Danmachi: Obligations To The Past

Bell was approaching Hestia while she was working. She was selling potato's croquettes to customers, but even so she radiated a kind of grace and divinity keenly unique to gods and goddesses. He continued to take in her visage. She had long dark black hair pulled up in a single ponytail to keep hair out of the food (bell bought her the hair ties she used for her pigtails so she doesn't have them). Her deep blue eyes were breathtaking and exuded a youthful energy. All this was topped off with her wearing an apron over her outfit she always wore in the anime.

Bell broke out of his daydream and started planning. 'I don't want to go up and just ask her. There's no fun in that. What I need is to be subtle and maybe tease her a little bit. She has the type of personality perfect for it," he thought. Quickly, he took out the paper he got from the guild earlier. It had a list of familia's accepting new members and at the bottom was her name. He circled it a few times along with Miach's name and crossed out many others. In that time he arrived at the front of the line.

"Welcome! What can I get for you?" She asked full of vigor.

Before answering, Bell put the paper down at the side in a flashy way so she would see the guild doc.u.ment. Her eyes followed. "Hmm, I think I want 4 croquettes. I woke up quite an appetite walking around," he subtly was trying to guide her expectations. Clearly she took the bait because her eyes were reading the paper and not paying attention to his order. He watched her eyes follow the list only to see her name and Miach's being circled, but he wouldn't let it be that easy for her.

"Ahem, 4 croquette's please. I'm in bit of a hurry. I have to go see Miach. I have an appointment to keep," interrupting her thinking. She looks fl.u.s.tered. 'Now we'll see what she'll decide. Will she try and poach me from her friend or will she let me go,' Bell was thinking quite devilishly at the moment.

Completely conflicted, she starts to stutter, "o-oh right. Here is your order.." Bell saw her struggling to make up her mind. 'Why not give her a little push?'

"Is something the matter?" Bell asked.

"R-right. Um, are you looking for a familia?" Hestia still stumbled over her words.

"Yeah, you see, I just arrived in Orario and the guild gave me this list. I've been to several already and they didn't suite my tastes so I decided to find a better familia," He lied a little here. Obviously, he hadn't walked around to look for a familia. Many of them were terrible choices and his goal was not an already strong familia. He wanted a new and small one for many reasons.

She seemed to still be contemplating to ask him. She probably didn't want to rob Miach considering his debt, but Bell had no intention of actually joining him anyway. 'Maybe she needs another push?' But before he tried again she started her whole spiel. "I'm Hestia! You have my name circled. A circle is good right? Why don't you join my familia?"

"Well..." pretending to mull it over, "How big is your familia? What kind of home do you stay in?" He wanted to see how honest she would be.

"Well, we are small..." she was deciding how to reel me in, "You'd be the first actually and I live in an old church given to me by a friend." Bell could see the anxiety in her words. She knew her living circ.u.mstances and the fact that no one was in her familia yet was a turn off for many looking for a familia and it made her nervous.

"Perfect!" Bell exclaimed and the light in her eyes returned. "You see I always preferred going solo for most things. It's been that way since I was 7 so joining and familia and going at it alone for a while isn't bad. In fact, I think I might prefer it. I prioritize freedom and the small familia can guarantee that. Plus it's more homely." The more he spoke the more Hestia regained some of her confidence.

"So you do want to join my familia?" Asked Hestia. Though she heard what he said, she didn't want to get her hopes up. She needed to be absolutely sure before she celebrated. "Of course as long as you'll have me," he replied giving his best smile he could give.

"Yay! You won't regret this! Come on. I know a place nearby where we can do the blessing!" Said Hestia hopping and skipping about. "Manager, I need to take off! Familia business came up!" Before she even got a reply, she grabbed Bell's hand and whisked him away to her favorite library. He decided to consult his partner.

'Nia, what will the outcome of getting a blessing be on my initial level?'

*User Bell's pre-blessing stats are something that don't usually exist in this world. They are typically incalculable by blessings and will most will be lost in the ceremony. In your case, however, I am calculating your excellia so when you get a blessing I will inject it into your base level 1 status giving you a little head start from most. This way none will be lost.*

'Ho-ho! That's what I'm talking about. What about my eyes? Any changes I can expect? I've been stuck with two tomoe for 2 years now without any changes.' He was hopeful for an increase or an upgrade.

*Outcome unknown. You will be receiving the blood of a goddess and you are unique.*

Bell sighed at her response. He was anxious to see results of his hard work. For humans without a blessing, he had passed their normal capabilities long ago with the help of his eyes. His grandfather thought it was a racial skill passed on through some long passed involvement with fairies or something. He's wrong, but it doesn't change the fact that his eyes are unique and the Falna of this world will have unknown effects.

The bell at the entrance to the bookstore broke Bell from his thoughts. Hestia asked for the backroom and got permission quickly pulling him along with her. She was in a hurry. Bell's guess was that she didn't want him to change his mind. This made him smile a little at the thought of someone wanting him so much. 'I wonder how happy the original was at this feeling?' He thought but quickly shook his head to disperse it. He always compared himself to the other, but perhaps it was time to stop doing that. They weren't the same.

"Take off your shirt and lie down," she ordered so Bell complied. "I didn't know you were so open.." he joked causing her to turn pink at the cheeks. "Just lie down already!" She yelled so he took off his coat and shirt exposing his muscles he trained for years. They weren't overly large. He had a more lean body type, but it had a muscle definition not seen in the huskier bodied men. This caused Hestia to stop and stare for a few moments before realizing she was ogling. Turning a darker hue of pink she shook her head so she could get down to business.

She sat on his b.u.t.t and brushed he long white ponytail to the side so she could do her work. She pricked her finger and dropped the blood onto his back that started to soak into his skin. Glyphs started to appear on his once empty back and she began to mess with the information gathered there. The longer she looked and toggled the wider her eyes got. She hadn't seen this kind of excellia at the start before.

Meanwhile, Bell was listening to Nia.

*User Bell's excellia has been added to the Falna placed on your back. You should start to feel the increase very soon.*

No later than she finished her update did he start to get an weird tingling. The introduction of Hestia's blood to his body started to radiate her divinity throughout his circulatory system. It started out with a warm feeling on his back, slowly expanding till it was like he was submerged in warm water. Then it all began to focus on his eyes till they began to get the itchy feeling. This caused him to subconsciously activate them and the two tomoe began to rotate slowly at first than quicker till a third was formed. The itchy feeling and the rotation stopped once Hestia was done fiddling behind him.

When she got off finally, the surprise didn't cease from her face. She handed him a paper with his new stats on it which was similar to Nia's status board.

*

Name: Bell Cranel

Race: Human

Age: 14

Familia: Hestia

Level: 1

Strength: H 215

Endurance: H 231

Dexterity: H 200

Agility: H 209

Magic: G 238

[Sharingan (3 tomoe): increased visual perception. Eye's of Insight. Minor illusory ability]

[]

*

'Huh, my eyes description grew a little. I guess this will happen every time I level them up and all my stats decreased a little except my magic. It increased. I'll need to ask Nia about that,' he thought to himself.

"Hey! Bell, can you explain this to me?" Hestia asked tapping on the paper in front of him. Clearly she had been trying to get his attention for a some time.

"Oh, um I have a special racial magic?" Trying to brush it off half heartedly but it didn't seem to work. He knew she wanted details about his magic so he gave in, but decided to mix of half truths to save him the trouble of explaining the more risky and private things. He knew she would detect that it was not all the truth, so he tried to come up with something that could get him through without being a blatant lie.

"Hmm, well I'm the only one with this skill now. The rest of my family died when I was young. I'm the only one left because I was saved and adopted by my grandfather," he told truths to throw her off. Easier than coming up with a lie and it being seen through. Besides, this threw her off of his case judging by her sad expression. Bell brushed his bangs out of the way and activated his eye's to show them to her while explaining only minor things about them. Mostly just things on his status board like what "Eye's of Insight" meant and how they slowly evolved.

"Wow! You have special eyes. I've never seen or heard of such a magic ability. Especially one that can continue to grow stronger as you do," she said but then quickly her face scrunched, "you can't tell anyone about this otherwise they would try to take you like your ancestors. Promise me you'll be discreet about it." Of course he quickly complied. He wasn't about to let someone take him captive or be a slave. Worse yet, have someone pull his eyeballs out. F.u.c.k that.

"Oh, it's getting late now. How about I show you where I live since you'll be staying there now too?" and so Bell followed Hestia out of the bookstore and to the old abandoned church. By the time they reached the building and he settled in. He was thinking about what he would do tomorrow and how he wanted to practice with his eyes a little now that that reached their peak base form.

It was starting to get late by then so he went to sleep on the nearby couch not far from Hestia's bed. It was quite the eventful day for Bell. He finally reached three tomoe sharingan after two years of waiting and the overflow of his excellia and the blessing really wore him out. Not many have such circ.u.mstances so it couldn't be helped that he passed out almost immediately after his head hit the pillow.