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Rouichi slipped into the library with a large brown book under one arm and the sounds of a contented whistle escaping his pursed lips. His posture was tall and his gait steady, with a spring in his step that belied the fact that he was having a good day. It was a deceivingly pleasant appearance for a man who had just slid a panel of the wall away in a conveniently located hiding place and had come in through the 'back door' that even Korin didn't know about, but the redhead managed it well enough. After all, he knew the passages behind the walls as well as he knew the main corridors - for him, he had used the main entrance.

He knew from experience that his customary chair had been moved, and so he wandered the library in search of the piece of furniture before he sought out Korin, which was the primary reason for Rou's appearance today. Not that he needed a reason, he thought to himself as he slung the chair over his shoulder and bodily carried it toward the back. There was never a better reason to annoy Korin than because he felt like it.

"Hey!" the Firestarter greeted, plopping down the chair next to Korin's desk and sitting in it. He barely resisted the urge to kick his feet up on his friend's desk, as he always did, and settled for stretching them out along the floor to cross his legs at the ankle. "I brought Shizu's book back," Rou muttered, holding out the volume on Persian. "He said he'd be around to get another one later, but he's doing some duties for Sohma at the moment."

"I'm sure you have," Rou replied smugly, and his smile grew just a bit more at the continuation of what could only be described as their game. Almost every day Rouichi fetched this particular chair from somewhere in the library and every day Korin put it back in a more obscure location, almost as though challenging the redhead to find it. He had never backed down from a challenge, and he rather liked the chair itself, so routine and pride had demanded he find it each time. And, while he'd never admit it aloud, he couldn't help but find the fun in it. He and Korin didn't test each other like this very often - really, they didn't do very friend-like things at all - so it was nice when the few chances they got crept up on them.

"The sooner you just get over it and leave it here, the sooner I'll stop moving the chair." He didn't actually want Korin to stop, but he felt the words necessary. He opened his mouth to ask his friend how his morning had been, and to inform him that Lord Hishimoto was acting up again, when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head, Rouichi stared hard at the patch of floor beside Korin's desk, opposite him. There was a book laying there, and for a moment he had thought- no, it must have been his imagination.

Shaking his head and giving the book a strange look, Rouichi returned his attention to Korin. "Lord Hishimoto is on his library-crawling hype again," the redhead mumbled, folding his arms over his chest and making himself comfortable. They both knew about Hishimoto, whom Rou had never had personal contact with but knew by reputation - mainly, his reputation for taking what books he wanted and never returning them. "His servants told me that he's been on all morning about wanting to restock his private collection. You might want to set aside anything really important that you don't want to lose while you can."

Rouichi raised an eyebrow and gave Korin a puzzled look. "Spiritual problem?" he asked, and somehow found the thought of Korin sitting at a bedside shrine praying to the Merciful Goddess to solve his troubles or atone his sins an incredibly funny mental image. He saved laughing at it for later to save his friend face, and instead held up his hands close to his chest, almost as though to ward Korin and his problems off. "I'm really not the person to talk to if you're having trouble sleeping at night, Korin. Seriously. I can't think of a single worse person... Have you tried talking to Sohma or something? He's a lot better at giving motivating advice..."

Rouichi stared at Korin for all of a minute before he cocked his head to the side and examined his friend's face for signs of stress or lack of sleep. "A fox spirit?" he asked slowly, clearly doubtful. He did not know or care if his friend was aware of the fact that Rou was both far from religious and did not believe in spirits, but he was going to find out in a moment. Spirits - that was ridiculous. Things like that just didn't exist. "Haunting you?" he continued, sounding increasingly doubtful. "... Have you been getting enough sleep?"

Rouichi sat back and let a gruff sound, resigning himself to being a spectator to Korin's odd and very worrying sudden fit of schizophrenia. Normally he wouldn't have bothered with thinking about it - he would have just called Korin on being a liar or playing some stupid joke. But recently, with all of the things that had happened to cumulate into a mixing pot of stress and trauma... his friend losing it was not something that was implausible. Fact of the matter was, any normal man might well have snapped a long time ago. The things that Korin had gone through did not just disappear without scars.

"Korin-" he said suddenly, when whatever he was talking to proved to continue being difficult. Whether whatever he was talking to was physical or a mental manifestation of the librarian's 'spiritual issues' or not, the other man was getting pretty worked up, and Rou had to put an end to it. "Korin, listen - spirits, they don't exist... You're trying to tell me that you met the Merciful Goddess? Come on... You've been working too hard. I think you should take a holiday for a bit and get out of the library... Maybe take a small trip with Sai?"

"People believe in a lot of things that don't actually work or exist, Korin. Its called superstition," the redhead said tentatively. The fact of the matter was, Rou didn't actually know whether or not Korin had cracked. It was very possible that his friend had been driven insane by the recent trauma he had suffered through, which no man ought to suffer through - Rou knew that best of all, he was living proof of what it did to people. So was someone else that they knew. But, there was also the possibility that he was just tired and stressed. He even reached out to the possibility that he was taking a hallucinogen and thought he was seeing a fox spirit - a desperate grasp at straws, but one that Rou preferred over insanity.

"Look, I don't know what's going on, but-"

Whatever Rou was about to say was cut off by the loud announcement by a palace page, who had just decided to run up and inform Korin in no uncertain terms that Lord Hishimoto wanted to speak with him regarding matters of reading material. Rou cast his friend an unreadable look, then muttered a good bye and a we'll talk later, before making his exit. He did not plan to leave immediately, however - just be out of sight. Rou didn't know what was going on with Korin or what had caused this drastic change, but he was going to get down to the bottom of it.