Tahra peered over the side of the well, staring at the four people that had just climbed out of it wearing very strange clothing. Ears twitching as she stared, curiosity overcame her and she poked her head up farther.
"What strange people!" she bounced around the well and peered up at the odd people that had just appeared.
Jumping very ungracefully up onto the edge of the well, she put her hands on her hips. "Hey! You really don't look like you're from around here!" tail swishing behind her as she waited for one of the four people to say something, Tahra tilted her head to the side, her curiosity evident.

"Oh! I should go get the others!" already forgetting that she had asked a question, Tahra grinned at the group, "C'mon! You've got to come meet them!"
Bouncing down from the well, Tahra took off toward the village, pausing at the treeline to smile back at the group. "I'll go on ahead and get the others. I'll meet you at the village!"
It obviously didn't occur to the fox girl that they might not know where the village was. Racing to the village, Tahra went in search of her comrades, calling their names very loudly. Sitting on the ground in the middle of the village, she waited for her friends to show up so that she could drag them out to the well and show them the people she'd discovered. It wouldn't take long for the friends to find their way to the village after all, they could just follow the sound of Tahra's yelling. Anyway, the village was just on the other side of the trees; not far at all from the well.

"What strange people!" Deirdre's jaw-dropped. What...was that jumping about them like a hyperactive rabbit? Or, I guess it's a fox... She realized, focusing her emerald eyes on the fox ears, the creature still chattering. How hard did I hit my head on the side of that well again... She wondered, rubbing her head that had previously been smacked against the wall when the creature attacked, brushing her long black hair away from her face with her free hand, still not too sure what that was. She did kind of feel like her heading was spinning and half-expected to wake up any moment now and have her friends ask her why she seemed to think they'd grown ears.

Deirdre just then realized that she'd been so focused on her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed that the fox-human...thing - Or whatever it was - was now bounding away.

"Others...There's others?" Deirdre wondered aloud, feeling like she was staring blankly into thin air like a fool. Would the others be as strange as this one? And where...were they? Was this all a bizarre dream? Finally pushing aside her dizzy feeling, she turned and looked at her friends, Keisuke, Saeko and Molly, "Are you all right?" She asked, using her rare, concerned voice, taking a step toward her friends, attempting to smooth down her school uniform as she looked her friends over for injuries. They certainly weren't anywhere familiar, she thought to herself, having noted the...ye olde scenery earlier.

It had started out as an ordinary day. Go to school, then attend clubs, spar Saeko (which he lost), then shower and change into some normal clothes before meeting his friends at the front of the school. From there they would decide what to do, and today they had just happened to decide to hang out in the forrest near the sacred well. It was a place where he'd always felt that he could relax the most, but for some reason something strange had happened and they'd all somehow ended up at the bottom of the well. Keisuke had decided to stay behind and allow his friends to climb out first in so that he could catch them if any of them fell, no one needed any more injuries than the one's that they'd already sustained from the first fall. He watched each of them carefully looking for the first signs of one of them about to lose their footing so he could leap into action right away when he saw Deidre stop. "Deidre-chan, what is it? What's going on up there?" he shouted up to her unable to see pass her or anything at all that was outside the well.

Molly pulled herself up to the top of the well shakily. "Wow... is Japan always that amazing and slightly alarming and maybe terrifying?" she grunted snarkily. She was in one of her manic phases at the moment, which is why she had taken the dare to go down the well in the first place. This phase was often accompanied by light-hearted sarcastic remarks and little energetic quips. "'Cause if it is, I might not want to go back to Ame-" she stopped talking abruptly, staring in amazement at the little creature before her. Interested by the odd commotion, Molly quickly replied, "Oh, I'm not from around here, you're right. I'm from America!" She heard Keisuke yell something up from below, but she didn't answer. This was just too interesting.

'Oh! I should go get the others! C'mon! You've got to come meet them!' Molly's brows furrowed at the creatures small attention span. Then she started to run off, so Molly climbed quickly over the top of the well, trying to follow her. This attempt was done shakily, however, and ended in the girl smashing down onto the ground in a heap. Then she got up and dusted herself off. Looking around, she turned to Deidre. "I'm fine." she replied reassuringly. "But... this isn't the same well we fell down." She stared at the ground intently for a moment, thinking. Shaking her head, she asked, "You?"

Saeko watched as the small girl with fox ears jumped around excitedly, chattering away and asking questions that she immediately forgot about. Her hand automatically reached for the kendo sword that wasn't at her side, she had left it at school today. A growl of irritation came from her as the fox-girl ran off, seemingly to get 'the others.' She heard a small thud behind her and turned around to see Molly on the ground. Just as she went to help her friend up, Molly stood up. Saeko smiled when Molly indicated that she was okay. She noticed Keisuke wasn't out of the well yet. Walking over to the old well that had somehow brought them here, she looked down to see him still climbing.

"Come on Keisuke, I may be faster than you, but you're not usually this slow," she teased, crossing her arms over the edge of the well.

After a moment, she straightened up and turned around, looking at her other two friends. Being the oldest, she always tried to look out for them, make sure they don't get hurt, etc.. She couldn't see any injuries on her friends so, satisfied, she allowed herself a small smile.

"I'm not sure I want to find out who these 'others' are..." she spoke, putting air quotes around others.

"Well...I think we're still in Japan. Just not regular Japan." Deirdre murmured to her friends, hearing the fox child yelling off in the distance. Once she was positive that none of her friends were badly injured, she took off jogging toward the sound of the yelling fox child. She couldn't help but be intiruged by this mysterious world. Sure she was rather shaken by what had happened back at the well...the bizarre creature, and yes she was worried for her friends, but they still didn't know how to handle themselves out here...maybe they needed help from the fox creature or something. She wasn't sure if this was all a wild dream created by that good knock to the head she'd recieved or what, but this whole place looked eerily familiar, she thought to herself as she heard the fox child's shouts getting louder and louder before slipping through the trees and approaching the village.


Once inside the village, Deirdre let her eyes scan the new area she'd just stepped into, biting her lower lip in nervousness. People were looking at her oddly, murmuring amongst themselves about her school uniform and such. She listened, trying to tune out the village chatter and focus on finding the fox creature.

There! Deirdre spotted the fox demon and...she froze mid-step when she saw Jin, her emerald eyes widening slightly. Why was the perky fox talking to nicely toned, rather attractive man. She realized he wasn't much taller than her as she forced herself to move forward, hearing the villagers point out more things about her - rather loudly - that were strange.

As soon as everyone was out of the well he began climbing, figuring that this would be the only way that he'd get anyh answers since none of his frinds were answering him. He was half-way out when Saeko called down to him, teasining him. "Come on Keisuke, I may be faster than you, but you're not usually this slow," she teased, crossing her arms over the edge of the well.

I was making sure that none of you fell while climbing out Saeko-chan," he called back, ignoring the tease. As soon as he was out he took a good look around them, also noting the strange surroundings. Then he looked back and examined the well, and what he found he couldn't believe. "Saeko-chan, I think that this is the exact same well that we fell down, only it looks newer," Keisuke stated hesitatingly before quickly standing up in panic. "I say we find a place to lay low and try to figure out what exactly happened before we go off and do anything else," he suggested, but when he looked up he noticed that two of his friends were already walking off somewhere. "Hey! Come back here! We can't be just stumbleing about here, we need to get our barings first," he shouted after his friends as he ran after them.

Tahra glanced over her shoulder as Jin approached, pausing in her continuous call to offer him a wave of greeting. She did a double-take as she realized that he was shirtless.
"Well, I could probably yell a lot louder, but I figured that might scare off the weird people. You know, you could walk around like that a lot more often." she was still a bit distracted by the fact that there was a very well muscled guy standing there.
"Er. Anyway," she started talking faster, "there were these really strange people that came out of the old well. I was over there looking for acorns, since that's the best place to find them, and all the sudden I heard these weird noises coming from in the well and then these people climbed out and the girls were wearing these really tiny outfits and there's no way they'd been in the well a minute before 'cause I'd been there all along and I would've smelled them, right? So they climbed out and this one girl looked really freaked out when she saw me, so I asked them where they were from and one girl said some place. Ameri-something-or-other. Then I had them follow me but I went ahead to come get you guys and they haven't come yet, and you should really walk around shirtless more often. It really works for you, so you should 'cause you know, there are girls and you don't have one and I'm pretty sure everyone would appreciate it. Oh look, one of the strange people! Hi well-person!" she waved at Deirdre, who she had spotted walking into the village.
"And see, I'm not crazy, that's one of the well-people!" she bounced to her feet and ran over to the girl, who was already being talked about by the villagers, whom had come out of their huts to find out why Tahra was yelling.

Grabbing the girl's hand, she led her over to Jin. "Jin, meet one of the well-people. Well-person, meet Jin."

Crimson spread slowly across the ground, collecting flecks of dirt and following the jagged cracks left from an unknown source. As the dawn approached, tiny palms are raised forward to a tall shadow. Whispers of faded words echoed as if they were distant, despite being so clearly in front of the small kneeling figure. A swift force brought the hands to the crimson-stained ground and the shadow turned away.

"I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!" The cries of a child broke through the muted silence as the figure faded into a misty background. "Papa! Don't go!"

Jolting awake, Katsu panted heavily, sitting up from his lying position in the sunshine. He cradled his face in his palms as he regained his composure. The nightmare, a memory from far too long ago. He rubbed his eyes and yawned, blinking the restless sleep from his grey eyes before stretching and dragging himself to his feet. Absently, his hand slid through his hair to brush it out of his vision as he took stock of his surroundings. The half-demon had fallen asleep in a patch of soft grass just outside of the village at some point during the late evening. His white ears swiveled to catch the sounds nearby. "What a beautiful day." He yawned, spotting his current weapon of choice.

He groaned, tugging the wide onix blade out of a nearby tree. It was the easiest way to keep it from getting stolen, considering he doubted any human was strong enough to lift the unwieldy weapon, let alone pull it from being wedged in an old tree. Not that he was fond of the massive sword, considering it was incredibly difficult to wield and uselessly heavy, but he went through a considerable series of trials to drag the thing from the depths of a haunted crypt. The legends from which he learned of the sword had lost its name over time, making it worthless to him until he could manage to uncover it. These legends described it as a weapon that reshaped itself to the needs of its wielder. But until he could get the thing to work with him, it was a heavy slab of stone with an impractical amount of handles to grip it with.

A strange scent danced upon the wind. It was different from the small fox and the demon hunter he was familiar with. It was strong mix of smoke, sweat, something sour, and something sweet. He tilted his head, his long white tail swishing with an anticipation. "I smell something troublesome on the wind. I shouldn't investigate." He stated, straightening his top before sighing heavily. "Of course, I'm to investigate against my better judgement. I should just go and avoid all this trouble." He grumbled under his breath, unable to bring himself to simply leave. With a thick leather strap, he tied the massive blade to his back and took off in the direction of the bizarre new scent.

The half-breed leaned over a rooftop, looking down upon the small fox-demon and the demon slayer as a small handful of human-looking people approached the village from the direction of the well in the forest. He sat down, folding his legs and leaning his head against his palm. "They smell mostly human." He muttered, content to simply watch and avoid interacting. He didn't like the demon slayer much, considering his better half was in fact demonic. His feelings toward the small fox demon weren't particularly fond ones either, however, out of the acquaintances he had made over the previous six months, he found that she was the least likely to attempt to murder him. "This is going to ruin my day, I can just tell."

Saeko followed behind Deirdre the entire way to the village, keeping an eye on their surroundings so they would be able to get back to the well. She easily ignored the stares and comments from the villagers. She had gotten enough of them by being kendo captain that she was used to it by now. When Deirdre stopped, staring at the shirtless man, she continued walking. She snorted in a very unladylike manner, she had seen enough shirtless men to last her a life time and it no longer bothered her, or surprised her. When she saw the small fox girl, her eyes were immediately drawn to the ears on her head. This is a very weird place. What is she? she thought as she stopped a few feet from the shirtless man.

Quickly, her eyes trailed over the form of the man, not to see his body but to maybe find a clue as to where they were. She sighed quietly when nothing revealed itself and settled for watching the little fox girl. The girl was very.... hyperactive, and Saeko couldn't help but be reminded of herself when she was young. Not gonna think about that... she commented in her own mind, steering herself clear of the subject of her childhood.

Molly nodded to Saeko. "Well, she is kind of creepy-looking, but she seems friendly enough." Then Deirdre took off after the creature. "Hey, wait! Aren't we going to think about this?" Then Keisuke went too. "Hey- Wai-" Then Saeko. Molly shook her head. What was wrong with these people? "Hey!" she shouted, "Keisuke's right, we should probably think about this a little more!" Then she looked around and realized that she was now by herself. "Hey, uh... Nevermind, I'm coming too!" Sprinting off after them, she began to mutter under her breath. "Wow, a random fox creature! Let's go run after it! This isn't Disneyland, people!"

She soon broke into a clearing in which was a village of some sort.To her relief, Deirdre, Saeko and Keisuke were all present and unharmed. They appeared to have found the fox creature and they were now talking to a rather imposing young man - he was very muscular and had some sort of tatoo trailing down his right arm. Molly, a little out of breath, walked over to the group just in time to hear the little fox-girl say that his name was Jin. "Hello," Molly panted as politely as she could, "May name is Molly. Nice to meet you."

It was at that precise moment that Molly realized how ridiculous the whole situation was. These people could be vicious enemies posing as friends, or any number of things. They could be cultists, or cannibals, or... anything bad, really. Or this whole thing could be a hallucination. This wasn't the sort of thing she usually hallucinated, though, so that probably wasn't it. What was going on?

Deirdre stared at the fox child as they began pulling her toward the man - Tahra, she believed the man known as Jin had called her, seemed to be in hyper-active mode, and her friends seemed to be joining them now, she looked at Keisuke, Saeko and Molly in relief, glad they'd decided to join her as she looked up at Jin rather dumbly, not too sure why her mind seemed to have gone fuzzy, all she could seem to hear was the chatter of the village, not really noting the fox childs happy voice or the man's now.

"What village are you all from?" The man known as Jin asked as a cat-creature jumped onto his shoulder. "Wherever it is, you sure have strange and well, revealing, clothing." He laughed at that. Are we in the past? What the hell...they seemed to be in another dimension or something. She blinked her emerald green eyes in confusion, "I'm not too sure where we are." She informed Jin, reaching up and touching her aching head, and then removing her pale hand from her dark hair when she felt something damp. Her hand came away red. Huh, how'd I miss that earlier? She thought, assuming she must've hit it on the well when they fell. She shook her head, now knowing why she felt dizzy. Oh, well. Just don't pass out and we'll be alright. She thought, a little amused and nervous at the thought. She'd fainted once and that was a process she did not want to repeat. She didn't like the feeling of just blacking out.

Glancing up and about, she thought she saw another boy with ears...black and white ears? She turned away from the fox-child and Jin to try and get a better look...One of her friends could try to get more information, she thought.

Just as he was catching up, Keisuke noticed Deirdre pull her hand away from her head and caught a glimpse of blood. 'Damnit, this is exactly why I wanted us to get our barings first, so that we can check to see if we had any less obvious wounds from that fall!' he hissed to himself in his mind as he sped up even more.

When he caught up, he caught a glimpse of something watching them from above which put him on edge even more that he usually was as he took his friend's hand and yanked her back behind him protectively. As a crowd started to gather around them he backed up to where his other friends were, trusting Saeko to watch his back and forcing Deirdre back with him. "I don't know why you ran off like you did, but let Saeko-chan take a look at you. She might be able to do something about that head injury of your's," he hissed behind him as he threw a worried glance over his shoulder.

Turning back to the front Keisuke took in their situation and figured that if worse came to worse he could probably take on the regular looking people but it would be pretty difficult by himself. Then he saw the tall man that the fox creature had been talking to and knew that he'd more than likely need Saeko's help in dealing with that opponent. The fox creature didn't look like it was too much of a theat, but not wanting to underestimate it he made careful note of where it looked and which way it moved. However, it wasn't the ones out in the open that had him so on edge (though they contributed a great deal to his stress as well), but it was whatever he'd seen hiding above them that really had him nervous. It was the one that was hiding that could attack from any angle at any time and he'd have no way of knowing it until it was too late.

Instead of just making a run for it Keisuke decided that the best way to get out of this situation alive and well was to answer their questions as well as he could. "Well, we were just taking a walk in the wood over that way when we got lost and somehow ended up here, so if you don't mind I really think that we should be going now, *domo sumimasen for disrupting your day **O-sama," he explained in as relaxed a manner as he could giving him an easy grin.


*-I am very sorry (formal)
**-a polite title used to refer to a stranger (Keisuke didn't hear Jin being introduced)

It started out as a horrendous day. Lord Bishamon found out he had to go to town, to get some supplies for travelling, and what town could be closest, but the one that half-blood trash liked to frequent. Oh how he loathed even being in the prescence of half-demons that reeked of human, and the very humans themselves. Weaklings all of them, and impossible to oppose him, the mighty-wait.

That smell.. thought Lord Bishamon. It smells like regular humans, but with an overlay of something like smog, and possibly a very expensive soap. Strange. Sticking to the trees, he went to obseve these new arrivals, coming out of a well of all places. Maybe these were special humans, he thought at first, but Lord Bishamon quickly changed his mind. They didn't seem all that determined, but the way that one woman reached to her side, as if like a practiced swordswoman, interested him. Maybe she could make for an interesting spar, he speculated, a grin lighting his face.

Following their progress to the village, he wondered how the village would greet new arrivals. If they greeted them as well as they greeted demons, they were in for a suprise. "As if they could tell a real demon from a travelling monk.." he mumbled under his breath. Asessing the humans further, Bishamon discovered that they wouldn't be of much interest. Although his nosy goody-two-shoes brother seemed to be interested, he always was one to take on the charity cases. Like a weakling, that always seemed to get in his way. Caught in his thoughts, Bishamon realized he had been standing a bit outside of this treeline, and quickly stepped back out of site. Damnit! he thought. Hopefully those weaklings didn't see me there.

Deirdre wiggled away from Keisuke, "It's fine, Keisuke-kun, it's not serious I don't think." She told him, shaking her head. She saw how on edge Keisuke looked, and didn't want to cause further alarm, thinking that Keisuke was acting like a cornered dog. She guessed that was just how some people handled being thrown into an odd new place like this and having crowds calling them demons...come to think of it, was she just handling this abnormally? She probably was. He seemed to be relaxing a bit now, she thought before glancing at Jin and Tahra and then back around at her surroundings, thinking she'd seen something out of the corner of her eye. She frowned slightly and then looked for the black and white ears again.

Katsu's grey eyes narrowed slightly as Jin acknowledged his presence on the rooftop. He didn't exactly make an effort to conceal himself, plainly sitting on the rooftop to get a decent enough view of the outlandish people without having to introduce himself if he found they bored him however, he wasn't overly fond of the demon slayer as it was and had hoped he wouldn't draw too much attention to himself in the first place. As the villagers began to gather, whispering in panicked voices, Katsu sighed. He frequently forgot exactly how stupid and paranoid some humans could be. He knew the difference immediately between a human and a demon because of his acute sense of smell, but humans weren't blessed with any sort of ability to tell the more powerful demons from their ilk. As he pondered how humans managed to survive in the world for so long without any sort of smarts or senses, he spotted an all-too-familiar figure in the treeline. He started, more surprised that he hadn't caught scent of his brother before he saw him. Perhaps the scent of the strange humans had confused his nose. Yes, it must have been the strangers throwing him off. Otherwise, it would be a sign that he had gone soft from hanging around the ungrateful little village for far too long. The half-breed pushed himself to his feet, deciding to play the observer no more. If his brother was interested in these creatures, it was sure to be trouble for him and the village. Better to solve the problem sooner than let it get more trouble than it is worth.

He hopped down from the roof, startling a pair of yammering old women who were whispering their theories about the strange group of humans. The two of them fled, more frightened by Katsu's sudden drop than by his presence. He sighed, knowing they would demand an apology when they calmed down, something he would not look forward to. Apologizing to humans seemed like such a waste of time. Half-blooded creatures never really did anything right in either community of creature. He could save the village from certain destruction and they would likely ask him to drop to his knees over the damage he did doing so.

The half-breed allowed his attention to first be drawn to the bleeding girl. She seemed to be the most willing to interact with the fox and the demon slayer, although the one male with them seemed the most polite. The male also seemed the most worried about her wound. He approached, appearing more annoyed than interested. "What have we told you about adopting the troubles of strangers, fox?" He mused, hardly acknowledging Jin as he passed the demon slayer. "I always end up cleaning up your mess." He hand reached out and he touched Deirdre's wound, pulling his hand back to examine the crimson fluid on his fingertips. It was a gentler gesture than he had anticipated it to be. His ears lied back against his head and he wiped his fingers upon his pants. "You stink of blood. You'll draw unwanted attention if you don't clean yourself up." He said, his voice cold, but soft, as if he was scolding a younger sibling for being careless. He turned away from her to address a now hiding figure. "Isn't that right, Bisha-nii?" He stood away from the group, but didn't approach the trees where his elder sibling had stashed himself away. "Don't you have someone to terrorize? Or have you come to visit?" He called out to the trees. The half-breed was hoping that his sibling would take offence and leave rather than start an altercation. He would prefer not to have to clean up after a squabble with his sibling, especially over something stupid, like a handful of strangers in bizarre clothing that the little fox decided to keep.

He was about to pull his friend back behind him when someone jumped down from above scaring away two women. When the new arrival began to approach Keisuke noticed that it was the same person that he'd caught a glimpse of when he'd rushed over here and immediatly became more tense. He watched every movement looking for any sign of ill-intent towards them and prepared himself to leap into action when he reached out his hand to touch Deirdre. As the new arrival moved his hand back and gave some advice he pulled his friend behind him once more. "All head injuries are serious, no matter how small. Now please let Saeko-chan take a look at you Deridre-chan," he asked.

As he turned back to the person(?) in front of him, he was about to ask that he not act too familiar with them when he called over to someone. Immediatly he turned his sights in that direction, looking for the new threat that he hadn't noticed before as he cursed himself. His posture became more anxious until he noted that the person in front of him didn't seem to like the newest arrival all that much so he figured that he wouldn't have to worry about them teaming up against them. If they were lucky then the two would start fighting each other and they could make a quiet get-away.

Molly took the cue from Keisuke and moved in to protect Deirdre, becoming more defensive. Keisuke was right. This situation was not a friendly one. At least, not yet. Then she nodded in agreement to Keisuke's caution. "He's right, Deirdre. You've already lost a lot of blood, and you don't necessarily know if you have a concussion or not." Then she turned and examined the approaching figure. When she did this, she finally became aware of the huddled villagers, making little comments and confused speculations as to where they came from and whatnot. She looked down at her clothes, then around at the clothes of the villagers. The villagers' clothing was very different, and maybe... older. Brushing that thought aside, she looked back at the new white-eared man, who was now yelling over to a patch of trees. Molly stood on her tip-toes, trying to see around him to look who he was addressing. She soon discovered she was too short for this and turned back to Deirdre. "Please let me look at that headwound. If something... bad happens here," she gestured to the yelling brothers. "you'll need to be fully functional."

Tahra watched things unfolding, confused by most of the proceedings. Why were the strange people from the well afraid of them when they were obviously trying to help?

"Haven't you ever seen a demon before?" slipped out of her mouth before she knew what she was saying.

Noting that one of the girls was bleeding, she was about to dash off to get a damp cloth, but Katsu chose that moment to make his appearance.

"But Katsu, they came from in the well and there was no scent around it, so they had to have appeared in the well, but how could they do that if they're just humans?" the little fox demon was thoroughly confused.

Turning back to the humans, the corner of her mouth turned down in a frown, but only for a moment. "Why are you so scared of us? We aren't going to hurt you. I brought you here to help. Don't worry, we won't eat you. Well, actually, I can't say much for Katsu, but still. Jin's human like you, Katsu is a half-demon, and I'm a fox demon. There's nothing to fear here." noting the blood once more, Tahra turned and scampered off.

Returning a minute later with a damp cloth, Tahra jumped up onto Molly's shoulder, not bothering to think how she might react, and began dabbing at the blood on Deirdre's forehead.

Saeko watched the exchanges between everyone in silence. For the most part, she ignored everything except for the wound on Deirdre's head and the movement she saw out of the corner of her eye. It was just within the tree line, and she had just barely seen it, but something or someone had been there. After a moment she turned her attention back to her friend. She took a few steps closer and grabbed her friends hand, making her turn so she would be able to see the wound.

"I can't see anything too bad, but the guy with the tail is right. I'll need to get it get it cleaned up and bandaged," she said quietly, stepping away from her friend after a moment.

The moment the fox girl landed on Molly's shoulder, her eyes narrowed. With ease, she lifted the her off Molly's shoulder and set her on the ground, stepping in between her friend and the fox girl.

"We can manage little one," she said with a small small, taking the cloth from the girl without another word.

Turning, she gently began to rub away the blood on her friends head. She kept glancing around, not trusting anyone around them. She cursed herself for leaving her kendo sword at school today, instead of taking it home to practice. The moment she could get her hands on a sword, they would be safe.

Deirdre studied the boy as he neared them, her eyes going lastly to his black and white ears, intrigued by them. What could these people be, she wondered to herself as they neared then, his words seemed gruff, but she thought little of it, knowing full well how people could just be sometimes. Sometimes she said things that came out a little rougher than intended as well, however she jumped slightly when he touched her head, blinking her emerald eyes at him in confusion, "I know." She sighed in response to Katsu's comment about the blood. It wasn't intentional... She thought, starting to get irritated by how Keisuke kept pushing her back behind them. Deirdre couldn't stand being pushed back like she was a weakling. She narrowed her eyes and was about to snap at her friends before she thought better of it and bit her tongue.

"Fine." Deirdre said, evenly to Molly and Saeko, "But nothing more, just look at it and do what you need to do." She told them. And leave it alone afterwards, it's not a big deal. She thought before looking at the fox child, staring at them. Demons...Damn, was I drinking before I went to bed last night? She wondered.

'...just look at it and do what you need to do.'

"Alright..." Molly said, starting to look closely at the wound. "Hey, uh... could you bend down a little? I'm too short to really - Gyaah!" Molly jumped when the innocent seeming fox-creature leaped onto her shoulder. She had a damp cloth in her hand, and Molly's first thought was that it had chloroform on it and the little fox was trying to mug her. "S - s - stay away!" she yelled, cringing and squeezing her eyes shut. After a moment she realized that there wasn't anyone attacking her. In fact, the little fox wasn't even there anymore. Saeko was in between her and the creature. "Oh, uh..." she laughed nervously, "I wasn't actually afraid, sorry, I just... Haha, yeah..." She looked around with an uneasy smile, but then she got that feeling again. The one like she was watching herself. That usually meant that she was about to switch from whichever phase - manic or depressed - she was in to the other one. She felt her heart drop down into her stomach and her smile faded. She moved closer to Keisuke warily, suddenly distrustful of the villagers. "So, what do you think?" she asked Keisuke in a low voice. "We talk to their leader, make a break for it, wait and see what happens? What?"

He tensed when he saw something go pass him and he wanted to turn around right then and stop it, but he knew that he needed to watch their front. The only reason that he was able to stop himself was because he knew that his friends could handle themselves and that Saeko, especially would make sure that all of them were safe. Sure enough, almost as soon as he heard Molly cry out he could hear Saeko refusing the fox then Molly nervusly trying to cover up her small fright, a quick glance back showed Saeko standing between the fox and their friends. Keisuke was able to further relax when Deirdre reluctantly agreed to allow her friends to take care of her, he knew that she hated to be taken care of but there was a line between being looked after and being watched out for. It was something that they both had trouble distinguishing most of the time. When he felt Molly slide up to him nervously, he knew immediatly that something was wrong, and he soon found out that she had now slipped from manic mode to depressed by the tone of her voice. Reaching back he grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly as he whispered to her, "Molly-chan, try to relax some, we'll wait and see what happens first. It looks like these two guys are going to sart fighting and when they do we might be able to slip away unnoticed."