Kala looked around her cell, it was small and empty. Which she expected, but there wasn't even a toilet in it!
'"Preposterous!" Or at least I think that's the right word for this.' Kala thought. She wasn't very good with fancy words like that, but she heard Ellen say it in a situation that felt similar to this one once.
"So, are you at least going to try and get along with me?" Her cellmate said giggling. Kala looked at her. She had light blonde hair and lime green eyes with a small little nurse hat on her head. Besides that, there wasn't anything else that could be used to describe her, after all they were all wearing the same prison uniform.
"Not really. I don't plan to stay for a while," Kala answered as she stood up and stretched. Then turned to the wall behind her that had a small window close to the roof.
"Move the bunkbed under the window," Kala told her.
She looked at her then said with a smile, "Sorry but I'm too weak for that. You'll have to do it yourself."
Kala rolled her eyes and groaned tutting. She grabbed one side of the beds and easily moved it under the window. She then climbed onto the upper bunk, which was the one her cellmate was on and started biting the bars on the window, slowly breaking them down.
"Oh~ It seems like you're more interesting than I thought," her cellmate said watching as Kala slowly got through each bar.
*Hirune POV*
Hirune walked alongside Mr. Comedian while putting on a mascaraed. She was now in a dress that went down to her knees, that also matched Mr. Comedians suit. Her dress having a cut in it that shows the jester mask mark on her side. She was putting on some white gloves that Mr. Comedian said would help direct her powers better.
She didn't really believe it, but she was also curious enough to try it. After all a more direct way to use the Devourer Jaws could allow her to focus more on the speed than the power. She was yet to decide which route she wanted to take her powers down though, as they seemed to match multiple of them well.
For example, if she went down the witch route, she could be as destructive and powerful as Namulenza. If she went down the Strategic route, she could be one of the most feared assassins in the world. She could probably even go down the Manipulator and Weapon routes, but she wasn't sure if those would work as well as her other choices.
"Mr. Comedian, may I know more about the shadow jester?" Hirune asked as she glanced to her left and down a hall, where she now saw 2 shadow jesters dancing along. She had chosen to ignore the shadow jester unless it directly tried to warn her of something but considering the situation, she could no longer ignore it. Especially since there were two now.
Mr. Comedian placed a hand on his chin, then slowly pushed it forwards, a black veil slowly coming off if his face, then without fully removing the veil, he put it back on. "If you obtain a Shadow Jester mask, you can use the shadow jester's powers. There're many locations to find them. I might just give you one of the locations after you help me, after all, they come in quite handy." He responded as one of the Shadow Jester's pranced by him, the other prancing by Hirune.
Yet the movement of one of the jester's was slightly off, and they fell hard on the floor.
Hirune nodded, that'd make sense. A smile danced on her lips, 'Well would you look at that. It seems as if I'm finally using all of that knowledge I have. Good job me.' She thought, proud of herself. Now the only problem was that since Mr. Comedian was wearing a mask, she could never be sure if he was lying or not. After all no matter what, a mask was a mask. It didn't matter which kind, every mask showed a different persona, each mask being its own little white lie.
"Excuse me Mr. Comedian, may we sit for a moment. I'm still a little sluggish from when you knocked me out." She said with a tired expression.
Mr. Comedian smiled, Hirune discreetly looking closely at his face, trying to make out any abnormality that could show it was fake. Yet she couldn't as he started to speak, "Well of course, let's take a quick breather on this bench. After all there's no rush, we can take our time."
They sat down on a nearby golden bench. Hirune sat down and put her left hand on the underside of the bench, wrapping her fingers around it in a way that her hand wouldn't fall. If she did this, she would be able to feel anything happening near her even while in the Forsaken Realm, after all her left hand was her most exposed part. Making it an easy sensory tool. She'd realized this the last time she was in the forsaken realm, as when she was in it last time, she could feel her left hand burning the hardest.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, Mr. Comedian sitting next to her with his legs crossed while reading a news article. She muttered as quietly as possible, 'Forsaken Realm.' She didn't even hear herself say it; she only felt her breath leaving her mouth. So, she was sure that Mr. Comedian didn't hear her.
***
When she opened her eyes in the Forsaken Realm, she was in the same place she got her earing that protected her from the sun god. She looked around, this was good. She still needed to look around here; she needed something that would allow her to see if he was lying or not.
She looked around, seeing the same things as last time, jewelry, artifacts, weapons, etc. She glanced around a bit, then she saw something that seemed like it would help. There was an eye that said 'Truth Seeker' in Verachain as its pupil.
She stared at it hard for a moment then thought, 'How do I put this in my head without dying?' She looked towards the door, the healing jacuzzi could work, but she wasn't sure if it could heal brain damage. Which it was highly possible that she would get brain damage if she tried to replace her eye.
She looked around a little more, there had to be more than just an eye of truth here. Yet the room was huge, it would take her too long. Possibly even days to look through it without help. She wasn't even sure if she could bring others into this place, and even if she could, she would never want to bring Mr. Comedian into this place.
She sighed and opened the door walking down the hallway again. She focused on her left hand to feel if anything was happening, which luckily there wasn't. The bench was still cold, the roads were still shaking, and the weight that pushed down on the bench didn't decrease.
She sighed and stopped focusing so hard on her left hand and kept on walking down the hall. Exploring the castle a bit more. Then she reached this large room that was connected to all of the paths Hirune had previously seen in what seemed like a meeting room. This large room had no door, and as she walked in, she saw 8 large statues.
Each statue showed a different person, yet there was a 9th pedestal that only had the feet of one. She decided to ignore that one for now as she looked around at each statue. She saw a knight with sharp armor that has many star engravings around each edge of the armor's pieces.
There was another knight that looked similar, but buffer. Then there was a mage that she couldn't properly make out the features of. Just the hood with many spiral patterns on it and want that was just a stick with a rock. The rock being connected to an arch that was shaped like a moon, holding up another rock.
There was an archer too, the archer looked frail, with a compact bow that seemed to have energy flowing out of the string. A hood similar to the mages. Just that this time she could see the clothes underneath the robe, which were just a basic tunic.
The other 3 were 2 maids and a butler. She looked at these statues with respect, after all their job was probably difficult serving an entire castle.
Then the eight statue was a jester. Specifically, the Shadow Jester but in better detail. The jester's mask was still dark, with a never-ending laughter plastered on it, the hat of the jester having 4 floppy points, each point having a bell. A frilly neck piece connecting to the lined top half of his sweater, the sleeves also having frills. 1 belt holding up his pants that were the same as his sweater. His boots being pointy with wings on the back of them.
Each pedestal had a description, besides the one with the broken statue, the broken statues description was also shattered. Since she only recognized the jester, that's the only description she read.
When she read the description of the jester, her eyes widened, an excited squeal escaping her lungs as her eyes shimmered in the bright red moonlight.
Hirune's eyes shimmered as she giggled excitedly while staring at the text on the jester statues pedestal. The writing was a bit of their job description, and then bellow that it said, ' Summoning Incantation: "Jester from a Fallen Kingdom, Return Upon the Mortal Realm, and Gift This Bleak World a Wonderful Show."' Bellow that it said the incantation was to never be written within a book. Which made sense considering that this incantation was nowhere to be found in the book Hirune used to learn 5 incantations.
She repeated it a couple of times while reading, then attempted to say it without having to read the pedestal. She closed her eyes and focused her entire mind to this, slowly feeling a warm sensation rising from the ground all around her as she muttered, "Jester from a Fallen Kingdom, Return Upon the Mortal Realm, and Gift This Bleak World a Wonderful Show." All of the sudden as she opened her glimmering eyes her shadow swirled around her, then flew upwards and splashed like a dark gooey liquid in front of her. One moment, the dark goo was still and calm, then the next, it started smoking as the jester flew out of it doing a backflip. The jester flipped a couple of times as the goo that remained on the floor either flew after it or returned into Hirune's shadow, then landed with a bow.
Hirune stared at the jester a little nauseous. She actually did it, she summoned the Shadow Jester within her Forsaken Realm. Now the question was if it could help her.
As she was about to command it, she felt her left hand catch a vibration from the bench. She quickly glanced at it and waved goodbye to the jester. The jester nodded and returned to her shadow. 'So that's how I can dismiss it? Wait-! What's a jester good for anyways?' Hirune shook her head dismissing her questions and quickly left her Forsaken Realm.
As soon as she opened her eyes in the real world, she made a small bit of the Devourer Jaws come out of her palm. As she looked around, she saw that everything was fine and it was just that Mr. Comedian had put his arm on the back of the bench a little too hard.
Mr. Comedian looked at her with a confused expression, "Sorry, did I wake you? I didn't know you woke so easily."
Hirune quickly shook her head and stood up with a yawn, then stretched. "No, it's fine. You actually woke me up at a good time because I didn't want to have too long of a nap."
Mr. Comedian stood up and offered Hirune a sip of coffee, "Maybe this'll help a bit."
Hirune stared at the cup of coffee intrigued. She wasn't actually tired; she'd actually say her tank was full of energy. Yet she was curious as to what coffee tasted like. She remembered hearing a bunch of people complain about lacking caffeine back in Triste, and Ellen seemed to also drink it so why shouldn't she? It was just going to be a sip after all; it's not like this'll become a daily habit.
Hirune gently took the cup from him, careful to not let it spill and took a sip. She made a face, 'So bitter.' She gave Mr. Comedian a weird look with her eyes squinted slightly and gave him back the cup.
Mr. Comedian held in a laugh, "I may have purposely not drank any yet. After all it's too bitter without the sugar." He said as he dropped 2 sugar cubes from his pocket into the coffee, then stirred it with a spoon he got out of the same pocket.
'Is it normal to carry sugar cubes in your pocket?' Hirune thought while looking at him with a confuzzled expression. Mr. Comedian gave her the cup again; she hesitated to take it because of how sour it was last time but ended up taking it either way. After all, now it had sugar in it, it wasn't going to be bitter again. She took a sip from it again and licked her lips.
"It's sweet," Hirune said in a low voice while giving the cup back to Mr. Comedian again.
Mr. Comedian didn't take the cup though, instead he walked to their left where there was a coffee shop and bought another, "You can keep that one. You seem to have liked it."
Hirune stared at him. 'Why's he being so sweet?' She thought. 'Wait, the coffee's sweet. Is he trying to act like coffee?... Wait what--' Her thoughts were quickly cut off by Mr. Comedian starting to walk again.
Mr. Comedian looked back at her and slowed down so she could catch up, "Have you ever had coffee before?" He asked her, and she shook her head.
"We'll I'm glad I got to treat you to it. I'm also glad you also like your coffee as sweet as mine otherwise I would've felt awkward about having 4 sugar cubes in my pocket," he said with a slight laugh in his voice.
'So, it's not normal to carry sugar cubes in your pocket. Noted.' Hirune thought while looking at the pockets of other people on the street, making sure that her conclusion is correct.
"Hey Hirune," Mr. Comedian said. "How come you haven't asked why I've been so nice to you?"
Hirune looked at him and tilted her head slightly while looking at him, "I guess it's because you just don't seem like a bad guy in general. Sure, I don't trust you that much because of obvious reasons, but you still tried to keep it respectful with me."
She then looked down at the jester mask on her side, "Even if you did put your hand extremely close to my hips."
Mr. Comedian cleared his throat, "Well the mark isn't easy to get rid of. So, I thought it should be in a place that wouldn't be noticeable if you wore a shirt or pants that covered that area."
Hirune looked at him for a moment, then looked forward again. 'I guess he is sweet like this coffee. Even if I was a little bitter at first. Maybe I should try to be sweet too,' Hirune thought while staring at her coffee.
'He's sweet like the coffee huh...' Her face slowly turned red as she looked forward again. But she did drink her coffee just a little faster than before.
'C'mon heart calm down! Why are you beating so fast?' She told herself as she looked back down at her chest. Why did she feel so fuzzy inside. She took a look at Mr. Comedian, and her heart started beating even faster.
'What? No! Come on don't tell me that...' Hirune looked at Mr. Comedian again and her heart started pounding even faster than the previous look she took at him. 'Shit! It wasn't just the coffee! You son of a bitc--'
Her thoughts were cut off by sudden police siren blaring, "Suspects Mr. Comedian and Hirune have been spotted. Any nearby patrols--" The police officer kept on talking through the megaphone and a walkie talkie as they passed.