| Library of Shadows | ||
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| Summary: Zenitsu finds himself stranded in Mabusa, Twisted city. Entering a library, he runs into Rouge the Bat. But that's not all that is waiting for him...   |
What Rouge did not notice was the small tome she had knocked down in doing so which fell open--the pages seemingly blank, before what looked like an ichorous black shadow began to seep out of the inside of the binding. While Rouge is looking around for something that is probably very hush hush, the door of the library seems to shift from a knob-and-bolt affair into a traditional Japanese sliding door with similar coloring. It slides open swiftly to reveal not the outside of Twisted, but a cozy looking inn room. A young japanese boy with unnaturally blonde hair steps through into the Library, sliding the door closed behind him. He pauses for a moment, and then his face goes pale as he takes in his surroundings. This isn't the inn! As he panics, the door behind him turns back into its normal form. In a flash, he darts outside, but only a moment later, there is a muffled scream heard through the door, and then he runs back inside and slams it shut behind him, eyes wide.
"That's not the inn, either!" The young boy presses himself back against the door, as if his orange haori and weight alone could keep the chaos outside from infringing upon this space. "...I'm lost! Tanjiro, I'm lo~st!" He calls out, before being promptly shushed by what few patrons other than Rouge are still inside. He shrinks down and looks around. "...Am I dead?" Rouge had been absorbed in checking out a book on a higher shelf when she can both /feel/ the gust of air from the wind outside as the door opens--as well as the sound of the handle rattling even before it swings open. She's a bit alarmed by the sudden noise and music--accidentally letting the book slip out of her grip--the dust covering it didn't help. She scrambled to grab it before it felt--not realizing until the last second that she was shifting her weight back--and also causing the shelf to tip back along with her.
"Oh shi--" she has this sort of deer-in-headlights combined with a cringe look on her face, a loud wooden CREEEAAK and finally THUD as the bookcase tips until it hits it's neighbor--thankfully not causing a chain reaction, but the torrent of books are enough to send Rouge and a fair number of tomes cascading to the floor.
"Aiiee!" the cry is very short, but distinctly feminine--before the sound of tumbling books are heard.
After a few moments, a wide gloved hand rises up out of the pile of books. Zenitsu looks up at the sound of a shelf creaking, and he flinches at the loud thud made by bookcase hitting another. He stays in scared mode pose until the sound of books falling stops, and he considers trying his luck outside where at least nothing is crashing around, but then he hears a female voice crying out, and he swallows. If a woman's in danger or hurt, then he supposes he has to go take a look...
"Hello?" He moves over to the bookshelf timidly, looking around like the rest of the library books could fly off the shelves and hit him at any moment. When he sees the gloved hand sticking out of the pile of books, he makes a surprised sound and moves under the turned-over shelf to help. This is a terrible idea! It could be a demon! But a man's got to do what a man's got to do, right? He can always run away screaming when it turns out he was right! That's definitely an option. He tries to grab the hand and help its owner out of the pile of books, and it turns out he actually has some pretty good upper body strength.
He's not *that* bright, though, as he probably would have had an easier time clearing the books away first. Noone's perfect.
"Ahh--phew--kofkof--ack... phew, thanks," she said when she finally got air back in her lungs, trying to step out of the huge pile of books and begin to make a path through them by stacking. She stood up to her full height finally, brushing her hair out and back, also fixing the front of her suit as the deluge of books had likely knocked the front askew.
"You didn't get hit by any of those books, did you...?" it's about this moment that Rouge looks down and sees the pile of blackness that's still spreading outward from the book that had fallen earlier--looks like there were enchanted books here--or maybe cursed.
Before Zenitsu might be able to answer, Rouge is grabbing his wrist back and pushing the book case back upright with one arm--beginning to climb the opposite one while pulling him up along with her! It was a demon!!! When the person attached to the hand ends up not being entirely human, Zenitsu's face drains of color. A terrible mistake, a trap designed perfectly to snare him! Oh how the universe conspires against him! He's going to die before he ever even gets a wife! It's tragic! Isn't it so tragic?!
But then he gets a better look at Rouge as she exits the pile. She doesn't *look* evil; she actually looks quite pretty. Self preservation and pretty-lady sense war in his head, and his face just goes very still for a few moments.
"No, I didn't get by any..." And then Rouge has grabbed his wrist and is dragging him up the book case. He took too long to decide! Now his fate is sealed! He doesn't even seem to be aware of the black shadow pooling below them. "Wha-whoa!!" He's definitely going to die. "Sorry about that," Rouge lets herself and Zenitsu down a good many paces away from the spreading pool of darkness that the book she had unwittingly dropped open emitted. "Can you move and talk? I'm Rouge--" she let the boy's wrist go and stepped back, urging him to follow her. This was a fine first excursion this was turning out to be! Who knows what kind of monster or ghost was in that thing. Or maybe the book was a portal. She wasn't sure.
"I'd heard there might have been enchanted books in here--but nothing quite like that," she gestured, moving back towards another room of the stacks--in case the thing was following them. Her voice sounded like it could be soft and purring--when it wasn't tinged with a sense of urgency like now, that is.
"There..." she closed the room door behind her, once her and the boy were finally through. She leaned her weight against it and checked to see if it could be locked. They room they were in now was another large chamber filled with countless bookcases and harsh flourescent lighting. Zenitsu's orange haori flutters as Rouge practically flies up the bookcase with him in tow. Underneath it, he's wearing a pale brown gakuren-style uniform, the outfit of the Demon Slayers, but it looks less impressive on him somehow, like it's just a tiny bit too big, or he's just a tiny bit too small. Once Rouge sets them both down a ways away from the bookcase, his eyes open; apparently he'd closed them when he shouted out. He's alive! He's alive and she's concerned about him! She's not evil after all! He always knew he was due for a lucky break after his last few years of suffering!
"Ah! Yes, I can! I'm..." What was his name? It's really important to make a good first impression! ...He can't have forgotten his name, can he? "...That is to say, my name is Zenitsu!" Nailed it! "It's nice to--" Wait, what does she mean enchanted books? He looks to where Rouge is gesturing, and sees a slowly spreading pile of black underneath the bookcase that they just avoided being crushed by. "Uwah! What is that?" He's not safe after all! It was too good to be true! He runs with Rouge readily, more than happy to flee the scene of... whatever is happening in there.
He finds himself leaning back against the door with her, breathing heavily not from exertion but from adrenaline. "That was dangerous!" It still is dangerous, but it was, too! "Nice to meet ya--was just here looking for a book, guess I'm a magnet for trouble here," Rouge reached up and brushed her long white hair back, tilting her head at him. "Of course it was, danger even in a place like this, got to be quick about things," she exhaled a breath, looking down at the boy. "You're not from around here either, I see--all the people out there are dressed pretty differently, course," she grinned. "So am I," she put a hand on her hip, straightening up.
"So what's your story, Yojimbo? you just show up here too? Wrong place at the wrong time?" she stepped back from the door. "Or maybe it's wrong place at the right time..." "I don't know why I was here!" Zenitsu chimes in quickly. "I was just trying to sneak out of-- I mean, I was just trying to go out for a morning walk!" So he's not a good liar. "But when I left my room, suddenly I was here! And when I tried to go back..." He gestures back the way they came. "It's crazy out there! Is that fair? It's not fair, right? It isn't fair." Ok, guy.
He straightens up after a moment, trying to make his uniform and haori look neater after Rouge mentions what he's wearing. With the white triangles on the haori and his socks, though, he's not exactly going to be winning a lot fashion contests, unlike Rouge, who will probably win all of them without even entering. He's never seen anyone like her. "I'm a Demon Slayer in training! But the life is really dangerous, you know? So I thought maybe I could take a long morning walk, and if I got lost and didn't report back, who could blame me. That's fair, isn't it?" He pauses, and then offers her a hand to shake properly. That's how people do things! "Sneak out of somewhere, huh? Well now you're speaking my language," Rouge smiles at the kid, a bit smugly--it's hard to bullshit someone like her, after all. It's kind of her trade. "So you're lost, I take it? That's a bit of a raw deal, hon," she puts a white-gloved hand to her head and rubbign the side of her temple. Had she hit her head on the bookcase on the way down? She reaches out and shakes the boy's hand, regardless.
"Enchanted, like I said--and maybe that thing won't follow us out this way..." she looked around the isles of bookcases, seeinf there was anything there that might help, folding her wings against her back. "C'mon hon, quit staring at me and help me find us a way outta here," she curled a white-gloved finger up and back towards her, urging him to come with. "It is, isn't it?" Zenitsu agrees with Rouge about his raw deal, and furrows his brow when she puts a hand to the side of her head. Is she hurt? That's no good. He doesn't really know anything about medicine anyway, but he knows even less about ... bat... people? He takes a moment and focuses his hearing, which borders on impossibly good, to see if he can hear heartbeat, see if there's anything wrong with the sounds coming out of her. But it's not like he really knows what he's listening for - she probably doesn't even sound like the people he's met before.
And then he hears what she said, and his attempt to listen in on her is interrupted by her words. "What? I wasn't... I mean... I wasn't *not*..." He is instantly flustered, but before he can get much more embarrassed, Rouge is giving him instruction, and he takes a breath. Ok, calm down.
Zenitsu slowly directs his vision around the room, trying to see anything, but if that fails, he'll try focusing on his hearing again - maybe he can hear air blowing under a doorway he doesn't see, or something else useful. He'll walk around while he listens, trying to see if anything stands out to him. Rouge's heartbeat sounds pretty healthy, probably a lot like his own, considering they're similar heights and weights. At least she'd like to think the latter was true, anyway. "You were what?" she asked, teasing him a little more, just to give him a hard time, turning back towards him. In no way did she think this (apparently) human boy could hear anywhere near as close to good as she could--especially not good enough to hear heartbeats, after all.
What Zenitsu might hear--or perhaps be able to see is the inky blackness slowly creeping beneath the door they had passed through earlier--slowly snaking across the room till it disappears underneath a shelf of books.
"You there, Zeni boy--you get lost back there...?" she asks, having turned down a large isle of books, the bat unable to hear as the thing crawls towards her location from beneath shelf to shelf. Focus... Zenitsu closes his eyes, shutting out his other senses for a moment, even the burning in his cheeks from Rouge's teasing. Breathe. Just breathe. If Rouge's hearing is as good as one would expect of a bat with ears like hers, she'll notice that the amount of air going in and out of Zenitsu is increasing - as in he's taking large enough breaths that the flow of air in the room is slightly affected.
The currents flowing along the walls. The air rustling against book pages. The heated air pressing against the ceiling. The beat of Rouge's heart, the beat of your own. Hear it all, listen to the voice of the room, let it tell you what you can't see. Focus the mind, cleanse the lungs. Something moves along the floor, just barely. It almost doesn't even displace air, it's like a shadow of a whisper. It moves underneath a bookshelf. Don't lose it. Breathe.
Zenitsu's eyes snap open, and he looks over in the direction he heard Rouge's voice last. "...It's in here with us. I can hear it under one of the shelves." That's some mighty fine hearing. "We're gonna run now, right?" Can you even cut shadow? Of course you can't. It's not real, right? It's just a bunch of evil ink from a book... Right? "Are you okay over there? You sound like you're having an asthma attack," Rouge smirked as she turned on the heel of her white boots as she came to what looked like a fancy overstuffed chair tucked into one corner. "They feed you enough where you're from? Really strict... samurai training, or whatever?" she spun on said heel again as she plopped herself down into said chair, kicking back. Rouge doesn't see the shadow snaking it's way under that chair she just sat down in, either.
Wait, what?" Rouge looks up after a moment of taking a deep breath and closing her eyes momentarily. Of course, before she can sit up from the chair--a pair of very dark and inky black clawed /hands/ ERUPT from the back and cushion of the chair, one going over her mouth--the other over her lap--then the last pair over her legs and hips.
"Mmphh! Mmmphh!" she kicks her booted feet--and worst yet--the chair is starting to move--buzzing down the isles--right towards Zenitsu! Zenitsu would normally respond that yes, his samurai training was very and unnecessarily harsh, but instead he moves to get a better angle on Rouge so that he can point out the shadow to her. He's not prepared for what he sees when he gets in line with Rouge, only to see her pinned to a chair by shadowy hands of some sort. His eyes go wide, and then the chair is barreling towards him.
"Ahhhh!" He leaps to one side, and for the briefest of moments, he looks almost like he might know what he's doing, one hand on the scabbard of his sword... but then he crashes into a bookshelf and lands on the floor, wincing. He puts both of his hands up on top of his head to cover it as some (hopefully normal) books fall atop him, and then he glances over towards Rouge and the chair, looking absolutely petrified. Why do the weird things always happen to him?
On a completely unrelated note, the back of the chair seems to have been perfectly scored so that it will snap right off the chair if Rouge gives a good struggle. It's definitely a coincidence; Zenitsu didn't even draw his sword, did he? He just slammed into a bookshelf and cowered. Definitely not anything he did. "Mmphh! Mmmm!" Rouge was very confident on trying to get out of this current... predicament, as she looked forward over the grasping black hands--she noticed a spot on the wall which seemed to be overtaken by shadow--blotted out--and it was her current destination. Whatever this thing from the book was, it had some... other plans with her.
"Hrrnnnghh--" Rouge grabbed the arms of the chair, the sides of the chair, rather--before straining hard--eyes clenched form strain--as the chair broke into two halves from the very fine, nearly imperceptible slice Zenitsu had left down the back.
"Bwuh!" she fell to the floor, slithering out of the shadowy thing's grip, crawling before getting up and bounding away--jumping up to cling from the side of a book case end with her gloves and boots.
"Ack--damnit, thing nearly got me there--did you do that?" she called to Zenitsu, apparently talking about the chair. "Do what?" Zenitsu looks absolutely appalled by the situation, but he gets up to help Rouge, only to see her jump onto a book shelf and cling there. She's really light and agile! ... Well of course she is, she's a bat. This thought process makes Zenitsu blink. He is having a really weird day. "Elegantly bounce off that bookshelf as a distraction? Of course! All a part of the plan!" ... He actually doesn't sound like he knows what she's talking about.
Watching the shadow thing as it makes its next move, Zenitsu calls out to Rouge. "...Are you ok?" Alright. It's going after women. Are girl bats women? Is there a different word? Not getting any less weird. Anyway! He's got to figure something out. Think. Think. "...Which book did this come out of again?" "The chair--" Rouge gives it up for the moment, she'll ask him again later. Right now the black entity that escaped from the book is looming up around them--now more like a large black snake than anything.
"Make with the sword again--I think it might work--" she leaps down from the book case just in case it doesn't try to draw a bead on her again, stepping back. "And I'm not sure--I didn't even know it was there!" she professes, trying to step back towards Zenitsu. Oh boy, a lady and she needs his help! ...But will that be enough to allow Zenitsu to try to behead the shadowy snake thing??
"C'mon now, show us what a big, strong man you are, honey--" she tries to get Zeni worked up just before the thing strikes--down at her. "But I didn't--" Zenitsu is going to argue with Rouge, but then there's a giant black shadow snake looming around them. Doom! Doom! He knew he was going to die today! If only he hadn't tried to sneak out of the inn. But he would've just died if he stayed, too. Why?
He moves to get between Rouge and the snake, since that's all he can think of, and then... he just points directly at the snake. "You!! You know what?! I refuse to deal with you! You can just go home! Get out of here! We don't want you here!" ... Does he really think throwing a temper tantrum will make it stop?
"My day is just too crazy to deal with any longer, so just... go away!" As he says this, he puts his hand on his sheathed sword, like he's going to use it to threaten the snake, but he doesn't in fact draw it, he just puts his thumb on the blade guard, like he might possibly be thinking about drawing it. As if some shadow-snake cares what the blonde kid says. ... Come on, Zenitsu. This is the part where you do something cool, right? This is the part where you show that you're strong and powerful! Show off for the lady! Right? Right?! ... Yeah, he actually doesn't seem to be doing anything. What a bust. Did he just give up? The snake's head comes crashing down and large fang-like jaws embed in the side of the book case--just inches away from Rouge--who is sent sprawling by the impact.
"Right, Plan B, then--" Rouge swung her leg up--kicking high in the air, like that chick on the Avengers TV series--the British one--before bringing the super hard and sturdy heel of her boot down /hard/ on the back of the shadow snake thing's head--as it's teeth were still stuck in the wood.
CRUNCH.
Despite the sickening crack of what aught to have been cartilage, the snake reeled back--grasping Rouge by the leg and flinging her up into the air along with it!
"Aieeek!" the cry from her is fairly loud in the otherwise soundless room--hilariously around them the rest of the library's operations are continuing as normal. When the snake actually continues without listening to Zenitsu, there's this exhalation of breath as the light leaves his eyes, and he sways over to one side as if he's about to fall. Did... did he just pass out from the stress? That's a joke, right? How useless can you be?
The impact sends Zenitsu flying, too, since he'd earlier hoped to body block for Rouge. He slams against a book case, his jaw clenching from the pain, and the state of the shelves basically prop him halfway up. Still, his eyes didn't really open; he's out like a light. That was anti-climactic, wasn't it? Welp, that's it for tonight. Looks like Rouge will have to handle this on her own.
Outside, noone seems aware of the flailing bat and passed out child soundlessly flying all over the place. It's a dark comedy, but a comedy, to be sure.
Inside the room, though, there IS a low hiss as the air Zenitsu had sucked in escapes from his clenched teeth. Actually, it's kind of... loud? And the air seems... dryer? Maybe he's not completely out? ... He sure looks like it, though.
"Breath of Thunder... First Stance." The voice that comes out of the apparently unconscious boy is devoid of emotions, and if we're being honest, doesn't even sound like the same person. His eyes don't open, but he slips off of the shelf and hunkers down low. In some alternate world, where the flow of time is different and observing anime characters have all the time in the world to make commentary about what is happening in a fight, there would almost certainly be someone who would suggest Zenitsu is still unconscious, and moving on instinct alone. But noone provides this expository dialogue for Rouge. She'll just see and hear the child crouch down like he's getting ready to do something. His hand is on his sword, and the thumb flicks it open, ready for a sl--
Zenitsu is on the other side of the room. There wasn't really any visible movement, and the sword is almost all the way back in its sheath, but there is this golden line that starts a half an inch before the beginning of the snake to a half an inch past it. And then there's the static electricity. The room is now filled with it, like the entire thing was suddenly tumble-dried.
*Clink* Rouge is trying to kick at the snake with her one remaining free boot--having been hung upside down like that. The thing really is more like a hydra, a new head splitting off from the rest as it again attempts to drag Rouge with it into it's shadow space--the bat lady looks back at Zenitsu, seeing him slump down, apparently getting knocked out. Her lips draw back in a frightful cringe as she begins to get desperate--struggling harder as she looks like she's dangling furiously from the way the snake is grabbing her--thankfully not struggling too hard as the spark of electricity is seen--and the air whooshes past her.
"Ahhh---oof!" Rouge lands hard on her shoulder--before looking up to see the snake squirm--one end of it entirely cut off--spewing some kind of shadowy ichor before disappearing into the black space--which then shrinks like a puddle of liquid being sucked away--darting down back under the floor again.
"Phew... ow... hey kid, lets get out of here, okay?" she has a large bruise on her shoulder and is favoring it now, walking towards the young samurai and offering her hand again to have him come with. As Rouge draws near to Zenitsu, she'll see that he doesn't seem to be reacting to her. In fact, it doesn't take long before she hears...
"Zzzzzznnzzz..." ...He's *snoring*. For crying out loud, he's asleep. But she she speaks, he snorts and seems to wake up, either from her words or the sound of his own snoring. He blinks and looks around for a minute. How did he get over here? He looks at Rouge, and her bruised shoulder. "What happened to the demon?" It probably wasn't a demon. "Did you beat it already?!" He's looking around for it, but he doesn't see it, and for some reason he's having a hard time focusing his hearing. All he hears is "kzzt" from everywhere in the room. Weird.
Of course, addled as he is, he still isn't going to turn down Rouge's offer to get out of here. That's what he was saying in the first place! Better to just avoid the danger, problem solved. Rouge has to wind up flipping the boy over, as if dipping him--and then hefts him in both arms. "Good thing I've still got upper body strength, kid," she grunts a little at his wait--grabbing one of his arms and draping it over her shoulders to help give her leverage to carry him. She begins to carry him out. Sneaking into the private stacks of a library, fighting some kind of spiritual entity /and/ abducting a child all on the same day--yep, welcome to Rouge's world.
"Pretty sure it's gone, yeah," she keeps carrying him, right out of the library--since likely no one is going to stop her.
To be continued...? | |
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