[center]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/kNmO8zV.png[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/ziR5Pse.png[/img]
[b][color=DarkOrange]wordcount:[/color][/b]  959 (+2) (ammy +22)
[b][color=DarkOrange]Location:[/color][/b] Forbidden Kingdom - Esaka’s Low Tier
[b][color=DarkOrange]Amaterasu: level 9[/color][/b] EXP: [color=DarkOrange]//////////////////[/color]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (18/90)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 15 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](291/150)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP:  [color=Aqua]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](127/110)
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Amatarasu got a good look at the dramatic event she’d missed last night on the tv screens as they walked in, and mentally cursed herself for not being present to help. While the seekers were, it seemed, all in one piece (minus Miss Fortune but apparently that was normal for her), the same could apparently not be said for some of the event’s bystanders, and that information left a knot in her gut and shame on her brow. 

She should have been there. She should have been able to do something. To help the helpless. That the citizens were unaffected only hammered the discomfort home, and added to the feeling that if she had to be doing good, because few others would be doing so in this world.

The news from Jr and Rika of all people added a reminder however that there were, of course, higher stakes at play here. A reality full of injustice, which could not be ended if the root was not ripped out and burned. If the parasite that had built it was snuffed out.

The, as it turned out, rather un-creative parasite.

The divine wolf had to agree that it was odd that Galeem had plagiarized how it ran its new world, but Jr did have a point when he said that [color=SpringGreen]”I mean it already stole everything else n glued it together, right? Seems like exactly the same kinda deal here. Probably stole the whole guardian thing from somewhere else too, because I bet it straight up can’t make anything new”[/color] 

The reasoning that had led him to come to this conclusion did not impress her however, given it turned out to be [color=SpringGreen]”Ya know, because its lame and dum”[/color] 

THe divine wolf’s guess meanwhile was that it was some limitation in its nature. That, or, well, depending on how many worlds it had eaten, maybe everything had been done before already, so it might as well just replicate one of the reality ruling regimes instead of trying to come up with its own unique premise, and to then glue on yet more layers of wards to the seal that kept it in power.

[color=Aqua]”It’s kinda nice to know that this didn’t work last time though. Like before, it was all ‘everyone who tried to beat Galeem failed’ but now that we know the way it runs the place has been torn down before makes it feel like we can do it too”[/color] Rika noted, finding a little nugget of hope in the information, before adding a bit more sadly [color=Aqua]”Just, like, in a way that doesn’t force us apart when it's all over”[/color]

[color=SpringGreen]”We’ll find a way”[/color] Jr insisted, before saying [color=SpringGreen]”and we’ll find that sword guy too”[/color] and then speculating [color=SpringGreen]”Maybe Vulgrim knows about him? Or what the sword was made out of?”[/color] though he didn’t seem too confident in the sales demon’s information, even if the not finding exactly what they wanted was mostly due to getting sidetracked repeatedly.

[color=Aqua]”Maybe. We’ll need to feed him a lot though”[/color] Rika pointed out, but Jr already had an answer lined up from that, namely [color=SpringGreen]”Which we can get from hollows”[/color]

He then explained [color=SpringGreen]”Shinjuku’s got these big energy balls that’ve eaten up a bunch of the city. If you go in them with a guide who can get you around, which we’ve got lined up, there’s weird monsters we could hunt, and also this Ether energy stuff that’s super valuable apparently”[/color] before suggesting [color=SpringGreen]”So while you're doing your tournament stuff, everyone who’s not doing that could go raid a hollow for resources”[/color] 

Rika wasn’t quite so sure, mainly because of the news about the new threat to the seekers. So she asked [color=Aqua]”What about those, G-corp guys though? Maybe we should just kill em all and loot their stuff instead? Gets us what we need, and gets them off everyone else’s back while they’re doing tournament stuff”[/color] 

That latter option certainly sounded better to Amaterasu, even, if again, she disagreed with the children’s reasoning. She’d rather not worry about saboteurs in between, or worse during, matches. Admittedly she was a bit weary of letting the children go off and fight said battle, but given that G-corp hadn’t dared commit to a fair fight, they could probably handle them in one.

Ultimately, what the non-tournament fighters decided to do was up to them. Or up to anyone who took issue with them, given they were going to start drawing attention to themselves one way or another now that the tournament brackets were up. 

If they’d managed to hide in the tall grass so far, then they were out in the open for all to see now, assuming the Consuls had anyone watching (which surely they must). If the names of slayers of other Guardians didn’t catch their attention, nor the un-galeeming eyes of the soon to be fighters, then Amaterasu’s little contribution almost certainly would.

She’d had the good graces to look a little sheepish when the question of if anyone had mentioned the words ‘Seekers of Light’ had been asked earlier, because while she hadn't quite done that, the team name she’d come up with for their entrance into the trio’s tournament was a single letter off of it. Only a little though. Seekers of Fight was a good bit of wordplay in her opinion though, and now it was out in the open for everyone to see.

Time would tell how much trouble they were going to bring down on their heads before the tournament was done.