33. The Agreement Part 2
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L looked skeptically at V, "How long is a "few moments?" If he truly is wielding all S ranks, I doubt I will be able to "keep him busy."" T nodded and crossed his arms. "Well, I need to touch him, skin to skin contact. After that I should be able to pacify him in... hopefully not long. A few seconds at most. Probably." As poorly as this plan seemed to be constructed, she had little alternative. L grimly griped the hilt of her sword. "I will try. Do attempt to act quickly." She slowly walked toward V, if they failed, it was possible that her and T would die slowly and in horrible pain. She considered for a moment. Had she not thought so many times of killing herself to escape V's service? Would not now be the perfect time? V was out of control, her best hope for the situation was a self-proclaimed lover of Evil, the small girl was dead. There was little binding her here any longer... and yet...

L's blessing activated, as it did, L swore to herself. Her heart was in turmoil. She despised V, and yet had she not praised him a moment ago? She had surrendered to him to halt O's crimes, a surrender of convenience. When did she start considering his cause worth fighting for? She wondered at what point she started to willingly aid him... L shook the thoughts from her head. As a warrior, this was her job, obey orders, save what must be saved, slay what must be slain. Dropping into a fighting stance, she also witnessed T creeping toward V. She figured she would only get one real shot at delaying V. She drew her sword, steel flashing through the air. Her blade was swifter then most eyes could see, surely even V could not block it, she hoped. As her blade fell toward V's shoulder, he made no motions to block it. For a moment, L wondered if she was about to kill him, as the blade hit however, a new concern arose. The blade landed, but accomplished little, the moment the blade hit bone it stopped, the force of the blow reverberated back down the blade. "He really is a monster." L thought as she tried to withdraw her blade. However, V had already grabbed it, gripping it hard enough that it cut through his hands, again, stopping at bone. In a single motion, V turned and swung at L, his fist connecting with her stomach. "Can’t you see I’m busy! I have much work to do, the man has not yet paid for his actions!" His voice was wild and insane, a crazed look in his eyes. For her part, L managed to stay standing, barely. As V took a step toward her, T leapt at him, grabbing V's head with one hand, and his arm with another, activating his blessing. A strange expression came over both of their faces. Luckily, whatever T was doing seemed to have stopped both of them in their tracks.

Unsure if she was supposed to be doing something or not, she cautiously retrieved her weapon, which had been thrown from her hands when V turned on her. After reacquiring her weapon, she leaned up against the alley, her stomach sending waves of pain through her body. If she was supposed to be helping, T probably should have mentioned something... After a few moments of contemplation, she decided that she should, perhaps, be trying to incapacitate V. However, as she moved toward him, he suddenly collapsed. T stumbled backward. He was pale, his face was sunken in and it looked as if he had aged ten years in the few moments that he was in contact with V. Sweat poured down T's face as he shook. "That...that was terrible..." L mused to herself, T was lucky, she wagered that most Champions would take this moment to kill him. "Whatever effects he was under..." T gasped as he tried to recover his breath. "They even made his heart more resistant to tampering. They set him on a course, and tried its best to make sure he never wavered from the course." T swooned. "I... recommend you don't let... whatever that was happen again." He gestured to the entrance of the alleyway "We uh, we need to get out of here. It's only a matter of time before some other Champion shows up. I have a place we can go." L shook her head "We will return to the Inn we have been staying at. I don't entirely trust you. All things considered." T rolled his eyes, "I assume you want to recover the body of your downed companion? You just going to...carry that into the Inn with you?" He had a point. After a moment of hesitation L consented "Fine, I will follow you. First, I will retrieve the girl’s body, I will not let her rot on the pavement." T sat down as L sped off.

L had thought it was strange that no one had yet followed them through the alleys. V's blessing, when it activated, clearly drew attention from certain members in the crowd. However, once she returned to the square, she received an answer to that particular question. The square was in flames. Green, smokeless flames. To say it was an inferno was not an exaggeration. Luckily, it seemed as if the flames had no intention of spreading, and had left the side of the square Eika's body had been sitting, largely untouched. As she collected the girl’s body, she heard sounds of combat. Looking through the inferno, she witnessed glimpses of combat. As far as she could tell, three or four different people were clashing. She did catch sight of someone she had seen before. The man was wearing a blue and white suit. Supposedly, he was the Champion of Time. She wondered if that meant the Champion of War was around as well... Regardless, she quickly retreated down the ally, she had thought that perhaps T would try to take advantage of V's downed state, but that would not really add up with his previous behavior, she hurried nonetheless. When she returned, T was looking greatly recovered, strangely so. The only sign that he had even been under any duress at all was his continued heavy breathing. "Ah you got her. Great! Now look, let me carry the girl because frankly I cannot carry him right now. I am very exhausted." L nodded, "If you do anything to the girl’s body while you carry her, I will absolutely kill you, regardless of our agreement." T smiled "I would never doubt it." She picked up V's motionless body and gestured for T to lead the way.

Thirty minutes later they entered a sort of basement. The entrance was built into the base of one of the city walls. L would not have been able to find the entrance, even if she knew it was there. "If nothing else, I will commend you on choice of hiding place." She sat V's body down on one of the beds that littered the large room. She thought that perhaps, at one time, this place was some sort of secret barracks. She closely monitored T as he did the same with Eika. "I’m going to sleep! If he wakes up and is a horrible monster still, don't wake me up. Just kill me while I sleep thanks." T dropped his own body onto a bed and promptly fell asleep. L was exhausted, but could never sleep while the Champion of Evil was lurking around. With little else to do, she sat in one of the rickety chairs in the room, and waited. T had made a concerning point. Without knowing more about what was going on with V, and without knowing exactly what T did, she figured there was a chance of V waking up and going crazy again. However, there was little she could do about it now. So, for the time, she simply kept watch and bandaged V's wounds, using torn bed sheets, not sanitary, but better than nothing. She also removed the crossbow bolt from Eika's chest, disgust filled her face as she threw it away.

V's consciousness slowly returned. The first thing he knew was that his head was pounding, he could barely think straight. For a short time, he simply lay there, trying to get a handle on the thumping between his ears. As he slowly recovered his grasp on reality, he tried to remember what had happened to him. They had gone to the square to see the crafting champion or something. He remembered feeling uneasy. "Something bad must have transpired, maybe I got knocked out...?" V opened his eyes, his vision was swimming, he also realized that his entire body felt sore, and his left shoulder and hand was sending shooting pains through his arm. As he tried to focus, he remembered that he had grabbed L's sword. Why did he do that? V's thoughts continued to be muddled as he slowly tried to rise. Noticing his movement, L walked over. "V?" She tentatively asked. There was concern in her voice. That was sort of new, V wondered what would have caused that... "Yes?" He tried to focus his vision. He was in some dank basement with a bunch of beds. Eika was sleeping on one of the beds, and one over, lay a man with black hair and plain clothing . Somewhat generic looking, but his clothes were nice. The confusion in V only grew. "How are you feeling?" L asked, not entirely sure how to approach the situation. "Been uh, I have been better." V looked at his shoulder and hand, and also noticed two large stab wounds in his chest. "What happened?" L nodded slowly "There was an uh... incident. You got stabbed, and then I also stabbed you." V struggled to put the pieces together. "Last thing I remember was looking for trouble with Eika. I suppose some must have found us?" L once again nodded. "Well... you see..." She figured that it would be best if she explained the situation, as he did not seem to be recovering the memories on his own.

V sat as she explained what happened, at-least from her perspective. He listened neutrally, his face remaining passive. He had little to no reaction to the entire story, from Eika's death to his own... rampage. L wondered if he had acquired some sort of brain damage. "That does seem to add up with our current situation..." He looked over the room. "I wonder what T wishes from me? Surely he did not go through all this trouble for a pat on the back." L crossed her arms, appraising V. "I'm certain it’s going to be something unpleasant at-least." V shrugged, "Perhaps we should wake him up? It is probably a bad idea just setting around here." She nodded as she watched V walk over and shake T awake, perhaps he would be able to determine the cause of V's strange behavior. T awoke with a start, "Woh comeon now. Don't just loom over me like that! On the other hand, nice to see your back in the land of the sane." V stepped back as T got out of the bed. "Well, it’s always satisfying to see one’s work paying off, eh?" T looked at L as he gestured to V, "Not even trying to murder us!" L crossed her arms "I am not as satisfied as you are. Something is wrong with V." V considered his situation, he felt ok, but L had a point. It was a little strange that he had almost no reaction to the news of Eika's death. If it indeed caused him to go berserk, shouldn't he at-least feel a little bad now? The thought that something was wrong with him was intriguing, but not particularly concerning. "Hum? Oh, yes that is fixable. Or rather, it will eventually wear off even if I don't fix it. In a simplified explanation, I stopped his heart from communicating with his brain. He can basically feel almost nothing at the moment. It was the only way I could stop him, putting a wall between his heart and his mind. He was clearly being powered by passion back there, it was the easiest solution." V nodded "Oh ya. That does make sense. I was wondering why the gross bodily harm I suffered has not caused me a certain level of concern. I suppose it also makes sense as to why I am struggling to remember much about the situation. If my actions were most driven by my emotions, not having them would make memory difficult. I assume." 

Brushing himself off T spoke "So, here is the thing. We need to uh, fix him or he will be mostly useless. Not much more than an AI. Do you know what those are?" L shook her head as V nodded. "Well, it’s not important. Anyway, I am hoping that V can take a few moments to prepare. If he knows what is coming, he can at-least get his thoughts in order. If he starts to get overwhelmed by emotions again, his blessing might activate again, and since there is no target of revenge anymore, who KNOWS what will happen? I’d rather not find out. So, uh. Take a moment to really collect yourself." V nodded; L had made clear that Eika's death had a drastically negative effect on him when she recounted the recent events. As he was, he easily pieced together why her death, due to his negligence, would make him upset. However, he was fairly certain that anger at himself, and at the killer would not have sent him into a raging berserk state. The Blessing of Motherhood must have amplified his emotions... V sorted the situation out in his head, and did his best to steel his mental faculties against whatever was about to happen. T grabbed his hand "So uh, if we are lucky, his old, ragey feelings have died out by now, and this will work out." T's blessing activated momentarily. Anger and sadness, flooded into V, but mostly shame. Waves and waves of shame washed over him as he not only remembered what he had done, but remembered how he had felt. The man he had tortured, it felt so satisfying. Even now he wanted to continue his game with the man. The look on the man's face reminded him of someone who had hurt V greatly in his past life, although the details of that pain were vague. He wanted to see those who hurt him make that face again, to flaunt his power over another as they begged to die. He had thought he had moved past that. He swore he would reject the path of those that enslaved him, and yet he followed so well in their footsteps. V struggled with the shame of giving into to his instincts, the fragmented memories of his past clashed with the feelings of the present, a maelstrom swirling inside of him. "Well hay. We seem to be alive so that's good, I was so-" A murderous look from L quickly shut T's mouth. Although V was simply setting on the bed, wearing a pained expression, L's experience inside of V's heart gave her insight into his pain. It was not her place to console him or aid him, but she would be damned if she allowed T to make things worse with thoughtless words.

"I'm sorry for the trouble I caused." For the first time since they met, L felt deep sincerity from V's words. "However, over-sentimentality is what caused the problem in the first place, and it will not help us in the future." V shook his head, his normal expression, though still somewhat pained, returned to his face. "First thing, I should get these wounds dealt with." He glanced at Eika's body "And then I suppose we burn her. Or bury her. Whatever their kind does." T held up his hand. "Hay uh, I was hoping you would hold on-to that sentimentality for another few moments actually. See, I have a bit of an offer for you." V nodded "Ah right, you need me for something." He examined his wounded hand as he nodded for T to continue. "Well, actually, I was hoping you would help me kill someone. But uh, it has to be before you get rid of the girl’s body. You see, for personal reasons, I need to acquire a specific Champions blessing, and we are going to need her dead body if we have any hope of killing the Champion of Life."

 

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