Izurich
PaulHaynek
Higashiakemi Ryuuko (東明見 竜子)
There were some odd places left empty yet locked, and there were some people on trams that offered her a lift as well as directions to her destination. If there was anything Jeanne would say of the facility while on her walk, it was that it felt eclectic, like some crazed architect brought in a cabal of equally crazed colleagues and each bickered and fought with each other to place a piece of their own construction in the area. While certainly not lacking in skill and talent, it felt quite jarring walking from a relatively normal upscale construction, to something decidedly so alien to her that she felt as if she walked into another country entirely.
A wooden construction, of which was supposed to be some sort of bath house by a passing maid. Quite bold of them to put a bordello in the middle of this as well as house prospective students in it. She pressed on the door, almost walking into it as she realized it was not swinging open. Was it a lock? No, it did not seem like it was supposed to be locked. Taking off a glove, she grasped a small stone from the ground. Taking it into both hands as if she was praying, she spun her right hand, feeling that familiar trace of the lines on her fingers, seeing the world for what it was, the interconnected dots and lines that governed the very fabric of reality, God's cloth revealed and unbound for her to manipulate.
God's work, reality worked with subtle hands, and then with an unstable compound the door's reality was blown apart with a concussive explosion.
"Hmph. Shoddily fit doors. How unexpected."
Unsurprisingly enough, the explosion made quite the loud noise that broke the relative silence of the ryokan. Adding to that the result that it caused and soon enough curious or concerned (or both) individuals started to gather around the front door; not to mention the people that were already hanging around there being very surprised about it. Many looked on warily at Jeanne, some confused, some bemused, and some downright looking ready for action out of reflex or surprise. Reasonably enough, quite a few started questioning Jeanne on what the hell did she do that for and the like.
The commotion can be heard from Ryuuko's and Franz's room as well. Ryuuko had just finished brushing her teeth in the bathroom of the room when she heard it. She raised an eyebrow, walking out of the bathroom. That sounded like it came from the front entrance, whatever that was... Curious, she decided to check it out. Good thing she haven't changed her clothes yet. She briefly looked at Franz, which seemed to be fast asleep still. She contemplated waking him up, but then decided against it; he probably wouldn't appreciate being waken up so soon after dozing off.
So Ryuuko quietly left the room, closing the door behind her before walking back to the front entrance. Soon enough, she arrived there, finding the people already gathered around the area. It took just a glance more for her to then identify the cause of the noise. For starters, the remains of the door were scattered all around. Then, people were pointing fingers and questioning a particular individual that Ryuuko immediately recognized on sight. Ryuuko knew Jeanne enough from the informations she had gathered; it wasn't exactly hard to stumble on the information considering how well known Jeanne were. From there it didn't take much for Ryuuko to figure out what had happened.
Ryuuko observed Jeanne briefly, wondering why she blew the door up. Then she grinned wide, amusement clearly shown on her face. She could care less that the ryokan had been damaged, and this provided her some more interesting thing to do before sleep. So she started approaching Jeanne, politely but firmly pushing people aside until she's right in front of the other girl. She kept her wide grin, addressing Jeanne. "Quite the spectacle you made, Ms. Bordeaux. I wonder what the sliding door had done to deserve your ire."
There was quite a lot more people there than Jeanne imagined, but then again, she wasn't the kind to frequent bordellos so she wouldn't know what to expect regardless. But one thing she was familiar with dealing however, was smelly plebeians with brains too small to understand her methods. A button was placed discreetly into her palm, where it spread tendrils, running circuits down her wrist and up her arm, hidden by her sleeves.
There was only a slight twitch on her expression as Ryuuko spoke. Whoever heard of using sliding doors for a house?
"Shoddy construction." Was all Jeanne said before continuing. "You. I understand you're a dragon of sorts."
"Shoddy construction hmm?" Ryuuko wasn't about to argue that point. Far as she's concerned, that's true enough; completely disregarding the logical reasons why the Japanese built their buildings the way they did. Earthquakes blah blah. Regardless, the rumors Ryuuko had heard about Jeanne turned out to be quite true indeed, especially regarding her brazen character. Ryuuko quirked an eyebrow up out of amusement as she stood in front of Jeanne, stil grinning.
"Mmhmm. True enough, as you can see." She chuckled lightly as she put her hands halfway forward in a shrugging motion. Well now, judging from that reaction, Jeanne obviously had some business with her. Ryuuko wondered if Jeanne somehow knew that Ryuuko was staying in this ryokan or whether it was just a weird coincidence. In any case, yes, Jeanne obviously had something in mind she wanted to talk about with Ryuuko. "Why the interest, Ms. Bordeaux?"
"Purely academical reasons." Of that at least, was true. Jeanne put her gloves back on, as she gestured away from the wooden house. "Would you mind if we stepped somewhere filled with less gawping cretins?"
"Academic reasons. Is that so..." Ryuuko paused for a few seconds just to contemplate it for a bit. Then, she decided that it will probably be interesting enough; more than sleep anyway. Thus she nodded in agreement, an amused grin still on her face. "Very well then. Let's." She then gestured for Jeanne to lead the way out of the ryokan and away from prying observers.
Jeanne nodded, a small smile on her face, as she led them towards a relatively close gazebo she noticed while walking around.
"Miss... Mademoiselle, Ruko was it? Pardon me for bringing you along so abruptly, but I was curious on your unique... make up." Jeanne paused, glancing across the empty park. The gazebo would undoubtedly look lovely in daytime with more people around, but for the moment, in the darkness it almost looked like an alien being, a stoic monolith in the light and dark. "Was it a personal choice, or was it simply instincts?"
Ryuuko followed Jeanne as they walked to the gazebo. The air seemed to be getting a bit misty now. Thinking about it, it was getting pretty close to the so-called "curfew time". That would be pretty interesting in its own to find out about, Ryuuko had forgotten about it while enjoying Franz's company.
"Oh right, where are my manners." She laughed lightly as she remembered that she never actually introduced herself to Jeanne. "It's Ryuuko. Higashiakemi Ryuuko. And oh it's quite alright... Anyways, my transformations, hmm?" Not the first time that someone was curious about this. That was one of the points anyway, to make people ask questions about it. "It's both, Ms. Bordeaux. It was my personal choice to follow my instincts instead of some... tiring expectations based on traditions. If I had followed the latter, I'd just be another boring Japanese egoist. Heh..."
"Oh? Then we're both non-traditionalists then, unbound by the expectations of those blinded by their own egos and insistent desire to grasp onto tradition." Jeanne stepped in closer, her eyes focused on Ryuuko's more prominent traits. "Then, you chose to be a draconic person yes? Would you also say, you have the ability to breathe fire? And if so, are you immune to your own flames?"
Ryuuko's grin grew slightly wider, now showing off her teeth as she usually did. She had heard about it of course, but hearing from Jeanne directly that she were also a non-traditionalists had piqued Ryuuko's interest even further. "It seems we are indeed. It is my personal belief that adhering to traditions is misguided at best and utterly foolish at worst. Ha." She chuckled, a mocking one this time. Traditions... What bollocks. "In any case, yes. I chose to be what I am. Also yes, I possessed the ability to breathe fire; better fire than most I'd dare say." Ryuuko was pretty sure most fire breathing egoists couldn't melt steel in mere seconds like she can, if they were even capable of that at all. "And also, yes. I'd reckon it would be quite foolish otherwise, so I made sure of that."
"Ah thats great!" Jeanne broke into a genuine smile, an odd gentle expression rarely made, before turning away, stepping closer to the other side of the gazebo. "That's really great."
"Fires that melt steel huh? That must be really high. But ah, you know..." Jeanne turned, the palm of her gloves burning as she bought her hand up. ".. I hope you don't mind if I test that out for myself."
Energy. When something had enough energy it generated heat. That principle behind her inventions now powered the small furnace in her hand, not throwing out flames, but a veritable jet of heat, uncontrolled and wild.
"Why thank you." Ryuuko playfully bowed her head slightly, putting the palm of her left hand on the middle of her chest. Her gaze followed Jeanne as the other woman stepped to the other side of the gazebo. Her eyes lightened up as she observed the palm of Jeanne's gloves burning. "Ah, the formulation that grant you your fame, I see. Intriguing..." Ryuuko's own curiosity had now been roused as well. Always more interesting as far as she's concerned to see things at work directly.
"A test, you say?" Ryuuko's grin grew even wider, her face almost predatory in appearance now due to the sharp teeth and dimly glowing eyes. "Hehe... Very well then. I suppose you wanted to test this by "clashing" your own with mine then?..."
Ryuuko primed the venom sacs in her throat. She'd be fine even with just a harmless demonstration, but if Jeanne really want to do the test more... "practically", then that's all the more interesting for Ryuuko. Besides, it's been a while since she had the opportunity to fire off a blast. Couldn't really do that during the cruise. "In any case, I'm all ready."
There was no answer, just a flash of blue from Jeanne's hand, before the entire gazebo exploded into fire, the conflagration bellied by the size of the funace it originated from.
As soon as she saw the flash, Ryuuko performed her own blast. In an instant, she grinded her teeth together to produce a spark, her mouth opened, the venom she spewed from her throat ignited by the spark and thus a blast of fire was launched directly to oppose the stream Jeanne had produced. It wasn't especially wide, but it was very intense and concentrated; quite literally like a sharp, large lance made out of fire given form by the continuous stream of flame. Ryuuko held nothing back, her flame blasted at maximum intensity; over a thousand and six hundred degree Celcius that would easily melt steel, titanium, and most other forms of metal.
There's the matter of clothing damage even if she came out of this just fine, but that wasn't part of her concern at the moment.
Truth be told, there were multiple things Jeanne wanted to test out. And she knew even if this single mini furnace had the output of Ryuko, the fires wouldn't exactly leave both of them scot free. If Ryuko wasn't just boasting about her fire resistance that was. Flames lit up the gazebo, and in the small space, engulfed them both. But there was unsurprisingly a clear winner, as Jeanne was engulfed by flames first.
Perhaps to some small minded simpleton, they would have surmised that Jeanne took the short end of the stick; a dragon breathing fire would not harm itself after all, but a normal human wielding a flamethrower would undoubtedly find themselves rather well done.
"Oho. So it wasn't just boasts after all." Jeanne spoke, unfazed by the inferno she was standing in. Her clothes and hair was unsinged, as it should be, for she had far long mastered the art of manipulating temperature. It would be folly to pursue her interests without doing so after all.
Soon enough, the flames dispersed. The surrounding temperature too started lowering again as soon as the flames had died out. Of course, damage had been done regardless; nobody's going to be relaxing in the gazebo until it got fixed. Oh well, surely Bermuda's management will take care of that. They should already know the risk of housing two thousand of among the best young Polymaths in the world...
Thankfully and most importantly, both Ryuuko and Jeanne had not been harmed by the little experiment. On Ryuuko's part, parts of her clothes had been singed if not entirely disintegrated. Fortunately, that too was hardly an issue; it only revealed scales under it, nothing Ryuuko cared about really.
Ryuuko grinned, very pleased with both the chance to unleash her blast and with how Jeanne was as good as the rumors had said. "Boasting's not really in my nature, Ms. Bordeaux." She let out a casual chuckle before continuing. "And I see that your own reputation had been well earned indeed. Impressive."
Jeanne simply waved that comment away. "I assure you whatever rumours spread of me are mostly baseless accusations, made by superstitious primitives unable to comprehend progress."
She stared at Ryuko's clothes, singed and disntergrated at parts, and at the scales beneath. "Do you mind if I...?" Jeanne started.
"Of course. It is typical of people to fear the unknown, haha." Ryuuko nodded as she laughed. She already did disregarded the rumors. The bad ones, at least, as she had also did with the bad rumors regarding Franz. Clinging on bad rumors wasn't in her nature... Unless it was about Japan or a traditionalist somewhere.
"Hmm?" She noticed Jeanne staring at her damaged clothes. "Mind if you?... Actually, sure, I don't mind." Whatever it was that Jeanne had in mind was probably of interest anyhow.
"Thanks." Without much pomp or ceremony, Jeanne removed her gloves, and plunged her hands straight into the holes in Ryuko's clothes, feeling and pressing against her scales.
Marvelous speciment, indeed. There's so much she could learn just examining Ryuko. Even if she wasn't going to be able to transform into anything any time soon, the principle behind Ryuko's transformation, physiology, as well as chemical makeup could vastly improve her own methods.
"Ah, what a perfect specimen. I could look at you all day. But I will settle for a scale if its alright with you?"
Jeanne's touch to her scales didn't exactly tickle. It was kind of a peculiar sensation, pretty much like having a repressed sense of touch. Ryuuko can still feel it, but "it" was nothing much. Regardless, she let Jeanne do her examination with an amused smile on her face. "Why, thank you. Quite proud of it myself. Well, probably all egoists are about their respective transformations, haha." Ryuuko then nodded at Jeanne's request. "Oh by all means, sure. Just one moment please."
Shedding a scale was an easy enough task. Just a little bit of formulation done inside her own body and the scale pretty much popped off without any trouble. Outwardly, it doesn't look like any formulation had happened at all. Only Ryuuko herself and other egoists would really be able to see it. In any case, it will be easy as well to regrow the scale, so it's really not a biggie for Ryuuko.
The scale shed, Ryuuko took it in her right hand and offered it to Jeanne, smiling. "Here you go then, Ms. Bordeaux. A scale as requested, haha."
"Merci, Mademoiselle. This will do quite well." Jeanne held it up for a moment, looking at the scale. "I'll be sure to study it completely."
There was a moment of silence as she examined it, before slipping it into a pocket. "Now let us depart, before someone come investigate our little tête-à-tête. Or perhaps, you had questions for me? I would be sorely remiss in answering your questions after all, especially after you've answered so many of mine."
Ryuuko nodded simply. "It's my pleasure. I hope it will be useful indeed for your study. And oh definitely. I have quite a lot of questions for you as well. But for now, I'll be fine settling with only two, seeing as we don't really have much time." She chuckled lightly before continuing. She then raised her left hand, her point finger raised pointing up. "First, if you don't mind telling me... How'd you do it? The mechanism of your formulation I mean. It obviously didn't work the same way at all with how I produce my blast and while I had heard about it before I'd rather hear it from the person herself. And I'm fine with a simple version of the explanation for now."
Then another finger, making a "v" sign. "Secondly. I'd be really interested in knowing where you stay here in Bermuda, Ms. Bordeaux. Further cooperations between us will be beneficial for you and me both, don't you think?" A wide grin appeared on her face as she concluded her questions.
"Oh? It is really quite simple." Jeanne bent down, picking a piece of the now charred gazebo, still burning from their clash just now. "It is simply the matter of decaying the materials in it. And if I change it just so..."
Charcoal, in her hand. A single finger tracing its quality, before clamping onto its conclusion, its end. From content, to unruly, an unstable material. And when the cascade of energy starts, all she needed to do was contain it.
Her gloves burst, the cavitators on both hands activating to produce a holding field, a cavitation in space, holding the rapidly decaying material inside, before it first glowed, then ignited into a tiny ball of flames suspended inside the cavitation field. The straps under the gloves was visible now, thin bands of black running across her hands, coalescing into a circle under her palms.
"See? It is just that, but contained, and not in my hands." She adjusted her palms and sent the ball jetting out flames into empty air for an instant before it disappeared completely. "Like hitting a ball against other groups of balls, which scatters and hits another group of balls, and so on and so forth."
"As to where I stay," Jeanne took off the ripped remains of her gloves. "it is at an odd place with the pool, over yonder. Ah before I leave, one more question."
She adjusted her clothings and turned away from Ryuko, seemingly staring at the skies. "Do you believe in God, Ryuko?"
Ryuuko watched intently and silently as Jeanne demonstrated and explained the process of her formulation to her, her curiosity showing on her face. She might not be a technologist, but she put as much information as she could into her mind as she watched on. Who knows, perhaps later once she had the time to carefully process and analyze the information, she might just be able to apply some of it to improve her own ability.
"Decay... Containment... Chain reactions... I see." She nodded once, then she closed her eyes for a few seconds, left hand covering her mouth as she made sure that she had correctly absorbed the information. Then she opened her eyes again, lowered her hand, and nodded once more with a smile. "Wonderful. Thank you, Ms. Bordeaux. These information should be most useful." Of course, she also made sure to remember about the odd place with the pool over yonder.
The next question Jeanne asked her however, was one she did not expect. She quirked an eyebrow up before responding. "God? Hmm." Ryuuko was never one for religion or the like. She wasn't an atheist persay, but she didn't believe that such a thing as "God" mattered at all. In any case, she decided to just honestly answer the question. "I am an agnostic, Ms. Bordeaux. God... God might exist, or it might not. Regardless, I don't believe it mattered... We make our own "fate" and carves our own path. That's what I believed."
Jeanne simply turned her head back and smiled at that, before walking away with a wave goodbye. "Adieu, Mademoiselle. We will meet again."
That last question was unusual and Jeanne did not offer any clear reaction to it. Ryuuko wondered about it for a bit as she returned Jeanne's wave and said her own farewell. "Of course. I'm looking forward to it, Ms. Bordeaux!"
In the end, she decided not to think about it. This meeting with Jeanne had been most interesting indeed, and beneficial to boot. All in all, Ryuuko felt that this first day in Bermuda had been very good indeed; excepting the matter of her lodging being a ryokan.
Regardless, she'd rather not ruin her good mood by thinking about it. So she headed back into the ryokan, ignored any curious gazes she were subjected to, and promptly returned to her room to finally get some good rest after the eventful day.
