Demon and Beast [Private | Chimera]

It was already dark there in the city of Heliohapt, the sky was clear and the stars were beautifully aligned above without any clouds around but just a bright shining crescent moon. In the middle of the quiet street, a man walked through it calmly, the sound of his Katana clacking was audible but not loud enough to make people aware. Tenma looked up to the sky and stared at the moon before looked down and closed his eyes. He let out a sigh and carved a small pleased smile while continue to walk until he reached a tavern. The swordsman was in the mood to drink, entertaining himself with the booze in such quiet night only to giving himself a reward. He would then enter the crowded tavern and looked around so he could find a place to sit and ended up sitting at the empty seat in front of the counter.

The bartended grinned cheerfully, skillfully tossed the bottle up with his left hand and caught it with his right hand before saying, “Good evening! The usual? Or do you want to try something new?” The one eyed man chuckled and replied, “I’d have both. I want something cracking for the new mixture that you have though, think you can give me something like that?” The bartender laughed happily, winking and put the bottle on the table, making a loud thump sound, “Think you can handle it?” After that both of them would laugh and Tenma watched as the bartender skillfully moved his hand to take several different bottle and create a mixture that consist of several type of alcohol. He put an umbrella in the glass and served it to the black haired man before turning his back to get a bottle of Sake and put it in front of the swordsman. Like capable to read Tenma’s mind, the bartender would take a plate, put a paper on it and after that put fries on the paper before sprinkling it with salt and pepper. With a smile on his face, the one eyed man looked at the perfectly cooked fries, the usual one he had for his drinking snack and taste one. Then he would say to the bartender while lifting his glass, “Compliments to the bartender.”

Heliohapt was still a new adventure to the wanderer who had known next to nothing of the world. Her explorations involved the outskirts of the city, the university, and the trading hub of Helio. Despite her lack of knowledge in the area, she had been making some money and getting to work. She had decided perhaps a little celebration was in order. Only knowing how to work and to learn, but something caught her eyes, the consumption of alcohol. At first whiff, even since she was young, it was clearly toxic, with nose-burning fumes, it was a miracle people could even withstand being around it, but another phenomena she noticed was that alcohol seemed to run across the entire caste of society, the wealthy merchants who sold alcohol at exorbitant prices that only true royalty could afford to cater, down to the mere slaves.

It was... interesting, it was almost like a social badge that made people want to talk to you. Her curiosity as well as her intuition had realized that this could be a stepping stone into breaking into other circles of people. But before being able to learn about something as universal as alcohol, Chimera would have to whet her appetite for the concoction. The snout of her quickly picked up the spice of liquor, and she followed it past some clay building, now cool that the sun was resting beyond the horizon.

She waited outside of the building, leaning against it, hiding her face as much as possible. She was clueless on the etiquette of entering a tavern or ordering alcohol. All she needed now, was someone to follow in and to replicate their behavior and general mannerisms. Her conduct was quite suspicious, and it was clearly deterring some of the clientele, but finally someone who already reeked of the brew had stormed in, still able to walk, but on the verge of stumbling at any given moment, walking to the counter, being closely shadowed by Chimera. "I WANT SOOOME OF YOUR CHEAPEST AND STRONGEST STUFF!" The drunk patron slammed his fist on the counter right beside another fellow who seemed to be enjoying a snack of fries, even disturbing the umbrella on his drink.

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His golden eye stared with the corner of his eye at the man, who seemed to walk towards him. He didn’t really pay too much attention and let the man to just walk while he sipped his sake again, not letting any single drop to escape from his lips. Tenma kept his guard up when the stumbling man who seemed to not look dangerous sat beside him and slammed his fist on the counter. His loud voice and alcohol reek from his mouth was unbearable; his body odor was reek of alcohol as well. The swordsman would take another sip of his drink, ignoring every annoying act the man did. He was used to it and had seen a lot worse than this, so in this moment, he just focused to enjoy his booze. Things got pretty intense when the man keep asking for a drink to the point the bartender refused to give more because the man was indeed, very drunk. The drunken man glared at the bartender and quickly stood up, cracked his knuckles before threatening the bartender by making a fist while holding the bartender’s shirt.

A long, audible sigh escaped the one eyed man lips, and he only stared at both the man and also the bartender without saying or doing anything but just showing his smile. He knew if there was any bar fight right now then his time in the tavern wouldn’t be very long for him to be able to enjoy himself with booze. So for the sake of his drinking peace, Tenma decided to smile at the two men besides him that only lead into the drunken man started to threaten him and attempted to pull his shirt’s collar. Like knowing the right timing, the black haired man used his sword’s side, lifted it right in front of his body and prevented the man to move his hand any further. “Let’s do this in the peaceful way, do you agree?” But the man disagreed as he now used both hand to choke the black haired man which he stopped adding pressure immediately when he felt cold steel touching the side of his neck. “…I just sharpened it more today…” Tenma smiled, adding a little more pressure to his katana so it would give the man a little cut, making the blood bleed a little. At that time, his golden eye was not as warm as before, it was cold, full of killing intention and he was not kidding at all. The man, as if being hypnotized, releasing his grip around Tenma’s neck and quickly left the tavern, leaving Tenma to rub his neck before turning his back. “Hey, if you are in the middle of hiding but keep staring that intense, everyone would now…right… milady?”

A streak of red crossed her face and she immediately hid her face, 'UGH!' Chimera was furious, someone had called her out on her awkward behavior, it must have been even more noticeable than she had anticipated, and it had left her, shockingly, embarrassed, but after a few deep breaths, a spec of composure managed to grace her as she finally went in observing the chaos for a moment. It was evident to her that the person who had handled the situation had a bit of charm, and had definitely settled the situation more elegantly than she would have. Thinking about it, she perhaps would've apologized to him and rabbit punched him, which might have left a weird impression on everyone who was enjoying their drinks.

A few moments later, she revealed the full figure of her face with a bright smile and pleasant eyes. "Haha, I thought I knew the guy, but yeah, that wasn't him." She shrugged the whole situation off in general and took over the spot where the drunk vagrant had been having his own alcohol. The strangers reaction was furious and he was about to payback the embarrassment he had suffered twofold, but her attention was completely on the golden eye swordsman.

One look at the swordsman, and he slammed down the coins for his drink on the counter as rudely as possible, leaving moments after. Chimera had pretended not to notice, since she had cared so little about the small fry. "I'm new to Helio and I haven't been drinking around here, is there something you recommend?" She glanced over to the meal the swordsman was attending and pulled in the sake to take a small whiff of it, her face steeled in expression to the horrible fumes. "Well, doesn't that smell delightful?" IT was definitely a little softer than most of the alcohol she had heard.

After eyeing the drink, her eyes noticeably trailed to the keen edge. She had never wielded a weapon before and perhaps it could be useful in her future endeavors, despite her admiration for the blade, it wasn't a weapon that suited her nature particularly well.

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The swordsman just smiled when the woman approached him, letting her to sit beside him and answered, “I would suggest you to drink their signature wine since they produced it by themselves, what you usually drink if I may ask, milady?” After hearing her answer, the one eyed man would gaze to the bartender and said while smiling, “Could you make one of what she usually drink, put in on my tab.” Tenma was pleased, wondering if the woman could drink as much as he could, if yes then it would be fun because he wouldn’t spend the night in the bar alone with his Sake only. He could feel the woman’s gaze, staring to his Katana with a hint of admiration. Without even speak, the man reached for his Katana and lifted it up, “It’s beautiful, right milady? Do you want to touch it?” He didn’t mind at all letting someone touching Myou, as long as that someone didn’t have any hostility towards him or he would show and made that someone felt the sharp blade splitting their body.

He would then lifted down his Katana and took another sip of the sake before glancing back to the woman, “May I have your name, milady? You seem a fun lady to talk with. Perhaps I can treat you a light meal as well?”

Chimera's inner-self winced as the fellow had caught her in a lie just by the nature of his curiosity. The brunette quickly spun it to a joke, fortunately it should work due to the brevity of the topic. "Well, to be honest, I haven't been drinking around much of anywhere actually. I just wanted to unwind, seeing that guy," She lifted her arm pointing with her thumb over her shoulder "...made me a little hesitant, but knowing that you're a drinker too means it can't be so bad." She turned her attention to the barkeep who stifled a smile as she casually mentioned being a neophyte to the beverage.

The barkeep turned away to his counter, pulling a cup and a bottle of the sake, pouring it into something a bit more traditional, serving it up to her in a nice foreign dish, that barely fit much of the drink, but was quite elegant. She received it with grace in both hands as only her finger tips supported it and her thumbs keeping it in place bringing it to her lips and tilting it back as she sipped on her drink. Despite feeling the coolness against her lips, she felt her blood rushing to her face and through her body. It felt as if her body could finally relax and ease.

"Oh yeah, name." She was trying to think of all the implications of sharing her desired name or her old name or if making one up was a better choice, but all her sharp wit was dulled by the alcohol. "Well, whatever, it's Chimera! Heheh." she had a small outburst of laughter wondering what he would think of her proposed nomenclature, but shrugged off the thoughts and tilted her head to the side. "And I'm so glad I'm having the pleasure... of speaking to..." She gave a nice not-so-subtle pause so he could interject with his own name.

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He chuckled to the woman who was mentioning that drunkard from earlier, “Don’t worry milady, now that guy is gone you can enjoy this place to the fullest. I assure you some of his creation will amuse you.” The one eyed man gazed at the bartender, watching as him prepared the sake and served it to the brunette before signaling that he would like to order or three more bottle of sake. If he remembered correctly, he had enjoyed around 7 bottles for now but it was only able made his body warm but didn’t enough to made him drunk. After the woman had her first sip, Tenma watched with smile and grabbed another bottle of sake, pouring it on her cup as if signaling her to drink again. It was pleasant to have someone drink with him even though he didn’t know about this lady at all, but just pleased because he thought that she was an interesting one. But he might try to watch her so she wouldn’t drink too much because it wouldn’t be appropriate for a woman to get very drunk. Well, she might not seem like such woman who couldn’t control her booze tolerance but still, he need to prevent that right?

His hand lifted the cup that was full of Sake to the woman, “Tenma. Mikazuki Tenma. It’s a pleasure to meet you milady. And such a unique name that you have there, lady Chimera.” He would sip the liquid in his cup again before starting to ask some questions to the brunette. “Tell me more about yourself, Lady Chimera. You didn’t like that you originally was born in Heliohapt judging from your fair white skin? Well, I myself came from Kou and visited this country just to have a good sightseeing.”

Chimera's focus was slipping, not much from her peak performance, but even the little things were faltering in her mind. Her own eyes alternated gazing between Tenma's eyepatch and his eye, which had a beautiful, nearly golden hue, similar to that of a star. Her attention quickly collapsed onto the waterfall of sake pouring from the bottle into her small dish, and she was much more eager to take this one back.

After one gulp, she sat down the dish. She was nearly giddy about the whole affair. "Oh yeah, I was totally a slave, but that guy killed himself." Despite speaking so casually about it, eyes began to roll down her face as flashes of the experimentation filled her mind, but the alcohol seemed to dull those pains away fortunately. Following a sniffle to stifle the tears, she wiped her face with her sleeve. "Haha, so I was just sort of freed from that life style and I went back to slave caravan and made my way here, the slave trading capital of the world it seems."

She tried to recall what Kou was like from her reading but nothing was popping up. "Anyways, I think people think I may have been from Kou or Reim myself, but I don't remember my parents at all. However, I've been in Helio for a short while and I'm loving it. Thinking about becoming a slaver myself actually." She spun in her chair as she slowly imagined the architecture of helio beyond the walls of the tavern. Chimera could definitely appreciate the luxury of such a country but it wasn't to her taste specifically. Perhaps she would have to travel in the near future. "Sightseeing, huh? If only life was that easy. What do you do for a living?"

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His body tensed up unnoticeably when he heard her word, but continued to enjoy his Sake until the woman finished talking. He wouldn’t show any pity to the woman, knowing that she wouldn’t like it yet he was not that cold to just brush it off, so he brought the bottle of the sake again and pour it to her cup. He was not going to make her drunk and passed out, but he thought that sometime a person need to loosen up. Drinking alcohol was one of the many ways although things would get bad if you were too attached to it, so he only watched, observing the woman so she wouldn’t get too drunk even though Tenma noticed her low alcohol tolerance. He lifted his glove covered left hand, slowly moved it to touch the girl’s cheek and wiped the tears on her face. No words left his lips as he lifted his hand so he could touch the brunette’s head, carefully ruffling her hair. “I apologize for doing such impolite things towards a lady such as yourself, but I really couldn’t help but to do this little comforting action towards you even though maybe it would mean nothing for you.” He gave her a warm smile while looking at her and waited for what she had to say. The moment when she mentioned that she was thinking to be a slaver, Tenma chuckled and the only words that came from his lips was just, “That would be interesting…” He pulled his hand away and listened to Chimera, “Haha, not that easy but at least it is a great thing to do. I am a wanderer, so I am just wandering around helping someone with everything they needs to get some rewards. What about yourself, milady?” He would pause himself for a second, but not giving the chance to the woman to actually reply to him. “Say, Lady Chimera. I am assuming you met a lot of people back then? So… have you possibly meet a wavy black haired girl, with shining golden cat-like eyes and looks innocent, just like a child who knows nothing?” Tenma locked his golden orb with the girl’s orbs, wondering if he actually can get some clue but was not so sure because maybe Chimera didn’t remember or have not met the mentioned person yet.

Chimera's first reaction as the barehand graced her cheek, was to keep it close, placing her hands over it and inhaling deeply before letting out a relaxing sigh. "If only if reality were so kind...." she muttered under her breath, unlikely audible to Tenma. She pulled it away and faced him with a smile. Despite having been served another glass of the fine drink, she set down the cup. Her mood began to stabilize slowly. Her expression was so simple, but pretty in a way; honest. She nodded ready to reply, bringing her hand up as if to crack a whip, but he seemed more intent on other things.

Chimera took her time with attentive ears as it was clearly something important for him to forsake a typical courtesy when he had struck high notes of being a chivalrous gentleman. She nodded to reveal she was listening intently, and she racked her brain despite she didn't think it would be of much use. "I don't believe I've ever met her. I don't know but perhaps you could get a picture drawn, they have those sort of services available, and if you find it difficult to get such an artist to get your thoughts down, you could get a look alike or two." And she went into a hypothetical conversation. "She has my eyes, this persons cheeks, and this ladies hair." And going back to Tenma. "I wish you the best, and if you get me a piece of art with this girls face, I'll keep it on me and help you find her. I will have a small network of slaves, and I will be travelling and it's no fat off my back. You've been too kind to me." She bowed her head apologetically unable to be of more help. "And any other information you can give helps too. How old she is, her name, her height, her race, where you saw her last."

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Tenma only smiled when he heard that Chimera might have not met her yet, and Tenma knew, more than anyone, that it was to be very expected. He didn’t even know where to start or how to start the find as he was only randomly looking everywhere only for that someone. He quickly shook his head, his gaze was sad but he was still smiling at the brunette. “It is alright, milady. I have not met this person for many years and I am very sure she has a different appearance right now. But all I can tell you is she is 17 years old by now and she has those golden colored eyes that perfectly matched with her jet black hair. She is a human.” He took another sip of the rice wine and chuckled to the brunette, “I want to know more about yourself, Lady Chimera… You look like an interesting lady. So why do you want to become a slaver?”

Chimera enjoyed being referred to as Lady, but she was starting to almost get upset at Tenma. He was being far too romantic and too sweet, too handsome. TOO EVERYTHING. "You can just call me Chimera." Chimera was aware of how love felt and the feeling was revolting. She didn't want to lose her sense of self to Tenma, or be helplessly devoted to him so she began to slowly turn away his kindness, but she could perhaps still have use for him, and he use for her. "I really admired how you handled the guard. If maybe you could teach me a few things, I would do my best to look for your kitten."

A kitten is what she thought of when Tenma would mention his missing persons description. Jet black hair with golden eyes, and still a certain youth of being a teen. "Anyways, I think I like to defend myself by being in control, and somehow it suits me, speaking of that, I have a bit more work to do Tenma. Thanks for everything." She mimicked an action he had done to her earlier by placing her hand against his cheek with her thumb brushing against him as if brushing away an imaginary tear.


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[Exit]

P.S. Thanks for the fun social Tenma. <3

A faint chuckle escaped his lips when the brunette told him to just call her by her name only, he only smiled after that and nodding, signaling that he would follow her request. So far he saw the woman as a very interesting individuals and she might be able to help him, so, why not establish a further relationship with her? He listened to the woman tentatively and smiled warmly at her after letting out a small laugh, “I don’t mind to teach you few things, as long as I know what I should teach you. And thank you, Chimera, I really appreciate it. ”

He didn’t move any bit or stopped her from doing so, he was indeed surprised by that sudden move but he could easily cover it, letting out his smile as his mask to wear. It seemed that she mimicked his gesture from a while ago, and that was only bringing him to feel have more interest with her. He nodded at the woman and said, “It was a pleasure, Chimera. May our paths cross again…”

‘Kitten, eh…?’ He murmured after she left, sipping another cup of Sake and poured some into his cup again, only to stare at the reflection of his golden eye. It was a sad stare…

[EXIT]

OOC: It was fun too~