Even after everything was said, Krisa was quiet. She was pretty vocal up until that point and it made Raven slightly worried. Had admitting he could smell better than people broken her or something? He was about to reach out and poke her when her arm shot out for his face. He twisted slightly so her hand went by his face, but couldn't grab his sunglasses. He then stepped back a step or two.
"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop attacking me," Raven said shaking his head slowly. His hands stayed by his side, though he quickly shoved them into his pockets. A sign that he didn't want to fight her. His sword was, however, still present. And he could feel his magic surging at the sudden excitement. It wasn't visible just yet, but he knew the more excited he got the more ready his magic was. "It won't end well for you."
Rena grumbled again. And didn't reply. She was really done talking, since this guy either gave a completely confusing answer or one that made perfect sense, but was obviously either a joke or a dodging the question kind of answer thing. Rena reached up and was about to grab at his sunglasses again when she felt a funny kind of feeling coming off of him. So, instead of stopping her hand from attacking his face again, she waved it over his body, feeling kind of silly and seeming kind of silly, but was in reality genuinely curious.
Hn, Rena thought. There was nothing that she could see or actually feel, but yet something was off. Raven wasn't the same as before. And somehow, the sword he was carrying seemed to suddenly stick out more than it had before. Both of them had weapons, so his shouldn't have bothered her so much, but it did. She wanted to grab it away from him. That and his glasses. But Raven was still not really well known to Rena, and he could do something drastic if she kept pushing it. But... she really wanted to.
So the girl reached out and ignored his last statement. Nothing ended well for her, anyways, so what was yet another incident going to mean? If it killed her... well, he wasn't in a guild so no one would probably get him in trouble there/congratulate him, in the case of some of those dark guilds. But either way, this guy had this warm and fuzzy feeling that made Rena confident that he wouldn't maim her permanently or kill her, even if provoked. Rena's hand wildly went for the sunglasses again.
He didn't move when she waved her hand over him. It was a reminder that he wasn't human anymore, and that he probably felt different than a human when provoked. Then she lunged at him again, and he dodged. This time he stuck out his leg in in the process to trip her. Whether it worked or not he jumped back, putting some distance between them and sighed. "So troublesome..."
"This is your last warning," Raven sounded genuinely angry now. Though he didn't pull his hands out of his pockets, the already bigger man seemed to be bigger as his temper flared. "If you come at me again I'm going to belt you. Hard. And unlike you I'm going to mean it!"
Rena landed on her backside with a growl. Geez, she had no reflexes. And she'd failed to grab the guy's sunglasses, too. Sitting there in the dirt, Rena watched Raven curiously as he jumped back and muttered something, his grin gone. Mission accomplished, Rena thought with a bit of satisfaction. That laid-back attitude had really been getting on her nerves, so even if her main goal hadn't been achieved (getting a look at his eyes), she had still managed to get rid of that expression.
Only... now he seemed to be slightly angry. Nope, scratch that, he was definitely getting to be angry, since she was now on her last warning, which the girl had no intentions to stop at. Even though he hadn't moved besides leaping away and tripping her, he somehow seemed to have grown a bit in stature. This piqued the girl's curiosity, and she ignored the situation she was in, slowly getting to her feet before walking a bit closer and then holding a hand over his head.
"... Oh, nope. Still the same size as before-- a lot taller than me." Rena paused and looked at the man, who was now only a few inches away from her. "Okay, I'm going to attack again. But first-- won't it be really awkward for you to try and hit me with your belt? Are you even wearing one? Shouldn't you check that before making threats like this? And ... well, I can ask that after I get hit." And with that lingering in the air, Rena patted him on the head and then stomped on his foot, hard, before aiming for his sunglasses yet again.
He didn't move as she approached outside pulling his hands out of his pockets. She admitted to still being willing to attack him, and then she went on about how he was going to attack her with his belt. Not what he'd meant but she'd find out soon enough. And she would. He looked her square in the eyes as she stomped on his foot unflinchingly. What transpired next was pretty fast.
As she reached for his sunglasses his right arm shot out quite fast. The goal was her solar plexis, and with enough force to knock the wind out of her. Raven was inhumanly strong, and he knew it. What he didn't know was the limit to his strength. If that connected, he would then take a shot at her face with the intended goal of knocking her out. If not, he was in a position to dodge her hand again.
Since Rena had been expecting something weird and largely inappropriate with Raven and his belt, she'd immediately turned around and jumped away, covering her eyes. "I didn't see anything, good..." The girl muttered. Then she turned back around, and saw him standing there, poised to move away from her again if need be. Eh? He wasn't holding his belt or anything. Hmm...
Rena studied Raven a bit closer. "Ne, what did you do? Did you decide it was awkward after all? She could see that yes, he was wearing a belt. And his arm was also slightly out in front of him, like he was prepared to throw a punch at her. Or he had just finished. ...Hm? Did he try to punch her?
"You know, it's not very nice to say something that could be potentially awkward, in order to embarrass someone, then try to hurt them in a different way! Even though... I lie a lot...But anyways. Why are you so against me seeing what your eyes look like?" Rena paused to step closer to Raven again. What was it that he was hiding, what was it that he cared so much about? She lied a lot, yeah, but for trivial reasons. She didn't have anything to hide, and she wanted to know what he did.
When she jumped away he took a relaxed ready stance. Only for her to start asking questions. At which Raven couldn't help but laugh. So that's what she was thinking? He suppose if one were to take it literally then it did in fact sound like he was going to take off his belt and slap her around with it. Maybe if it were a life and death situation... "Is that really what you thought?"
"I'm going to belt you means I'm going to punch you really hard. At least that's how I've heard it used," He was relaxing more, though he was sure if he was provoked it would definitely end painfully for whoever did thee pushing at this point. Then he tensed up slightly when she admitted what her target was, and his response was somewhat annoyed. "If something shamed you, you wouldn't want to show it off... right?"
Rena blinked at his words. Is what what she really thought? Just as she was about to say something, Raven of course interrupted her, but this time explaining what the word belt actually meant. The girl nodded along, but internally was still confused. Why didn't he just say "I'm going to hit you!" instead of making it confusing. Maybe he really had purposefully made it confusing. Raven was a strange guy, after all...
His last phrase made her just as annoyed as he seemed to have become at her own questions. What kind of question was that? "Well, duh. Of course I wouldn't want to show it off. But you're not showing it off, you're actually dodging all of my attempts to grab your glasses off. And if I succeeded, it's not like you took your sunglasses off and presented your eyes and whatever is wrong with them or what you think is wrong with them, to me. You didn't happen to prepare a speech, right?" And with that, the girl cocked her head, waiting for a response.
"...So if you don't get your way you'll just force it?" Raven asked, a dangerous undertone to his voice. He clenched his fists, her attitude blatantly bothering him, and he was making no attempts to hide that it bothered him. It was, however, taking self restraint from flying off the handle. Something neither him, nor this city, nor this misguided girl could afford. He took a deep breath to try and relax himself.
"If you're not willing to open up, then you shouldn't expect others to," Raven chided instead. Though, his voice still had that edge. One that he was trying to hold back.His gaze stayed fixed on Rena. "And you shouldn't force something you're not capable of handling. You lack the strength, conviction, and determination to face the truth in my eyes. All you have is ignorant stubbornness. And while you might be okay with that, I'm not willing to cough up my past for such selfish reasons."
"I didn't prepare that one," He said, sounding more like the carefree Raven she'd met before. But this time the grin was a little more forced.
Rena backed away, but didn't look sorry whatsoever. And she wasn't, and had no intention to pretend that she was either. "No, I wouldn't. And I stopped attacking you after you explained, didn't I?" Rena stopped talking and her eyes darkened. Whatever she said, it wasn't going to help the situation right now.
The guy kept talking, berating her about acting in a hypocritical fashion. She already knew that. She wasn't an idiot. Rena took a deep breath and forced herself to concentrate on what he was saying even though really all she was thinking about was how many people had told her the same exact thing before. And they were all right, weren't they? Rena thought to herself, smiling widely. They were right, but we were never wrong. The girl looked evenly into Raven's eyes-- or at least, into his sunglasses-- and replied once he finished with his little speech, which he kindly informed her was not rehearsed. Letting out the deep breath, she opened her mouth to talk and controlled her voice as best as she could manage.
"So just say that. Okay, so you don't want to say that just because I want you to say it. But honestly, some people can take a hint. I can't. And yeah, I need to learn how to, but to be honest... I can ignore a hint, and I know that you do it plenty of the time, based on what you've said and done in our interactions throughout this day. Ignorance is not okay, sure, whatever. And I like to run away from the truth. So what? SO WHAT? I don't get it-- are you just trying to figure out whether I know this? I do. Are you trying to get me to change? You don't have to say anything. I won't force you to do anything. There's plenty of people who do that kind of stuff already, and obviously you think that I do, and maybe that's true. Just..."
Rena cut herself off when she noted the sun's position in the sky. After traveling around, she had become familiar with being able to tell the time, and it was obviously getting to be around when she was supposed to be at the shoppe to meet her old... friend. Rena glared at Raven, waiting for a response. If she just ran away he would probably get all angry again.
Raven closed his eyes and listened. It was a similar answer to what he predicted, but he was by no means pleased with it. Mistakes he and others like him came to mind. Shadow Heart attacking the light guilds. Valand's second invasion. The return of the dragons with general Nox. He ran from the truth all those times, and someone always got hurt. In the end, the last time he nearly killed himself.
"So you're just going to run from the truth?" Raven asked her after a moment. His fury quickly left him as he sighed. He didn't know how to put the pain he felt into words. It was a loot more difficult than he thought it'd be. "As long as you run, that pain deep down is going to follow you, and you're just going to hurt everyone around you."
"...Go." Raven said after a moment. He turned to walk away but fully intended to find out what she was up to. That much hadn't changed. "When you're done with your business I'll probably be around town somewhere."
Rena watched him, deeply angry. So, it seemed that he was no longer furious with her, but she still wasn't in a good mood. She hadn't been, for this entire day. The girl paused in her thoughts as Raven's words rang through her. As long as you run, that pain deep down is going to follow you... When had she last been in a good mood? She couldn't remember. Rena continued to listen to him. Something in his words made it obvious that even though fury was no longer built up and ready to explode within him, there was still something there that was heavily weighing on his words.
The second part of his sentence hadn't registered in her mind yet, and her mind skipped directly to his dismissal phrase. Not bothering to reply, Rena turned around and marched away, but suddenly froze in her tracks when that last part of his prediction... or observation, hit her, and immediately caused the girl to errupt in anger. But she continued to walk, simply shouting at him in her head. Rena was done here, or at least for now. If he found her again wandering around town... well. That would be fate. But she wouldn't go looking.
As the girl walked away, she fumed. Ha! I'm going to hurt everyone around me? They don't care. And I hurt you, hm? Well... I don't mind. There's no one around me that I care about. All of my friends are gone. Everyone that I can trust is gone. And with that phrase lingering in her mind, Rena stalked off in a random direction. The appearance of the shoppe had been described to her, so even if a map was useless and she had no idea where it was, the girl would probably make it in time for... well, she would see exactly what they wanted.
