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

[ringwizard]

Dragon passes his fingers over his tilted up mouth, a mimicry of Haruto's mannerism. "I am neither a liar nor any kind of actor, Kousuke Nitoh," he says, "unlike Haruto Souma, I gain nothing from falsehoods, least of all with you."

He crosses his arms. "Your give-and-take goes both ways," he says, tired of Nitoh's dense misunderstandings, and flickers away, replaced by the long sinuous form of his regular body, flying low toward Nitoh.

[ringbeast]

The gesture makes his heart beat faster, but he's relieved when Dragon goes back into his own body. The reason he was in here was because he didn't want to have to see Dragon in Haruto's body. He rolls to the side, and finally sticks Chimerise into his belt. "Let's see how you deal with two against one..."

Chimaera appears, with the accompanying fanfare, and he starts to climb up the beast's back. "Ok, Chimaera, let's go. We gotta stop this." He slings himself up Chimaera's back just in time to hear his response.

"I refuse." comes the rumbling, self-important voice of the creature beneath Nitoh.

"Hahhh??" Nitoh manages, gracelessly. He points his saber at Dragon. "We have to kill him!"

Chimaera looks up at Dragon and growls, low. "As distasteful as I find this... arrogant creature... You have not thought through the tactical ramifications of this battle, child..."

[ringwizard]

Dragon's recovery is fast, as he had expected the arrival of his decrepit counterpart. He had not, however, expected Chimaera's refusal, and his turn floats lazily closer.

"So protective of your own survival," he purrs, "are you a caged animal, too afraid to take your food now that you have been given the luxury of hand feeding?"

He thinks Chimaera isn't likely to take the bait, too old and selfish and wily, but he drifts away with a push of his wings anyway. Then he snorts, at Nitoh and his Phantom both, and angles his snout toward the largest crack.

His body tenses.

[ringbeast]

Chimaera merely laughs. "Do you think I managed to live this long by rising to the bait of spoiled wastrels like yourself? My survival is not at stake here, fool." Still, his Chameleon-tongue tail lashes.

To Nitoh he says, "Killing him here would not solve your problem with your Dragon Child. His despair would only deepen without the Dragon's fire within him. And besides that, you may die waiting for those lazy men at the Initiative to feed you."

"I can deal with that! We have to kill him!" At that, he switches his Falco cape on, and flies between Dragon and the crack in the wall. He rolls the dice on his saber. 'FALCO SABER STRIKE' it calls, and then 'THREE' He looses three ghostly magical falcons onto Dragon and they peck at his face.

[ringwizard]

As expected. Dragon tosses his head and the whispers of Nitoh's falcons away. In a fit of pique, he shoots a fireball at Chimaera as distraction, and then he charges toward Nitoh. "Shall I break the other arm?" he asks, swiping at Nitoh's body. He has grown tired of Nitoh's presence--but if he can remove him here, now, all that is left to stand in his way is the little girl in white. Oriko Mikuni. And she is as weak as Haruto Souma, at her core.

[ringbeast]

Chimaera merely laughs, hard and short, and leaps away from the flame with surprising agility for his bulk. "I've bested stronger than you in my day, child. I will show you."

Nitoh takes a claw on the side and spirals in the air. He lands on the ground, clutching his ribs, but still raising his Dice Saber defiantly. "C'mon Chimaera, please!" his voice almost breaks with desperation.

Chimaera walks up to him and switches his shoulders. "Do not try to call me, child. I will not come. You may try to defeat this Phantom on your own. If you fail, we will both enjoy the hunt."

He stares, stunned, as Chimaera leaps back into the ring. He looks up at Dragon, panting, and then he scrambles up to his feet. "I don't care!" he screams, "I won't let you have him!" He fumbles for the Beast Hyper ring out of habit, but then he grabs Buffa and switches to that. Mana drains slightly slower in an Underworld, he hopes he has enough for one more go.

'FOUR! BUFFA SABER STRIKE' it calls, as he sends four red buffalo straight at Dragon's head.

[ringwizard]

Dragon takes the spectral buffalo to the chest, rocking back. That had hurt--but here, in this place, he is more powerful than he's ever been. He flaps his wings, sending a spiraling column of green wind at Nitoh. "Begone," he roars, lightning crackling along rushing winds an echo of his voice.

[ringbeast]

He knew in his heart that as soon as Chimaera turned his back on him that he couldn't win. Dragon's words echo in his mind... Did you tell him you would save him? He wants you to. He grips into the turf, trying to hold on while the lightning and winds assail him.

He screams as it falls away from under him, as everything falls away, and he feels himself flying in this world that is now entirely Dragon's. He can't stop thinking that this can't be it, this can't be all... He couldn't save Haruto? His mind goes back to that room, the place that's supposed to be the site of the Gate's greatest hope. He knows just from his simple glimpse that it wasn't the place where Haruto's parents made their miraculous recovery...

And then he feels as if he's going through a glass door, and his suit dispels. He lands on the ground, back in the real world, arching his back with pain and dismay. He grips now into real dirt, and he crawls, inches his way towards Haruto, whose face is a web of cracks. "Haruto... Please..." he grinds out.

The only one left who can save Haruto is Haruto, now. "I tried... But, you can do it. You did it once...! You can do it again! Beat him back!" His hand, trembling, reaches for Haruto's face. He doesn't seem to have noticed that he's crying now. "Please."

[ringwizard]

Haruto groans, as his Underworld finally rejects Nitoh's presence, and curls lower over his knees, the spikes of Dragon's body pushing and tearing through. It hurts. His breath shudders, desperately, and he looks up. "Nitoh," he says, "it's--I--" It's only midday, but his vision is tunneling, making everything dark. The eclipse all over again, and he wishes the outcome would be the same.

At Nitoh's voice, he winces, another spike sprouting. He tries to shove back against Dragon, to scrape up what's left of himself, but it's too little, too late. "Nitoh," he scrapes out, "don't--don't let him hurt anyone." A moment later, more quietly--"I'm sorry." He squints, to peer at Nitoh through failing vision. He tries to speak again, but his voice chokes up before he can. "In the end I guess I didn't--do anything at all, did I?"

[ringbeast]

Nitoh shakes his head. "No, no!" He tries to touch Haruto but he pulls his hand back. He's buzzing with magic, it's too much to touch. "You're great, you're-" He knows he's fighting fate now, though. He knows that all he can do now is ease Haruto's mind as he... As he dies.

"I won't, I won't let him... I'll stop him." He's crying freely now, sniffling and wheezing. He fists his hands and punches the dirt below him. "You did a lot, Haruto. You did a lot for me." He can't look at Haruto's crackled face, he stares into the dirt. Without his meaning to, his mouth stumbles over the word "Please," again. Quietly, he says, "I need you."

He realizes in the wake of that desperate cry of the soul exactly what it means, and he sobs. He's been avoiding admitting to himself what exactly the feelings he has for Haruto are, but now... He can't escape it. He forces himself to look into Haruto's face, as much as he doesn't want this to be the last thing he sees for however long this thing takes... He can't let him go alone.

[ringwizard]

To see upbeat, optimistic Nitoh like this, because of him--Haruto swallows, and reaches out to catch Nitoh's wrist in a too-tight grip. "Thanks," he gets out, though what he means it for--he's not sure. Everything, probably.

The meaning Nitoh's confession he disregards without thought. However he regards Nitoh--and he regards Nitoh with a depth and need that scares him--Nitoh needs Haruto the wizard. His magic is his strength, as it has ever been. A final spire tears through him, and he cries out, his eyes flashing unnatural red.

'Goodbye, Haruto Souma.'

Haruto's hand stiffens around Nitoh's wrist before going slack. His body comes alight with the strange purple fire of mana, which burns until a new body, armored and inhuman, can take its place.

[ringbeast]

The grip hurts, because of the magic and the tightness. It won't stop now. He can't stop it. Like anything else, he knows that this too is an opportunity... But it's one he never wanted. Inside him, Chimaera roars with anticipation of the hunt to come, but all he can do right now is mourn.

He scrambles back when Haruto's hand slackens, and tries to get to his feet. Dragon is coming... Haruto's dead and Dragon is coming. He has to fight him, he has to kill and eat him. And then he has to tell the Initiative to bring Haruto back at a more stable point. He'll come back, all he has to do is kill Dragon. He breathes heavy and ends up on one knee, watching the transformation happen with a leaden feeling in his stomach.

[ringwizard]

Purple flame fades from Dragon's body as he rises from the shell of Haruto's body, stretching long, curved metallic fingers and twisting his long neck back and forth. He gazes down on Nitoh, kneeling and trembling with an emotion Dragon cannot and will not feign the foggiest understanding of.

"Do you think you will be any more of a challenge a second time?" he asks, and summons up his mana, long claws glowing yellow. He can remove Chimaera and his obnoxious host any time he pleases, so perhaps he will play.

[ringbeast]

He draws himself up to his full height, and thinks about his various injuries. His mind echoes, telling him he just has to kill Dragon and it'll all be over. His mana reserves are still passable, he just has to get things back together. He can do this.

"Yeah, yeah, I think I can..." Dragon looks different in the real world. Smaller, but that size doesn't change the fact that his power is overwhelming. Nitoh can still feel it coming off him in waves. He backs up, pulling out his Reflective Beast Gun to buy him some time to transform. He fires at Dragon, leaping forward with a sudden, surprising rage to kick at Dragon's face.

[ringwizard]

"Then come," he says, and takes the brunt of Nitoh's shots. Nitoh's kick, however, he diverts, ducking away, and he slashes at Nitoh's side, where he'd hit him before. He summons up fire breath, but keeps it locked up low in his throat to expel at the prime moment, right at Nitoh's face or hands. His eyes flash and glow red with the fire magic, and he attempts to knee Nitoh as a followup.

[ringbeast]

He's definitely overestimated himself. He takes the slash over what is probably a bruised rib, and cries out. He rolls away from the knee and slots his ring in, his cry of "Transform," sounding strangled and weak. Still, the magic circle pushes defiantly at Dragon, keeping him away before Kousuke transforms.

He figures he's going to need Falco's speed to keep this up for much longer, though his fingers linger for a moment over Dolphi... Better to push through and heal later. He runs up, gun at the ready, and leaps into the air, sending a whirling kick down straight towards Dragon's head.

[ringwizard]

Dragon knows better than to attempt to take advantage of Nitoh's transformation, though he feels a strong urge to shoot fire as he's opening the gates of his Driver. He pushes up against the gold circle nonetheless, and as Nitoh leaps, he shoots flames. They go wide, sadly, but even as he takes Nitoh's boot to his shoulder, he reaches up to grab Nitoh's leg, digging his claws into the armor at his shins. He half-throws Nitoh away, roaring, and then draws on his mana, folding his form down within the body he originally emerged from. He schools Haruto's face into something neutral, his eyebrows tilted up in the middle. He resists the urge to smirk.

[ringbeast]

Nitoh manages to roll on his uninjured side, and then he turns and sends a spinning kick towards Dragon's head, except--

He turns his kick aside, away from Haruto's face, even after just a split second of seeing it. He's used to avoiding hitting Haruto, to the point where it's just something he does without consciously realizing it.

He lands on the ground a few paces away from Dragon, staring at him in silence for a beat, and then- "STOP USING HIS FACE, YOU PIECE OF CRAP!" He sends a wild punch towards Dragon, out of anger and frustration and grief.

[ringwizard]

Dragon nearly laughs, but then Nitoh is leaping at him, and he catches at Nitoh's wrist and elbow with Haruto's hands. He's not quite fast enough--Nitoh's fist catches him on the jaw--but his grip keeps him from doing much more than staggering back a step, holding onto Nitoh for balance.

"Isn't it my face, now?" he asks, "I won it, didn't I?

It doesn't matter if it's his face or not, of course, as he shifts forms again and pulls Nitoh's body down toward his rising knee.

[ringbeast]

"No!!" is all he can manage, through gritted teeth.

Nitoh takes the knee under his ribs and stars explode before his eyes. He coughs once, then goes limp, his suit dispelling as he loses consciousness.

[ringwizard]

Dragon lets Nitoh fall, unceremoniously, though he does make sure he falls on his back. He shifts forms, to speak in Haruto's voice. "You should have picked a more ruthless host," he says, to Nitoh's closed Driver. "I will enjoy feeding on this city--and feeding on you."

[ringbeast]

Nitoh's hands grasp against his shirt and he groans, but there's no response from the driver, unsurprisingly. Within, Beast Chimaera is unfazed by either his hosts unconsciousness or Dragon's threats. He's lived this long by being patient and strategizing. And Dragon doesn't know what a threat he can be.