[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]heheA swirling moon longed in the distant sky. Like a planet of spirals, it loomed there, so far away from the Earth, clear to see. Its shadow crossed into warm hues of orange and purple as it merged with the sky, seen from the world as part of the scenery and, though not lost in its gaze, melding with the world above. It looked down to the world as it grew closer, tilting along the axis of the turning horizon and pressing forward through toward the heavens heralded above the witch.

[break][break]

heheBut a moon shouldn't grow in the sky. No, in fact, it no longer held along with the tilting of the world as the day turned to night; its spirals became clearer, and the white planes between became clear to see. The moon stared over the world, and, at the sight of something in this world below it, it billowed closer to Shion. As it came closer and closer, the shape of the moon would change, turning in on itself, compounding, and shaping itself a new, unlikely shape — the silhouette of a man hid there, in the center of it, and only cast its form by the skies shifting moods.

[break][break]

heheIt plunged down to the world, at the sidewalk, just beside the witch. A foggy mist spread across the space, becoming a foggy mist that, ultimately, blanketed the pavement. And from it sprung, a coalescing mass forming up from the trace of spirals, the shape of the man — Claudio bounced forward, grinning all the while.

[break][break]

hehe"Yo, B'oomshtick!" he cheered, "you're not dead! Well, they said you were fine ove' the phone, but it'sh still reassuring to see it myzelf, y'know?"

[break][break]

heheClaudio, by contrast to the bandages strewn over the witch, had little to say with regard to injuries. The only detail of damage, beyond the scars he wore proudly again today — his jacket swayed open at the front, revealing his chest and abdomen — were wrappings about his knuckles and lower fingers.

[break][break]

hehe"It'sh g'eat to have ya being, y'know, not dead n' stuff."

[break][break]

heheHe stepped closer, bending and twisting as he did.

[break][break]

hehe"Ya wanna fly back?" His grin curled. "I know we're not suppozed to be uzing our quirksh in public and all–" a few people still dotted the street around them, some turning their contemptuous eyes to him as he bubbled with energy– "but c'mon, it'll be fun, I promize! It'll be way bette' than a cab or train!"

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]heheClaudio sat there atop the counter, bobbing side-to-side with his curling, flowing hair following him along, still opposite to both of his fellow Rumbling Survivors. Minus, of course, Shion — and that motorcyclist, too! Even with the coverage by the news and reports from those impacted by the simultaneous disasters, he found next to nothing of the masked explosives expert at his scene; for as far as he could find, he couldn't see any reference to them as a hero, and even if they were a hero — maybe he didn't know Japan's hero scene enough to truly say — he couldn't imagine one to be so flagrant, or even armed, with things like that, let alone to ally with the rest of the students opposing Miss Earth on that day.

[break][break]

hehe"But I mean, it'sh not like I'm affected much by the change itself, so it'sh like, 'what do I know?' I still got everything I'm uzed to, and if thish ish a pe'manent thing, it'sh still not gonna be det'imental to me — I'll jusht go on the way I do anyway."

[break][break]

heheClaudio's arms moved away from his chest, unfurling from their crossed resting place, and pressed forward, where Claudio now leaned — still sat atop the table, of course — over towards both Emilia and Elijah. Or, well, he leaned over where Emilia was and where he still assumed Elijah to be, whether that be accurate or not.

[break][break]

hehe"And it'sh not like ya give much credit to a guy who saysh he doeshn't like a food he'sh neve' t'ied. I mean, I don't like seafood, but that doeshn't mean I didn't try any of it! And I found out that codfish cakesh are the e'ception, so y'know, I got something to say out of it, something that came f'om something!" He planted his hands on his crossed feet, reaching his arms across the other towards their opposite legs. "And I don't imagine it'sh pa'ticula'ly comfo'ting if I say it, so I dunno."

[break][break]

hehe"That aside," he leaned away with a sigh. "It'sh wei'd timing, y'know? After all that... that stuff, I mean. I don't think they're related, don't get me w'ong, but it'sh still wei'd that they're happening so cloze together. O' even that both of them happened — or, that one ish happening, and the other hash happened."

[break][break]

heheHe scooted backward away from the two, pressing his hands down on either of his sides and pushing himself over towards his own. He sat just along to the teeter between the countertop and the seat beneath it, with the edge of his seat being just over the gap while the rest of him remained on the tabletop. He rested his hands in his lap, just between his crossed legs.

[break][break]

hehe"It'sh good ya guysh healed up, by the way. Couldn't tell how bad you got houghed up, D'eadsh," he'd then turn to Emilia, "but you definitely took it the hardesht. Azide from maybe the bike', whoeve' that wash."

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]heheClaudio watched as his hand was squeezed, the imprint of Elijah's own squishing against the cloud's softened skin; though he couldn't see his classmate, the indent of his squish was clear. Better than being swatted with chopsticks.

[break][break]

heheThe cloud's outstretched arm slinked back into its socket proper, mirroring its opposite again in normality. "Well, I definitely felt it, yeah!" He grinned. "Don't think being invizible makesh you phase th'ough thingsh, fa' as I can recall; I mean, definitely not if ya just did!" He raised his arm up to his gaze, squeezing the same hand Elijah touched. He tilted his head at it. "But nothing outta the ordinary, I guess. It jusht felt like a hand."

[break][break]

heheThen, there came Emilia's sudden disappearance.

[break][break]

heheWhen the blonde vanished alongside their words, Claudio snorted. So quickly, in fact, that he didn't even have a chance to put his hand over his face before the sound escaped him, only placing it in the immediate aftermath of giggling. In the seconds following Emilia's disappearance, he began flicking his fingers up along with each little tick of the unheard clock, humming along to each of his little beats until Emilia eventually popped back into sight.

[break][break]

heheWith Emilia taking her seat at the booth, Claudio turned to sit properly; not in an intended seat, but rather, he brought his legs up from the ledge and sat cross-legged on the countertop.

[break][break]

hehe"I think I hea'd some early sourcesh say the change ish only temporary." He crossed his arms over his chest, swaying from side to side. "I dunno how t'ue that ish, but I don't think worrying's gonna do much good anyway; if it ish permanent, I dunno if there's then much use complaining anyway, y'know?"

[break][break]

hehe"Then again," he swayed, "I guess I can't heally talk... I'm still doing as I do, so I guess I'm not heally in the concerned group. Maybe I shouldn't weigh in...? I dunno if I can weigh in on it, now that I'm thinking about it; can I?"

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]hehe"Oh, that'sh hight!" As the cloud pulled away, sitting back down on his end of the table, he propped himself up with his arms. He tilted back on them, swaying back and forth as he did. "You guysh have that thing about calling people by thei' lasht namesh ove' here — it's supe' confuzing, y'know!" He chuckled to himself a quiet, rhythmic hum. Pumping an open palm into the air, the cloud mouthed something to himself, making a total of four jolts at his unseen vision — if there was a vision there at all. "Eshpecially fo' me; do I get called by both of my lasht namesh? Do I pick one, or does the country choose for me? It'sh all so wei'd!"

[break][break]

heheFrom the hushed giggles that bubbled in his chest, his laughter would further grow again into his uproarious cheer and with it, brought along his shining grin. Despite his haphazard, informal attire, his teeth were without chipping, blemishing, or even staining.

[break][break]

heheSipping on his tea — his laughter toned to let it flow past his lips — Claudio settled back with his one arm, keeping his drink upheld with the other. The cup settled in the palm of his upturned hand, and as the man looked into the murky liquid, he swirled it around; it never slipped from its dam, but its waves still peaked along the brim.

[break][break]

hehe"So," he'd continue, grabbing and moving the cup from his hand with the fingers of his opposite, "I'm gonna call you 'Shio!' Soundsh cool, hight?" He would point to his own mouth. "It rollsh off my tongue bette'. Oh, wait!" His eyes would spring brighter, larger, than it ever had before. "Maybe I'll go with 'Shinho!' Now that'sh got some punch to it!"

[break][break]

heheSetting his cup down off to his side — not on the table, but upon the mat — the cloud rested back again.

[break][break]

hehe"Which do ya think worksh bette'? Shinho soundsh way coole' to me, but I know you guysh here have you' tastes and all that."

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]hehe"First off, I'm not gonna leave my bag on some random patch of grass or in some stuffy building to grab later — my things stay with me!" Pointing his finger up at her, he continued holding the trumpet aloft at the titanic hero. The guard clung to the brass instrument, its leather worn around the buttons and scratched by their contours. "Secondly, you didn't say were gonna do that! You said you jusht wanted to see some tricksh!"

[break][break]

heheClaudio pulled his instrument close to his chest, resting it, along with his hands, in his lap. He breathed in again, sucking air into his chest and steadying his rhythm. He still floated there in front of Titanomachia, returning from a shout to a smile; not as large as he'd once held, but worthwhile enough for him to make. His eyes, however, failed to match it, refusing to meet the pro-hero's gaze or even twist in amusement — they dwelled on the instrument, clicking the buttons as he did.

[break][break]

hehe"All the trumpets in the world wouldn't mean a thing to me. I don't care if they're the best, if they're worth a fortune, or if they were used by someone famous; it wouldn't mean a single thing to me!" As he spoke, his voice rising higher and higher as he went, Claudio's grin lifted again just as it had before, his eyes beaming alongside it. "It wouldn't ever be my trumpet, or the trumpet I get to see off — this trumpet's had a longer life than I have, and I wanna play its last sound!"

[break][break]

heheClaudio held his trumpet in both hands. He didn't lift it to play, instead resting it comfortably on his lap. The brass, gently sliding against his palm as he slipped his thumb into the first valve slide, squeaked as he held it low, and the valves played a quiet slip as they moved.

[break][break]

heheHe looked forward to Titanomachia, meeting her gaze. With a quiet smile and a chuckle of a sigh, his eyes looked back from nights, many not his own, passed.

[break][break]

hehe"It'sh not jusht 'collateral damage,' y'know? It'sh got livesh in it, like it'll have mine before it goesh."

[break][break]

heheHe drifted away from the titan, holding onto the trumpet as he slipped away. Humming to himself a tune and fingering the melody, he let his gaze fall up to the sky. "You gotta know about thingsh you wouldn't eve' wanna break, hight? Thingsh you wouldn't eve' let be collateral?"

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]heheElijah's gauntlet slipped straight from his arm just as he'd intended; not so much as a sound came, or even a skim of pressure went, from his skin as it rocketed into the opposite man's mouth. The man fell backward, his body bruised and marred from Elijah's onslaught, but his grip on the weapon did not ease. Even as he fell onto the ground and reeled in his wounds, his jaw did not unclench. Drops trickled down from the side of his mask, quivering as they fell from his cheek onto the floor.

[break][break]

heheWith the man down, Elijah found no issue throwing his blade, sailing it directly at the red-tipped man without hindrance. But, in the flick of the man's eye to its corner, their body twisted and their arm shot up; caught in his hand — a steel layer coating his entire hand from the wrist up — the blade bent into scraps. Even further as he strangled it, his hand reddening as he held it to the air, the blade melted.

[break][break]

hehe"Wouldn't call 'Trailblazer' an underground name, kid." The cremated remnants of the blade fell from his hand, crumbling into a twisted piece of scrap metal. "Pretty sure a blaze is the definition of standing out."

[break][break]

hehe"Cloud-Cloud..."

[break][break]

hehe"It's not the time for that!" The maître d' bellowed, pointing his ladle at Cattle Iron. "And don't go dealing serious damage, either! Worst comes to worst, we don't want to dig ourselves too far!"

[break][break]

hehe"Easy for you to sa-"

[break][break]

heheBefore even finishing his statement, a loud boom echoed through the restaurant. A thunderclap shook from Cattle Iron's back, a snapping sound resonating from flesh against flesh. At his back, still closer to the door, the cloud's arms stretched limply as they retracted, flinging away from their elastic blow. "Cannon!"

[break][break]

heheAt Elijah's back, the blurred man readied another blow, tracing his foot and pulling his fist back for another powerful swing.

[break][break]

hehe"Go low!" Claudio's voice screamed. From across the room, his wide eyes stared toward his classmate, focusing the intent of his blow in Elijah's direction. At the moment the Canadian caught the criminal's eye, the Brazilian took the momentary blindspot to stretch his arms back, combining his strength with the elasticity of his quirk to send Cattle Iron flying.

[break][break]

heheAnd, if Elijah responded to his call, the scorching man would fly over him directly into the blurred man, sending them both tumbling across the flooring.

[break][break]

heheThe crowd at either end now encircled them. Claudio fell closer to the center, where Elijah would have been, and met him there to regroup. By this point, a dozen of the suits — not accounting for the 3 still active mixed-masks, who stumbled onto their feet — remained, with the gunman still lost somewhere. Claudio faced his back opposite Elijah's.

[break][break]

hehe"Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna get lucky with that one again." As Claudio spoke, Cattle Iron started rolling up his sleeves, with his flesh sizzling again as they met with the open air. "I can p'obably handle that 'Blur' there–" the man rose from beneath his fellow waiter, shaking his face– "and maybe Mishte' No Bonesh, but I don't got a good answer for Hot'od there."

[break][break]

heheAll three of these men stood squarely. Aside from the man still beaten to the floor before, they were the sole few who held trace markings of gleaming black along their visages. What remained of the sameish, festered crowd, wore their simple masks, while the maître d' work a mask entirely in the reflective substance.

[break][break]

hehe"I got an idea, but I need you to stall Hot'od fo' a sec." Both Mr. No Bones and Blur, as Claudio had dubbed them, charged forward, with Cattle Iron — a name Claudio had missed the mark on — trailing behind them at the center. "Can you do that?"

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]heheThe clouds behind Titanomachia's head dissipated as she passed through them, a gentle, cool mist through her hair and out back to where they began; reformed again, their shapes a cavalcade of Claudio in many, many, many different poses, they took their gaze to follow her along. The main body, which once again held his real mouth — returning his face to its full, grinning countenance — raised an eyebrow. A curly eyebrow, puffy like his mist, spiraled towards the center of his brow.

[break][break]

heheClaudio followed along as her arms reached out at either side. With the tilt of his head and the bob of his hair, he remained in his cross-legged sat, now sat right-side up and left with his tipped expression. Only then, when Titanomachia's arms reached out at their wingspan, did Claudio's eyes widen, flying out from his cheeks and even past his forehead as his mouth went agape.

[break][break]

heheAside from the man's torso, with his backpack still hanging from it, the whole rest of his form dissolved into vapor; however, the cloud beneath him molded into his hands — his real hands — and pulled at his core, stretching it further with the bag still on his back. With his feet above from another cloud pushing his body down, and with the aiding tug of his hands, his backpack was shot out into the sky, and with Titanomachia's force, it soared even higher.

[break][break]

heheWith it gone, the haze dispersed into many shreds of mist, blowing out and away from the clap's epicenter. Like an explosion of steam, the man's form went out in every direction, shadowing the world in its downcast and blanketing it from the sun's gaze; even to Titanomachia, her sky was drowned in thick shadows, a sort of dome made from the man's gaseous body.

[break][break]

heheThe clouds turned. They furled, coiled — they didn't simply pass with the winds. No, just like Claudio's hair, they waved and shifted in spirals, twisting all of their own accord. They continued to turn with a silent, unannounced speed, barely enough to be noticed. But from their centers, at the beginning of their spirals, the threads whirled. Shooting out from these points, rocketing upwards towards a point further into the sky, like small typhoons flowing up to the top of the rising clouds.

[break][break]

heheCoalescing at the apex of the dome's rising top and molding its shape, a shadow fell beneath its form, and plummeting from above the silhouette, a speck of pink fell into and dragged down the casting shape. Tumbling down, down, and further back down to where a man had once sat, its descent slowing and, eventually, stopping right in front of the hero.

[break][break]

heheWith a poof, Claudio was born again, all in his entirety. Wordlessly, steadily, the Brazilian reached inside of his bag. He rummaged through it for a moment, rubbing against the inner wall as he sifted through. From the bag, he revealed a small, black box — a black case. Sitting both his bag and the case on his lap, with his legs acting as a makeshift countertop, Claudio flipped open the box and pulled something out.

[break][break]

heheHe held a trumpet. A brass, flashy trumpet, fitted with leather just beneath the valves. With his head tilted back and air sucked into his lungs, with his chest expanded like a balloon, Claudio blasted Titanomachia with one massive, prolonged shriek through his instrument.

[break][break]

hehe"Okay," he panted. The color from his face, along with his breath, returned to him. "That wash for almosht making me loze thish." He fiddled with the buttons, watching as he clicked them up and down. "Also fo' my wallet and phone — but moshtly this!"

[break][break]

heheWith his case shoved back into his bag, missing the horn still held in his right hand, Claudio kept his belongings in his lap, resting his chest forward over them. "I'm a package deal, lady!" His lips furrowed into a grin-turned shout. "You don't get to have me if you t'eat thish–" he waved his trumpet over his head– "like that! You don't get to deshtroy this fo' what you want!"

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time