After four matches, Mikage had required a bit of a break from the action of the tournament. Even though her health had improved by leaps and bounds in recent days, she certainly did not have the stamina of some of the young people who nearly called the Piffle Princess 'home'. But, after getting a drink, a bite to eat, and some fresh air, the pale girl wanders back down towards the layers. It seems that by this point in the tournament, she isn't the only one needing such a break. There were fewer around the layers, and more up near the cafeteria, although it's likely that that will change as the final hours of the tournament approach.

She walks over to a layer where a couple of young boys are playing, watching the end of their match with curious eyes. It seems either she knew how to pick layers, or luck is on her side. A few moments later, the match is over, and the boys pack up their things, moving off to look for other opponents. Taking the opportunity, Miki sits in one of the egg shaped chairs and plugs in her headset, swiping her layercard to light up the layer and show an empty space for her opponent. Usually she'd stand to show that she was available, but she isn't about to push her luck with her own health.

It had been a relatively long day for poor Eisaku, who hadn't gotten to play overly much in the tournament despite a desire to do so. It wasn't for lack of trying, but he had a hard time losing the throng of /friends/ from school who always wanted to be around him for some reason. It was rather difficult to play with some of them around, due to their inability to not directly ask him things while he was playing. He wasn't good enough to control Seraph and keep a sustained conversation going at the same time yet.

Having recently come off from a defeat with his friend Tomoe, and bribing her into fixing Seraph with some food, he was ready to go again! To that end he was walking about the layers when he happened to notice Mikage taking a seat at one of them. A small grin forms on his lips and he decides to make his way over there before someone else challenges her. "Ano, excuse me. Aogiri-san? May I play with you?" It was obvious he knew who she was, but then most people who played the game in this area did.

Fiddling with the black wings on her headset, Mikage seems lost in her own thoughts as Eisaku approaches. Still, it's eerie that she lifts her head a moment before his voice speaks, as if she somehow picked up on something. So, when he asks her to play, Miki gives a small smile and places the headset down onto her face, flicking the wings up. "If you'd like." She isn't one to outright challenge others, especially because she has little knowledge of the skill levels of local players these days. So many new faces, and many of them were just as challenging as the old ones she'd seen at the Kanto games. Even though it seems that the boy knows her name, she goes through the formalities of introduction, giving her head a small bow. "I'm Aogiri Mikage, and this is Rei." She points to the gargoyle who rests on one of her legs, eyes closed.

There is a small grin on Eisaku's lips as his challenge is accepted, though it was more of a question than a challenge really. He was more polite than not though, so that's how things generally came about from him. He offers a slight bow in return, since he hadn't sat down yet. "Ienari Eisaku, and this here is Seraph." The angel had seemed to pop into his hand from out of nowhere, though that was usually the case. The armored six-winged angel was presented before he moves to take his seat. He sets Seraph down in his lap before going about placing the visor on and powering it up. "I've seen you play on TV before, the last Tokyo City games I think it was. It was fun to watch."

"A pleasure to meet you, Ienari-kun." Mikage bows her head once more, and looks as if she were submitting the name to memory. Not only the name, but the angel as well. Her blue eyes look appraisingly at the six-winged angel, showing appreciation to the craftsmanship of such a being. Still, she saves her comments for herself for the time being, not knowing exactly what abilities this angel posesses. "Un. The Kanto games get a bit more exposure, but I think the local games are more fun. Everyone gets a chance to get up and shine with their angel." At least, this is what Mikage believes. In either case, she nods her head to herself and then motions to the layer. "Would you do me the honor of entering your angel first? I'd like to see how he looks in motion on the layer."

"A pleasure here as well, Aogiri-san. I'd be happy to start us off if you'd like." Eisaku lifts Seraph from his lap and holds him aloft for a moment, allowing for the layer scenery to come into effect. The temple again it seemed, this caused him to chuckle a little. "Unleash the fury of the Heavens, Seraph." He moves to toss the angel towards the layer, sending him through the air and passed the energy barrier easily. Once through the seraphim springs to life, all appendages, including all six wings, flexing out. His arms are then drawn in and he uses his wings to glide easily and gently down to the ground, landing lightly upon his feet. Once there he falls to one knee and bows his head in a brief and silent prayer before he shifts to make sure his shield was secured properly and then rises to his feet.

Pale eyes follow the decent of the angelic creature to the layer, taking note that all the wings seemed functional. Many times an angel looks quite impressive on the outside, but extra limbs have little function once on the layer. Approvingly, Miki nods her head and then lets her eyes drift closed. Then, taking a deep breath, the girl holds her angel out on her forearm. "Spirits of wind and water, soul of the binding storm, will of the earth, heart of my heart. Be my wings... Rei! Fallin!" She draws her arm back and then snaps it quickly, sending the small angel tumbling towards the layer. It takes barely a split second before the angel passes through that invisible barrier, flaring to life. Her eyes flash white for a moment as her wings flare out, catching the air beneath her as the bat-like appendages force her upwards. Two sweeps of those great wings bring her to a soft landing as her talons click on the stone surface of the temple floor. Slowly, her wings fold back onto her shoulders, caping there as she flexes her legs, tail twitching. It seems almost as if she were checking the status of each system one by one. Then, her eyes pale back into their greenish tone, looking across the layer at this new opponent curiously. Mikage raises her head then, letting her eyes come open once more. In unison, both deus and angel bow their heads towards their opponents, showing them due respect. And then, the buzzer beeps to announce the start of the match.

All of the wings were functional, but the smaller ones didn't add a whole lot to his manueverability. He wasn't very good at getting out of the way for the most part. She would find that out soon enough though. Eisaku watches curiuosly as Rei makes her entry into the layer, smiling as he does so. His angel mimics his own actions, and when the bowed heads are offered he draws his sword and gives a salute in response. It wasn't a sharp blade though, it was merely used as a tool to extend his reach since his dues had no want of actually damaging the internals of another angel too badly. It seemed they were ready.

In some previous matches, Rei had begun with her more powerful techniques, but this time she decides to lay back slightly. Rather than charging in, she stays at a distance and backs herself up against one of the pillars. Her talons click on the floor as she moves, but when she stops, the hall is eerily silent. She extends one hand outwards, holding it at the wrist with the other. It seems almost like a silly gesture you'd expect from some fighting video game, but there is method to the madness. As her fingers flex, a strange glow begins to form between them. The attack comes in a flash, quite literally. There is a huge, blinding flash of light, followed by a hard gush of sound energy that ripples across the layer like thunder.

Seraph watches warily and moves in a manner so as to keep the distance between he and Rei the same when she moves about. When the gargoyle's hand extends outwards, he lifts the shield up to block his view of her and hopefully the attack as well. All the shield itself really did though was block the flash of light, and the sound energy seemed to crash into an invisible barrier though little ripples of golden-white light could be seen spreading out from each point of impact. Hoping that the light had somehow affected Rei's vision the angel's wings extend out and up before sweeping forwards and then back swiftly. The force of the push being used to close the distance, and hopefully smash the shield into her. He could move pretty fast, in a straight line, and going forward. That was about it though.

Well, one certainly can't expect Rei to allow her opponent to use her own technique without at least returning the favor. She seems to watch with amusement as her attack dissipates from the force of the shield. Almost as if trying to show who was the 'progenitor' of that particular defensive move, Rei simply stands still as the attack comes towards her. There is that subtle, almost inperceptable flicker in the air, and then the hard shield stops the attack with a strange, echoing 'poing' sound. The corner of Rei's lips quirk upwards as she watches this, tilting her head slightly and giving a little churring sound in the back of her throat. With her back still to the pillar, Rei shifs to the side and back out into the open, putting some small distance between herself and the angel. Her hands drop down to her sides as energy begins to focus in them, wind swirling wildly about her body. With a roar and two great slashes of her arms at the air, she sends out a series of powerful wind blades. They arch and move, almost as if controlled by the gargoyle's will. Coming from many directions, these small blades seem intent on striking Seraph.

Well there it was then, Eisaku could only watch with a bit of surprise at Rei's attack. In fact it caught him so by surprise that he forgot to try to have Seraph even defend himself, oops! The blades of wind came in from all angles, and Seraph seemingly remained motionless, which was a bad move. They cut into him deeply as they connected, sending the lifebar down a good chunk while also smashing him into her recently vacated pillar. The angel slumps to one knee from the impact of both the attack and the pillar and takes a moment to recover himself. The boy should have known this wouldn't be easy.

Even if Rei is one of the more feral of angels, she isn't one to attack an opponent while they are down. Her hands slowly come down to her side as she drops backwards into a defensive stance, giving an encouraging little creel towards her opponent. Especially when facing those who seemed to hae trouble, Rei is always an encouraging force on the layer. "Ne... is Seraph alright?" This is Mikage's voice, the pale girl looking up and across the layer at Eisaku with concern shown on her face.

Eisaku blinks after a moment and shakes his head a bit to clear his surprise, offering a sheepish smile towards Mikage. "Ah, I'm sorry about that. This game is a bit different than other things I've done, it's still a bit new. I was caught off-guard is all, we're fine I promise." On the layer, Seraph staggers to his feet after a moment, and then turns to face Rei once more. A small nod of thanks is offered in response to the pause given him, and he takes up a defensive posture of his own to prepare for the next attack. Hopefully there wasn't anything else of that nature coming in the near future though, he couldn't handle too many of those.

Mikage nods her head slowly, and then closes her eyes. Rei, on the other hand, continues to look forward with her bestial determination. There is a distant rumble, as if a storm were approaching from someplace far away. But the storm already rages inside of Rei. The gargoyle's hair begins to stand on end, little flashes of static forming between her fingertips. It almost seems as if the power lifts her off of the floor just slightly. From outside of the temple, dark clouds begin to pour in through every opening, swirling above the gargoyle in dark, ominous circles. Her eyes flash to white, wings flaring slightly as her power channels, calls, and controls the will of the impending storm.

Eisaku didn't need any sort of psychic ability to know that this couldn't possibly be good. Whatever Mikage and Rei were up to was sure to be bad news for poor little Seraph, so he would have to try to disrupt her somehow. Unfortunately, the only thing he could think of at the moment was to rush in and attack while hoping for the best. So that's exactly what Seraph did. Wings kicked up again in a wides sweep forward and then pulled back to propel him forward. This time though he went a bit off target, attempting to veer by her side and slash out with the dulled blade towards her side as he passed by.

Even when Rei is in her charged form, she isn't one to easily be caught unawares. Her glowing eyes narrow towards Seraph a moment before the sword strike would land on her side. Quickly, she leaps upward and flips in the air, landing in a crouch with one hand outstretched forward. She hisses like an upset cat, her hair standing on end and her tail extending strait out from her rear. Almost as if repsonding to this call, the storm grows that much worse. The sound of rumbling thunder grows louder, and rain begins to fall inside the building. Soon, the rain becomes hail, lashing down large balls of ice. And finally, the true hell of the storm is released. Great bolts of lightning strike at various places around the temple, finally starting to hone in on the winged angel.

It was wishful thinking to hope he could have possibly stopped what was to come, that was now apparent to Eisaku. He couldn't help but grin at the attack though, there were similarities in it that he had been working towards with his own angel. There wasn't a lot of time to admire though, because soon those bolts of lightning came streaking in at his angel. Seraph didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter, he could only try to hide behind his shield and brace himself for the onslaught of energy directed at him. Several bolts striking into him and sending his life bar down, and him back to a knee. He soon stands back up though, and moves in for another blow. This time a wide sweep at a downward diagonal arc towards her with the sword.

As the storm begins to fade, Rei seems to come back to her senses. But that doesn't mean that she is any less of a danger. She gives a yelp as the blade slices towards her, taking a hop backwards and watching as its arc comes within inches of cutting across her chest. There is a cautious, curious sound in her throat, but what is more alarming is the glow that seems to surround her body. Perhaps it is the remains of the channeled energy of the storm, but it seems to make Rei supernaturally fast. Using that speed, she steps forward and swings her arm in a wide arc, almost immitating the path that Seraph's sword had come. At the last moment, however, a long metal blade snaps out of her arm, extending the reach of her attack and bringing it dangerously close.

As if to mimic her, a soft golden-white glow crept up over Seraph's form. It was not defensive in nature though, and had little bearing on her attack. With a swift jerk of his arm, the angel brought his blade back into play. It came streaking across in a parry, though it didn't carry enough force to send her attack away completely. The arm blade bit down into his shoulder, putting a rather nasty dent in the armor plating there. The wings move to pull him away from Rei as he hefts his blade pointing straight into the air. Around his head that glow forms into somewhat of a halo, and the symbols along the central part of the blade emit a bright white glow of their own. The intensity grows enough to interfere with vision as a bolt of lightning streaks down from the sky, seemingly out of nowhere.

While elemental lightning is something Rei has no problems in dealing with, this strnage sort of divine lightning comes totally unpexected. She only has time to duck her head slightly, the full force driving her back into one of the nearby walls, and slightly into it. Crumbling rock surrounds her as she slowly decends to the ground, landing on all fours and giving herself a shake to send small pebbles in all directions. Her eyes are temporarily blinded, causing her to paw at them as if they itched. Shaking her head from side to side, pawing, and generally trying to regain her vision, Rei has no time to consider a counter-attack.

The glow about Seraphs form quickly dissipates after the bolt of lightning makes contact, though the attack seemed to buy him a moment of reprieve. He moves in to close the distance while Rei is distracted, knowing she would recover quickly enough. As he comes in, he leaps into the air and comes down with a downward sweep of his shield, attempting to bash her with it.

Slowly, Rei's vision begins to clear as she blinks, looking upward to spot a shield coming right towards her. She yelps once more and rolls to the side, landing in her usual, feral crouch. The lightning bolt had jarred her quite a bit, leaving her mind addled, but not so much that she can't figure out some way to attack. She ducks her head slightly and reaches up, flicking a switch on her headset to extend a set of elongated horns. She scratches into the surface of the temple floor, and then charges forward with her head down, intent on trying to skewer Seraph on her horns.

Seraph hunkers into a defensive posture despite not having time to put up a proper block for the attack. Rei smashes into him with those horns, and the bite deep into his armor taking off half of the remaining life he had. This was bad, he didn't have much leeway here. Still there was no cause to give up just yet. Pushing forward a bit he attempts to knock the gargoyle off balance while his hand drops the sword and balls into a fist. Charged sparks appear there and out of the energy springs a lance of it, which he then attempts to skewer her with.

Clank. There is a sound of folding metal as the energy blade crunches through her armored shoulder, folding the metal inward. The gargress hisses slightly as it does damage to her arm, pulling backwards to free herself from it. There is a trickle of red liquid, as if her deus had tried to immitate blood. With her arm momentarily out of use from the pain, she does what comes second nature to her - use an nature based energy attack. She steps back two paces, not giving Seraph much room for escape, and extends her good arm out to her side. The water in the nearby atmosphere begins to swirl aorund her hand. With a roar, she sweeps this hand outward, sending a powerful wave of water towards the armored angel.

Seraph decides to interpose his shield between the attack and himself, though the impact of the wave still shakes him a little. A tsunami like wave, and a shield could only amount to one result! With a quick jerk, the straps on his arm give way, and the armored seraphim rises to his feet and stands upon the shield while Eisaku simply grins. He knew he was going to lose, but he might as well have a little fun first. For a moment the angel rides the shield like a surfboard, and at the last moment before the water crashes into the wall that was a fair distance behind him he leaps high into the air, using his wings to assist in the movement. Both hands ball together at the apex of his flight, and he then comes sailing down towards Rei with gravity assisting him. The intention was to smash the balled toghether fists into her with as much force as he could possibly muster. A lst ditch effort really.

At first, Rei simply stands transfixed, watching the angel surf on her wave. It certainly surprises her to see such tactics against her usual attacks. "Rrr?" She gives a questioning sound, and can do nothing more than brace herself behind her armored shoulder, letting the power of the blow strike her. Once more, the gargoyle is knocked backwards, skidding along the floor but managing to stay upright. When the attack finishes, however, she glances around, getting an idea of where the edge of the layer is. A quick movement, and her horns are extended, her feet digging into the ground as she rushes forward. Her head lowers one more time, this time trying to force her armored opponent off the edge of the layer with the force of her rush.

Having just landed from a rather tall height, and impacted against his foe to send her back, Seraph was thrown off balance. He failed to recover in time to defend himself from the second horned attack of hers, and as a result of the continuous pushing he begins sliding back towards the edge of the layer until finally he is knocked out. Eisaku blinks and then chuckles a bit, having been bested. He hadn't expected to win, but the hope was somewhere deep within him, though now dashed. His hands lift to clap a few times before he smiles at Mikage, "You're very good at this Aogiri-san, though I suppose I should have expected that."

Rei stands at the edge of the layer, panting slightly as she tries to catch her breath. As one-sided as the match may have seemed, there were plenty of close moments where she had to make hard decisions. The gargoyle looks up to her deus, who nods approvingly as the gargoyle simply sits down and lets out a sigh. The buzzer announces the victory a moment later, and the layer powers down. Miki lifts her headset off of her face, unplugging it and then reaching forward to take her angel from the layer. The shy smile stays on her face as she looks towards Eisaku, bowing her head slightly. "Arigatou. Your angel played well and was quite a challenge. I'm sure it will be quite a closer match when you get more practice." She offers that much as encouragement, standing up as she glances around, seemingly looking to see if anyone she knows is playing nearby.

Eisaku nods in acknowledgement of her words before rising as well and plucking Seraph from the layer. The headset is slipped off his head and unplugged before he offers a grin her way. "I'll be sure to do so before we meet on the layer again Aogiri-san. I look forward to it." His eyes too then wandered a bit, trying to see if Tomoe was about, or maybe that Raien guy she seemed to hang out with more recently.