[Log] Alulueri, Luppi
Title: Watch Your Head
Characters: Alulueri (luminamon), Luppi (shinigamikender)
Timeline: November 11, 2007
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Luppi's picked on the wrong 'easy target' this time and Alulueri decides he doesn't like being taken advantage of.
Fair fights are what one expects when participating in secondary-school level tournaments, where morals are stressed as part of the rules and enforced at the oversight of the faculty. True enough that the students are at the ripe age of manipulating one another to get ahead in their high school lives, but the presence of authority and officials should have kept that to nonexistent levels.
As such, when Alulueri found that his protective glove, a requirement for all duels, had been tampered with in a deliberate and planned fashion -- stitches did not systematically remove themselves in key seams -- disdain only scratched the surface. When it resulted in his forfeiture in a match versus the eighth ranked of his other self's Las Noches High club, displeased but suggested his ire.
Aaroniro was a fair-minded type who might have chosen to talk the issue out and get subtle revenge later, but Alulueri took more direct routes. And with only a few choices as to who it was that would think to sabotage him, he selected the very fencer he had been scheduled against when the equipment malfunction forced the forfeit.
Alulueri did bide his time for so long as it took the matches to end for the day, then set his sights on finding the eighth-ranked in the dispersing crowds. When his sight settled on Luppi, no expression twitched his features. He moved in, calm and prepared to do what was necessary to ensure that humiliations of disqualifications would never plague him again.
"The matches were good today," he remarked, coming up beside Luppi while still in the building.
"They were, weren't they?" Luppi replied conversationally as he glanced over his shoulder at the other student. Luppi only vaguely remembered the gruesome looking face from when he had sabotaged the other. Alulueri he believed the other one was. Technically, he should have known the other better. He knew Alulueri's name well enough from tagging along on ventures with his mother, but he had never really met the other face-to-face before now.
... Not as if he truly wanted to with how grossly wrinkled he looked.
"Pity you didn't get to fight," he smiled, "But I appreciated the easy victory."
That confirmed his precise suspicions and doomed the little fencer to things that Aaroniro would not appreciate having done to his like-club acquaintance. But with the control of the body outside of the Las Noches High student's personality, such consequences did not matter so much.
Besides, he knew that he would understand. They did agree upon many things for all their differing traits and revenge, while in different methods, always-ranked high in their priorities when wronged, as he had been in this.
Alulueri cut off their pleasant gait with a long stride forward, turning and clasping his hands at the small of his back as he eyed Luppi, path blocked for the little Espada. "That does remind," he commented, standing firmly in place as his eyes narrowed, drawing tight scars long etched from surgeries years ago. "Dissatisfaction is the expectation, you must not feel content with the emptiness of that win." Alulueri leaned over Luppi and cocked his head to the side, a jerking motion of suggestion to turn back to the gymnasium where the fencing mats were still laid out. "An unofficial rematch would fix that."
Ugh. Was Alulueri still going on? Wasn't he going to shut up anytime soon? Luppi mentally rolled his eyes. It wasn't like he cared one way or another if he won through a glitch or otherwise. He wanted to get out and, more importantly, away from the ugly other fencer.
He ducked past Alulueri, walking backwards, "I'm not really interested in fighting any more, though. I'm already all sweaty from my other fights and I'd much rather get a shower than bother with someone like you."
Alulueri did not intend to be dissuaded, not that Luppi spoke words that would have drawn him to such, even had an air of sincerity accompanied them. When the conniver slipped past him, he followed and stretched out an arm, as though to pull Luppi closer to him in camaraderie. Slipping free would not be so easy here, no.
"Then allow me to escort you to appropriate facilities," he offered, little heed paid to what obvious protests would come. Alulueri tried to lead -- rather, pull -- Luppi along with him as he moved back into the school, away from the bright sunlight of the outside.
Luppi scowled, not at all happy with how this was going. He dug in his heels and, more importantly, his nails. He didn't want to follow this horror-movie-faced fencer anywhere, much less somewhere where he might be forced to see more of Alulueri's disgustingly malformed body.
"I can escort myself, thank you very much," he hissed, eyes growing dark with anger. He didn't like being pushed around and he had a feeling whatever would happen in the showers was not something he'd enjoy.
Alulueri faced the choice of backing off or enduring the pressure of those nails; the latter earned him half-moon shaped impressions in his arm, but he gritted his teeth and bore it with little change of expression, increasing his force in pulling Luppi back into the school and not away as the Espada preferred.
"The school can be quite complex and lead the unsuspecting into all sorts of dead ends," he commented without regard to the tone, emphasis in his own placed on the final two words. "Someone so naive to it would never find their way."
"I'm not quite as naive as you'd think," Luppi protested, getting more than a little frustrated at how easily Alulueri was able to tug him along. He shifted his grip on the other, letting his nails sink into even more tender patches in order to show his dear former opponent just how disenchanted he was with the idea of going anywhere with him.
Away from prying eyes was what Alulueri wanted and they were slowly gaining that ground. All it would take would be a few more minutes of enduring the pain those sharp little nails wrought. But Luppi could scratch and tear all that he wanted; cosmetic vanity was what Aaroniro worried about and Alulueri left that solely to himself.
"Signs point in contrast to what you are saying," Alulueri said, tightening his grip in his first response outside of the force continually increased to get Luppi where he wanted him. "You are in a foreign school, with a foreign student, who you were fool enough to tamper with. This is a sign of naiveté."
Luppi laughed at the assertion. So, was that what this was all about? He shook his head, staring up at the other with amusement-lined disgust. Couldn't he just accept the fact that he was stupid enough to have left his glove out to be tampered with? It had been a walk in the park to eliminate him.
"Is that all? Why not blame yourself, then? You were the one stupid enough to leave your glove where anyone could mess with it," Luppi snorted derisively.
"Your admission of guilt is appreciated, foreign student," Alulueri said with a twitch of his lip, almost a smile before it melted away again. Unfazed was the expression at the laughter, ever used to taunting for his looks. He tired of that, but Luppi's mocking had not hit that string of impatience yet. "That shall absolve me of any guilty conscience for what happens now."
"What won't happen," Luppi's eyes darkened just a hint at the suggestion of violence or revenge of any sort. He didn't approve of that at all, especially not at the hands of this lug, "You don't want to think what my parents could do to you if they found out you hurt me in any way."
Alulueri would be a fool to fear the promise of restitution when it was he who deserved to visit that upon Luppi. Threats to the otherwise were of no consequence and should Luppi survive this with the drive to do as he warned, his clout was lessened greatly by the fact his own father was the mayor of Las Noches.
"Any way is not what I aim for here," he mused. Alulueri glanced around to ensure that they had left the population behind and exists behind; content that the terms had been met, he turned to the Espada and stepped forcibly against him with the aim to push him into the bank of lockers. "Your transgression inspires me more to hurt you in every way."
"It was just a stupid match," Luppi countered, grunting as the lockers hit hard against his back. He lifted an arm before Alulueri got any ideas of hitting his face, "Besides, it's not like you would have won, anyways."
Alulueri had come prepared -- to be precise, had prepared to come this way -- and a bit of time invested had unlocked a few of the combination padlock. Their loosened locks slipped off with ease and he pulled open one next to Luppi's head with enough force to swing it around at the prime target of black hair.
"You cannot be certain of this," he stated evenly. "Why throw away a match you could have finished gloriously if not unsure about your victory?"
Luppi yelped as the locker door slammed against his head a bit harder than expected. He frowned, reaching up to snatch at one of the ugly arms of his tormentor, digging his fingers into it as a warning.
"You made it easy. I saw your glove while you were on break and decided to make it one less match. It's not often people are stupid enough to leave their equipment around where anyone could have a go at it, you know," Luppi stuck out his tongue.
"Anyone dishonourable could have a go at it, but one expects more of the enlightened Espada," he remarked. "Would not your professor be displeased to find it was not skill, but underhandedness that won your match?"
The door came back towards Luppi's head with renewed force applied by a man who appeared unfazed by the thought that he could well beat in the Espada's head with repeated efforts. Alulueri did not acknowledge the pain in his arm, the press of fingers insufficient. Poked and prodded for many of their early years, Aaroniro and Alulueri were immune to pinpointed pain.
The second door slam hurt just as much as the first and Luppi made another sharp sound at the pain. He struggled against the grip that kept him pinned so neatly to the wall of lockers.
"So, if I wasn't an Espada, you'd let me go?" Luppi shot the other a dark look. "Because it sounds like someone's jealous he couldn't get in."
"The point has been missed in your ego," Alulueri countered calmly. "This punishment awaits any and all who stoop to such trivialities against the sport. The point made simple is that you are the one who should feel shamed for not gaining victory in a fight where foils crossed."
Alulueri noted that if Luppi wished to be free of hte lockers so vehemently, then he would assist. He did just that, twisting his grip to pull at Luppi with enough force intended to throw him against the far wall of the hall while his own steps echoed with more surety than his victim's.
Luppi might have been a reasonably strong fencer. He was even a strong student when he applied himself beyond trying to figure out how to get out of whatever he didn't want to do, which tended to be most of the grunt work that was assigned to his classes. However, there was only a certain level of strength he could obtain with his body at his current size and fighting against someone as tall and strong as Alulueri was just a bit above his abilities.
He crumpled against the wall, wincing as new pain sprang up with a biting intensity. He couldn't move. He couldn't do anything as another rush of fear sprang cold through him. Get up and move, he ordered himself.
This turned out pleasantly like the duel Alulueri had intended, even without foils to cross or equipment to guard. That he had an Espada with shoulders bowed, defeat only steps away and closed in on with his steady pace, gave him the same thrill of fencing. There also came a greater satisfaction from knowing that he had rights to do this, clearly defined in rules borne from negotiation with his selves.
Alulueri moved without the hesitance of wrongdoing as he reached out and offered his hand to Luppi in one final cold gesture. "Renounce your treachery and we will find agreeable terms to put an end to this," he stated.
"Agreeable?" Luppi snorted, rubbing at the increasingly painful spot where the locker door had hit him. He wouldn't agree to anything with this brute of a fencer. He'd have bruises and marks from this for weeks and it was Alulueri that wanted to find 'agreeable terms'.
"Unless they involve you apologizing to me, there's no terms I'm interested in."
"If that is your decision, that is an agreeable term for me." Alulueri shrugged, unconcerned that Luppi denied his final offer. The skin would not be coming off of his back in this and if Luppi wished to lose a few strips in the process, he could indulge that. Which he did in stretching forward to take the hand denied of him with every intent of dragging Luppi forward, if only to shove him to the ground.
Luppi wasn't going to give in that easily. Alulueri might be bigger and stronger, but the little Espada certainly had more than enough fight in him. He grabbed the arm as it shot towards him, grabbing it and dragging in closer to him.
"Then apologize," he breathed, "Or I will make sure you get paid back for every bruise on my body."
"You misunderstand," Alulueri stated flatly, stiffening his posture to keep from being dragged too close, exerting enough force to the reverse to keep from losing his balance. Luppi's insistence to avoid due punishment could become tiresome, but he had anticipated it and waited enough that a moment's irritation would not brush off his determination.
"The term is no apology from me," he continued, patronising in his lecture, "but your stated term to have no terms." Alulueri finally showed emotion in an empowered smile and his free hand shot forward with every intent to silence protests with a strike to his throat. "In waiving your right for negotiated terms -- by stating your single, unimaginable term and then succinct lack of interested in others -- you awarded me the reign and authority to end your treachery without compromise."
Luppi jerked back, letting go of the hand in his grasp in his hurry to escape the other. He wasn't going down easily, if he had to go down at all. He would squirm and fight all the way, because he wasn't going to lose his place again.
He ducked away, trying to stumble to his feet to get away. He wasn't going to end up on the other end of Alulueri's fist. He wasn't.
Alulueri turned to face his faltering opponent, who thought to escape him rather than fight? He snorted spread his arms to the side, holding his position. "Is this how you fight, young Espada?" he called to Luppi. "This is worth neither my notice nor your rank. What should happen if your supervisor finds that you ran from an opponent? We can ensure that he will learn of it!"
Luppi turned, backing away all the same, his face twisted in anger and frustration at the taunting and, ultimately, at the other boy. He felt his whole body quiver with some anger yet unexpressed.
"This isn't a fair fight. What he'll learn about this is that a stupid, brainless, ugly bully from another school tried to kill me," Luppi spat, with disgust in Alulueri's actions, "And that I will get him back for everything."
Alulueri laughed, the sound creepy in itself, alternating as though two voices were speaking to the same amusement. "You were the one who attempted suicide in tampering with equipment belonging not to you," he replied, choosing to advance again, aiming to circle wide around -- or the limit that the hall offered -- his prey and cut off his escape.
At the first quarter of his circle, Alulueri spied what he thought to be an opening in the flight-driven teen. The boy's side begged to be struck and he could no more deny it than his own desire to seek vengeance well-earned. "We are not through, if you have so many details misunderstood," he stated. Quick steps brought him closer as one arm swung high in a fient of cuffing him on the head, his other aimed lower to bury his elbow in that tender side.
Luppi stumbled with the next hit, still not steady from Alulueri's previous attacks as he ducked from the feint. The floor felt just as hard as it had during his first fall. He pulled even further back, his fingers curling against the floor as he tried to slide away, his vision already faltering.
"You think this is right punishment for that?" Luppi asked, his voice shaking, "You think you'll get away with this?"
Alulueri could stand to do more damage to Luppi in the name of vengeance -- and subsequent interest in his protests -- but his step hesitated as he strode forward to match the retreat. Aaroniro had stirred more than was his wont on the day given to his other self, going beyond the plural reference to his selves and urging a change in motion.
Turned out that while Aaroniro enjoyed dissecting others for his advantage, beating them was not quite so acceptable. Not physically, by preference, as a mental domination far exceeded the pleasure and permanence of bruised or broken bones.
This put a cramp to Alulueri's want to see Luppi ground into the pavement, but when the personalities began to stir, disputes of intention were not to their benefit. They debated the point internally for some moments before he finished his steps and sough one last kick to the Espada's chest, to ground him completely. "We have not made enough progress, Luppi of Espada," he stated in redundancy. It was clear that no lesson of permanence had been earned and it was this troubling truth that lead him to ignore the transparent threats that sputtered and stirred at his person.
Luppi slipped away, brow wrinkling at the sudden switch of tones. This ugly freak really was insane and he was slipping faster. Luppi pulled back, his hands unsteady against the polished floors of the empty school. He had to get away. Alulueri seemed finished with his final yelps and Luppi had had it with feeling pathetic, although there was little more he could do, but wait and hope that this was the last of it.
Wait, hope, and plan revenge.
"We could finish this," Alulueri stated, calm with each step to match Luppi's, but without closing the distance to finish the beating he found himself at odds against himself regarding. "But we tire of your thick skull not permitting the lesson to penetrate."
Alulueri trailed his hand against the locker, in a thought to break that skull to see the information stored permanently. Prepared he may be, but he lacked the tools to cover up that brutality and an argument with himself over lessons versus deadly intent did not appeal to either self.
"You may run now, if you wish, Luppi of Espada," he decided, an agreement backed by Aaroniro. "We permit it, but think not that we are finished." His scarred head cocked to the side and an instance of smile twisted his lips. "The lesson will be continued when you are through being a coward."
Luppi hesitated. He didn't want to run. He wasn't weak. He was an Espada, for all the beating he had received in this hallway. But, he also knew he couldn't take much more of this, should Alulueri decide to renew his attack once more.
He stumbled to his feet, eyes still angrily fixed at the other as he turned and began to run, promising revenge with every cowardly step.
Characters: Alulueri (luminamon), Luppi (shinigamikender)
Timeline: November 11, 2007
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Luppi's picked on the wrong 'easy target' this time and Alulueri decides he doesn't like being taken advantage of.
Fair fights are what one expects when participating in secondary-school level tournaments, where morals are stressed as part of the rules and enforced at the oversight of the faculty. True enough that the students are at the ripe age of manipulating one another to get ahead in their high school lives, but the presence of authority and officials should have kept that to nonexistent levels.
As such, when Alulueri found that his protective glove, a requirement for all duels, had been tampered with in a deliberate and planned fashion -- stitches did not systematically remove themselves in key seams -- disdain only scratched the surface. When it resulted in his forfeiture in a match versus the eighth ranked of his other self's Las Noches High club, displeased but suggested his ire.
Aaroniro was a fair-minded type who might have chosen to talk the issue out and get subtle revenge later, but Alulueri took more direct routes. And with only a few choices as to who it was that would think to sabotage him, he selected the very fencer he had been scheduled against when the equipment malfunction forced the forfeit.
Alulueri did bide his time for so long as it took the matches to end for the day, then set his sights on finding the eighth-ranked in the dispersing crowds. When his sight settled on Luppi, no expression twitched his features. He moved in, calm and prepared to do what was necessary to ensure that humiliations of disqualifications would never plague him again.
"The matches were good today," he remarked, coming up beside Luppi while still in the building.
"They were, weren't they?" Luppi replied conversationally as he glanced over his shoulder at the other student. Luppi only vaguely remembered the gruesome looking face from when he had sabotaged the other. Alulueri he believed the other one was. Technically, he should have known the other better. He knew Alulueri's name well enough from tagging along on ventures with his mother, but he had never really met the other face-to-face before now.
... Not as if he truly wanted to with how grossly wrinkled he looked.
"Pity you didn't get to fight," he smiled, "But I appreciated the easy victory."
That confirmed his precise suspicions and doomed the little fencer to things that Aaroniro would not appreciate having done to his like-club acquaintance. But with the control of the body outside of the Las Noches High student's personality, such consequences did not matter so much.
Besides, he knew that he would understand. They did agree upon many things for all their differing traits and revenge, while in different methods, always-ranked high in their priorities when wronged, as he had been in this.
Alulueri cut off their pleasant gait with a long stride forward, turning and clasping his hands at the small of his back as he eyed Luppi, path blocked for the little Espada. "That does remind," he commented, standing firmly in place as his eyes narrowed, drawing tight scars long etched from surgeries years ago. "Dissatisfaction is the expectation, you must not feel content with the emptiness of that win." Alulueri leaned over Luppi and cocked his head to the side, a jerking motion of suggestion to turn back to the gymnasium where the fencing mats were still laid out. "An unofficial rematch would fix that."
Ugh. Was Alulueri still going on? Wasn't he going to shut up anytime soon? Luppi mentally rolled his eyes. It wasn't like he cared one way or another if he won through a glitch or otherwise. He wanted to get out and, more importantly, away from the ugly other fencer.
He ducked past Alulueri, walking backwards, "I'm not really interested in fighting any more, though. I'm already all sweaty from my other fights and I'd much rather get a shower than bother with someone like you."
Alulueri did not intend to be dissuaded, not that Luppi spoke words that would have drawn him to such, even had an air of sincerity accompanied them. When the conniver slipped past him, he followed and stretched out an arm, as though to pull Luppi closer to him in camaraderie. Slipping free would not be so easy here, no.
"Then allow me to escort you to appropriate facilities," he offered, little heed paid to what obvious protests would come. Alulueri tried to lead -- rather, pull -- Luppi along with him as he moved back into the school, away from the bright sunlight of the outside.
Luppi scowled, not at all happy with how this was going. He dug in his heels and, more importantly, his nails. He didn't want to follow this horror-movie-faced fencer anywhere, much less somewhere where he might be forced to see more of Alulueri's disgustingly malformed body.
"I can escort myself, thank you very much," he hissed, eyes growing dark with anger. He didn't like being pushed around and he had a feeling whatever would happen in the showers was not something he'd enjoy.
Alulueri faced the choice of backing off or enduring the pressure of those nails; the latter earned him half-moon shaped impressions in his arm, but he gritted his teeth and bore it with little change of expression, increasing his force in pulling Luppi back into the school and not away as the Espada preferred.
"The school can be quite complex and lead the unsuspecting into all sorts of dead ends," he commented without regard to the tone, emphasis in his own placed on the final two words. "Someone so naive to it would never find their way."
"I'm not quite as naive as you'd think," Luppi protested, getting more than a little frustrated at how easily Alulueri was able to tug him along. He shifted his grip on the other, letting his nails sink into even more tender patches in order to show his dear former opponent just how disenchanted he was with the idea of going anywhere with him.
Away from prying eyes was what Alulueri wanted and they were slowly gaining that ground. All it would take would be a few more minutes of enduring the pain those sharp little nails wrought. But Luppi could scratch and tear all that he wanted; cosmetic vanity was what Aaroniro worried about and Alulueri left that solely to himself.
"Signs point in contrast to what you are saying," Alulueri said, tightening his grip in his first response outside of the force continually increased to get Luppi where he wanted him. "You are in a foreign school, with a foreign student, who you were fool enough to tamper with. This is a sign of naiveté."
Luppi laughed at the assertion. So, was that what this was all about? He shook his head, staring up at the other with amusement-lined disgust. Couldn't he just accept the fact that he was stupid enough to have left his glove out to be tampered with? It had been a walk in the park to eliminate him.
"Is that all? Why not blame yourself, then? You were the one stupid enough to leave your glove where anyone could mess with it," Luppi snorted derisively.
"Your admission of guilt is appreciated, foreign student," Alulueri said with a twitch of his lip, almost a smile before it melted away again. Unfazed was the expression at the laughter, ever used to taunting for his looks. He tired of that, but Luppi's mocking had not hit that string of impatience yet. "That shall absolve me of any guilty conscience for what happens now."
"What won't happen," Luppi's eyes darkened just a hint at the suggestion of violence or revenge of any sort. He didn't approve of that at all, especially not at the hands of this lug, "You don't want to think what my parents could do to you if they found out you hurt me in any way."
Alulueri would be a fool to fear the promise of restitution when it was he who deserved to visit that upon Luppi. Threats to the otherwise were of no consequence and should Luppi survive this with the drive to do as he warned, his clout was lessened greatly by the fact his own father was the mayor of Las Noches.
"Any way is not what I aim for here," he mused. Alulueri glanced around to ensure that they had left the population behind and exists behind; content that the terms had been met, he turned to the Espada and stepped forcibly against him with the aim to push him into the bank of lockers. "Your transgression inspires me more to hurt you in every way."
"It was just a stupid match," Luppi countered, grunting as the lockers hit hard against his back. He lifted an arm before Alulueri got any ideas of hitting his face, "Besides, it's not like you would have won, anyways."
Alulueri had come prepared -- to be precise, had prepared to come this way -- and a bit of time invested had unlocked a few of the combination padlock. Their loosened locks slipped off with ease and he pulled open one next to Luppi's head with enough force to swing it around at the prime target of black hair.
"You cannot be certain of this," he stated evenly. "Why throw away a match you could have finished gloriously if not unsure about your victory?"
Luppi yelped as the locker door slammed against his head a bit harder than expected. He frowned, reaching up to snatch at one of the ugly arms of his tormentor, digging his fingers into it as a warning.
"You made it easy. I saw your glove while you were on break and decided to make it one less match. It's not often people are stupid enough to leave their equipment around where anyone could have a go at it, you know," Luppi stuck out his tongue.
"Anyone dishonourable could have a go at it, but one expects more of the enlightened Espada," he remarked. "Would not your professor be displeased to find it was not skill, but underhandedness that won your match?"
The door came back towards Luppi's head with renewed force applied by a man who appeared unfazed by the thought that he could well beat in the Espada's head with repeated efforts. Alulueri did not acknowledge the pain in his arm, the press of fingers insufficient. Poked and prodded for many of their early years, Aaroniro and Alulueri were immune to pinpointed pain.
The second door slam hurt just as much as the first and Luppi made another sharp sound at the pain. He struggled against the grip that kept him pinned so neatly to the wall of lockers.
"So, if I wasn't an Espada, you'd let me go?" Luppi shot the other a dark look. "Because it sounds like someone's jealous he couldn't get in."
"The point has been missed in your ego," Alulueri countered calmly. "This punishment awaits any and all who stoop to such trivialities against the sport. The point made simple is that you are the one who should feel shamed for not gaining victory in a fight where foils crossed."
Alulueri noted that if Luppi wished to be free of hte lockers so vehemently, then he would assist. He did just that, twisting his grip to pull at Luppi with enough force intended to throw him against the far wall of the hall while his own steps echoed with more surety than his victim's.
Luppi might have been a reasonably strong fencer. He was even a strong student when he applied himself beyond trying to figure out how to get out of whatever he didn't want to do, which tended to be most of the grunt work that was assigned to his classes. However, there was only a certain level of strength he could obtain with his body at his current size and fighting against someone as tall and strong as Alulueri was just a bit above his abilities.
He crumpled against the wall, wincing as new pain sprang up with a biting intensity. He couldn't move. He couldn't do anything as another rush of fear sprang cold through him. Get up and move, he ordered himself.
This turned out pleasantly like the duel Alulueri had intended, even without foils to cross or equipment to guard. That he had an Espada with shoulders bowed, defeat only steps away and closed in on with his steady pace, gave him the same thrill of fencing. There also came a greater satisfaction from knowing that he had rights to do this, clearly defined in rules borne from negotiation with his selves.
Alulueri moved without the hesitance of wrongdoing as he reached out and offered his hand to Luppi in one final cold gesture. "Renounce your treachery and we will find agreeable terms to put an end to this," he stated.
"Agreeable?" Luppi snorted, rubbing at the increasingly painful spot where the locker door had hit him. He wouldn't agree to anything with this brute of a fencer. He'd have bruises and marks from this for weeks and it was Alulueri that wanted to find 'agreeable terms'.
"Unless they involve you apologizing to me, there's no terms I'm interested in."
"If that is your decision, that is an agreeable term for me." Alulueri shrugged, unconcerned that Luppi denied his final offer. The skin would not be coming off of his back in this and if Luppi wished to lose a few strips in the process, he could indulge that. Which he did in stretching forward to take the hand denied of him with every intent of dragging Luppi forward, if only to shove him to the ground.
Luppi wasn't going to give in that easily. Alulueri might be bigger and stronger, but the little Espada certainly had more than enough fight in him. He grabbed the arm as it shot towards him, grabbing it and dragging in closer to him.
"Then apologize," he breathed, "Or I will make sure you get paid back for every bruise on my body."
"You misunderstand," Alulueri stated flatly, stiffening his posture to keep from being dragged too close, exerting enough force to the reverse to keep from losing his balance. Luppi's insistence to avoid due punishment could become tiresome, but he had anticipated it and waited enough that a moment's irritation would not brush off his determination.
"The term is no apology from me," he continued, patronising in his lecture, "but your stated term to have no terms." Alulueri finally showed emotion in an empowered smile and his free hand shot forward with every intent to silence protests with a strike to his throat. "In waiving your right for negotiated terms -- by stating your single, unimaginable term and then succinct lack of interested in others -- you awarded me the reign and authority to end your treachery without compromise."
Luppi jerked back, letting go of the hand in his grasp in his hurry to escape the other. He wasn't going down easily, if he had to go down at all. He would squirm and fight all the way, because he wasn't going to lose his place again.
He ducked away, trying to stumble to his feet to get away. He wasn't going to end up on the other end of Alulueri's fist. He wasn't.
Alulueri turned to face his faltering opponent, who thought to escape him rather than fight? He snorted spread his arms to the side, holding his position. "Is this how you fight, young Espada?" he called to Luppi. "This is worth neither my notice nor your rank. What should happen if your supervisor finds that you ran from an opponent? We can ensure that he will learn of it!"
Luppi turned, backing away all the same, his face twisted in anger and frustration at the taunting and, ultimately, at the other boy. He felt his whole body quiver with some anger yet unexpressed.
"This isn't a fair fight. What he'll learn about this is that a stupid, brainless, ugly bully from another school tried to kill me," Luppi spat, with disgust in Alulueri's actions, "And that I will get him back for everything."
Alulueri laughed, the sound creepy in itself, alternating as though two voices were speaking to the same amusement. "You were the one who attempted suicide in tampering with equipment belonging not to you," he replied, choosing to advance again, aiming to circle wide around -- or the limit that the hall offered -- his prey and cut off his escape.
At the first quarter of his circle, Alulueri spied what he thought to be an opening in the flight-driven teen. The boy's side begged to be struck and he could no more deny it than his own desire to seek vengeance well-earned. "We are not through, if you have so many details misunderstood," he stated. Quick steps brought him closer as one arm swung high in a fient of cuffing him on the head, his other aimed lower to bury his elbow in that tender side.
Luppi stumbled with the next hit, still not steady from Alulueri's previous attacks as he ducked from the feint. The floor felt just as hard as it had during his first fall. He pulled even further back, his fingers curling against the floor as he tried to slide away, his vision already faltering.
"You think this is right punishment for that?" Luppi asked, his voice shaking, "You think you'll get away with this?"
Alulueri could stand to do more damage to Luppi in the name of vengeance -- and subsequent interest in his protests -- but his step hesitated as he strode forward to match the retreat. Aaroniro had stirred more than was his wont on the day given to his other self, going beyond the plural reference to his selves and urging a change in motion.
Turned out that while Aaroniro enjoyed dissecting others for his advantage, beating them was not quite so acceptable. Not physically, by preference, as a mental domination far exceeded the pleasure and permanence of bruised or broken bones.
This put a cramp to Alulueri's want to see Luppi ground into the pavement, but when the personalities began to stir, disputes of intention were not to their benefit. They debated the point internally for some moments before he finished his steps and sough one last kick to the Espada's chest, to ground him completely. "We have not made enough progress, Luppi of Espada," he stated in redundancy. It was clear that no lesson of permanence had been earned and it was this troubling truth that lead him to ignore the transparent threats that sputtered and stirred at his person.
Luppi slipped away, brow wrinkling at the sudden switch of tones. This ugly freak really was insane and he was slipping faster. Luppi pulled back, his hands unsteady against the polished floors of the empty school. He had to get away. Alulueri seemed finished with his final yelps and Luppi had had it with feeling pathetic, although there was little more he could do, but wait and hope that this was the last of it.
Wait, hope, and plan revenge.
"We could finish this," Alulueri stated, calm with each step to match Luppi's, but without closing the distance to finish the beating he found himself at odds against himself regarding. "But we tire of your thick skull not permitting the lesson to penetrate."
Alulueri trailed his hand against the locker, in a thought to break that skull to see the information stored permanently. Prepared he may be, but he lacked the tools to cover up that brutality and an argument with himself over lessons versus deadly intent did not appeal to either self.
"You may run now, if you wish, Luppi of Espada," he decided, an agreement backed by Aaroniro. "We permit it, but think not that we are finished." His scarred head cocked to the side and an instance of smile twisted his lips. "The lesson will be continued when you are through being a coward."
Luppi hesitated. He didn't want to run. He wasn't weak. He was an Espada, for all the beating he had received in this hallway. But, he also knew he couldn't take much more of this, should Alulueri decide to renew his attack once more.
He stumbled to his feet, eyes still angrily fixed at the other as he turned and began to run, promising revenge with every cowardly step.