paixaorpg | ahead on our way [ completed ]

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ahead on our way [ completed ]

Characters: Fai D. Flowright, Jintetsu, and anybody who wants to hop in.
Content: An obnoxious mage, a mute swordsman, confusion, and trains. Fun times, really.
Setting: Paixao Central Station.
Time: Noon.
Warnings: None.

If I was a fluffy white ball, where would I be? he mused.

Fai's current game plan was to find Mokona. If it worked as he hoped it would, the plan would lead him to Syaoran and Sakura, if not Kuro-rin. He knew the grumpy old ninja could take care of himself; it was the children he was worried about. Syaoran was strong, no doubt about that. But, well, he had to admit that he was more than a little attached to them. He may not have looked it, but he was still worried about their safety, Sakura in particular.

Thankfully, having been in Paixao before, Fai knew the fastest way to search for his travelling companions was via train. Not to mention it helped that he still had spare money left over from other worlds; he wasn't sure what kind of currency was used in this world, but the locals seemed like they'd take anything as long as it was shiny. With any luck, he might just find Mokona (or anyone, really) onboard.

Three hours - and three stops later - he had a feeling he wouldn't be getting any of that luck.

Fai would get off at each stop briefly to have a look around, but by the time he reached the Central Station, he realized that his plan wasn't going to work out like he wanted it to. When he exited the train this time, he opted to drop himself (rather gracelessly) down on a bench instead of exploring the area. They had to be somewhere else, but where?

He flipped open the "journal" he had been given upon arrival and studied his map carefully. It was a good thing they could translate; without Mokona, he was practically hopeless in that department.

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"Wow. Is this the station?" Haganemaru wondered aloud. It had to be, of course, since there wasn't any other word for this place in either its mind or its master's.

It had been several hours now since Jintetsu had met the red-haired ronin. In that time, he'd made it to what seemed to be the only shop in the whole city, picked up what he needed, and set out back toward the gate as quickly as possible. But when he'd asked a local for the fastest route, they'd pointed him here, to the station. Heading north when he needed to go south was counterintuitive to say the least, but if it got him out of here...

So here he was, in a building all contorted steel, strange sounds and smells, and yellow-haired strangers, with no real indication of what one was supposed to do upon arriving here. "What a madhouse," his sword remarked quietly. "Maybe we'd have been better off going straight back after all."

As usual, Jintetsu didn't respond. Instead of turning around and leaving, though, he walked into the terminal and took a seat on the nearest unoccupied bench, if only to get off his feet for a few minutes. Incidentally, it was one bench past where a certain mage was sitting, but among all the other blond people here, Jintetsu didn't notice him.

Jintetsu glanced over at the man, startled. So far as he knew, there was only one person alive who knew his voice was actually Haganemaru's - and then only because he'd told her. How in the hell had this guy, who he'd never even seen before, just guessed it out of nowhere?

"Do I know you?" he asked suspiciously. Hopefully the guy would decide he had the wrong drifter.

Invasion of personal space is right. Jintetsu stood up very quickly and fixed a one-eyed glare on Fai, as did Haganemaru. Both of them disliked him already - Jintetsu for bugging him about what was still a really uncomfortable topic, and his sword for the cutesy nickname. "I don't know who you are, but it's none of your business," Jintetsu snapped.

"Sorry," said Jintetsu. He really hadn't meant to get upset, just that his current physical state wasn't something he liked to talk about, even with his friends.

Although he didn't know quite what Fai's question meant, he turned to take a look behind him, just in time to see the train come barrelling noisily out of the tunnel. So that's what had caused the rumbling sound... although he was at a bit of a loss as to what "that" was. Yet another weird cog to this weird city, it looked like. He really should have just walked back to the gate; this place was putting him more on edge by the minute, although you wouldn't know it just looking at his face.

Only after a few seconds did he remember what Fai had asked him. "No, it's not," he said. He had no intention of going anywhere near that thing without knowing what it was.

Jintetsu turned away from the train, as it didn't seem too much of a threat... or at least slightly less so than this nosy stranger. "I was just leaving town," he replied. "Planned to head back through the southeast gate. Why?"

Jintetsu's eye narrowed just a bit; that didn't sound good at all. If they weren't letting people leave, it could easily mean they were looking for someone. He hadn't done anything wrong here - in fact, it had been a few weeks since the last time he'd killed anybody - so it wasn't likely to be him. That didn't necessarily ensure anyone would leave him alone, though.

It was definitely worth checking. "What do you mean, can't leave town?" he asked carefully.

Now, to say there was no way out was completely different from saying you couldn't leave. That almost made it sound like some kind of mystical force was involved, which was kind of a stupid idea. Just as stupid as what that redheaded ronin had said, about this not being Japan...

Maybe they were just both trying to mess with him, but...

He didn't get a chance to ask any further, though, before Fai went off on a very wordy tangent about his friends. It was a little hard to follow, but he got the idea. Tired little girl, one-eyed boy, irritable swordsman... and rabbit. Oooohkay. When Fai (finally) finished, Jintetsu and Haganemaru glanced at each other for just a second, almost as if silently conferring; then the swordsman shrugged. "Nope. Haven't seen 'em."

Jintetsu nodded, though he doubted he'd run into any of this guy's friends. He may as well. "All right. Who should I say is lookin' for them?" he asked, almost as an afterthought.

He glanced in the direction Fai was looking, but didn't notice anything interesting. Just yellow-haired people going about their business under the steel struts. The more he watched them, the more out-of-place he felt. It was like having trespassed somewhere he wasn't meant to be. One more reason to get the hell out of here, he thought.

"Then just go back out the way you came in," he replied to Fai's musing. "Nothing's stoppin' you."

Jintetsu would have frowned if he could. He was starting to get the feeling Fai knew something he didn't, and was dangling it over his head by speaking in riddles like that. It was really starting to get on his nerves. But before he could ask about it, Haganemaru bristled at the recurrence of that stupid nickname. "It is not," the sword snapped on its own. "I'm Haganemaru, thanks very much, and I'm sure you know I'm not just a run-of-the-forge sword! - Ow!!"

That last was at Jintetsu, who had just flicked Haganemaru's hilt with a metal knuckle. A bit put off, the sword continued, "This is Jintetsu. He can't talk, so I talk for him."

What was it with this Fai guy and stupid nicknames?! As dumb as "Swordie" had been, "Maru-pon" was even worse. But on its own, Haganemaru couldn't really do anything about it, especially when Jintetsu found the matter almost amusing. Traitor. The sword had to settle for fuming and muttering to itself.

"So, what world are you from?"

What world? That was a weird way to ask. Jintetsu had to wait a few seconds for Haganemaru to calm down before replying. "I'm not from around here, if that's what you mean. I'm a drifter."

That settled it, Fai was insane. Anyone going on about this world, that world, as if there were more than one, couldn't be right in the head. It was ridiculous. Jintetsu had never left Japan in his life, nor had he ever wanted to. And he hadn't now, either. Totally impossible.

Haganemaru, though he agreed, decided to humor Fai anyway (it'd been a while since he'd had a real conversation). "Okay, first, quit callin' me 'Maruchan.' And if nobody's from this world, then where are we all from, huh?"

Jintetsu and Haganemaru shared a quick glance in the middle of Fai's psychobabble, but didn't interrupt to tell him he was a lunatic, as both of them kind of felt like doing. It would be perfectly safe to say that neither of them had the slightest idea what he was talking about.

There was a short pause after Fai finished. "So what you're saying," Jintetsu replied eventually, "is that we've been taken right out of our whole world somehow, and there's no way to get back. Is that what you're saying?" He shook his head, not waiting for an answer. "You're crazy."

But he didn't start to leave.

"It's Haganemaru!" the sword exclaimed. "Ha - Ga - Ne - Ma - Ru. I don't tell most people my name, so the least you could do is get it right!"

Jintetsu, meanwhile, turned silently to look at the train. It didn't surprise him as much to see it this time around, though he still couldn't tell what it was supposed to be. And that was more than he could say for the rest of this weird place. It wasn't "his" train any more than this was "his" city.

It was kind of ... for lack of a better word, otherworldly. As much as he disliked it, he didn't really have a better explanation than that. This Paishou was so drastically unlike anything he'd ever even heard of, much less experienced... but that just couldn't be it.

"And it ain't mine, whatever it is," Haganemaru continued, oblivious and still extremely irked. "Maybe it's yours."

Haganemaru sputtered a bit. This was undignified, damn it! At least Jintetsu had taken a step back so Fai couldn't pinch him again. Man, if he'd had arms and legs, the weirdo would've had his lights knocked out by now. Sometimes it sucked to be a sword.

"Well, I assume it's that," he snapped, gesturing at the train with ... his eye. Jintetsu helped by pointing more visibly. "I guess you're gonna tell me what it is whether or not I want you to," the sword added irritably.

Jintetsu shot him a bit of a warning look; he didn't want to wind up making a scene, even if Fai was tremendously annoying.

Jintetsu was a little surprised by the sudden taks on his hat. Now it was hailing, too? What a pain. The wide brim of his hat would protect him from the hail to an extent, but not if it got heavier as suddenly as it had started. There hadn't even been any clouds...

No, of course there hadn't. They were under a giant dome. There shouldn't have been hail, or rain, or any other kind of weather. The whole damn city was indoors.

But listening to Fai's explanation of trains granted him another option, at least. If it was a faster transport, then that would explain why someone would say this was the quickest way to go the opposite direction.

"Go where with you? In that train thing?" Haganemaru grimaced to the best of his ability. "You've gotta be kidding."

Jintetsu glared at him. If it would get them out of this weird city faster, he was willing to go for it. Haganemaru paused, then sighed irritably. "But since Jintetsu wants to, I guess that doesn't matter," he grumbled.

Jintetsu nodded appreciatively and followed Fai into the train. It actually made sense for it to be transportation, unlike that crap about other worlds. (Still, he'd never seen anything like this in Japan...) He glanced around a bit, taking in the car's interior. Totally foreign, but he was starting to expect that here.

Haganemaru didn't really care about that, so much as he wished Jintetsu had a reason to kick this guy's ass. "People skills," he grumbled. "You expect a sword to have people skills? "

It was best to tune him out when he got like this, Jintetsu had learned.

Fai had picked out seats already, and the swordsman reached them just as the train's whistle went off. He turned his head in search of the noise, but apparently it had come from outside. Dismissing it, he went to take one of the seats. It was already getting kind of loud, what with the hail.

Jintetsu started a little as the train began to move. He'd known it would, but the fact remained he'd never ridden in anything like this before. It was an odd luxury, and he couldn't help wondering whether he'd get in trouble for it. Well, if that happened, it was Fai's fault. He settled quickly and followed the other man's eyes out the window.

Haganemaru actually only had two friends right now, one being Jintetsu and the other being dead, and he didn't really mind it that way. He just scoffed at the popularity remark.

"Yeah, of course we're from Japan," the sword replied. "What about you? What 'other world' do you come from? If you're one of those people who calls himself a demon out of hell, I can tell ya right now you're not all that convincing." (Unless, of course, hell was a place of eternal annoyance and cute nicknames.)

"There's-" Haganemaru began, but cut himself off at a nudge from Jintetsu. Something was definitely going on here, and there might be a chance that Fai was on to something. He might not be totally right about it, but he seemed less in the dark than they were. The sword sighed a little and started again. "Okay, okay. Let's say there are other worlds. If this Paisho isn't in Celes or Japan, then how the hell'd we get here?"

Jintetsu leaned in a little to get a better look at the device Fai was holding. It was almost exactly like the one the ronin had been fiddling with, and the one he'd been given at the gate as well, currently sitting in his bag. Did everybody have one of those? His curiosity was starting to get the better of him.

"What are they?" he asked. Maps, sure, he knew that, but he got the feeling there was more to them than that. On impulse, he opened his bag and pulled out his own device. It wasn't as if there was much more to do while he sat here.

He stopped short of turning it on, though. It suddenly seemed very quiet in the train, and it took him a moment to realize that was because the hail had stopped.

A journal, huh. Jintetsu wasn't really the type to keep a journal; he was lucky to know how to write in the first place. A little experimental tapping showed him the message board and everything - mostly missing-person notices, as Fai had said. Well, that was a great big waste of space. There was absolutely no one he wanted to find. At least the map was useful.

He turned the device off and put it down, shifting a bit to let Fai out. Considering how persistently he'd been pestering him before, it seemed kind of strange for him to just up and leave, but whatever. "Maybe. Thanks for your help," he said - more tersely than he looked, but that was only because Haganemaru was still in a bad mood.

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ahead on our way [ completed ]

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