When Loki heard Riveria's cold voice, she immediately separated from Hestia and sat down, behaving like a good kid, "Oh~. Good afternoon to you, Kisuke-kun. It seems that you're busy with something."
Hestia growled at her, but she also noticed Riveria's aura and chose not to do anything for now.
"I've been anticipating your arrival, so I prepared the things that we would need." Kisuke explained simply, "By the way, just what did you do, Loki-sama?"
With all seriousness, she answered, "What any other person would do after receiving 'that'."
Kisuke, in response, nodded in understanding, "I see, so you showed it to everyone." He then flashed a grin, "As expected of Loki-sama~."
Returning the grin, Loki responded, "I knew you would understand me~."
A loud slap on the table suddenly rang out followed by a frustrated and angry voice, "Shut up!"
Everyone looked towards the embarrassed and blushing Elf, "Loki... Should I hang you again?"
"Nope! I won't say anything about it anymore!" Loki reeled back as she recalled how, after she returned with everyone, Riveria hanged her in the bath house with a blindfold over her eyes while everyone was bathing. A simple punishment, but for someone like Loki, it was torture not being able to see or touch anything when she knew, that there were naked and beautiful maidens around her.
Riveria then turned to Kisuke and gave him a glare, "Why do you have something like that!? And why did you give it to her!?"
And with an annoying casual smile, he replied, "I told you, right? I have multiple pieces of insurance on hand. And why did I give it to her? It's because I can!" Putting both of his hands on his waist, Kisuke showed how proud he was with what he did.
Without saying another word, Riveria grabbed the Magna Alfs, Riveria's silvery-white staff that is made from mithril and holydite, which was hard enough that it can also be used as a makeshift bludgeoning weapon, and hurriedly stood up with a rage-induced expression.
Riveria raised her staff in an attempt to smack Kisuke on the head. But just before she started, she quickly adjusted her strength so that it would only result in a small lump at worst and wouldn't do any further damage. But just as she was about to bring down her staff with the might of a woman scorned, a slip of paper suddenly fell out of Kisuke's sleeve.
That caught her attention and she took a quick peek at it. She would, however, regret that action as she saw it was the photo of her on that fateful night, the same one that Loki had, and the thing she had only just destroyed by burning it and spreading its ashes in the air.
Changing her priority, she ignored Kisuke and went after the photo to catch it and destroy it again. But just as she was about to reach her desired goal, a cane instantly appeared before her left leg out of nowhere. This resulted in her tripping on said cane without being able to react.
Riveria, just before she could catch the photo, fell face-first on the floor.
Kisuke and the shocked audience were expecting a quick retaliation and he prepared for it by setting up multiple magic circles that would hinder her movements through annoying inconveniences.
However, their expectations were broken when Riveria didn't move after falling. While Hestia and Line's mind already stopped working after what happened, Kisuke and Loki went silent in anticipation of what would happen next.
After a few more seconds, there was finally a movement from the Elf. Slowly but surely, she sat up. Everyone noticed that her nose and forehead were red from the fall just now, but strangely enough, she just had a blank expression.
At this point, Kisuke's predicted future didn't happen. He was hoping that Riveria would continue coming after him so that he could show her the usefulness of his magic and while at it, assert dominance. The next thing, however, completely caught him off-guard as tears suddenly began dropping from her eyes.
"Eh?" Kisuke and Loki simultaneously muttered, not knowing what to do.
Riveria raised her hand to her face to feel her tears, "...Eh?" Even she was confused at what was happening, but she was able to understand it slowly, her face was also slowly changingfrom a blank expression to a crying face as she tried to wipe her tears with her hands but to no avail, "Sniffle"
"EH!?" Kisuke and Loki exclaimed.
Riveria has always been treated with respect ever since, even by her enemies. She had also gone through many challenges in her almost one century of life, almost losing her life several times. Those challenges were what tempered and shaped her today into a very strong, calm, and collected woman that guides her comrades and was often mistaken as a mother figure of the Loki Familia.
However, no one could expect, even Riveria herself, that her breaking point would be some teasing, which, as it turned out, she didn't have much resistance against in the slightest.
Of course, not everything came from Kisuke's move just now. Stress also played a big role in her breakdown as she just returned from a very exhausting and common sense breaking expedition into the deeper floors of the Dungeon.
In addition to that, Riveria immediately tried to meet Kisuke whom the mysterious man in the Dungeon referred to and tried to establish a good relationship with him, even going as far as facilitating the deal between his Hestia Familia and her Loki Familia personally. If Riveria wasn't looking after this deal personally, Finn wouldn't even agree to anything as there was too much risk for them to deal with the unknown and mysterious Kisuke Urahara.
And after Kisuke's 'teasing', which included the recorded sound, picture, and lastly, her tripping and landing face first, she felt betrayed. It was as if all of her hard work was a joke in front of him. Stress, dissatisfaction, resentment, ill-feeling, and feelings of betrayal, all of that came crashing down when she fell down, breaking through her almost century years old facade.
"*Sniffle* *Sniffle*" Riveria tried to wipe her tears out of embarrassment but it continued to flow without any signs of stopping. At this point in time, Riveria was already incredibly confused and didn't know what to do.
Seeing her current state, Kisuke immediately went into his 'coaxing mode' and hurriedly kneeled down in front of the crying Riveria while taking out a white handkerchief to wipe her tears, "I'm sorry, it's my fault."
Riveria slapped Kisuke's hand away from her face, as her crying worsened a little bit. He then moved to the second stage and used his other free hand to pat Riveria's head. The hand which already experienced countless 'patting battles', finally landed on an High Elf, "There, there... Don't cry. It's my fault."
The incredibly confused Riveria wanted to slap that hand away, but strangely, she couldn't do it as that same hand was giving her the warmth and the much-needed comfort she needed. It was also because of this that Kisuke was finally able to wipe her tears away.
But instead of stopping, Riveria's crying became worse as the comforting feeling gave way to all of her frustration that had been building up for a while now. A comforting feeling that she hadn't felt since childhood. A comforting feeling that she was not allowed to have so that she could look after others as the 'adult'.
Editors:
28th00
Alexander
Garan
Ashe Candy