A Foray Into the Unknown (Job with Fluffy)

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Mayumi hadn't come to Nazo looking for trouble. Quite the opposite, in fact. She was between jobs at the moment, and she'd had some time free. She had heard that Nazo was quite an interesting place, so she'd thought she ought to come check it out. She had the chance, so why not be adventurous?

Of course, no one had bothered to mention the fact that people had been disappearing recently. That might have been nice to know ahead of time. When she'd arrived there had been an air of suspicion around. No one had been particularly happy to see a stranger. Especially not one who gave off an air of magic, like Mayumi did. They all knew that these disappearances had something to do with magic. After all, we weren't talking about kidnappings here- people vanished into thin air in plain view of others. Needless to say, they weren't exactly thrilled about that.

If Mayumi were smart, she would have taken the hint and left. However, once again her curiosity had gotten the better of her. She just had to snoop around and see if she could get a glimpse of what was happening. It seemed frequent enough. Maybe if she saw it happen, could get a read on the magic, she would be able to get some insight into the cause. Not that she deluded herself into thinking she could fix it, of course, but if she could at least give the authorities something to work off of...

Well, she had gotten lucky, if you could call it that, and seen this disappearing act in action. She'd been walking along, wondering where these oddities would be most likely to occur when suddenly, between one step and the next, the entire scene shifted, and Mayumi found herself in a different place entirely. It appeared to be a forest of sorts, but it was too dark for her to make out any detail really, just vague shapes, and the wisps of hazy mist that swirled through the air around her. Small orbs of light bobbed in the distance. To irregular to be any normal light source. Torches? Or odd phantom lights in this mysterious magical realm? She wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to find out.

She was in a bind now. No one who had disappeared has ever reappeared, at least not that she had heard of. And now she was counted among that number. She was in a strange and unfamiliar place, and she had no idea if she would ever be able to get home.

Her heart began to race. No! She couldn't help but repeat the word over and over in her mind, almost like a mantra of sorts. She couldn't get stuck here. She had a guild she was loyal to, and friends she cared about. She wanted to see them again. Needed to see them again. Failure was not an option, and she had to get out of here, one way or another.

As she forced herself to calm down and regain her composure, she gradually began to wonder if she were alone here. Considering how limited her visibility was, she could be surrounded for all she knew. It was hard to say. A small part of her wanted to curl up in a ball and ignore the problem, but she knew she would never get anywhere like that, so she took a deep breath to steady herself, relieved to find that when she did speak her voice actually came out steady.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

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Venturing off the planet that Nightmare resided on was something she did fairly often, especially now that she had perfectly down how to work her new wings. In the past? Her flight had not required wings, so it had been weird to learn how to do it with them. Of course, she was eternally grateful he had granted her new body with the capability of flight, an ability she had not truly possessed since losing her Kasha body, it had just been an adjustment. Even with the ability to fly? The former coming storm still used portals to get from planet to planet, while she'd love to go right from one to another if she flew too high for some reason she always blacked out after getting so high. One of these days? She would break that limit because there was no way anything was going to keep her grounded in any sense, she'd reach towards the heavens, towards the gods, because that was the only way to make sure she could remain next to him.

Most of the time whenever Nyx went another planet she was objectively searching for some practice that worshipped Chaoris but sometimes she still did venture out for her own purposes not related to what now made up most of her. Today? Was one of those odd days that her reason for portal jumping had nothing to do with the god of war, she just wanted to do some more supernatural research. At one time, she had been so terrified of anything with powers apart from mages it had turned into a hatred so intense it had taken on its own life. Nyx never wanted to feel like that again, so since being freed from that mass of hatred which had taken over, she ventured out on occasion to research and experience so she would no longer have to fear. Nazo was a great place to go if someone was looking to see 'abnormal' things, so it was the target she set in her mind, the place she chose to explore once more.

Sometime while she was on the planet researching some sort of specters she had spotted, the warrior found her entire environment changed. Most normal mortals? Would be alarmed to find something like this had happened, but she felt safe the fact she had just been spirited away made no difference to the former ghost. If she did happen to get killed? The blessing of her god's guild mark upon her collarbone would cause her to revive in the pools of blood underneath the palace. Not that she was easy to kill, to begin with, since she spent most of her time fighting to keep up with the actual god of honorable combat, she was an excellent fighter and extremely resilient. Considering how little she cared about her setting change, Nyx did not bother to do much of anything different than what she had been doing, observing things around her to increase the way she understood them. Even within these few moments, she could tell this was no simple ghosts realm, something youkai was at play here, having once been one herself she should be able to see the signs easily enough.

'Is anyone there' gee, it would be easy to ignore a voice so soft, but considering she had to get something done here one way or another. Ignoring that call would do nothing to forward her learning of this place. Nyx rose from where she had been sitting, brushing off her white dress before she summoned a ball of fire to her palm to make some visibility for herself and whoever was around. "I take it you were transported from Nazo as well?" the light from her flame glinted off her pearly horns and reflected softly on her pale skin, brilliant yet relaxed golden optics shining brightly in the flickering light. "You can call me Minx." she was not just going to give some random mage her real name nor her 'villain name' before knowing who she was dealing with. In this situation? She had no desire to be attacked just because she spoke her name, though she would readily and happily fight. "I was observing some specter-like beings likely some breed of Youkai from the looks of this place, blinked and I was here, the specters nowhere in sight." since she was out to explore and learn anyways, may as well share information and see if she could learn anything from this that would make her a better person and better fighter.

Mayumi had suspected there was something lurking in the darkness. She hadn't expected such a direct answer. She practically jumped before forcing herself to calm down. Gosh, this wasn't like her. She needed to keep her composure, especially until she knew who she was dealing with here. She took a deep breath, squinting slightly when the fire flared up and her eyes adjusted to the sudden light that had appeared, taking in her new companion.

To her relief, her companion didn't seem too ominous. Sure, she had horns, that was a little out of the ordinary, but Mayumi had learned not to judge people based on appearances, and nothing she had said or done so far had raised any alarm bells. Matter of fact, her comment about being transported from Nazo made her seem more trustworthy. It appeared that the two of them were in the same boat. They'd both been randomly sucked into this random world through no fault of their own. Presumably, that meant they were both looking for a way out. After all, who would want to stay here? It definitely wasn't where they belonged, and it was undoubtedly filled with unknown dangers. Not the most hospitable of places.

So she listened with interest as Minx explained what had happened, or at least what little she knew about it. Yokai, huh? Well, Mayumi had certainly heard of them. She thought met a few, although who could ever be sure? A couple she thought were, but was not exactly inclined to ask. Many who claimed they were, but she suspected otherwise. And then there were the odd couple who actually seemed to be able to back up their claims. Whatever the case, Mayumi was certainly a believer in their existence. And they weren't exactly the sort of beings she wanted to cross.

"Well, Minx, if these are Yokai, I daresay we might be in just a bit of trouble." She sighed, then added, "My name is Mayumi. And yes, I was visiting Nazo when I somehow ended up here. I suppose it's my own fault in a way. I heard about people disappearing, and wondered if I might be able to get an idea of what was happening if I actually saw it happen. Guess I got my wish."

In her case, of course, there was no point in saying that she was in a guild, or trying to hide it for that matter. Her Black Rose guildmark on the side of her neck was rather obvious- almost impossible to cover up unless she wore a scarf or a ridiculously high collar, and she was rarely inclined to do either. That, or course, was intentional- she had no desire to hide her guild association. Well, okay, there was that one time... But that was in the past.

She brushed a strand of her long, blonde hair out of her eyes. Typical, that. Long hair tended to get in the way sometimes, but she was much too vain to cut it. If she'd been expecting to get sucked off into some alternate world she would have put it all the way up for convenience's sake, instead of just pulled back into a pony tail, but she'd just been on vacation! For the same reason she was wearing one of her nice pink kimonos and heeled shoes. She sure looked like some warrior alright! She wasn't the least bit prepared for combat. Well, she'd brought her sword with her as a matter of principle, and she could summon her spirits of course, but that was about it. She would just have to hope they didn't run into any opponents that were too tough.

She sighed again. Some vacation she was having. She had no idea how to proceed here, other than blundering around until she ran into one of these yokai and either talking or bullying them into sending her home. She didn't think that was the best strategy ever, so she hoped Minx would have another idea.

"So... I don't suppose you have any thoughts on how we could get out of here, do you? I mean, presumably it was the yokai who brought us here, so my guess would be that they're the only ones that could send us back. But how would we get them to do that? Preferably without, you know, starting a fight. I have a feeling that we're just a little outnumbered here."

She didn't want to sound like she was a coward or anything- if it came down to a fight then she would fight. But she wasn't suicidal either, and she was pretty sure taking on the yokai here would lead to a messy ending for both of them. She would prefer to avoid that, thank you very much.

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The darkness was something that many people in the world found fear of, even if they did not admit to it easily as they would fear of heights or being afraid of dying. Cowering from the darkness? Was only natural for most, it was constraining to the senses, left anyone within it vulnerable unless someone was built for it. Not to mention the darkness that could dwell in the hearts of some people unseen until it was too late, just as something that went bump in the night. Watching someone be afraid was something she had grown entirely numb to, sure she could recognize it but somewhere between the mindless slaughter of things she didn't understand, the consumption of sinners and her current new found sanity, she had just gone numb. Nyx possessed sympathy, she knew that she needed to calm the frightened when working with them, but she just didn't feel their fear anymore in the way she once had.

The presumption of them both looking for the way out, happened to be both right and wrong at the same time. Considering her love of battle, the loyalty to Chaoris, Nyx didn't much care where she was trapped because if she did happen to get killed in glorious battle she would simply revive in a blood pool in the Guildhall, well beneath it. Worrying over trivial things was no longer something she hassled over, she could research here, she would only truly desire to escape if she found there was no way to partake in bloodshed here. Not that she needed to tell anyone else that.

"I wouldn't so much call it trouble." She may respect the creatures now thanks to Izayuki forcing her to live as one in the past. "I've dealt with Youkai before I used to travel with a group that exterminated them and other spooks." however that did not mean she would ever hold any fear of them, especially not since she had proven herself capable of taking down a few back when she was only human and now she was anything but. "They can be trouble, but most of the time once you understand them, not much exists to worry about regarding them." as she spoke the fire took on a few shapes, display different kinda of youkai, one of which being a silver-furred tanuki right before it returned to being a normal fireball.

Her own fault, well it wasn't completely inaccurate. "Don't worry about it, won't change the fact you got spirited away." just like her, she suspected the youkai could care very little about some human beating themselves up over being taken. If they were expending the energy to spirit people away? There was a reason, and the warrior supposed looking into it couldn't hurt.

This girl was one of those stupid pacifists who didn't understand the way of chaoris, what a drag, having to work with someone like this. "Understanding why would be a good start, I very well from experience know that spiriting someone away takes an incredible amount of energy that most youkai don't deem worth the effort, something changed their mind." After all she had been one for a decent stretch of time and never seen the energy required to spirit someone away as worth the result! An activity like that could leave a good number of youkai winded for days, so why were these ones abusing the power so vastly.