It's in my blood.

I loved Sushi too. It was the only thing at Nasty her mind at the time that Victoire got the food. She had eaten sushi after the change, but it was not really smart to eat much anymore. The consequences that came with that were too horrible to handle. Besides the taste was slowly fading away and she wanted to remember the beauty from it, which seemed highly impossible if you thought about it. How many years would she live? She shook her head violently, no time for self pity. They were in a dangerous forrest afterall.

That's when the bird came and the moment that she slid right through it and a horrible smell appeared. Even Victoire tried to hide her nose in the ground. She got the idea what her snow fox meant and kicked both body parts to the side of the path that they were following. The forrest would probably make sure some other horrible creature would want to eat it. She didn't feel the need to wait for that, "It still smells gross." she repeated a bit like a dump person, she would normally not kick dead bodies but she had to get rid of it anyway, "Let's walk on, so we are out of range. Besides we have a cave to find."
Before they would continue to walk on, Aonaka asked her something related to her magic. She shrugged at first and started to walk. Mainly to get away from the smell, not the question, "I didn't always use blood magic. I was born with Shadow Make magic or simple Shadow Magic. My parents both were Ice make mages, they taught me the basics. When I turned into a vampire, I was no longer able to call the shadows to my aid and suddenly had to figure out how to use my blood. Since I'm a dead person to be honest," she would flinch a little with her own words, it was not nice to say about yourself, "I am only able to use my own blood, from this body. But philosophical question, how much of that is my blood? How does the body of a vampire work. I notice that when I have sucked someone's blood, I'm able to feel a small heartbeat in my wrist for the first minutes, I am even able to blush but the longer I wait with drinking again, I am not able to do all that and have just a body like a cold stone."

Since she didn't immediately reply, he even asked another question and she would have sighed before explaining about her body, or well as much as she assumed herself. She had many questions too, and he seemed to ignore them. She was about to answer again, after the silence about being a vampire. However he wasn't done yet. Since she was walking in front of him this time, it didn't matter that she looked up with her eyes big out of surprise. No one knew about Grimoire Heart but they. He knew more than just the name. She heard a heavy creaking noise and turned her heels and dashed towards Aonaka. She pushed him against one of the thick trees at the tree line, her hand over his mouth, she hissed softly, which could be indicated as a shush. Her lilac eyes traveled the tree line and between the spot where they had stood a huge tree branch dropped down. Thank god Victoire and Panthello weren't hit either. Was Icarus on her? "Never say that name oud loud unless you want to die." This was at least not giving more information about her being a part of it. She had wanted him alive than she should continue to safe him for now. She had explained as much guilds to him as was possible and in one way or another he had figured out about the one that she had kept a secret.

It's in my blood.

She talked, he listened. She often didn't talk much. She was afraid her words might slip as they had done before. When she was but a child in a body of an adult. When she had gone crazy, before she found herself again, before she knew how to carry herself. She wondered what Yumi would say for a short while, but as Aonaka spoke she could only listen to his words. Her mother was murdered by a vampire, well not direct but it was part of the cause of death. This was why she saw vampires as vile creatures. She couldn't really believe there were humans that didn't think about it in that way. It was maybe good to meet someone like that.
It would have been better if the conversations would have stayed with Phantom Lord and she could say that she would rather join a good guild. Lie. Lie as usual. Lie because her life depend on that. She could lie that she had wanted to join Blue Pegasus but didn't dare because she is a vampire. But the word of her guild, it was so weird to hear it ring in your ears. Spoken by a person that shouldn't know. That's when everything happened to fast.

How Victoire tried to comfort the bat and how he squeeled and how she was afraid that Icarus or worse, Master was here. That would be a complete disaster. Her purple eyes scanned the premises and she narrowed them to make sure. she hoped that everyone would stay calm and quiet. But they didn't. She turned to look back at Aonaka and looked at his face, why were they standing so close. She actually hated that, no matter who it was.

The situation was weird, how he did hold on to her arm now and how she was looking at him. He started to laugh, in a freakish way and she tried to make sure he would shut up but he didn't and since he was holding on to her arm. Her eyes that had just narrowed to scan the situation, had looked open at him but that quickly turned by the way her eyebrows frowned down, she was angry. He didn't grasp the situation. He asked her if she would bite him again but she didn't want to, she didn't need to but he pulled her closer by using her arm. They were the same height and that made it for Nastasya even more awkward. She wasn't used to this closeness and tried to pull herself back but the effort wasn't really there. Irony. She had heard the name before, twice. She had seen the blue haired mage that belonged to her Guild. That damn Irony. Her name was certainly ironic. She tensed her jaw and told herself to count to five to not talk out of anger, "No. Nastasya is my name. And you better watch your tongue if you want to keep it." She was done, if he was playing it like this, she would either have to make sure he would never be able to talk about it again or would know what happened to guys that knew too much that could be worse than death. She had seen Yumi do it before, and let go of her magical energy, which came in red waves off her. She was powerful, she had a lot of magical potential and you could feel that like a heavy blanket on you, a heavy terrifying blanket.

His way of speech reminded her of someone. The worst part was that, that someone was none other than her nineteen year old self.

It's in my blood.

She was still a bit paranoid. Icarus. Master. It didn't matter, it wasn't her fault. She hadn't said anything. She had just warned this guy that he would never talk about it. She had also given her real name, which was an accident but suddenly a good one. As he seemed to know that Grimoire Heart mages didn't give their real ones. He might think she was just an associate or some..thing. That was interesting, she had seen the change in his demeanor. Maybe, maybe she could get better out of this than she would have expected. She waited for him to let go of her and she would immediately take a few steps back, having Victoire circle around her legs and her blue eyes fixed on Panthello.

She would give a nod and let him walk in front of her, the branch still in the middle of the road. It had been coincidence, that's all it could be. no Icarus. No Master. She didn't tell anything, it wasn't her fault. They walked in silence but she could feel something was following them again. However she didn't see anything, she even glanced over her shoulder. Her own rule was never to look behind because you would get the idiot feeling that there would be something there. Maybe, if it was Icarus or Master, they would show up if she said the name. "There is a reason I didn't tell you about Grimoire Heart. But what do you know now? Whose Irony?" Although she knew, or well she wasn't entirely sure, she had a vague idea.
She heard the branches creak again, was it above them? "Be very careful."

It's in my blood.

Questions needed to be asked and so she did. She wasn't sure what to expect. She didn't even know why Irony, was called Irony. She got most names, the meaning of them. Black made sense, Carnage, Lucifer. Shadow. Rune. Strategist, well she could get in there but Irony. He wanted to know the reasons. But the reasons were simply to spare her own live and well his was a good bonus point too. She clenched her fist with the explanation of Aonaka, "Well than she is very stupid." Was the only comment she gave about Irony.

Aonaka stopped walking and he seemed to be very rigid from one moment to the next and he turned around to look at her and she could almost smell the fear. It was just that she noticed, "For your own sake it would be better, because I don't know whom else might do that. But if I would want you dead, I would have done that by now." Did she.. actually consider him a friend? Which was weird since they had only met one time, the only person she would consider close to being a friend was Odin.

Victoire seemed to eye Panthello the whole time and as the bat moved close to his master, the fox moved to Nastasya, circeling around her legs and her blue eyes on the flying object. Nasty didn't expect that but she was glad that after their struggle of her change, Vic wanted to protect her still.

She was prepared to fight the beast but not with her magic and tried to hold up her arms to cover her face but Panthello flew over her head, she turned to look over her shoulder at a snake that was everything but small. The Snake was metalic looking, something that wouldn't really work well with her magic or that's what she thought. Maybe she should be able to use her strongest spell but than she would have to make sure that everyone was out of her way, "Make him come back. I can't do anything if Panthello remains to close." She snapped at Aonaka, they had to handle this fast in case anything bad would happen. The snake was definitely something bad, it could get a lot worse, "Make sure not to get killed because that would be a waste of my effort to keep you alive." She had been angry at him the whole day, it started because of Mabuz, not because of him. It started because of her, not because of him, so all she could do was look at him now for the few seconds she had to spare and smile at him. "I'll try to explain to you later. The reasons. The way it works for as far as I can. But it is dangerous. Even more dangerous than a metal looking snake."

It's in my blood.

She would be careful, she would wait. She would see, she would observe. The gust, the headbutt. Victoire was still cowering a bit to the back and well Nastasya didn't judge her for that. She waited for her time to shine and took the few steps in front of her. She couldn't help but grin when Aonaka said she should go crazy, exactly what she had in mind, "Be prepared!" She yelled back over her shoulder to him. She ran towards the snake and jumped up, she had already bit her finger, "This should be flawless!" It was that it was the name of the spell and the blood formed around her fingers and the snake tried to bit her, held her at her middle but she simply kicked him, it did hurt but it was something that she needed to make sure that the huge beast wouldn't go away from her at this moment, it was that the spell was very big and that's why it did a lot of damage.

When the snake was hurt so badly, the jaw let go of her and she was simply dropped on the floor. She wasn't able to get on her feet, she really dropped to the ground. Not much flattery for that snake. She cursed, "I must have said it wrong. But I rather like you alive." She got up and pushed her hands to the fang holes in her stomach. There was blood but it was not gushing out because she was actually dead. Which was every time a new confrontation. She stared at it, the blood on her hands. It actually made her sad.

She would continue to walk later, depending on if she was healed or not on the speed of her steps. "I know that I don't owe you anything. I mean I didn't kill you, used a bit of your blood but it wasn't entirely my fault." She tried to open up a bit, but it was difficult as she tried to remove that part from herself. It could cost her own face, life. "Grimoire Heart doesn't talk about Grimoire Heart. That are faults that can cost us our lives. It is difficult to start. I don't know what I can say and not. Irony has already messed up but if I do it worse, I might not be alive after this and that says a lot for someone that's an undead." She didn't look at him, that would be too difficult, she did see the cave however and without noticing it herself, she started to walk a lot faster. The herb was one that only grew in the light reflected by some sort of diamonds and all that. She didn't really get the explanation but it was what Mabuz told them.

She walked on in the cave, letting her eyes quickly adjust to the cave, seeing the white flowers that they were looking for, however her foot slipped away and she tried to grab something to hold on and get her out of the slippery slope. The only thing to grab was Aonaka and she couldn't help but grab him in the sort of fear and that's when she completely fall, downwards. Victoire remained up above the hole that they fall in, "Sorry!" was all she could say while they were falling. She again for the second time today fell on her butt on the ground, "When we get back. I'll make sure Mabuz feels the pain we have been through.."

It's in my blood.

The only thing she could do was thank him for the healing. Which was a nice thing to have. She wondered if she could actually bleed to death.. since she practically was already dead. But she didn't feel like thinking about that too long and the thank you should be more than enough. She eyed the snake as it whithered in pain and in the end there was nothing left of it.

She dusted herself off and got up, the walk to the cave was not that far anymore. But boy did they have a short adventure already and the ending was not even close yet. She was still trying to find out where to start and what she was able to tell. "Before I can say anything more you have to promise me, to never ever talk to someone else about Grimoire Heart. Not the name, not our names. Nothing. As if you do not know anything. I am still debating what I should tell, I mean I have no idea what your motives are and even why you would want to know?" Yes that was one of the good things to start with, "Oh and let me add that if you do speak about my Guild to someone that doesn't need to know, you should hope I be the one to kill you." she said it with a smile, to point out that she again didn't want to kill him but that she might be the nicest one to do so.

The cave wasn't really her cup of tea, she just wanted to grab the flower that was there, the leaves that were needed for Mabuz his project or so but instead, she fell down, taking Aonaka with her. If the dust of the path in the forest was bad, she was now covered in must, mud and a lot of other nature elements which didn't really make her happy. She wasn't much hurt apart from just the collision between her body and the floor. The healing spell was taking that away from her in a matter of seconds anyway. She looked up, they had fallen quite far. That's when she heard him laugh and she stared at him and couldn't help but laugh a bit too, she giggled. This could only happen to them today. No one else would have fallen inside the hole. "I'm fine don't worry." Panthello and Victoire came down too, the bat carrying the fox. "You are a strong little man aren't you." she said as a compliment to Panthello as she took Victoire in her arms. She was already dirty enough, Vic her muddy paws didn't matter anymore.

It was as if the world wanted to give Nast a safe place, but she would first wait for Aonaka to explain why he wanted to know. Maybe she could get use out of this, she didn't know how or why but it was nice to find a way to make up for Irony her mistake and get something out of it herself. Win-win.