[X] Play defensively, ceding ground and keeping her talking (with an aim to find out who sent her if possible) while 'coincidentally' backing over to where those hero-types happened to be with the aim of getting them to mob Victor's assailant. Use Sin as needed to survive intact, but preferably minimized especially around the sensor and any heroes.
[X] Stab the guy on the ground in the head.
Right. Time to follow a policy of judicious engagement. Specifically, a policy of not picking fights that you don't have to. You have Pride, yes, but you take Pride in being alive and successful, while all your enemies are dead and destitute without a cent of restitution.
First things first. You take a step back, and stab the man on the ground behind you in the head, without taking your eyes off your immediate opponent. The way his skin is shifting suggests that he's not entirely down for the count, and you don't want to have one of your enemies suddenly resurrect on you. That would be very annoying, and possibly unhealthy.
The sound of your sword piercing his skull is astonishingly loud, in the middle of the silent street. The woman pauses in her circling and raises an eyebrow at you.
"I wanted to make sure he stayed down and out," you explain. "It would be very embarrassing if I were to beat you only to fall because I forgot to make sure my other opponent was dead."
"Don't worry. That won't be a problem," she assures you. Her grin broadens. "After all, you'll be dead."
"That seems a bit excessive," you observe. "I don't think I've done anything to warrant such a response? Not yet, anyway."
"I don't really care," she confesses "I just like hurting people. You just got unlucky that they sent me after you, kid."
Wonderful. A psycho. This means that although any psychological levers you find will be remarkably effective, there won't be very many of them and they'll be hard to find.
Why can't you ever get the normal ones?
"Well, I can understand the appeal of that," you comment helpfully. "But you have to admit, it's also rather limiting in a sense, is it not? After all, if your main pleasure in life is hurting people, might you not derive more plea-"
You react more on instinct than conscious thought, as she suddenly strikes out with a jab so fast she leaves a literal trail of flame in the air behind her.
"Oh," she notes with disappointment. "You dodged. Well, we'll see how long that lasts. Try not to die too quickly? I don't want to be bored."
You don't bother with a reply, being rather too focused on not being incinerated or pummeled. You don't know whether you'd feel the fire or her fist first, but you really don't want to find out. It seems likely to be unhealthy, and so you concentrate on survival rather than witty banter.
It's a good thing you do, as the next thirty seconds are essentially a frantic sequence of you trying to dodge the flaming crazy lady, without touching the trails of fire she leaves. You don't know what they do, but you suspect it's painful. On the other hand, your sword can take a few impacts, you quickly find out, although each hit leaves you feeling oddly drained.
The madwoman stares at you, before glancing back at her hands. Her gaze flickers between the two, as a strange smile spreads across her lips. The smile is made all the stranger because you recognize it. It's the fight junkie smile you see all too often, whenever one of your more violent comrades gets to enjoy a really good fight.
Well, you hate to disappoint a lady, but the mission comes first. As she steps back in preparation for your counterattack, breathing just a little harder, you smile. And then you turn around and run like hell, as quickly away from her as possible. Behind you, you hear an infuriated shriek, followed by an incredibly imaginative stream of impassioned invective. You take mental notes, just in case you can use any of her commentary at some point.
In the mean time, you'll settle for getting away from her and finding a hero to deal with the situation, so that you can at least pretend to keep your hands clean. And by fortunate coincidence, you happen to have met a pair of heroes who might just be inclined to help you out. You probably won't even need a cover story.
You spend the next few minutes running away very quickly while the lady tries her best to catch up with and murder you. You're faster than she is, especially with your Sin active, but she's annoyingly persistent, and also knows the streets so well that she's clearly a native, seeing as she never so much as stumbles.
You've never been so glad to see a jewelry store in your life. You sprint towards it, putting on a burst of extra speed to ensure you get there first, and look around hopefully for the magical girls you just encountered. You have no idea what powers the ladies of THRONE have, but you suspect you'll find out shortly.
You look around for them, and notice something odd. There's none of the side-effects that one would normally expect from a pair of magical girls doing magical things at a given location. There's no light show, no explosions, no sense of impending violence or screaming civilians. Heck, you're not even seeing or hearing any collateral damage. Either Kaleido and Skopeo are way more subtle than they seem, or...
Suddenly, something clicks. Kaleido. Skopeo. Kaleidoscope. Those two are the Kaleidoscope magical girls you were hearing whispers about in town. The ones who are remarkable for the distinct lack of collateral damage from their operations, because whenever they go somewhere to do something, they always disappear before the encounter actually starts and then reappear roughly half an hour later. And it hasn't quite been half an hour since you left them.
Well. You'll just have to take the psycho on by yourself then. No big deal.
You settle into a ready stance and wait for her to catch up. She looks mildly winded, and very unhappy.
"I am going to kill you!" she screams as she throws herself at you. You roll under her and spring to a standing position, backing away slowly.
She seems disinclined to let you disengage again, and throws herself at you in a flurry of blows. This time, her patterns are much harder to read, backed as they are by her immense rage, and she nearly clips you several times with her wilder and less predictable swings. You're not quite sure how you manage to survive the next minute unscathed, but you do, which only serves to irk her further.
She says something very rude about your parentage and makes a very unhealthy-sounding suggestion at you, when suddenly a shadowy form surges up behind her and wraps its arms around her neck in a chokehold. She's unconscious in less than a minute.
You stare unabashedly at this anticlimatic resolution to your problem. It seems very unsatisfying somehow. You were expecting to have to fight her off yourself, instead of be interrupted by some random stranger throttling your enemy into unconsciousness, before...tying her up? Your eyebrows make their slow way up your face.
The boy flushes. "Look, there's a good reason why I'm doing this, okay? I'm with the Wrecking Crew, and we've been looking for her for a while now, alright? She keeps getting away, so when I saw how fixated she was with you, I took the opportunity."
Off to your side, a sudden lightshow announces the reappearance of your old friends, who both happen to look distinctly the worse for wear.
There are several seconds of awkward silence.
"I presume there's a good reason why your friend is tying up a woman in a suit, Victor?" Kaleido asks in a pointedly mild tone of voice.
"He's not my friend, just a passerby working with the Wreckers," you correct. "And, well. She tried to kill me, so she had it coming."
"I think I would like context for this." Kaleido finally decides.
"Look, how about this.," Wrecker boy suggests. "Let me drop her off, then we can all go eat or something and figure out what's going on. I have some questions I'd like answered."
What do you say?
[] "Sounds good. I'd really like to know why some random woman in a suit tried to punch me. With fire."
[] "I'd rather not go anywhere with strangers, thank you. See you at school, Kaleido."
[] "Actually, I'd prefer to speak to you privately. No need to drag others into whatever this is.
[] "Look, it's the middle of the night, I'm tired, and someone just tried to kill me. I'm going to go home, take a shower, and go to bed."
[] Write-in
Also, congratulations, you've killed a person. Now that you're coming off your combat high, how do you feel?
[] Apathetic. You've killed before, and you likely will have to again.
[] Regretful. You've killed, but you feel their lives could have been better spent, serving you.
[] Horrified. This was your first kill, and the feeling of taking the life of another sapient is shockingly unpleasant.
[] Calm. This was your first kill, but if this is what it takes to reach your destiny...
[] Write-in
[] Good. There's something very right about killing...
QM: I should probably have been more obvious with those magical girls. It all worked out in the end, though, so all's well that ends well.
