niteo_logs | There's no such thing as bad weather

Youji had gone out to explore ~~spy~~ around the apartment building the others lived in. He'd found a pair of boots that were about five sizes too big, coming up almost to his knees, and he'd had to stuff them with pair to keep them on.

He'd climbed up the fire escape of a near by building, wandering about on the rooftop, throwing stones at windows, but coming down wasn't quite so easy. His legs weren't long enough to to reach the ground, and the dumpster he'd used to climb up on it before seemed further away than before.

He frowned softly, trying to adjust his grip on the wet iron bar, swinging himself towards the dumpster. There was a loud 'BANG' that echoed out from the alley way, Youji only half hitting his mark, falling off of the dumpster and onto the ground with a splash.

Vera blinked when she heard the bang followed by the splash from the nearby alley way and natural curiosity compelled her to investigate. Although when she walked into the alley and saw who it was, she couldn't help but let out a hiss of irritation. She was usually fond of kids, even if they were complete brats, but the fact that this one seemed to have a connection with the bastard if what his previous broadcasts to the network and the replies were anything to go by, which meant that this one rubbed her the wrong way.

So she now had two options; walk away, pretend she didn't see him and she would spare herself the inevitable headache or she could help him and get her ear chewed off. Despite the immense temptation of the first option, Vera walked over to where he was laying on the ground, grabbed the collar of his shirt, easily lifted him up as if he weighed nothing and placed him back on his feet, taking note boots he was wearing, which looked a few sizes too big.

Now she looked down at him with an eyebrow raised and with her arms crossed over her chest, most likely silently asking him what he was doing.

Youji blinked, breath knocked out of him. He's scraped his elbows up pretty bad, but of course, he couldn't feel it. Hopefully he hadn't done any more damage than that. And then, before he could climb to his feet that woman had helped him. His tail poofed up, eyes narrowing uncertainly, looking her over as though expecting her to attack him. A moment passed in silence before his ear twitched, and his expression became more confused.

"...Why aren't you saying anything?" he snapped finally.

The young woman blinked at his question, and then removed her PDA from her pocket before writing a message and showing it to him- "I'm a mute, so I can't talk." Once she had shown him the message, she placed the PDA back in her jeans pocket and crouched down to his level, taking a hold of his arms so that she could check his elbows; Youji would find that although her grip wasn't tight, he wouldn't be able to break it.

Vera frowned slightly as she noticed the state of his elbows, she knew that he couldn't feel pain from what he had sent to the network, but it still wouldn't stop them from getting infected. Once she was done, she realised his arms, stood back up and showed him another message- "You should get your elbows looked at before they get infected." Vera would take him back to the apartment to get him cleaned up, but only if she had too

"Can't talk?" he repeated, looking perplexed, "That stupid. Why?" he asked, making a face as she examined him. He tried to pull away, frowning in a unconcerned manner. "It's fine, you don't need to-hey-" he grumbled.

"Infected? Like...get sick?" he asked, craning his neck to try and look at his crape, tail twitching, "It's just scrapes, they'll go away, you shouldn't worry so much, lady."

Vera just rolled her eyes slightly, and wrote a message to answer his first question- "I can't talk because I was made that way." It was completely up to him if he thought that she meant she was actually artificially man-made instead of born. Since it looked like he was also created, she didn't feel the need to deliberately hide the fact as she did with the others, although there was the slight worry of him blurting it out at some point.

At his though of infection being like getting sick, she shook her head and wrote another message- "Not exactly, it means that if you don't clean the wounds out then there's the possibility of it getting pus in it, since there would still be bacteria in it when it heals. If you leave it, there is the also possibility of getting sick." And she wasn't going to 'say' anything about being called lady, it stopped bothering her after the hundredth time when she was back home.

"Like me?" His ears lifted a bit, and there was a hint of a smile on his face. She was weird, but maybe she was all right if she had been made like him and Natsuo.

His nose wrinkled at her explanation, frowning, "...Ew. So I just wash it then? And that won't happen right? That sounds gross."

Vera nodded at his question; even though there were differences such as he couldn't feel pain and she could, although at this point it had no real affect on her, she was still probably made in a similar fashion.

Her shoulders shook slightly in silent laughter at his expression before she wrote another message for him- "Yes, all you have to do is wash it and then bandage it."

Youji nodded, poking at his elbows, "I can do that," he said, ears cocked. He grinned and waggled his fingers in front of her. "I made the frost burns go away."

He looked her over curiously, "So why did your Sensei make you so you couldn't talk? How does that help in fighting? It doesn't make any sense."

She gave him her own faint grin in reply; she really did have a soft spot for kids if she was acting like this.

Vera considered her answer for a second before typing out her reply- "I don't fight how you do, since the type of fighting I was made for is purely physical. It took more than one person to make me since I was made alongside around fifty others. And the reason why they made us mute was because they thought that it would make us less likely to rebel against them; this didn't work because I left them a few months ago."

Youji's head tilted, "Fifty? That's a lot...there's only me and Natsuo at home. But Sensei's really smart, she didn't need any help." He didn't think making someone not able to talk was all that smart. Even if they didn't use spells, how did they tell each other what to do? "Can't you just fix it?" he asked, "Now that you're away from them?"

The two figures that Mitsunari was a approaching seemed to be talking. Consistent with the rest of the place they were dressed very oddly, making Mitsunari wonder where again he was. He couldn't have run that far, could he?

He was beginning to think he would have to worry about Tokogawa, however.

Around 10 yards he lifted his hand and trying to project harmlessness, made harder by the fact that he was dressed for war, called out "Hello, I'm a bit lost. Do you know where the river is?"

At Youji's question Vera shook her head and wrote down her answer- "No, they made us so that our vocal cords were permanently damaged. Basically, there's no possible way to fix it." And after all these years, Vera wasn't sure if she even did want to talk, even if there was a way to fix her vocal chords.

At the sight of another person approaching, Vera rose an eyebrow in question at his outfit; was that some sort of armour? Well, it looked like he was new here if he was wearing something like that. She narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion, but at the fact that he showed that he was harmless she instead rose an eyebrow when he called out, he had a PDA, so didn't he know how to use it? The young woman rolled her eyes, before motioning him to come closer; at this distance he wouldn't be able to see any message she wrote and it wasn't like she could yell back.

With the lady's gesture Mitsunari stopped worrying about it being a problem to approach. They clearly didn't mind, though it was possible that were much better armed then he. Though they hadn't responded which was odd, it wasn't like it had been a hard question, perhaps they hadn't heard. "So which way to the river? Actually if you know where one is, a well would probably be better."

Youji became distracted by the stranger, looking him up and down, tail twitching lightly, though is ears perked with interest. "Nyaa, who are you?" he demanded, ignoring his questions, "You haven't been on the little computer things, who are you?"

He gave a bit of a smirk, "You should stay away from the river. The people on the other side all grumpy."

"Ah, um, yes. Name." Mitsunari grimaced, he had been hoping that it wouldn't come up with a simple request for directions. Not that he wasn't leaving a clear trail anyways. "I'm Mitsunari Ishida. And you are?" He looked from the boy to the lady making it clear that he was asking both of them. (She was wearing pants, was she really a lady? Of course, so did Ginchiyo, best to think of her as a lady.)

"As for 'the little computer things'? I wouldn't think so?" What was a 'little computer thing'? And he strongly suspected that he had mangled the pronunciation. "And the people on the other side of the river are grumpy? I'm just looking to get a little water before heading on. That shouldn't be a problem, right?"

The young woman narrowed her eyes at Mitsunari again when he seemed reluctant to give his name, although she didn't show any other signs of hostility besides that, although she was slightly grateful for the appearance his apperance provided, since it meant that the kid wouldn't ask anymore questions for the time being.

At his question of the "little computer things" (and his mangled pronunciation of it), Vera rolled her eyes and took out her PDA before writing a message for him-"I'm Vera Solomon. This device is the "little computer thing." And yes, it would be a problem since everyone outside this city and especially across the river, hates us, so heading on would probably end up with you imprisoned or possibly killed. And the city is called Nesreca, no you can't go home and you're stuck here with everyone else in this city."

Once she was certain he had read the message, Vera deleted it before turning her focus back to Mitsunari; to see how he would react.

The lady pulled out a small box, a match to the one he found that morning. And played with it. Very odd.

There were words on the box: I'm Vera Solomon. This device is the "little computer thing." And yes, it would be a problem since everyone outside this city and especially across the river, hates us, so heading on would probably end up with you imprisoned or possibly killed. And the city is called Nesreca, no you can't go home and you're stuck here with everyone else in this city.

He started at the message absentmindedly reading it, before just staring at the box. It seemed to glow. Was is a spirit of some kind? But she the message seemed to from the lady. So had she written on it somehow? Maybe it was a chained spirit slave to her will, making her a very powerful sorceress? Scary thought, though probably paranoid.

"So Vera Solomon?" He looked up at her figuring that she would indicate somehow if the 'little computer thing' was not her writing. "I'm stuck here? In Nesreca? Why?"

"Becauuuse," Youji interrupted, "The little weird girl wants you here. If you'd posted on the thing you'd know that all ready. She brought us all here, and it's really boring. You should come stay with me and this guy, he's not boring at all," he enthused. His ears twitched and he rocked on his heels a bit, looking him over. "...You look funny. Weird adult."

The 'little weird girl' wanted him here? Why?

And posted? Like sending mail? And the boy wanted him to live with him and a not boring guy?

Mitsunari caught the movement on the boy's head out the the corner of his eyes. It clearly wasn't with the wind.

Why did the boy have ears?

He said that he wanted him to say with him. He wanted to keep him; this was not good. He backed up, eyes wide. "Yōkai?" A thinking whisper slipped out of him almost inaudibly. He didn't even notice.

The was a definite twitch in Vera's expression at the mention of the not boring guy, and her face visibly darkened as she turned to quickly give Youji a venomous glare before clamping her hand over his mouth; it was similar to when she gripped his arms, her grip wasn't tight but it would be hard to break and the fact that she was wearing her gloves meant that he wouldn't be able to bite her hand.

She frowned at Mitsunari (What the hell was a Yōkai?) before she typed something out on her PDA for him, luckily she managed to do it one-handed-"Ignore the kid; the guy he is talking about is a complete psycho and hurts others for laughs. Stay away from him." The glare she was giving him seemed to say 'You had better listen to me or else.'

"Mmmmmmmph--" Youji groaned, tail poofing and flailing wildly behind him. He clawed at the hand clapped around his mouth, eyes narrowed and trying to talk around it. His ears folded back, trying to pry himself away.

And that man- Yōkai?! He wasn't a Yōkai! What the hell was that supposed to mean? He wasn't some stupid demon. He glared fiercely at the both of them.

So the boy's acquaintances were not kindly. Not something to inspire trust.

But the lady seemed to be a Shaman of sorts, or at least she seemed to be comfortable with the Yōkai.

"So I should stay away from the Bakeneko's friend?" Mitsunari said looking at her, very overwhelmed.

Vera's shoulders shook slightly in silent laughter at the sight of Youji's poofed and flailing tail before she turned her focus back to the newcomer. She rose an eyebrow at the use of another foreign word before nodding and typing out a response-"Yes, and don't listen to the kid if he tries to convince you otherwise. And what the hell is a Bakeneko?"

Once she had done this and shown him the message, she removed her hand from Youji's mouth, giving him an amused smirk as she did so.

Youji scrambled away the moment he was released, backing into the dumpster with a loud thump. He gave a loud huff, glaring at them. "I'm not a Bakeneko. I'm not a demon! And you! You don't touch me! You touch me again and I'll kill you!" he growled, tail continuing to thrash violently behind him.

He looked over at the lady, knowing that he wasn't succeeding in hiding his shock. "A Bakeneko is a cat Yōkai, known to shape shifter, breathing fire and animating the dead. Not creature to take lightly." It was a warning, if she didn't know what she was getting into a Bakeneko of the age the boy had to be would be powerful and not to be taken lightly. He looked over at the boy, hurriedly taking another step back at the fury the spirit was exuding.

He swallowed, then taking a deep "I suppose that you wouldn't..." want it known. Not the way to play this, the Bakeneko was irritated enough already. He licked his suddenly very dry lips. "So you say you're not a Bakeneko. That's alright, I can work with that; you're not a Bakeneko. What do you want to be?"

Vera frowned at the explanation before snorting in amusement and typed out a reply-"He's not a demon, he's just a kid with a serious attitude problem, having ears and a tail is probably normally where he's from." She didn't seem to really care that his explanation was a 'warning'.

So when Youji had scrambled away from her and growled at them in fury and the new guy actually stepped back in fear, Vera just rolled her eyes before walking towards Youji, typing out a message as she did so. When she was close enough, she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt; easily lifting him up to her height before showing him the message while looking at him with an expression of absolute boredom-"Kid, anything you do to me will be an annoyance at most. And is that really the attitude to give to someone who was considering letting you use her bath?"

Once she was certain he had read it, she placed him back down and looked between the two males with an expression which seemed to be a combination of annoyance and boredom.

"I'm a kid, a Sacrifice, a Zero, Youji; any of those, I'm not a damn Bakeneko," he hissed at the man, before being hoisted up by Vera. He squirmed and struggled, glaring, but reading the message. Only then did he grow still, ears perking and the fur on his tail growing smooth.

"A bath? Really?" he asked, quite suddenly all smiles.

Having ears and tail was normal? Where he was from? Why was he here? For that matter where was here?

Mitsunari winced reaching his left hand up to squeeze the bridge of his nose. He might be good but was not nearly cleaver enough to keep up with this place. And the boy, Youji, just had another mood swing.

He'd figure it out later; he might as well push for the answer that he had started this conversation to get. He really was thirsty.

"So Youji said the river is hostile territory. I don't suppose that either of you could direct me to a well?"

Vera turned towards Youji and nodded at his question before proceeding to type- "As long as you don't have another tantrum, you can use it. It's not in great condition, but what else can you expect when the entire apartment's a mess." At Mitsunari's question Vera tilted her head to the side as she thought about this; she hadn't seen any wells and they would probably be dried up...there would probably be all sorts of nasty shit in them as well.

After having thought of this, she typed down her answer-"No, but the apartment has running water in it so you would be able to get a drink there, although the water won't be that great. Your room will have your name on the door and the building is over there. Although I'm probably heading back soon so you could just follow me." Once she had done this, she pointed towards the apartment to show Mitsunari where it was, which wasn't really far from where they were, before she let her arm drop back to her side.

"I didn't have a trantrum," he mumbled sulkily, ears folding, but he kept quiet.

"The J- er...this guy I know...has water," he piped in, sparing a mildly apologetic look towards Vera. It didn't last long though. "Water bottles, and these gross meal things that you heat up."

Running water in run down apartments, and Vera's worried about it not tasting very good. Not about it being unhealthy, but it not tasting good. Where was this place?

Wait a minute... "Why would there be an apartment with my name on the door? It's not like I've lived here."

He was a little lost as to why anyone would want bottled water when apparently they had access to running water. He ignored the boy's comment about warm food tasting bad. Tastes did vary, though he suspected that if the boy ever spent seventeen months campaigning that he would start to prefer his food heated.

Mitsunari's thoughts were slightly true, Vera didn't care much for the taste but it was something unaviodable, and she had drunk some before without any complications; as long as it was drinkable she didn't care...then again she had been told that she had an 'iron stomach'.

When Youji mentioned the Joker, Vera was just about ready to silence him again when she spotted the mild apologetic look he sent her, even if it was fleeting, it was still apologetic; in the end, she only gave him an very irritated glare.

At Mitsunari's confusion she typed down another message for him- "It's the same with all of us; nobody whose in this city now has ever been here before and yet our names were on specific doors in the apartment went we got here. This place is actually as far from our homes as possible, and right now there is no way to leave."

"Nyaa, you're dumb," Youji scoffed, "If you'd just posted then she would have told you herself," he said, gesturing with his own PDA before returning it to his pocket. "You're in another world, no one you love is here, you're a play thing for a weird girl with white hair, blah blah blah," he explained in a bored tone.

"Everyone just shows up and there's a room waiting for them? People are just brought here to be a plaything for a white haired girl?" He eyes flashed to Youji as he said that "That's... kind of... creepy." He looked thoughtful for a second, then frowned. "No, there's no 'kind of' about it. And you say there's no way to leave; how do you know that?" He looked straight at Vera, he wasn't going to put much stock in the Bake... Youji's answer.

Vera didn't bother doing anything about Youji's attitude towards the new guy since that was more or less her own thoughts as well, although to a more...'mature' degree.

At the question directed to her, she thought about how she could word this in a way which would be easy to understand before thinking "Fuck it." and typed down a more direct answer- "It's like Youji said, we're all in another world, so there is no way to leave. And there's also the fact that some of us are from different worlds from each other; for example, my home country is called Rhomya, but I doubt there's a place called that in your own world, right?"

He raised his eyebrows in a silent question of your joking right? "So apparently while running from Tokugawa I managed somehow to end up in another world. By accident?" This place might be unlike anyplace that he had ever been before but it wasn't reasonable to assume that he could have made it to another world.

He frowned; it would explain a lot, and they did say that he'd been brought, though why someone would want him... He could think of at least four full-blooded Samurai that where more interesting, all far more personable. Sure he was good at what he did, but at that didn't make him that interesting.

And he had never even heard of Rhomya. Admittedly it wasn't like even someone in his profession could be expected to know them all, still he should have at least heard of them all at some point. Vera could be lying but for some reason he didn't think so. A gut feeling.

He lifted his head glowering down the street, frustration running though his body "And what the hell do you mean by 'post'?"

"You do what she's doing, but you don't get rid of it," Youji explained, arching an eyebrow. It wasn't that complicated, why was everyone so confused by it? Or you can make videos, or sound recordings. And then everyone else can see it on theirs. So you can talk without being in the same place.

He pulled out his own PDA again and sent a message to Vera's.
'Yay for baths'

"Like that."

Vera didn't bother to reply to Mitsunari's question as Youji was already doing so, although she had also arched an eyebrow; there were those who didn't have this sort of technology before and they were able to figure it out after a while, it wasn't that hard.

At the message that Youji sent to her, she gave the kid a faint amused/possibly, slightly, maybe fond smile before showing the sent message to Mitsunari. She then typed out another message for the newcomer- "It's exactly like Youji said, just do what I'm doing but click the 'send' button instead of deleting the message. It isn't that difficult to use and you'll be able to get the hang of it after you fiddled with it first. That's how most of us figured out how to use them."

Mitsunari reached up and pulled out the box he had found that morning. It was a match for Vera's, and he pull it out and started to copy her actions. It seemed to respond to him the same way it had to her, part of him had doubted regardless of what the other two said.

"So then, I just hit send." He whispered. He pushed the button. Simple even if he didn't understand quite what he had just done. He frowned at the thing. Why did it work? Youji probably couldn't care why less why it worked just that it did and Vera who might care but probably wouldn't want to explain. This probably wasn't the time to go looking for answers.

He looked up, and sighed "Thank you, I'm not ever sure that I really would have noticed that there was anything to figure out if you hadn't explained. I've never seen anything like it before."

"It's like an expensive cell phone," Youji commented idly, "Only it looks ugly." He tugged on Vera's sleeve, "You said I could have a bath, come ooooon," he whined, "This guy's a weirdo. Doesn't even know how to send messages."

She just gave him a nod at his thanks; if it worked, it worked and she didn't really care for the specfics of how.

At the tug on her sleeve, she turned to Youji and rolled her eyes at his whining before giving him a playful flick to the forehead and then writing down a message for Mitsunari- "We're heading back to the apartment, you can follow us if you want. If you do, you're going to have to check each floor until you find the door with your name on it, that's your room."

Once she typed this, Vera began to make her way towards the apartment, making sure to motion to Youji to follow her since he wanted his goddamn bath so much.

The 'computer thing' was like an expensive 'cell phone'? So a 'cell phone' was like a cheaper 'computer thing'? Mitsunari wondered for a moment whether there was any reason he would need to know about cell phones. The computer thing was enough for now.

Apparently Youji thought he was weird for not knowing how to use a thing that he was fairly sure didn't exist in his own world. Mitsunari half grinned before stifling it. Whatever else he might be Youji was certainly still a kid.

Reading Vera's message he nodded, "Thank you. I guess I will, it just seemed odd how... controlled this all is."

He fell in behind her when she set off.

There's no such thing as bad weather

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