lucetilogs | We're more than carbon and chemicals

[Don't feel too bad, because Wolfwood's off his game today, too.

Siiiigh. He aims, Barely above Shikamaru's chest, and the moment he does, the Elites spring forward. Don't worry, he gets exactly what the game plan is. He's only hoping you're going to cover the ones behind him, lest he have to take a blade to the back before he rockets them to death.]

[The game plan might have a few surprises, actually. Shikamaru focuses his attention on one of the Elite behind Wolfwood, moving slower than the others. He'll do.

His hands quickly come up, forming the handseals for the body replacement technique. There's a puff of smoke, and in the next instant the Elite he focused on before is standing in his place.

On the other side of the group, Shikamaru is of course where he used to be, and using his advantage to attack the Elite from behind, slashing at their wings with his trench knives. Their attention should be split, now that the both of them are no longer surrounded.]

[...That is rather surprising. But Wolfwood's still going to just go with the flow—and he pauses just long enough for some poor Elite to accidentally run his sword through the third party member that took the ninja's place.

Oops.

Grabbing the now dead Elite by the neck of his armor, he slams him forward into a group like a bowling ball to a set of pins, and aims his crucifix from one side of the group to fire across it in a spray of accurate bullets.

Suffice to say, their arms rip and tear in blood and their left wings are soon under the attack of his pistol while they're stuck in the pain of the initial attack.]

[Shikamaru spares a moment to make sure Wolfwood is holding up all right before putting his trench knives away. He's not the strongest physical fighter to begin with, and now that the element of surprise is up, it's time for a new tactic.

An Elite that comes after him with a spear soon finds himself caught in Kage Mane no Jutsu. Manipulating another person's body via their connecting shadows is a skill Shikamaru has gotten much better with since his fight with Hidan, and it pays off here. Using the soldier as a meat shield, he mimics the action required to use the spear, making the Elite himself stab his fellow soldiers.

Their sense of camaraderie must suck, however, because it doesn't take them long to all out attack the guy. Shikamaru releases his hold before one hacks the guy's arm off, splitting his shadow before the same happens to him by extension. Shadow Imitation goes both ways, after all.]

[A blade whizzes by Wolfwood's cheek, leaving a shallow cut, as the firefight light of his cross flashes off the sharp of his stoic jaw. It was only when one circled around that he broke into a grunt and a teeth grit, swiveling around and smashing the barrel of the Punisher into their neck.

There's a resounding snap before the man collapses with his head twisted at an impossible angle; Nicholas' arm, reddens wet under one sleeve from a wound he received earlier on in the draft in his difficult maneuver, but he rests himself into just firing his handgun rounds off to finish who's left if he can.]

[Shikamaru's opponents are using their numbers to their advantage now. Two take to the air - might've been a better move if it wasn't such a sunny day. As it is, manipulating a person isn't the only thing he can do with his shadow - he can paralyze them too. Quickly he catches their shadows before they can swoop in on him, freezing their wings and making them crash to the ground where there's the audible sound of something breaking. He throws two kunai with explosive notes tied to them at the Elites just to be sure.

The action costs him, however. He usually has to keep very still to use his shadow jutsus, and the ones left on the ground caught on quickly to that. An Elite with an ax makes a swipe at his wings, and it's only thanks to ninja reflexes that he dodges out of the way of that. His shoulder wound isn't taking kindly to all of this movement, but he's not so much worried about it as he is the blood giving away his injury to the enemy.

Just two of them left on his end now. He pulls the trench knives out again along with some wire, glancing over to Wolfwood too see how many he has left.]

[Oooone left—the problem with this one is that the bastard's using their spear to deter the barrel of the cross, while he's shoving a blade toward Wolfwood's throat. Fun times. Mr. Priest catches the dagger on the top of his handgun, finger protected by the trigger, while the Elite's fingers aren't so lucky. He fires once, twice, and the Elite's wrist spurts into a spray of blood.

While the hand crumples sideways awkwardly, Wolfwood shoves his foot against the third party man's armor and kicks him back long enough to pepper his wings with bullets.

How you holding up, ninja?]

[Looking as if he's getting backed into a corner, actually. He throws a kunai with a wire tied to it's handle at one with an ax, but the Elite deflects it easily. The kunai hits the dirt harmlessly, a foot away from the pile of soldiers that crashed to the ground before.

With little space else to go, Shikamaru ends up tripping backwards over the mutilated remains of the Elite he'd originally puppeted with his jutsu earlier. But the two that are left aren't just focused on him anymore - they see you've finished, Wolfwood, and they aren't going to let you take them out because they're distracted.

...which is perfect. Because if they're watching him and you, they're not paying as close attention to the hair-thin shadow that's stretching away from him to one of the more intact corpses off to the right, along the course of the wire attached to the kunai he threw.

So far? Everything's going to plan. He's just sorry he didn't have time to tell you that. He's hoping the overacted motion of tripping was enough of a head's up.]

[That was such a Vash act of clumsiness, he does consider that that's part of whatever you're planning. But he'll take no chances, aiming the Punisher in the Elites' directions as they turn to face him; it's about then that Wolfwood's sharp eye catches motion in the shadows from behind his glasses.]

You should probably just turn tail and run—

[—...if you know what's good for you.

...Siiiigh, they're rushing forward with their weapons raised.]

[Thanks for that. Makes it much easier to attack from behind.

He's never used a dead body before, but a shadow is a shadow. This one just provides little resistance. Mimicking the moves he needs it to make, Shikamaru rolls it into a kneeling position. His hand reaches down for empty air, but the dead Elite's hand grasps a sword.

It only takes him about a second for him to figure out to aim from that angle, and then the sword is flying, piercing one of the soldiers through his right wing and his back.]

[The falling injured Elite's sword is close to Wolfwood, but it's easily averted by the priest holding his cross up casually against the blade; as it runs down the metal and sparks, the other Elite is still pretty determined to at least take someone with him. Between Shikamaru, his dead countryman, or Wolfwood, he might as well kill the guy he's still charging into, right?

Wolfwood aims his pistol through the trigger of the Punisher and fires two shots. They burrow deep into each of the winged man's arms.]

[Shikamaru has since released his hold on the dead Elite, pulling himself to his feet and walking to join Wolfwood.]

Just a matter of finishing them off now, huh.

[A glance at Wolfwood. At that range he could've easily killed that soldier instead of incapacitating him.

But he won't question it, instead binding the two soldiers with his shadow, ensuring they don't try anything.]

[Wolfwood just stares down silently at them for a moment, stoic face painted even more stoic by his glasses. Every time he lowers his weapon in Luceti he feels like he should be regretting it, like he had back home. But right now, all he can think is how sick he is of seeing splattered tissue all over the floors.]

I wonder about that...

[He looks at Shikamaru, over his glasses, serious but not venomous in his gaze.]

We don't kill them, and they'll either hurt or kill one of us, or they'll end up dying anyway; so our only option is to blast them full of holes, is it?

[Slowly, he brings his gun to one of their foreheads.]

Is that really all we're good for, then?

[Even for Shikamaru, this is getting to be a bit much. He's killed before - hell, of all of his graduating class, he's been on the most A-rank missions so far. This is what he was trained to do

...but he's never enjoyed it. And the fact of the matter is, he's killed more people in the last few days - in a war that isn't his own - then he ever has back home.

Yes, he's been trained for this. But he's never been in a place that made him feel like nothing but a weapon until now. He hates that you've chosen now of all times to remind him of it, Wolfwood.]

Probably... in their eyes; the Malnosso's. [His hands fall back into the rat seal, and his shadow slides up along the second Elite's body; solid and shaped like hands, they wrap around the arms and settle along the throat.]

But I think I'm good for a lot more to the people I care about - the ones that actually matter. Not many of them are in Luceti, but there's a few. Back in the village. You do too, right?

[His shadow's hold constricts as the Elite tries to fight against him.] They're waiting for us to come back. We won't be of any good to them if we die here, even if it's only for a week.

That's right. Things are different in a battle like this, where our freedoms are worth about as much as the dirt under our shoes.

[Sorry, kid, but there's no such thing as a good time to bring up killing—except when you're right about to pull the trigger. Wolfwood wasn't an idiot rigged to a gun: he knew that the forehead behind the pistol was one with a mind full of memories and thoughts and everything his happened to have.

So it goes, there's nothing that changes one solemn fact: people had to die.

But who had the right to hand down that sort of divine wrath? Humanity seemed to think itself worthy of it, and so they pelted each other with bullets and fed themselves the term 'justification'.

That's where Wolfwood was starting to understand Vash... which is why he flinches faintly as he pulls the trigger and almost hears the sound of someone in the back of his mind objecting too late. The Elite's body crumples to the ground, and Wolfwood's arm swings to his side.]

Lord forgive me.

[Said casually as he holsters his gun, but this priest was not the type to say something he didn't sincerely mean.]

[He wants to say he's sorry. Back home, these are the situations he's depended on for; figuring out all of the methods and tricks and loopholes and getting people out of a tight spot.

But they've been fighting for days, and he's come up with no workable option. That he can't do that for anyone here... he's sorry.

That kind of apology loses what little footing it has when you're in the middle of killing someone, however. Instead, he releases Kage Mane on the first Elite just before Wolfwood pulls the trigger - he doesn't know what effects if any a bullet to the head will have on his body, but he isn't interested in finding out anytime soon - and puts the rest of his concentration into strangling the second with his shadow.

Shikamaru doesn't watch the body when it falls, releasing the bind when he feels the lack of a pulse through his shadow.]

Your arm all right?

[As the ninja asks, Wolfwood's already pointing a pack of cigarettes toward Shikamaru with one cigarette waiting to be taken up; he figures he could use one.]

I won't lose it.

[And that's all that really matters—Wolfwood's reckless at times, but he's not one to ignore a wound if it truly needs looking at. From what he can feel in the sharp pangs along his arm, it's reopened, but it's still bandaged and he'll be able to deal with it at the medical tent without any rush.]

Good to hear.

[He takes the cigarette with a muttered 'thanks'. It's been a while since his last smoke - he's not a regular of the habit. But this? Has definitely been one of those weeks. There's a metallic clink from Asuma's lighter as he flips it open.]

But I'm carrying extra bandages if you need them. [He's more worried about the bloodstain on the sleeve, honestly. It draws attention and makes a good spot to aim.]

Edited 2011-03-19 02:29 (UTC)

[A nod in his direction.] I'd appreciate them.

Though...

[He walks into a clearing, where it seems nothing alive is... Just a wide field dotted with Third Party bodies.]

[Shikamaru opens a pocket, taking out a roll of bandages. He needs some for his shoulder, but that can probably wait until he finds Law or another medic - he's not about to treat it out here. He'll just have to watch his back until then...

Busy with that train of thought, it takes him a second to realize Wolfwood trailed off.]

...though?

[... he counts around 200, just on this field alone.]

It doesn't look like there's much left--

[And then he's suddenly gone. Looks like they weren't polite enough to finish that thought; his last day on the battlefield seems finished.]

[Shikamaru stares at the empty space for a moment, his hands moving to put the bandages back in their place. Doesn't look like there's an immediate need for them after all.]

About that time, huh? [He grins without humor and takes a drag on the cigarette; exhales.] Good. I'm not sure how much more I can take of this.

[As if on cue, there's a roar in the distance - something strange and new to the battlefield that makes the hair stand on the back of his neck.

When he finds himself still standing there, Shikamaru curses and drops the cigarette to the ground, crushing it underfoot before heading in the direction of the noise. He'll have to catch up with you later, Wolfwood. From the look of things, his job isn't quite finished yet.]

We're more than carbon and chemicals

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