Scene #7677: A Sword that Severs Seals

Owner	Pose
Lilian Rook	Despite everything, there's only so 'real' anything can feel with words. Warnings, threats, painful deconstructions and emotional stabs; those are all one thing, in their own realm, separate and subordinate to the reality of back to back high impact Watch operations, the activities of S.O.N.G and the Noise, and even keeping up with school. Distressing in the moment, mere food for thought later. It'll all come around soon enough. Of course it will. But it's not 'real' until then. It's not real until Hibiki realizes Lilian knows where she lives. Of course she does. Muramasa does. And she let him stay. It shouldn't even be a surprise to see her here, on the promised day, near sunset, standing on the street in front of her apartment. Even dressed in excessively expensive street clothes rather than the battlesuit Hibiki is used to seeing --like the Closet of Babylon rather than any of those fights-- it's impossible not to recognize her the instant the older girl turns her head and locks eyes from the doorframe. Like she already knows what Hibiki is thinking, or perhaps simply just because it's the most obvious thing in the world, Lilian unfolds her arms, begins walking towards Tachibana, one slow heel click at a time, and says: "Remember what I said about 'opsec'? This is it." There is only so 'real' that radios can make this girl's dissatisfaction. Dispassionate vitriol only sounds disengaged there. Detached and poker-faced. But here, up close, with every inch of human micro-language in use, and every inch of space filled with a palpable aura of blood-freezing malice, what Langstrom had meant by 'professional' becomes more apparent with a single hard swallow. It is the smooth professionalism of someone who feels like they really, genuinely want to kill her, and yet can manage that feeling such that they can talk around it while barely raising their voice. It's paralytic enough as is. "Well, tough girl? Did you say your goodbyes? Of course you didn't. Let's ask a more useful question. Would you like to throw your tantrum here and make me look good? Go a little wild right on the street, with all these civilians around? Neighbours, classmates, maybe even Miku. I know you can't fight worth a damn without causing all kinds of collateral damage. So maybe just disbanding your contract now because of that would be an appropriately bitter pill to swallow." "But you aren't that clever, are you? Rather than realizing how woefully unready and incapable you are, you're still full of little girl rage. I'm sure you'd try it. And you'd half-ass it. Thinking you can win against me and avoid harming anyone else, with that amateurish style and infantaile brain. Maybe you'd think you can hold out until reinforcements arrive? You're wrong, of course. You can't beat me, your friends can't carry you, and you're too incompetent to get all of your seething little feelings out of your system without hospitalizing or killing civilians." She leaves just one ominous pause. "Oh, though I hear you're fine with that these days. Considering your company and all. But either way, I'm only going to do this once, so I'd like it to be as convincing as possible. No crying that it doesn't count because I was so 'unfair' and trivially found you at your weakest. And no killing someone in one of your blind idiot rages and making it my job as a Paladin. So, here's what we're going to do."
Lilian Rook	Hibiki is standing on the street corner. Hibiki is standing on a precarious, rocky slope on the inner pit of an urban quarry, just outside of a city-edge building site. It crumbles beneath her feet immediately, urging an unpleasant tumble down a long and dusty incline. Lilian is stood atop of the crossbar extension of a lifting crane over the edge, exclusively so she can look down. The sun is dipping dangerously low over the horizon. It'll soon become extremely dark. "You've got thirty seconds." she says next. Lilian's voice carries eerily well in the air here, bouncing off the sloping walls and filling the quarry pit. "Thirty seconds to scream and cry if you like. Call your friends. Beg for help. Make a speech. Try to run away. Grow up and break the contract on your own. Or do the predictable thing and try to chase me off. But for thirty seconds, no matter what you do, I won't do anything to you. I'm patient. And none of those but one will matter."
Hibiki Tachibana	No, it's certainly not real until then. She's gone back and forth over it in her head. When this would finally happen. She's not sure when it would, or where it would. There have been all sorts of highs and lows, but in the back of her mind, she had no doubt Lilian would absolutely make good on her word sooner or later. She's been training. Making sure to try to get a little bit stronger on every operation. Find the strength she needs to be able to protect Muramasa. But it really doesn't hit until she sees the woman, right there, standing before her home. The place she can always come back to. Where, right now, Miku is waiting for her to... "What...are you--" That's as far as she gets. Before the weight of the situation settles in, step by step as the distance between them is closed, and not on Hibiki's part. There was a long time she was only imagining everyone around her was directing this much raw animosity towards her. Experiencing it is something different entirely. Her voice catches in her throat, mouth caught half-open. Her hands clam up in a cold sweat--reckless fighting style picked apart, emotions picked at, and her 'company' decried, snapping something from just a few days ago back to her mind. And then... She's gone. What happened? Eyes wide, she finally finds enough in her to gasp as she tumbles down, only barely catches herself near the end, and is left on a knee at the bottom of the quarry, staring back up like a deer in headlights. It's five seconds into the ultimatum when the girl's expression changes. Reality finishes clicking in. Heat from her chest starts filling in that cold feeling. Lilian Rook is right in front of her. She really is here to take away something precious to her. Still talking down to her, still acting so high and mighty, still treating her and everything she is like she's some kid playing games-- "Balwisyall nescell GUNGNIR TRON!" Her voice finally comes out clear in the form of a frustrated scream. There's an eruption of gold light at the bottom of the pit, but before it's even faded away, a Gungnir-clad Hibiki is lunging straight upwards at blurring speed with a stone-scattering leap. Her eyes are wild, and her fist comes back. The magical girl goes to punch the extension in half from right beneath Lilian, and keep rising up to send an uppercut into her chin from below. "As if I'd get anyone else involved--! It's just you and ME!" Hit or miss, she follows up with a roar, a spin, and a kick sent for the woman's midsection. Right behind it, another jab, and behind that another. "I'll beat you all on my own! I'll make you regret everything you've said! And I won't let you...!" Hibiki is just going to spend the entirety of the grace period making every attempt to simply find some kind of satisfying purchase on her, with a barrage of simple but heavy blows while shouting right in her face. "...Keep acting like you KNOW EVERYTHING! Where the hell do you get off!?"
Lilian Rook	In those five seconds, or rather, at the end of it, Lilian says something just a moment before Hibiki transforms. Something that slips through that gap between her stunned disbelief breaking and her furious transformation cry. Hand do an elbow, eyes downcast on examining her nails, Lilian says, "That's because you are a child playing games, by the way." In just that opening moment, where Hibiki's raging uppercut, faster than ever, harder than ever, angrier than ever, streaks between the quarry and the crane, before the results are even apparent, an intrusive thought stabs its way into the cloud of her boiling thoughts. Even before her fists gets there, in too little time to process, just looking at Lilian's uncaring non-reaction carries the irresistible cognitive worm, cold and vertiginious, that all that speed, all that power, and all that training don't matter; not just that they aren't enough, but they were never going to matter from the start. And then that horrid little intrusive feeling takes root, because Hibiki's uppercut severs the crossbars with the barest touch, sending the metal flying so high into the sky it'll take a full minute to come down, and-- -----[stop]----- "You have my thanks, Tachibana. I really wasn't sure I was going to be able to hold this all in for much longer. This is going to be . . ." Lilian laces her fingers and cracks her knuckles. "Cleansing." She hops from the buckling extension edge, where the metal has formed a slow motion sine wave and begun fraying like paper, and onto Hibiki's elbow, selectively treating her as a frozen nothing so that she doesn't absorb her gravity. -----[start]----- --Lilian has stepped onto her shoulder, balancing there with such ridiculous ease that she's able to step right back onto the remaining half of the extension as they pass it again. She steps off so lightly it's like disembarking from an elevator, and then she begins slowly, casually, walking backwards, still focused on her nails as she goes. She neatly leans out of the way of every jab, lightly steps over every sweep, turns inside of every hook, and rapidly blinks backwards every few blows where Hibiki starts actually gaining ground, so that every surefire hit strikes air and resets them back to neutral. "Now. Where do I get off? That's an interesting question." Lilian finds the time to reply, dropping off the back end of the bar as a spinning kick comes at her head, as if she'd seen this movie before and memorized it. "Let's see, in the past few weeks, I've prevented two murders, saved a girl from her abusive father, destroyed a civilization-ending cognitohazard, saved Japan from potentially worse, rescued several magical girls held by the CIA, foiled an assassination on a humanitarian genius, opened a multi-billion dollar fund for child Elites, and, you were there for this one, saved that kobold city from Hiromi while you and Muramasa were both in craters."
Lilian Rook	A casual leap takes her up three tiers of machinery, and a neat pirouette brings her around the other side of the control mast. "And in that time, you've aided and abetted human experimentation, armed violent terrorists, faffed about in storybook wonderland, played dress up games as a superhero team, were duped and betrayed twice, were used as a floor wipe several times, including twice by the same adversary, and then sat around congratulating yourself on all that death and mayhem and failure with, what, hot pot and board games?" "I do know everything, Tachibana. You're a joke. A charity case. An angry little nobody who was adopted because she was coincidentally useful to someone else. You're a fool who thinks all that matters is brawn and good intentions, and you've failed to materialize either. So, a better question to ask yourself is--" This time when Lilian resets, Hibiki loses sight of her completely, rather than just shrinking back into the distance. This is because Lilian is behind her now. Prime position for a brutal snap kick to the back of her knee followed by a bone-breaking stomp down on the twisted ankle, and a grinding heel twist to try and keep her in place while viciously punching her in the back of the head with each word. It's bare-handed against the full armour of a Gear, certainly, but it's all stress and torque and dangerous force on her joints and spine and brain. "Where do you even get off looking me in the eye, Tachibana?"
Hibiki Tachibana	There's the briefest, shocked gasp as Hibiki's initial, full-fury blow never finds the impact she was desperately looking for. Lilian just wasn't there--she's on her shoulder now. Casually. Effortlessly. When did she do that? While her head is still turning to catch up, almost in slow motion, there's only that utterly detached look still on her mind. The gap...isn't really that big...is it? It's like a cold splash of water on her rage, sticking there and remaining sopping wet. It doesn't stop her body from moving. Miss after miss, following after her relentlessly despite the wince every time she meets nothing but air. 'Let's see, in the past few weeks, I've...' Every time, it's this...! Every time! So what if she's done all of that!? It doesn't diminish what she's done! It doesn't! The comment on Hiromi--makes her overswing, and she's left stumbling and panting as her opponent moves out of range. And her teeth gnash together. "You don't know anything about what I've done...! You--" She whirls. Expecting to find Lilian in her sight to chase down again. But she's not. Her sixth sense, the kind you can only gain through fighting and fighting more, lets her know where she is - and a foot meets the back of her knee, ruining her balance as her eyes shoot wide. The world slows down. Is that really all she's done...? 'Hibiki, could you... hold my hand? For just a moment.' Abruptly, her Gear's thrusters ignite, and send her into a sudden spin. The sudden thrust sends her right off the precarious perch they're both on, forcing Lilian's follow-up stomp to go wide--but Hibiki manages to throw an arm back and crunch her fingers into the metal before she actually goes flying. With the leverage, she swings her entire body back around. Her other leg is extended--and all that momentum is put into a sweeping maneuver to blow her opponent off her feet. Her expression is still overcome with an overload of anger--but it's also just a little clearer. "You're wrong! I managed to help out Rita, even if it was just that little bit! I managed to get things to calm down with the Gale Empire...! I helped save a Kamen Rider from dying...and I didn't just play board games! I also went to the beach WITH MIKU!" The motion, hit or miss, is followed up with the magical girl pushing off against the top of the surface before she makes a full 360, throwing herself up into the air, and igniting her thrusters once more time to send her straight back down with her heel lifted high to come down in an axe kick, to try and send Lilian down to the bottom of the quarry. "Even if I screw up a lot, there are still people who believe in me and what I'm trying to do! Who believes in you, /Lilian/!? And what you're doing!? How the hell can you ever look Muramasa in the eye!?"
Lilian Rook	"The Gale Empire, which your friends attacked." says Lilian. The blazing fully-body sweep kick-- -----[stop]----- Lilian vaults over the high leg with her fingertips, like clearing a hurdle bar. A little 'hup' noise. Finding her feet on the opposite side. -----[start]----- --passes right through her. "Rita? That girl you've dragged into the same little miserable bucket of crabs as yourself? How is that in any way special? It's a pity she didn't pick the right side. Then I might have been able to help her like I did Strawberry Princess." The axe kick-- -----[stop]----- Lilian stares up and down the length of Hibiki's extended leg, makes a thoughtful noise to herself, and then uses two fingers to push her attacking heel out a few inches. -----[start]----- --misses, somehow. Is she really so angry that she'd get that sloppy? "Ah, and the Kamen Riders. The heroes your own allies are obsessed with harassing, attacking, impeding, and trying to harm. Congratulations on slightly mitigating the harm of your own poor choices. Is that what you want me to say?" This time there's no pithy warning. Lilian doesn't disappear in front of Hibiki. It seems like just that one exchange had been enough to get a grasp of her instincts. Lilian simply blips forwards to take advantage of the whiffed axe kick to knee strike Hibiki in the nose as her thrusters carry her downwards, to snap her head back against the metal and send her on an incredibly nasty tumble. No, maybe Lilian had even used those thirty seconds to figure out Hibiki's entire fighting style? Was that just playing into her hands too? It seems implausible, and yet suddenly hard to ignore. It comes with another teleporting spinning back kick to the neck, and then popping up in front again to catch the forward momentum with a crouching elbow strike to the gut, comboed into a snap backfist to the face. Hibiki has seen Lilian using firearms, magic, and that sword, half a dozen times already, yet it seems she's sticking to just this. Intuitively, it feels like she shouldn't lose a swing for swing, hand to hand brawl here, and yet . . .
Lilian Rook	"Fools can believe in anything." says Lilian. "I suppose that's how you can still believe in yourself." And then she's way back out of range again. "By being in the Paladins, the entirety of the Commonwealth believes in me. Because of who I've been, my comrades believe in me. Not just in something as worthless as 'the goodness of my heart', but in what I actually do, and what I can and will continue to do. Strawberry, Tamamo, Foureyes, Langstrom, Shijima, Gawain, Stark, Roxas, the King of Heroes -- even people from outside; Lowell, Xion, Bailey, Bond-- there is no shortage of people who understand and respect me, Tachibana. Your impotent seething is a loud minority." "Even if it weren't for that, by being in the Immunes, the entirety of my world believes in me. Even before that, every classmate, every teacher, every peer, every coworker, every instructor, every veteran, every licenser, every examiner, every member of the family, every member of the help, everyone who has ever had to assess, judge, depend on, or ask me for anything. I live and breathe high expectations, Tachibana." "I don't need Muramasa's. I don't even want it. While you're desperately clinging to his shirt for approval and validation, all I need is for that stupid bastard to grow up, wake up, and get back in line before the Paladins has to burn him as an asset. Because he's made promises to me, and to people I care about, and it seems like he's forgotten all of them in favour of playing make-believe with you." "So, let me turn this around. 'Not everything is all about you', Tachibana. You're a mistake he made, and I'm correcting it as gently as I can. Nobody but the actual, genuine murderers and vengeful psychopaths you mutually depend upon have your corner."
Hibiki Tachibana	Again!? There's no way she screwed that up! ...Did she? The sheer suddenness of Lilian's counterattack catches her off-guard in that exact moment, and her nose crunches underneath the weight of the knee--she goes head-over-heel backwards to the sound of metallic ringing every time a portion of her armor hits. There's no way she could have figured her out that fast, her fighting style isn't that-- Her train of thought cuts out the same time she's struck from behind, directly into the one-two of a lung-emptying blow to the gut and an even fiercer sting in her face that sends her reeling back. There's a moment of panting, where Hibiki is left just laying on her back while she tries to pick herself back up, forced to listen all the while. "...Understand and respect you..." She finally spits when she gets back up, taking a heavy breath. "...I thought I understood you. I hated the fact you looked down on me like a kid from the very first time we ended up on a mission together. But I got over it over time. You were really strong. And you really did have a lot more experience than me. I thought you were just looking out for me. Maybe...all those people just see something I don't." Maybe it's telling that this is the part she latched onto. "Because the only thing I see is someone who uses someone else like they're a tool.Her hands clench up tight at her sides, and she narrows her eyes at the distance between them. How is she losing at what she's best at? Is this really just another thing Lilian can do that she can't? ...That's not right. It can't be right. "An asset. Because he made promises to you. The farthest you care about Muramasa is him being a useful idiot. And you have the nerve to tell /me/ it's not all about me, when the only thing you care about when it comes to him is whether he's following your orders or not!? ...You think the same thing about me. That I can't do anything without you, that I shouldn't." One of her fists comes up. "The Watch has a lot of people I can't agree with...but also a lot of good people! People who I trust to hold my hand! And they're sure as hell better people than you...!" The jacks in her leg armor eject themselves forward, and she buckles her knees, taking a stance. They smash in with a deafening boom and a metal-crumping shockwave vented behind her, immediately throwing Hibiki forward at breakneck speeds. Her answer to all that distance is to just try to close it as quickly as possible. An absurd amount of momentum is put into trying to run Lilian straight down, and return the gut strike from earlier with it. A rising knee to the torso to follow-up--and then a whirling elbow aimed at the face, packed with enough force to send her flying with a clean connection. She'll hit her this time. She will...!
Lilian Rook	"Tachbina . . ." Lilian sighs. "Tachibana, Tachibana. 'Really strong'? Is that the best you could intuit?" Hibiki charges in yet again-- -----[stop]----- "Fifty meters of distance. I spaced it out myself. Did she really think I couldn't react in that time? Is her opinion of herself so high, or her opinion of me so low? Is she just an idiot who thinks even less than I thought?" Lilian muses to herself, mixing up what she'd done the last two times and instead going for an honest 'teleports behind you' maneuver. "Well, I can feel her tiny, unguarded heart for myself. It oozes exactly the kind of dark feelings and bitter secrets that are the easiest to read. Let her keep on like this." She stances up again. -----[start]----- --"Predictable." comes from just behind her. Just as Hibiki's knee comes up, Lilian is behind her again, and sweeping out her leg while she only has that one precarious point of contact with the ground. From there, she tackles her from behind, takes her to ground, and straddles her with both legs, knees arranged to pin her inner arms down, and then Lilian crackles with black static as her flight engages to continually push her against the ground, driving back against Hibiki's attempts to rise with magic-propelled momentum. Poised on top of her, Lilian engages the aim of ruthlessly and efficiently beating her senseless with both fists, magic accelerating every blow to crack and thump with rapid jabs and subtly boom with heavier haymakers. At that damaged nose, windpipe, collarbone, both eyes, temple, nose again, hooking the chin back, collarbone in the same place. That's the angle she's trying to work, even through Hibiki's guard, as long as she can hold her down. The level of violence feels like Lilian should be screaming --it's not a clinical, dispassionate thing, but clearly motivated by such intense hatred that Hibiki can feel it coming from Lilian like static-- and yet all Hibiki sees behind the bright grass green eyes is someone who has 'turned something off'. No piece of Lilian's mental machinery is overloading with heat and anger. Some of the lights went out, and the sadistically precise targeting of these attacks is the result. "Tachibana, the ninth Code goes thus: 'Thou shalt not wear thy power gaudily. To do so is to sow familiarity, which reaps only contempt.' All you do is push yourself to your limits every time, and lose. I know everything about you. I can see right through you. Yet you don't know anything about me. You don't know what I'm capable of. You have no idea how strong I am. And neither do any of your friends. Between you and me, if Langstrom had my brains and abilities, half the Watch would have a bullet in the head." "The fact that you're so durable like this just means you'll suffer for longer. So think about it while you're still conscious. If I really wanted to make this easy, and I clearly know where you live, wouldn't I have simply waited until you were asleep? I'm making this as difficult as possible, aren't I? Coming here unequipped, announcing myself to you, letting you gear up, giving you a thirty second head start." "Your 'Mount Featherman' escapade makes you a liar. Clearly, you think you can do without me. That you didn't need me, all of those times. That you're better than me. But you're not. You're nothing compared to me, and I'm going to beat that lesson into your bones." "And by the way, don't try to lecture me about treating Muramasa as a tool, while you allow your own allies to run roughshod over him and rough him up just like this for your poor performance. You coward."
Hibiki Tachibana	One moment Lilian is there--and then she's not. Just like several times before. Hibiki's not /as/ surprised as before, just because of that. What is it--? Is she just that fast? There should be some sign of her moving. Is it teleporting? What is she supposed to do about teleporting that doesn't have any indication it's happening? She's trying to figure this out, but-- --She gets tackled. Down to the ground, head banging back against metal, and pinned before she can react. Her entire body is forced flat down, and the pressure against her instinctual attempts to buck her limbs free and force herself back up are repelled by the oppressive push of her opponent's thrusters. And then she gets punched, and her head reels with the blow. She tries to open her mouth to speak, and a blow to her temple sends her skull backwards with a loud clank--whatever she was going to say doubly dies with the strike to her neck. Blood and spittle begins flying from her mouth and nose after enough brutal, precise hooks have found their mark. ...She's right. She doesn't know anything about what Lilian can really do. If the woman really did want to do any of that, she would've. So what...she's making a point? That the difference between them really is that immense? She's playing nice with her and trying to teach her a lesson? ...That it's this easy to make a fool out of her? Lilian keeps going on, with Hibiki's struggles dying down somewhat--but past one strike, a still-refocusing eye manages to find Lilian's. The empty look in it. But past that...at all the anger, the hatred, the emotion that's truly behind it. For how professionally she carries herself, all of this directed right at her... "...Whatever the hell you're talking about..." Hibiki finally murmurs in the middle of the beating, before all her muscles abruptly tense up, and one set of leg jacks repeat their motion from a moment ago. "Hrah--!" Eject forward, slam back in and release all the force in the opposite direction--with enough of it to back up a sudden rise of her knee directly into Lilian's back with extreme force. It should be more than enough to blow her right off of her if it connects, even if the sudden snap will leave the limb sore after the fact. Even if it doesn't, it should at least force her to use that trick again. Which'll afford her precious time to try and get back to her feet. "I'm not...gonna let you call /me/ a coward..." Her mouth, by this point, is full of blood she'll have to spit out. "I'm going to protect him...from you. And I'm going...to become the kind of person who can do that. And beat Hiromi...and knock you off that stupid high horse you're on." Air is really hard to get back when she let herself get that bruised and bloodied. Even so. "...You really, really are angry." It's both a genuine, and a cynically-toned observation. "...If I'm nothing compared to you, why? I'm just a stupid girl. And no way I'm the first one you've seen. You keep going on and on and on about how much better than me you are, how you have everything about me so easily figured out...so why is all of that burning so, so hot behind that cold face you have on...?"
Lilian Rook	"It doesn't take any courage to dig in your heels and lash out, you child. What you're doing is what cowards who are terrified of losing face do. Someone with a spine would have the courage to kill their pride, have the hard talk with the person they need to, and make the bitter, right decision, because that's what courage is made of. That's what being an adult is." No good. No matter how fast Hibiki is, Lilian is somehow faster. Teleporting, sure. That's always faster than physical movement. But she not only keeps reacting faster than Hibiki can act, but already knows exactly where she's going to aim and how she's going to come back, always a step ahead, while Hibiki's muscles are still straining to get from A to B. It's like fighting a ghost. No, ghosts can't hit back. It's like this was always impossible. You knew that, right? You tried to deny it, but there isn't anything on this Earth that could let you win. You have no idea what you're doing. You might as well be trying to grasp the sun. Drink the ocean. Walk to the moon. She's always been holding back. And she's still holding back even now and you still can't beat her. What would happen if she weren't? Is beating her even a real thing? Those thoughts are impossible to be rid of now. Every time she looks Lilian's way, it's like swimming up a river of fear and doubt. Like Lilian towering over her in some way she can't even conceptualize. -----[stop]----- Lilian straightens up, jumps, lands toe tip to knee on Hiki's strike, hops from there up into the air, and-- -----[start]----- Lilian isn't at a safe distance, but rather just high enough for the blow to cleanly miss her while she falls at high speed back onto Hibiki, accelerating into her with that flight to crush the ground beneath a merciless heel-first dive kick to her diaphragm. From there, she reaches to grab Hibiki by the collar, hold her up, and then pivot 180 and hurl her through a solid metal girder and into the one behind it. Lilian dusts her hands. "This is the fucked up, deluded little world you live in. You and your treefort pals. You turn a blind eye to their sociopathy, their murder, their theft, their betrayal, their rampages, and play games around a table instead, because they make you feel good. They set you up to fail, they point you in the direction of evil, they egg you on, burn you up, and in the end, give you nothing you really need. But they piss that toxin into your brain. The praise for your 'good heart'. The validation of your 'heroism'. The gratification of 'noble intentions'. They reassure you when you're hurt, hiss alongside you when you're angry, and tell you whatever hollow, rancid, idealistic bullshit you want to hear whenever you have doubts."
Lilian Rook	Lilian spreads her arms, walking in a loose circle. "And here we are. The hero and the villain, right? Never mind that I'm, objectively, a vetted Multiversal superhero, whom people love and praise for what I've done for them, decorated up and down, respected and trusted by my peers and superiors. Never mind that I don't fail. Never mind that I do what you're too afraid to. Never mind that I hold people accountable, and am held accountable myself. Never mind that I have zero blood on my hands, whilst you wade waist deep through it. Never mind that I have an answer to what being the hero means, whilst you have flailing, childish suggestions at best." "I was mean to you, and all that matters in your angry little impotent superpowered teen world. A nobody who was given power and told they were special. A goldfish in a glass of water. And you think you get a say? You think you deserve to hold life and death in your hands like me?" "Tachibana, if anything about this were wrong, do you really think they'd just let me do it? You should have listened to Langstrom. You should have talked to Muramasa. If nothing else, you should have showed some basic respect. I gave you your chance, and you made yourself the enemy. And now you're going to bleed and scream and wail and gnash your teeth and cry, for all of your ignorant little sociopath friends who thought it would be cute to talk shit." "So let me say it again. Not everything is all about you, Tachibana. The reasons I hate you and what you stand for are something you should know by now. But the reasons I can hurt you like this began a long, long time ago." "I could do worse, if you like."
Hibiki Tachibana	Again. There's a second, in between her strike missing yet again and catching sight of just how /perfect/ Lilian's evasion. Where it strikes her as so extremely odd that she already has momentum from falling down, before the crippling doubt seizes up her muscles. /Why?/ Why can't she lay a hand on her even when she's holding-- There's an awful choking noise as she's floored underneath the force of the kick, hoisted up limply, and then batters through tons of steel on her way to roll to a stop. A heaving, bloodied stop, as words only vaguely echoing those she's already heard in far more deriding words go into her ears. "...Shut up already..." The magical girl breathes out as she slowly rolls onto her hands and knees. "None of this...is because I'm trying to get praised...or because I'm scared of losing face. I'm not any kind of hero. I know that...better than anyone..." From there, it's back up to a stumbling stand, unsure if her pride is hurt more than her body. That overpowering doubt is like a cold knot in her chest. "...And I'm glad I'm not, if you think you're the shining example..." A hand comes up to wipe the blood still pooling out of her mouth, then clenches. "...Mean to me...yeah, that's part of it. But you don't understand me half as well as you think you do. You don't." She mutters, lowly. "...I did talk to Muramasa. And I learned everything I needed to know." ...Gawain. Go. Strawberry. Ioanna.../did/ they all really know about all this and let it happen because it was 'right'? She can't believe that. ...How is she going to hit her? It really is like she knows everything. Is she going to have to actually push herself to-- 'All you do is push yourself to your limits every time, and lose.' '--Because, Master, you're so much stronger than you think you are.' Those words are, right now, her only defense against all that heart-crushing uncertainty washing over her. Without them, she thinks she'd lock up right here and now. Hibiki manages to make eye contact again. "...It's not all about me. And that's why...I'm going to protect Muramasa. No matter how much you hate me, insult me and everything around me...or try to make me doubt myself. No matter how much I might be wrong about--" Her expression tightens, and her arm is thrown out to the side. The piston slots backwards in a hiss of internal mechanisms shifting, and Gungnir's energy builds up within the gap left - a bright and shining gold. "I know--!" Hibiki's feet leave the earth. She's up high, against the night sky. It's a horrendously obvious start-up. Her Symphogear's thrusters ignite at the apex, and send her streaming down. "That, at least--" The magical girl descends like a meteor, fist reared back. She's going for a straight-line blow, eyes wide and teeth bared. At the last moment, before she gets close enough to throw her fist forward for a nigh-instant connection, the booster's nozzle shifts, and angles her down so that she's instead just barely aimed at Lilian's feet. When it connects, the release of energy accompanying the burst of force won't be punched into Lilian, but right on what she's standing on. Where the entire pit of the quarry and dozens of meters above and around them will light up with a full release of that hot, radiant power. "--Can't be wrong, no matter what you say!"
Lilian Rook	Hibiki staggers back upright, even after that one. Again and again and again. Of course she does. That's her way. Lilian had called it outright, though it lacked any tone of respect or even begrudging admiration for her spirit. Instead, she sighs. Loudly, vehemently, with long-suffering strained patience, as if she is putting up with Hibiki rather than Hibiki is miserably suffering through this. Her voice takes on a queer sort of exasperated condescension. "Tachibana, you aren't standing up to a bully. You're not a put-upon heroine. You're not even the wronged party here. It's not noble to get back up and try again when you're in the wrong. And the fact that you seem to believe otherwise is exactly why the Watch is the poisonous hellhole that I have to keep Muramasa away from." Her hand hovers over to her pendant chain, withdrawing the eerie black cross and twirling it about a fingertip like a contemplative habit. Around and around and around while Hibiki powers up. "I'm almost envious of your ability to shut your eyes, plug your ears, and keep escalating to even more and more force. It must be nice, being so lazy and carefree. No standards or responsibilities that matter. But that kind of existence is what makes you weak, and why you always fail. Even that fighting style; haven't I already told you how fucking predictable it is? Do you think coming at me even harder is going to help? Are you really that conceited?" Lilian unhooks the pendant with a tiny click, and swirling ink-in-water smoke falls from her hand, elongating into the wicked blade of That Sword, its etching already filling in with lurid scarlet. The aura of overpowering malice around Lilian both doubles in intensity, and migrates slightly, becoming partially off-center, as if the bulk of it now comes from the sword and some of it from herself, in a perfectly synchronized and resonant way. "I'm certain, in your deluded little child brain, you really do think you're protecting him. But reality doesn't care about your delusions of grandeur, Tachibana. It cares about who I am, and who you are, and it's going to keep picking me, every single time. And then, in that last, tense pause, Lilian says "I actually put faith in that idiot." All the professional detachment leaves her voice, becoming rough and smokey instead. "I decided to put just a little trust in him, because he seemed decent. And he betrayed me. He betrayed all of us. Rationalize it however you want, I don't care anymore; today I have to protect Muramasa from the black hole that is you." "The villains lose to the heroes, right Tachibana? If you can't grasp that you aren't the hero, then I'll just show you."
Lilian Rook	-----[stop]----- Lilian doesn't even try to time a perfect interception with Hibiki's super attack. The instant the thruster flares blow up, she decides that Hibiki doesn't get to attack. Just like that. Just like always. She decides who gets what they want and who doesn't, and everyone so gladly obliges. Lilian had made sure to clear two spare hours to save up time for today, after all. She wanted to have this battle won before it even began. Lilian walks across the intervening distance, to where the air shimmers with heat and pressure, forming waves like diorama glass all around Hibiki. Where blotches of flame look like white liquid, almost fake in their photo-frozen authenticity. She walks past her side, Gungnir-clad fist raised, fully charged and ready. "Cleasa." she invokes to herself, and Night Mist slices right through Hibiki's wrist with a scarlet red streak. "Bitch-cutting Blade." she adds, joylessly. Lilian grabs the severed hand, warm and spilling stretched and squashed strings of red blood, and pulling it aside, dips her finger into the arcs of floating red, swiping up a droplet on her fingertip. Swiping something on Hibiki's forehead with her fingernail, Lilian then keeps walking. -----[start]----- Everything goes wrong. So very, very wrong. Hibiki's Gear rockets her forward exactly as it's supposed to. Lilian disappears, what feels like preemptively this time, as she would. But Hibiki loses sight of her that way, and just as she launches, sharp, agonizing pain shoots up her arm, and the smell of copper and charred flesh reaches her nose. How she deals with the rest is her own to decide. However, the undeniable reality is that, while she had been preparing that attack in full view, reaching deep inside herself, bringing up all her reserves, and telling Lilian exactly how just her cause is supposed to be, the older girl had simply teleported right behind her and cut off her hand --and her command seals-- in an instant. She can see it. Her own limb, dripping away the last of its blood, held distastefully by a pinky between Lilian's clenched fingers, her proof of Muramasa's contract tattooed in red on the back. The severed bone is burnt with intense heat, probably to blame for the minor bleeding. "Clearly I've been too soft on you all. Too reserved. The only reason you should all so be so eager to try and have a go is that you aren't taking me seriously. I suppose to you I'm simply 'that Paladin who helps out sometimes and has a mean streak'. How hard could it be to 'stand up to that bitch', right? I should have been firmer with you all from the start. Well, no matter now." Lilian finally addresses Hibiki more specifically, as she begins wrapping up the gruesome prize so she doesn't have to look at it. "Ask yourself why I didn't just do this from the start, Tachibana, and puzzle out how you brought yourself here. Before all your friends come running to avenge your honour, and I do worse to them. Learn a fucking lesson for once." And then, Lilian is gone. There's nothing to be done about it. Again. There never was. She just let you believe.
Lilian Rook	What's on Hibiki's forehead is for first responders to find, until she can wash it off. It's the appropriate Japanese to translate to TALKED SHIT. And . . . Later, when Muramasa arrives home ahead of Hibiki, or even at home already, when he turns away from the living room, he'll come back to find an unmistakable, single severed finger on the kotatsu, connected by the fingernail to the red writing next to it, in flawless, old-fashioned kanji. "KNOW YOUR PLACE, BLACKSMITH." And yet worse, the moment he looks away, it's gone again.
Hibiki Tachibana	Lilian's voice breaks into that emotion that she felt, for the first time tonight, rather than that professional veneer. It's not enough to stop what's already happening. Everything that she is has to reject those words. If she hesitates now, she's not sure she'll be able to force herself to go again. It's not because she's conceited. It's not because she thinks she's the hero. But if anyone is the villain here, it's absolutely Lilian Rook. She's going to protect Muramasa, no matter what. It was so hard for her to find the spot she belonged. A home to return to. She won't let Lilian take that away from him. A moment passes, the same as any other moment. Blood flies. "Ah--!?" There's an immediate shriek of raw pain. The straight-line path she was erupting down is skewed as her body recoils on instant from the abrupt, primal pain shooting down the length of her arm. It's a mess. All her acceleration becomes an out-of-control tumble through the air, and she hits the loose quarry rocks below out of control, rolling meters before she finally comes to a crumpled stop. It's several seconds before she realizes the pain hasn't ended. It keeps getting worse. Unlike every other time before, she doesn't stand back up. "...What...?" Weakly, she only just manages to shift her weight onto a shoulder and pull her face up enough to force an eye open, to try and focus back on Lilian. What did she...? "...Eh?" It's a hollow, empty sound of disbelief, right from the wrenched-up pit deep in her chest. ...A hand? It doesn't sink in instantly. It takes her slowly shifting her arm to finally look at it. At the blood, at the seared flesh, finally taking in the horrible smell. Hibiki simply stares, like she's completely dumbfounded, for several seconds before her eyes find Lilian again. What she's so casually holding, like it's nothing more than a piece of meat she wishes she wasn't touching. Wrapped up so she doesn't have to look at it. Hibiki isn't hearing a single word that she's saying. No, she does, as something she'll process later. But right now, they're completely muted compared to the sound of her own heartbeat. I'm not alone. We joined hands once, and now we're connected forever. So, it's okay. Everything's going to be just fine. ...Right, Miku? The symbol of that moment. The bond she has with Muramasa. The hand she learned she could hold out to others. Lilian is gone. There's silence in the quarry for only a few moments. And then an awful, raw scream loud enough that it might reach all the way up to the moon itself, echoing out into the night air.