☼ Rouran (The Old Capital)

[Ergo War]

XAyame_HatakeX

Yo-ko

Jaxdrill

"My, my, you certainly are very curious," the woman commented as she started her jog. "The blue light and the clicking are coming from a monster I keep contained. Why else would there be a seal over the well? I have no idea who the guys you mentioned are, and I really should have a talk with the kids about taking my seals. Who knows where they'll end up next."

The seal the clone placed over the well seemed to be holding under the pressure of whatever the liquid was, but the clone would be able to tell the barrier wouldn't last long. It was cracking, slowly but surely coming closer and closer to destruction.

Meanwhile, next door, Takagawa was roused from a light slumber in his favorite armchair by San's sudden appearance.

"Eh?! What?! How did you get in here?!" he cried out in his lethargic stupor. He tried to stand up, but in his haste, he ended up straining himself and falling back into his chair.

"Food from humans?" Souda asked, obviously unamused. "I haven't the time for your jokes. Goodbye."

Souda bowed slightly and turned to walk away. It was obvious he was done answering questions unless Knives had something major to say.  

[Ergo War]

XAyame_HatakeX

Yo-ko

Jaxdrill

"Hm... the answers to those questions are very personal. Why are you so curious, if I may ask?" the woman asked as they rounded a corner. The buildings here were slightly better built than her neighborhood, but not by much. The most expensive-looking item in sight was a rusty manhole cover in the road about twenty feet ahead of them, and even it seemed barely functional.

As soon as the second seal was placed over the well, the cracking of the first one seemed to stop. The clone would be able to feel, though, that a massive presence was slowly climbing up the well, and he would be able to smell an odor of burning flowers coming from where it seemed to be, even through the seals.

Next door, Takagawa was trying his best to calm down. Through wheezing breaths, he managed to answer San's questions: "Call me Takagawa. I haven't been outside in quite a while, but there hasn't been anything out-of-place as far as I've seen."

"Don't know," Souda responded, not stopping to talk. The tone in his voice suggested this was the truth. The question now was whether or not Knives trusted this man's testimony and whether he was going to start the interrogation.  

[Ergo War]

Yo-ko

dreadno

XAyame_HatakeX

Jaxdrill

Takagawa looked alarmed when Kamiya popped into existence, but then simply shook his head. He stood up with a pained groan and shuffled through the nearest doorway, which naturally went into a basement. It would occur to San that the only doors he had seen were the front door and this one, though this information was not pertinent in any way.

The woman stumbled just as she was about to answer Ayame's questions, evidently tripping over herself. She recovered quickly, though, and reached down to adjust her shoe before continuing her jog, brushing a rock off of the bottom in the process.

"Sorry, something got caught in my shoe. What was the question again?" the woman asked, looking slightly embarrassed. One of her footfalls landed directly on the manhole cover, which shuddered under her weight. She seemed to run a bit easier afterward.

Souda was glad to see Knives go and disappeared into the night. Meanwhile, back at the house, things were going from bad to worse. The monster that had been climbing the well had reached the top, and now one strange claw was scraping against the underside of the seal. The claw was easily the size of San's torso, was blood red, teeming with a foul Chakra, and seemed to be partially covered in a smooth armor like the piece he had found earlier. The Shukaku inside of Knives would react with vitriol toward the new Chakra, and would be either angry or scared.