Troubled Mind (Private DS) [COMPLETE]

Fire. Smoke. Screams. With the village up in flames all of the villagers were running around, helping friends and trying to save whatever wealth they had. All he could do was watch. Instead of being terrified, he was shocked. Some of the inaudible yells suddenly turned and faced him accusingly. Stereotypes. But he didn't have anything to do with this, unless he did. Trying to speak did nothing. Something hard hit him in the head, and he crouched, cradling his head in his hands. He needed to run, get as far away from here as possible. He wasn't wanted here and any authorities would be here soon enough, and he would be blamed for this. With blood blocking his vision and smoke blinding his senses he ran, ignoring the objects and words being thrown at him.

Arik shook his head. The same memory kept coming back, haunting him in his sleepless nights and now in the day. Any distractions he took didn't work, the projects becoming interrupted more and more often, and he didn't have anyone to talk to about it. He just wanted to get away from it all. The reminder of why he was like this, and looking for distractions had become more and more dangerous for him. Twice he's almost gotten himself killed looking upon things he probably shouldn't have, learning this he'd be better off without. He was smarter than that, yet at the same time he was as dumb as them all. The only reason he was hiding as a human was because almost no one knew of him in this form, most people he knew saw him as a were and a were only, with his slightly cocky and enthusiastic behavior. The only thing that resembled that now was his black hair. It was natural for him to be more cautious in his human form, he was much weaker than he was as a wolf and there were many more threats this way. But now it was the way he had to be, probably for the rest of his life. Even in those life-threatening situations the were had never thought to go were, it would expose him to much. Maybe he didn't care if he died anymore, death was going to come either sooner or later. He had also stopped using his powers, although that wasn't much of a change as he never had a reason to really use them in the first place.

But that was months ago, and he was just looking for another distraction today. The sky was overcast with grey clouds threatening them to give the citizens a light rain later today. With the slight wind adding to the chill in the air everything seemed to be pretty normal. Even with less people wandering the streets than usual, those who weren't out were probably hiding from the weather from inside their homes. Arik knew he shouldn't be looking for trouble like this, but it was his only source of mental relief, and without anything else to turn to it was just going to have to work until it killed him. Although now he just had to decide what he was going to do. The alleys always had some sort of thing going on, but he could always just wait for some suspicious person or group to walk by and follow them. Taking a seat on one of the cities benches Arik rubbed his tired face, trying to be able to stay up before he slipped into another haunting memory.

Yuuki glanced up at the sky, watching the gray clouds making their way closer and closer. Was it going to rain again? This specific area of Xastristan seemed to have been garnering large amounts of rain recently, but it was also nearing Winter, so maybe it wasn't too much of a surprise. One mission finished, and now Yuuki was on her way home. She rubbed tiredly at her face, resisting a yawn that threatened to break out. Ah, that last mission had lasted several days in a completely different country, but Yuuki was now finished, and she could take this time to get some good night's sleep.

As Yuuki walked past a couple city benches, she noticed a rather dreary-looking young man with a scalp full of black hair and green eyes. He was the only one sitting on the bench, why was he not going inside for cover like the rest of the citizens around him? Yuuki shrugged it off, deciding not to think about it too much. He could do what he wanted, and she would do what she wanted. She did not even know him anyways. And so she continued on her path.

(YAY LAME POSTS)

The air began to turn colder, causing Arik to look up at the now stormy sky. He actually liked the rain, although it was probably going to be more than a light sprinkle. He noticed a lady still walking, mostly because she walked in front of him. Glancing around there was no one else that caught his interest. Maybe she'd provide some sort of entertainment today. But he didn't want her to notice, if she hadn't already, so he waited a bit before getting up and casually following her. He tried to make it seem as if he was just heading for cover, but he was tired and wasn't sure how well he was actually pulling it off.

(Lol idk anymore XD)

Yuuki cast a glance behind her when she noticed footsteps following her. It was that gloomy-looking man. He seemed to be following her. Either that or it was a coincidence. Yuuki mused to herself quietly, what would she do? Should she call him out? Or maybe wait?


She turned into an alley shortcut, seeing if he would follow her. But this maybe would just make her seem like a shady person.


(YAY SHORT POSTS BECAUSE KLSJNLIAWJRNC)

Arik gave a small smirk as he noticed that she walked into a dark-lit alleyway. Perfect, just what he was looking for. Maybe she was doing some secret business he shouldn't know about. It should be a good distraction for now. He glanced up as a drop of rain fell on him. Luckily, the alleyway she went into was partially covered, so it should be fine. He walked to the entrance and looked around. Now where might she be...

Yuuki stepped out of the shadows right behind the raven-haired man. She was blocking the exit to the alley, so he was now officially trapped with nowhere to go. There was always the option of going up, but there were no railings or ladders to grab a hold of, so the man would literally have to climb the tall walls. Yuuki was in just the right position where she was unseen from the outside world, but she was still barricading the man's only natural escape route.

As the rain began to fall harder, Yuuki's eyes shifted upwards towards the cloudy skies. So it did rain. Thankfully, the alley covered her just enough so the rain would not hit her.

Yuuki tucked her hands into her long, hooded trench coat, adopting a casual but still slightly wary stance. She stood only a few inches taller than him, but it would be good enough for now. Two dark eyes stared towards him.

"Dangerous things can happen when you follow strangers into dark alleys, you know. So why follow?"

Arik was heavily confused by the fact that he couldn't find where the mysterious lady went. He was sure she had gone in here, but she was no where in front of him. Color shifted on a piece of metal up ahead and he turned around to see what had caused it. It was her. She was blocking the entrance, and when he was looking it was a dead end.

And he was trapped.

Even if she was slightly taller she was very intimidating, even in her relaxed stance. "I, um..." He was lost for words. Avoiding eye contact he glanced down, still being able to see if she made a move oh him. If it was slow, he probably wouldn't react. Arik knew it was dangerous, yet he did it anyways, and for what? To get away from a little nightmare? The male barely noticed as some water dropped on him from the crying clouds above. He looked back up. "You-you're, are you going to kill me?"

Yuuki tilted her head, regarding the male. He seemed frightened, yet there was something akin to curiosity in his facial expression. Did he follow Yuuki purely out of boredom, perhaps? That was a dangerous thing to do, especially when it had to do with Yuuki's situation. She didn't want this male to be caught up in something he did not need to be in.

He also seemed used to the concept of "killing", his tone rather bland even when he asked the question despite the stutters. Why would Yuuki kill him? He was no harm, at least, not yet.

Yuuki sighed. "No. I will not kill you. But you didn't answer my question. Why did you follow me?"

Arik waited for signs of advancement, a glint of a dagger, the click of a gun, anything that would show a sign of impending death that he might be able to wiggle out of. Instead she did nothing, and he wondered if that was worse than her doing something. At least she responded to his question, and he was safe for now. But then she brought up her old question, and he was still lost on how to respond. He glanced down again in thought, trying to think of a reasonable response. "I... I wanted to get away from something," he said, tilting his head up at the lady, wondering if that would satisfy her question or if she thought he was lying. He wasn't lying, just not telling the truth, but the time he took to think may have seemed like he was thinking up a lie. Maybe she'd just let him go, or maybe she wanted to make sure he'd never do something like this again. But the thing is, he would do this again, no matter how much he was threatened.

(Look at this filler)

Yuuki watched him carefully, her eyes now not leaving his sight. There seemed to be nothing on him, but that was probably because he had not moved yet as well. He seemed frail, not very strong. Someone like Yuuki could probably easily defeat him in a fight, but you never knew what someone was hiding until you experienced it firsthand.

"But that is not the full reason. Is there something specific you want from me?"

Maybe he knew something about Dragon Storm. If that were true, then Yuuki could not just let him walk out of here so easily. She would have to get the information out of him somehow.

There was still no big reaction from her, but he could feel her staring at him even when he wasn't looking. He wasn't sure why her presence felt almost as if it should be respected, there was no proof she was nothing more than a normal human, nothing to show she was actually powerful or dangerous. Yet he was bowing down like a dog. It slightly annoyed him, but if it kept him from getting killed from this incident then so be it.

His head had drifted down again in his thinking, not able to keep eye contact with the lady for a while. Her reply to his answer surprised him, even if he was half expecting it. His head flew up, face lit with worry. Did he want something from her? No, not other than entertainment or a distraction. He internally winced at that though, that just sounded like he wanted something bad, something that would most likely cause him to get beat from her. "I mean, I- I guess the only thing I'd want from you is a distraction to get away from what I said earlier I- I don't know what I want from you but..." His words were practically meaningless, and he knew it was just going to get him questioned again. "Look, there was no reason I should have followed you." Arik put his hands in front of him, motioning through his worlds with gestures that meant nothing. He guessed that he was trying to seem more truthful or something, but maybe it would just be taken as a threat. The young adult just wanted to get the awkward situation over with with the least amount of harm done. "So, can we get out of this rain before it turns into a dangerous storm?"

(Dangerous storm? Or a dragon storm huehuehue, just kidding XD)

The man had broken eye contact yet again. This was the second time for him to do it. Yuuki wondered why he would be so nervous, but that was pretty obvious. Yuuki was probably intimidating him, plus the fact that she had blocked off his nearest escape route. He seemed so meek and shy that Yuuki really had to wonder why he would follow someone like her. Especially into an alley like this where he could easily be trapped, and even killed.

As she listened to his meaningless ramble, she watched his hands fidget uncomfortably as he tried to explain with both his words and hand motions. His words were also so awkward and choppy that Yuuki had a slightly difficult time deciphering his true intentions. Was he just a really bad spy, or just some idiot who liked to follow other people into dark alleys?

As he mentioned storm, Yuuki's eyes flitted up once again. He was right; the rain was already starting to get harder at the moment, and Yuuki could hear the distant rumbling of thunder. Her gaze fell back down to the young man.

Yuuki sighed, shaking her head. The man was harmless for now. She turned around, not glancing over her shoulder. "You'd better follow me, because I still have questions. I can, and will, track you down if you run away." It was sort of a lie, but technology could do miracles sometimes.

Arik continued to watch her, seeings as she shook her head. He thought it was a good sign, maybe one that he was useless and she could let him go now. Or maybe she was going to kill him anyways because of him being useless. Instead she did neither. The woman invited, or rather told, him to follow her, threatening with the idea of her tracking him down. Since the government or anyone else of the sorts hasn't been able to track him down and his equipment was practically untraceable by electronic ways he doubted she'd be able to do it that way. But she could easily run after him, and probably track him the old-fashioned way. He took in a breath and sighed, putting his hands in his pockets as he followed her to who knows where.

Yuuki rounded a corner into a nearby cafe shop. It was mostly empty, with only the baristas at the cashier. Warm and cozy, it was a nice place where people could relax, despite the bitter scent of coffee. Yuuki wrinkled her nose. She wasn't a big fan of the dark drink, preferring tea or water. Tea was especially something that helped soothe her stress.

Hands still in her pocket, she dove deeper into the cafe, rounding an edge where it led to a few isolated small booths. No one would be able to see them back here unless they manually came back to check on them. Turning, she faced the man. She could feel the inklings of a small smile spreading across her face, impressed with how bold the man was. Maybe he wasn't as shy as she had expected. The threat was rather empty-handed, something she had made up right on the spot. It could work both ways; if the man escaped, then she would not be bothered and could continue home. But if he would follow her, then she could extract some information while at it.

"Back to the business beforehand. Why am I a distraction for you?"

She rounded a corner, leading to a coffee shop that he passed when he followed her. Despite the rain it seemed to be pretty empty, most of the customers probably going to the more popular one nearby. At least they were in a more public area instead of somewhere more secretive. She lead them to the back, where a wall separated them from the main area. Most people didn't come back here if they wanted to socialize with others, or if they had work to do or wanted to be private with what they were doing. He sat down and folded his hands on the table like an obedient kindergartener. Arik still had no idea what she wanted from him, but he guess he was going to find out. He glanced at the board, wondering if he'd be able to order some tea.

He focused his attention back on her when she spoke to him again. The same question basically that she asked earlier. He put a hand on his neck, letting out a small chuckle. "You know, mysterious ladies going into dark alleyways is always the best entertainment," He joked, although still being slightly serious. His mood seemed to change slightly, maybe it was the fact that he was in a warmer environment where she couldn't kill him without running from the cops.

The small smile melted off of Yuuki's lips.

"Do not use your joking attitude with me. This is a much more serious issue than you could imagine." Yuuki's voice was cold and hard, colder than when she was speaking before. Her body had leaned forward a tiny bit instinctively. Two dark gray orbs glared into a pair of green eyes. After a few seconds of maintaining this position, Yuuki had realized that she had leaned forward, and drew back.

She crossed her arms and her legs, leaning against the couch with a deep sigh. She leveled a stare at the raven-haired young man. Honestly, teenagers... "Enough about me. I can tell there's something big bothering you. Does it have anything to do with you following me?"

Arik's smile dropped when hers did, and as she leaned forward he tried to go back but it was no use, the booth was in the way. He wanted to take his eyes away but couldn't, her glare was too intense and he was trapped. He swallowed some saliva to help his dry throat. What could be so serious? He could understand why she might care but not why she'd care this much.

She finally drew back and he broke eye contact, slowly sitting properly in the seat. So she didn't have a great sense of humor, that was okay. He was learning, and you only learn from your mistakes. "No, following you isn't what's bothering me. Honestly, it's just some stupid little thing that has been going on. It's nothing, really." He said, still not keeping eye contact. He frowned. What if he wasn't able to do so because he was lying? If he wasn't able to keep eye contact when lying, then he wouldn't be able to lie. He wonder if she knew how to tell a lie, and if that's why she kept persisting with her questions.

Yuuki's eyes slid shut, and she couldn't help but release another long sigh. He was still avoiding her. Was Yuuki really this intimidating, or was the young man hiding something important from her? Important or not, Yuuki knew this was not supposed to be any business, but still, if it pertained her, then she definitely would need to know about it.

Yuuki's eyes opened again. "Stupid little thing? It seems to me that it's impacted you quite greatly. I can tell you're lying through your teeth. Your eyes won't make contact. if you want this to be solved peacefully, then I suggest you should tell me."

Arik let out a sigh. He wasn't going to get out of this until he told her the truth, was he? He swallowed again before running another hand through his hair. "Well it's... a nightmare. A village gone up in flames, screams coming from the villagers that were running around trying to save anyone or anything they could. I wasn't scared, I was shocked, enough to the point I couldn't move. Something was thrown at me, probably a rock, so I ran away from there." The young adult explained. He bit his lip, wondering if she knew anything about it. He didn't say that it was real, but it didn't happen that long ago either. A whole village burnt down, some say by a dragon that had been spotted terrorising towns and other say some sort of group of feral animals. Arik knew his eyes showed fear, but he watched her carefully, tense and ready to make an unlikely sprint around her and out the door. But he didn't know anything about her, and she was most likely going to be faster than he was in one way or another. He swallowed again. He didn't have anything to fear, he didn't cause the flames, but it still haunted him like a warning.

Yuuki listened to Arik's story curiously. A fire? A village burning down. She guessed it could mentally scar someone, if they had never witnessed it before. Fires were deadly when not controlled, but then again, everything could be deadly when not properly used. Although, Yuuki herself had never had a mission that pertained to fires; natural disasters weren't what she covered. But she still felt this young man still wasn't telling the complete truth. While it was possibly mostly the full truth, she figured he was leaving out bits and parts.

"And? What started this fire? Why was a rock thrown at you?"

He tilted his head. And? What else was to be said to that, he had answered her question. If he had known who started the fire, then he would have called them in or hunted them down himself. And why someone threw a rock at him? They could have done it because they wanted to be a jerk. Of course, in this situation any bratty kids still being a brat was unlikely. "I don't know who started the fire or who threw a rock at me, nor why. Maybe it was because they thought that I did start the fire, which I didn't." He added quickly, a slightly annoyed tone in his voice. "If I knew who started it I would have handled it."

Arik then wondered if she thought that he started it. He glanced around her slightly and making sure he knew an escape route if she wanted to try and capture him or something. The male wondered if this place was any better than the alley, it was at least bigger there. Here was tight quarters, a roof and less chance of escape. But he wouldn't be able to escape either way, unless she took them outside again.

"I don't know who started the fire or who threw a rock at me, nor why. Maybe it was because they thought that I did start the fire, which I didn't."

Hmm. Yuuki really was not sure where he was going with this story; all that had happened to him was a rock. That was nothing, yet the young man still seemed uneasy. There had to be more to the story than that. Should Yuuki pry any further? Or should she be direct and confront him about her own worries? Such as the fact that he could know about Dragon Storm, or maybe some other dangerous secret he was concealing.

This was all just a patchwork of messiness, and Yuuki was starting to regret approaching him, but what had to be done... had to be done. She was not going to risk it. But he was still avoiding her questions. His whole body was still fidgeting, not having calmed down even after at least 10 minutes of talking. He seemed to be trying to locate an exit, but the only one would be the one they had just come through, and Yuuki was positive she could catch him just in time if he tried to escape.

Staying silent for a few seconds, Yuuki pondered on what she should say. Either tread carefully, or take the plunge. She finally uttered a sentence in a slightly brusque tone, leaning forward with a dark look in her eyes.

"Enough with this loitering. What do you know about me?"

The silence was awkward between them, and he didn't like the feeling that the longer he'd stay here the more likely he'd get accused of something. Maybe if things started off on a better foot he wouldn't wonder what the possibility of that was. When she asked about what he knew about her he was going to reply with something about not even knowing her name, but then he took a closer look at her. Maybe he did see her from somewhere? It was a rather strange question to ask someone. Could it have been from a file he had found?

There was someone she looked a little like, although the image he saw was a bit blurry and it was hard to see key features. It'd be great if he could open his laptop and relook over the information about the person, but he figured that would be rude. "I mean, I guess you look like this one person. I think she was a leader of something. There were a few files on her and her team. Government people have interesting choices in their concerns, anyways." Arik said with a slight shrug, as if getting into government business was nothing.

Then it occurred to him, what if she really was the infamous leader. "But um, if you'd like I can show you the information on her if you'd like to see. It shouldn't be too hard to pull back up." He added quickly. Was that the right thing to say? What if she really wasn't the other person and he was just going to be showing her this information for nothing, or her own free gain? Oh well, it wouldn't be that much of his problem. He reached for his laptop located in his jacket pocket, beginning to slowly take it out if she did want to see the info.

Yuuki's eyes narrowed further, until there were only slits of gray visible. This kid knew? How? Was it possible he actually was spying on her, or was it purely coincidental? The guild files were securely guarded, how did this kid manage to get a hold? Was he some sort of genius hacker that was able to hack into protected databases, or was he working for the government? But he looked young, younger than Yuuki. Would a government really employ someone who still looked like they were in college? ..... Maybe, actually, if she thought about it. But looks could be deceiving, Yuuki knew that for a fact.

Show information to her? She would... appreciate that, but once again, the man could be lying. Yuuki could have been deceived throughout this whole conversation, or maybe it was just her overthinking everything. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Ok. She needed to focus, calm down, get her thoughts under control. She would figure out what to do next once he showed her the files.

"Show me." The brusque tone was back.

Arik finally withdrew his laptop, placing it on the table. If she was able to notice, his laptop wasn't like any of the ones you could buy. It was custom made, and ended up working better than one of the store bought ones. He quickly flipped through some things as if it was a second nature, barely giving the woman a chance to see what exactly he was doing. Soon enough he came across one of the leaders files. "Here it is. Yuuki Hatake, leader of Dragon Storm and..." he started, glancing from the picture that came with the file to her. Realizing his sentence stop he cleared his throat and continued.

"A skilled 'assassin.' Very fast and dangerous. The location of her guild is unknown, but we'd like to think it might be located somewhere in Vetur. Family unknown." There was more written on the file, but he was sure that she could read the rest herself or wouldn't care for him to read the whole thing out loud. But now that he read more about this person, he wondered if she really could be this person, and how much she'd like to know that he could obtain all of this information.