eswareinmal | Better Check the Warranty

Better Check the Warranty

The problem started when Sento stumbled across that mustachioed dragon, and said dragon's self-proclaimed "amazing" wares. Sento hadn't thought them amazing, and he'd told the dragon so, and there had been a bit of an argument, up until the point at which Sento had found an odd-looking bracelet in the pile. It was a thin band of silver, and this band of silver was studded with several figural beads shaped like different animals--there was a rabbit, a hawk, a hedgehog, a panda, a gorilla...all animals Sento had corresponding FullBottles for, all animals he'd used as half of Build's transformation.

He'd been so taken by the coincidence that he'd haggled with the dragon for it, and in the process, he'd completely managed to miss the fact that the silver band that held all the animal beads was actually a sculpted cobra.

It is perhaps that cobra that made absent-mindedly putting the bracelet on a very bad idea. The bracelet was, rather unfortunately for Sento, just a tiny bit cursed. (This is, the dragon would claim, what Sento got for refusing to purchase the extended warranty, which would have covered cursed artifacts.)

Sento's hair is now white, his eyes are now red, and he's sort of prowling around the town, occasionally kicking over some townsperson's fruit stand or flower cart just because he can. Oh, the humanity of it all.

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Tachibana glared darkly for a long moment before his expression shifted to one far more stern and serious--

--Which would be the only warning given before his hand shot out, wrapped in a blast of purifying light that he was aiming to land right between those glimmering eyes.

"Sento" cried out at that blast, and for a brief moment, there was the shape of a very large cobra shimmering in the air behind him as the odd bracelet around his wrist seemed to move. But he managed to roll out of the way, even if he was breathing hard now. "Oh, that's a good trick. Real good. I was almost worried."

... a cobra. Tachibana's eyes narrowed further.

"...So you're that bastard, huh?" he realized, voice cold.

"I may not be the exact one you're thinking of," he laughed as he stood up and started shaking a bottle. Sento still wasn't quite sure how his Bottles would work in this world, and whatever was possessing him seemed to share that. "But I'm probably close enough for your purposes."

"...the hell does that mean?" Tachibana asked, hand going to his jacket pocket to where his Buckle rested. He hadn't tried a proper transformation yet.... and similarly wasn't too sure how the Undead energy would manifest in this world.

"Multiple universes," he answered, waving the hand that wasn't shaking a bottle. "Some differences. Doesn't really matter--I'm still going to destroy whatever worlds I come across."

There was a moment's pause as Tachibana simply stood in place, utterly still and stoic--

--before he vanished from view.

Barely a second later, however, he reappeared behind the possessed Rider and with a very cold and calculating motion, swept Sento's feet out from under him and elbowed him hard in the back, grabbing the man's arm and twisting it behind him to pin both it, and him to the ground.

"Not if I destroy you first."

The words were the only warning before the intense, purifying heat of Apollo's Light began to radiate out from Tachibana's entire body in a blinding nova, all focused on removing the intruder from his friend's form.

"Sento" gave a growl and reflexively threw an arm up to shield himself, but it wasn't doing as much good as whatever malevolent entity was possessing him would have liked. There was a silhouette of a giant glowing cobra materializing behind him, but then it solidified to something more than just a silhouette as the bracelet on Sento's wrist snapped. Sento collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

The gigantic cobra reared back and flared its hood, hissing angrily at Tachibana. "Happy now, hero?"

Carefully letting go of his friend, Tachibana stood up, the glow around him dimming, but still lingering.

"Not yet."

There was a rippling of his form as he shifted, standing upright to Galen's massive height, the glow of Apollo's mantel settling more firmly on his shoulders. Eyes narrow, he held out his hand, the curl of supernatural flames starting to build in his palm, drawing Apollo's light in until it was a twisting ball of flame and pure bright light barely contained between his fingers.

Edited 2018-12-19 02:49 (UTC)

The cobra reared back and hissed, venom dripping from its fangs as it lunged at Tachibana in an effort to snuff out those flames.

Sento continued to very helpfully lie there unconscious.

Before it could get close enough, the blast of flame and light rushed out, blindingly bright and hot.

Really, it was for the best that Sento was out cold, saved him from having to cover his eyes from the blast.

The cobra howled in pain, fell back, and rolled back onto its belly. "You'll pay for thissssss, heroessssss!" It was trying to escape now--it felt its chances of survival were better without getting fried another time.

A very heavy hoof stepped down on the end of the cobra's tail, pinning the creature in place. Reaching into his hammerspace one more time, Tachibana pulled out a large sword and with one swift motion, sliced the cobra in two.

The cobra howled in anger as it got sliced in half. The two halves of the great snake fell to the ground, still twitching and writhing...

...only for a much smaller snake, covered in dark black ichor, to emerge from one of them and to start slithering away very, very quickly.

Edited 2018-12-22 19:47 (UTC)

Oh hell no was he letting that bastard get away. With no need to keep the half he was pinning down immobile any longer, he gallops after, intent on crushing the smaller snake with his hooves.

The snake couldn't run (okay, so it was incapable of running because it was a snake, it was slithering, not running) forever, and it certainly couldn't get away from that stomping. It gave a final screech of pain and faded away in a puff of black smoke.

Sento was still passed out.

There was a long moment as Tachibana simply... stood in place, feeling oddly conflicted. He hadn't-- ... No, he had meant to kill it. A creature declaring that he would destroy any world he was on like he was more than glad to do it...

He shook his head, stashing Galen's sword back into his hammerspace before shaking off the extra mass of the form and returning to himself, still looking a bit troubled. With another shake of his head, as if trying to clear it, he turned his attention back to his fallen friend, carefully kneeling next to him, hand on his shoulder.

"Sento? Can you hear me?"

Sento groaned a bit as the bracelet he'd been wearing crumbled to dust on his wrist. "What happened?" His hair was no longer white, and although he still looked a bit dazed, his eyes looked normal as well.

There was a definite moment of hesitation before Tachibana smiled. "Nothing that couldn't be taken care of," he answered. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a truck," Sento grumbled as he picked himself up. "The last thing I remember, I was arguing with a weird dragon over a pile of junk."

Tachibana blinked once. "A weird dragon?" he repeated. "...there wasn't a bracelet involved in that argument, was there?"

"Yes, a weird dragon. A small one. With a mustache." Sento grimaced. "The question of a bracelet had come up, yes. I said it was junk, he became offended."

"...If you said it was junk, why the hell were you wearing it?"

Sento frowned. "That's...a good question. I don't know that I have an answer for it." And he looked very troubled by that.

Tachibana hesitated a moment, looking at Sento and debating before reaching out to put a hand on the man's shoulder.

"Well, whatever caused it, it's taken care of now. So try not to worry about it too much."

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