AN: What? you liked the bar scene? Funny enough, I like what Bete's character becomes in the future (Canon wise), Finn is a whole different story though. Anyway, info dumb chapter, *le sigh*.
Chapter 5
How much time had passed since she had trouble sleeping?
At least five years by her estimate.
But this time was different.
Ryuu Lyon had constant nightmares of her failure in aiding her Familia members in the moment of their demise.
Others were of all the people she had brutally killed because of their possible involvement with the Rudra Familia and their involvement in said tragedy, making her feel shame in herself for forsaking every single teaching her Goddess and fellow Familia member had taught her.
And sometimes it was just the ghost of the members of her Familia laughing at her from the beyond for being a 'clumsy' elf. The lack of sleep out of embarrassment used to be quite frequent thanks to all the mistakes she had made during her first days as a waitress.
But this time, it was different.
Anya, Chloe, Lunor, and Mama Mia were all experienced fighters. Her instincts recognized this the first time she laid eyes on them, but she hadn't been so on guard with them. At least after the former bounty hunter and assassin started working at the Hostess.
The blonde that had been residing seven rooms away from hers had triggered almost every single alarm inside of her mind.
The most dangerous one being the look in his abnormal eyes; it reminded her of herself on her worst days.
His footsteps also made no noise whatsoever, so the chance of him being an Assassin was pretty high.
She had been prepared to intervene the moment Vanargand provoked him. But to her surprise, he had handled it quite well.
'Even if the exchange of words hadn't been the most appropriate.'
But Ryuu couldn't forget it. Even though she didn't feel any kind of killing intent coming out of the blonde, his eyes said otherwise.
Thankfully, the situation ended with the werewolf slipping and falling unconscious on the floor. Only to then possibly escalate the moment he exchanged words with Finn Deinme, leaving no room for the Captain of Loki Familia to argue on Bete Loga's defense.
This surprised her.
Loga picking fights wasn't anything new, but someone having the audacity to talk back to The Braver and leaving no room to talk back was unheard of.
That previous statement could be backed up by the fact that the taller blonde was not from Orario. But even so, to not hear of The Braver of the Loki Familia?
She sighed.
Honestly, the fact that Syr was interested in him bothered her the most.
'Hopefully, it's just something temporary, like many others before.' She thought as she finished fixing her uniform to start her day and leaving any thought about the possible threat sleeping under the same roof as her.
If she had any luck, she wouldn't see him much during his stay.
Apparently, she had no luck.
Because the blonde was not only the first person she saw, but he was also doing her job as he was currently mopping the floor on the ground floor.
"… What the fuck?"
She didn't turn to her right the moment Lunor's voice was heard. Nor did she turn to her left to address the black-haired Cat Person.
Both were probably questioning what they were seeing until they finally noticed Mia Grande sitting around the table closest to them with a cup in hand looking calmly at the blonde and then them.
"Why…?" Lunor asked their boss what everyone was thinking, to which the Dwarf simply shrugged as she recalled the events of her early morning.
"Bad night?"
Mia Grande was honestly surprised the moment she saw the blonde on the ground floor of her establishment
He was currently sitting in front of the counter, his right elbows resting on it while his hand covered the upper part of his face.
"Fantastic, actually." There was no tiredness in his voice, but she could tell he was not in a good mood.
"Really? Because I am sure sleeping while sitting on a window with your back against the side jamb would be uncomfortable." Mia said as she recalled seeing the blonde from the first floor as she closed the bar.
He simply shook his head; the moon had made sure he didn't feel uncomfortable at all.
"The problem was that the clock was 5:55." The Dwarf had gone into the kitchen, only to show her head from the corner with a confused look since there were no clocks on the guest rooms.
She considered serious enough to not exaggerate about something so trivial, so that could only mean-
"Early morning training?"
He nodded without looking in her general direction while the Dwarf looked for something in the kitchen. "Me and some others would be splashed with a bucket of cold water if we weren't out of bed by six o'clock. And it was only cold when the maid in charge of that little task was in a good mood."
Mia winced at the thought as she came out with various cleaning utensils. "And I suppose you just got so used to it that you couldn't' get back to sleep, even now?" she asked, leaving the Maid comment aside. Even though she had to admit, he did look the part of a high-profile individual by how he carried himself.
He raised his left hand and waved it. "Something like that. We did weekends free, so I didn't develop a completely bad habit thanks to that."
"Then, the reason you are awake since six in the morning is-"
He finally lifted his face to show his eyes. They weren't tired, but she did notice the concern in them.
"I have a lot in my mind." He replied before looking at the clock.
'6:30… it's still way too early to meet with Tsubaki and her Goddess.' He thought as Mia eyed him from the side.
"Well, breakfast isn't gonna be available until 7:30. So unless you don't knock yourself out for another hour, you will either have to wait or do something productive like helping me out." She snorted the last part, knowing full well he wasn't gonna-
"Sure thing." The broom she had been holding was suddenly snapped out of her grasp as the blonde walked past her to start sweeping the floor after leaving his jacket folded on the counter.
"… didn't take you for the cleaning type." She spoke. Despite him looking clean compared to many others, that didn't mean he would be used to cleaning.
"I was responsible for my own stuff, doing my room was part of it."
Mia noticed he was indeed used to doing it seeing how efficient he was with the broom, but something bothered her. "Didn't you say you had a maid?"
"Despite growing up in a noble household, we were raised strictly, and our luxuries were limited. Crazy bitch was better at setting things on fire than cleaning." The hint of annoyance on that last statement made Mia chuckled as she decided to prepare some coffee.
She wasn't gonna refuse help, especially since it came willingly and from someone with experience. Not to mention he was doing a far better job than any of her workers when they first started.
Having said that-
"Start with the kitchen when you are done here."
She wasn't taking advantage of him.
Not at all.
"In…" Mia looked at the clock "Forty-five minutes. That's how long it took him to sweep the whole first floor while also making a list of all the ingredients and food we need to restock and also washed last night's dishes."
All three of them tensed. It usually took them one hour to do those exact same things, but that was with all of them doing something.
"Good morning nya~ " Anya brought them back to reality as each stood firm under Mia's gaze, including the newly arrived waitress. All of them stood firm as if they were addressing a superior officer, until Ryuu gave a step forward.
"We will carry on from here, tell me what's left so we-" Ryuu's words died in her mouth the moment a bucket with cleaning utensils was put in front of her.
"The bathrooms." Drake Aurion replied, his eyes didn't show any care for the waitress in question before addressing Mia, who simply smirked.
"Not cleaning other people's wastes?"
"Would you?"
"That's why I have them." She laughed, clearly ignoring the blank looks the waitress was giving her. "So, Ryuu. Bathrooms."
The elf was taken back.
"But today is not my-"
"You gave the first step forward." Her eye twitched as she looked at Drake, who simply shrugged. "Just stating the facts."
The elf gave him a good intent of a murderous look before taking the utensils. "Be careful where you step in. I heard Loki leaving her gratitude in the bathroom."
Mia's statement made the elf shiver in disgust as she continued walking away in defeat.
"Anya, laundry." The waitress gave a salute before walking away. "Lunor, Chloe. The guest rooms. I will have Syr look for the things to stock up later. And You-" she finally addressed the guest awake while the other two waitresses left. "Sit, I think you have done enough."
The blonde looked at the clock, holding back a frown.
"You should really consider knocking yourself out, if you really want it to be later in the day."
He sighed as he sat. "Just need to distract myself for two more hours, that's all." He replied as he refused Mia's gesture of serving him a cup of coffee.
"Who are you gonna meet that you are so eager for?"
He snorted. "The only thing I am eager about is getting it over with." He really didn't want to speak with another deity. This was not only because of his reasoning, but also his instincts.
"Speaking of which, do you know where exactly the Hephaestus Familia quarters are?"
Mia looked taken back by his question. "Didn't take you for a blacksmith. Then again, you have already proved me wrong a few times."
"Even if I have knowledge in the area, I don't consider myself one. And no, I am not looking to join her Familia."
Mia raised an eyebrow.
"First Loki and now Hephaestus. Without even a hint of consideration, seriously?"
The blonde didn't pay mind to her question.
"It's still some time before May gets ready to cook. I could also prepare something seeing as you pretty much did this girl's jobs." Mia said, almost as in cue to hear the attempts of the elf trying not to throw up from the bathroom. Something that both ignored. "Or… you could do it yourself. After all, you did have the audacity of critiquing my food last night."
Mia was really trying her luck right now, mostly for the fun of it.
"…" both stared at each other in total silence before the blonde stood up and walked to the kitchen before replying. "Don't get too comfortable. This is only because I have nothing better to do."
She snorted. "What? Can you read minds?"
The blonde stopped and looked at her with a blank face, which made Mia doubt for a moment.
"… You can't, right?"
The corner on the lips of the blonde moved upwards before he headed into the kitchen, leaving Mia wondering whatever he could actually do it or not.
'Fucking smartass.' She thought as she took a sip of her cup, only to notice its contents were already cold.
Stressed.
That was what the Goddess of the Forge felt at the moment.
First the change of authority in the Dungeon, then a Denatus that led to nowhere, and so on until it all seemed to calm down as no clear conclusion was reached.
In the end it would be like always, something big happened and then everyone carried on with their own lives.
That should have been the case… so… why did the main source of these problems have to land at her doorstep ?
Hephaestus had been worried sick for her children the moment the shift happened, but it was too late since they were already in the Dungeon. Thankfully, relief struck the moment she saw every single one of her children unharmed… but all that changed the moment Tsubaki approached her.
'Drake Aurion…'
The most probable source of all the recent events.
Well, not all of them. Apparently, he and Tsubaki had reached the conclusion that the previous incident one and half years ago was the result of someone that didn't belong to this world, just like Drake.
So, why was Hephaestus not passing this information to someone like Ganesha or Loki?
'Goddammit Tsubaki.'
Because her captain had insisted on not taking this otherwise logical approach.
And she was serious about it. So serious to the point that she had given her word to help him, making Drake also her responsibility by default.
Thankfully, according to Tsubaki he seemed to be level-headed. And he also took a sucker punch from the Goliath to protect Tsubaki, even when he apparently had a hate for deities by default.
She sighed as she stared at the table clock, it was almost time… or rather, it was time since she could hear Tsubaki having an argument with someone.
"Why is it my fault, you ungrateful bastard?"
"Do I really have to spell it for you, you dumb bitch?"
Hephaestus groaned as she heard the exchange of words happening outside her office.
"We agreed to 'keep a low profile' and you sent me to a damn Adventurers bar."
"And why the hell didn't you leave and ask for directions to another bar, huh?"
"At that hour? Not to mention everyone would have pointed out the Hostess being the closest in to stay."
Tsubaki's groan could be heard outside the door.
"But even so? Vanargand, really?"
'…huh?' Hephaestus gave a bland look, her jaw slightly down as she kept listening.
"He dumped his damn drink on me."
"Not gonna lie, that would have pissed me off as well. But you of all people should have kept a damn low profile."
The Goddess felt proud of her captain, showing her wisdom for the role was the right one.
"I didn't do it for that. Damn mutt had used my scarf as a tissue and then stepped on it."
"… Oh." Tsubaki said, as if she knew something the Goddess didn't know.
'Oh? What do you mean by 'Oh'!?'
"… were you at the very least discreet though?"
'Tsubaki!' a migraine started to make itself present as the Goddess facepalmed.
"Yes. And I used enough strength to make it feel as if I had crushed his head."
Hephaestus could hear the high five happening on the other side of the door while she continued to groan.
"I can already imagine the killing headache he's gonna have when he wakes up… he wi-"
"Yes, he will wake up." Hephaestus released a sigh she didn't know she was holding.
"Good… now… regarding those rumors about Finn and Loki."
The red headed Goddess slammed her face on the table, the more she heard the more she was starting to regret her decision.
"I will tell you later. Now…"
The Goddess moved her sight forward with her chin still on the table the moment she heard someone touch the doorknob on the other side.
"Now remember, try not to antagonize her and be nice…ish… as much as you can."
There was a moment of silence between the two. "Don't give me that look! You are the one that hates Deities."
Hephaestus cringed at Tsubaki's subtlety.
"… let's just get this over with." Drake said as he knocked the door, making the Goddess snap back to reality as she adjusted herself before replying.
"Come in."
The door opened to reveal the source of her problems.
'Tsubaki was right.' The Goddess thought as she eyed his clothes.
They weren't ordinary. She could even see different kinds of energy coming out of the clothes, even his shoes had some coming out of them.
'All of them have resistance to all elements. Not to mention the scarf seems to be more infused with what he called 'Dust' and… why is he giving me that look?' her train of thought took a sudden turn as she focused on his face.
Even with the scarf covering half of his face, she could tell his eyes reflected a hint of disappointment.
'Is it because of my eye?' She fought the urge of touching the eyepatch as dread invaded her the moment Drake pointed at her accusingly while looking at Tsubaki.
"You didn't tell me she was a redhead."
Tsubaki blinked several times as she looked at him, only to recall something she noticed the other night. "You know… I didn't think much about it. But you seemed to repeat the words 'red haired' bastard at least ten times when we spoke that night."
He snorted while Hephaestus looked at him blandly.
"Call me biased if you want. But every redhead I have met has had one of these qualities. A huge pervert,"
'Loki and Apollo.' she couldn't help but draw comparisons at this point. And sadly, so far, he was right.
'At least, I don't fit in that category…' she thought as flashes of every time she had lost her composure for weapons came to mind. "… with people."
"They have some sort of family or relationship related problem that haunts them for life like if it was a damn trauma."
Hephaestus almost flinched as she fought the urge to go for her eyepatch one more time.
"And finally, they always tell you something important that happened to them over and over again as if it was a damn scandal."
Now the Goddess was in panic because her view was on her Captain. Tsubaki had been pondering deeply as she had her chin resting on her fingers in a thinking pose.
She had been recalling every time Hephaestus had repeated the same thing over and over again when it was something that either caught her attention or got some kind of impression; namely Welf Crozzo.
"Lady Hephaestus, he's up to something" her captain replied before pointing at the blonde.
The Goddess finally groaned as she slammed her face on the table once more to hide the massive red blush on her face, losing her look as a dutiful Goddess in less than one minute.
"Now that you are finally acquainted can we please get past the tense mood?"
"I don't know what you mean, Tsubaki." Her Goddess replied. She was currently resting her elbows on her table while her hands were intertwined to cover the lower part of her face, as if analyzing the rarity in front of her that was Drake Aurion.
Meanwhile, Drake was merely resting against his chair while doing the exact same with glowing eyes.
"Seeing as we pretty much can't keep seeing who blinks first, do you mind if I start?" had his voice not been so cold, Hephaestus would have taken that as a joke and probably blushed for being pointed out.
But this wasn't the case.
"Do you know of a way to get me back home?" His question had already been answered by Tsubaki, but he still wanted to hear it from her patron deity.
"It's possible." She closed her eye. "I have never heard of a case like yours, but I am sure a God may be able to send you back." She slightly opened her eye, giving him a frown in the process. "Unfortunately, I don't know any God or Goddess who would help you willingly at the risk of getting sent back to Tenkai."
As much as he wanted to call them on their selfishness, he didn't have a room to talk one more time.
"Now, as for my question… I need to know, what exactly are you capable of?"
This had been something her captain had told her… as vague as it might have been. Drake on the other hand fought against the urge of sighing, she wanted to assess how much of a threat he could be.
"…Where to start?"
"Your human skill set. Tsubaki had mentioned you have boundaries between the mortal and divine realm of power."
"Fair enough," a blaze of black energy gently surrounded his right hand after raising it. "Aura; The manifestation of a person's soul that can be used for a wide range of abilities. Among them being enhanced strength, speed, and a semblance, which is sort of a unique skill that everyone has… and that's the current and outdated version my world worked with recently."
She raised an eyebrow, which he noticed.
"The Great Spirit Origin gave the knowledge of Aura to the first generation of mortals, and along with it, knowledge on how to use it to perform Artes." Once again, he continued as the Goddess unconsciously leaned forward. "Arte is the term we use to refer to techniques and spells. They can vary between martial, magic, healing and many others that extend from those core principles."
"Wait, so you can also perform magic?" he eyed Tsubaki. "Because that would have been pretty damn useful against the Goliath?"
The sarcasm was evident in her voice.
"I know spells. However, casting them would be more detrimental for me in my current form."
"Detrimental how?" she asked, seeing as they didn't fully cover every subject, they spoke that night.
"For starters, 99% of newborns are born with their Aura sealed. Arte users get theirs awakened soon after birth so it can start adapting and grow with the body to start early training. Every Arte user follows a certain basic training until they decide what they want to specialize in, this is due to how the flow of Aura starts to change and adapt to the user to then develop an affinity with an element as the training goes on." he raised his arm and let a little of his black aura manifest. "Mine for example is darkness, and with time I developed lighting as my second element."
The blonde fought the urge to give them a bland face. It felt like explaining the mechanics of an RPG whenever he gives a full course of 'Artes, for fools!'
"If what you say is the truth… Why did you bother to learn spells in the first place?"
Now he sighed the moment the Goddess asked, looking dejected in the process.
"I fought against my brother a lot. At first our fights were pretty even, but that changed when he awakened his semblance."
"Which is?"
He discarded the thought. "We will get to that back later. The point is that ever since then I worked hard on my training, tried to learn more and specialize as someone that could perform some of both types of Artes, even though the number I could do of each type would be limited but…" his eyes narrowed as his voice gave a hint of annoyance. "It turns out that you can damage your flow of Aura if you try to perform High Level spells without going through the other levels first… I was bedridden for one whole week after that."
Tsubaki started to chuckle before she started to crackle. "Are you telling me, that you of all people made a brash and stupid decision simply because of a brotherly rivalry?"
He stared blandly at her. "My record of losses against Lloyd was 67 out of 90." That shut her up, even though she would try to go even further beyond with that streak. "And that was only by the time we were twelve."
Now she understood why he was so stubborn at the time.
"But you still learned spells, why?"
He stared at the Goddess. "Initially, after that little incident I continued learning them with the intention of recognizing the spells before they were casted. All so I could be prepared in case I ever had to deal with a Magic Artes User."
"… still, I am curious though. Tsubaki told me you could do a lot of things with the shadows; couldn't you beat your brother with that?"
He shook his head. "Simple answer, I never used them against him or any of my other brothers or friends during combat. Hell, I barely used them against many people."
That surprised her.
So far, he had given Hephaestus the image of someone who was at his core calculative, tidy, serious, and prepared. But now here he was denying that with that simple statement.
"There's still some things to cover when it comes to Artes. But I think we can move to the other side of the spectrum…" he narrowed his eyes. "I am gonna assume Tsubaki told you about my connection to the Spirit of Darkness of my world."
She nodded. His father served the jailer for said Spirit, which ended up affecting the blonde's future.
"At first, I could only hear people's negative thoughts, and even hear their own shadows complain about the same thing. Of course, I didn't know at the time, this resulted in me thinking I was going crazy." He gave a dry snort. "And the fact that Shadow, the Spirit of Darkness himself kept haunting me as a kid didn't help me at all."
"I suppose this was because you were born with his power?"
He nodded.
"A small fraction of it at that time." He replied. "Also, for the record; I didn't know of the existence of Spirits or the Divine until I was seventeen. So, you can already guess why I thought I was going crazy at the time."
"How did you get through it?" Tsubaki asked, ignoring the look Hephaestus was giving him the moment Drake mentioned that he didn't know about divinity until he was older.
"My Master, who was my father at the time told me Shadow was just a figment of my imagination created by my semblance, to which he made me believe was related to shadows. So, I believed his lie, and trained myself to strengthen my will. Although my brothers were also a huge help."
Tsubaki could hear the hint of gratitude coming out of him.
"As for what I can do with it. You know I can create constructs out of people's or things Shadow. I can also create said constructs without Shadows, but that takes more concentration and Aura." He said as a black energy knife appeared between his fingers, only to suddenly disappear soon after. "I can also create said objects without bringing them to this plane and they would still have some effects on it."
The Goddess looked confused at him after not wanting to hype out by needing to touch the knife that Drake had created before. "What that's supposed to- kya!" Hephaestus suddenly jumped off her seat; her face colored in shades of red as she put her hand over her right ear while she looked at her side only to see nothing there.
"What?" Tsubaki asked as she eyed Drake, who simply chuckled as she then looked down to confirm something.
"I- I- I felt someone blow on my ear!" The red head replied as she suddenly screamed once more, this time looking to the other side while her captain fought the urge to laugh.
"Goddess… look at the ground." Tsubaki said, thinking it had been enough fun for now.
Hephaestus didn't waste a moment before her single eye noticed something out of place. There was an extra shadow on the ground's surface, a human-like shadow to be more specific. It didn't take her long to figure out what was going on, she went around the table to look where Drake was sitting, and that was all the confirmation she needed.
She could only see the chair's shadow, but not Drake's.
'So that's what he meant by not bringing up to this realm; The Physical realm' Hephaestus thought as she saw Drake's shadow move to the position it should have been in, attached to its owner.
"It took her only a minute to figure it out." Tsubaki said, and her Goddess swore there was a hint of grudge in her tone.
"Unlike a certain someone who kept trying to punch the air for fifteen minutes." Drake replied dryly as he received a playful punch while her Goddess twitched her eye at both of them.
"Just to be sure. Let's say there's the hypothetical case that you smash someone's head shadow… would that person die?" The captain of the Hephaestus narrowed her gaze at both as she sat back on her chair.
"A person's shadow is a reflection of a person's soul. So, whatever happens to it, the person would experience it, but not suffer the long-term damage."
"Sooo… the person in question would experience his head being crushed like a watermelon and be fine later… this is hypothetically of course."
Hephaestus was forcing a kind face as she heard her captain, she knew this was related with whatever happened to the Loki Familia.
"Good, good, good, good… anyway, you were saying."
Both looked at the Goddess, her lips twitching as she tried to hold the blush from her previous jump scares as Drake kept explaining.
"I can also infuse my Artes with the element of Darkness. And that would be all I could do without going past my mortal boundaries."
"And the divine?" The Goddess asked, finally back to her dutiful look.
"I can absorb people's despair and use it to fuel myself. Not really something I like doing since it literally leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Experiencing people's despair ain't good." Drake said as Tsubaki recalled the Goliath getting angrier the moment the blonde next to her absorbed the despair of all the other Adventurers present at the time.
"You also said that you could create stronger constructs when we were fighting the Goliath. I guess that would have made you tap into the divine, right?"
He nodded.
"And what about your trump card when it comes to the Darkness? You made mention of it once but didn't specify what it was."
He rubbed the back of his head, as if fearing what would happen, something which made the Goddess in the room stare suspiciously at him.
"It's an armor… and that's why I didn't wait to say it." Hephaestus' face morphed from one of complete seriousness to a childish one the moment the word 'armor' was mentioned.
Her jaw was slightly opened, her cheeks were red again, her eye was shining to the point he could swear there were stars in it.
"You are gonna start drooling at this rate …" Drake said before looking to the side to see Tsubaki had a stern expression plastered on her face, contrary to her Goddess. But he could also see stars in her eye.
"Not you too." He internally groaned.
"Bitch, we are blacksmiths! You know this is what we live for!"
Her defense was as solid as it was stupid.
"Could we… see it? Just a peek of it?"
Drake's right eye twitched. There were only so many ways that question could be interpreted, none of them were appropriate in any way, especially with that soft tone she used.
"Sure thing, as long as you take responsibility?" The stern tone and the annoyance in his voice brought Hephaestus back to reality, realizing the implications of her previous statement.
"Also, I am not kidding. Every damn deity will feel my divinity the moment I even don a piece of the armor. It's not like absorbing people's despair that would go under the radar unless they are close by."
The red head rubbed the bridge between her eyes as she tried to focus. "I apologize. I tend to lose my cool with this kind of stuff."
"I figured. That's why I didn't want to reveal that… to either of you." He looked at Tsubaki, who was trying her hardest to retain her composure by looking away while her hand not so subtly covered her mouth. "And you, stop laughing."
"Hey, it was a funny exchange." She wiped a tear from her eye as she focused on getting the conversation back on topic. "Anyway… your Light."
Now it was his time to groan as he leaned back on his chair.
"My light is partially related to Origin's blessing. Said blessing was given to four people, one of them being my father as you might already know, therefore that will make me a second generation."
"And that's important because…?"
"Remember what I said about the difference between species in my world?"
"Faunus, right?" Drake nodded at Tsubaki's inquiry as she then proceeded to explain to her Goddess what she knew.
"So… no, elves, amazons, hobbits or pallums. Only Humans and people with animal traits are referred to as Faunus." Hephaestus thought out loud as Drake simply nodded. "Classifying all those races under a single name sounds kind of-"
"Racist? I agree. But the same could be said about calling each race here by names like cat-people. But let's agree to disagree."
Hephaestus looked at him hesitantly, the twitch in his eye told her he had to deal with the subject regularly.
"Terrorist group; don't ask" Tsubaki said in a low tone, to which the Goddess mentally agreed.
'It looks like they talked about a little more than just his skill set.'
"As I was saying. This is important because thanks to that blessing, the Faunus traits I inherited from my father were suppressed unless I use the blessing."
Tsubaki raised her hand. "Hold it. Now that we are speaking of this, you told me all your divinity was sealed the moment you were born. The whole shadow manipulation manifesting as your… semblance was because of your connection with the spirit of Darkness. But then how did you unlock your blessing?"
He sighed as he lifted two fingers.
"Two reasons: First being that said suppression would only last until my body was used to the sudden change in my flow of Aura. And the second; If Darkness is related to Despair, then my Light is related to Hope. The use of both is basically related to those emotions. As a matter of fact, even my Aura is influenced by emotions, which is why I always try to keep myself calm."
Silence took over for a full minute. Each woman looked at him as if looking at a damn riddle.
"Just say it."
"You don't look like the Hopeful type." Both replied mercilessly.
"No shit." He mentally groaned.
"So, your eyes are like that because it's no longer being permanently suppressed." The Goddess asked as she stared straight into his Draconic eyes.
"They stayed like that ever since the first time I activated the blessing on accident."
One of his most enjoyable memories came to flash before his eyes for a brief moment, but stopped before going any further down memory lane.
"Anyway, despite not always being comfortable with using the blessing, it's without a doubt the strongest part of my skill set."
"How so? How is it so different from using the Darkness?" Hephaestus didn't know it, but she had unconsciously leaned forward in her seat; something Drake noticed.
"My image of you as a dutiful individual just keeps going lower and lower. The blessing doesn't take the form of any armor or weapon, so please stop acting like a child wanting to see a new toy."
The Goddess was taken back by the cheer audacity of the blonde. No mortal had ever called her out like that, she honestly didn't know how to respond to those words at all.
Also, the fact that he referred to her as an individual and not as a deity caught her attention. She figured out this was his way of having to deal with her presence, and she honestly didn't know if she was happy for it or not.
"To be honest," she looked at her captain. "I also thought you were gonna start drooling."
The Goddess forced herself not to facepalm at Tsubaki's statement before finding the voice to sound serious. "You were saying?"
Drake mentally chuckled.
Hephaestus was trying way too hard by this point.
"My Aura drastically changes when I use the blessing. Its affinity matches every single element, even darkness. Also, its flow becomes so perfect that I am able to use every single type of Arte."
"So that's the other reason why you learned Magic Artes." Hephaestus chuckled as she put the pieces together. "Tsubaki was right, your skill set is bullshit."
The captain in question snorted. "Apparently he can also fly with the blessing. It takes the form of angel wings made out of his Aura." She moved her hand to playfully pat him. "All that cold attitude and you turn into an angel." The blonde softly slapped her hand.
"It definitely doesn't suit you. I am sure Perseus would be jealous of you being able to do that without items. Anything else worth mentioning about your blessing?"
He pondered for a second before answering. "A few. But none of them are battle related, so I don't see any worth in mentioning them. And as from my mother's side."
Out of everything that Hephaestus had heard from Tsubaki, the fact that the individual in front of her was the child of a deity was one of the things that surprised her the most. Because according to her Captain, the same rules applied to the deities of their world, they couldn't birth children. And yet, she could feel nothing from him, she figured it was because he was suppressing it. The Goddess was honestly curious and terrified at the same time; the former one because she wondered if the deities of their world could pull the same trick Drake's parents did, whatever said trick was. And the latter-
'Freya.'
The lengths deities like Freya would go to for that knowledge. So, Hephaestus decided to go with her better judgment and not inquire about that information.
"I get stronger under the Moonlight. It also recharges my Aura reserves and gives me protection."
"Moonlight? So, you are the son of a Moon deity?"
'Artemis cannot find out about this, ever.' The Goddess thought to herself as Drake nodded and he raised his arm so green sparks of electricity could dance in his hand.
"Thanks to it I was able to recharge my lightning, even though I felt how it started to lose charge little by little the moment I woke up. I haven't been able to figure out why I can't self-sustain it."
"So, you still have performance issues?"
He didn't need to see his side to know Tsubaki was giving him a smug smirk.
"The level of the buff will vary depending on the cycle the moon is; full moon being the strongest. Next," He looked at the tattoo on the back of his right hand. "The deities in my world could make pacts with mortals so they could borrow their power. As such, I made a pact with all of my brothers, this tattoo being the proof of it."
"Proof? Also, why the number zero?"
"The condition for the pacts between Spirit and Summoner require an oath that would serve as the foundation for it. And the proof would be something given by the spirit for them to have; it would usually be a special type of crystal with their essence, but for us it was this tattoo. As for the number, with my own exception, each of them had a tattoo that went from one to seven which indicated the order in which I met them. Finally, the pact I made with them didn't give them my power, but rather helped them with a struggle each faced at the time."
"Met them?" Hephaestus asked. "Does that mean none of you were blood related?"
He shook his head.
"You don't need to be blood related to someone to call them brother. I mean, you call your Familia member 'your children', and they are not technically yours."
The Goddess sighed as she rubbed the bridge between her eyes. "It's not the same, but I see your point. But I wonder, what was your oath with them?"
He chuckled.
"Sorry, but that's personal."
The Goddess was about to retort in agreement seeing it might be something, but Tsubaki beat her to it.
"It's something corny, isn't it?"
The blonde's mouth twitched behind his scarf as he focused on the Goddess.
"And that would be all the basics regarding my divinity."
"I will take your word for it…now. To change the subject, there's been something that has been bothering me for a while." The Goddess narrowed her eye as she recalled their stare-off from before, Drake's eyes were glowing. She didn't want to draw conclusions, or compare him to a certain Goddess she knew, but she can't help but do it when it comes to glowing eyes.
"This is a rather personal question. But, when you use your eyes or the Darkness, what do you see?" Hephaestus wasn't fully accusing him. Either because he forgot about it or omitted it, she remembered his explanations about enhancing himself with Aura, which meant the same could be said about his senses as she recalled him watching her with glowing eyes, similar to a certain Goddess when she wanted to soul-gaze.
Besides, there was also the fact that his darkness could tell what kind of person she was, so she was rather curious in that part.
"I couldn't use my eyes with the ringleader of that circus yesterday."
The Goddess almost lost her composure when she figured out he was talking about Loki.
"But as for what I can see with my Aura," his eyes started to glow again. "I see a humanoid blaze of energy with a color that resembles a mix of fire and steel." Kind of fitting really. "I also see a massive symbol above your head, twin forged hammers crossed with an erupting volcano behind it." he eyed Tsubaki, "Something you have as well, but on a smaller scale."
With this he could now confirm his suspicions of the previous day and know how to affiliate an Adventurer with their Familia.
"Anything else?"
Drake didn't know why at the moment, but he could feel tension in her voice.
"A core in the center of your body with several glyphs surrounding it; which I am gonna guess that's your Arcanum. As for the Darkness… nothing."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I suppose it's because even if you have your… Arcanum sealed, you still have some authority as a deity-"
"Which serves as protection against it." She thought out loud as she also figured out that the reason his eyes worked on her was because it was a mortal ability. The Goddess stopped pondering and became nervous as he stared back at her, his eyes still glowing. "…Anything else?"
"… I am not a seer." his eyes stopped glowing after a single blink. "I am not trying by any means to make this tense between us, so if you really want me to say something please specify in what."
Drake already had an idea of what was bothering the red head, since this was the third time she had almost touched her eye-patch in a while. She wanted to know how his sight saw her covered eye.
The Goddess recalled in that moment what Tsubaki had told her about him only being able to speak the truth. And it was in that moment that she realized something, not once had she identified a single lie from him. Not because he was necessarily telling the truth, but because she couldn't detect anything from his words, as if he was truly deity.
So, she had no other choice but to believe in Tsubaki's words.
"When you look here," she finally touched her eye-patch gently. "What do you see?"
He was about to open his mouth, but his instincts screamed at him not to. He didn't need to see Tsubaki and see she was glaring at him with focused intent. It didn't feel malicious, but he still couldn't discard his intensity as if it was a warning.
"Be careful with what you say." He could hear her shadow transmitting her desires, which proved how much respect she had for her Goddess.
"That part of the soul isn't burned or fractured. However, it does have a different flow and weaker coloration compared to the rest of the body."
He chose his words carefully and opted to avoid using adjectives in the center and focused on answering her question in the most literal way.
"… Is that normal?" The Goddess seemed to be on the edge of depression, already regretting boarding his subject.
"It is, I am sadly aware those are not the words you want to hear. So, I will have to be blunt." Her face adopting a panicked expression. "It's not morbid, it's not horrible, it's not hideous nor any negative adjective or synonym you can think of from the top of your mind. And even if I went and saw what was behind that eye-patch, I am sure that wouldn't change the way I see you."
"It doesn't mean much when it comes from a person that hates Deities."
To her surprise, she could actually see an honest smile forming behind his scarf. "Sorry to break it to you, but I am trying not to see you as a deity in the slightest compared to that red-headed clown from yesterday."
She wasn't gonna deny it, but she felt a little offended by that, especially since she was getting compared with Loki.
'…huh. So, this is what Hestia feels normally.' She thought as the blonde continued.
"You have yet to demand something from me, or try to force me to do anything." Tsubaki sighed in relief, seeing as the tense air that had been present was lifted thanks to Drake, who also managed to derail the conversation somewhere else.
"However, I can't really bring myself to fully trust you since you are still in fact a Goddess."
'For fucks sake, Drake.' Tsubaki mentally facepalmed. 'Why can't you just leave a comment in a positive light without adding the negative?'
"But I do trust Tsubaki's judgment and trust in you, that's why I have been fully open about everything you asked me."
The captain's eye and mouth twitched as if she had been proved wrong. "I think this is the first time you have finished a statement in a positive light."
"Don't get used to it. Besides," he looked at her. "You know I am just being honest."
Tsubaki snorted as she looked away, hiding the smile of relief as she saw her Goddess smiling. The simple fact that someone told her she wasn't hideous and was honest about it was enough to cause such a reaction.
Unknown to her, the Goddess also smiled at his other statements. She wouldn't have trusted him if he only used Tsubaki's thoughts of her as his basis for whatever she was trustworthy or not. "I apologize." She suddenly voiced . "I realize I haven't been fair with you seeing as I just keep asking question after question. I even made this a little personal by asking about me." She replied feeling a little ashamed of forgetting the real reason they were here. "Although, I am surprised to see how you haven't been rude at all. From what Tsubaki told me, I would have expected otherwise, even if she did ask you to not antagonize me."
Tsubaki groaned, because she knew he would open his mouth about it. But to her surprise, it wasn't anything negative.
"I am not a fool, Hephaestus. I know in what position I am in, and you have every right to be wary of me. That's another reason as to why I am being so cooperative."
'He really is a realist.' Thought the Goddess as she decided to finally talk about what she could do to help him… however, her options were limited.
"… I get the feeling I know you enough to conclude you don't want to join my Familia, or any faction for that matter." She didn't want to press on it, but according to Tsubaki he did have forging knowledge; not only with reinforced clothes but maybe with weapons as well.
"That would be correct. As cooperative as I am willing to be, being under a deity's influence is as far as I am willing to go." He started to think about his brother, a clear annoying expression taking shape behind his scarf. "I don't really consider myself a blacksmith, even my brother forced the knowledge on me in only three days."
That managed to make her curious. She was about to ask why the rush but stopped the moment she saw Tsubaki gave a sign not to. She clearly knew the reason, so the Goddess decided to ask her later.
"Well, the subject of money seems to be settled according to Tsubaki. So, you should be able to settle down for a while now." For the first time since they spoke, Hephaestus saw the blonde frown.
"I would prefer if I had something to do."
She quickly looked at the Captain, who was looking away with her chin resting on her fist while her elbow was on the armrest of the chair. Tsubaki sighed as she tried her best to avoid her Goddess gaze, but she got the message clearly.
'Change the subject.'
"You are the working type, then. I can respect that, but since you don't want to join a Familia or settle down, then what do you suggest?"
The blonde was about to answer, but scowled the moment he felt something soft clash with the side of his head as a familiar arm wrapped around his neck. "I am glad you asked, Goddess."
Hephaestus looked blankly at her Captain's sudden change of behavior. "… Why do I have the feeling you are about to give me a headache?"
The captain refused to answer her question as she continued.
"Draky here was thinking of doing commissions." Hephaestus raised an eyebrow, having a bad feeling the more she heard the enthusiasm in Tsubaki's voice, but she just had to ask. "…What kind of commissions?"
"Why Drop Items of course."
"…" That explained her bad feeling. "Are you saying you want the one person responsible for making the Dungeon into a hazard zone-"
Tsubaki gave her a blank look of her own.
"It's the Dungeon, it's already a hazard zone."
Hephaestus slammed her fist on the table. "An even more dangerous hazard zone then. The Dungeon seems to hate him more than any other dumb deity that has ever steeped in and you want to send him back knowing there might be massive collateral damage?"
"Just to be clear, this was his idea." Now the Goddess's anger was on him, who didn't flinch one bit. "But! He did give some solid arguments as to why he thinks this could work."
Hephaestus groaned as she looked down, fighting the urge to slam her head on the table as she made a wave with her hand to let her proceed.
"You already know he can survive the deep floors on his own, with crappy blades no less, and with his mortal abilities alone. He can also force the Dungeon into residing if it decides to pull an extra force with the spawn of monsters. Which let me remind you, are attracted to him like if he was some sort of monster bait."
Hephaestus narrowed her eye. "So, he would just kill them, resulting in possible drops… great, now I am considering it." The smug look on Tsubaki's face wasn't to Hephaestus's liking one bit, but she wasn't gonna convince her so easily. "What about supporters then? Drake might be good and resilient enough to come back, but can he really look after two or more people while killing the monsters? They will just hold him back. Or do you expect him to carry all the loot by himself?"
Hephaestus knew she made a mistake the moment Tsubaki's grin remained on her face.
"I wouldn't say carry… Drake," she pointed to the most spacious place in the room. "Do the thing!"
The blonde simply sighed as Hephaestus saw a large circular shadow appear on the floor so a full mountain of drop items could emerge from it.
"…" Hephaestus's jaw hung slightly open for a full minute before she eyed Drake. "You didn't tell me you could do that."
He simply pointed his thumb at Tsubaki. "Her idea, she wanted to leave it for last."
Tsubaki knew her Goddess wouldn't waste this kind of chance, especially if they showed the results.
'Yup, Gods are that easy.' Drake thought to himself as both of them saw Hephaestus standing in front of the mountain of items. He had doubted Tsubaki about this, but it looked like she was right all along.
"He's pretty much the ultimate supporter, don't ya thi- ouch!" Tsubaki stopped talking the moment Drake pinched her cheek while still sitting on his chair.
"I told you not to call me th-!" the captain tightened her arm around his neck in retaliation to pin him in a lock.
"Cadmus Hide, Black Rhinos Horn, Kaenseki, Skull Sheep's Robe, an Obsidian Soldier's Body Stone," and the list kept going on as Hephaestus looked at every item on the mountain. "There are even drops from irregulars here."
"And he's willing to give us a discount, isn't that- Where the hell do you think you are biting?! Put that scarf back on!"
"If by discount you mean taking advantage of my generosi- stop trying to asphyxiate me you unhinged bitch!"
Hephaestus's patience started to drop as she pondered about their agreement. And it was in that moment she truly fell for Tsubaki's plot just by going for that line of thought.
'I sometimes forget how clever she can be.' She thought, with a little hint of pride in her strongest child.
"What are you bitching about!? There are plenty of men who would love to be in your position."
Hephaestus decided to ignore her captain's shouts and maintain her good image instead, only for her own sanity regarding some of her life choices.
"Ok then, if we are gonna do this," she turned around and walked to the table as she ignored the image of her captain keeping the blonde in a lock, his head pretty close to her cleavage while he tried to bite her off. "There are a lot of things we need to take into consideration."
The blonde managed to push Tsubaki's face away, but he still remained in the lock as she focused on Hephaestus.
"Actually, there's something else I want to talk to you about seeing I got a black cat tailing me. Took me a while to fool him earlier before coming here so I wouldn't be followed, I also had to make sure to take paths that allowed me to avoid being seen from the top of the tower."
Tsubaki suddenly stopped and narrowed her eyes. "God fucking damn it." The Captain finally released him from her lock and rubbed the back of her head in annoyance.
Hephaestus groaned at her child's choice of words, but she was on the same line of thought as well. "You can sense her gaze?" she asked with a tone of disbelief while already knowing who was the black cat tailing him, something Tsubaki also figured out without problem.
"It's becoming an annoyance."
"Oh, Drake." She started; the emotion she was transmitting felt as if she was feeling sorry for him. "That's only the tip of the iceberg."
She sighed.
"We will talk about her later. But first, I want to tackle another possible future problem." she looked at both, because by the looks of it her Captain was also to blame for this by her poor choice of location. "Mind telling me what exactly happened with the Loki Familia yesterday?"
AN: You made it all the way here!? Congrats!
I honestly don't feel this kind of chapter with how much info is put in a single chapter, but it was a necessity for the story's lore. Also, better now than never I suppose.
Anyway, thoughts about the interactions of other characters?