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Setsuko Kaminagi     Since the upheaval that turned the Multiverse on its ear, Setsuko Kaminagi has been silent. It's been almost two weeks without a word from her, enough to engender worry over even a demigod capable of regrowing lost limbs. But tonight, Setsuko's private band lit up for the first time since. It was only brief; only a momentary transmission of coordinates. The coordinates lead to a district Reiji and Xiaomu know quite well, one completely devoid of people. Or... at least, it should be.

    As always, the demigod's divine presence is so bright it can be felt from dozens of miles away. There's no mistaking what the coordinates are.

    And as expected, at the intersection the coordinates lead to, a six-foot woman with silver hair leans against a light pole, waiting in silence, staring at nothing in particular. As if in deference to her purpose, however, her left hand holds Zanjintou's scabbard steady at her side, while the right holds the grip firmly, prepared to draw.
Reiji Arisu     The last time Reiji and Setsuko spoke, the exorcist extracted a promise from the swordswoman-- to return alive from what was almost certainly a suicide mission. Fortunately, the spirit of Njorun Station itself saved all those who were still alive in the wake of the calamity. But even so, Setsuko had ben incommunicado. No sign of her survival was to be found.

So the fact her communication line and her rather... iconic divine presence turned up so close to home was just a bit of a surprise.

    Not exactly an unpleasant one, however. Reiji appears out of the crushing Shibuya fog armed, as he ever is, to the teeth. Not necessarily for the meeting, but-- well, Shibuya isn't exactly safe. "...Setsuko," he says as he approaches, "Thank heavens you're alive. You had us worried."

"Where've you been? Is everything alright?"
Xiaomu A single gunshot rings out.

And then Xiaomu emerges from the fog behind Reiji, blowing smoke off the barrel of one of her handguns (Silver, if you know how to tell them apart). "Hey Setsuko; good to see you again. Should be all clear now," she remarks to Reiji, re-engaging the safety and sticking her handgun back into its holster inside her vest. "Even the gaki tend to avoid Shibuya, not enough humans around for them to prey on ..."
Setsuko Kaminagi     "...my apologies," the demigod says after a moment or two's silence. "But I knew everyone would be fine without me. I *felt* the war itself ending. It's been there as long as I've been a demigod, so to feel it finally fade away..." She shakes her head. "...but nevermind that. I've been home, attending to business. And the time I can afford not to be there... is short. So it's good to see the both of you faring well." A small nod to Xiaomu. "I thought as much. I wanted somewhere that neither Reiji nor I would feel restrained."

    She leans away from the lamp post, and steps out into the street. Steel whispers against wood as a blade is drawn, and a stance is adopted. "Setsuko Kaminagi, and Zanjintou. Shin Kaminagi-ryu. Come whenever you're ready."
Reiji Arisu     Ah. Well. "That would explain things," Reiji nods after a moment. "I suppose there'd be little need for you to leave home at the moment. Though you will tell us if the world starts ending, yes?" A brief pause. "Sorry, there's some history there between Xiaomu and I and our divine associates."

But that's not why Setsuko is here, it seems.

Looks like she means to fulfill that promise.

    Reiji chuckles, then sighs, "Well, alright then. Looks like we're doing this here and now. Works for me." Reiji takes a few steps out into the fog. He drops into a iaijutsu stance, hand hovering furtively over his arsenal of weapons. "Reiji Arisu and his many weapons. Gogyo Battou-Ryuu."

"Attacking."

    The exorcist is suddenly in motion. His steps vanish into the haze, but the arcs of flame that tear through the mist are impossible to miss. He's suddenly /there/, Karin's blade screaming out of its sheath wreathed in a halo of fire in a diagonal slash toward Setsuko's chest.
Xiaomu This is the point at which Xiaomu takes a few steps off to the side - angling for a spot almost as though she were going to referee this little sparring match - and ...

Pulls out a pouch of fried tofu. Pulls one piece out. And begins munching.

She's still staying alert, partly to watch the two swordfighters going at it full-tilt, partly in case anything ELSE comes nosing around with an appetite for human (or godly) blood, life-energy, etc.
Setsuko Kaminagi     There is no streamer of light to Setsuko's movements. No divine glow to her blade, no corona of sky-blue stormcloud around her. Just a simple, stepping movement that brings a gleaming sword up into the path of Karin. No show of power...

    ...save for her eyes. Glowing softly and steadily.

    The deflection happens in a heartbeat. And just as quickly, Setsuko follows it up with a strike of her own. Two, three. While she's faster than an ordinary human easily, her style very slightly favors power; the first few attacks are unloaded as a simple, steady barrage, one overhead and the others at angles. There's a certain simplicity to it, simply throwing herself against Reiji's defenses like a wave to see what comes of it. "Haa!"
Reiji Arisu     A deflection. That much wasn't unexpected. It'd be just plain disappointing if she let him land the first strike so easily. Reiji is forced on the back step, lunging back out of the way of the first overhead blow. The second sweeps up, only for Reiji to sweep it out of the way with a swift, parrying strike that crackles with electric fury.

    Chirai rumbles in the wake of the third blow, Reiji taking advantage of his parrying strike to dodge into the shadow of Setsuko's final strike. The air goes silent as he tries to duck into her blind spot, hand vanishing once more to his side. Thunder bellows, lightning streaks across the roiling clouds of fog. Reiji strikes once, twice, thrice in narrow crescents at blinding speed. He twists to the side, dodging preemptively to the side before sweeping in once more--

Surrounded by a wild spiral of flame. Karin's flame meets Chirai's lingering lightning-- and explodes with a crack and a booming, echoing shockwave.

FIRE'S ashes feed the EARTH.
Xiaomu And that, thinks Xiaomu, is why Reiji is more dangerous in his multi-classing than anyone who devotes all her skill and training to mastery of just *one* weapon. It's not just the variety of weapons or the versatility with which Reiji uses them; it's the interplay of forces, the interaction of the different elements strengthening each other, which he can bring to bear against an opponent.

And she taught him how to do that. Granted, Xiaomu may have been thinking about the place she could hold in that elemental cycle, but that was more a happy coincidence than the result of deliberate planning - the world just works that way sometimes.

For now, though, Xiaomu remains at something resembling a safe distance, watching both fighters, ready to step in JUST in case she thinks one or the other combatant is going to overdo it. They don't have access to the Union's marvelous medical technology after all, nor the safety interlocks of the Ring of Philosophy, and reattaching or regrowing a severed arm is *NOT* going to be an easy prospect. Better to keep all limbs attached to their original owners.
Setsuko Kaminagi     It's going smoothly, blow for blow, with every strike and response. Setsuko seems well-prepared for someone to move into her blind spot; her own response is to step forward and turn, shifting herself as Reiji moves so that he ends up overextending past her. Her blade doesn't quite match that speed of his, but she doesn't need to - practice, experience and instincts put her sword right where it needs to be to deflect each of three strikes. 'Not fast, but fast enough.' She counterstrikes as predicted, her blade swinging right through the space he just occupied, and then turning with a calm shift to slash upward at a diagonal-

    -that never reaches Reiji.

    The detonation of elements blasts Setsuko back, catching her by surprise. It sends her into a tumble that quickly becomes a controlled descent, turning a single backflip before coming down on her feet a middling distance away. "...Excellent." The first exchange goes to Arisu. But she's starting the second without missing a beat. There's a sudden lunge forward, and as she comes out of the fog, it becomes clear that she's returned Zanjintou to its sheath. The posture is perfect for battoujutsu - but she's entirely too far away from it, the move far too telegraphed. He'll have ample time to react-

    -or perhaps not. Reiji might remember this move from her WMAT matches.

    With the expected, blinding quickness, Setsuko draws her blade. Zanjintou clears its sheath in the only true display of blazing speed that the demigod is really capable of. The distance is more than ten feet, far too long to come anywhere close with the katana blade... but not for the full-sized Zanjintou, which grows into place with a SNAP and an alarmingly fast rush of air. The end result is a strike with the massive sword far faster than she'd normally be capable of.

    "BUSHIN SHUNSATSU!"
Reiji Arisu     The world is a curious thing. So much of its nature is revealed in the microcosm; the flow of elements isn't limited to just magic or medicine. It appears in battle, in life, in the universe itself. Reiji's eyes shine with reflected lightning as Setsuko goes flying. The exorcist is still for a moment, before shifting back into a neutral stance. "You flatter me. Come on, we're hardly--"

Whoop that's a thing.

    Setsuko's sudden lunge fires every one of Reiji's survival instincts. The lizard brain at the underside of his skull shrieks at the imminent threat. She's too far, he thinks. Does she mean to rush in-- to close such a massive gap quickly enough to catch him off guard at this point means that Setsuko's speed might be able to rival even that of Sasaki Kojirou's. Or maybe she just means to power straight through his guard--

Unfortunately, no. That's not quite right.

Maybe Reiji should have seen this coming.

    The Zanjintou's enlarged blade closes the distance faster than Reiji could have reasonably expected-- but then, nothing about either of these duelists is reasonable. The exorcist's teeth grit painfully tight. He levels the solid frame of his arsenal against Setsuko's colossal swing and leaps following the direction of the blow. But even that isn't enough to keep him from going flying.

Reiji hits the ground, bounces, rolls, and skids to a stop some distance away. Second 'exchange,' if you can even call it that, goes to Setsuko. "Nngh. Should've seen that one coming. But--"

    He can't stay still. The battle doesn't end just because he gets swatted aside. "We've only begun," he grunts, surging across the fog-swamped distance. Reiji lands in a crouch-- and then vanishes. Reiji leaps /up,/ his heels pressing flat against the glass facade of a nearby skyscraper. In his hand is... A shotgun?

He kicks off the surface. The window shatters, raining crystal shards down on the battleground below. Reiji pivots mid-leap-- where his trajectory seems set, it suddenly shifts as he pulls the trigger. Hollywood roars, firing tight bursts of blessed buckshot down between the storm of glass as Reiji leaps from building to building.

Is he just probing her defenses, or does he have... Something else in mind?
Xiaomu And they just levelled up. Hard. Xiaomu swallows a bite of fried tofu, and calls out over the clash of swords, the crash of gunfire, and the smash of shattering glass, "Don't get too fired up, you two! I know you're both incredibly badass -"

For humans, a piece of her brain interjects, but she doesn't give voice to it. Besides, Setsuko's half war goddess or something.

"- but we don't have the kind of medical tech we used to!" Xiaomu finishes trying to remind them.
Setsuko Kaminagi     "Of course," Setsuko replies, swinging the now-massive form of Zanjintou around herself before resting it against her shoulder for the moment. "It starts for real now, doesn't it."

    There's a brief moment where she turns to look in Xiaomu's direction. "I can regenerate. And Reiji..." Pause. "...I can stop myself at the last moment if need be."

    But up goes Reiji. The swirling mists make it impossible to properly track him, but Setsuko doesn't need her sight to do so. She has her ears, her nose, even her sense of touch. Where he leaps up, the swordswoman moves as if she can track him full well, and quickly shifts herself behind Zanjintou's bulk to let the blessed pellets and shards of glass glance off its width. She can feel... something, in the flow of battle; a potential trap, or at least a plan. But it's not in her nature to shirk. He might be trying to lure her airborne... so why not?

    Up she goes. Zanjintou suddenly snaps to its katana form, and the demigod launches herself into the air. There'll be no masking her presence, but her size and maneuverability at least make her a harder target. And as she goes up, the swordswoman turns, divine power flooding the sword's blade - until her index and middle finger suddenly run down the length and back in a swift movement, setting all of that power spinning, compressing it down, compacting it. And then-

    "DENKOUSEKKA!"

    -she thrusts, launching the projectile straight down at Reiji, only to follow in behind it at a straight-ahead charge.
Reiji Arisu "Of course. Everything that came before this was just the opening act." Reiji answers with a confident smirk, "Now it's time for the main event." Unlike Setsuko, however, he is just a mortal man. The best he can hope for is that the Paladins might be able to stitch him back together if things get too... intense. That's almost a guarantee at this point, however. Xiaomu knows exactly how he can get with... This sort of thing.

    Reiji's aerial bullet ballet seems to do little more than annoy Setsuko. Her sword is more than large enough to provide the demigod with ample cover, and there's little to impede her ascent other than seemingly frantic blasts of buckshot. Reiji seems to be firing wildly-- almost as if he's panicking.

That alone should be enough to send up alarms for Xiaomu.

...But perhaps not for the reasons one might think.

    Setsuko sweeps upward. Her divine power shines brilliantly- almost blindingly- against Shibuya's thick fog. The Denkousekka tears through the air, and Reiji seems like a helpless target. He grunts, turning to fire Hollywood one last time. The bolt of divine power smashes into the space he used to be, pulverising concrete, glass and steel alike. When the clouds clear, there's nothing left of the exorcist.

It's then that Setsuko might notice.

    The bullet holes.

They're not where they should be.

The pellets of Reiji's shotgun blasts don't line up with the way he was aiming. Something is wrong. Space. /Space/ is /wrong./ His aim wasn't so OFF out of desperation. He was /mapping twisted space./

But... He had to have received that hit, right?

No.

That presence.

Above!?

    Reiji looms, inexplicably, right above and behind the swordswoman. His arsenal is gripped tight in his /teeth/ and both Chirai AND Karin unsheathed and at the ready in either hand. Unable to declare his own attack, Reiji only roars as he launches into a devastating flurry of blows. Flame sweeps downward, then breaks into tremendous arcs of lightning. Blades are hidden within a veritable thunderstorm-- but where one would expect clouds, there is only roiling fire.
Xiaomu Okay, you know how Xiaomu was standing off to the side and watching?

She's not there any more. Reiji going rapid-fire with his shotgun is enough for the sage fox to vacate Setsuko's vicinity in a *BIG* hurry, not even running so much as LEAPING up, back, and away, her staff twirling behind her as she conjures a chunk of ice in mid-air, alights on it ever-so-briefly, and leaps further in the split second before gravity can yank that momentary foothold out from under her.

She might have taken advantage of a passing flux in space-time to do that, too, but odds are Setsuko's too focused on Reiji to pay attention. Either way, Xiaomu finally alights on the railing of a fire escape, crouching there and steadying herself with her staff, braced against the adjacent railing behind her, around the corner from where her sandals balance on the structure. She's almost a dozen floors up, but she's still watching as Reiji cuts loose.

And she STILL has her package of fried tofu, down from the initial five pieces to two remaining. She actually thumbs one of the remaining pieces out far enough to get her teeth on it, and takes a further bite without taking her eyes off the two fighters. Setsuko better be right about her endurance *and* her skill.
Setsuko Kaminagi     Setsuko dives in right after her strike, only to find empty air. Her strike carves through nothing, and she immediately realizes - and immediately goes on her guard. Turning, shifting-

    There!

    Down he comes with a roar, and Setsuko is ill-prepared enough to only /just/ manage to get a rudimentary guard up. She manages to turn aside direct hits, but the blaze and crackle of twin elements is getting past her defenses. Scorching her arms, shocking her. The demigod can only grit her teeth and focus, falling back on her divine instincts and her human experience to weather the storm. Back, back, back she's driven - until boots touch ground again, forcing her to plant.

    But then there comes a brief, fleeting moment, where Reiji will realize Zanjintou is pointed right at him.

    SNAP.

    The sudden extension is calculated, as much 'a play to give herself some breathing room' as it is 'a strike at the exorcist'. If it works, she'll take a leap backwards, landing in a guarded stance and holding, for the moment.
Reiji Arisu     The disaster that shattered Shibuya's dimensional foundations has had a long-lasting impact on the city of Tokyo. That profound failure has seen Shinra's agents seal the entire district away; only a scant few individuals outside of the secret organization are even allowed enter Shibuya anymore.

But sometimes, just sometimes, the field skills one acquires patrolling the City of Quakes have their advantages.

    Reiji whirls through his flurry, the pressure building and building until... Until Setsuko decides to use YET MORE SWORD BULLSHIT. The exorcist growls, kicking back-- too late. The Zanjintou's tip hews into the muscle of Reiji's shoulder. Blood sprays against the concrete and paints the fog red. The exorcist hisses a curse and rolls, tumbling back through the air before skidding to a stop just a foot from a solid, concrete wall.

    Reiji grunts, sliding his blades back into their sheathes. He surges to motion, sprinting into a strafing run along the length of the wall. His hands are full of /gun./ Reiji growls around the handle of his mobile arsenal as Gold roars solid slugs of enchanted, steel-jacketed lead downrange. His other hand is busy with Hollywood's cartridge-- Apparently even exorcists need to reload.
Setsuko Kaminagi     With Zanjintou, a stance typically involves the blade either completely vertical or parallel to the ground in some direction. It's difficult to bring the weapon around to actively guard against attacks when it's at full size, save for the basic 'using it for shelter'. In this case, she has too little time, and Reiji has the advantage of momentum. So she decides to put her other capabilities to work instead.

    She moves right into the barrage.

    One bullet hole opens, two. For an ordinary person this would be far beyond the bounds of a duel, but in Setsuko's case, it's a couple days' pain. The demigod breaks into a full-on charge, right along the ground beneath Reiji, until at last she suddenly hurtles upward, swings - and carves out the side of the building he's dashing along.

    It proves to be only the first strike of a barrage. The massive divine blade whirls and whips, slung around with a force and speed only someone of her strength could manage. Neither building nor pavement so much as slow down a blade that sharp and that heavy, and with her flight she's able to bring it to bear from just about any direction, filling Reiji's world with supernatural steel. Her strikes seem specifically aimed to drive him downward - to push him down towards the ground. Until at last she sees an opportunity-

    "Zanjintou-!"

    And descends.

    "SHIPPU DOUTOU!"

    Down comes the immense weapon, with all Setsuko's strength and the speed of her fall behind it. Forget a person, that blade will split the street apart if it hits... but if Reiji doesn't get out of the way, it will, true to her word, stop just short of his skin.
Reiji Arisu How could a human hope to stand against a demigod?

    Setsuko's speed and power are incredible. Peerless beneath the the heavens, Setsuko's sword breaks the sound barrier at the apex of its swing. Reiji yells, thrown perhaps not by the blade itself, but by the tremendous shockwave that reverberates from even the first of Setsuko's blows.

    Her blade cleaves into the concrete, turning concrete to mere specks of dust. But that's just the first one. It's the second that's truly devastating. The Zanjintou descends from on high, falling like the fist of a wrathful deity. The structure behind Reiji buckles and shatters, glass falls like rain. Her weapon buckles the skyscraper, the enormous tower actually being forced to /lean/ before the power of her strike. The exorcist struggles to his feet in the mere moments before impact. Setsuko strikes an emergency water main. Hydraulic force blasts a jet of freezing water into the street.

The final blow draws near. Reiji feels the raw force even preceeding the blow blast him to a knee.

But.

His hand is...

In the water?

"Soshite, Kin wa --"

    Setsuko would feel it. The air seems to /reverberate./ The slugs of buckshot in the concrete walls. The lingering plumes of flame and smoke. The electronic noise still charging the air. The steel of Reiji's shots THROBBING in her chest, even as her own blade trembles in her hand. The water shivers all around her.

The sequence.

This whole time, he was going for the SEQUENCE.

    Reiji smirks beneath the pressure of her blow. A counter-force inexplicably builds around the battlefield. The exorcist roars as the water suddenly flashes brilliant, vibrant BLUE. "MIZU NO UMU!"

                             -SHINRA BANSHOU!-                              

    To Setsuko, it seems as though the very fundamental forces of the world have risen up, creating a tremendous, crushing spiritual pressure centered in the space immediately around her. And then, in the final sliver of time that it takes for the Zanjintou to fall to Reiji's shoulder, in the time it would take for Setsuko to stop...

Reiji would, too.

At the very last moment, the pressure would abate, and the air around her would no longer feel as though it was about to explode.

Though the facade of a building approximately half a mile down the road /would./ You can't build that kind of power without it having a release, after all.

A... Double knockout?

Or a double game of chicken?
Setsuko Kaminagi     It is only in that last moment, that Setsuko Kaminagi looks well and truly /surprised/.

    But it is certainly a sight to see.

    All that force, the twin, furious attacks, both come to a stop. The demigod lets out a breath, and Zanjintou snaps one last time as its grip and crossguard both return to normal. "...splendid indeed," she finally says, returning the weapon to its sheath with a practiced movement. "A pity we couldn't do that sooner. Or more often." As calm and fatalistic about war and soldiering as she might be, Setsuko has long since embraced the side of her that is alive in a fight.

    Her wounds having already stopped bleeding almost entirely, Setsuko takes in a slow breath, and then turns her eyes skyward. "...I have many challenges ahead of me in the coming weeks. Great enough that even I don't know if I'll survive them. I must kill a king, to obtain my vengeance, and to unshackle my homeland. And then a god, as repayment for the gift of Zanjintou." Her eyes close. "...but if I do survive, we will meet again, Reiji Arisu."
Reiji Arisu     The force of two incredible blows... dissipate into the haze. Reiji stands for a moment longer-- and then he falls promptly onto his back end with a reserved grin on his face. "It's not as good as when Xiaomu and I do it. The balance of forces isn't right, and she's better at the finishing blow than I am, besides," the Exorcist gestures with the slight, uncertain wobble of one hand. "But it got the job done. That Shippu Doutou was incredible as well. Well done."

A shame.

Yes, it is a shame. It's a shame that they didn't do this more back when they had the chance. But...

Well. At least they were able to do it once. Even once is better than never at all.

    The exorcist takes long, refreshing breaths from his place beneath the shattered building. His clothes are soaked, he's bruised black and blue and he's bleeding from one shoulder. But all told, that's about as much as he can hope for against a literal demigod of war. He doesn't interrupt-- Setsuko has much to tell him. Much to say. The exorcist's arsenal clatters as she finishes and he rights himself.

    "...If you don't survive, we'll drag you out of the underworld ourselves, Setsuko Kaminagi" he answers, then, with certain gravitas. "You know that we would come and help you, if you would only ask us to." It might put them in a difficult situation, with the Paladins as they are, but...

A friend is a friend, after all.
Setsuko Kaminagi     "The Shippu Doutou is based on an old Kaminagi-ryu technique. Risky, to leap up and bring your sword down. Lots of openings. ...But Zanjintou's size and my strength made it work better than it would have otherwise. It also formed the basis for my Ittou Ryoudan."

    There is silence, and there is an answer. One that needs a reply of its own. "I know," Setsuko replies, a small smile on her face. "Which is precisely why I don't ask. Until next we meet, Reiji Arisu. Be it in this life or the next." And so the swordswoman rises into the air, taking to the sky.