361/No One Sleeps in Tokyo

No One Sleeps in Tokyo
Date of Scene:	04 September 2023
Location:	Obsidian Tower
Synopsis:	Taking advantage of the chaos in the wake of the crash (See Scene 357: Digital Divide), Koji makes to strike back at Obsidian by robbing them of their data. Fate, however, has other things in mind...
Thanks to:	To Mochi! For helping create the opportunity for this!
Cast of Characters:	Koji Silvia, Fate Testarossa

---

Koji Silvia has posed:
The descent of the chunk of the Arthra.

At least two major Obsidian Agents on the scene, and they seemed to know what was going to happen.

Success makes people sloppy.

These were the reasons why Koji was where he was, almost right after he left TSAB Enforcer Chrono Harlaown in the hands of a mystery Sailor girl who was at the fight but not IN the fight as far as he could tell. There's a lingering guilt in his mind, but it's countered by this being his ONE chance to make this intended run against the enemy that no one was talking about.

Obsidian.

He'd taken enough time to go home, and stash all the things that he'd retrieved from the wreckage... the Device repair kits, the spare parts, the uniforms, and most of the external memory storage devices... into a plastic tote he used to have a collection of manga in. A quick sneak to the main room of the large apartment his parents now owned in Juuban to grab some bento and leftovers to stash in Hanzo, and then back out the door.

Obsidian.

The plan, to him, was a simple one. Get into the substructure under the corporate helipad, and search out where the wireless booster and cell-tower were connected to the building for their communications. Open up the wiring, plug Hanzo in, and use a storage module to download all the information he could get his hands on before he was detected.

But a lack of being able to scout the location made for two small snags. One that required a bit of improvisation...

Which is why for the last 4 hours, one Koji Silvia has been hanging under building overhang via several Guidewires used like a hammock, with one Blade of Hanzo stuck into a huge and reinforced datacable. Stashed away in his normal clothes, the new storage unit is glowing hotly as reams of data is pushed into it. Employee records, e-mails, chat archives, meeting records, project data... this was a high level Hack and data theft.

The other snag is that there seemed to be three 'levels' to the Obsidian architecture and Hanzo was having issues with trying to infiltrate the third. As if some kind of outside force was protecting. He had everything else but this third layer... this hidden Dark Kingdom of data. But he was hunting for those name. Riventon. Precia. Names that were not in the public record, but there was some discrepancies in the high-tier executive teams that lead to them.

Once more, while sipping on a coffee drink and munching on some chips, Koji focuses his mana and he and Hanzo make another push into the datawall... and this time... something triggers...

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    After the escape from the Arthra, Fate had spent those precious few hours trying to recover from Chrono's blade attack. Normally she would be back at her apartment with Arf, but found herself waking up in a room in Obsidian tower, with Arf looming over her, still working on bandaging Fate's injuries.
    "Mn..." She had done her best; to protect her mother from the TSAB, but the soft chime coming from the golden gem on her wrist told her that something else was wrong.
    [SIR.[ Bardiche pings, making scarlet eyes drift to the device as he relays her important data.
    Scarlet eyes narrow.
    Someone is trying to break in. Someone has been trying to break in for several hours now, while she was unconscious.
    Swinging her legs off the medical bed, she rises to her feet.
    "Bardiche..."
    [GET SET.] her ever faithful companion replies, shifting her clothes into the more armored, albeit lightly so, form of her Barrier Jacket, and makes her way to the rooftop elevator...
    That's when lightning strikes.
    The sudden peal of thunder that follows, sounds WAY too close as the bolt strikes the building's radio antenna.
    And then lightning flashes again. Again thunder- a small storm building over the skyscraper as the elevator doors to the roof open with a soft chime.

    "Arcus... Cultas... Aegias..."

    Fate whispers, Bardiche clasped in her hand, spurring on the storm with her magic and her soft chanting.

    "Swift glimmering thunder, fall under my guidance now..."
    "Baruel... Zaruel... Brauzel..."
    "To pound is lightning, to echo is thunder... Arcus... Cultas... Aegias..."

    It's an open display of power as lightning starts slamming the helipad dangerously, disrupting coffee and chips time with a singular, implied, warning and threat.
    'Leave now or be destroyed'.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Remember about how success makes one sloppy?

Koji had not been in his Barrier Jacket this whole time. He hadn't thought it would be needed, since no one was going to be able to see where he was. He was hidden under the overhang and helipad, there were no cameras or sensors that Hanzo could detect. It seemed like the perfect spot...

The first lightning strike knocks one of his Guidewire anchors loose and causes the bag of chili-cheese puffs to roll off his chest and fall down the multiple stories to the ground! A second causes him to let go of his coffee drink and immediately think to Hanzo, 'Set up!'

    << SET UP. >>

The third strike and a brush of thought causes the remainder of the Guidewires to just vanish, and he ends up gripping the Blade stuck into the cable. It then vanishes, and as he falls away, Koji bunches his legs against the glass, pushing off into a jacket-enhanced leap.

As he moves into view of Fate, seeing his opponent, and almost recognizing her, he goes for the option of playing his persona and yells out, "Oh hey! Sorry! I didn't know this was YOUR brooding rooftop!"

    << Young Master. Warning. No Blade has been set at an escape point. >>

uh oh.

Thinking quick, he pulls two more blades and releases them, letting them fall but then stop as THEY can fly, but he CAN'T.

He can however land on them like balance beams and look up towards Fate again, "Just because I helped out one of you doesn't mean I'm always gonna be in a handholding mood."

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    Ah. So this is the one that helped Firefly.
    That does not excuse him for what he's doing now though. Snooping around where he shouldn't and all. Though the storm slowly dies, Fate stares the young man down with sad, tired, eyes.
    The girl herself looks tired, haggard even. But even in this state if she can pull of a storm like that... It means she' serious about this.
    "That was your only warning." Fate Testarossa says, voice soft, but still carrying.
    "If you don't leave, I'll be forced to cut you down." She points out, the head of her device suddenly snapping back as the black axe flares to life, the blazing golden blade of an electrical scythe crackling into existence as Bardiche announces with simple and threatening intent...
    [SCYTHE MODE.]
    "Please..."

Koji Silvia has posed:
That expression and that stance tell more about the girl he's facing off with than Koji realizes, but like her... he's running on alternate energy sources. In his case caffiene, carbs, and a former overconfidence.

Instead of just taking the warning and flitting off to the cityscape, the magical boy calling himself 'Hanzo' fires back, "Whatever Precia is up to... it needs to be stopped. You're on the wrong side of this fight. These people are just going to lie to you and use you. Make you a soldier in their war. You may think they care, but they don't. You're not a little girl to them. You're just another Device to them."

However, with that said, he kicks off his Blades, and they go shooting off towards the skyscape. One hand goes forwards and shoots out a Guidewire into the glass of the tower, impacting in and securing so he can swing back down a few floors and begin RUNNING along the glass towards the far side of the building and under Fate's view so he can try and push off and escape before she can get a shot in.

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    For a beat... the girl is silent, long twintails fluttering in the wind as her eyes fall half-lidded. But then? Hanzo says the wrong thing.
    Now, Fate knows that Obsidian is not full of morally correct decision makers. But. It is the choice her mother made.
    Briefly, memories flash in Fate's mind. Of a picnic. Making flower wreathes with Precia, resting on a blanket in a field of wild flowers.
    She closes her eyes, scrunching them shut as Hanzo says she'll amount to nothing more than a soldier in a war she honestly wants nothing to do with. But if that is Precia Testarossa's choice...
    Then so to is it the choice of Fate Testarossa.
    Quietly, and with a great pain, Fate Testarossa takes this moment to harden her heart.
    No sooner than he makes his move to escape... The decision is made.
    And in that same instant, Fate is off like a gunshot. Even injured, she puts on speeds the likes of which most normal device wielders would balk at, contrails of golden light trailing in her wake as she blitzes through the air, a blur of black and gold on course to cut Hanzo off, scythe glimmering in the air as she raises it for a swift, efficient, and brutal stroke.
    She's not going for getting a shot in. She's going in for the kill as she whispers two soft, sad, words.
    "... I'm sorry."
    She has made her choice.

Koji Silvia has posed:
That speed.

It's not anything that's been seen by any of the Device Users on this side of things, and it's more instinct than anything else that tells Koji's hand to grip at one of his Blades at his side, and call for a Point Warp.

He vanishes, but those critical picoseconds are enough that it's just. Too. Late.

That made sure the blow wasn't fatal, but Fate can feel the energy blade connect, and the young man's body bucks forwards away from it as the Barrier Jacket is cut and there's some blood trailing against the building, but half-way through the fatality, he VANISHES.

    << POINT WARP. BLADE 4. >>

Awash with pain, Koji rolls to a stop, almost cradling the saviour Blade to his chest, and leaving a streak of red on a clean and closeby roof, finishing by banging his shoulder into an HVAC vent.

The snarl of pain that rips from him is enough for anyone with a keen ear to find his location, but he's able to get up, "Hanzo..."

<< Blade 6 on search for safe escape location. Evasive tactics are suggested, Young Master. >>

Panting a bit, he growls back, "These bastards send little GIRLS to do their bidding."

In retaliation he points, and Four Blades fly at Fate like missiles, rapid-firing Barrets like little fighter jets as they all make to try and slam into her!

"Sorry kid! This is for your own good!"

As they charge, he draws his last Blade.

    << OBSCURE. >>

...hoping the drone-assault is enough distraction to keep her from seeing the blood-trail droplets as he makes his way to the edge of the building...

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    When Koji vanishes mid-cut, Fate stops on a dime in the air, scarlet eyes darting left and right in search of where he could have gone.
    Then she hears the growl of pain. In an instant her head snaps in his direction, and she gears up to assault the very roof he landed on.
    The four blades come at her and she outstretches her hand.
    [ROUND SHIELD] Bardiche declares, a golden mid-childan spell circle spreading from her fingertips as the barrets slam into it, causing it to fracture and crack visibly.
    But then... Then he's gone.
    Or at least so it seems.
    Fate pants softly, her prior injuries slowly starting to catch up with her.
    But she can't let that stop her.
    <<Fate? Fate!>> Her Familiar, Arf, calls out to her from inside the building.
    <<Let him go, you're in no condition to push yourself!>>
    Slowly she squeezes her eyes shut.
    <<It's fine.>> She replies. <<Because I'm strong.>>
    Cutting communication with Arf in an instent she opens her eyes.
    And spies a trail of liquid crimson.
    And where it leads.
    And the blur moving toward the edge of the building.
    Raising Bardiche, she gives the scythe a mighty, heaving, swing.
    [ARC SABER!] the device exclaims as the blade detaches, spinning like a frisbee as it hooks on a trajectory towards that blur like a boomerang.

Koji Silvia has posed:
The warning from Hanzo barely comes in time!

    << YOUNG MASTER! INCOMING! >>

Mantling the edge of the building, Koji twists in the air just enough to catch the ARC SABER on the energy blade of his held weapon, but because of how it is tumbling in the air, it comes back down and cuts into his arm and shoulder twice before passing onwards and impacting another skyscraper just a few blocks down.

His Barrier Jacket mutes some of the pain, but it's enough that he's almost grateful it's his defending arm with the Blade in hand as he uses his off-hand to Guidewire onto the building and swing clear from the attack possibly returning. The small spell is snap-released as he shoots it at another building... still waiting on his escape to be cleared. Each movement is fire along his arm as the cuts seep under the magic protections, but he direct the other 4 Blades swoop back in, this time instead of just shooting, two of them are like angry arrows, going to try and cut or distract Fate, while the other two switch to a Rapid-fire Barret mode, pouring on small pulses of fire. These are nowhere on the scale of Nanoha, let alone Chrono... but these parts of the Device move at a speed to match the girl and hopefully keep her from catching him as he tries once more to use the architecture to get more momentum, leap, and then shoot off a fresh Guidewire to get to another building.

'Where's my exit?!'

    << Distance necessary to ensure safety and potential security measures by the enemy require recalculation. Blade almost at maximum range. >>

Why does it all have to HURT so much?!

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    Retaliation is expected. And retaliation comes swift.
    The blades that reward Fate for attacking their master come in fast and the blonde is forced to juke, dodge, twirl, and dart through the air. Cuts and slashes appear on her Barrier Jacket, blood is drawn from several shallow passes as she uses her device to parry and swat the attacks.
    For the moment it seems she's devoting all her focus on defense, twisting her body to minimalize new injuries and smacking blades aside when she can; and it would seem that she's pinned for a the moment; forced to put her speed, reflexes, and endurance to the test in deflecting attack after attack, the resounding clash and clang of her dark axe against each blade sounding off through the night.
    But.
    The thing about boomerangs is... They tend to return.
    The electrical blade of the previously flung Arc Saber digs into the nearby building after it's turned aside, but... It's still spinning. And as it cuts into the nearby building it changes its course. If Koji doesn't turn around in time...
    "... I'm sorry." Fate whispers again. Because Bardiche announces the next attack.
    [SABER EXPLODE.]
    That electrical boomerang suddenly erupts, exploding with a small BOOM of concussive and electrifying force from behind.

Koji Silvia has posed:
When the explosion comes, it hits Koji and sends him towards the building he was aiming for... just with more velocity and inertia than he wanted. So for him, while he doesn't get caught IN the explosion, he can still be seen smashing into and cratering double-layered industrial glass meant to withstand the strains of movement from tens of meters below it, and not being hit with a 10th year RHA stuent.

His striking the surface causes a lag in the Blade's assault, as his ability to direct his remote assault is stalled from the white-out in his brain from the impact.

It's almost comical how he peels out of that spot backwards, and falls in a splay, blood on his face from glass-cuts and the Blade that was in his grip falls limp from it before self-sheathing.

    << ...ster... >>

    << ...Y-ng ...ster... >>

    << YOUN... MAS... >>

    << YOUNG MASTER! >>

Koji's eyes flutter open as Fate gets to watch him fall almost 30 meters down towards the concrete, and it takes his brain a few pain-filled and endorphin-activated moments to catch up.

Why is he staring at the sky?

Why is the wind blowing my hair...

I'M FALLING!

He needs to close his eyes to focus... shut out the pain, the fall, everything bad. Focus on the Blades. Visualize.

    << Safe escape location found. Blade set. >>

So Koji draws his last Blade one last time in this fight, and he POINTS at Fate.

    << Blade 2. Blade 3. Blade 4. Blade 6. DETONATION. >>

Unless Fate has already destroyed them before they can act, the assault Blades all will turn in and lance at her, trying to get close to explode.

Koji, in the meantime, tries to focus on his teleport. The pain is making it hard to focus on the image he needs, and it's not helping that the concrete is getting closer...

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    The scythe blade explodes. The youth goes flying into the nearby building, and Fate watches with a heavy sigh. The blades return but... She's not focused on them. Scarlet eye watch as Koji falls...
    At the last second she jerks, tumbling through the air as the blades explode around her, tearing into her Barrier Jacket, injuring her more. Arf isn't going to be happy about that. But...
    It's fine... Because she's strong.
    These thoughts continue to swirl through Fate's mind as she blazes through the sky, trailing down after the boy.
    Her scythe is brought to bear but-- at the last second- assuming he doesn't teleport out---...
    That fall us suddenly arrested.
    With a grunt, Fate catches Koji in the air, stopping the fall. Though she's quite smaller than he is, and that means she's still slowly trailing down to the ground... at least it's not at splattering speeds as she looks down at him in her arms wordlessly.
    She would feel bad if she actually killed someone, after all.
    "..."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Your hands can feel the blood from his back and the long cut there. That ill-fitting Barrier Jacket is shredded in places from the force of your knocking him into the building, and you can see where it has cut and bruised his face. One eye is swelling up, the other is barely clear, murky in pain.

Maybe one day he could keep up with you, but he's had months compared to your YEARS.

There is not fear in his expression though. Instead it's as resigned as your own. As if he gets that neither of you wanted this, but this is what it is.

When Fate's feet touch down on the eerily empty street, Koji moves himself to try and stand from her grip... and ends up sprawling over towards a lightpole and gripping onto it, turning to face her for a long moment and just staring.

He just nods... touches the single grip for his Blades... and is gone.

    -ELSEWHERE-

Inside of a storage shed for a local construction yard, Koji reappears and collapses in a heap, a sliver of sunrise coming through the crack in the door and slashing it's own strike over his good eye. The Blades that slowly reappear from their destruction shakily self-draw and start trying to put him together enough to get someplace safer...

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    There's a silent, pained, guilt in those sad, scarlet eyes when Fate touches down to the street. She lets Koji go. She lets him vanish into the night...
    And for a long, silent, moment she stares down at her hands; her gloves soaked red with blood, staining the small palms beneath.
    She sighs and wonders...
    Will hands like these, stained in the blood of people she doesn't want to hurt, ever grasp what she truly desires?
    It's a silent moment of rumination before she turns and takes to the air to return to the inside of the building from the roof. She'll pass out into a bed before Arf can yell at her.