Queen Bee [Mission Topic]

The blows would come down on him, but still he stood despite the exhaustion or mental toll it was taking on him or his team. He was wearing down, but remained standing strong enough despite how rough this was. Ms. Claire stood strong also resisting them with everything she had. She was determined not to go back…..to stay free even if it meant her death. And them...or rather him? What was he really fighting for here? Was it really just a job to him? Was he really just a loyal dog to the Queen incapable of doing anything outside of obeying an order? He had a past that made him a perfect fit to be just that - an obident dog, but the more he got involved in this chaos the more he began to wonder. Was what he was doing right?

“…..”

His eyes would move from Claire briefly as Vivian took a defensive position and spoke. She was right in both regards. On one hand making the woman angrier was unwise, but to let her go? The price seemed even worse than getting a worse beating from the woman, but what choice did they have? They couldn’t simply disobey the one who order them to do this….and yet to continue to fight was pointless. Even when Ms. Ghost arrived, the relief in the young man had crumbled up as a conflict unlike any other welled up within him.

Ms. Ghost was as merciless as he should be and yet...He hesitate to follow suit. Hesitated to simply complete the job. Why? Why did he hesitate? It didn’t make sense….just like it didn’t make any sense why he was even going to do what he did next. It wasn’t in his nature to cut slack or be merciful to another even less so a threat, but there was something here that was simply wrong and he could not ignore it.

“It has indeed been a while Ms. Ghost and perhaps my dullness may never go away. However, is it really wise to simply destroy her? Despite our differences, she is a person to is she not? Let's leave the killing as a last resort.” he would tell the woman before looking over to Claire.

“Ms. Claire. I cannot begin to imagine how your life has been with all that has happened to you, but I can see it’s been very hard on you in the end. I understand you want your freedom and honestly I cannot blame you for that. Or for fighting us for it. Anyone would...." They had no right to keep a person caged did they? He would shake his head lightly and lock his eyes back on the woman, keeping his defense more or less down the whole time. He did not want to appear as a threat to her. "I told before I did not want to harm you, but help instead. Tell me is there no other way than defeating you to prove that?”

His expression remained serious, but his words were true despite his less than soothing manner of delivering them. He did not want to kill her, but at the same time could not let her go and do as she pleased. The Queen's servant or not, he was considering more than just himself or his position when it came to this. If he allowed chaos to flow in the city many would suffer in ways worse than living blinded by what may be a very well made illusion. He couldn’t afford to lose people like that, but at the same time was it really right to blindly kill this woman before him because he had been commanded to do so? Even through all her suffering, wasn’t there people that would miss her and would hurt if she was gone? He couldn’t help to think about the tight knit group she had been with before the world came undone. Provided either male was still alive...how would they feel knowing she was gone? And what of the young man that called himself Sera?

There were many things in play here that made him hesitate and reconsider the matter...even if doing so would probably ruin his reputation with the Cadets and perhaps make the Queen herself mad. But still...he wasn’t a robot. So if there was a way to complete this mission with minimal loss, then why not try? After all...she hadn’t killed the others that came after her...so would she really kill them? Or was that a bluff of some sort? He wasn’t sure, but it was this sort of uncertainty that stayed his hand now. Question was would he regret it and pay the ultimate price for it?

Hatsuharu - Level 4 - Main Line:

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He would hear a sigh come from Ms. Ghost when he tried to speak with Ms. Claire; however, he did not let it phase him. He understood that there was a high chance that she would not listen considering that she had just been attacked, but even so he had to try all options, so he attempted to talk with her and when that failed was he surprised or upset? No. In fact, he had taken a risk by not attacking her at all. The idea of her attacking sat high in his mind and he indeed had prepared for the worse if this failed. What he did not expect was for her to actually sweep him off his feet….literally. She had a legit reason to be mad for sure, but to actually come at him and take him skyward? That was not on the list of possibilities. So unexpected it was that young man did not have time to react allowing her to nab his collar and lift him up. The fact she was able to lift him showed off her strength and while the initial lift off was indeed a bit startling, the shock wouldn’t last too long before his instinct to survive kicked in.

They were going through the trees, the branches not exactly pleasant to be smacked by, but nothing actually harmed him seriously as they continued upward. As they moved, his hands automatically went to the hand grasping his collar as he tried to pry them lose and wiggle free from the grasp before they got too high. It was a dangerous move maybe, but he much rather risk some injury to his body than death itself. Still no matter how he tried, her grip didn't loosen until they were clear of the treetops and the other decided to throw him towards a branch. It was a short time frame to act, but Haru would not let panic cloud his mind.

As he went towards the branch, he would quickly move his body in a fashion that caused him do a small flip in the air to cut down some of the momentum, so that when he landed on that massive branch in a crouch a short time later no damage would be done to him.

Safe his eyes would look upward towards Ms. Claire who was still flying and moving about up above. He wasn’t quite sure why she had decided to separate them, but now that it was on him and he knew there was no way of talking her out of her actions anymore, he would do the only thing left for him to do: stop her at all cost.  

Tch, but how to do that when the enemy could fly and he could not? Hmm. He would have to play this carefully and just pray Ms. Ghost and Vivi would catch up soon. Until then, he would have to keep himself alive and her from leaving. Right.

Making sure to keep Claire in his sight, the Cadet would move along the thick branch moving as fast as was possible to keep up with the winged woman while maintaining cat like balance. He would allow her to see him for a short time before he jumped off the branch and disappeared into the foliage of the trees.

He would land quietly on a huge branch below as his eyes flicked upward. He could see Claire, but hopefully the trees would keep her from seeing him. Keeping his movement quiet and controlled, he would easily move through trees to stick with the woman who was moving. As he move, his persona would appear next to him and despite size and armor, easily avoided branches and making noise. Without any words, the persona would first heal his master before picking up speed and moving a bit ahead.

For a moment the forest was quiet, but then a loud and strange sound would come from below that could be distracting to the curious or unfocused. A second after that sound occurred, the calls of many black birds would erupt as the birds were startled from their sleep and in a panic to flee the danger shot upward. It was a rather large flock that made a ton of noise, but more than that had perhaps caught Claire in their mad panic and unexpected eruption. If she had been caught up in it, perhaps it would force her to either slow down or stop to avoid being hit or colliding with the birds.

If the birds did their job, then the woman should’ve at least slowed up giving Haru (who had kept moving and had found a landing in the trees below, enough time to pull out his gun and take aim. He would fire a shot aimed at the wings, but not directly. His aim would be a little off to whichever direction the woman may go. Why? Because she was a moving target so hopefully when she moved or while she was distracted by the birds (if they worked), she wouldn’t notice the bullet in the mix and in turn either run into it herself or get hit by it due to being unable to focus. If the bullet did find its mark then the woman would find one of her wings damaged and in turn perhaps be unable to fly….and if it failed? Well, he would just find something else to bring her down….

Hatsuharu - Level 4:

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He went downward in attempt to use the trees as cover and she upward to use the clouds as her ally. The playing field was tricky, each player seeming to play a game of cat and mouse with each other. Despite the odds the young man had tried to use nature to assist him and even took a shot at the woman within the shroud chaos; however, the woman was clever. She used the birds to her advantage causing the first shot to indeed miss. A bit annoying, but unsurprising to the young man below.

It would seem that he would just have to do something else to bring her down...while contending with something even more annoying than a human flying above - bugs. Bees to be precise. Bees...he always seemed to get the bad end of the stick when it came to the creatures who for whatever reason loved to come around him. He didn’t get regular bee logic or why they wanted to fly around or try to land on him when clearly he was no fan of theirs. He perferred them to leave him alone, but no. They always came to bother him just like these bees did now. The only differences here was that he understood clearly why this particular batch was after him and he was no longer dealing with one or two little bees. Ms. Claire had re-summoned them to do her bidding and now they were coming at him from below with the intent to harm and way more organized way than a natural bee. Their constant buzzing getting louder the closer they got.

On top of this, it would seem Ms. Claire would try to make a break for it. A yellow blur coming out of a sea of black was a clear indicator of that. Hmph. Alright. Time to multi-task.

First these bees.

Taking his eyes off the skies for a moment, Haru would quickly scan his surroundings before spotting a rather thick branch up above that would do nicely for what he had planned. Shifting from his spot, he would carefully make his way up the tree to the branch. He made sure tokeep some distance between himself and the bees, but for the most part kept a direct path upward to ensure the bees would continue on that path (hopefully). When he was close to his target, he would veer from the path to hop to a branch off to the side and then using that branch, he would launch himself upward and above the large branch before flipping himself around in the air and coming downward with his soulbound weapon upon the tree. He would use the blade portion of the blade to slice clean through the thick branch to send it crashing down upon the swarm that should be underneath it or pretty close to it if they had continued to follow him upward. With the large branch being taken down by gravity towards the swarm, the young man would would direct his fall towards a different branch that was slightly below the one he just sliced through. He would landed easily enough on the branch more than likely safe from harm due to the fact the falling branch should’ve done something to the swarm

He did not expect the to kill all the bees with this.  After all bees, were rather fast; however, he hoped that the branch could catch the buggers off guard and smash some to lower the numbers at the least. Regardless if that worked or not, the young man wouldn’t stand around to observe or make himself an easy target for the enemy. He would push off the branch he was on and keep moving a few seconds after landing, shifting his path to follow Claire. He was pretty sure any survivors of the swarm would follow, but he would deal with them as they came.

Despite the bee issue, the young man had been keeping tabs on the woman. After all, he was not alone in this fully. His persona while it couldn’t travel far from him remained a bit ahead of him watching the yellow blur that was Claire. Watching her pathway for a few seconds, the persona would raise his finger to chest level as he began to draw invisible lines in the air; however the results of what the creature was doing would appear up above.

The area around Claire would remain clear for a few seconds when from out of nowhere a thick trail of chains made of earth would swirl around her and then attempt to ensnare her as they closed in on her from all sides with amazing speed. If they succeeded in wrapping around her, they would effectively bind her starting from the shoulders and going down to her ankles. The chains would attempt to wrap her up tightly, cutting off her way to fly and being relatively heavy, the chains’ weight would be able to pull her down to the earth, but would it work?

Hatsuharu - Level 4:

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He took note as he moved along the branches, that the bees did back off and that in turn allowed him time to at least pause a bit on the branch he currently was on. He was still where he could hear and keep an eye on the swarm should they do something, but at least for now he was out of danger or so it would seem. Well at least the branch did what it was suppose to do...too bad the other half of the attack only did half of what it was suppose to do.

It was true the young man did not seem to pay much attention to the clouds above, but one would be highly mistaken if they assumed he was only focused on the bees or the blur. Yes it was true his persona aimed for the blur in an effort to potentially capture the Queen Bee; however, in the back of his mind, Haru found the move quite suspicious. Why travel in a straight line? Make it an obvious escape? Yeah, he kind of figured there was more to it than what he saw, so when his persona caught the other’s persona rather than the Queen Bee herself, he wasn’t too surprised. Using all of her tools her advantage. A smart move that could make one feel quite confident in what they did. Even more so when they thought they had a target at a disadvantage. However, to get too confident about one’s plans could indeed be someone’s undoing...and this is exactly what made Ms. Claire’s plan work only partially.

Yes, Haru couldn’t see her, but he wasn’t so oblivious to the idea of an attack from elsewhere. His senses were on high alert and while one could attempt to make a silent descent upon a prey from above, no matter how quiet they were there was always the disturbance of air. The rustle or snap of clothing, faint and unnoticable to an untrained ear. Or in the case of anything with wings the noises the wings made when close. Also, Haru was no average Cadet or idol. He had trained his body and mind beyond the norm and in turn had a slight edge over others of his class. He knew how to fight and knew how to listen for what others may not take into account and it was this training that saved him now.

He caught the sound of Claire’s wings and on instinct quickly spun summoning his soulbound, so instead of finding his back the woman would find her weapon meeting his. It was a save, but barely; however, the woman was still quicker than him. So even if he had saved himself from being impaled, he wouldn’t have time to recover enough to counter being grabbed or the having a gun pressed against his head.

In quite the jam, he would let his soulbound disappear and his persona who wasn’t too far off would actually give a low growl and vanish. Was he surrendering? It was an uncertain matter there, but what was certain was that the Cadet seemed to be concerned about a gun pointed to his head and so remained tensed under her grasp as he listened to what she had to say. As he processed the words, the air around him would change as he let go of pretending for the moment and simply let himself be what he was truly underneath the pretty boy/obedient puppy act.

“Maybe I do,” he would begin his voice no longer holding formalities giving it a rougher edge as he kept it low enough for the woman that was with him to hear alone. Despite the situation, he remained calm and seemed to relax in her grip as if the very act of catching him had ripped a form of mask off of him and left only the truth behind. Regardless of this change up in behavior he would answer the woman’s inquiries his voice remaining low so no one, but she could hear. “What do I expect will happen next? Heh. I expect hell to be unleashed upon the world. Utter chaos to be honest. The world isn’t perfect. Never was and perhaps I will end up like you one day whether I want to or not. I would love to throw off the chains to be honest. See myself for what I truly can be, but I wonder how many lives would need be taken for that. How many lives Ms. Claire? You say paint the world red again, so what is the asking price to be free? As for being saint doing God's work,” he would pause and actually chuckle darkly at that one. “You’re looking at the wrong guy for that sort of thing.”

A saint doing God’s work? As if he thought himself of such. No. At the end of the day, he was just a guy doing whatever it took to survive in a world that was becoming stranger and stranger to him as time past. After all he had a right to exist just like everyone else no matter what others thought….and he would fight for that right to the better end.

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He would remain calm in the woman’s grasp, the barrel of the gun still pointed to his head, but so far the woman who had it did not pull the trigger. Was it because she really was merciful or was it something he had said that had caused her to stop? It was a curious thing, but Haru would not ponder it too much as he kept himself in the moment seeing no reason to play pretend in particular moment as he spoke with the woman one-on-one.

He was aware the others would be there soon enough, but even so he made no move to try and break her grasp upon him as he instead listened to what the other had to say. To the first part his eyes would narrow as he took in what she said. “A set up by someone within the Government….” he would repeat as as a million and one questions floated through his mainly ones that pertained to who did the action or why. His curiosity perhaps got the best of him for he would ask a question. “I don’t suppose you remember a clue or two about who said person is that gave you the mission?” he would ask his voice remaining low so that it was between them only. He wasn’t asking because he was trying to hunt down the culprit and put a stop to them, but rather he was looking into the matter because he wanted to know why someone would do that. Claire kept mentioning black and white and things not being what they seemed, so was someone actually trying to set things up so that the truth of the matter would be revealed? It was a curious thing that the young man placed on the back burner for now as the woman continued on. As she locked her eyes on him, she would find she didn’t have to worry about his persona, the armored warrior was currently not being commanded to do anything to the woman or her own persona as the pair chatted.

Remaining relaxed yet always alert of the woman's actions, her persona, and the bees, Haru would take in what she said next and let out a light “hmph” of amusement at that one. “Then perhaps I am already screwed over. My employer wanted you dead, but yet here I am not doing that. Do you really think my employer would be pleased with this? That I am going to simply slip out of this unharmed? Maybe I am a sliding a bit more into your shoes with each passing moment, but I wonder how bad that really is in the end.”

If he failed here, he’d be punish or dead and even if he didn’t fail he was quite sure that somehow there would be a report that showed his behavior and what of that then? Would he be punish for being merciful to the enemy? Punish for not obeying? He had gotten punished in the beginning for small slip ups...for being who he was, so what was going to happen this round? He wondered, but found himself not fearing that the more he listened and considered what the other had to say.

“Are you suggesting a devil sits on the throne then and that the District Leaders are some form of referee to keep everyone in check? That is quite the claim and yet you think it better to take her out and let the demons run wild? Bring fear back to the people? Bring utter chaos upon the world? You think it would be better that way?” He would pause to consider that for a moment as he watched the woman with him and then hearing her last statement, he would sigh a bit at that one. “A fact I am highly aware of.” He would shift carefully just so he could get into a position to at least look at her better. Surprisingly, a smirk would be on his face. “I am a bit tired of the chains and mask, so why not tear them off and wake up for a change? Why not wake the whole damn world up from the fabricated dream?”


He was...in agreement with this woman and her idea? But why? Why would a Cadet be interested in such an idea? It was a mystery as to why he did what he did, but the Cadet seemed to stand firm in his choice and whatever may follow afterwards….

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