The Blood Bat Rises [R, DE, PvP]

It was an average day on the subway, an incognito billionaire languishing in a seat holding a college textbook. He wasn't paying much attention to it, as he had already memorized the thing, but it looked good for disguise purposes. He was on his way home from work, in which he hadn't gotten any new projects to work on, so he'd have some time to work on his own things. The Ghosts were fascinating, and having found their supplier of weird and mysterious things, he was itching to buy more research materials. The other day he had picked up two orbs that fit in his hand, but can shift in shape to anything that he can imagine, of which there is a lot. So he was curious to see how these things ticked, and how they could be used for his own purposes.

He got off at a stop, in order for him to transfer trains, when he noticed something odd. Usually there were many different Ghosts roaming around, going about different things, but here in the subway there was one of the Sword Ghosts punching some of the Beasts in the face. Repeatedly. He continued to wail on them until they broke into pieces and disappeared, then he proceeded to have a very odd conversation with himself. It seemed as though Kazura could only hear half of the information, as if the Ghost was talking to someone else. But the Uzaki made a quick scan of the immediate area and found no other ghosts in the vicinity. Activating the Ghost Energy device in his glasses, Kazura revealed Grin's spiritual stats to be quite low, only 234 total.

Mentally, the human ranked the three types of ghosts. Beasts were lowest, since Grodd only had 20 for his Ghost Energy score. Sword Ghosts were next with a middle ground, of about 234 it seemed, and the Half-Masks were the strongest with 450. Well Grodd had been extremely strong, so much so that his punches had torn apart walls and the very ground ripped itself apart with his shock waves. This Sword Ghost couldn't be nearly as strong, seeing as the Beasts were taking multiple blows before falling apart, and no ground dying was happening from waves of air. So, gathering up the courage necessary, Kazura prepared to engage the Sword Ghost. The Purge would begin and hopefully the Uzaki would get some research data out of the deal.

He ducked into a service tunnel, and donned his mask, belt, and gauntlets. His armor was always on underneath his clothing, for safety sake, and the rest of the things fit neatly in his backpack. So, now equipped with anonymity, especially with the gas mask being deployed to cover the lower half of his face, Kazura prepared to clear the room. He knew that he needed to get the security cameras taken out, as well as make sure that the people were safe, since these Ghosts could interact with people but normal people couldn't see or hear them. One of his Convert-a-weapons becoming a knife, he slashed down at the power cables, severing them and deactivating all of the cameras. The main lights went out too, leaving only the emergency lighting system. Hiding in the shadows, Kazura moved to the main room.

Getting on top of a stationary train, then moving to one of the hanging lights, Kazura stood in perfect range to slash at the steam pipes on the ceiling. When he did so, the people who had braved the lack of light started to clear out as well. It was Kazura's hope that Grin would either be too busy talking to himself, too curious at the sudden lack of power, or too stupid to leave. If he tried to leave after the innocent people had left, then a tear gas canister flung at the wall that he tried to leave through might make him stay. Either way, Kazura's voice would echo across the now abandoned subway. "You. Sword Ghost who talks to himself. What do you think you are doing on my turf?" With his skill in stealth, he'd take a few moments to find, even as he was talking, so Kazura had plenty of time to utter out the challenge before the Vice Captain managed to see where it was coming from.

Wait what? This Ghost was absolutely insane. His hands were up near his head, randomly opening and closing, while his hips swayed back and forth and gibberish poured out of his mouth. It seemed like an attempt to speak a European language but all that came out was "Bork Bork Bork" and such. Where was the guy that Kazura had just seen beating Beasts to a pulp? Where was the guy who was raging obscenities at himself? Then it dawned on the man. I get it, he's a schizophrenic who is insane in -both- personalities, just in different ways. That makes him all the more dangerous... [/i] His sword was still in its sheathe, but didn't exclude it from being a threat. And the crazed Ghost's hands and feet had to be watched carefully, seeing as he had wrecked Beasts with his bare physical ability.

Whatever the dance was, it was tactically impressive. Kazura had hesitated, and when he recovered his demeanor and began to examine the strange dance, found it to be quite annoying from a battle perspective. Attacking from the front would be futile, not just because the Uzaki didn't know about the capabilities of Sword Ghosts, but just because he would be visible and in range of the guy's strong punches. With just a small understanding of jujitsu, Kazura wasn't sure that he could deal with countering a frontal assault. And attacking from behind could work, however the best method of doing so was blocked. With his hands up around his head, the madman had protected himself from an otherwise brutal decapitation.

Slightly frustrated, Kazura fired his 3D movement device towards the ceiling, swinging past Grin with stealthy, quiet movements. Landing on another hanging light, the Uzaki dropped to the ground as silently as possible for someone who was initiated in the art of stealth. Five feet behind Grin, Kazura fired his Air cannon, which would hit the Sword Ghost square in the back if he hadn't noticed the movements of the human. It'd only push him forwards with the strength of an athlete, but it'd be enough to send him sprawling. "If you only want to dance, do so in your own world and get out of mine." The gas mask made his voice sound deeper than it really was, and the underground of the subway made it echo slightly. Grin wouldn't be intimidated, probably, but Kazura himself thought the effect was pretty cool.

Air Cannon: 4/5 Right Hand 5/5 Left Hand

"I don't have all of it on my person, but I do have the paperwork that shows that I own this subway. And if you look over to your right, you will see the symbol of my company. So in actuality, this is my property. I own or have control of most of this town, and have property globally. And whereas I might not yet understand you wretched ghosts, soon I will have the data and you all will die. It is only a matter of time before I can Purge you all from my world. Especially the Beasts." Kazura rambled while his mind reeled. He didn't know how he had gotten trapped in this situation. There had been next to no light in the area, and he had been on top of the only sources of light, hidden completely in shadow. He had moved in such a way that no human being could have possibly heard him, possibly seen him. It would take hearing and sight of a well trained ninja to do that, and this Sword Ghost had been singing while his eyes were closed. How could he have been noticed?

He began to chart his own movements to realize where he went wrong. Maybe it was the swing of the light fixture that he went to and from. Maybe it was using his grappling technology instead of slinking behind the ghost. Maybe it was trying to attack a ghost in the first place. Kazura settled on the first two possibilities, denying that his cause of Purging the Ghosts was going to be impossible. It had to work, because if he was never going to be able to remove them from his world, then what else did he have to live for? Was life worth living if he wasn't protecting the world? He didn't yet have a purpose besides extermination, but he might develop one in the future. It was only a matter of time.

Kazura slowly reached to his back to reach into one of the packs on his belt. He pulled out a folded up set of papers, which he calmly gave to Grin. When unfolded, Grin would find that it was the deed and property to this subway and a few other key locations, registered under the name of Kazura Uzaki. Well, if Grin could read that is. Kazura wasn't sure if this Ghost could read, seeing as he was prone to random dancing, talking to himself, and excessive swearing. That sort of attitude would make school difficult, and the human wouldn't be surprised if the ghost couldn't read at all and just handed the papers back. But Kazura wasn't ready to just let him hand the copies of the deed back and move on. No, he had to try and kill the ghost again.

Kazura's right hand had fired the air cannon shot, but his left hand still held the knife form of the convert-a-weapon. Hoping that his opponent was even slightly distracted by the papers, Kazura moved his hand to stealthily hide the sword from sight. Then he began to change it. In its final form it would be a band around his wrist, that had a small strip that extended backwards to his elbow, where it became a long blade pointed backwards. While it transformed, before it stuck out through his clothes, the Uzaki fired his air cannon in his left hand. His arm would be thrown backwards from the recoil, due to him not resisting the movement, and he sought to impale Grin in the stomach with the blade that was forming.

But what if the Sword Ghost moved in the same way that he did before? He had moved so fast that he had blurred, a single step moving at speeds that rivaled the subway trains. How could an individual move so fast? If he could move as fast as that, then he'd be able to move faster than Kazura could hit him. So even with the element of surprise, it might not be enough. So what was the logical next step for the Sword Ghost? He was unpredictable, a complete wild card, but still he had a pattern to his life, he had to. What would someone who would dance in order to catch his opponent off guard do when threatened with an attack? Kazura guessed that he would step backwards, getting out of range of the blade, then step to the side and deliver an attack to his head to get him out of the way.

As his arm flew backwards, Kazura started to slide his leg outwards. If Grin was paying attention to the upper body of Kazura, or of the blade suddenly coming at him, then he might miss the motion. What this would do is cause the human to be lower than he was before. His head would end up on a similar level to his elbow, the one with the blade outwards, and his leg was sticking out to his left. If Grin went to move past Kazura to the left, he might trip over the outstretched leg. And if he moved to the right, Kazura was already prepared for that too, shooting his air cannon to the right while he ducked down. If Grin hesitated, then the air cannon would miss, but if he acted quickly then he might be thrown to the right with the feeling of being punched in the side. It all happened very fast, Kazura only being able to guess at Grin's actions, due to his analysis skills only being just picked up.

Air Cannon: Left Hand: 4/5 Right Hand: 4/5 (+1 regen)

Kazura had everything charted perfectly, or so he thought. His opponent had dodged the simple attack from before, so logically he should step back, right? Wrong. The Ghost had gone from ranting about Kazura's social life to simply grabbing the human's arm. The attacking arm was simply stopped from moving, all motion cancelled, leaving the Uzaki in an interesting predicament. Pulling a bit, he could feel that Grin was marginally stronger than him, easily strong enough to maintain that grip on his left arm. And with his shot going off into nowhere, seeing as Grin hadn't moved, not much would help him from his weapon supply. Instead, he'd first try a little bit of diplomacy before heading into martial arts. "What do you think I am, some kind of teenage virgin? I'm a CEO, of course I have lots of sex and watch people go in an out of rehab. It's just that I have a responsibility now that information fell into my hands."

Pointing his free hand towards the ground, a shot gave him enough upwards momentum to be able to free up his legs. While pulling at Grin's upper body by way of the arm that was grabbing him, Kazura utilized jujutsu grappling movements combined with Krav Maga training in weak points to perform a two legged kick towards the Ghost's knees. If successful, the resulting push on the lower half of his body and pull on the upper half of his body would cause Grin to start to flip over while the Uzaki slid underneath him. Grabbing the other small orb from his belt, Kazura transformed his other convert-a-weapon into a knife that was aimed at Grin's gut while he slid underneath him. "I don't know how long you Ghosts have been mucking up the streets of this planet, but seeing as nobody has come public with your existence, I can only assume that I am the first to realize your menace. And for that, I must be the protector of at least one community, before the world itself."

Air Cannon: Left Hand: 5/5 +1 regen Right Hand: 4/5 +1 regen

The kick went through perfectly, sending Grin toppling forwards, but a surprised Kazura only struck air with his knife as he slid across the ground in following through with his attack. That was just another thing that these ghosts could do that was starting to make the Uzaki feel worthless. They were intelligent, even if their tactics were senile, they could move faster than the eye could track, and they could hand stand on thin air. He assumed that they could just stand in mid air too, seeing as extrapolating the ability wouldn't be unheard of. As the human twisted to face the Sword Ghost, he saw the insane smile fall of his face, a darkly serious scowl set firmly into the once clownish features. "Fine then, Grasshopper. If you want to play hero, then let me demonstrate what kinds of villains you will be fighting."

The world crashed down on Kazura. Hitting the ground with a thud, his nose started to bleed from the trauma alone. All of the emergency lights in the subway were strained, some popping with sparks. The pipes groaned, and one of the ones that the human hadn't cut burst open, the hiss of steam filling the air. His head was pounding as the gravity pushed down on him, and he could feel a few of his bones start to dislocate. They wouldn't break, thankfully, but they were still causing tremendous pain. Utterly unaffected by the new gravity, probably because he was causing it, the Ghost dropped to the ground and drew a long curved sword. It looked sinister, more so due to the lack of a guard. Obviously this Ghost was arrogant enough to ditch the tsuba of the katana for looks alone.

Grin, for that was his name, went into a speech about who he was, dropping some key terms. Hollows... that was the name for the Beasts. Shinigami... that was the name for the Sword Ghosts. The Shinigami were once normal humans, that had died and were now living in some next world. A world of spirits. And because of the Hollows, they decided to come to the human world and... protect it, or something. Letting off on the gravity, Grin issued a warning. Give up his ambitions of Purging ghosts from his world, or die. He wasn't threatening to kill Kazura, just that Kazura would die at something's hand. And with just his arm moving at the same impossible speeds as before, his sword lashed out to cut into the armor that the Uzaki wore.

For awhile, Kazura remained silent. He took off his helmet, letting his brown hair out to flow down his head and cover the upper half of his face. His eyes were covered by his hair, and his mouth showed no specific emotion. Gathering up the papers that Grin had dropped, the copies of the deed to the subway, and stuffing them back into his belt, Kazura shook back his hair to reveal his eyes. They were an average color of brown, not very spectacular in any one way. But there was something odd about his eyes. They were shining. And before Grin knew what was up, Kazura began to do something.

First, there was a chuckle. The corners of the Japanese man's mouth started to turn upwards as another chuckle escaped the lips held tightly shut. The lips parted to reveal a perfect smile, with shiny white teeth, as a laugh started to form. The teeth opened up as the laugh turned into a full-hearted guffaw. Kazura just sat there with his head tipped back, roaring in laughter like a maniac. "You think that SCARES ME? Far from it, you've given me ALL THE MORE REASON to fight. Francis Thomas Grin, If by dying I become like you, then WHY NOT FIGHT TO MY LAST BREATH? In death, I shall become more than myself, more able to cut down all of the Beasts, or you call them, Hollows, that eat my people. Farewell, Francis Thomas Grin. We may yet meet again." Setting his helm, with its gas mask deployed, up to his face, the man threw a capsule at the wall where the pipe sent out steam.

The capsule burst, and a pressurized tear gas escaped. Being caught up in the force of the steam escaping from the pipe, the gas was sent wide and far through the room. In the process, Kazura had already fired out the cable that had given him away earlier. Hitching a ride on a subway car that passed through the powerless station, the man was pulled away before Grin would have a chance to catch up. But the Shinigami would still have had time to respond to the Uzaki's ravings. Kazura felt a new energy coursing through him. If he died, there was a greater life beyond this mortal shell waiting for him. He'd become much more powerful, and though he was perfectly ok with staying alive right now, death no longer made him fearful. There was no need to fear the next life, when he already knew what it held in store.