Dark Intentions [Kisaragi/Jiro]

[Kisaragi]

Yanno, when she lived in Sacae, Kisaragi had always thought it would be cool as hell to visit the rest of Elibe, see what stuff OTHER than "grassy plains to the horizon" looked like. Snowy mountains, dusty mountains, entire friggin' FORESTS of trees, even the idea of sand everywhere, though she wasn't sure what it was like. Snow but hot? Snow happened in Sacae obviously, but not so much sand. A whole country that was just... sand was a weird concept. Of course, Nabata was kinda really far away, so she'd had to settle for trees first, in her travels to Lycia. Which had been, uh, interesting so far, between crazy naked people at night and devil dogs at night and annoying redhead skanks at... night... yeah, that was getting to be a pattern wasn't it? FORTUNATELY this was like midday, not night, so no issues there.

Unfortunately, Kisaragi was stuck in this 'glorious' midday with a complete asshole whose face she wanted to introduce to a tree forty or fifty times, until he stopped moving or the entire god damn tree fell over, she wasn't too picky which. Escorting a middle aged man between two Lycian territories hadn't seemed like that big of a deal when she'd accepted the job, no real problems anticipated, but the middle aged man was almost as abrasive as he was crude; he'd already made three passes at her, and that still bothered her less than his opinions on Sacaens, which weren't exactly, uh, entirely friendly. It really took the warmth out of a compliment when the implication was that you were (paraphrased) "pretty hot" for a savage.

Still, she couldn't exactly just run him through and leave the jackass to die. As unpleasant of a man as he was, he was the supervisor of some under-construction trade route between Kathelet and Araphen, apparently a big deal because bla bla something about the good of Lycia and the stability of the region, she had stopped caring back during his fifth attempt to convince her that he was important. At least the idiot followed orders and seemed somewhat scared of her after she'd nearly snapped during his last advance, so their travels were in something approaching peaceful. Also... boring. Really boring. Kisaragi honestly wasn't sure if she should hope for something to happen or that nothing would happen, each option came with pros and cons.

[Jiro Tezuka]

"Greed is a necessary evil. We must realize that without gain, there is only loss."
~Unknown

    A mark like any other, a kill that was to be taken with swift indifference. Jiro was informed of this less-than-savory man, who's intent with this trade path was to extort the neighboring territories for no more than gold for himself. Jiro knew he was taking one life for money, and this was only the first step on his path to redemption. One must succumb to their worst enemy to face it. To kill for money was a tenuously thin proposition bordering the planes of greed and wrath. He did not care at this point, he'd sat for two days in wait for his target to arrive. Now he was here, and he had a guard. Wonderful. Stepping out nonchalantly from the brush to Kisaragi's left, blade drawn, he stared them down. He took a deep breath, in, and out, not fearful, but nervous. He had to calm down.

    "You help a monster." he spoke bluntly, blade gleaming in the afternoon sun, taking upon itself an orange hue. "Since you partake in poison, however faint, be sure to lick the plate." What Jiro meant by this was for her to take pride in her 'evil' allegiance, so it seemed. In reality, he believed her to be a part of this greed and this plot he was told about from his employer. "I have but one word for he who would extort honest folk in trade. Why?" in the end, it didn't matter to Jiro. As far as he was concerned, he was going to cut this man down, and take upon himself the duty he was promised pay for. This route was not to open, and the people on the other side of this relation were not to be robbed of their money. A little bit of pay for an honest job. This was it. His pulse was beating faster and faster, his free hand visibly shaking.
    

[Kisaragi]

"...What?"

Admittedly it wasn't Kisaragi's finest moment. She liked to think that she was good at dealing with situations but for this one she was actually confused to the point that she really couldn't think of a better response than to stare at Mr. Black Pajamas after he stepped out of the bush he had probably been drunkenly sleeping in before finally going crazy. He'd started off kinda making sense, the jerk she was escorting WAS a total asshole, but then they went into similes (or was it metaphors? she wasn't sure what the difference was) and started talking about eating slash drinking poison. Which seemed a bit rude to her, in all honesty, but then without the benefit of whatever Jiro knew, Kisaragi legitimately had no way to know the f**k he meant.

But it didn't take a genius to realize he had a sword out and was probably-maybe looking to murder her and Condor both, and that was at least a language Kisaragi spoke. Her hand was resting on the hilt of her blade, as yet undrawn but the tenseness in her posture speaking of her willingness to do so. She was not an iaijutsu expert by any means, but quickly drawing one's weapon was a fairly natural extension of her naturally fast fighting style, so as long as this guy couldn't actually teleport Kisaragi felt that she was fairly safe in terms of having time to respond if he did try to bum rush her.

While she was a fan of fighting to say the least, though, that didn't mean she was quite as enthusiastic about killing. Hence not drawing her blade immediately. The strange-speaking assassin had certainly drawn Condor's ire and then fear though. Whatever. Her patience had already been drained fairly low by the antics of her guest of honor, so Kisaragi barely even bothered trying to sound reasonable and pleasant. "I don't know what you're on about with poison, but while this guy is a jackass, that doesn't mean you get to kill him." She spoke matter of factly with some ire in her tone. None too secretly Kisaragi sort of wished that she could just stand aside and let the shadow guy do his thing, but if you just murdered everyone you didn't like the world would be a much uglier place.

"-So get out of the way or get run over, pajama boy."

[Jiro Tezuka]

    Well this was interesting, the kid drew a blade. Fancy that, huh? Jiro kept his stance firm and steady, not willing to back down because two greedy worms wanted him to, especially after hearing of their plot to fatten themselves on the backs of hardworking folk from his employer. "Greed soaks your veins, and taints your intentions. I know of your plot, you cannot hide it from me. These people are hard working, and my employer has let me know PLENTY of your deeds, Mister Condor. Extorting these poor folks for your own gain, it's pitiful. To trust a child with your protection, even worse. Not only do you ride on the backs of innocent youth, but you wish to rob an entire city of their gold with outrageous tariffs." Jiro clutched his blade tighter, remembering those times in his tribe when he couldn't eat, after his family began to fall apart. It was scary, really, to know that your next meal may not come because greedy misers wouldn't let you eat. "I'll take pride in knowing with your death, the people of this route can walk free, and do what they wish without the burden of loan or debt."

    Then there was the issue with the child. "As for you, I'm giving you my mercy. Run, get out of here. I don't wish for any more blood than there needs to be. The last I need is an innocent girl on the end of my sword, or myself upon yours." he gave her that bit of hope, that little shred of confidence in secret hope that she would attack. He wasn't about to kill her, but ensuring himself that he could eliminate her without a lethal blow could be paramount to getting his pay. He wouldn't need to pay any shady gangs large sums of gold in order to prevent himself from being painted a killer. All he needed was this man dead, and people to rejoice when he did. "I'll read you vows of whatever religion you wish before I end you, Condor, so take your pick." he offered. Some people preferred this, really. If a cornered beast knew he was dead without a chance, he might as well accept it. Jiro had only known a stark few targets he eliminated that after combat wished for their rites of a religion, so he studied them in his spare time to know their rituals. It was honorable, after all, to end a man in the comfort of his faith, and not in fear that he would descend into spiritual turmoil.

[Kisaragi]

To his credit, the good Mr. Condor had the decency to look somewhat confused instead of opening his mouth and giving Jiro another 30 reasons to kill him on the spot - either the result of his self-preservation instincts FINALLY kicking in, or just sheer confusion as he tried to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, that only lasted long enough for his fuse to hit 0 and removed any chance of a peaceful resolution. "...What are you, some kind of idiot? I didn't think the assassin's guild, or whatever assholes sent you, even hired people that stupid, and yet here you are!" Kisaragi could actually feel her brain cells dying, screaming in agony, as the obnoxious man kept talking. "This road is the future, you fool, the hope for Lycia! You're making a big mistake! I'll see yo-"

Somewhere around that point, Kisaragi actually registered that Jiro had called her a child, and the last tiny shred of patience she'd managed to hold on to evaporated into a boiling sea of lava in her head, and all interest in trying to figure out what was going on evaporated instantly. "One. Condor. Shut the f**k up." If Jiro thought he'd been clever with the poison comment before, he'd have been right on the money now - Kisaragi's words dripped with enough venom that she must have drunk a gallon of the stuff for breakfast and used it as mouthwash the night before, too. She was so far beyond done hearing his stupid voice that she simply didn't care if he was trying to convince the assassin to leave them alone or kill himself rather than continue hearing Condor's words, and so she took a great deal of pleasure in hearing his mouth shut and... not open again.

"And as for YOU," she continued, returning her full attention to Jiro, not that she had turned away from him yet. Flipping the catch with her thumb and ripping her own wakizashi out of its sheath in a blur of silver steel, the Sacaen swordmaiden pointed it at Jiro directly, placing both hands on the blade as she tried and failed to calm her raging emotions. "This 'child' is going to kick your ass. Less talk, more fight." To be perfectly honest, a fair bit of what Jiro had said had gone over her head, she didn't even know what a tariff was, but Kisaragi didn't care. As little as she liked Condor, she had heard the truth in his words when he tried to explain his goals earlier in their journey, or at least she thought so. Some random jackass in the woods wasn't going to change her mind that easily.

[Jiro Tezuka]

    "Finally, you decide to take action. Slow mind, fast hands, hmm? I like you, stranger. You stand for yourself. Honor in action." he spoke from the heart, drawing his own, standard steel sword. He had an age advantage, clearly, and with age came experience. While Jiro wasn't quite an assassin or a hero yet, he was still a threat. He took a similar stance to her, but favoring his left hand over the right. He was ambidextrous, and chose to favor an opposite hand as to put Kisaragi at a disadvantage. Slowly, he began to size her up. This was, after all, a job he needed to take seriously. There was no room for error, no room to make mistakes. This girl had to fall, but not dead, not unless he needed to.

    First was her stature, he could tell for a fact she was thin built, meaning she was probably lighter than he was. This put him at a slight advantage in strike capacity, but definitely not in agility, unless his training could prove to be more advantageous than raw youth's speed. He then noted her weapon was of greater forging than his, so he'd need to be on the defensive. Chain wasn't entirely resistant to blades such as her's. Finally, he'd seen how angry she'd gotten, probably another advantage he could weigh over her was temper during battle, so long as she didn't find anything about him and pull it against him. He sat in wait, glaring with intent to kill, but not action, no, not yet. For now, this was just the beginning of the battle, he had to let her move to see what he was up against. 

[Kisaragi]

"Honor in action, huh?"

At this point she didn't even have the energy to get mad about being called an idiot, again, it seemed this pajama guy just had a tendency to constantly insult everyone he met. After a point it just sorta lost its bite. Same as swinging a sword a hundred times a day... or striking a dummy, or blocking a blade. The crippling soreness, the pain, the feeling of your own weakness, they grew and grew and then calcified, forming the foundation for the next hundred swings. And the next. Calloused hands, visible muscle, a mind that could handle stress. All were built on a foundation of weakness. And so it was with his taunts; if she kept falling for them forever she wouldn't be growing much at all.

Besides, she HAD left Sacae to fight real opponents, right? If nothing else, this jackass would be a stepping stone for better things. Kisaragi took a deep breath as she tried to center herself - not pushing the anger down, but embracing it, coexisting with it rather than letting it rule her completely. There was no way she could reach the heights of emotionless, calm serenity of some warriors, but that didn't have to be a weakness if it suffused her every strike and lent her strength. "'Least we agree on one thing."

It was hard to tell if Jiro was just sizing her up, afraid for some reason, or didn't feel like taking her seriously, but whatever the case he didn't seem that eager to start the fight. Kind of funny given how much crap he'd been talking a second ago. Whatever the case, he was unarmored so she couldn't necessarily rely on being faster than him, but he probably had a strength advantage - as Kisaragi had learned the hard way, strong for your age doesn't necessarily mean as strong as a guy with 40 pounds and 8 inches on you. Not to mention her blade wasn't quite the size of a standard katana or longsword, furthering both extremes. Oh well. No point thinking about it too much. She'd get a feel for how he reacted in a fight. So Kisaragi just charged, stepping into her quick footed assault with a simple, probing horizontal slash, unlikely to do any damage unless he was ACTUALLY an idiot and didn't understand that you were supposed to not let the sharp stabby thing do sharp stabby things, but still a respectable attack given her motion and the sheer amount of practice she'd had.

[Jiro Tezuka]

    In Jiro's perception, when that adrenaline of battle began coursing through his brain, things began to slow. So did he, his body moving at a substantially slower pace. He felt... peaceful for some reason. As if things had just lined up perfectly. Zen had been achieved in this very moment as he watched her dash, his mind flashing back and forth between his brother and the girl. Dear gods, it was his family debacle all over again, but... he was able to let go. He moved with but two steps to the right, stopping his partial strafe, and taking his blade under, twisting his weapon around to try and intercept Kisaragi's weapon...

    He could see the sparks as his blade began to rise, the two swords clashed. She could probably make out his glazed expression and smile as he pushed upwards with all of his might in some sort of odd trance. His movements did not stop here, and when his weapon had reached about head height, he moved to bring it back down, and turn to face her. His weapon was held down by his leg with one hand, one could swear he had gone mad, or perhaps he knew for sure this kid was doomed where she stood. Still in his trance, his near hypnotized state, as if he'd seen his brother... Jiro felt at ease. Guided. Blade back in both hands now, he moved withe every fiber of his body losing intent to slay this kid, but rather, to show her what it meant to know your purpose, and to show your honor. His swift action of assuming an identical stance as before, but favoring his right. Swinging his weapon in a slight curve up and over clockwise, it was a simple striking technique his family shared. He awaited his weapon to be intercepted, knowing well he could pick up the pace soon after.

    To Kisaragi, however, this man was moving with speed that only a myrmidion could truly posses. His weapon came up in a snap motion, allowing him to flank to her left, and moving back around to try and strike. The entire time, his eyes were glazed over, and his breath was calm, like a cool winter breeze, or a warm summer's air. He seemed blissful, like he was asleep, or perhaps just snapped beyond recognition in his own, broken mind. In truth, it was neither; he was just on a 'battle high' as some warriors referred to it as. Your adrenaline hitting such a point when deprived of battle for weeks, if not months on end, that you physically feel as though your thoughts outpace your body, and you can see when it catches up. 
    

[Kisaragi]

Kisaragi was immediately grateful that Jiro had blocked her attack, not so much because she WANTED to lose as just knowing that she was at least fighting an actual opponent and not just a crazy guy with a sword. Errr... scratch that part. He looked doped up as hell by the time she got to him, though it didn't stop her from crashing her blade into his as he blocked, seemingly unmoved by her momentum. Not the end of the world, she wasn't big on ending fights in one attack. Not bad to be able to do it without moving though. And he was definitely stronger than her, able to control their clash, push it up, repel her. Arrest her momentum. Different than Veigue's approach to use it against her, interestingly; was he unable to do so or unwilling?

After some theatrics that admittedly did look kinda cool, not that she was going to tell him that, he launched into an attack of his own, one striking from above that granted it extra power... Kisaragi intercepted it, raising her blade's edge above her and buttressing her grip with both hands to weather the storm of steel before he was already moving into another attack, moving around her for another strike that was easier to deflect. But he was clearly setting the pace of the fight, and that wasn't what she cared to do. Kisaragi wasn't angry per se, but she was as stubborn as she was defiant, and she wasn't going to be pushed around by some... drugged up maniac who happened to be OK with a sword.

Rather than bitch about it though, she took back to the offensive, sinking her right foot firmly into the ground as she stepped into a thrusting stab at his torso with good piercing power, linked into the immediate followup, a diagonal slash. Nothing too fancy, all his dancing around was just going to waste both of their time as far as she was concerned, unless of course she lost track of it, at which point she'd probably just be dead in about two seconds. So that was pretty good incentive to pay attention, and that in turn meant controlling her own body effectively, focusing on her footing and manipulation of momentum while she waited to see how he responded.

[Jiro Tezuka]

    A swift sidestep later, Jiro believed himself to be in the clear of the attacks of this kid, before that diagonal swing came into view. His sword arm was lowered, and unable to even come up fast enough, even in his tranced state. He watched in horrible and slow readiness as the sharp sword of Kisaragi drew itself upon his chain-linked armor, severing it immediately from the cloth and said cloth from his body. As the chain fell out in a curtain like formation from his 'pajamas' as the kid had called them, Jiro felt the pain almost immediately of a well placed shoulder strike. His eyes went from glazed and blissful to that glare once more, and his own smile faded.

    With a simple kick or two backward, to space himself, Jiro was fully ready to try and do what he came here for. Ducking down as he ran, Jiro attempted to fling dirt into Kisaragi's eyes, and once he'd done that, would turn his attention to Condor. Blade still fully drawn, he darted at the man, weapon held high to attempt to cleave the man's throat with his sword. Jiro wasn't prone to fighting fair, and he didn't feel, after all he'd heard about Condor, that the kid deserved but so much honor. He was growing impatient, and antsy. There was no way now he was going to let this man escape his wrath. The same wrath of the son that had lost it all, the same wrath of the one who'd strike down a teen if they dared interlope with his scheme to revive his tribe. This was do or die at this point, and he had no excuses.  

[Kisaragi]

She wasn't, er, liable to say anything to him, but Kisaragi had to... grudgingly... admit a certain degree of respect that crazy sword jerk could move pretty damn fast even with some armor on. She definitely couldn't, a big part of why she went entirely unarmored; her focuses were agility and technique, not durability or power. If she tried to wear armor it'd just destroy her advantages without giving anything more than limited durability. So even if Jiro hadn't exactly been wearing heavy plate, it was still interesting that he had been able to move at a decent clip with it on.

That said, she didn't exactly get much of a chance to stand there feeling slightly less angry at him than she usually was. The pajama guy disengaged slightly, then stooped to the lowest trick in the book, at least by the standards of the sword-loving Sacaen - trying to throw dirt in her eyes. She certainly hadn't seen it coming though, but one of the benefits of the kimono covering her upper half was the longer sleeves; reflexively moving her hand up to 'block' the attack would have been a waste of time in normal clothing, but the sizable sleeves of her kimono acted to more or less immunize her to actually getting any dirt in her eyes - but not to the trick in general. The momentary loss of visibility and momentum did serve Jiro's purpose, allowing him to pass her without taking a sword to the gut, though without lasting damage it was merely a momentary distraction.

Kisaragi was already chasing him before she realized what his plan was, assuming initially that he was just trying to re-position - he seemed to like to do a lot of that 'dancing around people' crap rather than having the decency to stand and fight like a real warrior. But ditching their fight to attack Condor... as much as a small fraction of her wanted to just stand there and let him do it, Kisaragi couldn't stomach the idea of letting an innocent man die even if he was a complete asshole, and while she wasn't as big on honor as some Sacaens, neither was she entirely divorced from it. Fleeing a fight to assassinate someone like that was too low for her to accept.

But there was the minor issue that while he wasn't actually faster than her, neither was he really slower, especially with that armor out of the way. And he did have a head start. She could try throwing her sword - he wasn't looking, he couldn't really dodge it - but at this speed she was very unsure she could HIT it, and losing her weapon would be a death sentence just the same as standing there with it un-drawn. Besides, it wasn't balanced for throwing anyways. She MIGHT be able to pull off some kind of slash, but veto'd the idea for a different reason entirely - attacking a fleeing foe's back seemed... highly dishonorable at best, and while he was a caustic asshole just as bad as Condor, pajama boy seemed to think he was doing the right thing for whatever dumbass reason. So it didn't sit right with her to even try to tenderize him from the back.

-But she couldn't just... NOT stop him, either. And she was only going to have one good shot at this, whatever she did. Both because any real action would cause her to lose momentum that she couldn't necessarily regain, and because while she was quite good at burst speed, her shorter strides meant that Jiro would absolutely win a longer distance chase. So she had to move NOW. Dammit. Putting everything she had into a last burst of speed, Kisaragi flipped her grip on her sword backward, rotating it behind her in its momentary uselesness, and tried to tackle Jiro from behind, grabbing onto anything she could to drag him down. The idea of trying to talk everything out was lost to her, and kind of irrelevant when running as fast as your legs can carry you anyways. She just needed to keep him from killing Condor for now.

[Jiro Tezuka]

    At first, Jiro thought he had this assassination completely in the bag. He had all of this so meticulously planned and ready to execute. The guard was negligible, so he thought, therefore he'd began a forward course upon this Condor man, and was readying the killing blow. This all came crashing down, literally, when he was tackled at the waist by the kid. Feeling the initial tug at one of his robe sashes, he turned to face the assailant, trying to shove her off whilst falling backwards, doing so did two things. First, he dropped his blade, and second...

CRACK!!!

    He felt several columns in his spine and parts of his tailbone crack, and even a part shatter. Gods damn it all, he was going to fail this! He couldn't keep fighting with weapons, so now it was resorting to words, cunning, and reason if he could get her to calm down. In that not-so-graceful fall, Jiro managed to also receive a nasty gash upon his mask, tearing the whole hood and mask set off, revealing his, indeed, southern Sacaean face. His eyes were filled with conviction, and his gritting teeth were evident of critical pain. 

    "If you feel to act as though you're convicted as some sort of hero, mind worm, then listen to my words." the ninja began, his arms out in clear show of surrender, grunting as he threw them out, that audible snap of his back and his tailbone evident he was much to injured to continue on. "I have proof of this man's ill intent for this road. It is damnation. A letter in my pocket proves this. If you had any reason to trust me, I would reach for it." he spoke, even though his blade was out of arm's reach and his critical state prevented him from retrieving it, he knew well he was not to be trusted. "But if you are the greedy mongrel that I believe you to be, you'll kill me here, in cold blood. You'll let an entire tribe die off before you get paid whatever dirty money this rat will generate."

[Kisaragi]

Ok, on the bright side, her plan had worked, Jiro was definitely NOT murdering Condor right now, and that was good, right? Right. On the flip side, she had uh, not quite planned for the... landing aspect as well. She was partially cushioned by Jiro's bony body, which wasn't actually much of a comfort at all, but even in the uncoordinated confusion and shock of hitting the ground she still heard something crack, and she didn't think it had been her, though unlike Jiro she had no way of knowing what bits of him were out of commission.

It wasn't until she had pulled herself off of him, still a little bleary but ready to fight, that she realized he... wasn't still fighting. A look of confusion passed Kisaragi's face as the assassin moved on to the usual tirade of weird insults and then eventually started making sense... or at least not NON-sense. She still didn't see what was so evil about a road, but for whatever reason Jiro seemed really hardcore f**k**g convinced that Condor and she were both the worst thing to ever live, or at least Condor, and his conviction was strong enough to shake her own. Kisaragi was neither an idiot nor a genius, just stubborn as hell, and she knew it - it was... possible... that she had missed something and Jiro might be right. But as much as she disliked Condor, she couldn't believe he was lying either. He was a racist jackass who was certainly interested in the money, but he had truly seemed to believe in what he was doing.

Dammit, she had been paid to keep some dumb guy safe from bandits, not get involved in some deep moral quandary. She didn't like this grey area bullshit, just give her a sword and some bad guys and she'd solve the problem quick enough.

"...Fine, whatever," the small surly Sacaen ground out with frustration evident in her tone. "If you're really Sacaen, even an assassin like you should have SOME concept of honor. So what's this proof? I'm gonna punch you in the dick if this is another damn trick." And she was 100% serious on a level that Kraft himself would have been cowed by, Kisaragi was having enough trouble keeping her anger under control already without the prospect of Jiro further proving himself to be a completely heartless, soulless asshole trying to make all Sacaens look bad.

[Jiro Tezuka]

    This was it, his trump card. His end-all-be-all to this whole conflict. A letter. The injured Sacaean ninja pulled that tattered note from his inner pockets of his shirt, and presented it to Kisaragi, at least the best he could without straining his back... That'd need a healer for sure. His sotto tone belied only his dishonor and shame at this point. "This is it. Signed by Condor, read as you may..." he coughed, gritting his teeth to try and halt the feeling of utter and bitter defeat, as well as pain, from escaping into so much as a grunt. The note was written well, but the signature was nowhere near Condor's own. Of course, Jiro wouldn't know this, being as he's never seen Condor's handwriting before... The details of the note were hard to follow, all it mentioned was getting rich off of 'poor bumpkins connected to the road'.

    Jiro's boiling hatred for this situation was only coupled by his intense pain, being as how he couldn't get up. He wished in his mind to be forgiven, and prayed silently that Kisaragi may believe what evidence he thought to be true. His mind was running plenty more scenarios, but not one accounted for that note being counterfeit. It would be spectacular to see what sort of reaction this dutiful and mission-bound ninja would give to learn that shocking, and horrific news.