tampered | Log: Ongoing

"It's just Greed, chick. I've been here about a year, now. Was pretty much facing a death sentence on my world."

He ordered a large slab of beef and a pitcher of beer. Let it never be said he didn't eat healthy.

"So what's the deal with the ears and tail on people from your world?"

"Then I guess being trapped here comes as more of a pleasant surprise for you than a problem, huh."

Pasta and cream sauce, hmm. She could do some sit-ups later, right? No such thing as bad carbs.

"Ritsuka-chan didn't tell you?" she said, a little surprised that Greed didn't know the significance of having ears. "They're markers of virginity. You lose them when the cherry pops. It kind of caused a stir at the school when I lost mine. Too young, they said. Kouya's more modest, so she wears fakes."

"I'd say so. Especially with all the fine ladies. And even some guys. I could never say that back on my world," he said, cracking a shoulder joint.

"Yeah, he told me, but hasn't anyone questioned why they look like cat ears and tails? I mean, you guys smell 100% human, so I don't know why so many other humans from other worlds don't have the ears and tail. Be cool if they did. It 's very exotic. Ritsu looks adorable."

"In my world, all the guys look like ladies," she replied. "Sometimes you have to check in the pants, just to make sure you've got the right gender."

"Ritsuka-chan always looks adorable, ears or no. But I hope Agatsuma-san let's him keep his for a while. He still needs to act like a kid for a few years, and stop being so serious all the time."

"Really? I was created in the wrong world, obviously."

"Well, I can see that. They do seem kinda' close, but then he seems close to his crazy bro, too. He's just weird, with all his cryptic talk. I still owe Soubi a date."

"Obviously," she sang. "Agatsuma-san looks prettier than me sometimes. It's unfair."

"Oh, Seimei still has his ears. I think he's a little too Mysophobic to be a concern for Ritsuka-chan. He is a creepy bastard though, I'll give you that."

"No, he's feminine-faced, but he's still got a very masculine body type, unlike Ritsuka. Seimei I haven't seen seen in person. With Ritsuka, it's like he looks cute, but if ya' did him the ears would come off, and he'd lose some of his exotic look. It's a cache-22."

Greed gave her a blank, dull stare.

"...Myso..Myo...What?"

"Well you could always make him wear falsies. Kouya says they itch like crazy, though."

"Mysophobic," she repeated. "Scared of germs. I bet he washes his hands twenty times a day or more. Seimei can't bear unclean things. I can only imagine what he thinks of sex and bodily fluids."

"No, I'm okay with that. It's mainly the face and eyes that I like. Not that I'm one to talk. My eyes are violet and feral-lookin'."

"But wasn't he some sort of fighter? How can he do that without touching the opponent? I can't imagine bein' like that."

"Nothing wrong with violet eyes," Yamato snickered, draining the last of her drink. It hadn't lasted very long.

"Fighting is different in our world. You don't use your hands, you use words of power. After the battle system is initiated, the Fighters attack by saying spells. The Sacrifice receives all the damage from the attack, so the Fighter's objective is to protect their Sacrifice. But you can also draw power from your bond and your name. It's...kind of complicated."

"Sounds like it. I'd never be able to do that. I'm not exactly a wordsmith. I could probably come up with some interesting insults, though."

Greed glanced out the window, then back across to his "date".

"So what's your deal. How were you made?"

"Sometimes the simplest spells are the most powerful ones. Seimei and Soubi were the best until Seimei died. Or didn't die. Actually, I have no idea what the hell went on there."

Yamato leaned an elbow on the table and fitted her chin in her palm, drawing the fingers of her other hand through the wet ring of condensation left by her drink. There was ice in the glass. If she pressed her fingers to the side, she wouldn't be able to feel the cold.

"If I knew how Nagisa-sensei made us, I wouldn't need her anymore, would I?" she said, a tad bitterly. "I don't remember much except the labs, and Nagisa-sensei. Waiting for Kouya. They kept us separate for a long time, but I was told about her every day. We were the prototype Zero. The ones who would be able to defeat any opponent. Small price to pay, you know-" She flashed a smile. "-feeling no pain."

"Hmm...Interesting. Pretty advanced science, in your world," he nodded, resting his chin on his hand, "But is it just pain? Or do you guys feel nothing at all? That could be a detriment. Pain tells us something is wrong with our bodies. It's how we know what's damaged and what needs to be fixed."

"I can feel things like...to hold them, or pick them up. Like if I were to pick up this knife," she lifted the steak-knife delicately and waved it back and forth, "I can feel the shape of it. But I can't feel it cut."

She flicked the edge of the knife over her thumb, carefully, because too deep a cut would be a problem to deal with here in the restaurant. A bright red bead of blood welled up from the cut, and she watched it for a while, before placing her thumb in her mouth.

"The message that I'm supposed to be feeling pain doesn't reach the brain," she mumbled. "Don't ask me how that works. I also can't feel hot and cold. Makes it a bitch to drink tea sometimes, you know. Can't feel if I'm burning my mouth off."

"Oh, I understand how it works. I've got the plethora of biological knowledge. I just wondered how severe it is. At least it let's you feel pleasure, then? It would suck if that wasn't the case."

His eyes glanced down at the cut, mesmerized by the red for a moment. Red like the lines going down his body. Greed's nose twitched as he smelled their meal approaching.

"Woohoo! Soup's on!"

"If I didn't feel pleasure I'd have to kill myself. After killing Nagisa-sensei in thanks for the crappy existence, of course."

Yamato watched the waitress set their food down and licked her lips. It looked good.

"That's one thing about this City," she said as she dug into her pasta with her fork. "I can't complain about the food."

"Yeah. Except on the curse day where everything was rotting. Then you would have passed," he said, devouring a piece of meat, bone and all. Sharp white teeth tore through the flesh like a shark's would.

"But," he said, swallowing, "I guarantee you won't get bored. I've made LOTS of friends here. Enemies too, but that's neither here, nor there."

She watched him chomp into the meat with eyebrows raised, a little amused and a little creeped out by the fact that Greed's teeth could apparently cut through bone with no problem. But she shrugged off the apprehension a second later.

She had no doubt he was dangerous, in his own right, but if he were going to be a danger to her, he would have done something besides take her out to dinner. Besides which, it might be beneficial to have powerful friends. Without Kouya here to fight for her, Yamato was vulnerable to attack, not that she thought Soubi would bother to try anything. And Seimei was too busy vigorously ignoring her existence. The other Zero...she would have to watch out for them.

"I'm not worried about being bored," she finally replied. "Or making friends. Fuu-chan's already proven to be a pretty good one so far. I just miss Kouya, that's all."

"Eh. I can't really fully understand that feeling, but I understand why I should. I guess you could say we homunculi don't feel emotional pain in the same way you guys don't feel physical pain. That's not to say I'd feel nothin' if a friend got whacked, I just wouldn't be crippled by grief like most humans get. My first concern would be finding the being responsible and ripping their spine out," he said, gulping down a bit of beer and slamming the pitcher down.

"But yeah, if you ever need help, don't be afraid to ask. It's not like I have better things to do."

"M'not crippled!" she protested around a mouthful of pasta, mostly out of indignant reflex. Because it was kind of a lie. Without a Fighter, the Sacrifice was useless, pointless, and all other kinds of "less". And really, it was only the bare knowledge that death would not be any kind of release from that feeling (not in this City anyway) that was keeping Yamato relatively interested in staying alive right now. That and the chance that if she was patient, her partner would show up eventually to claim her. She'd seen new people arrive since she found herself here. It was possible that Kouya was on her way, and she'd be beyond pissed off if she arrived only to find that Yamato had gone and killed herself in her absence.

"And Kouya didn't get 'whacked' she's just...not here yet. She's coming soon. She is. I just have to wait a little while longer."

Greed jumped back in his seat, waving his arms placatively.

"Whoa, whoa, calm the fuck down! I didn't mean you, I meant humans for the most part. Relax, babe. Ya' don't need to be defensive about things. You normally seem pretty confident," he said, taking in a few more bits of food. He finished his pitcher and hollered for another, which was quickly brought.

"I'd say there's a good chance she'll show up here. Few people ever stay here on their own."

"Oh," Yamato replied, losing steam at the rant she had been building up to. "Sorry. I'm just used to..." To Nagisa-sensei going on about how incompetent I am. "...Nevermind. Was stupid."

The reassurance of hearing him say that it was likely Kouya would come to the City eventually was strong enough to make Yamato send Greed a real smile across the table. She relaxed in her seat, twirling her fork between her fingers.

"Until then, I guess I'll have to put up with you crazy people, huh?" she said, smile sliding back into its normal teasing half-smirk.

"Nah. This place causes stress, it's fine."

He scarfed down the last of his meal, a snake-like tongue slithering out over his lips and partway up his face to get some errant bits of the meat.

"Well, I think everyone's a bit crazy. Guys like Seimei are just more so."

She shivered a little. "Seimei's a psychopath. He did...horrible things to Soubi, treated his Fighter like a dog to pet or beat as he pleased. I think Ritsuka-chan is the only thing Seimei's ever cared about in his whole life."

She frowned thoughtfully. "Even then, it's kind of creepy."

"Yeah. Creepy. That's one way to put it. He doesn't seem like he's gotten HIS ass kicked a lot. That tends to change your point of view. Show me some maladjusted asshole, and I'll show you someone who didn't get a key asswhuppin'."

He started to drink his new pitcher of beer, talking between draughts.

"Or maybe he just needs to get banged by someone really hard."

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