Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
Aint Got Time to Bleed; [Chika, Aleph, Yuka, Akio]
Topic Started: Oct 12 2013, 06:31 PM (2,215 Views)
Nonsequitur
Member Avatar
Yellow Bubblegum
Flying, end over end. For the briefest instant, she was in total freefall. She didn't even have the moment to realize it before she was skidding shoulder first into the earth.

The terrain and surroundings were unfamiliar, but the important facts remained; Daylight. And with it, the leisure for Maki to fully appreciate that within the span of perhaps a half hour, Maki had escaped death by a hair's breath perhaps three times. The realization was…a bit humbling. To be shown time and time again just how fragile a person's life and body were.

And this was before she hoisted her exhausted, blood-soaked, sweat and dirt stained body up and looked around, only to find Chika and Toru in their own ways, mangled. She closed her eyes, and said nothing, talk of getting more skilled healers there from Bedlam were up. She was just deeply thankful they all survived that.

"Hmm? What did you find, Sakuraba-san?" Slowly, the policewoman climbed to her feet and then walked over to see just what he'd found from the ruins. Her own account of captivity by a Shadow seemed insignificant at that moment.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Chika didn't even hear Akio. As she sat up, the first thing on her mind was that her heart was hammering and her skin was drenched in sweat and her clothes were damp and she was cold and her left arm felt like tingles and tingles of hurt that she didn't even KNOW what to call. She was afraid to look; she knew her arm must have regenerated, but this pain lacked the feeling of air on skin. If she couldn't feel air on skin, she might not have skin.

She had made the right choice in keeping her arm out of the dirt, for reasons she'd had no inkling of a few seconds ago.

The redhead sat there, her breathing unsteady, and tried to muster the will to look down at her arm. But it wasn't courage that brought her eyes down; it was a wave of faintness. She felt her body swaying backwards, jerked it up, ducked her head and closed her eyes and tried to focus on breathing. When she opened them...

She saw her arm. Muscle. Meat. She could see bone, cartilage, everything but her fingers was in perfect working order. She flexed the nubs that had regrown of her fingerbones and watched with a horrified sort of wonder as the muscles did their work before her eyes, flexing and curling what there was of her hand into an incomplete fist.

It made her want to vomit. The most disturbing part was the lack of bleeding. Chika found herself frantically reaching for the ground with her right hand, pushing herself toward the rock wall beside the cave opening they'd escaped through. She pushed herself there and put her back to the wall, pulling the arm to her chest and clamping her eyes shut. Dimly, she'd heard the talk of putting out a call for a healer. She just had to bear with it. Just had to keep conscious and wait... as she did, though, she could feel the skinless part of her arm start to tingle. That was a feeling she recognized: her arm was falling asleep.

Well, of course. It wasn't bleeding because there wasn't any proper bloodflow...

Toru looked to Chika with some concern, feeling a bit of guilt for his haste to discard her earlier, although now, in retrospect, he understood what she'd been saying before. The porcelain mask appeared over Toru's face as he pushed himself up, and Raphael appeared, hovering toward Chika, extending its hand to cast Dia over her. That, at least, might sooth her some, and if she fell unconscious, he had Recarm.

More importantly, though...

It was awkward, but Toru managed to stand against the wall, balance himself on one foot, and slowly hop toward Akio. When he came into sight, the first thing he saw was the memo. He gave the book a curious glance, but the name S. Nakamura on the "from" line of the memo caught his eye. That name had been on the most recently-discovered document before this.

Toru almost stumbled and fell again in his haste to position himself to read the memo. When he did, his eyebrows rose about as close to his hairline as they would go, and he said, "You... could say that. Sakuraba-san, would you mind if I examine that book? I don't intend to steal your find away, of course--where did you find this, if I may ask...?"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TheGameFreak
Upupupupu~!
It didn't take long for Aleph to post the message onto the Blotter, neither did it take long for someone to respond. It seemed like Naoya was coming. Aleph had also explained the injuries suffered in the Blotter, after examining the other man and Chika. Nonetheless, they would probably have to wait for healing to come. Aleph sat on the ground as he tried to process everything that had happened.

He had almost died again, his sister along with a few other people also came close to death, not to mention Maki was captured briefly by a Shadow. God knows what happened to her during that. Everyone, including himself, only managed to escape all the madness with only a few relatively minor injuries. And now, here they were, catching their breath and looking over the damages.

Aleph curled into a ball and rested his face into his knees. It all just seemed too much to take in. He had escaped Death with the help of others twice, now of which people actually got hurt while escaping. Would it happen once more? Would someone die in front of Aleph's eyes that time?

Yuka stood and looked at the group, then ran her fingers through her hair as she sighed. Shit. To think that everyone in the group, including herself and her own brother, nearly got killed by some giant floating cloaked revolver Shadow thing. Who wouldn't be freaked out by all of that?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Czernobog
Member Avatar
Best Influence.
Naoya had started running as soon as he saw the message, and had stumbled trying to answer it, knocking over a trash can in the process. It wasn't that unusual for him to answer healing requests from the forge, so he knew the fastest way there, and dodging cars was easy so long as he remembered to cast Sukukaja on himself, so it wasn't like traffic gave him much trouble.

He wasn't even breathing that hard when he arrived, seeing bodies sprawled out in the dirt, near the place where he had been shredded not so long ago. There was Serizawa-san, and that woman who he had rightly guessed to be his sister; and officer Yamada, looking somewhat shaken but putting on a brave face; and a boy -- a first year, he thought he recalled, though he recalled only dimly -- standing transfixed by what he was reading; near him was Motou-san, his leg a mummified wreck, but apparently focused; and finally Chika.

Naoya's eyes were drawn to her immediately: her left arm was skinless and dangling, somehow still moving. A wilted, angelic persona hovered near her, pumping a watery flow of light into the red-haired girl. She looked pale, in shock. Naoya felt his own stomach tumbling end over end as he watched her. Hers was the most serious injury, he decided. He was going to handle it first.

He walked through the middle of the group, mutely, eyes fixed on her ruined arm.

Draw Upon Me.

He was going to, anyway.

Rip Away The Barriers. Drink Deeply.

He drew a deep breath, and began to feel dizzy. Light began to gather around his hands as he reached out toward her, and he felt more energy flowing thorugh himself than would be drawn by a simple diarama. The light -- soft and warm though it was -- was rather intense, and he reached out, left hand outstretched toward her, moving to take her hand and restore the skin to it. After that he would handle Motou-san's injury, and only then would he ask just what the hell had happened, because this looked like it had been serious.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
GKG
Member Avatar
when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
"Oh... yes, do go ahead." Akio replied a second too late to sound natural after Toru had made his inquiry, carefully handing the man the documents. He didn't seem all that bothered by the state of his foot and leg, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing - after he'd averted his eyes from this ghastly sight, the boy looked over to the rest of the group.

The Serizawa siblings seemed to be recovering from the shock, and Chika... Well, both the boy who'd just arrived and Toru were healing her, so she'd probably be alright - best not interfere with their works. Since Toru would be reading, he decided to turn towards Aleph and Yuka. "Are you two... alright ?" he asked, still a bit out of breath. He himself sat on the floor, looking up towards the sun.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Nonsequitur
Member Avatar
Yellow Bubblegum
Given how much had happened that day, it almost took Maki a moment to realize just what Akio had. A document. Another clue to just what had happened to even start these bizarre events. She was curious of course, but wasn't sure if she had it within her to examine it in detail just then.

Looking around, this was a scenario she was hoping to avoid when she insisted they leave, and left her to fend for herself. No, not quite. Thankfully everyone who'd went in came back out again. She also realized, this obviously was not the same entrance they had came in from. They had taken a quicker way that Motou had known of.

She oriented herself and walked away, only announcing, plainly. "I will retrieve my car, please be patient."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Toru took the old day planner in one hand, giving Akio a nod of thanks, and hopped a few paces away, leaning himself backward against the nearest tree and slowly edging down along it until he managed to find a comfortable sitting position. He gave his rotted foot a quick look, and then even more quickly, looked away. He wasn't sure why he couldn't feel any sensation at all from it, but that in itself might constitute worse news than simple agony. At the very least, he was thankful he could ignore it and focus on reading. Seeing that Naoya was on-task, Toru dismissed Raphael, letting the degenerating angel fade back into his psyche.

Then, propped open the book and began to read...

When Naoya arrived, Chika's head snapped up at the sound of his footsteps, and she made a quiet, barely-audible moaning sound. Of all the people to find her like this, it would be him, wouldn't it? The ring he'd made, the sword he'd made, the Reaper had claimed them both, his gifts to her, snatched away so casually. The outpouring of Diarahan magic forced her eyes shut again, as finger bones and finger muscles regrew themselves, completing the limb. Only then did skin begin to form. Chika kept her eyes averted upward, and focused on breathing. She felt thirsty. She needed water. He throat was dry, and the air passing through on the way down felt like an irritant.

The skin was forming, but it was the was wrong color. Instead of the familiar dark pigmentation that cloaked Chika's body everywhere else--including where the skin began to grow from--the skin that was now growing over her injured arm was sheet-white, beginning roughly at mid-forearm and continuing straight onto the fingertips. It was white, and dry to the touch. None of the small hairs that should have grown along that portion of arm reappeared along with the skin.

To distract herself from the feeling of flesh wrapping itself around fully-formed muscle, Chika began to mumble out an account of what had happened:

"Some weird Shadow took Officer Yamada-san hostage," she said, in a feverish-sounding voice. "We went t' get her back but, but other Shadows got in the way. We fought, we won. Motou-san showed up at the end and finished that pale one off... she--she was one o' the doctors who worked with my old therapist, Naoya-san, I'm sure sure was--she disappeared ages ago. We got back together with Yamada--Yamada-san, but--then the Reaper--we ran, I tripped, I put my hand on a wall. The wall got red hot, then worse than red, then it melted. My arm caught fire and Motou-san had t' cut it off t' save me, Naoya-san, I lost the ring, I lost the ring!"

The tone and pitch of Chika's voice rose with this horrible admittance, and her eyes sought out his, as if pleading for some kind of reassurance or forgiveness or maybe an answer to the age-old question of What am I going to do now? She looked down at her hand, then. The skin was back. The fingernails, however, weren't. Her fingers simply ended with vague fingernail-shaped nooks on the ends, nothing growing out of them... and they showed no signs of growing back.

"...I--the Reaper used a dark spell just before we got out," she said shakily. "It grew my arm back. Sorta... and it--got Motou-san's foot."

Toru, meanwhile, had read through the entirety of the day planner's added contents during this process, his own rotted foot propped up on his uninjured leg to keep it off of the ground. Every so often he could be heard to mutter something under his breath, such as: "Thermite, you say. Originality is truly dead, then," or "a Wild Card, I see, I see..." and then, "Elevator? Hm..."

Once he had finished with the 2010 entries, he began flipping through the other pages of the book, stopping only when he found the first week of April. But the tidbits there were far less interesting. Eventually, he looked up and said, "Well. I think we can say karma has paid us back a bit for such a long time with no progress. Were it only a little less costly to us. Will Nakadachi-san's arm be alright?"

The journalist looked to Naoya, hoping for a favorable answer, but from his current angle he could not clearly see the state of the girl's hand.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TheGameFreak
Upupupupu~!
Aleph raised his head as he heard Akio speak to him. All Aleph could try to do was smile to reassure Akio, despite everything that had happened thus far.

"Y-y-yeah, I-I'm...I'm fine." Aleph said, then returned his head to his knees.

"Yeah, I'm fine too." Yuka said, smiling slightly. She was still alive after all. Nevermind the fact that she and Aleph nearly got killed by a giant floating Death-like figure thing.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Czernobog
Member Avatar
Best Influence.
So they had found a document. Naoya ignored the discussion, focused instead on the task before him. He ran his left hand over the skinless arm, leaving unbroken -- if not completely healed -- flesh where he touched her. Seeing the state of Chika's arm, he felt a twinge of panic: was he not strong enough to put it back in order? He poured more energy through his hands, trying to overcome the limitations inherent in the method.

As he did, he felt himself growing more dizzy, so he spread his stance and continued. He didn't meet Chika's eyes, focused, instead, on her hand. He vaguely heard the journalist ask a question.

"It's okay," he said, his voice a low croak. "We'll work something out. We'll fix it. Just breathe, okay? Y' ain't got no reason t' panic. Trust me."

After a moment, he stopped the flow. He was at his limits and, even if he thought he could crack through them, he knew that the attempt would lay him out and might not be successful. He had been hoping, at least, to get her fingernails back. He gave her hand what he hoped was a comforting squeeze, noting that it was as dry as his own skin.

"I hope it doesn't hurt...let me see t' Motou-san, 'n' I'll...uh...I'll try again."

He headed over to where the journalist was seated, and knelt by the man's leg.

"Extend 't 'n' relax th' muscles 's much's y' can, please," Naoya said, summoning up the glow of the diarahan again, and preparing to take the withered ruin of the older man's lower limb and press life back into it.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
GKG
Member Avatar
when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
Akio didn't have much to do - no healing spells or anything of the sort meant that he was reduced to being a sitting duck until everyone was ready to go. He wiped some sweat off his forehead, and was slightly surprised that the sweat was somewhat red on the back of his hand - then he remembered that he hadn't properly washed his face after getting cut across the forehead.

He couldn't show himself like this at home - at the same time, complaining about some blood on his face when people around him had gotten gruesomely injured would have been more than a little inappropriate. "Do you wish to keep these documents ? I live with my mother and my brother. It would spare me the trouble of having to hide them." he asked, turning towards Toru. There was a small itching in his mind, a primal and irrational one, that told him you found it, this should be yours, but he pushed it away.

Besides, he wasn't too hot with the idea of hiding even more to his family.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Enjoy forums? Start your own community for free.
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Mysterious Ruins · Next Topic »
Add Reply