Edward mostly saw the battle take place via glances through a singularly surviving copper golem’s monocular vision, which wasn’t anywhere close to the best view. The rest of his squads had been trampled and smashed, taking out most of his possible direct impact on the fight.

That was what he got for relying on mass-produced T1 units, but at least he could be proud of the bomb idea. Still, Bronze golems would have been more effective. Possibly. Really given the sheer size of the thing perhaps cannons following the wagon at a distance would have been better.

While part of his mind mused tactics as it always did, the majority was focused on the task at hand. Said task was keeping the stage coach moving forwards via tugging at the reins and shouting authoritatively at the Reindrix, demanding they stick together and not drag each other down in their individual haste to escape.

As such, he only really clocked that people had been swallowed when informed Sandalphon reported they were still alive.

”Then be careful to not hit them with friendly fire when the beast bursts!” He called out in response to this news. Given the amount of fire that was about to fly in response to Sandalphon’s freeze power, that might be tricky. Or, worse, it might not be enough for that to be a concern.

Whatever the case, Edward didn’t have any way to add to the imminent bombarding of the titanic beast. Technically it would have been optimal to stop, unload all of the Reindrix’s ice-power into the giant gator and then get moving again after, but in this state there would be no stopping their flight. Instead he focused on keeping that flight controlled while he cast Designate Target on the beast once more, using up the last of his free mana fuel cells. Stacking and refreshing the early debuff meant they now had 40% increased accuracy vs it (not that there was any real risk of missing the massive target) but more importantly the three seconds of 25% damage weakness would help boost the seeker’s opening volley’s effectiveness.

The Reaver waited till that opening volley was through before throwing his Reaver striker at the foe, the oversized flying squid delivering a full body slam to the croc, not wanting its mass to block their best shots.

As this occurred, Edward focused his actual attention on keeping them moving forwards, gaining good distance round the boardwalk as they did so. Just not quite enough.

The oversized reptile hit the water, having survived the bombardment, splashed down, and then came right for them.

”I know!” Edward snapped back to Heismay's from the only way out he’d been heading for this whole time, the stress of the chase getting to him. He managed to rein in the desire to yell at him to get out of the way and instead called out ”Go! Make sure we’re not running into something worse!”

As the various attacks were launched against Tom, Mokou simply drifted around in the air, her hands in her pockets whilst feathers rained from the sky, her eyes narrowed as she took in the damage being dealt. As expected, the beast was extremely durable, with her own feathers hardly even registering on the beast despite the constant hits. She’d have to hit considerably harder to get any mileage, which was annoying, enough that Mokou let out a sigh of frustration.

With a flap of her wings, Mokou began to dive closer to the beast just as Sandalphon threw their Frost Lock. It takes less than a second for Mokou to understand the purpose of the Frost Lock once she sees the beast frozen solid, diverting her dive to instead move to Tom’s side, one where the other Seekers would not be in the crossfire. While Mokou was hardly that close, she was close enough that the beast would face the full brunt of her attack.

[Undying "Fire Bird -Feng Wing Ascension-"]

A wave of light erupts from Mokou, the one warning anyone would have gotten before a massive torrent of fiery projectiles of various sizes erupted from the air around Mokou. Though hard to see, it wasn’t just a random attack either, but instead a beautiful spectacle, with each type of projectile following their own pattern. Of course, that was secondary to the fact that each and every one directly hit the frozen alligator’s side. Were it not for the freeze and its own size, it was likely that a good portion would still end up missing. A fact that did not help Tom as it was unfrozen, and while each projectile may not have done much on their own, the combined force practically tore through Tom’s strength, causing it to roar out and recoil in pain before sinking into the water.

With that, Mokou’s hands return to their pockets, the Phoenix floating away from where Tom had sunk, her expression completely neutral despite the situation. Mokou had a bit of understanding on how durable creatures of this size could be, and did not at all expect it to be properly dead. And of course, it did not stay down, erupting from the water mere moments later to recontinue its charge towards the Stagecoach. Instinctively, Mokou sighed heavily, turning to the rest of the group, “I’d recommend taking a step back if you can! Not going to get a second warning!” Mokou called out as she floated back, taking a moment to roll her shoulders. It was a bit fast to use a trick like this, but since the beast had eaten two folks, it was better to end it quicker. And burning her tolerance was at least worth that.

As the alligator charged, Mokou’s hands left her pockets, her entire body beginning to glow… Not just with power, but with sheer heat as well. Starting with a yellow aura, before quickly shifting to a bright white, as orange flames circled around her, and soon enough the phoenix’s form was gone, replaced by nothing more than a miniature sun, hovering in the air, forming within moments. For a second, it lingered there… Before shooting out with a massive bang, launching directly towards Tom’s head like a missile, leaving a streak of flames in its wake.

Once the phoenix’s new form collided with the beast’s other eye, everything seemed to still for a moment. Then everything erupted, literally, as a massive fireball exploded from Tom’s face, the force knocking it off its charge and flames leaving the side of its face charred black, its durable hide the only thing leaving it without an eye, rather than with a blown open skull. Yet, when the flames dispersed, there was not a trace of Mokou left aside from a few scattered embers. Though, one in particular moved in an odd way, floating up into the air rather than to the ground, slowly glowing brighter with time.

@Lugubrious @Terry Bogard

Harry Dubois

𝒦𝒾𝓂 𝒦𝒾𝓉𝓈𝓊𝓇𝒶𝑔𝒾

Word Count: 438
Level: Lv: 6 EXP: (3/60)
Lv: 4 EXP: (5/40)
Location: Forbidden Kingdom - Pao Pao Cafe/ Esaka’s Middle Tiers

Both men were finishing their meals. Harry leaned back in his chair and loosened his belt. His dress shirt barely contains his pot belly.“Man, that was good.” He took a toothpick that was stabbed into his burger to pick food out of his teeth. He felt very good after eating such good food, considering what he had gone through a few days ago. “Sounds good, I’d like to see what else this city has to offer.” Harry wouldn’t mind doing a little tour of the city before they participate in the tournament. He was sure Kim would somewhat lead the tour since he had been here for some time.

“And I wouldn’t mind showing you some areas of interest.” Kim nodded
Thinking that he could be some help in showing them more of Esaka. Both men followed Band and the others out of the restaurant. The comparison to certain parts of Esaka once again reminded them of their home. The disparity between those who live in poverty and those who are more privileged is commonplace even here.

Both men watched as Band spoke to the woman wielding the nunchucks. Although Harry was more focused on the weapon she held in her hand. A thought came to him of how cool he would look using one of these things. Kim was studying her and everything she said. Pulling out his notebook and pen, he was jotting down some notes. There were a few things that he had noted in the restaurant.

“Mhm, wonder if I could disguise myself and get into the top floor of the tower…” The drunk detective muttered while rubbing his chin. Harry thought that he might fight this woman if she were in the Street Fighter tournament. Kim jotted down the description of the person’s appearance, doodling a picture of the person and the clothes that were described. Wanting to make notes that could be important later.

And by the time they had gotten to the temple, Kim thought he could help clarify what the buildings were. “This is one of the temples where you could pray to gods like Buddha or Amaterasu.”Kim said, letting them know about the temple's function. The mention of Amaterasu made Harry think of people worshiping his dog companion. A thought that made him let out a mixture of laughter and snorting.

As they got closer to the temple, Kim felt quite uncomfortable running into a yokai. But Harry thought that this yokai would not be a problem if they were a confrontation. He was still quite confident from winning his last fight with a yokai.

When blazermate yanked Geralt out of the water and caught him, the Witcher breathed a cold sigh of relief. “Thanks.” He grunted, looking around to try to find a good place for the Medabot to set him down. Unfortunately, between his fairly large frame and metal armor weighing them down, Blazermate’s maneuverability was not quite as good as it would be had she been flying solo, and that allowed the gigantic alligator to catch up with them and swallow them whole.

Luckily since it was so huge and they were small comparatively, there was no injury going inside the creature. And considering how inside the alligator seemed to be even bigger than the outside things were essentially really weird. ”So… Things usually don’t want to eat robots. Can’t say I’ve ever experienced this. You ok?” Blazermate said, not needing to breathe and immune to the toxic environment they found themselves in.

Groaning as he pushed himself to his feet after being eaten whole, Geralted shook his head. “Never been better.” he grunted in frustration. “Just nearly got us both killed by a giant aquatic reptile.” His nose wrinkled from the stench, which bordered on overwhelming to his enhanced senses. “Ugh. Fuck, feels like I’m about to vomit.” He said, covering his nose and taking a deep breath. Taking a look around to get a good idea of what exactly they were dealing with, he took particular notice of the thorny vines that blanketed the inside of Tom’s stomach, as well as the sloshing stomach acid that threatened to melt them both if they made a wrong move.

“Getting around’ll be a lot easier in here for you than it will for me. Can you scout out a good path for me to take to get to that?” He asked, pointing at the coalesced mass of thorns across the stomach from them.

Blazermate looked around and while on the outside she really couldn’t find a weak point, on the inside, there was a massive, massive one in the core of the thorny vines that were all around the stomach. ”Well, I found the weak point of the creature, I think. It's that knot core of these weird vines. ” Blazermate said. ”As for crossing…. Uh…. I don’t really know how far you can jump or anything. I can uber you through a quick swim but thats only a few seconds. But yeah, we’ve gotta make it to and destroy that thing. ”

“Can jump pretty far now that I've gotten used to the Orphan's strength. I'd say around a twelve-foot standing leap. If I get room to make speed, easily thirty or forty feet.” He responded, looking around. “Though given how cramped this place is, we'll say no more than ten on a standing jump and maybe twenty-five with a good run up to build speed. Can't afford to go too far and overshoot.” He corrected, not relishing the idea of an overshot directly into roiling stomach acid.

”Well, all we need to do is get to that knot over there and beat it up. Maybe we’ll kill it from the inside or something.” Blazermate said, making sure Geralt was fully healed before they continued.

Rolling his shoulders, Geralt nodded and took a deep breath, nearly gagging from the stench of Tom's insides. Staring at his target, a large piece of concrete that the alligator had swallowed, he made a running leap, easily clearing the gap and landing on the makeshift platform. It rocked under the impulse of his landing, forcing Geralt to adjust his position lest he be thrown to his death in the acid bath below. “Ugh. Like I'm on a boat in a storm.” He complained, looking ahead to the knot across the stomach from him. He could try Quen, but even if the shield actually protected him from the acid, he doubted it would last long. If he could find a stable enough spot, he could cast Holy Lance on the knot of vines and likely be done with it, but his current position wasn't stable enough to maintain concentration long enough to channel it.

Seeing Geralt having a problem, Blazermate had an idea, although it’d be risky. But it’d get them over there right away and there was a nearby car they could swim to. Well, Geralt could swim too. ”Hey Geralt, I’ve got a crazy idea, but it’ll get us over there really quick. Just get ready to swim to that floating car there.” Blazermate said, pointing out the ‘stationary’ platform. She made sure her healing beam was attached onto Geralt before summoning Armstrong to punt Geralt across the stomach to the knot, Armstrong making the concrete even more unstable especially as his eruption caused an explosion within Tom’s stomach as his kick launched Geralt over to the vine knot and Blazermate with him. And much like she had the idea for, she grabbed Geralt midair and slowed down his descent as she ubered the two making them immune to the acid for a bit as she helped him get to solid ground next to the knot so they could do something about it.

Geralt gave Blazermate a somewhat confused nod when she told him to be ready to swim. He assumed she would be using her invincibility spell on him, so he braced himself for a jump as soon as he felt it on him, only to be punted in the back by an overly-muscular former congressman and launched halfway across Tom's stomach. He barely had time to react before Blazermate ubered him and caught him out of the air. Once they were settled on safe ground, he let out a frustrated sigh. “A little warning might've been nice, but frankly I'm not sure I'd have agreed with the plan anyway, so at least it worked out.” Turning to the knot of vines, Geralt narrowed his eyes. “So, what do you think? Fire? I've got plenty of that.”

”Sure. I’ll blast it with holy light and my projectile shield too. That shield should make it sizzle nice and quick. Uh… just don’t fall in the acid now. ” Blazermate said, zooming up to the knot and deploying her shield. As the shield made contact with the knot, an audible electric hissing sound could be heard as the plasma shield started to do its work on the knot. While not having much else in the way of damage herself, she could throw out those healing divine stars from time to time, as the initial projectile did do some damage.

Transforming into Ardor Blossom, Geralt got to work as well, charging up fireballs to launch barrages of flame at the knotted vines, individual sections slowly catching and beginning to burn.

As the flames spread and Blazermate's shield and projectiles slowly carved away chunks of the thorny vines within Tom's core, smoke slowly began to fill Tom's stomach, rising to the top of the space the pair were trapped in and filtering out towards the alligator's esophagus. A sharp exhale pulled a long plume of black, acrid smoke out of the colossal beast's nostrils as a signal to those outside that something was happening.

When the tangled knot of cursed vines was finally consumed by flames, Tom's stomach began to rebel. Muscles contracted along the walls of Geralt and Blazermate's fleshy prison, sloshing around burning acid before they were carried up and out on a wave of bile and debris, upchucked by the magical beast into the freezing water once more, much to Geralt's chagrin and Blazermate’s…. Disgust? Her expression was hard to read as she only had eyes to emote with.

Naturally, the two had every right to be worried about Tom simply snapping them up again, but after a few moments it became apparent that Geralt and Blazermate were no longer under attack. Blinded, badly injured, weakened, and now drained of his will to fight by the destruction of the malevolent Tangle inside his guts, the giant albino alligator could struggle no more. With a pained rumble, Tom sank down beneath the icy water to the bottom of the flooded safari zone, even the trees on his back submerged. The stagecoach would find no further opposition on its course toward the tunnel to the next area.

Yayama was enjoying the sunny weather in Esaka. The drier heat was nice after Meridi-at-Han's humidity; it reminded her a bit of home. A home she didn't stop to reminisce about for the moment, as she had more important concerns than tourism in the town at the moment. It was bustling with would-be fighters here for the tournament series, ostensibly why Yayama was here herself. She'd originally come just for a chance to stretch out a bit, so to speak, testing her abilities against what would hopefully be foes that put up a real fight. A shade of a comparison to someone she knew rose in the back of her mind, only to be quashed immediately with little more than a frown to show for its fleeting presence.

The Warrior of Light was, in fact, here for the tournament, but the reasoning went deeper than that. It hadn't taken her long after arriving to hear that the Mortal Kombat dojo lived up to its name, with a reputation for losers being killed in brutal fashion. She suspected she was unlikely to uproot such an institution just by going up to it and shouting at them to quit, and her reputation as the Warrior of Light probably wouldn't hold sway. . . but she'd never been one to sit on the benefits of status, whether she had it or not. Which was why she was signed up to fight underneath that dojo's name. If she could fight under such expectations, then actively defy them, winning all the while, then she could probably get people to emulate her, and thus be slightly less likely to rip out the spines of those unfortunate enough to have participated in some recreational combat with them.

How the hells had that started in the first place, anyway?

The Lalafell shook her head, banishing that question for later. Not that she had much to do at the moment, but important things tended to rear their ugly heads sooner or later. Hefting her greatsword over one shoulder, she picked a direction at random and started walking. Surely, there would be something that needed fetching, some bandit or bauble in need of tracking down, or at the very least someone interesting to pass the time with, until such time as the tournaments were actually starting. She probably looked like a tourist, a notion that didn't particularly bother her, as it would usually lead to either kind people pointing her at something useful, or less kind people making it immediately obvious they were in need of a trouncing.

The Mid Tier of Esaka was a nice place, much more reminiscent of the modern Japan that he knew than the Lower Tier, but not quite as busy or wealthy as a city like Kyoto or Tokyo. There were plenty of people around, giving Zenkichi a sense of calm belonging that he’d been missing since Meridi-at-Han. While he was more than used to subterfuge and hiding having worked with Public Security on cases that required discretion, he was more used to being surrounded by people and simply one of a million salarymen that nobody would afford a passing glance.

Rather than interrogate the locals like Big Band sought to do, Zenkichi simply blended in and kept his ears and eyes open to hear the natural chatter of the town. He meandered through the markets of Chinatown, listening to the hustle and bustle of the Mid Tier, occasionally casting a glance upwards. The four towers for the Four Kings, the alleged Guardian of Esaka. Of course, they’d have to defeat all four into order to claim victory, but boy were their odds low. Many of the Seekers, he feared, might suffer in a one-on-one brawl against opponents with the busted-ass moves fighting game characters could be known for. Thankfully, he knew at least Sakura stood on a level playing field, being a Street Fighter character herself.

A burst of cognitive dissonance slammed into Zenkichi, forcing him to pivot that tangential thought. Sakura may have been a fighting game character from his world, to his perspective, but maybe he’d been considering that existential question from the wrong angle. To him, she was a video game character. To Galeem, and to the World of Light, she was a flesh and blood human being (with some superhuman abilities, sure) the same as he and the Phantom Thieves were. And, if what they’d learned about the nature of the world was true, they were all just copies of an original template. None of them were the real deal, so to speak. Their lives would come, go, and come again until the end of the World of Light. The fact that Terry had apparently died defending their old base, yet was alive and well and helping show some of them around was evidence enough.

He had to stop thinking of himself as real and them as just characters. He certainly didn’t think of himself and Sandalphon in that way, despite the fact that they were all born of the same system. He felt like he’d done a good job of outwardly acting like nothing was wrong, but if he kept piling on secrets and things to hide he’d snap. He was never one for true subterfuge, preferring to directly address the situation and get to the bottom of things. Blending in with the crowd to get a feel for the vibe was one thing, but when he had a target, he did his best to dispense with pretense. Tonight, he’d bring up his concerns with Sandalphon and try to put his unease to rest, or at least get the extremely cursed knowledge off his chest.

Zoning back into his ‘patrol’, Zenkichi meandered back towards the temple that he saw Big Band’s unmistakable figure approaching, which hosted quite the array of Yokai. He hadn’t gotten the best impression of the region’s benefactors, owing to the Seethe that the Seekers ran into earlier, but he knew that people could get wild when it came to sports or fandom. K-pop was far from the only form of entertainment that caused its fans to get aggressive, even if it was hitting a period of extreme popularity back on Earth before everything started going down. It didn’t mean that all K-pop fans were raging psychos online, or that J-pop fans were better (especially since he had to deal with them a lot more often in person).

He gave Band and the others a nod, rolling his shoulders and looking up towards the higher tiers. ”People are excited about the tournaments, obviously. The only thing that caught my attention was the fact that nobody seems nervous about their favorites in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Somebody even mentioned somebody who got Fatality’d last week and how they were looking forward to seeing them fight again. So, either the Heavenly Principles keep them from actually dying, or…well, this place churns out fighters even faster then we thought.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Zenkichi jerked his head back in the market’s direction. ”I also overheard some people talking about a place we might be able to stay. It’s called Banishing Flats, sounded okay but not super fancy, either.” He reported.

Sectonia kept her distance while dealing with Tom, especially after the alligator had managed to eat their main healer and witcher. As her spells didn't inflict friendly fire, she could keep throwing large rings of light at the alligator until she managed to get through it, but for now she'd have to provide what little healing she did with Death Pulse and avoid the alligator itself. She wasn't as worried about the two inside Tom once Sandalphon said they were still alive, as they were strong and would find their way out eventually.

As Sectonia summoned some more Antlers to distract Tom, what she thought would happen, happened. Although perhaps not to that degree... Tom seemed to have something happen to him and soon afterwords he spat out the two he had swallowed before retreating greatly injured. Whatever those two did, it was probably some nasty internal damage to let them escape.

--------------------------------------------------------------



Roland explored around the middle tiers, a bit surprised he was able to get in so easily. With how nice this place looked over the lower tiers, it was almost like Roland had stepped into a decent place to live. Although what really fascinated him was that people of the lower tiers could purchase places to stay here. Well, technically it was the same in the City, but Nest permits were very difficult to get your hands on in general even if you had tons of money. Granted he'd have to get a source of income here soon but apparently as part of dealing with the guardian he'd become loaded on top of it. Be nice to fully pay off that bar tab of his.

Eventually after looking around he found a place that stroked his fancy. Granted it wasn't all that difficult to find one that did, as everything here was pretty nice. The Silhouette Estates, a low key area with a fair amount of privacy apparently run by someone who tried to represent fighters who hadn't been able to make their debut yet. While the rent was low, this place was more temporary than anything and the apartments weren't all that big. But he was used to a single room apartment so that didn't bother him. The only stipulation was that if he won a tournament he had to advertise for them, but that wasn't too bad.

As per usual with so many different skill sets and tactics, the encounter with the massive alligator quickly became chaotic. It wasn't the worst, all things considered. So far the Seekers managed to keep the monster from engulfing the coach and its draft pals, and from destroying the boardwalk in front of it. It seemed as though they had a handle on it, at least until two of their number were eaten up.

Initially Ace's heart had sank when he saw Blazermate and Geralt disappear into the monster's mouth, but it took only a few seconds for him to reason that they were still alive. Unless the gator's digestive juices were especially potent or there were some kinds of interior teeth or other organ designed to break prey down as soon as they hit its stomach, then there was no way the two Seekers wouldn't have survived being swallowed whole. Well, there was always a chance for the worst, but Ace chose to be optimistic.

Confirmation came from Sandalphon's voice echoing out from the connection she had with the other Seekers. He heard her heads up about her plan to freeze it as well and made himself ready by shooting towards the alligator as fast as he could so that by the time the ice locked Tom in place, Ace was already in position. The mini cannons on his rigging were already firing, and he swung the chain of his slinger out with the claws interlocked this time to pull him the rest of the way there when the anchor-like shape slammed into Tom and caught on the gator's jagged scales. Once really up close Ace focused on the softer under-scales wherever he could find them, slashing and slicing along Tom's side, his foreleg, and neckline. Quick, powerful cuts that would add up along with the damage dealt by everyone else once the alligator was able to feel it all at once.

And it worked. As soon as the ice broke apart Tom sagged where he floated. Ace had half a mind to rip open a slit in the leviathan's neck, make an easier out for the two that had been swallowed, but as Tom recovered the Seekers' newest addition called down a warning - one which the Cadet was quick to heed as he registered the growing flare around the girl. He could only guess at what she planned to do, but he knew for sure he didn't want to be nearby when she did it.

"All you!" he said, skating backwards and putting space between himself and the monster. It was a good thing he did, as though Mokou was on the opposite of Tom the fiery blast she created on impact might still have reached him. The smoking scales mixed with the dark plumes coming from the alligator's nostrils, and moments later the creature retched.

His new position gave Ace a full view of the wounded monster regurgitating a whole pile of busted up parts of exhibits with Geralt and Blazermate among the mess. He didn't know about Blazermate, but two dips into near freezing water probably wasn't going to be good for the Witcher - the Cadet changed course and skated over to where they'd ended up in the pool.

"I got you guys!" Ace called, stowing his sword for the moment so he could reach down and pull the two of them up and out of the water, one in each hand, at least until the medabot could take to the air once more. Once she had, the blade returned to the hunter's grasp. Tom had sunk beneath the water, but Ace wanted to be sure it was actually beaten. He remained where he was on top of the ripples the reptile created as it sank, waiting to see if it would resurface.

Thankfully it never did. It must have lost consciousness, or perhaps succumbed to its injuries while underwater, because it did not return to keep fighting for its meal. Though he couldn't see to the bottom of the flooded exhibit, with a pinched brow Ace's gaze kept searching the waters. Someone else hadn't returned either, after all.

"Anybody got eyes on Mokou? Did she fall in?" he questioned. He hadn't spotted her in the air either, only the scattered glow of the embers she'd left behind.

Following lunch the Gold Team's angelic captain had opted to travel up into the city's higher tiers. This meant that he stuck out like a sore thumb with the half of the Seekers he was tagging along with. Normally as a group the Seekers were all different enough that the entire team stuck out against thematically appropriate location natives, but Pit was a young angel in bright clothes among a bunch of drably dressed old guys. For the most part, anyway. Plus there was the fact that most of them towered over Pit even after he'd grown a couple of inches. The second shortest was Kim, with a bold orange jacket on, but the two of them could hardly be more different.

Normally Pit wouldn't have minded. Though he hadn't gotten to know any of the detectives very well, he didn't dislike any of them either - even Roland and Harry, despite the fact they'd sort of made fun of him (though they were now pretty far down on his personal "coolness tier list" of Seekers). As they walked around, Pit pointed things out or struck up a few short lived conversations with them.

No, it wasn't the company that was the problem. It was the fact that information gathering was excruciatingly boring.

He'd been serious when he said he wanted to get to see more of the city, so sight-seeing was his main priority. However, he wanted to be a little responsible too; so when the group passed through the Pools (which had indeed looking pretty nice to swim around in as Ms. Fortune mentioned) into the middle tier of Esaka, Pit felt he couldn't leave all the hard work to the other guys. He gave it his best shot, whether listening in on everyone else's inquiries or chatting up a few locals himself. It was almost impossible to keep himself on task though when there were so many other neat things to ask about, and places to see, and being subtle was not a skill Pit had in his repertoire.

He'd never been more grateful that Lady Palutena just told him everything he needed to know when on a mission, or that Org XIII had just decided to give them the biggest piece of information right off the bat. I think I'm just gonna stick to watching detective movies from now on.

When his attention span finally reached its limit, Pit declared, "I'm gonna go check out the other side of town, maybe see what the high tier's like! I'll leave the rest to you guys!"

Then he was gone in a flash, wings trailing behind him as he beat a path towards more interesting ventures. With the ever present touch of his patron's presence in the back of his mind, Pit didn't mind exploring alone either.

By area the mid tier was not as large as the low tier, but there were still plenty of things to see. Pit kept note of more nice looking places to eat, various shops (which he eventually realized the names of which were mostly puns, which made him backtrack to see if he could figure out the joke to the ones he'd already passed), public recreation that wasn't limited to beating each other up, and of course larger and more impressive dojos strictly for said purpose of beating each other up.

He also saw that there was at least one large digital display screen, risen above most of the buildings like a billboard, that scrolled between four shifting lists. The names and numbers changed too fast for Pit to read, almost like a computer compiling data, but after each list reached the end the screen would briefly display a classic tournament bracket. They were currently empty, with a message overlay that read something like to be determined.

The tournament brackets. Hopefully the Seekers didn't all end up seeded too close to each other.

Pit ignored them for now but would remember to check later tonight to see if they updated early. Otherwise he was sure that tomorrow morning would be a flurry of people crowding around to check the list of fighters. There was a growing sense of excitement in the angel's chest despite his chosen tournament, likely because of the buzz of the city's eager citizens. For now though, checking out the rest of the tier. Of momentary interest was a shop called Directional Influence, a multi-media store that also sold the hardware and accessories to watch said media. Since he could get another errand done now Pit slipped into the shop, and soon after he heard the familiar telepathic voice reach back out to him.

Can you pick me up a laptop while you're here?

Sure! he thought back to her, not even questioning it.

He exited with the purchases bagged up neatly and hanging from his arm and a sleek white and gold credit card in hand until he banished it away the same as his divine arsenal. Pit glanced up in the general direction of Skyworld, though he couldn't see it from here. Maybe if he got up to the top tier... Hey Lady Palutena, what's the going rate for hearts to zenny?

Worried you're going to break Skyworld's bank?

I was just curious, but... um, should I be?

Let's just say you'll know when you're cut off. Now, hold still.

Pit paused in place and stuck out the bag of electronics, watching as an orb of blue light began to take shape around it. A moment later and they disappeared with a distinctive blip of sound, a few azure particles shimmering in the air as the goddess warped her goodies to her side. Another moment passed before Pit blinked as he realized, my new phone was in there!

Hm? Oh, so it is. I'll give it back later.

Pit grumbled, more just complaining for the sake of it as he continued towards the elevator that would take him up to Esaka's next level. He passed a few more fighting clubs, peeking into their windows briefly out of curiosity, and as he passed by one in particular finding what actually looked like a proper dojo even if a bit worn, he felt a prickle on the back of his neck. It lingered even a few minutes later when the elevator was within sight.

...is someone watching me?

Pit glanced around, not at all discreet about it. Sure, there seemed to be a couple of people looking his way, but none of their gazes lingered long. His angel sense hardly helped either, what with all the different kinds of power wielded by the locals. Esaka was a hodgepodge of all kinds of fighters, but now that he was alone Pit figured that he shouldn't draw that much attention. Then again, in a city of seasoned martial artists his true strength must have been apparent. Maybe someone was sizing him up. Yeah, definitely that and not that he'd blown the Seekers' admittedly poor cover already.

It could be anything really, so he didn't worry about it as he crossed one of the roads towards the lift. He also didn't worry about it as he waited for said lift to come back down for a return trip up. He tried not to worry about it when he grew antsy, or when his covert feathers slowly began to subconsciously fluff up in response to something... dark approaching. It was a small feeling, barely there at all. Even when it was right on top of him.

He'd already stepped onto the elevator's platform when he sensed someone step in behind him, and felt a light touch on one of his wings. Already tense, Pit whipped around with wide eyes and his blessed bow in hand.

"Don't even think about eating my wings!" he warned, his voice pitched up higher than normal. He was greeted with the mystery stalker, a woman clad in white whose face was shielded by a wide hat with a veil trailing from the back. She drew her hand back, making no move to assail the angel.

"I would never... consume your or anyone else's wings," she said slowly, almost like she had heard similar insinuations before. But Pit could practically hear her nose wrinkle in distaste even if he couldn't see it, so he felt himself relaxing a little. "I merely wanted a closer look and I admit I'm not sure what came over me. I apologize, I didn't mean to startle you."

"Oh. Uh." Pit stood down, letting his weapon evaporate into light as he cleared his throat. "That's okay. I wasn't startled."

The elevator ascended, dragging the lift up the side of the high brick wall that separated the tiers. It was a wide platform, more than large enough for the two occupants to keep space between them. Even so, Pit could feel her eyes tracing his feathers before politely looking away again. It wouldn't be a very long ride to the next level, but he wanted to break the awkward silence that had formed anyway.

"I'm Pit, by the way," he said, turning his head to look at the woman. He could just barely see her mouth form a small smile, relieved that her rudeness hadn't been taken personally.

There was still something about the woman that pinged a part of his brain which told him to be on guard, but there was no hostility in her body language. Nor in her voice, as the two of them got to chatting.

“See you around, Richard,” Terry said his farewell, as he gave the owner of Pao Pao Café a big wave. “And… your welcome, Pit! Hope you enjoy the meals.” And he didn’t forget to bid a farewell to the detective squad before they went their separate ways. “And you guys, best of luck with the investigation. Just contact me through the earpiece if you still have anything to ask, alright?”

Carrying his duffle bag over his shoulder, the hat-wearing bruiser pushed the front door open, parting ways with his favorite hangout spot alongside the crew. His teammates followed along. As he and Sakura had promised, they might like to show the remaining Seekers some of the underground fighting pits around the block. Being somebody who’d always craved for bouts, Terry was well informed about some of the places where the dark matches were regularly held, and it wasn’t long until they arrived by a far secluded spot just fifteen minutes away from Pao Pao Café 7.




“Yo, you guys, see that teahouse over there?” Terry asked, his finger gesturing at the Chinese-styled restaurant deemed to be the heart and soul of the rural area. “It’s Fengjian Teahouse. Don’t let the cozy exterior fool you, though. This place hosts some of the most extreme bouts around this side of the city, kinda close to those of a Mortal Kombat tournament. Ever heard of the shaolin duo named Liu Kang and Kung Lao? Yeah, right, they often go here to test themselves.”

Sakura stopped and spun on her heel. ”Woah, really?” Sakura asked, eyes wide. She had been walking at a quickened pace, leading the group to what she thought was the closest Local. Learning from Terry that there was another secret spot was an exciting development.

Amaterasu meanwhile cocked her head and perked her ears in response to them being described as ‘Mortal Kombat Like’ because she didn’t exactly want to have to worry about accidentally ending any mortal’s lives. She could only hope that was something of an exaggeration.

”Huh, yep.” Captain Falcon said with a small nod, ”Just like we were discussing earlier. Every sporting competition has its underbelly.”

“Damn right!” Terry answered all three of them, nodding back. He noticed Amaterasu’s concern, trying to reassure her and the rest of the crew. “But hey, take it easy, alright? When I said it’s close to the Mortal Kombat tournament, I didn’t say that you had to finish your opponent by the end of the bout. No, no, no, that’s just gross. Because what I meant is that it can be as brutal as it gets. You’re free to beat up your opponent real badly, though no killing’s allowed.”

From the first glance, the Fengjian Teahouse looked similar to one of those traditional restaurants normally found in Chinatown. It was built with bamboo and decked with a number of crimson lanterns and potted verdant plants from one corner to another. At the far back of the interior was displayed an enormous Chinese hanzi meaning ‘tea,’ as if to emphasize the restaurant’s specialty. If it wasn’t for some of the ferocious customers, barely anybody would’ve suspected such a place to be a breeding ground for unregulated competitions.

“Been here a couple of times before. I know the owner of this place. She’s a friendly old lady, mind you, and, um… oh, there she is!”

As Madam Bo welcomed the Seekers to her place, Terry bowed his shoulders down, snatching and gracefully keeping his cap close to his torso. A bright expression was plastered all over his face. “Good afternoon, Madam Bo, how do you do?” the brawny blonde asked, sporting the cap back around his head. “Just figured I’d like to introduce you to my new friends. Told me they’re looking for one of those fatali-tea combos you got to offer during the ‘Happy Hour.’” While it might seem like Terry was asking for the restaurant’s limited offers, he was, in fact, referring to something else that only he, Madam Bo, and some of the hardcore visitors understood. A secret code for something much more radical if you will.

When Madam Bo asked whether they’d like to sit upstairs or down, Nadia asked the crew quizzically, and Terry tried to reassure, having visited the teahouse a handful of times in the past. “Well…” he initiated, his sky-blue eyes traveling towards the gathering spectators overhead. “It’s usually more crowded upstairs. We don’t wanna hurt random peeps by accident, do we?”

Sakura had thought she was in on the secret lingo, being that downstairs was for fighters and upstairs was for betting, but now she was having trouble parsing who was speaking duplicitously and who was being genuine. She scratched the side of her head and shrugged, figuring when the punches started flying it’d be obvious.

As the decision was made and a table was shown, Terry complimented Nadia, giving her a thumbs up. “Good choice, cat! Now, watch and learn,” he told Nadia, slammed his duffle bag across the ligneous floor, then gave both Sakura and his teammates a gesturing glance before stepping forth to issue an open challenge. After all, he had a sparring match planned between the Captain, Amaterasu, and himself earlier. He clapped his hands, then whistled aloud to attract the attention of every rowdy visitor within the teahouse.

“Alright, I got nothin’ to lose!” he exclaimed, every desperate eye falling upon his standing form at the heart of the bottom floor. Beckoningly, we waved a hand at the crew for a show, while resting the other over his hip. “C’mon, people, are we gonna fight or what? We don’t have all day! Jeez…”

A gesturing wink was shot, and an abrupt cough followed, the scent of Madam Bo’s cigar piercing into his nostrils. He waved a gloved hand over his nose, trying to get rid of the trail of smoke emitted by the cigar. It appeared that the elder proprietress was oblivious to the fact that Terry had been allergic to such scent since he was little. Nevertheless, he was still exhilarated for the friendly bout ahead, believing that the Seekers could give him a run for his money.

Sakura smiled and clapped her hands together. Giving herself an encouraging double handed slap upside the head, she galloped over to meet Terry in combat. Obviously, it was important that they Friend Hearted him. But as a fighter, it had to be fair. Just jumping him in a back alley with everyone was an effective but anti-climactic last resort. ”Is this a team battle? Or a free for all?” Sakura asked. She and Terry probably weren’t doing a good job of maintaining cover that this was supposed to be a common bar brawl.

The divine wolf padded over at a more leisurely pace. She wasn’t some battle nut like these two, indeed after wolfing down all the late arriving food what she really wanted was to go take a nap, but she was onboard if it meant getting Terry free as soon as possible. Plus, she was interested to test their mettle, and to practice fighting against people who couldn’t see her attacks coming.

Her past life had been about fighting Yokai, the one Galeem had written her into had been about fighting demons, both of whom could see her strikes coming. These mortals would not have that luxury. Which is why she’d be keeping her sword firmly stored away, the wolf instead equipping her sun disk and devout beads instead.

So armed she padded to stand beside Sakura, making her position on the matter quite clear of who’d be fighting who (or so she hoped).

Thankfully for Sakura and Terry, Falcon was a little quicker on the uptake about what this fight was supposed to be. Didn’t stop him from rolling his shoulders and cracking his knuckles in anticipation. ”Well, if that’s how it works here then I guess I won’t question it.” He said. Spotting Amaterasu taking a position next to Sakura, Cap could probably hazard a guess as to what she was trying to say. ”So that’s how we’re doing this?”

He took a couple of heavy-booted steps over to where Terry stood and took up a position next to him, hitting his own fighting stance while giving a ‘come here’ gesture with his gloved hand. ”Show me your moves!”

Sakura grinned, hopping back and forth from front leg to back leg. She gave the big wolf next to her an encouraging hefty pat from the side. ”Okay, two on two! Terry-san and Captain-san against me and Amaterasu-sama! Let’s do it!” She said.

”Ready?” Sakura asked.

The divine wolf barked once for yes, and then hunched down into a combat stance, paws spread for stability, back arched as her unseen sun disk hovered above it, ready to be swung. This, she thought, would be interesting.

Terry grinned from ear to ear, peering over Cap then shifting his attention towards both Sakura and Amaterasu ahead. “Ha ha… Alright! Sounds fair enough. Just know that we ain’t some pushovers,” he approved, then took a couple of hops for a warm-up. He didn’t forget to strike his iconic taunting pose, readjusting his cap then waving his palm up and down one final time.

“Hey, c’mon, c’mon!”

The three-time KOF champion could hear the roar of the crowd echoing across the room, the noises so deafening they managed to make their way towards the upper floor. Supports were shown and bets were placed, each visitor rooting for each team. It seemed that the deafening roar managed to attract outsiders within the remote area, as more curious, battle-hungry maniacs flocked to the teahouse to watch the dark match unfold. Among those newcomers were a silver-haired Southeast Asian man sporting a traditional crimson mask, a red-eyed Haitian man resembling Dhalsim of the Street Fighter dojo, a ferocious mother bear with a cigar, and… a regular school girl? Really? It was beyond him how a high schooler was even allowed to enter such a dangerous place to begin with. Was school over already?

Regardless, if there was anything that the rowdy visitors on the sidelines had in common with Terry, they were still living under Galeem’s influence, yet to break free from their unfortunate gleaming state. Unbeknownst to any of them—Terry included—this seemingly friendly bout actually held a greater purpose than what appeared from the outside, and that was to free the former KOF champion out of the malice’s mind control. In their eyes, Terry might’ve looked perfectly fine, but in the eyes of those who’d been broken free…




Terry’s eyes were fiery red, scorching just as hot as his reignited fighting spirit. This was one of the clear signs that a person was still under Galeem’s influence. With his resolve now renewed, has his fatigue finally worn down? Only one way to find out…

Believing that all three of his allies were ready, Terry wasted no chance. Fighting stance assumed, fists swinging close to his temples, the brawny blonde drew a sizable portion of energy into his hands. He flailed the floor strongly, a brief spark flaring upon the collision between the charged fist and the solid surface as the energy was channeled into a crawling shockwave.

POW!

“POWER WAVE!!”

Thankfully, barely a single fracture was formed across the floor, despite the arduous impact. The shockwave traveled forth, heading in the direction of both female Seekers. Speaking of knocking down two birds with one stone here…

“Hey, Cap, you’re the one leading, right?” Terry asked his comrade, despite knowing the answer. “What’s the strategy? Because mine’s simply goin’ all out on both of these ladies.”

Amaterasu wasn’t about to sit by and let them talk strategy. Or, at least, she was gonna make it tricky for Terry to focus on Cap’s idea. She hopped to the side to avoid the power wave, and then, when she landed, launched her devout beads forward in a rapid fire barrage of six football sized golden charms. Then she started to close in, claws digging into the wooden floor as she put on an impressive burst of speed, sun disk at the ready.

Indeed, Sakura wasn’t too worried about strategy, either, even if she could coordinate anything with a non-talking magic wolf. ”Shunpu!” As for her, she did a quick spinning kick over the Power Wave to gain ground and cover any offensive afterward. Shooting fireballs along the ground like that had pros and cons! As Amaterasu lunged forward, Sakura covered her and began to lob blue fireballs into the fray, looking to knock into her opponents from a distance. ”Hadoken! Hadoken! Hadoken!”

And so was shooting rounds of fireballs that traveled above the ground. This wouldn’t be the first time Terry fought somebody who shared the special move, after all. Ryo, Ryu, and Ken were some of the most notable instances, being your typical Shotos and all. In fact, he didn’t have to spam Power Waves just to tackle some regular fireballs.

Because all it takes is just one bigger Power Wave against three smaller fireballs, Terry. Do it!

And so, Terry drew a bigger portion of energy into his fist, all while awaiting Cap’s word of advice.

As for the Captain, he was about to suggest a strategy when the two ladies decided to go on the attack immediately. Well, have it their way then. Cap felt something invisible striking him but didn’t flinch from it at all.

Oh, shoot!

And the bounty hunter was ambushed by some kind of an invisible force. Big deal. It made Terry wonder if there was a spectral figure secretly assisting the opposing duo in the bout, though it could’ve just been Amaterasu showcasing her mystical prowess—one that he hadn’t quite gotten a grasp of just yet. Regardless, he had to act fast. The barrages of Hadoukens were nigh. With that in mind, he dropped a fiery flail, the motion stiffer than the prior attack.

“ROUND—”

A single Rounded Wave was unleashed to eliminate all three fireballs simultaneously. Or so, it was? In reality, Terry stifled his fist, his knuckles merely close to grazing against the wooden floor beneath. The fiery layer engulfing his fist faded. What could’ve been holding him back? As it turned out…

In addition, when Sakura started hurling her Hadokens, Cap used his superior speed to quickly put himself in their path and tanked them all. And yet, he took no damage at all. Indeed, the bounty hunter’s body gave a shiny gleam as the only subtle indication that one of his boons had been active this whole time - Mint Condition - granting him invulnerability for the next several seconds.

”I’m afraid you’ll have to hit harder than that!” The Captain informed his opponents before he started focusing chi in his arms and legs, hurling fire discs of his own in their direction that alternated between being high-aimed and low-aimed. ”Ryuugeki Sen! Ryuugeki Sen! Ryuugeki Sen!”

Sakura traded fireballs with Captain Falcon, both of them shouting at each other, a glint in her eye. Did he somehow have Sclerokinesis, too? He wasn’t even flinching! She was familiar with this kind of technique at this point, but the specifics were always a mystery. ”You have immunity, Captain-san?” She said aloud, for her teammates' benefit as well.

”Ha, not quite!” Cap answered like the good sport he was. ”Just a little something I picked up from our mission in the Dead Zone. 9 seconds of invincibility at the start of any fight I enter into.”

”Nine seconds!” Sakura exclaimed. Sakura didn’t want Amaterasu going in alone against an invulnerable opponent and Terry as well, so she Focused, absorbing the impact of one of Falcon’s fire discs and hopped over a low aimed fire disc before doing a more dramatic leap, looking to land closer to Falcon. Though she performed no attack as of yet.

Little did the Street Fighter know that getting closer was exactly Falcon’s plan. He was planning to use a Falcon Kick to rapidly close the distance but then Sakura’s leap made that unnecessary. Falcon’s eyes glinted beneath the visor of his helmet as he launched an opening kick that would lead into a blindingly fast barrage of standing kicks if the opening move connected.

”Gen’ei Kyaku!” The Captain announced, using yet another of Terry’s friend’s moves pretty much flawlessly.

Sakura landed as fast as possible, taking the hit against her shoulder and forearm, she slid backwards, defending against the kicks. She would just have to play defensively until the nine seconds were up.

“Woahhh…”

Terry was frozen, eyes wide at the rapid exchange of projectiles. He wasn’t just astonished by both the sight and his partner’s invincibility, but moreover, Cap’s display of the oddly familiar move. Truth be revealed, Ryuugeki Sen was a signature technique belonging to one of his acquaintances from the KOF dojo. And to think that Cap could execute the special move immaculately like one of those Kyokugenryu practitioners…

“Oh, shit! It’s…”

No time to talk, he thought. Terry might’ve had a lot of questions to ask Cap later on, but more importantly, he’d like to thank him for covering him earlier. Now that Cap had the Ryu girl under control, he shifted his attention towards Amaterasu, ready stance reassumed as he gave her a focused glare.

The divine wolf, her body low, simply ran under the high fireballs, while for the low ones, she paused time and got to drawing.

In the blink of an eye two streams of alcohol leapt up from a single glass of beer who’s contents did not diminish one bit. These snaked through the air and doused the fire disks, freeing the wolf to continue her charge in towards Terry, preparing to deliver a rightsided swing of her sundisk.

Obviously, Terry hadn’t a clue that the furred deity had been carrying a sundisk alongside her charging form. All he knew was that there was a white wolf simply trying to lunge in the direction of a bigger man that he was. Trying to test whose charging move was stronger, the three-time KOF champion lunged in the deity’s path with a hard-hitting shoulder tackle, swiftly closing the distance between them.

“POWER CHARGE!!”

The wolf’s eyes went wide as he lunged past her strike, the disk hitting him in the side doing little to stop his oncoming momentum.

Once connected, he’d turn his cap backwards, then ride his knee towards her smaller frame, sending Amaterasu leaping with him. In mid-air, he’d flail the deity down with a fiery fist, dunking her back across the wooden floor like a basketball into the hoop.

“POWER DUNK!!” he exclaimed moments before his boots touched the ground again. The brawny blonde turned his cap forth, its gaudy red brim casting a shadow over his gleaming crimson eyes. “Whew… Sorry, Ammy, didn’t mean to hurt you.”

The divine wolf’s eyes were dizzy spirals for a few more moments, the shocking combo of blows having stunned her (but, thanks to her now spent charges of godhood, not harmed her) before she blinked them and then paused time.

Within this paused time she had time to reflect that she had definitely underestimated her opponent as she scrolled her view around the paper world. As such, her initial instinctual retort of just ink bulleting him in the face was dismissed and she tried to be smarter about this. She needed a distraction, and with this thought her detached vision fell upon the hat he so loved to play with.

Yes, that would do.

She swirled her brush and then let time resume, prompting a powerful gust of wind to blow towards Tery, perfectly angled to catch the brim of his cap and to blow it right off his head.

She used however long she had to flip herself upright and onto her feet, before switching out her armaments. The devoid beads chained together and lashed out like a whip, the wolf now keeping her distance rather than trying to charge in, baiting him to do the same so she could try and parry her with her divine disk when he did.

Meanwhile, Sakura was counting the seconds in her head until Cap no longer had his invincibility. ”The longer a fight goes on, the more power I can tap into.” She said, looking to duck and block any strikes coming her way. Since Captain Falcon was being a good sport about explaining his power, she would give him hints, too. Though to be honest, she didn’t have any tricks as specific or as powerful as that one.

”I’m more or less the same.” Falcon replied after Sakura had blocked a triple spinning wheel kick he launched at her. ”And fair warning, whenever I use any of my super moves? It restores a bit of the damage I’ve taken previously.” He added, more or less giving her a fair explanation for how his Power Gauge worked in addition to warning her about the healing effect of his Vesicle boon. A moment later, the subtle gleam around Cap’s body flickered away and was gone.

”Looks like my nine seconds are up.” Falcon said, tightening his fighting stance. ”Ready to start the match for real?” He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead he just launched forward along the ground in a blazing slide kick. ”FALCON KICK!”

”Woah!” Sakura crouched and met the move head on. Letting the power of the kick work in her favor, she diverted the force with a lean and shot out her own leg with a quick medium kick to punish him. She snapped her leading leg back in and swept out her other one to knock Falcon down to the ground. If that worked, she would hop up and be on him as fast as possible before he could get up all the way and knock into him with elbows and fists.

The Captain was indeed punished for what was admittedly an overextension. But he didn’t panic. Rather than try to stand upright, the bounty hunter instead scrambled to a crouching position. Then he put up his arms and generated his Shield to absorb what was intended to be Sakura’s followup before performing a quick dodge roll past her to try and reset their positions from one another. ”Not bad, Ms. Kasugano!” He complimented as he whirled around to face her. Then he lunged himself forward in a dive.

”RAPTOR BOOST” Cap shouted as he attempted to connect a fiery upward punch against Sakura. She’d be launched straight up a short distance if it went through.

”I try!” She said back. As Captain Falcon came in with an upward punch, Sakura put out a stop sign of a kick. Leaning backwards horizontally as she twisted her torso and shot out her heel to stuff Cap’s approach. She planted her foot and began to strafe around, galloping with a gliding grace. There was power in the way she navigated the field, and while her eyes were alight with passion there was no smile on her face, as she tried her hardest to win.

Now back to the scuffling wolves. The time might’ve paused for a moment, but oddly enough, Terry didn’t feel a thing. It was as though the time never froze for him to begin with. One thing for sure, though, Amaterasu had blown away the cap he so dearly held around his head, distracting him from the sight of her switching weapons and readying to retaliate.

”Hey!”

The brawny blonde raised his gloved hands, trying to catch the gaudy red cap but failing. It seemed that the arduous wind gust had completely carried the cap elsewhere, and when it did halt, it was already in the gloved hands of the prior school girl standing by the sidelines. She hugged the cap tightly, her excitement lingering in the air.

“Aww... Love you, Terry-san!” the school girl thanked him with a high pitched voice. “You’re too kind~”

And when Terry took notice of the sight, he played along with her, pretending as though he did toss the cap towards the crowd deliberately. “Uh... Yeah, sure! No prob! Nice catch, though,” he reciprocated, hesitantly nodding and smiling at the amused high schooler before refocusing back at his opponent. However, when he did shift his attention towards the furred deity…

SNAP!

“Youch–!!”

Her devoid chain of beads connected with his temple. Quite stiffly, in fact, and he wasn’t quite expecting it. The former KOF champion immediately launched backwards, then reeled across the wooden floor. Thankfully, once his reeling form halted, he was still able to pick himself up in no time despite the impact. However, when he was merely close to standing on his feet..

“Ungh–!!”

He was dragged down again, knee gluing to the floor, as a strong headache struck him. Alternately, the vicinity turned red and white in his blurry vision, and the voices from the long abandoned past began to echo within his mind—some belonging to him and some belonging to his friends.

Kyo? Ryo? What’s going on here??

S– See you… on the other side… T– Terry…

No, no, no… Andy, Joe, don’t go!

T– Terry… I’m… hurt…

Mary, stay with me, okay? Stay with me.

Gritting his teeth, he tried to suppress the headache with his hand firmly gripping his forehead, but to no avail. The voices refused to go away, their stinging echoes louder and clearer each time. The tensions. The dreadful cries. The agonizing shrieks. He thought to himself, what is this all about? Why did they sound so distant yet… eerily familiar? He’d rather not be distracted by the abrupt occurrence—not when there was an opponent ahead to deal with. He shook his head rigorously, trying as best as he could to shrug away the flood of wretched inner noises. His eyes blinked a couple of times, shifting from red to blue to gleaming red again.

“N– Nice try, Ammy... I saw what you did back there. You sure got plenty of magic tricks up your sleeves, huh?” the brawny blonde asked with a dropped voice, then carefully stood, keeping his upright form steady. It seemed that he’d started to take a grasp of her mystical capabilities. “Guess Cap and Chizuru were right about you. You’re a goddess in disguise.”

From what he could perceive, Amaterasu seemed to be capable of making nature bow down to her will. At least, in a cosmic sort of way, hers was one and the same with the will of Gaia. On the side note, he’d like to believe that all those invisible forces bombarding Cap had something to do with one of Amaterasu’s capabilities, not realizing that they were part of her devoid arsenal. Thankfully for Terry, his instincts were keen, and he could always borrow a portion of energy from beneath Mother Earth. If anything, Amaterasu had savored the latter firsthand.

“Yo, Ammy, want me to give you another taste of Mother Earth’s power?”

Still, he knew he needed to be careful and trust his instincts, given that an invisible force could ambush him at any given time again. The brawny blonde circled his opponent, pensively sizing her up. Initially, he considered utilizing the Burning Knuckle against the furred deity, but given the stark difference between their heights, he opted for something more approachable. And so, he closed the distance with a sliding kick, slipping it under her unseen guard and faltering Amaterasu’s upright stance. As a follow up, instead of executing the usual high kick, he launched the deity with a medium roundhouse kick.

“FIRE KICK!!”

Terry sent himself skywards, trying to catch up with Amaterasu’s levitating form. He spun himself upside down for a drilling kick, clenching hands spreading and a lower limb folding close to the leading one. He might want to corner his opponent farther and farther towards the bamboo ceilings.

“RISING TACKLE!!”

It appeared that it could take a while for the match, possibly when one managed to break out of either the physical or the projectile exchanges. While battling Amaterasu, Terry could hear loud and clear the voices of the prospective challengers and betting yokais opining about the match in spite of the noisy colliding attacks in his proximity. A number of yokais witnessing his prior scuffle with Mondu and his champions were also present, chiming confidently.

“And thanks to ya boy Terry, I’m proud to say that I’m the richest yokai in the spirit realm after winning the last bet,” one yokai bragged with a smug grin. “And y’know what, my choice for this match is obvious.”

“So ya picked Terry,” the other yokai responded, preparing a bag full of silver coins for the betting game. “I gotta say, he does show promise. His offenses are sick, but that wolf thingy over there? Man… her attacks look so outta this realm! I think I’m going all in with her and the Ryu fangirl.”

“But dude! You gotta check out who Terry has as his partner,” another yokai pointed out, gesturing a finger towards the helmeted bounty hunter. “The visor guy over there? No cap, but I saw him take that girl’s fireballs and shrug ’em off like they were nothin’.”

“Gee… I wonder if it came with the helmet or something,” a yokai responded to the third one, his tone pensive. “But still, as a long-time Shoto main, I can’t go wrong with Sakura. She trained with the best Street Fighter boy, after all, so she must’ve shared his strength. On top of that, she’s got the speed to keep up with the rest.”

“Well, yeah, but wait,” the boastful yokai chimed, eyes widening in realization, “I thought Terry was a Shoto, too, nope?”

Meanwhile, downstairs, the crimson masked man carefully observed each of the fighter’s movements. He clenched a fist. “These combatants… All those years I spent mastering the ‘Inner Force,’ yet I have not seen ones so powerful and destructive before theirs,” he calmly opined, then echoed a reverberating laughter. “Very well... I, the ‘Village Champion,’ shall challenge one of these combatants soon. One of them shall make an ideal instructor for my ‘Defenders of the Motherland’ dojo.”

Hrmm… This one looks good, the skunky mother bear chimed with incomprehensible bestial noises, chewing the cigar between her teeth.

The school girl cheered aloud, her brown head decked by the prior hat given to her by Terry. “Ooh… this is grreattt–!!” she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling in exhilaration. “When I graduate from Seifuku Academy, I wanna be just like Terry-san and Kasugano-san.”

The gnarly Haitian man grunted. “Grr… Mojumbo doesn’t care. Mojumbo is hungry. Hungry for fights. Hungry for fl—”

An out-of-place geeky man shushed, frowning at Mojumbo. He crossed his hands as though playing with an imaginary arcade stick cross-handed, speaking like an obnoxious yet resourceful fighting game developer.

“Psst… Please, good sir, you’re disturbing the peace. I need to analyze this match,” he reprimanded Mojumbo before opining: “I think that blonde fighter is ridiculously unbalanced. His moves are too basic and cheap. No wonder he rarely moves past the middle tier in his dojo’s rankings. If we were to add him to the next ‘Divekick’ patch, definitely he would’ve been one of the fighters needed to be nerfed. And what’s with the helmet man having invincibility frames? Was that supposed to be a glitch?”

Mojumbo gave the geeky man a puzzled look, overwhelmed by the flood of alien terms. “Mojumbo doesn’t understand. Mojumbo doesn’t play puny video games,” he said obliviously before—in a surprisingly eerie tone—admitting: “but Mojumbo thinks video games sound delicious...”

“Ugh. Useless!” The geeky man sighed, shaking his head. Despite his commentary, Terry didn’t seem to mind him at all, as he focused solely on winning the match.

Back with the other match, Falcon grinned as he drank in the growing cheers from their audience. Although from what little he was able to make out between exchanging kicks with Sakura, it sounded like they were favoring her over himself. Well, that was fine by him. Anyone was free to be a fan of whoever inspired them the most. And if that happened to be Terry and Sakura right now? Well, more power to them. Cap was nothing if not a good sport about everything.

”You’ve got some fans up there, Ms. Kasugano.” Cap said during a brief pause. ”Bet they’ll be asking you for autographs when we’re done. Now then…” He brought his arms back to channel chi and expended a Power Gauge stock he’d built up. ”Let’s really turn up the heat!” He quickly shot his palms forward and launched another fire attack similar to his previous Ryuugeki Sen. But this one was bigger and more powerful.

”HAOH SHOUKOU KEN!”
Sakura jerked her head to the side and raised her eyebrows in a quick, acknowledging ‘shrug’ to Falcon's words. Right now, she was focused on his capabilities as a fighter more than anything else in the world. Even freeing Terry had slipped her mind. Sakura was about to let loose a fireball of her own, but it was too late to channel any of her own EX Meter into it on reaction to the blast that shot her way. Bracing for impact she crossed her arms in front of herself and let the fireball slam into her block. Her sneakers skid backwards on the wooden floor.

As the smoke from the fireball was still clearing, Cap smiled and clenched his right fist, beginning to charge it with a combination of flame and lightning as he launched forward with his most iconic technique. ”FALCON…” He shouted as he made the leap to commit to the wind up of his attack. ”PUUUUUUNCH!”

Sakura lowered her crossed arms, peaking through her guard. Through the smoke, she glimpsed the good Captain coming down on her like a meteor. Too late! ”Yabai.” She said, and shifted to the right. Sakura diverted some of the strike and span out, tumbling through the air and over the ground. She bounced once and recovered mid-air, flailing her arms around as she tried to stop sliding. Eventually she stopped herself on a support pillar for the balcony overhead. ”Itai…” She complained ruefully, shaking out her left arm.

A moment later flames flickering on the floor leapt upwards in a stream towards a cherrybomb the size of a person. Said bomb had appeared out of nowhere behind Terry as he moved to corner Amatarasu, and it detonated just as fast. The resulting blast that launched Terry backwards (and a shower of confetti everywhere) was accompanied by a blinding flash and a dephaning boom for the slightest moments put to pause the battle.

The first thing to be heard afterwards? A Yokai yelling “Janky hitboxes and zero counter bulshit! Nerf plz!”

Surrounded by ashes and cops, Jr demanded to know ”What do you mean hands up! We aren't with these guys” while Rika did the exact opposite of what they were demanding they do and put two hands back on her ‘borrowed’ electrified fishing spear.

Immediately a half-dozen gun barrels turned Rika’s way. “What does that matter?” Jane drawled. “You’ve still committed every act Miss Zhu Yuan listed.” She glanced over at the ashen remains of the thief that the kids had killed after getting robbed on the run from their own theft. “Unless you’re of the perspective that stealing and killing don’t matter when you’re the ones who do it?”

Jr responded with a faltered ”um” while Rika replied with a slight tilt of the head and the words ”I mean, yeah?” said with complete honesty. Then she tilted it back to upright and added ”Not that you’d get it coz of Galeem and stuff, but we’re diffrent” as if she’d just got why there was confusion about that.

”Proooobubly should still do what they say even if they don’t get it” Jr said to her, as he dropped his makeshift staff. It wasn’t like it was worth anything to him anyway. Neither was the electric fishing spear, which Rika, after sizing up all the guns and glancing at Jr’s not too worried expression, also dropped.

“Smart kids,” Jane remarked smoothly. The Pubsec officers with their weapons trained on Rika relaxed somewhat, less overtly threatening but still vigilant in case of any attempt to break free.

Jr then pointed to Mimi, who was still sitting on his shoulder and who was far more attached to her stick than the kids had been to theirs, and said ”I gotta put her away too right? Seeing as she’s sorta a weapon.”

Zhu Yuan nodded, her expression serious. “Yes. According to protocol, we must confiscate all weapons, including your cassette players, and any subordinate creatures.” She did not apologize, but the woman clearly seemed unhappy, not in the sense that she thought what she was doing was wrong, but that it was a shame that two children ended up like this. “You will be held in a juvenile detention facility until your case can be examined. Cooperation will ensure the most lenient treatment possible.”

By that time, the other officers had finished rounding up and cuffing the hollow raiders, including Razor, who barely fit into the cuffs. Looking remorseful, Zhu Yuan herself stepped forward to cuff Junior and Rika. As this happened, Jane used the tip of her tail to poke the cat-eared shieldbearer in the ribs. “Alright Seth, let’s get out of here~”

“U-understood!” Seth turned and beckoned toward a bangboo with body armor, who’d been quietly standing by. When summoned, the little guy ran over, his ears flapping behind him. “Officer Cui, you’re up. Got the latest carrot data?”

Officer Cui nodded. “Nuh-ehn-nah (I’m ready to go).” It turned and tottered off in what seemed like a random direction leading further into the hollow. “Eh-ehn-nah (let’s get out of here!)”

Seth followed along as the cops and robbers began their march. “Alright, everyone! Let’s all get back to base in one piece!”

“And keep an eye out for ethereals,” Zhu Yuan cautioned.

Jr diligently popped off the pokeball, and used a beam to return a concerned Mimi to her ball before clipping it back onto the bandolier on his chest. He then diligently held up his claws towards the approaching officer as Rika looked increasingly concerned.

”You got me fair and square I guess, take me away” Jr said, maybe a bit too obvious in the setup for the following ”Psych!” as he whipped them back and summoned Blodia. Not to punch or to blast, but instead to rise up beneath both him and Rika, the large fingers of the mecha acting briefly as cover before it hurled the two of them high up into the air, over the school building’s wall, and clear across the street where they crashed through the window of a 4th floor apartment.

Glass flew everywhere as the two tumbled across the carpet, but the kid’s supernatural durability ensured that while cut, there wasn’t going to be any risk of them bleeding out in there.

”Oh good, you did have a plan” Rika said as she picked herself up, entirely unperturbed by the fact that that said plan had resulted in her getting hurt a bunch again ”What’s next?”

”Tapes!” Jr replied, plucking two out of his holdall and tossing one to Rika.

While a handful of projectiles followed the kids’ sudden departure, the cops were not able to give pursuit. By the time they even got close to the fourth-floor window that the two crashed through, the fugitives would be long gone. All told, though, ‘escape’ wasn’t the right word to describe what they’d done; without a bangboo’s Carrot data of their own to lead them to an exit through this ever-shifting maze, they would be stuck in this non-euclidean space. With no porcelume anti-corruption medicine, they’d be slowly permeated by ether until the worst came to pass.

“Oh, no…” Zhu Yuan put a hand to her head.

Jane stared after the fleeing fugitives ruefully. “Guess we’ll keep an eye out if they plan on coming for our bangboos. Otherwise…”

“We can’t leave them in here!” Seth objected. “They’re just kids.”

“We don’t have all day,” Jane corrected him. “The more time we spend, the riskier things get. Don’t wanna lose any more suspects or officers to the hollow, ‘kay?”

Though Seth wasn’t the only one with misgivings about the situation, he couldn’t disagree. The cops continued to follow Officer Cui, maneuvering through the urban labyrinth toward a temporary exit.

As they moved, they were shadowed by an unpleasant looking head sized plane that poked its camera around corners and fed their location back to the two kids sneaking around just behind them as well. They’d read up on this place after all (or, really, to be fair, they’d asked their stolen NetNavi Seek to remind them what the deal was) and so knew that they weren't getting out of here without following a bangboo.

Or following people who were following one themselves.

The crowd of cops + prisoners weren't exactly a stealthy group, after all, and so finding them again had been entirely doable. Especially because rather than run away, the pair had used a set of tapes that recorded the top and bottom of a Flukemon to squeeze into a hiding spot the much larger cops weren't able to check, let alone suspect they could fit inside.

How they were then going to break past them was a different question, but they’d come to it in time.

The procession moved through the hollow quickly, tracing a circuitous route through the nonsensically arranged streets, overpasses, buildings, and construction sites as fast as little Officer Cui could run. Despite numbering about twenty members of the police force and a little over half as many hollow raiders, they neither wasted time nor lapsed in vigilance, fully aware of just how dangerous these spaces could be. About ten minutes into the trip, the procession reached a city street unremarkable save for the presence of ethereals. A variety of jet-black, crystalline monsters roamed the area, the neon-green insides of their bodies shining with the prismatic light of nebulous ether cores that pulsed within their bodies. Some looked like animals, others plants, and others humanoids, wielding aberrant limbs or makeshift weapons, but all looked dangerous. When Pubsec stopped a safe distance away, Seth double-checked with their guide. “Cui, is this the place?”

“En, en-eh-nah (yes, just through here!)!” the bangboo replied.

Zhu Yuan took a deep breath. “Okay. Men, Unit Three, stand watch around the prisoners here. Officer Cui, you’re with us.” As Seth and Jane stepped forward alongside her, Zhu Yuan gestured for the bangboo to follow. “We’ll handle this.”

“Wuh-tah, wuh-tah (Ready to work)!”



Together, the four advanced. The ethereals noticed right away and rounded on the officers to attack, but it quickly became clear that these cops knew what they were doing. Seth took point, repelling even the toughest strikes with his shield before numbing his foes with knocks from his electric baton. “I can do this all day!” When given the chance, he turned the tables by inserting the rod into his shield, transforming it into a heavy greatsword that he swung with selfless abandon.

Against ethereals, Jane showed off a side of her that the Koopa Kids hadn’t seen. Her daggers carved through the monsters’ stony exteriors like butter, leaving behind yellow wounds. When any one foe built up enough, an Assault anomaly was triggered, finishing off any weaker enemy in an instant as they shattered like glass. “Want some more?” As Jane dodged her enemies’ attacks, she built up Passion that eventually ignited, turning her orange energy bright red. At that point, even the heavier enemies began to crack under the weight of her multi-hitting flips and spins that quickly built up Assault. For her, this wasn’t a fight; it was playtime, and these ethereals were just toys to her. “Don’t worry, this’ll be painless,” she told a four-legged Hati ethereal as it lunged at her, only to cleave its exposed core in half. “Psych~”

Unlike the others, Zhu Yuan kept her distance and fired at the ethereals with her strange gun. As she fought, the reason for the strange adornments all across her person became clear; each was a modular weapon part, which she attached to her sidearm as needed to make it a bigger, badder weapon. In quick succession it became a shotgun, then a grenade launcher, giving the ethereals a taste of their own medicine with weaponized ether. “We’re halfway there,” she told the others. “Keep up the pressure!” Officer Cui remained at her side to give her a hand with any ethereals that got too close, popping tiny, razor sharp claws out of his arms to tear their armor apart.

Soon, there was only one ethereal left, which Seth was softening up as he kept it occupied: a knight-like Dullahan, with a blade and crystalline tower shield of its own. Being a couple feet taller than Seth, the thiren was stuck on the defensive until Zhu Yuan and Jane stepped in. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensued, with the Dullahan vying to slash apart the catboy’s softer seniors while he strove to place himself -and his shield- in its way. After a few tense moments, Zhu Yuan sprang off his shield to kick the Dullahan in the core, which was enough to leave it dizzy.

Seth surged forward first, battering it with a shield bash before plugging in his baton to bring down a leaping crescent slash. “You may remain silent!”

The next second, Jane darted in to follow up. “Hah, how d’you like me now” She disappeared in a blur, a tornado of slashing streaks ripping into the monster’s body.

Officer Cui jumped in next, barking like a mad dog. He threw himself at the Dullahan’s ankles on all fours, slashing again and again as he pushed his foe back. Finally, Zhu Yuan assembled her full weapon, unloading every missile it had at once. “Justice always prevails!”

The final blast demolished the ethereal, leaving only a spirit behind. Ashe she disassembled her weapon for travel, Zhu Yuan gestured for the other officers to bring the prisoners. Together, the full procession hastened after Cui toward a small fissure in an unremarkable corner of the street, visible only when they got within a certain distance.

Just before the battle finished, there was a click as Rika successfully recorded the Dullahan onto their platinum tape, having already burnt through one of the regular ones trying to catch its recording while the squad was going at it.

”You were right, she really was going easy on us” She said a few moments later once she’d snuck back to Jr, who replied”Mmm hmm. Seems like she’s smart too. Didn’t scratch us, or let herself get scratched. It was like she knew what’d happen”

She nodded as she passed him the new tape and said in concerned tones ”and now we have to get past them?”

”Yup. But just past. They’ve probably got more people on the other side n stuff, but trust me, we just need a liiiiitle bit of space and we’ll be free” Jr replied, being perhaps a bit more confident than Rika given she was the only one who had seen the fight itself thanks to her drone. Either way, the pair continued following soon after, creeping closer and closer to the exit.

First the regular cops moved out, then the prisoners, and then as the team of four moved to exit without looking back Jr and Rika came blasting round a corner, armory retrieved paintbrushes pressed to concrete letting them sail across the street at nautical speeds, blazing towards the exit while Jr called out ”Make way!” at the cops.

When she turned to look, Jane did not seem surprised. “Ah, there you are. Too bad this can only end one way.”

Zhu Yuan took a deep breath and took aim with her sidearm. In quick succession she fired off an ether shot at Junior, then Rika, trying to graze them both. It wasn’t much damage, but it was enough to trigger their aggression response. Or so she thought. Anticipating a final showdown, the trio spread out and readied themselves for battle.

”Owww!” Jr whined as his scales took the shot, before really hamming it up as he cried out ”You shot meeee! Now you're gonna get it! You're gonna pay! We’re gonna fight to the death now there’s no stopping it!” only to go ”Psych again!” as he swerved off course from what had been made it look like an attack vector and went straight for the exit, chain magma rushing forwards.

”Told you we were diffrent” Rika added matter of factly after Jr’s taunt, before stringing bullet jumps to also accelerate towards freedom.

---

Ramattra stood across the flooded terrain, a large distance separating the Omnic and his companion from their goal, which was now with the rest of the group. They fought their foe relentlessly as Ramattra searched for a way across the exhibit. With so much debris and so little transportation or detours to use across the makeshift canal, the large robot was stumped, knowing it would be impossible to cross with its current tools. Suddenly, Addux had stated that he could help cross the river at Ramattra’s command. The omnic seemed shocked, assuming he had some form of nano-technology to help them cross the water. “Oh? Well, with haste then, my friend. It seems our allies will soon take down that enemy.”

Addux nodded to Ramattra’s request, conjuring a portal of shadows and darkness in front of the dog-mounted sled, ushering Ramattra to follow through the portal as Addux regained control of his sled, steering his wolves and entering alongside Ramattra to the other side. By the time the two had crossed the gap, the enemy had retreated, thanks to the efforts of the Seekers who stayed with the Stagecoach. Of course, Ramattra did not return to the group empty-handed, his bounty being the new company and the large bag of metal and weapons.

With a metallic sigh, Ramattra would return to the group with his large sack of scraps, allowing Addux to be “unburdened” by his company and complete whatever business he had with the Seekers. “If you need a better grasp of what is going on, you should speak to Sandalphon. She’s in the Stagecoach. She seems to be handling most operations here.” Ramattra would brush some of the debris from the battle off his monk robe, seemingly perturbed by the small mess it created. Part of him was glad he didn’t stay behind to fight this creature. It left the place in absolute shambles.

After seating herself at an empty table on the first floor of Fengjian Teahouse, Nadia eyed the competition. While she could have taken some time to talk this through with her teammates and come up with a plan of attack, she elected to ignore them, focusing instead on her own thoughts. Naturally, the feral already had a scheme in the works. Normally she parted fools from their money through stealth and dexterity, but there was more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. With betting involved, this situation seemed ripe for a classic hustle, and the cat burglar was no stranger to the process. If robbery was an art form, Nadia Fortune could be relied upon to paint a masterpiece.

Before the show began, the first step was to pick a target. In an unofficial operation like this, with lots of unknowns surrounding the fighters, their abilities, and records, betting would probably continue well into the match to give the participants a chance to see which way the winds were blowing. In order to maximize her payout, Nadia needed to get those second-floor spectators to confidently bet against her, then turn the tables at the last moment to seize an unexpected victory. That meant picking an opponent that seemed stronger than her, but not so one-sided that the spectators might get suspicious. Appearances weren’t everything, of course, but they were probably all most betters had to go by, so that would be Nadia’s logic as well.

She quickly ruled out the living statue, the man in red, and the chick in pink, despite how cool the latter looked. Right now Nadia was here for cash, not the love of the game. Out of the two remaining, she quickly settled on the redhead. That woman was taller, buffer, and -to her annoyance- hotter than Nadia, and dressed like that, she was probably a crowd favorite to boot. Muscles like that took some serious effort and self-esteem to maintain, so if the classic trope of the fiery redhead held true, Nadia felt pretty confident that she could prey on the redhead’s pride. Shortly after Sakura, Terry, Falcon, and Amaterasu went to kick off a huge two-on-two spectacle, the feral got up and headed back across the first floor toward the bar.

As soon as she stepped toward the redhead, the woman’s head turned her way. Nadia conspicuously pretended not to see her, looking away innocently as she sauntered up to the bar next to her mark, where she seated herself and forward onto the counter. The redhead said nothing, but took a long drink of her beer as she reclined against the counter, watching Terry’s brawl. “I’ll have what she’s having,” Nadia told the Mokujin bartender, who took a glass mug and placed it beneath the tap. When she received her drink, she took a sip, only for her face to scrunch up the moment the brew hit her tongue. She set it down and swallowed, then squirmed, her ears flattening. “Oogh, yuck…guess it’s, uh, hoppy hour, eh?”

The redhead to her right looked more bemused than anything. “It’s a stout,” she informed the feral.

Nadia raised her eyebrows. “Oh, oh, I see, yeah. Guess that explains…” she gestured her head toward the redhead’s toned stomach, a judgemental look on her face. “That whole, uh…situation, there.”

Her new acquaintance’s bemusement only grew, as if she couldn’t believe the tact this idiot was taking. “Huh? Don’t you know muscle when you see it?”

“I know a musclehead when I see it,” Nadia replied.

The redhead rolled her eyes, then raised her beer for another sip as she turned her attention back toward Terry’s brawl. “If that’s your best material, you should slink on out of here before you embarrass yourself further.”

Sighing, Nadia shook her head and took another sip herself. “Not my finest work,” she admitted as she set down the mug. “Still…purr-etty sure I got a way to make you see red, Red.” She reached over, sharpened the claw on her index finger, and flicked the other woman on the nose, opening a small cut.

The redhead furrowed her brow as she touched her hand to her nose When she saw blood on her fingers, she let out a heavy sigh, then abruptly smashed her half-full mug against the back of Nadia’s head like a powerful backhand. As shards of glass and droplets of booze flew in every direction, Nadia blacked out for a split second slumping down atop the counter. By the time she recovered, her attacker had hooked a foot around her stool and kicked it away from the bar, sending the feral sprawling on her back. As she groaned and got up on all fours, the redhead raised her arms, and two large, triangular, high-tech shields rose beside her. “My name is Asher,” she informed Nadia as she cracked her knuckles. “This ought to be quick.”

Nadia glanced up at the second floor to see money changing hands, and grinned. “Wow, such self-Asher-rance~”

Asher lashed out with a forward kick to knock her down again. When Nadia blocked it, she clicked her tongue, then brought her shields around, first the left and then the right. Nadia’s guard reduced both impacts to chip damage, and she retaliated with a couple quick claw slashes, only for Asher’s shields to combine into a single, diamond-shaped barrier that absorbed the blows. “Nice try.” They began to glow, and Nadia put her guard up just in time to block the ensuing energy blast, but when the shields parted Asher herself lunged forward to reach out and grab the feral, then lift her up by her jacket.

“Wha-!” As Nadia’s legs dangled beneath her, Asher punched her in the gut. “Blegh!” Her eyes bugged out as the wind was driven from her lungs, and the next moment Asher planted a foot against her stomach to send her flying a short way with a kick. As she sailed, Nadia sneakily let off a little extra blood to propel her toward a table, which she crashed through before coming to a stop in the wreckage. Before Asher could celebrate too soon, though, the feral staggered to her feet, wiping blood from her lip. “Sheesh,” she remarked, looking around at the destruction. “Talk about purr-operty damage!”

Her opponent charged, flying forward with the aid of a shield like a jet-propelled battering ram. This time, Nadia jumped, catching Asher with a headshot as she flipped over and landed behind her. Before the brawler could round on her, Nadia cut in with Cat Scratch. “Cut! It! Out!” Each attack tore out bright orange hair as she sliced Asher’s back with three rapid slashes. “Wreck-a yo face!” After that she opted for a standalone short-hop El Gato axe kick, which gave her foe ample time to turn and soak the blow with a shield. “Uh oh!” With the catgirl stuck on one leg, Asher sent the other shield low to sweep Nadia off her feet.

“Me-owch!” With a clang, she fell onto the floating shield, splayed across its surface. She looked up just in time to see the other one reorient downward, then descend, crushing her between both surfaces with a loud clang. Groaning, Nadia slid out and onto the floor.

“See?” Asher crossed her arms as her shields returned to her side. “Should have thought this through. Now look at you.”

Nadia slowly got to her feet, really exaggerating the wobble of her legs. “Ugh, I’m parched…” she complained. “I really should’ve ordered…Asher-ley Temple!”

Her opponent rolled her eyes, then threw her shields like buzzsaws, one after another. Nadia dodged to the right, then swerved to the left, then pivoted to hammer Asher’s stomach with a turn kick. Unfortunately her Mantread barely left a mark on the brawler’s six-pack, and she grabbed Nadia’s foot with both hands. Thinking quickly, Nadia hopped up and twisted around to hammer Asher’s nose with her other boot. Her opponent stumbled back and released the catgirl, who landed on her feet, then lunged forward with a flying straight punch straight to Asher’s nose.

“Damn it!” As blood trickled from her nose onto gritted teeth, she performed a pulling motion with her hand. Nadia realized what it meant just in time, and turned around to block the triangular shields a split second before they hit her from behind on their way back to Asher. When the second one hit her, the feral faked a guard crush, dramatically throwing her arms wide before blearily turning back around. For a brief moment she saw Asher reunited with her combined shields, and after that a concussive outburst of energy blasted her away through the tea house.

Outside, a certain pink-haired lalafell just so happened to be ambling along a nondescript Low Tier side street when the wooden wall of the fancy-looking tea house just ahead and to the left of her exploded in a burst of shrapnel. In the midst of the destruction Yayama could see a calico catgirl -not unlike a female Seeker of the Sun Miquo’te- dressed in dark blue, yowling as she flew across the alleyway and into the wall on the other side. Upon impact, the catgirl actually exploded, her body falling apart into a pile of dismembered limb segments as her head rolled to a stop at Yayama’s feet.

Then the head’s sea-blue eyes blinked open, and she stared at Yayama. “Oh, hi! Scuse me, just a sec.” Quickly her body parts came to life, extending muscle fibers in order to pull themselves together. A moment later, her reunited body grabbed her head and popped it back on the stump of her neck. “There we go!” Her tail waved cheerfully as she put her hands on her hips, smiling down at the diminutive lalafell. “No time to explain–I’m afraid I’ll have to be ‘short’ with you! Whoops, sorry, can’t help myself!” Waving apologetically, Nadia jogged back toward the hole in the wall, her wounds already closing. “Please don’t think ‘little’ of me! Agh, damn it, sorry!”

Once back inside Fengjian Teahouse, Nadia hurried back toward the bar, yelling up at the second floor. “Heyheyhey, what’re you handin’ out money for? The fight’s not over!” Of course, many of the watchers were focused on the four-way fight, but those who’d wagered on her or Asher were thrown for a loop.

As the surprised spectators settled back down, Asher scowled at Nadia. “Back for more?” She shook her head, incredulous. “How are you still standing?”

“I’m tougher than I look,” Nadia told her with a grin, pulling a three-inch splinter out of her forearm that she flicked away. “Now, if we’re done ‘kitten’ around…” For the first time since coming here, the feral assumed her actual fighting stance. “It’s time to kick some Ash!”

---

Compared to the nearby marketplace, there weren’t a great many people milling around outside the lone Buddhist temple that overlooked the Pools from the precipice of Mid Tier, but there were a variety of yokai that seemed to have made themselves home. Big Band recognized a handful of gaki, similar to the ones the Seekers met in the village north of Esaka, but rather than blows these ones were trading stories about various fighters that they each deemed the most ‘broken’ in the city’s tournament history. Upon overhearing them, Band thought for a moment that the gaki were comparing fighters who’d suffered the worst injuries, but a few seconds later he figured out that in Esaka’s parlance, ‘broken’ probably meant ‘unfairly strong’. He considered approaching the yokai for conversation, but he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to ask just yet, and there was one other factor that threw him off: the bizarre tree in whose shade the gaki were chatting. Its blood-red leaves, slitted yellow eyes, clawlike branches, and protruding bones didn’t sit right with him. After a momentary side-eye, Band decided to leave them alone.

Band glanced over his shoulder, saw both Harry and Kim on his tail, then turned his attention back to the temple as he headed for the front door. Up close, the structure was every bit as impressive as it had been from afar, with bright red walls and a roof painted in a metallic tint that gleamed like gold, all beneath the watchful gaze of several long, serpentine dragons. While Band couldn’t help but wonder if those were yokai as well, their imperturbable stillness convinced him they were just statues, albeit rather lavish ones. It was quite unlike anything Band had ever seen, though that was par for the course these days. He also wondered if it might be against local customs for an ordinary person like him to intrude upon temple grounds, but he saw neither signage nor security, so after lumbering up the stone steps Band proceeded inside with Harry and Kim right behind.

Within, the trio of detectives found a half-dozen carefully arranged and lavishly decorated shrines, with characters, symbols, and figures meticulously carved on all the colorful walls, pillars, and altars. The fragrance of burnt incense filled the air, and sunbeams shone down on the brows of meditative Buddha statues through octagonal skylights. Band spent a moment or two just taking the whole scene in, which included the three resident yokai. One was a squat, impish figure with golden feet that sat silently on a shrine. Another leaned against a pillar idly, its yellow eyes staring at the newcomers from beneath a broad straw hat. Last but certainly not least, Band spotted a huge, ghastly yokai with a lumpy, ovoid body that featured just two limbs, both with a single long, scythelike claw. It lay in a shadowy corner, snoozing, and whenever it opened its mouth to snore Band saw a thick purple tongue between its curved, tusklike fangs. He was not eager to make the monstrous thing’s acquaintance, so after making sure the Waira was sound asleep, Band headed toward the other two and kept his voice down.

“Hi there,” he greeted them. “Mind if we rest in here a minute? We’re new in town, see, and after walkin’ around so much we were just hopin’ to get outta the sun for a bit.”

The lucky imp said nothing -in fact, it didn’t so much as blink its beady red eyes- but the hat-wearing Chansin shook his head. ”Nah, go ahead. We don’t own the place or anything.”

Band raised an inquisitive eyebrow, deftly sliding into interview mode. “Oh, for real? I figured these temples were where you yokai lived or somethin’.”

That seemed to prompt a dry chuckle from the Chansin. “Hah, no. Us Yokai live in the Spirit World. We just like hanging out around these temples sometimes, when there’s nothing going on.” He looked around, his eyes narrowed at the dozing Waira. ”It’s pretty dead today. There’ll be more of us tomorrow once the Pools get going, though, and when we reach the finals on Sunday it’ll be packed.

Band nodded sagaciously. “That’s right, y’all really like watchin’ the tournament fights, doncha?”

The Chansin gave Band an incredulous look. ”Uh, yeah. It’s nonstop entertainment week after week after week. The action, the top-level play, the storylines, the drama, the discourse!” He gazed off through the temple’s doorway longingly. ”Never gets old.”

“I hear fightin’s how most Esaka folks get rich,” Band remarked thoughtfully. “I’ve been thinkin’ of enterin’ the next tournament myself. Any money in it?”

That comment earned him another chuckle. ”Well, tough luck there buddy, ‘cause this week’s signups just ended. But yeah.” The yokai stretched his arms. “The cash rewards kick in once you reach Top Eight, though only first place really wins big. There’s a lot of arguing about the prize money split in Top Eight, people saying that the gulf between first and second is too big and stuff…I dunno.” He shrugged.

While that made sense, it wasn’t what Band wanted to hear about. “That ain’t it though, right? Where do you yokai factor in?”

The Chansin smirked beneath his red scarf. ”Real eager to make some moolah, huh? Well, it’s not like it’s a big secret or anything. We bet on whatever fights catch our fancy, and a share of the payout goes to the fighter who wins. And if we take a real shine to you personally, you might wake up one day with a nice little donation beneath your pillow. So if you want cash, better make sure we yokai like you.” He glanced over at the imp. ”Like that’ll ever happen, eh? Most of us tend to be a little…” He shrugged offhandedly. ”Fickle.”

Band pursed his lips. I’ll bet. Instead of saying that, though, he followed up with another question. “And it’s just you yokai that do the bettin’?”

”Well, uh…” The Chansin looked around furtively. ”I mean, it’s not exactly sanctioned, but plenty of people do it too, you know? Just using zenny and stuff instead of souls, which means it doesn’t go through the Heavenly Principles,” He whispered those last two words, as if afraid that said entity could hear him. ”You didn’t hear this from me, though, so don’t come crying to me if you get busted for gambling. Got it?”

“Got it.” Band nodded, his expression serious. So, the spiritual currency of Esaka was souls, both yokai and regular fighters could obtain it, and it was linked to the Heavenly Principles in some way. Though he was just spitballing at this point, Band wondered if all transactions made with souls were somehow traceable by the Heavenly Principles. It made sense, if that nebulous entity was responsible for keeping order throughout the city, and it encouraged an insular economy since the currency wasn’t much good beyond Esaka’s borders. He tipped his hat to the two yokai, his voice still low. “I’ll leave y’all to it then, thanks for the tips.”

”See you around,” the Chansin told him.

Outside, Band reunited with Zenkichi, who told him what he’d overheard whilst meandering. If new iterations of dead fighters appeared faster than usual in Esaka, it made sense that the city’s inhabitants would be even more oblivious about the nature of life and death in the World of Light than usual. If fighters died in the tournaments with any regularity but nobody batted an eye, there was even less chance of people surviving long enough to pose a threat to Moebius. A rat race of mayflies in a meat grinder, Band thought morbidly.

He tried to focus on Zenkichi’s other discovery. “Banishing Flats, huh?” Weird name for a motel, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. “I’d say we oughta go and check it out, but we ain’t exactly flush with cash at the moment. Guess we’ll have to wait and see if the others earn anythin’.” He turned his attention away from Chinatown and toward the rest of Esaka’s Mid Tier. “And in the meantime, guess we’ll keep lookin’.” With that, he picked a direction and marched off, curious to see where Roland had gone.



Upon successfully freezing Two-Toed Tom, Sandalphon was uncharacteristically eager to lead by example when it came to racking up damage on the frozen behemoth. In fact, she proved to be a little too eager. With Edward in the zone, coaxing as much speed and coordination out of the stagecoach’s draft animals as possible, the seekers were speeding across the flooded Safari Zone’s boardwalk toward the exit tunnel at full tilt. The moment Sandalphon raised her hexagun to resume pelting the giant gator, one of the stagecoach wheels struck an uneven board, and the ensuing jolt made the archangel slip. As it turned out, high heels did not make for very secure footing on the flat, featureless roof of a moving vehicle.

“Ah,” Sandalphon intoned, abrupt and deadpan, as her legs shot out from under her and she tumbled across the roof. Her pupils became stress marks, and a split second later, she flew off the rear end and into the open air. At this rate she knew she’d clear the wheels and not get run over, at least. With the rough planks of the boardwalk almost two stories beneath her, though, her fragile body would be in for a rough landing, to say nothing of what fate might be in store for her if she fell behind in Tom’s reach. Even in the midst of a crisis, though, the archangel kept a cool head. One hand shot out and grabbed hold of the cage dangling from the stagecoach’s rear, her slender fingers latching onto the metal bars with everything they had. Now just a couple feet away from the captive Ratshaker rat, she could hear its frenzied wailing over the wind in her ears, but tried to tune it out. With her other hand Sandalphon clutched the barrel of her hexagun, and in such a manner Sandalphon held on for dear life as the stagecoach thundered onward.

The strain on her arm and shoulder was immense, but for the moment at least, Sandalphon’s grip held despite her meager strength. Her logical side knew she needed to tough it out for only another ten or fifteen seconds until the stagecoach reached safety, and that she could just heal herself afterward, but that wasn’t all that fortified her. Her nascent human side despaired at the possibility of her meeting such an inglorious end, and fueled her efforts with the flame of defiance. Her newfound sense of pride, both as an angel and as a leader, would not allow her to succumb. Or maybe that was just the adrenaline. Regardless, while she couldn’t pull herself up (let alone join in the others’ efforts to take out Tom), she would not be succumbing just yet.

As Mokou’s massive, self-destructive firebomb highlighted the Seekers’ frenetic fight against Tom, while Blazermate and Geralt worked to destroy the source of the monster’s malignancy from within, the stagecoach closed in on the tunnel where Heismay stood ready to rejoin it. With the end of the road in sight, but no end to Tom’s furor just yet, Edward bade the eugief to make himself useful and scout ahead as he drove the frenzied Reindrix forward. Understanding the strategist’s urgency, Heismay turned without a word and sprinted through the tunnel as fast as his little legs could take him.

The passage was dark but pretty much straight, with what passed for daylight nowadays visible at its far end and no obstacles or enemies that Heismay’s night vision could see. More importantly, it did seem just big enough to accommodate the huge stagecoach, but with only inches of clearance to spare–meaning that one currently riding atop the wagon’s roof would need to get clear to avoid a headlong collision with the rock wall overhead. With no time to warn the others, Heismay had to trust in his allies to save themselves, just as he needed to outpace the hooves of the Reindrix to save himself. He did not stop running, and only turned to look over his shoulder when a great, guttural rumble resounded from the flooded Safari Zone behind him. Sandalphon, still hanging on to the cage at the back of the stagecoach, looked over just in time to see Tom sink beneath the water, stubbornly clinging to life but thoroughly defeated. For a fraction of a second, she spotted Blazermate and Geralt afloat in the chilly water, surrounded by wicked-looking brambles as Ace skated over to help them. Then the stagecoach disappeared into the tunnel, and the Seekers were home free.



A few moments later, the stagecoach burst from the other end of the passage and into a small, neatly-kept plaza of sugar-dusted hedges, flickering oil lamps, and ornate wrought-iron fences. The exhausted Reindrix slowed down and came to a halt, their sides heaving as they fought to fill their lungs with the cold, wintry air. At the other end of the wagon, Sandalphon could finally relinquish her deathgrip on the Ratshaker rat’s cage, then sink to the snowy ground on her knees. Even Heismay, who’d narrowly avoided being trampled, was breathing heavily as he leaned on one of the black metal fences for support. The team’s encounter with Tom, fierce but brief, had taken a lot out of all of them. As the imminent return of Geralt and Blazermate proved, however, everyone had made it out alive. Even Ramattra, absent from the group since the Reaver woods, was here somehow. Heismay couldn’t begin to guess how the ominous omnic had managed to get here before everyone else, but he was glad to see another one of the campaign’s new recruits here too. That went for Mokou, too, since he could have sworn that he saw her explode back there. There was no sign, however, of Ramattra’s supposed travel companion.

With all the White Team members present and accounted for, Heismay turned his attention to the Seekers’ surroundings. On one side towered the enormous Botanical Garden building, its enormous glass barrel roof reinforced by a weblike array of steel struts. Next to it lay the huge central rotunda that the path through Krat Zoo had been steadily circling around, a greenhouse that seemed to contain a number of large, leafy trees, still green despite the winter outside. Since he couldn’t see any direct way into the greenhouse, Heismay assumed that it must connect to the adjacent Botanical Garden. The doorway to said building was wide open, though he didn’t care to venture inside just yet. On the other side of the Botanical Garden from the greenhouse, the zoo’s biggest staf center stood, its interior relatively intact. If this was the end of the line, Heismay wondered if the third and final Lost Viking might be hiding within.

On the other side of the plaza stood a high brick wall lined with hedges except for the large, heavy metal double doors in the middle, which to Heismay looked a lot like a rear exit. Just to be sure, he jumped up onto the wall, where the sight of the Midnight Walk leading off through snowy hills and coniferous woodland confirmed that the team was a stone’s throw away from freedom. In the distance, he could barely make out Moon Mountain silhouetted against the dark, cloudy sky, just a little bit bigger than before. “Should be no trouble getting through the doors,” he remarked before turning back toward the others. “I’d wager that our stalwart beasts could use a rest, though.” Seeing no danger in his immediate vicinity, he let out a long sigh of relief. “And they’re not the only ones, either. These old bones aren’t what they used to be…”

“Indeed, let us take some time to recover,” Sandalphon decided as she rose to her feet. “No more than twenty minutes if we can help it, though. We have a lot of ground left to cover, and it’s already almost noon.”

With a grunt of affirmation, Heismay hopped over to a lamp post to hang from it, upside-down, and keep watch.

Upon rising to her feet, Sandalphon climbed back into the stagecoach in the hopes of restoring some feeling to her numbed digits. When she sat by the stewpot and held her hands out over the steam, she realized that the vessel was about three-quarters full. “Won’t be long until there’s enough stew for everyone,” she informed the team. “If anyone has any quality, contaminant-free ingredients, now would be an opportune time to add them to the pot.”

When she could feel her fingers again, Sandalphon scrounged up the cryptic vessel from where it had fallen inside the stagecoach and resumed her work. Prior to encountering Tom, she’d actually made a lot of progress on the cipher. Though not an especially experienced cryptographer, she was blessed with almost supercomputer-like mental faculties, making puzzles of this fashion child’s play. After a few more minutes, the cryptic vessel finally clicked open, divulging its hidden contents. These took the form of a single article of correspondence and a photo of what appeared to be a taxidermied crocodile. Someone had drawn on the photo in white ink, circling the crocodile’s mouth. While she didn’t recognize the taxidermy, its surroundings indicated that it must have been somewhere in the Hall of Adventure. After committing that to memory, she quickly scanned the accompanying letter.

Target neutralized. No notable actions observed. Taxidermy secured in excellent condition as ordered. You are now the sole master of the zoo. Congratulations, Lady M.

“M…” Sandalphon’s pupils briefly became loading rings. Not Consul M, surely? “Markiona,” she said after a moment. She looked back at the photo, thinking, then opened her communication sigil. “Excuse me. If possible, I would like to make a request of anyone capable of flight or quick traversal. Please return to the Hall of Adventure and investigate the taxidermied crocodile. If you find anything out of the ordinary, please report it to me.”

With that, she stepped out of the stagecoach and into the cold. She glanced at the Reindrix, which were gnawing on the nearby plants hungrily, then looked at the Botanical Garden. Now that she’d remembered Markiona, the self-styled Puppeteer of Death, she couldn’t sit still. Where in Krat Zoo could this supposed mastermind be hiding, after all, if not in one of these last few buildings? “I would like to investigate the Botanical Garden for any signs of Markiona,” she announced, stepping forward. Since there was no telling what dangers she might encounter therein, she hoped that a few allies would volunteer to join her.

The nearby establishment abruptly exploding had not been high on Yayama's list of expected calls to adventure, though it wouldn't be the first time. It took her a moment to realize it was only one wall being busted out by a ballistic Miqo'te who was, as expected, thoroughly displeased with her current status as a projectile.

Then the catgirl hit the wall, and she exploded. "Seven bloody hells!" Yayama rushed forward to see what in the names of the Nine had just happened, greatsword trailing behind her in one hand. The situation then proceeded to get even more surprising, and significantly more confusing, when the dismembered corpse started speaking to her. Unsettling was added to the mix when her limbs extended tendrils toward one another, reuniting to reform as if the stranger before her were some soulkin reassembling itself after being awoken, and not a flesh-and-blood human. The sight was rather grotesque, to say the least, even if there was no mess left afterward. Not the most horrifying thing she'd seen, but certainly not pleasant. This is some Allagan nonsense, isn't it? It's always the Allagans.

The tapestry of emotion being woven at this time included yet another color of thread in the form of irritation when the recently-un-dismembered Miqo'te began quipping. Badly. It was honestly difficult to listen to, and she'd had all manner of villains, demons, and villainous demons make various attempts at mocking her. "Short jokes. Really. That's honestly the best you could come up with?" Yayama asked, aloud but not really bothering to ensure the woman heard her as Yayama followed after her. "At least make fun of my eyepatch, or say I'm compensating for something with my sword, or something." She was, in fact, short even by Lalafell standards, but she somehow doubted this Seeker - or whatever she was - knew or cared. "It's honestly a bit racist," she grumbled as she entered the building, making her way across the room to position between the angry-looking redhead and the culturally insensitive catgirl.

"Right, so, I'm a bit of a tourist, so perhaps this is normal around here and I'm the one being ignorant, but I've decided that this fight is both a hazard to the public and irritating to me personally." She pointed her sword forward, first at the redhead, then at the Seeker. "I don't know who started this and frankly, I don't care. Both of you two are going to cut this nonsense out, or both of you are going to become intimately familiar with the sensation of the other's skull smashing into your own." She highly doubted they would actually stop, given how often people actually backed down from fights around here (i.e., never,) but she could at least direct it elsewhere or end it herself. At the very minimum, you're going to take it into some kind of actual fighting arena. It's not as if this city is exactly wanting for them. If not, then frankly I'll just have to beat you until you can't move."

Yayama brought her weapon up into a high guard, the blade pointed slightly downward as she settled into a proper Ishgardian fighting stance. "You may not know me, but you'll learn soon enough why they call me Yayama the Unrelenting if you choose badly in the next moment or two." She lowered her voice to a stage whisper. "I would advise picking one of the boring ones."

When Nadia’s latest wordplay-infused one-liner failed to rile her opponent up, and Asher merely looked past her quizzically, the curious feral naturally turned to see what she was looking at. If this had been the classic what’s-that-over-there trick, Nadia would have fallen for it hook, line, and sinker, but as it happened Asher wasn’t trying to pull a fast one; she was taken aback by the irate stranger marching officiously onto the scene. After Nadia spotted the newcomer as well, Asher threw a questioning glance at her opponent as if to ask if this newbie was with her. Nadia shook her head, denying everything.

Yayama proceeded to involve herself with an indignant announcement of her intentions, eliciting an impatient groan from Nadia as she slapped a hand to her forehead. “Oh, brother,” she muttered. It looked like she’d ruffled the feathers of the wrong person. With how much the catgirl liked little dogs, she was well aware that the smallest ones tended to be the most eager to bark and bite. Or did wounding one’s pride count as an attack that triggered Galeem’s influence…? Either way, she couldn’t exactly throw in the towel now, not with so much money hanging in the balance. Sure, she could just steal what she needed, but after letting Asher kick her butt she was too invested. Plus, the redhead actually couldn’t stop herself now, not with that sunset-red gleam in her eyes, and she seemed about as intimidated by Yayama’s threats as Nadia herself (i.e., not at all). Well…if neither combatant could be talked out their duel, maybe the newcomer could be convinced she was the one in the wrong?”

“Aw, no need to get rough, miss…Yayama, you said?” Nadia tried to be civil this time, though she couldn’t quite get the mocking edge out of her voice. “Maybe we got off in the wrong foot. Introductions are a great idea! They call me Ms Fortune the Pun-relenting, and hey, I get where you’re comin’ from. So just hear meowt!

She gestured around at the elegant building, inside which the other Seekers’ two-on-two tag match was still ongoing. “Maybe you weren’t aware, but Fengjian Teahouse is an arena! And it’s a purr-ivate establishment, to boot. You’d know if you were, well, in the know.” Nadia shrugged innocently, as if to say that Yayama’s ignorance couldn’t be helped. So far she’d kept her voice loud enough that the second-floor spectators could hear her, intending to play the crowd. Yayama had let slip a couple choice words, after all, that were bound to turn her precious ‘public’ against her. “I mean, who can blame you. After all, why would a tourist know anythin’ about Esaka customs?”

Irritated whispers began to intensify among the onlookers. Luckily for her, Nadia hadn’t completely zoned out during Investigator Azuma’s introduction at the city gates. In Esaka, ‘tourist’ was something of a loaded word, referring to ignorant outsiders who barged into the city’s somewhat insular community, then try to change time-honored traditions to suit themselves instead of putting in the time and effort to become a skilled fighter. At the same time, the few Teahouse patrons who didn’t scowl at Yayama for her conspicuous self-admission probably suspected her to be a cop or something similar, here to put a stop to their unsanctioned gambling.

Gaining momentum, Nadia treated the Lalafell to a somewhat condescending smile as she bowed, gesturing back toward the hole in the wall. Opposite her, Asher stood with her arms crossed, itching to finish the fight. “So, uh, if you don’t mind, why doncha head on your merry way and let us consentin’ adults do our business?”

“Well, I’d be happy to, if you hadn’t nearly gotten your giblets all over my freshly polished armor. Or nearly taken my head off careening through that wall.” That smug grin was already starting to annoy her. “Honestly, your puns are almost worse than the potential physical injury,” she muttered with a roll of her eyes, not particularly caring whether Nadia heard the words or not.

The feral cracked a grin. “It’s called pun-ishment for a reason! And hey, sorry my dismembered corpse almost bled on you. Promise I won’t do it again!”

Yayama turned her focus toward the redhead. “Don’t think I’m forgetting about you, either. I’m all for beating the daylights out of one another in an organized and voluntary fashion, mind you, but can you at least do so without the part where you endanger random passers-by? I’ve made my annoyance quite clear, but the one thing I cannot abide is putting innocents at risk, customs or no.”

The lalafell then leaned back slightly, casting her voice upward as well. “And for those wondering, I haven’t been any sort of law enforcement for years.” Technically, enforcement had never been a strict duty of hers, but her old Grand Company may as well have been officers of the law as well as soldiers. “I’m not planning on takin’ anything but your coin in bets, don’t you worry.”

Up above, the crowd didn’t seem wholly convinced, but they weren’t on edge any more, at least. Asher stared down at Yayama for a few moments, unimpressed, before scratching her neck idly. “Yeah, yeah. Got a little carried away, I guess.” She yawned and stretched. “We’ll wrap it up nice and easy, ‘kay?”

“And if you’re just itchin’ to knock some heads yourself, you could always put dibs on the winner,” Nadia added. If this gal turned out to be a better sport than she thought, maybe she’d be willing to join in the fun.

“Well. I thought that'd be harder.” Yayama dropped her stance, settling her greatsword on one shoulder and taking a few steps back to give the two brawlers room. “I was expecting you two to resist more, maybe both turn on me.” She didn't seem fazed by the prospect.

Yayama turned and strolled over to a seat, at which point she spoiled her image somewhat by needing to climb onto the seat before she could lazily plop herself down. She gestured vaguely forward between the redhead and Nadia. “Well, go on, then.”

Snickering, Nadia tossed her a salute, then turned back toward her opponent. “Now, where were we?” Her nails hardened into claws as she bounced back and forth, ready to scrap.

Asher slammed her airborne shields together with a resounding clang, then span them off to her sides as she put up her dukes. “Let’s finish this.”

She’s got to be hiding something. The Miqo’te is too confident, and the read I’m getting on her doesn’t feel like someone who’s just here to fight. There was a simple answer, of course, one that went along with her attitude and the shady nature of the establishment. Yayama didn’t have the context to know why, or who else might be involved, but one thing was starting to seem obvious. I’ll need to mind myself.

She’s holding back.

As Jr and Rika raced past the squad of 4 cops, brazenly breaking all the rules including the ones said cops governed reality (namely their ability to simply bug out of a fight) they got a few seconds of grace before they started getting chased. They took every hammering heartbeat of those seconds and pumped them straight into getting out of dodge.

Jr reached the portal first as planned and, expecting resistance, clicked his tape just before entering it. What emerged on the other side wasn’t a little kid, but instead the towering Dullahan that had taken all four of the elite cops to take down. Cops they’d left behind. That left only the rank and file to come face to face to the ethereal emerging from out of the black wall of the hollow where it cut into a street.

Specifically, it was a hollow ate up half of a road, with the other half absurdly still in use, only some concrete barriers blocking drivers from taking a swerve into the liminal space. Or at least that was usually the case. Currently the temporary traffic lights were both set to red and the cops had commandeered the real space half of the street, setting up a cordon while they waited for transport to arrive to pick up their prisoners.

A Dullahan emerging out from the hollow instead of their leaders caused quite a bit of alarm. The prisoners, cuffed as they were, wanted to be nowhere near this thing, while the cops were caught between stopping their panicked flight, getting away themselves, or just being stunned in surprise.

The sweeper unit in their employ had no such emotional foibles and immediately lunged into action, deploying circular saws from its hands.

Jr raised his new cassette beast’s shield in response, blocking the blow, only for the machine to hold the contact and for the saws to start to slice through the crystal bulwark.

That could have represented a problem for sure, but Jr was only here to hold the line for a breath or two while Rika hid behind him and tried to work out where they were. Or rather got Seek to do that for them.

“...”

”Got it! To the right!” she called out, prompting Jr to haul the robot’s saw out of the way and to click off the tape. He dodged to the side, avoiding the sweeper’s attempt to kick him and causing it to instead kick a magma mine. Then both kids were running towards the cops who couldn't open shoot at them due to the risk of crossfire, and who when they tried to deliver melee strikes instead found the pair leaping over them with their absurd platforming capabilities.

A monet later they landed, having cleared the cordon, and then started running. Behind them the elite cops emerged from the hollow, while sirens blared as someone reported in about a set of kids on the run. Which was going to make doing some shopping a bit tricky. Especially when they spotted one of the big digital screens that normally warned about hollows instead switching to footage of them, warning about "dangerous delinquents"

”Woops” Rika said, only really now cottoning on to how her actions had had consequences ”Guess this is why we generally don’t do this stuff”

”Doesn’t matter, stick to the plan!” Jr replied, before asking their stolen NetNavi ”We close Seek?”

“...”

”I see it!” Rika replied, prompting them both to make for an alleyway beside a building that had been partially eaten by the Hollow, but which was still standing. There they found a thin gap between the hollow and the wall, just as Seek had told them, and daringly slipped inside.

When the cops burst into the building via the front door a few moments later, and rushed towards the back rooms they didn’t find the kids. Instead they just found more of what was covering the inside of the building: masses of graffiti, the condemned building having been turned into something of an arthouse for the stuff.

Graffiti which Jr had added his own addition too: an M with two umlauts on top.

---

Half way across the world, and deep underground, the pair of kids materialised from a steam of paint globules, and then dropped down at the front gates of the Home of Tears, having traveled there via Jr’s warp graffiti.



The seekers had spent a fair amount of time in this, the greatest city of the Under, and it had all been eventful. Alongside scaling a tower filled with determination infused monsters, donating to an orphanage, cheese running and partaking in auctions, they had also slain their first Consul, P, here and inadvertently opened up a spot on their alphabetical roster for Peach to take his place.

In doing so they’d handed the town over to a sorcerous man named Gallo (who’s tower they had spawned in close by too) and he’d apparently wasted no time in demolishing the statue of the Consul that had once stood center of place atop a grand fountain found at the heart of the city.

This fountain was held instead, at least temporarily, into a podium of some kind, atop which Gallo himself could be seen, along with a few other figures, while all around them the people of the city had gathered.

Among the people up top, one was a stern looking Deer Woman was in the midst of being sworn in as the city’s democratically elected Mayor, if the campaign posters plastered on the walls where any indication.

”Guess the guy doesn't want to deal with actually running the place I guess?” Jr said as he watched this, to which Rika shrugged. She had a bigger concern on her mind, which was ”Think they all still hate us after F tried to get them to run us out of town?” because the crowd was definitely about the same size as the one that had chased them all the way across Crumble Canyon to the Pizza tower at its far end.

”Ehhhh. You know what. Maybe. Let’s not find out” Jr agreed after spotting the real Undyne in it, along with her mermaid guards, who’d been the biggest actual threats of that chase, before adding ”Plus they aren't gonna like us when we jump someone”

Rika nodded to that too, after which they went to have a snoop around the quiet streets for a good spot to do so, poking their noses into alleyways here and there till they came across something odd: A shifty looking imp creature hanging out in one of those alleyways.

Upon spotting their own shifty ways, it raised its head up a bit and grinned, before bobbing its head back to encourage them to come on into its back ally realm while the fish cops were all busy with frivolous ceremonies.

The pair glanced at each other, then approached, only for it extend a claw from its jacket to strike while a half dozen other imps leapt out of hiding spaces with a collective “boo!”

The combined barrage of Jump Scares left the kids flinched with fright, allowing the monsters to make a grab for their things, including, once again, Jr’s phone which Seek had been making a map of the town on.

The kids were a lot tougher than they looked however, and tanked the blows handily rather than being taken down for the count, after which they turned the tables on the would-be robbers. Soon enough they’d grabbed their stuff right back from the now fleeing lesser imps and got the taller trenchcoat imp, the Hopskin, knocked to the ground. Rika then pinned it there and gave it it a few socks to the face before Jr used one of their remaining blank tapes to make a recording of it.

”So… Now what do we do with him?” Rika asked once they’d gotten what they’d needed, entirely ready to just kill their ambusher. Jr however thought much more deeply about this, the days and past actions and consequences all weighing deeply on his mind before he gave up and just decided they should ”Stuff it in a trash can!”

So they did, because it was funny to them, leaving the trenchcoat imp struggling upside down with a face full of garbage while they made one last stop, which was just to go and buy a cheap rain jacket that would fit Undyne’s frame. It was only after they’d done this that the shopkeeper asked “wait, shouldn’t you be at the ceremony?” Prompting them to both hurry out of sight once more.

Thus, with all their preparations made, Jr painted them a portal leading back to Shinjuku, where Jr, wearing the form of Undyne with a long rainjacket over her armor, and Rika, wearing the form of a not at all suspicious looking Imp, materialized in front of the city, and once again started to make their way towards the tape store. This time, there’d be no distractions or run-ins with the law, they swore. Just as long as no-one tried to steal Seek again, and also just as long as no one recognized the distinctive device they were installed on as having belonged to the kids whose faces were currently on every screen in the city.

The embers that remained of Mokou’s attack began to fade, claimed by the low temperatures of the zoo. At least, all but the glowiest spark, which quickly burst into a small ball of fire, before dispersing to reveal an unharmed Mokou. Tilting her head to the side as if stretching, Mokou simply floated lazily towards the stagecoach, turning midair to watch the fight against Tom unfolded, not even bothering to unleash anymore feathers. She could recognize a beast’s final strokes before it lost the ability to fight.

Thus, she instead simply followed the stagecoach, letting the battle die down behind her as Tom slunk back into the water. She hardly matched the frantic speed of the Reindrix, but she nevertheless made it to the stagecoach with the others, giving a casual wave to Heismay as she landed within the clearing, taking notice of his momentary worry.

As the Seekers began to settle down for a short rest though, Mokou simply began to walk on, making her way to the staff center. Though, as she did so, she stopped by Geralt, having recognized them from the fact that they had been in the freezing water. The phoenix was well aware of the effects hypothermia could have on a body, and with how old they seemed… Well, better to be safe than sorry, “Hey. Figured you could use this, should help with the cold. Don’t hold onto it directly, just keep it close and guide it with your hand if you need to” Mokou says as she holds out a hand, a small wisp of fire forming into a feather similar to the one she gave to the Viking earlier and allowing it to hover in front of Geralt. With that, she puts her hand back into her pocket, continuing on to the staff center.

Thankfully, the door to the building was unlocked, allowing Mokou to easily enter without having to make a large scene. That and it was, in comparison to the rest of the zoo, still relatively intact, almost as if the chaos of the zoo had not touched it.

… At least, that would be the case, if not for the angry shouting coming from deeper into the building, something that caused Mokou to direct her attention towards, already making her way towards the sounds. It didn’t take long for Mokou to find the source of the noise within the rec room within the staff center: A blond haired man yelling profanities as they were wrapped up a giant silk ball, and a massive spider that was easily larger than Mokou herself, almost mutated beyond recognition, with their legs being an amalgamation of different, non-arachnid parts. The spider seemed to be wholly focused on its work, continuing to wrap up the man to save a meal for later.

Suddenly, a sharp whistle broke the angry ranting of the Viking and the work of the spider as the two snapped their heads to look at the source of the noise. For the Viking, it was a confusing sight: A short, white haired girl walking into the room without a care in the world. For the spider, however, it was simply another intruder… Or more specifically, another source of food.

With angry chittering, the spider plants the Viking upon the wall next to them, its webbing sticking to the surface like glue while the creature descended down onto the floor, keeping direct eye contact with Mokou. On her end, Mokou did not seem at all concerned by the approach of the spider, instead stopping in the center of the room, removing her hand from her pocket and aiming two fingers at it. For a moment, the two stood off, the spider twitching ever so slightly as it prepared to strike, and Mokou staring at it with a bored expression, silently daring it to try.

Then, in an instant, the spider leapt forward, fangs bared. And in the same instant, a condensed stream of flame split it in two, completely obliterating the center as the two remaining halves sailed by Mokou’s body, the legs instantly curling up as they registered their death.

With that out of the way, Mokou shakes her hand, a few remaining wisps of flame dispersing as she did so, “Honestly getting tired with all the mutated creatures around here. Though that was hardly the biggest spider I’ve ever seen” she stated as she walked forward, placing her hand back into her pocket, looking over the near cocooned form of the Viking, “Hm. Good thing I showed up, I doubt it had anything pleasant planned for you” Mokou added, her casualness causing the Viking’s expression to sour,

“Aye, I know that well enough. Damn beast caught me by surprise: Had I fought it directly, it would have been no match for me!” the Viking says, evidently proud of his own strength… Before remembering his current predicament, “Unfortunately, these webs are rather strong. I could use a-”

“Helping hand, yeah, I gathered as much” Mokou interrupted, already moving over to the bound Viking, floating up and placing her hand on the webbing, “Keep still, this is easier if you don’t move.”

With that, an orange pulse rippled through the webbing, and within seconds, each strand began to burn away, the fire condensed to not affect the Viking within. Soon enough, the webbing had been burned enough to release its captive… And cause him to fall straight to the floor, a fact that Mokou did bother trying to stop.

“Gah, bloody hell, I appreciate the help lass, but could ye not have dealt with the fall?" they said, groaning as they pushed themselves off of the ground, all while Mokou simply floated to the ground, hands back in her pocket, giving him a nonchalant shrug.

“It was only a short fall. Not like it’s gonna hurt you long term. More importantly, you’re one of the vikings here right? The tall one is with us, and Erik is safe too.”

“Ah, you’ve met me brothers then. I reckon they’ve been hiding away. Even sounds like Olaf never gave you their name! Absolutely disgraceful. Us Vikings have better manners than that, I can’t believe they wouldn’t give a name to their saviors! Not like I expect anything more-” the Viking continued on, showing no signs of stopping his berating of his brothers, or at least complaining about their flaws. For her part, Mokou simply shrugged, and silently began to guide them out of the building and to the stagecoach. She’d heard this kind of talk too many times to count, but hey, if it helped with his stress, then so be it.

@Lugubrious @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN

Harry Dubois

𝒦𝒾𝓂 𝒦𝒾𝓉𝓈𝓊𝓇𝒶𝑔𝒾

Word Count: 1206
Level: Lv: 6 EXP: (3/60)
Lv: 4 EXP: (5/40)
Location: Forbidden Kingdom - Esaka’s Middle Tier: Buddhist Temple

Both men seemed to notice the many yokai that were loitering around the temple. Harry, in particular, gave Kim a concerned look. And Kim gave Harry a reassuring nod, which made his partner feel more at ease. “Should we strike up a conversation with them? Or just try to avoid them?” “Should we strike up a conversation with them? Or just try to avoid them?” Harry whispered to Big Band, using a hand to cover one side of his mouth so only he could hear him. Both detectives were startled by the strange and rather frightening-looking creatures. But Harry tried rationalizing that this world was much different from his own. And creatures like this were commonplace.

Whatever Band said in response to his question, the group continued. Harry was intrigued by the many gods that were being worshipped here. Harry stopped walking and took a moment to take in the beauty of the temple. He crouched down to run his hand over the cobblestone floor. Quickly joining the others inside the temple. Harry whispered loudly, finding the inside of the temple to be equally as beautiful as the outside. Harry had wandered off to study the inside of the temple.

Kim was with Big Band and was uncertain if the Yokai he was speaking to would attack them. He had already had quite a lot of negative interactions with them, and assumed this would be another such situation. But Kim was glad that, for the time being, that was not the case.

“Is there quite a lot of gambling that goes on during the tournament. Most people, including the yokai, partake in betting on which fighter will win.” Kim said, looking down at the impish yokai. He, along with his partner, had dealt with many residents having arguments about who won or lost. Or if they owe them money or not.

Money was not something he cared for. He was only joining the tournament to help Harry and the seekers defeat Galeem. Although he had broken many fights caused by the yokai, he had also helped the yokai, especially the little one, out of trouble. ” We will keep that in mind.” Kim started jotting down some notes about the Heavenly Principles and how the currency is used in Esaka. This was mainly for Harry, who would probably want to know a little bit more about the economy here. Kim nodded towards the two yokai before running into Zenkichi.

As Harry was looking at a Buddha statue behind him, a silver-haired drunk was stumbling towards him, trying to pass him. But he lost his balance and fell onto Harry.

Both men were crumpled on the ground in a heap. The man was trying to get back up but kept falling over. The same was happening to Harry since he was pretty drunk himself. “Ow” Harry grunted, trying to move the other man’s body. The man’s foot was not so gently nudging up against his cheek.

“Sorry, bud, I was…here to meet my friend here…guess I didn’t notice you.” The man, with Harry’s help, was helped back onto his feet.

“No problem, I’m feeling a bit tipsy myself, so it’d be pretty easy to knock me over. Maybe I can help you find your friend. I’m a detective after all. ” Harry asked, looking over to notice Kim and Band walking ahead of him.

“Hehe, thanks, you're a real pal. My name is Brad, nice to meet a free spirit like yourself.” The man smiled and extended his hand for Harry to shake. After shaking hands and introducing himself, the two drunks started looking around for his friend.

“So what brings you here? You don’t seem like you're from around here.” Brad said as the two were walking casually behind Kim and Band. Kim, on occasion, would look behind him to make sure he didn’t lose Harry.

“Well, I’m participating in one of the tournaments along with my partner over there.” Harry took a moment to point to Kim. But it was hard to tell since he was drunk, so to Brad it looked like he was pointing at the mechanical detective.

Brad gave Harry a smile that seemed to reach from ear to ear. “Really huh? Which tournament are you and your partner in?”

“I’ve joined the Street Fighter tournament, and my partner is gonna be doing the Tekken tournament.” Harry said, smiling back at Brad.

“Awesome, you might be fighting me or my friend. How good are you at fighting?” Brad asked, being curious how well the detective would do in a fight.

“I ain’t no slouch, I took down some yokai outside of the city. And I took down some ghosts by punching them in the nards.” This statement from Harry made Brad laugh hard enough that he almost fell over again.

The two men were approached by a blonde figure who was scolding Brad. “Drunk again? How are you going to win the tournament if you're blind drunk?”

“Pssh, you don’t have to worry about me, Ellie. You might have to worry about this guy.” Brad clapped his hand on Harry’s shoulder.

Harry assumed this blonde “person” was Brad’s friend. At first glance, he thought this person was a woman and found them quite beautiful. Harry licked his hand and tried to slick back his thinning hair. ” I heard from your friend that you're a pretty skilled fighter. What kind of martial art do you practice?”

“Ellie” cringed at seeing Harry trying to be slick and strike up a conversation. But he didn’t want to be rude and dismissive of Harry, even though he seemed like another drunk like Brad. “The martial art I was taught is called Xingyi Quan.” He said, narrowing his eyes, staring at Harry.

“Cool, what’s it like? And what kind of martial art do you know?” He asked Elliot, with the second question being directed at Brad. Brad answered by saying he knows Zui Quan, a martial art that imitates the movements of a drunkard. With Brad mentioning that the martial art would work better if the user were drunk. And Elliot went further into what Xingyi Quan is all about.

Harry seemed transfixed on Brad’s explanation of Zui Quan and Xingyi Quan. Being more interested in Zui Quan, and that it was a martial art an alcoholic like himself could use. Or at the very least mimic the movement of his drunken state in a fight. Harry tried to get some private “training” from Elliot but was quickly rebuked. The two left after Brad mentioned he’d like to fight him at the tournament. Harry agreed, wanting to see Zui Quan in action.

As he walked back to meet Band and Kim, he was practicing his punches and kicks in his drunken stupor. A sight that made some stare in amusement. ” Yo Zen, I’m glad ya found a place to sleep. Kim and I could have a look around and scrounge for some money for ya.” And by scrounging, he meant begging on the street and sifting through garbage to find something to sell.

It turned out that Mokou had not fallen into the water, as she reformed in the air only a little bit later. Considering she'd turned herself into a human fireball, it was a little surprising to see her just pop back into existence totally unharmed. Then again maybe not, if her power was some sort of magic. Maybe he'd ask about it later. What was most important was that she was now accounted for, so once everyone was out of the water Ace pulled himself up too. With the immediate threats dealt with and the way forward already cleared by Heismay and the stagecoach itself, he and the others could catch up with it at their own pace.

Compared to the rest of Krat Zoo so far, the plaza they'd ended up in was rather nice. Quieter too, at least for now, though Ace didn't let his guard down too much. He looked up at the huge buildings and the tops of the trees that poked out from one of them, tracing them with his eyes. Eventually he came to the same conclusion as Heismay, that the garden and greenhouse were probably connected.

There came a surprise for the group then, but thankfully a pleasant one. Ramattra had managed to catch up with them! He must have had an easier time in the stagecoach's wake as its new owners obliterated most enemies in their path.

When the monk (as he'd introduced himself as) stayed behind for some extra investigation into that mill with Kit and Celica, Ace had wondered if the three of them were going to attempt to reunite with the rest of the Seekers. They were all relatively fresh-faced, and the group's grand quest was dangerous, even if the morning had gone relatively well even with the coach being attacked as they covered ground - not to mention Ramattra didn't even truly understand their goals just yet. But here he was, with a small bounty of odds and ends and news regarding the two that had retreated back to Snowdin.

It was unfortunate to have lost two of the people that had set out with them from the Avenger even if they'd gained two more in exchange, but at least they were still alive.

"Glad you made it back," Ace said to Ramattra, giving the omnic a good-natured clap on the shoulder. They'd have to take the chance to set Ramattra free as soon as possible. hopefully without having to weaken him themselves.

In the mean time they could all spread out and take a breather. Besides the rations he'd bought earlier and already stowed in the coach (which would probably serve them better staying out of the stew anyway) Ace unfortunately didn't have any food to contribute to it. He wished he did, as the smaller breakfast that morning was doing little to hold the hunter over at the moment. Maybe they could get lucky with the leftover reindrix spirits from the few botches capture attempts. Not long later Ace heard Sandalphon announce her intention to explore and looked at her. He still didn't know the archangel all that well, and he wouldn't have blamed her if she took a pragmatic approach and had suggested steering clear of mysterious, egotistical villains and just leaving the zoo behind them as soon as possible. However, the group's newly elected leader had so far shown that she had people's best interests at heart, and not just those of the Seekers.

Ace grinned. "I'll 'grow' with you. I wanted to check out the greenhouse anyway. And who knows, maybe we can pick out some useful plants in there while we're at it."

Including the one they actually needed, if they were so lucky.

While the crew split up to chase individual leads, the Cadet pushed open the doors to the botanical garden, letting those that intended to investigate it inside. Immediately a waft of humid air greeted the Seekers, and as the doors swung closed to trap in the warmth and their eyes adjusted to the lighting, they made out the massive building's interior.

Even with glass panes forming the garden's roof, with the sky still overcast a lot of the light came from small lamps that dotted the area. Save for the entrance which featured a short, straight trail of stone that led further in, there were paths that twisted and crisscrossed not only the ground level but elevated walkways and even higher maintenance catwalks too. Decorative fences and fixtures lined these paths, and a few terminated in locked gates made of the same hard iron that could be found throughout the rest of the zoo.

And, of course, the central area was flooded with plants. Many, many plants that not only seemed to still be thriving, but had grown to excess. Curling vines, expansive leaves, colorful petals, weaving roots, and full grown trees were everywhere, obstructing much of the view from every direction. They swallowed up whole areas and pushed their way through the cracks in the ground, though for the moment they seemed to be more minor obstacles than true hazards... save for the toothy bulbs, rooted to the ground and unable to give chase but that still snapped at anything that moved.

"It's like a mini jungle in here," Ace noted, reading one of the many plaques that had been staked into the ground around the various species of flora and were yet to be completely covered by the plants they identified. They showed common names along with scientific names, though only a few gave any additional information. Some of the variety were more interesting than others, like the Bomb Spore Plant whose name said all the Seekers needed to know about it. The scoutflies buzzed around some more innocent looking plants like the Star Brambles whose ripe bulbs could be harvested only by someone strong enough to wrench them off. There were also pale tomatoes and groundcherries to be found among the underbrush, the resulting low light from larger plants' foliage not affecting their growth at all, as well as Popcorn Plants that looked nothing like their namesake until the hard reddish ears were struck, at which point they opened up and the edible insides were revealed.

Ace had absolutely no qualms about gathering up what he could as the group passed the various plants after sampling a few. A little unwise maybe, but so far no ill effects. If it stayed that way then they could throw a few into the stew pot!

As they walked the Seekers would still have to watch out for animals, though in this case it was mostly in the form of additional animal enclosures that added to the visual noise of the place and further obscured the pathways. These, thankfully, were meant for smaller creatures, and even those that had succumb to whatever infection had taken hold of Krat Zoo appeared unable to escape the still-functioning tanks they'd been locked into. While carcasses were not a present concern in the garden, it wasn't without its own dangers. Stalking the area instead were humanoid Arche Puppets with slender bodies seemingly made of metal. They moved gracefully and did not attack each other, but they were by no means passive. If the Seekers got too close and were spotted, the durable puppets made a beeline towards them to engage with an agile, acrobatic fighting style. Worse still the puppets were not mindless as the carcasses had been and if more than one fought together they would coordinate their offense and defense.

It wouldn't be a stretch to assume they might be related in some way to the self-proclaimed 'puppeteer of death,' so the Seekers were definitely on the right track.

They ascended one of the ramps leading to the raised perimeter for a better view, but it hardly made it any easier to see. One thing that stuck out was what appeared to be a storage room off to one side. It could be assumed that various tools for tending the garden were probably housed there but maybe there would be a collection of various seeds for sowing too. The Seekers could still go even higher, onto the iron catwalks, and above that... the glass roof, and what appeared to be an attached penthouse room. Ace squinted at the top of the greenhouse through the windows.

It was here that those who'd chosen to enter the botanical garden could split up even further. The storage room, the penthouse, the greenhouse... though there still didn't seem to be any path that really led to the latter. Well, that was fine - Ace could just try and forge one.

"I'm gonna see-d if I can find a way into the next building," he said, glancing down at the floor below where even now a few puppets were milling about. He could maybe brute force his way through and just head in the greenhouse's direction, but since the catwalks rose above most of the tallest plants an even higher point of view might help. With that he got to climbing. "If one of you needs any help, just holler."

Geralt only had to tread water in the freezing-cold pool for a few scant moments before Ace arrived gallantly, offering a hand to each so that he could keep them up with his water-walking rigging. As Blazermate once again took to the air, Geralt simply leaned against his fellow monster hunter, letting out a long sigh. “F-f-fuck, that’s cold. Thanks for the s-save.” His teeth were chattering and his bones were already starting to hurt from the bitter cold that had seeped into them. As he guided the pair back to land, Geralt pointed back to where Mokou was beginning to reform, grunting for Ace to turn his head. “T-There. The girl’s fine. Just…came back from whatever she did.” He wasn’t sure if it was anything like Ishmael’s Identities or if she simply had abilities like phoenixes were mythologized to in his world.

Once they were back on relatively stable footing, Geralt released his hold on the Ace and shook himself off, splashing some ice-cold water on his rescuer before giving the man a sheepish grimace. “Sorry. Just…so damned cold.” He complained, before transforming into Ardor Blossom for a brief respite from his wet armor. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he began the walk forward to where the stagecoach had gone, though the relief provided by his transformation would only last a brief thirty seconds.

Once they caught up with the rest of the Seekers, Geralt wasted no time in trying to find a warm spot to recover. As he did, Mokou approached him with an offer of a tiny flame that he could magically guide with his own hands. Nodding at the newest addition to their party, he raised his hand to take the fiery feather. “Appreciate it.” While he warmed himself, he took a moment to perform the armory incantation to send the hexabarrel repeater he’d gotten from Eryk to the armory. While Edward or Sandalphon might have been able to make use of it, he just wanted it off his hands. They seemed to be armed with higher-quality gear as it was. If they needed a sidearm, they could check later.

His eyes travelled to the greenhouse, into which no obvious entrance presented itself. As Sandalphon announced both the inevitable arrival of stew (to which Geralt had nothing to add) and her intent to begin exploring the building adjacent to the warm-looking area, he sighed. Best to go in a group, which meant he had less time to warm up before moving again. While it was certainly wise not to sit and wait to freeze to death, unnecessary expenditure of energy also hastened the chill of hypothermia, so he’d been hoping to sit with Mokou’s flamefeather a bit longer.

Still, he rose to join the group entering the botanical garden, letting the little flame drift off and snuff itself out against the group as he began moving.

The warm, humid air of the botanical garden was a blessing and a curse. While the higher temperature was certainly welcome, the humidity meant that the chilled water still stuck to Geralt’s armor and clothing wouldn’t readily evaporate. The sheer variety of plants around them had Geralt’s interest piqued, though he doubted many of them would be useful for alchemy. The existence of a “bomb spore plant” made him rethink that assumption, but he wasn’t willing to mess with potentially-volatile plant spores to discover just how useful it might be, though he joined Ace in gathering from the less-explosive botanicals within the garden.

It seemed the only danger present were the humanoid figures roaming the area, metallic in form and patrolling for intruders. Thankfully, their fairly predictable patterns and gleaming bodies made it a fairly simple matter for the Seekers to evade detection through keeping their distance and only moving when they turned away. When they reached the raised perimeter, evading the patrolling puppets became all but impossible, but they proved little match for the assembled Seekers.

While the ruckus caused by the fighting did attract a few further-off Puppets, each was dispatched with such haste that they never got the opportunity to gather in a group and put their more advanced tactics to the test. Between Geralt, Ace, and Sandalphon, they had all three range categories easily covered, while any others who joined merely added to their ability to carve through any comers.

“Let us know what you find.” Geralt answered the Ace, turning to give Sandalphon a nod. “Gonna go with him once he finds a way in, but for now I’ll keep by you. Not keen on running around and getting lost in all these plants.”