Apartment Above the Boards, Tuesday Morning

[intraspective]

Like Zack, Ino hadn't slept much after they'd sent Kueng home. There was a lot to think about and--in her case--a lot to read, look at, and watch. Tseng, Kueng's Tseng, had come through for her with every little bit of information he could scrape up that might change the future.

She'd wanted to go through it herself, first, before sending off copies to both the Tseng in her timeline (even in her head, she wasn't sure about calling him 'her' Tseng) and to Reno, with an email explaining what this information was and how she'd gotten it.

Then she settled in to review the information again.

Maybe it was morbid to watch herself die, but the fact she went out laughing, made her smile.

[Late post is late, but open, sure~]

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[raspberryturk]

Inside and outside. Everywhere.

Reno sighed.

"You don't need to. I'm already over it."

He was not. But that cold hollowness was back in his voice and he was walking again, his footsteps silent in Midgar's streets.

[intraspective]

She didn't believe that for a hot minute.

"If you're sure," she said dubiously, even as she flipped tabs and began booking a portal. "I mean, there's still a lot of time between that and now."

[raspberryturk]

Reno didn't believe he'd sold it, either.

"Plenty of time," he agreed. He turned down another alley, started making his way toward the train station. Down to the slums. The monsters were better down there. "Time to work our way up to the challenge."

[intraspective]

“And it’s gonna be a big challenge,” she noted, as she booked her portal. “There’s tons to do. But, hey, Zack wants me for something—I’ll talk to you later, okay? You sure you’re good?”

She only had ten minutes to make her portal.

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah, Rookie," Reno said, and now the sound of feet slapping pavement could probably be heard. "I'm good."

The sound of an incoming train could probably be heard. Reno didn't much care. She'd find him one way or another if she wanted to.

Let her.

[intraspective]

It was perhaps twenty minutes later, that Ino was down amongst the lower city herself, her pale blonde hair a beacon in the gloom of Midgar’s slums. It was an ugly, smoky night but Ino loved it fiercely.

It wasn't anything like the green, clean place she'd grown up in but Midgar was her home.

When she found him, he was fighting monsters. Ino wasn’t particularly surprised.

She sat down on the debilitated roof of one ramshackle house, legs dangling over the edge, and watched him. Sure, she could help, but in watching him, she could tell just how not okay he was.

[raspberryturk]

He hadn't used a potion since he'd started. There was sweat on his brow, the tie holding his hair back had broken and his suit was torn. It was anybody's best guess whose blood that was, but his fighting was sloppy tonight, he didn't bother dodging incoming attacks. Who cared? Wasn't like the shitty little things lurking in Midgar's underbelly could do him any real harm. He just wanted to fucking feel it.

The hound he was facing snarled, and he snarled back, rushing forward to break the damn thing's face in with his EMR. The crunching sound it made was the most satisfying one he'd heard tonight.

It was probably no surprise at all which sector he'd followed the tracks to.

[intraspective]

It really wasn’t.

Ino just watched, blue eyes fathomless as he slammed his EMR into the hound’s face.

Sure. Sure, he was fine.

Except he wasn’t.

[raspberryturk]

The hound collapsed and faded, leaving a scattering of gil and a potion on the ground. Reno turned and stalked away, leaving both behind. A few moments later, some of the braver folks who lived nearby came out to pick through the dirt for the pocket change, anything they could use to feed themselves with later.

He turned down an alleyway. Vanished from sight for a moment.

"Took care of that thing Zack needed fast."

[intraspective]

She glanced up at him, unsurprised he'd made it to the roof.

“I lied,” she said blandly.

[raspberryturk]

"No shit," Reno replied, his expression flat. His eyes half-lidded, hair loose around his shoulders. "Now what are you gonna do?"

[intraspective]

Ino tucked one leg under herself casually.

“I were thinkin’ I’d come remind you I were a pain in the ass,” Ino said, without a change in expression. “Since you seem to need remindin’ and all ‘bout my continued existence."

She wasn’t as fast as he was, and he was already battle alert and dangerous, but it took no effort to smudge his mind for half a second.

And in that half a second her hair yanked sharply at his feet, as she twisted to kick him in the stomach—and off the roof.

Since he wanted to feel something and all.

[raspberryturk]

Reno's mind sort of re-aligned itself somewhere between the roof and a pile of wooden crates down below. There was an ache in his guts that hadn't been there a moment before, and another half-second to react before he went crashing through rotting wood and rusty nails to end up laying in a somewhat unceremonious heap at the bottom of it all.

He was standing again a moment later, glowering up at Ino from the street, ignoring the ache of it all.

"Cute."

He was running right back up to join her, and this time he was doing it directly up the side of the wall.

[intraspective]

She grinned down at him, all cool, sharp-edged arrogance and rising recklessness.

"Always," she said, as her hair whipped out around her, her Crystal Cross glittering in the dim light of the slums.

Ino didn't try to stop him from getting up on the roof--that would defeat the purpose--but she spun through the air in a backflip, putting a bit more room between them, chakra keeping her feet from slipping on the uneven roof.

[raspberryturk]

Not that Reno had any illusions about the safety of the roof that they'd parked themselves on. Down here, a person could go crashing through at just a wrong step, after all.

Wasn't stopping him from charging at her, stun baton held out to his side, footsteps impressively steady even as he swayed in his stride. There seemed to be little in the way of strategy, just a need to run and swing and feel.

[intraspective]

And wasn't that going to be a surprise for any poor fuckers who lived below them?

She didn't bother to move, just braced herself, instead, to catch his EMR on her Crystal Cross. He was stronger than her (faster, better) but Ino wasns't bad herself.

Besides, she cheated outrageously, her hair having wound itself into twin braids that lashed out at him savagely. Being chakra infused, they hit like a pile of bricks, rather than hair.

[raspberryturk]

And Reno, who was fully capable of avoiding that attack, took it full on, letting that hair smash into him. Good. Hit him harder. Only made him stronger, after all.

Maybe he needed that.

Maybe he was reaching out with his empty hand to grab one of those braids before she could pull it back yet.

And maybe he was going to just keep running.

[intraspective]

Maybe he needed to have his head beaten in? Ino would gladly do that for him right now.

This fight wasn't just for him after all.

She'd needed it too.

Off he went with her hair and, rather than resist, Ino moved with him for a few steps and then leapt into the air. He could try and toss her, drag her down, or he could let her land.

She wondered which he'd pick.

[raspberryturk]

That was the hell of it, wasn't it? Even Reno wasn't sure what he'd pick right now until he was doing it, snarling, letting go of her hair, and swinging his baton up with a yell to cast...

Pyramid, apparently. Huh. He hadn't busted that one out in a while.

[intraspective]

Oh, hell no. She wasn't getting stuck in that. Quick as a flash, Ino disappeared in a puff of smoke and leaves, leaving behind a log to get stuck in Reno's spell.

She landed, crouched, on a support beam and, smiling, cast her own spell.

Maybe some gravity would get through to him.

[raspberryturk]

Well, shit. That was one way to carve the fight out of him in an explosion of dark. Just rip it clean away.

Reno spun on his heel, lip curled back as he turned to face her.

He swayed. Not that it was even occurring to him to regret not trying to keep from getting hit back there. Not much was occurring to him at this point, honestly. Just that he was being toyed with, now, and he fucking hated being anyone's toy.

He was running at her again. Except, just a split second before he entered her range, he blurred, and then was gone.

[intraspective]

Oh fuck.

Fuck.

There was no time to dodge--she wasn't sure which direction he was coming from anyway--and the only thing she could do was brace herself.

[raspberryturk]

Probably for the best, because he wasn't coming at her with a magical attack. He wasn't even coming at her with his EMR.

He was just fucking appearing right beside her, yelling bloody murder and tackling her into the damn roof.

Or possibly through it. At this point, Reno was well beyond caring.

[intraspective]

Definitely through the roof, with an impact that was softened only by the fact that everything down in the slums was half-rotted at best.

Ino screamed--not in pain, but in outrage--as her hair flailed for a hold and found nothing as the roof collapsed around them.

She was poorly positioned for using any of her weapons.

She did the only thing she could do.

She bit him. Hard.

[raspberryturk]

And that earned an answering snarl as Reno brought his arm back, hand open, poised to just come down and slap her right across her face. He corrected at the last moment, but it wasn't like the alternative, smacking her across the ear hard enough to do some serious fuckery with her eardrum, was much better.

It was, at the very less, more calculated and slightly less vindictive. And it beat just biting her back.