A Faithful Encounter (Ayama/OPEN)

[ayama]

Shira grinned, as she noticed Mikhail throw the orb, she expected this to happen. And so pulling back, she still sent her double rushing towards her opponent. But so that Mikhail wouldn't notice that she had jumped back, she secretely made another clone of herself with her aura, while her and the double were running. So that it still looked like two Shira's were attacking him.

The real Shira then flashstepped, behind Mikhail, but what she saw as she gazed at what had happened to her clones blew her mind.

The dark orb that Mikhail threw, exploded. Suddenly flames made of pure darkness spreaded across the beach, hitting the two fake Shira's. They screamed in pain, as the flames ran into them. Suddenly the two Shira's then vanished.

Shira's eyes widened as she watched, 'such immense power...' she thought, relieved that it was her doubles that were hit, and not her.

She sighed, "Well...that was interesting..." she said calmly, pointing one of Hibiki's blades at Mikhails back. "Im getting bored with magic tricks..." she said coldly, "Why don't you take out your sword...hmm?"

Shira narrowed her eye's as she looked at her opponent.

Meanwhile, inside V watched the battle through Shira's own eye. "Amazing..." she said softly, "Shira and Mikhail...their so powerful, they've already gone through so much and yet still...neither of them are exhausted!"

She smiled, excited on what would happen next. But then, her eyes began to narrow. And her smile soon began to lower into a frown. She clenched her hands into fists, 'if only...' she thought, looking down at complete darkness sadly. 'I could be that strong....'

[Shun]

M I K H A I L R U T H E R F O R D
"I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF YOU ENDED UP SLAIN BY ONE OF THEM."

Mikhail grinned; it had worked, and both women had been struck by the darkness he had summoned. The flames had swallowed them whole and they were know screaming in pain; wait... what if he had killed V? The mere thought of this wiped the smile of the pyromancer's face; he had not intended to take her life, he just wanted an easy way out of the battle.

As both Vs vanished, however, Rutherford realized this was not the case. His eyes narrowed as he sensed that aura behind him... a quite familiar aura.

Impossible... she had dodged his attack?

Wrinkling his nose in disdain, he felt the scythe against his back. Well well well... she had caught him off guard after all. Mikhail had not seen this happen at all; she really needed to be praised for this. Listening to her, his lips curved into a smirk; so, she was giving him another chance? Oh, she would regret ending the battle there.

Instead of summoning just Flame's End to his right hand grasp, another blade found its place in the man's left hand. Now he would be able to fight V efficiently and he would not lose. Mikhail suddenly jumped away, turning around to face his opponent once more. He didn't, however, miss that sad look across her face.

The pyromancer's expression turned serious now. Why had she taken off her strong facade?

"Is something wrong V?" he asked, adopting a defensive stance just in case she intended to take the opportunity to strike.

M I K H A I L R U T H E R F O R D
"MAYBE I'LL TAKE YOU THERE... SOMEDAY..."

[ayama]

Shira looked at Mikhail curiously as she heard his question "something wrong?" she repeated questiongly. She was silent after that. She didn't think there was anything wrong. Her eye's then widened, as a thought crossed her mind.

Was perhaps...V sad?

Shira stood up straight, as she relaxed her shoulders. She looked down at the ground, then concentrating formed a mind link to V.

"Hey, you alright kid?" she asked, worried.

No answer.

She asked again, but again she gained the same result. Maybe she was asleep? Hoping that was the case, She looked back up at Mikhail, her face filled with confusion. She lowered her scythe, and nodding her head, as if agreeing with something, simply said.

"No..." A wierd feeling of regret washed over the darker personality, as she said this. But ignoring this got into a defensive position.

"Since I had the first strike in the last round," she said smiling menacingly, "why font you start?"

At this, Shira began to twirl the scythe quickly in her hands, making the weapon a blur. 'I'll have to be careful with this one...' she thought. 'who knows what tricks he'll pull now..."

And indeed, there was no telling what her opponent would do. She sighed, and looking straight at Mikhail waited for his attack.

[Shun]

M I K H A I L R U T H E R F O R D
"I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF YOU ENDED UP SLAIN BY ONE OF THEM."

But she didn't strike just yet; quite the contrary, V looked as if she was wandering deep into her thoughts. Tilting his head in concern, Mikhail continued to eye the girl; he could clearly notice that there was something weird going on with her... she wasn't the same person he had been talking to minutes ago. Well, technically she -was- the same person... but she was acting in quite a different way; as if she was a completely independent being.

V finally spoke, though her voice seemed full of confusion and doubt. Even though she had stated otherwise, Mikhail was quite sure she wasn't completely okay. His lips parted to let him speak, but before he could utter a single word, his opponent had changed her expression. The girl had apparently recovered her confidence once more.

A soft smile graced his features as he urged him to land the first hit in this "second phase" of the battle. That sounded like a good plan, but the pyromancer would need to plan this carefully... and fast. He was aware that Shira would be able to dodge almost every strike he launched at her so his only hope would be to trap her... somehow...

Looking behind him, Mikhail knew what he had to do exactly. But, alas, he would not execute his plan immediately; the man wanted to know what else V could do. Turning his head to look at her once more, he immediately darted toward her, eyes narrowing as he apparently intended to deliver a combo with Flame's End. However, the man actually wanted his opponent to block with her scythe, leaving her defenseless against the slash he intended to deliver at her right shoulder with Path to Mana.

Still, Rutherford knew that V was more than capable to get herself out of that situation. There was no way to know how she would react.

M I K H A I L R U T H E R F O R D
"MAYBE I'LL TAKE YOU THERE... SOMEDAY..."

[ayama]

Shira prepared herself, as Mikhail came rushing towards her. 'He's going to use a direct assault?' she thought surprised. She found it strange, the darker personality pictured her opponent to maybe do something more clever, but perhaps he had a plan afterall.

As he reached her, Shira thought about flashstepping behind him, but dismissed the idea. She wanted to show Mikhail she had more than just speed. She immediately raised one of Hibiki's blades to block the sword in her opponents right hand, but as she did she realized something.

She turned her head to see the other blade in Mikhails left hand come done at her. She raised the other blade, but as she parried the sword, the darker personality could feel a slight pain coming from her right shoulder. She looked to see what had happened. Her opponents blade had manage to just tap her shoulder, ripping her hoody, and touching her skin, leaving minor cut.

Shira sighed, "V's gonna kill me..." she mummured, "this is her favorite hoody..." She then looked up at Mikhail and smiled, "that was a good trick..." she said. "but you've made a grave error..."

At this, Shira twirled Hibiki around, twisting the man's arms. Then taking this oppritunity, she kicked Mikhail as hard as she could in the stomach. Forcing him to fall backwards. If she was lucky, the force would be so great to her opponent, that he'd accidently drop his blades as well, but Shira wasn't about to get her hopes up.

[Shun]

M I K H A I L R U T H E R F O R D
"PARANOIA IS IN BLOOM, THE PR TRANSMISSIONS WILL RESUME"

Mikhail's plan had worked... at least part of it had. While the girl had successfully blocked both of his attacks, the last one had made a slight cut across her shoulder. It wasn't anything serious but still a wound nonetheless. Unfortunately, however, the pyromancer had pretty much wasted an opportunity to deal some serious damage; V probably wouldn't be so foolish twice and leave a similar opening for him to exploit. Gritting his teeth he watched as the girl turned her head, glancing at her wounded shoulder. Maybe... maybe he could still do something.

He closed his eyes, gathering energy on his hands before slowly channeling it all around his weapons. Perhaps by using a gravity spell Mikhaiil could increase the power of his blades and successfully bring his opponent down to the ground. However, his little plan wouldn't last long before crumbling; she spoke and swiftly, without a warning, twirled her scythe around.

Even with all of that pain enduring training he had had back home, Rutherford couldn't stop the piercing pain signals from reaching his brain. He winced, prompted by instinct into taking a few steps back as he drew his swords away from Hibiki. The distance would eventually save him from getting the following kick's full power but it would still connect with his stomach.

Releasing Path to Mana from his grasp, the man coughed. He slightly bent over and placed his free hand over his stomach for a moment.

"Nice one," he said after a few moments, standing up straight by now to look at her. "I didn't see that coming... not at all."

Mikhail quickly adopted a defensive position, not caring enough to pick up the fallen blade. In a real battle, the enemy wouldn't give him the chance to do anyway and this would fittingly serve as training for such occasion. Besides, the pyromancer had been getting used to double wielding a bit too much.

M I K H A I L R U T H E R F O R D
"THEY'LL TRY TO PUSH DRUGS THAT KEEP US ALL DUMBED DOWN AND HOPE THAT WE WILL NEVER SEE THE TRUTH AROUND"

[ayama]

Shira smirked at Mikhail's remark, as he stood up from where he fell from her earlier attack. "Of course..." she replied, brushing a few strands of hair out of her face. "If I had become predictable this entire battle would get boring, Its so much fun to take your opponent by surprise..." Her eye's narrowed, "However..." she added, lowering the scythe to her side. "I'm quite disappointed in you Mikhail..."

She raised one of the blades of Hibiki to her face then, "I thought you would pose much more of a challenge for me but...I guess I was wrong..." At this she ran her thumb along the edge of the blade testing to see if it was still sharp. When she got to the tip a small cut appeared in the middle of her thumb, soon blood started to appear from the minor wound, and raising the cut to her lips licked the blood away. "When I saw you at that cafe in Traverse Town, I was surprised how powerful your aura was...I thought for sure you were the one I had been searching for...the one that would finally be able to defeat me but...if I had known you'd be this easy I wouldn't have asked V to switch places with me...oh well.."

At this point, the darker persona lowered the blade and looking straight into her opponents eye's got into a defensive stance once more, however this time she didn't wait for an attack. She disappeared in a flash, and leaving just the scenery of the island soon appeared right in front of Mikhail. She then twirled around, and placing the scythe in both her hands so that the blades were horizontal did a simple spin attack. She didn't stop at two spins though, she continued to spin adding more power as she did, refusing to stop until she could feel herself start to get dizzy. When she did she instantly flashstepped a few feet away, she then extended her hand and forming a part of her aura into spikes aimed them right towards her opponent, she didn't leave it at that though, she held back two spikes and controlling them with simple hand gestures split them up attacking the man at both sides.

'Lets see how you handle this...' she thought, and trying to shake off the dizzy feeling she had waited to see what Mikhail would do.