A/N
Aye! Nice to see you all again!
I hope you all can enjoy it!
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5,767 Words in total.
The sky was clouded, a chill rolling through the streets of inner Orario, the sounds of trees shifting in those winds dulling the senses. Bell exhaled, his warm breath turning to crystals in the air before him.
He moved with seamless efficiency, his pace relaxed yet dangerous.
He was quick to head northwest from the southern gate, quickly making way toward the rooftop bridge system, crossing street after street while the hairs on his neck stood on end. Bell not able to shake the feeling he was being watched.
He found his first trap, empty as usual, he'd need to move this one. The bounds of the Hellhound territory had shrunk with his targeting of them, their numbers chipping away faster and faster every day.
Hellhounds were not like traditional wolves, they didn't contribute to population control like proper predators outside the wall, they killed for sport.
Bell couldn't help but smile as he thought of this, the hypocrisy in his targeting them for such acts of their will, given how the mortal races did just the same all too often.
But what made Hellhounds so much more dangerous than a wolf pack wasn't that they could manipulate fire on a whim, no, it was that they didn't conform to the same logic as wolves when gathering into packs, their social structure better described as a 'community' then a pack.
These groups could form from as little as a single pair of Hellhound, a new hound entering the family group from outside each generation, this continuing until their numbers couldn't be sustained by their environment. There were records of 'packs' numbering near a hundred strong in the central regions of Genkai before the wall went up and the social groups were hunted down to the last as best the hunting parties could.
Orario wasn't like the outside in one respect though, there was a food source that grew just as fast as they hunted, that being goblins.
Bell had done a number to the population of little green savages, wiping them off this slice of Orarian city map's food chain. This meant that the Hellhounds were without their primary food source, a dangerous move for sure, so he made preparations before reaching this stage. He collapsed several key buildings over roadways across Orario's southwestern quadrant, bottlenecking them into specific paths that he'd trapped with snares and other such traps that could capture the monsters alive.
Another tactic Bell had used was to poison unharvested goblin corpses so that once a Hellhound pounced, they'd incidentally ingest toxins that wouldn't kill them, but fest in their systems and cause internal issues. This led to the contamination of their den, causing the entire pack to be dislocated, forcing them to pick a new home that would be less familiar to the group and easier for Bell to attack.
The white-haired boy dropped down from a store top into a tight road that wasn't quite revealed to the sunlight yet, the snare trap he was checking had worked, though the beast was gone. Left behind was a severed hellhound's paw, a mess of blood surrounding the area with the trap tightened to the point of there being nothing but a few strands of fur stuck to the wire loop.
He sighed, it wasn't optimal, though it was acceptable.
The hound would be a hindrance to the pack from then on until it likely dies of an infection, but until such a time, they'd be dragging food back to the den for it. Bell grabbed the hound paw and tossed it into his satchel, then pulled a folded piece of paper out marked with various listed locations with brief descriptions, though there was one issue, he'd forgotten a pencil.
Bell kneeled down and pulled the fur from the wire, using the blood-soaked item as a writing utensil, slashing through this trap on the list of them all.
He stood up, hands clean with his needs met.
Ryuu was perturbed, her mind focusing on one thing and one thing only, finding Bell Cranel, which so far seemed a much tougher task than expected.
Lili was doing her best to keep up with the elf, though all things considered, she was a rather fast and long-winded adventurer.
They walked into an alleyway, Ryuu's heart softly speeding as she felt a sense of misunderstanding with the streets of the city she'd once lived in. It had been a long time since she'd last truly explored the now crumbling and vegetation riddled streets, this place once being her and nearly a million others' home, she couldn't help question why they'd given up now that she saw it all again in a state of utter and total disrepair… no, it was far worse than that.
They came face to face with a wall of stone bricks, the elf sighing before turning back and heading towards the last street again. This was not going how she'd thought it would.
Lili got a short-lived break as the elf stopped at the alleyway mouth, looking left and right while trying to make her best guess as to where Bell may have run off to. The city wasn't exactly small after all.
"May Lili ask a question?"
Ryuu didn't turn towards the girl, though she got the elf's full attention along with a nod.
"Why exactly are we in here looking for some other goddess' Familia member?"
It was a fair question, one that Ryuu knew the 'why' for, but just not the 'what' that came after. Sure, she would apologize of course, but after…
Ryuu suddenly became very aware of how hard she'd been trying to track someone down for no particularly important reason.
"Well, Miss Lion?" Lili called again while looking up from her side.
Ryuu grunted nervously. "Well, I suppose it's to sate some of my own curiosities…"
Lili blinked. "You're curious about this boy?"
Ryuu reluctantly nodded, before turning abruptly and heading further towards the city center along the street, the prum hurrying to catch up for a moment as the elf graciously decided to walk while speaking instead of the slow jog she seemed to perpetually be stuck in today.
"He's peculiar. His goddess is a rather influential one should she wish to be, and yet he is only one of two in his Familia." Their steps were muffled a bit now, turning the corner and coming into a stretch of street that was mostly pulverized cobblestones coated in sparse grass and moss.
"Now, it isn't odd that they have so few as a new Familia, but they've been in Orario for over half a month and only a handful of people seem to know about them. Someone like goddess Freya should be turning all kinds of heads in Orario, yet none of the gods I know had even seen her up until today with goddess Astraea." Ryuu sighed. "It's just… strange."
Lili looked to the ground for a moment, hesitant to ask this, but she did anyway.
"Do you think they're dangerous?"
"No. At least, not right now." Ryuu let her chest fill with air. "Goddess Freya is a deity with the traits of fertility, love, and sex. She is an item of desire for many people, even the gods, so she is dangerous given how easily one such as her could command influence should she find a reason to throw her weight around in Orario's political system."
Lili was curious to know more, though Ryuu froze for a moment thinking she'd heard something off to the side.
They both stopped dead, Ryuu stepping between the supposed noise and her supporter with a hand on the hilt of her weapon. But nothing came from the side street. The wind being all that drifted and whistled against Ryuu's long ears, her shoulders untensed. The elf was again reminded of how different the city was from five years ago.
Lili let herself slip into thought now that there was no real danger, trying to figure something out, though failing and calling to the elf again. "So, you kinda... Dodged the original question, Miss Ryuu."
Ryuu kept a straight face, though the tips of her ears started to turn pink. "I also… have some personal business to discuss with him. Though, I ask you to refrain from prying on this matter."
Lili was starting to become disillusioned with this little excursion, not that she wanted to come along in the beginning either. But the little prum owed her life to Ryuu and Hestia Familia for forcibly disbanding the Soma Familia a year ago now, and in doing so taking her into their own ranks.
.
The two progressed through the streets for what felt like forever, though the sun had only gradually moved past its peak since their last conversation, the journey thus far mostly in silence. It was maybe twenty to thirty minutes after noon now, the sun high above and filling the streets nicely with sunlight.
The supporter's bag had one of its pockets somewhat filled with stones, though there weren't too many monsters in this area currently, so they mostly wandered in search of this elusive boy.
"Lili doesn't see the point of this anymore." The prum commented on their so-far lack of finding the object of Ryuu's interest.
"He's here somewhere, we know that much, it's just a matter of whe-" Ryuu collapsed forward, tripping and falling to a knee while her hands shot out to catch herself. She was quick to try and raise back up, but her one foot was still caught by something.
Lili came to the rescue, pulling a knife out quickly while the elf was still recovering.
The steel wire was tightly wrapped around the arch of her boot's sole, Ryuu feeling it squeezing down on the top of her boot before Lili cut it. She was quick to step away, Lili replacing her knife within the sheath kept between her back and backpack.
Lili looked at the strange thing, curiosity filling her. "What is it?"
"...I don't know." Ryuu admitted while they stared at the small lump of iron protruding like a pebble from the ground, the near-perfectly blended in metallic wire laying in two where it'd caught the woman.
"Well, Lili thinks it's a trap."
Ryuu held back a 'well, duh'. "It's obviously been put here by a person, but I have no idea how old it is. You?"
"No, unfortunately."
They pondered it for a second more, taking in the finer details. The wire looks decent and uncorroded, but the iron is flakey at its surface and looks like it'd been salvaged from some abandoned circus tent.
Ryuu stood fully up, looking all around, down forward and back of the street, her heart screaming to a halt as her eyes found the beast that'd been stalking them.
Her eyes traced the mane of a hellhound.
Her instincts kicked in, assessing it as Lili was still unaware, though the prum caught how Ryuu stiffened at the edge of her vision.
There were maybe fifty feet between them and it, Lili finally seeing it and quickly stumbling back, Ryuu bounding a long pace forwards to make herself out as the obvious foe. The hound lowered itself, its fur was big, though it wasn't full, it almost seemed sick and malnourished.
It made no advance on them, seemingly as though it couldn't, or outright refused to.
Ryuu slowly challenged the beast, stepping forward just barely, and to her shock, the hound backed away almost the same.
She thought of her options.
The Hellhound was keeping its distance, and the thing seemed thin overall, so there should be even more aggressive behavior. Her mind was stuck on the only possible option.
There was an ambush. Other hounds were somewhere nearby and waiting for Lili to separate from the elf. She backed up and closed in on Lili while never looking away from its almost glowing red eyes.
Ryuu grabbed the prum's arm, ready to run, seeing how the hound didn't track her retreat with its own advance as a clear sign it wanted them to follow and not it.
But the elf's attention was drawn away in an instant.
A person launched themself off of a second-floor ledge, the hound not noticing as she had until it was already too late.
Ryuu and Lili watched on as a sword was plunged into its back from above, the hound trying without success to dash away, only fumbling to the side as its attacker grappled onto its torso. Ryuu stayed back, not sure if there was still an ambush to beware of, instinct screaming but to what end?
The hound cried out in ways that made Lili's will falter, the sounds all too much like the ones she'd made before getting rescued from Soma Familia.
The attacker wasted next to no time, the hound trying to move as it screamed out whimpers of pain, the sword's hilt at the top of its chest, the blade's edge clear as day exiting the belly. A knife came from the back of the attacker's belt while the other arm held the beast's torso, the blade plunging suddenly and without mercy into the neck, then the throat, finishing with a more collected plunge straight in through the side of its skull to finish the miserable end.
Everything settled, their savior sucked in light amounts of air to recover, but Ryuu was still tense, her weapon drawn now as Lili huddled behind her. She didn't take her eyes entirely off the attacker, her eyes scanning along the area surrounding them, peripherals looking for movement beyond that of her focus on him.
Ryuu hardened herself. "Identify yours-"
"What are you doing out here?!" The male person called, voice full of condemnatory tones. He was standing up, gradually beginning to walk at a casual pace toward the two.
Ryuu blinked, her guard completely thrown off. "W-Wha-"
"YOU are in Hellhound territory-" He threw an arm back at the Hellhound corpse in reference. "Why did you come here if you weren't going to fight?!" The man referred to her hesitation.
He was all but a few of her height away when the realization hit her. "Bell?!"
He stopped in his tracks, finally noticing who it was himself that he'd been talking to.
He shrank like a sponge that's dried up. "O-Oh… Hi… Miss Ryuu…" His voice cracked.
"..."
"..."
The seconds seemed to tick by like hours.
The elf was in a rather simple getup. A white and rather form-fitting tank top, a thin-looking cloak that seemed more like a cape hung down to just above the back of her knees, then a set of almost greenish-brown shorts leaving a gap on her thighs before equally greenish-brown thigh height boots began.
She took in his appearance, rather less put together than her own outfit. It was a rather old-looking coat that was worn to the point of fading in its gray color, the hem covering Bell's belt just barely. His belt had an oval look on one side that would fit the sword perfectly had he retrieved it since the fight. The pants were darker just barely than the coat, though they seemed much newer overall with an equally proper set of boots.
"..."
"..."
"Well…" Lili quietly broke the silence finally while peaking around Ryuu shyly. "This is… awkward…"
He couldn't help the worried chuckle that broke free.
"...So… Why are you here?" Bell called out.
"What? Why shouldn't I be?" Called the elf in confusion.
"No-no!" Bell felt he'd said, or at least implied something in a way he didn't mean. "I was just curious because F- ah- Helen always tells me about how you go into the dungeon, not out here in the city is all."
"Oh… Well, yes, I normally go into the dungeon, not the cit-" She quickly shook her head in a flash of realization. "Wait, did you say 'Hellhound territory'?! Are there more of them in the city?!"
Bell was mildly taken back by this. "Of course, there are lots of strong monsters out here in the old city. Did you not… know that?"
She could only feel a sense of surprise. "I knew there were a few stronger monsters, especially around Daedalus, well, only around Daedalus… But we're almost on the opposite side of Orario right now."
Bell nodded, head swiveling to look back towards the beast. "I'm sure there was only two or three back when this all started, but the Hellhounds at least seem to have gone unchecked for longer than they should've."
It was true sadly, Ryuu thought, there hadn't been any population control efforts in a few years, though there were supposed to be adventurers out in the city quite regularly, did they all just decide to give up on the city and head down into the dungeon that fast?
Her mind wandered, she suddenly became aware of how the elf had been looking for Bell in the dungeon this last week or so. If people were supposed to move on as fast as she'd expected him to, why would they ever waste time up here when there was money to be made down there.
She sighed, guard fully dropping as nothing had come after them while they stood there for such a time already.
"So how many are out here?"
The streets were dead silent, them having followed yet another trail of blood for maybe the third time. The sun starting to ease towards the top of the western section of the wall, an orange hue falling over the city.
Lili couldn't watch, having to turn away as Bell sullied his hands with the hound's innards. The prum was no stranger to slicing through many different creatures, but never had she, nor any other supporter she knew of, put so much thought into what those organs were. Lili couldn't help thinking of herself, a hand gently pressing up to her belly while sickening thoughts of what her insides would look like passed by.
Ryuu wasn't bothered, though she'd declined if offered to actually touch the stuff he was.
"So what are you looking for?" The elf asked.
Bell shifted the liver, sliding down between it and the lungs to sever it from the rib cage entirely.
"The stomach." He grunted as he tugged on the liver again, the organ coming free as he mindlessly tossed it aside.
"Why might that be?" Ryuu lowered to a crouch, wrapping her arms around the calves of her boots just beside him.
Bell took a breath as he grabbed onto the slightly brighter organ that's been exposed. "You've noticed that all the Hellhounds we've been seeing are rather slim, right?"
"Mhm." She nodded.
"I've been killing off their food supply, and as you know, trapping the area to keep them stuck."
Ryuu was a bit caught by this. "That's a rather… odd strategy, at least compared to what I'm used to."
"Well-" Bell turned for a moment to meet her eyes. "And I do mean this with no insult intended."
Bell turned back, freeing the stomach with a harsh tug.
"The traditional approach hasn't been effective enough."
Ryuu barely flinched back in surprise. "O-kay… Well, the 'traditional approach' had never been about wholesale slaughter either."
Bell shrugged his shoulders. "Well, then there's your answer." He glanced back towards the woman for a moment. "We have two separate goals for this city's monster population."
The boy took his knife and slit along one side of the stomach, the contents seeping out slowly as it was lifted open. Bell shifted his head around, the knife sifting through the contents slowly, not that there was a lot to see given how small it'd shrunk with no proper nutrients.
Bell poked the tip of his knife into something, drawing it up for them each to see.
"What is that?" Ryuu felt rather lost and off-put.
As an adventurer that primarily explored and fought in the dungeon, the concept of a Hellhound eating outside of a dungeon pantry was foreign at best.
"I think it's a city lizard's tail…" Bell answered.
"City Lizard?"
"They rome around and eat bugs and the like, they aren't even native to the dungeon, just traditional animals from the outside." Bell clarified.
"The Hellhound ate that? Is that normal?" Ryuu muttered out a few things on her mind.
"No." Bell smiled lightly. "But that means it's working."
"It would seem." Ryuu sighed. "So what's the plan from here?"
"Well, a few days from now I'll head into the den and search through it to see if there are any survivors, they should be weak enough by then that I can deal with them on my own."
Ryuu looked down for a moment in contemplation, tilting her head a little as she tried to figure out a solution, before looking back up to Bell who was confused about what she was doing.
"What's happening in a few days?"
Bell cleared his confusion at her odd motions, then answered. "They should all have starved to death by then."
The sun faded behind the wall.
.
They all made way slowly towards the southern gate, it was taking a good amount of time since Bell couldn't bring them up onto the bridges above given how much Lili's pack weighed. This normally wouldn't be an issue, but with how long it took him to accomplish everything he'd wanted they'd ended up fighting the clock.
They'd slowly managed to head towards the southwestern wall, meaning they were unfortunately headed into a more active area of Orario since the shadows had been cast here for far longer than anywhere else thus far. They'd encountered a handful of goblins, Ryuu making quick work of them in Bell's stead since they were in a hurry.
They were within maybe three blocks from the wall, the megastructure imposing and almost overwhelming to look up towards from where they were now.
"May I ask a question?" Ryuu called.
Bell nodded from beside her, it wasn't like it was her first of the evening.
"You're quite different in here, is there a reason? Other than the obvious I mean."
The obvious was that they were in real danger when inside the walls, that much Bell could pick up on, but the other reason… he had to think for a moment.
"I…" He cut himself off, trying to figure out the best way to say this without raising any unnecessary questions. "I don't like that there are monsters on the surface."
Ryuu absorbed this while they slowed to a mossy down the grass-paved street. "That's it?"
"Mhm." Bell hummed with a small and almost unnoticeable smile.
Ryuu eyed him before refocusing on what lay ahead.
Then Bell grabbed her arm, dragging the elf to a stop as he turned to look behind from between the two.
"What-" Ryuu cut herself off, looking behind as well.
Lili was standing smack in the center of the street a ways away, her bag fallen to the ground with the slaking of her arms.
Over her was something Bell had never seen before.
It was tall, primarily a glossy green, but its six legs glowed a gentle purple while the core had hints of red and blue mixed in throughout the main body. The head boasted two large beady red orbs, pincer fangs like that of quarts, the entire beast looked to be made of gemstones and was almost transparent.
Ryuu managed to mutter out its name, her voice all but silent in disbelief. "...a Crystal Mantis?!..."
They rushed down the street, not Southern Main, but a subsection of southwestern Orario, the three now trapped within the walls for the night.
Lili was bleeding. It wasn't stopping.
Ryuu was carrying the prum on her back, running for all she was worth as Bell guided her to the best of his abilities. Ryuu used every ounce of her powers as a Level Six without outpacing him, the boy only barely able to keep up in a dead sprint.
They turned at full speed, each one tilting their bodies to fight momentum from sending them into the abandoned corner store they passed.
The roads were getting cleaner, though still, vegetation dominated the street sides as the trees almost formed tunnels of passages, covering the night sky as… as…
The leaves began to glow, not unlike that of the crystals embedded in the dungeon ceiling on some early floors, but now wasn't the time to gawk.
Bell signaled to turn with his arm, Ryuu doing as such as they careened through an opening in the thicket, it was abrupt, but Ryuu halted her steps in shock.
It was a building two stories tall and perfectly preserved if not for a few patches of ivy growing up the front, no more than the normal wear and tear upon it otherwise. She looked down, the courtyard's grass well kept and trimmed, then her eyes caught Bell hunched over and acting erratic, trying to-
She noticed the woman but didn't recognize her, the Chienthrope fairly tall with her flopped down brown ears, her eyes filling with an extreme amount of urgency in their dull purple color. She rushed over towards Ryuu, the elf not worrying about any of this now given the circumstances.
"Put her down!" The woman shouted at Ryuu, the elf complying.
Lili was set on her back, though Ryuu held her shoulders up barely from the ground. The woman inspected her, Bell standing back and trying to not interrupt the important work getting started. She pulled up Lili's small cloak, or at least what was left of it, visually inspecting the wounds.
"We need to get her inside." She spoke with an eerie calmness.
Ryuu nodded and picked her up easily, her arms running with the blood of the supporter as she fought back tears, feeling the chill from her blood that coated the elf's back.
.
The large surgical suite door slammed closed, Ryuu still standing there though before it, eyes blank, face as pale as porcelain in the near pitch-black hall.
Her heart was slamming against her ribs.
It was like five years ago again, her supporter bleeding out in the elf's arms.
She'd let it happen again?
How could this happen?
Did she fail again?
Her mind was distracted, should she have heard it?
She was distracted?
Distracted?
With Bell?
Bell…
Why did she need to talk to him so bad?
Why did he have to be up here… and not in the dungeon?
Crystal Mantis… she wouldn't have been caught off guard in the dungeon…
Why couldn't he have just been in the dungeon…
She started to feel anger swell, the unjust emotions seeping through the cracks as her mind wandered far too much in far too short of a time. Ryuu's heart jumped to a stop for a beat as a hand landed on her shoulder, her eyes threw daggers as she turned.
Bell flinched back just barely, Ryuu's eyes striking worry in him for a moment, but he wasn't deterred, His words coming out like whispers in the silent hall. "I-... You can use my coat-" He held the faded gray article up towards her arm, the elf being caught off guard for a moment. "Till you can get a clean shirt."
Ryuu's hand subconsciously went to her side opposite Bell to check, each finger except her pinky feeling a dry white shirt, but the last came up stained in crimson from where the white was stained the same.
Her hand so slowly moved to take the coat.
"Th-Thank you."
Her shoulders started to shake and bounce, her head drooping forward as the tears began silently falling.
Bell stepped between her and the door, wrapping his arms over her shoulders, the elf not caring about customs and tightly squeezing her own around his stomach and back, the coat dangling behind his back from one of her hands.
"She'll be okay." Bell promised.
Ryuu sat silently, her body covered in Bell's coat while she sat on the bed beside the one Lili lay asleep on. The room was dark and lit up only by a dark cyan-blue hue from outside the windows to match the gloomy atmosphere.
The woman, her name Naaza, had explained Lili's condition in detail.
The gash had extended from her right shoulder and down her side, ending at her hip.
The Crystal Mantis had managed to partially sever her right subclavian artery, she'd been maybe a minute away from bleeding to death on her back. They managed to use enough potions and blood elixir to save the supporter and prevent any more substantial injury, though she wasn't scott free.
She was likely to have nerve damage, her shoulder for sure would be nearly if not completely numb once fully healed. Her hand was supposed to be fine, though it may have weaker sensory capabilities from now on compared to her other.
Ryuu couldn't help but sit in silence, one or two other people in the long recovery area, maybe twenty or so beds split between each side, almost like a chapel hall stripped of its pews and podium. The windows were tall with pointed arches at the tops, each one closed but capable of parting in the center.
Bell sat at the other side of the bed Ryuu herself was on, their backs not against one another though nearly so.
Bell could almost feel the guilt radiating off of Ryuu.
True, Bell didn't have the ability to read minds, nor know off the top of his head the reasons behind it other than the obvious, but she was heavily blaming herself for what happened a few hours ago.
He thought back to what all had happened.
.
Ryuu seemed to be frozen for a moment, Bell getting all of a single step towards the thing as it slashed down at Lili standing in absolute shock at its appearance.
Bell was halfway there when his sword came free, Ryuu bolted past faster than anything he'd ever seen before, a rage emitting from her unlike that of any mortal the Snow-elf had ever encountered before. She smashed its front two legs like panes of glass, the shattered gemstone ligaments flying all across the grassy street.
Ryuu grabbed Lili and immediately jumped with her away from it.
Bell didn't even know what this thing was, little lone how to fight it, so he did as Ryuu did, slashing at its leg. His weapon wasn't to the same quality as Ryuu's, the thing smashing in two with the force he'd put behind it against an even stronger foe.
He got a half-second glimpse at Ryuu where she frantically called out to Lili who was slowly fading from the shock of it all, the first of the blood catching the corner of his vision.
She was a good kid, one he'd not known at all from just today, but she called out enemies, made small talk, and was generally intelligent once she'd gotten used to being around him.
She didn't deserve to die, most really didn't, but especially her at this moment.
So he started to chant, screaming the words out as fast as he could possibly force them.
"Fire and brimstone, heed my call.~"
.
"It's a beautiful place."
Ryuu was stolen from her guilt-filled turmoil, turning for a moment somewhat towards Bell.
He was looking out the far side of the hall's windows.
"It's beautiful, this sanctuary."
Ryuu blinked, looking outside finally for the first time since entering the halls of this 'Blue Pharmacy'. The world all around was purely forest-like, not wasn't a single stone of the surrounding buildings showing through the thicket and tree trunks, some branches glowing like sea algae she'd seen when in Melen. The soft humming blue gently dancing inside the recovery hall, shifting with the soft fall winds like how the moonlight might bounce off the sea.
"..."
"..."
"Why?"
Bell turned towards Ryuu in question.
"Why is this place safe?" She muttered out softly.
Bell smiled, taking a moment to remember the answer, speaking quietly to not wake Lili or the others in this hall.
"When Babel fell, there was a mass exodus from the city. But this place was full to the brim with injured, so they stayed to work as promised in their oaths, not leaving them to die as some others did."
Ryuu's eyes were lost in his words and the trees all around.
"Before the monsters came, the god of this Familia, Miach, went around the block and painted runes in blood, his own blood, that would prevent monsters from ever daring to come near this place. After a long enough time, he added in more, some going on the very trees his runes aided to grow, like the glowing ones out there, and the ones which guided our way in the natural tunnel."
Moments passed as Ryuu let her mind be consumed by the needed distraction.
"How did we not find this place when trying to clear the city?"
Bell shrugged. "The same way you guys missed the hounds that I hunt, maybe even just overlooking them for the sake of saving time… there are a million different reasons, none of which will sate you."
"..."
"..."
"...Thank You…"
Bell turned more towards her. "Why?"
"You brought us here, remember?" Her voice had starts of overwhelming emotions.
"You don't need-"
"If it weren't for me wanting to find you… Lili wouldn't have been hurt." She kicked herself mentally over and over from then on.
Bell was silent, what was there to say? He wanted to stop her, but with what words?
"I got this stupid idea in my head that I'd scared off Helen's friend from the pub, and I just want to apologize, and… and I almost killed Lili because of that selfish-"
"Ryuu."
Bell forced her out of her spiral for all of a moment, and it was enough.
"Lili's safe."
She looked back at him, both sitting rather awkwardly while turning from the opposite sides of that bed still.
"Say it." Bell asked of her.
"What?"
"Say that Lili is safe."
"What good will that do?"
"Please just say it." He asked.
Ryuu hesitated, her gaze drifting down.
"Ryuu…" His words more that of a scolding than a request now.
She scrunched her shoulders up below his coat around her. "L-Lili is… Lili is safe…"
Bell sat and stared at her for some long moments.
"Good. Now again." Bell smiled as she glared half-heartedly at him. "And don't stutter this time."
A/N
Hello again!
I do hope it was to all of your liking.
I am a bit worried about portraying Ryuu in this now that she has a bit for dialogue, she isn't meant to be the exact same as in canon due to the different pre-story for her and the Astraea Familia, but I do worry she's a bit too different from canon. I do have an issue with working on stuff when I have already done it, so it's been weird writing Snow-elf Bell when I have already written him before, so that might explain it if my depiction of him currently is a bit awkward.
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Ryuu's outfit is effectively the Danmemo 3rd anniversary outfit with the boots from her current canon outfit.
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A small note, I am almost tempted to make a discord so that those of you who'd want to can yell at me to get to work since I can be so lazy, but that's just a thought.
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I guess that's it for now, I hope you all are being safe and well.
Please take care, the weekend is only a day away.
