Heirot

Mizuki blinked at the child. She shook her head, and sigh smiling. "Alright, alright." she gave in and lifted it up. She studied the vile for awhile, then shruged and popped off the cork. She sniffed it. It seemed harmless...

She put it to her lips and titled her head back, downing the entire thing. Once it slightered down her thrat her entire body shuddered. Tasteless, maybe, but it left a bad memory on her tounge.

"Ok," she said hoarsly. Red smirked and tried hard to not laugh.

"My weapons are locked in these," Soran said, raising his arm to reveal the heavy bangle that hung on his wrist.

Rai smiled and sighed, "Good, now we have to make Siren drink it!" she said excitedly. "Then we can go to the house and do stuff!" she said and ran into the next room. "Siren! Siren!" She called, handing the vile to her. "You have to drink this!"

Jhaptal nodded. "I see," he said. Judging from the short response Soran gave, this trip wasn't going to be a very talkative one. In fact, he figured that most of the trip would be made in silence.

When they had been walking nearly an hour, Soran began growing tired of thinking and rethinking about what Mizuki and Red had been doing. A lot had happened that morning. He wondered if she and Siren had experienced any more visions, or if they'd taken the potions as intended. It was annoying how persistently his thoughts kept returning to the subject. He decided to make an effort at conversation, if only to distract himself.

"Did you study the kodachi in Ongoreth?" he asked Jhaptal.

Jhaptal nodded. "Yeah, I learned how to wield double kodachis in Ongoreth before moving here," he said. "What about your style? I haven't seen you fight, but I haven't seen weapons like yours before."

Soran looked at his wrist idly. "Nor have I. Maybe I invented it," he speculated. "Though not in this form."

"What do you mean by not in this form?" Jhaptal asked. "I haven't actually seen them before. And what do you mean by maybe you invented it? Wouldn't you know if you did?"

Soran half-smirked. ""These were created for convenience. Shourai, he spoke, letting the magic force crawl up his arm as the blades emerged from his bangles and materialized, swirling slightly as though made of liquid.

"The originals were made of steel. I hold onto them, but these are more convenient."

He avoided the subject of his memory, not intent on sharing that information with a stranger.

"I would think so," Jhaptal said. He had now confirmed Soran's weapon, so he took to analyzing it. "I'm guessing you don't have to be quite as careful with this version while fighting do you?" he asked, analyzing the possibilities of fighting styles with it already.

"There's less risk of damage, and less maintenance of the blade," Soran said, privately noting that the man seemed to know more about fighting than he'd implied. "But the main risks are the same. Striking at an inexact angle throws off the whole attack and pulls on my arm at the bracers. But they're lighter and sturdier." He neglected to mention the tenuous interdependence on his life force to maintain their form.

Jhaptal nodded. "I see," he said. "I like the kodachi, they're nice and light and balance out offense and defense quite well. With two it lets me do both even better." The ninja said this with a wide grin on his face.

"And for what purpose did you learn this skill?" Soran asked, considering the grin on Jhaptal's face.

"Hmm, to get stronger I suppose," Jhaptal said. "I have no other real reason to learn how to use it. How about you? Why do you fight? I can guess that right now you're doing it for money, but what other reasons do you have?"

Soran had to think about that for a minute. "To be stronger than whatever I might need to be stronger than," he guessed.