towerofanimus | 3rd String | Getting Home Late | [Language: slightly warped Japanese]

Entry tags:

3rd String | Getting Home Late | [Language: slightly warped Japanese]

Characters: Kankuro and anyone who cares to help out
Setting: Between Floor 15 (workshop) and the elevator
Format: Starting with action, will match
Summary: Kankuro stays too late in the workshop -- oh boy, time to head back to the dormitory at night.
Warnings: Will update as appropriate.

[It's a bad habit Kankuro has always possessed; he starts tinkering with his puppets, and the next thing he knows, it's nighttime -- and he knows, by now, just what that means. Getting back to the dormitory to get a proper sleep is going to be... interesting.

Good thing he's finished up his new work -- and time to take his newly upgraded pretty for a spin. It's Kuroari that's gotten the upgrade treatment this time; she usually doesn't get to take center stage here in the Tower's environment, so he's curious to see how she does.

But once he sets foot outside the workshop, he almost immediately finds himself face-to-face with one of the bigger bads the Tower can throw at him.]

Fuck! Little bastard, you were waiting for me, weren't you...

[The language, if anyone hears him, is understandable Japanese, but heavily accented and just a little... off, as though it were a divergent dialect from no part of Japan anyone's heard of.

This isn't the way he likes to jump into combat! Approaching from a distance is his style, so he has to get out of the way of swiping claws before he can even think about bringing his puppets properly into things.

Anyone else out late willing to help out an ambushed ninja?]

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Once again, Tohko had spent way too much time reading, cleaning, and writing in the library again. By the time she had actually walked out of there, it was pretty dark. As Tohko quickly walked down the stairs, hoping to avoid any monsters, she heard someone yell. Immediatly, she started running towards the source: the workshop.

By the time she got there, the monster was in the room a little, and the guy who had yelled was trying to avoid it. Tohko drew her daggers, thankful for her belt. "Sir, do you have any weapons on you?"

It was an innocent question. If the guy didn't, Tohko would toss him a dagger so that they could both fight off this abomination.

Oh good, someone else. Kankuro threw a quick eye over her, trying to decide if she looked like she could hold the thing's attention -- and decided that for a moment, yes.

"I'm armed," he said quickly. "Just distract it a moment, could you?" He could get clear, get his puppets summoned again -- dammit, he needed to start keeping one out of the scroll all the time again -- and rejoin. Once he was properly armed... well, he wasn't gonna say it would be easy, since the monster was fast and almost certainly venomous, but it should go down with a fight.

"I will! Don't worry!" Tohko yelled before throwing a dagger at the monster's back. Since the monster had heard her, it managed to dodge so that only some flesh off it's back was cut off before the weapon fell to the ground. However, the monster was now interested in her, and while Tohko had been hoping to get the knife in the creature's back, the main reason she had done that was so that the monster would rush at her and give this guy some time.

She prepared herself as the monster rushed towards her. She'd go for the hands, the eyes, the neck, and the chest once it was within striking distance.

[ The orange haired teen seems to be wandering through the night trying to find a midnight snack before bed time. Without his sister around to give him food, he is trying to learn how to make some of the stuff for himself, but Kuwabara isn't a cook.

He is more a fighter and he wouldn't be able to give all the love and care into a meal. He ends up making simple things for the night, but hearing the noise from a nearby area as he passes it, he scurries over to the location, with the half eaten sandwich still in his mouth as he did. He isn't quite sure what is going on, but if anyone is in trouble he won't be able to leave them alone. He has a sort of hero complex from time to time.

It is something that he is used to, and other things such as saving the world, or fighting demons in the middle of the night. Kuwabara turns into the strange area and immediately take back by the thing that was attacking the strangely clad guy. Who wears black all the time anyway? He just reminds Kuwabara of the Dark Tournament and the Cloaks the Shinobi wore. It isn't anything like the ones he's seen but hell, Kuwabara can't help but compare it.

He dives head first into the middle of the fight in attempts to punch teh clawed beast in the face as hard as he could possibly punch it. He makes sure to punch it with all his might, and his punch mixes his brutal strength and part of his reiki. ]

Good, she'd gotten its attention -- now to make sure it didn't kill her! Now clear, Kankuro slapped down two scrolls, sending Sasori and Karasu darting toward the monster, the puppets' joints giving a soft, ominous rattle. With the girl there, and the close quarters, he wasn't going to try using poison gas or a spread shot of weapons; instead, the blades in Karasu's hands and Sasori's blade-tipped belly cable both darted out to slash at the thing, the puppets veering to either side of it to distract it from her the way she'd distracted it from him.

While the puppets looked a little weird, Tohko was glad that they were rushing at the monster. This guy seemed to know what he was doing. The monster, momentarily distracted by the puppets, turned toward them, and Tohko, seeing an opening, lunged forward with her dagger, intending to stab the monster in the neck.

[Good flare of energy coming off of that guy as he dives in to assist -- whoever he is, energy manipulation speaks well to him being able to help with this thing. Kankuro gives him a quick bark of thanks and pulls back enough to summon a puppet, getting himself clear as he sends his beautiful art-weapons in to fight for him.

Sasori looks human enough, so long as you don't look hard -- but the cable unwinding itself from his belly sure isn't, and the bladed tip of it is coming into heavy play, slashing at the monster even as the length of the cable twines around it, trying to catch it up and trip it.]

Seeing her move, Kankuro drew back Karasu slightly, covering her while she went in for the slash; even if she wasn't someone he'd fought with before, he knew teamwork.

The creature snarled as her knife caught it -- all the worse, it wasn't an immediate death wound, but it was bleeding heavily now, and obviously weakening within minutes.

"Good," Kankuro called to her. "Fall back - it should go down on its own!"

Darn. The creature hadn't died immediately, but with all the blood it was losing, it would die within five or ten minutes. Tohko quickly pulled her dagger out and called back to the guy.

"Right! If you survive, please, pick up my dagger and meet me three floors down!"

And with that, Tohko began to run, hoping that the guy would be alright.

"Got it!" Oh, he'd be fine now -- the thing took a few tottering steps after her as she ran, but Kankuro interspersed his puppets between the monster and the fleeing girl, and they were able to hold it off long enough that it slumped down, quickly dying.

An errant chakra thread wrapped around the dagger and brought it to Kankuro's hand, and he sealed Sasori away again, leaving Karasu to drape over his back like some sort of weirdling piggyback ride, and he set off after her. Three floors down...

There, Tohko was waiting for the guy, watching the universe constantly be made, destroyed, and made again. She knew it wasn't real..but it reminded her a little bit of Wilhelm. She was starting to get a little worried about the guy when he actually showed up, one of his pupped draped over his back. Probably to take out any more monsters that decided to show up. She smiled when she saw him walk in.

"Thank goodness. I was starting to get a little worried about you up there. Hey, are you hurt at all?"

"Not a bit, thanks to you," he said with an easy grin. "Kankuro's the name, by the way. Shouldn't have let it get the drop on me like that; I was getting careless." It was a good thing she'd happened to hear him; he needed to get better about getting back to the residential floors before nightfall, such as it was.

"Well, that's good. And don't worry about it. That's happened to me every now and then. And it's nice to meet you, Kankuro. I'm Tohko Amano, the book girl." The only reason Tohko had survived such missteps was because of her good luck and her flight rather than flight tendencies when she was caught off guard.

"A pleasure, Tohko," he said with a nod. "Book girl, huh? That just mean you like reading, or something more?" It sounded more like a title, a profession -- the way he was a puppeteer. A definition of one's life.

Tohko grinned. "Of course I love reading! I love books more than anyone and I know more about them! After all, who else can tell you what the origins of Peter Pan were, or how weird the first draft of that story was, or why Bulgakov burned his first draft of The Master and Margarita in despair, or the history of The Great Gatsby or why No Longer Human is a semi-autobiographical novel, or how long it took Hemingway to write The Old Man and The Sea?!"

Once you got Tohko started, it was hard to get her to stop. She gushed about her knowledge, forgetting for the moment that she had a dagger to get back.

Well, Kankuro assumed those were books -- none of them sounded even remotely familiar to him. But then, he wasn't much of a bookworm, either. Plays, now, those he devoured, but usually with more of an eye toward performance than for simple pleasure of reading.

He grinned, though, and let her ramble on for a while, a little amused by all the enthusiasm. After all, he did the same thing with his puppets when so inspired. Not that he had been since arriving in Animus, but still...

"And I highly doubt there are many people who could solve a murder-mystery using nothing but their wits, luck, and books! I even helped stop a girl from committing suicide once by talking about books! So, that's why I'm the book girl!" Tohko finished her rambling. While she loved to talk about her knowledge, she did know, due to experience, how long to ramble on for.

"Then again..I guess you have a pretty large love of puppets and acting if you're fighting with them. Maybe you're Kankuro The Puppeteer?" Tohk joked.

The offered epithet made him chuckle. "Something like that, yeah," he agreed, his voice rich with amusement. "Although if my village does decide to award me a title, I hope it'd be more creative!" Still, though, he patted Karasu's head affectionately. "They are my best friends, though."

Which was still true, even if Temari mocked him like hell for it. A grown man -- by ninja standards -- still claiming inanimate objects as best friends? But Karasu was a part of him.

"An interesting title would be nice. I'm just a simple lover of books, so I've just always gone with a simple, memorable title." Tohko nodded as Kankuro patted his puppet's head.

"I understand what you mean. Even nowadays, The Little Prince still makes me smile..and I look up to characters like Margarita and Sophie. They may not be perfect, but they're good characters who try their best."

"Heh, I know a few characters from the old plays like that," he agreed, "and their examples are worth looking up to. A lot of stories -- for stage or page -- are meant to teach, yanno?" And he looked up to some of the great puppeteers, too, but that was something of a sore point, all things considered. Sasori...

"Exactly! They can teach us, inspire us, make us think, challenge what we believe, hurt us, help us, be examples as what not to do, show us that we don't want be be like that character..there are quite a few ways characters, be they on the stage or the page, can be used!" And Tohko was happily gushing again. She was the book girl for a reason.

[ Kuwbara swings his fist again in hopes to send the damn thing flying into the wall. At least, it will allow him to consistently attack it until it is defeated and unable to fight him. Kuwabara has years of experience, so it seems like second nature to him. He doesn't think of anything too big with his ability, as long it can help others.

Kuwabara jumps back just in time to see a puppet like thing come from the other guy. That is some amazing ability! He's never seen seen people who are capable of that and it stuns him for a moment before he returns to trying to alleviate their current situation. Kuwbara calls out his Reiken to do the slashing work, since he knows he can rely on his reiki abilities. The guy he jumped in to save doesn't seem like a push over either. He looks pretty damn tough! ]

Man, she sure called herself a book girl for a reason! Kankuro grinned. "Still, for a bookworm, seems like you're a pretty good hand in a fight. I suppose you learned that out of a book too,huh?" Making a joke of it; in his view, you couldn't learn to fight except by doing.

Tohko chuckled and scratched her head nervously.

"While that would have been a pretty cool trick, I didn't. While I love adventure stories and action books, reading about killing a guy and living is much different than actually doing the deed. When I got here, I heard that there were monsters that roamed the halls at night, and one of my roommates, Saber, was willing to teach me swordplay. So, I took up her offer and found these daggers later with a friend. I did pick up a few tips on killing from murder mysteries though." Not that that was a good thing to normally know, but it did come in handy around here.

[Man, this guy is strong! Kankuro appreciates that, given the circumstances. Brute strength isn't his specialty at all. Between the melee attacks and his puppet, the creature is definitely outclassed. Theoretically, they should be able to bring it down with a minimum of issues...

Or so he hopes. The puppet's weapons are poisoned, but the creature doesn't seem to be responding to the poison in any way he can tell. Damn! Either it's immune - the bad option - or the weapons need repoisoning - the less bad, but currently far more annoying, option. Well, outright wounds will have to do. The cable slashes for the creature's eyes, trying to blind it, and senbon fire from Sasori's mouth to strike for legs and joints to reduce mobility so Kuwabara can take it apart more easily.]

[ Kuwabara swings his Rei Ken again to send another blow towards the giant thing. He doesn't have time to mess around, so he continues to swing his weapon as much as he can to send these damn things to where they belong. He's also trying not to get in the way of the other guy who's also good at defending himself. It seems like he won't have to handle this who situation himself as he jumps back. They should be able to finish soon, he thought. It is easier when there are two people participating in the fight. It makes the problem go away faster.

He silently thanks the guy for breaking the creature's mobility little by little. It allows him to swing his Rei Ken without missing his target and not having the thing run around makes it easier to stab it when he can. Kuwabara rolls a quick kick, followed by two large energy sword slashes at the creature in hopes that it will fall now. He hopes at least, seeing it seems to be giving such a big struggle with the whole situation. ]

[It seems to be working -- not nearly as well as he would have liked, yeah, but that just means he's going to have to get serious about figuring out some kind of replacement for the supplies of poisons that the puppeteers are accustomed to.

The creature finally falls to its knees, and Kankuro pulls the puppet back, coiling up the belly cable.]

Thanks for the assist, man.

[ Kuwabara gave it one last kick to make sure that the damn thing will stay where it is. He doesn't want to have to fight it another round. He allows the energy sword to disappear after a few moments of catching his breath. He is glad that the damn creature finally took enough of the blows to fall over. ]

No problem, man. It ain't cool to let someone jus' fight by themselves. Who knows what this freaky place is capable of.

Heh, you got that right. Gotta keep your guard up - otherwise this place'll eat you for breakfast.

[He drapes Sasori over his shoulders lightly, as though the puppet were a cape.]

Guess I should make a point of keeping one of my guys out once night falls.

More like a snack. Haven't ya seen the other things here? They're persistent as hell.

[ He replies giving the guy an agreeing look. He watches as he drapes the strange puppet thing over him. That definitely is out of the ordinary. ]

One of your guys? Do ya mean those...doll things?

[ He's not sure what to call them really. ]

Ha, you got that right. Still, at least it's something to do, I guess.

[No one understands his beauties ;A;]

Battle puppets, yeah. This here's the prize of my collection. [And he gives Sasori an affectionate pat on the head.]

Yeah when yer havin' a bad day an' ya want ta punch somethin.

[ Kuwabara agrees with that statement one hundred percent! Kuwabara doesn't understand what they are. He'll probably appreciate it when he knows it better! ]

Battle puppets? That's the first time I heard of anyone using stuff like that ina fight.

[ He blinks for a moment as he gazes at his puppet. ]

Heh. They're a bit specialized, really. Gotta have the basic skills to use one, and the talent to use 'em well, yanno. And it's not something that we puppeteers just spread out there. But in the right hands... it's art, man.

[At least Kuwabara's showing an interest, instead of thinking they're stupid, like some people he could name.]

Sounds like they're pretty tough things ta handle. I gotta give it to ya, you're pretty good with them.

[ Because clearly if that was used against him, he'd probably be finding a way to get away from them. They're interesting to see, but they are also creepy to look at.

Kuwabara shows good interest, since he can't doubt anything to not be considered a weapon. One of his companions uses plants as a weapon. It doesn't get any weirder than that, so puppets and puppeteers are actually pretty interesting and he will not be underestimating this person's ability. ]

I bet. It don't seem like people can jus' up and use 'em. Name's Kuwabara Kazuma, what's yours?

Ha, nope, it takes plenty of training to even move one, and then ya gotta actually get good at it.

[And he's pretty proud of what he can do.]

Name's Kankuro. You been here a while?

Sounds like a lot of work for such a thing. I guess it makes sense.

[ He's kind of astonished by all the capabilities of people here. ]

Nice to meet ya man. Eh, it hasn't been that long. I haven't been here that long I think about it.

Yeah, well, it's a career, yannno?

Heh. And I've been here a few months, is all. Still, it's a hell of a place. So much crazy shit going on...

So you ain't your average fighter.

[ It makes sense because Kuwabara can tell that this guy isn't just for show. He knew how to fight well and he does well on his own. ]

This place is full of annoying shit like those and other stuff.

[ He totally agrees with him. ]

Average? Ha, anything but! I'm a professional, man, and a high-class one at that. The ninja life ain't for suckers, man.

[He eyes Kuwabara thoughtfully, thinking about how he'd fought.]

You look like you've had some training yourself.

Yeah ya proved that point with your fighting.

[ He replies pointing to the monster they just took down. He has no doubt that this guy is pretty dangerous. ]

So yer suppose ta be a ninja?

[ Not really surprised since he knew a couple of ninjas himself. Jin, and Touya mostly. ]

Eh it comes in handy when ya got ta save yer place from being trashed.

Supposed to be? [Kankuro gives him a raised eyebrow at the wording, but he's still grinning.]

Man, I am one. Ya looking for some kind of proof?

[It's all funny to him; he's been gathering the impression here that ninja are something not every world has.]

[ Kuwabara doesn't see a lot of ninjas so he's just a little confused on that. He's trying to figure out if Kankuro is really serious or pulling his leg, but now looking at it, Kankuro is pretty good at his stuff.

He must be honest. ]

Eh....no my bad. I didn't mean that way or somethin.' Jus' I know a coupla guys that call themselves somethin' like that. Didn't think I get ta meet a guy that's also one too.

[ Well the modern day ninja not so much, but he has a few companions that are shinobis. They are demons though. ]

[It's all funny to Kankuro; between here and the last place, he's gotten pretty comfortable with all the differences between worlds, and he's always been an easygoing sort.]

Hey, no worries. 'S all cool.

[He gestures toward the staircase with a nod.]

Let's start heading back - I don't much care for standing around and seeing what else wants to take a crack at us tonight.

[ Kuwabara grins happily. He's glad that this guy is pretty chill with all of this and not trying to punch out his face. It's a different way of meeting someone, compared to the fist fights he always has with Yusuke, but those fists fights are special too. ]

Thanks man.

[ He nods his head. ]

Yeah, let's bust this place before that happens. [ He nods his head as he makes a run for it. ]

Edited 2013-01-03 07:52 (UTC)

[Kankuro's a pretty chill guy in general like that -- plus, he doesn't like punching. Bad for the hands, y'know.]

If we can. Tch. Crazy how much shit roams this place at night.

[It might slow him down a little, but Sasori's not going back in the scroll; he keeps the puppet out and draped over his back as they make a run for the dormitory floors. Only thing you can do, really.]

[ Kuwabara might enjoy that he won't get punches in the face, but at the same time his puppet looks pretty dangerous too. Kuwabara turns back to respond to him as he makes his way to the stairs. ]

We'll send their sorry asses flyin. I ain't gonna be anything's dinner tonight.

[ Kuwabara grins with a lot of enthusiasm in his voice. ]

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3rd String | Getting Home Late | [Language: slightly warped Japanese]

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sorry so late at replying D|

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No worries! I've been kinda slow myself orz

D| yeah and finals making it harder for me so sorry << and thanks

no problem! I remember what finals were like DX

lol yeah it shold be better now thank you for understanding!

hey, no worries :D sometimes I come home from the cube farm and tags ain't happening

ahhh I see! Still thanks for understanding! <333

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