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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 20:03:12 GMT -5
(OOC: Me and FF. Persona 3+4. Devil Survivor. Permisson from Both. 'Nuff said)
Himitsu had taken to sleeping in the room where Keiichi and Naoya were being kept. Kaini had volunteered to do so before, his still somewhat naive nature not letting him realize that Keiichi would have to die if he were to fulfill the task assigned to him by God. The only other option was for Keiichi to willingly hand the power of Bel to him... Himitsu knew that would never happen.
And then a few days ago, Kaini had been taken. Neither he nor the demon named Belphegor had been heard from since. Himitsu had told those that had fought alongside Kaini that it was unlikely Belphegor would kill the teen, but she had developed doubts. If he found out who Kaini was... he might kill the teen as a safety measure. Himitsu had done some reading over the past few days. The "god" of knowledge and invention. She had berated herself for not recognizing the name. Man's ackowledgement of the demon had began in her home time, for crying out loud!
She had been depressed once she realized his identity. The demon was ingenious, probably one of the smartest the underworld had ever seen. He'd know methods of torture... perhaps if he killed Kaini it would be the most merciful outcome. She'd gone about her duties with Palette and had fixed Eriol, but she had been somber. Normally it wouldn't bother her this much, but Keiichi's presence in the shop was a painful reminder as to her failure that day.
She hadn't even arranged a bed for herself. She was propped up against a shelf in a sitting position. She was exhausted, and hadn't allowed herself to relax after the energy she had put into that completely useless barrier. As such, she was asleep harder than usual.
As the Dark Hour came to a close, the effects of the Duelist Arcana shadow faded from the Island. Naoya Kimura twitched in his sleep, a level of awareness he had not possessed in days beginning to surface. The visions that assaulted his subconscious were fading to the point that once he fully surfaced, he wouldn't remember the debilitating emotional torment. However, he had been effected more than his cousin Keiichi. If for no other reason, his many lives worth of memories had given them more fodder to prey upon. But he was waking...
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 20:13:42 GMT -5
As the Dark Hour faded, Keiichi Kimura began to stir. He was actually waking up before his cousin, which, in itself, wasn't that surprising. While his previous lives may have had more fodder to work on, other than the lockdown, there wasn't much for the shadows to work with in terms of painful, horrendous memories.
He slowly sat up, holding his head with one hand pressed up against his forehead. His head hurt. And even though it'd taken him a few minutes to realize it, this wasn't the same bed he'd fallen asleep in. He and Naoya had gone to Giant's Lake with the rest of the group for a vacation, and they'd just met Souji's friend Kanji... And then K1 and Naoya had gone to bed... and he didn't remember anything else. But something had happened.
He stepped out of the bed and walked around a bit to regain feeling in his legs. He'd actually stumbled on the first step; having not walked in so long had made them weak. Eventually, he made it over to where Naoya was resting, and lightly shook him.
"Hey... wake up. Naoya," K1 said. He didn't like this... there was something off about this place...
He still hadn't quite realized yet that they were inside Himitsu's shop.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 20:20:45 GMT -5
Naoya jerked a bit, but it still took a few more moments for his eyes to open. His brain felt fuzzy, which was not only a rare sensation but one the man extremely disliked. It meant the first expression Keiichi got was a scowl, but it softened to annoyed confusion as he saw the teen's face. Which was a mixture of confusion and concern. He winced as he pushed himself into a sitting position, reaching towards where the headstand with his COMP should have been. When his hand hit hair he looked to the side, the confusion fading to mere annoyance. And he saw the young woman he had met when he had come to that strange store. She was asleep.
Now, while Naoya was disorientated and had been out harder than Keiichi, he was also a far more observant and calculating person. As such he had the situation put together rather quickly. Well, at least as to where they were. His expression changed from annoyance to one of his infamous frightening scowls. He didn't have his COMP and they were in that woman's shop. He threw off the covers and attempted to stand up... and fairly gracefully went into a guided fall into a sitting position. His legs were weaker than he'd expected.
"Keiichi, do you have your COMP?" he asked, the dark glare he was giving in Himitsu's direction probably more than enough for the blue haired teen to look over there.
(OOC: No, he doesn't. Himitsu stored them someplace "safe" after the incident with Kaini. Safe meaning they will NEVER find them without her help.)
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 20:30:38 GMT -5
K1 wheeled around when he saw where Naoya was glaring, and as his eyes adjusted more to the darkness, he was able to see more of the inside of the shop, and slowly his expression changed to a scowl. Oh hell no. Not this place. The teen reached into his pocket he usually kept his COMP in when it wasn't sitting on his nightstand, and found it missing.
"...They took our COMPs," K1 said. He walked over to the woman in the corner and tapped her shoulder, hoping that she'd wake up. He glared at her. "What the hell's going on here?" he asked.
Since K1 didn't know about Palette, Eriol, or Kaini having been at the shop, he didn't notice that the absense of at least one of that group was a bit strange. Palette, incidentally, was sleeping in her back room, while Eriol was guarding the main shop as usual.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 20:35:16 GMT -5
Keiichi nearly got hit by a rather strong spell, but Himitsu stopped about half a second before saying the final word. Her eyes got wide and a flood of relief spread on them. Tonight was the full moon. Keiichi being awake meant the other had succeeded. She felt the death glare coming from her right and looked over at Naoya, "Keiichi asked you a question," he stated flatly.
A moments glare passed between the two, and it was Himitsu who broke it off. She made a "shoo" motion towards Keiichi and when he didn't respond she looked at him annoyed and spoke, "I will inform you if you let me get up. Yukata do not allow the greatest range of motion, you realize?"
The woman seemed to have quite the pair despite her gender. Naoya was deathglaring at her and K1 wasn't far below Naoya. Ashes would be a far better fate than what she would have received if glares could kill. However, she didn't seem to have any intentions of answering the teenager until he let her up.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 20:38:41 GMT -5
After another moment, K1 backed away from Himitsu. This seriously wasn't funny. Whoever thought this would make a great joke needed to be kneed in the 'nads right now.
"There. I moved. Now can you tell us what the hell's going on here?" K1 asked.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 20:41:19 GMT -5
Himitsu said nothing as she used the shelf to help herself to her feet. She really should have gotten a chair instead. She ignored Naoya's continued glowering and brushed herself off. It was almost as if she were purposely stalling answering Keiichi's question. Finally, she spoke.
"You won't remember this, but you were attacked by Shadows. You have been, in simple terms, comatose for a little over a week."
She wanted to get them past the brunt of that shock before mentioning Kaini.
"Where are our COMPs?" Naoya's voice was dangerously flat. If it came to it, he would attack her, COMP or no. He hoped it wouldn't. He didn't want Keiichi to see how he could be when cornered.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 20:47:56 GMT -5
K1's face paled. They'd been out of it for over a week? And attacked by Shadows... once again the people of this shop showed that they knew too much. But mainly K1 was freaking over the "attacked by Shadows" bit. If they had been attacked by Shadows, did that mean that they'd become some of the Lost, those freaky mindless people from Minato's world? He shuddered. He didn't want to think of that.
As well as his "security blanket" being missing. He was freaking over that small fact too. He stood next to Naoya. "Yeah. Where's our COMPs? And on that note, how the hell did we get here in the first place?" K1 asked.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 20:51:19 GMT -5
Himitsu looked to the left, to avoid the gazes of both of them. It had reached the point where she would have to explain things. Perhaps it was better to do so before she returned the COMPs.
"Kaini... brought you here. He was at my shop up until about five days ago," she closed her eyes. It was unlikely Keiichi would miss that she didn't want to talk about it. Naoya certainly didn't, and he wasn't the type to avoid a topic cause someone found it painful.
"Why isn't he here now?" Naoya stated. It was a question, but his voice was still darkly flat.
"......" Himitsu couldn't come up with words. If Keiichi could catch her face in the darkness at its angle, he'd see it was a mix of guilt and pain. Not a good sign, by any means.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 20:57:03 GMT -5
K1 didn't like how Himitsu hadn't responded after Naoya asked his question. She'd responded to all of the ones before however relucantly as she had. But this sudden silence...
He stepped forward. "What happened to Kaini?" he asked in a hoarse voice. He was afraid of what his answer would be... but he had to know.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 21:00:22 GMT -5
Himitsu sighed and nodded. She looked towards Keiichi, trying (and for the most part succeeding) to harden her expression.
"You were out for just over a week. Five days ago, a demon named Belphegor came here with the intentions to kill you. After seeing Kaini... he kidnapped him."
Next would come the question as to why Belphegor would bother to kidnap Kaini. It was unlikely even Keiichi would come up with mistaken identity. After all, they may have looked like clones to humans, but Keiichi had the aura of the Bels. And Belphegor had already shown his ability to sense that.
Naoya's expression remained flat, but he looked towards Keiichi. As he had told others, Keiichi was kindhearted. Even if Kaini weren't his twin, he'd want to go rescue someone who had been caught up in this mess. And he highly suspected Keiichi would blame himself. Naoya stood up, using the bedpost as support. He had to get his legs to cooperate before they left. Just over a week? At least he knew what the problem was now.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 21:15:11 GMT -5
K1's expression fell. It was more that he had a practically broken expression on his face than one of sadness. The sadness was there, but it was more a mixture of shock and anger.
Belphegor had come here because he was here. Belphegor had come to kill him while he was completely defenseless, and instead, ended up kidnapping Kaini. What reason would he have to kidnap Kaini?! A demon of that power could have easily wiped out the entire shop. And yet he left after finding Kaini. He could just image his twin, standing there, telling the giant demon that he wasn't getting anywhere near K1, and the demon blowing Kaini away, and then karting him off somewhere.
And it was all because he'd let his guard down.
"What do you mean he kidnapped him?" Keiichi Kimura said in that same hoarse voice. And then, with a ferocity foreign to the teen, he yelled, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE KIDNAPPED HIM!?"
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 21:21:21 GMT -5
Naoya's eyes got wide, but he allowed himself a smirk when he realized Keiichi wouldn't notice it. He turned his focus back to Himitsu, whose own eyes had widened as she had stepped back into the shelf she had been sleeping against. There was a dangerous fire in his eyes. She had been debating telling them this, especially with Cain here, but it seemed she had no choice.
"Belphegor sensed his connection to you two. He bears the soul of Seth, although I don't think Belphegor knew that exact detail when he kidnapped him."
Naoya actually looked surprised as she said this, but it quickly turned to aggravated. Of course, that explained everything. He took a step forward, glancing at Keiichi as he did so. If Keiichi went beserk, he'd have to be there to calm him down. After he killed Himitsu, but calm him down nonetheless. Keiichi's family had never been big into the whole Christian scene, it was possible Keiichi wouldn't know the significance of "Seth".
And it wasn't like Naoya, or Cain, knew Seth. He knew of him, of course, but he had never met his second brother. But he'd also known about his mother's viewpoint on the boy. He hadn't realized God had agreed with the whole "replacement" view. But now all he was doing was awaiting Keiichi's reaction...
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 22:22:02 GMT -5
Unfortunately, K1 did not know who Seth was. Had he known, he probably wouldn't have gotten as angry towards Himitsu, but not it looked like she was trying to make things up.
He stepped forward. "...Who the hell is this Seth person anyways? Why don'y you tell us the truth?" K1 asked in that same flat tone from before.
And just K1 and Naoya's luck, this was about the time Minato's group was coming around the corner to Himitsu's shop.
"Do you guys hear yelling?" Souji asked.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 22:26:43 GMT -5
"Ask your brother," Himitsu stated flatly, indicating Naoya with her right hand to clear up any confusion about what "brother" meant. Which to Keiichi would show quite clearly that she had the same information the "old lady" did. She felt Naoya's glare intensify. She knew how risky this was. But they didn't have their COMPs. In a case like that, Cain was the only one she had to worry about. But she had a feeling someone would be showing up soon... she didn't need her powers for that. The other teens were well aware Keiichi and Naoya would wake up shortly after they defeated the Arcana Shadow.
-----
"It sounded like K1..." Atem said.
"That means they're awake!" Yuugi seemed relieved.
"It also sounded mad. We should hurry," said Atem.
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