damned_institute | Night 47: West Wing, South Hall 1-B

Perhaps stopping outside of a closed door wasn't a very good idea. Distracted by his bruised knee, Ranulf had failed to recognize this, and was therefore startled as soon as he sensed the presence of someone standing behind him.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he turned as quick as someone could suddenly without a tail and brandishing a bruised knee, whipping the torch out of the waistband of his pants to use as a weapon. Her outfit was like nothing he had ever seen.

He didn't know whether he could trust her but he could hardly walk, let alone fight her. She seemed well enough to defeat him. Hell, in this state he was practically at her mercy. She, of course, didn't know this and he planned to keep it that way.

His body had other plans though. His heart still racing, gasping for air, the torch shook in his hand as his frightened eyes scanned over her body. He greeted the female with a quivering voice.

"H-Hello..."

Phew. Well. Surprises like these were good tests to see if someone was paying attention--when they weren’t, that was when accidents happened. She could’ve tripped right over him, maybe. The threshold of a door wasn’t exactly the best place to pause, but it looked like the young man had a reason for doing so--

Tsubaki had surprised him, too, by the way he turned on her. For a split second, reflex had her subtly shifting her weight on the balls of her feet, however, an attack seemed the least likely thing that was going to come out the two of them. He looked more than just surprised or threatened, but distressed. Was it a severe injury, or…?

“Are you all right?” she immediately asked, voice soft. “Did something happen? Are you hurt?”

Was he "all right"? At the moment, Ranulf was anything but. Injured, confused and wandering around a darkened prison wasn't exactly his idea of a good time. Not to mention the fact that he'd all but changed species! The girl seemed genuinely concerned though, her kind tone willing him to lower the torch.

Ranulf felt a strange longing to trust her. He was scared and alone, lost in an odd location. This woman who had all but spoken several words to him was the closest friend he had. Her words of concern broke down the wall of denial he had been building up since he'd awoken, so he replied to the stranger through watery eyes and in between choked sobs.

"N-No. I'm, n-not all right."

He stood his ground, still holding the lowered torch in his right hand, and brought his left forearm up to his eyes. The sobs continued as the tears soaked his inner elbow.

Oh, no… Her heart pinched, an instinctive reaction to the crumpling of his demeanor, and at his answer, her eyes widened. This was more than simply anxiousness or pain--he was shaken badly.

But what could’ve happened? As far as their imprisonment went, there seemed to her a mood to the nightshifts. People who left their rooms knew there was danger afoot, and Tsubaki had come to find many of the prisoners responded to it with a kind of conscious stubbornness. It was perhaps arrogant for her to think it, and for it to be true, but people who encountered trouble did so with some knowledge of the consequences. This person, though… It was just a vague impression in the back of her mind, but the stranger didn’t feel as though he fit that image.

Still, potential scenarios were running through her head as she stepped toward him, spurred into action by the sound of his grief. Had something happened to him? A friend? A roommate? Tsubaki’s first response was to do what she could to help. “What’s wrong?” Her free hand hovered near his arm. “Here, don’t cry.”

Ranulf tried to fight back the water stinging his eyes. He felt pathetic. It certainly wasn't like him to lose his composure, let alone cry. He'd just been hit with so much at once... he didn't know what to think. After letting out a few last quiet sobs, he forcefully pulled his forearm across his eye-line to remove the excess water and gave a loud sniff. Ranulf then put his hands on his hips and looked to the side, thoroughly embarrassed.

"I- I apologize for my behavior. It's been a rough night."

He looked back at her with the type of eyes one would see at a funeral and gave her a sad kind of half-smile. It was nice to have someone to talk to, even if she was a beorc. He set the torch back into his waistband and offered his palm.

"I- I... believe it's custom to "handshake" when beorc introduce themselves, correct?"

Waiting for her reaction, he quickly offered his name.

"You may call me Ranulf."

“Don’t be sorry; you don’t have to explain yourself,” interjected Tsubaki at once. At least about how rough the Institute could be, which was a crushing understatement. She wondered what had him so upset--it was hardly something to find embarrassing, all things considered.

The nebulous feeling stayed with her. She wondered just how recently he’d arrived, at that.

Tsubaki didn’t take her eyes off him, lips curving into a concerned frown. When he held out his hand so uncertainly, though, she blinked at it. “Oh--” It was polite to shake someone’s hand when they offered, but… “I’m… not sure what a ‘beorc’ is,” she admitted haltingly. At the same time, she didn’t hesitate to take it. “But I’m Tsubaki.” Even true, adding the usual ‘it’s nice to meet you’ felt like it’d fall more flat than anything else.

She didn’t immediately let go of his hand after shaking it. “What happened, Ranulf?”

He nodded as she said he had no need to explain. From what he could tell, Tsubaki seemed to be a prisoner of this place herself, and he became more relaxed due to this fact. After all, she had the upper hand and hadn't laid a finger on him.

His eyes widened when Tsubaki didn't recognize the word beorc. Then again, most beorc didn't know of the term so he wasn't entirely surprised.

"A beorc is... well it's a polite term for a "human" that we laguz use. Although, I guess I don't really fit the laguz profile much anymore anyway."

He said this as they shook hands, letting out a chuckle as his eyes took on a sad look. It was only for a brief moment after which his expression once again returned to what it had been. He refused to show weakness a second time. They still hadn't released hands when she'd asked him what had happened. His eyes glanced away for a few moments, seeming to glaze over as he stared off into space.

"I- I don't even know where to begin. I was traveling through Serenes Forest on a mission from King Caineghis. I fell asleep on an old altar in the woods and woke up in this... prison?"

He released her hand and brought both his hands up around his arms, as if he were trying to protect himself from these strange new surroundings.

"When I woke up I-"

He stopped, bringing his hands up to his now human ears, rubbing them between his index fingers and thumbs.

"-I wasn't myself, I was no longer... laguz."

… She understood now. And almost wished he’d answered with something else.

How could Tsubaki explain that he was now here, where there were more terrible things waiting for him besides having his form altered, which was what he seemed to be implying had happened to him. It was a burden he shouldn’t have had to hear from anyone.

Beorc, laguz… she didn’t know the terms, or recognize the laguz as a race, leading her to think maybe he was from a different place than her--it wouldn‘t have been the first time, or probably the last. She certainly didn’t recognize the name King Caineghis, and someone of that status would have to be well known, wouldn‘t they? In regards to what the Institute did to people on first arrival, Tsubaki had heard a lot about prisoners possessing a wide range of other bodies before waking up in Landel’s, where everyone was put into a new, human shape. Even Tsubaki, who technically wasn’t human, had suffered the same, though her case was hardly equal when she’d always had her human form to return to.

It was no wonder Ranulf was in such a state. He was new… changed… and didn’t even have the benefit of daytime to ease him into things…

For a moment, her expression turned strained; she couldn’t hold back a low sigh. “I’m sorry you have to hear this, I really am,” Tsubaki ventured, watching him touch something that no longer seemed to be there. “This is a sort of prison. There’s a lot to learn about it, but… everyone who wasn’t human--at least in appearance--is given a human form when they come here. I don’t know how or why; it just happens. It's one of this place's effects. I’m sure it's not permanent, so once we're gone from here, we should return to normal.”

And that was just the short of it.

Still fingering his ears, Ranulf's frown became more and more prominent as he listened to Tsubaki's story. So this was a prison. He'd been captured and detained in an experimental laguz prison. Wonderful. The vassals would get a kick out of this! He doubted, should they find out, he'd ever hear the end of it. Ranulf wondered how Ashnard had employed such an experienced mage to place this kind of spell over a location. A person with magic this advanced could probably take on the entire Daein army all by themselves, and then some!

He was happy to hear the effects were only temporary and, once again, folded his arms with his hands gripping alternate biceps. Listening intently, he caught on to the words "we're" and "we", which caused a question to rise in his head. He looked at Tsubaki curiously, tilting his head to the side a little.

"Are you-... were you a laguz as well? Maybe of the dragon-tribe or one of the bird-tribes? I've never seen you in the kingdom of Gallia."

Tsubaki had ever been subtle in revealing her feelings, more like the quiet and taciturn camellia than her brother had liked. But her disquiet was there, written in the slight way she lowered the arm with the makeshift bag. She’d had a specific task in mind that night, but she knew she couldn’t leave now. Not after meeting Ranulf like she had.

How could she ditch someone after they’d woken up in Landel’s, alone, confused, and unprepared? She had to stay and try to help him.

But how to begin an explanation?

Biting back a frown of discontent, she thought her words out carefully. The details of their imprisonment would be hard enough to hear even with the best delivery, and Tsubaki was aware that his shock was only going to get worse before it got better. If one could say it got better. She definitely didn’t want to unnerve him further by getting into what she was and wasn’t. “I’m… unfamiliar with the people you mean,” she admitted. “The thing about this place is, it might not be located where you’d think. The same power that changed you also has the ability to kidnap people from all over, no matter the distance or the circumstances. There are people here from different countries and continents…” And worlds, was what Tsubaki hesitated to say. “There don’t seem to be limits on who can be brought here, or from where, and no one is sure where ‘here‘ is. I think we might come from very different homes.”

Ranulf's grip on his arms became tighter and tighter. She didn't know of the laguz? Impossible. It was like saying you didn't know what a human was. Beorc and laguz had co-existed throughout conscious history. Had this woman been brainwashed? Not likely... she seemed very alert and sober-minded.

As he continued to listen, more assumptions rose in his mind. This must be a very powerful magic to detain and transform people at will. Who was doing this and what was their motivation? The way it was handled certainly suggested that their intentions were anything but good.

He sensed the hesitation in Tsubaki's voice and realized she wasn't telling him something. Not wanting to call her out on it, he decided to probe more instead. His expression turned curious, asking the next question after taking a deep breath.

"What exactly do you mean by "different homes"?"

This was not the way to find out, but yet, the revelation likely wouldn’t be any easier in a different context. It was just one of those things; if people weren’t used to the idea of multiple worlds, they would have to acknowledge the marvel at their own pace. Made more difficult by the fact that Landel’s Institute was unlike any prison of its kind.

But despite her wish that Ranulf find out at a better time, he was asking. Tsubaki couldn’t lie about it.

"That won’t be easy to explain. You’ll meet many people here, some who might even come from the same place. But the majority… They come from different worlds entirely. That's how it seems."

If he hadn't already experienced the undeniable evidence himself, half of what she was saying might've sounded downright crazy. She couldn't help that, though.

He paused and waited for her to laugh, but nothing followed. She had to be joking... right? "Different worlds"? There was only one world, wasn't there? One world with a sun constantly circling it? He had eavesdropped on one of the King's meetings once and heard some talk from a traveling philosopher about the possibility of other worlds but had passed them off as being crazy! Perhaps he had been wrong in doing so.

Ranulf studied Tsubaki's expression and found no traces of insincerity or oncoming laughter. She seemed to absolutely believe what she was saying to be true. As crazy as the theory was, it would certainly explain the "torch" and oddly-shaped furniture he'd seen, not to mention his own transformation. It was so far-fetched though. Was it really the truth?

He stared at her for a moment, contemplating a response. In any other situation he would have called her crazy, but after a night like tonight he didn't know what to think. Was he even on the same "Earth"? Had he died on the altar, this being some strange form of hell?

He gulped, feeling as if he were going to lose his composure, along with his lunch. He needed to assess the situation and find a solution (that's what he'd learned in vassal training anyway.). He was still in shock and denial, hoping he was having some horrible nightmare, but deep down Ranulf knew Tsubaki was telling the truth. He hugged himself a little tighter, gulped down some air, and responded.

"If- If I were to believe you," he asked, looking at her with a desperate expression, "what exactly is this place anyway? Where are we?"

The chances of it being an experimental laguz prison felt like a hopeful thought compared to what this reality seemed to be.

The young man was trying to process her words, that Tsubaki could see. If she had had any answers, she would’ve had hesitated to share, but as it was, she could only shake her head.

That perpetual knot in her gut squeezed a little tighter, regretfully. Not even Lockon had been this unprepared.

“I’m sorry,” Tsubaki said again. It was an apology that went beyond just her lack of information. “Even if I were to show you proof, I don’t know. We’re still trying to figure that out. There‘s a lot still unknown.” Among other dangers. She hated that they had to be in these positions--his life completely flipped upside down, and her having to stand there and try to explain their situation in point-by-point summaries. This wasn’t some report or mission debriefing. This was… life or death. Worse, perhaps. Getting the latest of the Head Doctor’s victims up to speed with indelicate rundowns might have been necessary, but it had an element of paltriness to it nonetheless.

She look back up at him, keeping her demeanour as calm as possible. It was a small thing she could do to ease his panic--she remembered her sense of dizzying uncertainty the night she’d woken up in one of the hospital’s beds.

Neither of them had yet to clear the doorway, and Tsubaki glanced each way down the hallway before stepping over to the wall, making a slight gesture at Ranulf. “I can tell you what I do know, as much as I can.” It seemed safe enough to talk in the hall for now, with the double-sided advantage of being alerted to anything coming at them from a distance.

Coming to grips with this new information, Ranulf nodded and followed her as she motioned him away from the doorway. He felt like a zombie, body moving subconsciously, as his brain tried feebly to accept this new reality. It had all been so perfect. The war was over and he was back to doing run-of-the-mill errands for the King as peace had finally returned to Gallia. He should've known it was too good to be true.

Closing his eyes, he laughed a bit to himself. It wasn't a happy laugh, moreso, one that said "go figure". He silently thanked Ashera that he had met with Tsubaki in this hallway. After all, this place was a mystery and who knows what he would've run into.

He nodded at her, a new determination in his face. "Tell me all you know. I don't know the motivation of this place, but it certainly seems evil. I'll do all I can to help."

Ranulf's face lit up with a small smile, probably the first real one he'd had all night.

"Besides, I'd very much like my ears and tail back. Right now I have the balance of a three-legged horse!"

“So you have a tail,” answered Tsubaki with a modest smile of her own. That explained the way he held himself, like he were off balance. Someone who normally had animal appendages would move and sense differently than someone who didn‘t.

It also meant he had a handicap until he found his legs, which was far more grave a thought. She was certain to keep her guard up for the both of them.

Inclining her head, she let out a breath and continued with what he was waiting to hear. “It’s a strange and dangerous place, to be sure. Nothing makes a whole lot of sense, but it’s how things are. Tomorrow I’ll have been here for two weeks, myself. As far as I know, everyone wakes up the same way, in one of the rooms with no memory of how they got there--and there’s easily over a hundred prisoners, some having been here a month or more. So far no one’s been able to find a way to find a way out or stop what‘s happening.” That brought her to a few of the more mysterious questions left unanswered… “Are you familiar with hospitals built like this building where you’re from? That’s what this place acts like, a hospital, specifically one for the mentally ill…”

She signed internally, knowing how talk of mental institutions sounded, too. If a sick soul who appeared to legitimately belong to a hospital said they weren’t imagining things, and really were being wrongfully tormented by impossible feats, what would an outsider assume first? That they were right, or that they were merely ill? It was only those people who wound up as prisoners who understood the truth.

He closed his eyes, smiling his "go figure" smile once again, and nodded. He supposed the correct term would be "had", but it was best to stay positive in these situations so he didn't attempt to "correct" her.

He then looked up again, trying to pay attention to every word she said. In situations like these, information was one of the most valuable things you could acquire.

When Tsubaki had finished, Ranulf paused for a moment running his right palm up and across his forehead, fingers messily splaying his light blue hair. He'd certainly fallen into the honey vat this time. Kidnapped, transformed, confused... this wasn't how he'd intended to spend peace-times in Gallia.

The last few words of Tsubaki's confused him. "Mentally ill"? Did she mean crazy or feral?

"We do have infirmaries? I don't believe I've ever heard of a place that treats "mental illness."

He then smiled a little, giving her a funny glance.

"I've been abducted, surgically altered and thoroughly disturbed. Aren't hospitals supposed to help people?"

Tsubaki stayed silent rather than rush on, watching him while he continued to digest her explanation. She’d never thought of herself as particularly ineloquent, but it did occur to her that some of the other prisoners could probably tie things together better for Ranulf. She was just happy to do whatever she could. After all, there were just as many less than unsavoury characters around; she was glad he hadn’t crossed paths with one of them first.

“I see,” she replied at Ranulf’s negative. Now how could she go about this? It was worse for Ranulf, being from a different culture. “Well… it’s a hospital, just that its main job is to try and fix problems with the mind.” Tsubaki’s experience with legitimate mental institutions was shaky at best, but the fact that Landel’s was merely a façade for something far more sinister--an underbelly they hadn’t even seen the whole of yet--was the more unnerving aspect.

She returned his look a little ruefully. Hospitals were supposed to help people, but this one…

“Yes, only this place--Landel’s Institute--isn’t actually a hospital. It pretends to be one during the day, but once the sun goes down, everything changes,” Tsubaki said, giving the corridor another hooded look from the corner of her eye. And then she fixed on Ranulf again with an air of vitalness. “During the day, there’s hospital staff, and they’re going to treat you like you’re sick, like you’re a human from this world who’s only imagined your life up until now. But at night something happens to make it all transform. It becomes dangerous: monsters and other enemies appear. The prisoners try to arm themselves with what they can find, but… it’s like a game for the man who runs the Institute. When night ends, it’s as though none of it happened, and we go back to being treated like patients in a hospital.” Her voice, having grown quieter and quieter during the account, ended just above a murmur.

"Problems with the mind"? Ahhhh... so this was a place set to confine the crazy and feral. Ranulf knew he wasn't insane. Then again, did one really know if they were insane or not? The idea troubled him, but it didn't trouble him as much as what Tsubaki said next.

This "Landel's Institute" was all a cover-up? For what? What was the motive? Why kidnap all of these people from different places, attempting to brainwash them during the day and murder them at night? The idea that he's died and been placed in some odd hell became more plausible. He only hoped none of the people he knew were encountering the same fate he was.

Ranulf didn't like the sound of monsters at all. Mostly for the fact that he was completely unarmed without his ability to transform. He still hadn't tried, but was afraid that it had been taken away from him too. He doubted a club to the head with his torch would do any sufficient damage to an enemy that resided in a place like this.

His hand still on the top of his head, hair tousled and splayed between his fingers, he kept a steady gaze on Tsubaki.

"I've dealt with enemies before, but probably not with the weapons you're accustomed to. I am usually able to transform into a full laguz, but I'm not sure if this place has taken that ability along with my tail and ears. I admit that I'm afraid to attempt it."

Ranulf let out a small sigh and lowered his hand to his side. "I thank Ashera I can still see in the darkness and smell the night air, even through these thick walls. I do admit, the air I smell is a far different scent than what I am used to."

His quirky smile returned. "I suppose the normal thing for me to do right now would be to curl into a sobbing ball on the floor, but I think that would be a considerable blow to the laguz race in general." He laughed a little, and continued. "Aside from being highly embarrassing and non-productive, obstructing the hallway is probably frowned upon here as well!"

Giving her a thoughtful look, Ranulf decided to ask something else.

"Where were you headed before you ran into me anyway? I'm sure, unless you are a fortune-teller, your original purpose wasn't to help a laguz-turned-beorc-in-distress."

By ‘full laguz’, she assumed that was his alternate form. A beast one, from what she was hearing. At any rate, Tsubaki understood his feelings all too well: it was unthinkable to take someone’s power of transformation away. Although her weapon mode was blocked rather than completely gone, she was lacking a part of herself, a part as natural as breathing to her. But perhaps because they were different, Ranulf still had that ability where she didn’t.

Touching her hand to her other forearm, she eventually said, “You should know that during the day, almost all powers are repressed, but the block gets a little weaker at night. When you’re ready to try.”

She’d found a lot of people brought to the Institute were ready to bounce back sooner rather than later--determined personalities. Ranulf appeared to be the same in that way. Tsubaki knew his easygoing joking wasn’t entirely genuine, and he definitely wasn’t well--no one was, when they were imprisoned like this--but he seemed ready to go on. At the same time, it was hard for her heart not to go out for him, having seen what state he’d been in when she’d found him. There was nothing good in finding oneself here, of all places. She smiled at his laughter. “’Normal’ is a bit hard to come by around here, but the benefit is that we can all support each other.”

When he asked her where she’d been headed beforehand, Tsubaki thought of her pillowcase, and then of the second floor therapy hall. At this point, she was going to have to forgo the attempt. “I’m just glad it was me who came across you, and not something else,” she returned, shaking her head in a gesture that said she wasn’t concerned with her earlier plans. She would’ve usually used her words instead of movements that might not translate in the gloom, but he’d already said he had some level of night vision. “You wouldn’t mind if we stayed together?”

It was no offence to whatever skills Ranulf had, but internally, Tsubaki was simply worried about him being alone. Not only was he unarmed, but he was in a strange body, too.

The block got weaker at night? Interesting. It seemed whatever spell controlled this place didn't have conscious thought, so loopholes (like his laguz senses of sight and smell) could be made. He wondered how much this affected his transformation process or even if he still had it at all.

This most likely meant he'd be fully beorc during the day. Wondering what kind of experience that would entail, he nodded to her as she said this, returning her sympathetic expression with one of his own.

He was glad she laughed at his normalcy joke. It was always good to find people with a sense of humor, especially those who could still find something like that funny in a dire situation. Laughing was better than crying, and Ranulf was all about it.

Ranulf had only just met Tsubaki, but he was really starting to like her. She seemed to be the type of person that genuinely cared about people and their well-being. It was rare to find beorc, or even laguz, that possessed the same qualities as she did. She reminded him of Ike... except he was sure she'd look a lot better in a dress.

When she said she'd like to stay there with him, he inwardly gave a sigh of relief. He would've gone with her to help with whatever it was she was doing, but it probably wouldn't have been in his best interests while in his new beorc body. He could barely battle with his balance, let alone monsters!

"I think staying together would be a fantastic idea." He said, giving a slight grin as he leaned back against the wall and slid into a sitting position on the floor. His grin disappeared when he realized he was trying to move an imaginary tail out of the way as he sat, but he just chuckled a little at this and continued speaking.

"It would give us an opportunity to get to know each other better, which is, of course, the first step in social interaction!"

Then, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes with a relaxed expression on his face, he asked "So, would you mind telling me a little about yourself?"

Good, good. Though honestly, Tsubaki wasn’t giving him much of a choice--she could hardly abandon a new prisoner, no matter the circumstances. They’d have to make do until morning, where there would be time for Ranulf to get his bearings without the fear of an attack bearing down on their heads.

Dayshifts weren’t much better in the long run, but they were safe.

“Okay,” she agreed perfunctorily. She stayed standing against the wall while Ranulf lowered himself to the floor; if they needed to move quickly, she had to be on her feet. Continuing to smile, Tsubaki nodded at the direction he turned the conversation. It was a lot to have to take in in so short a time, that he was now trapped in some strange place, in a strange body, with strange people; it was enough to want to do or talk about something more pleasant. And she couldn’t forget that she was another aspect of Landel’s, too--just as unfamiliar.

“I don’t mind,” Tsubaki assured. “What would you like to know?”

Ranulf, eyes still closed, smiled at this question. It felt a little more normal to him in the darkness, blind to the hallway and it's inhabitants and with a track of normal conversation. Well, ok, not exactly normal, but it was close enough.

He shifted a bit, grunting as he did, and thought about what to ask. It was kind of nostalgic to when he'd met Ike and had the opportunity to get to know the beorc culture better, although he was sure by becoming one he'd be able to write a much more sufficient report!

"Well, it's obvious you're not from my world." he said with a slight laugh. "What type of creature were you before you came here? What is your world like, and your friends?"

Shifting the heel of her boot, she took the opportunity to peer more closely at the three-way branching of halls to their right. Still so far, so good. It felt out of place, such a moment of calm, but…

At the word ‘creature’, Tsubaki brought her bottom lip between her teeth and worried it for a short second. If the tangled psychics of the Institute ever revealed itself, she thought it was in the bringing together of different worlds. What was obvious to Ranulf probably wouldn’t be to her--if the usage of ‘laguz’ and ‘beorc’ were any indication--and what was obvious to her, might not be to him. Tsubaki hadn’t met a single person familiar with demon weapons, and she wasn’t confident this meeting was going to prove the exception. It just meant she ran the risk of confusing him further.

“It seems that way, doesn’t it? Mmm… I come from a world called Earth. I don’t know if it’s the same for you. In the country I’m from, there aren’t really any kingdoms--it’s an island called Japan. I was born… um, it might sound weird if you don’t know demon weapons, but I was born with this body, only I’m not exactly a human. Normally I can transform myself into a weapon mode.” Before coming to Landel’s, Tsubaki hadn’t had misgivings over her status, and she still didn’t, not entirely. But sometimes she wondered if those who were unfamiliar with demon weapons would find the knowledge off-putting, like now.

She looked a bit apprehensive as she spoke, but he found what she had said fascinating. Not only was she not a beorc, she had the ability to shift forms as well. He'd never heard of anyone transforming into a weapon though. Then again, he was sure her world didn't have people who grew whiskers and teeth at will either! He opened his eyes, smiling thoughtfully up at her.

"It seems we have more in common than I thought! I don't know of "Earth" or "Japan" but, as I said before, I can also shape-shift. We aren't from the same worlds, but we still have similarities. I find that incredibly interesting."

He paused for a moment. There was something else he was going to say... what was it? AH! Yes.

"You used the word "human", right? Is that a common word to refer to beorc here? We use that word where I come from, but when coming from a laguz it is meant as an insult."

Night 47: West Wing, South Hall 1-B

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