I DO NOT OWN EMINENCE IN SHADOW, HOWEVER I DO OWN ANY OF THE ARTS SHOWN IN THESE FICTS.
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Omake Special : The Date (Canon)
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There were many things that Mary would do for the sake of her Lady Elizabeth, she had even spent a whole millennium preparing for her Lady's reawakening to make sure Crimson couldn't achieve whatever he was planning.
Poorly executed her plan as it was — She could have at least recruited other people instead of spending it all on digging a tunnel — in the end, it turned out help.
All thanks to a certain gentleman clad in black.
She was grateful to him, really. But lately there had been an annoying source of migraine inducing problems to her as of lately.
"What do I do! What do I do?!?" A certain Blood Queen whimpered. She reeled back from the corner she was peeking from.
They were currently hidden behind a corner wall of a restaurant that provided them quite literally no cover except from the opposite side of the wall they were hiding in.
Mary massaged her forehead helplessly.
She really loved her but... When had her Ladyship become such a cowardly maiden?
Just two weeks ago she was incredibly cheerful and confident of herself, now she was reduced to a babbling teenager embarrassed by herself.
Oh who was she kidding? She already knew why she's acting like this.
Elizabeth was dressed in a red gothic-shirt dress with a reasonably short skirt and black leather boots.
The most notable change being her hair, which was now tied in a twin tail, making her appear even more younger than she already was.
Why the sudden change in her clothes, you asked?
Why! It's very simple, she's going on a legitimate date.
Her first and very literal date, the past few outings she'd gone with Sir Shadow had all been just her foolishly fumbling around and attempting to make up excuses to spend time with him.
Until yesterday, that is. Lady Elizabeth had somehow managed to convince Shadow to go on an actual date with her during their stroll yesterday, how did she do it? Mary herself hadn't had the slightest idea, but she was damn sure it was something along the lines of unintentionally asking him out.
Mary knew that her Lady Elizabeth had no experience when it came to romance or courting, which is why she already predicted that the strongest vampire would immediately come towards her for assistance.
Of course, she helped and assisted her in whatever would help her woo the man of her dreams. With how humanity has progressed as well as its customs and behavior, so did the way people performed courting with one another, no longer was the constant showing off of your weaponry and wealth, being observed under the chosen partner's watchful eyes of their parents nor was the value of status prominent anymore.
Simply asking them out and going out on a date with them was the hots nowadays.
She heard how the esteemed gentleman and powerful Shadow was actually a carefree and laid back person, seemingly acting like a normal teenager and had the personality of one, from what she'd heard of Lady Elizabeth's stories at least.
She did what she had to do when she progressed alongside these humans, learn and adapt to the situation, analyze the cards on the tables and their compatibility.
Think ahead and make use of all your stock knowledge, and combine it with new ones.
After a few struggles and complaints from her Ladyship, Bam!
Lady Elizabeth in a gothic-teenager dress!
It took Mary some time to find the right clothes at the clothes store after Lady Elizabeth and frantically screamed out she was going on a date and needed her help, she soon thought of having her go to the date in a modernized and simple clothing. Followed by a few struggles and complaints from the Strongest vampire of course.
In the end, her suffering paid off dutifully as Elizabeth fit like a glove in her new clothes.
After her clothes were sorted, she planned a set of actions her Ladyship could take on her date.
Going to the park, watching a theater play, eating at some restaurant and visiting some popular tourist spots, the usual common theme for the modern era.
To hell with the old age preference of courting, it's time for the one thousand years of evolution to take the spotlight. She was going to see this date work goddamn it.
All that remained was pretty much up to her Ladyship if she'll take up the courage and steel herself without falling into an embarrassed and babbling mess when she rendezvouses with sir Shadow.
Seriously, how was this any different from their usual outings? Aside from the fact Elizabeth somehow managed to ask him out on an actual date.
Mary sighed.
++--------------------++
"It's alright. I can do this, you can absolutely do this. You absolutely CAN do this Elizabeth." Elizabeth attempted to hype herself up.
She bravely took one step out of the corner.
Before a second later, she immediately wilted back with a reddened face.
Mary raised an eyebrow.
"Is there any problem, Lady Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth nervously swallowed, she looked at her and pointed to the restaurant behind the wall. "K-Kind sir was already there, waiting inside, we met eyes..."
"Ahhhh, well. You did spend 30 minutes mumbling to yourself my Lady."
"What?!"
"Yes, 30 minutes my Lady. You are exactly twenty minutes late to your agreed time with him, ten minutes early before you meet up with him, then spend thirty minutes nervously talking to yourself."
Elizabeth stared.
Mary stared back.
"And you couldn't have told me?! It's completely uncouth, it's a sacrilege for a lady to be late to a romantic rendezvous!"
Talk about dramatic... Mary sighed. "My Lady, you'll find that it's not as worrisome as you fear.
"... What do you mean..?" Elizabeth tilted her head in confusion.
"For example." She raised a finger. "You may treat sir Shadow to a meal, pay for the food and so on."
"But-"
"And I've already given you spare money my Lady, now go! It's not wise to keep him waiting anymore." Mary didn't let her finish and gently pushed her out of her hiding spot, despite their distance away from each other, Elizabeth and Cid immediately met eyes.
She swallowed nervously, giving a small weak wave to him.
Cid, who was probably bored out of his mind, lazily waved back from the Restaurant. Realizing that she has indeed made him for too long already, she walked nervously, afraid that she offended him in any way by being late.
That and her clothes were too... Embarrassing, what has the modern era gotten up to by making these as a trend?
She grew more red the closer she got to the entrance of the restaurant, ears practically steaming out of embarrassment.
"Aaaahhhhh... I can't do this after all, it's too s-shameful-" She was about to run back to the corner, however the presence of a certain subordinate gave her a stare that promised annihilation if she shied away from this.
Oh dear, look how far she's fallen, being threatened with scolds by her own subordinate and friend.
Come on Elizabeth, show em' that your title of 'Blood Queen' Isn't just for show!
The wind chimes to the restaurant rang as she walked inside, the restaurant itself wasn't so bad, it was cozy and had a comfortable atmosphere to it, the only downside to it was there was too much sunlight being let in.
Well, it IS a restaurant for every race that is not allergic to sunlight.
She practically tip-toed her way to Cid's table with her gaze on the suddenly interesting floor. Oh interesting, is that animal fur used as a walkpad– Gah! Concentrate!
Finally arriving on his table, she gave an apologetic bow and greeted him. "G-Greetings, Cid-kun." Her eyes darted to the side, too ashamed to look at him. "F-Forgive me for my tardiness, I should have arrived at the agreed time."
"Oh, yeah. No problem here, it kinda gave me some 'me-time' away from the others so it's cool." His eyes glanced towards a waitress who's been giving him a 'death-stare' for not having ordered anything for 20 MINUTES.
"O-Oh is that so? W-Well, if you may excuse me then." Taking the seat opposite to him, Elizabeth composed herself as she mentally screamed in victory for being able to keep herself calm.
There was a good minute of silence between the two as neither knew what to say, the Blood Queen herself mentally brainstorming for things to say, while the latter was internally panicking because he forgot his wallet at home, thus the actual reason he hasn't ordered anything to eat.
Finally deciding on her choice of words, Elizabeth straightened her posture and gave him a light bow. "Again, my utmost apologies for being late to this date. As an apology, I would like to be the one to pay for our expenses throughout this date."
Cid perked up at this."Really? Oh dang, thanks– I mean, I would pay but sure I guess."
Though, it IS fair she's paying right? She's the one who asked me out. I can't believe I'm saying this but hopefully it's an actual date, and not a declaration of her suing me if she's somehow managed to find out I stole her money. He internally sighed in relief, he was completely b-r-o-k-e right now due to some... Poor money management on his side(Forgotten wallet).
Speaking of which, he saw the waitress who's been giving him the equivalent of a human looking down at a worm stare approach them, probably happy there's an actual customer now instead of some bum sitting alone in a corner by himself for TWENTY-FUCKING-MINUTES.
"Hi, welcome to Ayon's, this is a list of the menu. If you've chosen something you'd like to order, please do tell." The waitress smiled at Elizabeth, ignoring Cid's presence. She handed a small booklet to Elizabeth and stood there, waiting for Elizabeth to choose from the list.
The hate-boner must be strong in this one, Cid concluded, just because he sat his ass around without ordering anything didn't mean he was a freeloader, how rude!
Metaphorical sparks appeared between the Chuuni and the Waitress as they stared down one another.
"Would you like anything Cid-kun?" Elizabeth asked, oblivious to the staring contest happening between the two.
"Huh-? Oh yeah, I guess I'll have.. Uh" He WOULD have chosen something, if not for the fact he doesn't have a freaking booklet!
The waitress hid her not so subtle smirk and composed herself.
Isn't this considered abuse towards customers?
Whatever.
"I'll just have what you're having." Cid rested his chin on his hand.
"I-I see, well... Then, we'll be having some of these." Elizabeth pointed to a picture of a healthy and satisfying meal that consisted of soft steak bones and rice, the waitress despite her displeasure, acknowledged this and wrote on her small notepad and went on to give the order to the kitchen staff.
"Heh." Cid couldn't help but chuckle in his technical victory.
Suck it, you have no place in here, demon of the restaurant.
"Hmm? Is there something wrong, Cid-kun?"
"Oh, it's nothing."
"..."
"..."
Awkward.
There was only awkward silence between the two as neither talked, Cid was basking in his short victory while Elizabeth was shuffling in her seat. The vampire didn't know what to do next after ordering the food, perhaps a conversation to break the ice? They DID greet each other but that was it, what would she even talk about other than their meeting last night...?
Wait, that's it!
"S-So, Cid-kun..." Elizabeth coughed. "How was your venture last night after we've separated?"
"Hmm?" Cid who was seemingly lost in his own world looked to her. "Oh, yeah. Nothing much happened after that—...Uhh.."
Cid started to sweat a little but kept his composure of looking absolutely bored out of his mind. "A-About your gold, did you find the culprit?"
Gold? Oh right, she did use that as an excuse to meet up with him. Elizabeth smiled apologetically. "Unfortunately not, it was a mere useless gesture to find the sly thief to have stolen my wealth."
Considering you took it. Elizabeth didn't mind him taking his gold, but instead, focused more on the adorable-worthy reactions of the man who saved her.
"Y-Yeah, I guess so. K-Kinda sucks about that, heh."
"Truly."
Cid knew he'd fuck up sooner or later if he didn't change the topic now. This thousand-year old Loli(Does she even count as one?) would probably figure it out if he kept on fumbling on his words, quickly! Change the topic and say something to change the topic! "So uh, any reason for asking me out for a date?"
Nailed it.
"O-Oh, about that. I've only recently heard of a holiday that involved hearts and spending time together... And since you've been kind enough to accompany me whenever I'm outside–"
Not that I could do anything. Cid took exception to that mistake of his, he really shouldn't have kept running his mouth off without listening.
"--I thought It would be proper of me to... Um... Invite you out on a date..?" Elizabeth internally cursed herself for saying the wrong thing, but hey, at least she managed it.
"Sure, thanks I guess." As soon as they finished their conversation, the waitress– The demonic witch from before arrived to deliver their food. Just as she had promised, she was the one to have paid for their expenses — Which confused Cid, if her money was gone then where the hell did she get her money to pay for their food? — It wasn't half bad since the food that was served was actually quite delicious, overall the Restaurant was really cozy and nice, except for the annoying witch of a waitress.
After eating their meal, they went for a walk as they've recently eaten. Nothing better than going for a walk after a good meal, digestion needed to be well-taken care off after all, the two didn't do much other than make small talks. The Blood Queen was more nervous and less sociable, while the Chuuni was even less sociable.
The duo were currently taking a stroll at the park section of Midgar where trees and nature was more prominent inside the Kingdom, luscious green grass covered nearly every path aside for the carved stone path for people to walk on.
Cid was currently a few steps ahead of her as they both walked, the former resting his head on both his hands as he walked — Mostly wondering where the hell did Elizabeth get the Umbrella she was currently using as protection against the sunlight, something he definitely saw she didn't have a few minutes ago prior to leaving the restaurant.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, internally ransacked her brain for something else after eating in a restaurant. Old age methods of courting were a definite no-go and Mary would definitely be pissed off if she attempted them, that meant...
I have to follow... The list given to me by Mary... Elizabeth whined helplessly as she took out a small piece of paper that had an ordered list of 'things to do on a date'.
Ugh...
Her eyes traveled to Cid who was freely enjoying his free time away from Alpha and the others, then to the piece of paper she was holding, which read :
—Eat first, so the both of you have energy to wander around the entire day.
—Walk in the park, make small conversations. (Be sure to catch the Umbrella the moment I throw it at you, Lady Elizabeth!)
—Go watch theater plays. It's a great way to pass the time. Even if neither was interested.(Another revolutionary technology created by the Mitsugoshi, they cast over a light on a clean sheet and play a series of images on it.)
—Visit the newly constructed playgrounds by Mitsugoshi, I heard it's quite the spectacle for both couples and children.
—Lastly, take late night walks on the side of a high-vantage area to see and enjoy the beautiful view of the Kingdom... Basically just go to that 'Good Spot' Sir Shadow had once described and brought you to.
—AND BEFORE YOU PART WAYS WITH HIM, YOU MUST ONLY LEAVE AFTER YOU BOTH HAVE GIVEN EACH OTHER FAREWELLS!(This is important, it will cement the memory of your first date)
Guh...
The first one made sense, It was obvious that you needed to be in a full stomach to fully enjoy a date. The second one was easier said than done, her last few bastions of go-to's to make a conversation were already used.
Any conversation regarding Midgard would make her look stupid, considering the fact she had already asked him a lot about it. His operations are also out of the window, someone could be listening to them...
Wait, maybe a casual talk about everyday lives?
Now that's an idea.
"So Cid-kun, just out of curiosity... What do you usually do in your free time?"
Cid snapped out of his session of random thoughts and looked to Elizabeth "Hmm?"
"What do you usually do in your free time?" Elizabeth repeated.
Cid looked as if he was pondering whether he should answer or not, eventually he just shrugged and answered her. "That mostly depends actually, sometimes I'd go on patrol at night. And if I've got nothing to do I'd just hang out with my friends.... That or try to think of some badass plot the same way you'd suddenly start imagining a scene after listening to some kickass music ", He mostly kept that last part to himself, it would be goddamn weird if he said that out of nowhere after all.
"But other than that? I guess I just do my own things in my free time," He continued.
"I see..." Elizabeth sheepishly scratched her cheek. She did ask him about his activities in his free time, but she didn't expect it to be so... Tame, aside from patrolling at night.
That made him more human in her view.
"Well.. Now that we're already on this part of the conversation, it got me thinking, what do you do in your free time?" Cid asked out of genuine curiosity, surely the Blood Queen has got something interesting to say..?
"Ahh.. Well, it's nothing interesting or lively actually, upon my reawakening I've been mostly trying to catch up with the current era's modernity, even back then, all I've been mostly doing was safe-keep the Haven and stay in the shade... Keeping myself restrained from the urges to drink blood."
"Uh huh..." Cid pondered for a moment after listening to her.
'Well, she wasn't kidding. There isn't much to pick out from that other than her 'uhouhoh Vampire Queen tryna keep herself tame' thing, I mean. It would be kinda interesting to fight a bloodlusted version of her again, but I've already sorta healed her from that.
Also I don't want fate to bite me back in the ass if I tried to make her go funny-red-moon thingy again just to fight her, knowing my luck, shit might go down the drain if I did that.
Perhaps Elizabeth sensed his disappointment or simply didn't have enough reaction, but she had immediately become apologetic for that. "My apologies if that didn't meet your expectations, Cid-kun."
"Huh?" Cid snapped out of his thoughts and gave Elizabeth a look. "Nah, it wasn't like that, don't worry. It was a casual question as well."
"Ah, thank goodness then." Elizabeth felt slight relief. "Is.. There anything else you do other than that?"
"What do you mean?" Cid tilted his head in confusion.
"I mean, do you at least spend time relaxing or catch a breather? I don't imagine you'd be the type to get tired but, a little rest is good for the soul you know. "
"Hmm..." Cid pondered that thought, he never really does that does he? He's always on the move to achieve his one true goal, be an Eminence in the Shadow. It doesn't sound too bad though.
"No, not really. But I'll take it into consideration."
"Ah, that's wise."
After that conversation, Elizabeth had tried to converse with him about random topics she could think of on the fly the rest of their walk at the park.
Obviously, Cid barely paid attention but still responded with half-assed answers, the Chuuni would have normally tried to get away at this point but refrained from doing so, afraid that he might accidentally offend her and cause her to "Sue" Him.
++--------------------++
She may have fumbled a little on her socializing attempts, but at least she had tried her best right? Besides, it served well enough as a distraction enough for them to reach the theater.
Upon arriving at the theater, Elizabeth couldn't help but balk at the genuinely amazing but simple device called a 'Zoopraxiscope', it made use of light and a series of images rolled into a wheel and played over a screen just as Mary had described it.
What's more amazing was the conventional use of a 'U' shaped theater for maximum audience capacity and efficiency.
As well as the story writing itself, currently the series of images being played is a story about a supposedly-dead girl who had been imprisoned by a tyrannical entity, forced to spend an eternity in Isolation. That was merely the premise, the rising action of the story was amazing as well, the girl slowly grew more into a person rather than the cold-hearted girl she was before Isolation.
While Elizabeth was genuinely enjoying the 'movie' with gleaming sparkly eyes, Cid was busy trying to figure out where he had previously heard of this story before.
There were a few words of "Copyright infringement" Flying around his thoughts but couldn't pick up on it, in the end, he also watched the rest of the 'movie' to see how accurate it was.
And what kinda bullshit they were cookin' up when they stole that story. Did Beta have something to do with this? Beta definitely had something to do with this.
I mean, the theater clearly stated 'Based on a novel series by Natsume Kafka.'
The audacity to keep stealing people's work... (Note, this is the same MC that stole Mary's lines the moment he heard them.)
++--------------------++
Their next stop was the famous playgrounds, just as the name implies, it was a playground.
Mostly for kids.
There were a few teenagers and adults too, but the latter were most likely here to watch over their children. The former is likely just around to kill time or to relax.
After watching the Theater, Elizabeth couldn't help but make out the rest of the 'movie's' scenes. The writing was so good and the images weren't half bad as well!
The voices behind the theater were also to credit as well, they did a spectacular job capturing the character's emotions and lines.
Overall, that visit was definitely worth it. She hoped Cid enjoyed the show just as she did.
...The man in fact, did not enjoy it. Coming from a modernized world where Anime and higher-technology was prominent, that level of play-casting was so subpar, what made it worse was the stolen story – Damn you beta! – And it's wrong pronunciation of names! The Main Character's name was Sirin! S-i-r-i-n, not freaking 'Siren'
Man, the glazing is crazy.
Both of them were now sitting in one of the Playground's more comfortable rock-chairs. It was warm and cozy due to the mild-sunlight that casted over it, Elizabeth still had her Umbrella out at this moment.
"Say, Cid-kun. The theater was quite the spectacle wasn't it?" Elizabeth softly said..
"Yeah, sure." The Butt-hurt-over-ripoff-movie wasn't as ecstatic as her.
"You sound rather irritated.." Elizabeth asked worriedly. "Was it not to your liking..?"
"Half and half on my side."
"Was it that bad?"
"Not really, the writing was great but it definitely had a lot of plot holes, pronunciation of the names were wrong and the voice felt like it didn't match the character. Kudos to their performance though, they did the emotions nicely."
"Ah! So you as well? I thought their performance was exceptional, although I do agree with the voices not fitting the characters. The Main Character was described to have a rather childish but deep tone to her voice, the one who acted her had the feel of an Adult woman."
"I know right? Kinda ruined the vibe for me... though what really ruined it was Beta's half-assed copyrighting, like gawd damn girl. " Cid made sure to mute that last part, woulda been really awkward if Beta heard him say that. After their topic about the movie ran out, Cid wondered what they were doing at the Playground. "Say, why are we in the playgrounds?"
The playground kinda brought him back nostalgia though.
"Err.. I was told it was a good way to relax after an activity, though while watching a movie wasn't actually something extraneous, it does bring some strain to our minds." Elizabeth explained as if she had rehearsed it multiple times. (Though in reality, it was mere bullshit she had cooked up while in the theater.)
"Huh, I guess so. Especially if the ending leaves you making up new scenes after watching it." In a turn of irony, Cid had bought up the bullshit and shrugged it off.
The rest of their time hanging around the Playground wasn't as eventful as the theater, it was mostly for them to take a rest they didn't need.
Late Evening quickly fell and Elizabeth scrambled to ask Cid to their last location as the latter was about to leave due to outright boredom, regardless of the 'consequences' he was imagining.
Cid thankfully accepted the last request and so they went to the first restaurant Cid had first brought her to.
"Ey.. This is the restaurant I showed you before." Cid noted.
"Indeed! I had thought that it was fitting to end our 'date' by being somewhere else more familiar."
"Mhm.." Upon entering the high-vantages restaurant, the two sat back down to their original table, and ordered the same food as well. Elizabeth's umbrella was neatly folded to the side of a railing as it was already late evening, not too dark and not too sunny.
The familiar scent of the food they've first eaten here assaulted their noses. There might have been better restaurants, but there was no better than one that was more comfortable and cozy.
As promised earlier, Elizabeth paid for their expenses and budget during the entire day. Something Cid was thankful for, not having to waste his barely functional wallet was something to be appreciated. Also, the drinks and food here are pretty damn delicious for a middle-class restaurant. Not too shabby or over-the-top, just really good. Elizabeth seems to share his sentiment when the Vampiric Queen started gushing at the food after taking a spoonful. Yep, free food is, and always will be the best kind of food.
The two slowly but surely enjoyed their food, the night sky later falling in after a few dozen minutes had passed. Cid had already finished his plate and treat by then and pushed it back to the table with a light burp, while Elizabeth was more well-mannered at receiving well-blessings after eating a fulfilling meal.
Cid wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and exhaled, to any outside viewers, it would look like he was just cleaning up after his mess. What was happening inside was a different story..
'Dude, food is seriously great and all but with that', all the distraction I could (probably) use on a date is gone! I've been brainstorming it the entire time, but what is she going to do next? Surely she wouldn't just invite me to a date without any motives, we're good friends but like, she's gotta be up to something right? Something related to her gold specifically.'
Cid immediately looked up his options and possible reason behind the date.
—1. She probably invited him out for stealing, then paid all the expenses so she could legally say he owed her.
—2. She's being genuine and just wanted to spend time or something, like she always does.
—3. Nah bro it's over, we're cooked. We're getting sued so badly.
—4. She's just trolling you.
...Half of those sounded terrible, he might be stronk. But no one ain't crazy enough to run away from taxes and debts.
Especially the IRS... Oh who was he kidding, he's a walking atomic now he doesn't need to fear them.
Vampire Queen's can be terrifying though, imagine she yaps to Alpha and the others about how he stole her money, that was something he dreaded to think about.
If they knew they'd go " Uouuuaghh, stealing from someone who'd just woken up after thousands of years? I thought you were a slick cool eminence.. " And proceed to give him disgusted looks. His remaining unused brain cells would scatter like flies just to get out of a situation like that.
That wasn't a good image...
But then again, she had stated earlier that this was just a date to be nice to him, thank him for all that crap from before.
So maybe he could actually just relax?
"Cid-kun." Elizabeth's voice removed him from his thoughts.
"Y-Yeah?"
"I'd like to say first, thank you for accepting my invitation to this d-date, and for all the fun I've had today." Elizabeth slightly bowed.
"I mean, I gotta thank you as well. Just like you said a while ago, a breather is good for the soul, so I guess I'll treat this day as one."
"Indeed it is." Elizabeth couldn't agree more and was happy that he did take it to consideration, even if she had meant it as an entire day of rest, not a date. With most of their final words in, the two fell into silence, enjoying the moment as it is for different reasons. The view to Midgar's entirety made way for Elizabeth's appreciation of this day whereas Cid was still Cid.
It was obvious that this date had to end now due to how late it is – Mostly for Cid, since he was still under the guise of a Student and had to abide by a curfew, otherwise his ass would be history if he gets back home late. – Before the date could however, Elizabeth wanted to try and take advantage of this opportunity to truly ask him out and expand her relationship with him.
"C-Cid-kun, before we part ways. I'd like to talk to you about one more thing if you wouldn't mind." Elizabeth shakily muttered in her position, her 'heart' beating fast as she mentally steeled herself. If she let go of this chance now, she doubted there would be another where she could properly expand more on their relationship.
"Oh, yeah sure, go on." Cid nonchalantly said, already sitting on his chair by the side to leave.
"I would like to.. C-Con.." She nervously fumbled.
"Con?"
"C-C-Conf...!"
"Conff..?" Cid tilted his head.
Mustering up all of her courage, she closed her eyes and bravely said the word she was having trouble with."C-C-CONFESS–"
Boom!
Though, in a turn of fate. Her voice was overwhelmed by a louder sound of an explosion just about a few blocks away from their position, both immediately looked towards the source of the sound and found a building below the high-vantage restaurant smoking.
To any other normal or weaker being, it would have looked like that the explosion was a mere accident. But it was different for these two as they both had incredible sensing capabilities, Elizabeth found herself growing a tick in her forehead out of annoyance whereas Cid's attention was completely directed towards the smoking area, probably cooking up multiple scenarios in his head already.
Both sensed magic coming from the explosion itself, that meant whatever going on there was definitely a fight.
Knowing that no one was looking or even bothering to notice them at this point due to the explosion, Cid immediately disappeared from his position in a burst of speed. The rest of the restaurant staff was already gone and panicking by this point so he didn't worry about being found out.
Elizabeth on the other hand groaned explicitly and slammed her head to the table. "Mustered all of that for nothing.. And he leaves without even saying anything."
Then again, this was Cid-kun.. Or well, Sire Shadow she was talking about. She viewed him as a man of duty, working tirelessly towards a goal to achieve his mission's success. And that probably included saving people, truly what a kind-hearted person he was.
In reality, Cid had forgotten Elizabeth's presence in favor of seeing what the hell was going on.
Elizabeth then shook her head, raising it back and massaging her forehead. "Then again, this was an unfortunate circumstance of me being a coward. If only I hadn't stuttered..."
She might have been able to say it, but it was completely overshadowed by the larger previous explosion.
She made a gesture to get up and leave, she was still dissatisfied and annoyed at being interrupted by an unruly explosion happening at the worst time, not to mention having her efforts probably gone to waste if Sire Shadow had suddenly left without saying anything.. Wait, left?
The Vampire Queen suddenly remembered a small tidbit of text that was written on Mary's advice before going to the date. 'You must only leave after you've given each other farewells.'
She immediately thought that it wouldn't really matter as she didn't want to disturb Sire-Shadow with his work. But Mary made emphasis that it was important that they should only leave AFTER giving each other a nice and sweet goodbye.
And they pretty much didn't, so technically... This means their date hasn't indeed yet. Intervening would likely garner Sire Shadow's displeasure, but she could probably make excuses of this being a part of the date right? (Oh how much she's becoming one hell of a mischievous girl.)
With that in mind, Elizabeth decided to follow alongside Shadow by disappearing with her Mist Form.
++--------------------++
Oh boy, oh boy! So what kinda shit is going on here now?
Cid watched with an amused glee on top of a tall building, his right leg stood over a ledge. – Aka. The classic edgy pose while watching from the Shadows! – Before he arrived here, he thought it was just a random accident or just some kind of experimentation.
But to his surprise, it wasn't. Upon arriving at the scene, he saw a girl wearing his Shadow Garden's slime suit who he immediately identified as one of the girl's paid actors(probably, because if this girl was on her own then they were going to have problems. First starting with Copyright allegations.), the girl was fighting a random who was literally the embodiment of 'Hey-I'm-a-ninja-goon-that's-always-killed-at-the-beginning-of-an-arc'.
Upon looking closer, it looked like the girl had two more members with her, each on different floors and parts of the building. While the background fodder goon – He had to admit, he was envious of how the guy made it look so easy to straight up be a forgettable fodder – also had more backups, somewhere around twenty dudes.
The girls didn't need any outside help as they were easily tearing through the fodderized ninjas like Teenagers fighting five year olds.
Cid wanted to immediately go down there and steal the spotlight for himself, kill the random-probably-bad-guys and post for one of his members. Because if these paid actors were here then one of the girls were also, probably nearby.
It was one of the number one rules of making an entrance: Make sure it looks badass and timely with a purpose. Think of a perfect pose, a good one-liner, cool presence and a badass entrance.
However before he could go and interrupt the scuffle between two sides, he sensed Elizabeth reappearing next to him with her Mist Form.
Internally, Cid swore at himself for forgetting Elizabeth's presence. He mighta accidentally offended her by straight up just disappearing without even saying anything.
In his defense, he was intrigued and curious.
"Elizabeth, my apologies for leaving so suddenly. But it seems that the Shadows have gone restless even now." His voice was deeper than his usual casual voice, a sign that he was completely in character.
The Blood Queen seemed to understand this and simply nodded her head. "It's fine, Sire Shadow. I wouldn't have expected you to stay still when people are in danger."
' Wuh? Oh right, this place kinda blew up a part of the street and got a buncha civilians caught up in it. ' Well, the part about not staying still was accurate, the people part wasn't as accurate though.
"I find it displeasing, but I'd like to postpone our 'date' for another time. Enemies do not rest after all." Cid made an excuse for her to go away, surely it would be enough that there was something going on down there to get her to leave. Considering that Elizabeth's done the same before.
But to his surprise, instead of backing off and disappearing. Elizabeth walked closer to him with a serious but gentle expression. "I was told that a date only ends when both parties agree to separate and have said goodbyes.. And neither of us has done any of those aside from your suggestion of postponing it." Elizabeth smiled at him. "So I believe that our date is not over yet, so if you may, would you mind having me over and help in your duties?"
Cid tried to make sense of her reasoning and found himself unable to, although with a few internal quips. ' Dude, I wanted to show up like a badass, not have a Batman and Robin act going on here... But hold on wait, the sound of an Eminence and a Vampire Queen teaming up to deal with a bunch of dudes actually sounds really cool! '
He made the decision of letting it slip just this once, to have someone else on a similar scale to his power hang around with him would be undeniably fun. Outside, Shadow smirked sharply, his red-eyes flashing over the Blood Queen. "Of course not, It would be an honor to have such a figure join me in battle."
Elizabeth beamed at this and walked next to his side, her magic already circling inside her body as she waited for Shadow to make a move. "Very well then, I shall be in your care."
"Hmph." Shadow wryly smiled, before dashing towards the building with Elizabeth in tow.
++--------------------++
No. 432 was nervously gulping inside, not because of her enemies. But because of the consequences of failing to keep her part of the mission. This was supposed to be a night-evening operation without detection from the enemies, she was given the task of getting inside a building that was reported to have Cult-Members making this place a temporary base and dispatch them all without being noticed.
And then she suddenly tripped on an unbalanced tile in the floor. The result? One of these Cult-idiots throwing a grenade – Where did they even get this!? – at her, which she responded with her magic and using it to block the explosion.
Her teammates who had their own tasks were probably alerted at this point already, ugh.. He's going to get one hell of a scolding from the drill instructor.
However, before she could dispatch her enemies who were all Third and Second Children, a violet slashing motion appeared out of nowhere, followed by a scything crescent arc. All of them were immediately turned into red-stains in the wall, No.432 was immediately on her guard, the fact she didn't see who had done it meant that they were no weaklings.
To both her joy and terror, it was her Lord Shadow who had dispatched her enemies, the man reappearing not too soon after killing the Cult-Members with blinding speed. His figure was an enigma just as the rumors said, it's as if he was being favored by the moonlight itself..
Kyaaaa.... And uh oh, this IS Lord Shadow. And the fact he appeared just about after she had fumbled on her mission means.. Oh god.
"L-Lord Shadow! I-It is an unbelievable honor to be in your presence and I am not worthy of it!" She immediately dashed towards his side and kneeled apologetically. "I-I have f-failed my mission and I am regretful about it, but please! Give me another chance!" Not once, not twice, but three freaking times she stuttered on her greetings. It's so freaking over, she's dead now,
Her Lord Shadow didn't say anything for a few seconds, daring to give it a try, No.432 raised her head lightly and saw that the Master of the Garden wasn't paying attention to him and was talking to a rather beautiful lady in red... W-Wait, Is that a vampire? IS THAT THE BLOOD QUEEN!?
She'd never seen her in person before, but the description given to the rest of the Members during the Blood Moon fit.
What was her Lord doing here with the Blood Queen of all people???
"Huh? Oh, hey." Finally noticing her presence, her Lord turned to look at her, she immediately began sweating from her position. His presence was so pressuring she felt as if she would faint even if they were on the same side.
"L-Lord Shadow, I would like to apologize–"
"Mind that for later, I want full reports now." His cold and deep toned voice commanded, overshadowing her own. This made her more nervous, it was a blessing to be in Lord Shadow's presence, but the fact she failed on her mission kept her away from being joyful.
No.432 Immediately obeyed his order and started giving him reports, she'd heard of how intelligent and quick-minded their Lord was from the Shades, usually needing to hear or see the information first theme instantly figuring out everything.
Her report also included her own failure at the Mission, even if she was afraid she was still loyal to the organization that saved her life.
To her miraculous disbelief, her Lord Shadow simply ignored it and told her to return back immediately as he would be handling this scouting mission now. Ahhh! Such a blessing! He's so kind and considerate!
No.431 and No.430 are going to be jealous of this!
++--------------------++
Okay, so they kinda botched that entrance a little. Elizabeth's scythe pretty much cleaved through half of the guys while he turned them into mincemeat, it WOULD have been the perfect entrance if not for the fact she did it way too fast and in the dark, the whole point of a badass entrance was for an audience to see it, Elizabeth-san!
He told her how they should do their Entrance next time – For practical reasons he excused – Elizabeth didn't seem to suspect his reasoning and simply nodded. Oh and, one of the paid-actors he was observing before was already kneeling in front of him.
Such a bliss, these extras really knew their job well. Props to Alpha and the others for hiring the right people and being dedicated to their 'cause', the girl even talked about how she failed her mission and was practically shaking because of it.
Cid gave her acting a reward by telling her to go back home now and take a rest, but not before asking her what this roleplay scene was about. – Also, he asked if any of the Shades were here, to his surprise, none of them were present as they were busy with their own respective duties – That meant those girls had set him up a surprise roleplay without even being present, they were really good friends for this.
And regarding the roleplay act, it seems that their script was to follow a bunch of bad guys who were about to escape– Oh? They already left from the looks of it, Ahem– bunch of bad dudes who had already escaped a few minutes ago through a carriage.
Easy peasy, he could already tell what half of the roleplay will be about.
He's calling dibs on an underground base, he's so calling it.
After talking to the Extra-Shadow Garden member, he and Elizabeth pursued the bad guys by following their trail.
Obviously, with their speed they managed to catch up with ease. But instead of shooting down from the sky and killing the guys, he made the decision to observe instead until they arrived at their main base of operations. Thankfully he didn't need to tell Elizabeth about this as the Vampire-Loli already knew what he was planning.
A few minutes of slowing down their speed to observe in secret, the carriage eventually stopped at a secluded part of Midgar, in front of a tall five-story building.
Okay, it might not be an underground hideout but maybe there's one inside it.
"Alright, Queen of Vampires. Would you like to do the honors?" Shadow asked Elizabeth, gesturing for her to attack now that they've found their hideout. Elizabeth was happy to do so and used her Mist form to sneak inside the building through its windows.
Elizabeth then reappeared between two stationed guards and expired them with a mere Blood Magic through their skulls. 'Yeesh, kinda brutal but also cool. ' Cid mused internally.
Shadow soon then made his entrance through the main gate and killed the driver of the carriage who had just gotten inside the building. The bad-guys immediately perked up and fired at him using old firearms the moment they saw him.
"When night falls, the shadows come. And when they do, those who deem it's darkness a curse will find that meaning to be true." Shadow monologued while walking towards them. The line was really good and felt like he should save that one for a later date when a boss fight encounter happens.
"I-It's Shadow!"
"Shoot him!"
Gun Fired immediately lightened the floor they were in, Shadow weaved through the bullets without moving and easily sliced through a majority of the random cult members. To him, this felt like the average hunting session with Delta, except he's with someone more elegant and reasonably easier to talk to.
Elizabeth later joined the scene by impaling two cult members with her hands and using their blood to turn it into spikes and kill the remaining Cultists. He felt a little bummed at this easy sweep through of a roleplay.
"Was that all of them?" He almost sounded disappointed.
But thanks to sheer plot-armor luck, Elizabeth came to the rescue by saying that she had found out about an underground system while searching through the floors.
Now THAT had his attention, what were the chances!?
An underground system? That sounded cooler than just an underground hideout.
Without skipping a beat, he suggested that they immediately go follow the underground system and explore it. It was just like the usual random bad-guy lair except the place was so damn long, these tunnels were probably connected throughout the kingdom.
The two powerful beings kept on exploring the Underground System with mach speeds, before stopping when they found a huge vein area with dozens of bad guys moving from place to place to deliver what seems to be smuggled swords and other weaponry.
Kinda boring but hey, it was pretty cool either way.
Just like before, he and Elizabeth swept through the rest of these chumps like high-level players going back to a low level area.
In the end, it felt boring since none of these guys actually stood a chance at them.
At least until one of these dudes started talking shit about who he was and how he was going to get to the Rounds or something.
The guy then took out a sma jar filled with those red bean things and started powering up, the entire cave system shook from the sudden magical outburst from the random as he posed his blade towards them.
Oh well, at least they had a Mini-boss.
++--------------------++
Elizabeth was eerily listening closely to the strange Cultist they had encountered after destroying most of the underground system in mere minutes, it wasn't much but she did enjoy getting to fight side by side with Cid-kun in his Shadow Persona.
"I-I am someone destined for greatness! If not for that brat zenon I would have been able to place a higher chance of being favored!" The Cultist screamed in bloody murder, the man had just seen his entire work be destroyed within minutes by two powerful individuals. Alongside his useless men who were all dispatched so easily, every single one of his effort was turned into nothing but a simple hideout for the cult to use and move around the city.
Something he didn't appreciate.
The crazed man took out a strange tiny jar with small beads inside ther confused Elizabeth, the feeling from these Beads were somewhat akin to Vampirism, akin but not the same.
The man ate every single content in the jar and started transforming, Elizabeth's eyes widened a little in disgust as the man slowly transformed into something less of a human. The man had become a flesh blob monster with muscles protruding everywhere.
His magic output also increased by tenfold... Not bad.
But not good enough, all it did was close the strength gap by a small margin.
"I wIlL gEt mY rEvenG–"
"What a disgusting sight, another fool blinded by power." Shadow expressed his disgust for the man by kicking the former human straight through the underground ceiling and to the surface.
The ground shook from the force and the underground system nearly caved from his kick, Elizabeth couldn't help but blush at how brutish and yet graceful he did the kick.
It even made her chuckle when he cut off the Cultist from his speech.
"Elizabeth, you said that this still counted as a date." Shadow's question snapped her out of her thoughts.
"O-Oh yes, it is." She answered innocently.
"Then who am I to not end a date in a spectacular way?" Shadow smirked at her, crouched and jumped towards the hole.
Elizabeth suddenly became expectant at what he meant, not expecting him to suddenly show such a gesture.
Not wanting to make him wait anymore longer, she followed through the hole and flew with graceful speed.
When she arrived on the surface, she saw Shadow manhandle the Monsterized human – She was a bit curious as to how these humans managed to find a way to do such things. – The gentleman clad in back then began to drag the cultist through the air and flew towards the direction of a nearby mountain with lightning-speed.
Elizabeth easily kept up with his speed and followed along with him.
Eventually, Shadow dropped to the ground and face slammed the Monsterized Cultist without killing him, the cultist had already grown to a gigantic flesh blob at this point, unable to voice any coherent speech due to the demonization of the Diablo beads.
Elizabeth soon then landed gracefully, standing nearby and waiting for Shadow to show her something.
It may seem a little unhinged that these two were straight up manhandling a gigantic monster with ease, but hey, they were strongest. Being strong meant you had a few screws loose.
"Elizabeth, O' Blood Queen. Would you like to see a spectacle suitable to end this date?" Shadow asked with a deep, sincere-sounding voice.
"Of course, I wouldn't expect any less from a man of your caliber."
Shadow chuckled, "Then you better watch carefully, as this will be one of the most beautiful sceneries you'll ever see." As soon as he said that, violet vein-like lines appeared on the side of his face, his body then soon became engulfed with the same styled magic. A barrier appeared soon after, enclosing him and the monstrified cult-member.
As if sensing fear, the distorted cult member started screeching helplessly as Cid threw him high into the air. Elizabeth flew back a little to a safer distance when she felt the magic output from Shadow increase exponentially, easily surpassing hers.
"Watch, Queen of Vampires. As a man who had once lost hope in search of something never gave up."
As always, she balked at how a human could achieve such a level of strength. But then again, that was one of his charms. She listened to his speech and felt the genuine emotion he had in them.
Excitement.
"Set upon your eyes, to the pleasing peak of power I've sought for! The never ending growth of power for new heights!"
The world suddenly shook, the skies became a shade of purple when Shadow spoke. "I..."
Elizabeth felt goosebumps from the sudden distortion from his words, the magical strain around the area began to cry from the sheer magnificence of his power.
"... AM"
Elizabeth felt like on the edge of her seat, despite not even sitting in the first place. She couldn't wait already for the show he was going to show her.
"..Atomic."
The world darkened for a moment as the giant storm of magic disappeared for a mere moment, until a whistling sound exploded and power erupted from Shadow's position. Shooting towards the skies and piercing the heavens itself.
Elizabeth was immediately in trance at the beauty of his power, such a beautiful light.
This... This was the man she fell in love with. Yeah, no. She was going to tap that one way or another.
After a few seconds, the explosive might of Cid's attack slowly dissipated, the sheer destructive force of his attack left a gigantic crater on where he stood. The poor cultist from before whom they used as a dummy was also gone now, completely obliterated.
What an enigmatic and heart-skipping sight that power was.
"So, what do you think?" Shadow- Cid-kun, casually asked as he reappeared next to her. The man looked as if he was waiting for her reaction.
Elizabeth snapped out of her trance and composed herself. "Need I say more?"
"It was absolutely beautiful, thank you for showing me such a sight."
"No problem, consider it as an apology for suddenly disappearing on you... Actually I just wanted to show off and see what your reaction would be If i used that attack. " As always, that last part of his sentence went unsaid.
"You didn't have to.. And I'm already grateful for everything." Elizabeth looked at him in the eyes. "I suppose I've wasted enough of your time haven't I?"
"--Not really."
"It may not be, but I still wasted your time." Her gaze at him stayed for a few seconds, exhaling after. She walked up to him and looked at him in the eyes, Cid returned the gesture.
Neither said anything for a few seconds, before Elizabeth suddenly kissed him in the cheek. "Thank you, I had fun today."
If Cid was surprised, he didn't show it. "Yeah, I had fun too." He turned around and gave her a nod. "I suppose I should get back now, It's probably past my curfew."
"You probably should." Elizabeth agreed.
He was about to use Serious dash when he suddenly remembered something, he looked back at her and smiled. "Well then, cya around?"
"Mhm." Elizabeth nodded, with that Cid disappeared and ran back to the city while Elizabeth remained where she was. Looking at the crater with a blush on her face.
"I can't believe I managed to do that.." She said while putting a hand on her chest.