He supposed her reaction made sense if she had just gotten out of a fight, but it could just as well be his presence as a Chaser. His expression remained impassive as he considered this; unperturbed by her attitude or foul mouth. He dropped to the sidewalk once she had put some distance between themselves, not wanting to imply anything with their positions.
It was easier to judge from ground level that she had to be a good foot shorter than him. Somewhat amusing, but ultimately irrelevant since stature meant little for what she was physically capable of. The Knight, with both hands still on its firearm, scanned the surroundings for any threats rather than focusing on her. “Depends if the environment works for it, but sometimes,” he admitted, “and just curious. Nice to know what happens around town at night. Specially if it’s something worth dying over.”
Cinwi jerked a bit when the man dropped to the street, and when her focus was down where it was supposed to be she noticed as well that it wasn’t just the two of them there. She observed the knight-like figure with a mouth slightly agape, eyes jumping from the nondescript rifle in its hands to the sheer bulk of its figure.
”What the actual fuck,” she mumbled, snapping her gaze back to the man. ”That your body guard, princess?”
He might have cracked a grin when she took notice of the spirit that clung to his back. Maybe… Possibly… Probably not. What was noticeable was the small shrug in reaction to her question as he gave a vague answer. “If you want to think of it as that, then sure, young lady. That aside, I’m Jin, and would really like to know who you got into a fight with.”
Woah woah. Wait. Woah, back up. Cinwi heard nearly everything the man said, but the mental brakes were pumped when he called her “young lady”. Her lips curled almost on reflex, and the blood rushing in her veins only quickened its pace. This mother fucker.
”Yeah yeah, Jan, right. Hold on. Did you just fucking call me young lady? Who the living hell do you think you are, you little punk?” she spat. ”If you know what’s good for you you’d better show me some god damned respect or you’ll find out exactly what I was doin’ to get this shit on me, y’hear?”
He didn’t so much bat an eyelid at her displeasure, but Jin did raise his hands in a gesture for peace. “Right, right. My apologies then.” Appearances didn’t mean much, so she could have been hundreds of years old for all he knew. Then again he never did understand why they bothered to take such young appearances if being addressed in such a fashion offended them so. Certainly, she wasn’t the one to prod about such a subject though. “So, what would you preferred to be addressed as then?”
Cinwi blinked at his calm response. Huh, odd, usually that riled the other person up almost as much as her. But then again, usually a fight followed after that, and glancing back to the knight she thought it was best that such an outcome had been avoided, for the time being. It was hard for her to let go of the frustration, so she didn’t, but nonetheless she did reel in the attitude, if only a little.
”Yeah, well...don’t let it happen again,” she puffed, arms folded. She had another choice to make, take the chance this guy knew anything about her, or lie. Again. Fuck it, if he knew who she was he’d have recognized her by now, probably. ”And uhh, Cinwi. My name is Cinwi. Got that? Not miss, not lady, fuckin’ Cinwi. Cool?”
He was somewhat glad that the matter had been easily settled and that she seemed to be relatively reasonable. The name was unfamiliar to him, though he did remember to see if the Merchant knew anything. Well anything he couldn’t find out from her this very moment. “Cinwi it is then”—nodding as he let the unusual name roll off his tongue—“though I can’t say I’m familiar with it. I do-”
Again there was no sound as his Spirit racked the rifle’s action back smoothly and looked to the buildings at the end of the street. He glanced in the same direction for a moment, but ultimately seemed to pay it no attention and said, “Just preparation I think. Ferals might smell their dead on me I think.”
The knight’s movements caught her attention evidently for longer a concern than Jin’s. Oddly the man didn’t seem too curious about the fact that, for being such a hulk of metal, the fucking thing didn’t make a sound. But all the same her focus was pulled back to Jin.. Dead Youkai? Something told her she should have expected that, but all the same it was unnerving to come across someone so casually who had not long before killed one of her own kind. Not that she had any sort of special love for her fellow demons, but it would be foolish to assume the human’s held such a lack of prejudice.
”You uhh...you do a lot of that?” she asked, clearing her throat. ”The killing. Like, the Youkai killing, I dunno if you freaks kill each other or anything too.”
In hindsight it was probably not the best of ideas to mention he murdered her kind, even if they could barely be considered that. Of the sentient Youkai Jin had interacted with most seemed to view the Ferals as little more than beasts. The Merchant certainly had no qualms about his wholesale slaughter, but it did profit from the Soul Stones he harvested as a result, so there was probably some bias on its part.
“Fairly often,” he admitted with a shrug, “I get paid for Soul Stones, and the Ferals don’t seem to be missed. Occasionally I do hunt Sentients, but only when bounties are put out. Cautious?” Jin tilted his head slightly at the question, watching her for a reaction.
”What? Pft, think I’m scared? Of you? Your big metal doll over there gives me the creeps, but you? Okay Cinwi that was enough, provocation was not the goal. It didn’t matter if the guy believed her, it only mattered that he didn’t actually act on any of it.
She cracked her knuckles, rolling her neck on a swivel. ”But the ferals scare me a lot less, so all these combined threats Imma hafta say nah, not cautious. Why, you cautious?”
“Ah.” Well, that was the general assumption most people he had met went for so he could hardly fault Cinwi for thinking the same. His lips nonetheless curled up into a smile, even as he took a step backwards while his hands remained at face level. “A bit”—his spirit turning to glance at her—“but I’m hardly looking for a fight.” Any Chaser in their right mind would have had to be, so Jin hardly felt anything in admitting it. Humanoid Youkai from his experience tended to be at least fairly powerful, and with no idea what sort of abilities she possessed it would have been highly stupid on his part to engage in unnecessary combat.
Still, it seemed that combat would be inevitable… just not with Cinwi. ‘My...’ Whoever they were, they didn’t even try to hide their killing intent. Not that it was very powerful or oppressive, but with their feelings laid bare it was easy to sense them from even this distance. He felt his spirit squeeze the trigger, and the air rippled as the projectile sped towards the roof of the building it had watched for that last minute. He didn’t need to turn to take in what the Knight saw, a gesture born mostly out of habit, and kept his eyes on Cinwi for the moment instead. “Not Ferals,” he remarked as several more rounds were fired off in that direction, “"friends" of yours?”
Cinwi looked with muted panic towards the rooftop where the knight had fired, yet she saw nothing immediately. More Youkai obviously, unless this guy was some sort of lunatic on the run, but in all likelihood the former. Oh great, had the oaf had friends? A pit formed in her gut, did he have family? Some Youkai didn’t, but then she herself was one such example of the opposite case. She swallowed back a lump in her throat and bared her teeth again, glancing to Jin.
”I’m not exactly the friendly type. Maybe someone smelled your weak ass and called their friends for a free meal, she said, claws brandished. A vapor so faint it was nigh-invisible rose from the inside of the scarf, and were one to run their hand through it, they might have felt a terrible chill. ”Lucky for you I’m ready to tear some shit up, where’re they at?”
“So I’ve figured,” Jin chirped as he raised an eyebrow at the fangs and claws he now just noticed. The reaction quickly faded as he scratched his head and turned around to face the approaching Youkai. “Glad to hear it. They’re on the buildings on either side of the street.” Evidently these Youkai hadn’t expected his presence as it took them more than a few moments to figure out they should split their numbers in half. Not a terribly bad idea, but then Jin muttered, “Discard jian. M249, set, load, and equip.”
The discoloration on his arms seemed to recede towards his hands, even as the firearm clutched in his Knight’s hands shifted. Whereas there had been a projectile every few seconds, there was now a literal stream that lit the rooftop of one building alight. “Those on the left aren’t going anywhere,” he announced, nodding for her to take care of the shadowy figures that closed in from their right.
Cinwi watched Jin and the knight act as symbiotes, but she couldn’t quite put together what the actual process was. Not that it mattered, the metal fucker just started firing a different gun at the rooftops. She let out a huff, humans and their weapons, quite literally inseparable.
Nevertheless, she took his gesture to heart and turned to face the right-flanking Youkai. None of them looked like the oaf, but damned if ninety percent of them didn’t look wildly different from one another. She dropped to a hunch, then lower, nearly to all fours, and began a prowl around them. One lunged and she met it full-speed, feet digging into the ground as she won the upper hand. The first beast was lifted into the air, and then promptly slammed down on the concrete, yet it was the sound of bone snapping that rang out, rather than the cracking of stone. One down, she dropped to a prowl again, as the others didn’t look like they’d just come forward single-file.
He raised an eyebrow as a figure tried to dart from cover and instead received a flurry of rounds for its trouble. The body rocked from numerous impacts before it finally collapsed and it seemed that did the lesson well enough. Trigger let go, the Knight nonetheless kept watch on the Youkai in the distance as Jin turned to see how Cinwi fared.
The twitching, broken body of her first opponent made things clear enough. With not even half their original numbers, the remainder hesitated to engage; it didn’t even look like their leader was with them. He felt a small burst of covering fire drive back the other half as he approached Cinwi. “So… seems they didn’t expect me. Gonna let them run off or?”
Unfortunately, it seemed she wouldn’t be able to make such a decision. Maybe their nerves snapped, or more likely they didn’t like a human, even if he was a Chaser, speaking down at them in such a manner. Whatever the case was, the half a dozen remaining Youkai bristled in anger and charged at them almost immediately. With two of them focused on him, Jin was forced to retreat backwards as he fended off their attacks. The other four, having seen what happened to the first, moved in all at the same time, trying to crush Cinwi with their superior numbers.
It was not the best situation, to put it lightly. Cinwi was strong, but that didn’t matter much when she was caught off guard and off balance. One blindsided her, and she rolled with it on the ground slashing and clawing wildly until it let go, only to be instantly hauled off by another. For the second time that day she hit the dirt, and her back screamed in protest. A foot struck her ribs, another her gut, and all she could do was lash out in the hopes of catching one of them.
As luck would have it, her fingers dug into the hefty ankle of the closest attacker, and with little grace she ripped the tendons apart. It fell, howling in pain, and when she got back to her feet another was quick to close in and grab her in a bear hug. Without too much thought she bit down on its neck, but when she was dropped, the remaining two pinned her down.
”Get off me you fuckers! she roared, thrashing claw and foot alike, snapping her jaws in vain for a fleshy grip. Fists pounded her head, nails raked her cheeks and tore her scarf, her skin. What few nicks she managed to score on them were not enough to ward them away. Shit, maybe this was it, dying in the street to some nobody assholes.
