Daughter Of Madness [Kid X Fem!Chrona]

That Nagging Feeling

A man with a newsboy hat slipped into the hallway of Baba Yaga castle as another explosion shook the building. His work here wasn't quite done, but it was too dangerous to risk his neck for a side project. Especially with Lord Death laying siege to the castle alongside a wild witch. Half-mad sorceresses were a dime a dozen and they never learned; there was no escaping death once provoked. At least he was paid in advance.

"Where do you think you're going Eibon?" Mosquito hissed. The man called Eibon chuckled. There was a limit to his charisma, and this wounded vampire had been after him like a blood hound. He, amongst others, had suspected the young sorcerer was naught but a scam artist, preying on the spider witch's desperation to save her son. It was funny watching these creatures project empathy onto a woman who was starving for power and control when they were naught but specialized tools in her personal collection. Maybe, after a couple hundred years, loyalty was the only thing that registered to immortals as a lasting bond? He should make a note of that in his journal once it was safe.

"Shouldn't you be off protecting Arachne?" Eibon asked, after all, what good was a tool that wasn't fulfilling its duty.

"I am, by weeding out an imposter." Mosquito spat. The man shook his head; the real Eibon had long since passed away, leaving behind an incomprehensible collection of knowledge behind.

"So you figured that out?" The man chuckled. "I wouldn't say I was an imposter, that would imply stealing. I just use the name as a form of brand recognition."

"You're a disgusting vulture!" Mosquito growled. "I should have never let you anywhere near Arachne-san! There's only one way to fix this." Mosquito charged at the man with the intent to kill.

"Don't you want to know who I really am before you kill me?"

"I could care less who you are." He snarled. "Or what your name is you avaricious, despicable man." A worm curled away from the man's tattoo and forced Mosquito against the wall. An ancient magic art long lost to time, though some had tried to mimic it with verbal incantations in recent years. For someone so proud of their age, the vampire should have sensed he was facing off someone wrapped head to toe in defensive magic.

"Indeed... I am an avaricious collector..." He stared the man down, voice flat and hollow. For a brief instant, he searched for recognition in his prey's eyes. There was none, and an aching hunger for that sense of identity burned at his core. In the eyes of all immortal 'all knowing' beasts, he was but a nameless fragment of humanity. "...by the name of Noah." The jaws of the worm crushed Mosquito, the brief flash of character now gone from Noah's eyes as he fell back into his routine as if sleep-walking. The old man's body evaporated and left behind a beaten bat. Noah picked it up with disdain. What a poor specimen, but in the end, it was the last of it's kind. "This is hardly worth my collection." He tossed the bat into the book, reveling the brief rush of satisfaction from adding to the body of Eibon's research. He walked down the hall and peered at the boy who had been watching his battle from the floor, beaten and bruised. The soul within alight and thriving in the presence of its element; and nubile in comparison to the other deities that currently wandered the earth. "This however is well worth my collection." A modern era demi-god was quite the oddity, and one following in the footsteps of a shinigami at that. A truly unique specimen that was too battered to fight back. "It's nice to meet you Shinigami-kun." In a quick draw match Noah opened the book of Eibon and Kid threw his weapons out of harm's way. He snapped the book shut and continued his hasty escape out of maze of crumbling tunnels.

-8-0-8-

Kid opened his eyes. He was floating in a temporal space warm; the clutter of recent additions floated about him. It had all happened so fast. One minute he was fighting for his life, the next a soul-less human was wielding one of Eibon's creations at him. At least his weapons hadn't been captured; they'd be able to let the others know what happened and urge them to escape without him. The headache this realm was giving him did little to distract him from is injuries. It was one thing to heal his arm in a moment of panic, it was another to try and heal himself on purpose it seemed.