Description: Objective: Quiet time to do research. Obstacle: A visit from someone she knows...? Alias: None. Summary: Don't interrupt a girl in the midst of cleaning her weapons.
If one is to go looking for Ayame, there's a few places to search her out. She often can be located at the large, extravagant Casino operated by Blackjack where she frequents the blood sport arena beneath the large structure. But sometimes the girl returns to her roots to get away from the commotion and excitement that the Blackjack life has brought her. Back to a run down apartment building on Gedo street. With the income she has now, she could afford to upgrade... but she has yet to.
While her room is up on the fifth floor, Ayame has come to use the broiler room in the basement as a little shop of sorts. It is there that she is presently, sharpening knives, producing more of the wire thin cabling that she invented, polishing her trusty staff, Anathema, or tinkering with other odds and ends ideas that come to her mind that might help her in a fight.
Seated at a long wooden, rotted table in the mostly dark basement chamber, it hardly seems the perfect labratory. But she gets left alone here. No one else knows about it... A beaker at her side simmers. A new batch of a nerve toxin that she coats some of her small weapons with. A rack of needles gets dipped into it before the girl goes back to toying with a PDA in front of her, running wires in and out of it that are attached to a laptop sitting on the desk off to the side.
The room is warm, especially with the broiler running overtime due to needing to heat apartments for the winter. And lighting is limited to two simple bulbs dangling from wires directly from the ceiling above. The door into the room is thick metal and covered with rust. Building management has no idea anyone even ever goes in the room - it was supposed to be locked. And as far as anyone besides Ayame needs to know, it /is/.
Everything is as far as the entire atmosphere is the perfect spot for Ayame to be alone. No one is able to bother her in the sort of things as she has the place entirely to herself. It's perfect for doing experiments and other sorts.
...However?
...That's when things become strange. The light giving the place some power is flickering and going out. ....It's as if the power was shut off in the building.
The bulb flickers, then dims, shrouding the room in blackness. No windows exist, and with the door closed, the only lights visible is the dull red glow from the broiler's flames and the laptop monitor as the portable computer kicks over to battery mode.
"Hn," Ayame muses, pushing her wooden chair back from the 'lab' table and rising up to her feet. A power outage. Maybe a storm rages outside? Deep within the cement tomb, she wouldn't know. Almost no sound gets in or out of the room. Or maybe it's just the old building's wiring getting worse, like usual.
Either way, it's annoying. She knows the room by memory though and doesn't need lights to find her way to the door. And what little light enters the room provides enough to see by anyway, if just barely. Turning away from her lab table, the girl strides across the room with confidence, as if being able to see at all was of little importance when it comes to navigating the chamber.
The power outage is one thing.
However, the several whispers are another thing. It appears in the form of a wind's breeze. Soft, whimsical, hard to descipher. But that breeze soon manifests in the form of the whispers that are audiable.
The problem is... it's hard to make out.
At least until the question is asked.
'Why did he choose you?'
Normally the only air movement in the room is the air currents moving around the broiler, hot air rising up to be vented out through a shaft above the old heating device. But what Ayame feels now is different. It brings with it a chill that isn't consistant with the dry air of the heater and Ayame pauses.
And with the disturbance is a voice. Whispers. Barely heard above the sound of the gas flames in the header running over in the corner. Where is that sound coming from? Is she overhearing something from outside the room? No... it sounds closer. Is she hearing voices in her head? Maybe. She has been called crazy before. Perhaps it's true.
The girl whirls around once, eyes narrowed as she scans the brick walled chamber, backing up slowly toward the door now. She doesn't call out vocally. To do so would be to acknowledge she hears anything at all. And from what she can tell, she really /shouldn't/ be...
There is a black mist filling the room. The problem is ... where is it coming from? It actually manifested from the ground, spreading all across the area.
'Answer me. .... Why did he choose you? ... Why? ..You humans... No matter.'
Slowly, manifesting behind her, the mist gathers in the form of a black jacket wearing figure. He's a five footer. The hood silhouttes the face and any traces of hands are covered with the gloves.
Then, the inaudiable whisper fades away.
Instead? It's just a mere child's voice. A child...
"Die. Human."
A hand outstretches along, calling forth a wire to coil along the boiler room's vicinity, tracing forth a single knife and it immediately hurls it out towards Ayame's chest.
COMBATSYS: Jesen has started a fight here.
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Jesen 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Ayame has joined the fight here.
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Jesen 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Ayame negates Thrown Object from Jesen with Sudden Fling.
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Jesen 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
As the mist begins to form, the first thing that comes to mind is that something is wrong with the ventilation. Maybe the room is filling with carbon monoxide and she's hallucinating the voices. Must get out, get to uncontaminated air. She might even need to get medical help depending on how severe the poisoning is...
But just before the girl concludes that that is in fact what is happening, the mist takes form in the figure of a male child about her height, a hood keeping her from identifying him immediately against anyone her mind recollects right off hand. Though there are some stature simularities to someone...
The glint of a knife flung across the room is met by a matching knife from Ayame, the two weapons pinging off and reflecting off to opposite corners without threatening either fighter.
After the knife collides with the knife of her own, the figure stands there motionless. The head creeps forth to shift right at the girl, allowing silence to fill the air.
The figure starts to creep towards the woman, holding down a wire from around the wrist. Slowly, his hand twists in a rythmical manner, coiling the wire around the hand.
"...Why... what does he see in you humans?"
The boy immediately lunges forward, swooping over to dash behind her, driving forth his knee towards her stomach. Should that strike true, he'll launch an elbow at the back of her neck.
COMBATSYS: Ayame parries Jesen's Light Kick!
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Jesen 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
"Who are you?" comes the obvious question, the girl glancing off to the side only briefly as the throwing knife rattles to the floor. "Nevermind that. What do you want? I don't remember wronging you before," she states, smirking faintly. Did she mug him before? She doesn't /think/ so. "You can't just come in a girl's humble lab and start flinging knives around like that!" Preparing for what seems like it is likely to be an alteraction here, her right hand slips to the clasp of one of her belts, clicking it to cause it to release.
Who is he talking about? Who is the 'he'? Hmph. Even caught off guard as this, Ayame is fast, and that's demonstrated with the way she reacts to the youth's attempt to get in behind her and direct a knee into her stomach intent on crumpling her to the ground.
As the knee comes up, the long haired theif raises her own leg to deflect it to the side before stomping that foot down to aim toward his other foot, trying to pin it to the floor for a moment. It's then that she slips that belt off her waist, revealing it to be a chain whip instead. "Now maybe I'll get some questions... once I've choked the fight out of you a little!" she snaps. Ramming her shoulder toward the boy's side, the girl tries to sling the belt around the kid's neck.
If she pulls it off, she'll slip in behind /him/, just like he tried to do to her a moment ago, and draw the whip tight while driving her foot into his lower back, trying to wrench him into a very painful, choking hold.
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Jesen with Blackmail EX.
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Jesen 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Ayame
Her ability to avoid the incoming blow at such a range is remarkable. As she uncoils the belt from her waist and wraps it around his neck, the mysterious boy is caught off-guard by the intent.
He was going to fade away, but he opts for something different, now that he's caught. He hisses at the woman, then he calmly draws his psycho power into manifestation. Ebon blades are slowly forming in his hand, glinting dangerously.
Then, he flings it outward while he's held, letting the blades slide out to pierce against her leg and the other to her chest as he's trying to slip out of the chokehold.
COMBATSYS: Ayame dodges Jesen's Soul Shards.
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Jesen 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Ayame
"Hah, gotcha," the girl grins, jamming her foot into his back and pulling the whip tighter. "Now... we'll have a little chat about what you thought you were up to." And for that matter, how the heck he got in here without her hearing anyone budge that heavy, metal door?
But in the dim light the dark blades of energy are even darker still and Ayame's eyes notice them just in time though her senses do not. The whip is released, the girl twisting around to the side just in time to let the powerful blades go flying off toward the wall instead of impaling her flesh.
In the course of that turn, the girl's foot slams out, swinging in hard toward Jesen's gut from his side. If she gets contact, she'll lean forward and try to grab his nearest ear in her hand. She's going to get a grip on this kid one way or another! "Hold still, squirt!"
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Jesen with Light Kick.
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Jesen 0/-------/-======|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
This is becoming very annoying.
Very fast.
The hooded figure gives off a gurgling hiss as the blades strike the wall The posture pulls itself back into place, tightening his fists before the arms lift up once more. This will have to end soon. She is proving to be quite a pain.
And she makes another point of overpowering the boy by planting her foot against the creature's stomach. But, as she attempts to grab a hold of the boy's ear? ...Her hand is promptly smacked away from touching anywhere near the face.
"...You asked who I am...."
Soon, the black aura is slowly manifesting about him. All around him, that aura is enveloping and shaping itself into some form of demonic creature. The draconic face of the daemon takes shape in the form of the aura. It... consumes the figure. Or rather, that figure -IS- that aura.
"THIS IS WHAT I AM!"
The child shrills as it aims to grasp towards Ayame's stomach, the hands now engulfed with the ebon, misty claws. Should it get close enough, the 'claws' will sink and and result in a blast to send her to the wall with her other gear.
COMBATSYS: Ayame dodges Jesen's Raging Soul.
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Jesen 0/-------/-======|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
Her hand smacked aside by quick reflexes form the youth, Ayame is about to grab forward and just seize his neck instead. She wants answers, even if she has to strangle them out of him. Teeth gritted, the girl starts to step in... When the boy's aura changes into /something/.
Eyes widen and Ayame begins to fall backward, leaping into a roll to the backside of the room just as the claws attempt to skewer her stomach. Coming up on her feet, the beribboned teen's hand snatches back to grasp the six foot long hollow titanium pole that was resting against her workbench. She just finished oiling the mechanisms within it... guess it's time to put it back into service!
Bracing behind the defensive weapon, Ayame stares at the invader, eyes glancing up and down his figure as she ties to fight back the trembling in her arms at the sight of the demonic entity. "I've seen something like this before..." she murmurs, the coincidences seeming too significant to be easily dismissed. Young, male child... a black creature manifesting in his aura...
"But what do you want? Why are you here? Is this another one of your tests?! I thought you had other souls to save!" Charging forward, the polearm gets put to use as she swings for the boy's side, then rebounds off into a spin into his other side, only to finish by hopping back half a step and stabbing it outward like a lance, butting the end of it into his stomach and holding that stance, eyes focused on the hooded child in the darkness. "...is this a change in our terms? I thought... our business had concluded."
COMBATSYS: Jesen fails to interrupt Random Weapon from Ayame with Autumn Dusk.
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Jesen 1/------=/=======|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
As the clawed hand misses while she rolls back, the figure hunches its back, narrowing its eyes beneath the hood towards her. But then, that aura fades away, unable to sustain itself.
"Tests...?"
"Souls to save...?"
The tone starts to indicate that he's becoming irritated as she mentions the person who he -KNOWS- that she is talking about. That anger swells up.
"Don't... confuse me..."
The boy launches out towards her direction, a hand winded back as if he is ready to grab her face and rip it apart. But he's caught by the polearm, knocked away.
"...With /him/." That last bit is added with such distaste.
Now that she has her trusty staff in hand, Ayame is far more confident as she watches the boy warily from behind the length of the titanium pole. Still so many questions, and his answers do little to illuminate the truth. The creature fades away. It's too much like before. The fight at the chapel. The entertainment for the flowers as he had called it. The black energy that defies her ability to sense it. The demon within. The size and stature. All she can't see is his face.
"I don't understand..." Ayame admits, an unusual thing for her to do. "...are you his brother? Twins?" What are the odds on that? Nothing the mountain showed her in visions implied a sibling. No... the child was alone. There was no other. "You deny that you are the one that sought to help me, yet... everything about you tells me that you are the same."
She smiles thinly, "I think you have a LOT of explaining to do for yourself, little boy." The entity has faded away, leaving only a hooded child that she's more than certain she can take down. "You told me you were fading away though... is this visit related to that? What did you hope to accomplish by coming here?"
Tightening her hold on the staff, Ayame charges forward, unleashing another combination of strikes on him. Left and right, aiming for his forearms, and another bash toward his knee as she tries to tear apart his ability to attack or move. She has questions. She's going to beat on him until he is forced to ANSWER!
In the end, she finishes with a sideways slam of the weapon into his sternum, intended to knock the wind out of him and drive him to the wall. If she gets him there, she'll try to pin the boy to the wall and hold him in place.
COMBATSYS: Jesen fails to interrupt Fierce Strike from Ayame with Inescapeable Fate.
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Jesen 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
There is a laugh echoing from the boy, especially when she admits her lack of understanding of the situation. Clutching his chest, the youth tightens his fist and his eyes narrow. "...Jesen...." He laughs, "...I... I don't know why he chose you, I don't know why... big brother chose you.... Why he brought a human to the ramnents of the past..." His back hunches, then he tightens his fist.
"You want an explanation?" Then, he rears his head back and tightens his fists. "I die... he dies... you'll die... all of you humans will die."
He starts to laugh maniacally, feeling the rush of psycho power flow in him. As the gust pushes forth, the hood slides right out, revealing....well. He looks slightly different from Jesen in style. There are no glasses on his face, and there are bangs covering the right eye as the youth laughs.
He extends a hand out, "Join us... in OBLIVION!" As the boy prepares to unleash the power, he is caught off-guard by the pole-arm in the sternum, falling back and pinned against the wall.
"....Haahahahaha..."
Ayame's weapons have served her well this fight, always managing to strike the youth just before he has the chance to unleash devestating pain upon her with his ebony hued energy. She can't sense it like chi. She's started to notice that a lot lately. She's begun to classify sorts like him in a different category in her mind. How they have this different power is beyond her, but it doesn't matter... as long as she doesn't get HIT.
"If you die, everyone dies?" the girl growls, holding him against the wall, glaring at him. "That's a pretty bold statement to make." The hood now off, she can see him for who he is. He looks like the boy she thought he was. Crazed, maniacal, but the same boy all the same. But nothing about him FEELS the same. Jesen cared about others in a strange way. Smiled. Had committed himself to being helpful to souls in need of it. This child she sees now? /Nothing/ like that.
"You're out of your mind. This conversation is over. We'll chat when you've had a little nap to calm down. If your brother hadn't helped me before, I'd probably just kill you for attacking me like this out of the blue. So consider yourself lucky!" Ayame snaps, taking a step back, pulling the staff back... And then comes the final slam to his forehead, blindingly quick, the girl attempting to put him out completely.
COMBATSYS: Jesen endures Ayame's Weapon Jab.
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Jesen 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Ayame
The boy has a maniacal grin on his face.
"You.... kill me...?" He laughs. Then, he lifts his head up to maniacally laugh viciously before he launches straight into the staff as it smashes into his forehead. However, he's rushing -THROUGH- the staff's impact, no matter how much the pain runs through.
"DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!"
The boy aims to launch his hand out, ferociously drawing forth the aura before that hand manifests into a claw once more as he seeks to impale the young woman with that hand.
COMBATSYS: Ayame counters Raging Soul from Jesen with Bright Renewal.
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Jesen 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Ayame
As he pushes against the pole, the child runs right into one of Ayame's more effective 'gotcha' attacks. Allowing the weapon to slide through her fingers as he charges her, the strawberry-blonde whips her entire body around, swinging the long end of the staff that was now behind her out and slamming for the crazed child's side, intending to drive him into the OTHER wall now.
"Look," she snaps, "It isn't normally my way to help people out, but out of everyone I've ever seen, you /really/ need it." She stands up straight, still holding her trusty weapon in front of her, every bit as dangerous to attack as she has been throughout the fight. Apparently not letting her guard down.
"If you really are his brother... then he must worry about you. That's the kind of kid he is. And... well, I probably owe him one for his help..." She actually sounds like she feels bad clobbering the boy, which is highly unusual for someone like Ayame. "... So I'm going to get you some help. For his sake."
The attempt to rip her into shreds is ineffective as he's caught with the other end of the staff, smacked against the other wall. He looks up towards the woman, then he tilts his head over towards her, narrowing for a few moments.
Then, he collapses onto his knees, holding both hands in front of him. "...Hahaha...." He considers, "....Help me...?" He actually laughs at the thought. His expression looks at the ground as the mist is slowly consuing him.
"...Jesen... what do you see in these humans that I don't see?"
He shuts his eyes, gripping against the ground. "...Rubbish... Our existance will be forfeit soon." He sneers, "...For Lord Vega... for father... eliminate.. all humans."
...And the mist overtakes the boy, leaving no traces of his presence left.
COMBATSYS: Jesen takes no action.
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Ayame 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Jesen can no longer fight.
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Ayame 0/-------/---====|
As the mist begins to collect around him, Ayame dashes forward, reaching out to try and grab hold of the youth before he can get away. But he leaves in the same way he got in. Mysteriously, and without explanation. A little on the edge, the girl is far from being able to relax... She's going to need to set up motion detectors before she can settle down to work again. Anything to alert her of strangers appearing in this otherwise locked off room.
"A brother, he claims," Ayame murmurs, right hand running along her trusty staff. "If that's true... poor kid." Exhaling slowly, she presses a button on the weapon's handle and the staff collapses back down to a half-foot long metal tube. Too frazzled to return to work, she goes over to the bench to pull the rack of poisoned needles out of the beaker and leave them out to dry.
"Saa... who knows."
COMBATSYS: Ayame has ended the fight here.
Log created on 20:13:24 12/21/2007 by Ayame, and last modified on 00:19:00 12/22/2007.