Munetsuchi

There was no understanding of the weight of the turndown that had just happened. Of course, Sakura also could have bluntly turned someone down without thinking too much about it, so she saw no issues with the words spoken by Jeanne. Perhaps there was a nuance here she'd missed. She'd figure it out eventually, maybe. At the same time Jeanne was left to scoff over her cup, "Clairvoyant entities always know more than they say... I've been spending too much time around my sister lately to figure you wouldn't have some inkling," she mentioned with an eye roll. "I'm not an enigma just a girl having a drink," she murmured. And back to her cup she went, all the while Sakura found herself looking at Jeanne and then back at Charles. Something had to have gone quite wrong if these two knew each other and didn't end up together. Her own senses said that they were highly compatible.

Moving on from this, it would appear that Jeanne's commentary about the lack of ease with another transition upward for Charles was met with an interesting tale from the Nexus. He claimed that in the original time line, Charles the Great was the king equivalent to Jeanne's Queen. It was mentioned that some thing like Adam and Eve would have been applied to them, but beyond that the Nexus itself wasn't pushing for their pairing but thought they should cooperate. "Good thing you wouldn't try me 'cause it's still not goddamn happening," she said taking that information at face value. She took the final sip from her cup and held it up for the Nexus, "Surely even you wouldn't offer a girl just one drink~" she said wanting said cup to be filled again. "Oh, fuck right. Didn't finish, not opposed to cooperating... especially if it can potentially keep everything moving smoothly while I am gone. For however long that is gonna be, I forgot to ask. So what are the alternatives?" she added afterwards. In truth she and Charles had been great friends and she didn't actually hate him or anything like that. "Sou ka, I guess that answers my question then, Otou-sama could have just said," Sakura commented still seeming confused.

The Nexus knew of Jeanne and her family's dealings with the clairvoyant. He also knew all forms of Clairvoyance, even his, had their loopholes. Things related to the Void were not under his purview, one could say. "You're a child of the Void now. It's not my right to keep track of you, though I can see some things. Personality-based reactions are not among those things," he said simply.

Once Jeanne finished her first drink, she was already holding the grail out for another. Of course, that came only after she twisted the knife in Charlemagne's heart once again. "We get it!" the lad yelled, almost seeming to be in legitimate pain over a few words. Neither of them had a desire to go that route, but he'd never have been so harmfully blunt about it. Moving on to the matter of a second drink, the Nexus did nothing with Jeanne's grail. Instead, he materialized the one in Charlemagne's possession, filling it with a glowing golden liquid they should both be familiar with. That was his answer, the main alternative to their current conundrum. "Well, there's an easy way out. Jeanne, you don't have a king, right? Take him. And before either of you says something like 'I just said that's not happening,' I'm not telling you to pull each other's pants off and go at it right now or anything. Well... that's still a safe and open option even with your current setups, but whatever. Just swap a bit of mana, and I'll do the rest. You'll be married, but... not really. If you want, you can consider yourselves more like... siblings, I guess. How's that sound?"

The Nexus apparently hadn't been much keeping track of Jeanne since the start of her... less than charitable phase. According to him she belonged to the Void now, and he wouldn't have been able to ping a personality based reaction to start with, "That seems a bit open-ended. I don't care much either way but it seems like a pretty big hole," she mentioned seeming to not understand much the point. Of course, she wasn't a Clairvoyant being and never wanted to be, she'd seen the ways those people got from having too much knowledge and not enough space to actually do anything with her. Her own elder sister was the type to do whatever it took the get the results she wanted and in her own mind there didn't need to be too many people walking around like that.

Moving on it seemed that she'd incidentally twisted the knife in Charles's roasted corpse by going about mentioning that she had no intention of seeking any sort of relationship with him. Sakura remained at Charles side patting him on the head. She really didn't understand this reaction, the words themselves were not so harming as they could have been. "Char-kun I don't think she's being intentionally malicious," Sakura murmured though she understood he was upset. Of course, she wasn't being intentionally malicious but she also wasn't being nice, this was the nature of Jeanne's current self. Much to Jeanne's own general displeasure, she wasn't being offered a second drink, instead... she was told of a method of fixing both their problems which involved taking Charles as the King to her Queen. She scoffed and was about to reiterate a thing she said, purposefully twisting an already sore subject, only to have the Nexus immediately mention past that point and her general objection. "Well if you had started with the brother and sister part you likely wouldn't have had to preface the subject. Also... there would have been a swear or three in there..." she added seemingly pouty. Oh well, this version of herself was still just lashing out at people... it was currently in her nature to be a bit more spiteful than normal. "That sounds better than anything else, but I don't get why the comparison to both marriage and brother and sister..." she said not quite completely understanding why that distinction wasn't what the Nexus led with. Strangely, it would be Sakura who spoke up. "Oh, I can explain this one..." she started happily. "Everything in this world is determined by mana and its compatibility. As such the difference between a married couples synergy and a sibling sets energy is basically negligible. In the cases of weaker sensory beings, telling the difference between married couples or a set of siblings would be exceedingly difficult. And they balance well so there aren't any problems..." she finished with a firm nod. Jeanne looked at this girl and sighed. She understood those words and they did make sense if one considered mana the base of everything, but such a thought was exactly the opposite of the randomness of human understanding. "Eri-nee would call it magical world bullshit biology... okay. Fine, I appreciate the quick explanation. Thanks~" she said soon after. All the while Sakura beamed like the happiest person that had gotten to make an explanation and have it understood. "Alright so.. how do we do this mana exchange in a way that won't make me say something else that hurts feelings?" she asked finally.

"It's not as big as it seems. The outcome is pretty much the same, but... you witches are above and beyond either way. That thing you call fate isn't exactly something you people care about," the Nexus added. Even with her belonging to the Void in this form, he would normally be able to see through all events surrounding her. Witches, however, had the innate ability to alter those events from the moment they awakened.

Sakura believed Jeanne wasn't being malicious with any intent. Did that matter? No. Somehow, that made things even worse. "It's not even about that!" he retorted, choosing to address the matter no further. Whatever the case, he had an explanation to listen to. The Nexus believed he and Jeanne should connect in a way similar to marriage, but not quite the same. Siblings, he compared it to. As a human from the other world, Charlemagne would have naturally considered that even worse by association... but he'd seen and heard too many ridiculous things lately. Surely there was more to the explanation. Indeed, there was. Sakura spoke next, explaining that siblings and wedded couples were so incredibly similar in terms of mana connections, a layman would not be able to tell one pair from the other. That... made the strangest amount of perfect sense. "I'm almost upset by how easily I understand this stuff now," Charlemagne mumbled.

Now then, how were they to go about the mana transfer necessary? Well, they had already been given the key. The Nexus held in one hand Charlemagne's grail, believing neither would want the more 'invasive' transfers as their ilk would call them. "This. It would be way easier if you just did things the normal way, but I understand you humans have your preferences and reservations. At minimum, prolonged skin contact might work. A bodily fluid exchange of some sort would be way better, but you'll both have to drink from this grail either way. As for you not hurting someone else's feelings, well... that's up to you, isn't it?"

The Nexus had some interesting things to say about Witches and fate, thinking that the hole in his vision wasn't that big and the outcomes were mostly the same. "Going with the flow isn't for everyone... I couldn't anymore. Though I wonder if I have some secret darkness based friend now I don't know about~" she said her own thoughts about it. Actually, she probably wouldn't have been okay if she'd tried to accept what had happened to her. She was too fragile with everything that happened. In this way she took her life back into her own hands and that made it better for her.

According to Charles, this wasn't about the malicious intentions or lack there of applied to Jeanne d'Arc's words. Sakura truly wouldn't get it. Perhaps more observation was in order? Yes that seemed fine. What was more, the general understanding of their newest lesson about the differences between married couples and siblings was well received by both individuals. Charles claimed hew as almost upset at how easy things were to understand now and Jeanne could strangely commiserate. "You aren't the only one. I learned an ancient language earlier in the week and just the use of those words have enough power to keep a dragon out of rampage... shit's confusing, you're beating your head against a wall, and then clarity. It's fucking irritating," she said absently.

Speaking of things to get done, apparently things would be easier if they went about it a more natural way, but the Nexus understood human reservations and preferences. It was pretty obvious he didn't fully get it, considering he kept mentioning the easier method as if someone was going to take him up on the offer. "Still doing it the hard way..." mentioned Jeanne, but that was fine. As for not hurting feelings she only scoffed. If it'd been her intention to fully emasculate someone she'd do it on purpose... anything else she wasn't taking responsibility for. So, she did it the easiest way she could. She got up and reached for the cup. In doing so the armor on her person was banished and she was left in her little black sleeveless dress her fingers bare. She took a healthy swig from that cup while approaching Charles with it directly hand held it out for him. "Bottoms up!" she offered the lad before collapsing on the floor beside him and crossing her legs at the ankle. Soon after one would note her right hand on offer, it was the best she could or would manage at this point but it was something. The Nexus was an 'all-powerful' being he could make it work. And she'd gone without hurting any more feelings as far as she was concerned. "Sou ka, that was the choice, interesting. I like her." she decided in the moment.

Jeanne thought she may have some sort of dark entity as a comrade now, and frankly, she couldn't be more correct. "You don't know her? Hmm. Must have been a new thing. You'll probably meet soon then," the Nexus asserted. He knew his daughter to be the Void's current representative due to Sakura, but apparently she hadn't been utilizing her connection to others for very long. Ah, perhaps the Dark Grail's creation was to blame for her chosen involvement.

For the first time in a thousand years, Charlemagne and Jeanne were on the same page. His understanding of Sakura's explanation was disturbingly easy, and she shared the opinion. That was sure to set him at ease after all those jabs at his self-esteem. "You learned a language that works on dragons? That's pretty awesome. I could have used that sort of thing on the wyvern I had to deal with a few months ago," he mused. Charlemagne remembered battling a dragon eons before as well, alongside Jeanne d'Arc even. Those were the days. "But yeah, everything in this world is ridiculous no matter how long I'm here."

Deciding to do things the more difficult way as both would prefer, Jeanne took hold of the Holy Grail and moved toward Charlemagne. In doing so, she banished her armor, at which point Charlemagne came to realize she was... far, far less reserved than ever before. By the time she sat next to him with an extended hand, he was pink in the face and looking away. Of course, he still reached for that hand to facilitate whatever sort of mana exchange this would be. Once upon a time, this sort of finger-lacing was something he considered slightly... lewd. After recent experiences, however... no. No, it still felt lewd somehow. Either way, he kept his right hand available to receive the grail and take a drink for himself. The Nexus took this time to look deep into the pair and... make a few things occur between them. "Woah! You guys could make a radical kid! This is gonna be awesome!"

"I haven't met anyone new lately... not counting her at least..." she said with a random wave to Sakura. Everyone else she currently knew, she'd met a long time prior to now, the exception being... "Well, except Metis. Now Eris, but I don't think she's keeping tabs on me," she murmured, Sakura's eyes lit up. But that she'd save for a bit. It seemed that this pair was getting along a bit better now, so she wouldn't interrupt for a few moments at least.

It seemed that learning a language that worked on dragons was something that Charles thought to be awesome. She couldn't help but smirk about it as they settled in for something likely odd. "Wyverns are pansies. I could yell at them in Common and they would bend. Dragons argue back... they take a bit more to tame," she explained. "Though it is pretty useful in general... definitely would have helped with that last one~" she chimed seeming to be remembering the same incident. Whatever the case, it seemed that both of them were on the same page about the randomness of this world and all its oddities. "True and more random stuff keeps getting added to it," she said knowing that she'd seen some strange things even in just a few instances since Gilgamesh had gone to save her sister.

Regardless she took her seat next to him, and noted his averted gaze and the pinkening of his face. That could have been attributed to a lot of things, but she understood it well enough as one from their world. Holding hands was a pretty intimate thing, but far less invasive than making out with a guy you were just fighting. She wasn't her sister, and though Charles was cool, she had no sexual interest in anyone but Siegfried. "Ya' know you're making this even lewder than a human already thinks this sort of thing is... you don't usually meet someone and think about having kids with them immediately! Also the extras like having to explain why I have a random baby that doesn't belong to the guy I'm with," she griped to the Nexus. That thing was way too into the idea of making a cool kid. Granted Jeanne had some pretty hard opinions about that sort of thing, Sakura understood. She didn't even know what someone called the Queen of Saints would have been like before this version and she still thought a baby created between her and Charles would have been an interesting thing to see. But there was another thing first... "Why is hand-holding lewd?" asked Sakura, she figured she'd missed something important here.

It came as no surprise that dragons and wyverns were leagues apart. Apparently though, Jeanne's alleged ability to command dragons applied to wyverns in a much easier way as well. He expected as much, but not that she could just order them around in Common. She may have been forced along a dark path a thousand years ago, but she had also made some very incredible developments. Regardless, they both had reason to reminisce about a simpler time, when their only issue was a massive evil dragon attacking France while they were trying to catch up over breakfast. Well, perhaps that was a massive issue at the time... but at least that dragon didn't cause long-lasting existential crises.

Speaking of existential crises, Charlemagne was being pushed toward yet another one already. Jeanne decided to make a note of his physical reaction to their current contact. Why? She could have gone the rest of their lives without bringing that up, but she did it anyway. They could have both ignored the random comment about a would-be child between them, but no... she had to say something. Worse yet, the Nexus seemed to mean that comment in a much deeper way. "Well you two have known each other for ages. No problem then, right? It doesn't matter either way. There's a Holy Grail that hasn't been passed on yet. Jeanne, you'll have to be the one to do that before Anu does. So, either I make it work between you two and guarantee something good that also solidifies your partnership... or let Anu have a child that's technically yours. Your dragon friend isn't going to be an option, either; not while you're like this," the man explained. Meanwhile, Charlemagne was sipping from the grail and passing a deep exhale through his nose. Of course Sakura would question the lewdness of hand-holding. She really had a habit of asking about the most embarrassing things, and frankly... Charlemagne wasn't interested in explaining this one either. "I don't wanna. Can I not? Can you just throw it in the 'weird human stuff' box?"

When they were young and life was simple, Jeanne worried about things like dragons and meeting up with Marie Antoinette to discuss that lass's man problems. Now that she was older Dragons were less of a problem and she was stuck dealing with the gods of this world who didn't know when enough was enough. Further proof of this was the words spoken by the Nexus after her words about the apparent offspring being forced upon her. And yes, it was forced because the options were now limited. Make a good baby with Charles or... let Anu make a baby with her somewhere else that she had no say in. She couldn't have the kid with her own partner of choice because of the way she currently was, which... was also only the fault of Anu.

Jeanne's brow started twitching but beyond that there was nothing but rage in her soul. Once again that demented god was standing in her way. She couldn't even live her life the way she wanted to properly because of something that could go wrong with him. "Yes it's still a problem, you don't have kids by your friends. There are strict divisions between friendships and other ships, what part of fidelity don't you people get?" she asked immediately. Oh but there was more of course, the options were do this thing she wasn't interested in or let Anu bring forth another issue for the rest of the world to deal with, because of course that was how this was going to work. "Oh yes, because it's definitely an option to give him another kid to fuck up. So here I am compromising again, being forced to be the bigger person again... I'm so fucking tired of being the bigger person!" she said those words with a series of swears in German under her breath only to exhale again. Her hand tensed and then she remembered that someone was holding her hand and she forced it to relax. "I fucking I hate... everything about that goddamn shitty excuse for a fucking god and killing him will be the happiest day of my goddamn life!" she stated. Sakura looked at this woman and gained a different level of confusion. Apparently Charles didn't want to answer her question about handholding. "I guess, but I really don't get it..." she said logging that question away as one she'd ask someone else. All the while her eyes moved back to Jeanne and in typical Sakura fashion she placed a hand against her exposed upper back. "It's okay," she murmured. It was such a random and child-like occurrence that Jeanne seemed fairly shocked herself. "Thanks, but you don't have to comfort me, really. It's fine. It's cool... I'm going to kill a whole bunch of things in that dungeon while my sister can't walk and everything will be fucking peachy!" Jeanne mentioned, she was obviously furious but she could put that aside for a while at least.

There was no end to Anu's torment of Jeanne, intentionally or otherwise. His existence would only become more of a plague against those who found themselves connected, until he was dealt with properly. Sadly, this group in particular would be dealing with him far more than others. Their individual journeys had not been pleasant ones, and their combined journey would have a similar amount of turmoil. While the Nexus mulled over these facts, Jeanne carried on about having children with one's friends. Charlemagne was astounded that he'd even be called a friend at this point, but the Nexus had more to say yet again. "It's not a normal sort of kid, really. I should also say, I'm giving you an option. You don't have to do this; I could break the connection by cycling that child back into the world. Instead, I figured you'd rather avoid the option that'll have people worrying forever. The choice is still yours," he declared. To ensure the decision of both parties was a certain one, he even chose to give proper details ─ spoilers, even.

"Alright, so listen. I'm gonna give you guys some spoilers before I do this thing. No kid? Anu births a Child of the Nexus into the world, Anu gains a connection to me that's as strong as yours. There are some other, deeper spoilers which make that a terrible idea. Kid? Another innocent girl out there will still be taken advantage of, but the whole world won't suffer much for it. Third alternative where I cycle the kid back through the grail system? Same as the last, but..." He took pause there, looking toward Jeanne specifically. "You're missing a root. That's one of the things I can't see entirely, but you run the risk of becoming a Beast. By now, I think you know what that is. You should also know who makes the majority of the Beast-stopping list," he concluded. Recently, Jeanne should have learned about Beasts and the like. As for those who could stop them, two were among her precious family members, and few others were comrades including Charlemagne himself. If Jeanne d'Arc became a Beast, she'd be one of great power that required multiple of those people to end her. "Going against Fate is a dangerous thing. I know it's not your fault that either of you ended up on this path, and I'll do what I can, when I can, to make amends for that. But this time... I'll leave the choice to you. As another spoiler, I can tell you the kid would be a precious light in all of your lives."

With that long speech out of the way, Charlemagne finished drinking from the grail. Sakura refrained from further questioning another human thought process, so he didn't have to worry about that any longer. Instead, his concern went to the matter at hand about... somehow having a child with the blackened Jeanne d'Arc. It didn't seem to be something that required intercourse, based on the Nexus's earlier words. Moreover, if it kept Jeanne from additional unnecessary tribulations, well... he could accept the option despite how strange it was. He'd already gone down the proverbial rabbit hole anyway, so why not? "These life options aren't getting any less weird either. At this point, I'll do whatever helps the most. I've done enough fence-sitting for one millennium. Where's the fourth option where we just undo most of Aincrad, though?" he griped.