[[ Ah, yes, Igura from Togainu no Chi. It's more deadly of course, but the concept is the same. You have to have a witness (they're all going to the same dimension >w<;), "As limited and solid as humans" is like the no-firearms rule, and if your back touches the ground then technically you lose.. But you have to be set free to play the game some more after five hours of captivity or whatever such a winner wants to do to the loser ._.;; ]]

Seth was taken away from the scene for a moment when he saw Ariel's reaction to being solid. He noted that she wasn't just surprised, but that she was practically shocked. He raised an eyebrow at Michael when he was silently told to move ahead. "What's second?" he wondered aloud, stepping through behind Ariel. As his foot crossed the boundaries of the door, Seth pondered why he'd even agreed to play such a game. It wouldn't matter to him if the spirit was good or evil. 'If I'm actually trusting someone with my dimensional life then we have a problem.'

[[ oh~ righto! i watched a few episodes of Togainu no Chi but I lost track what episode I was on xwx ]]

'For the kids... I'm doing this for the trapped children.' Michael thought to himself as he followed in behind Seth. When the girl stepped through she kept the portal open. Her skin was a dark grey with a series of black markings covering her naked body like clothing. Her short dark hair flow with her movements just right and her eyes- solid purple with not even a single speck of light. "Alright you, cover your eyes like you said." Michael stated. She shrugged and ripped a piece of her cloth and used it as a blindfold. "Happy?" She looked at him with a sly smirk before heading to the center of area. "You know the rules, but I won't the one to start the game~"

Ariel came out of her daze and ran towards the girl and kicked her in directly in the stomach hard enough to knock her back a few inches then brought her fist to the girls face, hurling her towards the wall. The girl landed on the wall like spider-man and smirked. "Looks like your bite is worse than your bark." Michael stood in back, since Ariel took the first swing- he'd wait until one of them fell, unless Seth beat him to it.

[[ x3 There's only like 12 episodes ;~: I watched all of them in about two days on animefreak dot tv .x.' ]]

Seth was stunned by the ghost-girl's appearance. In fact, he was so shocked that he even forgot to breathe for a few moments when his senses re-checked their input. Her skin's black markings resembled the ones that arched across Seth's own figure, and the deep grey-tone made him shiver. 'She must have been infected for a while,' he thought aimlessly. Seth looked up at Michael, making a point to bring that topic up if they made it out of the sparring.

He was truly knocked back into place when he saw Ariel take the first two strikes. Yet again, Seth found himself instinctively reaching for a dagger in a near-empty pocket that wasn't where it should have been, even though that would have broken a rule or two. "Ah, real human-like of you, to stick to nearly friction-less objects," he remarked as he released his hand from it's mindless search and held his ground. "What do you think, Michael?" He wasn't positive about the idea of taking the spirit on all at once. If she could get a good round-house kick, Seth knew that the game would be over within a matter of seconds at a dead end just like the other kids- 'That's it!' he thought anxiously. 'They've all failed this game!'

The girl giggled wickedly. "Jealous?" She rocketed off the wall towards Ariel who simply moved aside and watched the girl crash in the floor face first.

Michael glances over and shakes his head. "If we do an all-out attack, then she won't need a reason to hold back either. " He replied lowly as he thought about the other kids. "This seems to be her favorite game- considering how quick she named it. The other kids must've come in groups to rescue their friends, but they all attacked at once. Conclusion- they lost."

"Let me handle this!" Ariel almost yelled and looked at the boys. "You guys have been doing all the fighting since we got here." She kinda had some built up rage she could now physically show. Just as the girl rose to her feet- since she was still in the game- Ariel kicked the girl square in the back. The girl staggered a little then turned around grabbed Ariel's fist that was inches from her face. "Not gonna work twice." She then twisted her arm back behind her and brought her to her knees. The pain was unbearable and boy did it show on her face. 'So this is pain... I think I prefer being a ghost!' There was a snap-sound and Ariel practically screamed. The girl released the limp arm and smirked. "This place makes us equal to humans, didn't I tell you that?" The girl asked, kicking her over and looked at them. "Who's next?"

Seth shook his head in disbelief and crossed his arms. "No, you look like a dirty moth," he retorted. He didn't understand how so many kids could have walked in and given away their souls in such a short amount of time. He also refused to be like the rest of said crowd, giving himself up to some ghost chick's child play. Seth nodded at Michael's analysis and frowned when he watched Ariel get her arm broken. "Well, this isn't working either," he muttered under his breath. Seth made sure to pay close attention to the spirit's tactics, but it was difficult to tell what she'd ever use.

He put his tongue in his cheek and let her claim of human-like equality literally go out his other ear. "Because humans can stick to walls and-" Seth clamped his mouth shut in another moment of realization. He pressed a hand over a place in his jacket that held a secret compartment only accessible from the inside. Seth bit his lip and looked down. A voice echoed through his head; "Why does he possess seemingly limitless power over the Onyx?" He casually let his willpower diminish- the achy-sick feeling of Onyx began to spread even further than it had and a spirit-stone-like pain pressed him with each spark of false-crystal. The only place Seth left guarded was his mind. He tried to give Michael a look along the lines of 'I'm brewing up a plan, can you hold her off for a few moments?' but all that showed was a stern look of worry. "Why don't you try?"

[ well technically anybody can do a spidey-landing~ i got it from a movie i've seen over a hundred time :3 ]

Michael went over to Ariel who was playing-it-tough and picked her up over his shoulder. "You're done, don't feel like letting you getting yourself killed." He said quietly and carefully put her on her feet by the door. "Stay." He said, then glanced over at Seth and frowned a little, but nodded in understanding. The girl watched Seth, almost knowing what he was doing and growled lowly. "Don't even try it." Michael said as he simply used a self-defense method to hold her back so he wasn't taking his turn in the 'game'.

Ariel looked at her limp arm and tilted her head, black spot was seen where the girl had grabbed her arm so roughly. 'Oh, lovely... -.-'

[[ Lmao, Parkour stuff is totally epic TwT They had some session at my old school that was basic "jump over this giant platform like a freaking ninja" tricks and how to land correctly x3 It makes me wanna take lessons~ You could totally do it too ;3 ]]

Seth briefly distracted himself with the thought of the little bit of medical supplies he carried with him in case Ariel needed something like a painkiller. When he remembered that she was actually a ghost, he continued to focus areas of himself that would remain 'pure' such as the color of his skin. Seth was not interested in turning into a grey freak. He caught Ariel's gaze and tilted his head back slightly as if to look down on her threateningly.

His heart skipped a beat when he noticed the dark stain on Ariel's arm. 'Make that a neuroleptic..' He almost lost control of his little mini-experiment on himself, blurring his vision in the process. He winced in pain and made sure nothing was too visible beyond his fingertips. After a few moments, the unsteady pain of strange jagged streaks scarring him went away again and Seth almost felt revitalized to be under the influence of Onyx. While the physical effects of gravity and the spirit stones were less than their full magnitude in his state, Seth felt a little like abomination. He turned to face Michael and the Onyx spirit. His left eye, once burning in pain from a streak that had run up that side of his face, now seemed to be alert in the motions of everything around him.

[ eh? O.o ]

Ariel sat on her bum and used what little magic she had available to at least attempt to UN-break the broken arm.

Michael glanced back at Seth to see how his 'plan' was coming along but soon fixed his attention back to the girl he was defending against. He was in the clearing as long as he didn't attack her.

[[ Ohs- Parkour is that crazy spiderman-type action. If you train right, you can literally jump off a building, land, and walk away. >w< That stuff as well as jumping across walls/railings- it's all within human capability. *squee* The people that came to my school already had a few years of training, so they had us do mini-stunts to get us hooked on their program. ]]

Seth stood in complete silence for about a minute. He stared forwards as he took in the area around him, working out the balance between Onyx and willpower of his own. He didn't think anything, he just toyed around with his ability. Somehow, everything was so much sharper in his senses. Strangely enough, he could feel additional humming sounds above his own heartbeat. His hands tingled a little, like they wanted to do something. 'Or destroy something, or someone...'

Seth's eyes slowly tracked around the open space he was in. There were three figures, two of which seemed foreign to him for a moment, but his desire to break wasn't directed towards them. It was the third figure- dulled like himself- that his mind was set to. Seth was washed down by a wave of emotions from extremities such as kinship and pure hatred to mediums of confusion. In the end, his eyes narrowed at the darkened figure. Within seconds, Seth had already side-stepped protectively in front of Michael and launched himself forwards effortlessly to close the gap between him and the spirit, his hands ready to both strike and defend.

[[ sugoi~ ^0^ ]]

Michael went over to stand by Ariel so he wasn't in anybody's way. 'Uh-oh...' The girl jumped backwards as Seth launched himself towards her. Her loosely-tide blindfold slipped off due to the force she used to jump away from the boy.

For a moment, Seth thought that time slowed down. His mind was cloudy and he wasn't exactly sure of what was going on, but he knew he was a big part of it. He landed right in front of where the ghost-girl once stood, stopping lightly as if he had merely jumped an inch while the slow-motion air rushed past him from his drag. It felt like a few seconds, but Seth knew inwardly that it was most likely a fraction. He could see, out of the corner of his eye, Michael moving towards Ariel to get out of the way. Seth raised an eyebrow when he saw the blindfold fall to the ground. He was fascinated by the effects of his senses. He had a 360 degree sense of location and could point out fine details in the surroundings. He could even see the bit of condensed air around the spirit as she moved back.

"You cheated~" he cooed with a sinister tone that was unfamiliar to his normal voice. Seth followed her soon after his comment with another one of his light pushes off the ground to get closer to the girl. It was like something was boiling inside of him with a fiery passion, and when he pushed off the ground a little bit of it was released into action. Seth felt like he never wanted to leave it, so he kicked out the ideas of a future where he had to do anything but be free. His mind was set on battle.

"So did you, so we're even." She replied grimly, feeling like they were playing a twisted version of cat and mouse. Seth being the angry cat and her being the mouse. It wasn't obvious who was going to actually attack first but she instantly went into defense mode. Ready to defend against anything- or so she told herself.

Seth halted his insane performance of agility right when he landed next to the girl and placed a hand over his chest as if he was hurt by something and couldn't breathe. "Me?" he asked somewhat too innocently. "Never! I don't remember breaking any rules." Seth grinned and leaned close to her. His left eye tinted a noticeable red underneath the grey from the black, claw-like streak that 'scratched' his face. "Tell me~ what happens when you break rules?" he wondered. On the inside, he was nearly silent- it would have been eerie under normal circumstances, since it was usually Seth's mind that was always active and his physical being that remained still and lifeless. Now, he was quieted by some invisible force. His thoughts didn't form words, they just filled a desire to act.

The girl picked up her blindfold and gripped it in her hand. "Someone could get hurt if and when you break the rules." She replied with her sweetly poisoned voice. She went from thinking about putt the fold back on to dropping it and smirking, not understanding how she cheated. Her eyes didn't count as a weapon since they were apart of her. Plus, it's not like she untied the fold herself.

[[ Battle scenes in RPs used to be really hard for me. .x.; So one of my friends had me play her "ERROR" character on her RP site- basically meaning that I was every monster that ever existed. >w< Joy~.. ]]

Seth crossed his arms at the spirit. "Someone could get hurt," he muttered. "This is sparring, not tag." Seth bit his lip in the silence and thought for a moment. "...But you're a girl, so how should I go about this?" he continued aloud. He looked off in the distance towards Michael and Ariel, his reddened eye glinting in the light. "Ah, I know~" he said before timelessly lowering his center of gravity just enough so that he could spin out a full-blown kick directed towards the mortal-like-spirit's side.

[[ wow, hehe sounds fun ]]

The girl didn't know where she going with the comment she made earlier. She got ready for an attack at any moment and and turned in the direction his foot/leg was aiming at, guarding against it but still staggered back. "That's a little sexist isn't it?" She muttered under her breath.

[[ we could time-skip and just say the Seth won :3 ]]

[[ Sure~ just tell me if I screw up the ending. ._.; ]]

Seth gritted his teeth and swiped at the spirit viciously right after her comment. "Bite me," he dared.

. . . ~ T i m e S k i p ~ . . .
To: Victory

Seth was thrown back by his own last strike, somewhat out of breath and kneeling on the ground with a hand for support. His opponent was finally on the ground, her back touching it. He cleared his throat amid his huff for air and marched proudly over to the spirit. He knelt again beside her and pulled out a clear, blue-white shard of glowing material from his hidden pocket. It burned his hand and caused a trickle of blood to appear, but Seth was still on a painless high. He'd taken that kind of damage. "I win," he declared, holding the shard close to the Onyx-spirit like a dagger. He could tell that his left eye was a dim red color, since he saw a tiny bit of off-colored light against the objects within that kind of dim-lighted vicinity. A smile crept onto his face.

Ariel was hiding behind Michael by this time as she watched the intense sparring and this side of Seth which she did not like one bit. Her arm was healed but sorta hurt from the girl's infection.

The girl was also out of breath from the game. She lay on the ground looking up at Seth and kept her neck from the shard. "Alright, alright- I'll release the kids and them home and leave other curious brats alone like I said. Back off!" She hissed.

The burning feeling in Seth's hand was like another hand pulling him out of darkness. He blinked once at the defeated spirit on the ground and then at the shard. "...The Crystal was unhappy with the Onyx's nature that destroyed," a voice echoed to him. "So, they decided that neither should try to influence other beings" Seth remembered every word that had been spoken by the mysterious girl in his 'dream' earlier that day. It was even fresher in his mind when in contact with Crystal...

Seth looked at the spirit with a stare that seemed to blank itself, despite his deadly appearance. "How did you end up like this~?" he asked, desperately trying to calm his sinister tone as much as possible. He didn't have the intentions of mockery, but his impulses were a little out-of-hand for the moment.

The girl blinked a few times and stared at him in disbelief. "You totally creamed her!" Ariel chimed as she came out from behind Michael. "Beat her at her own game." She placed a hand over the dark spot on her arm as an attempt to hide it- which she knew would soon fail but did it anyway. The girl moved away from Seth and slowly stood before walking towards the doorway back into the "home" AD.

Seth looked up at Ariel. His mind was still clouded, but the Crystal shard he had broken off of a tree kept him in a decent state of reality. He rose to his feet and forced himself to move forwards in a straight line. His mind was still a little suppressed compared to his rogue incentives to do whatever he felt like, but not by much. He stopped behind Michael, making a point that he would not leave the strange, alternate dimension until he knew that Michael was safely out.

Ariel jumped out after the girl did and was happy about going back to being a spirit like she was before playing the infected spirit's little game. Michael followed suite and made sure Seth was behind him.

Seth smiled when he saw Michael checking for his attendance. He stepped through the 'door' and fought back a wave of being groggy. He felt like he'd just woken up while being sick. Seth staggered a little but managed to stay on his feet. The temptations of the Onyx were almost unbearable, since Seth knew what kind of relief and confidence they fueled him with. He sighed and turned his attention to Ariel. He couldn't get a good glimpse of her arm, so he sat down on his tree branch from a few feet away and leaned against the trunk. Again, mixed feelings stirred inside of him that caused him to wonder. He wasn't exactly sure how to react- a smile formed across his mouth but his eyes remained two-toned and almost heartless.

The girl closed the portal once everyone was out and opened the one with the kids behind it. Hovering inside, she changed the scenery which seemed to bring the kids back to their senses then sent them to their homes in the village then came back out. ~The kids are awake and they are home.~ The infected spirit said after closing the door. Krystal blew air out of her nose just to make herself known.

[[ hey, i forgot to ask- but how did you like the latest chapter? O.o ]]

[[ ^^ I was so happy that Kate made it out unscathed! I liked the meaningful end, too >w< I can't explain it~ (not at 12am at least) ]]

Seth slowly looked up at the sound of a dragon overhead. He watched the spirit let the kids go home. A tainted side of his mind wondered why he'd spent so much time for such a small cause, but he ignored it just like he ignored almost everything else. He made note to check the village for re-appearances of those missing children. "You still never answered," he muttered to the Onyx-girl afterwards. Seth thought about what he was sure he saw on Ariel's arm as well as what the Crystal girl had told him about the two entities. He looked away and to the river below for a few moments in tranquility. His mind was beginning to override corruption.

[[ x.x i think this is gonna be my last post- nini nova-chan~ ]]