night five - kill log.

[foxhounds]

Who: Killers and Max Caulfield
When: The fifth night
Where: The jungles of Ship-Trap Island

[ It's the dead of night in the jungle. Considering the Hunt, you have to wonder if you're actually safe out here, but it at least seems quiet. Maybe you could try getting some rest, or maybe you should keep watch. Either way, that quiet may not seem very comforting. ]

Comments

[photoshoot]

[ another night alone. Max had found an inconspicous place to sleep again — this time, at the base of a large tree trunk — and she was trying her best to get at least a little sleep. she should rest easy, knowing there's one less general on the loose, but something is making it hard for her to even close her eyes. maybe her dwindling hope im saving her dead friend, or the events of the previous night were weighing hard on her mind.

either way, she's forcing her eyes closed. ]

[liberalarts]

[ It's nothing more than bad luck, honestly.

Kasen would have been content enough to come across anyone in the jungle, but as he walks almost silently through the brush, he almost laughs when he sees someone crouched for tenuous sleep at the bottom of a tree. He recognizes her, of course. She's the one whose opinions had been swapping frequently, and it's why a smile ghosts across his face as he approaches.

The sound that will wake her is probably the ring of steel as he unsheathes his sword. ]

Ah, good evening.

[photoshoot]

[ Max bolts awake. was she even asleep? she's not sure if she was or not. she just knows — here and now — someone had found her. when her vision focuses on her potential assailant, she stands to her feet ans stumbles off the stump. her posture is drawn in, but there is a near aggressive scowl on her face. ]

So you're the one who betrayed the other swords.

[liberalarts]

No.

[ He looks down at his blade, which is already stained red, actually. Max isn't the first person he's come across tonight. But his correction is gentle, almost sad. ]

It was Tsurumaru. They weren't wrong about that. [ There's an "unfortunately" that lingers in the air unsaid after that, but he turns his sword aggressively. The moonlight glints off the steel as a bright silver. ]

Haha— Not that it matters. He's dead. So is Kashuu. So I'm doing what I must to make sure I can carry their bodies home.

[photoshoot]

[ tsurumaru.. so they were both bad. Geez. she quivers at the sight of his sword — something about it was very visceral, knowing that it was in other people, that the DNA that stained it was a mixture of multiple people's. ]

I'm the one who killed Souza, and he told me how much he trusted you guys. How you saved him. He really loved all of you and felt like he had found a home. And to know that you'd betray your best friends... You're fucking disgusting.

[ she knows she's gonna die here, but she has a plan. she pulls out her camera and flashes a photo. it's rushed, so it isn't right at Kasen, but maybe it got his sword or something. she grabs the photo from it and runs. she bolts as fast as she can through the underbrush. ]

ugh max i'm so sorry

[liberalarts]

[ Though it was only one outburst at Gi-ne's words, that outburst still hinted to something about Kasen that he very deliberately kept hidden. His temper was incredibly fierce, far more than his gentle words and personality most times would imply. So as soon as she admits that she killed Souza, Kasen's anger is blinding and it bubbles up so quickly that he would almost see red. The rest of what she says falls on deaf ears, because he remembers what they had all talked about. He remembers what Souza had said about humans, and his only rational thought amounts to "you were right."

Kasen rushes after her as soon as the camera is raised, and there's nothing less than hot fury written on his face. The flash is all the brighter in the pitch darkness of the jungle, and so it blinds him, but he's a tool of war. He tries to blink it off, because he only need pursue the only thing moving here. This is no battlefield, so there's no other movement to keep track of.

He's quick in his pursuit, and perhaps catches up more quickly since he hadn't waited for her to finish her words. If he catches up, then he'll deliver a powerful and vicious slash to her back. It won't kill her, but it'll surely stop her from running. Even a seasoned warrior wouldn't be able to keep running with the sharp, sudden pain of such a wound. ]

kasen u a bad muthafucker

[photoshoot]

[ after she accomplishes what she wanted to do, Max doesn't run anymore. In fact, she practically waits for Kasen, because this is where she wants to die — next to a another large tree with a spacious hole placed precariously in the stem. she had placed the photo she took — the contents of which she hadn't even so much as glanced at — and steps a few feet away before she feels a sharp pain in her back.

she lets out a pained noise before she falls on her knees, her back pulsating, burning. her nose begins to bleed — she had been prone to them as of late, perhaps something to do with stress — and uses all the strength in her arms to hold herself up, as if she was pushing against gravity. through coughs: ]

Chloe and I.. we are forever. You're less than me. You're nothing, Kasen.

thank

[liberalarts]

Then die with some elegance.

[ His tone is incredibly harsh and frightening, and it's as far a cry from how he's spoken during trials as possible. It's all he says before he turns his sword in his hands in an easy motion to reposition it. The tip of the sword drives down in a stabbing motion that catches her right through the neck, but not beheading her. She'll likely even be able to see that wicked silver wet with her own blood by how far he drives it through.

But he's not looking to torture her or prolong this experience despite how vicious he is. The blade turns and angles outward, and he harshly pulls it through flesh to cut through half her neck.

She'll bleed out quickly, and Kasen will be waiting to watch. ]

[photoshoot]

Ah—

[ Max closes her eyes. Chloe was right — dying was cold, and it was like dreaming about the moment forever. Max didn't want that, so she thought about the times when she was happiest — when she and Chloe pretended to be pirates when they were kids, before the world was scary and real life had actually started. her head starts to go limp as she thinks of this. ]

See.. you around.

[ that's all that she manners to mutter out. it was the last thing Chloe had told her in another world, and it's directed at her — might be strange for Kasen to hear that.

see you space cowgirl. ]

[liberalarts]

[ As soon as he cuts into her neck, he's stepped back to avoid the blood, though of course he can't avoid it all. He doesn't think too much of it now, since adrenaline is still pumping through his veins, and his hand still itches on his sword. If there were someone else here, then he'd surely cut them down too, since every body added to a pile is another to make his namesake all the clearer. He doesn't take pride in that, necessarily, but he's not quite ashamed of it either. He simply was, and that's why as he steps back, he can look at an innocent young woman die by his hand and feel... nothing, really.

She was just unlucky, honestly. He hadn't known who killed Souza, and in a way, he hadn't wanted to know, because he knew just as much that anyone responsible for striking down one of his comrades would certainly meet his blade. So perhaps he feels relief at that. If someone that killed one of his brothers had been killed in the name of vengeance, then perhaps—

Ah, well. Talk of vengeance really wasn't his style. It was a terribly brutish thing, but as he exhales a deep breath of exertion as the high fades, he does realize that his job isn't quite done yet. A thought comes to him, and he frowns. The idea really is brutish, but if anyone knows that he was the one to strike her down, then the weight of responsibility would fall on Urashima's shoulders alone.

...So he simply can't allow it. ]