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Western District
“Huh?” There was a glint of suspicion again, her dull brown eyes narrowing slightly. But guilt seemed to have won out in the end, and Kiwa ended up shrugging, her stand loosening up. “That’s Ahmya; we went to school together.”

Her eyes flickered towards Mana’s neck. It certainly felt like it would bruise later.

“And, uh, if I really do look like the girl you’re looking for…”

Her gaze swept to the side, her hands twisting the handles of her leather bag.

“I’ve been...stalked, sorta, like, recently, so…”

She let that hang.

It couldn’t really be the case, could it?

Southern District
What, was she here for professional development now? Hitsu raised a brow at Tsurushi’s comment, but otherwise kept quiet, thinking it through carefully. An open mind was the most useful thing for a psychiatrist to have.

She counted her breaths. One, two, three.

“Some children, whether it be just their personal inclinations or family matters, reach their adolescence early than others. For girls especially, 5th grade is around the time where some hit puberty, while others don’t, and that can bring forth many changes.” Hitsu turned on her chair, her fingers click-clacking against the keyboard, before she shifted the monitor so that Tsurushi could get a look. “You’re a new teacher, but you’ve also gotten one of the more difficult grades to work with. There’s quite a few psychology articles on it, if you’d like to read further, but at this girl’s current stage of development, she will definitely be the type to respond better with positive reinforcement from someone she sees as an ally, rather than negative reinforcement from someone she sees as an enemy.”

Hitsu spun back to fully face Tsurushi. “Most likely, she also sees your efforts to control her outside of your place of authority, that being the classroom, as an invasion of her independence. Right now, she’s most likely at the stage in which she’s fle-”

Sirens sounded in the distance, quickly growing closer. The psychiatrist paused briefly, standing up off her chair before parting the blinds of the window slightly, to peer out.

Her expression changed, just for a moment, before smoothly transitioning into the neutral, yet warm expression of a competent, caring physician. Sitting back in the chair, she continued. “She’s most likely flexing her wings, per se, trying to test her limits, and biting back when others impose such limits. Though, of course, you’d also have to establish if going to that particular park is a place she goes to often.”

Her pen clicked. She scribbled something down.

“After all, familiarity breeds a sense of safety that outsiders don’t understand.”



“ARGHH!!

In the darkness, a ripping sound resounded, evocative of a primal, instinctual fear, and immediately, a hot, sticky wetness coated Miyane’s hands, her own calls drowned out by the agonizing cry that sounded so sharply through the live house. Other voices called out as well, people bringing out their phones to light up the place, bright beams sweeping around. A weight suddenly left off her, the form of the blond psychopath shifting off, her wrist being pulled away by someone else, someone less distinct against the darkness. They ran out together, one more surefooted than the other, and the heavy doors of the live house crashed up, two individuals dashing away.

Moments later, the emergency lights kicked in, amber light revealing the aftermath of the incident.

Blood gushed out from the gash in Yuudai’s throat, flowing freely, flowing thickly. His complexion was growing paler by the second, even as MiWa ran up, the emergency aid kit bouncing against her thigh. She thrust a bundle of cloth against the grevious injury, even though doubt reflected in her eyes. “Push against it,” the part-timer said, “Ambulance should be here soon.”

Beside Miyane, Daehyun laid there as well, teeth clenched tight as pained gasps escaped him, one hand clutching his right eye while his other arm simply twitched, deep purple splotches and incredible swelling originating from his elbow. His shoulders shook violently, as he did everything he could to hold back his own pain, and even as MiWa pulled open her kit, trying to figure out what she could do, there wasn’t anything that could be done.

Miyane could see it, after all.

Swinging loosely against his cheek was a thin, pink strand. That bitch had gouged his eye out. In the distance, sirens sounded bright and fierce, but it was a meaningless comfort. Too little, too late. It had been over the minute that blonde bitch entered Galaxy without anyone stopping her.

And as for Marc saw...


Yasuo’s hand was warm, sticky against her own. His grip was strong. It was his right hand, but in that moment, it didn’t matter. He was leading the way, through the main street, ignoring the looks they received from others. It wasn’t uncommon. There was an attack in the live house. Most others had ran when it first happened. If they hadn’t, perhaps concentrated effort would have been enough to take Marina down.

Instead though, she simply had a broken rib, maybe two, and a bloodied nose. Normal injuries for her. Normal injuries, if not for the rush of emotion, the rush of adrenaline, that threw her completely out of whack. Was she happy? Was she relieved? Was she traumatized? Was she lucid? Or had this become nothing but a dream?

It didn’t matter. She was here.

“One outta four,” Yasuo said, his own breathing steady, his own heart calm, “Gonna need a new face, Mari.”

Panic on the Dancefloor
"Hah, I'll keep that in mind if I ever sneak in here again," he smirked, shaking his head and giving the picker a little twirl, nearly dropping it in the process. With her next question, he paused for a second, spinning the picker to stab at a stray piece of garbage before popping it in the bag.

"What, and ruin the entire mystery?" Marc huffed, leaning a bit on the picker while placing a hand and trash bag on his back before chuckling to himself and pivoting around to pick up some trash. "France; moved to Tenoroshi a couple of years ago," he scratched at his neck as he answered before stumbling and staggering a bit for no reason, picking at the water bottle from behind him.

"What about you," he questioned Miwa as much as he questioned why the blonde chick he saw earlier was brandishing a fire extinguisher, nearly tripping over the open air when taking a step forward.

“From Kanazawa myself,” MiWa replied, stepping up to the tips of her toes to unplug something high up on the wall, “Didn’t want to stay on the farm forever, so I booked it here, found work, and that’s how it is.”

She noticed the muscled blonde take the fire extinguisher as well, but unlike Marc, the silver-haired woman could also understand the intent. No one walked like that unless...

Yasuo was right. It was time. Her memories, fears, everything from before didn’t matter. What mattered was making right. One of her killers was free and right in front of her. It didn’t matter how much her stomach churned at the memory of what happened. She knew what she had to do. In the respite after the concert, everyone had been preoccupied with the event’s denouement. It was incredibly easy for Marina to hop past the boy picking up trash. In the brief moments before anyone could process exactly what was going on and confront Marina, she grabbed the nearest, heaviest object she could find. With a fire-extinguisher in her hand, she walked towards the split-haired youth—ignoring the people he had been speaking with—and swung it down upon his skull as hard as she could.

“Shit! Behind you!” A female voice shot across the live house, but it was too little, too late.

Miyane didn't notice the muscled blonde marching towards them. Too busy fighting a tired frown, wondering when she could just leave with Daehyun already. Funny how fast the distinction between fans and bootlickers blurred for the idol these days.

Whatever. As long as a fuss wasn't made.

She held the pen aloft. "Where do you want me to--"

Then the fire extinguisher slammed down. Miyane flinched away with a scream.

Yuudai had been too slow to turn, and there was no resistance that could be offered even if he did. The sharp edge of the fire extinguisher cracked against the back of his head and the youth immediately fell over, his nose striking the ground with a crunch as he laid there, unmoving.

Finish him, roared the thoughts in Marina’s head, but before she could do so, Daehyun moved. Physical conditioning for his role had made him plenty strong, plenty fast, but there was something beyond that, sharp and instinctual. He grasped onto the fire extinguisher before it could be swung a second time, wrestling the blonde psychopath for it, as he shouted out, voice projected cleanly, clearly even in the sudden chaos, “Someone call the police!”

Daehyun's pleas would not be met in the way he wanted, at least initially. Despite that, there was some silver-lining as another had closed in on Marina, far before everyone's cries of help. Thankfully, those cries for help had muffled the blistering response as a blonde boy dashed onto and across the stage. Nearing the duo, a garbage picker was deftly raised to the side, aimed directly at the side of her head. It didn't take a few seconds before the impromptu weapon flew towards Marina with a resounding whoosh.

Suddenly wrestling with Daehyun for control of the extinguisher, Marina knew that fighting for it was too time-consuming. She needed to finish the job. Rather than try to wrestle for it, Marina used to buy a moment of time. She pulled against Daehyun’s pull. With swift and sudden movements, she stepped towards him. Suddenly, he was pulling against a great push. That wasn’t all. Marina’s step forward was awkward, stepped past him, and, to anyone untrained, seemed strange. In a fraction of a second, however, her heel had met with his Achilles tendon. It was a sweep. She didn’t need the fire extinguisher.

Crunch. Metal had collided with Marina’s cheek. It didn’t do anything. Besides a slight flinch, Marina’s head didn’t move. The hollow aluminum tube weighed less than a pound. It wouldn’t be able to stop Marina, let alone injure her. Not with that kind of blow. Marina ignored the second assailant. Instead, she lifted her leg over Yuudai’s skull.

Then she brought her heel down right onto where his spine and his skull met.

Well, that was just as effective as trying to cut someone with a plastic butter knife and it seemed Marc was a little more affected than the lady he just struck. He jolted briefly, but recovered twice as fast as the boy drew back the garbage picker and instead opted for getting in closer. Just as he saw the assailants leg was coming down onto the downed man, he countered by swiping his own leg at her own.

Daehyun fell over, a shock of pain running up his arm as his elbow collided against the hard ground. Smelled like spilled beer and shit. The distance was negligible, and the urgency was unreal. Even as some other blonde (why were there so many blondes) rushed in to help, he practically bounced off the floor, crashing into Marina. Her stomp struck the ground itself, and the two tumbled, rolled on the ground once more.

Oh god. Oh god, she was trying to kill this kid. Even through her panic and confusion, Miyane knew that wasn't right.

"Help!" she cried. She scrambled to her feet and began to drag Yuudai away from the fight.

It was getting annoying. Real annoying. The other blonde’s sweep had struck high, only slightly shifting Marina’s leg. The man who tackled her did most of the work in saving Yuudai from Marina’s boot. Still, Marina couldn’t stop there. No, it was far too late to stop. With every bit of determination she could muster, she clenched her fist and launched it directly into the balls of the Daehyun. It would buy enough time for Marina to hastily run back to Yuudai, who was now being slowly dragged away by the woman he was talking to, and go for the throat. They couldn’t pull Marina off if she had her maw latched onto Yuudai’s jugular.

Daehyun's pained groan rung like a taunt and Miyane sucked in a gasp. On top of all that, this fucking psychopath was about to jump the kid again.

The woman's face was about knee level. Out of sheer reflex, the idol aimed a kick at her nose. Following her assault, the other bespectacled boy continued with his own, easily keeping up the pace with the rabid lady as she closed the distance. Before she could murder the man, the blonde took the opportunity to take a stab at the opposing womans side, as well as driving his foot into her stomach.

Daehyun could hardly breathe, could definitely not stand anymore, but he propelled himself forward as well, desperation and adrenaline in equal measure as a distinctly un-idol-like expression broke through his pale, sweating face, his shoulder driving into Marina's legs, trying to push her forward, trying to dislodge her from Yuudai's body.

But none of them would see the results of their actions.

An instant before their consecutive countermeasures could be made, the lights in the room suddenly shut off, plunging them all in pitch-black darkness.
Expressing interest because lmao, not like I'm not already choking on the amount of RPs I have.
I'll sorta keep an eye on this.


Well, this wasn't spooky at all. Even with the rattling of what he could only assume to be skeleton warriors and the shifting of the ground around them, Albrecht didn't feel all too concerned. If those scientists have done their work right and Alice's appearance wasn't just constructed out of foam, the android should have more than enough firepower to lay waste to whatever threat lurked in the shadows. Instead, it was the massive jewel that occupied Albrecht's mind. Floating was weird enough, but there was also the question of how it was even transported into this chamber to begin with.

Maybe it was a power source? His hand flexed, joints cracking.

"Wager I could destroy that jewel pretty easily. It's a bit redder, but I think it's otherwise the same hue as the stuff shielding the doors and windows, so maybe it's the cause of that." Albrecht pulled out a pen light as well, the fluorescent light shooting through the darkness of the room and sweeping over the walls. "Looks like the murals change too. Some sort of...parade? Any arts majors here?"
"Lucky bastard," Elodie muttered as Jerel came by, nursing a hole in his shoulder. In any other case, one injury sustained after a disorganized melee was something to be celebrated, but this was an injury upon a marksman, against opponents that should be nothing but wheat. Careless indeed. Lucky it didn't go through his chest, in any case. But that was all she said, and as the battle drew to an end, leaving only the stench of spilled blood, soiled pants, and charred flesh (god, Gillian makes any battlefield worse) behind, Elodie slapped on her goggles and tied a handkerchief over her nose. Had to come up with a better design, eventually, but it was rather low on her checklist as it were.

Gotta spend some quality time with Silence and the Twinned Arms, after all.

Nodding Alyssa, perhaps the only truly irreplaceable member of the Iron Rose Knights, who was fated to put up with all the recklessness and carelessness of a corps of glory-seekers, Elodie walked out of the impromptu wagon-shelter, stretching out her back. There was a nice, satisfying pop as she surveyed all the preparations for their departure. A half minute of walking got her mounted on her mare again, and after some initial skittishness, the artificer was off, ready to go in the general direction of the bandit camp and leave it to everyone else to do the murdering.

Ah, there was one point though.

"Hey, Fanilly," Elodie said, pulling her steed up beside the Captain, "You asked 'bout how they killed off the regular army, yeah? Strategies, tactics, prominent magicals? Anyone other than their King to watch out for?"

Even a man of uncommon brutality was a mere man. If it was only Jeremiah who had any impressive martial skill, he wouldn't have an army left, after all.
@jdh97@Animal@VitaVitaAR
But it was Alleruen who had been standing beside the exit the entire time, watching things grow steadily out of control. He was panicking but he was also eerily calm, his heart settling down as danger drew nearer and nearer. God was good, and he had no problem with organized religion either. But between faith and his life, the decision was too easy to make.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

Tossing something against the ground, Allereun quickly exited the store and slammed the door behind him, pushing against it to keep it shut. One had ran out from the bath room portion, but for the two in the storefront?

He had dashed an accelerant against the floor. Moments later, toxic flames burst inside, feeding off the reagents and concoctions and growing more sinister still.

A part of him was sad that his house was going to burn down. Another part recognized that it would have burnt down no matter what he said.
Siwon, Ettamri, Katya - Setting Up Camp

With the main source of contention sent away before sparks could truly fly, all that was left was for them all to start on whatever tasks necessary to set up temporary reprieve from the cold weather. It wasn’t snowing, thankfully, and though the cold was bitter, it was bitter only when one stopped moving for too long, which none did. Ettamri, her assertions unchallenged by Muu, was free to set up a windbreak out of the tarp, the fireplace set up simply by shifting a couple of riverbank rocks around. Katya, of course, was just walking around the general vicinity. There were fish swimming in the stream, a fact made clear by the little priest’s exclamations of “Hey, look, there’s fish! We can eat them, right, Ettamri? Geez, Siwon, hurry up and get the fire started already!”

And then she began slinging rocks at those little swimming meals, to little real effect, the splashing water occasionally hitting her own coat and causing Katya to jump back. It was certainly clear that she had gone into full road-trip mode, not a shred of anxiety in her bones.

Siwon, of course, couldn’t really hurry up. Snowy terrain made stray sticks hard to find, and they were on the plains anyways, no real vegetation to be found. Romping through the snow and enduring his demon’s paranoia, the Fiend Knight didn’t have all that much luck at all, forced to scour the banks instead. Driftwood from the forest upstream, drenched and miserably cold to the touch, were all that he could find, and, well, something told him that it wouldn’t make for good firewood. Ettamri would probably break his kneecaps and leave him here to die if he came back empty-handed though, and thus, the Fiend Knight continued to pick up sticks where he could, occasionally taking a couple steps into the river itself to snag himself a couple of branches.

Indeed, it was in reaching for one of those branches that Siwon noticed it.

Noticed that the white branch he grasped wasn’t a fallen branch, but the bone of a beast. Red meat still clung to it, signs of the freshness of the kill. Now, the question could only be…what had been eaten, and who was eating?

Oscar and Muu - Up the River

The answer to that question emerged forty minutes later in Oscar and Muu’s winterscape romp. The snow made it a difficult stroll, even with Muu’s specialized gear, and the distance to the treeline was fairly far to begin with, a trek made slower by Oscar’s constant vigilance. Between trying to spot out ambush predators camoflaguing against the snow, looking for the silvery-glint of tripwires or the unnatural disturbance of pitfall traps, and trying to gauge the depths of the river itself, it all ate away at their progress, to seemingly little effect; the river became neither more shallow nor more narrow, leading them further and further away.

And that was when vigilance paid off.

Though the wind from behind them, numbing their ability to hear, the splash of red the white of snow and the black of bark was all too obvious, Oscar waving Muu down as they both dropped low. They hadn’t been spotted yet, not sensed by the monsters that lurked just past the brush, and oh, how monstrous they were. Eight, no, nine mud-skinned goblins surrounded the still-steaming corpse of a large elk, taking turns diving into its innards and pulling it apart. Ribs were snapped, chewed on, stripped of easy-to-get meat before being tossed into the river, food for the fishes. One of the larger goblins pulled off the elk’s ballsack, doing a silly little dance with it that drew the laughter of its friends, before summarily tossing that into the river as well. They chewed, they feasted, and despite the cold weather surrounding them, they were warm in their comradery and their dining, the snow around them becoming steadily redder and redder.

The two Silver Moon soldiers could count the weapons and armor of the gang of goblins easily enough: two crossbows, three short swords, two spears, a longsword, and a dagger. Armor was a mismatch of chainmail draped around them and leather, as well as untanned animal furs, but at least three of them had metal helmets of varying sizes.

Getting a drop on them would be easy enough, and if their initial ambush killed enough goblins, the rest would be easy enough. But they had no priest to heal them, no tank to shield them, no mage to sweep them. More importantly, goblins didn’t go for that much money to begin with. Was the risk even worth it?

Then again, if there was another bridge within the forest that they could pull the wagon over, taking out the goblins now would practically be mandatory.

Decisions, decisions, decisions…

Argen and Renault - Down the River

Downstream, the river became even wider, splitting off into individual streams. Some carved deeply into the marshy land, while others spread out, ice forming over them as cold water dispersed further. Each step through the frozen swamps was accompanied with a solid crunch of ice, but observing the network of streams from a distance, it was clear that the landscape there was made of smoother, more slippery ice. A broken ankle wasn’t a job-ending injury, of course, not when they had Katya to offer benedictions of mending onto them, but if the horses slipped? The effect that it’d have on the wagon would be much greater. There was no magical healing that could repair a shattered wheel, and a wet sack of grain was functionally worthless.

Still, the swamplands made for easy travelling otherwise, and the further they went down, the more dispersed the river became. If they truly committed to it, by travelling southwards enough, perhaps they’d reach the point where the river simply died off, leaving easy travels for them all? It was something to dream about.

Argen and Renault, of course, could also dream about the other future where they earn the approval of the giant female knight by dragging the log bridge over to where the wagon was, and flat-out repairing it on the spot. After all, a swift stream could only pull a large log for so long, and once it spread out, there it was: the thirty meter long tree just lying in line with the wider river, clear water flowing around it. Looking at it now, it was only maybe two to three meters wide itself, easy for adventurers to cross but requiring some other method for a wagon laden with grains to traverse.

It was the bridge though. It could be used.


The air smelled sweet, floral, and the sun was warm in a manner that soaked into her bones without coaxing sweat. Beneath her, the sand crinkled comfortingly against her back, while the cool breeze brought with it the refreshing saltiness of the ocean, waves ebbing and flowing. When was the last time she had such a wonderful slumber? When was the last time she could relax so much? Stirring gently out of her sleep, Amaryllis pulled herself up as she yawned, rubbing the drowsiness from her eyes. She breathed in the floral wind one last time, before her amethyst eyes scanned the scene before her, from the other magical girls still lying on the ground to Rina’s new outfit to the wholly alien landscape around her.

Shit.

She’s gotta get back.

“Yeah, this really is a bi- Buwh?!”


Looking down at her own attire, Amaryllis’s cheeks flushed red at just how scandalous they were. She hadn’t thought it was possible to get any skimpier than her usual magical girl outfit, but now even her naked hips were exposed, nevermind how tightly the synthetic fibers pressed against her skin. Even though the gods were kind enough to give her a jacket, that could only cover either her top or her bottom, not both, and leaving one exposed was already scandalous enough. Swallowing once, the Midsummer Blossom shrugged off her jacket and tried to wrap it around her chest, using the extra length to then cover her b- nope, that certainly didn’t work either when her proportions were like this!

With a defeated sigh, Amaryllis put on her white-and-red jacket once more, looking for buttons or zippers or something to close it up…but of course, those didn’t even exist! What was the point of a jacket that couldn’t close up? Even her skimpy magical girl outfit didn’t have THAT problem. Maybe if she just…wore her jacket backwards then…no, that’d also be hella weird. Shooting a semi-envious glance at Rina’s jacket with the big, functional zipper and the puffy, extra-largeness of it all, the buxom swordswoman took a couple of deep breaths, willing the heat in her face to dissipate, before saying, “Yeah, uh, super big problem.”

She turned to face the skies, a deep, star-studded blue that didn’t actually have the sun she felt in her dreams.

“Doesn’t even look like we’re on Earth anymore…but, uh, maybe we could go to that c-central island, Rina? Seems like, uh, that’s where the help desk is…really’d be nice if we could just get back through there…”


Well then, that was that.

Within moments, Prome was gone again, running off to wherever else he deigned necessary to be. Raising a brow at his behaviour, Cecilia could only chuckle gracefully as another message pinged in the Guild chat. Willow, of course. Her gaze darkened, only briefly, before she typed back her own response, the mask slipping on again.

Heyo, Ceci again~ <3

Godzilla goes underwater, so it's basically a fish, isn't it? lololol Anyways, I'm like, the only person here who actually likes camping, so don't worry about me going hungry, Wiwi~ I've always got a healthy selection of preserved foods in my backpack to maintain my good figure. Oh, and sorry to say, but Prome's basically ran out on me too after causing a super mess in the Guild Hall. Geez, that dumbo, I really think Kira and him are like, doing this thing where they encourage each others bad behavior, you know? :x

Really, though, if you wanna leash him, I think you can catch him if you run outside right now. He's probably heading back to town, so you'll definitely be able to tackle him if you reach the bridge the same time as him. Good luck~!

Love and Peace!
Ceci~

P.S Hold on tight, Holly, I'm going to go ask them about Rangers and all right...now!


A quick tap of the 'Send' button, and Cecilia turned her attention back to Rania. "Apologies once more for my companion's behavior," the lilac-haired Lancer said, "Wanderlust runs thick through our blood, and some forget that society has courtesies too that shouldn't be neglected. Still though, I, and many others, have come to Reliquia to sharpen our skills and relieve this place of whatever monstrous burdens may be present. I've heard too, that a famed Ranger resides in this place? Might I inquire their name and place of residence, Madam Hawthorne? Another, more reasonable companion of mine has professed interest in such trade, and it would be a boon if I could share such knowledge with her."

Of course, Cecilia really just wanted to throw money at Aluet and get herself some new Actions, but, well...someone had to form half-decent impressions with the local NPCs, after all. God, maybe she should just pretend not to know Prome and Kira when they're in public now.
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