[center][color=a187be][h1]Yayama Yama[/h1][/color]
Location: Esaka's Mid Tier - Banishing Flats / 
Status: Unfortunately, in her element
LV: 5, EXP: 25/50
Word Count: 780 (+2)[/center]

Yayama's ears rang in the aftermath of the blast. Had it not been for the Echo, she might not have understood Zenkichi's question. "I'll live," she replied, despite the line of blood running from her hairline to down past her jaw. Her eyepatch had been cut loose by shrapnel, hanging awkwardly off the same side of her head. Zenkichi had the dubious privilege of being the first one in Esaka to see the lalafell's sickly-looking right eye, which looked more like it belonged on a corpse than a living, breathing person. "I'll do one last pass through here for survivors, then make my own way to safety. You'll hear if anything else happens," she said, gesturing toward the linkpearl currently nestled in her ear. 

Yayama gathered energy in her hand, then released a pair of Vercures, patching the worst of her injuries up before she headed back into the husk of Banishing Flats. Her armor had taken the brunt of the damage, but she was definitely going to feel the rest of this in the morning. [i]'Course this happens the night before the tournament,[/i] she thought. [i]The residents are probably going to guess this was sabotage, and not an assassination attempt.[/i] It could have been either, but she had the sinking feeling of the latter. People getting hurt because of her never sat well with her, especially those who hadn't already committed to the possibility of losing their lives for the cause. 

Her blade was sheathed after a few moments; it seemed the bulk of the automata were gone at this point, whether by self-destruction or the efforts of the Seekers. This freed up her hands for the unhappy task ahead of her. She sifted through the wreckage, using her strength to heft fallen timbers to check for wayward patrons. It seemed most of them had fled, but not all. Some of those Yayama found she was able to Raise, patching the worst of their injuries and letting them leave to find a proper healer under their own power, but some were beyond help. Those, she pulled one by one out of the ash-sodden ruins, laying each down with a small prayer so that their loved ones could find some closure, such that existed in a hellscape like this. [i]There's no point to this, you know. None of them are real.[/i]

Ignoring the words in the back of her mind, she continued her task along with what few people joined her until each and every patron and employee had been accounted for in one way or another. Being on scene did mean she had the opportunity to report several of the Seekers as missing when the authorities arrived, a small deceit that would hopefully buy some time before the next disaster struck. [i]We ought to punish who's responsible. They deserve to be broken.[/i] That thought, she did not argue with, merely assuring herself that all would come in due time. 

The sun had begun to peek over the horizon by the time she finally escaped the pull of what remained of the Flats. "Guess I don't get any sleep tonight, either." She dragged herself in the general direction of the Low Tier, only for a vaguely familiar voice to ring in her ear. [i]No rest for the wicked.[/i] "Be there in fifteen. I'm still in the Mid Tier." Yayama clapped both (gauntleted) hands to her cheeks, let them drop, then shook her head as if this would physically throw free the exhaustion clinging to her. [i]Fortunately this isn't the first time I've had a sleepless night during which there was an attempt on my life.[/i]

When she arrived at the coffeeshop, Yayama was wearing some semblance of the cheery mood that surrounded them. It was easy for her to keep her spirits up when she could quite literally borrow the emotions of the crowd around her, and she needed the mental energy if nothing else. The lalafell shouldered her way through the crowd, mostly because she didn't feel like shouting up at every inhumanly-tall customer to let her past while she came up to their waists at best. On parting the last few feet to Band, she gave him a wave. "Hey there, big guy. Yayama, if you didn't catch it earlier." She clambered up onto the seat opposite the other Seeker, then looked a bit miffed on the swift realization that the seating had not been made with her kind in mind. Some additional clambering left her standing on her chair, leaned forward against the edge of the table. "I don't think we've actually properly been introduced. I was a bit distracted earlier."