The First of Many

[Clownpiece]

Clownpiece stared almost blankly at Dane, his words slowly sinking into her tired brain. Her chest heaved with every deep breath, and her whole body ached. It felt like she’d just sprinted a mile to get here, and she probably just about had.

“I’m...” she panted, dropping into a deep bow and staring at the blank nexus floor, “...Sorry! I forgot... about our promise...”

“It is what it is,” he said rather placidly, and the fairy rose from her bow to look the larger man in the eyes. “What did you run off to do, anyway?”

“I er...” she averted her gaze guiltily, “Got dragged off to the beach by Cirno.”

“So, you left me here,” he saw right through her deflection. “To go to the beach?”

“Yeah,” she responded quietly, her gaze stuck firmly to the ground. A set of knuckles rapped lightly against the hell fairy’s head, her silly hat doing nothing to soften the weak blow. “Ow...” she complained, hand shooting up to her head as she looked back up. “Hey!”

“Don’t forget your promises,” he said, turning away from her and back to the gate in the distance. The swordsman started forward once again, and Clownpiece hurried to keep up, her steps muffled by the nexus’ oppressive air. “Well, whatever. Did you at least have fun?”

“Yeah!” the infernal child cheered, waving her torch high above her head. “Cirno and I played some pranks!”

“Not too bad, I hope,” he cast a sidelong glance at her.

“Nope! Let’s see here...” she dropped her torch back to her side. “Oh!” She dug into her pocket with her free hand. “I scared a guy so good he gave me this!” The small fairy presented her new phone to Dane.

“Er....”  he stopped, and stared at the cheery fae. “You didn’t mug him, did you?”

“No!” she answered indignantly. “He said like ‘that power of yours interests me’ or something similarly ominous, and had one of his lackeys give it to me.”

“I see...” He started forward again.

“I also drove a bunch of people to madness,” she continued. “You know what they say, ‘Fires and fights are the flowers of Edo.’ If that beach were Edo, it would have been a beautiful flower garden.”

“Fires?”

“Yup! Some guy set up a kissing booth or something, so I burned it down.” The moment those words left her mouth, another light punch rocked her head. “Ow...”

“Don’t set fire to people’s things,” he said sternly, hand looming ominously over her head.

“Why nooooot?” Once again, she was back to rubbing her head.

“You wouldn’t like it if I burned your things, would you?”

“Not really...”

“And there you have it.” The two walked along in silence for a few moments, before Dane broke it once again. “Well, whatever. It doesn’t really matter anymore, what’s done is done. So anyway, I'm heading to a crash course of fancy combat stuff and something about hell demon things. Wanna come with?"

“Hell demon things?” she tilted her head quizzically. “Sounds fun! Might tag along just to hear about that! Where’d you hear about it anyway?”

“You should be able to find it yourself on your phone,” he said. “It’s called ‘A Digital Invitation To All Denizens.’”

“Got it.” She pulled her phone out and began browsing. It only took her a few seconds to find the relevant portion, and she gave it a quick read over. Her eyes slowly narrowed with each sentence she digested. The words were all there, she knew what all of them meant, but the way they were all arranged.... With a heavy sigh, she dropped her hand to her side. “I think it’s too advanced for me...”

“Fair enough.”

“You’ve gotta teach me what you learn though!” The hell fairy suddenly straightened back up. “You’re a good teacher!”

“Maybe.”

“Well anyway, good luck with your thing, I’m going to find Cirno again! See you later!” With almost no warning, the blonde child flung herself at Dane, almost knocking him right off his feet with a flying hug.

“Erm... Yeah, thanks,” the swordsman responded awkwardly, barely keeping his balance as the fairy tried her best to crush him.

“Oh! And here’s my number, keep in touch!” Without letting up, she held her communicator up to his face, making everything far more difficult than it needed to be.