[log] when you let your dog off his leah

[kokuyoyo]

Who: Chikusa and Ken
What: That moment when you use a magical artifact and it make a place. Also, hunting mushrooms.
Where: Luon Highway, and then Mekiv Caverns
When: Day 46
Other: Violence, probably

As the dust clears away, Chikusa is still wiping traces of dirt away from his glasses and face. Small blessings, during times like this, ensure that he's not actually useless with his glasses. Tugging the shirt out from behind his Kokuyo jacket, he focuses on wiping his glasses clean while squinting out to the enormous space that's suddenly been filled. Only a second, and suddenly there's a place there.

"...Ken, what did you do."

Comments

[kokuyoyo]

They certainly are monsters, ones which are moving quite steadily against the ground and looking aggressive. Plant monsters, which means something which Chikusa isn’t particularly equipped to deal with, being a poisoner and not a gardener.

So.

He’s simply going to…. Step back. Behind Ken.

“Have fun, Ken.” A pause. “And don’t swallow anything.”

[junkyarddog]

Ken snaps in a cartridge with a sound that's half excited whoop, half roar; it appears he's gone with Lion Channel for now. He's promptly bounding toward the plants, and while they're certainly moving faster than any plants from their world do, they're not moving at Ken speeds. In moments he's swiping at them in passing, showing more intelligence than most people give him credit for - but then if there's any area Ken can be called competent in, it's combat. Because he rakes the plants with his claws in passing and keeps moving beyond them, skidding to a halt out of their range and watching to see what they'll do, what effect his initial attack has on them. Usually Wolf Channel is better for speedy hit-and-run tactics, but Lion Channel does have more power. And it lets Ken potentially wade in if it appears this initial caution isn't necessary.

[kokuyoyo]

If there’s anything to be said for this new place, it’s that it has plenty of room for Ken to go wild in. Chikusa supposes it’ll be useful in that way. He watches as Ken tears through the plants with ease, their strange beak-like buds trying to snap out at him as he passes. It looks like his claws have definitely made their mark, weakening the stalks and making the creatures wobble, but they still attempt to spread out best they can on the dirt road as if to get him in a pincer attack.

Chikusa isn’t worried. Ken can take care of himself.

[junkyarddog]

Ken is immensely pleased with the effects of his first attack; it's clear these plants aren't particularly hardy. They're not fast, either.

He promptly swaps cartridges, from Lion to Wolf; Lion is stronger, but Wolf is faster and better suited to hit-and-run tactics. He starts speedily circling the plants, looking for an easy angle to attack one without leaving an opening for the other.

It doesn't take him long to find one; he re-positions a lot faster than they do. With an eager yell, he darts in and slashes the thing, twice, hoping to take it down entirely and risking a possible counterattack if he fails to.

[kokuyoyo]

Hit-and-run tactics seem to be the perfect solution to taking care of at least one of the plants, and soon enough it’s crumpling to the ground but not without trying to release a sudden puff of spores as it goes. Slightly, Chikusa stirs, but his call is fairly lazy. “Careful, Ken.”

[junkyarddog]

There's nothing wrong with the call being a lazy one; for one thing, Ken had bounded away from the dying plant to the one still kicking, so he's out of range. But Ken's also got good instincts, to say nothing of animal-quick reflexes and a sharp nose; he'd probably have darted away in plenty of time even if he'd hung around.

In the meantime, he's currently tearing into the second plant with even more confidence than he had with the first. And once it's down, this time he knows to spring back.

Ken's not the strongest fighter in the mafia world (which they technically are part of, no matter how much the Kokuyo gang would hate the suggestion) back home by a long shot, but his being outclassed is more a sign of how many insanely strong people there are in the mafia world than it is any indication of Ken's base power. Compared to quite a lot of enemies, Ken is an absolute monster of a combatant.

[kokuyoyo]

Well, there’s a reason they rely on Mukuro- the kind of person who can hold up against such horrifically powerful people who have proven there’s a reason why their respective Families are so strong and lasting. Chikusa supposes it’s only common sense.

But there’s none of those Families here, or at least not yet, and Ken’s power is enough for them right now. That suits him just fine as he watches Ken tear through, yawning into one hand. When it’s clear that both plants have been defeated and there’s no need to worry about anything happening after death, he starts to shuffle his way forward. “Those seem like they could be annoying if there were a lot of them….” But then, that’s Chikusa’s verdict on most things: annoying.

[junkyarddog]

"Tch, they're weak, byon," Ken says dismissively, even as he shakes himself off and removes his cartridge. "If there were more of 'em, I'd just kill 'em faster!"

That's uniquely Ken logic at work.

[kokuyoyo]

"That doesn't make any sense." Crouching by some of the plants, he gathers some leaves and other things into his pockets to look over later. In this place, he'll have to figure out ways to make his own poisons all over again...

[junkyarddog]

"D'you think they were farting poison, byon?" Ken, no. Spores are not plant farts, although good luck explaining that to him. He's watching Chikusa with idle curiosity; he knows his partner's penchant for poisons and he's clearly already guessed why Chikusa's gathering samples.

"Too bad you couldn't collect the stuff in the air."

[kokuyoyo]

A pause, and Chikusa dead eyes Ken where he stands. It’s a common fact of life that Ken isn’t the brightest in the bunch, but sometimes the things he says… It makes him wonder just what’s going through his partner’s head sometimes.
Besides plant farts, apparently.

“That’s not what spores are, Ken.” It’s the only thing he can think to say, clearly exhausted at the idea of having to go indepth about how how he’s wrong. “Anyway… Next time, we know what to look for, so we can at least get a head before they’ve had a chance to attack like that…”

[junkyarddog]

"What's the difference?" Ken asks, because clearly there's no degree of exhaustion to which he's not willing to drive Chikusa.

He squints at the plants. "Are they always gonna do that when they die, or could I kill 'em so they don't?" If they keep the spores inside them, Ken theorizes, maybe Chikusa can collect them somehow.

[kokuyoyo]

“Most people don’t kill others with their farts, for starters…” Can he leave it at that? He’d like to leave it at that. Especially because Ken has offered up something much more interesting that he has to consider. His chin tilts down to his chest as he thinks, shuffling along.

“....You’d have to be faster… That kind of thing is probably their first line of defense.”