Re: Double Dragons

[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.











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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.


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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.


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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.

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[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]

[Kotone]

“You should loosen up. If you do more to enjoy the things in your life you might find you actually enjoy being around people.” Kotone stared after Tatsuma as he said this and departed, the blush on her cheeks still barely visible. Who did he think he was?! Kotone knew the answer to that already. The victor. She had a habit of trying not to completely ignore anyone who was stronger than her. Now. Well, she had before too. When she’d met Ranor Taiga and lost to him in no time flat without him even throwing a proper punch. But she’d gotten stronger and learned from that, too.

“…Tatsuma…” Kotone said quietly, breaking her gaze from his disappearing form and staring at the ground. Her eyes darted as she tried to make sense of the day. It had gone nothing like she’d planned once she’d arrived at the island. She was a hero. The hero. She didn’t just up and lose against those who weren’t even wizard saints! … No. Apparently she did. She’d been making a huge mistake. She finally broke her staring contest with the ground, flicking a tear off to the side with her finger. The tear froze in the air as it left her skin, sailing off into the grass. There wasn’t time for crying. She had things to do and to think about, and she was going to show Tatsuma that she could improve before this mission was over. "Just you wait. The daughter of Krendall learns from her mistakes."

-Exit-

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