Living with a Snake Demon

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Orangejuice

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Thunder resounded over the city of Yurusa, quieting the normally bustling city with its sonorous clamour. Under the shadow of the pregnant clouds, its residents hurried to home or shelter as heavy rain beat relentlessly upon the face of the world.

Yuu Kondo quickened her pace to try to escape the downpour. She’d been down these streets many times before, but it seemed like a foreign city now. There was something about this storm that suggested a grim portent. This part of the country was not a place known for storms such as these. The weather forecast didn’t predict anything at all like this. It was supposed to be clear and sunny skies all week, but then this freak storm appeared from nowhere. At least there was no flooding yet.

“Huh?”

She paused as she saw a man out of the corner of her eye, sitting quietly beneath an awning across the road. Her mother always told her to trust her intuition, and right now it screamed at her in alarm. She picked up the pace even more. Before rounding a corner, she turned to gaze at where the man sat and found that he was gone. Her eyes swept the street and found that he had crossed to her side and was following close behind her. She tried to lose him, but he seemed a peerless predator and kept pace. She didn’t know how long the chase went on, but she couldn’t carry on anymore and collapsed. How could an entire city be so empty?

She mustered what strength she had to crawl forward in useless bravado, but she was quickly picked up and thrown unceremoniously into a back alley by strong arms. She closed her eyes expecting the worst. But she was surprised when she felt wind buffet her, a great illumination pierce the lid of her eyes and a constant crackling deafen her ears. She gazed in the direction of all the oddities and there was a tunnel of light, with its inside like a churning rapid. From within stepped out a woman, just a little shorter than her modest height. The tunnel sealed behind the woman, and Yuu felt the man release his grip and walk towards the woman.

With the light gone, Yuu was able to see the woman better. Dark haired and pale skinned, she was covered by a large mantle that looked ancient and regal, beneath which she only had a yem and a short skirt. Her exposed skin was covered in wounds and her steps were unsteady, forcing her to grab a nearby wall for balance. The woman looked up at the two, then stared at the man and started hissing. The man hesitated at first, but then he laughed and seized her by the throat and pushed her back against the wall.

The woman’s expression didn’t change at all as her gaze was riveted to the man’s eyes. Nor did it change when he tightened his grip. But the man’s smug expression soon did change into one of frozen fear as her eyes morphed into a radiant gold and power seeped from her very being. The man became like a statue, and with a soft push from her slender hand, he fell backwards, landing with a thud still in the same rigid pose. Were he not made of flesh, he might have shattered.

The woman turned to Yuu and spoke with great presence, “Go home.”

Yuu did not think twice about following that order. She fled the alleyway and through the streets. The rain had stopped, but she hadn’t even realized when.

Exhausted, the woman lay down on the ground and wrapped herself in her cloak.
 
Hisao Kurosawa quite liked the rain. It bothered most people because they didn't want to get wet or catch a cold, but he thought they were making too big a deal out of it. He didn't have a particular affinity for water or anything, but it felt rather refreshing. That was why, on this fine day, Hisao locked the door to his apartment and set out to take a walk. After all, with a day off from work and a limited internet connection, what else was there to do?

Hisao was a little surprised when he found the streets of the city practically deserted. He was unused to seeing such a sight, even during normal rainy weather.

"Sheesh, what's so scary about a little rain?"

As if on cue, the sky lit up and sent an awesome bolt of lightning down upon the city, followed by a deafening crash of thunder. Hisao jumped in surprise, his heart racing. He may have claimed that he didn't mind it, but the sound of thunder and lightning was as foreign to him as to the rest of Yurusa's residents. He sighed, recollecting himself, and started walking at a leisurely pace.

His walk didn't last very long, however. Not ten minutes after leaving his apartment, the rain began to diminish. Just as he rounded a corner, it finally ceased, leaving Hisao with an empty feeling. He was about to turn and head back to his apartment, but something caught his eye: a young woman suddenly emerging from an alleyway. This might not have been too strange if it wasn't for the fact that she was running, as if fleeing from something. He only managed to catch a slight glimpse of her face, but the expression on it was clearly one of fear.

Hisao couldn't help but feel a little concerned. He walked further, towards the alleyway, already painting a picture of what he guessed might have happened in there. No doubt she must have been assaulted or something, which meant the criminal could still be in there.

"Just a glance. Then keep walking," Hisao told himself. Despite this, he couldn't help but halt right before the turn into the alley, seized by fear. All of his instincts told him this was a stupid decision, but... he took a step forward.

What he found was not at all what he was expecting. He sighed in relief as his eyes rested upon a statue, a mysterious shining portal, and what he could only assume was a big cocoon. At least there was no criminal, he thought.

That was when the strangeness of what he was looking at occurred to him. Slightly curious, he walked slowly, cautiously into the alleyway, to examine the objects within it closer. First he bent down to take a closer look at the statue.

"Wow... so lifelike," he noted, in awe of its craftsmanship. Its face appeared to be frozen in terror, reminding him a little of the expression the fleeing woman had. Which reminded him, what was so scary about all this in the first place?

Hisao turned to the cocoon thing. Or was it? Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be...

He jumped back a little, realizing that this was in fact a person wrapped up in some sort of cloak. How hadn't he realized it before? Cursing his stupidity, he held up a hand in greeting to this strange individual and offered a small smile.

"Uh... yo. What's up?" he asked as casually as he could.
 
The woman looked at the young man that had appeared with heavy eyes. ‘Yo.’ From what little information she was able to magically extract from the thug earlier, it was some kind of vernacular greeting. Too casual. Too informal. Who did this human think he was addressing her in that manner? She reached out with a hand and grabbed onto his shoulder, exposing her arm covered in still bleeding wounds. She thought about petrifying him like the previous fool, but she wasn’t even able to do that before with what meager energy she had left. The miscreant should have been turned to solid stone, but instead he was simply paralyzed. He would rouse in a few hours. Her power here was weak and her form was weak and disgusting. Walking on two legs with barefeet touching this filthy human ground was a repulsive thought, but one she would seem to have to get used to.

“C-C-Cold...” She managed to utter weakly between labored breaths

She was surprised. She was trying to draw the heat from his body, but she didn’t have the power. She thought she had more strength in her than that, but that was apparently all she could manage. The urge to sleep was oh so very strong now. She released him and curled back up into her cloak trying to preserve what little heat she had left. That cursed Dragoon. Leaving her in this pathetic state. She would have to gather power in this world and come back even mightier than before. If that was even possible. There was not a hint of magic in the air. Truly this was a cursed place.
 
Hisao noticed that the person, now clearly a woman, seemed to be in pretty bad shape. He was quite taken aback when the girl suddenly extended an arm and took hold of his shoulder. However, that surprise quickly turned to concern when he saw her still-bleeding arm.

"W-Whoa," he blurted out, instinctively reaching for the phone in his pocket. "Hold on a second, lemme call the ambulance."

Hisao had just finished typing the number and pressing call before his fingers suddenly froze. His eyes went wide as he realized he couldn't move nor feel his body at all. He tried to speak, but could only utter a slight whimper before falling to the ground, stiff as a statue.

~~~

Hisao's eyes fluttered open, and he felt the cold touch of water on his back. He quickly realized he was lying on the wet pavement.

"Urrgh..." he moaned, lifting his head slightly. In the distance, he could barely hear the sound of sirens.

"What happened...?" he said weakly. Mustering what little strength he had, he lifted up his arm and glanced at his watch. "Two hours... what...?"

He turned his head to the right. There, cocooned in cloth like before, was the girl. Had she just been sitting here this whole time, he wondered? And what had taken the police so long?!

Hisao grunted as he rose from the ground, with some difficulty. He proceeded to remove his wet vest, left with the black hoodie underneath and a shirt. As soon as he took it off, he felt a chill down his spine from the cool air. Looking to the cloaked girl, however, he couldn't help but feel pity.

"Hey, the police is almost here, so you should be fine. Here," he said, unzipping his hoodie. He crawled over to her and placed the hoodie on top of her cloak, hopefully providing some extra warmth. That was when it occurred to him that she might already have fainted from the cold, or worse.

"H-hey. Are you alive?" Hisao asked nervously.
 
She was hoping she would have the strength to get away, but she needed more rest. However, she had gained some feeling back in her extremities, and was able to move more steadily than before. The man from before was speaking about something, but she wasn’t certain she understood. Ambulance? Police? She just needed a warm haven for a while. She opened her eyes and pushed herself to a sitting position, trying, but failing, to keep all of herself enveloped in her cloak. She still had a weary look about her eyes, but she observed the young man before her. He appeared taller than her, with a head decorated by a mop of short blond hair and a set of cerulean eyes. He reminded her of a human champion she had faced before. She remembered consuming him along with his pet Kajir hound. The pair made a fine meal and the thought of eating made her conscious of a previously overlooked problem.

She carefully rose to a stand, trembling like a tree in a storm. She staggered towards Hisao with quivering legs, only to fall and catch herself on him. Coming into such close contact, she gasped as she realized how warm he was. With what passes for a smile for a creature that rarely does, she tightened her hold on him and kept still as she drank in the new found warmth.

“Get me out of here...” Much to her disappointment it came out as a weak and shy request rather than an order commanding respect as she intended.

But with that she felt content to let this human bring her some place safe. Perhaps he would take her to the safety of his home and there she could consume him in comfort. She swept her tongue across her lips. Yes, perhaps. With a sigh, her breathing became like gossamer. Her heart beat became soft and still. And to the outside world she appeared frozen in eternal rest.
 
Hisao stretched out his arms to catch the woman as soon as she fell forward, and upon catching her, felt another chill go down his spine as he realized how ridiculously cold she was. He pulled the hoodie over her head to help warm her up. When she surprisingly clung to him even tighter, he couldn't help but start feeling somewhat awkward.

"Get me out of here..." she requested, her voice weak.

"B-but the cops..." Hisao insisted. However, looking down at the girl, it was difficult for him to ignore the request of one so in need. Besides, he reasoned, the hoodie wouldn't be enough to keep her warm, and she seemed in desperate need of some place to stay. The cops had already taken their time getting this far - who knew how much longer they'd take?

"Honestly, the police in this town," he muttered. Sighing in defeat, he moved away from her, depriving her of his warmth, and instead bent down slightly before moving her arm over his shoulder for support.

"I guess I'll just call them when we go back to my place. It's not far," he told her, as he slowly began walking forward, hoping she'd be able to keep up. He wanted to ask her what in the world had happened here, but held his tongue for now. The most important thing, he thought, was getting her to a safe place.
 
The young man seemed to hesitate at obeying her, much to her subdued irritation. But before long with a defeated sigh, he relented. He mentioned this “police” again as if it was something important, but what kind of thing was it that merited such attention? She was about to dig herself deeper to drink more of this man’s warmth, but he pulled away from her and supported her with his shoulder. She gave a whimper as she felt isolated again, but he began to move forward when she tried to get closer. She tried to keep pace, but it was all she could do to stay standing. She was accustomed to slithering across the ground, not taking steps with a pair of stilts. Every step she planted her foot firmly on the ground, but her leg quivered in place. It was all she could do to avoid tripping on her own two feet. She wondered why she took on a human form when arriving here. It was fortuitous and terrifying at the same time.

“What... are ‘police?’” Her voice was like dandelions in the wind

Loathe as she was to admit it, she wanted something to occupy her mind as the walk was painful, and human chattering was the only thing at hand. With what little strength she had, she surged forward and wrapped herself around his arm. She was tired. So tired.
 
Hisao took note of the woman's shaking legs as they walked, and a frown spread across his face. This wasn't working well. He hadn't wanted to be too forward earlier, but ultimately decided that in a situation like this, manners were pointless. After all, the girl was seriously injured, so...

"Hold on a second," Hisao said, coming to a stop. He carefully positioned one arm over her shoulder, and another under her legs, before lifting her up in one fell swoop. To his relief, she was lighter than he'd imagined, but Hisao wasn't very strong to begin with so it still provided some strain on his back. He grunted quietly as he pushed her closer to his chest.

"Sorry about this. Hold on tight," he advised, and began a light jog forwards.

"As for your question before," Hisao huffed between breaths, "ummm... wait, how do you not know that? You a foreigner or something?" He glanced down to look at her face to verify; he couldn't see too properly because of the lack of light, but she had silky brown hair, relatively sharp features, and what he thought were a pair of yellow eyes... or was that just his vision blurring from earlier?

"You sorta look like it," he added.
 
“Hold on a second.”

She looked up at his face, trying to determine what he was planning. It started to dawn on her that she was at an extremely disadvantageous situation. She had carelessly used up much of her magic and it was painfully obvious that she didn’t have the same physical might her true form possessed. Her eyes suddenly widened she felt herself being unwillingly lifted up from the ground and carried in the young man’s arms. She began to flail around slightly, but ceased her panic in fear of making both of them fall. Besides. This way she wouldn’t have to expose her bipedal awkwardness. She coiled into herself, and rested her head against his head. And it was warmer this way.

But it was a little undignified.

She was the Terror of Goshin. The Shadow in the Deep. The Devil of the sunless sea. And she was being carried by a man as if she were his trophy bride. What would her great generals think if they saw her like this? How the Dragoon would laugh to see her condition! But she had to bear with it for now. All this indignity was of no matter as she would eat this man later and erase any earthly witness of her weakness.

The question now was how to answer the man’s inquisition. She didn’t expect him to respond with a query of his own.

The word “Foreigner...” rolled out of her lips

In truth, she was simply saying it to see how the word sounded - speaking this human tongue felt like a defilement of her mouth. But settled for leaving it as her answer. Yes. She was a foreigner. Just a simple foreigner that would rule this world in time.
 
"Oh, I see," Hisao said, slowing down a bit. The strain on his back and arms was proving to be a bit more than the flimsy man thought he could handle. Regardless he pushed himself to keep going, albeit slower than before. "Well, uh... the police are the defenders of the country... I guess you could... say."

Hisao sighed in relief as his apartment complex came into view. It stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest of the scenery because of its pathetically poor condition, and considerable size. There still didn't seem to be anyone around; how strange, he thought. Upon reaching the door, he carefully set the woman down, making sure that she could stand on her feet somewhat properly before letting go. Supporting her as he had before, he pulled the handle of the door and helped her inside.

There, in the dimly lit lobby, Hisao found himself confronted with an old enemy. An enemy he had fought many times, but only recently managed to conquer since moving into his new apartment. How had he not seen this coming? With the woman in her current state, there was no way that she could best this unrelenting foe. Hisao looked at the stairs before him with disdain.

"Dammit... the apartment's all the way on the top floor," he drawled. The elevator had been out of service since before he'd gotten here, and the apartment complex's owners certainly couldn't afford to have it fixed. He was already quite tired, and the journey up the stairs was exhausting enough without extra weight, but...
 
Defenders of the country, hmm? Perhaps she should command their services. If not, she would have to eradicate such a thing and replace them with her own organization. She smiled to herself at the future thought of holding power once more, though her happy expression was replaced when she noticed that the young man seemed to be tiring. His pace had diminished, and his heart beat and breath quickened. His posture began to sag and he carried her lower and lower. He would regain his strength for brief moments, but then fatigue faster for longer. He finally set her down, in front of a large, dilapidated structure. She had seen (and razed) many human constructions before, but nothing quite so lofty. But still hideous.

As he set her down, she felt the cold, coarse cement with her bare feet. It was getting easier now to use these ambulatory abominations now, though still difficult. He supported her as he guided her into the building, only for him to stop suddenly in the tenebrous room. She followed his gaze to a staircase. She surmised that the cause of his expression was the tallness of this building, and the location of his residence somewhere in the upper reaches. How troublesome. He was tired from carrying her this whole way. She was tired from having waged bloody battle with parasitic humans. She shivered. Having battled the most powerful beings in the world, it was an affront to think that a staircase would be an obstacle to her. She needed to resume with her plan, as this dark room was little better than the outside. She seperated herself from the man, took a few shaky steps forward and coiled inside her cloak. Then in a dramatic display, she unclasped, unfurled and flung her heavy cloak aside.

She was vested in little but a yếm and short skirt fashioned from brown silk, and revealed more than they concealed. They also showed the full extent of her injuries: gashes that would have had even hardy veterans of war begging for aid but surprisingly did little to bother her. But despite the bloody display, she made a gallant, but staccato, stride towards the stairs. She ascended a few steps, then fell. Then she started to fidget and began to make her way up the stairs in a disturbing display of crawling and slithering.
 
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"Hisao," a voice spoke out. In his rush, he hadn't seen him before, but the attendant at the counter had been staring at him for the last few moments in confusion. "What the hell's going on?"

"Kato, quick, call an ambulance. I found this girl in an alleyway, and she's seriously injured. She's cold so I'm bringing her back to my apartment," Hisao hastily explained.

"Sure you are," Kato said, clearly completely unconvinced. From where he stood, he couldn't see her terrible condition.

"Just do it!" Hisao yelled in exasperation. He felt an awful lot like the boy who cried wolf right now. Getting back on track, he looked again to the woman, but she was gone. For a moment, he panicked, looking around frantically for her. Just before he was about to shout out for her, he saw her at the foot of the stairs, crawling up the steps in awkward movements like some crippled animal.

Hisao was about to go and help the girl, before he noticed that her cloak was gone. He noticed two things: the true extent of her injuries, which made him flinch, and the revealing nature of her clothing, which made him flinch even more. He found his body frozen, much like it had been earlier, as his eyes involuntarily locked onto the most inappropriate places. To make matters worse, her strange crawling made it all the more apparent.

Then, as if suddenly awakening from a trance, he realized what he was doing. His body once again mobile, he quickly turned his head away in embarrassment. "Uh... uh, I didn't mean to!" he exclaimed. Kato just looked at the scene with something like an amused grimace, if such a thing existed.

"Wait," Hisao said meekly. "Let me help."

Mustering up the courage and willpower to ignore certain things, Hisao tried to help up the woman, once again placing her arm so that she had support from him. "Take it easy... okay? You're just gonna end up getting more hurt like that."
 
It was strange. She tried. Really tried to get up that staircase. Concertina. Serpentine. Sidewind. Even the rather pedestrian caterpillar. All the familiar fashions of superior motion, useless. It was this useless human shape with its so unnecessarily rigid frame of bone and lack of scales holding her back. She flailed around quietly on the ground partly in perseverance, and partly in wrathful determination. Hisao had moved to help her up at this point, picking her up and supporting her with his shoulder as he had before. As he lifted her up, she ceased her struggles like a kitten being picked up by its mother. She was momentarily fazed at being so easily handled, but then regained her sharpness when she realized something.

It was nice being near warmth again.

She sidled up to him and made the separation between their sides indistinguishable, then curled inward towards his body and buried her face in his chest. Strangely she could only hear the beating of a single heart. How did humans ever manage to survive? Despite how weak their bodies were, they had somehow attained a roachlike invulnerability. It was of no importance at this moment. Right now her only concern was the worldly feeling of a simple embrace. Though she could feel her Naagmani impoverished of the divine energy that once saturated it, she felt it strengthen with the man’s embrace. Though she was aware that she should have some shame in acting this way, she never realized that humans could be so warm. It was intoxicating to just be near them. That, and it was as necessary for her as it was for a drowning man to breathe. Every ounce of power restored was precious.

She gave a long sigh of contentment. But she was starving. As lamentable as it was, (he had been helpful so far) she would have to eat this human. She needed a hidden place to do it, so she needed him to bring her to his den. She looked up at him.

“Let’s go.”
 
Hisao nodded, and began to ascend the stairs as slowly as he could, partly for the woman's sake and partly because he was still rather tired.

~~~

Thirteen flights of stairs later, Hisao spotted the familiar, relieving sight of his apartment door.

"Ah, finally." He walked slowly to the door and opened it up. The apartment was small, almost pathetically so. Two rooms existed within: the main room, about the size of a bedroom, and the bathroom, about the size of a cubicle. A small sink rested side by side with a stove, and there was a fridge propped up against the wall. Other than that, a shoddy couch, and a small lamp overhead, there wasn't much else in the room.

Hisao didn't care about that at the moment, as he walked over to the couch and propped the woman on it. He hastily placed the blanket over her, before scurrying off to the bathroom to find a towel and placing it over her wet hair. He would have offered to dry her off, but considering how exposed she was...

And also how how injured she was, of course. He figured he best focus on bandaging up the injuries as much as he could; some of them were still leaking blood, and it was at this point that he noticed some splotches of blood on the ground leading back to his apartment. Hisao wasn't one to be bothered much by blood, but seeing such an abundance of it, in addition to the horrifying gashes that riddled the woman's body, made him a little queasy. He pushed the thought aside, however, and walked over to where he kept his medical supplies...

"Wait, I don't have any bandages," he said to no one in particular. "Crap."

Realizing that it was still a little chilly in here, - though hardly as much as outside - he walked to the knob on the far wall and twisted it, turning up the heating to its max setting.

With that taken care of, Hisao proceeded to take his phone and... wait, where was his phone? His hands scoured the depths of his pockets desperately for any signs of a cell phone, but there were none. And he had no landline to speak of. No matter, he thought, Kato would take care of it.

He sat down on the couch, which made a strange squeaking noise as he did so. It was likely unused to handling two people at once. Hisao desperately hoped it didn't choose this moment to fall apart. He looked to the woman, trying to smile somewhat for comfort, though he was still rather distraught about the whole ordeal.

"Just hold out a little longer, alright? The ambulance should be here soon, my friend'll call them."
 
As they began to slowly climb the staircase, she realized something.

How was she going to eat him?

She opened and closed her mouth several times. Then stretched her mouth as far as possible... but to her unfettered horror she could not dislocate her jaw. How by the five divines was she going to swallow him whole? Hmm. She’d have to eat like a human then. That was a strange thought. Eat a human like a human. She sighed. She had fallen so far from grace in coming to this forsaken world. She pressed her finger around her mouth and felt the unsettling lack of familiar pointed teeth. Instead they were strangely flat.

She’d have to stop him from resisting her too. She would have used her petrifying gaze, but she had too little magic now. Perhaps she should try to eat his legs first so he wouldn’t be able to escape. But then he would be able to fight her with his arms. So she should probably eat his arms. But then he would have use of his legs... If she had her damn fangs she could poison him! Hmmm... Aha! She would seize him by the neck and break it as she had seen the Okami do to their prey. Yes, that was the only way. But she lacked strength now, so she would have to be deceptive about it.

She was so focused on her cogitations that she hadn’t realized they had entered his residence already. He had seated her and covered her up. She took the towel on her head and sniffed it. It reeked of him and she quickly set it down. Was he trying to mark her as his property now? Rubbing his scent all over her? He sat down on the couch next to her.

They sat there, and he simply smiled at her. But there was something odd about it. Was he being coy with her? Did this human want to mate with her? If she wasn’t built out of such calm and resolve, she might have grown concerned at his boldness.

"Just hold out a little longer, alright? The ambulance should be here soon, my friend'll call them."

Friend?

“Will he miss you?” She looked at him with a sincerely curious expression, “If you’re gone?”
 
Hisao looked back at her with an equally curious expression. "Huh? You mean Kato?" he replied with a question. "I dunno. I guess maybe. I haven't known him that long though."

He sat back in the sofa, running through his messy hair with his hand so as to keep it out of his eyes. "What the hell happened back there, anyway? There was that statue, that portal thing, and that girl who ran out the alleyway all scared."

His eyes rested once again on the splotches of blood on his floor. He couldn't help but feel guilty that his first thought upon seeing them was 'What a pain it'll be to clean this.' Still, he had to do it, he supposed. Besides, if anyone saw this, what would they think?

"Guess I gotta clean this..."

He picked up the towel that the woman had dropped on the ground, and tried to mop the blood up. It didn't work too well. Some of the blood was absorbed by the towel, but it still left a dark red stain on the wooden ground. "Crap."

He'd already given up. Dropping the towel on the ground with a defeated look, he glanced back at the woman. "So uh... what did happen back there?"
 
Her hunger vanished with a disappointed look that she quickly masked. She couldn’t eat him now.

He was talking about this or that, but she was too crestfallen to listen properly. So this is what it felt like to starve? Hmmm... how the human peasants must have suffered in their wars.

"So uh... what did happen back there?"

She stared at him with serious eyes, “I was forced out of my world by my greatest enemy after a battle not soon forgotten. I would have healed these minor injuries, but upon arrival I was greeted by the sight of a woman being accosted by a man. As a Patron of women, I demanded he stand down. However, this land is unfamiliar with the Naga language and I had to use magic to learn directly from his mind. I discovered that he was nothing but filth that preyed upon women, so I judged that he should suffer punishment by petrification! Unfortunately the divines do not bless this land and lamentably I only had sufficient magic. I am displeased that he will wake in due time.”

Feeling a need for warmth again, she patted the spot next to her on the coach invitingly.

“Does that answer your question?”

Now if she could just acquire a source of food, she could further regain her strength. Though the divines did not bless this place, her Naagmani was still a well of power. It had been damaged and weakened by the battle and the shifting to this strange new world, but magic still trickled from it. The stronger her body was, the faster she could repair it and the stronger she would get. She would have to look at the gem when Hisao was not looking.
 
Hisao might have answered the woman's last question with a 'no', but decided it'd probably be easier to just nod. From what he could gather, she really must not have wanted to tell him what happened. Why else come up with such blatant lies?

He was rather curious as to the reason behind her deception, but decided to push it aside for now. He didn't want to pry; at least not yet. He'd find out in due time. However, he had to admit, her ridiculous explanation did account for everything he'd seen...

No, he thought, there must be some logical explanation.

"I... see," he said simply, before taking her up on her invitation and sitting back in the couch. He took a look out of the window right behind the couch, hoping to see a police car or an ambulance.

"Still nothing... did that idiot even call them?" he muttered to himself. "By the by... where'd you say you were from again?"
 
She watched his expression as she gave him her answer. While she wasn’t certain what he thought of it, he did not seem the least bit surprised. Interesting. She would have thought interdimensional travel would be fascinating. Especially to the primitive mind of a human in a world without magic. Even the mention of magic should have stirred something, but he seemed almost completely unaffected. What a curious human specimen. Perhaps she would keep her more... frightening titles quiet for now.

“In the world of Goshin, I am from the realm of Sanadu.” She replied with a visible measure of pride.

As he hadn’t seated himself next to her, she moved her hand in circles to try to coax him to a sit. But he seemed intent on keeping his precious warmth from her. If she wasn’t going to eat him, she was most certainly going to at least demand his warmth. Perhaps it was simply her injuries and weakened condition, but she never realized how warm humans could be. She decided that once she restarted her conquest she would leave a few humans alive as warmers instead of serving them as food.

“Sit.” She hissed as she patted the couch, staring at him with a commanding expression.
 
Only now was Hisao starting to rethink his first impression of this woman. At first, he'd simply assumed she was in shock or unwilling to share the true details of her ordeal. However, the serious and somewhat commanding way in which she spoke surprised him. Well, that, and also the fact that she was talking about other worlds and magic. He hesitated for a moment at her command, before sitting down as instructed. It was a harmless request, but Hisao's instincts told him it would be best not to follow too many of her commands.

He considered, for a moment, her lie. "Sanadu... huh?" he muttered. Perhaps, he thought, it would be best to go along with these strange ramblings, at least for the time being. Hisao didn't think he'd do a good job at convincing her she was back in the real world, and the paramedics would be here soon anyway.

"Oh yeah, Sanadu. I have an uncle who lives there," he lied casually, with the intent of making some kind of nonsense small talk. "I haven't gotten a postcard from him in a while though. He never was a nice guy anyway."
 
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