Return to the Orient (Closed RP)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Kerro had watched silently when Eriol embraced Xiu. There seemed to be a stronger affection between Eriol and Xiu than there was between himself and her. Perhaps he was just jealous. He wasn't quite sure.

He gave a couple wooden blinks at Xiu's comment. Another brother...?

"....Yui," Eriol said softly. He clenched his hands tighter, and at that moment realized he was still grasping the case tightly. He held it out to Xiu. "I held onto this like you said, Miss Himitsu."

[mugenginga]

Xiu didn't say anything as Eriol reacted to her mention of another brother. She was more worried about Eriol than Kerro. Really, if anyone was going to lose it and destroy half a city block, it was Eriol. She looked down at the large case as Eriol thrust it at her. Rozen Maiden... and damned if she knew what "canon" it used. She'd read the manga and watched the entire anime as research after she'd regained her memories. She took the case from Eriol.

"Thank you, Eriol. Kerro, could you clear off a rock for me? I think it's time we opened this up..."

She wasn't about to deny the machinations of fate. That box had showed up in her shop in her past life wtihout her aquiring it. She'd fixed Kerro and Eriol had found them. Eriol still had the box. She'd play that entity's game for the time being. Right now she needed to figure out which of Rozen's dolls were in the box and go from there.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"Yes, Miss Xiu," Kerro said. He quickly spotted a rock and began to clear some debris off of it so that Xiu would have a place to sit. Eriol frowned and looked toward Xiu again.

"...I haven't seen Palette lately," Eriol said. He looked uncomfortable, like he didn't know what to say. He really didn't. Even with her having Himitsu's memories, she didn't seem much like her to him. It seemed like a different person to him. Just with the same memories.

[mugenginga]

Xiu looked pained at Eriol's words. He was dealing with a perfectly understandable conflict. She had Himitsu's memories, but half the time even she didn't consider herself the same. The other half she did. It was all very confusing, really. She'd have to come up with some kind of explanation that would satisfy Eriol later. Right now, there was a different situation to deal with. She started by shaking her head.

"She can take care of herself. If there's nothing else she can do, she can take care of herself," Xiu said, hoping she sounded more confident then she thought she did.

She walked over to the rock Kerro had cleared off and hoisted the somewhat heavy suitcase onto it. She looked at the lock for a moment before roughly opening the lid. It came open easier than she expected. Kerro and Eriol would see white silk lined insides, but they were probably noticing more the sleeping miniature girl inside. She looked rather human, really. A key lay in the box next to her. There was an ornate pattern on it reminscent of a rose. The girl herself was dressed in red velvet.

"Fifth doll of Rozen Maiden..." Xiu muttered under her breath. The next thing she had to wonder was if "canon" was accurate...

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Eriol and Kerro both edged closer to Xiu as she moved to open the case. However, once the case was open, Eriol backed away a fair bit. Inside that case was another doll. He'd been carrying around another doll this whole time. He didn't know what Xiu meant by "Fifth Doll of the Rozen Maiden" but there was a girl in there.

"She's..." Kerro breathed. As much as Xiu had tried to keep him from finding out things, he'd caught some quick glimpses. This doll looked vaguely like one of the ones he'd seen in that comic book Xiu had been reading once before.

"Miss Himitsu, why is there a girl in there?" Eriol asked. He seemed rather confused about... well, a lot. But right now, he was confused about why there was a little girl doll on the inside of the case he had been carrying around.

[mugenginga]

Xiu looked very annoyed as Eriol addressed her. She wasn't a miss. She was fifteen, for one. It was bad enough that she had to deal with it from Kerro. If she was going to have two people calling her that, she was going to go insane. You could almost see the vein ready to pop out of her head.

"I'm not a Miss!" she said, her voice pure exasperation, "Being that formal makes me feel old, and I'm fifteen!"

This of course meant the topic of the girl in the box had been... kind of pushed aside.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Eriol just kind of blinked at the sudden outburst. He very quickly gave a few bows of apology.

"Sorry Miss-- I mean, Himitsu! I didn't mean to offend you! I won't do it again, honest!"

"...But it's only proper for me to call you Miss Xiu," Kerro said. "It doesn't feel right to call you just 'Xiu.'"

Eriol looked toward Kerro before looking toward Xiu again. "Do you want me to call you Miss Xiu like brother does? Would that be better?"

[mugenginga]

Xiu looked grumpy at Eriol's apology. And then Kerro insisted that it was "only proper" to call her with an honorific. She turned towards him to give him a lecture and then Eriol spoke again, and her palm finally met her face. After a moment she dragged it down and let it fall to her side once it came off her face. She looked at Kerro.

"How is it proper to call someone a name they don't like. You make me feel like an old lady with that! Hell, even school only gave me a neutral honorific! And you've lived with me for like the past year!" She looked towards Eriol, "It's not the name, it's the honorific!"

Xiu was fifteen. Xiu was acting fifteen. Xiu wasn't acting very much like she had any connection to Himitsu.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Eriol gave another bow. "S-Sorry! I'll just call you Xiu then."

Kerro sighed. "...You didn't have any problems with it before." Well, not true. He had been told off many times for calling her Miss Xiu, and he still continued to call her that.

[mugenginga]

Xiu's fingers twitched again at the bow. This was really annoying but it wasn't like she could wipe away years of programming. She looked at Kerro and opened her mouth to tell him just how much of a problem she'd had with it. But he looked a bit dejected. Well, crap. She ruffled her hair with both hands and let out a bit of an annoyed groan before choosing to refocus on the doll in the box.

"Anyways!"

She carefully put her hands under the doll's armpits and lifted her into a rather proper holding position in her arms. It meant the doll was more or less sitting on one of her lower arms next to her body. She reached into the box and pulled out the key. She looked towards Kerro and then Eriol.

"This is one of seven dolls created by a man named Rozen, she's the fifth. She's as alive as you two and has to be wound just the same," Xiu lifted the key up, "I don't want either of you to do anything crazy when she wakes up! Got it?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

As it turned out, that information didn't actually bother Eriol. Though his Creator had been the one to invent the technology, after about 300 years, dolls like himself were actually somewhat common. In fact, most of his initial confusion about the girl had been due to the fact that she was so small. He'd never seen a doll that small before. It also had to do with the fact that he'd been carrying a girl around with him for the past two weeks, but that was rather self explanatory.

"Yes ma'am!" Eriol gave another bow to Xiu.

"As you wish," Kerro said. Like he'd react badly to her waking up. He didn't freak out about anything, so long as "anything" didn't include snakes, or snowmen, or birds larger than his hand.

[mugenginga]

Xiu looked around, as if trying to spot something. No indication, although it was possible there would be after she wound the doll. After that quick visual sweep she carefully opened the back of the doll's dress, sticking the key in and winding several times. She didn't react oddly when she pulled the key out and a firefly sized orb of red light shot out from the hole in her back and seemingly into the sky.

Then it got weird. There was a sort of clicking grinding sound and the doll on her arm began to twitch rather similar to a seizure. With a bit of a fumble, Xiu managed to prevent her from twitching off her arm. The extremely eerie to normal humans twitching went on for another few seconds before the doll's eyes suddenly opened... and Xiu was being kicked back by one of the doll's polished shoes. She flipped around in mid-air, her long pigtails moving with her, before coming on a perfect landing on a window sill about five feet above the tallest of their group.

"Where is Jun?" she demanded, her expression quite unfriendly.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Eriol and Kerro both just watched as Xiu wound the doll up. While she did that, Eriol looked toward Kerro and noticed that he didn't have a wind-up key sticking out of his back anymore. Had Xiu changed him so that it was removable...? It may have been the only choice, with the damage Eriol had done to his brother in the past. There was a bit of regret there, but it passed quickly enough.

Eriol's attention was sharply brought back to the situation at hand when the doll started twitching. He couldn't ever recall twitching like that, though his experiences weren't the best things to go by. And then the doll's eyes opened and she kicked Xiu. Eriol and Kerro both ran forward.

"Hey!" Eriol yelled. "You can't do that to Miss Xiu!"

"I do not know a Jun, but you could at least be polite about things," Kerro scolded.

[mugenginga]

Xiu let out a bit of an whiffing sound as Shinku caught her square in the chest. Well, at least she was small chested... not anything she'd ever thought she'd have been grateful for. She was rubbing her chest in surprise as Shinku made her demand. She waved her hand at Eriol and Kerro to indicate it really wasn't that big a deal. She looked up towards the doll.

"You can't sense your Medium...?" Xiu asked.

Shinku narrowed her eyes, "Why are you aware of that? Just who are you? And how did you know my name?"

Xiu flinched. Right, sometimes the dolls would be somewhat aware of their surroundings when they were being handled. She had no idea how Shinku had been put back to sleep, either. She wasn't quite sure how to respond.... Shinku looked quite annoyed at the delay.

"I've researched Rozen's dolls!" Xiu said with a bit of force. She winced and clasped her hands over her mouth. SHe hadn't quite meant to yell.

"That does not explain how you know Jun is my Medium," Shinku said in a stern voice.