Groceries - Part Two

(Part one: [link])

Antionette was a bit stunned, seeing as she had just left the White Raven base an hour or so ago. The first thought crossing her silently panicking mind was "Is this dude seriously so clumsy he'd fall through the road?" And the second was the fact she was the one who told him to go out in the first place, though over the period of time they had been acquainted, she had firsthandedly witnessed his ability to get into trouble. Many more times than once.
After that came to more serious thoughts and deductions.
'Zombie boy lived down here.
Sei Hanano was cut up.
This boy was obviously a fighter. As a plus, he uses a knife.
From the way he was tensed up, he must know my identity now. My group was, no, is, rather well know, so it wouldn't be too surprising if even zombies know about me.'
After thinking it through, her mood changed from shocked to cold in an instant. She narrowed her eyes and assessed the situation one more time.
'First priority should be getting Sei back to his base... Then Lyrebird next... Hopefully he hasn't awakened yet... Not even mentioning there's a possibly homocidal guy as my traveling companion. And even a drunk hippie beefcake gang at the marketplace... Somehow I must be one of those people who constantly attracts weirdos... This just isn't my day, is it?'
Antionette gave one of her signature 'che.'s of extreme annoyance and set herself back to the matter at hand.
She walked over towards Sei, kicked a human skull out of her way in a manner of some sadistic demon overlord who just got dumped by his girlfriend and was in a period of silent lament before he would make his ultimate decision of beheading a couple million of him subjects, then bent down to a half kneel, giving her companion's limp body a quick glance.
"Zombie boy, help me carry him. And no trying anything funny. I've had enough problems for today," she said, in a tone denoting the fact that she was indeed in a silent rage and just about ready to behead a couple million faceless extras for her own satisfaction.

Oh, dammit.
Perfect.
He hissed in annoyance. This was getting far too tedious.
He briefly considered killing both of them. It shouldn't be too hard, even above ground.
Then his survival sense kicked his insanity away temporarily, and he sighed silently. He was going to regret this immensely.
Twirling his flute, he played out a sharp, agitated flurry of notes that formed the words, "No. Take the tunnels; they'll be far more efficient. Oh, and for the record, he broke a hole in my roof and entered without permission. He's Sei isn't he? And you're Marionette, right? Leaders of the White Ravens and Black Doves respectively, no?"
As he crawled into the hole, he popped his head up, then called, "Oh, and do try not to get yourself killed, please." before grabbing the unconscious boy and carrying him down.
This was going to be a loooooong day.
Or night.
Whichever it was.

Antionette nodded, and her annoyance lessened somewhat. "He's done that to me too. Broke a hole in the roof and fell through, I mean; it's how we met. But even if he's group leader, he's completely useless as a fighter." She wasn't going to think up any excuses there. "And name is Antionette. Marionette is a type of puppet." Antionette followed him closely, suddenly praying to whatever god was existent that there weren't going to be any rats. "I won't die, just don't try to kill me."
'Or throw rats at me.'

Hone let out a sharp, bitter laugh. "Really, now? From what I've heard, Sei Hanano stands just under two metres and breaks down trees with his bare hands."
He started to play a eerie, haunting song that echoed all throughout his domain, as he connected with the catacombs again, feeling every skeleton, every particle of dust become a part of him once more. Noticing a pack of the rather large rats that lived down below, he layered a few words into his music and asked Antionette, "You don't have any problem with rats or spiders, do you? If you do, it would complicate things, as they tend to grow quite large down here."
He took a good look at the girl and saw that the image was still blurred. For some reason, she was tensed to the point of quivering.
Hone sighed as he added up the sweaty palms, tensed muscles, and nervous shifting. "You don't like rats, do you?" He asked gently.
(This, of course is Hone Kumo gently, so it's more of a smile that says, 'I know something you don't,' while seemingly probing a person for weakness.)
There was no way to get to the Black Doves base without going past them. While they would normally run from him, he was traveling with two strangers, one of which was injured. Their bloodthirsty instincts would overcome their fear of him, and he would have to take care of them. Then, of course, there was the matter that they ranged in size from that of a small hamster to that of a car. Then, there were the spiders, snakes, lizards, bats, and other things you'd never dream up in your worst nightmares. But only the rats were in the way.
Of course, it was just then that he noticed his scarf had loosened, and she was staring at his painfully throbbing neck.
Or, more particularly, at the mass of mangled flesh and scar tissue that covered it.
Or was that the skeleton who stood behind him, flesh not quite decomposed on his mouth that she gazed upon in horror.
Perhaps the strange marks on his skull that looked suspiciously like fang marks.
He hoped it was not the first.
'How could I forget?' He thought.
'We who walk the land of the weeping angel know no god.'

"Heh." This was more of a 'I'm-looking-around-for-rats-cause-they're-friggin-creepy-and-obviously-a-lot-are-down-here' type of nervous dry laugh, "Rats and I... let's say we have quite a long history together, and not a very good one." Antionette paused. Then started up again with a sort of regained malicious intent from her brief recollections of past events. "... You're asking me this because there are a lot of rats down here, right?"
This was more of a statement than a question.
Antionette could picture a thousand rats just behind, say, that wall over there. Never mind anything else; those creepy rats and their beady little eyes and filthy, ragged pelts, sharpened teeth from gnawing bones of devil knows what- who- might have died- been killed- down here. Mice were okay. Rats she would personally exterminate in an instant if she could.

Annie stared even harder at the walls, as if trying to bore a hole through it with whatever laser eye beams (which probably wouldn't be such a good idea, considering nobody knows what's behind that wall). She blinked twice and then turned her attention back to Sei, mainly as a distraction.
"So... what did you do to him, really?"