Village Guardians

Lexa woke up to the sight of a young girl wearing a black and red school uniform with white hair and glowing crimson eyes staring at her. The child was seated at the edge of the bed with her body turned in Lexa's direction as she stared at the now waking blonde mage. Her face turned red as she noticed Lexa's eyes finally opened, her crimson eyes growing large from the realization that she truly was staring. "I-I-I'm s-so sorry miss L- I-I mean Lexa! I didn't mean to stare!" she exclaimed, her face becoming even more red than Lexa thought possible. Lexa gave a slight giggle and grabbed Lillian, the small child letting out a squeak of fear as Lexa pulled her in for an exceedingly warm and loving good morning hug. At first, as always, Lillian was very tense. After a few seconds of her being stiff as a board, trying to stay curled up to reduce possible damage; Lillian relaxed into the hug and accepted it. Lexa rubbed the child's back and said "Good morning." with a soft, caring voice as she did every morning. "G-good morning..." Lillian replied in her own soft spoken tone. "You're going on another job today?" Lillian asked, her voice sounding so soft even Lexa's highly amplified hearing took a second to pick it up. "Yeah, you wanna come with?" Lexa asked, still holding Lillian close. She felt as Lillian gave a small nod, bringing a smile to Lexa's face. It seemed like Lillian tagging along was becoming more, and more prevalent as the two got to know each other. Lexa released Lillian and sat up, finally realizing that her adopted sister was already dressed; and she even had a pair of daggers at her waist. "You sure you're ready?" Lexa asked, knowing Lillian was deathly afraid of taking a life. Lillian's eyes turned distraught, still uneasy about the idea of killing but she looked at Lexa confidently after a moment which was all the answer that was needed.

After breakfast, Lexa swapped out of her pajamas and into her usual attire. She slid the two black blades with purple markings on her back in an X formation, as well as the limbs to her crossbow at her lumbar one over the other. "Let's go." Lexa said with a confident tone as she opened the door. The two girls walked down the hall, and into the main guild hall. The whole time, Lillian was holding onto Lexa's hand as a type of comfort to let herself know she was safe. "We'll be going with a guildmate today. Her name's Irina, that's all I know about her..." Lexa said. Lillian was fine with that little bit of information, and finally understood what Lexa meant when she first met her. Lillian had a flashback to the time when Lexa met her as she tried to steal a single loaf of bread from one of Lavantir Port's stalls. The salesman bartering Lexa to toss the kid into the brig, and let the other prisoners have all the fun they wanted with her. The flashback switched to them talking in Lexa's room, her saying "One day... there may be a time when I re-introduce myself to you. I... I remember names... but that's all. So if I do give you my name again, just play along; it means I've forgotten you entirely." the words echoed in her mind as the flashback faded out. For once, the first time ever, when Lexa saw Irina she didn't bother to introduce herself. She would simply look Irina in the eye with despair plaguing her heart, and tell Irina "Let's go." as she turned with a single tear falling down her cheek, and begin to walk towards the docks and catch their ride to River Village. Lexa knew she'd introduced herself to Irina countless times, she had documents, lacrima footage, and audio recordings of her various interactions with the woman. But no matter how hard Lexa tried to, she couldn't find a single memory to go with the evidence.

Walking down the halls, Lexa reached out a hand as she passed by a door. As if it were scripted in some long time intelligence agency movie, a folder was placed in the outstretched hand at that exact moment by someone that had the most amazing timing in the world. She opened the file that contained the details of their mission, reading over the details. "We're heading over to 'River Village' to help the local leader keep some asses under his thumb. A notice was sent to all the guilds, with one of the legal ones... ehhh some new guys called 'Infinity Hydra' taking up the job. Fortunately for me the chief wanted an assassin, and I wanted to ask you some questions." Lexa said while closing the folder with a single hand. "As for who this is..." Lexa said, obviously talking about the six year old girl with a dagger following her as closely as possible. "...Your department has access to nearly all files, and anything you're not allowed to poke at you simply hack into. Including my personal logs..." Lexa said, sounding fairly irritated at the last one. "No matter; you know who she is. Likewise, it's rude not to properly greet people 'Lil." she added. Lillian let out a soft type of squeak, sounding more like a whispering squeak than anything else. "I- I- I- I- I'm s-s-s-o-o s-sorry Ms. N-naginata, I d-didn't mean to b-be rude." Lillian said, speeding up to keep pace with Lexa. Lexa stopped and let out a sigh of aggravation. "This is Lilian Grimoire, I found her in the streets trying to steal food. Assmonkey ordered me to stuff her in the Brig, and I took her in my custody instead. Personally, I think the Brig would have been less punishing for her. Happy?" Lexa said, the irritation in her voice seeming ready to explode in a violent wave of destruction. Lexa darted a glare at Lillian who immediately froze up and realized what she forgot to do. "Y-y-y-yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" she blurted out hesitantly, her soft voice echoing a full ten feet before being muffled out by the sound of the desk fan in the other room; as opposed to Lexa needing a hearing aid to hear it from two feet away. Lexa spun around and continued walking, stepping onto a type of magnetic levitation panel that would take the group out of RnD and over to their ship. The captain noticed the pair of aces and quickly ran down the gangplank, removing his hat while giving a small bow. Lexa pulled up a few thousand Jewel to pay for the ride but the captain declined saying "It'd be an honor to ferry our lovely aces to wherever they want." with a humble voice. That said, Lexa continued up the walkway with the cash still in her hand. She noticed one of the workers mopping the floor and set it in his hands, the boy looking at Lexa as though he'd won the Lottery. She walked over to the railing and leaned against one of the vertical bars while Lillian stood next to her, staying as close to Lexa but as far from Irina as possible. "Now my question..." Lexa said, her irritation beginning to take over. "Who are you?" she said, pulling the dossier for Irina from inside the folder she was handed earlier and handing it over. Several pages were marked, namely the ones with documented lacrima footage of her and Lexa not only within a few feet of each other, but actively talking.

HP: 600/600

MP: 110/110

"Wrong." Lexa said to Irina's strange notion that she was exempt from Lexa's fleeting memories. "I saw your name one of my journals and got curious. I pulled every last file there was on you, including the ones someone named 'Kakuma' tried burying under layers of inscription in her personal computer. I found out that you and I met various times, among other details I didn't care for as much. Since there were no memories to match it, I figured I'd ask you personally." she said, explaining how Lexa had come across Irina's name. Lexa watched as Lillian began leaning on the railing, looking at the floor as she realized that it was highly likely that one day Lexa would come home and not know who she was. The small girl's eyes flew wide open as she was pulled in by Lexa, and felt as her pseudo big sister wrapped her arms around her. "It's okay sweet heart, I won't forget you..." Lexa said. It was a complete lie, since Lexa herself wasn't sure of the validity of the statement but she knew that it was necessary. Lillian knew it was a lie as well, but she decided to trust that Lexa would find some way to force herself to remember. Lexa let go before sitting down on the deck of the ship, using the vertical bar as a back rest as she pulled Lillian down and set her on her lap. Lillian turned bright red, not used to sitting on anyone's lap at all, let alone someone who's not related to her. Lexa wrapped her arms around the girl and pulled her head into her chest, gently rubbing her hair while humming. Lillian wasn't tired in the least, she'd only woken up a couple hours ago; but the song Lexa hummed was one of the songs that was so relaxing it put the small child to sleep even if she were on a sugar rush. Once Lillian had relaxed so much that her eyes shut, and she gave in to the dream world, Lexa addressed Irina. "Of course you know the basics, village under attack and they need guardians. As for an enemy breakdown, I personally checked it out myself and saw three main types. First is the whelps, they don't use magic but they're not exactly weaklings and use a variety of close to medium ranged melee weapons. Next is some guys who can use magic, and are a bit tougher than the first but have gone insane from what I saw. Last is the strongest of the lot, they use magic pretty well and unlike the other ones they're actually pretty sane. There's also a fourth but he's a party of one; uses Iron-make magic. I stuck around long enough to confirm that's their leader, since he's a close ranged fighter I'm at a disadvantage." Lexa said, noticing that Irina had spaced out. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes to take a rest "I'm not repeating myself" she said calmly, and fell asleep with Lillian on her.