soul_logs | [Closed]

It had been a little over a week since his arrival in Death City and Kratos had already become quite accustomed to everything (though the situation still somewhat annoyed him). The layout of the city had been easy enough to memorize, the Weapon transformation, while strange, wasn't all that difficult to do and he'd found something productive to do via involving himself in The Watch.

Incidentally, his shift ended moments ago and now he was headed back to the apartment. It was a bit of a walk from the park, but not all that great a distance in the eyes of the former knight Traveling several miles at most paled in comparison to traversing the world, after all.

It was then that Anise spotted a familiar red head in the distance. With a smirk, she decided to walk up and introduce herself once more to him. If she was lucky, maybe she can convince him to go get some dinner for her! It was a bit of a bother to eat alone.

"Hello there, do you remember cute little ol' me~?"

A somewhat familiar voice caught his ears right as he was about to round a corner. Upon glancing toward the direction it originated from, he spotted a certain pig-tailed girl coming over to him. Despite her appearance not being one he'd recognized, the definitely voice rang a bell. If memory served, this was the girl he'd considered a poor actress.

"You'd be Anise, correct?"

For a moment, Anise stared at him. He's almost as tall as the colonel, she thought to herself, but she wasn't going to let herself be intimidated by that. She kept her smile and continued to play it cute.

"That's right and you're Kratos?" A light giggle. "It's good to finally meet you in person!"

That stare caused him to raise an eyebrow at Anise. Instead of commenting, however, the angel ignored that and gave a small nod at her words. "You as well."

Seeing as she'd been the one to initiate conversation it meant the girl had something to say. Should that not be the cause, Kratos'd politely inform her to contact him at a later time. While the occasional pointless chatter didn't bother him all that much, a long day of patrolling and training made him prefer to avoid it if at all possible.

Oh, don't worry, Kratos. Anise was planning on something. With a smirk, she continued her response.

"So, Kratos, are you planning on getting dinner or are you planning on going back to your apartment~? If you are planning, you want to get some dinner with me?"

"I had no intention of going out, actually." Blunt. Very blunt. Better he be honest than lie about already having plans or some foolish excuse of that sort. He just hoped that she'd pick up on the underlying meaning of that sentence, which was 'and I have no intention of doing so now'. "Perhaps you might find someone else to accompany you."

"But why not?" She pouted at him. "It wouldn't be very nice to leave a little girl out of her own! In a place as strange as Death City, don't you think it would be appropriate to have someone look out for me?" She continued with her speech. There was no way she was going out to eat alone. "I mean...it is Death City, you don't know what's going to happen."

Of course, the girl could clearly take care of herself after spending years with Mohs and being Ion's guardian. However, Kratos didn't need to know that.

Those were some good points raised, however Kratos' will still held firm. That pout also had little to no effect on the man. Giving in to such childish tactics, like pouting, had never been something he'd done nor was about to start doing, either. "You managed to make it here without an escort, certainly you're capable of doing so once more."

"That's because I live near this park. They didn't get a chance to get me yet!" She wasn't going to give up that easily! "Aren't you afraid that I might get killed? There are quite a few shady people here that are a lot bigger than me. I'm only 5'1 and there are certainly many others taller than me!"

One can almost hear a crack start to form in that iron will of his. Anise was very petite, but size rarely ever was indicative of fighting abilities. Then again, size didn't really matter if one were caught off guard. That almost made him consider accompanying her. Almost.

His rational thinking, thankfully, prevented that. People walked around the city at night and The Watch always had someone on duty. Surely she'd be fine on her own... "There are numerous individuals around who would come to your aid should someone attempt to harm you."

"By then it might be too late! They might try to attack me from behind and I doubt I would be able to make a sound if I'm knocked out." Why are you making this difficult Kratos? "And besides, if I were to call the Watch, how long do you think it would take for them to arrive? This is a pretty big city full of criminals! Wouldn't want that to go on your conscious do you?"

Did she finally convince him? Perhaps but she wasn't sure considering how his face usually stayed the same. If it didn't, then she will keep on trying.

His conscious wasn't the problem in this case; it was his knightly sense of duty to protect those incapable of protecting themselves. Quite honestly, Kratos was positive that Anise was exaggerating on purpose to get him to agree. Even so, she raised points which made that nagging sense of duty overpower any logic. What if someone really does attack her? What if she truly lacked the ability to fight off an attacker? What if his presence would prevent that?

Hear that? It's the sound of that will crumbling. Normally, the man took pride in acting with accordance to those knightly codes. This time, however, he really wished didn't. Still, one more attempt to weasel out of this couldn't hurt. "...You're certain you cannot go by yourself?"

"If I didn't, I wouldn't have asked you!" She said as she sensed Kratos's will to argue to crumble. With a mental smirk, she was telling herself that this was going to plan. She could always give him some cookies later as thank you but she was happy that he was starting to go with her. Then she pointed to the doll on her back.

"Oh wait, you forgot about Tokunaga! He counts too!"

Kratos just stared at Tokunaga for a moment. That was a doll. A girl with a doll. A girl with a doll who'd just described how she might be abducted and how no one might be able to come to her aid.

There went whatever ounce of willpower he had to deny her request. Regardless if she was manipulating him (and he was certain she was), allowing Anise to go off alone now would be something he couldn't do. A small sigh escaped him at the fact that relaxing after a long day now seemed out of the question. "...Where is it that you would like to go?"

Mission Accomplished.

With a mental smirk, she couldn't believe that she managed to get Kratos to go with her. However, she was going to milk it for all its worth. "Hehe, thank you so much, Mister Kratos! I'm going to the Northern Lights to get some dinner! Let's hurry!"

All this just made Kratos glad he didn't have children. Unless those children were like Mithos, that he could handle. Having a child like Anise, however, would've driven him up a wall.

"Dinner will still be available regardless of whether or not we hurry." As in they were walking at a slow, steady pace. If he was going to be manipulated in such a way, he might as well make it difficult.

Little does he know that Anise would do just about anything to protect her parents. However, there was no way that she was going to tell him that just yet.

"Booooo!" She pouted at him. "Fine...but I still don't see the point in walking so slowly..."

That pout got completely ignored as he started walking, slowly. "Consider it a valuable lesson in learning to be less obvious when manipulating someone." He deadpanned without so much as glancing at her. Anise might as well be aware that her victim knew what she'd been up to and that there were repercussions for her actions, even if said repercussions were just walking about as fast as a snail.

She glared at him and decided not to say anything back to him. He was right though, she did need to make it less obvious when she was manipulating others. However, this has been her style for the longest time, she needed to find more gullible people.

In the meantime, she mumbled. "We might as well get there when it's closing time..."

That little comment caused him to glance over at her. Somehow he felt that this portion of the evening was going to end up being more exhausting than the patrol itself. "Your skills of exaggeration require some improvement, as well." Really, they weren't walking that slow. Not like her complaining would change his mind regarding their pace, either.

As he turned his field of vision back towards at the street ahead, he added. "At the pace we're going, it should not take us more than 30 minutes to arrive and it's highly doubtful any eating establishment would close its doors at around 6:40 in the evening." It would be foolish to close a restaurant during hours at which people ate dinner, albeit a slightly belated one.

She mumbled some more before looking back at Kratos. Who did he think he was? Her father? Then again, she had no right to criticize him either. He was willing to go with her to dinner and he was probably just a stick in the old mud anyway. "It's a skill that I like!"

"Yeah but who knows what might happen, they might close early for certain reasons tonight!" Although Anise wasn't that hungry from the baking lesson earlier today, she was someone who was impatient.

That continuous, disgruntled mumbling caused him to sigh once more. Why couldn't all children be like Mithos? Good kids that rarely --if ever!-- complained about just walking and simply did it. Really, the less she'd whine, the faster this would go. Not that she particularly irritated him with ordinary complaining (being friends with Yuan made him more than tolerant of such things), but he preferred to do without it, if at all possible. "That's a risk we'll just have to take."

"Hmph..." She said before quietly walking to the restaurant once more. She did have to admit, he was definitely more patient than she thought. Yes, she was complaining but most people would have said sighed in annoyance or just scream back at her. Oh well, she thought, she wanted him to come along so she doesn't have much of a choice but to deal with him.

As they continued walking, it was starting to get a little too quiet for her. "So...found a job yet?"

Good, she appeared to have ended her complaining. Despite that little performance, she did at least know when to stop such behavior. That was already more than some people who would've continued doing that regardless of whether or not it was effective.

Now normal conversation he didn't mind, though he would've minded it less were he not tired, but there was no helping that now. At her question, he nodded. "I've joined the Watch."

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