The Next Step [B-A rank exam][Private, Nameless]

The body of asshole, No-Shi.

The body of the innocent, Elizabeth.

The body of the assassin, Ashura.

The body of the gravedigger, Zack.

All four of them had been collected. All of them had been 'processed', per-say.

Skylar could almost sigh. That was 4 out of the 5, but that just meant that the only one which was left was Seiguro. Truth be told, she found him the more... Terrifying than the others. But she did her best to shrug it off. Although, she couldn't shake the feeling of sorrow from her actions. Sure, as that mysterious figure had said, she was doing the Legion a favour and cleaning up after them. She didn't mind that at all, after all, it kept her busy, busy slaughtering the idiots around her who ticked off Nameless. Well, at least, annoyed her most likely.

The room around her was dark, but with an internal shrug she kept walking down the corridors. Low lights were enough for her to navigate her way around the place. Several weeks ago, she wouldn't have thought that she would be able to do such things, yet here she was, almost able to navigate parts of this area with her eyes shut.

But, once more, she somewhat knew that Nameless was around, but where, she wasn't too sure. Skylar had to smirk a little, it reminded her of a rather similar experience that she'd had with Nameless in the past. Regardless, she continued to walk, simply wondering just where she needed to be to find her mentor.

Inwardly, she hoped that her mentor would once again find her.

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The laughter that would normally send chills through peoples spines made Skylar crack a small smile. That sounded like her mentor, her leader. Without a hesitation, the feather baring lady turned around to face her- him? Them? The large frame of Nameless was blocking a few of the tubes, however as Skylar looked, she could see... Something inside one of them. With a small shrug, she took a few steps forward, heading towards her mentor. Nameless seemed incredibly happy about something, proclaiming that her project would be ready and walking around soon enough.

So was that what she was helping Nameless create?

Skylar glanced at the blue tubes around her, noting that they all had nothing inside them, all aside from the green one. "Greetings, Nameless... Is this what you have been working on while I have been hunting down and killing those who you have requested to be silenced?" She asked, mildly curious about what her mentor had been up to recently. It had been some time since she'd spoken to them, and she had managed to put a stop to another three targets.

Now, only one remained.

But just what was her plans with this last corpse? Skylar stopped a few meters short of Nameless, her arms crossed behind her back as her head tilted to the left. "May I ask just what that is?" She said with a rather gentle smile.

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Skylar tilted her head to the side, her brow pulling into a deep furrow. Wasn't she meant to be killing them to help Nameless to create a new body for herself? Not for Skylar to have a new friend? Wait.

Skylar mentally did a double take.

Nameless made her a friend of the pieces of the bodies that she'd collected? That was rather interesting, in her own opinion. A smile came over her face as she uncrossed her hands from behind her back, curiously taking a few steps towards and to the side of Nameless to peer into the tube. There wasn't really too much she was able to make out at this current point in time- but maybe a face? Nameless was chatting again, and Skylar turned her head to face her. She'd listed each item that she was meant to get for Nameless, but apparently, had only gotten them for this creation before her?

"I see, but didn't you want me to kill them for your new body? ... But you claim for them to be an ultimate companion- I.. just want to ask: how? He... Looks almost fragile at the moment." Skylar said honestly, before she glanced back at the tube.

Only to witness the beings eyes crack open.

A look of surprise came over her face as she took a step backwards, arms moving back a little as well as her feathers left a new trail of cleared dust on the floor in their wake. "Is he going to be okay, can... He even breathe in there?" She asked quietly, a slight tone of concern and confusion in her voice.

All she knew was that Nameless was a very strange entity... But really, just what had Nameless done?!

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So the final piece of the puzzle would allow this man to walk, the creation Nameless had been working on to finally be finished. But that would mean to kill once more, and perhaps even more times in the future. And she was making him so that she would be able to take down something even better for Nameless? Maybe, maybe...

"I see... But, if he... Hasn't acknowledged you, at all, then why does he look to me?" Skylar asked, partially rhetorically as she looked up to the figure, the slime masking the colours of his face. What was he behind this glass? Was he kind? Cruel? Heartless, loving? What was this being which Nameless had made? His hair looked pale, even through the glass. An emotion boiled deep within her as she continued to watch him, almost as if transfixed in this time and space for just a few moments. Hesitantly, watching as his eyes looked down to her, she stepped forward. Like all tubes, it had a covering of sorts over it and ever so slowly, she raised a hand and rested it against the glass containing the slime. It rested just over where her shoulder would be, and up close... She looked up to him, her head tilted to the side as a small worry began to worm into her mind. If Skylar didn't help him, if she didn't kill for him again, he would never leave that place.

How was that life? How was that a way to live? Trapped within the glass and slime-like substance which sustained his life?

"I..." Skylar's words refused to form, as she lowered her hand, aware of Nameless standing next to her. A small flush rose on her cheeks as she glanced across to Nameless, "So long as that is sustaining him, he can live, but living in such a state isn't life, so I will need complete it as fast as I can, but... does he have a name, Nameless?" Questions came over her, confusion, worry, anxiety, all building like an uncertain storm within her. Skylar didn't know what to do, what to say...

This was a man made from the blood which she shed, a man that lived, but still was waiting for the final pieces of the puzzle before they could move.

Move.

He couldn't even do that. "He... Is going to be okay while I finish the last task, right?" Skylar asked Nameless, her tone for the first time, the natural surety that it carried, something that was almost a certain guarantee with her, was broken. The voice was broken, quiet, screaming out in an emotion that Skylar hadn't felt in such extremes before. Why was she feeling this way? Was it because she was the reason for this beings creation? Then she realised.

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The way her mentor so readily referred to him as a baby, something so significant yet insignificant at the same time. He had potential, but right now, wasn't able to fill it. How could he? He wasn't even able to leave the glass tube which confined him, even if it held him there for good reason. However, she froze for a few moments upon Nameless giving that name.

Dante.

The name which the mysterious figure had declared to her. He would name him Dante. This creation, his daughters creation was what he referred to, this being before her now which stood suspended in this green slime? It slowly began to make sense in her mind, but she couldn't help but get the feeling she was becoming something akin to a means to an end. Although, she wouldn't complain as every chance she was granted, at every opportunity, she had somewhere to grow. To learn. To kill.

"That name is something I'm already familiar with, I take it that you had a small chat with... Well, he called himself K." Skylar asked, a small smirk on her face. That was a rather interesting conversation that she had, and not something that she was going to forget in a hurry. "After that last contract is done and the bones given up, he will be able to move outside of that." She said easily, lightly tapping the glass with a finger over doing what her mentor had done.

What could she say? She was just nervous about making someone else uncomfortable, and this being trapped in that state was no different to anyone else, regardless of if he wasn't currently doing anything aside from await to be finished. Skylar shook her head, somewhat reluctantly, before returning her gaze towards the glass, hand still against it. Soon. Soon he would be free from it. "You have a knack of surprising me, Nameless, but I do have to ask; when he's finally freed from that, is he going to be able to speak like everyone else? After all, as you have said, he is a baby and thus potentially carries the traits of one? I'm hoping that you've already come up with a solution around that and, honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if you have."

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Kaseki? That was his real name, the one who magically appeared to seat at that booth? Skylar felt a frown tug on her brow. They didn't take kindly to him? "Found out the truth? What truth are you implying with that statement..?" Skylar asked, more out of curiosity than anything else.

The sigh from Nameless wasn't something that she'd heard or seen before, which caused Skylar to look over to her mentor. She had her eyes cast away from the pair of them, was she displeased? Unhappy with how things went? That would be understandable as, after all, Skylar was originally making a body for Nameless. And her words somewhat lined up with what the younger female was thinking. Maybe this didn't go exactly how she wanted it to.

Her eyes returned back to Dante, in time to see the bubbles rise from his mouth. Eyes of unknown colour glanced between herself and Nameless. What had he done? Could he understand them? Did he know what would happen to him? A look of sympathy crossed over her face as her expression softened. Her eyes locked with his, even if it was just for a few moments. 'Soon,' she mouthed, raising the hand to rest over the area of his shoulder. She glanced back to Nameless, then back to him.

The man wasn't just a baby, he was more than that... or that's what Skylar thought. He was more developed than that, yes, but he was young, in a way. It was incredibly odd, but Skylar found something else rather somber. He HAD responded to her, tried to speak when she had tapped the glass. But only to realise that, of course, it would have been impossible to do. Skylar's touch refused to leave the glass. How could she take it away after seeing such a reaction? He saw her as clearly as she saw him. Dante may not have been able to hear Skylar, but most surely he could see her.

"But I have to ask, you said he didn't respond to you, why then has he responded to me?" Skylar inquired, glancing back over to Nameless as she asked the question, before back to Dante. All she knew was that this guaranteed one thing.

Seiguro's death.

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Skylar gave a small sigh, her mind racing as her heart felt as if it would hammer outside of her own chest. Seiguro was the only target which had been armed, the one who really had combat experience out of the other four. Zack was almost a piece of cake, after she had exploited the weakness of all men. That was a slightly cheap trick though, but it did work and she'd managed to practically carve him in two with that axe. It wasn't a quick, painless death, and was something that she herself wanted to avoid ever feeling.

Pain was always a deterrent for her and she vowed to protect Dante from that horrid feeling- whenever she could.

Skylar mentally paused for a few moments. Dante had never experienced such things, if anything, he was a clean slate stuck in that tube. He could be moulded, taught something else aside from the evil that Nameless so longed for him to be. Out of darkness, could a very real and true light be created? One to shine over the others around them, an example of those who aren't to be messed around with? To show those others who so readily embrace their own darkness not to? Or would he be more than that to her.

Skylar's teeth chewed the inside of her cheek as her brow pulled into a slight frown for a moment. Would it be her duty to ensure that he wouldn't fall to the darkness and become his own being? He was going to be easily influenced, just like any child. Was it to be her job to look after him? Skylar inwardly shrugged. It would be what it would be, and as such, she wasn't going to let him nor Nameless down.

How could she after she'd been through so much simply to create him?

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Kaseki had done something to those people, which was simply not be something they thought he was? What was the harm in that? A small frown pulled onto Skylar's face as she listened to Nameless. To her, it seemed like a rather petty thing to be hooked over, as she wouldn't be held up by something as superficial as that. Although, that was just Skylar, and she tended to have an interesting way of approaching thoughts such as those. "So, he wasn't this person to have a mastery over all elements, so what? Does that even matter in the long run...? After all, he was even helping them... so surely that would make up for any inconvenience not having some title would cause." Skylar began, before realising that seemed a little rude and she gave a small sigh.

"What I meant was, is that really such an important title? This Avatar thing, that is. And well, if he doesn't have this, then is there anyone who does carry that title, or is it still yet to be found out if anyone has the mastery of the elements?" Skylar asked her, somewhat apologetically, as if she'd stepped on a raw nerve. That was the last thing that she wanted to do with Nameless... "I should have, but I honestly had no idea who he was..." She shot Nameless a sheepish grin, as if acknowledging her own stupidity for a few moments, before she returned her gaze to this being nice more.

Inwardly though, Skylar was wondering what the man inside that tube was even thinking. Could he even think at that point, or was he simply trapped in a state of nothingness until the bones were given to him... No. Skylar almost immediately dashed the thoughts from her mind. He had seen them, he was glancing between the pair, and he had attempted to even make some form of contact with them. Surely that would be enough to show that he was more than a mindless drone- he had a spirit to him!

Skylar smiled, before she glanced over at Nameless, not wanting to seem like she was ignoring her mentor. Dante was to be her companion, but... that would mean Skylar needed to go out again to find the person which Nameless would need taken down for her own body.

Right?

Although, Skylar certainly wasn't complaining. She'd be fulfilling her promise, after all...

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"Well, really, that's a bit petty of him... But really, if he still looks after them and keeps protecting them even when they have done this to him, well. It speaks a thousand words. He's a really good person to keep going with them." Skylar said with a small shrug, her head slightly tilted to the side as she saw the mans eyelids slide shut. That was going to be helpful, and she lowered her head a little. A tight feeling clenched over her chest, binding her emotions with thick chains. Why did she feel like this over some simple man which she'd barely met?

Sure, she was the reason that he even existed in the first place, but still, to her it was hold these sorts of connections with him. Skylar tried to shrug it off, taking a step back and away from the tube as she turned once more to face Nameless. "But hey, at least he keeps doing what he believes is right. To me, that is astonishing. I don't think I would have been able to, he's an amazing person." Sky said with a grin, her hand removing itself finally from the tube.

For a few moments, she froze. The next time he opened his eyes, she hoped that she would be there. But for that to truly be the case, she had to ensure that she finished that next task off rather quickly. Skylar sighed lightly, her smile still on her face. "Thank you for showing him to me, Nameless. And thank you for telling me more of Kaseki's story. I can't believe I threatened him without knowing who he was.." Skylar's smile turned rueful as she shook her head, laughing gently.

"But, sadly... Seiguro won't kill himself."

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The moment that those words left her lips, she felt a slight cold feeling come over her fingertips, her mouth becoming dry. She cleared her throat, ignoring it as she rose her arms to stretch them out behind her, cracking her shoulders in an attempt to relieve the nerves that she felt. "I have a few things I want to do before I find him, but when I do, I promise that I'll kill him- even if it takes me a few attempts to even do so." She said with a smile, before her mind raced to recall the information stored in those pages which Nameless had given her.

Armoured. An array of daggers. Unsure of if he can fly or not. A corrupt guard, so he could really fight.

Lovely.

What more could go wrong with this last task? Aside from him having some hidden talents that no one has yet observed... Skylar bowed her head towards Nameless, before straightening once more. "Honestly, thank you again for showing me. I'll hopefully be back soon- and hopefully in one piece." She grinned, before she turned away from the tubes.

As she walked down the Legion's pathways, her form felt numb. Her hand rose, rubbing against her opposing arm. Nerves? What did she feel? A frown pulled onto her face, something trailing down it. For a moment, she paused, her hand slowly raising to clear away the cold thing that dripped from her eye. Her eyes widened a little as she took a small hall, grabbing a seat as if to steady herself, her head tilted forward. Tears? But why? She wasn't terrified about the fight, she knew it would be hard, but... Why was she crying? She never cried before the fights?

That was when it hit her.

Turning around and willing herself to take the first step away from Dante was one of the hardest things she had ever done.

Turning her back on something that she had made.

She steadied herself, taking a shaky breath and, after several long minutes to calm her racing pulse, she straightened up a little before turning back towards where she was originally walking. Skylar wasn't going to get anywhere by sulking. He wasn't going to be freed by her faltering. Steeling herself, her face became a mask.

There were a few things she had to pick up before she left to kill that man...

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