tampered | closed suckaaahs

When; July 18, evening
Rating; PG
Characters; Yuri Lowell [

notflynn] and Leon Magnus [

swordmastering]
Summary; When Leon is cursed and freely injuring innocents, Yuri must act on their year-old promise.
Log; Rather than searching for the Swordians as Leon had so kindly asked, affected by the very same curse that had caused Estelle's kidnapping all those months ago, Yuri learned enough from his mistakes to know that this time he should simply take Leon out. There were no Swordians - if there were, Leon in his normal state would have said something, would have been looking for them himself if they were so damn important. He didn't want to spend his time running around in a wild goose chase while innocent people died because of it. He would not allow more innocents to die because of him, and he would not allow Leon's hands to be stained due to a curse, to became so much like the man he despised.

He was glad, at least, that Leon wasn't hurting anyone he knew directly (or hurting Yuri himself, really, now that he knew how much he looked like Marian.) He knew Leon well enough to know what hurt the most. And he had no idea the lengths this particular Leon would go just for those damn Swordians. What a mess.

As he ran through the streets, passing by ordinary citizens and fellow captives, Yuri thought about how absolutely tired he was of running, chasing. Chasing after Flynn who could also hurt innocent people, chasing after Euphie who was needlessly murdering Japanese, and now chasing after Leon. But he couldn't allow his fatigue to catch up with him, not when so much was on the line. If he couldn't find Leon soon, he'd ask Rita, Ruca, and Raven for their help - Repede was already working tirelessly on the trail of Flynn, he couldn't ask his loyal friend to help with this as well.

Leon- Yuri only hoped the curse ended before he killed any more. Knowing what he must be going through, what had to be done was difficult.

He ran toward Xanadu, now, following pure instinct. After more than a year, he knew Leon.

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Leon was in Xanadu - it seemed like they always met up here. He was there, sitting beneath a tree while he polished Chal. He hadn't expected Yuri to follow him instead of looking for the Swordians. After all, there were lives on the line. Surely Yuri wouldn't ignore poor, innocent people.

But it's not like they really mattered in the end. As long as he could obtain the Swordians, then everything would fall into place. He would have the strength of no other - the next best thing to Belcrant and to the Eye of Atamoni. If he had that nothing would stand in his way of success. If he could get his hands on all of it, it would be perfect. He need only wait until Yuri retrieved those Swordians for him.

And if Yuri kept him waiting longer? Well. He'd just kill someone else as a penalty. They were only pawns after all.

Too confident- he was way too confident! Cocky, self-sure, and irritating. Yuri immediately meandered around Xanadu's paths, heading to their usual sparring area. The greenery looked much too pink, much too colorful for the occasion, almost mocking in the way the evening sun washed Xanadu. But for the deed he had ahead of him, it was ideal. Fighting Leon would be no easy feat - they trained together and knew each others' moves like their own, knew how to move and how to dodge. With rain, it would have been much too difficult to move around.

And if he succeeded, it would be just dark enough to forget whatever expression Leon wore in the end. The occasion, the echo of their promise had already impressed themselves in his memory, and though he was not a man to run and forget from the unpleasant, he would prefer not to see the dying expression of a friend.

If things worked out. If.

He approached Leon at a quick pace, sword in his left hand, fist clenched and determined.

"Leon."

Leon glanced up at his name, standing and sheathing Chaltier. In the half-light of sunset, it was still easy to tell that Yuri didn't have what he was looking for. He frowned, looking unamused by this rebelliousness.

"Yuri. Aren't you being a little reckless? By disobeying, people will get hurt. Is that really what you want?"

He still looked confident, so much so that he didn't even unsheathe his blades despite Yuri being armed for a fight.

Normally if Leon weren't armed, he'd feel troubled fighting him. But he was in this to defeat him, not to win some little spar of theirs. He continued to move forward, sword drawn and ready to attack, and despite feeling that same pull from when he just couldn't risk Flynn's life, that promise pressed him forward, allowed him to see Leon as a villain rather than a friend.

"You won't hurt anyone if I take you down first, Leon." And with that, he sprinted toward Leon, closing the distance quite quickly with his speed, aiming to kill.

Sorry, Leon, he wanted to say, but it felt like too much of an insult to their promise. He expected to be slain should he also stray as well. He would not do a disservice to Leon. Their friendship was far too important.

Leon was quicker. He saw the movements and he knew Yuri's movements. His unsheathed his blades to meet the attack, a metallic snap in the quiet of the clearing. He withdrew, smirking in his confidence.

"There's no way you can beat me." A sneer and he moved back to place more distance between them as a glyph flicked under him. "Air Pressure!"

There was nothing of the regular Leon left here beyond the body, beyond the artes. This was a cold, calculating man that cared only for himself, his goals. The lives of innocents were nothing to him, the lives of his pawns nothing more than expendable if they disobeyed.

"Same to you, Leon! This is for real, now-" Yuri blocked the attack as best he could, slipping an apple gel - he always had a supply stocked - before launching into an attack of his own. At this point in their lives, they were on an equal playing field, just as strong with rivaling attack and defense power.

"There's no way in hell you're hurting anyone, Leon- Pyre Havoc!" A blossoming of fire, aimed as carefully as he could as he leaped into the air and landed softly. He immediately went into defense, just in case.

Being so close-up to the other, the most disturbing aspect of Leon were his eyes.

Leon moved to block, to backstep out of the way of the attack, but he was hit regardless. Not as badly if he hadn't been blocking, but enough that it hurt. He frowned, lunging forward into a Dragon Glare, followed by Moon Glare.

"How do you know you aren't already too late?" Taunting, trying to bring out Yuri's anger, trying to make his guard falter. He just needed a few openings and he could easily win - such were his thoughts.

"Then I'll avenge their life with yours-" Yuri quickly backstepped until he was a good distance away. He was angry, sure, but he had a clear goal and a clear head. His blade was ready to spill blood - not just for innocent peoples' sake, but for Leon's as well, someone who's become so close and so important to him, on par with his travel partners.

He fired an Azure Storm followed with an Azure Edge, running around to try to overpower Leon with that distraction.

Leon countered the attacks, dashing in Yuri's direction to try to catch him up in a Dragon Swarm.

"Is that your form of justice? You're no better than I am, killing people!" Sneering, completely gone from who he was. He wanted to kill Yuri because he wasn't obeying him anymore. He needed a better pawn. Someone who would actually listen.

It wasn't working- he knew he wasn't some saint, some angel. Low blows to his personality and beliefs weren't going to do anything. He had no self-doubts, no insecurities. Yuri was strong in that regard, wouldn't falter. Leon was much more effective with Estelle - and he thanked the deities that she'd left a long time ago.

He did his best to block, though of course the attack still dealt a significant amount of damage, almost broke his guard. But he just wasn't in the mood to play around. He threw himself into a series of attacks, linking one right after the other, his blastia glimmering bright.

Leon couldn't block the attack quick enough, and he took the brunt of the damage from it. A grunt as he jumped back, blood dripping from a gash on his arm, his shoulder. Damn, this wasn't working to his favor. He'd underestimated Yuri, and it had proven to be an irritating mistake on his part.

"Hmph. I'm done playing with you."

He turned, dashing into the line of trees, towards the beach house. If he could get a prisoner, then perhaps he could turn this around. At the very least, he needed to put enough distance between himself and Yuri to heal his wounds, to be prepared for another fight. He weaved in and out of the trees, familiar with so many different paths on how to get home that hopefully he could lose Yuri for a while.

Yuri immediately rushed after him, instincts and sharpness allowing him to navigate around the clumps of trees, through the thin branches that seemed so determined to reach out to him, to stop him. Rock and root jutted from the ground, but he paid them no mind - fired Azure Edge toward any obstacle he could see in the distance, so determined to catch up. They were evenly matched in many areas, having trained together for so long, and speed was one of them.

Along the way, he didn't say a word. Not a single taunt or demand for answers. He just had to find and capture Leon, keep him from the grip of regret that was sure to plague him after this curse.

closed suckaaahs

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