Applying for Hime

[Horo]

Luca walked up to the bottom of the stairs that lead to Hime’s loft. He thought about how to begin addressing Veronica, but the instructions that she had posted merely requested that he say her name and he will be whisked away to a place of her choice for interrogation. He waved to a friend who walked around the library before taking the deep breath.

”Veronica. I’m here to apply for that job you posted.”

[Johnathan]

Luca would feel a violent blow to his chest as he was flung backwards and through a shadow on the wall behind him. When he emerged from the shadows again, he was no longer in the academy, or even the same world for that matter.

He landed in the charred ruins of what once must have been a grand estate. All around him, the ashen silhouettes of buildings and courtyards stood like ghosts in the wake of some terrible disaster. In the distance, sounds of construction could be heard and indeed, within sight many new buildings had begun to take form. However, this area remained untouched; a burnt scar in the center of new life.

"It's just as depressing as the last time I was here." Veronica sat on a charred wooden beam to Luca's left. Her expression was sullen as she gazed out across the destruction, seeing a much different scene in her mind than what lay before them. "I can't figure out what Erebus is thinking; choosing to leave the center compound in this state."

[Horo]

A loud grunt filled the air as the wind was slammed out of his chest. He reappeared in the Melenthos Estate, flooded by the vivid memories of every event that the scattered ashes carried with them. It was nearly overwhelming for Luca, but once he regained the proper amount of air in his lungs he restored the internal balance that allowed his powers to work in optimal conditions.

He took a step forward and touched a charred chair. It crumbled under the pressure of his fingers and with a sigh Luca decided that he would either have to stand or sit next to Veronica. So with a light step he moved to the charred wooden beam and took a seat. With a stretch of his neck he turned to look at Veronica. ”He probably believes that it will serve as a reminder. Or something of the matter. I never bother to touch him, I just get that stupid spell his family developed to deal with me. Strangely, it seems to have faded here.”

Luca began to swing his legs as he continued to speak. ”I understand that Hime needs to have someone keep an eye out for her when you’re not available, keep the place clean of her books and wash her and all that. I happen to be a world class butler. Luca cracked his knuckles and smiled. ”I will work for free, just give me the room and any money needed for the Hime. Just don’t be jealous if she crawls into my bed because she has a nightmare.”

Luca’s face produced a smooth, playful smile. ”Deal?”

[Johnathan]

"Nonsense." Veronica replied, a sly smile coming to her lips. "This is an interview; you must pass before you're in a position to negotiate anything." Standing, Veronica began to slowly make her way down the ruined street. "This test is composed of two parts. The first is immediate and will determine your worth. If you can pass this initial stage, I'll allow you to take the job. If not..." Veronica trailed off, her smile taking on an unsettling quality. It quickly faded into a much more solemn expression as she turned away to continue. "The second part is a long term assignment, that I honestly don't expect you to be able to complete." Veronica came to a sudden stop and about faced to meet Luca eye to eye, emphasizing how serious she was. "However, if by some miracle of fate you manage to accomplish it, I will see you as an equal for the rest of your life."

Veronica's face was a mask of sincerity; the truth of her words could not be questioned. She continued to regard Luca for a long moment before turning again and resuming her slow gait. "I'll start with your long term assignment. What do you know of Periculosi Melanthios?"

[Horo]

“Periculosi Melanthios? He is an enigma. The only person who is completely absent from my memory’s eyes. Even Elezar lets himself be seen, this man. I know he is the former head of the Melanthios family. Grandfather of Hime, he used to keep her company. He fought and stopped wars single handed. He is a master of martial arts, I even have heard rumors that he challenged the Headmaster and won, but those rumors can’t be trusted as I read them from the Headmaster.”

Luca shifted awkwardly. The subject was one that bothered him. Everyone left some kind of trail behind, a fingerprint, pressure, the sound of their breath. Luca however had none of this information. His memories told of people talking to Periculosi, hugging him, but never actually was he present. It was a like a ghost was standing in front of Hime while she read, or a seat at the dinner table that was set, food placed, but no man present. Then in a flash, the food and silverware are eaten and moved.

”As the man who knows just about everything, I don’t know anything about him.”

[Johnathan]

Veronica nodded to herself. "About as well informed as anyone who never truly met the man, and enigma truly is the best word to describe him. Master Periculosi possessed an ability that masked his presence completely and indefinitely. Because of that, he is impossible to track; however, that is exactly what I would like you to do." The two of them were approaching the largest ruin in the area. At one point, it was clearly a large oriental style mansion. Approaching the stairs, Veronica turned to the side and took a seat on one of the guard stones.

"When Zalak (the previous head of the Melanthios family) lost his sanity, seventy percent of the Melanthios family was lost to his rampage. However, believe it or not, the family still retains over eighty six percent of it's military strength. While an inexcusably horrid act, fortunately for us the majority of people that were killed in the incident were branch family members and support staff, and most of the military loss comes from the death of Zalak and his wife directly. Still, one inexcusable discrepancy remains from that night. Master Periculosi should have been present on the night of his sons rampage and was more than powerful enough to intervene. Instead, he simply vanished."

Veronica's expression was one of bitter anger. "From the moment I became Eirika's guardian and she began taking jobs abroad, that unforgivable old man began to distance himself from the family. Truly, the coward's disappearance itself means little to me, however Eirika loves that man more than life itself, and so I cannot stop searching until she receives her closure." With a sigh, Veronica regarded Luca with a tired stare.

"Though no one can track him directly, you of all people should be able to track the subtle fingerprints he leaves behind on the world around him. I don't expect you'll find him soon, or even at all, but still I would like you to try."

[Horo]

Luca began to laugh, falling backwards onto the ground and holding onto his stomach. He rolled back and forth, laughing loudly until his sides hurt. ”You’re killing me! This is great! Rich! I will remember this moment for all of eternity!” Luca slowly pushed himself off of the ground and patted the dust and ash off.

”I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed. I was just shocked that you actually asked me for help.” Luca thought for a moment before smiling and giving Veronica a serious nod. ”I will try my best to find him. Once I can find a trail I’ll begin taking up leads. There should be something somewhere in this ash.” Luca placed his hand on Veronica’s shoulder, risking her killing him for touching her and said. ”Now, what is the next part of the interview?”

[Johnathan]

Veronica showed a sinister smile as she peeled Luca's hand from her shoulder. "Well, all you must do is track down an item that Eirika lost when her home was destroyed. It's something simple, just a small stuffed bear that she's had since the day she was born. It may be in pieces, and it's likely affected by the enchantments that block your empathetic touch, but it still shouldn't be too hard." Veronica stood and began to walk away as a cloud of black smoke started to surround her.

"I almost forgot to mention the most important part. The part that makes this a true test." She began to cackle in a slow devious fashion. "If the guards catch a stranger on the Melanthios' grounds, they'll kill you on sight." With an echoing bout of laughter, Veronica was surrounded by the smoke and vanished.

*********************

One and a half miles away

"Screw that gods be damned woman. Who the hell does she think she is, ordering me around. I'll fucking kill her and turn her into a walking corpse, just to kill her again." Remus was not pleased with his present circumstances. The small girl sitting on his massive shoulder began to giggle as she rocked back and forth.

"Why don't you go say that to her face." Remus crossed his arms with a huff, ignoring the suggestion entirely. Isabella giggled knowingly as she flipped into a standing position, still on his shoulder. "We~ll," She singsonged. "If you don't plan to stand up to her we better do as she says. Besi~des, it'll be fun! We haven't had a~ny~thing to do since we got put on guard duty!"

"Well, you can take care of it then." Remus huffed in annoyance.

"Okay, I will." Isabella stuck out her tongue and gestured to the sky. Instantly storm clouds began to form, and a distant rumble of thunder echoed slowly in the distance. Remus turned to her, a slight look of apprehension on his face.

"You're supposed to give the kid a fighting chance you know. Veronica will be pissed as hell if you just outright kill him." Isabella chuckled mischievously.

"I know tha~t." She whined playfully. "But it won't be any fun if he doesn't think he's gonna die! Besides, Veronica said I could kill him if he didn't turn out to be any good." Remus sighed and stared off at the distant figure.

"Best of luck kid, you're gonna need it."

[Horo]

Luca began to sift through the smoke, dust and ash in search of his princess’s lost bear. The ashes gave him mixed stories that he had to sift though, make sure they were in order as he began to walk the grounds. The ashes that floated around gave him insight of the people around him, most were about 500 yards away, so the guards wouldn’t be much of an issue for the time being.

“Now, which one was her room?”

Luca held his hands out in front of his chest and spread them apart as if zooming in on a giant tablet device that no one could see. His breathing slowed and his eyes were fixed on the empty space before him. Luca had entered his virtual memory, having collected enough data from the ashes to reconstruct the basic structure of the house in his mind. He looked around and decided that he would need more information, so he began to remove his shirt and flip flops so the ashes would come into contact with more of his body.

Above and to Luca’s right, faint footsteps could be heard surprisingly close by. “Hey, hey mister!” A small girl stood with her arms held out to the side as if she was walking on a gymnastic balance beam. Her face held a happy smile and she was humming a tune to herself.

Luca sighed, caught so early in his expedition? The wind was from the opposite side, giving reason to his lack of foresight on this occurrence. Luca turned towards the girl, staying within his virtual memory, which was over layed like a HUD. “How can I help you?”

Isabella giggled to herself at his response. She spun around in a full circle on the charred beam before clasping her hands behind her back and leaning towards him. “You’re not supposed to be here.” She singsonged in a chiding voice.

Luca sighed, the wind blew more ash onto his chest and finally information about Erika’s room came to mind. His head turned in the direction of the room, spotting where the bed used to stand, but this new girl would be a hindrance to his cause if he simply ignored her. “I apologize, I didn’t realise this land was off limits. If you would give me a few moments to collect my things I would happily be on my way.”

Smiling widely, Isabella placed a finger to her lips as she turned away and began stalking along the beams again. She made a show of thinking to herself as she circled slowly around to stand between Luca and his destination. “Hmm, I~ don’t~ know~.” Her small voice played on the words she almost sang out in a playful fashion. Then, as if struck by a great idea, her face lit up as she turned back towards him. “Hey mister, we should play a game!”

“I’m sorry, I’m not interested in playing games righ- Actually, what is the game you have in mind? It might be fun.” If this girl would play with him, he would gather more information about the location of the bear, if it was actually here or not and who if it wasn’t here took it. “How do we play?”

Isabella giggled in excitement, as she clapped her hands together and bounced up and down. “It’s a re~ally fun game! All you have to do is guess!” She spun around again and began pacing slowly back and forth along the beam she was on. “You only get one guess though, so you better be sure you got it right!” She smiled mischievously as she glanced up towards the sky meaningfully before turning back to face him. “You have to guess, what my favorite type of storm is!”

Luca began walking towards Isabella with his index fingers pressing against each other. He thought it out, looking at her with very interested eyes. If I was Soleth, he thought, this would be simple. She looks like a thunderstorm type, but if I can just touch her...”Alright, I’ll play this game. What do I get if I win?” Luca reached a standing point under the beam that she was standing on top of and looked into her eyes. “What happens if I lose?”

“If you lose, you die!” She exclaimed happily as if what she just said was equivalent to shouting about ice cream or the beach.

“Alright, let's shake on it so you can’t back out of our agreement if I win.” Luca extend his hand with a pleasant smile. “This will be a fun game!”

“Hmmm,” Isabella put a finger to her lips again as she thought. She turned to Luca with a suspicious smile. “Hey mister, you’re a pervy wervy mister aren’t you?”

“You don’t play your game with pervy wervy people?” Luca asked tilting his head to the side.

“Well...” She began as she turned away from him, dancing back across the beam. “If you’re a pervy wervy mister, we may not even have to play the game!” Overhead, there was a flash followed by a crack of thunder with no delay. The clouds had darkened considerably and looked as though they were ready to release a typhoon at any minute.

Luca smiled and bowed “Then we should have no issue playing. I’m not a pervy wervy person. I’ve not even had a girlfriend in my life.” Luca rose from his bow and gripped the ash covered ground with his toes. HE turned over new ash and received more information about the place, the specifics of the kitchen and and lounge. “So, shall we shake on it, my lady?”

Isabella thought for another moment, before with a smile and an agile flip, she landed softly on the ground near Luca. Skipping the rest of the way towards him, she looked up to meet him eye to eye and held out her tiny hand.

Luca’s face dropped as he took her hand into his for a shake. His mind read the memories of her, gaining a single message Misters shouldn’t try to cheat at games.. Luca’s face turned pale as he let go and began to back away. “You’re a Melanthios...” Luca wasn’t one to curse, but his mouth was tempted at this moment. His trump card had been foiled like child’s play. “That man, teaching his magic to everyone...” Luca resorted to his powers of deduction to figure out what type of storm his girl like most. “Does it rhyme with lice?” He asked.

In a deft flip that should have been impossible for the tiny girl, she ascended back onto the beam with ease. Thinking with a comical face for a moment, she began to pace slowly back and forth again. “Noo~” She sing-songed.

Luca began to pace back and forth. “Does it rhyme with... um... sunder?” Luca was trying his best to gain an edge. His foot came across a small piece of metal in the ash that cut it. It however told him of the mirror that once held it. The bear had been in front of the mirror often. The mirror was from Erika’s room which had been on the floor above. He watched as the fire engulfed the room and the bear who had been on the bed vanished from sight in a tongue of fire. Maybe it burned up, Luca thought, but there would have to be ash to confirm that. He had to keep searching to be sure. He needed to stall for more time.

“How do you define a storm? Please, I want this to be fair since my life is at stake.” Luca walked under the beam and began sifting his hand through the ashes looking for more clues. Erika's clothing, books upon books that she had read with her Grandfather... Her Grandfather? Luca’s interest was stimulated as he caught a small glimpse of the man, not his face but his voice for a split second saying. “Not yet.”

Isabella smiled mischievously as the mister asked about another rhyme. “May~be~” She sing-songed casually. When he asked about storms, she took a moment to think again, unsure of how to answer. “Storms are... are... are when nature gets re~ally mad at something, and wants ta get rid of it!”

Luca nodded, her mindset was on destruction for sure. His choice would be narrowed down with one more question. “Do you consider Earthquakes as Storms then?”

“Um,” Isabella turned away, taking a long moment to think. Eventually, she spun back around with a happy shrug. “I don’t know! Let’s see...” With a swift clap of her hands, the ground beneath them trembled violently, causing several of the nearby damaged buildings to collapse thunderously to the ground. She giggled happily before replying, “I guess so!”

Luca’s eyes were wide with shock. Melanthios didn’t have powers like that... Not any that he knew of at least. Luca stood up and looked around, spotting the location of where the tongues of fire had eaten the bear. He would need to move in that direction. “Well, if Earthquakes are storms, than Tsunamis are also Storms I’m guessing. Which one do you think causes more damage, destruction and de~ath?!” His voice went manically happy, copping how Isabella had been speaking the majority of the time. Luca flipped over to the spot he had found and began to run his feet through the ground with spins, copying Isabella’s movements.

Isabella thought for another long moment, before her face suddenly dropped into a pout. “Mister,” She began suspiciously. “You’re stalling aren’t cha?”

Luca looked up at her with a manic smile. “I gue~ss you fo~und m~e out~!” He sing songed as he reached into the ash and picked the bear up, looking it over to ensure it was the correct bear. His memory gave him readings from the bear of time spent on a shelf. “Shit... it’s not the right bear.”

Isabella’s face twisted into an unhappy glare. She slowly raised a hand over her head. “Stop. Making. Fun of me!” She screamed. With a snap of her fingers, a massive bolt of lightning struck her, electrifying the entire estate. Surges of powerful energy coursed through every beam as the entire area took on a slightly blue glow. Her long hair began to rise and dance in the air at the massive amount of energy that had just begun to pour from her body. She dropped from the beam and slowly began to stalk towards him.

“Thunderstorms.” Luca answered as he rolled backwards, getting a massive reading from not only the ash, but the energy that came from the sky. It was an interesting feeling, seeing the memories of electrons. Luca’s foot landed on a metal safe that read to have weight inside but no object. “Maybe this is...” Luca turned his back to Isabella and began to put in the combination to the safe.

With a simple gesture of her hand, the safe Luca was attempting to access rocketed from the ground, arcing several hundred feet into the distance before crashing into the ground. Isabella continued to stalk towards him as the ash around her began drifting into the sky. The wind picked up rapidly in a funnel shape around her and in moments, the small girl’s form was obscured by a growing tornado of ash and soot.

“Isabella, calm down.” The calm and cool feminine voice of Veronica was commanding over the sound of the growing gale. She appeared in a black cloud several feet in front of Luca. Isabella did not stop.

“No!” She screamed, as overhead the lightning was replaced by cracks of black energy. “I hate him! He’s a mean mister!”

Luca looked up into the tornado and shouted “Did I guess right?” He turned to Veronica and said. “Check the safe. It might be in there.”

Veronica grabbed the boy by the skin on his back and vanished moments before a bolt of black lightning struck where they were standing. Appearing next to the safe in the distance, she tossed him at it before calling aloud, “Remus, get off your ass and do something about this.” On a fallen beam several meters away, a massive man with a black scythe resting on one shoulder looked casually over at the approaching tornado.

“I don’t know what you expect me to do.” He said boredly. “It’s the kids fault.” Veronica huffed in annoyance before crossing her arms and turning to Luca.

“Well, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but there’s a slight change of plans. Get the bear out of the safe before Isabella kills you and you pass the test.”

Luca walked over to the safe trying to reach the pull marks on his back. “You could have grabbed my hand, no?” Luca said as he began to rotate the dial. The tumbles clicked and he opened the door pulling out a bear who had no memories. “Yep. This is the one.”

With a roll over her eyes, Veronica waved him off. “Or I could have left you there to die. Beggars can’t be choosers.”

Luca walked back to Veronica and handed her the bear. “Thank you. Next time I won’t take my shirt off to impress the ladies.” Luca looked over to Remus and asked him “So what is her favorite type of storm?”

Remus regarded Luca for a moment before breaking into uproarious laughter. In the rapidly decreasing distance, Isabella had become a massive T9 tornado. “Lightning storms kid, though thunderstorm would be the same thing.” He continued to laugh as he turned to Veronica. “I like this kid, he’s got a sense of humor.” Turning back to Luca with a suggestive smile, Remus continued. “Next time I’ll bring Isabella to see you. I think you guys really hit it off.”

Luca smiled and gave the lord of death a bow. “It would be my honor. But please, give me a weeks notice to bolt my things to the floor.” Luca raised his torso and gave Remus a smile. “It’ll be a whirlwind of a time.”

Remus began to laugh again as he stood up and turned to walk calmly towards the approaching tornado. He waved over his shoulder. “Until next time kid. Now, let’s see what I can do about this before all the reconstruction goes to shit.” With a final bout of laughter that was cut off by the sound of the massive tornado, Remus disappeared into the death funnel. Veronica simply sighed, shook her head, and pushed Luca over. Instead of hitting the ground, he passed right through the shadows beneath him, falling out of the library wall in the same arc and hitting the ground.

“well, That was an interesting time. I’m covered in ash, but do i have a job?” Luca asked as he pushed himself up onto his feet with a kick up.

“Sure, sure, whatever.” Veronica waved him off as she stepped through the shadows gracefully after him. “I can’t guarantee you’ll last too long though; Isabella and Eirika were very close.” Veronica cackled softly as she stepped by him straight towards the opposite wall. “Though, for as long as you remain alive, I wish you luck.” Pausing as the shadows opened up before her, she glanced back at the bear in his hands. “I’ll let you have the good part.” She finished before vanishing from sight.

“Wonderful.” Luca sighed as he began walking up the stair to the loft. He expected Eirika to shout at him for tracking in the ash, blood and dirt. But with the bear in his hands he ventured forth anyway. “Hime, I have a surprise for you.”