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Ekanite was doing his best to apply everything he had learned in the last week to his patrols. After catching up with Painite, and learning the hard way what it meant to be late to one of her training sessions, he had been given a new burst of energy in the whole betterment department. She told him he was doing well. Doing well! She still insisted that he was not ready to battle senshi or knights on his own and he needed to call her if he got into a fight like that, but she did take the time to tell him he was making progress.

She even smiled. Smiled!

He had left out a few details when he was catching her up on his eventful week, like a battle here and there, but she had not pressed him for details and did not seem too suspicious of him. So he was determined to continue what he had been doing, and if he ran into more White Moon soldiers he was confident enough that he would be able to handle it.

So far, so good, but it worked better without them showing up and thus allowing him to avoid the whole thing.

One piece of advice that stuck with him was looking for easy targets. Drunk people wandering out of bars were easy enough, and he had followed one down an alley that he hadn't even needed to be guided to. The man was sitting on the floor, looking miserable, and Ekanite was pretty sure it would be helping him out of a nasty hang over if he just took some energy and let him sleep the whole thing off.

Was that how that worked?

In any case, that was what he was doing, standing next to the now slumped over guy, draining a bit of his energy. Unfortunately, the man had slumped onto Ekanite's leg, which made it a whole lot more awkward for him.

Ekanite felt a shiver move down his spine and he jerked his head around to listen for the source of the voice. They were obviously attached to the aura he now felt, but he had been so distracted it did absolutely no good to be able to feel it. Or had it just appeared all of a sudden? He was not paying enough attention to say which it was definitively but he was going to go with the latter if Painite asked.

Which she would not, because she was not going to find out.

"You got it, bud!" he called back, hoping whoever it was would just believe him and wander off. They were the good guys, so everyone said, so clearly they would just take him at his word and go away? He was certainly not trying to hurt anyone, after all, but just complete his quota without the help of his general, so he could make her proud of him. There was nothing wrong in that.

Minus the energy stealing thing.

"I was just on my way out, so uh. No... no need to come back here!" There, in case the last call had not been enough, that would definitely work to convince whoever the Order soldier was to continue on with their patrol.

Ekanite wrinkled his nose, not sure what to do with himself. If he shook the unconscious man off of his leg, would it wake him up or make too much of a noise? He was not sure if that would draw the Order soldier in any quicker, but at this point it did not seem to matter too much.

"Okay, well. I was kinda hoping it would work, but if you're not going to go away can you uh... come down here then? I'm kinda stuck. I swear it's not a trap!"

This time, he was aware of how crazy what he was saying sounded, and thought if he nipped it in the bud then it would come across as more honest. Of course, he was asking an enemy to meet him in a dark alley where he had every advantage, theoretically. He had this guy draped on his leg, though, so really he was the one starting on the back foot.

"I don't mean to take you away from your work! I'm sure it's important. I can probably sort this out... uh..." Looking down at the man, Ekanite wrinkled his nose again, then tried to carefully slide him off. The guy groaned and turned, then thumped into an unflattering heap at the Lieutenant's feet.

"Oh! Problem solved."

Ekanite winced as the voice that had been yelling at him from a comfortably safe distance down the alley approached rapidly. The aura, too, got closer, and he sighed as he was finally able to put a face to the voice. It was always nice, meeting someone new, except in situations like this, when it absolutely wasn't. He offered a very sheepish grin, shrugging his shoulders and holding up his hands almost innocently.

"I mean. Here's the thing. Not only do I not know how to put it back, I'm pretty sure this guy was going to be unconscious in this alley even without me showing up. I just saved him a headache, I think? Or... however that works. I'm not really sure. But hey! It's no harm, no foul, if I don't actually hurt anyone, right? The only victim here is his liver."

Ekanite grinned as goofily as he could, hoping it would finally win that charming, innocent grace he saw so often in movies. When the lead was awkward and goofy, he could get away with anything. Unfortunately, this tactic had worked on exactly no one so far. He was just hoping to run into the lucky few that would be on his wave length.

Someday, maybe, but he was not sure it would be today.

Or tomorrow, really.

"How about I call him a cab and then we call it square?"

Ekanite looked woefully thoughtful for a moment, then nodded his head sheepishly. He rubbed the back of his own neck with an awkward laugh, having been caught out far too easily.

"It is the best I can do, yeah. Sorry about that... still... figuring this whole thing out."

It never hurt him to be honest, or at least not yet. Painite told him he talked too much, and was too free with his thoughts and feelings, but he always felt like the best way to get to know someone was offering them the same kind of honesty he would like returned. It was only fair, after all, and how could he make friends if he lied to them? As far as being threatening went, if it were measured on a numerical scale, he was pretty sure he was in the negatives.

"Well..." Ekanite was starting to panic now, shifting uncomfortably. If he could just teleport like his Boss, he would have been gone already! "Uh. Uhm. You got me. I'm out of ideas. Look, I'm sorry, but I gotta go! I'm just doing my job!"

Ekanite nodded his head, looking as innocent as the day he was born. He did very much mean it, not wanting to cause trouble beyond what he had to do to keep his quota filled and his Boss happy, but he also knew that he would do anything for her.

There would be no leaving, no reconsidering his job: he knew why he was doing what he was doing, even if it was not natural to him. He would repay her for saving his life by giving him this power in turn, using it to make sure he kept himself safe. That was all she asked him to do. Not to raise a fuss. Not to draw attention to himself. Not to fight with the White Moon. She wanted him to be strong, personally, but only so he could defend himself.

Stay alive. That was what she wanted for him. To have a life, and he knew she did not count what she had as a life worth living. She wanted better for him, which only made him want better for her. He just had to figure out how to do that.

"I get it. Thanks for being so cool about it, though. I know it's hard on you, too. We all got our reasons, right? My name's Ekanite, by the way."