Black Bull Headquarters

[Bloodedge]

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4873/44074620350_a4ccb50f44_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2a9HX6q)

Black Bull's base of operations is a headquarters that houses all of the members. The headquarters is in the form of a large house with asymmetric structures. The house consists of multiple stories with most of them made of stones and bricks. It has a large number of windows and chimneys and a single wooden gate for an entrance. The base is located in a forest within the Common Region.

Several features of the house are a dining hall where the members have their meals, a kitchen to complement the hall, a public bathing area, an underground cage filled with beasts, and a female living quarters which is heavily protected with traps. Regarding living quarters, it would seem to have been established that the senior members have larger quarters than the newer members.

[Apollymi]

At the Black Bulls Headquarters, a young woman with startling red hair awaited the arrival of her Captain an whatever new recruits he'd gained while at the Entrance Exam. Of course, she hadn't gone along because she'd been on a mission herself, but now that she was back, she was ready to see who had been chosen. She waited in full black clothing including a long cloak with the Black Bulls insignia on it. And a hat with a strange design on the front which had wings on either side and a closed eye. Regardless of whatever was to come, she stood waiting for their arrival, outside of a strange brick building which seemed to have multiple layers and a very strange layout.'What kind of newbies did you get this time Danchou?' she wondered, knowing at the very least they contained a bit of edge though the extent of that edge was likely very different than what most would be willing to allow.

[Bloodedge]

Not far from the location of the redhead was a young man with short black hair, wearing a straw hat, jean shorts, and a red vest. He sat on a bar stool with a giant turkey leg in his left hand, cheeks inflated due to the massive chunks he bit out of it at each opportunity. "Danchou's taking a long time. I wanna hurry up and see some new people get initiated," he said, though muffled through a mouthful of meat.

These two would not be waiting much longer. In fact, the very moment the black-haired man spoke, the Captain of the Black Bull squad was finally reaching the end of the forest path toward the headquarters. With him were two young prospects, including the ash-blonde son of the house Vermillion, Leonis. Few - if any - words were shared amongst the trio as they traversed the land on their way to the young ones' new home. The Captain, Heero Yuy, actually only had a single thing to say upon entering the front door of the building. "Tadaima."

[Apollymi]

"You're worried about the wrong thing Klause," the redhead said. She could care less about the initiation, she was more concerned with the delicate balance of personalities. The last thing she wanted was an off personality or two or more being added to the list. Though she had the utmost faith in her Captain, sometimes his foresight made her upset, because she still had to deal with the people before they were proven to be good or bad. Still there was more thing which needed comment from her and she'd give it, right before the Captain made his entrance. "Don't talk with your mouth full!"

Soon enough the arrival of the Captain and two new recruits was underway. Heero Yuy entered with an ash-haired blonde male in tow and also a green haired girl in tattered clothes who didn't seem the least uncomfortable. But looking at her face, one couldn't really tell what she was thinking. It was almost as if she wasn't really a person in there. There was also the eerie quiet as Hikage hadn't spoken a single word since leaving the exam. Seeing this, group of people come together only a sigh could escape the redhead. "Danchou you did it again didn't you?" she asked in reference to a pair of obviously strange recruits, before giving a proper greeting. She'd remember it after the fact and add it in so as not to be rude. "Okaerinasai..." Hikage for her part in this let her eyes travel over all new faces. She was getting a feel for them, figuring out what kind of place and people these were.

[Bloodedge]

"Buh muh muff ishn't fuu~" replied the male in the straw hat, following yet another massive bite taken. As these muffled words escaped him, so too did several shreds of turkey that had been partially chewed, and were now doomed to never be swallowed and digested. Even more food would be launched from his mouth when he heard the voice of Heero. "Yuy-san!" he exclaimed, causing the jettison of roughly half the food his cheeks held before he swallowed the rest in one giant gulp.

Heero stepped casually into the building to guide the other two. The opening query of the redhead took him aback for a moment. He expected to hear this words, of course, but not in front of the new recruits as the first thing they would hear of a Black Bull. "Oi, oi, oi... Relax, these are good guys. Hows about a warm welcome to start, Raina?"

[Apollymi]

"It is! And you're gross!!" she said in before the lad greeted their captain, thus expelling half of his food before swallowing the other half. "This is why you're so skinny, you don't even eat half your food!" she said sounding the slightest bit disgusted by him on the whole. Of course, she was already used to his presence and as such didn't have much else to say about him at all. There was the matter of Heero choosing now to point out that the girl had been somewhat rude, in her choice in greeting. "That welcome was for you... not for them. And you're the reason I can't relax, Danchou," she said cutting her eyes at the Captain. She was of course, nothing if not polite to the new people, even if she thought her Captain needed to take a bit more care in his choices. "Ohayou gozaimasu. Raina Akeldama desu, Vice-Captain of the Black Bulls, Yoroshiku..." she said to the pair of newcomers offering both a smile though she was still cross with her Captain. The green haired girl stepped forward and offered piercing gaze with golden irises and slit pupils. "Hikage..." she gave her name only because one was offered to her. And this was one of the first things she'd said in quite a while, Hikage herself was quite used to not speaking most of them time, but apparently people found her silence unnerving at some points.

[Bloodedge]

"Oi! I'll have you know I eat a lot! You're just mad 'cause my ass doesn't get half the size of yours!" he said while pointing the half-eaten turkey leg in Raina's direction. Given the appearance and mention of the two newcomers, he paused this interaction to raise the turkey leg in the air, as if waving at the young Magic Knights with it. "Artem Klause, Magic Knight Supreme! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!"

Heero threw both hands in the air as he walked forward, stopping upon reaching the nearest couch to fall into. "If I'm the reason you can't relax, you might have to reevaluate a thing or two," was all he had to say. This clause was followed by an extended yawn. From this point forward, he was content to wait until such a time as the inevitable initiation of their newcomers.

Whatever the exchange their Captain and this redhead had together meant, Leonis was unmoved. His hands found the interiors of his pockets as he stood beside Hikage, following up her introduction with one of his own. "Yo. Leonis Vermillion."

[Apollymi]

"I'll kill you." Came the rather simple statement from Raina following the words of Artem. Of course, whether or not she meant this as seriously as her countenance let on was something completely left to the imagination. Whatever the case, this particular group seemed to be less intense than Hikage would have guessed a group like the Blue Rose would have been, and more inclusive than groups like Golden Dawn and Silver Eagles. Of course, the words of the Captain were more than enough to further cement this idea, as he seemed to be so relaxed himself that he fell onto a couch not soon after entering the building, claiming the other girl not being able to relax had nothing to do with him. "All your fault, Danchou," she followed up with a frown. She wasn't wrong about this, the man's relaxed attitude was part of the reason she was troubled, but it was also part of her freedom, a double-edged sword. There was also the fact that this girl was prone to exaggeration among a few other things. Given the introduction of the other person in the room, Hikage's eyes shifted but a simple nod would ensue, she seemed to find this entire conversation strange and thus she had nothing to add to it. "Vermillion?!" Raina couldn't believe her ears, and she was immediately stunned. She wondered what sort of defect a noble had to not end up drafted to another squad without having to take the Entrance Exam. "I come back from a mission and you've done something crazy, Danchou... I can't believe you!~" she chimed, and in this moment, one couldn't tell whether she was pleased, afraid, excited or angry. "Ano... I wanted to be a Magic Knight and get paid to kick people's asses. So... is there a way to get started on that?" Hikage asked, and though it was polite what she said would likely be a bit disturbing to some. Raina was stunned by what was said, but it simply went to prove to her, that her Captain had indeed found someone with a strange personality defect. But this was likely to be mediated by the lad who was royalty he'd managed to pick up with her.

[Bloodedge]

All introductions for those present were said and done. In addition to this, one of Heero's selections had something else, something rather unheard of, to say. She openly admitted to becoming a Magic Knight for the sake of fighting while being on payroll. Leonis knew about this beforehand, so he wasn't at all shocked to hear it. In fact, hearing it now only reminded him of the battle he had with this girl so recently. Artem raised a brow as his eyes grew wider and the turkey leg stopped just shy of his open mouth. In spite of this shock, he stepped forward to look upon this girl more directly. "You wanna kick people's asses? Good for you, but you ain't initiated yet. I guess you're first up then," he stated. Without further ado, Artem stepped past the new duo on his way outside, where he intended to properly initiate the girl named Hikage. Of course, his turkey leg came along with him.

[Apollymi]

Hikage obviously didn't care one way or another for the extra speaking bits of this interaction. If anything she only wished to do what she'd come here for, and everything else, seemed to be getting in her way. Soon enough she was being approached by another, the strange lad who'd introduced himself as Artem Klaus. He'd even gone on to say that regardless of what else she wanted that they hadn't been initiated, and as such she was apparently first up for whatever that entailed. While she was being stared at Hikage stared back, of course, as was generally the case when she wasn't harboring anything resembling malice her face was impassive, and had an emptiness which bordered upon being animal-like. "Hai." she murmured, whatever was about to happen here, she was being led outside, she wanted to assume some form of violence was about to follow this, but she couldn't allow herself to get excited like that in this moment. Once outside she'd wait for the explanation, seemingly devoid of any care one way or another about what could or would happen here. She'd been in two fights today, she hardly cared if she got herself into another one, even with someone who was supposed to be her superior.

Sometime during the staring contest between Hikage and Artem, Raina came back to herself enough to speak. She looked at her Captain as at least two of these people headed outside. "Danchou, is it a good idea to let this happen?" she asked of him. This question was about more than just the initiation. The girl he'd chosen had a very strange reason for becoming a Magic Knight, and she had no idea what kind of feat the girl could have possibly shown to gain her Captain's favor.

[Bloodedge]

Heero yawned again and stretched against the couch. He was hoping the initiation wouldn't occur so soon, but it couldn't be helped. Unsurprisingly, Raina chose to question his choice to allow this occurrence. "Probably. She wants to fight, and she was gonna get this one whether she wanted it or not. It's basically a rule at this point to go through this initiation," he said. This may not have been the answer Raina wanted, but it was all he had for her now. Moments later, he was dragging himself off the couch to follow Artem, Hikage, and apparently Leonis as well to the building's exterior.

Once both he and Hikage were outside, Artem took another bite of turkey and began to chew. In the meantime, he showed an open grimoire. "Kemono Mahō: Rainoserasu Āmā," he chanted. Mana suddenly encased Artem's body, taking physical shape in the form of a rhinoceros. He remained within this armored form while continuing to eat. His following words would be shared from behind the defensive barrier. "OK. Hit me."

[Apollymi]

The response that Raina received was indeed not one she wished for. In fact, she wished at least once that her Captain would make the responsible decision as far as these moments between members were concerned. But no, this day like every other, he'd drag himself off the couch to follow the newcomers outside to see what would happen when they faced the initiation thought up by Artem. 'Ugh, every time...' she thought exaggerating the seriousness of the situation even in her own mind. An exasperated sigh escaped her, but much like her Captain she would also follow out the group, if only so she could be around to deliver the massive, I told you so, at the end.

Meanwhile, Hikage watched as this man before her created a large magic around himself. A vicious grin appeared on this young woman's face, as surprisingly enough she'd get the fight she was hoping for. She felt a strange tingle down the length of her spine. Her eyes lit up and her pupils shrank into almost disappearing slits. If one was paying close enough attention even the young woman's hair seemed to be standing on end, as she felt a sensation she didn't think she'd get to feel twice in a single day. Her nostrils flared as well, as she scented the air and knew for a fact what she was feeling was the absolute truth. "Two in one day..." she started the sentence only to finish it sadistically. "LUCKY!~" when she was told to hit him, she had not the slightest bit of hesitation in her soul. Her body moved forward of its own accord, her grimoire opening mid movement as she aimed to close the space between herself and this large form in mere seconds only to spin away from his form building up momentum as she cast a spell. "Steel Magic: Unlimited Blade Works," this would cause the blades formed by the spell to spin with her at high velocities. She kicked out a couple dozen of these combat blades all aimed for a single point, the horn of this supposed rhinoceros shape. Her aim innately to build up a massive amount of damage to a single point of the form. During this action she snatched up two of these blades in her hands, her aim to follow up the initial strikes with a spinning one controlled by her arms. Her hope that the combination would allow her to break through to the lad, bringing her spinning knives within reach of the boy's turkey leg dinner.

[Bloodedge]

Artem was curious as to what this girl could have been talking about when she spoke of her 'two in one day' experience. Had she seen another user of Beast Magic? Maybe she had been on the receiving end of his earlier statement twice now. There was no way for Artem to know, but he also wasn't at all concerned. The girl deemed herself lucky for the experience. He wondered what sort of experience led to this sort of personality trait, but that didn't matter in the moment. Hikage's first offensive spell use was used in a way that Artem could respect. Many blades were made by her Steel Magic, and she focused them on a singular location of his armor. This didn't seem to be accomplishing anything at all in the beginning. As more and more struck the location, though, the shell began to crack. The cracks caused a full break when Hikage came forth with physical effort. Artem was casually taking a bite at the time, only to have what remained of his turkey leg be shredded as he held it. "That's... not nice. I said hit me," he repeated. "Kemono Mahō: Gorira Aamusu." The pages of Artem's grimoire rapidly flipped to another spell, which granted him magical arms containing all the musculature belonging to those of a full-grown gorilla. Since Hikage had brought herself within such close range already, he swung out with extended reach using his left fist, aiming to punch her torso with enough strength to send her crashing through the forest.

[Apollymi]

Hikage was able to break through Artem's defenses with a quick thinking heavy artillery style, that being said by the time she would have gotten to the appropriate level to harm him, instead she met turkey leg which shredded before her, making her eyes widen. Normally, she went for more centered body parts, but she hadn't expected the break to occur so quickly nor had she counted on being distracted by the idea of food. "Gomen. I'm starving..." she said her words accompanied by the rumbling of her stomach which was both audible and embarrassing. Surprisingly enough though, the girl didn't change the tone of her voice nor the excitement of her being, but Hikage didn't have much time to think on this. Soon enough, the man whose defense she'd broken was using a new spell this one gave him large arms one of which immediately extended towards Hikage's body. Her instinctual reaction made her pull her limbs into herself, making this gorilla fist make contact with the fronts of her arms and knees instead of the center of her being. It mediated the force but still sent her flying back through the forest quite a bit. She was careful to angle herself to eventually be able to come to a stop, though not without breaking a tree or two on the way. "Kufufufufufufu~" she laughed before she took to walking back towards the front. She was tossing one knife around in her left hand as she used her right to rub her head. "I didn't think I'd get to have this much fun!~"

[Bloodedge]

"Huuuh?" Artem questioned, subconsciously tilting his head left by about 45 degrees. His right hand was still shrouded in the gorilla arm spell, but it also still held the remains of his turkey leg. As such, hearing about the new recruit's state of hunger, he held it out before her. "Starving and having fun. Doesn't sound like a combo that's supposed to work out. Eat," he said. A full stomach meant more to the man named Artem than just about everything else in this world. Conversely, an empty stomach was an absolute atrocity. These extremes were a balancing force for Artem, while also being the driving force behind him doing nothing else at all for this initiation, unless Hikage accepted or rejected his offer first.

[Apollymi]

Strangely enough, Hikage could understand what Artem had to say about the need to eat versus the ability to have fun. In fact, she wanted this job the way she did, so that she didn't have to choose between being able to eat and live, and being able to fight the people she wanted to fight. As such when she approached once more, her knife flying up into the air she was quite surprised to find the turkey leg extended in her direction. She stared at him blankly as she caught her knife and sniffed the air. Another audible rumble was heard from her stomach, but she wasn't sniffing the food, but instead getting a feel for Artem's intentions. Much like a starving animal, she didn't want to be caught off guard, but she had a good feeling this man wouldn't take advantage of the moment. As such, she threw her knife into the ground as a symbol of her peace in this moment. "Arigatou..." she murmured as she took the turkey leg out of his hand and tentatively began gnawing away. This was of course, something done with the swiftness and savagery of an animal which brought about a disgusted sigh from the Vice-Captain of the Black Bulls. "Well, at least it is all making it into her mouth..." she said thinking of the random likeness between this savage girl and the beast man who was handling her initiation. A few moments would see to it that the girl had nothing left in her hand but a turkey leg bone. "That... is better. You're alright, Artem..." the girl said as she kicked her knife up into her hand and hopped backwards. "I'm supposed to hit you right?" she asked, as she began flipping through the pages in her grimoire to get to one which contained her newest spell. Her hand touched the ground and from it rumbled up five small hedgehog creatures with metal spikes on their backs. "Here I come, kufufufufufu~" she giggled meanacingly as she pointed towards Artem causing the small animals to begin spinning in place and she kicked three of them simultaneously into Artem. One aimed at his head, one at his torso and one at his legs while two others moved around with Hikage so she could work within the confines of her rules.

[Bloodedge]

Artem patiently awaited Hikage's decision. In the end, she approached and took the segment of turkey for her own consumption. Artem seemed very satisfied as he watched this girl devour the turkey in a very beast-like manner. "Heh heh!" he laughed through his teeth. When Hikage was done, she was visually and actively at a level Artem could respect and appreciate. More importantly, she had passed a little test that Artem himself had gone without mentioning, and didn't even know he was doing for the sake of Heero's certainty. "Yosh! Empty stomach, empty fight! Gimme all ya' got!" the red-vested male chanted while beckoning toward himself with his gorilla arms.

It seemed Hikage was ready to assault Artem using her own animal-based technique. Five hedgehogs were created using her steel magic. As far as Artem could tell, this girl should have actually been 15. By virtue of this, the acquisition of her grimoire had to be a recent occurrence in the teen's life, so her access to more spells spoke either of skills or hardships, if not both. Artem would have to face her Creation Magic either way. Only three of the five hedgehogs were kicked toward him. As they encroached upon his head, torso and leg in unison, Artem raised his right arm and used his gorilla-like strength to swat all three of them down at once, causing them to drill through the ground a few feet deep.

[Apollymi]

Three simultaneously kicked hedgehogs were swatted away and burrowed into the ground by their inverted force, but Hikage expected this. Her instincts said, she in order to properly hit this man, she had to catch him at the point his guard would be lowest, as such, at the moment where the first three were swatted away, Hikage used her own innate speed to close the gap between herself and Artem, and one could notice she was even faster now than she had been before. 'Wow,' was the thought of the Vice-Captain who was impressed by the girl's speed, and calmed a bit by her apparent display of previously unseen friendliness. Once there she spun into the lad aiming to slash across his chest, with her blade in her left hand from his right shoulder to his left hip. There was power behind this slash unlike her previous attempt. Meanwhile the other to hedgehogs aimed their spinning bodies high and low, at the lads feet and head. By the girl's own approximation he should be hit at least once, as defense on all fronts was usually hard to accomplish. Apparently having properly eaten she could be more tactful and calculating with the use of her own body and those of her summoned creatures.

[Bloodedge]

Artem was at the ready for whatever Hikage came with next. As far as Heero was concerned, this initiation was over. Artem was just a bit different. He didn't simply want to test his new junior; he wanted to get acclimated to her as a potential companion at arms. He couldn't have expected the sudden evolution of tactics in Hikage's next approach. He did however expect the change in her physical capabilities, as one who so strongly believed in the power of fighting on a full stomach. Artem readied himself during her approach by lowering his stance and raising his arms, simultaneously having his eyes wander to each encroaching threat. He determined that Hikage's direct assault would undoubtedly be the most dangerous for him. She had the instincts of a wild beast, making her quite a bit like himself. If he didn't deal with her directly, that very fact could be his undoing. As such, Artem's primary focus in his defensive effort was to raise his right arm to stop Hikage's strike by blocking it at the wrist. At the same time, he leaned forward heavily using his right foot as leverage. He leaned so far forward that one hedgehog flew over him, and his left foot rose up behind him to leave the other assaulting the ground like its deflected brethren from earlier. This defensive and evasive movement also served a build-up of inertia for Artem, as he was able to flex his right arm. Since that very arm was held out against Hikage's wrist, her torso was left exposed enough for Artem to push his right gorilla arm forward with every intention of driving a mighty fist into her abdomen to launch her away once again.

[Apollymi]

Hikage was good at thinking on her feet. Her advanced battle tactic seemed to have made less of an impact than she would have guessed it would have, even so, she didn't pause to think about it too much. Her 'partner' for this particular endeavor, seemed to be just as much of an animal as she was, managing to dodge both the upward and downward spiky creatures she'd previously launched at him. Her eyes narrowed for just a moment as the one flew over his head during their clash and she willed it back towards herself with narrowed eyes. Still she could do nothing about the arm of the lad as he aimed to launch her away from himself once more. His fist would indeed make contact with her abdomen and send her flying, but at the same time that she was launched away, the spiked ball which had previously missed his head swirled back around to his open side aiming to lodge its spinning body there instead, aiming to give the girl the hit she apparently needed. "That... hurt," she mumbled passively, awaiting the results of her final assault.

[Bloodedge]

Artem felt every moment of his magic fist thrusting its way into Hikage's abdomen, until that crucial moment where the forward momentum of the impact pushed her away from him. One thing he found interesting in this encounter was the fact that he hadn't held any proverbial punches. Indeed, the few attacks he'd made against Hikage were full force. He still felt there was much progress being made toward his own victory in the challenge. Perhaps when he beat the green-haired girl into submission, he'd offer her a steak and announce her success in the initiation by virtue of earning his trust. Or perhaps...

"Ugh..." Artem grunted as blood trickled from his mouth down his chin. In the middle of his train of thought related to time spent after the initiation - time yet to come - something happened. He hadn't even righted himself from his own assault before the spiked ball of a hedgehog buried itself in his side, piercing his lower torso multiple times at once. "S-... Sugei. We're gonna get married, you an' me," he said with a large, rather stupid-looking grin as his spell faded from existence.

Just as large as the smile on Artem's face was one of a more devious nature in the expression of Leonis. "Oi, oi... That was a sick move. I was worried before, but maybe we should've kept that fight going in the exam."

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Hikage was successful in her endeavor. And by the time she sat up, she saw blood fall from the mouth of Artem. A wicked smirk crossed the girl's face at this sight, because this fight had indeed been worth having. She seemed to be mostly fine, despite the large fist which had made contact with her torso, though, she felt quite a bit more beaten up than she normally did. Artem's words at the acknowledgement that he'd been hit made the girl's brows raise in confusion. "Married?" she questioned with the quiet tone she normally possessed. "Baka!" these were the words of Raina whose grimoire was now open as she aimed to capture the lad in a bubble of blackish blood. "Ketsueki Kaifuku Mahō: Metsuju no Chigomori Mayu," a large orb of black blood was created around this lad and would aim to heal him of any of his internal and external injuries. "You can't claim a girl you've only just met for marriage!" she explained to him.

Meanwhile, Hikage sat up and turned towards the voice of Leonis who'd also spoken and had a grin more the type she was used to, as such she had a reply for him. "Arigatou, Leonis." she said on the compliment about her move. She'd wondered what sort of thing this lad had been holding out about during the exam, and it'd almost have felt like he was looking down on her, but he'd promised to fight her again once they became Magic Knights. "I don't know why you would have worried.. but you'll have to fight me for real like you promised, and show me what you were hiding..." she said this as her gaze became a glare and those pupils of hers tightened just a bit. There was a fierceness in this girl's visage when she said this as she stood sizing up Leonis. "Yare yare, before all that though, he has to be initiated... I guess I'll be taking him myself..." she said as she released the bubble around Artem. "Move out the way, Klause. Danchou anything in particular I am looking for?" said Raina as she waited for the next lad to take his place, she asked her Captain about this lad, because she was only looking for normal people when she did these sorts of things.

[Bloodedge]

"Heh heh! Yep, marr-" Artem's sentence was cut short by the sudden interruption of Raina. Suddenly, he was encased in a sphere of blood which healed his injuries. "Well fine then, how about you marry me!?" he replied. Whatever the case was, it was totally up for debate how serious Artem was being when he spoke to Hikage, as well as how serious he was being now. Perhaps he was a desperate soul who would accept anyone he found even tolerable.

Leonis continued grinning toward Hikage as she sized him up. He had a few reasons for not using the rest of his abilities, of which he had plenty, in his fight against the girl. Some of them were proved purposeless by the fight he'd just witnessed, but one still remained. Still... the idea of finishing the fight which sparked this unspoken rivalry they shared was enticing. "Don't worry... I'll throw everything I've got at ya' next time. Just don't regret asking for it when the time comes. Until then, enjoy the show," he replied. With that, he moved into the yard to share the space with Raina. In the meantime, Artem vacated the battle space, and Heero looked toward his Vice-Captain with a response consisting only of a lax grin.

[Apollymi]

"Urusai! I have no intention of doing that!" Raina yelled. Even so the girl's face was strangely red and she seemed way more upset about the potential marriage proposal than the other young woman who'd received a proposal. Still, her response implied this wasn't the first time she'd heard something like this and that it was common enough that she didn't much care after a few seconds. Whatever the case, Hikage was busy chatting with her new rival about the fight they could have in the future. He even conceded that he would throw everything he had at her the next time they had a fight, a wide grin passed the girl's face at this news and she seemed content. "Hai hai, I'll hold you to it. Have fun!" this was the girl's send off instead of one about luck. She then went to stand beside their Captain and watch the coming bout. She had a strange feeling about the magic emanating from the red haired young woman, even so, she figured that someone like Leonis would be more than capable of taking care of himself.

"Danchou... you're useless," said the girl frowning. She supposed over all she knew what he was looking for as far as their ranks were concerned. Moreover she was curious as to why an individual from the House Vermilion was taking the Magic Knights Entrance Exam. She couldn't help but look at the boy as her grimoire floated before her with an eerie red glow. Doing so for the first time, created a short sword in her right hand and she smiled at her newest charge. "So, how does a royal end up taking the Magic Knights Entrance Exam?" she asked as she held the sword up and motioned towards herself beckoning the lad to come.

[Bloodedge]

"Haaai!" Leonis responded. He fully understood the lack of a 'good luck' sent his way from Hikage. Just the same, he didn't want such a thing, and getting one from Hikage specifically would seem more insincere than anything. In preparation for the fight to come, he removed his grimoire from its holster and opened it. Nothing would come of this yet though. Instead, Raina decided to question him directly about his presence at the Magic Knights Entrance Exam. Before any words escaped Leonis, he snickered. "How'd I get in, huh? Well... I walked in, had my grimoire checked out, and took the tests." The moment his grimoire's pages stopped flipping, Leonis hopped into the air. His descent was halted by the appearance of his creation spell, which took the form of a great lion made of flames. He stood on the lion's back just behind its mane. "I guess that's not what you wanted though, huh? Basically... why should Hikage over there have to take the exam if I don't? Sounds like a way to breed a bunch of lazy, weak nobles to me. I don't like it. When I get to the top, I'm gonna stand on this lion, and everybody's gonna know I earned my spot! Honō Sōsei Mahō: Reo Ruzēnasu!" By the will of his magic, the lion Leonis stood upon grew to the size of a full-grown elephant. In this state, the lion spewed a huge blast of flames from its mouth, covering the ground to such an extent that it would prove capable of sweeping over and incinerating a platoon of enemies. In this case, its one target was Raina, but... she was Vice-Captain of a Magic Knights squad. If nothing else, Leonis could at least have faith that using a technique with such power would be well-received by someone of such ranking.

[Apollymi]

Raina stared at this ash-blonde man before her. She couldn't help but scoff at the lad's initial answer to her question. Her brows drew together and her eyes which were blue at the time widened in surprise. "Smart ass..." she muttered as she watched the boy hop into the air. She then got to witness something she'd never seen before, the growth of a large flaming lion, which was a form of creation magic. 'Sugoi!' she thought only to have to listen to this lad as he properly explained himself. In this particular case, he apparently saw some disparity in the treatment of nobles and commoners. He'd even apparently taken some sort of liking to his draft mate from the exam. "Sou ka..." she murmured only to see this lad's first offensive spell in action. He went on to surround the grounds around the girl with fire which could easily have decimated an entire platoon. 'So much... power,' she thought as she held her sword out in front of herself. Instead of aiming to cut the flames, a large blood shield was projected from the tip of the weapon cast from the page of her grimoire which had shifted within seconds. "Chikasume no Tate," she said the name of the spell. This was enough to withstand the coming blast all around the girl and open a space around her that the flames could not reach directly.

Meanwhile, Hikage watched the formation of this lad's magic with wide eyes. They sparkled as she took in this expert use of creation magic. "Ano... so that's what he was hiding..." she mumbled only to seem to get excited. "I wanna kick his ass one day!" she said this seemingly excited by the prospect and fully understanding that had their fight gone on any farther earlier in the day she likely would have lost. Of course, this girl's personality would make this a fairly normal reaction.

[Bloodedge]

"Gomen, gomen. I couldn't resist," Leonis said through a chuckle. In the face of the flame blast erupting from his lion's mouth, Raina resorted to a defensive spell capable of dispersing the fire around her. From his high mount, Leonis watched the torrent split where it would have struck the Vice-Captain. 'She didn't give me a goal. Well... whatever,' he thought. Looking at Raina's defense, he wondered how it would fare against something more concentrated - something he happened to be capable of producing with his fine control over his mana. Just as well, he was able to flip his grimoire to another page, and cast another spell without interrupting its predecessor. "Honō Mahō: Soru Rīnea!" A small sphere of concentrated fire was created in front of Leonis. It looked something like a miniature sun, and from it came an intense beam of fire aiming to pierce through Raina's barrier, as well as her left shoulder. Even though this was more laser-like in appearance, it was fire nonetheless, and anything it had contact with would be left with residual flames that could later be manipulated by Leonis. If any of these flames were to be found on Raina's body, Leonis would be aiming to amplify them and burn her entire form without hesitation.

[Apollymi]

A smirk came to the face of this crimson haired lass as she looked to Leonis and took in that she was surrounded by flames. Though this wasn't the worst predicament that she'd ever found herself in, she wasn't at all pleased. And one might have noticed that she didn't actually give him a goal to go after, but first she wanted to see the base of his power. Upon seeing it she smirked, and as the boy turned the page to use a new spell she did the same. "Ketsueki Mahō : Kairai no Chishio.... " she murmured and this would make something strange happen. The body of Artem would be pulled towards her, and he would be forced to simultaneously cast his use of Cheetah Charge and Rhinoceros Armor, with the side effect of causing his eyes to go white and giving him a bit of pain. "Gomen, Klause... let me borrow you for a minute..." she mentioned as if she hadn't already done the thing. If this took the way she wanted it to, it would end with the armored red-vested boy standing in front of her, taking the rest of the penetrating damage and withstanding the subsequent fire after her shield cracked. "Yare yare, that's a bit annoying isn't it? I finally figured out the rule for you though," she said as she took off at breakneck speeds towards the lad and using a deft movement aimed to slip her sword across the center of his body. Her aim to make a gash into his person at his torso from his waist up to his left shoulder. "You have to avoid being hit for 60 seconds. If you do... I can't take control of your body and you pass!~" she chimed seeming to find this hilarious. It would seem that this girl's personality was a bit strange but her power was also particularly unnerving.

Hikage looked with wide eyes as this entire situation played out. When Artem moved her eyes traveled with him and her nostrils flared. 'Sou ka, he's scented with that girl's magic...' she thought, aloud she had but one thing to say. "Creepy." At the utterance of this word, Raina's eyes widened drastically, she was apparently upset with the word used to describe her. Still, Hikage didn't seem worried at all for Leonis' sake. Given what she'd seen of the boy physically, even avoiding direct damage from these two people shouldn't be that hard. He was powerful and the next person that she wanted to fight, and as such, she believed in him.

[Bloodedge]

When Leonis finished waiting to see what became of his assault, he was shocked to witness its victim being the turkey-eating member of the squad from earlier. He certainly hadn't targeted any vital points that would warrant saving someone, and since his spell didn't still make it through to Raina, it obviously wasn't strong enough to be incidentally fatal to such people as these two. Upon closer inspection, Leonis came to surmise that Artem wasn't at all in control of his own actions. Raina's apology to the man gave credence to this as well. Ignoring the burning Artem, Leonis let his attention fall to Raina, who was suddenly at his fore. She spoke of his challenge being the avoidance of her attacks for one minute's time while attacking him in that very moment. His quickest reaction was one that didn't require the use of his grimoire. It was something previously seen in-use by only two people in this group, but now, the others would see it as well - whether they were all conscious at the time or not. At the beginning of Raina's slash, Leonis raised his left hand toward her torso. His fire magic erupted from his hand as an explosion which launched him off the lion and away from Raina. If Raina herself weren't careful, she would also be left in danger of the concussive damage brought about by this explosion, while Leonis continued using this very same technique over and over with alternating hands, using it as a way to sustain a form of pseudo-flight around the area. "Is it alright for you to call my stuff annoying when you take over people's bodies? It's in everything you do, isn't it?"

[Apollymi]

Raina seemed to be having a suddenly good time. Until of course, the lad she was slashing at suddenly rocketed himself away from her using his hand as a canon to do so. Since she was already mid-slash it was all she could do to try and mediate a bit of the damage. She preemptively threw the bubble of healing around herself as she was blasted away. A grin on her face as she was certain her blade had come close to its target. She healed the extra damage to her fore, as she and her bubble moved forward once more. "Of course I can say that I apologized," she said in a matter-of-fact manner. "And yes, in everything I do, no matter what it is... If I catch you, even a little, you're mine," she said. More to this point the pages of her book flipped again. "Ketsueki Sōsei Mahō : Senketsu no Shokeijō," this would create a large pool of bubbling blood beneath them, and it would aim to capture the lad as he moved about. Every time it tried a cross of blood would appear above the ground trying to grab his body pinning it to one place. If she managed this at any point, the lad would be crucified and make contact with the lass' Blood Magic thus granting her access to his body. A chuckle came from Hikage as she watched this, "Still creepy..." she murmured, seeming to find this amazing. Still she was also quite taken by Leonis' movements, even having seen them previously. She as told to enjoy this show so she would, the time limit set on this particular battle seemed to be disappearing rather swiftly, as they were now down to 35 seconds.

[Bloodedge]

"That doesn't seem like it should be good enough," was all Leonis had to say about the redhead's apology. He continued moving, finding this to be even more of a necessity when Raina cast another spell which encompassed a large area of the ground and unleashed blood orbs bent on restraining him. He reacted by altering the direction of each explosion used to propel him, allowing him to weave around the segments of Raina's spell without making contact for some time. Eventually, this became tiresome. This may have been a test for him to avoid being hit, but as far as he was concerned, it was still a fight as well. As such, he grew closer to Raina during his evasive maneuvers. A wicked grin spread across his face as the pages of his grimoire flipped again. "Don't get hit for sixty seconds, huh? What makes you think you gave me the right test?" he asked. In the very next moment, his grimoire landed on the page that would determine his next spell.

"Manazōn... Karidusu Burakiumu Rengeki!" Leonis aimed his right hand at Raina, but the spell cast by him did not come directly from him. He made use of a technique called Mana Zone, which allowed him to grasp control of the mana surrounding Raina. In doing so, he caused a continuous series of fiery blasts to manifest, aiming to pummel the redhead from every direction for as long as he maintained the technique. During the upkeep of this spell, Leonis still managed to use his left hand for the sake of moving through the air.

[Apollymi]

According to their newest recruit Raina's apology didn't do enough to sate the potential problem of her magical abuse of her comrades. She seemed to be stunned by this, and shook her head. "But Klause really doesn't mind..." she said seemingly amused by the whole thing. Still she got to watch the start of this lad's evasive maneuvers and though she'd said he only had to survive her a minute, it seemed that part of his going strategy would be attacking her while he tried this. She sighed at this tactic but she couldn't say it was completely unexpected. "A minute is a long time, Vermillion," said Raina as the lad spun through the spells of his book before launching a new one. "Mana zone?! That's so advanced!" she exclaimed before having to do something a bit more stringent than her original use of a shield. This time she'd use a similar ideal creating multiples of the shields around her person in a hexagonal formation until she was completely surrounded in a dome like structure of these shields it would protect her for a bit but that wasn't really why she'd done this. The pages in her grimoire turned once more and she held the blood sword out before her sending several slashes out of the dome towards this lad. These bits of blood were more intense than most, and if they made contact with the lad in anyway they would taint him. They also came from all directions around the dome, and seemed to happen regardless of the direction she was standing. Though admittedly she was exceedingly hot in this moment, "Though... you're pretty good... 10 seconds." she said not caring about the outcome of her attack because by her own approximation it would last long to keep her from boiling alive. Hikage couldn't help but be excited, she'd not seen this technique before and she was stunned by it. "Sugoi."

[Bloodedge]

"Hmph! What are you looking for, then? Stamina? Maneuverability? Or are you just trying to pressure me?" he asked. On the other hand though, Leonis came to realize how little the answer to this string of questions mattered to him. Raina acknowledged the advanced level of the spell he'd most recently begun using, but to Leonis, it was just another example of his resolve. "Whatever; nothing's stopping me at this point anyway," he concluded. If his statement needed any more substance, he would gladly offer it as Raina produced her next spell. Whether Raina realized it or not, Leonis' first spell - the fire lion - hadn't gone anywhere since being created. He grinned in the face of her blood slashes while raising his right hand, and with a snap of his fingers, he called forth the massive creature of flame. The lion hopped toward Leonis with an open mouth. What came next was the most unorthodox thing Leonis had done thus far...

Before the slashes reached him, Leonis was swallowed whole by his own lion. Because of this, the lion was subjected to every strike which would have hit Leonis, and then some due to its great size. Still, it pressed onward until it landed in front of Raina and opened its mouth, revealing Leonis inside with that same grin on his face. "Sol Linea!" he exclaimed while pointing up the lion's throat toward Raina. From within his giant flaming barrier of a creature, he unleashed another concentrated laser-like shot of flames. His initial intention in this battle had been to pierce Raina's left shoulder with this very same beam, and he intended to see that to fruition here in these final few seconds.

[Apollymi]

Raina was asked a great many questions by this lad. She hadn't expected him to be so curious, if she was being honest, initially she wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she realized it as they fought, which is probably what her Captain was going for. She wasn't aiming to pressure him, nor did she much care about his skills as he obviously had them. Raina was the type of person who questioned the motivations of others, this lad could have taken it easy and chose not to, as such it made her wonder what else he was willing to push for. "Sou ka... found it!" she said thinking about it more. But in the seconds before time would be up, and she'd get to witness this boy dodge her barrage, by being swallowed by his own fire lion. "Sugoi!" she thought seemingly amazed by this entire situation, but she didn't have time to think about it much more as the mouth of this lion was open and firing upon her again. She didn't have enough time to move nor add anything else, instead she had to turn her magic in on herself. She cast a spell which hardened the blood within her blood vessels so that when Sol Linea was cast to shoot through her person, it pierced through layers of shielding and hit her shoulder but didn't exit it completely. "Well, shit that is pretty tough," she said as her grimoire closed. "Time's up by the way... he's fine, Danchou. You didn't do bad this time..." she said offering the man an off-handed compliment a she looked at the hole in the shoulder of her outfit and walked off with the intention of changing clothes. 'That guy is so awesome!~' thought Hikage as her eyes sparkled.

[Bloodedge]

The protection of his lion's interior proved to be enough for Leonis to pull off his offense without a hitch. Raina managed to use some form of defensive, or perhaps augmentative spell to bring the damage to a more absolute minimum than he'd ever seen, but that was alright. Leonis still achieved his personal goal in this encounter, and if his Vice-Captain couldn't manage at least this much, his climb to the top would be far too easy. "Heh... Gotcha!" he proclaimed. He knew time was at an end; he'd been keeping track all along. He had known the capabilities of Raina well enough to know there were few ways he could pull off a successful attack against her, especially under the circumstances of this initiation, and had thus been spending the final moments pushing toward a way to succeed using the very spell he finished with.

The fight was over, and Leonis had his lion fade away to leave him landing on the ground in front of Raina. "That was fun. I see where I need some improvement, so let's try again later," he said in passing while returning to Hikage and the Captain, the latter of whom was ready to address both youngsters. "Great job, both of you. Welcome to the Black Bulls!" Heero said while opening his own cloak to reveal two smaller copies of it, one meant for each of his new members. Leonis took his out of the man's left hand and threw it over his shoulders immediately, though he didn't seem to hold much of an attachment to it from a sentimental standpoint. With that done, he casually turned toward Hikage. "Congrats, I guess... But I think you care about what squad you're in about as little as I do."

[Apollymi]

"Yeah yeah... next time. If that's what you want..." she said to the ability to practice again with him later. Of course, she felt very strangely about this, considering most people found her magic creepy and once they figured it out they generally didn't want to deal with her anymore. She was less surprised someone chosen by her Captain was less likely to be this way. The two younger members of this squad were soon presented with their cloaks, and Hikage took hers out of Heero's right hand looking it over before slinging it over her own shoulders as well. "Arigatou..." she said to the Captain of their division. She was rarely praised in this way and seemed to take it in stride. More directly concerning to Hikage though, was Leonis who seemed content to congratulate her, while pointing out that she also didn't seem to care much about the squad she was in. "Same," she mentioned giving the lad a simple congratulatory statement before making her own clarification. "I don't care much. I didn't join that other one because the woman felt annoying..." she said calmly of her potential to have joined the Blue Rose, and in reference to her ever dependable gut feelings. "But I'm glad I ended up here, 'cause it gives me easy access to good fights. You seemed like you had a lot of fun, that was some crazy stuff with that lion too!" she said, strangely Hikage hadn't seemed very excited about anything but this lad's battle had gotten her blood pumping, even with it only lasting for a solid minute. She had a burning desire to slay this lad, who she saw currently as the pinnacle of the kind of ability she wished to possess. Beyond that she respected his moxie, being a Royal but not choosing to take the easy way out. Besides that, he was about the nicest noble she'd come across since making her journey.

[Bloodedge]

"She looked pretty annoying, to boot!" Leonis agreed. "Really, I would have taken any of the offers I got... but you came here, so I figured it was worth a shot. Good instinct," he continued. In all truth, this was the exact reason he'd decided to join the Black Bull squad. Hikage had mentioned this gut feeling way of hers in the early stages of their exam battle, so he figured he'd gamble on her when choosing his squad, since he happened to be given the same offer. If Hikage had some level of respect for Leonis and his moxie, he had the same form of respect for her grit. With his hands on his hips, he stepped directly toward the girl, leaning forward with a piercing red gaze and a toothy grin on his face. "So, I guess you'll be taking responsibility for leading me to this choice, huh? Keep getting stronger with that instinct of yours, and we'll break each other over and over again, until there's no more room to grow from rebuilding."

[Apollymi]

"Hai, and she was really loud the entire time too..." she said remembering the Magic Knights Entrance Exam in a bit more detail. Overall she knew that joining the Black Bulls was the best choice for her, but she was quite surprised by what Leonis had to say next. Apparently the other lad, had gone along with the same choice she'd made, simply by virtue of trusting in her gut instinct because he had the same option open to him. "Sou... ka," she mumbled, finding it strange that he'd gone along with her decision based on something as simple as their previous battle. Beyond all this the lad stepped forward and stood before the young woman with his hands on his hips, this piercing red gaze of his was met by her own, as the slit pupils of her golden eyes tightened. She was quite elated at the idea of the two of them fighting repeatedly until one or the other of them succeeded. Beyond the fact that it was a method for both of them to improve she felt somehow enticed by the entire thing. "I guess if you made a decision like that because of me, it's the least I could do. And it guarantees you'll be up to fight me again, which I'm all for. So long as you keep up that fight you got in ya'..." her very soul burned with this newfound rivalry or maybe it was something else entirely. Regardless of that this moment had gotten rather suddenly tense, and Hikage wasn't entirely sure how this would play out long term, but she was very certain her life in the Black Bulls would be very interesting with this lad around.

[Bloodedge]

With Hikage's response given, Leonis had his grin widen even more. He doubted he was as interested in the fight itself as Hikage, but he was interested in reaching the pinnacle of the proverbial food chain. He would do it, and he would have it be unquestionable when it happened... and to accomplish that, he had to keep fighting, to keep winning... to keep growing. The more they conversed, the more he came to believe Hikage would play a key role in this master plan. "My fight's not goin' anywhere. Remember this promise: I'm going to keep evolving... and if we keep facing each other, I'm gonna destroy you just like everybody else. No... I'll even step my game up for that. You're my rival now; I can see it in your eyes. When I destroy you, it'll be different; I'll have to do it way harder."

As this conversation progressed, Heero looked strangely at the new Black Bulls. He decided it was for the best if he did not involved himself in this discussion at all, and in fact, it would be better yet if he left the two alone. And so, he did... while making sure he snatched up the still-smoldering Artem from the ground outside. 'Wow. This is going to be an interesting year.'

[Apollymi]

Hikage was interested in the fight, this one, and any one she could have. It wasn't about winning or losing, it was about the last breath, pulling out all the stops and offering everything you had in the heat of the moment. At the very least, she'd found that Leonis was the type of person she felt compelled to fight, as long as possible, as much as possible. He was a person whose fighting tactics and skill she aimed to obtain for herself in some way. So as his grin grew so did hers. She heard out his next words and after them that malicious giggle would escape her again. "Kufufufufufu~ I've never been a rival before... but this shit is giving me tingles!~ You should know though..." she stared at him with great intensity, if this was rivalry she was fine with that. "I won't be destroyed by anything. Even if I have to put all my pieces back together, as soon as I can hold a blade again... I'm coming for you. Battling my hardest is what I want... and if you couldn't stand up to it, it wouldn't be worth it. So show me what you will turn into, and I'll fight you with everything I've got," she respected this lad for wanting to evolve and all. And if it meant she always had something to do, and a new challenge to face, even if it was out of one person, than she was satisfied. As their conversation progressed she hadn't noticed the leaving of the Captain and their superior officer as he carried him off. No, this moment of intensity between the two young people and freshest recruits to the Black Bulls was one which gave her tunnel vision and a special excitement down in the pit of her stomach she couldn't explain.

[Bloodedge]

"Tingles? Well, that's new too. Never heard that about a fight in my life... outside my own head, anyway..." Leonis found much interest in Hikage's excitement for combat in general, and being in the face of it - in addition to the face of the girl herself - piqued his interest in the battle as well. The more they spoke, the more he wondered what the point of waiting would be. They were basically hyping one another up at this exact moment, and Leonis found his blood pumping more than it had been during his battle mere moments ago. His right hand rose toward the left side of Hikage's face as if he intended to touch it, but it stopped before any contact would be made. "Hikage... your weird ass... excites the hell outta me!" he said as the very same hand he rose produced the basic form of his magic as an explosion right next to the green-haired girl's face.

[Apollymi]

Apparently this pair of people had more in common than their upbringing would lead one to believe. "Sou ka..." Hikage could feel many things within her person and she wasn't sure what she intended to do, but she hadn't quite found the words necessary to express the current level of emotion she felt presently. Instead of focusing on that there was a hand coming towards her face and the gesture was strange, but, the feeling in her body told her that Leonis was just as excited as she was, and that was strange beyond all reason. His next action was to activate magic beside her face and she spun her body around his arm at high speed aiming to kick the blonde boy firmly in his back with her eyes closed into the space of his own magic while her grimoire opened providing her with a blade which she immediately snatched from the sky. As her eyes opened she ran her tongue across the blade. "Exciting is good. And that shit isn't going to work twice... I thought you were bringing your best?" she questioned with a hint of teasing.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis watched his spell explode against nothing while Hikage maneuvered to his rear. The next sensation he felt was a leg in his back, which launched him away from the girl. With his right hand still forward, Leonis aimed his left hand behind him and produced an explosion in each direction. This turned him around quickly, and was followed by two more explosions at his rear to halt his forward movement. "Alright. I'll admit, that was kind of rude," he said while righting himself and landing. Before his next effort, he took pause upon watching the green-haired girl lick a knife so recently grasped. "And that... was something else entirely," he claimed. With that said, Leonis brought out his grimoire once more, choosing from it a spell that he'd yet to use. "Honō Mahō: Rasen Homura!" Tucking his left arm behind his back, Leonis aimed his right palm toward Hikage. A spiral of inferno erupted from his right hand and shredded through the air en route to Hikage, burning up the air itself as it carved its way forward.

[Apollymi]

Hikage was successful in her try at avoiding the damage this lad initially aimed to cause her face. Her kick to his rear was also well received but he didn't take long to recover, much to the green-haired lass' approval. He had something to say about the apparent rudeness of the start of this most recent fight but, she didn't actually mind that at all. "Iie, surprise keeps you sharp..." she said. But with the tongue lashing she'd delivered to her blade, another statement was made which she wasn't really sure she understood. "Was it?" she questioned seeming to find it strange for that action to garner any attention. She did that sort of thing more often than most things she did. She didn't know when she'd developed the habit, but it was definitely one she'd had for quite a while, even before her magic manifested. Now though there was something else she'd never seen before, a spiral of fire magic cutting through the air before her, headed straight to her person. "Sugoi," she was amazed. It was a stunning sight to be held, and a sadistic grin crossed Hikage's face as she aimed to face this head-on as she did everything. Her body moved forward dodging aptly through the flaming spiral, it wasn't perfect, but it didn't deter her from approaching Leonis directly as she aimed to slash directly at the young man's fore. She was practically smoldering, her clothing burned a bit as well as small patches of her skin, but she'd avoided the brunt of the burning. Quick movements of her blade in her right hand aimed a trio of alternating vertical slashes at the lad's torso, while her left hand aimed to keep his right from moving towards her.

[Bloodedge]

"Guess you're right," he replied. If Leonis had one thing going for his offensive approach, it was purpose. If Hikage had managed to take something from his efforts, then only more purpose was added to what he already did... though this did not at all detract from his own intentions. "Yeah. How old are you, exactly?" was his response to her questioning of his previous statement. The fight progressed in spite of this banter, with Hikage charging forward against his flame spiral. Doing so left her scarred by the fires to some extent, but the minimal damage seemed to be paying off for the sake of her progression. Once she was in range, the girl blocked off his right hand while slashing at his torso with her blade. Leonis had a plan which fed into this. Jerking back, he minimized the damage of each cut to himself, though he had to remain close enough to follow through with his plan, so he couldn't move enough to avoid bleeding entirely. While Hikage was cutting him, Leonis was untucking his left arm, raising it to the space between his lower torso and Hikage's, toward her right side. Still, he grinned. "It makes two!" he announced while his left hand produced its own tornado of flames aiming to engulf Hikage directly and send her toward - and potentially through - the ceiling.

[Apollymi]

Of course, Hikage knew herself to be right about things which dealt directly with instinct and response. Beyond this, the age of this girl was directly questioned. She didn't know why this information was important to her understanding, but she supposed she had no problem giving it. "Juugo desu," she said with the same passive tone she always seemed to have. It would be rather surprising to most, to find out exactly how young this woman was, as her age dictated that she'd received her grimoire and become a Magic Knight as a commoner in an extraordinarily short amount of time. Without being a noble and being directly ushered in to the Magic Knights, she'd done it on her own merit, as well as traveling from whatever her home town in the Forsaken Lands was to get to Kikka in the Common Region all on her own.

Irrespective of this there was something more to the attack proffered by Leonis, there always seemed to be, and his other hand soon aimed to send the lass flying through the roof in a swirl of fire, with the apparent warning that it made two, and given their current closeness she couldn't avoid this attack. The secondary flame spiral would send the girl flying, but there was a grin was on the girl's face as she maintained enough of herself as she flew off to try and make the best of the space now forming between them. Her unknown reinforcement spell seemed to increase quite a bit while taking this hit too, mediating the damage. And while she didn't have something new to offer, she did have a new use of a previously seen magic. Using Leonis' ability to attack and defend and even counter-attack, the girl's actions as she fell back towards the ground had purpose. She'd simultaneously cast, two of the spells from her grimoire, as she hit the ground once more, causing the emergence of several of the Steel Hedgehogs from the ground as they began to roll up, and a hailstorm of swords to fall from the sky aiming to maim Leonis and a wide area around himself. While he dodged the strikes from above, the spinning hedgehogs from below aimed to maim him from various angles, the barrage was relentless, much like Hikage herself, but the only thing she could manage in the current situation.

[Bloodedge]

"... What." From Leonis, this single word was a question to the universe at large, though its tone implied more of a direct statement than it likely should have. He found himself looking over Hikage and finding nothing but pure disbelief in what he was hearing, versus what he could see with his own eyes and process with his own mind. "No. No way. You don't look 15 at all!" he said to voice his shock. Physically, as a person who would be considered a starving peasant from the Forsaken Lands, nothing about his added up. He didn't believe Hikage to be dishonest, but this was still very out of the ordinary.

Leonis wasn't given much time at all to mull over this. Hikage made use of a mana technique which could be likened to Mana Skin, and that allowed her to survive his attack with little to show for its impact. Leonis keyed in on this, but her landing resulted in him being put on edge. Steel hedgehogs erupted from the ground while steel blades materialized overhead to attack him on two fronts with virtually zero room for evasive maneuvers. Hikage had made use of his own offensive/defensive mix in this assault, and Leonis was now taking from her as well. He wasn't sure when or how she learned the technique, or why it seemed a little off, but he would also make use of Mana Skin while darting toward the green-haired girl. He did his absolute best to weave around the hedgehogs and blades, even occasionally using his explosions to make his movements more consistent. The sheer number of things attacking him simply didn't lend to him being able to escape numerous cuts and many stabbings. Reduction of intensity was all he could manage in the end. Leonis emerged from the barrage with blood trickling from many points along his body, his clothes torn to shreds in a way that matched - or even surpassed - the appearance Hikage's ensemble already boasted, and there were multiple knives still stuck in his back... but he emerged nonetheless. "Honō Sōsei Mahō: Reo Ruzēnasu!" Once again, Leonis opened his grimoire and called upon his flaming lion. Because they were no longer out in the open, this one was much closer to its standard variant's size, but it was still large enough for Leonis to sit atop it as it spewed a lengthy tongue of raging flames from its mouth toward the girl.

[Apollymi]

Leonis' question to the universe at large seemed to confuse Hikage. She would have figured he hadn't heard her correctly but as she opened her mouth to affirm that response, the young man began talking again. His words let her know he'd heard what she'd said, but was simply in a state of disbelief. "But I am fifteen. I look fifteen to me..." she said earnestly. Much like her earlier weirdness she simply had no context for the idea that she'd been weird, and none for the idea that she apparently didn't look her age. She didn't know if she should take it as a compliment like she did her apparent high tier skill or if there was something more to it.

It seemed her attack coming from her fall, was something which the lad had to work at to dodge. This gave her a bit of a breather, but mostly she still had to work towards an outpouring of mana to keep up the falling blades and the growing hedgehogs. She couldn't do much else besides grip a new blade and get ready for what was to come next. Eventually, Leonis made his way out of her constant barrage and once again used his lion to spray flames at the lass. They were long and instead of trying to dodge back and escape them, her instincts took her forward towards the lion and eventually to Leonis himself as she aimed to lash out at him directly from his perch atop the lion's head. Several quick stabbing motions would come from the girl's right hand aimed at the lad's torso. Because of their quickness they'd be shallow but she aimed simply to prolong her fight until such a time as she was either thoroughly beaten or she was satisfied by the fight itself.

[Bloodedge]

"So... does everyone who's fifteen where you come from look like that?" he asked. Frankly, he wasn't sure at this point if she understood why he claimed she didn't look fifteen at all. There were multiple reasons, but the girl didn't seem quite worldly enough to follow his train of thought. Perhaps this was for the better, but Leonis couldn't let it go for some reason. Moving on, the fire lion's breath attack did not meet its target. Instead, Hikage joined Leonis at his elevated level atop the lion, and aimed to stab him repeatedly. He very well couldn't be having that, though. "Ignis Columna!" he called out, relying on an actual defensive spell from his grimoire. A pillar of flames erupted from beneath him, actually seeming to come from the lion itself as the fires spread and spiraled around Leonis to defend him. Just the same, they were still made of fire, and as such had natural damaging capabilities as well. Leonis didn't care what the pillar accomplished, though. He was much more concerned with the spell he would be using the moment the lion beneath him faded, yet before his barrier fell. "Manazōn: Sol Linea!" Once again, Leonis made use of the spell which created a miniature sun and released a flame laser from itself. This time however, he used his Mana Zone ability to generate multiple copies of the spell in the area surrounding himself and Hikage. They were coincidentally placed in a way that would not overlap Leonis himself, but the total of seven beams would fire from various angles toward Hikage's front, sides and rear, as well as overhead. The only point of natural safety outside of some strange level of contortion was closer yet to Leonis, who stood inside of his own flame pillar. "So how did you end up learning Mana Skin, huh?"

[Apollymi]

Hikage thought about the question that Leonis had asked her. Thinking back to the town of Rayaka, she supposed there weren't many who managed to look like her, but she wasn't quite as starved as most, and was capable of taking care of herself. And before that, there was someone who looked after her. "No, they don't," she said with a nod. "Most of them look normal..." she concluded, but in her own mind most people had more normal emotional states. But she had no way of properly expressing this. Regardless this was still a fight and from her current vantage point, the defensive spell which caused her to initially back away from his person as a flame column shielded him from direct methods of attacking. Soon enough though, there was something more pressing happening as a collection of the solar flare type attacks that the lad was known for surrounded the girl and aimed to maim her in a way she didn't know how to deal with. "Shit!" she rushed forward, pushing into the flame column her trajectory would lead to her knocking into the other young man, tackling him if he did nothing to avoid him, but this was simply a matter of her moving in the manner most efficient to avoid damage. "Mana Skin..." she said thinking about it there was no recognition of the word. "I have no idea what that is," she concluded. This statement was true, her use of Mana Skin was instinctual and she had no idea how it actually worked.

[Bloodedge]

"... So you know you don't look fifteen?" he questioned further during the time he took to remove the extra blades from his flesh. All the while, Hikage was encroaching upon him via the easiest given method of avoiding his compressed flame beams. Leonis saw her moving through the column of flames, which led directly to her slamming into him. This resulted in him falling to the floor, where he landed on his back with a thud. "Ugh! No idea huh..." Given what he'd learned about this girl thus far, he wasn't all too surprised about her lack of knowledge. It could be said that if any type of person were to develop a strange form of Mana Skin accidentally, it would be one such as the girl who'd crashed into him mere moments ago.

Before making any effort to pull himself up, Leonis began his explanation. "Mana Skin is a reinforcement technique. Anybody can use it, but it takes training to use it consciously. Yours seems weird, though... nothing like mine or my sister's. I guess it's that instinct of yours making it happen now," he said. During this speech, his gaze was intensely fixated on Hikage's torso... until he furrowed his brow and decided to reach out with his right hand, which landed upon her left bosom. A look of utmost concentration was upon his face as he willed his hand to squeeze that which he'd come to grip. "Hmm... It probably wouldn't take much for you to learn real control over it."

[Apollymi]

"I mean, most of them have more stuff going on here," she said after having tackled the lad, she was pointing at her face, with her combat knife. Beyond all this the immediate fight they were in seemed to have calmed down a bit as the lad went into an explanation of mana skin. She didn't have to acknowledge his apparent grunt as she landed atop him, she simply backed off a bit to allow the lad to rise, but didn't abandon a seemingly advantageous position atop him. "Sou ka... I guess I'll work on it then," she said as it was explained that it was likely her own instinct which made this reinforcement magic manifest in the first place. Apparently though this was something which one could learn proper control over. Immediately though, there was something more pressing which was this lad's hand upon her left bosom which was rather sudden but didn't seem aggressive in a way which would require the girl to attack him. Still she felt strangely about it, her face flushed as she looked towards this lad with his supreme look of concentration. "Ano..." she started to say something but didn't know exactly what to say. The tingles she'd felt at the start of this fight, returned with urgency. She pushed on, in this moment aiming to press their lips together. She had no real explanation for doing this, but it seemed like it would satisfy her current feelings. She didn't seem to care about the lad molesting her chest, perhaps she understood this in some way, or maybe it was still just instinct.

[Bloodedge]

Hikage mentioned the others of her hometown having 'more going on' in their faces. Of course, Leonis could only assume this was a matter of Hikage's lack of facial expressions and the like, which probably contributed to her older appearance. Leonis remained focused on the girl's breasts for whatever reason he had. His squeeze was repeated a few times over, and the only thing that drew his attention away properly was Hikage's voice escaping her. "Oh. I..." At the start of his would-be explanation, Leonis was interrupted. His eyes widened to their limit as a pair of lips - belonging to the green-haired girl above him - pressed against his. From his own understanding of the girl, it was lost to him that she would even understand this sort of exchange, and it was hardly something that came to mind for him even during his molestation moments ago. "Hrmph... mm hmph..."

[Apollymi]

Whatever Leonis originally thought to say, it seemed he was surprised by the random display of affection provided by Hikage. The duration of the kiss was several seconds, through which Leonis seemed to be trying to speak. She'd pull back eventually and look into the lad's face, wondering exactly what was going on there. To her own satisfaction she found that this action had indeed done something to satisfy the tingles her body had developed. Golden eyes looked at this lad afterwards. "You're surprised..." she murmured. She didn't know what to make of her own actions, but she wasn't all together rejected so she felt she hadn't done anything wrong. This was a very strange situation and one which led to the girl seemingly abandoning the violence she generally sought out in the moment.

[Bloodedge]

Several seconds passed, and in that time, Leonis had no clue how he should be reacting. Hikage was battle-crazed, so perhaps she had taken his groping as interest, and used that as leverage to try and throw him off to gain the upper hand in combat? No, that didn't make sense at all. Had that been the case, Leonis felt she would have made her move to strike him already... but instead, she pulled away and spoke of his shock. "Well, I..."

Once again, Leonis was halted by the actions of another. In this case, his eyes widened again because of something he felt inside himself, rather than against his body. He could suddenly feel sweat waiting to form in his pores because of an overwhelming presence in the area. But... this was not the presence of high magical power or anything of the sort; it was instead the pure intimidating aura - likened to immense magic power in its own right - of the Black Bulls' Captain, Heero. The strawberry blonde returned from tending to Artem, and found his two newest members physically against one another, and all the structural damage to the headquarters living room because of what they'd done beforehand. "The whole ground floor is covered in blades and scorches. I'm holding you both responsible for this."

Leonis wasn't sure how to react to this presence. Over the years, he had been exposed to incredible magic power that counted amongst the highest in known history, but this feeling was something new and entirely different. He had no clue what sort of plan their Captain had in mind, but he felt he wanted no part in it. As such, he pulled himself from under Hikage, choosing to grasp at her hand as he did so. "Run!" he exclaimed. Taking off at full speed, he intended to sprint to and through the headquarters exit. Leonis would only stop this run if interrupted somehow, otherwise he would slow to a halt in the middle of the forest outside.

[Apollymi]

Leonis had been a rather talkative individual, and as such she'd fully expected some sort of explanation for the surprise currently in his face. Right before it would have been fully explained though, the girl got the impression that she was in trouble. She turned in time to see the approach of the Captain of their Squad approaching them with the full weight of his intensity directed at them. Hikage's heartbeat sped up, and she felt scared, and there was very little which scared this battle hungry girl. Most couldn't compete with her in any physical way, but it wasn't like murderous intent, but instead it was more like the power of the individual scared her too much. In the face of overwhelming threat, the words spoken by the Captain made it to Hikage's ears, she froze, but suddenly, there was a hand reaching out to her giving her a good bit of advice. As such she took it and took off with Leonis in the direction of the woods. And would only stop when he did, breathing heavily and experiencing both fright and exhaustion.

Strangely enough as the pair of individuals fled another was walking towards the front of the building. She appeared behind Heero placing a hand on his shoulder. Her hair was purple and cut in a mohawk hidden under a dark hood which was zipped up only enough to keep her from appearing naked. "What a strong new set of kids you got here. I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever have to do anything again..." she said with deep amusement in her voice. As she spoke the whole of the building restructured itself and the first floor was easily reconstructed from the damages caused by this pairs earlier actions. "Let it slide, hm?" she sighed and turned to go back inside after speaking these words apparently she was already done with whatever she was doing.

[Bloodedge]

Heero was joined by a tanned woman in a hooded jacket. She had something to say about the new recruits and his attitude toward what they'd done, but Heero didn't look as if he wished to 'let it slide' so to speak. He raised both arms, revealing that they carried metal buckets filled with various chunks of meat. "They're going to be in charge of feedings from inside the cage. And just wait 'til I find those mops," he said. Of course, this didn't mean he was going to chase these two. He was more than content to wait as long as it took for them to return home, that they might receive their punishment.

Meanwhile, Leonis was coming to a stop by holding his left arm out against a tree. He hadn't yet released Hikage, but he needed to lean this way to catch his breath over several moments. "Huff... huff... What the hell is with that guy? I didn't feel any magic coming from him, but I still felt like I was dying," he said. His list of complaints about this scenario could have gone on, but he came to realize there was something else he'd been meaning to address. So, he did. "And what the hell was that!? I thought you were trying to fight me."

[Apollymi]

"At least one of those people isn't going to mind something like that..." said the purple haired woman, she knew her Captain would likely be content to wait for this pair to return but by her own approximation it would likely be a bit of a wait for them to do so. She found Heero's attention to this matter to be strangely adult but that didn't really matter. "But do what you want, I think I am going back to my room now, until they come back. I'm pretty sure I only woke up properly because they were here..." she mumbled contentedly.

Meanwhile, a heavy breathing Hikage stopped moving for several seconds. She was still being held on to by this lad as such she was also against the tree he'd stopped for. After catching her breath a grin crossed her face, "I don't know. But that is why I chose him. He didn't feel annoying or actually like anything. It's almost like something is missing..." she mumbled not being able to think about this for very long. It seemed that Leonis took an issue with what she'd done before, and her impassive face rose to face his with her brows slightly furrowed. The amount of honesty this girl possessed would lead to her answering his question in the most honest way possible. "We were fighting and that was fun, but I felt all tingly again and I didn't think stabbing you would make that go away. So, I did something else..." the girl explained her position in that moment and most would likely find it strange. But given the now two times this pair had fought, and something similar the girl had done before, she figured her change in tactics would make sense to the lad before her.

[Bloodedge]

"I looked him in the face for a second... huff... it was like looking into an empty, endless well. Fall in, and you'll die long before you see the bottom of it." This was the best way Leonis could explain how he felt in the Captain's presence. That sensation didn't seem to be following them though, so they were likely both in the clear. This gave them the freedom to approach the conversation Leonis intended to have, mostly regarding the fact that Hikage had kissed him. "That's what counts as something else? Alright... I get it. That was probably my fault for the groping thing, but... I can explain," he said, taking another moment between statements to further right his breathing. "That... wasn't a romantic thing. Probably weird... yeah. Wanted to make sure they were real. Wait... what tingly feeling?"

[Apollymi]

"I want to figure that out one day..." she said of their Captain. She'd chosen him because he didn't feel as annoying as the other Captain who wanted her, and she hadn't been able to figure out why that was. Beyond this though, their conversation about the apparent intimacy between them. His explanation of this situation made her look at him, with that ever unreadable expression on her face. "Something I hadn't tried yet, so yes... something else," she seemed to think this was pretty straight forward, but as the explanation continued it seemed that he'd only been checking the realness of her chest for whatever reason, not that she'd had anything to say about the groping in the first place. "I didn't know it was possible for them to not be real..." she murmured. The tingling feeling existed before the groping and existed after, to be honest she couldn't really explain it so she simply tried to explain it the best way she could. "It was like being really excited, and it felt kind of numb and tense," she said as if it didn't matter to her. "But I felt like that before we even started fighting. Actually I kinda felt like that after our fight at the entrance exam. I assumed the fight would fix it. And then you started a fight with me... so we fought, but in the middle I still felt like that..." she explained. She supposed she had taken quite a liking to Leonis, maybe even from the point of their first fight.

[Bloodedge]

"Well... yeah. They come in fake. Everything comes in fake," he asserted. He'd never experienced this for himself, but magic could do a great many things, and certain types of individuals had certain... strange applications. Not much to his surprise though, he could not claim anything upon Hikage's form was false. Her claims though, involved a strange sensation she'd allegedly been having since their battle in the entrance exam. Her explanation of this started getting a rather clear point across to Leonis, and he was quickly surprised that he hadn't started catching onto this earlier, especially given their most recent interactions. "Wait. Hang on. I just thought of something..." At long last, it was upon him, and he came to realize in looking down that he had yet to release the girl's hand as well. "Are you trying to say you're into me or something?"

[Apollymi]

The idea that everything came in fake, she couldn't help but be a little confused. But she supposed someone modifying their body could be less of a problem potentially than she'd ever given any thought to. "Sou ka..." she murmured at the idea. Though she knew herself to not be using magic to modify her physical features, she wondered what would have made him feel the need to test that idea. Beyond this though, the lad seemed to understand what she was getting at as far as her feelings in the situation surrounding him were concerned. His question was one she had to think about, being 'into him' wasn't at all something she'd considered, but in thinking about how she felt around him, and it not being as simple as wanting to fight him. "Hai." Her single word choice was about all that was needed for this moment as she looked down at their still grasped hands and realized that she didn't mind this at all, and in the present moment didn't simply want to fight and crush him either. "Is that weird?"

[Bloodedge]

Apparently, he was right in his assumption. Hikage had some form of interest in him that went beyond the battles they had against one another, and it seemed to have gained a spark to push it forward, so to speak, just before they were run out of the building by Heero's intimidation. Now they were here in the forest, hands clasped, and blood congealing on Leonis' end. Hikage went on to ask if these truths were weird. Leonis began to laugh because of this, mostly because it was just as weird that she would ask whether it was weird or not. "Of course it's weird," he said. In spite of this claim, his grip on the girl's hand tightened. He was coming to realize that she may not have been alone in this attraction. He'd seen other battle maniacs before, but none were quite so interesting as this one. Besides, he obviously had a few interesting notes to jot down about this one visually. "I guess I'm into that though. So... I guess I'm into you too. So, what's the plan then?"

[Apollymi]

Hikage found herself in a strange situation. She had just admitting to having an attraction to the ash-blonde lad that wasn't all about potentially maiming him. Soon enough, Leonis was laughing about the girl's question and stating that it was indeed strange. But he didn't let go of her hand and instead squeezed it. She thought of how best to interpret this and like everything else, went along with her gut. Surprisingly she didn't have to deal with that alone, because Leonis had more words for her. He apparently enjoyed her strangeness and beyond this enjoyed her as well. "Sou ka... I wasn't expecting that," she said. "I think you should get fixed up, you took a lot more blades than I normally put into one person," she said plainly. "As for us, I want to kiss you again or fight you... tingles." Hikage was quite serious about both of these things, but she knew her face was usually passive though her eyes sparkled happily.

[Bloodedge]

"Well I wasn't expecting you, so... I guess it all works out," Leonis added to the point already made by Hikage. He entertained the thought that he probably should have considered this for longer, but it only felt right to roll with the moment at this point. It was suggested that he get himself fixed up. True enough, his injuries were severe enough that he would have been temporarily out of commission without magical augmentations. Speaking of magical augmentations, mention of this caused Leonis to reach into his pants with is left hand. From within, he pulled out a small disk. Leonis activated this tool to eject its top and bottom sections, which caused it to create a canister to be the root of a spell. A much larger version of the same magic cylinder appeared around himself and Hikage. This field of sorts would gradually work as something which greatly advanced their natural healing ability, as some healing magic spells would do. Moments after activation, Leonis felt the effects kicking in on his injuries already. "There, we'll both heal up from this over time," he said while leaning his back against the tree, letting gravity drag him down to a sitting position. "I'm out of juice to fight. I used a lot of magic in those last two, and this is gonna drain me almost dry. So..." As he spoke and slid toward the ground, he tugged on the hand he still held. If he had his way, he would see to it that the girl joined him against the tree. "Settle?"

[Apollymi]

Hikage seemed to accept this lad's acceptance of her. Beyond this he used a strange device that created a magical field around them. Doing this, she opened and closed her unoccupied fist a couple of times, feeling a couple of the burns she'd already suffered starting to feel less and less like burns. She was rather happy about it. Leonis explained they'd both heal from this and allowed himself to fall down the length of the tree he'd been leaning against. "Arigatou..." she said about the healing bit of this. She was more than a bit wary about the idea of letting their new Vice-Captain heal her given it would lead to something unpleasant. Beyond this the lad said he couldn't fight anymore and that this plus their previous fights added to this. "Settle?" she questioned as she allowed herself to be dragged down as well, still not letting go of this lad's hand. "Okay..." she said seemingly amused, and for the first time since she'd originally been seen she allowed herself to relax next to Leonis.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis easily began relaxing against the tree trunk. Hikage was apparently content to keep hold of his hand as she descended to ground level with him. Just the same, she took up a space beside him against the tree. Tugging once more on her hand, he aimed to also rotate and lean toward the girl. It was interesting enough that she was so suddenly without the great deal of animosity he'd been adjusting to in this day thus far, but he found it more interesting yet that they had even reached such a state as this, and on their first day knowing one another to boot. Leonis brought his face before that of the green-haired lass, and once there, he spoke through his own fixated gaze and words alike. "Oi. Times like these... people start getting used to this kind of stuff, right?" he asked, though it was at least partially rhetorical, as he then took the initiative and pressed his own lips against Hikage's this time around.

[Apollymi]

Hikage found herself against the tree that Leonis was against which was probably what the lad intended. She wasn't as battle ready as she seemed to be this day, and after getting to know this lad, she'd managed a reasonable level of friendliness. Soon she was tugged against once more and Leonis rotated himself towards her, and she found herself facing this lad's rather intense glare. More intense than that, was this man's next action which forced his lips against hers. Though Hikage had done this herself sometimes in the moments leading up to this, she hadn't ever had someone try to kiss her before this very moment. It was true that this was something she should likely be getting used to, as such her own lips would soon purse as she aimed to meet this gesture. She wouldn't break from it either, and strangely it worked to help quell the strange feelings she'd so recently developed.

[Bloodedge]

A single moment became several seconds. The passage of time became somewhat noticeable before Leonis decided to have his lips part from Hikage's. This separation was slow, as if nearly unintended at first. He took pause and stared into the girl's face. Many things went through his mind, including what he would be facing in his immediate future if he forged a connection with this commoner. Leonis was never the type of royal to care much for the difference between nobles and commoners, but he knew the vast majority were. However, he didn't really care about that either. In the end, it was just another obstacle to be overcome if this even went anywhere. "You're a commoner," he said to Hikage. Following a brief pause, a grin broke out over his face. "If we keep this going, we could end up fighting off a lot of nobles who have something to say. We aren't in this for the same reason, but I kinda like that. I know you do too."

[Apollymi]

A moment evolving into another, and it would seem to suit Hikage as it was. When Leonis pulled away, it seemed almost accidental and it would have been immediately followed up by Hikage closing that distance herself if she hadn't caught a peek of the lad staring at her. Whatever he was thinking the intensity of his gaze gave her pause and when he spoke again, it was to say something she knew and understood. "Hai." there was a blank quality to this girl's face that most would have found unnerving, but instead, a grin spread across Leonis'. She waited for his next words and they seemed to speak of the future a great deal more than one would have expected for two young people who'd just met each other. "Sou ka, we are after different things," she said seeming to understand. "But if hanging out with you means strong people will want to fight me more... that makes me want to do it even more." She didn't truly care what anyone else thought of her, and if Leonis didn't mind it meant absolutely nothing to her. She shifted her person aiming to find herself in the lap of this blonde haired young man still speaking strangely of the future. "You fight me. we'll fight them... I'll help you reach your goals." she mentioned as she pressed her lips against his forehead. "I want to see how far you'll take it, so I won't worry about anything, and beat those people when they come to us." There was a sparkle in her eyes at the idea of fighting for any reason which was weird.

[Bloodedge]

"I figured you'd say something like that. Save some for me, though," he said about the adversity they were sure to face if they pursued one another beyond this very moment. As things were, Leonis fully intended to do exactly that. He'd never been one for romance, especially considering the fact that he'd been training constantly since obtaining his grimoire four years ago. In this specific case, he doubted 'romance' covered the details the way it normally would. No, he certainly couldn't apply such a descriptor to anything he'd seen of this girl thus far. In a matter of moments, she had moved herself into the lap of Leonis, and he couldn't tell if he would more easily call it romance or prey marking. Perhaps these things were one and the same for such a person. "I told you, though. I'm going straight to the top. If you're going to help, don't get rusty. Climb to the top with me."

[Apollymi]

"Iie." This simple answer about saving potential targets for him wasn't at all something she was willing to do. If he wanted to beat someone before her, he'd have to reach them first. "If you want them, you get to them first... or they're mine," she said, and it was the type of attitude the girl had been shown to have all along. Beyond this she had indeed moved into his lap, but it was a matter of simple 'romance' as most would see it. It was a matter of marking him as belonging to her. Though she wouldn't admit to having any great understanding of this entire thing, what she'd observed of it, told her the person on top was winning the fight, and as such she aimed to be this person. "I won't get rusty. If my climbing up to the top helps... I'll do that too," she said, seeming to miss the fact that the statement was ironic considering her current positioning atop this boy. Her goal of fighting others would be benefited by such an arrangement and as such she had no problem with it. The lad beneath her was her primary target in all things, so making sure to keep up with him was her primary goal. This would of course, require her to catch up just a little as he had more finite an trained skills than she possessed. No matter what she wouldn't let him win without the fight. To this point, the green haired lass removed her cape and her shirt in a single deft movement. This would reveal her bare chest, complete with a single snake tattoo over her left breast, the filigree style snake tattoo on her left hip visible by virtue of how low her jeans were.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis probably should have anticipated the answer Hikage produced. Only after the words were spoken did he realize how unsurprising it was that she intended to take on any challengers he didn't wipe out first. She also went on to claim she would be climbing to the top of the proverbial food chain if it would help, interestingly after taking a very literal position on top of him. What came next was something which absolutely took Leonis by surprise. Hikage's movement led to the removal of her squad cape. This would have been normal, as Leonis was of the opinion that they would not be returning for some time and would benefit from becoming more comfortable, but... what little shirt the green-haired girl wore came off with it. Leonis' eyes traveled down to her exposed torso, then widened immensely. "Y-you... uhh..." he started as blood began dripping from his nose. "Your shirt came off with that cape, you know?"

[Apollymi]

Hikage had done something which managed to surprise the lad's whose lap she now occupied. The shock on his face was visible as was his immediate reaction of spouting a nose bleed. He even went on to struggle through the statement about the fact that her shirt had come off as well. "Hai, I took it off on purpose..." the green haired girl seemed to have a blank expression but it stopped nothing of her actions. She looked directly at the lad and aside from his eyes, noticed the state of his nose, after he witnessed her unclothed torso. "You have a nosebleed." She mentioned in the same absent way she noted everything, still her glare was rather intense even though it seemed to be backed by nothing. "You want to touch me right? Clothes would be in the way then..." she said in a matter of fact manner. This girl's innocence combined with her ability to follow her instincts could very well lead her to being able to copulate with this lad, whether it had been his starting intention or not.

[Bloodedge]

"Oh... On purpose, yeah. Why wouldn't it be on purpose?" he said as if he were asking himself. After she pointed out his nosebleed, he turned his head entirely toward that side, as if to hide it from view. Even then, his eyes remained fixated on the surprising bosom of Hikage. Hikage's glare was caught by Leonis via the latter's periphery, which brought his gaze up to meet it. He wasn't sure how she'd interpreted his original groping, or if it had anything to do with her current query, but... she was technically correct with her later statement regardless. Clothes were an obstruction in a very literal way. Even with that being the case though, interpreting this behavior from Hikage was difficult. "Well, I uhh..." With some hesitation, Leonis found his right hand rising again to Hikage's chest, where he found her left bosom unobstructed by the tattered shirt she'd been wearing before now. This was immediately proven to be a very, very different sensation which Leonis could not compare to anything else. "Oi, Hikage. Do you actually know why people do this sort of thing without clothes?"

[Apollymi]

Leonis was questioning why Hikage's actions wouldn't have been on purpose. Of course, she didn't understand this question at all, as it was obviously done to provide him easier access to her person. Regardless he eventually made eye contact with her as well, and even went on to touch her as she'd assumed he wanted to, albeit with some hesitation. "You shouldn't hesitate," she said with a smile. The sensation of his right hand making contact with her left bosom once more, gave the girl tingles. This time was a bit of a different experience, and she figured it was because of the lack of barrier between the two different kinds of flesh. "Ah~" that small noise along with the blushing of her face both reactions she couldn't control. "I assume it is done naked because it feels better, and so you can make sure the other person isn't armed," she murmured. This kind of thought pattern made it obvious the girl had grown up in rather strange conditions, even so she seemed to have some sort of innate understanding of what should be going on.

[Bloodedge]

"I wasn't hesitating!" he reacted quickly. "I was just... having trouble picking one!" Frankly, Leonis was still in shock over this whole situation. He didn't expect to even make time for dealing with girls until his goals were met, and he didn't expect it to end up like this at all. Regardless of this, it was happening here and now apparently, and Leonis found his own arousal to be something destined to come about whether he wanted it to or not. Perhaps Hikage's voice escaping her proved to be the final nail in the coffin, if Leonis had even been resisting in the first place. "Well... yeah, I guess because it feels better. I don't think weapons have anything to do with it, though. It's... usually more of a pleasure-seeking thing, exclusively."

[Apollymi]

"Then don't pick, have both..." she mentioned seeming to find this to be the easiest solution to the young man's problems. After all she wasn't topless in his lap just to be there, if he wanted to touch her she'd allow that to happen. Of course, there was now Leonis' arousal to deal with properly which seemed to poke at the lass as she straddled his lap. She might have found this strange, and as such commented on it in her own way. "You're poking me," she said with her normal amount of candor. Irrespective of this, the words of Leonis made her brow raise, "Pleasure-seeking?" she questioned the word, it's meaning somewhat lost on her because of the idea she had in her mind about how this worked. "I thought it was a fight, and the person on top was the winner." Still as the lass fidgeted in his lap, she tried to figure out what the next step was and what Leonis meant by pleasure-seeking.

[Bloodedge]

What were these impossible words Leonis was hearing? He'd been making up a random excuse for his hesitation earlier, but what came from Hikage's mouth afterwards was unheard of. Not one or the other, left or right, but both? Had he been earlier in his adolescence, he'd have blacked out from the thought alone. Now though, he took a deep gulp of nothing and raised his left hand to match his right's position on the other side of Hikage's chest. It was then that he decided to begin actually moving his hands to rub, squeeze, and generally grope the girl. "Of course I'm poking you. I mean... you're not ugly or anything, so this is what happens, I guess." Ever the 'smooth operator' was Leonis. At least, those would be the words of a certain sarcastic sibling of his when he dealt with women. It likely didn't matter though, especially considering Hikage showed time and time again that she had no clue what the things they were doing actually meant. "No, it's not a fight. People... people do this kind of thing to make each other feel good when they care about each other a lot. It's supposed to be fun. I mean... some people prefer being on top, some people prefer being on the bottom, but it's not a win or lose thing... unless maybe somebody ends up having a bad time, but then it's probably a loss for everybody."

[Apollymi]

The offering of Hikage seemed to be taken up by Leonis though he seemed to have a bit of a problem concerning it. Whatever mental hangup he had he was soon holding, rubbing, and squeezing the entirety of Hikage's ample bosom. She didn't mind this at all either, in fact, the feeling of it was rather pleasant and spreading from the center of her being. A moan slipped from this young girl's mouth, "Ah~ So that happens because you like looking at me..." she mused. This entire thing was a strange but she didn't dislike it, more over as the lad explained what this situation was leaning towards. It apparently wasn't a fight and the only supposed loss to be taken was if both people didn't enjoy themselves. "Sou ka, then let's make sure you have fun too," the girl said as she situated herself to keep them in physical contact and kiss this lad's lips. She wasn't sure what to make of this completely but she definitely wished to continue. After all, Hikage liked Leonis more than she'd ever been known to like anyone, and by his logic it meant they could continue this here and now for each other.

[Bloodedge]

"Well... yeah, I guess. It's kinda weird because you're fifteen, but... that's fine. If I don't care that you're a commoner, I shouldn't care about that either." There were many things Leonis had come to terms with since they ended up in this position, and this was one of them. As she moved forward in his lap, his groin responded in kind. He was absolutely throbbing with physical anticipation at this point, and even these subtle motions were becoming a rather big deal. If Leonis intended to say anything regarding the goings-on, he was silenced by Hikage's furthered aggressive pursuit when she kissed him again. This was to follow the verbalized intention for Leonis to have fun as well, but he felt there was more to it than that. As his lips pursed against Hikage's, his still-moving hands shifted from her breast down her sides, until coming to rest just above her belt line. Leonis then spoke during a brief pause in their kiss, without bothering to produce much space between them. "You know... it's not as simple as that. People don't just do this kind of stuff because they're friends, or because they like looking at each other. People consider the whole... sex thing... to be a pretty big deal, like two people becoming one with each other or something."

[Apollymi]

At present there seemed to be a strange hang up about Hikage's age, as far as she was concerned she was more adult than most considering, but she also had no idea the present age of Leonis. She'd have to remember at some point to ask him how old he was, because initially that wasn't a concern of hers. Soon after she felt a strange sensation below her, and attributed it to the lad she was with, beyond that feeling his hands were moving around her body down to her waist. As his movements shifted the position of his hands, he broke their kiss to try and explain to the lass the severity of this particular situation. She gave herself a moment of pause and studied this lad's face, "You're the only person who's ever given me tingles, friends don't make me feel that way." she asserted firmly. This matter of sex wasn't really one she considered to be any greater than the other things she'd promised the lad. "I want to enjoy all things that give me tingles with you... I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else," she stated. The girl couldn't help this but she was quite certain of these feelings, whether the two of them became one or not, wasn't really what she thought about it, she'd already agreed to be deeply part of this man's life, she wouldn't go back on that. She finished her words and she was staring at this lad, there was softness in her eyes, unlike the aggression she normally possessed. She understood what was going on here, and wanted to do this with him.

[Bloodedge]

In response to his explanation, Hikage spoke of these 'tingles' she'd been experiencing, and how they were exclusively the fault of Leonis. He had neither expected nor hoped for any aspect of romanticism in interaction with this girl, but if anything were to come close, it would be that very sentence from her mouth. 'Did a girl just basically say she liked me? Like... liked me, liked me?' he wondered within the confines of his own mind. Hikage had her own tingles, and now Leonis was experiencing his own variant. This level of acceptance was very new to him, but Hikage's suddenly soft expression made the moment settle as Leonis' eyes grew wider. "H-... Hikage..." he muttered. He didn't know what to say about this, so what he ended up doing was simply kissing the girl again. At the same time, he grasped her pants by the belt line and leaned his own body forward, as he meant to push toward Hikage landing her back on the ground. Such would put him in a position to hover over her without breaking their contact, though he'd then be free to go about the necessary disrobing of both parties. Once again, he momentarily broke their kiss. "So I guess we're doing this right here, in the middle of a forest?" he asked as the healing spell around them finally faded, leaving the magic tool which caused it to fall on the ground next to the pair.

[Apollymi]

Hikage's confession wasn't conventionally romantic, but it was uniquely her own and she was honest in the moment. Beyond this, it would be a few seconds before it was properly responded to, and it was hardly that. She didn't know how to interpret Leonis' reaction, but his uttering of her name brought a vacant look of surprise cross her face. Soon enough she was being kissed again so she supposed that Leonis didn't have anything negative to say about her confession. As they kissed he pushed against her, switching their position as they progressed forward. This was a strange feeling but since apparently the position didn't negatively effect anything, Hikage had no problem with this. "Hai. This way we get to have some fun before we go back and face the Captain," she mentioned. She felt quite vulnerable in this moment as she was now in a position to help them properly get started. Along with this she reached up to help him be rid of his cloak and shirt as well, as it seemed only fair since she'd been topless for quite a while.

[Bloodedge]

In this new position, Leonis found himself being aided in the removal of his torso's coverings. He withdrew his arms one after another to let them slip through their sleeves, until the eventuality in which his shirt was discarded completely. "Yeah. If I'm being honest, I was kinda thinking about staying out here overnight, whether you decided to or not. I figured maybe the Captain would be less murderous in the morning," he said as his hands found Hikage's jeans again. Considering the way they were being worn, he wondered how they even remained on her, until he began making the effort to remove them over the girl's hips. 'Fifteen, huh? I wonder if maybe that age got mixed up some years ago,' he thought. In mere moments, this clause didn't matter at all. He had a front row seat to a show of his own unveiling, and that was the exposed undercarriage of Hikage as he raised her legs until her jeans escaped them. While taking in this view, he stood up to begin the process of removing his own pants. "I... should probably tell you now, I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing here."

[Apollymi]

Apparently it was in Leonis' plans to stay out in the forest overnight to give their new Captain some time to cool off. "That's a good plan... let's do it." she said about hanging out in the forest for the duration of the night. She'd slept in sketchier places than outside of a building full of Magic Knights over the course of her life. This part of the conversation was had as Leonis aimed to slip her jeans down her legs. Her hips were lifted and she felt strangely the entire time but didn't mind being naked. After this, Leonis moved to make himself naked while explaining that he was unfamiliar with the workings of this particular activity. Strangely, Hikage had a small smile appear on her face. "I guess we're gonna have to wing it then..." she said, seemingly satisfied by the statement, she reached up to pull the lad down towards her and kiss him again. Even without both of them knowing exactly what they were doing, she was sure they could figure this out if they approached it together.

[Bloodedge]

"Yeah... alright." It seemed they would indeed be spending a night in the forest. Leonis supposed this would be for the best overall, considering they would obviously be needing to become better acquainted at this point. By the time he was fully disrobed, Hikage was tugging on him to pull him into another kiss, leaving Leonis to support his weight with his left hand on the ground. His right hand, in the meantime, gripped his erect manhood. As a royal, he had been of the opinion that his partner in endeavors such as this would have an inkling of a clue what they were doing, or that he would have some form of guidance overall. Something about what they were doing now was exciting, though. Neither of them really seemed to have a clue, bar Leonis understanding the very basics of this exchange, but if they were finding out together, there was something special to be taken from the ordeal. He was once again experiencing his own form of 'tingles' which set his body ablaze, prompting a single warning spoken against Hikage's mouth. "Alright... I'm putting it in now," he said as his hips shifted forward, aiming to insert his member into the womanhood of the green-haired girl, albeit with some apparent difficulty in even finding the entrance for a few moments.

[Apollymi]

Whatever thoughts Leonis had about this endeavor, Hikage had none to speak of whatsoever. If he was of the opinion this wouldn't be something to happen for him for a while, she'd never even given it a thought until they had started this in the moment. This was a strange thing for Hikage, but she enjoyed it just the same, something about the idea of undertaking something new and exciting with the lad she was with made her feel tingles deep within herself. That being said, the mechanics of this function were something they hadn't really thought all the way out. As Hikage kissed the lad, he'd eventually mumble into his mouth about putting it in. She'd seen him naked and understood what he meant by this, but as he fidgeted around it seemed to not find the proper home. Feeling the tip of him push against her multiple times made Hikage's loins ache and twitch, causing her to moan and fidget against him. "Aah~" Eventually she'd manage to tilt the angle of her hips just right to allow the entry of his manhood proper. Such would come along with a strange sensation she might have interpreted as pain, her eyes widening at it, but along with it there was also the extreme dampening of her loins, which had been taking place for a while before this started. She'd have no idea what this would feel like for the lad but she rather suddenly felt full in a way she didn't know possible. "Ano... this feeling," she mumbled as she looked up at this lad.

[Bloodedge]

Embarrassing. Only this word could explain the situation in which Leonis failed at multiple insertion attempts, but with some assistance from his partner, the end result became a desired one. As he slid forward, his eyes widened, and his brows raised. Even through stories and his own conclusions drawn over the years, he'd never expected what he was experiencing now. Breaching the first barrier was initially difficult, but beyond it was a previously unknown warmth to go along with moist surroundings. If there was more to this, he was keen to find out at his earliest convenience, but first was a need to address Hikage's incomplete clause. "Huh? Is something wrong?"

[Apollymi]

This feeling of fullness came with a slightly incomplete statement from Hikage. While she looked at him, he seemed to find his new home within her, and she wondered what it was like for him. When asked if anything was wrong she replied the only way she knew how. "Iie, it's just filling me up. I've never felt anything like it before~" she said. Her words had no hidden meaning, she meant it simply as a statement of fact. Even so, this statement would likely be seen as obscene, more over the girl's hips wiggled and inside of her body clinched just a bit as she explored this new found fullness with her body. "It'll feel better for you too right, if you move around more?" she asked innocently, giving the lad permission to go about his business as he was on top this was something he alone was in control of, and she was more than content to see what this would mean for her. The tingles in her body seemed to be on the rise again, and she had no idea what this had to do with the lad currently occupying her body, but she didn't intend to let him stop until she saw the end of it.

[Bloodedge]

"Wh-... so, it's fine?" he questioned. He wasn't initially sure what Hikage meant when referencing whatever feeling she experienced, but her more specific mention of it took him aback. He could believe in this moment that he was providing some amount of satisfaction to perhaps match what he was managing to receive. "Well... this is really tight, so that might be on you, but... I'll do my best," he said, both in response to her initial claim, and to her following query about this feeling even better for him. Following the girl's advice, or perhaps even following his body's own desires after the proper start of this copulation, Leonis found his hips shifting to and fro whether it was his intention or not. The pace he took was a slow one, but he had no clue whatsoever what the end goal was, as far as sensations were concerned. Even with these slower movements though, Leonis found that his every movement was pushing him toward a maddening feeling in his own groin, the likes of which he could have never even imagined before this moment. "It does feel better. It's good for you too though, right?"

[Apollymi]

"Hai!~" she said this as she was likely already enjoying herself. Hikage wasn't at all dishonest, so she meant what she said in this moment. As for the tightness of this situation she couldn't say whether or not this was exclusively her fault, but she very much enjoyed it. Beyond this, Leonis started to move and the thrusting to and fro stirred the girl within. His movements seemed both slow and deliberate and aimed towards driving the girl to madness. Her body began to tighten around him, the flushing of her face, seemed to increase and her eyes widened. Of course, she couldn't help this at all, and she moaned her happiness. "It's good~ So good~" she said moaning pleasantly. She couldn't help but clinch as her body was pushed over the edge, she had no reference for this feeling, but it was singularly one of the best feelings she'd ever experienced. Her hips even moved against his as she found a rhythm which matched the slow strokes he seemed to be happy to dish out.

[Bloodedge]

As Leonis continued his thrusting, he found that the apparent tightness he was feeling around his groin intensified over time. One would expect this to be unpleasant in some respect - without having proper experience, at least - but Leonis found it to be adding a great deal to his own pleasure. In fact, the more he moved, the more satisfying the experience became, whether by his own efforts or by Hikage's physical reaction to what he did. What Hikage had to say about this caused Leonis to stare into the girl's face, where he took in her rather lewd expression and found even greater pleasure for himself in seeing it. "Hngh... good. It's good for me too," he said. Over time, his every movement became something that wasn't even done of his own volition anymore. His efforts hastened slowly over time, building more and more toward a faster, yet still unwavering pace by no will of his own. "Urgh... My body is moving on its own. This doesn't feel like I expected it to..."

[Apollymi]

As Leonis continued moving Hikage couldn't help but be more entranced. By the time he was looking at her face, she also saw his, she couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. But soon she was satisfied by the lad mentioning this moment was good for him as well. Something about this felt relieving, as she wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing this entire time, but her body seemed to react on its own for the most part. Still there was more vocalization from Leonis who explained that he was moving because his body wanted to move and not because he was thinking about it. He also said his expectations of this situation were different. "Aaah, then you should keep going~" she moaned as her hips wiggled against his thrusts. The slightly increasing speed was enough for the girl, each movement seemed to be building her closer and closer towards another of those earlier feelings. As she looked up to the lad's face and was overcome with strange emotion, she'd run her tongue up his neck in a manner most similar to her earlier use of a knife. Beyond this she'd aim to kiss him again, enjoying each and every second of it.

[Bloodedge]

"Heh... I plan to. I couldn't stop if I tried," Leonis claimed. True enough, he had already made multiple attempts to change up his own pacing or shift himself around to some extent, all to no avail. Something else was fated to occur and alter his movements suddenly, though. An unexpected tongue reached his neck and licked up it, unleashing a tingle the likes of a full electric jolt down his entire body. The result of this was his already-moving hips jerking forward in what could almost be considered a spastic manner. This drove him quickly to the maximum limit of depth he was capable of reaching within the green-haired girl, and withdrew him at a much slower pace as his body relaxed and he settled into kissing the girl again.

[Apollymi]

It seemed Hikage's movements had an effect beyond whatever her original intent was. A single lick up Leonis neck caused the lad to jerk forward, placing him at full depth within her. Such a sudden movement after the calm pacing he'd been dishing out, made the young girl's body tighten in response, filling her and pushing her over the edge of a flourish the likes of which her body hadn't truly known before. She moaned against the lad's mouth as he slowly withdrew, her nether tight from such a fresh release. "My body is all hot and numb..." she said, she wondered if the lad had similar feelings. "You should feel this too..." she said it like it made sense to her, but the crazy animal part of Hikage would lead the girl into flipping their positions while they kissed and Leonis withdrew. She was physically quite strong and it would end with the lad beneath her at the pinnacle of his withdrawal only for the lass to sink back down onto his lap with gravity. "Aaah~" the moan that escaped her would eventually lead to the gentle rocking of her hips in this position. At the very least, Hikage understood why people found this fun and did this activity with people they liked. It was an entirely different sort of challenge full of new things, reactions and feelings she would win at this, even if there was no real prize at the end.

[Bloodedge]

Everything Leonis experienced was something entirely new and amazing, and he couldn't compare it to anything else he'd ever felt. The simple effort of Hikage licking his neck had somehow managed to accomplish so much more than he could have anticipated, and the sensation of her loins around his led him to believe the same was true of her as a result. If that wasn't enough, there was the addition of her claim to feeling hot and numb to affirm this thought. Before he could manage to say anything, Hikage made a note that he should be made to feel the same, and she followed this with a movement which resulted in Leonis being rolled until he was underneath her. Insertion occurred almost immediately afterward, granting Leonis the sensation while it was not at all under his control, and it was a very new kind of incredible. His own pleasure escaped him in the form of his voice, flowing directly into the mouth of Hikage as she rocked about in his lap.

[Apollymi]

Hikage's body moved of its own accord. She took a bit of pleasure in the simple movements of her hips and the feeling of Leonis' lips against her own. She could even feel the lad making noises into her mouth, and though she couldn't really state why, she enjoyed this as well. She could assume at least she was doing her part to help him reach the same height of pleasure that she had in the moments prior. Strangely enough, she could even say it was fun for her to be in charge of this as well, given she seemed to be moving towards something greater. Her body began to move up and down as well as the gentle rocking motion, she didn't know what she was accomplishing, but as she broke their kiss she couldn't help but have sadistic grin on her face. "This is good for you too right?" she moaned.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis was content to continue pouring his satisfaction into Hikage's mouth as she took the proverbial reigns of this endeavor. This position they now found themselves in was its own type of appealing. There was something about the movements between them being a mystery on his part that Leonis found even more pleasurable than he could have imagined. Soon enough, Hikage was breaking the kiss they shared, freeing Leonis' mouth in such a time that a sigh of contentment escaped him just then. His breath would caress the face of the green-haired girl as she questioned him, and soon after would come his answer to her query. Of course, pause was taken even then from Leonis looking into Hikage's face, finding the twisted grin she wore to be attractive in a way which caused his manhood to throb. "Huu~... yeah... everything you're doing is great."

[Apollymi]

As tended to be the case, all things done in a seemingly natural way elicited candid responses from Hikage. The young woman bounced around in the lap of Leonis enjoying the pleasure of it, and her twisted grin only widened at the knowledge that the lad was indeed enjoying himself. Contented sighs and breaths as she worked atop his lap only seemed to encourage Hikage's movements which were gaining speed the longer they went on. He even went on to answer her question and right before he did this she felt a throb internally which had nothing to do with her directly but gave her a sensation of satisfaction nonetheless. She found herself leaning forward pressing her chest against his and moving only her hips as she looked to him now, enjoying the honesty of his facial expressions. "Sugoi." She didn't know what she'd initially expected from this endeavor, but she found Leonis' encouragement to be just what she needed to continue, her nether tightening around him as she stirred herself towards yet another flourish one which would allow the girl to stop her own movements as she chased the feeling she was receiving.

[Bloodedge]

Hikage's breasts were eventually pressed against the bare torso of Leonis. Once more, he found himself with an added sensation to further build his overall pleasure. The girl's expression being paired with every alteration to her movements began driving Leonis toward a horizon that he could see clear as day with his mind's eye, but still had no reference for at all. "Hngh! It's..." Whatever his intentions, they soon became moot. Hikage managed to work herself up to another peak, but in doing so in this position, she also brought her movements to a halt. Leonis had been feeling something welling up deep inside his loins, nigh ready to explode, but as abruptly as Hikage stopped moving... that level of feeling was gone. "Huh? Why'd you stop?" he asked, having a genuine curiosity as to why this sensation of his had been made so fleeting.

[Apollymi]

The initial statement of Leonis was lost upon Hikage, and soon enough her hips had come slamming to a stop against his. Whatever sensation or lack there of he was experiencing, she simply couldn't say the same. In fact, the more her body moved in the moments prior the more she'd felt the need to until that final sinking moment when her body had stopped of its own accord locked up and looking for that sensation. When asked with supreme curiosity why she'd stopped, Hikage gave a slight pause to explain. "Ano, it got really tense and my body just stopped after. I couldn't push past the feeling of it," she summarized not knowing if this could make sense to the lad beneath her or not. "Gomen..." she murmured as her own head cleared of the peak she'd so recently reached. Still, the momentary numbness of her body was wearing off and she could be seen slowly moving her still twitching body up. "Would you like to change again?" she asked, knowing their positioning changed all kinds of aspects about this situation and now having the figuring that what could potentially be great for her, might not be as great for him.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis awaited the response of Hikage. After a matter of seconds, he received it with the knowledge that her body tensed up on its own. From what he understood based on their experience thus far, he could equate it to what he'd felt earlier, or whatever sensation he was about to have just before Hikage stopped. "Oh. Well, don't worry about it. Guys aren't usually able to keep going afterwards, but I think girls always can. You stopping just gave us more time," he explained. Hikage went about raising herself to break their connection, but in doing so, she questioned his desire to alter their positions once more. Leonis took a moment to prop himself up on his elbows, preparing for whatever would be on the proverbial table next. "Fine by me, but... how do we go about it now?"

[Apollymi]

Hikage soon found acceptance of her explanation and beyond it a general amount of understanding for the predicament in which she'd found herself. A bit of a flush came to her face at this point because she hadn't really expected this sort of appreciation from the lad, he'd even gone so far as to say they basically would have more time to go at it because she'd stopped at that point. Having disconnected their bodies she watched as Leonis propped himself up and questioned how their next leg of this bout should go. Hikage wasn't very imaginative, aside from in the moment battle situations, and only had things she'd actually seen to reference. As such she shifted her own position taking to all fours opposite of the lad, strangely beyond this she balanced on just her left hand, and used her right to reach around her hips and separate the folds of her being to give the lad an open look for where he was aiming. "Animals do it this way, and it seems pretty fun..." she mentioned gaining a slight bit of anticipation waiting for the lad to join her in this.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis was in no way prepared to come up with an optimal position or anything of the sort. He had a few vague ideas, but none that really struck a chord for what might be properly enjoyable. Little did he know, that hardly mattered, but perhaps he would come to learn this over time with experience. What came next was Hikage's choice of bending over to expose her hindquarters to Leonis directly. She even went on to grab her bottom and spread herself, much to Leonis' viewing pleasure. He could feel the blood dripping down his left nostril as he took in this sight, even given how surprising it was that he then had blood pooling anywhere besides his groin. As he moved forward to meet Hikage in this new position, he felt as if the movements occurred because he was being drawn in. "S-... Sugoi," he muttered. If he had a mind to, he would continue to question this girl's age, considering the level of maturity her body boasted. He couldn't bring himself to even consider this, though. The moment he was in reach, his left hand gripped the free size of Hikage's rear, and he joined the effort by inserting himself into her once more. At the end of his initial thrust, Leonis suddenly felt incapable of withdrawing himself fully. This resulted in his manhood reversing only three quarters or so of its length before returning to its ultimate depth. Never did he question this position being taken from animals; he was far too engrossed in what he could see from this angle, and now how much more he was feeling as well.

[Apollymi]

In this position, Hikage had no idea what was going on behind her, and by the time she'd looked back over her shoulder, she could see Leonis making his approaching, bleeding nose and all. She still didn't know what to interpret of the nosebleeds this lad seemed prone to, but she didn't have much time to consider that at all. By the time she'd opened her mouth to say anything, Leonis had a hand on the unoccupied side of her rear, and beyond this was sliding himself home within her again. This summoned a moan from the lass at its suddenness. "Aaaah~" she sound feel from her face as he began to pull away properly only to feel some great resistance. She enjoyed this position optimally as she began to move her hips against his coming thrusts. "I ah.... this is great~" she moaned happily.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis had to agree with the greatness of this experience. What's more, the feeling which escaped him moments ago was now returning at a more rapid pace than he thought it could. While this felt amazing, he thought this would be a very awkward time to bring an end to this, after so recently changing positions and all. He made a conscious effort to keep his own pace as slow as possible, that he might hopefully get a grasp on his steadily-encroaching flourish long enough to make the shift into this position worthwhile for both parties. "Yeah... maybe too great," he grunted while making an attempt to counteract Hikage's movements with the force of his left hand. "Hrgh... it's coming out. I don't think I can stop it..."

[Apollymi]

Without a doubt, Hikage was feeling that same level of feeling she'd felt a couple of times before now, but at a much greater intensity. Between Leonis' movements and her own she was rather close to her own end without any need of extra work on either of their parts. At the words spoken by Leonis a wicked smile came to Hikage's face and she looked back at him showing this face, flush with color. "Don't stop... I can't stop either!~" the girl's own end was approaching and she couldn't stop the movements of her hips against his. Her flourish would come in blinding realization and slippery sound. She couldn't stop it and only when this happen did the girl stop moving herself. "Leonis!~"

[Bloodedge]

For all of his efforts, Leonis was rendered even more incapable of stopping. Something about the expression Hikage revealed to him paired with her urging him not to stop, threw him into overdrive. Not only did he neither stop nor slow; he even sped up on impulse, adding additional force to his every thrust as well. There was a reason he wished to stop before his own end initially, but it was now long lost to him. Soon, one final thrust forward went to his limit and beyond, as all the tingling sensation built up in his loins erupted through his shaft, as if it were a hose meant to flush out Hikage's interior. The final nail in the coffin had been the sound of Hikage's voice calling out his name, prompting a powerful grunt in the midst of his own explosive conclusion. "H-... Hikage! I can't pull out!"

[Apollymi]

Every forward thrust seemed to feed Hikage, and strangely, Leonis seemed to push faster and harder every time he moved. She didn't know what caused him to act this way but she couldn't help but feed into further. When her body finally stopped it went limp immediately, the clause that Leonis couldn't pull out was unheard by her, as her body lost all sensation and fell forward, allowing the lad to slip from within her at the moment of his eruption. She didn't know if this was supposed to happen. If he finished it would be upon her lower back as her body tried to regain feeling from the ground. But she couldn't keep the sensation within her body, "I fell off..." she murmured, but her entire body was loose. "I... ah..." she was winded and numb, and tingly. "Did you feel it too?" she asked the lad, having felt the same kind of rush of a near-death experience, and she'd dodged a bullet in more ways than one.

[Bloodedge]

In the final moment of Leonis' ability to hold off his eruption, Hikage happened to slip off his groin. Such an occurrence resulted in his seed being spread along the girl's back. Leonis could describe this as a bittersweet experience. Something within him demanded that he remain inside Hikage during these final moments, but his mind knew better. At the end of it all, he was left with his dripping manhood in hand, very satisfied, but not knowing how his mind should feel based on the conflict going on within it. "Yeah, I felt it alright. It was great, but... that almost went inside you," he said while gazing at the sample of his bodily fluid upon Hikage's flesh.

[Apollymi]

A warm spill across Hikage's back was a strange end to this, perhaps she'd question this more fully later. Instead, she seemed to manage pulling herself together enough to turn and face Leonis who'd managed to reach the same level of satisfaction that she had multiple times now. At his words, though there was something strange about the idea that the sample of the warm fluid would have gone inside of her. "Hm, is that how young are made?" she said expressing at least a base idea of how such things worked with animals. "I like you. But we shouldn't be trying to make babies on purpose, right? I'm okay with that, it's still fun, even if it doesn't end like that..." she mentioned absently. Still, there wasn't much she minded about the lad, and after a few seconds her ears twitched as she heard water rushing in the distance she had a pretty good idea of where it was. "There's a stream that way... you wanna go for a swim, maybe catch some food?" she seemed to be happy enough and could easily move past the potential accident they'd almost had to something a bit better for their night.

[Bloodedge]

"Yeah, it is... And I don't know about you, but I don't want another me running around. I mean... I haven't given kids any thought or anything, but it'd kinda put a damper on my goals, y'know?" he replied. He wasn't at all sure of Hikage's overall intentions, nor if their current setup had any longevity in the mind of the girl. He could agree to the good time, but there remained the curiosity in his mind as to how she interpreted everything they'd done this day. "Say..." he said, though hesitation followed as Hikage seemed to zone in on something. She mentioned a stream, along with her idea of swimming and catching something to eat. Now that he thought about it, Leonis hadn't eaten a single thing since before the entrance exam. Since he was already halfway to standing, he rose the remainder of the way while picking up his clothes to carry. "Sounds like a good idea. Let's do it!"

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Leonis agreed that they shouldn't be trying to make children. "A little me?" Hikage gave this dalliance a bit of thought and then shook her head firmly no. It wasn't that she had anything against kids, but she definitely wouldn't want to put them in a position to live as she had when she was younger. "I don't think I am to have kids soon either... I don't think people would fight me," she thought, as people tended to tip toe around women in general, she could only imagine being pregnant could make that worse. As they progressed in conversation they moved to the idea that Hikage had put forth of finding something to eat and swimming. All of which was well and good, because he agreed to it, Hikage was soon standing naked and gathering all of her clothing into a pile to carry along with her along with her grimoire. "Hai! It will be pretty good too, usually making the fire is the hardest part..." she said aloud knowing that this days meal would be much easier to come by. And though she'd had a bit of a snack earlier, she was hungrier than a single turkey leg could have satisfied. Soon she'd begin taking steps towards the river, but she'd remember that the lad had started a sentence before the, she was curious about what he was thinking and as such she asked directly. "You were saying something before... what was it?"

[Bloodedge]

Leonis figured the battle-crazed girl would be of a mind to agree with him. More importantly than the fact that neither of their lives catered to the idea of an early accidental pregnancy, was the notion that one couldn't draw conclusions for what these two even were now. Leonis had only an inkling of an idea how to broach the topic at first, but now, even that was gone. As such, he was left with his hesitation again when Hikage asked what he'd been intending to say earlier. "It's... nothing. I was just going to suggest the same thing you did," he said. This was of course a lie, but he couldn't bring himself to proper phrasing of what he wished to convey. Perhaps if his life had been lived more normally instead of endless training in seclusion, he would be more well versed... but he was instead left wondering. What did all of this mean? Did Leonis have a girlfriend now? Would they continue their lives doing the things they'd done today, or was this mere spur of the moment activity to be forgotten in future? In the long-run, he supposed time would tell him, since he couldn't manage to ask for a direct answer to anything now. All he could do was gather his things and follow suit to whatever stream Hikage led them to. "Fire's no problem for me. If you know how to catch it, I know how to cook it."

[Apollymi]

Hikage was nothing if not intuitive, and as such she had an inkling of feeling about the truthfulness of the lad's statement. Still having reached the river she sat down her clothing near a tree with her grimoire up before she dived into the water. Upon coming up she felt fresh and clean and then took to standing in waist deep water looking at it with those narrow eyes of hers. "I get distracted when I am hungry too..." she said casually. Hikage wasn't the type to poke at things no one wanted to talk about, so she'd take to her early fishing instead. "How many do you want?" she asked about the number of fish the lad might want was her grimoire glowed and produced a steel combat knife in her hand and she spun it around. Normally she caught a couple of medium sized or a few small sized fish for herself, but she had no idea about the appetite of a man like Leonis. "Hai." she said to the idea of them splitting the work of this fishing trip.

She calmly watched the surface of the water as she waited for an answer, and then much like her earlier instances of fighting her hand was suddenly moving and she was stabbing a medium sized fish in the back of the head as she captured it with her left hand. Upon doing this the fish would be dead and she'd immediately toss it to shore no longer even flailing. "Ichi..." she murmured to herself. Her survival instinct was rather high, and she had no problem catching one fish, and seemed to even be counting them as she completed this action.

[Bloodedge]

Following his sudden lie, Hikage spoke a statement which made it apparent that she knew of the untruth. Leonis was taken aback by this, but there was the earlier mention of her ability to read others. He didn't know how to properly react to this, but Hikage didn't seem too bothered even when being able to tell something was amiss. Leonis was content to move right on to the matter of fish count, but only after his eyes closed and he acknowledged the pass he'd been given. "... Arigatou. Two is fine for me," he said. With that, Leonis took a casual hop into the stream. His head emerged after a matter of seconds, and it didn't seem like he intended to swim as much as he intended to just rinse off after what they'd so recently done. 'Ugh! Chill out, Leo. You'll jump at the next opportunity,' he thought while wringing out his hair. It seemed he was keen on pumping himself up a bit while cooling off in the stream.

[Apollymi]

"Ni." Hikage said pulling yet another fish out. Leonis thanked the young woman for some random reason, and then jumped into the water. As this happened the girl killed the second fish and tossed it beside the second one. She took a bit of a pause as the boy emerged shaking off his hair in such a moment. "Sugoi." She found a second to murmur about it only to have her eyes go back to the water and pull up a third fish which she also immediately killed. She tossed it over to the others and noted the number as well. "San." Hikage kept looking and though she was curious about the lad in depth she figured it could wait for both of them to eat a bit before she questioned him. A few moments longer she stared at the water, waiting for a fish the same approximate size as the first three, but eventually another tried to swim past her right leg, and she grabbed it. She committed to the same actions she'd been using before stabbing it in the back of the neck and tossing it beside the other three. "Shi!~" she seemed excited to have reached her goal and after tossing it over she began moving towards the collection so that the fish could be cleaned as well. "These will be clean in a couple of minutes..." she said to the lad, "You can cook them after that..." she mentioned. She got out of the water and sat at the river bank naked with her feet in the water as she began the cleaning process. She gutted the first fish within seconds and sent its bits away from them down the river bank. It was a skill which she'd honed over time, but she seemed very adept with the use of her knife.

[Bloodedge]

The thoughts flowing through Leonis' mind continued plaguing him. They persisted even as he wrung out his hair and walked back to shore. Eventually, he was on dry land again, where he gathered a few simple stones here and there until he was able to build a ring on the ground. He took a moment during this process to pause and look toward Hikage as she worked to catch fish after fish. In doing so, he found himself entranced by the ability to go about such a task so easily. Maybe it was the simple fact that he was viewing a woman in the nude, but Leonis believed it was something more than that which made him stare so. Could it have been their earlier activities of choice? Perhaps. Regardless of this, he was rather impressed with all he was seeing. "Sugoi. I haven't seen you waste a movement. How'd you get so good at that?" he asked, all while his groin continued to twitch, and his mind began to stir.

[Apollymi]

Hikage went about the start of cleaning the fish she'd captured. Now that she was good to continue this she looked up to notice that that she was being stared at by Leonis. She couldn't help but find this entire thing to be strange. She looked at the lad with wide eyes as he mentioned that she hadn't wasted any movements and that he was stunned about this. "Ano, you don't think this is weird?" she murmured. She'd had some interesting interactions over her life, and most people found her ability to work with a knife unnerving. Still she hadn't actually answered his question so she'd do that as well, as she posted each of the gutted fish atop a knife so that they wouldn't have to touch the ground again. "I have done this a lot. When I was living in the Forsaken Lands it's mostly wilderness when you don't stay in the villages," she explained as she cleaned another fish. She stared at the lad a bit longer. "You really don't think this is weird, huh?" she asked having a look at his twitching member and deciding that he wasn't lying at all about his interest in her knife work or her. "Do you want to go again before dinner?" she asked, this question of a completely sexual nature after the fact, as if she was fine with it as an idea.

[Bloodedge]

Hikage asked about Leonis, and whether he thought her ability to catch and clean fish with a single knife was weird or not. He didn't, but Hikage went on to answer his question as to how she was capable of doing this so efficiently. Apparently, she had been out in the wild quite a bit during her life. Now that he thought about it, this made much sense, considering her tendencies as a fighter and a person. "Huh. I guess that makes a lot of sense," he commented. Hikage further questioned his seriousness regarding the strangeness, or lack thereof, of her actions. This caused him to chuckle and shake his head. "Not one bit," he said moments before his joy was replaced with shock, fully by fault of Hikage questioning his current erect state. "Huh? Well..." A pause came then, and a glance at Hikage's eyes showed him that she had seen what occurred below his waist. Given their earlier chat, this was clearly not something he could lie his way out of. So, he replied while rubbing the back of his head. "I wasn't thinking about it. Like I said though, you're... uhh... really worth looking at."

[Apollymi]

According to Leonis it made sense to him that the lass could kill and clean fish with great efficiency because her previous life. Beyond this he really didn't find it strange that she was able to do this. It made her smile a little and a small blush come to her face. She somehow appreciated to this moment more than she could have explained if she tried. "Hm, I didn't expect that," she murmured. The lad was full of surprises for her, mostly due to his overly accepting attitude. He was stunned by her weird moments, but didn't seem to dislike her for it which she liked. She'd only experienced this sort of acceptance once before and it was under very different circumstances. She cleaned the last of the fish and had them all floating atop knives before them as she cleaned her hands in the water near her feet. After which she stood one hand in her hair the other tossing around that now clean knife in her hand. "I really don't know what to say when you say things like that to me," she stated staring at the lad directly. "But I really like it. It makes me feel all tingly inside... Leo," she said having come to the conclusion that shortening his name would be better for using it in regular conversation.

[Bloodedge]

"Huh? But it does make sense. You had to do what was necessary to survive, so you have a lot of useful skills. That's respectable!" Leonis affirmed. He did truly respect the ability to have such a mastered form of survival tactics, partially because he'd never even needed to do such a thing for himself. He found himself watching, observing even, as Hikage cleaned the fish. One could only wonder how much practice went into such skill, but Leonis could only equate it to truly mastering one's own spells at an individual level. When the fish were all cleaned and ready to be cooked, Hikage spoke of how she felt when he paid her the compliments he did. Leonis hadn't even thought about the fact that he was saying such things, but Hikage claimed to like it, so that was alright. It was apparently something which gave her some internal tingles, and the admittance of that came with Leonis being called by a shortened version of his name. Now was the time in which Leonis' face also turned red, as he could count without even using a full hand's worth of fingers the number of people who'd ever called him such. His groin grew in pulses then - something he didn't even noticed as it happened, simply because he was so taken aback. "Really? Well... I'm glad, Hikage."

[Apollymi]

Yet another compliment came from Leonis and Hikage couldn't help but blush. As far as she could tell, this lad really was honest about what he had to say about the relation to skills and knife usage. "Ano..." she was embarrassed in this moment, but beyond this, she was soon watching something she'd never seen before. After calling Leonis by the shortened version of his name, the lad blushed and beyond this she took a gander at his groin and found it pulsing and alive once again. "Sugoi. Your face is red," she murmured she didn't know how to feel at the present moment. He'd even said he was glad, she wondered why this was, she couldn't help it. She gave herself a moment of pause and leaned towards the lad and kissed his lips, taking a moment to flippantly dart all the fish to the tree nearest their little camp fire. "So we can do it again before dinner... if you want, I mean," she stated with innocence.

[Bloodedge]

At the mention of his reddened face, Leonis reached up with his right hand to touch his own cheek. He hadn't noticed, but after hearing about it, he could tell what was occurring within him. Moreover, his manhood had gained even more solidity than it managed to have in their earlier bout of copulation. Whatever Hikage was feeling, it led to her pinning the cleaned fish against a tree and pressing her lips against his own. His eyes were rendered wide yet again, but he sank into the moment nonetheless. This was followed swiftly by an offer of a sexual nature occurring once more. If there was ever a time to bring up his earlier curiosities, it was now. As such, he broke their kiss while gathering his thoughts to address his concerns. "So uhh... I can't think of a better time to say this. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind going again... I'd actually really like to, but... do we go somewhere from here? I mean, this is something that married people do, or at least people who are dating. So... what are we to each other at this point?"

[Apollymi]

Watching Leonis' face made Hikage quite happy, as the lad assessed his own blushing status. Beyond this she'd moved in and kissed him and this all seemed fine. She couldn't help but be elated by this and found herself excited by the prospect. He'd even sunk into the moment as much as she had. But as she was kissing him he soon pulled away and soon had something to say about the nature of the relationship between them. She stared at him with an unknown bit of intelligence moving around in the girl's eyes, as if she was processing the information he was saying. "Ano... is that what you were thinking about earlier?" she murmured only to look at the lad before her and rather suddenly have her expression to go soft. She seemed a bit embarrassed with a small blush appearing on her face. "I never really thought about it. I'm weird and all, so I didn't figure anyone would want anything like that with me..." the girl admitted. To be honest, she wouldn't have minded something more serious with the lad, she just didn't think it would be something he wanted with her. "I like you though... I wouldn't mind something like that. If it was an offer... from you," she murmured. This girl suddenly felt rather shy and very much like the teenage girl she was. It seemed her intuitive nature might have led her to believe people wouldn't maintain long term interest in her.

[Bloodedge]

Just like that, the jig was up. Hikage made an immediate connection between what he finally managed to say, and what he'd refrained from saying earlier. He continued rubbing the back of his head while coming to terms with this exchange, finding some purpose in honesty at the moment. "Well... yeah. It's just, that all happened so suddenly, I wasn't sure what you were thinking about it." Even as Leonis spoke these words through his own state of embarrassment, he could see the similar feeling painted on Hikage's face. Her admittance to strangeness paired with this expression spawned a certain warmth in Leonis' chest. "Of course you're weird; I said that when we first met at the entrance exam. But, I think it's... attractive," he admitted. If they were already in the middle of this heart-to-heart discussion, Leonis could at least be free enough to say such things as this to convey his feelings. "I like you too, and... I don't know for sure if this is something that's gonna last forever or anything... I doubt anybody ever does know. But, we've taken such a leap already, I think it's worth a shot. So..." Leonis paused, taking the moment to step forward and place his hands on either side of the green-haired girl's waist. "What's your answer?"

[Apollymi]

The explanation from Leonis, combined with his own embarrassed features made Hikage feel strangely. She was never anything but honest herself, so one could count anything that fell out of her mouth as the absolute truth for the moment. Moreover, she didn't feel like Leonis was being dishonest as he made his current explanation either. He claimed that even though he'd spoken about her being weird upon their first meeting he found something about this attractive. Such a statement caused the widening of Hikage's eyes in this moment as she hadn't expected it, as well as a warm feeling in her chest. 'He likes that I'm weird, sugoi.' she thought to herself. Beyond this it was made clear by the lad's speech that he didn't have any promises to give for later in the future, he wasn't even sure how long they could or would last. The green haired lass appreciated his honesty as a person whose life had seemed bleak for longer than it'd seemed like it would be okay. She understood that time wasn't promised to anyone or anything like that, so she answered the best way she knew how. "Hai. Let's do this. And enjoy it for however long we can," she said agreeing to a long term arrangement and attachment to the lad known as Leonis Vermillion. With his hands around her waist she stepped forward just a bit and pressed her naked flesh against his, enjoying the warmth and closeness in this moment. She didn't ask about the sex a third time, she simply aimed to slip her arms around his neck and kiss him once more.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis patiently awaited the answer to come from Hikage. When it came, it was a favorable one for the young man. Without a doubt, his return home would eventually come with some interesting stories about his life since becoming a Magic Knight. How would he explain this strange acquisition of a girlfriend, though? Surely there would be some way to do so. Regardless, all of that hardly mattered now. Leonis had his moment of elation, and that's what he counted as important for the time being. "Hai!" he said as Hikage's body pressed against his. No further speaking occurred from that moment, as the pair once again found themselves locking lips with one another. This resulted in Leonis tightening his grasp on the girl while matching her force, pressing equally against her body with his. In a moment where breaths were aligned by happenstance, Leonis found it pertinent to have his own tongue pass his lips, and by virtue of that, enter the mouth of Hikage as if it intended to swim around and form its new home there.

[Apollymi]

After receiving her answer, Leonis seemed to be fairly accepting of it. This made Hikage glad in a way she couldn't really explain, soon though she'd pressed her lips against his. She had no idea what their future would hold, but she could well enjoy this for as long as possible. Speaking of enjoyment, there was the matter of this lad's now tightened grip and his body pressing itself equally against her own. Eventually their mouths opened to take a breath and during this time, Leonis went on to slip his tongue into Hikage's open mouth. This was a strange unexpected sensation, but she didn't dislike it. 'Sugoi, it's so warm,' she thought. Her instincts let her own tongue move around against his, in a battle to eventually reach into the opposing mouth as well. As the intensity of this moment increased, Hikage found her fingers moving along the back of this lad's head, buried in his ash-blonde locks. She moaned her happiness into his body without thought and anticipated their progress with tingles felt in her body.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis had only been exploring the concept of something he'd heard of in the past when entering Hikage's mouth, but she naturally came to respond with tongue movements of her own. This response caused Leonis' eyes to widen slightly before slowly returning to a closed state. His grip loosened only slightly as they progressed and Hikage placed a hand on the back of his head, but this happened only for the sake of his hands shifting to her lower back. Considering their closeness, the fact that Leonis found his member pulsing again meant he also felt the skin of Hikage's lower body being rubbed against by it at every movement.

[Apollymi]

Hikage's exploration of Leonis' mouth was received well as the lad's hands loosened just a bit, but she acutely felt this throbbing manhood against her lower body. A slight twitch would occur in her own body as the man's member was eventually trapped between the thickness of her thighs and right against her womanhood. Each throb would subsequently send a jolt of feeling down the young woman, so much so, that her mouth would eventually break from Leonis'. Her face was fully flush, her nipples hardened against his chest giving the contrast to the flesh of her bosom and the girl herself seemed to be in a state of elation. "Sugoi," she murmured in appreciation of this moment. Still she wished to press on, so she licked up the lad's neck wishing to feel the throb of his manhood again. Still there was more to come, but unlike their previous bout they didn't seem to be in any rush.

[Bloodedge]

So many more things were being felt by Leonis this time around. The pair taking a simple moment of tenderness in which they were to enjoy each other without some form of penetration was doing wonders for Leonis, from the sensation of his manhood being gripped between Hikage's thighs, to the sensation of her erect nipples brushing against his chest. Still, there was the matter of Leonis' own natural reaction to everything he felt. With Hikage deciding to lick his neck again, a similar result to the first time came about, though this time was more of a tension wave which made him slowly drive his hips forward. Pleasantries only piled atop one another, as Leonis' most recent movement - spawned by Hikage's approach - gave him the unique feeling of his member rubbing between her legs, while also rubbing against her undercarriage. This was a strange medley of feelings which Leonis couldn't call anything but satisfying, so he decided to continue pursuing it of his own accord while also focusing on Hikage's neck with his tongue, aiming to offer her the same experience she'd given him twice now.

[Apollymi]

The length of new things felt by Leonis seemed to be matched by the newness of the sensations given to Hikage. This time when Hikage licked his neck she got to feel the tension build up in his body as he pushed forward quite a bit between her legs. It gave her an extra bit of sensation as he touched her this way and caused a small moan to escape the girl. "Aah~" Moreover she was up to feel something completely new as Leonis' tongue became acquainted with her neck in a manner similar to what she'd done to him. This reciprocity wasn't at all expected on Hikage's part, nor was the sensation which went along with it. The green haired lass had her knees buckle from the sudden flush of pleasantness and beyond this her loins gained dampness and pulsed with a unique sensation. It caused the girl's voice to leave her mouth in earnest, "Leo!~"

[Bloodedge]

Whatever Leonis thought his efforts would accomplish could be thrown out the proverbial window, as he was given solidity by virtue of feeling the moisture beginning to build above his manhood. As well, he was once again hearing his shortened name called out by the girl. He wasn't as utterly shocked this time around, so he remained aware enough to respond in kind by squeezing Hikage's lower body and continuing to lick up her neck until her face was reached. Once there, he kissed her lips again while his hands simultaneously gripped her rear-end. All the while, the strange effort of stroking without penetration continued beneath the waist of the green-haired girl, seeming to have its own effects on Leonis as well.

[Apollymi]

Whatever Hikage thought of this interaction initially she was enjoying this bit of foreplay just as much as she'd enjoyed the sex. Even though it was different in its execution, it still worked towards feeding the tingles and feelings the girl got in this young man's presence. Beyond all that, she'd heard this man's name leave her lips once more, without the startled reaction he'd given the first time. Instead, he persisted in his efforts, his tongue travelling the full length of her neck before he reached her face and once again kissed her lips. The added bonus of the lad gripping her bottom and his constant motions between her legs would seen a plethora of feeling through Hikage's core. Moreover as they kissed this combination of things would send the lass over the edge of the precipice causing the dampness between her legs to reach its maximum while she moaned her pleasantries directly into Leonis' face.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis was quite pleased to have his every movement proven worthwhile by Hikage's physical response, and he held hope that the same could be said in reverse. Eventually, Leonis was experiencing much easier movements betwixt Hikage's legs. The blame could solely be placed on the fact that his member was now virtually drenched. If he didn't know any better, he'd have assumed there was insertion at some point during the last few moments. Actually... he hardly knew better, so he mentally questioned this until he focused on the current feeling for confirmation. Still, considering what he'd been feeling all this time, he wondered how much more time should pass before he progressed to the proper act.

[Apollymi]

Hikage couldn't help but feel entranced. Leonis found his movements between her legs to be easier over time, and Hikage herself found them to be maddening. So much so that she adjusted herself just a bit so that at the right amount of thrust the lad could potentially find himself buried within her. To hurry this along she couldn't help but moan. "Leo..." she really didn't think she could continue on like this, the anticipation was killing her in this moment.

[Bloodedge]

Continued motions from Leonis were eventually met by a slight shift in Hikage's angle. Because of such a change, he felt a very familiar sensation with his next forward thrust - that being the opening of her person. Leonis stopped instinctively just as the tip of his manhood reached Hikage's threshold. As he looked into her face, though, he saw something curious. Could this have been what he thought it was? He could only assume, given the way his name was spoken thereafter. If he happened to be wrong, he'd just have to deal with that later... but for now, Leonis decided to take a page from Hikage's book and act on his gut instinct by continuing to move his hips forward until he found himself within her again. Only during this motion did he speak. "This is what you wanted, wasn't it?"

[Apollymi]

The slight shift in Hikage's body had indeed resulted in the lad beginning a proper entrance into her person. Strangely though Leonis stopped short of pushing himself all the way in initially. The look on Hikage's face hadn't changed at all, and was still one of subtle anticipation. She couldn't wait, and strangely enough the lad didn't wait for any further instructions, he pushed forward after a few agonizing seconds and Hikage couldn't help but moan her excitement. Beyond this she was asked a question which was oddly direct coming from Leonis and while it was surprisingly it would get an answer like she always provided. "Aaaah~ Yes," she moaned out this sentence without much of a problem. Given their current positioning most of the movements would be left to Leonis and Hikage instead busied herself by kissing the lad's neck.

[Bloodedge]

At the very least, Leonis had made the right assumption when thinking Hikage provided him an opening on purpose. Now, he was inside again, and he somehow felt right at home from the start this time around. It was as if their one experience not long ago gave him an unknown level of comfort when connecting loins with Hikage. He began moving almost immediately, though it didn't take long for him to find a lack of convenience on his part. He kept things as they were for a few minutes due to the chance Hikage had some preference for this, but whether that were the case or not, he couldn't say he really minded this position either. However, he did have an alteration in mind. Leonis was eventually taking a liberty of his own by firming his grip on Hikage's left side, while using his left arm to grasp her right thigh and lift it to his side. In doing so, he had a much easier time moving to and fro in her nether, and an easier time reaching a greater depth as well.

[Apollymi]

Once more Hikage found herself at the mercy of Leonis' movements. Since he'd started up properly now she found herself simply capable of enjoying this man's occupation of her body. Moreover this carried on for quite some time, letting the girl build up just a bit more feeling. In fact, she couldn't help but enjoy the feeling until such a time as a slight alteration was made to their position. Suddenly the lad was lifting her right leg and using the leverage to bury himself deeper within her person. The suddenness of this shift pushed her over the edge, causing her nether to pulsate with feeling as the man with her plunged in and out of her repeatedly. "Aaah!~"

[Bloodedge]

This slight alteration to their given position worked wonders for Leonis, true, but it also seemed to accomplish something greater for Hikage. This was good news for Leonis; he had hopes of being able to provide as much satisfaction as he was receiving from this encounter, and Hikage's responses made it seem like that was indeed the case. His thrusts continued at a steady pace until an eventual momentum shift which added greater speed. This, however, came with Leonis starting to lose his balance over time. Only a minute or so later, he stumbled forward in a way that would threaten to leave Hikage falling back-first onto the ground in the middle of Leonis' forward thrust.

[Apollymi]

Soon enough there was speed building and a bit of roughness to go along with the current positioning of the pair. What none could have immediately expected though was the pair falling by the force of one of Leonis' thrusts which would leave Hikage falling towards the ground. On instinct at the moment her balance was disrupted, Hikage's grip on the young man tightened. She took him with him and used her leverage to switch their positions at the last possible second so that their minor tumble would end in a change in position for the pair of them. In their new configuration, Leonis would be on his back against the ground while Hikage's body settled in atop him. Given this she'd lean into him beginning to move her hips as she did. "We fell..." she said as she kissed him. Only after she stopped did she say anything else. "It was fun." she mentioned as her hips began to move of their own accord in small back and forth motions atop the man's lap. He was neither properly entering nor exiting but instead simply stirring with the increased movements from the lass.

[Bloodedge]

In the midst of the fall brought about by Leonis' loss of balance, Hikage made an effort to rotate the pair of them. Much to Leonis' further surprise, it was he who ended up with his back on the ground instead of Hikage. What's more, the green-haired lass carried on immediately by further progressing from her own position atop him. She spoke the obvious about them falling before she kissed him, only to complete the clause when she was done. Fun was what she thought the act of falling was here, and despite being a little winded from the landing, Leonis could probably agree. At the very least, Hikage's newfound technique whilst atop him was a different sensation entirely when compared to everything else Leonis had felt today. He was once again beginning to feel the tingling in his groin, which he now fully understood as meaning the coming of the end. The only question now was: How long until that moment came about?

[Apollymi]

Hikage's little maneuver seemed to do well enough into getting them into a new position. And though he seemed initially shocked by how it had worked out, Leonis didn't seem to mind the shift at all. Still as Hikage continued to move she studied the face of the lad below her. She had only a basic understanding of how this activity worked and had no idea if this was contributing to the same level of sensation for him that it was for her. As such, she'd simply persist, the movements of her hips driving her closer and closer. Until of course, the inevitable peak was reached, this time though, her hips were able to continue their motion, until such a time as Leonis stopped her.

[Bloodedge]

The passage of time saw to it that this feeling in Leonis' loins continued growing without pause. Hikage's interior eventually became a much more slippery experience for him, adding its own little edge to how Leonis' body perceived each sensation. He was only able to push this off for a matter of minutes while Hikage sought her own pleasure. A short while after she achieved climax again though, Leonis was beginning to struggle over his own restraint. "Hngh!" he grunted, putting as much of himself as possible into resisting long enough to warn the girl. "Can't... can't hold it..."

[Apollymi]

As Hikage's ride persisted, she'd eventually be warned soon after her climax that Leonis couldn't hold out against his feelings much longer. A grin spread across the girl's face as she'd been right in her assumption that he'd warn her, and she gave a single tentative shift downward before shifting herself up and off of the lad's lap. "Hai, don't hold back!~" she mused. The last time he'd mentioned such a thing, it'd been a single thrust left which had almost ruined them. Since she'd so recently finished she found this dismount easiest and wondered if the lad would be able to find his end properly with the last push. She supposed only time would tell but at the very least she knew she didn't want to end up with child because of their fun.

[Bloodedge]

The words 'don't hold back' from his partner were interpreted interestingly by Leonis. Rather, he wasn't exactly sure how he should interpret them. Did she mean for him to continue without worry? Perhaps, though it was quite unlikely. Regardless of how he decided to accept these words in the end, one final shift downward by Hikage was followed by a removal of herself from Leonis. In that moment, he felt the mightiest of buildups within him, but with the following movement, he found his release denied again. "Huagh! Didn't work!" he exclaimed. He'd felt strangely about this, as he was almost certain another individual movement downward would have ended badly, but anything between that would-be occurrence and where he ended up could not be achieved. "I uhh... I don't know what to do now."

[Apollymi]

Hikage witness something strange in the following moments. She was almost certain that if she'd stayed on any longer they would have been looking at the mishap they'd only narrowly avoided the first time. Of course, that being said, the lad was soon enough denied his release which seemed to be just as bad from the outside perspective. The young woman was now on her knees between the lad's legs looking up at him as he exclaimed that he simply didn't know what to do at this juncture. "Sou ka..." murmured the lass, but she wasn't about to deny the lad the fun of this moment, and much like her earlier moments of genius she'd be left with but a few choices in how to handle it. Her instinct said he needed to finish within if he was doing it consciously so she went with this idea and tried something entirely different. She leaned her face towards his still throbbing member and licked it with her tongue. And upon finding that she didn't dislike it she continued until she'd closed her mouth around the tip of it moving it with her tongue in a manner similar to their earlier kisses. This was the most extreme form of the girl's try something different attitude, but she would do her best in this moment, giving the occasional glance upward to see if she was helping this lad along.

[Bloodedge]

As Leonis racked his brain for an idea on how he could resolve this issue in a reasonable manner, Hikage was suddenly on her knees betwixt his legs. A simple phrase of acknowledgement came from the girl before she leaned toward his groin. 'Wait... is this...? Impossible!' he thought as the shock spread quickly to his expression. He'd heard stories of this legendary form of foreplay, never imagining it as something he would obtain so casually... until the moment came when his member was licked like the blade Hikage seemed so fond of. His mouth was agape, but she didn't stop there. Leonis' thoughts hadn't even finished processing by the time his manhood was tip deep in Hikage's mouth, and he was granted yet another new and exciting experience. 'Lucky!' his mind screamed. With all this, it hardly took a few moments before that epic feeling returned to cause a building tension throughout the young man's body. The time was almost at hand again...

[Apollymi]

Hikage was strangely unworldly but also hyper-intuitive. She seemed to have no shame about the acts she committed nor any sense of wrong as far as she was concerned. As such she very easily transitioned into pleasing this lad with her mouth instead of her body and though she initially saw shock on his face, he didn't seem to dislike it. If nothing else, his body was exceedingly honest as the throb and twitch of his manhood within her mouth returned with haste. His body was even tense, taking this as the understanding to continue, Hikage would move her mouth down around his manhood a bit, allowing his member to slide past her teeth and into the depths of her mouth as she continued giving him a proper tongue lashing, all in the hopes of allowing him to reach the finish he'd been so recently denied.

[Bloodedge]

No matter how hard he may have tried, Leonis no longer had the ability to keep a clear head. What happened to him now somehow registered to him as both inferior and superior to what they'd been doing all along, as if it wasn't quite the same, yet was even more incredible for its own different reasons. Gone was the tight yet slick friction he'd been feeling until now, and in was the looser yet more varied feeling of the space inside a mouth, including various tongue movements. He had no way to explain this... nor did he have any way to resist the great force welling up inside him as the girl took him deeper into her mouth. His end this time around was certain to be just as explosive as the last, despite Leonis having already spent a full spurt of his seed this day. "It's... coming out again..." he struggled to say. Mere seconds after this warning, that which he'd been holding back in prior moments would rocket through his shaft, spewing from his member regardless of what Hikage chose to do in response to his announcement.

[Apollymi]

As she did this, Hikage got to experience the movements of Leonis' manhood as well as the concentration required to keep from knicking him with her teeth. Overall, she'd say this entire set of movements was worth it so long as the boy got his release. And much to her surprise, it didn't take long for him to reach the precipace again. This time, she wasn't taking any chances, even as the lad spoke, she'd be receiving this explosive burst within her mouth with a look of shock coming over her face. Soon after she'd pull away playing with this material on her tongue and thinking it strange. "Ano, it's so thick..." she murmured aloud. 'Sou ka, the stuff that comes out is warm... it's a bit weird, but still not the weirdest of things I've ever had in my mouth,' she thought only to subsequently swallow this load down with the added saliva from her mouth to dispel a bit of the stickiness. "Sugoi! That was... different. But it worked you got to finish too..." she stated knowing this as fact and not seeming to be upset about it in the least. Hikage for all her strangeness seemed to accept all aspects of this coupling as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

[Bloodedge]

Much to the surprise of Leonis, his announcement did nothing to deter Hikage's efforts. He had expected the girl to perhaps switch to using her hand, which was also his expectation before she decided to take him into her mouth. Now, he was faced with is full load being taken into the girl's mouth just the same. In that moment, it was almost as if he'd been able to unleash his finish into her undercarriage, based on how it felt... almost. Hikage removed him from her mouth and seemed to toy with what she'd taken from him while commenting on its texture, only to move on by swallowing it then and there. Leonis used the time in which he watched her doing this to steady his breathing. His mind had never been blown so thoroughly as it was now. "Sugoi... you're incredible," he commented. It took a bit of time, but Leonis was soon able to rise from the ground without his legs giving out on him. "That was great... I'm starving now, though."

[Apollymi]

Hikage for all her efforts was soon rewarded with a bit of praise. If she had any wonder about the lad's pleasure in this moment, he clarified himself by adding yet another compliment to the lass. She managed to in this moment blush and look a bit abashed, "If you think so..." she murmured in her usual way. Strangely this girl seemed to lack most social skills, but was very good and very aggressive at things that could be connected to more natural states of living. Moving right along, Leonis mentioned that he was truly hungry now and this prompted the lass to use her magic to control the lives she'd used earlier to hang the fish. "Sou ka, well... get the fire going and we can cook and eat these. They won't take very long..." she mentioned of the fish which she cooked often enough to have a good idea of how long it would take. Regardless, they could soon eat, and drift right off into the next morning.

[Bloodedge]

"Haihai!" Leonis said as he moved to the fire pit he'd prepared earlier in this woodland adventure of theirs. Once the fire was started by his magic, he sat with Hikage as they went on to cook their dinner for the night. Over the course of the night, they ate, they prepared bedding and slept, and who knows what else... until that fateful moment when the morning came, and with it came the time of their inevitable return to the Black Bulls' Headquarters. Leonis, after dressing himself and departing from their campsite of sorts, stood before the building they could call home. Within him was something akin to fear, as if he were a child who'd done something wrong, then pretended to be asleep in hopes of avoiding a lashing from whatever parent upon their return home. This event was similar, yet much worse due to the potential outcome. "Well... I guess there's no time like the present," he said to his companion. Without further ado, Leonis stepped forward to pass through the entrance... and there stood the squad Captain, Heero, with his arms crossed and a curious expression upon his face.

"Yare yare. At least it looks like you didn't just stay up all night," he said. Still, there was an air of seriousness around the Captain to spite the apparent concern he had for the well-being of his members. They may have made it through the night and been fine, but there was still the matter of the two damaging the building, then running from the reprimanding he had in mind for them at the time. "Now... what the hell were you two even doing when you ran from me last night?" he asked. Leonis may have been a headstrong individual, bar the events transpiring the previous night, but this was another moment in which he felt the need to withdraw into a shell. The Captain's gaze was upon him directly, and he could almost feel it within his very soul. "I... we uhh..."

[Apollymi]

Their night had been spent in a strange manner. Sex and survival skills notwithstanding a night out in the woods was one which was fairly normal to Hikage. Still they would eventually need to face the Captain so the next morning after another dip in the stream and dressing, she joined Leonis as they approached the Black Bulls Headquarters. She was prepared to face whatever consequences were ahead for the two of the, but surprisingly enough the Captain initially seemed just to be a bit worried about their well being. Such a sentiment brought a bit of confusion to the face of Hikage who wasn't sure what exactly they were going to be punished for. Nonetheless, Leonis was soon staring down the Captain. The question presented by the man seemed to get only the start of an answer from Leonis which made the deadpan girl look at her Captain and answer the question honestly. "We were about to have sex." She said this sentence because as far as she was concerned this was the likeliest end to the fight they'd been having in the first place. "When you came along mad we ran... to give you time to cool off and had sex three times in the woods while we camped out," she said calmly. "He's mine now," she said in reference to Leonis as if this was the most normal way to announce them being a couple.

The entirety of this girl's statements were heard by the Vice-Captain who'd come up behind the Captain in order to give the man her input on their punishment. But upon hearing the words of Hikage spoken in such a strangely matter-of-fact way. The girl's head spun and she fainted on the spot. "Danchou, she's fallen." Hikage said of Raina who hadn't even managed to say one word.

[Bloodedge]

Heero would be sure to get his answers from these two this time around. If they decided to run again, they wouldn't get far. Leonis even seemed to be on the verge of doing exactly that, but though he managed to steel himself, it was Hikage who showed enough wherewithal to give a retort. What a response it was, at that. Never had Heero heard a claim so blatant, so lacking of a sense of privacy, in his life. His eyes widened at the sound of Hikage's voice; he couldn't fathom her resolution at all. Heero could agree with an honest answer, but this may have been a little too honest. "You were..." He couldn't even bring his own sentence to a close. Not to mention, the Vice-Captain of this very squad had come along and lost consciousness before having a chance to even speak. Heero wasn't at all sure if he should believe such a brutally honest claim as actual honesty, until he witnessed the expression of surprise painted on the face of Leonis. 'She's really just that open about things. He didn't expect it either,' the man thought. Aloud, though, he only gathered his wits and replied professionally... after he let the guffaw out. "Sou ka. Good for you two. So... about your punishment," He started, letting the air of foreboding sink in around him. Leonis gulped in anticipation for what was to come. It had to be something absolutely awful, that the Captain was willing to wait for them to return before meting it out.

"You two get... a day off! Don't break our house again!" This was the conclusion of Heero. Leonis' eyes widened more than they ever had before now. Was this so much a punishment in the mind of others? He expected to go through literal hell, but... the more he thought about it, the worse of an idea it became. Leonis was a very ambitious individual, and he was now being told there was no chance of a mission to start his journey off. That was the thing he'd been looking forward to in the first days of being a Magic Knight... and now, it was gone. This truly was an awful punishment when he gave it enough consideration. 'Danchou... is evil,' the young male thought, his heart sinking into the pit of his stomach, and his head drooping just the same.

[Apollymi]

Hikage didn't seem to notice the oddity of her speech pattern except in how the Captain of her Squad seemed to initially refrain from speaking. She didn't know it but the lass who was their Vice-Captain had indeed fainted from the things she'd said. She looked to Leonis and found his expression to be just as surprised as the Captain. "I wonder if that was weird?" Hikage asked herself. But soon it seemed her Captain had nothing to say but a congratulatory statement to the pair of them. Before mentioning that the pair of them would still be receiving a punishment. "Hm..." she mumbled as she waited for whatever this punishment was. To be honest, letting his man have an extensive amount of time to think it over would likely not work in their favor. And this was only confirmed as his ominous presence soon meted out a punishment the likes of which made even Hikage cringe. "A day off?" she asked it seemed to be the exact opposite of the sort of thing she'd want. "Can't you just give me an actual punishment? Like a fight or something..." the girl asked. Obviously she'd rather fight the Captain exactly as she was right now, than to spend a day doing absolutely nothing.

[Bloodedge]

"That was pretty weird," Leonis whispered, having managed to hear even the low tone Hikage managed. He was trembling in fear, which turned into pure bother upon discovering what their punishment would actually be. As expected, Hikage had many problems with the Captain's decision, and asked for something more reasonable like a fight against the man. Heero chuckled. "You'd both like that, wouldn't you? Don't underestimate my perception. You get more enjoyment out of a fight than anything else in the world. Meanwhile, Leonis here wants to become stronger at all costs, so you would both only benefit from the punishment I would give anyone else," he said, taking a moment thereafter to place his left hand on his hip, while his right hand seemed to almost mockingly beckon Hikage or Leonis toward him. "If you'd like though, I'd gladly offer you the opportunity to opt out of your punishment. Just land a hit on me before I hit you, and I'll ignore the whole thing. What do ya' say?"

[Apollymi]

An answer would come from Leonis about the weirdness of Hikage's explanation and she managed to look stunned, not realizing she'd spoken loud enough to be heard. Still she would take this information in stride in her aims not to be quite as weird as she seemed to be on the surface. Beyond this though came the knowledge that their Captain had given them a punishment tailored to the kind of people they were, knowing that both would enjoy more physical punishments as they would aide them long term the man had given them one which would really count as a punishment. "Sou ka... that's mean, Danchou." Hikage said with a firm nod of her head. She decided this man's use of their own goals against them as a punishment was legitimately spiteful.

Strangely though this man made an offer that if either of them could hit him before he landed a hit on them, they could forego their apparent punishment this day. Hikage didn't have to be told twice because this notion practically gave her all things she wanted. She rushed the Captain with reckless abandon that strange use of mana skin seeming to give her body an increase in speed and maneuverability as her grimoire appeared at her side and opened giving the girl a single blade to deal with which she immediately used to try and am a spinning strike at the Captain's torso, all the while she was distinctly on edge but didn't know why.

[Bloodedge]

"It's punishment. It's not supposed to be nice," Heero replied. His offer to attack him and avoid punishment was one open to both Hikage and Leonis, but the latter didn't seem keen on jumping the gun so quickly. Hikage, however, had no hesitation in her being. Heero didn't seem to move much at all as she approached him. He did keep grinning, though. Hikage's spinning attack was structured, and her movements in general seemed practiced yet random. Heero's grimoire opened to produce for him a blade which looked like a large trench knife. He could have used this weapon to defend or counter, but instead, he took it in his left hand and raised his right hand. Heero's right hand became black in color, offering the same strange, somewhat empty feeling the blade had. What he did when Hikage reached him was stranger yet, as Heero decided to counter Hikage's blade... by slapping it. Those who weren't in the know always fell to this sort of defensive method by Heero. The reason he felt so empty all the time was that he didn't possess any magical power at all. What he did possess however, was anti-magic, which allowed him to make full use of the strange, filthy grimoire to make anti-magic weapons. At some point, he'd even learned to channel this power through his very body, which meant his hand's contact with Hikage's blade would cause the steel weapon to be destroyed. Heero intended to use the moment of shock he expected to come afterwards to swing the trench knife he wielded at lightning speed, aiming it at Hikage's midsection. If it struck, one would find it incapable of actually cutting a human target; it could only manage blunt damage, though Heero's natural strength was great enough that a strike would be capable of also launching its victim through more than a single wall of this building... contrary to his alleged desire to not destroy the place. As these movements happened, Leonis looked onward with a furrowed brow. 'Sou ka... He's the one.'

[Apollymi]

Hikage's rotation against the Captain with a blade in her head had gone off as she'd intended, but wouldn't see the sort of end she had planned. As she rotated near the man's fore, his arm reached out covered in black and slapped at the blade. This motion was one which Hikage couldn't have anticipated but her body's natural ability to react had her shift her grip slightly as if she'd intended to stab this hand, only to have her blade completely disappear from her hand. "Nani?!" she managed to look and be surprised as her body tried to complete its rotation she was soon accosted by a blunt black blade which sent her flying. Her own body curled up to absorb the impact but she still went flying through the first wall of the building. When she finally came to a stop her body hit the ground and she groaned rolling over. She'd never felt such an impact while not feeling any magical power behind it. The emptiness of this captain was because he couldn't possibly have any magical power. Instead he was simply physically powerful. The girl's golden eyes looked up as they watered from the impact and she inspected her empty hand as if confused by how her blade had disappeared. "It didn't snap, or break. It disappeared as if I didn't make it in the first place..." she mused. All these things culminated in a strange idea, that she wasn't sure if she could even compete with the Captain she'd chosen.

Unlike many who could have been completely unnerved by such a thing the girl managed to pull herself into the sitting position. "Kufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufu!~" she laughed manically with a demonic twisted grin stretched across her face, as she ran a hand over her face, blocking all but a single eye from view. She'd definitely chosen the right place for her, and though she'd lost and was stuck with her punishment, she was fine with this for the future of her good times. "He's so fucking strong!"

[Bloodedge]

Heero's strike saw to it that his movement carried on just a bit beyond the impact. Hikage was send crashing through a wall to her left as a result, and Heero was left looking at the hole created while scratching his head. "Yare yare. That was too much," he mumbled. He hadn't intended to use as much force as he did, but he wasn't as used to fighting without an intent to claim victory over an opponent. Either way, Hikage seemed unnecessarily satisfied with the outcome, so Heero looked toward Leonis and realized immediately that he wouldn't want the same challenge. Leonis wasn't so physically capable as Hikage, so if he was forced into the same range, he wouldn't even be capable of lightening the blow. Even worse, against anti-magic with such physical ability behind it, he wouldn't even be able to land a hit at range. Heero had his answer. "Alright. Everybody else is leaving now. That is, except... Olivia!" he said, both making a note of the woman in question, and calling for her attention.

[Apollymi]

Hikage was still laughing maniacally when the wall she'd flown through rather suddenly began piecing itself back together. A woman with deeply tanned skin and purple hair wearing a dark hoodie with the Black Bulls insignia and a pair of high socks was strolling towards the front of the building at the call of her name. Of course she took one look at the still laughing Hikage and offered the girl a hand up. Hikage looked at her with those crazed eyes, but accepted this after getting a feel for this woman. "Yes, he's strong... don't know why that's such a big deal for you, but I'm glad you're happy considering punishment and all..." she mumbled. Soon enough both she and Hikage were back and standing in front of the Captain and this purple haired woman apparently named Olivia was rather lax in what she chose to say next. "Danchou, don't knock new people through walls, you cause more damage than they do..." she said frowning slightly. "I thought you'd be gone by now... what do you need?" she asked, staying very close to the doorway of the entrance, right inside of it in fact.

[Bloodedge]

Soon after Heero's call, the woman named Olivia appeared before the group. He figured she wouldn't require any prompting to repair the damage he'd done by launching Hikage the way he did, but the brief chastising was still a bother. "Yeah, yeah, gomen. It's hard for me to manage, y'know?" he said nonchalantly. Moving on, Heero addressed the matter he'd called the woman for. He should have been gone to his own tasks already, true, but he figured waiting for the two newcomers would work out, and it did in the end. "These two are stuck here for the day. The money's at the bar; make them deal with that sketchy guy. Also... cram their rooms together, and move the new room as far from everyone else's as possible. I'm not gonna deal with these two moving around in the middle of the night to find each other," he said, and he meant every word. Leonis was startled by this order from the Captain. He already hadn't expected the casual response to what Hikage told him, but for him to also suggest that they share a room was almost ludicrous to hear. "What!? A shared room?" the young royal asked. 'I'm going to share a room with a girl? A girl I had sex with!?'

[Apollymi]

"If it's hard for you to manage, then you can't be mad at anyone else..." she mumbled, still there were worse things than a few holes in walls. What came next was a strange set of orders surrounding these newcomers, who were both in trouble within a few moments of joining the Black Bulls properly. It was clear they were meant to take on a bit of grunt work dealing with the 'sketchy guy' as well as being locked within the building for the day. All of this was fine with Olivia until of course the order came that both of their bedrooms were to be put together and moved as far away from the others as possible. "That's one of the weirdest orders you've ever given me, Danchou..." she said. "But, I'll do it in a few minutes..." she said as casually as she'd been saying most things. Still she wasn't stupid and could make a few assumptions as to why such a thing would be the case, and as such she had no problem going along with the order. "I get a room?" Hikage seemed stunned by this completely. She'd not really had a room to call her own over the course of her life, even a shared one seemed like something strange to her. "Anyways, good luck on your trip." Olivia mentioned, she'd beckon the two of them inside once the Captain had answered any remaining questions they'd had. Hikage obviously had no hard opinions about rooms nor sharing them with anyone else, if she didn't have to go looking for Leonis she felt like that would make her day better and not worse.

[Bloodedge]

"Sure I can! I'm never mad because people are breaking things. I'm mad because they're not trying not to break things!" Heero said with a wag of his right forefinger. At this time, he held out the weapon provided to him by his grimoire, and returned it to its home. Olivia would oblige his request to place these newbies in a single room together, even if not right at the moment. That was fine. With his business done, Heero holstered his grimoire and stepped past Olivia, taking his leave of the headquarters for the time being. Meanwhile, Leonis accepted the beckoning of Olivia, choosing to follow wherever she chose to lead. Having a shared room was in no way a negative, considering, but he couldn't help but wonder what life would be like if he had to share a room with a woman permanently, so soon after meeting her even. Of course, they had already gone very far in their relationship over the past 24 hours, but what was to come next? Only time would tell at this point.

[Apollymi]

"Hm, I can see a small difference, but it isn't that big..." mentioned Olivia. Having motioned the pair along they watched for a few seconds as their Captain left the building and soon enough Raina was up and moving past the group as well, her face bright red, and she was so flustered she didn't even bother looking in anyone's direction as she left. "Well, she's usually a bit friendlier than that... whatever," she said not bothering to think about it. "Introductions, I'm Olivia Colomar... I live in this building, and I am a member of the Black Bulls," she said calmly. "I'm technically your senior but I never leave this building and I really hate talking to strangers, but that is where you guys come in!~" she chimed seemingly happy she stopped in front of a bar where a large sack of coins was sitting. And picked it up handing it to whoever would take it. "This is for some specialty items I like from a very creepy merchant. I never see him but everyone else usually handles it pretty well," she commented. "He's a bit skiddish don't let him swindle you or anything like that..." she said as her grimoire came to life in front of them. She'd been stalling for extra time, absorbing extra mana from the pair, not a lot just enough to make easier the task of moving their rooms. "Also, if you didn't notice, my magic controls the building. So you guys can't leave while you're... grounded." she muttered, not being able to think of a better term for their current punishment. "Also, I'm passively absorbing mana from you guys... so thanks for keeping me alive. I hope we can be friends." she said earnestly.

Hikage heard out this woman and had several problems with the things she was saying. The first of which was that she claimed to have problems talking to people, but apparently had no problem talking to them. Moreover she went on to explain that she was apparently in charge of them and would know if they tried to leave the building. Beyond this she'd been absorbing mana from them passively since they'd first arrived. Hikage looked down at her palm and wondered if this was something like what she did when using her mana skin. Regardless this woman seemed to be fair enough, so the green haired lass stepped up and sniffed her walking to her. "She's not lying. This building smells like her now that I am close enough. That's alright with me... Hikage." she said giving her name which was about as friendly as the girl got.

[Bloodedge]

The explanations of Olivia carried on, covering basically everything there was to cover. She was their senior, that much was a given. The concept of her not leaving the building was strange until she mentioned it being connected to her magic, but now that Leonis thought about it, there was something slightly different about the building and its sudden fixed state from their earlier fight. As far as their inability to leave this day was concerned, Leonis felt like it was more than what it seemed... as if it were something physically impossible because of the woman's control over the structure.

Leonis accepted the sack of money offered by Olivia. If they were to deal with a strange merchant, he figured it was an easy enough task to start their day of being 'grounded' as it were. While drawing assumptions to the amount of yul in the sack, Leonis heard Olivia saying she hoped they could be friends. Considering her invasive method of absorbing the mana of those in the building, he wondered if she felt some strange and deep connection to the other members, in spite of her apparent lack of being out and about. Leonis took a moment to hold out his right hand toward their senior. "Leonis Vermillion. We'll be working together, so sure... let's be friends. You seem pretty likable."

[Apollymi]

It seemed her explanations of what was happening for them today had gone over pretty well, which was all Olivia really wanted. Of course there was something said by Leonis which would require Hikage's attention. Still she was friendly enough so the shook the lad's hand, wondering how on earth a Vermillion ended up as part of this squad. Little did she know she was about to find out about the oddities of this lad. Hikage was confused at large. Since the pair of them spoke about liking each other, she didn't think she was okay or understanding of this lad saying that their newest introduced comrade was likable. "Wait, likable? But I thought you liked me?" she said turning her gaze to Leonis. Something like this was a strange thing for Olivia to behold, she was starting to get more of an understanding as to why the Captain thought these two should be living in a room together. Her eyes went wide as she went exceedingly quiet. Olivia was a lot of things, and good at staying out of people's domestic problems was at the top of the list. She withdrew her hand and almost faded into the background with the amount of stillness her body presently possessed.

[Bloodedge]

As Leonis shook Olivia's hand to complete their introduction, Hikage interjected in a way that was interestingly unexpected by the male. He took pause, releasing Olivia's hand only because she pulled away. The best descriptor for this exchange was awkward, as Leonis was initially taken aback without words to explain the situation. "Uhh... well..." he started. It took everything he had to rack his brain for an explanation that would make sense, lest he incur some previously unknown fury. He'd heard in the past how dangerous such a thing could be from a woman in relationships or anything of the sort, and he'd experienced a general sort of fury from his elder sister from time to time. "It's... not the same. See, there's a general kind of like. For example, I like Raina-san too. I like way she fights; it was challenging, so I grew a little from it. Olivia-san seems likable because she seems like a nice person. Get it?"

[Apollymi]

Olivia watched from the side lines as Leonis tried hard to salvage his misunderstanding with the person she was now understanding was his girlfriend. This was an interesting thing to behold, because as far as Olivia could tell, this girl was earnest in her lack of understanding about the differences between like when applied to different people. She remembered being young herself and knowing that the way she felt about certain people was very different from the way she felt about the population and not being able to differentiate initially. 'Yare yare, where did she grow up?' she wondered still, she couldn't stop herself from watching this train-wreck from happening. Hikage heard out this lad's explanation of the different sorts of like but it didn't clear anything up at all, if anything it only caused more confusion. "But you like fighting me too. You said so... it doesn't make sense," she said the light of fury beginning to burn beneath her eyes just below the surface. Olivia knew what this was and couldn't stop herself from commenting. "You're crashing and burning, Leo-chan. Hi-chan give him a chance to better explain. I'm sure he has a better explanation in there somewhere," she mused. Of course, she spoke and bought him a few extra seconds of thinking time, and brought Hikage's attention to herself in those seconds. Hikage's eyes turned towards the woman who referred to her in a rather diminutive way which she hadn't heard much in her life aside from one person. 'Hm, she must be older than us... by a lot,' Hikage had this thought in her head, but it still didn't stop her from being upset, as age was obviously no real object to Leonis.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis thought that he'd maybe gotten his point across. Sadly, this was not the case. His explanation only made the situation worse, and he was beginning to see that which he was taught to fear. "No no no, it's not like that!" he pleaded, only to be saved by the tan woman who was now more likable than he'd initially thought. He briefly entertained the idea of thanking her aloud, but figured that wouldn't be for the best with the current discussion still ongoing. "You see... there are different ways to like people. Not everybody gets the same kind. You like fighting Danchou, right? So that means you like Danchou? Hell, I even like my sister sometimes," he said, wondering if there was some salvation to be found in this discussion.

[Apollymi]

Leonis might have been trying sincerely to get Hikage to understand but initially she didn't. But with a slight breather provided by Olivia he seemed to come with a more thought out explanation of like. "Hm, I do like fighting Danchou but I don't like him. He doesn't give me tingles like Leonis does. And I figure his sister wouldn't give him tingles, I didn't like the my big sis like that... " she mumbled in that inaudible whisper she used to think sometimes. "Sou ka," she said having come to the proper conclusion. "So you like them in the not tingly way," she said affirmatively. This seemed to clear up her ideas about the kind of relationship he was aiming to have with their comrades and would cement her ideas about this entire situation. Her fury would ease without ever having properly manifested.

Strangely Olivia would breathe a sigh of a relief. "Dang, kids like you will give me a heart-attack. Or at least grey hair, I understand why Danchou wanted me to put your room in the middle of nowhere," she mused. Thinking about it she decided now was as good a time as any. "I almost forgot." Her grimoire flipped several pages and the building itself began to shift as she found the two rooms she'd originally created for these two and moved them together erasing a wall between them. She went on to move this larger combination room up and out of the building practically so it was hanging off the eastern end of the building where no one else's rooms were up a staircase. "There. Honeymoon suite for our new couple~" she mused.

[Bloodedge]

The moment Hikage mentioned the tingly sensation she got from him not being something she experienced from others she may have liked, Leonis knew his point would soon be understood. As well, he was given more understanding of how the girl actually felt about him. He took pause for a few moments as Hikage came to the conclusion by the efforts of her own mental links, and when she reached the point, he grinned. "Yeah, that's it! It's a more friendly way of liking someone. Wait..." He paused again. In the midst of this conversation, Leonis came to a certain realization all too late, but its impact remained within him. His eyes widened slightly, and he blurted out his conclusion once it was solidified in his mind. "Were you just jealous!?" He was so out of his own wit by this realization that he hardly realized Olivia had gone through all the trouble of actually customizing their conjoined room and moving it to an apparently more suitable location. Her commentary about it being a honeymoon suite for the squad's new couple, though, brought his attention to the purple-haired woman. "Huh? Well, that's... a bit of a leap."

[Apollymi]

Hikage could accept that it was simple friendliness mean by Leonis and not anything more nefarious. Of course, soon enough this lad was coming to his own conclusion about why Hikage had decided to question the nature of his liking of other girls. This question of jealousy was one which she couldn't really answer as she didn't really have a reference for the word. "Ano... I don't really know what that word means," she said but in the moment she decided to explain why she'd bother questioning his like of these other women. "But you said you liked me and I thought you were mine. I felt like that was special so I didn't want you liking other girls the same way. Is that jealous?" she asked having admitted to having all the seeds of jealousy confirmed without knowing how to reference the feeling. She'd asked for clarification because there might have been a misunderstanding. A chortle escaped Olivia as she heard this girl speak because it was textbook jealousy if not a little of something else. 'Ano, it's more like she's a territorial animal than a jealous teen girl...' thought the woman. But aloud she only chose to address the bit about the honeymoon suite. "Seems pretty accurate to me. Fresh relationship, room to yourselves where you will further get used to each other while the rest of us try to avoid you. Honeymoon suite. Speaking of..." she motioned to the pair of them and began walking, Hikage would follow because this building was unfamiliar to her.

"I'll show you where it is... I'm pretty sure I won't find reason to move it or anything," she said haphazardly. She also took to pointing out new things. "That room is mine. This is the bathroom... I also don't move it. Everything else is subject to change, I don't usually like to do this much walking..." she said as they moved about and down different hallways. Heading towards the eastern side of the building where a set of stairs would emerge from a rather strange place in the wall, it definitely looked like a strange design choice but would lead up and open up into a double size bedroom complete with two beds, two desks, and a window between them as well as a decent sized floor space. "Ano this room is for you two. You can decorate it how you want it, but I can't change the size of it much until the Captain says so... until then you two should get to know each other. And play nice~" She then posted herself in their doorway and waited for them to take it in.

[Bloodedge]

Hikage apparently didn't understand the word jealousy. As strange as this was, Leonis didn't think it too far fetched when considering how she had come up in the world. He meant to explain the word's meaning, but Hikage continued speaking until she worked her own way through its definition. Still, at the end of it all, she asked if she had gotten it right. "That's pretty much it. Jealousy is like when you don't like that someone else is getting something, because you want it to yourself. Don't worry, though. Jealousy can be flattering sometimes," he asserted. Truth be told, Leonis had experienced said flattery mere moments ago. In these early stages of a not-so-conventional relationship, he felt a certain warmth when receiving affirmation of how this girl apparently felt about him, and he felt it would drive both of them to a decent future with one another.

When Olivia gave her explanation as to why she referred to their room as a honeymoon suite, Leonis opened his mouth to speak... but couldn't form a single argument against it that he didn't think would be countered somehow. As such, he decided to silently follow along behind the woman until they reached the room. Apparently, the strange alterations to the headquarters building was not just some passive use of Olivia's magic, but a conscious effort of her moving things to avoid longer trips for herself. He very well couldn't complain with the efforts of someone who was basically a landlord to them. He said nothing because of this thought train, but when they were shown the room, his brow furrowed... only briefly. At first, he thought this was a pitiful excuse for even lodging... but he had to keep in mind that he'd been raised a royal, and others did not live in such luxury. Still, this room had all the makings of two individual rooms literally crammed together - even separate beds. While this was a far cry from what he'd actually expected, Olivia did in fact combine two rooms. As he stepped inside, he began considering options for this apparent redecoration they were allowed. "... Hai. Arigatou gozaimasu," he said.

As the newcomers to the Black Bull squad were seeing their room for the first time, a very skinny man with medium-length, slick black hair was approaching the building. He wore a long trench coat that seemed to have been weighed down by the mass of things held within it. As he approached the headquarters, he wore a massive, sinister grin. "Hehe~! Gonna make a huge sale today!"

[Apollymi]

Hikage's explanation of her own feelings was clarified as being technically jealous by Leonis' explanation. He even went on to say that it was sometimes flattering and though she couldn't imagine why this was, she'd take his word for it. "Hai." The word left her face a practical murmur but it was clear enough. She managed to look particularly thoughtful as they walked around and Olivia explained that she constantly moved rooms around in the building. It sounded like a bit of a free-for-all, but Hikage couldn't argue about the potential of the woman's magic as far as moving the building around was concerned.

Soon enough Hikage was looking around at the new bedroom she'd share with Leonis and she was stunned. "Sugoi." she stated. She'd never had her own room before, nor had she ever felt particularly inclined to seek one out, as such even this mid-tier quality room was one which excited her quite a bit. She even got her own bed which was something she'd never expected. "Arigatou gozaimasu..." she said looking to Olivia with an indecent amount of gratitude. "Ano, it's nothing really. Anyway, that guy should be here soon. I'm going to my room, don't let him swindle you..." she mentioned as she went to hide out without much more prompting. She hadn't expected this sort of reaction from anyone. Then again, even the worst of them only came from the common region for the most part. Hikage went and looked out of the window and saw the shadow of a person approaching the front and nodded. "That guy is almost here..." she mumbled heading for the door of their shared room she motioned to Leonis. She was intimidating enough but that didn't work well for regular merchants.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis was relieved he didn't have to spend an exorbitant amount of time explaining another thing, but something was appealing about the green-haired lass' innocence and lack of worldliness as well. If this was what he had to look forward to, he wouldn't mind it. Besides, she was content to further his goals while completing her own, which meant they at least had their major aspirations in common... at least, close enough that they could get by as if they were one and the same. As both Hikage and Leonis got a feel for the room around them, Olivia took her leave. Hikage soon mentioned the presence of the merchant they were to meet, and she took the initiative in moving out of the room to go locate the man. Leonis followed, making sure he had the yul to pay the man when they arrived, and eventually, they would meet the man at the headquarters' entrance.

"Ohayou gozaimasu," the merchant spoke upon seeing two youngsters, one of whom carried a rather large sack of coin. His smile widened, becoming no less creepy at all in this moment. He could almost smell the money to be gained from these two. "You're Black Bulls. You have the yul for what we agreed on. Perhaps I can interest you in... something else to go with it," the older male said as he opened his trench coat, unveiling a great deal of jewelry and small magic tools to offer these youngsters. "Haven't seen you two before. Maybe you could make use of a wand, or something else to get by in the missions you have coming up?"

[Apollymi]

Hikage was left to wonder if other people required this level of explanation. But she didn't get that much of a chance to consider as they were soon heading out to find their merchant of choice. She didn't deal with these sorts often, but had been told before that she could be rather intimidating as she didn't really fall for the tricks of the trade. As this sleazy man spoke to them offering them their agreed upon stuff, whatever that happened to be, the girl looked at him with piercing golden eyes. Beyond this it seemed that he was interested in offering them extra merchandise. Hikage looked at the man's open trench coat but neither his words nor the items seemed to elicit much of a response from her. After all, she was quite used to seeing things she couldn't have, and as a teen they no longer got any reaction from her. "I use knives. Wands can't cut things..." she said this plainly not to be rude, but because she honestly had no idea what such an implement could possibly do for her. Aside from that, she didn't have the sort of money that would allow her to make unnecessary purchases. No she was content to let this transaction be exactly what it was supposed to be. "We're also grounded so no missions coming up," she said still there was something about this man she didn't like. He made her skin crawl in a strange way, and the more she looked at him, the more she wished to figure out why this was.

[Bloodedge]

Leonis stood beside Hikage as they encountered the traveling merchant. The green-haired lass took a front seat long enough to mention to the man that she had no interest or need to be found in whatever additional purchases he offered them. Leonis was in the same boat. He'd been taught by his elder sister, a Magic Knight who'd gone to become a legend even to this day, so something as simple as a wand was completely useless in the face of his control over mana. "Same. My magic control is way past what a wand can give me. Just give us whatever was in the agreement," he said to the man. This merchant didn't seem so keen on backing down, though. "Ah, but I don't just offer wands! There are a great many tools that might prove useful even to ones such as yourselves. How about something that'll amplify your already great abilities, young Magic Knights?" he asked.

With the second offer of the merchant on the proverbial table, Leonis looked stunned. This was in no way the fault of the offer itself, but instead because of something Leonis had seen in the man's trench coat. Upon more than one of the items, he saw insignias belonging to noble and royal families alike, including one which was very familiar to him despite not belonging to his own family. 'No... They wouldn't sell that or give it away,' he thought. As to not raise any undue suspicion though, Leonis offered up the sack of yul. "We only have enough for the agreement. There's no more money to be gotten from us," he claimed, despite having his own large sum of money on hand. "Hai hai. Well, no harm in trying to make an extra sale. Just one moment," the merchant said as he went through his things to gather that which the Black Bulls requested before their current meeting.

[Apollymi]

Whatever was up with this merchant, it seemed that Hikage wasn't the only one who found something about the man unduly suspicious. Leonis seemed to be taking a bit longer to look at some of the pieces that wouldn't encompass a simple dismissive act. And though Hikage had no idea why this was, she respected that he might have something to say outside of the earshot of this man in a bit. Even the offer to amplify their already existing power had no real appeal to Hikage, because if it wasn't her own power, she didn't much care to have it in the first place. Regardless this sale in particular seemed to be able to move on to a more apt ending. Though she had no idea what everyone had asked for in the first place or what the money they had was for, it was obvious that this merchant knew what the sale was all about. 'Ano there is something about this man that I really don't like...' Hikage thought while staring daggers into the back of this man's head as he gathered whatever the other Black Bulls had wanted. She still couldn't place it but something was off and the feeling of it was prickling along the back of her neck. She was always taught to trust her instincts and as such she was just waiting for the full shadiness of this moment to come to its conclusion.

[Bloodedge]

The merchant took roughly a minute to gather all the things he'd already agreed to bring to this squad's base, but in the end, he had everything in one concise package to slide along the ground toward Leonis. The sack was about the size of the young man's torso, and since he had no idea what was in the agreement, he tossed over the sack of yul in exchange, assuming everything was in order. "Cool. Ja," was all he said to the man. In this moment, Leonis seemed somewhat troubled. He was, but he couldn't vocalize anything, lest the merchant become aware of what Leonis knew to be suspicious on him. Soon enough, Leonis was walking back into the headquarters, and the merchant was bowing and walking away from it. 'Why does he have that?' Leonis thought. 'There's now way he should.'

[Apollymi]

Hikage continued to feel antsy while watching this man assemble what was eventually a package of materials for the Black Bulls. Regardless of this Leonis was obviously troubled, the look on his face was one which Hikage had not seen before and it made her left brow raise. But since they now had the package she supposed their business was done already. "Hai, ja." this was Hikage's confirmation as she intended to watch this man leave before delving deeper into the building to find Olivia and give her the things which they'd procured for her. As well as her wanting to figure out what was wrong with Leonis. It was a compromising position to be in, but she couldn't take her eyes off of the sketchy man who they'd just finished bartering with.

[Bloodedge]

As the dealer took his leave, Leonis carried the purchase into the building, where he figured Olivia would be very easily found by a simple method. "Senpai!" he called out. He was very bothered by what he'd seen this day, and even if there were no answers to be given... this was something that required attention. He was under the assumption that Olivia could be reached by a call from anywhere within the building, given her connection to it, and he hardly figured he'd be waiting long at all for her arrival. The question at hand though, was what would be done once his information was shared. "We've got the stuff... and some bad news to go with it."

[Apollymi]

Hikage waited as this merchant left and then was surprised that Leonis simply called out to the other woman in the building. Not much to her surprise soon the entire front room they were standing in moved to them being right in front of her bedroom door. This was complete with the door opening and the purple haired woman peeking out of it initially to make sure only the two she wished to see were in front of it. "Is he gone? Did you get the stuff?" she asked before her door fully opened. "What bad news?" she asked seeming to find it strange. She had a hope it was something simple like they'd just had an argument among themselves and it could be fixed by a simple explanation. Hikage didn't know what Leonis was upset about but she knew how she felt. "That merchant is sketchier than normal merchants..." Hikage murmured, waiting to see what Leonis had to input because she had a feeling he felt the same way. Olivia took this girl's words in stride because she seemed to formulate opinions very easily and her near constant use of mana skin likely let her feel other people through their mana.

[Bloodedge]

The method used for Olivia to meet with the two was what Leonis expected, though the execution was the exact opposite of how he expected it. Instead of moving her own room to meet them, she had instead moved the room at the entrance of the building to wherever her room was. This wasn't something of major importance at the time though, so Leonis didn't bother questioning it. "Here," he said as he tossed over the bag of unspecified wares. To follow up Hikage's mention of the merchant's sketchiness, he presented the visual evidence he'd gotten from the man's additional items. "That guy's a little more than a third party salesman. Black Market or not, he's got some stuff from noble families on him. I saw something with House Wisteria's symbol on it, and I know damn well he didn't get it by gift or trade."

[Apollymi]

Hikage's admittance that there had been sketchiness about that particular salesman led Olivia to raise a brow. When it was followed up by Leonis explaining that the man had merchandise on him from noble houses that he couldn't have gotten from trade or otherwise Olivia's eyes widened. "Hm, so he might be a thief... that guy doesn't look like he'd ever pass for being able to get to that spot though," she said as she rummaged through the sack of random items she'd asked for. As a shut in, she never really left this building, given that, she was always asking for items to help her with her communication skills, even though she didn't wish to communicate. "Hm, bet he didn't count on anything he had being recognized in a place like this... It probably doesn't get recognized in the Black Market either, since nobles don't go there," she thought aloud as she looked for something very specific. "Sou ka, but because that guy can't be a literal proper thief he has to be working with more people," murmured Hikage. She knew what happened when large groups of criminals put their minds together, and it was none too pleasant. The rummaging went on and on until finally Olivia looked up. "Found it. Use this and tell command about it. They might not do much immediate, but they'll at least increase patrols around those areas and maybe try and figure out what's going if they don't already know about it. Also keep that..." she said handing over a small communication device which looked a bit like a hand held mirror with a strange communciation magic inside of it. "I'd do it myself but... ya' know... strangers." she said closing her door and leaving the pair to their devices. Only to open it again quickly at the end. "Arigatou gouzaimasu, for getting my stuff though, and managing not to make a big scene. You two are surprisingly capable... just finish up your grounding and try not to get into any more trouble..." she said before she closed her door again, and the front room moved back to where it had been before.

[Bloodedge]

Olivia took this news of the merchant's obviously ill-acquired wares in stride, coming to quick conclusions about the type of man they were dealing with. Leonis wondered how long this had been going on without anyone discovering it, but there was the point made that nobles would be seldom found in the black market, or even dealing with the people who worked in it. Just the same, the Black Bull squad didn't seem very big on having noble members either, likely due to the odd nature of all its members Leonis had seen thus far.

Hikage offered the suggestion that this man wasn't working alone. They could have easily just discovered one foul man among a hundred or more, and though there was no telling, Leonis had learned enough about Hikage to believe she was most likely correct in her assertion. Having received a communication tool from Olivia, he looked into its core and gave some consideration to his approach when contacting the command center. "Hai. We'll take care of it," he said before pouring his mana into the device, activating it to trigger a hologram of whatever person responded. "Oi, command. We've got news from the Black Bulls."

[Apollymi]

Given the social disconnect between Nobles, commoners and the world at large, it was more than likely noble goods could have been being traded for years without anyone knowing. And given that Nobles were worldly they likely hadn't noticed anything was gone unless the criminals were caught in the act. It would have actually been a pretty good plan for whoever came up with it, regardless they were now making a call to command through a magic item and Leonis voice would be received by a hologram of a young woman.

Though she was obviously older than most, she was completely and utterly flat chested. She was wearing robes with an open center and a large witch's hat with filigree hanging off of it. She had red eyes and white blonde hair which flowed freely behind her. She answered the Command Post as she'd been taught to. "Alright, Black Bulls. This is command, you're speaking with Irisviel von Einzbern, what news do you have?" she asked, as she had a pen and paper ready to take notes on the information the lad had to give. She seemed well informed of her duties within the Command Post, and though she was only a Junior Magic Knight herself, she'd follow her duties without the inherent biases others seemed to possess. That being said one with a close look could see the girl's knees shaking, as she practically buried her face in the paper she was about to start writing. "Ano... is she scared of something?" Hikage wondered aloud, as she watched the hologram. She'd never seen anything like this girl shaking in her boots.

[Bloodedge]

The call Leonis made through the communication tool was answered by an unfamiliar woman who seemed to be reacting strangely to her job for whatever reason. Strange as this was, Leonis did not consider questioning it. Hikage, though, wondered aloud if this girl was afraid of something. Only because of this did Leonis speak on the matter. "Nerves, probably. They'll get anyone to work communications for awhile," he clarified, assuming this person must have just been inexperienced with this task. "Leonis Vermillion," he said to the one named Irisviel. "We have a report of a man from the Black Market selling off merchandise from noble houses across the kingdom. We have reason to believe he's working in a group, and that they didn't exactly get these things the legit way. Maybe pass the message along to somebody who isn't quivering?"

[Apollymi]

According to Leonis the girl on the other end of their connection was likely just nervous because of some aspect of her job. Hikage herself, couldn't imagine being volunteered for a job like working in command taking communications but she supposed there were worse things, and it was likely to clear up over time. Meanwhile the name of the lad was given and the girl began scribbling furiously on the pad after that. "Hai, Leonis Vermillion of the Black Bulls has seen stolen merchandise from noble houses in the hands of Black Market merchants. Likely illegally obtained by more than a small group," she said summarizing her notes still the girl seemed to be shaking in place, but it was not fear of this job which caused it but instead by talking to a man. Though admittedly it was much better than her previous tries at such communication. Her knees continued to shake but she got all the necessary information down and gave a closing. "Hai, I'll pass it along to my superiors immediately, thank you," she said choosing to end the communication as quickly as humanly possible.

[Bloodedge]

"Hai hai," Leonis replied to the strange woman. He still had no idea what had this representative so shaky, but that didn't matter as long as the message was delivered, and the problem dealt with. It didn't seem like anything else would be required of the new Black Bulls after this interaction, as Irisviel chose to cut the communication line after stating that she'd pass the message along. "Hai. Try and work out the nerves next time. Ja," were his final words to the woman before he deactivated his own device and shoved it in his pocket. Following this exchange was a sigh from Leonis. "Yare yare. Guess there's nothing else in it for us. We're back to being grounded, so... what do we do now?" asked the young male, who turned toward Hikage as he spoke. "I could use this to make a call or two and get something to redecorate that room with."

[Apollymi]

Whether Irisviel heard what the lad had to say or not, the connection was soon lost and all that was left was for these two members of the Black Bulls to figure out their own activities for the rest of the day. 'I can't imagine nerves working like that...' she mused within her mind. As they moved on to more pertinent matters it seemed it would be questioned what they should do, and Leonis came up with the suggestion of making a couple of calls to upgrade their room in some way. Hikage shrugged this off, as she had no idea what kind of call he could make nor what sort of changes it would bring but she couldn't say she minded it at all. "I don't really know what I would want out of upgrades. You can do what you want with the room..." she said giving a gentle nod of her own head. As far as she was concerned she wouldn't have even known how to begin decorating and she supposed it would give them something to do until they were 'ungrounded'.