The Streets of New York

It was a dark and chilly night, the streets where lit with the fake white light of the street lanterns. The cold was wrapping around every person, couples walking close to each other to keep warm and making for a romantic sight. It made Lyca irritated, this soothing feeling wasn't what this world should be about. The lit streets showed a happy and loving city but Lyca knew there was a world more suited for her, becuase in the darkness of the alleys of this beautifull city, A dark an sinister world was going on. The place she had been part of until this moment, she had murdered the people responsible for her and escaped the place that saw her as the champion of the underground ring. It was both saddening and revitalising to know she would not expierence that place again.

She walked through the dark alley leading to the main road, she didn't have a clear plan yet but she knew there had to be people like her out in the world. She only needed to find them. The crimson scabbard of the katana glistened in the light of th street laterns and the passing cars, Suddenly a siren sounded and a cop car passed by. It stopped a few hunderd meters before Lyca and a man with drawn gun got out. "Miss drop your weapon on the ground and put your hands behind your head" But before he could finish the sentence she stood before him and made a slash upwards cutting through him from his waist to his shoulder. "Weak" She wondered if there were any in the city, she could start a riot and see who would show up.

Walking down the street, not really caring for any of the cars or lights of the clubs for once, a lone girl could be seen. For this cold weather, she running around in a skirt looked like she would freeze right over in the next second, but in fact, it seemed like she didn't even notice it. Akari was just bored - bored out of her mind. Waiting for the end wasn't much fun by itself, but New York was just so... boring of a city. Sure, there was plenty of nightlife going on, but it was kinda hard to sneak into clubs at the age of only 17. Letting out a loud sigh, the user of Thanatos continued to walk. She didn't pay much attention to the police car passing by her - it was a normal sight in New York.
Little did Thanatos know, that she was walking only maybe 200 meters behind a girl who had just escaped her 'caretakers' with brutal efficiency. Hearing music with her portable player, and looking down onto the ground, she only then looked up as she saw something red running over the stones towards her. Slowly removing the earpieces, her red eyes gazed upon the bloodshed right infront of her. That policeman didn't even see his end coming, but now, he was nicely sliced open, his inards being a bit splattered around the open body. And over it... stood a young woman, holding a weapon the Psychicer herself was familliar with - a katana.
"Oh my, someone made a mess. So he reached the end sooner, hm? I wonder what it's like to reach it too soon... but not enough curiosity to find it out." Completely casually, she took out the gun-shaped object from her waist, and spun it on her finger, like a toy. Still, her red eyes fixed themselves on the murderer.
"You're not just some random chick, right? Want a little... dance?" That Akari was refering to a fight was obvious. Though Lyca couldn't see it, behind the young girl, her Persona was hovering - the big, dark avatar of death, called 'Thanatos'. He wasn't phased into reality... yet.

Lyca turned around her eye fixating on the girl standing before her, the white hair covering the right side of her face. It masked the eyepatch underneath, "Are you a buddy of his? She ran her tongue over the blade licking the blood of the the black edge. "Can you just go away, i don't wanna be bothered by weaklings" Torturing the weak was like fastfood, it gives a short pleasure but the feeling is gone as fast as it appeared.

She had no training in her PSI so she did not notice the fact that the girl radiated Psi. Lyca with a fast twirl around her wrist sheated the katana in its scabbard. "Though if you know someone strong......" A glistening was in her eye as she faced the girl.

[The BGM for this post, listen to it if you want]

"Nah, I didn't know him. These guys are so absorbed into work, I doubt they even have friends to begin with." It was clear that Akari didn't care two bits about the woman infront of her brutally murdering a normal man. This was turning out quite interesting for the Psychicer - she found someone completely nuts, who radiated PSI, and seemed like she would love a good fight... exactly what Thanatos needed tonight. Not caring for the sirens of other police carss getting closer, or normal people backing away from the scene or outright running, the pale red eyed girl was grinning at the one eyed one.
"I know someone who is really strong, yeah. And I think he would like to meet you... he's ALWAYS on the search for another user of PSI to fight." Playing around with her gun-like object some more, she didn't even care that another police car stopped somewhere behind her. "I'll introduce him to you right away... say hello to him, the god of death..." Suddenly grabbing her gun tightly and leading it to the side of her head in a wide arc, Akari now had a crazed and strangely happy face on. "Thanatos!" Screaming out the name of her Persona, the girl pulled the trigger of the Evoker. With a loud bang, like a normal gun, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass, her head rocked to the site, and something blue seamed to splinter away, like said glass - and hovering over her, he emerged. The giant figure of Thanatos, the wielder of a large katana, the one who had coffins as his wings and brought death to all who opposed the holder of this power...
"GO!" Shouting out another time, the summon dashed forwards through the air, raising his katana high up and slashing down, directly at Lyca. This was just how the god of death said 'hello' to a stranger.

Lyca's instincts began to bother her, something in her began to flare up. When the words strong opponet left the girls lips, Lyca snapped all her attention towardsthe girl. Though the word PSI had no meaning to her. She had learned her skills without any knowledge what it actually was and even know she did not make the connection.

The gun in the girls hand seemed more dangerous then any other gun, not because of how it looked but by the feeling it seemed to give off. "A god? Interresting The bored expression vanished from her face the corners of her mouth rolled up turning into an insane grin. The urge to fight flared up as the girl lifted the gun and seemed to blow her own head of. A sight Lyca enjoyed, yet she didn;t expect. Before Lyca could wonder why this enemy just killed herself, a Katana sliced down from above. Using the scabbard of her katana she blocked in such an angle that the sword of the creature slid down tot he side. The force from his blow flung Lyca to the side.

Lyca used the momentum together with a burst of Rise to bounce from the wall of a near by building. She jumped towards the creature performing an Iai towards its head. The thrill of this was greater then she had ever felt inside the rng. This power.....This strength......This speed, it was all which she had been searching for. Just the idea that more of these might be out there made her crave for more. This was not just some fight, this was the start, the start of her new life.

The girl who supposedly just blew her head off chuckled. Her opponent had strength surpassing what a human could reach - if not, the strike of Thanatos would've shattered her arm she used to hold her own Katana. She took two steps backwards and now leaned against a wall of one of the houses besides the street, her hands crossed before her chest - a trained eye would see slight finger movements, but no matter how trained, you wouldn't be able to see the many invisible treats that were going from each finger to various body parts of the black being with wings - her control over Thanatos was like a puppet master, just way more advanced.
Moving her right index finger slightly down, she got ready to counter the attack executed by the fast enemy. Thanatos was able to take a huge deal of damage, but if it sustained said damage, it caused mental fatigue for Akari - and that could turn out quite problematic, since overclocking the brain normally was taxing enough. With a twist of his arm, Thanatos now folded one side of his metal coffins infront of him, like a curtain or shield, and sparks could be seen flying at the point where the katana hit the metal of this defense. Using this contact to her advantage, Thanatos now pushed forward with the shield wing by unfolding it, like a wide-arc strike with an actual tower shield, just that this shield simply got back into position behind the Persona.
In addition to trying to strike Lyca with the wings, Thanatos stabbed forward his katana, aiming for the chest of the enemy, while slightly twisting the weapon. A hit from this blade would be quite painful indeed, but pain didn't always help against PSI users.

Lyca felt the katana clash with the black metal of the coffin wing. It was solid and it would take more then her katana to penetrate that. The wing unfolded throwing her back, Lyca made a flip bacwards as the katana of the creature hurled forward. If it was not for a rise infused grab for her scabbard, she would have been run through. She placed the scabbard and katana in a croos in front of her, the force of the thrust made the bones oin her arms qreak. She felt a musscle in her shoulder tear. Lyca couldn't hold it in the rush of pain the feeling of being overpowered, it had been so long since she had felt this. With these sensations the uncontrollable laughter emmerged, a horrod insane laughter "WAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" Even though the laughter might suggest diffrent she did not loose her logic or reasoning it was just a reaction to this wonderfull feeling.

Lyca landed on the ground, she slammed her katana into the ground as she flew backwards. She cam eto a halt and while dragging the katana through the concrete she headed for the creature with a strong slash she aimed up towards its chin from his feet. The slash caused some debrie to fly towards the Girl leaning against the wall of a building.

Physically, this woman with the katana was quite strong, surprisingly so - she outclassed normal humans by quite a bit. Still, Thanatos had way more raw power, since it was a manifestation of the entire natural Burst of a Psychicer. As Lyca was now sliding backwards, her opponent grabbed his katana with both hands again and assumed a Kendo-like stance, with his wings unfolded behind him - he really looked like an angel of death. Normal humans already flew the scene some moments ago, and even the police was backing away in fear. For now, the fight seemed to go in the younger girls favor.
This could soon change, however, when the katana-swinging maniac threw some debris up at the same time where she attacked. Muttering a curse, Akari had to jump out of the way, sideways - being hit by flying concrete wasn't really healthy for a normal human body. But while she had to dodge herself, the normally near-perfect control over Thanatos became delayed - after all, true multi-tasking was impossible, no matter for whom. Pulling her PSI-puppet back as quickly as she could, it looked quite slugish when the god of death was heaved backwards to escape a frontal complete hit. Still, the katana of Lyca did cut quite nicely, from the stomach area up to the left shoulder.
Letting out a pained cough, Akaris eyes spotted black blood on the concrete below her. Even though she couldn't see it, the small nosebleed on her face - also as black as ink - was there, and she could feel it. The shock of Thanatos being injured weakened her mind and brain, leading to the sudden blood cough for a second. Thanatos regained his position, this time, infront of his user, who was now quite pissed. The wound on the Persona itself didn't spill any blood, but was visible still. After all, Burst could not bleed.
"Not bad... for some maniac. But playtime is over." Moving the fingers of both of her hands rapidly, she raised both hands above her head, and her puppet responded by lifting his sword overhead.
"Vorpal Blade!" The following move was blindingly fast, at least for someone without any Rise. Slashing his blade down, towards Lyca, the katana made out of burst waves lighted up and shot out five randomly flying blades - all in all, they would could open the concrete all around Lycas current point of standing, with the main solid blade heading for her. Unless she pulled off another risky blocking move or found a way to navigate through the randomly shooting out Vorpal Blades, this move could be deep trouble. It took quite some strain on Akaris own brain to use this kind of move, since increasing the strength of a burst strike by five times wasn't an easy task.

For some reason the creature moved slower, Lyca knew this slash could have been dodged. Or at least been avoided with no more then a scratch, Why did it hit this deep? She did not have much time to think about it though the creature readied itself. A blindingly fast strike hurrdled towards Lyca. It was fast but she was able to block it with her sword, or atleasty that was what she thought before the blades connected. The creatures blade slammed her rise enhanced block towards her chest, Lyca flung her free hand against the back of her sword. She got slammed into the ground, The feeling of snapping bone in her chest. Blood rushing to her head together with this burning feeling. The pain was great it boosted her morale, She let the hand on the back of her sword slip and as the blade of the creature skidded of to the side she rolled towards the other side. With a roll and a flip she landed on her feet, the shock of the landing made her spit up some blood. Spitting it to the side she readied her self, the insane grin still lingering on her face.

She used her rise to make her way to the creature again, she had a hunch that girl had some connection to this creature but she wasn;t sure. Just before making a jump to wards the creature she kicked a rock at the girl. Finishing her move she made a slash across for the creatures chest.

Maybe because she saw through the attack, maybe because of sheer instinct, Lyca managed to escape the most devastating effect of Vorpal Blade - that it was nearly impossible to dodge the area of effect. A few broken ribs or being torn to shreds... The first was clearly the healthier option. That, of course, was rather bad news for the user of Thanatos - Akaris hopes of finishing the fight with that massive sword attack scattered just as quickly as they formed in the first place. And it turned to even worse crap when Lyca completely realized the fatal flow the power of Persona had.
Now, it was strong mental fatigue against a torn up body. Just that the stone flying towards the younger girl, together with the slash at her Persona, put her at just another disadvantage. Her usually calm or cocky face was now clenched together in concentration and sheer anger - she hated it when she was pushed back. Unlike Lyca, who seemed to enjoy being near death, it didn't feel good at all for Akari. Now, she had to choose between being hit by a blindingly fast rock or having her Persona sliced in two. The decision was easy - having Thanatos destroyed at this stage would spell death anyway, even if she could dodge that measily rock. Moving her fingers infront of her chest again, Thanatos used his wings to act as a metal shield once again, wrapping himself into the coffins, as more sparks flew through the air. But this time, Thanatos didn't counter-attack with the wings...
The reason was simple. The one controlling Thanatos stumbled backwards, blood dripping from her forehead, black blood. The wound seemed to be rather painful, and it nearly broke her concentration that kept the god of death existing in the reality realm.
"Alright... now you've... really done it, girl." Forcing her Persona back quickly, it now hovered directly above the girl, the wings unfolded once more, the katana pointing to the side. Something started to change about the materialization of pure Burst waves. Something that wasn't good for the opponent at all.
//I won't be able to go full time... that would kill me in this state. Maybe half... two thirds if I'm REALLY careful, yeah. But I need time to get the hell away from here if worst comes to worst... Sorry Minato. I won't join you just yet... keep me a seat warmed at the end. Sooner or later, we'll watch all in death... Just like we promised...// Closing her eyes for a brief moment, when she opened them again, all pain seemed to fade from the face of Akari. In fact, without the nosebleeding and the strong bleeding from her head, one wouldn't notice any fatigue at all at this moment - the moment she released her strongest move. A move made to eliminate weaknesses of Persona: Thanatos. This was the first time one could hear the summoned being speak, the exact same words as his summoner.
"Thou Art I, And I Am Thou!" In a matter of a second, Akari floated upwards, and seemingly merged into the body of the monstrous puppet she commanded. At first, everything was quiet - until the god of death let out a sharp scream. Right now, the Psychicer was a complete part of Thanatos - or was Thanatos now a part of her? Was SHE Thanatos? It was hard to tell for sure, since Akari was now wrapped inside of her Burst and controlled it through her own will and body-movement, increasing the reaction time of the technique, and eliminating the prime weakness of this PSI.
"Blade Brave!" First, Thanatos floated upwards, before dashing towards her opponent, the wings wrapped around itself - being hit by this head-on was like being hit by a car. But even more, after reaching the point where Lyca should be, the god of death unfolded the coffin-wings in a wide arc in oder to make a wide swipe, before thrusting the katana forward blindly - this attack sure needed bravery, since the accuracy of it was terrible while Akari was watching through the eyes of her PSI she merged with.

Her ribs were acking she must have broken at least two of them, luckly it didn;t seem like her lungs or any other organ was penetrated though. It was amazing this wonderfull feeling she wanted to make this fight last forever. Her shoulder made a slight twitch, and a rush of pain made her chuckle. The girl suddenly seemed to be merging with the creature, she wondered if it would make the creature stronger. Or to be more precise she hoped it would make it more stronger.

The creatures wings folded up covering himself in them, using the blind spot he himself created Lyca sheated her sword focusing her rise to the extrem to use every bit she could. The creature moved forward, the moment came closer, she needed to time this precise. The creatures wings slammed open and the katana of the beast flew straigth toward her. She threw her self under it feeling the sword tear the skin and musscle of her left shoulder, it was owke it didn;t matter she was in posistion. The arm could barely hold the scabbard, Using the scabbard she performed an Iai, the speed increased as the scaabard guided it. The sword aimed at the creature, she hoped this and the creatures forward momentum would cause significant damage. The laughter and grin on her face made it clear, This fun is what she always wanted.

Well, it clearly seemed like Brave Blade helped this time, though not as much as hoped. Being one with her own Burst around her made Akari feel absolutely incredible, but this fake sense of security could lead to her own downfall, the Psychicer was well aware of that. Her increased reaction speed and power came on the cost of the ability to see everything Thanatos saw, and not see him from a distance - so she couldn't see the Iai coming at herself.
Missing the satisfaction of feeling the Katana in her mental hand break through a whole body, she only had seconds to react at the silver flash her eyes picked up. No, not even seconds. Milliseconds. Every moment was taking an eternity now. Not thoughts, but instincts now controlled the Persona user who merged with her Burst. The fight gave her thrills, and rage - rage that lead into a destructive need to kill the enemy dead, unlike her opponent, who seemingly wanted to fight more and more and for longer times.
Now, her instincts made her do the only intelligent thing. A normal human wouldn't have had this idea - since a normal human was lacking wings. Folding the left wing back in as quick as she could, Akari hit the blade drawn by the Iai-move from the side at full force, making the weapon go astray. It sliced upwards now, and cut through the right shoulder of Thanatos, and both the summon and the summoner within led out sharp cries that could pierce the heart of a normal human with how animalistic they sounded. Still, being inside of a summon this big had advantages over being a Psychicer - it was larger than her own body, meaning that while the whole shoulder of the summon was cut up in a way where a normal living being would have trouble to keep the arm at the body, let alone, move them, her own body of flesh and blood only had a small cut on her shoulder, as she was more 'centered' inside of Thanatos than actually at head level.
Akari could still use her right hand and katana. But if she did, her enemy, who was this close, could outdo her with speed. Moving the coffin wings away from her left side, she decided to do something else - clenching the spiritual hand into a fist, the Psychicer did a straight punch for Lycas chest to push her back, before swinging the katana in a wide arc before her. This move had to count - in moments, her technique would most likely end.

Ciro had been trying to sleep. But of course who can sleep when two Psychiers are going at it? Nobody. Screams, sirens, and explosions filled the air and woke the Drifter up. He groaned and looked around. The family that lived in the house was out of town. By the sound of things they were down the street by this point. He blew apart the wall and walked out on air using the bricks as steps. He wore a pair of black silk pajama pants and that was it. His haire seemed to straighten itself out.

He walked down the street as the large Burst and the female fought. "Hey!" He shouted, but they either didn't hear him or didn't care. He continued walking, using only five bricks. He'd step forward and a bring from the end would move to the front. "Hey!!" He shouted a bit louder. But still they ignored him. Now he was getting incredibly irritated. He wanted to teach them a lesson to two. He ran on the floating bricks. He leaped off and flipped in air and landed in between the two.

He unleashed a force field and at this close of a range, dodging it would be hard, but it deflected the blade and the punch at Lyca. Not only deflected but the force behind the attack would be reflected at Akari which would certainly send her back a good distance. What ever Lyca would do wouldn't matter because the field was up now. He looked at the two of them. "Both of you are pissing me off. I'll give you a choice. Piss off, or fight me...Take your pick, fuckers..."

The excitment of the fight kept her focus completly on every move the two of them made, nothing except the two of them mattered to her. So when a floating man called out to them she heard nothing. Her strike was diverted but she wouldn;t let it end there the stroke flicked to an upwards one slashing the creatures shoulder. Again the man yelled, louder this time. Lyca still did not hear him, The wings of the creature formed an obstacle Lyca had never dealt with before. It made it even more wonderfull. Suddenly as the fist of the creature headed to her with a strike of its blade following, time seemed to come to a halt. The fist stopped and Lyca, Who was about to try to skid along the bottom of the katana, couldn;t move forward. It was like an invisble wall was placed in between them.

Lyca broadend her vision and finally saw the man, he seemed cold. Wearing nothing but pyjama pants at night in a city like this. The pain made her shiver with enjoyment, as the man stated his opinion. "You do seem strong" A grin of pleasure at the thought of a second worthy opponent. She performed a silent check of her body, "2 broken ribs, left shoulder torn to shreds, left musscles in shoulder ripped, left arm useless" Even she knew when two against one was to much. She placed her katana in the ground and lifted the scabbard with her right hand, she placed it in her mouth and bit down. She grabbed her katana again and sheated it, placing it besides her. "Miss Creature let us meet again, i will enjoy the pain any time" A creepy grin on her face. "And you mister Wall, be sure to survive till we meet again" With that she slashed the ground with the scabbard making dust blow up. Using rise she dissappeared in a backstreet.

Akari was ready, and focused. She didn't notice anything else besides the fight. Not the sirens, not the loud sounds of the ground ripping open when her wings scratched over them. At the moment, she WAS Thanatos. She was fighting with her whole body and mind, and it felt incredible. So free, and still, the anger dwelled and made her rage at the opponent even more. Truely a marvelous thing, such a fight. And generally, how was one without Sense Rise supposed to hear this yelling from out of the heights?
Still, the sudden barrier errupting was way too fast for Akari. Being flung back, she slammed down the gigantic katana of Thanatos into the ground, sliding across the concrete while unfolding her wings to slow down further. Another opponent? Maybe. But she was way too exhausted. Those moves would've been her last. Slowly, Thanatos began to fade, and the user dropped out of the being. Black blood was running out of her nose, as the Persona faded back into her mind, and bloody tears, completely black, ran down her pale skin on the face. Out of her bright red eyes, she noticed the man fully as Lyca disappeared into the dark night... the Persona-user would love to fight her again some day, but not this night. Trying to get up from her kneeling position, Akari just fell back down again, feeling exhaustion in both body and mind. Her weakened eyes registered Ciros annoyed face, the dangerous aura he had... and the pijamas. He was a Psychicer... yes, she could tell. A strong one, far outclassing the weakened girl even when she was at full power.
"Sorry for waking you up." Akari managed to do something like a small smirk as she managed to get back on her feet. "I think you kinda saved me there... Even though I doubt you wanted to. Thanks, anyways. I'll repay it at some point, if the end doesn't reach either of us first..." Turning around, Akari started walking - slow, weakened, like a person who didn't get anything to eat and drink for two weeks and no sleep during those. For now, she just wanted to get home, take a shower, and sleep for days.

Ciro sighed and dropped his force field. "Whatever..." was all he said at Akari. He looked up in the air sensing Ryoji not too far away. Might as well go prep him for his next Psyren visit. He jumped up high using strength Rise and then flew off using Telekinesis.


:: EXIT ::