soul_logs | [OPEN] Sandstorm Event + September Introduction Log

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[OPEN] Sandstorm Event + September Introduction Log

Given that the last time there was a sandstorm BREW had just...unceremoniously dumped the new arrivals outside to face the elements, Shibusen decided it would be prudent to send some people out to make sure the poor souls aren't left to flounder.

Outfitting their volunteers with the proper gear, they're allowed back into Death City not only to search for new arrivals but also to check for stragglers.

However, as the volunteers go through the city, they find more than just the expected stragglers and new arrivals. For some reason, there is the occasional Kishin Egg wandering around...

To make things worse, the sandstorm continues to rage, causing poor visibility and covering the streets with a thick layer of sand, making it hard to keep footing. A problem these Kishin Eggs don't seem to have when most of them are capable of diving under the sand to move like sharks.

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Well, that would have to be about enough, Bakura decided.

He launched himself forward the moment the wind turned the direction he wanted into and let it carry him along as it rushed past the walls of the streets of Death City and the monster that was starting to rise behind the girl again. Beneath his clothes he was grinning widly as he raced breakneck towards them.

"Nanami!" he didn't wait for her to duck or evade as he lunged at the same time as the kishin egg, the curved sword that he had 'borrowed' from one of the citizens ready and aiming at the kishin egg's face.

It was coming toward her now at a rapid pace and she all but paused as it was nearly upon her. She heard her name called out by a familiar voice. Was that Bakura? A warning? As he launched himself past her she veered a little to the side managing to lose her balanced on the unstable sand in the process.

When she looked up from her position down on the sand her heart might have skipped a beat as she watched Bakura clash with the centipede.

With Nanami out of the way there's nothing stopping Bakura from drawing his blade across the kishin egg's face with all his force. Since it was just a normal weapon he couldn't hurt the centipede-like monster seriously that way, but the onslaught still served it's purpose as it distracted the monster from Nanami and both blinded and angered it immensely.

"Haha! Over here!" Using his momentum and the still embedded weapon as a lever Bakura used the moment the monster tossed its head back with a pained screech to let himself be dragged high as well and jump-vault past his adversary. "And one more!" Coming down, he pushed the blade again deep into the armored body, aiming for the less protected joints.

The result was as planned: momentarily forgetting about its weakened prey the kishin egg tried to kill him now, chasing for it's own lower body in the process as Bakura tried to keep using his new 'handle' to keep it as a shield between them.

Nanami quickly picked herself off the sand and backed away from the battle a bit unsure of what to do. Should she jump in an help or would she just be in the way? She knew now more than ever that it couldn't be beaten by a mundane weapon or even a weapon without a Meister but she couldn't figure out how to get to Bakura and transform for him. It was like double dutch with barbed wire, one wrong move and she was in for a thorny mess. The cross winds were not making things easy either.

"Bakura!" What did he want or need her to do here?

"Damn-!" He cursed under his breath as he kept being tossed around. The kishin egg was better and better at finding ways to twist that wouldn't end with it only taking a bite out of itself and all the sand and wind were certainly not helping!

"Hey, are you coming or what?! You brought the ride, now jump on and lend me some steel as well!" This was about the nicest request for assistance she'd ever get from Bakura.

The girl grit her teeth and rushed forward once he gave his orders. Once she was close enough she put all her strength into her legs, pushing off of the sand. Her normal vertical jump was pretty impressive but the sand shaved a few inches off of it. When she hit the peak of the jump she transformed and tossed some of her wavelength out to Bakura so he could grab hold of it and in turn pull her steely form to him. Hopefully this would work out better than it did with Hamel...

Bakura cursed once more as he saw her jump - right when another gust of wind howled down the street, pushing sand past his clothes and momentarily blinding him as the kishin egg launched a particularly nasty lurch.

The fucker threw him right into her descending angle.

"Fuck! You-!" The thief winced in pain as Nanami's wavelength brushed past him and a new searing pain flashed momentarily through his left leg close to his shin. Thrusting his own wavelength out in return he dared to lose a couple of fingers as he grasped blindly for the scimitar before his temporary partner would end up buried beneath the coils of the monster.

... Did she just cut into something? There wasn't really any time to think because she was falling fast. There, she felt his wavelength and latched on doing her best to rotate so he'd grab her handle and not her blade as she neared his hand.

There! He grinned viciously as he pulled the Weapon up, their resonance snapping into existence. 'About time!' The next moment he was already attacking, bringing the Weapon down on the kishin egg's body with as much force as he could.

With the first touch she immediately matched her wavelength to best assist his current overzealous one. She was getting used to his bipolar tendencies which made things easier when dealing with their resonance. In a way, Nanami had been doing the same thing when she had started fighting the kishin egg granted she was lacking Bakura's particular... passion.

She hit the centipede hard. In retaliation, the centipede worked it's hardest to remove the Meister Weapon pair from its back in any way possible even if it had to hurt itself in the process by, for example, throwing it's back against a wall.

"Whoops!" Bakura leaped back before they could get smeared against the rough stone like some pesky insect. "Looks like somebody got their role wrong!" Seconds later he had to duck and dodge again in ways that weren't overly graceful but amazingly agile for a scrawny guy like him.

Getting out of the monster's reach, he twirled the Weapon once. 'We've got its eyes and its movements are severely limited. Shall we end this game now?' It'd be better to make quick work and get out of the way before the beast's comrades noticed what happened and started hunting for them as well.

There was a short hesitation as she fluctuated between the idea of running away to fight another day and killing the bastard by ripping it limb from limb. Even if the conditions weren't favorable, the thing was already half dead anyway. 'Let's finish this.' She finally answered resolutely.

Something shifted within Bakura's wavelength at those words, an echo like a splash of ink that was tinting the waters and sharp like the sensation of a blade being drawn. Oh, he wanted a good kill every once in a while! All the things he had gotten recently had been so unsatisfying, unsatisfying, unsatisfying...!

'With pleasure.' He waited for the next gust of wind to pick up and hide them from sight before he charged the kishin egg once more.

Nanami was not afraid of this feeling and she allowed the ink to seep in and taint the already cloudy feelings in her soul. Something to fill the void she had been feeling for a long time, something to ignite some sort of passion within her, any sort of passion. Everything recently left her lackluster, listless, lifeless.

The centipede turned looking for its prey in the brown sand-filled wind, it had been slowed by previous attacks and its equilibrium thrown off by the large void of legs on one side of its body. The former prey had become the hunter and had also become much stronger and much faster.

Edited 2013-10-03 03:07 (UTC)

If it was passion she wanted then Bakura had enough. His soul had been burning for a long time, too long for him to remember when it had begun and how he had been before everything that made him him was the never-ending bonfire of rancor that sat where normally a whole plethora of human emotions would be. Bakura wasn't lonely. He also wasn't desperate, and even happiness only existed in relation to how he could inflict what he felt upon others.

It might be a hollow existence, but in a way his tenacious malevolence made him alive, more so than he felt most other people ever were whom he had encountered. Even if it was the sort of life that burned away its very source and left only ashes.

Bakura advanced skillfully, keeping the different attributes of his current human body in mind and how they would translate differently to what he remembered from his times as the feared King of Thieves. He also paid heed to his Weapon and how Nanami's previous attacks had crippled the monster quite nicely - a silent praise sneaked into their connection at that point, a brief well done - as he urged her on to feel more, to enjoy the thrill of the hunt and kill with him as closely as she could.

'Ready?' It would be quick and messy, he decided, as he faked an attack against the monster's head again.

With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Nanami was happy to leach off of his malice. In her desperation, she immersed herself in it like it was something tangible. She emerged cold but focused the fierce part of her started overshadowing the rest of her clumsy personality.

The praise did not go unnoticed; she latched onto that as well letting it push her in a slightly more positive place so as to not lose herself completely although it was still not entirely healthy. It was the spark needed to ignite the fire and she wanted to be praised by her partner more even if it meant violently mauling the monster that thought to attack them.

'Yes!' The monster bought the ploy and was having trouble correcting itself after it dodged.

Bakura replied to her words with a manic laugh as he used the chance to slip beneath the monster and slit its downside open with a long, cleaving cut. Then he started severing it's legs one by one until it could hardly move anymore before he moved in for the final kill.

At the same time the storm was picking up.

Nanami's blade was covered in monster blood and for the time being she was amused by the snapping of each leg likening it to cracking crustaceans at a fancy seafood meal. She was currently oblivious to the worsening storm as her mind was filled with more important things, mainly watching this creature die by their hands. While she wasn't exactly gleeful she was a little bit celebratory as it came to the last strike and she urged him to finish it quickly through their connection. One more soul to add to her tally.

Edited 2013-10-08 00:02 (UTC)

Bakura obeyed her wish and finished their opponent with a big, forceful strike, but then he balked. Slowly stepping away from the kishin egg he kept looking around until he cursed and turned on his heels to jog back to the building he had come from, ignoring the corrupted soul they had just 'won'.

'Tch. No point wasting time here.'

'Ah! Wait, my soul! I need that!' She protested not yet noticing any of the extra company arriving. It was just sitting there, glowing at her, taunting her.

'Forget about it!' The command came sharper than planned as he ignored the sting in his leg in favor of fighting more against the wind. Now it was working against them, but at least it'd hopefully blind their followers as well. 'We've got company!'

'But...! Nnngg.' If she had been in human form Bakura probably would have had to fight against her as well because she really wanted to go back and just snatch that soul really quickly other enemies be damned but they were already under the entryway of the building where a little bit of the sand and wind were blocked.

He just growled under his breath and sent her a mental command to keep it in her pants as he hurried further inside, dragging the Weapon that felt increasingly more heavy and unwieldy as their resonance sank past abandoned furniture that had been neatly stacked.

Reaching a door further in the back of the shop he set the scimitar down and started fiddling with it until its lock sprang open and he could push it ajar to let them to an adjourning flight of stairs that led upwards. Slipping inside, Bakura gave Nanami a challenging look, not bothering to try and pick her up again as he slipped the cowl and scarf off his head. Sweat, sand and blood from untraceable sources had turned his usually pristine looks rather messy. "Your choice now. There are at least three others of that kind out there and probably all too eager to get close and comfy with us."

He nodded to the outside where the sandstorm hid any signs of potential hostile life as it howled on. Then his gaze lingered on the small trail of blood that he had left without noticing. Damn, that explained why he felt so off track! "Go get em if you want, but I'm going to do the intelligent thing and sit this damn storm out in a place where I won't get suffocated or eaten."

Nanami was irritated but she knew he was right, boy did she hate the fact that he was right. She transformed back to herself when he started pulling off his sand gear and begrudgingly followed behind him while pulling her goggles down around her neck and unwrapping the scarf from her face. She hadn't managed to get off scot free when it came to being filthy; her scarf hadn't managed to keep all the sand out of her hair.

Luckily she had a small brush with her, actually she had a few small items in a small purse she had under her sweatshirt with the basics: chap stick, a couple granola bars, a small hair brush, travel sized hand lotion and some antibacterial soap.

"I don't suppose you're expecting payment for stepping in back there, are you?" She tried clearing her throat because her voice came out hoarse but it didn't really help because her throat was so dry.

"Payment?" He gave her an incredulous look as he waited for her to move past him before he shut and locked the door again. Locking their easiest escape route was risky, but so far none of those monsters had shown any skills to get past closed doors and there were more than enough windows up there if they got really desperate. The idea to self-defenestrate again with an injured leg wasn't tempting, but at least the closed door should spare them the prospect of having to deal with any unwanted followers.

"Don't be ridiculous, I can hardly demand the share of spoils we didn't get."

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