Otherwise purposefully oblivious to the scents around her, one particular aroma drew Nova to it like a beacon. If she had saliva she would be drooling as she moved forward, with Beil wandering absent-mindedly behind, and as they rounded a corner they came across a surprisingly busy market center.
Many creatures went about their business on lantern lit streets, soft chatter and quiet laughter highlighted the relaxed atmosphere the brightly lit night provided. It was charming, peaceful, and Nova felt a great deal of her agitation from that woman's unseemly attempts start to melt away. Well... that and her desire for a meal pulled at her attention.
Finding a particular food stall with signs stating they had a variety of veggie and meat platters, she climbed the stool and perched herself eagerly while Beil took the one next to her.
Refreshingly, the waitress noticed them and set two menues down instead of assuming she was just a snake. She wondered what had changed.
When before she had been treated like a normal albeit large snake up until the moment she spoke, this faceless Ayakashi simply treated her like a person with no prompting. Although, without eyes, mouth, eyebrows, or even a nose, Nova couldn't read what the woman was feeling and could really only tell she was a woman at all by her hairstyle. Even the clothes she wore were generic serving attire worn by everyone, though granted she was also slightly smaller than the rest of them, but her black hair was generously adorned with multicolored pearls and light orange ribbon.
"Thank you, miss," Nova said a little sheepishly and the woman turned around and bowed quickly before running off to tend to an elderly man who had sat a few stools over.
"Anything look good?"
Nova glanced at Beil for a second before turning her attention to the menu for the first time. It was mostly stir-fry options, fish, wraps, and chicken, but one particularly heavy meat smell kept distracting her too much for her to actually locate it on the paper.
"Whatever that smell is, I need two," she said and closed her eyes to focus fully on just how enticing it was. She heard a chuckle, not from Beil but from a woman directly in front of her, and opened her eyes. The woman without a face was inches from her and Nova slowly reared back so as not to look at spooked as she felt.
When had she come back? How had she gotten so close?
"I see you like the pork we smoked. Two you said," she asked with her mind out loud so that Nova and Beil could hear her. Nova, still not quite used to the fact that speaking was possible for her at all even though she'd been doing the same thing all this time except when she was in her human form, however briefly, nervously giggled. She resisted the urge to frown at the sound that came from herself and nodded quietly.
"And I'll have the fried rice, brazed mushroom chicken hotpot, and a side of steamed cabbage, please," Beil added evenly and scooted the menu at her with his beak.
"Very good, it shall be out shortly. What can I get you to drink?"
"Just water for me," he said and looked over to Nova who simply nodded.
"Right away, " the girl sent cheerfully, took the menus, and zipped off. Nova mentally shook herself for her lapse in understanding and spent a moment reevaluating her ability to talk.
Thinking back, for some reason she felt like she had learned it sooner than when she had first spoken with Beil, but nothing solid came to mind, just a vague sense that it was months before. But that couldn't be right, she was only a few weeks into this new life. Ah, whatever.
"Hey Beil," she asked and he went from looking around at the market to focusing entirely on her. She noted just how often he would drop whatever he was doing or thinking and made her the moment's priority.
"Why do you choose to continue traveling with me?"
He looked thrown off guard and, as the waitress brought out their water, he made no move to drink it while Nova awkwardly tried to stick her face into the glass, unsuccessfully mind you. The waitress noticed her difficulty and instead poured it into a wide brim bowl used for sake which was much easier to drink from.
"Thank you," she mumbled and the woman bowed slightly before getting back to work.
"Mostly curiosity."
"'Mostly'?"
His eyes went up in his version of a smile of amusement. "You are so new to this world that there are times where I feel the need to guide you, protect you, but also you are so much stronger than any new kinsoul has ever been, so yes, 'mostly'. I want to help you continue to excel and surpass the unsurpassed, so with that in mind I think of you as my ward, my student, and I have since the very moment you spoke to Alex without me or anyone else being able to overhear."
Flustered somewhat, Nova's mind went blank. "Alex?"
"The Rat Yokai in the first town I had brought you to in order to retrieve your memories."
"Oh right, him," she said and his whiskers, little hands, and brown fur popped into her mind, as well as something else."
"Hey Beil," she started again and he gave her the same look, but right when she was about to continue the waitress set their food down in front of them and she couldn't help but focus on the two large bowls piled high with smoked pork belly on rice that sat in front of her. This was seriously a lot... for a human, but taking into account that she had completely devoured that bird he'd hunted for her the time when she had unwillingly reverted to a snake and went blind from a serious lack of energy, this amount of meat was maybe its wings and half of a leg, and that was being generous.
It didn't matter though, when the food was brought to her immediate attention her tail patted the stool like a puppy and, as she took the first bite, a massive amount of spirit energy flooded inside of her like a fresh water source had been freed to coat a drought ridden field.
"Oh my God," she muttered, sounding like her mouth was full even though she had spoken it with her mind, and sighed in relief and pleasure. It was a cute sound. That, on top of her behavior, had everyone around her watching her gleefully.
She was so entirely focused on eating that she didn't notice Beil finish and order rice wine for himself and macha cakes for the both of them.
"Where do you think she puts it all," a voice from the crowd that Nova had forgotten existed spoke up just a little too loudly and she snapped out of it, becoming aware that only a few bites of rice were left. In her second bowl.
Embarrassment seeped in and she was grateful snakes couldn't blush. She wasn't sure where it came from, maybe her past life when she was human and human girls are judged for eating too much. That must have been it.
"You numbskull," someone else said, a humanoid with fox ears and a tail speaking to a toad man, and they smacked the shorter Ayakashi upside the back of their head. The toad man winced, looked a little ashamed as he rubbed his head, and looked at his webbed feet. Several people were annoyed at the pair while the rest laughed it off and went about their lives.
"I was just curious," he said with a grunt and gritted his... oh, he didn't have teeth. Grimaced.
"She converts it into spirit energy, just like I do. It doesn't matter how much we eat, we will simply fill our reserves first before our bellies recognize the need to turn the rest into energy for the body itself. Is that right, miss," he asked, seeming proud of himself for knowing something that the Toad man didn't. Because of his matter-of-fact response, and the fact that he hit the poor guy just for asking a question, made Nova feel the urge to bring him down a level.
She remained unmoving for a moment, debating whether she should or not while staring at him until his confidence wavered and he looked around at the rest of the crowd that had remained to watch, all of which offered no help. Finally decided, Nova shifted, bringing her head and body around on the stool to completely face him. His nerves were giving away his falsely calm, cool, and collected demeanor, occasionally twitching just the slightest bit in his hands and ears while his eyes were locked onto hers expectantly. It was a little rude to stare, but she was doing it too, so what did it matter, really?
Her gaze never wavered and she felt no need to blink as they watched eachother for a few moments longer before she sat up, neck exstended. Doing so made the toad man look at his clothing like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Actually, no matter how much I consume I never feel like I am full. There is always room for more, just like there's always more than one answer to any question, and that makes every question valid."
Toad man looked up in pleasant surprise while fox guy looked like he'd swallowed a lemon. Actually, he looked kinda pissed. So he was half wrong, did he need to look like he wanted to beat her up? What was he expecting, for her to be impressed and follow him around like a charmed little girl?
Wait.. how did he know she was a girl in the first place? It's not like snakes have any visible signs displaying 'hey I'm female' or the opposite. Had be been there when she first started talking to the waitress?
Oh whatever, what was really important right now was that the bratty fox was rapidly approaching her.
"Hey," he said lowly, like a screamed whisper, hiding his mouth as he spoke so that the toad couldn't see, "you made me look bad. I'm trying to impress him so that he'll accept me. Did you have to one-up me so casually?"
Nova blinked, very quickly understanding the situation, and grabbed him by the neck with her tail. "Listen, fox, if you really want to charm him then maybe you shouldn't bring him down to make yourself look more attractive, because frankly you're cute enough on the outside so that even a tidbit of genuine kindness and understanding would be enough to make the guy return your feelings."
"Wait, no, that's not what I meant, " he spoke less quietly and blushed furiously, trying to yank himself free. "It's just a business relationship, that's all," he added and could no longer make eye contact. Being a snake, her ears worked well enough to hear his heart practically beating out of his chest and her coils felt his body temperature had risen several degrees.
"Oh sure, and going out at night to a charming food market, just the two of you alone, is so not a date. I mean look at him, waiting and worrying over there," she said and let go enough so that he could turn his head. Toad man was tense and looked so concerned it was adorable, and fox guy noticed. His tail even started to swish slowly as he looked back at his hopefully future partner. Not obvious at all, nope.
"I'm going to let you go now, what I need you to do is bow deeply to look genuinely sorry towards your actions, even if you don't mean it, and then go actually apologize to him for real for smacking him, and for anything else you might have done to him to try and impress him."
"I told you we're not a thing," he tried as a last ditch effort before she squeezed tighter still and he yelped like a puppy, giving Toad the drive to intervene and save his fox. As he approached Nova suddenly let go and Fox went flying backwards, right into Toad, who caught him in a princess carry before they both fell to the dirt.
Cue the anime stereotype of both blushing while an inch apart from each others faces before Fox scrambled up off of him, offering a hand to help him up not a moment later.
Not phisically needing to but providing a cue, Nova sent the sound of her clearing her throat to only Fox who looked at her for a stiff second before relenting and bowing his torso. "I apologize for my actions, Miss, it won't happen again, " he said, sounding more sorry than she had expected, honestly.
What she wanted to see was the next bit, but Beil decided now was the time to let her know he had ordered her a green tea cake and she turned back towards the counter just in time to miss Toad hug Fox tightly and even drag him off to wherever those two were headed before they stopped to watch her practice at winning a nonexistent eating competition.
She could hear his breath catch and knew that something had happened, but that was for them to figure out. Enjoying the cake slowly, mostly to saver the texture in her mouth since she couldn't really taste, she thought of something.
"So where is this school, anyway? The one Wanita said I should go to."