tampered | log; ongoing

log; ongoing

When; May 11th, late morning
Rating; PG-13?
Characters; Riou

i_themagician
Summary; After this, Clow and Riou spend the early morning hours stalking each other... until they finally meet for an EPIC BATTORU. (This takes place right before Clow finally decides to show up to work, for anyone wondering.)
Log;

The sun was rising higher in the sky; he had been stalking his quarry since the early hours of the morning and although it didn't seem that he was getting anywhere, it helped that his prey was also stalking him. Clow could sense Riou's presence growing ever closer, though he still could not see the other man. Still, he waited, crouched in the underbrush somewhere in the northern wild, having forseen that this was the area where they would finally catch sight of one another.

'I never do this,' Clow found himself observing, and it was true. Not once did he ever remember stalking someone with intent to kill, or even having any active desire to murder anyone - although he of course couldn't recall right now that even the concept of homicide usually made him feel uneasy. As much as he was enjoying this little game right now one would think he'd have played it more frequently, yet he feels no regret at not having done so. In fact, he feels no emotion at all about it - it's just a simple observation in his head that this is not normal behavior for him and Clow doesn't even think to wonder what is.

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"Yes; Riou-san can consider himself his own test subject, it seems!" Clow begins walking around Riou, as if inspecting his own work. Riou probably cannot turn his head that far, but is likely to hear Clow moving as he steps behind him. "Mm. Though, as much as this one is curious as to whether or not Riou-san can get out, there are things he would much rather do to do Riou-san..."

His hands reach for Riou's neck, caressing it gently and almost lustfully. Then, they are wrapped around his neck, squeezing gently at first, as Clow presses his body unnecessarily.

And Riou is indeed carefully watching Clow until the other man disappears behind his back. Damn!

At this close range he'd normally use his martial arts for fear of the magic of one of his runic spells backlashing unto him. Or at least switch to a lower level spell from one of his scrolls. But try as he might he couldn't seem to budge an inch, and so now everything is out of his reach, everything except the runes already attached to his body.

And getting caught up in his own spell or not, it wouldn't help if Clow just bloody stabbed him in the back while he just stands here... His left hand twitches in its binding and he--

--- he completely freezes as the other man presses up against him, hands lightly stroking over his unprotected neck. Some detached, far off, part of his mind begins squawking "what the hell? what the hell?!" and flailing about, but the darker aspect that has taken over merely smiles tightly, trying to buy time, and says...

"Really, Clow. I didn't think you were into that..."

"Riou-san is not really this one's type. However," he squeezes Riou's neck a bit harder as he says this, "very recently, this one has noticed what a beautiful neck Riou-san has. It might be even more beautiful if this unworthy one could find a way to make it bleed."

A sharp intake of breath as Clow's grip tightens and Riou tries to turn his head as much as the surrounding chains will allow, which rather isn't very much at all. He calls out to Bright Shield again, bringing up its nullification powers... but once again, nothing. Their spells weren't compatible, or the city was screwing with his magic again, or some other crap. And his 'fly stuck in fly paper' impression was really starting to piss him off. He debates the merits and drawbacks of just raining a storm of darkness down on both of them.

"I can't really say you're my type either, old man." Unfortunately it seems Riou's diplomacy skills also did not make the transfer to the mirror city. His tone darkens. "But I warn you, if you think I'm going to just stand here while you try and cut my throat..."

"Oh~? What will Riou-san do..." Though his pride and even his self-confidence had been stripped from him, Clow's curiosity certainly hadn't. It seemed odd that Riou would phrase things that way when his previous attempts to not just stand there had obviously failed. Although some detached part of him was hoping that Riou would successfully do something, Clow's grip tightened all the way, intending to end the other man's life at this very moment. "... if he is being strangled~?"

Riou's mind flickered as Clow's hold on him tightened. Darkness or Light? The last time he had turned Darkness against himself-- there's another flicker there as well, something trying to rise to his consciousness, but he pushes it away-- he had ended up unconscious for nearly a week. But would Bright Shield protect him any better considering that it burned through his own life force to use?

With his hand pinned down and Clow standing right behind him, he couldn't even direct the attack away from himself. All of which meant nothing if he's going to be choked to death where he stood! Oh screw this. The lowest level spell of Darkness, then...

Oh, this was going to hurt.

"Finger of Death!" his voice rasps out from in between the older man's fingers.

The sky above them cracked open and a caustic rain of darkness, sickly glowing purple, comes pouring down out of the heavens.

Clow's whole body (including his hands, probably to Riou's chagrin) tenses momentarily as the caustic substance hits his skin, causing searing and inescapable pain over almost every inch of his body. Despite the pain, he makes only a small sound before letting go of Riou entirely and putting up a magical shield (he actually has to shout "shield!" and throw up his arms, though whether this is due to clouded thinking or the acid breaking his concentration is unclear).

If Riou had been paying attention to Clow, he wouldn't have been all that surprised at his actions, since words and hand movements were commonly used back in his world in order to build a caster's concentration for a spell. Unfortunately for Riou, he's too busy choking and gasping and generally trying to get air back into his burning lungs.

He slumps in his bonds and would probably have fallen to his knees if-- irony of ironies-- the chains hadn't been holding him up. The rain of darkness hisses as its lands on him as well, quickly evaporating but leavings its damage-- and enough pain to momentarily distract Riou from his screaming lungs-- behind.

Oh he really freaking hated backlashes.

Clow is fully capable of sitting here with a shield up for as long as Riou wants to make it keep raining acid - but he gets bored easily. He is on one knee at the moment, having instinctively (and ineffectively) ducked as he recoiled in pain a moment ago - he can feel the acid still burning his skin, but it is nothing that a healing spell won't fix later. As he stares at the back of Riou's head a snarl escapes his lips, an odd sound for the usually gentle man, and he considers knocking Riou out before finishing the job.

The Darkness spell trails off, leaving the sky as it once was. Riou seizes ahold of the power of Bright Shield, the rune on his right hand burning this time, as he calls up its healing powers to salve away the burns on his body and the bruises rapidly developing on his throat.

He straightens up-- as much as he can anyway-- and tries to catch sight of the other magician. Still nothing. Dammit! Still behind him and doing god knows what? His true rune throbs as he begins silently calling out to it.

Clow elects not to heal himself immediately - if he defeats Riou at all, it will likely be a quick and easy affair and there will be plenty of time for figuratively licking his wounds later. Deciding that it will be much easier if Riou can't use magic at all (hmm, maybe he should consider building that into the handcuffs when they are built), Clow silently tosses a sleeping spell towards him. To be honest, even Clow thinks that fighting from behind the man is more than a bit cowardly, especially when he's bound, but he was not exactly trying to win any awards for sportsmanship. The whole City deserved to die, so if he has to kill the citizens one by one he might as well get it done and over with as quickly as possible.

Still trying to twist in his bindings, Riou faintly senses something, and then suddenly a pulse of heat shoots up from his right hand, burning a trail of fire up his arm, through his chest, and to his heart. He didn't know what it's reacting to or blocking, but even from behind his eyelids he can feel that power. The dazzling crimson and gold shield appearing in the air behind him, the symbol for the protective side of war and creation.

He's really going to end up paying for that.

But what the hell was that?! And he-- oh, screw this! Without releasing it, he calls upon the power of his true rune once more. The healing light around him churns and twists, sharpening and inverting just like it's bearer.

"Shining Light!"

And the scalding light explodes outward from him in an ever-expanding circle.

Clow isn't even going to wait for that to touch him. He throws up another shield - this one a shadowy-looking one to counteract Riou's light spell. This is getting ridiculous - it seems that Riou's magic is strong on exactly the scale where Clow's is weakest. Smaller-scale spells for one-on-one duels were always harder for Clow, and for some reason the magician has been finding throughout this fight that he's just generally not good at using magic to hurt people. Hence, he is seriously considering cutting and running as soon as Riou is finished attacking. After all, if the arrogant fool hasn't gotten out of his bindings yet it's not likely that he's going to, and wasting away in a standing position out all alone in the middle of the forest is a far, far worse fate than simply being strangled to death.

With a gasp the sphere of scalding light disappears as well. The rune on the back of his right hand pulses in time with his heart, and at the edges of his consciousness he can feel the weakness creeping in with each beat. The reason he had been so hesitant to resort to Bright Shield in the first place. Damn!

And still the older mage was somewhere behind him. And what was he to do, flail around blindly with his own powers until he exhausted himself and was completely vulnerable to the other? And to think, he was the one who asked for this thing he was trapped in to be built!

Riou bites back a growl, holds his breath, and simply listens for any indication of what his enemy was doing.

Clow droppe his shield and moved a step closer to inspect Riou. The younger man appeared to be more worn out but even if Clow would eventually emerge the victor, how long would that take? Clow had other things to be doing, and he didn't think that all the power the boy could muster would possibly break that spell - he'd faint from exhaustion first, surely. Yes, it was time for Clow to turn tail and leave to get on with his day.

He didn't even say anything when he left, either - he figured that it would be more psychologically torturous to just try and walk away as quietly as possible.

Perfectly still, with his eyes closed, he doesn't know if he senses it more than hears it. Footsteps. Towards him. He tenses. Away from him. The other wasn't seriously just going to-- If only he could just bloody turn around!

His tone is properly mocking, but there's more hoarseness in it than he'd like. "Can't finish the job, can you?"

"This one has promised Miss Lyra that he would try to come into work today." As if to cement his point, Clow pulls out his pocket watch and checks it. "He is already a little late."

"Lyra? If you hurt her..."

Riou blinks a bit, wondering where that came from exactly. He tries to unsuccessfully shift around again, but the other magic-user still remains out of sight. Somehow he finds this sudden turn of events even more... aggravating? Disturbing? He grits his teeth.

"So you're really going to just wander off like that and leave me here? You goddamned coward! Not only can't you face me, but you can't even finish what you started?!"

Clow doesn't say anything in response - he merely sighs quite audibly, as though genuinely hurt by Riou's words. However, he doesn't have enough pride to want to fight back, so he will just continue on his way~.

"CLOW! You craven bastard! Forget honor, you have all the endurance of a chicken with its head on the block!!"

No answer is forthcoming. And he doesn't exactly expect one.

Riou slumps slightly in his bindings once again. All right, then. So the other is gone. Perhaps it's just as well. Now he can fully concentrate on breaking free of these magic chains without worrying about a fireball coming at his head or a pair of hands at his throat.

He calls out to Bright Shield once again, ignoring the pangs of weakness that come from using even more of its power, trying to nullify the spell, or whatever the hell it is, that's binding him. Nothing.

"Motherfu---!!!"

It's going to be a long day.

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