The Lab

“Well, now that you mentioned it, ‘course I wanna know…” Not that he expected her to indulge this request. After all, he was an idiot, and shouldn’t look to others to make up for that. 

He nodded, taking a slice. Now that he actually had food in front of his face, it dawned on him that he hadn’t eaten a meal in several days. Naturally, he quickly appeared more than happy to eat, like he was on cloud nine. 

“Heh, thanks. It’s nice to have something like this once in a while.” 

It seemed that all of the hesitation he’d had moments before was long gone. He sat nearby, relaxed, smiling. Was his guard really this easily let down? 

She sighed setting the slice down. “Right well.... I am the Azure Grimoire.... I was created by Relius years ago, and as such I learned how to control siethr, I learned how do... really anything I could want with siethr. So I simply returned the siethr poisoning from your arm back into the grimoire.” She said calmly though it was clear there were parts of what she was saying that she didn’t want to continue talking about just yet.

Something I am noticing more and more is that people are following, but no one is interacting with one another. So to ease some people’s fears, why not tell one another why? Keeps others from agonizing of what they have or haven’t done.

Ragna listened intently but didn’t fully understand. Why shouldn’t he be afraid of that thing? All his life he was told it had a power not his own that would consume him one day, and that all he could do was use his willpower to keep it from doing so. That one day, someone would have to kill him. That making it to his 30th birthday was a stretch. 

Then, he felt a great sense of relief. Like something that had been pressing on his ribs, wrapping around his throat, clenching itself tightly around his body… had just been taken away. It felt like he was alive again… 

“Holy shit…” He didn’t even need to check. After that, he certainly believed her. But he undid his collar and felt normal skin on his shoulder for the first time in years. “H-how did you do that?!” 

“When you understand what your arm actually is.... it is very easy to control it.... the short answer... I have a very intimate connection to the azure grimoire....” she said softly. “It’s a bit difficult to really explain... and given we just met I doubt you would like me just dumping a lot of information on you, especially when alot of it may make you rethink a lot of what you know a ‘fact’... But feel free to ask, i will answer any question you have for me.” she said smiling returning to her seat and pulling a box of pizza out. “Want a slice?” she asked taking one for herself.

“Er, that’s just… what I call this annoying vampire girl that follows me around. Her hair bows kinda look like bunny ears, so I thought it was fitting.” And that was as much as he wanted to talk about Rachel, because… well, speak of the devil, and in she will no doubt teleport. He wasn’t in the mood for that. “I think keeping me in the dark is one of her hobbies.” 

“I, uh, well… I don’t remember. Master says I took it by choice, but I don’t remember even seeing it… just waking up, and there it was.” He mumbled, his cheeks flushing slightly. 

Ragna gulped, his face slightly pale. After a moment’s thought, he hesitantly reached out his trembling right arm. 

“…Just be careful around this thing. It eats souls, and… I can’t really make it stop.” 

He knew this had to be a bad idea. Nothing good ever came from showing that thing to people. Especially since so many wanted it for… god even knows why. But perhaps somewhat foolishly, he found himself trusting her. After a life of mistrust and abuse, seeing someone who genuinely respected him… felt some sort of emotion other than contempt or exasperation in his presence… it brought his mind back to better days. More naive ones. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t shaking. 

Her own hands reached out gently taking his her fingers running along his palm a moment. “I see... so that’s what it is... you are afraid of it..... and so it is rejecting you as... you.... interesting.... this should help you though.” as she said that her hands would glow and a warm calming sensation would start from his clavical and slowly move down from there until it was just a bit over his elbow, his shoulder would feel like a tenseness and wait had just been taken away.

Oh. Well then. He didn’t know how to react to any of this. Some part of him almost thought it was a trap, since, well, nobody was nice to him ever. Especially not girls. The only girl he knew well was an abusive little rabbit who thought giving him electrically-induced seizures was a fun game. And his sister, but… 

“Wait, what? You shut it down?” He took a moment to process this. “Goddamnit, that fucking rabbit tells me nothing!” 

He forced himself to take a deep breath and calm down. Shouting about Rachel was not the best first impression, and she actually seemed to not despise him on a fundamental level from first sight. He needed to make this work! 

“Er, well… Kokonoe’s opinion aside….” Goddamn he hated that little witch sometimes. “I actually came here ‘cuz I heard you’d taken over for uh… what’s he going by now? “Hazama” or whatever? That asshole. You sounded pretty different, so I was kinda curious.” 

“Rabbit? I don’t believe I have met a rabbit beast-kin yet. What are they like?” she asked with almost a child like curiosity. “Oh... so that was the vessels name, he wasn’t to happy to see me especially when Terumi told him it was a death wish to try and take me on.” she said not really focused entirely on the conversation now.

Ragna didn’t know how to handle her overall demeanor. She acted so calm and friendly around him that he wondered if perhaps she didn’t know what she was dealing with. But she knew his name, so she had to have heard the tales. 

His cheeks flushing somewhat pink, he stammered, “Oh, uh… yeah, sure… I don’t mind." 

His heart was pounding a bit. He didn’t know whether that meant anything, but for now, he was just in awe that someone actually was treating him with respect. 

“No need to feel nervous Ragna I promise we are not on opposing sides.” she said brushing a few strands of her hair too the side before she lead the way to her office and sent notice for the others to return to their daily business.

Ragna wasn’t a gossip by any means, but he still followed a good rumor or two from time to time, and this newest one had caught his attention. Apparently, “Hazama” had been overthrown by a young woman with a similar appearance. Ragna initially assumed that this woman was just Terumi’s newest vessel (and that Terumi had decided to change his gender identity or whatever… not that Ragna cared about that) but her actions were apparently making waves in the NOL. Good waves. And that made Ragna decide he had to investigate. 

Still, he never expected that the woman would meet him halfway in this endeavor. Standing in front of him was a slender woman with long, light-green hair and yellow eyes. They didn’t have the snake-like quality that Hazama’s eyes had and seemed instead oddly gentle. This wasn’t enough to make Ragna drop his guard, however. He could sense that she was extremely powerful, and someone he had no intention of crossing. 

“So, you’re the new Captain of the Intelligence department I’ve been hearin’ about. I ain’t here for a fight.” He sighed, “If you’re tough enough to make that asshole run screamin’ for the hills, as far as I’m concerned, we might as well be best buds. So, uh…” 

His mind briefly drew a blank, before he remembered he hadn’t even said his own damned name. 

“You probably already know who I am, but… I’m Ragna. Never did hear your name, though.” 

Kazumi was leaned back in her chair reading over one of the files she had on Makoto Nanaya. “Hmmm she’s a keeper.” the slender girl mused before the alarm began sounding. “Hmm? Who would be attacking here?” she mused standing up and walking out into the hall “Everyone evacuate I’ll deal with this.” she said over the intercoms. 

“So you are Ragna the Bloodedge? Not what I was expecting.” she said with a chuckle. “Kazumi, Captain Kazumi Kval a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” she said gently. “Care to join me in my office so the others can get back to work?”