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Lepus was out and about doing her usual thing, which was, to say, nothing productive, depending on who asked... not that Lepus would agree with any opinion that didn't justify her actions. Tonight, she was on a mission, though it could be argued that every night was a mission night, and a special one, at that. An important mission, that was very personal to Lepus.... though yet again, that could be said for pretty much any of the excuses she made up for sneaking out at night (and sometimes skipping school during the day).

Through some supernatural force or another, a curse had been laid upon Lepus' guardian cat, Etoile. While this wasn't the first time such a thing had befallen her Mauvian companion, this was kinda the first time it hadn't really resolved itself after a few hours or so... so the teen was kinda scratching her head on how to proceed. Well, usually in jrpgs, they were dispelled by defeating whatever had caused it in the first place, right? SO, obviously, she just needed to find some youma or nega officer or something evil-looking enough to beat up, and...

Well, she hadn't really suuuuuper thought out her plans beyond that point. Improv and spontaneously leaping into action tended to be her modus operandi these days, after all.

Traveling among the rooftops, Lepus was scouting for any possible baddies that needed taken care of, when the presence of another aura stopped her short. It didn't necessarily seem like an enemy one- she'd grown to tell the difference by now- but on the other hand, sometimes you never knew, and maybe she was just kinda hoping to get to fight?

"Oiiiiii!" she called out, wondering if she was close enough to be heard, "Who goes there?"

Ugh, the level of disrespect coming from this other senshi, the audacity, even, talking to her like that. This was one of the many reasons adults tended to be useless, aside from her own family problems, Lepus felt- in the almost seven years she'd been a senshi, the amount of older folk who constantly treated her like this was too high.

'Aren't you out a little late?' 'Where are your parents?' 'Little kids shouldn't be out this late at night,' and other similar questions had been asked over the years, and frankly, Lepus was tired of it. Sure, she hadn't exactly hit that fabled growth spurt that was supposed to happen in one's teen years, but she was pretty confident she looked enough like a high schooler, in spite of her petite stature, for it not to matter.

"I don't have a curfew, and even if I did, I'm not telling," Lepus retorted, mimicking the hands on hip gesture, as she tried to look somewhat unimpressed and intimidating, "I'm a senshi, anyway."

So she didn't need any adults telling her what to do.

Sometimes, when Lepus was in better moods and happier times, she'd be more willing to talk this out with the other party, maybe gain a new contact along the way. She'd done this a few times already over the years, even forming some sort of weird shaky sort of 'friendship' (if it could be called that) with some chaos-aligned folk. Athalia, however, was getting on her nerves, and Lepus found herself running out of patience and willingness to not get into a huge argument over this.

Just who was he to try telling her what to do, anyway?

"I've been doing this for a pretty long time now, so I'd say I'm able enough," the teen shot back, unable to hide her frustration at the other senshi, "In fact, I bet I've been a senshi longer than you have!"

Actually, she had no way of knowing that, truth be told, especially given that Lepus always tended to do her own thing rather than get involved with the major ongoings, but on the other hand, well. She'd been a senshi for nearly seven years now, so there was a good chance that maybe she'd have a good year or two or three on him.

Finally, they were making some progress, or at least, that was how Lepus interpreted it. Maybe it wasn't really supposed to be like that, but to the teen, it seemed like he was finally willing to listen, in a way. Well, perhaps not so much as listen, but...

If he was going to challenge her, Lepus would certainly rise to the challenge! She was very good at that, after all. Got her in trouble a lot, but she was very good at that, too.

"Gladly," she said, and immediately moved to close the gap between them, ready to land a punch like the way she was taught.

A shield? “That’s cheating,” Lepus complained, but nonetheless, rose to the challenge. Any kind of magical shield usually had some kind of weak spot, if video game taught her anything (aside from how much she loved jumpscares). All she had to do was wail on it a bit, right? She’d put a crack in it sooner or later.

On the other hand, if he was going to fight dirty like this, she could too. Abandoning her beat down on the shield for a moment, Lepus dropped her arms to her side and shrugged.

“I unno, I guess I’m just not going to convince you, then...” she began, a devious look crossing her face, “If only it didn’t have to be this way!”

It was time to fight fire with fire, right?

Fighting against a stationary target was a new thing for Lepus, but modern problems require modern solutions, or something like that. Magical shields usually had a weakness or two, and while she could have simply just continued to punch it until it broke, Lepus had one other trick up her sleeve.

(Well, one other trick, aside from the decoy distraction and all.)

With Athalia distracted, Lepus took the opportunity to take advantage of the confusion, sneaking behind him. There were a few cool catchphrases she could have recited, to make herself look even cooler than she already was (which was plenty!), but she opted instead for a spur-of-the-moment decision to... aim a jump kick as a sneak attack, like the kinds she had seen in fighting games.

“Hyper Megaton Kick!”

(It wasn’t an actual attack of hers, but rabbits were supposed to be good at kicking, so this made it legit, right?)

“I’m the best,” Lepus declared, in that sorta smug satisfactory kind of way. She was pretty proud of herself for figuring that one out- who’d have thought she could use her magic for that sorta purpose? Usually she just watched people chase after the decoys and laughed at their frustrations at finding out they were being duped.

“That shield thing was kind of cheating, but I guess you’re not half bad, either,” she continued, with a frown, “But just you wait and see, old man- I’ll get even more powerful, and then you’ll be even more in awe of my skills!”

Lepus was, maybe, getting a little ahead of herself, and tilting ever slightly closer towards the edge of her chuuni persona slipping out, but she really did have that much confidence in her own abilities to take him on and win again. She didn’t explicitly say it, but Lepus certainly wanted a rematch if she ran into him again.