaway for you~"

TThe demonette turns her attention back to Tairyu, then smiles the same smile as before - though there's a definite ironic edge to the expression now.

"Don't worry. I'm not here to prank you... just to show you who's in charge around here~"

With that, she gives a tilt of her head that causes her ponytail to swish, accompanied by a coquettish wink.

"Let's get started, shall we?"

COMBATSYS: Lyraelle has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Lyraelle         0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Tairyu has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Lyraelle         0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Tairyu

[TAIRYU]
"Hanekawa!!" Tairyu roars out by instinct over the sight of a whip of fire lashing out at the store owner. At least it's not much more than tripping him over and dragging him back, but *still*. It's enough to make Tairyu's blood start boiling. "You..."

Teeth grind briefly together within Tairyu's mouth. "Show me who's in charge? Tch... I've been..." Suddenly, his foot stomps forward and his weight tips over-- and that baseball bat previously held in his hand and against his shoulder is launched towards the demon. "--Hearing that too much lately!!"

And a pace behind the flying bat, Tairyu himself has set into a dash to close himself in on her.

COMBATSYS: Tairyu successfully hits Lyraelle with Large Thrown Object.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Lyraelle         0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0           Tairyu

[LYRAELLE]
As the bat flies end over end toward Lyraelle, the succubus ducks her head down just moments before it reaches her - but miscalculates the angle of the bat in its spin, resulting in it smacking the crown of her head anyway. All of the demonette's pomp and playfulness goes up in smoke as her teeth clench and eyes flinch briefly shut.

"Who throws a /bat?/" the demoness demands to know as her green eyes open, one at a time, turning sharply toward Tairyu. "You'll pay for that! You and your stupid suit!!"

As Tairyu charges in in the wake of the thrown bat, the demoness steps forward and spins, swinging her scantily-clad right leg up toward the oncoming yakuza, flaunting the leg in question for all onlookers - save Tairyu himself, for whom only the narrow heel of the boot is on display!

COMBATSYS: Tairyu counters Medium Kick from Lyraelle with Dragon's Tail.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Lyraelle         0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0           Tairyu

[TAIRYU]
"'Who throws a bat', huh?" Tairyu repeats the demoness' demanding question, even while he continues his post-throw approach to her with an intense focus in his eyes. Even when the heel of her foot is on a collision course with his face, and...

But. Instead of smacking into the Yakuza and sending him flying, he pivots himself on his feet at the last second, with both hands grabbing at the outer side of that loooong (and mostly bare?!) leg to help not only further redirect the blow away from him, but also to pull her along forward and disturb the balance of her other foot while his back is nearly turned to her from that turn.

"Welcome to the streets!" finally comes his answer to her question, as he springs back from that deflecting turn, launching a fierce elbow back to her face while his other arm lets go of the leg again.

[LYRAELLE]
The extended leg is captured; even in control of it as he is, Tairyu will likely be able to sense the superhuman might of the member. When the elbow comes crashing into her face, the demonette reels, head snapping back, then her whole body falling over as her right leg is released with her left still unbalanced by Tairyu's maneuver. In the end she winds up on her back, a pile of leathery wings, leathery tail and leather boots thrashing as she clutches at her face with her gloved hands.

"Urrgh! You better nod hab broken by nove!" the succubus shouts, her fingers muffling the sound but not able to prevent it from being heard throughout the store and even in the street outside thanks to the absence of a noise barrier at the moment.

After a second of the tantrum, Lyraelle kips up to her feet with a push from her wings. She leaps at the Yakuza, trying to grab onto him by the arms, glowering as she tries to capture his eyes with her own. Her nose is bleeding a little, but doesn't appear broken - perhaps by the grace of the same supernatural power behind her kicks.

"Listen, buster... hit me as much as you want, but leave the face alone!"

With that, she'll rear her head back, before slamming it forward at Tairyu for a horny headbutt...

COMBATSYS: Lyraelle successfully hits Tairyu with Demondriver.
- Power hit! -

[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Lyraelle         0/-------/=======|=======\=------\1           Tairyu

...and then, with the yakuza off-balance, Lyraelle latches onto him, wrappinng her arms around his body and legs around his waist in clear disregard for any sense of personal space. Her wings flare, and the pair launch upward like a rocket - the hell-girl's horns smashing their way through the ceiling and sending plaster everywhere as they fly up through the roof and into the open air. The pair achieve what could easily be described as a dizzying height, particularly given the flight's involuntary nature on Tairyu's part, before her Infernal Majesty flips the pair upside down.

"Welcome... to HELL!!!"

And with that, the succubus reverses course - plummeting down in a death spiral through the hole before smashing into the linoleum with a fiery green explosion shot through with arcs of electricity!

[TAIRYU]
Tairyu actually takes a step back when Lyraelle slumps down onto her back. He merely assumes a prepared posture, with one fist held up and parallel to his chin. "What's wrong?" He asks of her. "You're brimming with all that unnatural energy, and you were expecting ring rules when you just came picking a fight with someone like that?"

He doesn't take advantage of the tantrum at all. He waits patiently for her to get up... But that, as it turns out, was a severe mistake on his part. Her wings get her up much quicker than he expected, and before he even realizes it, he's already caught in her trap!

"Whu-" Is about all he manages to get out before the demoness' horn-adorned forehead slams right into his own with such force that he's sent wobbling back... or he would be, ayway, if it wasn't for her wrapping around him and taking him up for a flight. With the jostling to his head from the headbutt, he doesn't even fully register the trip up high to the sky, and is left giving several concerned looks around himself with the realization they are immensely high.

And down they go plummeting. Tairyu sees the grocery store and the ground approaching much too fast, but his struggles amount to very little.

"...Ah. I don't know if his insurance covers this..."

SMASH! The floor shatters underneath the impact of Tairyu's pile-driven head, and when Lyra lets go of his body, he's sent slumping and rolling across the floor in a limp pile of limbs, jacket and shirt both torn and burned here and there by the burst of electricity. He lays there, for a short moment, before...

"Ghhg--!" An open palm slams onto the floor to push his upper body up, and a knee props him up into motion to send him up all the way onto his feet, wobbling from side to side as he does. "...Hhhhh. Didn't expect that..." He growls, and then turns around to face Lyra again... with thick rivulets of rad dripping down from his scalp over his face. "...Not that I have any right to complain either."

"But!" In spite of the earlier wobbling, he's suddenly closing the distance in one quick pounce and driving a fierce left hook towards her. "I'm not done yet!!" A right hook is to follow, while his foot tries to maneuver itself behnd one of hers to act as leverage for a following open-palm slam to send her flying over and down onto the floor.

COMBATSYS: Lyraelle blocks Tairyu's Combo Grapple.

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Lyraelle         1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1           Tairyu

[LYRAELLE]
The succubus herself is staggering a little as she gets up from the impact crater, pushing a hand over her face before sweeping her bangs out of her eyes and grinning wickedly at the aftermath of her assault. She still appears off-kilter as Tairyu takes the initiative and leaps at her with a flying fist - but her own hand comes up just in time to block the left hook.

*WHUMP*

"Good~"

*WHUMP*

Her other hand comes up to deflect the right hook as she twists slightly with the blow.

"I'd be disappointed if you were~"

*WHUFF*

The palm strike, at last, makes contact - but it's deadened by the demonette's gloved hand clamping around the yakuza's scorched sleeve, and a shift of Lyraelle's foot puts the heel on the toe of Tairyu's footwear to keep the sweep from working.

The result is that Tairyu's palm is, for a moment, trapped harmlessly against the hell-maiden's chest.

Lyraelle tilts her head to the right, bangs spilling to the side, winks, and blows an air kiss.

Then, with whiplash-inducing abruptness, the succubus spins, trying to pull Tairyu's arm around her shoulder between her neck and right wing and imbalance him with a slam of her hips to his groin before bending forward and wrenching to toss him over her shoulder, if she's able.

COMBATSYS: Tairyu blocks Lyraelle's Combo Grapple.

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Lyraelle         1/-------/=======|=======\=====--\1           Tairyu

[TAIRYU]
Tairyu's steadily getting into some dire straits here, in spite of his earlier luck. His hand sheepishly peer at his open palm left pressed against the demon's chest for a fraction of a second before she's manipulating his arm out of the way completely.

There's a realization that hits him, when that electrifying hip-smack comes in (even if he manages to turn his own waist to avoid getting hit into any too-sensitive parts). This opponent's not at the same level as all the opponents he's faced before, as a Yakuza. He should be considering himself lucky that he isn't still laying on the ground and KO'd after that near-orbital piledriver. The electricity's still jolting at his nerves, too, making every hair on his body stand up on end, and he goes flying over her shoulder...

But, all that accumulated damage to his jacket and shirt adds up, and Tairyu, as it turns out, takes some advantage of it. With a tearing sound, the fabric falls apart underneath Lyraelle's hands, and Tairyu damn near falls out of the clothes halfway through the throw. He still gets sent in a toss over the demoness, but rather than hitting the floor bluntly, the subtle adjustment to her hold from the destroyed clothing lets him turn his own fall and flow into a roll that sees him getting back mostly upright on one knee.

With his jacket now completely gone and the red shirt torn up severely, those who would pay attention to such things would notice an enormous tattoo peeking out from it all over his back. The tattoo is colorless, with only non-filled in outlines, as something work in progress, though even without the colors the image of a fierce japanese dragon can be seen there, soaring upwards with part of it's body coiled around the sun.

But, either way. From that one-kneed position, Tairyu is near-immediately springing himself up into a forward pounce, but he maintains that lowered posture even as he closes in, all the way up until he's barely even a step away from her. And there, he slams one foot to the floor and sends his whole body springing up again, and carrying one open palm in a nearly-perfect vertical line towards the demoness' jaw.

COMBATSYS: Lyraelle blocks Tairyu's Rising Claw.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////              ]
Lyraelle         1/------=/=======|=======\=====--\1           Tairyu

[LYRAELLE]
Pulling back up to her full fighting height after the shoulder toss, Lyraelle smirks at the state of her opponent's attire, her gloved fingers wiggling as she holds them at her sides.

"Nice tattoo~" she compliments in a sing-song.

Then, as Tairyu rushes at her once gain, the succubus snaps a hand up - blocking the palm strike once again, her heels sliding along the hard flooring as she's pushed back palm-to-palm by the thrust.

"I said... lay off the face!!"

The expression on the demonette's face is one of severe determination for a moment; as much power as may press back against the gangster's palm, the succubus seems to be taking the threat to her aesthetic seriously, at least. Finally, she breaks away, her expression shifting mercurially into another smile.

"I'll make it easier for you... or harder, depending on how you look at it~" she says as she turns around and puts her legs together, swinging her arms back.

"If you can't help aiming for the face..."

The devil-girl dips, then swings her arms forward again as she leaps up at the broken shop window, grabbing onto the window-frame and swinging from it.

"...I'll just give you another target~"

As she swings, Lyraelle's legs come up. Then, swinging backwards, she does so with surprising force - adding her own locomotion to gravity as she comes flying at Tairyu barely-covered-bottom-first!

If she should manage to knock the yakuza down, she'll try to pin him to the shop floor by seating herself on him as her serpentine tail suddenly takes a life of its own, seeking to wrap around the nearest available appendange. Far more subtle but at least as dangerous is the tail's supernatural power - a suction on his essence that Tairyu would feel, should she succeed.

COMBATSYS: Lyraelle issues a challenge!!

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////              ]
Lyraelle         1/------=/=======|=======\=====--\1           Tairyu

COMBATSYS: Tairyu fails to counter Royal Requisition - Dark Queen's Throne from Lyraelle with Tiger Drop ES.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Lyraelle         0/-------/---====|

COMBATSYS: Tairyu can no longer fight.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Lyraelle         0/-------/---====|

[TAIRYU]
Tairyu clicks his tongue once, though a little belatedly, over the compliment from Lyra. "...It ain't done yet," he confesses on that, but it's all he cares to say on the matter right now. Especially considering he just had to retreat from another intercepted attack.

And then, with her swinging through the windowsill, he sees his end approaching there. An attack that he instinctively knows will end the fight for him, if he isn't able to avoid it. But the angle and momentum she's setting up are unusual, and an aerial attack will surely be guided by the wings on her back. Can he even evade it?

There is one card he has left to play. One that doesn't involve running. Instead, he stomps his foot on the ground and faces the winding-up demoness head on. Watching her with careful focus, while his right hand curls into a tight first, drawn back far with the knuckles pointed down. This one will decide it all.

She swings through and into the air, and he turns his weight to respond to it, starting to bend his knee--

Only to find a part of her body he was not expecting at all coming at him.

"Eh?"

The split-second disraction is a fatal one, it turns out. The attack he had intended to clash with hers never fully forms, and instead Tairyu is sent slamming down onto the floor and sliding a few feet along it with Lyraelle on top of him. All the while her tail captures his hand, still curled in a fist as it is.

"Hhhgh--!" It's something worse than all the electricity. Worse than the piledriver. Worse than any of the attacks the strange lab-coat cyborg had thrown at him the other day. His back arches and teeth grit together while he tries to push the woman off of himself, to no avail. The supernatural force within her has already taken the strength he could have used to escape the hold.

"You..." Tairyu eventually manages to let out breathlessly, with a sudden cease in his struggling. Head lifted up off the floor, he peers up towards her face and... smiles? "That was... a good win... Let's do this again... yeah?"

The instant the last word comes out past his grit-together teeth, his eyes roll far up and back in their sockets, leaving just the whites of them visible for the two remaining seconds before his head slumps back down onto the floor.

And he no longer moves.

[LYRAELLE]
Having succeeded in confounding and suppressing her prey, Lyraelle sits triumphantly atop Tairyu's middle, legs on either side of him. As her tail siphons away the Yakuza's energy, the succubus draws in a slow breath through her nostrils and closes her eyes before sighing like someone who's just settled down with a cup of coffee. The words from behind her seem to cause her to snap halfway out of her reverie, though, and she turns over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow at Tairyu.

"Eh? Do this again? In like, what, five years? You're going to jail, obvs. I'm not gonna just let you off with a beating for robbing a store! Where's the press in that?"

Sensing the gangster's fading consciousness, she sits up a little, pulling at her own tail to unravel it from around Tairyu's wrist - seemingly with some resistance from the appendage itself - and turns around to sit with her face toward the yakuza's, still straddling the criminal for great justice. She leans down and reaches a gloved hand out to smack Tairyu's jaw lightly with her palm.

"Hey, robber boy! Back to the land of the living, I'm not done with you! How many more of you are there?"

The demoness' pointed ears perk up, perhaps hearing something, and she looks around the shop for signs of movement.

"This'll go a lot easier for the rest of you if you turn yourselves in now~"

[TAIRYU]
Tairyu doesn't wake up so easily. Not after nearly getting the soul drained out of him. His limp-necked head does jostle a bit humorously when Lyra slaps it, though.

When she calls out and turns to look, she'll find a leather jacket-clad fellow with a shaved head frozen mid-step there. With a partially-open backpack hung from one hand. Not suspicious at all!

"O-...oh! Good job, ma'am!" The fellow chimes out after a few seconds of akward staring back at Lyraelle before he straightens up, forcing on a smile. "Haha... That guy was so scary! He beat up all my friends there and took the store's money there, see, see?" He prattles on, while pointing from one unconscious... biker ganger... to the other, in various places around the store. "I'll just... uh... go, yeah..."

[LYRAELLE]
The demonette's eyes follow the backpack-toting biker's finger as he points out his unconscious compatriots strewn about the smashed-up shop like so much human debris. She looks down at the gangster that she herself has rendered incapacitated as well. Then, she looks back up to the last biker standing whose only desire, it seems, is to quit the scene.

"So, now that this guy is a situation that's /clearly/ under control, and all of your friends are - is that guy's head in a microwave? I mean -"

Lyraelle focuses her green-eyed gaze back on the biker after snapping them back to the one in question during the moment's distraction.

"- right. Shouldn't you be calling an ambulance, or the cops, or at least, you know, hel-"

Lyraelle's face screws up as she suddenly starts to stammer.

"- he, hel- CHOO!"

Accompanying the sneeze is a far more violent outburst - twin beams of infernal green chi flashing like lasers from the sneezing succubus' eyes, searing holes straight through the backpack that the biker is holding. They vanish as quickly as they appeared when Lyraelle's eyes shut tight, but the damage is likely already done.

[TAIRYU]
The biker practically squeaks with surprise when hs backpack gets LASERED! Lasered, of all damned things! And the two holes created at the bottom of the pack...

Bills fall out. Several bills of differing denominations. Along with a couple more expensive products carried by the store.

"Ah..." The biker looks down at the backpack, over to the demoness, down to the unconscious Tairyu, down to the backpack again... and so forth and so forth. Up until he announces in a panicked yell, "I'LL LEAVE THEM TO YOU THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!"

ANd just like that, he's bolting into motion, tearing ass towards while leaving a trail of floating bills behind him towards the front door... actually, no, the shattered window besides the door that Tairyu tossed one of his friends through.

[LYRAELLE]
A flutter of her eyelashes later and Lyraelle has recovered from her apocalyptic sneezing fit. As her eyes regain focus, they narrow in on the fleeing bandit. With an exasperated groan and roll of her eyes, the succubus pushes herself up off of Tairyu and onto her feet, pivoting in the same motion as the hell-whip from before burns back into existence in her gloved right hand.

"Sorry about that~ I'm allergic..."

The blazing cord shapes into a lasso as Lyraelle spins it above her horned head before loosing it toward the biker.

"...to BULLcrap!!!"

Snaring the biker gangster around the arms and torso as he's about to make it to the window, the demoness gives a fierce yank, reeling the thug spinning back into her clutches, where she grabs him by the shoulders and doubles him over while thrusting a leather-clad knee up into his chin. The fire-cord snuffs out again, allowing the near-escapee to topple back onto the ground next to Tairyu.

"Now, we're going to set a few things straight, here - are you unconscious?"

The demon girl glares down at the biker, then squats down on her heels between the two gangsters, reaching over to smack the biker's face with her gloved hand before doing the same to Tairyu again.

"Ughhh," the demonette groans with a put-upon expression, folding her arms across her knees as she waits for one or both of the pair to wake up.

[TAIRYU]
"Gaaaah!" The biker is easily snapped back over with the whip. Eyes widened while he's held by the demoness who is winding up to bring on further punishment. "Wait, wait, wai-!!" He tries to plead to her, only to get a knee to his head for his troubles. "BUGYAH!" ...And left slumping on the floor like a pile of useless meat. Well then.

Neither him or Tairyu really wake up. Not from the demon girl's urgings, at least. THough, after a moment...

"....Nnnnhrrrr..." One of Tairyu's eyes cracks open. The green iris twitching this way and that while it attempts to find some focus... and eventually finds it on Lyraelle.

"...Oi, oi, what are you still doing here?" He mutters, voice low and hoarse from the abuse his body (and inner reserves) has taken. He doesn't even make an effort in trying to get up, right now. "...Nnh. Woulda thought you'd vamoosed with the money already. ...Ya cosplay robber."

[LYRAELLE]
"Ex-cuse me!"

Tairyu's victory in the race to regain consciousness earns him the prize of being chosen for further domineering from the Demon Queen - though at least this time, rather than using him as a chair, she hovers just above him, propped up with her hands and knees straddling either side of his shoulders and legs as she looms face to face like an irritated cat, tail flicking behind her and all.

"Firstly, I come and go when I please. Secondly, I am /not/ a robber -"

Her head dips down so her lips are near his ear for him to feel her breath momentarily, further establishing her insensate relationship with personal space as she adds, "- or a cosplayer, in case you hadn't noticed -" before pulling back again, "- as I clearly came here in the spirit of intervention against violence and crime!"

She closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath, shoulders tensing before relaxing as she sighs it back out.

"Hanekawa works here, doesn't he," she half-asks, half-states, her tone flat and eyes still closed.

[TAIRYU]
"Nnnnhhhh you're too loud," grumbles Tairyu during all of that, and he briefly closes his eyes when she leans to whisper into his ear. The fact that he doesn't react at all probably suggests he was well aware enough of that little factoid, by now, indeed.

"Hanekawa-san owns the shop," he confirms for her, then, in an even deadpan. "Good thing his building insurance is pretty good. That hole you made on the roof is gonna cost a looooottta money."

"And you know..." Eyes narrow, now. And even with these particular words, he maintains that near-perfect deapdan. "You keep straddling me like that, someone's gonna get the wrong idea, woman."

[LYRAELLE]
Lyraelle's head cants a little to the left, pink ponytail-mane swaying with the motion as one of her eyebrows curve questioningly at the yakuza's assertion.

"...And you really think I look like the sort of person who cares what ideas people get?"

Despite the sardonic response, the succubus does slowly lean back onto her haunches, holding a hand out for Tairyu to take, should he desire (and trust) her assistance.

"Come on. This is as much apology as you're gonna get, seeing as you threw a baseball bat at my head."

Whether or not the hand is accepted, she'll push herself back up to her full height once the response is clear, then take a step back and start rummaging her person. Somehow, she manages to produce a business card from inside her costume - despite the obvious lack of pockets.

"Here, give this to Hanekawa-san. I'll pay for the roof, on top of whatever the insurance shells out for."

[TAIRYU]
The offered hand is met with a narrowing of eyes from the Yakuza. Squint. "... You assaulted the owner with a whip made from actual fire," he points out, with that stare. "What did you think was going to happen?"

He does, ultimately, accept the hand with a grunt, and with the help of that grasp, gets himself up onto his feet. Wobbly feet, but still.

"Haw?" The business card, too, is eyed over suspiciously before it's taken, and quickly read. Though... he can't help but mutter, "Where did you even pull this out of...?" underneath his breath before he peeks up to her again.

"You do this a lot, then? Swooping in to electric-toss people around and asking questions later?"

[LYRAELLE]
Aside from listing out Lyraelle's name - ostentatious and superfluous titles and all - the business card's details mostly seem to include contact information and an address for FightTube and Patreon account holder 'DemonQueenLyraelle.' It also mentions the demon girl's status as a professional exhibition fighter and cosplayer.

Not much less honest than most peoples' business cards, probably.

"I thought you were telling him to /bail/ because he was your partner in crime," the demonette says tersely, apparently reluctant to justify her actions. "I mean, why would you have a /bat/ in a /store/ if you weren't here to smash the place up?"

The hell-girl huffs, arms folded beneath her chest. "If there's trouble on my watch, then yes, swooping in and saving the day is my gimmick. The electric thing... not so much. Hellfire is more my element."

She looks Tairyu up and down, expression softening just a smidge.

"...Speak of which, sorry about your clothes."

COMBATSYS: Lyraelle has ended the fight here.


[TAIRYU]
"... Because I took it from one of the people who were actually smashing it up," Tairyu deadpans back to her. Not that he can't understand why it would look very, very different to someone who missed everything that happened roughly ten seconds prior. "Yo didn't think to check first?"

The card is shoved into his pants' pocket - thank god those are undamaged - and he turns his back on the hell-girl long enough that he can go search for a shirt or rainjacket or something else the store might carry. If only to cover up his inked back.

...Nevermind that each step he takes is still a very, very much unsteady one. Hits to the head are one thing - those he's familiar with at least - but getting the lifeforce sucked out of him was something else alright.

"'Gimmick'," his voice rumbles out, with a subtle hint of amusement wthin his tone, while he's searching the shelves. "You might wanna work on that. Insurances down here only go so far."

[LYRAELLE]
Lyraelle's ears flatten a little at the chastisement on Tairyu's part for not thinking to check. She fumes a little at the yakuza's back as he turns it to her, her hands curling at her sides and tail stiffening behind her in vaguely feline fashion. When he brings up the insurance issue again, she snorts derisively, lifting a heel and scuffing it against the floor.

"I already said I'd pay for the roof! The place was already trashed when I got here, you know! I wasn't the one who broke the window front... or that microwave, for that matter!"

She clips up behind Tairyu, the report of her shoes making no secret of her approach, and she reaches up to try and grab him by the shoulder and turn him around to face her - and if she doesn't manage to do that, she'll step around him instead and interpose herself in her quest for direct eye contact. Personal space seems to remain a non-issue for the demonette.

"Look... this had better not turn into bad press for me, okay? I totally had the best intentions, here. So, imagine I have a carrot in this hand, and a stick in this one..."

She holds her hands out to either side, looking at each in turn indicatively, then back up to Tairyu.

"...and if you or anybody else slanders me for this, I'll take them both and shove them somewhere unpleasant."

She pushes both her gloves together, then upward demonstratively.

"Got it?"

[TAIRYU]
"You're not wrong," Tairyu admits sheepishly, with a look given to the goon whose head was smashed into a microwave. "And I got the same deal with Hanekawa-san. But..." A look up. "I'm not usually *that* deliberate about it."

He pauses with the hand on his shoulder, and he's brought to facing Lyraelle all over again, green eyes meeting her own green orbs without hesitation. Even after the nearly-one-sided ass kicking earlier, he doesn't so much as recoil under her stare and... uh, diplomacy.

"...You sound like some - hhhh - would-be-politician now," he rumbles, with a hint of lingering pain behind his voice. His own hand comes up, giving just enough of a swipe to nudge her hand off of his shoulder. "I don't care - hnnnh - about your approval ratings or whatever. Pay your dues to Hanekawa-san and that's that. And be a bit mindful about how you're sweeping in next time. You know people on the street might have seen you smack Hanekawa-san down, right?"

His eyes draw down to her pushed-together hands, and... even while he, still, maintains his stoic, faintly-scowling expression, he deadpans on her carrot-and-stick pantomime, "And some people would probably pay money for *that*, you realize."

[LYRAELLE]
Lyraelle looks down at her own hands as Tairyu makes his remark, her eyebrows lowering as she considers the yakuza's words for a second. Eventually, she looks back up at the gangster's face, scowling faintly back.

"Yeah, well, carrot-and-stick negotiations can be about positive reinforcement, too, right?"

She lowers her hands back to her sides, her gaze dropping slightly as well.

"And I'm not a politician - /yet/ = but everything's political nowadays. I have a fanbase, you know? Actual dastardly acts could have a bad impact on my celebrity supervillain status."

The devil girl seems troubled by the prospect - a slip in the otherwise brazen facade. Lyraelle lifts her eyes back up to Tairyu's.

And then, something strange happens.

The Demon Queen actually shows some interest in someone other than herself.

"So... what were you doing stopping these guys, anyway?"

[TAIRYU]
Tairyu... doesn't exactly seem particularly impressed by the revelation of Lyraelle's celebrity...ness? He just stares back at her quietly for a few seconds before muttering, "Good grief..."

He's turning away from her again, though he pauses briefly, when he sees that brief hint of troubled emotions on her features. "...Guess you care a great deal about that." It's... not entirely clear if that's meant to be a compliment or something entirely different.

With that, he completes his turn, and snatches a shirt from one of hte shelves, finally, with one hand, while hte other tears off the remants of the red dress shirt from his body. Briefly leaving that un-filled-in full-back tattoo completely exposed before he slips the shirt on. It's... a white souvenir shirt with "I <3 SOUTHTOWN" printed on the front in obnoxiously colorful leterrs. It'll do for now.

"Isn't it obvious?" He offers in initial answer to her question, with a sigh. He turns on over to head to the counter, picking up the wallet that fell out of his utterly-destroyed jacket earlier, and digs out some bills to leave by the register. "A man's supposed to look after his own. THat's all there is to it." Also the store pays protection money to his Family, but that's really only a small fraction of the reason for him.

[LYRAELLE]
Lyraelle stares at Tairyu's back as he wanders off to place some money by the register. She folds her arms across her chest, shifting her weight to her left hip as she leans a little, posture slouching somewhat.

"Uh huh... I get that, I guess."

Of course, for the Demon Queen, 'her own' would refer to whatever she happens to consider herself to be dominant to at any given moment - a fluctuating, but generally fairly broad category. She seems to be caught up in thought for a few more lingering moments.

And then, subtly, her expression shifts - the smile of the jovial monarch slipping back across her lips. Bending down, she picks the still-stunned biker that she dispatched earlier by the collar and wraps an arm around his shoulders before producing a smartphone from her person. She raises it up at arm's length, tilts her head, and winks at the camera before taking a selfie alongside the manhandled miscreant.

*CLICK*

Letting the robber simply drop back to the floor and tucking her phone away into her leotard, Lyraelle turns to Tairyu, still wearing that smile, all sense of apology or anxiety gone from her features.

"Anyway, I've got some business to get back to... so, I'll be seeing you later~"

There's definitely a hint of a threat behind the otherwise pleasant farewell, and the demonette accompanies the words with a small flutter of her fingers and wink over her shoulder as she turns for the broken window frame. Then, spreading her wings, she swings her arms back, then forward, launching herself off through the gap and up toward the afternoon sky.

[TAIRYU]
Tairyu turns back from the counter just in time to see Lyraelle... taking a selfie. He doesn't interfere in it, but he does stare with utter bemusement. And even rumble out, "Seriously...?" Once the phone camera's shutter clicks. He shakes his head. Sheesh. Why does he keep running into all the weirdos around here, lately?

And oh, he definitely notices it. That underlying threat within her words. His scowl deepends to somethng more than just an idle thing, while he watches her sweep out through the window and up high again.

"Tch..." He clicks his tongue against the roof of his moth with frustration, and peers down at his own hand, only managing to curl it weakly into a shaking fist now. "... Guess a punch meant to drop a tiger isn't good enough for a monster like that.

He will just have to get better, then. Better enough to be worthy of completing the tattoo on his back.

Log created on 06:48:38 06/18/2020 by Lyraelle, and last modified on 09:01:01 06/20/2020.