In a Dark Place (Bernael/Invite)

After leaving the terrible and unrelenting times he faced at Mount Paozu, Bernael would return back to the forest he had been at not too long ago. It was a nice place to return to, to clear his head, something familiar, that's what he definitely needed. He wandered the forest again, not wanting to disturb the ninja who he had a short rumble with the last time he was there, until he found a grove that looked nice, he cleaned his hands and wet his hair in the water for a bit before taking a look around, he quickly noticed that there was a cave in this grove, and decided to traverse himself into it. Bernael didn't know what could be down here, but he just wanted somewhere nice to relax, and his walk certainly gave him somewhere to be. A nice, circular cave end was all that would lie at the end, it was almost perfect, so he went to the center and sat down.

The demon boy sat there for some time, not being able to see outside caused him to lose track of time, but it was obviously a while. This was his own peaceful time, time to channel ki throughout his body and mind and to master it just a little bit more each time. However, the lack of focus around him, and extensive focus within him caused him to be caught off guard. Because he hadn't been paying attention a very familiar voice called out to him from in front of him without him knowing they were there. Before he recognized the voice however, he quickly jumped to his feet and in a hostile stance, put his hand on the Ōdachi that was sheathed in his flak vest. Once he got a read on the persons face, his tensed up motions left him and he let go of the sword, returning to just a normal standing position.

"Atsuko..." he would mumble to himself, staring at the lady he had met once before. He'd shake his head for a second before giving a very forced smile. "Well, I'm just here to relax, you see, I came here once in the past, and I found it very well... calm and peaceful, a very nice place to spend time in... plus some things happened, I just, really need relax is all..." he would state very lowly, letting the hollow echo of the room be all that was needed to be heard. He slowly looked around the dull, circular room for a second before staring back at the woman.

"So uh, I assume you didn't come into this forest or this cave just to look for me, what brings you to the forest Atsuko? And uh, aside from that, how have you been, making good progress on getting stronger?" he would ask, trying to move the conversation into the other persons field for the time being. But his stance stayed very relaxed and calm, he didn't want to seem like the same word fumbling, stuttering boy he was back when they first met. Much had happened since they last met and his body was naturally trying to show it on its own.

Wc: 533
[Pl = 21,074 --> Heavy Weights Reduction= 5,286]

Bernael would nod to himself after she responded, and then just sort of responded to her with an "Alright, I wont keep anything" but he didn't say what was troubling him as it seemed that they would be exiting the cave for the time being. He just responded once more with a nod when she asked to take a walk. The demon boy followed close behind, making sure not to miss a step in terms of keep up with the woman. The lady would then respond to his other question, and he lit up just a little bit when he heard it. "Oh really? You have weighted equipment too?" Bernael would happily say, slowly taking off his jacket and flinging it over his shoulder, revealing the heavy flak vest that he was wearing underneath his jacket, as well at the sheath for his Ōdachi within the flak vest. "I wont lie, this weighted clothing stuff is sort of tedious if you aren't used to it, I see now why Tau wanted to take her own off when we were training with her" the boy added on, chuckling lightly while putting back on his jacket.

With a grin on his face, he would nod again, hearing the saiyan woman's next words. "Yeah, I know that I can count on you for help, there's a few others I think I can count on too, my journey and training has taken me quite far on those accounts." he would state right after she stopped her own words. Following close behind, Bernael would step outside with Atsuko and take a breath as well. He let on another very obviously faked smile "Yeah, its better than in the damped cave." was all he could say as he cocked his head for a second. The next words he heard shocked him a little bit as he didn't know how to really respond, but he calmed down and nodded to himself, realizing that he said he wouldn't keep anything from her and that he could count on her.

"Well, after we parted ways, I kept training for a while, and met a decent few people. I had a run in by a lake with a couple of boys, and later on I met another boy on a mountain top, it was quite strange but it was entertaining nonetheless." He said, not having any bad reaction to the words he was saying "Then, in this very forest I had a run in with a temple FILLED with ninja's, most of them were weak and got taken down in just one strike, I didn't use anything fatal of course as I was trespassing on accident. Though there was a big ninja named Ryougi, he was about on par with me, but I used my secret weapon on him and he stood no chance~ I made friends with them and they even thanked me for not killing them when I had the power to." he added on once more, with a very happy and proud tone.

However, right after that point, his face and mood dropped, as he took out his sword, revealing its blade, which was covered in very dried blood. "The most recent thing before I came back here, is why I am like this. I met a lady, some snake demon thing took her son away, I didn't really trust her that much, at first at least. But over the course of a few days time, I sorta grew to like her. She was an absolutely normal woman, like one that you would see in a town because she isn't ready for the outside world. Not a fighter, stuff like that, and she was the first human that I've met, who wasn't either family or a fighter, that actually didn't mind me being a demon, in fact she sounded quite relieved when I told her I was a demon, because I guess it boosted her thoughts on the success of getting her son back..." Bernael would trail on, still showing little to no emotion. "I was foolish... I fell in love with her over a couple of days because of her personality and how open she was with me, in fact, I spent more time with her than anybody else since I left my home. It was very nice. But, that demon took her too, I tracked her back down to its lair, and fought it, stealing its sword and killing it with it, the blood that came out of it didn't get off the sword... the son was okay and I returned him to his father... but" Bernael would slowly look over to stare Atsuko right in the eyes. "I lost her... to the demon that took her son... and I freaked out because I lost something I cared about, not even a few days after I got it... and it was all my fault, I got attached and she came with me... I could had sent her back home or something and retrieved the son on my own, I could have brought him back and both would be alright, I would never have gotten to know her, but I wouldn't have gotten too attached to get hurt from the loss" Bernael would add on, staring deep into Atsuko's eyes, all emotion he had earlier of the past stories, gone, except for two new ones, sadness that seeped from his eyes to go down his face, and anger, that seeped out with demonic energy from his entire body.


WC: 922
WC Total: 1455

Bernael would just sit there, seething after he finished his story, he hated bringing it up but he had to, he said he wouldn't leave anything out. But before his anger got too much higher, he was surprised to feel a hug from the person he was with. "W-What..." he would stutter out, not knowing what was going on before realizing that Atsuko was hugging him. His energy levels would slowly drain, and he would stop crying as he would slowly hug her back, very confused. He listened to her words with intent, realize that what she was saying was true, Naomi would probably want him to be happy, she didn't have any sadness or regret in her last words to him, just for him to carry out his mission. She obviously wanted him to continue on with his own life, and not to live in the shadows of hatred, that was one of the very reasons she came to like him in the first place. He slowly relaxed in Atsuko's hold as he was truly calming down to where he was out of any danger with his energy and emotions.

A smile would grow on his face as she looked him in the eyes and told him kind things. He nodded to her "Thank you, so very very much" was all he could make out before he took a small step back away from her. "Hmmm, I don't mind I suppose, it could be nice to spend some more time with you... but its also sort of funny that I can't talk you out of it~ Why is it that you wont accept a no for an answer hmmm?" he would say back in response to her next set of words, lightening his mood up a large bit, and none of it was faked at all. He sort of chuckled to himself, while getting into a palm striking pose, his right palm forward towards her, left palm by his side still pointing forward, with his left foot forward and his right foot towards the back. He looked almost serious about fighting, but then he chuckled once more and continued talking. "If I fought you to get away~ Would you knock me out and spend time together with my unconscious body?~" he would ask, in a near joking manner like he believed there was no way that it would come to that.

Right after, he would drop his pose and look up towards the sky among the forest treetops and the light that was barely poking in. "Hey uh, Atsuko, you said we are going to spend time together, and that there was no way I could talk you out of it and all, but I don't really know what we could do together right now, or here even. Do you have anything specific in mind for us to do?" He would ask quizzically, staring over at her with a pretty slight smile, seeing if she could come up with anything off the top of her head that they could do in the grove, or in the immediate area. "But if you don't have anything that you can think of, I'd be okay with trying to figure out something for us to do." He would then add on, smiling a pretty content smile as he would sorta lean back against the cave entrance, awaiting some sort of answer from the Saiyan woman.

WC: 572
WC Total: 2027

Bernael would chuckle softly at Atsuko's mentioning of a stubborn man, it sort of intrigued him but he wouldn't ask about it, and would wait to be introduced to him at a later point if he was going to be able to. He then just nodded to himself with a slight smile, "Well, I am glad that I am sort of going away from the trend of having to force people to accept, because I don't want to just be a broken record of things past for you, you know?" he would say back to her, slowly thinking to himself more about what they could do since she didn't seem to know. The boy was very intrigued and perked up a bit more when he heard her next words. "I like discovering things! The reason I am getting around all these places is to find my father, I want to meet him and learn more about myself, but I have no clues on where to find him. So I just sort of go exploring and try to discover whats in any place I come by. Its very fun and that's what I've been doing for the entirety of my journey since I left home. Though... that sort of stopped when I came back here, because I wanted peace and quiet to relax, but this is a lot more fun and entertaining already." he would say, staying in a very perky attitude throughout.

The signs of his sadness were completely gone, replaced by only happiness and glee, for the time being anyways as the future is unknown and so much could happen. But for the time being, he did a complete hundred eighty from his old mood. "But I think for now, I'd like to go explore this place some more, but I would like to mainly focus on talking probably, since we might not find anything for awhile, and would have to fit some talk time in there anyways~" he would then say, slowly making sure all of his stuff was with him and clothing correctly placed so that he would be ready to head out and look around some. Before too long, he ensure that it was indeed all there, and then would look back to Atsuko with a big smile. "Thank you a lot for coming and helping me like this, I wanted to be alone for peace and quiet and my own thoughts, but that wasn't helping me too much, turns out all I really needed was a good friend, and a lot of talking~" he would then state sort of enthusiastically and gratefully, making sure that his thank you was very sincere.

The overjoyed demon boy would then start to head out of the grove before looking to her once more and saying "I'm ready" as he would continue to make his way out past the pond and the entrance to the grove, sort of saying goodbye to it as he only was there for a short time, but he understood that it was time to leave for now, so he, without further hesitation would leave the grove unless Atsuko would stay behind for any further talking before heading out, in which case he would stay and listen, not wanting to be rude to his friend.

WC: 550
WC Total: 2577

For the first time in a short bit, the boy was very energetic and excited for good reason, and he was very happy to hear more about his friend's feelings. "Well, I can't say entirely for myself if it makes total sense, like..." the boy would say to himself while looking up in the air looking for his own words, "like, I understand the entire feeling good to help people thing, its why I helped search for that boy so easily, it just feels so good, like your working to benefit others instead of just yourself, which goes a long way in a world like this, but as for feeling something greater than yourself urging you on to do so? I can't say for sure if it makes sense to me yet." he would continue on, finally finding the bit of words that he wanted to use.

However, he would instantly study Atsuko again, taking notice of how alert her movements were, he realized that it was a walk through a forest where something could jump out and get ready to attack, so it was very good to keep an alert mindset. Once he realized this, he snapped himself into alert mode, but continued to listen and allow himself to enjoy the walking and talking. Before he knew it, Atsuko asked him something pretty personal, he wasn't quite sure if he had the right things to talk about it, as there wasn't much TO talk about his father, he thought on it for a very short time before finally talking.

"Well, the reason I talk about looking for my father a lot, but never end up describing his details is because, well, I've never met him ever. I don't even know if he knows I exist, or if he ever knew me from a baby stand point. I know it sounds silly to be looking for someone I know nothing about, and who possibly knows nothing about me, as I could meet him and not even know it, but... I just really want to go looking for him." He looked down momentarily, trying to think of what more to say "Plus, my father is the demon of my bloodline, and his bloodline took over, I can tell I am more demon than I am human, because of that... I know nothing about myself, all this energy seeping out of me, all these expenditures of power, I have no idea what they are or what makes them a part of me, and I really want to find it out. Sadly, my journey is getting weary, when I was last here in Fukurou Forest, I actually got trapped in a barrier and fell asleep in it without knowing it. I awoke in a very strange dream that left me off where I was asleep, and my dream state gave him a look AND a name, which is pretty silly in its own right, I am getting so tired of the lack of clues that my mind just filled in blanks for me~ Though the dream was very weird, and showed stuff to me that I didn't even know existed, so it might have been some weird future dream, who knows..." he would finally end off with, feeling satisfied with the review he gave.

"But yeah, my childhood didn't really have my father in it, aside from stories and thoughts of him, but never in person. But that stuff is more for if you're interested. Anyways, now that I talked your ear off, how about we swap sides again. What was your life like? Like as far back as you remember into your own childhood and such, I would like you to start from there and then go for a bit, then we can swap back to me~" Bernael would say, getting excited at the possibility of hearing his friends backstory a bit more.

WC: 651
WC Total: 3228

With a smile on his face, Bernael resolved to try his best not to say a word during Atsuko's telling of her childhood, he would of course react to it accordingly, but he didn't want to say anything, just use body language to show his thoughts. He nodded along to himself, hearing her explain her entrance to the world and the order she was apart of, it seemed that she didn't know of what came before that, but that was quite fine. He slowly realized that the thing she described was, something he was familiar with, but he would tell her more about that after her story was finished. Once the next part came, Bernael was sort of surprised, he tried his best to imagine a baby Atsuko with a violent streak, but he never knew her aside from what he saw her as right now, and the one time before. This caused, some problems with his imaging, as all he could picture was a stereotype baby with an adult Atsuko's head, it was sort of creepy how his mind worked towards that, but he decided not to laugh, aside from a very very low chuckle that could only slightly be heard.

He continued listening contently, and learned quickly how experienced she truly was, he was sort of happy to know he was friends with somebody so experienced, it could be something good if he was in a bind and needed someone he could depend on. But then he heard how the order worked, or per say, why they did all that training and studying. The Age of Demons beginning again? He guess it was alright, apparently a lot of people didn't care too much for demons, so it didn't surprise him that there was stuff out there like that. He was just really glad that he made friends with one instead of making enemies, but he just sincerely hoped that a day wouldn't come when he was forced to fight her due to her views and his lineage. He didn't mind that much though, he believed that their friendship could grow stronger than the views or lineage of their respective families. It was pretty much Romeo and Juliet without the warring factions and romantic sections, but that didn't really matter much. Bernael was very, very happy to hear her next words though, and the look that she gave him made him feel that it was even more truth. At the very least, he knew that as a demon, he was an exception to the her original thoughts of what demons it was leaning towards with the training, and he hoped that there could be more demons for that exception eventually. The demon boy would just nod to himself more as she continued her story, looking at her sword as she mentioned it and then back at her right after.

It was nice, being able to learn so much about someones past, he rarely got the chance to talk like this with someone else and it was extremely nice to him. But then he realized that the story had come to an end. "Thank you for sharing, it was very nice to hear a story from a good friend." He would say once it was over, and giving a tiny bit more time just to make sure that she was truly done. It was then that he finally decided to speak up about what he thought about earlier. "So you know that whole... shooting star pod thingy... I am pretty sure I encountered one of those earlier, one of those two boys I was talking about, came down in one of those." he said, rethinking over the facts he knew for sure. "The pod contained a very violent blue man though, it was all for good reason though, I think he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder or something. As he was very violent but it was obvious that he was thinking of things from the past. He looked pretty human though, all things considered, so it might be a story just like you, a human from space in a shooting star pod, though he looked matured and had history... so I don't really know what that's all about." he would conclude, holding his chin very slightly as he looked at the ground, not being able to remember much more of the events from that day. "Anyways... I'd be alright with telling you some more about me if you wanted to know more, though I understand if you want to talk more about the whole... pod thing." was all he'd end off with, slowly staring over at Atsuko as he waited for a response of some kind.

WC: 788
WC Total: 4016

Once more, the demon boy started to think about his past, as much as he could take from it at the very least. He was glad to have somebody so close to talk about all this stuff to, especially knowing that he has their full attention was a huge plus. "Well, I guess I should start with my early life... the earliest I can remember was a bit before I started my schooling, for some reason my mother thought it was a good idea to tell everyone ever, expressly stated everywhere, that I was part demon, it was almost as if she took pride in having a half demon son, though I guess she couldn't have done the backlash it would cause for my life." he would say, with a sigh, not even close to done.

"My mother was a very nice, petite woman. She didn't do very much, mostly staying at home preparing food, doing housework, and then she'd often go out with her friends when I was away. But she always tried to make sure to be there for me when I was there. She was very... worried about her previous decision that I talked about, I didn't hold a grudge against her or anything, she was taking it pretty hard herself and I would feel terrible for disliking her for it. As for her facial features, my hair and eyes are all hers, red, except I grew a lot taller than her genetics, and my features look nothing like her so I guess I got the rest from dad, or something..." he said to himself, trying to get as much information out to Atsuko about his past without skipping details to make it vague.

"Next would be, my school days, where there's not much going on... I tried making friends with anybody and everybody, but the entire thing that came to bite me was that my mom didn't pull any stops about me being a demon. Pretty much anybody who existed in my school knew about it on day one, and if they didn't, they were told it within the first two days... people were pretty ignorant about species in my town... apparently... not a single one of them cared if I was a nice demon, I had the blood in me and that made me the devil of the school, that everyone avoided at the time." he would continue on, thinking back to his past the best he could. "I pretty much dealt with it, in my mind at least, I tried to pay little attention to everyone disliking me and ignoring me that I just got in training time at home to release my anger. But before long, I went all the way into high school, where everything got just a little bit worse. Everyone there was afraid of me there, and if they weren't afraid, they hated me... they hated me so much that pretty much anyone who was a bully, targeted me and put a hit out on me, it was like a game to them, destroy the demon boy for being a demon." Bernael would then add on, he didn't look sad or anything, he just said it casually as he continued on.

"Hmmm, but I dealt with that pretty quickly, and trained just enough to get them to realize I was stronger, and to leave me alone. But you know how gossip works I suppose, it spread like wild fire that I was a demon who just hurt other kids in the school for the fun of it, and thus everything got worse, everyone was terrified of being killed, just because I was in a classroom with them. Then I quit altogether, and focused every day on training. I learned about my demonic energy when I was fighting against those kids, and the power intrigued me as to why I got it. That was when I fully resolved to find my father, and to ask him about demons, and about me... but I stayed home from about the age sixteen to nineteen, training at home until I felt ready to head out into the world. It has been such a short time since I left home, and I've grown so very much since then though, so my home training was mostly just holding me back to be honest. But yeah, I left home, and shortly after I arrived at that bamboo forest too, and I told you the rest of my story till now back at the grove." Bernael would finally say, trying to wrap everything up as nicely as he could. He was content with what he said, and didn't want to take it too much further unless it was asked of him to take something into detail. "Well, that's all I have to say about that Atsuko... if you have any more questions for me, go ahead and ask them... buuuut, before that happens, I want to ask, how does our relationship stand, between you and I? I guess the more direct question is what do you think about me..." he would ask himself, staring over at Atsuko with a smile on his face awaiting some kind of answer from her.

WC: 872
WC Total: 4888