Right after all this hard work, and nightmares thanks to the White Claudia, it was time to relax or something along the line. She had taken a lot of jobs lately together with Yumi and well she earned enough money to take a day off. She was still saving money to leave Oak and to leave Phantom Lord but sometimes you just needed to do something else than jobs.

Apparently not far from Oak Town's edge and a little bit into the woods, there was a spa. It was very well hidden but apparently enough citizen of Oak knew about it and she had bumped into a flyer at some point and remembered. So her decision was final, today she would visit the spa. Get a massage, facial mask, even get her nails done if she needed it, she would decide once she would arrive.

Dressed in a loose fitting shirt, skinny jeans and her leather jacket, with a huge back with towels, her bikini and everything you ever needed for a day at the spa, she headed out of the Phantom Lord Guildhall. It wasn't that far of a walk and she could actually just cross to the forest but she planned to take the road. She paid her entry and looked at what to do, she could take a massage, she could visit the onsen. Since it was a small spa, they didn't seperate men and women and thus she doubted for a while. But in the end she went to change into her blue bikini and headed there, towel around her to make sure to get more privacy. There wasn't anyone in there yet, so actually she could have left it out but she was glad she didn't. You never knew.

It had been a while since Caius had received a mission from the guild. It was a pretty straightforward request. A local masseuse was using poisonous oil on some clients that would be absorb through the skin. The poison would take weeks to fully take effect before killing the client and left no trace. Normally he wouldn't mind someone committing murder like this but one of the lower ranked members of Grimoire Heart was his victims. There would be no mercy for him. Caius emerged from the woods outside of Oak and saw the spa hidden in the back. Normally he would just pay and walk in but the price was outrageous. He would have to try a different method.

Caius walked around the back of the spa and saw a door by a dumpster. The smell coming from it was awful but he had his way in. He waited a few minutes and saw one of the workers open up the door to throw out a bunch of old towels. When the workers back was turned, he quickly darted in the spa without being seen. Now he just had to find his target. Treading carefully around the spa, he found a small office with a uniform sitting on the chair. He walked in and saw the nameplate on the desk of the man wasn't his target. "Hey what are you doing" A man would say walking into the office. Caius responded by quickly punching the man in the face and knocking him out cold. He dragged his body over to the closet and shut him in there. The uniform would come in hand so he slipped it on over his head and tossed his old clothes in the closet.

As he headed out the office a woman grabbed him by the shoulder. "You must be the new guy. We have a customer go help her out!" Caius' face turned to shock as he was found out. His first instinct was to deck the woman in the face but other workers were around. Luck seemed to be on his side as the woman didn't recognize him as an impostor. He would have to play around for now.  The lady pushed him towards a young woman with long orange hair wrapped in a towel. "Here you go maam this will be your massuesse today." The whole situation was getting out of control. He didn't know anything about massages. The woman told the two to have a good time before going away. He could have always ran but he didn't want to alert anyone.

"Hello. My name is Varian and I will be taking care of you today. I haven't see here before. Is this your first time here?" Caius would say trying to make small talk to help ease the situation. He had a lot of bullshitting to do to get through this. At least the silver lining was they left him with beautiful woman.

Before she even could enter the warm water, someone came in. She turned around to look. She thought they said the massuesse wasn't ready yet. She looked at the woman and nodded towards her. Her brown eyes looking at the man that would be the massuesse, he introduced himself and asked her if she had been here before, "Nice to meet you. I'm Alice and I haven't been here before. I found the spa on accident yesterday." She said with a innocent grin because well it was good hidden, the spa.

"It looks really nice though. It is ashame that I haven't found it earlier." Or well she wouldn't mind this guy around too. She normally didn't focus on that much, she met a lot of guys. She remembered her meeting with Yami and some girl in the Guild, which had been very funny. It would be stupid to laugh randomly now at another place, so she kept her face neutral. He had a very interesting name was what she thought, "Where do we go?" she asked, was there like a private room? She wasn't so sure how all this worked, especially not massages.. she had never had one but she imagined it would be lovely. Her muscles would relax, she would maybe feel a bit better and stronger tomorrow. As if she could handle everything again too.

She looked at the woman behind the desk at the entrance, there seemed to be going on something but she couldn't catch the words and it actually didn't interest her anymore. It was a day to think about nothing important.

Caius let out a dumb laugh to help relate to the customer. "Nice to meet you Alice. Our location is pretty hidden but we have the best services in all Fiore. Relax and enjoy yourself. Follow me please " he said as he waved her on. Caius had no idea where he was going. This shitty spa didn't haven't any signs to point him to the correct room. He went down the opposite hallway from the offices and hoped for the best. After a few seconds of walking, he found the nearest door and opened it. "Here we are.." It was a broom closet. A nerve busted in Caius head as he was already getting sick of this ruse. However, the guilds reputation was at stake so he had to play it cool and not get found out. The mission had to be completed without a scene. He quickly responded to correct the situation. "Apologies. I'm still new to this branch. It's the next room over."

Caius led her to the next door and thankfully it led to a room with a shelf full of massage supplies and a table. He let out a sigh of relief before turning to her. "Here we are. Our first step is a Wonderstar Massage to help release the tension from your body. We use Tesai Oil from the finest trees in the Oberon forest that loosens up the muscles and helps them recover from stress." Literately every word he said was bullshit. Caius had played many characters since joining Grimoire Heart so he wasn't new to adapting to a situation. It played to his advantage that this woman was a first timer so she probably would just think whatever he said was true.

"Please remove your towel and top and lay belly down on the table when you are ready. I'll make preparations. If you have any questions before we begin feel free to ask me Ms. Alice." Caius said with a cheerful tone. He made his way over to the shelf and looked for the oil the target used to assassinate his victims. Scanning the shelves he found a canister of the oil at the very top that matched the description. His target must have used this room. Alice should be grateful she got him instead of that wacko doctor. Caius looked over the oils and read the descriptions. One looked good for human skin so he grabbed that and prepared to begin unless Alice had any concerns.

Alice wasn't sure what to think of Varian, he had something funny and well friendly? But there was something that she couldn't put her finger on. She shrugged, it was probably nothing, more her own body that kept making over hours because of her hard working and trying to leave Oak. Her thoughts about a lot of things, it wans't something important. She should relax and enjoy herself, that's why she came here. She should probably do this more often, well based on the experience of this spa first. She nodded when Varian said they should go, to the room probably.

She followed him, holding on to the towel that was around her body. She was a few steps behind him and looked passed his shoulder when he opened a door, she couldn't help but bit her lip to not giggle to loud but the laughter was shown in the twinkle of her eyes. She tried her best, he apologized and she still tried to hide her smile, "I can imagine. There are so many doors and no signs. You are probably not the only one that gets lost." Besides that every hall way looked the same. Maybe if she focused more on some signs, she would not get that lost next time.

The next room was indeed the right one, so Alice didn't doubt that Varian had just taken a step too early, could happen to the best one. She looked at the room as they entered and he explained it to her as she leaned to the table. She nodded and gave him a happy smile, "Sounds good."

Okay she should have expected the part of losing her towel and top.. It would make sense. That didn't mean that it wasn't less awkward. She nodded more to herself and the moment Varian turned his back to her, she quickly let go of the towel and placed it on the end of the table. She climbed on the table before she got rid of her top as she made sure she was belly down on the table. She was still leaning a bit on her arms to see what he was doing, too curious. She wanted to say something but she wasn't entirely sure what, "So how does it work?" Okay that was obviously a stupid question, although she had said this was her first time.

How does this work? That was a good question. Caius didn't know either. He had seen massages on TV but never received one himself. Alice started preparing as she laid down on the small table and removed her towel exposing her bare back. Her head was leaning on her arms keeping an eye on him while awaiting his response. The whole situation had gotten out of hand and he was about to fix it.

They were alone in the room now. If Caius knocked her out, he could just explain to anyone that found her that she fell asleep during the massage. It was supposed to be relaxing so it wasn't that far fetched. That would give him time to go find the target and get rid of him. Caius slowly walked up to Alice with the bottle of oil in in his hand keeping a cheerful smile on his face. Once he was close enough, he would attempt to give her a swift chop to the back of her neck to put her to sleep. Just before he could execute his plan, he noticed the tattoo on her arm when he got close enough. She was Phantom Lord.


"Shit" Caius thought to himself. Grimoire and Phantom Lord had been allies occasionally in the past. They were full of strong mages and if he attacked one, she might have enough strength to retaliate. Not wanting to risk it he reverted back to his character. "That is an awesome tattoo!" Caius said to explain himself for staring. "Sorry that was rude I got distracted. Just relax and lay your head down. I know it can be awkward your first time but we are here to take care of you and help you be at ease." Caius said.

He sprayed the bottle of oil in one hand and placed it on a nearby table. He rubbed his hands together till they were all warm and slippery. He began with his hands parallel to each other and slid them down each side of her spine, massaging all the way down to the lower back . Hopefully it was good enough to win her over. Perhaps he was looking at the situation all wrong. If she was Phantom Lord maybe he could convince her to help him or at least look the other way.

Her hazel brown eyes were looking up to him. There was something again that she thought she saw. But there was nothing to actually see. Alice wasn't an expert in acting and thus she would never see through it. She would never understand that it was simply an act and that Varian might be a bit wondering about how to fix this. She would first and foremost think that he might found her attractive and be nervous because of that. But than again he didn't really look that nervous. She shrugged in the end.

She had her arms up and lay her head on her hands and still looked around, not only at Varian but also at the art on the wall and everything around her. It was interesting for a person who had never been at such a spot before. She turned to look at Varian again and he mentioned her tattoo. Damn she had totally forgotten about her Phantom Lord insignia. Of course, because she had thought so many times about leaving and here she was, forgotten about the whole thing. "You think?" she said with a nervous laugh, "I think there are better ones out there."

she listened to him and let her arms move next to her body and lay her head facedown in the little hole on the table so she could simply stare at the ground. Which was weird and so she decided to close her eyes.

When his hands touched her back, she felt a shiver going down her spine. She was definitely not used to people touching her. She tried to relax but unconsiously clenched her hands into fist. Okay relax, was what Alice told herself all the time. It wasn't bad, she didn't even know what to expect but it was so weird.

Caius continued through the motions sliding his hands down to her lower back up back to the neck and shoulders. Her skin was silky, smooth that any man would die for. While she was very attractive, it was funny he wished for nothing but to be away from her right now. Alice seemed to have a relaxed a bit by moving her head straight down and taking her curious eyes off him. She didn't comment that anything was bad or hurting so he must have been doing something right with the massage. He repeated the motions a few times before deciding to ask some questions to her. After all he had a job to take care of and couldn't continue fooling around.

"I hope everything is feeling wonderful Ms. Alice." Caius said with a cheeful tone. "I'm sure you might have saw me a bit nervous the moment I saw your tattoo. The truth is I know it as Phantom Lord. I know it is a well respected guild here in Oak. I've had a few members of the guild here and want to make it the best experience possible for them. I've heard rumors of what they are capable of if they don't get their way. " Revealing the meaning of the tattoo seemed like the best option in this situation. As a fellow dark guild member she surely could understand his situation. He just had to slowly earn her trust. "So how did you join the guild Ms. Alice? You must be a powerful mage the right?" Caius would ask making small talk. He would try to learn as much as he could about her before this massage was over.

Alice wasn't used to people touching her, so at first she sort of flinched, had to get used to his hands touching her back. She should have known before she came. She had to continue thinking to let go, to relax and let Varian do what he had to do. He knew what to do, so why bother. Besides when she finally felt a bit relaxed, she was able to simply feel the pleasure of it. Her muscles did relax, not entirely sure if it was her talking to herself or the massage, she obviously guessed the latter.

She tensed a little when she listened to Varian, he did sound cheerful but mentioning her guild was a shame. Her guild, it wasn't even what she felt. She had at the beginning completely forgotten about the mark on her arm. He knew, he explained and she couldn't help but chuckle a bit, "Oh I know, I don't like those people. But i have to say I don't like Phantom Lord that much. I'm much more of a solo person but I stick with it for now." She hoped she sounded scary enough, or well not scary impressive maybe? She didn't want someone to make use of that now. She didn't care about the guild but she hoped she worded it close enough to point out that she was still a part, which she wasn't.

He asked a good question, if she was a solo person, why join? "Funny story. I simply found out I was a mage not that long ago and a friend of mine admitted to be a Phantom Lord Mage. She pulled me in, saying it was a Guild that didn't bother if you were more of an individual and so on. I don't mind Phantom Lord, I thought I joined something that gave you freedom and everything, no rules to obey like all the light guilds or the knights and yet, there are many." Right.. blabbermouth, she could just stop talking! It was not like he needed to know everything about her. It was good for her he couldn't see her face because her cheeks almost matched her red hair! Damn girl, she thought about herself. He had also asked if she was powerful, but she didn't really dare to answer that question, "I would call myself decent." she muttered as she thought that Yu and Yami were both okay with her and she could do her fair share of hitting but again: she needed to do some shopping.

Caius felt her back tense up when he asked the question about her guild. This wasn’t good. He thought he might have provoked her by bringing it up. However, her muscles soon relaxed after that. Much to his surprise, Alice explained that she liked the dark guild that she was placed in. She thought she would gain freedom but guilds were no place for that They each had their own agendas that had to be carried out. Damn. There went his plan to try to explain the situation to her. If she didn’t agree with their ways there was no point. It was time to improvise a plan B.

“That’s awesome that you can use magic Alice! You are one of the rare few in this world. I tried learning once but I just didn’t have the talent.” Caius said. Of course he was lying. Back at the facility he was raised in, they forced him to learn the magic or be disposed of. That experience gave him the Sky God Slayer magic. “It sounds like you aren’t too happy with the guild. I’d recommend taking time off and traveling. I’m a contractor masseuse so I move from place to place and I love it! It's fun to see the world” he said.

One last time he kneaded his hands down her upper back to the bottom. He wiped both his hands and clapped them together. "Ok you are done here. You should be feeling nice and relaxed now. Your muscles might be a bit sore but next is the soak in our hot bath." He had no idea honestly how the spa process worked but that sounded right. Caius walked over to the shelves of oil and picked up the one that contained the poison. "Feel free to stand up and stretch out before we go. I have the bath oil right here." He wasn't planning on using it on her he just needed it close by when he found his target. They had to get out of this room to do that.

Alice listened to Varian, giving her a compliment and she was glad he wouldn't be able to spot her bright red face, "I'm sure you can learn something. I mean I wasn't a mage until two years ago." It took a lot of working and trying before she became one that was for sure and okay she didn't have anything better to do, Varian had a job.

He mentioned the Guild again and she sort off nodded, "I don't mind Phantom Lord that bad. It's just the people I met, they are a bit weird." she couldn't help but chuckle, although the idea of taking time of and travelling, it did sound great, "however you give a great suggestion on what I can do. Thanks."

When he said they were done, she half got up to make sure she could fix the top of her bikini before showing anything. She was at least careful enough. She did feel relaxed, the talking helped too. "Hot bath it is." She couldn't help but look at Varian, really curious. What city would he go to next?

Exit.

OOC:

They were going to go to the bath but Alice must have felt uncofortable after the massage. She went to change and leave the spa. This was perfect. Caius was able to walk around freely in the uniform. He put on a pair of gloves and globbed the poison oil on them. After a few minutes of searching he found the target. Walking up to him he introduced himself as the new guy and shook his hand. The doctor would be grossed out but Caius' apologized saying he was just a client. The mission was complete. The doctor would be dead in a few weeks. Caius walked back to the room and got his normal clothes and headed out the back door. He couldn't help but feel he would meet that Alice woman again. After all the dark guilds worked closely together.

Exit

OOC: