Asuras

Lostman Grafitti

A night for Mana was spent alone.

Well, that wasn't entirely true, but it certainly seemed to be the case lately. It had to have been weeks since she called up Suzume or Kento for more than an idle text, but she wasn't just yet about to break that lull. Her night was spent disobeying the apartment's rules disallowing smoking on the balcony, a tradition she'd long figured out wasn't going to actually get her in trouble considering her neighbors' total lack of care.

After a simple meal, only half home-cooked, she went to bed, somewhat peaceful after her unusual encounter that day. Shaking things up, it felt, had given Mana a measure of happiness.

--------------------------------------

If it were any other street, Mana might have given the benefit of the doubt that a group of thugs' yelling and posturing was just their way of scaring a proprietor out of billing them for a large meal, but here on Niimura...?

Mana kept to herself as she strode slowly towards the verbally assaulted shopkeep, maintaining a speed slow enough that the thugs would have left in time, but not so slow it seemed she was merely watching them. A hand slipped into her hoodie front pouch, and out came a deftly lifted cigarette which she popped between her lips. Cops liked to keep smokers staying in designated areas, but they wouldn't bother her here. That her scene was able to loiter on Niimura all these years was evidence enough of that.

The man who owned the storefront there had long since gone, his business failed and replaced with the next cheap house of merchandise. She didn't know the shopkeep's name, but carried herself as if she might as well have. She knew this place like the back of her hand, even as the placards on the front of the buildings came and went.

"What was that all about?" she asked of the storekeep, her voice a tad muffled by the cigarette planted in her mouth. It bounced as her lips moved, casting tiny bits of ash onto the ground.

Lostman Grafitti

Mana blinked. What an equally odd name for a girl. She found herself appraising Kiwa, as if judging how likely it was for her to be stalked by someone. Given her athleticism, perhaps it was the case someone had become infatuated with success and popularity, but that was just imagination.

"Stalked hm..." Mana nodded, "Any idea by who?" she asked. Something caught in her throat, and her eyes turned to apology as she shook her head. "Ah, well I don't mean to pry or anything. Not like I'm a detective. But uh... Well this is all just a really odd situation. Probably more weird than you even know. Maybe... maybe it's important? The identity of your stalker that is." Mana considered all that was lining up in just the recent few days. It... couldn't have all been mere coincidence, right? Mana certainly wasn't immediately thinking that Kouta was stalking her for looking like Hanami but...

She couldn't deny it was in the back of her mind.

"And about that girl. Ahmya. Has anything seemed... strange about her? Anything at all?"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

Forina was all for justice and mercy, but she understood just as well that being the ones to exact mercy was merely kicking the bucket down the road. However many soldiers these bandits had already slain was enough to sentence them to hanging or beheading, and all their mercy here would not change that.

And she was sure as hell not going to waste time pleading to the king to spare their lives either.

The knightess clicked her tongue before pulling out a cloth and wiping down her blade. After sheathing it, she followed Fanilly's orders and set to further securing the prisoners, moving them wherever it was they'd decided to start collecting them. All tied up, exhausted, and many wounded, Forina wasn't overtly worried that two or three soldiers could keep a good watch, but then again, the king's men had already died before to their blades.

She was inclined to go on ahead of the Captain, for fear that any traps laid out just before the bandit camp would meet the same oblivious fervor. She could preemptively stop it if she were ahead, or simply spring the trap itself with foresight of its nature. Seeing these pitiful fighters left Forina feeling confident that the coming assault would be similarly one-sided.

"We should make sure to check the bandits supplies for anything important stolen," Forina said to Fanilly, "Before we set to burning it down."

Lostman Grafitti

A hand immediately cupped at her neck, rubbing away the sickening feeling of having your windpipe pressed against muscles and bone. Mana seemed agitated, though not for the now sudden realization that she had identified the wrong person.

"I'm alright. I've... been clotheslined before, I guess," Mana grumbled, eyes to the ground. As she got her bearings back stepping off the wall, Mana turned up to the girl apparently named 'Kiwa'. Immediately she thought the name sounded silly in particular, but at least she probably had been spared the endless jokes throughout schooling about how she was named the after a fantasy magical resource.

"Kiwa Usui?" Mana repeated to herself, seeming somewhat skeptical. As she looked the short-haired girl once and twice-over, it felt unlikely that they'd be so similar, but then again, Mana had only physically interacted with Hanami at most three times. The situation, still, seemed way too coincidental. After all...

"I'm sorry Kiwa. You just... looked so freakin' similar to an acquaintance of mine, and she's missing. Maybe my worries got my hopes up. Sorry... again," Mana explained before continuing. "Though... that girl you were with, just before you got onto the train? You know her, right? She was wearing an eyepatch." Mana said as she swirled a finger around her right eye.

"What's her name? How do you know each other? Oh, uh..." Mana paused her questioning, realizing it was probably best to explain why she herself knew the eyepatched girl. "I uh... Well I met her during one of my lunch breaks a little while ago, as it so happens."

It wasn't a lie, in the end.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

Untouched. Unfettered. No less unamused.

Forina stood over the corpse of her final and late opponent, a puncture wound erupting with dark blood through leather padding. All that hadn't surrendered or escaped were dead, and so she had loosened up her stance, though still kept her sword gripped tightly. Her face, however, had not relieved itself an inch. The red-haired knightess strode over to the gathering group, delivering testing prods and kicks with her steeled heel to the bodies along the way.

"Every second we waste tying these men up and hauling them onto a cart is a second the enemy gets to prepare themselves," Forina said low. She stood by one such bandit who had been captured, eyeing him with scorn. Her sword was held threateningly close to his stooped form, as if showcasing the thin layer of blood now encrusting upon it.

"...To say nothing of a cart full of bandits needing supervision. What would you have? One? Two? Three knights to babysit them? Each one is fewer to attack the camp."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

"You idiot!" Forina practically screamed, already rushing for the Captain. The knightess had her blade drawn quick as a flash, but paused for a moment as the arrows sunk into tree and carriage with a quick thunk, thunk, thunk. The bandit that swung at Fanilly met with Forina's own steel before he could even try for another shot, and in an instant his life ended. The longsword cleaved right into the bandit's shoulder, sinking deep enough that Forina need an immediate wrench to free it from the flesh.

As the bandit crumpled into an oozing pile, Forina turned to Fanilly, her sword held low at her side. The red-haired knightess' face was a contorted mess of anger and disappointment.

"I caution everyone and then this?" she spat. Forina wasted no more time chiding her own Captain, taking to the rest of the bandits as the Order had charged in so recklessly to do. Forina added another unanticipated kill to her list as she drove her sword through the spine of a bandit which had only just begun to engage Narcissa. A scream escaped him as the tip of her sword shot out from his belly, only to be pulled cleanly out before the pained noise could die.

"At the very least, we can confirm they'd not expected us. This will be easy," Forina said to Narcissa. She flicked her blade to clean it somewhat, though her whole right arm remained dripping with blood. A nod of her head towards the Larette signaled she was ready to help her cousin charge further in.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

"Exactly my issue," Forina droned. The knightess trotted her horse by Narcissa, eyeing her briefly before speaking to the group at large, though of course her voice was carried to resonate with their captain the most.

"Poetic waxing aside, my assumptions are with Druncarde. One of the many real possibilities as to why the King's men failed each time is that they have a continual scouting presence long before their camp. They may very well know we're here already, perhaps for days now. After all, the 'bandit king' did invite us of his own accord. No one is that stupid without a plan in place," Forina explained. "There's also the fact that we had not received any intel on the camp itself, which seems to me like evidence that none had even reached it before being slaughtered."

Everything about this screamed 'trap' to Forina. The brazen challenge by the bandits, the ease with which they dispatched the King's soldiers, the lack of information... She worried they were about to send but a few knights into woods coursing with bandits lying in wait, ready to converge on them before they could even reach sight of the camp.

"Ultimately, however, it's your decision, Captain Fanilly," she said, turning her gaze to the young girl.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

Forina kept to the front. It was the closest position to leadership in spirit, and though she was no longer the spearhead of a banneret, it felt right to be near the one who did take the position. Forina's horse, the brown-colored stallion Origeld, paused idly beside Fanilly's own white mare. The knightess had a sour look on her face, doubtful of the necessity of their being there. As peace in general had been so enjoyed for years since the War of the Red Flag, it was difficult to believe that someone had risen up in the sanctity powerful enough to easily rout the King's men. Perhaps, she thought, these were the unfortunate remnants of the war, turned to banditry to survive where once their swords had been used lawfully.

Forina spoke up to the captain, her voice stern and composed as her gaze followed out onto the fields.

"Captain, if I might make a suggestion," she began. Forina reigned her horse to a turn, siding up along Fanilly with mere inches between them. Turned to the rest of the group, her eyes bore straight into Fanilly, seeming altogether determined, if perhaps skeptical of the girl.

"We've every reason to believe the King's men were caught off guard, either by trickery or numbers, or a combination of the two. I've confidence any one of us can hold our own against a number of these rats, but I'm cautious of what they may have prepared to meet with our superior skill. Entering their camp is not something I advise we do straight away," Forina advised.

Forina was painfully aware that Fanilly had next to no combat experience leading to this excursion, nor any significant force of established charisma behind her to embolden those serving under her. If they were to find the bandit king and his forces truly testing her ability, Forina wished to see to it that she left the area still alive, rather than buried six feet under after her leader failed to make the grade.

"Spreading out may be a good idea, as was already discussed, so as to ensure any planned entrapment of theirs is reserved for few, rather than many. Be alert for those who require immediate assistance once we enter." Forina's words seemed half meant for Fanilly, and half meant for the Order itself.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

Forina Vindramael

Name: [Lady] Forina Vindramael
Age: 27
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Appearance: Nobility and grace bleed through Forina's well-kept appearance. Only the gruesome nature of the battlefield seems capable of changing such images for her. Standing at a notable five feet and nine inches, Forina is fairly tall for a lady, and it adds to her already dominating and demanding visage. Despite the propensity for a lady-like grace, underneath Forina's rarely-unworn armor is a toned physique lending to her quest for power and respect.
Personality:
Prideful, harsh, strict.

Any mere nobility could produce an individual that conducts themselves properly whenever they so desired, but only a true aristocrat understood the importance of behaving at all times. In this Order of knights, Forina sees children and their chaos, unfit to hold a sword no matter how skilled they professed themselves to be. In times of war, those units which exerted the greatest discretion and self-control were the ones who truly struck fear into their enemies. Those which strode across the battlefield clad in faceless helms, and killed with a controlled violence.

This is who Forina strives to be, and what she is certain she embodies better than most in the order. To the noblewoman, a freedom to be eccentric and unconventional is what plagues the Iron Rose Knights most. Forina knows that she cannot simply dismiss such characters, but looks down upon them with no less disappointment. And yet, despite all of her favoring cohesiveness and structure, Forina takes towards a bold and independent nature on the battlefield, trusting most in herself than the help others can offer. If it weren't the case that she could handle things on her own, then her sense of superiority would surely be a lie, wouldn't it?

Even as she characterizes herself as a selfish and arrogant noble, Forina is extraordinarily fond of her immediate family, and seems poised to ensure they attain all and as much glory as she can achieve in her life. More than the Roses, more than her country, more than her life, Forina is driven by the quest to enhance the status and power of House Vindramael.

Brief Backstory:
"The very fact that you hold a blade, even alongside me, is proof enough that the aloof nature of our Order has lost sight. There are no signs of things ever changing for us, or for the world, and I shall see to it that we are not caught off guard by the inevitability of war. One day... you may not be alongside me as you are."

The Vindramael family is one of the most powerful in all of Thaln, having lived through the century through patience, cunning, and the artful manipulations of a long-deceased member honored as the "Lord of Betrothals". Due to a genetic predisposition, the men of House Vindramael are oft to produce female heirs, normally a curse to the future prospects of retaining power. However, early on in the then-middling noble house, a man existed who had guided them upwards through sheer planning and intelligence. The Lord of Betrothals, as he was so called, had managed countless beneficial marriages between the aristocracy, all to careful shift the balance under the radar of other houses. Even as he set to heightening the status of House Vindramael, his apparent knowledge had prompted other lords to ask for his consultation. Though he would bring them success, he would always do so with the hidden pretense of ensuring it would always come back to House Vindramael.

And so, the powerful family had risen through the ranks through the power of marriage. From then on, this inherent connection between so many other important houses allowed Vindramael to retain its power whilst it turned to other mediums to continue accruing strength. Today it yet remains at the very top of Thaln society, its hand dipped into the businesses of everything that lives and breaths within its borders. But such wasn't enough for a young Forina, heir to the Vindramael head seat. She saw an opportunity for more, and devoted herself to the cause.

During the War of the Red Flag, House Vindramael of course sided with the Monarchy, and Forina struck fiercely into the rebellion as the captain of a small banneret. They were, however, never cruel. Comprised entirely of individuals from the Vindramael family, they carried out a very focused campaign to simultaneously fend off those of the rebellion whilst maintaining good relations with the local populace. They never once sacked a city or town, and strictly followed a code of honor. Victories were followed immediately by building rapport with liberated locales, as well as by heavily promoting the already established Mayonite religion.

Though allied with many other houses under the sitting king of Thaln, House Vindramael continuously and purposefully used Forina's banneret, by word or sword, to undermine the image of other fighting groups as violent and brutish, especially in House Larette.

After the war, Forina dissolved the banneret. Eldest sister of six other red-haired female siblings, Forina abdicated from her position as next in line, granting it to her immediate junior, Marianne Vindramael, a lady who would surely have the penchant for statecraft that Forina had sometimes struggled with. Instead, Forina enlisted in the Order of the Iron Roses, seeking opportunity both as a knight and a prospective military leader. Her family name behind her and with ambition and clear skill, Forina pushed into the Order's ranks with ease. The time is ripe to use her status and position to make change, though one may question if her allegiances lie not in the Order's thriving, but in something more personal...

Equipment:
Modestly armored, but not totally vulnerable, Forina is the spitting image of an appearance-centric noble family. One would, however, be foolish to assume such an expensive woman was not also layered in the most expensive enchantments money could buy. Multiple protective wards extend defensive ability not only to the metallic surfaces of her plate, but even to the leather and cloth portions.

Her longsword, named Tress Vindrmir, was passed down through generations since the very first knight who had formed the Vindramael family itself. Over the century-plus of its lifetime, it has been modified and blessed by its wielders and the fortune of the family supporting them. Its mere appearance seems to instill a kind of courage and fervor in those allies who look upon its risen form. The exact nature of it is unknown even to Forina.

Skills:
An insight early on in her age had started Forina training very young. The single-minded determination she exhibited lent to childhood and young adult years spent honing the swordsman craft she now so expertly demonstrates. Though very restricted in her martial diversity, Forina's skill with the sword is unbridled and exceptional. The single weapon, devoid of a protective shield in her other hand, is the style which her eldest ancestor had brought to the family forevermore.

She is herself incapable of any magical feats, but enjoys the support of her wide family, which can supply her with all manner of enchanted objects to enhance her fighting prowess.