Friday already? Hell.
Jan. 8th, 2010 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mythicfoxI've been using Google Chrome for the last several days. It's alright, it has its moments, but about half the reason why I'm still using it is because I'm too lazy to switch back to Firefox as much as anything else. I've come to realize that I don't actually miss too many of my Firefox extensions, and to my understanding Chrome's supposed to be supporting extensions as well in an upcoming release.
Which is good, because I really miss having an ad-blocker. I understand that many sites exist because of ad revenue. I'm fine with that on principle. What I can't stand are Flash ads. About 95% of everything I've had go wrong with a website in the last few years can be traced back to a Flash ad banner (particularly the ones that expand when moused over even if you don't click on them). The worst offenders, IMHO, are ad banners that are little more than an animated .GIF that requires the Flash player to view. I'm not sure those represent more than someone conning a larger salary out of a marketing department on the grounds that "I can use Flash to make ads!"
But you're not here to listen to me venting and such about advertisements. Nope. It's Friday, which means you're probably here for the latest installment of "Let Sleeping Foxes Lie." To make up for the talkiness of last week's entry, this one's a little more action-packed.
(See, this is where I pretend I wrote it this way just to make up for it, when really I wrote these scenes like months ago. And if you thought last week was bad, you should see me when I don't restrain myself. Seriously, Tarantino would be like "Dude, do these people ever stop talking?")
Ah, out of the frying pan... I went into the office to find it empty except for Shiko. I put on an apologetic smile as I plugged the gadget into the appropriate cradle and uploaded to the desktop the distributor uses for such things. I avoided looking at the secretary, feeling more than a little awkward.
Just let this morning go, I thought 'at' Shiko. I don't really want to get into what's going on right now, please just let it slide.
"I'm sorry about earlier," Shiko said behind me.
Fuck.
"Yeah, well, I was having a bad morning. It's not your fault," I said, fidgeting with the equipment.
"If I hadn't screwed things up, it would have been a much better one." First there was the brush of fingers on my shoulders, then a gentle but firm grip. "The tea would have been strong, you'd have regained your full instincts without any problems before work, and everything would have been integrated when you got here."
He sounded legitimately sincere, but I knew better than to assume anything along those lines from any kitsune. I'd seen Shiko's moods shift with a hummingbird's quickness enough times already today to take any of them at face value. Even still, I had to resist the urge to lean back into those hands out of a need to seek out any sort of potential comfort.
"Is there something I can help you with, Shiko?" I asked, putting effort into conveying annoyance. It wasn't hard, given the tension with Kazuhiro, but either way Shiko didn't get the hint that I wanted him to back off.
"I just feel like I've been the one who's made this the hardest on you," he said, leaning in, his voice becoming a breathy whisper. "I want to make it up to you. Maybe we could get a bite to eat, or a drink or a cup of coffee or something like that? My treat."
He gave my shoulders a squeeze and I could feel his breath slightly ruffling the fur on the back of my neck. I self-consciously moved my tails to keep from brushing them against his thighs. My jaw tightened as I glanced around for the easiest way to slip out of his grip without having to just shove him off.
"Trust me, the physical way won't work," Shiko said, suddenly sounding playful.
"What?"
"You were looking for the easiest way to get out of this," he said with another squeeze to my shoulders. "Maybe some dramatic move to get out of my grip or something. I've been doing this a long time; saying 'yes' is the easiest way to get me to leave you alone."
"Doing what a long time?"
"Getting men to do what I want," he whispered in my ear.
"How do I know that you're not just psyching me out so I'll say 'yes'?" This was going much differently than I'd expected.
"Because if you thought I was, you'd be more 'angry' and less... 'bantering.'" He was grinning; I could hear it in his tone.
"Okay, okay, fine."
"What was that?"
"'Yes.' Yes, I'll let you take me out to make this morning up to me. Happy?"
"Extremely. It'll be worth your while, trust me."
His hands pulled away and I felt his fingers brush through the fur of one of my tails. I was nearly paralyzed by the new -- and not entirely unpleasant -- sensation for a moment. I shuddered and turned around as he released me, but he'd already moved back to the desk as somebody else came in. I ignored the newcomer and slipped out of the office into the warehouse proper, feeling very uncomfortable with an unexpected tightness in my pants.
I returned to the truck and without a word helped Kazuhiro load it up with most of the basics so there'd be less to do the next day. The effort got my mind off of things enough to relax. We got it done quickly, and by the end things were a little less awkward now that we'd had time to cool down. We were both calm; we just didn't know what to say to each other. Kazuhiro broke the silence first.
"Shiko's a bit of a bitch, isn't she?" he asked.
"Yeah," I reflexively answered. "How much of..." I nodded towards the window that opened up into the office. "...did you see?"
"Enough to get an idea of what she wanted."
I resisted the urge to comment one way or another on his choice of pronouns.
"Any advice on how to handle this?" I asked, frowning.
"I've never dated Shiko--"
"This isn't a date," I tried to interrupt.
"--but I know if Shiko just wanted to get something out of you she'd have been more direct. Probably would have outright groped you or something like that. Either she sincerely feels what she wants you to think she's feeling or..." He paused, choosing his wording carefully. "She's got something so weird planned I can't even begin to imagine what she's really after."
"Not reassuring, Kazuhiro."
"I do know that whatever she's after, she's sincerely looking forward to it," he continued as if I hadn't said anything. "Seriously. If this was just 'fun' for her, she'd have been more direct."
I pondered that for a moment. On some sort of reflex I asked myself if Kazuhiro had anything to gain from encouraging this, and I chided myself on my paranoia. Was that my kitsune nature showing itself, or was it the part of me that was afraid of what would happen if I couldn't find a way out of this date?
"Mac?"
"Hm? Yeah?"
"You're overthinking this. It's not like Shiko's trying to sell you a timeshare or a pyramid scheme. It's just a date. And even if it's 'not' a date, it won't kill you to relax and get to know another kitsune outside of work hours."
"You're right, you're right," I said, rubbing my temples.
"Look, you go home and chill out for a bit. I mean, we're done here. Have a beer, jerk off, whatever relaxes you. This will be a lot easier to settle tomorrow."
I nodded in agreement, wished Kazuhiro a nice evening, and went to the side-office to clock out. On my time card, Shiko had placed a sticky note:
Tomorrow, after work. I know just the place. –Shiko
The 'i' in 'Shiko' was dotted with a heart. I sighed wearily, punched out, and went home for the night.
The alarm clock woke me up at 7 in the morning. My first reaction was to sit up and take stock of the circumstances. All of my activities since leaving work were accounted for with no obvious gaps in my memories. My apartment was empty with no sign that anyone had slept on the couch or cooked anything in my kitchenette. The only thing out of place was a paper strip stuck to the inside of my apartment door. I recognized it (again, from folklore class) as a warding ofuda (paper talisman) for my protection and moved on.
Getting ready for work was a little more difficult than I was used to. Even if people saw me as a normal guy, that didn't change the fact that I was covered in fur and had two tails to manage. Showering basically involved using my shampoo as a body wash and blow-drying myself so I'd be ready in time. At least eating breakfast was more or less the same.
As I got cleaned up, though, I did take some time to become acquainted with my new physical form. My build was more or less the same, although muscled differently in places to accommodate the balance issues that originated with the two tails growing from the base of my spine. My fur was a mostly uniform orange-red in color with very few additional markings. In cartoons and such, you see red foxes with black paws and white tips on their tails, but except for some slightly-lighter fur on my throat and underbelly my fur coat was pretty much one solid color.
I now had claws, as well. They were blunt for digging like a dog's as opposed to sharp for tearing like a cat's. As I moved around while getting ready I could occasionally hear the claws on my toes clicking against the uncarpeted sections of floor in my apartment. I now had a muzzle full of sharp teeth with sensitive whiskers coming off the sides and golden tan eyes shining above it. The top of my head was adorned with pointed ears that I spent a few minutes learning how to move with conscious effort.
I got so caught up in getting used to seeing a fox's face and body when I looked at myself that I was almost late getting out of the house to work. Even though I wasn't in as much of a rush as I was when I left the day before, I still jogged towards the warehouse for good measure. I spotted other non-humans on the way and they remained as they were even if I blinked or glanced away.
I realized that they could see me as I was, too, and that was really when it hit me. I became fully aware of just how different I was compared to a couple of days ago. Whether or not I was still 'Makoto Minocci,' it didn't change the fact that 'Makoto Minocci' was no longer a human being. I may have been awakened to a wider world, but the nature of my very being was somewhat separated from a big chunk of that world. I was sure some would argue otherwise, but if there wasn't a grand cosmic difference between myself and the billions of normal humans on the planet then why did they see me as a non-threatening human and not as a kitsune?
Normally this is the part where I'd be so caught-up in my musing that I'd run straight into my pursuer from yesterday, but in fact I actually saw him coming from half a block off. I wasn't sure if it was a good sign or a bad one that he actually didn't look any different from how he had before. Was I being attacked by a monster that looked human even to my sight, or was this someone else? How many people could possibly be after me?
I ducked into the nearest alley -- probably the same one I'd used the day before. I stopped halfway down, though, when I noticed two things barring my path. One was another man dressed just like the guy who was after me, and the second was a translucent red swirling barrier. I turned around and saw the first man step into the other end of the alley. From his jacket he produced a glowing paper strip with characters written on it, not unlike the one in my apartment. He placed it on the wall near the mouth of the alley, and a second red see-through barrier appeared just behind him.
The street beyond grew ominously silent as the barrier cut off all sound between us and them. Nobody would hear me scream. I looked around for anything I could use to defend myself, escape, or both. I spotted a fire escape a little further down the alley, and made a run for it. My attackers began to move at that point, both of them reaching into their jackets as they ran to intercept me.
I didn't pay attention to what they were reaching for; I was more focused on grabbing that ladder and pulling it down so I could climb up. I leapt up onto a trash can and tried to jump off that to reach the ladder, but it tipped over under my weight and sent me tumbling to the ground. As I fell I glanced up and saw three birds made of light zip past me. They flew past and shattered into sparks on a dumpster further down the alley. I realized they would have hit me if I hadn't dropped to the ground.
I got to my feet and saw the second guy, the one still in front of me, pull out a handful of coins. They glowed to my sight and arranged themselves into a cross shape held together by some form of magic. The way he held it, though, suggested its true use: it was some sort of magical dagger. It seemed familiar but this wasn't the best time to rummage through the library of my normal brain or my fox-brain for details.
I glanced back behind me and the first guy was producing a few more paper ofuda. They glowed and became more of those light-birds. He threw them at me with a wave of his hand. I began to turn back at the attacker with the coin dagger just to find that he was already right on top of me.
My shoes skidded on some trash or something and my balance was completely shot. My staggering pulled me out of the way of a swipe of the coin dagger. I reached out for anything that could steady me and in my flailing my arm wrapped around the neck of the man right in front me. My tails lashed around in a panic; the shift of their weight dragged us around so the man I was grappling with was hit in the back with the birds.
The impromptu meat shield yelled with pain and as he lost his balance I dropped him to the ground. The coin dagger stopped glowing and clattered to pieces, the coins ringing as they rolled away. Utterly confused by what just happened, I looked up at the other man as he pulled out even more of those ofuda. He began chanting as I picked up a spilled trash can lid and prepared to use it as a shield.
The paper transformed into more of the birds and they flapped toward me. The man at my feet was starting to regain full use of his faculties and I charged the one with the ofuda. I swung at the birds with the lid, trying to keep them off of me, but I felt fiery pinpricks as beaks and talons ripped small holes in my work uniform and gashed my skin. I kept running at him, swiping at birds to keep them off of my head.
One of my stronger swings, though, was so hard that I lost my grip on the trash can lid. I threw it towards the end of the alley, and the man who'd attacked me ducked under it. The dirty hunk of metal sailed past him and hit the wall at the mouth of the alley. It caught a corner of the talisman stuck to the wall and ripped the paper in half, collapsing the barrier.
The street noise returned and I made a run for it, feeling the birds tear at my back. Their summoner got in my way but I just drove my shoulder and elbow into him and knocked him to the ground with what I think was a lucky shot to the solar plexus. The birds faded as he hit the ground. Coins skittered behind me as the man I'd previously disabled had gotten back up and was reforming the dagger.
I ran for the mouth of the alley, and a thought occurred to me. I grabbed the ripped halves of the ofuda that had sealed the alley, and put them back together... backwards. I grinned wickedly and put it up against the wall, and a blue barrier burst into being. This barrier, though, was between the scroll and my attackers rather than the other way around, so they couldn't just peel it back down. I gave the two men the finger and ran for the distributor, hearing them pound on the blue magic shield.
I wondered what they would do first: realize the shield was a hasty illusion I'd cobbled together solely out of instinct and chutzpah or remember they could just remove the ofuda sealing the other end of the alley.
It was about the time that I arrived at work, looking like I'd been mugged, that the reality of the situation began to settle in. Two guys I didn't know had just tried to kill me, and they may or may not have been connected to the monster that was after my soul. I stopped outside the warehouse and caught my breath, suddenly feeling nauseous. My hand shook as I opened up the door and ducked inside.
To be continued...
Which is good, because I really miss having an ad-blocker. I understand that many sites exist because of ad revenue. I'm fine with that on principle. What I can't stand are Flash ads. About 95% of everything I've had go wrong with a website in the last few years can be traced back to a Flash ad banner (particularly the ones that expand when moused over even if you don't click on them). The worst offenders, IMHO, are ad banners that are little more than an animated .GIF that requires the Flash player to view. I'm not sure those represent more than someone conning a larger salary out of a marketing department on the grounds that "I can use Flash to make ads!"
But you're not here to listen to me venting and such about advertisements. Nope. It's Friday, which means you're probably here for the latest installment of "Let Sleeping Foxes Lie." To make up for the talkiness of last week's entry, this one's a little more action-packed.
(See, this is where I pretend I wrote it this way just to make up for it, when really I wrote these scenes like months ago. And if you thought last week was bad, you should see me when I don't restrain myself. Seriously, Tarantino would be like "Dude, do these people ever stop talking?")
Ah, out of the frying pan... I went into the office to find it empty except for Shiko. I put on an apologetic smile as I plugged the gadget into the appropriate cradle and uploaded to the desktop the distributor uses for such things. I avoided looking at the secretary, feeling more than a little awkward.
Just let this morning go, I thought 'at' Shiko. I don't really want to get into what's going on right now, please just let it slide.
"I'm sorry about earlier," Shiko said behind me.
Fuck.
"Yeah, well, I was having a bad morning. It's not your fault," I said, fidgeting with the equipment.
"If I hadn't screwed things up, it would have been a much better one." First there was the brush of fingers on my shoulders, then a gentle but firm grip. "The tea would have been strong, you'd have regained your full instincts without any problems before work, and everything would have been integrated when you got here."
He sounded legitimately sincere, but I knew better than to assume anything along those lines from any kitsune. I'd seen Shiko's moods shift with a hummingbird's quickness enough times already today to take any of them at face value. Even still, I had to resist the urge to lean back into those hands out of a need to seek out any sort of potential comfort.
"Is there something I can help you with, Shiko?" I asked, putting effort into conveying annoyance. It wasn't hard, given the tension with Kazuhiro, but either way Shiko didn't get the hint that I wanted him to back off.
"I just feel like I've been the one who's made this the hardest on you," he said, leaning in, his voice becoming a breathy whisper. "I want to make it up to you. Maybe we could get a bite to eat, or a drink or a cup of coffee or something like that? My treat."
He gave my shoulders a squeeze and I could feel his breath slightly ruffling the fur on the back of my neck. I self-consciously moved my tails to keep from brushing them against his thighs. My jaw tightened as I glanced around for the easiest way to slip out of his grip without having to just shove him off.
"Trust me, the physical way won't work," Shiko said, suddenly sounding playful.
"What?"
"You were looking for the easiest way to get out of this," he said with another squeeze to my shoulders. "Maybe some dramatic move to get out of my grip or something. I've been doing this a long time; saying 'yes' is the easiest way to get me to leave you alone."
"Doing what a long time?"
"Getting men to do what I want," he whispered in my ear.
"How do I know that you're not just psyching me out so I'll say 'yes'?" This was going much differently than I'd expected.
"Because if you thought I was, you'd be more 'angry' and less... 'bantering.'" He was grinning; I could hear it in his tone.
"Okay, okay, fine."
"What was that?"
"'Yes.' Yes, I'll let you take me out to make this morning up to me. Happy?"
"Extremely. It'll be worth your while, trust me."
His hands pulled away and I felt his fingers brush through the fur of one of my tails. I was nearly paralyzed by the new -- and not entirely unpleasant -- sensation for a moment. I shuddered and turned around as he released me, but he'd already moved back to the desk as somebody else came in. I ignored the newcomer and slipped out of the office into the warehouse proper, feeling very uncomfortable with an unexpected tightness in my pants.
I returned to the truck and without a word helped Kazuhiro load it up with most of the basics so there'd be less to do the next day. The effort got my mind off of things enough to relax. We got it done quickly, and by the end things were a little less awkward now that we'd had time to cool down. We were both calm; we just didn't know what to say to each other. Kazuhiro broke the silence first.
"Shiko's a bit of a bitch, isn't she?" he asked.
"Yeah," I reflexively answered. "How much of..." I nodded towards the window that opened up into the office. "...did you see?"
"Enough to get an idea of what she wanted."
I resisted the urge to comment one way or another on his choice of pronouns.
"Any advice on how to handle this?" I asked, frowning.
"I've never dated Shiko--"
"This isn't a date," I tried to interrupt.
"--but I know if Shiko just wanted to get something out of you she'd have been more direct. Probably would have outright groped you or something like that. Either she sincerely feels what she wants you to think she's feeling or..." He paused, choosing his wording carefully. "She's got something so weird planned I can't even begin to imagine what she's really after."
"Not reassuring, Kazuhiro."
"I do know that whatever she's after, she's sincerely looking forward to it," he continued as if I hadn't said anything. "Seriously. If this was just 'fun' for her, she'd have been more direct."
I pondered that for a moment. On some sort of reflex I asked myself if Kazuhiro had anything to gain from encouraging this, and I chided myself on my paranoia. Was that my kitsune nature showing itself, or was it the part of me that was afraid of what would happen if I couldn't find a way out of this date?
"Mac?"
"Hm? Yeah?"
"You're overthinking this. It's not like Shiko's trying to sell you a timeshare or a pyramid scheme. It's just a date. And even if it's 'not' a date, it won't kill you to relax and get to know another kitsune outside of work hours."
"You're right, you're right," I said, rubbing my temples.
"Look, you go home and chill out for a bit. I mean, we're done here. Have a beer, jerk off, whatever relaxes you. This will be a lot easier to settle tomorrow."
I nodded in agreement, wished Kazuhiro a nice evening, and went to the side-office to clock out. On my time card, Shiko had placed a sticky note:
Tomorrow, after work. I know just the place. –Shiko
The 'i' in 'Shiko' was dotted with a heart. I sighed wearily, punched out, and went home for the night.
The alarm clock woke me up at 7 in the morning. My first reaction was to sit up and take stock of the circumstances. All of my activities since leaving work were accounted for with no obvious gaps in my memories. My apartment was empty with no sign that anyone had slept on the couch or cooked anything in my kitchenette. The only thing out of place was a paper strip stuck to the inside of my apartment door. I recognized it (again, from folklore class) as a warding ofuda (paper talisman) for my protection and moved on.
Getting ready for work was a little more difficult than I was used to. Even if people saw me as a normal guy, that didn't change the fact that I was covered in fur and had two tails to manage. Showering basically involved using my shampoo as a body wash and blow-drying myself so I'd be ready in time. At least eating breakfast was more or less the same.
As I got cleaned up, though, I did take some time to become acquainted with my new physical form. My build was more or less the same, although muscled differently in places to accommodate the balance issues that originated with the two tails growing from the base of my spine. My fur was a mostly uniform orange-red in color with very few additional markings. In cartoons and such, you see red foxes with black paws and white tips on their tails, but except for some slightly-lighter fur on my throat and underbelly my fur coat was pretty much one solid color.
I now had claws, as well. They were blunt for digging like a dog's as opposed to sharp for tearing like a cat's. As I moved around while getting ready I could occasionally hear the claws on my toes clicking against the uncarpeted sections of floor in my apartment. I now had a muzzle full of sharp teeth with sensitive whiskers coming off the sides and golden tan eyes shining above it. The top of my head was adorned with pointed ears that I spent a few minutes learning how to move with conscious effort.
I got so caught up in getting used to seeing a fox's face and body when I looked at myself that I was almost late getting out of the house to work. Even though I wasn't in as much of a rush as I was when I left the day before, I still jogged towards the warehouse for good measure. I spotted other non-humans on the way and they remained as they were even if I blinked or glanced away.
I realized that they could see me as I was, too, and that was really when it hit me. I became fully aware of just how different I was compared to a couple of days ago. Whether or not I was still 'Makoto Minocci,' it didn't change the fact that 'Makoto Minocci' was no longer a human being. I may have been awakened to a wider world, but the nature of my very being was somewhat separated from a big chunk of that world. I was sure some would argue otherwise, but if there wasn't a grand cosmic difference between myself and the billions of normal humans on the planet then why did they see me as a non-threatening human and not as a kitsune?
Normally this is the part where I'd be so caught-up in my musing that I'd run straight into my pursuer from yesterday, but in fact I actually saw him coming from half a block off. I wasn't sure if it was a good sign or a bad one that he actually didn't look any different from how he had before. Was I being attacked by a monster that looked human even to my sight, or was this someone else? How many people could possibly be after me?
I ducked into the nearest alley -- probably the same one I'd used the day before. I stopped halfway down, though, when I noticed two things barring my path. One was another man dressed just like the guy who was after me, and the second was a translucent red swirling barrier. I turned around and saw the first man step into the other end of the alley. From his jacket he produced a glowing paper strip with characters written on it, not unlike the one in my apartment. He placed it on the wall near the mouth of the alley, and a second red see-through barrier appeared just behind him.
The street beyond grew ominously silent as the barrier cut off all sound between us and them. Nobody would hear me scream. I looked around for anything I could use to defend myself, escape, or both. I spotted a fire escape a little further down the alley, and made a run for it. My attackers began to move at that point, both of them reaching into their jackets as they ran to intercept me.
I didn't pay attention to what they were reaching for; I was more focused on grabbing that ladder and pulling it down so I could climb up. I leapt up onto a trash can and tried to jump off that to reach the ladder, but it tipped over under my weight and sent me tumbling to the ground. As I fell I glanced up and saw three birds made of light zip past me. They flew past and shattered into sparks on a dumpster further down the alley. I realized they would have hit me if I hadn't dropped to the ground.
I got to my feet and saw the second guy, the one still in front of me, pull out a handful of coins. They glowed to my sight and arranged themselves into a cross shape held together by some form of magic. The way he held it, though, suggested its true use: it was some sort of magical dagger. It seemed familiar but this wasn't the best time to rummage through the library of my normal brain or my fox-brain for details.
I glanced back behind me and the first guy was producing a few more paper ofuda. They glowed and became more of those light-birds. He threw them at me with a wave of his hand. I began to turn back at the attacker with the coin dagger just to find that he was already right on top of me.
My shoes skidded on some trash or something and my balance was completely shot. My staggering pulled me out of the way of a swipe of the coin dagger. I reached out for anything that could steady me and in my flailing my arm wrapped around the neck of the man right in front me. My tails lashed around in a panic; the shift of their weight dragged us around so the man I was grappling with was hit in the back with the birds.
The impromptu meat shield yelled with pain and as he lost his balance I dropped him to the ground. The coin dagger stopped glowing and clattered to pieces, the coins ringing as they rolled away. Utterly confused by what just happened, I looked up at the other man as he pulled out even more of those ofuda. He began chanting as I picked up a spilled trash can lid and prepared to use it as a shield.
The paper transformed into more of the birds and they flapped toward me. The man at my feet was starting to regain full use of his faculties and I charged the one with the ofuda. I swung at the birds with the lid, trying to keep them off of me, but I felt fiery pinpricks as beaks and talons ripped small holes in my work uniform and gashed my skin. I kept running at him, swiping at birds to keep them off of my head.
One of my stronger swings, though, was so hard that I lost my grip on the trash can lid. I threw it towards the end of the alley, and the man who'd attacked me ducked under it. The dirty hunk of metal sailed past him and hit the wall at the mouth of the alley. It caught a corner of the talisman stuck to the wall and ripped the paper in half, collapsing the barrier.
The street noise returned and I made a run for it, feeling the birds tear at my back. Their summoner got in my way but I just drove my shoulder and elbow into him and knocked him to the ground with what I think was a lucky shot to the solar plexus. The birds faded as he hit the ground. Coins skittered behind me as the man I'd previously disabled had gotten back up and was reforming the dagger.
I ran for the mouth of the alley, and a thought occurred to me. I grabbed the ripped halves of the ofuda that had sealed the alley, and put them back together... backwards. I grinned wickedly and put it up against the wall, and a blue barrier burst into being. This barrier, though, was between the scroll and my attackers rather than the other way around, so they couldn't just peel it back down. I gave the two men the finger and ran for the distributor, hearing them pound on the blue magic shield.
I wondered what they would do first: realize the shield was a hasty illusion I'd cobbled together solely out of instinct and chutzpah or remember they could just remove the ofuda sealing the other end of the alley.
It was about the time that I arrived at work, looking like I'd been mugged, that the reality of the situation began to settle in. Two guys I didn't know had just tried to kill me, and they may or may not have been connected to the monster that was after my soul. I stopped outside the warehouse and caught my breath, suddenly feeling nauseous. My hand shook as I opened up the door and ducked inside.
To be continued...
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Date: 2010-01-09 12:57 am (UTC)And you know that it's this stuff that makes me adore Shiko!