Kuueru jolted Raijin from his dazed state, materializing from thin air as per usual. She greeted him, and commented on his appearance, oddly apologetic. It wasn't befitting her, but it was a trait he admired in her. It was humanizing. She seemed actually concerned for his well-being. Kuu proceeded to apologize for her behavior, which befuddled the Shinjin. The frazzled youth rose to his feet, smiling at her and taking her in a warm hug, a symbol of friendship. If she looked in his eyes, despite his tired state, he would look oddly... Motivated. Something was driving him. There was a part of himself he intended to master. If he was going to, he would need her help.

“Listen, Kuu...” he said, approaching the stand. He handed the man a big sum of zenni, far too much for a single person. “First off, have whatever you want, however many... I'm not one to stop a person from indulging.” With that, he grabbed himself a plain hot-dog, put some mustard and relish on it and sat down. The hot-dog man seemed puzzled by Raijin's behavior, unsure why he had put such an incredible down payment on... Well, weiners. After Kuueru gathered up whatever she wanted to eat, Rai would start eating his own food, speaking only after he finished eating.

“So... This is hard to even say. First off, don't worry. I hold you in the highest regard. I don't want you to think I'd ever think poorly of you, we're not... We don't have to be kind all the time.” the youth's gaze seemed really distracted. Frustrated, even. “Listen. I have been, to put it bluntly, I've been fucking up nonstop for the past... well, let's just say for a long time. I went off the deep end. Too much partying, too much of everything. See, I'm struggling right now- and don't stop eating- to get myself together. I feel like I'm lost. I've never met a Shinjin, only person I know with my race's blood flowing through their veins is you. I've never met a Makaioshin. I don't really know myself, or my past. The little I recall was unpleasant. You're the only tangible link I have to the Other World. And...”

Rai realized she might get the wrong idea with this rant. Like he was going to admit his feelings again, or something. He feared upsetting her. More than that, he feared miscommunication. The youth leaned back even further in his chair, sighing as his hair fell messily into his eyes. “Kuu. I need you to help me, or Lute's going to kill me the next time I see him. If not him, then Polaris will do it. I'm... Pathetic. I struggle with the twisted influence that my father left me. Which brings me to my main point...”

The youth leaned back forward, holding his hair back as he did. Raijin felt like a young boy when he asked this question, remembering how much older the Demoness was. He hoped she wouldn't scoff at him when he asked the question, the inquiry leaving him feeling vulnerable and scared.

“Can you help me find my father? I don't know much, if anything about him... I don't know where else to turn. But, if I can't get these urges under control I'm going to fall apart.”

(554 words)

Rai sighed. Kuueru seemed at first to not understand him. Not only was she unaware of Lute's promise to kill him if he didn't get stronger, she also claimed to be totally unable to help him. Personally, Raijin couldn't believe that. The youth truly put the Demoness on a pedestal in terms of skill. Although, he had yet to truly see her perform any magical action. Rai imagined the potency of her lineage to factor into her capabilities. He exhaled, the air having chilled enough to make his breath visible. She began asking him questions, but Raijin knew he didn't have much to go on. In fact, the only reason he even know of his lineage, truly was...

Rai cursed his bad luck. Why was he going to have to show her that thing? God, he didn't even like to use it. Even if it was powerful. “Listen, for what you're about to see... I didn't ask for this thing, I stumbled on it. Just trust me. I don't know if my Father would try to hurt me. In fact, all I know about him is he's a bastard. Well, I guess I'm the bastard, but, uh... Well, you get my point.”

The half-blood looked around, almost nervously. Reaching into his coat, he withdrew a strange, ornate book. It looked almost leather- not pleather, either. Like... Flesh. Actually, Rai couldn't help but notice it had gotten a little more plump recently. Something had been feeding it. The youth wasn't sure what, because he had a significant lack of anything valuable. Frustrated, he hit the book against the table, hoping to startle it to life.

A singular, ominous eye opened in the center of the book. It's eye narrowed when it saw Raijin, but quickly began to search the area. Settling on Kuueru, the book began to purr. It sounded very odd, and the half-breed hoped that she hadn't heard it. The Shinjin hit the strange book off the table again, cursing at it. The book didn't hesitate to curse back.

“You pointy eared son of a whore!” the book hissed, it's pages flapping oddly to mimic the movement of a mouth. Rai had seen the strange creature eat before. It had a thing for gold, jewels... Things of the sort. Valuables. Lately, Raijin suspected that he had found this book for a reason. The youth couldn't believe that such a random piece of potent magic would have fallen into his possession for no reason. It had been a great font of knowledge in the past, and Rai pictured it helping him even now. Still, he couldn't help but admit how annoying the damned thing was, always talking and demanding things from him.

The strange eye kept staring at Kuueru, before speaking again:

“Oh, this time you brought someone interesting along!~ So, what can I do for you this time? I assume you've got some pitiful question below my immense level of knowledge, as per usual. You know the deal! Cough up some tasty treasure!”

Rai growled at the book, covering its' eye much to the books' protests. This was his plan? God, he was going to look so stupid. Kuueru hung out with Lute and Polaris, and Raijin was sitting here eating hot dogs getting made fun of by his own spell-book. This wasn't good for his image.

“Listen, listen. Kuu. Do you have anything valuable on you? I can get us some more information, but he's gonna need to eat something first...”

(583 words)

Kuueru seemed as though she was not taken aback by the speaking book. However, she did seem wary of it. And reasonably so. She probably regretted thinking that the book wasn't that odd. "You're right. It is a bit of a hustler, isn't it? Besides, we both know how dense I can be." In fact, as Rai reflected it had probably spent more of his money than he had. Damned thing. Her suspicions did make the half-breed question the motives of the book. In fact, now he had begun to question its' origins even further. Rai had never been too inquisitive. He was seventeen years old- hardly prepared to unravel dark secrets from an ancient grimoire. Rai did feed it without really knowing what it was all about, besides that it was called 'The Book of Avarice.' The thing about books that the youthfully naive Shinjin had failed to recall is that every book had an author. Who exactly had created this malformed font of knowledge?

Kuueru materialized a small treasure trove in her lap with minimal effort. Even Rai, whose innate magical power was impressive, found himself struggling with such dense and realistic jewels. However, he had never once thought of using that skill to solve his whole 'something of value' problem. Had he just figured out another facet of the book? Raijin grinned, glad he had called her into the fold. Whether she knew it or not, lately he had been thinking so much it was like he couldn't think. Stress is a real thing when you think two of the most powerful beings in the galaxy are going to kill you if you don't get stronger, and fast.

The book had been oddly silent, albeit salivating slightly. Which was strange, watching a book drool. It stuck to Raijin's robes, and he had to fight back the urge to burn it with molten plasma, tossing it to the ground and never looking back. No, in fact his eye seemed to glimmer with a similar gleam to the one the eye had when he removed his hand from blocking it's eye. One of hunger. The half-blood yearned to prove himself capable. He was jarred from his state of focus by Kuueru's teasing, him cracking a genuine smile for the first time in days. A wash of relief flooded him as he accepted the jewels from his fellow hybrid, the Demoness seeming hesitant to partake herself in the transaction. Rai didn't blame her.

"I don't need friends, I have you." he retorted, before returning his attention to the living grimoire. It looked at him and blinked, still silent. Raijin questioned this- did it perhaps sense the power of his companion? Or did it recognize something in the halfling?

"Alright, you damned thing. Open wide."

With that, Rai dumped the jewels and precious gems down the creatures bizarre gullet. It crunched and slurped and ground the metals down, before it dissappeared into the book. It snickered with delight, cooing and purring again.

"Mmm, this one has a special quality to her essence, doesn't she? Rai, you're boring compared to her! My, my!~ What is it you two need, hm? You wouldn't just feed me to be generous, now would you? Or perhaps you wanted me to meet your girlfr-" Rai shoved his fist into the book's mouth. Or, er, pages. Whatever. He wasn't about to let this book embarass him more than he already had. Besides.

He didn't want Kuueru to get mad and kill him.

Either way, it was time for him to finally focus on doing something productive. This damned thing had eaten a lot of valuables. Rai hoped for a better answer than the last time he had tried anything like this.

"Before, you told me of my father. I want to know more. More importantly? I want to know -where-."

The book was silent again. The purring stopped. A few moments went by, then it spoke. Slowly, directly. Very patronizing, in a way. Rai felt frustrated the whole time.

"You ask me something I just can't help you with. Not at this time. Especially not where we are. You're... Listen, you gave me more than enough to eat this time. That energy was of a good quality. Take me somewhere with a lot of ambient, malicious energy. Real demonic. Give me some time, and I can charge up enough magic to give you the proper ritual to find him."

Rai felt defeated, turning to Kuueru. Hopefully she had a better idea than he did on where they could find that much magical energy just... in the air.

"Any ideas?"
(772 words)