In between the improvised structures of what might be considered “proper” Camp Monog and the tents on the outskirts lay the residential slums, an unorganized conglomerate of shacks and huts interspersed with more professional looking stonework structures and wooden watchtowers. The roads remained in a nearly constant muddy state and garbage was strewn about haphazardly. The better maintained parts of the slums set aside areas for large community dumps that were set ablaze weekly. Large plumes of black smoke and a foul odor, paradoxically, usually meant you were in a better part of town. The less pleasant the air, the safer the community.
Annitou only made passing attempts to enforce any sort of law in these areas. Instead it fell to the individual communities to ensure their own survival. That usually meant chasing off outsiders or, in some circumstances, hiring them for protection. As Yuu approached one of the larger Metsina slum communities, pale skinned Fenshingiri mercenaries patrolled the outer perimeter. In order to fund the never ending Fenshingiri war against the insurgent forces trying to overthrow it, the cash-strapped nation grubbed for every penny it could. That meant selling weapons, information, supplies, and as was becoming increasingly common, people. The Fenshingiri never turned away a customer, selling to even the lowest scumbags of the earth if they could pony up the right amount of cash.
“I hope you aren’t calling our homeland a bunch of scumbags,” Hana grunted through a mouthful of some unidentifiable meat. “What would your clan think if they heard that?”
The interior of this Metsina settlement at first glanced looked like all the others. Dirty shacks, ill-kept roads, ragged looking civilians rummaging around either trying to sell or to buy whatever food could be scrounged up. Yuu plopped his burden off next to the greasy looking food stall Hana decided was their meeting point, then turned his attention back to his partner. “They would probably wonder what gave a lowly commoner like you the right to talk about them at all.” Sensing an imminent comeback, Yuu prattled on. “Just kidding. They wouldn’t wonder at all. They’d just call you trash and move on.”
Hana pointed a stick of her mystery meat at the boy and nodded. “That’s Agent Trash to you. Did you get our host?”
Yuu jerked his head to the ground where he placed the cage. The dog's previously quiet nature now gave a low growl at the nearby food stall. The owner glanced at the beast with wary eyes. “Gimme a stick of whatever you're grilling.” Yuu tossed another handful of coins through the air. “Can’t have our third team member here working on an empty stomach, can we?”
“I think I'd prefer an empty stomach to one full of this meat.” Hana finished her own meal then tossed the wooden stick across the street, landing it square onto an existing pile of trash with astonishing precision. “You might be feeding him some of his old friends.”
A Metsina native himself Yuu was no stranger to the grotesqueness of this kind of life. He grimaced at Hana's comment anyway. Hana noticed and broke character again to grin at the boy’s reaction. “The Metsina royal family too good to eat dog meat?”
“Not without a good red wine to go with it.” Yuu retrieved his no longer mystery meat and shoved the food into the cage with the animal. It began wolfing it down instantly as though it hadn’t been fed in some time. “And that’s Cadet Dog Meat to you.”
There was no point hiding his identity when in the company of other Metsina folk. The glossy black color of his hair and pristine porcelain skin gave away Yuu's identity as belonging to the country’s royal bloodline. It was something of a joke to call the government a monarchy, as the family itself was so full of backstabbing and usurping that the family tree wasn’t so much full of branches as it was polluted by weeds and fungus from outsiders who wormed their way in. Even the royal family's trademark birth defect was a dominant trait- someone born with even a little royal blood could share the family’s nearly translucent skin.
Yuu, unfortunately, couldn't claim to be one of these 'thin-bloods'. “Yeah, yeah, We all have our burdens.” Hana wiped her mouth then stood up with a hefty exhale. “Our provisions are over there. Let's pack up and get going.”
“This all we need?” Yuu expressed a pleasant bit of surprise as he slung the lightweight the bags over his shoulders. “Or are we on a starvation diet this week? I might disappear completely if it's just gonna be rice gruel every morning again.”
"You should consider gaining a pound sometime.”
“What's the saying? 'The only strength a Metsina needs are strong legs to run away and quick hands to slit a throat'? You signed that on my academy yearbook, actually.”
“We're packing the bare minimum,” Hana's attitude snapped back to business as usual after securing her own pack. “Only a couple days worth of supplies at most.” Hana tightened some cloth strips around her wrists and adjusted her pack again, deliberately taking extra care to maintain a precise balance. “We can find food and water in the field if it comes to it.”
“Ah, yes.” Yuu rubbed his chin in fake deep thought. “Why stop at dog meat? Human meat is so much more tender.”
“Not true. It's fairly greasy, actually.” Hana gave a cold stare back to her partner. “We might eat some maneaters. I won’t have you being picky.”
“Of course not, Agent Hana.” As a conciliatory gesture Yuu held out the cage with the purchased small dog inside. “Please, lead the way to our culinary adventure.”
Although Hana's face clearly indicated some level of annoyance she took the animal anyway. Without much care she dropped the cage at her feet, then bent over to go to work. After a bit of rattling and struggling, and a few yelps, out came the mangy mutt. Hana began wrapping a series of long white bandage-looking ribbons around its forelimbs and neck, putting the thin beast in something like a full body leash. The fabric didn’t impede the dog's movement, and once it learned this the animal quickly tried to sprint to freedom. Hana gave the leash a tug as the creature went as far as she allowed it to and the bindings tightened, causing it to collapse on the spot. The barest wisp of a smile tugged at Hana's mouth. Yuu let out a little internal sigh. Try as he might to entertain his partner, nothing could quite do the trick for Hana like that feeling of power and control.
The animal was no stranger to being tied up and after figuring out it couldn’t pull itself free, instead it turned around to gnaw at the bindings. “Don’t you pity it?” Yuu watched as the animal bloodied its mouth and yelped as Hana’s ribbons resisted its biting as though made of iron chains “Maybe it wishes it had ended up as lunch meat instead.”
The cloth tying up the animal extended all the way to Hana’s wrists, where it circled her forelimb before disappearing under her clothing. Her practiced flexing and arm movements once again caused the beast to stiffen as its body leash kept it still. It was like the animal was a puppet dancing to Hana's strings. “Don't anthropomorphize it, Yuu. It's a dumb animal.” Hana pulled the immobilized dog closer as she began walking towards the edge of the camp, near one of Annitou’s abandoned watchtowers. The motionless beast got dragged along like a child's toy. “Come on. I’d rather do this in private.”
Normally such an invitation would perk the ears of up of many a Metsina thug, but the inhabitants of that community knew far better than to follow the two soldiers. Royal family members made for good hostages and ransoms, but Yuu was only one half of this equation. The eyes of wary Metsina citizens watched as the pair slipped away, and a few whispers were shared between those in the know.
“That maniac isn't on the island, is she?”
“No, there would have been a mountain of bodies by now if that was true. It must just be her protege.”
“That Hana girl, you mean? Isn't she even worse?”
Some goon lurking by the meat stall made a half-hearted lurch towards the pair as they departed, but one of his buddies smacked him over the head before he got too far and shot him a disapproving scowl. “It ain't worth it, bro.”
“This will work.” Now in the concealing shade of a watch tower, Hana yanked the dog closer and crouched down over its immobilized form. “Get the skull out, let's give it a test.”
Yuu pulled out a sizable water gourd from his side, then smashed it in between his palms. Some of the residual water spilled out, revealing the real treasure the simple flask held. Within the bottom half of the gourd was a glossy black carving, about the size of a fist. The material looked like stone, possibly obsidian, and had been delicately carved away into the shape of what looked like the skull of a one eyed snake. Around the skull was a multitude of snails, which aggressively (for snails) trailed rings of slime around the artifact. Even as he held the stone it felt unnaturally warm in his palm. Obscenely warm, one might say. Not the good kind.
“Eugh.” Wiping the excess moisture from his hands Yuu tossed the skull to Hana. She caught it without even looking, crunching a dozen of its snail passengers between her fingers. Like a true professional she expertly wiped the artifact clean of its hangers-on, discarding the smashed snails aside like wrapping paper. Yuu again found himself a bit nauseated. “You should have carried it. That thing makes my skin crawl.”
Hana let out a dismissive snort as she finished her polishing of the rock. “Yeah, good one. I’m sure the royal family loves letting commoners handle their national treasures. I drop it once and I'm next in line on the execution block. Real fun times.”
Before any snappy response could come from Yuu the immobilized dog began barking and struggling against its bindings, not out of panic but instead out of raw aggression. Snarling and snapping its jaws at Hana, the defeated look in its eyes from earlier was completely gone. Even against her bindings it put in enough strength to graze her skin with its fangs. The sudden surge of energy made Yuu flinch, but Hana just let out a low whistle. “Damn. That's way stronger than our earlier tests. Crazy.” Carefully holding the beast at bay with one arm, Hana took the skull in the other and slowly moved it from side to side. The leashed dog continued its futile struggle, but its head clearly traced the path of the artifact as Hana moved it, as though she was waving a treat in front of its face. When she drew the object close enough it snapped at her even harder. The expressions of Yuu and Hana ended up on exactly the opposite ends of the spectrum.
“I hate to ruin your fun, but don't play with it.” Yuu focused more on Hana's engrossment with the skull than the increasingly agitated animal that rest at her feet. “The longer you hold that thing the more nearby animals its going to piss off. I'd rather not have to spend day one of the mission running away from a bunch of insane rats and crows.”
“I like knowing what kind of work I'm getting into. That's what separates an Agent from a cadet, you know.” Hana wrapped a few of the small cuts the dog managed to scratch into her with the bandage-like ribbons covering her entire arm. The whole time she never took her eyes off the animal. “Just worry about yourself.”
With that Hana released her grip on the skull. The dog snapped it out of the air in an instant, its fangs grabbing hold of the black rock even tighter than it had been biting at her. Simultaneously Hana loosened the bindings on the leash, which prompted the beast to scamper back to its feet. In the next moment the small animals darted forwards with a renewed energy and speed, like it was late to some important meeting.
It reached the end of its leash again and slammed itself against the binding with considerable force. This time it put enough power behind its frantic escape that it even pulled Hana’s body for a bit before she could respond. Prepared for this, Hana twisted and pulled at the ribbons holding the dog like a rider yanking on the reins of a horse. That slowed its forceful pulling just a bit. The beast didn’t stop completely, but it didn’t come snarling back for revenge either. It merely continued to pull at its leash with a single-minded determination. By comparison the animal almost looked docile now. The black skull still lay firmly gripped in its previously snarling maw and looked a bit glossy due to the buildup of drool now pooling on its surface. 'Priceless family heirloom' sounded a bit over the top now, the thing was barely more than a chew toy at this point.
Looking quite pleased at her control, Hana allowed the beast to move forward bit by bit. “This is much bigger result that we had on the ship. This mutt is really going nuts for that skull.” Once an equilibrium was established, Hana and Yuu began walking at a measured pace. The dog didn't seem to even notice, and its frenzied scampering flung dirt and mud backwards at the pair as they continued to walk with it.
“It’s not a rat or a seagull, so that’s probably expected, isn’t it? After that incident with the bear we never really did and tests with anything larger than a cat. Or maybe just being on the island is makes the skull stronger, who knows.” As they left the Metsina compound some passersby gave the odd couple sideways glances. It wasn’t so much the strangeness of two teenagers walking around as it was them walking a dog, as if they were in some civilized country out with their pet and not in a den of frantic opportunistic smugglers. The animal forced itself in a single direction and only changed its bearing slightly whenever a structure obstructed the way. It appeared dead set on getting to some location.
“No, this is definitely different.” Hana redoubled her grip on the ribbon leash as the animal pulled hard enough to cause it to slip. “Even those bigger animals back home didn’t pull quite this hard...look, see there?” Hana stopped for a moment to gesture at the red-stained ribbon around the dog. “It’s breaking the skin around where I put the leash. It’s going to pull itself to pieces if this keeps up.”
“Yech.” Yuu cleared his throat in displeasure as the dog pulled the two into a foul smelling alley between two abandoned structures. “Maybe I should have bought two then. It’s going to really suck if it dies before it takes us to...wherever it's taking us. I really don't want to go buy another dog.”
“We can just move the skull to something else.” Hana didn’t seemed phased by Yuu’s offhand comment about killing more dogs, which he had sort of intended as a joke. “There’s plenty of beasts in the jungle we can use.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if attaching an ancient rock that turns animals crazy onto a monster is a great idea.”
“You let me worry about it.” Hana finally broke her attention away from the animal long enough to shoot Yuu a ‘you should know better’ look. “You can head back to the ship if you don’t like it.”
“When you put it like that, it's as though Ama herself was still here and with us.” Yuu meant to mutter the last part but still said it loud enough to provoke a displeased response from Hana. He quickly added: “By which I mean the good parts of the esteemed General Ama, and not the insane psychopath parts. Blessed be the troubled soul of our mentor.”
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“Keep your comments to yourself, Cadet Yuu.” If there had been any levity left, Hana made it clear that wouldn't be the case any longer. Her face now completely hardened as she steered the animal around another structure. Taking the dog for a walk was, after all, what the two were being paid to do. Not chitchat about their dirty laundry.
Another few minutes passed in terse silence. Nothing but the click-clack of the dog's claws on the earth could be heard between the two. The dog navigated around a corner as a blockade of garbage kept them from progressing through another tight squeeze of an alley. Its ribbon leash strained a moment later as it left line of sight. Yuu, lost in his own thoughts, just kept walking forward. Hana snapped her free arm back to hold the boy at bay. “Hold it, I feel something.” Without a word her wrist snapped back like a fishing line. The taut fabric originally lay low to the ground but it suddenly leapt upwards, as if the dog was being lifted by someone. “Thief.” Hana grunted as she kept firm hold on her leash. “Some moron is around the corner there and trying to take the dog. Yuu, get it back.”
This wasn’t an unexpected outcome. The animal was free meat, after all. Yuu sighed and shifted the pack on his back slightly so it wouldn’t throw him off balance. “Right away, master.” Although a standard issue Metsina knife hung at his hip, as usual Yuu didn't even bother touching it. Instead he leapt into the ally with both his arms held at the ready, somewhat like a boxer. His technique involved a bit more finesse than a knife could provide. He kept both his palms flat as his eyes followed the white ribbon leading to the animal. Already the motion was playing out in his mind. Some dumb thug would be standing there dumbfounded, and Yuu could put a few careful strikes into his chest, then the whole thing would be over in a matter of seconds...
Sure enough there stood some Jinchi dwelling bumpkin, with a dog-shaped lump wrapped up in his arms. As was usually the case for shady dog stealing individuals the target wore an obscuring brown cloak. He looked quite a bit older than Yuu and Hana, and the natural 20/20 vision of the Metsina royal family let Yuu pick out the important details in a hurry. The sun-baked complexion and rigid facial features, combined with the man’s defiant but clearly professionally trained stance...a Garion native, no doubt! A sizable one at that. There was no wonder the man was able to so easily capture the tiny animal. As was typical a face mask concealed most of the man's important features but that hardly seemed to matter. Who cared about the identity of someone who was about to eat dirt?
Yuu’s attention snapped away from the ribbon and to a still falling splatter of blood. No, it wasn't a splatter of blood- it was a splatter of dog. Again his distaste for gore caused him to speak before thinking. “Oh, damn, that's nasty!” Apparently rather than steal the dog, this thief had chopped the poor thing in half, and pieces of the animal still rained down at his feet. The bloody scene caused Yuu's planned attack to hesitate at he processed the new information. Hana’s now bloodied ribbons, rather than tying up the dog, now tied up the hand of the thief, as though he'd gotten tangled in his attempts to dislodge the beast from the leash. That meant one of the thief's hands was still free- oh no!
A vicious backhand from the thief caught Yuu across the face. His hesitation cost him. More than that some remnant of dog viscera on the man's hand got slapped onto his skin as well. Double gross!
Though he stumbled back Yuu retained his balance. A bit of an unexpected rebuke, but still a futile effort. As long as Hana's ribbons remained intact, the thief had nowhere to go. Hana rounded the corner right at that moment and took in the same scene as Yuu, but without the emotional outburst. The puppet strings no longer jerked a dog around and rather entangled around the arm of bigger prey. Again Hana's tough expression eased up a bit with the anticipation of really getting to flex her skill. People were just a bit more fun to play with compared to dogs, right?
Yuu's attention lay elsewhere. He could see much clearly now what must have transpired. The black skull lay gripped between the fingers in the thief's unbound hand, and not in the now destroyed animal's jaws. It meant the thief had prioritized getting the artifact first, rather than the animal. A coincidence? An accident? No, not a chance. Something was definitely fish about this.
But maybe that wouldn't matter. With the thief's other arm tied up, how could he get away? The man's eyes shifted from Yuu to Hana while his arm strained and pulled against the ribbons. Doing so caused their edges to cut into his skin and soon his own blood joined the dog's as it splattered to the raw earth underfoot. From the thief's expression it didn’t seem this bothered him. It looked more like he was...testing the strength of Hana's ribbons, rather than trying to escape.
“I don’t know who you are, buddy.” Hana's words came out one by one as she spoke. Her tone completely shifted, making her sound ten years older than she was. As she spoke she lowered her free arm and another coil of ribbons fell from it like string unwinding from a ball of yarn “But drop the rock, and I’ll let you keep one of your arms.”
“She’s serious.” Yuu used an elbow to wipe some dog gunk off his face while not dropping his defense. “She loved that dog. You are in huge trouble.”
Placing the skull within his cloak their assailant seemed unbothered by the threat. Instead he withdrew his own knife, which almost made Yuu snort out a laugh. These tough guys always wanted to fight to the death over nothing, like mindless savages. Typical of a Garion native to go to violence first and foremost. Any Metsina worth their salt would have turned tail the second they realized who they were up against! Hana and Yuu held their ground as the man drew his blade. Now all they need do is wait for the fool’s inevitable bumrush, then crush him with a tag-team counter blow. An old rite of passage for Metsina cadets was dealing with drunks and vagrants that got too pushy, and this fellow fit that bill to a tee. Lowlifes didn't have the training to effectively plan ahead. All the pair needed to do was wait for an opening.
Rather than charge forward, instaed the man placed the dagger next to the flesh where Hana’s ribbons entangled him. He pressed down hard. Very hard, hard enough that the knife sunk a significant distance into his own skin. Yuu didn’t quite understand what was happening at first but Hana drew the correct conclusion immediately. “Crazy ass- Yuu, get him!” She flung her other arm forward, whipping her ribbons towards the target. “He’s going to cut off his hand to escape!”
What? Yuu’s feet powered him forward before he had a chance to process anything and his arms shifted back to a thrusting stance. Don't think and just follow orders, or so their crazy teacher used to say. Even if nothing made sense, if someone you trusted gave a command, you did it no matter what! It made no sense why this random assassin would be so willing to sacrifice a limb for the small rock. It might be a Metsina treasure but apart from the artifact’s ability to drive animals into a frenzy, the thing wasn’t exactly a high value find. Yuu chalked it up to Jinchi induced insanity- the island was so full of oddities and strange objects that this poor sap must have been assuming the black stone skull mattered more than it did.
If it had been that valuable Metsina wouldn’t have sent one just Agent and cadet with it, after all. What a stupid thing to die for.
The thief stopped short after sinking the dagger part ways through his own flesh as Hana and Yuu’s simultaneous attack shot forward. As before he appeared unconcerned with how events were transpiring and his cold indifference almost carried a sense of confidence despite how bad the situation looked for him. Hana’s ribbons moved faster than Yuu’s feet and made contact first. Perhaps making a miscalculation the thief intercepted her attack with his already bound wrist, maybe assuming that since the bindings that already held him were so rigid already they would provide a meaningful shield. Instead the thin edge of Hana’s ribbon stabbed through like a knife, easily piercing the flesh as if passing through, well, a thin cloth ribbon. Now two separate leashes bound him by the same arm. The thief regarded his rapidly worsening limb with a quaint sort of curiosity rather than with a howl of pain. No doubt a Garion thug would be unfamiliar with Hana's jutsu. Even among weird techniques, her Weave and the tactile control it gave her of ribbons was something of an oddity. Few lived long enough to figure out the exact rules behind Hana's technique, and that's the way she prefered it.
This is where Yuu would have loved to spit some one liner. Maybe something like 'we're cut from a different cloth than you' or 'we're going to unravel your whole plan'! But both Hana and his former mentor constantly berated Yuu for not taking his work so seriously. So instead he just kept his snappy commentary to himself.
Using both hands Hana flung the thief sideways, like a puppet being jerked off-stage. He smashed into a tin shack making up one half of the alley, sending a resounding metallic rattling noise through the air. No doubt about it now, the thief was cornered and open to a full attack from Yuu. It was the old one-two punch! Yuu's small body quickly closed the gap and lay just outside striking distance as the theif reeled from Hana's leash yanking.
From a crouched position Yuu snapped out with one of his palms. The unarmed attack seemed foolhardy, and perhaps believing it to be so the recovering thief swung up with the knife in his unbound hand to meet the boy's hands.
Another futile effort! Like flowing water an invisible force around Yuu's outstretched palm effortlessly diverted the path of the weapon, and with a simple rotation of this wrist Yuu pulled the dagger from the man’s fingertips like plucking a feather from a chicken. All of this was accomplished without any physical contact, as if the gods themselves had seen fit to fling the man’s weapon away in their righteous judgment. Now it was Yuu's turn to show off his jutsu- the royal family of Metsina's own Hand of God! The reality was much less impressive than the name suggested- the technique merely allowed Yuu to perform normal actions with 'displacement'. The force of a punch could be delivered several feet in front of where he appeared to strike; in this case, his twisting grip easily snatched away the blade of the thief without having to touch its bladed edge. Hana sometimes called it 'ghost fingers' to deliberately get Yuu mad, but he had to admit it was a better name than what Metsina's royal family liked to call it.
Drawing back his arm but not his body Yuu quickly executed several rapid jabs with his extended palms. Each one pointed forward, as if he would drive the tips of his fingers into the man’s body, but stopped a good arms length away. Watching from her own viewpoint Hana used to think it looked goofy, like the boy was playing a game with a sibling trying to make them flinch. The latent jutsu that some individuals possessed always required some level of absurdity though- from Hana’s own body-wrapped ribbons necessary for her to retain complete control of the fabric, to Yuu’s ridiculous hand movements, a certain level of shamelessness had to be learned to best utilize one's talents. As their mentor used to claim, there was more shame to be had in a job poorly done than embarrassing yourself.
It was then all the more surprising when Hana watched Yuu do something she rarely saw: the boy took a step back in retreat. His repeated jabs usually completely incapacitated their target. Something was wrong. She twisted the two sets of ribbons that now bound the man’s one arm in anticipation of needing to cut them loose in order to launch another set. Or, if she needed to, she would tighten her grip and remove the man’s hand herself- not ideal since it might let him get away, but there was no telling at a glance how strong any given thug might actually be. He couldn't be an Agent, could he?
The thief drew his free hand back to grab nad pull at Hana’s binding. “What the hell, dude.” Yuu exhaled, not exhausted but heart still beating from the exertion of the repeated invisible blows he just delivered. “Do you not have organs or something?" That confirmed it. The thief somehow hadn't been affected by Yuu's assault. The boy turned, his temperment not shaken but his voice carrying an edge of worry. "Hana, this guy is a freak, do something!”
Finally the man saw fit to talk. Each word rumbled out with a kind if disappointment borne of arrogance. “Even for a cadet, you certainly are slow.” A knowing smile crossed his face as the cloth face mask keeping his identity cloaked finally jostled free from all the excitement.
Both Metsina soldiers uttered the same curse under their breath at the reveal. “It's that general!” Yuu retreated some more, until his heels clicked back against the wooden beams of the watch tower on the other side of the ally. “General Daisuke!” His baffled face looked towards Hana for some kind of guidance. Fighting generals for dog corpses was a bit outside their realm of experience.
Hana's mind was already churning through the possible options. To think the now fugitive Daisuke was personally hunting a couple of random Metsina soldiers...ridiculous! Yet maybe it all did make some sort of sense. Rumors from last night hinted that Daisuke stole some precious artifact (from a Metsina ship, no less). Maybe Garion sent Daisuke to collect oddities for their own nefarious purposes. Jinchi was certainly the the place for it. But Hana and Yuu had been so careful not to be detected when they arrived! All that preparation had been worthless!
Or maybe not. If they put Daisuke down here, they could get away undetected. Their secret needed to not leave this alley.
As she spat her words out Hana felt her bandages tighten further. “He must be repelling your technique with air somehow. You're no good here, Yuu, back off.” No doubt in her mind as to the correct course of action now Hana snapped both her arms back and forced the ribbons around Daisuke’s hand to harden to razor sharpness once more. The initial force alone caused blood to spurt around where the bindings touched the skin, and with a bit more strength she knew she could shred the limb entirely and render it worthless. “Let me take care of it!”
The boy grimaced at having been shelved so easily. Daisuke's placid face didn't seem at all worried about his soon to be torn apart hand at all. Instead he kept his green eyes locked directly down on Yuu’s frustrated expression. It was strange for someone in his position to be speaking and acting so calmly, as if this might be nothing but a game. “What is the matter, lad?” Daisuke thumbed his nose and gave an insufferable snort. “Are you upset your famed jutsu is so useless you could not even damage an unguarded opponent? Ah, well. Just the kind of disappointment one would expect from Metsina dogs, I suppose. ”
Garion’s baiting tactics were always obvious, but they only truly worked because there was hint of truth buried beneath the taunts. General Daisuke would almost certainly be able to wipe the floor with both Hana and Yuu, so great a distance there was between their ranks. Even if Hana did succeed in removing the man’s hand he could without a doubt use his mastery of fire to wreck Hana’s ribbons, and apparently his mastery of wind kept Yuu’s own diplacement technique from working. Right now the two had as big of an advantage as they might have in this fight. It would be wrong to not press their chances now. There might not be any oppurtunity this good in the future.
Hana couldn’t deny it either. The boy kicked off the far wall and launched himself back towards Daisuke in an attempt to bypass whatever strange force the man used to repel his previous attack. This time Yuu wouldn’t take any chances and get close enough to thrust his palm right up to the man’s skin- there couldn’t be any air between his palm to disrupt his technique that way. Both of Daisuke’s hands were straining to pull at Hana’s ribbons and as before Yuu met no apparent resistance as he planted a solid flat palm right on Daisuke’s chest, roughly around where his heart should have been. Yuu even put in extra force just to ensure there would be chance for error. In the next moment the boy clenched his fingers into a tight fist, and felt the power flow from his fingertips simultaneously. The remote force of his Hand of God didn't require visual confirmation; he knew, at that moment, an equal amount of crushing force was being applied directly inside Daisuke's body. Any vital organs in that spot would be squeezed and sundered. As far as Yuu knew, no jutsu in the world could protect against this. His old mentor had certainly made him use it on enough people by now he knew its weaknesses intimately, and at this range nothing could stop that force from popping the man's heart like an overripe strawberry. It was a perfect execution!
Daisuke’s face twisted into a pained wince for a moment. Even a general was still just a human, no matter how fantastical or powerful their technique. A pierced heart was a pierced heart! As with prior uses of his technique Yuu knew exactly what would happen next. Within seconds lack of blood flow would cause him to black out, and the internal bleeding would end his life in minutes. Garion's generals were no match for Metsina's cadets!
The thrill of that moment of contact flooded Yuu’s senses so much he couldn’t hear Hana’s yelling.
“Get back, Yuu! He’s not hurt!”
A brief wheeze of air filtered out of Daisuke’s lips, then the pained expression faded. His massive body gave his free arm more than enough space to snap out around Yuu and catch the boy by the neck. In all his years of training Yuu had never seen someone counterattack after having their organs blown up. Yuu's technique simply didn’t have any follow-up if it failed because it never failed. He was caught completely off guard as Daisuke snapped something around his neck. A belt? A rope?
No. As Daisuke finally moved his feet after an eternity of being pinned down, Hana saw all too well what happened. Whenever a cruel but necessary tactic needed to be used, Hana relied on her trained cool and calm temperament to ensure no mistakes would be made. Now that composure was under threat of cracking. An unconscious rage began to boil in her and Daisuke instantly took notice. The slightest tinge of a smile touched his lips as he pulled the boy up by the binding now wrapped around Yuu’s neck.
“Have you ever heard the saying, giving one enough rope to hang themselves?” Although blood still freely flowed from Daisuke's wrapped hand, the ribbons seemed to have lost their razors edge. Hana's Weave jutsu gave her full control of the cloth bandages, both in their movement and durability. If she wanted them to be sharp, they would remain sharp for as long as she wanted. Now, it seemed, Hana decided to release her technique. Now those bindings served as little more as cloth bandages.
If Hana kept pulling, she could have easily removed Daisuke’s hand and dealt him a crushing injury.
But she couldn't, because now both Daisuke and Yuu shared the same fate. In that moment of uncertainty Daisuke managed to loosen enough of Hana's bindings to throw a loop around the boy's neck with the extra slack. Hana could pull and rip Daisuke's arm off at any moment; doing so would likewise separate Yuu's head from his body just as fast.
Yuu struggled to escape Daisuke’s grasp but both the boy's hands could easily be pinned by Daisuke's larger size. “It seems you are in a bit of a bind, Metsina Agent.” Daisuke pulled both the boy’s arms wide as if displaying a fish he caught. “Not that your jutsu was all that useful in the first place against me. The boy's jutsu is quite a bit more frightening. I can see why they say the Metsina royals are descendants of the gods.” Hana quickly cut loose the ribbons tying her to Daisuke and unspooled two new lengths from her arms. Her mentor would have scolded her for trading the life of a single cadet for potentially losing the artifact, but as cold of a soldier Hana might have been trained to be, she wasn’t about to kill a teammate for just a rock.
Besides, she could still win this! The duo had trained specifically for human shield scenarios. Hana kept letting Daisuke talk while her eyes darted around for an opening.
“Unfortunately for you kids, Garion also has some history in slaying the divine.” With a vicious kick to the back of Yuu’s knees Daisuke sent the boy crumbling down. Hana hadn’t expected such an obvious chance for an attack but was ready to capitalize on it nonetheless. As Yuu fell away Daisuke’s chest was wide open. Hana whipped out both her ribbons simultaneously, aiming one for the center of mass and one towards where Daisuke was likely to dodge. Either way their razor tips would pierce the flimsy robes the man wore, and there couldn’t be enough time for the man to burn them away or cut them. Now wasn't the time to be creative. She just needed to put damage into the general.
Sure enough even as Daisuke’s now freed hands dug into the pockets of his robes the first ribbon hit its mark. The deceptively powerful blow easily shot straight through his ribcage and out the other side. There was no mistake now. Hana knew all too well the feeling her ribbons made on solid contact. It was a clean hit! On a general! Even in this dire situation knowing she had managed that made her feel a little bit giddy. Turns out Daisuke was full of hot air!
A pained expression again crossed Daisuke’s face, but it wasn’t one tinted with the usual shock that came when someone lost or was about to die. No, instead it just seemed...annoyed. As if he had been expecting it to hurt, but perhaps not as much as it did. With one of his hands Daisuke pulled out the small black skull, then hurled it high above, easily clearing the distance to the top of the abandoned watch tower bordering the alley. Hana watched the trajectory with a keen eye and saw that it would fall straight back down. A dumb feint, just like someone who was cornered. Assured of her victory she whipped her second ribbon back and was ready to sink it right back into Daisuke for a lethal final blow.
Daisuke’s other hand pulled something else from his cloak. In the shade of the alley its exact shape and color were hard to determine, but it resembled some kind of mess of coils, like a spring twisted too far around. He quickly flipped the coil around in his hand, rotating and stopping it at a precise location. Daisuke then looked up at Hana wearing a pleased expression. It deeply unsettled the girl.
Her ribbon sank right into his throat. A perfect shot. A guaranteed kill.
Then, a moment later, her ribbons fell limp to the ground. Daisuke was gone. Not dead. Gone. The Ghost of Garion just pulled another vanishing act.