At least this proved Tsuru trusted her, either that or his aversion to her weapon and the violence it was capable of, trumped his instinct to keep her within sights. Nonetheless, while she was surprised he'd let her off on her own, she wasn't complaining about the respite from the little house-arrest he'd set up. She waded through the people of the town, a strange itch in her palm for another chance to pull out that gun, to place her finger on the trigger... Had she been a little more expressive, perhaps the glee would be obvious on her face.

As the sky began the slow languorous process of pulling the inky-blue blanket of darkness over itself, Akira's mood and her spirit lifted. Even with the newfound element of light inside her, she was still habitually fond of the night.The girl wracked her brain to pick a destination for some target practice. The garden would be too crowded, would induce much panic too if she unholstered her gun amidst so many people... The streets were no good either unless she found the courage to go towards the outskirts, to the large desolated region where she'd met that earth mage... No, hell no.

Feeling uncharacteristically flamboyant and feisty with the new implement, Akira audaciously decided to take a turn for the famous Domus Flau. Under the spotlight of the moon, with an imagined audience of people who actually thought well of her and Akira could conduct her own little performance, play pretend to be a hero... At least in her own mind, at least this once. The arena was likely to be empty, and it would provide the space she needed...

But upon reaching, she realised how domineering the architecture of the place was... Her heart stilled, this seemed to be the place for legends. Her mind painted a legendary battle as her palms idly caressed the large pillars. She gulped and shuffled into the arena... A lone warrior. The moon had now climbed into the sky, it sat perched behind the constant stream of clouds.

The girl made her way to the centre and spun slowly, her eyes scanning the vacant stands, while her imagination created a hungry crowd... The lean figure pulled out a gun, only to realise she had nothing to aim for. In a morbid moment, she angled her arm downwards at the head of her own long, dark shadow.

Akira had cocked her gun, then uncocked it... Which itself was quite a struggle, with a high risk of accidentally firing it... There was so much uncertainty in her head. The girl played with the safety instead, felt safer. The idea of the arena echoing with the blast of the gun... She wondered how noisy it would be, would it attract attention, the unpleasant sort? She bit her lip considering her options. The dual instinct inside her didn't make this any easier. Of course, the element of Light had to play the part of the angel on her shoulder Don't do it... A weapon must be released only in the case of utmost emergencies. Akira had a nagging feeling it was only because this particular gun was aligned more with the other element inside her... The darkness did encourage her, if every decision she made was going to be under scrutiny by her magic this way, she'd probably go insane. Maybe this was her own confusion, that she habitually attributed to her magic?

Nonetheless, she needed her indecisiveness to end. 'Shut up...' she whispered, to herself. Placing her finger on the trigger as she shuffled her feet, shifting her weight from one to another, her shadow moved in tandem, her arm tried to keep up with the gentle motion as she targeted the head of the dark shape. She decided to take a shot... but the gun just clicked and nothing happened. She'd forgotten that her little internal turmoil had ended with her leaving the safety on. She sighed, and dropped her hand, shaking out her limbs and readying herself again... safety off.

Just as she was about to pull her trigger, it looked like her shadow had multiplied... Given birth to another smaller shadow, which was a far gentler kind too, soft in appearance and almost at a right angle with the one made by the moon. She blinked a couple of times then squinted. There had to be another source of light, she scanned the arena again. On her right... On the highest rung made for the audience, she noticed a small flickering flame. She really wasn't expecting company, out of sheer will to intimidate whoever had decided to reveal themselves this way, she pointed her gun towards the dim light. 'Who's there?' she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. 'I'm warning you, I'm armed.' She wondered if her voice carried well enough to clearly pass her message on.

Akira's arm trembled, she felt the urge to whine about the rather pathetic state of her body. The girl was petite with a wiry frame. Even just holding up that gun for an extended period of time produced a nagging and unpleasant sensation in her muscles... A heaviness which made them ache a little from the exertion. I didn't go for a sword or something because I wanted the range and because I didn't think I had the strength to wield and swing swords... Now I can't even do this? Tch. Sometimes Aki found it easy to berate herself, the girl truly was topped with an incredible capacity for self-doubt and conflict, it wouldn't aid her in the wars to come.

Akira didn't respond to the woman's snarky comment, there was no need to, but by particularly singling out the need for a weapon in this place, Akira wondered if she was referring to the impending attack, maybe she could gather some intel? Tsuru wasn't here, which meant all the conversing was up to her, he'd be rather annoyed if she passed up the opportunity to glean information... But she usually made things worse. She cleared her throat noisily, but then the woman started moving. Akira grew tense again.

Gingerly and unsteadily, the barrel followed the motion of the woman, as she stepped down the stairs, with the clackity-clack of her footwear, and the personal candle-lit spotlight, the entrance was quite dramatic. She stopped about midway through the stands, now occupying the balconies constructed for the superior variety of the audience, the nobles and royals and such. Was this some kind of a hint? Akira raised an eyebrow almost lazily. With the distance between them now about 14 meters or so, barring difference in height which was probably about 8 meters, the dark-haired girl's expression was probably easier to identify, Akira had never been one to keep up appearances anyways...

The source of light was now distinguishable, it was a creature of some sort, like a... ghost of a dark candle? Looked pretty mythical, but accentuated the glint of the sword the woman held. 'I'm not waiting for anyone...' Akira admitted honestly, still keeping her gun levelled at the woman. 'Just here to practice... I guess could use an opponent or just something to aim at, really...' she added cautiously, her voice devoid of any particular excitement at the possible battle... She narrowed her eyes a little. 'But first, how do I know you're not the true enemy?' Akira's pessimism kept her on the edge, most would assume the woman was trustworthy since she'd made no offensive moves, but Akira had already had the misfortune of meeting enemies that had toyed with her... Her guard was definitely up. With her free hand, she ran her fingers through her sleek dark hair, the strands of which promptly fell back on her eyes, they didn't quite obliterate her vision, but they were annoying on the periphery...

If only the woman would be straight with her, Akira could lower her gun. Feeling more and more exhausted, she hooked the palm of her free hand under the wrist of the weapon-wielding hand to help support and stabilize it. 'I honestly have no intention to fire unless you give me a reason to... The question was simply... are you going to give me a reason to?' Akira clarified, her eyes narrowing into slits. While this woman was no old hag... In fact quite the contrary, her features were sharp and adorned her face well... Aki could tell she was probably older than her. Age didn't necessarily translate into experience but it was safer to assume that it did, given the Shimada's relatively inexperienced state. The woman had dark hair much like Aki's but substantially different in length.

Akira was intrigued, to say the least, to find out what she meant, offering an opponent like that. The girls' palms were getting sweaty, but she tightened her grip when the woman relinquished her sword, only to dramatically let the hilt crack the ground. The girl couldn't care less about the integrity of old crumbly monuments, but it still made her wince to see the woman open a small crack in the stone. The flashy descent with the crystal stairs caused Akira to groan softly, her gun's movements were forced to become larger as the woman got closer. Ideally, I should just shoot before I get into sword's range, no? she thought, but she really couldn't bring herself to just fire, without a good enough cause.

Then her eyes widened as the candle-creature beside the woman, transformed... 'So there are two of you, well great... That's fair.' Akira grumbled. Raising her eyebrow a little, the girl attempted gleaning some more information, not that they were bound to give her any honest answers, she could just hope there would be some honour... 'I suppose she...' Akira used the pronoun tentatively 'is the target I get then?' The dark haired girl blew strands away from her face, they defiantly returned to their spots. With slight movements of her arm, her aim flicked from the woman with the sword, to her new sparsely dressed companion. She widened her stance a little, the ground underneath allowed it, some of the dirt collected on the edge of her foot as it shuffled and slid.

It wasn't out of some loyalty to the Knights that Akira held back her shots... Or was it? This was getting tiresome, the three shadows extended parallelly, just like the bodies that cast them. The woman seemed to be within the range of Akira's weapon. 'If this is some sort of a practice duel, shouldn't we introduce ourselves before we start?' Akira asked, hoping that the name would give some clue as to her allegiance. Maybe it would come attached with an epithet or some title. The Shimada had all intentions of revealing her own identity post the woman's introduction.

At least the tone of the conversation had veered away from the cautiously wary one that it had initially assumed. Akira accepted that response, the validity of reasons was often based on the constituency of the person, perhaps the Rune Knight had made her intentions clear with the lack of decisiveness... 'She is not just the product of some spell to transform inanimate objects into lifelike creatures and then into humans?' she asked tentatively for confirmation, she wasn't just about to try to blow a hole through a living creature.

From the way she referred to the transformed human, it became obvious that she was very much alive. 'I guess I mean she could hold up a target and run around or something...' Akira corrected, shrugging, a small smirk in the form of a half smile tugging at the one corner of her lips. The woman had taken her went onto introducing herself and Akira nodded in response, wondering where she'd heard that name before because it did sound familiar.

'I'm Akira...' she said introducing herself in kind, her eyes darting between the women as she lowered her gun, but not all the way to her body, it remained at about a forty-five-degree angle from her torso just in case this training started unexpectedly. 'So how about we go to either side of the arena and then since you aren't fighting, Alisa, you could mediate?' she said as she began backing away from the center of the arena, towards the circumference. Akira noticed the large rock on her left, about halfway between the end of the arena and its center, she wondered if Lumen would often use it for cover and try to jump attack her if she got into range...


As she reached the edge, she noticed the discoid corridor that ran under the stands, it was lined with large pillars, placed about three meters away from one another.  It extended about ten meters inwards, under the seating area, on all sides, She took her stance between two pillars of them. It was significantly darker in this passage behind her, considering the moonlight couldn't kiss this side thanks to its angle. Halfway through it, it was almost pitch black. A few vague ideas drifted into her mind, should she need to make a getaway... Although nothing was ever foolproof in a battle, options didn't hurt.

There was only one way to find out if she had it in her to strategize and fight an unknown enemy... from the beginning. 'Would you like to do the honors of commencing?' Aki asked in a mumble, but pretty loudly as nervousness began gripping her. Her voice echoed eerily as she raised her gun towards Lumen again.

'I would if I could...' Aki responded jovially, perhaps her joke had been a little dark, considering her chosen opponent maybe sensitive to quips about her lacking ability in the speech department. The two women that had joined the dark haired mage, seemed so... sure of themselves, Akira couldn't help but feel a keen sense of envy. The girl definitely didn't exude this much confidence. 'Alisa what?' she asked casually, hoping a second name may shed light on why the woman's first seemed familiar... Specificity could always aid. Akira's eyes narrowed slightly as she a rather reserved, almost shy smile accompanied her nod in response to the woman's polite exchange.

When Alisa mentioned they didn't need to back away, Akira stopped mid-stride and planted her foot back on the ground, still a few meters away from the circumference. 'Oh... I see.' she said, wondering how a ranged battle was fair when they were up close, upon the second instruction, she felt blood rush to her face in embarrassment. So they knew what I could exploit. she thought, feeling a little like a coward. Briefly, she looked back at the escape route that had been denied unless defeat was conceded, with a slightly sullen expression, before turning to face the women again.

At least Akira's side was still shrouded in more darkness than the other, given the position of the moon casting large shadows of the arena. She was still visible though, her opposition wasn't squinting or struggling to see Akira's form. She waited for the well-sculpted creature to relinquish her weapon, the dark-haired girl did have concerns about where the weapon was concealed since the get-up was pretty skin tight... Unless... Wait, she's fighting without a weapon?!

Akira still had her gun up as the creature began hopping around making it rather difficult for the girl to aim, she bit her lip and closed an eye as she spoke. 'Are you really going to fight a gun bare-handed, Lumen?' while the creature couldn't speak but Akira believed she'd be able to decipher the response from the sound, she'd asked her question loud enough for Alisa to intervene if need be. It felt odd shooting at a seemingly defenseless target, but they'd agreed upon commencing the fight already and by the way, her opponent was dodging things seemed to be in motion already.

Focus Aki, she could pull something out and throw it at you anyway... she thought. As she began walking closer to her target. They were still about twenty-meters apart. Her finger hesitantly flicked the trigger, while she tried maintained her aim at the largest area of the creature's body... The torso. Akira still didn't shoot, if they really were going to battle with her being able to use a ranged weapon, she could wait to see and learn how her opponent chose to close the gap, should she ever find herself in such a seemingly unbalanced situation. None the less Akira changed her stance too, her objective would be to maintain the range advantage then, till she found a way to land a steady aim.

A few new strategies flitted to her mind as her eyes swiftly darted from her opponent to her surroundings, as hand moved in tiny jerks to keep her aim.

Akira wasn't too fond of challenges that revolved around battles, perhaps because she never considered herself to be good enough. The girl lacked the drive to best others unless something grand was at stake. While she liked the idea of being able to scratch this mental itch that she had, created by the seeming familiarity of the name, it definitely wasn't enough to make her try any harder than she already was trying. The mage stopped moving, her motion was not helping her in steadying her aim on an already moving target, despite her slow walk being mostly in a straight line for a few meters.  It left Akira about seven meters from the circumference.

Trying to keep track of all the continuous motion was almost making Akira dizzy and nauseous. Eventually though she began noticing certain patterns and it became quite apparent that the well toned creature was just going to skip around till she could close the distance. It must have been apparent that the lunar mage was struggling, there were such apparent expressions of mild smugness on the faces of her new opponents. Maybe she was imagining it, maybe it was just that in contrast to her own struggle, they seemed rather comfortable.

Akira chewed on her lip having assessed the pattern but realized that there was still a very high chance that she would miss her attacks at the rate the little lady was moving... Especially if Akira used her smaller bullets, they'd be rather easy to avoid. The only cover for the creature though, was now quite far behind the woman... that lone boulder still on Akira's far left. Feeling a little lost and suffocated in anxiety, as the possibility of a fist fight became more and more imminent, Akira did something rather impulsively.

While the woman was now almost just about eleven meters away, still dashing from point to point, Akira swiftly dropped the angle of the gun, it didn't take much time, since she wasn't particularly aiming for anything except the general region under the martial artist's feet. A dark sphere escaped the barrel of her gun, shooting forth and landing somewhere between the creature's feet. Upon coming into contact with the ground, it exploded. Just after taking her shot, Akira had dashed backwards a few meters, ensuring she still remained out of the range of dark explosion that followed the impact between the small sphere and the ground.

She squinted as the blackness around them intensified briefly, making it difficult for the rays of the moon to battle the dark sphere created by the explosion. Soon it disappeared though. Akira felt guilt wrap its fingers around her heart... It felt all great and mighty while she'd shot, as her single minded focus had been to get rid of the possibility of avoiding the incoming assault at any cost. Now that the deed was done, the cost did seem to outweigh the threat. Akira wasn't sure if her attack had truly been successful, but from the dimensions of that explosion, escape would have probably been unlikely. She hoped Alisa and Lumen had a reason for their confidence and had managed to at least mitigate the life threatening aspect from her shot.

The idea of using a powerful weapon, was better than actually having to employ it and cause harm, especially just in a state of panic while training. Ok no, new rule... avoid gun usage... feels like crap later. she thought as she scoured the area to glean information on what exactly had transpired. If Lumen had avoided the attack, Akira would just surrender, she didn't have much else up her sleeve and the guilt that the dire possibilities summoned, had drained her of her will to use the weapon. 'A-Are you alright?' she tried, meaning to reach out both to the creature and the woman. Akira still teetered around the edge now, in case the woman got mad at her careless decision, this would no longer be training and Aki would have to try make her escape...

The night was gifted with a perfect silence. After the creatures outcry. Akira stood frozen momentarily, reassessing her actions. only her hair fluttered in a gentle breeze, it tickled her skin and coaxed goosebumps. To be fair, those could also be from the uneasy eerie sensation that had taken hold of her. Was she so easy to corner? Was it so easy for her to fall back upon something foolproof, even when the objective was just to train? She wasn't the sort to crave victory enough to pull such tricks out of the bag, the impulsivity had been borne out of the loss of strategy. Akira made it a point to work on this.

Akira drew a long and shaky breath of air, sputtering briefly upon having inhaled the fine sand, that hung like mist in the air. At least that snatched her out of her reverie. Oh please don't tell me I... I didn't end up murdering the creature did I? she thought to herself, as the girl gathered herself up, post the little fit. Her wide eyes peered into the distance. As the dust settled, and no one from the opposition seemed to have indulged any vengeful desires, she braved slinking towards the possibly wounded. Swallowing the wad of guilt that seemed to be growing ever larger.

Her head snapped to the woman, with slightly narrowed eyes she watched Alisa's motions like a hawk. While perhaps not vindictive, the woman didn't look thrilled either. Alisa had either evaded the explosion or swiftly defended herself against it... Or perhaps it was the armor. Nonetheless, Akira was a bit in awe of her capabilities or possessions. Now that there was no more need to spectate, Alisa descended again, gracefully and with ease, despite not using the staircase provided or using her own magic to create any. The battle seemed to have reached its conclusion, perhaps as swiftly as a skirmish between a ranged mage and a brawler should...

She heard the critique and cocked her head. Akira raised her hand to the run her fingers through her hair as she assessed the edged compliment. Perhaps it made sense for the lady to grade this fight, she did seem far more experienced after all. Yet it irked the Shimada a little to have her victory reduced this way, even though Akira deserved that evaluation, considering that she had used an unnecessarily immoderate blast and hardly even given Lumen a fighting chance. Conflicted, she refrained from responding and turned her gaze towards the fallen opponent.

Akira watched as she transformed back into her original form - now the slightly worn and unconscious candelabra. For some reason, it was more difficult to empathise with her in this form than in it was in her human form. She waited for Alisa to join them and analyze the state of her companion. Upon the clarification provided, that Lumen was indeed fine, Akira sighed with relief. 'Phew... I didn't... I guess this was one way to aim?' she quipped, with a quivering smirk.

'I'm glad she'll be alright...' The lunar mage knew she probably should have apologized, but that had never been her strong suit, that was the best she could muster. She shrugged a little and resumed chewing her lip. Her eyebrows creased, when Alisa gave her name, it definitely rung bells. It was someone from another guild too, definitely not a fellow Knight, but Akira didn't feel the need to cringe, so probably wasn't from fairytail... Probably not a dark guild either... 'Akira Shimada' she responded in kind, not that it would matter, it was unlikely the other woman would know her. 'I swear I've heard that name before...' she admitted out loud. '... or read...' she muttered, more to herself this time. 'Are you from Blue Pegasus? Lamia Scale maybe?' she asked.

The girl had just begun warming up to the woman, as she cradled the creature, offering her comfort and care. Lumen was nestled between Alisa's arms and her chest, like a sleeping baby, although the candle-being was ominously stiller. The Shimada found herself wishing wellness to it, silently. She watched the woman nurse her companion, of course, her eyes couldn't linger too long, it'd be embarrassing if her gaze was misinterpreted...

Instead, she observed the woman's face, it remained quite impassive but a flicker of protective concern would occasionally grace it... The moment was gifted with a strange beauty. Akira holstered her gun, and folded her forearms over one another, grasping gingerly below her shoulders. It was nice to see such gentleness and consideration pierce through the cold demeanor that Alisa donned like an icy armor. Made the seemingly stoic woman, more human. The loving gesture towards the being was enough to navigate through Akira's own pessimistic outlook, the one that painted everyone as self-serving and vicious. Now Alisa had a shot and Akira almost cracked a smile.

And then she took the shot, just verbally of course, but the intent was scary.

The girl's eye went quite wide at the threat, her hands quickly unclasped and now were placed on her hips to provide her ease of access to her gun, again. Her breath hitched, her eyebrows arched as she peered into the woman's face for clues. When finally she was rewarded for her resilience and patience with a wink, Akira sighed softly. 'Had me there, but in all fairness, I'd expect nothing less...' Akira remarked,  with a straight face, despite actually being amused at her own. She felt almost duty bound to encourage or at least notify the woman that she respected the undercurrent of protection in that statement, vengeful as it may be, it was honest.

Akira dropped one eyebrow, a little more skeptical of the woman's assessment of their encounter, but the meet had taught her things about herself, so Akira was grateful. 'Likewise...' she said softly, skirting around the duo to go sit down on the lowest stone step of the arena. When the woman confirmed she was from Blue Pegasus, it finally came back to the dark-haired mage. Ah! I'd read her name in the logs, of those that had agreed to join in and defend Crocus... She's a pretty high ranked mage, if she wanted to take me down, I'd be dust in a matter of moments. Akira thought, gulping at the thought that she had considered barely avoided a dispute with the woman. Another sigh of relief escaped her lips.

'I'm with the Rune Knights.' she responded a little dully. Still unsure of her place amidst the ranks. 'Probably shouldn't be though...' she whispered more to herself, but in the silence that the night lent to the arena, Alisa probably caught her words. Akira slipped her hand into her pocket to habitually relinquish her pack of cigarettes, she placed one in her mouth, rolling the butt between her lips as she looked for her lighter, feeling around for it in a rather distracted manner.

Upon passing the taller woman, Akira had not noticed how she towered over her, simply because she'd been too focused on trying to locate her lighter... Even if she had, Akira was rather accustomed to being the tinier one among people, so it would matter to her lesser than others... At least sitting down would hopefully level things a little, put the encounter on an even keel. She wondered if the woman would join her... Or just leave the young girl to her own devices.

Upon perching herself on the hard stone, she finally found the lighter, and released it from her pocket and began flicking the metal roll required to create the spark, that would kindle the slow release of the fuel... For some reason, her hands were a little shaky. She held up the other hand, to protect the flame that finally erupted from the device as she gingerly guided the cigarette to the blazing fleck, using her lips. Once lit, she drew a customary practiced drag and billowed the smoke straight away, careful to not to actually inhale any. Usually, the tactic was to keep people at bay... But it was almost like a habitual defense mechanism now. Akira had, from observation gathered that chain smokers resort to it when they feel stressed... So perhaps it made sense.

Alisa must have heard Aki's verbalization of her doubts considering her affiliation with the Knights. The dark mage had expected words of reassurance, it is what would be expected from encounters between strangers, so when Alisa didn't stick to the script, Akira was pleasantly surprised, honesty was always appreciated. She turned towards towards the woman, after having plucked the cigarette from her mouth, to prevent the possibility of accidentally blowing smoke in Alisa's face. Akira waited for an explanation. Alisa seemed to have gauged that much pretty correctly. A soft chuckle escaped her lips as she turned away again, to take another drag and then respond. 'Yep, they do have a lot of that...' she agreed pensively, recalling the form she had to fill just recently to rise in ranks to apprentice.

As Alisa walked closer and asked her next question, Akira wondered how much did she want to know. 'Well... Long story short, I applied for a certain guild, but someone I met on my way to the interview for the guild, basically said he knows the guild well and that I'd never make it... So I decided to save myself the trouble and enroll as a Rune Knights... They seemed less picky and I needed a job...' she explained, she didn't really want to name that stupid elitist guild, and from her encounters with the people in Magnolia, she had realized she wouldn't have been a great fit after all. She spoke while staring vaguely into the distance, as though watching a boring duel in the Arena. 'But that's been a bit of a drag too... Considering their aversion to my original elemental affinity...' Akira added, after a brief bit of silence.

Slowly she turned to the woman and echoed her question, 'What about you? What made Blue Pegasus a good choice?' Akira asked, displaying polite intrigue, it was rare for her to sit and chat with people, but this woman seemed blunt and that made it much easier. 'Lumen is already stirring...' Aki added, perhaps redundantly, but she felt the need to announce the well being of the creature she'd inadvertantly knocked out, as the candle's bluish flame flickered.

It was helpful that Alisa didn't bat an eyelid at Akira's revelations, so far she held up to all the values that Aki held dear. The Blue Pegasus mage seemed honest and forthcoming, she'd been forgiving and quite understanding about Akira's impulsive behavior. Overall, the encounter was leaving a sweeter flavor in Aki's usually bitter and skeptical thoughts. With much empathy lingering behind the woman's expression, Akira felt the need to fairly defend the Knights, she couldn't just glaze over the fact that she might have provoked the light mage's attack, way back on that orientation day. 'In retrospect... Maybe I had it coming, I'm not always easy to handle...' she admitted softly, with a shrug. Although as high ranking as Alice was, she probably should have realized the potential of her magic as well as kept her feelings in check.

'Right you are.' Akira agreed power was simply that, they were all blessed with their own magic it wasn't like they chose it... It was a bit like one's personal features, but then, people did find ways to discriminate based on those too. 'Not sure if in the case of the Knights its as simple as cowardice, I suppose its also to do with their reception among people, the final goal is to aid the citizens...' Akira said with a soft sigh as she turned her attention to this deep-rooted prejudice being a problem of the populous in general. 'The organization is forced to reflect the judgment of the people I guess.' The girl added as she opposed Alisa's motion, crouching forward to rest her elbows on her knees, her sleek hair fell like prison bars over her eyes and face. The dark strands shrouded the glances that she stole at Alisa when she got the chance.

The woman was such a picture of poise, in stark contrast to the bundle of insecurity that Akira was. Maybe one day the dark mage would find the strength and search for her own beauty, attain the perfection she probably possessed somewhere within her petite and lithe self. Akira felt herself mimicking the peal of laughter that escaped the fellow mage, only in a softer, unsure chuckle as she caught the wink, just in time, observing the way in which she put her dark long hair in order, Akira was sure she couldn't deal with that length, which is why she'd not bothered to grow out her hair and instead sported a haphazard bunch of strands that flopped around her face.

Attentively, she heard the woman's response to her question. Carefully analyzing the words to see where Alisa's loyalties lay. At least she was pretty frank. The Lunar mage did not interrupt the woman as she explained that she did it to uphold the pride of her guild. Which Akira found strange, in terms of such alliances, she was pretty much a loner, the girl hadn't forged any deep bonds or sense of belonging anywhere for her to ever truly risk herself. Yet here she was, but her true participation would only be revealed when the day finally arrived. The mage went onto deliver another, much more substantial reason for her being here to defend Crocus and it sent a chill down Akira's spine. 'So... The Grimoire Hearts have planned this attack... and they've managed to...' she didn't complete her sentence since it'd be rather stupid to just repeat whatever Alisa said, swallowing her redundant words of shock, Aki began chewing on her lips again.

'I-' Akira had to pause, reel in her instinctual responses to the woman's questions. Those would probably cause the mage to lose all the respect she might have had for the Shimada. 'Well, firstly since I'm just an apprentice I wasn't even told who the attackers are suspected to be... And...' She ran her fingers through her hair again, as she threw herself back and sat upright. 'I couldn't give a crap about the nobles, they're self-serving and corrupt.' Akira announced simply, her voice flat and monotonous. She sighed, a long gush of air as her spine curled again and she felt the need to keep her eyes fixated on the floor framed between her slightly parted knees. 'I frankly don't if I'm going to be able to find the courage to do much...' she muttered softly, her voice a little shaky as she at least found it in her to reveal the truth. 'I mean I'm not too strong and... I guess I'll protect people if they're in danger and it comes down to that... But... yeah.' she added, barely being able to defend her choice of words.

She looked skyward, the moon seemed to have risen above the boundaries of the arena it must be getting pretty late. She wondered if Tsuru had begun scouring the streets in anxiety again... Slowly she pulled herself off the rock and stretched. 'I hope we see each other after.... everything is done.' she said a little ominously as she turned and wordlessly began walking away, leaving the conversation hanging at a rather abrupt point. She wondered if Alisa would forgive her sudden will to disappear amidst their heart to heart. But frankly, all the mixed feelings that the conversation had roused, made Aki want time on her own again, she felt vulnerable, confused and guilty, which only stood out clearer in the presence of someone as focused and driven as Alisa...

Total WC: 6773/5000
~Exit~