Originally Posted by A bleeding past, yet…
"Hey now, don't interrupt a duel."
A calm, almost lazy female voice, drifts in from right beside you, so close, that the hand that grips your uniform and casually rips you away from the woman with impossible brute force strength just seems to be natural consequence, something a person who had managed to get that close to you without you knowing about it could certainly do with no resistance on your part.
Until she had spoken, you hadn't even known she was there, but recovering yourself as you hit the ground, dispelling the shades that had tried to dog pile you while your back was touching the ground, you see the woman throwing away a black cloak, revealing herself as one of the people who had, up until a moment before, been fighting with your teacher.
"Honestly, kids these days... Although if he had hit you, it would have been your fault Aika-san. Quit fighting so cocky, if you don't take it seriously, they'll probably get a lucky hit in. Would hate to have to carry you back to base because you got yourself cut in half."
Quite a few ESPers were that sort of human, take away their powers, and they'll just shrug it off and keep going anyway, moving forward even as their body rapidly reverts from that of a demigod to a human.
Just like the boy who was refusing to give up, who even now was moving forward, notably slower than before, but with renewed determination, dancing a dance of blades through the crowds of spirits on his way to her, uncaring about the fact that he was forcing a dying body far beyond it's limits. It must hurt, watching him as he approaches, her blade now at her side, the girl's face is emotionless, no longer teasing, just filled with a cold purpose. Steel flashes, cracks, as the group of wraiths in front of her disperses, torn apart by the boy's charge.
He was no longer able to make it through them unharmed...
Bloody streaks on his sides, on his clothes, the boy that was continuing to fight is quickly being forced back towards his limits as a human. Pushing his body like this, in combat, the slow deterioration had become a nosedive towards frailty, as if to compensate for this, the young man simply wasn't guarding his body anymore, only his head was spared any second thought, everything else seemed to have been deemed irrelevant, unnecessary for the goal he sought.
....What was it?
Finding herself curious, the girl only blinks as he appears right in front of her. To a certain extent she is surprised, lost in thought for a moment, thoughts about someone similar to this, an idiot who didn't care about himself, threw everything he had into anything he did until the day he had died... The natural born killer finds herself a step behind in his attacks, he is right there, so close that his attack would be 'close to instant,' even in his current state, and with a sort of morbid curiosity she wonders what form the attack that would cleave her body would look like.
Getting hit was fine, in a way, she was certain she deserved it.
It wouldn't save the boy, she would put him down right after, the Bane Stone would override whatever effect the swords may have, and she would cut him in two right afterwards, before his friends could recover and force themselves into the situation. It didn't even matter if he cut off her arm, she was no stranger to pain, and she would use the moment afterwards to end it. For that reason, while the possibility of defense still exists, the girl doesn't even bother to raise her arms to defend, finding it more efficient to simply leave it to the blade to twist around behind his back and sever his spine.
She doesn't even need to move.
It's already over.
It has been for a while.
And while she would like to dance for a little bit longer, their leader needed their presence, and-
And...
"..."
The attack she had expected, relished in, does not appear.
Arms wrapped around her body, the technique that has appeared is not one meant for violence. It's a hug, not even a grapple, a show of affection that should not be shown to an enemy, and one that distorts her thoughts once more, once again thinking back to someone else, someone who also would have been this much of an idiot, who had gotten himself killed doing things like this, and who...
And who-
"...Sorry kid. Something came up."
-Was the reason she was doing all of this in the first place.
---
Even though the world was falling to pieces, there was someone who had yet to abandon the woman once known simply as Aika. Darting around on broken debris, leaping from rock to rock even as they fall, the woman that defies gravity again and again, a blur of motion that refused to fall into the darkness of the sea below, was the person that the possessed ESPer had once called her best friend.
Eyes alight with flame, the woman called Usagi attacks her friend at godspeed and is denied, her body arcing through the air, she flips, landing on the remains of a metallic beam, one that crumbles as she pushes off of it, gives chase, eyes burning with what observers could only call an actual light, her spiritual power rampaging around her endlessly, raging without the use of a Bane Stone.
They had gotten along soundlessly, partners who didn't speak much, but had shared their dreams and fears with each other nonetheless. A girl that was afraid of giving into her murderous impulses, and a girl who accepted everyone around her no matter what, they had saved each other many times, they had come to blows many times, there were certain things about each other that they could call annoying, but in terms of partners, they would also refuse to accept anyone else.
It was a strange relationship that had been born from simple chance, but here, at the end of a world, it's one that bears fruit.
---
You were continuing to do bizarre things, and she had no real intention of getting attached in any way.
Indeed.
It was an absolute refusal, and thus, sensing that another hug was approaching rapidly, the young woman has already decided to counter by catching you. If she does that, then it is not a hug, it is a princess carry, and she will be the one in the dominant position; as this is more fitting of her personality and image, she is far more okay with that outcome than some over-affectionate kid making her flash back to happier days with a younger brother.
---
"I'm not a party kind of person."
While she normally puts up at least a token resistance when you do this sort of thing, the young woman that had figured you would try to do this at some point or another had just accepted it with a sigh of light annoyance.
"Besides, I attacked a good chunk of the people in there with the full intention of murdering them," saying this casually, a bewildered smile crossing her face at the thought, the girl can't help but chuckle, "You all may be a bunch of weirdos that are able to forget that because I've been good, but that doesn't change how awkward it is for me, see?"
For a prisoner, she was simply being treated far too well; and she knew that, and the fact that there didn't seem to be any ulterior motive to it all was so confusing that she was having trouble making sense of it.
She was a dangerous person, very dangerous, even so they had never once tortured her or tried to read her mind, they let her wander around freely if she had an escort, and now they had even let her off of that particular 'leash' for good behavior.
It was weird.
Weirder still, was the vague warm feeling she got from that sort of insane acknowledgement and trust.
"Besides... What's wrong with just watching the moon?"
Eyes close.
"Pretty soon we won't be around to look at it anymore, might as well burn it into my mind now."
“Ahahaha Usami silly, silly on several things! Oooh maybe Usami just likes punishment? As for not being able to see it again if want to do that then you just need to remember what you want and put everything into hugging it, things will work out!”
"That's optimistic of you."
This time she wrestles with you a bit.
Grabbing your wrists when your touchy-feely attitude starts to annoy her a bit, for the first time in the night the tables are turned as she puts you in a friendly headlock out of what seemed to be instinct, a strange look crossing her face after she does it, as if she hadn't quite meant to do it, and instead had simply acted out a series of motions from what must have been a different lifetime.
"The world isn't so nice as to just give you the things you want, just because you want them badly enough."
Even so, her little speech does not falter when her expressions do.
"None of you seem to remember it clearly, but this world doesn't have a future. The Power of Friendship or whatever doesn't always work, didn't work last time, don't see why it would work this time."
She almost sounds sad about it, in spite of the cynicism.