[Closed] They tell me I'm a danger to myself

[volksdaemon]

Who: Schuldig and Hibari
What: Retribution against someone who doesn't deserve it
When: June 28th
Where: The Far Shore to start
Warnings: Hibari

---
Schuldig wakes up to find that Jennifer has vanished. Being the telepath between her two gods, he's aware the connection is hers that severed. That doesn't mean he's happy about it, or that he's about to act rationally about it either. He's out for revenge and before he goes to "meet" with Hijikata, he needs to blow off some steam.

So who's the lucky target gonna be...

Comments

[disciplineking]

It was an unlucky night for Hibari to be wandering out like he was wont to do. Kishi was proudly sitting on his head as he wandered through the Far Shore temples. He was obviously carefully avoiding the temple of anyone he knew.

However, when he found his steps being followed, Hibari stopped and turned suddenly, his grey eyes catching the sight of...someone. His tonfa were out almost immediately as Kishi let out a loud meow from his head.

"It looks like someone wants to get bit to death." As he was readying his weapon, the shinki tattoo on the palm of his hand was briefly visible.

[volksdaemon]

Schuldig doesn't normally step out into the open with his prey but tonight he had to get a little closer than normal for this plan to work. A quick surface level check of Hibari's thoughts tells him what he needs to know - one, that this guy is a shinki, and two, he's tied to one of the Weiss kitties. Balinese is a safer bet to mess with as far as he's concerned. He thinks far less of the man than he thinks of the violent focus of Abyssinian or the quiet calculations of Bombay. And of course Siberian is out of the picture.

So here he is, smirking at the guy he's never met and planning to do terrible things to him just to sate his appetite for watching someone so proud get crushed under his foot. It'll be a nice option to get his vindictiveness out of the way.

"You say that to everyone you meet for the first time, then?"

[disciplineking]

"If their method of greeting is following me for several blocks then coming out of the shadows like a creep, I think I have the right to. So what do you say?" Hibari had a feral grin forming on his lips, having no idea what sort of things this guy was even capable of.

He too wanted to blow off some steam, but in a very different manner. "Kishi, it would be better if you didn't get in the way, little one."

The cat on his head mewed again but hopped off onto the ground sauntering over to go investigate some plants a distance away. "So I'll make an example of you."

That's when Hibari decided to jump forward, his left tonfa rushing straight at Schuldig's face.

[volksdaemon]

"Following you for several blocks? That sounds like paranoia to me." Schuldig was one of those people who didn't have to walk on the ground to seek people out. He just had to stand in one spot and make a sweep in a certain radius, not find what he was looking for, and then teleport to a new spot entirely.

As far as Schuldig's concerned, it didn't have to be Hibari. But a punk with an attitude problem that comes at him makes his life infinitely easier for this next part.

He anticipates Hibari's attack with his telepathy and deftly dodges to the side, shooting his hand out to grab Hibari by the wrist. Before saying another word, he forces his control over Hibari's whole body, pinning him in place and unable to speak. He'll wait there for just a few seconds - just long enough to make sure the power took and there's not some kind of ability preventing him from doing it like he found once or twice now.

[disciplineking]

It may have been paranoia, but it also probably involved feeling Schuldig's eyes on him. He was used to people teleprting and watching usually meant following, but the schematics of it weren't important.

What was, was that unfortunately, his power worked on Hibari and all of a sudden he froze in place.

How..how is he doing that? What the hell is going on don't YOU DARE, LET ME GO!!

Almost as soon as he registered his body being frozen in place, Hibari began to struggle. No matter if it was an impossible task, the shinki pitted himself against it anyway, struggling and thrashing and raging all while standing still, his grey eyes boring holes into Schuldig's head.

"How......dare........" The words somehow came out through gritted teeth, and his arms twitched. Hibari may have been painfully human-albeit heavily modified-but nothing could hold a candle to the sheer amount of willpower he had. It was enough that for a moment his arm was free and again sent it swinging towards any part of Schuldig he could possibly reach.

[volksdaemon]

"Temper, temper!" Schuldig crowed as he danced out of the way. "You're the one attacking a god!"

This time, he teleports behind Hibari and grabs the back of the kid's neck with his hand like a claw. No messing around this time - he takes Hibari into his mindscape, where the guy can fight all he wants... at the cost of his soul spending more time detached from his body and thus slowly killing itself. Schuldig meanwhile hides in the shadows of the vast starry night, where he hopes that Hibari won't even be able to tell which way is up, let alone find sturdy ground to walk on and hunt for him.

Now he can look through Hibari's angry mind and find the source of all of this, see if he can't clamp it down long enough to make a proper shinki out of him and go take out an ayakashi while he's at it.

[disciplineking]

Hibari couldn't say he hadn't experienced something similar to this before, but without his memories he was grasping at straws. He was somewhere, and he couldn't tell where that was.

Get a hold of yourself, just focus. All of it's just in your head!!

He still struggled his mind almost like a ravaging beast trying to claw its way around to find Schuldig and tear him to pieces.

The problem was that it was easy to find the source of his anger; it was practically spilling over the edges of his very soul. His Dying Will was practically made up of it, but at the source....

I'm not going to lose again. I hate being under someone else's control-I can't lose a fight!

If Schuldig were any weaker than he was, the sheer amount of willpower pushing back at him might be dizzying as he against started wrenching himself upright in hopes of finding his quarry.

[volksdaemon]

... Stubborn bastard, aren't you? Schuldig thought to himself, knowing better than to give a rage-demon in human form any additional ammunition. As it was, something like a wind had kicked up inside of Schuldig's own mind, a thing that shouldn't have been possible except with the kind of willpower that Crawford exhibited. It was the reason Schuldig respected the man so much - he was the only one who could defeat him on this mental playing field. And by the time Nagi had joined them, Schuldig had been cowed a bit too much to even try.

So he kept moving, reaching out with his mental hand to try and grab that Dying Will flame's source - not to snuff it out, only to put a lid on it for a little while. That way he could actually use the guy.

But as he reached, he tried to think about how he could fight this pushback he was getting. A normal human wouldn't be capable of this, but the guy wasn't a Talent... unless he was a talent like Farfarello. That sent a small shudder down him because that meant any moment a random bit of killing nonsense could spring out at him. What he does manage to do is narrow his approach down to a smaller effort, try sneaking into that source not with guns blazing and shield fully up, but snipe his way in with a quick grab that might provoke less resistance from the wind - like the difference between a kite in a breeze versus a quick-release arrow.

Aaaand.... REACH!

[disciplineking]

Hibari himself was having trouble figuring out what was going on. He knew whatever was around him were illusions and just that thought made him sick to the stomach. Because of that, his will to fight was dying quickly and it was only a matter of time before Schuldig won-

And he did, in that next second, whatever power he had clamping down on his Dying Will. All of a sudden his mind and body went almost cold and blank, muscles falling limp underneath the telepath's grip.

It was such a strange empty feeling. Even without memories he'd lived day to day sometimes on sheer will alone and with that source of anger and irritation and power sealed off just left him staring blankly at Schuldig, for once not feeling the urge to do-really anything.

"What?"

--closed to Hakkai for aftermath--

[disciplineking]

Schuldig was finally gone, the name removed from his skin, and yet Hibari still felt like he was lifeless. Something was wrong with him: something Schuldig had done to him that still hadn't gone away. He wasn't angry and in the small part of Hibari's will that was still functioning, he knew something very bad was happening.

He slowly fumbled for his phone until he brought it up, dialing the number of the only person he trusted. Hakkai had known what had happeened to him before with gods forcing their will on him, and not feeling anything was well, making him nervous.

If Hakkai picked up, Hibari would pause before saying anything, not entirely sure how to describe it. "I feel strange. Something is missing, I can't seem to feel emotions. He did something."

[reformedsinner]

Hakkai almost fumbled the teacup he was setting upside down to dry when his phone rang. It was getting late. Who was--

Hibari's name on the screen flipped his confusion over to genuine concern, and his words were worse.

"Wh--" Who and where fought for first question, and the latter won: this wasn't something Hakkai wanted to solve over the phone. "Where are you, Hibari?"

[disciplineking]

"I'm in the Near Shore somewhere. I ended up in a park." He took off and ran after he'd been released, the guilt that normally would eat him up never coming. Of course, Hibari being actually helpful and not putting up a fight to Hakkai asking him questions should probably raise alarm bells on its own.

"I feel so strange. He was in my head."

[reformedsinner]

The calm and informative tone was bizarre: it was raising the hairs on the back of Hakkai's neck. He set the teacups down in the sink and dried his hands, trying to keep his voice equally level and calm as he headed for the door.

"Can you see any signs nearby, Hibari? Or any temples?"

[disciplineking]

"I am heading towards a shrine of some sort. It looks Shinto." They didn't move very far from somewhere he knew because ayakashi were plenty but....he took a picture of the shrine and sent it to Hakkai, before going up to it and pouring some holy water onto himself.

Hibari knew it probably wouldn't work because he wasn't blighted but....he felt so awful. What if it was some sort of insidious blight that made him feel so lifeless? It of course, did nothing and he was left with nothing but a wet arm and an ongoing phone call.

"Oh. You're still here. I don't feel like moving anymore."

[reformedsinner]

Hakkai flicked the photo to full size, examining the shrine: there, a fox statue half-hidden behind the red gateway. Inari.

"Stay there," he ordered, and bolted out the door for Inari's temple. It wasn't too far from Yuri's secluded grove, and the shrines were common enough that Hakkai had been using them as a way to get around the Near Shore. Inari hadn't objected yet.

(Hakkai also tried not to actually invade his temple, merely loiter at its edge while he traveled.)

The Far Shore dissolved around him, and he found himself standing beside a bush in the dark. The fragrance of azaleas drifted on the air, and Hakkai moved quietly towards the moonlit main path and the cleansing fount near the entrance, looking for the darker shadow of a human figure.

"Hibari?"

[disciplineking]

Hibari did stay there, hanging up the phone when it became clear that Hakkai wasn't going to answer there anymore. He just kept staring at the water ripples until he finally heard someone call his name. He came out onto the path into the light, looking none the worse for wear except for the blank look on his face. It was a bit like all the fight had somehow been sucked out of him.

"What?"

[reformedsinner]

Bruises or broken bones wouldn't have been nearly as unsettling as the blank, placid expression on Hibari's face. Hakkai's eyes widened, just a little, as he took in the boy's condition.

When he spoke at last, his voice was as blank as Hibari's expression, but colder. "Who did this?"

Much Later...

[cryptaesthesia]

By the time Schuldig has completed his errand and returned home, Crawford is waiting for him on the temple steps in the most dangerous of demeanors: not angry, nor annoyed but in possession of almost an inhuman calm.

It's not a good sign.

As Schuldig approaches, he looks up over the rims of his glasses and offers a thin smile.

"Was that therapeutic for you?"

Re: Much Later...

[volksdaemon]

The steps up to his personal bedroom don't see much use. Normally he teleports into his bedroom and right back out again, not even bothering to use the closed off secret entrance or the long cavern corridor that conceals the secret entrance from the normal view of the Far Shore.

But today he teleported just to the front living space, where he was greeted by Crawford. And he's glaring.

"You act like I'm grieving the loss of a friend. I lost the best tool I had to destroy those ayakashi. You can't tell me you wouldn't be equally frustrated by the loss of that Scully woman and go on to look for another good tool." He points accusingly at the room where Mikazuki normally stays. "I can't get that one to do a damn thing!"

[cryptaesthesia]

Schuldig's explanation gets little more than a nonplussed stare in response.

"It's only a matter of time until Scully is no longer...under my employment, and I assure you I'm already prepared for that day."

He sneers, still unimpressed.

"At the very least, I wouldn't go out and have a tantrum over it."

[volksdaemon]

"Tantrum?" Now he's seething. "I answered a prayer while I had the chance. It was an opportunity and I took it. I've done it before and I'll do it again if it increases my power. How is that any different than what we've always done?"

It's a short-sighted view, but that's his way sometimes.

"At least you'd see it coming - that day she's no longer under your employment. Oh wait, maybe you wouldn't, considering you did nothing to prevent Nagi from doing the same thing!" And in the moment, it doesn't matter that Crawford's from a future where that hasn't happened yet.

[cryptaesthesia]

If Schuldig is looking for a reaction, he'll get one, though maybe not for the reason he thinks. He's not exactly offering new information. Still, Crawford's jaw clenches as the sneer fades into something colder and more distant.

"Things don't last forever, Schuldig. It's foolish to try and hold on to them."

[volksdaemon]

"No shit they don't last forever."

And now he's on another topic entirely. But like the telepath with all of the cards at his chest, he's not about to admit what that is right away.

But he is bitter about it. So bitter. Like he doesn't know that "things don't last forever" when here's Crawford standing in front of him and yet NOT the Crawoford he knows, and who knows him.

[cryptaesthesia]

Staying on topic, Crawford simply shrugs.

"It seems like there is a constant influx of people coming and going through here. I'm sure you can find a new tool no problem."

[volksdaemon]

"A new tool that actually listens to me without expending 98% of my energy on coercing them? Or one like her that just rolled over and did most everything I said?" He's not buying it, not entirely.

"You could've at least warned me," Schuldig retorted with another huff. "Maybe I should just go steal Nagi back." He darts his eyes back to Crawford. "Or am I not going to get a response for any more ideas without an appointment?" He's bitter and looking for any excuse not to talk about what's actually bothering him.