He was alone again.

It was a familiar feeling. One neither pleasant nor terrible, neither white or black.

He had yet to rid himself of liberation. From the shackles of old that did everything in their power to stop him. That, indeed, felt terrible. Nothing he would die to, but it would've been nauseating to him if his mind had been fragile.

Blue surrounded him as he let his body breeze past the air, through a vast world within existence. He existed- that alone opened up an infinite possibilities, but there was only one he sought for.

Total consumption.

But...

He needed to prepare. After all, now that he was out of a world of nothing, his presence wouldn't go unnoticed unless he prepared a place where nothing can sense him.

And so, he went ahead to start doing just that, out in the middle of the oceans- unseen, and unknown due to him using every ounce of his power to remain covert.

---

Vermilla

The longest ten minutes passed in Kora.

Everyone remained within the barriers generated by the military, and no man and woman was not distressed by the disastrous aftermath of the unknown attack. An alarming amount of people were nowhere to be seen, though had the military not shown up quickly, that would've been ended up being almost everyone. That didn't change the fact that almost every building had been damaged in some form, some seared from the heat of the electricity. Less sturdier buildings had simply fallen apart.

The ARK Soldiers seemed to be more composed about the situation than everyone else, even if the military itself was acting as the calming voice for the citizens.

To be able to be composed during a time like this...

I'll never understand them, Vermilla thought to herself. She didn't hate them- it's just that she couldn't understand just how they thought about most situations. After all, they always did the right actions, but rarely did they favor showing emotion over being efficient. That often made it frustrating to try understanding them, even during her days in the Intelligence Agency.

But perhaps that was one of the many things that made them unique from the rest of the military.

Even so, she wasn't sure if they would be capable to take down the cause of all this.

All around her, there were hundreds- no, thousands of people gathered within the barriers. The barriers were all closely placed together, forming a giant ring surrounding the center of Riesling. As such, it was natural for the shrunken size of the "safe" areas of the city to cause larger crowds. People brushed past her occasionally, the sheer volume of people often getting in her way as she walked around.

She needed to find the Colonel. Even if he didn't know what was going on, at the very least, he could know of a potential lead, right...?

...

She felt very unsure about that, despite her hating the idea of doubting good things about people.

"DAMMIT!" A brash voice yelled from a distance. Vermilla turned, only to find one of the few spots that was a little more vacant. Not too far from her was a scary-looking man, ruffling his short hair with his gloved hands as he muttered something inaudibly. He stood next to a woman, though Vermilla noted that the two were both wearing things that shielded their eyes.

Though, that voice was rather familiar... If she recalled correctly, she heard it just when rain began to fall. He seemed much more frustrated than when the rain had fallen.

...Which was understandable, considering that everyone's day was ruined, essentially.

Vermilla headed to their way, albeit slowly. She didn't want to start running and bash her head against someone.

---

Ryuu

"This sucks on ICE."

Ryuu's day was more than ruined.

The expo was literally dead. Some fucking demon sped through the damn city as if it were trying to collect people like golden rings, and the whole damn city was blown apart. And he SWORE that his flight ticket had been turned into ashes down in that stupid, stupid city. Was it the city's fault that some kind of alien invasion destroyed and frightened the living daylight out of people? Hell yeah!

Did he honestly expect any city be able to retaliate to an attack that fast? Well, hell no, but his case was still valid!

He wanted to blame something he knew about, but it had been a while since he witnessed something truly unfamiliar and out of the damn world. The days at Athalia were much simpler than this.

There weren't many things Ryuu considered to be truly annoying, but one of them had to be the feeling of being helpless. He fought, but he still felt like he was entirely at the mercy of whatever caused the attack.

And it... sucked, really.

He sighed heavily.

Glancing at Andromeda, he stared at her for a brief moment before looking away. She seemed to be in a better condition than himself. Earlier, one of the field medics went up to him and asked if he needed treatment. He would've accepted, but...

His pride!!!! Arghhh, his prideeeeeee. It felt especially worse to look weak in front of one of his older classmates- and friends. He decided to just slap a bandaid on his cheek because "lul videogaemz" but that was turning out to be one of the most useless ideas he had come up with in a while- even more useless than the entirety of his efforts at the Expo.

Amazing.

"What the hell is even going on..."

He fell silent for a split moment. Alas, he barely shut up for only two seconds before he blurted out to Andromeda,

"Andro! Have you seen Carmen? Or, is there like, anybody else you met?"

Carmen. DAMN. Of all people he wanted to meet right now, she somehow ended up being at the one of the top people in the list, the other top people being all the visual novel characters who can comfort him right at this very moment. He absolutely detested thinking about it, but he knew that she was more rational than him. Knowing all this supernatural baloney and the results that ended up coming from it, at least making sure the people he knew of were safe was a high priority to him rather than thinking about what to do next. Though, he knew that Andromeda had a more likely chance of knowing some of the people who showed up at the Expo.

He refused to admit that he just wanted to make sure the people he knew of were okay, even if it was a very selfish thought in the aftermath of a disaster.

---

Mark

With nothing around to hurt him for now, Mark walked down the streets.

He put all his stuff away, though for some reason, they were nowhere to be seen on his person. The whip he used, the machete he swung- they were all not present. Instead, he put his hands in his pockets, walking.

As he walked, he eventually saw the white-haired person he had come across earlier. He had waved at her or something, though he forgot because he went past her way too quickly earlier.

So he waved again, this time speaking out his mind as honestly as possible. From the depths of his mind, he took out the most truthful of words to this stranger, who he knew very little of, and whom probably knew little about him. But his earnest words should surely ring out to her!

"'ello," he said with a small smile. "I'm lost. Do you know where everyone is right now?"

His words ended up being anything but earnest, though he did seem sincere with talking with the woman. After all, being insincere when he just briefly saw her get hot-tempered could result in... interestingly negative things. Though there was a ring surrounding the city at this point, he wanted to go to the more vacant side of the ring.

_{@Driving Park@Animelover_princess@Nevix}

---

Post / Part 2 of 2

The demons and red skies vanished just as Vikki and Edric reached each other. The bounty hunter looked behind her and saw that the demons were quickly evaporating. She trotted to a stop as she reached the man with the drawn scimitar, pausing to catch her breath.

"Ugh," she grunted with a streak of annoyance. "They always puss out right when it's about to get fun." Sheathing her katanas on her back, she looked around somewhat incredulously before turning her attention back to the man in front of her. "What a shame, I was kind of looking forward to see how you fought with that sword of yours. I've heard good things about how you Athalians fight," she said with a wink and a twinkle in her eye. Before Edric could read too much into that information, the lavishly dressed bounty hunter went over to a bench nearby and sat down on it. It felt kind of weird to not have any assignments for a day or two...this festival was supposed to keep her occupied for at least another day, but it was obvious that was no longer happening. She looked around purposefully at the people mulling about in the aftermath. If there was one Athalian, there were bound to be more.



Mizuki was leaned up against a wall with her arms crossed, slightly brooding and slightly contemplating. On the one hand, she was happy to be able to use her fox-fire again, and it felt good to release some anger on the demons. On the other hand, there had been a lot of them, and she had been running out of steam by the time they evaporated. She had the feeling that eventually she and everyone else would have been overrun, and that was not something she approved of. Furthermore, the invasion ruined the festival and meant that she wouldn't have a chance to experience the night festival, which was the main reason she was there in the first place. Still, she was at least thankful she didn't get injured or worse, did pretty well for herself (she thought) for not having fought in years, and wasn't photographed that much.

Before she could allow her stream of consciousness to go any further, an unfamiliar man walked up to her. She looked at him with confusion and barely contained annoyance at his question. "What do you mean by 'everyone'?" she asked with narrowed eyes. "I can see people scattered in every direction, and they all look as confused as you are. So...what kind of 'everyone' are you looking for?"



"Agh, this is just unbearable," Carmen dramatically whined to nobody in particular. "One of those infernal demon things got a SCRATCH on my PURSE!!! This is so embarrassing..." She carefully adjusted the purse on her shoulder so that the scratch was facing her and not visible to other people and stood up from her sitting (formerly fighting) place in a little courtyard. As frustrated at she was about her handbag, she needed to focus on finding out if the couple of Athalians she ran into earlier were alright, so she began walking.



Eris walked out of the square with a small smirk on her face, unnoticed by everyone as they tended to themselves. In her mind, she had won the day. Duatos left once she challenged him, and chaos reigned supreme without Eris having to so much as lift a finger.

He'll be a fun little plaything, she thought.

- Andromeda -

Andromeda stood alert behind the barrier as the next wave rushed forward, decimating anything still trapped on the other side. She flinched as the wave slammed into the psy-barriers and then dissipated. She took a deep breath and prepared herself to rush back out but then something changed. The demons started collapsing into dust on the other side of the field as whatever power had created them seemed to dissipate.

She waved off a medic who stopped beside her, too focused on what was going on in front of her.

Andro just stared in disbelief as everything stopped. The soldiers seemed poised for another attack but none were forthcoming. The gorgon moved forward slightly and looked all around trying to see where the person behind all this might have gone, but he was just gone, she hadn’t seen him leave, she was likely too focused on the demons.

"What the hell is even going on..."

Andro glanced over at Ryuu, he looked pretty disheveled but he didn’t look too badly hurt, she hoped anyway.
“I don’t know” she replied softly, as she let her transformation go and her tail receded back into a pair of legs. She swayed slightly, as transforming always left her off balance but she kept herself upright.

She jumped, however, when Ryuu suddenly shouted "Andro! Have you seen Carmen? Or, is there like, anybody else you met?"

Andromeda gasped “Oh My God! Carmen! We were together before the attack started but we got separated!” she put her hands over her mouth “Oh, I hope she’s alright! She was looking for…” Andro paused a second as a bit of a blush hit her cheeks “Edric, she was looking for Edric, she said he was here, we need to find them!” she turned and looked around “Last I saw Carmen was over this way!” and she started running, ignoring the fact that her shoes had gotten lost somewhere between her transforming and transforming back.

She glanced back to see if Ryuu was following.

---

Wimps.

Azamor's thought echoed in Edric's head, bitter, as the demons heading toward them evaporated. Edric knew that Azamor bore a special sort of anger toward his own kind, and he had seen it on display the handful of times they'd been attacked in their journeys. He assumed it had something to do with the reason he'd been sealed in the pendant, all those years ago. Edric didn't know the details, and he'd never asked. He figured Azamor would tell him, someday.

Edric was more relieved than disappointed by the sudden disappearance of the demons, but the feeling didn't last. Dread and curiosity took its place. The dread, he imagined, was natural. This attack had unnerving implications. Whoever had orchestrated it had, apparently, gotten away clean. He didn't want to think about the casualties, but he doubted it was a tiny number.

His curiosity was a little less abstract, more mundane. It was a result not of the monsters that had ravaged the city, but of the well-armed woman who'd he almost fought them with.

"How did you know I'm an Athalian?" He followed her to the bench she'd sat down on and stood beside her. "I'm not, ah, exactly wearing a name tag."

Face it, Eddy. You- no- we- have fans.

"I'm Edric, by the way." He offered a hand to shake and quirked an eyebrow. "But I'm getting the weird sense that you already know that."

_{@Driving Park}

---

---

"Oh."

Dexter looked around as the demons that had managed to surround him dissolved. He stood, alone now, in the middle of the street holding a fireman's ax. He took another look around, confirmed that he was no longer in danger, and opened his hands, letting the ax fall from his hands. It vanished before it hit the ground. He looked at buildings around him, saw one that looked suitably bar-like, and allowed himself. He'd need to be going soon. Doubtless, there was money to be made off of this. Rich people tended to get nervous, whenever something like this happened, especially if it was difficult to explain or understand. They'd be clamoring for guards, hired muscle. At first glance his resume, what with the police and military experience, was impressive, as was his magic.

But first, there was an unlocked bar, untended expensive liquor, and an empty flask he had to attend to.

---

---

BANG!

Aileen poked her head above her stall and watched as the smoke created by the explosive she'd thrown cleared to reveal that the crowd of demons that had found their way into the medical exhibit area was entirely gone. The irritated intern from earlier stood up, brushing off his shirt. He'd been cowering behind a bench.

"Well, Ms. Deckard, that was some bomb."

"I don't think-" The explosive she'd created sounded and looked a lot more powerful than it actually was. She'd learned the recipe from a hunter while she and Edric had traveled. It was a lot more effective at scaring an attacker than it was at hurting one. She'd made a couple of the little bombs up before coming, just in case. She hadn't really expected it to do anything to the demons when she'd thrown it. She walked out from behind her stall and looked around. She couldn't see, hear, or smell any demons. "I think it's over."

Ryuu

For once, Ryuu had a "mega mind" moment with the brilliant idea of following Andromeda without babbling for longer.

There were a handful of people who they could probably meet and group up with in time. He'd worry about flights and the like later. As dense as he could be, even he could tell that what just happened wasn't some natural disaster. He could just feel it from the heat of the magic caused in the city.

I dunno what the hell any of this is, but it definitely got my attention.

He began looking around, following Andromeda as gracefully as he could- with no grace at all.

---

Mark

"Well, I meant..."

As he spoke, Mark froze as if he were recalling something from his memory. He glanced to the side, remaining frozen awkwardly for a moment before glancing back at the woman before him.

"...thhhhhhat in a rhetorical sense, of course," he finished with a small smile. "Come on, come on! It's better to be with everyone than be out here. The more the merrier, right?"

Remembering that there were probably thousands of people mourning or outright traumatized by the sudden event earlier, Mark quickly added in, "Plus, it's probably safer there than here. If there's anybody you know of, they're most likely there."

With a friendly gesture motioning for Mizuki to follow him, Mark began walking away from the center of the city. It was like he never swung around the city wildly earlier.

---

Vermilla

A group of ARK soldiers emerged with several magic forensic scientists from the center of the city, entering the ring for what seemed to be a second time. All forms of electronic communication in the vicinity were shut down- as they were essentially locked out, they were constantly sent to analyze, gather information, and return to the ring. Judging by how their guards seemed less tense than before, it seemed that there wasn't going to be any more of what just happened.

As much as she wanted to talk with them, she wasn't sure if she wanted to bother the busy people. All civilians were kept within the barriers as of now due to safety procedure.

Magic Forensics- they were studied by those accustomed to the science behind magic, as well as identifying the source of magic. As odd as it sounded, magic still needed to manipulate matter and the like. Most forms of magic often left "spell fingerprinting," or outside of forensics lingo, unique traces of magic that can only be left by specific people. In a sense, they were like ballistic marks, only less metal and more otherworldly.

Granted, not many people knew of this field's very existence. Magic was only known to exist, yet not be used by people, after all. First formed in Kora after a disclosed incident, Vermilla herself only knew small portions of information on the magic forensics field, and knew even less behind what incident caused its creation in the first place. To the public, they would probably look like regular forensics scientists due to their secrecy from the public.

Judging by the looks on their faces, it seemed like the event altogether was an anomaly. That didn't do much to quell her worries. Turning to the people she was following, she-

Huh?

H-Hey! Vermilla thought as she realized the people she followed started running. Did I scare them off? I was trying to talk to them, too!

Though her lips remained sealed, she followed the man and woman.

_{@Driving Park@Nevix@Animelover_princess}

Vikki let out a small grin. "You learn quickly," she said to Edric, standing back up to shake his hand. She made a mental note to remember that. "Let's just say I've had a vested interest in Athalian affairs for a while," she added. "It's a shame the Academy is closed now, I don't have any reason to visit Pavella anymore." She shrugged. "But, you all seem to be doing well enough."

Presently two figures could be briefly seen running along the next street over. "Looks like two of your friends right there, Vikki observed. "Those two are hard to miss. Wonder where they're running to?"

She stood up. "Come on," she beckoned, and began jogging after the two runners.

_@Nevix



Carmen walked at a brisk pace, cutting through various alleys and courtyards as she walked towards the sound of a distant crowd. Eventually she turned a corner, and was entirely unprepared to find Andromeda running straight at her. She let out a high-pitched yelp of surprise as she jumped back, narrowly avoiding a collision with the gorgon.

After taking a moment to compose herself (both mentally and cosmetically), the skylark turned to her hasty friends. "Ah, two of my favorite people!" she said cheerily, addressing both Andromeda and Ryuu as he caught up. "What a pleasant surprise. But...where are you two off to in such a hurry?"

_{@Animelover_princess@NaraK}



Mizuki let out a huff in response to Mark. She still thought he was annoying, but in a way that suggested she had already gotten enormously upset at him before, even though she had just met him. To be fair, she got enormously upset with most people at one point or another. But Mark seemed tenacious, which was a good quality in Mizuki's book. In truth, she just wanted to go back to Oasari, but she had a feeling the Koran military wouldn't be letting people casually walk out of the city for a little while. And in any case, her flight back wasn't until the next morning, so she found herself following Mark.

It had been an interesting day.

_@NaraK

---

_{@Animelover_princess}

Andro was ooking around frantically. She knew Carmen could take care of herself but still, that had been pretty crazy, she hoped she was alright.
Of course, as was her lot in life, as soon as that thought popped into her head she ran almost directly into the skylark she was worrying over. Carmen stepped back just in time so Andro could bring herself to a grinding halt.
"Oh, thank goodness," she breathed.

The gorgon laughed a little at Carmen's question "I was mainly worried about you, that was pretty crazy and i wanted to know if you were alright. I found Ryuu after those demons appeared." She examined Carmen as she spoke, looking for any obvious signs of injury and was glad that she seemed to look alright. "Do you have any idea what all of that was?"

---

_@NaraK

Favorite people?

Ryuu turned to a familiarly triggering voice as he found Carmen, though he almost clumsily fell in his steps unlike Andro. Skidding into a halt as well, he blinked, staring at the woman.

For a moment, it was clear that Carmen coming out scotch-free was somehow not that surprising. His face soon scrunched up like the Grinch trying to steal Christmas as blurted out, "Yeah, favorite people, alright!

"...Nice to see you anyway."

And it really was.

The entire city could've been leveled at any moment. The fact that the three of them- Andro, Ryuu, and Carmen- stood next to each other was already surprising enough, but the situation itself? He had no words to describe it. He'd seen his fair share of crazy antics... in anime. Not like this! Not in real life!

Taking a deep breath, Ryuu scratched the back of his head out of frustration as he seethed visibly. He lost his stall. And he swore that he had his plane ticket somewhere in his pocket, earlier...

"Okay, but first things first-"

Throwing his head back almost dramatically, he roared, "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!"

By the time he looked back down, his eyes were practically burning in anger and confusion. "Seriously, both you and Andro would probably know more about... odd stuff than me, maybe, but I'm literally completely lost in all of this!"

Despite being visibly angered, Ryuu seemed to have calmed down more with the presence of two people he knew of at the scene. Meeting more people would probably help out, yeah, but in a huge crowd gathered in the barrier? Yeah, no, things were getting a lot harder to concentrate on for someone like him.

---

_{@Driving Park@Animelover_princess}

Carmen smiled at the gorgon. "You were worried about ME? I'm touched!" she replied with no small amount of enthusiasm. It was the kind of enthusiasm that you weren't sure was genuine or not, but enthusiasm nonetheless. And in Carmen's case, it was in fact genuine. "I'm quite alright, apart from the inexcusable damage to my purse," she added. "Which I won't show you, because it's embarrassing."

She turned to the otaku, who seemed pretty shocked from the whole thing. To be fair, it had been a very interesting past few minutes. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, you two, but I don't have the slightest idea what that was. Reminded me of our old days fighting demons in Athalia, but at the same time it was...different. And not in a good way, even as far as demons go." The skylark looked around. "I know Edric and a couple of others were here. Have you two seen any of our classmates? We need to know that they made it out as well!"

Andro let out a sympathetic wince at Carmen's comment about her purse. She glanced down at her dress, of which the edges were covered in ash. It was also covered in cuts and tears and she thought she saw a bit of blood near the hem. It might be salvageable but clothing had never really been her thing. As a child she'd had servants and she was still an heiress so she just bought new clothes when she could no longer wear the ones she had. She had a bit of a sentimental attachment to this one but she was probably just going to throw it away anyway.

Andro jumped as Ryuu yelled. Her hand went to her heart for a second, she really didn't need anymore scares today. "Ryuu, please calm down. I'm sure will be able to figure everything out." She put a gentle hand on his arm before looking back at Carmen "It reminded me of school as well but the demons during our school years never tasted like ash and lava" she bit down a gag at the thought, the taste was stil lingering in her mouth a little and her throat still stung slightly.

She looked over at Carmen's question about their classmates and shook her head sadly "No, i haven't seen anyone, but to be honest i'm not sure i was looking very hard. during the battle i was more focused on staying alive and then after taht i was focused on finding you, we could have gone right past them to be honest" she let out a frustrated hum and the snakes on her head mimiced the sound. "We should probably start looking then? see if we can find any of our classmates, or anyone who would know anything about what that could have been"

---

_@NaraK

Ryuu was no leader, so what Andro said was pretty much the only thing he found plausible at the moment. Aside from just standing by idly, that was.

At this point, standing idly doesn't sound all too bad, he admitted to himself. But hell, there had to be more people they knew of- if Carmen and Andro knew, then he doubted they'd be lying when they were serious.

"Got no objections to that," he responded. "If we know some people were here, we better find 'em- and fast. This crowd isn't getting any smaller, from what I could tell."

---

_{@Driving Park@Nevix@Animelover_princess@NaraK}

"I found one for you." The voice of an unfamiliar woman came from behind Ryuu, and just behind her was Edric. "You're welcome," she added, as she and Edric reached the group.

"Edric!" exclaimed Carmen. "So glad to see you made it." She turned to the unfamiliar woman. "And to whom do we owe this pleasure?" she asked, extra-cordially even for Carmen.

Vikki laughed. "You're the famous one, not me," she replied.

"Carmen?" He laughed. "Glad to see you're still kicking." He turned his head, and confirmed who the others were.

Oh this is too good. Edric felt Azamore snicker.

Ryuu, an old acquaintance of his from Athalia, and Andromeda. He cleared his throat.

"Andro? I didn't know you were, ah, in town." He cleared his throat again, despite the fact he'd just done it a moment ago. "I'm- uh- Good to see you."

Andro turned around when the unknown woman spoke. she sighed in relief when she saw Edric. Then it registered that it was Edric. A light blush worked it's way onto Andro's cheeks and she suddenly wished she had worn her veil instead of her glasses. The blush deepened a little when he looked at her and she smiled at him.

"Uh hi E-Edric..." She glanced away "I'm glad you're alright..." she coughed lightly and decided to look anywhere but at Edric.

It was at this point that Carmen's mouth went agape with joy as her eyebrows shot up in unison. She quickly (but not too quickly) covered her mouth with both hands and looked around the group as if to say "are you seeing what I'm seeing right now?!" before she had an amusing battle of facial expressions with herself before settling on a more polite expression. She still had a little smirk that conveyed her recent discovery of something wonderful.

Vikki rolled her eyes at this.

"...Uhh."

Ryuu opened his mouth to say something, only to shut it briefly before he shook his head, waking himself up. What they were seeing? Carmen, I'm not blind, Ryuu spoke in his mind. This is clearly the moment where we're all supposed to say "I'M GLADDDDD" and stuff.

…Of course, he didn't dare say that out loud. It was better to feel good than, well, shit. Also, he was completely wrong, but it's not like he'd notice.

"Well, damn, good to see you around, Edric," Ryuu finally cracked a grin. "I still owe you a marathon over some of the classics I enjoyed when I was younger, yeah?"

It was sort of obvious as to what the otaku meant when the word "classic" came from him.

"I'll hold you to that." Edric smiled back at him. He'd been out of the loop long enough that all of Ryuu's 'classics' were as new to him now as they'd been five or six years ago. "Good to see you, man." It fell silent.

Tough crowd.

"Shut up." He muttered, under his breath. He shook his head and looked at the people around him. "Ah, not you guys."

Andro glanced up and saw the grin on Carmen's face. 'damn, though i'm not surprised, i'm not exactly subtle' she shuffled her feet for a moment before shifting to put the skylark slightly between her and Edric, in the hopes that would get her insufferable bush to go down. it wasn't exactly easy for Andro to bllush, she was cold-blooded after all, but Edric always managed to make it happen. her snakes were hissing quietly at her so she pulled her hood up once again.

"We uh... we should get moving"

She subconsciously tugged at her sleeves to try and hide her hands. She didn't know why but whenever she was embarrassed she always tried to cover up as much as possible. for once she was wearing an outfit that made this rather simple. but still she tried to tug the sleeves down over her hands.

"Where should we start?"

---

---

---

_{@Driving Park@NaraK}

It wasn't a pretty sight. Really, that's an accomplishment a city like Riesling could not be able to pull off normally.

Barriers formed around the city, the skies were only barely starting to clear up, but even if it did, nobody would probably appreciate any blue for now. It all happened as quickly as it would take for someone to crunch up an empty plastic bottle- instant, almost to the point of being like a B-List action movie plot.

In a sense, however, there were only a few differences from natural disasters to one such as this one. Because nobody could stop natural disasters, and natural disasters simply happened due to nature and how it worked.

Red lightning wasn't a part of normal natural disasters, however. And natural disasters lacked one thing- a perpetrator.

Mark took a short breath. Breathing in a city that just got attacked wasn't exactly a good idea, but it wasn't like the place could get any cleaner any time soon.

Glancing at Mizuki, Mark put his hands in his pockets, a very simple smile etched on his face. "Ya ever see anything like this before?" He broke the ice as he briefly looked around the city. "Stuff ain't pretty, I'll admit. You seemed to handle it pretty well, though."

Mizuki glanced back at Mark, her ears perking up before her head did when he spoke. "Eh, I did alright," she said. "I'm not sure how much longer I would have lasted." She had done pretty well in her opinion, especially for being so out of practice, but she had begun to fade quickly at the end and this didn't please her one bit. "I'm out of practice," she added simply. A much-too-long silence passed before she finally responded to Mark's earlier question. "I've seen plenty of demons before, I guess," she said. "But not these. I guess I could be bothered to wonder where they came from if I wasn't so occupied with being annoyed that they ruined the festival." She sighed.

Another long silence passed. She wasn't really in the mood for talking to Mark, but she didn't have much of an alternative. And he was one of the most tolerable people she had run across in a while. "What about you? Have YOU ever seen anything like this before?"

"Me? Pshhhhh, me?"

Mark laughed lightly, but it trailed off pretty quickly as he awkwardly thought of what else to follow it up with. He then ended up turning to Mizuki with a somewhat sheepish smile as he answered, "Sort of, I guess?"

Taking his hands out of his pocket, he stretched his arms in front of him as he continued, "I've seen a good handful, now that you mention it! Nothin' as crazy as the stuff today, but it's kind of my thing, really. An adventurer's bound to see some things others don't often see, anyway."

He did agree with one thing for certain. The festival had been ruined, the whole city had been literally lit in red, and nobody was happy with this. Probably except for the thing that caused all of this. And it also ruined that umbrella of his...

"Yeaaah, so much for a party. I had a gut feeling something bad was gonna happen when I saw those skies, but it looks like I'm gonna get busy soon. Stuff like this usually don't have any intentions to just act once, you know?"

As he put his hands back in his pockets, Mark wondered if he should pry into more of who she was. Curious he may be, however, he usually minded the privacy of others. "Usually" being the key term here.

So, he instead talked about a little more about himself. "I actually used to live in a town near here. Made a few friends, but I was pretty average at makin' friends. Ever since I started movin', though? Sheesh, feels like the whole world's my home at this point!"

Mizuki was learning more and more about Mark, whether she wanted to or not. His bit about being an adventurer and the cheesy quote about the whole world being his home seemed like vague cop-outs, but then again she wouldn't blame him for wanting to keep his personal details private. Still, he had yet to give an answer she was satisfied with, but she also didn't care much. She did have to admit he had a point, however. "Yeah, I kind of get the feeling my civilian life is pretty much over after today for a while," she replied. She was honestly kind of happy about that. It would be good to fight again. "I say bring it. Today I got a grudge that needs to be resolved."

"A grudge?"

"Of course, how are you gonna ruin my festival and NOT get a grudge from me?"

The man grinned again, though this one seemed a lot lighter in context. "Point taken."

He put up a thoughtful look. Even though it's presence was known to some degree, most people weren't capable of using abilities like what Mizuki had used. Or at least, up to the extent of her abilities. And he didn't really have much to offer her, so he might as well offer something reasonably possible.

"Well, if you're that interested in turning that heat up against those demons more, I could probably offer you a front row reservation for that. I'm gonna be meeting up with someone who might know what's going on, actually."

Mizuki finally perked up in an actually interested way. "Count me in," she said without hesitation. She enjoyed her peaceful life, but her nogitsune side had been sadly neglected. Fighting the demons had been thrilling, and she would have wanted more even if she didn't have a grudge. "I've got nothing better to do," she added, and she was telling the truth.

Mark blinked.

Huh, he thought. That was about a hundred times faster than I thought this would've gone.

Well, it wasn't like he'd beg for her to be slow about it. As for what she commonly did, he would perhaps ask later, now that he knew she'd be willing to join him. "Then that's that," he said simply. "Just leave it to me- an extra person won't be a problem and would definitely be appreciated! I usually don't meet people who can fight like you too often, so that's a massive bonus."

Looking in front of him, Mark perked up as his grin grew cheekier. "Well, it looks like we're here."

As the two walked up to the barrier, several ARK Soldiers turned to their direction, noticing their presence getting closer.

Suddenly, the soldiers froze as they stopped what they were doing to salute at their direction. One of the soldiers, fully armored, approached Mark as both he and Mizuki phased through the barrier.

"Sir!" The soldier spoke with a booming voice, though he appeared to have his weapons holstered. "We have gone through some of the forensics. Lieutenant Montgomery has issued a full-scale investigation on identifying any residue that can trace towards proper analysis."

Blinking, Mark scratched his cheek as he unsurely asked, "Soooooo how long does he plan on having this place quarantined, then?"

"About another day, sir."

"Another DAY? Geez, I can probably write up a resume in that time," Mark muttered, both flabbergasted and in awe. To his knowledge, Kora military quarantine procedures weren't common, but they were extremely quick with carrying them out usually. And judging by the soldier's tone, they weren't going to be finding any sort of identity in just tracing things with magic forensics.

"Well, good to know. Thanks for that, I guess."

"Yessir! Lieutenant Montgomery said he will be waiting for you at tent A8, sir!"

"Yeah, again. Thanks."

At this point, Mark almost seemed like he wanted to escape from what could become an extremely long chain of information dumps for his soul.

And with that, he and Mizuki passed by the soldiers. It had been a long day, and Mark himself wanted to get things done quickly. The slower they acted, well, they weren't earning anything out of being slow at the moment. As he headed towards the tent's direction in particular, his eyes met a certain pair that were hidden behind sunglasses.

...

...

...

"...Ah."

"Huh?"

...

"Wait a second," Ryuu muttered for a moment as he eyed the blond man. "I feel like I've seen you before."

"You did?" Mark asked, blinking as he looked around with a blank smile. "Out of all the short-haired blond people here?"

"Yeeeeeeeeah. I can't just help but get the feeling- ah, hell, I dunno."

Ryuu glanced at the woman next to Mark. Now her, on the other hand, he definitely saw before. And judging by the sudden excitement at the sight of fox ears he gained, this definitely wasn't going to go well if he let his emotions run wild.

Yeah, he had to control his emotions. But...

The e a r s.

It lingered in his head, almost annoyingly so. What was her name again?? If everyone else next to him knew her, then the probability of him having at least seen her once would increase quite a bit.

"Who are you again?" Ryuu asked, eying Mizuki like she was some kind of alien blessing the world with her ears alone.

Mizuki sighed at the man who obviously was pleased to see her, or at least part of her. She vaguely remembered him but she wasn't sure from where. Worse still, as she looked around she looked through a sea of unfamiliar faces - except two, the unmistakable gorgon she had met in Athalia, and a celebrity??? By the time she turned back to the man who was ogling her she was more than a little confused. "...I'm Mizuki," she finally said, no small hint of annoyance in her voice. She gave a small nod to Andromeda before turning back to Mark. "Who are these fools?" she asked.

Andro was surprised for a second as yet more people seemed to run directly into them just as they were about to look for them. What a coincidence, like fate was guiding them all together or something. Funny how things like that happen. She smiled a little at Mizuki's nod and nodded in return. She reached over a nudged Ryuu a little and whispered "you're staring" before looking back at the newest to join their group.

She didn't recognize the man with her and was a tad surprised, Mizuki hadn't exactly made friends when at Athalia and she hadn't exactly expected that to change after they left school, but perhaps.

“Wait, what?” Ryuu returned to reality as he blinked at Andro. “I did what now-?”

“I have no idea,” Mark told Mizuki honestly, though he did remember each of their faces when the fair wasn’t being trashed on. He also remembered throwing one of them into the skies like a boomerang.

Though, there was also the fact that he’d seen them surviving the bombardment of lightning unlike a whole lot of unfortunate people. That was a good start. Before he thought about asking them if they had some free time in their hands, a voice called out to him.

“Mark.”

Ah. Turning to the voice, Mark found the very man in charge of most of the quick decisions made by the military on the spot. He stood tall, taller than Mark himself, clad in a white uniform contrasting to the rough tent he just left.

“Sup, Mont,” Mark grinned.

“Lieutenant sounds much better, Mark Noxus.”

There wasn’t much Mark could give aside from a single shrug. “Well, whatever you say,” he said. “Was on my way here and picked up some people- well, just one person to be exact- who could help me out with this whole ordeal.”

The lieutenant glanced between Mark and Mizuki, though he did eye the group next to them. “And them?”

Mark turned to the larger group nearby before turning back to the man. “I’m not one to judge, but I think these guys, or at least some, would know her-“ He quickly pointed at Mizuki as he spoke, “-than me. I think I saw them bust down some of those ash things, though.”

“I see.”

His expression remained idle, though he seemed to want to discuss something as time continued to tick. A moment later, however, one of the soldiers nearby rushed over to the lieutenant and whispered something to him.

A quick nod was given to the soldier.

“Mark, I think you know what we need to talk about,” Montgomery stated. “Though, are you certain the person with you wishes to help?”

“I mean, I’m getting all the help I could get, and I’m not just bringing people for eye candy,” Mark admitted. “This is awkward for me too, you know. Give me juuuuuust a moment and I’ll be ready, yeah?”

“Very well.”

As the man turned back to the tent and headed back in, Mark scratched the back of his head after holding his breath for a bit. As much as it was better to have at least one person helping him out, gathering a few more people he witnessed

Well, this was awkward.

Glancing at the group next to him, he gave them a polite smile. “So, fellow strangers,” he said, a small smile entering his face as he clapped his hands together. “I’m Mark Noxus, nice to meet you. Soo, y’all good at fighting, maybe? Figured I should ask since I saw you kinda kicking some butt back there.”

Despite how roundabout it was, it was an honest to God question if he could ever put it that way. And despite the confident smile, his face almost pleaded with the hope of them not just leaving on him at his sudden question.