Description: Filled with the desire to help somehow, Mizuki's gone into the warzone with supplies for the wartorn and downtrodden. It's pure fate that she happens to be there.. when Frei Tsukitomi-Renard is released, by S.I.N....
Since the time when she helped Nagare fight off the tank that aimed to destroy City Hall, Mizuki's then been primarily aiding Yuno and Heavy D!... but D!'s out, on the loose, and Yuno's indisposed... And Mizuki is feeling the need to get out and do things. To help. So here she is, far from her 'home base' of Chinatown... finding what people she can and helping them however they need it. So as to not be -too- conspicious, the young woman's got her hair tied back in a ponytail, and is wearing a simple white t-shirt and jeans, with sneakers... the only visual hint of her fighting prowess is the gloves she wears.
At the moment she's literally handing out parcels of food, though her mind doesn't appear to be on the task at hand--she's thinking about her friends. Friends she hasn't seen in a while... that she's told herself she should stay in contact with... Friends at the YFCC, that bombed-out place, that she probably should have gone to help and never did.
Guilt, that would be a good word for what she's feeling right now, as she distributes food to the needy, the war-torn, on Gedo Street, perhaps a block from the school.
For most of the time, he hung in the dark, dangling from the wall, arms up, wrists down. His neck lolled; his hair drifted into his face and really, he had nothing to do but entertain himself. This wasn't hard, as the individual in question is the type to keep his spirits up in the darkness, after all. SIN technicians had to deal with him singing the entire score of "Avenue Q," for example, and at least three rounds of 'angry and bored prisoner on the wall' before they just had him sedated.
That was the first of many injections. The last was a day or so ago, and now Shadaloo's research and technology arm has decided to let him loose and see what happens. It's a fun sort of thing, really... research unencumbered by ethics. What happens to the test subject is largely irrelevant. What happens to the people the test subject encounters is largely irrelevant. All that matters is the precious data on the drug winding its way through a certain individual's bloodstream.
An alley, not far from where Mizuki is currently handing out aid. An unmarked van arrives, driving slow so as not to be heard... though really, with the 'warzone' that Southtown's become, a single van isn't going to be heard over shouting, explosions, and distant gunfire regardless. A figure is pulled out of the open back by lab-coated scientists; he's dressed in black slacks and a form-fitting shirt of ribbed black cotton, much like Shadaloo's Doll soldiers. Sensible shoes.
The striking red hair draws the eye through contrast.
Apparently asleep, unresisting, Frei is slumped against a wall, arranged by handlers, while a man in a smart black suit and dark glasses puts a hand to his ear. "We're in position. Subject Foxtrot Romeo Echo four niner zero has been delivered. Administering the shot at..." Here he looks over, and sees a lab tech injecting a syringe into the figure's arm, then at his watch, "...18:23:44. Team 3 out."
The suited man waves an arm, and the van is packed and gone inside of 2 minutes. Just enough time for the stimulant given to Frei to course through his system, jerking him into sudden alertness; he sits up and almost flings his whole torso forward, staring blankly ahead, green eyes extremely wide. There's a moment of deep, heavy breathing while he seems to process what his senses are telling him... and this may be a mistake.
It's like staring, open-eyed, into the sun.
He screams in a combination of pain and confusion, throwing his head back; the sound is primal and terrifying, and amplified by the acoustics of alleyways and... other things... *that* might carry back to where Mizuki is delivering aid.
Oh, warzone screams... they happen a lot. But Mizuki, even as lost in thought as she is, hears the scrams... and the tone of the voice making the screams... and she startles awake, her blue eyes wide. "Uh... here, you and you, help handing these out," she says, tersely, giving the reins of the food operation over to two of her helper-type people. "I'll..." That was Frei. She'd swear it.
"I'll be right back." She has no idea what he's been through--experimentation, torture, implantation, whatever is happening at S.I.N. these days. Hell. She doesn't even know what S.I.N. -is-. But those screams... She does not -race- down the alleyway, for that is probably not a good idea. She does, however, head down the alleyway at a decent clip. Down the alleyway... there. A figure. It doesn't look like Frei, at first--the clothing is all wrong. The posture isn't right. But then she gets closer.
"Frei? Frei!!" Her voice is raised, as she tries to cut through that screaming sound, unsure, for a moment, what to do about him. He looks like he's in pain... perhaps she can soothe it?
In retrospect, it might be the worst thing she could possibly do, as she begins to call her chi, her right hand glowing, and then she gives a 'push', to send the healing chi at Frei.
What constitutes 'worst'... history will decide that, perhaps. In terms of its positive effect on Frei, there certainly is some. At base, the drug that SIN has injected into his bloodstream is foreign, and damaging... Mizuki's chi, on the other hand, seeks to repair and rebuild. But if it were only so simple as that. She might notice it when she's had a second to reflect, and isn't in a hurry to help a friend, sensitive to chi as she is: something is *wrong*. Very wrong. And the healing chi does help, it does some good... but it also makes Frei's aura decidedly unstable, for the briefest of moments.
His eyes open.
His body sort of... unfolds from his slumped position, in reverse. It's as if he's a marionette, being pulled slowly upwards by strings unseen, and he turns to eye the young woman in front of him. Watching his wide green eyes is an education; it's the same twitchy, unpredictable apparent movements of REM sleep, and in Frei's perception the effect is much the same. Hazy, half-remembered visions; the world is full of terrifying light and color that makes very little sense.
And, most insistently, the regular telluric heartbeat pulsing in his ears. He can *hear* the planet. He never could before. Like an electric shock the rhythm of it courses through his entire body, up and down his nervous system, over and over again.
Suddenly it all comes to a halt, and the twitching, bright green eyes suddenly dull over, the burst of confusion from Mizuki's healing rain passing. His head comes up and he looks at his teammate with a blase expression, arms at his sides. When he speaks, it is in a dull near-monotone, as far from Frei's typically ebullient speech as is possible. It's as if someone's playing the instrument but doesn't know what *music* is.
"This area... is now under our control," he says blandly. "Surrender and you may not be harmed."
Something -already- feels wrong, very wrong. But there's no indication that she's clued in yet. The movement breaks her concentration, and the flow of chi falls off as well, as he moves unnaturally, in ways that most can't. It's unsettling, to say the least. Strangeness abounds. But this close, she can definitely see who this person is, and it definitely is Frei.
"Frei-san," she begins, but she's cut off just as quickly--she cannot understand what's happened to him, and she has no idea what he's sensing. Only that his voice is flat, bland, weird.
All she knows is, he's just said something weird. Her eyes change, narrowing. "What did you say? Frei-san... what do you mean?" Another possibly stupid idea--she reaches for him. Her left hand, specifically, reaching for his shoulder. He -looks- safe, right? As if he wouldn't really hurt someone--he's stilled. But she's confident that he'll recognize her--that he'll come to his senses. Oh, how quickly she forgets the lessons she's learned.
"I'm sure I didn't hear you right..."
"Your potential hearing troubles are not really my concern," Frei responds, fixing his gaze on Mizuki. If the voice wasn't enough, it's clear from the expression that things are absolutely not right at all. His expression, his words... are totally devoid of warmth. What most people don't realize is that the dead-ish expression they see in the bathroom mirror every day isn't how they look to others; normally, people's mouths are turned in smiles or frowns; their eyes sparkle, their tonal inflections show animation. Good or bad, an emotional state *changes* someone.
Frei's face is like looking at a statue.
"If you resist, harm is likely," he adds, in that same strange monotone. A hand at his side twitches; sparks of faint gold and silver dance between his fingers, like an overcharged capacitor bleeding off electricity into the environment. Indeed, the air between these two teammates -- of a sort -- is charged; the feeling is like the ionized air before a thunderstorm, a feeling of pressure and impending release, energy building up and ready to ground itself in anything nearby... the planet, the buildings. Mizuki.
Mizuki's mouth sets in a line. "Is that so," she says... her voice going a little bland, itself. Stepping back, she notes all the little things, and her lips turn downwards, into a tight frown. "Obviously something's happened to you, Frei. I don't know what that is, but if you know who I am at all--if you remember me at all--then you know what my response will be."
Removing her hand, she steps back, her hands rising up--not quite in attack position yet. But close. Very close. "It's the same response that you'd give, if you were your right self. If you're thinking about harming anyone here, Frei, then you're going to have to go through me."
She expects that a fight is going to go off... the feeling of the air between them... Frei was already something of a master of the chi arts; whatever has been done to him... it's increased those powers? She can't remember him doing something like this before, but maybe he's just never shown it.
"So the question is, are you going to back down? Or are we going to 'have at it'?"
'If you remember me at all.' At that statement, the redhead's eyes again take on that REM sleep-like flurry of activity, pupils moving side to side, like someone speed-reading from a book. Eventually, he stops, eyes returning to that dull state. "Kamigawa Mizuki. YFCC instructor; uses primarily water chi attacks. Significant healing abilities." A pause, and for a second the corners of his eyes crinkle, as if he's about to squeeze them shut; his teeth grind, his fingers curl shut into a fist and then uncurl again. Like a storm cloud passing in front of the moon, however, this momentary twitch is gone in an instant.
His feet shift back somewhat, his torso turns to face Mizuki at an angle, head held up. One hand comes up, fingers tensing but hand held palm outward, facing one of the alley walls; the other hangs behind him, and again sparks dance across his knuckles fitfully. There is something strange about his stance, too; Frei is a trained fighter, but he typically works on intuition. His normal stance is looser, more freeform. This is a martial stance, textbook. It's body language that says: I am here to fuck you up.
"We're well aware of your abilities," Frei states blandly. The question remains who this 'we' is, but if the curious actions of the chi sage are mysterious, he's even less forthcoming with the details. "They are commonplace at best; defeating you should pose no significant trouble." As he says this, the ionized feeling of the air intensifies considerably. There's a barely audible crackling noise as the ambient chi responds to Frei's aura, effectively sizzling in the air itself.
He doesn't wait after saying that, either; stepping forward, he snatches out at Mizuki's sleeve with his forward hand, looking to yank her in close and off-balance before his other hand comes forward, like a fist, to slam directly into her stomach. The invisible energy swirling around it hits like a jackhammer if it connects; the goal is to blow Mizuki right into a wall at significant speed.
COMBATSYS: Frei has started a fight here.
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Frei 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Mizuki has joined the fight here.
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Frei 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Mizuki
COMBATSYS: Frei successfully hits Mizuki with Charged Combo.
- Power hit! -
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Frei 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Mizuki
That stance is not Frei at all. She knows his stance; has spent hours upon hours, watching him teach, watching him fight. That alone is enough to distract her; and then he's upon her, after reciting a bunch of facts. "Congratulations--you know a little about me. But I don't think you /remember/ me," she says--and that's all she gets out before she's punched with fist and chi, and then tossed into the wall. She impacts hard enough to throw a cloud of fine dust off the wall, and to draw a gasp of pain.
But she's not done yet, not by a long shot. Frei probably outclassed her before all this--she isn't sure how mcuh he outclasses her now. But she can be stubborn, too. She bounces off the wall, interposing herself between Frei and the alley wall. "Have to do better than -that-, Frei... I'm not -that- weak." Not yet, anyways. Now she does take her stance--hands up, open, left foot forward--and then she's stepping forward, almost, coming up on her left leg, firing her right foot out in a hard side kick, the edge of her foot aimed to strike Frei right in the chest. It's a power move, for sure, and Frei's defenses are strong--he is defensively minded--but she'll try. She can't do any less.
COMBATSYS: Frei fails to interrupt Fierce Kick from Mizuki with Shindou EX.
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Frei 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Mizuki
Some urge in his blood tells him to lean in to the attack. It's not Frei's way of doing things, typically; Mizuki is right in that he's defensively minded, and his typical way of dealing with that sort of attack would be to blunt it or even attempt to evade it. But there is fire in his blood, now; fire he didn't put there. He *intends* to grab Mizuki's foot, use it as leverage to hurl her into the distance, but his vision is clouded and her determination gives her attack that much more speed and strength. The foot slams into his chest and sends him stumbling back a few paces, gritting his teeth in pain.
Coming back up into that textbook stance, however, Frei does not seem concerned. "What use are memories?" he asks, in that same robotic tone. "You are trying to use emotions to influence the outcome, which is foolish." A pause, another moment of instability, eyes squinting shut for a moment, before he opens them again, resolve renewed. Yet something is screaming at him inside, and the longer the fight goes on, the more the world around him seems to be reacting. It's as if he's simply bleeding off chi into the environment because if he doesn't, he's going to explode.
"Your healing powers are rare, but not unique. Do not presume landing one strike puts us on the same footing."
"We aren't on the same footing, Frei." Mizuki's voice is quietly determined; she isn't -happy- to have to hit him. This isn't a sparring match. And his tactics are very un-Frei-like. That works against him, for the moment; Mizuki, for her part, is going to have to choose her battle carefully. Does she press? Does she back off? Her instincts tell her no--that she has to press forward. She can feel that chi leakage, and that's worrying. Chi shouldn't -do- that... not in this manner.
"You're a master of your crafts; I'm still learning, and slowly at that. I've had to /un/learn things. It's a hard thing. But there is one thing where we -were- equal--we both cared about our friends. About each other. Please understand--I'm doing this for you." Cliche, trite words, and yet spoken with intense belief in the words, as she suddenly lunges forward, seeking to grab Frei by one arm, to pull that arm wide.
The plan, then, would be to fire a chopping attack into his midsection--and then use the grip on his arm to turn past him, using that momentum to wrench his arm out and down, to hurl him onto his back in the alleyway.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki successfully hits Frei with Hyouryuu no Koki.
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Frei 0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0 Mizuki
Whatever it is that's in his system right now, it's not doing Frei even a remote amount of good, defensively. Perhaps he gets over-anxious; his response to being grabbed is to turn his wrist around and attempt to deflect the grab, push it away, but it becomes apparent that he's actually trying to use a style he's not 100% familiar with. It's... jerky, somewhat. The contrast with his typically more fluid motions -- again, driven by intuition more than anything else -- is severe... no less severe than the grunt of pain and the searing fire of it that flows through the redhead's body as he slams to the alley ground.
However, he does get back up, as if he were never knocked down. But he doesn't look good... perhaps worse than he should. A trickle of blood runs down from his left nostril, which is quite interesting given that Mizuki has yet to hit him in the face. "It might be advisable to learn faster," he says dully. "The longer this goes on, the greater your pain is going to be." He doesn't seem too concerned about being as roughed-up as he is, really.
His counterstrike is immediate, however; in a flash, his hand whips around in a parabolic arc, outstretched fingers trailing silver and gold. Normally this attack is a thin line of metallic chi... with a 'sharp' feel but no cutting edge. *Now* it is a massive blade of silver-gold, extending from his hand, and it certainly DOES have a cutting edge to it, looking to slash Mizuki diagonally from hip to shoulder. But rather than the precise and controlled version Mizuki might be familiar with, this is... vicious. Out of control.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki fails to interrupt Houken from Frei with Hyouryuu no Fuki.
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Frei 1/-------/=======|=======\=------\1 Mizuki
"I try," she says, "but sometimes, it's just too hard to--AGH!!" Too much time spent thinking up the semi-witty patter; though she feels the gather of chi, the incoming attack... she's slow. Her arms raise, but are brushed aside by the slash--a slash that literally cuts her, from shoulder to hip. Due to ratings rules, it doesn't show anything--except blood--and that her torso is, well... scarred. A fine network of scars all over her body, as if some terrible trauma occurred to it--and it did. She can still remember the explosion...
She stumbles back, her eyes wide, almost vibrating with the pain, even though instinctively she reaches for her shirt with one hand, holding it closed. "You're not... getting through me, Frei... not that easily. I'm -not- going to let you--whoever changed you, twisted you--win! Do you hear me?!?"
He should be crowing, or even moving back into typical stance. He doesn't; instead the redhead pulls his arm back and lets it fall to his side, entire body slumping forward as his striking arm stays limp there. He grits his teeth, gripping one elbow with the opposite hand, the *plip plip* of blood dripping onto concrete from his noise barely audible above the ocean's roar of chi in the alley. He was right about one thing: the longer this goes on, the more and more dangerous things are getting.
Dangerous to who? Well, not just Mizuki, apparently.
"This is your last chance to come along unharmed more than you already are," Frei says, finally standing up straight and dropping back into stance. It's like a punching puppet; you hit, he hits, he moves right back into position, a precision instrument. It's totally unlike the effect on Ichiro Oe, who has become a berserker; whatever is coursing through Frei's system has turned off everything about the man who made him what is. What's left is a shell... a shell that is, if the second trickle of blood down his face is any indicator, is cracking.
COMBATSYS: Frei focuses on his next action.
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Frei 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Mizuki
"Come along? You really -don't- know me, much as you might think you do. Has any member of the Glory Hounds run from a fight?" She might be the 'littlest' member of the Hounds, but she still is one; she makes that evident in the way she stands there, stays in place. "Come along, and you won't get hurt any more... as if I'd believe that -anyways-... look at what they did to you! You're spouting these cliches without even a twitch!"
With Frei getting his precision on, Mizuki is allowed to prepare--and prepare she does, as best as she can... by calling on her healing powers and skills. She settles her stance a little, clasping her hands... and lets her chi build, until it breaks over her, a gentle rain of warmth and healing. Will Frei take advantage of the 'opporuntity' she's providing him, or is it really an opportunity at all?
Time will tell--oh, perhaps say, in the next few seconds. This could be very, very bad for Mizuki... she really /doesn't/ want to hurt Frei, but she is, quite literally, left with no choice. "I'm not going to try to bring you back. I've tried that before. With Hotaru. I took a hole in the chest--several, actually--for that trouble. I know it's not upon me, or in me, to do it. But I -will- stop you, or delay you, or do whatever else I can to keep these people safe."
This seems like it should get a shrug of some form, but it doesn't register from Frei much. Instead he watches Mizuki carefully, and then finally simply intones, "Your decision is clearly made. Further discussion is a futile waste of time and energy." His fingers flex a little as he prepares to strike, and it finally, finally happens: the chi in the air hits a fever pitch. Some of the very space around both fighters effectively bursts, like too-saturated clouds turning into a sudden and violent downpour. It's resonating with the chi he's building now, which... not coincidentally, is yin chi: the energy of cold, death, and the grave.
Motes of purple-black dance in the air, like particles suspended in something much thicker and scarier than mere atmosphere. Their ragged edges are limned with a sort of purple-blue, an eye-searing combination that makes them difficult to look at. The heat in the alley is quite literally *vaporized* by the sudden imbalance of natural forces; it goes from a slightly muggy, room temperature early evening to a nearly winter-like chill, all at once.
Frei's hands glow with that same energy, but it's not the small, controlled aura. As before, it's wild and untamed; tendrils of purple-black whip through the air at odd angles. But his voice is as calm as a dead wind. "You should know your limits."
He lunges forward, at patently ridiculous speed, and looks to slam his outstretched fist into Mizuki's stomach. The impact is one thing; the sudden, overwhelming energy of death slamming into her body and coursing through it like wildfire from the point of impact is likely another story entirely, should it hit.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki successfully hits Mizuki with Iki no Mizu.
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Frei 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Mizuki
COMBATSYS: Mizuki blocks Frei's Ashura Ressenjin.
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Frei 0/-------/-------|=======\===----\1 Mizuki
The impact is tremendous; the chi that slams into her body is even worse. She raises all her defenses; her crossed forearms are interposed between Frei's fist and her stomach. Her aura raised as well, such as it is. She's successfully defended... but, it almost doesn't feel like it, as she staggers back from the impact. Good god... "You've become something else entirely... I hope that someone has the power, the knowledge, to change you back to who you were. Maybe Alma..."
She draws a deep breath, centering herself. That was, most definitely, a painful thing to experience. "You've shown me what you can do.. you probably know what I can do... there's little I can do about that. The only thing I can do... is to do /my/ best, as well." She doesn't have much for this fight, not really; if he hits one more time, she's probably out... but while she's still standing, she'll keep coming.
So she hurls her arms forward, calling her chi, a bright blue-silver glow sheathing her arms for a moment before erupting forward into a howling gale, a focused wind-and-ice storm generated from her chi, sweeping down the alleyway. Not a precision weapon, for sure...
COMBATSYS: Frei blocks Mizuki's Hyouryuu no Arashi.
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Frei 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Mizuki
That howling blast courses through the already chilly alley with such speed and ferocity that the walls literally start to ice over. Apparently it's not just Frei that enjoys the effects of this buildup; nature itself is responding, and Mizuki is just as capable of tapping into that. But the motes of yin chi don't exactly disappear, either; after all, water is a yin force, in five elements theory. They resonate, too. Frei's defense has no physical component; he extends a hand, fingers outstretched, and the purple-black in the air darts about, like fireflies, through the icy fog. The coherent blast is shredded to ribbons, but not obliterated; blades of frost and wind hammer at Frei's already battered body. There's a grinding of dirt as he's pushed back across the alley by the sheer force of it.
\And yet, Frei looks considerably worse off than he should be. A hand comes to his stomach and he doubles forward for a moment; doing so shows that, interestingly enough, a shock of his auburn hair is now, curiously, silver-white. A hacking sound is clearly him coughing up blood, as the red on his hand demonstrates when he stands back up. "Empty words," he says evenly, though his voice is thick thanks to, well... injury. "You use them to reassure yourself that reality is something other than what your senses tell you. One of your..." And here, his face suddenly tightens again, eyes squeezed shut, before he opens them again. "Traits are irrelevant. Success is what matters."
His hand glows blue-white, as Frei charges Mizuki. The glow becomes actual frost and ice, spilling off him like it can't be contained. "Perhaps this will serve as instruction to the differences between you and I." With that he makes a half turn and thrusts out his palm at close range, just shy of her actual skin. It's just a gesture, however; the actual attack is the sudden flash-freezing of the air around her into what is effectively a Kula-style ice coffin, a massive block of clear blue ice that traps Mizuki entirely, before shattering, the shards pelting the young YFCC instructor for good measure.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki effortlessly dodges Frei's Reiki.
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Frei 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Mizuki
Part of Mizuki is horrified, watching Frei cough up blood. It's crazy--he's clearly sick in some way, mentally, physically. But there's nothing she can do. She has no resources for this. Once upon a time she would have gone to the YFCC, gone to Alma, but she knows the YFCC is ruined, and she hasn't seen Alma in quite some time. "Even if I 'win' this fight," she tells herself, just-audibly, "what will I do?"
It's a question she's got no time to think about; suddenly, Frei's back in her face, trying to turn the ice and cold on her in turn. It's a moment that is, possibly literally, life and death--she can't be assured that Frei won't kill her, or do something just as bad, if he manages to KO her. The subconscious realization of this is what allows her to see into the moment--and even as the air is freezing around her, she's moving, kicking off with her back foot, twisting violently as she leaps, shattering the ice prematurely, before things can get out of hand.
The inspiration of the moment is past--but her determination returns, and she's lunging forward again, her hands raised, slashing at Frei with chi-infused strikes--a one-two-three with her right hand, outwards knifehand, a returning ridgehand, and a final, twisting, vertical knifehand strike.
COMBATSYS: Frei fails to interrupt Kouryuu no Renda from Mizuki with Hatsuyuki.
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Frei 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Mizuki
Again, that voice in his head says: kill. Now! Don't wait! And unable to resist the urges that are, even now, coded into his very bloodstream, Frei obeys. The actual attempt is surprisingly elegant; even though the shards of ice are avoided by Mizuki, they hover in the air, not dissipating, but circling. As she dives at him, fist extended, the green eyes widen just for a moment as he effectively tries to drive the shards into Mizuki's back. However, slowed by fatigue and injury, they move far too slowly, and Mizuki's impressive evasion gives her an edge on a counter assault. The chi-empowered strikes sling Frei backwards across the alley until he impacts with the opposite wall in a mirror of the start of this fight, brickwork crumbling around him as his body slumps forward.
When he stands up, the sight is terrifying.
It's not just his nose; now he's got blood trickling from the corner of one *eye*. It's as if there's something filling his body from the outside and blood, as the only fluid option, is being shoved OUT. Yet still he stands, and observed, and takes a stance. Like he doesn't know he's on the verge of collapse, like he has no concept of his own body. He's hearing different music entirely. "Why do you persist?" he asks, tonelessly. "Even if you can, through sheer luck, overcome me... you have said it yourself. What will you do?"
"I don't know," is Mizuki's response, with heartbreaking honesty. "I don't know what I'll do. Chain you to a pipe? Try and take care of you? I don't have the resources, the knowledge, to help you with what's going on, and I don't know that I can even reach anyone that would know. But I'm done giving up on myself, on others. On turning away. On saying 'there's nothing I can do.' There is, at least, one thing I can do, right here, and right now, and that's stop you from doing things that, I think, you'll hate yourself for doing."
She's watching him bleed, and she's knowing that it's her fault, directly--that she's attacking him without much restraint. She has to. He's giving no quarter, and she can't either.
"You're more skilled than I am, Frei. More skill with chi, with fighting. With teaching. You're one of the people I aspire to be like... I've always thought that fighting was the last resort. That it seemed silly that only violence could wake people up, make them understand. And I think it's still true. But there are times where it's necessary..." And then she's running forward, bringing both hands around and up, firing a spearhand strike for Frei's chest, seeking to come up underneath any possible defense---though the first knuckles of each finger are folded, to keep the injury to a minimum.
COMBATSYS: Frei blocks Mizuki's Aggressive Strike.
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Frei 0/-------/-======|==-----\-------\0 Mizuki
"Silence..." the redhead says in response, voice intense but quiet. There's nothing wrong with Mizuki's strike; it's executed with skill and grace, but it slams into Frei's outstretched palm with a resounding thud. But it's not like striking skin; it's like hitting *metal*. Of course, that's somewhat of an exaggeration; it's not as if it's a hard striking surface like actual metal, but there's something firm about his skin, moreso than normal. And at close range, it's obvious as to why: it's not just blood that's wrong with his eyes. The green pupils are dusted with slivers of metallic color, shards of gold and bronze like iron pyrite, or some sort of geode. Even the WIND around him is different at close range; radiating outward, a bit. There's a smell of leaf mould and spring rain about it, and the tang of the still-thawing ice in the background, like a fall day.
"Silence!" he continues again, reeling back a step and putting both hands to his head, gripping it tightly for a moment of terrible silence before he looks up at Mizuki. "You could never, ever be like me. How could you?! You aren't hearing what I'm hearing," he adds, and the monotone finally begins to crack. Of course, the problem is that the things the monotone was keeping IN are now spilling out, untempered. "The sound of it all... it's in my ears. That constant *beat*. I can... barely stand it. Someone of your... abilities... could never..."
A pause, and then Frei's face actually looks furious, angry, driven to the brink by fatigue and pain. The shocks of white streaked in his red hair are more pronounced, now, as if they've been slowly increasing as the fight goes on. His hand snaps out and he attempts, unceremoniously, to simply get Mizuki by the *throat*; if he does, he holds her there, one-handed, using the chi of the wind to slowly suck the air out of the space around her. "You could never understand this power. NEVER."
Should he have that hold, once he's done, the air comes rushing back... and sends Mizuki out and away from him in one mighty burst.
COMBATSYS: Frei successfully hits Mizuki with Choke Hold.
[ \\\\\ < > ///// ]
Frei 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Mizuki
Mizuki lets her hand crumple, rather than risk damage by running into that wall. Unfortunately, she's just too close, and the changes are too startling--things she hadn't noticed... until Frei's hand snaps up and grasps her throat. She has just a moment to gasp, "I don't--" before she is being choked, in multiplicate. She gasps, she thrashes; and just when he releases her, she finds herself turned away from the wall, but she impacts hard. Slumping down, catching herself with her hands and feet.
She is just as bloodied as Frei--maybe even moreso... her voice rasping, as she coughs, trying to clear her throat. "I don't -want-... to hear what you're hearing... things people weren't -meant- to hear... not like this... communion with the world should be.. *cough* should be a gentler thing..."
So he hasn't quite silenced her yet; she clears her throat, finally, violently, and she advances. This is the last exchange, she's sure--one way or the other... so as she moves, she prepares herself, before suddenly stopping, planting her left foot, and just snapping her right foot out and high for Frei's temple. A knockout blow, if it hits, hopefully.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki successfully hits Frei with Kouryuu no Shippo.
[ \\\ < > //// ]
Frei 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0 Mizuki
He's way too far around the bend for that to be evaded; the only reason he tries is because even in its drug-influenced state, the body has certain reflexive motions it employs when things look bad. The redhead sways, somewhat, but it's not enough to avoid Mizuki's attack in any way. The blow isn't particularly powerful, but it's enough to send Frei tumbling backwards and onto the ground in a crumpled heap. The feeling of... charge... in the air seems to die down a bit as he goes down, but it doesn't disappear. That in and of itself is probably evidence enough that this isn't 100% over.
"You're... a fool..." Frei grinds out as he gets to his feet. For a moment he is unsteady, barely able to keep himself off the ground, but putting one foot in front of the other, he slowly makes his way toward Mizuki, putting one foot in front of the other. A hand drops to his side, suddenly glowing with a fiery red haze tinged with orange and white. "Do you think... because 'nature' includes butterflies... and rainbows... that it is 'kind'? Or 'gentle'?" He gives a ragged laugh, an awful wet-sounding affair that shows just the extent of how badly he's off right now. "That's a child's... dream. A fantasy. Nature... is uncaring. It is... heedless of... you."
When he is close enough, Frei stares at Mizuki evenly, and then presses that palm forward. On cue, the air between them ignites into a brilliant, lotus-like explosion of scarlet flame. Fire against ice... a poetic statement, though it's not as if the experimental subject has the presence of mind to know that. "Nature... is FURY."
Regardless of the result, however, the drug has proven far too much for him; pitching forward, Frei slams to the ground of the alleyway.
COMBATSYS: Frei can no longer fight.
[ \\\\ <
Mizuki 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Mizuki dodges Frei's Reiki EX.
[ \\\ <
Mizuki 0/-------/-======|
"I am a fool... but I'm a fool with a vision that you once shared. Nature is fury, wild, untamed... but our communion with it shouldn't be like this." She gestures at the mess of a body--she can't call this person "Frei" anymore, he's so different from the Frei she knows. The flame reaches for her... and she reacts fluidly, dropping low and turning away... and flaring her aura. Fire versus ice, indeed; her efforts put up an ice shield, one that is burned away... but it slows the lotus of flame enough for her to be unscathed by it.
"You'll remember, someday. What you used to know. This fury, this flame... if you can't control it it will just consume you. That is why we've trained. To be able to control the fury, to direct it. To protect ourselves against it--and to be able to exist as part of it."
Tiredly, she pushes to her feet--but Frei seems so far away, as her injuries catch up to her; she stumbles, gasping, a hand going out to the wall. Limping forward, she's trying to reach the man... c'mon. Depsite her words... she'll do something for Frei, if she can. Anything...
That's when the gunshot happens.
It doesn't come close to hitting Mizuki, but the *timing* of it is just too good. The bullet percusses the nearby wall just as Mizuki's hand is about to touch Frei's actual body; the sound of it alone is very much intended as a warning for Mizuki to back the heck away right now. It's quickly followed by a floodlight illuminating the end of the alleyway, and a group of armed commandos -- dressed in Navy SEAL-style black suits, but with the S.I.N logo on their shoulders -- drawing a bead on the young miko. They're not the mouth-breathing yahoos Shadaloo sent to harry the Syndicate... these are professionals. And while Mizuki might be a match for any one of them alone, the outcome of six of them against her in her current state might give the YFCC instructor pause.
"You can step away now, young lady," says one commando. His voice is taut with restraint. Why? He has orders to let her go. To them, it makes no sense; why not bring her in too? The average grunt, of course, has little use for things like 'psychological warfare'. News of Frei's sudden shift in personality is going to get around if Mizuki is free to go. "But I'm afraid he's coming with us."
She's beaten nearly into submission; the gunshot freezes her, not in fear, but in caution. And then... the agents arrive. She doesn't recognize the logo... as S.I.N. probably doesn't make household appliances... but she recognizes the type. And her lips turn down into a frown.
"..." For a moment, a brief moment, she entertains the thought of beating them up. But the truth is... Frei probably will at least get better medical care than she can provide--and she needs to heal, as well. "... fine. Just--" She points at the commando that spoke, her gaze as level as it can be for someone fatigued and injured.
"Make sure he gets medical attention. If I find out that you jerks have mistreated him even more than you already have... well, I don't need to finish, do I?" And she turns, with difficulty, and limps down the alleyway. It is not really so hard to do, physically...
But emotionally and mentally, having to turn her back on a friend, one of her closest friends, and /walk away/... but she is who she is. Jiro--maybe even Alma--would be hardy enough, maybe even foolhardy enough, to charge them. But she does them, and Frei, and everyone else, no good, perforated by bullets... and now she has some clues as to where Frei is and why she hasn't heard from him...
Log created on 19:58:04 04/08/2009 by Mizuki, and last modified on 13:04:42 04/09/2009.