Description: It was only a matter of time. Tenma finally finds a spare moment in the unfolding war to look for his seperated friends, Hakuya and Kenji. What he finds instead, is a world of pain. The Devil of Koga finally corners Tenma at last. Catching him alone and without his friends to back him up. Can he survive the Devil's vengeance? ... Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Since the unsuccessful defense of the Taiyo High cafeteria, Tenma Kiryuu has had a lot more free time on his hands... And he's using that time to do something he honestly should've done sooner, to track down his friends. Since the attack there's been too much chaos and strife for the Gedo swordsman to be able to really get a handle on where the other Guardian Kings might be, and likely they've been just as neck-deep in trouble as he has. But now, though. Now Tenma has time.
Hopefully, it will be enough time.
The likeliest place to get information on them would, naturally, be on Gedo Street, close to the school... But the school, of course, is the epicenter of NESTS activity in the city, and it's probably a really, really bad idea to be lurking around in the area. Not that something being a bad idea has ever stopped the Kiryuu heir /before/.
With surprising stealth for somebody who's normally more akin to a particularly disagreeable bull in an especially fragile china shop, Tenma slips through the shadows of nighttime Gedo Street, looking for signs of his friends. His first step, then, would be to get to their homes in the area and check there, and after that... Well, he'll cross that bridge when he comes to it. The leader of the Guardian Kings is obviously anticipating trouble, his bokken held casually in one hand, the aura of blood and chi radiating from it. Luckily, the colour is dark enough that it won't draw /too/ much attention.
Overall, this is a piece of cake.
Time is a fluid thing. In days of fire such as these, lengths of time can distort and twist. In the heat of battle or the disquieting, waiting hours before such melee - Time seems to stretch infinitely. Every tick of the clock a small eternity.
It can be torture. Torture of the worst sort - to lose one's grasp of time. To float in a vast nothingness; without touch, without sight or taste. Without any kind of measure or touch-stone to reality - Time is the most cruel, wicked of evils. A second can be a lifetime of soul-crushing loss and sorrow.
This is what it means to be Sealed.
Mercifully, few living beings can suffer such a thing. It is a weapon useful against those whom have thrown their humanity away, whom even death herself would not touch.
The Devil of Koga was for Sealed for fourty years.
Death would have been merciful, if it would accept her. In the decades of utter dark, she had clawed away at her prison as it leeched her soul from her a sliver at a time. It diminished her, reduced her to a fraction of what she once was.. But she had escaped. She had sworn.. Sworn upon her black heart - Never Again. No force beneath Heaven would ever send her back to that unending death for the deathless.
Tenma Kiryuu, with the help of his fellow Guardians Hakuya Suigetsu and Kenji Ashima, Sealed Marise again for three hours, twenty two minutes and seventeen seconds.
They sentenced her to twelve thousand, one hundred and thirty seven lifetimes of horrid quiet.
Not one of those lifetimes went by where she did not conjure detailed accounting's of what she will do to each and every one of them when she became free.
Time passed. War has come to Southtown.
It was The Devil herself who insisted on joining the invasion force upon Gedo. It was she, along with the Spanish Ninja Balrog, whom scoured its Halls for survivors.
For every young thing she cut down; For every young thing she raked with her claws; For every young thing she pierced with her fangs; For every young thing who's soul she ate; One thought image returned to her thoughs time and time again.
Every one of them she pretended was Hakuya, Kenji and most especially their leader. Tenma.
That day she encountered the other two. Unfortunately unable to defeat them due to circumstances, but conquering their precious 'turf' was enough for her. For now. With the school children scattered hither and yon in the long days following, hunting them down one after the other has been simple. None of them have lead to the primary targets ... So far. But she knew.. She knew.
These Guardian Kings would sooner die than abandon their own. They proved that in the depths of the Ninth Circle.
All she need do is prey on theirs.. And wait. They will come.
And so. Here the King of Blood is. Alone.
As Tenma steps quietly and lightly through the shadowy, NESTs patrolled streets of Gedo ... A sound teases his ears. A soft, quiet thing. Low and smooth. Slow laughter.. Barely more than a throaty purr. A menacing tone that slips through the air. Unbidden, unable to be hidden by its source.
The air itself grows chill, though no wind touches his skin. The sounds of distant vehicles and the city becomes muted, drawing out and fading as a waking dream. Perspective seems illusory, stretching at the edges of his vision as all his training gives him warning. The thing his family prepared him for - willingly or not. A sensation wholly familiar ... And cruelly terrible.
From the depths of an alleyway, a darkness stirs. Hardly more than an outline of a kimono.. A black, shapeless thing.
Golden eyes. Inhuman things with black, narrowing slits, watch him with serpentine patience.
Naturally, if there was a time that would be really bad for something to go wrong, it would be right about now. Which, just as naturally, means that if something was going to go wrong, it would be right about... Now.
Which is when he hears that almost-audible laugh. There's a sense of something Wrong, a palpable sensation of corruption, as if the very life of the world were recoiling from something. He's sensed it before, and the chill that follows, and... Yes, yes, it would have to be that, wouldn't it? Tenma's mouth pulls into a grimace, as he thinks unkind thoughts about timing and Murphy's Law, and he comes to a stop at the mouth of an alleyway.
They say the air gets cold when there's a ghost around, so, naturally: The Grudge.
Backlit at the mouth of the alleyway, Tenma stares into it, shouldering his bokken. His dark blue eyes gleam even as the Devil's gold do, and Tenma's grimace slowly turns into a wide, unpleasant grin, adding white teeth to the gleam count. He was forewarned about this, and honestly he was wondering when something like this would happen. "Pfft, can't even die right... You really are a loser," the Kiryuu demon hunter says, mockingly.
Seriously, this is the last thing he needs tonight.
True to form, as Tenma looks into the Abyss. The Abyss looks through him.
Monstrous eyes glint beneath the dim light. The shadowy figure slowly steps from the dark. More features outlined with every soundless step. Royal color of her obi. The milky complexion of her bare shoulder. More and more, all doubt is banished as to what this creature could be.
"..Kiryuu.." The word spoken at length, tasted with her tongue behind violet lips. Attaching that name to this juvenile figure still amuses her to no end.
Even while completely furious.
"Hnn.. You know.." The Devil strides more fully into view. An elegant hand slips from her sleeve, long-nailed finger pointed skywards, waving in reproach, "That's the one thing I like about you." She allows in a smooth, unhurried tone. "You love mocking those you think beneath you."
The maiden's grin spreads. Vicious fangs glistening in the moonlight as her slow saunter towards the youth continues unabated, "You are a true bastard. I do appreciate that. I really do. It is unfortunate then.."
The monster pauses, ten paces from the youth. The edges of her kimono stir not at all as a breeze passes through the urban sprawl. Crumpled newspaper and empty cans scatter about in the cracked space between them. "... That you were born to a family of fools. Or is that ... You are the best that ragged house can do in this day and age? My.."
Clicking her tongue, the Devil inspects the sword before him. Glowing with its rich, dark crimson power. "How the mighty have fallen. ...I must ask.. And be honest..."
Her golden eyes narrowing as her head tilts, lips pursing just so. Fingers curling and unfurling in sequence, like creeping white spider legs, "Did you really believe anything your family told you? Hnn, Boya? About us?"
There can be no mistaking which 'us' that word refers to.
"Actually," says Tenma, "I love mocking /everyone/." Seriously, there are very few people he doesn't mock whenever possible. You could probably count them on one hand. Not on the list: Possibly undead supervillains. With a care that doesn't show through his expression or his body language, Tenma watches the approach of the demon, this creature who threw away anything good about herself for the sake of more power. Part of him wonders why... She must have had some reason for doing it. Maybe it even seemed like a good reason, at the time. But now, there's no going back, not for her.
And after the events underneath Capital 7, not for him, either.
Rather than answer her questions, and hooboy could he give her some answers about being the black sheep of his family, sent off to train with his grandfather because his parents simply couldn't control him... Rather than that, Tenma instead decides to run his mouth a little more. "If by 'us' you mean half-naked women in alleyways, then yes," the King of Blood replies, nodding once. "But, hey, they were prudes. You've got to make a living somehow, don't you?" He pauses, brow furrowing. "Uh... At least, so far as you qualify as 'living'. But hey, five dollars at a time adds up sooner or later."
Why is he being so flippant? It's to a degree even Tenma usually doesn't bother with, but the truth is... He's a little worried. Arrogant though he may be, he isn't about to completely underestimate the Devil of Koga.
The Devil brokers in secrets. One would be surprised how easy it is to get information out of people if you simply asked. After all, Tenma is a symptom of the times. In so many ways, his kind represents the current generation. The common warriors of this era. Flippant. Irreverent. Endlessly amused by their own banter.
Secretly terrified they don't measure up to what came before.
As for the Devil ... Why does evil still exist in the world at all? At least, such blatant evil. Certainly, there are men and women out there that are monsters. Rugal and Vega ... Such tyrannical men can be understood. They desire wealth and power, as much as they can claim. No matter the cost, no matter to who.
Marise? She cares little for wealth. Even to dominate nations or cultures.
She just wants to see it all burn.
Aaaah, there's that flip again. Listening as his commentary gains color, the Devil's smile thins yet remains. Tilting her head forth, staring at the Blood King from the shadows of her bangs. "Ah. Yes. It does."
Taking a quiet step closer once again. Nine paces.
"Had I been thinking, I should have taken the lunch money from all those Gedo students I killed during the Invasion."
Eight paces.
"I imagine that Ashima boy had plenty on him.. I should have collected after his body was carved like a game hen during the Invasion.."
Seven paces. The murderous glint in those eyes brighten.
"When I was crushing the life from Suigetsu.. I should have gone through his pockets while I was at it.."
Six paces. Slender fingers flex. Painted nails extend like thin knives, hissing like naked steel.
"Tell me.. Boya..."
Five paces. Her claws lift upwards slowly, menacingly splaying before her as a phalanx of razors. Her expression transcending the human. More akin to a shark, with rows of teeth revealed past spreading lips. Black slitted pupils thinning to slivers, glowing across a backdrop of radiant gold.
"How much money did you bring?"
Well, Tenma pretty much left the door wide open for /that/ one, didn't he?
As Marise talks, Tenma's unpleasant grin fades, his expression flattening, mouth compressing in a firm line. He doesn't have so little faith in Hakuya or Kenji as to believe that they'd really get themselves killed, but he /is/ a teenager after all; somewhere, there's that seed of doubt. He hasn't seen them since the attacks started, what if...? But it's not them that really gets to him. It's the mention that she killed Gedo students.
She killed. His students.
She killed /his/ people.
There's a cold gleam from Tenma's eyes as he meets Marise's slit-pupilled gold. The aura around his bokken... Changes... Warping from its usual misty shape, like red smoke rising off of the wooden blade, to a sharp, jagged saw blade of blood and chi. Murderous intent crashes off of him in waves.
Let's get this clear right now: Tenma is quite capable of hating a perfectly normal person. For a while, he thought he hated Marisol O'Connell, but matters there are more complicated than he'd like. He definitely hates her teammate Luc Schroedinger, though. If there are two more incompatible existences between the Gedo and Pacific than Tenma and Luc, they've somehow managed to keep it under cover. But Tenma would never want to kill Luc.
Marise, though, is another story.
He was wracked with guilt the first time he killed her, no doubt about that. It was necessary, but was it right, to kill another person, no matter how corrupt they were? When he found out she wasn't dead, he was almost... Relieved. But now... Now he gets it. Now he sees the truth. Marise's existence has no worth. She contributes nothing but pain and evil to the world. His father, much as it galls him to even think it, was right.
"I brought a few bucks with me, but I don't really want to catch crotch rot from the Grudge," Tenma says, voice low and level. And then his swordarm swings down, bringing his bokken off of his shoulder in a wide, vertical arc; it's not close enough for him to hit the inhuman beast with the weapon, but an afterimage of red follows in the wake of the blessed wooden blade... And from there comes a crescent of roiling blood, screaming through the air over the remaining distance to Marise. "GO BACK TO HELL ALREADY!!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma has started a fight here.
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Tenma 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Marise has joined the fight here.
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Marise 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tenma
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Marise with Dharmapala.
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Marise 0/-------/--=====|=------\-------\0 Tenma
Not just that. She killed children. While Tenma may be too young to appreciate that distinction, there most certainly is one.
Ah. The smile is wiped from his lips. Delicious.
The truth of his fellow Guardian King's fates are not elaborated on, But what the boy does accept is enough. More than enough.
As that blade at his side suddenly flares into a killing instrument, the Devil's grin widens yet further. Delight reflects in her hellish vision. "That's more like it."
The Devil's claws sweep to her sides. Stance widening as she stands tall. Ebon tresses flourishing behind her like a living cloak, reflecting her heightened defenses as she witnesses that blood power surge within him.
And then, that crimson tide is loosed. The splash of power rushes for, quickened by his unleashed rage and burning resolve! Even she, prepared as she was, cannot collect her defenses in time as the energy -crashes- against her. Sending her sprawling a distance to the ground. The blood -boils- upon her skin like acid, sending great plumes of smoke and steam into the air.. Hissing as the Devil shrieks! Howling like a beast.
From the sprawled wreckage, crawling on all fours amidst the metal dumpster she slammed against.. The monster lifts her arm. Hand hidden in the depths of her kimono, all while burning smoke rises from her. Face contorted in pain.. Yet tinged with delight at this hateful turn, "Keh HA HA! Tell me! Want to know which of your friends I killed were cowards??"
From the depths of her kimono sleeve, her pale arm shoots forth like a lance. Stretching across the distance, seeking to wrap her arm around the boy's throat and throttle him from range!
"How does that make you feel? Knowing it was YOU! Your ARROGANCE! Your CHILDISHNESS that cost those children their lives! TELL ME! HOW! DOES! It! FEEL?!" Her voice booming with unnatural cadence and volume. Warped by her twisted soul and sick nature.
COMBATSYS: Marise successfully hits Tenma with Maou Tsuke.
- Power hit! -
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Marise 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Tenma
Now /that/... Was satisfying. Breathing heavily after sending Marise flying with the blast of blood and chi, Tenma pushes his hair - shorter than it used to be, courtesy of Kula Diamond freezing some of it - back out of his face, just in time to see the smoking Marise rise up on all fours, laughing like some kind of... Well, demon. Rage wells up in him again at Marise's taunt, rather foolishly; when her arm extends, Tenma tries to deflect the throttling attempt, which inadvertently leaves him wide open as he makes a stupid mistake. A miscalculation.
He can't afford to make those, right now.
Getting throttled by the Devil of Koga's unnaturally extended arm, Tenma's ability to respond to her questions is somewhat compromised, but he does manage to make a few strangled, gurgling noises, so there's that at least. The Gedo swordsman has always been rather fond of breathing, which is what guides his next actions... Somewhat awkwardly, due to the positioning, he grabs Marise's attacking arm with his free hand, trying to hold it in place long enough for him to slash down with his bokken and that buzzsaw of bloody chi around it.
Might want to be careful, or she'll become the 'One Armed Devil of Koga'.
COMBATSYS: Marise fails to interrupt Medium Strike from Tenma with Maou Satsujinken.
- Power fail! -
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Marise 1/------=/=======|=====--\-------\0 Tenma
The Devil's arm squirms unnaturally, looped about his throat with her claw gripping the back of his head. Bizarre convulsions in that pliant flesh seek to squeeze the life out of him. The ghoulish creature slowly rises then, her arm stretched across the distance even still. Growling through her fangs as she seethes with unyielding hate, "You are a symbol of your generation, Kiryuu... Look at you... Wielding the sword of your fathers... Not knowing what it means. Worthless and wretched.. You play your games. Live your meaningless lives as puppets.. Soulless toys. Chasing skirts. You do not know the meaning of suffering. You do not know what the world REALLY is."
That arm squeezes.
"FINALLY. Finally.. I showed you a piece of it.. Finally, I've cut your shallow dreams. I've made you -wake up- from your insipid and shallow school rivalry.. Now you know wh-AAAAGHK!"
Her voice cut off as her pale arm is very nearly shorn in half.
That sawing energy slashes straight through her arm. No blood splashes, as the power -sears- the wound closed the moment it was made. Only a great gout of hissing smoke explodes from her, filling the air with acrid ash as she immediately lets go of him..
The Devil HOWLS, staggering backwards as she recoils her arm to her.. The limb falling limply at her side as she staggers away. Face a vision of boiling anger.. eyes burning with vengeance. Even now the nigh-severed arm is healing.. Small strands of sinew leap across the massive gap, tethering the flesh and creeping the distance closer a little at a time. That arm, however, is definitely out of action now.
And it shut her up for a few seconds.
Coughing violently as he's finally able to draw breath again, Tenma reflects for a moment, an oddly philosophical moment for the likes of him, on how really awesome oxygen is. It's one of his favourite things, now that he thinks about it. A+++, would buy again.
"I'd..." Cough, cough. "I'd rather live like that than live like /you/," the Kiryuu heir says, voice raspy after getting helluva choked. It hurts to talk, but it's not like he's ever let that stop him before. "You're pathetic, crawling around in the shadows like a rabid dog. Flashin' your tits around as if you're not some vile old hag, tryin' to play the temptress. You're not even /alive/. You just /exist/."
Massaging his throat for a second, Tenma considers how to proceed. Hmm.
"What even turned you into this? Why the hell would you except some sad-sack half-existence, where all you do with your time is attack teenagers an' perform your Junior Mengele experiments in the basement of a casino?" Tenma is, strange as it may seem, honestly curious. There's no going back for Marise now, she's well and truly and willingly a monster. But maybe if he can understand why, he can find a little peace.
When he kills her again, that is.
But he can't just sit there idle, waiting for a response; in the next moment, Tenma is on Marise like white on rice, swinging his bokken back behind himself, slanting it upwards so the point pokes out over his shoulder... His left hand, meanwhile, lashes out in a series of quick, jabbing punches, aimed at various pressure points to disrupt Marise's chi flow. And as a secondary benefit, the attack might just herd her into an awkward position.
COMBATSYS: Marise blocks Tenma's Flow Breaker.
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Marise 1/-----==/=======|======-\-------\0 Tenma
A cautionary tale, perhaps?
After all. Marise was a human being. At least once. She had a mother. A father. A family. How does one become truly evil, precisely? Was it good intentions? Did she have a choice? Was she beaten with sticks until she turned feral or seduced by a thing monstrous? Perhaps all the above? One thing is certain.
If a human can be evil ... They all can be evil. All they have to do ... Is make a few bad choices.
"You.." She seethes in reply, voice rasping over fangs. Circling slowly like the predatory thing she accuses him of being. Black tresses slithering through the air behind her, even as she nurses that terribly injured arm. "..Have. No. Choice." Every word clearly pronounced, punctuated with a hiss. "You've been lied to all of your life. By pretty words and glowing faces. You .. Must know. Keh.." A lopsided grin. Twitching in phantom pains, "What your clan.. Tried to tell you. Hrnn? Everything in this 'Southtown' is.. A lie. A lie woven to control you. To make you think trinkets and soulless people can grant you happiness. Do you know.. What this lie cost?"
The young Kiryuu Heir leaps at her then. Even in her agony.. She is ready. His volley of quick strikes are followed. With her one good arm her hand moves swiftly, intercepting that jabbing sword. The edge searing scars into her forearm with every block, dancing away with smooth, fluid grace. Preventing that weapon from disrupting whatever passes for flowing chi in that demonic body of hers. Even as she moves, even as she fights, she speaks.
"This world is ruled by Monsters! Boya!" A whirling dodge. She seeks to slip within his range, slipping behind him, "Don't you know what this War is even about?!" Attempting to slip her leg between his own from behind. Looping once about his ankle as her arms coil around his middle, attempting to literally -twist- him backwards in ways the human spine was not meant to move, "What turned me into this? KEH! YOU DID!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma interrupts Power Throw from Marise with Intercepting Strike.
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Marise 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0 Tenma
Choice, that's exactly it. Free will. A conscious decision to become something... And if Marise made that decision, of her own free will, aware of the consequences... Then she truly is evil.
Tenma might not exactly be a glowing paragon of right action, but the Guardian King is what he is; a person who does the best he can, day by day. He might be kind of an overbearing, abrasive jerk, and he kind of talks shit a lot more than he should, and he /definitely/ has an unreasonably high opinion of himself, but hey, at least he never stuffed a legally blind girl in a cat carrier just so he could perform unspeakable experiments on her, so there's always that for him to be proud of. "I don't care," Tenma hisses out. Lies? Everyone lies, to themselves and to other people. Even Tenma understands this. Sometimes, lies are the best of a bad lot of options. But sometimes...
"I don't care about a place, I don't care about a /clan/," Tenma continues, more forcefully. "I care about my /home/, and I care about my /friends/. My /family/. What do you know about any of those things?! All you know is lies, because THAT'S ALL YOU ARE!!" His attack is blocked, which is problematic, but assuming that Tenma Kiryuu is just a stupid idiot who attacks at full power and doesn't have a backup plan is just asking for trouble. He's too wide open to avoid getting entangled, but Tenma keeps one hand raised up free.
His sword hand.
As Marise starts to try to wrench him in half, the blessed bokken, surrounded by that violent aura of bloody chi, comes down in a vicious, penetrating stab backwards, into the devil woman. He doesn't care if he gets hurt in the process, he doesn't care of Marise is horribly maimed. He just wants to get her /off/ of him, as painfully as humanly possible. "GRAAAAAAGH!!"
We are what we choose to be. No matter what is spoken or done, the only hand of fate that curses ... Is our own.
Something. Somewhere in Tenma's words throws a switch. A flicker of emotion crosses those inhuman eyes hovering so close to the youth. A mote of outrage so powerful, so complete - No two contiguous sounds escape her fang-laiden lips. She would twist him in half if she could - rip him to quarters and paint the walls with his viscera.
He has no idea how horribly her family died. How slowly. How they were hunted down one by one. One thing he did pay attention to, however, was how anger can make for terrible mistakes.
The Devil's expression of absolute hate is instantly blanked. A soft 'hrk' silences her growl.. Followed by a slow trickle of blood. Golden eyes widening slowly.
That glowing, buzz-saw blade shines brightly. Hissing with steaming rage, as it currently sprouts from between her shoulder blades. Running her clean through.
A sickening gurgle passes her lips, stumbling away from Tenma as she slides herself free of that blade. Her good hand clutching at the hole in her center. Ambling backwards drunkenly until her back smacks against the brickwall of the nearby building wetly. Feet disturbing cans and garbage in her wake.
With a wretched cough, a splatter of blood colors the grimy ground.
"This.. Hnk.. Isn't the end.. Boya.. hrgg.. You.. Can't stop me.. G..greater men.. Have tried.. L..Long before.." A convulsion. Blood pours down her pale throat, "...You were... Born... This.. World will.. burn... Before.. I am.."
Her eyes flash. A moment of tension.
Marise disappears. Vanishing in an abrupt fade. A rush of motion. A sensation of closeness.
The span of a single heartbeat. A flicker of movement not an inch before his eyes..
COMBATSYS: Marise successfully hits Tenma with Yomi no Junan.
- Power hit! -
-+- CALCULATED HIT -+-
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Marise 0/-------/---====|=======\==-----\1 Tenma
The Devil is upon him.
The tall woman fades into existence directly before him. Her arms all but appear around his shoulders, pulling him close with surprising force for a woman just impaled by a burning sword. An intimacy that seems.. Completely out of place in this moment. Her predatory eyes staring deep into his, a quiet hiss.
With a smooth lunge, she crushes her bloodied lips to his.
A surprising, close touch completely bereft of warmth. A perversion of a thing that is supposed to be sincere and gentle. A hateful violation of him and his space. Above and beyond the playful nature of women he may have known, this is something.. Terrible.
With that contact, he can feel it. Deep inside of him. A sensation boiling in his blood. Tearing and twisting in the pit of his heart.
Chi is breath. It resides in the heart, in the blood. It is life.
And with that kiss she's stealing it from him. The deepest fiber of his being slowly wrenched up from his heart, through his lungs and up his throat. Though he cannot see, he can feel the sensation of a luminous mist pouring from his lips and flooding into her's. The Devil is eating his breath. His spirit and soul.
It doesn't hurt at all.
Its the worst agony that can be imagined.
Wordless murmurs escape her occupied lips as her hands dig at his back. He can taste her blood, pouring down his throat in exchange for this heinous transaction..
Her golden eyes burn into his own all the while. Literally sucking the life from him.
Ahh! Ah gross, she's making out with him! There isn't enough mouthwash /in the world/.
But more than that, Tenma is fully aware of exactly what is happening. The flow of chi is something understood by all members of the Kiryuu clan. It's the first lesson, before anything else. He knows exactly what's being done to him. That's what worries him, more than the revolting realisation of being 'kissed' by a demon, or the horrible sensation of her tainted blood getting into his body. His very life is getting drained and it...
...it makes him...
...REALLY REALLY PISSED OFF.
Tenma's eyes widen, pupils shrinking to pinpricks, and he knows what he has to do. The only thing he can do. Right now, he's going to die if he doesn't act... And with all the strength he can manage, Tenma drives his bokken into the alleyway underfoot.
For a long, terrible moment, nothing happens.
And then the very earth begins to break apart, cracks spreading out from the point of impact, blood raging out of the cracks. Blood from nothing, blood from nowhere: The power of the Kiryuu clan made manifest, forming dragons of blood and chi that rage out of the very earth and converge on Marise, seeking to rend her limb from limb even as she clutches to Tenma and tries to eat his life right out of him, destroying much of the alleyway in the process!
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Marise with Hell of Blood.
[ < > //////////// ]
Marise 1/---====/=======|==-----\-------\0 Tenma
Aaalmost.. She almost has him now. For an outcast, reluctant demon hunter he put up a hard fight.. She'll give him that. She even rather enjoyed that vicious streak he put up there. But now? She has his life in her teeth.. And now..
What's that sound?
The Devil's golden eyes shift downward.. And begin to widen.
Through flesh and stone, she can see the power rising up from beneath. The potent Kiryuu technique unleashed from the Earth itself.
In an instant, the Devil breaks the kiss. Lips departing his, a thin string of red connecting them both before snapping with the distance. A faint misty glow floats in the air in her wake, half-consumed by her mouth and expelled as she shrieks! Trying to leap away even as the ground -explodes- in a riot of force and destruction!
Her dark form disappears within the coils of that rising dragon. The nearby brickwalls break, trashcans thrown into the sky and windows shatter to hundreds of shards! Her scream can faintly be heard within the chaos, before disappearing completely away.
In the aftermath.. Nothing is left. Only the sundered pavement and broken neighborhood. Not a trace remains of the Devil.. Save for that horrible bloody flavor staining his mouth and painting the ground at his feet.
Of course she isn't dead. But that stopped her.. Slowed her down maybe. She certainly won't be hunting more students for now.. As wounded as she is. She'll need time to heal for certain.
But heal she will. Rage such as hers cannot be quenched so easily. Evil like hers will plague mankind.. Possibly forever.
Tonight.. Tenma weathered that monster's revenge. The question is... When will she strike next?
COMBATSYS: Marise takes no action.
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Tenma 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Marise can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tenma 0/-------/-----==|
Released, Tenma staggers back, knocked off of his own feet by the eruption of bloody chi from the ground. For a moment, a moment longer than he would really prefer, he lays there like that, unable to force himself to get back up. The Grudge, he reminds himself. Don't lie on your ass while the Grudge is still around!
But his caution is, in this case at least, unwarranted; he pushes himself up and looks around, but catches neither sight nor 'feeling' of the demon's presence, finally getting the rest of the way to his feet as he spits out a gob of blood, and for once it's not /his/. "Fucking bitch," the Guardian King mutters harshly, feeling much the worse for wear. Ugh. He can't stay here, of course, the commotion is going to attract some negative attention... So he needs to find someplace to hide out. Hey, maybe he'll luck out, and Kenji or Hakuya will be at home, whichever place he gets to first. Kill two birds with one stone, that way.
With one last glance over his shoulder at the devastated alleyway, Tenma hurries off.
COMBATSYS: Tenma has ended the fight here.
Log created on 19:52:49 04/03/2009 by Marise, and last modified on 13:49:54 04/04/2009.