[Common Region] Kikka

[Apollymi]

In a single moment, it became obvious that Eve had no intention of stopping. Of course, she was more than a little shocked by this lad's magic type. "Light magic?" she questioned only to have her curse magic stopped before her very eyes. That wasn't something she fully expected to happen. Beyond all this the lad was content to apologize before aiming to maim the woman with several broken shards of light. Her eyes widen as she couldn't have been properly prepared to deal with something like that. "Shimatta!" she muttered. She was hit dozens of times over a short stretch of time. She fell over at this point and couldn't move any further.

Meanwhile, Hikage finished off the last of the extra guys and laughed maniacally. "Kufufufufu~ That was pretty fun..." she said tossing her knife into the ground her grimoire closing and returning it to her side. "Are you okay over there?" she asked of Asher, not as if she was concerned but instead just to confirm the current situation they were under.

[Bloodedge]

The fall of Eve was expected by Asher, though it was an easier thing to accomplish than even he anticipated. The orbs which spawned the beams to end her onslaught vanished as their target fell to the floor, and Asher took the time to step forward until he stood over her, grimoire still open but moved aside enough that he could maintain eye contact. "If you can make all these tools, you could have made your money being a Magic Knight. It's a shame, really." With these words shared, Asher cast one more spell which aimed to bind Eve using a crucifix-shaped light construct. He then bent over to pick up her grimoire while looking toward Hikage, finding her end of things to be wrapping up as well. "Hai; no problems here. Looks like you're done too."

[Apollymi]

Hikage stood and began picking up fallen grimoires from her opponents who could move but wouldn't do so for fear of what she'd do. As Asher chastised the ring leader for the bad use of her time she said nothing. She was already captured she wasn't going to admit to anything they didn't already know, or maybe she couldn't. Hikage looked to Asher in this moment and nodded rather simply, "Hai, I will make the call to Command. Maybe they'll come pick up all these people," she said picking a magic device from her pocket. She used magic on it and it lit up. "Command this is Hikage of the Black Bulls. We completed our mission but we have more downed people than we can carry, can you send someone to move them?" she asked waiting on words or confirmation. She'd seen Leonis do this before but didn't know if she'd manage anything besides scaring people.

[Bloodedge]

"Hai. Arigatou gozaimasu," said Asher in appreciation of Hikage making the call. In the meantime, he had a look at Eve's grimoire, taking special note of the diamond upon it in place of a clover. 'Sou ka. She's not even from this country,' he thought. As Hikage made use of her communication tool, it produced the image of a blue-haired man with a tribal-looking tattoo over his eye and cheek. This man was scheduled to work at Command in the capital for days in a row, but he seemed entirely unfazed by it when responding to the green-haired girl. "Hikage of the Black Bulls, I'm having your location pinned as we speak. You're in Kikka? We should have other Magic Knights at your position soon; can you keep the situation under control until then?" Following this query of the blue-haired man, Asher encroached upon Hikage from her left side. In doing so, he playfully nudged the girl and grinned to the projection. "It's been under control, right? We've got everything covered until the pick-up."

[Apollymi]

A simple nod came from Hikage in response to the thanks she was given. Of course, beyond this point, she was speaking to a blue haired man over the communication. He went ahead and pinned their location in addition to asking if they could keep this under control until the other Magic Knights arrived. She was soon nudged by Asher who made a joke in the moment and it made a small smile come to her face. "Hai. He's right... it's under control. We'll wait for the others..." she said before ending the transmission. Of course, this was the first time she'd done such a thing still it didn't go badly at all. She looked to Asher and gave him a firm nod. "I like you... you aren't half bad," she said giving the lad her nod of approval before confusion came to her countanence. "I mean that in the regular way not the tingly way..." she said clarifying. "I only like Leo in the tingly way," she affirmed. And with that they would wait for their reinforcements to arrive without any care in the world.

[Bloodedge]

And so, the exchange of information was made. All they had to do now was wait until help arrived to carry the criminals away. In the meantime, Asher holstered his own grimoire while keeping a firm hold on Eve's, content to relax so long as none of these culprits tried anything more. Hikage made a claim of appreciation to the young male, much as he had done to her earlier in their time together. However, she went on to specify that she didn't like him in whatever 'the tingly way' was. From that moment forth, even including the mention of someone named Leo, Asher was absolutely confused. "The... tingly way?" he asked. It took several seconds and a great deal of thought for him to come to any sort of conclusion for what this might have meant. When he did realize what it could have been, he figured it had something to do with the very strange upbringing she must have had on her end of the Forsaken Region. "I think you mean love. That's the only way I can think of liking someone that might be... tingly."

[Apollymi]

Hikage was about to learn something today. And that was an apt description for the tingly feeling she got around Leonis. It seemed that her description wasn't one that Asher was familiar with. In fact Hikage managed to think about it and frowned deeply, "Love? Sou ka... that's a different word. But if it's tingly I assume it works..." she said with a nod. Actually that whole thing was rather interesting to think about but it didn't really matter. Soon enough another Magic Knight was converging on the area, a girl in purple and black robes with platinum blonde hair showed up. She looked a bit distressed but chose to address Hikage directly. "I'm... Irisviel von Einzbern, Junior Magic Knight of the Purple Orca. I'll take care of transporting these criminals to the nearby prison," she said with a quick nod of her head. She took in Asher as a sight and her knees buckled just a bit.

"I'm Hikage. Hey were you at Command the other day?" she asked of the girl and she nodded this as she opened her grimoire. "Hai, I was, it was an order from my Captain to get me used to talking to... them," she said with her eyes shifting over Asher as if to hint at what she meant. And though talking through command was okay, she still couldn't talk to a man face to face yet. This made Hikage's eyes narrow as she tried to understand what the girl meant, but she was very sure that she was scared of something even as she cast the most advanced looking creation magic Hikage had seen so far. "Kemuri Sōsei Mahō : Honsōsuru Monogusa Kuruma," this created something which looked like a black smoke made stage cart. Her knees knocked together as she reverted her attention and the cloud of smoke moved to take up all criminals and stack their grimoires in the front with her as the criminals themselves were held up by the smoke and pulled into it as well. Beyond this the last car managed to hold all the confiscated items as well.

[Bloodedge]

"Hai. That's my assumption, anyway. It's a pretty strong word," Asher said about the situation Hikage claimed to be in. Strange as it was that she chose to preface the difference between her claim of liking him and the way she apparently 'liked' this other person, he moved along seamlessly. Soon enough, someone sent for collection arrived. This was an unfamiliar young woman who seemed to not be in the best of states at all. More specifically, every time she looked toward Asher, he was left more confused by the fact that this was the trigger to her odd, seemingly nervous behavior. She even openly admitted this to be the case when speaking with Hikage. Asher couldn't understand what she meant by 'them' initially, but his query which followed was one he felt happened to be open enough. "Ano... did I do something wrong? I haven't even met many people."

[Apollymi]

"Hm, but it's a pretty strong feeling," she mentioned, knowing her own actions were driven by the way she felt at any given moment. Anything which could be described as a normal feeling she understood, even when she didn't experience them herself. But she knew she didn't fully understand all emotions and she didn't really understand love so it made sense that she wouldn't have applied that word to her own feelings. But it seemed that Hikage wasn't the only one who was confused or at least at the control of her own emotions. The girl who'd showed up to do the collection of the bodies and properties of this particular bust, also had a problem. Hikage remembered her shaking her way through a conversation with Leonis and spent a few moments trying to rationalize whatever similarities there were between them. And she saw none that would cause the same kind of reaction. Of course, such a distinction would be hard for Hikage to make because she didn't care about that sort of thing. Being asked a direct question made Irisviel nervous even as her knees shook though she tried to explain. "Iie, it isn't your fault and I don't know you. I'm a witch from the Witches' Forest... so until I came out here I'd never spoken to men before, they make me really nervous," she mentioned all of this while still looking at Hikage to get all of the words out. "Sou ka, you're scared of men. That's gonna make sex really weird unless you like girls," Hikage said rather bluntly which caused a giant blush to appear on Irisviel's face as she tried to stutter through a response. "Nani!! Who..who...who'd want to do something like that anyways!?" she questioned which made Hikage look at the woman with the blankness in her face she was known for. "It's pretty fun, besides... you shouldn't be scared of men. Just kick their asses, then they'll be like everyone else..." Hikage offered which was likely strange advice coming from the girl, but she wasn't completely unfeeling towards the girl's plight. And it was how Hikage made friends, even as Irisviel's magic worked to collect the last of the individuals she had to she couldn't help but consider the green haired lass' word.

[Bloodedge]

Irisviel did end up replying to his question, even though she retained a visual link with Hikage throughout. When she got around to explaining, this made sense. If he didn't count his sister, Asher only had contact with a single witch who did not have this issue at all, though in that case, it was one who had a strong desire to meet others across the world. Asher opened his mouth to speak and hopefully offer some reassurance, but Hikage beat him to the punch with a very... very direct statement. His eyes widened, and his mouth opened even more despite no words coming out immediately. "E-eto..." was all he managed to say for some time, though his face reddened as he tried to even think of something better. Over time, he began thinking about the many potential negatives to this sort of fear. Given what he knew, there was one certain piece of advice he could and should share with the witch. "Einzbern-san, if I may make a suggestion... You might want to avoid going to a dungeon if one appears..."

[Apollymi]

The strange and direct advice from Hikage was well-meaning and Irisviel understood it. The other women of the Witches' Forest had said similiar things to her when it was discovered that she was fearful of being around men at all. Of course, her own Captain had been this way as well so she was well on her way to discovering her ability to have regular conversations with other people. "Hai, arigatou gouzaimasu, Hikage-san," she said, having met a few blunt women in her life already. To Asher though his advice was some which she actually hadn't heard before, she managed to look surprised by it and more so, she felt strangely that the lad would even continue speaking to her directly after she explained how she felt. A lot of the men she'd met so far were content just to talk to her only when needed. Still his words seemed to come from a place a genuine concern for her safety even though he didn't really know her. "Ano," her knees were still shaking as she turned to the lad and bowed her head quickly. "Arigatou, Asher-san." she managed to spit out after some hesitation. "I'll keep all that in mind. I'm going to take all these people off your hands. You two can return to your respective divisions, and report to your Captains, you might be called to the Royal Capital later for reports. Ja ne..." she said and the smoke train with all of the bodies, grimoires and merchandise took off at strange speed with no steering wheel but didn't seem to hit anything. Hikage managed to nod her head to the lass accepting the thanks and the order that she could leave now, still Asher had been nice to her so she wouldn't completely abandon the lad until she had to.

[Bloodedge]

Even though his words did nothing to help Irisviel's apparent situation, the message was taken nonetheless. This was all Asher intended, believing one such as her would be even worse off if she had to deal with the same goblins Junon, Dior and himself encountered in his first excursion. "Hai. Arigatou. And... sumimasen," he said with a bow to the departing witch, offering his genuine apology for making her speak with him, even if indirectly. Once she was gone, Asher stood akimbo and took a deep inhale. For what it was worth, this was a rather well-executed mission. He was now two steps closer to his ultimate goal. "I think we made a good team. Working together was fun; arigatou gozaimasu!" said the male, who went on to extend his right hand.

[Apollymi]

"Sou ka..." Hikage said finding it strange that the lad apologized to the girl for making her speak to him, but even so she noted the small smile on the girl's face as her resolve solidified a bit more. She could even feel it in Irisviel's magic. 'Hm, he's really bright, even to people who create their own darkness,' she thought absently. Strangely enough after this girl vacated the premises, Asher chose to speak once again to Hikage. He said that they made a good team and that he enjoyed fighting along side her during this mission. This was a hearty compliment for Hikage as it was the sort of thing she'd only ever received from her peers among the Black Bulls before this moment. If one took with this the fact that Asher also shared other similarities of upbringing with her and it was as if she'd found something close to a kindred spirit, minus her obvious battle maniac tendencies. His hand extended to her in a form of friendship which made her extend her own to him to shake his hand. "Hai! It was pretty fun. Next time though... you should fight me too~" she said with a huge grin on her face. She was quite serious about this, but she always was, she enjoyed the challenge of a new fight always, but she'd been sated for the day so she was fine to leave. "Catch ya' later, Asher."

[Bloodedge]

Asher's hand was taken, and he smiled. He felt he'd made a new proper comrade this day, and it seemed this feeling was mutual. Hikage, however, did have a very different mindset to his own. Her parting words involved the notion that he should fight her the next time. Asher was keen on a bit of friendly competition here and there, and training with other Magic Knights did seem like a good idea, but no... this was something very different. "Wai-" he started, but he cut himself short when the moment of surprise wore off. With everything said and done, he stepped out of the building, making his way back toward the Silver Eagles' base with a smile upon his visage, and his eyes on the skies. 'I guess in this case, I should take that as a compliment. Next time, then.'