[center][h3]Esaka, the Tiered City - the Pools[/h3]
[b]Setting:[/b] Drizzly Friday Morning
Lvl 15 Ms Fortune (272/150) Level 11 Big Band (212/110)
Amaterasu’s [@DracoLunaris] Roland’s [@Archmage MC] Pit’s [@Yankee] Sakura & Juri’s [@Zoey Boey] Captain Falcon’s [@Double] Yayama’s [@Chevaleresse] Grima’s [@Goggy]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 821 / 658[/center]

Big Band had imagined that his report might come as a letdown to Primrose, if not an outright source of worry given the Seekers’ dwindling numbers in Esaka’s four tournaments, but even for a seasoned detective it was almost impossible to tell what the dancer was thinking. Maybe she, like Band, was more stressed than she let on, but that could just as easily be projection on Band’s part. For all the gusto with which the team traipsed into Esaka two days ago, things weren’t looking so good today. With Ms Fortune, Zenkichi, Harry, and Juri all gone (or at least unreachable), the Seekers were down four people, and of the new allies they’d recruited here like Kim and Terry, only Yayama remained. On this cloudy, rainy Friday morning, it was hard to see the silver lining.

Of course, Band had learned long ago that indulging in doubts did nobody any favors. Rather than bring the mood down or try to analyze Primrose further, he accepted the dancer’s optimism, as well as her healing. Even with so little of his real body left inside his mobile iron lung, a little Warmth went a long way. As for her proposed investigation, he mulled it over with a thoughtful expression. Indeed, he had not failed to notice the somewhat anomalous nature of Esaka’s respawn process, but so far he hadn’t judged it relevant enough to the campaign’s interests to warrant looking into. Maybe he’d just assumed that the Consuls overseeing each pocket of civilization could customize the local system to suit their own interests. If Primrose thought there was more here than met the eye, though, it was as good a place to start as any.

Before he knew it, Band was on his feet and following the dancer through the Pools. He couldn’t help but stifle a smile at Primrose as he walked along. Beauty and brains, not to mention might and magic, able to steer and conversation and get what she wanted so effortlessly. The detective was glad she was on his side.

A clockwise path up from the city’s south side, where World Warrior matches predominated, brought the two to the western section of the Pools tier, where the city’s most savage fighters engaged in Mortal Kombat. Right away the Seekers laid eyes on a fierce struggle, surrounded by an unusual amount of spectators for a Pools match. On one side stood [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/2bd3b049b3e8.png]Cetrion[/url], a regal nature goddess clad in seaweed and jade, supported by [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/ce190e014f50.png]Geras[/url], a musclebound titan whose eyes and seams shone with unnatural bright blue light, beneath Galeem’s red glaze at least. Against them stood the holy warrior [url=https://www.dustloop.com/wiki/images/2/2a/GGXRD-R2_Ky_Kiske_Portrait.png]Ky Kiske[/url] in flowing robes of white, whose Kameo seemed to be a [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/bf37fb5eae9c.png]robotic version of himself[/url]. These high-profile pairs, engaged in a majestic showdown, had drawn quite the crowd, but once Band noticed that this appeared to be a winners-side match, he and Primrose opted to move on. There wasn’t anything they could learn about the nature of life and death in Esaka from that match.

Not far away, though, another match had just concluded. Citizens and yokai, some elated and others disappointed, were drifting away from a [url=https://i.imgur.com/DWyENXc.png]narrow arena[/url] suspended just above the water. A few well-aimed questions at various spectators informed the Seekers that it had indeed been a losers-side match, and that the victor -a grim shapeshifter by the name of [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/3cb974f9fcc3.png]Nrvnqser Chaos[/url]- had just executed his opponent, one Mr. Mayhem. When Band approached for a closer look, he could see the spirit of a bald, tattooed punk with brass knuckles. He looked dangerous enough, but if half the whispers Band caught on the way over about Chaos and what he could do were true, Mr. Mayhem had been thoroughly outmatched.

The detective watched as the floating, robed officiant brushed the spirit and fallen ashes off the stage with a wave of his sleeve. The sooty remnants drifted down through the water to join the rest of the black, sandy sediment that formed the rest of the Pools’ bed. It was a terrifying reminder, right beneath everyone’s nose, of the death toll exacted again and again on the populace. Linkle’s words echoed in Band’s mind. [i]To me, it feels like people have been living, fighting, and dying in this world for…for centuries.[/i]

After a moment, Band let out a wry laugh. “All that ash down there. It’s a wonder the Pools don’t run over.” He swallowed, his mouth dry, then glanced at Primrose. “What’s your next move, Miss Detective? I ain’t too keen to get my feet wet.”

[hr]

The more Mortal Kombat she watched with Roland, the more Nadia realized that she really didn’t like Mortal Kombat very much. Of course, she was no stranger when it came to fighting for her life. She’d had a couple do-or-die scrapes back in New Meridian, and since coming to the World of Light (or…being reborn in it the latest time, she guessed) there had been deadly battles back to back. For the most part, though, her fights had been against monsters, or humanoid foes so single-mindedly bent on death and destruction that she couldn’t really feel bad, like the Abyssals. In Esaka, though, practically everyone was a living, breathing, sentient person. Some of the tournaments, she assumed, were like boxing matches where competitors were simply trying to win. In Mortal Kombat, though, they wanted to [i]kill[/i] one another.

No matter where she looked, she saw kombatants trying to hurt, wound, and maim their opponents, with fatalities as the coup de grace. Sometimes fighters didn’t even reach the point where the ghostly officiants (who Nadia was beginning to despise) could tell the victor to finish them off; occasionally, a combo would end with a fatal blow there and then, which the spectators called ‘brutalities’. It all left a very sour taste in Nadia’s mouth. She could appreciate a thrilling fight between skilled competitors, but this was a bloodsport. The attitudes of the spectators around her, especially the yokai who dominated the tournament’s audience, disturbed her, and the fact that this barbarism existed in an otherwise fairly civilized city was downright jarring. Of course, she did not forget the fact that she’d essentially come here to loot dead bodies, but she was rapidly losing her stomach for it. Her pragmatic side had written a check that her sensitive side couldn’t cash, she guessed.

None of the violence or discordant attitudes seemed to faze Roland, though. Nadia studied his expression for a few moments when she thought he wasn’t watching. Maybe he’d seen far worse atrocities in that often-alluded-to City of his. After a little while, Nadia decided to leave him to it. She patted him on the shoulder, told him, “Knock yourself out, buddy,” and turned to go.

At which point she spotted an unmistakable figure. Far above the average Esakan towered a giant man with a bell-shaped body, studying Mortal Kombat matches with the gravitas of a hardened detective.

“Oh damn,” Nadia muttered, shrinking back behind Roland. “It’s Big Band. What’s he doin’ here?” 

Her first thought, rather on the paranoid side, was that he was here looking for her. When she got a better look in his direction and saw the lovely lady he’d come here with, she wasn’t totally disabused of that notion, either. [i]Primrose?[/i] she mouthed. Based on their earlier rendezvous, Nadia believed that Primrose was content to leave her to her business. Plans could change, of course, but the feral was inclined to believe her friend.

At the very least, Primrose’s presence here with Band reassured Nadia that the detective hadn’t come to accost her. Maybe something had happened and they needed to find her, forced to come in person because she lost her linkpearl. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. Coincidences tended to be more rare than one would expect in the catgirl’s experience, but they had to happen sometimes, right? Maybe all the violence around her just had her tense. Nadia didn’t want to waltz up and say hello, but she could relax a little, convinced that they weren’t here for her.

But then…what were they here for? Two upstanding individuals like them probably wouldn’t be here to collect spirits. It occurred to her that they could be investigating something. Band’s detective outfit wasn’t just for show, after all. Nadia couldn’t help but be curious. Maybe it’d be worse staying within line of sight after all. At the very least, Band was not at all hard to find.

[hr]

In the center of the amusement park-like complex that hosted the Power Stone Games, a communal break area awaited those who had finished their matches. It offered benches and picnic tables, a couple colorful awnings (originally meant to provide shade from the sun but just as good for shelter from today’s drizzle), and a number of (non-alcoholic) drinks and snacks free to Power Stone participants.

Of course, even if the contestants’ various matches had been very chaotic, one match did not make for much of a session. True to what Wang-Tang told those who’d duked it out in the Tong-An stage, there were plenty more matches lined up across the variety of stages available for play. Naturally, there were many more items to experience as well, which promised amusingly unpredictable brawls for many hours to come. 

That wasn’t all, though. After the first round or two of Power Stone matches, a wave of new contestants rolled in, inspired to take part by the excitement they’d seen broadcasted from various TVs in the area. Thanks in part to the Seekers’ own participation, it looked like the Power Stone Games were getting the publicity that Chevalier had been hoping for. The new entrants came in all shapes and sizes, though many more Low Tier fighters took interest than High Tier ones. It wasn’t all fun and games, though. Among the prospective participants the Seekers could find some unfriendly faces, more familiar perhaps for their names rather than appearances: the ice cold and deathly silent Sergi Dragunov, the coerced pop star Lucky Chloe, the shirtless maniac Bryan Fury, and the brutish Muay Thai fighter Bruce Irvin. All four were G-Corp employees, and it was hard to imagine that they were here for a good time.