Blood Rituals and Rebellion (Nyx and NQF)

[Persephone]

Ju'sai felt the tang of violence in the air. She licked her lips and could almost taste blood. She looked over at Kaine. For her bodyguard, he didn't look that threatening. She pushed around the cyanide pill in her mouth. Nyx couldn't be catch in an uncompromising position. If they were discovered, there was virtually no way they could be connected to the Coalition directly. They had no form of identification on them, having burned their fake passports earlier, and the Coalition would never claim them for any reason. The pills were more of a comfort for Ju'sai and Kaine, so that they wouldn't have to spend out the rest imprisoned in a foreign land, or any of the worse options.

She watched Kaine very obviously check on the twin blades hidden along the sleeves of his shirt. She had never met the Dollic before, but she was starting to suspect that he wasn't use to these kinds of activities. "Is this your first mission like this?" He looked at her wide-eyed and nodded. "Just great. Don't do or say anything, okay? Follow my lead and we'll get out of this fine." Ju'sai was content to do the talking, it was what she was here for.

They were standing on the pickup site, an unassuming street. They were a few minutes early but waited anxiously anyways. This was where their instructions ended, once they made contact all the previously laid plans ended. "Do you enjoy being a Rikva?"

"You want to talk about this now?" Kaine looked fairly young, but his voice placed him even younger. 17, 18 would be Ju'sai's best guess.

"There isn't much else to pass the time. Take a deep breath, calm your nerves. This is what you've trained for. You'll make your order proud today. Now again, do you like being a Rikva?"

"I-I don't know...? I don't remember a time I didn't belong to the order. None of us do. That'd be like me asking if you like being a Hasheen." Ju'sai smiled at the word. It was so archaic, a dead word. She doubted anyone had ever referred to her as a Hasheen. Then again, she doubted anyone had ever called Kaine a Rikva, a revered blade.

"A fair point, Dollic." She wanted to remind the tool of its place. She had some experience with Death Dolls, although very limited. They always made her skin crawl, they were something only Necra could create.

"I could kill you right now. There is nothing stopping me from cutting your throat and running. No one would ever find me. I could live out the rest of my life in peace, free."

"You'd dare to kill a holy woman?"

"That's thing I don't understand about the Black Crypt. You preach all actions are acceptable, that morality is fluid and bendable, yet your create these arbitrary rules and expect them to be followed without question."

"You'd offend Necra, earn her scorn."

"Why does that matter? I'm a Dollic- a blasphemy. I have no soul, nothing to go to the afterlife when I die. You can't dominate me by threatening my eternity."

"Boy, if you were going to kill me you would have down it already. I grow tired of your insolence. So shut your mouth before you anger me." Kaine opened his mouth as if to say something and then closed it. Good, the livestock knew its place. They should have sent a Jisu Guard with her. A Jisu berserker would be unruly, but they at least have dignity. Dollic did not. Ju'sai would just have to be much crueler when dealing with him, a harsh tone was enough to quiet him. Dolls were always so scared of punishment, it made the priestess wonder just wait tortures they faced growing up. They waited in silence for their counterparts to appear.

[yasha]

A pair of shadows, a desolate East End residential area and the sound of an approaching vehicle. Not a particularly quiet one either. A black Lancer Evo shot out from around a corner and slid to an abrupt stop on the sidewalk, opposite to the pair of shadows in the rain. The car went silent and a couple stepped out. A shorter young man with a pair of round sunglasses and a slim bulletproof vest over a black dress shirt and slacks; his accomplice wearing a white athletic hoodie open with a sports bra underneath, a black facemask covering everything below her eyes. "You're going to the Tencom headquarters?" The man inquired, crossing the street with a tablet out. With trained discretion, his partner brandished an old carbine of some sort and kept watch by the car. Rivets and matte plates of armor adorned the hood and panels of the car, some with chipped paint and dents.

One of the foreigners nodded silently. "Right. Few things to get out of the way. We're taking the fastest route possible, it's not gonna be smooth and no matter where you are in this city; someone's got a gun pointed at you. We're scraping by Ikari-Togura along Yoneda freeway, biggest cesspool in the city." He explained, pointing the pair through the route on the tablet. "Try not to worry though, nobody can clear that route like I can. It's what you paid for." A proud little smirk curled on the end of his lips. Tilting his head towards the car, the man paced back towards it and stepped inside; the Nythymn following suit in the back. "They look about the same weight." The woman remarked quietly. "Makes my job easier."

"Anyways. We can't guarantee your safety, but someone out there paid top dollar to get you close to the Onozuka Clan so we'll sure as hell try." The woman in the passenger seat explained, a pistol in hand and the lever-action rifle protruding up from by her thigh. The turbocharged sedan roared to life, the exhaust loudly backfired as it left the desolate street and advanced into rain and darkness. Between police snipers strung up to the heavens on stimulants and the occasional machine gun highwayman, riveting bulletproof plates to a fast car made more sense than most people had in Haruna.


A rocket on wheels, the armored car blasted through empty street after empty street with ease. Between the squealing of the engine and the constant rush of being at over 100kmh. Sensory overload, the driver made no attempts to focus on anything other than driving while his partner's head followed any object of interest. When she did look back at the Nythymn, they were similarly quiet; a bit of tension between them even. Better than some loudmouth kingpin trying to talk over the sounds of a race engine, she considered it a blessing. "Detour coming up!" The driver shouted just loudly enough. "Bushranger activity has been bad. Stop for nobody, not even those in your way." The woman replied coldly. "And you. Keep your heads down if you see something."

The urban sprawl grew thin as the car slid onto a narrow road and accelerated back above 100. Ahead looked to be nothing but trees, a glance from the back towards the front seats showed a particularly convoluted and twisty road between them and whatever the next step down this rabbit hole was, highlighted blue on the tablet screen. Slowly and anxiously, the woman raised the pistol to her shoulder and cocked it. "Kogara. Let us be safe." She muttered.

[Persephone]

As the engine roared, Ju'sai began a pattern of breathing, hoping to tune out the rest of the world around her. It was an anxious mess, it felt like they were in a metal death box speeding down deserted streets. Instead of needlessly worrying about circumstances outside of her control, she closed her eyes. She slowly stopped listening to one noise at a time until only her heartbeat and breath remained. She focused on her breath. In. Out. In. Out. The repetition slowly became familiar, comfortable. She would have missed the warning had Kaine not been with her. He must have taken note of her meditation, because as soon as the driver spoke, he lightly touched her shoulder, awakening her. The pair made eye contact.

She gave Kaine the up down, her eyes searching for his gun, wondering what he had smuggled on his person. Blades were fine if catching someone unaware, hearing the distant machine gun fire she knew it wouldn't be enough. What is just a pistol, or did he have better senses? He must have taken notice because he made eye contact and nodded as if to ask what?. She tried to ask with her eyes, overtly scanning over his body to send the message, not wanting to alert those in the front seat. He seemed to understand. He touched the blades under his arms again along with his left leg, near his crotch. Ju'sai had to admit it was fairly well hidden to the eye, now that it had been pointed out she slowly made out the outline of what looked like a small submachine gun of some sort. It looked like a painful position for the gun, likely constantly bumping and strapping against Kaine's manhood. Especially with the speed and ferocity that they raced down the road. Despite that he showed no signs of pain. He looked perfectly calm. Maybe he was more capable than she had first given him credit for.

As the entered the tree-line, Ju'sai felt her heart pound against her chest. If there was an ambush or an attack, this would be the ideal place. Even she knew that. She even felt Kaine tense up, his right hand near the waist line of his pants to quickly reach inside. Her breathing was becoming more labor, more stressed. Kaine held up his left hand, telling her to calm down. He was right, now wasn't the time or place. She'd have to put aside her emotions or she'd die here and now. She cleared her throat. "How long until we make it through the trees?"