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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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.

Stubborn. The both of them were stubborn and similar. Anthy tensed visibly and narrowed her eyes when they both vaulted onto the rails, displaying considerable skill and brash determination as they did so. Now they were racing about to try and corner her, with Utena coming around the other side and the man, who apparently considered himself more turtle than man, charging her head-on.

"Don't shout your plans so loudly," she said. It was almost taunting, but mostly coldly dismissive. Anthy flickered away seconds before Raphael's strike landed, the same as she had done with Utena.

She materialized at the center of all four halls this time. The same place where all this began, she was floating at the safe point. Driven back by their combined persistence, she summoned an angry ring of swords to encircle her, the danger more palpable as her distress rose.

One sword after another targeted both Utena and Raphael's paths and flew after them as soon as she was in place. It was almost as if the weapons were rapidly being flung, haphazard, some thunking straight into the walls when they missed. She was less careful with her aim now -- if any attacks landed there might be deep gashes, non-fatal wounds instead of nicks and scrapes --

Might be enough this time, might be enough.

"Ehah! Ah!" Utena gasped and flailed as she darted back and forth across the rails, dodging and parrying swords left and right. Or at least she tried to. The attacks were so random and frenzied it was impossible to watch out for all of them. Blades slit across her arms and legs multiple times, leaving long (thankfully shallow) cuts in their wake. She hoped the stranger was faring better than she was. "Himemiya! Stop doing this! You don't have to do this!" she pleaded frantically between breaths. "I'm your friend, remember?! Weren't we going to escape this place together?"

Her mind flipped to her thoughts from the beginning of the night at that. The happy thoughts. The hopeful thoughts. Somewhere inside, Himemiya was still Himemiya, right? Maybe a reminder of something better would stir that part of her again. It had to. It was the only idea Utena had right now.

"We can run away together after this is over, Himemiya!" she cried out, stopping in the center of the left rail as she locked gazes with her friend again. There was something there now other than emptiness, she noticed. It was fear. Apprehension. What was Himemiya so worried about? Utena didn't really know, but she did her best to assuage that fear as she continued: "We can run away from here - from Ohtori too if that's what you want! We can start over together somewhere new, just you and me!"

Stopping caused Utena to take some deeper cuts to her arms, and she grunted and yelped when they hit. She panted roughly, dashing to the side one more time to avoid another incoming barrage. That didn't stop her from trying to break through, however. "Didn't you leave to stop being the Rose Bride?! Why are you letting someone use you like this again?! There's no way you're happy doing this! Come down, Himemiya! We can leave this place in our dust!" she called out, louder and more desperate this time as she stopped next to the south-west post.

Edited 2010-02-28 18:59 (UTC)

Raph threw himself into a flip after the purple-haired bitch vanished, both to do something with the momentum and to shift to another railing. He'd been expecting her to disappear, since that's what had happened last time, but not for her to appear in the air or for there to be a swarm of damn swords suddenly flying towards them, one after the other.

He managed to narrowly avoid one and block another with his sword, but he could see it was going to take a lot more than that. "What the fuck is with all these damn swords?!" he yelled, running to avoid one, only for another to slice across his arm.

Still cursing fluently, Raphael threw himself upwards and twisted in the air, managing to catch a second weapon by the hilt, even as he felt another slice his back. No shell. He had to remember that. The movement took him off the railings and back to the floor, so at least he had more room to move around while blocking the onslaught.

And time to form another plan, if it could be called that. He didn't care if it was a plan or 'Raph is really pissed off', so long as it got the job done. Timing was key and he frowned in concentration as he readied himself. Block one, two attacks, ignore the one that caught his leg much deeper than any had previously, and... now. He threw himself into a sudden roll to the side, counting on her aim taking a second to catch up to him, rose smoothly from the movement, and hurled one of his own swords back towards its owner before finding himself a target again.

Now he just had to hope it did something other than clatter to the floor below part way.

There was no starting over. The choice between the outside world and the role of the Rose Bride was ... it was not a choice, because the outside world had blamed her, named her destruction and then destroyed her. She already knew what was on the outside. Even with Utena at her side -- Utena could not save her because Utena knew nothing and was not her prince. Utena was --

She was shouting things that Anthy almost recognized (I left to find you) but could not process in this state. The Rose Bride: her shackles, her duty, her cheap thrill, her chance to cause some chaos, her chance to cause some pain. Subservience to her brother or subservience to the world at large, it was all the same, she had to take what she could get. She had to take what she could get. Utena did not understand.

And yet, the barrage of swords slowed almost to a stop as she shouted all these things Anthy almost recognized. Her eyes spoke of the ache those words were causing -- and with her guard let down, the sword Raphael threw back actually landed somewhere to the left of her lower spine, piercing through to her gut at the front with fresh blood. Her body spasmed and her hands curled around the front of the blade, mouth open on a gasp. As an agent of Landel's for this one night, a witch once more, she could not die. Mostly, on the inside she was hollow.

She could feel pain, though. Pain given and taken; that was normal. That was normal. She didn't begrudge them that. Anthy's shoulders slumped and a sword floated to her side, trembling slightly in the air as if held by an unsteady hand. "It's too late," she replied, her voice cracking. "You can't be my prince."

Because you're a girl, but she couldn't say it twice and she couldn't do this twice (stop), but she had to. Utena just didn't stop (don't) and the only way to stop her was -- was to point the tip of that sword at her and propel it forward, send it plunging straight through Utena's side, and she did. Second verse, same as the first. It was the same sensation of the blade slicing through her friend's insides and poking out the other side.

Except this time she was facing the other girl and didn't strike to kill. Her aim was off. It wasn't easy. She didn't know why. Anthy trembled in the air and didn't bother to guard or attack further. The strain of the internal conflict, partly conscious of what she was doing now because of Utena's shouting, left her open and confused. The swords paused and quiet fell over the area.

Edited 2010-03-02 02:17 (UTC)

Utena's breath caught sharply in her throat when the sword pierced through Himemiya's back. Somehow, just this one sword wound was more agonizing to gaze upon than the multitude of earlier. She could see the exit wound so much more clearly. Could hear the squelching flesh and cracking ribs. Could almost feel the blade inside her own body as she watched Himemiya twist and writhe around it. "What the hell are you doing?!" she shouted across to the stranger fiercely, despite all logic that told her the attack had probably been a smart thing to try. "She's had enough of that already! You're going to kill her!"

Her wide eyes flitted back up to Himemiya, shaking with fear and anguish. The swords had slowed now. Had the stranger really hit something inside that would kill her? "Himemiya! Himemiya!" she called out. She again searched for her friend's eyes, looking one more time for any sign of life.

There was a stirring there, but it was not in the girl's eyes. To her side, one new sword had appeared.

"It's too late. You can't be my prince."

By the time those words sunk into her mind, the sword had sunken into her flesh.

The pain seemed to spread in slow motion, like an advancing sheet of ice through her body. Utena's legs buckled beneath her. She fell backward to the balcony floor, landing on her back with a thud of flesh and a clang of bloody metal. The wound wasn't fatal, but god if it didn't feel like it would be. Her breaths became short and laboured. She could still see Himemiya hanging there in the air beyond the balcony rail. The girl's expression held no remorse. "Wh . . . what . . . ?" The blade in her body seemed to radiate with the girl's hatred. Could brainwashing alone really be responsible for that kind of coldness?

There really was no getting through to her at this point. She could see that now. Words wouldn't do it. Fighting wouldn't do it. Himemiya was completely locked away. There would be absolutely no way to save her short of . . .

Short of getting at the lock itself.

Utena only had one option left. She wasn't even sure it was worth anything - it was just too far to make it work, her rational mind told her. When her choices were leaving her friend to continue hurting others like this and having the slightest chance at saving her, though, Utena felt the answer was obvious, regardless of seeming impossibilities.

Gasping and hissing deeply, she gripped the hilt of the sword in her side and started pulling on it. She cried out roughly through a dry mouth, forcing the thing to pull out as swiftly and cleanly as it could. It, her own sword, and her flashlight were all cast aside as she struggled to get back to her feet, focusing on every breath it took to get her there. On the way down, the flashlight danced over Himemiya's face one more time, catching her green eyes for one brief snapshot in time. That colour crystallized in Utena's mind, allowing her something to focus on as she took a few steps back in preparation for what she was about to do.

"I will be your prince, Himemiya. I swear," she told the floating girl as firmly as she could before biting down hard on her own lip. She forced herself to ignore the pain in her side as best she could. Hopefully she could ignore the drop in front of her so well.

With all her determination crammed up inside, Utena was able to run. She ran straight for the railing again. Only this time, she didn't vault onto it. Instead, with both hands, she launched herself up over it, only using the rail as a springboard to carry her further forward across the looming gap between her and her friend. With one hand outstretched, she flew forward, much the same as she had done on the night the girl had once been kidnapped. If she could do it then, she could do it again. And even as she felt herself beginning to fall, she called out as loud as she could: "HIMEMIYA!"

Edited 2010-03-02 11:04 (UTC)

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Night 47: Main Hallway, 2-Center

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