Description: The Devil of Koga's wicked ambitions come to their conclusion as the Guardian Kings come to save their own. Adelheid spear-heads the rescue effort, driving deep into the depths of Blackjack's Capital 7 Casino with the assistance of the heroes' most unlikely of benefactors. It all builds to a confrontation between the three kings and the two devils as the boys come to learn that Hell is very real. The fate of the children and monster is decided here! One of them will not be going home...
"Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon, Herr Bernstein?" A gorgeous young thing requests as she holds aloft the fine vintage, carefully balanced along her gloved forearm so the R Corporate heir can view the label of the yet unopened bottle. 1984 is the year. To those in the know, well over a few hundred dollars in price.
Sadly, it was the best they could do on such short notice. The beautiful blonde tries her best not to look too dreadfully embarrassed as a second brunette in a fine evening gown offers a tall glass for him as well.
It has been.. five minutes? Ten? Since Adelheid first strode onto the premises to the sound of glitz and glamour. Hundreds of players and gamblers mill to and fro throughout the vast halls beyond, even here in this mostly sound-proofed room, the sounds of merriment can be heard filtering through the Monet-covered walls.
The scent of fine cigars and perfumes fill the air in alternating intensity as hostesses come and go, attending to the handsome young man. Trying to very politely stall him while sampling a few expensive vices while the object of his request is apparently taking her sweet time.
At first, the floor manager had nervously told him that Lady Satsuko was.. indisposed and not to be disturbed right now. Failing that, the man had quickly shuffled out while professing to 'do what he could'. Since then? Bernstein has found himself eased into what must be the worlds most comfortable leather chair offered no small amounts of shoulder massages or cheery conversations with any number of the female of the species.
Finally.. After what seems like an eternity.. The wall-mounted plasma screen suddenly flickers to life. Revealing the image of a lovely Japanese lady. Plush lips painted violet, her skin as white as a porcelain mask. Eyes hidden behind a carefully arranged veil of black silken bangs with the rest of her hair pinned by a pair of golden needles high above. Her face is all that can be seen, as the backdrop of her current location is rather.. murky and indistinct.
"Forgive this grievously inadequate welcome, Herr Bernstein. I fear our attendants did not properly process your reservation. I assure you that this oversight will not again occur. However, by all means.." The lady inclines her head, the image taking up virtually the entirety of the screen, "I hope you enjoy your stay here at the Capital Seven. If there are any requests, please do not hesitate to ask Mister O'Neil." A well manicured hand drifts into view just enough to indicate the dashing red-haired, suited fellow by the door, whom similarly bows.
"Now.. I am afraid I am quite .. entangled in other matters. However, I believe I was told that you have a question you would ask of me? Yes?" Her expression polite, cheerful. Somewhat hurried..
Adelheid shows up in style, if not as much as he could perhaps afford, or requisition. A full-size luxury sedan, a Benz naturally, being driven by a relatively nondescript, military-looking man. With a distinct limp, were he to get out of the car. He does not, however, simply doing his job by depositing Adelheid at the Capital Seven and taking his leave. The Bernstein heir arrives as any high-roller in the world of international espionage should: Designer, custom-tailored tuxedo action. The midnight black of the pants and jacket is offset by the stark, pressed white of the shirt beneath, cufflinked in polished silver and onyx. The platinum blonde wears an ornate vest over this, swirling shades of cerulean and rich silver that mesh and mingle with both blacks and whites. No, the perfectly symmetrical bow-tie is NOT a clip-on, thank you very much.
He shows up looking, and acting, like a man of both means and power - which of course, he is. If not in quite the way that many would expect. The young Mr. Bernstein refuses wine, but otherwise is the picture of a gracious guest. Charming conversation, well-timed smiles, the graceful arch of a platinum brow. He whiles away the time in relaxed alertness, his only -real- concern at this stage being that the Gedo boys may get a bit restless. But Tenma and his crew know what's riding on this, so the thoughts pass quickly, and really, what's not to enjoy about free shoulder massages and flattery?
There's a vague show of dissatisfaction as Marise flickers to life on the -monitor- rather than showing up, and it's something that Adelheid makes no attempts to hide from the Blackjack mastermind, "I requested a meeting, not a phone call, Marise." The initial words are harsh: Intentionally so. A show of power, perhaps control, and just as meaningfully offset by the quick amendment, "Our business... is not the sort to talk about in a lounge over vid-link." He explains, rich tenor fading to something more amicable, "I'm interested in one of your current... projects." The lazy, wolfish half-smile returns, the crimson eyed youth happy enough, it seems, to recline back into the World's Most Comfortable Leather Chair. And steeple his fingers. That always works for Rugal.
The serene smile upon the ethereal beauty goes undisturbed as Adelheid's reprimand lashes at the screen. Yet another apologetic bow as the elegant woman replies smoothly, "I fear my actions are indeed unforgivably impolite, Herr Bernstein. I again beg for your forgiveness and humbly submit that matters are forcing my attentions elsewhere."
However, at Adelheid's subtle hint, again the pale ghost's fingers rise into view, daintily issuing a slight wave of dismissal. Instantly the throng of gathered attendants and escorts file out of the room with practiced and expedient precision. They are used to such things, you see. Not all business that is conducted within these gilded walls are for servants to hear.
By the time Marise straightens from her bow, the room has already been cleared as she continues without hesitation, "Perhaps I may be able to make this indiscretion up to you, my good sir. We have quite the assortment of entertainments at our establishment that I would be happy to offer in payment for my unfortunately reckless judgement." Her head tilts just a fraction as the youth seems to be interested in something specific, "Oh. By all means.. You have by to ask, Herr Bernstein.."
What could this be about?
The sudden egress of the casino's attendants draws only a cursory glance back from the platinum blonde, "I'm sure." Adelheid's half-smirk doesn't really fade, "I've been in a lot of different casinos." It's a worldly dismissal that might be unexpected from the rather young Bernstein, but nonetheless entirely sincere. After all, his entire early tenure in his father's business, as it were, involved accompanying and overseeing the various deals that the elder Bernstein had worked out with high rollers and warlords the world over. Once the door to the rather cozy room shuts behind the last lovely lady, Adelheid's hands unfold and drop to the armrests on either side of the chair, his full attention once more on Marise.
He had expected a face to face meeting, but it's entirely too late to redeal a new hand -now-, "Your... guests, Marise. The 'students'?" Even now, Adelheid maintains the utmost in discretion. No one in this business trusts a channel they don't know, and haven't been solidly assurred about. Even then... "We're..." he pauses, mostly for dramatic namedrop impact, and a moment of reflection, "Rather interested in your findings. I came here tonight to examine the... specimens." His voice remains impeccably smooth, cool... focused from a life of training with Rugal Bernstein. Of honing his mind and body into what his father demanded.
.... it's highly unlikely Rugal's truly foreseen the results of such craftsmanship. Yet.
Now this is an interesting thing.
The Devil's head tilts just a fraction. Golden needles glinting in the faint light of her location as she silently processes this request with an expression that devolves from cheerful to cautiously pleased.
She shouldn't be surprised, she reasons. She can only hazard a guess at how many people R has inside the Casino, and there's any number of transfers one of their men could have born witness to their activities. Even then, this young tyrant is remarkably well informed. Far too well informed.
The ghostly woman, for once, does not seem to have a reply on the tip of her tongue. Allowing the youth's last, lingering word to trail through the air until the quiet becomes entirely uncomfortable.
"Well, Adelheid Bernstein." Speaking now in a tone that conveys less illusionary congeniality and more respectful caution, "I find it curious that you would have known about such house guests. You are quite the resourceful one, dear sir."
The Devil's smile returns, this time a fraction too wide to be anything short of sinister, "I'm afraid not terribly many of them are going to be fit pets or servants for you once I am done with them. However.. If you truly are interested in purchasing what will be left of them, I am certain we can make arrangements." A nailed finger lifts, waving slightly, "If you happened to fancy one of them, I will understand if you demand a handsome compensation for your loss of interest. I am certain.. We can make an accommodation. Yesss?"
She really shouldn't be... even without R's considerable resources, such secrets are hard to keep. When many people are involved, directly or indirectly, and the pursuits are indisputably nefarious.... it's strange how things can turn out, and just who might turn up. Adelheid doesn't miss Marise's hesitance, or the proximity she travels towards surprised. Good. It only reaffirms the cool confidence exuded by the unusual teen, the thumb of his right hand tapping thoughtfully on the chair, "I had assumed as much." Though it's vaguely unsettling to have it confirmed. As much cattle to the slaughter, if not for...
The train of thought returns after a slow, pensive trailing of his crimson gaze off to the side, examining the room's wet bar intently for a few passing instants, "But I'm not so much concerned in their eventual condition, as their state now, and the process and conclusions you are drawing. That is my interest, and the sort of accomodation I am seeking. Don't tell me you're going to beg a need to... ah, 'clean up' before giving the tour?" One platinum brow arches, and Adelheid shifts to sit forward just a bit more, "The only thing more numerous than your, ah, 'sources and sponsors' are those who wish you and yours ill will, Marise. You would do well to focus your studies towards maintaining your... security, here." It really sounds like a threat, but in this business, it's something entirely different. It's a really good reason to cooperate.
A threat. Or professional advice.
This subtle comment is quickly interpreted as Marise inclines her head in mute gratitude. So, someone on security squealed on her.
Oh bother. She'll simply have to flay one of them at random sometime later. Right now she's simply out of time..
"Oh!" The Devil demurely chuckles into the fold of her sleeve at the youth's little metaphor, "Hardly anything of the sort, my dear sir. However.. Well.. As you can see.."
The beautiful lady then gestures to the side. A moment later the camera view begins to pan to a point to her left, revolving throughout the room and more and more of the dark expanse becomes visible. Several dark, twisted shapes can be seen faintly upon the backdrop of the high-definition video screen.
Until the feed pauses upon what looks, for all the world, like some kind of Iron Maiden crafted of three giant spiders. Enfolded within their black-wrought iron grip is a beautiful Russian teenager. Her shredded clothing clinging to her barely as she's held aloft within its wicked grip. Pincer-like blades hover just above her head, two of them tipped with a triad of lenghly shaped needles. It appears as if the girl is in the midst of being prepared for some kind of... operation of a kind. The process having been hastily interrupted in order to commit to this particular interview.
Even more frighteningly.. The girl is quite conscious even now.
"As you can see.." The Devil's voice cheerfully chimes in as the screen continues to pan. Lingering upon the first teenager only a moment before continuing to a nearby cage, within which a much younger girl is bound and chained severely. Helpless to watch the horror unfolding before her very eyes.
"..I am currently quite busy in finishing my.. business.. with them. Knnnhnn." A quick zoom, "They really are quite lovely, yes? But.. I'm afraid.. Quite expended within the hour. My apologies, Herr Bernstein."
It's really rather elegant how delicately Stasya is supported by that triplicate cage of curving metal arcs and shafts. Held in poised place, not unlike an butterfly snared and supported by a webbed network of steel, the girl is pale-faced but calm. Her dirtied clothing wraps up her frame unflatteringly, much left to the imagination-- but even that layer of swathing cloth is scant comfort against the cold of the metal cage.
Her focus is not on the blades aimed at her face. Her grey eyes have turned aside to fix across the distance upon Shurui. From the slight glaze to her look, it seems as if she is holding some sort of mental conversation with the other girl-- but of course, the words exchanged would go unheard by anyone save those two.
The gist of them? 'That girl told me,' her flickering telepathic voice says, rather faintly and indistinctly... like broken-up radio, 'that they are coming.' She is too exhausted to know what she feels about it... whether relief, guilt, fear, skepticism or anger. Were she more lucid, guilt would have claimed her mind. But nonetheless, she shares that little hope-- that knowledge someone cares-- with the other girl, and leaves it at that.
Where Stasya has remained elegant and calm in the face of danger, the other, younger girl seems more detached and faded, her body showing signs of a longer stay as one of the Casino's special guests. And yet, she and Stasya seem to be the lucky ones, two people who seem to retain some sort of human form where others have been ripped, prodded, and poked to oblivion. And yet, for Shurui, those who've known her may not even recongize her at first if not for the telltale mop of gray hair atop her hair and the seeming short height.
With pale unhealthy skin and a small body, she probably looks much like the very phrase Marise insulted her with earlier: a wooden doll, painted to be a human.
Dry chapped lips purse in a question when she hears a voice- Stasya's. Lethargically closing her dark eyes, Shurui's thoughts come through, just as faint through the delicate connection, but no less true to the girl's emotional state. 'I'm sorry I couldn't do anything, Stasya... I really wanted to get out and get help, but...' The words Stasya tells her add a solemn bit of comfort, making the girl sag underneath the weight of those chains. 'That's good... if it comes down to it, I'll try to distract her- maybe, if I convince her to let me go first, she'll....' A hiccup of true fear sours the girl's temporary spat of bravery, like a child realizing the true horror of something much more real than a monster under the bed. '.... idontwanttodieidontwanttodie'
Adelheid remains stalwart at the scene... after all, his cover relies on it, and he's not about to give up on that angle. It's the best one they've got, after all. Looks like the timing couldn't have been better, but it's rather precarious all the same. It helps that Adelheid doesn't -know- either of the girls Marise puts on display... but his actions speak loud enough, without personal involvement. Good thing there's no video feed back to the boys outside, "That's all well and good, Marise... but clearly a brief pause isn't going to cause any catastrophic shift in your... research." Adelheid pushes to his feet, cracking his neck slowly as he eases out the kinks released by the shoulder rub, that might come in handy shortly, here, "You have your objectives, and I have mine." Adelheid explains, calmly but insistently, "Mine are not satisfied by a report or diligent photography, I'm afraid. I will come to you immediately, and oversee the end phases of the... operation." The negotiation, as far as Adelheid is concerned, is not going to end with Marise putting him off to finish her nasty little business.
"It's that, or I respond, and report back, based on your lack of cooperation." Adelheid explains matter-of-factly, "Just how long -do- you need to finish, Marise?" Just how long -would- it take 'R' to mount a strike. Just how much damage could Adelheid do on his own?
The scene abruptly shifts as the camera pans back to its angle of origin. The dark shapes taking on worlds of new twisted meaning, as does the Devil's boundlessly jovial smile as her elegant visage returns front and center of the shadowy panorama, "A brief pause it has been, Herr Bernstein."
The Devil's face lowers just a fraction. Just enough for the shadows to visibly lengthen beneath her bangs, pale skin virtually aglow beneath the severe lighting of the camera, "I find it intensely curious.." Her tone drawing out in a progressively forced measure, "..That your esteemed Father is ever so interested in the fate of these meaningless children. We have done business in the past, Adelheid. I fought side by side with him. Me and mine had all but handed the Suiryuu to him. I find it..."
The Devil's voice betraying just a measure of strain in maintaining her aire of cool temperament, "..Fascinating, that your Father would risk such a mutually beneficial business arrangement over idle curiosity over two insignificant -insects-."
Perhaps realizing what tone she's threatening to adopt, the remainder of the Devil's breath expels in a slow exhale. A pause..
"..Similarly. What are two insects before such a wonderful partnership, yes?" That smile slowly returning, "..My.. experiment.. Will be complete in roughly sixty minutes hence. While the operation itself is something of a ... trade secret.. Let us say. Out of sentiment and respect.. To your Father.." Lifting a hand just high enough to be half-visible over her heart, "..I could offer you access to your facilities down below so you can.. Inspect them first hand. Yes?"
"You overestimate your own significance." Adelheid answers smoothly, "You are correct, your operations have been useful, here and there. But do not underestimate how -many- such agenst father has placed around the world, and within your own operations. You do not need to ply your ego to me, I am not the one to convince of any particular situation. If you feel you are being wronged, by all means...." Adelheid trails off, and gives an almost detached sort of shrug, "But as I said, I am here for a purpose, and however 'curious' you find it, that is... indeed... my wish. Oh, and Marise." Adelheid hooks a thumb in the pocket of his tuxedo jacket, now facing the elder ninja sidelong, "If they were so insignificant, and your procedure so meaningless, you would be neither defensive nor secretive, nor evasive. Do not presume me an idiot." The platinum blonde smiles calmly.
"But yes, access is all I have asked for. I am glad to come to you, in this instance. Simple direct me." Compliant and with a measure of bemused respect... useful, yes. But there's certainly more than a measure of truth in everything Adelheid claims. In Rugal Bernstein's life, Rugal Bernstein is significant. Not Marise, not Blackjack. Adelheid is sure of this, if nothing else, "Shall we proceed, then?"
In the face of this arrogant son's bluster, the Devil does not so much as flinch. Upon a time, perhaps, Blackjack could have been easily pushed around by one bored son of a criminal mastermind. They have grown geometrically since then. And here, in the center of their resources and power, Marise is not so quick to lower on bended knee to idle threats.
That said, even she does not outright refuse the Prince of War. The woman regains a measure of her earlier, cheerful composure as she weathers the mild storm of Adelheid's knuckle-rapping.
Of all the times this vain-glorious ragamuffin had to choose to throw his belligerent weight around, it -had- to be now when she was in the MIDDLE of something important! Criminals these days. The art-form of common courtesy is clearly dead and rolling in its shallow grave.
Ahwell. Perhaps showing him a few of her facilities down below will satisfy his craving for self-importance, he'll take a shining to some pretty thing and be on his way. Yes.. Thats it.
"We shall." The Devil inclines her head in a low bow once more, "I will send someone along to escort you. It will only be a moment. By all means.. Make yourself comfortable, Herr Bernstein." The Devil's hidden gaze glints at the video screen before the image abruptly fades to utter black.
With every passing moment, it becomes more and more clear that Adelheid's on a one-way track. It brings that smile back to his austere features, of all things, as he turns from the monitor with nothing save that triumphant certainty and moves to accompany the attendant... down to Marise, hopefully. Of course, there's no guarantees the ninja is going to keep her word, but there's little choice but to proceed. If there is a trap, Adelheid will spring it. There is no fear in the youth, and no giddy excitement or adrenaline-fueled confusion rampant in those his age. This is an important mission, after all, one which defines any number of tenets and boundaries in the son of one of the world's foremost sociopathic warlords. One dead body from being the world's greatest morality strobe, it was the judgement once rendered of Adel....
.... these won't be those bodies, not if the burgeoning prodigy has anything to say about it. He's maintained radio silence since entering the Capital 7, but then he told his allies-of-impulse he'd likely be doing so for some time to get through. Hopefully, they've maintained their patience... and readyness. The Bernstein heir swallows hard, and focuses his mind back on the job at hand... Marise is not going to be defenseless, or undefended, nor is the stronghold likely to relinquish its prisoners easily.
The Casino has been a flurry of activity behind the scenes as of roughly twenty minutes ago. At first Ayame wasn't sure what was going on. Why were attendants hurrying to one of the guest lounges as if their mortal souls were on the line? She didn't remember hearing about any important visitors today - people she would explicitly be told to leave alone lest her 'charming' nature chase off the richest of the rich from the establishment. But as she started to ask around she put it together. 'Some rich brat', muttered one of the serving girls on her way back to the staff lounge. 'Bernstein? Here? I think I'm going to take some sick time...' fretted another in passing.
The strawberry-blond wasn't dumb. Adelheid was here. And if Adelheid was here, that could only mean one thing. It was going down. Today. Alone in a hallway, the girl spent some time leaning against the wall, hands rubbing her temples. She sensed a migraine coming on. Warning Marise would be tipping her own hand. Not warning Marise would mean the end of everything. Ultimately, the woman's own style of management-by-terror works against her as the girl decides she's more willing to tempt the fate of not saying anything at all than face informing her of what Adelheid knows and what his presence implies... Suddenly a radio on her belt chirps and the girl blinks. New orders.
A door in the wall slides open and Ayame steps into the room with Adelheid. Not dressed in her usual array of random items, she's well dressed in black, a long, black trenchcoat hanging open over her shoulders. Cleaned up significantly since Adelheid saw her last, the girl still sports a bruise around her right eye - a gift from Tenma in the match. Unlike Marise, no reverence is paid the son of Rugal as she regards the young man with a soft sigh of annoyance.
"This way," she states, her tone crisp, irritated, her head nodding to the side to lead Adelheid into the inner hall. She appears to be in no appreciable hurry. Marise told her 'not to rush'. But she isn't standing still, either, the moment she knows Adel is coming with her, Ayame escorts him to an elevator deep in the core of the hotel. Mouth tight lipped, she avoids looking at him at all, mind reeling at the ramifications of his presence here.
A security pad takes her finger print, a pass code, a slide of a card she pulls from a pocket, and a retinal scan and voice print before a set of elevator doors slide open. With an exaggerated, sweeping gesture, Ayame indicates Adel to step inside the metal box. "After you."
Adelheid isn't kept waiting long - a good thing, right this moment. Marise is suspicious, he's aware of that much, and if anything went wrong, well. They might just have to start shooting the place up. And no one wants THAT, right?!? ... right? .... alright maybe that's probably alright with at least -some- of the players in tonight's little drama, seen and unseen. As Ayame steps forth from her concealed location, it's a good thing Marise has already turned over the exchange, because Adelheid's brows -both- quirk in a mix of surprise and simple, sincere amusement. The girl's tone makes her thoughts as clear as crystal, from where Adelheid is striding right behind her, and he follows her out towards the elevator. The young Bernstein's more sadistic - or perhaps irony-loving and honorable - side shows itself, audibly chuckling as his rhythmic footfalls fall. Oh god, that's just priceless. The pace is steady enough, as long as she doesn't rush to murder the children during the elevator ride.
Adelheid takes Ayame's invitation, smirking lightly as he steps into the elevator and turns back to face her, his crimson eyes all but twinkling with the same amusement he voiced moments before, "Sure you want to come along?" He muses with a disarming wink, "There are better places to be tonight."
Unlike Tenma's company, Adelheid has no particular venom for Ayame. Sure, it's a terrible act... for terrible people... but Marise is the demon he sees here. The charm and will of demons is something the platinum blonde is all too familiar with. Going down indeed. He confirms it for Ayame, even as he steps into the capsule that will either take him to his goal.... or make a play to keep him from it. Revealing his hand to Marise is a thought that's crossed Adelheid's mind, despite Tenma's certainty of Ayame's silence.
Stepping into the metal box with Adelheid, Ayame is forced to face him for a moment. Brown eyes sweep up to the younger teen's face as the girl studies him, his amusement only making her more annoyed. The warning given, the girl hmphs and turns her back to Adel, hands slipping over the row of buttons to select one at the bottom.
A hydraulic hiss announces the shutting of the doors and the plunge into the earth. "So where's your new buddies?" she asks as the box begins to descend. "Or did did you come to do their job for them?" Her back to him, she passes the time glaring at the doors of the elevator, occasionally glancing up at the digital readout indicating the floors going by. "I don't see how this is going to work. The moment she knows something is up, those girls..."
Ayame shrugs again, attempting to come off indifferent instead of petulant, her normal smooth control over her moods slipping as half of her brain is occupied with trying to figure out a dozen or two escape options from this impending disaster.
The doors open. It felt like minutes but only seconds passed. With another sigh, Ayame leads the way out. One of the walkway's walls is lined with glass opening up out over a large underground arena. The Seventh Circle. Walking along, the girl's hand reaches out, fingers running along the glass lightly as she glances to the side, down into the pit where she carved out her first foray into some kind of a fighting career. Not exactly the best job, but it beat what she had going on before. Ah well.
The glass view closes off eventually, the hallway desending down a steep incline. The lighting is minimal, merely occasional dull yellow things in the wall every several yards. Pipes of various sizes run along the walls and ceiling, making sounds associated with flowing fluids off to various places in the hotel. Dank, unpleasant, dark. Yeah, Ayame doesn't care for it much either.
"You better hope you're wrong, because if the prisoners start dying, the captors become expendable, to me." There's an almost grim intensity with which the words are spoken, the only retort or further warning the platinum blonde provides for Ayame. The elevator arrives, and he gestures politely, inviting her to take the lead. As he follows her out, a small transmitter is dropped in the elevator, and the button is pressed on the inside to take it back up. Phase one. Waypoint 'A'. The Kings are going to need to seize that lobby and elevator, both if they hope to follow Adelheid.... and if they hope to get any of them back out alive. The small device remains idle, but only for the moment. The anticipation Ayame feels hangs heavy in the air for Adel as well... if not quite so ominously, the risk is still very real.
His stride is relaxed, but purposeful as he follows Ayame into the depths of this demented little paradise. He's been to the pit, he knows what it's like... what this area implies, "Do hurry." The young Bernstein encourages the Blackjack retainer, the urgency of the situation difficult to dismiss, "We wouldn't want Marise to get antsy, your superiors do tend to be -so- impulsive, after all."
The unpleasantness doesn't draw so much as a grimace from the graceful prodigy... Adelheid has spent much of his life on board the Black Noah, and that place will give you nightmares just as surely. Part of it is just to keep his mind, and his demeanor geared towards the task at hand, but there's the weight of experience beyond youthful years, there.
Meanwhile, outside there is trouble a-brewin', as it is so often wont to do. Carefully hidden just off of the casino's property, concealed from prying eyes as well as more modern forms of detection, is a vehicle. And inside that vehicle is, well, a small group of people who are, let's say, quite interested in the current contents of Capital 7.
At the wheel of this vehicle is one Tenma Kiryuu.
"Dammit, what the hell is takin' so long?" Tenma wonders irritably. Patience is, well, not exactly one of Tenma's best known traits at the best of times, and now... With the rescue of their friend from a situation which could charitably described as 'really, really bad' imminent, at least in his mind, what patience the leader of the Guardian Kings DOES have is stretched nearly to the limit. In fact, he's been saying 'Dammit, what the hell is takin' so long?' and precious little else for nearly the entire time Adelheid has been inside.
It is only once Adelheid's signal comes through that the Gedo swordsman seems to relax at all, and that only for the bare heartbeats it takes him to switch to eager readiness. "I hope you two remember the plan!" Tenma shouts back to Hakuya and Kenji, before throwing the vehicle into gear and slamming down the accelerator. Springing to life, the transport the Guardian Kings have so /generously/ been lent - and, uh, taught to use - by Adelheid tears forward with surprising speed, making an inexorable beeline for the Capital 7 casino, homing in on the beacon.
Oh yeah, also it's a German-made armored reconnaissance vehicle. One with a big-ass grenade launcher on the top.
As the Fennek powers forward at over a hundred kilometers per hour, Tenma signals to his teammates in the back. "Make a door!" he says, fully expecting them to let loose with, yeah, the grenade launcher. Why? So they can drive the damn thing /into/ the casino, as close as they can get to where Adelheid and the others are, before firing the smoke grenades mounted on the undercarriage, to bathe the area in thick grey smoke as the Kings themselves pile out of the Fennek, ready to kick ass and take names sometime afterward.
In other words: Knock knock, bitches.
The plan?
The plan, so far as Kenji Ashima is concerned, is to bend every bar, break every face, and kick every ass that gets in his way. Like his two teammates, this is one of the rare times where his persona completely shifts, his joy and mirth gone and his expression nothing short of fury, bottled within a barely-strong-enough container. He's not wearing his uniform, his hair isn't styled up the way it usually is... and he's just -not smiling-. Gedo's Student Council Secretary is the one sticking out of the roof of the Fennek Armored Fighting Vehicle, gripping the handles of the 40mm autogrenade launcher mounted on the roof and aiming at the wall like he has a purpose.
'Make a door!' Tenma says.
"URRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH--"
Hell comes to Earth as the likes of Kenji Ashima, closer to his old self as 'Missile Fist Ashima,' lets out one loud shot after another at the wall of the Capital 7 Casino before he ducks back down into the vehicle to get some cover when they actually get to the part where they breach the building-- 'cause he sure as hell doesn't want to be decapitated on the way in.
Kenji emerges alongside Tenma, tugging on the collar of his jacket. There's something to be said for the feeling gained from making something explode like that, but for now he's going to focus on the business at hand. Evil, there's only one thing you have to remember right now...
Do Not Engage Kenji Ashima.
The Guardian Kings are a tightly knit group. And when one of those members ends up kidnapped? You'd better believe the rest are going to roll on up to the door.
It just so happens that in this case, they're rolling up to the door in a German LAV with a 40mm grenade launcher on top.
The wall gets destroyed by Kenji firing the gun, and Tenma drives right on through, and into the casino proper. Fortunately, there's likely no one to be hurt in this moment, as Marise had earlier dismissed the servants so she could talk to Adelheid in private. The smoke grenades roll out, and the room becomes a haze of 'what the hell just happened' as debris floats about in the artifical fog. A few security guards who aren't simply taken aback by the fact a big, armored truck just rammed its way into one of the meeting rooms file in, men who were just right outside the room, but they aren't able to make out much.
That is, until a gloved fist is a mere inch or two from their face.
The guards cry out as someone who doesn't precisely need their eyes moves through the fog, determining position by voices and movement, then quietly and stealthly moving up and punches their lights out. The form is only seen occassionally by the security guards, but there's something that leaves an impression in their minds. The hood of the boy's jacket pulled up over his head, hiding his features. All except for his eyes, which, while surprisingly free of killing intent, are as hard as stones.
These men, non-professional fighters that couldn't hope to compete in events like the Neo League, or more seriously, the King of Fighters tournament, are taken down in turn until there's no one left standing other than the hoodied individual. The smoke is clearing by then, and the white hoodied boy's features can be made out more easily: they are of Hakuya Suigetsu, the second member of the Guardian Kings. Clenching his fist, he turns towards where the transmitter signal was coming from - towards the elevator that would lead them downwards. "Tenma. Kenji. The guards are out. Let's go."
Usually the boy is a smiling, cheerful individual, but at this precise moment, there's none of that. Like Kenji and Tenma, his demeanor has changed. He would protect his friends. And whatever gods they worshipped couldn't stop Hakuya from coming to their rescue.
Fortuitously for the marauding cavalry, the secret elevator shaft happened to be in an area of some distance from the main floor of the Casino. Filled to the brim with mostly innocent gamblers and bystanders.
The rampaging vehicle's ordinance sunders the outer-most wall of the compound utterly, shattering the dark-tinted glass windows higher above and all around from the resounding impact and rattling the whole of the multi-story complex. Even in the darkest catacombs muffled explosions can be heard high above, shaking loose small streams of dust from the concrete ceiling above Ayame and Adelheid's heads.
The very few guards who happened to be near the scene of the explosion are all dumb-founded. Most of the hardened mercenaries in Blackjack's employ are overseas and participating in all manner of hired warfare in third world nations. While the men hired to keep a seedy casino in order aren't precisely pushovers, they wouldn't even survive recess at Gedo. A handful of guards -immediately- turn the other direction and run, coughing and hacking smoke as they stumble away from the assault vehicle as fast as humanly possible.
The ones that don't have no idea what manner of beasts just knocked them into next Tuesday as the smoke-filled area around the vehicle is swiftly coated in the prone, unconscious bodies of suited men.
In the darkest pit, a shadowed ghost's head lifts to the soft drum-beat from high above. Mere moments after the emergency radio channel screeches to life from an unseen source within the dark, "..nder attac.. peat... un.....ack.." Cutting in and out as dozens of voices overlap one another, all screaming at each other at once.
A slow, silent exhale.
A betrayal by R? Whom else could it be? Who else could mount an assault like this? It has to be. Adelheid acted with far too much information and far too much composure for a simple joyride. He wants something and he's willing to lay seige to the place to get it. But what? It can't be these children.. They have nothing of value. Hnnn.
The Devil's arm immediately reaches across the room, finger jabbing a switch as she barks, "Security. Blackjack Oh Two Priority. Assemble the heavy weapons squad and -secure- Adelheid Bernstein at Ninth Circle. The rest of you. I will have the -heads- of whomever dares at strike us on my desk within the hour, Or I will have all of -yours-." Finger lifting with a click of finality.
Of course, that brings Marise to the matter of Ayame. Better bring her best gun closer to the vest for now.
The hand manipulates the panel, switching frequencies to Ayame's personal handset, "..Ayame dear. You're needed home. Tell Herr Bernstein I have arranged an escort for him to more suitable quarters for his safety during this emergency. Tell him.. to have a pleasant day."
The radio on Ayame's belt chirps to life almost immediately after the rumble of a 'new door' being added to the building above echoes down to the underground tunnel. Voices of men caught unaware, panicked, confused come from the small speaker as Ayame pauses in her steps, pulling it off her belt and staring at it. What the hell did Adelheid /do/ up there?
Obviously not having to guess as to who is responsible for this intrusion, Ayame spins away from Adelheid, brown eyes glancing up from the radio. He's able to hear Marise's orders to the casino staff as easily as the young mercenary frowns faintly at the cacophony of noise mostly drowns out any kind of useful communication from it. "Bringing in the calvary, huh? Seems a big investment all over a couple missing kids. But what's a rich brat to do these days for fun, ne?"
A flick of the switch on the side shuts it off and in the next moment Ayame brings her hand up to the side of her head, a verbal communique for her ears only from Marise's chamber. Her mouth twitches as the girl looks up at the taller German. She isn't going to have a choice in this, the girl ponders. Her free hand comes up to tap her cheek thoughtfully, "I'm supposed to wish you a pleasant day." A wry smile and shake of her head, "And bid you wait for your escort."
A soft sigh, "So, ah," she takes a step backward. "I mean, this is a lousy place to hang out, but I'm sure you don't mind the inconvenience, esteemed guest," she continues, her voice heavy with sarcasm as she takes another step back. The Ninth Circle is a maze of winding tunnels, each difficult to distinguish from the next. Getting from there to Marise might prove to be a problem on his own!
Kaboooom. Faster than he'd expected... and hoped... but really, that should come as no particular surprise. After all, to the Guardian Kings, the stakes are quite personal. And while they lack the ..... precision of a professional squad, they certainly make up for it with enthusiasm. But it's going to take them at least a little while to get down there, and if what Ayame says about Marise and the prisoners is to be believed, well, "Not my cavalry. Like I said upstairs, your little organization has countless enemies." Adelheid smiles slyly and advances each pace Ayame takes away, "Going to run? Leave me to try to find them myself? That buys their deaths, then I'm adding you as accountable. Don't try to understand me. I don't care what you think my motives are. But your good enough to be able to sense what I can do to you."
Another step, crimson eyes narrow, "And believe me, whatever kind of tunnels and corridors and traps you have set up down here, I'll make it through. Sooner, would be better than later. So I suggest you click off that radio, and lead on. Marise is waiting." Even as he attempts to intimidate Ayame, and gain ready access to the mind behind these events... his own internal energy centers, the current shifting slightly as he reaches out. He knows from instinct and experience that he can feel proximity and power, and if Ayame decides to be uncooperative, well... he's going to have to find Marise fairly quickly, now isn't he?
One thing does shine through the smoke, though, and that's the misty aura around Tenma Kiryuu's bokken. The mingled-together blood and chi, so closely joined as to be inseparable, lets out a dark red light from the ritually blessed, wooden weapon the leader of the Guardian Kings carries... At the moment, casually in one hand, slanted against his shoulder in his usual posture of insolent, lazy arrogance.
"Tch... Smallfries," Tenma spits in disdain, looking over to Hakuya and Missile Fist, his peculiar chi sense picking them out despite the slowly dissipating smoke. "All clear here, let's go," he says to his teammates, heading towards the elevator alongside Hakuya, apparently finding enough levity in the current situation to quip: "Somebody remember where we parked."
When the elevator, sent up by Adelheid, arrives, Tenma and presumably the other two step through before Tenma hits the button /down/. There's not much time for messing around here; even Tenma isn't so arrogant as to believe that whoever's behind the kidnappings wouldn't notice them /blasting a hole into the building/.
Still, it's probably a bit of an awkward silence that reigns over the elevator ride to Marise's lair.
Though he stands there in the smoke, he doesn't have the lights on the bokken that Tenma does, he doesn't have the skill and precision that Hakuya does. Instead, he has an uncharacteristic amount of calm and resolve to him, the look in his eyes sharp and fierce. Heading to the elevator alongside Tenma and Hakuya, Missile Fist Ashima waits until they're safely inside before stripping off his jacket, tying it around his waist by the sleeves.
"Your driving sucks, Tenma."
Muttered in an offhand way, the rest of the elevator ride will be spent in relative silence-- at least until they start to near their destination. It's then that the Student Council Secretary opts to speak, rolling his right arm around a few times to help loosen it up. "Want me to bust right out the second the doors open?" he asks, not quite knowing how much resistance to expect when they reach the bottom of their trip. "Cut a road, an' all that?"
Smallfries indeed. Though Hakuya normally wouldn't have wanted to hurt these men - they were just doing their jobs, after all - they were perhaps unknowingly accomplices in this whole business, and as such, were hindrances. He couldn't stop and argue with them that what they were doing was wrong. It'd probably take awhile, and politeness was far out the window at this point. So, he'd gone for the easier option: punching them the fug out. It's likely a good thing the fog veiled him from his friends, too, because they might be a little disconcerted to note that all of his strikes were made with closed fists, something Hakuya has never done before.
Marching straight for the elevator as Tenma and Kenji fall in beside him, they make it there and begin the long ride down. ...With muzak playing. It's here for the first time that Hakuya loses that hard-eyed edge he's got going, and blinks, looking upwards at the speakers in the ceiling. "...I think the assault has already begun," he offers, his eyes looking a touch confused, even if it doesn't quite show on his face. Then he looks back down, the hoodie once more casting a shadowy glare over his resumed 'not happy' features. As the elevator comes gliding smoothly to a stop, Hakuya simply nods to what Kenji says. "It's likely there will be more guards on the way..." he glances to the fellow King, and gives a smile that doesn't really do much to soften his features. "So, feel free to continue the demonstration of how we do things, Kenji."
"Hn," Ayame replies as Adelheid promises her culpability is on the line should the girls perish due to her stall tactics. "One more person who would have an axe to grind. I think I'm used to it by now, you'd just have to take a number," she replies with a half shrug, seeming to have a hard time keeping her focus on Adelheid, her brown eyes only meeting his for furtive moments before she looks away, no longer backing away.
"You can keep me from running if you want, and waste your time playing around with me, but the clock's ticking and those girls don't have a lot of time. Especially now that she's trying to figure out what this invasion is all about." The message is pretty clear - Could he crush her? Handily. Could he do it fast enough? That becomes a bit less certain. And would it do any good in the end? Who really knows with her. A glance past Adelheid in the direction they came is taken as the girl continues, "The Gedo trash will be here soon, but they're bringing the entire hotel with them."
Already the sound of footfalls begin to fill the lower floors, voices and chatter aplenty starting to build up, echoing throughout the dank tunnels. "There's a lot of guards... Not our best, sadly, but enough to provide ample speed bumps. I suspect there will be a sizeable welcoming party when that elevator reaches the arena level..." She frowns faintly, her expression becoming more serious, all pretence at being unimpressed melting away.
"Based on the radio chatter, they broke through the walls right near the staff elevator and headed straight for it. Either you secured blueprints ahead of time and managed to predict where you would need to go... or, more likely, you left something for them to find you by. A transponder beacon, perhaps?" Ayame leans her head to the side slightly, "You're going to need to help them get through the mob at the elevator or this is going to take too long. I also can't just walk you to her room..." It's clear she's getting at something, and it's no doubt she's thinking of Number One.
"You must have another one on you to help them find you once they get down here. I'll take it with me. It will make it easy to find her room through this maze even without someone to show them the way." She falls silent then, brown eyes meeting the Bernstein heir's directly now, "But if I do this, you must make those ghetto vigilantes let me go." Surely Adelheid understands the concept of trying to make a plea bargain in the eleventh hour. The shouts are starting to get louder, movement on the various levels picking up as every last Blackjack mercenary begins pooling on the bottom floor... Time is running out.
"Like you said, I'm a spoiled rich kid.... I have a way of cutting to the front of lines." Adelheid retorts, grinning just a bit. He's quick enough to know Ayame's got the situation pegged just as surely as he does, the moment those footfalls begin up the ample flights of stairs to the main level of the casino, "That's the trouble with these fortresses. No one ever expects the trouble to -start- underground." The platinum blonde observes, or advises, concluding quickly enough, "Deal. Survive the fight, and I won't let them take you out or keep you as a prisoner. Obviously... that's the best I can do, my hands are going to be full in about twenty seconds. Unless you want to join -that- party instead."
An interior pocket on his coat is probed, and a small handheld device with a simple metallic button and cylindrical housing with a form-fitted, reinforced antenna is tossed to Ayame, "Press the button and start running. And if you decide -now- is a good time to stage a double cross..." He doesn't need to finish the thought. The risks are too high, and the odds too long for someone like Ayame to test them. At least, that's the platinum blonde's own gamble, as he spares further repartee and instead turns his pursuit of Ayame abruptly shifts, and he sprints straight for the first emergency exit. He slides in to meet it, dropping a hand to his leg and moving as if unfastening something beneath the pants. Surely enough, a single, high-powered anti-tank grenade rolls out into his waiting hand, cupped beside the crouched youth's shoe. The door's rather new hinges swing open smoothly and evenly, and the pin is held between the platinum blonde's teeth by the time the explosive clatters in at the bottom of door number one. But there was a door number two, and he's only half-voiced his protest to the tromping feet descending from above. Adelheid, being a learned man, knows that only an equal and opposite force can stop something in motion, and so his fine-shoed feet sprint -up- the second set of stairs post-haste. This should happen about the time the first stairwell -erupts- in a cacophany of splintered railing and rumbling supports, concrete steps cracking under the sudden impact, and spraying their plentiful, shattered reinforced bits of concrete hither and yon, peppering the door and walls and blasting upwards as the lower paired segments of the winding emergency corridor come crashing apart, leaving steel rebar framework and a rubble field of broken pathway down to the ground.
"Adelheid Bernstein!! Down on the floor right..." -BOOOOM-. Yes, it's timed just about perfectly for that first, shocked guard that gets to be the lucky man-in-front in the mad rush down the stairs. To his credit, he does have his Jackhammer raised. He even squeezes the trigger -immediately- when Adelheid does -not- freeze, even before the explosion sounds behind him.
Unfortunately, the suddenly blurring Bernstein is going right -under- the first slug, and his elbow plants with armor-crushing force into the hired goon. His role in this mission has just become buying time.
... and making sure there's a way out.
The son of a tyrant declares they have a deal and Ayame nods her head once. Hopefully Adelheid proves to be more trustworthy than the backstabbing bandit turned mercenary is! The device is tossed to Ayame, accompanied by a final warning. She could just be meaning to make it hard for the group to figure anything out at all by deriving them of their transponder of course. But there's a certain resignation to her expression, as if she knows that for all her quick thinking she's been locked into a path she can't dream of straying from now.
"I won't," she murmurs as Adelheid turns. She does likewise, vanishing into the shadows of the tunnels, hiding the transponder in a pocket within her coat. A soft exhale goes unheard agains the sound of the resounding explosion caused by the 'rich kid'. Ayame shakes her head. She has to admit she likes Adel's style.
*DING* Basement! Housewares, bloodsport and kidnapped teenagers!
As the doors pop open, Tenma takes a moment to bury his chi-emanating bokken point-first in the elevator's control panel and then rip it back out, doing as much damage as he can do the mechanism while Kenji and Hakuya, presumably, take the lead on out of the small chamber.... After all, who is Tenma Kiryuu to restrain Missile Fists' exuberance under these circumstances?
And honestly, Tenma doesn't know if he could stop Hakuya right now if he even wanted to.
Following behind the other two Guardian Kings, Tenma looks about ready to chew iron and spit out nails, but at the moment it's Hakuya and Kenji who have the initiative!
Even if those guys upstairs were the smallfries, even if the guards they still have to face are the small fries-- they get in the way of the train that is the Guardian Kings, they -will- get rolled. Kenji has no qualms about it, nor the prospect of property damage. Hell, he was the one manning the grenade launcher up there!
As they reach the end of their ride, he stands right at the doors and slowly slides back one leg into position. An explosion like that is likely heard-- and felt-- inside the elevator, but the Missile Fist isn't going to be someone to complain or otherwise denounce whatever methods Adelheid Bernstein has up his sleeve. Not at a time like this-- not for a cause like this!
When the doors open, he's the first one out-- charging headlong into whoever or whatever is stupid enough to be standing in his way. One thing is for sure, though... the halls of Marise's complex fill with the gutteral roar of Kenji Ashima as he charges out into the relative unknown. A ferocious, pissed-off,
"URRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH--!!"
Unless any security cameras have neat state-of-the-art sorts of flare compensation, whatever security station is taping near the Kings will soon also find the screens going white from the sheer -stupid- bright white-blue chi of the brawler youth.
The doors slide open, and they're introduced to all sorts of lovely sounds. Fighting sounds, men scrambling to get into defensive positions to repel the sudden intrusion. Later, Hakuya would probably angst some over the Kings' need to hurt these people who very likely had nothing to do with the kidnapping (and as of yet unknown torture) of Stasya. Right now, however? Now, they're in the way. And just doing their job or not, or simply acting on instinct, he needed to get through them. So when the doors open and Kenji instantly pours out of the door as the sounds pour in, the white chi flaring up in a stupidly bright gesture, Hakuya's steps are not hesitant. He nods to Tenma, then follows after Kenji, leading the 'second charge' of the strike. Whatever isn't taken out initially by Kenji, Hakuya will race up behind his team mate, and then join the brawl, even moving deeper in if he has to, to allow Tenma to do the same of moving past -him- and fighting whatever needs to be taken... or, well, that's the idea. After all, there's undoubtedly going to be a good deal between them and where the transponder that Ayame now has will be taking them...
While one would have imagined this to be the nexus of activity for Blackjack, that is in actuality quite untrue. Few venture here. Fewer still ever venture back out again.
There seems to be no defenses here beyond the mind-breakingly complex series of tunnels stretching this way and that, without any sane reason or rhyme. It is not inconceivable that without proper guidance, one could get lost here for a very, very long time.
Luckily for the three kings, guidance has been procured from an unlikely source.
The tracking device continues its quiet vigilance, always pointing the same direction even as the twists and turns of this dungeon grow progressively less and less welcoming.
The intrepid trio venture into darkness. The labyrinth stretches before them like an organic thing, twisting and turning as the internal chambers and structures of some long-dead stone giant. Mists lap at the ankles of the children, escaped steam from the pipes crisscrossing the concrete ceiling above, obscuring the precise consistency of the floor. There is visibility here in the form of dim bulbs at every junction of tunnel, occasionally flickering in and out of power. A stench fills the air here, the smell of decay and rot. Unlike the pungent of sewage one would expect from this depth, its a distinctly different aroma. To those in the know, it is unmistakable.
The sickly sweet smell of death. The fragrance found only in a charnel house. Things have died here and they did not die clean.
There are sounds here now. Faint, distant things that may simply be glamours of imagination or subterranean airflow stirring the pipes and twisting tunnels.. But one can hear moaning. Trickles of half-heard whispers mingling with pleas and inane babble. Could there be others here locked away in this deep place? Above and beyond just the children the Kings are here to rescue? Possibly.. Who can say.. They may never know..
Under other circumstances, it's likely Tenma would never actually want to be someplace like this; for all the abilities he has, for all the training he /has/ received, he's still ultimately just a teenager, if an exceptional one. He'd really rather be back at home, playing a video game or something. But everybody has something, you know? Everybody has a line that, once crossed, they can't turn back until they set things right... And Marise has not just gone past that line for Tenma, she sort of flew past it on a jet plane and then did a hula dance. So, here Tenma is with his friends, charging through this hellhole following Adelheid's beacon - and oh, the look on his face when he finally discovers who's leading them will be priceless without a doubt - even while something in his blood screams a warning at him.
This is, perhaps, a crucible for the black sheep of the Kiryuu family.
As Tenma runs, he keeps his bokken resting against his shoulder and out of the way of entangling his legs, plotting the course through the maze to the light cast by Kenji Ashima. "Who the hell was the decorator here anyway, the dude from those 'Alien' movies?" the tall, lean Guardian King wonders in an undertone. The sounds do make him wonder, though... What if there are others, down here? Is it even /possible/ for them to help anyone beyond Stasya and the mysterious 'other one' that Ayame mentioned?
And as he runs, the blood of the Kiryuu family 'demon hunters' boils in his veins, rage and determination driving Tenma further into the labyrinth.
Charging through a place like this, it's something that Kenji Ashima would've thought he'd only see in the stacks and stacks of shounen manga he has sitting around in his room. But then he compares it to the rest of the experiences he's had since transferring to Gedo High in the last year-- the people he's fought, the entirety of Jinchuu, even his part in the assault by the Black Noah! All of it has led him to understand that there's a rather dark side to the world that they live in.
And that's why he's a light.
Not just in the metaphoric sense, but literal-- his bright, roaring chi shedding more than enough light to see by and actually maintaining the focus to keep it lit, keep the path lit. It's actually quite warm in a rather pleasant way, though circumstances prevent people from treating it as such.
"Gkhhhh-- what kind of an IDIOT lives in a PLACE like THIS, anyway?!!" he yells while they run.
This. This is the kind of place he was warned about. His grandfather always told him stories of how demons lived, when his grandfather talked to him outside of instruction at all. Demons, more powerful than others, let their power take possession of everything about themselves. They then dominate others, just to flaunt their power. This was a demon's lair, and though he wasn't quite as sensitive to the flow and eminiation of chi as Tenma or even Kenji was, he felt the twisting sensation of revulsion in his stomach as he ran.
But this also works to reinforce him. Sure, he's a normal teenager - they all are. They all might prefer to be playing a video game at home or something right now. But there was a line... and it hadn't merely been crossed for Hakuya. It had been shattered. That's why his hoodie was drawn up over his features - to hide how scary he knew he must look on the outside. Anger, sorrow, all manner of negative emotions that make the Suigetsu heir, the last of the spiritual protectors, saviors of the people from demons, one very, very Not Happy person. His easy smile was no where to be seen. And, perhaps most telling, he doesn't respond at all to Kenji or Tenma's comments - he simply runs, following after where the transponder tells them to go.
As the three wandering kings continue their search, the air seems to grow colder. A chill that seems to originate from somewhere beneath the skin. Stillness slows the air, muffling their footfalls as a tension grips the atmosphere itself.
To those of supernatural perception.. Something not right is close. Something out of a dream. Or more properly.. a nightmare.
The tunnel before them empties into a nexus of passages. Massive pipes form a junction here, distributing the ichor of the mecca of vice high above like some dark heart. An area higher with more open space than the claustrophobic maintenance shafts the youths have become used to traversing.
This is where they see it. A vision so incongruous and ethereal that it can not be real. A beautiful maiden, white as a corpse. The tall woman is dressed in a silken black kimono, her violet obi spread behind her like dread butterfly wings. The mists of this under-dark swirl about her feet while her hands remain carefully hidden within the folds of her voluminous sleeves held together. Ebon hair arranged in an exquisite style, held in place by a pair of golden needles. Eyes shadowed by her long bangs like Yurei of old.
This apparition stands as still as death itself, leading one to believe it illusion. A trick of the light or fantasy..
That is, until Ayame comes into view nearby. Her Earthly visage grounding this place to reality, somehow carved out of myth or a bygone age.
"Guardian Kings..." The ghost speaks. Her voice carrying the distance though it hardly raises above a whisper. A warped cadence accompanies those words, as if sound itself obeys her only reluctantly. "Rumors of your boldness are most unexaggerated, it would appear."
The tone of this darkened creature is a careful balance of neutrality, idle bemusement and utter wrath. Purple-painted, plush lips caress every word spoken with measured consideration. "I admit. I was hoping to deal with the spawn of the Kiryuu and Suigetsu at another time.." The Devil tilts her head. Then, and only then does a smile tease her lips, "..I suppose.. There is no time like the present. Yes?"
Smile fading as quickly as it came.
"I only hope that you all find this Russian animal worth dying for."
Ayame told Marise everything. Everything she wanted the woman to know, anyway. A talented liar and a no good backstabber with way too much experience at it, the girl might not have been able to pass off her deception against the woman but for the pressure Marise is under with this less than minor inconvenience that has come up. She would not have been so confident if Marise had her full focus on her.
Standing near the dark lady straight out of the past, the girl looks woefully simple in comparison, with her black clothing and open trenchcoat, pockets laden with weapons she can use to defend herself. Tight lipped, she lets Marise do all the talking. There's no indication, at first glance, of how it is the transponder beacon led the Guardian Kings straight here, and as they drew near the girl turned the device off, hands concealed in her coat pockets.
With nothing to say to the three young men, Ayame fishes her collapsed staff out of her coat pocket and expands it with a press of a button, a hydraulic hiss as the titanium pole reaches its full length the only sound that comes from her direction.
For now, she lets Marise speak. If the two of them can beat the Guardian Kings, there might be time to escape yet before Adelheid gets back and there will be a hope of regrouping later. If not, then, well, she hopes the Bernstein heir keeps his side of their bargain; her only ticket out of this disaster.
The sudden emergence into the nexus of tunnels initially catches Tenma offguard, and he slows to a stop as his senses mundane and metaphysical both start to focus on the same thing: The tall woman that stands before them, ghastly of visage. Briefly, Tenma's attention wanders to the figure beside the ghostly woman, and the look in his eyes, and the grin on his face as he sees Ayame could best be described as 'murderous'. The Gedo swordsman is, of course, just about to ask who the hell the dark figure is and other assorted things like that, when the mysterious woman speaks... And, worst of all, seems to know who they are.
For a moment, Tenma's furious gaze softens as he tries to figure out just what it is they're facing, and why there seems to be a... Strange familiarity about the creature. He straightens up, hitches the bokken on his shoulder - the red aura around it rages stronger than ever - and tilts his head slightly to one side, holding that expression throughout Marise's short speech. "Huh... You sure do look familiar," Tenma says, frowning a bit. And then, realisation dawns, and he turns to the other two Guardian Kings.
"Oh /shit/," he says. "It's the Grudge!"
And before anyone asks, yes, he thinks he's terribly clever. Even right now, in such a serious situation, Tenma can't entirely put aside his usual insolence, so once his joke is made, he turns his attention back to Marise, and Ayame. "But fine, you want us t' punch your ticket before we get Stasya back? No skin off my nose. Just, hey, one thing before we start? I figure it's only polite of me." Without actually waiting for any assent or anything like that, Tenma's attention turns back to Ayame, and, horrifyingly, he /smiles/ at her.
"Thanks for all the info, Ayame," Tenma says, his smile growing to shit-eating proportions as he addresses the thief. "Never woulda found out where Stasya was bein' kept if it hadn't been for you."
The spawn of what? The ... what? Literally, she talks like she's out of one of those stories he's read, something that would be so -very- amusing to him... if it wasn't this moment, this situation. But yet, there's nothing in his face that shows a remote sign of amusement to what Tenma says, let alone what Marise says-- in fact, it makes him look even -angrier-.
"I don't know what Tenma and Hakuya have to do with you, hag, but I swear to any and everything in Heaven and on Earth..."
The torch-like aura cast out by the chi he's been perpetuating at this point finally cuts off, leaving the room to the natural light-- or lack thereof. Still, the resolve in Kenji Ashima is something that he hasn't shown to anyone else yet since arriving in Southtown-- especially his friends. Slowly, his arm lifts. "I'm gonna make this very simple on you."
"You're going to have until I walk over to you to let Stasya go before I walk over there..."
"... And rip you apart with my -bare- -fucking- -hands-."
The sudden emergence into the Final Boss room, as those video games they'd usually be playing right now would have it, makes Hakuya slow to a stop as well, eyes casting about. There's really no need for that, though, as he soon finds what to direct his eyes - and as it turns out, his rage - at. A ghost-like woman and a girl he'd never seen before. There's a pause, and then the woman starts to talk. She knows them. Not just the Guardian Kings, but she mentions the Suigetsu and Kiryuu families by name. How... odd. Yet, because he can feel the odd chi eminations from the ghostly woman, he senses there's something different about her. It's not impossible to know of the Suigetsu name (just have Hakuya introduce himself), but to know what it represents, which the woman seems to be implying, is a touch worrying.
Or, would be, if she hadn't said 'Russian animal'.
There's no words from the teen with his hoodie drawn up. He isn't insolent, like Tenma is. He doesn't shout a challenge, like Kenji does. He simply suddenly clenches his fists, and then his body is in motion, racing with deadly intent towards Marise. His arm lashes out, but rather than intending on striking her, he seeks to hook the arm about the woman's middle, a sharp crescendoing yell of anger rising from the Suigetsu heir as he quite simply, charges the demon...
COMBATSYS: Hakuya has started a fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Hakuya 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Marise has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Marise
COMBATSYS: Ayame has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
> //////////////////////////////]
|-------\-------\0 Marise
COMBATSYS: Tenma has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Tenma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Marise
COMBATSYS: Kenji has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Tenma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Marise
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Hakuya has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Tenma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Marise
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Hakuya successfully hits Marise with Tidal Crush.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Ayame
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Marise
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-------|
The clotheslining arm impacts Marise, and Hakuya sweeps the woman up into his grasp. He races away from the other two Kings and Ayame with Marise held fast, racing forwards a distance at a simple, dead run. Then, something strange happens. Hakuya just... stops. It isn't as though he slows down, but more as though his inertia stops entirely, being removed from him somehow. This in turn makes all that motion get behind the demonic woman, and propel her into the ground roughly, a sharp impact that would jar many people. Hakuya's body straightens up into a more traditional fighting stance, hands held out, but this time, fists closed, if only loosely. Hoodie still up, Hakuya glares daggers towards the thrown woman, and begins to talk. Likely, if he's asked what he said later on, he won't remember it. They're old words, words he doesn't even know he knows. Words Marise would likely known to be traditional Suigetsu mantras.
"I judge you a demon. You take from others to satisfy yourself and think nothing of their pain. You show no remorse. You show no compassion. Demon, I will save the souls of those you would wish to devour, here and now. Demon, I will extinguish life, and rid your evil from this world." And then a bit more life comes back into his eyes, as he seems to say something more in-line with himself, not some indoctrinated lines he was fed by his family. "Stasya is a far better person than you; if she's an animal, what low filth are you!?" His voice cracks just a little. Yeah, he's pretty pissed.
Of Ayame, The Devil had not known her betrayal. Her own arrogance has clearly blinded her, as does her confidence in fear as motivation. The girl has seen what the Devil does to people she was merely annoyed with. Risking further penalty would be the soul of madness.
As Dante had scribed, the Ninth Circle is reserved for treachery.
Be that as it may, Marise has been consumed in her research. Ignoring all other matters and concerns. Taking her lethal lovely for granted as far more important concerns had mired her thoughts.
Here, in the final hour, just before her research was complete... The Devil has no time left at all. Somehow, against all odds, against all sanity.. These three kings have traveled half a world, managed to pierce through layers of defenses and found their way here.
Considering the moronic banter streaming from their faces, the Devil is certain these three special education students need help tying their shoes in the morning. Let alone mounting this shockingly canny assault. Adelheid clearly orchestrated this invasion to retrieve the children, but even he would have needed help on the inside from an extremely knowledgeable source.
As Tenma blurts out the very name of the accomplice, Marise's head tilts back slowly, inhaling with a calm and smooth breath.
Ah yes. Yes.. Now matters begin to make sense.
While it could easily be a ruse to divide their enemies, there are far too many stray pieces of truth littered about that admission. Adelheid, Tenma and Ayame. Yes.. Of course, there is the question of how Tenma knew Ayame was behind it, unless she is indeed playing the middle.
This is a matter that will be dealt with. Oh yes.
However, the Devil's attention does not stray from the three before her for an instant. Three children they are, however one was trained to guard against her kind. The other was trained to slay them. The third is a glowing fountain of radiant power.
Arrogant the Devil may be, but even she knows she needs Ayame for the next few moments at the very least.
"A fascinating tale, boya." The wicked ghost ventures smoothly. Her hidden gaze fixing upon Tenma even as her words clearly address her fellow Blackjack member, "The only way I can be convinced that it is untrue.. Is if said heroine in your fable murders you here and now."
And there lies the impromptu deal. All will be forgiven.. Or the punishment at least lessened.. If Ayame destroys Tenma Kiryuu right here and right now.
That leaves us with the other two, whom are not so quick to depart from anger's company.
To Kenji, the Devil turns her attention in a slow, intense stare. Her lips slowly turn downwards in response to his slow, thoroughly raging ultimatum. Nailed hands slip from her sleeves, carefully extending outwards in methodical movements. To his bluster, she replies in a low tone as a splinter of her own outrage begins to touch the surface of her beautiful mask, "Boya."
Fingers slowly curling with a soft metallic whisper of unsheathing knives, purple nails extending outwards, "You know not whom you are addressing."
Which is when the Suigetsu Heir crashes into her like a freight train.
Immediately the dainty woman is caught in the vicious whirlwind of movement. Her limbs flailing as a willowy, lifeless rag-doll. As the pale maiden is -DASHED- to the concrete ground the mists explode outwards from the impact.
And it seems the creature is already quite dead. One arm snapped backwards with her head lolling at an odd angle, her face a rictus of shock and surprise as her lifeless body remains completely still.
That is, until she gets back up.
The horrific thing shambles to her feet, head rolling about her shoulder with one arm twisted backwards and dangling at her side, "..Well now.." The monster gurgles with a collapsed throat.
In a sickening, popping -jerk- of motion, her head arights back into place. Immediately her bangs part themselves of their own accord, revealing baleful eyes glowing a wicked golden color. Black-slitted pupils na
Black-slitted pupils narrowing with inhuman fury as Hakuya stares down the very sort of monstrosity he was taught his whole life to fight.
%"That was annoying." Punctuated that word as her arm twists itself back into place. Clawed hand flexing, then wasting no time to put that wicked limb to use. "Oh.. If its judgement you seek.." The Devil muses as she is upon him. Immediately attempting to slither that limb around his own and slip behind him with boneless, serpentine grace. And if she is able, immediately begin WRENCHING that arm behind him while the opposite limb coils over his shoulders, literally beginning to twist his ribcage into collapse from leverage, "..I will give it, gladly." Hissing to him closely, her breath cold and horrid.
Knowing full well the Missile Fist is only a step away, the Devil already begins twisting around to the opposite side of the first attacking King. Lets see how good their teamwork is..
The moment Tenma lays eyes on her, Ayame already knows what's coming. It isn't hard to guess by Tenma's malicious grin what card he's about to play. He thanks her for the info and the girl doesn't even blink, brown eyes staring back at him, her jaw set, her mouth still closed, having already steeled her mind against surprise. Only when he finishes speaking does she simply sigh softly, shaking her head, "Oh, please, that's among the oldest tricks in the book. Throw out some random accusation, turn the already dubious allies against each other..."
She smiles faintly, her staff resting against her shoulder, "Simpleton." While Marise's slow turn of the head doesn't escape Ayame's attention, the girl pointedly avoids making eye contact with the creature, focusing instead on the bokken weilding youth. She doesn't know how this altercation will go. For now she's on the Devil's side, and if staying on that side means striking out at the one who beat the hell out of her in a SNF event then it's not really going to take much to convince her. "With pleasure," she remarks, hand tightening on her staff.
And then she's in action, leaning forward into a charge toward Tenma, rolling the long weapon off her shoulder as she gets within the striking range afforded by the six foot long titanium polearm in order to swing it out with force provided by her strength as well as the momentum she converts by stopping her forward movement suddenly.
The target, the side of his head. Attempted payback for their last encounter - a solid crack across the temple.
COMBATSYS: Tenma blocks Ayame's Medium Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Marise
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-------|
And what, do you suppose, Tenma's response to Marise is?
Actually, the Guardian King opens his mouth and makes a horrible cracked strangling groan: "Uuuuhuuuughhhuuuuuuuh... SHUT UP ALREADY, YOU SAGGY-TITTED OLD HAG!!" the Kiryuu swordsman bellows, crude as ever, as he breaks from his perhaps situationally inappropriate imitation of the same 'movie monster' he referenced just minutes before in relation to Marise. Of course, she probably can't appreciate the humour involved, huh?
There is, however, a certain amount of shock from Tenma when he sees just how bizarre Hakuya is acting, dark blue eyes widening at the words from the Suigetsu Demon Exorcist. It's almost enough that Tenma is distracted from the whole 'Marise telling Ayame to kill him' thing.
Almost.
When the blonde thief charges at him, Tenma glances over at her and snorts derisively, his chi-emanating bokken swinging up and interposing itself between his head and her polearm, a faint sting running up his arm. "Get out of my way, loser. I already beat the shit out of you once... Make me do it again, and I'll seriously kill you." The Gedo gang member says, cold and calm in sharp counterpoint to his earlier yelling. Tenma is, let's say, not very charitably inclined towards Ayame, or much of anyone else, for the moment. Besides which, Tenma has bigger fish to fry.
Rushing past Ayame in the aftermath of his deflecting her attack, Tenma's goal is clear: Marise, who is currently kind of trying to kill his best friend. "Ashima!! A little interference would be cool right 'bout now!!" Tenma calls over to Kenji as he runs, probably with Ayame hot on his heels. That doesn't matter, though... Only one thing does. As he gets closer to the potentially grappling duo, Tenma tries to give Marise something more to deal with, sweeping his bokken through the air - harmlessly, far too far away from Marise to hit her - but the red afterimage of blood and chi that follows the slash is from where the attack comes. Erupting forth, a roiling crescent of the bloody Kiryuu chi tears through the murky air and heads directly for the 'Devil' herself. "/DIE/!!"
Marise's head snaps off to the side, and she gets back up-- yeah, now he can safely say he's pretty much seen everything.
The Guardian Kings work as a team better than some others do, though their members are so vastly different. Such as this case here, when Tenma calls out for some cover-- and Kenji is there to provide it. He's not 'boya,' he's not a simpleton, he's... very simply the one that wants to break both of these crazy women in half and -go home- with his friends.
-All- of his friends.
The last time the two of them had run into each other, one was pretending to be a superhero in a crazy costume and the other was pretending to be a supervillain in tight leather. While Kenji is known to hit on virtually every girl he lays eyes on, the Student Council Secretary is quiet for now, his action all the reply he needs to give-- while Marise is attacking Hakuya, he turns away from the insane old bat and charges past Tenma, towards Ayame.
Kenji lunges in with all he's worth, looking to grab the girl by the face, fingers pressing in hard and -pick her up- by the -face-. If he can pull this off, get that far, he'll literally spike Ayame's head into the ground, letting the chi filter and surge through his body-- and then it comes... not from his palm, the hand that would be holding her face... but -underneath-.
It'll erupt like a geyser, an explosion of white-blue energy designed to send Ayame back flying through the air with no course apparent... and no means to regulate her landing.
"URRRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!"
COMBATSYS: Hakuya fails to interrupt Strong Throw from Marise with Blind Crescent.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-------|
Strangely, despite the fact he was the one to cause Marise's head to snap out of place, Hakuya doesn't seem fazed at all when the woman stands up and slides her head back the way it should be. After all, he called her a demon, didn't he? To expect less would be contrary to what he just said! The other participants in this fight are ignored for now. Ayame didn't register to him yet because he was focusing on Marise, since all that weird chi was coming from her. Tenma and Kenji would pick their opponents - and were - and he would adapt.
Right now his thoughts are thus.
Exterminate the demon.
But the Devil shows she's not going to be an easy demon to defeat. Hakuya is well versed in throw manuevers, but not quite so familiar with someone who could move their arm as though they had no bones in it. Having it wrapped around his arm, he immediately moves, attempting to wrench his arm back around, pulling Marise with him... but she has the leverage, and in this close quarters grapple, that meant she was king, it would seem. Letting out a howl of pain, Hakuya is stretched and not in a very happy way. Grimacing, it's all he can do to eventually work his way through it, loosening his arm up and dropping down, literally rolling away from the freaky ninja, holding his captured arm a bit tenderly when he comes right back up. Of course the rolling away allowed for Tenma's blood red chi to have a much clearer shot...
The Guardian Kings find the pathways to the Inner Sanctum of their hunted Demon all but unguarded. Were they less occupied with rescue and revenge, they might pause to consider just why... or why Adelheid was not at the destination, holding the transponder. No, the Gedo team has their hands full, and so does their unlikely ally.
CRACK. A still firing assault shotgun is disarmed forcefully, the butt end rotating to soundly break the enforcer's jaw on its sudden, whirlwind path. One man is leveraged, flipped on down the line, the lithe Bernstein leaping up and off the stairwell wall, launching himself up and into the midst of the first column. Those behind are leveraged with a series of precise, brutal kicks, man after man tumbling down the stairway as the platinum blonde makes a ghost of himself amidst a hail of haphazard but hesitant gunfire. The armored mercenaries, Blackjack's private army, may be geared to the max for this encounter... but this was never the intended battlefield. Here, their numbers and weapons mean little... the firing angles are limited, not to mention frightfully fraught with 'friendly fire'..... and few with a clear view of the tuxedo-clad Bernstein keep one for long.
No stranger to close combat, the commandos prove little match for Adelheid in groups of one's and three's, more and more falling to the stairs, or over them and down, as Adelheid presses upwards. The walls spray bits of concrete and broken slugs, the ricochets nearly as dangerous as the automatic rounds themselves. Speed and unpredictability saves him here... that, and when he's halfway up the staircase, the Bernstein heir leaps out, over the middle, and....
It's a blast that might even send murmurs via tremor to the deeper tunnels, where the Demoness faces off against her would-be slayers alongside her treasonous apprentice. A tale as old as time, their privacy assured by the efforts of the prodigal Bernstein: Those soldiers who remain were preparing themselves, entrenching, trying to stop the inexorable advance of the platinum blonde, as opposed to finding their way down. They leave that to the other group, those only stalled (and diminished) by the well-timed explosive. The torrential column of shredding chi is another matter entirely. Sure, the fortress itself was built to restrain this. To endure. In this case, however, the infection is in its very heart, and the silvery windshear of rampant chi all but fills an ample stretch of the fortified well above Adelheid. Again, concrete explodes. Again, the walls shake and shudder. This time, the steel rebar bends, the outskirts split, the interior all but reaved upwards, leaving its skeletal framework and showering the troops above in chi and shrapnel. A rain of concrete falls as Adelheid does, chunks and dust dirtying his hair and shoulders as he lands, one even drop carrying him back to the bottom of the stairwell. Well. A deep breath is drawn in, released.... drawn again, as he dusts himself off. Blood leaks from several glancing strikes and one more serious gut wound, the rips and tears doing a bit to dull the brand-new tux, but what's a guy to do? He's still got plenty of fight left in him... he can hear the other squad, filling out into the corridor beyond, exiting the previously damaged stairwell. They'll be ready to fight, and looking for him. Barring that, they'll likely move onward to the Guardian Knights.
The second stairwell, Adelheid wagers, is effectively sealed for the moment. He steps out of that stairwell, and back into the fray. The Capital 7 Guardsmen turn, almost in unison.
COMBATSYS: Ayame has saved the state of this fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Marise blocks Tenma's Dharmapala.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-------|
As Hakuya manages to wrench himself free of the Devil's grasp, the ethereal woman takes a single step back. Her arms returning back into a semblance of normalcy in the wake of their obscene contortions. To wrestle a demon is a difficult task, especially one as elusive and elastic as she. Still, Marise visibly seems impressed as the boy managed to escape an arm lock that should, in practice, have rendered that arm useless.. If not collapse a lung. Wicked, inhuman eyes regarding him for an instant longer as she seems about to say something..
Except the creature has absolutely no time for talking. The screamed '-DIE-' is all the warning she has, as Hakuya gets out of the way long enough to give his comrade a clear shot..
Thankfully for the Devil, Hakuya's quick move out of the way clued the creature in. Without so much as looking, the creature throws herself to the side.. Spinning about in a whirl of black silk and shadow. Unable to move completely out of the way, the creature's pale forearms bat away at the incoming bloody energy. To some it may have been a simple graze.
To this horrible creature, its like being splashed with -acid-.
An abrupt shriek erupts from her lips, screeching like a banshee as her forearms erupt in hissing and burning mists.. Like a vampire exposed to the sun. Staggering back another step as her arms flail, putting out the small fires from contact with that dissolving energy.
Golden eyes spare Tenma a glare forged of pure murder. There is not much human about the snarl that escapes her fang-filled lips.
"They. Do not sag." The ghost insists in an angered, indignant tone that would be comical in any other situation.
Just for that, another of Tenma's best friends gets to suffer horribly. This time before his very eyes.
As much as the Devil would very so much like to deal with this would-be Holy Protector and Demon Hunter, the creature has a plan even now. Best to deal first with those who's training did not involve combating her kind. Let her cohort deal with the most significant threats.
After all. Her own past makes her adequately qualified for destroying sacred warriors.
"AYAME." The Devil's snarling voice insists, reiterating her entire ultimatum with that single name. She had best get that Kiryuu Heir away from her if she knows whats good for her!
Unfortunately, thats when her primary target decides to switch up and go after her personal bodyguard.
"..Bother." The Devil mildly grouses under-breath.
In a -rush- of motion, Marise races after Kenji. Departing Hakuya as the young boy recovers from the grapple. "And where do you think you're going, boya!" Calling out after the charging youth.
The Devil's head dives forth, skidding to a halt on her bare heels. Her ocean of black hair rushes forth like a blackened tidal wave.. And continues going.. and going! Blossoming like ebony tendrils of some unspeakable thing, seeking to coil themselves around the boy and -YANK- him back and away from Ayame, irregardless of the success of his attack upon her.
"You were about to tear me apart? YES?"
COMBATSYS: Kenji successfully hits Ayame with Claymore.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-----==|
As her staff and Tenma's bokken clash, Ayame tries pressing harder against his weapon, hoping to push the Guardian King off balance. "You're not so tough," the girl snaps, "You attacked me at the same time as your new best pal, blondie. Not the same." He manages to push her back, however, slipping around the girl to charge Marise. Wasting no time, Ayame starts to dart after him, realizing only after she's in motion that Kenji has caught up with her in the time she took to get moving.
Spinning around, her long weapon is already being brought to bear as if getting ready to sway the student council secretary aside and get back to pursuing Tenma. But he's already closed distance on her too much for her to manage, the angry youth's hand catching Ayame by the face. A desperate flail is attempted just before her head hits the ground. Growling, Ayame kicks like a trapped animal, "Get your hand off me!"
She gets her wish when the blast of chi pulses up from the ground beneath her, launching her up into the air with its force... but she manages to recover mid-air, landing on her feet rather than crashing unpleasantly. A shake of her head and a quick glare spared toward Kenji, "As weak as I remembered, quit wasting my time!" And it's about that moment the devilish woman she works for snarls her name out loud, her voice echoing along the tunnels.
The irate sound of Marise is enough to spur Ayame back into motion, the girl spinning away from Kenji, zeroing in on Tenma. Marise appears most concerned about that one. Something about lineage, Ayame gathered, not concerning herself with the particulars. Very well. Her staff collapses down quickly and gets shoved into a pocket as Ayame draws a length of wire thin cabling out of another pocket.
Trying to take advantage of the fact that Tenma's attention may be too fixated on Marise, Ayame attempts to slip the cabling around his neck from behind, twisting the length into loop behind him. If she succeeds, she'll lift her right leg and plant it hard against the small of Tenma's back and lean backward, drawing the garrote tight and leaving him in a very awkward position from which to retaliate or give Marise any more grief. Of course, it would mean Ayame isn't going anywhere for a moment either.
COMBATSYS: Tenma endures Ayame's Blackmail.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-----==|
Right, so, next time he's sniping at some freakshow bad guy: Don't shout before attacking. Tenma will have to remember this lesson for next time.
The murderous golden eyed look is met by a firm, furious glare from the Kiryuu heir's dark blue eyes, the Ghost's snarl by a broad smirk. Why does Tenma feel he can take the time to be amused at Marise's expense? Because from what he can see, he sure just got under her skin. Besides, the effect from his bloody chi was... A lot more than he was expecting, which certainly helps the confidence.
Right until Marise goes after Kenji with stretchy hair - an act that only confirms Tenma's earlier movie-monster assessment - but before Tenma can shout in outrage and go after her in turn, he realises that Kenji being threatened means there's a little double-crosser on the loose.
Also a part of this realisation: The part where he gets garrotted.
"Ghhhk!!" Tenma exclaims, his cry naturally choked off as precious oxygen fails to find its way into his lungs. His left hand tries to grab the wire and pull it off of his throat as consciousness begins to fade, the wire cutting into the flesh of his neck, but the Guardian King knows... If he gives in here, that's it. No second chances, no do-overs. 'What I do afterwards? What if there's no afterwards?!' a girl asked him once, frantically; one of her own friends kidnapped, herself and her teammates badly injured by the culprit. It's funny how, right now, Pás's words come flooding back to him, especially as she coninued: 'What if it's too late? This is not a competition, Tenma. This is not a game where you get your rematch!'
"Hhhk... I know... That..." Tenma grunts aloud, forcing chi to his feet. Forcing himself to take a turning step to the side, to endure the cut of Ayame's wires into his skin - drawing more red, red blood, trickling down his front - in order to break the tension of the wire and face Ayame, lunging directly at her, his free hand tangling in the wire to tear it off of himself. "No more second chances, Sneak Thief," he says, attempting to stab Ayame directly in the sternum with his bokken, just long enough to 'catch' her with it, before he turns and swings his bokken /with Ayame on the point/ overhead, releasing the blonde to hurl her away. "Hope you didn't have any regrets about your sorry-ass life as the Grude's pet dog."
COMBATSYS: Kenji blocks Marise's Onigumo Wanami.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/---====|
The movie-monster assessment is true-- so very true! Next she'll have to reveal her other, "true" form. The one that displays her as being some sort of eight-winged beast with four eyes, a mouth full of jagged teeth, and a forked tongue that is almost six feet long. It would be in keeping with the way things have been in this mission, this rush on the den of evil-- the casino, the caves, the grand evil fortress.
Pulling his hand back as the explosion of chi spikes Ayame into the air, he looks over his shoulder just in time to see Marise's hair trying to strangle him-- and the Missile Fist responds with his forearms raised, his hands poised to defend his neck against the unusual woman's unusual assault.
Kenji's arms push-- pull away with a short, "UrrAGH!"
Then he steps in closer, angling himself at Marise with his left leg reeling up to the right and throwing a very exaggerated punch-- one that completely misses Marise. His forearm explodes with energy in it's wake, a spray of that brilliant white-blue chi trying to slam into her in a most painful way.
"Eat THIS!!"
When you think about it, it IS pretty surreal. A friend is kidnapped, so they team up with the son of a crime boss to infiltrate a casino where the friend is held captive, and under this casino is a big ol' den of evil where people, friend included, suffer horribly at the hands of some zombie-like creation of evil. It sounded like a game, but this was no game. This was for real. And the pain of having his arm jerked and twisted, even if he'd had worse, was a very real reminder of that.
Getting out of the way of the wave of blood chi lets Tenma get... a semi-clean hit onto the Devil, yet there's something interesting to note here, which is, essentially, that that blood red chi -hurt- Marise. A lot. Hakuya doesn't miss this, and neither does he miss when the chi zombie turns and dashes towards Kenji, deciding apparently that neither of them were worth her time. Gritting his teeth, Hakuya twists, still holding his arm, and begins to give chase to the demon. Normally, nothing would distract him from this task, of hurting Marise, badly, for what she did to Stasya (not that he knows the full extent, yet, of what 'she did' was - he can only imagine). However, as he turns, he finally seems to notice the 'Sneak Thief' as Tenma calls her, garroting the hell out of his best friend. It's something of a hard decision for him, but in the end, he's here for his friends, and that wins out over all. Besides, Kenji can handle himself - for now.
Rushing in, Hakuya seeks to aid Tenma by engaging Ayame. Whether Tenma's own attack hits or not determines his movements: he'll either try to slip an arm around her waist, pulling her upwards and away from Tenma with a sharp pull, then bringing her further up and back, over, and down again in a traditional suplex if Tenma can't shake her, or he'll race 'past' Ayame, and attempt to pick her ankle up off the ground as she gets thrown, lifting her by his grip on her leg, then to almost comically lift her in a wide arc over his head, only to slam her back to the ground in front of him.
COMBATSYS: Kenji successfully hits Marise with Twelve Gauge.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/--=====|
For all of her arrogant bluster, the Devil is focused now. Desperately trying to cling to cool rationality and strategy even as her rage boils beneath within like a furnace. Perhaps, a hit of true concern the creature is unable to fully hide.
These mere children got the drop on her. These mere children, through an unreal circumstance that cannot be pure coincidence, are the sons of those who fought her kind decades ago.
Worse yet.. Just when she was so close. So. Close. She almost has what she needs from those girls. Almost. All she need do is lay these three kings low, and the power she desires is finally in her grasp.
For the first time.. The Devil begins to realize.. There is a possibility of failure.
As her tendrilous assault is shrugged off, the Devil immediately takes a few steps back and away. Black locks slithering through the air as her yet-sizzling arms lift to ward off her chosen target. His fast and ferocious barrage comes far too abrupt and quick.. The scatter-shot blast catching her full on, forcing a shrill cry from her as her shoulders and middle instantly begin to burn and singe from contact with that spiritual energy. "Grrraaaa! Miserable WHELP!"
The Devil catches a glimpse of Hakuya moving around her periphery, following up to join in on her personal guard. Troubling.. Very troubling. As glad as she is to see that particular one away from her, she'd rather not see Ayame held in check.
But now there's a Missile Fist in between her and her comrade. "You Will Regret THAT!"
In a rush of motion, the creature is on the attack. The slightly taller woman advancing upon Kenji with hands reaching for him, seeking to harshly grasp his shoulders firmly, fingers digging in painfully...
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Ayame with Asura.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tenma 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Hakuya successfully hits Ayame with Strong Throw.
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Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\==-----\1 Ayame
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Tenma 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/--=====|
Well, she definitely figured out how to get Tenma's attention off Marise. Though the girl doesn't look too thrilled as the young man pries his way out of the wires intended to take the fight completely out of him. Stumbling back a step as he breaks the tension and snaps the garrote entirely, she only has time to slam her foot down in an attempt to keep her balance before his bokken finds its mark dead center on her torso, driving the breath out of the girl, her eyes widening from the shock. Her hands releasing the wire, she tries to reach out for Tenma's arm and get a grip, but the demon hunter heir is quick enough to use his leverage to heft her up and over head, and hurl her over to the other side of him.
Taking a bit of a tumble, the girl lands prone, but she's quick to start pushing herself up with her elbow and forearm, speechless as she copes with having the wind knocked out of her by the strike. She hasn't even got her senses about her as Hakuya swoops in to get a hold of her ankle. The tough youth has no trouble hefting the featherweight right back up into the air all over again, the theif's arms flailing as she's brought crashing down onto the other side against the ground with a painful crash.
Easy enough to throw around, but the girl's lithe stature and flexibility pay off without her being too horribly incapacitated, as Ayame rests her right hand against her stomach, her left hand used to push her back to her knees and then quickly to her feet, not staying down long enough for any of the teen fighters to get a follow up strike in.
Sliding to a stop, she whirls back around, brown eyes sweeping over the others quickly, teeth gritting. She can smell the result of the Guardian King's energy assaults on Marise, the air thick with the stench of a creature burned. For a moment she had both of the ones Marise identified as the biggest risks focusing on her... but keeping both occupied is a lot more than Ayame feels she can take on. Seconds pass as she gulps in air once more, ruminating briefly over her options.
For now, sticking with Tenma ends up being her decided course of action. Darting back toward the bokken user, the girl ducks in low before coming up, trying to get both hands around Tenma's weapon using arm. If she gets a tight enough grip it will be with a painful twist she'll try to wrench him down to the ground, face down, yanking his arm behind his back and hoping to pin him in place, once again doing her job of buying Marise precious seconds.
COMBATSYS: Tenma dodges Ayame's Armed and Dangerous.
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Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\==-----\1 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tenma 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/--=====|
"Tch... Trash," Tenma mutters after tossing Ayame away... Right into Hakuya's attack, it seems. A+ teamwork from the two founding members of the Guardian Kings, as always. Pulling the rest of the wire off of his neck, Tenma seems largely heedless of the blood fanning down his front now, ignoring the painful injury he's been dealt by the petite blonde fighter. But he's already put Ayame out of his mind, focusing instead on the problems facing the Student Council Secretary, gritting his teeth as the Demon goes, vengefully, after Kenji. "ASHIMA, LOOK OUT!" Kiryuu bellows.
And then Ayame is on him like white on rice.
"Heh... Still here, are you?" Tenma wonders of Ayame as she tries to grab his arm, powering out of her grasp and taking a quick double-step away from her. "Run while you can, Sneak Thief. I ain't got any patience left for ya." And then, Tenma takes off like a shot. His target is, of course, Marise herself.
Rushing in low, Tenma holds his bokken at his side, his swordarm across his body, diagonally downwards. The aura of mingled blood and chi around the weapon intensifies as he gets closer with the 'Demon', attempting to catch her while she's keeping herself busy with Kenji. As he gets close enough, Tenma's stance turns into a crouch, before he springs out of it in a twisting leap, aiming to strike Marise with his bokken on the way up and then /keep going up/ taking her with him, in a rising, whirling slash. "AAAAAAAH...! VAJRA!!!"
COMBATSYS: Kenji blocks Marise's Rebound Throw.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\==-----\1 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/=======|
She screams and reels back-- and he looks briefly confused, staring at the remnants of light that burn and siphon off into the air, away from his fist. Then, he looks at Marise. It'd be just like a demon of darkness to be afraid of the light... But Marise advances on Kenji, reaching out and grabbing him around the shoulders in powerful hands. Though her fingers dig in, his forearms swipe outward -hard-, smacking the woman's arms out and back.
Stepping back, rushing backwards, Kenji's getting a good few steps back and away from Marise before he thrusts his right arm forward, grabbing his wrist. His feet spread a little more than shoulder width apart, knees bent.
"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH--"
The depths of this man-made Hell fill with light as bright as the sun, the brilliant white-blue energy spreading to every corner and blasting back the darkness like it were some sort of secret weapon. Kenji's eyes narrow, his legs tense, and he bears down a little bit. His right arm whips backwards, reeling back and high into the air.
"I'M NOT GOIN' DOWN LIKE THAT!"
COMBATSYS: Kenji gathers his will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\==-----\1 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 1/----===/=======|
Were he more... himself, at the moment, he'd probably feel bad for Ayame. Picked up and thrown hard enough to knock her breath from her, and then picked up -again- and tossed down just as hard into the ground, the girl undoubtedly just got hurt. Badly. And even though she springs right back up afterwards, ready to continue the fight, she looks worse for wear... at least, more than she did, anyway. But at the current moment, there's none of that feeling; Hakuya almost feels... indifferent? She was helping the Devil, after all. Why should she get pity? Later on, when he snaps back to being more of himself, he'll probably feel guilty.
But right now, he can't be bothered with it.
Ayame attacks again, but this time Tenma is too quick for her - he wrenches out of her grasp, then races for Marise. While he recognizes the Sneak Thief as a threat, he doesn't think too much of her in general - after all, she's probably really hurting, while the Devil still stood. So Hakuya ignores her, and runs after Tenma, sprinting in after him. Again, the two display an uncanny amount of teamwork and coordination in their attacks: if Tenma hits, Hakuya actually jumps up after his friend, plants a foot on his shoulder, then kicks up into the air ahead of him. Why? So he can attack the air-borne Marise, of course. The foot used to jump off Tenma lashes out, striking for the zombie's side. He'll then twist in place, bringing his other foot around in a wide arc in order to smash the heel into her stomach, sending her a great deal more roughly into the ground than she probably would've liked. If he misses and doesn't send her into the air, he'll simply step past Tenma, and snap a kick directly to Marise's face, bringing his other foot around in a similarly wide arc meant to kick her in the side of the head.
COMBATSYS: Marise endures Hakuya's Rising Dusk.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\==-----\1 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Tenma 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 1/----===/=======|
COMBATSYS: Marise interrupts Vajra from Tenma with Maou Satsujinken.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\==-----\1 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Tenma 1/---====/=======|=======\=------\1 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 1/----===/=======|
As Kenji breaks the Devil's grasp, the creature snarls in frustration. Her hands claw through the air as she seeks to press her assault and get a firm grip on this surprisingly durable young thing!
What's the matter with children these days, don't they know when to die?
However, that onslaught is stopped short as the Guardian King belows his defiance. Roaring like a lion and bathing the immediate area in a blindingly bright flash of white energy! As the boy radiates like a roman candle, the creature shrinks back. Hissing in pain as she throws the volume of her sleeve over her face. Off-hand clawing at the air as she scuttles away like a cockroach from the light of day.
Damn him! Damn them all! A hundred curses upon them! They're only children, Only children! Graaaaaaaaah!
The Kiryuu Heir apparently has not learned from his earlier mistake.
The sound of the young man's screaming battle-cry snaps the ghost's attention. Golden eyes widening as he witnesses the two Demon Slayers vaulting into the air in a direct course for her eminent destruction!
"I-"
The Devil of Koga has transcended fury and entered into another level of existence altogether. She has evolved from amused, to annoyed, to afraid and now.. Completely Furious. These kids are good, incredibly good. But the Devil, even in this decrepit half-existence she now endures, is not without her devices.
"-have had it-"
Her hands snap together in a flash of motion. A series of shuffled hand-seals even as she takes two quick steps and -vaults- up to intercept! Golden eyes processing the movement of the children's excellent teamwork, spying only the smallest window of opportunity in the movements but she does not hesitate to take it. The ghost slips at a high angle, going airborne just before Tenma's leading strike as her hand raises up high. Fingers twitching sarcastically as crimson crackles of energy are summoned forth.
The sound of a single scream is heard, then another and another and another. Layering over one another like a cacophonous static as the Devil's chi is called forth. Its as if a portal to Hell opened upon her palm, generated like a hundred screaming souls crying for mercy. A handful of perdition hovers between her fingertips, the very element of suffering.
"-with you-"
Hakuya's kick comes first as the Devil forces his mistiming with her abrupt aerial arc. Actually -accepting- the blow squarely on the middle, forcing the woman to careen end over end in the air JUST into the right angle to -CATCH- Tenma's sword wrist as he rises in that high slash. Just being near to the weapon's radiance causes the Devil's pale arm to begin to smolder and smoke.
"-DAMN-"
The Devil pulls down and -slams- her energized palm against Tenma's chest, fingertips spread.
"-KIDS!"
A pillar of Hell Energy explodes from Tenma's back. His body and organs intact but radiated through and through as the glowing incarnation of pain blasts straight through him. Casting the area in a flashing crimson light, wailing like a choir of Hell.
Then simply riding him all the way back down to the concrete -SLAMING- him into the floor.
Her ocean of dark locks and tattered kimono fluttering down in her wake a moment after.
Tenma slips free, leaving Ayame stumbling forward as he pries his way out of her grip just before she can flip him to the ground. At that point she's fortunate Hakuya isn't sticking to her as she catches herself, standing up straight. Finally having gotten her breath back, the girl takes stock in the situation again. Sensitive to the ebb and flow of energies being spent by the other fighters, she exhales softly.
The crimson chi wielded by Tenma pervades the air, eminating with cool fury. Kenji's bright flash of brilliant glow as he gathers strength into him from the world around him. And finally, that last presence - that vile energy, cascading out of Marise's palm into the Guardian Kings' leader. It sends a shiver running through the girl and she isn't even the recipient of the foul attack.
Marise lands after dealing out the attack and for a change, the normally mobile Ayame merely stays put. Focusing, concentrating, she breaths in deeply then exhales slowly. Gathering all that spare power that has been cast off by so many powerful attacks, the girl begins to draw it all in toward her. Jaw clenched, she clenches her right hand, her left hand fishing into her coat pocket to retrieve her staff.
The energy swirls up around the girl - crimson, sapphire blue, blindingly pure white, all of it drawn into her as she draws upon it to restore her strength and build up even more for another attack.
COMBATSYS: Ayame gathers her will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\======-\1 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Tenma 1/--=====/=======|=======\===----\1 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 1/----===/=======|
Sometimes, things can just go /too/ good.
As Tenma catches Marise with his rising strike, the young leader of the Guardian Kings feels a familiar surge of self-satisfaction. Except that, uh, it becomes clear that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, as his wrist is in fact /caught/ at the same moment that Hakuya comes crashing down in their coordinated assault.
For a moment, Tenma worries. Then, of course, he has precious little time to worry about anything of the sort.
The hellish attack tears right through Tenma's body, opening dark blue eyes impossibly wide as the power bursts out the other side, and then the tall, lean young man is slammed into the concrete flooring with the full weight of the Demon on top of him, left with little choice but to stare up at that twisted face as they fall. As he strikes the ground, for the second time, Tenma Kiryuu nearly loses consciousness. For the second time, he has to fight to stay awake.
"Y... You ugly..." Tenma coughs up a mouthful of blood, here, forcing him to pause in his words. "...Saggy-chested..." Picking up speed and strength, Tenma uses his barrage of invective, it seems, to regain his focus on reality. "Skeezy old... Bad breath hag!" By main force, he pushes up on Marise, to shove the Demon off of himself so he can rise back up to his feet... But he knows he can't do it alone.
"Hakuya! Grab the bitch!" the Kiryuu heir calls to Suigetsu, and as he does so he snaps up his bokken into hand once more, preparing for something...
Indeed, things seem to be going well. Marise goes up, Tenma goes up, Hakuya goes up, and all seems in place for Marise to go back down, hard. That doesn't happen though. Hakuya gets the satisfaction of hitting the Devil with his feet, as intended, but sadly they play into the evil schemes of the demon. Using the force to propel herself towards Tenma, the Guardian King team leader gets hit -hella hard- and sent to the ground. That didn't look good at all. Hakuya is able to land without incident, which gives him a much faster recovery time than either the zombie, or Tenma - particularly the latter. And before the fellow demon exorcist can even cry out about wanting to hold Marise down, Hakuya is moving, already thinking ahead. It's a little uncanny, how the two can read each other's minds practically - they even showed it in the match with Kain.
Of course, he's not all about holding Marise down at first. Indeed, as he steps forward, moving towards the Devil, he seems intent on striking somehow, hands lashing out to grab ahold of an arm, or at least try. But the words hit him, and he changes tack almost immediately. Assuming he succeeds grappling the zombie's arm, he'll attempt to twist it while gripping the arm by the wrist, then wrap his other arm around Marise's non-locked arm, hand moving under her armpit, then hand seeking to settle on the back of her head, in a rather effective hold. Grunting with effort, as surely if this works Marise isn't one to simply stand there and let it happen, Hakuya cries out, "Tenma! Now!" And then... he braces, tensing for what's about to come. He already knows what it will be... and clearly it's something big!
COMBATSYS: Hakuya assists Tenma.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\======-\1 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Tenma 1/--=====/=======|=======\===----\1 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 1/----===/=======|
...And once Tenma has got his footing, the Gedo swordsman throws his sword arm back, and pushes his right hand forward, the blood-red prayer beads shifting slightly on his wrist as his fingers contort in a simple mudra position, an aid to concentration. "This one's for my friends," he says, quietly. Focus on a single point, clear your mind of everything else...
The smoky blood and chi around the wooden blade of Tenma's bokken intensifies, until the weapon itself is obscured completely and Tenma seems to be holding a sword made out of pure blood. With Hakuya hopefully holding Marise tight, the taller youth springs forward, closing in on Marise as fast as he can and swinging his sword in a single, powerful stroke at the Demon's body, hard enough that the force could pass clear through her and into Hakuya....
And if it strikes, Tenma's own chi will pass through the Ghost, tearing at the very thing that animates her, the force of life itself, a shockwave that continues through her into the Suigetsu heir, stealing their vitality as it passes...
"BE /SEALED/!!"
'Hakuya! Grab the bitch!' 'Tenma, now!' Both of those set off some very large red flags in the mind of Kenji Ashima, having only now the time to spend catching his breath from the painful, repeated assaults from the likes of Marise-- and Tenma lets out all the sentiments in the world that appropriately fit the so-called devil.
But while those three prepare themselves, where is Kenji?
Turning on his heel, the Missile Fist has become the self-appointed rearguard to the assault, the King lingering in the back row in order to cover the flank-- and to deal with the likes of Ayame before she becomes a problem, generating that colorful chi while the others are engaged.
But then a thin blue line of light screams through the air and spears through Ayame's chest.
Running dead full tilt at Ayame, the energy on Kenji's arm suddenly surges down into his fist-- and backblows out from his knuckles and trumpeting away by the time it reaches his elbow. It's not hard to tell that he's making his move for her, his right arm reeling back and cocking into place-- his pose so far drawn back that it seems like he's about to twist and fall flat on his back.
"URAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH--"
And then his hand arcs around hard, catching the blue beam of light and -surging- forward, almost as though his -fist- was the one carrying his -body-. In a lunge that seems inhuman, his fist seeks to slam into Ayame's chest as hard as humanly possible and release that force-- in the form of a brutal, directed shockwave. Harsh enough to whip clothing and hair back in it's wake, strong enough to throw some small objects and whatever isn't nailed down, it tries it's best to strike Ayame squarely and send her flying back as far as possible, as hard as possible.
"RAIL GUN!!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Marise with The Sealing Sword.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\======-\1 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > /// ]
Tenma 0/-------/------=|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-----==|
Marise recovers from the terrible blow she had inflicted. Rising tall in the aftermath golden eyes glare downwards at the fallen child. With a sneer she mutters, "This is the end, bo-!"
Taken by surprise, the Devil's arm is seized from behind. Her arm folded behind her the creature arches her back, limbs -squirming- in the young man's hold as her tendrilous locks swirl around him, "Un-HAND- me you worthless.. srraAAAAH!" Voice devolving into wordless screeches of rage.
It takes every last scrap of training and expertise the Suigetsu heir has learned to wrestle the Devil still. Her somehow boneless body contorting and twisting this way and that, silken coils grappling the young man's limbs in a bid to force his arms to open.. To no avail.
And thats when Kiryuu holds his blade in that very familiar stance. The one Tenkan used long ago.. Marise remembers it well.
And she's afraid.
"No..NO!" Her claws digging at Hakuya's arms, fingers slithering like independent serpents. Locks coiling at his neck and torso, "Not again! NO! NOO! NOT AGAIN!"
Absolute panic washes over her face, golden eyes pleading as she shakes her head in denial! "I WON'T GO BACK! I WON'T! NEVER! I..I'll Kill YOU! I'LL KILL YOOU AAAAAAALLLL!!"
And then her whole world disappears into red.
The wash of crimson energy floods over her and Hakuya both. Briefly obscuring their forms within the flood of sacred, radiant power! Trembling forms only faintly seen in outline, as the Devil's scream is completely drowned out by the roar of energy..
And then.. it is done.
The energy dissipates and Marise stands still. Her limbs hanging limply at her sides. Her eyes... Pure white. Empty. Vacant.
The body, smoldering and blackened.. Simply falls over like a puppet with its strings cut. Collapsing to the ground in an awkward heap.
The Devil of Koga... is no more.
COMBATSYS: Marise takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\======-\1 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Tenma 0/-------/------=|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Marise
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Marise has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|=======\======-\1 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/------=|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Ayame counters Rail Gun from Kenji with Final Solstice.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/------=|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 1/-------/=======|
As Marise is attacked by perhaps the two young men that should be, of all people, the most experienced with demons, Ayame holds back, letting the chi wash over her, giving her greater strength, mimicking the technique first demonstrated in person for her by a certain odd monk. There's still a third student in this equation to consider, and Ayame shifts her focus in Kenji's direction, wary that the pent up energy he's gathered may very well be used on her next.
His yell reveberates along the tunnel walls, his chi a bright glow in the otherwise dark chambers. Unfortuantely, that just makes it all the easier for Ayame to see what he's doing next, the perceptive girl shifting her stance slightly, extending her staff to its full length. The light passes through her, forming a targeting line, and her eyes narrow as she feels no initial pain from the instantanous beam. What manner of technique is this?
And then comes the collision of knuckles against titanium, the girl allowing Kenji's strike to glance off her weapon at an angle designed to send him careening to her side before he can possibly hope to recover. The long weapon ignites in that moment, a firey red, flickering energy coursing over its surface as the girl uses the opportunity to tear into the Gedo student from the side and his back, smashing the weapon into him from side to side, deliberately bashing joints in order to throw his balance out of control.
Accompanying each impact is a small explosion of chi, red sparks taking to the air and raining down around the two. But there is another sound overwhelming even the blunt force strikes against the Gedo student council secretary. The shrieks of the demon at last dealt her sealing blow by Tenma. Ayame is only vaguely aware of it as she strikes Kenji's shoulder in order to twist the young man around, her right hand snapping out to grab hold of his shirt, her left hand hefting her staff up over her shoulder, angling it down toward him more like one would hold a spear they intend to drive through another.
From the end of the chi laced weapon, three blades extend, forming a small, sharp, bladed cross targeting Kenji. But it is pausing that brief moment, that split second it takes for the blades to position themselves, that Ayame realizes her horrifying benefactor is no more. She wavers, holding Kenji still for a lingering moment, before she finally releases, pushing against his chest to shove him back and give herself distance as she whirls around, stepping to the side in order to keep all three of the young men in her view.
A glance is spared Marise's fallen form before she snaps her attention toward Tenma. "Well. I have no work here anymore, your friends are back that way," she states with a nod toward the darkness behind them. She doesn't lower her staff, however, keeping it positioned in front of her at a defensive angle. She hasn't forgotten Tenma has no qualms with parting shots when he thinks they're due.
"Hah... Hah..." Tenma is left breathing raggedly after that, the incomplete 'ultimate technique' of his ancestors. The terrible glow around his bokken dies down to its more usual intensity, the excess energy bleeding off into the air around him... And the Guardian King stares down at the corpse of the Devil of Koga, snorting faintly. "If you crawl back up from Hell," Tenma says, apparently speaking directly to the fallen woman. "Be sure to bring me a nice souvenir."
There's no time now, perhaps not even enough to make sure Hakuya and Kenji are all right but with a quick glance. Ayame's directions are taken with, perhaps, a grain of salt... But Tenma is canny enough to realise that, well, the thief probably doesn't have much reason to lie right now. Besides, her initial directions proved true enough. But he doesn't offer her a word of thanks, or so much as move in her direction, instead contenting himself with a faint sneer at the blonde before turning and sprinting off in the direction indicated.
"Hakuya, Ashima, let's go!" They're almost there. Besides, the hard part is clearly over, right? ...Right?
COMBATSYS: Tenma has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kenji 1/-------/=======|
Kenji Ashima and 'still' are two concepts that are very rarely used together. It's seen through the way he moves, the way he talks, the way he fights-- always full of energy and life, like he's throwing himself headlong into everything that he does with no regard for the consequences. Of course, living like that could be good... or be very, very bad.
It ends up being 'bad' in this instance-- his fist strikes the staff, and the shockwave is released like an echoing boom down the rest of the hall. The energy is likewise disengaged from his fist, carried off on that wind and light and bringing the natural-- or unnatural-- light back to these halls, the Gedo student being pummelled across joints and forced into awkward angles and poses like some sort of marionette.
The staff is raised, the blades bursting out. Kenji stops grimacing, wincing back from the pain of being struck so many times in those critical places to open up one eye and see what's about to come down on him-- and he swings.
His arm misses Ayame completely, in a manner almost comical as his sore legs-- ankles, knees, and general disorientation getting the better of him as he falls back against the cavern wall and grips the surface with both hands to keep himself upright.
And then he pushes off.
But Ayame's already given them the information they need-- and Tenma's made the rallying call for the troops. He stops for a second, jabbing a finger in the blonde's direction and with his teeth bared, like he's biting back a laundry list of things to say. Written in his eyes, his stance, his actions-- it could almost be hard to believe this was the same goofy boy in a superhero costume she fought.
Shaking his finger, pointing twice, Kenji turns and breaks into a hard run after Tenma.
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Hakuya with The Sealing Sword.
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Hakuya 1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Ayame
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Kenji 1/-------/=======|
Hakuya's been hit with the technique before. He's no stranger to it at all, and knows just how much it hurts. Which is why he's tensing himself, getting prepared for the wave of deadly chi that'll rip through him just as much as it'll do to Marise... except the Devil is, undoubtedly, going to take the brunt of it. He holds tight all through it, regardless, intent on bringing the demon down... even if he's not the one to deal the blow. This was more his style, anyway - he can take the pain, after all.
She can't.
The crimson chi slams into Marise, flowing through her, HURTING her badly, and then it passes through and into him. All through it, he hears her screams, feels her clawing at him. He grits his teeth, simply holding onto Marise as best he can... and then it's over. Marise falls like a limp puppet out of his arms, and Hakuya is left to support himself, staggering backwards a bit. That hurt, undoubtedly, and he can't possibly be in too good of shape... but, at least he faired a good deal better than Marise did. The charred and blackened corpse an obvious tell-tale sign of that. He's a bit woozy, but the words from Ayame, telling him where Stasya is, are heard - and then Tenma's, rallying Kenji and he, make him soldier on.
Panting still, he reaches up to tug the hoodie back off him, revealing his features for the first time. He doesn't look so angry any more, just... tired. Though his eyes carry a definitive edge to them. He won. Against a demon. His first ever battle with one, and he won. Why? Because he had friends. This thought makes him smile, just softly, and he turns to look over towards Ayame. Kenji and Tenma give her both dirty looks, but Hakuya? He just smiles a little, that easy smile of his that is so often seen around Gedo. Ayame... wasn't a demon. She likely was like the guards above; just doing a job. She was telling them where to go now, and if what Tenma had said before was true, she was the reason they were there to begin with, because she'd told them where to go. There's no reason to fight her, if she doesn't press the attack.
With that relieved, easy smile on his face, he jogs in after Tenma and Kenji, intent on helping get his friend out of here.
COMBATSYS: Hakuya has left the fight here.
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Kenji 1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Ayame
The chaotic exchange in the inner sanctum of the Ninth Circle drowns out just about anything else in the area, including (but not limited to!) the rampant, slug-spewing cacophany of gunfire and cracking skulls that fills the lobby around the pit arena, as Adelheid draws out and engages the remainder of Blackjack's now-scattered enforcers methodically and brutally. He avoids killing blows where possible, but broken bones, injuries that will take them out of their mercenary line of work, and plenty of mashed cartilege and bloodied bodies soon amass quite impressively. ... it's going to be quite the scenic trip -out-, at this rate. Discarded jackhammer autoshotguns, shattered body armor, and groaning troops line the walkways and stairwells, but as with the battle further in, the crescendo without must eventually fade, allowing the music to once more soften to a more peaceful, if somber tone. After all, this place will never have a cheery soundtrack, but with its villains out of commission, at least for the moment.... it's almost as if something lifts in the air, for Adelheid. A weight off his intuitive, attuned shoulders.
The Bernstein heir sighs, and the bloodied knuckles of both hands relax. He draws himself out of a ready stance almost as if he never went into one, though the dark spatters and tears covering his jacket, crimson showing here or there on the previously pristine white shirt beneath, give him away all too plainly. Yes, he's been fighting... and hard. Now. If he had his way, and perhaps some blueprints... he'd be heading for the security room, to eradicate all record of this little endeavor. Lacking either absence of other priorities -or- a roadmap, however, all Adelheid can really do is keep his eyes peeled for a terminal or other source of concealed knowledge... and make his way towards his improvised allies. He has no reason to believe they cannot take the fight ahead of them, but despite the lightening of the air, this is still a dark place. Difficult to pierce with sight unseen. Thus, his strides fall quickly, fine leather clapping off the ground as he hurries towards Marise's chamber, and the triumphant Guardian Kings.
It's a moment after Ayame gives her succinct directions that Adelheid passes through the tunnel behind her, pausing by the portal a moment to look between Ayame, the departing Kings, and the charred vessel that once was Marise. Battle-weary, that much is clear - but it could have been far worse.
Apparently a man of his word, Adelheid nods to Ayame, and jerks his head towards the corridor back out, "One of the emergency stairwells is passable. The one that was subjected to the grenade." He smiles slightly, then just offers, "Get out of here." He'd advise the blonde girl to seriously reconsider her career options, but. That thought should be in her head, and since /when/ has saying it made any difference? Despite exertion, Adelheid's certainly been injured far worse. Peppered by numerous bruises and flesh wounds, a more solid hit here or there adding his own blood to his ensemble, the Bernstein heir still seems sure of his footing and steady of breath (at least, once again steady of breath, now that he's had a few moments). He brushes fingertips through his platinum blonde mane and moves to follow the singular-of-focus Gedo fighters through the doors beyond. This... is not likely to be a pretty sight, Adel knows that all too acutely. He doesn't offer words to his comrades-in-arms. Not yet.
COMBATSYS: Ayame has left the fight here.
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Kenji 1/-------/=======|
Log created on 21:44:36 03/20/2008 by Marise, and last modified on 23:54:56 03/25/2008.