Aemi vs Destroyer: Siblings

Aemi had heard that one of the newly transferred exorcists was asking for someone to spar with, but she was sure someone else would have arrived before her. Since most members of the European Branch were newer exorcists, she assumed that they all backed out. This mean that the older exorcists must have taken it upon themselves to compete with him. All she knew was that he was from the Asian Branch and that he went by an alias; to her, this proved he must have been managing a ridiculous strength of innocence.

As she walked down the halls that morning, she noticed how seemingly empty the Order was. She wondered why it wasn't filled with the usual scurrying of Exorcists heading over to the Library or Lobby room. She didn't care too much, but there was that small part of her that missed the noise of the scuffing boots against the concrete. It was as though she was alone in this poorly lit hall.

She went down to the first floor and had gotten something to eat; a cup of hazelnut coffee and a bagel with cream cheese. She was taking her time to eat because to her relief, many of the Exorcists were all taking up a long row of a cafeteria table. She sat at the end of it, listening to the conversations among them, but didn't bother to join. She heard the same subject being brought up multiple times; most of the level three exorcists and up have been hired for a mission to help others at the Asian Branch move the innocence location. She also had heard that a mysterious man going by the alias of "Destroyer" was waiting in the sparring zone for an opponent, but no one showed.

She finished her food and passed in her plate as she walked the halls quickly, wondering if he was still within the zone. She had walked toward the doors and slowly peeked in, narrowing her eyes as she searched for the man. Soon enough, she saw a man in a black suit with the exorcist jacket. She wasn't sure why, but something seemed strange about him, as though he was familiar. She assumed that he may have been one of the original members of the European Branch who left when it was destroyed.

She had a small smirk across her face as she nonchalantly entered the room. The sound of the door opening so widely echoed a high pitched creak in the surrounding areas, so he would have heard her arriving into the room. As she walked toward the center, she kept her narrow stare of her bright blue eyes on him, studying his stance, his appearance, and his weapon. She watched his breathing pattern and the way he reacted to her entering the room. Her first step of combat was to study her surroundings--which she knew quite well at this point, and to study her opponent.

"Don't just sit there like you know you don't have to try. Fight me so I can kick some level three ass," she sneered at him, her hand tightly holding onto her small, deactivate cannon, "Innocence, Activate!" she shouted as the cannon started to consume her entire forearm. The Cannon was as large as her slim body, if not larger. It had a whole at each end; the missle launcher end and the handlebar, which was deep in the cannon behind the bulletcase, where her arm slipped in and grabbed. "This is my darling cannon equipment, Black Rock Shooter. I have roughly twelve years of practice with it."

The sound of the aged door being pushed open, and the rusty metal of the door hinge run about the interior of the room. As soon as Claec had heard this sound, he got up and brushed the dirt off his jeans with his hands. Smalls clouds of dirt floated up as he did so. It was late at the moment, and he could tell by the aroma in the air. She herself smelled of food, something he hadn't had in the three days he had spent here. He just couldn't eat, something wouldn't allow him to.

Claec was dressed in a dark blue t-shirt, the only blue he had on, and all black with steel. It was unusual, and made him look more like a punk then an exorcist. Then again, that wasn't too far from the truth, so it was a pretty good description. He held a sheathed sword in his left hand, keeping his grip on the part below the hand guard, only a few centimeters below it. So it was obvious that he was ready to begin, even now that his opponent had barely entered the room. His eyes, at the moment, were bright blue and focused on her alone, seeming to black out everything else except for her. He himself felt that something was unusual about her, like he had also met her a long time ago. But he couldn't put his finger on it. truth way, he tried to forget all the faces from the past, except three that had forever burned themselves into his memory.

Now that he had taken a good look at his opponent, he took a few steps closer to her. The only sound now was that of his boots thudding above the stone floors. There were no words from him, yet, so it was obvious that he wasn't much of a talker, especially by the way he walked, and dressed. He stopped after about 9 steps, now closing his eyes as if to analyze something. Unlike her, eh was analyzing her innocence first, rather then here mere behavior. Once he had a clear picture of what she was capable of, a small smile formed on the corner of his lips. It was not a normal smile, but a smug smile.

Still not speaking, he moved both arms in front of himself, so they were perfectly perpendicular with his body. With his right hand, he took hold of the grip of his sword, and tugged a little on it. A small clicking sound rung, then he opened his eyes and looked out at the female who was showing off her weapon. Unlike her, he hadn't activated his innocence yet, so it was arguable if was either mocking her, holding back, or simply didn't care to. "It's getting late...I'll make this as quick and painless as I possible can."

With that having been said, he slid the rest of the blade out of its sheathe. It glimmered as the light hit the magnificent blade, and reflected at her quite a bit. This was purposely done to momentarily blind her, this way she wouldn't see that he had quickly unsheathed his sword and dashed out at her. He leaned forward as he ran, keeping his sword at his side with the blade facing forward, ready to strike. As he moved, he ran in a Zig-zag like pattern to confuse her and make it nearly impossible to land a direct hit with her weapon. For some reason, he felt that it was safer this way.

Aemi watched him as he continued to stare at her weapon, and watched as he had taken his blade out. By that time, she realized that his innocence was infused within the sword. She smirked at this, because she had sparred with many swordsman exorcists in the passed, and wondered if he'd be any different or not. She noticed that he attempted to direct the reflected light toward her eyes, but she knew that he'd then attempt to move forward at her. She could see that he was moving from left to right multiple times, most likely to confuse her. She immediately whipped her arms back as her cannon lifted, over her shoulder as it slid to her back. She jumped backwards, landing on her hands as she back-flipped several feet so that she could avoid him.

She then rolled herself on the ground and threw her cannon in the air. It appeared to be extremely heavy, but for her, it seemed completely weightless. She was now on the side, staring at Destroyer to see what he may do. She immediately awaited for him to make another move, but not before she sent out a tiny shuriken disk at him to make sure he moved swiftly. She stayed where she was for quite some time before her cannon started to glow. She narrowed her eyes as she watched him, but grew impatient, running for him and pointing her cannon at him. She made no effort to use a very powerful move and only threw a small laser in his direction, to make him move from his spot. What she wanted most was for him to not stay still. The more he moved, the better chance she had to winning the fight.

As she then moved back once more, away from him, she wiped her bangs out of her face. Her exorcist jacket was swaying at her sides and her hair was moving back from the constant movement. She let her blue eyes continue to stare into him, her left eye beginning to ache, as though it was going to manifest itself soon. She tried to hold it off for a small bit of time to avoid having to rely on its rush of adrenaline. She felt perfectly fine to keep going in her state.

Despite how heavy her weapon appeared to be, she was moving so quickly and agiley, that it was truly stunning to see. It came as a rather big surprise to Claec, who had anticipated that she would try and stay still the entire match. But now she was the one trying to get on the move, that simply made no sense to him. Or her weapon. the tactics just didn't add up, unless she was setting him up for a trap.

With that in mind, he became much more weary of his surroundings an actions, carefully analyzing all of her moves. She had black flipped and rolled, typical of a gunner. But she had also thrown a shuriken at him, for what purpose? He couldn't tell just now, but he wasn't going to let it succeed. As it came at him, he slowed down his perception and allowed it to glide at him at the slowest pace he could perceive it at, and moved accordingly. Taking his sword with both hands then, he waited and then brought his sword upwards at the shuriken. Luckily, he managed to hit it from the bottom and knock it upwards, completely avoiding him. But this wasn't all, now she had fired a lazer at him. He thought, as it came at him, that perhaps this was his chance and moved only enough so that it would fly past him.

Once he was out of harms way, he returned to his his previous position, only to take a step forward with his right. He brought his sword up as he did, causing ti to gather energy and Soul Eater energy as it glided through the air. Once it was over his head, he brought it down, causing a large crescent wave of hard energy and soul eater to fly at Aemi. It was intended to deliver a hard blow and send her flying back. But as he did so, something came off his left wrist, a small gold locket that also flew at her. But unlike the wave, it sunk and remained on the floor in front of where she stood, opened to reveal a picture of a small child, a father, and a pregnant mother. On closer inspection, it was their father, mother, and himself. On the other side of the locket, was a picture of him holding her, trying his hardest not to cry. Despite how touching it was, there was something about his eyes that told immediately that he was unhappy and in a world of despair.

Aemi had noticed that he was analyzing her movements. She also had noticed that he had been moving the least bit as possible. She moved herself back as she watched him avoid the shuriken and the laser and then watched to see what he might do. She felt sweat trickling down her cheek and she wiped it abruptly as she held onto her cannon tightly, awaiting his next move. She felt her heart racing and she couldn't bare to sit still much longer.

Soon she noticed as he lifted his sword to create an attack. This time she smirked, noticing the pure energy that was put into this attack. It appeared to be in the shape of a crescent moon and it made her curious to what it does. She didn't want to allow herself to be openly attacked though, so she quickly avoided it, moving out of the way as quickly as possible. She then noticed that at the same time of him attacking her, a golden locket had flown off in the direction she jumped too. Panting from moving so much, she knelt down as quickly as possible in case he were to attack again, lifting up the locket and observing it.

Her eyes had widened when she looked at the photo, because it seemed all too familiar to her. On the right was a picture of a young boy with his parents; but she did not recognize the adults at all. The boy, however seemed to ring a bell in her mind. She looked to the other side to see something puzzling to her. It was the same boy, only he seemed to be slightly older and with a baby in his hands. As she watched this, she lost her breath in silence; it looked like the same exact picture -- the only picture that she had on her while she was taken away by the exorcists as a child. She knew now that it was her brother in the photo -- she recognized every detail.

She looked up at him, closing the locket as she held it by the chain, toward him. She shook her head, a look of despair on her face, as though she was confused or upset. She immediately deactivated her cannon and clicked it to her belt once more, still holding the locket in hand. She couldn't bring herself to move as she watched him. She analyzed his appearance once more... and he did look far too familiar. His hair, his face shape, skin tone, and especially his eyes seemed very homely to her. Something she hadn't seen in over a decade.

"C--Claec Stronghold...?" her voice was stuttering as she felt herself shake at the name. She wasn't sure if she was going to cry in sorrow or joy, but she was afraid to get closer because she wasn't sure how he'd react. "Is that your name?"

Just as she had dodged, he prepared to slash one more time. The same energy gathered in his sword, only this time it was more concentrated and physical then the last. he waited patiently until she had stopped and stepped back, only to step forward once more and bring his sword upwards and back down. Only this time, he found she was holding something of his in her hands. He hesitated then, and slashed the wave to the right, causing ti to strike a wall and cause it to crumble.

A gust of dirt rushed passed them from the force of the wave and the wall crumbling to the side of them. He was almost deaf at that moment, watching as the girl held his most prized possession, it was the only thing that made him hope a little. When he was little, his sister and him and gotten matching lockets, only his contained one more picture then hers. The one of their parents. It brought a lot of pain, but then again, he deserved it all. He stood there now, in complete silence as she put away her weapon. And in that instant, he recognized it. Back when they when he was younger, his sister had shot at him with a weapon similar to it. After that, she never heard from her again. In fact, he had actually spent his life trying to find her. She was the only reason he had become an exorcist.

The dust finally settled, so he decided it was no longer needed to battle her. Fact was, he was beginning to grow depressed at the memory of his sister. It was painful, especially since he had damned her life by having made their mom become an Akuma. A scene he had played many times over in his mind, where he had been the one instead of their mother. His weakness and stupidity had shattered his family, and forced his sister to live far from the loving family she deserved.

Just as he was sheathing his sword, he heard her speak something which shocked him to the point of cutting his hand on his own sword. He shot up and looked at her, wondering how she could have dared known that name. No one was suppose to know it, no one. Not even the Black Order knew him by that name. It struck him then, that the female before him might be his sister, which forced a rather dramatic shock on him. Never before had he felt so horrid and joyful at the same time, but, now he was too scared. He had dreamed of being reunited with his sister, and now that it was happening, he couldn't face her. Without speaking a single word to her, he turned away quickly and walked as fast as he could out the door. Once he had exited the room, he had jumped onto the rail and began to climb up as fast as he could in an attempt to avoid his sister.

When he had reached the highest floor, he stopped and ran out the closest window, using it to let him climb outside and onto the ceiling of the castle. Now on top of being hungry, he was terrified and lonely. He had encountered his sister, but now what? She didn't know he was the reason it had all occurred...If she had, she would surely hate him.

Aemi's eyes widened as he bolted for the door. Her hands shook as she dropped the locket and she took a step foward, but he was too fast. "Please don't leave!" were the only words that broke from her mouth, but as the doors slammed behind him, he had disappeared in that instant. She didn't know what to do and she began to panic.

Abruptly she felt her knees give in as she fell to the floor, only landing in a rough sitting position as she sobbed into her arms as they dug into the floor in front of her. Her sobs echoed the room as she sat there, shaking vigorously. She wasn't sure what to do and wish he hadn't run away. She had searched for him in Edo many times before, but never prevailed in finding him -- she had never expected him to have become an exorcist.

She couldn't bring herself to move as she sat there, her face still dug into her arms which were pushing against the cold, hard floor. If anyone had entered the room, she couldn't be able to tell. She didn't know how to do anything except cry at that moment. The first time she'd seen her brother in over ten years and he ran away from her.

He waited nearly an hour before looking up off his lap and onto the beautiful night sky. It reminded him of the night before Aemi was taken from him. On that night, they had slept outside under the stars, sharing fantastic tales of warriors and princesses, until they had both fallen asleep. It was something he missed greatly, along with the experiences he never had with her. He never taught her how to read, or write, or even how to ride a bike. Something he had wanted to do since he learned what a bike was.

A few more minutes passed, before he finally got the courage to go back and confront his long lost sister. After crawling back down the wall, and into the open window, he closed it and began to walk back down to where she last was. He took the long way, the stairs, and began to contemplate what to tell her when he met her. He wasn't about to just show up and say it flat out, he had waited to long and dreamt about it too many times to ruin it. AS he walked down the stairs, it became evident to him that if he told her then, she would hate him forever, so, for the time being he wouldn't speak of their parents at all. He would tell her eventually, but not now.

Once he was down stairs and in front of the large door, he stopped and took a deep breathe. His heart was beating faster and harder inside his chest, to the point where he thought it was going to jump out of his chest. Upon pushing the doors inward, he heard a sobbing sound, and looked in to find that his sister was on the ground crying. At that moment, he wanted to rush to her side and hold her and apologize, but he simply lacked the courage. Instead, he slowly walked in, closing the doors softly before walking over to her and picked up the locket. He wasn't sure of what to do, so he picked up her upper body and sat down, holding her so that her head was rested on his chest before speaking in a low, comforting tone of voice. "I remember when I first held you...you were a lot smaller...Aemi...I looked down at you and all you could do was cry. I smiled though, and I knew I had found my family. things changed fast after that...but i was happy that at the least, you would be around...Things were taken out of my control though, and before I knew it, I was alone again...I've spent a long time looking...training...dreaming of this day...I'm terrified..."

Aemi felt the presence of someone entering the room again, but couldn't bring herself to lift her head to see who it was. She continued crying into her arms, avoiding anyone who passed her by. Soon abruptly though, she felt her body being lifted. She caught a brief gaze and saw that it was her brother as he held her close, against his chest. She involuntarily wrapped her arms around him, still breathing heavily as she shook in his arms, listening to what he had to say.

Soon, her soft cry had stifled into sniffles and she only sat there shaking every once in while with a sudden twitch. Her eyes were open, just staring out in the direction her head was, against his side. She didn't know what to say at first, feeling ashamed that she just had to play in the ruins outside their village. If she hadn't gone there, she may not have been taken away from him, leaving him by himself.

When the silence lingered in the room for several minutes, she still clung to him, holding onto him for as long as she could. "You became an Exorcist to look for me...?" was the only thing she could bring herself to say in that moment. She didn't know what else to say, because nothing else had crossed her mind.

He stayed silent for a few moments, simply holding her in his arms to get the full feel of that moment. It was better then he had expected, and thus, he was trying his hardest to remember every last detail of it. Just then, she had spoken and asked as to his being there. Seeing as how she was his only kin, he decided that she was entitled to an explanation.

"There wasn't much after you left. The old lady died, and there was no where to really go, so I went into a Dojo and trained there. An exorcist found me there wielding the Muramasa, and recruited me to the Black order. The only reason I went was because I remembers you had also joined, so yes, I did it to look for you...Luckily, It seems like my search is over now." A small smile came to his face, then he simply tightened his hold on Aemi, holding her closer still.

Despite how well he was speaking, and his calm collected attitude. He was over joyed and almost ready to burst into tears himself, but somehow, it didn't seem right. He was the older brother after all, and it was his duty to protect her now that he had found her. So for her sake, he wouldn't cry.

Aemi continued to hold onto him, just staring out into the room, unsure what to say at first. Tears were still sliding down her face, but she felt her breathing begin to calm as she rested on him. She felt herself swallowing hard as she recollected herself, her grip around him tightening slightly, as if protectively.

She closed her eyes for a moment, listening to what he had to say and kept a hidden smile under herself as she hid her face in his jacket. She never thought he'd care enough, or even remember her and try to find her. It made her feel like she was actually worth something for once, unlike all the others who she trusted that left her side.

"What are you going to do? Now that you're search is done," she pursed her lips. She still felt awkward for asking such stupid questions, but she didn't know what else to say. They were the only things that crossed her mind at the time when she had spoken.

Hearing this new question, he found himself wondering the same thing, and remained silent once more. It hadn't crossed his mind up to that point, mainly because he hadn't thought he would ever find her. It was, simply put, too unrealistic until now. It was by mere luck that he had met her now, so now that his mission was complete, he wasn't sure what he'd do. He contemplated for a few minutes, thinking in silence before looking up at the ceiling.

"I'd like to stay here, if you don't mind. I don't think I'd have the strength to go through twelve more years without you..." He replied then, closing his eyes once more in a bit of fear. It had only just crossed his mind that perhaps it wasn't good that he was smothering her this way. She was seven-teen after all, almost eight-teen. But, he truly did love her, and he hadn't seen her in such a long time, he simply couldn't help control those brotherly instincts, which had dictated his actions, anymore.

Aemi laughed slightly under her stifled sniffles as she pulled away. She looked up at him, narrowing her eyes so that she could get a better look at him. He looked pretty much the same, other than how much taller and more masculine he had appeared to be. She could still see memories fly through her head though.

She watched him for a moment when he had spoke and nodded, "I wouldn't mind if you stayed here. I'd be relieved if you did, actually." she kept a smile on her face as she looked down. She felt so much joy and confusion in one sitting; she didn't know how to contain it. Perhaps that's why she was still crying, but she was not sure.