On the road to Ibukido

Outside of what used to be a city, the concentration of Seithr wasn´t as intense as directly in the deserted zone.
Setsuna knew he was comeing... he had to be comeing, eventually. He wouldn´t pass up on this oppotunity... and he always travelled alone, the odds were it would be his last trip.
Her sword was tightly embraced by her fingers, ready to draw at any time, the cold air of the high mountains breezed through and made her skin shiver, her senses sharpened by the ice cold air.
There. She could sense him. Smell him. Feel him.
Gently, her sword slid out of its sleath, twirling around her fingers and stayed in a backhand position, something only an experienced swordsman would be useing in a battle.
There, he came to see his sister.
And she was there to prevent this.

Come forth and try to kill me. I dare you.

Walking along the lonely which seemed as if it were all he'd ever really known, the Grim Reaper silently made his journey to Ibukido. He could already feel the seithr growing more dense with each passing step. It shouldn't be long now, the ruins should be coming into view any minute now. However, the only thing that came to view that was of any importance was a lone woman standing in the middle of the road. She was clothed in some sort of blue armor and held a sword in her right hand. Ragna frowned and continued onward, walking directly towards her. I was probably a bounty hunter or something, the sooner he got past her the better. Stopping about ten yards away, the Bloodedge looked her over once and sighed.

"I'm on my way to Ibukido and something tells me you don't intend to get out of my way right?"

"Not even over my dead body."

Setsuna replied, a hand on her hip as she glanced upon the man dressed in red. That coat of his was colored crimson in the blood of women and children, his hair grey from the sins he commited and the black on his shirt and pants was the black deep within his heart.
Other than that, he was supriseingly good looking for a lonesome murderer and rebell.
But handsomeness couldn`t wipe away the fact that he killed her father.
Her eyes closed in concentration, then she opened them again, rushing at him with a quick step as the sword she held at her back gashed forward, aimed directly at his neck. She figured that a fast attack out of nowhere would have a better chance of sucess than a regular, ordinary flourish, but something told her this would only piss him off.

This battle could mean the death of me, or avenge my father. I´ve got to give it my all.

Ragna grumbled incoherently to himself at the woman's answer. Yep, it was gonna be a long day. Thankfully his wounds from fighting Jin had healed at this point and he was prepared for a real fight if necessary. His right hand flew to the hilt of his Bloodscythe as the blue woman charged, blade at the ready. Bringing his own sword up in a reverse grip, Ragna had just enough to to block the opening strike. Sparks flew from their interlocked blades as Ragna narrowed his eyes in concentration. "What the hell is wrong with you lady!?" he exclaimed while bracing his left hand against the back of his blade in an attempt to overpower the mysterious woman. Not waiting for an answer, he abruptly kicked out with his left leg aiming for her stomach. It should provide him with some breathing room or if he was lucky enough, maybe knock the wind out of her.

Without giveing him an answer, Setsuna jumped back to avoid the kick, the blades leaveing one another before she turned it in her hand, the blade faceing forward again. Her second hand grabbed the handle, then she rushed in for a second attack, this time an overhead strike. She didn´t want to use her Drive yet, Setsuna just played with him, trying to find out his fighting style and pattern.

"There`s nothing wrong with me. There`s something wrong with you if you murder people by the dozen."

Her face was grim and bloodthirsty, but secretly she was distracted by the way Ragna acted. Those weren`t the antics of a killer... he would´ve killed her by now if he wanted to.

Now free from the blade lock with the strange girl, Ragna sheathed his sword and brought up his hands in a defensive martial arts stance. Truth be told, he preferred to avoid using the sword when he could. His blade literally ate the soul of his opponents, if he could knock this girl out his his bare hands all the better. "Grrr, You're with the damn Library aren't you!?" the Bloodedge growled as the woman rushed in with an overhead attack. Despite her looks, she had alot of power in that sword, he would need to play this carefully and take advantage of any openings in her defense in between her big swings. Stepping to the side, Ragna turned to avoid the swing and kept on turning a full 360 degrees. Using his momentum to his advantage, he sent a debilitating spinning roundhouse kick at the back of Setsuna's head intending to knock her unconscious or at least disorient her long enough to pry that sword out of her hands.

Setsuna, getting hit by the kick, stumbled back, but kept an iron grip on her sword. A lot of the mass from the kick was absorbed from the armor, but she could feel that in every fibre of her body.

"So what if i am with the NOL? I`d try to kill you regardless. You shameless bastard killed my father on one of your raids."

After regaining her stance, she slashed at him, thrusting the sword from left to right, moveing forth whilest doing so to attack him and then quickly retreat with a step back, a defensive maneuver.... she didn´t trust him, and she had no idea what it could mean that he let go of his sword...

Damnit... i haven`t even grazed him yet. I have to be better than that...

Keeping his stance low and his weight on the balls of his feet, Ragna cocked his head to the side at her angry claims. "So now you wanna off me for defending myself!? I swear to God I'll never understand you NOL guys no matter how hard I try." he said leaping backwards in an attempt to avoid her slash. However, the girl was moving a bit quicker than before, something Ragna wasn't prepared for. He received a shallow cut across his chest deep enough to draw a small splash of blood but not grave enough to bother him in this fight. In a few minutes his regenerative abilities should be able to him more or less. Without warning, Ragna shot forward throwing a straight punch with his right hand. The punch was aimed at the flat of Setsuna's blade to break her guard for a follow up but if he could get around her guard and punch her in the stomach, all the better. Either way, Ragna's follow up would be a powerful uppercut accompanied by a small burst of black seithr. "Hell's Fang!"

Nothing could prepare Setsuna for what was to follow. The Hell´s Fang hit her dead on, almost knocking her sword out of her hand. The sizzleing noise of seithr in the air was still to be heard a minute after, but Setsuna had no time to listen to such minor details.
Her left hand reached out to grab his collar... originally she wanted to toss him over the shoulder, but he turned out to be much heavier than expected, so she just held him there.

"Defending yourself!? You attacked them! They have done nothing to harm you with, they were only following orders!"

Her hand clutched around her sword, but as she wanted to strike, her own words backfired at her. What difference would this be? Wasn´t she a murderer herself if he was killed by her hand, just because he was passing through?
This wasn´t a fair fight, nor was it a honorable one. But her hesitation would certainly come back to bite her.

While his Hell's Fang hit it's mark, Ragna had to give this woman credit. She absolutely refused to give in. She gave a hard tug on his collar but his bulk prevented her from throwing him, a small perk of his years of training with Jubei. She spouted more nonsense about him killing people but seemed to almost take pause at her own words. "Don't gimme that following orders bullshit! Look at what the Library orders their men to do!" he yelled back while pointing down the road where the ruins of Ibukido still stood, a stark reminder of the Library's brutality. "How many people have the NOL massacred!? Tell me that and then you can talk about self defense." Still scowling, Ragna attempted to break her hold on his collar and take a step backwards so that he was out of arm's reach of the NOL swordmaster.

Setsuna growled as Ragna lectured her, takeing up her sword again.
He had a point, but aside from what she was doing, what was she supposed to do then?
Just let Ragna do what he was doing and forget about revenge? What the hell was supposed to follow?

"Just shut up... just shut up...!"

She growled, raiseing her sword and rushing towards him again, her drive finally kicking in and letting the sword weigh a good fifty pounds as it swung down on him.

"I can´t do anything other than avenge him...!!"

The clentched teeth and sorrow in her voice made it sound almost untrue what she was yelling at him, as if she didn`t mean it, but she absolutely did, she was just giving her all to hold back tears of helplessness. If she killed Ragna, she would be no better than any other NOL member, but if she didn´t, she would dishonor her old man...

Ragna, with a great deal of frustration, was finally forced to draw his blade again, once more holding it in a reverse grip. Bring the flat of his blade up, he braced it with his free hand to block Setsuna's strike only to be forced down to one knee as if hit by a truck. Vibrations ran down his arm as he nearly dropped his sword in suprise but just managed to hang on. Flexing the muscles in his legs, Ragna prepared to push off the ground and said only a few words before leaping into action. "Life's a bitch. I get it. But I don't have time to sort out your problems on top of my own! INFERNO DIVIDER!" With that he launched himself upward with a powerful twisting cut towards Setsuna's torso. Hopefully her armor would keep her alive, if not at the very least Ragna had tried to reason with her. At the end of Inferno Divider motion he would throw out another straight punch to try and get some space in case Setsuna managed to deflect or completely avoid the opening slash.

A bone shattering sensation went through Setsuna as the Inferno Divider hit her, the armor feeling hot and overloaded with sethr. She didn´t have a scratch on herself, but the way this battle was leading to was not to her favor.
The punch that followed up was blocked by her hand, cupping his fist, which was followed by a second strike at his shoulder, again charged with Swordbreaker...
Even if it would tire her out, she had to finish this before her armor would fail to protect her and she would end up getting wounded... or killed.

"Damn you... " She growled, while guilt and hesitation was growing in the back of her head. What good would it do if she killed Ragna the Bloodedge as a revenge? What was she supposed to do afterward..?

Carrying through with the Inferno Divider, Ragna could tell he was slowly pushing that armor of her's to the limit. If he really put his mind to it he could probably break through it but that would mean killing this woman who didn't really seem to have her heart in the fight. As she caught his empty fist and brought her blade down on him again, he attempted a messy block with one hand on his sword. However, the weight behind her sword was alot more than he expected and all he could do with one arm was slow it down. The metal edge hit his shoulder roughly and Ragna felt something crack with a painful twitch. The Bloodedge took a deep breath and gathered the seithr floating in the air around the two of them towards his chest before releasing it outwards in a small explosive burst. Burst!" he yelled with a grunt of effort and immediately jumped forward to administer a powerful haymaker punch to Setsuna, trying to capitalize on the disorientation of the barrier burst. "Gauntlet Hades!"

Setsuna, who´s armor was overloaded with the Barrier Burst and thus had no protection, was knocked down, then kicked away by the attack, painfully hitting the ground a few dozen feet farther away.
Her sword stuck into the ground as no hand held onto it anymore, and the owner didn´t move an inch after her powered armor had crashed through a small tree and had her land on an asphalt track.
No signs of life were to be seen in Setsuna.

Ragna landed softly and watched as the blue armored woman was thrown through the air and a nearby tree by the force of the Gauntlet Hades. Wincing once, he gingerly touched his left shoulder, the collar bone was broken. Grumbling to himself incoherently, he slowly approached her still form, taking the time to make sure her sword was out of her reach. Standing over her a moment, he briefly considered ending her there and then, but that wasn't his style. He'd won this fight, or so it seemed, and that was good enough for him. Kneeling down he checked her pulse and confirmed she was still alive and breathing. "God this day has been one long pain in my ass."

Growling, Setsuna gripped his left leg and pulled himself back up, sitting upright and holding the back of her head with the left arm.

"Oh my GOD that hurt... They should really invent something softer than Asphalt..."

She complained, so she had to be alright... but that was exactly what she was wondering about. Ragna didn´t have his weapon drawn, and more than that, he had felt up her neck to see if she was still alive. What was the deal with this guy?

"Now i know why my dad lost to you, at least. Your fighting style goes against anything one learns at the acadamy."

Setsuna didn´t smile, but she didn`t frown or growl either. She was just calm and in control of herself, trying to sort her thoughts and come to a decision at last.

Drawing back his hand, Ragna tensed up in case the woman decided to try starting another fight. Thankfully, she seemed content to simply complain for now and comment on his particular style of fighting. Scoffing a bit, he looked away and stood back up while brushing off the front of his coat. Now that he was sure she was more or less ok, he had immediately returned to his persona as an aloof drifter and rebel. "Yea I guess I'll take that as a compliment." he said in a somewhat bored manner. Popping the collar of his jacket, he took a cautious step backwards to be sure Setsuna wouldn't turn violent again. "Are you done trying to kill me for today, or do I need to kick you around some more?"

Setsuna tried to get up, but eventually fell to her knees again and just sat down, wrapping her arms around her legs.

"What good does it do if i try to kill you? It doesn´t make my dad come back to life, it doesn´t make me a hero and it sure as hell doesn´t help anyone. If anything, the NOL will just take control again and kill everyone they don´t want to see in thier little world."

Setsuna´s words were those of a delusional old fighter but she seemed to have a clear mind, as if she didn´t just gain those thoughts from the impact on the concrete.
She stared down onto the ground, empty and voided.

"I don´t know what to do now, but if i kill you, it just makes me the same kind of person i was thinking you would be."

Ragna sighed to himself. Damnit, when did I become such a softy? Heaving his shoulders, Ragna turned his back to Setsuna but stopped himself from leaving her like that. She was obviously confused and shaken, he was no stranger to revenge. To be honest, he wasn't really sure what he would do after his grudge against Terumi was over and done with. He had never really thought about it. "I can't tell you how to live your life. Find your own path and go down it with your own strength and make your own choices. That's what it means to be human. Life's hard but we tough it out anyway. If you decide you do want to take your revenge after all then come and find me. I'll fight you as many times as you want." Reaching up to his throbbing left shoulder, Ragna rubbed it gently and started walking down the road towards Ibukido.

Setsuna groaned a bit, but finally heaved herself off the ground, shakily going over to her sword, then resting her hands on it until her muscles were strong enough to carry her again.

"Ragna... if you`re looking for the Imperator, be careful... The Phantom never leaves her side, and The Phantom doesn´t use any physical means of attack... she is going to attack your mind and your soul. Be strong, and don´t let her get through to you..."

Setsuna`s entire body ached, but she refused to sit down again. She was going to stand and look the devil in the eye, even if he turned his back to her.

"He or she, whoever the Imperator is, is located somwhere in the Ibukido ruins... either in the laboratory, where the Cauldron was, or the remains of the NOL Headquarters nearby it... both buildings had a massive underground structure and would definately be able to take the massive blast that the city took."

Ragna stopped dead in his tracks and looked back over his right shoulder so he could look Setsuna in the eyes. "Thanks for that." he nodded once more to the blue armored woman and continued on his way towards the ruins of Ibukido, his last chance to save his sister, and his vengeance against Terumi. It was a fitting spot to bury the snake bastard once and for all.

===========> Exit