The bastard sidestepped her ….and then spewed out a mist like a freaking squid! Then POP she was once again imploding in on herself. She was about to let out a loud set of curses when a wave of pain hit her, she gripped her stomach as it threatened to spew her breakfast. She groaned…

”Stupid squid man”

She looked around….she was at the shrine, completely across the city…Nazo certainly went out of his way to get her away from the area. Valdis ripped off the mask she was wearing and undid her cape letting it fall to the ground. Another wave of pain racked her form….apparently that mist was named venom for a reason. Perhaps it would be wise to get inside…as she took a step forward her vision swam…

”Aw crap..”

Down she went out for the count.

The priestess could sense the faint hint of energy outside her temple. She stands up promptly, fingering a few ofuda between her fingers as her brisk steps carried her to the entrance to the temple where she ends up finding Valdis losing her bearings and falling to her knees. She rushes over and kneels down, feeling her forehead, pitching an abnormally high fever. The priestess' senses went off on contact...there was a dark power working against her body right now, a power that would normally devour lesser people instantly. Her skin was turning purple, and black spots were manifesting along her body, filled with blood blisters. This was an extremely powerful supernatural infection.

"You accursed child, what did you get yourself into now?" she grumbles, turning to where a pair of Miko were sweeping another part of the temple. "YOU TWO! TAKE THIS ONE TO THE PURIFICATION POOL" she shouts out, as the pair of young women rush and make their way to Valdis, picking her up gently and making their way to the chamber where the purification rituals took place. They knew if Priestess Hino was speaking in that tone of voice, it was deathly serious.

Valdis would be navigated down the corridors until they arrive in a stone room with a spa-like pool of water in the back. They laid her down on a bench, having no orders to throw her in. A short time later, Priestess Hino rushes back into the room with a tray of herbs and liquids. A few more orders barked, and the two Miko rush off to look for more supplies. Meanwhile the priestess prepares a salve and covers the worst black blisters in the substance, wrapping the afflicted parts with Ofuda. The Priestess was rapidly praying and using purification incantations faster than Valdis could probably follow in her current state.

Several hours later, Valdis would begin to stir and wake as the treatments slowly loosened the Venom's hold on her. She would find herself out of her clothes with towels around her for modesty, and her body half covered in parchments and papers of Ofuda. It would still burn to move much, but she would see the Priestess working on another concoction.

Valdis barely recognizes a voice yelling, what happens next was a series of blurry images for her. Throughout the process Valdis was in and out of consciousness. Her whole body burned as if it was on fire. A couple hours later a grown escaped her lips as her eyes fluttered open.

”Ugh…”

She gripped her head and tried to sit up, her teeth clenched and a growl escaped her lips, ofudas one after the other began to burn as Valdis’s own energy began to spike and lash out. That fizzled out quickly as she lay flat again, breathing heavily.

”…wedgie….that man deserves a wedgie…..”

Her head tilted to the side where she spotted granny, her eyes scanned the room. Val still slow in thought still managed to put two and two together.

”Thanks”

She winced as another wave of stinging commenced. She glanced down at herself…she was the loveliest shade of lavender…

”hehe I match my room”

"You should be dead." the Priestess says sharply, glaring at Valdis from across the room. Her blue eyes reflected both anger and concern, before she exhales a little and then walks over to Valdis, handing her a cup of an unidentifiable substance.

"Drink this, it will reduce the burning sensation from the Ofuda purification. Now that you are awake, we should do a full purification ritual to try to remove that taint from your body. I have only ever seen venom this powerful once before, and the man who suffered it suffered far more than you have..." she says kind of distantly, not paying entire attention now to Valdis, but only for a moment before her bearings get back in line.

"When you've settled, climb into the purification pool" she says, gesturing to the spa-like pool nearby...walking over to a crate and rummaging through it.

”I should have had my foot in that ass’s head”

Her eyes glanced down at the cup, Grannys concoctions helped her before…even if this one didn’t look very appetizing. Though one thing Val was good about was always taking the medicine that she needed to without complaint. So with a quick chug she drained the glass, instantly feeling the relief. Though the taste caught up to her and her face scrunched up in disgust.

”…What happened to the other guy”

She slowly got up; Val didn’t have any modesty issues; mainly due to the fact that she had been poked and prodded enough in her line of business not to care. She slid into the pool, hissing, that little potion not doing much to dull this pain….she would hate to think of what it would have felt like without it. Vals body began to pulse slowly with a purple glow, it seemed to seep out from her body.

”I can’t tell is this the same as my purple fire with the ofudas or is this the purple mist….They feel kinda the same…not quite but close. I think he called the mist Scorpion Venom or something close to that. ”

"What other guy?" the priestess asks while Valdis gets into the water and situates herself. The priestess walks back over with a handful of tools and a scroll. She lays them out on a table near Valdis. She reaches under and adjusts a switch that causes water to begin flowing from above, which had a miniature waterfall effect.

"This is called Misogi. Usually it is for spiritual purification, but this is a more extreme case obviously...it used to be performed outside under natural waterfalls but that's...impractical now. Clench your hands in front of your stomach and shake them up and down. This is called spirit shaking..." the priestess instructs, hoping Valdis doesn't give her any unnecessary lip about this like she was prone to do.

"...Scorpio's Venom is some super attack that one of those Covenant abominations uses...it kills within thirty minutes normally...you are more than fortunate you got sent here after being afflicted with it...I assume the nameless one brought you here..." she says, sighing as she hums and makes incantations while sprinkling a little salt into the water.

"It's a reaction to the venom...it's a supernatural ailment that strikes at body and soul, it's why your body is reacting that way"

”Message received.”

She winced; apparently purification pools and her did not mix well. Her violet eyes examined her hands, being purple was a bit unnerving. A yelp escaped her lips as a sudden down poor of water hit her head, causing her to have to push wet bangs out of her face. Her gaze turned to a small glare…a warning would have been nice. But she didn’t voice a complicate; she understood this was to help her get rid of squid mans poison. Her eyebrow arched when asked to shake her hands…hesitantly she did as she was told but despite all the hoping she did have a comment.

”If I get smacked in the face by my own breasts we will have an issue”

It was very awkward performing the ritual… she gave props to the priestess for making people do this strange action….that had to be the fun part of the whole priestess job. At the mention of Nazo Valdis nodded.

”Yes Nazo imploded me right after I tried to kick squid man off my rafters…he was ruining my moment.”

She paused for a moment; she wondered how the fight had gone…and whether she had been any help with her meddling. Even if she wasn’t any she still had a blast, and most likely caused some confusion. That and she had confirmed she did indeed have the gift of visions.

”Has the storm stopped?”

If it did that would confirm how the battle went while she had been out. She continued to do the weird purification ritual. The purple pulsing still unnerved her…especially since it was so much like her purple fire…but with less oomph. Why would squid man have the same color of energy as her…. So far from what she saw the others each had different color to them…

”Does the colors of ones energy mean anything?”

The priestess ignores the remark about her breasts. There was no need for her to respond to the childish remark that was merely an expression of her own particular sense of humor. She continues to sprinkle salt periodically, chanting. There was little room for error in the incantations and everything else at this point.

"The storm did stop...now this is going to be the worst part...............yei!" she shouts, slicing the air with her hand. Valdis would immediately feel as if her entire body was on fire, the glowing pulsing and quivering rapidly and violently as the remaining corruption is forcibly removed from her system. After a few moments, the Venom's effects would wear off, if not leaving Valdis feeling rather weak.

The priestess sighs and then takes a step back and sits on the bench, rubbing her temples for a moment from the exertion. "Colors don't matter as much as polarity." she remarks about the question of color and energy. 'You have to realize that people with supernatural abilities outside of the Covenant are exceedingly rare."

A sigh escaped her lips; her vision did not come fully to pass. It was a relief to see that the tides of that battle had changed since her departure. From what she had seen the group hadn’t been really pulling together and one of the special ones was trying to befriend the icy queen. All and all it did not instill a great deal of confidence the battle would end well. Valdis looked up when Granny warned her that the worse was to come...that was about as comforting as the overly friendly senshi. She eyed her warily; she knew this was about to hurt like a bitch.

”AHHH!”

Her back arched and her face contorted in pain. Fist clenched as nails dug into her palms, causing small crescent shaped cuts. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as the moment never seemed to end. A second seemed like an hour with such pain. When relief came she was slumped over the side of the pool panting for air. Slowly she dragged herself out of the pool; any longer and she wouldn’t have the strength to keep herself above water. Valdis lay on the floor with her eyes closed…that was an experience she never wanted to repeat.

”Polarity?”

Well at least colors meant nothing, so there weren’t any connections between her bouts of power and that mans poison.

"Good, Evil, Elemental, those sorts of things. These are the kinds of things that are learned over the course of many years. It is not so simple, and the 'educated' world calls it myth and superstition at best. Priestess Hino says, taking a sigh and then standing up, looking at a darkened corner of the room.

"Nameless. I trust that you are not looking at the young one's indecency." she says, calling out to a shadow in the darkness. A shimmer occurs, and the masked man's form begins to manifest, having been cloaked by something moments before. He was faced away, his back to Valdis and the Priestess.

"...Hm...so my cloak only works on the basic five senses and not the sixth...that is good to know for future use, perhaps I can modify the energy working of it...Valdis, I am glad to see you survived the Scorpio's Venom with minimal suffering." he says, not moving his posture or facing once.

”His name is Nazo.”

It was almost an automatic response to correct granny on his name now, Valdis had named him so now he wasn’t nameless. Hence he should be called by his new name. Though then what she said actually sunk into Valdis slow moving thoughts.

”Wait what?”

She sat up with her hands across her chest and blinked when Nazos form manifested in the corner, her eyes bugged out slightly….how long had he been there….a blush crept across her face then an expression of shock.

”Holy shit…”

She looked at granny her eyes wide with wonder.

”I do have modesty….when the hell did that happen?…”

The idea of modesty for her was certainly a new concept…She sat there contemplating it but was brought out of her thoughts when Nazo spoke. She blinked…that was minimal…..That thought caused a shiver to go down her spine. Then another thought hit her, he was actually glad? That and he had shown up…she didn’t know when but obviously showed up to make sure she was alright.

”Awww…did you hear that Granny? He cares. Looks like I’ve grown on you Nazo. Hugs for you”

Yep that was a short lived modesty moment as Val got up and gave the large cloaked man a hug from behind.

"Does he acknowledge it though." Priestess Hino says, half glaring, half apathetic towards Valdis' correction. She was growing used to Valdis' antics and the things she would do to try and make her tweak. If she gave in, then Valdis would just keep doing it, so accepting it as a low level joke and giving it minimal attention was the best course of action to keep it at a reasonable level.

The masked man doesn't turn to face Valdis when he was embraced by her. He continues to face away for the duration of the encounter, quiet. There was something that bothered him right now, something that he was not entirely capable of understand off the top of his head.

As Valdis touched him, a flash would occur in her mind. The vision would be extremely blurry, but the image of an impossibly powerful youma appeared in front of a golden gateway, one that could destroy half the planet itself if it wanted to...little detail could be seen, but an overwhelming sense of fatigue would wash over Valdis until...

...an Ofuda pelts Valdis in the back of the head, likely dazing and stunning her for a moment. When she falls back from her embrace of the masked man, the Priestess tosses a Miko robe on top of her exposed torso.

"Get dressed...your other clothes are drying." she says, turning and then leaving the room.

She shrugged, Nazo hadn’t corrected her, and she still strongly believed that every living creature deserved a name. So like a lost kitten he was named. She didn’t understand why the priestess was so adamant that he remain nameless… After all a name was a word or a set of words by which a person, animal, place, or thing is known, addressed, or referred to. She knew him as Nazo, she addressed him as Nazo, and referred to him as Nazo….hence by logic his name was now Nazo. She even got her body guard referring him to Nazo, so she wasn’t the only one now, which in her mind made it official.

”I refer to him as Nazo and so does my hired body guard…so by the definition of a name he does in fact have a name. He may say he doesn’t have one but it doesn’t change the fact it’s a name that was given to him, so he’s not nameless anymore. He’s Nazo to me”

Apparently having a name for Nazo was a new concept for both of them.

When the vision hit Val her eyes opened wide; she could feel fear and dread; Nazo would feel Val slump as her grip weakened and she began to collapse. Then a sharp burning sensation slapped her on the back of the head. She yelped as the ofuda on her head suddenly burst into purple flame. Val sat upon the floor blinking when suddenly a robe was thrown at her. It took Val a moment to recollect her thoughts…

”Wait…how did my clothes get wet in the first place…”

But she was already gone, Valdis sighed and began to put on the robe. What kinda priestess left a naked girl and a man alone in a room together?

”Nazo is there any way to control visions…”

This must have been the gift they shared, so he’d be the one to ask... Two visions in one day…hopefully that wouldn’t become a frequent thing. She finished tying her robe but continued to sit on the floor, the day’s events had tired her out; she really didn’t have the energy to stand anymore.

”I’m decent and Thank you for imploding me here…How did the fight end up going? Everyone’s alright? I don’t need to go looking for another body guard do I? Did you give squid man a wedgie for me?”

She had a lot of questions for how the fight went, she knew the end result was the youma was gone otherwise Nazo wouldn't be here and storm would still be going.

"Why do you two fight over what I am referred to as so much." Nazo says, breaking his silence after a moment's contemplation as the Priestess walked out of the room. The priestess didn't bother to respond since she figured it was obvious that the fact that she fell in the snow and was rummaging around in the arctic theatre would have made her clothes damp. The figure then stands up only when she was finished getting dressed and tilts his head, looking at her.

"Saa...what vision do you think you saw this time? It could just be a backlash from your encounter with the youma...you were impacted with Scorpio's Venom, you shouldn't even be alive right now, it is probably a side effect from the purge." he says, then shrugging and shaking his head when asked about Scorpio.

"No...my objective was to exterminate him, which didn't quite pan out like it should have...apparently flesh wounds plus a triple impalement through the chest alone is not enough to defeat an enemy at the level of that one. I believe you call them Zodiac...it is interesting to see how far the Generals have turned down the road from the original timeline..." he says, going off on a tangent.

”Because, everyone should have a name; everything in this world has a name, whether it’s referred to as a rock, squirrel, Mary or John. Everything is known by something and given a name or a title of some sort. To say your nameless is to say you don’t exists. To be nameless is a very sad thought; at least it is for me. If I was without a name I’d feel lonely. To me my name tells me that at one time someone took notice enough to give me one, and whilst I have my name I know somebody cared. Which is why I have no clue why granny keeps saying your nameless; why would she want something not to have a name. By me calling you a name it’s a way of saying you exists to me”

She said it as a matter of fact; to her names were important. But apparently she needed to explain why. So he got a look into Valdis complicated thought process.

”Do you want to remain nameless?”

She couldn’t fathom why he would want to. Though she guessed you couldn’t miss what you never had. But now he had a name, did he really want to deny it?

Valdis shot him a glare when he implied her vision was a delusion, while she was new to these visions she already could tell the difference. A delusion didn’t give her the sense of being there…or the emotions which she couldn’t contemplate. That felt too weird and affected her way to much for it to be anything but.

”Why do both you and my father instantly conclude I have delusions… As for the delusion that’s how I knew where to find the ice youma…you honestly didn’t think I would actually come in for work today? I HAD been planning on torturing Daddy dearest all day. Then I blanked out and I was in the center of Shinjuku in that props house…well I was there but wasn’t there it was like seeing everything at once. Its how I knew where to find the heaters and lighting switches. But either way I saw ice princess there singing her heart out…Then I saw skyscrapers encased in ice, threatening to collapse in on themselves. Things just got worse and worse, people began to pass….It was just to strange of a coincidence to ignore so I went and investigated…If I was delusional then all was well and I would just be a bit cold for my troubles. If I was right then…well wasn’t sure what I was going to do but I was going to cause some trouble….”

She fiddled with her sleeve, that was the first vision; one which she confirmed…this second one however she had no clue how to confirm this one.

”The next ones a bit hard to explain…I don’t know how to describe it…”

She shivered obviously disturbed by it, and frustrated she couldn’t find the words for it. That vision had to be important…if was true then she didn’t see how the group she saw today was going to manage it. Valdis looked up at Nazo.

”It was blurry but there was a golden gate…and a youma…much much worse than today…I hope it’s a delusion and a side effect like you say but my gut says it isn’t.”

Valdis made an interesting face as she pictured what happened to squid man, it all sounded painful.

”Zodiac…well that explains why the bitch wasn’t kicked off my rafters”

Her face then blanked and paled…oooooo Daddy would be pissed if he found out she tried to flying kick a general of the zodiac. Well what Daddy didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him or her for that matter. Her eyebrow quirked up as she stared at Nazo…was that a tangent she heard?! He could go on those?? Well that’s new…wait what was that last part..

”Timelines?”

Valdis pushed herself to her feet and walked closer to Nazo, a grin spreading across her lips as she got real close.

”Mind giving me an alternate history lesson sensei, it sounds like an interesting story time, and I LOOVE stories.”