Description: Objective: Minor part aquisition. Obstacle: Laconic Gedo Student. Alias: None. Summary: Cost of a single NIC? A couple bucks. Cost of a shattered school wall? A couple thousand. Cost of the chance to beat down a pesky thief? Priceless. Ayame has a couple sources of income in her near future, but the impatient girl just can't bide her time to replace a busted computer part. Besides, it's just a poor neighborhood school computer lab. What could possibly go wrong?
Breaking into a High School would seem like, well, child's play, compared to some of the places Ayame has let herself into. But Southtown schools are packed with young fighters, and Gedo's breed are notoriously tough. Waving knives or even throwing a few punches doesn't get the same reaction at this rougher campus compared to other places. The students here are extra protective of their school to boot. Mess with one and you mess with 'em all, or so Ayame has gathered in her previous observations...
Which is why the girl drops by late enough to expect not to find many students around but early enough to avoid having to deal with the alarms having been set for the night. Earlier reconnoitering helped her figure out the building's layout well enough to know where to head now that she's inside. Hands clasped behind her back, the not-student veers sharply toward the computer lab. She needs parts.
She moves with confidence, no hint of concern at being caught. Few students other than a certain clean cut student council secretary wear the uniform for Gedo, so she hadn't even bothered robbing a locker first. If anything, wandering around in uniform would just make her stand out more. The door to the computer lab is found and Ayame pauses for a moment before pulling it open.
Fortune. Luck. Random chance, for good or ill. The roll of the dice. No matter how good your planning, that's something you need to take into account in any endeavour. And that's all the more true for ones of a decidely illicit nature - as our heroine well knows.
Case in point, then. The ideal scenario for Ayame...would have been an empty room, the equipment free for the taking.
That'd have been ideal.
Instead, though, there's a student in there. A girl sprawled in a chair, one arm slung over the back, her other hand idly pushing a mouse round a pad, clicking lazily at the screen. She looks up as Ayame enters, arching an eyebrow.
"Lab's closed," Acacia says, before turning back to the monitor.
This late, surely the lab would be empty. After all, Gedo is no Justice High, where students must slave away and study late into the night to keep up with a very demanding academic curriculum. At least that's Ayame's assumption. But she finds another face present where she expected none. That's inconvenient. The strawberry-blonde offers Acacia a brief glance as she mentions the lab being closed. She allows the door to swing shut behind her all the same.
"Oh," she replies, sounding neither downcast nor happy about the news, instead simply turning to scan the wall on both sides of the door frame quickly. A lot of such labs require that students using them leave their student IDs tucked into small slots on display. A practice Ayame had always found both strange and convenient. Naturally she's hoping to find an ID for the girl still in the lab.
"I'll just be a moment."
"Hn," Acacia grunts, in reply. She's already staring at the screen in front of her - she doesn't even look up to acknowledge Ayame's statement. The lab's closed. She told the other girl that. If she wants to stay in here, it's hardly any concern of Acacia's. After all, she's not supposed to be here either.
And that's the thing, really.
This /is/ Gedo, where rules are regarded more as polite suggestions rather than, you know, actually binding.
There is indeed a little shelf nailed to the wall, a sad-looking box with numbers painted above little pigeonholes. The idea being, of course, that you leave your ID under the slot for the corresponding computer you're using. There's even a register book next to the door, for students to sign their names, and when they logged in - or out. A sign tacked to the wall advises students that they should not use computers for more than 30 minutes at a stretch.
The sign is annotated with spray paint.
The book is blank, save for where someone's doodled a poor drawing of Ryu across two pages.
And the shelf contains nothing beyond a couple wads of chewing gum and a cigarette stub.
No sign of protest on the part of the other girl in the lab. Ayame would have preferred it to be empty, of course, but she can work with this, she believes. It's just /one/. She glances over the box but finds no ID before turning to scan the login book to find it equally unhelpful. Well, if she wanted to break into a place where the students followed all the rules, she could've picked prissy Seijyun.
But Gedo has the distinct honor of being only a few blocks from the hovel Ayame calls home. A very tiny studio flat in an old apartment building with a very inspiring view of a brick wall on the other side of the single window. Ayame was trying to fix up a laptop taken from a broken parts pile out behind a shop when she came up with one dead ethernet port. Even the oldest of computers should be able to supply her with what she needs...
Acacia doesn't seem to be presenting a problem, so Ayame doesn't have to point out the very obvious point that she's still here /too/. Even better. Non-confrontational. The long haired girl veers toward the furthest station possible from where Acacia is before plopping down. Hand coming up to give the mouse that little shake necessary to wake the machine from hits hibernation... Only to get nothing. Pressing the power button likewise produces nothing. Hn.
Ayame stands up and slips down to the next station over. She has to make sure the machine works /before/ she goes to trying to salvage what she needs after all. She doesn't want to have to make two trips. A glance is cast back in Acacia's direction as she moves to the next station, torn between engaging in idle smalltalk or assume the other girl just wants to be left alone. She decides on the former.
"A bit late for homework, isn't it?"
Acacia doesn't respond immediately. She shifts the mouse a little, clicks once, twice, then leans back in her chair, tilting her head at the screen. She doesn't look over to Ayame, instead keeping her eyes on the monitor. After a few moments, she finally yawns slightly, and replies:
"Who said I'm doing homework?"
Actually, it /does/ look like she's doing homework. Or at the very least, reading something remotely educational - it's an English-language website on the screen, presumably something to do with statistics, from all the graphs.
But then, nobody said she /wasn't/ doing homework, either.
The art of the disinterested non-answer.
"Right," Ayame replies with a grin, partially born of trying to seem friendly, but also because Acacia's tone suggests she just wants to be left alone, and the blonde is more than happy to comply. As the saying always goes, all Evil needs in order to succeed is for Good to do nothing!
The girl wriggles the mouse and the monitor flickers to life reluctantly. A click on the browser tab brings up a website covered with, well, Not-School-Safe images. Okay, good, this computer is connected okay. That means it has what she needs. Probably. If she's lucky, a seperate PCI slot eithernet card that will be easy to remove. If unlucky, she'll need to pry the silicon board off the motherboard instead. She'll live with either.
Seated at the station, both of her hands press against the side of the computer case as she starts to turn it around, only to be met with resistence. Of course, she realizes. What school wouldn't have security cabling running into the backs of their computer cases? A glance under the table shows her where the quaint little padlock is dangling. Cute, she muses to herself, her right hand slipping beneath the black wrist guard on her left arm, fishing out the two pieces to a lock picking set.
Sitting up straight, she glances toward the studious student again. Just, you know, idle curiosity, that's all.
The other girl doesn't seem to be paying Ayame any attention. Her eyes are focused on the screen in front of her. With a twitch of the finger, she scrolls down the page, scanning the lines of text and accompanying figures. A far cry from the figures of a rather different sort emblazoned across the monitor of Ayame's computer. The ones on Acacia's machine are accurate to three decimal places, the ones on Ayame's are...
...rounded up.
So to speak.
Acacia doesn't raise her head.
She does, though, open her mouth.
"Only students are allowed to steal the hardware," she says, blandly.
The glance toward Acacia reveals she isn't paying attention. Or so it seemed. Ayame twirls one half of the two-piece lockpicking set in her hand idly as she leans forward against the desk, hand reaching under to pull the slack in the cable in her direction, putting the padlock in range with which to work. A small, three pin lock like that? Trivial.
The girl is just about to slip the tension wrench into place when Acacia speaks up, causing Ayame to freeze, brown eyes raising a she sits up straight, letting the lock fall back its default position at the back of the table. She quite literally looks around the room as if trying to figure out who the Gedo student is addressing, because it CAN'T be her, right?
But nope, there's still just the two of 'em. She'll have to admit. It's a little distressing that she got picked out as not being a student AND also trying to steal something all at the same time. That doesn't seem right at all!
The lock picking set pieces are slipped back into their sheaths beneath her left wrist guard and Ayame sits up more straight, raising her hands into the air, palms empty as if to show that she's not up to anything unscrupulous, "That's good to know," she remarks with a forced smile, pretending that the remark wasn't intended for her.
Sinking forward, elbow propped against the table, heel of her hand resting against her forehead, she takes hold of the mouse and closes the browser. She'll just wait for Acacia to leave. YEAH. But she has a hard time sitting still for long and her tendency to be more aggressive than not starts to kick in before too many seconds pass. Now and then she glances underneath the table as if something else has got her attention.
Another glance toward Acacia then another glance at the floor. Yeah... Sinking down into her chair a bit further, Ayame sticks her foot out beneath the table, hooking the toe of her shoe in through some of the power cables running along in the back. Without any warning, she tugs the collection of the cables back with her foot, pulling several of them out of the wall socket, causing several if not all of the computer terminals to shut down on the spot.
"Oh dear," Ayame remarks, sitting up ramrod straight again as she clicks her mouse, acting like she had nothing to do with the outage. "I hope you saved your work..."
Acacia doesn't move. She remains where she is, sprawled in the computer chair. Leaning casually against the back, her legs stretched out, one hand resting lightly on the mouse. She faces forward, her eyes still on the now-dark monitor.
In an even voice, Acacia replies:
"And I hope you'll put those plugs back."
Pause.
"Now," she adds, her voice deceptively mild.
Really, it's not a stunning case of detective work.
Gedo's a mostly male school, and the few female students inevitably get attention, one way or another. The number of non-testosterone-poisoned members of the student body is small enough that Acacia knows all of them by sight, if not by name. And aside from the Russian girl, there haven't been any new transfers this semester...
At this point Ayame is starting to wonder. A glance is cast around the room, checking the corners where the walls meet the ceiling to spot any mirrors that might be giving Acacia a better angle to see what she's up to, but that doesn't seem to be it. Eyes dart back over toward Acacia. There's no use pretending now, though, the gig is clearly up.
But that doesn't mean she thinks she's lost control of things. Hands come up to rest behind her head as she leans further back into her chair, crossing her legs at the ankles, a sickeningly sweet, patronizing grin on her face. "Hey shortstuff." Look who's talking. "Why don't you be a good little student and go tell someone," she remarks, nodding her head toward the lab door.
"This is Gedo," Acacia replies, matter-of-factly, "we're not good students."
She doesn't seem peturbed by the short crack. Of course, it's hard to tell. Her facial expression hasn't changed since Ayame set foot in the lab. Even now, Acacia's eyes are -still on the dark computer screen-. She hasn't even looked up. She hasn't so much as twitched. And her face is the same fixed mask, disinterested, dispassionate.
Like she doesn't even care.
Of course, appearances are deceiving. Aren't they?
There is a flicker of surprise as Acacia speaks up yet shows no signs of moving from the now inert terminal. Trying to get her to leave doesn't seem to have done the trick. She could've gotten the five cents worth of circuitry out in under a minute and been gone before anyone came back.
But now it looks like she's going to go ahead anyway, convinced that as unflappable as the other girl seems to be, she also doesn't seem all that interested in doing much of anything besides enjoying that seat. A false conclusion, maybe? But the evidence is pretty preponderous.
"I'll be out of here in a minute," the girl states, reaching under the desk to grab a hold of the small padlock, pulling it close. From the black velcro pouch at her side she slips out an expensive Leatherman all-purpose tool. The screwdriver attachment is pulled out as the girl opens the tool up, and then she pries it in the U of the padlock. Now that she's not trying to be sneaky anymore...
With the right application of pressure, the U brace snaps, allowing the security cable to fall limp to the floor.
"Probably," Acacia says, calmly. Her voice is even, her inflection toneless.
"But I told you..."
She lifts a foot, extending her leg beneath the tables. Just enough so she can nudge Ayame with the heavy rubber sole of one combat boot. Unless the other girl squirms out of the way, that is. Which might be quite a feat, given the tight confines.
"...only students are allowed to steal things around here. Then Daigo beats them until they give it back."
With the cable out of the way, spinning the computer case around is just a matter of pulling it against the inertia of the rat's nest worth of wires and cables sticking out of the back of it. Hn. Seperate card she notices. That's convenient. Less prying and breaking will be necessary once she gets the case popped open-
It's then that Acacia's foot nudges against her leg beneath the table and Ayame pauses in the midst of her blatent theft once again, brown eyes glaring toward Acacia as the dark skinned girl proves to be a lot more stubborn than she had anticipated. And now she's getting annoying. If this was Seijyun, Ayame would just pull out a knife and wave it at some prissy rich girl and easily expect her to go running off, probably crying even. But this is a different neighborhood. And the girl knows it takes more to intimidate than just flashing some shiney sharp metal around.
"Daigo, eh?" she replies, trying to sound 'cool'. She isn't naive about the name. It would be almost impossible to even /hear/ of Gedo High without hearing of Daigo. "Well, I didn't check the roll call, but I bet he's gone home by now," the punkish girl replies. "So don't expect him to come bail you out if you get in over your head."
She rises to her feet, sipping out of the chair all together to scoot away from Acacia's warning nudge. One hand swivels the case around a little as she eyes the number of screws she needs to take out. "You probably fancy yourself tough, and that's good. Good to have confidence," Ayame remarks, screwdriver twisting the first case screw out with a couple of turns. "But I've left a lot with the same attitude in the dust before, so seriously, don't bother me. I'm working here."
"Mmm," Acacia muses, out loud. She moves, finally. She rolls her arms at the shoulders, rotating her neck. Acacia stretches in her chair, arching her back, almost cat-like. Then she draws her feet back in, placing them flat on the floor. She stands, pushing the seat back.
"One," she says, mildly, "Daigo -sleeps- on campus, most days."
"Two," Acacia continues, as she turns, strolling casually away, "no windows in this lab. Vent duct's only a few inches across..."
She steps out of the lab.
"...one door."
This, she closes behind her, with a click.
Acacia gets up finally and Ayame's eyes glance toward her. The room is small, cramped, and not terribly inviting for anything resembling a fight if the student decides to really try and play tough. Of course, the thief doesn't care about collateral damage. She didn't come to destroy the lab, but if it happens? Eh. Another screw is removed without even looking, her eyes fixed on Acacia as the tool is moved on to the next one. "Does he now," she remarks, taking in the note about Daigo quite possibly being /on/ campus. That's worse news than she had expected. Acacia might be bluffing. But she might not be. Having HIM get involved would be a disaster. His reputation is one she's well aware of.
As Acacia points out the utter lack of exits save one from the room, Ayame glances at the impassable vent, then toward the door. What she says is accurate, but... who the heck cares? "Right." states the girl absently as her hand navigates the tool to the next screw in the case.
The Gedo student takes her leave, stepping through the door, closing it behind her and Ayame rolls her eyes. "About time," she mutters. This was already turning into more of a hassle than it should have been. If she hadn't spent her last buck on lunch, she could've just bought a stupid NIC for a couple quarters these days. If she could even find a place that stocked the stand alone cards.
The next screw is removed. Only one left. Only... the girl pauses after a moment, glancing back toward the door, brow creasing just a bit. Lowering the Leatherman to the desk, she moves back over to the door. Hand extending, she presses against the horizontal bar across the door and then leans forward lightly. The door doesn't budge. "..."
The door isn't locked. The safety bar isn't fixed in place - it gives, under Ayame's weight. The mechanism unlatches, much as it should. But it doesn't move. Doesn't swing open, pivoting on the hinges. Perhaps because there's a human body resting against the other side, keeping it firmly against the frame.
Out in the corridor, someone begins to whistle - a tuneless sound, a few deliberate bars raised in song.
*press* *nudge* Acacia will feel the light pressure applied to the door as Ayame tests her suspicion. The door isn't locked. That makes sense. Very few doors one would find at a school can lock someone /in/. But that it doesn't move much isn't a great improvement. "Cute." Ayame remarks, loud enough to be heard over the whistling she's hearing from the other side. She doesn't think it's very cute.
A hand comes up to rest against the side of her head, fingers digging into her hair as she contemplates this unanticipated turn of events. Remaining calm, the girl walks back over to the computer she had started to dismantle. She's quick to finish removing the last screw. Unplugging both the power and network cables, Ayame slides the back open, exposing the motherboard and the little card she wanted. Holding the silicon up between her fingers, the girl eyes it. A lot of hassle for what amounts to a dime's worth of parts she muses. It'll be nice to get that check she's promised from Elle. Then she can stick to stealing high dollar stuff instead!
An anti-static plastic bag is slipped from the pouch at her side and the card placed in it before she tucks it into the innermost pocket of the handy container. The leatherman is picked up, collapsed and closed, and slipped away as well as the girl returns to the door.
Up comes her foot, thick sole forward... And then she stomps the bar of the door with all she's got. If Acacia is still leaning against it, she's probably going to get more than a nudge this time.
COMBATSYS: Acacia has started a fight here.
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Acacia 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Ayame has joined the fight here.
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Acacia 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Acacia with Light Kick.
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Acacia 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
Indeed, there's resistance - for a fraction of a second. Just an instant...before the door goes flying open, the safety bar smashed all the way down. The door crashes aside in a manner that /has/ to do bad things to the hinges, a level of abuse the metal wasn't meant to take.
Through the doorway, a human figure rolls to a halt - before rising in a quick crouch, opposite the exit. A girl clad in a green camo jacket. It's Acacia, unsurprisingly. She leapt free when the door banged open, though not quite fast enough to escape a couple of incipient bruises. She's already whirling round, though, leaping up from the ground with a startling amount of speed. Extending one arm, fingers open, palm flashing towards Ayame's neck and throat...hopefully before she can clear the doorway.
COMBATSYS: Acacia successfully hits Ayame with Quick Throw.
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Acacia 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
And with that iron grip, Acacia hauls the other girl towards her, spins her round, and -slams- her against the wall of the hallway. Acacia leans forward, slightly, bringing her face close to Ayame's...and raises one eyebrow.
She had hoped to send Acacia tumbling with the kick so that she could saunter out and just be on her way. That didn't happen as the other girl manages to roll out of the worst of it. And then the Gedo defender comes back at her and Ayame tries to brush her off, one arm coming up to simply sweep aside the outstretched hand, intending to let the other girl just tumble into the door frame instead. "Not now, I've-!"
The girl learns very quickly that a quick dismissal isn't in the cards though as that arm proves remarkably difficult to budge and she finds herself gripped tightly, pulled out into the hall, and slammed up against the opposite wall with a respectable amount of force, provoking a gasp from the surprised girl. Nothing about Acacia's stature suggested to her that she was going to be capable of that kind of force.
But both of Ayame's hands are free and that spells trouble for anyone thinking to keep her held like that for too terribly long. In spite not being able to move freely, her expression doesn't seem to shift too significantly as both of her hands slip down to two small horizontal sheaths in her belt from which she draws two butterfly knives, both weapons flicked open in the same motion that they are drawn.
The only warning is the swift movement of her arms and the metallic clacking of the weapons being opened as the twin blades are already being swung upward, pointy ends first, as she attempts to literally stab Acacia in her armpits, targeting nerves, bone, and, most importantly, the brachial artery - primary supplier of blood to the arms.
Her right leg comes up at the same time, attempting to plant her foot against Acacia's stomach and give the girl a shoving kick as well.
COMBATSYS: Acacia interrupts Assault and Battery from Ayame with Unyielding Stance.
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Acacia 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Ayame
The foot slams into Acacia's abdomen, heel-first, pounding through the fabric of her t-shirt, into rigid muscle.
And completely fails to faze her, or even budge her.
She stands, motionless, in the same spot she occupied before the impact...rooted to the ground. Ayame could have been kicking a brick wall, for all the difference it made. Maybe a brick wall would have been less resistant.
The Gedo girl's head is bowed, a fall of silver hair hiding her eyes. She bends forward, slightly, hunched, a solid stance to absorb the impact. Feet apart, bent at the knees. But even that can't explain the sheer immobility of her body.
Blood drips from Acacia, a few faint specks of crimson reaching the hallway floor, thin threads oozing their way over her skin. But the blood falls from her hands, not her arms - from her palms and fingers, wrapped tightly around the blades of Ayame's knives. So tight that the metal almost begins to warp underneath the strain.
Acacia raises her head, meeting Ayame's eyes.
Then she smiles.
It's the first time her expression's changed, in this whole encounter. Shifting from an impassive mask to something, for a heartbeat, that's almost feral.
And then she slams her hard skull into Ayame's face.
Great. So someone secretly replaced the laconic, quiet Gedo student with an Iron Golem look-alike and is now waiting to see how long before Ayame notices. Well, she notices right about now as her foot is met with incomprehensible resistence. The girl that should have been kicked aside doesn't lose an inch and while Ayame feels both of her knives slice into tissue, it isn't where she was aiming - the point of impact was far too early and at the wrong angle.
Her hands pushing against the two weapons begin to tremble as she nearly forces the blades to the breaking point against Acacia's grip before she finally releases her grip on them all together. Stopping one direction of attack doesn't mean the girl is immortal... just stubborn. And well grounded. Still trapped against the wall as her shove fails to budge Acacia, she meets that smile with a twitch in her cheek, her tight lipped, neutral expression faltering.
She doesn't expect what comes next, her mind already having skipped ahead one step to her next recourse. Her right hand is raised toward the back of her head, fingers gripping the tail end of the black ribbon adorning her hair. Deceptively strong, lined with the same cabling that she uses for some of her other techniques, the black hair decoration is pulled out with a swift tug at the same moment Acacia's forehead comes crashing into her face.
The force drives her head back against the wall with a *thud*. The pain is blinding but she doesn't even have time to be aware of it yet. Acting on reflex and memory rather than sight, her right arm whips up from the side, the black ribbon trailing behind. The aim is to slip the limb in behind Acacia's neck before she can pull back from the headbutt. Her left hand comes up secondly, crossing beneath her right arm to grip the other end of the ribbon.
If she cinches the hold, she'll have her right arm hugging around Acacia's neck, holding the girl in close where she seemed to want to be, ribbon clenched tightly. It's then that her left her left arm yanks back out toward behind Acacia, drawing the ribbon taut around her neck and also providing an opposing counter force against her throat that pushes away rather than pulls her closer. While the entire sequence would put Acacia in a strange strange-hold, it's clearly just an intermediate step to setting up an even more devestating lock.
COMBATSYS: Acacia endures Ayame's Medium Throw.
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Acacia 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Ayame
The moment the ribbon is in place, Ayame shifts her right hand enough to take hold of the portion her left hand is keeping taut, allowing her left hand to release the ribbon entirely. This frees the girl up to slip to the side, pulling forward with that right arm around Acacia's neck, yanking the Gedo student forehead-first into the very spot she was slammed a moment ago.
Her right hand keeps that ribbon taut, though now all of the pressure is on Acacia's throat as Ayame is no longer hugging the girl's neck. Her left hand presses against Acacia's upper back, palm open, as she tries to keep the girl pressed face first against the wall.
It's only after the sequence that the blurriness in her vision finally clears, though her eyes are still watering a little from the headbutt to the face. "Tough break," the reprobate snaps. "Now just hold still and I'll be on my way..."
"...you break it," Acacia rasps, her voice a hoarse whisper.
Pressed face-first into the wall, she's in a bad position. Prone against the vertical surface, with a garotte round her neck, Ayame's weight forcing her forward. With the ribbon cutting into her throat, so tight that it's breaking skin and beginning to draw blood...oxygen is being cut off quite cleanly, her air passages interrupted. Even the steel-like muscles and flesh of a fighter isn't immune to abuse like this.
But while she /must/ be quickly running out of air, Acacia speaks, all the same.
"You bought it."
With that cryptic statement, she /moves/.
It's not elegant, it's not flashy, it's not acrobatic in any way, shape, or form. All she does is lift one combat boot.
And smash the heel backwards, straight at Ayame's left kneecap.
COMBATSYS: Ayame dodges Acacia's Light Kick.
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Acacia 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Ayame
"I would if I could," the girl states indifferently. Probably not entirely true. The likelyhood of her giving up her klepto ways any time soon, money or no, isn't too high. "But really. Should save your breath. Or, well, I guess it isn't going to matter in a moment..."
But Acacia insists on struggling, much to Ayame's annoyance. She sees the foot coming up and rather than take any chances at a broken knee, she hops to the side all together, releasing her right hand from the makeshift garrote, her left palm coming up off Acacia's back. All in all, she's a little skittish about getting struck by the Gedo student, and it shows with the way she's finally trying to put distance between them rather than stay in close where she often finds it easiest to put her weapons to use.
"This place must matter a lot to you to put yourself through this," the girl remarks, her tone flippant, her right hand coming up to push some of her long hair back over her shoulder. "School spirit. Rah, rah." she smirks, lazily pumping her left hand, a mocking mimickery of a pompom waving gesture.
She's had a lot of chances to see Acacia in action now though, and has figured out how to change her tactics accordingly. The problem is that the opportunity costs are /rapidly/ outstripping the gains here. Though her voice suggests a certain aloof distance, the gears in her mind are spinning a lot faster than her silly taunting would suggest.
COMBATSYS: Ayame focuses on her next action.
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Acacia 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Ayame
"Hn," Acacia murmurs, as she turns round. She coughs a little, as she forces air through her lungs. She rubs the sore patch of skin around her neck, narrowing her eyes at Ayame.
She takes a step forward, her boots scraping against the grimy flooring of the hallway.
"Nah," she disagrees, after a moment, "not really."
She says that. But the sudden burst of motion Acacia makes, well, that might be a contradiction in terms.
It's a straightforward move. She simply lunges, heading directly for Ayame. The other girl's backed down the corridor - but now Acacia just flies at her. A frontal assault. It would be tactically unsound...
...if she wasn't so much like a rushing bull, leading with one rock-solid fist.
Opportunity cost, right? The value of the best possible forgone alternative. How's that working out for Ayame, right around...now?
COMBATSYS: Ayame counters Quick Punch from Acacia with Requiem For Fallen Blossoms.
- Power hit! -
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Acacia 1/-----==/=======|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
The dimensions of the hall are considered quickly. Verticle clearance: Manageable, as long as she doesn't do anything too fancy or take to the air. Horizontal clearance: Cutting it close. Best to stick to lunges and side-smacks. No twirling unless she remains dead centered.
Good enough. Acacia comes at her with remarkable speed. Were they fighting in a more open area, the chances of Ayame being able to correctly intercept the attack would be diminished. The downside of a hall though is that there's only two directions to go for any significant amount of movement. Forward and backward. And Ayame intends to take advantage of that.
From the pouch at her side is drawn a small tube. Some might mistake it as simply a weight used for increasing the power behind her punches. But in Ayame's hands, it's so much more. Both hands take hold of it as she stabs it forward along the length of the hall, the ends of the tube weapon shooting outward into its full size just in time to smack against Acacia's chest.
The momentum of the girl is enough to push the weapon right back through Ayame's grip, and she doesn't fight it, letting it slip some... The length of it flaring a vibrant pink that would be almost pretty in another situation. Falling toward the right to buy herself room, the girl swings the entire length of the staff out from her left side, her body twisting as she gives it her all, slamming it into Acacia's side, a discharge of energy accompanying the smack, pink particles showering down from around the point of impact.
Most opponents would be bowled over by the titanium pole being slammed into their side like that, but Ayame was anticipating a rebound in this case, and that's exactly what she gets. Allowing the weapon to swing back against her side, she adjusts her grip such that the short end is pointing toward the tough girl. Two steps forward and Ayame rams that end of the staff toward Acacia, aiming roughly the level of her neck, one last scattering of chi particles fill the air around the two girls.
Acacia makes a small choked-off sound as she crumples. She breaks her fall with a hand and one knee, her bleeding palm and fingers pressed against the ground, one denim-clad knee meeting the floor. She coughs, a harsh and ragged sound, her eyes clenched shut. Breath hisses through an increasingly damaged throat, labouring through a bruised windpipe.
Then she snorts.
Acacia hauls herself off the ground, standing. She brushes a blood-smeared palm over her trousers, before clenching it back into a fist.
She cracks one eye open, staring down the length of the corridor at the now staff-wielding girl.
"Mmn," Acacia muses, the soft syllable escaping her lips.
She charges again.
The straightforward approach has already failed, once. Perhaps throwing herself at this weapon-wielding fighter, once more, isn't the most prudent of strategies.
Damn prudence.
One gloved hand whips forward, a surge of her own chi building in her arm, rushing through her bones, muscles, and out of her skin in a corona of pure concussive force. Nearly invisible, save for how it warps the air, a vibration strong enough to produce an audible sound. A bass rumble, at first, but quickly rising to a shriek as Acacia powers the punch forward.
COMBATSYS: Ayame blocks Acacia's Mass Driver.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Acacia 1/---====/=======|=======\-------\1 Ayame
The final jab delivered, Ayame backs up a couple steps, lowering the staff to her side, gripped by her right hand. The pink aura she had poured into it has diminished, seeming to pour off the lower end of the shaft in an almost fluid like manner, drops falling to the hall floor before vanishing all together.
Buying herself time at last, Ayame lifts her left arm to wipe across her face, rubbing away a trickle of blood from the bottom of her nose, evidence of damage from the stunning headbutt earlier on. Lowering the limb, her forearm smeared with a little bit of her own blood. "Hmn," she echos Acacia's musings. The fight has demanded a lot more out of her than she had expected going in, to say the least. But now she's feeling like she's got the other girl figured out. It's not easy to get around that long weapon that she manipulates with such ease, after all.
She didn't expect the girl to try again. To barrel down the hall a second time after having been smacked so hard? The silver haired youth is determined, that's for sure. But so is she.
The build up of energy in Acacia's arm is difficult to discern on sight alone, but Ayame can feel it. Sensitive to most chi manipulation, she knows that what's coming is no ordinary punch. And this time she braces accordingly. The staff comes up, both hands holding onto it now, two feet apart from each other. Her feet slip to the sides a little as she slams the weapon out to intersect with Acacia's fist.
The collision between weapon and fist is jarring, the titanium pole shoved right back into Ayame's chest solidly. It keeps herself from getting smacked by the punch itself, but the additional force that Acacia was controlling washes around the staff and strikes the girl hard, shattering her guard and sending her stumbling backward a few steps. What WAS that?
She's lucky her weapon even held up. The pole has a new nick in it, but it wasn't bent, her own body having absorbed some of the impact, her arms lacking the strength to brace it hard enough to force the metal to yeild before she would have.
The look she gives Acacia now is a lot different than before. The intent to mock is gone, the aloof indifference replaced with guarded wariness. But that doesn't mean she's holding back all the sudden. Slamming the weapon out horizontally a second time, she tries to clock Acacia on the chin at a rising angle, only to follow up by stepping in and around her, spinning the weapon against her as she does, and finishing with a swift kick with her foot into her lower back.
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Acacia with Medium Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Acacia 1/--=====/=======|=======\-------\1 Ayame
Acacia hisses, breath leaving her lungs. Involuntarily - that's what hard impacts do to you. The metal staff batters her around, before Ayame finishes with a quick blow to her spine and kidneys. She stumbles, losing her footing. And she'd fall, if it wasn't for the simple expedient of ramming an elbow and forearm against the nearest wall. That hurt her, clearly, slowed her down. She felt it.
But it doesn't seem to have stopped her. Acacia lifts her head, her eyes focusing on Ayame. Her pupils cold specks of black, framed by silver hair.
She turns, once again. The other girl is more agile than her. She's been outmanuevered, that much is clear. And there is a faint glimmer of acknowledgement in Acacia's expression. Not fear, not apprehension, but simply acceptance of that fact.
However...
She speaks, her voice calm, conversational.
"Money doesn't matter, you know," she says, flatly.
At her side, a hand forms into a fist, knife-slashed leather tightening across knuckles, blood soaking into the material of the ruined glove.
"Not the value of the theft," Acacia continues.
"But..."
Another surge of chi builds in Acacia's arm, as her internal energy pools into the limb...as she begins to draw power from the ambient warp and flow of the spiritual environment. There is no visual signature - none at all - but for a sensitive like Ayame, the signs are clear. The power builds, and keeps building.
"...crime...itself."
As the last syllable leaves her lips, Acacia moves. She slams one booted foot against the floor, pushing off like a sprinter from the starting blocks. Hurling herself forward, thrusting her arm and all its gathered power at the weapon-wielding thief.
COMBATSYS: Ayame counters Godshatter from Acacia with Bright Renewal.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Acacia 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\1 Ayame
The combo delivered, Ayame recovers her footing quickly. She's sinking a lot of effort into staying one step ahead of Acacia. After feeling the kind of power the girl can throw out there, she can't chance another clean hit. But she's able to control that polearm almost like it's a part of her body, an extention of her limbs, maneuvered with the same ease that one might flex a muscle.
As the kick is delivered, she spins around on her other foot, keeping herself facing Acacia as the girl catches herself against the wall. Her own expression has regained its confidence now, mouth curling into a bit of a smirk. Even as perspiration dampens her hairline, and beads of sweat roll down her temples to her chin, the girl is feeling a lot more in control of the flow of things now.
"Fighting crime has its costs too," the girl remarks, lowering her stance a little, feet apart again, staff held at an angle in front of her. It isn't a zero sum game. "But if it's worth that much to you..." Her tone darkens, her hands adjusting along the length of the bo a little. The staff has carried her through a lot of tight spots before, and she's counting on it now. It's one of the very few things in the world she trusts.
The build up is impossible to miss, difficult to see as it may be. That this is even more power than the last concussive punch Ayame dealt with is clear as day. She's not really sure if her weapon could hold up to a direct impact this time. Even titanium has its limits. But Acacia is dealing with an opponent well studied in exactly how limbs work, joints bend, and momentum, even incomprehensibly powerful in scope, can be redirected. And it's all that knowledge, coupled with speed, split second timing, and a dash of luck that Ayame reacts when that punch comes.
Crouching lower at the last moment but no where near far enough to get out of range, the girl jams the staff upward with a spin, the bottom end of it just barely clearing the floor at her feet, the top end of it impacting Acacia's elbow on the outside, working WITH the force of the punch to drive the attack at an angle. "Not good enough!" comes the verbal barb as the girl swings the weapon around the other way next, pushing up with both her legs as she drives the butt of it into the Gedo student's side, staying just low enough to avoid the discharge of concussive power slamming past the top of her head with enough force to send her long hair flying out behind her for a moment just from the proximity. No chi this time. No brilliant displays of energy being demonstrated. Just pure, kinetic force.
The girl doesn't move after that, the length of the weapon staff against Acacia's at the base of her ribcage, brown eyes widened, the adrenaline that fueled that split second response draining out of her slowly. She has an opening to spin into another attack, no doubt, or should at the very least be falling back to defend herself. But her mind is still reeling from what just happened - that close shave with the most frightening attack she's ever faced, and for a moment she simply freezes.
Plaster crumbles round Acacia's arm as she pulls it from the wall, her limb having sunk in all the way up to the elbow. Debris sloughs off her jacket sleeve and hand as she flexes her muscles, rotating her arm at the joints. Her fingers open and close, bits of shattered masonry falling to the floor.
A veritable impact crater dominates one end of the hallway, the damage from the shockwave cutting clean through concrete and brick. Cracks radiate from the blast area.
The sound of the collision still echoes through the building.
"Mmn," Acacia muses, as she studies the destruction, "I'll have to pay for this."
She looks over her shoulder, at the girl who smashed her off-course.
"So," Acacia continues, "it's worth that much. At least."
COMBATSYS: Acacia focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Acacia 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\1 Ayame
Better the wall than her head is all Ayame has to ponder on the destruction made manifest by Acacia's strike being forced just a little off course. A very small difference in angle, a very massive difference in outcome. It's those small details that can make all the difference though, especially with the frantic exchange of attacks the two have been going through.
Slowly catching her breath, her mind un-freezing as she tries to brush aside the close call in the same manner she brushes her long hair back over her shoulder. A couple steps back are taken as Acacia deals with pulling her hand from the wall, small pieces of rubble scattering across the floor.
"You must think yourself some kind of hero," Ayame huffs, still sounding a little winded in spite her efforts to conceal her present condition. "Going through all this just on principle? You've already caused more harm here than I have!" Another step back is taken, lowering her right hand down to brush against her skirt, drying it off - her grip starting to get slippery on the smooth staff.
"But I guess heroes don't think about that side of things too hard..."
COMBATSYS: Ayame gains composure.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Acacia 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Ayame
"I'm a student," Acacia replies, blandly, unruffled by Ayame's accusation, "they expect property destruction from -me-..."
She turns round, then, facing Ayame fully. The Gedo girl's injured, as well, perhaps just as much as Ayame is. Blood oozes from both her hands, and the way she winces faintly makes it clear she's nursing a few solid hits that /will/ bruise in just a short while.
But none of this stops her from regarding Ayame with a level glare.
"But you," Acacia continues, "think you can just walk in here, take what's not yours?"
Acacia snorts...
...and attacks. Another punch, this time a whirling backhand, pounding her fist high to Ayame's head.
COMBATSYS: Ayame blocks Acacia's Strong Punch.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Acacia 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\1 Ayame
"It's what I do," Ayame replies with a shrug, her smile shaky but present. She definitely thinks she's hot stuff now. Staying centered in the halway to give herself the most movement possible without getting caught up on a wall, the girl keeps that trusty weapon of hers held up at an angle, studying Acacia up and down as she works to evaluate the other girl's condition. That she's durable is obvious. HOW durable is the question.
Her obsticle snorts then lunges forward with a swing, but the shaft of the staff is raised up between Acacia's fist and Ayame's head, preventing yet another clean hit. The force behind the punch drives her all the same though, forced to spin with the rebound of her weapon in order to avoid getting clocked in the head by /it/ instead of Acacia's knuckles.
By now, though, her arms are getting tired. She's been really having to absorb a lot of impacts this whole fight, her arms forced to absorb concussive, crushing blow as the force of Acacia's strikes are translated down the length of the weapon into her joints. It's time to change things up a little.
Taking a step backward, she holds the staff out at her side, stepping forward and spinning around to slam her foot out with a sideways sweeping kick for the Gedo student's ankles. By now she's hoping that the girl is about as loathe to get back up as /she's/ feeling right now. Dropping her to the floor might buy her some time to make her escape at last.
COMBATSYS: Acacia interrupts Light Kick from Ayame with Ground Effect.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Acacia 0/-------/----===|=======\=====--\1 Ayame
It might.
Then again, it might not.
Ayame's kick /does/ destroy Acacia's balance.
But as it turns out, she doesn't need it anyway. She doesn't go sprawling, even as her feet leave the ground.
Just as Ayame's boot meets Acacia's, just as her kick sweeps the Gedo student's legs out from under her...
The floor beneath Acacia's feet gets smashed by a wave of invisible force. Pure chi power, channeled and released straight down - raw kinetic force exploding from Acacia's body. Propelling her like a human rocket straight towards Ayame, crashing into the weapon-user. A collision in which Ayame comes out the worst.
COMBATSYS: Acacia has saved the state of this fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Acacia 0/-------/----===|=======\=====--\1 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Acacia has left the fight here.
[ \\\\ <
Ayame 1/-======/=======|
The sweep connects and Ayame spins with it, raising her staff, intending to bring it crashing down on the Gedo student as she falls - speeding up the downward trip as it were. Intended to be a finishing blow - something to really clock the kid. She doesn't get that chance.
Just as the weapon starts its brutal swing, Ayame finds herself getting bowled over by a living projectile. It's more than just a mere shoulder slam or punch to the gut - the chi propelling Acacia lends far more power to the attack than the staff user would have expected, given the mid-air launch off of it.
She doesn't take to the assault very well. The blunt impact force is coupled with several disorienting tumbles along the floor as the girl gets knocked clean off her feet. At one point she has to let go of the long weapon or risk twisting her wrist up bad by keeping a grip on it, allowing the metal pole to fall to the floor with a ringing rattle, rolling around on the floor as Ayame finally comes to rest face down several yards away.
Down, but not out. The girl's face lifts from off the floor as she glares back toward Acacia, teeth gritted, blood trickling down her nose - the bleed started by the earlier headbutt agitated again. Her hands plant against the floor next, and then with a hiss to bite back the blurring pain, she's off, back on the offense.
Charging forward the girl picks her staff up off the floor without so much as slowing down. Step. A small amount of pressure applied to the center of the pole reveals another hidden trick to it - a sharp blade extends from one end before splitting apart, three seperate short blades all at right angles to each other, forming a strange, bladed cross on the end.
Step. The entire length of the weapon flares a bright, angry red, entirely unlike the less enraged, pink hue manifest earlier when the girl was more calm. The energy blurs behind the weapon as the girl positions it with the blade forward - a deadly, energy laced, bladed lance.
Step. And then she's upon Acacia, the valiant defender of Gedo High. Confined to the hall, the grim weapon dance is limited. Absent are the spins and twirls Ayame would unload if she had the space. Instead Acacia is forced to deal with direct stabs, sparks of chi flying off of any point of impact, as the agile fighter lunges forward with weapon time and time again. Stab, sweep to the side. Stab, sweep up at an angle. Time and time again. Occasionally the weapon swings wide, gouging the walls or slicing a gash along the ceiling as Ayame brings it to bear over and over.
COMBATSYS: Acacia interrupts Final Solstice from Ayame with Unyielding Stance.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ]
Acacia 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
The repeated impacts blast Acacia back. They rock her mercilessly, smashing into her lean form. The Gedo student grits her teeth. She can do nothing but weather the onslaught, nothing but stand her ground as the blows wash over her.
But...
That doesn't mean she's helpless.
Far from it.
Acacia's eyes narrow, as the end of the staff pulls back, readying for another stab. Acacia's eyes focus on Ayame's movements, her form.
There's patterns, cues, tendencies in how everyone moves. A really skilled martial artist trains to eliminate such things, to betray as little as possible to the opponent. But even then...it can't be eliminated completely.
It is impossible to have a perfect offense. It is impossible to have a perfect defense.
One can only do one's best...
...and hope that's enough.
And so Acacia watches.
Not yet.
Not yet.
NOW.
Strengthened by a surge of chi, Acacia's left hand blasts out. She /catches/ the steel end of the telescoping staff, her fingers and palm wrapping around the weapon, absorbing the striking force, pulling it off course. And she pulls, oh yes she pulls, reeling Ayame in. HAULING on the staff, such that its wielder is drawn towards Acacia. Or, more specifically, into the path of Acacia's /right/ hand, formed into one of her trademark iron-hard fists.
The patterns are possible to find - the bladed form of the staff isn't its natural incarnation, and her style hasn't really adapted to use it as fluidly as its unbladed version. Really the blades are for intimidation, a last resort born of frustration or desperation, when other options just don't seem to be sinking the damage she needs.
But the stabs are a gamble, leaving the weapon easier to grab than the twists and spins she normally attacks with. And Acacia gets that grip she needs to finally stop it short. The girl was already committed to it, leaning forward as she attempted to lance Acacia again. But then her weapon is pulled and her right along with it, and it's over.
The crushing punch to the face nearly shatters what resolve the girl has left. No longer able to think clearly, no longer able to even see clearly, she stays standing only because she's using her polearm for support, Acacia's tight grip on it giving Ayame just the leverage she needs to stay upright. Her eyes are clearly unfocused as she stands there, the ire bleeding out of her fast, along with what little strength she has left.
Falling back on one final, desperate attack, the girl tightens her hold, crouches down, then lunges for Acacia without the weapon at all, falling back on trying to slam her body into the girl. A shoulder slam, followed by a spin into a haymaker, into a roundhouse kick, only to run forward and try to tackle Acacia to the ground, both of her hands going for the girl's neck - the flailing thrashing of one who has been undone. No fancy technique, no demonstration of martial arts, just raw, brute force attempt to take down her enemy before she can go no longer.
COMBATSYS: Ayame can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Acacia 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Acacia dodges Ayame's Savage Combo.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Acacia 0/-------/--=====|
But it's an effort that ultimately proves futile. The initial bodyslam hits home, but it completely fails to stagger the Gedo girl. And then Acacia avoids the follow-up attacks. She breaks free of the melee, evading Ayame's last desperate gasp - taking a step back, then two, letting the wild swings fall short of their intended target. Acacia lets Ayame quite exhaust herself, knowing for a fact that the other fighter is through. After this, there's only one girl standing in the corridor.
And it's not Ayame.
Acacia tilts her head, glancing down the hallway. In the distance, she can hear shouts and running footfalls. Other students, maybe a teacher or two, heading towards the source of the commotion. They'll have company in a few moments.
In the meantime, Acacia eyes Ayame, watching her carefully for any sudden moves.
"So," Acacia says.
COMBATSYS: Acacia has ended the fight here.
As her hands go for Acacia, the other girl just isn't there anymore. Ayame wasn't going to stay standing either way, and not having someone to clench onto pretty much leaves her toppling forward to the floor. Disarmed and knocked silly, she's not going anywhere now. Propping herself up by her hands, her head bowed low, her hair falling down against her face and over her shoulder, it's all she can do to just breath let alone make any sudden moves.
The shouts of students and others from down the hall signal the worst sound Ayame can possibly imagine. The only thing worse would be police sirens. She's got no recourse though, and no chance of getting away. She's pulled a lot of stunts when the chips are down. Taken a hostage. Threatened to set off an explosive device. Cried for help and turned the situation right back around on her victim. But none of those options present themselves now.
"Well..." she manages to get out between breaths. Her hand comes up, holding the static-free bag with the small part swiped from the computer in it. "You can have this back." the girl mutters. There's really no debating that detail.
"Let me go and I'll never bother this school again." It's all she can offer and coming from her, it's questionable how good of an offer it even is. Of course, Acacia doesn't know her track record like some would. There's not a lot of time left though, and she knows her odds are bleak at best.
Bleak indeed, because with the sounds coming from further down the hallway...theyBut, surprisingly, Acacia makes no move to take the part.
She eyes the plastic bag, before shrugging.
"Keep it," she says, in a flat voice.
Acacia leans against the corridor wall - the intact one, not the wall busted up by her misdirected attack earlier in this fight. She tugs at her slashed and bloodstained gloves, pulling them off her hands. She examines the injured skin with a clinical eye - before glancing at Ayame, as if to say, 'are you still here'?
Bleak indeed, because with the sounds coming from further down the hallway...they'll have company any moment now.
Yet...surprisingly, Acacia makes no move to take the part.
She just eyes the plastic bag, before shrugging.
"Keep it," she says, in a flat voice.
Acacia leans against the corridor wall - the intact one, not the wall busted up by her misdirected attack earlier in this fight. She tugs at her slashed and bloodstained gloves, pulling them off her hands. She examines the injured skin with a clinical eye - before glancing at Ayame, as if to say, 'are you still here'?
She doesn't offer any further explanation.
The girl doesn't really waste any time arguing about it. Considering the scrapes her antics get her into, she's hardly above taking a charity offering when she sees one. Whatever Acacia's reasons may be, Ayame will put off thinking about it too hard until later. Right now her head is ringing, her face stinging, and her nose bleeding. She's not a happy camper and she's probably going to have a black eye before too long to boot.
Her hand closes over the bag and it seems to vanish from sight. Even injured, her sleight of hand is still pretty solid. Getting back up to her feet takes a LOT more effort, though, using the wall for support. She staggers over to the staff, bending down to scoop it up into her fingers, collapsing the blades first and then the entire length of it down to the much shorter tube.
She makes it over to the knives she dropped earlier, scooping them up and flicking them closed, sliding them into their sheaths. Finally she scoops up the ribbon with her free hand and turns to glance one last time toward Acacia.
"You don't say much, do you." she remarks before she turns tail and heads down the hall from the opposite direction of the approaching throng, slipping around the first available corner with only seconds to spare. Mental note: Don't mess with Gedo, she muses. It remains to see how long /that/ little lesson lasts though.
The appropriate comment to make at this juncture would be some kind of agreement.
The even /more/ appropriate comment...
...would be to say nothing at all.
And that's exactly what Acacia does. She just watches Ayame as she vanishes down the corridor, silent and still. Then, finally, she gives a small, almost imperceptable nod.
Honestly, at this point, the loss of a little piece of computer equipment isn't going to bother Acacia that much. Considering that repairs to the corridor are -already- going to come out of her pocket, paying for some component isn't going to cost much more. She can afford to do that. Unlike most Gedo students, she believes in paying the bill for damage inflicted to the building. Of course, unlike most students, she does have a good - if irregular - source of income. The paycheck from her recent SNF victory means she's got some cash to spare.
No, the important thing here was teaching that would-be thief a lesson.
Of sorts.
Acacia breathes a sigh.
No, it's probably not going to dissuade the other girl from stealing. At best, it might stop her from stealing /around here/. But that's about all Acacia can hope for.
She scowls.
It'll have to do.
Shaking her head, she pushes off the wall and turns in the direction of the incoming crowd.
She's not looking forward to explaining this...
Log created on 22:05:34 11/16/2007 by Ayame, and last modified on 12:10:48 11/19/2007.