damned_institute | Nightshift 32: Sun Room

Feeling absolutely useless, Harry watched as the short girl got between Peter and the knight, distracting their opponent and giving Peter the chance to try and knock the woman to the ground. Determined to actually do something useful, he remained back out of arms range - not that that would necessarily make a difference - but close enough to move if an opening presented itself.

Even if Peter only managed to throw her off balance, he should be able to shove her to the ground and from there he was sure he'd have no trouble keeping her pinned. Really, he was surprised the two of them were having such trouble with one lousy lunatic with a sword. Peter had said something about being affected by this place, so maybe that was the reason? Either way, he'd had about enough of this and was more than ready to put an end to it.

Momo knew getting locked into a strength contest with Signum wasn't going to be in her favor. She had the advantage, albeit very tiny under the circumstances, when it came to quickness and flexibility. The man behind her moved and the shinigami thought for a moment about grabbing the knight's swordarm, just as Signum had done to hers, but her friend's strength and the current serpentine form of Laevateinn dissuaded her from that particular action.

She hated her other option - hated it.

"I'm sorry," she said to Signum as she moved, sincerity in her voice and a tear forming in the corner of her. Pushing against Signum's grip on her arm, as if she was going to fight the knight's superior strength, Momo then released her katana and caught it in her left hand.

She slashed down at the exposed flesh on Signum's thigh, bladed edge no longer held back, at the same time she grappled the knight's wrist, locking their arms, pivoting to move underneath the knight's arm in an attempt to twist Signum's arm behind her back.

Momo didn't expect to be able to twist Signum's arm, but she thought it might cause just enough of an unbalancing of her friend that the oddly dressed man's attack would succeed and give the man laying in wait an opportunity.

I'm so sorry...

The same trick she'd used against Wesker just a few minutes ago, Signum recognized as the weapon left her opponent's trapped hand. But she was experienced in armored fighting and rather than try to escape the blow she moved into it, keeping them too close to properly swing the sword and stopping the slash on one of her tassets.

Unfortunately it seemed like the other two had finally figured out how to make a coordinated attack, because they hit her immediately afterwards, one coming in low and the other high. She stood her ground, expecting the two weaponless men to just bounce off of her, but apparently her armor's weight had declined along with its durability and she wasn't nearly as stable as she was used to being. Her feet left the ground... and didn't return, as they and the rest of her instead of falling to the ground shot up towards the ceiling above, where they came to rest in a motionless hover.

The knight stared down at the three, frowning, as she burned the webbing off of her sword arm. The small one's face, when she'd tried to cut Signum... it had shown what Signum herself had felt that night a decade past when she'd resolved to kill Testarossa. It was out of place. Everything here felt off. These weren't just smugglers.

Laevatein retracted, its blade snapping back into a proper sword, and she leveled it at Momo. "What are you trying to do here? What do you think you have to gain by fighting me?"

When his legs met nothing at all, Peter wasn't sure what to think at first. Had she really dodged that quickly? It didn't take him long to realize what had happened, as hard as it was to believe. She was floating? How was that even possible? It wasn't like she had a hoverboard, nothing was holding her up -- she was somehow just suspended in the air.

While he was struck motionless for a moment, the delay wasn't too long. Peter quickly jumped back to his feet. His shoulder was throbbing slightly, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.

Glad to see Harry was all right, he quickly moved to his friend's side. There was obviously something going on between the two girls, and it was something he and Harry weren't a part of. He wasn't sure if it might be better to leave after all, especially considering that their attacks weren't doing much damage.

"What do you think we should do?" he asked Harry with a small sigh. "At this point I feel like we're just getting in the way."

Gaping a moment at the woman floating casually in mid-air holding a conversation, it took Harry a second to notice Peter had moved and was now out of sight. Swinging around wildly, he quickly realised Peter had just moved closer to him and had been standing in his blind spot.

Looking his friend over for any injury, Harry nodded in agreement with Peter's comment. This was feeling more and more like a private affair that they'd gatecrashed.

"I get the feeling they have something going on here and they don't seem about to hurt each other. Can't really say the same for us if we stick around, so how about we get on with that tour you mentioned?"

It felt a little callous to suggest leaving the two women to duke it out, but they really didn't seem to want to hurt each other. His main concern was looking out for Peter and himself and if that meant leaving them to it, well he wasn't going to get worked up about it. He was more surprised that Peter had suggested leaving, Harry hadn't expected Peter's conscience to accept running away while other people could maybe get hurt. But, hey, if he had started to take better care of himself Harry was going to be the last person complaining.

In a way, Momo was relieved when she felt and heard the blade of her sword connect with the metal of Signum's armor and not cut into flesh. She didn't want to hurt her friend, but the circumstances warranted such an attack and there was no way she'd been able to turn the blade in time given the close quarters. As the knight hovered up in the air, out of reach, the shinigami took several measured steps to the side, away from the two men.

Stopping in a defensive stance, Momo watched Signum as her friend reformed Laevatein and then focused upon her. The shinigami was silent a moment before answering.

"I don't want to fight you, Signum - not like this," she said, a heavy weight in her voice. "But I have to. I have my duty; you know that. I have to protect the humans. And..." Momo's voice broke a little. "And right now... you're a threat to them, because this place... this damned place... got to you. Somehow."

The tear that had gathered in the corner of her eye finally fell, sliding down the shinigami's cheek. She hated this place so much for making her fight a friend... again.

"The Bureau is committed to the rehabilitation of criminals. Those who commit their crimes in ignorance and who seek to make amends will suffer only slight and temporary diminishments of their freedom; that is all I threaten them with if they do not resist," Signum countered, voice calm but forceful. Even having said that, though, the knight was a creature of duty herself and wouldn't insult anyone determined to do theirs by attempting to dissuade them from it. She might be a glorified cop now, but in her bones Signum was still a Belkan knight and still believed in the old ways. "If your duty does not permit that you submit them to even that, I will fight you in earnest."

'Not a threat; a promise' would have been the applicable one-liner. After all, there were times when the only polite thing to do was to beat someone senseless.

It did feel strange for him to be considering this, but this situation wasn't exactly the norm for him. Usually the people he was saving didn't know how to take care of themselves, for one thing. They tended to be civilians caught up in the rampage of some madman. In this case, both of the girls had fighting ability, and they weren't even doing all that much of it. They were talking more than anything, and when they did try to strike each other, it was not with killing intent.

Besides, it wasn't fair for him to drag Harry into something like this. That moment earlier when his friend had been willing to throw himself into the line of danger for him yet again reminded him of that.

"All right, yeah," Peter said, keeping his voice down as he started to move to the door that would take them into the cafeteria. The brainwashed patient seemed distracted for the moment, so maybe she wouldn't catch their attempt to remove themselves from the fight. On the other hand, these patients were usually meant to keep the others from making any progress, so there was no telling if she would let them go so easily.

Maybe if they just moved quietly, it would be all right...

Relieved by Peter's easy acquiescence, Harry tossed back a final glance at the combatants. Both still seemed too wrapped up in each other to care about them. Satisfied that neither one seemed about to try and stab them in the back, he quickly headed over to the door Peter had indicated.

Reaching out, Harry didn't even think that there might be another threat waiting on the other side until he'd already pushed it open. Figuring it was best he confront any possible threat first anyway, he quickly stepped through into the cafeteria.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/374142.html?thread=30401662#t30401662)]

"Only threat?!" Momo exclaimed. "You know as well as I do that none of them will 'surrender' for crimes they have not committed. For goodness sake, Signum, you cut off a human's hand! One of those you'd dedicated yourself while here, in this place, to protecting... an ally, as not more than a few hours ago you were a prisoner here just like the rest of us." The shinigami shifted her stance a little, repositioning her weight as she noticed the two men move and thankfully leave. "Just like me."

Now that the humans directly engaged in this confrontation were gone, Momo was able to focus more on the knight and not worry about protecting them. Signum's words left the shinigami little choice as to the direction this was all heading and she could not really find a way to prevent it. The subject of Hayate was such a delicate subject in these circumstances, that Momo didn't want to risk Signum's dedication to her liege backfiring on her.

"The orders you have been given are false," the shinigami stated as another tear slid down her face. "You've been coerced by magic or something similar by Martin Landel and his subordinates. Somewhere inside, you know this is true. I believe you are stronger than that magic."

She shifted her stance to waki gamae, sword pointed down and back. "But if you will not stand down and remember who you are, I will not allow you to continue as you have. I do not want to fight a friend, but my duty, to them and to you, shall not waver," she said, her gaze and words even.

"Do not presume to tell me my duty. If you've resolved to face me, that is all you need to do." Signum descended as she spoke; the time for talk was clearly over. The whole situation felt a little odd, but Momo sounded like some rambling conspiracy theorist to her. You couldn't just control someone's mind or perception with magic, and something like brainwashing would take a lot of time and effort.

The second she was on her feet again she charged, then sidestepped at the last second, trying to draw out Momo's sword so she could break it properly. Her opponent's attitude wasn't bad, but she wasn't a mage so there wasn't much point in trying to draw this out. Better to just give her a taste of reality.

"I am sorry, Signum-kun," Momo replied as the knight to returned to the floor.

As her friend charged at her, the shinigami calmly stood her ground. The point of her current stance was for her opponent to make the first attack and for her to react off of it, so when Signum sidestepped, Momo stepped the opposite direction, keeping the knight before her. She darted forward, attempting to get within the knight's reach, and brought her sword up in a quick rising cut.

Signum was taller than her, stronger than her, had a superior reach and a sword that could take the serpent form; it was almost like she was fighting Renji. Thank goodness for all those years of training with him...

So she was good enough not to be baited into attacking prematurely like that. An instantaneous victory would have had its merits, of course- there was work to be done- but it was nice to know she hadn't bothered with a one-on-one duel with a total amateur.

Signum lowered rather than swung Laevatein, and it stopped Momo's katana close to her body. Her free hand met the back of the blade and she pushed out, shoving her opponent back to a more suitable range, then made her first real attack, a wide one-armed swing with a force behind it few weapons or defenses could withstand.

When Signum's blade stopped her own and the knight put her other hand to the blade, Momo immediately began disengaging her blade. It was the only reason she stayed on her feet when Signum shoved her back, albeit a bit off balance.

The shinigami jumped back to avoid the strike but she wasn't quite fast enough, the tip of Laevatein cutting through her uniform and biting into the flesh of her midsection. It wasn't deep enough for Momo to worry yet, but she could feel the hot wash of blood running from the wound. First blood...

As the knight's sword cleared her body, Momo brought her sword up over the larger blade and then snapped it down to hit the backside of Laevatein, putting even more momentum into the knight's blade in an attempt to force the swing past its expected recovery point. She then stepped to the left, once again moving inside the knight's reach, and thrust her katana forward in an attempt to pierce Signum's body while the woman's larger blade was still moving away.

You couldn't really call it a mistake; the girl was right to try to stay inside her reach and to try to attack her back coming out of an extended swing, but she'd tried to close too wide a gap in one motion, and it was all the opportunity Signum needed. She didn't bother trying to reverse the swing, just spun around in a full circle and made a second strike immediately, her sword splitting her opponent's like so much more air.

Her left hand came up off the hilt as she recovered. Crimson flames gathered in her palm, compressing until they glowed near-white, then leaped into the space between the two combatants and detonated, sending out a violently-expanding wall of scorching air. Only a tiny fraction of the spell's real power, especially when Agito was behind it as well, but enough, she hoped, to both keep the girl from trying to follow through on the attack and drive home for her the level of advantage Signum's magic gave her.

Momo hadn't thought Signum would adapt so quickly and she sighed heavily as the knight's sword cut straight through her katana. In all honesty, she'd expected it to happen at some point as Laevatein was quite a superior weapon. Couple that with the tremendous strength the knight had and any ordinary sword would have met the same fate. She just thought it wouldn't have happened so soon.

Then again, it was a sound tactic. From what Momo could tell, since Signum didn't recognize her nor what she was, the knight probably didn't realize she had kidou at her disposal. When faced against an opponent armed solely with a weapon, remove the weapon and your opponent is at a loss. At least Momo still had half her sword which was better than nothing.

It appeared as if Signum wanted stick a bit of emphasis on Momo's apparent defeat by using her fire magic. Signum didn't know much about Tobiume, the firebird that was the other part of the shinigami's soul, so the knight wasn't aware that the nature of her spell would not phase her. Momo had a pretty good idea what was going to happen, so she stood her ground, bringing one arm up to partially shield her face from the flames and, consequently, her mouth from the knight as she began to recite the incantations needed. The timing had to be right.

Whether or not the dull pink glow could be seen through the light given off from Signum's spell, the shinigami couldn't tell, nor did she care. Once Signum's spell died down enough that Momo felt she could get through it without getting too hurt, she charged the knight. Alternating the lines of the very brief incantations, Momo had to resort to kidou at the loss of her sword and, being as talented in the demon arts as she was, weaving two spells together was child's play.

"BakudoSai! HadouShou!" The two spells fired off in rapid succession at the knight as Momo beared down upon her from the effects of Signum's own spell.

The first was a binding spell that locked an opponents arms behind their back and the second was a destructive spell that simply forced an opponent backwards. Both were the very basics of both kinds of spells, making their linkage easy, and Momo didn't expect the binding spell to do more than momentarily distract the knight given she was more than strong enough to break out of the bind once she figured out what was going on. The real point of this was the destructive spell, meant to surprise Signum and perhaps even knock her off-balance just enough...

As the reiatsu from the spells left her, Momo continued to bear down on Signum, remnants of her sword ready to take advantage of the kidou and keep the knight focused on her and not the humans about. Unfortunately, she didn't close the gap before the backlash hit her. Her vision swam and she stumbled, dropping down to a knee as she gasped for air, blood beginning to drip from her nose. Thankfully they were both basic spells, but what bad timing. Tensing, the shinigami forced herself to focus, trying see where Signum's next attack was coming from.

"Where...?"

It didn't go as Momo had planned, but better in its own way. The attack spell was nothing to Signum; she simply willed into existence barriers that dispersed most of its power, and it was only due to the weakness of her defenses here that the force of the impact drove her back a step. It was instead the bind, totally like the equivalent magic of her own world, that overcame her. A creation of the Book of Darkness and a creature of magic as well as flesh and blood, she could better accept the idea and react to the feeling of having the spirit itself attacked by an enemy's magic than most mages, but the effect was still alien in its structure and hard to fight.

Her left hand locked behind her back almost instantly; the right, holding her sword, resisted and remained at her side- it was not for nothing that the knights of Old Belka called their weapons the embodiments of their faith- but nonetheless still and useless for attack. There was only one option left to her, and she took it immediately, recognizing that this unknown magic had suddenly made the outcome of the fight uncertain.

"Laevatein," she called to her weapon, and as it had with Wesker it acted according to her will alone, blade darting out towards the shinigami. She aimed off-center, still trying to avoid a lethal blow, but the care that had gone into making her earlier strikes unlikely to kill even an opponent who reacted foolishly was gone. Not a fight to the death, but this was certainly a real duel, now...

Momo was expecting to see Signum above her, swinging that magnificent sword down at her while in her vulnerable state. What she didn't expect was to feel the bind actually take hold. Momo blinked her eyes in momentary surprise before finding the knight right where she'd been when she cast the twin spells. Maybe she had a better chance at containing Signum than she'd originally thought she had.

"Signum," the shinigami said, trying to get the knight's attention so she could talk to her. Her thoughts had to be put on hold, though, when somehow the knight still managed to use the serpent aspect of her sword. The blade shot out at her and Momo reacted, recalling her past experiences and training, pushing herself up off the ground and tumbling to the side away from the stabbing point of the blade.

Landing on her feet, Momo coughed a little as she felt the knight's spiritual strength struggle against the bind. So far Signum didn't know how to utilize it well enough to unravel the reiatsu binding her, but how long it would take her to do so was unknown to Momo.

"Do you still not recall who or what I am, Wolkenritter?"

It was still too early to talk. Laevatein's blade kept extending, changing angle slightly as it pierced the far wall, and a wave in the sword followed its point, aimed to smash Momo backwards while she was still recovering from roll and vulnerable, knock her out or at least drive her back and buy Signum time. Momo had gained more than she had thought to, but not terribly much. Signum had faced a huge variety of magic over he centuries of combat, and though she lacked her creator's frightening ability to subvert all restraints she had perhaps been imbued with a small measure of its adaptability. Her experiences were not directly applicable but they had increased her ability to fight against the unknown intuitively, seek weakness to strike against even when all but blind.

But... to have unknown magic, to ask if Signum knew what she was, to use that secret name... could she be an opponent from the past, a creation of some world the Book, and she with it, had visited in one of their countless doomed lives?

If she was it would doubtless make for an interesting conversation when all of this was over, but such a fantastic thought did not shake Signum's resolve. The girl had insisted on this fight, and Signum intended to win. Even now her arms began to edge away from her body, as the strength of an immortal existence and Momo's present weakness began to tell.

No response seemed forthcoming from Signum and it saddened Momo even more than she already was. She wondered if this was the time to mention Hayate or not when the traveling bend in Laevatein's segments caught her off-guard. She had but a moment to react and, her left hand gripping near the broken end of her blade, tried to block it. The metal impacted her sword, but the broken sword was so unbalanced now that the shinigami could not control the force. As she tried to keep it at bay, the still moving segments caused her overcompensation to be a mistake as the force wrenched the end of broken blade out of her left hand.

Snap.

The sound of her left wrist breaking seemed really loud to Momo and she cried out in pain. Ouch, ouch, ouch! Damnit. Now what will I-- Angry that this damned place was continuing to suppress Signum's memories and in more pain than she cared to be as she didn't have time to try and set the break, Momo narrowed her eyes at the knight. She didn't want to, but she had to. She had to attack her, deal a debilitating blow while she still had the knight in the bind, a bind that seemed to be weakening along with Momo's own strength.

"Damnit, Signum," Momo said, closing the distance between them. "You are stronger than Martin Landel's magic. Remember who you are. Remember that your rightful master is Yagami Hayate and not the one that gave you these orders. You know, deep in your heart, this is not what Hayate-tono would want you to do."

Tears of sorrow, not pain, fell from Momo's eyes as she stopped before the knight. "I am sorry, my friend," she said in a quiet voice, "but I must do what I must." The shinigami then took advantage of the remainder of the bind to stab Signum in the side with her broken katana, not deep enough to kill, but deep enough to seriously hamper the knight, every fiber of Momo's being screaming out at her for drawing her friend's blood.

"You are stronger than this place, my friend," she whispered as she felt the bind break, knowing she couldn't defend herself against retaliation. I trust you, Signum.

"All of this is in her name," Signum called back, struggling against the bind. Her opponent had plainly been injured, but not repelled. Still, it would have to be enough. She could break free, end this-

But she didn't make it in time, arms breaking free just as shinigami struck her, too late to deflect the blow. She felt strangely calm, for being stabbed by someone invoking her master's name, calling her to her duty even as they tried to end it. For one known for her fierceness in battle. It should have made her angry, but...

For all her words sounded like some desperate attempt to instill doubt, Signum somehow felt that she had been honest in whatever confusion gripped her. That, and she could tell the fight was over. The wound the girl had given her was insufficient to stop one of Signum's nature, and her opponent was obviously spent.

Her hand closed around the other's, safeguard against any attempt to widen the wound. She could survive a lot more than a human, but that didn't make her like doing so. She forced the hand back and the weapon from her body, then drove her elbow into Momo's torso and stepped back, taking what was left of the katana with her.

"Your duty is done," she said. "Stay there and sleep for a while." There would be plenty of time for questions later, she was sure...

Momo had failed. The magic Martin Landel employed to brainwash the patients was very strong if using Hayate's name had no effect on Signum. The things Momo could tell she felt for her master when the knight talked about her had given the shinigami hope, but it wasn't powerful enough. Or was it?

She'd expected, knowing she'd failed, Signum to draw her blade back in and cut the shinigami down or something to that effect. That didn't happen, though, and there was something in the knight's eyes when she pulled out the broken sword from her side that lightened Momo's despair at her failure.

She was tired and didn't want to fight her friend anymore. She could still use Hakufuku, but... there was something about using that particular spell on Signum, especially now, that bothered her more than drawing the knight's blood had. Pain flared through her when the knight's elbow impacted the wound on her torso, tearing it wider, and the shinigami gasped. Her vision swam and, as the darkness started to take her over, reached a hand out toward Signum.

"I'm sorry..." The darkness engulfed the small shinigami and she collapsed.

Nightshift 32: Sun Room

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject