WHO: Sebastian & Various
WHAT: pax is onto something with this permanent catch-all idea
WHERE: Various
WHEN: u know
WARNINGS: threads with content warnings will be marked in the subject lines! Since it’s Sebastian, there’s a decent chance to run across (gross) violence over anything else tho
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in the end, his fears are allayed, or at least as much as they could be by words alone. it had absolutely been the correct move for sebastian to impress that allowing him to pay too dearly for this risky part he was playing in their scheme would be too much of a stain on his good reputation to bear, and he also knows that gen isn't lying in his own reply, recalling (even if many of the details were hazy) how they have both worked and fought alongside one another in the past.
as he continues, though... well, they had been keeping the nature of their rather contentious relationship largely unsaid in sebastian's presence, but that pretense is fairly compromised at this point. so makoto merely replies, ) Of course. I would expect nothing else, ( in a tone that is far too breezy and casual for the subject matter at hand as he stands from his own chair, brushing himself off as he does so. )
I'll do all in my power to try to keep him in one place, once he's committed to an attack. From there... do your best.
( he moves to leave the tiny restaurant on his own at this point, thinking it best that they move in a group as little as possible, and especially him, given his role in this trap. he takes to the labyrinthine, honeycomb streets of the undercity, slowly angling towards the area of town that sebastian had highlighted as that most likely the demon is using as his hunting grounds. to makoto's credit, his acting is good, layered in a way that is difficult to falsify. he moves with the sort of assumed self-confidence that would appear obviously feigned to a sharp observer, accented with occasional wary looks around himself, belying the faint nervousness of an individual who knows they have wandered into a potentially treacherous place but is trying everything they can think of to attempt to navigate back out of it.
and as he does so, he senses the same thing that he had when he had traveled the slums of Hell: eyes upon him. whether they were those of his companions, remaining unseen as they followed; their target; or anyone else hanging around the area... it's hard to say, but he's interested to find out.
with one conspicuously furtive look about himself, he ducks into an alley. )
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[ Sebastian laughs out the words with a smile. Tense indeed, though of course he doesn’t actually care. Even if they did play out their grudge today, it’s none of his business so long as it doesn’t interfere with the work at hand. He stands and pulls up the hood of his jacket. As prim and proper as he is, he truly hates the way Kowloon just constantly, uh, drips when in its alleys. It’s best not to think about what’s dripping either…
But as they go their separate ways to make their capture an easier effort, Sebastian does indeed keep an eye on them both. It’s made easier by this particular district being a quieter one, and so he can see why this was picked as hunting grounds. Once he’s quite sure that he’s alone, his form becomes indistinct as the shadows that he’s made of unravel. They spill to the floor and largely disappear into the eaves and cracks of the dark, but he’s just shaped himself differently. A black rat with bright red eyes skitters down the alley to eventually tail M’s path. As he’d said, he wouldn’t be noticed.
And indeed, it’s because vermin hardly get a second glance in the city that he happens to spot their target first.
As M ducks into the alley, Sebastian is coming from an adjacent one. With silent footfalls, a lithe, hooded figure follows. It’s clear enough that they’re following M, and that’s plenty to assume that this is precisely who they’re looking for. Having M be bait was an excellent idea, as it turned out. It’s all the more certain as he stalks into the dark after him, because besides the eerie quiet of how he proceeds, Sebastian is able to see how his hand flexes to extend long, sharp claws from his hand that turn the skin a true, devilish red before he hides them casually in his hoodie. It seems as if he’s pretending to be casual as he follows, at least for now.
He waits, then trails after, though he sticks to where the wall and floor meet. ]
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No point in beating around the busy when they all knew this was an alliance made purely for the sake of completing the job, and Gen had no intention of letting either of them learn more about his abilities than absolutely necessary. A gruff 'I'll keep an eye out from cover,' was all he'd said before ducking out of view into a side alleyway; even if Makoto or Sebastian bothered to glance into the shadows, they would have found him completely vanished from sight.
It's from several feet behind and hidden inside the ground that Gen trails after Makoto, hidden completely from sight. Nice and easy. And what do you know -- it hardly takes any time before their likely target dips into view just above him, footsteps soft despite that feigned casual attitude.
Maybe this'll be quick.
He doesn't bother telling Makoto that he's being followed. Less because he's worried that Makoto will react to that information in a way that will alert their target -- he's sure a sneaky fuck like Makoto is more than capable of feigning calm regardless -- and more because he doesn't really want to Communion with Makoto any more than absolutely necessary. And there's no need, anyway.
The moment their target seems to have made up their mind, baring those crimson claws and starting to lunge in for the kill -- the ground beneath his feet is suddenly gouged out, abruptly sinking his legs several feet into the ground before the dirt closes up around them. Neatly trapping him in place, the earth continuing to squeeze tighter and tighter around those trapped limbs.
Gen remains hidden out of view for the moment, but he breathes a low exhale to himself from his hiding spot underground; surely the other two should be able to finish that off without any problems, right? ]
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all of this feeds into one assumption that makoto critically makes: he can't assume that this demon will take his time. as labyrinthine as kowloon is, they are still out in relative public, and he must know by now that he is a wanted man. the attack would come swift, devastating, and sudden, and the three of them would have to react in kind.
what he certainly hadn't accounted for was gen making the first move.
their target is skillful enough at the hunt that makoto hadn't sensed his approach beyond the awful, creeping unease that comes from the paranoid thought that one might be being watched or followed. he had been forcing himself to try to keep his attention forward, to be as tempting of bait as he could manage, but there is a sudden shift in the earth beneath his feet and an accompanying sound of earthen grinding. he turns on his heel, eyes wide in shock, to see the hooded figure sunk into the earth up to mid-thigh. the attacking demon seems just as surprised, looking down and pulling at his entrapped legs with a gravelly string of low curses. the hooded head snaps up and fixates on makoto.
"the hell is this? is this your doing?!"
makoto flounders for an answer, and it's not acting; many of his memories regarding his interactions with minegishi gen came back to him, but he can't for the life of him recall seeing whatever he might've been capable of in a fight. he begins to make the mistake of thinking that their mission would be done so quickly and easily, but the other Shard-Bearer foils that when his body grows hazy and indistinct before disappearing entirely — that is, until he reappears in his entirety right in front of makoto, having used Misty Step to escape gen's trap. not seeing the real perpetrator, though, he makes his own assumptions. "well?!" he doesn't wait for a real reply, one of the crimson claws darting out from beneath the hooded cloak to sink cruelly into makoto's chest to hold him in place; hot blood immediately begins to well up from the wounds and stain through layers of clothing.
the pain, too, is immediate, and for a long second it's all that occupies him. everything that has happened up until this point has only taken the span of seconds, and so he forces himself through it to put forth the only real action he can commit to in this scenario: there is a strange shifting in the space behind him as his wings reach from beneath the hem of his jacket. this alley is too narrow for him to spread them entirely, but that's fine; all he needs to do is to strike out with them and sink the talons deep into the flesh of the other man's shoulder and leg, effectively locking them together.
makoto finally looks up from his wound to the dark pooling beneath the hood, smiling with sharp teeth. one of his eyes has reverted to its typical eerie appearance. he can taste blood in his mouth as he speaks, the faintly wet quality to his words perhaps indicative of an injured lung. ) Well. What will you do, now you know there is more than meets the eye?
( he doubts he would prove so slippery now. not unless he had a way of carrying him along with him. and if flight is temporarily denied as an option... he just has to hope gen and sebastian act before he's torn to pieces. )
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However, his surprise and mild hesitation to drop his inconspicuous form also prevents him from stopping their escape and attack. As claws sink into M’s chest, Sebastian moves more towards the center of the alley, and those strange, dark whorls gather up around him. It’s a quick process, no longer than it takes for M to respond, but the shadows draw up and resolidify into the shape that both of them know. Still, for a moment longer, the edges of his human form still slough off that strange dark.
It's not something that Vaelakar is unaware of, though.
They bark out a sharp noise of pain at the sudden surprise of being pinned by talons and seeing the sharp teeth of what was supposed to be their prey and realize their mistake. Doubly so when someone else is suddenly behind him (though pinned as he is, he can’t fully see). They laugh first, perhaps a reflexive response to the pain, but with a flick of their hand, it starts to glow red hot as they summon flame to their palm. They’re cornered, and a blade of flame and demon’s claws are good weapons. Normally, at least.
Before the blade can be summoned in full, Sebastian closes that distance between them in an instant. Rather than use his own claws, he’s pulled out a simple combat knife and he drives it into the arm that’s in the process of summoning flame. The blade expertly slips between the gap between his forearm bones, and Sebastian twists it sharply at an angle until there’s a crack. ]
Bad luck.
[ Sebastian responds coldly, since he’s displeased that M had gotten injured at all, even if this probably doesn’t quite count towards the severe injury he’d mentioned. Thankfully, demons are resilient enough that he assumes it won’t be that bad. But still, though the palm of flame quickly ebbs away as Vaelakar’s attention can’t exactly be held on it anymore, it’s with a shout of both pain and fury that the near-dark hall is suddenly filled with bright light. That at least works for the moment on Sebastian, since with his sensitive eyes adjusted to the dark, the sharp shift is briefly blinding. ]
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The welling up of blood followed by the splatter of near-black against the pavement does make his stomach churn. For some reason, it's more difficult tolerating this level of bloodshed from other people, than if it were his own. It's only a slight wave of nausea that prickles at the back of his throat, though. Not enough to disrupt his focus. The close proximity between Makoto, Sebastian, and their target means he doesn't exactly have a good opportunity to intrude, and the brief thought of leaving his hiding spot to butt in is tossed aside; the alleyway's too cramped, and he's sure they'd all just get in each other's way.
Which ends up being the correct choice, anyway.
That bright flash of light must be near-painful when seen from so close up, but Gen is shielded from the majority of it by Sebastian's body, the distance between them, and the natural haze of the ground he's looking out from. So when Sebastian's movements halt, he's able to step in without giving their target any chance to flee.
For those aboveground, all they'll hear is the dull crack of the ground rupturing, following by a heavy object coming hurtling out of the pavement just by their feet -- an old paving stone that comes rocketing upwards to smash into their target's side, just below the ribcage, sure to knock the air out of him.
And before the poor schmuck can even catch his breath, his leg once more sinks clean into the ground. This time, before he can whisk himself away -- if he even has the breath for it -- from underground, Gen grabs his foot in both hands and twists. It's sharp, guttural when he snaps at Makoto and Sebastian through Communion: ]
Hurry up and finish him off!
[ He doesn't know the exact way this guy escaped last time, so Gen has to settle for maintaining a vicious grip and digging his fingers into the man's freshly-broken ankle, hoping some combination of the physical grip and the pain will keep him trapped in place long enough for the other two to finish the job.
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( he can first feel the flickering warmth from the flames that the demon attempts to summon, and that causes his stomach to twist in apprehension, fearing remaining in such dangerous and close quarters with the demon, their claws, and whatever other magic assaults they might be able to make. so it’s a rush of sudden relief when the magic is viscerally interrupted by sebastian jamming sharp steel into their forearm and twisting the blade until its physical construction is compromised. even with the pain surging through chest from the deep gouges the demon’s claws had created, makoto can’t help but smile at the calm, casual brutality — he can’t help but appreciate the efficiency of another demon’s work, after all.
they might have interrupted the first spell their quarry attempted to use against them, but there is nothing they can do about the sudden burst of light that illuminates the enclosed space of the alleyway. makoto instinctually squeezes his eyes shut against it, of course, but they are no more or no less sensitive than that of an average human; he can adjust, and perhaps a little faster than sebastian might, but that might take far too much time in such a precarious moment.
because of this, much like before, makoto feels what gen does as it tremors through the ground rather than sees it: something tears loose from underfoot and crashes into vaelakar, both winding them and knocking them off-balance before they can continue to cut makoto down so they can turn to their other assailants. then the earth claims one of his legs once again, and though they had been able to get out of just an impediment of the terrain, there’s no swift escape to be had with makoto holding onto them with the talons of his wings and the brutal snap of their ankle broken in gen’s continued earthen grasp.
gen is right. this is their moment — it must happen now. )
Sebastian, now! ( he attempts to rally the other demon and draw him towards his voice, fumbling for the blade he had kept hidden in the interior of his jacket. the familiar pain of the sharp edge in the handle greets him with the slick warmth of blood, but he ignores it, flipping his grip so he can stab its cruel length repeatedly into the demon’s chest — all while he produces a fistful of flame in his left hand, blinking tears out of his eyes and regaining enough of his vision just in time to palm-slam it into vaelakar’s face. )