A soft sigh was given, along with a muttered apology and goodbye, and the phone was placed back on the hook. Weapons were once again drawn. She tried to concentrate.
The smooth blades of two Daisho katanas sliced through the air as cliché as they always did and landed, tips perfectly placed on the smooth wooden floor below.
Ready.
They stayed motionless there for quite some time as a smooth, yet uneasy silence hung in the air.
Aim.
The perfectly placed tips then began to press painfully hard into the lacquered wood, causing it to splinter and fracture.
Fire.
Then all of a sudden, the blades and whipped out and around, effectively cutting off the head of a wooden practice doll.
Alixandria Kinoshina was annoyed.
She angrily kicked the head across the room and continued to hack and slash at the wooden doll, though her movements made it look more dance-like, albeit dangerous. She spun her body around and completed a move which seemed more like gymnastics than martial arts. Regardless, they helped her flexibility and dexterity; furthermore, they helped her relax. And she definitely needed to relax.
Goddamn it, I cannot believe it.” she thought angrily. And it ruined my concentration, I’m not going to get anything done now. She stopped abruptly, and began to put the katanas back but instead kept them out, staring at one of the blades. They were beautiful weapons, they really were. Four feet in length each but surprisingly maneuverable, she was more than expert in them, and she’d had plenty “experience” with them, whether she liked it or...
“Hello, Alix.”
Alix clenched her teeth. Now, she wasn’t in the mood to really see anyone, but she certainly wasn’t in the mood to see him. She gripped one of the sword hilts tighter, paused, then turned around, throwing the katana blade first into the wall beside the door said person had just entered from. “Hello, Vincent.” she choked out behind her rage.
“Are we angry, Alix? That’s no way to start off the new day.” he teased.
“It’s one am.” she replied angrily.
“It’s a new day all the same.” he smiled. “But that’s not the reason I’m down here. I heard that the Furious Angels have made away with the girl AND the cannon? Now, if I recall -- correct me if I’m wrong -- isn’t that YOUR department?” he added irately, yet wickedly, smirking and walking over towards her.
“Yes, I heard, so I’m not completely sure why you’re here.” she paused. “And I don’t want to hear it, it was as much your responsibility as mine.” she replied. “ So fuck you.” she added, glaring daggers at him as he came a little too close for her sanity level. She twisted the remaining katana around in her hand.
“Oh really...” he said, mock delighted, running a hand up her stomach, snapping her tight training top against it. “Well, I just might have to take you up on that offer.”
Alix’s blood began to boil. “You’re pretty brave, Vincent. If you were anyone else, I would have done something exceedingly violent the minute you walked in the door.”
Vincent placed his other hand on her hip. “See, you really do like me.” he replied, sickeningly sarcastic.
“Yeah, of course.” she smiled, and hesitated. Suddenly, she slid the katana back in her hand sufficiently far for her to jam the end of the blade into his side, clean through and out again, enough to hurt and bleed but not enough to cause any prolonged damage. “So that’s why I waited until now. Generous, no?”
He was speechless from shock, then let out a roar. “Jesus Christ, Alix!” he sputtered, grasping the bleeding wound at his side. Alix’s hands were covered in blood as well, so she grabbed for his thousand dollar suit collar and wiped her hands on it, then reached back onto the small desk to grab a towel to throw at him.
“Clean that shit up, I don’t want it on my floor,” she commanded as he held the towel to his side, breathing shallowly. She watched him, then directed him to a chair. “Sit down and listen, or I’ll cut you up even more.”
Vincent was stunned. “Alix...God, have you gone completely insane this time?”
“YES, Vincent, I have. Do you realize what’s happened? Do you even comprehend the severity of the situation. The girl is gone. The Angels TOOK her, and they took an extremely powerful weapon in which to protect her with. Which I have to retrieve or Eric will shoot a bullet into my skull, as well as yours. I‘m glad I‘m not you Vincent, because you have to worry about myself as well as Eric; pissing me off isn‘t the best plan of action here.”
“Noted,” he said, the bleeding subsiding. “But...actually, we have to go get her. Orders from the top.”
“Orders from the top! Are you kidding me? What the hell are you going to do, you little prick, have a friendly debate with them? Pass a law? God, I am this close to cutting off your fucking head right here and now to save me the time and stop delaying the inevitable.” she growled, pacing the floor. “I need something to break,”
Vincent shrunk back into his seat and let out an exasperated sigh. “Well, like it or not, you’re stuck with me for this mission. I’ll try not to piss you off if you promise to stop slicing me up. I’ve got enough scars from just you to last me a lifetime. I‘m surprised I‘m not dead from...trauma or something.” he flinched as he removed the towel to inspect the damage.
“Well, you’re luckier than most.” Alix said.
Vincent sat and stared at the floor for a while, again pressing the towel again the cut, then continued on with the conversation. “So, how do you plan on doing this? How are we gonna get the kid and the cannon back?”
“Well, as violently as possible, of course. It’s my specialty.” she smiled, running her finger up and down the blade of the katana, in thought. “Well, I know that YOU’RE going to be sitting in the helicopter because I trust you as far as I- well, as far as most people can throw you. I’ll go down with the Marines, they’ll handle the rest of the Angels and I’ll go after the head honcho...Dominatrix or something. At any rate, I assume the leader has the kid and the cannon, so it’ll be like two birds with one stone.”
Vincent had a vacant look on his face. “You don’t trust me? What do you not trust me to do?” he angrily spat.
“Vincent,” she said completely frustrated, “You’re not a fighter. You’re Eric’s lapdog. You sit around and do his “important paperwork” -- which really is a bunch of bullshit busywork to keep you out of the way -- while I go out and do all of his dirty work. You’re nothing but his little errand boy lawyer to keep the people doing the real work out of trouble.” she said. “I don’t know why he’s making you go and frankly I don’t care, I just don’t want you in my way or you might not make it out alive -- courtesy of myself.”
“Well, how do you expect to get the cannon away from her?” Vincent interjected, changing subjects.
“I expect her to not be able to use it.”
“You underestimate.”
“I don’t need you to tell me how to think.” she snapped.
“Well, fine,” he muttered, seemingly defeated. He thought for a moment, then spoke up again. “No, it’s not fine. I think you do need someone to think for you. You need someone to tell you it’s probably not a good idea to go in there guns blazing because I bet you that their leader is fully capable of learning that cannon very, very quickly, so I suggest you go about this a bit more covertly. That is, unless you want a giant hole in your abdomen.” he finished, at first staring at her, then averting his eyes to the side, sighing and pressing the cloth into his side. The bleeding seemed like it had begun once again.
Alix might as well had fire coming off the sides of her face as she threw her katanas down on the table and drew a switchblade as she lunged at Vincent, pinning him to the chair with one arm and holding the blade against his throat with the other.
“Listen here. I don’t need advice from little kiss-ass shits like you on how to run my business, hm? Who the hell do you think you are, coming in here and pretending like you have any idea what’s going on? Well, just to quell any misunderstanding, you don’t. You don’t even know what you’re fighting for! Just some girl Eric wants, right? You haven’t the vaguest conception of what power was stolen from us tonight.” she paused. “So I expect not to hear another word from you this entire time or I’ll cut you up in little pieces and feed you to the homeless, is that understood?”
Vincent growled angrily and tried to push her off, and when that failed, spit at her feet. Alix got a criminal look on her face and slapped him audibly hard before retreating and leaving the room. Vincent let out a sigh of relief and the towel dropped from his fingers and fell on the finely lacquered floors, the nearly silent tapping of the blood from his newly reopened wound almost soothing, all things considered.
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