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]

[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.

[mind_the_sukima]

Yukari smiled fondly at the touch, listening to those words. Unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately, as Yukari had no idea what was supposed to happen and thus was unaware of Sheena's current inability - the formality of those words threw her off a little, and the youkai's mind raced to recall all that Sheena had said about forming her pacts rather than simply answering "yes" to the ninja's request.

"All right, I'll listen," she said, smiling encouragingly. "Wasn't there something about a vow as well now? A promise, to entice my aid or some such?"

Not that the youkai needed much enticing at this point.

[mizuhomaiden]

"No, no... that wasn't right. It didn't start," Sheena said, clearly not talking about the youkai's response. "No mana."

The summoner shifted, leaning forward to bury her face in Yukari's chest. "I need a little longer or I won't be able to... What the hell was that thing?"

[mind_the_sukima]

For a moment, Yukari was worried she might have said something wrong - though really, would that be her fault? She only knew second-hand how these were supposed to go - but it became clear enough what was the problem. Mana was the same thing that powered Sheena's cards, so it wasn't an effect of the institute. It seemed that shadow had not just drained Sheena emotionally, but magically as well.

"Not sure," replied the youkai, wrapping her arms around the ninja. It was good to have her back. "It seemed to be some kind of creature of shadow that feeds on energy, both emotional and magical it would seem. I didn't see it come from anything, and you checked the room before, so I assume that the darkness we saw was its true form."

[mizuhomaiden]

"Ugh. Normally, I would have been able to sense it, if it was darkness. But here..."

Sheena closed her eyes and took solace in the warmth of the youkai and the comfort of her arms. Her breathing steadied and she sought to find what she needed within for the pact.

"In a few... What questions do you have before I invoke the mana?"

[mind_the_sukima]

Well, normally, Yukari could probably have banished it from the kitchen, or perhaps erased its existence entirely. The border between being and unbeing were slim for a creature as ephemeral as that.

"Well... I understand sort of what the pact is, but what exactly will happen once it's been made? How is it used, really?" the youkai asked with a look of academic interest. If it meant that she'd have to follow Sheena's every command, she might want to consider rethinking this. she liked being on one end of the shikigami-master relationship, not the other. "And... is there anything special I need to say or do when we make it?"

Just barely, she might have looked a little nervous when she asked that, though she tried to hide it with her nonchalant smile. She'd never admit it, but she really had no idea how any of this worked and was scared of messing it up somehow.

[mizuhomaiden]

Yukari was lucky in that Sheena had her eyes closed and didn't open them until after the youkai had covered the nervousness up with a smile

[mind_the_sukima]

Yukari listened with what was as close to rapt attention as she got, which meant that while she looked to merely just be listening, she was taking in every word and thinking it and its implications over

[mizuhomaiden]

Wrapped up as she was by the youkai, Yukari did not see Sheena's face flush, but she could probably feel it given it spread down the summoner's neck and across her shoulders. A part of her kicked her, reminding her that she needed to lock the whole involved-with-Yukari emotions away until after the pact was made, if only because of the youkai's uncanny ability to make Sheena's willpower disappear. She needed that more than anything else when it came to a pact. Without it, she couldn't control the mana, much less control the power of the youkai herself.

"Umm... yeah." She swallowed and squeezed Yukari back once before disengaging herself.

"Okay, I think I can do this now." She looked around, offering her hand to help Yukari u. "I guess here works as well as any other, despite it feeling kind of weird. This isn't the standard venue."

[mind_the_sukima]

Yukari was a little reluctant to let go of the warm ninja she was hugging, but the pact ceremony probably couldn't be done in this position, or even if it could, Sheena probably wanted to afford what little formalities they still could in this place. Taking the girl's hand, the youkai also stood.

"Well, I doubt there's anything like a temple around here anyway," she replied, giving Sheena's hand a squeeze before letting go of it. "Well, at least not one you'd want to use for this." The church with the fountain of blood would be far worse than this. "Besides, a room like this, whose only function is to be between places, kind of suits me."

Letting her hands fall to her sides, Yukari moved to stand an arms length away from the summoner, clearing her mind and relaxing her body. She let all nervousness and thoughts about what might happen slip from her body like water through a drain, or memories through the gaps of the world.

"I'm ready to start when you are, Sheena."

[mizuhomaiden]

When put that way, Sheena felt better about their location. She was so used to the spirits having temples, not so much dedicated to them as the element they were, that she hadn't really thought what a Temple of Borders would be like. And she kind of didn't want to. Maybe after the pact (if it worked) she would have a better understanding of gaps and borders.

With a nod at Yukari's word, Sheena closed her eyes and cycled her breathing. She needed to squash her nervousness. She needed to find her center, deep in her mana well. She needed to focus. She needed to be a summoner. That will, that power, that magicSheena's eyes snapped open, a look in them the youkai had never seen before, not even when the summoner was brainwashed. There was power there, something not to be taken likely and, with the words that came from the Sheena's lips, mana surged in the room, originating from the summoner

[mind_the_sukima]

Yukari waited while the girl gathered herself. At the edges of perception, she could feel hints of her previous nervousness stirring. It was odd being the one acted upon, rather than the one who had enacted the situation. A lack of control, of knowledge that was somewhat unsettling. She quashed those feelings down with her trust in the ninjas words that she would, when it happened, know what to do. Still, there was some doubt.

That doubt disappeared entirely when Sheena's eyes reopened. The utter confidence and seriousness in that look was compelling, something that rarely affected the youkai but did so now. There was something else there too, not just will, but mana, power, magic. Even if it was unfamiliar to Yukari, she knew the feel of magic and could feel it reaching out, seeking her. It was Sheena's power, trying to establish a connection with her own. However, it could surely only connect with something as vague and distant as the youkai of borders' essence if she let it

[mizuhomaiden]

The youkai's own magic was so close, so very close, and yet still far away. This was a familiar feeling, a familiar sense of yearning to have that power fill her near bottomless mana well. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the summoner was relieved to know she'd been right and that this pact could happen.

Could if Yukari accepted her vow. And now was that time

[mind_the_sukima]

Yukari had also considered similar options the girl might make. Though she claimed she couldn't always understand what the youkai was thinking and Yukari often made it that way on purpose, Sheena surely had a good idea of her nature by now, so it was easy to imagine what things she might say to specifically entice her. Having never heard what the girl's other vows had been, Yukari could only imagine what sort of words they might be

[mizuhomaiden]

That little pause felt like a thousand years to the summoner, but that smile of Yukari's (aside from making her heart speed up a bit) calmed her fear that the vow was not acceptable. As much as Sheena tried to keep her countenance serious and neutral, a smile tugged at her lips and there was a joy in her eyes that couldn't be denied.

With Yukari's acceptance, the summoner felt their magic connect and was summarily engulfed by the youkai's power. This wasn't just a sense of what the Youkai of Borders was through the restricted filter in this place, but the raw essence of Yukari Yakumo. It was almost too much for Sheena to handle, her rate of breathing increasing as she fought to control it.

Oh gods, she might even be more powerful than Origin. Grant me the strength to not fall beneath this presence.As she adjusted to the feeling of the pact, something she missed so deary, she wondered what Yukari would feel? Corrine had once told her, when she asked about it, that Sheena was unique in that she had such a reservoir of mana that

[mind_the_sukima]

Yukari felt it as they connected, a single, solitary step that nonetheless bridged the infinite gap between separate beings, removing the border between them.

As if Sheena was a vessel just waiting to be filled, the youkai felt her power, her magic, her very being go out to her, within her, enfolding her very core. She felt deeply connected, in a way closer than she had with her own shikigami. Perhaps it was because now she was the summoned and Sheena was the summoner. Perhaps this was how Ran felt in relation to her.

Even if she closed her eyes, she could feel where Sheena was. Without sound or sight, she knew exactly where her summoner was and knew she would were the girl to move or even leave the room. Partly it was a sense of connection, extension, as if the girl now carried a piece of Yukari within her now and she could feel that like she could feel her own limbs, but also there was a sense of vastness, of potential and power waiting to be filled, such that she was almost surprised she had never sensed it earlier