[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5022268][img]https://i.imgur.com/yW2VDaL.png[/img][/url]
[h3]Eastern Yharnam, outside the Hunter's clinic[/h3]
It was an immense relief that Adelicia regained consciousness quickly, allowing Victor to relax and breathe more easily as his bloodthirst receded and his right hand returned to its human form. Her normal human weakness was by far preferable to her being totally defenseless, presenting an irresistibly tempting target to the monster living in his heart.
Smiling grimly to himself, Victor privately wondered how Adelicia would react if she knew what had happened after she fainted; how he had nearly ripped her guts out with his bare hands, but stopped himself at the last second. Would she be grateful that he had managed to stop himself, or grow even more fearful of him knowing how close he had been to losing control? Probably the latter, he figured. Almost certainly the latter. Yeah, she would definitely be terrified. Best not to tell her.

But now this? Memory loss? He had both heard of and witnessed such things befalling people who had gone through traumatic experiences; some of the soldiers he had fought alongside before becoming a Hunter would later realize that they forgot certain parts of the battle they had participated in, often times when they had been injured or something particularly gruesome was happening. Even Victor had experienced something like that, as he to this day could still not clearly remember the fateful moment when the beast had maimed his back, inflicting the wound that later necessitated that he became a Hunter... which also made him worry all the more. He knew both from himself and watching others that trauma like that almost always came back to haunt a person, just like he ever since then had been obsessed with keeping his back safe and deeply uncomfortable with anyone being directly behind him, while others would panic or go berserk upon experiencing some kind of trigger, be that a sight, sound or smell.
He did not know how this experience might affect Adelicia... but the fact that she could not remember was deeply concerning.

For now, he figured as he straightened his stance, fixing his clothes a bit while going to retrieve his sword from where he had dropped it, what he [I]really[/I] needed to concern himself over was what to tell her about Raine, though. The untarnished truth would just make her panic all the more and probably make her do something stupid, but would lying to her be any better? She already did not trust Victor, that much was obvious, and if she ended up doubting his words in the least she might take it to mean that he was hiding something, and possibly blame him for Raine's disappearance. She was already afraid of him; if she thought he had actually turned against an ally, that fear would probably become dominant enough for her to attempt to run away. She would fail, obviously – there was no way she could outrun him, or practically any Hunter that was not also a cripple – but once he lost her trust, she would never trust him again. Who knew what she might try? How desperate she could get?
“Something took him,” he told her, making sure to sound even more regretful of that fact than he actually was. If at all possible he wanted her to think that losing Raine was breaking his heart rather than it just being a failure and inconvenience. Picking up his sword, Victor then turned to where Raine had been grabbed, wondering to himself if the invisible fiend was still there, waiting for some other hapless victim to stumble into its grasp.
“Something invisible grabbed him over there,” he continued after a moment, pointing with his sword, “and then he... disappeared. I don't know where. I tried to save him, but...” He shrugged. “It's invisible. I couldn't hit it in time.”

A loud crash could be heard inside the clinic, causing Victor to bite his lip impatiently. The fighting was clearly still ongoing inside, but he could not risk Adelicia by going in there, with or without her. He had to stay by her side.