Soul Searchinng; Soul Chambers

Koudo's thoughts were already too preoccupied with thinking about college chicks in a foreign land and how much fun they could be. Thankfully he could multitask, but he was devoting a large amount of his brain power thinking about other things now.

"I don't even know who Tear is." Truthfully he didn't. Koudo was never good with remembering names or faces. This was especially true if he had never crossed paths with them more than once, or have never crossed swords with them. He just didn't choose to devote much brain power to remember people that wouldn't, or couldn't, become important to his growth. Most people from DWMA, in fact, were forgotten about because Koudo never truly needed DWMA to advance forward in his training with his soul partners. This was made even more true when it was revealed that they were different beings entirely from what Demon Weapons actually were and their fused form, Odea, was a cut above any average "Death Scythe."

"What happened to all the students, I didn't see any when I first arrived." He finally asked, deciding now to change the subject. It seemed like Chita had worked through most of her funk and no matter he already knew that her suggestive word choice was just the way that she chose to spoke. It held no bearing on him whatsoever.

Koudo rose a hand to tap his bottom lip in contemplation. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember if he had asked Shiniere about the students, or where they were, but then he hadn't been thinking about them then either. "I was too busy eating some pizza I found on a random table." He blatantly said.

Shiniere might have mentioned it, but he was so preoccupied with finding out about how the Restrictions thing worked that he only remembered them talking about that. Shiniere hadn't looked very concerned about the students either, and hadn't asked him about them either, so he figured she had the situation under control and knew what the deal was.

Now that he thought about it, Shiniere mentioned this Tear person as well, and she hadn't any idea where he was. Putting two and two together, Koudo could only surmise that the students may have been with this Tear person, or Shiniere had sent them somewhere for whatever reason. Either way, he didn't necessarily care where all of them were, just the women.

NOW that he was thinking about it, Koudo snapped his fingers and and slammed the bottom of his fist into the open palm of his hand. Slyly, he inched over towards Chita slowly before brushing shoulders with her, "Heeeey~, let me see Riiiita~." In all the confusion with talking to Shiniere and then coming her with Chita and talking out all her troubles, he almost forgot that he wanted to see if it were possible to talk to Rita. He didn't have any particular reason for wanting to do this, he just figured it's be pretty cool.

Koudo stepped off, once Chita started pacing and her mind started racing. While he had some small, basic, understanding of the Tensei Restrictions, since Shiniere had explained it to him, he didn't really understand the connection between that and what Chita was talking about. He folded his arms.

If he was thinking logically, then Chita could be thinking about using the Restrictions thing to make a version of herself that was Rita, but he could be completely wrong. Instead of keeping the thoughts to himself, "So, what, you gonna make one of those alternate body things that's Rita so she can teach instead?" He asked. If she was going to go about it like that, then he supposed Rita would fit right in at the school with the likes of Shiniere and whoever the hell this Tear person was. He had only had a brief interaction with Rita himself, threatening her because he was afraid of her, but she seemed like the type that would take pleasure in controlling a classroom of people.

He was only really asking if he could see Rita because he wondered if he could work his charms on her, since they didn't work on Chita. Who would have thought lewd intentions could have led Chita to such a miraculous breakthrough?

Koudo rose his hands, defensively, at Chita's quick questioning. He thought he was on the same page as her, but even in a room that was her soul they were on two completely different wavelengths. Luckily she felt it necessary to enlighten him, instead of question him more about what he was talking about. He only had a limited understanding the Tensei Restrictions, and it definitely wasn't enough to explain it to someone else.

The room got really cramped after that, and Koudo sighed while swiping his hand down his face. "Do it." Was what he said, placing his hands on her shoulders, "No matter what, it will still be you." After all, Rita was her as well, from what he could understand. He still hadn't fully grasped how this room worked, but he was beginning to pick up on the vibes her wavelength was putting down and his soul was definitely grooving on it.

She was feeling the same things that he was feeling when he first learned about his dragonic heritage, as well as what he felt when he finally came to terms with it and unlocked his dragonic abilities fully. He was afraid to lose himself to the power every time he ever unleashed it, and afraid that he would never be able to regain control. It took Naina being there for him to get over that fear and he was finally able to fully overcome it and truly unite as one with his other self. Chita was going through the same thing, and he knew it was tough, but he was here. He'd be Naina.

"That sounds soo weird in my head, but trust me. I know that it's tough and that you're afraid that you'll lose your semblance of self, but Rita is just as much you as... well you." He shut his eyes tight, cursing inwardly at how stupid that sounded. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes to try again, "I can't really word it right. Just... Rita is you too, you won't be lost. I'm here for you."

Koudo was glad that she was able to understand what he couldn't exactly put into words. While he had a silver tongue in some situation, serious situations like this never leaded themselves well to his slick speech. It had to be the vibes his soul was giving off that was allow them to groove on the same frequency. It had to be that that allowed her to understand what he was saying to her.

Koudo looked down at her, only now realizing the height difference, as he always did with women, and smiled as well. He remembered that birthday night as well, where she told him to seek her out if things didn't work out with Mana. Unfortunately, she ended up turning him down in the long run, but he remembered the event that she was talking about as well. It was second time he pushed her to exceed her self inflicted limitations, but that time was an accident. Now, it was on purpose.

"You got it," he responded with a nod of his head. He guessed that maybe more than getting the chance to be with her, it was always his role/job to push her to realize her true self, whatever and whoever that might be. Koudo was resolute in the knowledge that she wouldn't come out of those a completely different person, but he activated his infestation just to be on the safe side. With the room so small, if there was a negative feedback backlash, he wanted to be protected against.

Koudo was expecting a negative energetic feedback, not a neutralization of gravity, and so he was lifted off the ground along with Chita's body, which he held firm too so that it didn't drift too far away. He was forced to squint with the bright light show threatening to irritate his sensitive sight, but he remain firm in his eye contact with Chita so she could continue to see that he was here, even if she couldn't actually see if. The White Hole's outpour of energy threatened to push him away, the force of it all battering against him body, but he stayed unyielding.

Once it, something finally emerged, sporting much brighter lights that Koudo was forced to shield his eyes from, he heard the voice of a being that was definitely not Chita. Once the lights died down enough for him to actually see, he beheld the being that was speaking to him, but wasn't really sure what was actually going on, "Yo, I am Koudo, and I am also a dragon."

Koudo knew that Chita had dragonblood. He didn't know that during their first encounter, because he didn't even know he was a dragon either, but he could have known deep down. Once he had met Chita he felt something, a resonance perhaps? He wasn't really sure what it was, but it drove him to seek her much more than anyone else, possibly to the point that he ignored Triere much more in search for the companionship of Chita. Mana was mixed in there was well, but wasn't any otherworldly thing that drew him to Mana. He just loved her.

He was... surprised that this was what was inside of Chita, locked away, and it only made the parallels between them that much more vivid to him. Last they met, she showed hints of her dragonic nature, maybe she even said words about it as well, and the meeting before that she said she was dealing with a dragon of some sort as well. Koudo could only assume that this was what she was talking about, but he didn't know that it was what Rita had become in the time that had passed.

"...oookay." He needed a bit of time to process this, and understand exactly what and why the dragon decided to come out and chat with him instead of letting Chita do what she had to do. When he came to terms with his own dragon, he had a solitary conversation with it, and he didn't understand why the same wasn't happening with Chita.

"Shouldn't you be talking to Chita, though? I mean, she wants to get together with you."

The haughty, overblown pride of a dragon. Koudo rolled his eyes. Certainly being one himself, he didn't have the time nor patience to deal with it, but he held his tongue and folded his arms as he finally grounded himself. While the natural laws of physics had been neutralized, Koudo had finally grown tired of floating and preferred to have his feet touching the ground. He made it so.

As the dragon spoke, the commonality that he thought he shared with Chita was ripped apart the more that Rita spoke about Control, Vessels, Divine Wisdom and Greater Purpose. If was too much baggage. It was how he ended up feeling about everything when it came to the Tensei that he knew. They always came with some much fucking baggage. Coming to terms with his dragon was really as simple as coming to terms with the fact that he wasn't human and accepting the monster within. Control was always essential, but there was nothing about vessels, Divine Wisdom and blah blah blah.

He closed his eyes, "She's my friend and I want to see her succeed." Koudo tried to have, and maintain, friendly rivalries. While he always wanted to be ahead of his rivals, he wanted to see them achieve greatness as well and would push them when they needed to be pushed. In fact, he made it his solo mission to push anyone that he had a relationship with to strive from greater heights. He assumed it came from once being a part of Weapon X, where mediocrity wasn't ever an option.

Koudo didn't have a disinterest in Chita. He didn't even care either way about the dragon Rita either. He didn't particularly care for its personality, but you compromise. What he was disinterested in was the idea of divine purpose determined by a higher power. Koudo has always been a man that fought against Destiny and forged his own future. It was kind of his thing.

Any disinterest this dragon was reading from him was purely coincidental and must have been scryed from his body language. The dragon decided to acquiesce and gift Chita some of her potential power and that was all he and Chit were asking for, he assumed. Her situation was so much different from his own.

Koudo opened his eyes and looked at the dragon, when it said it's final piece, with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. "There's always people watching me, take a number." Still he couldn't help to wonder exactly what that meant. But there more important matters like witnessing what Chita was about to become right before his very eyes.

Eh. The dragon had to deal with Koudo's grandstanding, it was something that never went away and it was his nature, as a dragon, to do so. It was essential the same as Rita. She gave off the air of all-knowing knowledge and wisdom. Koudo responded in kind with an air of all-encompassing power. Every dragon was proud of something.

He expected her final words, even if he had no idea what they meant and probably wouldn't realize when the occurrence would actually happen. As it returned to the seal on Chita, Koudo moved over to catch Chita falling body, once gravity was returned to the area that they had been speaking in.

"Right." Koudo affirmed immediately and lowered her to the ground slowly enough so that she could stand on her own without too much effort. The whole process seemed like it had been taxing on her, unlike how it had been when he went through his ordeal and came out more energized than he'd ever felt before.

Looking her over, she didn't look very different. Aside from the flame jet spout out of her head where her ponytail used to be, she looked pretty unchanged. The flame jet was definitely a drastic change, but it didn't seem that big a deal since he'd been expecting much more significant aesthetic changes.

"How do you feel?"

"The dragon thing talked, I listened, then it went back inside after saying it would give you some more of it's power and that there were people watching me." Koudo replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He assumed that the bulk of the conversation was necessarily for Chita's ears, though the dragon hadn't specifically told him not to speak on the matters to Chita. And honestly, he just didn't want to tell her because he wouldn't be able to actually explain what the hell the dragon was talking about.

He folded his arms, "It was a lot about Divine Purpose and wisdom and whatever. And that the dragon controls you and not the other way around." Then he shrugged again.