last despair calls first hope

[ringwizard]

Date & Time: July 2nd & 3rd
Location: Initiative Library, Room 701, around the apartments
Characters: Haruto Souma (ringwizard), Kousuke Nitoh (ringbeast), Oriko Mikuni (precludes)
Summary: Haruto witches out gets the d(espair) hits his breaking point, becomes despair monster.
Warnings: Upupupupu. Depression, despair, a dickbag monster, at least one fight, Chimaera being a tool, references to mass murders, references to not so mass murders, possibly suicidal ideation, character death. Oriko's sense of priorities.


Haruto leaves the Initiative's Hold early in the morning with a certain spring to his step. He's gotten a little tan--his time in 2050 had done him some good, a lingering scrape on the back of his right hand aside, and it's obvious. Being back in the city again leaves a lingering malaise to his mood, but he forces it away. With things to be done all around, he's got to keep moving forward, right? There's a lot of hustle and bustle outside the Hold with the still-lingering confusion of new arrivals, as far as he can tell, and he steps around people talking as he opens his tablet and messages Nitoh.

Are you still asleep?

Comments

[ringbeast]

No! It's already morning, man. So you're back, then? How'd it go?

[ringwizard]

I thought I'd ask!!

It went well. Where are you? I want doughnuts.

meet u at is code for race u to

[ringbeast]

Heck yeah! I'm out and about, I was gonna get some groceries. Meet you at the bakery!

ah yes the confusing dialect of japanese called 'rival'. haruto speaks it.

[ringwizard]

Last person there has to pay.

Haruto stuffs his tablet and his hands in his pockets and starts off for the bakery around the corner from the Initiative's apartment building. It hadn't weathered the bombings with no damage, but they'd been well on their way to regular operating hours a week ago. He wonders how much repair they've done.

To his surprise, the place looks mostly in order. It needs more surface repairs, of course, but the windows have been replaced, and the door's been fixed. The stubbornness of Exsilium is one thing he appreciates, at least. He pushes the door open with careful hands, looking around to see if Nitoh is at one of the tables already. He better not be.

[ringbeast]

He's not. He bounds through the door and looks around, and as soon as he sees Haruto he dips in an exaggerated mockery of misery. "Aw, come on, man! You know I'm saving up for a bike..."

But he pulls out his wallet, and grumbles. "Fine, I'll order. Plain sugar, right?"

very, very early on the 3rd.

[precludes]

It's dark still, and will be for hours.

Oriko spent most of the night ruminating on her last vision - Haruto's despair, the monster. A phantom: She has the name of it now, and she waits in a dark alcove off the corner of the apartment building where the air is still dusty and smells like the bombing. There's not much longer to wait, now, though she's been in the dark for what seems like ages, thinking, planning - what happens this morning? Later?

It seems bleak, like so much else she sees as of late.

She intercepts Haruto's return on light feet, deliberately stepping out into better light as soon as he approaches.

"Mr. Souma."

[ringwizard]

Haruto is cold, and tired, and a little wet. Dragon is thrashing within his Underworld, still, and he'd like to collapse face-first on his bed and acknowledge nothing and no one for a while. He comes to a slow stop when Oriko moves into his line of vision, his head tipped down toward the sidewalk. He looks up, his reaction time visibly sluggish, and pushes Dragon back, his fists shaking in his jacket pockets. He swallows, to get himself together. "Oriko," he acknowledges, his voice hoarse.

He doesn't know why she's decided to meet him out here. He wonders how long she's been waiting, why she's been waiting--if Nitoh is still following him from two blocks behind like he thought that was stealthy. "Is something wrong?" he asks.

[precludes]

So much of Oriko's life has become dedicated to searching, to knowing. In the short amount of time afforded her to deal with this, she has spent nearly all of it searching.

There are few alternatives left.

She takes hold of her elbow, taking a stand in front of him, still several feet away.

"While we've been here you have done so much within your power to uphold our hope. I was thinking of that this evening."

She wants this to be over quickly.

[ringwizard]

Haruto shifts his gaze past her, eyes distant. The last week flashes at him again, a rapid-fire series of images tinged now with red, and he takes in a shuddering, long breath. He looks back down at her, at her defensive posture--his mouth tilts up in a brittle half-smile. "Were you?" he asks, idly.

He shifts his weight, drawing the flaps of his jacket closer in a weak attempt to build a shell. "It's what I do," he says, "it's--" He has to pause, swallowing. He's done nothing but bring despair since he was pulled from home--to children, who now, he thinks, probably have eyes like Oriko's, to mothers and families and grandfathers. How many had survived to be orphans? Did any of them hear him say he would protect their hope, when he helped protect them the first time? How many wished he'd appear again, and been disappointed?

"It's all I can do."

[precludes]

Oriko closes her eyes. How many times has she seen this in action, understood too intimately the meaning of 'all I can do'? How friendly she is with the singular focus: She has one herself, after all.

"I had hoped you might think otherwise."

There is a flash, flutter, light. When it dissipates, Oriko stands before him a magical girl.

"Your understanding of the situation is flawed."

[ringbeast]

He's been watching the whole thing through the portal that shows what Gryphon sees, while he trails Haruto from a distance. He had stopped short to watch the confusing battle that happened between Oriko and Haruto. He knew Oriko was probably something special, pretty much everybody here is... But he didn't know what kind of special. That was definitely magic.

But why'd she attack Haruto? What possible reason could she have to push at him at a time like this? Still, he runs up with the intention of freeing her, though she might have broken free by the time he gets there. "Oriko? Hey, Oriko!"

[precludes]

She's freed herself by then, but still reeling from the Light ring, her vision blurry yet. It's impossible to tell where Haruto's gone, but she'll know soon enough.

"Mr. Nitoh, you should stay back." She'd fight him, too, she thinks, if it would make any difference, but it wouldn't, and there's danger in restricting another aid, another piece. But still she doesn't drop her transformation. At least he is in a position to understand this situation.

[ringbeast]

"Oriko what the hell are you doin'??" He calls, running up. He puts his hands on her shoulders. "You alright? Why'd you do that?" He kneels down to get more on her level, heedless of her warning or any danger. Oriko wouldn't attack him... But she wouldn't attack Haruto, either. Still, he doesn't wince back. "What happened?"

[precludes]

Oriko's defensive at being touched, though she knows it isn't an attack. She tries, anyway, to take a step back from him.

"You were with him today, weren't you?" she asks, with a coolness and level head that makes it sound not at all as though she had just attempted to attack his partner. "You are aware of his state of mind."

[ringbeast]

He's not so pushy that he doesn't let her go. He kind of wants to ask about her getup, but it's not really the time for that. "Yeah, I am! Which is why I'm wondering why you haul off an attack a guy who's already got a lot on his plate!"

He groans. "I mean, if you knew what could happen-" he cuts himself off. "Look, I dunno what's got you so upset, but can you just let me take care of Haruto?"

late morning on the third

[ringwizard]

Haruto knows when he is finished. Since his brush with Oriko, he's been moving toward the city limits. Open skies or not, Dragon is coming. Haruto's head aches, pounding with the strange unreal feeling of the whip of Dragon's tail and Dragon's claws against his Underworld. He was his parent's hope, but he'd brought nothing but despair for as long as he'd been trapped in this city and its war, for both strangers and for the only person who actually knew him. He'd fought relying on Nitoh, but now, when the chips are down, he can only wait for him to catch up, and take the brunt of Haruto's biggest failure. That, in fact, is what is the most bitter pill to swallow.

He is glad for the stretches of silent dead space in the outer stretches of the city--finding an empty lot, dead as this city, and as the commune, is easy. Dirt as fine as sand grinds under his boots as he pulls a red ring from his pocket. He feels the pull on his mana as he activates the PlaMonster, and knows that it's only his time honing his weapon that has allowed him to cast a single spell since Dragon began going berserk.

"Find Nitoh," he says, "or Oriko, but Nitoh first."

Garuda departs, and Haruto turns to watch it fly away, rubbing his fingertips over the scrape still red across his right wrist, from his time in the past. As it turns a corner, Dragon's voice echoes his name so loudly he has to clap his palms to his ears. It hurts to breathe, a beat later, and he curls down immediately, bending his shoulders over his kneecaps and breathing shallowly. His magic is pushing at his skin, like he could burst like a balloon, and he knows Dragon is making his move.

'My strength gave you hope, and yet you did nothing but squander it on useless battles. A hope-protecting wizard indeed.'

Purple cracks Haruto can't see begin spreading slowly across his skin. A little boy wrapped in bandages begins to crack under Dragon's tail. Haruto cries out, wordlessly.

im going to die

[ringbeast]

Gryphon's been following Haruto at a distance since he left the apartment building, though Gryphon had lost sight of him for a while. When Garuda meets up with him, Nitoh sees them merge through the monitor and head back to Haruto.

He breaks into a run. "I can stop this..." he says to himself. "This is gonna be okay." His lungs are still a little weak from the sickness, but he doesn't need to worry about it right now. He runs with his monitor in his hand, looking at it for a minute as he goes. Through Gryphon's eyes he can see the taint of despair crackling over Haruto's skin. "Dammit..." He transforms as he runs, hoping he can make it there before it's too late.

Garuda and Gryphon merged appear before Haruto, with an echoing double-cry.

excuse me only one death is on the menu tonight

[ringwizard]

Haruto fights his head up at the echoing squawk, and grinds out, "Nitoh, hurry--" He's never wished not to be a wizard. It's always been better than being powerless, or worse--dead, his body at the mercy of Dragon--but perhaps useless, he can at least not hurt anyone.

'It wasn't as though a lack of powers kept you from hurting people,' Dragon supplies, and Haruto cries out. "Shut up," he says, unable to push away Kazuya or the soccer field.

The peculiar feeling of his heart freezing up for a moment, and then beginning to beat again spreads another crack over his skin, and he collapses farther down, digging his fingers uselessly into the dirt. Anything to hold on to.

crey

[ringbeast]

Nitoh makes it there just in time to see phantom wings begin to crest over Haruto's back. "C'mon, c'mon..." He doesn't even pause to say anything, just runs up and puts the ring on Haruto's finger. "C'mon..."

He pulls the ring up and slots it into his belt. "I'm gonna save you, okay?" He wants to make a crack about not wanting to give a ring to a dude, but he just bares his teeth in a humorless smile. Then the magic circle pops up, and he leaps into it.

The room he appears in is marred by purple cracks, and he looks around. Dragon isn't there at the moment, but it's a hospital room, and the image of a young boy covered in bandages and cracks stands in front of two hospital beds with a man and a woman inside.

He looks at the scene before him and breathes out slowly. "Oh..." he says, his heart sinking. But it's time to find Dragon. He runs out of the hospital room and into the street, following the sounds of destruction.

[ringwizard]

Dragon is beyond the hospital, circling wide to collide with the borders of Haruto's underworld. His claws rend cracks, his tail thuds holes; he seems to have very little attention to spare for Nitoh until Nitoh is nearly directly below him.

He pulls back, twisting to point his curved silver nose at Nitoh. His red eyes squint in mirth, and he flexes his claws.

"Kousuke Nitoh," he acknowledges, and opens his mouth to shoot fire at the archetype wizard trespassing in his territory. He has waited long enough. This is his place now, Haruto Souma's ridiculous weak hope a trampled thing beneath his power.

He follows the stream of flame to attack Nitoh with his claws. Chimaera is no threat to him here.

ANOTHER ONE shortly after the thread above this one

[precludes]

It happened after all.

Oriko didn't have to be present for the confrontation to know that Haruto is dead now, or that Nitoh has been unable to subdue the phantom. Her earlier encounters amounted to nothing beyond making her very tired, though she is still resolved to see this ended.

It's such a small thing to concern herself with, but she has to think of the repercussions. Kirika will have to know (if only she could get out here to the city limits fast enough), and the rest of the townspeople as well. How many Exiles live already in despair?

Not long at all after Beast and Dragon do battle, it's her turn to approach him. However close she has been or however mindfully she's kept track of his actions, this time she cannot wait in the shadows for his arrival and must step out to face him instead. She had never quite stopped thinking of Kirika's witch as Kirika - with Dragon, Oriko does not have this problem.

"Hello, Dragon."

[ringwizard]

Dragon turns, wearing Haruto's face, though not an expression Haruto's has ever worn stretches it into an unpleasant sort of smile. "Oriko Mikuni," he says, curling his hands together behind his back. "Salutations."

He lifts his chin, watching her in silence for a moment. "To what do I owe the pleasure of the company of the white witch?" he wonders aloud. The aura of despair on her is quiet, a slow simmering boil under her carefully steel veneer, but he breathes it in. "A white witch black with despair," he muses.

[precludes]

"You are mistaken." Oriko takes hold of her elbow, arm tucked snugly across her front. "I am not a witch." Not now; half a lie. Sorry, Father.

If it's meant to intimidate or repulse her, Oriko avoids the bait. She has only resignation to show him.

"You will not be allowed to remain here." Confident words on the heels of Nitoh's defeat, but if she can play with her understanding of how the situation then it may steady the course of things.

[ringwizard]

"Would you prefer wizard, instead?" Dragon asks, "the White Wizard doomed him to this, so I thought to avoid it, for your sake. Perhaps it is more apt than I thought?"

Slowly, he begins to shift forms, walking inexorably toward her. "I will decide where I come and where I go, Oriko Mikuni. Kousuke Nitoh was unable to remove me, and so too shall you. Even with foreknowledge, you were too weak to kill me." There's no doubt in his mind that she knew. He doesn't know how, or why, but her expression and attitude had been so determinedly deadly in Haruto's memories that he can see it.

[precludes]

They should not have tried to stand alone.

"I am neither," she says; though his dig stings, she will not let it show.

Haruto's death had been inevitable, not like the bloody miasma waiting in the future. She knows that Nitoh will stand again and act, and that people called to arms will sometimes rise up like violent swarms. But she can see the harm Dragon will cause rolling out from him as if she stands on the sidelines of the battle itself.

"You will find it difficult to go where you please in this city. You will only be exposed." He means to go there, and she may not be able to wait.