She sat straight up, the soft mattress of the makeshift hospital beds in the tournament area comforting her. Lucia breathed out, forcing herself up and to her feet. Her left hand traced over her right lung, as lightly touched the fabric of the black jacket she was wearing. The life-threatening wound had been sealed and repaired by her own medics. It seemed almost backwards to her. She sighed, beneath the multiple layers of fabrics still waited the two deep scars caused by the Soutaichou’s weaponry.
She looked down, grabbing the blade of Fusei from the small side table that waited next to each of the cots. Her mind was still distracted, the words her spirit had whispered to her while she was in surgery echoing in her mind still. All the while, the lavender-haired woman was distracted from the mechanisms of the world around her.
It was for that very reason that she didn’t hear or sense Haresuno’s approach until he was already sitting down on a vacant cot not far away. With a smirk, the Founder-Captain laid his staff against the wall and said, “Well that’s a sight. Lucia Amaterasu-Frey without a smile.”
He waited for her to turn around, and the smirk turned into a full grin. Tall, even while sitting down, Haresuno’s cyan eyes focused on Lucia as if silently measuring her worth. While not imposing in build there was an air to the Founder-Captain reminiscent of the dark jungle, and all the unseen dangers that lurked.
The sudden appearance of the Founder Captain caught the healer off guard. She shifted back in surprise. It took her a moment to regain her composure as a surprisingly cold look appeared on her face. “Can I help you Captain Uchiharu?” she replied, before breaking eye-contact with him once again.
She still hadn’t forgiven him for the absolute farce that was her taishuu moral. “If your business isn’t immediately important I’m going to ask you to leave. It’s not healthy to disturb patients who are still recovering,” replied the lavender-haired woman replied in a matter-of-fact, almost professional, tone of voice.
Blinking, as if surprised, the Founder-Captain’s brow drew down into a knitted frown. “Oh,” was the only word that seemed to come from him after that. Reaching out to pick up his staff, Haresuno rose to his feet - his towering height now completely obvious - as the fringes of his haori fell around his ankles.
He turned around and headed for the exit, but then stopped. “I wasn’t expecting you to be in such a gloomy mood, I apologize.” He started walking away again, his bass voice trailing over his shoulders, “It’s just that I don’t get to come to the human world a lot, and figured you’d be the most capable person of showing me an...” he grasped for the word, “arcade.”
Hook.
Lucia’s perked up, if just for the briefest moment. She huffed out, before diverting her gaze away once more. Stay indifferent, repeated the girl to herself, as she tried her hardest to suppress the urge. Why did she always find it hard to stew like everyone else?
Line.
She sighed out, before getting up. Reaching over, she grabbed her medical pack and slung it over her back. Without looking at the Founder Captain, she walked directly past him towards the exit. “Come on,” said the noblewoman, “We’ll request for gigais from the tournament officials.”
Following on her heels, Haresuno laughed. “No need,” he told her. “I was counting on you agreeing, so I took the liberty of having everything arranged. Even managed to set up a tenriku spot. All we have to do is....”
He let his voice trail off as Lucia neared the exit. He was going to give her a minute to enjoy the new scenery. After all, it was going to be something a tad different from what there had been when she entered.
She looked back, a questioning glance towards the trickster captain. She brushed her suspicions aside before pulling back the entry cover of the medical tent.
Sinker.
Following Lucia outside, Haresuno joined the medic in the middle of one of various arenas set up for the World Tournament. His smile from before now appropriate for the situation.
Lucia stood in pure shock a few steps ahead of him, and before she could think to flee, Haresuno knelt and concentrated. He focused the will of his god hand and moved the tent back through the large hole in the stadium wall, back to it’s original place, before he forced the tenriku hole shut.
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” he boomed, his voice actually much louder than normal. It was a trick Hayato had showed him, though the assassin used it to change his voice. Haresuno’s uses for the trick were much simpler. Rising to his feet, the Captain continued to bellow, “Presented for you, for this one time only, I give you...!
“Lucia Amaterasu-Frey!” He flourished his free hand out towards the medic, dragging the attention of all the spectators - there were a lot. He had seen to that personally.
The crowd actually cheered. A small roar of clapping hands and dozens of voices all mingling together. Whether she knew it or not, in her fight with the Soutaichou, Lucia had gained a small amount of fame. Enough fame, he had found, to gather viewers. And that was what was important.
“Versus...!”
His flourishing hand spun dramatically upwards before cutting straight down, his left thumb hitched backwards at himself. “...Captain Haresuno Uchiharu!”
Surprisingly to Haresuno, a meager amount of shouts and applause followed his own introduction. His own battle with Kyuketsu - apparently - had not gone as unnoticed as he had thought.
“In a battle of that aims to push the challenger... Aims to break them down and cripple them! To test their mettle in the heat of battle to prove their own worth for...!” One more flourish of his hand, this one the most important. He directed their gaze - not only the crowd, but Lucia as well - up towards the top of the stadium. High above the heads of everyone there, drifting cozily in the lazy winds like a brilliant banner of white.
A haori.
“...the very title sought after by so many! Ladies and Gentlemen, you are about to witness a once in a lifetime opportunity. Today you witness a taishuu!”
Though the various humans throughout the arena’s seats might not have known what they were about to watch, the shinigami - men and women who so often did not watch a taishuu - went wild. The humans caught their excitement and the roaring crowd grew louder until it was powerful enough for Haresuno to feel it in his bones.
Severing the strands of reiatsu he had been using to augment his voice, the Founder-Captain reaffixed his gaze on Lucia. He was still smiling. “You’re welcome.”
Lucia staggered back, the roar of the crowd echoing through her ears. Her jaw visibly dropped as her mind struggled to take in all that was occurring right now. Her eyes trailed across the edges of the massive arena that she had found herself in, the crowd melding together into an immense blur of people.
Her survey stopped as she looked to an elevated platform directly below the haori. The arbiters of the taishuu, the Captains that were to judge her worth among them stood looking down upon the two from far above.
The rush of adrenaline broke her out of the haze that had been clouding her mind for weeks. A full smile appeared on her face, as she began to laugh loudly. Of course Haresuno would play her like this! She raised both of her hands, waving at the crowd, the fatigue sapping away from her body while being replaced by excitement. The noblewoman cocked her head back towards Haresuno, the mastermind of this insane spectacle. “That’s the Haresuno I remember,” she replied with a wink.
She looked down, grabbing the blade of Fusei from the small side table that waited next to each of the cots. Her mind was still distracted, the words her spirit had whispered to her while she was in surgery echoing in her mind still. All the while, the lavender-haired woman was distracted from the mechanisms of the world around her.
It was for that very reason that she didn’t hear or sense Haresuno’s approach until he was already sitting down on a vacant cot not far away. With a smirk, the Founder-Captain laid his staff against the wall and said, “Well that’s a sight. Lucia Amaterasu-Frey without a smile.”
He waited for her to turn around, and the smirk turned into a full grin. Tall, even while sitting down, Haresuno’s cyan eyes focused on Lucia as if silently measuring her worth. While not imposing in build there was an air to the Founder-Captain reminiscent of the dark jungle, and all the unseen dangers that lurked.
The sudden appearance of the Founder Captain caught the healer off guard. She shifted back in surprise. It took her a moment to regain her composure as a surprisingly cold look appeared on her face. “Can I help you Captain Uchiharu?” she replied, before breaking eye-contact with him once again.
She still hadn’t forgiven him for the absolute farce that was her taishuu moral. “If your business isn’t immediately important I’m going to ask you to leave. It’s not healthy to disturb patients who are still recovering,” replied the lavender-haired woman replied in a matter-of-fact, almost professional, tone of voice.
Blinking, as if surprised, the Founder-Captain’s brow drew down into a knitted frown. “Oh,” was the only word that seemed to come from him after that. Reaching out to pick up his staff, Haresuno rose to his feet - his towering height now completely obvious - as the fringes of his haori fell around his ankles.
He turned around and headed for the exit, but then stopped. “I wasn’t expecting you to be in such a gloomy mood, I apologize.” He started walking away again, his bass voice trailing over his shoulders, “It’s just that I don’t get to come to the human world a lot, and figured you’d be the most capable person of showing me an...” he grasped for the word, “arcade.”
Hook.
Lucia’s perked up, if just for the briefest moment. She huffed out, before diverting her gaze away once more. Stay indifferent, repeated the girl to herself, as she tried her hardest to suppress the urge. Why did she always find it hard to stew like everyone else?
Line.
She sighed out, before getting up. Reaching over, she grabbed her medical pack and slung it over her back. Without looking at the Founder Captain, she walked directly past him towards the exit. “Come on,” said the noblewoman, “We’ll request for gigais from the tournament officials.”
Following on her heels, Haresuno laughed. “No need,” he told her. “I was counting on you agreeing, so I took the liberty of having everything arranged. Even managed to set up a tenriku spot. All we have to do is....”
He let his voice trail off as Lucia neared the exit. He was going to give her a minute to enjoy the new scenery. After all, it was going to be something a tad different from what there had been when she entered.
She looked back, a questioning glance towards the trickster captain. She brushed her suspicions aside before pulling back the entry cover of the medical tent.
Sinker.
Following Lucia outside, Haresuno joined the medic in the middle of one of various arenas set up for the World Tournament. His smile from before now appropriate for the situation.
Lucia stood in pure shock a few steps ahead of him, and before she could think to flee, Haresuno knelt and concentrated. He focused the will of his god hand and moved the tent back through the large hole in the stadium wall, back to it’s original place, before he forced the tenriku hole shut.
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” he boomed, his voice actually much louder than normal. It was a trick Hayato had showed him, though the assassin used it to change his voice. Haresuno’s uses for the trick were much simpler. Rising to his feet, the Captain continued to bellow, “Presented for you, for this one time only, I give you...!
“Lucia Amaterasu-Frey!” He flourished his free hand out towards the medic, dragging the attention of all the spectators - there were a lot. He had seen to that personally.
The crowd actually cheered. A small roar of clapping hands and dozens of voices all mingling together. Whether she knew it or not, in her fight with the Soutaichou, Lucia had gained a small amount of fame. Enough fame, he had found, to gather viewers. And that was what was important.
“Versus...!”
His flourishing hand spun dramatically upwards before cutting straight down, his left thumb hitched backwards at himself. “...Captain Haresuno Uchiharu!”
Surprisingly to Haresuno, a meager amount of shouts and applause followed his own introduction. His own battle with Kyuketsu - apparently - had not gone as unnoticed as he had thought.
“In a battle of that aims to push the challenger... Aims to break them down and cripple them! To test their mettle in the heat of battle to prove their own worth for...!” One more flourish of his hand, this one the most important. He directed their gaze - not only the crowd, but Lucia as well - up towards the top of the stadium. High above the heads of everyone there, drifting cozily in the lazy winds like a brilliant banner of white.
A haori.
“...the very title sought after by so many! Ladies and Gentlemen, you are about to witness a once in a lifetime opportunity. Today you witness a taishuu!”
Though the various humans throughout the arena’s seats might not have known what they were about to watch, the shinigami - men and women who so often did not watch a taishuu - went wild. The humans caught their excitement and the roaring crowd grew louder until it was powerful enough for Haresuno to feel it in his bones.
Severing the strands of reiatsu he had been using to augment his voice, the Founder-Captain reaffixed his gaze on Lucia. He was still smiling. “You’re welcome.”
Lucia staggered back, the roar of the crowd echoing through her ears. Her jaw visibly dropped as her mind struggled to take in all that was occurring right now. Her eyes trailed across the edges of the massive arena that she had found herself in, the crowd melding together into an immense blur of people.
Her survey stopped as she looked to an elevated platform directly below the haori. The arbiters of the taishuu, the Captains that were to judge her worth among them stood looking down upon the two from far above.
The rush of adrenaline broke her out of the haze that had been clouding her mind for weeks. A full smile appeared on her face, as she began to laugh loudly. Of course Haresuno would play her like this! She raised both of her hands, waving at the crowd, the fatigue sapping away from her body while being replaced by excitement. The noblewoman cocked her head back towards Haresuno, the mastermind of this insane spectacle. “That’s the Haresuno I remember,” she replied with a wink.
Hiren: [539]
Hare: [800]
