"Cosplay!?" Nanoha said, partially in shock, after being taken as a cosplayer. Perhaps, was it because she based her Barrier Jacket design on her former school's uniform? "Do you mean a Servant, as in like some kind of familiar? Also, do you know anything about modern Japan, miss Suzuka?" she couldn't avoid asking back.
Anyway, right after Nanoha used her magic...
That... wasn't supposed to happen. Nanoha never had experienced anything that could arrest her control over her magic before. Regardless of the information that she learned being important, the implications of a force in this realm being able to "hack" her spells was enough cause to worry. Just to be sure that she wouldn't be surprised by anything else, Nanoha asked Raising Heart to stay on high alert mode while she put all of her concentration at the task at hand.
"I have a bad feeling about this. We should get going already," Nanoha said as she armed herself with Raising Heart and followed the others.
The building that stood waiting for the group as they arrived was relatively undamaged as far as the ruins went; despite the toll that time had taken from the rest of its surroundings, this one in particular—marked with a single torch, its flame burning against a darkened backdrop of a ruined town—seemed to have escaped the worst of things. The door to the building itself, wooden and shoddily made, was half ajar. Though not fully opened, the stale air that seemed to pass through the small gap was drenched with energy that, to even those only marginally aware of the arcane, would feel incredibly wrong.
The land past the door, however, would show no sign of the corruption that lay beneath the earth; at least, not at first glance. What instead lay before those who passed through the door was a desiccated town, with few residents in sight, if any. The location that they had entered from—the back of a stagecoach—was worn, and though the driver of the vehicle found the cast in their distinctly anachronistic outfits odd, paid them no mind.
A closer glance around would show that the town was in a far worse state than it might have initially seemed, with every building in sight falling apart in near-abandonment. Boarded up windows and holes in roofs seemed to be the least of the townsfolk's worries; least of all the old man seated at the ruined stone statue in the center of the square. The permanent smile, etched on his face despite his attempts to cover it up, clashed with the nature of the town itself. That being said, the oddities that had made themselves known were paid no mind by any of those present.
If any could be said to be in the first place, at least.
Seemed like this was quite the weird bunch. Weird looking human, weird looking mage, and some sorta Youkai. Well then, might as well tag along! Better than staying here in this totally lame ruin, at least. Suzuka followed Links lead, sprinting after him and the odd ghost thing. She caught up with Nanoha, if only to answer her question as they approached the door.
"What? Of course I know Modern Japan! That's like the most basic thing! Ah, its probably this getup...tsk, I wore it cuz I wasn't sure what was happening but its totally killing my high-school girl vibe." In an instant the red clothing vanished...leaving Suzuka wearing nothing but her school uniform and her handy bag. "Aha, there we go! You can totally see my JK power now!~" That should make it clear she totally knew everything important needed to know about modern day Japan, yep. By now they had reached the door, and Suzuka had fallen silent. The air coming from that slightly ajar door was...well, wrong. Smelled worse than an Oni's breath.
Stepping through the door, Suzuka was rather put off by the entire scene. The land itself seemed fine, but she could tell something was simply...wrong about all of this. The dead town beyond was worse than the city they had just been in.
"Ugh, jeez, what's with these totally lame places. My nails are gonna get ruined, aren't they?" Suzuka commented idly as she walked. The only person that seemed present was some odd looking geezer with a poorly hidden grin. "Talk about creepy."
The fact that the exited the stagecoach was only the first in a series of strange things about this new location. To begin with, the more the diminutive half-phantom took in their surroundings, the more appallingly run-down and decrepit they appeared. Youmu had never seen anywhere so terribly ruined, and it was almost sad simply to look at. What had happened here? The ruined city, while destroyed, had appeared to be in a far better condition then this place. What had happened to everyone? All she saw was one man, trying to hide a rictus grin. The sight unnerved her, her phantom half drifting from side to side as she cautiously stepped forward, one hand drifting close to Roukanken's hilt as she did. She didn't like any of this, not one bit.
But... This was also their only way forward, at least that Youmu knew of, that showed any sign of figuring out just what was happening. It seemed like something wanted them to come here, yes, but that didn't mean they truly had any other choices.
She took a deep breath. This was for Yuyuko-sama's sake, after all.
That was one of the first things that could be discerned the moment that they passed through the door. It was evening, shortly before the sun set, the surroundings cast in faded orange. The buildings around them were tall, gothic structures made from stone, in the distance some displaying orange lights... not that it was easy to see much in the distance. On level with the streets, it was impossible to see past the maze-like arrangement of the gothic buildings. It continued downwards, as well, steps leading to a platform below them, and further steps leading even further down. The city continued upwards and downwards and into the distance.
They had just exited some sort of shop, which was strange given that, if anyone bothered to check, the door was most certainly locked behind them. Perhaps disconcertingly, the shop was advertising aged blood cocktails on one hanging sign. However, that was far from the most disturbing element of their surroundings.
There was the iron scent of blood in the air. Only a few steps forward would reveal why.
There was a dead man on the platform below them. His corpse had been torn apart, savaged and shredded, the spray of fresh blood indicating it had been quite a recent death, and that he had been quite alive when it had happened. Sitting next to the body were two fat, enormous ravens, resting on their bellies as they tore strips of flesh away and swallowed them.
Further down sat stacks of coffins, and the light of a mob of torches could be seen even more distantly below...
Unsurprisingly, even with the warning of caution, Hibiki was the first one through the door and into the "pleasant" Yharnam evening, looking around in confusion at the architectural sprawl around her. Not being built carefully was one thing but even from what they could see here was... confusing. It looked like an old city, but the streets were at all sorts of levels, and there were walkways criss-crossing and streets twisting...?
The schoolgirl actually seemed to look around in confusion as the others came through, looking for the source of blood and even briefly looking down to make sure it wasn't the obvious based on her prior experiences--something stabbing her, for instance. Hibiki's eyes locked onto the eyeless sockets of the man below, widening as they took in the crows. Even if it was too late to do anything, she couldn't just sit by and let this happen, and if there were more around--
"Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron."
The incomprehensible chant triggered something, a bright sphere of light that lasted but a second, despite unmaking all of her clothes and remaking them into a semi-magical weapons system. This was by far the less strange thing that the others had to contend with now that Hibiki's Symphogear was activated: instead, the constant music now playing, complete with Hibiki's singing...
... and the first of the crows disappeared, the jumping kick slamming into it hard enough to crack the stones below and leaving nothing but a pile of blood and feathers. Ah, she was going to have to hold back here, with the old architecture and many platforms, going all-out would probably start collapsing things.
The dilapidated and seemingly near-abandoned nature of the town itself sent a familiar vibe running up and down the Hylian champion's spine. Recollections of what Hyrule Castle and Castle Town had looked like with Ganon's corruption...even how it felt was dead similar in an eerie manner. The only difference was that this place had inhabitants still mulling about, there were not angry robots trying to blast any person in sight, and the people not even blinking at several odd figures having stepped out from a carriage whose door went to another world. It was enough to make Link keep a tight grip on his sword and shield, though as the others funneled in through the door he decided to do a little something. The first thing, usually, that he'd do upon getting into a new place if he wasn't outright attacked....
...talk.
"Sir, what would happen to be going on in this place?" the Hylian said, after calmly approaching the old man sitting there with his...suspicious smile amidst the evil-torn town. Even the Master Sword was giving off the faintest of glows, for that matter, in reaction to it all.
The stench of blood that hit the second that he and Pandoria walked through the door was met with an almost synchronized expression of distaste. It wasn't often that they came across scenes of recent carnage, and the smell of death that hung in the air only served to make them feel more disgusted.
"This place is... I'm not sure how to describe it. If I had to pick between the city we were in before or the one we're in now... I'd definitely take the former," the Driver said, taking a few steps forward before noticing the corpse being consumed by the oversized ravens on the ground. "And no respect for the dead, either."
There was a solemn look on both Zeke's and Pandoria's faces as the former stepped forward, his sword now gripped in both hands as he stepped forward. The somber atmosphere was promptly broken, though, as Hibiki's sudden transformation caused both him and his Blade to turn towards the girl in confusion.
Which, given the subsequent spontaneous loud background music and singing, only served to further confuse them. After a few moments, Zeke simply shrugged in acceptance and, with a smile on his face, rushed forward after Hibiki to take out the remaining crow.
"Okay, I have... Many questions! Chief among them is why the heck you'd pick that sort of track for a place like this, but I'm not complaining! Let's go! Dynamic Spark Sword!" he shouted, holding his sword horizontally as he moved his left hand across it and covering it with an apparent full sheath of electricity. With one swing, he threw the bird to his left; with the next, his right. By now, the monster was all but dead, but a final swing downwards, with the blade crackling after having doubled in size, made sure that it was most definitely dead.
"Seriously, though, you get background music? By the Architect, I'd love to have that sort of thing, too! Oh man, I can just imagine how cool it'd be to get my own theme music when I dive into battle!" he said excitedly, the apprehension about this whole scenario having been overtaken entirely by this point.
Youmu's inquiry would result in an abrupt turn of the head from the old man, as if suddenly acknowledging her arrival from the moment that she spoke. Though the grin on his face remained on his face as he looked over her, the notice of a letter in her hand (that had most certainly not been there when the group had entered) caused his eyes to widen. As if seeing that piece of paper alone allowed him to understand everything, the old man nodded his head in "understanding".
"Ah, yes, yes, I see! You must be that man's long-lost daughter! Or grandaughter? I care not! For this land is yours now, and all of its sins are no longer just ours to bear!" he said, his hands clasped together over Youmu's hand, which he thus firmly shook. "I, in all my years looking over these lands... Yes, yes, you have vigor in your eyes. Surely, surely—!"
And with that, the old man, just as quickly as he had approached her, let go and walked back to the ruined statue. With a nod, he picked up what seemed to be a journal, desiccated and missing half of its pages before walking over to Youmu and handing it over.
"This was his, and his words have been left to you," he said, glancing between the other three people that Youmu had arrived with before nodding. "You have hired mercenaries already, it seems? Ah, but the words of that odd child in blue must mean that you have not told them of everything yet, am I wrong? Now, I must leave you to tend to my own work; these lands are vile, but I must make sure to tend to them even so."
And without giving a straight answer to anyone present, the old man left.
The letter that had found its way into Youmu's hands, unnoticed as it had been until now, seemed to be hastily written out in ink. Even so, the words remained legible, and what it had said bore nothing but ill omens.
Ruin has come to our family. You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial. Gazing proudly from its stoic perch above the moor. I lived all my years in that ancient, rumor shadowed manor. Fattened by decadence and luxury. And yet, I began to tire of conventional extravagance. Singular, unsettling tales suggested the mansion itself was a gateway to some fabulous and unnamable power. With relic and ritual, I bent every effort towards the excavation and recovery of those long buried secrets, exhausting what remained of our family fortune on swarthy workmen and sturdy shovels. At last, in the salt-soaked crags beneath the lowest foundations we unearthed that damnable portal of antediluvian evil. Our every step unsettled the ancient earth but we were in a realm of death and madness! In the end, I alone fled laughing and wailing through those blackened arcades of antiquity. Until consciousness failed me. You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial. It is a festering abomination! I beg you, return home, claim your birthright, and deliver our family from the ravenous clutching shadows of the Darkest Dungeon.
With her usual nonchalant attitude, Magilou had followed Zeke, Pandoria and Hibiki through the strange door. She wanted to take the opportunity to observe her new companions, though she had the feeling that everything the witch needed to know of their personalities had already been aired and made very apparent. She couldn't help but give a small smile, though it was quickly replaced with a disdainful frown once she emerged in the rain-soaked town.
Not even the Earthpulse made the witch feel as uneasy and on-edge as this place seemed to do. The air itself felt thick with dread and despair. Bienfu shuddered, sharing similar sentiments as he clung to Magilous's shoulder. Turning to look at the place they had emerged from, Magilou wasn't all that happy to see the door had apparently closed by itself, and her fears were confirmed when she tried to open it. Of course it was locked. All she could do was sigh, shaking her head as she resumed following the others.
Her expression was neutral, seeing the grim sight of the ravens eating the corpse. It was certainly a shame, but they couldn't exactly help him at this point. They'd be better of carefully exploring their surr- "Huh?" Even Magilou was take-aback at Hibiki's musical transformation, momentarily surprised by the blaring of a song as she rushed forward to attack the avian beasts. Zeke joined her not long after, and given the ease of which they dispatched the creatures, MAgilou's help was hardly needed.
Once the short 'battle' concluded, Magilou began applauding with a mirthful smile, while the Normin seemed awed by the performance, "a spectacular show, young lady! Your mellifluous music has surely brightened this blemished borough~ Although..." Magilou turned her attention to the distant, dim glow seemingly cast by several torches, a hand to her brow as she peered at the apparent gathering, "maybe turn the volume down a little? Wouldn't want the forces of darkness and despair to be attracted to the cheer, y'know?"
Youmu was silent as the man spoke. It was all too strange, too confusing. Where had that letter come from in the first place? But he seemed desperate. And she could hardly disagree with him, even the air here felt wrong. Vile. Something was terribly amiss in this land. But she was not the daughter, nor the granddaughter, of anyone who had ever dwelt in a place like this. His mind seemed unstable, but...
The letter.
When Youmu opened it, she couldn't help but notice the letters shift from their original text to kanji, just as she had briefly seen another set of unreadable words do in the ruined town. Was there some sort of power at work making it easier for them to understand what was happening? For that matter, the boy definitely hadn't been speaking Japanese, and yet his words registered in her mind as Japanese words...
That was the least important thing at the moment.
The silvery-haired half-phantom scanned through the letter, her expression growing grim as her phantom half fretted behind her.
"... The previous owner of these lands unleashed something terrible here," she said, raising the letter up to display it to the others, "I don't understand where we are, but given everything that's happened I think we might have ended up here to stop this. Whatever... whatever this is."
The birds most certainly had not been a threat. Even if they'd been given the opportunity to attack, their bloated bodies would have been unlikely to even get off of the ground. And now, one had been reduced to an unrecognizable feathery, bloody splat, and the other had been electrocuted and cut in half. Strangely, if anyone had the mind to check, there were now two oddly eye-shaped pebbles lying next to each of the birds.
Not that it was important. But it was odd.
Of course, there was nothing that could be done for the dead body, but at least it was no longer being disturbed.
From this position, it was likely a little easier to get their bearings and try and figure out where they were. And indeed, it was possible that the streets below looked familiar... they were one of the streets that had been featured in the strange video, undeniably so. With any luck, that meant that the girl was hopefully nearby, though there were certainly a lot of buildings to check. That wasn't all, however.
There were a few more details that could be discerned. Lamps filled with some sort of fuel that glowed softly-red illuminated some doorways, as if marking those that were occupied. Carriages laid idle in the streets, a few of them stopped before what was clearly the corpse of a partially-eaten horse.
But most importantly, now the mob that had been visible only by their torches was easier to make out.
They weren't human.
Perhaps they once had been, but now something appeared to be terribly wrong. Their forms were distorted, too much hair, limbs stretched oddly, sleeves fraying. Some wielded curved swords, others hatchets, some wooden shields, some pitchforks, and many held torches above their heads.
The one at their lead wore a tophat.
"Kill the beasts! Spill their blood!" he called, his voice still sounding human enough.
"I agree, but something in this situation doesn't sound right. We should be on guard," Nanoha said after considering everything that happened in the past few minutes. "We aren't even in the same dimensional coordinates from before. This number of random jumps shouldn't happen naturally," she added, explaining the source of one of her main worries.
"Anyway, it looks like they need us to recover something from this dungeon? If that's the case, we probably should get going already. Are there any directions about how we should reach it?" she asked, after once again turning Raising Heart back to its Standby Form.
As the others talk, Suzuka simply frowned and mostly kept herself close to Link. Dimensional coordinates? Well, she understood they had come to some other place, but that much was it. It wasn't until Nanoha and Youmu mentioned something about cleaning something up that she understood what needed to be done.
"Well I dunno about this 'dimensional coordinates' or whatever, cosplay mage." She grinned. "But this is basically sounds like monster slaying, yeah?" Suzuka brandished Kenmyouren. "This'll be totes easy! I haven't had a good extermination in awhile, so this'll be a good practice run."
"Um, well... a Symphogear is powered by music and it's like a karaoke machine... I can't control how loud it is," Hibiki answered, momentarily taken aback by encountering people who thought that the music was anything special... or at least that she had any control over it. The song just came from within her and the Symphogear produced the music itself. There wasn't any sort of volume dial... at least not as far as she knew.
Of course, once she realised that the street below looked about right, Hibiki wasted no time in jumping straight down from their current comparatively-elevated perch to in front of one of the bestial hunters... taken aback by the appearance, but he was speaking something understandable. That meant that they could communicate, right?
Despite the...odd situation with the strangely smiling old man, the Hero of the Wild felt himself going into a brief train of thought as he listened to the others make their opinions on the current situation. A following wave of light dread and serious deja-vu crept up the Hylian's spine as he thought and listened on, however, sword and shield still clutched tightly in his hands. Something the prior owner unleashed, something terrible, the lands being vile (according to that old man), and very "wrongness" that seemed to permeate the air of this place? This was all kinds of familiar, but not the kind of familiar the Hylian had wanted to have experience with. However, the idea to simply waltz in without a second thought was-
"...We should maybe not just rush into this place without preparation. At least, that's my two rupees. Even just preparing a few potions and taking a moment, and perhaps getting a meal in, could be a big help for the likely monster slaying ahead."
The voice of the Hylian champion spoke out seemingly last and potentially most bluntly, his serious and experienced tone ringing out within the wrong air of this..."Hamlet". He'd been forced to rush headlong into many a danger, to face many a foe, too take down many an enemy camp, and yet even he'd slowed down and gotten himself ready when it came to Hyrule Castle whilst Calamity Ganon was still around. He could not speak for the others at all, that much was true, but charging in unprepared and cocky was seemingly as bad a move as a non-Goron trying to dive into lava in the middle of Death Mountain. He'd learned the hard way with that one example...
Maybe these people would understand where he was coming from? Link truly had no idea if they would, but he hoped so regardless. Unless they could destroy the entire root of this issue from long-distance, but that was a silly notion unless one of these ladies pulled out a Calamity Ganon-sized beam of destruction from their pants....mmm, perhaps that wasn't the best analogy, though.
Youmu considered the situation. They had to clear this place of every terrible thing, but where were they supposed to start? For a few moments she was silent.
Then, she raised the journal in her hands, looking it over. If anything, the information recorded by the man who had once owned this property would most certainly provide some sort of hint as to what they were meant to be doing here, wouldn't it?
"I wonder if there's any clues as to where to start in this journal?" she asked, flipping the book open as she spoke. Many of the pages were damaged, but there was enough as to be legible, foreign letters seemed to shift into kanji before her eyes. And so she began to read.
It began simply enough. But then... but then...
The descent began. With each page a new story of horror seemed to materialize. Not on part of the mysterious creatures that seemed to inhabit the land. Though those were terrible too, the true monster did not seem to be represented there at all.
A little girl thrown into the sea to satisfy terrible creatures. An entire ship's crew killed. Villagers used as food for unknown abominations. As Youmu turned the pages, she could feel something hot rising inside of her chest. Swelling, growing, burning through her.
It was anger. With every page turned, she was growing more and more furious. This man, the previous owner of these lands...
"... He was a monster," the small half-phantom practically spat, shaking slightly, "The man who owned this place was a monster. If he still lives, I'll kill him myself."
How could someone do this? How could someone behave so horribly? So ruthlessly and without consideration to the lives of others? Even the youkai of Gensokyo no longer ate the flesh of humans, and even that was something they had done for survival. This was just wanton, reasonless killing and torture for... what? Money? Power? It was disgusting. It was absolutely vile. How could someone do something like this?
"... There's... monsters infesting this place all over," Youmu said, finally, "For the sake of anyone left... they have to be exterminated."
The moment that Hibiki landed in front of them, the mob suddenly came to a surprised halt, a few stumbling backwards. What could be seen of their faces was contorted in a look of surprise and shock.
The man at the head of the group, one arm far too long in comparison to the other, slowly stepped forward, raising his torch. He wore a tall hat and a ragged suit of some kind, a hatchet dragging on the ground in his other hand.
"... Foul beast!" he cried, suddenly, raising his weapon, "Words don't mean nothin'! Kill the beast! Spill its blood!"
Almost immediately the entire mob charged. Each of them raised their weapons, some snarling like inhuman creatures as they tried to converge on Hibiki.
"Oh, powered by music, huh? That's an interesting prospect, to be sure, but I'd imagine it'd be difficult to fight underwater. Never heard of this 'karaoke machine', though so—"
"Zeke, Hibiki's already gone on ahead."
There was a brief pause as Zeke stood there, and there was a momentary silence between the Driver and his blade before Zeke ran over to the edge of their elevated platform and looked down at Hibiki.
"Wow, she really wastes no time, huh? C'mon, Pandy; that crowd looks rowdy, and I'm not sure if we can settle out differences like civil folk," he remarked, quickly jumping down from the platform he was on and landing on the next.
He would have jumped down to ground level immediately after, had the one he jumped on not immediately given way under his feet and cause him to freefall twice the distance he had intended to. Tumbling headfirst onto the pavement, Zeke groaned as he pushed himself off the ground and dusted himself off. It was definitely not the worst fall that he had been through, but the injuries weren't something that he had to worry all too much about at this point.
"Ah... That could've gone better..." he complained, cracking his neck before turning to look at Hibiki (who, apparently, had failed in negotiations outright). There was a frown on the Driver's face as he looked at the people who made up the mob, but they looked human enough, and given that they could speak in a manner that he could understand, he wasn't particularly inclined to lethally injure them like he had the crow from earlier.
"Pandy, tag out!" he shouted to the Blade (who had avoided the worst of it by not jumping down with him) before throwing his sword into the air. "Ursula! I'm counting on you!"
There was a brief flash as Zeke's sword disappeared, only to be replaced by a pair of gauntlets; likewise, Pandoria seemed to disappear, only to be replaced by a small, white-haired girl riding on the shoulders of a polar bear.
"Sorry about the sudden call over, but this job needs a little less cutting force!" he apologized as he ran towards the nearest enemy and threw a straight punch into their abdomen. "So, on a scale of one to 'absolutely insane', how bad do you think these guys are? Because I'm pretty sure they're not going to help us find that girl on the screen from earlier—not at this rate!"
The journal itself provided scattered information on the Ancestor's deeds, but there were more than just simple diary entries laying about within the journal itself. A crude map, hastily scrawled on one of the pages, marked four different locations within the vicinity of the estate that the four people present found themselves on.
The first seemed to be the entrance to what seemed like an old, abandoned sewer system (or something of the sort) labeled 'Warrens'; the second, an overgrown forest labeled 'Weald'; the third, a picture of a ruined old stone tower labeled 'Ruins'; the fourth, a small cavern by the bottom of the cliff within the ocean labeled 'Cove'.
The top of the cliff in question was conspicuously missing, but a brief look around the Hamlet would provide the last piece of information to map. There, in the far-off distance, stood a once-grand manor, visible even from this distance, now reduced to no more than crumbling stone and rotting wood.
Her companions sure seemed pretty gung-ho. At this rate, she was going to be hurried off her feet keeping nearby. Though her focus was on the mob that was steadily growing more visible, her stomach churning slightly. It was clear they weren't human, and apparently weren't daemons either. Yet the strange, twisted appearances they bore made it seem like they were stuck in mid-transformation? It was a tad disconcerting to see, really. Especially if this alternate world had it's own brand of Daemonblight to deal with.
Hearing a strange crumbling noise, Magilou turned her head to find Zeke and Hibiki already descended. Once she had walked over to the edge and looked down, she confirmed that Zeke had apparently fallen down at some point, going by that broken walkway a little ways down.
"Er... shouldn't we be helping?" Bienfu suggested, worriedly eyeing the crowd converging on Hibiki, "There's kind of a lot of them there..."
"You don't trust them to get it done?" Magilou asked, her tone forcing a hint of nonchalant cheer. While she was sure that Hibiki and Zeke were capable of handling this mob, this whole pace was just unnerving, even for someone like Magilou. It would be prudent to at least help quicken the fight a little, if only so they wouldn't attract more and more beasts.
"Hang on, then~" Magilou threw her paper charm over the fence, and vaulted over it with surprising dexterity. As she fell towards the next platform, the charm, defying gravity, swept under her feet and expanded, becoming a solid, flying platform resembling a board. Grinning, the jester-like girl glided towards the battle, one hand raised with her finger extended, forming a fireball. Her allies proximity and the enclosed nature of these streets made her flashier tricks problematic to use, but an aerial assault should do wonders!
"But, they're still people..." Hibiki said, hesitant even to punch them solidly--even if they were calling for her blood. This wasn't like the commander or Ogawa, where she could be certain that even if she tried to hit with all her might, it would either be outright turned on her or avoided. If she hit the hunters as hard as she could, the results would be undoubtedly messy... messier than even Hibiki knew, given the general state of affairs in Yharnam.
She would have to pull her punches. A lot. But the first punch, with the Symphogear hopping backwards and the gear around her arm shifting, showed what she could do even without contact. The gauntlet slammed into the air ahead of one of the hunters... and in the shockwave that followed, he and those around him were sent tumbling backwards into more.
The only downside was having to take it slowly else the *air* be too dangerous.
There was something to be said about not using equipment able to take on an army on people armed only with rusty cleavers and torches.
As Youmu began to flip through the pages of the journal, Link internally sighed to himself before walking over to read over her shoulder. It was a tad...odd or rude of a thing, but with Youmu holding the book up it made him less intrusive than he could have been by far at least. Yet at the same time he wanted to read what had happened as well, since the swordswoman hadn't been showing them anything yet. There was a certain thing about journals that just seemed to make him want to read their contents, much to the Princess' awkwardness when he'd said he went and read her old diary in the castle. Though to be fair, he had been forced to hide there to avoid a guardian that had been flying about!
However, what lied in those accursed pages struck the Hylian boy in a very notable manner.
Many might have forgotten back in Hyrule, forgotten that it wasn't just monsters that slew people in the night and could do evil deeds. The Gerudo surely hadn't forgotten the dangers of the Yiga Clan...or been allowed to. But even the Yiga hadn't gone around doing what seemed to come out of the journal's pages. People used as food, children sacrificed, crews slaughtered...it only made the hero's grip tighten on the hilt of his sword and the grip of his shield. His knuckles could be seen visibly turning white, his brows furrowing, and when Youmu finally spoke up again with disgust in her voice the Hylian merely stood with an aura of sober personal silence.
What this man had done paled to what Calamity Ganon had wrought, but all the same it was vile to the very core. The mere thought about those who had suffered...that alone was enough to push him to action. Though admittedly, rushing off alone would not be a good idea.
"...We should perhaps split up into 2 teams to start tackling things," the Hero of the Wild finally said with a sober tone, letting out a a somewhat melancholy sigh before turning his back to the others...as if to hide any potential showing of emotion to them. Or perhaps it was to hide him from their rage, for fear of falling prey to the burning hatred that had once corrupted his own homeland?
"I was going to suggest that we go each to one location, but I suppose that pairing up may be for the best," Nanoha said after considering the whole situation. Her countenance didn't show any obvious signs of rage like the others and she spoke with the same calm before, even after learning of the circumstances regarding this place.
It wasn't like she wasn't upset, or that she didn't want to help this people. But, Nanoha knew that acting on a cool head could accomplish more than moving with nothing but rage guiding you. She didn't say anything of this, though. Lecturing the others wasn't right, especially when she didn't know them enough to make a better judgement of their character.
"I suppose we can split in the same duos as before we met? If that's the case, we may as well get going now," Nanoha said as she armed herself with Raising Heart once again.
