Bloody Abyss

A/N: Somewhat short chapter, sorry for the wait. It's been hard getting comp access these last few weeks.

Chapter 5

Excuses...

"If you get eaten by some mushroom zombie don't go crying to me about it!" Ginji snapped as he pressed the button to close the Albiore's door.

The speech probably might have been more powerful had the boy actually slammed the door. But with the Albiore you could only get away with pressing buttons because that's how it was set up. Asch merely kept his scowl in place, arms crossed over his chest, and glared. Once the boy got an idea he didn't let it drop, and after half a day of being nagged to death about being eaten by mushroom zombies Asch had enough of the outre saying. Luckily for them both the door was closed, Ginji couldn't say anything more to him, so the matter –for now at least- was said and done. Satisfied that Ginji wasn't going to do something stupid, like open the door to yell at him some more, Asch turned on his heel and marched across the mold encrusted beach. He mentally shuddered as he walked across the grimy green ground, and tried not to breathe too deeply.

Mushroom Road had a smell reminiscent of rotting vegetable matter. The cloying sick sweet smell that graced the air gathered in the back of his throat and suck like bad medicine, and after a few moments of walking through it he realized his first –and probably most vital battle if he was going to succeed at this impromptu mission- was to keep from being ill. He tried to ignore the familiar –if utterly artifice- scents of fruits and vegetables that were an undercurrent to the rot. By taking small breaths he was able to do so, as well as valiantly not thinking about food. The latter was hard, because it had been a very long time since he'd had a decent meal. Hard bread, meat, and the occasional bite of lettuce didn't qualify as food in his book, at least as good food.

Shaking himself by the mental scruff he forced himself to stop thinking about food, then his stomach growled and he grimaced.

"Double crossing Dre-"

His completion of the ancient ispanian word for "bastard" was cut short by a roar. In less than an eye blink he'd drawn his blade and whirled toward the sound. As he made out the shape that crested… no that caused the gigantic wave of water the crashed into the beach farther up ahead he almost smiled. Shaking his head, he turned to the largest sturdiest fungi he could find, and using sword and knife hacked into the trunk of a massive umbrella capped mushroom. Making due with the wet, slimy, hand holds provided by the multitude of fungi wounds, he scaled his way up the slick stem, and watched. The wave smashed into the beach some distance ahead, he watched as the force of Noelle's landing set globs of mold to breaking off and floating on the stagnate lake like miniature islands. He was grateful than for what Ginji had dubbed his "extreme paranoia". Due to the fact he'd ordered Ginji to back up and put the Albiore three in the relatively safe confines of a beach over shadowed by a giant mushroom cap they wouldn't have seen him or his ship from above.

Granted with the mists and the fact that Ginji's sister was somewhat beached by her impromptu landing the odds of them seeing him even if he had been standing right in front of the Albiore two waving his arms and hollering….

Letting go his hand hold, infinitely grateful that he hadn't placed his Albiore on that beach and gotten a fungus laden shower, Asch hit the slimy ground and checked an instinctive roll to kill his momentum. Wincing a bit in pain he gritted his teeth and headed to the beach that his replica had landed on at a run. He staggered a bit, his ankles giving him hell from absorbing the bulk of his fall but he was not going to spend the next week combing mold out of his hair.

Lips curling at the echo of his old noble vanity, Asch ran, hand on the hilt of his blade. His blade occasionally ripped from it's sheath to scythe a path though the oddly shaped vegetation that got in his way. As he neared the Albiore that wasn't his, he had to ask himself why he was even tailing them. He was running a risk of being discovered, and he'd already sworn up and down anything left sacred in this world he wasn't going to deal with the replica or his hanger-ons anymore. He ran and considered coming to them openly. While the plan had it's merits -the more people looking for the blasted Death Cap the better chances of him making it out before the world's population keeled over and died from miasma poisoning- it meant talking to the replica.

But... perhaps, for a moment he could see Natalia. She still might be traveling abroad, "for the good of the people of Kimlasca Lanvaldear".

One excuse was as good as another, hers and his. And despite the little lies they told themselves they might be compatible for a time.