1981/Can love blossom from blood loss

Can love blossom from blood loss
Date of Scene:	01 October 2016
Location:	Mitakihara/Pikarigaoka - King Penguin Park
Synopsis:	Lacrima runs into Amu. Kukai and Eilam get caught in the crossfire.
Cast of Characters:	Amu Hinamori, Kukai Souma, Norie Okana, Eilam Hisakawa

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Amu Hinamori has posed:
Amu Hinamori was not having the best day. Well, okay, the day was going great. It was the night that wasn't. She'd just gotten halfway through her movie when an x-egg had popped up. She'd had to rush out the door, making a half baked excuse. After that, she'd spent ten minutes running around as Amulet Heart trying to find the bloody thing. Finding a black egg in the middle of the night inside a city was hard, who knew?

But, finally she'd managed to find it. The egg had hatched about two blocks down and then spent about five more minutes chasing her as she tried to figure out what it was upset about. But finally she turned around, landing on the giant penguin statue.

"Hopeless, HOPELESS!" It called out. "It'll never be finished, never!"

"It's not hopeless!" She yelled, pointing a finger at it. "You can't just give up on your dreams because they're hard or because it takes time! The best dreams will always take a while, but that just makes them all the more worth it!" she yelled. While it was stunned, obviously dismantled by her ten second pep talk, she formed a heart with her hands. "Negative heart! Lock on!" she called, before thrusting it out and enveloping the x-character in pink hearts of love! The character did its quick thank you, turned into an egg and then flew off.

She let out a sigh of relief, before turning back into herself. Well, that was definitely something that happened. She then looked around and... "Where in the world am-- ahhh!" She stumbled and fell down the slide, landing on the ground with a pained off, laying there and staring at the sky. "Owwww... at least no one saw that." Her guardian characters just laughed.

Kukai Souma has posed:
It was not the best night for Kukai. He'd been chasing an X-Egg for an hour or so in his human form, not wanting to change into Sky Jack just yet because he couldn't actually do anything about it. Instead, he'd been on HeartNET the whole time, trying to contact someone (where the heck is everyone tonight who can purify, even?) to fix the thing. And then... he'd lost it. Gone around a corner and when he got there, it was poof-gone.

It was all Kukai could do to not throw his phone and scream. Instead, he settled for kicking a loose can across the park pathway. "Kuso! Where the hell did it go, anyway?" Of course, this was about the time when he heard yelling near the statue in the middle of the park. Hoping against hope that it wasn't the worst, that the X-Egg hadn't decided to attack someone, he sprinted in that direction.

Fortunately, instead of the worst, it turned out to be the best possible - someone had found it and purified it. Someone who he'd heard was back in town but hadn't seen in far, far too long. "AMU!" Kukai called out to her just in time to see her fly off the slide and land on the ground. "That... looked like it hurt. Maybe just your pride, but probably your rear, too." He walks over towards her slowly as Daichi, much less relaxed, lets out a happy whoop and flashes across the open park to impact in amongst Amu's three Guardian Charas, his friends! "I missed yooou! I missed you missed you missed you! Hello!"

Norie Okana has posed:
Dark Energy. Strong. Not stronger than her. She had to investigate. She wanted to catalouge things. She's not on foot. No. Lacrima is shifting in, and out, of the Dusk Zone- appearing behind trees. In shadows. Getting closer and closer.

She finally, comes across the scene of the X-egg being purified. Ah... an X-egg. That... energy. Did feel familiar. Like the things Utau-chan pulls out of people...

Can it happen naturally? What caused this one? Did someone else pull it out? She can't see anyone here from Easter or Eclipse or otherwise.

Something about that girl... with the pink hair...

Her eyes light up in sudden recognition. It's... /her/. The girl who... ruined everything for her. The one that made her give up. That solidifed the fact that she's not human, or ever will be again in her head with that... same magic she used to purify the X-egg.

Kukai? She registers him. Barely. She's very pointed... very focused, right now, on Amu. There's a flash of bright purple as she shifts from her normal clothes-- into her proper henshin form-- with the purple and black dress... with the bat motif. It means she means bussiness. Letting just, her dark energy drench her at the moment in anger.

"/You/." she spits out. "You're the one. That ruined everything. /You ruined everything for me!/." she cries out as she raises her hand- dark energy shoots from her shoulder, down toward's her palm and her right arm is just... glowing in the negative energy just waiting to be released into a beam or a blast, or utilized somehow. She is not firing it yet, however- but she's more or less waving around a 'loaded gun' at this point at Amu Hinamori.

"I'm going to...." she stutters. "I'm going to make you feel the anguish you made me feel! I'm going to make sure you're never happy again!" she says as she clenches her teeth, and she shakes. Just lightly, purple streaked tears streak slightly down her cheeks. Not full out crying- but those memories. Of being in the Dusk Zone. Talking to 'herself'... and giving up.. giving in to the monster she didn't want to be in the process...

They're still fresh.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    Eilam even being here was a complete coincidence. When others were busy chasing something down, he happened to see something. Something no one else did. Sure, he couldn't use magic, but now that he was aware of it... some things became visible. As he was currently with his driver in the town car that often carried him here or there within the Tokyo area, he had a slight advantage as far as chasing things went. Not that he chased anything, so much as asked the driver to head to the park, where he let himself out of the car and started to make his way down the sidewalk only to see...

    Magically things.

    Courtesy of Amu, of all people. Amu Hinamori. The one that was 'stalking' him the other night, or something like that. Just as he started to turn around, though, intending to just leave things be and not stick his nose somewhere it could cause problems, something caught his eye. Something else that was familiar. "..." he saw Lacrima seeming exceptionally upset and looking like she was about to do something rather rash. Public. Violent. "Damnit..." Eilam mumbled, "Did you just... stop caring about what I said, or did it not sink in yet? If you don't start shaping it now, you're going to have to live with the results for longer than you think." But ultimately, the choice was hers. What he could do, it really depended on if it was going to matter to him. If she did anything to Amu, what did he care? She was just a snoop.

    A snoop that knew too much already.

    A snoop that knew too much... that was apparently friends with Reiko. Was he really that cruel, at this point in time, to not try to protect one of Reiko's friends? Like she protected him without thinking about such? "Damnit, how do I get myself into these things." To which he began to more hurriedly make his way towards Amu, though with his condition in mind, and lack of stamina or too much strength, he's not going to make anything too fast.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Amu Hinamori aaaaand of course someone saw. Just wonderful. She jumped to her feet, despite her aching back side and-- wait. No, she knew that voice. Her guardians were tackled(Miki was the most keen on this, her face going bright red as she was hugged). But then her eyes locked on Kukai. Her face lit up. "Kukai-kun! You're here!" she called out happily, barrrrrely managing to avoid lunging out and hugging him. Just barely.

She couldn't keep the smile off her face, outer character or not. "I just got back into town. Were you after that x-egg too?" She walked forward and... you know what? Screw it. She hugged him. "It's been so long Kukai-kun." Okay, the hug was a big mistake. her cheeks turned red and she realized her smelled nice and she pulled back realllll fast.

Then there was a sound behind her. Someone, or something, was very mad. She turned around and stared at the woman. Her eyes widened. "W-what? Errrr... hey... youuuuuu." Oh my gosh she didn't remember her. She then cringed. "Wait, are you someone trying to harvest the x-eggs?" She pointed a finger. "Listen, those heart eggs belong to the children! I don't care what nefarious deeds you have planned, they are not yours to do with as you please!" Oh my gosh she didn't remember her.

"Miki!" She said, giving a nod. The blue spirit raced in, getting ready to henshin. Oh dear.

Kukai Souma has posed:
It was turning into a great night! Amu had purified the X-egg Kukai had been chasing. "Yeah! What a coincidence, huh?" He smiles and closes towards her, returning the friendly hug. "It's been way too long! Sorry I haven't been able to catch up with you, I've been house-sitting after school this week~"

But then there's a familiar, angry scream from one side and a dark, sickly purple glow as Amu jumps back. He turns, looking to see.. "Lacrima." He straightens one arm, pointing at her. "You... You're about half a step away from doing something else you'll regret one day. You'd best put that purple back into wherever it goes and calm yourself down."

Kukai looks back over at Amu for a moment, then shakes his head. "That's Lacrima. If you don't remember her, you sort of blasted her with Open Heart before you left. It wasn't much to you, but she's just gotten worse since then. Whatever she's doing here, it isn't good." He looks over at Daichi, who meets his eyes, but he isn't quite ready to go hard just this second. He's gonna give Lacrima a second to run away.

Norie Okana has posed:
Eilam. Eilam's words ring though her head but she's too upset. Too agitated. She'd spent... nights. Just thinking. Early on after the encounter, how she was going to enact revenge. How she was going to make her feel what she felt. Somehow...

"Stay out of this Eilam-kun." she says, in that same upset stammer. "/She's the reason... she's the reason for everything right now!/" she spits out. "I had hope! I tried so hard! and--you... YOU TOOK THAT AWAY! WITH THAT STUPID MAGIC! THAT... /OPEN. HEART./." yeah she's irrational- and her interpertation of what happened made be just that, though the anger is genuine.

She's /still/ not firing off the energy that builds up down along her arm, making her right arm look like some sort of glowing energy construct at this point.

She's shaking. She's hesitating for whatever reason, as purple tears form in this upset state still streaking down her cheeks.

"I have no part in whatever is going down here! I was drawn to t-that! Just like you probably were!" she spits. "Are you going to try to kill me again because you don't believe me!?"

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    "Stop this. Please. Whatever happened, what you're doing will only make it worse." since it seemed she spotted him, might as well try to at least talk her down before he got there. Somehow this all seemed... familiar. Like at the courthouse, perhaps. It'd been a bit since he saw her, and she hadn't gotten any better. It made him sad, but more than that, it bothered him. What caused the progress to go down the drain? Was this just a bad moment? "Just remember, in the end, this is still your world. You make of it what you want. I don't have the strength to stop you from screwing things up for yourself, I can talk, but you have to do that yourself."

    But apparently it's blatantly obvious now, to Amu(and Kukai, if he wasn't aware somehow already) that Eilam was aware of magic. Eilam had not only lied to Amu, but with a straight face, to the point it might even seem worse than(to him) it really was. Maybe he was bad news after all? Hard to say.

    But there he was, favoring the stave he had with him as he tried to get close enough towards the mess.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Amu Hinamori was just confused, now. Kukai knew her and he seemed to be okay with her. Well, not okay. But not... wait. She knew her? She had open hearted her? She raced through her memories, trying to remember where she had seen this woman.

Then it came back to her. Her eyes widened. "O-oh," she said softly, covering her mouth. "Miki, wait," she said softly, holding up a hand. If Kukai wasn't going to try to go full on transform, then neither was she. She had vague rememberances of that time. The two had fought. She'd open hearted her. Whatever this woman... was... it wasn't quite... She took a slow, deep breath.

"That's not what open heart is," she said firmly. Not that she really knew. To be honest, she didn't completely know everything about what Open Heart was. "What it does is... it opens your heart. It lets you see through the pain and misery, to see what you really are. I... I don't know what you saw. I don't know what you were thinking. But... open heart worked on you. It did free your heart, if only for a second. I'm... not sure... what you are." She looked the woman up and down, tried to remember. Shadows? "Or what creature you made a deal with. But I know if open heart worked on you, there's still some piece of human inside you. Some bit of... goodness trying to claw its way out." she did not, in fact, know any of this. She was trying to help and just kind of assumed. Because giving pep talks was kind of what she did. Frankly, it was like half of her power. As was walking into stupid things. Like she decided to do now.

Slowly she held out her hand and started walking towards the woman, giving her a nervous smile. "Listen. If you had hope, then it had to be for good reason. And... if Kukai knows you and is okay with you, there must be some goodness inside you. Let us help you." Oh gosh she was going to die. She had no idea what was actually going on in the situation and she was going to die and then--

"WAIT!" Ran said, looking to Eilam. "You lied to us! You are all... magical! We knew it!" No she didn't. Also, ran, poor timing.

Kukai Souma has posed:
"Eliam-kun?" Kukai arches an eyebrow over at the cane-carrying, frankly very pretty... -kun? Well. This is the same town where Nagihiko and Daisuke and that one silver-haired guy from the park and the ninja and half a dozen other incredibly pretty boys live, sooo. Back to the matter at hand. "Lacrima, she did not take it away from you! Apparently according to you it was happening anyway! You were throwing more of those dark energy blasts away and for Pete's sake, now you think she's to blame for all your problems? Are you gonna drain her like Sachiko, too? When are you gonna say 'I let this thing take me and I'm not doing anything to stop it.'?!" Kukai sounds pretty mad at this point, and he nods over at Eliam. "Listen to him. You don't listen to anybody, you know? You just keep on driving along and you're intent on being right and... aaargh."

Kukai growls a little, then looks at Amu and Eilam. "Look... if you can calm her down, that's the best thing to do, but I'm not leaving until she backs down." Not like his little tirade helped any, but he doesn't seem to be thinking about that. "For what it's worth, I don't want her hurt either, but damned if I'm going to let her hurt anybody else again." That is probably about as square as Kukai's jaw gets. Daichi alights on his shoulder, arms crossed, nodding, a stern look on the Chara's face.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima would respond to everything Amu said, point by point, but Amu infers that she asked for this. That she made a deal. That she /didn't/ just buy a pretty necklace and it cursed her into this... thing. That she did this thing to herself, and it just blots out everything else.

"/DEAL!?/." she screams. "You think I asked for this!? To be this thing? You thought I had a choice!?" she says, now more wide eyed. Acting irrational. Kukai's seen this wide-eyed, crazed version of Lacrima before. It looks exactly like that. It sounds exactly like that.

"Drain her?" she finally responds. "No no no." she says. "We're well. Past. That."

She finally gets to the point. "I tried so hard. To be normal. To find other ways. Before /that/." she spits. "I used to /feel bad/ about what I was doing. I used to have a voice trying to tell me what I was doing was wrong!" she says. "That... everything came rushing back. I felt normal again, for an instant. I felt... /happy/ not just remembering what it felt like--- and then... then it all rushed back out. I could understand it all. What I was. That I'd never be /human/ again. Then I felt myself begin to dissapear. I had to reform pieces of myself from scratch!"

Eilam. Eilam's talking to her- and all she does is continue to sit there and hold her arm out and she shakes and---

There's a violent burst of dark energy out from her arm as she shoots it straight into the sky- burning it off. She has too.

She screams out. "/All you wanted to do was erase me from existence before./" she seethes!

This is all stuff Kukai's heard before in varying forms of course.

But it seems Eilam being around and talking has brought her back down to 'just irrational' than 'dangerously deliriously stark raving wide eyed irrational'.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    Eilam stood there, heavily favoring the stave he had with him, looking at Lacrima, then Amu and Kukai and back to Lacrima. It was subtle, but he started to move a little... moving between her, and them. In the way. Not to try and talk her down, or make himself a target, but to protect them in case she hit her breaking point. "You are right. I did lie to you. But I have my reasons for lying. I lie to everyone. Very few people know truths about me." Eilam spoke softly, watching Lacrima.

    Watching her, facing her, but talking to Amu and Ran. "She... knows things about me. Because I shared them with her. Not out of some misguided love, or want of such. Because she is probably the only other person that I've ever met who can understand a bit of what I have been through in the past. Not all of us have nice things, or nice magic, to use to help others. Some of us have curses. Problems. Death sentences. It's not pretty, it's not... happy, even. But it's who we are."

    Was he talking to Amu, or Lacrima, or anyone else? Hard to say. He was still looking at Lacrima, though, as he stepped forward. "You want to go find something that makes you feel like you again? Rather than obsessing over someone who does not understand? I do not know what that is for you, but if you let me know, I can try to help. All I know is hurting others is not going to help you. And if you really want to hurt her, you will have to hurt me to do that, and I am fairly sure you do not want to hurt me, do you?" That last part /was/ asked towards Lacrima for certain. Then again, if she really wanted to get back at Amu... now was probably the chance. She should know that nothing she does will likely hurt him permanently. Nothing to stop her from just... going through him to get to her. "Your world, your choice."

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Amu Hinamori stared. Someone DID THIS to her? someone MADE her this way? Oh, she couldn't think of anything... okay, she could. But wow. She clenched her fists for a moment, before taking another step forward. Then another. She was getting close. She held out her hand the entire time. She was slowly beginning to form the pieces together.

"You are human. Maybe... not all human anymore. But you are, at least partially, human. You feel bad now. You're hurting. You felt like your old self once, that means it's still in there. Buried under all of... this. All of what you are now. But this isn't who you have to be. your heart was opened and it can be opened again." Another step closer. Hand still out. She was shaking just a little bit. The woman could have blasted her, but she hadn't.

"Amu, I don't think this is safe," Ran said nervously, her guardians watching her closely.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry that I hurt you. I never wanted to. But... that light. That feeling you felt when I opened your heart. It is who you are. That piece of human within. It is all of you. Not who you were. Who you are." She took another step forward. "Whatever it is that has a hold on you can be fought. It can be broken. I know it's hard and it probably hurts, but that is still inside of you. Fighting back against this darkness. Against this voice that says that you're not human. And that voice is wrong. It says you can't go back. That you can't be who you were. But... I can see it. I can feel it. You can always go back. You can always have a second chance. It's not always easy. But it is possible."

And then, if amu was close enough, she'd try to hug the woman. Because of course she did. And then she probably got her head beaten in.

"AMU!" her guardians called at once, panicked.

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai winces, listening to Lacrima scream. Oh man, now she's up and on - this is probably going to turn into a fight. She describes the moment when the Open Heart landed and he shook his head. "I... we didn't know that!" Then that arm shoots into the sky and Kukai jumps. At least it doesn't start another black energy rain. But at least she seems a little calmer.

Kukai watches Eilam move in closer and listens to him speak, frowning. "I'm familiar with a lot of people in Tokyo who've got bad magic they want to use to do good. A lot of them find the power to do it, but a lot don't. Everyone has to be judged on their own actions." Then Eilam turns, talking to Lacrima, and he nods. He's not exactly sure this guy could withstand a stiff wind, much less Lacrima on full hateblast.

Amu finally pipes up, and Kukai looks over at her. Wait. What is she doing. "...Amu?" She's saying what he wanted to about that piece of humanity, which is interesting since he couldn't find the words. Maybe they were hidden under a layer of hate.

But then Amu leans in past Eilam and hugs Lacrima, and Kukai has a memory of a tiny little girl doing the same thing, and his entire body tenses up. Kukai and Daichi both cry out along with Ran, Su, and Miki. "Amu!!" If he senses that dark drain from her... well, he doesn't know what he'll do, but he'll do something because probably Amu won't have anything left to do much with.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima is still agigtated, but she's no longer arguing with an effective loaded gun in her hand, so to speak. "I can't be fixed! You don't understand!" she seethes. "I don't even have a /body/ to return to, it was turned into this... thing... this thing that has been broken and replaced so many times because of /things like what you did to me/! All it is.. is black! and thick and soupy inside."

Then she glares at Eilam, but not for long because Amu's trying to push past her. And explain things.

And it's confusing her. Happiness, Understanding, Love-- these are things she's incapable of feeling. She does know one thing- and she's lucid enough to realize it. She darts back. She darts back from any attempt to hug her. She won't allow it.

"No...No, you... you stay /back!/." she spits. "I'm not responsible for anything if you make contact with me! Stay away!" she says upset. Though. There's... something there. Like a subtle tone of concern. Like she knows she may not be able to /stop herself/ from draining Amu if she actually makes contact.

She's most certainly not going to talk about what she enjoys in front of Kukai and Amu to Eilam it seems.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    It was a rather flat expression that Eilam looks towards Kukai with. He doesn't immediately say anything, but apparently he doesn't seem to appreciate what he had to say. Instead, he watched Amu, and shortly Lacrima, trying to see what was going on. He could hardly predict, but he'd been around for quite a long while. He was familiar with things like tone of voice, body language, subtle things that others only pick up on with time or experience.

    Here Amu was trying to 'cure' her, here Lacrima was trying to... sort herself out, which was already hard enough as it was as he recalled from their previous times talking given the way it screwed with her head, and Kukai was apparently experienced enough with her to know that bad things could happen. Like someone trying to hug a scared cat. Claws /will/ be everywhere even if the cat isn't trying to hurt you.

    "Stop trying to cure her, she's not sick. She does not need your light, what she needs is time to sort herself out, because she is... strong enough to do that, as she has in the past. She's scared of you, cornering her and trying to wrap her in a blanket of your naive attempts to help her will only get all of you hurt."

    But had he realized he'd quite literally inserted himself between them? While Eilam wasn't really aware that any touch might be harmful, he was trying to protect Norie from herself. Maybe he, too, was a bit misguided. Hard to say in these kinds of situations.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Amu Hinamori blinked and stopped, still holding her hand out. "Fine. You can't be fixed. You won't have a normal body. But so what? You're still you. You obviously care. You're trying to protect us, aren't you? You want to hurt us, want to lash out, but you aren't. You're controlling yourself. You're controlling whatever it is that did this to you." She kept holding her hand out but didn't move any closer.

"I understand. No, actually, I don't. I don't know how it feels. I don't know what it's like. I don't know what you need to maintain control. But we can help you. just tell us what you need." She resisted getting closer, much to the relief of her guardians.

"You don't have to be a monster. Even if your body is different now, you can still be yourself. It might not be easy. It might even be painful at times. But we can help you. That's what friends are for, right?" Because friendship fixes everything. Her guardians were looking as antsy as Kukai likely felt. "Now... come on. There's no need for you to do this alone." She then glared at Eilam. "Of course. But she doesn't have to do it alone. She doesn't have to be afraid, or scared." She looked back to the girl and smiled.

"Please. I promise I won't use open heart on you again. I just want to help, the normal way. No one will hurt you." She did try to move around Eilam, though, even if she didn't try to get closer.

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai winces. He's not even able to properly describe how he feels, listening to Lacrima. Somewhere between angry and wishing he could make things better for her and console her. Good grief. Thankfully (in a way) Lacrima tries to move back away from the hug. "Amu, she's.. wait, no. Lacrima, you can at least control it that much, can't you? Grit your teeth for once!" He's still more than a little pissy at her.

Kukai returns that flat expression back at Eilam. He hadn't seen the hell Lacrima had put them through so far. It's not like he hadn't tried to help her either. And as far as Kukai knew, they were about the same age. Experience over theory, right? "She's had a lot of time to sort herself out and every so often that ends up with people getting railed with negative energy bolts and drained to pieces..." This is more of a mutter than an actually spoken sentence from Kukai. The fact that Amu might just grab Eilam and hug both him and Lacrima hadn't quite occured to Kukai yet, though.

Kukai frowned a little at Amu's words. In a way, she was right. That dark energy blast from earlier could have done a lot more damage than it did. But she'd loosed it away from them. "Friends.." The idea of being friends with Lacrima might be one step too far for Kukai right at the moment, but he didn't try to stop Amu, if she wanted to calm Lacrima down. "And as for that last part.... yeah. We don't want to hurt you, Lacrima." It's said with a grimace, but it's true. He's still on edge for that grab-and-drain action, though.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima listens to Eilam. She looks back and listens to Kukai. Then she settles back on Amu, her motions are quick and worrisome and still... instinctual looking. Acting on defense, wanting to act with what her gut is telling her.

And it's telling her to latch and drain Amu, and it's telling her to make her feel how she felt. It's times like this, that, she misses the arguing voices in her head that happened constantly. Now there's only the one.

A mass of negative emtoion and confusion. It /isn't/ good for her. It /will/ make her loose control and she finally just.... yells.... it's confused and also... in Spanish.

"Solo me dejo solo y quiero ser!" she screams. Just Leave Me Alone And Let Me Be!. It's said in disregard in that- she 'started things first' but-- Not that anyone here would understand the language anyways.

Then there's another surge of dark energy-- but not in the form off an attack, but a cloak of black enveloping her, the effect Kukai is familiar with when she teleports off into the Dusk Zone. Which she does as quick as possible.

The mist dissapates fast, leaving nothing there.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    And now it was Eilams turn to suddenly feel rather deflated. He'd interjected himself in an attempt to keep Amu safe, from Norie... and wound up trying to protect Norie from herself and Amu. And overall? He just felt rather exhausted. "So now you know." the pink haired fellow said softly towards Amu. "But you already knew, I just managed to convince you otherwise. Please, if this happens again... do not try to help her. Just get away. You may somehow know her from... whatever it is that she's done to you, or you to her, in the past, but she's trying. She knows better than anyone else what she needs. And I think... myself a short second, because I have lived as long as I have... and I had my own period when I lashed out at everything. Whatever it took to keep myself safe."

    Slowly he raised up a little, but it was possible to see he seemed beyond tired suddenly. Drained, perhaps. Really it was just his own health issues taking its' toll but they might not realize that. "One day she will look back and feel horrible for all the problems she caused. But now, here, giving her more chances by trying to save her? You will just make that recovery period even longer."

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Amu Hinamori took a slow, deep breath and raised a hand to her chest. Internally, she was releived. She had been so certain she was going to die at least a dozen times during that confrontation. She managed to keep her cool and spicy persona up, though, and looked smooth. She then glanced to kukai.

"Okay, Kukai, I am so happy to see you. I really am. But... I need to know everything you know about that woman. And--" She glanced to Eilam. "I will deal with you later. I swear if your intentions with Reiko-chan are anything but pure, you'll have me to answer to and I won't forgive you!"

She turned her back to Eilam and crossed her arms. "And no, I won't listen to you. I don't admit to knowing what all her problems are. But I won't give up. I will help her. If... my open heart hurt her, then that is on me. And I know there is definitely good in her. Humanity. Whatever she is now may be bad. But that doesn't mean she has to be." She gave a dismissive snort. "I didn't get to be the joker by giving up on people. It's my one job and I aim to do it to the best of my ability." She became the joker by more or less having it thrust on her by the other guardians but, hey, she won't tell if kukai won't.

Kukai Souma has posed:
There is a moment, a tense moment, where Kukai is sure Lacrima is going to either leap onto Amu and start draining her, or fall into her arms in tears, but then there's a third option - she screams in Spanish and whisks herself away. When the smoke clears, Kukai finds himself taking a breath he's been holding for about half a minute. "Whoof..."

He looks up at Eilam and Amu, then moves closer towards them. "... Well how do we keep everyone safe from her while she's out making a meal out of the population? Do we just stand by while she puts the population into a coma?" He sighs and scratches his head. "And if she keeps working with that... butthead.. Riventon, then I'm really not going to let them just stand by. That guy is a menace." He rubs his face, looking at the two of them. "Well." Part of Eilam's words finally tuned in for Kukai - lived as long he had? Uh...huh. Easier just to turn to Amu.

He looks over at Amu for a moment. "Yeah, sure. I'll fill you in a little later somewhere. We can go sit down and talk it over. And... wait, Reiko?" Kukai leaned over, judging Eilam again. Reiko's like... 5, 6 years younger than him, isn't she? Dude, not cool. "Yeah."

And then Amu is Amu - 'I'm going my own way and you can't stop me.' - and Kukai sighs. "Amu, maybe we should have that talk before you make any sweeping statements, yeah?"

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    "..."

    Eilam stared towards Amu before saying rather simply. "I will not allow that. If you want to be there for her, sure. But here is something you do not understand, because you have no way of knowing." It was not at all threatening coming from someone who was trying to maintain the strength to keep themselves upright at the moment. "She... is cursed akin to a vampire. You know this. I will not allow you to do this to her, because I know what /I/ am cursed to. Let me show you, so maybe you will get over this blind desire to save the world and realize, just maybe... that all you will do is cause her pain."

    Taking the stave, Eilam grips it near the middle and starts to... twist it? Well, he's doing something, unscrewing it almost, looking towards Kukai. "If you want to help her, just... please, do not. No light, no magic. She knows that it is wrong, what she craves. She knows. She hates it. But all this light magic? As I understand, it would be like holding your hand in a fire, but to her soul. It just undoes her from the inside."

    The stave finally comes apart and reveals a silver grip of some kind? What he pulls out, though, would probably come as a surprise. A long, thin estoc. A sword, with no guard. "Let me show you why I am trying to protect her, from you. Pay attention, because I want you to understand." He doesn't point the sword at them, though. Instead, he holds it in one hand and puts the point to his other, cutting himself. A fairly... painful experience. But if they looked at the cut? They could see it start to heal, closing up. The blood was still there, but any damage? Gone. "My curse. Hundreds of years, trapped in this body. Always healing. Nothing can kill me. Imagine doctors finding this out. They will 'fix' me, even if I do not want it. Mercy, it is a god-given task. They can 'save' my soul, put me out of my misery if they just understood how to cure me. 1873, 1908, 1941... all years where this happened. Having to deal with people convinced they have the solution... when all they are doing is causing pain for something they cannot fix. And even if they can... was it worth the pain caused?"

    Finally, a bit softer, Eilam almost seemed to plead. "Just stop, please. If you want to help her, be a friend, and ask her how. Do not... force your efforts onto her. This is me asking you, because you seem to be a friend of Reiko. Trust her. She trusts me, I would hope, so trust me too. I /know/ about this."

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    "Do you understand now why I am so terrified of you trying to force your healing attempts on her? I have suffered others before, and I will not let her suffer the same."

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Amu Hinamori harumphed and then glanced to Kukai. "Sure, let's have a nice talk, okay? I--" She froze. Paled. Looked at the time. "OH I AM GOING TO BE SO GROUNDED!" she shrieked. Please, as if her parents would EVER ground her. She was sour cream southwest Amu, no parent could ground her. But she'd probably get a lecture.

She ran towards the exit, then paused. She clenched her fists and then turned. "And... I don't care. I don't care if it's hard. I don't care if it seems impossible. I don't care if it IS impossible." She gestured towards her heart. "I can hear it, her heart's egg screaming out for help." Not... literally. "And I won't ignore it. I won't try to purify her, though. If that's what your scared of. Before I just didn't... know." She clenched her fists. "I will find a way to help her. Even if that is just being a friend and being there for her. I don't... know about those kinds of things. Immortality, vampires, all this magical... stuff. There's really a lot of things I know a lot about. I can't help you with something like that. I doubt I can help her not be a vampire. But... I can, maybe, take away some of the pain. And if I can, I will."

With those final words, she ran off. To get the mother of all groundings.

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai knows what Lacrima's going through. She's shouted it at him enough to where he's got the general idea. But already he feels Eilam talking down to him and the hackles on the back of his neck are starting to raise as he watches Eilam twisting the staff. "I know all I've done so far is piss her off, but that's not what I'm trying to do. It's not just about trying to save her, though."

The reveal of the sword wasn't too big a deal - he's seen those before. Maybe a bit of a surprise, since Eilam doesn't appear to be the sort to get into a fight. "I'm watching..." And then Eilam skewers his other hand. Kukai gasps. "H-hey, c'mon, stop..." And then the wound closes up. "...Huh.. hundreds of years?" Kukai winces a little. "...Wait, they tried to kill you, instead of just letting you live?" He rubs his chin - he was about to say how awful that was, but he gets where Eilam's taking this. But still.

Kukai sighs. "I try not to force anything onto her. I've actually stopped having anything to do with her, but she keeps popping up like a particularly nasty zit. But I want you to think about something too. At what point in her draining the energy out of people, almost to death, do we get to say 'oh, well, those people have all suffered enough too, maybe we should think about doing something to stop Lacrima from eating at random'? Controlling it or not, she's still hurting people. Hell, others have tried to help her and she won't listen."

He looks over at Amu just in time for her to freak out about the time. "...Huh. Yeah, it is late, isn't it. I... better call my brothers. They've gotten used to me being out late." He turns to listen to Amu, then grins weakly and sighs, rubbing the back of his head and looking at Eilam. "....See what I have to put up with? And she's relatively calm about it right now. I think one of my job descriptions is 'follow Amu, try to keep her from getting killed and clean up her messes.'" He sighs, then shakes his head. "And about Lacrima, well. I want to not interact with her, so let's leave it at that for now. She's easier off being somebody else's problem. All I wanna do..."

He waves it off. "...Anyway. This is a really crappy first interaction with you, so maybe next time I see you I'll pretend it's the first time, huh? We can get off on a better foot. Have a good evening." He trods off in the direction Amu sprinted, leaving one pink-hair to follow another.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    Eilam stares at them both before just kind of collapsing onto the closest bench. Stuffing the blade back into his stave, it took him a bit to get the energy to take out his cell phone and call his driver to have him come help him back to the car. Something he hadn't quite revealed, too, was that this 'restorative' condition of his was also kind of keeping him in an ever-dying state, thanks to the illness that was constantly being restored with him. And as a result, sometimes he just had no strength to get around. Curses sucked. Sometimes there was no magic to go with it. Just... time.

    In the end, though, that's all he wanted at the end of this exchange. To keep Lacrima from experiencing any more pain of forced attempts at 'purging the darkness' or any such. But, she'd left so suddenly... now he just kind of wishes she was there so he could talk to her. Maybe, just maybe, she would stop by his home tonight and they would have a chance to talk, if she was able to calm down.