.* Caia Grey *.
'Curse all demons with any form of intelligence.' Caia thought in exasperation. 'Especially this one.'
Akuma was silent again, which meant that unless Caia could figure out a way to find the blasted thing, she would literally be a sitting duck. Caia mumbled a few swears under her breath and glared at the air. If only concentration would reveal Akuma's location. Concentration with a magical object might work, but concentration by itself? Caia sighed softly and flexed her officially dead wrist again. As she just proved, concentration by itself proved itself useless. If Caia managed to live through this, perhaps she would look back on this battle and laugh about how she expected it, but never did anything to prepare for it.
That thought triggered an idea in Caia's mind, resurfacing a small memory from the back of her head. Caia bit her lip to prevent a triumphant smile from showing on her face and casually picked out Angela's witchstone from her pocket, slipping it on her thumb. If the witchstone was powerful enough, and wasn't just some dud, Caia would be able to at least see Akuma's aura. Caia let her sword hang at her side, appearing to relax a bit, and glanced around the room. She focused her mind, ignoring the aura from the black walls surrounding her, and as her eyes swept over a faint, distorted image, Caia breathed a silent sigh of relief. So the ring actually worked.
Caia continued to prevent as though she was searching a trace of Akuma, waiting for the demon to make a move. She had surprise on her side this time. She couldn't waste the chance it would provide.
.* I want to protect, so I will dirty my hands for you *.
((I did. Since Akuma was invisible when she put the ring on, Caia didn't know where she was, but can we say that Akuma didn't see her put the witchstone on?))
