Wild at Heart (w/ Hisoka Kobayashi)

[CanaryCry]

Julius raised an eyebrow at Ti's supposed explanation, highly doubtful that the flirting had only been a test for Charlotte. Ti was an odd mix of dim-witted and highly competent, in ways that made it easy to underestimate him and hard to figure out what he was actually thinking. As such, it was possible that he really had been giving Charlotte something to react to - but possible didn't mean likely.

"Uh huh," Julius said dryly, even as he stepped back a bit to be out of the way, "Yeah. Sure. Let's just focus on training."

He stayed where he was out of the way enough to leave them some room to maneuver but could see everything that went on, studying both Charlotte and Ti in equal measure. For a moment, he was tempted to think Ti was actually going to hurt her, and while Julius had objections to that, it was also how he was used to training being done. It had always been the case for him that training meant pain, and he was sure things hadn't changed since Ti had come around. The time that it took Julius to decide if he would stop it from happening or not was long enough for Charlotte to start displaying her skill.

She was so excited the first time, he really hadn't expected anything to change so quickly, but when Ti prodded at her with words, Charlotte changed. Stop holding back, indeed. Julius could almost feel it in the air, the way the tension between them shifted, the way Charlotte's nerves disappeared and were replaced by a fierce determination. It was almost shocking enough to slow his reflexes, but the second the metal changed directions towards him he had his shield snapped into place and his stance shifting wider to brace for impact - the part that truly surprised him was that it was all unnecessary.

For a moment there was silence between them, Julius' shield lowering slowly and eyes lingering on where the metal balls had fallen. Easy. It had looked so easy for her.

Julius' gaze drifted over Ti as he picked himself up and settled on Charlotte, quiet and analyzing for a long pause. Finally, he relaxed his stance and crossed his arms loosely over his chest. "Why am I even here?" He questioned dryly, expression unreadable and tone flat. "If you've full control over your gifts, and strength to rival even the best of the Hounds, what could you possibly need me for?"

The whole time he'd known her she had been lying to him about how small and helpless she was, and for a while now he had already suspected it, but truly he couldn't see a reason she needed him at all. If Ti was strong enough and skilled enough to have been made leader of the Hounds, and Charlotte had the strength to trounce him easily - Julius found it difficult in that moment, particularly, not to be angry. He'd thrown away the life he'd scraped together for himself, put himself back in Sekiro's sights, and for what? To help someone who needed no protection? He'd been raised as a weapon; he should've been used to being used like one by now.

Calm and quiet still, with no outward sign of the path his thoughts had gone down, Julius turned and walked a few feet away, then gestured to a large chunk of rock sticking out of the ground near a tree. "All right, then. If your control doesn't seem to need any work, let's do a strength test. Break that in two." There was no question of if she could do it, only how easy it would be and how violently she would do it. He needed to know just how strong she could be.

 

[Hisoka Kobayashi]

Charlotte was gazing at Ti with a look of amusement and she was about to tease him about his loss. Although as soon as Julius spoke she blinked her eyes just before her gaze returned to normal. She looked at Ti and could clearly see that he was uncomfortable now. She turned her gaze toward Julius ashamed but was caught off guard by Ti scoffing.

"Her...rival me? Not even close. I wasn't expecting that stunt she pulled and I've been holding back the entire time. I didn't want to hurt her and I was giving her a confidence boost."He says in a cocky tone of voice before recalling the orbs.

Sure Ti's ego had been hurt from getting caught off guard but he hadn't gotten warmed up yet. For him training Charlotte was like wearing kiddy gloves inside of brass knuckles like he was used to. He hadn't expected for her to block him from regaining control of the orbs and for a moment he had panicked. Although it was because of who she reminded him of. Just the thought of that man nearly made him to afraid to think straight and it pissed him off. Ti couldn't help but struggle with what course of action he should take next. He could tell them both about what he had found out or keep quiet as Charlotte's training continued. It would be a heavy burden to continue to keep the knowledge to himself but things had already became tense. After noticing Ti's silence Charlotte decided to try speaking again.

"I'm sorry...but...I didn't lie Julius. I do have trouble controlling my abilities and...with self control. The longer I use my abilities the higher the risk is that I'll lose control of them."She says in a soft yet sad voice.

Ti had figured that she was holding back but he had thought that it was because of her self confidence. Learning that it was because she could lose control of her abilities or herself was an entirely different story. If she really was like that man, losing her control would turn her into an uncaged beast, which was very concerning. Just the thought of a beast running wild with unpredictable power and no self control made Ti afraid.

"I'm afraid that I could hurt someone or worse. That's why I've been holding back. I never meant to deceive you. I just thought I could overcome those flaws."She said sadly.

Upon hearing Julius tell her to split a nearby boulder in two she only gently shook her head. Sure she could give it a try but odds were she would shatter it into pieces with who knows how much force.

"I can't do something like that. It requires precision and the best I could do is destroy the whole thing." She said holding up her hand toward the Boulder making a crushing motion with her hand.

It was only an example of what she meant since she didn't bother trying to use her telekinesis. Then she put her right hand back down at her side.

"I tried to save a cat from a tree once. Things started out fine but unfortunately I lost control. I really do need all of the help I can get."She said disheartened before sitting down on the log a few feet behind her.

Ti sighed because he felt bad Charlotte and because he knew why she had trouble with self control. He really didn't want to bring up the topic but it would come up sooner or later. So he decided to go ahead and share what else he had learned. Ti nervously rubbed the back of his neck because he wasn't sure how to bring up the topic as he slowly started to walk toward Charlotte.

"It's alright Charlotte. You know I'll be here for you nomatter what. That's why I'd make the perfect boyfriend."He jokingly said while smiling.

Charlotte looked at Ti and smiled a little then she shook her head after hearing his boyfriend joke. Ti was still trying to go over it in his head about how he was going to tell them the truth but anything he came up with still sounded awful. There really was no way to soften to impact that the truth would have. It had already shocked him and had almost made him reconsider his plan. Although Charlotte needed his help more than he needed hers so he couldn't just turn and run. When Ti finally reached Charlotte he wanted to hug her but he didn't want to get scolded by Julius again so he didn't. Instead he folded his arms and sighed.

"Okay...so...there's some pretty shocking information that I found out and I've been trying to figure out how to bring up the topic. Right now might not be the best time but I think you both need to know this."He said clearly nervous and uncomfortable.

Charlotte stared at Ti confused then looked over at Julius as if to ask 'what could he be about to say?' but she didn't speak. She only returned her gaze to Ti as she nervously waited to find out what this information was about.

"You both already know that I've been reading Charlotte's file. Well it had more information in it than I actually thought. Someone had typed the words - hidden but not forgotten. My treasure."He said as calmly as possible.

Charlotte was about to speak but Ti quickly held up his index finger to signal for her to wait before he continued.

"Well...it seemed like an odd thing to type in a file so I started thinking. What if it wasn't what it appeared to be? I racked my brain but finally figured out that it was a complicated cipher text made to look like plain text."He said seriously.

Charlotte quietly listened but she seemed completely confused. Noticing this Ti decided to briefly explain that encryption is what was used to turn plan text into numbers, letters and symbols to protect the information from being read. The text was called cipher text. Then he explained how someone had turned a file location into a cipher text that appeared to be plain text. After explaining that the file was stored among hidden files on computer and that the folder was protected by a password. Ti finally got back to the main topic.

"So once I hacked into this folder all I found was this picture. You're both not going to believe this. Even I didn't believe it at first."He said uncomfortable.

Ti took out his wallet and pulled out a folded over piece of paper before putting his wallet away. Then he handed the folded up paper to Charlotte who stared at it confused before she looked up at Ti.

"That's a print off of the picture. Brace yourself before you look at it."He said clearly concerned.

Charlotte looked at Julius before looking at the paper. She took a deep breath and let it out before she unfolded the paper revealing the picture.

Spoiler

Her eyes instantly widened and her jaw dropped. There was no way, she could believe what she was seeing. Why didn't she remember this? Had her mom altered her memories of this man? It was a picture of her and her mom with a man whose face was all to familiar. As she stared at the picture she couldn't help but feel denial starting to set in. It couldn't be, surely the male was just hanging around her mom because of who her mom was. There was no way that man of all people was actually...her father. Charlotte looked over at Julius with an expression on her face that showed shock, disbelief and hurt.

"I...I don't resemble him at all right? There's...there's no way right? I'm...I'm definitely not...the offspring of a monster like him. There's just no way because...I would never hurt anyone. I'm not a monster...I'm not I promise I'm not."She said distraught.

Ti noticed that Charlotte had started crying so he sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms to hold her.

"Shhh...it's okay Charlotte. Of course you're not a monster. You're the kindest woman I know, so you shouldn't feel bad or worry about his actions. You're not him."He said sincerely as he rubbed her back to comfort her.