"N- not that you're pressuring me." She half smiled the panicked smile of a mouse between a cat's paws.

"Not that I'm pressuring you. Far from it dear girl, I'd just as well settle for a challenge if it would put you even the slightest at ease."

Taya's right hand wandered free of her pocket and clutched at the end of her pendant. Something smooth and cool and reassuring to roll around her fingers to soothe her nerves. She thought it would be unfair to ask him something she herself didn't know, but there was nothing unique about her. She lacked tattoos or extravagant names. She dared to look up at him again and found his eyes on her hand. If her fingers could have blushed, they would have.

"I don't know if I, um..."

"Your necklace. It's quite unique." His voice was a startling hush in light of his recent stage bravado.

"My? Oh! M- my pendant!" She pulled her hand away and looked at it for the first time. "How about, um, who gave it to me?"

"An excellent question! One I would like to assure everyone else that I did not set-up, despite how much it appears I did so." While his gaze was on the audience, she found herself staring more intently. His eyes were unidentifiably dark. The pupil seemed to bleed into the iris as smooth perfect black. She wondered if all the color of the rest of him condensed into his eyes and that's why he was so pale. "Let's see... how old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"So young to be out so late. Tsk." She reached a record of eleven distinct shades of red and mumbled something noncommittal. "How long have you had the necklace in question?"

"For um, two months."

"When's your birthday?"

"June."

"Hmm." He seemed disinterested in continuing the banter he carried out with the others. Not that she blamed him, she wasn't anybody exciting to banter with. She wasn't gorgeous or witty or...

"Where are you from?"

"From?" Her winding trail of self pity stopped abruptly. "Um. Pao."

"Lovely little dot on the map, that. Do they still have that wretched stone wall up?"

"Yes. They're not all that awful. Really, they actually kind of make se... well, I guess they don't. But they're pretty when the sun sets over them?"

He chuckled. "Do you study history, miss?"

"Not really." She glanced up and felt trapped by his eyes. The audience didn't exist and for that matter neither did she. He was looking through her like a piece of glass, seeing something she couldn't guess at. After a time he frowned. He didn't seem to like what he was seeing.

"Um. Was that your last question?"

He laughed. "I hadn't meant it to be, but I did say 5."

The crowd laughed. He paused to sip his tea, his eyes skittering away from her as if they never looked her way. He glanced her way twice, out of the corner of his eye. "Your necklace came from... or rather, was a gift from your lover."

"My-" Taya blushed once more, feeling her ears burn. "No, I um, got it from my professor."

"I should hope they aren't one and the same."

"N-n-no. Um. She's not. I don't have..."

"Don't mind me, I'm trying to turn this into a win." He closed his eyes and lowered his head in something akin to frustration. "Congratulations. You've bested me."

"Oh. Oh! What, really?"

Any further comment was interrupted by wild applause. For all of his wit and charm, the crowd was more pleased to see him fail than succeed, no matter how astounding. He opened his eyes to her after several minutes, blinked, and then added, "You can leave now."

"Right. I, um, I'm sorry. Th- thank you." She stumbled down and back to her seat, where Koneko was grinning her largest inhuman grin and ready to congratulate her for screwing up the rotten empath. Neither noticed how his eyes lingered on her for the remainder of the dinner.