Fall to Madness [Closed to those responding to SOS]

[willing_sheath]

Characters: Himura Tomoe, Himura Kenshin, Kamiya Kaoru, potentially other people???

Location: Northeast edge of the city on the outskirts of the park

Rating: PG-13

Time: Dec 21st, early evening

Description: Tomoe encounters a section of the city where the madness wavelength has filtered in, as well as a kishin egg. After making an SOS post, Kenshin

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[willing_sheath]

There was a brief, fleeting moment when she'd thought he'd snapped out of it--in those days it had been her harsh bluntness that had cleared the fog away--but this wasn't the same. The Kenshin back then had been on the brink of losing himself, with this poisoned air it wasn't a matter of clearing his vision, it was a matter of pulling him back. She had no chance of doing that when she was the cause of him going over the edge in the first place.

Tomoe turned toward Kaoru more directly and she could see the other girl struggling with what to her still only felt like a lingering hiss on the fringe of her mind even here in what seemed the center of it. Her heart hammered in her chest like a gong, Kaoru's words echoing through her mind. And her eyes widened again, eyes looking past Kaoru, unfocused. "It does mean something..." her answer was soft, her blood-soaked hands going limp for the moment in Kaoru's.

Think of the one thing most important to you and focus on the feelings that thing represents.What was most important to her had been

[givingsword]

She had still been standing as she used her soul ability, as the white lights behind her eyes faded, her burned hands clutching the fan, numbed by the wind and the adrenaline. The first thing she felt was a searing pain in her shoulder and collarbone, and by the way her shoulder and left arm bonelessly hung back at her side, she knew moving it would make that feeling come back. Someone was breathing in short, shaky gasps, like they couldn’t catch a breath, and she realized it was her.

Panting, Kaoru blinked heavy lids between sweat-soaked bangs, wondering why her vision was so blurry. All she really needed to see was Kenshin and his face right now. That was alright. Her eyes went down to the tessen, opening her mouth to speak only to find words wouldn’t come. Her throat wouldn’t move and she was so tired. Her cracked lips formed a apologetic smile at the tessen as it slid out of her burnt hand, the white indention of it in her hand white against the darker skin. She had been clutching it so tightly

[willing_sheath]

Tomoe still had very little knowledge of how soul and weapon abilities actually worked, and she certainly didn't understand what Kaoru's ability was as a meister. She had a moment of panic when their resonance had backlashed, a sick feeling moving through her at the sound of Kaoru's shoulder dislocating. Her own cry after the girl's well being had been answered... seemingly from one mind to the next and any question she had as to whether it was an aspect of resonance or something unique to Kaoru's soul ability was answered in the following moments as Kaoru seemed to... leave

[maashiro]

His response was automatic; Kenshin didn't even have to think about making the movements. The moment Kaoru's knees buckled he was there to catch her, an arm curled around her stomach before he was able to get a better hold and lay her carefully on the ground. Kenshin turned then to Tomoe, his face pale and his eyes wide.

He tried to speak, ask what happened, but words were caught in his throat. He simply couldn't get them out-until finally he registered the wound on her arm and managed to say, "You need help."

[willing_sheath]

Tomoe was white as sheet by then herself, cold sweat beading across her brow--in part from all that had happened and perhaps more in part to the alarming amount of blood soaked through the tatters of her kimono wrapped haphazardly around her arm. Any other time she would have dismissed the statement, but now... well, she didn't have enough focus left to throw up any kind of mask.

"We... both..." she mumbled, starting to right herself only to slump forward onto her good arm again as the world spun and her vision speckled to black. Her body was torn between acute pain and a fogged numbness. She knew this feeling--knew it more intimately than any living person should have, and for the first time since the kishin had first set upon her that cold terror gripped her. She barely registered the words she mumbled, hanging there waiting for her vision to come back into focus, "Yes... I need help... I need help..."