Description: Come and be saved, spread the word. The cult's been ramping up its visibility since a certain discomfort has been lingering in the air. Everyone has questions, but these people, in specific, say they have answers. Answers as to the nature of everything, and how they can carry themselves through these times... unless you are a particularly unlucky, all but excommunicated initiate still reeling from their failure to kill Kyo Kusanagi, at which point you are a prime target for having answers beaten out of. Can Kazuki, someone with plenty of his own questions, wring out some answers out of this determined klutz?
Southtown's not in a happy place right now. The more developed parts of the world in general aren't, but, for sake of the argument, let's just say Southtown is really, really unhappy.
There's that disturbance in the air. Like something unsettling is going on. Something reaching out and snapping its tendrils into the minds of many. So many people are on the edge. Those given to a more violent disposition have snapped outright. There's been a couple riots here and there. The police force - what of it is really able to proudly call itself one, this being Southtown and all - has its hands full with the latest incident.
"Come and be saved!" Cries a shaky voice belonging to some shady character dressed in a robe with pale, bony hands and sharp claws and an unnatural glow to the eyes underneath as a shirtless man and another in a white shirt stand against one another, dukes raised while he waves a slightly torn pamphlet in their direction. "Hello, would you guys, um, really like a... a pamphle--"
The guy in the shirt knocks out the shirtless guy with a single straight punch and says nothing.
"Oh, nevermind," the robed one sighs, shakes his head, and shuffles his feet along over to another part of the park where a swingset is, currently, on fire and, against all common sense, in the middle of being trashed by a really angry young woman who does not care about getting singed by this fire.
"Hello! Would you like to-- uhhh, wait, no, you seem to have gotten the message already. Oh... kay... um, this is really hard." The robed figure whimpers as he sits down near a bench. "And my nails keep shredding these pamphlets, what am I supposed to do?!"
What is this young man serving a truly disturbing and evil cause supposed to do on this overcast afternoon?
Kazuki Kirigana is all for 'go home and call it a day,' himself. He has followed this particular cultist for a couple of hours now. It was not all that difficult really; the outfit gives the cultist dead away. The cultist's 'song', a sick and twisted thing that sets the prodigy's teeth on edge is another. When the cultist despairs of his situation, Kazuki steps forward.
"Perhaps," he says politely, because he is polite with everyone, "You should just call it a day." He has a smile on his face as he says it, and his body language is relaxed but alert. He had to deal with a few trouble makers already during his walk. He is not yet ready to throw this guy through the nearest scenery, however.
"But I CAN'T!" He suddenly exclaims as he rises up from the ground near the bench (why didn't he sit at the bench, anyway) to spin around and face Kazuki head on. Kazuki can see for himself - glowing blue eyes of something really unearthly. Something... disturbing.
Maybe a part of this person he is facing is no longer a human, but a blight. Something that must be purged clean from the world for its song to regain its beauty anew.
"They excommunicated me when I failed to kill Kyo Kusanagi, and, um, he is... really really hard to kill, it's not like anyone else did, you know, so, so I need to spread the word about his coming!"
He stops for a moment. There is no blinking, just the slight dimming of those eyes at certain intervals.
"Oh! Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait." He stammers. "Maybe I can interest /you/!" He thrusts forward a torn and - let's be honest - unreadable pamphlet, because it has claw marks going down the center anyway. "Can you still read it? It's okay if you can't because I know it by heart! Ha ha. Really! I can tell you what's on it."
Kazuki takes the pamphlet uncertainly, completely unable to read the tattered rag. He makes note of the man's babbling, nodding almost sympathetically. Kyo Kusanagi would be one heck of a hard target to take down, if half of what the prodigy had heard was true. He frowns as he slips some earbuds into his ears. He doesn't turn on his MP3 player just yet, but the act acts as something of an assistive tool in quieting the sounds of the world around him.
"Spread the word about whose coming?" Kazuki asks, slightly confused. This guy... he cannot POSSIBLY be right in the head. But he is still human, at least for now. Maybe confused, or angry. But still human.
"It's all there in the pamphlet!" The robed young man is all but screaming. "Except... oh right, I just, I just said it was all torn and everything so, um, ahem!" He clears his throat nice and daintily. Much more daintily than someone tainted with eldritch awfulness should be, all things considered.
"One!" He straightens out, one arm behind his back and raising his other hand up, spinning it around in circles as if lecturing a truly interested person. "Humans are sinful and a blight upon our world! So, so our lord wants to awaken so he can exact just rewards upon them, and... and that sort of thing."
"Two!" He starts as he begins to pace. "Some people are really really bad and our lord can't come back unless we get rid of them, like Kyo Kusanagi! So we need to kill him but he's... he's really strong and that's kind of a problem and maybe our lord could do okay with him but no, we apparently need to kill him or something and it's not all my fault we couldn't!"
"And three!" He leans in ever closer to Kazuki. "Wait, no, two point five, um, his mom makes really great tea and... and when the lord comes I'll ask him to spare her, because... because... that's really good tea."
Kazuki tilts his head to one side, seemingly confused. Or maybe curious. "It... sounds to me like you just want this lord of yours to come back and... kill everyone." Kirigana frowns a bit. "Although, it looks like your people are already off to a good start without him." He looks around, more than a bit concerned.
"I guess I don't see why in order to be redeemed, or rewarded, someone has to be destroyed."
"Well, um... kind of, kind of, maybe," the bad cultist (bad as in 'poor,' not so much 'morally wrong,' but one supposes they're bad in that way too) stammers and stumbles in his speech. "But now nobody is really listening anymore! And, um, it's also gotten really bad since... since," he starts speaking very quietly as he twiddles his fingers (and winces as he accidentally cuts himself open because them fingernails are sharp), "since they've been doing ritual suicide, since, um, that's... supposed to get our lord here faster."
"I mean, I don't see the point, that's what I said, why give our lives to the lord when we're needed to carry his will out, that seems kinda counterproductive, so that's why they got me to go out and get Kyo, except um, well... I already said but HE NEEDS TO DIE SOMEHOW and I'm kind of stuck and they won't let me back in."
He goes down to his knees and looks up, pleadingly, to Kazuki - maybe even grabbing and shaking him by his shirt if he lets him. "Please join and help me kill Kyo please please PLEASE PLEASE!!"
Kazuki is not a fan of being grabbed. Grabbed leads to thrown, after all. He looks down at the seemingly pathetic cultist with a deep, deep frown. "I'm against killing," Kazuki says seriously, "For any reason." The mention of ritual suicide troubles him greatly. "Perhaps you should set this whole thing aside," he suggests reasonably.
After all, this guy simply does not seem to be cut out for this kind of thing. "Maybe find yourself a different path in life," he reccommends. "Instead of trying to destroy everything."
"What?! Why?" The curiously crummy cultist cries, stunned enough to let Kazuki go in his shock - assuming he was even in his grasp to begin with. "I mean, you don't like bugs or anything, do you? They... they creep, they /crawl/," he demonstrates this on the dirty park ground as he crawls along at a humorous speed even though it seems like very little of himself is actually moving, "and, and, and they freak you out and then you just gotta SQUISH them!"
He flops onto his back and thrusts an arm straight up, rolling a sleeve down far enough to show his pale flesh and kind of wimpy, wiry build. "I mean, that's... that's killing, and, and, and humans are actually kinda a lot like bugs, Vladimir said so," he continues, "'n I remember back in school before I quit that... that we're all made of cells and bacteria and stuff that dies and other really small things that just die around us and I guess we're all killers so really, how can you not like killing when you do it all the time, um... have I lost you? Please say no, every time I lose someone they just kind of walk off and I'm stuck explaining this to the next guy, and--"
"It's not the same thing, though," Kazuki says. "Just because something dies does not mean that it is killed." Kazuki is obviously following, still. "Everyone dies eventually," he says. "That's a part of life. I'm not in any hurry to hasten anyone's end, is all."
"I... don't think you are in the right line of work," Kazuki finally confides. He considers for a moment. "Maybe we should try something that goes more to your strengths." Kazuki seems honest enough. Perhaps, just maybe, this won't have to come to violence.
"I know, everything does eventually, like, like this EARTH!" The cultist shoots up, swinging his arms around almost like a noodly-armed puppet and it's probably really humorous to watch given how sinister this guy's appearance is. "Earth is /dying/ because of /humans/ and, and, y'know, it seemed crystal clear, so, so I wanna save the Earth!"
Puffing his chest out, he stands out tall, arms down. "And to do that we need to kill Kyo! So our lord can come by without issue, and... and... some other stuff I kind of forgot but it's REALLY IMPORTANT and... and, um, maybe I should just... just go ask Brihan if they'd take me back anyway, I'm guessing, y'know, with all the ritual suicides and stuff that we don't actually have a lot of people left, sure, they'll take me back, maybe, just maybe..."
Kazuki is getting some good information out of this guy. He has names he can work with now. He frowns at this. "But that means /you/ will die," Kazuki says, clearly confused and a bit concerned. "I don't understand." He tugs the earbuds out, trying to listen to what this change has done to the man in front of him or perhaps /how/. If it was done, if it was /inflicted/ like it was to Antoine...
...perhaps it can be undone, and this whole thing can be stopped.
"Well, um, y'know, it sounded kinda scary at first since, uh, presumably we're all human I mean, that old Tomoko lady said we'd have nothing to fear since our lord would look kindly upon his servants and all, and... somethin'... like that, I mean, it's all in the pamphlet!"
A pause passes by.
"Uh, wait, lemme get you a new one that you can read by yourself so you can understnad, so, um," he reaches somewhere into his robe - where, exactly, may not be best to discuss openly - at which point he realizes pretty much all the pamphlets are shredded thanks to those sharp finger-claws and the fact he's bleeding from one finger, so now at least one of them is going to be smeared a bit in his blood.
The title of this whole charade makes sense now. Moving on.
"Um, wait, I shredded them all, crap, um..."
"You should stop this," Kazuki says evenly. "Because it sounds to me that this lord of yours," whoever they are, "Is not going to stop with killing all the non-believers. Seems like it'd be easier to just kill everyone." He's not getting anything. Maybe it was voluntary? This whole thing is confusing to him at this point.
The fact that this guy is clearly incompetent is not helping the matter.
"Wait, just... kill everyone?" The incompetent, sad cultist stops and scratches the side of his hood with a clawed finger. "Actually that's kinda what Carrol was thinking too, yeah, maybe it'll be easier to kill Kyo when there isn't anyone else, 'cause then they can't just jump in with their awesome green flames and, uh, and then interfere, yeah, that sounds about right!"
"Thank you!" The cultist bows humbly... and withdraws a curved dagger of some sort. Sure, it might be an actual dagger charged with an unstable, powerful chi energy, but it's actually a cheap costume replica the guy jacked after he lent his real one to some other guy (and never saw it again). "Um, I know, you were really helpful, and, thanks for hearing me out where nobody would, but, but could I ask you to be one of the first to die, I mean, doing the math you wouldn't be the /first/ first but, uh... please?"
He looks really hopeful. And helplessly hopeful.
Kazuki's frown seems everlasting in this situation. His stance shifts, moving his centerline away from the cultist. His hands are still by his sides, but raised to just above the beltline. Given the way this guy has been going, the answer he is about to give (the only answer he CAN give) is not going to be acceptable.
Trying to defuse a fight before it happens is all well and good, but that doesn't mean you have to go into one flatfooted. "No," Kazuki says evenly. "I am not going to let you kill me. It wouldn't be good for either of us."
"But if it makes the job easier for our lord to come back, I mean, really, think about it! It actually benefits everyone, it, it saves the EARTH, gets me back in good with my fellow cultists, and... and, y'know, it makes sense, right? It's not like I hate you or anything or really want you to suffer, I mean, just... die on the spot, like, a heart attack or having a blood vessel in your brain pop or something."
The cultist draws nearer. "I mean, if you need time to get ready for that, like, call your mom or something, that'd be okay, I'll be here, just... just waiting to kill you, or something."
Every fighter has a range wherein certain actions are really /re/actions, movements trained to the point of reflex. Even Kazuki, who slacks off on his training quite a bit (he has things he would rather do), would be hardpressed to stop what has been drilled into him almost since he could walk. The prodigy's hand whips out, grabbing for the wrist while the other hand attempts to grip the thumb of the cultist's hand in order to disarm the man.
His second action involves pulling the grabbed arm while twisting at the hips to toss the berobed man to the ground. "I refuse to die," Kazuki says. "And I am not going to let you kill me."
COMBATSYS: Kazuki has started a fight here.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Cultist1 has joined the fight here.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Cultist1
COMBATSYS: Kazuki successfully hits Cultist1 with Quick Throw.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Cultist1
Really, absolutely nothing stops Kazuki from just running away and not coming back. After all, this idio-- er, highly determined individual would be more than happy to wait for him to come back and die to his blade. For as long as it takes, really.
Kazuki isn't kidding when he says that this guy is really not cut out, at all, for this kind of lifestyle, when Kazuki gets him by the wrist and thumb to make him drop the cheap dagger, tossing him into the soft park turf with just enough heft to kick up a dirt cloud and even a few clumps of grass.
"Ow! That's not dying!" The cultist panics. "Stop it! I asked really nicely and everything! I mean, it's to save the Earth and all so it's like, you know, saving everyone!"
Rising up with a certain sort of unnatural air underneath him, his hands go out wide, claws fully visible, "and now I'd really like that dagger back, because, um, that's the only one I hav--"
"RAARRRRHGHAGEKBGELGH," babbles that woman who was beating the crap out of a flaming wrecked swing set a few moments before, who is now on fire and so uncaring in her rage that she has now decided to leap upon the poor cultist and beat the stuffing out of him as per the Rage.
"OWWW! Stop it, stop it!!"
...er.
Kazuki takes several quick steps away from the cultist with a wince, before tossing the knife aside. He watches for a brief moment before deciding to do something insane. He leaps forward, trying to get between the cultist and the Raging woman. "/Stop!/," Kazuki yells even as he tries to parry the piece of swingset away from both himself and the cultist.
COMBATSYS: Kazuki counters Random Weapon from Cultist1 with Counter Toss.
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Kazuki 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Cultist1
"Huh?" The cultist looks up. "I mean you're okay with dying anyway, great, um, hand me back the knife plea--"
Of course, the raging lady (who is also on fire) now has a choke hold on him, but surely Kazuki is about to save the day somehow?!
Kazuki quickly spots a non-burning section of the pole, slapping his palm against it before gripping it firmly. He plants his feet before getting his second hand on the pole. He pulls up hard, forcing the lady off of the cultist through sheer leverage. "Your people did this to her," Kazuki snarls as he gets himself underneath the weapon. "I hope that you know how to undo it," he says as he turns ninety degrees and uses the swingset as a lever to throw the lady halfway across the playground.
"The last time I fought someone like this I ended up in the hospital," the prodigy confides.
"Well, um, that's, that's kinda the point, yes," the cultist whines between choked breaths as Kazuki leverages the pole to fling the woman and - unfortunately, due to her grip on the cultist in question - launches him with her. The lady is as good as knocked out, her body unable to really contain this power going through her or the pain being knocked into the brick wall of a restroom causes.
Especially when you are being crushed up against it by some guy in a robe your indiscriminate rage is telling you to beat the crap out of.
"Reverse it? Um, y'know, it's supposed to be our Lord's gift and everything as we strike down the unworthy, somethin' like that," the young man in the robes says as he rises up.
His robe is now on fire. It burns a blue color. He doesn't seem to notice.
"I mean, um, it's kind of all in the pamphlet as to what it is, it's, it's just taking the Earth's own energy and... uh, doing something with it and letting someone draw on it, so, I dunno what happens if you draw something else, I don't recall if the body has like infinite space for it or what but I kind of fell asleep when they explained while--"
A pause.
"Am I on fire?"
COMBATSYS: Cultist1 takes no action.
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Kazuki 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Cultist1
"It would appear so," Kazuki answers truthfully. He frowns a bit at the cultist's information, and then has the start of an idea when he mentions drawing upon the Earth's energy. Most fighters do that, either through instinct or training. Or some combination thereof. Unless one happens to be one of those purported psychics. Kazuki doesn't know much about them, or if they are even /real/.
"So you're twisting the energy somehow," Kazuki asks, understanding a bit. "But you do not know how?"
COMBATSYS: Kazuki takes no action.
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Kazuki 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Cultist1
"I, uhhh," the thought about being on fire eludes him, "I... I saw them do it, uh, a few times, I mean, I could try it on /you/, if you're curious, I kinda forget how, but... this would be before killing you, right? Because I still want to do that, but, we can do that other thing first, sure, though I wouldn't know how to stop it or anything, not like any of us would /want/ to--"
COMBATSYS: Cultist1 takes no action.
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Kazuki 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Cultist1
---------------------------<Paste from Cultist1>---------------------------
Kazuki frowns a bit. This guy somehow manages to be helpful and completely useless at the same time. On the face of things, such a thing would seem impossible, but there it is. He looks at the cultist with a bit of consideration. Kirigana would simply love to get this guy out of the crossfire, give him a moment to reconsider things a bit. Perhaps this cultist would find a better path, one that did not involve destruction.
However, a couple of things are quickly becoming apparent, the first being that talking will not likely convince the cultist to reconsider his life choices. The second is that the cultist is still on fire. Kazuki can do something about that, at least. He thrusts an empty palm forward, causing a small gust of wind to sweep through. Perhaps the fire would be blown out, but it will likely sweep the cultist up and away!
COMBATSYS: Cultist1 dodges Kazuki's Air Burst.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Cultist1
"Granted I think they do it by force and just kind of... put it in you but they never really /showed/ me how," the Cutlist thoughtfully(?) muses out loud as he starts to pace off in some direction or another. A strong breeze from Kazuki's palm flies forth and, in spite of his altruism, it seems that the spirit of Darwin himself sees it fit to intervene in this equation where there is a cultist who is currently on fire and is quickly forgetting the fact that he is, really and truly, on fire while the burst of air almost harmlessly passes by. It ruffles the robe a bit, maybe makes the fire a bit smaller, less noticeable.
"Should I try anyway?" He looks to Kazuki hopefully, for whatever measure those blue fiery eyes should ever be attributed to 'hope' instead of, oh, 'despair' and 'rage.' "I mean, I could try stabbing you really hard and reciting some things I've heard and if it doesn't work, it might still kill you anyway, which is, um... y'know, the eventual goal regardless, it should work, right?"
COMBATSYS: Cultist1 takes no action.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Cultist1
Kazuki heaves a sigh and shakes his head. "If those are my options, then you may as well go home," Kazuki says honestly. "If you insist on trying, I will defend myself." Kazuki's stance does not relax, the young man staying alert for any shenanigans the cultist may try to pull.
It could be said that Kazuki's purely defensive mindset would be a flaw were he to consider a serious fighting career, but it is also the way that he is wired.
COMBATSYS: Kazuki takes no action.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Cultist1
"But I don't actually /have/ a home!" The cultist whines horribly as he comes within a foot of violating Kazuki's personal space, clawed hands clasped together as if to beg. "Please, please? Um, a sacrifice at all might get me back in good with the lot of them, what can you possibly have going while you're alive? Once our lord is here and all that you're basically dead anyway, save yourself some suffering, okay?!"
His eyes widen. He may be attempting cute puppy eyes. What he succeeds in are displaying disturbing, bright, unnatural blue glowing eyes that may or may not be forming glowing blue tears. "Please? Please? ...Please? C'mon! Pleeeeeeaaaaaaase!"
There may no longer be any further point to entertaining this... person.
COMBATSYS: Cultist1 takes no action.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Cultist1
Kirigana scowls. "Hard way then," he says. He takes a half step in to finish closing the gap, his right hand sheathing itself in a light green glow of chi. "I'd have rather not have done it this way," he says honestly.
He drives his fist, first two knuckles extended as he drives the chi-clad fist into the cultist's breadbasket!
COMBATSYS: Kazuki successfully hits Cultist1 with Disruptive Strike.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Cultist1
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Kazuki 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\0 Cultist1
The chi-clad fist confirms that this cad does, indeed, have a core to clobber, and Kazuki lands that double-fisted blow to the breadbasket that the pathetic excuse for a doomsday prophet crumples over in a pathetic wheeze and rocks back and forth on the dirty park ground (while still partially on fire).
"Oww... okay, um, what if... what if you wanted to join instead?" The cultist suggests. "I mean there's supposed to be some... rituals 'n the like but they're kinda scary, so, maybe I could give you a spare robe or something, and..."
Absolutely nothing stops Kazuki from just walking away and going on with his day, free of this particular prattle.
COMBATSYS: Cultist1 takes no action.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Cultist1
"No," Kazuki growls as he grabs the cultist by the robe. Time to channel a bit of that ole Gedo spirit. "Tell your people to pack up and get the hell out of Southtown. Your cult is not welcome here, and neither is your so-called lord." Kazuki shoves the man away roughly before turning and walking away.
However, Kazuki is not really that soft; he tugs the earbuds out before shoving them into his pocket. He'll hear it if the man tries anything.
COMBATSYS: Kazuki gains composure.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Cultist1
"Ahhh... just Southtown?" Wheezes the subpar shaman of annihilation and all sorts of other bad things (that he is also very bad at), "ah, it won't matter, I mean, it's all over the world and all and it's not really gonna matter or anything... you sure you don't wan to just, err, just be a sacrifice?"
"...Hello?" The cultist's eyes dim a few times. Blinking? "Um... um... I'm on fire, no wait, I am on fire, how could I forget?! Ah, what're you supposed to do? I remember stop and drop but not the third part! Aaaaiieeeee!!
COMBATSYS: Cultist1 takes no action.
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Kazuki 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Cultist1
----------------------------<Paste to The Park>----------------------------
Log created on 19:26:36 05/09/2011 by Kazuki, and last modified on 09:43:24 05/23/2011.