Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 12
Aint Got Time to Bleed; [Chika, Aleph, Yuka, Akio]
Topic Started: Oct 12 2013, 06:31 PM (2,213 Views)
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"Right..." Chika murmured, nodding quickly at Naoya's reassurance. "Right. We'll--work somethin' out. Thanks. I..."

But, no. She couldn't make him craft another ring; that had taken ten days before, and if her suspicion was right, that couldn't be--couldn't be good for him, no, she couldn't, she wouldn't. He needed to be able to rest. Ten straight days was too much. When Naoya squeezed her hand, Chika winced a bit--there was... too much pressure, but when she looked down, she noted he wasn't holding it very hard at all. Maybe it was just going to be sensitive for a little while...

...She held up her hand once he moved on, and flexed the fingers. Her skin felt strange--not tight or stretched, but she could feel her own movements more acutely than normal. Standing up, Chika walked over to her discarded sword. Another gift of Naoya's, destroyed. Destroyed by the Reaper, by her own uselessness and ineptitude. She hadn't been able to do anything. Nothing. Not a damned thing, and--

But as she bent to pick it up, the handle wrapping fell away partially, and Chika paused. The tang of the blade, it seemed to be unblemished. Daring to hope, she began to slip the blade out of its ruined sheath, and sure enough, there it was: Kizuna, still shining in the sunlight, not a speck of rust to be seen. She turned it over in her hand, and looked closely at the edge...

...Still sharp, although a bit worn now, seeing as she'd done some serious fighting with the blade for the first time. But Chika was nonplussed. How had her sword survived unharmed? Surely that wasn't part of the enhancement Naoya had put into it. And for that matter, her clothing hadn't been destroyed as thoroughly as Toru Motou's pant leg, either. She was grateful for that; humiliation on top of serious injury would have been a bit much.

"Naoya-san," she said, turning aside, gingerly holding her sword by the half-covered tang and the flat of its blade. There was less panic in her voice now, more relief. The sword at least had made it out. Some of Naoya's labor hadn't been wasted, then. "Kizuna doesn't seem to have been damaged at all. It's... perfectly fine, I think."

Toru, for his part, had nodded in quiet gratitude when Naoya moved to heal him, and shut the book, watching with a detached sort of interest as the Diarahan magic slowly reversed the whithering of his foot. It seemed to rot in reverse, in fact, smoothing out, coloring itself in, growing back into shape... and then he hissed, for as the foot regained life, it also regained feeling. The nerve endings regrew and pain came with it.

It was quite a lot of pain, but Toru still managed to look up when Akio addressed him. "Keep them?" he asked. "My dear boy, I wouldn't feel right. I can hold them for you, if you've no place for them, but whether it be by luck or skill, you've discovered something of great value to the rest of us. I think it should be you who has the honor of presenting this to the community, don't you?"

Toru managed a smile, even, in spite of the pain, and held the book out for Akio to reclaim. His smile faded into a wince, then, and he turned his eyes back to Naoya. The skin of Toru's foot and lower leg was coming back in discolored as well... this time, however, it was greyish-black.

"Naoya-san," the journalist said. "I think you might be interested to know that every denizen of this damned city may have been breathing in Shadow vapor for the past... several centuries, according to the memo Sakuraba-san here found. Interesting, no...? This Nakamura character calls it 'black stuff,' at any rate, and I can't think of any other substance that might fit the label."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TheGameFreak
Upupupupu~!
Aleph rubbed his head as the conversations went on. He didn't really hear anything aside from something about Shadows. What else could he make of it? Still, he had to do something to keep himself occupied in order to relieve the stress. Aleph got up and looked at everyone. The other man and Chika seemed to be back to normal now. Aleph and Yuka walked to where the other man and Naoya were.

"Hey, um." Aleph said, a slight stammer in his voice. "Are you and Chika-san going to be okay now?"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Czernobog
Member Avatar
Best Influence.
Naoya rubbed the back of his head, and kept his face studiously calm. This job had been too big for him. He should have let Kira or Isoroku or Kumori handle it. He had just half-fixed the damage, leaving Chika and Motou-san to suffer through the pain. He began to spiral through several different stages of anxiety, his brow drooping downward and his eyes growing more intense as he looked at the wounds.

Don't Doubt Your Abilities. You Did As Well As Any Of Them Could Have.

He breathed deeply. Krishna was right. He had begun to breach that barrier that lay between where he had been and where those healers were: he was bringing as much strength with him as they could have. The problem lay with the degree of the damage, not in the healing.

Chika brought Kizuna for him to look at, and he stared mutely at the blade as she explained that it hadn't been as severely damaged as she had thought.

"Even...even if 't gets wrecked, I think I could transfer th' core into another blade," he offered. "Still, 'm glad it ain't needed. I c'n fix th' hilt, no problem."

Then the journalist spoke, and Naoya turned to look at him.

"Eh? Oh, huh. That...that can't be good f'r th' breathin'."

He turned his attention back to the leg. The documents would still be there once everyone was relatively back to full health, he figured. Best to focus on the immediate. He suggested, "see if it'll support yer weight."

More than anything, he wanted to try to heal Chika's arm further, though he was unsure of how effective that would be. Chances were that the damage would only fade with time and proper healing. One had to be realistic: magic could only go so far.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
GKG
Member Avatar
when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
"Well..." Akio started, a bit surprised by Toru's question. He didn't attach much importance to the identity of who spread the news - it wouldn't change anything in the end, would it ? -, and wouldn't have minded the man posting the contents of the documents... However, he felt a bit too tired to start arguing. He merely took the book back, and nodded his head.

"...Yes. You are probably right." he said, stuffing the documents into his pocket - the young man was already starting to ponder the different places in his home in which he'd be able to hide them.

"I hope these will be valuable. They might help us put the contents of the other documents into perspective." he commented.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Nonsequitur
Member Avatar
Yellow Bubblegum
Maki returned heralded by the low hum of her cars engine as she parked it. At least no one had to stick around any longer than they felt necessary once the healing was taken care of.

The brief walk and drive did much to calm her nerves. That let her focus her mind better. The first thing she said when she returned was a question, directed towards Akio and Toru as soon as she stepped out of her vehicle.

"What, exactly does this found document curtail?"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
When Akio hesitated, Toru quirked an eyebrow. Nevertheless, he pushed himself up, as directed, and gingerly put weight on his foot. He couldn't... feel much, but he could stand without trouble, so that was something. Perhaps it would take more time to recover its sense of touch fully? And the discoloration was quite disturbing...

Hrm.

"Sakuraba-san, I am a journalist," he said shortly. "I would feel most uncouth taking credit for someone else's story. As for my leg, it seems to be well, Naoya-san. I will let you know if there are lasting complications, but I thank you for your aid. Now for the hard part, for you young people at least: going home, and pretending you haven't been battered half to death by monsters. I might recommend borrowing from clothes from friends if possible, in... Nakadachi-san's case at the very least."

The journalist sent a look toward Chika, who ducked her head a bit and turned away. Indeed, she would have a very hard time explaining her state of dress, but what about her--hand? She held it up and looked at it, frowning. After a few seconds she hit upon an idea: maybe if she covered it in bandages, and claimed to have put her hand in poison ivy? But, that would only work for a little while, so...

"I'll think of somethin'," muttered Chika, moving to gather the sword's damaged sheath--at the very least, it could be used to keep the blade covered for the time being. Maki returned, then, asking about the document. Toru looked her way, and frowned.

"The memo says--loosely paraphrased," the journalist began, "that the 'anomaly,' presumably that mentioned on the last document's cover sheet, is the 'black stuff.' It apparently has a number of remarkable effects, including 'spontaneous extropy,' whatever that is, and something to do with probability... and according to the memo, that same 'black stuff' is in the air here."

Toru waved a lazy hand to indicate the forest, and the city beyond.

"And has been, for however long Nagashima has been here. So, when someone asks if there is something in the air here that makes this place so odd? It may be that they are very literally correct."

Chika frowned to herself, but didn't speak. It was a troubling prospect... and it was a little disturbing to think that they all might be even now breathing in vaporized Shadow guts, but more of a problem, as she saw it, was the effect this... biohazard, there was no other word for it... must have been having on people in Nagashima. And if it effected not only their minds but had a strong pull on probability as well...

...

She couldn't think. There was something about that idea that stirred a deep, squirming hopelessness in her chest, but she couldn't identify what it was about. A frustration, a wonder if--if it was even possible to win. Or to fix the city.

...To fix the city...

"Let's just all... go," Chika said softly. "We can figure this other stuff out when we've had time t' pull ourselves together."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TheGameFreak
Upupupupu~!
Aleph and Yuka listened to the other man as he explained something about a few documents, a memo and some sort of day planner, said something about an 'anomaly' and 'spontaneous extropy'. But the one that that put them off the most was the part about Shadow vapor. Vaporized Shadow shit in the air? Aleph felt like he could vomit, and covered his mouth as a result.

Yuka nodded when she listened to Chika's words. "Yeah. Sounds like a good idea." Yuka said.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Czernobog
Member Avatar
Best Influence.
Naoya looked down, thinking about what the journalist was saying. He wasn't anywhere near as beat up as the others, but for some reason he was beginning to feel a bit dizzy. There was something about this whole situation that seemed odd, something about those words -- what was "extropy"? Was it something to do with "entropy"? -- seemed like they would be headache-inducing.

He shook his head

"Alright...uh...I'll see y'all later. Need t' get some fresh air, I think," then he glanced over at the boy who had found the document. "Good job on findin' a thing, Sakuraba-san. Hope it turns out t' be useful."

With that, the smith made a gesture that was half a wave good-bye and half a very lazy salute. He began to head down the path, but not before first glancing at Toru's leg and Chika's arm. His expression shifted towards embarrassment as he headed back down the path, toward town: even after breaking that final barrier he hadn't been able to heal their injuries. He understood that they were just that bad in the first place, but it felt like a too-apt metaphor for his dealings with both of them.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Mysterious Ruins · Next Topic »
Add Reply
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 12