Her assurance that she didn't want my opinion on the rather poor dress saw a grin touch my features all the same, shoulders lifting in a shrug. What can I say? I'm more used to be asked about clothes then weapons I suppose. She was right though, for the record, that dress would do nothing for her figure. She was slender, petite, just as most Asian girls tended to be. A dress like that would be all but swimming around her failing to highlight any of her flattering form. I let the blue gold hue of my gaze move to follow her finger once more, eyeing those cards that had been the true intent of her visit her. I'd never used metal cards before. I mean, they were cards and by that notion alone I should be able to command them and yet I suppose I'd never really considered my affinity for anything other than card tricks and a one time accident that had involved exploding a deck into a colourful party of confetti. Not that either of those was going to help me in a fight against anything supernatural unless it feared coloured paper or was easily distracted. Metal cards though- had an entirely different use. The possibility to actual be a weapon. My mind hardly having failed to miss the curiosity in a vampire so helping a Hunter find a better weapon and yet really I suppose even Chizue had come to the realization that of ever Hunter in the city I was the least likely to cause her any actual harm. At least not on purpose.

I moved to step towards that entryway, Chizue following behind as I made my way in, attempting not to look at the shop owner all that much. She looked about three hundred and like she knew exactly that neither Chizue nor I really had any idea what to do in this shop much less what half of the things in it actually did. Honestly, most of the things in here looked like something a witch in a book would use, or like it was out of a Harry Potter film. I never liked those movies. It was easy enough to reach for those three cards. Plucking them out of the hand of the unfortunately dressed mannequin, Chizue having managed to situate herself right beside me as if she was mildly concerned something in the shop might lunge out at her and my Dark hunter presence might ward it off. What I hadn't expected was how quickly my affinity took hold of the first of those cards. Manipulating a little paper card was one thing, the metal almost seemed to amplify that power. Where the paper cards need a veritable push of sorts the metal one needed barely a touch. The force I'd exerted on it clearly far too much as it flung out of my hand, entirely out of my control, to spiral across the shop so fast I barely saw it before slamming into a skull on the wall so hard it fractured that ancient bone to embed within the canter of the...whatever animal's forehead it had been.

The sudden cry of alarm from Chizue was followed by a muttered curse of my own, my gaze moving to eye the other two in my hand warily now, keeping any touch of my power right away from them lest I accidentally hit a living being. These were evidentially more dangerous then I'd anticipated. The store woman glaring at me something fierce. Well- it was an accident. She didn't have to be that cross with me. I stepped forward then, reaching up in an effort to pull the card out of the skull only to realise the damn thing was stuck. The situation clearly not embarrassing enough as it was, the card determined not to come out. Fine. I could handle this. I moved to lift the entire skull off the wall, Hunter strength perhaps coming in use for the first time ever as I carried it to the counter.

"I'd like to buy the cards and the skull this one is attached to, please."

How much could cards and a skull cost? A lot more then I'd anticipated evidently. Eight hundred dollars was more than I expected, then again, maybe that was a normal price for skulls. At least I had the cash on me, handing it over to the woman before picking up my giant animal skull and carrying it into the street with Chizue in tow. It was only once I'd reached an alleyway of sorts that I managed to balance the ridiculous thing on a dumpster, attempting again to yank that card out of it. Glancing briefly back to Chizue.

"I never thought of metal cards. To be honest I never thought they'd work but, clearly-"

I grunted slightly before managing, at last, to dislodge that card. That might be the most physical activity I've done in the past four months. A smirk of sorts found its way to my features all the same, that metal card tucked into my back pocket along with the others as my attention returned in full to that skull, eyeing it with distaste, that grin tugging at my features still as I turned back to the girl.

"You don't happen to want a lovely ancient artefact do you?"

I knew, entirely well, that she most likely didn't and yet it hardly hurt to ask. I suppose I might as well just leave it here, I'm certainly not having that thing in my house. I could always leave it on Azrael's doorstep as a gift, the idea seeing a momentary amusement linger somewhere in my gaze before I looked back to my newfound friend once more.

"Thanks for tonight, dinner and the cards too. They are going to take some getting used to but I've got time on my side. I'm sure by tomorrow night I'll have something new to tell you. Shall I walk you home or will you be alright for tonight?"






k o h l
so you want to play with magic?