A/N Hello everybody! I'm sorry I took so long to update. I'd like to be 2 chapters ahead, so I was busy writing chapter six, and I had this huge writers block and I was supposed to write about something in chapter 5 but I really didn't know what to write, how to write and it just generally sucked.. So I kind of avoided writing about it for two chapters.. xD tehe~ Plus my schedule is quite... impulsive, so yeah...

But I finished that chapter and send it to my beta (thank you again, for doing this for me!) so time to upload another chapter! Hopefully now I am over that particularly point I'll be able to update more often..

Have fun! :D Please review! 3

When Shiroe woke up he almost wanted to close his eyes again the second he opened them. First of all, there was a blinding white light and it was not exactly comfortable seeing as his eyes seemed to be more sensitive to light after spending that much time in a dark room playing games, or sit in his study doing paperwork.

Second of all, where the hell was he? And how the hell did he get here?

But then, after closing them, he sighed and opened them again. He needed his eyes to assess the situation. Which was quite a predicament, as he remembered. He groaned. How the hell did he end up in this kind of situation?

That was when he noticed his surroundings. And he groaned again.

What. The. Hell. Seriously? How the hell was he back in his room? It shouldn't be possible to be back home. Besides, if he was back, why was he still Shiroe? No. This had to be a dream.

Then the blinding white light dimmed. The room darkened in just a few short seconds until it was almost too dark to see. He almost groaned a third time but stopped short of doing it when he noticed little lights in the darkness surrounding him. Goddamnit.. Surrounded. How the hell was he supposed to survive this kind of situation on his own? And who's eyes were those?

One of the pair of eyes glinted and suddenly charged forwards. A dark brown feral dog ran into his sight and at full speed towards him. With a surprised grunt Shiroe swung his staff and hit the dog just as it jumped. He made a swipe for his game menu but raised a startled eyebrow when it didn't appear. What the hell? Why? Why wouldn't it appear? He made another swipe for the menu. And another. And another. He tried a spell. Nothing. Nothing? Why wouldn't the magic work?

Then the dogs stole his attention when another one attacked and Shiroe barely had enough time to raise his staff and deflect the attack.

As soon as the attacking dog fell back another one stepped up.

When that dog backed up another one took his place. And another one. And another one. And then two at once. And another two. And three. And then, as if a sign, all dogs attacked at once.

Shiroe, who up until that moment had managed to deflect all the attacks except for the one dog that latched onto the leg of his trousers, shook the dog off and had only a second to realize what was happening. For a split second, a panicked look appeared in his eyes, before making place for determination.

He swiftly ducked and managed to evade four of the dogs who, instead of Shiroe, bit their comrades. Another swipe with his staff managed to hit another two dogs, who fell over each other and a third one. His fist hit another one and one of his feet also reached one, but he wasn't quick enough to evade the last three. One quickly latched onto his cloak, and he grimaced at the sound of torn cloth. The second one latched onto his ankle, but his shoes protected his skin, the dog not biting hard enough to penetrate the hard leather. What a small wonder it was, because the teeth seemed pretty sharp.

The third one sprung up, turned midair and somehow managed to clamp his teeth around Shiroe's upper arm.

Shiroe had his attention somewhere else, trying to keep his eyes on all the dogs. Only a second before the dog bit his left arm did he turn around, his eyes wide. He knew he wouldn't be able to dodge that dog and he narrowed his eyes. It appeared he was going to have to sacrifice some HP. He swung his staff down, and hit another attacking dog hard on his head. The dog slumped down, and just for a second he felt a small triumph. Then Shiroe felt the dog he hadn't been able to dodge, sink his teeth into his upper arm. He let out a small gasp and a strangled sound of pain.

Shiroe's eyes closed for just a second and then shot towards his arm. The dog kept his jaw locked and growled softly.

Shiroe fell on one knee, swung his staff low over the floor to knock the oncoming dogs from their feet and in one swift move, using the momentum from the earlier swipe, Shiroe hit the dog biting his arm on the head. The dog growled a little harder and let go.

Shiroe tried to form a shield, a simple spell, around himself. Something to protect him from the dogs, but nothing came. What the hell? If he wasn't back home, he should still be able to use magic. But if he was home, why was he still Shiroe? Why couldn't he open his menu? Use his spells? Where was his HP bar?

Aaaargh.. Why was this so confusing?

The two dogs that held onto his cloak and ankle disappeared. Wha..?

His room disappeared. The lights of the eyes in the dark glinted but dimmed and then also disappeared.

Shiroe, while he didn't know what happened, sighed in relief. He didn't know how long he would've held against the dogs. They were vicious beasts.

And apparently he could feel pain. Now, feeling pain wasn't unusual, but it was since The Apocalypse. For one, Shiroe wasn't the one doing the fighting, just helping others fight. Secondly, the wounds they got in battle hurt much less than in real life. Probably because they were adventurers. Their pain tolerance was higher because of the fact that they always fought, or were built to fight. And while wounds would still hurt, it wasn't that bad that they couldn't fight. The only way to stop the fighting with injuries was because of the quantity or the severity. Quantity because every wound hurt, and the pain of one cut would add to another and the pain would gradually become worse. Then there was the severity. A stab wound hurt worse than a superficial cut. And some injuries were well placed and helped slow people down. A deep cut to a leg slowed down speed, and a cut to the arm would slow the movements of the weapon. But that seemed logical.

Once again his eyes drifted off to his left arm. Eyes widened just a little when he saw specks of blood on the cloak. Using his right hand, he rolled up his sleeve to inspect the wound.

He winced when he saw the dog bite. Though the dog had kept his jaw firmly locked around his arm instead of making multiple bites, he had bitten deep, penetrating the skin and leaving holes. Blood spilled out of the holes and dripped from his elbow on the ground. It was bleeding more heavily than he imagined. And the menu didn't pop up, so he couldn't get any of his potions. And even if he could, how could he know if it worked? Since his magic didn't work either…

He sighed. It was a mess and he didn't know what to do.

~SOMETHING UNEXPECTED~

Just a step away from the door the two returning adventurers halted. Both took a deep breath, Nyanta opened the door and both walked inside. The other members were already on their respectful places. Nyanta and Naotsugu quickly followed and the meeting resumed.

"I take it everyone has had enough time to cool down and resume this meeting with a fresh look on things?" Nyanta asked.

"You bet we are!" Isaac grinned, as he slammed his fist on the table.

"Well then…" Krusty said. "Is there anyone who has questions about the things we discussed before the break? Any issues with things we decided after the opportunity to think about it?"

Everyone stayed quiet for a while. Then, after a moment of hesitation, Marielle lifted her hand slightly and said: "I know we decided to start figuring this thing out with the deduction that Shiroe was poisoned, but how can we be sure? I mean, yes of course it's possible, and maybe even likely, but there are other possibilities, correct?"

Karashin nodded in agreement. "I think miss Marielle is right. Shiroe might be a master in misleading everyone, but he's an enchanter, not a fighter. And it isn't impossible to best him. It might be highly unlikely since he has a knack of knowing how to escape, but there is always a possibility."

Michitaka was the next speaker agreeing with Marielle. "I agree, there is always a possibility that this isn't caused by poison. For all we know he had a visitor and they were sharing a glass of wine when that somebody blitz attacked him and knocked him unconscious. It would have been easy to take Shiroe over the shoulder and disappear out the front door; nobody was there at that time, was there?"

Nyanta seemed to think. "That's indeed true. Nobody was home, and the street wasn't all that busy when we arrived, but we can't know for certain."

"Do we even know when he was abducted?" Eins asked.

"Yes, we do know when he was abducted, after all, he called me. For however short it was, it was obvious that at the time of the call he was being kidnapped. And I for one don't believe that he was out of it because he was blitz attacked. It just doesn't seem right." Naotsugu was certain of his opinion, and he wasn't willing to let it go.

Then Nyanta got a call. He quickly stood and walked towards an empty corner for a little privacy, and answered the call. The others had noticed him leaving his place and quieted, trying to hear what was being said. But though they heard the soft tone of Nyanta's voice, they couldn't make out what he said.

They saw him nod to himself.

Probably thinking, thought Naotsugu, while he patiently waited. He was almost sure that it was Minori who called.

The call was short. Almost two minutes if anyone had attempted to count. But everyone was a bit preoccupied by figuring out what was said. That's why, when Nyanta walked up to the table, nobody said anything. Instead, they just anxiously waited for any information he might have gotten.

"Minori called," Nyanta started. Naotsugu nodded slightly to himself, pleased he had guessed right.

"After she arrived at the scene Naotsugu and I had left, leaving her some instructions that might give us some important information. One of the things was to go over the room, see if anything was missing and if anything was out of place. Another was to check the wine for poison."

He paused, seemingly thinking about the matter.

"Go on," someone said, clearly impatient.

"While she herself can't find out about that, there is a small guild that specializes in poison. She went there to ask if they could find out if there was poison in the wine. It took a while for them, but they found out the wine was indeed poisoned. They also managed to find out what kind of poison it was, and what possible effects it might have had."

He hesitated, clearly not sure about how to continue.

"What are the effects?" Naotsugu asked, softly but with a clear undertone of anger.

"It isn't deadly, thank God, but it's quite a dangerous poison. Depending on the person and the dosage it is possible for the one poisoned to end up comatose for a very long time. And it's not entirely sure if the rest is, well, restful. Besides the fact that Shiroe will be asleep for some time, there is the fact that he might be disoriented when waking up, and he might experience some difficulties as headaches for some time, maybe a bit wobbly, that kind of thing. That said, we need to get him back here, he might recover more quickly."

"We need to get him back, no matter what!" Naotsugu said, his brow furrowed, his opinion clear. And everyone else nodded. They needed to get him back.

A/N So this was the chapter, again sorry that it took me so long.

We finally got to the chapter about Shiroe. ^^ Confusing? Exiting? Tell me what you thought! Tips, compliments, guesses, anything. :D It'll make my day! ^^ And if there's anything missing, or something like that, please let me know! :)

And thank you so much for all the fav's and follows and reviews! :D Love you guys! Till next chapter!

~Blessed be, Caithlinn