Within the crowded confines of the Piffle Princess, many have come to watch this local tournament. Of course, it's not as huge of a turn-out as the Tokyo City games, but there are a decent number of competators and a good amount of spectators. Weaving her way through the crowd, Mikage politely excuses herself as she bumps into a few shoulders and arms here and there. "Just my luck..." She laughs to herself as she finally comes free of those milling about one of the front layers. A brooding looking man stands infront, occassionally grunting at passing children who try to catch a peek at the layer's blank surface and the names of the duelists who will be playing there.
"Of all the people to draw..." Miki laughs to herself, and then steps up towards the duel officiator, handing over her sign up ticket. "East Corner." He barks slightly, then turns to look at the crowd again. With a shrug, Mikage just sets her things down, removing her angel from her satchel. "Seems we get to fight Kamui again, ne?" She glances up at the scoreboard, already showing the angels' digital photographs. "Poor Ranmaru, always seems to end up against us sooner or later." Sitting back, the girl just waits quietly, knowing that sooner or later her fiance' will emerge from the crowd.
Ranmaru, or rather, the Layer Phantom... seeing as the youth once more dressed up for this tournament... slowly makes his way through the crowd. He had just witnessed Keiichi's defeat, and was somewhat discouraged by this event. After all, in some way he'd been hoping to see a battle between Zankoku and Rei once more. However, it would appear that this time, he'd have to be the only challenger that /he/ knew of, was as the appropiate level to defeat Mikage. However, as close as he may have come on many occassions, never had he actually won.
The young man, dressed in the black cloak and wearing that white mask, hands his own ticket to the duel officiator and gives the man with the large looking hairpiece a confused look. "West Corner." He barks at him in the same manner the man had done with Miki, and turns away once more. "Grouch." Ranmaru mumbles under his breath and wriggles through some more people to finaly get to his seat. "Greetings." He waves at Miki as he arrives and settles down rather quickly. "I just watched Misaka-kun lose. So you won't have to worry about him." Ranmaru states whilst getting more comfortable in his seat and seeking for the cord to plug into the visors that are his mask. "Morning to you too, Rei-chan." He nods at the gargoyle angel and begins to smile.
Seeing both combatants at their registered seats, the gruff looking man in the suit clears his throat and says loudly. "Attention Duelists! My hair approves this layer for battle! Carry on." And then... he just walks away towards the crowd. On his way, he ends up running into a teenager, knocking them over and nearly causing a domino effect in the crowd. "Ahah, I see my child hitting classes are paying off!" "What the? Hey I'm not a kid!" The boy protests, but the stranger is gone into the crowd a moment later.
"O... kay..." Mikage manages slowly, watching the man leave as if he had two heads rather than just a very phalically pointy lock of hair. "I think security is hiring from the lunatic asylum again." She gives a bit of a confused expression, and then almost manages a smile until Ranmaru tells her about Keiichi's loss. "He lost? To who?" Blinking with amazement, the girl glances around as if she might somehow see this mythical Keiichi-beating deus. "I guess it doesn't matter that much, I can check the rosters after our match." Trying to set her amazement aside, Miki sits up a bit straiter. "Ne, let's have a good match, okay?" She always felt a bit bad fighting against her fiance', even when he was the 'layer phantom' instead of just Ranmaru.
"He lost to Inugata-san." The Layer Phantom pauses for a moment before adding. "You know, Chimera's deus." The young man realized that Mikage would probably recognize the name to begin with, but he wanted to be sure. His eyes then trail off towards the tall haired man who's hair had aparently just approved the battle between him and his fiancee. "You are right. Seriously, where are they grabbing these people from? Some random island in the ocean? But for some reason, I thought of it as amusing." He winces as he hears the kid that got knocked over whining that he was not 'a kid' and raises an eyebrow towards Mikage before shrugging and raising his hands. "Hmm-hmm." He makes a confused and lost face for a moment before turning his attention to the layer. "Anyway. Yes, let us have a good match." He felt the same as Mikage, though in some way he did always enjoy the challenge while fighting her. After all, he still wanted to beat her before any of the other bigger players from the region, and he was quite intent on making this happen. "I'll fall in then." Ranmaru comments and grabs his angel from underneath his cloak while finally putting the wire to his visor and locking it in, causing an eery greenish light to appear and cover his eyes.
His fingers wrap around the lithe body of his angel, holding it gently. "Illuminate the darkness with your bonded soul!" 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 flies forth... and it is head first as it touched the bright light of the layer. Just as it touches it, the angel forces itself to open it's crimson red eyes, the rest of it's body following quite quickly. It's fur ruffles violently as the air trails past it! It's limbs twitch for a moment before explosively coming to life! The angel Stretches 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. Its tail lashes violently for a moment before the angel actually gets up and take some paces back to his side of the layer.
Kamui's head cocks slightly to the left, it's lips reveiling one tooth, allowing for the angel to give quite the smug look. It's eyes illuminated with that red hue, it was almost demonic.
"I am ready." Ranmaru announces, holding an open hand towards Mikage. His own angel does the same thing, holding a hand towards the sky... as if awaiting for something. "Shall we dance?" He asks with that ever kind smile on his face.
"Inugata-san? Hrm. She was always a strong opponent, so that doesn't surprise me too much." There were actually a number of higher level fighters who could hold a close match with each other. Sometimes all it took was a stroke of luck, good or bad, to turn the tide of battle. "Too bad, for Zankoku, though. I'm sure they'll do much better in the Tokyo city games." Afterall, most considered the qualifying games to be a -true- test of a pair's skill, while the local games were less well known. Slowly, Mikage lifts her headset onto her forehead, locking the wings into place over her ears. It takes a moment to get everything settled before she looks up to watch Kamui's fall-in.
Nodding her head, Miki takes hold of her angel, setting her out onto her forearm. "Spirit of wind and water, heart of my heart, when all is lost... be my wings, Rei! Fallin!" With a swift movement of her arm, the angel is sent spiralling in a collission course towards the layer. At the last moment, however, the great webbed wings extend, slowing her fall until the angel touches down on the surface with no more than a click of her talons. Her head lifts, green eyes opening to look across the layer at her opponent, her bonded one. Her wings shift, flattening against her back, and her tail gives one long sweep before she steps forward. Pulling an arm to her chest, Rei bows gracefully, and then stands at the ready.
"Let's light up the layer, ne?" Mikage responds with a small smile, watching the two angels for just a moment before settling back comfortably. The layer gives a flicker, and then shifts through a number of sceneries one by one as the pre-match begins. Finally, it settles onto a dreadful, dreadful layer. Within the close confines of a steel mill, with large vats of molten metal, it poses quite a danger for both angels. "Erf..." This even elicits a responce from Miki, who just shakes her head. "We can only make the best of it, I guess. Come, love. Let's play." She manages a quirk of a smile... and shortly there-after, the buzzer announces the start of the match.
"Ick... As that other guy would have said. Attention Duelists... my hair does not approve of this layer scenery." Ranmaru makes a snide remark and bows a little before retreating his hand to his side. On the layer, Kamui bows before his mate before getting into an attacking-stance. "Nya!" He meows, showing that he is ready to 'play' with Rei. The angel takes a quick look about, then down, and ensures that it is standing on something fairly solid. He was balancing on a beam that held a big vat of liquid and quite hot metal beneath him. The angel's eye twitches for a moment before it turns its gaze towards Rei and seems to sweatdrops. "Nya...~aaa.." It whines, showing its dislike for the layer before shrugging and returning to that battle-stance. Feet spread, one clawed hand before the other. "Nya!" It then shouts out and suddenly darts at its opponent, attempting to knock into her with one foot outstretched. Much like a flying kick, only the 'jump', or rather... leap... being much closer to the opponent, and less high. This was done to ensure that his kick was going to hit the abdomen-area rather than higher up.
This certainly isn't the type of layer to go bouncing around in, and for that exact reason, Rei makes no attempt to dodge the first incomming attack. Looking a bit bewildered, she draws her wings away from a hot piece of metal and hisses at it as if her sound could somehow stop metal from hurting. This momentary distraction, however, allows a slight opening for Kamui's attack. She turns, only catching her mistake a moment before it might prove disasterous. Bracing herself, she grits her teeth and grabs on to the metal railing nearest to her. Rather than getting driven back into the molten metal, she tenses and takes the kick to her abdomen, letting out a small woosh of air in the process.
However, a little winding is not enough to keep Rei from retaliating. An echoing snarl that seems somewhat unearthy comes from the gargoyle's mouth as she stands fully on her feet once more. She takes a careful glance about with her eyes, and then starts to move forward across the metal surface. It seems as if she may just continue to walk at Kamui, driving him backwards, but instead, she draws a hand up infront of her face. Diving down on to one knee, she swings her arm towards the metal. A *click* follows, as her arm blade extends, sweeping down towards the metal platform, just after one of the supporting beams. As the walkway bends under its own weight, cut free from the supports, it starts to creek down towards the river of molten metal below, leaving little choice... get off the platform, or fall into the lava below.
The feline takes slow steps back as Rei approaches. He had hit after all, so it was not unlikely for her to retaliate. He turns his head about a few times to make sure that there is still flooring beneath him, which may be seen as a play as the deus is perfectly able to see everything from his position, and it is at such a moment that Rei stikes. The feline turns its head, about and just misses as the gargess places a hand before her. It is the well known 'click' that warns the feline of the impending attack, but its already too late. The floor benath him gives out, and the feline quickly grabs hold of the beam below him to try and hold onto something. The large piece of metal ends up with one end into the molten liquid and begins to slowly sink. Kamui tries his best to get up and away from the lava, but can't evade the sparks of molten metal that jump up.
But, he does escape! However, not in the most... fantastic ways to do so. As the metal bar sinks further and further, his tail ends up touching the hot liquids, causing the angel to suddenly shoot up into the air while grabbing for its tail in mid air! "Nyaaaa!" It screams in pain. And his launch ends up aiming him above Rei's head...
The angel begins to claw about, trying to get something to hold onto like a cat wanting to go up to a higher vantage point, and ends up finding a dangling chain to hold onto, allowing him to escape from her. His clawed feet to swipe at Rei to try and get a quick hit in as the chain that is attached to the rail begins to move and rolls Kamui along. At the same time, Ranmaru gets to find out what that chain was attached to, as somewhere nearby a big vat of molten metal begins to tip over!
Certainly, Rei hadn't really intended her attack to go quite that strangely, but she watches with a somewhat bemused look as the cat makes his leap upwards. However, her amusement is short lived as the cat goes rocketing past her, lashing out. Quickly, she holds her arms up, the attacks bouncing off a bit of shimmering energy in the air that had only -just- been able to be summoned. Seeming somewhat relieved of this, Rei steps back a few paces and looks up at the chain and the moving Kamui. Puzzled, she tilts her head, and then notices the vat that is starting to slowly tip over. Not a good place to be!%r%rWith a yelp, Rei moves forward, leaping over the section of platform she had just cut off, and digging her claws into the metal to avoid sliding down along it. Clambering up onto a more solid section of platform, she glances back over her shoulder. Nearby, a giant, angel-shaped mold hangs freely from a dense wire. Rei reaches out for it, grabs it, and then gives it a swift push towards the chain-swinging Kamui.
The feline turns about while on the chain to check upon how his opponent is doing. But instead seeing a large mold of an angel coming towards him... does kind of confuse him at first. After all, its not quite what he expected to see! The angel lets go of the chain quickly and settles down onto a beam beneath it. However, he had been unable to notice that this beam was already glowing hot. So the feline immediately grabs for a foot and begins to make yelping sounds. "Oh~! Oh!" Kamui cries out and lets one foot go, just to grab the other while hopping to safety on one foot and 'blowing' air at the other. "Nyaaaaaaaaa." The feline suddenly finds a lone vat of cold water, used to help tempering the steel, and jumps into it. "Mweeeeh." It lets out a sigh of relief before paddling to an edge of the huge vat and looking at Rei's position, who had moved from where he had last seen her. "Nya!" It shakes a fist at her, as if saying that she should watch where she was throwing things, before climbing out and grabbing a second chain that was attached to a rail parallel to the previous one, but lower... and rushes at her while holding onto it! Only at the last moment when he approaches, does he suddenly sink down towards the floor and attempt to swipe Rei's feet from underneath her, in the hope of causing her to fall of the platform. Of course he realizes that she has wings to fly out of the way... but there was a small hope that she'd somehow forget. (Yeah right.)
Rei barely contains a small laugh, knowing that in the heat of battle, such silly things as a cat running around with singed paws shouldn't be funny. Still, she can't help but find the other angel cute. That doesn't, however, mean that she's any less prepared when he comes swinging down on the chain towards her. All concentration, Rei's expression changes as she quickly backflips up onto a higher platform. It would be almost a graceful motion, if it weren't for her tail going just a bit to far and ending up getting caught on a jagged piece of metal. Her eyes go slightly wide, and then she manages to contain what would have been a howl of pain, clenching her lips together as she tugs her tail free.
Her tail, wounded as it is, curls next to her and certianly seems as if it is out of the battle for the moment. However, that doesn't mean Rei is completely out of tricks. No, instead, she reaches outwards and grabs onto one of the long chains, slicing through it with a quick flick of her arm-blade. A whistling sound seems to come from far above as a bucket of water... yes a bucket of water... falls from high above, with its chain following afterwards. Lookout below!
The feline seems to pout towards Rei for a moment, almost as if he felt that she was laughing at him. So he takes a step back and places a thumb to his chest in attempt to look cool. It is just at that moment that the bucket comes down. And had it not been for him taking that one step back, it'd hit his head for sure. The angel stumbles back in surprise and ends up falling onto his buttocks. Its eyes widen as the chain then comes down after the bucket and lands just between his legs. "..." The feline gives a silent stare at the chain and the now toppled over bucket before crawling back up and shaking another fist at Rei. But this time, it was to indicate that 'he'd get her back for that'. He quickly jumps up towards her at dazzling speed and climbs onto the higher platform, runs about and with that same insane velocity he proceeds to use his claws to cut every single chain that held the platform afloat before racing straight at Rei in attempt to ram its claws into her and use the force of that blow to jump up and get back to safety, away from her on a higher platform before the now likely falling platform would hit the bottom!
There is a sound of ripping metal, both from Rei's armored shoulder, and from the large platform pulling off of it's moorings and falling towards the ground. Knocked over by the speed of Kamui's attack, and with no way to get off the platform, Rei goes right along with it, until it gets caught with a jarring crash near the lake of molten metal at the layer's surface. Luckily, at least for Rei, it didn't fall completely down. Unsteadily, the angel gets to her feet, as if somehow testing which of her systems were damaged and which still functioned. Taking a few steps, she moves away from the edge of the platform as it begins to sink into the red-hot lava below. Sure, she could probably fly up and retaliate, but at least from down here she'd be able to see Kamui coming, and that seems to be part of her plan. So rather than taking the battle to Kamui, she remains below. With a snap of her tail, she knocks a toggle switch over, causing a vat to swing down from its once stationary position. As it swings, it gives little room for the cat-angel to get out of the way.
The speedy angel however seems to be still quite quick on its feet. Like a kid with ADHD who had just been fed a few too many starbursts! "Nyaa!" The angel rampages about on the higher platform and notices that is going on down below quite well. The feline quickly also notices what the switch had just activated, and jumps straight up into the air and somehow crawls up to the large beam that is holding the vat and now... instead of it letting its contents spill on him, he aims it towards Rei's position! "Nyaaa-nyaa-nya-nyaaa-nyaaa!" The feline taunts and stands up on the beam as the vat begins to tip further and wags his butt at the Gargoyle angel. "Nyaaa!" It even seems to stick its tongue out, and ends up not noticing the chain that moves up as the vat tips downwards, and it ends up tangling up on his tail and pulls him all the way to the very top of the hot metal farm, where the feline ends up dangling. "Nya..." The feline pouts, giving an annoyed look and pulls itself loose, but keeps hanging on the chain, hoping that he could swing away were Rei to retaliate.
The gargoyle angel, already slowed somewhat by her injuries, somehow manages to get to the top of the sinking platform and away from the spilling molten metal that got re-guided towards her position. She watches as it takes more and more surface area away from her platform. Nowhere to go but up. Struggling, she digs her talons into the metal surface of one of the big vats, the small leaks caused by those sharp claws singing her as she goes up. It's a small sacrifice for getting further away from the danger below. Pulling herself up onto the thick rim of the vat, the gargoyle blows on her fingers as if to cool them, and then glances around for some weapon of attack. Aaha! A nearby chain is easily grabbed, and a peice of twisted metal hanging from the lost platform is yanked down. Together, these become a spear on a chain which Rei hurls in Kamui's direction.
The feline lets out a chuckle as he watches Rei climb up the vat, but does show at least some concern as he notices her getting hurt. After all, it /is/ his mate. But that is not to stand in the way of today's match. The feline observes closely as the makeshift spear rushes at him, and quickly swings to the side on the chain, grabbing hold of the spear! The feline must have trained in arrow-catching or something, but its hand did get somewhat singed by the speed at which it had been thrown, which at least is able to strangle a 'yelp' from Kamui. "Nya!" It shouts suddenly as the layer begins acting a little weird. The vats all begin to waggle about and the chains rattle... as if gravity itself was shifting on the layer! The angel wraps the chain that was attached to the spear around its arm and then with all of its might it throws the spear straight at Rei! Now, any normal angel's weight would have immediately dragged that spear down the moment it let go of that chain. But for some strange reason, Kamui gets tugged along with the chain. So now there was not just one attack, but two! The spear and the feline that followed that spear, ready to place its claws on Rei's impressive chest... armor.
CLANG. The sound echos for a moment as a burst of steam spouts up and hides the result of the attack from view. As the mist clears, those watching can see that the long spear has gone strait through Rei's shoulder armor, effectively pinning her against the metal wall. It certainly looks painful for her, but there is other pain to be had as well, because it seems that Rei had not only let the armor and her shoulder be speared, but she also had lashed out herself, her own hand showing that it had impacted into Kamui's chest. Breathing heavily, the gargoyle seems to focus on blocking out the pain. A growl echos deep within her chest as she looks closely at her mate, her opponent, her difficult challenger in this very hard match. With a hiss, she presses her back up against the wall and tries to push forward, trying to drive both Kamui and the spear away from her with the power in her legs.
The feline, hit by the fist, looks like he is bend over double. The feline hisses lightly and stumbles back slowly as the chain falls off of its wrist, to which the makeshift spear was attached. The feline lets out a whimpering sound for a moment before quickly getting away from its opponent as she attempts to force herself forwards. The feline helps by grabbing the chain with one hand and turning it over its other arm and pulling hard, effectively removing the lance from the metal wall behind Rei. At the same time the feline jumps up and lets go of the chain, and gets behind the uncontrolled power that is Rei's rush. Kamui turns around slowly, its eyes seem to shine for a moment, as a sudden burst takes the feline incredibly close behind the Gargess as he attempts to grab her from behind and dig his claws into her chest from that position, trying to make sure that he is not to be hit by the spear, were it still to be inside of her.
Gargoyles are creatures known for being difficult to damage, and while Rei has taken a good deal of damage in this particular match, it seems that she doesn't intend to take any more at such a close range of combat. She allows Kamui to come in close, as if she were planning it the entire time, and then simply lets the claws dig into the upper part of her chest. There appears to be no pain, as if she had totally blocked out all instances of it. At least, that is how it might seem. Instead, a close observer would see that the claws had only just barely touched the surface, held at bay by the strong force of will from the gargoyle angel. With a small grunt, there is a flash of energy that lashes up towards the cat's claws. As she steps back, it's clear that she feels a bit strange from the combination of the attack and her unusual defense of it, but not enough to stop her from countering. Extending an arm out, she roars, and a flash of bright light and a burst of sound follow, extending out from the palm of her hand and towards Kamui.
The feline yelps for a moment and takes a single step away from Rei as its ocular units get overloaded and it is harder to see what is around him and what is not. So the feline just begins to lash about it randomly, in the hope that he'll hit at least /something/... "Nya! Nya!" And with each strike the feline makes an angry sound.
The random series of attacks comes far too close for comfort, causing Rei to have to draw backwards with a flash of light. Normally, she wouldn't sacrifice her aura powers for nothing, but she isn't about to run into the feline equivalent of a blender. Keeping at a distance, she waits for the effect of the blinding light to wear off before even considering another attack. Her wings flap slightly, a sign that they want to get in on the action rather than just being for decoration. Checking the area around her, she makes doubly sure that there isn't anything hanging in the way that she might bump in to. Then, with a leap, she takes to the air, racing towards Kamui in an attempt to catch him with her talons as she comes by, her wings flaring. At the very least, the updrafts should take her towards the upper part of the layer where she can have a more tactical advantage.
The feline, still slightly under the effects of the blinding light, wobbles left and right and ends up evading Rei's attack by a mere lucky move of his feet as he stumbles over and knocks his head onto the floor for a moment. "Nyooo." The feline closes its eyes and rubs its head before opening them again and looking up at the escaping gargoyle angel. "Nya!" It shouts out at her, annoyingly, and gets back onto its feet. The feline takes a moment to dust off itself before beginning to make its way all the way up to Rei and throwing quick lashes as he jumps by here and there, as he attempts to best her in her speed going up.
Besting Rei in speed isn't that difficult, especially when Kamui is a speed angel and Rei is most definitely more guard-based. Still, she has to twist and turn in the air, finally folding her wings to catch hold of a bar hanging up in the ceiling. To keep from falling, she climbs up onto the bar, balancing there carefully as she tries to catch sight of where Kamui had landed. However, she doesn't have too much time to think, especially with the timer winding down and her own strength starting to wain. So rather than finding her opponent, she goes for an area attack instead. Focusing energy into her palm, wave after wave begin to eminate from the gargoyle, lashing across the layer with a cold rush of water that seems as if it were as powerful as the raging tsunami.
The feline haphazardly is able to get away from the watery attack and hides himself within the mist that is created by the water hitting the hot surface that is the molten metal everywhere. The angel dashes left and right to make sure he is well hidden before coming out and throwing a quick series of attacks.
Those attacks don't seem to do very much, although it's not immediately clear if that is because of Kamui not aiming correctly or some new ability of Rei's. She just seems to step right through them with nothing more than a bit of extra concetration from her deus. It's not a dodge, but it certainly is something that would be better looked into not so close to the end of a match. Having tried so hard not to physically assault her companion, Rei is left with little choice at the end of the match, then to try and keep him from taking too much damage. Drawing her power to her, the gargoyle closes her eyes, her deus doing the same. With one great flap of her wings... a rush of air sweeps across the layer, intent on blowing Kamui off of the layer rather than hiting him with a solid force.
The feline ends up blasting outwards, towards Ranmaru and out of the layer! "Seems today is not the day either." Ranmaru mutters under his breath before chuckling and giving a little shrug of the shoulder and taking Kamui from the lap he had fallen in, to his chest and gives the feline a big hug. "You fought well." He whispers to his angel. Which is kind of weird, if one thinks about the fact that there's a succesful businessman underneath that disguise, hugging a children's playing doll. "Attention duelists! My hair concludes this battle and appoints Aogiri-san as the winner." The phallic-haired large man somehow had approached the layer without Ranmaru noticing. The buzzer had already sounded. The young man hides the doll beneath his cloak and gets up, bowing his head towards Mikage. "This was a good match, I feel like I get better everytime I play against you. Of course, I'll be forced to watch the rest of the tournament on the sidelines, but I'll be watching you closely. You better not lose to anyone else in this tournament, or I won't forgive you!" The last part was clearly the young man trying to get a quick chuckle.
With a bit of a sigh, Mikage watches as Kamui falls out of the layer and safely into his deus's lap. At least there wouldn't be a lot of damage that way, she hopes. However, such a close and hard fought match between high level duelists is draining. She may have recovered a lot health-wise, but there is still quite a long way to go. A weak smile spreads on her lips as the buzzer sounds, only to be replaced by a look of shock at the strange man with the phallic hair. "Baka-ne..." She mumbles as she reaches for her angel, protectively, as if she fears that hair-guy will try to do not so nice things to angels. Looking across to her beloved, Miki pushes herself up from her chair and gives another small smile. "You came really close. You had us on the edge for a while." Some may think it false bravado, but to Mikage, she's just telling the truth on how close it was in her own eyes. "And no worries. You know Rei and I will do our best." It's not a promise, because Miki can't make that promise, but so far it's done her quite well. "Come on, I want to get a drink before the next round..." Her voice drops to a whisper, "And talk to security about Mr. 'Attention Duelists'..."
"I agree. I think that if his hair has taken over his brain, it might be an alien invasion." Ranmaru walks up to Mikage and whispers this in her ear before offering an arm and giving a suspicious look at the 'attention-duelist' man. "I mean, what's next? People using egyptian laserbeams instead of angels to duel? This is just ridiculous. Maybe this is Icchan's sense of humor?" He wonders, rubbing the top of his head with his unoccupied hand before shrugging and smiling at Mikage. "But let's. Get us a drink that is." He proceeds to guide the girl along to the stairs, which was a lot easier now that the people hard gone away from that particular layer to watch another battle. "One day." Ranmaru suddenly mutters, followed by a chuckle. "One day..." He would beat Mikage one day, surely? He would try. He knew that the girl did not lie, especially not about these things, and to hear her say that he was getting better was high praise to him. After all, he was indeed getting closer every time.