Discoveries of my own...

Daigoro Ito sighed, and looked around the ruins that lay before him. Was it really the homes of the Ishvallans that he was standing in front of? He had to remember - his parentage led back to here, didn't it? He was forever going to be half-Ishavallan, and he had the eye colour to prove it. He sighed again, and pulled the cloth out of his hair, allowing the red locks to fall behind him, slightly touching the ground. He smiled, and allowed the wind to blow through, letting it flow behind him like a red river.

At least the Ishvallans won't be forgotten. They'll always be a part of this country's history, whether it's good or bad... He smiled again, before hearing some footsteps behind him. He grimaced, and clenched his auto-mail fist.

Whoever they are - if their intentions aren't good, mine won't be either.

Tala stopped just a few yards behind this person. The wind whipped her weird hair back behind her, the one half that was just barely shoulder length going nowhere, the long half whipping about her in blue and black strands. Her red cowl-ly thing pulled tight across her chest, and skirt-ish thing blew behind her.

In silent wonder she studied this person with her cruel cyan eyes. What were they? This person’s hair was so long, were they a girl? Though just a moment ago, the murderess could have sworn this person was male. Were they an it?

She stifled a laugh at this thought. She really needed to get her mind out of the gutter…

She sighed silently, drawing the clever strapped to her waist that was hidden by her baggy red pants and tight black shirt.

“Hello.” She purred, hiding the clever up her sleeve, where she could easily reach it. The smell of blood that hung about her seemed duller out here, where it was windy, where she hadn’t killed in so long.

Daigoro turned slightly, towards the sound of the voice. So, that was who was standing behind him, huh? He smiled slightly, but left his fist clenched. He wasn't taking any chances. If there was one smell in all of the world that he recognised, ithat smell. The smell of blood. It was faint, but recognisable. And coming from her. Was she a killer? He wondered, and decided to keep his mouth shut for now, instead simply nodding in recognition of her presence.

Who is she? Why does she smell of blood like that? The achemist pondered these thoughts the entire time he stood there, back turned, trenchcoat hiding most of his bodily features. He sighed, and decided to kneel down to read a plaque in front of him, so that he'd be in easy reach of some sort of weapon in case she attacked.

Tala frowned. Was it a boy or girl? If it was a boy, what was their sexual orientation? She had to know! She’d love to kill something, she hadn’t killed in so many days, the want to was driving her insane.

Tala literally drooled at the thought of bloodshed. She sighed and gingerly wiped her mouth with the back of a gloves hand.
”Who are you?” she asked, adding a slight giggle to the end of her sentence. She might as well pretend to be a moron now, put on the show and drop it if this was, in fact, a male person.

Why was there someone out here anyway? She had only come to the ruins for a little mind cleansing. She had needed a minor break, nothing gigantic, but just a little something to sharpen her mind and help with her aching wrists, she had been working too much. Her eyes continued to study this person, their coldness showing no emotion.

Daigoro sighed. She hadn't gone away yet? She was starting to get on his nerves. And when you turned into an annoyance in Daigoro's book, you got hurt. He stood up and simply said, completely bluntly, no emotion whatsoever to his voice,

"What is it to you?" He grimaced, an turned to face her, his red eyes looking her over. She had her hand up one of her sleeves. That meant weapon. He sighed, and shook his head. She appeared to be crazy, he could see it in her eyes - but he'd never say it to her face. He sighed again.

"Do you have some sort of business with me? Because you seem to be acting very deliberately for somebody who's simply studying some ruins." He wasn't smiling, an unusual trait for Daigoro.

Tala grinned cruelly. So it was male! She’d have fun slicing that pretty hair of his off piece by piece.

”That depends. It means a lot of things to me.” she answered, a breathy, excited edge to her tone.

She looked him over again. He didn’t appear gay… or bisexual. Perfect target.

“But since you are what you are what you are…” her grin widened.

Without another word, you dropped the clever to her hand and dashed forward. The large knife glittered and flashed brightly as she lunged at Daigoro, ready to stab him mercilessly.

”And since I give all my victims the privilege, my name is Tala-Layla Eriqua.” she stated.

But rather than immediately stabbing Dai, she dashed in a rather quick semicircle around him, standing at his back. She took in a quick breath, air hitching in her throat as her ehad spun with adrenaline and excitement. She then brought the knife down quickly, ready to kill the long haired man.

She was starting to get excited. Daigoro could see that. What was she - then she drew the knife. He grimaced, and she came straight at him. No - it couldn't be a direct attack. And it wasn't. She moved around him, trying to attack from behind. He grinned, and put his right arm up to block the downwards swipe. Steel clashed with steel, and the blade sparked when it hit Daigoro's automail right arm. He grinned, and pulled his left hand out of his pocket, flicking it a couple of times to build up static, and putting the fingers onto his auto-mail arm, causing it to glow and magnetise.

"Seeing as we're into introduction mode, I'm Daigoro. Daigoro Ito." He wasn't much for hitting girls, but this one had attacked him, so he took it as a challenge. He grinned, moved his feet, and threw the girl over is shoulder, using the magnetism that his arm emitted to keep her attached to him, and threw her into the soft sand.

"I thought that I smelled blood..."

”Oh, you think?” she asked with fake surprise. She released the knife and reached down to her ankles, drawing poison darts and throwing them, in what she would describe an elegant way, at Dai while simultaneously grabbing another knife from her waist.

She laughed, a sound that would have been sweet had it not come from her mouth. She launched herself at Daigoro once more, releasing the knife with a strong throw, hoping for it to hit.

While doing all of this, the wind seemed to whip up, grow stronger, blow the stink of blood about more.

”Stupid boy, you’ll never win, soon enough you’ll be buzzard food.” she taunted, eyes that were like chips of ice gleaming with dangerous thoughts. Though the fight was early, her brain was racing, thinking three or four steps ahead.

It was like an enormous game to her, almost like chess. She loved chess to, but that wasn’t the point here. Tala tensed as she waited for a hit.

The redhead smirked, as the darts came towards him. He moved his trenchcoat that covered his body, and blocked the flying darts with the thick leather that made it up. He sighed. At least wearing something that thick in the desert had it's uses. The Alchemist sighed again, and pulled the knife off of his arm, just in time for the nexfe to come flying at him. He grimaced, and used the first knife to block it, both blades flying into the air and landing a couple of feet away from them. He sighed again.

"Buzzard food, huh? I think not..." Daigoro had only just gotten a chance to assess the situation, though. And it seemed grim from his perspective. This girl, she was a master of concealing weapons, she was quick, and a good aim. She also seemed to have planned everything out. He didn't have much of a shot, close combat wise. Which meant that he had to go ranged. Which was never good. He walked, keeping one eye on her, and picked up one of the knives, flicking his fingers about 10 times, building up static.

He grinned, and touched the blade of the knife, causing it to become unstable, and Daigoro threw it towards the girl. When it got close enough, it would explode. He just hoped that she wouldn't antcipate it.

Tala’s eyes widened as the knife came in contact with the ground in front of her. She was blown backward several yards, only alive because of the numorus metal objects hidden on her body. She coughed slightly, blood trickling from a cut on her face, black shirt now slightly tattered at the bottom, but mostly covered in soot and blood from her face.

”Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to hit a lady?” she snapped. No more Miss nice Tala…

With a cry of rage, she pulled several sharp, thick ‘needles’ from the bandages on her legs and chucked around twenty of them at Daigoro.

While he was preoccupied with those, she reached to her back, pulling out a pair of swords. She let out a small battle cry, moving into a defensive position and waiting for the needles to hit. She was poised in a crouch, swords held in a sort of cross in front of her, ready to black or strike.

The red-headed alchemist smirked, before diving out of the way of the needles. He'd made her mad. Good. That meant that she was to become sloppy. He stood up, and watched the girl as she began to prowl around him. A pair of swords. Hmph. That was interesting. He was going to need a bit more speed and agility, though. He cast off the heavy trenchcoat that covered him, and it hit the ground, revealing the military uniform that he was wearing underneath. He then raised his left hand, and clicked it a few times, before touching and magnetising his auto-mail arm. He sighed, and picked up a metal pipe that he saw nearby. It stuck, and he waved it around a couiple of times, making sure that it would stay.

He smirked again, and ran in a direct charge for the girl, ready to strike and defend.

"I don't hit ladies. You're not exactly lady-like..." He quickly made a dive, and rolled over to the side, pushing off and sending a strike at the girl.

Tala yelped, rolling quickly out of the way, her strangely cut hair tousled looking.

“If I go down, you are too!” she shrieked, and fumbled with her boot, retrieving a small grenade. If she pulled the pin and threw it, she might be able to run far enough away to be only minorly hurt. Or she could blow herself up.

“Don’t make me use this!” Tala hissed, seeming to bristle all over, much like a cat.

Her clothes were ripped and dirtied, thanks to the exploded cleaver. She grunted a bit, tugging at her ripped shirt. This man annoyed her, annoyed her so much. Her left hand had a death grip on the grenade, as if it was tether to what little sanity she had left.

“If I go down, you’re coming with me.” Tala then snarled, her grip on the hand grenade tightening even more, if that was possible. Her fingers were white from the tension.

Daigoro blinked at the girl's sudden idea, before shaking his head and sighing. She was really going to take the cowards way out? If she wanted to... But he wasn't just going to sit back and let her take her own life, not if he could help it. But he had to somehow get her to both let go of the grenade and then get back so that he could get rid of it... He smirked, and ran straight for the girl, preparing to assualt her with a number of physical hits, trying to get her to drop the grenade.

He got close, and went to punch the girl in the stomach, keeping close and trying to follow it up with a barrage of hits, hopefully he'd stay close enough that he could simply pick up and throw away the grenade afterwards. One eye was trained on the explosive device at all times.

I can't let her die. She's a killer, she needs to face justice for her crimes.

Tala yelped, bringing up a hand to block and simultaneously dropping the bomb. As she leapt backward, she brought her sword up in a swift uppercut.

As she leapt backward and away, she dropped smoothly into a crouch, swords once more poised in the cross pattern. She had to get out of here. But how, this man seemed intent on her capture.

It made her think back, think back on when she dated Christian, the way he cheated on her, how she so brutally murdered him.

“No.” she whispered, arms shaking as tears streaked her face. It wasn’t real crying because there were no sobs, no harsh breathing, just the silent tears smudging her dark, thick eyeliner. Her entire body shook slightly. She couldn’t go to prison. She needed to be free or she’d go mad, commit suicide, anything to keep from being held in a cell. She bit her lip sharply, trying to stop crying, drawing blood from her own mouth in the process.

Daigoro stopped, the moment he saw the bomb dropped. He quickly picked it up and flung it. Just in time, it seemed, as the grenade exploded in mid-air, about 10 feet after Daigoro flung it. He sighed, and went onto his knees. That was enough death defying for one day. He sighed, and looked up at the woman. She seemed to be crying. He sighed again, and shook his head, before standing up and walking over to his coat, picking it up and covering his uniform with it. He then turned back to the girl.

"I don't know what to do with you. I really don't. You must've had your reasons for attacking me, whether they were personal or not, I don't really care. I'm going to let you go - give you a chance to run. Mostly because I can't be bothered filling out any paperwork, but I do see humanity in your eyes. Locking up a human is like putting a lion into a zoo cage. Run and live, or stay and be captured. Your choice..."

Daigoro turned around and began to walk away. He sighed.

Great. She ruined my history expidition. Fun.

{Topic LFT, unless you want to keep this going...}

Tala silently nodded, quickly wiping her face with the back of her hand. Eyeliner gone, she seemed much more… vulnerable. Sighing, she carefully put her various weapons away and shakily got to her feet.

Mouthing a thank you, she slipped off into the shadows. Today had been so tiring, so confusing. But that red haired man, he was interesting. A worthy opponent, to say the least. But she’d have to lie low for awhile.

Walking through deep shadows in silence, she retrieved an eyeliner pencil from her pocket and carefully reapplied the makeup, the strange, otherworldly look returning.

It was a close run-in, she was so lucky at that moment. Sighing, Tala decided she needed a new shirt. Great. One little attack and all these problems had arisen. Sometimes she couldn’t win, at all. It was so irritating and annoying, how anyone could stand it she’d never know. Time to go home.

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