Description: K' makes the newly-rescued, very traumatized Shurui... cry. K-douche indeed. Discover the shocking circumstances within!!
.... It may not be noticable straight off, especially if K' has been dealing with smug Kusanagis and British men drowning him in the river and newfound allies getting beaten up by NESTs and-
Anyway. In a nutshell, someone's not been in the YFCC, and, if K' has ever decided to stroll into the community center, there's one less person to deal with, for better or worse. One less.... strange person who never really took his outward displays of aggression as anything more than something to be cautious of, but not something to be scared of.
Today, however, this one person is back, though somehow.... lesser. Thinner. Scarred. Pale skin now even paler, no longer posessing the healthy glow that it had before. Some things have begun to heal; pink raw skin beginning to appear around the rings of scabs on her wrists, neck, and ankles. However, not enough time has passed to even begin to heal the marks of more than a week's worth of mental and physical torture. The only reason the girl is not still in a hospital is because, for some odd reason, Shurui's condition just seemed to worsen in those white bleached settings. Back among her dorm room, however, allowed for the start of some sort of healing, of scabbing.
Familiarity drives her to the YFCC now, as well as a need to focus on something other than the pain of a healing body. The library? That would be her solace. Quietly, her sharp eyes eyeing anyone who stares a little *too* long, she slips past the lobby, one hand adjusting the pants that begin to sag against her waist. .... High metabolism. Would Stasya have gotten this emacipated after the same amount of time...?
Unfortunately, today there will be one thing standing between Shurui and the anonymous solace of the library, and it's six feet of irritable faux Kyo. Truth be told, though, K' isn't really actively blocking or barring her way... or anyone's way, surprisingly. He isn't really doing much of anything save pacing slowly down the hallway, head down, eyes shadowed, on a crash course to intercepting the girl's path. His unresponsiveness would not be unusual, except the customary insouciance with which he lazes around the YFCC is absent... a heavy preoccupation having settled on his shoulders instead. Heavier than usual.
He carries himself with a slight limp, the tell-tale signs of lingering injuries stilting his steps to something a bit slow and hitched. Most of the punishment he took from the former King of Fighters is covered, or else on the mend already... that unnatural constitution coded into him working quickly to repair and fine-tune. But the real crippling injury is still starkly visible: a terrible, ugly mark smashed across the front of his throat, a welt that has yet to completely fade.
He hasn't noticed her absence as of late, no. He's been absent a lot as well, a lot of weighty issues having come down on his head in recent weeks. But he doesn't have to know she's been missing in order to recognize the sheer damage that's been done to her when his yellow eyes flick over her frame. K' pauses in his tracks, visibly staring. He knows what involuntary restraint and mistreatment looks like, and those marks are written all over her.
Normally it wouldn't be any of his god damn business... but K''s tolerance and interest are higher when it comes to fellow amnesiacs... those to whom he can relate. Just look at Whip. Of course, Shurui doesn't really have so compelling a hold on K' as Whip does, but then Whip has the advantage of shared genetics (beyond the Kyo, anyway). Twins remember twins, even if only in instinct.
The accusing look that eventually bleeds into his gaze says volumes enough... but against all common sense, K' decides to talk, too. A truly unusual concession. "...the -hell- did you do," he eventually gravels, his already-gruff voice harsher than usual... that injury making a deep rasp of it.
Truth be told, if Shurui wasn't so familiar with the young man's burning aura, she would have screened it out and ignored him right up to the point where she crashed into him. However, eyes widened, she drunkenly swerves to the side, her movements possessing none of that sharp grace they had when she faced him in battle. There, a scarred hand reached out against the wall, Shurui finally takes a look at the Beast of Fire, her shades not just replaced to shield her from the insight her third eye affords her.
If she hadn't seen that, she would have rebuked him for staring, feeling a sense of shame in front of his naked stare. But, instead, she's surprised by the wounded slant in his own body, prompting her to stare right back. "....." His movement.... seems wounded, but his energy.... it's working fast, repairing and mending broken parts that are only defined in her vision in the vague negative space they carve.
K' is supposed to be here. He's supposed to be annoyed at the kids around him, their restless running around and greedy intake of life all around them, all while jealously guarding their right to do so. He's supposed to have a quiet, annoying life, with annoying people. Not... ".... Don't tell me someone tried taking something from you too," Shurui quietly says, a rasp and a similiar concern in her voice. Also, for once, a bit of fear. But it's not *of* K''s presence, but fear of... well, it's not him dying either. Fear of change. Shurui wanted to come back and see everything as it was left, to find solace in the idea that her world is as she had left it.
Anger, so hot that it cracks her voice, drives her next words. "Don't say those words like I brought it on myself! You probably didn't ask for those wounds either!" Her body shakes, causing her to fall back against the wall. Her next words are quiet, almost... afraid. ".... did they attack you too? Because they wanted something you had? It's not like we can swap these things around..."
Quiet? Stable? If Shurui wants somebody stable to pin her sanity on-- wants to act like a cat and have safe people around her who never change-- K' is the LAST person she should choose for it. His life is turmoil incarnate. Nothing in his existence is safe or neverchanging. He's got more enemies than he's got friends, no real place to call -home-, and is pretty unhinged himself to boot. He could pack up and leave this life behind in an instant if he wanted. He's the furthest from stable you can get, and part of that starts showing in his reaction to Shurui.
At her stumbling, graceless attempt to avoid him, his eyes narrow. Shurui's poor vision won't pick it up, but she might see it reflected in the way his blazing aura pulls in angrily... that seething fire compressing in a dangerous, coiling way that could only spell sudden suspicion. Even when peppered by her questions, he doesn't bother telling her anything about his own problems-- doesn't even bother thinking about them. The more she talks, the more he feels pissed off about HER... the more he feels utterly -confused- and dismayed that the misfortune of this random whelp should get at him quite so deeply.
But then, she's not really all that random, is she? Amnesia. Strange powers. That standoffish, empty air that comes from a short life of neglect and abuse. Having to live in fear of attacks like this, all over power she didn't ask for. She's just like him and Whip, and because of that she's starting to edge her way onto that very short list of people he gets defensive over. -Any- of the many malignant forces out there could have attacked her for her abilities-- K' can think of a number of notorious crime lords and syndicates right off the top of his NESTS-trained, surprisingly acute head-- but the first thing that comes to mind is NESTS. It's the /amnesia/. Is it just a coincidence? Memory loss was so marked among so many in that organization... and it wouldn't be beyond them to take an interest in her even if she wasn't a product of them like he was. They want to breed fighters, after all, and that ability of hers is something they'd doubtless like to pull.
Thinking about NESTS just makes him lose his temper.
He's stormed right up into her face before he can catch or stop himself, cornering her against that wall she's conveniently sunk against. He doesn't touch her, but when his right hand nails to the wall right by her head, it should likely achieve the same sort of effect. "Shut up," K' snarls, heedless of how much it hurts to talk. He doesn't care who brought it on whom or what it was that was desired. All he cares about, really, is this: "-Who was it-."
...Yes, he's definitely angrier about this than he thought he would be... and it's because Shurui doesn't just look like she was beaten around a little. He wouldn't have given a shit if she were just kicked around, an assbeating is just 'growing pains' as far as he's concerned. It's the obvious signs of lengthy imprisonment and maltreatment which are getting at him. Besides, this is actually also somewhat pertinent to him. It could spell danger for him as well.
K' may be the last person to expect it from, but, there was never much of a rhyme or reason to Shurui's attachment to things, or people. Much like K', she sees similarities between him and her. And, right now, she's like nothing more than to retain those little things that keep her going, including the asshole who listened to her one afternoon and never let it effect his ability to beat her in a fair match later You get beaten up. You get stronger. Getting her ass handed to her wouldn't even be brought up; such things are events she's just as able to recover from as K', thought perhaps in not so surly and angry a manner.
That was the reason she never even thought of K' possibly nearly killing her in a match as anything more than just him not being easy on her. He wouldn't be the first, and he won't be the last.
But this? An entirely different matter. It may be telling in the way she slumps against the wall, a sort of flinch back where the body sharply and stiffly bends by a determination to *not be Touched*. To Avoid. It's something automatic, done even though Shurui is somewhat aware of K not being the sort to grab onto people unless it was out of the sort of violence they both know how to inflict, albiet in different ways.. "....." Her breath hisses through her teeth and raw fingertips dig into the wall, something murderous and angry held back in her body, kept in check by the caution and slight respect she has for the fellow amnesic.
K''s not scaring her. It's not that he's scary *enough*, because it's more than enough to scare any sane person. It's just that....
Her body then goes slack, anger leaving her in a slow breath. The information comes out, slowly, then quickly, providing a sort of temporary cartharsis. ".... Some organization named Blackjack. One of the head members wanted to study people with psi powers. They got me, ran the gamut of tests on me, and wanted my eyes. Literally. A woman wanted to see what I saw. The body energies. She's dead now, though. People came to save someone else who had gotten kidnapped." Someone Shurui knew well, but that's probably something K' wouldn't care to know.
Eventually, the ex-agent's lean frame relents. It recoils back, giving them both the space they so need, and K' listens in thin, cold silence as she slowly answers his demand. He doesn't say anything about her twitch away from him; not because he didn't notice the flinch, but because he is used to eliciting such reactions. He is aware of the implications thereof, but there is no reason to make anything of it. That kind of standoffishness, as far as he is concerned, is entirely normal. Normal for people like them, anyway.
He doesn't know what name he was expecting, of the many criminal organizations to which he became privy during the course of his work for NESTS. Bernstein's 'R'... Howard's Syndicate... some other lesser known, but nonetheless established group, perhaps. Blackjack, however? It's not anything he really heard of during his time as an agent, and it's not anything which has come up on his radar significantly afterwards.
Now, however? Oh, it's on his radar. His kill on sight radar, anyway. Any organization that kidnaps and experiments like this is fucking dead in his eyes. It's too akin to NESTS.
The news, however, that the perpetrator has already been killed is taken... somewhat differently than Shurui might expect. There is some measure of relief, but it is completely hidden: vastly overshadowed by the ugly look of frustrated anger that wells up in his virulent yellow eyes. His right hand winds shut, a slight heat smoking the air about it as his self-control falters slightly. "...Fine." K' casts his gaze aside angrily, turning shoulder on her, his mood black. "I guarantee you-- however they did it, it's better than what I would have done." A brittle laugh. "Lucky for her, really." And he looks like he means it. This is not a boy who is above violent revenge in the least.
He is quiet for some time, considering the implications. If this organization was gutted, all the better... even where he personally is concerned. K' is the last person to want this kind of organization operating, after all... considering he usually finds himself topping the lists whenever the topic of experimentation and power-stealing comes up. Eventually, he just shoves his hands in his pockets-- as if holstering them could help calm his temper. "Too fucking hard," he eventually says, very quietly. "Too hard to always be running."
He's being reminded exactly why his drive to rid the world of this kind of thing is so acute-- and because of that drive, he's becoming even more tempted to take Billy up on that opened door. To try and wrest what power he can from the tutelage of Geese Howard, even knowing what Howard -is-. Even knowing how hard... how -dangerous-... it would be to try to escape Howard's shadow once he willingly stepped into it.
".... I wouldn't mind you burning the body for good measure," Shurui weakly says. "..... The funny part is...." She chuckles, a sound about as dry and bitter as K''s own. ".... even if she had taken out my eyes.... all she would have gained is nothing. The power isn't in my eyes. It was in my head." She laughs, then shakes. "....... fucking hell... who am I kidding. I was scared shitless. I was so scared that I kept escaping and she'd find another way to bind me. She finally had to hang me from the c-...." Shurui stops herself. ".... God, why the hell should I share these things? It's not like either of us could do anything to get back at her. That demon woman... Marise, I think her name was... she's dead, and I have to just keep going. But... I keep thinking she's still alive someplace. Her aura... it wasn't... human. It was fake."
K''s words make the clone pause, causing her to look at him for a long while. Her lips purse in a question, then stop, suddenly finding her throat and tongue too dry and nervous to speak. The only words she could manage are, "...... You're not....?"
Her question trails off and she looks down, shaking her head. ".... It's stupid, really. But. The tests.... after Marise did all those tests, she told me something strange. That I wasn't real. I was, in her words, 'a jinzoningen'. Lots of other names. For a while, I couldn't believe her, but now.... well, not sure what to believe." Slowly shaking her head, she continues, "I don't even know why I'm telling you all this. I mean, I know; you got people breathing down your back, right? Too many things to worry about, to think about. It's too hard to be always thinking about your next move. I know this. Yet I keep going back to you. And I don't know why. I just know that the idea that you're amnesic too... it make me feel not so alone. And that was enough, many times. If you could do it, so could I. All those annoying things that everyone else seemed to already know."
K''s expression twitches as Shurui talks, almost as if-- for the space of an instant-- it wanted to become something other than that hard, unremittingly cold regard he wears almost 24/7. He can't help but be reached by what she's saying, for all he would like not to give a shit, because it's just too close to his own experiences. He doesn't recognize it yet, but his is actually a very overprotective personality: one that clings on hard to things, because it is far too used to having nothing.
The people that trigger this defensiveness, at this point in time, number three. Exactly three. And they are all people to whom K' can personally relate. Why? Because even his protective tendencies are overwhelmingly selfish; they will not trigger unless K' feels some personal resonance or investiture with the person in question.
Confused and somewhat threatened by those inexplicable feelings, K' physically backs away from Shurui a few steps. He's felt everything she has before, and that she's saying it all aloud now is forcing him to recall that fact. He's been scared out of his wits, tired, exhausted... hunted until he felt he would break under the worry and the strain, weighted under a burden too great for his young shoulders.
Shurui cuts herself off just as she talks about having been hung from the ceiling, and a spasm of rage-- familiar and comforting-- momentarily relieves him of the broken feeling that threatened him moments before. He says nothing. It's probably enough that he listens and understands-- but for him to actually respond verbally is far, far beyond his comprehension and ability. But while he has no answer to her more emotional dilemmas, he knows there is ONE thing he can fix.
"...Hmph," he eventually says articulately, his battered throat not lending itself to verbosity. Not human? Still alive? K' just grins, the expression more like a baring of teeth than anything else. Like an animal, K' only really smiles when he wants to threaten somebody. "If she's still alive somehow..." K''s right hand unsheathes, lifts, and claws, immolating in a burst of holy fire. "...this fire isn't gonna discriminate over whether she's human or not." And moments later, his hand conclusively shuts on the twisting flames.
It's the last thing Shurui says, however, that really gets his attention. The rest of what she says afterwards about not being alone kind of fades out-- it's all stuff he knows already anyway, he's felt the same with Whip-- and he visibly focuses on those tests. Or more accurately, on their results. He knows that phrase. A fake human, a created human. Something not real. He's been called something like that once before... and that's why visible shock flickers briefly in his eyes. It's soon replaced by a very focused suspicion.
"She told you -what-," he's demanding again, his attitude edging dangerously closer to that previous snarling intensity. "What do you -mean- 'not real?'"
Shurui doesn't know K' as long as Maxima has; even if she did meet him in those foggy months after her formation, it would have not been in a way to form a cohesive idea that would have survived the ensuing brainwashing. But she knows enough to not ask for much from him. And to find comfort solely in the way that he listens.
You work with what you get. And it's not as if he'll lie to her or manipulate her with wide smiles and kind words. And that's a quality that's hard to find, sometimes.
The strange way he reacts to her answer, however, causes the girl to feel a sense of caution. Suspucion flutters through her dark eyes, which follow a slow path to the ground. What if he's... part of Blackjack? Maybe that's how she was kidnapped; someone could have tipped them off. Or maybe... well, it's not that she's kept her abilities a secret. Should she, from now on? "... If you want to take a swipe at her for my sake or your own, I'll be sure to tell you if she crawls out of whatever hellhole she's in now," Shurui solemnly says, her eyes looking to the strange fire cupped in his clawed fingers, then back down.
Those same eyes flutter open in surprise at the sudden fury in K''s voice, her body stiffening. ".... Why do you ask like that...?" Her eyes look to K''s face, tired face furrowed in suspucion. ".... Like I said, I don't know what to believe. That sort of thing.... that's impossible, right? People can't grow people.... but she said something about how 'they' have already uncovered the secrets if they were able to create a 'patchwork beast' like me. Other than that and calling me a doll that 'dances and believes she's like people.' Things like that." She pauses, moving her gaze back down. ".... You better not be one if them. Please don't say you are, whoever 'them' are."
"Describe her," K' replies promptly, his hand lowering and hooking back onto a belt loop. Perhaps the description won't be interesting enough that K' can pick the woman out of a crowd himself... but it's worth a shot. And relying on Shurui to come and tell him if such a creature were to resurface is just foolhardy. Shurui might not even know, up until the point the thing takes another shot at her... and it'd be too late then.
For a few moments after that, it seems like the storm has passed entirely. K' relaxes marginally, seeming somewhat satisfied now that he has hit upon some sort of perceived solution to this mess. But soon enough, Shurui says something that proves K''s momentary calm was just that tempest's eye. Startlement wars with sudden intensity as he turns right back on her, a suspicion to match hers in his dark regard.
He's certainly acting suspiciously enough that Shurui's sudden caution is warranted. His yellow eyes have narrowed on her with a disconcerting sort of focus, the look of him wholly intent. It's the look characteristic of somebody who's doing a lot of sudden and frenetic thinking, putting two and two together... sifting through all that he knows about the organization which wrecked his life.
'It's impossible, right?' K' is completely silent a moment... and then, horrifyingly enough, he does something quite out of place considering the situation. He laughs. Not at her; but at the sheer serendipity of the situation. The boy leans back, his left hand palming his face briefly in mixed incredulity and humorless amusement. He can't believe this. He was right about this girl, if he's interpreting this correctly. Amnesia really IS the calling card of NESTS. Of course, there's a chance that woman captor was a huge fucking liar; but -still-, the way Marise described Shurui-- the way the woman referred to a mysterious 'they'-- seems to militate against that. NESTS is the only organization she could be referring to.
And at the time he'd left, the organization HAD been dipping into extreme genetic tampering. He's seen the results of it thrown at him, in the form of K9999. He knows, from what he's been able to wrest out of assassins, contacts, and occasional raids, a little of their current tack on experimentation.
And that last phrase-- is he one of them? K''s amusement cuts like a switch being thrown. One eye cracks open instantly, a narrowed gleam of yellow zeroing in on her, and for a moment he just doesn't answer. The silence is probably foreboding-- but in reality, he's just trying to figure out how to put things. He doesn't want to freak her out if it turns out she's NOT something from out of NESTS.
"Well." The look he levels on her, when he finally answers, is so sombre it'd be quite hard to believe he doesn't know what he's talking about. "No. It's not impossible. And..." He lifts a shoulder in a shrug at her bleakly-expressed hope he's not 'one of them.' "...as for that. Suffice it to say if you met me a year or two back, you'd have been in trouble."
"....." Shurui could possibly point out the irony in how K' is asking her, a young woman whose sight is vague at best, but, in this case, she does know. Marise was distinctive enough in both aura and appearance that even vague descriptions provide enough clues. "A woman dressed like one of those geishas. Expensive kimonos. Dark hair, pale skin, long nails like knives. She cut through my arm like it was paper while trying to get my cooperation. She wouldn't stop... touching me. Poking me, prodding me." Her voice grows thick with anger, a fleck of spittle flying from her lips. "Her aura... if I am some fake person, she's faker than I am. Her aura.... it was built out of pieces of other people. People still alive and fighting to get out of her. It wasn't like yours or mine. I wanted to kill her. I wanted to kill her so badly."
K''s frenetic mood swings keep setting the girl on edge; now that she's committed herself to talking about it, the idea that K' could betray her feels so possible, even if it was his percieved trustworthiness- his inability to care or act on things- that made her begin to speak in the first place. The laughing sets her even more on edge, her body standing on the tip of something more agressive. ".... If you try to take me to them, no matter who they are.... I'll kill you. Or force you to kill me. They have no right to me. I'll decide that my own worth."
However, it appears that she spoke too soon. K''s revelation, as well as the emotion emitted by the expression on his face, make the girl's defensive position loosen. Then.... she slumps, leaning against the wall. "..... They couldn't have thrown you away, could they? You're one of the strongest people I personally know. If you had been kidnapped... you wouldn't have had to wait for someone to come for you. You could have gotten out. I mean, you can see things coming at you. You have that, at the very least."
That description. He knows this woman. The fact that he does is clearly visible in the way his expression suddenly darkens, the scant amusement that graced his face earlier now entirely gone. He knows that woman. He caught her following him once, but had done nothing at the time; she had subsequently professed an interest in having him fight in her so-called Seventh Circle. He had accepted only once, and even then, mostly for the sake of meeting that enigmatic Seishirou Ryouhara.
Fuck. If he -had- done something about her when he'd caught her tailing him, then perhaps-- but no. He shakes it off, visibly blinking away that moment of self-castigation. He can't do anything about it now... can't undo what got done to Shurui. Marise is dead. And even if she's not dead... he knows exactly where. to find. her. Unless she's abandoned the Circle in the wake of that disastrous end to her ambitions, anyway. "She was interested in me," he eventually says shortly, "Once. ...It doesn't matter anymore."
At the moment, he's more interested in figuring out if Shurui really is, so to speak, 'NESTS brand.' Her sudden defensive declarations get waved off, K' gesturing impatiently as if to bat aside her threats. He doesn't really realize how patently annoying such a flippant dismissal can come across as. "Relax. If that organization she talked about is what I think it is, I'm in the same position as you. And I don't feel the least different from you, when it comes to where I think they can shove it."
At her further words, however, he frowns. Some kind of nerve just got touched, though he doesn't directly explain why it is he suddenly looks so displeased. He just corrects her eventually, a deep and old anger smoldering under his words, "Heh. I was one of the first projects they tossed as trash. I wasn't a -clone-... they just wanted to give me these." A shrug, as K' idly flicks a minute ring of fire from his gloved fingertips. "Came out a failure... but they still had use for me. Used me another two years before I finally cut and ran. Escaped."
He narrows his eyes on her. "You're wondering why I'm telling you. It's cause there's no point trying to hide it. They know I'm out here, know what I look like, know I'm a traitor to them and that I'd gladly rip them down. They've tried sending assassins to kill me any number of times." A short laugh. "Guess having me running around out here trying to bring them down is kinda a liability."
He watches her another few moments before he continues. "Not to say for sure you came out the same place I did. You don't even remember, do you? Only reason I think you -did- is cause most people coming out of there have amnesia. Most people got tampered with genetically. And no organization I know of on the face of the earth can clone... not like they can."
The darkened expression on K's face causes Shurui to pause after her description, the puzzle pieces falling into place as he explains himself. ".... No, it doesn't matter. I'd like to think you would have been able to break out if they managed to kidnap you. Your eyes are good; and you're stronger than I am." Her tired eyelids droop, and her body sags. "I'll have to get stronger."
Unfortunately, the lack of sleep finally begins to strain at Shurui's emotions, the flippant gesture causing one part of her lips to curl up in a snarl. "Do-" K''s next words stop the girl in her tracks, thankfully, surprise coloring her pale face. "...." Then, finally, she laughs, faint traces of tears welling up in her eyes. ".... Yeah." Relax. It's like a weight has shifted just slightly off her shoulders, a stress lifted through a solemn understanding.
A solemn understanding that stirs something that was just a faint interest into something more solid. Shurui isn't immediately sure what she could do with this strange feeling in her chest, whether to cry or laugh more or try to find words, but, in the end, reason wins out. "... I would have never thought you to be a failure. Not at all." Finally sliding down the wall to rest her chin against her knees. "...Your aura's adapted those flames so well even I couldn't tell they were tacked on. Sure, you have trouble sometimes, but... there's a *reason* I stared at you when we first met. It wasn't just the fire. It was the fact that your body contained it." Closing her eyes with a sigh, she adds, "If you're a failure.... no wonder they threw me in an alleyway. If it was the same people." There's not a hint of self-pity in the girl's voice as she says this- if this is the same organization as K''s that created her? She was possibly the lucky one, for all her trials and tribulations.
".... No. I don't remember. Just... ever since Marise kidnapped me, lots of nightmares. People sticking things in my eyes. I still can't sleep. But... if I was just tampered with genetically.... does that mean there's someone out there searching for me? Or, at least, the person I was before I was kidnapped? And you...." She trails off, a soft sigh escaping her mouth. "No wonder you wanted to remember so badly..."
K' just shrugs at her continued assertions that if it were him, he would have been strong enough to escape. He doesn't say anything, even though it's obvious he thinks the real answer to that is more like 'Who knows?' He has no idea whether Shurui's situation really was something he could have easily handled, and he doesn't particularly feel like speculating about it. It's a moot point now anyway, and with luck it'll stay that way.
What's more concerning to him is what happens next. Oh fuck, she looks like she's going to cry. Eyes narrowing in an expression somewhere between alarm and irritation, his gaze follows the girl as she slumps down against the wall, folding up into a little ball of tired confusion. Awkwardly enough, K' doesn't crouch down with her even despite the already-prodigious height difference; he just slumps his shoulders, drops into a slouch, and frowns at the top of her head.
But though he has nothing to say to her perceptions of his strength... he sure has a lot to say about her opinion he's not a failure. "...I -was- a failure," he insists, almost waspishly. "This is the only reason I can contain the fire." The heavy glove is presented bitterly; but eventually, deciding showing is preferable to telling, K' lifts his left hand and starts slowly undoing the clasps on the thing.
He hinges the glove open, prying electrodes away from the back of his hand and cutting the suppression current off from his body. And the instant that happens, the patterns of orderly control that had kept his aura tame and in check abruptly withdraw, snaking away into nothing. The violent blaze within him-- that aura only she can see-- convulses instantly, spasming wildly, overflowing his lean frame and snarling outwards in a flare of unruly heat and light. The temperature rises five degrees; his narrowed eyes reflect a deep red beneath their yellow sheen. A few more seconds pass, and his right arm begins to bleed fire visibly. It drips from his exposed right hand, frothing up from his cracked-open glove. His aura lashes more and more violently by the second, like some sort of beast speared through the eye, the imminent danger of it as glaring as the last few seconds on a bomb...
...and then with a grimace of effort, K' shuts the glove. Order strings its way back through the sacred fires caged unwillingly inside him, and eventually-- compelled by the current-- they subside back to that rigidly-shackled blaze she is by now so familiar with. The boy sighs a long, bracing breath, shaking off the pain.
"And that's with me trying all I can to control it," he eventually says. After a long silence-- doubtless meant to rest his aching throat-- he continues. "I don't know what was done to you, or who did it. But I want to know who -I- was before they put THIS in me. I want to know where I came from and what I lost."
Shurui crying is something K' will be spared- for now, at least. Thankfully, whether or not K' has the ability to discern such emotions, the tears that did well up were from happiness; she's not alone. And, perhaps, if he doesn't have anyone else, neither will he be, even if they decide to part ways here and never meet again.
"It just seems so strange. I've always thought of you as being so...." At first, Shurui doesn't notice the glove, her eyes closed, but, at his silence, she opens them, eyes focusing on the blurry glove in front of her. "....?" There doesn't even need to be any instances of fire or heat- as soon as his aura shows instances of his inner sacred fire running amok, Shurui's eyes widen, fear and concern coloring her features before even the first visible sign of fire. It was the same convulsion of roaring fire that stopped her in her tracks during their SNL fight, causing her to place the safety of him and everyone around him above any chance at a quick hit. "S-stop.... stop it! I fucking get it, okay!"
Okay, it's now that she's crying, her pale face showing a bloom of red, though Shurui quickly rubs it against the sleeve of her second-hand sweater. "You didn't have to do that... I was stupid, okay? But don't do that to yourself! Please." Turning away, embarrassed by the flush of emotion on her face, she breathes slowly, trying to keep her tears in check. If this hadn't happened so close to her stay at Marise's, she would have not crumbled like this. She's sure. Does anyone really want to deal with this? Especially K', right at this moment? Shurui stays long enough to hear his subsuquent words. ".... Hold on. I'll get you a bottle of water and some aspirin." Her voice is quiet and steady, and, whether K' complains or not, she walks off, stealing a worried glance at his form as she turns a corner.
Minutes pass. Silence. It might be a gift to K' right now, recovering from his 'demonstration' of sorts to Shurui. It certainly is to Shurui.
True to the girl's word, whether K' wanted it or not, Shurui returns with a bottle of water, its top already loosened and a small packet of aspirin. "..... Sorry." It's vague, just then, what exactly the girl is apologizing for, whether it was the wait, her outburst, or K''s general state. No clues are offered, however, as she takes her space against the wall, pressing her head against her bent knees.
Nobody is as surprised at Shurui's reaction as K' is. He's lived so long with the glove and the constant little tingle of pain it causes (it's part of what makes him so perpetually irritable) that opening it up a little bit-- as he did just now-- is far from being a big deal. In fact, he has to pull stunts like this fairly frequently, just so he can ventilate his caged hand and give it a little air. The lack of control, the pain... both are just unchangeable parts of his life, in his mind.
The fact that Shurui would see the actual details of what happens inside him when he opens his glove HAD occurred to him. It was the reason he opted to just show her, after all: he knew she would see what he was talking about. What he didn't anticipate was the fact that the sight might actually -scare- her. He doesn't really -care- if she gets a little scare, mind, but reactions like the one she's having now are hard to know how to deal with.
As such, he just kind of stares blankly at her when-- in his perception-- she abruptly loses it at him for no real reason. Startled, he recoils a pace or two. "...it's not like it's a huge deal," he eventually says gruffly. "I do that all the time... trying to learn how to control it myself, without help." He's totally unsure what just happened there and ready to just chalk it up to the whims of womankind... but then Shurui brushes past him and walks off, declaring her desire to get him an aspirin. His brow furrows in mingled bewilderment and annoyance as he just stares after her.
She returns eventually, as promised. Scowling faintly at the offered packet, K' glares at it a few seconds before he annoyedly pushes it back at her. "You look like you need it more than me," he rasps, eyes narrowing on her obvious attempts to hold back her tears with an almost accusatory look. His behavior, as one might expect, is facially unsympathetic. "Get a grip..."
It's not said -unkindly-, exactly... but the complete lack of any kind of inflection at all, good or bad, might be offputting to most. That, and the fact it's not really the most tactful thing to say to somebody who just endured a week of torture.
K' just may understand, if he saw what she did. The sacred chi bubbling out like hot grease through a pressure cooker, obscuring her physical realm of vision. Kusanagi flame is impressive when pressed into the physical realm, but when it's pressing against a person's body, pressing to come out at any second in a glorious explosion... Rubbing her face as K''s words flow over her, Shurui answers, ".... Good."
It make be good to not tell him what she saw, even if it would be hard to place those terms into words if she dared try.
Sighing as K' presses the aspirin back, Shurui stuffs it back into her pocket. ".... It'll just irritate my stomach. I can deal with the physical stuff; been doing that for a while." It's just the other part that hurts. She doesn't like being so emotional; she wants to be in control. Steady. Like she was before.
'Get a grip' he says. ".... what do you think I've been trying to do for the last few days? Or why I walked away when I did? I don't know how to handle myself like this." She takes a breath and lets it out slowly. "Look. I can't sleep, I can't eat... but if I don't, I'll go back to the hospital. And...." She grits her teeth. ".... I... really.... don't want that right now."
The reasons? Too horrible and vague to place into words. "... You got your own problems too."
Okay, so that last phrase was the wrong thing to say. K' lapses into a brief silence as he carefully considers other options; coming up totally blank, he frowns articulately to himself, and contents himself just staring narrowly at her. Eventually his gaze cuts away, and he turns his back on her. He starts walking as if to leave... but soon enough it becomes clear he's just crossing the hall. Turning back to face her, he leans in a slump against the far wall, shoving his hands back in his pockets and sighing a long breath.
Any other time, this'd be the moment he'd have huffed a derisive sound and just left. But for whatever reason, he doesn't. Not yet, though he's getting close to that point. It wouldn't be a huge loss if he did, to be honest; his continued presence is entirely unlikely to be of any help to her at all. K' is absolute shit at this kind of thing; his way of reacting to life is to concretely solve the problems that come up in it. Not sit around and talk.
'You got your own problems too,' she says, and K' just laughs a little. The sound is unpleasant, mostly because it lacks any semblance of warmth or actual good humor. "...Yeah. I do. Fucking lot of them. They look a hell of a lot like yours now do, though, so I suggest you do what I do." His lashes lower. "Try not to think too hard." A long pause, and then he concedes. "Way easier said than done."
But K''s "advice" doesn't stop there. He's got at least one other thing to say. "...and try not to get caught. You're a huge liability to me now I told you all that." Is that his idea of a joke? Or is he just being a dick? Maybe. Maybe not. He does crack a smirk when he says it... but when it comes to K', that is really not a reliable indicator of whether he's serious or not.
It's too bad Shurui's not empathic; while the girl has more of a clue to reference when it comes to reacting to people than, say, K', it's still... a little stunted. Thankfully, K''s body postures and actions clue her in a little and, for once, Shurui listens. K' is, after all, her only point of reference, and he's managed to keep afloat this long. He's also taking her seriously. Or, well, as serious as K' takes anything.
It's all a matter of context. And K' is a survivor, in Shurui's eyes.
"..... Alright."
The next words don't make the girl's mood worse. After all, it brings up a very good point. ".... I was a huge liability the day I found out your name," Shurui says quite simply with a shrug. "... Besides.... wouldn't it be the same vice versa? Not because I told you anything, but because someone from the group or whatever that did this to you might notice me. If they haven't already. And if my... abilities come from that same source, if they think someone's interested in me, they might get greedy and snatch me back."
Well, fuck. "..... Right, right. Try not to think too hard." Nostrils flare as she moves her gaze downwards to the tiled floor. "... Okay. So. If they come after me. Or if someone else comes after me. And it's something over my head. Do you want me to... well. Come to you? In return, I could... uh. Well, I can cook, I guess. Or give you a safe place to sleep, or even fight alongside you. I'm willing to do that, since our problems are similiar."
K' actually has to think about that question. Not her first one, the one that asks if it isn't the same vice versa (it is, but K' doesn't think about that), but the second one: the one which asks if she should come to him should they pursue her. He has to think about it for a good while.
It might seem callous or horrible to an outsider. But for K', it's just a matter of practicality. Can he afford Shurui coming to him, should her problems catch up with her? There are downsides and upsides, as there are to all problems in life. The upside? He'll be able to find out a little something about the plots of those who pursue people like himself, Whip, and Shurui: whether just by observing the pattern of their actions, or beating it out of them when they get brave enough to actually crop up. The downside? ...well, that much obvious. Recapture. Death. What's after Shurui might not be NESTS... it might be something even /K'/ can't handle.
But then again, isn't this a risk he already lives with every day of his life?
K''s eyes darken as he reluctantly recalls his initial reaction to seeing her beaten up and abused-- his reaction to her subsequent explanation of what had happened to her. Could he HELP but let her come to him if she were being pursued by kidnappers and scientists, the likes of which had ruined his own life? He isn't so sure he could ever turn her away, even if the risk to himself was great; he's already seen an inkling of just how strongly he could react to the plight of those unfortunates in such a similar situation as him.
The food bribe probably also helps. Shurui seriously doesn't know what she's getting herself into there, offering to feed K'.
"If they come after you," he eventually says, quite slowly, purposefully leaving out that qualifying 'if it's over your head,' "those cartel assassins and the like... you come to me. If only cause I'd like to see their faces when they figure out what you led them to." Oh, K'. Cocky as always. "And if it's really NESTS that you came out of, and they start sending people after you... I'd like to know about any of their movements, anyway. To have the chance to figure their plans out."
To an outsider, the entire conversation may be callous. To Shurui? She can appreciate that pause; after all, it's why she asked. It's not courtesy; it's empathy, the sort that keeps K' from walking away and Shurui from taking K''s comments too close to heart. The sort that lets Shurui guess that, while K' may not have much to lose, it's the things he stands to lose that make this decision so serious.
Freedom is just too precious a thing to give away on a whim, for K' and Shurui. And Whip as well.
But for how long can that freedom last? NESTs will probably not appreciate the way their individual projects and former employees keep... meeting each other. And they may begin to move, in order to correct any possible mistakes.
When K''s words come, Shurui seems to solemnly accepts them, adding a slow nod to his delibrate response. "... If it comes down to it, I will. If I can handle it myself, though, I'll do that too. But in order to do that... I'll just have to get stronger." She pauses, wetting her lips in that quiet space of a second. "And I'll try to help you out, too. Wherever I can." She doesn't even know the name of what organization 'created' K', and, for now, she's afraid to. Speak of the devil and he will come.
That reply finally made, K' pushes away and turns from the wall, regarding Shurui indifferently over his left shoulder. Her assurances that she'll handle it herself if she can-- that she'll do what she can to help -him-? He says nothing aloud to accept them, just letting them ping off him; though if she wanted to, she could construe his silence as an acceptance and not be entirely wrong.
"Don't be stupid about it," is what he finally ends up saying. Don't try to take on more than you can handle. He tips sideways, leaning his right shoulder against the wall, crossing his right ankle slackly past his bracing left. Fishing into a pocket for a cigarette-- he is stupid enough to smoke even with his throat looking like that-- he sticks it loosely in his mouth and lights up. The fact he's in a center for young people and -children- does not seem to bother his conscience; at the moment, he needs something to calm his nerves and get him thinking clearly again.
Giving a shit about other people, even if it's only two or three people he gives a damn about, is just too exhausting and confusing.
"Go get some damned rest," he eventually says, a sighed breath of curling smoke accompanying those words. Despite their rough quality, there is little significant bite to those facially-abusive words: just a lot of steam and grumbling. "Idiot. Why the hell are you here, so soon after something like that? You look like shit." Hilariously, he says this even while absently rubbing at that awful mark marring his own throat.
"... I'm not planning on it," is the clone's answer. "... I'm lucky to be alive. I can't count on things to work out the way that did ever again." K' may be offering to *help* her, but to ask him to *save* her? If he follows through on *that*, she may dread her savior more than her captor.
But, then again, she'd be alive.
The gruff words cause Shurui to pause in surprise, her gaze focusing on the little glint of burning ash that hangs from K''s mouth. .... Wh- Is he...? He can't be. He can't say that and have no sense of irony, right? ... Right? "Because I couldn't sleep or eat," Shurui finally grumbles, just as irritably. "I just wondered if I walked around and did some reading if it would change things. Besides," she begins, tiredly narrowing her eyes to focus on the tall young man-
"..... You don't look so hot either. And stop itching! It makes my neck itch just looking at you! You want it to get infected?!"
"...and running around out here's gonna make things better when you -haven't- slept or eaten anything in days." A prodigious eyeroll follows. "Right. Whatever. You do what you please, I guess." K''s lashes flick downwards unimpressedly as he takes his attention off her, focusing on drawing a mouthful of smoke and cooling it a little against his tongue before the inhale. "Least it'd distract you," he eventually concedes grudgingly, his words framed by escaping smoke. "Better than a damned hospital."
Soon enough, Shurui decides to turn right around and start nagging him. This being a far more familiar situation to him than the reverse, he is quicker to respond. Even if the response is a little... standoffish. "Whatever." K''s free shoulder, the one that isn't pressed against the wall, lifts in a shrug. "I've been hurt worse than this. It's healing already anyway."
He doesn't explain how it is he -got- so beat up. And he doesn't stop worrying at his throat, either. Perhaps now he's just doing it to aggravate her.
"...pretty sure you must've been out of NESTS too." The topic circles inevitably back, K' having thought about it in the brief interlude... and deciding he needs to hammer down something to believe for -sure-, before this interaction is out. "Amnesia. Weird abilities. That woman saying you're some kinda genetic experiment, some clone. Artificial life." He shakes his head, a breathy chuckle escaping him. "All the trademarks. Just hope you're not on the radar."
Unspoken comes the inevitable addition, a thrum of worried doubt in his mind that he's felt keenly before, with his sister: And let's hope I don't put you back on it. Not like I did Whip.
"Fine. I'll go home, damn it." With a sigh, she closes her eyes, resting her head on her knees. It's aggravating, his words. And yet, alongside that is something she can take comfort in. A certain sense of safety that K' had never possessed within him before today. Maybe it's the fact that she's desperate and looking for comfort wherever she can. Maybe she's just finally beginning to feel exhausted enough to see something else, whether it's actually present or not, in the young man's curt words. ..... Or maybe it's just because she's finally realized that, at least for these few crushing facts that make up the core of who she is, she's not alone.
5t "... Yeah." Her second reply is softer. "It is. Also, I got to talk to you. That made me feel better; I think I'll be able to sleep now. I know it sounds stupid, but... my mind gets stuck on the idea that someone will come at me if I sleep. But I think I'll be okay now." Stumbling up to her feet with a slightly unsteady sway that corrects itself, Shurui admits in an embarrassed tone, "I couldn't stop itching at my neck either. But mine's not like yours. I'm just scared yours'll open back up or something. And or leg- I can see that it's healing quickly, but that just means you gotta be careful it heals back properly."
She wants to know what that wound on K''s neck really means. What those broken bones mean. Did someone try to slice his neck open? Was it a fight gone wrong? Was it that cartel he spoke of? Instead of questions, however, she nags. Nagging is her tradeoff, her silent compromise.
"NESTs." Thin grey eyebrows furrow. "Those're the guys you talked about, right? Who made you who you are?" Clone. Artifical life. "... It was him, right?" Kyo. She doesn't say the name aloud. "The guy with the firey energy just like yours. That's what..." She trails off. It's probably a delicate manner, considering how K' seems to react to the very name.
She's got to be pretty fucking desperate if she's looking for solace in K'. This is about as comforting as he -ever- gets with anyone who isn't his sister... and he's -still- an abrasive, mocking son of a bitch. His eyes half-lid in smug triumph as she finally concedes to his opinion and folds over exhaustedly, but nonetheless that self-satisfied gleam isn't really ALL there is to his gaze... and that glimmer of a different emotion is what eventually prompts a very irritated, "...I -told- you. Do what you want." Against all the influences of his ruthless and amoral upbringing, against his own tendencies, he seems to finally be learning to give a grudging shit about people other than himself.
Too bad he's still selfish enough-- even despite that shift-- that his own wants, ninety-eight percent of the time, take full precedence. And he isn't really consciously aware that he's any sort of comfort to her, for that matter; at least, up until she says so, at which point he starts looking more than a little disconcerted and uncomfortable.
But he isn't entirely put off, strangely enough. Like her, he can find a certain solace in the knowledge he isn't alone in his experiences. Not having to feel like the only person in the world with his kind of troubles was what drew him to Whip, and it's what lets him tolerate Shurui far longer than he could most other fellow humans. He weathers her further nagging in thin silence, hand lifting to pick his cigarette from his mouth intermittently. He already told her these wounds are nothing, he's not going to waste breath repeating himself.
He nods a silent affirmation to her question concerning the cartel name, head dipping moodily as a shadow seems to cross his eyes at the topic. But that idle brooding is nothing compared to the reaction she gets when she puts two and two together and guesses where he got his fire from. She doesn't have to say 'his' name. The instant it becomes clear who she's talking about, K' shoots the most murderous glare possible at her, firing it like an arrow over the defensive curve of his shoulder. He looks prone to lunge at her if she says even one wrong thing in the next minute or so.
"This--" His right hand immolates, the crackling fire loud in the quiet hall. "--is his. They stole it, and gave it to me. They wanted me to be just like him... but you can GUESS how well that turned out." His hand slams shut on the flames, as if locking about a hapless throat. "And you can guess how much I asked for it..."
Desperate? Perhaps. But, for better or worse, there's not a lot of people out there who even know what it's like to build a life over the course of a few years. Or, well, were the unwilling products of genetic tampering and creation.
Perhaps Shurui just got a little too comfortable.
Her mistake. "...." Shurui lets out a long sigh and closes her eyes, reflecting on his words. His anger. Her mouth itches for a quick answer, something to the effect of 'at least you're not a guy who goes around blasting people in the crotch with fire', but, due to that anger, she keeps quiet. Really, what could you say? Sorry? Or...?
"They probably wanted the same thing with me. Only, just something else. Maybe they were trying to do something with this physic power. I can only assume they dumped me, but... something tells me they wouldn't do just that. I mean, they used you until you wised up and escaped." She's silent a while. "... Sorry."
She felt that, at least, deserved an honest apology. "Anyway... I think I'll take your advice and go. When I get healthier... you can call me on that promise." About the cooking, that is.
K' seethes a few moments in his private anger. It's a familiar sensation... so familiar it's almost comforting in a painful, burning sort of way. And for a few moments, it's almost as if he luxuriates in that rage, stretching claws in it like a cat and forgetting Shurui is even present. He doesn't rouse out of his thoughts until Shurui talks again, and even then his yellow eyes are slow to lift: the muted amber of them peeking gradually through his lashes as he pulls his gaze back on her.
Unusually enough, he manages to push down his anger rather than just letting it mire in his chest openly. He tries to focus on what Shurui is saying. It's ultimately of no use, of course... he has no answers for her, and he's quick to say so. "Don't know," he shrugs. He doesn't reply her apology: doesn't even acknowledge it, really. But he hears it.
It seems like he's fresh out of willingness to interact for the day. He's lapsed into silence, no protest essayed to her saying she should probably go. He just sticks his cigarette back in his mouth moodily, smoking actively as he watches her and apparently waits for her to depart. One thing she says right at the end, however, reminds him of something: he pauses, and then stops her with a curt, smoke-roughened, "...Wait."
Shoving his hands in his pockets, he drifts off into an adjacent room with a curl of smoke. For a few moments, all is quiet. When he returns, it's with a rolled-up slip of paper in one hand, which he flicks over at Shurui in a sort of 'think-fast.' "...that's if you get in trouble. And -only- if you get in trouble." he says, very cryptically, before he reholsters his hands in his pockets and saunters away, no parting words offered save for a cloud of smoke.
The bit of paper, once unfolded, contains something coveted by many but attained by only three people thus far: K''s cell phone number. It's hers to use, but only for emergencies... and she better not call when he's in the middle of a game of Tetris.
Shurui doesn't feel the need to wait after she says her piece; after a second, she casually stumbles off, going in the opposite direction of the library. She's going back to her dorm to sleep; she's found what she wanted here already, albiet in a form she didn't exactly expect it to appear in. Goddamn Irish(?). Always appearing where you least expect them.
At least K' doesn't have to 'help' her leave. In fact, Shurui seems surprised when he hears her tell her to wait.
Now it's her turn to watch him disappear. But it's not too long before he returns with something of his own to give her, the rolled up piece of paper becoming wedged between two pale fingers. The girl's reflexes seem to be on track, thankfully. Or, at least, her ability to coordinate her actions with what her third eye sees, anyway. "Right," she agrees, waiting until he saunters away before she unrolls the paper.
A cell phone number. Quickly, the girl folds the piece of paper up once more, pressing it into the pocket of her jeans with a secret smile. "... 'Glad I'm not alone in this." The words are quiet, not meant for K''s ears to hear. She's already expressed that bit of gratitude, after all.
And so, continuing on, she goes to the lobby, pressing through the doors to walk into the wet spring air.
Log created on 21:28:04 03/25/2008 by K', and last modified on 16:46:50 03/28/2008.