Sara ‘recovers’ because there is little to be done in regard to what’s transpired.  It’s happened and while she doesn’t know exactly how Teiji came to be where he is now moreover how Daisuke came to be where he is [very far from where she last remembered him being], there is nothing to be done about it.  Every attempt to recover those ‘lost moments in time’ has resulted in failure.  She moves and stands, inhaling deeply.  Fatigue is dripping into every cell of her body.  Adrenaline has run its last and she’ll need the remains of her energy to keep her head clear.  She pushes out questions of why Bao is there, quieting her mind, settling the welling emotions of dread, realization..they’ll be dealt with later, when she’s nearly certain she’s alone.  Well, as alone as one can be in the Scale.  Composure regained she looks to Teiji.  At this point, this was where she took her leave, Daisuke would follow suit after, and he’d let his presence be felt like an itch you couldn’t reach to scratch.  That was how things like this always ended..if she didn’t slip into unconsciousness first.

Teiji’s grin returns to that elegant smile, it reaches his eyes as he walks towards her nonchalantly.

“Interesting evening.  But they always are with you Nanashi,” his hands are on the middle of her upper arms.  It may even look as if he’d give her a kiss on the forehead kind of sendoff, “there is enough time to see to your current duties,” his voice is a little louder so that Bao can hear him clearly, “I believe our guest is to be taken to the Hall. Escort him”

Sara manages a slight bow, though her form went a little rigid hearing the Jina. She turns and starts walking towards the hall Bao’s lingered at for the latter of his time there, feeling Teiji’s and Daisuke’s eyes cast in that direction as well

And then she has control again. I suddenly wonder if she has a P'o, a howling madness within her that she is trying to supress. It would explain today's little exhibition to a certain degree. I await what transpires next, though I'd imagine the jina would call it quits. Apparantly some measure of progress was made today in whatever they're trying with Sara. I remain impassive, somewhat intruiged but not overly so. I'm not an investigator of the unknown, I lack the curiosity. I'm still not sure what my role here tonight is, or was, as I'm fairly sure I didn't enable anything to transpire that wouldn't have happened anyway. I wish they'd put me somewhere useful or get rid of me.

Her shoulders bare back, her chest contracts, the body language changes to the same movements when Teiji shouted ‘She’s fighting it’ to Daisuke.  Her lips part, her hands splay; she looks like she’s trying to breath in, her head lowers, her upper body leans forward and her eyes squeeze shut, though it looked to take considerable effort.  That effort reads on her face, even from a profile view .  Her head moves slowly up as her eyes open and lips part, her left splayed hand looks to cradle her head.  The fingers of it begin to curl slowly and as if some other party had snapped their fingers like a hypnotist, she crumples to her knees.  There’s immense pain on her features, immense pain that is not from the dried bloodied scratches from Daisuke nor the fresh crescent marks from Teiji’s failed hold.  Sara blinks, her head moves to the side as if she’s trying to hear something clearer, her eyes shut.

Teiji’s managed to clear the haze and his gaze is on her.  He made no move as she was felled from the exertion of fighting.  He moves his head slightly enough to check Daisuke.  He has not moved and he seems to have managed to regain his composure. He looks towards Sara.

The look on Sara’s face is telling.  For those moments after she collapsed she’s clearing the haze much like Teiji had been previously.  She moves with a start, pushing away from an entity that is not there.  But for Sara, for the woman Bao has been in the company of twice, she expected Daisuke.  It’s clear the lack of anyone directly in front of her confuses her.  With her eyes searching in front of her, Bao’s presence finally registers.  But she hasn’t been around him enough to know that it’s his, just that someone else is in the room.  It takes a few instants and her head turns enough to see him standing in the opening of the hall that connects the front of the store to the back.  It’s the first time she acknowledges him, and she’s puzzled to see him there, which is readable on her face, even though it’s technically not the first time she’s laid eyes on him this night.  Her lips part to say something, until her eyes dart down, her brows furrow in the next instant her head unmoving for a moment, before looking down at her wrists, bruises from Daisuke’s earlier hold starting to show. Her eyes blink up and lips part simultaneously in a realization.  From her expression, the realization that dawns on her just falls short of draining the color from her face.  In fact, the dread it causes and the breath that caught in her throat as a result is clearly seen on her face.  It’s the way her shoulders move and then fall.  Daisuke can’t help himself, it’s seen in his knowing smirk as he speaks

“Lose something?”

Teiji’s hand goes up and to the back of him to silence his son.  He’s eager to see the captive set free again, but he’s sensible enough to know that this is enough for tonight.  At least through this method.  Instead his eyes move back and forth from the Scale’s guest and Sara gauging reactions on both sides.  Sara’s he can read easily, this ground they’re on now, isn’t new to him. 

‘Lose something?’

It causes her to look forward with her eyes cast down in thought; her lips pressing together can clearly be seen by the Scale’s guest as he stands in view of her.  Bao doesn’t know what the allusion of her losing something means.  Perhaps control, it would be a good guess.  It also wouldn’t be far off, but it’s more than that.   Whatever’s within her, they managed a way to set it free.  She takes some solace in that she also managed to cage it again, but at what cost and after what happened exactly?    That’s the part she loses, the memory of what transpires.  She doesn’t know why, they haven’t figured out why, it’s one of many puzzle pieces that make up her.

Events take an interesting turn as Sara, or whatever lurks behind the girl's eyes, manages to first put a thorough scare into the grinning man and subsequently attempts to overpower the Kuei-jin next to me. The means by which she does this isn't entirely clear to me - it's not a physical action on her part, despite the Kuei-jin's attempt at physically restraining her, so I'd have to guess at a mental assault of some sort.

Something tells me this is going beyond the parameters the Kuei-jin, a jina if what the girl is saying is true, had originally intended. So far I've done nothing to make myself a target to this unleashed creature housed in the body of Sara, but I don't intend to find out if that'll remain the case. As a Golden Child I'm blessed with impossible amounts of luck, but I've never truly tested if this luck holds up when the threat is not physical. If the sessions I've had with my father are any indication, I'm in as much danger here as the next plain fellow, and that's not a comforting thought.

I slowly back out of the room, one hand almost instinctively reaching for the 9mm tucked behind my belt, keeping my eyes on Sara and the Kuei-jin. I'm not going to run, not yet anyway, but I do prepare for a hasty escape should Sara prove hostile and the Kuei-jin unable to contain the matter.

Teiji’s satisfaction is short-lived.  The bridge with Sara is telling, but he doesn’t know what it means.  His demon’s bid for power which he barely won, has him doubt that he can withstand another.  Looking to his son, there have been rare moments he’s seen him prone as he appears now.  Whatever she’s doing, the rare creature is manifesting another rarity.  He knows he has to do something; Daisuke’s inability to restrain himself is not so secret.

‘Sara’s’ near snarl was nothing but a slow, almost feral grin. She whispers to Daisuke so softly, hardly any breath moved from her lungs to make it.  She didn’t need voice for him to hear though, did she?  She’s leaning in, lips parted- the moments that are forthcoming, they can’t be good, this fact is from observing body language alone- her’s and Daisuke’s.  What she did, what she’s doing, it’s not having the same effect, and his true nature is starting to reveal itself as he calls on the gifts granted from his heritage.  The chi surrounding them and emanating from them is telling quite a story.  The growing struggle has gone from fact finding to more of something all in that room is intimately familiar with- survival. A strong grip peels her hand from Daisuke’s face.  ‘Sara’ recognizes the presence before she actually sees who owns the hand.

“Enough Nanashi”

Teiji speaks to her yet his tone does not bear any scolding or the promise of punishment.  He’s aware of his son backing behind him with considerable effort, having to deal with them both is not what he wishes to do.  The store’s back is nearly finished; the setback would be a shame and in front of company no less.  He wants to bridge his soul with hers, but sensibility tells him that is not wise right now.  Aware of the court’s guest he idly wonders if he’s been expectant of this.  Teiji’s seen her ‘break’ but it was different.  The same approach never works twice, and it seems she doesn’t react the same way either.  He has little time to muse on that; his head shoots backward in a quick movement.  His free hand snakes out, parries her hand which is reaching for his face, holds it by the wrist and draws her in, crushing her bent arm between them.  He could have pushed her away and increased the distance between them.  He’s confident that he can continue to overpower her, his head righting itself he looks down at her; he lets his well known elegant grin reach his eyes as he looks into her tumultuous ones.  He shouldn’t be taunting whatever’s broken free for these rare moments- something deep within tells him that.  But, what is pain?  That thought is what makes him smile.

In the next moment, Sara’s form seems to curve in, concave, as if something reached in from behind, grabbed her lungs and pulled back.  Deep within her gifted mind and on some level none of those present are gifted to know or monitor, there is an agonized cry that bears more fury despite everything else.  Tearing sounds are what wet splattering and fabric married together would sound like.  Her captive hand splays before it curls into a fist, the one trapped between her and the Jina opens as it splays and grabs a fistful of his shirt as it curls.  Teiji’s head snaps to the side violently, it’s enough that his hold on her wrist falters. 

He feels her hand on his cheek, he registers it, but his demon’s making a bid for power using her strike to its favor.  His elegant smile is a crackling plaster on his lips, he grimaces as he battles internally for control, his hand to hers on his cheek is meant to peel it back with ease, but he feels it, he feels -her.-

‘What is pain..Jina?’

He can’t help but let a chuckle escape hearing his words thrown back at him, finding humor is the fact that her presence is wrapped around his mind, feeling his demon thrash in an effort to break free- it’s the end of the calm before the long awaited storm.

He’s struck twice, in quick succession by an unseen force.  It’s enough to cause Teiji to stagger backward.  He’s disoriented and his vision a haze, aware that it was her on some level, but he’s clearing his head.

Sara stares, the predatory signs are tell tale as she fixes on the Jina. 

I'm still there, still watching, still sensing that atmosphere of anticipation, something waiting to happen, something just about to break. I look from the grinning man that's handling Sara to the Kuei-jin that I know is responsible for orchestrating this, and I wonder what they hope to gain from it. What the Court hopes to gain. Is this a personal enterprise of this Hungry Dead, or is the Opalescent Scale responsible for what I'm seeing?

I watch Sara's face intently, seeing the change, and I know it won't be long now...

Teiji’s grin is more of a plaster on his lips, his soul bridge with Sara is the most telling it has ever been, it causes him to grimace as his demon begins to stir more within.  The internal struggle he’s privy to is much like the struggle he endures when his demon make a bid for power.  He was not fortunate to have a ‘slow’ demon within, it knows this is an opportunity to not be wasted.  Teiji knows now is not the time for such a distraction, but he’s reluctant to pull the bridge, not yet.  The struggle within her has him seeing silk fabric shear by unknown forces in his mind’s eye; his demon’s shadowing that image in the background.  He’s able to assert himself over his P’o, but it’s not a fight his demon is letting go off so easily.  He sees Daisuke approach her, his soul bridge causes his grin to animate with life again, not realizing that he’s channeling it mostly from her.

Teiji does not know what it is he’s been toying with, what he’s dealing with.  It’s why they’re here, why he has been on the forefront of tests like these.  So that the Scale can learn.  There is no question of at what cost- you remain an asset as long as you prove your worth.  Unmasking a truth from the texts they’ve read, would surely do so.

Daisuke’s resolved is hardened from loyalty above all.  She’s only human, a gifted human, but just human.  She bleeds, as if seeing the bloodied scratches on her arms from his failed grasp assured him.  She was elevated cattle, just as the Wake was to the Scale.  He’s had a good mentor; as he gets within arm’s length of her, he lets his grin splay all the more, a horrific twisting of sickly sweet and near homicidal glee.

“Careful Sara, you’re losing something”

Sara’s features fall.  It’s not from confusion, those words actually -sting- and she falters back, the tempest like duality leans more to the visage of the woman Bao had meet twice before this.  Her head is downcast and turned toward Boa and Teiji, a breathless ‘no’ escapes her and her looks of struggle is that of trying to register something.  Daisuke doesn’t let up, gambling that he’s still able to affect her as before, he lets his thoughts turn to what he knows so far gets to her.  She’s inundated with them, and for any small moment Teiji believes to have lost a break in her; it’s absolved.  Her eyes ‘ignite’ again but no one sees this until she’s holding Daisuke’s face with her thumb and index finger.  There’s a pause, before Daisuke’s head is ‘yanked to right, the top of his head plain to see by Bao and Teiji.  What is of note is the way Sara’s head follows slowly after, her body language- the most predatory it has been, a 'snarl' slowly develops..

Teiji was mid start, mouth open when his hands fell slightly, the transformation in expression spoke volumes as he looked at his son and his charge, he even pushed from the wall he was leaning against the whole time, his eyes narrowed.  He never saw it coming.  Neither of them did.  In the next instant Daisuke was staggering back, hand holding his head, his legs buckled from beneath him landing him on bent knees.  Sara was leaning forward just slightly, mostly from Daisuke’s latent grip trying to catch something.  Teiji felt it in the ambient chi, as if it had twisted and coiled like a serpent readying to strike, the ‘strike’ that landed against Daisuke was very much like that of a serpents’.  But it was even too fast for Teiji’s keen senses to ‘see’ until after it occurred.  Despite his calm repose, his body tensed underneath ready to move.  This was the point they always came to in some form.  His gaze scrutinized Sara’s form.  Her eyes could remind those looking at them of a two opposing liquids swirling, either refusing to mix, and they were bright, most likely with a fury, because it imprinted itself partially on her features.  Her body language changed noticeably, the way she held herself starting taking on predatory aspects.  While this two separates trying to become whole was something Teiji was accustomed to a point, it was perhaps something new to Bao.  He hadn’t been forthcoming with his prior experience with the other Shen.  Watching, it seems to be holding in Teiji’s view..his grin grows and he can’t help but let slip a ‘Finally..’
===
‘Sara’ exhales slowly, it audible to those nearby and those gifted with keener senses.  Her form tenses invariably, within she feels like she’s being torn apart.  A growing part of her seeks him out.  She looks to the side and sees Bao for the first time, Teiji’s pleased grin,  her form crumples slightly in the next moment- her eyes lid, fingers splay and start to curl into a fist, the expression of struggle on her features is as plain as day

“Daisuke, she’s fighting it”

Teiji’s voice filters into her thoughts, ‘fight it, yes, fight it,  Can’t, don’t..’

Daisuke is slow to coming round, his hand to his head, he’s expecting to feel blood, a warm sticky wound, but feels nothing of the sort. He hears his father and doesn’t hear him as he staggers to his feet, shaking it off or trying to, he looks at her.  By the time he’s up she fixed upon him.  As a predator he recognizes the look that’s dancing in and out of her eyes, to and from her form and his eyes narrow.  He’d never been on the receiving end before.  It was vastly different than watching.  And he didn’t know what to do.  He asserts that she’s only human..as he steps toward her.  He wonders why she’s not retreating.

The Kuei-jin halts my attempt at leaving the room with an arm that moves so fast I barely see the motion. Reminds me of my father, the way he used to move around the cavern. Although it didn't seem like movement to me, more like a flicker from one place to the next. Impossibly fast. This Wan Kuei is not that fast, but he's getting there.

So I stay and watch. There's a certain comfort to be found in having decisions made for you, having your purpose defined and clarified. Whether it's as simple as 'watch this' or as elaborate as 'establish total dominance of the local criminal underworld', it gives you a path to walk. It's always nice to know what your place is in the scheme of things.

Something is changing, but I'm not sure what. I know that the Hungry Dead can sense the flow of Chi and thus detect the activities of Shen, but us half-damned aren't in touch with our Chi enough to mimick that trick. But you don't need supernatural senses to realize something supernatural is going on here. I can't help but wonder where this is headed....

Teiji’s attentions are on Bao.   With his soul bridged with Sara’s, he’s been more than able to monitor the progress, taking care to not send anything along it.  Even knowing to brace for the echo that follows, it still is enough to always shake him in some form.  Perhaps that’s the point.  But his focus is what’s hiding behind her eyes and not how his soul art is turned on him time and again.  The best way he can approach an explanation is she has something of a P’o of her own.  Though it seems she’s been able to overcome all attempts of it to gain freedom.  It’s a theory that makes sense to him; everything he’s witnessed lends merit to the idea.

‘She fled’

Teiji grins as he thought, so did Sara.  Though Sara didn’t get far and when given the chance to leave for good, she remained-that came as no surprised for the Scale.

“It’s always almost..yet she always 'wins' in the end”

His eyes flick to his son and his charge, seeing that all too familiar tell tale signs in her body language of the internal struggle.  The way her lids flutter slightly, her hands splay, spreading her fingers apart, the movement of her head to either side as if that would put enough distance to counteract what Daisuke is doing.  His arm shoots out, but Bao is perhaps not taken aback by how fast creatures like he is.  It is fast, and he’s grinning at Bao,

“Indulge me, stay a while, it shouldn’t be long now”

He gestures to the two with his other hand.

“He’s forcing a link.  As fatigued as she is, it’s not an easy thing to repulse,” the way his grin changes makes it more than obvious he’s had something to do with that.

“Given that Daisuke’s preferred courses of action aren’t the best, I imagine it’s quite..unpleasant for her”

As if on cue, Sara’s head jerks to the side rather abruptly, almost violently.  Her eyes open, but obvious that they are unseeing, at least, what’s physically before her, the ‘etching’ clearly seen if Bao had not gotten a good glimpse before.  Daisuke’s grin grows and he looks every bit the part of a predator that caught the scent of blood.

=====

Sara’s eyes shoot open.  There is a clear moment, but it is brief, issuing a silent ‘oh no’ despite that her lips were parted and unmoving.  Felt it, deep within, the tearing that had been happening slowly was coming to a head, but what fueled the dread that was taking her over was that there was no stopping it.  Like a chain reaction on a nuclear level, she wouldn’t be able to stop it, to stop Daisuke.  The images that bled into her, what he painted his memories, the sheer joy at things that should have made the devil himself weep.  It took one.  A small little girl, watching in frozen shock.  She didn’t have to seen what the girl was looking at, she knew, because it was Daisuke’s memory, and he well knew what the little girl was looking at.  The quiet sobs weren’t from the child, it was from below him, from her sister.  He left her there to die alone, and what he did with the child, he didn’t share.  Sara wasn’t going after it.   She was preoccupied, she managed to look Daisuke in the eyes, seeing the grin she knew was there.  He took after his father in that respect, though it was no where near as deceptively elegant as Teiji’s.  He’d make for a poor poker player.  The ambient chi gave those sensitive to it the feeling as if it were tearing and clawing at itself.