Teaser: Eika taking Ryosei's measurements in his sleep to prepare for a makeover.
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Ryosei woke up to the boom of bass music in the background; it throbbed through his skull and thrummed down his body excessively, making his teeth vibrate from the intensity. It was borderline unbearable for him with his advanced senses, however it wasn't so bad that he couldn't think.
Clearly, the location was dictated by his usually omnipresent mentor.
However, in this case, she seemed to have kept the "omni" and threw the "present" into his face, and realizing her lack of presence made a terrifying notion appear in his mind: was this yet another dream reality he had to escape from, another 'escape room', as Eika christened it?
The prospect chilled him to the bone, and almost immediately he took note of his surroundings to determine what the best option for escape was. Over the entire month of torture, he'd learned all too well that the sooner he left the 'escape rooms' the better. After all, there's a reason you want to escape them, and it's not just because of claustrophobia...
The room was the pleasant scene of a typical hair salon, with several chairs for the customers to receive their hair cut in the middle of the room, in front of a large wall of mirrors; against the back wall was a line of chairs for customers to sit and wait. There was even a registration desk with an office phone and everything.
Ryosei cautiously got up from one of the barber chairs, his blue eyes glowing as he stared into the darkness of the shadows of the room, ill at ease after so many experiences with Eika; even if it was just your typical hair salon, he still refused to believe it was completely safe and didn't have some sort of supernatural catch.
Clearly, Eika had traumatized the poor boy.
"What in mortality are you doing, love?"
A voice brushed his neck, and immediately he jumped from the chair, twisting to land on his feet in mid-air while simultaneously grabbing the katana growth weapon he had chosen from the Beginners Weapons Chest in his inventory before landing in a kneeling position, his feet absorbing the impact and his hands ready to perform a quick draw with his katana to slash down the assailant.
The said 'assailant' just laughed in her ever attractive cherubs laugh in an amused manner, a smile on her perfect face before she playfully chided Ryosei, "Loosen up-"
"I'd rather die again."
The response was so immediate and determined that it sent Eika into yet another laughing fit, tears coming to her eyes at his paranoia before a smooth, velvety voice sounded lusciously from behind Eika's small frame, remarking, "My Eika, he's quite the paranoid one, huh? No doubt because of your too difficult training methods; you really could and should tone back on the intensity dear, it'll wreck him before you."
Eika just waved off the feminine voice casually, retorting in the sweetest voice possible, "But Lorleinorn, I choose my trainees with care, the same way I choose my training standards; if he can't do such light work, I wouldn't have chosen him, pretty eyes or otherwise."
A melodic laugh and the appearance of the mysterious figure came with her hearty response, "Very true, you yourself were trained by your Father himself, may his beautiful self be forever blessed with youth, bless him, and it made you into the ridiculously overpowered and beautiful powerhouse you are now, though your body doesn't do you justice-"
"And whose fault is that?!"
The figure just laughed at her exclamation, and Ryosei took the time and care to properly analyze her appearance; she seemed to be on good terms with Eika, being on favorable terms with her may be beneficial for him future purposes.
She was tall, at least 6'3" with a pear-like body shape that was fairly curvy under the loose, black ripped jeans and the simple white blouse that she wore casually. Her skin was a shocking midnight blue, her hair slicked into cornrows a bright cobalt and the irises of her eyes were a bright, volcanic orange, the sclera black, and the pupil a shining yellow. From her pointed ears dangled bright, golden, tree shaped earrings.
Between her fangs, the delicacy of her face, the way her nose was fused into her face more than a human, and the sharpness of her ears and hands, she was clearly of supernatural origin; if Ryosei was pressed to answer, he would have to guess a fairy, but he suspected there was more to her identity if his talk with Eika being a demon or devil was to be taken to heart.
"Are you done checking me out? If you want my number, I'll happily give it to a pretty boy like you..."
Ryosei calmly looked her in the eyes as he rose from his crouched position and firmly stated, "Ma'am, although you are indeed a very beautiful woman, you are unfortunately not quite my type. I'm certain your future partner will be satisfied and appreciate you better than I could, though I will take the number in case I need to run from Eika's training regime."
The woman, who was named Lorleinlorn apparently, gave a bark of laughter and commented in a cheery tone, "Hell, that might've just been the nicest refusal I've had in the last century! I'll give you my business, and personal number sweety, on account on your manners that match your face. Now, put that weapon away, we need to get you cleaned up to make it so your type of girl falls for you."
She then proceeded to walk to the hidden back room door that she'd entered from, no doubt to get supplies for the "make over" Ryosei was to receive.
Ryosei bowed, his neck-length ash white hair falling to cover his face as he courteously intoned, "Thank you very much ma'am. I will be in your care." He then returned his katana into his Inventory and stood up straight, only for him to stumble back when Eika's face suddenly appeared in front of his vision, her expression annoyed.
"Why in the third dimension are you so freaking comfortable with Lorlei, but with me your stiffer than a board and five times more paranoid?" Her expression demanded an explanation—and an explanation she got, accompanied with a deadpan on Ryosei's part.
"Last I checked, so far she hasn't killed me, forced me to cannibalize on my first day of being a demon, hijacked my school, and then tortured me for a month in the name of training, just because I saw you dancing to a song alone in your room, ACCIDENTALLY, if I might add.
"My opinion is naturally more favorable to a person who hasn't hurt me yet, and even though I am grateful to you, you nonetheless have caused me to experience a significant amount of trauma in an extremely short amount of time. Please understand, I do respect you, you're just terrifying."
Eika stared at him blankly while Lorleilorn quipped with a robust laugh from the back room, "You have to work hard to change his opinion honey~"
"Shut up!" Eika yelled back childishly, her cheeks puffing out a bit as her expression was fairly upset, though Ryosei himself didn't understand why she looked so angry when he was simply stating the truth—perhaps she wanted Ryosei to have a favorable opinion of her?
He found that confusing and odd, especially when he considered how much she teased him and with how she'd so abruptly barged into his life; he'd be lying if he said he didn't appreciate her presence and energy next to him, but he'd also be lying if he claimed he enjoyed her being near him 24/7.
So he chose to say nothing, merely waiting for Lorleilorn to come out and point him to the chair she was going to cut his hair in, sitting down to the second to last out of the eight barber chairs on the left where she directed, and waited patiently for her to do her magic; he respected and trusted Eika's opinions, since they were almost always accurate and just the right thing he would often need at that moment of time.
However, as he dwelled on it a bit more, he wasn't certain how having shorter hair and a new style would help him in any capacity. Eika was indeed spontaneous, but she wasn't impulsive; her actions were always dictated with infallible reason and logic.
For example, he had originally thought that Eika had attended his collage on a whim, however, he later found out that there were several supernatural beings at school that would've preyed on him being a newly born demon had she not been around him almost constantly. They had eventually grown desperate and attacked her in private in a last ditch effort to get him alone, but....
let's just say dinner that night was a real variety of different things.
The same was admittedly for his torturous training—her consistently and constantly pushing him to his breaking point had made him gain a plethora of experience that he wouldn't have gained otherwise if not for his efforts. Heck, even her simulation for kidnapping was in preparation in the event that a human organization or demonic entity stole him away and he'd have to escape alone, in the case that Eika wasn't there to save him.
Although at times extreme, her methods and actions were always lead through logical analysis and reason, but going to a hair salon to get a haircut in the middle of the night?
Illogical.
Unless, she came for another reason...
As Lorleilorn was putting a hair poncho over his neck to protect his clothes, he inquired, "Um, pardon me, ma'am, but-"
"Call me Lorlei, everyone does. Ma'am makes me feel old, y'know?"
"Ah, yes, Miss Lorlei, is something going on with Eika? She's not the type to be impulsive like this; going to get a haircut is fine and all, but in the middle of the night, when we could be training instead? It seems like an illogical waste of time. I find that to be out of character for her..."
Lorlei laughed, a helpless look on her face while she exclaimed, "By Lord Satan, you are observant! Fine, I'll tell you, since you aren't the type to give up when you want to understand something, right?"
At the first cut of his hair, she gently whispered in a somber tone, "Her body's breaking apart from the inside out..."