[color=fb5387][color=13bcb4][img]https://i.imgur.com/6w3alRQ.png[/img][/color][/color][hr]
Unfortunately, Rin had not yet constructed a spiked fence when a beast had arrived. Even if Masato had been able to warn her, she wouldn't have been able to react since she wasn't listening to him anyway.

It was a strange experience. She had gone from dangling on branches to prone on the ground with a beast on top of her. Claws pressed into her waist, the weight of the beast-amalgamate stealing her breath. It was certainly different. Rin was used to being injured. After all, whenever Kunio wasn't with her, she'd have to personally test what she made. Her thoughts of what she overlooked usually dulled the pain. 

This time, there were no thoughts. There was no reason [i]why[/i] this had happened. There was no math error. There was no point of failure. There was no scrapyard bolt that sheared. There was nothing she could try to solve as she lay on the ground. It wasn't like she could think, anyways; thinking was a privilege afforded to those not on the precipice of life.

For the first time in her life, Rin had nothing as she watched others try to deal with the beast that had oh-so-lovingly whetted its appetite on her branch. The flying kick of Maki who had bought her seconds of time. The footsteps of beasts running past at least signalled that she wasn't immediately to be devoured, despite what the beast on top of her would want her to think. The stones of Kogen, a pitcher's attempt to fight, would briefly steal its attention. But it was just a boy throwing rocks. The beast could easy tear her throat with a single tooth and deal with the chuunilinquent later.

She felt her heart beat. There was no breath to cushion the reverberations. Her heart refused to stop beating. Even if Rin couldn't think, her heart would guide her. No inefficient solution to a problem this time. Her long forgotten sense of survival was guiding her. It was a surprise that it came back; Rin was the type who refused to eat for entire days because she wanted to finish something. A wave of warmth washed over her and flowed into her arms.

Was it a blessing that she had not landed with her tools on her back? Was it a curse that she was not protecting her most prized possession? She felt the familiar nylon.

Her hand gripped her bag as tight as it could, her fingernails dripping with blood as the warmth hid the pain.

If the beast wished to eat, then it would certainly eat. Rin would force nylon, polyethylene, and steel down its throat until it was full.

Her first words upon arrival were not instructions nor did they make conversation.

The first thing that came to her mouth was an indecipherable scream of anguish and survival.

[color=fb5387]"ぎゃーー"[/color]

She swung her bag at the beast, the weighty tools jingling as they collided with each other inside.