[1 v 1 + extra 1] Playing Hero [Cass v Shun + Tomoko]

[demon_pachabel]

There was blood. Shun knew what human blood looked like. It was red and slippery and it dripped down Cass's side from where it had pierced through her barrier.

She took the ball out of the bag and looked over it for a moment before a half grin came over her face, she lifted it up into the air...and then let it drop. In the 2 seconds it took for Tomoko to nearly completely flip out, reaching forward to grab the ball up and bring it back to her body to cradle it with a sort of desperation that someone would give a small child, or their own body, Cass grabbed something else out from the inner lining of her glove and squeezed it tightly.

"Deus ex Machina." she said firmly, letting the pendant take her away.

Tomoko, on the other hand, was looking over the ball of stars to check for cracks, before she looked up at Shun with wide eyes. "Was...was that a hunter?" She'd never actually run into one in person before.

HP: -2
Fleeing  

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun was ready to try and catch the ball, but there was no way he was covering that much distance in so little time without a shadowstep ready. Even then, that took a bit more precision than popping up behind someone that he wasn't sure he had back just yet.

He did note the words she uttered before she was whisked away. Was she trying to be a smartass and calling her warping before she could be killed a 'deus ex machina'?

Hm. At least he had made Cass bleed. Not quite as much as he would have liked, but she had that coming.

Shaking his head, he turned towards Tomoko to see if she was alright, then placed a hand over one of his wounds. It was pretty shallow and would heal up just fine.

"Yes. As you can see, they're rather dangerous. Are you alright?" he asked while staring down at her ball of stars. He still wasn't completely certain what the connection was here.  

[demon_pachabel]

Tomoko took another minute to decide the ball of stars was ultimately alright. "It's okay." she answered, polishing the ball on her skirt to clean off her own blood from it in a slightly traumatized way.

"They're worse than their island was..." she whimpered. She hated that island. She hadn't gone on any field trips since that island. Though Shun had probably enrolled after that incident. Had he been there? For some reason, she couldn't recall.

"Are...are you alright? You sort of just jumped in there all of a sudden and..." her hand ran over her ball of stars. "There wasn't much I could do without this....."  

[Blade Kuroda]

Their island? Shun had only heard stories of that place. That was where a few of the students had been taken for a field trip if he recalled correctly. It was something he could only imagine it was like. A truly horrendous place, and not in a good way.

"I'm fine. Nothing that won't heal in a day or so," he affirmed before looking over the ball once more. It was that important, hm? It was a good thing he managed to get that away from t he hunter then.

"Is it a power source of some sort?"  

[demon_pachabel]

Tomoko stood up, still cradling the ball. "It gathers FEAR for me. I...I um.." she blushed. "Have a few shortcomings in that department, unfortunately." She admitted. "I'm still working on the 'access from out of arms reach' thing with it, but.... I'd be in bad shape if I lost it or it got damaged somehow..."

It was one of those things that would be more effective as she got older and could displace it to keep herself safe while still using the power it gathered for her. Unfortunately, Tomoko wasn't that strong yet. She was strong ish, but not strong like that kind of use would require.

"It's like my battery." she put it in more simple of terms.  

[Blade Kuroda]

That would explain its importance to say in the very least, and it would be incredibly bad should the object get lost or destroyed. Dismissing his daggers, he glanced back to the spot the hunter last stood before she disappeared.

"That is troublesome. Should the hunters find that out I would not be surprised if they attempted to exploit that," he said with a frown. Hopefully that comment would help urge Tomoko to train and work on being able to tap into it from afar. This way it might be able to at least be kept somewhere safe. Having it around with her at all times, it was more liable to being damaged to taken away as far as he could tell.

Not unless she could figure out a way to summon and dismiss it like a reaper would his weapons.  

[demon_pachabel]

Unfortunately, Tomoko wouldn't be able to do that because that's a reaper trait and Maru had told Pach no. Not to say that without breaking the fourth wall Tomoko wouldn't have enjoyed having such a nice convenience.

But where did weapons go when they were dismissed?

"I know..." she sighed, her ears drooping in a sort of ashamed manner. This was why she struggled through school so much, this was why she wasn't really becoming a big great kitsune as quickly as she would have liked. It just...it wasn't convenient sadly.

She just wasn't meant to grow quickly and be as strong as a lot of the students seemed to become as quickly as they did. It..it was frustrating to some extent, but she couldn't blame them, nor could she blame her own nature.

"I don't even know how I ended up here, to be honest."  

[Blade Kuroda]

There was something about Tomoko that kind of reminded him of Mitsu. Perhaps that was partially why he was currently sticking around rather than going on his way now that the conflict had been resolved.

"This place is mysterious. It can show up to people who have a strong will to enter it, or some other particularly strong desire, or at random. Should you find yourself randomly entering this place, I would take heed. You will likely have an encounter with one of them," he warned. This was going off of his own experiences as well as what a few others have mentioned before.  

[demon_pachabel]

That was the last thing she wanted was to run into the 'mean' humans. She liked the nicer and more pleasant ones. Ones that didn't try to kill her dead or steal her stuff. Like the nice lady that QB had introduced them to.

She liked that.

"I don't think I like this place very much." she confessed meekly. "I think I'd be better off just going back to Amityville and not staying here if more of those hunters will come around." But it was also a catch-22. Because that meant she'd be thinking about the house more often and likely stumble across the place on a repeated basis.

Which would be the opposite of what she wanted.

"It's like there's something making all sorts of weird things get attracted to the school and I don't want to muddle into it when all I can do is....." she stroked her ball of stars with a frown, "Be a nuisance as I am now..."  

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun couldn't blame her. He wasn't really sure if there was anyone who particularly enjoyed the Haunted House.

"That would be best, yes. We should be back to where we last were when we walk out the door," he informed while turning towards the exit, "Keep training. It's the best thing you can do to try and prepare. It's impossible to remain out of this whole mess."  

[demon_pachabel]

It was impossible to stay out of the entire mess, huh?

That was actually rather disappointing to Tomoko. She wanted to stay out of it and part of her was as bad as to want to pretend like it didn't exist. But that didn't help anybody and she had too many friends who were 'in' the mess to do so.

"I....I guess that'd be the easy thing to do. Train and prepare." But fighting? Tomoko didn't fight. She would have rather made illusions and just buffered herself that way. Was there a way to just practice staying out of it that way? Maybe keeping other out of it that way?

Hunters were messy business, sadly.  

[Blade Kuroda]

Nodding quietly to Tomoko, Shun started to make his way to the door.

"I wouldn't say it's easy, but it's the best you can do. Hone whatever skills you could to improve your chances should a conflict come up," he said. He didn't know what she was thinking about, but that did include illusions to disorient people even if it wasn't straight up fighting back.

"Now we better get out of here."  

[demon_pachabel]

Tomoko nodded, wasting no time to follow after Shun as he headed towards the door. "I don't want to anymore of those to come back." Because a hunter could walk through the door at any time. And while she had her ball back, it probably wouldn't have done her much good to stick around to pick a fight. In fact, that was the opposite of what she'd like to do in those circumstances.

Maybe someday she'd be able to be as calm in danger as both the reaper and the hunter had been. Maybe with less taunting than the hunter, but still.

She had a long ways to go.