Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 17, 2015 14:56:44 GMT
Kotone hated politics. It was no secret. That didn't stop the Council from calling on one of their newest wizard saints when they needed something, however. It had been a while; she'd been off limits what with having a kid and everything, but it seemed word of her recent brawl in Cerulean Town had reached them, and that meant she was suddenly available again. It was a bittersweet kind of thing; Kotone was itching to do something again, but at the same time she'd become a bit attached to the child she spent so much time with the last few months.
Basically, balancing her life was harder than she'd imagined it might be just a few years ago. "Things were so simple then," she chuckled to herself. It was a complete lie. Dark guilds had run rampant, the government had been corrupted and hurting its own people, and Kotone had had major family issues to work out. Really, things were a lot simpler now... but they were a lot harder for the dragon slayer to cope with properly.
Kotone shrugged her backpack back up onto her shoulder; it was hanging by a single strap, her right hand keeping it in place. She was wearing the jacket she hadn't worn in a long while, her long black one she'd acquired months before the showdown with Shadow Heart. A white t-shirt and a black skirt, with tall boots were the rest of her clothing she'd worn. Her old Katana she'd used for so long was at home, a new, specially designed magitech katana in its place, specially designed to compact itself by folding up.
"So, where to begin..." When had she started talking to herself? She was going to have to watch that. She was apparently entirely too used to Eri being around to talk to. Kotone already missed Eri. It had been half a day, but that was the longest she'd been away from the baby since... well, since before she was born, technically. At any rate, that wasn't the point. The Council wasn't big on social visits. She now had a task to take care of. The problem was... the task involved several destinations with no clear order she should do things.
Post by Tatsuma Kiryu on Jul 20, 2015 20:28:36 GMT
Tatsuma answered the council's call despite the fact that he was busy being a nomad... or at least that was what he used to be busy doing. Lately he was more doing things for the guild and working around Fairy Tail and Magnolia to try to improve most of the setup. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to do that and be a wizard saint which he was starting to think meant 'council gopher'. Regardless he had someone to watch his kids for him and could go out and work confidently.
Wearing his typical black attire he took each step happily, finally getting to move somewhere and do something. The black shirt he wore bore a symbol of a Yellow dragon with a ruby on its forehead, baggy black pants allowed for freedom of movement, and the long black overcoat kept the blades of Totsuka no Tsurugi hidden and unthreatening.
It was during his walk to this point that he came across a semi-familiar back of the head. She definitely looked different, but he still recognized her for who she was despite her different look. "I want to use some smart ass comment like 'as I live and breath' but um... it didn't seem appropriate." He said. Simply and honestly. It had been a while and he could barely remember most of their interaction since he went by Mystogan.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 20, 2015 20:41:53 GMT
"Lightning Bug?" Kotone, at some point, had picked up on Tatsuma's old nickname before he'd apparently died, come back from the dead, and gone emo for awhile. Kotone had been furious with him when she'd found out who he had been. She'd only just barely restrained herself when she'd discovered it due to how he'd had to deal with his dragon mother. It had been pretty obvious at the time though, and had she not been so influenced by her more even tempered friends by then, she probably would have let him have it anyway.
her jacket swished a bit in the breeze as she turned around, her now icy blue eyes looking him over. Yeah, he looked older. She'd aged much more... gracefully... than some people, it seemed. She didn't look too much different, save her hairstyle and the fact that she actually had a variety of clothing sometimes. Oh, and the eyes. She didn't even think about that anymore.
An impish grin crossed the ice dragon slayer's face as she looked at him. "What, you getting your leash yanked too?" she asked. She was still getting used to the fact that his smell was different than the one that she'd become acquainted with when they were younger. They didn't exactly visit often. Kotone tugged at the black leather choker she still wore around her neck to mock the Council. "Somehow the old government was less needy. Even Dad after he learned I was alive."
Post by Tatsuma Kiryu on Jul 20, 2015 22:03:14 GMT
Tatsu visibly cringed when she used his nickname. By this point now, especially as an adult, he hated that nickname. Still, it was better than some of the names he'd been called in the past. "First off.. no.. just no on the nickname. and since people aren't out digging for my mother I'm guessing you haven't said anything about her." He started, his tone sarcastic and his hand over his eyes. Not a lot of people knew she was still alive or in what condition she was now trapped, but he wasn't just out conversing about it either so that played a role.
"Also yeah because the old government had support and employees... now it has gophers with fancy titles and apparently there's a dragon slayer requirement. Yanking leashes just makes them feel like we're dragons they can control." He said with a shrug and a smile. He was only half joking but he wasn't averse to it either. Any 'fancy title' was going to come with some responsibility. "Did they give you ANY information as to why we're going? Or maybe you feel like having a quick match for old times' sake?" He offered with a jovial flourish. He had been curious as of late who had made better progression.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 20, 2015 23:08:42 GMT
Kotone just laughed aloud at Tatsu's answer to the nickname. So it hadn't stuck, at least. That was probably good. "I could have called you so many other things," she reminded him, placing her hands in her pockets. She regarded him with a confidence and calm that would have only made her half recognizable when they met as teens. "No, I haven't told anyone anything that they didn't need to know. Have I ever seemed the type to go around blabbering everything I see and hear?" she asked in a mock-hurt voice.
"As for the Council, it's just new government pains. They want people they can depend on to make sure things are secure while they learn how to govern." Kotone rolled her eyes. A few years ago she wanted nothing to do with government. She still didn't. "As for what we're doing? It's just an investigation. Someone's overly paranoid, especially if they're sending two of us." She grinned a bit. "Think they'd appreciate the two of us throwing spells all around their new landscaping?"
Post by Tatsuma Kiryu on Jul 20, 2015 23:42:15 GMT
Tatsuma shrugged. "You have nicknames upon nicknames? And yeah you're probably right, but hey I bet we have enough control now to not destroy the entire area. Not sure I haven't fought anything really worthwhile since that whole thing with Nox and the shadow lord. I think it would be fun. Besides it's not we ever cause more destruction than can be fixed. Plus you know you're curious." He teased back. There was enough of his personality from their teenage years to keep him familiar, but he had grown up and both become accomplished mages. He was curious to see just how far they had gotten. "Besides if it's just an investigation it's not like both of us being injured a bit is going to hurt anything. You know we always look at each other through our fists." He added with a chuckle. Most of their meet ups involved them getting into some sort of scuffle. "Plus I hear you have a husband now. I'm almost hurt I didn't get a wedding invite." The grin on his face rang from ear to ear as he teased her about her new life and the like. It wasn't really a big deal to him and it could have potentially been a fiasco. As far as he knew, Kade was still at odds with him and that was not something to have around for a wedding. He'd ask her how her new family life was going.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 21, 2015 1:40:16 GMT
"Am I?" Kotone's grin grew from teasing to that impish one she gained when being cocky. "Next you'll be telling me that I'm not completely confident I'd win." The truth was she wasn't completely confident. While she had her powers greatly augmented, she had had her kid only a few months ago, and had been feeling like she was majorly behind after months of not really having a chance to train - to the point she'd already picked fights with two other people she rather liked just to see how she measured up now that she'd started up again. She was, in fact, in great shape from her almost neurotic level of training.
"We're one for one. You sure your pride can take losing to me?" Her hands traveled from her pockets into a crossed position. It seemed to become slightly windier for a moment as Kotone appraised the much more adult Tatsuma. She'd heard very little about him, truth be told, and hadn't thought to inquire while she was learning how to live a more... normal lifestyle.
He was pretty happy with her response. It wasn't like she hadn't earned her title every bit as much as he had, but unlike Raven or Kotone, Tatsu hadn't gotten a power up from any of the dragons, he would have had to actually kill his mother for that and he wasn't willing to go that far just yet, not before giving her a chance to realize the error of her ways first, or unless Fiore was in some sort of dire trouble that he couldn't bail them out of. As the wind picked up, he prepared himself. There was no point in holding back to far on her to begin with. "I could ask you the same question. Remember I've won one of our battles before too." He said, his eyes narrowing as he began took stock of his surroundings. There was a difference between then and now wasn't just in power level, it was in the way he thought. "Since I seem to have your agreement..." He trailed off, facing his palms forward. "Lightning dragon palm bolt!" He roared as a powerful electromagnetic wave left his hands crossing the ground and lancing toward Kotone as it grew in strength and size. He smirked as it drew closer, preparing to let it explode into a huge electromagnetic wave in the even the actual attack missed so it didn't hurt anything inorganic.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 21, 2015 5:35:33 GMT
Kotone easily leapt the bolt that flew at her feet suddenly, and an ice barrier absorbed the explosion. Kotone didn't attack back, instead just standing there. "Really, Lightning Bug? On the front doorstep? I'd rather them not decide we're a threat and try to arrest us. I have a kid at home, you know. Show a little restraint until we're ready." she rolled her eyes at him, a small grin appearing on her face as she walked over to the courtyard nearby. It was open and free of structures and bystanders trying to walk into the door.
"And for the record, you shouldn't shout the names of your spells," she taunted. Even as she did, the air began to drop rapidly in the area, frost forming all around them in a wide radius. The air itself condensed into sleet, and that sleet instantly to deadly ice. She couldn't afford to hold back against Tatsuma with his unusual magic combination and the amount of practice she could tell he'd had just from looking at him. She'd been out of it for a good long while with kid related things alone. Kotone's icy blue eyes glowed with arcane energy, and the air itself almost seemed to be attacking.
As it did, Kotone's magitech sword came free from its hilt, crackling with energy as it assembled into a proper blade from its compact form in her hand. She charged forward, fully expecting Tatsuma to have an answer to the attack that had torn apart so many shadow heart minions in the final days of Shadow Heart. Using her greatly enhanced speed and strength, she slashed at the man with the blade, hoping to catch him while he was busy with the spell.
Tatsuma took the damage from the cold, allowing it to hit him and deal all the pain and freezing touch it wanted. When she drew her blade though, he could tell that it didn’t possess a specific elemental energy and he smirked as he activated a spell he had simply titles “Be Not” and she shunted himself almost completely into the void, Kotone’s blade passing harmlessly through him. The cold from the ice still hit him, but the restrictive movements and the burning chill did not affect him. With his hand tilted away from her so that she wouldn’t notice the small, fang-shaped void implant in his palm, he slapped her wrist to the side to get her to continue her momentum and shoved forward, aiming to implant the fang into the back of her shoulder, but disguised as a playful shove. The cold started blasting him and freezing his body now though as he came out of the void to interact with Kotone.
”Thanks for the advice!” He retorted, referring to how he had just ghosted through her blade. He just needed to wait and see if the electromagnetic chain took up hold before they continued. If it worked, he would be able to siphon her mana and cast spells in whatever succession he wanted and he could use spells that would have exhausted him without having to worry about it… although unfortunately it wouldn’t exhaust her either.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 22, 2015 4:27:26 GMT
Kotone's blade almost predictably passed through him. She knew he'd likely have answers; if he didn't, she'd be disappointed. Her attacks were neither new nor especially sneaky. She felt the tug of the aetherical tether as he latched on with his magic - a siphon he could use to direct her own magical energy against her. It was a technique she'd heard of before, but never seen. She shouldn't have been able to sense things like this. Was it an effect she'd never known from the fight from Nox?
Kotone severed the energy siphon quickly, but by then Tatsuma likely had enough energy for at least one good attack... assuming he could store it like that. She was unclear with how it worked. "Anytime," she grinned, leaping backward and swinging her arm as if swinging a weapon. instantaneously a kusarigama of ice materialized, flinging from her arms towards him from two directions. Once they missed or made contact, they broke into aetheric dust and she materialized another ranged attack similar to the first from a different angle much faster than the actual weapon could have done.
Post by Tatsuma Kiryu on Jul 22, 2015 12:01:33 GMT
As she severed the link to the void fang he had placed in her he smirked, thinking he had the spell set up correctly. Much to his dismay, the reconnection of the electric link tugged too hard on the fang and it started to slide out. It was a flaw in the spell that he would have to work out for now, but in the interim he had managed to pull enough to supercharge his body with electricity, recharge his metabolism, but they were obviously both on point. As per usual she was an opponent to be taken very seriously. ”Guess I’ll have to try to close this down.” He said, enhancing his speed with a combination of lightning magic, void curtain magic, and muscular enhancements from magic. There weren’t a lot of mages out there that could keep up with his speed and he was capitalizing on it right now.
Still she was not the only one that used kusari-gama and the notion she had also used it was somewhat eclectic. In a flash he summoned his own kusari-gama, a glowing blue electric kama in each hand as he used the chain to trap one side of hers after throwing one of the kama to block the other side. As they broke and materialized into aetheric dust he started to see they had some of the same tactics. Had she learned something from him? Or was it the other way around? In any event, he took the opportunity as the blade dusted in order to summon a small ball of electricity, an arc grenade, as he drew a square on the ground with his foot. He happily tossed the grenade in her direction, allowing it to zip toward her as it attempted to stick to her and get ready to explode.
Almost the instant he threw it her Kama’s materialized again and lanced toward him. Just as they were about to hit, a translucent black, box of energy around him as he took the next instant to summon clones of lightning, each one putting out an electro-magnetic field exactly like his own. He had set his own traps up. If she jumped in any direction but toward him, he would have a lightning clone there, but he disappeared and reappeared, striking each lightning clone as well as himself with a glyph rigged to explode as he closed in on her.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 22, 2015 15:43:20 GMT
Kotone's weapons disintegrated once more as she flung her own spell at the grenade, covering it in a ball of ice that would shield her from the explosion; she was moving faster than Tatsuma would remember, she'd mastered her own speed enhancement spells precisely because of encounters with him and those like him, and she was at this point quite adept at fighting opponents like him.
Tatsuma moved (or possibly teleported?) with great speed, of course, moving towards Kotone with the purpose of winning the fight decisively. The ice dragon slayer was a far more balanced fighter than she'd been when they'd initially encountered each other, focusing on improving her defense. Tatsuma closed in, the glyphs triggering as he'd planned, but she'd answered in turn with armor of ice to shield the damage.
At present, they were doing more damage to the lawn than to each other. It was almost frustratingly impressive to Kotone that they were so close in skill level at this point. She still had her actual blade as well as plenty of magical reserves. She could do this all day if she needed to.
Tendrils of ice moved across the ground at a sonic pace, ice erupting from the ground in an effort to catch Tatsuma by surprise. His two options were to dodge and to block, and she prepared for either as her left hand formed ice shuriken that she threw, attempting to catch him while he was vulnerable. Not a moment was wasted as Kotone tossed her sword aside to form an ice one. Could his displacement spell block elemental spells? She moved to attack again, going straight for the winning blow.
Tatsuma avoided the ground as he used his lightning dragon wing to blast himself high into the sky, avoiding the Kotone altogether unless she had something that would be able to track him all the way up by the clouds. He doubted that anything she had just used was going to do this, a factor he took full advantage of as he used another lightning spell. Electricity burst from his hand and lanced toward Kotone, a powerful violet burst of lightning would follow soon after to strike whatever the smaller bolt struck. As he fell through the sky, he continued to throw spells down at his opponent. Thus far neither of them had taken damage and this was very likely going to get interrupted soon. Another blast erupted from him, this time in the shape of several dragon heads, necks outstretched to consume the girl as he plummeted toward the ground. Yet another spell finally lanced toward the ground, blasting the area with bolts of electricity that continued to gather and grow until it was finally ready to short circuit and explode just as he hit the ground, black dragons of lightning still chomping at Kotone. ”Still alive Ice Princess?” He taunted, finally taking stock of their surroundings. At least the court yard was feeling the pain since it was starting to become apparent that both of them were more or less equal when it came to combat arts. Still, he was having the most fun he had gotten in a while and neither one of them was getting anywhere. They would have to genuinely start trying to kill each other if they were going to do any damage… although most mages watching would probably pick up that they were attempting just that.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 23, 2015 2:43:53 GMT
The smoke cleared after the lightning dragon themed attack that Tatsuma had used after dodging her attack. The female dragon slayer was still unscathed, an ice barrier shattering as she let go of maintaining the spell. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for the concern, Lightning Bug." Kotone brought her hands together, bracing herself as she used her ice dragon roar. She'd learned how to use it from more than just her mouth, though that was the easiest way to form the incredibly powerful beam. With luck, this would throw him off balance. At worse, it would make him feel a little chilly; his attacks had her feeling a little warm, herself. That was about the worst effect he'd had on her though.
Around them, people were starting to scramble; this probably counted as disturbing the peace. No one was willing to just immediately jump in and stop them though, which meant their more powerful members were probably busy. Not that the pair of dragon slayers weren't stronger than most of the templars.
