[Hijikata's thorny vines were all iron, through and through. It may have been a strange form for his attack to take, but given the mannequin's armour he refrained from trying to summon anything to pierce it with, rather wanting to keep it in place first and foremost... and his subconscious informed this summons, too. Back in his youth the people in the countryside - those who didn't know quite how awful a thing he did before running away from home - called him "thorny Toshi" for how abrasive he was, and while that definitely wasn't a compliment he ended up carrying it with a stubborn kind of pride, much like the worse "demon" moniker.
If he knew that Shoto worries about his perceived shortcomings again he'd tell him not to. The boy's control of his core elements, ice and fire, is so much stronger and more versatile than Hijikata's will ever be, and he himself is still far from a master of metal and wood! Instead he grins at his squire's cheeky response, and ensures that there are no mannequins sneaking up in the rooms behind them while Shoto moves on ahead.
As soon as he hears the clash in the distance he sprints towards the noise. That boy attracts those knights like months to a flame! He barges into the battle, quickly scanning the scene - one knight immobilised and impaled in ice, another contending with White Amaryllis, gleaming like the wind itself - before ensnaring one of the other armoured mannequins in the same iron vines as before, forcing the ornate knifes from its grip with unrelenting prying thorns. The enemy that moved out of the next corner, raising its mace in Shoto's direction, gets a different taste of the samurai's metal magic: its armour dents itself inwards from all directions, bends and twist, making it fall to the ground, hand guards breaking the doll's fingers in the wrong direction so its weapon drops from its grip.
The mannequins would be terrifying and dangerous to any unarmed civilian, or just any poor person caught by surprise, but he and Shoto came prepared and with so much experience under their belts. He crunches the armour of the mannequin on the ground even more, like a soda can, so it can't possibly get up anymore. He'd love to put his other elements to the test on the vine-entrapped one, but given that these are not living beings lightning and water won't shock or drown them, and since his ice magic doesn't pack quite as much of a punch as Shoto's he ends up pondering, looking at the squirming enemy like at an artwork.]
What should we do with this one?
[It's an opportunity! Sure, there are 4 mannequins still at large, but this corridor is a dead end, so there's only one direction they can come from, if they aren't in a different part of the museum altogether. Also, yes, he totally expects that while he was busy with these two his squire soundly finished off the others... to be fair, in his book they already were as good as finished off when he entered the room.]
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If he knew that Shoto worries about his perceived shortcomings again he'd tell him not to. The boy's control of his core elements, ice and fire, is so much stronger and more versatile than Hijikata's will ever be, and he himself is still far from a master of metal and wood! Instead he grins at his squire's cheeky response, and ensures that there are no mannequins sneaking up in the rooms behind them while Shoto moves on ahead.
As soon as he hears the clash in the distance he sprints towards the noise. That boy attracts those knights like months to a flame! He barges into the battle, quickly scanning the scene - one knight immobilised and impaled in ice, another contending with White Amaryllis, gleaming like the wind itself - before ensnaring one of the other armoured mannequins in the same iron vines as before, forcing the ornate knifes from its grip with unrelenting prying thorns. The enemy that moved out of the next corner, raising its mace in Shoto's direction, gets a different taste of the samurai's metal magic: its armour dents itself inwards from all directions, bends and twist, making it fall to the ground, hand guards breaking the doll's fingers in the wrong direction so its weapon drops from its grip.
The mannequins would be terrifying and dangerous to any unarmed civilian, or just any poor person caught by surprise, but he and Shoto came prepared and with so much experience under their belts. He crunches the armour of the mannequin on the ground even more, like a soda can, so it can't possibly get up anymore. He'd love to put his other elements to the test on the vine-entrapped one, but given that these are not living beings lightning and water won't shock or drown them, and since his ice magic doesn't pack quite as much of a punch as Shoto's he ends up pondering, looking at the squirming enemy like at an artwork.]
What should we do with this one?
[It's an opportunity! Sure, there are 4 mannequins still at large, but this corridor is a dead end, so there's only one direction they can come from, if they aren't in a different part of the museum altogether. Also, yes, he totally expects that while he was busy with these two his squire soundly finished off the others... to be fair, in his book they already were as good as finished off when he entered the room.]