Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM): In the Shadows of the City - Chapter 5 Session 1 Progress

[Kaori Aoyama]

Her smoky green eyes looked up at the strong man. "It's true." She said softly, her eyes filling with sorrow. "I was mean to you Kenichi. I was mean and well..." she reached backwards towards her pack and Kenich was prepared for the slash that would cut him in two.

When she suddenly swung her arm forward it was not Onimaru that was in his face, but heart shaped wicker container wrapped neatly bow. "..and I'm sorry! So, I made you lunch! It's packed with nutrients and all the good things you'll need to keep up your strength. Most importantly, it's made with love!"

Her smile was was enough to melt his heart, but the way she held his lunch there with both hands outstretched was on a scale of cuteness that could melt the mortal brain. "Go on! Take it!" She giggled cheerfully.

[SalmonMax]

"Kaori," Keiko said carefully, coming forward towards the other girl.

"Do you remember...a few days ago? Do you remember how different you were before? What happened to you to change that?"

[Kenichi]

Kenichi extended his hands and took the lunch from the extremely cute girl offering it, the heart shaped container was a bit weighty, consistent with it being filled with food and goodies, that according to the cook, where seasoned with love.

Kenichi looked at the container and once again, most of the blood on his body went up to his face, he blushed a bright red and one of the capillaries on his nose gave under the high pressure, a single lonesome drop of blood going down his nose. "Oh..wow...yeah...huh...thank you...Kaori..." Kenichi held the lunch box on his hands unsure of what to do, a haze descending around his mind and enveloping it before his eyes wandered and fell down on Keiko momentarily. "oh..OH! Oh right! We were on our way to the shrine, to check on Skye!" Kenichi slappe his own forehead to see if the fog would clear sligthly, then he turned to look at Kaori and met her gaze and he forgot exactly why he was trying to get rid of the Haze on the first place.

[Kaori Aoyama]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

"Kaori," Keiko said carefully, coming forward towards the other girl.

"Do you remember...a few days ago? Do you remember how different you were before? What happened to you to change that?"

"Of course I remember silly! It was just a few days ago." She exhaled and rolled her eyed. "Sheesh."

She paced a bit, then stopped and looked at the two striking a pose where her arms were behind her behind her back, locking one hand around her wrist she swayed sweetly and innocently, much Kenichi's joy and dismay.

"Onimaru tested me." She began happily. "Thankfully I failed and it took that nasty old fuddy-duddy of a Warrior's Soul out of me. Now I'm free to be just plain ol' me. And it's a good thing too, lemme tell ya, because she was taking up so much of my time that I had none left to tell Kenichi things how handsome he is, or to tell you how much a friend you've been to me Keiko."

She spun around cheerfully, her skirt swishing up but far not enough to betray her modesty. "Which is great, huh?"

[Kenichi]

"Huh...yeah...great...say Kaori...huh, Wanna patrol together tonight?" Kenichi had a hard trouble speaking through the haze of his mind. "I mean, you say you failed the test, but you still know how to fight right?"

[Kaori Aoyama]

"I sure can!" she said bubbly. "And I'd love to Kenichi! We'll sock it to em good! But you have to promise to protect me," she schmoozed up to him and hugged his arm, looking up at him with gorgeous eyes and glossy lips... the part where her chest was generating enough friction against his arm to start a small fire was a bonus too. "You will protect me, won't you Kenichi?"

[Kazuo]

As Skye and Jim were readying themselves for the next round of sparring they were met with a sight that, only a few weeks ago, would have seemed bizarre and frightening in the extreme, but by now it was just par for the course. It was the sight of Kazuo Kanai looking like he'd just lost a fight with the propeller blade of a World War II Mitsubishi N1K1 Kyofu fighter plane (nicknamed 'Rex'!). That guy must spend a fortune on clothes, yeah?

As he came onto the temple grounds and came near them, Skye and Jim could see that he actually did look even worse than normal. Even worse than normal after he'd been in a fight. Hell, even worse than normal after he'd been in a fight and lost. Really badly.

As he passed them, Kazuo gave Skye and Jim an inscrutable look and said only, "Hey", and then continued on towards one of the benches that lined the temple's garden. He tossed his weapons carelessly onto the grass nearby and fell full length onto the bench like a Hefty Forceflex bag filled with jello.

He pulled a pack of Lucky 7's out of his pocket that were just as battered as he was and selected the only one that was more than half intact. His eyes staring straight upwards, Kazuo shoved the broken cigarette into his mouth and lit it. He inhaled deeply and held the smoke in his lungs for a few precious seconds, then let the smoke out as he spoke. "They got the others", he said, his eyes staring into the clouds overhead as if he were only speaking to himself. "Ambushed us last night. Bagged those other idiots I call a team 'fore we even knew what wuz happenin'. I made it out", he said, and then he propped his head for a second and glanced around himself with a look of mild confusion and added, "Not sure how I got here, though..."

Kazuo paused while he took another drag from the cig and then waved impatiently at his fellow students as if they had been pestering him about something, still without actually looking at them. "Just gimme a minute ta catch my second wind here, kay? Then I guess we can go rescue 'em er whatever..."

Then he returned to silently puffing on the 7 and contemplating the clouds floating overhead.

[z-Skye]

Skye stared at the bloody visage before her. For a moment, she didn't see Kazuo laying on the bench; instead she saw her mother sprawled on the bed, her wrists cut to the bone. She was in that apartment and could smell the blood and viscera.

After a moment, the pain and terror passed. Slowly, as if she were in a dream, she went into the infirmary and grabbed some rags. They weren't to clean his wounds - that was pointless. It was to clean him. She didn't want to see that blood on him anymore; the sight of human blood was sickening to her.

Skye put warm water in a deep, wide bowl and came back to kneel next to Kazuo. Gently, she began to clean up the blood. The task distracted her and it took her a moment to find her voice. "Got them? What happened, Kazuo?" Her voice was no stronger than a whisper.

[Kenichi]

"Of course I will protect you Kaori! Even if I fall, The Ogre will protect you. I will make sure of it." Kenichi looked a bit relieved, he realized if he looked straight ahead and avoided any kind of eye contact with Kaori both his inability to talk AND walk would go away, that is until he realized just what was rubbing up against his arm when Kaori hung herself from Kenichi's arm.

Deftly using his other hand to take his handkerchief from his pocket, he tended to have a lot of clean up when building, and used it to cover his second nose bleed in as many minutes. "But...the Shrine...Keiko...were we not you in a rush?" Kenichi, still blushing horribly but not as bad as it could be, turned to the petite priestess. "I...I think the discussion with Kaori, who seems to be at least physically fine, can wait till until we find out if everybody is fine. Right Kaori?"

[Kaori Aoyama]

"Abso-diddly-lutely!" She said cheerfully, finally letting go of his arm. "We really should hurry, I made lunch for everyone and I don't want it to spoil!"

[Kazuo]

Kazuo looked up from the bench at Skye and then squinted up at Jim. "I just said what happened, didn't I?", he asked in irritation, apparently oblivious to the fact that he hadn't said what happened yet.

Scowling, Kazuo twisted himself back up into a sitting position on the bench and swiped the rag out of Skye's hand. "Gimme that! Ya aint a damn nurse!"

He shoved his cigarette in his mouth, soaked the rag in the bowl of water Skye had brought with her, and started scrubbing the blood and grime off himself. He spoke around the cig as he washed, smoke trickling out of his mouth along with his words. "Like I said, we got ambushed. Two a those 'heads' (wutta stupid fuckin' title fer a demon lord) came at us outta nowhere with a buncha snakey demon things..."

"Which ones?", asked Jim. "Which of the heads attacked you?"

Kazuo eyes scowled and his mouth smirked at Jim as he retorted, "How the fuck should I know?! I let you geeks worry 'bout that shit, I just kill the fuckers! It was two of 'em; that melodramatic dumbass with the stupid hair and a beef with Kaori, and that bishonen jerk from school. And a whole assload a serpent-demons. Shit!"

Kazuo jerked as the 'cherry' of his cigarette, which had burned down to a tiny nub, got too close to his lips and started to burn him. He yanked it out of his mouth, chucking it into some nearby bushes in frustration.

"Anyway, they got the others. Dragged 'em off to hell fer all I know. Didn't look like they killed 'em, but I aint sure, cuz I was too busy trying not ta get killed myself. As ya can see, I succeeded an' here I am."

He stood up and dropped the rag into the water bowl, and then started smoothing out his hair while he looked around at the temple as if taking it in for the first time. "Shit. My head feels like it's been pickled in scotch and anger..." Kazuo stopped for a second and seemed to just become aware that he was squinting in the sunlight. "How the hell did it get to be the middle a the fuckin' day?", he asked, staring up at the sun and the blue sky.

[z-Skye]

If Skye was angered or upset by Kazuo's treatment of her, it didn't show in her face. She merely stood up and stepped back, getting well away from the teen angrily sloshing bloody water around. She opened her mouth, then shut it as he actually answered her question. Her blank, empty look didn't change until he said "bishonen jerk". She startled and the surprise in her eyes was the first real emotion anyone had seen from her in a while.

"We should get the others," she said in that same soft whisper. "They're at school. I can't go... Jim, can you run and get them, please?" She rubbed her hands dry on her skirt. "We should gather, for safety. And we should all work together to save our companions." She was still speaking very softly, almost listlessly.

[Kaori Aoyama]

No sooner were the words spoken than Keiko, Kenichi and... Kaori(?) came running through the wide open gates of the Shrine and entered the central courtyard. The moseyed on up to where everyone was gathered.

"Heya everyone!" Kaori said warmly as the noonday sun. "Sorry were late, we got a bit del-"

She paused and looked confused with a mixture of horrified. "Kazuo, you poor thing, what happened?"

[Kazuo]

Kazuo was in the middle of tearing away the leftover shreds of his shirt when Keiko, Kinichi, and Kaori appeared, leaving his lean and well-muscled but heavily scarred torso exposed, so he didn't really see any of them at first.

Kazuo just grunted at Kaori's chipper greeting, and when she asked her question, he snapped, "Th'same thing that always happens when I get in a fight with a pack a goddamned demons!"

He looked up in Kaori's question, loudly demanding, "And since when d'you care, Kao - Holy fuckin' shit!!"

Kazuo gaped at the new Kaori for almost a full three seconds, mouth gaping open and everything. Then his good eye began to twinkle and, in a perfectly deadpan voice, he asked her, "Hey can I borrow your shirt? Mine got wrecked and it's kinda chilly out here..."

[z-Skye]

Skye didn't even blink when she saw Kaori's new demeanor. It was like it took the most extreme of emotions to get any reaction out of her. Oddly, Kazuo's antics earned him a short, vaguely irritated glare. It faded within seconds as the girl focused on what was important. "Kazuo's team save himself have been captured. We should try to save them," she said. Her voice held as much inflection as replacing a gallon of split milk.

[Kaori Aoyama]

"You most certainly cannot," Kaori said, the dimples of her smile accented the squeaky giggle she made. "Don't be silly."

She nodded and 'Mmhmed' Skye's appraisal of the situation. "Yes, we should certainly help them. I just hope the demons are in a good mood so that both parties come to an amiable agreement. I think strict negotiations are in order," she waggled an extended finger. "Someone could have gotten seriously hurt. Well, besides Kazuo."

Suddenly it seemed like she remembered something and here eyes bulged wide. Her pack hit the ground and she cheerfully smiled, spun about face and bent right over and dove into her carry-on giving Kazuo a grand display of racy black lace beneath the tight creases of her pleated skirt - apparently Kaori was quite the freak).

His world was shattered as she stood up and spun back around, presenting meals to both Skye and Kazuo. "Look! I made everyone lunch." She handed a metallic box to Kazuo and a container cut in the shape of a fan to Skye. "I made them just for you! Skye, yours looks like a fan, see? Because you like fans. Kazuo, yours is metal, because you're dense."

It was hard to tell through the sweetness is she just insulted him or not...

[SalmonMax]

"Kazuo," Keiko murmured on seeing him. Her head was still spinning. First the worrying changes in Skye...then Kaori's transformation...and now Kazuo was back and seemed injured.

That at least she could help with.

Keiko trotted forward to the scarred warrior and held out her hands. "Are you hurt?"

[Kazuo]

Kazuo watched with unabashed pleasure as Kaori dug around in her pack. If the impossibly arousing sight before him gave Kazuo a nosebleed, his potent regenerative abilities healed the damage before it became noticeable. Which just freed Kazuo up to keep on looking.

Black lace. Nice!

Kazuo managed to keep the disappointment from completely overwhelming his expression when Kaori turned back towards them, and grunted once in amusement at her joke as she handed him his lunch. He dropped back onto the nearby bench, and immediately tore into his food with gusto, almost completely forgetting to acknowledge Keiko.

Speaking around a mouthful of food, Kazuo distractedly muttered, "Nah, I'm good."

He figured she'd just temporarily forgotten that his regenerative powers were so potent that he'd already come back from being technically dead twice since all this shit started, and was the one member of the team least likely to need her healing magic, but he was too busy demolishing the food Kaori'd just given him to explain all that at the moment.

[z-Skye]

Skye took the lunch, looking vaguely surprised, or maybe bemused. It was hard to tell when her expression didn't register much change at all from moment to moment. She was, however, wondering if Kaori had decided to poison her.

"He's fine, Keiko," she grumbled instead. "They didn't burn his body and salt the ashes afterwards, so he's fine. He's not the one in trouble. We need to go, if we're going to rescue them." Please no... not Henry. I can't...

[Justin OOC]

IT was at that moment that the Old Man appeared. "And how praytell will you accomplish that? Three heads together, three of the stronger heads. What plan of action will you take?"

[Rorx]

Jim was stunned for several minutes by Kaori's new appearance and manner, and took the distraction of the Old Man's presence and question as something of a lifeline, "The only one that seems to have achieved anything so far was to pick off the weaker heads to try to weaken the greater ones. Unfortunately, that doesn't do much for our colleagues."

[Justin OOC]

"And you all have run out of "Weak" heads."

So what do you choose to do now? You can go try to rescue your friends, but you've got no idea where they are. I am forbidden from taking you to them. You all need a plan."

[z-Skye]

"Fine, since you have all the answers," Skye said, "you tell us what the plan is." Her voice and face had become animated again as she glared at the old fart. "Or are you telling us there is no plan, to give up? Like we did for Ken? Just give up and let go and write them off. In fact, that sounds like the best plan of all."

Turning, she threw the lunch box in her hands away violently. It was less anger at the food and more pure frustration. "We're fucking kids!" she screamed, her voice rough from the stress she put on it. "What do we know about war and demon-hunting? You tell us, because what we've done to this point has only cost us friends and fam- Friends and companions."

[Justin OOC]

"Because only your souls have the strength to resist, or have you forgotten how the Demons planned to spread over the whole world. Many of you have been sruck repeatedly, yet you are still you, not demon. That is part of why you were chosen. Each of you resonated with your own peice of the legacy of Murakumo. Only you all can do this task."

Th old man sighed, looking and sounding very old. "This task is yours to accomplish or fail. If I could do more for you I would Skye. This is youre burden to bear though, a burden all of you share."

The old man vanished, leaving the teenage warriors of Destiny to consider their next move.

[Kaori Aoyama]

Had she been 'herself' Kaori never would have been caught dead falling prey to the classic moment of standing there like a concerned idiot and murmuring someone's name for no apparent reason. Her new outlook on life seemed to be a radically different one.

"Skye." She murmured.

The young woman walked over and gently rest her hand on Skye's shoulder, letting her companion know she was there for her. "Don't let him get to you Skye. The old man hasn't been any help at all since the start, why should now bee any different. We've all suffered and lost something since this whole thing began, even Kazuo, he's just to tough to show it."

Not wanting to earn the focus of her friends ire she lifted her hand from Skye's shoulder rested it in front of her, her opposite hand clasping her wrist. "But there's more to this than the old man. If he can not help us we must help ourselves. The demons insist on taking everything from us they can and I'm sure they do it to break our wills and turn us against one another. But that's the thing with demons, there not so much different than people... they only have as much power over us as we let them have."

Her eyes moistened as she looked at her white haired companion. "Nothing we do may change what was taken from us, Skye, I wish it were so, but I dare not hope too much for fear of that hope being crushed, but hope I do never the less. But I do know that if they fight, we must fight harder. When one of us stands at the brink of exhaustion than the rest of us must rise up and be their strength."

"We are all we have in this war." She said softly. "Companions pulled from all walks of life with a destiny none of us asked for, but none the less we must fulfill. I hope Skye, because that's all I have. If I lose that, nothing else will matter. So, if your hope is at it's brink, allow me, us, to be your strength."

[Kenichi]

Kenichi was half paying attention to whatever Kazuo and Keiko at this point, he was concentrated on eating the food Kaori had made, the shrimp were awesome, and the sausage in the form of an octopus were cute, as was the strangely pink colored rice inside the bentou, but hey food is great for thinking.

When the old man appeared Kenichi did not listen, god knows he was no help ever. Skye showed her temper once again after the old man spoke, not that he could blame her, she was probably the one to suffer the most out of the whole group, she threw Kaoris´ food away and let the old man have it before he left, Kenichi almost felt like cheering her on for finally standing up to the old man.

He listed to Kaori talk to Skye, what she said was all true, but Skye would need to be the one to accept it, and while she did...Kenichi would keep enjoying the rice Kaori had made for them.

[z-Skye]

Skye stared at Kaori. Her confusion was understandable; here was a girl she was sure would happily kill her if she got between her and a demon and step over her body after. Skye knew she herself had become callous, but she knew she wasn't as bad off as Kaori.

Now it looked like she was the bad girl here. The thought was hard to handle, so she ignored it. Instead, she focused on the more urgent problem: Kaori.

It was clear that something had happened to her, but exactly what was the question. Skye opened her mouth to ask a question, the one that would solve all the issues and make everything clear, but since that didn't really exist, she merely blurted, "Who are you!?"

[Kaori Aoyama]

She blinked a few times, stunned slightly at how Skye suddenly seemed struck with amnesia. She must have been so stressed out she wasn't seeing very well or something. "Skye!" She giggled so sweetly that Keiko could have gotten a cavity. "It's me! Kaori!"

She waved her palm in front of Skye's face. "Helllloooo! Skye! You in there silly?!"

[z-Skye]

"Yes!" Skye snapped, batting her hand away from her face. As Kaori giggled, she turned to appeal to her peers. "Am I the only one totally creeped out by this?"

She wasn't, to judge by the looks on their faces, but the sight of so few faces jolted her into remembering what was important. "What about the others? Are we going to plan a rescue?"

[Kenichi]

Kenichi looked up at Skye between chomps of food, the last bits of lunch clinging to his lips and chin. "Well, you know me, I´m all for kicking the ass of the Demon Heads, but I think they took our only tracker, unless you priestesses know some kind of Magical mumbo jumbo to track the minor demons."

Kenichi finally put the boxed lunch to rest on a bench near Kazuo´s resting place, stretching his neck from side to side the pops of joints creaking sounded pretty loud for a neck. "Knowing this Demon Heads, they enjoy the dramatics and have a thing for breaking human spirit, so they WILL contact us, but from what the old man said last time he was useful, the Demon heads are keeping each other based around certain districts each."

Kenichi started stretching himself slightly, he was getting out of shape from all the constructing and peace time. "We have already taken care of 8 through 6 right? That means on the best case we only have 5 districts to look for, and they WILL be all in a single one, if Keiko´s little visit this morning means anything is that the heads are trying to stick together a bit more, so I say we do the same and stop splitting up as much as possible, our best move at this time is find a clue or indication of where the others are, and move quickly and decisively."

Once he finished speaking, a slight surprise came to his mind "Which reminds me, if I were evil and had 5 evil siblings who were under my command, I would hate all of them, so I´m pretty sure even if the heads are working together, they won´t really tolerate standing around each other too long, so we might get lucky and if we find a single head, we could cut it off too."

[SalmonMax]

"No, Skye," Keiko said quietly. "I am too. Creeped out, I mean. But you're right."

She took a deep breath. "The first head visited me at school today. He told me that...well, he implied that I would be losing my friends. All of you. I don't know why he warned me...maybe he just wanted to scare me. Anyway, does anyone have any idea where we should start?"

[Kazuo]

Still *rawmphing* periodically on the rice balls that'd come with the pack lunch Kaori'd given him, Kazuo stared at the beautiful and (up until last time he'd checked, anyways) lethal teen before him as she spoke of hope. *Whatta turnoff!* he thought to himself, *I never thought I'd miss the old Kaori, but man... "if your hope is at it's brink, allow me, us, to be your strength?"... that's just nauseating!*

"Oi!", he called out around a mouthful of rice, and indicated Kaori, "Wuf's wif her?!"

Or he started to anyway, but only got about halfway through his exclamation when some of the rice went down the wrong shoot and he started to choke. Kazuo took a moment to hack and cough like his life depended on it, finally looking back up at the others and repeating his question, a little more clearly this time. "What the hell's with her, anyway?"

The others largely ignored his outburst, probably because he had so many of them that they didn't really stand out as being anything special, and then Keiko informed them of her troubling news. This was just as well, as it gave Kazuo the time to collect himself again after nearly choking to death and get another Lucky 7 lit.

Kazuo took a drag on the 7 and answered her, "We could try Kenichi's suggestion an' try figurin' out which o' the districts they're congregatin' in. Considering whatta bunch o' fuckin' retards they are, they probably are all gathered up together." He paused and a wry smile lit up his face. "Hell!", he said, "sometimes I get th'idea they got the same shaft we did, an' they're just a buncha kids like us who got ram-rodded into destroying the world 'stead o' savin' it, with the old geezer's evil twin givin' them bad advice."

After another short pause and drag on the 7, Kazuo added, "Or, if anybody knows the way to hell, we could try lookin' there. Gotta few things I wanna say to th'folks down there anyways."

[z-Skye]

There was a beat, and then Skye asked, "Keiko, is going to Hell actually an option? What would that do?" While Kaori's behavioral changes were shocking, so was Skye apparently taking Kazuo seriously. "I mean, I didn't consider it because it was so retarded that only a moron could think of it, but... we shouldn't discount anything. Would it help us? To go to Hell?"

[SalmonMax]

"I..." Keiko paled and looked down. "I don't know. There must be gates, for demons to come here through. If we found one, we might be able to go back through it too. But...if there's anyplace Amateratsu's light can't reach, it would be there. I don't know if we'd have any power in Hell. And we'd be at the center of theirs."

[Rorx]

It took a great deal to get Jim out of his stunned contemplation of the new Kaori, assuming it was Kaori, once the distraction of the Old Man had gone. Luckily (?) it came in typical fashion for thier group of 'hero' a suggestion so stupid that it couldn't be ignored.

Jim spun around to face Skye, "You want us to go to Hell!? You may be tired of life and just want to hand what's left of this world to them on a platter. Christ knows I wouldn't blame you after what's happend to you and Kaori, but I've got no intention of doing so."

He stepped back and turned to try to get a position where he could see all of them, even the dubiously transformed Kaori, "We go with the other idea. We stick together and watch out for one another so they can't go picking us off like they did with Ken. Then we quickly check that the districts of the two heads we took out are clear. Once that's done we can head into one of the adjoining district and work our way through that."

Jim looked questioningly at each of them in turn, well almost, he looked a little over Kaori's shoulder to be on the safe side, "Now do any of you remember what the Old guy told us about whicih of the heads were in which districts, or even how powerful each of them are?"

[Justin OOC]

Another old man approached the gathered children, though this one wore the robes of the temple priest and didn't wear the arrongant Look of th Old Man. Keiko's grandfather was easily recognizable. "You all fought the Demons In the South and West of the city. That is where you fought the lower ones yes? Perhaps then you should be working your way North and East."

He smiles. "That's the direction the leaves in my tea pointed at at any rate." He sets the pot down, along with a small pan with cups for everyone. "Who would like some Tea? it's fresh, and will help cleanse the soul."

[Kenichi]

"Oh I'm up for some tea! All this Hell talk is a great plan for a suicide mission, since you know we are having trouble with the guys trying to summon their bosses from there." Kenichi took a cup and drank from it. "Now I don't want to sound like I just shoot down ideas and never give out my own, so why don't we follow what Jin and the Priest said and look for them all together, looking out for each other? It's out safest bet at this point because they still utterly hate us so they will go out of their way to get us."

Kenichi finished off his tea "and Kazuo, I don't think they were just 8 people picked at random and given powers, otherwise I call unfairness and I want to join their side, they get better powers than we do!" Kenichi laughs at his own joke, trying to lighten up the mood a bit.

[z-Skye]

Skye had been very still since Jim's outburst. Now she moved, spinning on him and striking him across the cheek. "After what I have given to this crusade, you dare to suggest that I'm interested in giving up?! You asshole! I lost my mother to this, and I want my revenge. If that means going to Hell, then I'll go to Hell! If you're too much of a coward, then stay and die an old, weak man!"

She stared up at him, panting with her ranting and her cheeks flushed with the vigor of her outburst.

[Kazuo]

Kazuo had silently accepted a cup of tea from the old man and slammed the cup's contents down in one gulp, and then gone back to puffing on the 7 while listening to the others.

"No shit", he said to Kenichi's comment about the demons getting all the kickass powers, cuz it was true. Then Skye went ballistic on Jim for his insensitive comments of a moment previous.

Kazuo chuckled and pulled his cigarette from his mouth. "Dumbass", he said, "You totally deserved that. I'm the one who said we might wanna go to hell. She wuz just askin' if it was a good idea."

He put the cigarette back to his lips for another drag and then continued, "Hell's prob'ly a bad idea, an' I wuz only half-serious when I suggested it, but that was still a pussy response ya gave to the idea! I'm with Skye, if Hell's where we gotta go, then that's where we go. I'll fight those fuckers out in th'streets or down in Hell, an' I'll do it with or without these retarded powers that old geezer shoved on us, too. And if that's all too hardcore for any o' ya, then I suggest ya get yer asses back to class. There's still a few classes left 'fore the day's done, I think."

Kazuo paused for a moment while he looked around at his teenaged associates, then he dropped his 7 and stubbed it out with the toe of his shoe. As he was finishing this he finished voicing his thoughts on what they should do as well, "For now though, I say we go with what Kaori's Old Man an' Kenichi suggested. We go north and east. Hell can fuckin' wait."

[Rorx]

Jim ignored Kazuo and addressed Skye, "Good, I didn't think you would give up the fight, but the only thing you are going to get if we go to Hell is dead. We stand a better chance of lasting long enough for you to get some revenge, if that's all you want, by fighting them here. As for me being a coward, well I'm in this fight to the end, whether that means my death or their defeat but I intend taking as many of them with me as I can if I do go first."

Turning he puts away the training equipment he was using and takes up his sword again. having done that he starts walking to the northern exit.

"Ok, North and East it is."