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"B-but old man." Aonaka muttered on a quick action of words and quickly composed himself. He was getting more and more of an open mouth and that was unlike the personality he had in mind that was always suppose to be him, in a sense. He leaned on the table and tried a more intidimating look but he only managed make himself sillier. It was too late to change is posture now. The old man however, doctor something something, was much more relaxed about the situation. Aonaka should've known better that this guy had seen and knew enough to understand his situation, doctor was old and probably wise enough to read the people in front of him enough, not mentioning that he was doing some shady business and god knows how many dark mages he had worked with already. Aonaka was probably nothing.

The situation he got himself in was quite the prickly one, he thought as so. He thought that since he knew the doctor already, he could bargain for a better price, but the doctor would probably create artificial humans before actually doing such thing. Wait, he thought. What if he actually did? He shook his head to clear his inner thought. Now he had to do a harder and more physically demanding job, quest whatever people call them for the same price of the mushroom job he did just yesterday. But he needed the money after all. "Boy." the doctor spoke. "Looking at me like that won't work. It looks more like you are trying to seduce me." the old man spoke, leaning back in his chair with a smile akin to a love child of a clown and that of a demon. The comment raised anger and blushes to Aonaka's face and he quickly stood back up.

"Shit."

He was getting way out his own self character. What a shitty situation indeed. "Alright," he said, with a defeated yet incensed tone. "Just tell me what I need to do once more. I am not messing this up and going on a hard trip twice." he shuddered at the thought of doing physical work, he wasn't the strong one, he was more of a brains person, or so he wanted to think, but given his situation even that was questionable. "Being aloof and civilized, graceful doesn't mean brains." his inner conflicting voice arose within him and he just couldn't shut it up.

"Alright." the doctor spoke and with a satisfied expression rose from his chair. He opene his desk light and fixed his glasses with three fingers, Aonaka sighed and took the paper with the details written on them.

"I might just have a surprise for you." the doctor spoke.

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Aonaka was dumb founded at all the things that happened in a such fast motion. Before he could ask the doctor what he meant and actually go through the details of the mission, someone had just came in, their blue hair taking Aonaka's attention, winked at them, read the mission and the backed off outside, on their way. Aonaka watched with an open mouth and turned back to the doctor, his left eye skewed and his mouth open. The boy was having a sensory overload from such small things. "Yes, I forgot to mention," the doctor said. "I need that mushroom and two heads are better than one so..." he mumbled off. Aonaka could easily tell that the doctor just wanted at least one person to bring the mushroom back if the other fell down their mission's climbing point or got struck with lightning and died or something. Aonaka bit his tongue. He didn't have any initial problem with working with someone, he was already realizing how unsocial he has been and that was no good. He turned on his kneels and dreaded the fact that he had to increase his pace to a brisk one in order to catch up to his temporary partner in crime.

From his initial understanding as they walked together, the woman was a cheerful one, she seemed to have a resting smile face and her quick actions in the shop were noticeable as points which Aonaka tried to solve in order to understand her. However, he realized that he has been looking at her with a horrified face unintentionally, it was just his focusing and confused face but he realized it sooner enough that he changed before the woman decided to make some small talk.

The woman had the kindness to introduce herself first and Aonaka could see the good in that. "Irony huh?" he asked a little confused. "That's an interesting name for sure," he said and smiled a little, both from inside him and because the woman had also smiled. "Not like I can complain or comment about it, I made up my own name because I didn't remember my old one. I'm Aonaka." he said with a tone more relaxed that before. With the initial stages of quick weirdness gone he was feeling a bit better. He listened intently to the other questions of the woman and was delighted by her kindness while feeling inherent scorn towards the behavior of hers that he thought was too naive for him. "Well," he started to speak. "I'm a mage, and I need money for my house rent and my companion's fancy food," he answered to Irony. If his personality was a bit more different, he would be making puns out of such name but he wasn't like that, thankfully for him. "My day's been fine. I was a bit confused when you came into the shop but..." he trailed off, not sure how to end his sentence. "And how was your day?" he asked as they walked to their destination.

The path was a quiet one. Aonaka tried not to get mud on his shoes until they reached the so called cliff climbing points, but it was really hard to do so. He sighed as he realized the mud and looked at the green dotted glowing mushrooms he had to collect yesterday. They were much pretty when he didn't have to spend hours looking for the right ones. "So," Aonaka said his tone now more composed than ever towards his companion, "Are you a mage? Perhaps in a guild?" he asked. He was curious about lifestyle changes, and if the guilds he didn't know that much about were any good, maybe he would one day join one.

He increased his pace a little more when he realized that Irony was walking faster than him. There was an air about her that showed power, not the magical power or something mystical that Aonaka was slowly getting used to, but something else. "Eh whatever." he thought inside him and had a deep breath.

After walking through the forest talking, walking through a sprialing path that was quite nice to look at, they had arrived at the cliff and Aonaka couldn't help sour his face. It was truly tall and screamed "IM HARD TO CLIMB ." He coughed and cleaned his throat. "Well then." he talked. "Guess we have to climb there to find the fern, dark green."

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The companion had revealed herself to be the most chipper and Aonaka wasn't used to such behavior. He was glad that she wasn't a brute or anything like that, however ever since his encounter with Nastasya, he had raised his liking to the behavior such as that. However, their encounter had ended the most mysterious, which caused Aonaka to grab his wound instinctively. "Pancakes are good." was the only comment he could make.

However, Irony's next comment had made his blood run cold. Her words were like knives and carried no scent of her past words. Just who was this girl she had partnered up with? He was right about the people Mabuz worked with. Aonaka couldn't make a comment other than trying to keep his expression straight, his eyes squinted a little, like little slits from within his eyes showed, his hand holding his coat that hanged from his shoulder, breathing silently. "Alright. I understand." he said, but he couldn't lie and say he wasn't scared. His beast companion wasn't around, and if she wished so, he would already be dead.

He gulped silently.

Could he do such work in a guild like that? He didn't know anything about it, not about any guilds except for some information he got from Nastasya. "Grimoire Heart..." he repeated in his mind. That would have to wait until he had a better idea of the world around him.

But despite that he felt the seed inside him. Like a piece of ember that escaped it's barricades and burried itself deep within. A part of himself that he didn't even know screamed in agony that this ember was here. "No... Now I will never be back to my childhood." the said part would scream, but it was no avail. Aonaka felt red hot tendrils of an alluring darkness start to grow within him, capturing his stomach, his lungs, liver and then heart. Something was set in motion, but he didn't know nor care what. The only thing left of the experience after the climb, which Aonaka only climbed half of the cliff before realizing Irony was already done, and getting their reward...

... was just the feeling of as if there was some shorts of hot, thick liquid in his throat.

exit.

WC Requiremet already completed.