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K-on! Community |OT| Never Ending Talk About Never Ending Girl's Talk
- Thread starter Chet Rippo
- Start date
Chet Rippo
Member
Well, all I know is that it ain't Mugi or Ritsu.
Unknown Soldier
Member
The most popular character is of course Azunyan. She is the only Keionbu who has won the Anime Saimoe Tournament, in 2010. No other K-ON! character has earned this greatest of moe honors.
I meant to have the next chapter posted before while it was still Azunyan's birthday, but of course GAF had to be down. So here it is anyways.
I meant to have the next chapter posted before while it was still Azunyan's birthday, but of course GAF had to be down. So here it is anyways.
Canis lupus
Member
New K-On season please! I'd like to see them 5 years older.
Before I got into K-ON!, the character I've always seen posted or mentioned by others the most are Mio and Azusa. I quite literally thought Mio was the main character and Azusa was like her little sister before I actually watched the show.
I'm surprised by '09 Saimoe. Yui was damn near close to winning.
It was Ritsu for me. Although, Western sensibilities not falling in line with Japanese fans, particularly in what characters they gravitate towards to, doesn't surprise me.
I wonder which characters Japanese fans gravitate to the most.
melichrous
Member
I jumped into K-ON! without knowing much about it at all. Watching it without any sort of preconceptions about the characters, it's pretty obvious that Yui was the character with most of the focus on her. If I'd been a member of GAF then, I'd probably have assumed that it was Mugi
She seems to get a lot of love around these parts.The whole ensemble thing meant I just took them all as the focus though. I think I watched this after watching LuckyStar, so yeah.
I have quite strange tastes, methinks.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Assassin's Creed x K-ON!: Another A
Stage.01: Hematogenesis – Part I
November 11th, 2010
Nagano, Japan
1:53 am
Azusa ran. She had been running flat out for at least five minutes. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could sustain this pace, especially since the man she was chasing was purposely knocking over and wildly throwing backwards any object in his path in an attempt to obstruct her. There wasn’t much she could do at this point but keep chasing him and hope that he stumbled or tripped over something.
Her breath was steady yet becoming ragged. Her long pigtails streamed behind her as she ran. She could see every exhalation in the cold winter air as she chased the man through the deserted alley in a sleepy western district of Nagano. The city was lightly covered in the evening’s snowfall, serving to make footing treacherous as she darted around falling objects. The man she pursued was about a half meter taller than she was and probably twice as heavy. Tackling him down was not an option.
Azusa rounded the corner and skidded to a halt. Her target had vanished. Impossible! She was just now less than three meters behind him. She paused, listening. The city was quiet at this hour. Where did he go? A sound to her left, and then –
With the trained instincts of an Assassin, she rolled forward into a blade draw. Her wakizashi was forged in the Japanese tradition from folded steel and she wielded it with two hands. For an woman of her height, it could serve as a shortsword or a longsword, and Azusa could swing it with just one hand if she had to. She preferred two-handed weapon stances though.
The man walked slowly forward. The opponents sized each other up in the near-darkness of the small courtyard. To his eyes, she could not have appeared to be more than a child. His dagger still quivered in the wall where he had thrown it. Azusa’s head had been there just a split second before it passed through nothing and lodged out of his reach behind her.
He was a Russian, but he spoke to her in extremely halting English. Azusa could understand spoken Russian reasonably well, but he would not know that. “Who are you?” he inquired. The question was merely a formality, he could not have expected her to answer nor would Azusa even have considered it. She examined him in silence from a low guard, her sword's hilt slightly cool in her hands. There was a large gash in his left thigh, just above the knee. He must have injured himself during the street chase. It stood to reason that he knew that he could not run much further with a lame left leg, so he chose to try and ambush her.
He paused for a moment as if waiting for her answer, then shrugged. “Very well. We will decide this dispute in the tradition of my Order.” He reached behind him and drew a longsword from a hilt on his back, hidden beneath his long coat. The straight, double-edged steel blade was topped by a hilt made in a classic Swiss style. It was the traditional weapon of a member of the Knights Templar. The length of her wakizashi’s blade was 50 cm, but his sword had to be twice as long as hers was. Combined with her relative height, the man had a distinct advantage in reach over her. Well, that was not surprising for someone of her size. She wasn’t expecting him to be an easy mark.
He tested his blade, swinging it in a wide arc in front of him. This seemed satisfactory to him, and he lowered the blade to match Azusa’s low guard stance. He could not truly believe he was fighting a mere child, but he advanced confidently knowing his size advantage over her. Azusa began moving to her left, in an arc around him. If it came to grappling, her wrist blades were nestled safely under the sleeves of her yukata. She didn’t want to engage in hand-to-hand combat with someone who outweighed her by that much, though.
The Templar charged at her, measuring her response. She froze, watching for the moment he began his swing. A trained swordsman like him would not wave his sword wildly like a baseball bat. He started his swing from right to left, somewhat predictably. Azusa could not have known if he was right- or left-handed, but all the same she expected this angle of attack as it favored his injured left leg. This was her chance; she darted beneath his swing.
Her right wrist blade emerged briefly from its hilt and slashed the man’s right leg, just below the knee. Azusa turned the movement into a roll which took her a meter forward and to the Templar’s right. She rose from the roll to see him stumble slightly, more from surprise than pain, then recover quickly and resume his guard. The wound wasn’t deep; Azusa only wanted to see how much of his body was covered by Kevlar. It seemed he only had a vest on, which would explain why he was able to flee from her pursuit so long without tiring. She observed that he was looking forward when she wounded him.
The Templar used this opportunity to pull his dagger from the wall and place it back in its sheath. Then he turned to face Asuza. The man tilted his head inquisitively. It seemed there was more to his opponent than meets the eye. He had not expected the Assassins to send someone so young, but it seemed she was more experienced than he had first thought. He would not underestimate her again. Azusa watched this train of thought in the Templar’s mind playing out over the expressions on his face. Then his face hardened, and he charged at her again without pausing for small talk.
This time the Templar was expecting Azusa to dodge, knowing her disadvantage in size. Azusa was ready. With both hands on the hilt, she swung her sword at an angle to his attack, parrying his swing into his body’s momentum. He felt the unbalancing of his weight and knew that Azusa planned to use this moment to strike. The dagger seemed to just appear in Azusa’s right hand but the Templar was expecting it, and he aimed a powerful kick directly at Azusa’s chest through the hand which held the dagger.
The kick caught Azusa in squarely in the chest, knocking the wind out of her, and the dagger flew from her hand. She turned the backwards force from his kick into a desperate leap as the Templar swung his sword in full force straight down into the ground where Azusa was just before, leaving a great gouge in the snow. Azusa felt a sudden sting of pain as the arc of his swing slashed her retreating right hand. Azusa landed awkwardly on her knees, but reacted with her evasive roll in time before the man’s following leaping downstrike impaled the snow behind her.
Azusa rose, somewhat unsteadily. Her right hand was bleeding. It was useless for holding her sword now. Not that it mattered much at this point: her sword was laying in the snow a meter to her left. She had to end this quickly, one way or the other. The Templar sensed his moment of victory and charged again. There was no way Azusa was blocking or parrying the next blow without a weapon, so he didn’t bother to swing, but thrusted directly forward with a strike intended to run her through. This was a mistake: Azusa simply let his momentum arrive at the point of impact, and then she turned aside to avoid his sword as her right wrist blade drove itself straight into his stomach. The man gasped as he felt her cold metal penetrate him. He was not expecting her to have another short blade when her dagger lay on the ground two meters away. His entire weight crashed forward on top of her, his own fall burying the blade inside himself up to Azusa’s wrist.
The Templar lay awkwardly on top of Azusa, pinning her down. His furious face was centimeters from hers. He snarled at her in Russian: “You’ll die for that, bitch!” His left hand closed around her throat as his right hand drew his dagger from its sheath. Azusa gagged, her right hand still trapped beneath her under the man’s stomach. His right hand swung the dagger straight down at Azusa’s face just as her left fist slammed into the side of his neck and she thrust her left wrist blade directly into it, instantly severing the spine and carotid artery. His right arm continued downward and the dagger slashed Azusa’s cheek as she turned her head away at the last second from the final blow.
Everything was silent for a moment. Then Azusa pushed upwards, rolling the Templar off her and onto his back as she pulled her wrist blades out of his body. He was gurgling as his blood poured out of his exposed artery. She crawled up to him and looked at his face. His eyes widened with recognition, but he couldn’t move with his spine severed. Azusa merely watched now as his irises contracted desperately and he struggled to speak. No words could emerge. She wondered idly if the blood loss or the asphyxiation would kill him first. A pool of blood was forming beneath his neck now, so Azusa gently brushed her left hand over his eyes to close them and stood up.
The courtyard was deserted, but the sound of the chase and fight could not have gone unheard. Quickly Azusa cut off a small strip of her yukata and wrapped her injured right hand. She retrieved her dagger and sword, and paused just a moment in respect for the Templar who now lay still and cold on the bloodstained snow. Then she was gone.
As she fled from the courtyard, Azusa remembered that today was her birthday. Somehow, things always ended up with her running somewhere on her birthday.
Stage.01: Hematogenesis – Part I
November 11th, 2010
Nagano, Japan
1:53 am
Azusa ran. She had been running flat out for at least five minutes. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could sustain this pace, especially since the man she was chasing was purposely knocking over and wildly throwing backwards any object in his path in an attempt to obstruct her. There wasn’t much she could do at this point but keep chasing him and hope that he stumbled or tripped over something.
Her breath was steady yet becoming ragged. Her long pigtails streamed behind her as she ran. She could see every exhalation in the cold winter air as she chased the man through the deserted alley in a sleepy western district of Nagano. The city was lightly covered in the evening’s snowfall, serving to make footing treacherous as she darted around falling objects. The man she pursued was about a half meter taller than she was and probably twice as heavy. Tackling him down was not an option.
Azusa rounded the corner and skidded to a halt. Her target had vanished. Impossible! She was just now less than three meters behind him. She paused, listening. The city was quiet at this hour. Where did he go? A sound to her left, and then –
With the trained instincts of an Assassin, she rolled forward into a blade draw. Her wakizashi was forged in the Japanese tradition from folded steel and she wielded it with two hands. For an woman of her height, it could serve as a shortsword or a longsword, and Azusa could swing it with just one hand if she had to. She preferred two-handed weapon stances though.
The man walked slowly forward. The opponents sized each other up in the near-darkness of the small courtyard. To his eyes, she could not have appeared to be more than a child. His dagger still quivered in the wall where he had thrown it. Azusa’s head had been there just a split second before it passed through nothing and lodged out of his reach behind her.
He was a Russian, but he spoke to her in extremely halting English. Azusa could understand spoken Russian reasonably well, but he would not know that. “Who are you?” he inquired. The question was merely a formality, he could not have expected her to answer nor would Azusa even have considered it. She examined him in silence from a low guard, her sword's hilt slightly cool in her hands. There was a large gash in his left thigh, just above the knee. He must have injured himself during the street chase. It stood to reason that he knew that he could not run much further with a lame left leg, so he chose to try and ambush her.
He paused for a moment as if waiting for her answer, then shrugged. “Very well. We will decide this dispute in the tradition of my Order.” He reached behind him and drew a longsword from a hilt on his back, hidden beneath his long coat. The straight, double-edged steel blade was topped by a hilt made in a classic Swiss style. It was the traditional weapon of a member of the Knights Templar. The length of her wakizashi’s blade was 50 cm, but his sword had to be twice as long as hers was. Combined with her relative height, the man had a distinct advantage in reach over her. Well, that was not surprising for someone of her size. She wasn’t expecting him to be an easy mark.
He tested his blade, swinging it in a wide arc in front of him. This seemed satisfactory to him, and he lowered the blade to match Azusa’s low guard stance. He could not truly believe he was fighting a mere child, but he advanced confidently knowing his size advantage over her. Azusa began moving to her left, in an arc around him. If it came to grappling, her wrist blades were nestled safely under the sleeves of her yukata. She didn’t want to engage in hand-to-hand combat with someone who outweighed her by that much, though.
The Templar charged at her, measuring her response. She froze, watching for the moment he began his swing. A trained swordsman like him would not wave his sword wildly like a baseball bat. He started his swing from right to left, somewhat predictably. Azusa could not have known if he was right- or left-handed, but all the same she expected this angle of attack as it favored his injured left leg. This was her chance; she darted beneath his swing.
Her right wrist blade emerged briefly from its hilt and slashed the man’s right leg, just below the knee. Azusa turned the movement into a roll which took her a meter forward and to the Templar’s right. She rose from the roll to see him stumble slightly, more from surprise than pain, then recover quickly and resume his guard. The wound wasn’t deep; Azusa only wanted to see how much of his body was covered by Kevlar. It seemed he only had a vest on, which would explain why he was able to flee from her pursuit so long without tiring. She observed that he was looking forward when she wounded him.
The Templar used this opportunity to pull his dagger from the wall and place it back in its sheath. Then he turned to face Asuza. The man tilted his head inquisitively. It seemed there was more to his opponent than meets the eye. He had not expected the Assassins to send someone so young, but it seemed she was more experienced than he had first thought. He would not underestimate her again. Azusa watched this train of thought in the Templar’s mind playing out over the expressions on his face. Then his face hardened, and he charged at her again without pausing for small talk.
This time the Templar was expecting Azusa to dodge, knowing her disadvantage in size. Azusa was ready. With both hands on the hilt, she swung her sword at an angle to his attack, parrying his swing into his body’s momentum. He felt the unbalancing of his weight and knew that Azusa planned to use this moment to strike. The dagger seemed to just appear in Azusa’s right hand but the Templar was expecting it, and he aimed a powerful kick directly at Azusa’s chest through the hand which held the dagger.
The kick caught Azusa in squarely in the chest, knocking the wind out of her, and the dagger flew from her hand. She turned the backwards force from his kick into a desperate leap as the Templar swung his sword in full force straight down into the ground where Azusa was just before, leaving a great gouge in the snow. Azusa felt a sudden sting of pain as the arc of his swing slashed her retreating right hand. Azusa landed awkwardly on her knees, but reacted with her evasive roll in time before the man’s following leaping downstrike impaled the snow behind her.
Azusa rose, somewhat unsteadily. Her right hand was bleeding. It was useless for holding her sword now. Not that it mattered much at this point: her sword was laying in the snow a meter to her left. She had to end this quickly, one way or the other. The Templar sensed his moment of victory and charged again. There was no way Azusa was blocking or parrying the next blow without a weapon, so he didn’t bother to swing, but thrusted directly forward with a strike intended to run her through. This was a mistake: Azusa simply let his momentum arrive at the point of impact, and then she turned aside to avoid his sword as her right wrist blade drove itself straight into his stomach. The man gasped as he felt her cold metal penetrate him. He was not expecting her to have another short blade when her dagger lay on the ground two meters away. His entire weight crashed forward on top of her, his own fall burying the blade inside himself up to Azusa’s wrist.
The Templar lay awkwardly on top of Azusa, pinning her down. His furious face was centimeters from hers. He snarled at her in Russian: “You’ll die for that, bitch!” His left hand closed around her throat as his right hand drew his dagger from its sheath. Azusa gagged, her right hand still trapped beneath her under the man’s stomach. His right hand swung the dagger straight down at Azusa’s face just as her left fist slammed into the side of his neck and she thrust her left wrist blade directly into it, instantly severing the spine and carotid artery. His right arm continued downward and the dagger slashed Azusa’s cheek as she turned her head away at the last second from the final blow.
Everything was silent for a moment. Then Azusa pushed upwards, rolling the Templar off her and onto his back as she pulled her wrist blades out of his body. He was gurgling as his blood poured out of his exposed artery. She crawled up to him and looked at his face. His eyes widened with recognition, but he couldn’t move with his spine severed. Azusa merely watched now as his irises contracted desperately and he struggled to speak. No words could emerge. She wondered idly if the blood loss or the asphyxiation would kill him first. A pool of blood was forming beneath his neck now, so Azusa gently brushed her left hand over his eyes to close them and stood up.
The courtyard was deserted, but the sound of the chase and fight could not have gone unheard. Quickly Azusa cut off a small strip of her yukata and wrapped her injured right hand. She retrieved her dagger and sword, and paused just a moment in respect for the Templar who now lay still and cold on the bloodstained snow. Then she was gone.
As she fled from the courtyard, Azusa remembered that today was her birthday. Somehow, things always ended up with her running somewhere on her birthday.
If I'd been a member of GAF then, I'd probably have assumed that it was Mugi
The whole ensemble thing meant I just took them all as the focus though. I think I watched this after watching LuckyStar, so yeah.
I have quite strange tastes, methinks.
These words, they call to me!
I've never watched Lucky Star, although the ED's really did a good job of convincing me to do so. I really dislike the way the show looks visually, though, especially the character designs. It may be too pandering for my tastes, at least, that's the impression it gives.
melichrous
Member
These words, they call to me!
I've never watched Lucky Star, although the ED's really did a good job of convincing me to do so. I really dislike the way the show looks visually, though, especially the character designs. It may be too pandering for my tastes, at least, that's the impression it gives.
I kind of get where you're coming from about the visuals, but I didn't find them too bad.
To be honest, it hasn't really got much on shows like K-ON or Haruhi, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Pretty funny most of the time from what I remember, but it's been quite a while since I've watched it.
Unknown Soldier
Member
You just had the answer to your question. Azunyan won Japan Saimoe 2010.
Western fans seem to gravitate to Mio, the winner of ISML 2010.
nckillthegrimace
Member
Thrill as the light music club works dead end jobs, gets drunk, and cries about men (or women).
Chet Rippo
Member
That was pretty damn good. Keep it up!
After Work Beer Time.
Kandrick
GAF's Ed McMahon
amishpriest99
Member
Getting caught up with everything finally after coming back from running the Richmond Marathon on Saturday.
It actually went very well though I am still very sore and am continuing recovery. I did by coincidence end up watching ep 15 of K-ON!! the night before as part of my rewatch, and that did help me on race day to keep from getting too serious lol. Running is one of my other "passions" (for lack of a better term) along with video games and anime. Anywho, glad to be back to reliable not-hotel internet as my iPhone has also been having issues :/.
Really liked this. Like Chet said, keep it up!
It actually went very well though I am still very sore and am continuing recovery
. I did by coincidence end up watching ep 15 of K-ON!! the night before as part of my rewatch, and that did help me on race day to keep from getting too serious lol. Running is one of my other "passions" (for lack of a better term) along with video games and anime. Anywho, glad to be back to reliable not-hotel internet as my iPhone has also been having issues :/.Really liked this
. Like Chet said, keep it up!melichrous
Member
Or what she doesn't do.
Chet Rippo
Member
Getting caught up with everything finally after coming back from running the Richmond Marathon on Saturday.
It actually went very well though I am still very sore and am continuing recovery
Good for you! I've never been one to be very athletic, as I had asthma problems as a kid, but I like to go for walks and ride my bike every so often.
Chet Rippo
Member
It's from the first OP from K-ON!! Go! Go! Maniac!
melichrous
Member
Why don't I remember this hilarious scene?
Chet knows all. Chet sees all. And Chet remembers.
Seems I can really get into these crazy Visual Novel thingymawhuts. Just spent a good part of my night going through A Dream of Summer. Would probably have taken less time, but the damn thing kept crashing on me, so I had to make very liberal use of the quicksave.
Don't suppose you guys have any recommendations for some decent VNs? Preferably in english, as I've only just got my head around hiragana, so Japanese probably wouldn't be a good idea just yet.
I'd prefer some free ones, but I'm willing to purchase some based on recommendations, as long as the price isn't too steep
when i first watched the show, i didn't know anything beforehand and i felt Yui was the main character for most of it. in S2 is where it feels everyone has more equal weight (though it always feels like Mugi gets the shaft somehow)
also, i almost watched the seasons in the wrong order because i got S2 first and i didn't know the different number of !s were meaningful (second show that i watched that separated seasons like that and the first one was Gintama but everything is a joke there)
also, i almost watched the seasons in the wrong order because i got S2 first and i didn't know the different number of !s were meaningful (second show that i watched that separated seasons like that and the first one was Gintama but everything is a joke there)
Chet Rippo
Member
I'm like a female elephant when it comes to the things I like.
Oooh, that would explain why, I've only watched that intro once in my entire viewing of K-On!!.
Seems I can really get into these crazy Visual Novel thingymawhuts. Just spent a good part of my night going through A Dream of Summer. Would probably have taken less time, but the damn thing kept crashing on me, so I had to make very liberal use of the quicksave.
Don't suppose you guys have any recommendations for some decent VNs? Preferably in english, as I've only just got my head around hiragana, so Japanese probably wouldn't be a good idea just yet.
I'd prefer some free ones, but I'm willing to purchase some based on recommendations, as long as the price isn't too steep
http://i.minus.com/ifAatmZsfrwLo.jpg
- That's a big chart with recommendations.
- A recently translated highly acclaimed VN is Little Busters! Haven't played it myself.
- Katawa Shoujo is completely free.
- Personal recommendation: Kanon. Not too long, relatively simple choices, nice stories, GREAT winter atmosphere, fantastic music, quality translation, voice patch available. Feels complete but doesn't have a daunting length. I've been reading one 'day' each day right before I go to sleep and I'm absolutely hooked on it. I look forward to Kanon-time everyday.
EDIT: Here's a screenshot of today's session of Kanon, for the hell of it.
Seems I can really get into these crazy Visual Novel thingymawhuts. Just spent a good part of my night going through A Dream of Summer. Would probably have taken less time, but the damn thing kept crashing on me, so I had to make very liberal use of the quicksave.
Don't suppose you guys have any recommendations for some decent VNs? Preferably in english, as I've only just got my head around hiragana, so Japanese probably wouldn't be a good idea just yet.
I'd prefer some free ones, but I'm willing to purchase some based on recommendations, as long as the price isn't too steep
Planetarian was really nice. The best thing about it for someone who isn't really into VNs is that it's short and straightforward. It doesn't have choices like most VNs, but it doesn't need them.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Steins;Gate is a fine choice for a recently translated VN.
Chet Rippo
Member
You're a monster.
Throw in some fan service for me where Desmond meets with an unfortunate accident and is stuck as Azusa ... forever.
You've done something I can only dream of doing now.
I know.
Chet Rippo
Member
Unknown Soldier
Member
This is my web novel. You can write your own which can contain whatever you want!
It was more of a wish than anything; I never liked the Desmond parts in the games.
It was more of a wish than anything; I never liked the Desmond parts in the games.
Assassin's Creed would be 100x better if Desmond and the modern day stuff didn't exist.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Lucky for you then that Desmond was only there in my story to provide context in the crossover world. He appears in the Prologue, he is scheduled to appear in the Epilogue, and he might get a cameo or two in between Stages depending on whether I need him to comment on something which can't be done from Azusa's PoV. Realistically I might end up writing Desmond out of the Epilogue for reasons.
The problem I have now is that the story is getting longer every time I think about it. This is supposed to be a shitty doujin crossover web novel, not my life's work or someshit. At some point I will have to cut out stuff in my mind just to make it shorter.
It was okay until a certain point where it completely jumped the shark. Now it's growing more ridiculous every second, like Code Geass where it's a trainwreck and they keep sending more trains.
I skipped Revelations and I'll probably buy AC3 on Wii U at some point because I realize I don't really care about the story.
Unknown Soldier
Member
But I hate Dekomori.
What's that, Fake Mori Summer? Can't handle the agony of being such a terrible fake, DESU?!
Chet Rippo
Member
Build on the relationship between her and Yui.
Luckily, the only problem I have at the moment is trying to figure out what to do so late at night other than post here and talk on Skype.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Gotta love that headphone moe. <3
melichrous
Member
Thanks for the recommendations you two
I'll definitely look into them. I really didn't know where to start Thanks for the recommendations you two
Just a piece of advice: the way I read VNs is that I go in completely blind on my first playthrough, then look up a guide to get to all the other routes. This seems to me to be the most time-effective vs enjoyable way to read VNs.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Assassin's Creed x K-ON!: Another A
Stage.01: Hematogenesis – Part II
5:48 am
The platform at Nagano Station for the first train of the day to Tokyo was already crowded. At this hour, mostly businessmen and women wearing sharp suits were waiting for the Nagano Shinkansen. Azusa looked the part in a conservative brown dress suit which matched her hazel eyes. Some of the bystanders might have found it strange that she combined her business attire with a guitar case slung on her back. After trying many alternate carry methods, she still found a guitar case the best method of storing her sword and other weapons when she needed to conceal them in public.
Her right hand still hurt. Both hands were carefully hidden inside a pair of leather gloves, a perfectly ordinary accessory on a crisp winter day. The gash in her cheek was harder to disguise, and some of the people standing around by the chair she occupied stole an edgewise glance at the large gauze bandage on the right side of her face. This was unavoidable. As long as the man who had been discreetly following her since she left the hotel two hours ago was still tailing her, she had to remain in a crowded public area. She was in no condition for another duel.
Azusa had not slept for nearly twenty-three hours. The exhaustion was starting to wear on her, but she could not rest until she had shaken her tail and reached the nearest safe house. She could not head for the one in Nagano right now, unfortunately. Not with this guy dogging her every step. Azusa sighed quietly. If she hadn’t been so rash in her pursuit of the Templar, the situation would not have escalated to such a degree. She was lucky to have escaped with her life from that encounter.
The man who was following her appeared to be Korean. The Knights Templar had an unknown number of members hidden among the various yakuza clans in Japan. This one had probably been observing her since she arrived at the hotel yesterday. If Azusa had to guess, he was probably the one who tipped her target off that he was marked for death. He was leaning against a column near the end of the platform. She would not be able to return to the station without him watching. Her plan did not require her to leave that way, however. It was just considerably more dangerous to leave how she was intending to.
A whirr grew steadily into a whine, and then a screech as the train pulled into the station and halted. The doors glided open precisely at 5:55 am and the crowd of salarymen and women began piling inside. Azusa stood and moved into the nearest flow of people. She allowed herself to be swept up in the movement and carried into its center. With her slight stature, she was counting on being hidden among the other people boarding the train. The Korean also boarded the train, closer to the front than she was. This was as she intended.
Even before the doors of the train began to close, Azusa began working her way towards the rear of the train. She was considerably smaller than the Korean, and thus it would be much easier for her to squeeze her way between the people on the crowded train. Her guitar case only slowed her down slightly; she had gotten a lot of practice maneuvering it through crowds over the years. She knew the Korean would be moving towards her as quickly as he could.
The electric motor of the train began to move it forward with a slight jerk. Azusa was almost to the last car now. She could hear a commotion behind her: the Korean was making a bit of a scene as he roughly pushed his way through a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of ruffled commuters. She had to do this quickly. As she reached the last car, she threw her guitar case open and grabbed the sword hidden inside. A few people in the last car of the train gasped as Azusa unsheathed her wakizashi and pivoted on her heel. The Korean had abandoned all pretenses of decorum now and roughly pushed the last few hapless salarymen out of his way as Azusa charged forward with her blade drawn.
The Korean was not expecting a surprise attack in broad daylight surrounded by the public. He saw the point of Azusa’s sword coming towards him and tried to evade but the crowd of people packed around him made it impossible for him to move in any direction. It was almost the same charging thrust that the Templar had tried to finish Azusa with a few hours earlier. This is how you’re supposed to do that move, Azusa thought grimly as she charged straight at the Korean. He could only watch as Azusa’s sword plunged straight into his chest and pierced his heart. He yelled, more in shock than anything else, as Azusa quickly pulled her blade out of him. Everyone seemed to stop and take in the scene of the man slumping down into the arms of a traumatized woman. A round bloodstain quickly grew around the hole in his chest. She blanched, and then screamed at the top of her lungs. The crowd seemed unsure of how to react for just a moment, and then apparently remembered they were supposed to collectively panic and stampede in the opposite direction.
Azusa was out of time; the train had already accelerated as it left the station and would soon reach its normal cruising speed. She could not survive jumping out of the train when it was traveling at more than 200 km/hr. With the hilt of her sword, she smashed the nearest window out, climbed over the threshold, and leaped as hard as she could. There was nothing but hard ground to break her fall, but she wrapped her hands tightly around the guitar case so she would land on it. Time seemed to freeze. Behind her, the train whipped around a bend and vanished from sight. Pieces of broken glass seemed to glimmer in the air around her. Distantly, she could hear screaming that faded rapidly. Then a sudden burst of pain seemed to fill her entire consciousness.
Azusa yelled as the impact with the ground knocked the wind out of her. The guitar case was soft but it wasn’t meant to be used as a personal airbag. She rolled over several times letting her momentum carry her and eventually she came to rest on her back. Azusa lay still for a minute, trying to catch her breath. Then she looked left and right. Fortunately, she was now several hundred meters away from the station. The only witnesses to the murder of the yakuza member were currently on a train which wasn’t stopping until it reached the next station. At this distance, Azusa hoped that her suicide leap was not observed by anyone still on the platform.
Her sword lay on the ground several meters away. Azusa sat up, trying to catch her breath. A quick inventory of what she could see showed no visible damage. Her gloves were torn to shreds, but her hands were only lightly scratched. Fortunately, her right hand had not started bleeding again. The guitar case had broken her fall admirably; it seemed that paying the premium for the extra thick leather soft case had been worth every yen. It was badly ripped right across the middle, and could no longer serve as a carrier for her sword. Well, that couldn’t be helped. Taking a deep breath, Azusa pulled herself to her feet. Walking shakily to her sword, she picked it up and secured it to her back. Well, everything in her body seemed to be in working condition. She paused only briefly to remove her wrist blades and dagger from the ruined guitar case. She had to make it to the safe house and reach the car waiting for her there. Azusa had already killed two people in Nagano today. The people the Order had planted among law enforcement in the city could only stall the investigation for so long; if she lingered much longer she would have the entire prefectural police force hunting her down.
Ignoring the protests of her body, Azusa walked slowly down the embankment, away from the train tracks. She would have plenty of time to be sore later. Near the bottom, a bicycle rack was lightly populated with a few of the latest models. Fortunately, one of the owners didn’t even bother to lock his bicycle to the rack. Azusa gratefully climbed on, secured her sword on her back, and rode off with the rising sun behind her. The streets were already starting to have some morning traffic, and she wasn’t exactly inconspicuous riding a bicycle while wearing a business suit with a sword strapped to her back. She had to ride fast.
After about ten minutes, Azusa came to a stop one block away from the safe house. She concealed the stolen bicycle in some bushes and walked briskly to the safe house. She had not been to this house at all during her time in Nagano, and after today it would certainly have to be abandoned by the Order. She quickly walked behind it and slipped inside through the back door. The key to the car in the garage was sitting on the counter. Azusa took the key, climbed into the car, and left.
Azusa looked out the driver’s side window as buildings flew by. There seemed to be some commotion going on at Nagano Station. She turned and merged into traffic on the highway out of the city. It looked like she wasn’t going to be sleeping for a while longer. Somewhere in the distance, sirens were blaring. Azusa pretended not to notice.
Stage.01: Hematogenesis – Part II
5:48 am
The platform at Nagano Station for the first train of the day to Tokyo was already crowded. At this hour, mostly businessmen and women wearing sharp suits were waiting for the Nagano Shinkansen. Azusa looked the part in a conservative brown dress suit which matched her hazel eyes. Some of the bystanders might have found it strange that she combined her business attire with a guitar case slung on her back. After trying many alternate carry methods, she still found a guitar case the best method of storing her sword and other weapons when she needed to conceal them in public.
Her right hand still hurt. Both hands were carefully hidden inside a pair of leather gloves, a perfectly ordinary accessory on a crisp winter day. The gash in her cheek was harder to disguise, and some of the people standing around by the chair she occupied stole an edgewise glance at the large gauze bandage on the right side of her face. This was unavoidable. As long as the man who had been discreetly following her since she left the hotel two hours ago was still tailing her, she had to remain in a crowded public area. She was in no condition for another duel.
Azusa had not slept for nearly twenty-three hours. The exhaustion was starting to wear on her, but she could not rest until she had shaken her tail and reached the nearest safe house. She could not head for the one in Nagano right now, unfortunately. Not with this guy dogging her every step. Azusa sighed quietly. If she hadn’t been so rash in her pursuit of the Templar, the situation would not have escalated to such a degree. She was lucky to have escaped with her life from that encounter.
The man who was following her appeared to be Korean. The Knights Templar had an unknown number of members hidden among the various yakuza clans in Japan. This one had probably been observing her since she arrived at the hotel yesterday. If Azusa had to guess, he was probably the one who tipped her target off that he was marked for death. He was leaning against a column near the end of the platform. She would not be able to return to the station without him watching. Her plan did not require her to leave that way, however. It was just considerably more dangerous to leave how she was intending to.
A whirr grew steadily into a whine, and then a screech as the train pulled into the station and halted. The doors glided open precisely at 5:55 am and the crowd of salarymen and women began piling inside. Azusa stood and moved into the nearest flow of people. She allowed herself to be swept up in the movement and carried into its center. With her slight stature, she was counting on being hidden among the other people boarding the train. The Korean also boarded the train, closer to the front than she was. This was as she intended.
Even before the doors of the train began to close, Azusa began working her way towards the rear of the train. She was considerably smaller than the Korean, and thus it would be much easier for her to squeeze her way between the people on the crowded train. Her guitar case only slowed her down slightly; she had gotten a lot of practice maneuvering it through crowds over the years. She knew the Korean would be moving towards her as quickly as he could.
The electric motor of the train began to move it forward with a slight jerk. Azusa was almost to the last car now. She could hear a commotion behind her: the Korean was making a bit of a scene as he roughly pushed his way through a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of ruffled commuters. She had to do this quickly. As she reached the last car, she threw her guitar case open and grabbed the sword hidden inside. A few people in the last car of the train gasped as Azusa unsheathed her wakizashi and pivoted on her heel. The Korean had abandoned all pretenses of decorum now and roughly pushed the last few hapless salarymen out of his way as Azusa charged forward with her blade drawn.
The Korean was not expecting a surprise attack in broad daylight surrounded by the public. He saw the point of Azusa’s sword coming towards him and tried to evade but the crowd of people packed around him made it impossible for him to move in any direction. It was almost the same charging thrust that the Templar had tried to finish Azusa with a few hours earlier. This is how you’re supposed to do that move, Azusa thought grimly as she charged straight at the Korean. He could only watch as Azusa’s sword plunged straight into his chest and pierced his heart. He yelled, more in shock than anything else, as Azusa quickly pulled her blade out of him. Everyone seemed to stop and take in the scene of the man slumping down into the arms of a traumatized woman. A round bloodstain quickly grew around the hole in his chest. She blanched, and then screamed at the top of her lungs. The crowd seemed unsure of how to react for just a moment, and then apparently remembered they were supposed to collectively panic and stampede in the opposite direction.
Azusa was out of time; the train had already accelerated as it left the station and would soon reach its normal cruising speed. She could not survive jumping out of the train when it was traveling at more than 200 km/hr. With the hilt of her sword, she smashed the nearest window out, climbed over the threshold, and leaped as hard as she could. There was nothing but hard ground to break her fall, but she wrapped her hands tightly around the guitar case so she would land on it. Time seemed to freeze. Behind her, the train whipped around a bend and vanished from sight. Pieces of broken glass seemed to glimmer in the air around her. Distantly, she could hear screaming that faded rapidly. Then a sudden burst of pain seemed to fill her entire consciousness.
Azusa yelled as the impact with the ground knocked the wind out of her. The guitar case was soft but it wasn’t meant to be used as a personal airbag. She rolled over several times letting her momentum carry her and eventually she came to rest on her back. Azusa lay still for a minute, trying to catch her breath. Then she looked left and right. Fortunately, she was now several hundred meters away from the station. The only witnesses to the murder of the yakuza member were currently on a train which wasn’t stopping until it reached the next station. At this distance, Azusa hoped that her suicide leap was not observed by anyone still on the platform.
Her sword lay on the ground several meters away. Azusa sat up, trying to catch her breath. A quick inventory of what she could see showed no visible damage. Her gloves were torn to shreds, but her hands were only lightly scratched. Fortunately, her right hand had not started bleeding again. The guitar case had broken her fall admirably; it seemed that paying the premium for the extra thick leather soft case had been worth every yen. It was badly ripped right across the middle, and could no longer serve as a carrier for her sword. Well, that couldn’t be helped. Taking a deep breath, Azusa pulled herself to her feet. Walking shakily to her sword, she picked it up and secured it to her back. Well, everything in her body seemed to be in working condition. She paused only briefly to remove her wrist blades and dagger from the ruined guitar case. She had to make it to the safe house and reach the car waiting for her there. Azusa had already killed two people in Nagano today. The people the Order had planted among law enforcement in the city could only stall the investigation for so long; if she lingered much longer she would have the entire prefectural police force hunting her down.
Ignoring the protests of her body, Azusa walked slowly down the embankment, away from the train tracks. She would have plenty of time to be sore later. Near the bottom, a bicycle rack was lightly populated with a few of the latest models. Fortunately, one of the owners didn’t even bother to lock his bicycle to the rack. Azusa gratefully climbed on, secured her sword on her back, and rode off with the rising sun behind her. The streets were already starting to have some morning traffic, and she wasn’t exactly inconspicuous riding a bicycle while wearing a business suit with a sword strapped to her back. She had to ride fast.
After about ten minutes, Azusa came to a stop one block away from the safe house. She concealed the stolen bicycle in some bushes and walked briskly to the safe house. She had not been to this house at all during her time in Nagano, and after today it would certainly have to be abandoned by the Order. She quickly walked behind it and slipped inside through the back door. The key to the car in the garage was sitting on the counter. Azusa took the key, climbed into the car, and left.
Azusa looked out the driver’s side window as buildings flew by. There seemed to be some commotion going on at Nagano Station. She turned and merged into traffic on the highway out of the city. It looked like she wasn’t going to be sleeping for a while longer. Somewhere in the distance, sirens were blaring. Azusa pretended not to notice.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
All the brony haters should check out this thread instead. o_o
Just stoppin' by real quickly here:
There's no other way to put this but, am I correct in assuming aguirre was an active poster in this thread?
Someone who lurks here had something to ask aguirre, would really appreciate if anyone has his contact details (Skype, AIM or whatever).
There's no other way to put this but, am I correct in assuming aguirre was an active poster in this thread?
Someone who lurks here had something to ask aguirre, would really appreciate if anyone has his contact details (Skype, AIM or whatever).
I don't think she's posted here more than that one time. I don't have any contact info.