“Why would people think she did anything wrong?” Viktor asked, concerned at the amazing recall she had of the conversation. Perhaps it was not insanity after all…maybe something quite sane was behind Invalsa’s insane mind.
“Why do you want to free her? Are you able to?” Viktor continued to ask, wondering if it would be possible to convince Damon to do a rogue mission aside from their Shiro infilitration.
“I don’t know what they think she did… it’s foggy… but it’s only natural for the good side of someone and the bad side of someone to want to be together again. Imagine if it happened to you! It’s like peanut butter without the jelly - too boring! Far too boring.” She kept fiddling with her hands until she noticed they were moving. A quick jam into her pockets removed the minor distraction.
Viktor thought about it for a moment. It was an odd comparison, but he imagined it worked well for what she was trying to convey. “What happens if you never can get together again?” Viktor pondered outloud, wondering what repurcussions this splitting of good and bad selves could do to a person.
Ivalsa pondered. “I don’t know. But I don’t like it. And neither does my other half. It’s not fair we have to be separated - we have to be back together again, you know? Totally necessary and all.”
“Did you talk to Damon about this at all?” Viktor asked Ivalsa as he leaned in some to keep their voices down. “He has the resources to get us into some where like a mental institution. I mean, you saw him get us here. Damon is our team’s mission leader. He can visualize missions far better than any of us at Kuro. If you have not talked to him, you should. I mean I can talk to him too, but it would help if you explain this to him since he would have more questions about this mental institution than I would,” Viktor offered.
If she was serious, it would make for an interesting mission. But he knew that Damon made the call on any mission decision. In fact, he had to admit he was surprised Damon was already doing his first mission since their failed mission. Even if this was a low-risk mission with no predictable lethal obstacles, he suspected Damon would be weary of leaving the security of Kuro. Even now, he seemed as if those events in his past happened to someone else as he continued to animately engage in conversation with that woman.
“Look at him,” Viktor spoke his thought aloud, an unintentional response to his stream of consicousness.
“Yay!” Ivalsa shouted as she clapped her hands. She then realized she was in a room full of people, and quickly ceased her celebration. “Woo-hoo!” she whispered, raising a small fist in the air. “The sooner the better, because it’s so freaking itchy not being in the same body!”
“So tell me more about this? I do not understand how one loses their bad said or good side. How did you lose your bad side?” Viktor continued the questions, his thoughts between Ivalsa and his concern for Damon’s carefree behavior.
Ivalsa scratched her head as her triangular ears twitched. “I can’t remember. It’s all fuzzy and I don’t really know how something like that could happen. Weird isn’t it? Maybe lightning bolts? Lots and lots of lighting bolts?” She quickly started moving her head around, apparently glancing around at the scenery.
Elysia looked down at her book which seemed to have spontaneously opened again, she wasn’t stupid. But she wasn’t rude either. She looked back up and grinned, “Is ‘over there’” she pointed in the same direction as Damon had “nice?”
“As for a gun?” She looked confused for a moment before her face fell solemn. “I’m sorry. It’s the end of the line for you Damon.” she struggled hard not to smile while she stuck her hand into her pocket before pulling it out dramatically and pointing her finger at him. “Bang!”
Damon gasped, looking at her wide-eyed with over-exaggerated fear. He clutched his chest and fell back into the chair aside of him.
“She shot me!” he gasped loudly, calling attention to their scene from across the dining hall, “You got me…you got me good. I guess I failed at dodging bullets. Goodbye world. Goodbye pretty woman who just shot me. It is getting dark…too dark…so cold…” Damon over dramatized his death, succeeding in not convincing anyone he was actually dying but rather drawing a crowd of people around their table.
Meanwhile, Viktor watched Damon’s uncanny ability to attract an audience. “Not again,” he said shaking his head. “Ivalsa, I’ll get you later.”
Viktor pushed past some of the students until he made his way to Damon. Despite Damon weighing more than himself and possessing far stronger physical stamina, Viktor managed to pull Damon to his feet and begin to drag him away.
“Okay show off, show’s over, you can quit the act now,” he berated Damon, as if warning him that they were on a mission and he was drawing unwanted attention towards them that might expose them.
Damon smiled toward Elysia, but allowed Viktor to pull him away. “I will catch you later my pretty Elysia,” his name once again accented the beautiful quality of her name. He winked before turning around and slinging his arm around Viktor.
“Every party has a pooper…that’s why we invited you…party poooper,” he sang dramatically, inciting rolling eyes and suppressed laughter at his absurdity.
Lucius cocked his head to the side in curiousity as he watched one of the black uniforms drag another away. The one being dragged was atleast trying to make a scene. He tore a chunk out of the bread he’d just bought with his teeth and half way through eating reminded himself to close his mouth. He looked sleepily around him. He wasn’t quite sure how he’d ended up back here. Or for that matter how he’d managed to seemingly move from the dorm blocks, buy a piece of bread and then have atleast a minute to just stand and stare without evening being conscious about it. He took another bite out of the bread. I bet the school has some hidden vault. With artefacts and stuff in it.
Lucius scowled briefly in the direction of the black uniform people before turning on the spot and leaving, drifting back towards the dorm in thought. I wonder if anyone has replied to my post on the forums yet.
Ivalsa nodded, but was suddenly grabbed from behind with an unusually strong grasp.
“What are you doing here?” Ikrisia whispered, her teeth clenched and ears slightly bent back.
Ivalsa smiled. “Oh, mingling… socializing… the usual stuff that you’re too socially inept at doing.” She cringed as Ikrisia jolted her once more. “You don’t know anything about how to act in front of people, do you?”
“I know enough,” Ikrisia replied. “You’re not welcome here - I know what you’re up to, and you won’t get away with it.”
“With what?” Ivalsa giggled.
“Your other side, you’ve convinced someone to free your other side, even though you’ve been told time and time again you should never give someone the notion to free that part of you, no matter how sad or cute you act!”
Ivalsa shook her head with a smile, her hair getting in her eyes. “I need more of me to convince you to fight these evil creatures. You said it yourself - they should be destroyed for their crimes.”
“The rules of the game have changed,” she muttered. “That’s no longer my concern.”
“You’re ditching orders?”
“I follow no orders.”
“Hmm…” Ivalsa thought as she brought a hand to her muzzle. “You accept your termination then? You can’t duck out of orders!” She laughed as Ikrisia tightened her grip on her. “Kral Commodore would destroy you, he’s required to do so, you know?”
Ikrisia nodded. “That’s none of your business. But my orders originate from my own will, not anyone else. And right now, my observations indicate you wish to bring harm upon those around here… which… has to be wrong. To kill something without any mercy or remorse is like spitting in the face of the Almighty.”
Ivalsa laughed again. “You’re more crazy than me! You know damn well what these people do! But you hide it, like an elephant under a picnic table!”
“Shut up with the analogies that don’t make any sense!” Ikrisia tightened her grip on Ivalsa’s arms. “Hold still. I promise this will only take a few seconds.”
“You do and you’ll be arrested and destroyed.”
“I can take that chance. Least I don’t have to live with you having your heyday.”
“I can also scream,” she said with a slight giggle. Suddenly, she shook violently. “Help! Help! She’s trying to kill me!”
Before exiting the dining hall and in the midst of one of his flamboyant bows at his completely unbelievable and ridiculous act, Damon heard the unmistakable screams of Ivalsa, “Help! Help! She’s trying to kill me!”
Like a true hunter, Damon’s eyes widened, taking in more of his surroundings while his heart began to beat faster, preparing his body for a fight. He wielded around all in a few seconds duration, and there was Ivalsa where they had left her by the table, another fox woman grasping her tightly as Ivalsa shook violently. Indeed, the woman was trying to kill Ivalsa and it was not one of her insane moments or attempts to attract attention.
Years of refined military training enhanced his instinctual response. He barreled through students who stopped to gape wide eyed and jaws dropped at the scene before them, too scared and discombobulated to know what to do.
There were too many of them, and they were all getting in his way. He leapt onto the table, a flawless move clearly honed from his training, and dashed across the tables.
“Unhand her. She’s with me,” Damon ordered, his voice a cold chilling response not normally heard behind his jovial laughter and carelessness, as he leapt onto Ikrisia from another table. The impact of his body slammed into Ikrisia and pulled not only her but Ivalsa onto the ground, but not after hitting the table first. He felt a sharp pain in his side but quickly rolled his body to avoid being pinned by Ikrisia. “You will not harm her. Do you understand?” Damon threatened, half kneeling and standing, prepared to strike and be stricken.
Ikrisia did not say a word. Instead, she glared at the man and pushed him away with impressive force. She knew there was nothing she could do otherwise - Ivlasa apparently had the man wrapped around her finger, who else did she fool? Everyone new who came in today?
Ivalsa ran to his aid. “Hey human, you okay there?” she stuck out a hand as she ducked her head and turned back to an infuriated Ikrisia. Ivalsa smirked, brushed the hair out of her eyes, and returned her focus back to Damon. “I can help you up, I think.”
With Ikrisia’s forceful shove, Damon stumbled backwards, hitting the ground hard. He grimaced, a sudden flash of another geared up soldier doing to the same to him the previous year. For a moment, he laid on the ground and stared at the ceiling, as if lost in thought.
Deciding to stand, Damon refused Ivalsa’s hand, but forced himself to his feet, grimacing with the motion. He felt the pain in his side still, but his eyes never left Ikrisia for a moment. He glared intently at her before speaking to himself, “Tresia…Ivalsa is safe. Stand by for now.”
“Ivalsa. Debriefing in ten minutes. Viktor, stay with Ivalsa,” Damon ordered, that cold voice of command that sounded much more like Novac rather than himself. He followed in persuit behind Ikrisia until they were outside, the warm sun beating down on them as Damon took wide strides to keep up Ikrisia’s pace.
“YOU,” he called out angerily, his deep voice a powerful threat as an unfamiliar burning of rage churned within, “what was that about?”
Ikrisia sneered slightly as she looked the human up and down. “None of your concern. Go back to the dining hall and feed yourself.”
Ikrisia knew it would probably only provoke him further, but perhaps it was supposed to be that way. After all, if he was out of commission, it would be one less person to worry about freeing Ivalsa’s other half.
“Well? You going to go now?”
Damon clenched his jaw at her comment, a cutting response to his demands that she could not have possibly known.
“No,” he angerily retorted as he stepped closer to her, the rage burning behind his eyes. “What was that about?” he asked again, more firmly this time, his eyes locked onto her’s as if holding her there by his gaze alone. He knew nothing about this woman other than he had witnessed her try to kill a potential mission partner and that she had possessed great strength from which he might not be able to counter. But it could not stop him, his rage pushing him forward, the desire to know why she had tried to kill Ivalsa too important to walk away from.
Above the buildings and trees of campus, a huge and menacing shape soared. An ebony-colored dragon coasted and whirled around the skies of campus, dodging obstacles with contemptuous expertise and occasionally diving at pedestrians before swooping up at the last second.
The dragon was silk and cotton and felt, its wings draped with colorful streamers, all built around a frame of wire-lashed sticks. All had been salvaged from the leftovers of a production that the Theater Department had put on last semester, although Anna really owed the Umikaze Student Association for the original idea. She ran below the kite, its tether tied around her waist and another, smaller, tether tied around each glove and boot. Every maneuver that the dragon made, every twirl and dip and turn, required a specific pattern of movement. And so the Kandarinese girl had wandered around campus all morning, performing a curious combination of kite-flying, puppetry, and dance.
“Oh, hi, Ikrisia.” Anna stopped - if ‘stopped’ was the word, for it required her to angle her arms in just the right way to direct the dragon to circle above, then another such movement at intervals to keep it so. “Who’s the new guy?”
“She’s insane, and one should never help those who can manipulate one’s emotions like a toy… I’d advise you to leave her alone.” Whether or not the man believed her, Ikrisia had a sinking feeling her words wouldn’t be taken seriously. Still, she had to say it, much like how an adult warns a child not to play too close to an electrical socket.
She suddenly noticed Anna and turned to her, barely cracking a smile. “Hi. I don’t know who this person is.”
Damon barely noticed the bizarre girl at first, focusing on Ikrisia. “And you are any better? Do you not manipulate the emotions of others as well?” his response came from a burning within, a question born from the rage that Ikrisia had successfully created within him.
He continued to stare intently at her, catching himself in the rage, feeling the emotional response embrace and control him. He let out a deep breath and his voice now took on a deep sadness as he tapped into something locked in the depths of his being, “you never leave a partner behind…does not matter who they are or if they can be trusted…”
He adverted his eyes, staring at the ground, wishing she could only understand the emotions that had driven his reactions. He then noticed the dancing shadow passing by on the ground and looked up to see it’s source.
The strange girl was standing there, her arms moving awkwardly as she seemed to dance. If one did not notice the dragon above, it would be easy to assume Anna was a puppet marionetted by the Gods themselves.
He looked to the dragon and back to Anna, the sudden thought of how absolutely ridiculous this had all been struck him. Ivalsa was absolutely insane and she probably could have fought this woman off if she were really in danger. Not only that, but his attempt to rush in like the knight in shining armor only to fail miserably was quite comical. And the crème de le crème to the entire event was this strange girl dancing with a dragon kite…as if things could not possibly get any more bizarre.
Damon’s body convulsed slightly, a typical response to his attempt to suppress laughter, but like usual, he could not contain it for long and burst into a loud boisterous laughter. “This is your friend?” he asked Anna as he remembered the fox woman’s attempts to kill Ivalsa, “this place is insane…I think I am going insane…”