dizzy_land | Application for Kurogane (Reply)

So that's two lies exposed right there, all at once: the mage can whistle, as he's been insisting from the start he's incapable of doing, and he will work magic, if the situation's bad enough. If the kids are in too much trouble. Kurogane knows it's for the kids, he knows this even as his eyes widen and he stares at the magic sphere forming around them, because Fay's never been careful about preserving his own life and he certainly hasn't gone out of his way for Kurogane before. Not that he should.

"Mokona, move us to the next dimension." He's speaking calmly, as if he hasn't just broken the rule he's insisted on keeping for almost a year now, as if this is a perfectly natural thing for him to do and means nothing. Kurogane hates that damn mask.

"But, my magic..."

"It should be fine inside here."

Sure enough, the manjuu can summon its magic... if nothing else, Kurogane has to admit that the mage has saved them a lot of trouble, giving them an escape route. And while he hates to run from a fight, he can't help but remember the blank look in Syaoran's eyes, how he'd fought like a machine made for that express purpose, and couldn't remember a thing once the it was all over and he "woke up"... Yes, it's better for them to get out of here. They don't have any reason to stay, anyway.

Kurogane looks over, and doesn't take his eyes off the mage as the tendrils of Mokona's power wrap around them all, pull them, and there's that awful disorienting feeling of being unraveled like a worn sleeve, sucked out of reality and forced somewhere else, somewhere alien...

And somewhere alone. Kurogane curses as he looks around this new landscape and doesn't find his traveling companions. Not one of them. Even in Yama, Fay had been there, even if the mage had been even more impossible to understand than normal. He really hates these delays and, despite himself, hates not having the others around; he hopes it's not going to be another six months, like in Yama.

Kurogane gets to his feet and looks over the landscape once more with sharp eyes, willing this strange place to give up its secrets. (It doesn't even occur to him to think that, to people here, he might seem strange: short, naturally spikey black hair, red eyes, tanned skin, tall and obviously with a fighter's build. Not only that, he's surveying everything with what seems to be a perpetual glare, or at least a look that says clearly that he's deeply unimpressed, and the world is going to have to do something drastic to change his opinion. He's wearing a dark suit with a high white collar, but it's clear by the way he carries himself that he doesn't often go for such formality, that he prefers direct confrontation to diplomatic words and is better at it, too.)

When the mouse and the cat appear, he twitches--almost like the strange rabbits in that one world, he hopes these two new, ridiculous-looking don't give him the same sort of trouble. "Oi," he addresses them, because they seem smart enough to communicate--and after all he's been through, traveling worlds, he almost doesn't feel foolish. "What is this place?

Mickey coughs theatrically. "'What is your name?'"

Kurogane sees no need for the theatrical cough. He has a feeling these pseudo-animals are just screwing with him. "Kurogane," he says, and leaves it at that, waiting for them to get on with whatever they're going to tell him.

"What is your quest?" asks the Cat. It's perched, suddenly, on the roof of one of the gate-stiles.

"I'm on a journey. With two kids, a stupidly cheerful blonde, and a white manjuu bun. We're... writing a book." The lie had worked before, so he uses it now, though he feels foolish doing so. "And I'm trying to get home."

"'What is the average w..?'" Mickey frowns down at the notebook. "You know, I don't really see why that's important." He flips a page. "'If you could be granted three wishes, what would they be?'"

Yep, he's definitely just being screwed with. Well, if he has to answer these to move on in this damn country... "Wishes are expensive," he says with suspicion he doesn't even try to veil. After all, the Dimensional Witch grants wishes, and they've always seemed overly pricey--he doesn't trust people who ask about wishes. "Besides, if you really want something, you should work to get it on your own."

"Or," the Cat says, examining its tail with interest, "if you were a genie and someone you were trying to give three wishes to was trying to trick you into giving him more, what would you say?"

"Tell them no," he says flatly. "Straight out. If they kept it up, I'd leave. They want to try to take more than what they're being given, they don't get anything."

Mickey looks rather nonplused at the next, but reads, "'When the revolution comes, what skills will you be able to barter for food?'"

Revolution? Tch, this place really is like Yama. "I'm a fighter," he explains simply, "and I'm used to war, so I can fight in any revolution. I can also work as a bodyguard." Which, during a revolution, people are sure to need.

The Cat rolls its eyes in a friendly (and rather disconcertingly out-of-sync) way, and asks, "Milk, dark, or white chocolate?"

Kurogane meets the Cat's eyes with his sternest look, not about to admit that the out-of-synch eyerolling is at all disconcerting. "None of them. I don't like sweet things."

"'Choose the two coolest: robots, pirates, fairies, bears, ninjas, monkeys, vampires, or humans,'" says Mickey, giggling a bit as he goes through the list. "'Explain.'"

That earns a small grin from the ninja, giving his first answer promptly: "Ninjas. Obviously." He doesn't even feel the need to explain that one. He considers the rest of the list: still isn't sure what robots are, pirates are troublemakers and fairies are just trouble, bears are fine if you leave them alone, with monkeys presumably the same... the mention of vampires perks his interest ("Do you have any knowledge of a pair of twin vampires?" the man had asked), but he's heard dark tales of those, almost as bad as the fairies. "And humans. They're usually easier to deal with than anything else."

"Great!" Mickey flips through the blank pages of the notebook at top, cartoon-y speed. "Well, I think that's just about it! Oh, and I'm supposed to ask, 'for your safety: are you carrying anything sharp?'"

"Just Souhi." Kurogane's hand goes to rest on the hilt of his sword. "I hope that won't be a problem." After what happened to Ginryuu--and hell, to his clothes back in Shara, damn Dimensional Bitch--he's not about to let his blade go without a fight.

Though fighting a ridiculous fake mouse and a grinning cat seems more than a little pointless.

((Kurogane is from Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, the manga, not the anime. He's being taken from the end of Chapitre 106, after they leave Lecourt.))