[ToxicShadow]

"Why am I tagging along with you again?" The odd Meji with all of her extra frills wondered as she stepped alongside a much taller man with long sandy blond hair.

"Yes, I do wonder why you're tagging along with me again," Hazard answered with amusement in his voice and a grin on his face as he glanced down at Mimic.

Mimic let out a very audible and intentional sigh, as she looked up at the man beside her, saying, "If I don't tag along with you, I just know that you will end up causing some sort of trouble."

[ToxicShadow]

"Hm. Is that really why?" Hazard's voice still seemed teasing.

"Yes, that is definitely why," Mimic insisted. "I can't trust the world with you. You'd destroy it."

"Now that's just nonsense," the man answered, pushing the lose strands of his hair back over his shoulder with a flick of his hand in a nonchalant way.

"Anyway," the Meji began, clearly changing the subject away from what they were just discussing, "What are we actually doing out here in the forest today?"

[ToxicShadow]

"Well, I can sense that another one of the Toxics makes her home within this forest," the man began.

"Oh, is that so?" Mimic responded even before Hazard could carry on. Unlike him, she was not innately capable of sensing other incarnations of themselves. She did not know why she had gotten stuck with this incarnation, though, out of all the possible options.

"But that's not why were actually here," Hazard continued on without missing a beat.

[ToxicShadow]

"Ah." The Meji responded simply, knowing that he would continue on with his explanation without needing to be prompted any more than that.

"That's interesting in its own right, but I'm not actually here to seek her out at the moment. Instead, we're here to look for certain creatures that can be found here. Well, all evidence says that they can be found here, anyway. And we're here to locate them."

"And why do you want to find them?"

[ToxicShadow]

The question came as a bit of a surprise to Hazard, and he was definitely amused when he answered, "Because I like them." He said it as though it should have been a very obvious answer. And, as far as they were both concerned, she should have already been aware that his reasoning would be nothing more than that.

Mimic sighed again. "Of course." Should she have expected anything more? Probably not, but she had been at least the tiniest bit hopeful that he would have a more interesting reason than that.

[ToxicShadow]

"But we need more allies," Hazard actually added. "As things stand right now, I cannot easily compare to the others when the only one that I have on my side is you."

"What the hell?" Mimic said, sounding somewhat offended by the casual insult that came out of the man's mouth.

"That's not what I mean!" The man quickly tried to correct himself, not having intended his words as an insult, even though they had come off that way to her.

[ToxicShadow]

"Sorry," Hazard was actually quick to apologize. "What I mean is, the others are surrounded by many others. The bounty hunter, the monster hunter, the owner of the talent agency, even the fairy and the witch. The only one who is in somewhat dire straits, when it comes to others surrounding them as I am, is the former goddess of life." There was a short pause, before he carried on, "When you think about it, you and I are in the same boat, even. We're each other's allies, but that's it."

[ToxicShadow]

The Meji listened to the man carry on, and she found that she at least could not argue with his last statement. She had no one else, just Hazard, and at the time, he had no one else, either. "But is that not to be expected?" Mimic still said. "After all, at least for me, I am hardly an incarnation of Toxic. I am a creation of your mind, not a genuine incarnation. If I was not beside you, where else would I be? And why would I need to be surrounded by others outside of you?"

[ToxicShadow]

Hearing Mimic's logic, Hazard could not help but let a out a single, fond chuckle. "Oh, Mimic. You may have been created from my mind, but you are still your own person. Don't you know that?" Was she really not aware of that fact? Or did she simply prefer to remain loyal to him? Even now, the man did not know.

"That may be so, but I don't need to... do something terribly grand on my own to prove that I deserve to exist," Mimic answered.

[ToxicShadow]

"I do not need to be surrounded by a lot of others," she carried on. "Or forge my own way ahead, in front of all others. I am perfectly fine and content being a companion and ally to you, whom created me. Besides, will there ever be anyone else who understands you as well as I do?"

Hazard's expression changed over the course of Mimic's explanation and, in the end, she could actually see the gratitude that he felt toward her when she said what she had.