Private Strike while the iron is... eh, you get it

Kada

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Masami felt the magic affecting him before he could really react. He turned, intending to strike at Asteria despite the distance between them but found that the jab he made with his arm wouldn't extend beyond its length.

He couldn't connect with his Swallowtail Strike either. Couldn't feel the normal set up required for it. Whatever she'd done to him, he couldn't control his powers. Which unfortunately meant that he couldn't maintain his human facade any longer either.

Masami's form shifted against his will, becoming larger and more obviously metallic. When the transformation finished, he was a large suit of black samurai armor, ordained word demonic imagery and covered in dozens of angry red eyes staring at his assailant.

His voice rang out hollow and bizarre, like he was echoing off of a series of metal tunnels.

"What do you want?"
 

ArcanaFate

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May 19, 2018
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"Oh, silly Masami Itou. I want you."

Asteria let out a breath but remained on guard. She wasn't sure how long he'd be held trapped but it was a least a brief moment of respite. "Well, let me rephrase. I don't want you, but someone does. Someone who put a very hefty bounty on your head. Normally I don't care much for bounties but sometimes the offer is too enticing to ignore. So, while I have you here and you are incapable of attempting to murder me, I'd like to know why. Tell me, Masami, what is your story?"

She hummed, taking her water bottle and moving to the edge of the ring. She pulled herself onto the apron and bit down on the nozzle to take a drink. "Of course, you are free to refuse but let's be honest. I'm immortal, have plenty of experience in fighting high powered beings such as yourself, and frankly I'm bored. So, please, do your best to entertain me. I'd like to have at least some sort of story to tell after all of this is over."

"Of course,"
she grinned, clearly amused at the situation, "if you could offer a better deal, I could be inclined to let you go with no further action on my part."
 

Kada

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Every word out of her mouth made Masami feel heavier and heavier. His old wielder really was that much of a petulant child then. She seemed to have him trapped here, and he would have a hell of a fight against her if he decided to take that route. He snorted though, black smoke blowing out of the nostrils of his fiendish looking mask. "Immortal is a precarious word when I am involved, Ms. Asteria. You may have sealed the most terrible of my enchantments, but I am not incapable of anything."

But he sat down, or rather knelt- the way he would have centuries ago when he was participating in his more formal duties in the service of the gods. "I was created to serve one of the gods in my home. His name might mean nothing to you, but roughly speaking he was the god charged with the calamities of warfare. And so I was created to serve that purpose. Every marauder who raped and pillaged during a war-induced famine. Every non-combatant cut down when a village was purged of 'rebels'. All of those were, in some fashion or another, my blade."

The empty, black eyes that covered the left half of his face and shoulder began to smolder and glow like embers in a fire. He kept his tone as even as he could, but there was an obvious disgust in his words. "I am the finest blade ever forged in heaven, and I was swung around like a branch in the hands of a child playing soldier when he's really just killing ants. I will not go back to slaughtering innocents when I am so much better than that."

"Now if you will
kindly remove your seals, I really need a drink."
 

ArcanaFate

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Asteria let out a small whistle at the somewhat-veiled threat. Or at least, the possible threat. Apparently, this grumpy sword knew a thing or two on taking down an immortal. Even with her confidence that she'd be fine, the witch did have a brief moment of hesitation. Would he actually be able to finish her off permanently? It would be a sight to see, but... she still had things to do first. Maybe she could come back to that at a later time.

"Your story sounds surprisingly... dull. I expected more from a god sword." She sighed, taking another swig from her water bottle. "However, I still haven't heard an offer for a counter-proposal. So either you're going to attempt to strike me down when I release you, which, by the way, you'll fail at, or you really have nothing to offer me that would let you walk away from this. Denying you a last drink before being sold back into your slavery to a pathetic man-child deity."

"So, I want you to swear right now upon your name, soul, whatever you want that if I drop the hold that you wouldn't retaliate or flee. You can't escape despite what possibility you're thinking of and I promise I will resurrect if you kill me. Don't be stupid about it and everything will be peachy keen."

"Now, say it."
 

Kada

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"I will not go back to him."

Masami spoke calmly. Slowly. He had no use for doing anything else. Getting angry wouldn't help him, and neither would pleading.

"I am just a personal trainer. I don't have anything I could offer you that he couldn't offer a million times over."

"So I can't really promise you anything. You can't die. I can't die. I guess we just live here now. Unless you've got an entire forge that can melt celestial steel in that bag."
 

ArcanaFate

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"Well, you don't have much of a choice? There still isn't anything you've said that's caught my interest."

Asteria let out another sigh and grabbed her water bottle with her free hand. It wasn't like there was anything else to do but chat. She could easily let him go right now, but he still hadn't promised not to lob her head off the moment the seals went down. But, at the same time, there was a questionable concern about giving a boring man-child deity an all powerful weapon that she could use to her advantage. Decisions, decisions.

"...I don't. I didn't think I would be playing blacksmith with a god sword today." She relaxed her hand and the sealing magic slowly pulled itself away into nothing, leaving Masami free to do as he wished. "So, if we're at an impasse, let me ask the obvious question: If you're so powerful, why not kill the god who's hunting you? You seem capable enough to do horrible things and your implication of dealing with immortals implies you could very well do things to deities."
 

Kada

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"Call it a philosophical victory,", Masami replied almost immediately, an obvious hint of sarcasm in his voice. "I left my home because I could not stand what I was being used for. And killing my wielder would only serve to put every god in heaven at my throat. I would rather not be melted down and have my 'flaws' hammered out of me."

Standing up slowly, he towered over Asteria - or would have if they had been close to one another. But she still had a bit of a height advantage up on the boxing ring. But he also felt the magic that was binding him fade, and he promptly returned to his human form with a rough massage of his neck. "I appreciate it. I have alcohol, if you'd like some."

He didn't make any sudden moves, making his way in a slow shuffle over to the small room he used as an office. The glass door meant that Asteria could see him as he reached in and grabbed an unopened bottle of sake that was chilling in a small refrigerator beneath the counter.

"Warm or chilled," he asked, lazily shaking the bottle by its neck.
 

ArcanaFate

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Asteria watched carefully, other hand ready to recast the seal if Masami even made so much as a breath that seemed threatening. To her surprise, though, he merely shuffled away to the back room and returned with a bottle of sake. From client to hunter to drinking buddy; this had become a strange turn of events. She was not, however, one to turn down a free drink when offered.

"Chilled is fine. I'm not particularly picky when it comes to a free drink." She shrugs, sliding over slightly and patting the edge of the ring. "So, you've claimed a philosophical victory by being a passive shut-in hiding from the god who currently has a god-worthy bounty on you in reward for your capture? Hmm, doesn't seem like much of a win but take what you can get, I suppose. What's your game plan beyond that? Not all bounty hunters are as merciful or capricious as me so eventually you're gonna have to start killing again to avoid capture."
 

Kada

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"Not all bounty hunters will be smart enough to try and disable me after paying me for a private training session. Plus, now I know he's sending people after me so I can be more vigilant. Call the cops, or something. But I also don't mind killing. I mean, it is what I was made for."

Masami slipped onto the edge of the ring, pouring a pair of cups of the cold alcohol. He took a conservative sip and sighed into the drink with an exasperated kind of weariness. "I don't really have a plan though. I kinda never did. I left and ended up here and I've just kind of... been existing. Somewhere along the line, I told myself that I was a worn out old antique that I guess I made it true."

"Sorry," he added, taking another sip of his drink. "You came here to bag a bounty. Not listen to an old sword complain about how he's past his prime. So what are we gonna do from here, hm? What capriciousness are you gonna subject me to now?"
 

ArcanaFate

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Asteria took the other cup and sipped the sake as well. It had a somewhat pleasant taste but it wasn't the usual brand she was used to partaking in. She couldn't help but smirk at the comment about the bounty hunters. So she was the first one to actually try? That was amusing. Either she was braver than the rest of the morons headed this way or she was just quicker. Regardless, she has the prime opportunity to do something that the others could not.

She could spin this to her benefit.

"Yeah, but now it's no fun, honestly. You took all the fun out of it. Apparently you're also a fun killer, too." She teases, taking another sip before setting the cup down on the ring edge. Her leg shifted to cross over the other and she relaxed into her seated position. "But, to answer your question... I don't know. I'm currently lacking in a celestial forge so I can't do whatever you wanted from earlier." She shrugged, then shifted her gaze and refocused onto Masami with a very steely gaze.

"...Wait, did you want to be reforged?"
 
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