<div class="floatright">(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/745872759464132639/745936919787208714/Koro_Kaisuri.png) (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=324540.0)</div><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: comic sans ms;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>"Here it is Miss, right where I said it would be!"</strong><br/><br/>From beneath her raised hood, Koro watched the boy gesture with palpable excitement towards the cave entrance. His voice was loud and carried easily, but in spite of her desire to keep this venture a secret, the Usagijin could not fault the youngster for his enthusiasm: though the sight before them might look unattractive or uninteresting to a casual observer, those with a more inquisitive spirit would see the true value in such a place. Raw and only recently exposed by virtue of nature's whimsy, the stone mouth and its passageway beyond suggested dangerous footing and perilous passage - but such promises would serve to further entice those with an adventurous heart.<br/><br/><strong>"I wanted to go inside myself, but my mom says to keep away,"</strong> the boy explained, picking up a stone from the thick and clotting dirt underfoot and tossing it aimlessly towards the cave. <strong>"She says it's unsafe."</strong><br/><br/><strong>"Maybe she's right,"</strong> Koro replied, looking down at the boy; she kept a gentle smile despite her words. <strong>"Places like this often are."</strong><br/><br/><strong>"Then why are you going inside?"</strong> asked the young guide, folding his arms. He portrayed an air of stubborn pride, though his voice remained curious and friendly. <strong>"If it's so dangerous, why did you want me to show you where it is?"</strong><br/><br/><strong>"I'm going inside <em><span class="bbc_u">because</span></em> it's dangerous,"</strong> answered Koro, half-turning to face her companion. He was over a foot shorter than her, but sure-footed and energetic. He had matched her pace to reach this location and never wavered, which was a commendable feat even for a man fully grown - though she hadn't the heart to admit that she could have gone much faster had she intended. <strong>"Your mother is worried about your safety; you should return to your village now."</strong><br/><br/><strong>"Yeah, alright,"</strong> muttered the boy dejectedly. He swayed from foot to foot, clearly reluctant to leave; then, quite suddenly, he looked up at Koro and said with renewed excitement, <strong>"I get to see them now, right? You promised you'd show me if I took you to the cave."</strong><br/><br/><strong>"I did,"</strong> chuckled Koro softly. She nodded once, and then reached up to take a hold of her hood; in one smooth motion she pulled it back, causing her long, reaching ears to emerge and spring skywards. The boy, who had been perceptive enough to glimpse them once before, stared once again with open awe and amazement. His laughter was kindly and excited and etched with the musical quality of youthful exuberance; it remained for a good while before ebbing, after which time Koro spoke again. <strong>"Our deal is now concluded, and you should head home before it gets too dark."</strong><br/><br/><strong>"Okay."</strong> This time, the young boy spoke in a far lighter tone, his mood having improved by degrees. He offered the long-eared traveler a wave and then started back in the direction of the woodlands, his step light and quick and quiet. <br/><br/>For a long moment, Koro remained silent, staring off of the path after her retreating guide and listening to his distant footfalls. Her smile had faded away entirely, and her expression was once again impassive: it had been a risk to approach the child for help, and even more so because of the price of his assistance. On other worlds, Usagijin were a more common sight, but here in this quiet, distant colony of settlements such a species did not exist. Should her pursuer show up - and there was little doubt in Koro's mind that he eventually would - then it would be all-too-easy to track her whereabouts through the young boy's account of her appearance.<br/><br/><strong><em>A risk - but a necessary one.</em></strong> If it hadn't been for the young boy, Koro would never have learned about the location of the warehouse; if his price had not been agreed to, then she might have wasted weeks, or months, searching the local area for its whereabouts. The woodlands surrounding the village were vast and cluttered with clearings and upheavals, landslides and hilltops: determining which one contained the objective of her search would have required her to spend far more time in one place than she was willing to. Eventually she would have been found.<br/><br/>Turning her back on the woodlands, Koro advanced upon the cave opening and stepped inside. Though the ground outside had been slick and muddy, the interior was rocky and uneven, yet regular enough that the Usagijin could navigate it without issue. Her eyes, which pierced through the concealing veil of darkness like a hot blade, stared ahead, picking out the metal framework of a man-made entrance way beyond the undulating rock-face on her either side. The young woman advanced towards it at pace, stopping only once to slide through a narrow gap where the walls on either side pincered together, her hands clutching her jacket and skirt to her frame tightly so as not to get caught.<br/><br/>The existence of the metallic, man-made corridor - its tiling, computer banks, mosaic of wires, and silent turret guardians, whose silhouettes forced a slower pace out of cautious necessity - brought about a profound change in Koro: where, moments before, she had carried herself with the air of one who bore a gnawing terror of being discovered for her trespass, she now stood and stared and murmured to herself in a fashion of sudden and near euphoric excitement. What hesitation she had experienced upon sighting the dormant defensive turrets faded immediately upon catching a glimpse of the immobile, three meter tall figure; she rushed towards it, her agile legs carrying up-and-over debris and fallen concrete and metal clusters at speed.<br/><br/><strong>"This is perfect!"</strong> stated the Usagijin, her long-fingers pressing against the long-dead metal and etching a trail through the amassed dust and spattering of orange-red oil. Koro studied, with a novice's fascination, the metallic figure's structure, as well as what internal mechanisms she could sight or inspect from the outside. There wasn't much that she could, though her inspection was performed nonetheless; and as the minutes ticked away, her excitement grew, causing her ears to twitch and sway, and her eyes to wide.<br/><br/><strong>"The damage is superficial,"</strong> Koro murmured, finally stepping back from the metal statue; <strong>"to you, at least."</strong> She turned her large, bright eyes over the nearby terminal and its many wires, many of which were drawn across the chamber and affixed to the mechanical construct she had been inspecting. Koro followed their path, double-checking the extent of their age-worsened decay; finally she focused her attentions elsewhere: upon an old generator, one seemingly powered not by fuels, but by crystals. Four such stones jutted from its body, though they were cracked and shattered in numerous places and to varying degrees. The young woman took these in hand and began the process of their removal, studying each in-depth as she did so, until the generator was bare of any external intrusions.<br/><br/>She didn't have to look long to find replacements, for the crate bearing fresh crystals was close by. Much to Koro's frustration, the bulk of the replacements were damaged or utterly shattered: only two remained, and the Usagijin was not certain whether they would be enough to power a machine clearly requiring a greater number. Even so, there was little other option, for the box was empty in the wake of her scavenging, save for dust particles and shards of the other, damaged crystals she had already removed.<br/><br/><strong>"You will have to be enough,"</strong> Koro said to the two crystals in hand. She carried them over to the generator and began to slowly, carefully, insert them into the now barren slots; afterwards, her fingers began to explore the accompanying panels, the buttons of which were named in a language that she didn't understand. Her ears twitched anew, this time from ambivalence: frustration at yet another hurdle, and excitement at the discovery of something else old and unknown and exciting.<br/><br/><strong>"Okay,"</strong> breathed the Usagijin, dragging the generator closer to the towering metallic figure and dropping onto her haunches besides it. <strong>"One at a time, then."</strong> With methodical and practiced patience, Koro began working her way through the button combinations, forever being mindful of how each might have impacted the status of the metal figure at her fore: she would stop after a sequence and inspect him at a distance, or move in closer if she wanted to be sure that nothing had changed; she was met with frustration each time, however her determination did not waver, and she would return to her seat by the generator, her hands resuming their work.</span></span>