Closed Training in Company? [Assilsa Curare]

[Shouta]

She was not there, but she continued to taunt him. Shouta growled in frustration. The girl had got her game, very well. But the taunting was not fitting. It would not do at all. The monk could feel the pulsing of his heart, he could feel the adrenaline pumping energy into his being. This was his natural state. This was the way Uphis needed him to be when defending his city. But he was not defending the Celestial Seat. He had to remind himself of that when he looked down as he ran into an opening and noticed the kusarigama had somehow come to be in his hands…

He smelled sweat and dust. The dull flaming in his nostrils attested to the hazy late afternoon air. The powdery dirt of the Warfields was so dry from two days without rain that it floated into the air at the slightest touch. He would have to end this game soon, before the change. Pale blue eyes looked up at Syna in her descent from the sky. The girl would have to get in doors as well.

He thought about answering her jibe, the frustration swirling inside of him. She was no monk, a foreign misbeliever. He had nothing to prove to her. Shouta turned and his heart leapt. She was there, staring at him! She certainly was quiet, if nothing else. When the wanted to be. He shifted his stance, projecting fear. She had caught up to him and the look in her eyes did not look welcoming, to say the least. The hairs on his body stood on end and the Vanthan’s eyes shifted to a pale blue color.

“You’re quite good, but aren’t I supposed to be hunting you?” He asked quietly, the chain of his kusarigama glinting in the fading sun.

[Assilsa Curare]

There was one thing that Assilsa had noticed as she had started to watch Shouta, the way he looked at the fading sun. Assilsa had only meet two types of people who would look upon the sun in that matter, someone like her with better eyesight in the dark and someone who relied on the sun. She had only met one of those people before, an Ethaefal.

However he was correct, she had had a slip in control and had begun hunting him instead. Assilsa had been noticing this happening more frequently as she got older. The other side of her seemed to come out more often and she began to wonder whether this was such a good thing. Blinking she straightened.

“You’re not a human, where are your horns? I thought your race had horns”

Slowly walking along the wall Assilsa never took her eyes from Shouta. As the darkness began to come Assilsa could see a lot clearer, she knew, at this current point in time she would look like the scariest predator in Nyka. Her eyes beginning to get that nocturnal glow.

[Shouta]

Very perceptive of her. The immortal monk had no idea how she had guessed his true nature, but she had. Perhaps the girl could see the hesitant way he anticipated the night. The certainly struck an intimidating figure, a full Symenestran against the fading light. But he had seen things in Nyka that went bump a little harder than a spider. He had seen chaos and spite itself crawl forth from the depths of the Aperture’s chasms. Her bite was bad, but he did not expect her to get close enough to him to initiate it.

Shouta kept his face impassive. Years of hiding his emotions even from himself had made him a master of the art. “Come down from there girl. The sun sets and the curfew will be in effect.” He made his voice carry across the open yard to her. He thought it best that he ignore her question. “The real terrors are about to crawl out of the shadows.”

He reached inside his robe and took out the bone crafted amulet around his neck for the second time that day. “But if you aren’t willing to end this game here, I with the help of my fellow monks in the war fields, will have to end it…” He let the amulet drop to his chest in front of his robe. She was certainly an interesting girl. He would have to keep an eye on her in the future.

[Assilsa Curare]

Assilsa didn’t like Shouta’s attitude however he was indeed correct, the two couldn’t risk staying out, however under threat such as that she almost considered forcing them to come and drag them out of the battlefields. Absently Assilsa ran her fingers over the small chains in her ear causing them to tinkle with eerily beautiful tone as they caught the setting sun.

“They don’t know do they?”

Assilsa would love that ability to hide away the ruby eyes, the sharp claw like nails even the fangs. Given the chance she would accept the consequences just to find a simple home among the humans that crowed her. Looking down at the unknown man below her Assilsa considered challenging him once again just to see what would happen, after all he misjudged her greatly she was a predator. Tensing all her leg muscles Assilsa launched off the wall towards Shouta, close enough to look as if she was going for him yet she landed short and ducked.

This was a good idea since it looked as if he would bring the silly weapon down on her fragile body. Steading her rocky landing with both her hands and her feet Assilsa smiled. She had won, over a monk of Nyka. Happy days it was indeed, she definitely had earned the favour he now owed her.

“I do believe I have won a favour from you”

[Shouta]

Shouta snorted, and almost smiled. She really had no idea what she was asking. Her landing was quite remarkable by his standards. But he viewed the game as being rigged from the beginning. Such a one sided contest did not sit well with him. But he would let the youth have her fun. And the bold challenge of the Symenestra had brought fresh excitement to his day. “A favor then. Careful what you wish for girl.”

He glanced at the setting sun and grimaced. His true form would be visible soon. The girl did not, no matter how well she had run away from him, deserve to see his changing. “Don’t let the Aperture suck you up on your way home girl.” He said, only partially joking. Shouta almost never joked, and even rarer was one aimed at the hellish fissure on Nyka. This girl was certainly bringing out a more lively side of him.

He waved and walked away through the high pathways. He was not necessarily going in the direction he wanted, but it was a way to be alone. He did not have a curfew. His night would be spent walking the streets of Nyka, defending the sleeping innocents from the horrors beneath. But those horrors never ran from you.