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Tomoko grabbed onto Jove's sleeve when she doubled over coughing from all of the gas that was starting to flood the school halls from their little experiment with the explosives. That hadn't been too much more disastrous than when they had been investigating the lockers.

However, the kitsune grabbed for the foxfire boy's hand almost immediately when the strange looming figure returned, huddling against his side and making a noise akin to fear. In fact, it pretty much was fear. And Jove had been a good protector already. Not like she was expecting more from him on the note of 'protecting', but the boy had landed himself flat in Tomoko's 'safe to be with' zone.

Her tails made a retreat for the space between her feet (which was difficult given there was more tail than space between legs), while people in the group mulled about an answer to the man's riddle (it was a man, right?) about their identity.

She was actually thankful when someone said that 'Ebony' meant 'black' though. She had been pondering it for a while as her fellow students started mulling about horsemen and..and...

"Where did they ever mention horses being involved though....?" she continued to wilt. What were the four horsemen of the apocolypse? She'd never heard of anything like it? If this had been about Asian lore, she could have thought of something more concrete. She could rattle off the big figures in that mythos with no problem!!

Although....

"Can I guess Rump...rumpl..Ru-mu-pe-ru-shi-tsu-ki-n?" she said, more as a joke, but really struggling on the name before she engrished it. Why did Western mythos have such strange names?

Explosives investigation: Success!

The pup now looked like a war survivor, smeared with blood, singed with smoke and soot, but his masculine instincts had proved correct. Explosives were indeed fun to watch, provided he watched out for flying pieces of rubble next time.

Jove startled as the hooded figure crashed through the ceiling, took a step away, and would have covered his nose with his free hand if Tomoko hadn't grabbed it. That action shocked the boil, he looked down in surprise and then up at the small kitsune, and seeing her frightened expression he puffed up slightly and put on a serious "I'll keep you safe," type face. But even with his childish bravado, he still pulled her over near Rosc, who was apparently his new go-to boil until he rejoined Seiji. You get bandaged up by a guy, and that had to make him your friend, right?

The pup didn't add anything to the conversation at hand, but his ears swivelled from one student to another as they chipped in. Then he heard the voice of the pair who had joined Seiji and Junko, and he eagerly looked in that direction to see if everyone was there yet.

((HP: 23))

((hp = 16))

Holly defiantly wanted to flip some tables. There might have been a few in one of the class rooms she'd spent ages in...

What was this, gas? The ghost started to cough a bit. Wasn't this just a trip of firsts! This was certainly an entertaining trip. What sucked the most was the keys not working. "Keep the keys guys, maybe they open something we'll find later." They had to open something!

What the Jack? Someone, someone cloaked, fell through the ceiling. And seemed to have a key? The ghoul hadn't a clue. She'd barely been around school or the town before this trip. Though the word famine did sound like part of the person's description. She sighed. "I've no idea..."

At the sound of the keys and their jingling, Savior naturally followed. Her eyes were wide with enjoyment over the sound and she reached out to take the items, obvious of the fact that she was sorta grungy from all the explosions. It looked as though leaving the classrooms had been a good idea, not that she could honestly tell, and as she managed to catch up to Colette and take another attempt at getting the keys she paused at the upcoming voice and the appearance of so many others around her.

It should have been no surprise at all that Savior has no idea what the Jack the stranger was talking about, nor that she could even begin to fathom an answer. Instead she simply looked at them in a manner that suggested she likely didn't understand the strange danger they were or were not in. Let the others around her shout things out, Savior didn't even know what half those words meant. Ebony? Scales? Fffft.

"Wut." All she could think was that its laughter was weird since no one else was laughing. Even Savior knew that others had to be laughing with you in order for it not to seem so out of place. "Weird."

[ HP: 24 pt ]

Even as he slide along the wall behind his friends, Junko struggling beside him, he could hear something A voice that didn't sound at all welcoming and didn't belong to any of the students he'd met so far. He couldn't hear exactly what the voice was saying, not over the sound of his own uncontrolled hacking, but he could hear some of the others and one of them yelled something aloud with enough volume the ghost couldn't miss it. "Famine?" Cough, wheeze. "What the jack is going o-" His voice was a strained, cracking thing as he struggled to rid his lungs of noxious gas, but all sound ceased to emerge past suddenly dry lips as he finally came level with Bul and Mei and got a look at what had been speaking.

His immediate reaction was defense, and the boil slid past the half beast to stand in front of him and the ghouls. Automatically shielding the rest with his own tall frame even as bare shoulders shook with another fit of coughing. With the room swaying ever so slightly Seiji's balance was questionable, but he held his grown fairly well. One arm did extend to rest his palm against the wall to help keep him on his feet, but beyond that he was peachy.

Well, there was the smell. A rank decaying scent that wasn't entirely unfamiliar, nor completely off putting. He was, after all, a jikininki. Rotting flesh was no turn off to the ghost boil. Had he not been so terribly comfortable with it though he may very well have spilled the small contents of his stomach out at his own feet. Thank JACK that didn't happen.

The hooded figure wasn't moving though. Wasn't doing anything, and with that innactivity he was free to spare a glance around his little group to all the others now gathering around the.. Person? Creature? He didn't know. He caught sight of Jove and Momo though, and that brought a certain measure of comfort to the boil. West and his group was their as well. Good, everyone seemed to be relatively okay.

Despite their somewhat dangerous position, with the hooded stranger in their midst and possible dangers all around, when Jove caught sight of Seiji and Junko his ears perked and his tail wagged, and he even tugged on Tomoko's hand to catch her attention. Even if she didn't take that hint, she would have to notice the pair as Jove trotted right over to them, tugging her along with him.

He stopped to stand next to Junko, and his inquisitive and concerned eyes clearly asked how they were doing. It didn't look like the other two were doing very well, and the little boil had to be sure his friends weren't on the edge of death.

... Was that a bug crawling around in Seiji's hair?

Jove hadn't seen anything living other than the students and perhaps that disgusting smelling thing, so he couldn't help but stare at the insect with fascination. Where had it come from?