Keine Quest: The Broken and the Lost

[Hello Purvis]

>Anyplace else in the shop, that is?

[Kasu]

> If nothing else occurs, continue to Akyuu's.

[DracoOmega]

>Anyplace else in the shop, that is?

>No, it's pretty small. Whoever lives here is clearly out at the moment.

> If nothing else occurs, continue to Akyuu's.

>You decide that you can always come back here later, and continue on towards your original destination, hoping to find a more detailed record of what happened here. You work your way east, taking a narrow road that curves through the southern section of the village and emerge into another more open area. You can see your school to the side here, looking much like the rest of the buildings at first. As you come around the corner fully, though, you realize that part of the building seems to have been destroyed entirely. The east end of it is collapsed into rubble, and there are scorch marks. Several nearby homes show signs of similar damage.
>Something catches your eye towards the southeast, like a bubble of blackness blotting out some of the houses in that direction. You think you hear... whistling?

[Hello Purvis]

>Stare the darkness. Try to discern whether or not it is a Darkness Youkai we know well.
>Recall what we know about said Darkness Youkai.

[DracoOmega]

>Stare the darkness. Try to discern whether or not it is a Darkness Youkai we know well.
>Recall what we know about said Darkness Youkai.

>You stare at the sphere of darkness as it slowly wanders around. It does look like Rumia. At least nobody else you know of does that. She seems to whistling a simple children's rhyme. Then the sphere abruptly stops as it passes close to a house, and you hear a thud followed by a small yelp. Yup, definitely Rumia.

>You've run into Rumia a number of times. She seemed to like wandering around the outskirts of the village on occasion. She's a fairly simple-minded youkai, but also relatively harmless and easy to placate. You get the strange feeling she might actually have liked you, a little. It seems there were rumors of her actually eating people (not uncommon for lower level youkai), but you aren't sure how true some of these were. She seemed content enough to leave people alone if you just tossed her a cheeseburger, or something.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Rumia?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Rumia?"

>You call out to her, but you think she may be too far away to hear you. She tends to be lost in her own bubble, a lot of the time. Figuratively, and literally.

[Hello Purvis]

>You call out to her, but you think she may be too far away to hear you. She tends to be lost in her own bubble, a lot of the time. Figuratively, and literally.

>Close in on her until either she notices us or we're just a couple yards away. In the case of the latter, call again.

[DracoOmega]

>Close in on her until either she notices us or we're just a couple yards away. In the case of the latter, call again.

>You continue closer, but Rumia shows no signs of acknowledging your presence. But, as far as you can tell, if you can't see her, she can't see you, either. Makes you wonder why she bothers to walk around like that in the first place...
>Once you get close enough, you call out her name again. The bubble seems to disperse and you can see her standing back on to you. She turns around to face you "Hey, how'd you know it was me? Who-". She doesn't finish her sentence. Once she gets a look at you, her eyes go wide. She seems almost terrified.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Um, Rumia, I need to ask you a bunch of really weird things, and I bet you need to ask me some really weird ones, too. Okay?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Um, Rumia, I need to ask you a bunch of really weird things, and I bet you need to ask me some really weird ones, too. Okay?"

>She continues looking dumbstruck at you for a moment, then starts gesturing wildly around her. You're not sure she's pointing at anything in particular.
>"It wasn't me! It wasn't me! They were all gone. Rumia didn't eat anybody! It hurts to eat people. Rumia remembers. Don't hurt Rumia again!"
>She turns and starts to run away from you, arms spread wide.

[Hello Purvis]

>She's afraid of us?
>"HOLD IT!"

[DracoOmega]

>She's afraid of us?
>"HOLD IT!"

>You yell at her to stop, but that just makes her move faster. She takes flight, and the bubble of darkness appears around her again, almost as a defensive reaction. Not that it does much to disguise her actual location. You'd think she'd have figured that out after all these years....

[Hello Purvis]

>Indulge is some creative profanity no doubt gathered from our immense well of cultural knowledge. Then follow.

[DracoOmega]

>Indulge is some creative profanity no doubt gathered from our immense well of cultural knowledge. Then follow.

>You decide to break out an oath that has not, to the best of your knowledge, been used since the fall of the ancient Sumarian empire. It is sometimes convenient to be able to draw upon profanities that no one else in your vicinity can understand. You have a reputation to preserve, after all. Mokou would probably laugh to kill herself if she knew.

>You take to the air and fly after Rumia. She's slower than you, and you close the gap between yourself fairly quickly. You're near the edge of the sphere of darkness, extending roughly 20 feet around her. Even though you can't see the slightest thing inside it, you know she's at the center of it, so it's not hard to tell where she is.

[Kasu]

> "I JUST WANT TO TALK!  I PROMISE I WON"T HURT YOU!"

[DracoOmega]

> "I JUST WANT TO TALK!  I PROMISE I WON"T HURT YOU!"

>You yell reassurances at her, but she doesn't seem to listen.
>Look below you, you're flying past the southeastern edge of the village. It's kind of hard to see where you're going, due to the sphere of darkness taking up much of your central vision with you this close to it. Then you hear a thunk and a squeal. The darkness seems to be falling towards the ground. As it falls away from you, you see a small stand of rather tall trees a few feet in front of you.

[Hello Purvis]

>Come to a halt!
>Or dodge around the trees if needs be.
>Then go tend to Rumia.

[DracoOmega]

>Come to a halt!
>Or dodge around the trees if needs be.

>You aren't really going fast enough that the trees would be an obstacle. They aren't actually all the dense. Rumia just had the misfortune to aim straight for one of them, you think.
>You descend. The darkness seems to be dissolving a little. You can see Rumia lying face-first in the grass at the base of the tree, moaning a bit.
>"Are you ok?" You think she tries to reply, but you can't make out anything she's saying due to her talking into the ground.

[Hello Purvis]

>Help her up. Try to put on a friendly smile and stuff.

[DracoOmega]

>Help her up. Try to put on a friendly smile and stuff.

>You reach down and gently pull her up. She spins around and slumps with her back against the tree, while you kneel over her. She looks kind of dizzy, and you think you can already see a lump on her forehead. You wince sympathetically.
>You try to look as friendly and disarming as you can. She seems to have a hard time focusing her eyes at first, but she eventually seems to realize you're practically right next to her face. She suddenly musters alertness from somewhere, and tries to back away. Of course, she's up against a tree, so this doesn't get very far. You can see her eyes dart back and forth.
>It seems to be getting darker again. Does she just do this on instinct?

[Hello Purvis]

>"Will you hold still you big sillybutt? If I were going to do something to you, don't you think I would have done it after you hit the tree and was knocked out? You're the first person I've seen since I woke up here, don't you know how much it hurts for you to have just run away like that?"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Will you hold still you big sillybutt? If I were going to do something to you, don't you think I would have done it after you hit the tree and was knocked out? You're the first person I've seen since I woke up here, don't you know how much it hurts for you to have just run away like that?"

>She pauses and seem to consider what you're saying. "...you mean you didn't just club me over the head?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Show hands.
>"What club? You just hit that tree, dear."

[DracoOmega]

>Show hands.
>"What club? You just hit that tree, dear."

>You try showing her that you're unarmed, but it's probably too dark for her to see the gesture, now. Still you hear her mulling over the idea of the tree attacking her instead. You hear her knock on the tree experimentally. "Stupid meany tree!" You hear another thud, followed by a tiny yelp.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Oh, that's not how you beat them, Rumia. Don't worry, we'll get it another day."
>"Now, why don't you tell me why you were so worried about me?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Oh, that's not how you beat them, Rumia. Don't worry, we'll get it another day."

>"Hmm.... ok!"

>"Now, why don't you tell me why you were so worried about me?"

>"Well... you told Rumia to never come near the village again. You were a big meanie! Rumia was just hungry...."

[Hello Purvis]

>"When did I do that?"
>Politely assume she was just hungry for real food.

[DracoOmega]

>"When did I do that?"

>"Ummm.... a while ago. Somewhere between yesterday and a really, really long time." She pauses, and you can hear her musing thoughtfully. "Before all the people disappeared!" she adds helpfully.

>Politely assume she was just hungry for real food.

>You try to give her the benefit of the doubt, but you have to admit it seems a little suspect, given that you apparently drove her away forcefully enough to leave her scared of you who knows how much later.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Let's focus on the disappearing. What happened to make everyone vanish like that?"