Lesson Number One;; Naru And Jiyu;; Private

She looked good in her new outfit, this fact could not be denied if she was willing to give herself a pat on the back during it! Jiyu was used to seeing herself with some form of sex appeal, considering she walked around in a bikini top and dangerously short or tight lower garments. However this new piece, the latest addition to her wardrobe, it took the cake on all of it in her opinion. Sleek black fabric covered her in the form a crop top that went behind her neck but did not touch her shoulder, and a skirt that she had to lay her tail atop of because of how tight to her skin it was. Honestly this was meant to go beneath her new armor which was lain in the corner, but it was delicious and practical for her in it’s own way. Today she was going to go without the armor, not that she had worn it in public yet anyways, but since she wasn’t planning to go on any missions today, her armor did not need to make it’s debut. Glancing around once more, the wind mage attempted to ensure the location of everything on her body, pleased with her own appearance, more so than normal. Now she just had to decide what she was going to do for the day, her ears still run and her nose was in agony after her last mission, she needed something natural, didn’t she. Kazehime stretched her arms above her head, unlocking her door and heading out, not bothering to eat since she had snacked already today.

After about thirty minutes, she found herself in the forest surrounding Rose Garden, humming happily to herself as she walked about, letting the scents and sounds of nature help bring her senses down from their high. In town? There was no way she’d recover without ear plugs, nose plugs and lots of time, at least in the outdoors, she could avoid stimuli.

Huh. Was this really what trees looked like in this world? They were so small... Not nearly as tall, or colourful as the ones the Kitsune was used to. THey were mostly divided into two separate shades. Green and brown. As if the two couldn't escape eachother. Now that she began to think about it, Naru had seen that the entire ground was also covered in green grass the farther inland she travelled. Not to mention the closer the trees got to eachother. It had become somewhat dark in the area the Kitsune had been aimlessly wandering in. The thick leaves have blocked out most of the sunlight, resulting in a pale yellow light dancing around the shaded wood around her. This fox wore very little it seemed. On her torso was nothing but a tattered rag, which was long enough to cover most of her body. However her legs were completely bare, her feet blindly stumbling through the wood. Her long white tipped fox tail silently followed her flank as her long fox ears had been lowered. It had only been a few days before she had woken up completely naked on a beach, in a completely new world. Luckily she had managed to find what seemed like an abandoned shack. To which Naru could only assume used to belong to the inhabitants of this strange land. She was very cold, and grabbed the only thing she could find within the small establishment... Since then she had been wandering aimlessly through the wilderness... Lost... Afraid... Alone... How much longer could this possibly last? Surly there had to be some sentient life. The animals provided no comfort, as her speech could not reach their minds for some odd reason. Her golden eyes faced the forest floor as she silenty trekked ever onwards...

Something was stirring! A new smell hit her nostrils and Narumi's head perked up. So did her ears. They shifted silently for a moment as the Kitsune stood completely still, staring off into the trees. Not far from her something alive was stirring. However, this being was far different from anything she had encountered so far. Just by the smell, the Kitsune could determine that... Her natural fox instincts kicked in and she silently began to tread the ground towards the odd odour. Her golden gaze narrowed once she had gotten nearer to the location... Something was amiss though. In front of her were very thick bushes... Not wanting to completely expose herself to any potential threat, the Kitsune looked for another way. She stared upwards at the thick canopy and got an idea. Placing a hand firmly on the trunk, the Kitsune began to scale a tree as silently as she could. Determined she was high enough, she slowly walked out among the branch to try and see whatever it was beyond the bushes in the clearing...

*SNAP!* Oh no... This branch wasn't strong enough it seemed. In a sudden moment, the wood cracked underneath her feet, and Narumi fell face first towards the ground. "Ah!" She yelped suddenly, rolling in the dirt... She took a moment to collect herself before silently looking upwards with her ears lowered to come face to face with a creature! A girl? It would seem so based on the rather... Revealing outfit. Naru's eyes widened suddenly and she got nervous. "Ehhh..." Was all that she could manage as the feeling of awkwardness hit her for the first time...

Every single thing in the world actually looked more unique than most people gave it credit for. However? Jiyu was stricken by quiet the horrid curse in regards to taking in the world around her, aforementioned curse was the same blessing that gave her the advanced senses she possessed. Kazehime was truly a inu youkai, the more demonic version of common canine’s like dogs and wolves, considering this state of life, she shared many things in common with such animals, including being red-green colorblind, since her eyes lacked the cones required to view those shades. Which made it even funnier that her hair had orange highlights, she was incapable of seeing that shade, to her vision it came across as a dull golden shade. The leaves on the tree’s around her, the grass? They appeared in creamy shades against the backdrop of a pretty normal sky and brown trunks. Honestly, she was mostly unaware on what she was missing out, vision focused forward much narrow than humans saw, relying on her sense of smell and hearing more so than her sight. Unlike mortals? She could never rely on one sense alone, at least not easily. Jiyu was payed back thought, even as the canopy darkened the forest to a degree that would make sight difficult for normal people, the inu was able to clearly perceive what was going on around her, detecting almost every movement and flicker of light surrounding her as her ears twitched.

Even as the other creature tried to be stealthy, well the Ace had heard her coming easily before the fox had been concerned about hiding herself. Plus? That scent was impossible to hide, but she didn’t really assume it was anything besides one of the normal foxes that roamed the forest, or maybe one of the peaceful kitsunes at worst. Jiyu had not been expecting another humanoid animal of sorts! That snap was her only warning and the female barely missed stepping back out of the way, tail swaying to help her balance, heterochromic optics widening slightly before returning to their normal size. “Uuh.” what did you say when someone fell out of the tree’s in front of you? That was quite a hard thing to decide.

Looking closely, the female decided this might be something akin to how Maka had recently gained the ability to morph into a humanoid form, one creature who shifted bodies and was mostly lost. “What’s your name?” the female decided to speak up first in her enchanting voice, crouching down so it was easier to look in the eyes of the vulpine.

Narumi began to cower as she had obviously been noticed by the girl. She shivered slightly and shifted backwards as the girl leaned down to peer into the Kitsune's golden eyes. Her name? That's what she had asked her. She wanted to know her name. That was easy enough wasn't it? This girl didn't seem very hostile, but it may have been Naru's fox instincts that caused her to cower. Foxes aren't known to stick around once they've been caught sneaking around. She looked into the girl's eyes, and slowly swallowed. "I uh.. Narumi.. That's the name I was given..." She said awkwardly before looking away. However, soon a new feeling had hit her! This was a person! A sentient person! Someone Naru had been searching for the last three days. Her sense of fear was quickly overwhelmed with joy as she suddenly grasped the situation. Her face lit up with a smile and the Kitsune quickly stood to her feet, rubbing the back of her head, giving a nervous smile. "I uh... S- Sorry for almost crushing you. My name's Narumi by the way, or you can just call me Naru. Oh, right. I already said that..." She trailed off, observing the girl more closely. "What's your name? And what is this place?" She asked, not really caring that her question may have been strange. However, there was one thing in particular about this girl that made her seem more trusting. Her animal features. Just like Narumi's! The fox was still unaware that this place had Yokai at all, so seeing this girl made her assume she was also one of the people from her island! Although she seemed to dress very different from the animals on her island. In fact, most stuck to their true forms as peaceful spirits. Something the Kitsune couldn't do any longer for reason that eluded her.

Vision keen on movement was swift to detect the cowering and trembling of the creature crouched beneath her, each tremor translating to her brain and also tickling her urge to pounce on an easy meal, the same way it would for any dog. Jiyu was above her own primal urges, most of the time. Despite not being hostile and being fully in control of herself, the girls large optics followed the swallow of the fox, watching as it descended her throat and vanished visually, ears twitching as she listened to the journey finish. Canine’s had the most basic instinct to hunt anything they could easily capture, and someone already downed cowering before you, that certainly fit the bill! She could pounce and this girl would have no time to react, death would be swift, if it was not for the fast Jiyu’s body was actually too weak to win that fight. “Naru than, please stand up.” even if she knew that the other girl would win a physical struggle between them? Jiyu did not want one to begin with, and she only had so much ability to suppress her own instincts, something so meek being on the ground, it was just begging to be devoured by her, even if it actually would never happen.

Elfin ears twitched rapidly as the girl started speaking faster than what Jiyu truly appreciated, her pitch rising beyond what the canine enjoyed hearing, bringing pain but also demanding further focus. This time the canine’s verbal reaction was denied, even though physically her body moved closer in a correct movement, her mouth did not reply as swiftly. Honestly the wind mage found it hilarious how everything except her ability to cope, seemed advanced and demonic, than she was left with hardly an ounce of coping skill for anything. Most thing’s? Happened before she really had time to process them. “You suck at sneaking around, I could hear you coming so you wouldn’t have crushed me anyways.” it was hummed out slightly in her velvet voice as she looked over the kitsune girl once more. Now that she was so close to Naru? She was certain the girl was a kitsune like Maka and thus it was not hard to draw the conclusion she might have went through something similar to the infant fox. Was she developing a habit of finding orphaned and needy fire user’s, if so that would have to be stopped, because helping Maka as it was happened to be stressful, this only added to it. As far as the female was aware, all Kitsune’s wielded flames, and she was afraid of such an element, it could even make her pass out in life threatening situations.

“I’m Jiyu.” start slowly introducing yourself in a calm voice, move forward in an attempt to loosely touch the shoulder of a vixen. Hopefully, things close to what she did with Koto, would work with Naru, considering they were both mythical foxes. “We’re in the wilderness outside Rose Garden, it’s a town that is the home of the guild I’m part of, Black Rose.” she went further in explaining, aiming to slide her hand down to take the other girl's hand softly, grip it in a securing way, even as her body trembled in fear of fire she had not even seen yet. “You can come back with me if you want, until you're more oriented.” the final nail in the coffin so to speak, how she would hopefully end this exchange. Heh, maybe she’d let this girl sleep in her bed and just force Marschal to let her share with him for a while, judging from their last few encounters the panther might not actually mind that much. Fitting two full grown women in a bed barely fix for a single girl? Would be difficult, but she would figure it out later if she came to the that bridge.

Nauru stared inquisitively at Jiyu with her held tilted, one of her ears flicking as the girl explained herself. Rose Garden? Black Rose? Whatever did she mean? Apparently there was a.. "town" as the girl put it, called Rose Garden. And it was home to a guild named Black Rose...? Naru shifted nervously, afraid that her lack of knowledge was already setting her behind. What was a town? And what was a guild? She could only wonder.

"R- Right! Pleased to met you Jiyu!" Narumi exclaimed with a colourful smile, her long white tipped tail wagging with excitement. "I uhh... Forgive me, but I'm not very familiar with the term town... What does that word mean?" The word sounded weird when she said it, but was confident she had pronounced it correctly, based on Jiyu's voice. "Also, what's a guild? Why do you call it Black Rose? Is it some sort of giant Black Rose?" Naru began bombarding the girl with multiple questions many would find completely stupid, but to Narumi, she was very keen on getting the answers too. She had never heard of such strange things, and tried as hard as she could to understand. This entire place was completely new to her! Surly this girl called Jiyu could help her. Maybe this girl was also from the same place as Naru? Maybe she was also exiled from the island after those unfortunate events... But clearly she had situated herself much better in this strange new land then Naru had.

"You wouldn't happen to be from Rivera, would you?" She asked the girl, observing her more closely. It may have been a stupid question, seeing how obvious it was to even the Kitsune that this Yokai had probably been here a lot longer then herself, but she was also a Yokai? Right? Maybe not... Naru sensed something familiar about her, but she couldn't quite place it... Something dark and disturbing... However she quickly shook the thought and her smile came back, awaiting Jiyu's response.

A bad feeling struck the pit of her stomach when this girl stared so curiously at her. Maybe this situation was worse than what she had found Maka in? Just what had she gotten herself into by not lunging at this fox and ending it swiftly. Yet she could have never done that, not with an infant fox waiting for her at home, she'd never be able to look at Koto again if she just blindly slaughtered another kitsune. Even if most of them were fire users she had a small soft spot for the foxes. It really didn't matter, she was involved in whatever this was now, and she would see it through to it's end, just like she did with everything else. Whatever was going on here? She'd figure it out eventually and do what she could regarding it. Just another day in her life.

"A town is just a place really." take the questions and such one at a time. If she didn't? Than Jiyu knew her ability to be overstimulated would quickly kick in. "A guild is basically a group of mage's who complete tasks for people or fun." she had a feeling she would have to explain lots of thing's to this girl, but considering the amount she had to learn after becoming a demon, this didn't really bother her. "Black Rose is basically just a name that matches our guild mark, all mages of our guild carry it." the wind mage gestured to the black marking on her stomach as an explanation for this. Than came something that she had not been expecting.

"Sorry I don't know where that is." she might be a yoaki, a demon, inhuman like this girl, but they did not come from the same place.

Narumi's face lit up, and a curious expression masked her. She began to ponder all the information she was given so suddenly by this girl. A guild was a place where mages went? Whatever was a mage? Was Jiyu a mage? She could tell that this Jiyu girl was different. She could sense something... What was the word? Magical about her.

"Hrmm... Can't say I know what a mage is." She grumbled before Jiyu pointed to the black rose emblem on her stomach. How could the Kitsune possibly not notice that before? It was right there all along. With a sudden burst of excitement, the girl leaned down and looked at it with excitement and interested in her eyes. However, she stopped when the girl told her she didn't know what Rivera was...

"Ah. Well... That's alright." She said with a saddening expression. The Kitsune had truly hoped that finding a person so similar to the many she had known at her home would have some idea where that place was, and where THIS place was, but it didn't really seem like it was going to go her way this time... She leaned up and rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Are you from a town miss Jiyu? Or a guild?"