Somewhere, on the street, a young girl is walking home with her friend. It isn't a long walk! Nope. They're walking and using the buddy system in the nighttime. This is smart and safe. They're talking about the movie they just saw. Maybe a boy they find cute. They're the right age to gossip about that kind of thing.
More concerning is the obvious shadow above the rooftops-- a girl in a black and pruple dress, with some sort of small bat-like adornments, with long purple hair with a flowered hairpin and stark purple eyes. She stops... watches. Dissapears. Reappears on a slightly different rooftop.%REventually... the two need to part. One walks to the bus stop... and one makes the mistake of walking down a corridored alley between streets. Out of view-- the only light is flashing on and off- it's broken.
Lacrima makes her move and there's a soft dive into the alley. It's an obvious move. Obvious enough for anyone that might be on some sort of aerial patrol-- or even paying attention from the ground.
Those who know Lacrima knows what's about to happen next.
Even after great summer beach parties and amazing events and new Charas, the day to day grind of being a Guardian still exists. There are still youma and Witches and monsters and Eclipse to fight. So, tonight, Sky Jack is out sailing across the skyline on his flying snowboard, using all of his senses to scan for any threats to the citizens of Tokyo.
But unlike most nights, he's not alone. He looks over to one side through his goggles at the figure bouncing along across the rooftops and grins, then goes back to watching the streets as they move along. Thankfully, very few people look up.
In the distance, there is a faint flicker of purple from the top of a rooftop. Jack barely catches it, then moves closer to the buildings, waving over at the other person. "Hooooi!" He points with his other arm in the direction of the purple flash and turns to move towards it.
It's different as Beat Jumper than it is as Yamato Maihime.
For one, he has more...energy.
For another, he feels a touch more reckless.
Still, leaping along roof tops while Kukai flies not too far away? He'll take a bit of reckless for that.
Sky Jack gets his attention and he turns to change his course. He follows along.
Unfortunately, he doesn't know Lacrima enough to know what she's about to do. That part will be a surprise.
Fortunately, Beat Jumper is just a touch more reckless than Yamato Maihime.
"Bonzai!"
Heart attacks may be had by chara and smooch buddies alike as he barrels feet first into the situation.
No, literally. He aims to knock her out of the way. With his feet.
Lacrima was mid jump when feet hit her back and instead of careening smoothly onto the ground of an alley with a click of her heels--- she hits the opposite rooftop on the otherside of the alley and sort of skids along chest first. This catches Lacrima by surprise as she lifts herself to her feet slowly, facing away from her attacker at first before turning around to face Beat Jumper.
She purses her lips, just softly as her eyes narrow. "That was rude." she says neutrally as she frowns. "Do you normally kick people out of the sky when they're about to eat?" she asks with an almost innocent pout. She doesn't see Sky Jack at first, but eyes go skyward as her expression grows a little more angry.
"...Kukai." she spits out. Eyes trace him across the sky before they dart back down to Beat Jumper.
"So are you both here to try to 'end me'?" she asks with a hateful tone. "I bet you kick hungry cats that are chasing mice too." she says, matter of factly, at Beat Jumper.
"More like we kick feral cats that are threatening to leap at people and claw their faces off. This is the end, Lacrima." Sky Jack moves in towards Beat Jumper, then nods to him. "This may not be something you wanna partake in. I don't plan on going easy on her. But if you do, few things - watch for dark energy bolts, watch for her to fire them into the sky as a 'rain', and do not let her touch you, she'll drain you bad."
Jack looks at Beat for a second, concerned, but then looks back to Lacrima and begins edging to one side. "Your victims are piling up, girl. You're only doing this to yourself but I'm for damned sure not going to let you go this time. What you did to Sachiko was unforgiveable, not to mention everything else you've done."
With a sudden snap Sky Jack dashes to one side, a soccer ball spawning in front of him and flying towards Lacrima, trying to get her from one side and distract her while Beat attacks. "I'm going to get you!"
He shrugs at her accusation. "Would I kick an animal attacking people? Your comparison has flaws. At least with strays, I can feed them tuna."
He listens to Kukai, and offers a small, reassuring smile. "Keep yourself safe, too."
Divide and conquer.
It's a good strategy, though part of him wonders if perhaps Maihime's binding ribbons wouldn't be advantageous.
Little wings pop on his shoes, allowing him to jump higher than he normally would be able to.
An energy ball forms in his hand and, while Lacrima is hopefully distracted by Kukai's taunts, does an almost freefall as the ball of energy is raised above his head.
Then, he brings the basketball like orb down, hard, picturing a basketball hoops just above her head. "Beat Dunk!"
Lacrima seems slightly confused as 'all the sportsballs' come down on her, apparently. She frowns a bit. "Ah... so you intend to kill me..." she says softly. "I'm glad we got that pretense out of the way...." she says as she shifts backwards, darkness envelopes her and-- she's gone!? Sky Jacks' Soccer ball hits an AC unit richocheting off back upwards--- and Beat Jumper's Orb hits the top of the roof where Lacrima was.
There's another burst of darkness somewhere on the opposite rooftop as she settles down from a short jump, her heels clacking.
"What happened to Sachiko, could had been prevented. If you just turned around- walked away- and stopped getting involved in activities that don't concern, you, Souma." she says curtly. "You know very well she let me drain her of her own free will." she spits out. "Another... suggestion of your ilk. Find willing victims-- more double speak you turn around on me." she says hatefully.
She swing her hand skyward in an arc. "Reina La Oscuridad!" she calls out. More Spanish.
A conical spray of black orbs shoot out from her location----- spreading and exploding in bursts of black mass directly in front of her in the direction of both, Beat Jumper and Sky Jack.
"I don't care anymore." she says more neutrally.
Sky Jack rises up into the air a little, glaring at the pale purple girl. "You're trying to kill other people! I've had it up to here with how you're acting!" He makes a little surprised sound as she vanishes, looking around for her. "You know very well even someone who'd let you drain them of their own free will wouldn't let you nearly kill them! You overstepped your bounds and now she may never wake up!"
Jack shakes a fist at her, then looks over at Beat. "We're doing ok. Just keep the pressure up, don't let her hit you - she doesn't have unlimited energy. She'll try to feed mid-combat, I bet - we keep her from doing that and we'll run her down. I~"
He looks up as she calls out, and then he yelps, lunging to one side as the shotgun-like spread of black orbs spray out at them. One pops just a bit too near to him and he lets out another yelp, hissing - not too hurt, but pinged a little. His response? More soccer balls, crackling with electric power and speeding towards her at force!
Damn! Nagihiko lets out a small curse as his dunk misses.
"Wait, you nearly completely drained a willing participant because someone else pissed you off?" Nagihiko tilts his head. "I'm never drinking your Kool-Aid."
His hand is on Jack's elbow, nodding and listening.
He looks around a moment, still keeping an ear out.
And then he's dodging and leaping, taking the not so subtle clue from Jack.
Oh, that's what he meant.
Years od dancing have him nimbly dodging out of the way, avoiding most of the spray and cursing when he doesn't.
And of course, even if it's minor, Jack's yelp of pain just makes him mad.
"Blaze Shoot!"
A blue disc of energy flies toward her like a frisbee at alarming speed.
It's basically Moon Tiara Magic's baby brother trying to be as cool as his nee-chan.
Temari's angry, clinging in his hair. "Let me know if you want to tag out, Rhythm."
~I'm fine for now, Temari!~
Lacrima was waiting for the blasts to clear to see if she got them but out of the blue comes a soccer ball, much too fast for her to react to-- it comes crashing down into her chest and throws down across the roof and completely into an AC Unit that stops thumming when she dents it from the hit and it sparks and sputters to it's stop.
Her eyes go wide though when a blue energy disc slams into her and it explodes into a dazzling array of blue sparks.
There's some sort of screech. What is anyone's guess but it pretty much hit home.
Lacrima still stands there when all the energy and sparks from the AC pretty much exploding at this point dies down. She looks ragged and there's a pool of something thick and black near her feet. Yeah that hurt. She frowns and looks up-----
And then collapses down to her butt as she frowns and reaches a hand to her midsection. Yeah-- that disc got her something good.
"Ahahah~" she laughs pathetically, perhaps. "Riventon-san said that I shouldn't let sadness control me. That I should focus my anger. But I can't even do that right." she says as she digs her hands into the dirty rooftop.
She manages to get back up to her feet in time as she raises her hand and mutters. "P-perno Oscura!" she calls out- throwing out a simple bolt of black energy through the air toward's Beat Jumper this time.
Yeah she looks like crap now, and still going it seems at least.
Jack lets out a cheer as both the soccer ball and the disc connect, raising up as the smoke clears. "Holy crap they actually hit! Hey, Beat, look!" He stares at Lacrima for a moment as she stands, looking more exhausted and worn out, then grins, making a fist in triumph.
"It's a shame it has to be this way Lacrima - but the minute you started listening to Riventon you were going to lose this fight. If I knew of a way for you to go back to who you were, to get rid of all that dark energy, I would, but the only way I know of now is to fry it all out of you!"
Another soccer ball forms, and Jack boots it towards her even as the energy blast goes past towards Beat. She might look like crap but Jack knows how quickly a 'meal' for her can bring her back to full power, and he's intent on finishing this here and now.
Beat grins at Jack's confirmation that their hits land.
After Jack's speach and the hurtling of another soccer ball, Beat goes to form his own.
There's a sharp cry as the blast strikes his shoulder and the energy disc fizzles out before it can begin. Rhythm tumbles from him.
"Nagihiko!"
Before he can blink, Temari slams into him. Rhythm takes his place atop the ornate hair piece.
"Dance of the Cherry Blossoms." Maihime's voice is soft as petals swirls around the air, obscuring vision.
She whips out her fan, hiding her face, hiding her wince.
She snaps it closed and arcs it through the air, still graceful though in her left hand.
"Robe of Feathers."
Ribbons fly forth, seeking to wrap Lacrima, to bind her in place.
Lacrima almost drips sarcasm. "It's so easy to you. 'Kick it out of her', 'Beat it out of her'....." she says. She's still 'bleeding' for lack of a better term as she steps forward. She suddenly throws both her hands forward and there's a LARGGGE sudden burst of black, dark energy--- probably the largest Kukai seen her try to weild--- but before she can even rattle off the spanish phrase---- ribbons and trying around her and while she tries to fight it, she can't and that dark, black energy seems to fizzle out before she can manifest it into anything useful....
The wrap also holds her in place for Kukai's soccer ball which hits down into a large bolt of sparking energy into her person.
Another screech. Mixture of something human and something not emits from Lacrima again as she hits rooftop dirt again.
Lacrima isn't looking too good-- infact she looks like aboulstely crap. Everythings tattered, she looks tired and ragged and now she's leaking some sort of smoke from her being. Also. Her right arm is missing. Yeah. All that's there is this blazing sort of smoky stump, as she raises it from the tatters of ribbons falling around her. She frowns a bit.
"You can't 'save' me, or 'fix' me Kukai. You badmouth Riventon, but he's the only one's who's helped me most. He kept his promises. I'm done here." she says.
Darkness envelopes around her and she attempts to escape off into the Dusk Zone--- hopefully before she either runs out of energy and becomes some sort of feral youma, or she's forced into from more damage.
There's a moment when Sky Jack is watching her, trying to come up with a response to that comment about it being easy to destroy another being. Then she does the mime's 'lifting giant object' bit just before the ribbons tie her in place and the soccer ball lands. The screen makes him wince.
Jack moves in towards the half-destroyed girl, teeth gritting. "Hey, where are you running off to! You can flee as much as you want but I'll track you down eventually!" He covers his eyes for a moment as she vanishes into the Dusk Zone, the darkness flickering as she vanishes. "...Well. That's an arm. She'll be gone, hiding, for a while now. But she'll probably go beg more dark energy from Riventon, which just puts her further into his pocket."
He sighs and then circles around to look at... Yamato Maihime? "....You ok? I heard you cry out midfight. Are you still in one piece?" He moves over towards the purple-haired princess.
Yamato Maihime's eyebrows crease together as she watches the girl disappear. She starts to walk forward, nearly gliding as she moves.
Her eyebrow arcs in amusement at his expression. "The petals and ribbon didn't give you warning enough?" She flutters her fan in front of her face, eyes coy. "I must be losing my touch."
In truth, her shoulder hurts like hell. But she doesn't know the extent of it. She snaps her fan shut and sighs. "I haven't had time to check. Would you mind?"
She turns her injured shoulder toward him, large eyes silently asking if he'd look for her.
Jack laughs for a moment, a little sad, a little resigned. "The petals and ribbons helped, yeah. And you, losing your touch? Never." He sees her turning her shoulder towards him and reaches over, examining her shoulder under the kimono.
It doesn't look too bad, physically - the blast probably consumed part of Beat's clothing, but Maihime's kimono is intact. The problem with Lacrima's dark energy blasts is that they consume energy, not meat. Maihime's shoulder is cold to the touch and probably numb, aching (yes, both - the shoulder is numb but all the nerves leading away from it are screeching in pain) and stiff.
Jack rubs it between his hands, but he's no healer. It still feels cold, even after he takes his hands away. "Well... I think this is a good place to end the night's patrol." The cone blasted spot on his side is similarly chilled - not nearly as badly, but enough to where he'd like to rest before going much further. "You ok to move? And how's Rhythm?"
A blush spreads across her cheeks as her eyes flutter down, but she still looks pleased.
And she can't...really feel anything aside from the aching numbness. It's probably why she can't really move it much at the moment, either. Well, not without wanting to punch something, but when the closest person is the one you most wanna cuddle, punching would put a damper on things.
Rhythm floats from the hair ornament and gives two thumbs up! "I'm good! I'm--" The tiny chara breaks out into the biggest yawn ever. "Sleepy."
"I should be fine." Translation: I want to sleep for a week and I'm miserable but I'm still that annoyingly prideful person you know.
Sky Jack smiles and then nods to Rhythm and Maihime. "Yeah I know how that goes. Fine after you get used to it." He sighs. "Wish I wasn't, sometimes, but oh well." He snaps his fingers, and his flying snowboard pops into place. He steps back onto the rear of the thing and offers a hand to Maihime. "Give you a lift back to your place?"
"If you wish you weren't, are you really fine?" She takes his offered hand and steps onto the board. "I think you should worry when you no longer wish that."
She yawns against the back of her hand before nodding. "Yes, please."
Of course, it may be difficult for Jack to steer when she leans against him, and she may or may not doze off.