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The career path of mage work did not often attract 'normal' people to climb its ranks, and that actually made a ton of sense. Working with magic and monsters every day? Carried an inherited amount of bodily harm or even risk of death, it was not some glamorous life even if most mages could make it look easy. Anyone who had some stable family they always wanted to go home to or had an average life short of people who went stir crazy with one? Would never just seek out the life of magic the two of them walked on. Samira would be waiting a long time to find some job partner that was not in some way damaged because mostly every mage was damaged in some way, rather they started out that way or something happened to them after they started, well it all ended in the same broken story. Hence why Jiyu never really asked many personal questions to her mission partners, no one wanted to talk about how they ended up only feeling good when they were in direct physical danger, it wasn't normal and neither were they.
Most people would quickly assume souls or bodies would be the food source for something that lived on revenge. Luckily as Samira had already realized? Jiyu chose only a narrow part of what her body was capable of digesting. Sure she could eat someone's corpse and maybe with practice she could catch and devour some soul. However, the twisted canine had no interest, they were strenuous food sources and she pitied anyone who had to rely on them. All she had to do in order to keep herself fed? Was exist in life, walk through the world and find negativity which also meant work for her, thus eating negative emotions suited her very well. Jiyu could both keep her true body fed, even if it was always starving, and find work to complete because she was drawn to be where the work was in order to eat. Of course, what she wouldn't have given for a normal life where the events that made her a mage never took place, but since the two people she was closest to were mages, she would have ended up involved in this world somehow.
Shockingly, asking what the energy tasted like? Wouldn't have gotten a smart ass response, most of what Assertive said was in some way rough, sarcastic or otherwise demeaning, but she was still Jiyu and since the question wouldn't have made her feel strongly either way, it would have been a normal response. Hopefully eventually Samira would ask her about the creepy chilling feeling that seemed to be constant, as a specter herself the Inugami knew the ghosts were watching them but it was not essential at this exact moment, so she didn't bring it up. Assertive had no desire to have extensive interaction with others if she was not using them to make food because then she would grow attached to them. Attachment? Was both positive and negative most of the time, so she could easily grow connected to people she spent a lot of time with, that being the reason most of her longtime acquaintances and friends were safe from her. Unless she was conflicted on how she felt towards them. Jiyu was conflicted over everything.
She was observing things when Samira took notice of the small child who Jiyu had already passed over, considering she didn't want to get too involved in this place. With Mysterious sleeping? She had no conscious in her head, thus no reason to go out of her way. Of course, the no reason line ended when Samira took an interest in the small child, bringing risk to her personally. "Neither does the inugami." she chimed in after the summoners spirit spoke about not agreeing with chasing right after that young child, tightening her hand best she could. If Samira ran off and got herself killed? Jiyu didn't know if she would be able to leave due to the contract, she wasn't willing to take that chance. If she became trapped here, she would become like the spirits who had done these things, and while it was appeasing to assertive, to never have to not be in control again, she knew that she'd feel empty without Mysterious awake.
"We can't even be sure that child is still a child." the canine spoke up the comment the living lamp post had not brought up to the summoner. "Let me demonstrate something." she sighed slightly, extending her hand and grabbing the wrist of one of the corpses, a fresh one that had been mutilated a good deal but did not appear to have been dead long, pulling the body up. "Looking at her, you'd think she died today, but look at the blood under her." the blood beneath there? Had clearly been there a long time, it didn't match up with the corpse now leaned against Jiyu momentarily before the canine laid the deceased girl back down. "When she died, the negative energy within her and the room changed something so primal and basic that it changed what she is." speaking the female ripped down a tapestry from the wall and tucked the corpse in. "She thinks she's still dead so she lays there, but she's just sleeping deeply." it was clear no one could have survived the injuries this girl had sustained, half her face was missing, she was gutted, among other tortures, yet Jiyu claimed she was in some capacity only sleeping. "Once she realizes she's not just trapped inside her body? She'll wake, and do things like what you see here, driven by what she felt in her final moments as a human, feelings she'll never be able to change." she didn't know enough about the girl to put her down or anything like that, just to know what would happen eventually. "But someone doesn't have to die for this place to change them like that." what protection did a mere child have against this place? Jiyu had little doubt if that kid had been here any more than a few days she was likely beyond saving already.
"You want to film her waking for more proof? I can't promise I can put her back down once she's up, but if I hit her with a jolt of negative energy, she should wake." considering the other mage was taking pictures? Jiyu assumed she was collecting evidence, as the summoner did not seem to be the kind to simply like keeping gruesome things. Watching something that was clearly dead rise and attempt to attack would certainly be proof of just how dangerous this place was. "I have little doubt anyone who tried to purify this place would be consumed by it, eventually." there just was too much here to battle, trying to get rid of it would only bring every spirit in the place down on whoever tried. "There is a distant chance an extremely empathic human related to whoever was first to die here could, but even then it's no sure shot, even if they purified the original spirit the realm itself may just pick another ruler." she spoke the comment, leaning against the large table with a sigh, a corpse in a chair on either side of her. At least she had plenty of food right now.
"Though if you wanted to protect others from this place for roughly a century...." she trailed off, covering her mouth as she seemed to be thinking, lowering her hand when she was done. "A relative of the current ruler of the dimension who is capable of spiritual magic possibly may be able to consume the dimension, thus freezing it entirely for their lifespan." However this was not without its own risk, and it was far from promised to work, any number of things could go wrong, including the fact it had to be consumed from inside. "But if they died instead of transferring it to direct offspring, it would consume wherever they happened to be when they died upon emerging." which could create more problems, because at least this place was mostly left alone, if this dimension sat against a new place in their dimension, more victims would pour in making this place even stronger all over again.
She didn't have much room to disagree with things unless it was a threat to Samira directly in that moment, considering the contract, she could verbally battle but at the moment she was settled for following to keep things easy. "We have to keep moving anyway." she shrugged, following the other female when she moved towards the classical music. If it ended up being a death trap, she could grab Samira and teleport into Solace, hopefully. Jiyu didn't doubt this place likely had a few instances that could simply be death traps of some sort. The light from the lamp post was unrequired in the moment, but keeping the summon out would be a good thing, the light they currently had could vanish at any moment. People dressed in formal wear weaved around them or otherwise busily got out of their way, and it was just something that was happening to her.
"Oh, this is certainly a trap, just enjoy the lack of corpses while you can." she chuckled the comment as Samira talked about the uneasy feeling, shrugging softly as she looked between the doors and other features, trying to figure out what was illusion and what wasn't so she could react better to protect the other girl. As they entered the ballroom, Jiyu entertained the thought of getting Samira to dance in order to see the illusion play out further. If this was being shown? The canine suspected it may be in some way related to something tragic that had happened here, maybe the event that led to what had happened to set this building on the path to becoming its own playdough dimension for trapping and torturing poor souls. However, before she could make any request, Samira shouted out for the child she had seen before. What was it with that child, showing up again so soon. Jiyu was seriously beginning to doubt that thing was human anymore.
Everyone was staring at them, but within a few seconds she noticed it was mostly ama and samira the patrons were staring at, it was almost as if she didn't exist. Or just maybe? They did notice her, and that was why they had not sprung yet. Jiyu took a big chance, twining her finger's through the hand of Samira's that was tied to her, moving around to the front of her and putting her free hand on her shadow. "Shh, just trust me, dance." as she spoke the canine suddenly shapeshifted to dispose of the grotesque appearance she had, an illusion of her own, which was odd considering she had not seemed to care until now. Moving a step into Samira showing the other girl that she should lead the steps, waiting for the other girl to take that lead. Once they started dancing? The music started back up shortly afterward and Jiyu tried hard to pay attention and make sure there was nothing dangerous hidden by the illusions.
A few minutes into dancing? The inugami leaned forward to place her mouth beside the summoners ear. "I don't think they can decide if I'm one of them or not." the inugami spoke up, it was the only reason she could think that they had not pounced when Samira ruined the illusional setting. If there was some sense of hierarchy respect based on a specters power here? She would rank fairly high if she were among them, thus if they were lower spirits, they wouldn't pounce on something they thought she was hunting. "I think they believe I'm hunting you." it perfectly explained why they had gone back to dancing when she did, why none of them suddenly turned into the gruesome appearances they had to truly possess. "Slowly dance towards the staircase." surrounded by hundreds of specters, she didn't want to face those odds, especially if she could just lead Samira out and follow the kid the summoner was so persistent in trying to find.
Once they danced that far? Jiyu led the way up the staircase and through one of the doors at the top of it, closing the door behind her carefully to avoid any of the others taking notice. Sighing in relief once they were 'in the clear' the inugami glanced over at Samira, her eyebrow rising as she looked in that direction. "Oh now that's completely creative, the dining room was more aesthetic." she scoffed the comment out, noting a corpse hung on a coat hook like it was some coat right beside them, and another shoved in an umbrella holder. "Be ready to fight soon, I don't know how much longer we'll be able to sell their misconception, eventually they're going to realize I didn't die here." it would take a little while, but it would happen one of these encounters. "Come on, let's check the rooms, see if we can find anything, they may be able to move and create but I do think in some sense there may be hints of the original left meaning we could find out what happened here with enough digging." and that would give them a leg up on recognizing some of the specters if they masqueraded as victims still in their right minds. "I'd like to look into that." hopefully it would make keeping samira alive easier.