lucetilogs | There ain't no fear, there ain't no hope

[Shit. Ginia quickly runs to the mercenary she just took down, keeping her back to the wall as she takes his gun and removes the magazine.

How do you find a ninja who could be hiding anywhere? The answer is simple; the ninja finds you.

She assesses the situation. Now it's a matter of staying alive for as long as possible. The simulation will end itself in an hour, but she knows if this was a real situation, things wouldn't drag on that long. She would already be dead. But this was a test.

Ginia takes to the main street, gun drawn as she hurries down the sidewalk and to the nearest car. Using the butt of the gun, she smashes the window to set off the alarm. The flashing lights and siren echo off the buildings as Ginia picks up a piece of rubble and hurls it at a car further down, also setting off its alarm.

From there, she ducks into an alley. The cacophony won't draw out Kakashi, but it will draw the mercenaries over, close enough for her to pick off and get their weapons.]

[ Meanwhile, Kakashi follows her at a safe distance, keeping track of her actions. He's a bit surprised by the car alarm at first, but then realizes that her strategy not only successfully creates enough noise to attract the mercenaries, but also covers up her footsteps in a relatively empty city, where even a pin drop would echo.

For now, he keeps himself carefully concealed, wanting to study her movements, strategy, and tactics. ]

[It's a conundrum, isn't it; investigate the distraction or ignore it and search the area? Let the noise continue or cut off the source? It doesn't take long for her answer. When the first mercenary comes to investigate the car closest to her, she checks the surrounding area and above for signs of anyone else. Seeing nothing, she waits until the merc has his back turned before she approaches.

Footsteps masked by the noise, Ginia holsters her gun and draws her knife. Throwing her arm around his mouth, she drives the knife into the back of his neck and into the spine, hauling him off into the alley. She pulls him behind a dumpster and sets about stripping him of his equipment. His knife she takes, clipping the sheath to her belt. She also helps herself to two stun grenades, a grenade, and pulls the shoelaces off his boots.

Items in tow, she heads out the back of the alley to carefully creep around the building. As she moves, she twines the shoelaces together. Once she's found a secure position in view of the car, she quickly ties the laces to one stun grenade and one grenade. When two mercenaries move in view of the car, she quickly pulls the pins, whirls the laces over her head and releases. The grenades go soaring over to the mercs, the sun grenade going off and startling them first as the grenade lands and explodes, taking out the legs of one mercenary while injuring another. Ginia fires off three shots to take down the third mercenary.

Seven shots remaining.]

[ Impressive.

Kakashi had shadowed Ginia throughout, keeping his presence carefully concealed, chakra cloaked out of habit despite knowing that she wouldn't be able to sense him. Taking down the first mercenary silently was smart -- a gun shot would have alerted the other mercenaries to her location. He'd watched with quite a bit of interest (and curiosity) as she stripped the mercenary of equipment, and was a little confused as to what she was doing with his shoelace, before it had become rather apparent that she intended to turn it into a sort of weapon.

He hadn't expected it to be such a powerful weapon, having the force of an explosive tag.

From her actions, it's clear that she's not only levelheaded and resourceful, but also extremely adaptable; she thinks strategically with foresight in mind, acts carefully, but with calculated force.

Smart.

Raising his fingers to form a seal, Kakashi creates two kage bunshin, sending the first to set a few traps in the area around her to ensure that she'd walk into at least one, and the second to silently flank her.

Let's see how well she does with a sudden burst of shuriken flying at her from behind a car. ]

Edited 2014-02-12 07:18 (UTC)

[With three mercenaries down, Ginia hunkers back against the building to figure out her next step. It's a dead zone crossing the street with a ninja around, mines who knows where, and likely another mercenary or two wandering around. Some of the buildings are blocked off or structurally unsound, but that doesn't mean someone can't hide in them or access them via fire escape.

She knows there isn't that much time to think; if she takes too long, she'll likely be forced into action. But act too quickly and she could get caught off-guard. The car's taken some damage, but mostly structural, and if there was a mine or a claymore underneath, the grenade would have set it off. There are no signs of mines across the ground, though there are potholes and cracks spider-webbing out.

Ginia inches toward the sidewalk and glances up at the building. Open windows and cracked windows, but she can't see anyone. Gun in hand, she plans out her path and goes for it, moving swiftly, but keeping low.

She barely misses the burst of shuriken. She dives, though not before taking a slice across her upper arm, and combat rolls, hauling the last few feet over to the dead mercenaries. She hooks a hand under his combat vest and drags him around to the other side of the car. Her mind is racing, her heart is beating, but she cuts through everything as she reassess the situation. She'll need to pop over to the clinic to get her arm healed up after, but for now, Ginia quickly slices off a pant leg from the mercenary and wraps it tightly around the cut.

She's quick to strip him down for supplies too, taking his SMG, two magazines, another stun grenade, two more grenades, his laces, and his helmet. The helmet is put over the side mirror of the car, protecting it as she throws her weight against it to wrench it off, knife slicing through the connecting wires.

The mirror is used to peer over the car and assess the surrounding area. Mercenary entering the building across the street. Hm.]

[ Silent weapons aren't easy for her to avoid, it seems.

It's a good thing Kakashi's clone hadn't decided to be more precise with the shuriken, or it would have left her with quite a few painful wounds. Her reaction to the injury, though, is interesting and, once more, resourceful. As are her actions after. By now, Kakashi fully expects that Ginia will continue to strip enemies of weapons and gear, but the mirror trick is quite smart, as it allows her to see around the bend without revealing herself.

There's a slight burst of chakra as Kakashi feels the clone he sent out to set traps dissipate. There are a number of rope traps which she can get tangled in if she's not careful where she steps, as some of the rope loops are carefully concealed by dirt and rubble. A few of them have lures such as guns or ammunition Kakashi's clone stripped from mercenaries he encountered, strategically placed to force her to step into the trap, which will snap around her ankle and pull her upside down in the air.

Then, a few more dangerous traps -- nearly invisible trip-wires that would trigger explosive tags. A trap that might end up with Ginia caught in a net, swinging some ten feet high in the air.

He pulls out a shuriken, and this time throws it in the direction of one the traps. The motion clanks loudly against concrete. ]

[From the way the mercenary continues into the building, Ginia knows she hasn't been spotted, but it also means he's looking for a position to set up in. And in a poor spot tactically, all Ginia can do is move on. She scopes things out, picking out a nearby alley to duck into or the building next to it.

Of course, they're probably trapped. Why wouldn't they be trapped? The sting of the cut on her arm is a reminder she needs to be careful. At the sound of the shruiken clanging against concrete, Ginia turns the mirror in that direction. There's ammo there, but the thing is Ginia can only carry so much and no one leaves ammo out like that.

So alley or building? She considers both options before taking toward the alley. She stays low as she shuffles quickly over there, hugging the wall right away. It's a narrow alley, dumpster, some trash lining the sides. Trapped all the way through, though she can't see them. Still, she has a hunch because it's an alley she would trap.

There's still crossing through the building, but entering the building is just as dangerous because she doesn't know where the exit is and it's a confined location. She'll take her chances out in the open.

She keeps a low profile as she moves further down the alley, stopping just before a pile of garbage. Ginia backs up a few steps, considers, the ties one end of the laces to the other, then ties the laces to one of the straps of the helmet.

Ginia grabs the helmet in a hand and throws it forward a few feet. Holding the end of the lace, she slowly drags the helmet along the ground.]

Edited 2014-02-12 22:09 (UTC)

[ Almost immediately, the helmet snags onto one of the traps -- this one, a net trap, which springs up from under the rubble, capturing the helmet rather neatly in a net that swings back and forth between the walls of the alley, ten feet in the air.

Good thing Ginia didn't get caught in that one, or she would've had a difficult time getting herself out.

Kakashi's impressed at her foresight in detecting traps, even ones she's never encountered before.

Now, the question is, if she'll fall for the other trap in the same alley. ]

[And there goes the helmet and there is a net. She would allow herself to be a little more impressed with the net now swinging back and forth, but she was in a warzone. A pity the net was so high up, it would be good for dragging the area. But the helmet and laces are an acceptable loss as Ginia carefully advances a few steps forward.

But even knowing there's a likely possibility of traps can't always prepare you for traps you aren't expecting. All it takes is one misstep and Ginia finds herself being yanked up into the air by one foot. She swings for a few seconds as she tries to process what just happened. It's embarrassing, but there's no time to dwell as some mercenaries round the corner.]

[ The pack of mercenaries come around far too quickly, and have her in their sights within seconds.

From Kakashi's vantage point, it doesn't look like Ginia will have the chance to take them all out. Either he can let them take her and end the simulation, or take them out himself and continue the test.

He opts for the latter, arming himself with six kunai and jumps down from the rooftop of the building over the alley, flipping towards the alley as he releases all six at once. Six loud cracking thunks resound as each hits its mark, straight through each mercenary's helmet. Kill shots that knock them out.

Kakashi lands only for a moment, glancing at Ginia swinging through the air, before leaping up -- easily bounding ten feet in one jump, feet slamming against the side of a wall as he runs up vertically, then jumps up onto the roof and disappears again. ]

Edited 2014-02-12 22:44 (UTC)

[It's an awkward position to be in, dangling upside down from one leg. Every movement makes her swing a bit more and it's bad enough trying to shoot upside down. By the time Ginia can flip the SMG into position to shoot, the six mercenaries are down, kunai firmly embedded in their helmets.

She looks at Kakashi as he lands on the air then watches him bound up the building, run up, and disappear. Yep. Ninjas. Knowing she was given a second chance to prove herself, Ginia quickly hauls herself up right, grabs her knife, and cuts herself down. She lands on her feet and quickly removes the loop of rope from her ankle and heads over to the dead mercenaries to take the kunai and their bootlaces. The rope and kunai will both come in handy and she wonders if he's being generous giving her something to use.

The rope gets looped around her belt while the kunai go into her last pocket. Ginia treads carefully, the park now to her left and the city to her right. It's too open out in the park and it'll be easy to lay mines and other traps in the grass. She moves on, keeping the buildings right and the park left, looking for a good place to set up.]

[ And suddenly out of nowhere, a little boy wanders out from a building. He's maybe about four or five, with mousy brown hair sticking out every which way, dirt and grime covering his tear-tracked face. One foot is bare, the other covered with a tattered sneaker, laces loose. His blue tshirt is ripped, and there's quite a great deal of dried blood soaking the edge of his white shorts.

The boy toddles out into the middle of the street, looking incredibly lost and sniffling, reaching a small fist up to rub at his eye as he cries.

Across the street on the opposite rooftop, Kakashi watches as his clone, in henge-form, bursts into tears at the sight of Ginia and starts calling for mommy. ]

Edited 2014-02-13 01:02 (UTC)

[There are some truths Ginia knows about the scenario and that's the only real people inside the room is herself and Kakashi. The only created combatants are mercenaries, all adults. There are no children in the scenario, never were, never should be.

So even if the sight of a dirty lost child gives her pause, Ginia also knows it's a trap. And right now that trap is drawing a lot of attention.

Call her cruel, call her cold, but Ginia makes a calculated decision, takes one of the kunai and throws it at the kid.]

[ Good calculation.

She wasn't emotionally swayed.

It's a good throw. Precise. But the boy dodges the kunai with ease as it goes hurtling past him, and then there's a poof of smoke that obscures him as a kunai flies towards her, and Kakashi (or at least, his clone) emerges from the smoke, no longer cloaked in henge form. ]

Edited 2014-02-13 01:12 (UTC)

[Were the situation different, if they were out in the real world, Ginia would have react differently. Not thrown a knife at the kid right away, but still found a way to diffuse the situation. She liked kids, knew she had a soft spot for them, but had also been shot at by child soldiers before and watched good soldiers fall into traps baited by children.

Ginia ducks away as the kunai comes at her, already grabbing a second kunai to hold defensively as Kakashi comes at her.]

[ Except, Kakashi's clone doesn't go straight at her. Instead, he stops a few feet away. Waiting to see what she'll do. He takes a rather deceptively relaxed posture once more, hands tucked in his pockets.

Behind him, he can hear a few mercenaries moving into position, just a few yards toward his left, behind a car. To Ginia's immediate right is another vehicle, some fifteen feet away, behind which two more men are moving into position.

From above, Kakashi watches as he straps a few explosive tags onto the handle of a kunai. ]

[Caught between a sharp point and the barrel of a gun. Ginia quickly reassess the situation. If Kakashi is going to hold off, then she'll quickly thin out the mercenaries.

She swaps the kunai for her SMG, quickly shooting at the group to the right. Glass shatters and bullets ricochet off the car, forcing them to fall back as she approaches.]

Edited 2014-02-13 03:00 (UTC)

[ Wrong move.

The second she turns her attention off of him the clone is on her, flipping her around so her back is pressed against his, the tip of his kunai grazing her throat. Not pressing deep enough to cut, though. ]

Never take your eye off the enemy in front of you, or you're as good as dead.

[ The words are murmured right into her ear. And just as quickly as he's there, he's gone, shoving her forward and out of the way of gunfire from the squad yards away as he jumps up and dashes quickly up the side of a wall, and onto the rooftop of the adjacent building. ]

[Rookie mistake and Ginia already hates herself for it as she feels the bite of metal against her neck, a cold reminder that some of the weapons in the room are real and there's nothing the simulation can do to stop things.

And then he's gone and she tumbles and rolls, returning fire as she's back on her feet. There's no time to reflect on her failure, not when she's still surrounded by enemies. She burns through the last of the magazine takes shelter against the car as she ejects it to load in a new one. Taking the empty magazine, she flings it to the left into the street, gunshots following as she gets on her belly and shoots from under the car, bullets cutting across their feet and legs. She fires off a few more shots as they fall, making sure they're properly down before she's back on her feet.]

Edited 2014-02-13 03:34 (UTC)

[ Kakashi waits until she starts moving a bit back into the clearing, and once she's about three or four feet away from a vehicle, he throws the explosive tag at it.

There's a clink of metal before the tags go off with a roar of fire and smoke and a deafening bang as the car itself warps, then explodes. ]

[She sees the kunai fly into the car and the tag of paper attached to it. Her legs move as she tries to run away, but reality ensues as she manages three steps away.

The explosive tag goes off.]

Edited 2014-02-13 04:02 (UTC)

[ She doesn't react in time.

She probably can't.

Kakashi realizes this too late, and it's a good thing his clone was close enough, as he drops down right in front of her and dives, tackling her with his body, hands grabbing her head and pulling it under his chin to protect her, and sending them flying away from the blast radius, taking the brunt of the damage.

They land heavily, and for a moment, Kakashi's clone stays intact.

But then, there's a sharp sizzle in the air, and a sudden puff of smoke as he dissipates. ]

[She feels the force of Kakashi flying into her and tackling her as the explosion goes off. Smoke fills her nostrils, the roar of the fire barely audible over her ear plugs.

She can feel Kakashi's weight on top of her, pressing her into the ground. And then it's gone. She should get up.

Every part of her body is tense and ready to run away, but her mind freezes. She remembers being on the ground, fire surrounding her, the crack of wood and the popping of glass. Her breath catches in her chest, her fingers curl against the asphalt. Her arm hurts from the cut, a dull throbbing. Her shoulder is bruised and sore from all the falls, there's probably scrapes along her knee too.

She should get up.

Her legs refuse to move. Her hands refuse to move.

She should get up.

She hears the roar of the fire, feels the heat. And she's not 37 anymore, but a scared and bloody 22-year-old and the fire is just enough to drown out the screams.

She should get up.

She should.

She should.]

[ Kakashi had fully expected that she'd be on her feet seconds after he knocked her to safety, but when Ginia doesn't move and remains frozen, prostrated on the ground, he begins to worry that there's something wrong.

If she'd been knocked out, the simulation most likely would've come to a stop, so clearly, it's something else.

He jumps down from the rooftop and heads over to her, bending down to check on her, knee dropping to the ground as he crouches down. ]

Ginia-san. Are you alright?

[Her fingertips scrape against asphalt. Ginia hears his voice through the fog of memories. She blinks, takes a shaky breath, forces herself to cling onto it. She's drowning in memories and she she finally pushes herself up to her knees, her head hangs down. Her tongue wets her lips, though even if she could talk, there's nothing to say.

She nods. Inhales, closes her eyes, closes her hands into fists.

Exhales, opens her eyes, uncurls her hands.]

/Sorry/

[She signs, even if he can't understand. Ginia knows she needs to get her head focused again. The simulation is still running, there are still opponents around. She can do this, she can pull through.

She can still smell smoke, still see fire.]

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