Chapter Text
Jin was getting awfully tired of doing the odd jobs for Giran.
It wasn’t exactly the jobs he hated, they were a way to take his mind off… everything. A way to take up time between the infrequent meetings of the League while everyone was working on recruiting new members. Sometimes, the bosses were creepy or weird or…a bit too evil for his taste.
It was the long walks between locations. Jin didn’t have enough money for a car, and his motorcycle was still totaled. Not that he ever wanted to get on that thing again. Not after the accident. The mysterious employers never arranged transportation, and he couldn’t take the bus so soon after the training camp.
Currently, he was coming back from a little scuffle. A gang fight he had been hired to assist with. He didn’t get too banged up, a few bruises and scratches, but there was this freaky guy from the other team who blasted him with, like, and energy beam that left him feeling all tingly and his mind just a bit jumbled. Well, not that his mind wasn’t jumbled, just more so. The tingly feeling faded, but…
He was rambling again. He shook his head again, sighing and lighting a fresh cigarette in an attempt to clear his head. It was nice to get some fresh air, he guessed as he sucked on the cigarette while adjusting the blue beanie over his scar. Wasn’t as good as people watching. Everyone is staring at him. It’s an empty street.
Or it was.
A white rabbit suddenly darted between his legs, causing him to stumble. “What the hell?” he muttered under his breath.
The rabbit had a key tied around its neck, as well as pink eyes that seemed too intelligent for, well, a rabbit. It had to be an escaped…something or other, considering it had clothes on. The funny ones, that he sometimes saw at those fancy pet shops. That thing wasn’t going to survive in the streets! There weren't any greens to eat, and there’s predators at night. Toga told him about the raccoons! Raccoons eat rabbits?
He began to chase the rabbit into a nearby alley. Fuuuck, these things are super nimble. No duh. He was just about to grab at it, when an alcohol bottle tripped him up. Luckily, it sent him falling right where the rabbit had also just hopped into.
Straight into a dumpster.
He hit his head on the lid as he went careening into the trash. And
It
All
Went
Black.
~~~
Jin awoke in a pile of dry leaves and sticks, in a long dark hall lit only by the lamps hanging from the ceiling. Upside-Down, of course.
The white rabbit was running down the corridor. Or, at the very least, what he assumed to be the white rabbit. The man with white rabbit legs was wearing the same clothes that the rabbit was, alongside a new top hat with long ears sticking from it. He was now holding an umbrella, and was closely watching a pocket watch in his hand.
“Hey-Hey! Who are you!? Where are we!?” Jin called out, scrambling up and shaking out the dry leaves from his…new white short overalls. He had little time to ponder his new outfit with white leggings and blue shirt and tight black shoes.
The white rabbit turned around for a moment as he turned a corner, looking at Jin’s figure for a moment before yelping and running away.
Wait…
The league was rather secretive. He had only seen Mr. Compress’s face once or twice since it was almost always obscured with, at the least, a balaclava. But that face would be burned into his memory.
That was Mr. Compress. Mr. Compress was now a strange rabbit man who was running away from Jin- his friend. He has always been our friend!
So, of course, Jin ran after him. He quickly came to the corner Mister had, but when he looked past the wall, he saw nothing but an empty hallway lined with doors. There may have been around 5 on each side, with the end covered by a red curtain.
He tried all of the doors. Locked. He began to panic. He was trapped in here, without his mask, and one of his only friends had run away from him. He started to pace, turning the corner every so often to find a way out.
It wasn’t until 5 minutes later when he decided he should maybe check behind the curtain. When he pushed the thick, red material aside, he saw a table with a small golden key. It was just about half the length of one of his fingers.
Go try it on the doors, y’idiot.
I bet he was going too, you don’t need to be mean about it!
Shut up, both of you! I won’t be stuck here with the voices in my head.
He quickly learned that the key was too small to actually fit into any of the holes. Right when he was about to start freaking out again, his eyes caught the other thing behind the curtain.
A tiny mahogany door, only a foot or so tall, stood just slightly out from behind the table. Great. At least the key would fit, even if he wouldn’t.
“Fuuuuuuuuuck.” He muttered, putting his back to the wall and sliding down it. “I can’t do anything to get out of here. I must be going insane. I wake up, dressed in weird clothes and this stupid hair thing, then start seeing- fuckin’ faces of my teammates on rabbits. And now there’s a tiny door, and a tiny key that’s so useless-” He threw the key back onto the table, knocking over a bottle that was definitely not there before and filled with purple liquid.
“...Huh?” He grabbed the bottle, turning it over in his hands. “Drink me…That’s stupid, who would just drink a random bottle. It doesn’t even have any markings-” His thumb uncorked the bottle, and his arm thrust it into his mouth.
After swallowing (what was left that didn’t go down his air hole), he slammed his arm into the wall. “Okay, Bubai, I know that was you. We could actually die from this! I’m all for drinking random things, Bubai, you’re in the right! What else was I s’posed to do? Just sit there and let you wallow in your own tears? That’s better than- than-”
He let out a small yelp, clutching his stomach and closing his eyes. He felt tingly in his stomach, before it spread to his arms and legs. It became more intense, before it all just stopped.
He opens his eyes, and it takes a second for his brain to comprehend what was going on. The door was now normal door height. Oh hey, the potion must’ve made the room bigger! Then, Jin takes a look behind him, seeing that all of the other doors were huge. No, idiot, we’re smaller!
It made his knees weak, and he braced himself on the door. Oh. At least he could fit through the door now. He grabs the doorknob.
Oh.
“...swearing seems a bit…useless at the moment, huh? It would make us feel better. I’m too tired to do that right now.” He sighs, walking over and laying down on the bit of curtain that trailed onto the floor. It was large enough for him to fit on and still have enough to cover up with.
As he shut his eyes, he saw a tiny mouse (well, relatively tiny, it was half of his current height) dragging a pastry underneath the table.