'Despite my assurance to myself that I wouldn't let Peri do what was written in that book...' She sighs and looks at Seek asleep on his pallet from the stairs. All stepping outside does is throw her into that foggy void where she has no power to do anything. The silence is maddening, and she has done all she can do upstairs. The books hold information she can't act on locked in this place.
The only book she hasn't leafed through is her own which as far as she can tell is gibberish. However, she can't let herself sit still and relax alongside the strange spirit that occupies her soul. It'd mean she absolutely failed in the one thing she set out to do. She never wanted Peri to be a thief, nor Shiori be a con woman, but a killer is something that could never be.
She sighs as she stalks back up the stairs. So far shaking Seek, and trying to push him awake has failed. She felt bad enough pinching his arm, and the idea of tormenting him until he forces himself awake isn't in her heart. Going back to the book of gibberish she growls under her breath, "Is it some dumb code? All the words are one color..." She puts her finger on the paper.
To her surprise, she feels something on the page beyond the texture of the paper. Brushing over even one word causes a brushstroke-like effect as they bleed into each other, and mix into different colors, "... Huh, I guess a picture is worth a thousand words after all..."
Though to her chagrin, the picture painted is one of her shackled with the title to the 'art' being "The Fate-Chained Coward" as the words fill up the accompanying page: "Given whatever tool she wished for she could only say I'm too afraid to break these chains as I'm more comfortable wearing them than breaking them."
Kumiko clicks her tongue as she glowers at the book and moves to tear those pages out however as she does they coat her hands. They feel almost like candle wax binding to her skin as she feels the words snake up her arm like chains themselves. Her skin stings as she doubles over. Her pain intense as she falls over, and within this dream, she passes out.
o.o.o.o
"... As much as I owe her I can't..." She hears Atticus, the scholar, sigh as she feels her head ring, "Yes, yes... I know she's in danger... I won't turn her away but it's difficult even getting... Yes, I know... Oh!"
Her vision feels warped as everything in the room looks larger. She can tell just by stretching herself out it is simply an illusion. Though she can't help but feel disoriented as her body feels lighter even if it is uncoordinated. Just as she is about to call for Seek he appears in her lap, "I hope you're going to be more entertaining today."
'... You were the one who wouldn't wake up.' She sighs softly unable to stay mad at the creature as she tries to speak, her voice managing to come out albeit a bit raspy, "Ah... Not to be a bother, but could I get something to drink before I talk much... ?"
"Of course... So long as you're not going to waste away on my couch I'll arrange a damn feast for you." His complexion looks better, and it seems he's drinking something other than coffee and tea now as he brings me a sweet-smelling liquid, "Had me quite scared. Though I can't say I'm not getting used to it after your... Pet's rampage."
"Thanks... And sorry about that... I'd been keeping my head a bit too low. Any lower and I'd get road rash." She sighs as she put her hand to the no longer sore part of their cheek. Her hands reach into her coin purse before she realizes it's empty, "I'm guessing I'm not gonna get paid if I don't go to Zeke?"
"From my understanding, the only thing you'd get from him is a knife in your gut, and he's been running your sister all around town... According to your compatriot." He says softly as he hands me a green apple, "Eat this, gather your strength. Don't go doing anything foolish, you were lucky you got here in a daze... You almost seemed like you were in a trance."
"Last thing I remembered was charging out of town on my friend's back," Kumiko says wearily as she lays back down feeling like her head is about to burst from the inside. No pain, but a ton of tension that makes her feel like just rolling over and going back to sleep.
'Hey... We slept for four days already... I thought you had things to do...' Seek sounds rather sad as he starts to lick her face. Knowing the time frame already as her forcing herself up to her feet against her body's protest, 'Oh, you need my help I see...' He turns to mist and she feels her skin start to feel cool as her coordination goes up.
"Look I don't know how you're moving now, but you had a shard of glass over an inch long in your rib cage, so sit down and..." Kumiko pushes out her hands to motion that she's okay as he stumbles back almost in fear, "Just don't hurt me..."
"... Why the hell would I hurt you? Relax!" I grin and try to put on my most relaxed expression I can manage as I notice white tendrils of light start to flow all around me, and I start to realize that Seek isn't inside my soul, '... Any chance you can reduce the flashiness... ?'
"Not if you want to stop what your sister and Shiori have planned in two hours. You seemed desperate since you started tearing apart your room..." Seek's voice resonates in her mind, his voice sounding creepily alike to her own, "Trust me as I trust you... Okay? No one will know it's you."
'Can't argue with that.' I say as I wrap up my scarf around my face and sigh into it, "I'll be fine. Or at least I have to be if I don't want some bad shit to happen. Just stay safe alright?" I tap my forehead a few times, "I'm desperate, not crazy."
'So... Mind telling me what this all means?' I ask as I push open the door, and outside is plain disorienting as it feels like everyone is moving slowly. In a way it makes her feel motion sick like riding on the back of a card while reading a book, 'Because I feel like my head is about to split open...'
'How do you expect me to know what you don't at this rate... ? You read all my books...' He sounds almost embarrassed as he says that as Kumiko can't really think of a retort that isn't mean.
'Well if I can't blend in I might as well make good time.. ?' As they start to run to jump off the porch, the leap takes them a bit further than Kumiko intended as they land on the balcony of the building next door. Looking in the window to see a woman with a cup of tea before their body - almost on autopilot - takes the next leap as they move up to the rooftop. They draw the sword on their waist and slash at the cables overhead.
'Now those metal people can't chase us.' Kumiko thinks to herself as Seek speaks it as it feels like we're synchronized, and we're moving purely off instinct, "We aren't out of the woods yet, they have a lot of tracks Seek..."
As they run they slash wildly with no technique. It's almost like a child swinging a knife at branches as they move through dense woods, but those metal cables and even the supporting pylons fall over as they make their way to Zeke's hideout, 'You're gonna sleep for a long time again... I'm getting tired of this. Sorry, chaos never interested me much...'
"My sister will give you hero treatment." Kumiko tries to encourage the rather drained spirit as they on the rooftop. This level isn't intended for access by people with flesh. So the grate on top is locked with a key built into the automata's toolset. The problem isn't recreating the key itself, but moreso with the strength required to turn or break the lock. Before she can ponder this issue Seek simply slashes at the lock overriding Kumiko's will as the grate is distorted and warped.
"Explain hero treatment?" He asks as her legs won't move.
'... I don't know... Headpats? Hugs...?' Kumiko feels her forehead start to sweat as this isn't exactly a feat any human can pull off without a lot of money and effort. Before she can wonder about any further rewards her legs start to run on their own as they dive down, 'Alright if you want to save my sister, we need to find his black book. All he has to do is X her out on the notebook and she'll...'
'I know that book! You've been writing in it!' Kumiko feels all the color drain from her face as she pulls out her pocketbook, and finds that indeed the first several pages have been replaced, 'You underestimated your sister, didn't you?'
"Yeah well... I'm not going to let her kill... him.. Oh." She sees the number of pages given to her as she starts to realize why Peri went after him, "Shiori. Tsk. Yeah..." Kumiko sighs wondering how long Peri was waiting for her to come home to pull this off before she decides to forgo any real plan as she makes her way through his lock-up, 'At least there are no cages of people... Just a damn loanshark and taskmaster.'
It really doesn't take her long to get to his office from the back he keeps covered with a quilt. This time it's his turn to panic as he falls back scrambling for his dagger, but they put their blade to his neck after stomping his wrist. I can feel something in my heart as I feel... Afraid.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" I yell out as my voice cracks almost sounding like a child, "You fucking marked all your staff?"
"Y.. you don't know how much things have changed... I have to make sure I get my dues... You know how it is, yeah? What am I saying... You've always been soft." He says as he looks like he may wet himself. Even though Kumiko isn't exactly showing herself to be willing to kill for her ideals... The magic she's wreathed in is enough to strike fear into any flesh and blood creature.
"I don't recall you ever having any gods be damned problems collecting your cash. More than you deserve." They slash their sword to the left and right in a tantrum as the office is torn apart.
'Master... Calm down...' His quiet urgings falter as she feels her body grow hot and the papers all around her catch fire, 'Please...'
Kumiko manages to catch herself before she slashes Zeke across the neck as she sees sparks all around. Her eyes feel like they're burning as she can feel her heartbeat pulse through her whole body, "Get out. Good luck finding loyal workers in the future." She says grimly as the building catches fire and she heads back out through the way she made from the roof. As she makes her way back up she finds the white energy is stuck on red. Once up top, she sees Peri waiting for her looking shocked with a metal implement that she was planning on using to break in.
"It's done," Kumiko says with a scowl, not at her but at this whole place as she turns to walk away. Right before she leaps can she feels a pair of arms wrap around her from behind.
"Please... Then don't go..." Peri says as Kumiko becomes more aware of that fear she felt earlier, "Just let it go. Let's leave the city... I'm not broke... We can go wherever..."
'Please listen to her Master... You scare me like this...' Seek says sounding terrified.
Kumiko feels tears on her cheek as she realizes that it wasn't her fear she felt. If it had been her she might have done something she couldn't take back tonight. Even now she wonders if it might have been better if she did, but that only increases Seek's fear, "... Alright... No tearing through this city until I calm down. I promise."
She feels herself fall back as Peri was pulling on her with everything she had, and Seek splits off from her as his small, almost pup-like form, "First I thought you died, then you show up here and scare me half to death... What the hell happened... ?"
"I don't know... If I had answers for you I'd give them, but I'm just as freaked out as you. He's not exactly giving information." The silver-haired fox girl looks down at Seek with a weary expression.
"I am Seek. I seek experiences... But this was a bad one..." His eyes are a dark blue, almost like sapphires speckled with deep violet, "I prefer we keep separate now..."
Unable to really blame him all Kumiko can do is scratch his head. Even if she wanted to shift the blame to him... She'd have to believe it was his fault somehow, "Seek... I've never had the power to do much more than getting my wallet back from a two-bit thief, and survive when a wild beast attacks me for my dinner. I lost myself." She speaks calmly as she hugs his head against her chest, and cradles him. Normally she'd put this effort into her sister, but she seems to have the same idea as her as she scratches the pup's head.
"Trust me, I used to have to drag her sorry ass out of the fire more than a few times. This is the first time that's involved a real fire... And not like a black eye, and a stolen wallet..." The shapeshifter says as they hear bells tolling, "But we gotta go now, are you good to give us a ride? 'Miko here sucks at climbing and will probably break her back."
"So long as I do not have to synchronize with her I can do anything!" He says happily as he swells up in size, and the two girls hop on his back.
"Shiori is waiting far out of town. We uh... Planned on you being a red herring holding on to the damn book, but you just had to go berserk..." Peri says with a grumble as she holds tightly onto Kumiko's back as the silver-haired fox herself clings to Seek.
"Yeah well, my method somehow wound up with him alive in the end..." She had planned those words on her way over to Zeke's as proudful indignation, but now it comes off as more of a consolation prize.
"I won't lie. I wasn't sure if that was the case or not... Guess you really are a dumb ass... Though he'll have a hard time living this down." Peri sighs as she clutches tight enough to hurt, and sounds like she may cry, "He never made us do anything that bad, but the damn thought of it... Shiori was first, and she had to do a lot of bullshit for him. She'd come home exhausted every damn night..."
"I get it. Trust me. I was pissed off enough that you were marked. His whole damn crew." The fox girl scoffs as it doesn't take them long to reach the outer limits of the city past where any would chase, "I gotta ask.. Seek... How did you know what Peri was planning?"
"Oh... She whispered it to me under her breath while she was snuggling with me. It was really hard to hear anything else." He says with a shake of his head as Peri starts lightly humming in a low nearly inaudible tone.
"Oh... That trick... How'd you even know...?"
"I spend a few hours a day as an alleycat. I can always tell a beast from something." The strange girl says looking rather bored, "It was either that or stay locked up in Zeke's bunkhouse only coming out to steal whatever shiny trinket caught his eye. Not exactly fun..."
"... You know I think you chasing fun over safety got us in this mess..." She says as Seek skids to a stop next to Shiori wearing a hood with an overpacked bag, and a tired expression as she stares up dumbfounded at the two of them.
"Free, riding a magical wolf, with plenty of gold and our freedom?" Peri says as she extends her hand to Shiori with sparkles in her eyes practically.
'... You idiot. So that's what this is about.' Kumiko fights the urge to laugh as she scoots and adjusts herself to ensure that she is between Shiori and the silver-haired fox.
"So what identity do I use now? A traveling bard? Ohh maybe I can be your monsterkin slave!" She laughs as she transforms into an albino in a servant's outfit, and hides her knife in her jacket.
"Why don't you just use your own face, Peri? You know it's not unattractive..." Shiori starts to say but all Peri does is shift into a typical brown-haired brown-eyed human as she sighs, "... We're aiming for a place that accepts you, not just a face you can stand showing..."
"No such thing as perfect, so I might as well have fun with my face and story..."
'Not yet at least.' Kumiko thinks to herself as she urges Seek to move forwards. Hearing the two bicker like this making her feel like she's home. Even if she's living on the back of a clingy vague spirit. It makes her think that even if she has to do it herself she'll find a place she can belong.