Out of spite Ai unthinkingly grabbed Artemis' handle, intending to swing at the boy with brute force.
"Don't underestimate me!" she yelled.
As quick as the blade rose above her head in anger it swung just as fast down onto the ground. Its clanking rang against the marble floor. An agonizing cry wailed from her tiny lungs as sparks seized the hands that wrapped itself around the scythe. Mere seconds corroded Ai's flesh, leaving bright red blisters to color the surface of her pale hands. It was not until her fingers felt numb that the blade could at last slip away from her hold, lying flat before her toes. Then the girl whimpered, as if a puppy had been kicked in its frailty. The pain brought Ai to her knees, and she cowered at the intensity of her burning hands lying limp on her lap.
After witnessing Ai's futile efforts Izumi, who had not once moved or even flinched from the female's outburst, walked calmly over to Artemis and knelt next to it. His pale hues stared intensely at the scythe before a careful hand reached out to gently take its handle into his grasp. Unlike Ai's experience to beholding the scythe Izumi was not harmed by Artemis' warding magic. He gracefully brought it back up from the floor and gazed upon its curved blade beneath the moon's chilled and dimly lit light.
Right before his very eyes he watched as Artemis retracted its blade as if it were alive, morphing into a thin rod that shined like pure silver in the moonlight. After its premature transformation had complete Izumi allowed the weapon to be resized into its baton-resembling state before pocketing it in a pouch attached to his belt.
"C-Curse...you..." grunted Ai between gritted teeth. Sweat and tears dripped down her face. She struggled to climb back up onto her feet. Despite her pitiful appearance her insignificant efforts could not move the boy's heart.
"You should return to the estate," he said bluntly. "A pure blood must not be seen groveling like this on the floor." Izumi had cold retorts that continued to spear ice through her chest.
"N-Nonsense..." she grumbled stubbornly under her breath. "Pure bloods are pure bloods for a reason...these wounds will only...only..."
"...heal in time." he finished promptly before Ai could finish the rest of her sentence. "These aren't like any regular wounds. There's a reason why vampire weapons are coveted by humans. They actually work against vampires."
Ai frowned with displeasure at the cruelty Izumi treated her with. However she could not rupture his logic. Though the young boy provoked her she was foolish enough to think that her strength would be at par to wield that damnable scythe with ease and even allow her to heal from its injuries in seconds. Suppose she deserved the punishment that scorched itself across her palms and the pain that ached in her heart.
"Then give me blood," she growled bitterly. "I'll heal faster if you feed me. You'll do that for me, won't you?"
Ruby eyes had then begun to glow a bright crimson as they looked into the eyes of the young hunter with yearning desire. This was because the wounds she suffered were severe. Naturally it increased her lust for blood, and this hunger could be seen by the fangs that slowly sharpened within her mouth.
Izumi only stared at her expressionlessly for a brief moment before reaching into his coat pocket to pull out a small white box filled with circular white tablets. Slightly agitated he flung the box at her, allowing it to slide across the floor until it bumped into her knees.
"Eat those instead," he said stiffly, "If you can't withstand your lust." It seemed to Ai that her temptress techniques had no effect on Izumi and the thought infuriated her. Thus more proof supported her strength paling in comparison to Izumi.
Perhaps at last her stubbornness was subsiding. With emotions cooling her speech became more reserved and hushed in volume.
"Don't you need these more than me?" she asked quietly. Though her eyes still blazed a deep red their focus fell to Izumi's boots.
"I'm not the one enduring crippling pain right now," he said as a matter of fact. "And unlike you, Lady Yuuki, and father, I don't possess a lust for blood- even when wounded."
The way he called their mother 'Lady Yuuki' brought Ai into deep thought. Her posture sank, shoulders caving on themselves when her head lowered to stare helplessly at the small box of tablets in front of her. She did not feel comfortable, hearing such a formal way to mention somebody's name, especially if it was the woman who gave birth to them. Her pursed lips were the result of such an uneasy sensation that circled inside of her stomach. A pout blossomed from her facial expression when troubled brows knitted together to reveal her discomfort. If Ai had more time she'd pester him, but another idea kept her concerns at bay. Unspoken; she already knew the answer to that timeless question anyway.
"Then why do you keep these tablets on you all the time?" she asked again without making eye contact with her conversation.
"Are you holding onto them for someone else?"
"Yes, you, usually,'" he replied curtly. "When you do stupid things like these."
Ai sighed, admitting her defeat. She was losing the strength to oppose him with the amount of effort she put forth to endure the pain from her hands. She was beginning to worry since these pinching sensations were slowly moving to her wrists.
"Other times it's merely just a precaution," he added.
"Oh? A precaution for what?" Curious eyes glanced upwards, awaiting to hear more. Truthfully Ai figured she was the precaution. Oh...no. Perhaps not. She would be considered a caution in of itself.
A rare look painted Izumi's facial features before a careful reply escaped his lips. Could it have been quizzical? Confusion? Fear? Ai made sure to burn the expression into her memory well, detail for detail.
"Although it's clear that as of now I don't desire blood...Yagari suspects that I'll develop a taste for it one day."
He brought a hand up to trace his lower lip, a frequent gesture Izumi always habitually performed whenever he was deep within thought. Ai could see the puzzlement forming from within his clouded stare when he took his sights to space rather than what sat before him on the floor.
"Why would he think that?"
"Who knows."
Wrong answer. Ai was not satisfied with his carelessness, but it was not like as if the possibility was far from self-explanatory. He was, after all, birthed from a pure blood and an originally human vampire. Izumi may not have revealed it, but Ai knew him better. Perhaps he was not willing to share his thoughts on the matter yet. He would less likely share those thoughts with Ai, of course. She was confident in that belief. Was it because of a lack of trust between them? Did he simply distaste her for being what she was? Both were very likely reasons for Izumi's determination to keep her out of his inner circle, if he had one. Sadly there were a dozen more reasons Ai could come up with as possibilities for Izumi's aloof demeanor towards her for all these years. However despite these reasons, and some were quite valid reasons, there were moments where Izumi's actions in fact countered her very assumptions of his dislike for her. Such actions included the one he was about to perform now.
"Are you leaving?" she asked.
"Yeah, father is waiting for me. You should go back home. Pure bloods aren't supposed to be seen rendered useless like this."
"Ha! I know that- you've already explained yourself once," she scowled.
Izumi glanced at the pills Ai had not bothered to pick up.
"Eat those tablets, won't recover any faster without them."
Ai's fingers twitched in response, sensors within her flesh attempting to mimic the art of picking up objects in front of them. However with each inch she made bolts of pain drove into her flesh. Ai cringed, grunting every now and then while attempting to bear each jolt of lightning that struck her nerves. Her hands had not even made it to the box yet.
While witnessing this seemingly long stretch of time a large breath of air exhaled from Izumi's lungs. He supposed it could not be helped as he knelt down to pick up the box he had earlier thrown at her.
"What...are you doing?" questioned the pure blood.
She watched as he opened the container and poured a small handful of tablets into his palm. He then took one from his pile and lifted it before her mouth.
"What does it look like? I'm doing what you told me to do. I'm feeding you."
Though sarcasm it was enough to flush Ai's cheeks into a rosy pink. Others may find this twist of words comical, but to Ai, pure embarrassment. Her mouth could only instinctively tighten shut as a countermeasure to calm her racing heart. Next, Izumi had detected her unwillingness to comply. He frowned irritably which to Ai was an automatic exchange in thoughts that read 'Hurry up, I don't have all day!' Feeling as if she had no choice her lips parted and opened wide so that the boy could gently toss one tablet onto her tongue.
Ai did not want to admit her desperation for blood, but it came to light as she crunched the tablet between her teeth hungrily. She then opened her mouth wide again for another tablet to be tossed into her mouth. After a couple in, Izumi started giving her two, four, to half a dozen at a time. Ai could grind through all of them just fine, as if they were candy.
"These taste bad," she admitted dissatisfied through a full mouth.
"Good, that means your lust is subsiding. Now hurry up and eat the rest of these and head home."
Then Izumi poured the rest of the tablets in his hand into her mouth as Ai effortlessly swallowed the rest down her throat. The two of them rose up from the floor, the boy dusting his hands after placing the leftover bit of tablets inside the box and in one of Ai's skirt pockets.
"Hey, Izumi I...thank you."
Ai's cheeks were still raging a sporting red; she hated this feeling in her gut. To be at the mercy of a human was degrading as a pure blooded vampire. To top it off, Izumi was the one who made her mad at the start. After all the effort, in the end she had to thank him for his actions.
"Just don't do this again," he replied. Another mood-less facade washed over his greyed complexion.
"You aren't ready to behold the true power of your bloodline yet."
Lastly the boy turned on his heels to leave the pure blood by herself, trudging through mud and soil with Artemis' gleaming silver just scarcely shimmering in the darkness amid his layers of clothes.
"Just you wait!" Ai cried out with stubborn might.
"I'll inherit the true power of the Kurans! And I'll show you just how strong I really am!"