It had been a while ago that Nastasya had been up and out and about before the clock tower had given the sign it was 12 o'clock in the afternoon. It was around half past eleven and the sun was actually rather shiny today. It seemed that it didn't hurt her that much yet. She didn't like it obviously but she had to go on and on. She was in the city centre with Victoire by her side when she heard voices, yelling, it was the voice of an old man and some taunting of a kid. It reminded her very badly about a situation that happened when she arrived here in the beginning of December. Funny how it was now already halfway February and how much had changed. She took a deep breath, which was absolutely not necessary, and headed to the sound of the noise. She doubt there were much Rune Knights going to come and watch. However you never knew.

Her long purple hair, dancing on the wind from left to right while she was walking with a steady pace. She was carrying herself differently but the shop owner seemed to recognize her immediately, "That kid is on it again. Please, stop him, I pay you again." An amused smile appeared on her lips, "Of course." She remembered that last time, she had scared the kid by using her shadow and warned him that at one point he might be eaten by them. Unfortunately she couldn't use her shadows anymore but blood would have the same effect, that's when her eyes spotted someone she knew and the smile on her lips only became a bit bigger.

290/1000

"That fucking brat again, someone really hasn't learned their lesson."

Odin murmured this to himself as he watched the events unfold in the market, just as they had before. The small child with the orange hair, Jerr, the orphan boy had stolen from the same shopkeeper as last time, and the man had once again had enough of the child's antics. Last time, Odin had scared him and made him promise never to do it again. This time, it seemed he would have to be a bit more direct in his methods. As he began to approach the shopkeeper, he noticed a nearby smile facing his direction: Nastasya Crowe, his guild mate and partner in most things. It seemed fate had chosen for them to do this Quest together, as she spoke to the shopkeeper for the two of them. Happy to accept to get paid once more, Nastasya had her eyes fixed on Odin, who walked over to her briefly before speaking, finally being able to talk as he always did, being away from his Pub.

"Right, let's do this Nastasya. Quickest way to corner the brat will be to split up and catch him in the alleyways. I know this area, and I know the kid, we can use our knowledge to make sure we catch him as quickly as possible. You got any ideas?"

236/1000

She had spotted Odin and had accepted the quest, she was now asking if the shop owner was alright with two people doing the job. Just to make sure that this tiny annoying little creature wouldn't steal from his shop again. At first it seemed that the owner didn't feel for that, because yeah money was tight, especially if everything was stolen. However she threw some of her fearsome charm into it, he wouldn't really understand what happen. She would say it was his fear for something he didn't understand: her being a vampire. The owner in the end muttered an okay, just when Odin showed up at her side. He had probably heard the plan and the thing about money. She gave him another short smile and he immediately went to business as she had suspected.

She turned her back to the owner to listen to Odin and nodded slowly. Indeed, she was also very familiar with the streets since she was here for a long time already. Besides that, she had done this job before, she had caught Jerr before, she had met him before too.
She thought for a second, you could see this because she stared unfaced at the bricks on the ground and narrowed her eyes, "Last time I saw him, he was in an alley not far from here. I met him there a few times more or well saw him. If that's his hide out, he would probably go there. He is but a child, maybe not even that smart." She turned to look back at Odin, "I'll take the back road and see you there." she gave him the street name, she would wait a few seconds to see if he knew which alley. If they decided to leave, she would nod at Victoire and take off, the faster they were, both of them, the sooner this was over again.

Despite the mission being easily doable by one person, not to mention cheaper for the client, Nastasya managed to get the disgruntled shopkeeper to agree to the terms, allowing Odin to officially do the Quest again. The young Grimoire Heart mage wasn't sure if this was because the shopkeeper knew that the two mages before him were trustworthy, having both completed the Quest already, or if it was something else, maybe Nastasya just had managed to get a better way with words since their last encounter. She did seem somewhat different after all, but Odin wasn't entirely sure why, or he didn't fully understand it.

After all the details were sorted out, Nastasya voiced her plan of action to find the child. Odin wasn't the only one that had encountered Jerr, as his partner seemed to know exactly where the young orphan made his residence, where he was normally found lurking around. Nastasya had seen him in this alley many times during her past encounters with the child, and she also remembered, very usefully, exactly what alleyway it was where he could be found. Jerr didn't know that Nastasya and Odin were both after him, nor did they know that the people after him would be one's who had already captured him before, and knew exactly where he could be found. After giving the location to Odin, Nastasya decided to take the back roads, so that they could both corner him off and capture him, like leading a rat into a trap. After hearing the address, and nodding to show he knew the area, Odin watched as Nastasya took off, while he did the exact same, heading in the direction of the alleyway as directly as he could. Taking a back road meant his partner would have to go the long way around, while Odin was taking the much more direct route to the location of the orphan child, and it didn't take him long at all to get to where he needed to be. He hid in the shadows, waiting to see if he could spot either Nastasya or Jerr in the alley. After a few moments, he saw his prey, and then his partner came into view a few seconds after, which was when he decided to act, removing any chance of escape from the young boy and overall just ruining his day.

638/1000

It was a funny encounter, since the chance she sort of had the feeling that she had to carry herself in a different way and she was totally okay with running on heels and on cobblestones with heels and everything. It was as if stumbling and tripping wasn't a possibility in her body anymore now that she had the grace of a vampire. Even though it was still the long way around, Nastasya was running as fast as she could, having Victoire even tag along behind her instead of full speed in front.

She had to be quick, because her road was the longest, even though she knew quite the ways to make it as short as possible, put jumping over hedges and other obstacles didn't always make it faster, so sometimes she just took a straight road. When she arrived, she wasn't out of breath or anything. She didn't need to breathe, it was just a forced habit of nature. Or well her old nature. She stood with her back against the wall and slowly looked around the corner, she could see a tuft of red hair behind one of the dust bins and knew Jerr was over there.

Because Odin had to wait on her, she decided to take the first step. It was silent in the alley, as if not bird or other pesky animal was around to make a noise. Her heel on stone made the dreadful sound to the boy. As soon as she stepped in sight and closer to the dust bins, Jerr got up to run away from the other side. Unfortunately for him, that's where Odin was, "Remember me? For your sake, I thought it might be smarter to remember me." He turned to look at her and immediately looked at his shadow and she couldn't help but smile because it was so funny. It seemed that Jerr also recognized Odin and was slowly backing away, pushing his back against the wall. She continued to walk to the dustbin but kept her eyes at the boy while she took the bag of stolen goods, "What should we do with you, so you will never steal again? Cut off all your fingers?"

The signal was received, loud and clear. how couldn't it be, as Nastasya stepped out into the alleyway, her high heels which she always wore being the only noise as it echoed throughout the dark street. Her choice of footwear had always amused Odin, as she usually was put in a situation where high heels were the worst shoe possible to wear, such as when the two journeyed into the catacombs under the Oak cathedral. All Nastasya seemed to do was complain about her shoe choices, but today they were perfect. Odin's partner didn't even have to speak, as the boy instantly seemed to recognise her, running the other way, and into the path of Odin, who just smiled. The boy was now forced to make a choice of his preferred of the two evils before him, an impossible decision for the poor orphan.

That was when Nastasya made the decision to speak, reminding the boy who she was, and scaring him into retreating into some bins, his back against the wall as he waited for his oblivion. Picking up the bag of stolen goods, Nastasya decided to have fun with it, threatening to cut off the poor child's fingers to make sure he never stole again. At that, Odin simply laughed, a maniacal, cold laugh as he looked at the boy.

"This is the third time we know of that you've been caught, boy. I've already told you, this is pathetic. If you want to avoid any... painful interactions further, you'll either have to learn not to be caught or..." Odin transformed into Lucifer, his eyes burning like the pits of hell as the boy started to scream in agonising fear, a normal reaction to seeing the Prince of Darkness, "you will be incinerated, and there'll be nothing left of you."

Once satisfied the boy had learned his lesson, Odin returned to the shopkeeper with Nastasya holding the goods and Odin holding Jerr. The shopkeeper gave a very uninteresting lecture to the boy, about how one shouldn't steal or do anything bad else bad things would come their way. It took everything the young mage had not to interrupt and prove how wrong the man was, but it was good that he didn't, because soon enough the man gave the two mages their reward, thanking them for another day's work. With the mission completed, Odin headed back to his pub, ready to sleep.

1066/1000

-Exit-

It was of course too much work to cut off each of the boy his fingers but he was scared. Not scared enough but Odin seemed to finish that part together with Lucifer. She was still not a hundred percent sure if they were one and the same person or two different. She should find a way to ask at some point. When the boy was so shocked with fear, Odin picked him up like it was nothing and the two of them headed back to the shop, "Even though this was easy, it was fun." she said with a smile before they entered the shop and remained standing there, bored, listening to the lecture of the shop owner. She had to refrain herself from rolling with her eyes.

She handed over the stolen goods and accepted the money before she followed Odin out of the store. They would see each other soon again probably. It happened when you were in the same town.