The 42nd Gecko

The Devil Hunter Agency

Da-Xia Chen

Yurei Infested Warehouse

---

There was the hum of an engine, muffled by the wintry snow, and the wet crunch of tires pressing through the slush and gravel. This was the only warning before one of the wooden bay doors exploded, Da-Xia bursting through the paltry barrier on her bike. Her momentum carried her forward and she began to skid in a screaming circle of burning rubber through the middle of the bay. One hand held a broken gas can, centrifugal force sending a pungent but familiar liquid sloshing outwards, while the other held her lance out and low, the tip screeching and sparking against the stone and steel floor. As Da-Xia finished her maneuver, she had arms spread wide, encircled by a wall of gasoline flames.

"Justice has come for you! Da-Xia will now face those of you brave enough to battle, or ride you down as you flee!" Da-Xia challenged the whole room with unshakeable confidence.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Da-Xia

-

Appearance

Name: Da-Xia Chen
Age: 20
Division: Canadian Branch
Class: Devil Bringer

Weaponry
Da-Xia wields a lance, perhaps a bit too enamored of chivalric tales of old.

Abilities

• Skilled Motorcycle Rider and decent mechanic. Can usually get her bike to limp home on occasion she wrecks.
• Fast Reader. She gets through those novels quick.
• She's decent with a lance, but is certainly no master. Point lance towards monster, and let her riding skills do the rest.
• Her greatest weakness is lack of experience or confidence fighting dismounted. At 20, she has not been a Devil Bringer long.

Personality
Da-Xia sees herself as an ideal chivalric knight, roaming the land to right wrongs and slay evils, protecting the innocent folk of the world. This comes with a measure of pompous haughtiness and reckless overconfidence, but also overflowing generosity and unshakable courage. She goes above and beyond the call to a point most would raise an eyebrow at what she's trying to prove. If she wasn't about to loudly tell them that she's trying to prove, that she's an ideal chivalric knight.

Still young, Da-Xia often dreams of true love. These dreams are fed by her prodigious consumption of knightly romances, more of this genre alone than most people have read books in total, and it is rare to find her without at least one in her pack and several hundred on her smartphone's wishlist. She's envisions herself as the shining white knight who will come and save some beautiful young man in desperate need. Though sometimes she finds the roles switched, imagining herself being rescued. Greatly confusing to the already confused youth, but she's more than happy to lance a monster or two to get her head back on straight.

Background
What is a person with a very Chinese name, from the Canadian Division, doing in Japan? Well, in the beginning Da-Xia was born to a wealthy Chinese family in Canada. Whether by luck or internal strength of character, she didn't grow up so much spoiled as idealistic. She read lots of English stories about knights and fell in love over and over again. For a time, she thought that riding her bike on long cross-country stretches, and Canada is a pretty big country to stretch across, was as close as she'd ever come to adventure.

But, on one of her many ventures down a dark dismal road through the wilderness, Da-Xia encountered a devil. Fortunately, she had the luck to encounter it at the same time as a Devil Bringer, and thus did not summarily become lunch. From there, she decided it was her noble calling to join the DHA and become a true knight! She has had little experience since then and is still a novice. She was sent over to Japan to help with the recent surge of Youkai, as a way to send a token of assistance without actually sending anyone particularly valuable.

Inventory

• A monstrous bike that Da-Xia uses to compensate for her lack of personal mobility.
• A backup knife, it also serves as the key for her bike.
• Smartphone. She has a mount for it on the dash of her bike.
• Smart Contact-Lenses that provide flash-protection and sunglasses function. Good for dramatically staring into the sunset.
• Smart Earplugs that provide gunfire-protection and tuning out loud repetitive noises like her engines.
• Food, water, and medical supplies kept in a compartment in her bike. She must ever be ready to help those in need.
• Knightly romance novels, usually snuck into the above compartment.
• Skid and burn resistant suit. Da-Xia's suit isn't going to protect her from monsters, but helps for monster-induced crashes.

Tower of Fable

Rather than attempt to hold the net, Caprice simply... let it go. The wolf smashed into it, pulling it away from the wall and tangling itself up. Caprice brought her hands up to her mask, one finger tapping on each side of the mask, alternating in rhythm as she looked curiously at the wolf as if to wonder how it could have gotten there.

Then, she turned to the true Hound of the House with a large grin before she winked and stuck out her tongue.

For all her antics, she had little desire to speak at this point. She felt no difference between one path forward or another, so why not let her fine 'companions' bargain amongst themselves on whether to take Garou's offer.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Da-Xia

-

Appearance

Name: Da-Xia Chen
Age: 20
Division: Canadian Branch
Class: Devil Bringer

Weaponry
Da-Xia wields a lance, perhaps a bit too enamored of chivalric tales of old.

Abilities

• Skilled Motorcycle Rider and decent mechanic. Can usually get her bike to limp home on occasion she wrecks.
• Fast Reader. She gets through those novels quick.
• She's decent with a lance, but is certainly no master. Point lance towards monster, and let her riding skills do the rest.
• Her greatest weakness is lack of experience or confidence fighting dismounted. At 20, she has not been a Devil Bringer long.

Personality
Da-Xia sees herself as an ideal chivalric knight, roaming the land to right wrongs and slay evils, protecting the innocent folk of the world. This comes with a measure of pompous haughtiness and reckless overconfidence, but also overflowing generosity and unshakable courage. She goes above and beyond the call to a point most would raise an eyebrow at what she's trying to prove. If she wasn't about to loudly tell them that she's trying to prove, that she's an ideal chivalric knight.

Still young, Da-Xia often dreams of true love. These dreams are fed by her prodigious consumption of knightly romances, more of this genre alone than most people have read books in total, and it is rare to find her without at least one in her pack and several hundred on her smartphone's wishlist. She's envisions herself as the shining white knight who will come and save some beautiful young man in desperate need. Though sometimes she finds the roles switched, imagining herself being rescued. Greatly confusing to the already confused youth, but she's more than happy to lance a monster or two to get her head back on straight.

Background
What is a person with a very Chinese name, from the Canadian Division, doing in Japan? Well, in the beginning Da-Xia was born to a wealthy Chinese family in Canada. Whether by luck or internal strength of character, she didn't grow up so much spoiled as idealistic. She read lots of English stories about knights and fell in love over and over again. For a time, she thought that riding her bike on long cross-country stretches, and Canada is a pretty big country to stretch across, was as close as she'd ever come to adventure.

But, on one of her many ventures down a dark dismal road through the wilderness, Da-Xia encountered a devil. Fortunately, she had the luck to encounter it at the same time as a Devil Bringer, and thus did not summarily become lunch. From there, she decided it was her noble calling to join the DHA and become a true knight! She has had little experience since then and is still a novice. She was sent over to Japan to help with the recent surge of Youkai, as a way to send a token of assistance without actually sending anyone particularly valuable.

Inventory

• A monstrous bike that Da-Xia uses to compensate for her lack of personal mobility.
• A backup knife, it also serves as the key for her bike.
• Smartphone. She has a mount for it on the dash of her bike.
• Smart Contact-Lenses that provide flash-protection and sunglasses function. Good for dramatically staring into the sunset.
• Smart Earplugs that provide gunfire-protection and tuning out loud repetitive noises like her engines.
• Food, water, and medical supplies kept in a compartment in her bike. She must ever be ready to help those in need.
• Knightly romance novels, usually snuck into the above compartment.
• Skid and burn resistant suit. Da-Xia's suit isn't going to protect her from monsters, but helps for monster-induced crashes.

Tower of Fable

"But of course, what clown doesn't love a straightman?" Caprice answered Kanbaru with a flourishing bow, waving Kanbaru forward as she quick dashed past.

Caprice pranced out of the way of the incoming wolf helpfully provided for her by Clair. As her cloak flitted out of the way like a matador's cape, it revealed that she had forged a candy net between herself and the wall. The wolf's momentum pulled it back and back, Caprice's boots digging into the rug she was standing on. And then the wolf was snapped back, sent flying back the way it came. Caprice's aim was to fling it in front of Clair so that her Starshot could handle the problem.

"Hmm? Another person seems to be talking to something imperceptible. Maybe crazy invisible nuns are real, and both Akiko and Kanbaru can see them?" Caprice wondered at Akiko's actions.

Caprice didn't seem to pay the butler much heed.

Tower of Fable

Caprice did not bother giving introductions to the newcomer, it seemed Akiko had set herself upon that task. Instead she simply gazed at the hallways they found themselves in. She hadn't made it quite this far on her last adventure, instead being dumped into an underground lake before making it through the garden. But it seemed they were starting past that point this time.

"Last time this place was little else but traps and monsters. Though, after the dreary doubletalk of that 'school', I almost find myself nostalgic for such straightforward simplicity." Caprice juggled small sets of cards two or three at a time as she looked around. She simply poked her nose in wherever she felt like checking. For her talk of traps, she didn't seem too worried about springing any.

Tower of Fable

Caprice couldn't help but let a hint of jealousy slip onto her face as Claire began to take pictures of Cait. It seemed she wished she had thought of the idea first. But alas, that is not how it had transpired, and Caprice could only kick up her feet on another chair and gulp down another mouthful of her drink before turning her attention to the counter. She set a hand down. A small stack of cards appeared when she lifted her palm, only fingertips still touching. She slid the cards down, spreading them out to reveal three in total, before flicking the last one, sending them all spinning to face up.

There was each of her fellow adventurers currently in the room.

Rose lay amidst a sprawling harem of indistinct girls, gold raining down upon her, a smile upon her face. Rose had a tail with a heart shaped end wrapped around one of the girls, pulling her tight.

Clair appeared just as she was right then, holding a reed stalk and bothering Cait.

Akiko was a cat.

Tower of Fable

Caprice set herself down at the counter, calmly lifting a leg out of the way and crossing it to avoid a sudden pirate ship. She leaned forward, resting her head in her hand with an elbow on the counter. "It seems our most gracious of hosts has the impressive talent of sleeping anywhere. How tempting, I'm sure someone could hook me up with that power." Caprice smiles at the sight of the napping Cait, before her eyes glanced over to Emilia.

"Well, no reason to bother her." With a wave of the hand snacks and drinks set themselves out for everyone, so that no one would need to wake Cait for one. For herself, she summoned a little coconut and mango drink, with actual fruit chunks floating about.

Tower of Fable

Caprice strolled out of the shadows cast by flickering neon and dying embers in the wake of the city's destruction to look upon the situation. She looked none the worse for wear. "Hmm, the monster has been slain and now gold rains from the heaven. My my, not very out of place in a game." Caprice smiles, creating in her hand a candy cane frame of an open umbrella, taffy stretched between its ribs. Gold coins bounced off of it, seemingly holding no allure to Caprice.

"Was that President the one who made the rules? Or was he simply another piece? The Headmistress seemed to hold no potential, simply a boss monster to be defeated for prizes. Poor thing couldn't even manage to fight the one she hated so." Her eyes scanned back and forth fruitlessly to find the Student Council President, who had already vanished.

"Well, perhaps the game's next level will hold some clues." Caprice shrugged as the glow encompassed her, and she left this floor of the tower.

Tower of Fable

Caprice's eyes watched the path of the incoming attack, but no other movement graced her body, save that to simply swallow her popcorn and clear her mouth.

The blow sent Caprice's teetering tower backwards and the bucket of popcorn skyward. Yet, as the chair and ruble toppled, somehow Caprice turned it into a backflip, each foot landing precisely on a summoned pole of candy cane of around the side of a bamboo shoot. The popcorn bucket came down first, and Caprice's hand reached skyward to catch it. She twirled once with it in hand to let the arc of flying popcorn land back home safe and sound, extra candy canes rising and falling as needed for her precise footwork.

"Mmm... Reasonable?" Caprice tossed a single popcorn into her mouth, ruminating on both the flavor and the word simultaneously. "I suppose my words must have been as harsh as violence to you." Caprice came to her conclusion with a half-hearted wave the hand.

"Very well, let us see whether you find satisfaction in defeating me. If I spend too much time on the sidelines all this might go to my thighs." Caprice's "this" seemed to be the popcorn, which she held forth now at Kanbaru as if it were some sort of weapon.