Saneko sits on one of the benches, holding Akui in her lap and somewhat idly tucking and pulling at the little zombie's kimono. Giggling, she kicks her feet, then adjusts Akui's obi. The angel is handled tenderly, although it's hard to tell if Saneko is trying to straighten her outfit or make it look more disheveled.

Directly next to her, a man dressed in a cloak had taken seat mere seconds ago, apparently he had tried to sneak into said location without her noticing: but ended up suddenly end up losing his balance and just 'crashes' his butt onto the seat. Had he not been such a lightweighted person, he'd probably tipped over the bench and made everyone that was not holding on well enough: fly. "Ite-te-te~.." The male complains, squinting his eyes and biting on his lip. "Ehee." Seconds later he was rubbing the back of his head, staring into the general direction of the waitingroom: at a certain point even facing Saneko. "Gomen." He commented towards her, probably because he had sat down /next/ to her.

Saneko gives a small start as his little bumble, blinking and looking at him with noticable concern on her face. "A-are you alright?" She's stopped kicking her feet now, and is actualy sitting still, hugging Akui lightly to her chest.

"I'm fine, my butt has taken worse beatings than this." The man corrected his stature and but his both hands before his waist. "Ahem." One of his hands now situated at his mouth he fainted a cough. "Anyhow..." He then got all quiet and sat with his back against the wall and closed his eyes, invisibly staring at the other side of from where they were sitting.

As soon as he says that he's okay, Saneko's look of concern shift into an incredibly bright smile, and she gives a little bounce. "I'm glad you're okay, nyo! Misaka Saneko, 11-years-old! Very pleased to meet you!" She giggles a little, with another bounce, then holds Akui up. "And this is Aki-chan. She's happy to meet you, too!"

"Hmm." The man seemed to have caught her attention for some reason, and seemed to plan to return that attention. This begun with a gently hum, directed at himself as well as Saneko to alert her that he did hear her. A light smile formed on the edge of his lips and the man turned his head around: eyes settling on the lifeless doll. "Hello there Akui." He commented, releasing Kamui from his black cloaked prison by taking it from underneath his cloak: out of one of the inside pockets. "This is Kamui." He stated, holding out the catboy angel and laying it on his lap. He then turned his hand around and placed it on his heart. "My name is Oi Ranmaru."

As the catboy angel is shown to her, Saneko gives a little squeak and bounces some more. "Oh, he's so~ cute, nyo!" She giggles, hugging her little zombie geisha again. Grinning, she looks back to Ranmaru, and cants her head. "Your outfit is really really neat, too." She gives an emphatic nod.

"I don't like staring into the crowd much, so this really helps." The boy raises the hand he had placed at his heart up to the mask and places it before his other eye to indicate being blind, as in being blind to other people around him. "And well.." He raises the cloak a little with his other hand. "This is just to... well... it just looks neat. Yeah. Goes with the whole nickname I have been given. So I figured the Cloak better be added too y'know?" A bit lost in talking to this girl, he completely forgets about his angel and when he finally looks down, the angel had tipped over. "Hehe." He puts it back up. "Yeah, Kamui is cool. The guy has a big heart." Talking about his angel as if it were a sentient being, he introduces Kamui a bit better. "Your angel looks well made as well." He then follows up, looking at the angel. "It's supposed to be raggy right?" He prods a finger into the direction of the geisha.

In the meantime, a lady had walked into the room: once more (apparently Ranmaru had bad luck) it was the snarly lady that looked like a fridgid librarian... eagle-eye styled glasses on the edge of her nose and with a stern look on her face. "Oi Ranmaru... east corner. Misaka Saneko... west corner." Apparently Ranmaru was not noticing her however, and was too concentrated on the Geishya angel.

Saneko giggles as he directs his attention to her angel. "Thank you very much. And, yes. She's a zombie geisha, nyo." She beams, adjusting the obi a bit. Then, the lady caught her attention. She looked over to the frighteningly stern looking woman, and blinked before smiling brightly once more. "Okay!" With that, she bounces to her feet, then turns to face Ranmaru, tilting her head slightly.

"So chipper..." Ranmaru comments. "Reminds me of the plushie girl." He follows it up and slowly gets his butt to seperate from the lovely bench it had impacted upon. He had gotten up after Saneko had gotten up all of the sudden: which had confused him at first. He took hold of Kamui and put him back under his cloak before stepping up to Saneko and looking down at her. It probably would only now show how enormously tall he was for a Japanese person. "Let's go?" He asks kindly and brings a hand up to her hair to ruffle through it. That's something that Ranmaru did not have in common with his player: he is social with kids.

Saneko giggles, with a little bounce. "Yeah, let's!" Hugging the little zombie once more, she looks up at him with a huge, extremely bright smile. "And let's have lots and lots of fun!" Another bounce.

"Un." Ranmaru ruffles through her hair most gently before he starts stepping through the hallway: thinking of what was to come. That was some bouncy girl he had on his hands here, and he guessed that her angel was probably going to be a battery-bunny as well. "Good luck, me." He chuckles suddenly: speaking at a barely audible tone before greeting the white light which came from the layer area.

Saneko giggles and bounces again, before dashing off after him, only to run past him, stop, wait for him a moment, then dash off again towards the arena layer.

The intensity in and around the arena has been slowly building as the third round of matches begins, plenty of hubbub in the stands as people chatter about how this angel or that angel will surely dominate the matches to come. But at last the lights dim, and everyone's favorite shades wearing announcer swings down on his chair, blasting through the noise with his exuberant voice. "LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! Welcome to this third round matchup! The tension has been really building.. and tonight's match features two one and one contenders, one a victor in the second round, one a loser. WHO WILL TRIUMPH THIS TIME!!" He let's the excitement build, various people calling out for one or the other, before he continues, a spotlight swinging down to the young man approaching the layer.. "In the East corner.. the Layer Phantom.. OI RANMARU! Hungry to avenge his recent loss, will Ranmaru and his speedy angel Kamui have what it takes?" The spotlight swings the other way towards the young girl also entering the stage, and the announcer chimes in again. "In the West Corner, fresh off her second round victory.. please welcome Misaka Saneko.. and her angel Akui! Contestants.. please take your places!

Walking up to his seat, Ranmaru raised one hand and stared up into the crowd with closed eyes. Yes, basically he was aiming just his head at the crowd to make it look as if he was looking into their direction, whilst in truth he was hiding behind his half mask. "Hmm? Hungry for revenge? Oh come on... I am not that bloodthirsty." He mumbled to himself as the announcer made his debut. "But..." Under his cloak his hands gently stroke over the soft fur of his angel: trying to reassure himself. "We'll win for sure... because this time, there is no doubt. Like with Kino... my mind wavered. We will win today, Kamui." It was unsure if he was speaking loud enough for others to hear him, but it did not bother him apparently. The boy just walked up to the seat and settled his butt in the chair: along with the reset of his body. He kept looking up at the crowd, waving at them.

Saneko giggles as the light shines on her, then bounces and waves energetically at the crowd. With a huge, beaming smile, she bounds over to the egg-like chair in west corner and hops up into it. Giggling again, she turns around in the chair to wave at the crowds again before adjusting the headset. She's still taking a little while with that, but it's much faster than it had been the previous two times, at least. Once the headset is on properly, she waves over at Ranmaru, then hugs Akui. "Good luck, Oi-san, Kamui-kun! Make sure to have lots of fun!"

The announcer is silent as both the dueses make their way and settle into the chairs, and he gives the crowd a second to build up tempo before he chimes back in. "The contestants have taken their places! Let's wish them luck in the battle to come! Now... the moment you have all been waiting for.. ENTRY ANGEL!!" His hand swings towards the west corner, and so does the spotlight.

Saneko giggles and tosses Akui towards the layer, calling out "Death cant keep you! Dance for us, Akui!" The little zombie gives a slight twitch as she descends toward the layer, but barely moves, falling lightly to the layer surface. Just before contact, she shifts, landing in a soft crouch. Saneko smiles as the geisha slowly rises into a standing position, a surge of dark energy materializing around that skeletal right hand. Once erect, the zombie lifts her head and opens her eyes, revealing a dull red glow. Then, she moves her left arm out while bringing the left towards her chest, and gives a low, elegant bow..

There seemed to be some movement underneath the cloak as he took hold of Kamui: an action quite invisable to others. His fingers wrapped around the lithe body of his angel, holding it quite gently. "Illuminate the darkness with your soul of bonds!" He suddenly calls out as his cloak is thrown to the side and Kamui suddenly gets flung towards the layer. "Kamui, show us your light! Fallin!" The black feline angel shoots forth..

It's head first as it touched the bright light of the layer, immediatly forcing itself to open it's crimson red eyes, the rest of it's body following quite quickly. It's fur ruffled violently by the speed it had been thrown! It's limbs seemed to twitch for a moment before explosively coming to live. Stretching out completely before making a beautiful double flip forth: finished by landing perfectly on both knees and one fist, it's other arm set before it's face. It's tail lashed violently for a moment before the angel actually seemed to 'bother' to get up and take some paces back to his side of the layer.

Kamui's head cocked slightly to the left, it's lips reveiling one tooth, allowing for the angel to give quite the smug look. But this look was not directed at any opposing angel, it was directed at Saneko. It's eyes illuminated with that red hue, it was almost demonic: if not, at least feral.

Kamui took a few steps back from it's original position and stared at the Geisha for a few seconds. "???" It had a quizical look on it's face for a moment, before it too bowed before her. "A greeting to all those who may die, or live to tell the tale." Ranmaru commented, apparently trying his best at making a joke about the Geisha looking quite... undead. Nobody ever said that Ranmaru had the best sense of humor there.
On the layer, his angel slowly had gotten up by now after more carefully having analyzed the opponent, and got into a somewhat feral stance after having introduced itself 'properly'.

On the layer, Akui rises slowly from the bow, glowing crimson eyes settling on the catboy before her. Her left hand fell gently to her side, then was moved to a low, back angle, the silk of the weighted sleeve sliding over the steel mill floor, a safe enough distance from the molten steel. At the same moment, her skeletal hand moves to her chest, as the seething darkness dances over those narrow bones and flows down her sleeve and up her arm. Then, her left arm moves again, suddenly snapped up and forward as the geisha steps forward, then back and forward once more. The motion propells the weight of the sleeve into the air, swirling it in a sharp arc that sends its directly towards Kamui.

Apparently not expecting such an attack, as Kamui tried to jump over the attack: he found out that he had anticipated incorrectly, the speed of said attack. And thus the angel was suddenly hit by the attack, crashing against it's foot. A loud 'Ohhhh~!' sounded from the audience! "It was a hit!" The announcer shouts over the microphone as the attack impacted on Kamui! "Hiss..." The angel tumbled in the air... but was corrected by Ranmaru: who commanded Kamui to restore his position. And this action was successful as it used one clawed hand to take the impact of the landing, and the other to make a mighty turning swoop: then tapping twice on the ground, still within the momentum, to speed forwards at it's opponent with claw stretched forth.

The arc never comes to a stop - as soon as the weight made contact, Akui snapped her arm back, bringing the sleeve back behind her. Her face ever expresionless, her eyes shine slightly brighter as the catboy rushes forth. Twirling her left hand, she curls her fingers around the silk of the sleeve, then snaps her wrist to draw the weight of the sleeve up and off the ground. She places her right foot back, but does not place it directly on the ground. Just before Kamui reaches her, the zombie shifts her weight to that foot, turning just as that claw touches silk so that the edges barely piece the fabric and cause no more than a grazing tear in her dry, dead flesh. With the turn, her left arm continues to move, flowing forward, then suddenly back. The sleeve responds by flying towards the catboy's back.

What ends up happening after Kamui's claws set their sharp nails into the 'dead' flesh of the undead angel was that the angel simply moved along with the Geisha. It almost looked like a dance as it walked along with the robes... it got it's nails stuck into the cloth like a cat playing with yarn. And it ended up trying to get it's claws loose from the opponent's clothing before it could attack again.

On the layer, Akui cants her head slightly as the catboy moves with her. The glow of her eyes brightens as she takes a few graceful steps back - narrowly avoiding one of those streams of molten steel. As her sleeve misses it's target, dark energy crackles through it and she pulls that arm sharply back, catching the weight as it flies towards her hand. Then, having opened a small space between herself and the kitty, she snaps her arm inward and, with a flick of her wrist, throws the weighted end of the sleeve between them. The momentum of the throw was upward - the weight arcs up, harmplessly, before the geisha snaps her arm back again, giving the sleeve a sudden tug and sending it downward and towards Kamui's face. Whether it's meant to actually hit or just separate the claw from her kimono - well, zombies aren't the most expressive bunch, and Akui was stone-masked more than many of her kin.

On the layer, Kamui seemed to be having a good deal of luck here. Just as the zombie Geisha was going to throw lovely catboy Kamui upwards, for whatever the reason was, the angel just got loose and settled down on the foor. "Nyy..." It stared into space a little, or rather the robes of the opposing angel, and suddenly shot into the air! Apparently it's tail had just hung over an edge and landed in the hot molten metal. It looked quite humorous as the angel started hopping into every direction to get the heat off: ending up into the same path as Akui... and would she not get out of the way: she would most likely get knocked over! Careful! Kamui-train is comming in!

When Kamui managed to separate himself from her kimono, Akui brought her hand up to catch the weight. The glow of her eyes darkened a bit as she watched the kitty. Off the layer, Saneko remained as completely motionless as she always is when watching Akui dance, but could not hold in a tiny squeak as her lips pursed slightly and the corners threatened to turn upwards and break her conversation. Luckily, Akui kept her attention. As Kamui came rushing towards the little zombie, she held out her right arm. A surge of that ebon energy pulsed amongst those narrow bones, then spread outward from her fingers and materialized into a large folding fan. Just before the catboy ran into her, she flicked the fan shut and spun out of the way, stepping gracefully - and quite quickly - over a few of those threatening streams of molten metal. Her kimono, overlong as it is, passed over the material, smoldering for a few seconds until darkness seethed over the near-burning silk, extinguishing the fire before it fully caught. Now some distance away from Kamui. Akui stopped her flight and turned to face him, holding the fan up to her face and looking over its edge at the catboy with those glowing red eyes.

The catboy angel however was not lucky enough to have something like darkness to put out his tail, so he ended up sitting down for a moment, grabbing it's tail by the end: and started to 'blow at it'... well, he did not actually blow at it: angels can't do that. So with his other hand it was putting out the fire. "Shhhhuuu... Shuuuu..." A sound was formed by this until the catboy was done: being far enough from the Geisha it had probably decided that it could actually take this time.
But now the angel got back up, apparently ready to begin the real thing again. And there it went! With a sudden burst of speed, the angel shot forth at Saneko's angel with claws both ready to strike. It was nothing short of a mad and feral rush, but no matter how you looked at it: it was concentrated and well performed at the same time. Each step that impacted on the ground was one of grace and dexterity. And as the angel finally leaped at it's target, claws stretched out, even that silly pounce looked dangerous and beautiful at the same time. It was hard to explain in words though.

Her face ever expressionless, Akui watches the catboy's antics. When he suddenly begins to run towards her, she rolls her left wrist, materializing a fan in that one, as well. Then, twirling both wrists, she spins the fans, lifting her right arm and lowering her left. Taking a step forward, she does a single spin, causing the heavy sleeves to twirl about her form. As Kamui draws closer, she snaps her right arm suddenly down. The fan dissipates as the black energy flows across the rapidly descending sleeve, covering the weight just as it slaps down - not towards the catboy, but hard into the stream of molten steel directly in front of her. The impact sends up a shower of boiling, liquified metal. As the shower flies up, she spins to the side, throwing the fan in her other hand through the settling metalic rain and sending both molten metal and black energy towards the kitty.

And what seemed like it would surely hurt like hell... ended up doing little. The quick angel seemed to try and evade the volley of molten metal and dark energy thrown at him, and seemed to be succeding quite well, but this did not mean it got out completely unscathed. The angel was made for speed, not for taking hits, and because of this the angel ended up getting quite the kicker when some of the metal bounced off the ground and splattered some of the substance onto Kamui. Only as he had so acrobatically evaded the dark energy attack by jumping over it and rushing back at the enemy did the angel shake of this hot material: who knew that a hologram could do that much damage? The hitpoint indicator above Ranmaru plummetted quite hard.

Fans reappear in her hands even before the molten material falls; She holds one in front of her face, the other at an angle over her chest. As Kamui bursts through the spray towards her, she spins the fans in her hands, then moves her arms in an arc before her. The fans leave a faint aftertrail as she passes them quicker and quicker before her - apparently enough of a "shield" to deflect most of the steel that is shaken off onto her. As the catboy settles, the zombie's eyes flash brightly and she steps back, then, with another burst of the energy that both protects and feeds her, the geisha raises both hands in the air, then around to back, released the seething fans at just the last moment to send them both at her opponent.

... Only to hit nothing as the opposing angel had just... basically.. disappeared. Apparently there had been a chain nearby that the angel had suddenly grabbed hold of as the Geisha had thrown her arms back, and was just able to change directions to evade the fans. A well performed move, if not a bit unorthodox. "Come on Kamui, you can do better than that." Ranmaru suddenly comments towards his angel. And apparently his angel was listening, as it throws itself forth at Saneko's angel at high speed, comming back with some extra force out of the momentum of the swing: one arm to the side with claws extended. If calculations were right, he should be able to just swing past the opposing angel and slash it.

On the layer, Akui brings her arms to a neutral position as soon as the negative fans part from her fingers. Her right hand is held, once more, by her chest, and her left arm is held downwards and at an angle. She stands perfectly still as she watches the catboy swing around, the glow of her eyes dulling greatly. Just as he draws close, she lifts her right arm towards him, catching his claw with the edge of a bone rather than letting it tear leathery flesh. She arcs her arm with Kamui's swing, causing his claw to cut down the length of the ulna and pushing back the heavy sleeve. Before the groove he inflicts reaches her skeletal elbow, the swing moves him away from from the zombie geisha. She merely watches him, waiting for him to return.

And return he does! With a swing, and even an increase ammount of force because of the momentum given to it by the Geisha's push, Kamui comes flying in like a raging bullet, a same kind of attack, but this time apparently planning to use his leg the moment his claws would impact.
"Are you having fun, Miss Misaka?" The Layer Phantom comments heartily, giving a little chuckle: he seemed to be truly enjoying himself with this fight, as silly as it might be going at the moment.

Saneko remains completely still, barely even breathing. Akui and the action on the layer absorb every bit of her attention, but she does have a little smile on her lips. As for the zombie, Akui's glowing gaze never leaves Kamui's form. Before the swing returns him, the geisha even curls her bony fingers to beckon him back. When he gets close, she steps back slightly, anchoring herself with narrow feet perilously close to those steel streams. Holder out her exposed arm, she one more meets strike with bone. The force of the strike brings forth a small puff of blackness and she slides even closer to the molten metal behind her, but manages to stabilize herself and move her arm with the strike, rotating the angle this time to prevent the bone from breaking. And yet, she still makes no attack.

A littlebit confused by Akui's lack of attacks, Ranmaru raises one of his eyebrows, but ends up shrugging: trying to think nothing of it. Maybe it was just tired and had no more will to fight at the moment. The Deus seemed to be really busy concentrating though. His head shook a little, and his eyes made their way back to the layer: there he saw Kamui just swinging back again, but this time instead of going sideways, it was rushing straight at the Geisha Ghost, both claws set to the front, and holding itself to the metal chain upside down on both legs.

This time, as Kamui swung away, Akui spread her arms apart, steping away from the stream of molten material. Flicking her wrists, energy seethes forth from her fingers once more, forming those now-familiar fans. As the catboy begins to return, Akui takes a few slight, graceful steps to the side, then back, then around, passing one twirling fan across her face and the other in a line down her side. As he then draws closer, she takes another spin, throwing a fan into the air while spinning the other behind her back, twirling and bowing while stepping to the side. Just as the kitty reaches her, she holds up a hand to catch the thrown fan, suddenly twirling much more quickly so that his attack strikes at silk, bone and flesh in a random and abstracted pattern. As he passes, tendrils of darkness remain on his fur and claws, fading as the swing separates him from the geisha, who now brings herself to a stop. Her kimono seethes and writhes as the energy infused within it holds closed several newly tattered silken threads.

Apparently a bit freaked by the black tendrils, the catboy ends up landing on a higher ground with the chain still in it's claws. "Nya?" It stared at the fur, but apparently there was nothing wrong. It shook it's head, as if that were to reset it's optics, before jumping with the chain in the hand, this time going for a somewhat more... regular move. He was going to smack himself into the Geisha with himself and the chain: planning to wrap his arms around the opposing angel and land to the ground together with it.

Sparks of light and dark shimmer and burst over dark silk, bleeding over onto pale flesh and dry bone. Akui's eyes glow a brighter red as Kamui returns. She holds her right hand near her right shoulder and her left at a low angle, spinning her wrist and cupping her finger to draw the overlong sleep up, shortening it greatly. For whatever reason, she does not get out of the way of this one. At contact, however, the darkness over her kimono bursts forth, cushioning the blow and engulfing both geisha and kitty. While the impact is lessened, there is nothing to prevent the Kamui from grabbing the little zombie. She does not fall, but takes several light steps backwards. Little damage may have occured, had Akui not stepped directly into a molten stream. The dark energies protect her from much of the blaze, but zombie flesh is not a friend to fire. She steps back again, out of the scorching liquid, and the darkness smothers the residual flames. Even with stepping into molten steel, Akui made no visible reaction, but threw her arm back and up, then released the weight while snapping her arm down and forward. The weight of the sleeve was directed towards the catboy who clung against her.

The angel quickly got back onto it's feet after clinging down on the clothing of the Geisha, soon noticing that something was comming down. However, as Kamui might have been looking down, Ranmaru had a good eye on the layer: allowing for his angel to roll backwards: away from the heavy piece of cloth that was rolling his way. "Nya!" It let out a faint meow, apparently confused why this zombie had not attacked as much as it had expected it to do, and quickly charged forth again, this time claws forth to penetrate the cloth. It was getting sick of that armor, and apparently was under the impression that it would look so much better when punctured.

On the layer, Akui watches the catboy jump down and out of the way, then moves both arms downward, slinging the sleeves behind her. The zombie twitches slightly as Kamui rushes towards her, and does not move out of the way. He strikes her hard, claws seeking through silk and into the dry, dead flesh beneath. The zombie merely stands there for a moment, looking down at the catboy before her with glowing red eyes. Then, her eyes dim and dull, eyelids sliding shut just as the light winks out. There is another twitch, and she slumps down, no longer able to support her own weight. Finally, the dark energy infused in her kimono and shrouding her right hand fades out.

The announcer suddenly shouts through the microphone: "Kamui! Win!"

Ranmaru takes his angel off of the layer rather quickly and bows at the opposing Deus: Saneko. "I had fun." He states with a rather chipper voice, something one would not expect from Ranmaru really. Only after having been lifted down onto the floor, does Ranmaru get out of his chair and walk up to Saneko, as apparently he had something to say. "I bid you farwell for now. It was a good match, and I hope to see you once more when you become stronger." Only then did the boy, also known as the Layer Phantom, turn around and walk away: deafened by the crowd's screaming and applause, unsure if even Saneko had heard him.

Saneko finally moves, bursting into sudden giggles. Removing the headset somewhat hurredly, she bounces down from the chair before it comes fully down. "That was so great, Oi-san! Thank you so much!" Bouncing, with a few more giggles, she hops over to the layer and tenderly picks her little zombie geisha angel up.