damned_institute | Night 47: Main Hallway, 2-Center

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Night 47: Main Hallway, 2-Center

[from here]

It was times like this he had to wonder if he was the only damn person in this place who still cared about finding the fastest way home possible. Which probably wasn't true, but hell. Seeing as the only people he'd worked with so far had 'stealing books' as a goal or were setting up training nights, it was no damn wonder he was feeling more than a little pissed off about the whole thing.

But really, what it all boiled down to, everything that had been bothering him so far, was one simple fact. Raphael was homesick. He knew it too, would have been an idiot not to. He missed the city, the rumble of the subway felt distantly through the walls of their home, sneaking out for late night training sessions with his brothers where they ran across the rooftops playing tag or follow the leader. He missed the nights they'd spend drinking cocoa at April's place, talking all about the things they'd seen and done. But most of all he missed his family. He missed how Leo always had a plan of action and Donny had the tools for the job, while Mikey could keep things light and not too serious. Hell, he even missed Mikey's jokes and how often he talked about that stupid Battle Nexus trophy he'd won. But he didn't know where his brothers were or if they were even alive at all, if they'd been brought here as well and turned into something they weren't or if Karai had destroyed his family as well as his home.

It was the not knowing that hurt the worst, and Raphael had never been good at dealing with that kind of frustration. It made him want to find something, anything really, and just hit it. And keep on hitting it until things started making sense again or he came up with a way to actually leave this place or something.

And somehow he didn't think this little training session was going to help much there.

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Raphael froze as something moved up there, finally shaking him out of the thoughts that had chased themselves around and around his head since he'd left his room and making him think back to the few vague mentions of monsters he'd heard around the place. He hadn't really run into any of those things himself, but he knew better than most not to think that meant anything.

A soft moaning noise came from the indistinct shape, as well as a strange rustling noise that may have been the sound of people whispering just at the edge of his hearing. Whatever was causing the noise, it made his spine itch and the hair on the back of his neck stand up - which wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, considering he'd never had hair before. He shifted slightly into a more defensive stance when a red glow filled the area, illuminating in grisley detail the swords, the girl, the blood...

"Holy shit," he breathed, his eyes widening at the sight. There was no damn way anyone could survive that kind of damage, and it had to be some kind of miracle that the girl was even still alive at this point, though Raph knew from experience that with those injuries she wouldn't be for very long. As much as he hated having to do so, he forced himself to look away from those eyes and focussed on the swords instead. Whatever had done this to her had to be stopped, before it claimed any more--

"HIMEMIYA!"

Shit, someone who obviously knew the girl was here, and by the looks of it willing to just leap in without realising that by this point it was pretty much a lost cause. She had a sword, which was something at least, but against floating weapons? Even Raph knew diving in head first would probably end up with you being headless.

"Whoa, lady! Wait!" He made a grab for her in the hopes of stopping her from doing anything stupid, but with how worked up she seemed to be, he wasn't sure if that'd be enough even if he did manage to catch her in time.

As instruments, the swords were simple, medium-length blades, but their numbers made it seem like there were hundreds. The ones not able to find a place to stab at Anthy instead swirled furiously in a circle about the center of the Sun Room halls. Anthy was the point at which they revolved, but they were possessed by and made alive by human-like qualities. The whispering did not stop.

"Witch," they hissed again, jostling about the bloodied girl. She should have been dead, but Anthy merely bled and twitched in place -- her eyes widened almost imperceptibly when a familiar face appeared and called out her name. Everything froze as an eerie quiet replaced the rustle of movement from the swords flying about.

More blades repositioned to point at the pair of patients. The strange red glow suddenly dimmed in intensity and spread about all four halls; when four swords zipped directly at the human targets, two for each, their rapid movements were a bit shrouded by a decrease in visibility, but they glimmered in the dim light and could be heard whipping through the air.

They aimed to stab at any part of the patients that could be reached, flying over the rails. Anthy swayed in the background and whimpered softly, her shadow stretching out of sync with her actual form. It crept around the back by the Chapel and then disentangled from the wall as a tangible being, impossible as it seemed, gurgling into existence like a living ink-spot. On hands and knees it crawled up the hallway to the left, still vaguely person-shaped and moving slowly.

It appeared to move towards Utena.

A stranger caught Utena's arm before she could move forward. She struggled against the grip fiercely, the light from her flashlight dancing wildly across the metal surfaces of the swords. "Let go! She's still alive! I need to save her!" Utena protested.

She broke away from the man's grip, but not before the swords had chosen their targets. Slowed by her struggle with the dark-haired man, she didn't see the first blade until it was too close to dodge. It was aiming for her left breast, where a rose might normally sit in a duel. "Hhuh!" Utena twisted her body away as far as she could, pulling her chest out of the blade's path. Still hungry for blood, the sword sliced across the underside of her upper arm instead. Utena grunted in pain and gritted her teeth. The cut wasn't deep, but a thin line of blood did appear, dripping out of the fresh tear in her jacket sleeve.

The second blade was coming up behind its twin fast, headed for her ribcage. Utena raised her sword instinctively and shone her flashlight straight ahead, revealing the weapon's path more clearly. "Haah!" With a strong, practiced swipe, she parried downward, sending the sword flying toward the lower wall behind her. She watched for the other blades and made another swipe quickly, hoping to catch at least one of the ones headed the stranger's way.

With her flashlight and attention pointed elsewhere, the shadow would have an easy time of it getting closer to Utena.

Edited 2010-02-12 04:55 (UTC)

He thought he'd have a chance to try and talk some sense into the girl when he caught her arm, explain that as much as it hurt there was just no way in hell that anyone could survive that kind of torture, but the wildly swinging flashlight beam caught Raphael full in the face for a second, dazzling him enough that his grip loosened and she broke away.

It also meant that his vision was shot to hell until his eyes readjusted and he stopped seeing huge spots over everything, which might not have been so much of a problem if it weren't for the swords flying towards them.

Great. Just freakin' perfect luck he was having, momentarily blinded while impending doom flew towards him and he was only armed with a couple of broken chair legs and not much else. He'd dropped his pillow case when the girl had dashed in as well, so he couldn't even try and use that to deflect the blades either.

Focus! For once in your damn life try and do that! You've been like this before and done okay, and we did all those stupid blindfolded training sessions for a reason. Time to prove you can use that!

There was a hiss of air to his right and a flicker of something rushing towards him, which was all Raphael needed to throw himself into a neat flip to his left and hopefully clear of the blade. He sure hoped they didn't come back from behind though. The clang of metal on metal and the girl's yell distracted him for a moment as he automatically tried to check if she was doing okay despite his blurry vision, which meant he missed noticing the second sword (or maybe it was the same from before? It was hard to tell) slipping under his guard to nick the outside of his thigh.

The pain brought him back to what was important right now, and Raphael jumped back, blinking in an effort to help his eyes clear faster and so he didn't end up making any more mistakes that might cost him a little more than some minor pain.

"Where the hell are these things coming from?" he shouted in frustration.

[OOC: Just as a note, I'm gonna have to call slow posting for the rest of they day. ;A; Utena-mun knows about my IRL move and it's striking again, so I'll probably be gone until the night. I'll definitely try to get in a post before sleep though if my turn comes up again. ♥]

The blades were quick and zipped forward in straight lines, and as such, the ones which managed to nick their targets (and the single one that did not manage) flew on instead of veering around and lodged into the wall with distinct thuds. Utena parried the last sword low and it veered towards the ground, clanging across the floor and falling lifeless.

Once bested or dodged, they appeared to cease moving. Of course, there were many left that floated overhead, swirling around Anthy's frame and whispering endlessly, furiously. The continued presence of Raphael and Utena seemed to annoy them further; forcing patients to turn back without killing them was the goal of the evening. Stubborn patients.

Anthy's shadow left a trail of black sludge in its wake, its limbs drawing back and forth with spastic motions as it drew closer. It stood when it reached the intersection of the two hallways and it flickered in and out of vision just once.

There was a short pause before spikes, inky and vague as an extension of the shadow, burst from its frame with a sickening, loud squelch that resounded through the halls. Spikes that stuck out at every angle but did not impede movement, so the shadow flickered over to a sword in the back wall and drew it out by the hilt, still human-like in form.

It skulked closer to the pair. Anthy watched soundlessly.

The stranger seemed about as able to handle a fight as she was; good, she wouldn't have to worry so much about defending him if more swords came at them. As well, for now, the blades that had just attacked them seemed to have turned lifeless once more. How long they would stay that way, she didn't know.

Utena shook her head after the man spoke, watching for any more attacks. "I have no idea. I've never . . ." She had been about to say that she had never seen anything like this before. Again, however, something flickered in her mind. She saw the same sight, the same red glow, only the victim was smaller, perhaps. The image was blurred in her mind, but the agony was even more clear than it was now. A young, male voice spoke in her mind, as though she were hearing it through muffled behind a thick, heavy door. Or a coffin lid.

It is her punishment . . . She can no longer be saved.

And just as before, the moment Utena tried to focus harder on the faint memory, it dissipated into darkness once more. The macabre reality in front of her snatched her focus away, as did her refusal to leave her friend to her fate. "Anyway, I don't know. But I'm not going to let these things keep hurting Himemiya!"

It was then that the movement of the shadows near the intersection between the center hall and the left balcony caught her eye. In the dim light of the red glow, she could make out a human-like shape creeping their way. It looked like Himemiya. That was, at least until the thing squeezed out spikes with the sound of bursting flesh and squelching tar. Even Utena, a supposed brave prince, had to force her legs to stop shaking. She raised her sword again when the thing took one of the fallen swords, and moved her flashlight to keep the thing (or at least the space around it) illuminated. "I don't know what you are, but you won't stop me from getting over to her," she told the shadow, her tone rough and steely. After staring at it for another silent moment, she charged forward, aiming a thrust for the shadow's left shoulder.

Edited 2010-02-12 17:33 (UTC)

The spots were beginning to clear from Raphael's eyes, but nowhere near fast enough for his liking. Still, he could make out a lot more of the scene around them, including the whirling swords and their victim's staring eyes. Great, so the girl's friend didn't know any more about what was going on than Raph himself did, she just wanted to run in there and maybe get herself killed trying to save her friend anyway.

...well. He probably couldn't be that hard on her, since he knew if it had been Leo or Mikey or Don up there, Raph would have been just as bad, maybe worse. But before he could say anything about how unlikely it was that they could do anything for her even if they did, by some miracle, manage to save her, there was a sort of bursting, squelching noise and he noticed the approaching shadow thing.

"Great, looks like we got somethin' else to worry about," he said, glancing around. The weapons he had now, if they could be called that, weren't going to cut it here, but it looked like he was lucky in that the swords from earlier were dead or something now. Moving quickly, Raph ditched the chair legs and swept up the discarded sword on the ground before tugging a second from the wall. Twin blades were more Leo's thing than his, but he'd trained with them just as much as any other weapon, so he wouldn't have to worry about it slowing him down that much.

Which was probably for the best since the pink-haired girl (seriously, two of them? What was up with that?) charged straight in to the fight a moment later. Hah, his kind of fighter then. Raph was right behind her in a heartbeat, dropping low to the ground and using one sword to hack at the spikes closest to him while the second stabbed forward in an effort to strike the main body.

The shadow-like creature advanced slowly, despite the determination both of its targets displayed. When Utena spoke the direct challenge, its shoulders shook silently, as if the words made it chuckle. It didn't flinch at the charge. Utena's hit connected, but the spikes at the shadow's shoulder acted as sticky tendrils, flailing from the impact before clamping onto the weapon and swallowing almost half of the blade, hungrily.

Its left hand snaked forward to try and grasp onto Utena's waist and snare her in the same trap. Meanwhile, Raphael had nicked two swords that belonged to Anthy; unlike Utena, he managed to hack away at a low group of spikes. They fell to the floor and slithered around his ankles, emitting low screeches.

The other sword pierced, but appeared to have no impact other than sloshing through the inky muck and sticking there. In another moment both blades groaned and trembled in his grip, their shapes washing over in black and then piecing apart to become a horde of large spiders. They skittered up his arms and sank their fangs into flesh, edging past the sleeves of his shirt.

It appeared this was the wrong target to attack. The suspended swords in the center of the Sun Room halls started again, but they kept their focus on Anthy as long as both patients were distracted. Her low cries of pain were almost like haunting background music.

Utena gasped sharply as she felt the sword being tugged further into the body of the shadow creature than expected. She struggled with the blade, trying to slice her way through the creature's arm to no avail. Had she simply left it alone sooner, she might have been able to avoid the arm coming at her. Instead, she let go too late. The hand slipped right around her thin waist as she tried to break away, holding her like a coiled snake. The inky substance sent a chill of revulsion through Utena's stomach as it tried to pull her into a deeper embrace. She struggled, but the tendril held fast, forcing her to face the creature's main body full on. She could only stare into the shape as she struggled. Staring at it was like staring into the void of the universe's edge. There were no stars there to distract from that darkness - only the cold reminder that what ultimately awaited everyone was naught but eternal emptiness.

It's sickening . . . Why does everyone go on living knowing they'll end up dying anyway?

I wonder why I never realized that until today.

Utena shuddered deeply as the darkness came closer before her. That was, until out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Himemiya again. She forced her head to turn away from the void. She could hear the girl moaning, see her writhing as though in slow motion. No, all there was wasn't emptiness, she reminded herself. There was friendship - the people she held close to her. That was worth fighting to stay alive for. She called out to her friend again as she struggled, then tried pulling on her sword. Her body twisted partly away from the creature and she leaned back with the hilt in hand; she hoped that the sheer force of gravity combined with her pulling would be enough to free her from the trap.

From the new angle, she could see the stranger's swords turning to spiders. "Ahh! Get off of him!" she shouted in surprise, swatting with her free hand at any of the spectral insects she could reach from where she was. How many more tricks could this thing have?

"That's disgusting," Raph commented, sparing a glance for the spikes writhing around his ankles just to make sure they weren't going to try and launch some other kind of attack.

He didn't have much more than a few seconds to check that much, however, as while his second sword plunged into the body of the weird shadow thing, it didn't seem to do any damage at all or even slow it down. Worse, it had managed to grab onto the other girl, her sword apparently doing even less than his own was.

"Hang on and I'll--" Raph began, but his swords shook in his hands of their own accord, making a strange groaning noise all the while. Then suddenly they broke apart into tens of--

"SPIDERS?!" Raphael yelped. Automatically he let go of whatever was left in his hands - spiders or sword - and leapt backwards, flailing madly in an attempt to dislodge the things from his skin, yelling "Get 'em off! Get 'em off!" the entire time.

More substance than human, the shadow's body was sticky and threatened to absorb Utena all together into the darkness -- just before she broke away and pulled her sword out with her. The tarred spots that stuck to her skin and clothes, to the blade that she wielded, fell away to join the other writhing pieces of pseudo-flesh on the ground. In the dim quality of the halls they sounded and looked like large maggots moving underfoot. Disgusting, indeed.

With the both of them distracted by the spiders, most of which ended up swept away by their combined, flailing efforts, the shadow raised the sword still clasped in its right hand. Poised in a threatening position, it froze before attacking.

A jaw suddenly formed out of the bottom half of its featureless face. It cracked into place with a series of sickening pops, baring rows of sharp fangs that ought to belong to a beast.

"Go back," it hissed, as if speaking through a mouthful of blood. Black streams of liquid pushed past the cracks of its fangs and dripped to the floor. The shadow served well as a distraction, as a frightening deterrent -- it had yet to attack either Utena or Raphael very seriously.

Utena fell back onto her rear after freeing herself, her sword clattering against the floor on top of one of the still wriggling tendrils. "Eugh, disgusting," she said through her teeth as she scrambled back, hoping the stranger would do the same.

She kept her flashlight beam trained as steadily as she could on the being as it raised its sword, watching for any more sudden movements. She didn't have to wait long. While she couldn't call what the thing did next "sudden," it was definitely unexpected. Utena felt the pit of her stomach twist along with the sickeningly twisting and cracking jaw, and listened to its warning hiss. The menace in its voice sent further chills down her back.

With a look and a nod to the stranger, who she hoped had gotten all the spiders off him by this point, she started to take a few steps back. "All right, we're going. Come on, we can't fight this thing." It looked for a few moments as though she really was going to do the sensible thing and retreat. Indeed, that's what she was hoping the stranger would do if he followed her lead.

Of course, there was no way Utena was going to stoop to being sensible.

When she had enough distance between herself and the shadow, she charged forward again suddenly with loud cry. Only this time, she didn't go in for an attack. A few feet in front of the creature, she pushed off the ground and into a flip above its head, a trick she had used a few times in her duels at this point. She was aiming for the left-hand hallway the shadow stood in front of, hoping that she could bypass the thing entirely and just go straight for Himemiya. Whether the stranger followed her or not was his choice.

Edited 2010-02-15 07:49 (UTC)

Raphael was somewhat distracted from the creature to begin with, still flinging the last of the spiders off his arms and torso and stomping heavily on any that were too close to his feet.

"I hate bugs!" he yelled as the last was thrown off. Then he turned his attention back to the black shadow creature. The weird jaw and the sickening noises that accompanied it before it spoke might have bothered Raph before, but now he was too angry to care about its threats or the girl's insistence that they leave.

"You just pissed off the wrong turtle, sludge-face! And I ain't done with you yet!" Completely ignoring the pink-haired girl in his rage, Raphael paused only long enough to wrench another sword free from the wall before he launched himself back at the thing with a yell that was mirrored by the girl.

But where she flipped over their opponent, Raphael charged right in. The sword had done damage before, so he was willing to bet it would do the same again. See how much the damn thing liked having all its spikes chopped off and scattered about the place to start with. "Eat this you piece of shit!"

It would not have been obvious to them, but since Anthy was controlling all that happened, to a certain degree she could predict what Utena's actions would be. It was a surprise to watch her back off initially (and somewhere in Anthy's mind-controlled state, it was a relief) but she soon proved that this was not her intention. She flipped over the shadow creature all together and made a dash for the left hallway.

The other patient proved to be sufficiently Utena-like in his indignant determination, and also he apparently quite disliked insects. Having its own sword raised preemptively, it dealt with the head-on charge by aiming a slash across the front of this patient's shirt as soon as he was in range.

Even if he hacked away all of the shadow, the threat would not be abated. More of its spikes fell to the ground and wriggled about as a result of his attacks, but it seemed unaffected by the loss.

"Turtle?" It wondered aloud, the barest trace of amusement in its gritty voice. This was definitely a man. Since it had proved effective, the tarred spikes all turned to spiders and variations of roaches as soon as he put his feet back on the ground -- hundreds this time, scuttling about on the floors and trying to inch up his pant legs.

As for Utena, the swords reacted to her drawing closer as a good dozen turned about and pointed at her in warning. Anthy's eyes followed her path in much the same way, some small amount of recognition flickering through.

[OOC: Sorry for the slow reply! Kind of had a fit of nonspiration for a while there (still kind of in the middle of one), plus I had to do some family stuff yesterday.]

Thankfully, Utena landed on the other side of the creature on her feet. She had half been expecting the thing to try and trip her up on the landing. Instead, it seemed to be completely focused on the stranger now. Said stranger was even more riled up than before, and hadn't for a second even considered running away. In the back of her mind, Utena chalked up a respect point for him; he was tenacious and fiery, kind of like someone she knew very well. She also paused for a split-second at the way he had used the word "turtle," which struck her as bizarre wording even in the middle of the battle.

Those side thoughts did not hold Utena's attention for long. Some of the swords had broken away from the swarm, rearing up in warning with their tips pointed straight at her. Her own sword pointed straight back in defiance. Utena dropped into a defensive stance, eyes narrowed. "Get away from Himemiya!" she shouted out across the space, ready to battle off any blades that came at her. She didn't know exactly what she was going to do beyond that. All that mattered was getting those swords to focus on something that wasn't Himemiya.

[It's fine, bb! We all have days (or longer) like that. ♥]

Raphael managed just barely to avoid getting himself disembowelled by the sword swipe, but it was a near thing and despite his efforts the blade opened up a gash in his shirt and a long, shallow cut across his chest that began bleeding immediately. He cursed both at the pain and his own forgetfulness. Normally his plastron would have been there to fend off the blade, and his subconscious reliance on it being there still had made him a little careless. He'd have to remember to be more careful; he no longer had as much protection after all.

Spikes fell away under his blade, but their transformation into so many spiders and roaches had him drawing back again, stomping on several as he did so. He was going to have to get more creative with his fighting, obviously.

"Turtle, you slimy whackjob! You got a problem with that, I got your answer right here!" And with that he darted back in, at the last moment mirroring the pink-haired girl's flip over the creature's head and bringing his sword around to slice at its back as he did so. If he could get behind it and clear enough of its back before it could turn around, he could definitely give it something to worry about.

Utena's voice rang out over the hushed voices of the swords. They paused and Anthy stared, recognizing Utena without really seeing her, her gaze deadened by senseless weight. A stray wisp of hair fell into her face with her chin tilting down and she chewed her bloodied lower lip, almost as if caught in a moment of indecision.

The other remained distracted by Anthy's creation (it remained useful for that reason). He confirmed that he was a turtle (curious statement that that was, the shadow cocked its head to the side) before charging back in, even after receiving a cut to the front. This time he flipped overheard and swiped off a wave of spikes down the creatures back. They fell to the ground yet again, but coiled around his ankles like tentacles this time, holding fast and strong to keep him in his place.

The shadow flickered in and out of vision, then appeared face-forward in front of Raphael without having to move an inch. It grinned.

Moving almost too fast to be seen, but not quite, it drew its arm out with the sword's hilt -- movement that shot out and rushed in, a strike that attempted to connect against the side of this man's head.

The swords around Anthy disappeared. She hung in space, her eyes narrowing on Utena just before her body ripped open at the gut and an unsightly hole appeared at her centre, inky tendrils curling out from her abdomen to wash her figure over with the same kind of shadowy paint. It was time to reveal her true role in this.

Utena gasped sharply. She was caught more off-guard by the swords' sudden disappearance than she would have been by any attack they might have made. Her eyes widened as far as they would go as they watched the hole open in Anthy's stomach. Her voice caught in her throat, unable to yell from the shock. The inky shadows began to slither and spread. It was by chance that she also saw the stranger caught by shadowy tendrils on the floor. Her gaze switched between him and Himemiya rapidly a few times, an uneasy connection forming in her mind between the attacking shadows and the shadows surrounding her friend.

Tell me, Utena — what sort of person do you think I am?

"She couldn't really be the one doing all this. No way," she said partly to the stranger, mostly to herself. The protesting words seemed weaker than she had intended. "Hi-Himemiya . . ." Utena bit her own lip then, forcing herself to stop trembling. "Himemiya, stop!" she called out then. She didn't want to accept it, but if Himemiya really was the one controlling this, then Utena had to get through to her.

Edited 2010-02-19 10:55 (UTC)

Well step one in his plan (if he could even call it that, Raphael had never been one for planning things out that much when it came to fights) had worked, but the sudden tentacles wrapping around his feet meant the rest of it was going to be on hold for a while. Raph jerked against the gunk holding him in place but couldn't get it to budge at all.

Then the shadow thing flickered like, well, a shadow in candle light, and was suddenly facing him again.

"Oh shit," he managed, then it was moving. It was faster even than Leo with that sword, but so had been the Shredder and his elite guard. And while Raphael's feet were stuck to the floor, the rest of him was still capable of moving. He twisted sharply, wrenching himself around as much as he could manage to avoid the blow, though it was a near thing. He had been going to try taking off the damn thing's arm in return, but the girl's voice, and what she was saying, gave him reason to pause.

Raph's eyes darted from the shadow thing's face to the girl and back again. "You're sayin' she's doin' this?" he asked, holding off attacking for the moment. He'd been sure that the monster in front of him had been behind it - it was a monster after all and the girl had looked too injured to do anything - but it wouldn't be the first time things had been more complicated then they'd seemed at first.

[OOC NOTES: K EDITED to try and give Utena-mun a little bit more to work with, and Raph-mun knows that it's not a permanent trap as we communicated beforehand and I'm going to try to flesh out my posts more from here on out and give both more to work with! I think a creativity slump might've kicked in for me at some point, too. blob is probably almost certainly gonna go after this as it has exhausted its possibilities. 8|b]

The hole contorted and stretched Anthy out of proportion until she was consumed by it, while Utena's calls seemed to have no effect. For a moment she was gone, disappeared, then appeared -- standing on the opposite rail facing Utena and balanced on its edge. Barefoot in the same red tunic, her hair still spilling down untamed, but all signs of blood or injury had vanished. Her gaze was icy, piercing into Utena's, coldly indifferent.

"Go back," she said. "Before you get hurt."

The male patient just barely managed to dodge the shadow's attack, but he paused before counter-attacking as it looked like he was also cottoning on. Snatching the opportunity, the creature swirled into a new shape and became a formless opaque fog of gunk that swirled about his body, engulfing everything except his head. It was made of the same sticky substance as the coils that had wrapped around his ankles.

It slithered up the nape of his neck now, constricting every limb and constricting movement. For now.

"Before he suffocates." Anthy's voice was soft, almost sad, but it was undeniably a warning. The swords that had seemingly vanished into thin air were still making noise, still whispering, their hateful presence a constant whether or not they could be seen. The faint image of one appeared in her right grip and then solidified as she began to tip-toe over to the corner of the rails, keeping balance. She strode a quarter of the way up the next rail, closer to Utena and Raphael -- but kept her distance all the same.

Throughout the entire struggle she would strive to maintain distance. A glimmering of metal flickered at her other side and then whooshed forward towards Utena; another sword rushing to strike, its aim just a little bit off. By now Anthy was almost in range, but not quite.

Edited 2010-02-25 21:39 (UTC)

Utena shook her head, unable to look away as the hole ate away at Himemiya's core. "I-I don't know! She shouldn't be!" Those words from her conversation with Himemiya in the Sun Room still persisted in her mind. It was so hard to ignore them, along with all the other hints her friend had dropped about the nature of their shrouded future. She didn't want to believe them. With the evidence staring her right in the face, though . . .

No! She still didn't believe that Himemiya was a bad person, Utena told herself. If she really was controlling what they were seeing now, then it had to be under someone else's influence. Landel had brainwashed her, just like a bunch of the others. He had given Himemiya powers to use, and was hurting her while she used them. This is the most unforgivable thing yet, you bastard! Utena thought as the last of her friend disappeared into darkness.

Before she could even think to look for where Himemiya might have gone to, though, the girl had already reappeared on the opposite balcony. The swords holding her had vanished (at least from sight, if not from existence), and she stood as though she had never been stabbed in the first place. Utena's eyes met hers, wide and confused. She had never heard Himemiya talk this way before. She almost seemed like an entirely different person. Utena stared into those distant green eyes. She found nothing there. "No way," she answered when first told to go back, swallowing a dry lump in her throat. She ran her teeth across her bottom lip, then clenched her fist. Confusion was quickly turning back to anger. Anger over her friend being taken away. "Forget it!" she shouted back, stronger this time. "I'm not leaving until I can save you!"

No sooner had she spoken those words when suddenly the shadow before the stranger shifted shapes again, this time taking the form of a thick cloud that engulfed him entirely. Utena spun around toward it with a short cry of surprise. Himemiya was going to suffocate him. She said so in straight-up, black and white terms, underscored by the whispering, singing sounds of invisible swords swirling in the air. What could she do? She had to save this man, but she had to save Himemiya too. How could she do both?

She spotted the sword in Himemiya's hand.

The idea formed in her mind before she was really sure what it was. Brainwashed or not, Himemiya was the one controlling this shadow. If she could defeat Himemiya, then maybe her control would stop. And there was only one way Utena knew to defeat someone without killing them - duelling.

"Sit tight! I'll get you out of there as fast as I can!" Utena called back to the stranger as she went for the railing herself. With one hand, she vaulted herself up onto the railing, forcing herself not to look at the drop below. She raised the Sword of Dios before her into a fencing stance. "Is this how you want to do things, Himemiya?" she asked as the girl strode closer, focusing her gaze right on those empty green eyes and hoping for some kind of recognition.

She got her answer in the form of a glint of metal suddenly zipping her way. "Wah!" Utena just barely managed to duck, wobbling on the rail as momentum took her a few steps forward. Somehow, though, she maintained her balance. She panted as adrenaline pumped through her system, and she took another step forward. And another. And another. "I'll take that as a yes," she breathed before crying out and breaking into a charge forward. She was expecting a block or parry if she got close enough. If she did get close and no block came, she intended to miss. For now, anyway. At least until she figured out how to bring Himemiya down without hurting her.

So the bit about the girl he'd thought was a victim being the one behind it all? Yeah, that looked like it was true. Which meant Raph felt like an idiot for being so centred on the shadow thing instead, and now doubly an idiot since next thing he knew, the shadow thing had swirled around him as a thick, sticky substance tightly binding his entire body. His weapon was useless now that he could barely move at all, and struggling too much would likely end up with him getting hurt more than the stuff holding him still.

Not that that really stopped him from trying.

He fought against the bonds as much as he was able, straining and trying to move the sword a little in the hopes it would be as effective at cutting the shadow stuff as it had been before. At the soft threat to suffocate him - yeah right - his lips drew back in a silent snarl of defiance.

"Like hell," he spat. "I ain't gonna just sit around an' wait to be rescued! You do what you like, lady, but I ain't--" He grunted, putting more effort into his struggles, determined to either break the shadow substance or himself.

"I never give in!"

Anthy watched the expressions on Utena's face, the aching confusion slipping away to become anger, and it should have been -- should have been anger towards the Rose Bride. Instead she shouted until I can save you and something twisted painfully inside Anthy's confused consciousness at those words, her brow furrowing. The sticky shadow substance squeezed around Raphael much tighter for a few seconds, like some kind of deformed, giant boa constrictor -- Anthy lashing out at the stranger while she still had him.

Another person Utena hoped to save. Another person who did not want to be saved, as he struggled and defied the circumstances with all his might. She released the shadow moments after Utena jumped onto the rails and stood to face her down directly, duel-ready, dodging the mis-aimed strike from one of the swords. It slithered to the ground and faded out of existence with one last squelch, the man now completely free, albeit most likely with the breath knocked out of him for a moment. Her eyes were burning holes into Utena, deadened but heavy.

"You still don't understand," she murmured, tone soft and very slightly complicated by emotion. Tonight she was working for the institution, similar to how she had worked for her brother, but ... "You don't understand that you are the one who needs saving."

And Utena charged her after a few tentative steps. Anthy was no duelist, but she was a witch, and she disappeared from range to appear far behind the other girl in the blink of an eye. At the other end, corner by the left hall, she stood without attacking. They were too near; it was drawing up a nervousness that almost showed in her otherwise stock-still stance while she remained carefully perched on the rails.

She made the dark halls behind them groan and creak ominously as another attempt at warning both away. She could bring out anything she wanted, make things appear or vanish at her whims, why did they bother -- why were they still here?

Edited 2010-02-26 16:37 (UTC)

Utena almost felt bad for having expected the stranger to just wait on being rescued. She knew that if it had been her in the same situation, she would have been shouting pretty much the same things. Now was definitely not the time to dwell on that, though. If he didn't break out on his own, then Utena knew she would have to be the one to rescue him, whether he liked it or not.

Hearing Himemiya say that she was the one in need of rescue only made her more incensed. How far gone is she that she'd say something like that?! Utena thought angrily, though she felt a tightening in her chest as she charged. "That is such crap!" she cried, lunging forward at her brainwashed friend.

There was no block or parry, but neither was their anything to pierce as she made that lunge. Her blade sliced through dark, empty air where less than a second before had been long locks of violet hair. The sudden disappearance caught Utena off-guard, sending her wobbling and struggling to stay upright as momentum again carried her forward. She kept running to maintain her balance, but soon ran out of rail; the pink-haired duelist went flying off the end post, down toward the balcony floor.

She caught the post in her left hand as she hit the ground, swinging around it in the other direction when she heard the ominous groaning of the walls. She would have been more disturbed if she hadn't seen that the shadow had already abandoned the stranger. Good, so Himemiya might have been bluffing about killing him. Maybe she would be bluffing other things too. "I'm not that easy to shake!" she shouted back across the space as she vaulted back up onto the rail, her determination to reach Himemiya no more lessened than it had been before. She resumed her charge, heading for the opposite post and waiting to time her jump over to Himemiya's rail. "Hey!" she called to the stranger as she ran. "Go around her other side! Try to cut her off if she goes that way! We have to try to bring her down, knock some sense into her!"

The mass of shadow around Raphael tightened suddenly and hard, forcing the breath out of him in a grunt of pain and cutting off any further protest. His struggling severely limited, Raph wondered for a second if she was going to follow through on her threat, but a moment later the shadow was releasing him and fading away. Stumbling forward a couple of steps, Raph sucked in a few deep breaths, missing the protection of his shell more than ever. Luckily he still had the sword gripped tightly in one hand - it was his only weapon, so there was no way in hell he was going to just drop it - and the cuts he'd gotten so far weren't deep enough to slow him down any.

Which was good, 'cause the purple-haired lady? Was going to find out exactly how mad he was right now, and no amount of creepy noises was going to stop him.

Air filling his lungs again, Raph kicked his shoes off and leapt up onto the railings as well, not even batting an eye at the drop to one side. He'd been on higher things with more danger involved, this was practically a walk in the park.

"Oh, I'll knock some damn sense into her alright," he snarled. His grip on the sword was nothing like theirs; he wasn't a duellist by any means. Instead his stance and movements spoke more of someone used to fighting and, on occasion, killing.

He kept the weapon ready to guard or attack as need be and started along the railings as well, picking up speed as he did so. His feet were shaped wrong, but it was easier to grip without the shoes and the differences weren't enough to slow him down much. Charging at the girl behind this whole mess, Raph swung his sword with a burst of force, aiming to hit her with the flat of the blade.

Night 47: Main Hallway, 2-Center

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[A little light music for the scene? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y73TaS2aDek]

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