With Hearts of Gold

She wondered why she was travelling again. Things were getting crucial back in the guild. By right if she was a good member, she'd be sticking around. But Marianne wasn't. She'd never be one either. She had a feeling everything would be swinging into motion soon but she didn't know exact figures or facts. Side effect of never being around much. She laughed dryly and started to think. If by being a good member she would be rebelling against the country, then wouldn't by being a bad member mean she was technically good? The girl tossed the apple core in her hand in the air. She shook her head, bemused. That would be implying she was rebelling against Shadow Heart itself. She wasn't and she wasn't about to. Or maybe she was. Did annoying everyone classify? Maybe. She'd think 'positive' thoughts. She was always 'positive' in the guild so might as well spread that 'positivity' to everywhere else. But then she'd actually be positive. Stupid thoughts.

The girl looked up the sky and closed her eyes, letting the slight breeze fan her face. It was morning yet nobody was around. At the very least there should be one stall keeper up. Maybe it was just too early. Three o clock in the morning anyone? She chuckled. The lamp lights by now were turned off and she was practically wandering around the streets in darkness. Well not practically, she was. The raven haired girl started to hum a soft tune, the sound barely escaping her lips. She didn't know where her feet were leading her. Into a wall perhaps?

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Tatsuma had too much on his mind to stick around the apartment. He and Vera had spent a pretty good amount of time together lately, but they weren't exactly glued to the hip. He had a lot to think about and she was part of the reason for him to come out. If any reason existed for inner emotional turmoil it was her. She wasn't the only cause of course, but she was in the top five. That turmoil, however, was perfect fuel for his desire to train and grow stronger. He had come to Shirotsume town to plan and make the necessary steps to grow, but he wasn't quite making that entirely realistic at the moment since he was completely distracted by the town itself... or rather the stars above the town since the town was dead.

In addition to those the stars came the idea that maybe he didn't belong in Fairy Tail. Obviously not in Lamia Scale or Blue Pegasus either, but he certainly didn't belong in a dark guild, that would imply that he had lost all of his motivation, and he wasn't going to disgrace Rhidran by associating her memory with some group of dark mages. It did occur to him though that he might be able to cause the most damage as a guildless mage. After all, it was hard for anyone to retaliate against someone who had no home and could not be found.  

So distracted was he that he didn't actually notice he was standing more or less in the middle of the street when a girl ran into him. She was a bit shorter than him but not by a lot, though luckily it was enough that she didn't run into his face.
"Can I help you with something?" He said to the girl as he put his hands in his sleeves in front of him to both help keep them warm and create a little bit of space. He was actually surprised to see someone else up at this hour.

WC: 372/5500
372/1000- Lightning palm upgrade

The girl really did end up bumping into a wall. Funny since it hadn't been her intention to do so. As much as she wanted to lean against the wall she decided it would be better to continue on her way. She sighed and slowly opened her eyes...and saw that no, she had not bumped into a wall and rather some random person standing in the middle of the street. She suppressed the urge to yawn. Somewhere deep down, a rising tide of panic threatened to surface. It couldn't get past the emotionless barrier though. Still, she stood back and observed the newcomer. It appeared that her head barely reached his shoulder thus the wall effect. Curious. He looked vaguely familiar. She titled her head. She didn't recall meeting him before unless...yes, he had been a contestant on the tournament isle. She admitted to watching the tournament. Not avidly, just more to check out what the guilds were like. She couldn't particularly recall anything that outstanding.

It took a moment to register that he had asked her whether she needed help with anything. She looked up and shook her head once. "No, I don't think so. Do you need help? You're standing in the middle of a street at night," She replied coolly, deciding to return the question. Because of their close vicinity, she also stepped back. While some part of her was probably feeling uncomfortable, it was more because she felt he was feeling uncomfortable.

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Her point was fair, technically he was kind of just chilling out and relaxing in the middle of the street. Still, she was the one that had run into him so it wasn't exactly like she had the high ground, but he decided to give that up in an effort to avoid a possible pissing contest.
"I was... a little distracted. I was hoping to do something fun here, but I didn't get into town until late. What about you? You seem to be up a bit late." He said, using the obvious observation and with a smile to make a sarcastic joke, at least in part. Truthfully he really did wonder what she was doing just hanging around at this time of night.

Besides that he was still distracted, though he kept it off of his face, he supposed it would still be noticeable because she had managed to simply walk into him. He honestly had no idea what expected to be going on in the town around nightfall, and he hadn't sent any kind of message to procure a room while he was here, but he was fine with saving the money for that sort of thing anyway. It was during that thought process that he realized he had still been kind of rude.
"I'm sorry, my name is Tatsuma Shinju of Fairy Tail." He said, pulling his hand out of his sleeve to show the girl the guild crest on the back. He didn't really expect her to be that formal, but it was still nice to be able to have someone to talk to at this time of night.

WC: 647/5500
647/1000- Lightning Palm upgrade

So he was a little distracted and thus standing in the middle of a street. Fairly unwise if she could say so herself. Anyone could jump him and he wouldn’t realise…or not. He did say he was a dragon slayer on national broadcast lacrima vision. She wasn’t sure how dragon slayers worked but from her experience with Anubis and rumours she had heard about them, she could guess they had some kind of enhanced physical body compared to others. And then of course he had provided a little crash course about what he could do whilst on the tournament isle. She admitted she only watched the tournament to find out more about the other guilds. Most of Shadow Heart would have watched it for the same reason too. She hadn’t been gathering information on it for them though. She chuckled slightly at his words. “Fun? At this time? Good luck with that,” Her words were light-hearted but her tone and eyes didn’t reflect that. Instead they were devoid of emotion. Perhaps there was a faint glimmer of a smile in her eyes but it wasn’t very visible, suppressed by the cold darkness.  She shook her head again when he asked her why she was up at this time. “Not up late, up early,” She tried to crack a smile at her own attempt of a joke but her lips were unresponsive so it fell short. She didn’t mind.

Mari realised in the scheme of things, someone walking emotionlessly in the dead of night seemed more than a little suspicious. She forced a sigh out of her mouth after her former sentence. It would definitely give him cause to think her strange if she told him her real reason – practicing the art of no emotion – and so she did what she always did – Lie…ish. “Enjoying the night sky, doing my exercise, standard things really,” She attempted in a somewhat more sociable tone. She found her acting skills completely disappeared when she was in an apathetic mode. She guessed she might as well use this conversation as practice for her acting. It would come in handy later on when her conscious needed to be repressed. It didn’t matter that she was lying to the blonde boy. There were other lies she could say to cover up the lies yet still make sense if they met again some other time, under different circumstances.

He seemed to think apologising was necessary for forgetting to state his name. She shrugged her shoulders. “No matter, I haven’t told you my name either.” She slid a coy smile onto her face. “And who wouldn’t know who you are? Lightning Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail? Person who has managed to piss off Lamia Scale to some degree?” An amused twinkle sparked in the depths of her frozen eyes. Unconsciously, she figured she needed to come off warmer and changed her smirk to a ‘genuine’ wide smile. “Anna,” She said, pointing to herself with one finger. “May I ask what you’ve been distracted by?” She wanted to pry. She wouldn’t pretend otherwise. She asked this nonchalantly though. He didn’t need to know her intentions.

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She had a point, it wasn't exactly like they were going to just stumble on anything fun at this hour. Though if she was up early instead of late did that mean she had slept already? That would put her at a pretty great advantage, he still hadn't been to sleep, at least not since way earlier in the day. He had noticed her seeming lack of reaction by this point, not because he was a master of reading people, but because she reminded him in that regard of Fayte who had been a dark guild mage. He wondered about this girl, and if that was an effect of dark guilds, but with no evidence to go off of he simply dismissed the thought, believing it to be mere coincidence since pushing that issue wouldn't do any good even if there was some correlation.

He next answer was a little bit of a change from the seemingly emotionless tone she had used before and he could only assume that it was because she was either insane, or she was trying to work on herself. That was neither important nor was it something he wanted to address either. If she was doing something for her social skills he didn't need to address it, especially since she hadn't asked him any questions that might lead him to justify asking her any questions about it either, though he marked it as weird mostly because Fayte had also done something similar when he had pointed out that she didn't seem to get excited.

Then she brought up the damn tournament. He had forgotten about the lacrima cameras that just so happened to be in the damn forest. Sure that everyone would know he was one now and would have a bead on his identity, he was going to be pretty much shit when it came to anything involving any kind of undercover work. That aside it didn't really explain how the hell she knew about the Lamia scale incident. That was't exactly public knowledge, though he kept his face from displaying any surprise about it at first.

Her name was Anna, that gave him enough to go off of. He knew from his books that people often gave shortenings of their names, but when she asked what it was that was distracting him, he had his question. It was more or less an amalgam of his prior curiosities in conjunction with the final one which he figured was as good of a chance as any to reveal an answer to what he was wondering anyway.
"Of course. I was distracted by some of the things that happen to be going on, the tournament you evidently watched, my life in general. Though may I ask you a question. The Lamia scale comment you made pertaining to my having pissed them off. It's not exactly common knowledge so how was it you knew about that?" He asked, thoroughly overcome with curiosity about the particular incident to the point of not being able to resist the urge to ask outright, despite his normal favor for the use of tact... at least with conversations with strangers... most of the time... when he wanted answers.

WC: 1144/5500
1000/1000 Lightning palm upgrade
144/2000 Rairyu no tsubasa (Lightning Dragon wing)

Mari was having a ball of a time attempting to keep a smile on her face when all her face wanted to do was to be blank. Her mouth kept on twitching and it was starting to annoy her greatly. The annoyance was also beginning to crumble the steel wall called her emotions barrier. She sighed again, for real this time. Acting really wasn't the kind of thing she could achieve in a state of apathy. So she gave up. She focused on the inner light called emotion and knocked down the wall blocking them from her heart. It was like her face had collapsed in on itself and she stretched it, making faces at the boy unintentionally. She was aware she probably seemed like a lunatic by now. She didn’t mind too much since most of her guild thought she was one though. Plus, she was too tired to care. As long as he didn’t call her a sociopathic murderer to her face, she could handle anything else he threw at her.

Had they been in Crocus she might have waggled her eyebrows and clung to his arm, ‘desperate’ to know about his personal life the moment he mentioned it but luckily for him, they weren’t. She was more behaved elsewhere. As it stood, she simply raised an eyebrow when it was mentioned. And then he asked about how she knew about Lamia Scale. She bet everyone who was in Lamia Scale, or had half a brain, would have figured out there was bad blood between Kade Lazarus and Tatsuma Shinju. Her eyebrow rose further. “Don’t you know? In the tournament, Lamia Scale mentioned a ‘silver haired’ boy that they saw on a boat on the way to the isle that could have been sabotaging them and the blue haired guy seemed to get pretty murderous. And then while this ‘silver-haired’ boy might not have been on the island, Zahn went to look for him. Since there is only one boy with silver hair, the rest having red and blonde, I’m assuming that boy was, and is, still you,” She was guessing that he didn’t know from his reaction but she begun with that question anyway. It wasn’t like she knew what had happened. It could have been anything from a fight gone wrong to a debate that quickly escalated. Whatever happened, it wasn’t her business and she thought it was in her best interests to stay out of it.

But she wanted to poke his nerves a little more. A grim thought appeared in the back of her mind causing one corner of her mouth to twitch. Maybe she was a psychopathic murderer deep down. She hoped not though. She tilted her head, her face an open book of curiosity. “May I ask, is your personal life problems to do with that blonde chick or the cowgirl who were both with you?” She wanted to see his reaction. Whether or not she was actually insane, she still liked annoying people no matter her peace views.

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He had to admit that she was astute. She was picking up on details like he was, though his were darker.
"Actually no, i wasn't aware of that. I didn't go back shooting my mouth about him being naive and idealistic so I figured he would drop it, but it seems like the guy needs to be put in his place. However, i guess there are more pressing things to being concerned about than some idyllic adult's imagined slights." He responded, deciding it best to ignore Lamia Scale. With what he had planned he didn't even want them involved anyway. They seemed to be unable to complete their tasks and he was sure people were probably getting hurt right now because of it, though to be fair there were plenty of people getting hurt and it wasn't their fault.

Then the girl asked the more unnerving question. If it had anything to do with the blonde or the cowgirl. He was tempted to lie, but then again why bother, it wasn't like this kid knew either of them personally, plus he was about as far away from Magnolia as he could be so he doubted Vera was just suddenly going to walk up behind him and go "AHA!" He remained composed as he responded.
"As a matter of fact it does. Though the blonde, not the cowgirl." He said with a shrug. It wasn't like there were lacrima cameras watching them right now, though since that event he was kind of annoyed with the fame it had gleaned him. Still, something about being famous made it difficult to move about without being called out.
"what's it to you?" He asked in return.

WC: 1429/5500
1000/1000 Lightning palm upgrade
429/2000 Rairyu no tsubasa (Lightning Dragon wing)

She tried not to feel uncomfortable as Tatsuma declared his obvious mutual hate for the other guy. Naive? Idealistic? Something must have happened between the two. A conflict of views she was guessing. She didn't want to know anything else. Nothing of the reason had been brought up in Lamia Scale's conversations actually. Instead of showing her uneasiness on her face, she kept a weak smile on her face. "I don't think he said anything about you actually...just looked more angry?" She said quietly but still reasonably audible. She looked down at the pavement beneath. She couldn't help but wonder though. Even if asking him directly wasn't an option. She sighed and looked back up at the boy. She didn't think he'd have noticed her little moment. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. She couldn't quite judge him yet even though she watched majority of his activities on Lacrima Vision.

They got back onto a more sociable topic and the young woman's grin returned once more. "Ooh!" She squealed, eyes sparkling and hand over mouth, "The one who rejected you! How is she?" Of course she was acting. She wasn't that interested in his personal life. But she wasn't acting in a bad way or for a bad cause. Just in an exaggerated this-is-the-most-interesting-thing-I-could-ever-know-about-entirely-harmless way. She giggled when he asked what it was to her. "Nothing, absolutely nothing," She struggled to say. It seemed like she was lying but it was the truth. "Possibly because it's just interesting to know about people's love life," She added, poking her tongue out. That statement was probably less true than her previous one but acting...and she so rarely got to do it anymore.

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Well she had managed to annoy him, though he had given her all the information she needed to do it. Nothing she said really mattered if she had no personal interest in it other than virtually the same amount one had from the characters on a TV show. Still, it was his turn to try to rattle her.
"Yes the one that rejected me." He said. The confirmation was immediately followed by a long sigh.
"So tell me, and I've been wondering this since you seem to have a number of Similar personality traits. Are you acquainted with a girl by the name of Fayte." He asked, as he took a more restful position, still with his hands in his sleeves. He was aware that it was possible the girl would lie, or that she was, in fact, not acquainted with the girl to whom he referred, but it was a fair question anyway. Though he was also aware of the fact that if they did know each other that would help him identify a few other details. They had even identified themselves using monosyllabic names with no last name. Whether it was an alias or not he had no way of knowing, but he did like to entertain the idea that he might have gotten a lead. Besides that, he needed to find Fayte again anyway. If she wasn't a member of Shadow heart specifically she could help him, if she was, he was going to have to extract information from her the hard way he imagined.

Regardless of whether or not he was willing to admit it, he wasn't just going for revenge. More than anything Fairy Tail had instilled in him a sense of duty to protect. They had been struck and a part of him wanted to hit back, but more than that he recognized it as a threat to all of Fiore, and with the magic council down to being two factions of "doing it wrong" he wanted to at least rally the rest of Fiore. He had been working on a method for doing just that, but it wasn't exactly like he was going to just bring a crowd of bystanders to watch him battle it out. Then something Anna had sad struck home. She had seen him on the lacrima cameras, the ones he hadn't even seen or been aware of. If he could manage to get hold of a number of them he might be able to provide people with the ability to see what they were really all about without them even actually knowing. Still there was the matter of finding her, and with his new fame, he couldn't just pretend he was someone that didn't even know about what was going on.
"I'm looking for her because I have questions I'm hoping she can answer." He said honestly.

WC: 1910/5500
1000/1000: Lightning palm upgrade
910/2000: Rairyu no Tsubasa

She giggled at his response. Half from the joy of being able to act without being required to and half from the fact that would be what her 'character' would have done. Her happiness didn't last for long though and she frowned in confusion when he mentioned 'Fayte'. "Fayte?" She asked mystified. "Who's Fayte?" She knitted her eyebrows together and sucked the edge of her mouth. "I don't think I'm acquainted with this 'Fayte'" She tilted her head further to the side. While she was technically lying about not knowing who Fayte was, she wasn't lying about not being acquainted. They were in the same guild but honestly, the only things she knew about the older girl were hearsays and rumours which included that she was anti-social and a harpy. She wasn't particularly sure how true these stories were but being told she had similar personal traits to an apparent anti-social person wasn't very flattering to the way she usually held herself. Of course these were only her inner thoughts and left completely off her face. She decided she needed to know more about why he appeared to know Fayte. She was about to ask when he gave her an answer.

She raised a solitary eyebrow and smirked. "Oh? Are you sure it's not because you want to use a jealousy tactic on blonde TV girl?" She was joking of course. She looked to the side and pressed her tongue against her front teeth to create the guise she was curious, but didn't want to ask. She slid a glance at him and smiled shyly. "Would it be prying if I asked what kind of questions?" She asked sheepishly, swaying from side to side in anticipation. She both fancied herself, and was, a great actress so she was betting that her act of innocent inquisitiveness should give her an answer. Even if it was a vague one she should be able to work something out from there. For example, whether he knew Fayte was in Shadow Heart or not. He was in Fairy Tail and by now the attacks should have occurred. Mari did know she probably would be skewered if she skipped out on the main attacks since she was given orders to be there but the guilds weren't in her hate zone so she refused to listen. Magic Council, yes, guilds, no. That was the way she worked and so she decided she'd let them skewer her when she returned. It was selfish of her no doubt but she couldn't help it. She honestly didn't wish for war.

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Anna's demeanor had completely changed from what it had been when they first started talking. What was more was that she was asking personal questions, it was something Tatsu wasn't entirely accustomed to. He kept the fact off of his face and went about trying to figure out just how to answer her questions without revealing too much information. If he went around spouting off his plans to go after the shadow lord eventually it would get back to him and that would ruin the whole thing. Still he was under no obligation to answer her since she didn't know Fayte so he went with that.
"Nothing majorly important. I'd have to find her first before I know what all to ask her." He said, not entirely lying but not entirely telling the truth either. There was no need to share that he was acquainted to a dark guild mage if she wasn't one and he had no way to know that. There were too many questions with this one and she was harder to crack into than most of the people he had tried had been.

"So how about you? You said you were out here looking at the night sky and doing your exercises, though you never really did elaborate on why it is that you are here in town in the first place. So what brings you to Shirotsume town?" He asked, turning the tables to start his own little verbal offensive. She had the edge so far, asking more questions that required more personal or sensitive information, add to that the fact that he was the one that had been on TV and he found himself at the most extreme of disadvantages when it came to having anything resembling anonymity. She was quick witted, he had gathered that much, but he really couldn't identify the reason for her questions, her mood change, he sudden expression of emotion in a more readable manner, or what exactly it was she wanted to know or if she was just firing questions at random.

She already knew he was a member of Fairy Tail, so he removed his hands from his sleeves and put them down at his sides. This was the most disarmed he had felt in a long time and he couldn't wait until people just forgot about the event and made a mental note to check the specifics on the events he took part in to make sure that they weren't being video taped. As it stood he needed to figure a tactful way to see what this girl was about, though he wasn't really looking to get into a fight and that was how he usually got to know people.

WC: 2366+456/5500
Lightning Palm upgrade: 1000/1000
Rairyu No Tsubasa: 1366/2000

Her plan, while not going to plan, seemed to be alright. She guessed that he probably didn't meet Fayte under bad circumstances. It made sense since she couldn't detect any hidden emotion in his voice. If that was the case he didn't probably didn't even realise she was from Shadow Heart either. Possibly he thought she was guildless. Sounded accurate enough. She could hardly picture an official guild mage sympathising with dark guilds. She let off on her questions for now. It would seem weird so she simply frowned at his vague answer and looked to the side. "That is sooo descriptive. You know I do have my sources so I could have helped you with your question answering," She said, faking annoyance.

And then he decided it was interrogate Mari...well Anna, time. She wasn't that fussed. For someone who had to actually withstand torture and interrogation for part of their life, she was totally cool with a few questions she could lie her way through. She shrugged her shoulders. "Shirotsume? To find some peace I guess. Get away from it all. I've heard about the attacks on the three major guilds and honestly, I don't want to be around any of it. North Fiore is pretty isolated if you think about it. Also, Magic Council wars?" She shuddered "No thanks," What she was saying was perfectly true. She wasn't lying at all and she wasn't withholding information either. The most honest thing she had said all year. It was refreshing to be honest for once. She was getting sick of the lies that spouted unknowingly out of her mouth. Even if she tried to be honest all the time, she wouldn't be able to succeed. Too habitual by now.

She sighed. She wanted to give in to that urge that told her to leave the thing giving her most pain but she couldn't. With Sabby and Pieter known to her least favourite person in the world she couldn't do so just yet. Her eyes flickered to the side of the street, her eyes unreadable. "Do you think," She started off slowly, unsure where she was going, "Someone who has killed people unknowingly is evil?" It was a weird thing to ask but she just wanted to hear another person's opinion. Some complete random she'd probably never see again.

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Heh, she had a fair point about this part being rather dead. There wasn't anything to worry about in this part of the country, though he desperately needed to get back to Fairy Tail and to do that he was going to end up going through worth woodsea. Most of what she was saying made sense more or less, but then she said the last bit. That question always had a ton of pretext, everytime someone had asked him that in the past.
"I have my own sources, they just don't seem to be all that helpful. About your question though, I used to think not. People here in Fiore seem to have a different opinion of killing and life or death. In my book though, no killing isn't evil, no unknowingly, or if you're doing it to defend yourself or people that you care about. It's logical, to do it when it's necessary and if it was unknown then it's certainly hard to say the person that did it was evil, though for the sake of keeping others happy and not scaring those around you I would say avoid it if possible." He said, trying to convey what he had recently learned was a complicated dance of right and wrong based on the individual beliefs of various people around the country. Still, given what was going on, it was fair to say that it was going to be more necessary now than ever.

Despite his words, he wondered if he was ever going to fit in with society. They seemed so trapped in over complicating things. In the forest when a pack was under threat it was necessary to make sure that threat was taken care of or they would simply come back and possibly kill other members of your pack. Kill or be killed, kill to eat, other than that the laws were fairly clear on the nature of things, yet here with other people it was just a jumbled mess of misplaced desires and naive, ineffective thinking. To that regard, a part of him wished he had never joined this stupid, contradictory, self serving world. Still, another part of him was happy he had joined Fairy Tail, and Happier still that he had met Vera so it all balanced out, and as such he was now trying to walk the line between the world that made sense and the world that didn't.
"I guess in short, we just do the best we can and move on with our lives even though there are some that are left behind." He said.

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1000: lightning palm
1801/2000: Rairyu no Tsubasa

He didn't seem convince of her all-knowingness. To be fair she wasn't all-knowing in the slightest. But in this case, she felt she was at least a tinge bit smarter than him. She was tossing up between pressing him further or letting it go. If she went with the former there was always the chance he found her suspicious. Not that he didn't find her suspicious already. She felt like he did, unsurprisingly enough. She decided to give it a rest now and bring up the topic later if possible. It could be hard working that into a conversation. For now though, her main attention was on him.

Truthfully, she didn't agree with his point about killing people. She guessed that made her like the other people in Fiore, strange since she usually tried to spice up a little rebellion from time to time. He was a bit confusing admittedly, she was getting confused whether he meant 'killing is evil' or 'killing is not evil'. Most likely he meant 'killing is easy no matter what' but what he was saying appeared to be contradictory in her eyes. She couldn't help but laugh dryly when he mentioned to not do it for the sake of others around her. That's what she tried to do but obviously when she had no loved ones she'd considered to be safe, she was highly incapable of doing the reverse. Of course she knew she could get a little psychopathic at times but that was a part of her. To not regret and live on. That was her little motto. Getting stuck on the past sucked. Sure, she could learn from it but that had already happened. She'd learnt. Sometimes she forgot she did but that was only sometimes. It turned out this was also one of those times.

She smiled at the younger boy and inclined her head to the left. It was her turn to respond now. "I prefer to think you never leave anyone behind. Unrealistic to do that physically but mentally? Wayyy possible." She said this in a lighthearted tone and resumed her head to the norm and tipped it up to the black sky above. "I'm an optimist. I guess that would mean I prefer thinking that unknowing killing is positively great in it's own twisted way. Or another way you could see it is that unknowing killing simply means you were possessed and therefore not in blame. Whatever the case, there's always something bright you can get out of anything." Maybe she didn't mean her words, maybe she did. She never knew. Her lies, her truths - they always got mixed together till she was some pile of mess inside. But she was an organised pile of mess so she knew if it came to it, she could pull something out with great ease.

"Have you killed?" Honestly a question she could only see a psycho asking. His reaction might be funny. However, she turned soon after and poked her tongue out for the second time at him. "Just joking, I'm not interested." She sucked in a huge lungful of air. She wanted to press more buttons, move on from their current dark subject of choice. Personal life, in particular love life, seemed to do that pretty well. "I know talking about killing can be a invigorating subject that can lead to a massive philosophical argument but-" She released all the air in her lungs before grinning with her teeth on show this time "-I can't deny that I really, really, really want to know more about your target of affections. She seems dumb, is she dumb?" Actually she thought the girl was just a bit unfortunate during the tournament isle but he didn't have to know that did he. It occurred to her that it could have been the perfect moment to draw back up the whole 'sources' thing but a little bit of a darkness, a little bit of light. Let him think she was a tad insane in the brain. However, not too dark otherwise he definitely would get suspicious. And she'd most certainly prefer it if he didn't do so.

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When she responded to the answer he had given about her question, he saw something in that which he had tried to deny in his own actions. Finality, at least in regard to ensuring that those that hurt others could no longer continue to do so, was not going to work in the world he lived in with people's concepts of right and wrong based on... whatever it was they were basing it on. So then when she asked if he had killed anyone and he thought back to it, only the majority of them were justified, there were a few he probably hadn't needed to do, and he gave up on thinking about the concept for the time being since she had dismissed the question.

So when Anna changed the topic to Vera, he was naturally a lot less comfortable. He hadn't voiced his affections out loud to anyone, and hadn't really even told Vera everything he wanted to tell her. Then she said she seemed dumb, and the insult of course made him somewhat annoyed, but he kept this off of his face. She wasn't dumb, she was dense, but she wasn't dumb at all.
"Why don't we talk about you. Do you happen to have any affections for anyone? You seem interested in these sorts of things to a degree that you have circled back around to the topic. Are you comfortable with men?" He asked her, wondering what her answer would be. It was a sad tactic to go to, but he wasn't entirely averse to finding out if she had a phobia of men and then questioning her about experiences with them. Unlike before though, he wasn't willing to put his own body in the line of fire to make her uncomfortable, not since the times before he had been preoccupied.

3108/5500
1000/1000: lightning palm
2000/2000: Rairyu no Tsubasa
108/500: Same No Mezame

Mari couldn’t resist the smirk widening on her face when he changed the subject to her. He was very uncomfortable, she could tell although she had to admit as well, he did do a pretty damn good job of leaving it off his face. His questions didn’t make her uncomfortable in the least. In fact, it was almost a struggle to avoid blurting out random sentences that didn’t make sense because of her eagerness to answer. When he finished his asking question session, she leaned her face closer to hi to create more effect. “Oh very much so,” She whispered, a playful glint in her eyes before falling back on the balls of her feet, giggling. “Nah, I’m pretty neutral actually.” She swayed to the side and sighed “And yes, yes I do have affections for people.” She gestured dramatically to the streets around her. “I have affections for my brother, for my sister, for myself, for my friends and finally! For world peace! Which you can argue is a person,” She came to a halt and grinned widely. She knew she wasn’t answering his question but that was because to answer correctly would be to be extremely un-fun.

The younger boy was right in thinking she was interested in this kind of topic. It was happy and generally the type of thing she could poke fun in. She liked happy. With that thought in mind, she fixed the boy in her gaze. “Sooo now that I’ve shared, it’s your turn…again. Don’t think I didn’t notice that attempt to escape. Tell me about this blonde chick you’re so in looove with otherwise I’ll keep on thinking she’s dumb and make up all sorts of gossip and rumours about you guys while I’m at it,” She wondered if he’d try to duck under her question again and send the ball back to her. She’d be ready to catch if he did.

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Tatsuma looked at her quizzically. She really thought he was going to open up more with an evasive answer like that? He wasn't one to be baited into revealing things about himself or those he cared about to others either. It was starting to become clear that at the very least this girl wasn't going to be candid about herself, and while the little stunt with the cameras had removed a number of personal factors about himself he simply shrugged as he prepared his answer.

"You're welcome to think and make up whatever you want. I mean once everyone finds out those rumors aren't true I would imagine you would lose all credibility anyway so feel free to say whatever you wish." He started with a smile. He was starting to grow increasingly more irritated by the topic at hand and he simply let it show. It was still honest for him to state, but the girl seemed young and he really didn't think she was actually going to waste her time starting rumors. Then again, there wasn't anything about this that made her an expert on him so he decided to keep it that way.
"How did you imagine that going? You threaten to start rumors after giving an obvious evading answer to my question, but then want me answer honestly? Who is to say that I tell you the truth and then you don't just go spread those rumors out of spite? If you were actually wanting information I'd say at this point you failed." He said, dropping his hands to his sides as he spoke, and standing up straight so that it was clear he was serious about what he was saying. If she wanted to play this game he was willing to take her ante.

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Mari held his puzzled look with her own sparkling gaze. There was a hint of a crooked smile on her lips. She had to make sure she avoided keeling over with laughter or else the mood, or whatever it was called, would be killed. She couldn’t tell what was going on in his brain exactly but she could guess. She knew her answer hadn’t been the most direct but it had also been the truth. Mainly because no man had been worthy of grabbing her attention…yet, unless Pieter counted except in that case, he was her brother. It had really only been a fancy way of saying her previous thoughts.

It was kind of cute, she thought, that he believed her starting rumours would make her lose all credibility. Mari and credible weren’t two words people put together. Perhaps Anna and credible might be possible but no one who mattered would know her as Anna. She wouldn’t lose any credibility because she already had none. Her danger of losing any more affected her no more than if she was a steel wall being pushed by a fly. She noted his irritableness at the subject and decided she’d steered clear of any more provoking questions. While she certainly loved annoying people, she didn’t like putting herself in the line of fire.

When the boy got up to his problem of her not answering honestly she couldn’t help but release whatever laughter she had been bottling up from the beginning. The giggles weren’t malicious in nature but at the same time, could imply she was slightly psycho. She saw he finished talking and she managed to stop laughing for a few seconds. “I’m sorry but you’re hilarious.” She said in a try-hard-to-be-serious-but-completely-failing tone. She then resumed laughing until she actually regained her senses. It wasn’t for very long before she tried formulating a proper response once she stopped giggling like a maniac or fool. She adopted a serious face and placed a hand on his arm.

“To explain myself I have absolutely no credibility. I find it funny you believe I have some. I might have failed in getting more information out of you but I certainly have no qualms about trying.” A thought occurred to her and she fought to avoid smiling. “I’m not attempting to murder or assassinate your blonde friend you know so information should be free for all,” She winked at him before taking her arm away and leaning back into her heels. “What information I would be trying to get out of you is what questions you’re going to be asking this Fayte girl. I was serious in saying I could summon a few answers for you. And I’m going to be honest…I know she exists, as in, I know she’s a mage in a dark guild which really makes me wonder why you’re asking around for her,” She said this nonchalantly, only keeping him in her peripheral vision. He could interpret her sentence any way she pleased, she didn’t care. She faced him again and held out her hand. “And how much you actually know about her, Marianne by the way but keep calling me Anna, Marianne’s an old lady’s name,”

He’d probably be the first person out of Shadow Heart to know her real name but that was the extent of personal information she was willing to give. Hopefully it’d be enough to make him feel more at ease with the idea of telling her information.

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She knew Fayte was a member of a dark guild, which of course meant to him that it was a very real possibility that she was too.
"I'm looking for her since I need to find someone. I'm thinking she might have some connections that I need to know about but I need to know which dark guild she's in if I want that piece of information. You wouldn't happen to know which dark guild she's in would you?" He asked, searching for some sort of information he wanted.

There was nothing else he could do at this point. This girl was hard to read, but the comments she had made about her credibility made it difficult for him to identify her motives. She said she had none, but she had said she didn't know Fayte, now she was saying that she knew this girl and could get more information on her? There was no way, to pick out what was truth and what wasn't.
"And you know if you were just candid with me and just spoke from your heart you could probably skip all of this trouble with your credibility. I don't know you yet, but there's no reason to not just have a fresh start. I'd even love to hear more about you." He said honestly. Despite his words and feelings though, he felt as though he was wasting time here. Conversely, if he was going to protect Fiore he might as well start with the individual people who's lives he could affect in the here and now. He couldn't be suspicious and hostile of everyone he met in every section of the country.

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Plan failed. Ish. She did get more information - that he was looking for someone, but beyond that who knew? It could be that random shop vendor who went missing the other day, she couldn't tell. But she had a feeling that it was somewhat more of an important person. She also wasn't very sure about whether to tell him which dark guild Fayte was in. He was in Fairy Tail and Shadow Heart had recently attacked that place. In fact, she wouldn't have been surprised at all if Fayte had been part of the attack. In any case, it wasn't her place to tell him which dark guild Fayte was in. That was the emotionless girl's job alone. She decided to stay silent for now and answer later. He had continued on speaking anyways.

Again with the credibility. The girl let out a short bark of laughter. The laugh was completely devoid of humour. Combined with speaking from the heart she could very well think the younger boy was a comedian in the making. Bringing up old 'jokes' and all. She smirked, looking up at him. "I already told you, I'm not very fussed on my credibility issues. And trust me on this, hearing about my life is not something you'd want to do. There's nothing good or happy or even remotely bright. Even the so called happy bits weren't very happy." Her tone seeped of bitterness. She could feel her buried frustration beginning to surface again. She gazed off into the distance and sighed. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to tell him she was in Shadow Heart. It'd probably only benefit her if he destroyed the guild which was what, she assumed he was doing. She didn't want to stay in that place. At least she'd have an excuse if it fell apart. Or give her some chaos in which she could quietly kill the guy that kept her in the accursed guild. She was just so tired of everything. Sick of it actually. She had no clue about how Sabby and Pieter were faring and she wasn't surprised that they'd just be killed on sight since she obviously reached her limit on how much she could tread on the guy's toes. It'd be safer if she defected then but she just had to be sure.

She growled in frustration and locked her gaze with Tatsuma's. "I'm not going to tell you about Fayte's guild. But who are you looking for? I'll probably be able to help. I'm in a dark guild. If you're worried about credibility there's plenty of things I could do to change that," Such as show him her guild tattoo. That was about as far as a flying leap of faith she was going to take. Telling him her dark guildness was about as stupid as jumping off a cliff. She was already doing a gamble in her opinion and she didn't like her odds. Usually she wasn't this straight to the point but she didn't want to dilly dally around with a subject like this.

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Tatsuma considered Marianne for a moment. She wasn't worried about her credibility issues but that made her an untrustworthy informant.
"I'm looking for someone who had earned my attention. The thing is, there are other questions I would like to ask Fayte about as far as the attack on Fairy Tail and they are answers that only she would be able to tell me. Although I might be more inclined to trust you given answers to some of the same questions. What dark guild are you in is one such question. As is, I'd rather hear more about you first. Even if there's nothing good or happy or bright about your life I'd still like to know where you are coming from." He said as he slid his foot back and adjusted his position. It was start if nothing else, and he didn't exactly have any other way to come out and say that his reasons for wanting to talk to Fayte was more because of the fact he had questions pertaining to why she hadn't attacked his house and less about her guild. Even if she turned out to have been part of the force that had attacked his own guild he needed to know why they hadn't lashed out against him at his home.

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Mari breathed a silent sigh of relief. Mainly because she didn't think she'd have to go so far as to show him she's from Shadow Heart with her guild tattoo. Also, she had to say, showing people her foot wasn't her idea of fun (or remotely normal). On the surface she simply shrugged her shoulders. Perhaps only Fayte could help the boy in his mission and only Fayte could answer his questions. She didn't actually know his questions but she couldn't possibly imagine the type of questions he'd be asking her. Not really. She could. A wry smile slid onto her lips. "Before I go into my impossibly happy life, can I ask, are these questions about Fayte related to...personal stuff?" Yep, she couldn't resist. She adopted her eureka face. "Oh! Was she a former girlfriend or something? And because she's in a dark guild you want to know whether she's gone all cray cray." She faked being faint in the heart. "Maybe your worried that she's jealous because you've got this new crush on blondie number 3000 cause I'm sure there's tons of blondes around!" She couldn't keep a straight face and giggled, grinning. Sometimes never changed. Like her tendency to like annoying people. But back to serious business she decided she'd take a leap over a chasm and hope she didn't fall in and break her neck. She wondered how serious he'd take her.

"And back to me, you can say I have memory issues, possibly why I don't know any of my former loves if I had some," She winked at him and struggled to maintain composure. "My name is Marianne, but I much prefer Mari. Or Anna for strangers. You classify as a stranger and I guess you could say I practically disowned my families...cause I've had two in the past although it wasn't really disowning. I'll just call it that for now. That's my life in a nutshell due to my, aforementioned, memory issues." All the while about herself she was talking in an exaggerated, dramatised manner. Easier to handle she guessed. "I would ask about you but to be frank, I don't care. I don't know who you're trying to find but I don't think it's anyone good. I also think you should quit while you're ahead. Or maybe not. I'm lying. If it's someone in Shadow Heart then I'm game to help. Think whatever you like of me but I'm from Shadow Heart so I'd probably know whoever you're trying to find too." There it was, her giant leap over the chasm. She gave a sigh, hoping that he wouldn't see how genuinely scared she was of giving away her secret (although not her biggest one). "Lemme guess, is it Noburu? Is it the Shadow Lord?" The girl looked at him, studying his face to see a reaction. He probably thought she was insane. She thought she was insane so it'd be no surprise.

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He wasn't quite sure how to respond to her. Amnesia? Shadow Heart? Families? He was beyond floored, but he wasn't really angry at her. She might be just the person to help him get to the shadow lord unheard of, plus he didn't really need to let her know about any other accomplices he did or didn't have.
"If you're from shadow heart I don't need Fayte. She seems like she might be less inclined to answer me because of her personality. Thought since you're here and offering help I'll go ahead and trust you. Your credibility hasn't quite been dashed with me, so if you're really up to help, then I wouldn't mind your help tracking down the shadow lord. I honestly wasn't sure where I was going to start, but I'm capturing him, and taking him in to be judged by the guilds or the council. Care to help me with that chore?" He asked innocently. It was complicated, trusting her, especially after she admitted that she had no credibility. He was taking a pretty big leap of faith himself, and told her something that he wasn't even going to tell Vera until she saw it on TV.
"I'm really trusting you here so if you can help me pull this off you'll get some serious credibility with me. Your boss is causing serious problems in the world and I'm seeking to stop him." He finished.

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Sweeet! Not only did she score a random guy trying to destroy Shadow Heart (in a way), she scored a random guy tying to destroy Shadow Heart asking for her help although seconds ago didn't trust her one bit! Okay maybe she was exaggerating slightly. She did that a lot. He still didn't trust her which to be honest, wasn't a great way of making Mari respond with a giant 'YES! 100% OF COURSE' to his proposal. She liked keeping her insides, inside so she also wasn't trusting him that he wouldn't take what he said with a grain of salt. As Mari liked thinking ever since her traumatic events in life, no partnership ever went down well if no one trusted each other. That was like Shadow Heart in general. She couldn't name two people (off the top of her head) that trusted each other enough for a proper working together scheme.

Well...

To be fair he did just say he'd trust her. But then he ruined it by saying she still had credibility issues. Trust and credibility issues weren't two words one meshed together. At least in her opinion. Still this idea of his was probably going to get her out whether she liked it or not... but at what cost? She didn't know. She sighed.

"You know, the credibility usually comes with the partnership beforehand else it gets all messy. And seriously, you have a death wish. Capturing him? Let along getting to him? That's a bit hard. If I helped you I think I'd have carved out my own death wish. Unfortunately I have to say, I don't want a death wish. I need to be alive thanks. The only way I'd help you is if you trusted me completely and I trusted you completely cause then I wouldn't have any problem with your idea wouldn't I?" Mari wasn't flat out saying she'd refuse helping his cause; she just was a bit hesitant after finding out what his cause was.

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