[X] "...let's just tie them up. We can call the police later," probably the best idea. Let them handle Keiko and you'll figure out what to do about the Kasa-Obake later. (CSC: Empathy + Speech)
"...let's just tie them up. We can call the police later," it's the best you could do right now. Your friends are in danger and you can't take too long dealing with someone you've already beaten.
Elizabeth, though, doesn't seem to agree with you. She glances at you with a frown on her face, "You're kidding, right? We can't just leave her and her monster here. Someone has to have heard the commotion and is on their way here now."
"So, we'll carry them with us. Well, I'll carry them. I should be strong enough," you think you are anyway. You've carried Yamato out of bed before. Usually because he pulled a muscle or something when trying to exercise.
"And you'd watch them while we're fighting the other agent and his Kappa?" Elizabeth argues back while waving her sword dismissively at Keiko and the downed yokai, "Give them a chance to escape? That umbrella is basically made of sharp blades. No rope will be able to keep it still."
"The sword parts seem to be limited to the actual umbrella part. The handle and otherwise would have to be fine, otherwise Keiko couldn't carry it," you point out and cross your arms, "Besides, what else are we supposed to do?"
You give Elizabeth a look that makes is clear there is a "solution" that you're not going to entertain. She seems to get it as she shakes her head with a sigh, "Nagai, killing the woman would be stupid. She's part of the staff at the school. Everyone would notice that she's gone, they'd put out a manhunt, and they'd figure out we were behind it eventually. They'd just have to find out we were the last ones to see her and we'd be done for."
"Right," that's a relief. You thought that you would have to convince her to not kill Keiko and-
"But the yokai, on the other hand..."
"No," you grab Elizabeth's shoulder before she can walk toward Keiko. She glares at you but you refuse to back down, "We're not doing that. Not to either of them."
"Why not? If we leave them together, then they'll just cause us trouble later. We can't do much about Keiko, but no one's gonna bother looking for a dead yokai. Just let me-"
"No. We're not doing it."
"Hayato, I'm trying to-"
"We're. Not. Doing. It."
You match Elizabeth's glare with one of your own, both your eyes boring into each other with neither of you willing to back down easy. You because you refuse to go that far against an enemy that you might be able to reason with, her because of her own reasons. And you think you know those reasons.
[CSC: Motives + Diplomacy = 63 + 66 = 129 VS DC 100. Success! +3 RP with Elizabeth!]
"Elizabeth, I know you're just trying to be careful. Because you want to be sure that neither of them will cause trouble later. That they won't go getting stronger and coming back to fight us again. But I'm telling you now, killing Keiko's partner won't stop that from happening. You said it yourself, the guys we're up against have a whole bunch of people working for them. Even if we did kill her partner, she wouldn't no longer be a threat. She'd get a different monster to come after us with. And, besides all of that...I don't want to have that on my hands. Not when there might be another away."
Elizabeth continues to glare at you for a few more seconds. Then...she looks away with a sigh, "Fine. But I still think we need a better solution than just tying them up."
"Excuse me," Yato speaks up, drawing both of your attention to him. He continues when he has both you and Elizabeth's eyes on them, "I believe there is a solution: We simply need to find and destroy their Bond Item."
"Bond item?" Elizabeth says, sounding confused.
"Of course!" you slap your own head, "Why didn't I think of that!?"
"What? What is it?"
"When one makes a pact with a monster, they do so by performing a ritual. Once performed, a catalyst is needed to inscribe the power of the Bond and give it a foundation. That foundation ties the human and monster together, allowing the two of them to give each other strength. Should the item ever be destroyed, the pact will be nullified and neither will be able to draw on the other for strength," Yato explains for Elizabeth.
Elizabeth raises an eyebrow, "Really? Well, why didn't you say that before? I mean, doesn't change that the yokai will still be an issue, but as long as she can't use it's power we can keep the two of them under control much easier."
You smile and cross your arms, "Ohoho. Sounds to me like someone wasn't as keen on killing Keiko's partner as she made herself out to be."
Elizabeth turns her back on you and says, "Shut up and come on. Let's find that item and smash it before those two get up."
"Sure, sure," you say, certain that you hit the nail on the head earlier.
Didn't take long to find the Bond Item that Yato was talking about. It turned out to be this strange pin that Keiko carried in one of her suit pockets. Said pin was made of plastic and made in the shape of a long blades connected by a string. The plastic didn't take much to destroy. All you had to do was crush it in your hands and that was that. Keiko and her partner seemed to gasp as their Bond was broken, but otherwise seemed fine.
With that done, you and Elizabeth made to follow after Yamato and Irina. As much as you would've loved to just jump off the edge of the roof after them, you don't think you'd be able to survive that. You saw Yameko crawl on walls back during the Tournament, and Irina clearly isn't human so you aren't worried about them. Nor Yamato as neither of them would let him die like that. But neither you nor Elizabeth had any real way to jump down from the roof without possibly injuring yourselves. Thus you had to go the long way and head through the door...which you hope Irina plans to fix. Or at least pay for it to be fixed.
You both traveled down the stairs, you going first just in case someone showed up who needed a good shove out of your way. Thankfully, most students weren't around at this time for one reason or another. So you mostly had a clear path to one of the school's exits before heading in the direction of Yamato and Irina.
Using Basic Form Combat as this is more Keiji trying to retreat.
[Yamato Combat CSC: Trickery + Alexander + Shadow Fox Style (Yamkeo) = 102 + 38 + 50 = 190 VS Keiji Combat CSC: 100 (WCS) + 90 (Dodge) = 190: Draw!]
[Irina Combat CSC: ??? + ??? = ??? VS Keiji Combat CSC: 100 (WCS) + 90 (Dodge) = 190: Irina Wins!]
It was the sound of Yamato grunting in pain that told you where to go. You heading toward the west part of Raijin with Elizabeth following close behind. Rounding a corner you came face to face with Yameko and Yamato standing before a swirling torrent of water. The Kappa guy had created a large wave and was currently sending it right at Yamato and his partner. Meanwhile, the two of them had created a wall of shadows that seemed to be deflecting the massive wave of brackish water away from them. The waves were so large that you half expected them to crash over the black wall and hit the two of them.
However, Yameko had multiple advantages on her side. For one thing, the ground was covered in multiple holes that diverted some of the water, leaving the wave weaker than it normally was. For another, her and Yamato were standing beneath the shade of one of the larger school buildings, giving them plenty of shadows for Yameko to use for her wall. And, lastly, your brother was standing right behind Yameko with his hands on her shoulders. If there anything that would encourage her to fight harder, it would be that.
"God damn it! Get out of the way kids!" Keiji shouts, his voice warbling as he tries to gather up more water from around him, "I'm not interested in fighting you! Just let go!"
"I'm afraid we can't do that," Yamato says, his voice not rising an octave despite the circumstances, "You have information that we will need and we cannot afford to allow you to go without ensuring you do not inform our enemies of anything they should not know. Thus we have to hold you here against you will."
"Could you sound any more dry if you tried?! Just shut up and tell your damn fox bitch to let me leave!"
"You dare-!" Yameko shouts, pushing back against the waves as they surge, "I will be sure to teach you manners! Just you wait!"
"Please. As if you could even hope to...wait a second...where's the woman who was with you...shit!"
But by the time Keiji turns back around, Irina's already behind him. She jumped at some point, getting quite high before diving straight for the Kappa man. He makes a token effort, throwing a small burst of water her way. But Irina has enough air control to avoid the wave, throwing a hail-mary punch the man. He brings up both of his hand and the water to try to defend himself...which leaves the wave he was sending at Yamato and Yameko too weak to keep going.
"Now!" Yamato says while pulling a few throwing dart from his uniform. Yameko pushes the shadow wall forward, letting it smash into Keiji at the same time as Irina's punch. The sound of bones cracking filled the air just as Yamato throws his darts at the image of Keiji's shadow on the ground.
Keiji falls to the earth, right when you and Elizabeth arrive on the scene. Irina stands over him with one fist raised and aimed at his face. The Kappa man raises both his arms and shouts, "Okay, okay! You win, you win! Just not the face!"
"Heh. Coward," she feints hitting him and he flinches. Then she stands up while dragging him to his feet, "Come on, you've got questions to answer. Nice job, kiddos. This went way better than I was expecting."
"You are unharmed, Hayato?" Yamato asks, already checking your body for injuries.
You roll your eyes but pat his head, "I'm fine, bro. No issues here. Thanks to Elizabeth. She's pretty good when she's got weapons she knows how to use."
"Thanks for the compliment," Elizabeth says, stabbing her swords into the earth and looking between everyone, "So...now what?"
"Now? Now we take these guys and bring them to Estella. Then we let her work her magic," Irina says her smile wide and somewhat worrying.
And got it finished. Hope you guys enjoy and sorry if it's a bit rushed. Didn't get as much time to work on it as I wanted.
