The Stumble (Shirou)

[Amadeo]

Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust. That was the last coherent thought that Amadeo had before his vision went black. However..he was not expecting to awaken. He heard..shuffling feet? And..water? Impossible..he was beset on all sides by darkness..but, was he truly? It was a struggle..but slowly, painfully..his eyes opened. Above him, stone. Beneath him, cold stone. His sight covered faintly by a thin, yet bitterly cold fog. What hit him immediately after was searing pain all along his stomach. It took all of his concentration to weakly rise to his knees rather than scream. As the pain subsided, he found himself looking around him. He was in..some sort of cavern. Not only that..something felt strange. As if there was a power he was suddenly cut off of. He held out his hand. No, it wasn't that he couldn't use his keyblade..that still flashed into his hand in a burst of moonlight. He lowered his arm, the crescent of the moon that made up the teeth of the key dragging softly against the stone as he struggled up to his feet. He had no clue where he was. All he knew was that it was bitterly cold..and very unnerving. The longer he stood, the clearer he could hear the strange moaning. He had to get out of there. He scanned the room with emerald eyes, hoping to find some kind of exit. There was a massive stone door..that was just open enough to walk through. Without hesitation, he darted through it, still nothing more than a green and white blur. As he slowed to a stop, Amadeo felt his vision grow dark. Not because of any pain..simply because it was dark. He stood for a moment, allowing his eyes to adjust. He needed to figure out where he was..

[Professor Velox]

"Shirou, there's some dead guy running around the Underworld," Cael-0 said as he appeared in front of the Underlord as a small, golden projection of himself. Shirou stood in front of his desk, holding a piece of paper from a journal. He had recently arrived from Twilight Town after a fruitless attempt at stopping, or even finding, the guy in the mask who had killed Shirou a while ago. He sighed when Cael-0 told him the news.

"If that's the case, he probably is one of the winners of that stupid lottery I got rid of," he said as he walked around his desk and took a seat. He opened a drawer and slid the journal page in it. "I'm sure he'll find his way here soon enough. When he does, we can discuss what has happened or whatever." He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes.

[Amadeo]

When his eyes finally adjusted to the lack of light in his current location, Amadeo all but felt his blood run cold. A dark sea..dark area..could it be..? No. He would have been mobbed by heartless already if that were the case. He allowed his keyblade to vanish in a flash of light as he wracked his brain for answers. The realm of darkness was one such possibility, but one that had already been ruled out. That left one thing that, even now, Amadeo doubted the existence of.

The Underworld. In his travels as the leader of Twilight Town, he had heard rumors of the realm of the dead. He had also heard tales of those who had escaped the realm. Supposedly, if one managed to escape the underworld, they were granted a form of immortality. The stories were sketchy at best as to how they were immortal, but it intrigued him. He looked around. He had come out of a blue gate, but there was also a blue gate open. That was the only other way to go, aside from upwards into the light, which...seemed like an impossible ascension at the moment.

So, that left only one way forward. He began his trek down the path, looking through the green gate to see a large circular area, much like the one he had woken up in. He carefully walked forward, testing the solidity of the ground. He would follow the path that was carved into the stone. He was curious where it led.

[Professor Velox]

Shirou did things. He also, for some reason, remembered that there were no gates in the Underworld.

[Serenae]

Serenae's mind was completely blank for several moments. "Ohhh..." A quiet groan escaped her lips. She felt herself return to a physical environment very smoothly but also very suddenly. The bliss she had been overwhelmed by mere moments before was gone. Her senses detected nothing nearby that was a potential threat, so she figured feigning death would be impractical. She opened her vibrant green eyes to reveal a dark cave like environment lit eerily in a green hue. Her memories flooded back into her head, though they were foggy at best. She remembered... Shirou and Tsumiko... Twilight Town... She was running and fell faint very rapidly... Her memories then on were as good as soup. She had a small remnant of pain in her chest and abdomen as she was stabbed and then peace as her throat was cut through. She didn't really remember the pain exactly, but she could roughly feel what it felt like.

She sat up slowly, feeling quite odd as she did so. She had a very rough idea of where she was; the Underworld. The only reasoning for her guess was due to her small amount of familiarity of it from having lived in close proximity to it for so long. As to why? Well she felt that was pretty obvious. She was dead. She could feel it deep inside her. She was definitely weaker at the moment than she had been, though that may be due to the effects the Underworld was having on her. She leaned herself forward and quickly noticed that she was stark naked. Upon looking down at herself for a moment, she also realized why she felt so odd in her movements. She wasn't in her own body.

Mentally she was panicking a bit, though she kept a calm demeanor. After all, she COULD adjust her looks in any way she wanted...

[Amadeo]

As he followed the path, Amadeo eventually realized that he had been stark naked this entire time. He hadn't really noticed the chill, considering that he had been through much colder treatment before. But..when he realized it, he immediately felt his modesty return. He looked around for a moment, eventually finding a single scrap of cloth. It wasn't much..but with a little bit of focus, a bit of concentration..he had at least a pair of underwear. Though it drained him quite a bit, since he didn't really practice his Transmutation abilities, the cloth covering that he had made was very rough, and rather simple, while also placing weight on him. He felt the magic that went into making this weigh on him, while he also felt himself tire. He slipped the clothing on, finally covering himself up, at least somewhat. He shivered a bit, more reflex than anything as he continued down the path.

He couldn't help but wonder what kind of person or being would be capable of controlling the land of the dead. He only figured out where he was upon exiting the large tunnel he had been in, opening up to a massive area with several large stone platforms connected by thick bridges of stone, ending at a pair of large white double doors, which were shut tight. He continued onward, completely oblivious even now to the other soul that had been present in the room with him. He had matters of curiosity to attend to, and potentially a deal to make with the lord or lady of the dead...he did not plan to spend very much time in the underworld at all. He only was dead because he got careless. He did not plan to make that mistake a second time, not at all.

[Serenae]

Serenae shook herself out of her panic. Her almost immediate thought was to create a portal out. She tried to do so but felt as if her connection to the outside world had been blocked off. Portalling out wouldn't be an option. Serenae was going to be forced to find her way out on her own. Doing so would prove difficult to her in a body she wasn't used to, so that would have to be taken care of first and foremost.

She briefly recalled her former body shape and promptly changed her proportions. She felt herself shift oddly as her body adjusted. The body she had been given must have been rather generic overall; her old one was rather petite by comparison. Serenae felt herself gain a very small amount of height and lose some weight around her stomach and legs; her hips contracted slightly, leaving her with a much more slender figure. Her hair grew several inches longer and changed from a lighter brown to a deep brown color. Her bangs fell over her eyes. Within the moment she felt the weight of clothing begin cover her newfound and resized body; instead of her standard garb however, she chose to conceal herself in a large hooded cloak and dark colored clothing. Upon metamorphosing herself in such a way however, despite her extensive experience in doing so, she immediately felt mentally taxed by her use of magic. The light headed feeling quickly passed but it left Serenae with the beginnings of a migraine from the exertion. It was very unnerving, to say the least.

Serenae pulled the hood of the cloak up, though she left her long hair hanging out the front. She started forwards, not sure what to expect. Exiting through an opening in the wall left her in a long winding tunnel half filled with something akin to dust, though it was closer to a dense fog. She progressed on-wards at an urgent pace that was not quite to the extent of a jog but faster than a casual walk. She wasn't sure what she'd run into or where exactly she'd end up going.

[Amadeo]

After minutes that seemed like hours, Amadeo finally made his way to the end of the large bottomless chasm, and the double doors that were at the end of it. Stone. A very heavy looking kind of stone too. He was strong, but he didn't know if he could punch through it. If this place strained him in terms of using magic to do things that were very simple..what effect would it have had on his physical form? For that matter, his physical form seemed very different. He was slightly more muscular, less lithe. His hair, while still green, felt shorter somehow. He didn't know what his face looked like, nor did he really want to know. All that he knew was that his body was not his own. That was a problem that would be fixed later. For now, his problem was escaping the underworld, and eventually finding his revenge on the people who started the destruction of his home. However, he simply couldn't just stand here like an idiot. So, with a bit of hesitation, Amadeo rapped on the stone of the doors, hearing the noise echo out through the canyon he was standing in.

[Serenae]

The trip up the tunnel was relatively uneventful, save for a large rock falling from above. Serenae reacted quickly enough to avoid harm, though the shattering of stone against stone echoed loudly. Serenae saw little difference in the environment that would indicate to her that she was making any progress, other than that the ground she was traversing sloped upwards.

Given her pace, Serenae reached the end of the tunnel fairly quickly. Upon exiting the mouth of the tunnel, Serenae arrived in a large open cavern with rounded platforms connected by rough bridges of natural stone. The light levels here were a fair amount higher than in the tunnel, as the platforms and bridges were suspended over a glowing green river.

Serenae let her eyes adjust and examined the area briefly. Before long however, an echo sounded throughout the cave. She looked towards the source, which was at the end of the series of raised platforms. She proceeded forwards, heading towards the first stone bridge.

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