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 Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 6:05 pm
Kumoru glared down at the phone receiver in his hand as he dialed the number for Lab 305. He was thoroughly disappointed in himself since he had been unable to sustain his spell long enough to break the glass bottle. He had tried death magic after that, in an attempt to draw the spell back out through the glass, but the necromancer was too tired to be able to cast the spell with any amount of strength behind it. He had fiddled with the metal top, which was slightly dented in one place from his attempts to crush the thing with his wind spell; the parts moved, but did not seem to move in a way to open.
It was like one of those tavern puzzles. It was like one of those tavern puzzles. It had to open somehow. And since time seemed an important factor, Kumoru decided it was best to just go straight the source for the answer.
He held the phone to his ear and listened to it ring. By the wise gods, someone had better pick up on the other end; the mage's nerves were frayed enough already.
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 6:24 pm
"Coming! Coming!" Kyou muttered to thin air as he sped to retrieve the call on the reception counter, struggling to straighten his wrinkled lab coat. Silently he made a mental reminder to himself that he should never sleep with his lab coat on ever again. Looking around the empty lobby, Kyou saw no signs of Chloe. With a few quick steps Kyou jogged towards the phone and deftly picked up the receiver to his ear. "Hello, Dr. Kyou here. May I know who am I speaking to?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 6:41 pm
"This is Asahi Kumoru," the necromancer replied, his voice touched with both tiredness and barely restrained anger. "I received one of your soul bottles not too long ago." He could not recall having met a Doctor Kyou when he picked the thing up; he had instead received the bottle, and the strange ice rose, from a woman.
He needed to get straight to the point, though. "I need to know how to open the bottle."
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 6:54 pm
"Uh, what?" Kyou replied, slightly dumbfounded by the question. But after a short moment he realised how stupid he might've sounded just now. But still, the direct question really caught Kyou by surprise.
"Mr... Kumoru is it? May I ask why would you want to open the soul bottle?" This is the first time an owner requested something like this, due to personal and confidential reasons Kyou needed to know the reason behind the owner's intentions.
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 7:07 pm
Kumoru took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to remain calm. These things were difficult when one needed information, and quickly. The Anima of Revenge had retreated to his room after the nearly-disappearing incident, and the mage was worried that he could fade completely at any second.
"I need to get the soul out. There was a mistake, and it caught the wrong soul. I can't break the bottle, so I need to know if there's a way the thing is supposed to open."
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 7:22 pm
From Kumoru's voice, Kyou could sense that the person on the other edge of the line is sincere, so he relaxed and let his guard down a little. The last thing he wanted to do is revealing research secrets to his rivals with his own mouth. He did remember instructing Chloe to give a soul bottle to Kumoru a while back, but he still couldn't help but be a little paranoid. Kyou is a very secretive person when it comes to his research works, even Lazarus that had been living with Kyou and occasionally help out doesn't really understand how Kyou's experiments runs.
"Mmm..." Kyou hesitated a moment into the receiver. "Alright I'll teach you how to open it, but you'll need to promise me never to tell anyone else about the method alright? These are very complicated devices and once you open the bottles, they could never be used anymore."
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 7:31 pm
"Fine," the mage said without hesitation. He himself fully understood the idea of research secrets, and would be willing to keep them to himself if that was the reason for Doctor Kyou's secrecy. That, and he would do whatever was necessary to free Arlyn's soul from the bottle.
Kumoru picked the thing up off of the table in his free hand, turning it over and examining it again. "How do you open it?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 7:59 pm
Taking in a deep breath and exhaling slowly, Kyou cleared his mind a little, reliving the complicated mechanism of the soul bottle in his mind. "First, there's a gold loop at the top of the bottle that goes through a semi sphere. Press the sphere into the bottle, this will unlock the lock that keeps the entire top part in place. But you will need to press pretty hard because the lock is very secure. After you hear a click, pull out the cylindrical 'key' with the golden loop on top. Now the second portion will fall off after you removed the key, and you will reach the mid portion of the bottle. You will see 4 markings on all sides of the circle similar to a clock. This 2nd lock works like a safe lock. First rotate counter-clockwise for about 2 loops until you hear a click, then rotate clockwise for 1 round to hear another. Then counter again for 3 rounds and clockwise 1 more time. When you hear a louder click the device will pop out and you'll be able to remove it."Kyou paused for a moment, licking his lips to wet them a little as they're getting a little dry. "Did you get those instructions Kumoru? Try doing that first." He instructed.
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:15 pm
Holding the phone between the side of his head and his shoulder, the necromancer took the bottle in both hands. With both thumbs, he pushed the sphere in and, after some effort, it fell inside with a small metallic rattle. When the thing suddenly moved, Kumoru's hand slipped a little, though, and some edge somewhere sliced into his thumb slightly as the bottle lept out of his grip.
He bit back a curse and leaned down to get it, and nearly dropped the phone in the process.
"So I take the key thing out by the loop, and then what?" Kumoru asked once he had recovered both bottle and telephone. He went to the hands-free way of holding the phone while he pulled the key out and set it on the table, then sucked gently on the cut in his thumb.
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:37 pm
Clearly Kumoru didn't caught what Kyou said just now. And judging by the small racket that Kyou can briefly hear through the phone, Kumoru seems to be having a little bit of trouble. Kyou knew he should've went slower! Clearing out his voice a little he repeated. "Now you're at the mid section of the device, this is the 2nd lock and after you opened this, there will be only 1 more left. Treat this part like a safe lock. Turn it counter-clockwise 2 rounds and you'll hear a soft click, clockwise once to hear another, then counter-clockwise again 3 times, and clockwise 1 last round. If you do it correctly you'll hear a louder click and you'll be able to remove the entire part off. Got that?" Kyou asked, wondering if Kumoru got all the instructions.
"Counter-clockwise 2 rounds, clockwise once, counter 3 more rounds and clockwise one last time." Kyou repeated the instructions briefly again, just so Kumoru can get it clearer.
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:39 pm
"Counter-clockwise two rounds, clockwise once, counter three rounds, clockwise once again," Kumoru murmured to himself over the phone as he fiddled with the dial on the soul bottle. It clicked like he should, up until he got to the final clockwise turn.
Then he remembered how he had dented the metal part slightly when he had tried to crush the bottle with his magic. That must be why the stupid dial had kind of hung up at one particular spot each time he turned it, and now completely refused to budge.
Gritting his teeth, Kumoru grasped the thing in both hands and twisted as hard as he could. The final click of the lock opening finally sounded, and the bottle part went and dropped right off onto the floor.
"There, I got it," Kumoru told Doctor Kyou once he had picked up the bottle again, and sucked the latest drop blood off of his thumb. The glow of the soul remained inside the glass, but seemed to be starting to escape out the hole where the metal lock-device had been. Kumoru put the palm of his hand over the opening.
"Thank you. I'll see what I can do from here." The necromancer was quiet for half a moment as though waiting for a response, then remembered to ask, "Oh, you said this thing is useless now? Uhm, do you want me to come in and get another one?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:14 pm
"Wait, there's still one last lock. Uhm... more like the opening of the bottle that you haven't unlock yet." Kyou quickly cut in as Kumoru sounded like he's going to end the conversation soon. "There should be a dark hole in the opening now right? Use the key you took out earlier, or any elongated object you wish to use and hammer it into the hole. The last obstacle is impossible to open with human hands, so the only way is to break it. Although the last metal piece is an inch thick, but it's attachment to the wall surrounding it is minimal and you wouldn't have any problem hammering it into the soul bottle." Kyou instructed carefully, this is why soul bottles couldn't be used anymore after they're opened with human hands. Kyou winced a little at the thought of breaking a soul bottle, these babies are not exactly cheap to make. But for his grand research and experiment, it's hard to avoid situations like this.
"The soul will be free to flow out of the bottle, and it's up to you then, I am of no help to you on how to deal with the free soul." Kyou spoke into the receiver. In fact, Kyou had never dealt with free souls that escaped out of the soul bottle. "And yes, you can come over to get another bottle. Or we can mail it to you." he added.
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Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:32 am
Kumoru checked under his hand and saw that there was, in fact, something there keeping the soul inside. It would probably take both hands to open that, too, per Doctor Kyou's instructions, so he figured he would take care of that after he had hung up the phone. The necromancer also had to be ready to catch the soul once it was freed.
"Alright, so I just push the covering down into the bottle, and that will be it?" he asked, wanting to confirm since he did not want to have to call back if there wer eany more steps.
"And in the mail would be best," Kumoru added after a moment with a sigh. "I have kids at home and we're preparing for another, so I've been busy lately. If you could mail it, I would appreciate it. Sorry to ruin this bottle. I'll be more careful with the next."
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Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:19 pm
"Yeah, just push the remaining cover into the bottle and the soul is free." Kyou reassured Kumoru with a smile, although no one is around to see it. "And I'll mail the new bottle to you soon, hopefully you'll get the correct soul next time." Kyou said as he flipped over a file on the reception counter with owner details and found Kumoru's name after a few pages. Chloe forgotten to put the file back into the drawer it seems.
"Is there anything else I could help you with?" Kyou asked politely.
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Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 7:13 pm
"More like hopefully I won't get the wrong soul next time. It must have sucked out Arlyn's soul in a second or something. I think he just barely must have brushed his hand against the bottle while he was reaching into the refrigerator." Kumoru decided to leave the reasoning for having the bottle in the 'fridge unsaid. "Do all the soul bottles do that? Just suck the soul out in a moment? I never felt it try to take my soul, and I know I handled it quite a bit. Should I handle the next one more carefully?"
Of course he had not actually seen the bottle sucking out Arlyn's soul, but the bottle was full now, and the Anima boy was disappearing. What else was he supposed to think?
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