Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was no way for the Senshi of the Sesshoseki to know just how close he had been to the area when she shouted his name into the silent chill of the night. His aura had been on the move along the outskirts of the area when she had arrived on scene. There was no reason for him to have returned to the place where is problems had started.

No. That wasn't right. His problems hadn't started there, it was simply where they had come to light.

He watched her from the rooftops for a moment before dropping down into the alley where he had drained the civilian man. He adjusted the lapels of his coat before stepping out of the darkness, itching to call one of his cards to his hand. He didn't, not wanting to give her an excuse to start off with an attack.

"Shouting on a night like this is bound to bring all sorts of trouble. Are you certain you want to do that?"

"If you're not here to start trouble than keep your voice down or you're likely to bring it on both of us," he snapped, blue eyes narrowing as he fixed his gaze on her. It was good that she was angry; that she had regained her strength. If she stayed angry she might have more of a chance if he had to fight her again.

He listened to her questions, crossing his own arms over his chest while leaning back against the building he had rounded the corner of once more. He was more alert than he usually was despite his 'relaxed' stance, waiting to teleport away at the faintest trace of another Chaos aligned aura coming there way. He wasn't about to let himself get caught again, especially not with the same senshi.

Normally he would have shot 'What do you think I was going to do?' right back at her, but sass would get him nowhere that he wanted to be, so he stuck with honesty.

"I was going to yank your starseed."

He was seconds away from leaving her standing there without any answers at all and would have had her demeanor not shifted almost trastically after her small tantrum.

"I was going to take the thing that makes you who you are. Without it your body would have died. You would have died. I--" Why didn't you? He closed his eyes for a moment, senses still open just to make sure that they were still alone.

"I couldn't."

It was a weakness. It was something that he was fighting. It was a problem he had to get past.

"Someone said something to me one night and it stuck. I couldn't do it."

"Most people don't question why someone couldn't take their life." His attempt at a smirk only made it as far as pressing his lips a bit more firmly together, arms remaining crossed.

He uncrossed them a moment later, however, fingers brushing back through his hair as he sighed. "I grew up in Destiny City. I went to school here. I've lived in this stupid town my entire life. I --," he groaned, shaking his head. He didn't have to explain himself to her. He didn't owe her anything.

He answered anyways, "I can't answer for anyone else. I prefer not to harm civilians. Just because we need energy doesn't mean they have to be collateral damage. You don't have to reach into someone's insides to drain their energy. I've also never taken a starseed before."

She would have been his first; a medal to claim all in its own, and he had botched it.

Richterite laughed, the sound a bit more bitter and strained than he had intended it to be. The laughter made his sides ache. Thinking about everything made his head spin.

"I couldn't go through with it because it wasn't right. It would have been more just to take the starseed from the worthless piece of garbage you were trying to protect than it would have been to take yours." A senshi's starseed was just worth more.

"It might be someone in your class, or someone in your family. The Captain who brought me to meet the General King that accepted me into the Negaverse was one of my classmates; someone that I had known for years through a mutual friend. The only way to avoid knowing someone who has been touched by all of this is to either give up or ignore that it's happening." He snorted, running his fingers through his hair again, this time more as a nervous gesture as he glanced around.

"We are human. This is our home."

"There are plenty of human beings who are garbage]," he spat back, knowing well enough that his father was one of those people. Anyone who would leave their son in Hillworth as a means to avoid proper parenting and discipline was.

"Always with the name calling. It must be a senshi defense mechanism. Sometimes I wonder if any of you know how to have a proper conversation without it." His arms crossed over his chest again, eyes narrowing in her direction.

"Sometimes protecting something requires a sacrifice. You can't save everyone. You can't justify everything... Maybe it's already too late."

He had come out to clear his head one last time before throwing himself into the abyss, not to have someone try to question his convictions. Had he been that passionate once? Had he ever been that passionate about anything?

Yes. Maybe at one time, but how long ago had it been...

"Some people aren't worth saving."

He left her on that final note, teleporting away from the scene before the feeling of obligation and duty could overtake him. He would have blood on his hands soon enough. Let it be a truce for one more night.