Nightfell Inbox [UN: d]

[damnpire]

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un: yjh

[regression]

D.

[damnpire]

What do you need?

[regression]

Where are you living?

[damnpire]

[For a second, he almost considers teasing Joonghyuk. Thanks to Ruby. But he does not.]

Nowhere in particular.

Are you looking for me?

[regression]

[ he would rescind his invitation don't do it slut ]

I'm offering you a room.

[damnpire]

[STOP

Actually a bit touched.]

What price are you asking?

text ↪ un: 012601 (post jail)

[craters]

Can I talk to you about something?

[damnpire]

Go ahead.

[craters]

Do you know anything about the process of Soulforging?

[damnpire]

It’s similar to blacksmithing, except souls are crafted into the fortified material of choice. Weapons, furniture, even the coins used here.

It must be done in the Forges.

[craters]

Have you encountered anything like it in your world?

[damnpire]

Yes, supposedly. There is a blacksmith who can forge a sword which can cut through powerful armor. He claims to be able to put a soul inside it to strengthen it.

[craters]

Claiming something is different than it being the reality.

It could be snake oil.

[damnpire]

Perhaps, but I don’t believe that applies here.

I’ve heard the screaming iron near the Forges.

[craters]

（ she doesn't want to talk about it.

she doesn't.

but after a moment: ）

I was there.

During the festival, after we met. I sort of stumbled in on the Forges. It's more than just screaming iron.

text ↪ un: 012601

[craters]

（ while she's waiting for her sparring partner to arrive, she types up a quick message: ）

Hey. I've asked someone to spar with me. If there's any pain transfer, I wanted you to know I'm not in danger.

（ as long as she has the byakugō, she won't fall in combat — but she's not so blinded by bravura as to not take any precautions at all. thus, her message. maybe the fact that she chooses to do that at all is telling of how she expects the match might go. ）

I'm in the Shadowlands. I'll contact you again when we're finished.

[damnpire]

[This is such a concerning text… Thinking about how fortunate Sakura was to miss being linked when wolf!Cedrik but his hand off.

It’s fine.]

Who?

[Whose ass does he kick if things happen to go awry?]

Be careful.

[craters]

（ please never tell her about that, she'll grab cedrik by the scruff. ）

Grimmjow.

And of course I'll be careful. Haven't I ever told you about the rules of being a medical shinobi?

（ rhetorical, she knows she hasn't. don't mind her while she just cribs the text directly from tsunade's extensive writings on the subject — ）

1. No medic ninja shall ever stop medical treatment until the lives of their party members have come to an end.

2. No medic ninja shall ever stand on the front lines.

3. No medic ninja shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon.

4. Only those medic ninja who have mastered the Strength of a Hundred Technique of the ninja art Creation Rebirth are permitted to discard the above-mentioned laws.

I'm one of two people alive that can invoke the fourth rule :) I promise, even if it all goes wrong, he can't kill me.

[damnpire]

[D (inwardly) looks at the sky. What kind of tenants…

He is a little Hm about what is called Creation Rebirth, but tables it for later.]

I see. How impressed I am won’t diminish my concern.

Let me know when you’re finished.

1/2

[craters]

Yessir!

（ annnnd... off she goes. ）

[craters]

（ he will be aware of the pain that follows — but more salient than that is the frustration, the helplessness and the fury unleashed by the combat. it's rather obviously not directed at her opponent, it's more... as if a stopgap measure against a tidal flux of emotions has failed, and everything she's felt since naruto's disappearance has just poured out all at once in a battlefield waltz.

welcome to the sundry emotions of a young woman, d. it's so much all at once.

there is grim, smug satisfaction as she lands hits. there is annoyance and self-directed disparagement when one is landed on her in turn. the fight is clearly a protracted one, and by the time reedy exhaustion is woven through the bond, intermingled with pain and a sort of emotional numbness it's been a considerable time since her first message. while there are numerous little hurts transmitted through the bond, the worst of them are focused on the left thigh and right flank, the burn of deep lacerations.

she does send him a selfie after the fight, fingers held in up in the cheerful simulacrum of a victory sign. there's blood and dirt smudged across one cheek and up into her mussed hair and the beginnings of a black eye, marring those good looks lefty is so fond of. a split lip makes her smile just a little crooked. ）

As promised.

（ she's going to just lay here for a bit, nbd. it's been a while since she took a beating like that, and she can't heal herself just yet without releasing the byakugō — which she's not exactly eager to do given the waste of chakra it would entail. her injuries are painful, but not fatal. she'll be fine. ）

[damnpire]

[Very, VERY weird to feel the after-effects of a fight he was not actually involved in.

Also very weird to feel the extremely human emotions she has about all of it. He frowns in exasperation at the selfie. Sakura, you look like a mess.]

Will you be able to make it back safely?

[What he does after depends on her answer.]

[craters]

（ she's like, half a mess. but there is certainly a part of her that enjoys fighting, pushing herself, proving herself. so there's a warm smoulder of pride beneath the ashes of the pain, too. ）

Yeah. Just low on chakra at the moment, I'm waiting until it's restored to head back across the bay. I'll be okay.

[damnpire]

Alright.

[He would tell her to let him know when she is back, but there is no need since he can feel it when it’s so.

Instead, he takes the opportunity in the time he has to leave some things in her office at the clinic: some bandages for any of the injuries which may or may not get healed completely, a wax paper wrapped stick of dango, and a little vial that’s warm to the touch. To sooth the cold. It looks very much like something from a certain bird’s shop.]

You can rest inside my door if you need to. It’s dangerous there out in the open.

[craters]

（ d's door is considerably closer than hers, actually, so that's not a half-bad idea, and an appreciated invitation. she doesn't respond immediately, instead focusing on getting back to her feet and heading off in that direction.

surely, he'll be aware of it when she opens the door and steps inside. it feels strangely empty without him, the walls possessed of an uncanny sense of being both too close and limitlessly distant, and she has to resist the urge to throw a sheet or something over that foreboding painting. even forewarned, the cruel beauty makes her shiver to look at it, and she settles for making an unpleasant face at it.

the small bed is a draw, but she also doesn't want to bleed all over his sheets (she's reasonably assured he won't care, but she's also reasonably assured she will) so she ends up sitting down just inside the door with her back against the dark polished wood. that stupid picture is directly in her field of vision. inescapable.

if she ever meets mr vampire king, she is going to punch him straight in the face. possibly also several other, less polite places.

ultimately, she pulls out her phone more as a distraction than any actual desire to talk. the action of walking here will have aggravated her injuries, and she doesn't dare lift the bandages to check on them until they've had a chance to coagulate anew. ）

Made it. Can you tell when I'm here?

（ he's still the only person that's been in her room, and never alone. she is Scientifically Curious. ）