paixaorpg | Second time lucky... maybe [Completed]

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Second time lucky... maybe [Completed]

Character(s): Kenshin and Jintetsu
Content: Paixao's historical fiction buddies go on a grand adventure.
Setting: Niflheim Gate and beyond
Time: early morning, the day after the festival
Warnings: probably there will be lumen related violence, at the least.

Paixao didn't have a real sun, but the streets were still appropriately dim at about the right times. Jintetsu and Kenshin had left the hotel as soon as it was light enough to see, leaving Marona in the care of the innkeeper until her friend came by to meet her.

If they'd been going anywhere else, he wouldn't have stopped her tagging along. But he'd made it to the plains outside the city once before; it wasn't any place for a little girl. As crazy as the city was, it was safer than what was outside it. As it was, he was banking heavily on the two of them managing to slip out unnoticed.

That was going to be kind of tricky, though. Although the gate was already open when they came within sight of it, there were still a couple guards standing in front of it, which (while he'd been expecting it) was a little problematic. Even if he'd had some kind of bomb or noisemaker to distract them with like the last group had, there wasn't a more obvious way to tip them off to someone escaping. In retrospect, it had been pretty dumb of him to try and leave with a group that large to begin with, but nothing he could do about that now.

Jintetsu stopped well out of earshot of the guards, watching them but trying to remain relatively inconspicuous; as few people as were out on the street at the moment, that may have been a feat. "We should try not to let 'em know we're leaving," he said. Implicitly, the table was open for ideas now.

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Though just meeting her, the rurouni did hope when they left the child that morning she'd be alright. While the blonde-haired people did seem, well, odd to him, the innkeeper had seemed still nice enough to keep an eye on her, which was enough to give peace of mind to concentrate on the task at hand.

Kenshin stood faced away from the gate, facing Jintetsu, also trying to seem as inconspicuous as he could. "Mm," he agreed quietly, "Sessha can slip by easily enough but perhaps sessha should first create a distraction for you to get through?"

God-like speed he felt should be enough to help him slip through. At least, he was fairly confident he'd work something out, so if he could just create enough of a distraction for Jintetsu to sneak through then they should be able to leave realitively unnoticed. Hopefully.

Jintetsu tilted his head, curious at what Kenshin had in mind - he seemed pretty sure of himself. But as long as whatever he was thinking of worked, and they didn't get caught, it didn't matter too much. "Fine by me," he said with a nod.

As they started approaching the gate, Jintetsu hung back, walking slower and closer to the other side of the street to let Kenshin get there first. Close enough to sneak out quickly if things went right, and far enough to inconspicuously get lost if they didn't. He barely knew the rurouni, after all.

Kenshin meanwhile went right up to the guards, his rurouni face on full-force as he pulled his journal from where he had it tucked in his sleeve. "Ah, pardon sessha, but sessha wonders if you might be able to help sessha with something, de gozaru ka?" he asked, as the guards looked at him oddly, undoubtedly thrown off by his odd manner of speech.

"Sessha isn't used to such an object as this, and has been having much difficultly," he continued, as he fumbled with it trying to open with it.

"If you would be willing, could you show sess--Ah!" he exclaimed, as the journal slipped from his hands, clattering to the ground. With some mumblings of 'oro', Kenshin dramatically bent over to scoop the journal up, his sheathed sakabatou, also pushed dramatically upwards, flying up and smacking the poor guard in the face.

As the guard cried out, the rurouni quickly straightened, journal in hand, but looked surprised and apologetic as he 'realized' he'd hit the guard. "Orooo, sessha is most sorry! Are you alright? Sessha apologizes profusely!" he babbled on, as all the guards had gathered about him now, trying to figure out if he was a troublemaker or just a nut-case.

As this went on, Kenshin hoped Jintetsu had slipped through the gate.

Jintetsu, still going at his slower pace, watched Kenshin for a few seconds, up until the rurouni managed to hit the guard in the face with his sheath. You always had to watch out for the goofy ones.

"Hey, now's our chance," Haganemaru whispered, snapping him out of it. Jintetsu nodded his agreement and started walking faster, pulling his hat low over his face as if that would keep the guards from seeing him. Fortunately, they were too busy dealing with the nut-case over there, and he ducked out the gate and out of sight without incident a few seconds later.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kenshin noticed Jintetsu pass through the gate. Well, now it was time to end this.

As the one he'd hit started crying something about his nose was broken and the guards had their eyes on the upset man, Kenshin started to back away.

"Ah, sessha should be going, de gozaru," he said, with an awkward laugh.

"Oh no you don't," one of the guard's yelled, turning, but when he had turned he would have seen nothing but empty street. The rurouni had vanished.

Well, at least to them it seemed like he had, the moment he'd backed away enough, Kenshin had used his god-like speed to move around the opposite side of the guards.

"He just vanished!"

"Start searching the alleyways, he couldn't have gotten far!"

While cries echo'd out, Kenshin was already on his way out through the gate. It hadn't been the most elegant of escapes, but it had sufficed and most importantly the guards seemed clueless of what had just really gone on.

Jintetsu was waiting outside, his eye trained past the wasteland and ruins toward the faint glow in the distance that marked where the ground turned white. He hadn't gotten even that far last time, before the men in black had appeared and all hell broke loose. Hopefully their small group and quiet exit this time would prevent that happening again, though.

It wasn't often he actually tried to go to somewhere, but there was definitely something out here. He was almost sure he'd seen something across the white fields, and although he didn't know what it was, the men in black had sure gone to a lot of trouble to keep them from getting there.

He had a sneaking suspicion it was the way home. That thought startled him a little in and of itself. He didn't have a home; it was strange for him to think of it like that.

He turned back to the gate to see that Kenshin had made his exit as well, and wasn't being followed. That was good right there. Jintetsu looked back across the waste and started walking without a word - not trying to be rude, he just didn't have anything to say at the moment. He wasn't sure how far it was, but he wanted to get there before nightfall.

Kenshin spotted Jintetsu waiting and quickly fell into step behind him, as the fellow wanderer had started off as soon as he'd spotted the rurouni.

Kenshin wasn't really bothered by the silence as there wasn't really much to be said anyways. They knew what they had set out to do. Also the rurouni had come to understand this was just how Jintetsu was. He'd been like this once in a way himself, always down to business and was awkward at any other kind of conversation. Now wasn't a time to be thinking of the past however, so Kenshin shifted his thoughts to the task-at-hand.

He wasn't sure how far this church was meant to be, nor did Jintetsu seem to know, but hopefully they would find it before nightfall. If they were lucky, they'd hopefully be able to spot it fairly easily, as there wasn't any other sign of buildings beyond the massive domed structure that seemed to dominate the island.

They went on in silence for some time before reaching the fields. Closer up, Jintetsu realized he'd been wrong earlier. It was the grass itself that was white, and whatever was drifting down from the sky... it definitely wasn't snow. It was beautiful, but at the same time, in its own way, chilling.

He heard the animals before he saw them, as a few extra footsteps in the tall grass, and stopped to listen for it. To the left. He turned to look toward it, and there, not fifteen feet away, stood a large white dog with yellow eyes, its body well-camouflaged for the plants it was following them through.

Jintetsu had seen animals like this occasionally inside the city, but given them a wide berth there. They were creepy as hell, but avoidable... but stray dogs wandering the streets didn't travel in packs.

"Wild dogs," he said tersely, looking for the others. And there were others - not a few - now that he was looking for them, spread out on both sides of the two wanderers. And they were closing in.

His metal hand tightened around Haganemaru's hilt. He hated dogs.

Kenshin had sensed vaguely something nearby but it hadn't felt like anything to worry about until the sounds came close, and Jintetsu spotted the one not far off at all. And it wasn't just one, but many. Closing in around them.

The rurouni wasn't sure 'wild' was quite the description he'd use, although their behavior was certainly that. However, 'strange' was more the term entering his mind. Their white fur and glowing eyes were nothing like he'd ever seen. What were these... creatures? They looked like dogs... but...

"Aa," he simply agreed, not about to argue that observation right now, as he took stance at his companion's back, fingers brushing the hilt of his sakabatou. How many were there? Six? Seven...? Eight? More?

An unanticipated delay, however the rurouni was calm as he waited to see what their first move would be.

The lumens were creatures of light, their very hearts and bodies overflowing with it. And just as their darker counterparts were drawn to the brightness in people's hearts, they were drawn to the darkness... of which, in these two men, they could smell plenty.

For a few seconds, they were nearly still, only advancing with slow steps, their growling easily audible in the quiet air of the fields. Then one of them suddenly sprung forward, teeth bared - and all the rest followed suit, in a full-out attack.

Jintetsu recoiled, surprised at the unusual speed the dogs possessed, and drew his sword with barely enough time to get it between his body and the first dog. The animal, already in mid-leap, landed on the blade, and he finished the swing, dropping the wounded lumen to his right.

He barely had time to register the presence of a second one coming in from his left, though, before it was too late to turn and get his sword over there. Instead he blocked with his left arm, and the creature's jaws clamped down only on cold metal.

But then there was a third one, too - his slash at that would have been deadly accurate, but the one hanging off his opposite arm threw off his balance, and he only nicked it. The combination of his forward swing and the dog's weight made him stumble, though, and the one he'd just hit was now hurt and angry...

The thought briefly crossed Jintetsu's mind that like hell was he getting torn apart by a pack of stupid dogs again.

Fast! Kenshin quickly pulled the sakabatou from it's saya, but did not at first move to strike the incoming creatures but instead swept the blade low and into the ground with great force. "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu - Do Ryu Sen!" he called out as the ground seemed to explode towards the incoming dogs, rocks and debris flying up at the creatures.

It would do little damage, but would serve as a distraction as he flew forward striking several of the dogs. Still using, for now, the blunt side of the sakabatou, he attacked them aimed mainly for the shoulders or neck aiming to disable the creatures from torn ligaments or knocking them unconscious.

Fortunately, the tremor from Kenshin's first attack distracted the dogs attacking Jintetsu, too, which gave him enough time to kick away the one still gnawing at his metal arm; by the time it rebounded back, he'd extended his forearm blades and knife fingers with a click, and caught it in the face with the latter.

From there, now that he'd got his balance back, the others were fairly easy. Unlike his companion, though, Jintetsu wasn't making the slightest effort to keep the animals alive. He did get a surprise when one of them vanished into thin air before he'd quite gotten his sword out of it, though he didn't have much time to think about it before he had to move onto the next. On the plus side, between the two of them, they were thinning the dogs out admirably.

He couldn't help noticing Kenshin's fighting in between his own, either. The guy was fast, and it looked like he had training - although if he was a former samurai that didn't seem out of the ordinary.

Despite attempting to not kill the animals, when he struck one for what was, he was quite sure, a second time, he was surprised to see it simply vanish. It caught the rurouni off guard a moment, but quickly he recovered to swing the sakabatou at another incoming beast.

Kenshin was even more uncertain now just what it was they were fighting, however now was not the time to really think about it, and even when he did, he wasn't sure he'd find an answer for it.

He continued to slash at the dogs, seeming to anticipate their moves and easily counter their attacks, sending them flying away. As several landed harshly to the ground they also vanished.

Though Jintetsu didn't have quite the grace or foresight of his companion, he was still well-practiced in the style of not getting killed; it was an odd combination of speed, opportunism, and having extra weapons built into his left arm, so all told, the dogs fell pretty quickly from there on out. Within another minute or two (or was it less than that? Time moved weirdly when you were fighting), the rest were dead.

It took him a second of looking around to confirm that. No, it really was that they'd taken them all out. None of the dogs had made a run for it, nor had the wounded ones gotten scared and stopped fighting. It was really weird behavior. But then again, these were really weird animals.

Wiping and sheathing Haganemaru and snapping his arm blades back into place, he knelt next to where one had been a second ago (although its body had disappeared, just like all the others) and experimentally touched his fingertips to the small puddle of glowing blue stuff it'd left behind. Unexpectedly, he was rewarded with a sudden pins-and-needles sensation, and he quickly wiped his hand on the grass and stood back up. Was that stuff supposed to be their blood?

"What the hell were those?" Haganemaru mumbled. "You don't think somebody sent them after us, do you?" Jintetsu shook his head, though. If they'd been trained, there'd have been a trainer.

He fixed his hat and turned toward the rurouni, more interested for now in questions he'd be able to get an answer for. "You're good," he said matter-of-factly. "What's your name?"

As the last of the creatures vanished, Kenshin also looked around cautiously, not ready to assume they were all gone without double-checking. However all seemed quiet once more and feeling it was safe, Kenshin slid the sakabatou back into it's saya. He approached Jintetsu from behind, curious of what the wanderer was looking at, but didn't get a good look. Whatever it was it seemed it hadn't been plesant, that much the rurouni realized.

Kenshin was going to ask him about it, but was taken a bit off guard when Jintetsu turned to him and spoke not about the fight and the creatures. "Eh?" It dazed him for a moment.

"Ah, Kenshin," he responded, a little awkward at first, "...Himura Kenshin."

Hm. He'd never heard of anyone going by that name, although he'd have thought a wanderer with Kenshin's skill would be famous. Must have been from a long way off. After a moment, he decided it was only fair to give his own name in return. "Jintetsu of Steel," he said with a terse nod.

Then he turned back to the building in the distance; there was still a good fraction of the day left, but they'd probably still need most of it. "There'd better not be any more of those things up ahead," Haganemaru grumbled, while Jintetsu just shifted his cloak on his shoulders and resumed walking.

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Second time lucky... maybe [Completed]

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