Re: Double Dragons

[Kotone]

Kotone managed to hit Tatsuma, but he was fast and rolled with the knee. That was a lot better than the last person she’d tried that on, that was for sure. He moved back, clearly still chilled from the cold, though Kotone couldn’t say she was faring much better. It was lessening, but she could still feel the electricity jolting through her body and causing her to spasm. Unfortunately for her, her body decided to do that at a rather unfortunate time, and while she did block the attack Tatsu had planned on her blocking, she twitched violently as the electricity finished running its course through her, and she wasn’t able to properly block the rest of his assault. The next thing she knew, her shin hurt, and she was laying on the ground with a hand on her throat. She was managing to hold his hand off enough not to be lacking in air, but if she didn’t do something soon she most definitely would be gasping for breath soon.

“Sorry, kid,” Kotone managed as she grunted from the effort of holding his hand off of her throat. She grinned, revealing her fangs once again. “There’s a reason you don’t blow through your mana that fast.” With that, she let go of his hand and let it clamp around her throat. Because she knew he wouldn’t have ahold of it long. Not if he wanted to dodge her attack. If he could dodge her attack. “Wings.. of the ice dragon!” she gasped, repeating her initial successful attack against him and clapping two wings of ice against both sides of his head if she could manage. She wasn’t going to go down that easily. She might be out of practice, but the daughter of the ice dragon Krendall never gave up without giving it everything she had.

WP 170/250
MP 120/200 – Wings of the Ice Dragon (See above)

Cooldown – Roar 1 turn, Sword 2 turns

1500/1500 Claws
1000/1000 Scales
982/1500 Breath

[Tatsuma]

Tatsu found it odd when she let go of his hand, but he wasn't about to get hit by those damned ice wings again. Annoyed, he decided to use two spells. His body didn't have the mana to overcharge both of them so he went for the Lightning dragon burst being the overcharged one while he used his lightning palm to cause more damage. It was going to use most of the rest of his mana, but he didn't have much of an option. As her attack went off he dropped his lightning flash and, refusing to let go of her, he discharged his lightning palm into her back right over the spine and discharged his lightning dragon burst directly into her throat as he wings struck him yet again. As the lightning discharged and the wings sent him sprawling, he no longer had the energy, neither physical nor magical to simply recover from the attacks, plus that damned ice had his body numbed, though he was counting on it not being anywhere near as bad as her.

Slowly, he recovered from the blow, standing up on his feet once again. His hair hung around his face, he was almost out of energy and would have to recharge soon, much to his disappointment. It had been fun, but this had to end soon.
"My... lightning... is my... lightning. You've done well to... push me this far, my only... regret is that you're... not just a random lightning mage... with food spells." He said between pants, trying to catch his breath as he approached her once more. He still had physical strength, but he felt like he was almost assuredly going to end up being sick tomorrow from all this damned cold. Luckily he was in the right environment to heal and recover from the cold.

He inhaled deeply, moving closer to her with every step. He hadn't been this stuck during a fight in a very long time and he was both grateful and angry. He had lost sight of what he had even started fighting for, but she had definitely given him some ideas to train, and now more than ever he realized that he needed a weapon, or at least some sort of edge when it came to his fights. The anger though was at himself. As far as Kotone went, she had earned his respect as a fighter and the blows exchanged had certainly been some of the most fun he had experienced. It was closing in on what he felt was time for this to end.

Lightning Dragon Burst (overcharged):

Lightning Palm (non overcharged):

MP: 15
WP: 190(FROST)

cooldown: lightning palm- 3 posts
Lightning dragon roar 2 posts
Lightning dragon burst 2 posts

word count:
1500/1500 Lightning Scalpel
1000/1000 Lightning Storm
1378/1500

[Kotone]

In her desperation, Kotone had forgotten exactly how fast lightning could discharge from one source to another. She regretted forgetting that as she was slammed with an alarming amount of electricity, which should have numbed her based on what she felt before… but instead it just hurt. She gritted her teeth and grunted as she tried not to scream. She managed not to… if only just barely. As he flew off she rolled, landing on her feet. She wasn’t giving up without a fight… but… as he turned wobbly in her vision the once cocky ice dragon slayer realized that the fight was already over. She was too numb and too woozy to keep going, and she could barely stay on her feet until his attacks stopped impairing her like they were.

Slowly, she dropped to one knee, panting heavily. Kotone closed her eyes, cursing at herself under her breath for getting so lazy. This kid should have been easy. She’d fought stronger than him. She was sure of it. But she’d stopped training like she should and just let her strength do the talking. Sweat dripped from her brow. She was upset… but not at him. No. Normally it would be at the other person. Kotone Hoshino was good at deflecting blame. But not this time. She knew exactly why she’d lost. Exactly where she should have had just a bit more speed and just a bit quicker thinking to beat him. She had mana in reserve, and she could keep fighting if she forced herself to. But she didn’t deserve to win this time.

“…” Kotone looked up at him, her expression calm and neutral for once as she searched his face. Slowly, she stood back up, obviously wobbly. She stared at the ground once she was up, partially out of personal shame, and partially because looking at Tatsu wobble in her vision made her want to throw up. She hated getting shocked at this point. “I need to practice more,” she admitted, continuing to pant heavily. “I should have made short work of you. But I’m nowhere near in-practice enough. Congrats, kid. I haven’t lost a fight in years.” Her pride was sudued for now, and with her ego temporarily deflated, she looked a lot less like a grumpy, proud dragon slayer who wanted to beat Tatsuma to a pulp and more like the teenage girl she actually was.

“My one regret…” Kotone finally raised her head to look at him, no longer wobbling as much. “Is that I didn’t make you pay for insulting my looks.” She told him with a slight, fang-revealing grin. She stepped over a few steps and leaned against a tree with one hand as she recovered. She was recovering remarkably fast, but it was obvious she wasn’t going to continue.

She looked Tatsu over one more time. She’d done better than she’d felt like she had. That much was for sure. She wasn’t going to complain about that since she’d felt like she’d barely touched him mid-fight. “So tell me, kid. What’s your name? I don’t think you’ve given that. And if you did I probably was too busy yelling to listen.”

1500/1500 Claws
1000/1000 Scales
1500/1500 Breath
13/1500 Ice Shuriken

[Tatsuma]

She was still calling him a kid at this point? He let the comment about her making short work of him slide. After all, everyone had to have their pride in something, but she was still underestimating him. He had much more growing to do, he knew that just as much as anyone, but he wasn't just going to lose in training either. He was going to push himself even harder, take Rhidran's teachings and his own new lessons and build upon his skill set. He was sure that while she was probably going to end up getting stronger, so was he. This was no where near over, this battle was, but they would probably be throwing down in the future with some new, much more destructive skills. Tatsu looked at her though, and realized now that he had said things in anger that he didn't really mean.
"My name is Tatsuma Shinju, and I'm sorry about what I said about your looks earlier. I have been known to lose my temper from time to time." He said with a grin. She actually wasn't bad looking, though he had eyes for a number of other girls, a guildless mage, a magic council mage, and some girls in Fairy Tail had caught his eye and he wanted to see where those routes went, otherwise he might have tried making some moves, of course it occurred to him that putting the moves on a girl he had just beaten down was probably not the best way to go.

It had been a while since he had cut loose and used this much of his power on one single opponent, but one thing was for certain, he had much left to do in the ways of making himself a better fighter.
"So... have you seen your cat since we started this battle?" He asked, looking around at the scenery they had destroyed. Small craters covered the ground, some trees were severely damaged, there was a coat of melting ice on several trees and a bit of foliage was currently smoking like it wanted to catch fire, though it didn't look like it was going to because of the humidity.
"You know we're probably going to end up having to do this again. It happens all the time back at my guild hall, but I haven't really been big on losing fights there either... though it's happened. Maybe next time you'll beat me. Are you part of a guild by the way?" He said, asking if she was part of a guild as a prelude to see if she might be interested in joining Fairy Tail. Most of the guildless mages that he had met enjoyed the freedom that they had, and Fairy Tail didn't seem to bog people down too heavily with a ton of regulations that kept them from being able to go where they wanted. Plus from his experience they had jobs that were a ton of fun.


word count:
1500/1500 Lightning Scalpel
1000/1000 Lightning Storm
1500/1500 Lightning Dragon Fang

[Kotone]

Tatsuma apologized for what he’d said earlier, which Kotone appreciated. She believed in herself, but she wasn’t as confident in herself as a person, looks or what have you, as she made herself look. She was actually pretty hard on herself, and it made her feel just a little bit better. She only nodded, rather than saying it was fine. It wasn’t. She knew it wasn’t when she did it too. It just didn’t stop her, and unlike him, apologizing wasn’t really her thing.

“Tatsuma, eh? I think I’ll call you Volt instead,” she decided. She never called people by their actual names. She just figured it was good form to know them. “Kotone is fine,” she assured him, sliding down the tree and sitting down against it at this point. Tatsu asked about Sidney, to which she simply shrugged. “He’s around. He usually comes back shortly after a fight. He’s a smart kitty.”

Tatsuma mentioned that in his guild, brawls were common, and that instantly brought that knowing, slightly cocky grin back to Kotone’s face. “Fairy Tail, huh?” she guessed without him saying a word about which one he was in. “No, I’m not part of a guild, and just like I’ve told Taiga, Roejaster, and Hannah, I’m not interested in joining a guild.” Kotone was practically part of Fairy Tail even without the stamp. Taiga was one of the few adult figures she looked up to, and she appreciated his concern for her, even if she never showed it. She even stayed in the girls dorms when she visited Magnolia at the Guild Master’s insistence.

“I’ve gotta admit though. Whatever it is you fools do in that guild, it’s certainly had results. Atrum is strong. You’re strong. Cowboy is strong. And much as I hate to admit it, his rust bucket of a girlfriend Hannah is strong too.” Kotone rolled her eyes just as Sid reappeared like she’d predicted. His tail looked fine, so that was good. He curled up in the disappointed girl’s lap comfortingly. It was like he knew what had happened.

1500/1500 Claw
1000/1000 Skin
1500/1500 Breath
359/1500 Shuriken

[Tatsuma]

It was already rather disappointing that she didn't want to join, even with all those fine names that had tried to get her to sign up. Still he figured he would argue the point, primarily because there was no reason not to and she was pretty much just being stubborn at this point.
"You just said it yourself, we're strong. That's because we have a community where we work to better ourselves and each other. I didn't win because you were out of practice, I won because I'm very much in practice. I spar, and train, and learn things with the people of my guild because that's what we do, we seek to better each other. You're just stubbornly refusing to join a club because you have some qualm about... what? Not being free? I already covered that. Just not wanting to be part of a group? I just brought that up. All of us are stronger than one of us." He said, lecturing, but making sure his point was clear. There was no reason at this point with all those Fairy Tail names behind her for her not to join.

"Besides that, don't you think your cat might appreciate a place it could have friends besides just you? Fairy Tail is full of good people that would probably spoil your pet with all the affection it could ever want. We are not just a guild of fools, we are a family, and we, Dragon Slayers, maybe more than anyone else, need a family. After all, it might be our new family that spots our old family." He said as he ran his fingers through his hair to brush it out of his eyes since he was still very very short on mana.

word count:
1500/1500 Lightning Scalpel
1000/1000 Lightning Storm
1500/1500 Lightning Dragon Fang
670/??? next spell

[Kotone]

Kotone scowled at Tatsu’s insistence. He was worse than the others. At least they knew when to shut up. Except for Hannah. But she hadn’t asked her to join either. “I have my reasons, kid,” she told him. How did she lose to this idealistic little kid? Well, he wasn’t that little. Or much younger than her. He was wrong on one front though for sure. She hadn’t practiced properly in a long while. Even if what he said was true, she would have done much better if she’d kept up her end. Unless he thought she wasn’t that talented. Had she done that badly? She kept frowning as she looked away from him. “Look, Sid doesn’t give a damn what we do,” Sid meowed in response. Was it protest? “And even if he did,” she looked at her cat. “He’s welcome to go live with the group that’s as likely to crush him with a thrown mug on accident as pet his head.” Sid mewed softly again, remembering how dangerous the guild hall could be. Kotone chuckled.

“Point is, kid,” Kotone told Tatsuma as she gripped Sid and stood back up despite the pain. “You know better than anyone what It’s like to have a dragon abandon you. Imagine that being the second family to outright abandon you. You tend to lose faith in the belief that people actually want you around. I’m not looking for a family. Family is an empty word that means jack if you aren’t dedicated to making it mean something. And I’m not taking that chance. I’ve always been fine on my own, and I will be now.” It was her defenses kicking in. She was terrified of being abandoned again, although she never admitted it outright. She knew she would need help to get stronger, faster, but she was pretty sure she knew someone that could help. That someone was holding onto her jacket in the village.

1500/1500 Claws
1000/1000 Scales
1500/1500 Breath
683/1500 Shuriken

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma realized the signs. He had been the exact same way at first, only he had avoided towns altogether just so that he wouldn't have to risk feeling attachment to anything else. Kotone was right, he did very much understand the loss of a family. It wasn't until he had met the wolves in the woods that he had grown so very attached to. It also occurred to him that perhaps Sid was actually her companion because he refused to abandon her.
"You're right, I'm sorry I overstepped." He said simply. Truthfully it was bullshit. Not for a second did he believe that she was right, or that he had overstepped, but he had gotten very good lately at hiding his actual thoughts. In truth he saw the part of himself that he had tried to cut away in her, and he saw her viewpoint as a path that he could have just as easily taken. He stood with her, blowing the hair out of his face as he did. It was so damn annoying having his hair like this and he was going to need to do something about that in the future too.

He saw that she was in pain as she was standing and stood up more quickly, the cold having left him for the most part, even though he felt his core temperature was still a bit low.
"Sit down, I'll try to help with some of the soreness if I can. It should work the same way as causing muscles to tense or relax using pressure points. Of course you don't have to listen to me." He said, offering to fix try to help. It wasn't healing magic that he was talking about, it was just more or less a reverse of the same types of techniques he used when he was fighting using his own style.

word count:
1500/1500 Lightning Scalpel
1000/1000 Lightning Storm
1500/1500 Lightning Dragon Fang
984/??? next spell

[Kotone]

Kotone sighed, sinking painfully back to the ground. What the heck. If he thought he could help after bruising her ego what more did she have to lose? Despite her verbal arguing she was out of the desire to fight physically. That included resisting his electrotherapy. Sid hopped out of her lap as she sat down again, making sure to be out of the way of any lightning in case Tatsuma knew less about what he was talking about than he thought he did. He’d already terrorized the cat’s tail, after all. He didn’t need the static.

He seemed to be done arguing, so she wasn’t going to keep it up either. She was no longer angry because she’d had the fight she needed to get that out, but she was rather unhappy. Her neutral expression was a testament to that. “…Rhidran.” Kotone finally mumbled as she considered what she’d been taught. She knew all of the other dragons’ names and elements. “You’re the son of Rhidran. Dad didn’t think highly of her philosophies,” she admitted to Tatsuma. Her tone was tired, but more friendly than her mood dictated it should be.

“Dad said to be careful around the child of Rhidran, if he picked up on her teachings,” she told him. It was easy to forget she knew about the other dragon slayers, even if she had no idea what they were like or who they were. She shook her head. He didn’t mean because he would be stronger, and she knew that. It was because he could be dangerous. He didn’t seem that dangerous beyond his dragon slayer power though.

1500/1500 Claw
1000/1000 Scales
1500/1500 Breath
955/1500 Shuriken

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma chuckled slightly as Kotone relayed to him her dragon parent's thoughts about his mother. He would have taken offense... at least if he didn't agree with him.
"Yeah we had a lot of debates about her philosophies concerning power and it's nature and use. I've always believed that the best use of one's power was to support and cause unity, she thought it was to make one's authority irrevocable... she taught me a lot, some of it about assassination and general killing arts. I'm not a big fan of killing, but I think it has its place. Darkness doesn't always just go quietly when you pummel it. Sometimes you have to destroy it outright. I think I also inherited her temper so there's that." He said as he rubbed his hands together. He moved behind her and began massaging her right shoulder with one hand and massaging the right shoulder-blade area with the other. No electricity was used, it was basically acupressure, a massage art used to release muscle tension, or lock muscles down. He attacked these pressure points in order to make sure the opponent couldn't attack, though that didn't seem to help as much with mages so it required perfection.

"If it's those assassination arts that you're worried about, don't be. I'm not a member of a dark guild. Killing has no place among friends." He stated, subtly implying he was considering Kotone a friend at this point. He actually felt bad about hurting her or locking up her muscles with electricity. Still it bothered him to some degree that another dragon thought so badly about his mother. She was rough on the outside, but she had a caring side too. She had raised him to be able to survive and take care of himself and he chose to believe that she did that knowing that she would be leaving him.

word count:
1500/1500 Lightning Scalpel
1000/1000 Lightning Storm
1500/1500 Lightning Dragon Fang
1300/??? next spell

[Kotone]

Of course killing had its place. Nature involved killing. You killed if you wanted meat. It didn’t just grow on trees like some of the idiots in cities like Era or Crocus seemed to want to believe. It also had its place when confronting evil, just as Tatsuma said. “Killing is never pleasant,” she told him darkly as she felt her muscles relax. She had killed during the war. Anyone involved as much as she was had. She had simply done it at a younger age. She didn’t think she’d ever truly be okay with taking a life despite knowing the necessity.

Tatsuma continued to assure her he wasn’t any danger though. He didn’t hurt friends. He wasn’t her friend. She didn’t have friends… And she wasn’t exactly terrified just because she’d barely lost a fight. If she had been, she hardly would have allowed him to touch her. Her mind stuck on the idea that she didn’t have friends. Tatsuma was as obsessive with acting friendly as Raven was. Maybe it was time to at least let people closer. She didn’t need a family… but she did need help. That much was obvious now. She let out a sigh. “No, friends don’t hurt friends if it can be helped.” She relented finally. If he could beat her and still respect her that much, it was the least she could do as well. Kotone needed to be stronger, and her time of doing so alone was coming to an end at long last. She wouldn’t join Fairy Tail, and she wouldn’t listen to nonsense about family… but… to her this was different.

“Tatsuma,” she said quietly, looking up at him with softer eyes than before. The real Kotone was showing through slightly. Even if later she had a change of heart and acted like her usual self, right now she didn’t have the will or the energy to keep her mental barriers up. She didn’t have anything else to say though. The fact that she had actually acknowledged him by his name directly to his face was a good sign, whether he knew it or not.

1500/1500 Claw
1000/1000 Scales
1500/1500 Breath
1311/1500 Shuriken

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma? He could have sworn she was going to call him "Volt". Still he wasn't going to complain about her using his actual name, plus she looked like she was starting to soften up a bit so that was good too. As her right shoulder relaxed he moved over to the left shoulder. There would be no magic involved in the healing process here. It was all about technique.
"You know, after a while, sparring with the same people over and over makes you plateau when it comes to progress and development. If you would like, if you ever find yourself on a mission, or with excessive amounts of free time I'd like to do this again, though maybe we don't have to go all out. We can just develop our skills as we go along. That way we'll both get stronger and we both benefit." He said, actually opening up a bit as he suggested they train more together. This part was true though, if he kept fighting the same people he was going to end up simply getting used to their habits instead of actually getting any better. There was nothing he could do but seek out other people to train with him.

As he worked on the muscles he slowly began to move to her lower back, from there he would move to the calves and try to get her muscles to loosen up enough that it wouldn't be painful to walk, though he wasn't going to be working on her thighs.
"Besides that, I'd like to pet Sid in a setting where he wouldn't get an empty mug to the head... or a full one." He joked, trying to lighten the mood, though he thought her strangely accurate assessment of Fairy Tail's general guild hall shenanigans to be kind of funny in and of itself.


word count:
1500/1500 Lightning Scalpel
1000/1000 Lightning Storm
1500/1500 Lightning Dragon Fang
1500/??? next spell
111/??? next spell

[Kotone]

Kotone wasn’t sure what to do at the moment. It wasn’t that she liked Tatsuma more than Raven or the others. By the length of time she’d known him alone he was losing that race, though that was nothing personal. Even the fact that he had beaten her wasn’t enough to make her dislike him. After all, she could have been in for a lot worse. She probably owed him for reminding her that she wasn’t the best out there. She was so stupid. Gah.

Finally, she raised her head and gave him a serious, though not spiteful look. Before her look had been hard and meant to push him away, even when declining the guild invitation. “I’m going to make up for letting my arrogance make me forget I still needed to train,” she told him simply. “I will do whatever it takes to be stronger and do dad proud. He deserves a daughter who actually learns from his teachings.”

She was also trying to not think about the fact that she was letting a guy…. Or… well… anyone… touch her even for a massage. She was weird about modesty, and this was way over her normal line. It made her far more uncomfortable than she was letting on, simply because she didn’t want to fight the sore muscles if she could help it. Or rather… if Tatsuma could help it. Was she allowing this partially out of a gesture of friendship? She honestly wasn't sure what had gotten into her.

Then again... she wasn't sure what had gotten into her before that had made her so woefully arrogant. Maybe it was the celebrity status she had as the most famous of the dragon slayers. Maybe it was that the average army mage wasn't nearly as strong as a guild mage who dedicated her life to learning magic, and she'd triumphed over so many of those.

It didn't really matter. Either way, Kotone had a lot to get used to if she was going to actually allow herself to make friends and have allies for the first time since the war started.

1500/1500 Claw
1000/1000 Scales
1500/1500 Breath
1500/1500 Shuriken (Trained!)

[Tatsuma]

Tatsu finally finished the massage and held out his hand to help her up. It wasn't exactly his best work, but he had tried to be as brief as possible because he wasn't really comfortable having his hands on a girl regardless of the reason. It was far more nerve wracking than he was probably letting on. Still it was done and he was happy to offer to help her up, though he felt she was probably going to decline it, she should be able to stand now on her own anyway, but the hand was still there. For him, more than anything else though, it was more of a test to see if anything he had said had managed to reach her. As he held his hand out, he decided to recant a story for her.

"When Rhidran left me I forgot everything she taught. I got so depressed that I just wanted to die. I didn't eat, I barely slept, I just stared at the sky waiting for her to come back. While I stared at the sky I thought I saw a shadow overhead, her shadow. I got up on unsteady legs for the first time in days and I took off running after it, hoping to catch up or be able to follow her, but because I was so weakened I lost it in less than a minute. That was the last time I cried and I thought for the longest time that I had seen her and she had come back and saw that I was useless even after everything she taught me, and that I had been too slow to catch her and too weak physically and mentally to get to her. To this day I don't know if it was actually her shadow or if it was my sleep deprivation and starvation that caused me to hallucinate, but I know that I'll never be too slow or too weak again no matter what risk I have to take with my life. I don't know if this will relate to you, but I hope this story tells you a little about my motivations." He explained, opening up to the first person since he had entered civilization.

word count:
1500/1500 Lightning Scalpel
1000/1000 Lightning Storm
1500/1500 Lightning Dragon Fang
1500/1500 next spell
484/??? next spell

[Kotone]

Kotone couldn’t help but feel relieved that Tatsu was done poking his hands all over her. She felt a lot better, sure, but with her normal no-touching policy she couldn’t help but feel a little… well violated was overly dramatic. But it was certainly uncomfortable. As much as Kotone thrived on drama, it was the angry kind, not the pity kind. She was humbled, but not completely stripped of her pride, and got up just fine on her own. She wasn’t about to become completely dependent on people even if she was going to try harder not to be a complete loner. She really wished her skirt had pockets though. She just had the pouch, and that wasn’t really a substitute when it came to hand storage.

For some reason, that was when Tatsuma decided to share his life story. How he was depressed and didn’t move. How he’d imagined (yes, she was sure he’d imagined it) his mother flying overhead so that he would move and not just sit there and starve. How he’d found new purpose in not being too weak to follow a dragon if he saw one again. Yeah, on some level she could relate. But hers wasn’t a tale of front-end angst followed by motivation like some motivational speaker would tell. And motivational speeches didn’t work on the girl anyway. “Yeah, I wasn’t that bad,” she told him simply. “It’s amazing though, how being young, idealistic, and hopeful can be slowly crushed over time” What else was she supposed to say? She could go into detail, perhaps… Maybe just a little. Since it was story time and all.

The brunette girl looked away slightly and rested her hands on her hips since she didn’t have pockets. “When Dad left… I just knew he’d come back. He would never leave his daughter all on her own when she loved him so much, and felt like he loved her. I spent two years all alone in the woods near our mountain home. I hunted game, I lived like a wild child in rags. I talked to animals like they were people and played games with them to keep myself sane and entertained. I never stopped hoping. Eventually, I decided maybe he was waiting for me somewhere else. That maybe if I found him again I would return to my old life.”

Kotone looked back at Tatsuma. “I searched the countryside. I searched villages. I chased every rumor of dragons. Even those that didn’t match Krendall’s description. All the while I did exactly as he had asked. Even though I was just a child, I used my magic to help people where I could. Then the war came to Fiore. I had to abandon my search to protect people. I fought. I killed. I grew stronger. I even gave up my secret of being a dragon slayer just to save a woman. Dad never returned. Eventually, I started to believe he wasn’t coming back ever. I told myself that wasn’t true, but it’s hard not to wonder it every day when you’ve spent so long trying to do him proud. When you’ve sacrificed everything to do so.”

The war hard jaded her towards people. Towards her father, and even towards herself. She had been too young to walk away without emotional scars. She hated killing people. She hated being abandoned. She even hated her father sometimes. But she never stopped trying to do him proud, no matter how lax that vision got in her head up until now. “When the war ended… I kept things up for awhile. But I guess the mighty Spell Breaker got lazy in her aimless wandering. I went around trying to help those I encountered… but I’d just stopped trying to help myself. That’s why I’m weak right now. As right as you are about you winning because you are in-practice… it shouldn’t have been such a close win if I’d kept going myself.”

1500/1500 Claw
1000/1000 Scales
1500/1500 Breath
1500/1500 Shuriken
824/1500 Ice Spikes

[Tatsuma]

Mentally Tatsu was shaking his head. For some reason the girl still thought that the only reason he had won was because of their practice levels. He could probably make the same excuse with all his wandering, but he still managed. He felt the reason why she had lost wasn't just because she was out of practice, it was because she was alone. Still he had already figured out that lecturing her wasn't going to help, her rejection of his aide in standing was testimony enough to let him know that. Still she had divulged her own story for him. That was clear enough to confirm that he very much indeed could have gone down the same path as she had. He tried to figure out what to say without offending her or causing some sort of outburst (especially because that seemed so easy to do). Eventually he decided to risk it and spoke up, refusing to be timid. As he opened his mouth to speak there were a couple of things about what she had said that tweaked something in the back of his mind.
"Wait wait wait wait wait wait, exactly when did he leave you? And, more immediately, we're supposed to keep being a dragon slayer a secret?!?" He said, thoroughly surprised. Rhidran had mentioned doing that a couple of times, but he had only half been paying attention, doubting that he would ever really need to keep it a secret from anyone. Seriously though, he had most assuredly not been doing that. How many things had he done by this point that gave him away?

It was a dangerous game, this dragon slayer business. Between dark guilds, and, more commonly, dark mages popping up everywhere like they had something they needed to do in a hurry, and the magic council putting a bounty on the heads of guildless mages there was way too damn much going on and he felt uncomfortable about that. Undoubtedly Kotone was going to end up getting the brunt of that, but he wasn't worried about her. His experience with the magic council in general to this point had led him to the conclusion that they didn't really send their elite out to harass guildless passerby. Still, that left something he wanted to talk to Charlotte about next time he saw her.

He wanted to bombard his fellow dragon slayer with questions but the two that were currently left standing in the air at current were the most pressing concerns at the moment.


word count:
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[Kotone]

Kotone blinked in surprise at Tatsu’s ‘more immediate’ question. She actually chuckled, despite her mood. She couldn’t help herself. Was this kid for real? Had she really been beaten by him? He was worse at listening than she was! “Yeah, Tatsu. Thaaaat’s supposed to be a pretty big secret. Something about it being dangerous for humans to know.” Kotone didn’t exactly consider herself human. She wasn’t raised by them, after all, and she had sharp fangs, as well as an immunity to cold. That was several things humans didn’t have. She knew she was human… but it was different in her mind.

Kotone turned serious again though at recounting how long it had been. “Nine years ago,” she told Tatsuma. “He disappeared when I was eight.” She assumed. Kotone actually wasn’t fully aware of her age, but she’d been told she was probably two when she was found. She could be a bit younger or older. Dragons were not the best judges, and it wasn’t like she had anyone else to help her with that.

Being a dragon slayer was never easy. It made people pay attention to you. It made people fear you. Sometimes it made them respect you. Often it made you a target, either for dangerous reasons, or because people wanted to know more about these mysterious children of dragons.  Kotone was used to all of it. To her, saying she was a dragon slayer at this point was a lot like telling someone she had brown hair. “Don’t worry too much, kid,” she told him, putting much less emphasis on the word kid than before, though this time she said it because it amused her rather than to insult. “I run around saying what and who I am to just about everyone I meet. They already know I’m around. I might as well make sure they’re not looking for the wrong person and hurting someone else.”

1500/1500 Claw
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1144/1500 Ice Spikes

[Tatsuma]

By this point every time Kotone called him "kid" he would was starting to get a mental twitch. Each time she said it was like of the mind to correct her, but that would only add fuel tot he fire. She already called him kid, the best thing he could do was ignore it and act like an adult. Despite that resolve after she uttered the word "kid" her next six words just sounds like "Kill me, kill me, kill me." Nevertheless he had more pressing concerns. Rhidran had left around the same time, nine years ago. That provided him with a clue, and maybe if he found the others he could get enough to put together something solid. Thus far the only solid things he knew for sure was that no one had seen one for a while, and that at least two of them left around the same time. When he got home he resolved to put together some sort of chart or diagram, but in the interim he had other questions for her.

"Telling people? Has anyone figured out that you were a dragon slayer just from the spells you were using? I know I'm aware of the dragon roar indicating a dragon slayer, but I'm not sure about anyone else picking up on that fact. And finally, do you remember anything else about his disappearance? A second sighting? A rumor that sprung up around the same time? Fliers? dark guilds? dragon scales or weapons coming out? Some sort of cataclysm? Anything?" He was obviously desperate for information but it seemed like Kotone had some more answers than he did.

word count:
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[Kotone]

Kotone thought Tatsuma seemed pretty full of questions for someone who thought he knew more than her. She supposed she liked him alright, but he was a bit annoying. Questions were fine and all, and she wanted to do the same, but it was already obvious which of them had more answers. And who was better at listening. “Dragon slayers are virtually unknown,” Kotone assured him, “But our techniques and abilities are household stories. We aren’t the first dragon slayers… but for all I can tell we’re the last. And we have not only some unspecified responsibility to contend with, but also people who want to idolize  or fear us based on what they see. Using normal-looking spells is easy enough, but even ice mages are affected by ice and cold. I’m not. They also can’t eat ice magic, or use a dragon roar.”

Kotone felt like she was giving some sort of school lesson. Wasn’t she supposed to be the one in the back seat chewing gum rather than teacher’s pet? How did she know more than this kid about the basic stuff?  “So, keeping this short, our abilities are part of household stories. They’re also things no one else can do. So yeah, we’re a little bit recognizable.”

That was enough of that. Time to move on to the next question. “I followed a lot of rumors. There wasn’t so much as an out of place scale or a claw mark. Anything that came close turned out to be exaggerated tales or lies or someone trying to make money off of legends. Whatever happened, our parents don’t seem to want to be found. Or for some reason they can’t. They’re not dead or anything though. A dragon skeleton would be incredibly hard to miss.” That meant her dad was alive, and therefor she could beat some sense into him for being so cryptic and letting the other dragons do the same when she found him.

1500/1500 Claw
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[Tatsuma]

The news was disappointing to say the least. Not only were his abilities recognizable, but the dragons were no where to be seen. Chasing rumors would be the biggest and most difficult aspect of finding Rhidran but he wasn't about to give that up. Still there had to something he could do. Suddenly, without any hint or preview, he started laughing. He had even more incentive now to gain power. Any mission that would bring him face to face with a dragon was going to be A, S, or better class and that meant he needed to go about gaining some power and proving himself in jobs and guilds to build his fame. Instead of hiding like many of the other dragon slayers, or shouting it out he would take advantage of people's knowledge. If someone happened to recognize him that would be the person that he would need to start grilling for information. Still, Kotone had given him more than he had before.

When his laughter finally stopped he turned his head, the demeanor that he had been using before disappeared for, but a moment, replaced by a glossy look that betrayed his crueler and more intense nature. So people told tales of their abilities? Where were the people who started those Tails? And if there were other dragon slayers around they might have more information and that was a precious resource right now. His inner animal was starting to show a bit, but he tugged on that chain and snapped back to normal.
"Well it looks like I have my work cut out for me then. I'll have to gather the other Dragon Slayers first of all. Maybe if I manage to get them all together I can summon a magic dragon to grant me a wish. Isn't that how fairy tales work?" He said with a chuckle."But in all seriousness it may help provide the information I need. Thank you Kotone, you've been a miraculous help."


word count:
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[Kotone]

Kotone didn’t miss the look that crossed Tatsuma’s face. It seemed her father wasn’t completely wrong with his assessment about him being dangerous. He might be more dangerous than he even realized, and if that were true, someone needed to be strong enough to make sure he could be stopped. That someone might as well be her. He talked about gathering the other dragon slayers – a task that would not prove easy. could just about promise him that. She’d only encountered one other claiming to be a dragon slayer, but he could have been lying, or had some way of mimicking their abilities. He was a pretty shady man, after all.

Tatasuma thanked Kotone for her help, saying she’d been a lot of it. She shrugged, half-glancing at him. “Yeah, you too,” she told him with a slight shrug. “What are friends for?” Ironically, she wasn’t entirely sure. But she supposed that helping was certainly one of the things that friends were for. She supposed she was about to find out what friends were for. Support she hadn’t previously needed and companionship she supposed. How accurate was that? The loner girl had no idea. The closest thing she’d had to a friend was a boy about her age she’d encountered years ago, but they had never seen each other after one fun day of playing in the snow.

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[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma snapped back to reality completely when she had spoken the words "What are friends for?" He realized more then than he had ever before, that he had a problem with that animalistic side. Rhidran had nurtured it and made it something to give him strength, it had been necessary for his survival in the wilderness and on mount Hakobe which meant that he had needed it the same way any other animal would. It really served no place here with the rest of the people he was typically around, and he frequently found himself needing to gather his senses, mostly in the middle of combat, but his mother was a hot button issue too and part of him loved hunting for her, even though most animals didn't exactly enjoy hunting for the most dangerous or strongest prey, he still did.

"I'm glad I came here now. This place has been better for me than I ever could have imagined and I'll be taking something important from here." He stopped to brush the damn hair from his face again. When it stood up he never needed to bother cutting it, but now there was nothing to do but repeatedly brush it away from his face over and over again until his mana got back to where it was supposed to be. He was half tempted to ask her if she knew where he could find a decent barber that didn't mind the possibility of getting shocked whilst cutting hair, but that thought left his mind the moment he remembered exactly where in the hell they had just been duking it out.

"So on a side note, what exactly brings you to Galuna? I mean it's not exactly a proper tourist attraction which is pretty much the reason why I come here. Get curious about the rumors of curses, demons, and spirits here?" He asked. For all he knew Kotone was something of a thrill seeker, but he wasn't about to try to figure out what brought her all the way out here without simply asking her first. After all, it was an island of mystery and possible danger, Tatsu himself had been curious about the place for a while but he hadn't found anything here to lead him to believe the place was actually haunted.











word count:
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[Kotone]

Tatsuma told Kotone about how he was leaving with something important. But she wasn’t exactly leaving without gaining something, herself. At least she hoped that was true. Because losing to Tatsuma had left a sour taste in her mouth, and she intended to rectify that one day. It would take a lot of work, but Kotone wasn’t opposed to it. It had simply stopped happening. Now she was going to start again.

While Tatsuma would have really liked a barber, Kotone really wanted a shower. She was hot, sweaty, and now dirty. What she’d really prefer is a nice, long bath in a cold bath tub where she could be away from everyone and think for a minute or sixty. She needed to think for oh so many reasons. One of them pertained to what Tatsuma was now asking about.

“I’m here for a job,” Kotone told Tatsuma matter-of-factly. “The locals have been reporting missing members from their village, and Raven and I agreed to investigate. It could be dangerous dark wizards taking people for something. At least, that’s what the villagers think.” Kotone had to agree that was a lot more likely than ghosts. She didn’t really buy into that crap.

Kotone’s eyebrows raised, looking over at Tatsuma. “Actually, you could really help with that,” Kotone told him suddenly. It wasn’t that she wanted to think she needed help, though she might if she was weaker than she’d thought she was, but if he could help them find where these people were hiding out then they could get off this god-forsaken island and return to the mainland where it wasn’t so damned humid.

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma thought about it for a second. If there were people going missing then it was of dire concern. Still, he was more or less technically on vacation and doing a job would violate that fact. Still he didn't really worry about that fact because the job was a pretty serious one it sounded like.
"I'd love to help. Naturally I'd like a cut of the pay." He said matter of factly. It wasn't necessarily that the money was extraordinarily important to him, but it was nice and it would help him pay for the damages he had caused on the boat. Besides that, he had to make it look like he wasn't just some lackey for free job assistance... because he had been that... and it had very much sucked all kinds of testicles. As it stood, he was more or less out of things to do, but one question remained.

"So... I don't know about you, but I'm completely zapped, I'm starving, and I'm on vacation so I'm of the mind that we should get some rest, maybe find someplace nice to stay in a village, and of course I'm currently holding the title of 'out of town strange' so I'm thinking I'm going to take advantage of that." He added the last part in as a joke, though he wasn't going to complain if some nice village girl wanted to have some fun. That aside he was completely serious about the first three things he had said. Still he did not know the way to the village and was going to need some help getting there anyway.


word count:
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[Kotone]

Kotone looked at Tatsuma for a long moment as he asked for a cut of the pay, followed by spouting off about how tired he was and how he was going to go find a nice place in the village to stay and everything. She raised an eyebrow. "You can have your share, whatever," she told Tatsuma with a dismissive wave of the hand. "If you think I do this for the pay, you're wrong. I take the pay so it's easier to keep doing what I'm doing. That's it." Kotone really wasn't a materialistic girl in the slighest, save for her cat, her jacket, and her army of stuffed plushies back at home that no one would ever know about if she had any say in it.

“You can go relax and vacation and do whatever the heck you want with your mysterious stranger status that, by the way, Technically I hold too. I don’t really care. Meet me tomorrow after noon. We’re going to have to find what we’re looking for before we can do any heroing. The locals aren’t much help there. In the mean time… I’ve got my own stuff to do.” Kotone was beat, but Tatsuma had given her things to think on, as well as things to do. She wasn’t going to be weak. She wasn’t going to be some broken little girl. She would be strong. Stronger than him. Stronger than Raven or Hannah or Roejaster. Stronger than Ranor Taiga himself.

She was about to turn and leave, but she hesitated, in case Tatsuma had any questions. She had to go find Raven. They had an inn room by now, if her pervy flame user partner wasn’t off chasing local girls like Tatsuma probably planned to. Although… -Kotone nearly grinned at the next thought- he might have a hard time hitting on women when he was holding a girl’s coat for her.

[Tatsuma]

Tatsu almost laughed when she said she technically held the mysterious stranger title too.
"Well you're welcome to go chasing some strange with me if you want, but I don't know how you feel about girls." He said between fits of laughter. Though he completely sobered up when she started talking about the locals not being able to help much in the ways of finding their people. That was seriously going to be something of a problem and it meant he was going to have to get creative with how he approached the investigation. He didn't have much experience working with a team, and the experience he did have was pretty definitely not positive. He believe in Kotone though so... "wait a tic... He thought to himself. He had been so focused on his being tired that he had completely missed earlier what she had said about someone named Raven... or someone that was a Raven.
"Yeah... you also mentioned someone named... or someone that resembled a raven, I dunno I don't remember exactly what you said it was a few minutes ago, but does this mean there's a third person? Because this raven or... you know what, never mind, decidedly I don't care and whoever or whatever it is I'll meet him, them, or it tomorrow at noon." He said, starting a though, but then deciding he was too tired to actually want to pull the pin on that particular grenade.

With that he turned, and headed back to town walking at a steady and deliberate pace and waving behind him with two fingers as he left. It had been fun meeting Kotone, but tomorrow would be even more fun. They had a long road ahead of them, though Tatsu had a feeling he was going to kick himself tomorrow for the fight he had just gotten in.


word count:
1500/1500 Lightning Scalpel
1000/1000 Lightning Storm
1500/1500 Lightning Dragon Fang
1500/1500 Dragon Wolf Needle
1000/1000 Aftershock
1000/1000 Shock Shield (upgrade)
500/500 Lightning Flash (upgrade)
TRAINED!!

[Kotone]

Kotone blinked in surprise when Tatsu started laughing when she said she was also a mysterious stranger. He invited him to join her, but said he wasn’t sure how she felt about girls. Her cheeks flushed red then, temporarily forgetting her frustration. “I- I’m not that kind of girl!” she insisted, flailing animatedly at Tatsuma as she took a step back. She was also not the kind of girl who knew how to take flirting when she wasn’t angry at someone, and often returned the flirt with either flailing similar to this, or anger, depending on what she actually thought of the flirting deep down. Sure, he wasn’t flirting with her, but it was still a rather awkward thought to place in her head.

“Y-you go do whatever the heck you want,” she told him, quickly recovering and trying to act calm again. She attempted to fix her hair that was probably a mess, both as a distraction and as a habit – she did care about her appearance, after all. “I won’t be joining you for those adventures.” She eyed him with a half-glare as if to drive home that point, though the slight blush on her cheeks showed that she was actually still flustered.

1500/1500 Claw
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1000/1000 Scales (Copy) (caught up count after a couple of missed posts)

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma stopped walking and turned to face Kotone again. She seemed embarrassed by the jokes he had made, although he wouldn't necessarily have complained had she taken him up on it. That being said she most likely would have just made it that much more difficult to pick up on a half decent village girl so he decided against making more jokes like that.
"I always do what I want, but what I want is to help others. Still, I'm not a saint wizard so I don't feel like anyone knows, cares, or is paying any attention to what I'm doing half the time, thus it's nice to have a bit of fun. You should loosen up, if you do more to enjoy the things in your life you might find you actually enjoy being around people." He said with a wave, turning back around and continuing to head off. He had a lot to think about pertaining to his own issues and insecurities at the moment and it wouldn't do him any good to simply stand around.

As he entered the town and took to the nearest inn he barely had time to get ready to get into bed with a girl in the first place. He just wanted to sleep and recharge but all good things would come in time. He took a hot bath and fell asleep there first before he even got a chance to get into bed. In no time he was dead to the world, soaking away the aches and pains and enjoying the memories of the fights for that day.

[EXIT]

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