To be honest, not that impacting for me. Specifically because we just had characters with emotional bonds (Even if they weren't PC's) on the last page. None of the newcomers really got the chance to become attached to Emiri, and Chiyo's betrayal isn't all that shocking either, both because of what happened on the last page, and the fact that IC, there's been no real chance for them to develop trust or actual bonds with her.
So, while it was a nice moment, my reaction is more leaning towards the "Meh" side.
@AriamisShe has a substitute coming, I guess you can see that. But yeah, right now I'll focus on my own RP, since I'm waiting for atlest one more post on Lvl's RP before I can do mine. My RP will be open in half a day at the very longest.
So we agreed at making Amiti the cafe's official shota mascot, then? Nice.
Anyway, I'd like to announce that now, that I've fulfilled my obligations with the other RPs that I'm in/finished the last of my assignments I'll start working on the RP thread. I'll probably be on in the next 12 hours at most.
"I'm sorry, but I don't believe in it. True strength lies in being able to help and protect those who you care for. That's what I learned after living in this same apartment with Ayane-sempai for so long. She taught me all that I need to know as a magical girl and I won't betray her life philosophy so easily." Emiri said remembering her former sempai, the person she loved the most in this world.
"Though, I'm intrigued, who are these others that you're saying? Is there so many magical girls wanting to change the natural order of things?"
"I'm afraid that's not exactly the case, Asuka Emiri."
The voice heavily reminiscent of a child didn't even make Chiyo flinch. The Contractor sat as it always had been, watching the two girls from the side of the kitchen counter. Even now, its smile never faded and its eyes showed no emotion.
"Chiyo Kuroke speaks the truth of course. This world is unbalanced Asuka Emiri. Everything about it is a waste. From the simplest concepts you humans call hunger and disposal, to more complex topics such as infinity and entropy. Everything is unsettled. Take the black stones a Primordial leaves behind for example. Don't you think it would be much more conservative and productive if they were used for something...different?"
"Coming from you, I couldn't expect anything different," Emiri said regarding the contractor with unusually cold eyes. "But the days that I spent here with Ayane-sempai, or the days the I spent along Akame and Rose, even the innocent wish that betrayed me, all these things are important to me."
"And... what do you mean by different? We ever thought that the stones were nothing but a byproduct to be wasted."
"The stones are byproducts to be wasted. It's really the embodiment of how unbalanced your universe really is. However, if we were to use these stones for a basis for regeneration, it would be the first step to finding that balance."
"Please just listen to us," Chiyo said, a little more desperation in her voice. "The Contractors only want to help. We've been researching, doing all that we can to find the answer. If things keep going the way they are, there's no telling what would happen."
"On the contrary, the upsetting balance would be so great that entropy will completely envelop all worlds," the Contractor stated objectively. "Our solution may be a temporary one, but we are willing to commit to it. Besides, aren't humans the same way in their own studies for answers? It's almost like human experimentation on animals. All we want is to better the world and sacrifices are always inevitable."
"And you propose we experiment on what, the Primordials? Even if we tried capturing one them, they would find a way to escape and kill humans again."
The Contractor scratched behind its ear as it continued to stare at Emiri.
"Propose? We're already experimenting Asuka Emiri. We have plenty of test subjects," the Creature said with a tilt of its head. "After all, why do you think we contract so many Magical Girls?"
"You're implying that?" Emiri couldn't make the words come out of her throat. Was the Contractor implying that the magical girls were nothing but guinea pigs in some hideous experiment?
"I really don't understand why you're so startled by this Asuka Emiri. As I recall, none of you ever bothered to ask for our title. 'Contractor' is merely a word you labeled us to better suit what you believed to be your true purpose. We are creating new possibilities, new life. With that in mind, don't you find it more appropriate to call us Incubators?"
Chiyo was watching all of this silently. She had really hoped Emiri would see it their way. No, she had almost begged the other girl to open her mind. Nevertheless, no. No, she was just like all the rest. Sighing, she stood up from her seat and moved closer.
"For a moment there, I thought you would understand," she said gravely before a smile graced her lips. "That's too bad. You'll have to serve your sentence early now," she finished, revealing an elongated knife in her left hand.
"You... you can't be serious, can you?" Emiri asked a little scared by Chiyo's attitude. If the other girl were to attack, Emiri wouldn't even be able to defend herself in her current state.
"If you don't stop this game now I'll be forced to send you outside. As well as tell Akame about your true intentions. We can't have someone like you on our group."
"I really am sorry about this Emiri-san," Chiyo said with a shred of genuine emotion. "But if you can't understand, then you're of no help to us. I'm only doing what's right for all of us. That's all."
With that, she grinned widely before fading away from sight for the briefest of moments, only to appear right behind Emiri. On instinct as well as an unconscious desire to defend herself, Emiri had transformed into her Magical Girl garbs one last time but it would prove futile. Little to no effort was put in as Chiyo forced the blade into the girl's chest. She held it in there for a good few second, making sure the bleeding would not be staunched before moving away at last.
"I understand that we can't truly die without first destroying our Soul Gems," Chiyo said with no emotion. “That's why I'm taking yours with me."
It took Emiri a few seconds after she felt the cold blade penetrate her chest from behind for her brain to process what was happening. Was she seriously going to be killed by another magical girl? One of the allies of justice turning her blade treacherously against a peer?
That didn't made sense, but she also hadn't neither the strength nor the will to struggle anymore. Transforming not only proved to be useless, but foolish also as the only thing it made was draining her magic even more.
When she couldn't hold the transformation any longer Emiri turned back to her normal form and reached inside her skirt pocket grabbing both her soulgem, in an attempt to call for Akame and Rose's help, as well as a small paper bag that contained two matching bracers that she bought on the way home as a gift to her would-be pupils.
Bending down, Chiyo located the golden Magical Girl's Soul Gem before gently plucking it away from the dying girl's grasp. The Contractor bounded off its perching spot to take a better look at the now heavily corrupted remnant.
"Miyako-chan... and Nanako-chan, I'm sorry to having failed as your sempai...." Emiri said as the last light finally left her eyes.
"There's no need to give into despair Asuka Emiri," the Contractor said as his parting words to the girl. "One day, you too will understand our mission. For now, you can rest with your wishes fulfilled!"
"Sorry about it being so dark," Chiyo commented, taking the time to transform into her own Magical Girl attire. "I didn't think she would become our next subject so soon."
"It's quite fine Chiyo Kuroke. Actually, this is most convenient for us. Now we can fully test out the purification process using a Soul Gem on the verge of collapse. Ordinarily, a Magical Girl's Soul Gem would burst as soon as it succumbs to this much corruption. Let's see if we can reverse that process to create a more stable system."
"Understood," Chiyo said, taking the once golden Soul Gem and holding it up to her face. She gently opened her eye-patch to reveal a gaping hole where her right eye should have been. A slight whooshing sound was heard as the Soul Gem was sucked into the gaping space for storage.
"You better leave soon. The others might have sensed her fading presence."
"Alright."
Chiyo took one last glance at Emiri's corpse before shaking her head. This time, her whole body contorted in on itself as she was sucked into her own devoid eye socket and leaving the now silent apartment. The Contractor titled its head at her departure, not even sparing the lifeless Emiri a second look before disappearing off to its own devices.
Char scoffed as Pico returned carrying the harpy's reply, [Thanks, I will.], how could three words bring her so much displeasure. It's not like the silent woman had any chance of steal Jon-sama from Char, it still made her sick just to think what kind of dirty tricks she could use to seduce him.
"Just wait until an year or two, and you'll see who gets Jon-sama's love first, you old hag!" Char thought.
After the breakfast, Melody called everyone to the deck and so Char as well as Pico went all the way up there. When Char got to the deck the Stormsong's crew was almost all there, not that it mattered to Char, really.
She quickly found a place besides her beloved Jon-sama, using her small build to her advantage when slipping through the others, on the way there, she used took a detour to play a little prank, by groping Milly from behind and leaving fast before the bomb maniac noticed who did it. Despite what it might look like, Char liked Milly a lot, but since it was just too good poking fun out of her like this, Char couldn't bring herself to stop, in fact, if Jon ever refused her for real (Not that something like this was even possible... right?), Milly would be Char's next target. "It's good to be flexible" her father ever said, though it certainly wasn't this kind of flexibility that he had in mind, sure.
Anyway, when Char finally found Jonathan she pounced like a wild cat ambushing an unsuspecting prey and clung to his arm, "What's going to happen, captain? Are you finally going to pass the ship's command to Jon-sama?" Char said with a playful grin on her lips, she wasn't being serious now, but sooner or later Melody would see the glory of her Jon-sama and retire from her position of captain, giving the title to who deserved it best.
Well that's who Amitit is going to be. Also, I am going to have Amiti not drink any coffee, or coffee based drinks. He doesn't believe in coffee, latte, ect. Also, what job will Amiti have in the cosplay cafe.
Do you even need to ask, Lvl? Here's a tip.
Magnificent Gothic Shota, of course. If he wished he can even abuse his powers and become the master of all the Youkai who work at the café.
@KitsuneI want to see what Orin will do now that Yuriha has reached a new stage in her life, since I was kinda bored with her gloomy self. From now on she'll be much more of a kawaii, energetic fox girl. I'm done with the blues. Ode to old Yuriha.
”Fwaaa…” Yuriha woke up feeling better than she ever felt after a night’s sleep, it was almost like she’d slept for a month.
”Good morning, Runa-san! I’ll be off, then!” The fox girl said, dashing out of their bedroom to take a shower before changing into a cute set of clothes, that Moena had prepared for her the other night and then making a beeline to the kitchen.
In the meanwhile she didn’t lose the opportunity to greet everyone that she passed through while she was blitzing around their cabin, getting ready to the upcoming day.
”G’moring, Moe-nee! Thanks for the food…” Said to Moena as Yuriha finished her breakfast and placed some packed leftovers on her backpack.
”Watch out, aniki!” Shouted as Yuriha dodged one of Marcus’ swinging sticks. Surprising him for her beginning to treat him as a big brother (or gang leader) overnight.
”Hi, Yucchi! I can’t wait for the gear training, Kuu said he wants to try stopping your arrows.” Said to Yumi as Yuriha went back upstairs to pick a couple manga and a first aid kit Moena insisted she had to carry.
”Ophii, aren’t you excited too?” Barely heard by Ophelia as Yuriha jumped down the stairs.
”He-chan! He-chan! G’morning to you! I can’t wait to spar with you!” Yuriha said as she stopped for a single moment just to greet Hecate, raising an eyebrow of the others for the difference in treatment.
”Ori-kyun, let’s have fun today!” She dashed by Orin leaving the sweet scent of the new shampoo Moena bought to just to wash her tail fur behind.
”Grr!” As she passed Sonitus, Yuriha’s eyes became slits and she bared her fangs menacingly.
”What!? Where’s Zeke-sama?” Yuriha asked as she dashed out of the cabin without seeing her beloved master.
The Training Fields
Yuriha had just finished hearing to Moena’s explanation of their daily activities and was about to dash into the training area when she noticed the cast down look on Marcus and Orin’s eyes. Deciding to cheer them up before getting straight into the fun part, Yuriha turned in her trekking boots heels, she said while smiling excitedly, ”Aniki, Ori-kyun, why don’t we make a bet? Whoever is the last one to arrive at the end of the trail has to buy the others ice cream.” She didn’t bother acknowledging their agreement before turning again and running to their challenge, ”I’m going to go first, bye!”
Then Yuriha dashed in to the trail, leaping from tree to tree, jumping past rocks, even going as far as dropping on all fours to run as fast as she could when the landscape allowed, the sensation of the wind biting her skin, the dirt getting stuck to her thighs and face and even the small scratches from her skimming through the underbrush, were very refreshing to the once sheltered fox girl.
The one she had to thank for showing that unknown side of herself to her was an old wolf she’d met yesterday while trekking through the mountain alone, it was like… no, she was sure that she could hear his voice ever since she stepped in this mountain, for he was its oldest guardian spirit and the only one that still withstood the passage of time though weak with each passing day. The words Yuriha heard from it on the heart of the ancient mountain were very powerful and changed the way the half-kitsune watched the world. ”Perhaps Zeke-sama brought me here just to meet him?” Yuriha questioned the possibility of Zeke having planned their meeting from the very beginning, especially since the old god gave Yuriha an important piece of knowledge about how to handle her powers.
Before Yuriha had even noticed she had already arrived at the final step of their trekking, a great wall of naked stone, where several crevasses, created when this part of the mountain was covered in a glacier thousands of years ago, offered a natural, if hard, way to climb. She was so far ahead of the others that Yuriha began to feel sorry for them and thought of a way to show her apologies when they arrived here.
”Ahh! I know it. Kuu, can you help me?” Yuriha asked as she brought her sacred gear into being, ”As you wish, little one. Nevertheless, let me ask you something first. I’ve never seen you more full of energy than today, it’s almost like you want to retrieve their years of your life you’ve fed me with impossible as it may be. Why is it?”
”I don’t know, Kuu. After I talked with the wolf Sensei yesterday, and then after I listened to everyone’s stories, and told them mine, at the gathering in the past night I felt as if a weight had been lifted from my chest. I know I’m not alone anymore, and I’ll do my best to help my new family in every way I can. Like this!” Yuriha finished her sentence by punching the great stone wall with her right fist, creating a hole that would be easy to use as a handle to help the others climb the rock. After this, she repeated the process, while she climbed the wall twice, or even thrice, slower than she would if she wasn’t doing that impromptu stair.
However, when Yuriha arrived at the end of the climb and stared at the trail from above the tree line, she could see that the one who was closest to her still hadn’t made it to half of the way, so Yuriha enjoyed the rest of her walk until she got to the end of the trail, where she sat bellow a tree shade, opened her backpack and began eating the lunch Moena packed for her, while reading another one of her manga, this one being a mahou shoujo tittle.
TheWendil
CamiCat
Ariamis
Lonewolf685
mickilennial
Scrawl Banditta
