All for you (Mitsukai)

[Ryu Hayabusa]

The day after Ryu found Mitsukai Shinoda beaten and broken in an alley, same day technically, Ryu set out to find a more fitting location for the doctor that Ryu had called to tend to the girl. Between a practically shattered ribcage, inverted elbow, and an impaled knee, Mitsukai had been in bad shape when the Evil Angel found her. Immediately he'd tended to her wounds as best he could, but that knee... He had no idea how to repair such damage. Luckily, the tendon was still intact, as were the major nerves running down her leg. Even still, the cartilage that was her kneecap had been run through with a large stick.

The damage to the joint was beyond Ryu's capabilities, and most assuredly would need surgery. And you couldn't very well perform such acts in a hotel room, now could you? ...Well, you could, but it would be risky.... No, they needed someplace, a house. A very large house. An unfortunate quirk of Ryu's personality was that he liked an excess of space. While he was perfectly suited to a dormitory or a hotel room like the one he'd been staying in for the past several weeks, if he actually bothered to purchase a place of residence... He tended to go overboard.

...

Ok, Overboard would be an understatement. A big one.

Yesterday; Wednesday, 5:32 PM Pacific.

Having woken up on the couch of the hotel room's living area, Ryu glanced around rapidly, expecting something that wasn't there. Something to explain why he wasn't in the bed he'd grown accustomed to. As his pupils retracted from their 'sleeping' state and his eyes adjusted to the light, Ryu remembered what had happened. He'd woken up a day and a half ago. Gone to school. Went back to the hotel. Traveled some distance to a payphone and placed a call. Late that night, early morning in fact, he'd walked to a warehouse a short distance from the hotel. He made a purchase of some black market products, and headed back to the hotel.

And that's when everything changed. He'd heard a woman scream, ran towards it, and found the light skinned black girl left for dead on the ground. Taking her back to the hotel, he treated her wounds. She'd woken up when he popped her arm back into alignment. Painful business, he could understand. She'd started crying, begging for the pain to stop. Ryu told her that he was there to help her, not hurt her.

And then... yeah.... A whole lot of awkwardness happened. Ryu ran his hand over his face remembering it all and sat up, suppressing a groan for his spine, which he proceeded to crack like a deck of cards being shuffled with an arc of his back. Sleeping on the couch like that...not fun. But what was he going to do? Sleep next to Mitsukai in the bed? That situation would have been over her dead body as much as his given the circumstances. The day had gone embarrassingly enough without that thrown on top of it all. From having to strip her of her shirt and bra too apply bandages-- leaving her womanhood exposed to the man she'd thus far seen as an enemy, or at least a rival-- to accidental groping whilst he plied treatment and even mutual moments of unintentional romanticism....

He sighed and stood, stretching as silently as he could.

For an hour or so, he tended to the girl and got himself bathed. From there, he headed out. Picking up a new disposable cellphone, he made a few calls, and put out a request for a large, hard to find house. Just such a house was quickly found as it had been on the market for quite some time.

When Ryu took his relatively new motorcycle out to see the place, he couldn't imagine why it hadn't sold aside from the huge price tag. "Each floor is roughly eleven thousand square feet- the various amounts of rooms cause that to vary slightly, you see." the mousy realtor explained. "Each of the walls is made and reinforced with steel plating surrounding flexible pillars designed to take seismic activity up to an eight on the Richter scale. Past that, all of the doors, windows, and walls are entirely bullet proof."

The man went on and on about the various features of the house, from a full, very advanced security system operated from the master bedroom to the bomb shelter located beneath the wine cellar and even to the full run down of the training area on the third floor. Standing in slight awe of the magnificent home, Ryu had one thing to ask, "Who the hell built this place?"

"A very paranoid, very rich man. I believe he was very deeply involved with the mysteries surrounding the Knights Templar of Europe, or some such thing as that. He built this place to be his own personal fortress. We actually removed quite a number of security measures from the home when he placed it in our care. The way it was before, you literally could not get into the house unless you were let in. We suspect he even removed some of the... precautionary measures himself before he sold the place." To this, Ryu simply asked how much the place was. "Twenty-three million dollars, sir."

Ryu looked this man, who stood all of five foot-six, dead in the green eyes. "Drop the three, and I'll pay it in cash."


Wait. What!?


That's right. Ryu was a multi-millionaire. His entire family, eight-hundred members of family all died in the same night eight years ago. Every cent that they had in their possession, from what was left of their material assets in cellars, to the gross value each of them possessed in their individual bank accounts, to the massive sums of their various life insurance.... Ryu inherited every penny. Or to use a more culturally accurate term, Yen.

With the proper processing by his master, the entire Hayabusa fortune. Ryu's fortune, was placed into high yield savings. For four years it festered, doing nothing but growing larger and larger, until the young ninja decided to move to the united states to attend a world famous school of badasses. From there, a portion of the money was put in American hands. Some thirty million US dollars. Not all of it, but more than enough that the interest alone would support Ryu in any sort of lifestyle that he chose. And now that fortune was tapped into again.

Escorted in an armored truck, Ryu returned to the house several hours later with twenty million in cash. Having drained over half of the thirty million that had been accumulating for the past four years, Ryu was down to a little over half of the original sum. Documents were signed, I's were dotted, T's were crossed, and Ryu handed the keys to the armored truck-- not literally of course-- to the realtor.

Present time; Thursday, 4:15 PM Pacific.

Ryu's keys would be heard jamming into the doorknob of the hotel room as they had several times the previous day. Ryu stepped into the hotel room to find Mitsukai right where he'd left her. A soft smile on his face, his deep voice would sound in the caring tone it had adopted since yesterday morning.

"Hey, I've got something to show you."

[Mitsukai]

Sky was on top of her, his knee forcefully pushing down on her chest, threatening to cave it in. One hand crushing her wind pipe as the other held down on the stick embedded in her knee, twisting it hard to intensify the pain. Her old friend stood over them watching with cold and distant eyes at the scene before her.

I told you......Kevala does not care for you.

But....

No one gives a shit if you live or die. Everyone you have ever known or loved will abandon and betray you...

Your lying!

You can not deny the truth, its standing right there before you.... The people you hold dear to your heart want to see you dead.

No it can't be true! It isn't. None of this would be happening if you didn't exist!

Oh really, well why is it that they are torturing you and not me. I might be the excuse for what they are doing now but do you honestly think that this would not happen eventually?

. . . . . . .

The grip on her throat tightened, that knee pressing into her chest harder, she could feel her ribs snapping like twigs as she struggled to breath. Mitsukai was going to die. If Sky was not stopped now she would die here. She gasped for breath, feebly clawing at the hand at her throat with her one good arm. Her eyes looking at Kevala, pleading for help but the other girl just stood there watching, it was as if she didn't care that Mitsukai was dying. Nami's words ran through her mind again....she was right, no one gave a shit. All her life no one gave a damn. They only picked on her if she was in the way. Or try to use her if they needed something. She was alone in this world...hopelessly alone.

In this world it is killed or be killed, you have to fight in order to survive, no matter who your enemy is never forget if you want to live you must destroy them. Now little one what are you going to do? Are you going to lay there and die for the one who abandoned you or are you going to do what it takes to survive. The choice is yours.

Mitsukai's vision was beginning to fade slowly as the pressure increased. But something inside of her was stirring, becoming stronger as her will to live grew. She did not want to die. She did not want her life to end by anyone's hands. She was not going to be killed for these sick bastards enjoyment, if her life was going to end it was going to be on her own terms not theirs.

Mitsukai's eyes turned blood red as her killer instincts took over. Her nails forming into claws as she struck out at the man pinning her down. Ripping out his throat---

******************************************************

Mitsukai woke up with a jolt, gasping for air. Pain instantly shot through her small form from the sudden movement forcing a low moan of pain from her throat. She looked around in confusion wondering where the hell she was. The last thing she recalled was being outside, with that bastard Sky torturing her as Kevala watched trying to force out her alter ego that she was so desperately trying to keep control over.

Mitsukai's senses slowly came back to her as she finally remembered where she was and how she got there. She was brought to this hotel room by Ryu sometime after she had fallen unconscious, her broken body left for dead by her friend and the man Kev loved.

With a heavy sigh the girl would shake her head, trying to forget the dream she just woke up from. That dream had felt so real that it had shook the poor girl up. There was no doubt in her mind that she would have to endure it for quite sometime, just like the dreams that she had about Nami before her alter egos birth. She did not know what she was going to do about it.

Nami's words were still running through her head. She did not want to believe any of what her alter ego said but honestly a small part of her could not deny that they felt true. If Kevala really did give a shit the girl would have taken Mitsukai's warning and stayed away. Not chase after her with Sky and leave her for dead. They had said that they wanted to punish Nami but it really did not seem to matter much to them that doing so would also risk her life. They were to absorbed in carrying out their vengeance to consider that and in the end Mitsukai paid the price. And for what? All she wanted was to keep that mad woman from hurting one of them, she did not want anymore blood on her hands. Why couldn't anyone see that?

The sound of the keys being jammed through the door broke Mitsukai out of her solemn thoughts. Her gaze falling to Ryu as he came through the door. That smile and the sound of his voice forced back all her negative feelings to the edge of her mind. There was something about the man now after all that had happened yesterday that made her feel....safe. Maybe it was because though despite the fact they were enemies he had actually bothered to help her? Maybe because he had a surprisingly gentle and caring side that only she had seen so far? She did not know but having nearby was comforting.

"What is it?" she would ask curiously in response. The older man seemed to be in a relatively good mood so whatever his news was it had to be good.

[Ryu Hayabusa]

His smile widened as he stuffed his keys into his pocket and walked over to her. "A better place to stay." He said plainly, grabbing the blankets covering her on the bed. He'd pull them back and hold out his left gloved hand to her. "How are you feeling?" With that hand, he'd get her into a sitting position. Once she was sitting up, he'd open the drawer of the nightstand and pull out another morphine shot and rubbing alcohol jobby. Even if she said she was feeling perfect, chances were, once they got to moving her, she'd feel her ribs and leg act up. So better safe than sorry, particularly since the last dose had been early morning.

Once the morphine was in her good arm, "Let's get you ready." As for what, he'd let her ask first, but outside was a medical transport van. Not quite an ambulance, but similar. It was designed to cart around people in just such a condition. Moving around the room now, Ryu began packing up all of his things, limited though they were. Setting a large empty luggage bag on the couch-- bed was occupied, after all-- and started walking back and forth all over the hotel room, grabbing up everything that hadn't been there when he arrived in california.

[Mitsukai]

"A better place to stay."

A new place to stay huh? At least they were moving somewhere else. It would be pretty hard to stay in the hotel room for too long while she healed. The place was pretty cramped after all. It was not a good idea to stay here for however long it took till she could walk again.

"How are you feeling?"

"A bit sore but otherwise alright." she answered as he helped her get into a sitting position. Though she was still under the effects of the morphine shot she was given earlier she could already feel it wearing off. Ryu gave her another dose before going off to pack some things. The girl watched him move about quietly. Wondering how exactly he planned to take her out of the hotel like this and of course where exactly they were going.

"So what kind of place is this?" she asked him, it was a bit surprising that he could find a new place to stay so fast. She wondered what this place could be and what kind of connections the man might have to be able to get a place so quickly. There was a lot about Ryu that Mitsukai didn't know and she was not sure how much he would openly share. At least from little things she could observe she could get a better idea about the person themselves. Maybe she could learn more about Ryu in this matter as well.

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Suppressing an all out, toothy grin, Ryu continued to move back and forth. "Oh, just a little place down the road." Aside from the mildly obvious sarcasm in his voice, he made it sound like it was nothing more than an apartment. This of course, only added to his amusement. Not only was the place as far from little as you could get, it was probably about an hour away, doing the speed limit. To be honest, he was looking forward to her shock when they got to the bloody place.

It only took a few minutes to pack up everything Ryu owned there. After all, most of his things were in Japan. Something he'd be remedying once they got her settled. At least the place had come furnished. Obviously, Ryu would be doing some customizing to the massive house, maybe japanify it a bit, but what was there would do for now. His memory of the master bed brought a chuckle to him. Thing was three times the size of a California king... A dozen people could sleep on the damn thing with little issue. ...Ok, maybe a dozen was pushing it, but still.

"Be right back." He'd say after zipping up his bags. Walking outside, leaving the door open a crack, his voice could be heard ordering someone around. Two someones, actually. A full stretcher and two people who looked like EMT's followed Ryu into the hotel room. Moving the chair next to the bed, Ryu got onto Mitsukai's good side, and waited as the guy's set the stretcher up. "I got private medical transport for you. All I have is a motorcycle, so getting you there myself would have been out of the question." Said beastie was already in the detached six car garage at the new place.

As for connections, Ryu's various contacts had actually very little to do with this. He had simply called a real estate agency, who then put him in touch with a higher class of agency who dealt with 'rich people's homes'. The only thing he'd needed from his contacts was a call to his master that he may need to tap into the bulk of his fortune from Japan to replenish his American account after the purchase.

Once they were ready, the two men would lift Mitsukai from the bed on one of those orange personnel carriers, then secure her to the actual stretcher, and begin wheeling her out of the hotel room.

[Mitsukai]

"Oh, just a little place down the road."

Mitsukai's eyebrow raised at his comment noting the sarcasm in his voice. She just rolled her eyes at him. If he wanted to keep it a surprise then so be it, she'd find out soon enough what the place was anyway. She did not need to find out from him just yet. Though she could not deny the fact that she was a bit curious but oh well.

As soon as Ryu had finished gathering all his things he left the room. Voices could be heard from just outside the door before he returned with two other men carrying a stretcher.

"I got private medical transport for you. All I have is a motorcycle, so getting you there myself would have been out of the question."

She just looked between him and the stretcher for a moment a bit surprised. Mitsukai could not help but wonder how much money Ryu must have. Private medical transport do not come cheap, in fact the numerous medical supplies he had brought in earlier probably were a bit costly as well. Just how many rich kids go to that school anyway? she mused. Sure before Mitsukai had ran away from home she was living in a mansion with Kevala but the house had originally belonged to Katsuri. When the girl first came to 259 she had been living with her aunt and uncle before she moved in with Katsu and Kev and her relatives were not wealthy. Though it seemed like everyone else she had known had some money to their name.

With the two newcomers assistance Mitsukai was put onto the stretcher and rolled out from the room.

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Hah. Rich kids. It was an odd thought in the corporal punishment system, wasn't it? Ryu had his reasons, or else he wouldn't even be in America, but it was quite the peculiar habit, wasn't it? Multi-millionaire teenagers in the hell of a destroyed school where kids damn near kill each other and worse on a daily basis. Had the thoughts entered Ryu's head, he would have clenched a fist, shaken his head, and sighed. But as it was, he was just excited-- and a touch proud-- that he had a home for himself and any one else he chose. And for now, all he had was Mitsukai.

It was a bit of a depressing thought, but at the same time...was bizarrely happy. For the nature of the goings on, one wouldn't expect it to be happy, but Ryu had someone to care for for the first time in a long while, and longer still before that short stint. He only hoped that it would last this time, regardless of the sort of relationship he ended up having with the girl. What he had said the previous day had been true. He had formed an attachment to the girl. One that had, in a matter of only two days, shifted its focus from combat to a friendship. And perhaps in the future it would shift again. Who knows?

Ryu followed the two as they wheeled her around to the stairs. Now this was the difficult part. Lowering the stretcher, they'd carry her like luggage down to the bottom of the steps, keeping her as level as possible. Following them down the stairs with one of the real luggage bags over his shoulder, he kept an eye on Mitsukai as they reached the bottom and set the stretchers legs back up.

They'd load her up in the back of the van which was sitting at the bottom of the stairs. Sliding his bags into the van, he sat in the back with his charge, and both of the men got into the front. Leaning his elbows on his knees, Ryu's fingers were laced in front of him, and he held a sort of blank stare, vaguely aimed at Mitsukai's injured leg. A final check of things and they were off.

[Mitsukai]

Mitsukai gave a small sigh as the van started up. She did not know how long this little ride would take and based on Ryu's earlier statement it was not like she was going to know anytime soon. All she could do was wait but sitting there (well in her case laying) there is silence for lord knows how long would be too boring, not to mention slightly awkward.

It was almost amusing in a way that for once in her life she found complete silence in the presence of another being strange. Even with the very few people Mitsukai was close to in her life whenever either side had ran out of things to talk about the silence that ensued never made her feel bad or nervous but with Ryu it did. Man I need to find out why that is happening. she mused.

Those feline eyes fell upon the current subject of her thoughts as she contemplated what to do. She did have a few questions to ask but she did not know where to begin. Nor if Ryu would answer any of them just to tease her or simply if he felt uncomfortable. She could just try to press him further about where exactly they were going but she knew that would go no where. She could try to ask him little things about his past but something in her cautioned against that. It seemed to be that a lot of people attending 259 were, for a lack of a better word fucked up. Judging by the man's personality and the giant scar on his back Ryu was no exception. She could unintentionally hit a nerve if she was not careful about it. Hell she knew herself what that was like. Mitsukai was not very comfortable about talking about her past. Sure there had to be people more fucked up then she was but even then that did not make it any less painful.

So if she could not ask anything about his past or about the place they would be staying at then what COULD she ask?

"So....." she began, trying to find the words to what she wanted to say. Gods knew Mitsukai had very poor social skills, even though she used to spend a lot of time with Kevala. Communicating was something she was never good at. "How exactly do you control your other persona?"

Yes she went there....It at least would be useful to know how someone with DID could control the other side. What ever technic he had learned she herself could use against Nami. She definitely needed to know this. AT least this kind of question was practical right?

[Ryu Hayabusa]

He'd remained oblivious to her gaze while she thought. His own mind still running over the events of the past couple of days. He had to wonder how he got himself into these situations. Time and time again, the oddest things would happen to Ryu. Things to throw everything out of whack. This was just the latest in a relatively long series of events that threw everything he knew... not into question, perse... but it definitely fucked every thing up something fierce. Sort of throwing his beliefs into some question. Not moral beliefs or religious beliefs... No, not this time at least.... But beliefs about where he was headed in life....

Up until now, he'd never really had many people to care for. The occasional friends... From ones such as Eric, an ally; to Roy, a friend; to his Master; to Tiel... A brother. To include them all, he perhaps had cared for a dozen people this half of his life...since his family died... but now he had someone for whose life he was responsible. Someone that, to look rationally at his reactions to their situation-- whether or not that was the best thing to do-- he was attracted to. It made sense... But sense had nothing to do with those situations, did it?

Ryu had...probably never in his life blushed. At least not since he was eight or nine... And yet this girl made his face flush repeatedly in the span of twenty minutes. Albeit, he'd never looked at a woman's bare body before... That could explain it. But there seemed to be more. It almost made him happy that she was in his care. A hand rose up and scratched the back of his head as started to speak. Lowering his hand, he looked up to her. First looking at her lips to catch her words, then flicking up to her eyes. Locking with them, he considered for a time.

Out of his peripheral, he could see the passenger technician look back at them for her question. Flicking his eyes up at him for a moment, he looked back down at Mitsukai. Taking a breath, "Well... Like I said yesterday, I'm a bit of a special case." His fingers laced in front of him again. "I sort of have three personalities. One's not...really..." He glanced around, biting the inside of his lip a bit, trying to find the words. "...Like.. I thought there was something besides Chaos. And there sort of is... But I've figured out recently that it's not an actual personality." He managed to say, looking back into her eyes.

"It's almost as if the third personality is another side of mine." Taking another deep breath, he thought, then tried to explain. "See... what happens with Multiple Personalities is that when one is asleep, the other takes over. The body ends up going without sleep for days or weeks. With me, that never happened. What happened was, my subconscious started taking over when I slept. So instead of my mind being unguarded, my subconscious started being active, and just resting. It's basically like I'm asleep, except my subconscious is actively controlling my body." He hadn't been kidding when he said attacking him in his sleep was out of the question.

Scratching his head again, he looked away, "That's about the best way I can explain it...." he finished, looking back at the girl again, blue eyes glowing fairly brightly in the din of the back of the van as they locked with her golden cat eyes.

[Mitsukai]

Mitsukai listened carefully to what Ryu had to say. So there was a third personality, one that she had not met yet. This one however was much different then what her case was.

She at least understood the part about how one side could take over while the other was asleep. In fact that was exactly what happened to cause the alter ego to attack Mitsukai's best friend. If it wasn't for her lack of control in her sleep no one would ever had suffered. But the third personality in Ryu's case would cancel out such a thing.

"How exactly did this third side come to be?" she asked. From what Ryu had told her she knew that not everyone had more than one persona but did that mean this third one developed on it's own or was it intentional?

[Ryu Hayabusa]

That was the question, wasn't it? But then again, how did the split personality occur at all? To this end, Ryu would answer. "I'm not sure. But then again, how do you get the second one in the first place?" He sort of chuckled at this. "To be honest, it just appeared there. A natural defense or maybe two just formed...." He shrugged a bit. "Hell, like I said, it's not even really a third personality... It doesn't speak or any thing.... It really is morely my subconscious. If I were to look back on the vague memories of when that part was taken over, I'd remember it like a dream, where as if I let Chaos out-- That's what the assholes name is, by the way--, or even sometimes when he gets out I remember it like it was something that happened yesterday."

Ryu could tell the guys up front were listening, couldn't really blame them. What else were they going to do? One of them wasn't even driving, and the one that was driving had a GPS. "As for ordinary control... Well, yesterday, I sort of suppressed him. Put him in a mental box. Literally." In his mind he could still see that box, "It sounds stupid, but I just made a metal box in my mind. He hasn't made a sound since, either." He leaned back a little bit, for what little room there was to do so.

"Problem being, I don't know what he's going to be like if and when I let him out. And that's if he doesn't break out... which is an annoying possibility." Quite possible a dangerous one. "As for that sort of suppression, that ought to be easy enough to teach." He leaned on his knees again and he realized the proximity between them. His clasped hands were a few inches from her hip, and he was practically looming over her. Damn vans. He should have gotten one of the more ambulance like ones.

[Mitsukai]

"I'm not sure. But then again, how do you get the second one in the first place?"

Mitsukai could not help but chuckle at that. Yeah like she thought, he did not know how the third one came to be. No surprises there, even she did not know how Nami had been born. It was as if the other half had always been there but only made her presence known now. Obviously it was the same for Ryu but still it was better to confirm anyways. Especially if having another side would help control the demon within her.

What made her a bit surprised however was Ryu's comment on his other persona Chaos. Unlike those two in Mitsukai's case only one side was aware of what went on when the other was in control. Anytime that Nami took over Mitsukai blanked out and could not recall (unless Nami chose to share what she had done) what had happened. Just like how Kevala never knew what she did when Sasha took over to some extent. Why was Ryu different then them?

"As for ordinary control... Well, yesterday, I sort of suppressed him. Put him in a mental box. Literally." "It sounds stupid, but I just made a metal box in my mind. He hasn't made a sound since, either."

She blinked in surprise. "It's really that easy?" she had to know, she had never thought about doing something like that. Sure she fought back the other side mentally but she had never tried to contain her in such a matter, push back to the corners of her mind but never something like that.

"Problem being, I don't know what he's going to be like if and when I let him out. And that's if he doesn't break out... which is an annoying possibility."

Well she honestly could not expect his methods to be perfect. It would not be surprising if Chaos broke out soon. Still for Ryu to have such control over his alter was still fairly impressive, she had to learn how to do such a thing if she wanted to keep Nami under check.

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Shrugging slightly, Ryu leaned back a bit again. "I don't know. I mean yesterday it was relatively easy to seal him away, and he's stayed like that, but I was also rather pissed off." His expression did a kind of ¬-¬ thing when he said that, before looking back to the dark-skinned girl. "I'm sure there's more to it than just visualization, but that's most likely a big part of it. Between visualization and meditation, you'd probably be able to do it." Another small shrug. He really had no basis for what he was saying, but it was somewhat common sense. Turn to your internal mind, your own world, while your body was still in your control. Then beat the shit out of your other side.

Simple, right?

He hoped so.

The mind was a powerful thing. Learning to harness that might yield some interesting benefits. Perhaps Ryu could figure out a way to work with Chaos. A Synchronization, of sorts. What would come of that, Ryu had no fucking clue, but hey... It was a thought, right?

Looking down at his hands, he fiddled a bit, rubbing his beat up hands together, cracking and stretching the dozens of small joints within them. Staring at his hands like that... The gloves he rarely took off. Gloves he'd had for almost a decade. That and those bracelets... Both of them had been his fathers. He'd received them as a birthday present when he was nine. They brought back memories. Memories of his mask. Of his vengeance, of his time in New York and Japan. Training. "So then," He said before looking back up at her, trying to shake himself of his much aggrieved nostalgia. "Any more questions?"

[Mitsukai]

"I don't know. I mean yesterday it was relatively easy to seal him away, and he's stayed like that, but I was also rather pissed off."

Heh too bad I can't do something like that. she thought to herself. At least not yet. Sure Mitsukai knew she had a strong will to hold Nami off for the time being. She had proven that much the night before with Sky and Kevala, she had refused to release the darker half until the very end. If what Nami had said had not swayed her Mitsukai could still hold the crazed persona off. It was not so much of an issue of self control when she was awake, more so of the times she was asleep. It was the only time Nami ever took control, it was that she wanted to stop. If Ryu's methods could work for her in those times then that was all she needed for the time being.

But of course as Ryu had said himself such things could not last forever. In the end Mitsukai would have to find away to be rid of Nami for good. How she would do it was a mystery but she knew it had to be done. It was simply too dangerous for her to exist any longer.

Mitsukai watched as Ryu began to fiddle with his hands in the silence that ensued shortly after their talk. His eyes glazing over as his mind wandered somewhere else. Perhaps a distant memory? Maybe, maybe not who knew. She couldn't help but wonder what exactly he was thinking, and if it was anything sad or troubling.

"So then," "Any more questions?"

Her mind snapped back into focus as he asked her if there was anything else she wanted to know. She looked away for a moment to think clearly but nothing came to mind. There was not very much for her to say now was there? Not like she was the talkative type anyway, it was that that most likely gave her the hardest time to think of anything TO say. Damn this was annoying.....

"I guess not." she said finally, completely out of ideas. For now because of her lack of socialization it looked like they'd both have to deal with the awkward silence until the ride was over.

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Ryu smiled a bit to himself as she finally conceded to a lack of questions. It was, admittedly, a little amusing, watching her try to come up with something. He looked away from her and out the back of the van, looking at the road as it went past as he realized that, from an objective stand point, it rather did seem like he was attracted to her... Hmm. It was an interesting thing. Too bad Ryu wasn't so analytical as to be able to turn that whole attraction thing off or...analyze it to death or..something. Would certainly make life easier.

Feelings were fuckin' weird. Sure, Ryu had ran most of his shit by them, but that was mostly loyalty, determination, and later... hatred. This though, it was flat out weird. And he had no idea how to deal with it. Thinking on this, he let the silence continue rather than say what would have given her a whole field of questions to ask, 'Ask me anything'. That was what he could have said, and continued talking the whole trip, but he didn't, and so they continued in slightly awkward silence.

...Well, only slightly awkward for Ryu considering he was thinking the whole damn time.

1 Hour Later; 5:33 PM Pacific.

"We're here." One of the medics said. His voice sent a sharp chill down Ryu's spine and his stomach sank. His husky blue eyes going wide, his head whipped up to look at the man. It wasn't him...

[But...It sounded just like him....]

The chill in his spine went away, but the sinking of his stomach didn't fade as the both of them got out and went to open the back of the van and get Mitsukai unloaded. Through the windows of the van, she'd be able to see glimpses of a massive house, one that wouldn't have even looked like a house except for the slanted roofs. It quite looked more like an apartment building for the sheer size of it.

Biting the inside of his cheek to get rid of the feeling, he stepped out of the van before they started getting the girl out. As they did, he looked up to the already setting sun and breathed. Stupid of him to think that he too, would be here... let alone to appear in such a manner. It wasn't like him at all.

Breathing deep, he turned around and put on a slightly abnormal smile. It was forced, is what it was. "So, this is it." He said, lifting a hand to the massive estate. The main house alone was fifty to sixty feet tall, and yet there were only three sets of windows going up. Only three aboveground floors. Off to one side-- the left, when facing the house-- was the huge six car garage, and on the other side was an empty building that Ryu assumed were servants quarters. "Just a little place down the road, hmm?" The smile on his face grew a bit less forced as he continued his own joke, and the two wheeled her up to the house.

Problem being, there were a lot of stairs going up into the place. This wasn't going to be a cake walk, getting her up in there. There was something that would make it easier, but Ryu didn't want to reveal that quite yet. Little surprise when he just appeared on a different floor. The rest of the forced features of his smile faded as he moved ahead of them and unlocked the massive front doors. They'd bring her up the stairs as they had bringing her down, and wheel her into the massive main hall.