A price to be paid. [Job w/ VindStot]

The member 'Leila Vergious' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Last visible roll. If this isn't a strong, we'll continue with the rest of the job's intended direction.

The member 'Hero Yamamoto' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Since a weak was rolled and we already sensed a disturbance in the Force completed that portion, it functions as a strong.

7444 of 15,000 words

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The mage walked along the ground in several inch tall platform shoes, adding six inches to her meager five feet. With the graceful way she moved across the land? One would never guess that she was wearing something to increase her height, thing’s that caused many other women to move around like newborn clumsy animals. Jiyu was skilled in everything she did, and walking down the street in tall boots, tight blue jeans and her bra top with a sweater loosely thrown on top, that was no exception! She had been walking the lands of Fiore for years now, working as one of the knight’s of the land, which was shocking. The girl had been convinced early on in life she would become a mother like her own, or be a great blacksmith like her father was. However everything had changed when the kingdom went into a brief war and she was saved from an enemy by one of the knight’s, since that day she had wanted to be someone’s knight in shining armor. At first her doting parents had been understandably concerned about her desire to walk with those in the world that were often put in the most danger behind mages who were used as front line defense these days, but they were always supportive of their little girl however they could be. Once she made her wishes expressly clear and it was cystline that her tiny dream was not going anywhere? The girl's father, ambrose, had started forging her tiny suits of armor and weapons, training her to use different ones to the best of his ability. Yet, her father was not battle hardened and could only take her so far, this was when the canine’s mother confronted her and told her a story. Apparently they had been waiting to tell her something important about the family, her mother had been waiting to let her take an age rite, and when she was ten the older woman had decided that it was time she knew! Akane told her dearest daughter everything about their heinous roots filled with the blood of demons, both literal and metaphorical, explained that they both as mother and daughter carried this blood line, and thus also carried more power than the average human. Once she explained that? The woman showed her daughter what she truly looked like, revealing her demonic form, and cutting her hand, telling her child to drink the blood. Jiyu had no idea how much that would change things for her, that was a turning point. As a little human kid? She had desperately wanted to be a strong person but knew she was incapable, that her dream was an unachievable one no matter how much help she obtained. Discovering she held more power than she originally thought? Finding out about being half demon, that raised her hopes and once she knew that, it was harder than before to keep her down. Jiyu had hope she could achieve what she wanted, and all children needed was hope to pursue something full force! The wanna be knight had been no exception, she had started training much harder and longer every single day, the determination was actually kind of adorable.

Now she strutted down the street in full general attire, the head of a whole section of the army, which of course she was traveling without. The time training with her mother as a child? Had been very useful and essential to accomplishing her dreams, as a half demon she was more physically capable than her human peers and that had been quickly noticed when she entered into the army to accomplish her dream of being a knight! The female had been recognized as someone who had decent magical compatibility, alongside the great physical strength it required to climb ranks within the armony, and it had not been long before she completed feats worthy of being knighted. However? That was not the end of the line for the young half demoness, she had not thought behind getting announced a knight, but the kingdom had thought about it for her. At first, she had simply been given her own squad to command, boss around and keep in line, people to train up into powerful knight’s themselves. Jiyu had shown to be very capable of this, taking anyone they threw at her, even the weakest of the weak, and training them into powerful soldiers with infectious charisma and devotion. When you were around someone who gave even their soul to something? You tended to get infected by their wishes and desires, since she was so into helping the people by serving the kingdom, anyone placed beneath her seemed to be infected by her notions quiet easily. However she could not go around as some squad caption mentor forever, even if it was a good use of her skills, it left some of them wasted. Why have one of the best fighter in every kingdom on earthland, if you were never going to send them into battle? Thus eventually they moved her back to active duty in the armory, to a smaller section where they assigned tasks and anyone could take them, it basically was the government's guild so to speak. However eventually even that seemed to be wasting her skills to that, she took every single job and drove most of the other’s grouped with her out of work, no one could control her, she just kept getting stronger. So than they moved her to the head of part of the army to keep her busier and ….. Was someone calling her name? She was trying to remember what happened now, how she was so good with weapons, but she kept hearing her own name in her ears. Looking around once more at the town she was in? Jiyu suddenly found herself in a forest and confused, how in the world had she went from town to the wild in mere seconds? Unless cast a spell. Who In The World Was Screaming Her Name! The female looked all over wildly for whoever was calling out, but she never really did find them.

“Jiyu! Jiyu! Ji-Ji! Jiyuuu!” the tiny fox was hungry so she kept screaming her surrogate mother’s name over and over again. Makoto knew that it was often not the best idea to wake Jiyu up by screaming at her repeatedly, but the tiny creature had to do it, she felt like she may starve to death otherwise. Koto was no where near as good as being randy and demanding, at least not when she was being compared to the inugami she was sitting on top of. If Kazehime wanted something? She most times damn well got it, of course this was mostly because she only demanded things from people she knew did not want the wrath of someone like her coming down on them. Ever since the wind user had come back from being trapped away from everything with only her own multiple faces as company? The formerly timid and somewhat reliant woman had seemed more independent and cut throat. Somewhat. That was a major somewhat! Mostly because right now Maka had to be careful to only wake up Jiyu, as the wind mage was not resting in her own bed, but instead sleeping in the much larger bed of her boyfriend, Marschal Leigh, normally Maka did not mind, but Kazehime slept so much longer with him around! The little kitsune did not like waiting for her breakfast in the morning and if she accidently woke up the feline, she had the feeling she would be locked out of the room for some time, until they got done doing whatever they did with the door locked, the child really didn’t understand it, but she didn’t like it. Anyway’s the tiny fox was bouncing around on Jiyu’s body, screaming her guardian's name and hopping the male beside them could not hear her enough for it to rouse him. Of course Marschal was not cruel, so if either one of them woke up, it would be good, she just didn’t want them waking up together, that was when she had to wait longer. “Someone wake up and feed me!” of course she was not going to starve, but a little kid like Makoto was unaware of this, even if she was two hundred years or older? For her species she was simply a toddler, she needed help from everyone to survive and she would have died without Jiyu. Even if the fox was safe right now, living in Black Rose with everyone, the kid just could not process that well enough to settle down about things like food. When she had been alone? Maka had come close to starving one too many times for comfort, the little thing took food very seriously, and also mealtimes. However ever since Jiyu started sleeping in the same bed as Marschal sometimes, those meal times had started changing! Sure in the end she was still given a full three meals at least, if not more per day, but it was just the fact she was made to wait longer than normal sometimes that irked her, the change upset her and frightened her. Maka had never had relationships between adults explained to her, the foxes father had died some time before she was born.

Well her dream was over and it had been one of those things that she did not wish to know where it had come from. Her ever being a knight? Was insane, not only did it never appeal to her once in life, with her current conditions that was certainly a fast track to an early grave! Kazehime had no desire to go back to being simply in her spiritual form anytime soon, especially not when life was so good to her. In fact? She was delighted to wake out of her dreams for once, because she was not in her own small bed, her body was far too spawled for that, almost eagle spread, expect she was wasn’t tied and not quite so rigid and she was sure they hadn’t done anything like that last night. Most of the time he seemed afraid she would suddenly break if he was ever too rough with her in any way, making her walk too fast, eat too much or anything. Of course she was the girl who could break her leg and cut it open simply by falling! Even if she did not want treated like a fragile flower, she could understand why he did it. Jiyu smiled fondly as she opened her eyes and squirmed slightly, feeling the hold on her body remain strong. Marschal was holding her, and she had likely been wrapped around him not long ago until Maka started trying to wake her up. Anyway’s the long haired male had one of his hands on her hip, while one leg was tangled with her’s and his other hand was gripping her furthest shoulder, head resting beside her’s on the pillow. Jiyu knew instantly from the position she woke in that she had asked her kitty to purr her to sleep the night before, due to the trouble she had falling into slumber sometimes. “You're so good to me.” she muttered it with half lidded eyes as her small hands rose slowly to grip onto his face and her body twisted to angle itself closer to his, causing Maka to fall on her back next to them. Once her words feel silent? The young woman moved to kiss her partner, placing her lips against his and locking them together intensely even though he was asleep. Hopefully he would not mind too much, because she really did not intend on being around when he woke up today so she wanted to steal one before leaving today! Jiyu had plans today, nothing elaborate but she wanted to look for something spontaneous and fun to do, maybe something of good will, help with some trouble she over heard in a bar somewhere or something. However since such a thing was often dangerous she doubted it would make him happy, so she was just kinda gonna leave silently this morning.

“almost done maka?” they had resorted to whispering once Jiyu revealed to her normal mission partner, her surrogate daughter, that she was indeed awake finally today and ready to get going. However? She had introduced one issue to her little companion that the purple silver highlighted fox had to solve before they could get going. With Marschal clinging to her body the wind mage could go no where, at least not without waking him up! So the little kitsune was trying to pry the males hand’s off her body, and move his massive muscled leg back to the bed instead of of being twined with Jiyu’s smaller one. However it was not going very well and they were having significant trouble with it. How was she going to get away without waking him up at this rank? Kazehime would love to go on missions with her lover and Maka, but the other mage was a lower rank than she was, and it was difficult for her to believe he could safely go on some of the dangerous things! Jiyu knew he was strong and would always protect her, it was what scared her sometimes, she feared he would risk himself to keep her life intacted, she didn’t want him crippled or dead because of her. The wind user really knew that he was stronger than she gave him credit for, but after how lost and alone she felt when her mother died and how safe she felt, the way she was secure and untouchable when he was around? Kazehime never wanted to loose that, the very idea of it terrified her and it was a thing she would rather die than experience, the wind user knew that without him it was likely she would never be able to open her heart back up again. If he was only some boyfriend? It would be one thing, but the male had brought her to Black Rose twice, brought her to the place that accepted her for who she was, even if that was not always the best person and even if she didn’t always know who she was! Losing Marschal was something she could likely never recover from, and for more reason than the fact her kind mated for life, but because he had given her the world back. For years she traveled and saw everything with closed eyes, just trying to exist in this world, but once he made her open her optics for the first time in years? The female truly started to see the world and it was beautiful, both in what people normally considered pretty and the drop dead factor of how brutal it could be sometimes, it didn’t matter what side she was looking at anymore, she saw gorgeous in both of them, because he was there to hold her at the end of the day.

“Marschal I need to get up and go pee.” oh great she was lying, but it was a white one, she did kind of need to relieve herself, and it was the only thing she could think to whisper to him in order to get the much stronger male to let go of her. Of course this would only likely work today, and every morning from now on he would not trust her to go to the bathroom on her own once she snuck out today. Jiyu already felt bad for it, but she was just not ready to potentially see him get hurt while going on a job with her right now. Luckily the plot the wind mage thought of using in order to escape his powerful, heavily, lovely grip, it actually worked and he loosened his grip, pulling her into a brief hug, she could smell the liquor on his breath proof that he had been drunk when they went to sleep. “Hurry back.” Oh now she felt really bad, because she made a sound that seemed like she heard what he said and would be following that request as she slipped from his now loosened grip. “I’ll just have to feed Makoto first.” yet she would be doing more than that and she prayed he did not get too mad at her tonight, she knew he did not too much like when she went places without at least telling him, especially since he had almost lost her a second time. Honestly he had been a bit more intent on keeping knowledge of where she was after she vanished this last time, and she couldn’t blame him. However Jiyu was never going to tell him that she had died while she was gone, that Leila had given up a good deal in order to revive her in a solid form. Inugami as Kami did not die like others did, they simply lost their ability to materialized in the mortal world most times and this had been what happened to her, she would have been forever in a realm of her own, if not for… Jiyu didn’t want to think about all that, so she tuned it out of her fragile little head. She just had to keep moving on every single day and make the most out of her life, and she was doing just that; Even if she was not doing what she desired most today. If she got her way? Every day would be spent cuddled up to Marschal, but she had loftier end goals than just being his bitch, even if he was the best man in the world. The wind user knew it was quite a ways ahead of her, but the goal of wizard saint was her end goal for now, it was something she wanted, no matter how much she just wanted to stay in his bed forever. Honestly it confused Jiyu how she could want more from the world, yet feel like all she needed was one person’s touch. She had to go now.

“That was clever Jiyu.” They were eating breakfast together when maka finally confessed she knew that Jiyu had told a white lie to her boyfriend, and the girl knew she should have expected nothing less from the tiny fox! Maka was bright, and it was stupid to think the kit thought they were just eating breakfast and going back to bed, especially since her surrogate mother of sorts had chosen to get dressed before they came downstairs, but more so because the woman had chosen her mission equipment as today’s wardrobe. For the child? It was crystal clear upon seeing that that today would be an interesting day, one spent enjoying themselves on whatever Job her surrogate mother could muster up this morning “I feel bad for it, but we can’t talk about it, remember he had hearing like mine.” Jiyu knew it was suicide to her mission on this day, if they kept speaking of it, Marschal would hear and put the pieces together! Like her companion, her boyfriend was anything but stupid, even the time she brought herself by saying she had to pee and feed Maka, that was limited and running out. If he came downstairs before the two of them left and got somewhere? The girl knew they were basically screwed for the day, he would not like the sound of her wanting to seek unknown danger once more. However Jiyu knew the best thing’s happened to her when she sought out things in the world. After those words the two of them seemed to finish their morning meals in silence, heck the air was a little bit awkward possibly. However? This was mostly due to Jiyu’s guilty feelings about running off without telling the love of her life where she was going, not because Maka had anything against being silent or what they were doing today. In fact? The little kit was clearly very delighted about what they were planning for the day, she even bothered transforming into her human form which was about equal to a toddler or young child, dressed in a cute little kimono. The sight of her little companion in only this kimono? Reminded Jiyu that she needed to purchase Makoto some form of magic things that could help with her strength, give her little foxy some thing’s to attack with or defend herself with. Although most of the time the kitsune was restricted herself to just helping her recover mana? Jiyu knew this might not always be the case, especially as Makoto grew up watching her guardian figure fight dangerous monsters and win time after time. Watching something like that? Would make any child think they could do it too, so the wind user wanted to make sure that the day the fox tried to help her combat wise, would be a day she could do so without getting seriously hurt.

They had left the Silver Moon a few minutes or so ago and Jiyu had no idea how she was going to go about collecting information today. In order to find something interesting to do? Kazehime knew she had to get her hands into some sort of grave vine, normally she used gossip around the cafe in order to locate where she wanted to go when she got off shift, but nothing good at passed through there lately, so she had to make some sort of other choice for the day. What could she do thought? The wind user did not have any clear idea’s, but she supposed she could go ask people she knew while doing jobs or such, maybe sit on one of the taverns more near the outside of town and listen to the noise within. Eavesdropping on everyone? Was something she did regularly anyways, she couldn’t help it considering her ultra sensitive ears. “Want to find somewhere to sit, or listen to everyone in town talk?” the second phrase made her flinch though, because she knew that might lead to a sensory overload and that was something Jiyu hated experiencing. Also the reason she hated Motor City besides for the fact something about that place made her feel extremely ill and weakened. Maka looked up at the armor clad mage and tried to decide if Hime wanted a serious response or was just thinking out loud to herself, because both where possibilities. Eventually the kit decided her surrogate mother may legit want to hear her opinion on the matter, so she tugged Jiyu’s tasset to grab her attention. “Sit Somewhere.” however they could not do that for very long, on the chance that Marschal decided to go looking for them, he could track just like Jiyu and if they didn’t get enough of a head start he would catch up to them! Maka honestly wanted to go on a job so she hoped they could give her mother’s boyfriend the slip until they found a decent task to go do. Shrugging slightly the wind user nodded, holding the small child's hand she lead the two of them to this run down inn at the very edge of the town, almost in the forest and went in. Of course? They fussed about a child coming in at first until makoto revealed she was kistune and they quieted down, not knowing what the legal drinking age for foxes was, and also reassured by Jiyu’s comment that neither of them intended to drink. “So what sort of thing do you think we’ll find this time?” she laughed and Maka knew she was asking herself as they settled into seats in the corner and just blended into the bar as best they could. Not sticking out when you were trying to hear good gossip? That was what one typically had to try to do.

“Have you heard about what’s going on in motor city?” oh great the first piece of gossip to drift towards her sensitive ears had to be from the one place she absolutely hated. Was it even worth the risk going there? She had barely made it out the last time and she did not really want to repeat being unable to focus her senses and suddenly feeling like she could not breath. However if there truly was something interesting going on in that cursed place? Would she really be able to resist! Marschal was going to murder her if he found out she went there again, the feline knew what happened to her when she was exposed to the conditions there, and none of it was pretty. “Not tons of stuff, but I heard people were disappearing?” it was such an internal dilemma as she sat there trying to listen in on their conversation with her elfin ears, body leaning against the corner of the wall behind he. Did she really want to risk hurting herself the way going to motor city could damage her, all on some rumor people happened to be going poof into thin air? Likely she did not, why would she, it was just a rumor of people running away or something, she had to think about herself sometime’s to- “Well I hear they're actually dead.” or not, maybe she did want to hear about that again, dying was different from vanishing, it required quicker attention from mages to prevent further loss of life. How did this person know they were dead and not just run away thought? Cause she was pretty sure her home village thought she was dead if they had not looked in the magazines while she was a rising star! If that could happen, than some people could vanish from a city entirely and not be found, they could be in the next town over and no one would know. “I hear they're even sending mages to investigate, the council that is, and some brats have a job up for it too.” so even the council was interested in whatever was going on in that city, and even third parties were starting to try and get their finger’s into this thing? Jiyu was becoming further and further tempted by every word she heard, even if it was stupid and idiotic, especially with her knowledge of how bad Motor City was for her health, the wind mage wanted to go more and more. How could she be great if she ran from something like this? She couldn’t, so she had to try, right, she just had to! “So maka, why don’t we head in too?” the female spoke up with a small smirk, standing up and motioning for her companion to follow. Even though it was not the wisest choice for how she could be affected by the city?! Jiyu had already decided she had to do this stupid thing, so no one could stop her now even if they wanted to.

Prior to heading to the cursed Motor City she had at least invested in this surgical air pollution protection mask thingy, figuring part of her issue was how she happened to be a wind user and the air quality in the city was piss poor. On a side note, she also had ear muffs on and swimming nose plugs in to protect her two most precious senses from the assault of the city, and while it prevented her from tracking she was fine with gathering information the old fashioned way, by talking to people! Even if the muffs dulled her hearing, she’d still be able to hear people respond to questions she asked, after-all you had to be close to someone in order to speak with them, that basically ensured she would hear them! “Have you seen any mages around here recently?” she picked this random woman who was clearly working in some mechanical shop, running down the street behind the blonde and smiling politely as she could. Of course the first response? Was to stare at her armor, her tail, Makoto and then gaze upon Jiyu’s guild mark and figure out the wind mage was around to try and help whatever was going on. “I saw a giant and a girl with partly translucent hair heading towards the center of the city with two kids earlier.” the female provided as she continued to gawk at the half demoness before her. Considering the excessive gawking? Jiyu figured she was not going to get anymore information from this one who could only seem to obsess about her inhuman features, it was a shame but it seemed most of her information would have to be gathered from multiple sources. “Let us go on Maka.” she walked forward, sighing slightly and slightly sad that she had been unable to get more information. Sometimes? She wished human’s payed more attention to their own surroundings, looked at what was going on around them and remember it. Honestly ever since she started living with inhuman abilities, the girl did not know how normal humans made their day to day lives successfully, nor how they managed to be such a successful species with how weak they were. Kazehime held the mask tighter to her face as she coughed slightly, taking a deep breath and realizing the air was already starting to subtly make her feel weaker, just her body thought, for the moment it seemed her magic reserve was fine, which was the important part. Honestly if her body did end up getting really bad during this, she could likely just have Maka carry her around and if she passed out the fox would call someone to bring her home. Of course? If she passed out, Jiyu had no guarantee she’d survive long enough for someone to get here, so it would not come to that. Kazehime just hoped the mages they were heading towards, the one’s that the two of them would end up aiding, were not some newbies and could handle things decently as well, because she did not want to become a baby sitter.

“What is all this stuff?” walking down the street she eventually ended up kicking her bare foot against some sort of robot. Being barefoot in motor city? Sucked! It made Jiyu momentarily wish she wore footwear, but her reason for not wearing things like socks and shoes, far exceeded being temporarily discomfortable. Anyway’s when she jammed her tender new foot into the piece of torn up metal, she nearly cut herself, so the wind user crouched down to pick the item up. Once she had the scrap of metal in her dainty little clawed hand, Jiyu noticed it looked to be part of some robot. “So it’s an inorganic sort of threat, what can these things do?” she shook the piece of metal, but it was just metal it only told her they had a tough skin, nothing else and she needed more information, she didn’t always just blindly run into things. “Maka help me shift, see if you can find parts that are nearly complete” she was going to have to piece one of these things back together, roughly, and it was going to be hard, but it would help her fight them if she ran into any more of them! The wind mage kept shifting through the pieces of metal finding pieces of an arm, legs, torso and other such things before finally also finding one head. “Here we go, robot jigsaw puzzle.” the Inugami started slowly moving the pieces they found into place, mostly none of them locked, but Jiyu was satisfied she went where she was putting them. After mages fought something and destroyed it? There was very little of it left. Thus she had to figure out what she could from what she had, her hands skating the surface of the metal, reinforcing the fact they had very thick skin with few weak points, kind of like armored battering rams. “The active one’s probably use a direct method of fighting.” which was both good and bad for her. On one hand? It meant they likely were not very smart and very easily given the slip, something she was good at doing. On the other hand? They were physical attackers and getting hit by them could do lots of harm to someone like her with a weakened body. “Can you guys fly or anything?” she started investigating to see if there were wires or such that looked like they triggered anything like laser’s or helicopter feet, but after searching all of the pieces, she found nothing like that, the wind user was thinking she about got all the information she could out of these. “Let’s keep going, we should catch up soon, these could not have been destroyed long ago.” or someone would have cleaned them up or something, so this meant she could easily follow the trail of smashed robots right to the main event. Honestly? People using robots should make the tiny pieces self destruct, leave less trace, but she guessed villains were not that smart.

Jiyu arrived just in time to watch a little girl vanish into the darkness of an opened hole in the ground. At first glance? It was just dark and endless, but she guessed someone else had checked first and told the kid was alright, so she was pretty sure it was safe for her magical ass as well. “When was the last time I jumped into a hole without knowing where it went?” the wind user really felt as if she had not needlessly jumped into enough deep dark holes lately! Honestly it was amazing how you could end up anywhere by jumping into unknown holes, Jiyu had a habit of ending up in portals and such, going into other worlds without meaning to and finding great adventures there. Jumping into another hole with an unknown destination? It seemed the perfect thing to occupy her time today and was probably related to the recent deaths, she couldn’t see any other alternative. If a deep dark hole went somewhere, it was likely an ominous place and if it was an ominous place, people were dying there and if there was death, it was the place she was looking for on this mission. Kazehime adjusted her fabric mask, taking a slight deep breath to steel her nerves only once before deciding she did not need to jump down the hole and let the wind catch her, even though she knew it would. “Feather.” they could fit down and even if it would be cramped the item would still and function as something to prevent her from falling straight down. Once she summoned the large thing? Jiyu scooped Makoto into her arms and jumped swiftly down the hole, her feather beneath her feet. At first, they seemed to free fall in this way, but eventually her father's ability to fly kicked in and they slowed down for the duration of their descent. Honestly as she let her feather bring them towards the bottom gently? Jiyu realized that just leaping down would have been the much more enjoyable action, but she let herself have faith in the fact that it likely would not have had the best ending if someone else was right at the bottom for her to fall onto. While the wind fiercely protected her? It didn’t exactly care about other people, so if she was falling towards someone else? She did not trust it to not simply destroy what was in her landing path. While it was sad she had to admit her magic was so violent, she knew it was the best thing as well, so long as she remembered how destructive her wind abilities were, she could not actually hurt someone with them by mistake. The last thing Jiyu wanted to do in this world? Was hurt someone she did not mean to harm.

“So I guess I’m a little late to the party.” the wind user spoke up once she descended into the cavern where the others had gathered, sitting atop her pristine white feather with Makoto curled up in her lap, tail hanging off the side of the feather, leaned back slightly. Her mismatched optics gazed around to gather what was going on, and she noticed this location seemed to be different than where they had been so she took the risk of removing her earmuffs and nose plugs. Sure enough? The sensory information this deep down was much easier to deal with, elfin ears twitching as they found sounds to focus on, like the people in front of her breathing. Jiyu smiled contently letting her senses adjust before she chose to spoke much more. “You're the one’s who wrecked the robots I found on the way here right? It would be embarrassing to hook up with the wrong group.” not that she really thought there was a danger of not finding the right people when she plunged down a random dark hole, but it still could not hurt to ask. While waiting for her response the wind mage slid off her feather, feet touching the dirt and toes hugging it as she made this happy rumble in her chest. “Oh yes the ground is way better than cement.” thought she was most partial to grass and really plush things like carpets and blankets! Especially since her rebirth resulted in her not having the callouses she had once had on her feet, despite having walked barefoot ever since she was seven. Jiyu just really did dislike the hard cement of most cities, it was unnecessary and basically people covering their rears from being sued or something if someone tripped and fell. Honestly? She thought Concrete was more dangerous because it hurt more to walk on than normal thing’s like dirt did, heck even pine needles could be more comfortable if you found the right place, and only idiots would walk on things like thorns or hot lava. The little wind user was mostly caught up in her own world right about now. Instead of paying attention to her surroundings? She was kneading the ground with her feet, stretching her toe’s out against it with this weird little satisfied grin, honestly it was possibly not normal for someone to be so happy about dirt. Yet after walking around motor city? She felt there was no other choice left to her! Jiyu was just happy to not be tearing up her feet on hard surfaces anymore at the moment. However it was clear that not paying attention to her surroundings was likely a dull move, any number of opponents could sneak up on her and she was not even regarding the people she had spoke to, so she might not hear if they replied to her. In spite of being a clever little dog, Jiyu was not always someone who acted like the brightest bulb in the box, she could occasionally be easily distracted by something, at least that was what it looked like right now.

“Who Are You!” it was a young boy who was maybe seventeen years old at most, he was shouting the words at her. However the alarming thing? Was his drawn blade pointed at the fragile neck of the newly appeared woman. Pointy object’s were dangerous, especially when they were wielded by little children who did not know what they were doing with them, a boy barely out of puberty who had something to prove. Such people? Got on her nerves every single time she encountered them, it really pushed her buttons. Maybe it was the fact she had her solid body taken from her before, or that men had held threats against her to do horrible things in the past, but she felt her blood boiling every single second his blade remained pointed at her throat, she could feel her armor straining to protect her vulnerable neck. “Maka!” he had not expected her to the shout back a single word, nor had he expected the fox at her feet was anything more than some simple pet! Kenta had been unprepared for when the tiny creature leap and suddenly grew five times in size and knocked him to the ground, held it’s jaws around his neck, just seconds ago it had been no threat and now it was threatening his life, and his sister was clearly alarmed. When Makoto had completed her command of knocking down Jiyu’s attacker? His blade had fallen and now the wind mage picked it up from the ground my the hilt “Maka Move.” she spoke simply and took her companion's place standing over at him, pointing the blade at his neck with a visible scowl, her face mostly covered in shadow due to both the cavern housing everyone and the back marks on it naturally. “I Do Not Like Having Sharp Objects Pointed At Me By People I Am Trying To Help And I Am Above Your Class Kid, You Can’t Take Me.” she was certain she would beat this kid in a few simple moves or even one move, you could see it by the way the mage held herself and the expression she wore. “Now are we past you trying to threaten me? Cause all threatening an animal gets you is an aggressive beast.” she crouched down over him, turning to blade towards herself, angling it so it went to the side of her, offering it back to him, since clearly his was his only weapon or something. In spite of his seemingly partly enraged face? The male seemed willing enough to give in now that he had something clearly inhuman hovering over him, and her five foot tall attack twin tail fox right behind her. Even if he was not some genius stageticiest? Kenta could see that he didn’t stand much of a chance of getting out alive if he did not appease the woman at least momentarily. Once she was sure of safety, Jiyu gave his blade back and stood up, taking a few steps back, brushing herself off.

“Now if you had bothered looking at me before assuming I was a threat you would have noticed.” she gestured to her exposed midriff, which had her guild mark plastered on it, the emblem for Black Rose just sitting there so clearly covering her entire stomach, the stem of it even descending past visibility into her pencil skirt! Thus Jiyu was clearly a legal mage, even if she seemed to be a bit of a testy individual. “I’m from Black Rose, a legal guild, I just noticed the mass robot destruction above while I was investigating myself and followed the trail you guys left to see if I could help.” she started explaining now that she did not have a dangerous sharp object pointed at her, the wind mage was always so much more passive when she did not have someone’s dangerous weapon pointed at her. “There was really no need for all the sword pointing.” of course she had to reference it as a reminder no one should point sharp things at her neck, luckily seeing his face when Maka tackled him, than had been enough for Kazehime as a spirit of revenge. “Maka what are you doing still like that? I don’t think they think we’re a threat anymore dear, go back to your smaller form.” the young fox looked at her surrogate parent figure, huffing slightly as she suddenly shrunk back in size to barely even one foot tall, leaping back to the mage's shoulder. “So yeah, I’m Jiyu Kazehime and this is Makoto.” it was kind of late to be giving their names, but at least it was better late than never, especially when you were likely about to go fighting numerous monster’s. “What’s with the mask on your face?” oh yeah, even if she had ditched the ear muffs and nose plugs, the wind user had kept her breathing mask on, thought it was just crude fabric, Jiyu laughed with a soft awkward tone, scraping one clawed foot against the ground. “I’m a wind mage, the air in motor city can become dangerous to me if I don’t take precaution.” the wind user explained it simply as she could, walking towards them again. Hopefully now? They were done with all the questions and such. “We should get to work, shouldn’t we?” and they could just get to work like she wanted to do, after all victory did not come to people who sat around.

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The magic council did not often actually send Jiyu on missions, or maybe they did send her letters of stuff, the end of the story was she found listening to gossip and showing up whether she was invited or not, to be much more entertaining. Kazehime was free as the wind she controlled, and no one could tell her anything, not that she did bad things, but one could say she was more wild than your typical legal mage. Of course? Her entire guild was certifiably insane, and almost no one within it was anything near human, so one could not expect some tame and lady like being of her. Ji had now restored to playing with her golden (they were actually orange, but the mage happened to be red-green colorblind.) tips, the dyed part of her hair, twirling it around her finger repeatedly, one foot tapping it’s clawed toes against the ground. Why were they not moving right to continuing with the mission, still evaluating her?! It irritated the girl to no end and, well than the feeling vanished to be as fuel for her assertive face, which she guessed was a good thing, made her harder to anger. However the girl was afraid for anyone who saw her infuriated, considering it would not be this side of her they dealt with, but instead a face that had no mercy and loved the suffering of others. Oh well Jiyu had accepted her other faces already, otherwise her new body would not have taken how it did, a frown marred her face at the thought of that, but no one would know why.

Suddenly there was another voice speaking, apparently to her and she was confused at the very first emittance of it, she had only counted four people including herself and makoto, so who was talking! Although now that she thought about it, there should be five people, after all she could hear five heart beats and five sets of breathing, five bodies, sometimes her sensitive hearing could be amazing. Now that she had the ear plugs out and everything? The female could hear that one of the heart beats was far louder than the others, but there was not a breathing rhythm of enough pitch to match it. What could explain that? She looked around a little bit, honing in on the words and seeing what she had thought was a tree root grown through the ground or such at first. Looking again? It was part of a human, and as she looked up, she realized the giant at last and nearly jumped back, stumbling, starting to fall; Luckily Makoto transformed and caught her before the wind mage could fall and get hurt. “Shit!” the girl gripped the fur of her companion and sighed slightly once the shock wore off, glancing up once more, though she could not see very much of him due to her poor vision, she had to get closer. Jiyu walked forward until she was standing about a yard from him and looked up again, trying to make out features, she did not like standing close to such a large man, but she had to try to remember what he looked like, to do that she had to be able to see him. One of the drawbacks of being a dog, her vision was crap.

“Sorry Hero, my vision isn’t that good, I could only see those two, I didn’t even know you were here until I took the earplugs out.” she supposed she should explain why she had been rude, at this point, it would be worse to cover up her poor sight like she normally did.

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Even without all the strain of all the rampant pollution that existed within the city named after a part of a car? Jiyu would have been unlikely to instantly notice Hero, it was not that she was dense but just because the pollution was removed did not mean the stimulation over load would not be there! She had another whole set of problems that the male could not account for due to her canine heritage, this place was hell on her senses and the only ability it did not shove down the waste bucket was her eyesight, which was already beyond piss poor since once more this woman was basically a canine given a humanoid form. So in her mind, the giant had beyond jumped the gun getting pissy with her, but she was too mopey and too over stimulated to care, despite the caution she had taken to avoid such a thing. Plus? The corrupted air that had been surrounding her was starting to get to the wind witch, a fact she tried to hide to the best of her abilities. Letting people see she was becoming weaker? Would only give them another reason to not trust her in accompanying them, and that would not look good for her nor the guild she belonged to, so it could not be allowed to happen. Jiyu was not as flaymboyant as her guild master in fighting style and somewhat personality, but it was funny when the two interacted because weather the canine and the tanuki would clash over Jiyu’s refusal to use silverware or wear shoes, or be a comfort, aid to each other? Was never able to be told until the moment of interaction.

“Not being in front is just fine by me~” she reveled in his offer, happy grin covering her mouth beneath the infection mask she was wearing to prevent all of the pollution in the air from going directly to her lungs. Of course? Aty her rank she was almost completely merged with her element, so breathing it in was the least of her worries, the longer she stayed here the longer her body directly soaked in the corruption. Of course since she was mostly self taught, Jiyu had no one to teach her how dangerous being in this place was for her, that it could even take her life away if she stayed too long. Of course as an inugami she would be back before long, but death was still not something she enjoyed, unless she was wearing her assertive face, that bitch loved death, decay and misery. “I am not made for the front lines anyways I am a range fighter.” for the most part, she had one or two close range spells, but those things were never her favorite thing since her body was so easy to damage and as mentioned before she did not like being subjected to pain.

“Are you sure we can trust this girl?!” the male snapped his words out and Kazehime huffed, leaning back as she looked him up and down, sighing at Kenta’s stupidity. If he got her slaughtered while they did this mission? Jiyu would personally bring his neck to the point of break when she came back, and then disembowel him. Of course the ideal vanished the second it appeared, sinking into her fourth face, the place such malicious ideals were stored, the one who would carry them out if they ever happened. “If you keep doubting me then you won’t be able to.” the girl uttered it, with a glare of her mismatched eyes in his general direction. Was it just her or was the already poor state of her vision degrading even further? She could have sworn his outline was a bit clearer only seconds ago, but now it was a blur of misshapen color, he must have moved further away because his sister’s outline was still partly clear. “Come on don’t be mean, she didn’t have to come down here.” the second of the siblings tried to calm him, sighing out and Jiyu smirked beneath her mask, eyes laughing as she swayed to the side slightly, taking an arrow from her satchel. “Than we should get moving on to the fight shouldn’t we? Since it is two against one for really supporting my presence boy?” She clearly was going to hold slightly onto the boys aggressive behavior to her. However even this minor grudge would be quickly taken in by the fourth part of her divided soul, it would take no time at all for this happen. “Yeah, Yeah whatever.” the male seemed displeased with her expression of victory as she walked beside his sister, slightly ahead of them. Swiftly he overtook Jiyu in walking speed and encouraged his sister to do the same. As an a-rank mage and canine? She entertained them, giggling slightly as she walked behind the meat shield known as Hero’s leg. “Didn’t you tell them to stay behind you with me?” she commented humor in her voice.

It was honestly somewhat sad to see them walking up there, reminding her that she had abandoned her own half sibling when she ran away from home. Yet? Jiyu did not regret what she had done in the past, it gave her the mage life she loved so much now, the thing she adored most in the world as well. All the good thing’s that had happened the past few would have never happened if she never ran away. Of course Leila would also still be- she shook the ideal out of her black haired head, reminding herself not to think of it. Right now? Jiyu was still able to convince herself that had all been a dream and she would be getting a letter any day from the eden mage, that they would go beat up some monsters together and everything would be alright. Sadly things were not that way and she was starting to get a really bad feeling about the two siblings walking ahead. “Come on stop being petty Kenta, you two should get back here behind Hero it's safer.” something was seriously pulsing with dark energy down here, and the black marked female should know since her kind were masters of the dark arts.

"That's enough, Kenta. We need all the help we can get and Jiyu is a fine find considering the circumstances. Lets get a move on."

Time stopped for no one and enough time had already been wasted standing around. The young man's outbursts were not unfounded, though it was now clear that he was still as naive as his age portrayed. After all, if Jiyu were truly an enemy, she would have had plenty of time to strike from above and Hero would not have noticed until the two young ones were already down. In order to force a continuance of the mission at hand, the giant began to move on ahead of the others in search of the ominous presence deeper within this darkened area.

"The time to dawdle is over. Something is coming."

On the ground, there was a light tremble, as though something large was rolling toward the group. The tremble grew more intense as the seconds went on, to the point where it started to affect the balance of the two younger mages who, he could tell, were starting to get worried and scared. Something indeed was coming and it did not bode well at all.

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(OOC: Short post is extremely short. I'm sorry u.u)
Word count: 200
Thread total: 27,429
Required: 30,000

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It was good to hear the extremely dim witted kid be scolded by the giant even if she herself had the embarrassing moment of not having noticed the man was there, in spite of her hyper senses. Being proven right? Was something she often did enjoy on some front, but right now she was feeling a bit too light headed to enjoy that, even if she was underground now the pollution was still thick and bound to have extremely negative effects on her. Kazehime honestly did not know how long she was capable of staying in this place, her magic was stronger than the last time she had been here so her body was even more bound to the wind than before, thus the poor air quality could even prove fatal. However she had a job she set herself on doing and she was not gonna end sooner than completing the mission, stopping soon was not an option and dying was also not an option she would not be able to accomplish the things she wanted in life. Since she had a friend give up so much for her to continue existing? Jiyu was not willing to let go of her own existence quite yet, even if she was on a mission most people in her condition would consider a suicide mission due to their weakness to polluted air. Anyways it didn’t matter right now, she was happy Hero had put Kenta back in his place, she didn’t like being disrespected due to how hard she had worked to not be weak and useless.

“Shit whats going on?” her words were slightly muddled as she was starting to succumb to the effects of the poor air, but she still had a decent amount of time, it just made sight harder than it normally was. Jiyu tossed her feather up and than stood on that, disliking the way the earth had been trembling. Considering how she normally found her way around using the electrical fields the earth emitted? An earthquake right beneath her feet was more devastating for the canine than it was for a human, it entirely removed her ability to navigate and tell where she was positioned. The young woman simply crouched on her feather and listened carefully trying to tell when the shaking stopped, elfin ears twitching constantly. Jiyu took a deep breath to calm herself, realizing they still had this job to do. “This isn’t good, earth shakes underground are more dangerous the cavern could cave in on us” they needed to figure out some way to stay safe encase the cavern came down. If she got trapped down here? It was only a matter of time before her magic stopped working and the potential combination of her element being limited plus the polluted air, did her in! It seemed the two siblings weren’t doing good with the earth shake either, but she couldn’t see what was going on, not clearly at least, even the five feet in front of her face happened to be rendered blurry due to the bad air she’d had to go through to get here.

Jiyu had hopped on an over-sized feather as the shaking got progressively worse, and in the distance, he began to make out a large metallic figure that was roughly three or four feet taller than he was. Whatever the thing was, it must have been extremely dense to cause such intense quakes just by moving. The giant ended up being correct in his assumption that what they were looking for was deep underground. However, he could not have anticipated how soon the main event was going to occur, which threw him off slightly. When Hero started to hop backward to try and defend the young sibling mages, they began to be lifted up into the air while each were separately surrounded by a semitransparent barrier. Mentally beginning to panic, Yamamoto stood in place while his entire body began to tense up and ethernano started to gather within his body. By the time this had all finished happening, a voice boomed throughout the group's vicinity and it did not come from anyone else but whatever was just ahead of them.


Titan was instantly struck with a sort of grief he had never experienced in his life. The only way one could see it is if they looked into his eyes. There was rage... an indescribable sort of rage that welled up from somewhere unknown to him; there was also this tension... the kind that made one feel like their skin was slowly being stretched apart. Strain by strain, fiber by fiber... being broken down into something completely different. Something hideous. For a few moments, the man could not bring himself to speak. It took some amount of time for his brain to catch up and start working again, though his aura had been greatly warped. As he returned to present consciousness, he began to hear the voices of the two siblings. The boy, Kenta. His voice rung louder through the condensed air.

"LET ME PROTECT MY SISTER! CHOOSE ME! HERO! PLEASE!"

Beyond those words, Yamamoto could hear Yuka sobbing... begging the giant to choose her instead. In the midst of this intense chaos, Titan came to a bitter conclusion: in earnest, the boy wanted to protect her sister from harm. To Hero, it was a man's duty to keep his family safe and he understood that sentiment very well considering he had an 18-year-old cousin to look after. It hurt a lot more than he ever could have thought, having a life in the palms of his hands. He still could not speak, so instead he placed a hand on Jiyu's head and looked down at her with the eyes of someone who could not bear to say aloud what to do. He wanted... needed... to know what Jiyu thought. This pain was going to stay with him for the rest of his life, he already knew that. However... this single moment?

It felt like an eternity.

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Word Count: 520
Thread Total: 28,472

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Jiyu could not really see what was going on, her ability to see was almost entirely gone considering it was poor, to begin with, corrupted air and strain did not aid her weakest sense any, no favors were done and her world was blurs of color within maybe five feet in front of her, ten at most. The long story cut short clearly said that Kazehime was incapable of seeing what was going on, so she was missing an entire part of the story. If she had time than Kazehime would have determined the machines rough height and mass from the sound of its walk, known exactly where it was located between that and its metallic stench. Yet she could not do such a thing right now because she was not calm as normal, nothing had been normal for a while and this was just more proof she might have become weak in her pursuit of strength. Jiyu hated the idea of not being strong enough to do things, but this whole situation was supporting that idea she had yet to even take down one enemy through this whole event and now they were faced with something, she simply hopped onto her feather instead of charging. To say she was upset with herself for showing such weakness? Was an understatement, but she could not display the frustration right now, she had to remain focused at least in appearance even if she was falling apart inside again this was not the time to do anything about it, especially since it seemed they would be battling very shortly.

It provided them with a choice and instantly Jiyu’s heart sunk down regarding it, she wanted to kill this thing so badly, but by now she had figured out it possessed captives.

No matter what was done in this situation they were screwed, someone was going to die and now it seemed like someone was always going to die. Kazehime stumbled off her feather now that the ground had seemed to stop shaking, claws digging into the ground as her toe’s curled and her blood boiled. “Who would do this.” it was the only thing she could utter as the claws on her hands turned red and she felt her anger rising, nearly touching the level she would have to worry about her assertive side breaking out. “This is fucking sick.” the canine’s tail was bushed out and straight behind her, teeth gritted as she growled low in her throat. Clearly, she woman was in no more clearly mind than the siblings. Jiyu hated that someone was making them choose who should live and who should die. Suddenly the wind user’s eyes widened and trembled slightly as she realized that despite all her desire to find her mother’s killer, she had never considered what she would do after she found him! Did she not intend to do something this sick and twisted to him once she had the demon slayer in her sharp claws?

It seemed as though Jiyu could not even feel the giant's hand on her shoulder at the current moment and he couldn't blame her. His body felt numb, his hands shook with rage, and he could not think clearly at all. How in the hell were they supposed to make this kind of choice? Perhaps when he was younger, he could have made a swift decision for something like this but not now, after having regained some of his humanity. A choice had to be made and thus a sacrifice had to be cast. In Hero's eyes, the most right thing to do was to acquiesce with the young man's wishes. To protect his little sister was his duty and the giant greatly respected that courage. Hero was being forced into a scenario he never wanted to be a part of and that notion sickened him, but... he knew what he had to do, no matter how sickening the situation was. His hands continued shaking even when his mind finally fell silent. All that was left in him was rage. The kind of rage that sought to make the world burn to dust and ash. Titan's heart wavered every time he attempted to speak, the sentence becoming harder and harder to utter as the moments went on. This moment was going to live on for the rest of his life. The man's voice was hoarse and laced with grief and anger; he managed to speak the words he never thought he would have to say.

"Let the young girl live."

Yamamoto's chest tightened as the words rushed out of his mouth, breathing becoming harder to accomplish as the seconds slowly ticked and tocked deep inside his hollowed brain. He made the choice. The only kind of choice no one should have to make. In the end, he could not have known what was going on in Jiyu's head but he assumed she was feeling similarly. Moments after the giant spoke, Yuka fell from the imprisonment while Kenta moved away and toward the giant machine ahead of them while still in the ball. As Kenta fell from the ball, the machine's right hand struck straight through the boy's body, blood splattering onto the giant who quickly moved to shield the young girl. If Hero's constitution was any weaker, he would have thrown up at the gruesome sight. His head hung down... his eyes were abnormally widened.


As the machine spoke, something dark began to overtake Titan. The air around him started to thicken and his body heat decreased gradually, slowing the blood in his system. Ethernano gathered within his body, an aura steadily making an appearance around his physique. The giant spoke through his teeth, the voice laced with something entirely different from himself.

"You will not touch any of them. I'll crush you and send you to Hell, shithead."

---

Word Count: 492
Total WC: 29,464
Requirement: 30,000

11293 words total, 75% of wc, job wc total achieved.

~~~~~~

She did not have to see what had happened to the young boy in order to know it had happened the scent of blood filling the air was more than enough to let Jiyu know what had gone horribly wrong. Even past the mask protecting her from breathing in a crazy amount of corrupted air? She could easily smell the metallic poison filling the air, the wind slowly gathering around her trying to convince its mistress to keep a cool temperament. However instead of a cool temper? Suddenly the girls canine features erupted, several colored mists spreading outwards as all four of her takeovers triggered, a snarl emerging from her throat as the wind tore the mask from her in an attempt to bring her down before she could accidently harm an ally in rage. However her element’s attempt to reign her in? Did nothing due to the fact they were deep underground, Kazehime forgot her magic was not suited to this sort of condition, knowing someone had died was enough to bring her assertive side right beneath the surface, the anger swelling in her almost immense enough to convince her to switch with the monster, but not quiet, especially when standing beside Leila’s team mate. “You Will Fall To Shattered Pieces!” instead of the rational somewhat nosy mage who had first joined up with them, hero was left with someone who almost looked as if she was a wild animal, fur barely covering the important parts of her body, tail erect and her fangs bared, mist seeping out around her. Suddenly the mist she had emitted exploded violently as her aura lashed out upon her opponent.

Finger’s tapping against the air kazehime quickly lay the base work for her first true strike that was something she could control in her enraged state, struggling to keep her vengeful side suppressed enough to not let assertive run free while they did this. “Hunter’s shot.” it was difficult to focus all of the bullet’s onto the single opponent, but she did managed to do so as her sight almost all but failed her. Everything kazehime was doing right now? Relied on her acute hearing and sense of smell. The giant was covered in kenta’s blood and it made the beast easy for the monster girl to track down. “Wind slash!” the silver crescent blades poured out and sliced at the mecha swiftly, punches seemingly being dealt by the wind shortly afterwards as her growling increased in volume. Someone who had minutes ago been thinking about how to work with her allies was suddenly seeming unaware of the fact they existed as her constant reckless use of wind magic in such a confined space caused cracks to appear in the wall as her aura darkened considerably, power levels seeming to do something akin to rising as she darted forward, seemingly going in for some sort of kill as if she was a predator. However it was than when her wind’s actions caused an after effect, the lack of her mask caught up to her and she stumbled a step collapsing all of a sudden.

It was right exactly at that moment something went haywire, thing’s went wrong and the tide of the battle could maybe be turned against them, or maybe they were being saved. Kazehime was only capable of existing in such a polluted area for so long due to how strongly she was bound to the wind, and suddenly the ticking clock ran out on the Inugami, her vision blacked out entirely as every sound and scent started to fade from existence.Jiyu knew she was losing consciousness as she tossed one of her feathers hoping she would fall onto that instead of the hard ground which would severely injure her. Luckily the woman collapsed onto the surface she had thrown out, slowing her fall to the ground by a few seconds thus allowing her to avoid breaking anything, a weak cough emitting from her lungs clearly suggesting what the issue was to anyone who was paying attention. She had screwed up and now her life hung in the balance. If she was not removed from Motor City soon? The pollution to the air around it would take her life which was something she was not looking for. As one of the inugami she would come back relatively soon after her demise, but she felt aftershocks from however she died upon return and she really did not want to spend days feeling this bad when there would be nothing wrong with her body. Plus! Kazehime was not quite sure how her ability to revive as an Inugami worked if she had a set limit of times or it was just a whatever sort of thing, she really did not want to start testing her limits so soon. Everything was blackness she couldn’t even make out anything about the fight nor if she was alive or had been ended by now, this was the worst part of it all, when you got caught in that portion between the world of living and that of the dead. Right now? Jiyu simply wanted to wake up rather it was in the after life with leila waiting for her or in the living with Marschal and everyone else precious. Being out cold in this manner with her lungs burning, feel detached from her own body, it was utter misery which she wish would end any second now. Of course? Jiyu knew wishing to speed this along was pointless she would either wake up in her own realm again or someone would save her from the smogged up air that was slowly choking the life from her prone form, seeping into every pore and making her own blood toxic to her.

Meanwhile the sister of kenta was still entirely enraged about what had happened to her brother, she wanted to get involved in the fight and brutalize the machine which had taken him from her,. Yet? She was mostly blocked out by the two older mages, especially since one of them had been using magic she quickly found could harm the wind users allies as brutally as her enemies. Getting her swings into this battle was very difficult if not next to impossible no matter how enraged she was, trying to directly partake could end up sacrificing the life her brother just died to protect! Thus the young teenager choose to dart forward and grab the unconscious wind user before the giant could bring its massive hand down onto the prone girl and take the life of someone else in this battle. Tears streaking down her face, Yuka kept one hand on her weapon to other arm supporting their fallen by living ally, wondering why the girl had suddenly passed out when she had been seemingly going in for the kill on their enemy. This was a messed up situation and everyone involved would likely be left with scars from it.

Jiyu moved first headlong into the fray against the giant machine just ahead of them. Meanwhile, a familiar voice crept back into the man's corroded mind. He recognized it from a recent battle... it told him to kill, again and again. Over and over until he snapped. The voice spoke with familiarity and independence, as though it was a completely different force living inside his consciousness.

It is unfortunate, the loss of such a young life. This will make you stro-

Shut up. I can barely keep my sanity right now.

Why bottle it up? Let loose your rage on the very thing that forced you into this position. Destroy it. Wipe it from existence.

Shut up... shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!

To protect. That is your duty. Your desire. By standing here doing nothing while those two girls are fighting the thing, you are giving the machine all the opportunities it needs to crush them. Unleash havoc, Hero. Send it down to Hell for its crimes.

That's right... this machine deserves punishment. It needs to die... to protect these two girls... to protect the rest of this city... to protect Fiore... it needs to die.

The aura around him began to turn into a bloody red as the conversation in his mind continued back and forth; he started to accept the fact that it was okay to destroy this thing out of rage. That it was okay to protect in this violent way. There was no need to hold back at all in this very instant. The moment of truth came quickly to him, and as it dawned on him, his newest technique showed itself. His body became surrounded by a wild aura of purified, raw ethernano. It was not something he could use lightly under normal circumstances... but this was different. He wanted to go all out. He wanted to crush this pile of scrap until there was nothing left. The giant began to walk forward, ahead of the two young women. Each step was heavy enough to make the ground creak and groan.

"Stay back... I'll handle the rest."

His voice was solemn, the polar opposite of what he was feeling on the inside. It was almost as though he was grieving even though there was not a single tear. His head finally lifted upward until he was staring directly at the enemy he was about to destroy. Nothing else was crossing his mind; that voice fell silent and everything became still, as though the world was holding its breath in anticipation. The machine charged at Yamamoto first, though it was clearly weakened due to the attempts of the other two mages. He stopped the movements of the enemy with one of his hands and then looked up at it. One word left his lips as he closed his eyes. "Die." His first punch came from the right and flew straight into its metallic armored body. It creaked loudly as the body lilted from the force of the first attack. Then the next punch was thrown, which caused a nearly visible distortion of space directly behind the enemy. What happened after that punch was a slow flurry of devastating punches from the angry Hero. Even after the thing had shut down, the giant continued to throw punch after punch until it fell to the ground. Even once it fell, Titan continued punching it in the torso, causing a crater to form in the ground that became larger and larger upon every attack that landed.

After some time passed, Hero finally stopped his assault. There was nothing left of the machine but broken parts and half of its head. The aura dispersed and he proceeded to relax slightly. It was over. This thing was going to take no more lives, of that he was certain. Titan grabbed the remaining half of its head and walked over to the two young girls and made a face that was... distraught at first but then it changed. He had to smile... for their sake.

Unfortunately, it looked like Jiyu was at her limit. The polluted air must have really took its toll on her body, especially when she was fighting. If only the giant would have reacted sooner... she wouldn't have been in this condition. Hero walked over to the girls and hoisted them both up onto his shoulders. He then sighed and shook his head while walking over to the giant hole that led above ground; then he put pressure onto the ground and launched himself high through the air. Reaching the surface, the man landed on the concrete street and immediately darted off toward the entrance to the city where he could contact a resident. Upon getting over there, Yamamoto told them to spread word in the city that the threat has been terminated. He also left the young Yuka with them until she was able to get her bearings. The giant was certain she would be able to recover some day, and when all was said and done, he darted out of the city to get Jiyu as far from the city as possible so she could recover.

To protect... that was his desire.

---

Word Count: 684
Total WC: 31,312
Requirement: 30,000