It took longer than he would care to admit to come down from his high. Living was a hell of a drug after what felt like a solid week of not experiencing it.

Hazama took the time to examine his surroundings. He appeared to be positioned at the edge of a forest. A forest. How strange. There were indeed always trees grown in Kagutsuchi and Ikaruga, but never more than a few. Never a full, sprawling complex of green and brown like the one in front of him now. He placed the tips of his fingers on the bark of the tree closest to him and trailed them up and down slowly, roving over every indent, every bump and ridge until he was satisfied.

A chuckle passed his lips as he brushed his hand free of the few brown shavings it had accumulated and placed it back atop his hat. The things that could thrive without the presence of seithr to poison and cull them were truly impressive.

A light breeze slid past him, lifting his coattails on its way past. His nose twitched. He could smell something in the air. He could hear something in the wind. Flowing water. Birdsong. Squeaking of some kind. Life.

Hazama turned around to face the direction the wind come from. There, in the distance, what appeared to be a village of some description jutted out of the light morning haze. He could vaguely make out rooves of houses, triangular and… made of some unidentified material. It wasn't metal, or brick, and he couldn't perceive the colour through the mist.

Something was coming. He'd heard it in the treeline a moment ago. He could only assume that 'it' was a person, as an animal designed to hunt would not be nearly so easily detected. He made no move to make this knowledge evident on his face, but his free hand strayed beneath the lapel of his suit, index finger twitching on the handle of one of his knives. Waiting for the person tracking him to make a move.

It did so. Picking up on an increase in the rustling, Hazama turned on his heel, and made to unsheathe his blade before stopping short, bewildered. It was…A person. A Human being, as he expected, but he could never have prepared to face a fully nude woman with her head cocked to one side as she stared inquisitively at him while he dug for a knife in his pocket.

'The hell?' Is what he wanted to say, but the words didn't come out. A low, choking noise was what escaped his throat in place of his sentence, his throat itching painfully as he tried again to speak. Nothing.

The woman risked another step closer, a strange humming coming from deep in her throat as she parted her lips, making a similar noise to Hazama's failed attempt at speech. If meaning was supposed to be derived from this, the man couldn't find it. Not to mention that he was uncharacteristically flustered at the current moment in time. He'd seen ridiculously well-proportioned women before, most of them trying to kill him incidentally, but none of them had ever decided to go fully naked.

He held out a hand, palm facing outward flatly in the universal gesture for 'stop'. She didn't. He took a step back. She took one forward.

Hazama felt like shouting, not that he didn't also attempt to do so, to the same effect as before. This time, he could feel a twinge of some faint kind of magic flaring up in response. A sealing magic? It wasn't overly strong, but as most Humans lacked magic of any kind, it would be effective regardless.

He considered briefly, continuing to back away from the approaching woman. Surely activating his Azure Grimoire would be much more than enough to dispel the magic affecting him? The seal was not even remotely close to the level of shit he'd seen Nine pull while under Izanami's control. The BlazBlue would be overkill in dealing with this mess, but it was the only solution currently available. He made to release the 666th restriction, and immediately realised the one tiny issue with his plan. The key to activating the Grimoire was a verbal incantation.

Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! Supposedly the most powerful force in existence ready for him to tap into, and it was about as worthless as the sun above clouds!

His lips curled into a frown as he focused back on the matter at hand, the woman now uncomfortably close to him. His legs still worked on moving backwards, but every step took him further away from the hamlet he'd spotted earlier, and he'd much rather not slog through the early morning dew and ruin his slacks if he could help it.

He took a moment to wonder why he felt the need to back away in the first place. The naked lady seemed to ignore every obvious protest in the book, including straight-up backing away, apparently! It was only when she came close enough for Hazama to feel her breath on his face that he truly looked at her eyes. At first glance they appeared normal, but if one looked closer (an art that Hazama had cultivated for years under the NOL's Intelligence Division) then one could see something interesting. Or the lack thereof.

Nothing. That was it. Her expression was blank, utterly devoid of emotion. Her eyes were missing that spark of something that made Humans Human. Mindless, almost, by the looks of things. And potentially dangerous. Not overly so, as he was absolutely certain he could kill her before she blinked, but looks had deceived him before.

Hazama pulled out the blade he'd been fingering and jutted it towards the woman. A mildly sadistic glint sparkled in his eye as the girl stopped short, a confused and somewhat afraid whimper sounding from her lips as she took a single step back. So she recognised danger, but not unless there was something overt to cause it. Survival instincts? How curious.

Before he could spend more time 'experimenting' with the woman, a voice sounded out from behind him. "Polly! I was worried sick about you! You know you shouldn't run off like that, missy!"

The slightly hoarse-sounding tone was scolding, but had undertones of fear that everyone experienced when they lost track of something close to them.

He breathed a sigh of relief. So it was fine after all. This was just some person with a mental handicap that made her act feral, and her caretaker had lost track of her briefly. With a practiced motion, he folded the knife in on itself and slipped it into his inner pocket, making to turn around before a yellow and pink blur shot past him. He blinked owlishly, head turning sideways in stunned silence.

"Ohhh…Silly girl, you've got dirt all over you. You're not supposed to play over here, no you're not. Hard Sell wouldn't be at all happy if something from the Everfree tried to get you…" The small…thing fawned over the woman, looking up at her with what Hazama could only assume was a similar look to a mother talking down to a son who'd returned home filthy.

The creature doing the talking was decidedly small. Its head only managed to come up to his thighs by Hazama's best estimate. It looked rather pathetic, actually. Butter-yellow fur and a bright, almost faded pink head of hair. Mane? He'd refer to it as a mane, for lack of a better word choice.

It continued to drone on and on at the woman he now knew as Polly, talking about how all the other animals at the house had seen her leave. Something in that sentence gave Hazama pause. 'Other' animals. As if the girl was included in that measure. Could that just be a race thing against Humans? Weirdly, the small horse thing didn't strike him as a racist type (and isn't that a sentence he never expected to think).

His mind raced with the implications. New world, new rules. Magic blocking his voice. No seithr, so less intelligent animals could have survived and evolved alongside humans. Humans didn't need to think to survive and so never developed intelligence. Weird horses take over. Tapping his leg. What?

He broke from his reverie and angled his head down, blinking at the curious face of the yellow-and-pink horse. "U-Uhm. Is y-your owner nearby? I don't think he'd like you being out in fancy clothes like that near the Everfree Forest…" she spoke in the same kind of tone that one would use when asking their pet who the good boy was.

That sealed it. Humans here were not considered intelligent. Or, at the very least, were thought of as inferior. Slaves, perhaps? Why else would it have talked about him having an owner? He continued staring at the horse, mouth slightly agape, too focused on the possibilities to realise he was being more than a little disconcerting to the small creature.


Fluttershy writhed uncomfortably, continuing to gaze up at the mysterious Human. She'd never seen anything quite like it before in her life. Ponies from Canterlot often liked to accessorise their Humans, but to the extent of getting this one a suit, waistcoat, tie, and trousers? Near the most dangerous forest in Equestria, no less! Not to mention the pricey looking hat upon his head of green hair. A completely unnatural colour.

Nothing about his appearance made sense to her. Most Humans couldn't stand hats, and would all but rip them off of their heads. And they found any clothing more restrictive than a scarf to be infuriating, in her experience at least.

And that look in his eyes. He stared down at her, making her starkly aware of just how small she was compared to the Human. He didn't seem all that physically powerful, though. Quite lanky and thin, though she supposed that was because Humans owned by the rich didn't get as much exercise as they truthfully needed. At least they tended to be cleaner than most Humans, as the one in front of her proved with his shaven face. Fluttershy had to smile at that. At least he was well taken care of. His owner must have really liked him.

But that just begged the question that she'd already asked the Human himself. Where was his owner? Leaving a Human alone to wander could already be problematic, but near a place like the Everfree Forest? It didn't make sense. She turned her head left and right, but couldn't see or hear any sign of somepony looking for him.

And he was still staring. With yellow, almost amber eyes, blinking down at her as though utterly baffled.

Without any warning, his lips closed into a straight line, and she could see his head tilt marginally to one side. His hands moved to his waist, slipping into his trouser pockets in a manner she'd never seen before. Did he have something in there? A message? Sticks or stones that caught his fancy?

Behind her, Polly started to form a rumble in her throat, growling softly at the fancy-looking Human. Fluttershy patted her side comfortingly, wondering what was getting her so worked up. When she'd found the two, Polly had been showing signs of definite interest. Had the male turned her advances down? Probably a good thing. Hard Sell would have been very annoyed if her meticulously cultivated figure got ruined by bearing a child. But now Polly would be less than happy to be near the other Human.

Fluttershy bit her lip, looking back and forth between the two, and then off in the direction of her house. There was only one thing for it, really. If his owner had truly lost him, she'd have to take him into town later and go looking for somepony reporting a lost Human. But for now, the sun was only just starting to take its place in the sky, and she hadn't yet fed Polly yet, as she'd had to search for her most of the morning. Perhaps this new Human would also be hungry?

"Um. Would…Would you like to come with me until your owner finds you? Are you hungry?"

The Human looked down at his stomach, as if having to physically decide whether he was hungry or not. He was just so strange. Clothes aside, his actions seemed too…Stiff. Calculated. Intelligent? No. Not quite. Obviously he was simply mimicking the way his owner acted when asked questions. Yes, that made sense.

She shook her head free of the deliberations just as the green-haired human let out a small hum and 0nodded0, stepping forward once. Fluttershy grew more confident in her theory. Obviously his estranged owner had taught him to nod when Ponies asked him things, and follow them if alone. What a smart boy he was!


Hazama, for his part, felt his masculinity committing honourable suicide.

From helping a God of Death bring about Doomsday, to following a small yellow horse with promises of food and a place to stay. In any future retelling of the tale, however, he would have it be said that he was using this as an opportunity for information gathering.

And was in no way affected by the need for food for the first time in weeks.