Months Ago... wrote:It was a while back - the month of April to be precise. Zane was still in the fine city of Magnolia, having been staying there for a while and spending quality time with the guild. While on a walk with one of his guildmates, a person who's name that Zane's memory could simply not recall, the two passed by the bathhouse on the street. "Ooooh, this place is pretty nice! Wanna stop by later?" Zane's guildmate asked, excitement in his voice. Zane's head turned to the place as his face turned to a bit of a displeased look, as if he was grumpy simply by the mention of such a place. "Nah. Last time I was there, someone busted down the door while I was in the bath! Their security is basically non existent."

Zane's companion gasped a bit. "Oh, damn! Did they ever arrest the guy who did it?" Zane only found it natural the guy would assume it was another male who broke into the bath. Unfortunately, such a thing could not be further from the truth in Zane's experience. Dramatically, he looked up to the sky. "No, it was a lady. She kicked down the door while I was in there bathing. She yelled at me too." The guildmate blinked, surprised that Zane was so bothered by such a thing. "I would thought that you'd be overjoyed to have a girl do that, Zane! You sure you're not just trying too hard to seem dramatic or something?"

Zane shook his head. Well, he was trying too hard to be dramatic. That was definitely 100 percent true, no doubt. But his experience certainly wasn't a pleasant one. While many men would be happy to have a girl bust in on them during a bath, Zane wasn't. While the girl who did was insanely attractive, having his privacy disturbed like that bothered him, regardless of the gender. "Nah, it was still just as bad. The baths are a sacred place! There are rules! I tried to be polite to her back when it happened, as much as I could anyways. I realize now that perhaps I shouldn't have been. If I ever see that lady again, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind! A huge lecture!"

In the current day, Zane sat on top of a cafe balcony in Hosenka. The fine establishment had outdoor seating, complete with small umbrellas. One could see the rooftops of the neighborhood from here, as well as the streets. Sipping his cup of coffee, Zane read the newspaper. "Oh, look! Bottom page!" As he heard the demon's voice within the confines of his own head, Zane's eyes moved towards the bottom of the page to see just what it was Beelzebub had noticed. "See? 'Popular Joyan Idol Group D-21 Breaks Up'! That makes me really sad... they were definitely within my top 5 J-pop groups." Getting annoyed with Beelzebub's fascination with Joyan culture, Zane closed the newspaper. "At least you won't make me listen to their albums all the time anymore."

As Zane went to take another sip of his coffee, a distant "FUUUUCKK." was heard in the distance. Blinking at the odd occurrence, Zane looked around. It didn't seem like it came from anywhere he could see with his own eyes right now... oh well. He was certain it was just someone losing some big gamble or something. Finishing up his cup as he tucked in his chair, Zane got ready to leave the cafe. "Another restaurant down! Having everything in the world means eating everything in the world, after all!" Zane wasn't sure if that was EXACTLY how greed was supposed to work, but he supposed it was close enough. Leaving a tip on the table, Zane was almost set to leave the cafe. Looking out to the distant, he decided to get one last look at the view. How nice.

Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Something was up. Zane spotted a familiar face running across the balconies. The face he remembered every time he stepped in a bath house. The face he had meant to give a piece of his mind to should he ever see them again. Raquel! At least someone who looked an awful lot like her, anyways! Running towards the end of the balcony, Beelzebub freaked out a little. "Hey, hey! I dunno if we can transform that fast!" Zane would need to cross over the street to get the rooftops Raquel was running on if he had any chance of catching up with her. The only way was to jump. All Zane had to do was transform, use their power, then cancel the transformation. Easy, right? "Avaritia."

Zane transformed into Beelzanebub as he jumped across the gap, soon using Rush Hour as he pushed his hand back against the edge of the building. This managed to propel Zane forward with the wind he was blowing onto the solid surface, and it managed to be enough to send himself across the gap and onto the roof at the other end of the street. Barely landing, Beelzanebub managed to just barely catch their footing as they continued on running. "Holy shit, I can't believe we made that!"

With another "Avaritia." Beelzanebub would transform back into Zane, Beelzebub freaking out in Zane's mind. "Give me more time to prepare if you're gonna do that in the future, my god! Why are you chasing after her anyways?! Are you really that desperate for women?!" Zane shook his head as he ran. "N-no, I'm not! It's a long story, I'll tell you it later! For now, we need to follow her!"

Zane wasn't the best at leaping on roofs, but he at least was decent at it. He was certain the woman would outpace him though. Calling out to her, Zane yelled in front of him to try and get her attention. It was probably the only way he was going to be able to catch up with her. "Raquel! It's me, Zane!" he managed to blurt out between catching his breath at points. This was some heavy exercise. Zane was more polite than most people would be during his initial meeting with Raquel, so he hoped that was close to enough to convince the rooftop runner to stop and give him a chance to talk to her.

Spells:

Zane's pursuit of Raquel made him have to go from the rooftops back down the streets below, the little jump required to do such a thing being one that almost made him sprain his ankle. He was fine though! He'd have to have a lot worse done to him than a little fall to actually injure his foot. It still hurt like hell however... approaching Raquel, Zane noticed the woman turn to face him. Perfect. Zane walked towards the girl with determination, ready to tell her off. Zane was sure this woman would regret the things she had done months ago. Now only a few feet away from the woman, Zane was about ready to give his lecture. It was only after he heard the woman's words did he pause.

Zack? Like, Zackary? Did she really mess up two names simply because both of them started with a Z? Zane was furious at this development. The least she could do was remember the names of people she met! Zane made sure never to forget the names of the many mages he met in Fiore. Like Kaiser, or Erebus, or Iceflake. Or was it Snowflake? Probably the latter. Clenching down on his teeth with an annoyed expression, Zane closed his eyes as he tried to calm himself down. He needed to make sure that he didn't completely flip out, or else his lecture wouldn't hit as hard. Zane needed to show he was calm. "You can do it, Zane..." Beelzebub noted nervously in Zane's mind, perhaps a bit afraid of how the man was so uncharacteristically frustrated with this. Zane wanted to be famous! That was what Eternal Nightmare was for, after all! He couldn't just have people call him Zack! And what was with Raquel's weird way of talking? Was she really that nervous to see him again?

Finally managing to get a grip on himself, Zane opened his eyes with a sigh to once again look into the woman's, her face being admittedly as beautiful as he remembered it. "It's Zane, not Zack." The words came out of his mouth attempting to seem calm, but the bit of frustration in his voice was still pretty apparent to anyone who listened to it. "I was hoping to see you again, Raquel. There were some things that I was hoping to say you last time. We've got another chance now, right?" Zane leaned closer to the woman, pointing his finger up at her accusingly. "First of all, you never properly apologized for breaking into the baths in Magnolia!" Raquel actually DID say sorry, but it was such a half-assed one that Zane refused to count it as a real apology. "I don't think you understood the weight of your actions, just barging in on me when I was naked in there!" Zane's words were drawing some attention from a number of people passing by, some captivated by the sudden allegations that came to light. Who wouldn't turn their head at such a sight, after all?

Even Zane was realizing just how much people noticed his loud words, so he took a moment to quiet it down. Crossing his arms and tapping his foot, Zane realized doing this would only completely humiliate the girl. He had to handle it in a calmer manner. "Look, I just want a proper apology..." It was true. Zane just wanted to hear the words come out of her mouth, this time in a genuine nature. "You don't seeeem like too bad of a girl, after all. I'd be willing to forgive you if you promise not to do something like that again." Holding out his hand to Raquel, Zane seemed to be hoping for a handshake. She wasn't all bad after all. While the experience was overall uncomfortable, Zane didn't think playing the detective that one time with her was all bad. Plus, she was fairly attractive. Uhhh, it was definitely the former that was more important to him! Definitely!

Zane felt near instant frustration at the woman's actions, the crossing of her arms causing his expression to grow visibly agitated at her behavior. He couldn't believe how rude some people were! Zane would never do anything truly horrible like that. Except for the time he teamed up with a man who the dragons hated, an evil skeleton who was one of the most infamous men in country and a few other less than morally correct people. Now that Zane thought on it, maybe he was the type to do something just as rude...

The term "young man" wasn't exactly one Zane was fond of either. It was actually not too inaccurate, though. He'd been an elf for most of his life, and 29 was a pretty damn young age for a wood elf. The way he acted made it clear that he was younger mentally than most humans were. While his mysterious and sudden change in race made him look somewhat close to 29, it did not affect his mental maturity in any way. "What do you mean you weren't the one who walked in on me?!" Zane couldn't believe that Raquel had the audacity to try and play dumb. She would very clearly remember walking in on him, wouldn't she? There was no way that any woman could forget walking in on him, right? R-right? "Don't play dumb with me! You remember, right?"The answers to this would have to wait as Zane was very quickly grabbed by the hand and yanked by Raquel towards a nearby alleyway.

Zane couldn't help but blush at her sudden actions. This was just like how it was in all of those romance novels! Here he was, getting whisked away by his princ- err, princess. In this case the princess was replaced by a pervert and the castle by a dusty alleyway, but Zane figured such small changed were not worth trifling over. "I can't believe I had to share a head with you of all people..." Beelzebub seemed less than adamant at Zane's far too active imagination. Perhaps it was the fact he was a demon that caused him to be so cold, or the fact that Zane (potentially) falling for some girl would most certainly get in the way of their greedy ambitions. How could Zane and Beelzebub have everything in the world if he was too focused on matters of the heart?

Settling into the alleyway, Zane attempted to free himself from Raquel's grip and made way to lean against the wall of the alleyway opposite to her. "D-don't think that romantic gesture was enough to get out of an apology." It was clear by the expression on Zane's face that he clearly took Raquel's actions in a way that was most likely not intended. Still, what was she dragging him for anyways? Peeking slightly into the streets, Zane could not help but notice that there were some men searching around. Uh oh. Did they know about him? Perhaps saying the name "Zane" out loud in public was most likely not the best option. Zane had only recently learned that his actions at Zagan's Dungeon had made his name known as a traitor of Fiore. Seeing the men looking around turned Zane's face to an expression that looked much more serious, a far cry from the goofy-ish annoyance he had been exhibiting only a minute ago. "Uhh, I think those guys might be looking for me..." Zane didn't realize that the men were in fact NOT looking for him - but it was still possible that others would come searching for him in due time, given his name was said out loud in a large crowd of people. "Wait wait, lemme see..." Reaching into his pocket, Zane pulled out a small notebook.

This notebook had been with Zane since he began traveling in Fiore. He hadn't been using it as often recently, but when he did he would often litter it with useful info. Recipes, maps, small pieces of useful info and even crafting instructions for basic objects were within its pages. The many of the pages clearly a bit faded. an unfortunate consequence of the book's age. While Zane obviously had no way of knowing, the person who had dragged him into this alleyway had technically witnessed the sight of this book before, even getting a page from it gifted to them by Zane himself. Flipping past recipes, Zane made his way to the section where he kept his maps. He had been in Hosenka sparingly so far, so the map he had was for the most part incomplete. Looking through the areas he had charted, Zane found relief in knowing he had a basic layout of the current neighborhood he was in. Lining up where he was on the map, Zane quickly took note of a route that could lead them to somewhere a bit more lowkey.

"Follow me, I know a little soup place where nobody will bother checking. You're gonna apologize to me once we get in there." The way Zane spoke seemed considerably more reliable than before. Beelzebub had noticed this too, concluding it was a sign that Zane was significantly more intelligent than his goofy persona would often let on. Zane stepped forwards down the alleyway, hoping that Raquel would make the choice to actually follow him rather than simply ditch him. Should Raquel actually follow him, the two would find their way to a small ramen shop in one of the thinner streets, only a few turns away from the alley they were currently in. "After you." Zane requested of Raquel (should she still even be with him) figuring that making her open the door would be a good (and extremely petty) way of tormenting her for the previous misdeeds she had committed upon him.

"I only make the best finds." A smile grew across Zane's face thanks to Raquel's compliment of sorts about his suggestion of this particular place. "What about that taco place we went to yesterday? That wasn't a very nice find..." The memory was not one Zane wanted to be reminded of. "Shut up." The small table they sat at had two chairs on either side, Zane taking whichever one Venus didn't choose to. They were near the back of the restaurant, something that would most likely prove useful in either's attempts to shake off people who could potentially want them in cuffs. Eyeing the window for a second to make sure that there was nobody still following them, Zane sighed in relief as he found that the coast was most definitely clear for the time being. Oh, wait..." The back of Zane's eyepatch was promptly untied by Zane, the black eyewear soon brought from his hands into his pocket. A blue eye sat where the eyepatch once was, surprisingly healthy looking considered what had been over it the entire time. "Should make it harder for them." It was hard to say if Zane was better or worse looking without the eyepatch. It was truly a matter of preference, mostly depending on if people had a thing for pirates or not.

The waitress of the restaurant seemed to be busy with another customer, giving Zane an opportune time to continue grilling Raquel over her past choices. His mouth was about halfway open before he seemingly was beat to the punch by the woman, begrudgingly shutting up for the time being while he let her speak. The information that was revealed was quite intriguing to Zane. "Hmmm...." Putting a hand on his chin to appear smarter as he though, Zane pondered a bit over the story that had been given to him. "I guess shapeshifting isn't too weird of a weird thing to see in Fiore. I've met magical tattoo-wearing women from some void place, a little boy with a demon inside him and a woman with breasts bigger than both of our heads combined." Zane was referring to multiple people he had met on his travels - Nuala, Masami and Alisa specially. Still, something felt off. It was definitely possible, but also too easy of an explanation. He would admit that the woman certainly didn't seem like his memory of Raquel, but it wouldn't be too hard to pretend to have a different personality either. "It's possible, but how can I know you're TRULY not Raquel? Perhaps those guards are only after you because you peeped into another bath. Perhaps you remembered my name wrong on purpose. You were only 2 letters off, after all."

The wind outside seemed to pick up as the two had their conversation, the clouds from earlier eventually starting to drop some water on the city, though still in small amounts. This light rain outside somehow served to only make the ramen shop even more comfy, something that definitely contrasted Zane's continued interrogation over this girl possibly being the same one to peep at his bath house in what was honestly a very minor event months ago. "Is there any proof at all? Any way I can tell you're not really Raquel?" Zane asked, looking her up and down. She truly did LOOK like Raquel. If this was truly a result of some power or spell then Zane was definitely very impressed. "I suppose you probably can't transform in the middle of the restaurant though, right?" That was going to be a roadblock of sorts. He supposed she could simply go to the public washroom, but there was still a chance someone in the ramen shop would see one person go in and another person come out, something that would no doubt cause suspicion. "So, uhh... I guess unless you wanna risk really weirding the customers out, something else would have to do. You got anything with your name on it, or something like that? Ah, preferably your face too! I wanna see if you're prettier than her or not." It took Zane a moment to realize just how potentially rude that last part must've sounded. "Uhhh, you'll be prettier than her for sure though. And not a pervert! Unless you are. Then I guess you'd just be prettier." Zane wasn't entirely too sure about that, though. Raquel was definitely one of the prettier looking people he had run into in Fiore. Still, he was going on a tangent now, both in his dialogue and third person musings. It was time to sort this out.

"My eyepatch? Err..." Zane's mind quickly browsed through a self-made catalogue of a thousand different excuses he had made up for this reason. He'd never actually used any of them though. The answer was simple. Losing the sense of doubt he had in his voice only a moment prior, Zane soon spoke with a confidence that oddly both didn't fit and also fit with how goofy he always acted. "Because it looks really cool." This was not an opinion shared with most. In fact, the only person in all of Fiore who had ever complimented Zane's eyepatch was a most likely highly impressionable teenage boy. Regardless, it was what Zane truly believed. While his words and fashion style often spoke with great degrees of stupidity, most could tell that he had an odd amount of confidence in the latter.

Zane nervously looked around the restaurant as the woman seemed to be using some sort of transformation spell, his eyes darting around the room quickly to make sure no staff or customers were watching such a thing unfold. Once he had been suffiecently satisfied with his survey of the room, Zane's eyes brought themselves back towards the woman, his eyes widening at her sudden change in appearance. Whatever spell she must've used to change her appearance was truly impressive. She looked way different than Raquel was now. Not just her face and hair either - Zane could very clearly tell that there were changes to her body as well, though some of them he certainly saw as downgrades... but he was definitely far too afraid to admit that opinion to a woman who seemed more than capable enough to potentially beat him up.

"Oh wow, that's actually really impressive... if I wasn't already pretty handsome I'd wanna learn that spell too!" Beelzebub certainly showed a bit of interest in it. "Something like that could help in the thieving business, now that I think on it. Zane! Use your mediocre amounts of charm to get her to teach us that spell." Ignoring the mediocre comment the demon made for the time being knowing that arguing with Beelzebub in his mind would take Zane more mental energy than he currently had, Zane made a mental note to ask her more about it later. "I guess you really aren't Raquel. Guess I don't have to worry about you being some sort of peeping pervert... probably!"

"Venus Rosé... nice name, with the accent e and all. I always wanted to add that into my name, but I don't think it's legally allowed." Twas a shame. "To return the favor, my name's Christian Zane. You should really only ever call me Zane though. Nobody really calls me Christian. Sometimes I try to do it in like, my mind's eye... feels so weird! Like trying to use your left hand for a day!" The words simply kept flowing out of Zane's mouth like a river. His talkativeness clearly knew no bounds. Beelzebub found it surprising the woman hadn't just told him to shut up by this point. Then again, perhaps one could find some sort of entertainment in the ramblings of the blonde mage. Beelzebub had to admit that he preferred a stupid and overtalkative vessel over one who was nothing but boring.

Now getting comfortable in his seat, Zane slouched back a bit as Venus seemed to suddenly grow considerably more aggressive and on edge. Putting up his hands a bit as to show his innocence, Zane chuckled nervously as he quickly sat up straight, a fair bit intimidated by the woman's tone. Yeesh, he was just meeting the most dangerous of girls lately... "Woah woah, calm down! I don't wanna show my face to any bounty hunters either, believe me. We're not in so different of boats." Zane couldn't help but wonder just how well known he had gotten since the dragon incident. He knew he was wanted to some degree at the least, but presumably not enough for the average person to recognize him.

Just in the knick of time, a sweet looking waitress arrived at their counter and asked the pair what they wanted. "Helllo! Can I get you two anything?" Zane cleared his throat, sitting up even straighter as if to show off his height to the cute waitress. "I'll have just one beef udon, please. And water." Zane let the waitress take Venus' order as he had a quick conversation with Beelzebub in his mind. "Alright, last time we had the chicken, the time before the shrimp... think this one will be better? The chicken was pretty great, but the shrimp was certainly lacking." "Lacking? That shrimp was disgusting, Zane! If I had control of your body, I tell you... the cooks in this place would all be missing a pinky each." Zane rolled his eyes a little at Beelzebub's clear reference to yakuza culture. "I think spending so much time in Hosenka has really made you a bit insufferable, damn joyaboo..."

Trying to tune Beelzebub's angry protests over the demon's clear obsession over a cultural group he wasn't even a part of, Zane looked back up at Venus once the ordering process was done with. "How do you know Raquel anyways? She peep on your bath too?" He asked, slouching back in his chair again now that the mood had settled down. "I mean, I'm guessing ya know her anyways. You looked like her, after all. Good taste by the way - even if she is a total pervert, she's quite attractive. Err, not that you aren't either!" Zane caught himself near the end there, though he also wondered if it was even necessary to do so. So far it seemed Venus didn't care much about any comments Zane made on her appearance - though it was possible that he was just talking so fast the woman wasn't able to process it all. "Pretty crazy coincidence you ran into me either way. But hey, I guess those hunters are off you now, right?"

"What?" Zane said, his eyes looking somewhat sad, oddly enough. He thought the lady would find him cool, yet here she was insulting him like this. "Hah! I like this girl. That's how I felt the first time I met you, actually." Zane felt broken. Was he really that bad? Zane sank into despair for 3 seconds. It was okay though, because Zane's extremely stupid and egotistical mind let him bounce back and regain his self esteem in 5 seconds, forgetting about her comment almost entirely after 10 seconds. "Why are they chasing me?" Zane asked in response to her question, his voice back to its normal tone. Zane peeked around the restaurant they were in, just making sure to check if anyone was listening. While he didn't want anyone to listen in, he wouldn't have minded if it was pretty girl - unfortunately there were no pretty girls in any of the seats besides the one at his table. Oh well, at least he wouldn't be heard.

Turning back to Venus, Zane lowered his voice a bit, wanting to seem like he was talking about something important. "I hate it when you do that." Beelzebub commented, sharing a similar level of frustration when Zane did similar things - like trying to put his hand on his chin to appear smarter. Zane ignored Beelzebub for now, something he'd become pretty used to doing. "I suppose it's for being an enemy of the country, or something like that. Grand treason, I guess? Dunno, I'm not a lawyer. I always did like the novels about lawyers, though. The one about that Wright guy was pretty cool. Maybe if I gave up being a mage one day I'd do that." Zane's tangent wasn't even intended to change the subject or avoid the question, he legitimately did find lawyers cool. There was no way he had a strong enough attention span to ever be one, though. Zane supposed mentioning his group wouldn't be a bad idea either. Maybe he could get Venus interested, just like he did Marwyn? "I'm with these guys called Eternal Nightmare. I thought up of the name, by the way." Zane really wanted to take credit for that, for some reason or another. He didn't even know if Odin was actually gonna use it or not though. "I should introduce you sometime, maybe you can have nightmares eternally just like us, right?" Zane smiled at her, trying to at least convince her with his good looks if nothing else - though his stupidity may have already soured her on the idea already. Who in the world would want to be Zane's guildmate?

"You and her are in Daeva Eye? Yeesh, I keep running into you all. Kaiser, Nuala, Raquel, you..." Zane seemed to be popular with that guild. Though perhaps 'popular' was the wrong way to put it. "I'm glad to see Kaiser's guild has so many people, though. I wish she coulda invited me though!" Zane wished his guilds had more pretty girls in them. He hadn't been too lucky in that department just that. Zane widened his eyes at the bathing comment, though decided not to comment, instead thinking about the idea in his mind. Beelzebub felt a sense of dread at the fact that he shared Zane's headspace.

"Yeah, I think we're good. They probably got bored and decided to go hunt someone else." Leaning back in his chair and sighing in relief, Zane felt more relaxed now that he didn't have to worry about people chasing after either of them. "Running made me feel a bit tired. I'll be happy to have that soup when it's ready." Zane turned to the counter, looking into the open kitchen. It seemed they were still preparing things. "I used to be a cook, like them." Zane smiled a bit, seeming a bit less goofy than usual. He felt nostalgic, looking into a kitchen. It reminded him of the good old days. "Oh, that one messed up a bit." Zane seemed to be very intently watching the older cook, his hands chopping up bits of green onion to put in the soup. "Er, well, not messed up. Buuut, his way of chopping that onion is a bit slow. There's a way better way to hold the knife." Looking back to Venus, Zane sat up just a bit, placing his elbows and arms on the table, crossing them. "How about you? Do you cook a lot?"

What DID they actually do? Zane wasn't sure. He hadn't been paying enough attention to truly grasp the entire situation, but he did have a bit of an idea. "There was like, this super tall dragon girl, and this guy who is almost as attractive than me, and like this dungeon with kobolds. I think that's what they're called, anyways." Zane left the explanation there, believing it to be sufficient. Beelzebub wondered how confused the girl would be. He was guessing about an 8 out of 10. "Huh? What do you mean? The name's great!" Zane said, an annoyed look on his face. "I'm going to have to agree with Venus here, Zane. Even in hell that name would be laughed out, and I assure you there are many demons in hell who have the naming capabilities of a monkey."

Zane's voice grew louder, ready to defend his naming choice from the woman in front of him and the voice in his head. Of course in this case "louder" was more like "less quiet". "You have no idea what a good name is! What kind of name is 'Venus' anyways? Or 'Beelzebub'? You two..." Quickly realizing that he had referenced Beelzebub to another person, Zane's face instantly clammed up. "You idiot." Looking away from Venus, Zane tried to cover up the subject by saying something more odd instead. "That waitress' headband reminds me of home." Zane quickly noticed that the waitress hadn't been wearing a headband. Oh well.

Zane wondered why Venus had such a disappointed tone in her voice as she responded to his knowledge of her guildmates. "Hm? Jealous I might be more popular amongst your guildmates than you? Hue hue, I wouldn't blame them." While the idea of talking about Venus' attractive guildmates was appealing, Zane was certainly much more interested in the food. While Zane often tried to brush a lot of things off in order to uphold a certain image, it was pretty clear by both the way he spoke of cooking and the way he looked at the kitchen that he still had a lot of genuine love for cooking. "That's good. I meet a lot of people who can't cook, so you're definitely better than most." Speaking of which, all this talk of cooking made Beelzebub curious. "Zane, if you can cook, why do you always insist on eating out? I don't think I've seen you cook anything while in your head..."

Zane frowned a bit, continuing to look to the kitchen. He tried to keep his head clear of thoughts. Zane didn't want to let Beelzebub (or Venus too, for that matter) know how much he missed it all. Looking back to Venus as she asked her question, Zane didn't even bother boasting about his skills when she claimed he was probably better than her. While still very goofy and lighthearted, his demeanor seemed a bit more serious now. "I don't cook much anymore, but there's this one stew of sorts I was always really good at. Lemme see..." Zane pulled out his notebook, looking for a specific page. It was around here, right? He stopped, looking through the middle sections of the notebook. Zane was confused. He could've sworn it was here....

"Wait..." Looking at a tear between two pages, Zane's memory of the situation came back. "I think I gave this recipe to someone else, actually. Never did see her again after that day. Oh well! I think I can remember the recipe off heart." Zane thought back in his mind, trying to remember the exact ingredients. He had made it so many times that it was certainly possible he'd get it all right. "Chicken stock, beans, kosher salt, cut pork, duck fat, gelatin, onion, some carrots, chicken thighs, garlic sausage, celery, parsley. There are a few more ingredients, some of them are optional. It's the recipe for Cassoulet, a bean stew I always made for my mom as a kid." Zane noticed that was the first time he had mentioned his mom in a while. He often tried not to think of her. He worried about her, but knew that it was probably best that he not visit. Trying to get his mother out of his mind, Zane opened his mouth, ready to say something stupi-

The waitress sat down a bowl for each of them. Saved by the bell. "Thanks." Zane quickly remarked to her, trying to regain his composure. He let himself go for a bit there. "Looks pretty good. Ready to eat?" He asked, quickly grabbing the chopsticks and hastily putting some of the noodles in his mouth. It was tasty. Zane slurped on them for now, not worried if Venus would deem him a pig or not. He just wanted to try to escape from that part of the conversation for now - should Venus leave it be as well, that is.

Zane listened to whatever else Venus had to say as he gobbled down his food in a quick manner. He ate surprisingly politely despite his speed, a skill he had learned in his time as a chef. Once he was done, Zane decided it was probably best if he got going. While Venus was very enjoyable company, Zane needed to meet up with someone important, unfortunately. Zane bid farewell to Venus, hoping to see her again. Little did he know that the two running into each other by chance would become a recurring thing.

EXIT