Waiting and watching

Ketsuta quietly stalked through the garden, keeping in whatever small shadowy areas she could find, looking for the one person she knew would be here. she could feel her there....she smiled wickedly. she would put her plan into action. she might not be quite strong enough to go up against the whole school--not yet---but she could at least do some damage while she was still around. she grinned whens she spotted the person she was looking for. she took a deep breath, and focused--slowly, the dark blue of her tattoos lightened into a kind of powdery blue--or at least close enough--as did her hair and eyes. her smiled widened, but she quickly hid it as she stepped out of her hiding place to confront her target.



(she made herself look like yuuki---dun dun dun!!!! lol)

Rachael explored the gardens quietly. It was peaceful there. She had been a bit disappointed when she learned that it was a vegetable garden and not a flower garden, but it was still beautiful nonetheless.

She stopped to take an artistic shot of the strawberrys with the camera was now glad she'd remembered to pack. When she got the chance she'd send them to her mother. Whoever was responsible for tending the garden certainly did a good job. Sometimes she forgot to water her mom's plants in the morning before school, then she felt guilty for it all day.

Rachael gave herself a second to think if her mother was still in India or if she'd gone home already. She hoped her dad or her brother or someone was still watering the garden. It'd kill her to find out if her mother came home to a graveyard of flowers.

She looked over her shoulder when she heard someone approaching, then smiled, "Oh, hi Yuuki."

Ketsuta placed a look of sadness and desperation on her face as she quickened her pace to reach rachael more quickly."rachael, you have to come quickly!" she cried out, still a few yards away. "i think its---i think its Leon! he's hurt! i don't know...it was a boy with black wings...." her face was panic-stricken.




by now, she had reached Rachael. and, for just a moment, she held her worried face. then, when she was mere inches from the other girl, she suddenly pulled her arm from behind her back to reveal a dark blue, almost katana-style dagger. in one swift motion, she shoved it into the girl's abdomen. "ahh, poisons are a wonderful thing, aren't they, rachael? this particular one, on the edge of the blade, is mixed with a sleeping potion, and a poison made to freeze you in place from the inside. nasty, isn't it? sleep well, dear." as soon as Rachael had fallen to the ground, she waved her hand, and an ice prison surrounded the girl. then, ketsuta sat back, and waited.

Rachael's face grew concerned at the mention of Leon, and she stood, ready to move wherever Yuuki said he was.

But Yuuki's face changed once she got to her and suddenly Rachael felt a pain in her side. She didn't know what it was at first, but looking down she saw a knife being held into her abdomen by Yuuki's hand. Yuuki had just stabbed her? Why?

Then Yuuki began talking about poisons, but her voice was different. She watched as blood came out from the wound. For a fleeting second she wondered if the school harvested the vegetables in this garden to be used in meals. She didn't want her blood to get all over the strawberries...

Oww. It hurt now. She fell back, then was cold.

Now Rachael and a girl that Leon guessed was Ketsuta, though her hair was a lighter color mor like the ghost girl's, were in sight. He could see Ketsuta approaching Rachael and forced himself to go faster if it were at all possible. His wings began to ache at the effort.

"Rachael!" He called out, trying to ward her away from Ketsuta. Then he saw ice and knew it was too late. What was done, was done.

Now he was coming in too fast. He lowered himself in the air, trying to slow a bit, then used the ground to skid to a stop. He saw the mess of ice that Ketsuta was sitting in front of and found himself hoping to the Angel God - Theonil of all people! - that she was still alive.

"What the hell did you do to her?" He demanded.

Ketsuta looked up at Leon's outburst, her hair color returning to its dark navy as she did--she had been squatting in front of the ice prison. " ah, hello. are you enjoying the spell book?" she glanced behind leon and spotted yuuki, who was trying to stay back a bit---she had a feeling that she could be pulled into the crystal again at any moment.

ketsuta grinned. "yuuki...you look good as a ghost. she set her hands on her hips pointedly. "calm down, romeo, she's just knocked out....and can't move. ah, yuuki i would stay away from her if i were you. i dont' think she will like you much when she wakes up. after all" her hair went back to the powdery blue, and her voice changed to match yuuki's sweeter tone--"you did this". it sounded so sickening to hear such a sentence said in her voice, that yuuki could no longer hold it in. she gave an angry, reptilian snarl, like none she had ever made before---it seemed to rip right out of her throat, and her eyes blazed wildly, like an animal's.


ketsuta simply chuckled, her hair and tattoos returning back to their normal color once more.

Leon shook his head. He didn't care about these girls and the stupid quarrel. All he cared was that he got his point accross. It was time he started.

"Listen," he said forcefully, "I don't care what you do to the people in this school. I don't care what you do to this school in general. Hell, the harder it goes down, the better. I don't care what your plans are, or what you're after. But, when you hurt Rachael, you threaten me. If anything happens to her while she's here with me, they're going to blame me," he didn't specify who "they" were. It wasn't important. "So." he put a hand in his hoody pocket, "Do what it is you want to do, but don't threaten me." Now he delivered his ultimatum, pulling the pendant out of his pocket, "Because if you do, I'm going to make sure you never get access to that body again."

He held the pendant next to his face. He didn't say anything about it, but this warning could also be directed to Yuuki. If she got in his way, at any time, then it was a promise that she'd never see her body again.

yuuki looked at the pendant in a sad and nervous kind of way--she'd already accepted the fact that she may not ever return to her body, but to actually hear the threat.....she looked off to the side before moving back inside her prison. she just sort of...faded away. she new that if she stayed outside of it, she would just get dragged along during any fight that might happen, and besides, she was getting weak, and needed her energy in case leon did decide to get the pendant back around ketsuta's neck. yuuki knew it would be the only way to stop her, but she could also see that leon didn't care much about what ketsuta did at all. she felt like crying. she'd already accepted it but...it was her body!




ketsuta just snorted. "i just managed to take control of this body from Yuuki. do you really think that i would try to take the whole school down right away? no. i'm not that stupid, and i haven't gained enough energy yet. and i know that i may not have a lot of time to do what i need to do, either. so, first off, i'm going to punish yuuki for keeping me in hibernation for so long, thank you very much." a low growl escaped from her lips before she spoke. "at this point, i don't care what you do to me--it'll be yuuki that will feel the bruises of it in the morning, i'm sure. i don't care if i never get out again, because i will have gotten what i wanted. yuuki will be hated, and it will be very fun to watch!"

plus, there was the fact that the stronger leon got, and the more he read from that book, the stronger she would get as well. if all went according to plan, she would have access to this body again. there was no way that leon could rid her from the body, because she resided in the tattoo on yuuki's back--the only one leon could get rid of was yuuki herself. she almost laughed at the irony, since it was in fact, yuuki's body. the scientists that had set it all up had been such idiots!

Leon looked off to the ground and chuckled. She had just told him all that. It would be a peice of cake to prevent any of it from happening.

"Well, from what I know of Yuuki at this point, I get the feeling she wouldn't mind the bruises as long as you were out of her body." He placed the pendant back in his pocket as Yuuki vanished, "As for Rachael, well I'm sure you've realized that she's not the type to be angry at anybody. All I would need to do is explain what happened and she'd easily forgive Yuuki, probably even sympathize with her. She believes anything I say, even if it's all lies. Believe me, Ketsuta, I'm very good at manipulating things to go the way I want."

The funny part was that Ketsuta was just letting all this information out freely. That made his job ten times easier. He didn't have to waste time trying to figure what exactly she wanted. Though he understood that it couldn't have been all she was after, the way she'd worded, how she said as long as these were true, she'd be happy. Well, it was very easy to prevent those things from happening.

Ketsuta chuckled lightly. ah, she hated not being able to go full tilt on all of the, but she had to keep Leon going. as long as he thought she wasn't any trouble, he would think nothing of continuing to study from the book. jeeze, even yuuki seemed clueless. she didn't care about the girl in the ice--and although it would have been nice to ruin yuuki's life, it figured that that wouldn't work, anyway. i mean, the girl had been hanging out in a vegetable garden.


"so, what exactly are you planning to do then? you talk tough, but i'm not seeing any action here." she smiled, and tapped the ice prison. "if you don't hurry your little butt up, the temperature in this thing will start to drop quite a bit. she may be an angel, but i'm pretty sure that the cold would at least bother her....or...." she pulled a silver chain out of her pocket. "i could just drop this in there, i supposed...being as you don't seem to care enough about her to act."[/color]



(yeah, ketsuta is just mean. sorry!!!! she has to be....and i'm not always very good at the diabolical demon dragon spirit thing -_-;)

Leon took the pendant back out of his pocket. He didn't care that situation could still be salvaged. Pulling out the silver chain had just turned it serious, and Leon wasn't one to be toyed with anyway. Feign would definitly noticed if Rachael got silver-scarred.

He didn't say anything now, just walked quickly right for Ketsuta, pendant in hand. He didn't care what she did from here. He had already decided that he wouldn't allow Ketsuta to remain. Silver wouldn't affect him, though he didn't give himself the chance to look for any gold. With one hand, Leon opened the clasp of the pendant, and continued, picking up speed as he did, towards Ketsuta.

"hmmm....well, at least you're doing something. let's see what you know, shall we?" she raised her hand as he came for her, and a wall of water headed toward Leon, to wrap around his limbs and freeze him in place. she figured it wouldn't detain him much...she just felt slightly bored with him just walking toward her...



(short post -_-)

As soon as Leon felt the ice on his skin his summoned his energy to either hand and forced it up his arms. It burned his skin, but, with as often as he'd been doing it recently, it practically healed instantly. He got it just far enough to melt the ice on his arm.

Now he tried to move the energy through his veins down to his legs, something he knew was possible, but that he'd never actually done himself. It didn't work; he needed to train himself more.

He put a hand on the ice between his feet, and summoned more energy, trying to mold it as he did. Four spokes came off of the wispy ball of energy and spiraled around his legs, melting the ice. He'd never even summoned a ball of energy as large as that before. It went to show how much more powerful he was when he was angry. It was a shame he could hardly control himself when he got like that.

Now he closed the distance between making a grab for Ketsuta's shoulder. His plan was to spin her around, kick her to ground and force the pendant back around her neck while causing as little physical damage to Yuuki's body as possible.

('while causeing as little physical damage to yuuki's body as possible' aw, leon, i didn't know you cared ^^ lol.)

Ketsuta snarled at leon's touch, her body temperature dropping dangerously. if any normal human had touched her, they're whole body would have frozen over quite easily (yuuki can do this too, but only when she looses control over her emotions, as she doesn't want to hurt someone like that, intentionally.) her eyes blazed as she was spun, and as this happened, she thrust her foot back hard to catch leon in the gut, her hand flying back to form a sheet of ice meant to slam into his face.



(whoops---short -_-)

Leon doubled over at the kick to the stomach and his face whipped to one side at the other hit. He felt some of the ice stick to his face. He recovered himself quickly and grabbed for Ketsuta's shoulder's again.

He made a move to throw her around his side so he'd be between and her and Rachael.

Aftarwards he reached up to his face, melting the ice with his hand and discarded it behind him, facing Ketsuta again.

((Trying really hard not to godmod, but I also don't want it to be super short waiting for a response. If the second paragraph isn't successful then just ignore the third XD))

Ketsuta growled, and hit the ground on her back. she chucked her dagger at leon, and then raised her arms, and thrust them at him. sharp, shards of ice followed, aiming for his chest. she rolled, attempting to get back on her feet.


(its okay, just as long as you don't fully godmod or anything. i know it can be a pain waiting for responses in certain threads ^^. mine will still be short, though, most likely)

Leon turned sideways, cocking his head back a bit, to avoid being stabbed in the face by the flying dagger. It richocheted off the ice prison behind him, landing uselessy just to it's left, well out of reach of either of them.

He didn't have time to react when the ice shards appeared and instead of ideally jumping out of the way, he moved his wings between himself and Ketsuta, using them as a sheild of sorts. It was something that had practically become instinct in cases where he had to defend himself, unless gold was involved. He'd rather be gold-scarred anywhere else but his wings.

Leon let out a cry of pain when the shards hit. One, slightly higher than the others, made it over his wing and embedded itself just under his collarbone.

He recovered quickly, letting his wings out straight to their full 12-foot length. Leon ran to close the distance between himself and Ketsuta, retacting his wings as he did. It hurt when the ice passed into his back, but it would melt inside his body and the injuries would be healed up by the time he needed his wings again.

Now he moved to takle Ketsuta and pin her to the ground, pendant sitll in hand.

Before ketsuta could get any proper footing, leon had fallen on her. she hit the ground face first, feeling the stones of the garden cut into lip and cheek. ugh...even partially human bodies are so weak and useless.

in reality, yuuki's body was stronger than that---such a face plant would have never really've effected her much. but yuuki had just enough energy left as ketsuta had been taking over to shut off her bodies "defense/healing systems". right now, her body was more human than anything. the main point of this was because yuuki could withstand much more pain than ketsuta, being as the latter had been locked in the dark for so long. yuuki didn't care at all what happened to her body, as long as she got it away from ketsuta.


ketsuta wriggled, but she couldn't get out from beneath leon. stupid useless body! she though again. she had seen yuuki get out of situations like this---why couldn't she do it??

Leon held Ketsuta's arms behind her back with his foot, so he wouldn't have to deal with them. She was struggling and he wasn't in the mood for it. He looped the pendant around her neck, pulling up just a bit to try and stop her from struggling for just a second, but avoiding any strangulation. Finally he fastened the clasp of the pendany and stood.

Leon reached up and the ice shard out of his collarbone, cringing. He watched it melt in his hand; it had been a big one. Now he shook the water off his hand and walked ovver to the ice prison. "Take it down," he ordered Yuuki.

ketsuta's/yuuki's body twitched in a horrible, spasmadic way when the pendant touched her flesh. yuuki felt herself become more substantial, just before she began to push back into her body. ketsuta snarled at her, but yuuki was raging---ketsuta had hurt rachael, and yuuki, by nature, was extremely protective. they fell to the ground, twitching, their hands grasping the sides of their head. the tattoos were half blazing cobalt, and half raging navy. suddenly, yuuki shot her head back, her eyes flaring open. "GET. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD!!!!!!" the bright blue raged throughout her body, finally reaching her eyes, and the tips of her wings.


at the same instant, the ice prison suddenly burst. the shards went flying straight outwards, but before they reached Leon, they froze in place, then melted instantly, splashing to the ground ((the vegetables will certainly get watered now ^^)). Yuuki slumped, falling to her hands and knees, another shake rocking her body painfully. Leon's need to save Rachael was definitely helping, but ketsuta was still trying to fight her way back. yuuki panted heavily, her eyes shooting up to leon. "take rachael and get out of here already!" she growled. she was shaking painfully, so much so that she her hands slid out from under her slightly, her face nearly meeting ground again as she gasped for breath. she wouldn't last long...but she had to stay conscious until leon left


((lack of pronouns....bah! it makes it sound so weird))

Leon's instinct took over again when the ice prison was destoryed. He quickly released his wings again using them to sheild himself, even though the ice melted before it reached him. It was a good thing too, he had been too close for his wings to make it in time.

He took his time, walking toward Rachael's heap of a body, not caring that Yuuki was rushing him. He crouched beside her, looking curiously at the bloodstain on her shirt. It looked like it was still bleeding but...

Leon muttered a swear then, after lifting her shirt to see the wound, repeated it more loudly. The stab wound hadn't healed. Leon was used to his energy healing him almost automatically, but he wasn't sure Rachael had ever even done it before, and certainly not enough for it to happen instantantly.

Leon picked up her limp body now. She weight about 110 pounds. It would most likely strain his gold-scarred wing, but shouldn't be a problem for him to fly otherwise.

Once he airborne, he flew back towards the castle, leaving Yuuki in her battle with Ketsuta, not even looking back.

Yuuki twitched painfully on the ground as Leon took his time. she felt like Ketsuta was trying to claw her way right out of the tattoo. her brain was beginning to go fuzzy.....she let out a low wail of pain, her hair glowing more brightly.


as soon as leon had left, her body seemed to relax a bit. for a moment, she just sort of stayed there, panting---just before she collapsed to the ground, completely passed out from the exertion.



((i'm hoping someone else will show up, but if not, i'll just have yuuki wake up and go back to her dorm or something XD))

Jami had been out for a flight and suddenly became shocked. Leon was flying by with a girl in his arms, "Hey!" She called at the boy she dispised. "What are you doing with that girl!"

Jami flew over in his path and fluttered her wings to keep her in the air. A quick glance over the girl in his arms showed she was injured. She glared at leon but flew closer. "What did you do!" RAge crossed her face. Jami pulled the girls shirt up a bit and saw a straight cut would, nothing completely messy. Probaly a two day heal at most but wait... poison maybe the most a week. "She needs my help." She gave leon a serious look. She knew what she was doing, and he had to understand that.

Leon stopped abruply at Jami's approach. The effort strained his gold-scarred wing and he grimaced in pain. Rachael wasn't that heavy, but she was heavy enough for him to feel the pain of the scar on his downward strokes. It was probably that angry red again, how they always turned whenever he strained them.

Leon responded to rage with rage, "Why the hell would I care to get her blood all over myself if I did this to her Jami?!" Then he put on a serious face as well. He didn't want herr help. "She's an angel. She'll be fine. Move."

He knew it probably would have been in his best interest to accept Jami's help. The faster Rachael healed, the more likely the incident was to go unnoticed by Feign or Theonil.

Jami was surprised, angels and demons where everywhere now weren't they. She angerly looked at Leon. "I am a healer idiot. That wound wont heal as fast as you may think. Months maybe with out my help!" She exaggerated a bit but Jami wanted to help the poor girl. If it was Jami she knew she'd hate being carried by Leon. Jami readied her self to take on this girl. Leon needed to trust her, even though it was probably quite hard to when the person who wishes to help is your enemy.