all these things must come to pass [complete]

[ornithophobia]

Characters:  notexcalibur, ornithophobia, ih8spiders , alphaspider... Also stalwartcane and only7percent . And now with Action seizeyoursouls.
Location: Commercial District
Rating: PG-13ish.
Time: August 10th.  Late afternoon, nearing 5pm.
Description: England's turn to take his medicine -- and a certain person happens onto the scene afterwards. Our villain finds this a serendipitous turn of events, but... In the immortal words of

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<3

[ih8spiders]

Insane. Insane. If he'd been any more lucid he would have found the statement really funny. As it was it already sounded slightly amusing, morbid, dead humor, gallows humor, maybe the man was trying to get him to laugh himself off guard or something, ha-ha-ha but there wasn't room for that anymore, no room for humor in between the despair and fear still running high like a too-taut thread and the anger--

So what was he going to do? He finally had one of his clan's killers in his grasp, and the man wasn't going anywhere, was maybe frightened of him now

Seal his abilities.

What--abilities? He could break the other wrist. No that's not enough it didn't work the last time, maybe for a short time but his targets were too strong and bounced back too easily he just revealed his hand and all his abilities uselessly kill him.

Kill him instead. NOW.

Kurapika gave the man another blow 'round the temples, this time to shut him up, and since he couldn't find his kan and he couldn't materialize his chains no matter how hard he tried to concentrate, his free hand joined the other one already wrapped around the pale throat.

He bore down and started squeezing.

Guess who wrote this tag days in advance.

[alphaspider]

The past few days had gone by excruciatingly slowly for Kuroro, stuck in Kurapika's unit as he had been, with only a few trips to his room now and then to fetch clothes and books. The effects of the fear gas had faded away enough that it was only affecting his nerves and sense of smell, but sleeping was a challenge in itself and with nowhere to go and the network moving rather slowly, Kuroro was finding less and less things to kill time with. Not a desirable situation for someone like him.

He had been sitting on the balcony rails, feet hanging over the side of the building, when England's SOS signal had appeared on the network. Kuroro looked out into the city where he pinpointed the signal was coming from and considered the distance. Three days ago, Rhode had still been a meister and he could have reached the place in the span of time it took to blink. On foot, though, anything under ten minutes would probably be considered fast.

But England wasn't his business. His networking did not extend to Prussia's partner yet, and now wasn't the time to start when his mind had been in fragments just days ago. From what he'd seen of the man, England would be difficult to befriend although not too hard to fool.

Instead, Kuroro thought of other matters - no doubt England had been attacked by Crane, maybe England even managed to subdue him. Crane was just an incredibly lucky bastard, when all was said and done. If he had been caught, then should Kuroro visit him in jail? Was Shibusen going to execute him? Or would his death be in the hands of the guests?

Kuroro was musing about the possible outcomes of Crane's capture when the network picked up another SOS signal, this time Kurapika's. Kuroro jumped to his feet and would have fallen off if instincts hadn't made him hold on to the rails for balance. That shouldn't have startled him, if he thought about it, the toxin's effects aside. Kurapika wasn't like him, would have picked up on England's signal and come to the rescue. His stupid weapon and his questionable sense of justice. Kuroro flung himself from the fifth floor balcony, catching himself with a hand on the third floor rails (the unit then empty), before continuing the drop to the ground. He landed in a crouch, and then he was sprinting for the location on the map.

His stupid, stupid weapon. It was one thing for Kuroro to deliberately ask for a dose (or three) of the toxin; his and Kurapika's personalities were built differently -- he did not fear, not exactly. Kuroro wasn't one to hope, but this time, he wished fervently that Kurapika hadn't been gassed yet. Too many issues and repressions, too many fears, too many ghosts. All of his hard work to stabilize the blond emotionally and get Kurapika used to him, gone in a blink and maybe with Kurapika's mind with it.

Not to mention that Crane was surely going to die, although it was a small detail compared to the consequences of the fact that killing would be credited to Kurapika. It would be good for Kuroro if Crane accidentally met his death in the form of one berserk Kuruta, but the amount of damage that would do to the blond's psyche and their partnership would be near-irreparable. Kurapika wasn't a killer like Kuroro, was incapable of taking a life even if it was that of his parents' murderer without his conscience working on overdrive. Kurapika was probably harboring the thought that because Crane hadn't killed anyone here yet, hadn't raped and eaten the souls of children like Adachi, that Crane was still redeemable. Funny how Kuroro fell into the latter category given how their world operated, but Kurapika was his victim and he couldn't blame him anymore than Kuroro could start regretting his actions. The Ryodan did as the Ryodan was wont to do, and they never dwelled on the past.

da da da.

[alphaspider]

He took to the streets in a run, feeling his heart race as images of his childhood flashed for a moment in his mind. The toxin was still there, probably wouldn't get flushed out completely for some time yet, but it was easy to deal with now that he had a good hold on his sanity and himself. Two minutes and he'd crossed half the distance needed to reach his target. Kuroro took as many shortcuts as he could remember mapping out in his head, but the remaining half of the run still took three. Goddamn BREW and its bad timing to take Rhode's meister ability away. Briefly, he berated himself for failing to inform Kurapika of it - had the Kuruta deliberately put himself in a position of danger thinking that Kuroro could be there immediately if things went wrong? The thought was both pleasing and worrisome. On one hand, his approach was working, but on the other, Kurapika was also becoming careless in things that Kuroro himself had warned him about.

When Kuroro finally barged into the scene, it was to the sight of Crane on the ground with Kurapika's hands on his neck, eyes red and distant. His mind registered that England was there, but ignored the detail for a moment (what had been the country's fear? Lack of control, maybe. Failure. Loss?). A second later and he was next to the pair, wrapping an arm around Kurapika's chest and the other one prying Kurapika's hands from Crane's neck.

"Kurapika, stop it." Which wasn't really a good thing to say, considering that Kurapika's hallucinations right now were probably about their rather explosive history, but it wasn't like he had better alternatives.

/feels even sorrier for Crane

[ih8spiders]

There were suddenly arms pulling him away from sweet vengeance, and he still had enough presence of mind left to berate himself for failing to keep an eye out for accomplices--of course there would be accomplices, thirteen of them or was it nine the ones he couldn't kill because they found out about how his abilities worked and were too strong for him to face without the element of surprise on his side and

Strong, the hold on him was firm and a lot more solid than the presence he was sitting on this is dangerous he'll have to fight this one, too--

Kurapika let go and twisted around to face the new threat, striking out blindly with an elbow. He couldn't put enough force into it, though, he didn't have enough leverage because he was essentially sitting on someone no fuck that it didn't matter if he had to stomp all over the first body and he tried to struggle to his feet, knees and heels digging and scrambling to find purchase. His other arm shot forward and groped around for something to yank, an ear, a nose, an eye, anything to make the arms let go of him--

/okey okey let's get him out of Kurapika's range

[alphaspider]

The moment Kurapika tried to get to his feet, Kuroro was stepping back and bodily dragging him away from Crane. The doctor wasn't going anywhere, judging by the amount of pain he was in -- broken wrist, minimum, and he'd heard Kurapika punch him -- and if Crane tried to run, Kuroro was going to hunt him down himself later.

The elbow hit him on the temple, which he ignored because he'd been hit far worse in his life (Kurapika had knocked out a tooth once), and he had other things to do, like avoid getting his eye poked. He did let go of the blond's chest, but grabbed onto Kurapika's wrists, grip vice-like.

Oh, but such pretty eyes. There was a reason why it was listed as one of the seven wonderful colors of the world, why his group had farmed them. Right now, though, they were only causing problems. "Kurapika! Stop it!" he snapped. "Your eyes are going to drain you!"

[ih8spiders]

He could hear someone talking to him, but the voice was distorted and the words too garbled to make out, except maybe for the word "stop" and the sharp, commanding way it was delivered.

Stop fighting? He might as well roll over and wait to be killed, and he wasn't going to do that, not going to let this second assailant get the better of him but the grip on his wrists wouldn't yield even though he was frantically trying to break the hold on them, struggling and pulling and twisting and snarling wordless demands to be released--

His feet! His legs were still free. He had to attack now while they were still unrestrained. Kurapika kicked out with no particular target in mind - he just had to make contact and force the man to let go of him.

[alphaspider]

For crying out loud... Kuroro took the hit because he didn't want to let Kurapika go and waste time playing catch later. His hip was going to bruise, but what was a little sacrifice? He started shoving forward, still gripping Kurapika's wrists, and bearing down on the kid until he had Kurapika on his back on the ground. This was how their usual fights went, with the large gap in mass and pure, physical strength: Kuroro sitting on Kurapika's chest and pinning him down. Or at least, that was what he intended to do, unless Kurapika had other ideas.

Vaguely, he wondered how to snap Kurapika out of anger and back into fear, or at least severe the connection between the two. It would be easier to handle Kurapika if Kuroro wasn't the target of both. "Kurapika, stop it."

[ih8spiders]

He nearly screamed in frustration at being tackled to the ground. This was bad, this was very bad, he knew what happened whenever he got locked into this position, that heavy weight and the voice still telling him to stop fighting--almost, almost familiar, that weight and that voice but he wouldn't know that; he only knew that he was vulnerable and his throat was exposed and he couldn't protect his eyes with both of his hands pinned to the ground. His opponent couldn't use his hands, either, but that didn't mean that there wasn't anyone else around who could do the digging--

Kurapika sucked in a breath of air and arched his back--or rather, tried to; he thought he could maybe buck his attacker off him but the person barely even budged. For all his efforts, he only managed to knock the back of his head against the concrete, the fresh pain wringing tears and a desperate whine out of him.

No let me go get off me get off me he had to run away, he had to escape and run and hide where they can't find him--his anger had gone now as abruptly as it had appeared and he was back in that village back to being powerless they've come back for him he was going to die--