[Several thoughts race across her mind in that one second where Ushi Gozen calmly rises. Her hand falls limply onto her lap as she takes in the sight of the sudden throng of people darting and stumbling past their booth, a sudden tide of colors and bodies washing ashore. She turns her head she sees the bulk of the hybrid swatting tables aside with its trunk as though they were no more than flimsy leaves to brush aside.
Those few moments render her dumbfounded— until Ushi Gozen finally address her.]
...
[Orders? Have they decided this was the end so quickly? There was no clarity or conclusion to that exchange, she insists to herself— but Ushi Gozen was already armed, ready to follow her orders. Was that... what Ushi Gozen had decided?
Did she have not a say in the matter?
Shousetsu briefly glances to the fallen waiter, whose arm is currently short-circuiting. He seems unconscious but not dead, and for a moment she feels a small bit of relief until she realizes...
... no one has even spared him a glance. Some even run past him.
The panic and fear in the air is palpable. If she were a weaker being she may have felt the same urgency— the same instinctive drive to remove herself from danger as quickly as possible. It was the nature of humans to self-preserve and for that she could not blame them... yet in the same breath, they were here to indulge in finery, in drinks and food and money. To obtain something priceless— something not of this world yet suitable inside a cage. Now that their vices were turned against them they fled, not looking back, not caring who is crushed in the frenzy.
Shousetsu's fists curl inward.
As she rises a bubbling of righteous anger and frustration rises with her— anger at Ushi Gozen, anger at this world and the creatures that were allowed to suffer, mad with rage. Is this why she was brought here along with the demigod? To experience this outrage so acutely it could not be mistaken for anything else?]
... So this world as well...
... needs to be saved.
[And the threat to it, the very thing that could render it an abyss— was standing before her now. Just as before. What strange, bitter fate this is.
Shousetsu reaches up suddenly, taking hold of the pearl necklace at her throat and ripping it off. As the white pieces scatter her swords shift into view at her hip and she unsheathes one before snapping her gaze over to Ushi Gozen. Her eyes are now clear of turmoil— sharp and knowing, meeting the dark gaze again without reservation.]
Rider, [Comes the hard tone, regardless if it is no longer the right name—] We need to incapacitate it before it injures anyone else. Help me weaken it.
—And remember, do not kill it!
[Is what she leaves her with as Shousetsu dives into the foray, heels stomping as she unleashes first a barrier of protruding stone around the thrashing hybrid.]
no subject
Those few moments render her dumbfounded— until Ushi Gozen finally address her.]
...
[Orders? Have they decided this was the end so quickly? There was no clarity or conclusion to that exchange, she insists to herself— but Ushi Gozen was already armed, ready to follow her orders. Was that... what Ushi Gozen had decided?
Did she have not a say in the matter?
Shousetsu briefly glances to the fallen waiter, whose arm is currently short-circuiting. He seems unconscious but not dead, and for a moment she feels a small bit of relief until she realizes...
... no one has even spared him a glance. Some even run past him.
The panic and fear in the air is palpable. If she were a weaker being she may have felt the same urgency— the same instinctive drive to remove herself from danger as quickly as possible. It was the nature of humans to self-preserve and for that she could not blame them... yet in the same breath, they were here to indulge in finery, in drinks and food and money. To obtain something priceless— something not of this world yet suitable inside a cage. Now that their vices were turned against them they fled, not looking back, not caring who is crushed in the frenzy.
Shousetsu's fists curl inward.
As she rises a bubbling of righteous anger and frustration rises with her— anger at Ushi Gozen, anger at this world and the creatures that were allowed to suffer, mad with rage. Is this why she was brought here along with the demigod? To experience this outrage so acutely it could not be mistaken for anything else?]
... So this world as well...
... needs to be saved.
[And the threat to it, the very thing that could render it an abyss— was standing before her now. Just as before. What strange, bitter fate this is.
Shousetsu reaches up suddenly, taking hold of the pearl necklace at her throat and ripping it off. As the white pieces scatter her swords shift into view at her hip and she unsheathes one before snapping her gaze over to Ushi Gozen. Her eyes are now clear of turmoil— sharp and knowing, meeting the dark gaze again without reservation.]
Rider, [Comes the hard tone, regardless if it is no longer the right name—] We need to incapacitate it before it injures anyone else. Help me weaken it.
—And remember, do not kill it!
[Is what she leaves her with as Shousetsu dives into the foray, heels stomping as she unleashes first a barrier of protruding stone around the thrashing hybrid.]