Limbo City, Friday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Today's therapy appointment had spent awhile talking about Kathy's anxiety triggers (shocking no one, she had A Lot) and had left her wound up. So wound up, in fact, that rather than throwing herself into the first taxi she could find and riding white-knuckled to the guys' place, she'd actually braved both the cold and her fears of Limbo City to walk home. Not to explore or to try to get more comfortable, but just to try to work some of that extra jittering energy off.

Which of course meant that she was so far in her head that she didn't realize that she'd taken a wrong turn into a bad neighborhood until it was far too late. All the signs were there; she should have recognized them immediately from her time as Banzai - though with the addition of a lot more deep gouges in the buildings and concrete.

It was the sound of trash cans falling over as she passed an alleyway that got her head out of the clouds, and the almost-feline howl had her anxiety taking a backseat to the adrenaline getting dumped in her blood. She reached behind her to her backpack of weaponry she carried with her whenever she visited Limbo City, keeping her eyes locked dim confines of the alley. Maybe it was just a harmless old alleycat?

A pair of lambent eyes opened in the darkness, easily at height with her chest and each one roughly the size of her fist. Okay, not an alleycat then. One of those animalistic demons Dante called Rages. She was pretty sure that he classified them further, but the taxonomy didn't immediately come to her.

The Rage did, dashing out between the buildings at a speed that she'd have to sprint to match.

A snap of her wrist and her telescoping baton extended. The Rage pounced at her and she pivoted to the side, away from those grasping claws and slammed the baton upwards with full force. Something in its face cracked and the thing yowled in pain and fury. The baton wasn't going to kill the creature, but Kathy was loathe to take out her gun and shoot it; this was the middle of the city and a stray bullet could hit someone. Her Thundaga materia was still attached to her bokken, which was tucked away in her bag and all of her knives required her to get a lot closer than she really wanted to get.

Fuck, of all the times to miss Banzai's rope darts. Maybe she'd have to get a new set - a real set, not made from repurposed gymnastics equipment.

The fight was ugly and brutal, with Kathy basically bludgeoning the Rage with her metal baton, aiming for thinner bones and joints to try to take it down even if she couldn't take it out - or at least convince it that there was better prey elsewhere until she could get a minute to call Dante and have him deal with it. A lucky strike had the tip of her baton smashing into the Rage's eye and it howled; a noise loud and shrill enough to make Kathy's ears ring.

And, right before the heavy weight hit her back and knocked her to the ground, that was when she remembered that Rages usually belonged to a mated pair and where one was, another would surely follow.

The pavement shredded her jeans and the palms of her hands and her head bounced off a rock hard enough that stars burst behind her eyes. The Rage of top of her was even bigger than its mate; she could feel the heavy weight of it on her back, the claws pricking through her jacket and into her skin, smell the rancid tang of old meat on its breath. Her hand inched towards her shoulder, all concerns about shooting gone for the moment now that survival was on the line, and she swore she heard malice in the low growl the demon loosed in her ear.

And then the weight was gone, shouldered off of her by a blur of gray and brown and white. Snaps and snarls added to the yowling cacophony; dazed, it took Kathy a minute to make sense of what she was seeing. A large dog, filthy and matted with ribs showing, had flung itself into the Rage and had managed to wrap its powerful jaws around the demon's throat. The Rage was hissing and clawing at the dog, but there must have been terrier in the mix somewhere, because the mutt refused to budge, shaking the Rage like a rat to try to snap its neck. Ignoring her own wounds, Kathy pulled herself back up to her feet and dashed over to help. She didn't trust her aim enough to not hit the dog, so she went for a knife.

Together, they finished the second Rage off, the first one fleeing back into the depths of the alley. Kathy had no intentions of following and, from the looks of it, neither did the dog. She turned to it, noting he still had a tattered collar on, though he looked like it'd been on its own for awhile. "You okay, boy?" she asked, cautiously holding her hand out for it to sniff. The dog whined and limped forward, its back paw drawn up and a bloody hole in the skin, but still licked her hand.

That was good enough for Kathy. "C'mon, boy," she said, and scooped him up in her arms. He was heavy and almost as big as she was, and he stank, like trash and dirt and blood, but he'd come to her rescue. She wasn't going to leave him behind. "Let's get you home."

[Mostly establishy, but open for phone calls and/or the guys whose house is about to get a surprise guest!]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante nodded. "I will," he said quietly. "But if they do, we're getting you a puppy, like, the next day."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Might take a little longer to get over losing this guy," she said, shifting a bit so she could drop a kiss on his nose. "Good heroes aren't easy to replace, even if they're dogs."

She frowned. "We should still figure out something to call him, just so we're not calling him 'Dog' for the next however long."

[rebelseekspizza]

"He's your dog for now," Dante noted, watching the pooch. "You got any ideas?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's hand tightened possessively on his ruff ever so slightly as Dante called him 'her dog.'

"Well, I went through a bunch before you came in," she said. "And I came up with one, but I'm a little worried it's dumb. Do you know what ronin are in Japanese?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Not a damn clue," Dante said brightly.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You like action movies!" Kathy protested, laughing. The dog wagged his tail at the sound. "Maybe you'd watched the terrible Keanu Reeves remake of <>47 Ronin or something!"

Since odds he'd seen the original were...slim.

"Okay, so Japan had samurai, who were highly-trained soldiers who served a master. When they lost their master, cause he died or was disgraced or whatever, they were supposed to ritualistically kill themselves. The ones who didn't became ronin, masterless soldiers who'd wander throughout the countryside. Most became outlaws, but there were some who retained their honor and became folk heroes because they'd save people." She peeked up at Dante through her hair to see what he thought.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I mean, if you wanna name your dog an outlaw with a heart of gold..." Dante teased.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I feel it's only fitting that the Korean hero who called herself Banzai have a dog she names Ronin," Kathy decided. "I'll trade my hanbok for a yukata and just go full-on weeaboo."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I'll buy you your first anime statuettes, too," Dante said, snickering softly.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I mean, Ringo already calls me sempai instead of unni or even sunbae, so I'm practically there already. My father's probably spinning like a fucking top." She smirked. "Never did tell him a Japanese boy punched by v-card before I hooked up with two white guys."

Stop smugging, Kathy, it wasn't attractive.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Oh man, that would've been a sight," Dante said. "He'd have popped at least two blood vessels."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Might have saved the family if I'd given him an aneurysm before he had a chance to turn zombie," Kathy said wryly. "My new dad is just like, 'Pfft, I'm also in an interracial, polyamorous triad, so step up your bars if you wanna shock me here, kiddo.' And your mom didn't even blink twice."

[rebelseekspizza]

"If it helps," Dante said, amused, "I'm pretty sure my mom is like, contractually obliged not to give a shit."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Because she literally hooked up with a demon prince on a battlefield or something?" Kathy asked, grinning. "She told me the story when I asked."

It was the most romantic thing ever and sometimes Kathy sighed over it, even now.

"You think your dad was a romantic?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante tilted his head. "I think so," he said finally. "He definitely liked those kinda books..."

[spin_kick_snap]

"...Wait," Kathy said, blinking up at Dante, mouth spreading into a grin. "Like...romance novels? You dad liked romance novels?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"He liked Austen?" Dante offered.

[spin_kick_snap]

Yeah, that grin was going nowhere. "Austen?" she asked. "That's so..."

Words for failing her so she was flapping her hands around instead.

"I love it."

Hey, if something ever went really weird and they got a chance to meet Sparda, Kathy would have a topic of conversation that wasn't the son she was fucking, the son she hated, or his dead wife. Score!

[rebelseekspizza]

"What?" Dante said, blinking at her. "What about it?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy sighed and leaned back against the dog - against Ronin. Because he had a name. "It's so good," she said. "But hard to explain because I'm pretty sure you don't know anything about Austen. Or really want to. Regency English comedies of manners."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Dad used to read some of it to me," Dante said easily. "I just don't remember much of it."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I've got them if you ever want to borrow them," Kathy said.

And then, a little shyly offered, "Or I can read to you."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante blinked once.

Then his expression shifted into an easy smile. "Sounds like a great Kathy's Bed activity."

[spin_kick_snap]

She blinked; she hadn't expected him to go for it. Not laughing outright at the suggestion was the best she'd been expecting.

"Well, if you're ever in the mood, they're all on my phone," she said. "And you can stop to ask me questions and I'll explain all the jokes in an attempt to make them funny and kill them even deader."

[rebelseekspizza]

Hey, he liked her voice, and if he got bored they could always figure out something else to do together.

"Okay," Dante said, grinning. "... If that Ronin of yours ever decides to sleep anywhere other than on your bed."