Out Of One's Element [MPC-60A] [Yui & Anna]

[attr="class","castleonthehill"]Panic races through Saruyuki's veins like fire. "Keep it together, Saru... It's just a bad dream..." he tries to convince himself, even as the coarse texture of sand rubs against his cheeks and palate, much to his apparent chagrin. "A really, really bad dream..." Even the taste of it seemed real as could be, and the overabundance of heat and sunlight did little to contradict such wishful thoughts.

Begrudgingly, Saruyuki pushes himself up out of the dunes and onto his feet, staggering in place. His entire body felt like someone had taken a lead pipe and beaten him all over, a theory he had no means of proving yet would have definitely wanted to repay against the supposed perpetrator with interest.

The schoolboy scowls with clenched fists. "If this is some kinda sick joke, I swear to God, I'm gonna shove their feet so far up their ass, they're gonna have to roll to the damn hospital!" Saruyuki shouts aloud, but dead silence is all that greets him in return. His anger is quick to recede upon reminding himself of the grim reality behind his circumstances, hard as they were to accept. "Assuming I don't die of thirst beforehand..."

Thump.

What the heck was that? Saruyuki snaps his gaze all around him, but sand is the only thing his eyes fall upon for miles. At first, he assumed it was the sound of his own heartbeat, but the sheer volume alone threw that hypothesis right out the window as if though it was refusing to pay back the bar tab.

Thump.

Just then, a cloud of sand and dust begins to gather several meters away from Saruyuki's current position, causing the young man to take several steps back instinctively, the eerie pounding noises becoming louder and more forceful with every second that passed. He takes a gulp, prepared to hoof it at the drop of a pin, "I've got a bad feeling about this..." he mutters to himself as goosebumps force the hairs on his skin to stand at attention, like a legion of soldiers prepared to face an invading enemy force.

Nothing could have prepared Saruyuki for what came next.

Just then, a column of golden sand jettisons upward violently as if a bomb had exploded from beneath the desert, showering Saruyuki to the point he was forced to raise both arms up in an attempt to shield himself from the falling debris. Even that proved to be difficult, for his knees buckled and shook from the tremors resonating below him. But the worst was yet to come.

Rising up slowly from the depths of the newly formed sinkhole was an enormous skeletal-looking monstrosity unlike anything Saruyuki had ever seen before, glaring at him with hollow orbs of yellow light where eyes ought to have been. Great pincers snipped at the air like personal guillotines, matched in their lethal effect only by the presence of a segmented, blade-capped tail.

Unable to believe what he was seeing, even as it snarled and drooled before him, Saruyuki's teeth chattered like a set of broken castanets. No amount of kung-fu expertise would be remotely helpful here, so he did the only thing his terror-soaked brain could command the rest of his body to act upon: he screamed at the top of his lungs, turned around, and began to run.

The gigantic scorpion from Hell wasted no time or effort in giving chase to the comparatively diminutive human, slamming its appendages into the sand with great force in spite of its massive frame and lumbering gait. Saruyuki had barely crested one of the larger dunes before he was sent plummeting into a roll by the impact from one of the creature's pincers, hoping to whatever deities existed in the universe to rescue him from this terrible nightmare made real.

[attr="class","castleonthehill"]A tall shadow looms on the desert horizon, obscured by the blinding rays of the arid sun as it watches the commotion from atop the highest hill...

In the thick of all the unfolding chaos, Saruyuki curls his arms over his face as his body bounced and tumbled like a tire spinning out of control. Colors smeared and blurred together into an incomprehensible mess, very much like his own thoughts, until he ceased all downward movement with an abrupt thump, sending a cloud of dust into the tepid eastward breeze. Cresting over the dunes was the hideous horror itself, clawing and screeching its way after the human using its entire skeletal frame with nothing less than savage hunger in its beady yellow eyes.

Desperate to escape his titanic pursuer, Saruyuki scrambles into a crawl, but barely manages to avoid being skewered with the arachnoid creature's deadly bladed tail as it makes fierce contact with the sand several meters behind him. The tremor is powerful enough to paralyze the teenager with fear; this is precisely what the heinous horror had counted on. But what it did not anticipate were the arrival of two other human beings, a pair of young girls that could only be distinguished from one another through their monochromatic contrast of blonde and black hair.

The child with black hair boldly intervenes in its pursuit of the only male human present, demanding the giant predator's attentions whilst the fairer-haired one strove to beckon the intended prey towards her. Three morsels have stepped into the proverbial viper's den, and all of them would make for a most satisfying meal.

Unleashing a terrifying shriek that could put a banshee to shame, the skeletal horror snaps both pincers in a threatening display of its brutal power, then lunges in for the kill—

—Just before it could finish the task, the mammoth-sized monster suddenly loses its footing as a streak of silver literally flies down from the heavens and into its neck from outside of its own peripheral view, roaring outwardly from the apparent agony that now consumed its every waking thought. Saruyuki cannot move, for he is too stunned by the sudden turn of events to properly process anything going on in the immediate moment. Who, or what, had saved them all from the jaws of death itself?

The scorpion-like abomination stomps and thrashes wildly at the air, no longer able to focus on the three humans on account of the unbearable pain radiating through its body. As it whips around, barely missing the vulnerable humans with its recklessness as dust and sand is kicked up in great clouds, Saruyuki happens to capture a glimpse of the supposed source of its problems: a glimmering sword wrapped in red cloth had somehow penetrated its bony carapace.

"Fist of the Beast King!" A mighty voice bellows out from above the scene in dynamic and powerful declaration, drawing Saruyuki's attentions skyward as a great shadow comes barreling down toward the armored monstrosity, seemingly cloaked in an aura of flames that roared louder than any animal the schoolboy had ever seen or heard before. Instinctively, Saruyuki moves himself over the black-haired girl and uses his body to shield her from the impending fate that was about to befall this creature, praying for the best.

With one single thrust of its arm, the mysterious being connects its fist with the circular pommel of the blade, and a blast of pure power consumes the arachnoid as if the head of a giant ethereal lion had swallowed it whole in one bite. A final scream was all it could yield before the monster's entire body exploded into a cloud of light, the spectral lion's face bursting outward in a triumphant roar as its creator made contact with the ground like a shadowy meteorite, holding that enormous sword in its muscular hand.

Unable to move until the dust had actually settled, Saruyuki eventually releases his grip on the young girl so that he could properly look upon their supposed savior, or perhaps the one who would go on to be their actual killer, using his body as a shield in case they were unfortunate enough to be facing the latter.

But once the winds had cleared away the last of the falling debris, what greeted them was the image of a tall, bipedal... lion? Or was it a man? A lion-man? A lion king? Considering how utterly well-developed its physique was, the inclusion of black pants and a pendant of supposedly indigenous value seemed rather gratuitous. But perhaps the most curious thing about this creature (apart from how absolutely stacked it was) just so happened to be the pensive gaze coming from those piercing blue eyes. It seemed to be studying the three people in front of it?

Saruyuki took a risk, nervously lifting a finger towards no particular direction, "So, uh... I don't suppose you could point us in the direction of Pride Rock?"

"It seems the legends are true, after all..." Or, he could just ignore him. Sure, that always works. Saruyuki sighs despondently, at least feeling thankful that the real danger had seemingly been dispatched.

[attr="class","castleonthehill"]Before the hulking excuse of a beast-man could produce an answer for the youngster with black hair, her fairer counterpart squealed in delight at the volume of its flowing mane, causing the creature to raise a furred eyebrow. Saruyuki imitates its countenance to a significantly exaggerated degree. Even after all that happened, it was genuinely satisfying for him to know that there were people in the world who could see the silver lining in any situation, context be damned.

"Takemitsu Saruyuki," the schoolboy pipes up in the standard Japanese custom after the girl named Yui introduces herself and the other known as Anna, then turns to the sword-wielding lion monster. "I'm all for a meet-and-greet, but we are kinda stuck in the middle of actual nowhere." It was an indirect means of agreeing with his younger counterpart, who seemed much more level-headed than either Anna or himself – not like it mattered to that scorpion-thing, which got blasted to smithereens.

With a skillful flourish, the bipedal felinoid inserts the tip of its blade into a scabbard that hung from the small of its muscular back, slipping the weapon cleanly inside with well-practiced execution. "You all must have many questions, but with each one I answer, it will only pave way for many more," it speaks with a definitively masculine tone of voice, making it somewhat easier for Saruyuki to determine whether or not to address the creature appropriately. He was already confused enough as it was.

"Okay, well, you can start out with Yui-san's, then," Saruyuki objects with a vexed huff, unwilling to be left in the dark any more than they all were, "What is this place?"

"Very well. It seems I cannot impel you to trust my judgement here," the humanoid lion sighs calmly, then takes a prolonged look at its surroundings as if it were scoping out the scene for any more predators, seemingly unfazed by the harsh desert climate in spite of all that muscle and body hair. "This realm has no name for which you humans are able to call it. The closest explanation I am able to yield is that this is a dimension which coexists in direct parallel to your own, floating within the electronic subspace created by human computers and other such devices." It pauses for a moment, resting a meaty finger beneath its furry chin, then continues, "In a sense, this is a 'digital world', a realm created as a direct result of technology's evolution and expansion."

Saruyuki could only gawk, flabbergasted by the abundance of complex terminology being spouted by this walking hairball. "Y-You're tellin' us that we're inside the friggin' Matrix or somethin'!?" Upon being given a sincere look of confusion by the creature, the teenager groans aloud, throwing himself back into the sand with a thump. "Great... Now we're gonna have, like, Agents and shit runnin' after us..." Truly, it seemed that Yui was likely to be the voice of actual reason here.

[attr="class","castleonthehill"]Saruyuki could hardly believe just how levelheaded and collected Yui was being about this unfortunate series of events, especially given what just happened not even several minutes ago. Her use of comparative metaphors he had no awareness of wasn't helping him to comprehend the situation, either. Besides, just what the hell was a 'Narnia' supposed to be, anyway, some kind of smelly cheese?

At the very least, he could find some measure of kinship in her blonde counterpart, Anna – who was currently in the middle of fawning over the muscular lion's workout regimen, which merely instigated a mixture of both curiosity and jealousy within the befuddled teenager's mind. Sure, just go ahead and make me feel like chopped liver, why don'tcha!? Saruyuki clenches a handful of sand as he grits his teeth back and forth.

The bipedal felinoid didn't appear to be perturbed by the lack of cohesion among the three human beings, gently ruffling Anna's satin blonde hair with a huge, fuzzy hand. "Yes, it is best if we get you all to safety. The desert is treacherous, and as you have seen, it is rife with predators."

"I'll do you one better—" Saruyuki flings himself onto both of his feet and throws the pile of sand in his clutches, only to have the tepid breeze push the loose grains back in his general direction as though Mother Nature herself had a sense of cruel humor. He spits and flails in tantrum-like fashion, stomping the sandy floor before continuing with a defiant yell, "—Just how the hell are we supposed to get back home!?" His voice echoes into the distance, then fades into utter silence.

Meanwhile, the leonid swordsman sighs, exasperatedly. "I may know of something that can help you to return," he reveals to the incensed human, looking back over at him with nothing less than stern countenance. "But, I am obligated to inform you that the odds of success are slim, at best."

His grave tone of voice would have definitely resonated with the two youngsters, but Saruyuki wasn't about to let some overgrown hairball tell him to consider the odds of success. "Anything's better than nothing!" he shouts with renewed vim and vigor as he goes sprinting off into the dunes—

—only to fall forward abruptly with a sudden yet loud thump.

"Hm," The lion warrior strokes its furry chin inquisitively, "It seems he already found it." He then turns to the girls at his feet and gently points a finger slightly beyond the dazed and confused Saruyuki, whose foot seemed to be hooked onto something small, black, and square-shaped. "Alternatively, there is an oasis village nearby, if you two require food and drink. All can and will be revealed to you, in due time."

As Saruyuki attempted to regain his footing, in both the figurative and literal senses of the term, he chokes on a second mouthful of sand before turning over to inspect the cause behind his loss of balance. A vexed glare glues itself onto what appeared to be a small television set, one that seemed rather antiquated, complete with a panel of knobs and buttons. Nothing else seemed to be attached or connected to the little gray box.

"Is this some kinda joke?" Saruyuki asks to nobody in particular as he crouches before the inert monitor, tapping it gently with a closed fist. Nothing occurs when he does this, which only serves to exacerbate the fury that boiled beneath him like molten magma getting ready to explode from a volcano on the verge of erupting.

"That is a connection point. It is your only window of opportunity to go back to the dimension from which you came," shouts back the beast-man, ever stoic and unflappable in his role to all of this. "If it consoles you, I express my sincerest apologies for your experience here, short as it may have been."

"You call this a friggin' connection!?" Saruyuki shouts angrily, punching the monitor to no effect, only to move quickly towards kicking it with his sand-crusted shoes. "This thing ain't even got basic goddamned cable!!" One more, sharply administered kick is all it takes for the screen to suddenly flicker on.

Then, without any warning whatsoever, a blinding white light pours from the television cube, once innocuous yet wholly out-of-place in this expansive desert, and in a matter of seconds Saruyuki's entire body is pulled into its cramped form as if it were melted plastic being sucked into a high-powered vacuum cleaner, the hapless young teenager screaming bloody murder the entire time.

The monitor powers off, and Saruyuki Takemitsu is never seen again.