Description: [Aranha vs. Eva] It's obvious that Aranha should have no trouble with this scenario. Leap from one structure to another? Not a problem. But can Eva stop the traceur from getting aboard? [Winner: Aranha...kinda.]
Well, it appears Eva, and, perhaps Aranha, for reasons of his own, where unable to get aboard the bus. Standing alone at the pier at midnight, gas fumes from the departing bus lifting up into the air, two combatants are left, one of which appears down-hearted.
The schoolgirl shakes her head, squeezing her eyes shut. "I can't believe this. ... I'm supposed to be on there at least to give my friend support. They're not even going to give us a chance..." She looks over at Aranha helplessly. "... Maybe we could sneak on, or do something, or..."
There's a card that falls to the ground then. Or, perhaps, it was always there, just masked by the ensuing confusion of the people boarding the bus. 'To those agents left behind--find a way aboard my ship immediately, and you'll be accepted aboard. If you can stop your opponent from doing the same.' Eva looks to Aranha. "I don't like this at all. We both want to get on there, but if we fight while getting on there, there's a possibility we'll both miss it. However..." She studies the card. "There's nothing here that says that it's limited to one. It's about wits too, right? Why not help each other get on the boat, and if we have to fight it out, we can do it there. That way, we're set."
Aranha was shocked when the doors to the buses closed on him. The thought that he was already eliminated before things began got to him. He looked off in the distance as he watched the boat moved away. He felt the wind across his face and then sighed. After a few moments he feels his own card hit him in the leg powered by the same breeze.
He only has a moment to pick it up and read it before a school girl is next to him. He raises an eyebrow for a moment as he looks over to the houseboat, then to the cranes and then to the Suiryuu itself. He's already planning for how he's getting on and in fact he sees atleast two possible solutions to the problem presented.
After Eva's finished he speaks, "Help each other? To be honest and I don't mean to offend you but I'm pretty sure I won't need your help to get on. This type of task," he says as he points out to the Suiryuu, "is something I've trained my mind and body for most of my life do. And the 'If you can stop your opponent from doing the same' part seems to prevent me from saying that more than one can board. Let's see if I can get a bit more info on the problem at hand."
Aranha's lips turn upward into a smile but it's hard to say whether it's a double cross he has in mind or if he already found a way around the language. Needless to say, he's already rushing for the houseboat and it's fairly obvious that he has a lot of speed on his side plus his foot falls are quiet and movements are efficient. No energy is wasted in his dash for the house boat.
"... You don't." Offend her, that is. "... I wish it could have been a straightforward fight, but if we do that here, it'll lessen our chances of either one of us getting aboard. As for that note... he wants adversity. However, in this situation, all I see adversity doing is keeping both of us from entering."
Aranha runs, and Eva's already running behind him. She's quick, but no where near as nimble as the spider-like Aranha. The sort of training she's done is against pain and endurance, rather than scaling machinery. She'd be able to scale the obstacle course with time, but Aranha clearly has the advantage here.
Despite this, Eva's making no moves immediately. Really, there's nothing she can do; Aranha's too fast, and the sorts of things she can think up only make her wince at the possibility of hurting the fellow fighter. So, for now, she'll have to do two things: keep up with him the best she can trust him and that smile, for now. She won't impend him anymore than she can without hurting him or dislodging his balance.
"What do you know? I'll actually get to use more than one solution." Aranha doesn't go for the crane right away. First, he searches the houseboat for people. No one home. He then searches for a piece of paper and a pen and moves behind the wheel. He pops open the cover exposing a bunch of wires and studies it for a moment before writing down a few notes on the piece of paper(bending over it so it would be hard for any onboard cameras to see it) before folding it up and slipping the paper inside and returning the cover.
He rises from the kneeling position and then moves towards a life ring attached to a long length of rope and places it next to the wheel.
With his preparations done, he turns to Eva, "I left a message for you in there. Do not open it until you see a visible signal." With that he runs to the outer railings and kicks off of it to give him the height needed to get on top of the house boat he hops up to the crane and rapidly climbed up to very top before taking a giant leap for the chain.
Upon grasping the chain, Aranha is very quick to climb aboard Suiryuu. And then there's a wait. A long wait... After awhile the boat moves well out of the range of the cranes. There's no question that at this point there's no way Eva can get to the boat now. It's possible that Eva might wonder if Aranha betrayed her but then there's a bright blue glow in the midnight sky from the direction the boat went.
When Eva pops the panel open again she'll find a note.
Dear Person I Know This Concerns,
Now that I've satisfied the stopping you condition I can allow you to read this. On the back of this note I've included detailed instructions on how to hotwire the boat. Drive the boat up to its port side and try to hook the life ring to the anchor. From there you should be able to climb aboard by climbing the rope to the anchor and from the chains on to the ship.
(A doodle of a Spider) Aranha
P.S. You owe me.
After a certain point, Eva simply 'chases' Aranha, instead placing her bets on Aranha's words. It'll at least give a good show for the cameras, at least. That Seishirou was a ninja, right? Ninjas are all about that sort of thing. At least, that's the gist Eva's been recieving from the Japanese pop culture she's absorbed. ... Preperations. Well, that sounds pretty trustworthy. After all, why spend valuable time setting up one method when the window of opportunity is steadily shrinking?
There are some points, however, where Eva cannot help but to watch the young man, nimble as an acrobat, manage feats that she in her right mind would never even *attempt*. And then, it's over. No fight, no adverse battles between desperate foes, just.... planning. And maybe not even that. She waits even longer.
Then, Eva's face falls. "... I can't believe I just fell for that." She sighs, just about to look about for that note, when she sees that light. "...!" Fumbling for the note, she strains to read it in the dim light, then..... smiles. ".... You don't even have to mention it," the Manzetti girl then says, pocketing the note for now. She'll definitely help him out any way that's feasible for her; simply sharing knowledge may be as much of a boon as any right now, considering the things Arika hinted at when they met.
That said, she'll go about her business. The notes were enough to get Eva going, and when the boat starts, the note turns to ash in Eva's hand, its transformation forced by the soft glow of chi in her own hand.
Log created on 18:33:06 08/21/2007 by Aranha, and last modified on 21:58:28 08/22/2007.