Nightshift 56: Bill's Hardware

[she_is_ruin]

[from here]After dashing over to the hardware store, it was Yomi’s turn to shatter the lock, allowing them access inside. Here, she took out her flashlight and used it to light the aisles, aimed in such a way as to minimize how much showed through the windows. If the noise didn’t draw something, the light probably would. Nightshifts were no place

Comments

[purpletaint]

He slid her question around in his mind. It was a theoretical question which had a purely scientific basis. In the past, however, weren't these questions something else? Theological, instead? Placing religion and science side by side existed as the first mistake--but grant him this, in humor, it laid also as the foundation for many a thing both hated and adored

[she_is_ruin]

No kills. Yomi couldn’t rest until there were confirmed kills, not lastly because her opponents were the kind to attack until put down once and for all.

Albedo wasn’t dead but he was still down for the time being, and though she had temporarily interrupted two of the little beasts, another two were zeroing in on her. If they were determined to end her, then Yomi was just as dead set on destruction. She whirled, wanting, demanding the sesshouseki make her even better than before. Stronger. Faster. The same killer who had cut the heart out of the exorcist organization and fed it to them. She wanted that ease of killing, and the stone was obliged to make wishes come true.

Aligning the flashlight‘s handle with the shovel‘s, she swung with brutal force at the necrits, angling her swing to catch one on the shovel’s head and one on the wood, much like Albedo had done before. Had she been facing an easier substance to cut through with Shishiou in her hands, Yomi knew for a fact she would’ve sliced their heads from their bodies.

Wishes.

[purpletaint]

Yes, he'd repeat: he hated this, hated the time passing where there had been none. Point out it was exceedingly quicker than likely any other in this place, and he'd wave it off. The point was that it was too slow for him, and even as the tendon connected correctly, knee clicking into place from the band of flesh pulling downward, eyes fluttering shut momentarily as black edged his vision, he still hated it.

Before the skin had closed over muscle, Albedo was standing, hands pressing off the floor to straighten. She had stunned two and was being attacked by another pair, but unlike her, Albedo would leave her her prey. His line of sight narrowed on the two nearby, and without hesitation, he stepped towards the one flailing, raising a leg up to stomp on it, then adding pressure as he leaned into the small body.

[damned_monsters]

The hope to overwhelm quickly overturned. The necrits found themselves colliding with a force that literally took them off their track. The shovel's head caught one on its side, snapping ribs with an almost sickening sound, and the small frame flew into a nearby shelf and dropped onto the floor. The impact was enough to cause the heavy items to fall, burying the necrit in a pile of heavy duty stepladders and hammers.

Meanwhile, the wood slammed into the neck of the other creature, and the bones tilted a step too far to the side. Like its companion, there was a sharp snap at the impact, and the necrit crashed into the wall. Life fled instantly, leaving the body to tumble unceremoniously to the ground.

The unconscious necrit stayed as such while its flailing partner suddenly found itself supporting eighty pounds of weight and force. The ribs crushed easily, the bones tearing into the lungs, and the creature died gurgling.

[Feel free to just finish off the last living ones in your posts.]

[she_is_ruin]

Yomi blocked out the deafening crash of falling products, bracing her good leg to hold her stance. Were they...? She eased up her hold on the shovel. Yes, they were almost all dead. At least the ones who had started this particular encounter. The noise alone would probably draw others, but if there were Category Ds shambling closer on the hunt, they weren't close enough to trip Yomi's sixth senses.

The sesshouseki sang like a piece of crystal that had been struck. They fed on me. It's been a while since I've been hurt.No, they'd fed on... the both of them

[purpletaint]

Again, a body threatened under pressure, and then gave. He almost expected it to burst like rotten fruit. Instead it just caved in, and Albedo watched it with a dull expression. Around him the sounds of movement ceased, the chittering tells of life gone as if they had never been. He was almost annoyed by this, the quickness in which life fled the strewn-together bodies. It spoke too much of a created frailty, of a delicate mortality that vanished without pretense otherwise.

His good humor on the situation vanished, and Albedo didn't even notice. He half-limped back to where their things laid, and dropped down to the floor beside his bag, stretching out his leg to poke at the exposed muscle under his knee. Obnoxious. And now he only wanted to sleep. Sitting itself became a temptation. He didn't know if he wanted to get up again.

The boy didn't look at her when he spoke, something too intimate in the moments that passed before. "Did you have fun?"

[she_is_ruin]

Once again, Yomi pulled her blade free and shook the worst of the gore from it. Silence reigned in the place of obnoxious chattering--by her count, all of the spectres in the storefront were dead, or at least no longer a problem. A minor victory as far as victories went

[purpletaint]

Her words only admitted to her own harm, and Albedo considered. Her ability was certainly less potent than his, but of this place or had it been like that before. She had said that complete regeneration wasn't something heard of--for that, he could assume his ability was the one complete, and hers more a prototype. A more human allowance than his would entail without perimeters set upon it. It changed nothing, in the end. She was a devil, a monster like himself who understood, and now she held something more closely to him than any other

[she_is_ruin]

He was small. That was what she thought while Albedo looked up at her. He was small, like a boy his age generally might be. He wasn't as hard and invincible as he thought he was, either.

If they'd been alone, they might've lost a lot more time waiting to heal. Especially Albedo, if letting hungry spectres latch onto him was a common tactic.

"Was that what you were trying to do? Use yourself as bait?"

[purpletaint]

Despite him near admitting it, for some reason the questions seemed personal. The amusement dropped from his mien, head tipping lightly. It seemed the most intelligent route, after all. And how many times had he done so here? With the zombies and his siblings, with the brainwashed patient and Ritsuka, with the creature and his brother, and now here.

And to what avail? His regeneration had slowed enough that it was an issue and hardly helpful. He could gain attention, allow a clear shot or something else, but it more than not took him out of the fight, as it was. It was true he could hardly be injured, but as things were, he was certainly being slowed down to a point of near idiocy. It was annoying beyond all regard, and something else he wouldn't speak of.

He sighed, then, closing his eyes. The answer she wanted was obvious. He'd ask something else instead. "What would you have me do?"

[she_is_ruin]

His expressions were like the shadows, slipping and sliding into new shapes. For a moment, he didn't seem to know what do with her inquiry. Wondering at her motivations for asking what she did, when she did, and how she did.

"Me? Nothing. It turned out well for the odds involved," she said. He expected something, but Yomi wasn't about to give it to him. She just kept looking down at him with a carefree impassivity before she stepped past him to gather up her bag, laying her flashlight down on the top, within easy reach. Now if night ended, she had in her hand what she'd come for. If it returned to her cell with her was another question, one she'd have to wait and see about. "Do you have fun fighting like that? You must."

[purpletaint]

She gave him nothing, and he wondered, if but briefly. She had all but stated it during the day, after all. Reactions that others gave would not come from her. He shrugged somewhat, the action pulling attention to skin that was sealing over at his bicep. Should he wonder, then, why he was so exhausted? It was becoming more than ridiculous.

Her question reflected back on his own, and unlike her, he had no want of impassivity. The boy near-scowled up at her, eyes narrowed in distaste. "Not at all. I hate the limitations here. It makes things near useless that could be an asset otherwise."