Well hello there everybody, back with another. Thanks to the Cindered Shadows DLC coming out, I have quite a bit more material to work with. The personalities are simply ripe with potential, to say nothing of the girls' unique features. As soon as I heard about them, the idea for this one-shot immediately sprung to mind. Anyway, let's go!

Summary: Byleth dons the detective role when Marianne is suddenly found acting strange. Naturally, Lysithea takes the challenge of being the Professor's plucky assistant. It is quickly made apparent, however, that finding the truth is not as easy as it seems.


Lysithea wasn't particularly fond of staying up these days. With all of the work that needed to be done to restore Garreg Mach in addition to the endless skirmishes, the white-haired girl looked for any excuse to rest her legs. It was to be expected then, that when Claude decided that Lysithea was the one best suited to handle a night-time assault, Lysithea wouldn't be the most cheerful of people that night. It was fortunate that the leader of the Leicester Alliance was elsewhere, for the way that dark magic danced around Lysithea's fingers didn't exactly bode well for what she had in planned for Claude.

The moment that she saw a shock of blue hair passing through the darkness however, the magic dissipating as Lysithea squinted. With nought but the light of the moon, it was hard to make out any of the details, but Marianne's form was distinct enough. The reason as to why Marianne would be crawling about in the darkness however, that was even more difficult to figure out. For reasons that Marianne had shared with few, the healer of the Golden deer tended to sleep rather heavily; she wouldn't be up without a very strong motivation.

"Lysithea? Is there an issue?" choking back a startled scream, Lysithea whirled around, Byleth's face illuminated by the candle's glow. The man managed to sneak through the night like a trained assassin, a notable feat considering how many rocks and pieces of debris littered the monastery grounds. "You appear to have seen a ghost. Do we have an intruder?"

"No, just Marianne, but she's acting weird…" Lysithea murmured, taking a step back before she paused and gave a dark glare in Byleth's direction. "Wait, was that a dig on my fear of ghosts? I told you that because I thought you wouldn't make fun of me for it!"

Byleth didn't answer, merely drawing his sword and proceeding forward without a word. With a pout upon her face and her arms folded, Lysithea had no choice but to follow. Byleth wasn't exactly one made for teasing; he had shown that well enough. Greeting her with a line like that however, there was no way it wasn't intentional.

There were more pressing matters at hand, however, made clear when they heard a pained gasp coming from… somewhere. Byleth's small distraction had been just enough for Lysithea to lose sight of Marianne, that small cry the only lead they had to go off. Naturally, the professor followed after without hesitation, Lysithea trying her best to keep pace and not get distracted by the rather ominous sounds that seemed to come out of nowhere. She thought she was doing fairly alright until a branch suddenly falling caused her to nearly jump in surprise.

Before a noise could be made Byleth's hand was clasped around her mouth, Lysithea almost freaking out further until she realised that she wasn't being struck by some hideous ghoul. Relaxing slightly, the next question to strike her was why exactly the man had decided to manhandle her. The moment that she looked in the same direction as Byleth however, Lysithea was met with a sight that provided several more questions rather than answers.

Pawing at the ground like some sort of feral beast with an expression to match, Marianne seemed to have lost all control. Drool fell from open lips as the blue-haired girl desperately dug at the ground and wall, a blush on her face as she tried to force herself as close to the ground as possible. With her position on all fours, there was something disturbingly erotic about the situation, Lysithea silently wishing that Byleth had covered her eyes rather than her mouth.

Byleth showed no reaction as he slowly released the girl in his hands cautious approaching the wild Marianne silently. It wasn't necessary, not with how devoted the girl seemed to be to… whatever it was she was doing, but you could never be too careful. The only issue came when the professor gently laid a hand on Marianne's shoulder, an ultimately harmless action that somehow drew the girl's rage.

"My blood compels me!" Marianne cried, literally clawing at the professor with far more strength than she had any right to bear. Though Byleth was able to fend off the girl, the sheer primal anger that appeared on Marianne's face, brought a frown to his face. Drool was thrown about everywhere, any sense of propriety or restraint completely lost to Marianne as she tried her best to return to her digging. "I must keep going!"

"Control yourself!" Byleth growled, strengthening his grip. Lysithea thought it a lost cause, more than ready to join in; when the madness in Marianne's eyes suddenly began to falter, she was proven surprisingly wrong. "Remember who you are!"

"My blood, I must… I must…" the crazed girl tried to protest, only to find her strength seeping out by the second.

Before too long, Marianne was completely limp in the professor's arms, looking seconds away from falling asleep. Gone was the madness that possessed her, in appearance at the very least, leaving only the slightly gloomy girl they had come to know. Lysithea's relief was clear when Marianne opened her eyes with a much more rational demeanour, a blush appearing on Marianne's face when she noticed how close to the Professor she was.

"Um, er, oh my Professor! And Lysithea too!" the blue-haired girl quietly fumbled, looking down to the dirt on her nightwear and hastily trying to clean herself off. "Wh-what are you two doing out here when it's so dark? What am I doing here? Did you bring me here?"

"…No, we're not doing this." Lysithea muttered, her face immediately colliding with her palm. "You really can't remember what just happened? No, actually, that makes way too much sense; you of all people wouldn't act so shamelessly otherwise…"

"Shamelessly? What was I doing?" Marianne murmured in response, curling into herself as the cold breeze blew through. "All I remember is trying to go to sleep and then I was here."

"You were digging. The question is why here?" Byleth mused aloud, crouching down with an analytical eye. It was clear that there was something buried under the monastery, but Byleth could recall no stories of objects that could elicit such a strange reaction. Even then, the ground, if you ignored the new marks from Marianne's freak out, had been long undisturbed. If it had been something buried there for a long time, surely its effects would've been noticed before now? "It is late. I will investigate in the morning. Return to your rooms."

"Are you sure it's okay to just ignore it for now?" Lysithea questioned. "I mean, there aren't many people who are up during the night. What if Marianne suddenly decides she wants to become a dog again and start digging? We were only out here because of pure luck."

"Sleep with her."

The two girls didn't respond immediately. After all, they weren't entirely certain that what they heard was correct. It was only when the man appeared to be completely serious that the two girls spared a glance to each other and voiced their thoughts in perfect synchronicity.

"What?"

"Sleep in the same room, prevent Marianne from acting if it happens. I see no issue with that." Byleth explained, not even waiting for an answer before marching back to his own quarters. It would've been considered rude in any other situation, but goddamn it, Lysithea was too tired to make a big deal of it. She didn't care if she had to seep in one of the crypts at this rate, she just needed any rest she could get before the sun intruded.

"For a professor, he really needs to work on his wording sometimes." The white-haired girl muttered in disbelief, turning to Marianne with a beckoning gesture of the head. "Well, I guess things could be worst. Come on, it'll be just like five years ago."

"Oh, um, okay…" Marianne hesitantly answered, the feral beast long since replaced by the mannerisms of a tame puppy. "Lysithea… you said I was digging right? You seemed kind of weirded out. Was that all I was doing?"

"Honestly? You would probably sleep better if you didn't know."


Byleth wasn't sure which was more confusing; that there was nothing to be found where Marianne had been desperately searching, or that Marianne seemed to be completely unaffected by whatever strange force bewitched her. Several days had passed and the blue-haired girl was just as meek and mild as she usually was. The evidence pointed to her actions being the result of some sort of curse, but Byleth couldn't imagine what kind of curse could make a person act so specifically.

Nothing in the library happened to have any information, but there was only so much you could find with Seteth combing the shelves for anything he didn't particularly like. They probably thought they were being subtle, giving the students just enough information to not complain while holding back many of the juicier details. It served them well enough, but for someone attempting to figure out esoteric curses and magicks? It was a little less useful. Quite frankly, it left Byleth stumped.

The other staff of Garreg Mach had been of little help as well. Not through any malicious intent, none that Byleth could detect at least, but genuine lack of knowledge. Even his father, with the inhumane level of experience he had managed to gather in his life, had only vague assumptions to give. The only who seemed to have an inkling of what might be occurring was Archbishop Rhea, but Byleth had been unable to gain an audience with her.

Those failed investigations were what led to the professor staring at the ground, completely unaware of the odd glances that he was getting from the rest of the monastery. There couldn't simply be nothing, there was no way someone could be made to dig with such dogged determination at a specific location if there was no significance to it. Why was it then, no matter how deep he dug, there was nothing!?

"I'm assuming that you haven't been able to find anything Professor?" Lysithea could be heard behind him, Byleth giving little than a disgruntled sound. His pensive expression would've had him looking quite alluring had he not been stood in the middle of a giant hole in the ground. "Should I get you a ladder? If you're going to dig any deeper, you don't want to dig yourself into a hole you can't get out."

"I should be fine. Marianne?"

"Surrounded by everyone else. if she's going to freak out and try to come back here, she's going to have a lot of obstacles to get through." Lysithea replied, one semi-disgusted glance at the hole before she lowered herself into the crevasse. For one who preferred to dress in white, the thought of lowering herself into the dirt wasn't the most appealing, but it allowed Lysithea a better sight of the hard rock beneath the earth. "Okay, so something you can't exactly dig casually through."

"And also, something that cannot be easily recreated," Byleth added. His foot glided across smooth stone, a firm kick producing little effect. "If there was a catalyst buried here, there would be marks. Remnants of the magic that constructed it. It is too smooth. It could have been tunnelled to, but there's nowhere else that has been disturbed."

"So, you have zero leads and no evidence to prove why Marianne was acting so strange. Acting in a manner that, now that she has been noticed, hasn't shown any sign of doing so again and seems to remember nothing about it?" Lysithea summed up with a teasing smile, getting a distracted nod from her professor. "Maybe Marianne's just spending a bit too much time with the animals. She always did love Dorte a bit more than I thought was healthy~!"

"Impossible. She wouldn't react the way she did." Byleth immediately denied, Lysithea taking a moment to roll her eyes before forming her response.

"You really need to learn how to lighten up a little. I thought you were starting to get somewhere when you made that remark about making Marianne and me sleep together." The white-haired girl muttered, slightly bitterly. "But the situation's still the same. Your investigations haven't gotten anywhere, and I can't really do much to add to the effort. What are you meant to do when the options have all been exhausted?"

"Then we create our own."

"…I'm not entirely sure I understand, Professor."

"We let whatever happened to her happen again. Let someone else do the work for us." Byleth mused, a thousand plans flying through his mind. Pulling himself out of the hole and helping Lysithea do the same, the man began to carefully refill the hole with a revitalised energy. "They dig up whatever they want to find. We keep an eye on them, stop it if things get dangerous."

"Wait, you're not seriously saying we let Marianne get possessed like that again!?" Lysithea objected, her shouts loud enough to draw the attention of everyone surrounding. Well half of them were already staring at the professor digging a random hole anyway, but those who had managed to ignore the strange scene now turned to them. It was only the combination of Lysithea and Byleth's withering glares that had them awkwardly return to minding their own business. "I'm not a big fan of letting my friends get affected by weird magic, but actively letting them get affected twice is a definite no!"

"We have few alternatives. She will remain unharmed." Byleth countered, his countenance unmoved. The two remained like that, frozen, for who knew how long. It was only when Lysithea's eye began twitching that she finally relented, folding her arms petulantly. "When she was digging last time, she did not appear to be in pain. She only dug, did nothing that could harm her. I will have fail-safes in place as a precaution."

"Um, we've kind of got an issue over here!"

The two turned at Claude's panicked call, but it did nothing to prepare either for the sight that awaited them. not only had Marianne reverted to the feral state she had demonstrated before, but the entirety of her class was also now desperately scrambling to stop her. Ignatz tried to catch her, only to fall short; Raphael was forced to the side when he found out how sharp Marianne's nails were. One by one, her fellow Golden deer fell at Marianne's hands, only Claude, Hilda and Lysithea left unharmed by the crazed girl.

"Leave her be!" Byleth called out, pulling Lysithea out of the way as poor, unfortunate Lorenz was thrown to the side by a single-minded Marianne.

The others were loathe to do so, but relented at their professor's orders. With Hilda releasing what awkward grip she managed to get, it meant Marianne was unobstructed as she stumbled towards Byleth's position. As expected, both Byleth and Lysithea were completely ignored as Marianne momentarily stared down into the hole, not a single ounce of reservation in Marianne's eyes as she jumped straight in and began to claw at the stone below.

Once she realised that she couldn't dig through it however, Marianne seemed to pause. Lysithea was almost led to believe that Marianne had come to her senses once more, only to realise that she couldn't be further from the truth. Rather than be deterred, Marianne seemed completely content, swishing her face as close to the earth as possible with a disturbing blush. It was a good thing that the Golden Deer left standing were able to form a barrier around the hole, for many would have the rather risqué image burned into their minds immediately.

"She's… not going to do anything?" Lysithea couldn't help but mutter aloud, rubbing her eyes in disbelief. "She was digging a hole so… she could have a hole to sit in? This is ridiculous. If this is some random student who found a rank curse, I'm killing him. This was not worth all the worry."

"It appears so." And though Byleth spoke those words with the same stoic expression as ever, it wasn't hard to believe that he was going through the same mental struggle. "she does not appear to be in pain. Healing magic doesn't have an effect. I acquired an item to supposed break curses; it is having no effect. This is Marianne."

"No way, you're not convincing me that Marianne of all people is acting like this of her own accord." The white-haired girl immediately denied, the professor merely tossing a strange pendant in Lysithea's direction. At first, she did not recognise it, but the memory of one of Hannerman's lectures soon came to mind. Byleth had not lied; it truly was a talisman for breaking curses a talisman completely unresponsive in Marianne's presence. "But Marianne has never acted like this before, why would she suddenly decide to do so now?"

Byleth didn't immediately react, trying his best to formulate a response as he looked down at the still cooing Marianne on her earthen bed. It was only after a minute that anything came to mind.

"People are strange creatures." He supposed. "I never pretend to understand them."


Deep beneath the basements of Garreg Mach, the world beneath lived their lives blissfully unaware of the surface's current turmoil. It was here that a lilac haired man approached a redheaded resident, his arms folded with a clear look of irritation.

"I thought I told you before you can't afford to sigh here, Hapi. You know that you can attract monsters no matter where you are down here." The man scolded, though the one who he directed those complaints to remained completely unaffected.

"Come on Yuri-bird. Look around you, can you see any monsters?" the woman replied, brushing aside red hair with another sigh and carefully shifting herself into a more appropriate resting position. "It's fine. Call me if a monster tries to get in."


And that is where we end it for now. It's not a particularly strong premise this time, I'm well aware, but the thought of Marianne's crest causing her to react to Hapi was just too amusing to ignore. After all, if you're going to have an ability that attracts monsters and give Marianne a voice clip saying 'my blood compels me', you're practically asking for it.

Super hero time! See you next time!