What Happened Here? [Rei, Invite Only]

[Geno Garon]

The sun hung high as Geno stolled down the sidewalk towards his modest apartment building. He had spent his day getting acquainted with Shibusen's library. While he would have liked to spend the time examining the tomes for information, his position required more cleaning and sorting than reading, so he'd not had the chance. He'd still need to go back in the afternoon, after the students had finished piling the books on the floor and strewing them everywhere, so there might be another opportunity.

I just need a little time to sit down. Damn legs are killing me from all that reaching. They really need to get some decent work ladders...

The door to the apartment building opened as easily as it had for the past three weeks. Murry, the front door clerk, greeted him as he had every day. The stairwell was still poorly lit, and the door to his apartment still leaked smoke out the bottom.

Geno stopped as he was turning the key. Smoke? That wasn't supposed to be there. Geno finished turning the key and thrust the door open, only to see...

[Rei Inari]

"This place is so boring. Nothing exciting ever happens here."

Rei hadn't been living with Geno very long, but already she had gotten herself accustomed to his classy medium sized apartment and was settling in quite nicely, maybe a little to nicely. Rei was at her usual spot in Geno's apartment; sitting upside down on the little green love seat facing the television, feet up in the air pressed against the wall, and head dangling off the edge just above the wooden coffee table.

Her new roommate and left for work hours ago and most likely wouldn't return for several more, or so she assumed. So for now the apartment was quiet, aside from the noises coming from the television, and boring.

Rei let out a loud yawn and decided she was already bored of watching the T.V and flipping through channels was no fun either. Flipping herself right side up she hopped off the seat and headed towards the kitchen.

"Maybe eating will solve my boredom, I hope he bought meat."

---------------------

"Are you kidding me!" she shouted as she stomped around the kitchen back and forth back and forth between the fridge and pantry. "There's no meat anywhere in this place!" Rei immediately threw herself into one of the kitchen chairs sliding down as she sulked over her nonexistent beloved red meat. She let out a loud over dramatic sigh. "I guess I can try to whip up some of those eggs Geno taught me how to make."

After making all the preparations she threw a couple of eggs on the skillet, turned up the gas powered stove to max, and plopped down on a kitchen chair.

---------------------

A meal without meat wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. After eating her eggs she pushed the plate aside for Geno to clean up later. Content with the tiny meal, Rei got to her feet, closed her eyes, and let loose a long satisfying stretch. She opened her eyes to-

-...There it was. It... she... her?

In front of her very eyes was.. herself? Rei was staring directly at, what appeared to be, an exact copy of herself from the tip of her ears down to her naked feet. It was just... standing there looking right at her doing nothing.

Without thinking she immediately panicked.

With this sudden shock and confusion Rei panicked and screamed and threw herself backwards towards the stove. to get the hell away from this thing. She pressed herself back against it and suddenly felt a jolt of pain shoot up from her tail. Quickly, she grabbed it to discover she had left the stove blasting (as she did often and got scolded often by Geno) and her tail at caught fire in the panic. She let out another scream and began to furiously pat the fire out.

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep.

The fire alarm starting beeping rapidly. The fire was to hot for her to, stupidly, put out by her hand, and not being the biggest fan of fire, she hastily grabbed a nearby paper towel from the counter and began to pat it out quickly. The fire extinguished from her tail but spread to the paper towel.

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep.

"Ugh!! That stupid alarm!" frustrated and still a bit spooked she threw the still lit paper towel to the floor and onto Geno's nice kitchen rug. It caught fire too.

As always Rei was barefoot and there was no way she could stomp out the fire. Geno just bought this rug too, she was going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble when he got home. But, there was no time to worry about that. Swiftly, she darted out of the kitchen, the clone's eyes still glued to her, and grabbed one of Geno's shoes from the next room over, the living room. Running back in she slid down to her knees and began violently pounding the lit rug with his boot in attempt to finally put an end to these flames.

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep.

"Just go out already!!" she screamed at the fire.

After a fierce pounding the fire was out and the alarm finally shut the hell up. Rei let out a sigh of relief and sat back on her legs.. only to bump her back into something... she looked up only to see that she was staring at herself. During the fire fiasco she had forgotten about that thing, the one who started all the trouble. She quickly sprang to her feet and backed away from it.

"Who are you?! What do you want?!" she shouted at it but it said nothing it just stared at her almost like it was waiting.

"Just go away!!" she screamed at it again and did the only sensible thing at the time, well to her, and she whipped Geno's scuffed boot right at it. The thing jumped up and landed on the counter behind her avoiding her shoe attack.

SMASH

The sound of shattering glass could be heard from the living room. "Oh no.." The boot went sailing through to the next room and completely shattered the television screen. "Geno is going to kill me!" She turned towards the girl who was squatting on the counter still staring at her. "That's it! I've had enough of you!" she yelled at lunged forward towards the clone. It stepped out of the way and began running around crazily knocking over every and anything in it's path.

"Get back here dammit!" and so the chase began. She chased the thing around the entire apartment. No object of value was safe. Paintings were knocked off the wall, couch cushions were thrown, the TV was already destroyed, wires were exposed, lamps knocked over, phone off the hook, clothes scattered everywhere, the bed was a mess, and so on. The expression "It looks like a tornado hit this place." was a complete understatement.

---------------------

She was out of breathe and looked a mess. Rei didn't know how long she had been chasing this thing, it felt like forever, but she thought she finally had it. The clone was standing in front of the front door of the apartment still looking directly at her. Rei caught her breath and with her fox-like speed took off and grabbed- it disappeared and...

SMACK

Rei smashed face first into the door. She fell back and landed on her ass holding her bloody face while tears welding her in eyes.

Click Click Click

She opened one eye slowly, a tear falling down, and saw that the doorknob was jiggling.

"G-Geno.. is home..." she stuttered still holding her bloody nose. Turning her head slightly she had a chance to take in the impact she and that thing made on his apartment. It wasn't pretty...

The door opened.

[Geno Garon]

The sight, in a word, was unbelievable.

Black smoke was billowing out from the kitchen, where Geno could see his new floor rug smoldering over three quarters of its area. One of his leather dress shoes lay protruding from the middle of the shattered television set; the laces on fire. Several other objects appeared to have been burnt; the couch, the carpet, the curtains... and what wasn't burnt was demolished. Items were strewn everywhere, and in the center of it all, right in front of the door...

"REI!"

The poor little fox girl sat just in front of the door, blood streaming from her nose, her tail singed and blackened, with tears welled up in her eye. She was a sorry sight, and as Geno opened the door wider, her tears grew larger to match.

"Geno I'm so so sorry I was cooking eggs like you taught me and I left the burner on and I know that was bad but it was fine and I was turning it off and then I was looking at myself and I scared myself and then I put out the rug and I broke the TV with your shoe and I chased her to the door and she went poof and I'M SOOOOORRRY-Y-Y-hahhhh.... *sniff*"

Rei continued to blubber as Geno took a breathe. He walked past her without even stopping. She tracked him with her eyes as he strode to the bathroom, where he disappeared for a moment. Rei waited, sniffling and rubbing her nose. Soon, Geno emerged, with a box of cotton balls in one hand and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide in the other. As Geno knelt down next to Rei, he looked her in the eyes, and with his gentlest voice asked, "You gonna be okay, little fox?" Rei sniffled one more time and nodded, the sorrow slowly fading from her eyes.

Over the next several minutes, Geno treated Rei's bumps, bruises, and burns while she, more calmly this time, reiterated the events of the last twenty minutes. Geno listened intently, especially to the presence of this other, exact clone of Rei. This detail intrigued him the most. It appeared as though Rei was not only an animal, but an animal with magical talents as well. Geno thought for a moment as he dabbed peroxide on Rei's burnt tail. Perhaps there was something about this documented in the Shibusen library? There were so many books on so many different subjects that magical animals had to be in there somewhere. Rei twitched and recoiled, which brought Geno out of his thoughts. He had been wiping Rei's nose for blood with a cotton ball, and had somehow managed to get it lodged inside her nostril. Rei looked at him, head leaned back, before lifting a finger to the other side of her nose and blowing hard. The cotton ball shot out from her nose and boinked Geno in the head. Rei's cheeks puffed out and she lowered her head, gazing back up at him huffily.

Oops, sorry... Geno grabbed another cotton ball and more gently swabbed Rei's nose, clearing the last of the blood. "Alright, you're all cleaned up. Don't worry about the furniture; I'll just call Gabby down at the pawn shop can probably get most of this stuff replaced... I'll just have to make sure to tip Gus well... Anyway, I want you to come with me to the Shibusen Library. There are a lot of books there that may tell us more about you, and maybe help us learn and control your abilities... What do you say?"

[Rei Inari]

She was a bit taken back by Geno's attitude. He wasn't mad at her at all for destroying pretty much everything he owned in this place. In a few hours she completely totaled his apartment. Broken glass scattered around, scorch marks on the floor, destroyed... boot. Geno really was a nice guy.

This made her smile, maybe even blush a little.

[/size]

This was quickly interrupted by the shock of pain shooting up her tail from the medicine on her burn. Geno was dabbing it lightly with some cotton and peroxide and dressing it in a cloth bandage. 'He's a good friend. I got pretty lucky' she thought with another smile escaping her lips.

"I want you to come with me to the Shibusen Library. There are a lot of books there that may tell us more about you, and maybe help us learn and control your abilities... What do you say?"


Rei turned around to face him and leaned in hugging him tightly. Before pulling away she whispered a thank you in his ear.

"Sounds like a great idea." she nodded.

After Geno finished addressing Rei's wounds they left for the library where he worked part time. He insisted that he carry her piggyback but she wouldn't hear of it. Easy to say she lost that argument and with grunting and groaning and puffed cheeks she was carried along to the library.

He continued to carry her into the building and plopped her down into a chair seated at a table in the far end of the library.

"I'm surprised you could hold me up that long with those skinny things you call arms."

Geno smiled and pushed her face back."Oh, shut up. Now stay here and don't get into anymore trouble. I'll be back in a minute." he walked off towards the front desk to speak with what it seemed like a co-worker.

Minutes later Geno came back and set down a very large and very heavy book in front of her. "Everything You Wanted to Know About Magical Animals, but You Were To Afraid to Ask."

Puzzled, Rei looked up at him."You know I can't read, right?"

[/blockquote]

[Geno Garon]

The realization hit Geno like a ton of bricks. Why had he just assumed she could read? His face turned red as he turned away, embarrassed. He wasn't used to making such blatant assumptions and turning out to be wrong. Rei had even told him last week about her "birth", and her life before that as a fox. Though the details surrounding her turning human were fuzzy at best, Geno had gathered that Rei had to be about a year old in her human lifespan. Also, given how often she had been on the move and the amount of time she had been forced to dedicate to pure survival of course she hadn't had any time for formal education. Geno would be surprised if she could read the signs for the bathrooms, much less an entire compendium of the husbandry of animals and magic.

Geno slid the book over towards himself. "Oh... right... okay. Well, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone? I can teach you how to read, and we can find out about your history!" Geno nodded, mentally patting his own back for salvaging the situation so quickly. He quickly turned and scanned a nearby bookshelf, dragging his finger down the lane of tomes and booklets. Nothing in this section. Geno turned to Rei and waved her to remain for a moment as he stalked the aisles, and a moment later he returned. As it turns out, the library hosted an entire section of "infotainment" books for small children, apparently to be used by students, teachers and faculty who had their own kids, to teach them about meisters, demon weapons, witches, and kishin eggs. Geno held the 'youngest' of the books, the "Baby Meister" series. Geno had the alphabetical teaching book "A is for Arachne, B is for Baba Yaga", the words book "Weapons are for Swinging", and a handful of others. When he returned, Rei was casually flipping through the enormous text in front of her, looking for pictures, but mostly bored. Geno laid the other books in front of her and slid the "Magical Animals" book aside.

"So tell me, just how much do you know? We'll start from there.