#kaikxtsu

[keishidou]

     Maybe she was being a bit unfair here.

     Kei’s job was to protect the forest and, sure, plenty of times that could mean interfering with humans. But... that was when they were causing problems, snooping around where they shouldn’t or otherwise causing harm to her domain or the animals in it. 

     This was, decidedly, not the case today.

     Vivid eyes peer from her concealed perch in the trees, a flash of red against the deep fog rolling through the woods. Her magic was a potent thing-- even if a human were capable of seeing through the misty blanket over the environment, the way it was almost unnaturally disorienting to the brain certainly did the trick. Even the most directionally savvy would find themselves turned around and surely her little guest would be the same.

      For now, Kei simply waits for the human to wander sufficiently from her path.

[elfnein]

                                               @kaikxtsu​

     Sometimes they really, really wish that maybe Carol wouldn’t have frozen this body in time, that their vessel wasn’t going to be perpetually small and frail and childlike in a way that would continue to make things like research, well... a pain. 

     But here they were, the tender height of four-foot-something-small, and suffering.

     Elfnein’s eyebrows scrunch in distress as they glance to one of the library’s shelves settled tauntingly just out of reach, hands clenched at either side of them. This particular one happened to have a copy of an out-of-print German academic book that they needed for their notes and to leave without it just because they were too shy to ask for help felt a little...

     Clearing their throat, Elfnein turns to a blonde woman glancing through the rows nearby before hesitantly taking a few steps closer. She wasn’t much taller than Elfnein themselves but anything was better than struggling on their tiptoes in public.

     “U-Um...! E-Excuse me--” They squeak out, cheeks flush with embarrassment as they wring their hands through the fabric of their oversized sleeves. “C-Could you please hand me that book, up there, m-maybe? T-The big red one.”

[seiizon]

@kaikxtsu​

     Oh, she was beyond exhausted.

     The turbulent chaos of a full moon was nothing new to Kurumi and the same could be said for the slew of ‘symptoms’ that came before or after-- this same song and dance was one she had done countless times by now, after all. She was sore, she was hungry, she barely felt like moving.

     But it was the first moon since Miki had started rooming with her, and that felt... maybe not exactly bad, but different. Knowing someone would be at home while she was out of town was strange and it was even weirder knowing that, really, if Miki wanted to cause trouble nothing was really stopping her.

     Still, when Kurumi unlocks her front door and returns with what minimal baggage she brought with her, everything is seemingly fine. Maybe even a little tidier than normal even.

     “Heyo-- I’m back.”

[schoollivingpresident]

@kaikxtsu liked.

As the days dragged on, Yuuri started to suspect that the only reason she was being kept in the facility was to keep an eye on her mental state. The Randall Corporation must’ve been told about what she (and Yuki, for that matter) had started to believe during their journey, and making sure that she was at least a little more “mentally stable” before thrusting her out into the cruel, lonely world was the least they could do for trying to kill her and the only family she had left.

Though, it wasn’t really like she minded. The hospital was the most stability she’d experienced in months. Food was guaranteed, they were safe, and most importantly, Kurumi and Miki weren’t going to turn. They were going to recover, even though it was slow going, especially for the twin-tailed girl. While she regained her conscious more and more these days, there were still periods where she’d be out for hours. Her body needed the rest, but Yuuri was lonely.

Yuki often created work for herself--after all, the four weren’t the only people in the hospital, and bringing cheer and solace to those hurting had always been a specialty of the pink-haired girl’s. As much as Yuuri wanted to join her in assuring surviving children that things would be okay, she was painfully aware of how shaky she felt at the moment. She didn’t want to scare anyone with how she looked--gaunt, exhausted, and as if she might snap at any moment.

Well, all things considered, that was a big improvement.

As she knocked on Miki’s hospital door, Yuuri wondered how the tests her other friend had to endure were going. Since she had been infected for a relatively short period of time before they were rescued, her symptoms weren’t nearly as bad as Kurumi’s, but it was clear she was still experiencing issues. Just because Randall had the cure didn’t mean they understood it completely. Her two friends were guinea pigs--the least she could do was be there for them.

[seiizonarchived]

@kaikxtsu​:

Miki sat up a little bit more, straightening out the messy cut up undershirt before she gently rubbed the uninjured side of her bandaged neck.

"Ahh...W-well, we ended up coming here because of some information Aosoi-san...left us, on her phone. The water here, at the academy? It turns out, it's had traces of the antibodies all along. It has to be why even when the sickness was airborne, we were still so okay. And why you were able to survive the infection before." 

 Boy, this was more explanation than Miki was really able to give. She stopped for a moment, sparing a short, strained coughing fit into her hand. 

"W-we...we got here...I didn't find much water, but I found enough, at least, for everyone to get a little bit, even you. I'm just...I'm just glad it worked...that we were right..." "Yuki-senpai and Yuuri-senpai are okay...I think they went to another room to see about salvaging anything."

     Water... she supposed that made sense, for as far as someone like her was capable of understanding all of this. Truth be told it was nice to have what felt like a substantial step forward in figuring out what was going on or, at the very least, how to deal with it; ever since the infection hit it admittedly felt a bit like trying to fight off the inevitable with no real end in sight, no idea about anything outside of their tiny world, but this was... it was something. 

     “I’m glad everyone’s okay....” Kurumi murmurs. And she means it-- even in all her coherency, the scariest thing was not knowing what would happen to herself or what was happening to her friends around her. She’s not sure what she would do if she had to wake up to bad news like that. “Even when I was kind’ve awake it was... hard to tell what all was actually happening... to tell the truth, iunno what was even a dream or not. Especially if my fever was getting really bad again...”

     Clearing her throat, she glances back over to Miki. Namely, her disheveled appearance, her tattered shirt, the bandages she can see poke into view here and there. Now that Kurumi could actually register what she was seeing, there was no denying she looks rough.

     “What... happened to you though...?”

[transcendentlegacy]

@kaikxtsu

     It was always a certain kind of exciting, riding a motorcycle at night, especially in places like this, where all of the neon lights could race by as a blur even through the tinted visor on her helmet. It was almost like... traveling at lightspeed in sci-fi movies, where the lights were like stars.

     She had only just arrived in this busy place, and even though she wasn’t sure what kinds of places or things to do might be here, she already had a decidedly good feeling about it. But... where to start. After looking around a little, she finds a spot to park her bike, taking her helmet off, so that she can get in a deep breath after a long ride.

     Thankfully, it hadn’t been dark for long, so she’d still have the opportunity to explore and have a little fun before she needed to go and get a room at whatever local hotel she could find.

[gentle-blood-moon-blog]

@kaikxtsu

     Mia was wandering around the streets of Tokyo, a city she knew well. She had zoned out, thinking about what she was going to do for dinner, and found herself walking through some areas that looked rather rough. It was then she had realized she was in the bad part of town, though there didn’t seem to be any dangerous people around her.

     After a moment of deliberation, she decided she would continue on for a while, and see where the night took her. If any humans pulled anything, she could just stun them and fly away, after all.

     As she was humming along, she noticed someone who looked... not quite right. She could tell something was off, but upon closer inspection, she noticed some odd scarring around her neck. But in that pattern....

     “Oh, geez, I’d hate to meet whoever did that,” she muttered to herself, slightly picking up pace to catch up. As she got closer, she realized the girl looked too gentle to be somewhere as dangerous as this. Well, at least, she didn’t look like someone who was going to try bashing her head in at any rate.

     “Hey! Uh, hi. My name’s Mia, and I was wondering what you were doing out so late?”

[keishidou]

@kaikxtsu​

     Ah.... what was.... going on?

     Kei rubs her head, sitting up on the floor of the forest she had ended up in. Her head was ringing, she felt dizzy, and that was nothing on the fact that she had no idea where she even was. Even if she wracked her brain, her last memories were of her argument with Miki, of leaving the mall, of barricading herself in that room after she..... after she was....

     Bitten. After she got bitten.

     Everything after is fuzzy, but it’s there. Vague images of the school. People who look too familiar for her taste. None of it explains how she’s ended up in this situation though, seemingly fine by all means compared to her past fate.

     “Er....”