Portals were of paramount importance to Natsumi's mobility, and, thus, one of the first spells she bothered to learn once exiled. She had struggled with the practice, at first; taking long nights and many mistakes to reach mastery. When she did, it was one of the few achievements she was proud of. Pyzis's admiration for the ability was, therefore, both slightly embarrassing and flattering. A minor blush crept across her cheeks when she heard the compliment, to be followed by a verbal revelation from the past.
"Just because my father disapproved of my learning magic at a young age doesn't mean I listened to him." Indeed, had Natsumi's father had any say in the matter, she would not have known any magic even at her current age. In fact, rather than strong and independent, the woman would have become a doting wife – provided she survived pregnancy – with no combat or magical abilities to her name. That Natsumi would, likely, never have met Pyzis, though, so the Black Queen decided not to dwell on possibilities any further than she had.
Rather than continue to wonder about what if's, Yamauchi continued her investigation. She explained the secret, warehouse lever before pulling it, but immediately began to regret her current situation when the act elicited an audible scream. Pyzis had, apparently, not been listening when Natsumi mentioned the chute underneath the crates; because the less than stellar phoenix had walked right up to them without concern and, consequently, plummeted down into the abyss once the path was open.
"I've made a huge mistake inviting her along, haven't I?" The druid turned around while speaking, walking over to the slide entrance whilst awaiting a response from Kino.
"The evidence is strong thus far," the magical artifact responded with ambiguous cynicism. Even now, the two could still hear Pyzis screaming from the chute, her voice getting more distant the further she fell. It was certainly a long drop, as Natsumi herself would soon discover.
"Hey, did you hear that?" In response to the scream, an unknown, scruffy voice came from the alleyway entrance. The sluice was already beginning to close off by the time the fox woman heard this interloper; ticking down on a primitive timer. There was no chance to think in that situation; only time to act.
Therefore, with the threat of being discovered looming on the horizon, Natsumi ducked into the shaft face first. The door closed behind her, sealing away any sign of someone having used the secret entrance. She slid down in prone, regrettably landing that way when she reached the straw at the base of the shaft. Sneezing was, of course, her first reaction to this event – or more like a string of sneezes following by a wince from the uncomfortable sensation of pain in her breasts resultant from the ride.
"You'd think that with my fox attributes I'd learn to land on my feet more often," Natsumi said while lifting her head from the straw in a fit of sniffles. "Or is that only cats?" It was an amusing scene for others, to be sure; but miserable for the druid herself and soon to get worse.
Comedy is rarely found in Hell, you see; and, unfortunately for the phoenix and the fox, the chute they just used had been their gateway into a special kind of Hell. The soon approaching, heavy footsteps were evidence enough of that, as was the grumbling on the other side of the door that guarded the small chamber the pair had landed in.
"Not a word," Natsumi whispered once her ears picked up this nearby menace. Her instincts were aflame with feelings of danger, and she forcibly tackled Pyzis in order to cover her mouth and protect them both. She hid herself, along with the phoenix, in another pile of straw toward the corner of the room, and then watched from the darkness as the door shook from being forcibly slammed.
Three strikes, each more powerful than the last, destabilized the entrance, rapidly tearing it from iron hinges. The wooden frame was rent asunder, allowing a deformed giant to lumber through.
"Two little piggies come down to the dark?" Clothed in nothing but shorts and a pair of broken shackles, the fair-skinned colossus stood nearly three times the height of either Natsumi or Pyzis. He was bulky, looking strong enough to bend solid iron with his bare hand. Much to the dismay of the druid, he also had patches of skin missing from his face; in fact, his entire nose was gone, torn off by some sort of beast.
Thankfully, however, his physical strength and grotesque appearance were inversely proportional to his intelligence. "Just another ghost," Mr. Tall-Pale-and-Really-Ugly muttered without even thoroughly checking the room he had just stepped into. He calmly walked out of the broken door afterwards as if nothing was wrong, thence allowing Natsumi to release her hold on her accomplice.
"Well," the still sniffle-ridden fox whispered once she was fairly certain that abomination was out of earshot. "If that's not a sign of bad things to come, I don't know what is."
