So I have to use 'Word Online' because for some reason new computers don't come with a full version of microsoft office, fuck you by the way microsoft, this thing is complete chaos, it keeps butchering whatever I write, putting words where they don't belong, messing up my already not-so-great grammar and punctuation.

My struggle, it's so real.

DSM 18

Painted World of Ariamis

Menma sat, leaning against one of the s support walls of Priscilla's 'boss room' his red eyes a little dim as bags settled under them, a low yawn escaping his lips as the Crossbreed sat next to him it had taken quite a lot of coaxing to get her to do so, but e but eventually she saw he meant no ill will and was merely...Tired, for lack of a better word, in a literal and figurative sense.

"So...What do you even eat? This is just a single room, in a tower that's pretty out of the way..." Said the Uzumaki, his arms were crossed over his propped up knees, he rested his chin upon his forearms and looked up at the crossbreed from the corner of his eyes.

"I do not need to." Said the big woman, Menma turned his head to look up at her completely, confusion scrawled across his features, "I truly do not require sustenance as humans do. I have never felt hunger or thirst." She informed.

"So you've never eaten...Like at all?" He asked.

"Thou art correct."

"Holy shit your parents are shitty people." He insulted returning his head to its previous place. Usually people would defend their sires, Priscilla remained quiet, Menma noticed this and asked, "You do know who your parents are, right?"

"I do not." She responded, quietly. "The closest to such things I have had would be the wardens of the Asylum, I spent many years there, alone and confused. But then again I have spent most of my life in such a way. I do not understand why I was created, nor do I understand why I have been placed here. All I know is that this land is peaceful, its inhabitant are kinder than any others I have met." A howling laughter set upon her company, she titled her head to see his face, though his eyes were filled with sadness, she was confused. Was laughter not a sign of joy?

"P-please tell me your tell me your kidding." He asked, subduing his laughter after a few moments.

"I am not. Why, have I amused you in some way?" She asked, curiosity twinkling in those green-blue orbs.

"No. In fact that's quite sad to hear. The fact that murderous hollows, abominations of flesh, hostile living conditions, undead dragons, toxin-infested hollows that spit fire, and what amounts to a prison is a 'kindness'. I actually feel a great deal of sadness, something I wasn't even aware I was capable of." He admitted He admitted taking unfolding his arms and taking one of her hands into his, she seemed quite surprised by the action.

"I am sorry you've had to live such a life, Priscilla."

"You feel sadness for one you've only just met, curious..." She said, looking at the glowing blue flames in the hand that held hers.

"And I'm pretty desensitized, I've been a good little muderer since I was 12. The fact that I can even feel sadness is amazing in itself." He said, removing his hand from hers he did notice that the corner of her lips fell slightly as he did so, Menma chose not to comment on it for now.

"Tell me of your life." She asked, "I wish to know more about the one so set upon learning of mine own existence."

A Short While Later

"...And then Orange told me to come here. So I did, when I leave Lautrec will face my blades, I will return to Blighttown and hopefully reverse the effects the Chaos Flame had upon Quelaag and Quelara." He finished, sighing softly and rubbing his temples with his index finger and thumb, "This fucking place..." He murmured, "And on top ad on top of all that I've gotta figure out why the hell I absorbed a Dragon's Soul instead of my Sign doing it." He opened his gloved hand and idly rubbed his palm with his demonic thumb, "It's all very...Confusing."

He paused for a moment before cracking a smile and chucklinile and chuckling, at this the white maiden rose a bone-like brow, "What brings thee laughter this time?"

"Frampt is gonna be royally pissed when he finds out I didn't get the Lordvessel. Though the snake can suck it for trying to send me into a fucking illusion, I don't know what Gwyndolin's deal is but she's trying to cover the fact that there are no bloody gods in this forsaken land." Said the black haired male at length, a scowl slowly working its way onto his face as he looked up to her face.

"Why does such a thing cause thee to frown in this way?" She queried.

"If there's one thing I hate more than weakness its being manipulated, people that tend to end up with their intestines hanging from a tree." He growled darkly, his eyes flashing a deep, coal black.

"Thou hast spoken of Dragon's soul bonding with thine own body, does thee know why?" She asked, as she did this Menma noticed she very discretely, for one not trained in the art of silent movement, laced her fingers with his demonic hand, seemingly taking possession of it. The poker-face she wore was well kept as not even a twitch was given away.

"No idea, Orange told me 'Ash Lake' and that's all, I suppose there could be an answer there. Though there could just be even more questions. I won't know until I get there." He idly ran his clawed thumb across the back of her hand, her eyes flittered down to the interlaced fingers for the briefest of moments.

Now whilst Menma's own experience with other sentient beings in anything close to a romantic setting was quite...Limited. It was a small victory to know a little more than the other person in the event, though considering whom he shared this small moment with he could also call it fates sick fucking sense of humor.

'Every person I meet in this land...It just feels like this is where happiness goes to fucking off itself.' He thought darkly, it didn't make sense, how did this world come about? Was it doomed from the start to be in a constant state of despair? Or did he just arrive at the worst time? If that was the case then what was Lordran like during its golden age?

"Thou art leaving?" Asked the She-Dragon half breed.

"How'd you know?" He asked, not bothering to hide it, why lie to someone who's company he enjoyed so much?

"Thine eyes. They could tell many stories indeed. Thou reveals a great deal with thine eyes." She stated her delicate features setting with apathy and disinterest. "Will thee return to this place, and visit me?" She asked.

"I wouldn't mind doing so." Answered Menma, "But I don't know when I'll be back In Anor Londo. I'll make sure I visit you as soon as I can." He placed a hand over his heart and kissed her knuckle, like he'd seen many noble's do. He smirked at her confused expression before jogging towards the plank and leaping off.

"Thou art interesting. Why does thee smell like mineself though?" She questioned softly. Looking at her hands as though there were the most interesting thing in the world.

Anor Londo: Painting Cathedral

Menma slid out of the painting like water, landing on his feet and shaking himself off, whipping his head around rapidly to clear it of any excess snow, "I've still yet to find a bloody river. One day, Lordran. One fucking day..." He threatened to the air, growling lowly at the lack of water this damned place seemed to have.

"Lautrec currently resides within the Greater Tower, where Gwyn once lived." Menma nodded as he read ma nodded as he read over what Orange had told him, quickly bolting from the Cathedral, he noticed the Painting Guardians were only now coming back to life, slowly resuming their previous positions, he was lucky to be out the door by the time they were in 'guard mode'.

He stood upon the plat-form-staircase-thing once more and turned the crank so it rose, he had a pretty good idea of where he needed to go, as the elevator spun and spun he sighed in relief when it finally reached its destination, no one crossed him and lived to tell the tale.

Even through the thick blanket of darkness the Uzumaki could clearly see the towering monolith that was Gwyn's old residence, his eyes begun to glow red and his pupil slit as Kurama's chakra fused with his eyes to enhance his senses.

Menma nearly leapt the staircase leading up towards the keep in his haste to find the man who attacked his clone, and the man who more than likely did something to the woman it guarded, this was a matter of principal, principal, not vengeance. If he let one person who crossed him live he'd have to put up with it more and more.

That and murder was kind of fun.

He was a quality Shinobi, it came with the territory to enjoy your work.

Keep

As the towering metal doors exploded inward, Lautrec and his summoned assistants turned sharply, the golden armoured man producing his curved blades, Shotels, in preparation for a fight he didn't expect to see the man he'd already slain standing before him, eyes that glowed with anger and an arm the shone with such a strong blue light he almost winced at the stark change of lightning, whether the sun was out or not he still couldn't stare at the damned arm for too long.

The black haired giant let out a bellowing roar, "Lautrec!" It seemed to create shockwaves that ran across the golden mans armour and actually made him flinch, that in itself was quite the feat. "You don't fuck with me and live!" Announced the giant, before he seemingly vanished, Lautrec looked around only to feel the air leave his lungs and his body becoming acquainted with the marble flooring beneath him.

Menma's Bloodshield deflected the spear that was thrust towards him towards him, the deflection seemed to set the weilder off balance, he exploited this by blasted the mans face with an Azure Combustion the summon wailed in pain as his face was burnt badly, he fell to his knees and found an arm staked into his chest, the phantom looked into the eyes of his killer and saw no remorse, no anger, just apathy, like his death was meaningless to his killer.

And it was. To one whom had took up the path of slaughter since the age of 12, the death of one man meant very little to him.

No point beating around the bush.

When the Soul Arrow of the second phantom met his shoulder Menma turned and immediately struck the fool with a "Raiton: Gian!" The bolt of blue lightning shot right through the caster, his body immediately turning to white ash as his collected souls were sucked into Menma's sign.

"Get up. So I can have the joy of knocking you back down." Ordered Menma as he kicked Lautrec's ribs forcing his prey onto his stomach, groaning as he pushed himself up.

"I thought you were smarter than this..." Hissed Lautrec, Menma's roundhouse kick forced him face first into the marble floor once more, a sickening crack was heard as Lautrec yelped, his nose breaking from impact.

"Get up." Ordered Menma, slipping the Bloodshield back onto its perch. Cracking his knuckles he chuckled at the anger that began to roll of Lautrec. "You can either get up and die on your feet, or I can incinerate you. Either way, you die." Said Menma, one hand on his hip whilst the other was loosely held at his side.

"Arrogance is unbecoming of you." Spat Lautrec, his oily voice annoying to the Shinobi's ears. Lautrec was hands and knees and yelped once more as Menma's armoured shin slammed into the side of his helmet.

"You're one to talk, little man. C'mon up ya get. I'm growing tired of this, I need to do more important things, like existing." Said the Uzumaki, flippantly. "Manda always told me not to play with my food." Igniting his fingers with pale blue lightning that slowly crawled up to his wrist Menma drove his hand right through Lautrec's back, piercing the armour of his prey and killing him instantly.

Lautrec 'dropped' a few things, about half a dozen Humanity sprites that were sucked into Menma's Sign. A golden ring that he put into his pouch and finally, something that gave him a small pause, a Firekeeper soul.

"That's just fucked up, who kills a woman who can't move and has her tongue cut out. How low do you have to crawl for her to register as prey?" He asked himself, his voice echoing around the now empty halls he stood in.

End of Chapter.

R&R

Raxychaz!