Encounter on the Beach

Leylin had, for the most part, been welcomed quick readily into the West Fiore Trading Company after a very interesting encounter with a series of their members. Out of them all though, there had been a single female that had been on his mind ever since that moment; a girl whose hair was as green as it got and probably reflected her control over plant-life. For awhile he felt almost suffocated inside of the large guild halls, finding himself spending more and more time outside along the beaches training and relaxing to the best of his abilities. Today was a day just like that, just trying to relax his nerves while trying to wrap his head just around what happened so many years ago.

The raging fire, the deep seeded anger and rage.... He swore that they were all buried beneath the flaming rubble of their house but had he miscalculated? For the first time in his life he was worried about his cover being blown, thinking back as he looked back towards the burning house and heard a girl's shrill cries... The man saw the dark night as if he was reliving it, the smoke billowing into the air and the pain that coursed through his body. But as he opened his eyes he was welcomed but a different sight, instead seeing the beautiful golden sand of the beach near the main structure for the group. The water was as clear and sparkling as usual, waves rolling calmly up on the shores of the beach and being just the visage he needed to calm his raging soul.

Leylin was resting within one of the trees on the border of the beach, where he could get a good view of it all while leaning backwards on the trunk and tilting a black sunhat over his eyes to stop the glare from getting in. He was dressed in a pair of black pants, a sleeveless black shirt, and a pair of sandals to match. Maybe a bit more casual than most would except from someone who acted so formal but in his normal attire he was likely to burn a bit and even if he had gotten cold it was as easy as calling on some of his affinity magic. A belt and harness was hanging from the branch next to him, clearly meant to fit over his chest so that his large staff was easy to draw and holding both his blasting rod at the back of his waist, his sword at the side. With oceanic blue eyes slowly disappearing behind his lids, he was going to try and get a nap with the rolling waves as a gentle lullaby.

Yona Hisamori wore the full white uniform that denoted her a member of the WFTC: a cropped but loose tank top, short shorts, and a too-big ivory coat with baggy sleeves and delicate buttons. That coat now flared up behind her and she strode outside of the guild and towards the natural wilderness of Tolgalen. She stormed on and on for almost an hour before making it to a beach, like a clearing in the coast, thankfully hidden from view. Yona paused there upon seeing the rolling grey waves splashing on the rocks and sand and then groaned. She had apparently walked in nearly a circle and lifting her head, Yona could see the guild just over the tops of the trees and closer than she had wanted it to be.

She paused below a tree and looked down at her right hand. There was a burn coursing over her fingers- a light red stain that she could tell already would heal. Oh, how it messed with her mind; her little dark haired brother was in her mind's eye, Cirven had shown her an image of his burning body in an attempt to get her to take a step back, calm down, control her emotions before she took part in a mass violence outbreak right in front of the guild entryway. Instead of getting her to back off, hold her breath, shut down even, Yona reacted with more violence. She had reached out to the image, taking hold and getting burned.

And that played with her heart strings, as if giving her the impression that her brother could be saved, that her brother had been real. Her desperation to see him and to protect him flared up in her in a way that she hadn't felt in a long time. Her desire to seek and destroy the man responsible was fueled like gasoline on this metaphoric flame. Yona clenched her hand and shouted, "I swear I will kill you, you bastard!"

Leylin had finally been able to slowly drift into sleep and calm the furious fires deep in his heart, though that quickly turned into a fleeting moment before the sounds of feet upon the ground could be heard as well as a series of angry grumbles. The man's eyes slowly slipped open from the faint grogginess that had overtaken him in that moment but it all disappeared instantly when his eyes locked onto the form of Yona, even narrowing slightly. What were the chances that she would end up right under the tree that Leylin had been resting in? Sure, the fact that his sleep was annoyed was annoying but this gave him a chance he didn't think that he would get.

Actually, it was a chance he didn't know what to do with... But would trying to kill her so close to the guild be a good idea? If he succeeded without drawing any attention, burning the corpse to ash could solve the issue easily and maybe they'd assume she had just left the guild... But that came with a whole other can of worms he wasn't sure he wanted to open, letting out a gentle breath as he listened to the woman before she then made her proclamation of making sure to kill someone. That caught his attention because, as a man from her past he couldn't help but feel like those words were directed at him but that was mostly just imagination getting the best of him.. Right?

"I hope you aren't talking about me." He said deciding to break the silence that soon lingered after her words and revealing the fact that she wasn't alone. His body swung a bit, legs coming over the side while his right hand grabbed his harness from the hanging branch. It was a single motion and easily attached back to his body, his feet coming against the ground as he'd land only a few feet from Yona. Looking the woman up and down, he'd perk a brow and speak to her again,"So who exactly are we killing?"

Yona leapt backwards, sharply taking in a breath. Her hands glowed green, her right one outstretched towards him as if readying to launch a spell. When she saw his face, she lowered her hands and took on a more relaxed stance. "Maybe I was talking about you. Spooking a lady like that, you deserve to get hit with something." She sounded angry than she should have been, but then the annoyance she felt at the man was not related to him in the first place. Yona caught him looking her up and down and her pretty mouth turned down in a scowl. "Stop looking at me like that and mind your own business. Damn, whoever I want to kill is clearly my own business after all."

Yona's right hand was the one which had been freshly burned and she had pulled it down quickly, trying to hide the minor injury. There weren't many things that could burn a person on a beach and the guy seemed nosy enough asking about her thoughts. Yona looked at him with a curled lip, her eyes squinting slightly through the sun's glare. "Leylin right? Why're you always staring at me? Is it for the flower thing, cause I already apologized for dragging you into that a little." Yona shrugged, "Not like Johann believed me anyway."

Leylin watched as she seemed ready to launch some type of magic his direction but he never got defensive, instead simply raising a brow in response. Something told him she wasn't the type to just lash out at him on the offensive unless actually provoked, which he guess he did kinda do by scaring her. "Oi, oi. You are the one who disturbed my nap, so that makes us even for me scaring you~" He playfully chastised the woman, catching a glimpse of the burn on her hand before it was gone from sight and he pushed that to the side for now. "And sure, it could be just your business but where is the harm in sharing? I mean, killing someone definitely gets easier the more amount of people you have trying." Which was just simple math, but he didn't delve too much into that seeing as he quickly had to think of why he was staring at her.

She was blunt, that was clear by the way she asked her question but he nodded his head,"Yes, Leylin. And I don't really care about the flower situation, whether he believed it or not. I thought it was fun~" Of course seeing the woman squint to look at him, he let out a soft breath and assuming she didn't retreat as he took a step towards her, he made a simple gesture. His right hand came up and removed the sun hat on his head, instead placing it on hers so that the sun would no longer be a problem before he offered her a friendly grin,"I find you interesting, is all, Ms. Hisamori. If you are worried I'm admiring you like some type of eye candy, you can rest assured."

Resting his hands faintly at his hips the man let out a breath,"You just remind me of someone I use to know, if you want something besides compliments on your appearance and personality. That's all there is to it." He shrugged casually before, again, looking her up and down but this time it was clear he was gauging her response to his words,"So, what exactly has you all worked up?" Leylin asked again, clearly not letting the situation at hand go that easily.

Leylin put Yona in a state of unease. He was polite, apologetic, but not in a discriminating way. He acted like she were his equal and even though she had no idea of his abilities, his history, his personality, or his motives, Yona found his gentle coaxing more than enough to vent a bit to him. Her hand still burned from the flame, her mind still burned from the memory, and her body was all pumped up and ready for a fight after what happened with Akryn, Akeya, and Cirven. The moss haired maiden was too on edge to hold back and at this point she was on the verge of obliterating something if she didn't get a good fight out of her. This man was asking for it and it was clear he would not let it go.

"Not like it's any of your concern, but I've spent my life seeking out one man and one man only," Yona squinted at him through her eyes and then her eyes widened as he put his hat on her head. She started to take it off, annoyed that he thought she needed anything from him at all, but it did block the bright sun. Her hand fell from the hat and she shifted her weight on her feet, feeling out the sand with her boots. "He's a murderer who killed an innocent family and there will be hell to pay for his crimes." She pursed her lips into tight lines and crossed her arms. "The man is pure, unadulterated evil, with a heart so black not even the devils of this world would associate with him." She thought of the man's cruel laugh, his taunts. Ruvel's summons had forced her to relive that, creating and altering the memory until it seemed real to her: the shadow of a man in a dark grey memory, the feel of the burning house on her crushed legs, the smell of the flesh of her family burning. It was a thing she could not escape and her hands clenched tighter as she thought of how Cirven used her brother against her.

"Plus the guild leader can be a real ass." It wasn't like Yona to brazenly insult the Cirven, but his apology for ignoring her and then using Sato against her was just not quite enough to assuage the literal burns on her hand and the sharp burns in her mind. Yona flicked her emerald eyes from Leylin to the sea, breathing deep and shallow. "You probably don't have someone you want to kill so badly, but I swear it's deserved."

The man regarded everything quite casually, even as she proclaimed that she had a run in with a man that was pure evil. His body only made a gentle movement as he would press his shoulder against the tree he was once resting on, arms now slipping to cross over his chest with one hand coming to rest against his chin. Gently he nodded his head,"Not to strike a nerve, Ms. Hisamori, but is it safe to assume that this family he killed... Was yours?" She was clearly attached to this memory and anyone could have probably put that together, but the fact that he was the man in question only made this so much better.

He wanted to take pleasure in the fact that she remembered nothing about that night, it seemed, that was a huge relief to his conscious at least. That meant that he could continue to work as he had been, hiding just beneath the surface and if she trusted him enough to vent this to him now... Well, he would eventually get his chance to finish the woman off and end her family for good. He was great at hiding his emotions, shown by the fact that he offered her a soft and understanding smile while a small anger was bubbling up under his skin. He remembered that night even better than Yona did, the sight of her father before he gave his final verdict. The rage, the anger... Hell, even the pain. He would never forget it.

"And don't jump to conclusions, Ms. Hisamori. I have someone I want to kill, to watch them take their last breath and slip away into the ethereal plane." She didn't need to know that he was talking about her, there was no need for details but the emotions he spoke were very much real. But then his tone shifted from that faint anger, still having retained his calmness and posture, to one of regret. "A man shroud in black fire killed the people closest to me. He relentlessly killed my parents in cold blood and left me alive, so that I could suffer." The pain was in his voice and even more in his deep oceanic eyes but he kept it off his face. Taking in a deep breath after opening up about his want to kill her and his own painful background, he'd step away from the tree while motioning for the woman to follow him.

Assuming she did, the two of them would soon be standing on the beach near the waves and he would turn towards her before taking a combat stance and gracefully pulling his staff from his harness. His left hand would be in front of him with no weapon, right arm backwards with his staff resting part way across his forearm. His legs were partly spread and with a playful smirk he'd motion for the girl to attack,"Why don't I help you work out some of that anger, Ms. Hisamori?"

Yona's body went corpse like- cold, emotionless, and rigid with muscle tension. How dare he assume her history? How dare he bring it up regardless? And who did he think he was playing on with her when it was clear she was in no mood to play, to divulge secrets and discuss personal darknesses. The nineteen year old glowered daggers at Leylin for his presumptuous nature. She took his hat off and threw it at him, "Shut up, would you?" Yona demanded tersely. She turned away from him, facing the water, watching the fingers of foam crawl up the beach and then slide back as the power of the ocean dragged it unwillingly back into its depths.

Leylin didn't shut up though; the black haired fool kept talking. She heard him mention his desire to kill someone and scoffed, rolling her eyes. Like she was that easy to fool, that easy to reach? She huffed under her breath, "Oh just so happens we both want to kill a person, how original." She didn't care if he heard her, but Yona did work it gruffly under her breath. She listened to his next words and went quiet, stiffening up again. A man with black fire killed his family? An identical situation to her's? It was blasphemous, he must have just heard her own histories somewhere, or read her mind with magic. It was tortuous and stupid of him to try to use it to weasel into her life, and yet... Yona didn't react. Because if he was telling the truth, that would mean something great indeed. Yona heard the sound of Leylin's feet moving towards and then past her. He gestured for her to follow and she stood there still, firmly debating his taciturn request.

When Leylin took a combat stance, pulling his staff over his right arm comfortably, and offered to work out her anger, Yona hesitated still. Her arms fell to her sides and she bit on her lip before narrowing her green eyes at him. If he wanted a fight, she would give him a fight. "Fine, but you know it's against guild rules. No permanent injury or death leading blows- Ruvel would kill us if she found out. And no major magic explosions or we'll draw the attention of the whole island at us." She shook her arms out, and then hopped once, moving her feet into a ready stance. She was clearly not battle trained, but she had seen battle. "You're new so you can strike first."

When she had thrown his hat back at him, he had caught it and after his own opening up, Leylin took the hat and placed it back on his head. The man let out a soft chuckle as he finished, seeing the way she reacted to being so transparent but he would still go and take his combat stance. As she spoke about the rules and such, he gave a smirk towards the woman,"Oh I don't plan on injuring you for good or something, Ms. Hisamori. This is just a good ol' venting session for two people who clearly need it." There'd be some way for them to find out if he killed her on the guild's island, he didn't doubt that but if he could do it here... Maybe, just maybe.

But she insisted that the man take the first strike and, well, who was he to argue with her? So as she said that the man nodded his head and then was running across the beach with relative ease. He made sure to keep his staff against his forearm as he got close before he'd make his strike, body suddenly pivoting. In that motion, his left that was leading would immediately become his right and his wooden staff would have come around to aim for her back of her left knee to try and have it buck forwards towards him and take her whole balance from underneath her. Whether it worked or not his assault continued, arm moving back and flicking his staff against his back and around to his left arm where he'd aim to sweep her legs completely out from underneath her and leave her with no footing at all. The idea was to leave her exposed so that he could finish the combo with a firm kick to her exposed stomach area and send her tumbling back a bit,"Let me see what you have, Ms. Hisamori!"

The green haired female kept her stance, preparing for him to do something to attack, looking to his hands and his mouth. But he made no grandiose gestures, made no unusual casting elocutions, and she felt it safe to assume his first move would be a purely physical attack. With a staff like that, he would have both range and reach for a blow or a trip. Yona licked her lips considering how to best block such a move. She could block a hit, but if Leylin was trying to trip her, she would be open. She could attempt to block a trip, but it would leave her wide open for a counter hit too.

When Leylin got close enough that she saw him start to swing his staff, it was clear what she needed to do. Yona stomped a foot on the ground and sent a wall of nettles up before her, allowing whatever move he made to land solidly on her Aegis Brier instead of on her own person. And once the shield was up, it was an easy wall to maneuver around. She would touch her own brier, drawing out her Blade of Thorns in the form of her usual: a single curved scimitar with a sharp edge of angled green and red thorns.

Yona swung the blade as she stepped from around the right side of her defensive Aegis, aiming for Leylin's left leg, using the un-sharpened side of the blade to deal only nonlethal damage. She barely knew the guy and was not going to be the first to draw blood in a playful spar. That just seemed like something she would get in serious trouble for. As a snarky comment back, she quipped, "Is that all you have, Mr. Farlier? I am disappointed."

Something had told Leylin, deep in his stomach, that taking the footing from underneath Yona's feet wasn't going to be as easy as he hoped... But the moment that he struck and a barrier of thorns and vines arose, the man let a soft 'tch' leave his lips as he tried to quickly plan the next part of his attack. His oceanic hues quickly darted in front of him to check one side the barrier while his weapon twirled quickly and he slammed the end into the ground. His body pivoted towards the other side of the barrier, seeing she wasn't coming from in front of him directly and more from his side, barely having time to slide so that his staff was in front of his leg.

Sand was kicked up as he moved, lifting both his feet off the ground as though he was panicked and didn't want to be struck by her blade. In that moment all his weight would be placed on his staff which Yona's strike against the lower part(originally aimed at his leg) would cause it to lose balance and in that moment she'd see Leylin begin to fall. It seemed Yona had the upper hand... Until a smirk crossed Leylin's lips at last minute.

His feet shot out so that his body was in a straight line and parallel to the ground, both of his feet aiming to crash directly into Yona in an attempt to rip her off her feet and tumbling backwards a bit. A dropkick was sloppy but in a practice spar, it wouldn't lead in him dying and if him faking being surprised that he was falling could trick her into getting hit.. Well, he'd take it. Regardless, Leylin would smack against the ground on his side after the kick and spend a moment quickly returning to his feet and keeping Yona in his sights,"Going to have to do better than that, Ms. Hisamori~"

Yona felt intense cheer when her blade actually hit him, and sudden surprise when his feet collided with her. Who the hell would do a drop kick in short range after being hit like that? She regretted not using the sharp side of her blade to teach him some elegance in a quick spar between... friends? Were they supposed to be friends? No. They were just guild members. She didn't really know anything about him at all. It was obvious with her short shorts that she had enormous red streaking burn scars on her legs, and that gave away plenty of information in her opinion.

The green haired mage stumbled back, taking the kick to her right side. It bruised her ribs probably, but she had been in a good fighting stance and was not so unbalanced as to be on the ground like he was. Yona watched him, giving him a moment to climb back to his feet and rolled her eyes. "I have to do better than that? Your rear was just on the ground, so don't mock me, fool." The guy was a complete pignut. She was readying to lose her temper and his idiocy gave her conflict- was it okay to beat up a new member? Was it okay to do it when he was especially foolish?

Her scimitar rested in her hand, waiting for her next move, but Yona did something a bit less conspicuous. Her next spell would hurt, but not be permanent injury. She plucked a petal from the air and placed it on her lips. Within seconds, if Leylin was still inside of her large range, his lips would begin to burn, tingle, and swell painfully. As if stung by a few bees at the same time, it should render speech problematic and that could mess up any of his spells with verbal components. She was more concerned with just making him shut up, over all. With the petal on her lips, she didn't wait to see if his lips would swell, she knew they would.

Instead, the mage pressed forward with her scimitar, aiming for a diagonal sweeping strike, the blade moving upwards on its dull side from her left to right. It was either going to hit him in the torso, or he was about to dance on his toes backwards.

Leylin had been watching as he stood up, to make sure the woman wasn't going to cheap shot him but that was around the time she decided to pluck a petal from the air and place it against her lips. Oh no, Leylin knew that this wasn't going to be good and a spell was coming his way. Of course, as he was going to verbally retort to her, his lips swelled and there was an intense pain in them. Just what the hell was this? Clearly she had some time of plant related magic, just like her goddamn father...

He shook his head and pushed the thoughts to the side before he lost his friendly demeanor, though he was a bit irked at this he would quickly get his revenge. In the following seconds, Leylin would make his move and the woman would feel the air in the area started to increase in temperature suddenly. Sure, they were sparring on the beach but the heat that came out of nowhere was more intense than it had been in a few days. Of course, thankfully for Leylin, none of his spells required complicated hand gestures or verbal components, so the sudden heat was coming from him.

In that next moment, the man seemingly blurred as he activated Bursting Dash and moved in a zig-zag formation in front of Yona and easily closing the distance between them. In just that small amount of time, the heat would start to cause Yona to start to sweat and a slowly growing painful heat throughout her body. After closing the distance between them, more or less, he was 4 feet from her and struck out with his staff. His footing was strong as he brought his staff to try and strike at her with several jabs, all of them were aimed at her stomach and chest.