Scene #8639: Ishirou polite surrender Request

Owner	Pose
Ishirou	Right now, on the outskirts of Hibiki's Japan, in the parts where it is quiet, there is nature, and nobody would likely be out at dusk turning into night. Ishirou made sure of this because he knew what would likely happen if she showed up. She wouldn't surrender, she would instead decide to fight him head-on because /of course/ she will. Hibiki hadn't even done anything and he was already frustrated with her. Because... If she wasn't going to surrender, then why even show up? Why fight? Why do this whole entire thing again? It just feels senseless to him. Why did he bother to send her the letter? He could have just gathered up enough forces to force her to not fight, or encountered her somewhere where fighting would simply be a no-win situation... or worse hurt those she cared about. He wasn't any smarter than she was, he thought, sighing. Earlier. "Hibiki Tachibana, this is Ishirou of the Paladins informing you that because of your actions, you are wanted by Paladin authorities for the deaths of our agents. Please turn up at these enclosed coordinates at the time that will be sent for official surrender." "Thank you," he awkwardly ends the voicemail message. He didn't know how to end it... typically it was easy to talk to her but now... Back to the present. Ishirou waits with POD, leaning against a railing. It was almost time, and he knew whatever happened was going to be unpleasant. He just wishes he had the ability to see it through. He /SHOULD/ have called for back up... he should have done more to stack the deck, but here he is, trying to do it alone. "Almost like I hadn't learned a thing since Petra.." he muses to himself, which gets POD's attention. He shakes his head, and POD turns slightly away, musing something. -Situation is not identical, your emotional state at that time was unstable, and Hibiki Tachibana does not own a tank with several questionable and high-powered weapons. She is also not likely to try and kill you for any transgressions.- "Heh. Thanks POD."
Hibiki Tachibana	"POD's right about all of that, at least." Only right after Ishirou's comment has gone out does a very familiar voice come from somewhere in the treeline - and predictably, after a few seconds, out into the open steps Hibiki with her hands in her jacket pockets. All things considered, she looks to be in a lot better shape, physically, than she was during...well, everything before. Properly cleaned up, hair brushed properly, no scuffs on her clothing or otherwise, and all. Still, there's a slightly sunken quality to her eyes, and it certainly doesn't sound like she's particularly happy to see him. She's been spending a considerable portion of time getting everything sorted out back here after her departure - and also getting understandably talked to about it on multiple fronts - so maybe that's not too much of a surprise, when she gets a voicemail bringing her back to...all of this. She stops a short distance away, and in what may or may not be a relief to him, Hibiki doesn't move to look as if she's going to fight. For now. Instead, there's a long few moments where she simply stares at him...before shutting her eyes and exhaling. "...If you were just here to try and arrest me on official Paladins business, you wouldn't be doing it like this. Especially not here at my home, where you don't know if I'd get help from everyone or not." Her eyes open up again, and she gives a glance from left to right. "You'd at least have brought help. I'm sure Futaba would be up for it, if nobody else." And then, her focus goes right back to him. "...So what are you expecting to happen, Ishirou? I already told you before that I'm not going in. Someone I should have listened to from the start told me that it wouldn't solve anything, and he's still right. You wanna fight that badly? It's not like I haven't thought about clocking you one."
Ishirou	Ishirou frowns, of course, she heard that. Taking a breath he pushes off the railing and walks towards her. He stops when she does, both of them staring at the other. "You're right, I could have done all of that. I could have also charged you with a lot of bodies to wear you down. I could have attempted to take you in at home in front of Miku. As for your friends..." he says, looking back at the city. "It's not about them," he says finally. "I didn't want to involve anyone but you." Ishirou suppresses the acid because it's not about being mad. "I thought I'd at least do you the favor your friends didn't extend to us," clearly putting the blame on them and not her. "You still participated, you still fought Futaba, you could have stopped at any time. You could have kept a better eye on Nephra..." "I might not like her, but right now it's very obvious she needs help," he says, "You could have stopped Remee from making a terrible decision based on her weird issues about Petra. You went along with them.." he says, and sighs. "Like I did with Petra because of my guilt." "Like I did after I came back. I didn't take you to task for what I found out when I woke up... no I knew you were there the whole time. I didn't blame you then, because making you choose between two people you consider friends equally being shitty to the other isn't something I'd want to choose either..." "But you chose not to stop her, you chose to let her keep me there in that hole for a week." Ishirou shifts his stance, "What I am here to do, I guess, is settle this out. You can come with me, for the crimes I already have you for..." he says, and starts the sequence to activate the RESCUE. "It's time to start being accountable. If you don't hold yourself accountable... then I guess I do." "So what is it, Hibiki?" he pauses, "And before you think that I'm trying to say I'm perfect. I'm not. I know what I've done to people. To Petra, to Lilian, to those who had to see my body, to those who had to see me disappear. I'm not here trying to shift the blame... I'm here because I got an issue with you, and because you should be held accountable for things." "I just wanted to make that clear," he says, after a minute. "You know, because... a lot of stuff hasn't been made clear," he says, trying to recover the attempt at a cool line, but fumbling it horrifically. "...Ugh... can we just..." he says finally, having finally lost it.
Hibiki Tachibana	"...Yeah. I did do all of that. Or I guess for half of it, it's what I didn't do." Hibiki's eyes shut once again, her shoulders sagging down just a little. "I messed up, again and again, and then I messed up some more. I didn't stop Remee, or Nephra...or Petra." And her voice also drops in volume at the end, as if there's some kind of physical weight to it. "I could come up with a dozen different excuses, but in the end...what happened happened. I can't change it. Maybe if I had one of those Time Mazin things, or something like Sougo's powers, I could. But I don't, and even if I did, I'd still have to live with the fact it happened." There's another exhale through her nose as he readies his RESCUE, then she looks off to the side. "...I seriously hated it, you know. I knew how much of it was all my fault, and what I should have done. And then you put out a whole warrant on me...everyone jumped out at /me/ out of everyone who was there, on the radio... ..." She trails off after that, her mouth falling into a grimace. Her hands are pulled out of her pockets, clenched into fists. "I know I can only blame you so much for any of that. But that doesn't mean it didn't get under my skin. And I really don't want to hear any lectures on accountability out of you. If you've got an issue, then I guess I'll take the chance to make some things clear myself." As has happened so many times before, although mostly when they were both fighting for the same cause, Hibiki's hand comes up to fish out her crimson Symphogear pendnant from beneath her collar. And her voice echoes out, "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron..." A flash of light illuminating the dusk, and she's clad in Gungnir - mechanical whirring dying down as the last few parts of it finish clicking and locking into place after the instantaneous transformation. A few adjustments of her scarf happen while she pointedly shuts her eyes at Ishirou's failed attempt at being cool. "You don't have to drop the one-liners. Not with me." Pause. "...Since we're fighting here, the rest of SONG is going to know I'm using Gungnir. So let's settle this quickly. If you don't throw the first punch, I will." She only just realized that, but she's marginally better at playing it off than Ishirou was.
Ishirou	"...Right, sorry. Guess that's a little disingenuous of me.." he admits about the part about accountability. "Given the lead-up to all of this," he says, with a sigh. "I really am sorry. Not much I can do but apologize and move forward..." he says finally, "So... that's what I am going to do, and I need this." "I think we both need this, we have things to say, right? Well, it's time.." he says, and then looks sheepish about the failed attempt at a liner. "...Hey.." he then complains at /her/ good liner. Ugh. That's it Tachibana! This means war... He opens up by launching a blast of force from his hand, and he jumps back. The moment he does, parts come out of his subspace pocket, and he snaps to each one, connecting to his arms, legs, and then his back. The Mobility unit connects with the Flight unit to create the Flight Mode. To which he hovers, following this with a barrage of missiles to try and pepper Hibiki.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Apologizing and moving forward through fighting..." Her head dips a little, eyes cast to the ground. Whatever thought that provokes out of her is left to stew in her head. It remains that way as Ishirou indeed takes the first punch offered up - rather than getting out of the way, Hibiki brings up a single gauntlet to disperse the force around it. That's much less of a problem than missiles though, which barrel in from all directions and leave her no room to avoid all of them. So she doesn't. Hibiki braces her legs and leaps straight ahead as they all enclose in on her, leaving the majority of them to explode at her back, even as heat scorches at her back. Hardly enough to slow her down, though. "And what the hell--" And a small price to pay when it means she's rapidly closing in on Ishirou, not bothered at all by its hover capabilities given she can simply leap up after it - with the intention of turning all her momentum into a knee strike meant to send him and his RESCUE unit spiraling through the air. "--are you saying sorry to /me/ for, anyway...!? Even if you did screw up, you still came here to arrest me, you know! And after everything I did, that's totally backwards...!"
Ishirou	Her knee lands, smashing through his defensive armor and maneuvering. He goes flying into the air... but that's fine for him. Recovering after a few seconds, his mind is already racing. Trying to think of his next move, trying to think of how he could try and counter her physical advantage. Cycling through some options, he comes to something... He flips up into the air and transforms into actual flight mode, and buggers off. Soaring through the air, what Hibiki will get are warnings, because a larger ordinance is coming down, trying to wear at her, but also burn at her offensive capacities... The idea is to try and make her pay for every ounce of pain she inflicts. "Yeah, I do that sometimes. I don't like hurting people, and... I guess I when I learned that was what I was doing a lot in my mind came crashing down all at once.." he says, frowning. "Look, I am not going to scream at you, so if you want to come forward and start talking about /that/ it'd be nice...!"
Hibiki Tachibana	"What exactly--" After her successful attack, Hibiki is left hanging in mid-air, and ostensibly a sitting duck for the heavier stuff coming down on her. While it's possible for her to get out of the way, she simply resorts to one of her few skills. Her fist clenches in, her arm rears back, and as it all comes down on her, she throws it forward in a single blow. Predictably, there's an explosion. Also possibly predictable, there's an eruption of force dispelling the smoke, as Hibiki uses her leg jacks to propel herself out of it and higher up into the air. The spiked pistons eject forward out of her leg armoring, just to pummel back into place a moment later - and like her punches, a burst of kinetic energy is expelled behind her, effectively recoiling her through the air. "--do you want me to say about things!?" "I screwed up! More than I ever screwed up before in my life! And what I thought was trying to make up for it, taking responsibility--" Ishirou might be much more maneuverable and agile when it comes to true flight, but Hibiki has one thing. Raw force. After several kicks through the air to try and chase after him, it's one of her gauntlet's pistons that finally prime backwards. She spins around, and punches /behind/ her. The even more powerful recoil from her piston-punch gives her a burst of speed needed to try and intercept him, spinning through the air in what's more or less just a tackle meant to initiate a grapple with him. He'll definitely be the one at a disadvantage if she pulls it off. "--was just being selfish and making things harder on Lilian again! So the only thing I can do now...is my best! And that /doesn't/ involve getting arrested! Making up for all that crap with you, Futaba, everyone who lost their life back then--I'm going to make sure that happens, but on my own terms!"
Ishirou	She is through the smoke, and part of the reason Ishirou chose /this time/ was because it was closing in at night. This part of the night, where light is just barely there so darkness tech would be not as effective, but dark enough to give him an edge because /he/ isn't affected by the light or lack thereof. However, she is stronger and faster so he can make a contingency for her. Well, that's not quite right... he knows a lot of her strengths and weaknesses, it's rather that he /can't/ exactly counter her. It's not his role in combat, it's Lilian's. That is why he at least gave himself the one small edge because it's what Lilian would do if she were pressed, give herself an advantage. The grapple comes in, though, and before she can catch him, he swaps back into humanoid mode and throws his arms out to create the barrier of electromagnetic energy, trying to keep her repelled back. The force is just BARELY enough to keep her away, but the force she's exerting on his shield is enough to nearly short out his VCRS. Groaning, he pulls out a spear and aims to kick her across the chest to send her back. Then he reaches up to throw the spear at excessively fast speeds, trying to catch her in the process and send her back to the ground using momentum transfer. "What I want... is how you are going to do that. What are you going to /do/? There are two people who are unstable in your group, they need help. Real /help/. I don't care how you do it, but you need to push for them to get what they need." "I was... I calculated what I could do to deal with Nephra, Hibiki. There was one solution and every time, it came to this one solution... and that was to lay my version of a Geas on her so that she could only use her suit to its fullest capacity on an order of another member of the Watch..." "That means using... my ability to get into her head to do so. I..." he pauses, "I can't do it. I can't use that power anymore, Hibiki. It's too much like Indus, the power to dominate. To get into people's heads and learn their secrets and laugh..." "I can't be like that anymore. So... you have to do it. You have to /stop/ her, because taking Nephra in..? She'd die first, I am sure. Too many people would die, including her. And... that's what I am about, lives. Maybe it's too late for her, but... I am not someone she wronged, and the people who do I am sure would not want to see her go down like that..." "As for Remee... well... I can't say but that's a whole different story and honestly, that's something I'm willing to let Petra deal with, honestly. Maybe you should stop her before she goes too far, I don't know. But... I honestly believe that she is someone who would have people want her death, fortunately for her, she can't be killed so easily. Her victims didn't get that..." a pause, "Sorry not meant as a jab at you, I'm really mad at /her/." "If you want to do right by us... then... do right by your group and keep the people who are out of control in check. ...And that means stopping them. Please."
Hibiki Tachibana	Right into the electromagnetic barrier - which does indeed halt Hibiki in her tracks enough to give Ishirou the time he needs to kick her back and away, sending her spinning through the air. The spear behind it, though, she doesn't seem so intent on getting caught by. Even careening back and away, she brings up an arm to punch at the incoming attack-- Not head-on, though. Her fist just barely moves past it, and in the split-second where it does, her arm sweeps out to the side and her gauntlet bashes against it, just narrowly offsetting its angle enough to send it flying past her. The end result means Hibiki isn't sent blasted back down to the ground, but she sure is out of control for a long moment and has to right herself with her Symphogear's thrusters. "Ngh..." She breathes out through her teeth, taking the chance to listen to him. "...I'm not going to let those two cause any more trouble. If it comes down to it, I'll stop them...with my fists, the same as I should have done from the start. I won't let someone's obsession get anyone else hurt again." Remee. And herself, more than a little. "And I won't let one person not knowing what to do with themselves get people killed again, either..." Nephra. "That's the responsibility I was ignoring, as someone in the Watch." "Remee--is better than she was before. She's at least starting to see what everything got her, what she really did. I'm going to keep an eye on her and make sure she stays that way. Nephra..." There's a strained sigh, and Hibiki rubs where the kick to her landed. "...Whatever help she needs, I can't give it. I dismantled that damn suit of hers once, and I'll do it a second time if I have to. There's nothing wrong with having problems. But I'm not going to let that affect innocent people...who didn't do a single thing wrong." "--So I'm going to do everything I can to stop them. I already went to both of them once already. I'm not...letting all of that repeat again. And I'm going to clear up the mistake /I/ made back then, by making sure the Titanomachia never hurts anyone again either!" Ishirou will get maybe a second to process that before the boosters on Hibiki's Symphogear fire off, and she's once again closing back in on him. And if he's not careful, she's basically going to ream right into him like a freight train, fist-first. That might hurt, just a little bit. A tiny bit. Forward momentum in a straight line sure is one of her specialties, and she seems to have a feeling he can't do that shielding trick twice.
Ishirou	The first comes in, he can't deflect it like he did that grapple. That's not fine. He can't do the same manuever again, and to be fair he couldn't do that again even if he tried. Instead, he fires another blast of that energy, aiming to try and divert her attack JUST enough so that his body can move. As they glide by each other, the FORCE from the attack is enough to send him spinning in mid-air. The air currents tore at his armor, crushing at his internals, and causing his head to spin from the blow. He can't win by delaying her forever, he just needs to wait for his moment. But he has delayed her /just/ enough for this. His eyes glow, but before he attacks... "Don't make excuses for them. No 'better than she was before'. No trying to justify things. They did what they did regardless of circumstances... being lonely isn't an excuse to have fired that weapon... Having issues isn't justification for deciding to nearly collapse half the facility. I know you mean well... but you have to hold the faces of those you can't see in your heart as well." "That's... what I try to do. Maybe... maybe they don't mean the same as people like us if the Concord is right. But... I want to believe in them, and that one day they can be. That what they need is an atmosphere to grow.." "I digress..." he says, finding his opening. Right before she swings. She's going to go big at him, and when she does... He calculates his movements, seeing the projections of future movements. Every prediction made, almost every future considered... He dives into the oncoming attack that will come, and sends a single high-powered blade forward, throwing it at her. The thing accelerates like a bat out of hell, trying to catch her. While the spear he threw earlier comes in a different direction. The one she wasn't looking at. "The Titanomachia..? Wait were you the one who sent us that data..?!"
Hibiki Tachibana	There's a twitch in Hibiki's expression, right before Ishirou attacks. It's not from the attack itself, of course, but one can only guess it's because of what he said. She did mention not wanting to be lectured by him earlier, so one can only guess it's a similar reaction to that. It's up in the air, for a moment, as the two-pronged assault becomes a very immediate concern. The blade from the front, that she can see. It's fast, but so is she. Her eyes track it as it's thrown, and even at that velocity, she quickfires her Symphogear's thrusters while turning her body - twisting around it to let it just barely sail past, close enough that it leaves a shallow cut through her undersuit and into skin. The evasive motion lets her, for a split-second, catch the spear coming in from the corner of her eye. Accelerating too much to get out of the way of. So in a snap decision-- Her arm reaches out to go and wrap around Ishirou, while he's still trying to dive past her. Because apparently, if she's going down, he's going down with her. Literally, as when that spear finally smashes into her and that whole 'momentum transfer' thing happens, he's going to be dragged right along with her when it sends her on a one-way trip back down towards the ground. "Don't /tell me/ about making excuses! They're the whole reason all of this even started!" But neither the pain of that impact nor being in a chaotic tumble while accelerating towards the earth seem to be enough to stop her from shouting on the way down. "I'm not making any for either of them! And /especially/ not myself! Everyone has their own circumstances--so I'm going to stop them first, and extend my hand second!" That's about all she can manage before the both of them are going to smash into the ground, /hard/. And Hibiki is very intent on swinging them around, grip on Ishirou's body going painfully tight, to make sure that the RESCUE is going to be taking the brunt of it - rather than him directly. There's probably going to be a twenty-meter long ditch in this neck of the woods by the end of this. Only after they both come to a stop, whatever comes of her attempt to crash this RESCUE unit with two survivors, does Hibiki take a moment to get in some heavy, heaving breaths, and slowly nod her head. "Hah...Touta...is most of the reason we got it. ...But yeah. That anonymous report...was us."
Ishirou	Hibiki's actions surprised Ishirou, so she was paying more attention than he was calculating for. Why..? In this part of the fight, she's usually looking to finish things. She'd take her bad position and push forward, not be patient and look for an opening. She can see the surprise in his eyes too, given how they are up close and personal. The two go crashing through the sky and smash into the earth leaving a long ditch. The damage spread across the RESCUE... leaving enough damage to it that he was sure a certain horse girl was going to have a very stern talk with him. Once landed, Ishirou groans and lays there face up. "Alright," he finally says, the RESCUE sparking. It fades, returning to subspace leaving POD and Ishirou lying on the ground. Well POD was floating, but Ishirou was lying! "Alright... you're serious about it," he groans. "Just don't forget to reach out when you don't get a straight road... I know someone who has a good pair of eyes," Ishirou says and then relaxes. "Well... thank you for that, Hibiki. It saved a lot of lives. Kale and I deployed to get them out of there," he says, though looks at her. "I'll drop the bounty, you... seem pretty dedicated to this so..." he sighs. "Guess I should be too."
Hibiki Tachibana	After the RESCUE is gone - better it need to be repaired than him - Hibiki lets out a beleaguered sigh and pushes herself back up to a stand over top of Ishirou. Or she tries to, anyway. The exertion from the fight must have left her more unbalanced than she thought, as she stumbles and has to catch herself against a tree to avoid falling back over. "Of course I'm serious about it...there's no way I couldn't be...after Lilian..." Mumbling to herself, she shifts so that her back is against the bark, and slowly slides down into a sitting position. Once she's settled, her Symphogear shines gold and disperses into countless particles of light, leaving her in her normal clothes once again. Her head shifts back to also rest its weight against the hard surface, and her eyes shut tight. "I don't need thanks. None of this is for that. If everyone who could be saved got help...then that's good enough for me." A hand comes up to sift back through her hair. "Keeping things to myself...hasn't ever worked out before. So yeah." Some seconds pass, and she looks back towards where Ishirou is laying. "Nephra and Remee aren't going to cause trouble the way they did before. I'll make sure of it. I'm at least a year overdue for actually doing my job in the Watch. ...And as far as the Titanomachia goes, I'm going to learn everything I can from my end. If there's anything useful, I'll make sure it gets forwarded to the Paladins. We /all/ want those bastards dealt with. There's already a few things you should know about what happened with the Kana, but we can talk about that...not here." "This is how I'm going to take responsibility for everything that happened. Even if it's only a start." Hibiki lets that hang in the air, then leans her weight back and turns her head up towards the darkening sky. "And get me...the list. Of everyone who died--back then. Where their families live. ...That's part of my responsibility, too."