Fight between Savage and Misery
IshinIshin watched as the woman moved. She was releasing her Quinque. The ghoul stood straight as he expected her to simply rush him. Instead she used the inherent mechanism of her weapon in a very practiced maneuver. Ishin was not suspecting that. Ishin stood strong, moving a foot back to plant into the ground. Shifting his body to ensure his center of gravity wasn't thrown off by the attack. His coalesced kagune that wrapped his arms expanded and encased his arms, forming an armour that resembled scales that reflected light in a multitude of colours. His arms formed a cross above his head as the Investigators weapon bored into his kagune. The teeth of the weapon grated against Ishin. His teeth clenched and the sickening taste of copper flashed across his tongue. He hopped back and stood, breathing heavy before laughed.
"I'll admit" he growled "you got me" his wings flexed gently "my turn now." He blurred, his kagune granting him unnatural speed. He was behind the Dove "tell me...how painful was the eye removal?" He asked, his voice full of condescension. He blurred again "was seeing people die worth it?" A smirk could basically be heard in the voice. A laugh echoed out before he shot forward, kagune forming into long twin blades. He became a flurry of violence, hoping to pressure her to break.
ShinaIshin was not the first ghoul to be taken by surprise by this maneuver, and neither was he the first who thought they could easily block Misery. However, he was the first to not break after tasting its bite. No way he was an A rank. Morizumis confidence wavered, if only for a moment, before it shot skywards. Her expression changed from cold and unphased to what one wouldn't expect from a human in such a situation - a wry grin.
"
The most painful thing you could ever imagine." she answered, turning around to catch a glimpse of Ishin behind her before he vanished again, too fast for the human eye to follow. He could have attacked her from behind, but he didn't - perfect. He felt superior, wanted to toy with his prey. He most certainly was superior too, but that gave Misery enough of a chance to get another bite. When he appeared again to charge her, pressure her into defense, she reacted fast. Almost too fast for a human, half-anticipating the attack. For one, he virtually announced it, typical for ghouls with an ego as big as this guys. Secondly, being pressured into defense was quite obviously not the kind of position Morizumi wanted assume in this dance, making it a likely goal of his.
"
Pain worse than death!" she shouted at her opponent as soon as she saw his charge coming, running two steps away from him and swinging the quinque around. Utilizing the momentum exchange between her and her weapon she circled Misery around her body in a horizontal arch. The dove hoped that his furious whirlwind-motion took enough forward thrust out of his vector so she could finish her half-circle swing, bringing it to a sideway swat that aimed to hit Ishin at her maximum range, trying to capitalize on the superior reach of her weapon. Ideally it would blast him out of his lethal charge, worst case he'd just have to alter his direction to avoid getting hit. The realistic worst case of her miscalculating distance and speed of the ghoul didn't cross her mind.
IshinIshin watched the Investigator's response to his taunts. She seemed incensed...but not enough to openly break. She was interesting. Definitely interesting. But interest aside, he knew even he may have found an Investigator that wasn't just more food. He had to fight and possibly kill this woman so his little piece of land was not destroyed. He had fought too hard for it. He protected too many to fall tonight. An image of Chou flashed through his mind. His jaw set in place and he continued his advance.
But she twisted away, another practiced movement that seemed too smooth to be improvised. She knew. His attack was anticipated. Ishin contorted away from the swing, using wings and all his speed to avoid an untimely death.
"A pain worse than death?" Ishin called out, his voice losing it's hard edge "you know nothing of pain!" The growl in the voice was lost. He began to circle her slowly "you think that we Ghouls relish in the predatory nature of our kind?" He asked calmly, his hand moving to the section of his mask that covered his mouth "you think we want our children, our families to be violently afraid of the world?" The mask section came away, revealing his mouth. His voice was more melancholic than aggressive "I HATE IT!" the growl returned "but I do what I must to survive in this piece of shit world you and your comrades create!" Her Quinque locked in the swing he blurred once more, moving till his cold mask was mere centimeters from her face "You know nothing of pain" he said gently. His hand pressed to her throat "nothing...." he muttered.
ShinaThe reckless swing didn't fail to save her life, one more time out of death's grasp. Morizumi didn't have a whole lot of time to relish in her success though, before the monster closed into lethal proximity. Somehow the bastard had adjusted his flight enough to avoid the grinding jaws of Misery but still entered the inner circle she absolutely had to keep clear.
Her actual plan was to spin around and deliver a follow-up attack by swinging the quinque around full circle, but with the monster being this close and his hand on her throat, that plan was nil. Losing its horizontal trajectory due to losing momentum, Misery crashed into the pavement behind her, jerking her left arm with it for a bit but ultimately stopping before it could dislocate her shoulder - partly planned, but not without a bit of luck. In her momentarily defenseless position, she stared at the ghoul, his revealed mouth. His words surprised her for a moment, specifically since he didn't seem much like a family guy from the way he turned several CCGs into guts with fries only a moment ago, but the investigator decided not to confront him with that right now.
"
We're not so different, Savage." She grinned at him, not the slightest trace of fear in her only visible eye. On the contrary, something either amused or entertained her greatly, it seemed. The sight of his Kagune from this close reminded her of a crucial detail she noticed in the files, enabling her to recall the nickname she associated with the stained glass look. Her free, right hand reached up behind her head, opening the belt that kept her eyepatch in place, and throwing it aside to reveal the black, ghoul-like eye below. There was no clean way out of this mess for her, so Morizumi played one of the aces she had up her sleeves. It wasn't the last trick she had, but her ressources drained at an alarming rate. She had to get away from him at any cost and throwing her opponent off during his self-absorbed phase was the most logical step.
If it wasn't for the fact that this ghoul outclassed her and had his claw in position to rip her throat out, she would have admitted having
fun right now. It had been a while since a ghoul actually challenged her enough to provoke the strategically psychological side of Misery.
IshinIshin watched the face of the prey within his hands. He could feel the slightly increased pulse. She wasn't scared. She was excited. He smirked, pale lips curling into a violent misappropriation of joy "I'll agree to that" he said "you'd make a wonderful Ghoul" he mused gently. His eyes, hidden by the mask plate watched her movements as she unlatched her eyepatch. A meaningless gesture he thought till he saw the black eye underneath. It wasn't moving. It was too perfect. It was glass. Ishin had to calm himself for a second. A thought that perhaps she was another ghouls mole crissed his mind for a second. That was stomached easily.
"You had it replaced to look kike us?" He laughed "but I do know what this means" his grip tightened "it means you think I'm a challenge no?" He asked "well...if im a challenge...the maniac over there" he gestured to Knight "is going to turn you into mince meat" his hand dropped from her throat and he looked at her, eyes concealed by the metal mask "your choice Dove...run or fight" he held his hands out in a passive gesture "I will stop Knight from causing much more damage if needed."
ShinaThe nerve this guy had. Sadly, he saw through the eye-trick too quickly to take advantage of it, but this dance was not over yet. "
You're too smart for small scale tricks, eh?" Her reply came with a bit of fake disappointment. Actually she was delighted that she had to pull out all the stops to get to him. Savage was exceptional indeed, confident but not megalomaniacal enough to let his guard down. The analytic part of the investigator immediately assumed that he had established some sort of leading or managing position in his human disguise.
Morizumi didn't follow Ishins gesture, she didn't care for knight this very moment. She was hardly aware of his presence at this point. What mattered was right here, at arms reach...
He gave her a choice that hardly even qualified as one. Letting the ghoul leave was no option. She took a careful step backwards, away from him as if to take her leave.
"
My, my. Aren't you the vigilante. Why would you put yourself in danger like that..." Her comment on his last declaration was carried by a tone so falsely sweet, it left a sickening taste on ones tongue. After a theatric pause, she turned her back on him...only to continue that movement and turn around by 360°. Of course, she set her quinque in motion again, but at this range a swing would take way too much time to have any hopes of hitting Ishin, lest he suddenly fell asleep. That's what one would expect from her long, impractical weapon anyway. But instead of executing a slow, wide half-circle motion, she activated the mechanism in Misery's handle that changed the sword into its whip-blade form. Through the changed dynamic of the weapon, Morizumi was able to execute a much faster whiplash-motion that let the four lethal segments of the weapon speed past her own body, thrusting towards the ghoul. Regardless of wether its teeth connected with Savage or not, this form of the quinque allowed her to continuously swing it in a ∞ -shape to shield almost her entire front from direct counter-attacks, under significant physical strain however. Together with the thrust-motion, she completed her sentence: "
...when danger is right in front of you!"
IshinIshin gave the slightest grin at Morizumi’s response. As he stood and waited for her decision, she turned. Ishin gave a smile, happy that he wouldn’t have to kill someone so interesting. He replaced the mouth plate of his mask. But something was wrong. She was still turning. Her Quinque was spinning towards him. The immense range of the giant sword was surprising to Ishin. He had seen large quinques but nothing like this. He gave a short hop backwards and his wings flared out in anger. Perhaps he would have to kill tonight. The sword suddenly changed. It separated and became a long fluid whip. Ishin growled violently, having just touched the ground from his short hop to avoid the original attack. He planted his feet and with significant force, leaped into the air, barely dodging the teeth of the weapon as it careened underneath his form.
“You chose this path Morizumi….” Ishin called from the air. His wings shot out, crystallizing vicious blades of RC cells. With a rotation of his body, he sent two waves of multi coloured shards towards the Investigator. He spun again, another flurry of shards before touching the ground “I guess I’ll have to leave my mark on you then” he said, the violence pouring once more into his voice. He growled, an animalistic sound that ripped from his throat, before wrapping his Kagune over his hands. The solid RC cells became thickened scales and claws. He rushed in, the sadism left deep in his mind taking over him. He needed to feel her skin tearing under his claws, muscles rending under his finger. He needed to eat her. He may have awakened her strategic side…but she had awakened Savage.
ShinaMorizumis grin widened. She had missed her target again, but awakened its real fighting spirit. Perfect!
The barrage of tinted RC-shards coming her way was mostly deflected by the rapidly whirling whip-like quinque, when she started swinging it in said ∞ -pattern, faster and faster. The deflective swirl of lethal teeth and wire didn't cover all of her front, so she had to move around and behind the trajectory of Misery's individual parts to properly shield her body, taking several glancing hits in the process that cut open her arms, mostly. The investigator had obviously used this technique before to avoid getting peltered with RC-projectiles, thus the proficiency at avoiding lethal torso hits. Red, flowery twirls began staining her dress shirt. She had to use both arms to keep up the protective motion of the weapon, spraying minor sprinkles of crimson all around her. Those shallow wounds meant nothing to the woman, in the process of learning to use Misery's whip-form alone she had sustained much greater injury.
Seeing the ghoul charge at her in unrestrained fury was reason for Morizumi to laugh out briefly, in near manic ecstasy. "
That's it! Show me the monster inside you!" This was the point where even the hardiest ghoul began making mistakes, and she planned to capitalize on the slightest misjudgement on his end. The dove danced backwards in erratic movements, balancing her own body weight against the spiralling inertia of the weapon. She constantly altered speed and direction to make it as difficult as possible for the ghoul to slip past her superior range, changing from the purely defensive pattern to a more aggressive and less predictable flurry of horizontal and diagonal swipes. The whole motion remotely resembled a gymnast dancing with a ribbon-stick, only it was much more deadly for both parties involved.
IshinIshin raged loudly. His voice lost to the ravenous hunger and aggression that he normally held in check. He hadn't been this way for a long time. Somewhere, in the back of his head, something felt liberated. Savage was free again. Dragon was free again. Ripper was free again. His triplicate Dove names he had been given. His personalities he had hidden deep in his subconscious came exploding to the forefront of his mind. His koukaku elongated, becoming violently jagged claws to rip and tear. He growled, his wings flaring to send more waves of crystalline daggers at the woman.
Every strike of his arm was met with her quinque violently ripping through his RC armour. A single breach of the rotating defense was met with a strike to his head or body. He stopped, hunched over and growling. His breathing was calm. His helmet fractured over his right eye to show his black and red colouring. He growled slowly before straightening up. His wings flared out, his armour retreating his arms to funnel his energy into his out kagune. The wings expanded slowly before firing another vicious wave of RC Cells.
ShinaMorizumi danced backwards in this ballet of violence, her life just one unlucky moment away from coming to a gruesome end, and she enjoyed every second of it. She replied to the inhuman noises of the monster in front of her with her own barely human war cry while swirling her quinque endlessly around in a deadly cascade of strikes, both offensively lethal and defensively zoning Savage out of her vulnerable proximity. Blind to the colateral damage she was causing, her blade connected with abandoned cars and pavement, sending shrapnels of stone and metal through the air like a fine rain of glass splinters without ever being slowed down by such obstacles.
Seeing how the ghoul ceased his relentless direct assault, Morizumi allowed herself a moment of recovery, a short breather not much longer than two lungs full of air before she let the quinque snap back into its solid form with a loud '
CLINK'. Holding it in a semi-defensive position in front of her but ready to turn that stance into a thrusting attack, she waited for Ishin to make his move.
This was easily the most serious fight she had in her entire life this far. The guy was unlike any other ghoul that fell victim to Miserys teeth. He had the speed to toy with her, the endurance to still be on his feet after eating an actual hit from her quinque and still kept avoiding the most common mistakes of underestimating the dove or overextending for a quick final blow.
The new barrage of RC-shards was not the most fortunate turn of events for her, seeing how she had to recover from the excessive strain her whip-form defense put on her burning muscles. Another swirling deflection was out of the question, and so she rammed her quinque tip-first into the ground in front of her to crouch behind it. The wide frame of the weapon protected most of her body but the woman was unwilling to let go of its handle even for a split second and risked half of her fingers in the process. Despite being mostly safe, the number of scratches on her arms and legs increased in this hailstorm of pain.
Though being cornered, exhausted, bleeding and panting, the dove had a wry grin on her face. "
Stop hiding behind that boring trick and get serious!" She shouted from behind the weapon, not stupid enough to stick her head out as long as it still poured death on her. She had to make him stop with the artillery, the sitting duck was not her kind of position.
IshinIshin watched each and every response of the woman before him. She risked her hand to survive his ranged attack. She was something else entirely. Ishin’s wings flared out of existence, giving way to the exhaustion of over extending his kagune. His breath came out in ragged gasps underneath the mask. He was sweating, exertion threatening to take his body away. He shook his head, as if to fight the wave of blackness that tingled at his extremities. It had been a long while since he had been this…excited. His mind thrummed with adrenalin, ecstatic and pleasing to a man that had long since lost what it meant to be a hunter. Here…right now with the Dove…he was hunter and prey. His mouth piece of his mask fell away, its clasp cracked open from the previous engagement. Ishin growled gently. His mask was falling apart at the seams from the damage. His hands went to his mask and pulled, cracking the helmet even more and breaking it apart. Metal clattered to the ground and Ishin stood proud, kakugan flashing crimson in the darkness. His red hair slicked back and dampened from the sweat he gave a short snarl towards Morizumi and breathed in. The Ripper had taken control this time. The stained glass pattern of his Koukaku rippled across his arms and became deadly claws again.
“Is that what you wanted to see, Misery?” Ishin called out, his voice mocking more than anything “I wonder if the file you read on me told you that I went by a different assignment by the CCG when I was younger” He grinned “You heard of the Ripper Case no? the child ghoul with inhuman strength” Ishin gave a short sharp laugh before exploding from his position, claws clashing against the surface of the quinque. “That was me…”
ShinaAs soon as the lethal rain ended, the dove stood back up. Still portraying pride despite her beaten appearance, she had utilized the moment of cowering to regain the strength to take up her weapon once more. The ghoul calling her by the name given to both her and her quinque widened the grin on her face. There was something satisfying about hearing Savage using this name, as if he finally accepted her as a worthy opponent rather than lifestock. This made things all the more interesting, though probably more difficult as well.
She had indeed read reports about the Ripper case, and it wasn't too surprising to learn that he had assumed a different identity. When high-profile ghouls suddenly vanished, they either died by the hand of a different ghoul or abandoned their former mask and name to 'live in peace', whatever that meant for voracious monsters like them. Indeed surprising was the event of the ghoul not escaping upon the destruction of his mask. Considering the more visibly murderous specimen just down the road, chances were preciously little for anyone to pay much attention to Ishin, but it also put him in a situation where he lost the option to flee without killing her first. Not many ghouls put themselves in a dead end like that, no matter how conceited. The notion was primarily exciting.
As it was the nature of Shina Morizumis fighting style, she offered no hint of her thoughts. On the contrary, she aimed to infuriate Ripper even more. "
Never heard of that name, maybe too small-fry to be known outside of your merry little district?" Seeing him charge at her was exactly what the dove wanted, and so she employed yet another one of her trained little gambits.
The tip of her quinque still wedged into the ground, she deflected most of the impact of Ishins claws into the road rather than her arms, for the sheer force would likely have broken a bone or two. Half a second after the collision, the sound of it still echoing through the street, Morizumi ripped the whole weapon upwards. It looked like the weapon would fly backwards over her head and crash into the pavement behind her. But instead she jumped up herself, partially dragged along by the unbelievable momentum of her weapon to perform what resembled a backflip. Misery kept rotating along, around the center of Morizumis mass and at the peak of her acrobatic jump passed below her, racing towards the position where Ishins claws hit her defense two seconds ago. The teeth at the tip of Misery scraped the road below briefly, but it wasn't enough to stop the full circle movement from happening and so a deadly uppercut came flying his way. Though executing this reckless maneuver gave Ishin enough time to react and move out of the way, that still required him to predict the unpredictable to a degree.
The whole idea was a huge stretch and left the investigator way open if the ghoul decided to dodge, rather than block the impact...but working with insane-risk-high-reward attacks was her only chance to come out of this alive.
