Night 48: Staff-Only Food Counter

[mizuhomaiden]

[from here]Moving quickly seemed to have been a wise move as Sheena and Yukari made it back inside the building without the ninja's presence provoking any of the birds. The ninja scanned the room before turning back to shut the door securely behind them. She knew the door to the kitchen had a lock on it, so she wasn't in any real hurry

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[mind_the_sukima]

Yukari followed the ninja, feeling no great need to linger outside - pretty though the stars were, the boundless reaches of space had never particularly held her interest, especially after being exposed to them for hundreds of years. Perhaps if her knowledge of astrology were better, she might have noted the different arrangements here, but that had never been one of her hobbies, at least not recently.

Once Sheena closed the door, Yukari turned to face her, expecting the girl to go ahead and break the lock barring their way. Instead she was faced with an oddly quiet ninja. Nerves, or something else?

"Hmm?" she intoned questioningly, not particularly pressing for a verbal answer if one wasn't forthcoming. She gave the girl a small smile as she waited to see what Sheena had to say.

[mizuhomaiden]

Sheena moved closer, the odd look still on her face, and she reaches out to brush one of the ribbons in the youkai's hair with her fingertips. She seemed to be in deep thought, debating something.

"You aren't wearing all your ribbons..."

[mind_the_sukima]

A curious question, and unless something very odd was afoot, not the one the ninja was thinking about. It sparked Yukari's interest, but she was in no rush to discover the answer. What was life without a little mystery?

"I'm not," she agreed, looking the girl over with interest in her eyes. "I thought to understate the red and other colors since the suit's so white."

From her expression, the youkai was obviously still waiting for something more. Her hand came up, fingers brushing the girl's cheek as she watched silently with that subtle smile.

[mizuhomaiden]

"Oh."

The youkai was certainly correct in that the ribbons weren't what was on Sheena's mind. Eyes fluttering a little at the touch on her cheek, the ninja starts to move closer.

Then she stops and catches Yukari's hand. Drawing in a breath, she turns away to lead the youkai to the door.

[mind_the_sukima]

[From here]

As soon as they were out into the little room outside the kitchen, Yukari pulled the door shut. However, there was no telling if that would keep the shadow-thing from following them, so she kept her light trained on the doorway even as she backed away towards the exit to the patio. She'd rather not go back outside with Sheena in this condition, but facing potential threats, namely ones Yukari could hit with her parasol, was much preferable to the definite threat of whatever that thing had been in the kitchen.

[mizuhomaiden]

If Yukari was expecting Sheena to 'snap out of it' once she was away from the shadowy mass, she was wrong. The ninja never resisted any of the direction the youkai gave her. In fact, it was so easy to physically control her, it was unnerving.

Coming to a stop, Sheena leaned against the wall and then slid down to the floor, regardless of the grip Yukari had on her arm. She slowly blinked.

"Why are we...?"

[mind_the_sukima]

Good, it didn't seem the shadow entity was following them. It seemed its effect on Sheena was still lingering though, and there was little Yukari could do when the ninja went limp and sat down on the floor. Frowning, she knelt down beside the girl, setting the flashlight down pointing towards the kitchen door - hopefully that would be enough to give them warning if it tried coming out after them.

"Sorry to interrupt your preparations, but it seems something wanted to eat you up instead of your cooking," she joked, though her smile was a little grim. "Couldn't be having any of that, now could we?"

She reached over, putting a hand on Sheena's cheek to turn the girl to face her. From how spaced out she was acting, it was probably best to give her a familiar face to focus on rather than just staring at the floor.

[mizuhomaiden]

"... it was pointless," Sheena murmured, completely unresisting to her head being turned.

The hand on her cheek was warm, far warmer than the ninja felt, though that was only in her mind. To Yukari, her skin felt fine