A Fuzzy Distraction (Icy Angel)

OoC: Here it is Icy, just like we agreed. Oh, and just a heads up, this is my first time writing with Neko and Sukoshi, so my content may not be of the highest quality.

BiC: Neko and Sukoshi sat napping in a tree. The cool air that drifted from off the mountain made the Cat-girl shiver in her sleep. Taking notice of his companion's discomfort, the little cat curled up next to her, to try and warm her up.

But even before Sukoshi could get comfortable, Neko had awoken from her sleep. With her first stir, the little cat returned to the branch he was resting on. He watched as his companion stretched out her arms and spread out her legs, while letting out a large yawn.

They had taken nothing more than a cat-nap, as the sounds of passers-by were enough to wake the dead. Neko and Sukoshi were actually surprised how many people were walking down this forest path at this time of night. And by the sound of it, another one was coming soon.

"Another one's coming, huh?" Neko asked in a tired voice. "Nyu, nyu. (I still find it amazing she talks to me hoping to get a response.)" Sukoshi replied, in his normal fashion. "It seems like every hour or so, another person comes by. Don't they know people are trying to sleep Sukoshi?"

After another big yawn, she shook her head from side to side, trying to rid herself of her grogginess. "Oh well," she said with a little more energy, "If we're not going to sleep, we might as well have some fun." And with that, she got up off her rear, and down on all fours.

"Watch Sukoshi, I'm going to mess with this guy that's coming toward us." Neko whispered. With the darkness not being a hindrance to her eyesight, she could distinctly make out the traveler's features. "Oh, he's cute, maybe I should pick him up instead."

Sukoshi growled at her. "Alright, calm down Sukoshi." she said, in a sarcastic tone, "I was only kidding... Okay, here he comes."

Kric fiddled with a small piece of diamond in his left hand, not taking any notice of the forest that lay to his left and right. In situations where the alchemist had to travel alone at nearly midnight in a forest that could give habitats to the most dangerous creatures ever, he preferred to have something to take his mind off the situation. Smiling to himself, Kric changed the small piece of diamond into a miniature sword, then into a shield, and finally back into a square lump. Pocketing the jewel once more, Kric turned his attention back to the path. Squinting, the alchemist could make out a tiny square of slightly lighter path, the end of the forest.

“And who says the Diamond Alchemist can’t go through a forest by himself.” Kric laughed, and started jogging towards the end. But a sudden movement made him stop, his hand gliding towards Wraith automatically. Something had just jumped over him, or several something’s, greatly unsettling the alchemist.

“Who goes there?” Kric shouted shakily. No one replied.

Kric you fool, it’s just your mind playing tricks on you! the alchemist thought to himself. Knowing that that was probably the case, Kric smiled and continued walking. Several seconds later, something collided with his back, knocking him over. Rolling over, the alchemist lashed out with the unsheathed Wraith, but his attacker was already gone.

“You are warned, if you try my patience and do that again, this blade will separate your head from your body!” Kric shouted, holding Wraith in the air as a warning. Less than a second later something jumped over him again, knocking Wraith from his hand. Something laughed, a shrill echo that resonated through the trees, revealing that his attacker was a women. Snatching up Wraith from where it had fallen, the alchemist had a sudden idea. Taking off his coat, Kric found a log that was about his size and hung his clothing on it, and hid behind a nearby tree. Sure enough, a few seconds later his attacker pounced, jumping onto his back once more, but Kric was ready in waiting. Clapping his hands together, the alchemist touched his gloves to the floor, and watched as a blue spark traveled from them to his coat. Before the female could remove her feet from his coat, the diamond stones embedded in the back expanded rapidly, moving over the woman’s feet and sticking her to the coat.

“Well well well, looks like I caught my attacker.” Kric laughed, walking out from behind the tree.

Ooc: sorry for the short post, CJ is drained.

Neko smiled at her victim as he slowly walked toward her. While trying to stand still, she clenched her toes, and tried to scratch her way out her constraint. "Well, well, well, looks like I caught my attacker." the man said, half snickering as he talked.

"That was a neat trick," the Cat-girl said sensually, "Do you know any others?" That, in conjunction with just getting a good look at her, took Kric a little aback. There in front of him was his attacker: a person/animal that was taunting him in a sexy voice.

And before he could respond, something dropped onto him from above. He brought his hand up to grab the thing, but it had already jumped off of him. That little distraction had given his attacker enough time to hop back into the trees. As her black tail disappeared into the foliage, a little shadow scurried up the tree after her.

Moving with her feet bound was difficult, but Neko managed to slip away from her victim for the moment. Silently sitting down on a branch, she began to tear at the leather around her feet. Going wide eyed at the sight of the diamond pentagons that circled her ankle, she looked back down at the man.

Kric brandished his sword at the branches above him, prepared for another attack. "Reveal yourself!" he demanded, "Come and face me like a... Whatever the hell it is you are!" Once again, his attacker laughed at him.

After she stopped laughing at her victims well thought out demand, Neko crawled into action once more. While stuffing the diamonds from the coat into her vest, she positioned herself behind him. Then, dropping herself down, she kicked him right in the back, making him fall flat on his face.

"You wanna tango?" she said as Kric got back to his feet, "Then lets go Baka." With those words, she got into a stance and removed her Kiseru from her belt. While at the same time, Kric raised his sword and got ready to defend from whatever she was going to throw at him.

OoC: That's my line. But don't worry, we'll get the ball rolling soon.

Without thinking the alchemist lashed out with Wraith, the blade cutting through the woman’s blue vest before she could react, making a very shallow cut. Several pieces of leather and diamond fell out, revealing the remnants of Kric’s overcoat.

“You destroyed my coat!” Kric yelled angrily, and began swiping at the woman. But the alchemist was sloppy and angry, and moments later the woman bludgeoned him in the side of the head with the piper she was holding, knocking him to the floor. Grabbing one of the fallen pieces of diamond from the floor, Kric began to draw an alchemic circle with it in the dirt. The woman watched in interest as Kric rolled over, revealing an intricate circle. Tapping the circle with his left hand, the alchemist watched as a line of jagged rocks punched their way out of the ground, heading straight for the woman. But before they could strike her she had gone, jumping from tree to tree once more.

“Coward! Face me you thief, try and take my sword if you will!” the alchemist shouted. Once again the sound of laughter was heard, followed by a swift kick in the back, sending him sprawled on the floor. Angry at the repeated times he had been kicked, Kric began to draw a circle much more intricate than he would usually do, spending several moments on getting the little details right. Finishing with a smile on his face, Kric stepped back and looked at his work.

“I gave you a warning, and now I give you another. Leave me alone or this place will be ripped apart. I do not jest.” The alchemist yelled. As he predicted he heard someone laughing once more, and readied to move. A rustle of leaves to his left alerted him, and Kric threw himself to the right. Moments later his assailant leapt past him, landing squarely in the middle of the circle. Before she could recover Kric clapped a hand to the symbol, and a giant rock prison rose up around the woman. As it stopped growing a rock roof formed over the top, stopping any chance of escape. There were several holes in the prison so that air could circulate in and out, but apart from them there were no holes whatsoever in the rock prison.

“I think this time you won’t be able to get away so easily.” Kric laughed, tapping the rock. The woman screeched like a cat (ooc: remember Kric doesn’t know what she is yet) and began to hit the walls of the rock prison. Since the alchemist wasn’t one to make an unfair battle, he tapped on part of the prison, making a door appear.

“If you find the door I will be waiting.” Kric shouted into one of the holes, readying Wraith.

Neko let out another loud screech as she banged her fists against the walls of her stone prison. "Let me outta here you!" she yelled between poundings, "Cats aren't meant to be put in cages!"

"You brought this on yourself," Kric taunted, "It's not like anyone told you to attack me. You decided that one on your own." He surpressed a laugh, this was actually pretty funny.

Back inside the box, Neko's hands were starting to hurt. Without much thought on actually finding her own way out, she started to call for Sukoshi. "Oh Sukoshi," she said lightly, "I could use some help here."

While Kric was swinging his sword around, ready for the Cat-Girl's escape, the little black cat was on the move. After sneaking past the alchemist, Sukoshi began to scratch at the door. The sound of his claws against the stone told Neko right where her exit was.

"Thanks Sukoshi." she whispered as she prepared to ram the door. But before Neko could escape, Kric noticed the little cat. Not realizing what it was doing, he simply went over and tried to shoo the cat away.

Meanwhile, Neko was forcing her entire body weight against the door, trying to get it open. When it wouldn't budge, she started looking for a lever or handle nearby. And had she stopped shoving by the time she found and pulled that lever, she would have avoided a face plant.

When Sukoshi heard the clack of the door opening, he quickly got out of the way. But Kric wasn't so lucky. The door flew open, knocking the alchemist to the ground. While at the same time, with a little yelp, Neko fell forward, barely catching herself before she went face first in the dirt.

Quickly hopping back to her feet, the Cat-Girl looked from side to side, trying to see her victim. She shoved the door open further, slamming it into the alchemist again. Looking around the side, she could see her victim climbing to his feet again. "Hehehe. Aww, did you fall down?"

In a half crouched position, Kric readied his blade. And with a mighty swing, he cut through the door that was standing between him and his attacker. But she had hopped out of his attack range before the blade could make it to her. Kicking the door out of the way, he pointed his sword forward and bolted at her.

Moving like a missile, Kric threw himself into the cat-girl, knocking her over and sending them tumbling over in a ball. Screeching, she lashed out with her hands, her claws cutting into the soft flesh of Kric’s arm, leaving five shallow cuts. Yelling with pain, the alchemist jammed the hilt of Wraith into his opponents head, making her yell as well. Grabbing at her blindly, Kric managed to get his left hand around her neck, and squeezed. Instantly her movement stopped as she tried to pry the metal hand from her throat.

“You had your chances, now you pay for it.” The alchemist grunted, and squeezed harder. But before he could kill the cat-girl, something leapt onto his head and began scratching at his face. Yelling, Kric grabbed the creature and tried to pull it off. Hissing, the creature sunk its claws deeper into the alchemists face in an attempt to stay put, causing him even more pain. Suddenly the thing jumped off Kric’s head, and moments later the cat-girls pipe came crashing into his face once more, knocking him off his feet. Moaning at the pain from his various wounds, he tried to stand up, but Wraith was suddenly at his neck.

“Why shouldn’t kill you? You would have killed me.” The cat girl said shakily, her arms struggling under the weight of the sword.

“Kill me then if you think you can, but I would hurry up. If you drop Wraith any lower I will take it back.” Kric said casually, his eyes fixed on the sky above him. Death threats were part of his average day, being an alchemist meant he got things much worse than death threats, and not many people followed through on the death threats. The cat-girl kept the blade at his neck, and moments later thrust forward. The sword passed the alchemists head by a hairs width, and stuck itself into the ground next to him.

“I don’t kill for pleasure.” She growled, and turned her back on Kric. Within a second the alchemist was up, his left arm wrapped around her neck.

“But you see, I do. If I remove my arm with a bit of speed, the diamond edge will cut through your neck like paper. What to do, what to do?” the alchemist pondered, pressing his auto-mail closer to the woman’s neck.

The alchemist tightened his hold on his attacker's neck. "Ah, there's so many things I could do," he muttered, "I could choke you till you pass out, but that's not too fun. I could slit your throat, but..." He trailed on.

As he talked, his vice on Neko's throat still tightened. What's with this psycho? she thought, keeping her feet firmly on the ground. Is he demented or something? She let out a strained growl of protest as she focused her Chakra.

"What to do, what to do?" Kric repeated, reaching the end of his listing. "What's the problem?" Neko interrupted, "Decide something already." And with those words, she let out the energy to initiate the Nekokotsu Jutsu.

Picking her feet up, letting Kric support her fully, she wrapped her legs back around his. Then, while pulling her feet forward, she took his hand in her right, and his elbow in her left and pushed up. While he fell backwards, Neko twisted away, and pushed off back to her feet. "Too late."

As Kric hit the ground, he was able to make out the image of his attacker returning to the trees once again. He moaned as he started to climb to his feet. "How did she do that?" he mumbled as he wiped the dust off of himself.

"I gotta tell ya," Neko said down to her victim, "You're strong, but you take too long to act." She felt the Jutsu wear off. A couple seconds and she'd be back up to speed. "You should learn to think on your feet. It'll keep things like that from happening."

"You're giving advice to someone who just tried to kill you?" Kric mocked, "Are you suicidal?" The woman's irritating laugh came down on him once again. "And that laugh of yours is getting annoying."

"I'm starting to like you more and more." Neko taunted, before lowering herself back down to the ground. Luckily, her victim, if he was still qualified to be called that, wasn't aware of her proximity. And with a sprinting start, she dashed toward him and swung her Kiseru.

Landing a solid blow to the side of his head, Neko pulled back to watch him stumble. After a breif moment of swaggering, the man turned to face her. While pressing his crazy metal hand against his temple, he cursed at her and thrust his weapon forward.

standing on one leg, Neko bowed with one arm forward and one back. With that, she stuck her tongue out at Kric and got down into a stance.

Ooc: sorry it took so long.

Bic:

“Lady, I just wanted to pass through this place without an incident, but you had to show up. Now I’m severely angry, and you’re in the mood for taunting me. You’re going to regret this fight for the rest of your life, all five minutes of it.” Kric muttered, and struck out with Wraith, the sword narrowly missing the cat-girls head. Taking the chance, she darted forward and tried to strike another blow to his head. As she swung the pipe, the alchemist leant back, letting Wraith support him. The pipe passed over his head, giving Kric the chance he wanted. Lashing out with his auto-mail, the diamond edge cut into her arm, leaving a ribbon of crimson blood in its wake.

“Try and come up with some new moves.” Kric grunted. Letting himself fall to the floor, the diamond alchemist planted both feet on her stomach and swung them round, sending her flying over him. Flipping back onto his feet, Kric stabbed Wraith into the ground and began to draw, and finished it in a few seconds. Clapping his hands, the alchemist touched the circle, making it glow blue. Five sparks traveled from the circle to points around his fallen adversary, and rock walls sprang up, forming a pentagon around her. Before she could react, the walls began to spit pieces of dirt at her, the damp clay balls sticking to her and messing up her fur and hair. Counting to ten, Kric slowly walked over to the nearest wall and jumped onto the top. His mouth in a smile, he watched as his adversary tried in vain to dodge the balls, but she was slowing down. Her face had been hit multiple times, and one eye had been completely covered by the clay.

“By the time the walls run out of clay, you won’t be anything more than a statue.” Kric shouted, laughing as he did. The cat-girl looked at him and hissed, and started running at him. Tutting, the alchemist clapped and tapped the wall he was sat on, making the wall spit clay at a much faster rate. Before she could get any nearer, his opponent was hit multiple times, knocking her back.

“Let’s see if you can get out of this one.” Kric mumbled.

The walls around Neko continued to spit damp clay at her. Whenever she tried to approach her opponent, the wall nearest her would spit faster. And when she tried to protest, the clay got into her mouth, reducing her speech to yelps and coughs.

With the man's threat in mind, she desperately tried to think of a way out. Ruling out movement first, her thoughts went toward how the trap itself was set up. Five holes on five walls, each hole about two feet in size, each one about ten feet away.

Not able to see anything in that, she thought about the clay itself. And then it hit her. Clay got hard when it was heated. So if she could heat the clay, then she would have a way to stop the walls. Luckily, she had just the Jutsu for the job.

While brushing off the clay that had gotten stuck to it, she started to focus Chakra into her Kiseru. With a little spark, a flame sprouted on the end of her pipe. But the flame, not being able to be extinguished by the clay, got the Alchemist's attention.

As the flickering light moved closer to him, Kric clapped his hands together and turned up the clay once again. But just before the stuff could shoot forth faster, the light flew in an arc, right over the hole. The clay that had been coming up had just been cooked solid.

With that, he clapped his hands, ready to open up the spout once again. As he touched his hands to the wall, his dirt covered attacker jumped up and grabbed him by the wrist. Then, the clay shot forth, catching the cat-girl's feet and sending her back, making Kric fall into the pentagon as well.

Now they were both covered in mud. From behind the pattering of the clay hitting his body, Kric could hear his attacker snickering at him. Fortunately, he was large enough to fight through clay for a while. Unfortunately, he was separated from his weapon, so he had to fight her hand to hand.

Bounding the small distance between them, Neko made the first move. With a few quick swings, she attacked with her Kiseru, taking special care to put stress on his left side. Kric stepped back to avoid the blows, waiting for a chance to deliver a solid hit.

In a moment, he found himself in a corner. As he hit the wall, the cat-girl raised her weapon above her head and swiftly brought it down. Catching it with his right arm, Kric counted with a strong left jab. His attacker slid backwards on contact, making it all the way to the other wall.

Turning a little smirk, he started to move toward her. But when he tried to walk, he found that it was hard to pick up his feet. The clay was piling up, and turning the pentagon into muck filled mire. so with a clap of his hands, Kric returned the clay spitting walls back into the ground.

“Very interesting technique with the pipe, are you any relation to the Fire Alchemist?” Kric asked, using idle talk to distract his movement towards Wraith. Neko didn’t reply, but simply darted forward and jabbed out with her pipe. Without thinking, the alchemist put his left arm out to defend himself, watching as the pipe bounced harmlessly off the prosthetic limb. Taking the chance, Kric rolled left, picking up his sword as he did. Rolling forward, the alchemist struck out with the flat of his sword, hitting the cat-girls legs, causing her to screech in pain.

Sheathing Wraith with one hand, Kric stumbled behind a nearby tree while his opponent hopped about on one leg. Laughing at Neko’s plight, Kric began to draw two circles, one with each hand. Finishing both within moments of starting them, the diamond alchemist took the chance to see how his opponent was doing. She was gazing round the clearing, her eyes zooming over every detail. Resisting the urge to laugh out loud, Kric clapped his hands together and touched one of the circles, sending out four blue sparks that traveled with amazing speed to tree’s around the clearing.

I thank you, Chloe for teaching me such an effective piece of alchemy… Kric thought to himself. Waiting till the other sparks were out of sight, the alchemist clapped his hands together again and touched the other circle, sending out another four sparks that traveled to the centre of the clearing, aimed at places around Neko. Plugging his ears with his fingers, Kric lay flat on the floor, waiting for the fireworks to start. At first there was nothing, but after a few moments a groaning sound started to fill the area. It sounded like a wounded animal, but much louder. It began to grow louder, until it was near to popping Kric’s eardrums. Yelling out as he felt his ears pop, the diamond alchemist turned to see Neko writhing on the ground, hands clapped to her head. Suddenly four pieces of jagged rock shot up, one nearly skewing the cat-girl. In less than a moment they had expanded, connecting with each other, forming a slightly crooked circle around Neko that was only a few feet high. The sound ceased, but before Neko could even move, four vines shot out from trees in the clearing, connecting with the rock circle and wrapping around it, slowly spinning a dome of green over the cat-girl.

“Kric the Diamond Alchemist, three, the crazy cat-girl from the forest, two.” The alchemist mumbled, shaking his head to try and rid himself of the ringing in his ears. Stumbling back over to Neko, he found his adversary trying in vain to rip apart the vines. But every time she ripped part of the dome over her off, more vine crossed over the hole, self sealing the holes she had made.

“Don’t think another amazing pipe trick will save you this time, the vines are filled with Methane oxide, and any fire will cause them to explode, completely cooking you and the immediate area around you.” Kric shouted as he saw Neko draw her pipe. After a few moments a smile crossed her face, as some fact dawned on her.

“So what’s to stop me from making these things explode and killing you as well?”

“Well for one thing I doubt you would want to kill yourself, and another thing is that as soon as those walls sense heat, they will expand over the dome in less than a second, effectively saving me and creating a nice little grave for you.” Kric replied casually.

Neko swallowed. "Wow," she said, "That's a pretty good trap. I don't like my odds of getting out." "Glad to hear it meets with your approval," Kric replied.

With that, Neko once again started to tear into the walls of her prison. But as before, the vines would grow back faster than she could sheer them away. This isn't working. She thought. Outside she could hear the alchemist laughing at her.

Without hardly a moment of thought, she then used the first idea she was able to muster. In a little burst of Chakra she envoked the Nekokotsu and started tearing up the vines even faster. In a moment, she had a Neko sized hole she could jump through.

Unluckily for her, the vines reconstructed themselves around her waist as she jumped out. Now stuck half way out, Neko tried to pry her bottom half from the vines. While she tried to scrape and pound her way out, Kric began to approach her.

Taking heed of his approach, Neko raised her arms. "Umm, I give up?" she said nervously, "Can you let me go now?"

Kric seemed shocked by what she had just said. "What?" he said, the anger in his voice clear as a bell. "Yeah, you win," Neko replied, "Ya got me, I can't fight or get away. I'm pretty much stuck here." She lowered her arms.

Without so much as a word, Kric continued to get closer to the Cat-Girl, till he was just out of her arms reach. Keeping his blade at the ready, he squatted down to her level. "I could kill you right now," he said, "You know that?"

"Yeah," Neko answered, sounding bored, "And I could probably get out of this if I wanted to, but it's late, I'm tired, and I wanna go to sleep. Lets just say you won, and call it a night."

"You attack me out of nowhere for no reason, destroy my coat, get me covered in mud, and now you want to act like nothing happened?" "Hmm, sorry bout the whole attacking out of nowhere thing. Nothing personal."

She paused for a moment. When Kric didn't say anything back, she continued. "I was just kinda sittin up in a tree, you know, trying to get to sleep. Well, I got kinda bored, and then this happened."

"So you just picked a fight with a random stranger?" "Well, actually I was just gonna smack you around a little, and then get back to sleep. But this was a lot more fun."

"You can't be serious. You do know you're bleeding right?" Neko put her hand over her wound and rubbed it. "Meh, I'll sleep it off... Right after I take a bath."

Ooc: sorry about the wait.

The sheer audacity of the cat-girl amazed Kric. She said she had got up from sleeping, seen him, decided to fight him, and then surrendered when she was about to lose. He hated to admit it, but from her personality, it felt like she was just like him. Trying to hide a smile, the alchemist turned his back on the girl.

“Very well, since you did give up I’ll let you live.” Kric shouted. Turning back round, the alchemist clapped his hands and touched the floor, sending several sparks flying in opposite directions. A few traveled to the prison, which slowly melted back into the ground, leaving no trace that it had existed. The rest traveled to the plant covered dome, sinking it into the ground, and pulling the vines under as well. As they did, it set Neko free, who scrambled up the nearest tree.

“I suggest being wary of those you choose randomly to attack, for the next person you meet might kill you,” Kric shouted, waving at the cat-girl.

“And I suggest working on your fighting skills for the next time we meet!” Neko replied. Chuckling softly to himself, the alchemist picked up Wraith from where it had fallen.

“Now… which way goes out of this forest?” Kric mumbled, looking left and right down the path. Seeing the small patch of light that indicated the exit, the alchemist set off, shivering from the lack of clothes.

Ooc: I was feeling a bit CJless. Great battle, pm me sometime in July so we can arrange another.