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Going to assume that means the pipe isn't coming next time.

[ After the last few minutes of walking, and the things they both talked around, poking fun at him feels like someone opened a window and let in some fresh air. ]

We can go up to the roof after. [ Her hands move fast, flipping back a few pages from her note-taking to give him a look at the map she's already finished of the forest that's up there. Areas marked 'asshole birds' included. ] It's not normal, but, it's not terrible by this place's standards.

You want me to give up my emotional support pipe? Just like that?

（ look, most of his friends are trash talkers. he knows the type, and how to lean into it. growing up ginger in japan made him more-or-less immune to being teased by the time he was ten, but he also knows better than to take it any amount of personally, and the look he gives her — mock-stern, but with a faint lift of his eyebrows that belies amusement — probably says as much. ）

I'll take asshole birds over this bullshit any day, though. （ famous last words... ）

I knew you were full of shit. [ She counters abruptly. ] Couldn't stick with the normal act for three minutes.

[ Then she's laughing without thinking about it, rolling her eyes at him as she flips back to the right page in her book. ]

With you around they probably won't chase me up a tree. [ It's how she found the time to finish the map in a day, don't ask. ]

I'm the normalest guy you'll ever meet.

（ haha, haha... ha.

anyway, moving right along — there's an ominous puddle of water ahead of them blocking off most of the corridor, too broad to jump. he just sort of gives her a sideways look, mostly to see what she'll do. does he... offer to carry her??? what is the correct move here.

awkward, thy name is kurosaki. ）

You really got chased up a tree?

Could be. [ She doesn't know any guys that are normal, and hasn't yet assessed the full scope of his particular brand of crazy. ] A flock of them. They ran at me, and they sounded like guns going off.

[ Stopping when he does, Nami frowns at the puddle, stashing her notebook back into the back strapped across her front while she sizes up the situation. Nami looks from him to the pipes, adjusting her bag before reaching for one of the long heavier looking pipes testing its solidity before she pulls herself up, keeping her feet light on another pipe running beneath them and climbing across. ]

Come on. It'll hold you too.

（ well.

okay then.

he just sort of watches her do that effortlessly, and then immediately snaps his attention elsewhere because he was looking just a little too intently, a little too long at the flex of her back muscles and then that's enough of that! thank you! and he is suddenly very invested in the floor, shoulders hunched up around his ears. ）

Uh.

（ yes, so eloquent. he is the king of it, thank u. ）

Yeah, all right.

（ but he waits until she hops down before he tries it. he could just use shunpō, but even he's self-aware enough to realize that would look too much like showing off, so. climbing it is. when he's not reeling awkwardly from the teen boy realization that Girls Exist And He Likes Them Actually he's actually pretty graceful, managing the walk across the pipes without difficulty. ）

Like... they were just loud? Or actual guns?

（ metaphor translation is sometimes a little janky, that he's noticed, so... ）

Did you think I was going to jump over it or something?

[ His bewilderment, or whatever it is, doesn't go unnoticed, but it's also not something Nami recognizes either - probably best for both of them. Some realizations are better kept for later when she'll inevitably be eyeing her watch, wondering if she should say something and firmly telling herself not to.

While he climbs she catches up on her notes, sparing a wary glance at the puddle they've bypassed, like she doesn't quite trust it not to move, or sprout a hand, or something on par with what these tunnels have tossed at them so far. ]

Actual guns. Here, look. [ Nami does not know how to work her watch at all, but through a hit-and-miss system of smacking and swiping, can get herself where she needs to be on the thing. Like now, when she pulls up the photos she's stored on it, showing him one of the birds that chased her. Shoebill storks are harmless and flighted, which makes her choice of a tree even more stupid, but she's never seen one before, and after hearing their highly disconcerting noise, it felt like a smart choice. ]

I had no idea what you were going to do.

（ jump? wade? fly?? stranger things have happened. at least he's smart enough to keep the, i would have carried you comments to himself. look,,,

he hops down off the pipe, and comes to investigate the images on her watch. he recognizes the birds, native to africa, but he has no idea what the hell they sound like. ）

They kinda look like dinosaurs... were you near their nest or something?

I'm not sure. I wasn't going to hang around and see.

[ Nami makes a face, smacking her watch until the picture disappears and the screen goes dark again. ]

There's a lot of birds I've never seen before up there. [ Pausing, she purses her lips together again, looking from him back down the corridor. ] Sometimes the dimensions of this place don't add up. It's... [ Weird. The word of the day, the theme of their entire acquaintanceship thus far. ]

Yeah, I've felt the same.

（ it feels a little bit like hueco mundo, with those distant fixed points that never got any nearer no matter how far they went, how much they walked. an impossible liminal space. ）

What do your maps say? I mean... so far, anyway.

（ a pause. then, in a smaller voice: ）

Do you need help with the Watch, or...?

What's wrong with my watch? [ Glancing down at it then over at him, she squints skeptically. ] It works fine.

[ Screens aren't exactly a thing, never mind ones that respond to touch. She's doing her best.

Getting back to the more pressing issue, she turns back toward the tunnel ahead of them. ] They don't add up, exactly. If I take this place floor by floor, most of it makes sense - the forest up on the roof did, but when you put it all together it... [ Can't fit like it does, which she feels out of her mind for even saying. That's not how space works! ]

No, it's just... you don't have to hit it. Here.

（ he steps in a bit closer and holds his own hand up to demonstrate the feature she was trying to access, in... markedly fewer smacks. look, he's no luddite — and his dad's clueless about all things tech, so he's been the impromptu kurosaki tech support since he was a kid. programs a mean VCR. #86baby. ）

And that makes sense. There's some weird supernatural shit going on here, it wouldn't surprise me if this is a unique plane of existence. Those places don't always play by the rules.

[ Maybe smacking the watch is how she's venting her frustration at being stuck here. Watching Ichigo get to the same place on his watch so easily makes her scowl just a touch - she's not used to not being the smart one of the group, after all, but after giving her own watch a few experimental taps and swipes, she can't deny it's a lot easier doing it his way. ]

Thanks. [ She means it, she's just huffy. There's no time for indignance, however, when he's distracting her with an idea that's beyond anything she's considered - or even thought was possible, leaving her frowning for a different reason. ]

Are those common? [ The term 'unique planes of existence' implies they might not be, but that Ichigo seems to know something about them gets her worrying all over again. ] Does this seem like it's one to you?

（ the flashlight flickers, and he smacks his palm against it, creating a wavering halo of light bouncing off the walls in front of them as they continue on. ）

I'm not sure about common. There's three in my world. At least that I know about. （ people have kept things from him before. he's never really taken it personally. ） But this... it's an unusual space, that's for sure.

（ stygia was one thing, but at least it didn't bend the laws of physics. it was just massive, and desolate, and he spent more than one day beneath that bleak night missing home. ）

[ Frowning as the light flickers, Nami's eyes follow the flashlight's beam as his smack sends it bouncing, her gaze hardening into a warning look. Whatever's powering that light better knock it off. ]

Unusual is putting it nicely. I've been up to one of the queen's suites and it's almost as big as the whole resort. It shouldn't be able to fit, and considering there's more than one suite like that... [ Nami doesn't like how little sense it makes. If she let herself dwell, the improbability might turn into one of the most unsettling parts of this experience. ]

Were there ways in and out of them in your world?

（ one of the queen's suites... ichigo gives her a sideways look, but doesn't ask the question that's abruptly burning a hole in him. instead, he swallows it down. maybe it was business, or maybe she was mapping that area too — he doesn't have to jump to the worst possible conclusion. she wouldn't have said it so casually if that was the case, but his gaze still cuts away from her, brow furrowed with concern. ）

There were.

（ he's already decided to trust her with information about the shinigami. it's not like the rest is really all that much more. ）

But I couldn't open them on my own. I needed... （ a hell butterfly. the dangai. a guide. something. ） other ways.

[ If she notices the very brief, very slight shift in his demeanor, Nami says nothing about it, inwardly filing it away to puzzle over later, joining a few other choice points in this excursion in a tidy mental pile of things Nami isn't going to think about right now, thanks. ]

Could you tell you were in one while you were in it?

[ If he keeps answering, she'll keep asking, the hopeful part of her still believing there's a way out of this situation that's not barreling through it for the sake of winning the grand prize, and -because she's interested, some part of her privately invested in piecing together this picture of Ichigo her time with him has her forming. The flashlight flickers again, dimming briefly before brightening back up, distracting Nami and making her glare again. ]

Those things are supposed to last a long time, aren't they? [ Guess who saw a staff member use the flashlight, figured out what it did, and stole it without knowing what it was? ]

Not really. It just feels...

（ he gestures around them vaguely. like this. it's not like there's some clarion bell in the air, bright and sure, warning you that you've crossed over into another realm. it'd be hard to notice if you weren't paying attention to the little signs. rooms that don't match the space is just one little sign, but the shifting landscape of las noches was just one clue.

at her comment about the flashlight, he just sort of gives her another glance. ）

They don't have these things in your world, huh?

[ She wanted to know and yet at the same time, Nami's a little sorry she asked. Sighing wearily, Nami looks around the tunnel and shakes her head. ]

So right now, the best theory going is that something, or someone, made a unique plane of existence and stuck a horny casino in it? [ It's rhetorical, really, she just needed to say it all out loud so the absurdity can sink in, adding– ] And it's haunted.

[ Though hopefully whatever ghosts are still lingering are done making a fool out of her. ]

Portable lights? Not like this one, no. There are no screens like the watches, either, or the bigger ones that show those moving pictures. [ But she can guess from the way he's already walked her through using her watch, Ichigo's world has them all. ]

（ 'horny casino' is just crass enough it makes him blush, that Ginger Curse biting him directly in the ass with how abrupt and quick the heat crawls across his face. hello, he is a teenage boy whose libido has been put on hold by Trauma and what is this. ）

Uh...

（ just. going to... yep, skip past that comment actually. moving right along: ）

It's okay if you don't know. I can show you. This place is kinda ahead of me too, but at least we had cellphones and video games and all that, so...

[ Again, Ichigo seems to momentarily falter and again Nami chooses not to call him on it. It's too dark to tell he's blushing, but after his extremely weird choice of pacing when it came to talking about this place over messages Nami can put it together that he's trying not to deal with that. She might have done the same for longer if it was just her here, but there are other people to look out for. ]

Someone told me what a cellphone is. Bigger than the watch but kind of similar right? [ It's too dark to catch him blushing, therefore, it's too dark to catch her smiling - or so Nami would like to hope. ]

I could tell you what we use to make calls in my world, but I bet you'd make a face.

[ It's what's happened every time she's mentioned the transponder snails so far, this is in no way hedging into playful, or worse, flirting. ]

（ well, at least she doesn't make a big deal out of his constant avoidance. that way lies only petulance and probably a little flailing. you know, he's grown up from when yoruichi was — when she was, like that around him, but he's still not sure he's ever going to recover from seeing rukia's ass, actually. ）

Uh. That's freaky, the way you said that... do I even want to know?

It's called a transponder snail. It's a snail that can telepathically project a person's voice to another snail.

[ Still smirking she watches him out of the corner of her eye, it's amusing how something so common to her lands as bizarre to other people more often than not. ]

What's a video game?

（ that comment disarms him instantly. he'd been anticipating... hell if he knows, 'elephant intestines and string' or something. at that explanation, though, she just gets an understanding nod. telepathic creatures, why not. use what you have. ）

Oh, like a Hell Butterfly?

（ ... yeah, they're a whole thing. ）

The snail thing's weird, but... I guess it could be worse.

（ god you just not ask him what video games are. how does he even start... ）

It's... like, imagine you're reading a book, and visualizing things in your mind as you go. A video game is kinda like, 'what if you had control over what you're visualizing'. You 'play' them. They're pretty fun, but I haven't done much in years.

Yeah, exactly. [ She starts on the heels of his question. ] Like a Hell Butterfly. [ Nami shoots a look in his direction faintly amused, and clearly bewildered. ] What's a Hell Butterfly? Don't say a butterfly from hell.

[ No less bizarre than Hell Butterflies, his explanation of video games keeps Nami confused, but at least this concept holds some intrigue. She likes reading quite a bit, piloting the story of a book sounds like a strange concept, but, potentially a fun one. ]

Do they have video games here? Will you show me one?

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