Wretched Atmosphere - Zayasu Ritsuko's Awakening

The delinquent visored her hand over her eyes as if watching a long drive, a sanguine smile shining from beneath her mask as she witnessed the unholy creature fade once more into the black from whence it came. It's tortured screeches only served to get her more excited. She hadn't even broke a sweat dispatching the horrible thing, her heaving breaths coming more from ecstatic anticipation and combat high than anything else. Damn it felt good to win! Tilting her entire body backward, Ritsuko let loose with a maniacal cackle.

"Hmm hmm heeeeee aha ha ha ha!"

Her voice rang out in a twisted combination of pure, child-like glee, murderous intent, and baleful weeping wrapped into one entity echoing from the narrow alleyway. The resounding laughter was maddening, glee like pumice that shredded the soul. Her spirit overflowed with courage and drive for all the wrong reasons, every inch of her being ordering her, demanding her to brutally beat this offender to death! As the terrible echo subsided she lolled herself upright, hefting her weapon over her shoulder as she took slow, deliberate steps toward the direction the Demon had disappeared. Her fingers flexed and untensed, popping with the her newfound familiarity with battle. Her body wasn't quite used to slaying monsters after a five year hiatus, but it was all flooding back.

"Alright, I'm done fuckin' around. I'm gonna kill you now."

Legs tensing, preparing for another savage assault, the musician would be halted by a metallic commotion behind her. On reaction she twisted sharply, cutting the air with her guitar and sound of vibrating strings that bit into... air. There was nothing there. And then the world returned. The pitter patter of the rain began to slow to a trickle as the harmonious sounds of the Little Tokyo nightly festival returned. The darkness lifted, shadows beaten back by her ferocious display as the soft light from the stars shown down on her from parting clouds. Tense, still ready to fight, Ritsuko's sharp yellow eye shot downward toward her feet. A revolver, gleaming with wet and chrome. She tentatively reached down to grasp the object, leaving her guitar over her shoulder and an open awareness to any possible threats. The gun was tiny but it fit her fingers just fine. Snapping open the cylinder, she found it fully loaded with six rounds and four more on the ground surrounding it. It brought back unpleasant memories and implications. They had raised her to become a weapon in her own right, and she had enjoyed it. It was bliss to transfer her anger and frustrations to another with violence. Just like they wanted her to. Ritz felt sick to her stomach at the realization... quickly coming to grips that this wasn't metaphorical.

Aoide clattered to the ground with a sharp ring as Ritsuko was brought to her knees. The adrenaline, movement, stress, and effort had taken its toll, and now that the battle was over she was driven to all fours where she retched up a dark, inky sludge. Her insides felt like they were leaving her with every pool of ethereal vomit, her sick feeling like it had taken hours. When she was finished there was nothing left. Not in her stomach... and not on the ground. It had vanished. A quivering hand reached up to feel her own face to find... skin. It was her again. At least the version of herself that everyone else saw. But she knew everything had just happened. The revolver was still in her hand.

Looking over her shoulder, Ritz placed it deep within her vest. She stood on shaking legs and quietly gathered her case and guitar. A fierce headache began to gnaw at her as her disorientation set her off-balance and find a nearby wall for purchase. This was it. This was what she was waiting for. So... why didn't she feel any better for it? There was an anxious sort of resolve bubbling within her, a fear to send her in motion as her unsteady foot started to take her through the puddles of the back streets. She couldn't let this drift by her anymore. Tomorrow she would set back to her objective that brought her to Endymion. Ritz would take the gun they had loaded and turn it back on themselves.