Silence after Loss (V/L)

Lettuki was unsure of himself, he had only been on the planet for a short while but he already felt unsure in himself about being here, it felt like he was still be haunted and the regret was lingering here. He had decided that he'll head off to Frost and speak with Enyo, ensure the mutant was doing his assignment as he instructed her nearly a year ago, alongside with training and whatnot. But he couldn't handle the two days alone with his thoughts, he had spent more than enough time trapped by them and couldn't afford wasting more time feeling sorry for himself.

He had considered seeking out Alice once again for the trip, but much like Enyo it would seem the human nearly always had her power suppressed as she disappeared as quickly as she appeared to help him. His other option, Bartender the bartender as he came to call him was a no go since he never even figured out the man's name. So that only left his one true friend, Vuoto. But he still reluctant to see the demon, he had left without so much of a single word to anyone but Enyo that year ago so he didn't know how much the demon knew or why the saiyan left.

It was already too late to second guess himself further though as he already begun flying toward the familiar source of ki that he knew was Vuoto's, but strangely enough as he flew toward the demon's ki, he saw an all too familiar cave that used to belong to the demon, it seemed empty from the passing view Lettuki saw, but maybe it was nothing and the demon was just out visiting or doing some training or any other excuse.

The saiyan finally approached the location, he noticed the lone house sitting in a small clearing of the forest, quite a humble house, but why was Vuoto here? Did he buy a house? Or was it a neighbor he visited? A friend? Many questions that could only be answered by one way. Lettuki flew to the ground and landed a bit harshly, the new weights would take some time to get used to after nearly a year of not wearing any. The new set was the same as the old one, minus the dent in the middle from... Lettuki shook his head lightly, he needed to stop doing that.

Without anything to lose, Lettuki would knock on the door and simply wait for the demon to answer, it didn't feel like anyone else was in the house but if Alice, that bug and the hybrid could hide away, then it was likely that anyone would could hang with Vuoto could do the same.

WC: 457

PL: 52,368
Weighted PL: 13,092

Lettuki could only grin as the familiar face of the demon greeted him, he was glad to see the demon had been taking care of himself as he had a new home, although the strange new set of clothing was confusing, but it was for a later time as he noticed what appeared to be tears forming in the demon's eyes. Lettuki's eye brow arched upward in surprise, he knew he had been gone for a while, but to cry upon one's return? Even Enyo didn't cry upon seeing Lettuki again. Before Lettuki could even comment on it, the demon begin to speak, explaining that he believed Lettuki had actually died during the tournament.

Lettuki could lightly chuckle at the notion, before rubbing a new scar on the left side of his forehead, sprawling down a bit to meet the corner of his eye. "It's true I took quite the beating there, but it'll take a whole lot more than that to take this saiyan down." Lettuki would say with confidence in his voice. However, he couldn't help but feel empathy for the demon, he should've said something before leaving. Lettuki sighed a his grin faded. "Listen... I'm sorry, I should've at least told you but..." Lettuki didn't really know how to approach this subject, he might be able to understand why Lettuki was upset over what happened there, but maybe not fully understand.

"Something happened at the tourney. I don't know if you heard it... But it was really bad." Lettuki would begin to explain, a bit hesitant to talk the topic. "It caused me to lose control of myself. I hurt lot of people, probably quite a few innocents.... Even someone close to me." Lettuki would continue as he looked off in the distance, he didn't really want to face this whole emotional mess. "Quite a few people tried to take me down, no idea how many or how long we fought, but when I came to, I was left to die in the ocean."

"I would've died if it wasn't for someone I knew saving me, I'm not sure why she chose to, we only met once and she ended up drugging me during that meeting. But she saved me and made sure I still kicking." Lettuki would continue his explanation, even he was confused why Alice would save him after that whole ordeal. "After I was back on my feet, I got ready to leave, but the person I mentioned before, Enyo." Lettuki would say before pausing. "The one I hurt." Lettuki would add a bit hesitantly. "She tried to stop me from leaving, but I ordered her away. Since then I've been..." Lettuki paused, he wasn't too sure how to word this part since he didn't want to admit anything about his emotions. "Busy, just doing some work to get stronger." Lettuki lied, deciding to avoid the whole mess involving the tourney, he hated just thinking about it, so talking about it was a much more uglier to deal with.

WC: 505
TWC: 962

Lettuki couldn't help but grin as the demon went into his "tsundere" mode, it was a nice to be back in the swing of things. Although he couldn't help but notice it seemed the demon hated showing emotions, Lettuki didn't really care about showing emotions, but he had difficulty displaying any, it made him uncomfortable since he never really knew how to deal with them in regards to friends. He had to wonder why the demon wouldn't show emotions, could he suffer from the same problem?

"Yes, of course, don't even worry about it friend. Although I will say this, it's unbecoming of a warrior to be afraid of showing emotions, especially among friends." Lettuki would tell the demon, he was aware of some of the hypocrisy in saying such a thing, but there was a difference in displaying emotion and allowing emotion, it seemed Vuoto couldn't allow himself to show any. "But enough about that, tell me old friend, what have you been up to since the year?" Lettuki would decide to ask, wanting to avoid any more of this emotional stuff, he didn't really know what else to say or how else to help Vuoto in his situation.

"I would tell you my exciting tales of working as a mercenary, but I'm afraid they were rather dull contracts, mostly just beating up weaklings." Lettuki would add with a small laugh. It was a partial truth at least, although it was more of massacring weaklings than just beating them, that and he wasn't getting paid for it.

WC: 258
TWC: 1,220

Lettuki listened to the demon as he explained a bit of why he was afraid to show emotions, something Lettuki saw in his own world as well, warriors are taught to never show emotions in his society and although Lettuki refused the notion, it made him an easy target and he fought against it with his might, it proved to make him stronger as he had to fight those who decided those who showed emotion were weak. However, it seemed it extended to a mystery woman in Vuoto's life that had died due to showing emotions, something Lettuki didn't know how to respond to, it wasn't a problem he had encountered before and he couldn't really saw anything to comfort the demon in anyway.

"I see." Lettuki would only mutter, unsure what else to say. The demon then sat on the couch so Lettuki stepped inside the house and shut the door behind, deciding it was a sign that he should probably move inside if the demon felt like he wouldn't be going anywhere for a while enough so to sit down. Lettuki only listened as the demon spoke, it seemed he too was hurt by showing emotions and once again, something about his strength. Lettuki couldn't help but wonder if the whole demon's plan to free his people was nothing more than an attempt to prove himself to the others.

"Quite interesting, it seems the lack of strength and displaying emotion caused your injury on the eye, I assume?" Lettuki would ask, realizing why the demon must be so ashamed from his injury and also realizing why the demon would be hesitant to show any emotions to anyone. It was a fairly reasonable assumption, Lettuki would never do the same but it was good to recognize there was some differences in people that he would never really understand.

WC: 309
TWC: 1,529

Lettuki ignored whatever the demon had said, the language flying over his head but it sounded like the demon was a bit angry, although if it was at Lettuki or himself was a mystery to the saiyan who only crossed his arms and waited for the demon to explain or start speaking the language. When the demon begun speaking it was a rather weak defensive tone at first, causing Lettuki to narrow his eyes ever so slightly but thankfully the demon immediately gave up on trying to be defensive about the scar. It seemed abuse was quite common among the demons, Vuoto's nearly signature scar was caused by his father partly surprising Lettuki, but quickly filled him with anger as he grit his teeth.

His opinions on demons were quickly changing as he realized they were nothing more than power hungry fools who attack their children for any sign of weakness. It was disgusting behavior, a child should never be forced to fight against their will and this was the second time he heard of demons attacking their children, maybe he'd have to convince Vuoto to abandon the cowards at a later date, but for now he assumed the demon was nowhere near being able to free his people so the saiyan decided to hold off on that for now.

"I see." Lettuki would say, he wasn't entirely too sure how to respond to that revelation, he was less than pleased at the news but there was nothing that could be done about it and telling Vuoto that just seemed a bit pointless to the saiyan. "...Thank you for being honest." Lettuki add on after a bit, he supposed he could at least do that to try and encourage the demon to be more open about his emotions.

As the demon showed off the scar, Lettuki would examine the wound, noticing the scar still seemed somewhat fresh despite the demon being here for over a year now. Lettuki was certain he seen the scar once before, but not this close and this long, when the demon realized it the first time he hid it away, but that was over a year ago and it seemed to still be bleeding every so often judging by the red trail of blood he could see. "Why does it still bleed?" Lettuki would ask, a bit confused on that. "Normally a scar heals over time, case in point." Lettuki would gesture to his face with two scars now while he grinned. "And I know demons could recover from scars, I even seen it on J-" Lettuki begun to explain before cutting himself off suddenly, his grin leaving as quickly as it came. He needed to forget about that, mentioning anything with... It, was a waste of time and served only as a trap.

WC: 469
TWC: 1,998

Lettuki would back up a bit as the demon covered the scar again, opting to listen to the demon explain what was wrong with his scar and why it was still affecting him despite the year gap between when Lettuki first seen it and now. The demon called it something, he didn't quite understand the word but he did understand the next part, some sort of cursed scar that even Vuoto couldn't heal, which was a bit surprising to the saiyan, he had known the demon to be an unrivaled magician, only person who had ever caught him off guard was the necromancer the duo had run across some time last year.

The demon continued his story, explaining it wasn't just his father who had abused him and also surprisingly revealing his age to be over 136 years ago and despite the century and nearly half to recover, the demon apparently still hadn't recovered from the experience. "I see, it's surprising to you are that old." Lettuki would comment, deciding to start with the more lighter stuff first before having to try and comfort the demon in his troubles with trust. This was not at all what he was expecting to do today, he was expecting to meet with the demon, maybe have a spar and then see if the demon would be willing to leave to Frost with him, but instead, here he was, stuck here trying his best to comfort a friend deal with life long issues.

Needless to say Lettuki was completely lost and unsure how to handle this problem at all. "I am sorry to hear you had gone through this stuff, I can't relate to this or help you cope with any of this Vuoto." Lettuki would tell the demon, figuring he'd just tell the truth. "However, I will do my best to help you overcome your trust issues, not everyone is out to stab you in the back, you had done the same for me, remember? That bounty that was over my head? You easily could've struck at me with a group while I was still in my weights, instead you chose to help me get stronger and warn me about it." Lettuki would add on, he knew it wasn't really much, but it was all he really could do, this was a problem he never had to deal with and frankly, he didn't want to but he couldn't leave his friend like this.

WC: 410
TWC: 2,408

Lettuki could only smile as the demon placed his hand on the saiyan's shoulder, it was nice to see him trying to become more friendly and active. Although he couldn't help but laugh as the demon offered to assist in any trouble that Lettuki couldn't handle, sure the demon had gotten stronger but it was nowhere near enough for it to actually help him in any meaningful way. Still, it was the thought that matters. "Thank you Vuoto." Lettuki would tell the demon with another grin.

"Say, I've been thinking about heading to another planet recently, a cold one named Frost. It's the hub area for the group known as the Planet Trade Organization." Lettuki would begin to explain to the demon. "I have someone out there, Enyo. She has been working on getting me information on the place for a while now." Lettuki would continue his explanation, putting his hand on the back of his head, he was a bit uncertain about asking the demon the next part since it seemed the demon was doing so well for himself here. "I was wondering if you'd like to come along with me to check on her, we didn't exactly leave on the best of terms." Lettuki would finally finish explaining, he had to admit getting the demon to follow along would be a bit stupid, but still, he felt like he could at least offer since Lettuki did disappear on him for a year.

"I mean, you don't have to. It'll only take about 2 days to get there and I don't think I'll be there very long, I just want to make sure she's safe and strong enough to keep herself safe, you know?" Lettuki would explain his reasoning on why he asked the demon, he had to admit, it felt a bit weird asking someone to travel with him, he had never really shared a ship with anyone before, he never had a need to.

WC: 327
TWC: 2,735