Into The Broken Mirror (Happydeath & Mena)

[Nothingness]

Shinji Araki

Continuing on a full sprint through the dense and pitch black path of the forest while the sounds of the corrupted beasts had closed in from behind the hooded male. Shinji had kept his dark ocean blue hues focused on the path before him. Even with his injuries, he was still able to maneuver around each of the trees that came in his path without too much trouble; risking the chance that possibly dropping his bow and quiver would help him run all that much quicker; the beasts that kept their assault coming forward only crushed the bow and quiver underneath their paws while they snarled and growled to reach ever closer to their prey. As Shinji had drawn closer and closer towards his destination of the cabin, he could start to feel the throbbing dark energy of the scythe calling out to him in his weakened state; knowing well enough that the weapon was not to be used since it could even corrupt him just like the other beasts that were chasing him, it either that or end up getting himself killed and possibly harming the new female friend he had just made; for now it was just a risk he had to take.

Eventually, it was only a matter of time that his own wounds would start to affect him far too much for him to be able to fully focus on the path before him. His vision had soon enough started to become blurry as he finally ended up losing his balance after a few further steps just to end up tripping and collapsing straight into the hard ground, his face being buried into the dirt while the sounds of the echoing growls and howls from the beasts grew closer and closer by the second. Without enough energy to be able to fully form himself into his true form of the phoenix at the moment, it was almost no doubt that he was going to be killed just to be resurrected once again through his ashes. Cursing silently to himself at his own body as it failed him to be able to move forward any further, the entire time he laid there he had been unaware that Efert had been on her way towards him.

Dominik & Esdeath

After Esdeath had left the interrogation room and the ice that had surrounded the ex-general had been removed other than those that are around his wrists and his ankles to keep him from using his power to break free of the room. The dark haired male had kept his head downwards at stare down at the cuffs that kept his movements limited even with the light hanging above his head swinging from one side to the next; knowing well enough that every movement he had made in his seat at this point was being monitored by a camera somewhere within the room, he kept completely silent to see when he could take his chance to be able to break out of the room. Meanwhile, at the security room; two soldiers had been sitting in front of multiple monitors that were plastered all across the front wall; cameras had been everywhere throughout the building as some watched halls, others watched different offices and there was even one that was focused mainly onto Dominik in the interrogation cell. The two soldiers that sat there watching the cameras had multiple cups of coffee and donut boxes that were all empty scattered all around the room from just how long they had spent their time in that same room every single day.

Within seconds of the two soldiers just sitting there staring at the screens, an unexpected visitor had decided to make itself known when the door into the room swung open just to reveal none other than the Ice General herself; Esdeath had marched in with a rather stern and annoyed look on her face from how the room looked. Marching her way up towards the two soldiers who had quickly stood from their seats just to salute to their General even if their uniform was a complete mess. With a single smack onto the back of each of the two soldiers' heads just to make them go flying over towards the nearest wall for being such slobs, she stood in front of the screens only to notice as to how the female weapon; Isral had just left the governor's office looking as though she had been injured. The sight of this only bringing a joyous smirk across the female General's lips as she nodded her head before bringing her piercing gaze over towards the interrogation room camera and having her smirk immediately fade to one of rage. "You two! Make sure you watch him! If he tries to make any sudden movements that look suspicious at all, you let me know immediately! Got it?" Demanding such an order towards the two soldiers who slowly helped themselves up after being practically tossed to the wall before nodding their heads with yet another salute.

Mena​

 

[Mena]

Isral
Isral could feel the weight of her own heart slow her down with each step she took. As long as it was a step away from that bastard's office, she didn't mind the pain that much. The girl managed to stumble down the hallway before collapsing against the corner of a turning wall. The damage from the shockings she had taken earlier was now affecting her. "Damn.....just fucking great. My luck." She cursed herself for being such an idiot.

The guards stationed in the hallway didn't even bother to help her. They learned their lesson the first time after she collapsed, she was the reason that they both got demoted. To make it ever worse was they finally had gotten that hard earned raise only to be back where they started. The white haired girl could only imagine what was going through their minds while looking at the pitiful person she currently was.

Both her head and her chest were throbbing painfully. Isral could feel her magic swirling around trying to heal them inside of her already. Within a couple of minutes she would be able to stand once more and act like nothing had happened. Perhaps it was because of the shards within her heart that sped up her healing? She didn't know and honestly, the girl really didn't care anyway. However she just wished that the Wind General would hurry up and get his mission over with already.

Juin tracked down his assignment pretty easy as she was causing a ruckus in the control room. Even from down the hall was loud fussing going on from the overbearingly stern female. As usual when she was either extremely pissed at someone or she just got through interrogating a person. Juin continued his way into the room, using his key card to open the door then letting the door quickly slam behind him.

Whatever may the case maybe for this, the Wind General definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of that hellbent fury from the Ice Queen. The green haired male coughed towards the female, gaining her attention away from the two poor employees. "Yo Esdeath. I see that Dominik really got under your skin." He smirked, daring to tease her even. It was fun to tease Esdeath from time to time, watching her reactions was priceless. Those reactions weren't as great as Israls, he would never admit it though.

However, he quickly knew that he would have to change the topic or a 10 mm ice shard would come flying at him. He calmly raised his hands up towards her, in case she were to try to make him a human wind sical. "Boss says that we have to let him go. Isral is going with him as planned, what are we going to do~?" Juin stated while folding his arms to his chest.

Efert
Efert ran outside, her small feet leaving impacts through the light snow. She ignored her own protest of her body, picking up more speed towards her fallen friend. "Don't worry I'll save you now." The female picked up a sharp rock from the snow and without hesitation, began to slit the palm of her hand. Red blood began to drip back onto the snow, she used her magic to blow the scent towards the pack of corrupt beasts.

Corrupted Beast would follow any scent that they acquire, though a target that was bleeding could distract them from their original prey. It was working from the looks of it, the pack of corrupted beasts were turning their attention away from Shinji and coming for her instead. The fox girl summoned her sword from behind her back, she was going to fight them here. Her original plan was for them to follow her away from Shinji, while he tried to get himself somewhere safe.

She was taking a serious gamble, it was her life or his for which this was going to fall on. The pack wasted no time to attack her once they all were close enough, away from Shinji's direction. She didn't even know if he had enough energy to move yet or needed medical attention. The first corrupted beast in front of her started to flash it's own fangs as her, as a challenge towards the female fox.

Efert dodged the nearest lunge attack from them, flipping back and slashing the wolf across it's belly. It hollered in pain as the girl quickly drove the blade home, straight into it's chest. The beast twitched it's hinge legs a couple more times, in an attempt to break free of the sword. It whined to it's pack once more before settling back down into a peaceful like state. The corrupted beast had died.

One down, 7 more to go. Mom and Dad wish me luck. Efert thought while pulling her sword out of the dead corrupt beast. The fox girl turned towards the rest of the pack, her sword began to encase itself in a blue glow. Water began to gush around the blade, forming a elemental aspect to the weapon. Her eyes were blazing in the fires of determination, she was slowly building confidence in herself now.

Efert held little remorse to these creatures, despite them being living beings when they weren't tainted. The girl thought of them as not human anymore though. These men and women were tainted by their greed and it eventually got the best of them. As the saying goes: Even the purest of those among us will become sinners. It is only natural in the nature of things. She pitied them really rather than hated them. Though right now she had to fight the rest of them off so Shin could escape.

Nothingness

 

[Nothingness]

Mena

Dominik & Esdeath

Standing in front of the multiple different screens while her icy white gaze had shifted between the camera that showed Isral as well as the one that stayed upon Dominik who remained locked within the interrogation room still. Her arms had kept crossed against her chest as she tightened her grip onto both of her arms while they had been crossed at the thought of how the ex-General had refused to speak up about all of the questions that she had for him. She had wished to just kill him on the spot and get everything over with and just deal with the consequences of her actions after but she knew she had to stay calm for the time being and just follow the orders that she was given. Eventually, as the sound of the metallic door sliding open and soon shut once again from behind her; Esdeath showed no interest to actually turn around to face whoever came in whatsoever.

When the voice came up just to find out it was a male that had been none other than the Wind General himself; listening to his teasing words had only made the woman all that much more annoyed as she raised a single finger from her crossed arms just to begin rapidly dropping the temperature within the room, ice soon forming in every corner of the room for a few seconds before he had decided to stop his teasing and have her release her power for the time being. It wasn't until Juin stated a new order that came from the governor himself about releasing Dominik and allowing Isral to go with him that she turned around in a rather shocked expression. "What?! Are you serious!? Why're we setting him--" Knowing well enough it was not her place to question orders that were directly from the governor, she hissed at the idea before snapping her fingers and causing the ice cuffs to fade from Dominik's bindings.

With a deep huff, she turned around before grumbling quietly at the sight of how Dominik stood and stared at the camera. Listening to Juin's question right after, she only shook her head with yet another deep sigh leaving her lips. "I refuse to let him go free like this...send out the special ops team. Watch them from a distance...any weird activity is to be immediately reported to me. I don't trust those two.." As she spoke, her gaze never left the cameras even after Dominik left the interrogation room.

Back in the halls, after Dominik had left the room just to dust off his sleeves and clothing that had been tattered all over. Each of the guards that stood in their position dared not to look at the ex-General let alone speak to him. Even if he was considered a traitor, his old position still showed how he had tremendous power that was not to be messed with whatsoever. Whispers could be heard all around though as the guards spoke to one another about how they questioned the governor about what his plans were about letting the ex-General leave so easily.
Eventually, through each step Dominik soon came down the same hall as Isral only to stop several feet from her with his hands stuffed into his pockets and his dark gaze locked onto hers. A frown plastered fully across his lips rather than his usual smirk. "Huh...so the governor didn't end up killing you..?"


Shinji Araki

Laying there as he had grown near the acceptance of death, all that he could do in his position was nothing more than just to whisper an apology to Efert for being unable to promise to return to her. As the moments passed and the corrupted beasts had seemed to not come to attack him, he slowly reopened his dark gaze just to look around the area as the sounds of their rapid footsteps in the snow went off into a different direction. Corrupted beasts did not leave prey for no reason other than if there was another target they had decided to go after instead and with the doubting fact that any random human would be wandering out this far into the forest on their own in mind all Shinji could think that the beasts would be doing this was none other than Efert. The thought of this bringing shock and over concern to the hooded male as he slowly forced his own body to lift back up to his own feet just to direct his gaze towards the direction the beasts rushed off into.

Seconds after standing, the echoing noise of a howl from pain spreading throughout the forest had confirmed his concerns after-all. Efert was battling against the beasts and in his condition he was in no shape to be able to catch up with the pack to be able to help defend or even help her fight. He had no choice but to quickly head back to the cabin and get his weapon, limping as quickly as he could while holding onto his side from the pain of his injury; the hooded male's panting breath could be seen every time he limped closer and closer towards the cabin which soon came into sight in the distance. "There...it is..." With those few words whispered from his lips, the shaking of the wooden door that kept the weapon sealed away shook even further while it's dark energy started to finally make itself known even through Shinji's own physical appearance.
A black and red aura began to emit from his entire body as it melted away the snow underneath his feet and even that which was all over his body with every step he took forward. "Efert...hang on...just a little...longer.."
​

 

[Mena]

Isral
Juin calmly watched Esdeath's reactions to their boss's orders, he chuckled under his breathe. It was such a rare sight to see Esdeath this rallied up, he wanted to see more sometime later. Dominik was really something though, killing all those soldiers in a matter of minutes. Juin thought of Esdeath in a bikini, a little pink rose onto his cheeks. "Ah....are you sure you don't have a crush on him~?" He jokingly said while glancing down at the monitors.

The green haired male blinked then smirked darkly at Esdeath. He knew Esdeath couldn't stand Dominik even before the events that had transpired today. "Bad news though. Boss says she has to go alone, no people following them so no special ops on this one. Doesn't that sound crazy~?" He turned his attention back to the monitors, focusing on the secret weapon known as Isral.

Isral pulled herself off the ground but instead turned her body, leaning against the wall. The female could walk down the hallway, but she needed to give her body more time to heal instead. Otherwise she could risk herself falling on the ground again, being in the same situation. She heard the approaching steps coming from down the hall but paid them no mind. Usually people would tend to avoid her general direction and steer clear of her.

But these so called steps kept getting loud and louder until not even her thoughts could pry from the noise. The female glanced over in that direction, immediately recognizing the noise belonged to Dominik. She noticed he didn't have the particular smirk on his face than the times that they've been together. Isral blinked, moving her hands to her back in a relaxed position. She kept her composure however, and gave the ex-general a blank stare. "No."

Efert
Efert couldn't allow herself to be scared, not when she had someone to protect. She was going to protect Shinji, even at the cost of her life if she had to. She decided in the moment that she wasn't going to lose anyone close to her anymore. The growls from the monsters sounded inhuman, like all their sanity had been thrown away in those moments. They weren't humans anymore....just animals that thought of her as their food.

The young kitsune narrowly dodged the incoming attack from 2 corrupted beasts. "Is this all you can do?! Not even a challenge." Efert spun on her heel and delivered a powerful kick to the side of one of the monsters. While Efert was fighting off the other 2 corrupt beasts, a third one managed to sneak up behind her for a surprise attack. It leaped at her, aiming for her neck but ended up slashing her shoulder instead.

Red hot pain flashed through her body, she muffled herself from screaming. If she were to scream then it could alert more corrupt beasts in the area, meaning she would have to fight even more of them. "Hmpf." The female kitsune swiftly turned around and kicked the monster away. At the sight of Efert's blood, the corrupt beasts began to go into a frenzy. Their mouths were covered with drool and their eyes were giving off the sensation of blood lust.

Efert quickly blocked the incoming attacks of the pack, summoning water walls to block their advances. Her feet were lightly stepping backwards to avoid taking more damage than needed. Water began to cover the wound, stopping the scent of her blood for now at least. As much as she was blocking, the girl knew that she needed to fight back or she was going to loose ground.

Nothingness

 

[Nothingness]

Dominik & Esdeath ​

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Standing there at the monitors while the ice General herself kept her gaze focused onto both Isral and Dominik at once, Juin was of no concern to her at the time being. The fact that the governor was letting both of these targets go without so much as even leaving someone to watch them was almost too strange. It wasn't until Juin had spoken and teased the woman as though she might have a crush onto the ex-General that she had decided to turn right around to face the Wind General himself with an arm extended out to him, in the mere second that he had turned around to face him; a large spear made out of solid ice had formed in her grip while the tip of the spear was placed right at the man's throat. Of course, she would not dare think of killing Juin since it was also be considered treason but she wasn't above the idea of torturing him either. "What does the governor want to do about these two then..? Just let them go and roam free around like it's nothing?" Questioning Juin, eventually she had jabbed the spear into the ground to let it stay standing straight up while her gaze had returned to the monitors with a deep hatred building up inside her for the two. ​

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Back while within the halls, standing before the woman known as Isral with his face covered in slight bruises and his clothing obviously torn from being frozen for quite some time till they had reached the base and even staying in that interrogation room. Dominik never seemed to show any bit of his smirk the entire time even once Isral had replied to his question with a single word answer. Turning his head from one side to the next slowly, he had known quite well that the two of them were being watched since he had come here long ago when he had still worked along side the military. "We should get going...There's no way they let us both just walk around without some kind of plan...and I bet part of it has to do with us leaving together." Even if this idea was a possible trap at all, it was best that the two of them had at least followed along for the time being and if the woman wanted to split with him later on after they had gained enough distance, it was up to her. Clearly, after attempting to try and get her to side with him and the fact that she had the shards of the mirror within her; if she wasn't going to cooperate, then there had to be another way to get more of those shards without having to battle her yet.​

​

Shinji Araki ​

​

Struggling just to be able to make it back to the cabin; by the time the hooded male was able to reach the front wooden door of the cabin just to push it open and step inside. The sounds of howling in the distance from the corrupted beasts no doubt fighting against Efert rang through his ears. Turning his head over his shoulder while he kept a single hand holding onto the doorframe, his breath had been heavy from exhaustion followed by the pain that the beasts had inflicted onto him, cursing at himself for being as weak as he was and blaming himself for what was happening at this very moment; he had no time to waste as he rushed his way to the bedroom where the door that kept the scythe hidden shook all that much more violently. Carefully, by the time Shinji had opened the door only to see the clothed wrapped weapon, just being in the presence of the dark weapon made the young phoenix wince in pain further. "Forgive me..." With that single apology, he immediately reached for his weapon only to grasp a hold of it tightly. The dark energy quickly swirled around the hooded male till his own hood had been ripped from the immense pressure of it's energy, his once platinum white hair slowly fading into a pitch black color as his own eyes started to shift into a deep crimson red. ​

Eventually, all of his own wounds started to heal themselves as he stood up straight with the cloth that once kept the scythe hidden had been torn apart to reveal it's full form. Seconds right after gaining this dark power, the new yet unknown version of Shinji quickly rushed out of the cabin just to bolt through the forest in a much quicker and dangerous speed. The snow that littered the ground lifted in the path that he rushed towards until he had reached where the battle raged on between Efert and the corrupted beasts. Skidding to a halt as he neared his destination, just as he closed into the location; Shinji had only swiped his weapon in a single motion that only revealed nothing more than a wave of just air flowing in a curved path. The density of the air had been strong enough to form a sort of wave that easily sliced multiple trees and even the beasts in two to leave their bodies nothing but corpses scattered all around. By the time he had come to a full stop, a thick black and crimson aura emitted from his body as his piercing gaze had been plenty enough to scare of many of the other beasts for the time being.
​

​

 

[Mena]

Isral
Juin felt the chill of the air get stronger, even he shivered a bit from the coldness. The wind general directed his attention back towards the ice general. In the mere moments that followed, an giant ice sickle was currently in front of his face. He hesitated to say anything else that would might piss off the ice general anymore. "Alright. I'm sorry, no more jokes but you can put that thing away." Juin laughed nervously.

He was rather hesitant as Esdeath was unpredictable when she got pissed off as well. For now he needed to cool her down and distract her from trying to pierce his head and kill him at the moment. "Well I overheard the ending of his plans by accident when I was leaving for a mission a couple weeks ago.....Seems he has some interesting plans for our lovely little Isral here." Juin glanced back down at the monitor.

Isral looked at the general's face, noticing all the bruises and cuts it possessed. The female made no comment to mention them however, as they were not her own business and she should stay out of it. She was no better after all, probably covered in bruises and cuts underneath her skin. For now I will focus on my mission and learn everything from Dominik. She thought bitterly. Her mind wandered back to the meeting between herself and the governor, she winced at the thought.

Isral didn't like the fact that she had been brought to her knees....for the fact that she had been so weak against his power. She was deeply ashamed by that, she promised herself deep down that she would return the feeling to him once this mission was over. "Yes I guess we should. Do you have any idea where we should be headed?" Her emotionless voice seemed to stretch endlessly against the silent hallway, despite being so lowly spoken.

Nothingness

 

[Mena]

Efert
The blonde kitsune was struggling with all the beasts around, it was a complete nightmare. Was it just her imagination or were they actually multiply? Everywhere she could see, there were more monsters than originally counted for. Just thinking about them made the young girl shake a little bit in her own footsteps. "Heh. Don't get discouraged just face this challenge with everything you got." Efert held her head high as she tried to convince herself. She couldn't afford to show the slightest feeling right now.

Those corrupted beasts just feed off of her energy, right now she needs to stay calm and breathe. The girl summoned more water bubbles and sent them towards the beasts, trapping as many as she could. The kitsune girl could feel the pull of her magic getting sucked out each time she summoned a bubble to trap the enemy. Soon enough after continuous use of her water bubbles, her vision started to blur and her breathing was getting more stricted.

Efert was starting to get light headed, she placed a hand on her head. Her head was pounding, it was hard to focus. This is not a good sign. She had gotten distracted by her headache and failed to notice another support beast right in front of her. It lunged at her, she tried to put her weapon up to block the attack. The blonde kitsune was too late in blocking, the corrupt beast had managed to slash her right arm.

The female quickly jumped back whilst sending a water bubble towards the beast. "O-Ow this really stings." Efert held her wounded arm and winced. She could feel the blood flow down her arm onto the ground, the wound was really deep. Just from the amount of blood she was seeing, she knew she wouldn't be able to use it for awhile. The female was truly in a pickle this time, without any Shinji to come to her rescue.

Well at least he's safe. That's all that matters to me. She thought, feeling the sudden emotion of doom approach her. The corrupt beasts were closing in on her on all sides, there was no option of escape anymore. Efert felt the air around her change drastically, the hairs on her back was standing up. Someone was approaching and fast, judging by the air flow right now. The corrupt beast around her were suddenly pushed away from her position and promptly cut in half.

A few yards away there seemed to be a male with black hair standing there. All around him were cut down trees, it was a miracle that he had missed her when he swung his weapon. Efert glanced towards the new person that had just arrived, while her uninjured arm was holding her other one. "U-Uhm Hello there? Sorry to misjudge you but don't you know that it's really dangerous to be here....." Her voice came out more like a whisper than actual talking.

 

[Nothingness]

Mena
Shinji Araki
Standing in the middle of the small opening of where Efert had once been fighting against the corrupted beasts only to have one after another run off into the darkness of the forest in fear of the dark haired stranger with the massive scythe that rested against his shoulders. The male that was once known as Shinji had turned his crimson gaze at his surroundings as though he were scanning the area for more of the beasts, completely ignoring the fact that the female was injured from the battle she had with them. With the dark power of the weapon in hand still enveloping all over Shinji's body; his hair only remained pitch black rather than it's usual white color and his eyes remained their crimson red rather than the crystal blue hues that he once had.
It wasn't until the sound of the female's low voice had come up did the darker version of Shinji actually direct his piercing gaze over towards her. His expression completely stern as though he was staring right into her soul to strike at her on the spot. Even if the dark power of the scythe had urged him to strike her down on the spot, his will keep him from doing so; the only reason he took up this power was to protect her to begin with, so striking her down wasn't something he was about to do. Spending a few moments in absolute silence as he kept his gaze locked onto her the entire time, eventually the dark form of Shinji only pointed in the direction of the cabin. "Go...now." As he spoke, the sound of Shinji's own voice could be heard but yet it was clearly distorted with yet another heavy and demonic-like voice overlapping his own at once. The other voice had been that of the being over the weapon he continued to hold on his shoulders.
Whether or not Efert was actually going to listen to him or not did not change the outcome of what had been happening to him the longer he used the weapon. The last thing he wanted to do was to stay around her for too long, even though Shinji could currently control his own urges to kill since his will was stronger for the time being, it didn't mean that his will would last forever. If he was going to return to normal anytime soon, he was going to no doubt need somewhere safe to store the weapon and mediate to resist it's pull while attempting to seal it back away where he was going to store it.

Dominik & Esdeath
Holding her spear while it remained jabbed into the ground for a few more minutes before finally letting it vanish back into thin air just as how it had appeared to begin with. The female ice General continued to await her response from Juin after she had questioned him about what the governor was thinking of just letting the two go without so much as an order as to follow or track them. By the time the wind General had brought up something about plans for Isral that he probably should've stated from the beginning, it did not change the annoyance in her gaze as she watched how the two convicts conversed with one another in the middle of the hall. Attempting to figure out what the Governor had planned in mind, whatever it was; she had no real choice but just to accept and trust her higher ups orders.
Meanwhile, back in the hall; after stating that the two should probably leave. Listening as Isral questioned him about where they would be headed off to, without another word the ex-General simply turned his back to her just to begin walking off down the hall in the direction he had originally known the exit once was when he visited this place long ago. The idea of asking questions here with all the cameras around probably wasn't exactly the best of ideas to begin with, honestly it wasn't like he knew where he was supposed to even begin his search for the shards of the mirror anyway.
​

 

[Mena]

Efert
Efert stood in the clearing, watching what the mysterious male would do next. She was quite amazed though, this person had single handedly came to her rescue and slain many corrupted beasts. On top of that, he just scared off the remainder that had survived his attack.The girl hadn't realized that she had been staring for so long, before long their eyes met. She could feel that a chill come down her spine, she shivered a bit.

It appeared as if the male had been staring straight through her, into the deeper parts of herself. It was more creepy than she would admit to. "U-Umm...." The young girl couldn't find any words to bring up to start a conversation with the other person. It felt as if her mind had completely went blank in those few moments of looking at him. Not wanting to be rude towards the person that had saved her, she quickly pulled her gaze away from the male.

When the black haired male finally spoke, Efert could have sworn that she had met him before. "S....Shinji? Is that you?" His voice sounded so familiar and yet....it was equally distorted with another being within him. On top of that he had black and red eyes opposed to Shinji's light blue hair. However the young kitsune could be able to tell, with her ears and mainly her trusty memory, that this was Shinji.

Maybe she was hearing things, after all she was losing some of her blood from the wounds she acquired from those monsters. However Efert was having a institution that this male was indeed her friend Shinji, right now everything didn't matter to her. She ignored his request for her to leave, but instead walked a bit closer towards him. Right now her brain was telling her to listen to him, even her own muscles were dragging her back down in protest.

The kitsune still didn't listen, she had to make sure that he was ok after all. No friend, hurt or not, would leave behind another without asking them if they were ok. She had probably inherited her stubbornness from her mother's side most likely after all. "U-Uhm...S-Shinji! You shouldn't be moving around so much, you still might be hurt." Every word leaving her mouth felt like a struggle to get out of her chest. The words were hurting her.
Nothingness

 

[Mena]

Isral
"Alright Alright! All I know is that the governor wants those two to find the remaining shards." Juin stated, crossing his arms while looking at Esdeath. All the governor wanted was a bunch of old, dumb mirror shards, why not buy them from the store. Of course, the general knew that he would just be scolded by the governor for saying such things. So he never bothered to bring it up, instead just acting as if he didn't know anything about the governor. However even some things still remained a mystery, even worse things were meant to stay a secret for the young lad.

'This holds immense power....the power to grant the user any wish they truly desire.' He could just hear him now...spewing all that crap into his brain again. "But for what exact purpose would he want his most dangerous creation to walk out of here scott free.....? This honestly makes no sense what so ever." The wind general mumbled to himself, trying to hid the dissatisfaction that the governor had given him. Instead he focused back down on trying to see what the two ex-military personnel would do.

Isral watched him ignore her question, only to turn around and start to travel down the hallway. The white haired female figured that they needed to get somewhere more secure in order to talk about future plans. He was, after all in the military and you don't know who is listening in on the conversation at the time. She agreed with the male's intuition, things couldn't be discussed in open hallways where everyone could hear them.

She swiftly followed the ex-general, walking alongside him down the hallway. While walking, she could hear the soft sounds of her own footsteps as they traveled down the hall. Underneath her clothing however, the painful feeling of bruises brushing against her clothes started to return. Isral ignored the feeling for now, she needed to be alert just in case Ex-General Dominik were to try any funny business with her.

Nothingness

 

[Nothingness]

Shinji Araki

Standing there in silence after commanding her to leave the area to return back to the cabin where it was much safer than to be out here. Even for the few moments when Efert had decided to look away from his piercing gaze, he continued to stare towards her without any signs of actual care in his eyes. The instant she had questioned him about his name, that had been the only thing that caused Shinji to actually take his gaze away from her just to bring his attention towards the dense and dark forest in front of him. The longer he held onto the scythe, the more the blade had began to emit off a black and red aura around it as it pulsed as though it were demanding him to strike her down where she stood. Of course though, the more it demanded of him to strike at her; Shinji's own will was still much stronger than the demands.

As she had ended up approaching him to question him on his injures, the dark haired Shinji quickly turned his head around to stare deeply into her own eyes with even slight rage building inside of him. This was very much unlike Shinji, although he may not have wished to show rage; the power of the scythe still made him seem enraged in his voice and his gaze. "Go! Now!....I....cannot control...this urge much longer...! I can't...protect you for much longer with this...power." With every word he spoke, the distortion in his voice grew darker and louder, almost completely drowning out whatever bit of Shinji's ordinary voice was still left. Eventually, the sound of what appeared to had been a massive creature stomping it's way slowly towards the duo's location could be heard echoing throughout the forest. Each step it took had made the very forest floor shake and tremble as trees that stood in it's path came crashing down just from it's massive size. There was no doubt in Shinji's own thoughts that it was another one of the corrupted beasts, one of much higher magnitude and one that wasn't so fearful of the dark energy that the scythe possessed. If he was going to stand any chance against this one, he had no real choice but to let himself go free on his rampage to fight and if Efert wasn't going to listen, he couldn't guarantee what would happen to her.


Dominik & Esdeath

Standing there for a few more minutes, in a matter of moments while the ice General stood there. It was the instant that Juin actually decided to speak up about what he overheard from the Governor did she actually turn her head in shock at the idea of what the Governor had in mind. Listening in silence, her once shocked and confused expression about the entire idea had soon faded as she returned her attention back onto the cameras just to have a smirk spread across her lips once again. Although many of the soldiers had doubts about what the Military had been doing about searching for the shards of the mirror about what it was able to do, Esdeath was no fool to dare question the possibilities of anything being able to happen. It appeared even the wind Genera himself questioned the Governor, but now that Esdeath knew what was in plan for the duo that were being set free; she only nodded her head before turning her gaze away from the cameras just to begin making her way to leave the security room. "Hah..so...the Governor wants the other shards by using these two huh? Interesting. Leave them Juin, Let's just wait for our time...it'll come..." With that, the ice General finally decided to completely leave the room while she progressed her way down the hall, debating on what her next mission was to be.

Throughout the entire time that Dominik had been progressing his way down the hall next to Isral, the young ex-General had kept completely silent. His own dark hues scanning each of the corners of the hall, noticing as to how every camera seemed to had been following the duo's every step on their way out. Truly, nothing had changed after-all here; even when Dominik had still worked for the military, these cameras always seemed to had followed the motion of anyone or anything that went down the halls. Whatever the case was, it took the duo only a matter of time before they had finally reached the exit to the building only to step out of the dual metal doors and reveal the front courtyard and metal gates up ahead that would lead out of the area and straight into the city.

Turning his head over to face Isral once the door had been opened and the path before the duo seemed to be completely clear without any soldiers standing in there way. It seemed almost too perfect for the two to just leave without a problem. "Something's not right...are they really just letting us go like this?" Questioning himself in a low hushed tone before he brought his gaze back forward, Dominik soon began to approach the courtyard calmly. Even though in appearance he may had looked like he had his guard down, he was more than prepared for anything to happen at any time.

Mena​

 

[Mena]

Efert
Efert continued to struggle while taking her steps towards the black haired male. Her breath was getting more constricted, She locked eyes with the other person, she stopped walking in her tracks. His gaze was filled with sure a strong rage that it almost made the kitsune girl whimper and run away from him. "S-Shinji.....what are you-" The girl tried to get more of a sentence out of her mouth, it didn't work out so much.

She was frightened to make another step towards Shinji, his gaze and actions resembled that much of a monster rather than the male that she knew. The girl knew that the male was in front of her was her friend but something inside of him was different....in a bad way. However despite his verbal protest and her own constricted movements, Efert could feel that Shinji still may need her help even if she was a burden at this moment.

"Shinji....I may be a burden to you right now.....but I won't leave you." She stayed put however, making sure that she didn't get any closer than she already was. Her ears started to perk up, the fox girl focused on the sound coming from the forest. Soon enough, the ground started to vibrate Something was making the ground shake and heading towards their area fairly quickly, it had to be another corrupted beast. Once the beast came into her point of view, Efert was shocked by the massive size of the monster. She had never heard of nor seen a corrupted beast this size.

Isral
Juin watched Esdeath to see what she would be willing to do, for now she stated that she would leave them be. There wasn't anything that he could do to change her mind, he just let it be for now. "Such a bore to leave them alone." He remarked under his breath, glancing down at the monitor quickly before making his return back to face the other general. He made sure to get out the way of the ice general as she stormed out the room, the door slammed behind her.

The wind general made his way towards the front of the monitors and grabbed one of the seats. "Well damn, looks like I have a lot of work to do. The other generals are not going to like this." Juin sighed, stretching out in one of the guard's chairs. He then shouted out to the other two guards in the room, "Oi! Call the other 2 members then arrange a meeting between all the generals." The wind general heard the doors quickly open and close behind him. He then turned his attention the two people in the cameras below.

Isral walked into the courtyard, lazily looking around while walking slower behind Dominik. She however managed to match his strides, just by timing her own steps correctly in beat with his. The girl watched the surrounding area with a cautious gaze, slowly moving her hand to the gun in her pocket. The white haired female sighed, still having her hand on her gun just in case they had to fight their way out.

"I guess so.....I don't trust it myself...feels like a trap or something....hm." That was her only reply to the ex-general, still scanning the surroundings. Nothing seemed out of place to the female, however looks could be deceiving. Seeing as they were getting out of here pretty easy, she guessed he still needed someone to watch his back after all.

Nothingness

 

[Nothingness]

Shinji Araki

Standing there in the middle of the clearing, when Efert had questioned him about what he was for a moment before the sound of the marching beast coming closer by the second. All the darker form of Shinji could do was raise his free hand to look at his palm as he only witnessed as to how the black and red aura shifted around his fingers and around his palm in circles. At this point, even he didn't know if he could tell her let alone convince himself if he was still of his kin's race; clenching his hand into a fist that only caused the aura to turn from a slow mist-like form into a form of electricity, he hadn't said a single word to his female companion just to take his gaze up at the massive corrupted creature that appeared to almost look like a sort of mammoth. Listening to it roar as it lifted it's trunk into the air, the sound of it's roar easily caused a massive gust of air to push leaves and even uproot some weakened trees with ease.

No matter what he seemed to tell Efert, she refused to leave. Whether or not he could keep controlling this power long enough to protect her, his dark gaze focused onto the corrupted beast just to tighten his grip onto his scythe before rushing up towards the mammoth-like beast by bouncing himself off of tree branches one after another. However, just as Shinji was about to strike at one of it's eyes; the beast was far too quick to slam it's trunk against Shinji's side to force to go flying off to the side and hitting his back through several trees. Grunting in pain, as he was only stopped once he was hit against one of the final tree trunks; Shinji ended up coughing up blood as he stared off in the distance of where the mammoth was with Efert now. "I can't...do this..." Whispering to himself in silence, even the young male knew well enough that unless he gave up his will to the being within the scythe; he was only going to get himself more and more hurt but he knew well enough that he couldn't trust what would happen after the battle.

"Just like when you were a child....you're still nothing but a weakling! Your father...your grandfather, and the rest of your kin have never been able to control What makes you think you'll ever stand a chance!?" As the sound of fully demonic voice echoed through the blade of the scythe, practically demanding that the young dark haired male give up everything to the demon's power. Shinji refused to respond to it only to slowly help himself back up to charge forward to fight once again.


Dominik

Expecting something or someone to interrupt the duo on their way to the exit of the courtyard, the ex-General only shifted his gaze as he watched as to how many of the other soldiers in the area only had gazes that were locked both onto Isral and himself. Some of them were of disgust while others showed fear and even some of them showed rage. Whatever the reason for their stares might've been, every soldier kept their post and hadn't dared to raise a weapon to attack either of the two that were leaving due to their orders. So in the end, Dominik was able to finally reach the very end of the courtyard just to push open the metal gates and step out of the area of the base. Knowing well enough that there were cameras along the wall and on the corners of the gate that still watched the two; Dominik kept his guard still up while he continued to walk down the sidewalk and away from the actual eyes of the government.

On his way down the sidewalk, he would dart his gaze around the area to see where the duo could lose the full sight of the soldiers and military without it seeming to suspicious. Pointing his hand down an alleyway without so much as saying a word let alone looking towards Isral, surely with her training she would understand the hand motions he made to tell her to recon down that exact alleyway and that he'd regroup with her at the end of it. True, there were few soldiers that also understood this hand signal; though the city was massive so it wasn't like they were going to be able to keep track of someone in such a big city like this.
​

 

[Mena]

Efert
Efert watched the corrupted beast come out of the forest, it looked like a gigantic elephant to her. It was definitely something that she had never seen before and she's lived in these woods for years. Raising its trunk the big elephant let out a massive roar causing many branches and trees to come off the branches. Even some of the small animals started to leave the area because of them getting spooked by the corrupt beast. The girl stood still, hoping that the monster wouldn't notice her.

So far it had been working, it was focused on Shinji instead of her. The black haired male wasted no time to try and attack the big elephant in front of them. "Shinji! Watch out!" The blonde kitsune could only watch helplessly as he was sent flying into the nearby trees. She had heard several trees snapping before a big boom came his direction. The young kitsune threw a water bubble at the corrupt beast.

The water bubble did nothing, well it did wet it's fur but there was no damage that the elephant took. Looking up, Efert saw that the elephant corrupt beast had taken his eyes off of Shinji and was staring down at her now. Guessing by that little stunt that she had just pulled, it noticed the second person in the area. Shit...I'm so screwed. She thought, as the corrupted elephant began to walk towards her. It raised it's foot over top of her, it was trying to step on her.

If I don't use a different element then I'm going to be a goner. Efert quickly changed her element to wind, jumping back from the elephant. She sent herself some yards away just as the elephant slammed it's foot down. The young kitsune took the chance of the elephant being concentrated on the ground to send the biggest gust of wind that she could muster towards the beast. The gust of wind made the elephant shift its balance, toppling over on it's side. It shook the ground, leaving a big dent in the earth where it's foot had been.

Isral
Isral continued to walk down the courtyard until she arrived near the end of the walkway. From the looks of it, many of the soldiers here decided to see them off sort of speak. She made no notion to acknowledge the other soldiers that the duo passed by. She did recognize some of them as being the helicopter group that had picked her up earlier in the day, however most of them were looking at Dominik rather than her for a change.

The white haired girl have an annoyed look when one of the soldiers deliberately tried to grab her hand. She almost shot the poor bastard but instead just kicked him in the knees. After that incident, the soldiers backed away and didn't try anything for the rest of the walk out the building. Isral continued her walk next to the general out the building, only to get stopped by him motioning towards the alleyway.

Seems as though he knew military language, he probably wanted her to recon towards the alleyway where there probably weren't any cameras. Many government building didn't put cameras in alleyways, which was stupid if she had to say so herself. Nodding at the ex-general, the girl acted like she wasn't walking towards the alleyway instead she was walking towards the street. Each step, Isral leaned towards the direction and soon enough she walked into the alleyway.

Nothingness

 

[Nothingness]

Shinji Araki

Rushing his way back into the battle through the very path that the dark haired Shinji was knocked off towards, the closer he had reached towards the ongoing battle of the corrupted mammoth soon starting to even attack Efert; the sounds of the demonic voice echoing throughout Shinji's head continued to grow louder as it mocked at the idea of how it knew Shinji would never be able to win this fight. Knowing well enough himself that unless he gave up his will and allowed the demon scythe to consume him, this battle was only going to result in Shinji's own death and probably much worse.
All the while, the sound of the massive mammoth collapsing onto it's side from whatever Efert had done to it caused strong gusts of wind and debris from the trees it knocked over to go flying all over the forest. Believing that this could've been enough to keep the mammoth from being able to get back up; Shinji's own beliefs were quickly shot down when two black tentacle like arms began to protrude from either side of the mammoth's downed body just to have it grip the forest floor to lift itself slowly back up before making it's arms vanish back into it's black thick skin. Whatever Efert had done to it to make it collapse upon it's side had no doubt enraged it as the corrupted mammoth once again let out it's ground breaking roar from it's trunk before it started to charge forward at a ridiculous speed, each stomp it had done to rush the kitsune had made large indents into the forest floor while it lowered it's tusks to prepare to impale the kitsune.

The sight of this only bringing fear and absolute shock into the dark haired Shinji as he cursed at himself to know that there was no way he could stop such a massive beast when it was rushing at that speed. Cursing silently to himself at what he was to do, the demon continued to mock at the young phoenix about how he was about to lose another person he cared about just as his own kin died off one after another without him being able to do anything about it. Unable to help or do anything about it on his own, Shinji had finally allowed himself to be consumed by his weapon's power. In mere seconds, from the branch he stood upon; the male who was once known as Shinji quickly vanished from sight just to immediately reveal himself right in front of the mammoth being only several feet away from Efert. The male held onto one of the corrupted mammoth's tusks with a single hand while in his other he had upon his scythe, a devilish grin had been plastered across the male's lips while the mammoth constantly attempted to move forward with no avail.

Standing there without any signs of trouble of holding back the mammoth, the dark haired male who still had the appearance of Shinji except the fact that he appeared to have cracks all over the sides of his face that extended towards his eyes. The sclera part of his eyes being completely black to match his completely crimson gaze that continued to pierce straight into Efert's own eyes. "Ah...so you're that woman he is so eager to protect. Hah, aren't you a cute one...?" Speaking in a tone that seemed almost as though he were hitting on the young female. In just seconds, the mammoth had attempted to raise it's trunk to slam down and crush the male who was holding it back only to have him return his gaze towards the creature with his frown immediately taking over his grin. "You're so annoying...Out of my sight." With just those few words leaving his lips, the male quickly threw the mammoth high up into the air; well above all of the trees and nearly touching the clouds without so much as a bit of trouble.
Knowing well enough that the corrupted mammoth was going to come down eventually, the new male only stood there as though he didn't seem to care how quickly the beast was going to come down. Although his plan was that once it was close enough, he'd just go up to slice the being in two and end it all in an instant.


Dominik

After instructing Isral of her instructions of how to go down the alleyway, the ex-General had made sure to wait till the female had left his sight completely before he had nodded his head to himself at what his next move was to be. Knowing well enough that the military had still been watching his every move for the time being, rather than take a different path to attempt and lose their sight; he had simply halted his movements just to turn around and face the entrance of the base from afar. Giving a deep bow with his sly smirk spreading across his lips, in a mere moment passing; Dominik's body was quickly enveloped into a thick shade of shadows before being pulled straight into the ground and completely vanishing from sight all together. This shouldn't had been anything shocking at this point, many had known Dominik to be the General of Darkness but yet had never seen his ability in action, seeing it now only proved his status of his title all that much more.

Seconds while the ex-General had traveled through the darkness, it took little time before he had rushed straight into the alleyway that he had instructed Isral to make her way through. Making sure he had found where the female was before he had decided to fade back into reality through the darkness of the shadows in the alleyway a little ahead of the female; Dominik had only scratched the back of his head as he directed his gaze down the direction that she was coming down from. By the time he had come into sight with her, the ex-General only gave a light shrug of his shoulders as the first greeting to her. "Hm, so we should've lost them by now..." That being the first and only thing that actually left his lips, his gaze soon began to direct down the path of the alleyway; knowing well enough that this would lead them into the market district where it would be mostly crowded so the cameras around the city most likely wouldn't be able to pin point the duo out.
​

 

[Mena]

Efert was confident in her own abilities, she would distract the elephant corrupt beast while Shinji would give himself together. Well that was the plan at least, a not too good one being as she was almost out of mana herself. On top of that the young kitsune was also injured and running around like this would worsen the injury even more so. However she couldn't just leave now even if she wanted to, the beast already had it's attention on her.

"Well that will teach him." Efert smiled as she looked at her work. With just a simple gust of wind, she had toppled the giant elephant. Time seemed to slow down in her eyes as she watched the elephant summon two black tentacle like things. They gripped the edge of the land and started to pick the whole elephant's body up and place it in upright position. Once the elephant was back on it's feet the tentacles disappeared, leaving an enraged elephant in its wake.

The elephant was no doubt mad at her, it was staring straight at her. Without a moment's hesitation, the corrupt beast started to charge at her. The young kitsune was scared, her feet was glued into the ground and wouldn't move from the spot. Was this one of it's abilities? She thought as the elephant drew near. She was going to be impaled by one it's tusks if she didn't move. Efert closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come.

It didn't come however, she opened her eyes to see why. Shinji was blocking one of it's tusks with his hands, he appeared to be holding it back with little effort. When he chose to look at her, she was feeling a bit uncomfortable because of his eyes.noticed his face but chose not to talk about it. Hearing his comment about her, she was rather caught of guard. "H-Huh?!" Efert's cheeks quickly blushed at his comment, it looked like he had been hitting on her.

The young kitsune made sure to glance away from the male in question, she didn't know how to respond to him correctly. She glanced back when he took his attention towards the elephant in which he had been holding back for quite some time. "Whoa! That is some arm strength!" Efert mouth hung open when she watched Shinji throw the beast high into the air.

 

[Nothingness]

Shinji Araki ​

​

With the gigantic corrupted mammoth only flying higher and higher up into the sky, the pressure of the air forcing it upwards had made it unable to move it's limbs even once it had revealed it's long arms from either sides of it's body once again. Once the corrupted mammoth had finally began to descend from the sky, the dark haired Shinji only ignored the presence of Efert even while he had practically hitting on her a few moments ago. Taking his crimson gaze back upwards to the skies as the creature came downwards, without so much a waste of time; the dark male only kneeled down to one kneel to build up his energy in his legs before finally launching himself fully upwards with the demonic scythe in hand. Rushing through the sky towards the descending mammoth while keeping a devilish grin spread across his lips, in mere seconds; the only sight that had been seen high up in the sky was nothing more than a quick flash of a bright white light. By the time the light vanished all that was seen was the mammoth's body was clearly sliced in two while the male had slowly started to descend downwards in between the severed halves; his body covered in pitch black blood from the beast.
This was all the more sight that proved that this male was no longer Shinji for a fact, even if Shinji was the type to kill to protect; he wasn't about to end up doing something inhumane like slice anyone or anything in two without some kind of remorse for how bloody it would be.

By the time the dark haired male had dropped to the forest floor once again; this time being several feet away from the woman that Shinji knew as his friend, he would only take a single hand to slick back his jet black hair with the black blood slowly. "Ah..isn't it wonderful?...The blood of these mindless beasts only makes me want to kill more of them.." As he spoke the entire time, part of the sentence was directed towards the woman while the other was mostly out of randomness. It wasn't until his piercing gaze fully was directed over towards Efert that his words were actually fully to her. "Now...it appears, he doesn't want you harmed. He even continues to resist my power to protect you...heh. Run along now, I cannot have my fun...with him constantly bothering my mind." With every word the darker form of Shinji spoke, he made sure to never leave the gaze of the woman while his weapon rested once again upon his shoulders.​

Mena​

​

 

[Mena]

Isral
Isral made her way down the alleyway, her shoes seemed to echo with each step she made. It was quite difficult to see in the alleyway at night, with the moon being blocked by the clouds and all. However this didn't both her much, she could see just fine with the dim light. The white haired girl was not a stranger to dark places, however she was still on edge from earlier. The governor would pay for my suffering.... Isral thought bitterly.

Feeling the shift in the air, the girl turned towards the source of the disturbance. She noticed that a black cloud started to form, only to reveal her "partner" of sorts, Dominik. She watched Dominik just give her a shrug of his shoulders, nothing special really. It didn't bother her much and it was not like they were so called friends either. "Hm." Her facial expression remained blank, she was not surprised by the ex-general popping out of nowhere.

Isral wasn't one to say many words when something didn't interest her. She was going to stay in the alley until they had come up with a plan but her stomach growled. "Food. Come." The white haired girl blinked calmly before swiftly leaving the alley. When was the last time that she had a decent meal? It must've been a least a couple of days ago. The governor doesn't like to feed her often so she's mostly starving during missions. Which would be fine if her magic didn't depend on her eating in order to regain mana.

So now that she was free from the government, for now at least, she was going to make sure she got her fill of food. Isral turned out the alley then started to walk down the street. Despite it being the dead of night, the market was bustling with merchants and customers alike. The smells of cooked food made her even more hungry, she just couldn't wait to eat some decent food. "Hm." The girl simply made her way through the crowds, careful not to draw anymore attention to herself.

Nothingness

 

[Mena]

Efert
Efert was stunned at how the black haired Shinji had mercilessly killed the corrupt beast in front of him. The mere sight of the blood made her quickly look away and cover her mouth. This definitely wasn't Shinji, no the Shinji that she knew wouldn't do something like that. It wasn't in his character and she was a good judge of character, well...most of the time. The young kitsune made no intention to leave the area however.

"U-Uhm.....if you are not Shin then...who exactly are you?" Efert's voice came out like a whisper, she was quite nervous after all. She wasn't 100 percent afraid of the male in front of her but she couldn't say for certain if she trusted him right now while he was like this. "Hello Ms.Fox and Mr.Phoenix!" A voice came from above the two, her fox ears began to perk up. Efert looked up, she noticed a girl with a black hat floating up and down on a broom.

She had never seen anything like it, there appeared to be no strings attached to her broom keeping her from falling onto the ground. It was strange and mostly unnatural to the fox girl. Then again most of the things in the world is unnatural and strange in most cases. "H-Hello?" Efert looked around then realized that she had been talking to them. It seemed like they were the only ones in the forest after all.

"Sorry sorry for interrupting you two! I'm just looking for something that I lost in the forest. It looks like a black hex box with markings all over, have you two seen it around here?" The blonde girl was still flying on her broom. Efert shook her head, "No but....would you like some help?" Now thinking about it, the male next to her would probably reject the offer. The fox girl watched the broom started to descend until the other girl reached the ground. The girl tipped her hat and grinned at the two. "Oh thank you so much! The name's Mary by the way!"

Spoiler

 

[Nothingness]

Shinji Araki

Standing before the woman known as Efert while he had his devilish smirk spread across his lips the entire time, slowly while he had stood there; the dark haired male had eventually started to wipe off the blood on his outfit. Of course, this left stains all over his already dirtied clothing but he didn't show too much care as to what he was wearing or how he looked for that matter. It wasn't until the woman had actually questioned him if he wasn't Shinji, just who he was that the dark haired male actually bring his full attention onto her, right as he was about o answer her question; yet another voice had interrupted the conversation. Turning his attention now slowly towards the other female voice, his smirk had faded into a frown as he arched a brow towards whoever this new woman just so happen to be.

By appearance of how she hovered on a broom and by the outfit she wore, the dark haired presence that was now enveloping Shinji at the time being had only given the guess that she was some sort of witch. Honestly, it wouldn't had been the first he had come into contact with before yet it was not exactly the greatest time to meet one of these beings since they were able to do magic that was rather concerning even to the dark entity. Listening as to how the female questioned both him and Efert about whether or not they had seen a black hex box of sorts only to have Efert offer assistance to the stranger, the dark haired Shinji only remained quiet about the idea of helping this witch-like stranger. "Hmph, what is this box in particular?...and why should I spend even a moment of my time helping someone I do not even know?" Speaking out loud right where he stood while he rested his weapon still on his shoulders even after hearing the woman's greeting of her name.

The last thing that the dark entity wanted at this point was to be sealed back into the weapon and give back the body to Shinji who at this point was actually the one locked away in the scythe at the moment and at the moment aside from Shinji forcing himself to be able to control the weapon and the demonic entity ending up being unable to control Shinji's power to resist, the only other possibility would be this witch if she was one to force him to go back with her power.


Dominik

After finally stepping through the shadows and finally being faced to face with Isral before him, even after Dominik had shrugged at the idea of what they were to do next. His gaze had continued to direct between the two paths they could take down the alleyway. It didn't take long before the scent of food had reached his nostrils did Isral decide to immediately make her way into the busy market district and told the ex-General to come along. Rather than letting the two get separated in the busy district, he quickly followed after the woman, the scent of the mortal food was no doubt something that smelled rather delicious yet Dominik didn't exactly need to eat a lot even when he was in the military. Many of the soldiers at the time when he was in the military were quite concerned for him since it was rare to ever see him eat, this was due to Dominik's own kin and how their body functioned. His kind didn't really need to eat a lot yet it was still needed to do so, overeating wasn't exactly a bad thing since it didn't really have any effects on the body but eating too little wasn't that much of a problem either, eating little just meant there was more time to get other things done.

Throughout the entire time he had followed after the woman, Dominik's own gaze was constantly shifting between the many citizens who were purchasing one thing after another within the market while even eyeing the stands of which merchants were selling cooked food while others were even cooking more food. Eventually, the ex-General reached a single hand outwards to pat Isral's shoulder gently from behind, even if none of this stuff was really that needed for him; the fact that the woman was still a mortal might've pointed out something when she said 'food' earlier. "I take it, you want food. Yes? Go get what you want, I will pay for it all. Even if I'm not a General anymore. I still have all my payments from when I was one."
​

Mena

 

[Mena]

Efert
Efert was contempt with helping Mary find her box. The young kitsune looked at Shinji with a curious glance. She indeed did want to know what was so special about the box but she hadn't wanted to be rude about it like he asked her. The other female seemed thoughtful for a second, probably trying to find the correct words on how to explain the box to them. Her guess was correct as the girl started to explain what the box actually was of importance to her.

"A-Ah! Well the box is about 2 inches and I think 6 centimeters. It's important that I hurry, I really need to find my box or I can't get into my witch academy." She raised her hand and summoned a small star. She used this star as a visual to show the image of what the black box what supposed to look like. If one were to look at the kitsune's eyes then they would mistakenly see the star twinkle even more so in her eyes. "Wow! I've never met a witch before!" Efert happily wagged her tail at the girl.

"Well it's not all cracked up to be though. I don't have much one me but I would try to pay you both in money if that is what you request." Mary was begging them to help her. She was even bowing towards them, her broom neatly floating up and down beside her. "A-Ah It's ok, I don't really need any money! Just happy to help is all." The kitsune girl quickly tried to calm down the other young girl.

Mary was really risking her own credibility as a witch to ask them for help. Witches were known to be stuck up and snoopy as they thought they were above other races entirely. However the girl in front of them was the opposite, she seemed friendly and acted like she was a genuine person. "Oh dear, my teacher told me not to tell anyone about the box! U-Uhm....please don't tell anyone." The young witch was frantic as she spoke.

Isral
Many people continued to walk past the duo, they appeared to be too busy with their own to agendas notice them. Which was good, less attention to them meant it would be easier to blend into their surroundings. Some were buying food and other necessities, others were in groups and hanging out with their friends. Isral was not bothered by the fact that even some of the children, that passed by them, were staring at her though.

Isral's nose caught the scent of something strange in the air, it was sweet and bitter at the same time. "Something smells sweet. Must follow." Unconsciously her legs started to take her to where the scent was coming from, that included bumping into many people along the way there. She over heard the ex-general's comment but decided not to address it at the moment. She was more focused on the task at hand.

Once she found the source of the pie smell, Isral looked back towards Dominik. "Pie." The white haired female nodded at the ex-general, not taking her eyes off the small pie shop in front of her however. She walked right into the store, the smell of baked goods flowed into her nostrils. Her feet carried her to the front of the store. "Hello welcome to Flora's Teashop! How may I help you?" The girl was then confronted by a smaller girl that looked younger than her.

Spoiler

Nothingness

 

[Nothingness]

Shinji Araki

Throughout the entire time the darker form of Shinji stood there, he had questioned the idea of why he even still stood there in the first place. Now that he had most of the control over Shinji's physical body he should've been able to just leave and do whatever he wanted to do yet something inside of him kept him in place and forced him to listen and comment. There was no doubt about it, even if Shinji's physical state was gone; his will continued to be strong enough even while being locked away in the scythe to keep the physical form in place. This only made the dark entity annoyed but yet it just agreed to play along for the time being, once the blonde woman had commented about the black box she was searching for and how she was trying to get into an academy for witches; the entity's assumption was only confirmed. So, the woman was a witch after-all...but yet she was only in training from what it sounded like.

Taking a few more moments in silence even when the blonde had practically begged the duo for assistance, the dark entity had soon enough come up with a plan to get rid of the witch. "Fine, we will help you find this box." The only reason the dark Shinji even agreed to this was at the idea that the sooner they had found this mysterious black box, the sooner the witch would be able to leave making it less of a chance that the entity would end up getting sealed back into the scythe through a witch's magic.
Soon after agreeing to help out the young female witch on finding her strange black box, the dark haired male immediately began to turn his head from one direction to the next as though he was searching for it in the current area. "Hmph, do you have any possible clue on where you had lost this artifact of yours? Like any general direction?" As the male questioned the witch, he had shown no real intention of answering how the witch didn't seem to want either one of the two to tell anyone about this particular box that they had just agreed to help search for.


Dominik

Traversing the large market district while avoiding the civilians all around that were purchasing whatever they wanted to do or get from the place, the ex-General made sure to keep his gaze focused on exactly where Isral was making her way around the area to avoid having issues later on if she ended up possibly bumping into one of the guards that possibly could've been patrolling the area or not. Dominik still had his doubts that the government was just letting them off the hook so easily without saying much of anything; soon enough as he came to find Isral halting in front of one of the stands and looking straight at him before stating something called 'pie'. The light haired male only directed his gaze down at the much younger looking female only to notice the food that Dominik had recognized off the name of what Isral had called it. "Ah, yes. Pie. I'd like one of those please." Pointing his finger towards the largest slice he could see of the pie, the ex-General soon pulled out his wallet from the back pocket of his pants before pulling out the paper money and paying the little female for however much it had costed before taking his own change in return.
Turning right around, he handed the very plate of the sliced pie to Isral. Unaware of just how much she wanted, Dominik had only bought the slice in case she might've wanted to eat something else as well in the surrounding area. The scent of multiple different foods being made in the district was quite the interesting smell to him, no matter how long Dominik had lived around mortals; the different smells of all different types of foods was something he still attempted to get used to, let alone the taste.
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Mena

 

[Mena]

Efert
Efert was happy to be of help towards Mary, she seemed like a rather happy girl that needed to be cheered up. That was what she honestly thought, she would continue to help her if she needed anything. That was the type of person that Efert was, one to help others that needed helping or offer any assistance of herself. She was selfless and hopeful, mostly naive when it came to the bad things in life.

So when the black haired male finally opened his mouth, the action had completely caught her off guard. The young fox girl was surprised that Shinji had agreed to help the young witch with finding her box. "Uh...." She couldn't find any words to address to the male. "Wah! Thank you two so much! I won't take up much of your time, I promise." The girl was soon interrupted by the other female, who was rather excited that he was willing to help her find the box.

"Oh you're welcome. Now do you know where your box would be?" Efert smiled back at the female.She thought to herself for a few moments, tapping her foot to a beat while thinking of possible areas for the box location. "U-Uhm no I really don't unfortunately. While flying on my broom, I blinded by a bright light and crashed into the forest. When I came to, the box was nowhere to be found." Mary tried to explain to them by drawing a map in the air.

Isral
Seeing as she needed to explain what she wanted to the other girl, Isral internally sighed as she looked back towards the female again. "Hm....do you sell any pies?" She mentioned what she had wanted to the worked. She watched the other female go over the several different pie flavors that they showed at the shop. Each one smelled so heavenly that it was practically a sin for them to be so good in her books.

She had been too focused to noticed that Dominik had followed her into the small store. Seeing how he had paid for the food, The white haired female kept her composure as Dominik handed her the slice of pie. The slice of pie was rather hot, even Isral could see the smoke rising from the dessert. "Well thank you for purchasing our food. If you would like, I can direct you to a proper table?" The female lead the two to a side table in the back.

The white haired female walked towards the directed table, it was an window side table. Her feet carried her to the opposite side of the table, it looked like she had decided on sitting towards the opposite view of the window. "Thank you for the food." Isral bowed towards the girl, her actions were to be polite to the waitress. "No problem! If you do have any more orders then call me or Elizabeth over." The girl smiled at them.

"You guys are such a sweet couple by the way." She waved goodbye to them, quickly walking to the next table. It actually took the female several seconds to process what she had said in order for her to respond. "Wait just a moment." The girl was already a couple tables away from Isral so she couldn't correct her.

Nothingness

 

[Nothingness]

Shinji Araki ​

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Even after questioning the young witch about where they should begin to start looking for the black box, the very fact that the woman stated that she wasn't even sure where to start looking and her explanation as well as her attempt at drawing in the middle of the air randomly only made the dark haired male bring a hand to his temple to rub it with his index and thumb gently. This was going to be a long night no doubt, and knowing how Shinji was; he wasn't going to let this go until the deed was done. "Dammit, why did this kid have to be like this..." Questioning himself about why Shinji had to help people so much, the dark haired male simply ended up shaking his head before directing his gaze around the area a bit. ​

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"So, might as well start searching. Is there any kind of sign we should get or feeling whenever we're near it at least?" This time, once the male spoke up; he had made sure to be loud enough to be heard by the two females. Even if the witch had practically begged for the two not to tell anyone about the black box, there was already the thought that the dark male was going to end up peaking and checking out the box as soon as he had found it if he got the chance to. The last thing he needed was a witch having some kind of possible weapon to use against him if it was something important. ​

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Dominik

After purchasing for Isral's pie, the instant the younger female had directed the duo to a table; Dominik had only followed from behind until the two had finally reached their designated table. Letting Isral take her seat first before he took his own seat to watch her eat the pie that head been bought, the male had kept his gaze shifting between the food that she ate as well as her own face. Completely side tracking over the fact that the other female had called the two a couple before she had walked off, Dominik eventually exhaled a low sigh to himself.

"Do you remember your last mission, Isral?" Finally, as the ex-General decided to speak up about something rather serious; even he had known that just because they had been able to leave the grasp of the government for the time being, it didn't mean that they could relax just yet. Dominik still didn't trust the idea that they were out of the eyes of the government just yet so this was no time to just completely let their guard down.​

Mena
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[Mena]

Isral
The white haired girl looked down at her pie, the smoke rose from the delicious dessert in front of her. She wasted no time, grabbing her fork and plunging it deep into the food. She moved the fork in a circular motion, cutting off a small piece of the pie then lifted it up to her mouth. Once reaching her mouth, the girl started to instantly chew on the food. She honestly never had sweets before so this was the first time that she had taken a bite.

The food was so delicious that it almost made her drop the fork instantly. From the taste and sweetness of food, she could tell that the waitress had given her apple pie. Which wasn't a bad option, considering there were far worse pie flavors out there than apple. The apples were so sweet that Isral started to drool a bit. Isral looked down at her pie then up to Dominik, "Pie. Good." She would then start to chow down on the pie.

Once hearing his question, she paused to think about her latest mission before meeting the ex-general. "It was to....assassinate this guy named Mario....and steal some information....on mythical creatures from his cabin. But this stupid....dragon girl got in the way..." Throughout bites, Isral continued to eat her pie. Her voice matched the pitch when she tried to mimic the girl's tone of voice herself. Her face remained blank however, but anyone could tell that she was annoyed.

Efert
Mary began to think about the box, more importantly about what the box could do. Nothing from what her teacher taught her informed her that the box was dangerous to others, so she could only assume that was the case. The girl was sitting on her broom now, she was currently fixing her witch hat. "It shouldn't hurt you at all. It's more or less a tiny zap when you get close to it." She stated.

Efert looked at the black haired Shinji and whispered, "You never answered my question from before." She wanted to know if this was actually Shinji or whatever was the reason for this thing to be possessing him. The fox girl was soon interrupted by the witch once more however. "Hey Ms. Fox and Mr. Phoenix, does anyone of you want to come riding on my broom to help with the search?" The blonde witch asked the two individuals in front of her.

Efert was scared of heights, the mere thought of them made her lose color in her face and pale. "O-Oh I would love to.....but I'm kinda afraid of heights....foxes don't like high places." Efert tucked her tail in her skirt, her ears were facing downwards.
Nothingness