L12 - How to Deal with this...

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“Ah… two more are here… See, Ragnarok? Those doors open from the inside…” Their tone was lifeless and monotonous. They sounded dejected to the point of depression.
Quinn and Luca cocked a brow at each other.
The figure turned to face them. Slowly, slowly dragging their frame to look towards the pair of Shibusen Students.

Pause. Blink. Rewind.
This? This person is the source of all that horrendous Wavelength we've been picking up?
This little… uh…
She debated silently for a moment. Confused as to what pronouns to use to address this bizarre individual, before reluctantly settling on 'He.'
They where a tiny, frail human being, not much older than themselves. There wasn’t a pick of meat on him. An earthworm would have been more muscular. This wasn’t helped by the fact they where dressed in a dark slip of a dress or robes. The gossamer material so shadowy that it almost looked like it was draining all the colour from his pallid skin, making him appear bloodless. His hair was a pastel shade of lavender, and looked like it had been savaged by pruning shears. It’s length haphazard and irregular. But it was his eyes…. His eyes that gave it away…
They where as pale as his hair, and about the same shade. But they moved ceaselessly, like morpho butterflies, darting and fluttering, never settling. He seemed desperate to look at anywhere but them, Refusing to make eye contact. And his pupils… they where so tiny, it was almost like they where non existent… he was observing the world through a pinhole…

"Are… are you a Meister?" Quinn asked, slowly, unsure of his reaction.
The Boy recoiled as if she’d been slapped, his eyes tracing rapid patterns along the floor, as if watching something they couldn’t, "There’s no pattern to the stones here. I try to count them, but you move too fast. Hummingbird,"
Wait? What?
"I don’t like talking to girls…" he rambled on, seeming to only be talking to himself, "Those doors open from the inside, right?"
Quinn stiffened, her patience waning, "Who are you? Answer us!"
The boy glanced at the pair of them, and winced, his arms wrapping around his torso, and dipping his head, "They’re still talking to me, Ragnarok… what do I do? I don’t know how to deal with this…"
Ragnarok? Who the hell is…
A sword. A dark, shining sword was clenched in his right hand. It was a Longsword, double bladed with a pale blood groove in the middle. And it’s steel was as black as ink and sharp as sin. There was no way in hell such a fragile human being would be capable of wielding such a thing…
"Quit hesitating Crona! You can just eat them, can’t you?"

Quinn swore, leaping back. It talks? The sword talks?
Lips, red and thick and bulbous, protruded from the steel of the sinful blade, just above the hilt, and grinned at them, "Their soul’s look tasty,"
So… they are a pair… the sword is the Weapon, called Ragnarok, and the Meister is named Crona…

"Luca," Her hand felt for his. Searching for his strength. Their fingertips met, and their strength merged.
Souls Converged, Hearts mimicking one another, Breath running in unison.
Luca dissolved in a flare of white energy and colourless sparks, losing his form and shape, before his amorphous essence enveloped her legs, wrapping around them and binding tight. The shape reformed, sculpting itself to hers, before another flicker of energy ripped away, to reveal their combined form: - The Hermes Greaves.

A calmness passed over them both. They where in each other’s space now. A space that they had come to embrace and share. It was something their families where never able to understand about them. This closeness. This intimacy of being so intertwined they where two souls in the one flesh.
Crona wasn’t happy in his place, he wanted other souls… he was restless, while they where still.

Crona recoiled again, silent laughter racking his spindly form. Shoulders heaving with hysterical glee, "That’s right! I can just eat them, can’t I? I never thought of that..."
He seemed to be talking to the sword, as he raised it to her face, hiding half of his pallid complexion behind that aberrant black steel, "You want to see me play? I’ll run my fingers through her hair… and those doors open from the inside ri-i-i-i-i-i-ight?"
He sighed, long and slow, and for the first time, looked at the pair of them straight on. His gaze was needle sharp, focused and unwavering. It was extremely unsettling, "I don’t know how to deal with you… you should just DIE!"

Quinn yelped, leaping away, pushing her speed, and leapt straight over his head, the blades on her ankles swiveling, looking to nail him between her shoulder-blades, but Crona knew better. The dark blade raised again, and the two edges met in a shower of bright white sparks and metallic screaming. For a second, Quinn twisted in the air, and time slowed, and their eyes locked. Amber on Violet.
Crona’s eyes where a strange mixture of deranged glee and detached moroseness… like he himself wasn’t really here…

The Blade twisted, and Quinn felt her ankles entangle. Shit!
Luca yelled as the blade dug deep into Quinn’s left knee, the weapon equivalent of his lower ribs, and the metal on metal grated, sending the pair of them lurching forward, slamming hard into the floor.
Quinn coiled, twisting her body over and around the fall, rolling the two of them away from being crushed by the blow that had rasped against their left side. A grunt escaped from Quinn’s lungs and even as she pushed herself off the floor to face oncoming danger she faltered, her knee shredded from the glanced blow. It could hardly have been called a miss…
Luca stifled a moan, clutching his side next to his hip. He could feel his flesh had been sheared, like sandpaper…

"Dammit," Quinn hissed, brow crinkled in pain and teeth clenched. Her knee throbbed painfully, like someone has just ran a cheese-grater across it. She knew Luca had probably taken the brunt of it, but still… they where symbiotic…
Quinn staggered gracelessly to her feet again. Her left knee now felt tender… she wondered if Luca could stand to take her weight…
She stiffened, biting back the pain and shoved it to the back of her head. I don’t feel it. Mind over matter. I don’t feel it…
She ran again, and skidded, feinting her direction, helixing sideways. Crona swung, his swing falling short, cracking the marble where the blow fell.
Yeesh… that was close…Quinn righted herself, twisting, Crona’s position working to her benefit, and her leg shot out, with the same speed and ferocity of a striking snake. Aiming squarely for his pale face. The blow would be enough to break his jawbone.
And it hit.
The vibrations of the blow shivered their way up Quinn’s leg, and Luca braced against the impact. YES!
Crona quivered… but remained on his feet. Stock still.
What? Quinn froze, wary, That should have broke his nose, why is he not reacting…?
"… I don’t know how to deal with you…" came the weak reply.
Quinn recoiled, feeling the colour drain from her face, “The hell?”
Crona stared at her. His eyes where watering a little, and his face looked tender, but he still stood, resolute, Ragnarok dangling by his side, his left hand clutching his right bicep and swaying uncertainly, "You are scaring me… you don’t make sense… a Meister shouldn’t feel a Weapon’s pain… I don’t know how deal with that…"

Quinn had had enough. Her legs spread, and her centre of gravity dropped to the floor, "Alright Kishin, no more playing. I’m gonna take your freaking head off!"
Luca, in the depths of his mutual darkness looked 'up' at her, "Are you ready for this?"
"More than ready," Quinn tensed, "He’s a Kishin in the making. I’m gonna end it before he has any more time to screw us around, and add to his stockpile..."

She leapt, and the Greaves pushed, carrying her almost gracefully into the air, arching wide and curving down, read to strike with punishing gravity on her side~
"THIS IS HOW YOU DEAL WITH IT!"

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FFFF Considering how old this lesson is I should have had it done by now~ ... Oh well. By the time I got round to doing it again, I hated the linework, and thus, scrapped it and redid it completely... murdering the perspective in the progress I think, but I digress...
One more lesson off the list~ >W> Yush...
Enjoy, Peeps!