Molly McCloud's Story

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?"

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?

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."

'...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?"

Molly took a deep breath and nodded at Keisuke. It seemed like a good plan, and Keisuke seemed to have it semi-under control. Trying to keep calm, Molly closed her eyes and took a deep breath... Then another... But then she nearly jumped out of her skin when Jin's voice suddenly sounded behind them. Molly, angry at what he said and angry at being startled yet again by these strangers, wheeled around, saying, "Excuse me?? You wanna say that again, ninja-man?" But then stopped as Keisuke trained an expert kick on the stranger. "Ah!" Molly exclaimed, jumping back when Jin countered his attack. Then a small creature, somewhat like a cat with two tails, popped up. It was overwhelmingly cute until it transformed into a giant cat thing with ferocious teeth. Apparently its name was Kirara. "Okay, hold on a second!" Molly said in a loud, displeased voice. "You just beat my friend down and your cat just transformed! That's not okay! Do you get it?! Not! Okay!" Her voice quavered as she tried not to cry. In her depressed stage she was more prone to breaking into tears at any stress stimulator, no matter how insignificant. "So I want everyone... to just... stop! Okay?!" There was really no reason for her to be crying, and she knew it, but she couldn't help herself. She had forgotten her medicine that morning, and she wasn't getting anymore in this messed up place. "GOT IT?!?!" Then she looked around at the shocked faces of the villagers, and knew she had gone a little bit over the line. A little bit. No, a lot. In fact, she had probably broken the metaphorical line, burned its corpse, and cursed its family. Poor line.

.

Molly was breathing rather heavily from shouting, and her vision was a little blurry from that and the further anger of Jin's response. She turned away from him, wiping the tears furiously from her face, and then was surprised to see a new figure standing in the group. He looked like a... magician? Some sort of wizard, maybe? It was possible, after all. They had just fallen down a well and dropped into ancient Japan. Whoever he was, he appeared to have just been randomly hitting on every girl in the group that he talked to. Molly rolled her eyes, exhaling sharply. No one here was a good person. But then he serioused up and asked them several questions at once.

Keisuke's hand did a lot to comfort the girl, and Molly felt guilty for screaming and shouting and making such a show of everything, so she spoke up in a calm voice, "Yes. We are humans. As for where we come from, we would prefer to speak about that in private, and not with such an... audience." she finished, gesturing around at the villagers, who were still gawking. "And we might not want to discuss that at all with you." she added as an afterthought. Sharing the fact that they were interchronological travelers with a creeper was probably not the best of ideas.

The half-blood bristled; visibly upset that Bishamon had yet to respond. A thought crossed his mind, and he wondered if his brother had actually just run off and his scent was simply lingering among the trees. If his elder sibling decided to fight and cause trouble, Katsu wasn’t entirely sure how it would end. Lord Bishamon was considerably stronger, faster, and better with his weapons than he was. The only thing Katsu really had going for him in a fight was his ability to keep a level head on most days of the month. His brother, however, was relatively hot-headed, where most of the mistakes in battle were made. Out of the few encounters the two of them had, few of them had been violent, and none of them Katsu actually won on his own. Granted, at this time he had the demon slayer Jin with him. The two were tentative allies for the time being, although Katsu was not sure how long that would last. They had few reasons to work together, aside from the fact that Katsu generally didn’t cause trouble for humans and preferred to be left alone. That and he had recently developed a ‘helpful’ reputation among the local human villages. It wasn’t that he went out of his way to help; it was simply more troublesome to have the people around him suffer while he was around. It made his stays in villages much more comfortable, considering that despite his demonic appearance, those he helped were more than happy to provide him with a little bit of food and shelter. Although, as often as someone was happy to help, there was an equal amount of people who were displeased with his methods or still quite perturbed that a demon—even if it was only a half-breed—was anywhere near their village.

He drew the onyx blade from his back and drove it into the soft earth before him. It would simply slow him down as it was and it wasn’t like it was particularly sharp or worthwhile as a weapon at the moment. Eventually he intended to find the name of the blade to bend its sealed power to his will. But until then, it was mostly dead weight. His claws could handle most adversaries. With the silence from his brother, his attention was drawn once more to the cluster of strange people. Tahra was busy attempting to tend to the wounded one, whose blood was toying with his sense of smell. When she addressed the fact that they had seemingly appeared from the bottom of the well with no previous scent, he scoffed, shaking his head. Obviously humans couldn’t do that. He took the lull in his ‘conversation’ with his sibling to examine the group more closely. He didn’t move from his spot as the male lashed out at Jin, holding back a laugh of amusement. To think the strangely dressed human could even touch the demon slayer. From what Katsu had observed, he would have trouble hitting Jin if he tried. And he was a half-demon. Then again, Katsu was more than capable of ripping through the demon slayer apart if he really wanted to. He was unable to keep back a chortle as Jin put the human in his place, on the ground. One of the human girls seemed to freak out, which caught Katsu off guard. The male on the ground pleaded for space and he gave the lot of them a skeptical look.

Troublesome. How very troublesome they are. What have you done, fox? He thought, frowning as he sighed heavily. He gave Jin a bitter look, but managed to hold his tongue. The monk approaching was a strange development. What is this? A show? How many more humans are going to disturb my lovely day? He tilted his head, remaining silent for the time being. It was becoming less and less amusing, this day. The monk seemed to be more interested in the ladies than the others around, leaving Katsu with a bad taste in his mouth. Not that he cared all too much. He wanted to lie down and go back to his vivid nightmares. They seemed more preferable than the panicked humans that stank of strange smells. He blinked slowly as the monk offered to take the lot of them away from the half-breed and his two ‘companions.’

“Tch. They’ve got even less of a reason to trust you than us. Not that I care much. Go with him if you want. Less trouble for me.” He scoffed, turning his attention back to the tree line. “They’re too jumpy anyway. The fox should have left them in the forest where they came from.”

Kiske chuckled inwardly when Katsu made his aggressive claim. He was more than welcome to try but the monk had trained most of his entire life to prevent demons from tearing him and others around him apart. He'd at the very least make it a challenge for the youkai and besides that he doubted the half demon really meant his words. But at his acceptance of help Kiske could hardly contain his excitement. This was just the chance he had been looking for ever since he had started designing enchanted weaponry. A close up look of a legendary weapon and a chance to study it in depth. True he only had rumors of stories to go on but he was sure with the actual object within reach he would be able to unravel the mystery much quicker then just reading the stories.

"Oh I'm glad to hear you say that and I would be more than happy to assist you." Kiske said but then turned his attention back to the strange humans who seemed to be frozen in place, not moving and not speaking. "But you are right, we need to take care of these humans first as they are sure to attract attention from the nearby youkai..."

As the half demon turned to call to the humans Kiske cringed when he mentioned that bit about the youkai. You just had to mention that to an already half terrified group of strangers, didn't you...Something tells me your people skills are a bit on the lacking side. Kiske thought to himself as he stepped forward to place a hand on the youkai's shoulder. "Do you have a house in mind, my good youkai? Is there a large enough residence that you have access to? If not might I suggest we find a nice inn where we can rent some rooms for the night? Assuming of course this village has such a location."

Kiske paused to address the group of humans as a thought occurred to him. "It just occurred to me that not a single one of us has asked what the group of you wish to do so I do believe now is as good a time as any to find out wouldn't you say? So how about it? Would you like to stay with this odd group of friendly people until we get this whole mess straightened out or would you rather strike out on your own and hope to find your way?"

The half-demon was taken aback by the young male human’s willingness to trust him over the monk. While neither of them had done anything that would earn a great amount of trust, the typical response was ‘die, demon, die,’ and ‘save us, holy man.’ Not a polite, ‘I’d rather follow the demon, thanks.’ Not one person he’d ever met had essentially complimented him on his honesty. He was greeted more with malice and sarcasm for it. He blinked, confused a moment, and then shook it off, addressing something that had been grinding upon his nerves for quite some time. “Tsk. Half-youkai, youkai, canine-man, I have a name you know. I’d appreciate it if you lot’d use it for once.” Katsu scowled. It took him a moment to realize that he had not introduced himself properly to the group, as he was more concerned with his brother’s presence and the Tahra’s jabbering mouth. He ran a hand through his hair and let it rest upon his neck for a moment. “My name is Katsu. Nothing more, nothing less.” He said simply, not caring much to find out what the others were called. Although he knew their names, he still addressed Tahra as ‘Fox’ and Jin as ‘Demon Slayer.’ He was uncomfortable being familiar enough with a person to refer to them by name. It meant being attached, and being attached often meant weakness or coming despair. This he learned the hard way many times in his early years. Keeping them at an arms length was much easier to deal with than having to suffer someone he was fond of. Why he felt obligated to keep them out of trouble at this point was beyond his comprehension.

“There is a small shack you all can stay in. I think the demon slayer left some food behind, it should be enough to hold you off until tomorrow.” He stated simply, turning heel and expecting the others to follow. “I’ve traded one human for five. Bisha-nii will surely believe I’ve gone soft.” He muttered under his breath. “We won’t all fit in there comfortably, but I prefer sleeping outside anyway. It’s really only built for two or three people.” He paused, mulling over his options and what the monk had said earlier. “I’m not going to baby-sit you all. If you wander off, I will let you die. If you’re not happy with that, I suggest you go look for someone else to cry to.” He slid the door open to the small shack-like house, revealing it to be mostly empty, save for a fire pit and a bit of travelling food. Katsu frowned, and looked over the group of six. “You can fight over the space yourselves. I’ll be on the roof if you need me. But I suggest not needing me.”

Molly watched the odd exchange between the monk and the dog-man, hoping to find out some information about the world around her. Their use of the words 'aura' and 'unseal' made her very excited. They appeared to be in a magic world. She glanced at Keisuke, trying to determine if now was the time to run, but he was stunned or observing or something. So Molly went back to observing as well. But then the dog-man offered them shelter, and Keisuke accepted in his typical Jonny-Polite manner. Molly nodded, stepping forward. "And I would like to request that we hold off of the questions until everyone is settled and the village is not still gawking." she added.

“It’s um, nice to meet you, I suppose.” The half-breed smiled slightly, although more out of a hesitant politeness than out of genuine interest. He nodded slightly at the humans as they headed inside the shack and then climbed up to the rooftop to make himself comfortable, laying his blade across the rooftop beside him. The stars began peeking out from amongst the clouds in the blackening sky and torches were being lit and put out around the village. The half-breed glanced around, testing the scent of the air. The strange smell still lingered, but was faint, and nearly indescribable. Similar to the scents that poured off the four strange humans, different and impossible to describe in words. He glanced to the monk as he was joined on the roof, but decided to take little notice of him until Kiske opened his mouth.

Katsu’s eyes narrowed and he resisted the urge to shove the monk off the side of the roof, resigning himself to lying back with his arms behind his head. “I don’t have a soft spot.” He said simply, watching the night sky absently. “Humans are mostly weak, worthless creatures, incapable of keeping themselves from falling over tree roots. Killing humans is like crushing insects, a waste of time and effort.” He shifted his weight to examine one of his hands and pick at his nails with his thumb. “I hold no malice toward humans either. They pose little to no threat to me, so why should I bother? It’s not like humans can really prevent me from doing anything I want, so what does it matter that they dislike my kind? As for trying to become more demonic, I don’t have the time to waste trying to purge the human blood from my veins. It is who I am, and what I must live with.” He paused, looking over to Kiske. “You haven’t tried to kill me. I haven’t met a single holy man or priestess who gave me a second thought. I guess you must have a soft spot for youkai.” He remarked, closing his eyes. His thoughts turned to the beautiful human woman he could remember from his darkest nightmares. Perhaps he did harbor some soft spot for his human half. After what he did, perhaps it was guilt that kept him from abandoning the group of humans. Either way, he wasn't particularly ready to admit he was unlikely to leave them stranded to die.

“I don’t hate humans… they’re just bothersome. Youkai aren’t much better, you know. Just because they are stronger doesn’t mean they are any less insipid.” He said simply, sliding his hand back behind his head, his eyes remaining closed.

Molly smiled a little at the monk as he demonstrated his goodwill. Maybe he could be a nice guy, after all. Then she sat down next to Keisuke and waited. "I'm sure she'll be fine." Molly whispered to him when she saw him apologize to the little fox creature. Then Molly realized that in all the confusion, they hadn't ever learned her name. "Hey," she said softly to the little one. "I never got your name."

A while passed and the little creature just kept staring out the window. Assuming she hadn't heard Molly, Molly rolled over, and tried to go sleep. She had always had trouble sleeping, and today's excitement was not helping. That and the fact that she heard two voices talking outside and Deirdre had just left. There was a long stretch of silence, then 'Three hours.' made her jump a little. She sat up to see Keisuke leaving, too. "Got it." she said in reply. Really she was a little disturbed that he was leaving. He had been kind of her mental center during this whole thing, and now he was gone. Oh, well. She could just go to sleep, and then her brain would be quiet. Her medicine was wearing off, and she didn't have any with her. She took it in the morning and at night, and so didn't carry any around during the day, and so didn't have any when she fell down the well. She was unlikely to find any here in... wherever they were. It seemed very medieval. It wouldn't have anti-pcychotics or mood-stabilizers. Molly had told her friends about her bipolar mood swings, but she hadn't warned them about her hallucinations, as she was afraid that they would make fun of her. Now they would find out when she started having them again. She was smart enough to cover it up for a little while, but not very long. Mulling this over, she leaned back down and tried to sleep.

She awoke maybe half-an-hour later to a hushed, intense conversation going on outside the hut. After a few seconds of wondering where she was, she soon remembered and got up, yawning. She must not have slept for very long, because the light hadn't changed. She sneaked out of the shack, stepping carefully over her sleeping friends, and peeked outside. She saw Kiske and Keisuke speaking. Keiuke had an urgent air about him, and he was slightly wet. Odd. She ducked back into the shack, deciding to listen in. She felt bad eavesdropping on her friend, but she didn't want to interrupt whatever was happening.

Scars? Molly thought. What scars? It seemed that Keisuke had some sort of physical, hidden scarring that he was ashamed of, and that he had gained them by incompetence - If she had interpreted the conversation correctly. This new bit of information made her think. Maybe that was why he was so calm. He had trained himself against whatever had happened ever happening again. But he wasn't just calm, he also had an undercurrent of... desperation, maybe? Desperation to prove something? To meet some mark? Whatever it was, it was a dark spot on his spirit, and it made Molly look at him in a different way. But then she felt bad: Now she knew one of his deepest secrets. She had hidden and eavesdropped to know. What if he knew about her hallucinations? Or her delusions? She blushed hotly at the mere thought.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming toward the shack. She hid in the shadows and watched the monk go by. Looking back at her place on the floor, she decided that it was unlikely she was going to get any sleep tonight. So she stood up and yawned, walking outside the shack. When she saw Keisuke standing in the place she had seen him earlier, she pretended to have just woken up. "Hey." she said in a dreamy voice. "I tried to sleep, but I heard voices and footsteps out here. 'S everything alright?"

Molly's brows furrowed. "The monk? What was he like? Do you think he's a good guy after all?" she asked, clumsily deflecting Keisuke's question. She was actually curious about the monk, so that served as sufficient cover for her scattered answer. Also, she had just woken up. But she didn't particularly feel like discussing her wavering mental health - not so early. She didn't want to make Kei-suke afraid of her, and she didn't want him to think that she was weak. She also didn't want to lie to him, who had been so kind to her. He had been one of her first friends at the school, since she was an exchange student. "And I was probably going to wake up anyway, so that's okay." she said in answer to his apology. "It's kind of hard to sleep here."

Molly laughed lightly. "Yeah, I need smog to survive. A sparring partner? Wow, I didn't know you were that serious about sparring. I mean, I knew you were serious, but... oh, well." She thought for a moment. "I... don't remember his name... Katsu? Kitsune? Kitty? Kis - Kis - Kiske, maybe? Yeah, that was it. Kiske." She smiled. "Yeah, it's hard to remember faces and names in the middle of this weirdness. This is all so weird... It makes me wonder-" Then she trailed off for a moment. "Why us? I mean, I've always dreamed of going to different worlds, but this isn't exactly what I'd imagined. Why did this happen? And why to us?"

Kiske returned to his spot at the side of the shack and sat back down on the ground, leaning back against the shack's wall with a sigh. It had been a long, and very, interesting, day and he was more than happy to simply relax and let the night pass in comfortable silence. His plan was interrupted however when another of the human female's exited the shack to approach Keisuke. Kiske was once again tempted to approach but mentally reigned himself in. Better to not alienate this strange group of people with his bad habits so soon if he ever wanted his curiosity about their appearance to be sated. Besides there were other women around who were probably more amiable to a monk of his stature.

Kiske let his thoughts drift back to his earlier encounter with the two women on the road and wondered where they had gotten to. Mayhaps they had not yet returned which could be a sign they were in trouble but even if they were he didn't have any way to follow them. Although the half demon did seem to have a keen nose. Maybe he would assist? Kiske shook his head to get that ridiculous thought out of his head. There was no way he could convince the demon to go hunting down two people he had never met much less simply for the monk to meet them again.

Keisuke and the other girl's conversation was only mumbles to the monk from where he sat but he could hear the conversation going on the roof quite clearly although it also seemed to be going no where. With another sigh Kiske closed his eyes while leaving his other senses open until he entered a type of meditative doze state. Not fully asleep but not fully awake either. It was how he spent his nights when he was alone on the road to avoid being attacked while he slept and it would work admirable for allowing him to maintain attention to those around him without giving away he was listening.