Yurie didn't bother rising to his challenge, didn't even get angry when he hit her table, though it was one of her precious pieces of furniture. She let him go without having to say a word. One corner of her lips twitched upwards in a smile difficult to place. Her eyes held nothing but sadness. She went out of her tent, and straight to the Arena. The girl walked into the Arena, swinging her fans in large circles around her, directly interrupting a match, much to the displeasure of most of the spectators. Those that didn't recognize her signature symbol of unrest, that is. The yellow fans open and swinging was a sign most Arena regulars recognized as Yurie readying herself to go all out. It hadn't happened in many years. She got in between the two of them, without receiving a scratch, forcing them apart as she snapped her fans shut. She danced lightly to the side, ignoring their anger, and smiled coyly at the two of them, a man and a woman. She held her closed fans in front of her, her wrists crossed, and the tips lightly touching.
"Well then. Shall we start?" She asked politely. As both moved towards her at the same time, she closed her eyes and snapped both fans open so they covered most of the front of her body, sliding one foot forward, as if about to dance. The man swung towards her and she bashed him to the side with the flat of her right fan, the woman received a duck, a twist, and a harsh, horizontal slice that missed by millimeters. Despite the fact that she was reacting to their moves, every step seemed to have been carefully planned, smoothly sliding into one another.
Yurie was no hero, nor was she afraid of being shattered. Victor had been wrong on both accounts. It was true she'd fight him if he attempted to shatter her. It was true she was a warrior, a fighter, but she had long since learned that there was no such thing as innocence that survived. Mei Hua was already dead and shattered, and there was nothing she could do about that. No, it wasn't the shattering that she sought to avoid, it was the despair of trying, only to watch as each one broke into pieces. In her mind's eye, an image of a little Chinese girl, no more than 9 years old flashed into place, looking at her with wide, fear-filled eyes, as her soul fractured from within, splitting through her delicate skin. The Japanese teen brought the blunt end of her fan down hard into the skull of the man, driven by the force of her grief.
"Yu-Ri-Eh...." The little girl had always spoken her name in tones that didn't exist in Japanese, but it was the tone of innocent cheer - yet another tone she had not known in life - that had mattered to Yurie, none of the others.
"Yu-Ri-Eh, s-save me." She hadn't even been able to cry, too near shattering.
"Save me." She had been so scared. Yurie had shattered several agents of SHADE that day, for their lower members were no more advanced than other members of the Barukar house. They'd been a smaller group at the time, though no less dangerous. Driven by the impetuosity of her youth and the force of her sheer hatred, she'd been reckless - nearly gotten herself shattered. She hadn't cared then. She didn't care now, but she'd made a promise. A promise to the only one who mattered.
"Don't think like that, Jie-jie." Mei Hua's happy voice calling her Jie-jie had always made something melt in her heart.
"I care about you! Don't shatter, okay? Or at least, you should try your very hardest. Promise?" She'd been such a caring child. Why had SHADE wanted her shattered so badly? Yurie didn't know. Some part of her yearned to know, the other wasn't willing to reopen the giant chest full of pain still living in her heart just to find out. Or at least, it hadn't been for centuries.
Yurie opened her eyes and realized she was sitting on top of the woman, the poisonous tip of her fan about to plunge itself into her opponent's neck. The crowd was roaring but she didn't hear any of it. Without even the slightest indication she knew what she was doing, she stood up and dropped both her fans on the ground. The two fans connected tip-to-tip, making a large, yellow disk. A spike rose up from the center, as they clicked together, and she pressed her bare, left foot against it. There was a strange whirring sound, then both she, and the disk that her fans had become, went whizzing out of the Arena as a funny-looking floating skateboard, chasing Victor. She nearly decapitated him when she found him, but deactivated the fans in time, disconnecting her foot and landing bumpily on the back of his motorcycle.
"I'll help you, but only because there is something I must know. Something I must find out. If you get in the way of that, I won't hesitate to sabotage what you're trying to do. Do we have a deal?"
@Syphereon Ravenclaw