A Nice Encounter :] (Sarafine)

[Shio]

Shio hadn't really intended for it to turn out like this. It had been just another quick journey through the city, moving in the small, dark spaces between the streets where she could go overlooked at night. For some reason, this city had so many more people moving around even after dark... which made it a little harder, but not much.

Especially since, not too far into the city, she could feel the presence of other Aragami. Their hunger pressed on her - small ones, two of them, and one larger one but nothing too strong. But it was hunger, a need to eat that struck at her own and made her want to fight them in answer, kill them and devour their cores and find more to eat more to devour moremoremore -

Maybe if she had her friends... Soma or Leader or Sakuya or someone... but no, she was alone right now, and her hunger felt very powerful indeed. Well... they were in a place with people, and the streets here were silent, some corners glassy or charred by attacks. Straightening, she ran towards the cluster, ignoring the shriek that pierced the air as two of the smaller ones noticed her. In a moment, she could see them - two dark blots that were Zygotes and then a larger, bright splash of colour against the night sky, a Sariel heading for her.

Before she had met the God Eaters, she might have cringed away from such a sight, waiting for one of them to be killed so she could scavenge the meat, but she could fight now! Her hand shifted and morphed with an ugly ripple of skin, forming a gun as large as her body, and using her other arm to brace it, she shot at one of the Zygotes. It dipped down, screaming again as her body attacked it - but then Shio had to scramble back hastily as beams of light slammed into the ground, the Sariel drifting closer and not giving her enough time to attack again.

It would be a good meal, but she wished she had her friends with her - this fight as going to hurt.

[Sarafine Duchannes]

When she'd first woken up, it'd been in a place far stranger than this. That town had been eerie, and dangerous, and wrong - but she'd endured it long enough to escape, taking comfort in the fact that she was, at least, alive. ...Comfort. That was an odd sensation, and one that had become oddly foreign to her right alongside shock, and relief, and awe. And yet, Sarafine was fairly certain she'd experienced all of those things to some extent when she had come back from the dead. Perhaps that had been more jarring than anything.

Those emotions had faded, however - the way they always did. Dark Casters' emotions were typically dulled and distant, almost as if they belonged to someone else, and she was perfectly content to return to such a state of being. It made it much easier not to dwell on whatever had happened in the afterlife (her memories of it were blurred at best), and to focus instead on the more important thing: where to go from here. Abraham was, as of yet, nowhere to be found - which made it rather difficult for her to decide where she stood with him. He'd watched her die. That much, Sarafine remembered. He had let her burn without even lifting a finger to intervene - and she was no idiot. She knew now, more than ever, that she was little more than a tool to him...still. She'd never been on her own before. Abraham and the other Incubi had, if nothing else, given her both direction and some illusion of companionship.

None of them knew she was alive again, now. Her next move was going to have to be thought out carefully - especially if she would be making it alone. In the past several weeks, she'd been traveling the country in a fashion that could only be described as aimless. It wasn't difficult to get from place to place - she used the shadows to travel, trying to regain her bearings at first, and now just sort of...observing. This world was very different than the one she'd left. There were all sorts of new dangers - as well as new potentially useful resources - to explore. These last few days, she'd been taking a look around Gotham. Recently, there'd been reports of...monsters of some sort here. She hadn't been able to gather as much information on them as she would have liked, which was why she'd taken to lurking around the city at night, trying to see if she couldn't track one down and see this for herself.

She'd been in luck.

There were three of them in this part of the city tonight - strange, otherworldly creatures unlike any Sarafine had ever encountered before. She had been following them silently, and at a reasonably safe distance, simply...watching them. They were fascinating creatures, and she wanted to know more about them - how they lived, how they hunted, how they killed. She'd expected to gain all that information, and perhaps more, tonight. What she hadn't expected was a small, white-haired girl (Sarafine hadn't gotten a good look at her, but she seemed very young) to come darting out of nowhere and...to charge right at the creatures. The Dark Caster stiffened in slight surprise at this new development, curiously peering out from where she'd all but melted into the shadows. The creatures had wasted no time in lunging straight for her, and just when Sarafine was thinking that this wasn't going to be pretty, the girl's arm...shifted. Morphed, into something...was that a weapon?

Well. She certainly had not expected this - but it only made things that much more interesting. This girl was not only significantly less human than she appeared to be (which was enough of a reason for Sarafine not to despise her on sight), but she also appeared to be packing quite a bit of power. She immediately wanted to know more, which...made ensuring that the girl survived this fight something of a priority. The sky darkened further overhead, crackling with tension as Sarafine risked stepping out into the open - and sending a bolt of unnaturally precise lightning crashing down at the largest of the creatures that had just attacked the girl, attempting to strike it down out of the air.

[Shio]

Dimly, Shio could remember lectures - not really to her so much as about her - about adrena... adrenalone? No, she was sure she had that word wrong, but something about energy and how humans could focus when fighting. Aragami didn't have that. Oh, they could get angry, and then fight harder - or run to protect their cores - but everything else was focus, all the time. These were her prey. Nothing could distract her from that -

Well, other than the sudden bolt of lightning that hit the Sariel. That worked pretty well.

Whirling around - that hadn't been a bullet and she couldn't feel any God Arcs - she spotted what looked like a regular human standing there, well out of the way of the fight. Or at least, she had been - now the uninjured Zygote shrieked again and turned in mid-air with surprising speed, plunging down in an attempt to simply rip the intruder apart. Shio could have helped but the Sariel had drifted to the ground, briefly stunned, and she couldn't let such an opportunity pass her by. The weapon changed again, shifting in an unnerving ripple of skin and forming an equally oversized blade. There was no need to brace herself this time, and instead she rushed forward, swinging wildly at the Sariel's head and chest. It wasn't enough, even as the Aragami twitched and began to rise into the air again. She hadn't had any time to cut deeper, but she could feel it, the core in danger, almost hers.

The Sariel didn't shriek, not like the Zygotes, with their tortured sounds of rage, but its cry was unnerving all the same, a wail that made the air ripple. Shio had to scramble backwards again as beams of light arrowed straight at her, curving to follow her movements. There was another, longer cry, and then rays of light hammered down from the sky, leaving craters where they struck. Meanwhile, the remaining and injured Zygote circled back and tried to eat her once again, avoiding the beams with deft ease that Shio, unfortunately, couldn't match.

Later, if the human was alive, she would thank her! It was hard, fighting alone. To have even one other person made everything so much easier.

[Sarafine Duchannes]

It seemed she'd succeeded in striking the largest of the creatures down, at least temporarily, but - oh, this was mildly unfortunate. She seemed to have attracted the attention of one of the smaller creatures, which rounded on her sharply and swooped down so quickly that she almost did not have time to dodge. Instantly, the shadows behind her extended, darkness swirling up and around her form and - when the creature reached her, it moved right through her as if she were nothing more than a spectre. Staying this way - the embodiment of darkness - was vaguely tempting. She was mostly invulnerable in this form, but other than that it was really only useful in possession, not doing any real physical damage. So a moment later, she shimmered back into corporeality again, eyes never leaving her opponent. She did not intend to waste time here - the creature was obviously very fast, and Sarafine didn't much fancy the idea of being torn apart.

But what elements might this one be weak to? Lightning had worked well enough against the first creature (at least to stun it - it seemed to have recovered at this point), but this one...? Well, there was nothing wrong with doing a little experimenting. With a quick sweep of her arm, she sent a torrent of flame towards it, almost eager to see how it would react to the heat, whether it would burn. A familiar sort of tingle seemed to set every one of her nerves alight, the way it always did when she indulged in her signature element - but she wasn't foolish enough to allow her judgment to be clouded by the rush. Alert and readying herself to dodge again if her attack was not as effective as she wanted it to be, Sarafine chanced a quick glance back towards the girl.

Really, it was both surprising and intriguing how well she held her own against these monsters, even when she was outnumbered. Clearly, she had experience in fighting them - perhaps she'd be able to tell Sarafine a bit more about them, as well as herself, when this was all over. But for the moment, it seemed the girl was having a bit of difficulty getting an attack in with the largest creature continually sending beams of light at her. Sarafine slipped backwards - both to put some distance between herself and the creature she was currently faced with, and to get a clear shot of the Sariel - and shot a powerful current of lighting, this time from her palm, towards the latter. Electricity seemed to have worked to stun it the first time, and it looked like all the little girl needed right now was a small window of opportunity to gain the upper hand again.

[Shio]

The Zygote shrieked again in pain, falling back as the fire burned it. The attacks the woman was using were a far cry from the elemental bullets and blades God Eaters used - and perhaps, if Shio hadn't been dodging the blasts of light as best as she could, she would have noticed, and been a bit more distracted by that.

There was a drifting, butterfly-like monster doing its best to kill her, so it was probably a good thing that Sarafine hadn't distracted her just yet.

As the Zygote rushed at her, she swung her sword down in a massive overhead swing, slicing it in two. Luckily, these were much weaker than the Sariel - and as it was hit and dropped once more due to the lightning, she had the time to twist her blade, feeling it catch on the core. Her whole body glowed faintly as she assimilated the core into her own body.

This was the proper way to eat, and it was easy. It made her own core feel so much more alive, so much stronger. It was dangerous to devour too much - she knew that too, she could still remember the greedy thrill of Nova, the pain of not eating everything at once.

Then there were only two, and she lunged at the Sariel again, stabbing it furiously as it struggled to rise into the air once more. Still not enough - and then it slapped her with a wing, sending her hurtling into the closest building's wall, with a weak yelp of surprise and pain. The other Zygote circled the area, not willing to attack again after just having been burned - and that was good enough, for now.

[Sarafine Duchannes]

And that was one taken care of! Sarafine spared a moment to look as the young girl sliced right through the creature, and then...glowed, almost as if recovering strength from her kill. Well, that was very interesting indeed! Another question for, well - when they weren't in the middle of a life-or-death fight. The other, smaller creature did not seem to be a concern for now. She cast it a quick, calculating glance, eyes narrowed, but lingered on the edge of the scene with something that was very clearly hesitation. Sarafine would have lashed out at it anyway, making it entirely clear that she had no intention to show any mercy. But in the moment she paused the other, larger creature regained its bearings once again - and this time, managed to land a blow on the girl, sending her flying into a wall. Sarafine knew she was strong, far stronger than a human at least offensively, but...was she as fragile as one?

On the chance that she was injured, or at least needed a minute to get back on her feet, Sarafine swept back some ways, placing herself between the girl and and the monster and taking a moment to glance back over her shoulder. "Are you alright?" she asked, tone laced with something that sounded very much like concern - she had years of practice perfecting the art of mimicking emotions that had long since faded. Because of course, it would only be natural to assume that she had entered this fight out of sheer worry that this child might be killed! ...Which, she supposed, was true to some extent. It would have been a shame to risk the girl dying and lose such a valuable opportunity to gain information (and potentially, a very useful new friend if all went well).

These monsters - or whatever they were - on the other hand, could tell her absolutely nothing. There was only one way to gain information from them, and that was to experience how they fought first-hand. And if this one had any intelligence, or even the basic instincts of a predator, then it probably knew to take advantage of its possibly stunned or injured opponent. She very much intended to act before that happened. She flicked a hand forward and - more fire, a wide wave of it this time, fanning out through the air towards the creature. The attack would knock it backwards if she was lucky, or perhaps the pain would even briefly distract it again - either way, Sarafine was only attempting to buy herself time. Almost as soon as she'd attacked, she began to mutter quickly under her breath, the familiar, flowing Caster language that almost seemed to make the air crackle. She was attempting an Immobilization Cast. Perhaps this creature was physically powerful enough to break free of it before too long, but it was certainly worth a shot - so far, rendering it unable to move seemed to have been a rather effective strategy.

[Shio]

If devouring had been a savage thrill she wanted to dive into, eating and eating and eating, then the pain of her injuries distracted Shio from that. It was a good thing she had taken the Zygote's core - already the gashes from being thrown into a wall were closing slowly, leaving thin red lines rather than bleeding wounds. But there went most of her newfound energy - anything else would take longer to heal, now. But there were only two, now!

First she had to get up, though, and she took her time in making sure her footing was steady - only to notice that the woman from before was now standing between her and the Sariel. She was so brave - she didn't have a God Arc or anything like one, but she was fighting anyways....

Of course, she wasn't just fighting, but she was fighting well. Shio watched in awe as the woman created fire, driving the Sariel back and stopping it from simply blasting them with more beams of light. It gave her enough time to switch back to a gun form, firing off several bullets in quick succession as the Sariel - oddly enough - stopped moving much, almost as if it was being held by something. It screamed its rage, but she was getting better at ignoring what the other Aragami said. They were eating too much, here, and she needed to eat too...

Oh, but she had been asked a question - she smiled cheerfully at her helper. "Um... yes! Thank you!"

There was no scream this time, as the Zygote circled around and plummeted down towards the human. Acting quickly, she leaped into the air, arm shifting once more and driving the blade into its body. It shrieked in pain and twisted, unable to dislodge it - and thus carried her with it on an erratic course through the air as her cells slowly ate away at its own.

[Sarafine Duchannes]

Returning the girl's smile cautiously (and, more importantly, noticing how quickly her wounds had healed), Sarafine noticed the second Zygote lunging for her a moment too late. She spun around, realizing she probably wouldn't have enough time to manage even a non-verbal Cast, when the girl behind her suddenly sprung up high into the air to attack the creature. Sarafine backed up a pace or two as the pair went swerving forward haphazardly. The girl had gotten a firm grip with her blade, however...and what was more, she actually seemed to be eating away at the Zygote somehow. From here, she couldn't get a good look, but this entire affair was getting more interesting by the moment. She was glad she'd intervened - even if taking care of the monsters (whatever they were) was tedious.

She'd leave her to it, for now. It was time to turn her attention back on the largest remaining being - the one she had immobilized. The Cast seemed to be holding for now, although Sarafine wasn't particularly eager to press her luck. But how to finish the creature off...? Slicing the other one in two seemed to have worked well enough, although the girl had also destroyed what looked to be some sort of...core or energy center. It was difficult to say, whether they'd be located in the same place within all species. But of course, there was only one way to find out! And even if she was unsuccessful in killing it, she'd at least be able to buy time until the young girl, who clearly had the weaponry for the job, finished with the other creature. Besides, this itself could be a valuable learning opportunity. How did these creatures react to pain? How much could they survive, with their core intact? She wandered closer thoughtfully, strengthening the Cast a bit - and then, without warning, she struck.

As the next Cast was uttered, the air almost seemed to part - as if something was slashing through it - and in the next moment, an invisible force was aiming to tear open the Sariel's middle like a razor. If the creature could, in fact, feel pain the way people did - and if this wasn't enough to kill it - it was likely the pain would jolt it out of immobilization. So she tensed just faintly, ready to dodge or attack again if she needed to - but still watched and waited for results with unmistakable fascination.

[Shio]

Shio was just a little preoccupied. The Zygote was still alive, if barely at this point, and doing its best to shake her off, but her God Arc was embedded in its body. It was too bad she hadn't been able to get to the core - it wouldn't have been carrying her all this way.

Letting her bladed arm support her weigh for now, she brought up her legs and awkwardly pushed off of her prey. Even that touch ate away at it a little more, and its scream was much weaker as she tried the motion again, this time with enough force to wrench her sword out of it. They both fell - the Zygote no longer struggling. It hadn't been the best meal, but she could get to its core in a little while - there was someone else to look after first, of course!

Her landing wasn't any more graceful, really - she hit the ground and rolled a bit before springing back up to her feet. Was the woman alright, with the Sariel there? She turned to look and then -

The Sariel crumpled to the ground, cut neatly in half, its core sliced apart by... by whatever that had been. "Wow..." Shio said, edging closer. It was well and truly dead, its vibrant colours fading now from its wings. She tugged at one, but settling properly in to eat would be rude, right? She hadn't done this alone, though she had planned to. Ignoring her hunger, she ran over to the woman, beaming up at her. "That was... that was great! Thank you for helping!" If she had been like Soma, she would have offered to eat together, and get stronger - but she felt not even a flicker of Aragami nature from her.

But then... "How did you do that! Um... you cut it all apart!"

[Sarafine Duchannes]

The air blade Cast seemed to have done the trick. The creature was torn right apart on impact, both halves falling limply to the ground, its color draining...

Sarafine stared levelly at the creature's remains, her expression mostly emotionless save for the faint, satisfied narrowing of her eyes. This had proved to be quite the educational experience. She was distracted, however, by the series of thumps that singled the little girl and her prey hitting the ground. Turning to see that the girl looked relatively unharmed, Sarafine blinked at her - and then offered a deceptively warm smile. "Oh, you're very welcome - it was really no trouble!" These...creatures, whatever they were, certainly weren't something to take lightly if they were rampaging around the city so freely - but taking care of them had been easy enough this time. If she'd considered them a serious threat to her safety, she could have easily left the girl to deal with them on her own.

Disclosing her abilities to this girl wasn't something Sarafine was concerned about. Clearly, she was more than accustomed to the strange and unusual, and was quite plainly awed and enthusiastic rather then shocked or afraid. She replied calmly, "Do you know what magic is? It's something like that. All I had to do was say a few words, and I had my own airborne weapon - a little like the blade you were using." Just less, well - corporeal of course. And it hadn't been attached to her arm. This child really was a curious case, and the Dark Caster had to admit she was intrigued. Or as intrigued as it was possible for her to be, at any rate. It was time to do a bit of her own questioning. She didn't think she'd need to be too subtle, given how immediately friendly and trusting the girl seemed. Foolish - but excusable in this case, perhaps. She did, after all, seem very young.

"Speaking of which, I was worried those creatures might hurt you, but you seemed to have it covered! You fight very well...I take it you're not human?" The implication that humans obviously couldn't fight well was there, not that Sarafine particularly emphasized it. It was just another simple fact. And if this girl wasn't human, then she was automatically worth investigating and investing in - perhaps ultimately worth keeping alive, even. Sarafine had to real desire to rid the world of members of any species other than humanity, if they didn't get in her way. In her opinion, it was just a waste, and there was the chance that this girl could manage to prove quite useful in her own right if Sarafine could manage to befriend her. She imagined she certainly knew quite a bit about the creatures they'd just been fighting, at any rate.

Abraham might even be interested in her. She knew that children, in his eyes, were blank slates just waiting to be redirected.

[Shio]

The woman smiled so nicely, and Shio just had to brighten her own smile in return. Holding out her hand, she let the sword fall back into her skin, stretching her arm a little as it smoothed out. It always felt a little weird to do that, but she knew she could hurt people by accident, or scare them. No one here was a God Eater, after all, so they didn't know anything about God Arcs, or Aragami.

But this woman wasn't scared. She really did seem nice - like Doctor Sakaki, or Lindow.

"Magic...?" she repeated now, attention caught by the term. She hadn't heard of that before - even thinking back to everything she had learned at the Den, she couldn't remember anything even close to it. "It... makes things? With words? Can I learn?" That sounded amazing - to be able to fight like that, throw around fire and lightning and cut things in half without ever touching them... and maybe it could do other things too! Maybe magic could make her fly through the air. That would have been nice - even if she ate the Sariel, she wouldn't get wings or anything like that.

Because she was a... a dead-end? Was that what the doctor had said? Scratching idly at her hair, she smiled again. "Um... yes! I'm an Aragami, like them! But... um... I don't eat people! I'm a human-type, so... so I don't get hungry with humans, just other Aragami. I can eat them!"

And mentioning that just made her want to edge over and start eating the Sariel's core, but that would have been rude, right?

[Sarafine Duchannes]

Sarafine watched the girl's movements with interest, taking note of the way her blade retracted back into her arm. Now, she looked like nothing more than a harmless young child again. If there was one thing Sarafine had always considered useful, it was a deceiving appearance. She gave a soft laugh at the question about magic - so the girl was eager to learn, to get stronger. If her readiness to take on the Aragami without fear hadn't assured her that this wasn't some silly child who shied away from every new experience, this certainly did. Her enthusiasm was charming, in a way. "Sort of, yes. You use the words to...channel the magic. To make sure it knows what you want it to do." she simplified the last part as an afterthought, then tilted her head a little to one side, considering. "It doesn't come naturally to anyone who isn't a Caster, but maybe you could learn a few things, if you were willing to try really hard." Sarafine added. It wasn't entirely untrue; there were certain Casts that Mortals could learn, though it was always a risk for them. But if this girl wasn't even human, she might be better suited for it.

She was getting ahead of herself, though - teaching this girl anything like that meant extended contact, using her for more than just information. And before she decided to do that, Sarafine wanted to learn a little more about where she came from and what she was capable of. Were there others like her? Did she have someone taking care of her? That was always something to watch out for.

One thing she hadn't been expecting was to learn that this girl was actually the same sort of creature as the ones they'd just killed: an Aragami. It was a term Sarafine had never heard before, and she had to wonder where they'd all come from. The rifts, perhaps? It wasn't too big of a surprise to hear that there were all different sorts - they were a bit like Casters in that respect, she supposed. It was a bit of a shame to hear that she didn't eat humans because that would have been rather entertaining, but...this was intriguing enough all the same. "So you were hunting, just now?" Sarafine asked, her eyes widening slightly. "That's very brave - they're so much bigger than you. ...If you're hungry now, though, go ahead and eat! I don't mean to keep you waiting." she assured the girl with an even brighter smile. They could talk more once she had finished.