Welcome to Gaia! ::

that blade. The weapon was a by-product of Trinity's former possession by that red leviathan, Lotannia. It was both a blessing to Trinity's arsenal and a curse. The woman had the power of hell at her disposal, but she knew that she could not use the weapon's power to its fullest without placing her soul at risk, the very soul that she has taken so long to get back. Watching her dance around and bring the forest into flames as she fought Vivillian's minions, black lips smiled as the master puppeteer continued to send wave after wave of monsters against the Red Assassin. She wanted to overwhelm the woman and force her to use more of the weapon's power. She wanted her to feast in that desire for destruction, to unearth the long forgotten passion that she once had.>

Vivillian wanted, not what Trinity wished for. It was time to stop the warm ups and begin the main act.>

"It seems that I am going to have to draw out your potential on my own, after all. As always, you disappoint me, Trinity."



"To control a person, you must control their soul. The Leviathan proved this, yet she did not understand that she herself was never in control. I understand, however. And the answer lies right in my possession."



"It is now time that we bring the main star into the limelight. Your false face's presence is overdue. Let us show the world who the real Red Assassin is. Li'vetus ilor maijar!"

While there was a victory ceremony going on at the stadium, Hanged Man's Park was quiet. Yet again, Temp was sleeping in the foliage of one of the trees. She left the stadium after the semi-finals ended.

However, if she was at said victory ceremony, she would have heard that Omi Barsait, the captain of the now disbanded Team GUILT, has let an ogre named Garok free. Sure, it may be roaming around Hanged Man Island looking for it's next meal but what were the chances of finding the strawed-haired Krieger-Künstler that was snoozing away?

Not that he didn't have any awareness that there was a burning inferno occuring nearby - but the lack of sight that would have given him some fair share of warning wasn't working in the meantime. Wandering around, a bit lost after losing sight of Arian in the ordeal in the ending ceremony, using his unique abilities to manipulate water wasn't going to help him navigate far from where he needs to be headed.

Then again, without proper guidance from someone or a leading hand, the swordsman is good as stuck on the island for good until his sense of direction gets better. Eyes wrapped under the bandages and some tattered remains of his cloth, he had one of his weapons - in particular, his right katana - being used as a stick, holding the bulk of the scabbard and poking it onto the ground to help further his sense in not accidentally a) running into someone, b) hitting something, or c) falling off into a ditch/hole/open space that would add more injuries than he already carried.

"Hng..."

Tapping sounds echoed from where the end point of his scabbard smacked against the cement. Sniffing the air, the swordsman moved his head a bit, as if smelling something particularly odd in the atmosphere.

Smoke..?
An uncomfortable build-up of heat was eminating from where he is heading, though...

Bonfire? Someone cooking? The swordsman couldn't tell. But if there's one thing he knows...
He stopped in his tracks, taking in a low breath to start accumulating a bit of energy to disperse into the air - a weak form of radar/navigation, but at least able to give him a rough idea on what's occuring around him as of now.

"?!"

A voice. Female, too. Tilting his head to aim his hearing at where the voice came from, the swordsman wasn't able to make much sense out of the girl's shouting. Not until she got closer, the swordsman stood where he was for the time being.

"Who's there?"

His body flinched slightly at a new contact, feeling a strange touch being made onto his back and left arm. Muscles tightening, the swordsman instinctively went defensive, the grip on his right katana tightening, readying the weapon for possible use.

"!"



"Eh?"

Flames? No wonder it's uncomfortably hot...though - wait a minute.
His tense features slackened, the expression reverting back to normal while he stopped his struggles for the time being. "Flames? Where did the...?"

Nonetheless, while the swordsman was unable to get a good visual on things, he momentarily allowed the young girl to lead him to wherever they were going until he could get some idea on what the devil's going on here. The last thing that he needed was to wander aimlessly into a burning inferno without realizing it...while in his state. Another reason why he should find someone quickly to help heal his eyes - or else...

A bit off-put, the swordsman simply followed the guidance of this young female voice, letting her navigate for him until fresh air wavered over his nose like an ocean's breeze. He took in a deep breath, letting the cooler content of the air sink into his lungs before his senses start to become more alert - at least, out of the haze of thinking too much.

With his mind out of the gutter...

"Thanks." he commented, using his weapon again to tap the ground a few times - the echo from the tap giving him a rough idea on where things were, around him. Still feeling a tad bit warm from the flames, his empty hand went up to brush a bit at his own cloak, patting off some invisible ash or confined heat within his clothings while Faustina voiced her question at him - which he paused just briefly, as if it was a sensitive topic to him.

"Hm? Oh, this?"

His left hand went up to brush at his bandaged eyes. "A present from the final round. Had an encounter with someone who uses flames and..well...can't say that I've gone unscratched, as you can see."

Parts of his cloak were tattered, not to mention areas of his clothings showing signs of charring and burns left behind by his last opponent. "Speaking of which, Miss..."
His voice faded off, as he hadn't had the chance to get the name of the girl who helped him. "You by any chance know some healers around? I was initially being helped by one of my fellow teammates to get a healer - at least, until she and I got lost in the middle of the ending ceremony, but..."

"Not being able to see does have its....problems."

Was it sarcasm? Or just downright being obvious?

Silent My Child, Quiet your Heart.
Surrender your Mind to Starry Night.

Faustina hesitated at the man's words. She stared up at him, deep in thought for a moment before at last she let her emerald eye fall from his injured face. Her voice was soft and somewhat detached as she murmured, "...My name...is Faustina Jaeger..." At that, the girl flinched, but she doubted the man could tell. It was only the second time she'd introduced herself like that, and every time she said it she felt as if another bit of her past had been eaten away by her future. But now was not the time for that...

She shook those thoughts from her mind and forced herself to continue. "My...my tutor...and mother...she was what's called a bio-alchemist. She--and I--could manipulate object on a sub-atomic level." Another pause, her emerald gaze drifting back up to the man, staring at his bandaged eyes. She was beyond nervous, but she knew she had to help. Sure, Chameleon-sensei had done it thousands of times before, and taught her how, but doing it on a stranger was a lot more daunting than doing it on a tutor who could fix it if you screwed up.

She bit her lip, gathered her confidence, then continued on. "...If you'd like, I can fix your eyes. I just need you to kneel down so I can reach them..." She knew better than to voice her doubt--he certainly didn't need to be bothered with that.

Here in My Arms, Rest now in Peace,
And, Morning nigh, Joy will come again.

Silent My Child, Quiet your Heart.
Surrender your Mind to Starry Night.

The girl watched quietly as he knelt, not at all surprised by his quiet contemplation--a state she mistook to be curiosity, not hesitance. Her art was, afterall, rare and unconventional.

She moved closer to the kneeling man, her hands lifting to gently remove his bandages while she tried to explain alchemy to the best of her ability. "Well...every object in this world is made up of tiny, itty-bitty clusters of energies called 'atoms,' or clusters of atoms that are called 'molecules.' Think of them like the grains of sand in a desert--they all come together to make something big, like a rock or, in this case, an eye." Faustina figured she was probably boring him with all this nerdy talk, but it helped calm and reassure herself. That, and she wanted to prepare him as best she could for what was about to happen.

"Alchemists can adjust the objects in our world by moving around those particles. So, in your case..." Her hands by now had loosened the bandages enough to where she could lower them from his injured eyes, allowing Faustina to get a good look at them and begin to figure out how she was going to help the man. "...your opponent's flames hurt the particles in your eyes and the flesh around them. The energy from the flames may even have caused a chemical reaction to take place, permanently adjusting the atomic composition of your eyes." She smiled, finding the necessary confidence, by now almost grinning. "I'm going to reverse those effects. When I'm done, it'll be as if nothing every happened."

...Hopefully. She swallowed the last of her nerves, tilting her head a bit so her emerald eye could meet his burned ones, even though she knew they couldn't meet hers. "...Are you ready?"

Here in My Arms, Rest now in Peace,
And, Morning nigh, Joy will come again.

Silent My Child, Quiet your Heart.
Surrender your Mind to Starry Night.

Faustina smiled sympathetically down at him--not that he'd be able to tell. She honestly didn't blame him, but really...what other choice was there? Most of the healers she knew certainly couldn't fix his condition! And so it was that she nodded, hands moving to place their palms gently over his tender wounds, one hand per eye, and nodded, murmuring softly, "Alright. Here goes..."

She closed her emerald eye, the muscles of her face softening as she calmed her mind and focused her alchemical energies into her hands. A sort of "sense" extended from her fingertips and into the very fibers of the man's eyes--likely the man would experience some sort of slight tingling sensation as she did so, using the energies of his eyes' atoms to sort of "map out" the molecules. A medical roadmap, as it were, showing her what exactly needed mending, and where. The bit of her restrained in her subconscious sighed with relief as she found scrapes here and there of his eyes' original flesh--this would make it much easier to fix them. Now all she had to do was copy those molecules' compositions like the blueprints for a building.

At last, the girl was ready to extend her alchemy into the foreign body. Her energy poured out of her hands and into his flesh, filling the area with an odd and other-worldly warmth, followed by a dull numbing sensation as nerve endings temporarily broke down--along with the rest of the matter composing his eyes and the surrounding skin. She steadily took apart and re-arranged his molecules like tiny legoes, using the man's original flesh to guide them, until they all locked back into a harmonious re-composition.

When at last that final completion had been reached, the girl's hands fell away from the man's face, the warmth fading, the feeling suddenly returning to the area. Exhausted, she girl collapsed to her knees, catching her torso on the palms of her hands, head bowed and messy auburn hair draped about her face as she heaved heavy breaths. Slowly, a hesitant emerald eye slid about to gaze up at the man, anxious to view the success of her labor, and she smiled warily, gasping softly, "...open your eyes."

If the man looked, he'd find a girl about 16 in appearance kneeling beside him upon the concrete, black-gloved hands pressed against the ground, black and leathery spaded tail slipping out from her rump through a hole in her black pleather skirt. She wore knee-high boots of the same color and material, and her torso was adorned in the black Chuunin vest, an article of clothing that really only made sense when one noticed the glinting headband wrapped about her forehead. Her hair was auburn and about shoulder-length, and the right eye that stared at him was a brilliant emerald green. The left was beneath a black eye-patch, safely hidden from the world.

Here in My Arms, Rest now in Peace,
And, Morning nigh, Joy will come again.