Cacophony

A Medium of Sorts

"Visit Chrome, she's a medium for the witch. Might as well sell coats on the side for the amount of fools that ask her information on the subject. If you bring her treats for her cats she'll most likely give you at least decent information."

So Reborn had said, but the house was certainly small. And on the edge of town where the grounds were swarming with felines of all diversities. Hibari made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat.

He wasn't bothered by preparation, it was the amount of limited information and the fact some had to be withheld. None of the other folk knew much of the entity for the matter of fact.

But it was terrible by the way their faces blanched.

Confidently Kyoya knocked on the worn door, watching as it creaked open a bit. One violet eye peering through to stare at him hazily. "Who are you?"

The voice was quiet, almost afraid. Was this even the correct cottage?

"I've come for information, herbivore." Straight to the point, dangling a package of treats for the many cats where she could see.

There was a pause. A small hand carefully pulling the door open, it lacked a pinkie but nothing was said on it. Instead he waited for her to slowly open the door.

She shakily took the package with her other hand, it had a full set of fingers. When the light hit her face it was revealed how very young she was, he had expected at the very least a woman in her mid-thirties, this child couldn't possibly even be eighteen yet.

And yet as she gazed at him with one violet eye, the other covered by an eyepatch of an imprinted skull, she seemed to give off an air of secrets.

This might be worth something. "You may come in." Says she. "Settle yourself over there, on the sofa."

The 'sofa' was a single cushion stacked with piles upon piles of pillows, Kyoya stood as of it was too uncomfortable to settle there. The place smelt of must, he wrinkled his nose at the unsightly cobwebs in the corners.

She returned minutes later, three cats trailing her. Looking as if she'd never eaten a bite of food in all her life.

"So you would like to know," She said, sitting down on a stray cushion. "About the witch, the one on the North mountain. What specifically do you desire to learn?"

"Anything worth knowing." He replies, crossing his arms over his chest.

She blinks, then smiles. "Visitation comes with a cost you know. If you are to travel there, although it is hospitable at first, if you bear no gifts upon arrival your blood will spill the second you reach so far."

"Wao. Without a contract first, wouldn't the entity be desperate for such?"

Chrome frowns. "Our desperation is not the same as yours, he is by no means desperate for anything. It is those that are desperate for his power that form a contract. He humors them."

Kyoya raises his brow at this. Herbivores were weak but to willingly seek out danger and form a pact with it at their own expense, was sickening.

"Desperation, greed, fear, many other combining factors contribute to actively seeking out a contract. Most don't realize you need to offer an equal standing sacrifice of your own in order to succeed the contract. Souls are often offered, as are memories. Valuable things to the human soul."

"And so, what did you offer?" Kyoya spoke, surprising her at such a question. No one often asked, they valued their lives too much.

"My right eye, my pinkie finger of the left hand and my body to be inhabited as a vessel." There was no hesitation in her voice. "As a little girl it was all I had to give."

"Was it an equal exchange?" It interests him a bit.

"Very much so. I get to keep my soul, and until the time of the contract ends, these replacement organs will continue to keep my body alive. Had the situation been different I would rather have died, but you see it wasn't different. And that is the price of survival."

She glances up at him in slight confusion.

"What is it you desire? Is it riches? Or perhaps recognition? For whatever reason I don't believe it to be the wish to be loved."

Kyoya eyes her as if she were joking, or perhaps she is earnestly attempting to irritate him. He answers anyhow.

"An equal opponent is all I desire, someone whom I can best with a higher difficulty level."

She frowns. "To urge a fight as your reason isn't a wise decision. You might never return, there are various ways there would be implemented torture on your very being. Becoming broken for a mere battle would be foolhardy."

Kyoya scoffs. "I will never be broken, nor bend to the wills of anyone else."

She suddenly smiles, teeth a bit yellowed. "That is a good thing. I'll make you a deal, if you are able to find me the bones of a dead man, that have not already been buried in the name of Christ, and bring them here. I will give you the instructions you will need in order to find him."

An odd request but nothing unordinary of a witch medium. As much as Kyoya detests being at the hands of another he craves a fight. A satisfactory one. And the task itself is not daunting.

"I agree."

She seems satisfied with that answer, Kissing her palm she walks to the front of him and before a word can be said presses the palm against his cheek. It is cold.

"We have a deal then."