lucetilogs | Confronting pure darkness

Confronting pure darkness

Who: Naoto and Vanitas
What: Naoto confronting Vanitas
When: Early in the afternoon - June 20th
Where: In the forest to the west of the village
Summary: Naoto's still pretty upset and isn't going to let the whole attacking Sora thing slide. She can't just let someone like that walk around, so she's made the (reckless) choice to confront Vanitas, alone.
Rating: PG-13 to R for violence

Ever since the night Sora was found gravely injured, Naoto has been unable to rest peacefully knowing that Vanitas is still walking around. In a sense, he reminds her of Adachi but Vanitas actually isn't afraid to show what a monster he is. He even sounded like he was proud of what he did! There's no way she let him just get away with it, she wants answers, she wants him to pay.

She's heard enough about him from Ven and Roxas, that he's "pure darkness" but that isn't stopping her from finding him. If she had told the others her intentions, there's no doubt they would have stopped her, especially Souji. So gun loaded and ready, she's out in the forest to look for him, alone.

What gives away that she's getting closer are the strange creatures that are lurking about though she does her best to avoid them. They must be the unversed Ven told her about. Once she maneuvers her way through the trees and unversed, she comes across a dark figure, it has to be him.

"Vanitas." To make her presence known.

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Instead of summoning her persona to try and block the bolt, she runs out of it's path then turns to aim at Vanitas with her gun, firing twice.

The weapon fires as quickly as he remembers. Luckily, he's not as close to it's barrel, this time, but even so... dodging a bullet takes a lot of skill.

The first one goes a little wide, but the second...

It ricochets off of his helmet, striking the metal along his jaw. It's the only thing that keeps it from being a mortal wound, but even so, his hands instantly fly to his visor, and he stumbles backward. Vanitas hunches over, turning away with a strangled noise.

Got him. Though she's still wary of his condition, she relaxes a little and puts her gun down but holds it with both hands just in case. Not taking any chances.

"I won't miss next time." She will try to actually hit skin or something other than metal.

For a second, he doesn't respond, still staying with his head turned away. There's the faint sound like broken glass being crushed, before Vanitas finally straightens, and half-way turns.

--Most of the visor on his helmet is gone, shattered by the impact, since it's surface was already weakened by the crack. A golden yellow eye glares hatefully from it's corner, set in a face that even in profile... should seem horribly familiar.

"Neither will I." And suddenly, he takes his Keyblade into a one-handed grip, and turns, swinging it with as much force as he can. Instantly, Darkness springs from it's teeth in a wave, traveling behind a sharp blast of wind.

Only after staring for a moment at his face, her expression changes almost to disbelief. Sora. His face...it's Sora's. Is he Sora's Nobody?

Unfortunately the moment of shock causes her to have a slow reaction to the wave and she isn't given enough time to bring out her persona so the blast of wind shoves her back against a tree behind her and the darkness hits her right after.

Somehow she manages to stay standing up but opens her eyes to glare at Vanitas. "Why...do you look like him?"

Reaching up, Vanitas picked a few more shards of his visor out of it's base, and flung them irritably away. A dark mist outlined him for a moment, before a pair of Floods separated itself from his shadow and sprung into being.

"It's a long story." Raising his Keyblade again, he brought it back into battle position. "But you're not gonna be around long enough to hear it."

More Unversed, great. Naoto manages to stand up away from the tree, holding her revolver up to summon her persona.

"I'm going to be around longer than you think." This time, instead of waiting for Vanitas to make a move, her persona stabs it's sword into the ground and the ground around them turns purple. A few large scratch marks appear under Vanitas and the Floods then a surge of energy flows upwards quick enough to cut.

Normally, Vanitas would use the ground as cover--by sinking into it--but Naoto had just turned the tables on him. Unable to get away in time, Vanitas was forced to take the hit, which actually ripped the front of his suit open and threw him backwards.

The Floods were toast, but he wasn't that concerned over them. Picking himself up, the slash in his bodysuit seemed to knit itself back together, though there was now a few smears of blood there. Meanwhile, another Unversed (http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100402092307/kingdomhearts/images/thumb/b/bf/Illimitable_Tank.png/421px-Illimitable_Tank.png) appears, the largest yet, and quickly barrels towards Vanitas' opponents.

That takes a lot out of him to create; and he probably won't be using anymore for a while, but it might be enough to distract them.

As the larger Unversed comes at them, her persona attempts to charge at it with it's sword aimed directly at it in hopes to stab it's sword through it.

In the mean time Naoto stands back a bit and opens the cylinder of the revolver, emptying the shells and begins to reload new bullets in.

Unfortunately for Naoto's persona, the belly of the Tank is neigh impenetrable to attack, especially physical ones. That sword will just bounce off uselessly... and give the Tank an opportunity to attack back with it's body.

And while Naoto reloads, Vanitas is watching. Looking for an opportunity, and he thinks he just found it. In a split second, he disappears again, and reforms behind her, Keyblade held high with both hands, before he brings it down.

The persona flies back a little when it's sword just bounces off, a little taken aback though it blocks the Unversed with it's sword and tries to push it back.

It only takes Naoto to a second to feel the evil presence behind her and she manages to move to look back at him but by the time her legs register the order to run, it's too late. His keyblade strikes her shoulder and she lets out a pained 'Ah!!', her persona disappearing right after so nothing is blocking the Tank anymore.

With it's opponent gone, the Tank rolls over and blocks Naoto's escape, while Vanitas points the end of his weapon at her, threateningly.

"Checkmate."

Naoto turns around to face Vanitas and holds up her gun to his face, one eye closed and panting, her arm even trembling. She won't give up-- she can't.

"Not...quite."

Damn it. Keeping his gaze mostly neutral, aside from a faint twitching at the corner of one eye, Vanitas keeps his Keyblade level.

"I have a thunder spell charged and ready." And true to his word, there's a faint arc of electricity playing over his weapon's teeth. He doesn't really need to explain what will happen if she fires again; at this range, he'd be dead within seconds. But he'd also release his hold on the spell, and all that electricity would be sent surging directly into her body.

The revolver doesn't move from it's place either, despite the trembling. She did reload some of the bullets in the cylinder but it's impossible for her to tell if the shot she's on is loaded since when she wasn't paying attention to it when it closed. And if he has a spell ready, which is obvious by the sparks, it's a risky chance.

But still...she can't give up. It's not in her nature. "I refuse to give up."

Stubborn. He could appreciate that; this was probably the most challenging fight he'd had in a while, and it was almost refreshing to see someone who didn't instantly crumble beneath the pressure.

"Then it's a standoff." He definitely wasn't going to give in, either. His arm wasn't even trembling, either, though the longer he held his weapon out, the more he'd eventually feel the strain.

"So be it." Unfortunately the longer she stands there and let's the wound bleed, the faster the drowsy feeling is going to take over. She's already used up a bit of energy just having her persona attack him, not to mention that wave from earlier that hit her took a bit out of her so that doesn't help.

So she stays focused on him, trying to ignore the pain in her shoulder.

And on his part, Vanitas can't keep his spell charged forever. Eventually, it'll fizzle out--not that he's going to let her know that. Now that he's still, the adrenaline is starting to slowly leave his system, as well. Without that pain buffer there, the cut on his chest and the bruise on his face are starting to sting, badly, though he's still in slightly better shape than her.

For several moments, he stays silent and unmoving, just watching Naoto from over the stretch of his arm. ...This is also when it dawns on him that this is probably a girl; before he'd been leaning towards a boy.

Not that it actually matters to him. But it's funny how they seem to be the ones who can always get the better of him in a fight.

It's enough to prompt him to speak, again, though on a different subject. "So, what's that thing called, anyway?"

As she stands there staring at him, she looks over his face then his eyes, trying to find out why he's practically Sora's identical twin, just you know, different hair and eye color. Not even Roxas looks like him and he's his Nobody. Maybe he's Sora's heartless...?

Naoto gives an unamused 'heh' then lifts her chin up to look at him straight in the eye. "Why do you look like Sora-kun?" Her offer from earlier still stands, he answers her question and she'll answer his.

"Because he helped someone connected to me." It's still a vague answer, but it's something. Vanitas really has no reason to keep it a secret--people know already. He just feels like being just as stubborn.

There goes the heartless theory. "You look like Sora-kun because he helped Ven?" What a confusing cycle this is becoming.

Bingo. She's good at this guessing game. "I said it was a long story, didn't I?"

"Not as long and detailed as I hoped it would be, care to expand on it?" He probably won't but it's worth a shot.

She blinks a few times when the drowsy feeling tugs at her but after a moment it fades and her focus returns on Vanitas.

"That's two questions," Well, technically it'd be her third, but he'd let the other one slide. "First, you owe me an answer to mine."

Damn...A deal is a deal, right? "It's called a persona. Only special individuals are able to summon them."

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