Those were the first words out of Tomoe's mouth after Alistair had finished his explanation. It left the scarlet samurai vexed, wondering how it was possible. The vampire across from the square wooden table from him sighed, as if this was something he had told multiple people in the past and expected as a first reaction. The two locked eyes for a second before Tomoe, still confused, began to chuckle. That chuckle turned into audible laughter, and then finally to the sort of joyous roar one would find from patrons at a late night bar crawl.
"Yes, yes, it's as I told you. I've never had so much as a drop of human blood before. It's just... not in me to do. I've relied on livestock and other alternative sources for as long as I can remember being like this.", Alistair spoke bashfully, eyes looking anywhere except at his conversation partner.
After a few beats more, Tomoe's laughter died down and he sat up in his chair. Raising a contemplative hand to his chin, he peered into the vampire's eyes; they were a window to the soul, after all, and such things as lies and slander could be revealed if one looked deep enough. In response, Alistair leaned back in his own chair, away from the Joyan's gaze.
"What are you even doing? Get away from me. Look, I know it's weird, but you need to understand that it's true. Following that, I don't even want to be a vampire."
Tomoe relaxed in his seat once more, looking out the side window at the glowing moon above. An establishment in Dahlia was kind enough to spare them a room for the night, and that was something he was thankful for. He heard the vampire's words, but didn't know how to process them. Thinking back, there was no hesitation to feed on humans when he was a vampire, was there? It was just a way of life to him. Compared to that, Alistair was probably a much more humane person even now. Tomoe gave a simple nod to acknowledge that he was listening to the vampire's words, still gazing out at the celestial body in the sky.
"I know a way to cure vampirism. I don't want to be this way anymore, but I can't really get the ingredients as I am now, so I'd ask you to-"
"Just tell me what I need to do. We already worked out the pay, yeah? So it's all fine. I'm gonna go take care of shit, and you'll stay here. Sounds good to me.", Tomoe interrupted with a sly grin, facing Alistair once again with a confident gleam across his features.
Alistair nodded with a look of understanding, and handed the swordsman a list. On it were the ingredients necessary for a cure for his curse, and Tomoe's eyebrows shot up at the things listed.
"These are pretty demanding, eh? That's all good, I'll get it done. Where could I find these on short notice though?"
After receiving directions to the necessary locations, Tomoe crumpled the list into his pocket and headed out into the night. Such a potion was more demanding than he'd have thought. Heck, all he had to do was fall off a cliff to cure his own vampirism in the past.
WC: 390/850 (15% reduced)