Lost and Found

The woodland weather bit at her exposed skin, which had since turned a deep crimson. Layers of pearly cotton blanketed the ground surrounding her; truth be told, it hurt to look at. The sun reflected off of the untouched sheet and burned her eyes, the only redeeming disturbance being a trail of footprints that preceded her own. Of course, the forest lay silent as a torrent of snowflakes drifted down and onto her hair, before a slight murmur broke the silence.

Figures cloaked in black fell from the trees, their skin being indiscernible from the snow itself. Although the disturbance was sudden, she didn't seem startled in the slightest; in fact, it was almost as if she had expected it. With an expression almost as cold as the air around her, she simply stood in the center of what became a circle of the cloaked figures surrounding her; the figures seemed to flash across the snow unhindered, as they simultaneously dashed towards her. Nearly as quickly as they had moved, a small handgun had been retrieved from her bosom and sent a bullet ripping through the air and then the skull of one of the assaulters. In a matter of seconds, bouts of magic had been fired from both sides and soon after it became silent again.

The snow was stained with a deep crimson, as various weapons of torture lie next to the cloaks that riddled the ground. With the figures now incapacitated, she reached out her arm towards a massive spruce tree that stood across from her; four knotted coils of rope now lie on each of the branches of the tree. With surprising ease, the surviving assailants were hoisted up onto each of the ropes, hanging by their neck. There was little struggle, and one by one their bodies went limp as quiet gasps for air were heard; she now stood directly across from the tree and simply stared on at the scene, the only noise now being the gentle blow of the wind that rocked the hanging figures to and fro.

The sound of heavy footsteps engraving themselves into the soft snow was heard throughout the eerily silent forest as a mysterious young man wearing a dark jacket accompanied by a white scarf made his way through the scenery. The man let out a sigh as his hot breath became visible due to the clearly below normal temperature cooling his breath and he stopped in his tracks, eyes glancing over in several directions.

"I've been here before..." He worded with uncertainty as he grew frustrated with how his trip to scout another potential recruit for his expanding guild had taken a rather irritating turn. Everything had gone smoothly up until this point — up until the part where had entered this damn forest and had gotten lost! Tetsuya had many strengths and many weaknesses and clearly, this was one of the latter as he didn't think finding a dangerously psychotic mage on the loose in the middle of the forest would be this difficult.

Before he could think any more of the matter of escaping this hell hole, Tetsuya felt a shiver go down his spine as a chilly wind blew past his shoulder, both surprising and altering him of something potent in the air. What was that? It was a very ominous feeling, as if something terrible had happened as Tetsuya's nose picked up an unforgettable scene that he knew all too well given his past history of slaying anyone who stood in his way.

"Blood? ...And alot of it too..." Things usually never went well when the stench of blood and corpses was this potent in the air but to Tetsuya, who was on a mission to find someone who could directly be responsible for it, the smell was like a beaming signal as his soft lips formed into a small grin.

"I've got you now..."

Mere moments later, he had taken off to follow after that stench, efficiently making use of his own Lightning Magic to increase his speed to the point that he looked like a blur cruising through the forest at an alarming rate. It didn't even take him half a minute later before he jumped into the air and landed on the branch of a nearby tree, eyes now narrowing at the scene before him. Four corpses hoisted up by a rope that was tied to a tree while the usually white and pure snow surrounding them was now stained with the color of red as their blood became etched into the very soil of the ground beneath him. Finding four dead bodies wasn't much of a surprise to the experienced Tetsuya — it was who that was standing in front of those bodies that made his body quiver in both anxiousness and excitement at having finally found the person he was looking for as he took in her delicate features.

A slender body, dark purple hair, and an expression that made even the most hollow of tunnels look full in comparison as her blank eyes conveyed the lost emotion that plagued her heart. This was definitely his target, there could be no mistake of that as Tetsuya jumped from the tree branch and landed a few feet away from the idle young girl, who apparently had noticed his presence but had yet to say anything.

"So..." Tetsuya began as he tied the scarf around his neck tighter  and lazily laid his hand against the katana tied around his waist. , the temperature seemingly falling even lower than before as perhaps a build up to the clear tension between these two unfamiliar faces,  "I take it that you're the wandering nut job whose been hunting down all types of undead creatures in this area?" He had gotten this information from a a trusted old friend and there was no reason to doubt it as he had already verified that those corpses hung over there were clearly not human.

A voice broke the silence that had fell upon the forest once more; it wasn't admittedly unusual to her, as she was often capable of detecting those who approached her in advance. With glazed eyes and emotionless face, she turned her body to face the source of the noise, a man who sat on the branch of a large tree much like a predator waiting for the perfect moment to strike. At first, she was silent, simply allowing her eyes to drill directly into the man's skull as her breath visibly floated in front of her.

"Good. You've heard of me."

Her voice was flat and lacked any emotion, but she had tilted her head in such a way that almost seemed playful; it was truly unlike her to do so, but something about the situation had definitely peaked her curiousity. With her finger, she outlined the pattern of the firearm that she still held in her hand; she'd use it if need be, but as of now this stranger posed no threat to her, as he appeared human. After all, she was crazy, but not crazy crazy. She then narrowed her right eye slightly, as if examining the subject before her, "I don't consider myself particularly mad... not anymore at least, since I've realized everyone is a little demented in their own way. It just takes the right event to set it off, like a row of dominos..." In the way she talked, it seemed like she was narrating, as though her words were not directed towards the man himself, but rather at some sort of omniscient being. The sentence rolled off of her tongue with ease, as though she had recited it time and time before. After she had finished, there was a stretch of what seemed like forever, where neither spoke

"I like your scarf..." she finally spoke, in a matter-of-fact manner.

"....Okay, so she's definitely a nut job" Tetsuya didn't know much about his target as the information his associate had on her was lacking in a few areas. However, just based on her emotionless disposition, her utter lack of sympathy regarding the undead, and her acknowledgement of her mental state being nowhere near sane, clearly her brain had a few screws loose. Heh, well it wasn't as if a little crazy had ever stopped him before as a friendly and somewhat charming smile graced his lips.

Tetsuya was quick to acknowledge her praise of his gifted scarf as he softly touched it. "I like it as well. It was a gift from a dragon" He worded with a half joking, half serious demeanor as he didn't expect her to believe that last part. I mean, who really would?

Tossing that to the side for now, Tetsuya stepped a few inches closer as he brought his hand to his chin and looked over the girl's body from top to bottom. "Your quite different than I imagined you would look like. I didn't expect the terror of the undead to be such a cute little girl, color me surprised" A teasing sort of laugh escaped his mouth as Tetsuya's body language and expression led her to believe he was actually comfortable in her presence. And why wouldn't he be? Tetsuya was the guild master of a guild filled with all sorts of nut jobs, what would another one matter at this point?

Her chest began rising and lowering at a quick pace, as if she were trying to breath heavily; she then opened her mouth and let out a laugh that was audibly forced. While she was hysterically laughing, her eyes did not change at all, and her eyebrows did not rise at all; her laughter was simply robotic and frankly disturbing, unsettling to the point of fear for some. After her "laughter" had subsided, she lifted her finger up to her blank eye and wiped away a tear that didn't exist, and with rigid motion she crossed her arms before her face relaxed into it's normal emotionless state, rather than the forced smile she had put on prior. "You're here for a reason. What is it." Her words dripped with venom, and the sentence itself wasn't even phrased as a question, but rather a demand.

She blinked slowly, lifting her eyelids up at a pace that seemed abnormally delayed. "I don't suppose it's about my pals here, is it? I know they're a couple of party animals, we just got back from a pretty crazy party, sorry if they disturbed anyone. I think we'll be on our way home soon officer, thanks for the warning." Her words were even stranger as she spoke them, as it was indiscernible of whether or not her statement was sarcasm or if she quite literally believed that was the situation. As though the man simply ceased to exist, she turned her heel and began to simply walk in the opposite direction with no concern for what the man had to say, or that he was even there in the first place.

"...."

Tetsuya said nothing as he watched the girl in front of him "laugh" incredulously as the chilling winds blew past both of them. Perhaps "laugh" was the wrong choice of words as there was no way you could consider what that was just now a laugh of any sort and Tetsuya oddly wondered how exactly a human being could pull off such a monotone laugh like that but let it escape his mind for now as he had more important things to attend too. When prompted on his reasoning for why he had confronted her, a whimsical feeling began to overtake Tetsuya as he pondered the matter. Should he just come clean and admit that he wanted to fight her to get a good estimation of her strength? But that would be rather anti-climatic after coming all this way. He wanted to tease her a bit more, see if he could get a better gauge of her personality as all sorts of ideas floated inside of his mischievous mind.

Surprisingly, the girl hadn't even allowed him to respond as she briskly turned away, clearly intent on leaving without even hearing him out. A snort came from the amused Tetsuya as this was certainly not the first time he had been ignored, by a lady no less as his body vanished instantly, reappearing only a few inches in front of the mildly surprised purple haired girl.

"Well that's just rude, you didn't even let me introduce myself yet. You can't just leave before we get to know each other" He could tell that she wasn't pleased or amused by his teasing demeanor but that mattered little to the ambitious guild master as he smiled widely, that same charming smile he was infamously known for plaster his tanned face.

"You can call me Tetsuya young lady. May I ask what your name is?" His tone was polite but also stern as he had no intentions of letting her leave without satisfying his endless curiosity. Anyone who knew Tetsuya well enough knew that once he had his eyes on something, he would stop at nothing to have it for himself.

As Tetsuya appeared in front of her, she contemplated just walking straight over him... she decided against it. "Of course you can ask, but telling is another thing." This time, her sarcasm was very blatant, there was no hiding it this time. At the silence that she recieved as a response, she spoke "Well of course I know it... it's uh... J-uhh... Jeremy? Junko!" she replied with a strange enthusiasm, even though she had apparently forgotten her name. She then quickly returned to her normal slate faced demeanor, as her eyes suddenly glazed over once more. "What do you want." Her words were cold and concrete, much like her expression.

"I have places to go and demons to crucify, so if you'll excuse me," she claimed, before stepping up towards him, with the intent of simply walking past.

"Well aren't you a funny one" Tetsuya laughed, playing on her sarcastic response as he didn't expect such a childish but amusing response from the emotionless undead hunter glazing at him. Looks like his plan worked, he was beginning to learn more about her with each passing second.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Junko. I'm the guild master of Dawn Horizon, a pretty nifty guild that's pretty well known on this continent, you may or may not have heard of it" Tetsuya wore a prideful smirk as there was no greater joy in his life than announcing himself as the leader of such a powerful and infamous guild as the one he had come to create. A family for those who shared similar scars and pains in their life.

Seeing as Junko's expression didn't look as if she was impressed or cared much about where he came from or what guild he was apart of, Tetsuya found it appropriate to speed things up a bit as he reached his hand out and patted her on her small and delicate head with a playful smirk.

"I've come all this way to verify myself if the undead hunter I've been looking for really lives up to her reputation" He knew what he was doing was the same as practically stepping on a land mine, what with making physical contact with a potentially mass murdering psycho, but he didn't care, he had been like this since the day he was born and that wasn't going to change anytime soon. Not for her or anyone.

"I'm also interested in discovering why such a cute young girl like yourself has such a dead look in her eye..." He worded this last part with a bit more seriousness as he couldn't deny his curiosity in getting to know Junko better and perhaps finding out how she had become what she was now. She must have had her own reasons for doing what she did and Tetsuya was planning on finding out.