Previously:

"How do you know so much about this place already?"

"Well, I've already been here for two days, and it's the kind of place where you either learn as you go, or you don't and you die. I spent most of yesterday stuck hanging up in that tree after that frog-in-waiting attacked me. Fortunately I had an open bottle of Tabasco in my hand when it swallowed me, because it had a bad reaction to the spice and spit me out right away." She had been so hungry that she had resorted to chugging hot sauce in an attempt to fill her empty stomach. "Unfortunately I landed very awkwardly in that tree, and the frog's saliva left me temporarily paralyzed for a long time…" Hope explained, pausing to massage the crick in her neck. That little near death experience had really freaked her out, because it felt way too scary, way too gross, and way too real for a dream, which could only mean one thing: all of this weird shit was really happening. Hope shrugged it off. She couldn't freak out about all this craziness now. She'd worry about it later. First she needed to get out of this place and find her sister. Hope took a deep breath, stood up, and brushed herself off. "Well, anyway, I'm just glad to see other people. It's a little late, but I'm Hope Dupont. Nice to meet you." She said, holding her hand out for a shake.

Chapter 3: Leap of Faith

"…" For a moment the others just stared at Hope and her outstretched hand as if they weren't sure what to do with it. They were waiting to see Kouen's reaction to be being greeted so casually.

"General Ren Kouen of the Kou Empire's Western Subjugation Army." Kouen introduced himself calmly, accepting her hand. Though they could have taken care of that frog just fine on their own, the fact still remained that she had risked her life twice to help them, and if not for her quick thinking one of his men would have most certainly been lost.

Hope smiled, relieved that he had accepted.

"I see, so I was right in thinking you were the one in charge. Sorry for grabbing you so suddenly back there, but we were pressed for time, and I figured the others would follow if I grabbed their leader..." She said with an apologetic smile, rubbing the back of her neck a bit sheepishly.

"Hey, is that all the respect you can muster, girl? That's no way to talk to a prince!" Kin scolded her.

"Huh?" Hope said, blinking. "Prince?"

"You… Don't try to tell me you've never heard of Ren Kouen, the first prince of the Kou Empire…" said Kokuton as they all stared at her with some rather offended expressions on their faces.

"Uh, don't take this the wrong way, but, um… no." Hope answered a little nervously. "I've never even heard of the Kou Empire. Is it supposed to be famous or something?"

"Damn it!!" Kin cursed. "This girls really know how to piss people off!"

"There's no way you haven't heard of the great Kou Empire! Our Empire's name is known around the world!" said En Shou.

"I say we finish her off right here, right now!" said Seishuu.

"Stand down!" Kouen ordered his men sternly. "Don't be so hasty. There are still many questions that need to be answered, and I believe she holds the key. Where did you come from and why are you here, Hope Dupont? Do you know what disturbed the rukh?" he asked the odd girl. The excited (and a little obsessive) look in his eyes piercing red eyes was beginning to make Hope feel a little uncomfortable.

"Uh, well, your majesty… it's kind of complicated…" she began a bit lamely, not sure where to start or how much she should tell them. She didn't want them to think she was crazy. "For now let's just say I'm from somewhere really far away. I'll be happy to answer all of your questions in greater detail once we're out of here, but for now I'd like to focus on surviving whatever this place is alive and in one piece." What she had said wasn't completely unreasonable, but Kouen wanted answers. And he wanted them now. "Hey!?" she cried indignantly when he grabbed her tightly by the arm and pulled her so close that their noses almost touched as he leaned down.

"Tell me everything you know right now!" He commanded her. There was a really scary expression on his face now as he glared down at her. Hope gulped nervously. This guy was way too intense!

"I-I don't care if you're a prince or what country you rule—I'm an American citizen, and I will not be intimidated!!" she retorted, doing her best to put on a brave face. After everything she'd seen and been through already a talking dragon, a guy with snakes for hair, a pig-like giant, and a tyrannical prince who looked like he could be a final boss in Nobunaga's Ambition were nothing! "If you want to talk then let's talk, but I don't appreciate being threatened or manhandled! If you don't let me go, I won't tell you anything."

"Wow, this girl has some balls!" said Kin.

"More like a death wish!" said Seishuu. But to their surprise, Kouen did release her.

"Very well." He said as he straightened back up. "Start talking."

"Fine. But I doubt you'll believe me…" Hope grumbled with a pout, rubbing her sore arm. "My sister and I were flying together on a plane—it's a kind of flying machine—when we were suddenly beamed up in this mysterious tunnel of light, and the next thing we knew we were being transported from our world to this one. Unfortunately we got separated and pulled apart by the wind shear as we were falling through the atmosphere, so I have no idea where she is. I don't know how I survived the fall because I lost consciousness on the way down, but I'm betting all my hopes that if I did, then so did she. So all I want to do is get out of whatever this place is and find her. I know, it sounds totally insane, and you probably think I'm nuts now; but that's what happened. I don't know how or why it happened, but it did."

"Don't tell such an obvious lie!" said Seishuu.

"It's true, I swear! Look, if I was gonna risk lying to ya'll, don't you think I would've tried fooling you with something that was a hell of a lot more believable?" Hope pointed out shortly, crossing her arms.

"What do you call this?" Kouen asked bluntly, pointing at the zipper on her bag.

"It's a zipper. We call it that because of the sound it makes, see." Hope answered calmly, zipping and unzipping the bag for him to demonstrate.

"What material is it made with?"

"Mainly plastic."

"And your shoes?"

"The fake jewels are plastic, the straps are gold pleather which is a type of artificial leather made from yet another type of plastic, and the soles are artificial rubber. The buckle is stainless steel."

"Is 'plastic' an abundant material in your world?"

"Yes, but only because we make lots of it. Plastic is a man-made material. And if you think that's interesting, I have plenty of other goodies in this bag that I'd be more than happy to show you in exchange for more information about this world." Hope replied seriously. "I don't want to continue stumbling around blindly. Ignorance won't help me find my sister."

"Hmph. I see." Said Kouen. "Unfortunately, it seems we shall have to continue this conversation later."

"Yes, it appears we have some uninvited guests…" Hope agreed, narrowing her eyes slightly, as the hisses of the R.O.U.S.s that had begun to surround them increased in volume. She carefully reached into her bag and withdrew a pen. "How do you want to handle this? Judging by the number of eyes, there are hundreds of them…"

"Young master, please leave this to us." Said Kin with a smirk. "There is no need for you to dirty your hands dealing with these rats." With that he and Seishuu, Kokuton, and Shou prepared to activate their household vessels.

"Come, Household Born From Phenex, I Consecrate My Body To You, Become One With Me!!"

"Come, Household Born From Astaroth, I Consecrate My Body To You, Become One With Me!!"

"Come, Household Born From Agares, I Consecrate My Body To You, Become One With Me!!"

To their great shock nothing happened, and they all remained as they were. Shou tried to belt out a roar of fire, but all that came out was a small puff of smoke. The foot soldier coughed awkwardly in the stunned silence that followed.

"Uh… was that supposed to do something?" Hope asked, sweat-dropping.

"Sh-Shut up!!" snapped Seishuu. It was embarrassing enough already without her pointing out their failure.

Seeing their enemy looking so confused, the R.O.U.S.s assumed they had caught them off-guard and attacked. That turned out to be a big mistake.
Even without their Djinn powers Kin still had his spear, Shou still had his tough dragon hide and claws, Kokuton had his horns and claws, and Seishuu… Well, they'd all had military training, and Seishuu was a decent kicker. But the real star of the show was Kouen. With his sword the prince and general cut down giant rat after giant rat without so much as breaking a sweat or even the slightest hint of change in his expression. Hope was impressed, but there was no time to stare with R.O.U.S.s swarming them on all sides. With pen in hand she executed several well placed puño strikes using the pen to stab any rats that came near her in the eyes and other soft spots and nerve points. With her legs she delivered powerful kicks to their noses, stomped on their clawed paws, and kneed them in the gut. She felt kind of bad since she had once owned a hamster, but these things were no where near as cute as George, and they weren't holding back in their attacks, so neither would she. Everyone fought their best to defend themselves against the attacking rodents. Even the foot soldier was doing his part. But it seemed like for every rat they took down, ten more would appear.

"!!" Hope gasped in alarm when another rat leaped at her while her hands were still full with the first.

SLASH!

Before it lay a scratch on her Kouen cleaved the rodent in half.

"Wow, thanks a bunch!" Hope told him sincerely, grateful for the save.

"Damn, there's no end to these things!!" Kin cursed in frustration. To think they would have this much trouble against a bunch of over-sized rodents… An hour ago he would have thought the idea utterly laughable.

"They have a pack mentality. We need to take out their leader!" said Hope.

"And which one would that be?" asked Kokuton.

"The big one!" answered Hope.

"They're all big!!" cried the foot soldier.

"Trust me, you'll know it when you see it!"

And they did. With the rest of the R.O.U.S.s dropping like flies, it didn't take long for their leader to appear. He was huge—almost twice the size of En Shou, the tallest of them all. Kouen tightened his grip on his sword as he and his men prepared to face the monstrous rodent, but there proved to be no need. Hope suddenly rushed forward with her can of hairspray and a lighter, and sprayed the huge beast with a jet of flames. The creature howled in pain and immediately turned tail and ran away in fear. The remaining R.O.U.S.s retreated along with their leader with their tails between their legs.

"Wh… Why didn't you do that in first place!?" demanded Seishuu incredulously. "If you had a weapon like that—"

"Because there wasn't much left in the can!" Hope answered a bit defensively. "I had to make sure it would still work for the one that mattered. For some reason fire really terrifies the big ones. And for the record, this isn't a weapon, it's beauty product." She added, giving her hair a faint touch-up spray for emphasis, though it was more air than spray at this point. "It just happens to be flammable."

"Whatever, let's just get out of here before they come back." Suggested Kin. "We still have to find the treasure room."

"Treasure room?" Hope asked.

"In order to leave this dungeon we have to find the Djinn. The Djinn is always located in the treasure room." Kouen answered calmly as he started walking, keeping his sword out.

'Djinn? As in a genie?' Hope wondered. "So this place is called a dungeon?" she asked aloud. "Ya'll do this kind of thing often?"

"Well, I wouldn't say 'often', but we do have prior experience." Answered Shou. "And what about you? For someone who claims not to know what this place is, you seem rather well prepared. Although your methods might seem crude at first glance, your foot work was solid, and your movement was not that of an amateur."

"Thanks, it took a lot of training to reach that point. I learned Eskrima for self-defense, but until now I've never really had to use it."

"I've never heard of that style of martial arts before. What was that weapon you used?" asked Kokuton.

"Oh, that was just a pen; a normal writing utensil. Turning everyday items into impromptu weapons is a hallmark of Eskrima. That's why I picked it. In a society where most law abiding citizens can't carry swords or other weapons without a permit, while criminals seem to have no problem getting their hands on them, it seemed the most practical. I mean, a girl's got to be able to defend herself, right?" Hope explained with a shrug. If not for that she probably wouldn't have survived this long.

They continued on through the swamp without further incident thanks to Hope's help with identifying and avoiding other traps and dangers that she had encountered before, and from Kouen and his men she learned that time appeared to move faster inside this dungeon than it did outside, because they had only entered a few hours after her, yet from her point of view a couple of days had already passed. As they walked the soft mud of the swamp eventually gave way to hard rock, and they found themselves facing the dungeon's next challenge. Before them was the mouth of a cave that opened up to a great bottomless pit. The carving of a lion's head jutted out from the center of the edge of the pit. Mounted on one of the walls of the cave was a stone tablet that had been carved with symbols that reminded Hope of cuneiform.

"That is the language of Torran." Kouen said for her benefit. "It appears to be instructions. 'Only by leaping from the lion's head will the challenger prove his worth.'"

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Seishuu.

Hope was pretty sure she had heard something like that somewhere before. She looked back at the lion's head and the bottomless pit. And then it clicked. This was straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.

"It's a leap of faith." She said, stepping up on the lion's head to take the plunge.

"Hold on! There's no need to be…" the foot soldier started to say, concerned for her safety, but his words fell on deaf ears as Hope leaped forward into the abyss. Her eyes widened in surprise and panic when she continued to fall instead of landing on an 'invisible' bridge like she had thought she would.

"WHAAAAAA—" she cried out as she plunged into darkness. The others quickly hurried over, trying to see what had become of her. For a moment there was only silence, and then there came up a strong hurricane-force gust of wind from the deeps.

"—AAAAAH!!!" Hope finished screaming as she shot up into the air and landed on a stone bridge that had blended into the cavern's ceiling, giving the illusion that it was much lower than they had been led to believe. 'O-Oh... so it was up here...' she thought shakily. At the far end of the camouflaged bridge she could see a hole in the wall that undoubtedly led to a tunnel to the next room. "W-Well… I think I found the exit…" Hope announced to the others while she tried to regain some of her composure, a little chagrined. She hoped none of them had seen up her skirt.

"That girl's insane." Said Seishuu, sweat-dropping.

"Yes, but at least we know what we have to do to cross now." Said Kin.

"…" Kouen stared up at Hope as she sat on the bridge above taking deep breaths to calm herself down. The hint of a smirk formed on his lips. She might be insane, but she was his kind of crazy and he liked her spirit. He stepped up on the lion's head and took the plunge.