Broken Bones[[Lucien//Open]]

[Date Masamune™]

[[OoC: Lucien first.]]

"Ow... Ow... Ow..."

So you all know how I'm usually pretty upbeat? Optimistic. Rarely ever sarcastic? Well. I'm kind of in a bad mood today. No nothing happened. Guess I'm in a rut. Not quite sure why, but I haven't been able to shake it off all day. Well I mean it is only 2 so I guess not all day.

Oh right right. You're probably wondering why I'm saying ow. I broke my ribs recently. Just two of them on my left side. Yah it happened a week ago during that whole deal with the mercenary kid. Still not quite sure how I feel about that kid. For some reason... I couldn't stop uh... poking my ribs. Now I know it's a stupid thing to do. But for some reason I can't help it! Oh well. I guess I was just bored. Nothing much going on. God I hoped I ran into someone while I was doing my daily rounds.

[Lucien DeChain]

And run into someone he did.

Almost literally, too.

Lucien was walking along, maybe a little out of the usual spots, but there he was. He heard someone near him, saying 'ow', and so he turned invisible, and tried not to move as best he could. From past experience, Lucien knew that this could go one of two ways: Bad or less bad.

But then the injured man kept walking, and Lucien deftly sidestepped at the last minute to avoid a full-on collision. What he did cause, however, was a very visible ripple in the air, and a shuffling sound as his feet made contact with the concrete. It would be pretty hard to ignore the fact that someone was there.

[Date Masamune™]

Ki is the energy that lives innately within us. It powers our abilities known as QI. Some people think of it as life energy, which is a good way to put it. Me? I'm not too sure what to call it. I wouldn't exactly call it life energy, but whenever I abuse my QI I do usually end up making dinner reservations with the Reaper. I'd like to think I'm too obnoxious for him to take away. Cancelled on the poor guy more times than I can count.

For all of my knowledge on Ki energy and QI powers, I am really shitty at sensing them. Yeah yeah, I know. Cliche weakness. I also have a soft spot for puppies and people crying. Sue me. Anyways, this would mean that I was rather shocked when I saw a rippling effect... in the middle of the air. That accompanied with the sound of someone walking... well it was enough to force me to take a jump back and activate the electricity in my gauntlets.

"Whoever's hiding... I promise not to hurt you as long as you're not with Barker. And if you are... I promise to give you a ten second head start."

[Lucien DeChain]

Eep.

Lucien had been caught.

Sheepishly, he unstealthed, revealing the slim figure. Lucien was, indeed, a slight man, even though he'd gained weight since he started to eat again. So, as he came into view, an apologetic expression on his face, he smiled and spoke, as to not alarm the man in front of him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. My name is Lucien, I'm a Crow."

[Date Masamune™]

"..."

I looked at the kid and then couldn't help myself from laughing for a second. This is what I had been scared of? I deactivated the powers of my gauntlets. No need for them. I walked over to the kid and held my hand out.

"Sorry about that. Shugo Yuy, with uhh the Dragons now I guess."

I was surprised to see someone as frail looking as him out and about. I guess his QI ability came in handy. He reminded me of my younger brother Tai a little bit. Tai was always weaker than me and had a pretty slim build, got mistaken for a girl every now and then.

"The Crows huh? How's Kiyoshi doing?"

[Lucien DeChain]

Shugo Yuy. That name stuck in Lucien's mind for some reason, even though he'd never heard it. At any rate, he now had a question before him that was requiring a delicate answer. Not one too rash, or sudden -

"He's dead."

Yep, way to go.

[Date Masamune™]

"...What?"

Now there's something that you probably don't know about me. I never finished my QI training. So sometimes if I feel emotionally distressed, my QI powers will activate all on their own. I know, I know. I train under world renown martial art's champion, Master Bei Xin, and I don't even finish my training.

But yeah, that explains why what happened next wasn't too odd. While Kiyoshi and I had never been very close, I am Sick. And Tired. Of losing good companions and friends for a pointless war like this. It made my blood boil. The Steam Golem would start glowing bright white as my gauntlets activated themselves on their own. I lashed out at the first thing near me. I flung my right arm out punching the building that we were standing next to. I leveled it.

[Lucien DeChain]

Suddenly, a huge light started to emanate from Shugo Yuy. It was quite a sight to behold. And, as the man turned around and slammed his hand into the wall of the adjacent building, Lucien didn't expect much to happen. So, when the building collapsed and crumbled only inches away from his face, he knew that he had a bit of explaining to do.

"I'm sorry! I should have explained further. I'm not very good at conversations, you see..." He paused, and his face grew dim.

"Zero Kiyoshi Akechi died in a large scale battle with the forces of Mr. Barker. He was killed by a bullet, if you can imagine it. Maybe someone was saving that bullet for him. He died on the battlefield, but not before taking control of it... I am sad he is gone as well."

As he finished, he looked to Shugo Yuy's face, to see his reaction. Hopefully he wasn't one of those 'kill the messenger' types.

[Date Masamune™]

"I see..."

I regained my composure and breathed out slowly, getting all of my powers under control. The Steam Golem stopped shining and the electricity disappeared. My QI itself also deactivated. I couldn't look at my face, but I'm sure it was pitiful. I knew my hair was partially obstructing it, but I didn't know how much. I couldn't look the kid I was talking to in the eye, so I averted my gaze.

"How are you and the rest of the Crows holding up?"

[Lucien DeChain]

{OOC: At the time of posting, it's a weird thing for Crows. Just warning ya.}

Lucien tried to show his sympathy for the man as best he could, and kept his tone somber and mellow.

"The other Zero is MIA after the same battle. The First is handling most of the administrative business, and she has help. But, we're okay." He replied. He wasn't sure what to say about 'Teal', but he was certainly a part of the package now. As for Delilah, well, she was getting by as she usually did. Maybe a bit more paperwork now.

[Date Masamune™]

I didn't really understand all of this zero and one talk. Binary always confused me. I figured it was their ranking system. I don't know.

"Kiyoshi was my ally. If the Crows ever need any help, they've got me. Whether it's supplies or a fight."

I finally got enough courage to actually look the kid in the face. I tried to keep a hopeful and optimistic look on my face. But each day... as this goes on. I'm losing it. I really am. God I hoped he didn't look too hard. He'd be able to see me giving up.

[Lucien DeChain]

Lucien looked at the man, and saw the despair in his eyes. Even though his demeanor looked strong.. The man looked defeated.

Lucien didn't get it.

"Thank you. I, we, appreciate it." He said, still looking into his eyes. He got a crazy idea, then, and oh God was it crazy.

"Shugo Yuy, why do you have such a look on your face? It is tragic to lose a friend, but it isn't over. We're not defeated." He said, trying to understand what he was feeling. For all intensive purposes, they were allies, after all.

[Date Masamune™]

"No. I guess we're not."

The death of one great ally didn't mean the death of us all. But god damn. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of people dying. I'm tired of always failing.

"I mean there is always going to be work to do while Barker's standing."

I made a very distinct rule when I began studying martial arts. I would never follow down the path of the Satsujinken, the Killing Fist. I follow the path of Katsujinken, the Saving Fist. In other words, I don't kill. I protect. Barker makes me want to throw away all of my morals. I want to rip his fucking throat out and kill him. Sometimes I want to tear his heart out of his chest and crush it in my own hands. What scares me the most is that if I didn't have Jacket in my life, I'd probably be knocking on Barker's door right now. God I can already imagine her lecturing me if she found out what I wanted to do.

[Lucien DeChain]

Lucien's face grew into a sideways frown.

"I agree, that there is always work to do. But, there's a difference between surviving and living. At least, in my mind. And I believe, we can still live."

Lucien walked over to the wall of the building beside the pile of rubble that Shugo Yuy had created. He placed a hand on the brick, feeling the rough notches in the natural structure of it. Then, he turned back to the man.

"That is, if we keep on fighting."

This is going to hurt!!!

Lucien swung back and slammed his fist into the wall, as hard as he could, putting all the force in his body behind the attack.

A snapping sound would have been heard, if the wall hadn't caved inwards and started to crumble in a ten-foot radius about the fist. Not as impressive as the other man's show of force, as the building still stood, but to his merit, it was quite a big hole.

Lucien inspected his throbbing hand. His pinky was broken at the second knuckle. He quickly wrapped it up in a tight cloth from his pocket, while walking back to stand beside Shugo Yuy.

"Ow," He grinned.

[Date Masamune™]

We can live if we still fight huh? He's right. I mean it's not an ideal life, but the people here were living. Even if I felt like I wasn't sometimes. I felt distant sometimes to the people here. I was their protector. It was the same thing with the Dragons. I didn't feel like I fit in with rest of them.

Now you know when someone does something that perks you up for some reason? Well Lucien just did that for me. The kid walked over to a wall and just punched it. He straight up punched it just to make emphasis on his point. I couldn't help but laugh. The kid had a strong arm though, breaking a hole in the wall. A rather large one. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought the Kool-Aid man had just come out of there.

I walked over to Lucian as he approached me to meet him halfway. Coming over I noticed that he put a cloth onto his hand. He did seem pretty frail. Could he have broken his hand from that punch? Nahh. It's probably just a bit of blood.

"Here. Let me take a look."