Zelgadis travelled.
Kyoto was a fair distance away, but it wasn't all that far for a determined traveller. By sticking to the coastline, Zelgadis was treated to walk along the top of several cliffs as he travelled, and just as often the beach itself. There wasn't a singular road to travel on, at any rate.
The few people he came across when travelling were all subdued. None spoke; their eyes seemed to be darkened by something they had witnessed.
Eventually, Zelgadis reached what may have been the source of their eyes.
A ghost town.
The entire place was seemingly devoid of life. The houses were empty; the rice fields had collapsed from disuse, and there seemed to be no activity at all..
Zelgadis was currently standing at the front of the town. To one side was the aforementioned field, kept outside the town proper. Inside were several houses, all of which looked to be empty, and directly forward from Zelgadis sat a building large and more lavishly decorated than the other visible houses..
Shukuen frowned in slight annoyance. "So much for supplies," he muttered. Sighing, he decided that the best course of action now would be to see if there was any sign of life in this town. Though, his suspicions seemed to be focused on the large building in front of him, he tried to ignore it until he could find evidence of that suspicion.
As Zelgadis searched the city, he came across noone. But the interior of the houses themselves was strange.
Some houses, notably those to the left of the main building, showed evidence of struggle. A few swords lay here and there, stained with blood. Tools lay on the ground, evidently kicked around by the scuffles caused in combat. Blood stained the walls in some places.
There were no corpses, though; nor were there indications of who or what the villiagers attackers may have been.
Across the opposite side of the hall, though, there clearly was no struggle whatsoever. The few weapons there were here (consisting of several swords and a single bow, quiver of arrows included. The bow is currently unstrung, it's string hanging off a single point in order to preserve it's longevity) were either in stands or leaned in spots obviously designed for them.
The villiage itself seemed to be in disrepair. It looked as if whatever had struck this villiage had only done so within the past few days. Most iron and steel implements had only rusted slightly, though all perishable food was little more than small scraps, either decomposed or eaten by small creatures.
As Zelgadis completed his searching, he discovered that, oddly, he had a slight headache, as if someone had taken to his head with a small hammer..
"I hate this part..." Shukuen sighed, wishing to massage his aching head. Instead, he collected a few usable weapons, mainly an extra sword and the quiver, bow, and arrows. Going on a hunch, he expanded his senses, trying to see if whatever attacked this village was magical in nature, and if it was still nearby.
While Zelgadis couldn't sense anything specific, he did detect some magical residue. However, he couldn't tell what it was centered on, where it came from, or even what type of magic it was..
Shukuen sighed, securing his new weapons. "Might as well see if this is the problem she wanted me to check or not," he muttered, wondering if his headache would get stronger if he neared the source of the magic or not. "Well, guess there's one way to find out," he said, walking in a random direction, while keeping the large, center building as a marker in case his headache did get stronger or weaker.
Zelgadis's headache got slightly heavier.. though not with any particular significance on where he walked.
Since nothing seemed to trigger any danger sense, Shukuen entered the closest room on the right.
Zelgadis opens the door and is promptly hit by his own image, staring back at him.
It quickly becomes evident that the source of this is a mirror, standing in perfect form and looking virtually untouched, which is a fair sight different from the rest of the room, which appears to have been hit by a bomb.
The room appears to be a bedroom; obviously, the owner of this particular house has a taste for Western style furniture.
The wardrobe and bed are devastated; the wardrobe is missing a door, and the other is hanging off it's hinges, splintered in several places. Tattered remnants of clothing are scattered around it. The bed didn't fair much better; the mattress and bedding has been shredded.
An overturned bookcase is also evident, though only a few books are scatterd about it; most probably underneath the case.
To one side, there was a bolted chest. It looked like someone had tried to force their way into it, and failed. It is quite big; it looks far too big to carry. For a normal person, anyway.
Strange... Shukuen frowned, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. From what he could guess, it was either a botched robbery or some kind of attack. From the condition of the door and most of the furniture, it would seemed to indicate the latter since everything pointed to some kind of struggle.
"But why is the mirror relatively untouched?" he muttered to himself. "And what is the significance of this box?"
Well, let's at least try to answer one of those questions, he thought, trying his luck in opening the chest.
The lock was fairly well made, and Zelgadis found he could not force it, nor easily pick it with what he had at hand.
Shukuen tsked, but decided that there were other important things to do now. "Besides, sooner or later, a key will pop up," he muttered to himself.
"But until then..." He pointed to the chest. "Levitation."
The sapphire Zelgadis kept seemed to hum, as the chest hovered a small ways off the ground. Zelgadis imagined seeing a flash of blue light as he cast the spell..
Shukuen blicked at the flash, frowning a bit as he never recalled seeing the spell do that before.
Then again, maybe it was just his imagination. Shrugging, he turned to the last, undamaged object. Perhaps there was something about the mirror that would turn up a clue.
The mirror looked like an antique, even for this time period. It's frame was made of brass, and appeared to have been polished regularly. The glass gave a perfect reflection of Zelgadis's stony complexion.
Almost.
The image within the mirror, strangely enough, seemed closer to the mirror itself than Zelgadis felt he was too the mirror..
OOC: That kinda means that if:
Z = You, O = Mirror, z = Reflection behind mirror;
Z---O--z.
If my explanation isn't clear enough, that'll work. @_@