Let's try this again. hopefully with 100% less faggotry 41 posts to 7 votes. Wtf. = Huh? Woman? What? Looking around, you thought you just saw a woman here, but she seems to have vanished. Taking another glance around, you see her walking away down one of the alleyways that litter the town. Something possesses you to follow her. You quickly jog over to the entrance to the alleyway only to see that the woman is already walking out the other end. She’s fast. Running now, you come out the other end of the alleyway. Ah, crap. You don’t see her anywhere. Movement out of the corner of your eye catches your attention, and you see the woman rounding a corner. This continues for several minutes, until you see the woman round a corner into what you know is a dead end. You smile to yourself as you round the corner to find an empty alley. Wait what? You know you saw her walk down this. . . A sudden sharp point being pressed against your back interrupts your thoughts.
“Why are you following me?” A voice, cold as steel, questions you from behind. How did she get behind you? The alley was completely empty when you were looking in it. There was nowhere she could have hidden. The woman mistakes your silence for stalling and presses the sharp point into your back a bit harder, breaking the skin now. “I asked you, Why are you following me.” Her voice still as harsh as before.
[ ] I don’t know? [ ] I was curious. [ ] I’m not going to tell you. [ ] Something told me it was important. [ ] I wanted to talk to you. [ ] Who are you? = “Ah er. . . well. . . I don’t know?” You feel the knife press into your back, twisting a little bit. “AH! I was curious!” More pressure from the knife.
“I don’t know I don’t know! Not in that way!” You try to pull away from the knife only to have your shoulder grabbed, quite forcefully.
“And in what way would that at be” a slight bit of amusement creeps into the voice, which only serves to unnerve you more than the coldness before.
“You know. . .” you trail off, hoping that she might know what you’re obviously not able to say directly. The knife point eases itself out of your back slightly
“Hm? No. I’m not sure I know what you mean.” The amusement is creeping in more. You feel like a mouse that a cat’s toying with.
“Well, its like, you know. . . like, I don’t . . . Um. . . It’s like,” You feel the knife pressing into your back again. You can almost hear the bemused smile on her face.
“I do rather wish you’d hurry up. I’m not getting any younger here.” The woman laughs wryly, as if at some inside joke.
“It’s like. . .like for another dude. . . that’s not my thing.” You tense up in preparation to have the knife twisted or shoved into your back again, but nothing comes. It’s quite unsettling.
“Go on.” The voice has returned to it’s previous icy demeanor.
“Ah. . . well like. . . You. You on the other hand. . .” you trail off as you feel the knife removed from your back, the hand releasing from your shoulder. You make to turn and face your assailant when you’re unceremoniously shoved forward.
“Feh. So that’s all it was, was it? You just saw some pretty young thing, and thought that you could take advantage of me in an alley way. Is that how this was going to play out? Well. Too bad for you, but you chose the wrong mark.”
You scramble to get away from the voice, only to be kicked in the side. Hard. You roll over against the side of the alley way, now facing your attacker, who appears to be a young grey haired woman, dressed in a maid outfit. She has an array of knives in her hand, all looking quite sharp and lethal. She makes to charge forward and dismember you. Seeing no other recourse, you throw your right arm up in front of you, attempting to block your face. The woman charges and almost instantly closes the gap between the two of you. Faster than you could blink she was upon you, bringing a knife down towards you. From deep within you cry out, awaiting the pain, only to not have it come. You hear a series of coughs coming from somewhere, which has seemingly caused the woman attacking you to freeze.
“I’ll only say it once more,” a few more coughs, “Sakuya. Leave him alone. Or should we have a repeat of the last time something like this happened?” The voice is much quieter by the end and you can only barely make out what was said.
Sakuya remains frozen in place, glaring at you with an intense hatred glowing in her eyes, the knifepoint inches from your face. Lowering your gaze from her to your saviour, you see a somewhat short girl with purple hair, and a strange hat with a crescent moon on it. She has a book . . . floating in front of her. Just floating there like Alice’s doll. her hand is also glowing and pointing directly at this ah. . .’Sakuya’ was it? Either way, she’s likely just saved your life. The woman pushes up off of you, making a point to gash your arm as she gets up.
“Sakuya!” The woman at the end of the ally calls out firmly.
Sakuya turns away from you, and in a blink of an eye, the knives she was holding have vanished into thin air. Holy shit. That’s seven kinds of terrifying. What else is there in this world that could kill you like that?!
The woman starts to mumble something, barely audible to you, “You got luck this time. Pray to whatever gods you may believe in that we never meet again. If we do, I’ll do far worse to you than just that gash.” She walks down towards the girl. “Alright, alright. I’m going. There’ll be no more problems, miss patchouli.” Sakuya practically spits the last two words. You blink and the woman has vanished, leaving only the girl behind. Patchouli was it? The girl sighs and reaches out for the book. she closes it and begins to float over to you. What!?!?! She’s floating? What IS it with this place?
“I must apologize for Sakuya. She’s not the most. . . Amicable person that one will ever meet.” The girl kneels down next to you and chants softly. You watch in amazement as the gash on your arm closes up, completely healed. It’s like it was never there. “Allow me to take a look at that injured arm of yours.”
You hold your arm up, and she does the same little chanting bit as before. You’re not sure what she’s doing but your whole arm feels pleasantly warm.
“That should about finish it. Your arm should be in a much better condition than it was previously.” The girl breaks into a coughing fit at this point. You move to pat her on the back, but her hand whips up and barely misses hitting your face. With nothing else that you can do, you simply sit there until her coughing fit passes. “Though, I would heed her warning. Meeting her again would be a mistake that you would pay for with your life. I should be getting back as well. The mistress does not like it when I stray for long.” The girl starts chanting again, her entire body glows for a moment before she vanishes, leaving you alone in the alley way. The only sign that anyone besides you was here is the small amount of blood that poured out onto the ground and floor of the alley.
Getting shakily to your feet, you exit the alley and drag yourself back to the main road through town. Thoroughly shaken up by the events you decide that the best course of action for the time being may be to just go back to the inn. Reaching it you head wearily inside.
“Welcome back,” Sakura calls cheerfully for an elderly woman, “Dinner’s almost ready so just come on in and sit down anywhere.”
“Ah. . . I’m sorry, but I’m not hungry right now. . .” You drag yourself past her and up into your room, while Sakura looks on with a concerned look on her face. Pushing it from your mind you stumble into your room and collapse onto the futon. Maybe you should just go to sleep, today really has been a rather bad day.
[ ] Sleep. [ ] Lay on the futon. [ ] Go down for dinner.
You lay there, staring at the ceiling. The events of just a short while ago playing through your mind, over and over again. It’s amazing that you managed to survive that situation, much less come out of it no worse for wear. Lifting your left arm, you’re surprised at how much lighter it seems to feel. Several short minutes later, you’ve removed the bandages and the splints. The arm itself seems to bear no damage at all, it seems to move better than before you injured it. Odd. So absorbed in examining your arm, you almost didn’t hear the knock at the door.
“Are you in there, young man?” Ah, It’s Sakura. You really don’t feel like seeing anyone at the moment so you just lay there, looking at your arm.
“I’m coming in, so if you’re indecent, you’d best cover up quick.” The door slides open quickly and Sakura steps into the room. Damn it. Why’d she have to come in? You roll away from her and stare at the wall.
“Now listen up, you whippersnapper!” Sakura’s voice is quite stern now. “I don’t know what happened to you out there today, but you’re alive. Be thankful. Most people who run afoul something here don’t live to tell the tale. Now roll your sorry butt over and look at me!”
You comply without even really thinking about it.
“Good. Now that I have your attention, get up and follow me. We have your welcoming party to attend, and I WON’T be hearing any objections. Am I clear, young man?” Sakura’s face, stern and hard through most of her lecture, suddenly breaks out into a smile. Nodding your head dumbly, you make a mental note to never cross this woman. You doubt that you’d survive the encounter.
“Come on, Hurry up.” Sakura begins goading you as you push yourself up from the futon.
“Good, good. Now I expect to see you downstairs promptly, ok?” Sakura slides the door shut as she leaves the room. It was much more quietly than when she opened it. You wonder why she left you alone in the room. It’s not like you have anything to do to prepare. A change of clothes you don‘t have, any sort of shower or such is unavailable to you, the only thing you can think of is to gather your composure. That’s already come back to you with Sakura’s little lecture. Feeling that you’re now more ready than you would have been with out the lecture, you head downstairs.
The welcome party was a rip roaring event. There was booze, music (Someone had commandeered a radio from Kourindou and some batteries and had found some CD’s), and many interesting people that were also outsiders. The most striking of which was a raven haired girl who appeared to be about your age. You didn’t get a chance to talk to her, as she bowed out early in the evening, but something about her struck you as being extremely familiar. You’re really not sure what it was but there was something.
Having not partaken of as much of the booze as you did at the shrine when Suika was around, you’re much more clearheaded this time, if not a little tipsy. The party’s mostly wound down, and most of the residents have headed back to their rooms, save for one. A rather large gentleman who’s snoring away quietly on the table. Sakura’s currently busying herself with cleaning up after the party. You’re really a little tipsy, but you could probably help clean up. It was a party for you after all.
[ ] Help clean up. [ ] Help the guy up. [ ] Go to your room.
It’s easy to tell that there was a party here, what with all the stuff strewn about. A simple glance would tell you that. Most of the other people had already taken off to their rooms for the night, leaving you and the sleeping gentleman alone, and Sakura to clean up the room herself. That’s not right. The party may have been for you, but that’s only more of a reason to help clean up. You start picking up the empty bottles that are laying around and after a little searching find a tray that you start placing them on. Sakura, as observant as ever, notices what you’re doing quite quickly.
“Oh no. You don’t have to do that! This party was for you. Just head up to bed, It’s fi-”
You cut Sakura off quickly, raising your free hand. “Yeah, the party may have been for me, but nobody else is going to help. Think of it as my way of paying you back for that little pep talk earlier. Besides, didn’t you say that I’d have to help out around here to pay my tab?”
Sakura looks at you for a moment, quizzically, before smiling at you and nodding. “Of course I did. What was I thinking. The bottles can go next to the sink. We can wash them and re-use them. There’s some sacks in the kitchen too, if you’d be kind enough to bring them up, we can use them to put the trash in. Well? What are you waiting for? Get to work!” Sakura’s soft voice turns firm with her last few statements.
“Yes ma’am!” You mock salute her and run the bottles to the kitchen. You set them down next to the sink and grab several of the cloth bags that are lying there. You head back out into the dining area
“Ah, thank you. These will work nicely.” Sakura nods to you.
The two of you set to work, chatting about this and that. It’s actually quite pleasant to be talking to someone while cleaning. A short while later, the two of you have the room looking respectable again. Sans the body sleeping in the corner.
“Alright! That looks good. You’re not half bad at cleaning for a young’in.” Sakura yawns and cricks her back. “Oooo. . . I’m too old for this.” She laughs wryly. “Just take those bags out the back door in the kitchen. There’s some cans there to keep the animals and youkai out of the garbage until we can incinerate. it.” Sakura yawns again. “Oof. I’m off to bed. My old bones can’t take this any more.” She shuffles slowly out of the room, rubbing her lower back slightly. You feel quite glad that you helped her. No telling what might have happened if she had been left alone to clean all this up.
Picking up a couple of the bags, you haul them into the kitchen. You open the back door and step just out side of it when you hear a rattling noise outside, like something banging into the garbage cans. The door is open and you’re standing outside so you could easily wait out there and see what’s going on, or you could just charge out to the cans and see. While you’re pondering this, the rattling noise outside gets louder, and a garbage can rolls away from the group. Well, discretion IS the better part of valor, you think to yourself. . .
[ ] Wait. [ ] Go check it out. [ ] Run back in the house.
landslide victory for wait. Indeed, uppon the morrow, more shall be imbibed and the writing shall continue. For this moment, however, pause must be given. Uppon this early morrow, sleep doth claimeth a kira. G'night.
[x] Wait. MiGAnon lacks proper paranoia. I'd have filched a knife from the kitchen--or something--before now...not that it would necessarily do any good.
