hadriel_logs | my heart is a furnace

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my heart is a furnace

Who: Fox and Caedra (edit: plus whoever's here for the fallout!)
What: For all Caedra's done to make the residents of Hadriel suffer, Fox takes revenge.
Where: The north island
When: Post-monster event, nighttime
Warnings: Violence, body horror, mentions of character death, allusions to childhood abuse.

It's a dangerous plan. Fox knows it is, but he knows he's all out of other options. So with the ring given to him by Rage hanging around his neck, and his katana in hand, the masked teenager has to face the confrontation that's been eating away at him for months. He hasn't even sent a calling card-- he's not stealing a heart this time, and while this may be about justice, he's acting alone, not on the behest of the Phantom Thieves.

It takes time to track down Caedra: her movements are unpredictable, and it's made all the more difficult by the city being split into islands, and by his preference to move under the cover of darkness. After a few nights of unsuccessful searching, he manages to track her down to one of the rocky beaches where they're surrounded by sea -- where there's nowhere for her to run except to the water, or through him.

He steels himself, and emerges from the shadows, eyes bright with anger behind his kitsune mask.

"Caedra! Your cruelty ends here."

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If silence on its own could be deafening, this would be the textbook definition of it. Yusuke is tense as Law begins, which is probably unhelpful but inevitable. He relaxes only slightly when it becomes obvious Law has no intention of rearranging his insides or anything equally torturous. So when the silence is broken, his frown deepens.

"Why?" he echoes. "Why what, precisely?"

He doesn't mind offering answers to someone he feels he owes a debt to. He does, however, want to fish for an understanding of just how much Law knows, first.

Oh, it's going to be like that, is it? Today, Law is simply not interested in games. "You know what," he murmurs coldly. "Do you really want her to come and kill you back? Because that's what's going to happen."

He cleans up his station and puts everything away before coming back with a fresh set of bandages. "I won't even be sorry," he adds, "I just want to know if any rational thought went through your head at any point."

Yusuke's eyes narrow, watching him as he goes to fetch the bandages. "Are you ever sorry when she kills anyone?" he retorts. "I was tired of seeing a dear friend be hurt again and again. I was tired of hearing similar stories from other friends and acquaintances. And I was tired of hearing the indifference, the inaction of the adults around me... Everyone who behaved as though nothing could be done to protect anyone!"

He pauses, shaking with visibly contained anger.

"It may not have been an ideal solution. The entire city may villify me for it. But if it makes the islands safer, even for a while, then I will accept responsibility for my actions."

Law is not so blind to not notice the way Yusuke's feelings make him physically react, but there isn't a single part of him that even remotely feels bad about it. So, it was an accumulated anger, then? Interesting. He lets him finish, get it all out, before saying anything in reply.

"Am I sorry? Why should I be? I'm not the one committing the murder." For a man who says he doesn't like to kill if he can help it, there sure are a lot of people who die around him. "I neither control her nor involve myself in what she does. She is her own person."

He sighs and then actually starts wrapping the bandages, his helpfulness still clearly at odds with his attitude. "Altruistic idiots like you are the bane of my existence. There comes a point when by doing what you think is the right thing, you end up dooming everyone around you."

Yusuke allows him to wrap the bandages, even if he clearly isn't happy with Law's attitude and would rather be nowhere near him, in any other situation.

"And by doing nothing, I'd be sitting idly by while people I care about are hurt or killed. Again," he hisses, through gritted teeth. The tight bandages hurt when applied, though at least not as much as even a few days ago. "Everyone is so eager to condemn my actions while doing nothing about an ever-present danger, as though my actions are the problem. Do they truly have no sympathy for the suffering of those around them...?"

He doesn't want to know the answer to that question, not really. His experiences back home were enough to make him jaded in that regard.

Ah, the painful similarities between them. Having seen Cora-san again thanks to the Door brings it rather sharply to the fore, Law's lips twitch briefly with some kind of suppressed emotion that isn't flat indifference. When finished with the bandages, he simply reaches to give Yusuke a sharp rap on the forehead with one fingertip - the mildest of scoldings he can manage.

"Reacting like this because you care is your first problem," he snorts. "It wasn't because she hurt you, but on other peoples' behalf. If you can't allow them to fight their own battles, you'll keep falling into this trap time and time again." Folding his arms over his chest, he gives Yusuke his best, most imperious look. "The other problem is the solution itself. You'll notice no one was harmed or killed in my crew while Caedra-ya was with me. She is capable of restraint. Attacking her was dumb.

"Though," he adds after a weighty pause, "your power actually worked, so I'll give you credit there."

Yusuke flinches even at the rap on the forehead, as if he'd been expecting a reaction much more severe. It doesn't come, however, to his surprise.

"I fight for those who can't, and to give courage to those who have none," he insists. "Those with the means to do so should protect those less powerful than them. That's what I believe, even if that is a sentiment sorely lacking in this place."

As for the mention of her showing restraint... He looks disbelieving, shaking his head. "Didn't you hear me? Someone I know was attacked twice in the space of a few months. The first time, they were killed. The second time, gravely injured. She preyed on someone who already placed little value on their own life, who scarcely cared whether they lived or died! And you tell me I should abandon them to fight their own battles? I had to act, before the second attack became a third."

While he can't deny that Caedra...probably would have happily gone after someone who wants to die anyway, Law also calculates his level of giving a shit and just shakes his head. "A hero type," he says with some disdain. "How annoying. There's always two extreme choices for heroes, far too few of them ever consider the middle ground."

He throws himself into a chair and goes to make some notes on his treatment so that the next round can be even more effective, though still lecturing as he does. "I can think of two or three potential plans that would be as effective in protecting someone who can't be assed to protect themselves, without counting 'attack her back.' But whatever. What's done is done. You frustrate me, if only because there's going to be more bloodshed when she's free and you won't have fixed a single thing. Desperate, emotion-driven moves rarely do."

He can't necessarily deny that it seemed like the right idea at the time, but Law is also a pragmatist with more plans than feelings. At least by now it's clear that if he's mad, it's not because someone dared to touch Caedra.

"Part of my intention was not to solve the issue for good, but to send a message, and it would seem that message was received clearly. I didn't want everyone to agree with me -- I wanted to spur them to act. If standing up to her means inciting her wrath, but also inciting others to stand against her, perhaps it will make a difference. Perhaps people will finally fight to keep each other safe here."

Yusuke grits his teeth, rubbing at his eyes. He looks, for all intents and purposes, exhausted with everything.

"Someone had to change things."

All things considered, Law can't argue with that tactic. Risky, as plans go, but possibly more legitimate than simply hauling off and seeking revenge for purely emotional reasons. Still, way too much emotion involved for him.

He puts a fine point on his notes, closes his text, and swivels around. "And if she comes for you alone. Are you ready to deal with that?"

He looks up at Law again, frowning. "It's not a question of if she'll come for me, but whether she'll be able to track me down. She doesn't know who I am, and I fought wearing a mask. So..."

A shrug. Even then, this is only one city littered among only a handful of islands, and there are a limited number of people here, so his days will be numbered, too. "All I can do is prepare as best I can for the day when she finds me. That includes resting and recovering swiftly."

Perhaps her time in the ice will have weakened her a bit, too, which could buy some further time for recovery.

Law's eyebrow crooks up in disbelief. "Do you really think a mask is going to slow her down? She's not some average human who relies only on their eyes."

Granted, he's not entirely sure she has some spell that can reveal her attacker's identity, but he also knows she has way more in her arsenal than he can even imagine so it's quite possible she does. Or she could sniff him out. Or, like Law himself, can sense the life behind any facade and tell people apart without appearance. There is, of course, one important point here...

"...and I know who you are."

No threat yet. He wants to see whether Yusuke has considered that.

Of course Yusuke had considered it. From the outset in Hadriel, even before he arrived, he'd learned to distrust adults. Being betrayed by someone he's forced to put his trust in would be nothing new.

He simply stares at him, hands tightening into fists. "You saved my life, and you're helping me even now. Do you really intend to waste your own time turning me over to her when she returns?"

Law lets the question hang in the air for a bit, even though he knows his answer. "Don't get excited," he murmurs. "I saved you because I felt like it. What happens after you're healthy is your business, not mine. But what do you expect me to do when she wakes and asks? If I have to lie, it had better be worth my time."

Yusuke lets out another breath and redresses himself, perhaps to give himself something to do while he visibly puts a lid on his own anger.

"Do whatever you think is right, Law-san."

A better answer than what he was expecting. Oddly, with all of his other flaws, he's not interested in blackmail.

"'Right' is subjective. I'll do what I feel I have to." He smirks very slightly. "As have you.

"Come back on a regular schedule, I should be able to keep the scar minimal after two more treatments."

"That's all I can ask. I owe you a debt, after all, so I have no right to ask anything else of you."

Once his shirt is back on, he offers a stiff bow, just enough that it won't aggravate his injury.

"Thank you for your help."

Nicer people would pity Yusuke. Law simply accepts his point of view.

"Don't worry about it." He swivels in his chair again, pulling his medical text back to him and only speaking over his shoulder. "Next time I might not be so generous."

By keeping his face turned away, maybe Yusuke wouldn't notice that it's an actual lie. He'll still treat any wound. The dumbass tax might be higher, but he's incapable of turning down a patient.

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my heart is a furnace

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