Description: Schoolgirls are coming.
The house lights in the theatre are dimmed. Outside, the night is cold. There is no moon in the sky, and the city's lights poison the sky from showing the stars. Inside, the theatre itself is abandoned. Quiet and still, there is no sign of motion inside, and just one person stood on the stage, hands resting easily by her sides. It is a tiny figure, dark-haired and clothed all in black. It is the crow girl of Seijyun High.
Miu Kurosaki has requested the presence of Zaki. It had been a simple note sent through the network of Seijyun girls. Whilst everyone in Seijyun fears Zaki (and with good reason), Miu's own cultivated reputation for creepiness means that she inspires some manner of obedience, too.
-Zaki.
I would like to speak with you. One on one. I will wait in Seijyun Theatre.
-Miu.
It isn't often that Miu wants to speak with anybody. Mostly, she tries to keep to herself, and since the events of the King of Fighters Tournament, she has dedicated herself completely to her studies. She hasn't done a thing to involve herself in events outside the school... or any social events inside it, either. But it seems that Zaki's crusade has, ruffled her feathers.
She is as good as her word, too. For once, there is not a sign of any of the crows which tend to flock around her and serve as her only company. Her head is slightly inclined, and she does not budge an inch. Perhaps Zaki will not come; perhaps she will wait here all night. It is a possibility.
It is a possibility.
Aoi Himezaki stakes her reputation on an image, on the imposing aspect she presents to the world, and the very real aura that radiates from around that dark facade. It's widely known that she listens to nobody - heeding only her own counsel, possessing a vision and purpose that transcends individuals, even as she guards and protects those willing to slip within her shadow. By many standards she'd be a tyrant, a terrorizing brute in the guise of a leader; but those closest to her, those most incisively observant, and a very few who've simply been fortunate enough to catch her in a rare unguarded moment know that there's something more within.
Miu's note was received without especial attention paid, vulpine eyes scathing across the carefully-composed paper without any emotion beyond the default unreadable brooding that marks Zaki's persona. Beneath the masquerade, however, a smile flicked to her lips and her mind turned outward. She's been meaning to speak with the Kurosaki 'crow girl' for some time-- one of Seijyun's most forthright ambassadors, and possessed of such power... she begged to be controlled, either as an ally or rival. Still, normally this would need to be on Aoi's terms; her time, her place, and her rules. It just so happened...
These /were/ her favoured circumstances. And the simple, blunt diction appealed. No lies. No bullshit.
So it is that the sukeban has brushed aside her retainers, positioning the 'Welcoming Committee' trio outside the entrance hall to waylay any pursuants or mere trespassers and heading in alone. It was her preference, to lead by secluded example. A lioness does not drag her pride along for the hunt.
Stepping into the bleak hall, those glaring blue slits settle through the darkness, scanning the still silence for the figure she knows will blend to such conditions. That same, enigmatic-unseen smile darts onto her lips as she finally locates the dimunitive creature just where she knew it would be; where else, for a fellow performer, but the stage? Zaki approaches down the aisle, chain loosed from her sleeve to rattle harmoniously at her side, the other in her hair jingling a dissonant counter-rhythm as she comes to a heavy halt.
"You know, Kurosaki..."
She lifts her chin, voice booming from behind the mask.
"I always wondered how someone who so hates the light could bear to peddle their wares on television."
Miu is a difficult person to rile. It is something that Mukai had discovered, no doubt to his disappointment. There are ways to bring out her anger, but, attacking her pride... threatening her, these are not the way to go about it. Perhaps Zaki doesn't mean to insult her with the statement, but if she did... she is going to be disappointed. Miu's eyes are cool and composed, meeting Zaki's ever-burning gaze with calm detachment. Peddle her wares... it is almost amusing.
As though Miu is selling herself. As though she cares at all about what others think of her.
"I am glad that you came." She says, stepping backwards from the edge of the stage, to give Zaki the room she'd need to get up onto the stage, if she wanted. Completely ignoring the jab at her League career to focus, instead, on the business at hand.
"You've made quite a spectacle." She says, clasping her hands behind her back. "I'm going to ask you to stop, now. You've made your point. Nobody is going to 'mess' with Zaki or the Ladies Team any more."
Her voice is perfectly calm, as always, but the dark-haired psychic is expecting Zaki to respond with violence. Her feet have shifted to prepare her bearing and weight. She hopes that she is wrong... but the truth is that she has never really spoken at any great length with the violent and frightening figure now standing in front of her.
Miu knows Zaki mostly through reputation, and that reputation is a frightening one. She has half-convinced herself already that this is a waste of time; that her words will fall on deaf ears and possibly only stoke things to a greater level of intensity. But she is going to say them anyway. Because she does not want fires half the world away to come back and touch the place she has made her home.
The scarlet-haired sukeban doesn't let her intent be known; insult, tease, or genuine wonderment is left to the beholder's discerning ear. Everything she does, everything she says, takes on a threatening air precisely and only because of who she is - that voice, her stance, the rattling chains, it paints her every action alternately black and bloody. The simple truth, though, is that it's all a game. Like the most comfortable and self-assured of bullies, she's only attempting to see what happens when she pokes.
Really, it's almost scientific. But her hypotheses are her own, unshared and unrelated.
"Hmph!" Miu's demand draws a grunt that's less boomingly intimidating than it might be, and completely lacks any sense of humility or annoyance besides. At the calm, directly-worded appeal, she seems to simply be amused. At least until those vulpine eyes flare, and she springs from the aisle with unerring grace, landing upon those spiked heels in a flapping of skirts and a wild caterwaul of steel links. Drawing almost immediately to her full height, she towers over the tiny psychic, staring down at her with what seems a form of psychosis...
That stare /is/ frightening, to those capable of being scared. Though in this case, it's just Zaki grinning.
"Do you really think that's what this is about?" She utters, the astonishing depth of her vocal chords echoing past the stage to fill the auditorium. Miu chose her location well. "This isn't a matter of pride, it's not some petty crusade to make me feel good about myself; /we/ weren't the ones being messed with." Beside her hip, her wrist suddenly twists inward, sending the unfurled chain to slap harsh and loud against one toned calf. It should hurt - it sounds like it hurts - but the delinquent doesn't even flinch. "This is about more than the Ladies' Team. Drugs, violence, rape..." In a blur she whirls away, the motion seemingly unhurried in spite of the sheer speed with which she's suddenly stood upon the edge of the stage, her back presented to Miu and her gaze sweeping off to the rearmost seats of the theatre, nestled in the gloomy pitch.
"We don't all do it for glory and riches, Kurosaki. We're fighting back against something much worse than us. Sunshine City is blighted, and it's pouring that blight outward like plague rats, crawling across the ocean on ships, soaring on planes, to infect our youth and further corrupt the systems our government likes to insist are something keeping us safe. Men with snake tattoos ply whatever dirty trade they can, and whatever they're brewing, it's more than petty... enough that people are taking notice. Of me..."
She pauses, and glances back over her shoulder, those dark sapphire slits settling on Miu's own, deep amethysts.
"Of us. Everybody's asking me to stop, to change, but at what cost, Miu Kurosaki? What would you sacrifice?"
Miu is a good listener, and her poker face is entirely unreadable. In a way, they are both wearing masks. Zaki's is a literal barrier. Miu simply refuses to allow herself to show that she is intimidated in any but the smallest ways. She is, though. Despite her reputation, Miu does feel fear. She is scared about many things. That the Cult of Orochi may find her again some day, when she isn't strong or prepared enough to fend them off. That her brother's life is in danger. That she won't be able to help him. That everything will truly be for nothing. These are genuine, heartfelt fears.
They leave one open to the smaller fears. That Zaki is going to beat her up. Yes, it frightens her. But Miu has looked scary people in the eye before. She forces herself to do it again now.
Miu makes room for the spinning dervish of chains and cloth that is Aoi Himezaki. Stepping backwards across the stage, she allows Zaki to dominate the center of it, finding the left side herself. The size difference between the pair is stark. Miu is to Zaki as her crows are to herself.
But whilst Zaki moves and speaks, Miu is silent throughout the speech.
"Humanity hurts itself because it is who we are." She says, quietly. "In every motion, we may hurt ourselves and those around us. I thought that you were doing this because you had been hurt, yes." Miu's eyes are deep, reflective. As calm and placid as her voice.
"You are not hard to hurt, Zaki. But if you are trying to take away the pain of all the world... you will not be able to do it with a clenched fist."
She finally starts to move again, and her footsteps are silent against the boards, a patch of moving darkness in the gloom of the wings. Because there was a question that Zaki had asked, and... for some reason, Miu feels like perhaps, she should answer. Words are difficult. Relationships, are difficult. She knows this all herself; she works hard to keep others at bay, to ensure that she does *not* care what they think of her... because if she makes friends, she opens herself. Compassion comes too easily for her, and with compassion, the chance to be hurt deeper than Zaki's chains could ever accomplish.
"You think that I care about glory, but, you are wrong. I care about being able to protect the people who I love. And, for them, I am willing to sacrifice... everything else."
Her head bows, hiding her face in darkness.
"And that is why I hide in the darkness, even though I love the light."
Height is nothing; it's a tool that Zaki utilises, like the mask, like her voice and the words she chooses to use when she speaks. Such utility gives squalling and insistent birth to great familiarity, to the point she now perceives all of these things as essential facets of her true self. But they're not. Size, especially, isn't important-- a mixed blessing and curse of nature, carrying an impact only because people are short-sighted and foolish enough to allow it. True power and strength comes from what's inside.
Miu radiates that. Aoi senses it. She's not honestly sure how a fair fight with the crow girl would end. Neither does it matter, here and now, while they're being truthful. Open, indeed, insofar as such women are capable of it. Where Miu listens to Zaki, Zaki in turn listens to Miu.
"If you crave the light, you must reach out to seize it. It will never come to you."
Her reply should sound savage, it should resonate with a primal passion, but beneath the omnipresent basso of the sukeban's tone, there's a quality there just as gentle as that exhibited by Kurosaki. She'd never deign to remove the mask in this company - perhaps there's no company in the world where she would - but Aoi will come at least this close to revealing her truest feelings. For surprising her, and for giving of herself, Miu has already proven she's willing to make some of the sacrifice she speaks of-- and that begs respect.
"This is a cold, harsh world we live in. 'Love' is an illusion; we can either choose to possess it or turn from it that others might never see beyond that veil. You need to understand... if we fight, if we sacrifice, then part of what we give away is exactly that which you fight /for/. Don't hide in the dark, Miu Kurosaki. Embrace it. Replace the love you can never have with a deep void. But it's not even that simple."
Slowly, she shakes her head, an arm looping about her midsection, chain twitching again at her side.
"A better future for others is won through atrocity. This world is over-populated, bloated on despondent apathy, filled with those whose gratitude knows all possible limits, and whose will to live is matched only to the size of their bank balance. They don't /care/ about anything, those cancerous growths infesting the better portion of our society, and the only way to change that is to cut them away. Does it make you a monster? Does it take /me/ one?" Snorting an outbreath, she kicks a booted toe against a monitor speaker beside her, scuffing it with the sort of sad anger only a frustrated teenager can adequately display. "Of course it does. You're right to despise me, Miu, you're right to challenge me. But if you do it, be prepared to take my place."
As suddenly as she swung away, she turns back, lashing out with her chain. The air between them is suddenly alight with crackling, violet elecricity, chi burning so fierce that the smell of ozone floods the stage. The chain's tip comes a full six inches short of being near Miu herself, before it falls to settle upon the boards. Zaki lifts her other arm, sweeping it the length of her torso as though to frame her own being. 'Here I am'.
"If you want to stop me, come and try. Just know the cost of that. /Someone/ has to do what I do. It takes a monster to stop a monster. To remove pain, destroy that which infests and decays our social structure, you need to become that pain. If you're not willing, to truly give everything, to become what you hate..."
"Then I'll let you walk away. I'll let you hide."
COMBATSYS: Zaki has started a fight here.
It isn't until the 'Cancerous growths' comment that Miu actually does feel a flicker of emotion break across her face. It is a fleeting thing, but it is there. Her features harden, her eyes narrow. The crow girl of Seijyun High is not easy to rile, that much is definitely true, but it is not impossible. It might be unfair, but it is that metaphor which angers her. In the context of being told to give up her love...
To give up on her brother...
The chain comes around, and although it would have never touched her, Miu leaps backwards across the length of it. She is graceful, leaving a trail of blinding, brilliant white in her movement which ends pooling at her feet. Sparkling feathers drift from her passage, breaking up from the arc and illuminating the stage for a glorious moment. Miu is angry, and it shows, shining in her eyes and the hard set of her jaw. There is some irony, here. That the psychic has brought out Zaki's tenderness, and Zaki has brought out Miu's anger.
"Do you think I'm a fool?"
Miu's voice is momentarily louder, but, she composes herself. Brings herself back down. "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." She shakes her head just a little. Her ponytail bobs. "No. You are wrong. Mukai believes it. That the world is ultimately ruled by people strong enough to seize what they want."
She raises her hand, and brings it down hard. Again, there is a blinding streak of light, left shimmering in the air. Her will made manifest. Her power given form in the world; against it! Miu does not work with nature, she DEFIES it. Her strength and passion stamped upon reality. Her voice is louder again, shaking just a tiny bit. The normally composed girl... must try to reach this girl with words. It is not an easy task.
"Love gives me my strength. The determination to do what I must to undo what should NOT be. And you tell me to embrace the darkness instead. To become like you? Tch."
And the passion goes out of her voice at the same time as the blinding light fades into nothingness.
"Then tell me how to save my brother's life. Tell me how punishing the selfish and the cruel will rip the cancer from his body and purge the disease from his soul. I do not despise you. I think you are a visionary. But I think you are short-sighted. Tell me how becoming a monster will save someone who needs an angel."
Her head bows, and she exhales, long and slow. Her stance opens, and her arms fall to her sides, ready to respond, but resolutely not intent on aggression - not yet.
"I do not hate you. I want you to understand. I want you, to stop yourself. Because I cannot allow this fire to burn me, when I have his life in my hands."
There is only one other person she has ever explained this to. Her teacher, Rose. It seems... so long ago that she received that wisdom in her search. And ultimately, it has not gotten her what she needs. Answers beget more questions, forever, and every day that passes is a day she cannot get back.
"I would sacrifice the world for him." She says, and her voice... is actually quieter than normal, scarcely a whisper.
COMBATSYS: Miu has joined the fight here.
Anger. Frustration. Doubt.
They're all the same thing, to Aoi, signs of unrest from which meaning can be nearly impossible to derive. The sukeban herself has - in some circles - a reputation for seething rage, for being cruel and vengeful in battle, for allowing underlying emotion to betray her. There's a modicum of truth in that. She's not guiltless, has lost control, reaping the indignity of an ignoble defeat even at the hand of those she should handily overcome. Nature can be subverted; Miu has the right of that, because it can be fought with willpower. Even without such gifts as she displays, that rippling psionic energy that raises the fine hairs at the nape of Zaki's neck.
But to rail against that which binds the very earth...
It never seemed rational to Zaki. Better to fight mankind, to fight those exercising their clumsy will.
Then, of course, from within the darkness comes a blinding light. Truth and understanding. Sense from chaos.
"Your brother..." It's spoken gently, barely audible within the choking confines of black leather and heavy buckles, not pitched with the force that the delinquent habitually uses. "I'm sorry." That may be the first time Zaki has ever apologized, at least to anybody's memory. For the act isn't entirely such; she renounces her name and her upbringing because she feels no real connection to it. Her conceit is faithful to her beliefs. She's been honest with Miu, however confrontational that honesty may have been, but this is something else. There's simply being forthright, and then there's confessing from the deepest pit of the soul.
The first costs nothing, the second can take considerable toll.
"I don't think you're a fool, Miu Kurosaki," she adds after several long, silent moments, her voice quickly raising to its normal tone and volume, "And I'm not telling you to be like me. You've asked me to stop, you've asked me to change my purpose to suit you; and I can't be true to myself without telling you what that costs me. Standing to lose a loved one... I'm hard, but," she glances to one side, as though looking on Miu with those vicious eyes were to do her a disservice - as though humbled, almost, "I know what that's like. I care about every one of the women who follow me. When they're hurt, I hurt. If they were to die..."
She lets that hang, and tail away into nothing, drawing a deep breath of her own. The unravelled, unruly chain is dragged from the floor as she half-turns and steps off to the side, removing herself from central stage to place herself in the shadows of the old velvet curtain sweeping the flank. Her free hand rises to flick at a tassel, watching it bob back and forth before she glances once more toward the crow girl.
"I'd not forgive myself, and I won't. But they're my responsibility, that's my burden, and I ask nobody to shoulder it with me. You think I'm not aware that what I do is reckless, that people suffer? Not all of them deserve it; but to remove the evils of this world, there is always sacrifice. In blood. In love. If you truly care for your sibling, if you want to help him, then help /me/. Don't try to supplant me, don't attempt to convince me that what I do is wrong-- because it's for people like you that I fight. You're strong. Fuck..."
It's uttered in accented English, with an underlying chuckle that well sells the sudden absurdity of it.
"You're not just strong, Miu, you're a /good person/. I'm not sure I've ever admitted that to anyone before. I respect you. I wanted... to ask you to stand beside me, if we could reach a peace. Like Kazama and Kirishima, you're one of the few around here who deserve to be more than /led/. There's no shame in being a follower; so long as their leader respects them, and does what's in their best possible interest, but some of us are different. If we follow, we cause those above us to trip and stumble, we cause friction. We cause problems."
"So," she pivots on her heel, the chain jangling as it's dragged further away from Miu, coiling about one hip as Zaki drapes her arms about her toned midriff. It's not a defensive gesture, rather loose and casual. "Keep your brother safe, don't give yourself up, but work with me even if it's just this once. You can do that by staying out of my way, or we can go to Sunshine together. Heh," her chuckle is good-natured at that, the parallel between the American city name and the light of which they speak... it's fitting. "I can't agree to withdraw, but I can agree to rein my girls in. I've agreed to work with someone else already, to the same effect, to focus up and locate the source of all the shit that's been pouring our way. Abobo, that's the name."
A frown creases her brow, eyes narrowing as they once more blaze, savage and furious.
"If it's about one man, if that's truly it, we take him down together. Not for the Ladies' Team..."
"Not even for Seijyo, but for the good of the world and the safety of those we love. /Then/ I withdraw."
Clearing her throat, she draws up to her full, heel-aided height, almost ludicrous for a Japanese girl their age. Her chin lifts not with challenge so much as genuine pride and confidence. Aoi may have long ago assumed the mere mask of Zaki, but it's her now-- this bold, cruel creature, all spikes and chains. There's not a portion of her that isn't suffused with what it means to be that person.
"If that's not good enough, then I guess we fight. But you won't change me. Better fighters have failed."
If not better people, she silently adds, smiling unseen - with surprising warmth, beneath the mask.
COMBATSYS: Zaki takes no action.
Miu's capitulation had disappointed Mukai; he had thought it meant the girl's will crumbles, that she is unwilling to press on when things grow hard. The truth is different, of course. Miu really would sacrifice the entire world for the sake of her brother, if she had to. She wouldn't do it gladly, she wouldn't enjoy it, but when her mind is focused on her goal, she will obtain it. Her will cannot be turned aside by anything other than her own destruction.
"I could kill you."
She has recovered her composure at least. Some part of her, surprised that she allowed it to lapse as much as it did. The words are spoken in the same, mild tone that the first statements had been. Perhaps the troubles in Sunshine City are down to one man, but certainly Zaki *is* the heart and soul of the Ladies Team. If she killed her, it would end. That would not change Zaki, true, but it would undo her work.
Only... perhaps Zaki is right. Perhaps if Miu did that, she would herself become idolized by the bizarre cult that surrounds the girl. And she would have to look at herself in the mirror every day, knowing that she took the easy way out. That rather than work with the fierce and... unpalatable company that Zaki is, she chose to just kill because it got her to the end goal swifter.
If she had to kill Zaki to save her brother, yes, she would do that... but it is not necessary here. And she knows, in her heart, that Rose would not approve. Saiki, would not approve either. Strength does not make one *right*, and the fact that Zaki has acknowledge that she is in the right...
To open oneself is to make one vulnerable. Human beings are flawed, disappointing creatures whose failure to live up to expectations will always hurt, and whose selfishness, pride, greed and hate will always cut like a knife. But for all that Zaki is a prideful, powerful monster in her own right... Miu can look beyond that. It is strange to think that she is a good person. Unlike Zaki (as far as she knows), Miu really has killed. Deliberately, coldly, she executed Orochi cultists and would do it again in an instant. 'Good' is not something she would ever claim to be.
She steps forwards slowly, one foot placed in front of the other until she is standing just a few feet in front of Zaki. The psychic had been so certain that Zaki would force the issue - that her attempt to speak would end with fury and pain. All loud noise and spectacle that ultimately achieves nothing at all. It is a pleasant surprise to find that this is not the case. It is a tense few seconds, with Miu staring at Zaki, judging her next move carefully. Miu... never says a thing she does not mean, and she never makes an action she is not certain of. Once again, she moves in a surprising way.
"Then we go to Sunshine City."
And she bows. Because ultimately, to stand aside is not an option; the fallout from Sunshine City will inevitably touch Seijyun High if Zaki is defeated. Gangsters will need to make an example and the other schools would then seize on the opportunity to take advantage of momentary weakness.
But if it must be done, better that it be done quickly. If the Crow Girl moves with Zaki, this 'Abobo' will be dealt with swiftly, and with a minimum of fuss. Not to mention, the gangs of Sunshine City would likely find it much, much more difficult to deal with one Miu than a half dozen of Zaki's rabble.
'Good' is as relative a concept as its opposite number. Aoi doesn't consider murder to be beneath the actions of a righteous person, even though she may remain all talk in that regard. If lives can be taken to ensure that the worst happens, what matter if improving the situation - improving the world - requires a number of sacrifices in turn? She confessed to a family friend, an adult no less, that she'd take life if she had to. And that she considers her own forfeit. Untested this may be, but she believes in both statements. Her heart may be black - it may just be in a blackened cage - but with all of it, she keeps faith in her words.
At Miu's own statement, that she would slay the sukeban, were it necessary...
Zaki merely inclines her head in mute approval.
Tension continues to linger, it even worsens following that one-sided exchange. The tendril of chain still lying between them - if far closer to Zaki herself than to Miu - marks the line of conflict, but it marks also the point at which the scarlet-haired sukeban would insist on upping the ante. They've both been open, in their own ways; there's just a time that has to stop, when too much is given and the only answer is mutual comprehension or violence. They both know that, testing those limits as they match stares. Neither is willing to give any more: the question they're both asking is, do they need to? Has enough been said?
Life, for Aoi Himezaki, is a war. And the outcome of this battle is decided in the instant that Miu speaks.
The crow girl's rationale is apt, certainly; she's not wrong in the least. While the Ladies' Team may not be Seijyun, their link to the school through Zaki and a large number of her more immediate subordinates sets a beacon upon the building. It's why she leaves a number of her most trusted here, and why she returns often-- someone has to protect this place, for the sake of the students. She may not like being here, but in the bigger picture it's not a terrible place. Just one requires a slight adjustment in vision. One that needs her.
Miu's bow is reciprocated, though in the spirit of their nation's customary subtleties Aoi inclines her own body rather less. Honest as they may have been, there is still a game being played here. Zaki cannot relinquish her authority or she loses all effectiveness. Even in private, away from the prying eyes of the gang, such concessions cannot be made. An act worth acting is worth maintaining at all times, in all ways.
"I'm leaving at first light. We can't hide in the darkness for this one..."
They're businesslike, her words as she straightens and starts to turn away, presenting a quarter-profile to Miu as she turns her right foot out toward the aisle below. Her left heel remains partly lifted, the posture of one who has no intention of tarrying for long. Slowly, the chain winds back up into her sleeve, the left hand shifting in a slow figure eight to coil it back about her forearm. The tip begins to slip in as she smiles once more beneath the mask, this time a gleam reaching her eyes that doesn't lack her usual savagery... but it also contains something more. A promise. Even a concession, to Miu. Respect.
"But we can take it with us. Abobo has no idea what he's dealing with."
That said, Zaki takes her delayed step, and then springs to the floor with an heavy agility.
When she straightens to resume seamlessly stalking away, her back is already to Miu, but her voice echoes back.
"And if you develop further doubts, we fight them out. I'm not expecting you to bow to me again."
COMBATSYS: Zaki has left the fight here.
"I will be there."
How Miu intends to get to Sunshine City if she isn't going to go with Zaki is a question only she will have the answer to. Nobody will see her leave this theatre, and nobody will see her arrive in Sunshine City, either. Until she is there. These are games, no doubt. Miu doesn't care for the opinions of others, except in as far as they can be manipulated to keep them at bay. Her mysterious arrival will only add to the offputting rumors surrounding her.
Black magic? Dark pacts? That she is in fact the vengeful spirit of a poor girl who died at Seijyun years ago?!
Certainly more entertaining than the fact that she has sat upon millions of yen made in her fighting success and can afford to go out of her way to make her arrival just as mysterious as it needs to be.
"We will talk again after we have brought the night to Sunshine City."
Because there is more to discuss. Miu does not know all the factors in this. She does not know who Mukai is, why he cares about them, or what his purpose is in trying to provoke her. She does know his presence has unsettled her, and that ever since she has turned his words over in her mind, trying to see why and how she is being manipulated.
Nor does she know whether she believes the rot in Sunshine City will cease the corruption of Southtown. In fact, she knows she believes the opposite. That human nature will inevitably lead it to be corrupted and seek out corruption. But perhaps Zaki will be more amenable to discussion about that, after they have dealt with this immediate problem.
Right now, though, she has to make her exit. Just as Zaki has to make hers. With the promise of future violence between them...
The Crow Girl leaps up and back, dark feathers of energy swimming in front of her form, as she leaps her way into the rafters, and disappears.
Leaving everything in darkness and silence to return to the theatre of Seijyun High.
COMBATSYS: Miu has ended the fight here.
Log created on 07:18:10 05/28/2012 by Zaki, and last modified on 11:11:55 05/28/2012.