It was almost pitiful, the way she cowered away from him at first. As though he were a source of harm no different than the man back there.<i>No...</i>She looked at him differently. Not like a monster, but like something stronger. Something worse. When her bright blues met his again, it forced him to look away.  In the wake of her threats to continue on her agenda that night, he felt fire beginning to burn up at his core. Of course, why did he even expect her to listen? Foolish girl....<br/><br/>"<b>Asura</b>," at first, he thought of it as making a ploy to get her cooperation; a small piece of information in exchange for obedience. He realized before he spoke again that this was not his true motivation. It was something deeper that had struck him....<i> Do you even have a name or do they not give you one?</i>This was what really started the fire burning within him. It threw all caution to the wind, even if only for a fleeting moment. "<b>My mother gave me a name</b>." Now the words came out hoarse. He swore softly, his hands clenching to fists. One hand gave a painful reminder of that cracking sound he heard earlier.<br/><br/>So it<i>was</i>his hand.<br/><br/>He always<i>did</i>close his hand too much for punches. He could just imagine an old friend shaking their head at him. Such a clutz. Almost as bad as a human. By now he'd been standing there silently for several seconds, in his own little world. He barely caught her last question, but he turned his head to fix her with a gaze less stern than before, yet cold nevertheless. "<b>I'm here because I'd be breaking a rule if I wasn't</b>."<br/><br/>No, she was not going to make things easy for him, and he was not composed enough to dance around this situation like he'd seen done before. The only clear path was to give the girl what she wanted, even if it admitted defeat. She wanted answers, and wasn't going to stop searching until she found them. Swallowing some pride for one night would have to do.<i>You'll never meet your match until you meet a human who can press your buttons like a control board. They might all seem alike at first glance, but mark my words, when you see one with fire in their eyes, you'll never be able to see them the same after that.</i><br/><br/>She was not a sheep<i>.</i><br/><br/>"<b>If you want answers, go home. Go back to normal life. Show me that you can be trusted. Show me that you have patience. Show me you're dedicated to knowing the <i>entire truth</i>, and not just what you can piece together from strangers</b>." Maybe he hoped she would forget about everything before he had to tell her, even if it was just wishfull thinking. But he knew better. He knew he couldn't put a band-aid on this and make it go away. She wanted answers, and by golly she was going to have them if it was the last thing she did.<i>So infuriating...</i><br/><br/>"<b>Luckily for me, the authorities wouldn't believe you</b>," his tone had lost its annoyance suddenly, replaced with calm and confidence. "<b>Not here, anyway. Not the authorities you know.</b>" He stood on the fence about whether to tell her more, or not. He wanted control over the matter, primarily, so it was a matter of figuring out how to effectively meet this goal. "<b>Like I said, go home if you want real answers. You're not going to be able to piece them together otherwise. You might learn more about the dark underworld that's been so delicately hidden from you your entire life, but I doubt your 'lead' will be able to tell you much more about  me, specifically, than I just did</b>."<br/><br/>He habitually went to push his hands into his pockets, being reminded of two things in the process. First was that his hand was most certainly hurt and second was that he was still clutching the can of pepper spray, having forgotten about it. "<b>Here, if you're going to piere still, I'm not going to keep being your little protector. It's your own damn fault if you get yourself killed. I, on the other hand, am exhausted. Goodnight.</b>" He pushed the can into her hands as he walked past her and headed the way they had came. The man's body wasn't there where he left it, which he assumed was a good sign he'd scared him off without killing him.