@FujiwaraPhoenix @Izurich @Drifting Pollen

"At least, that would be the case if we spoke with regards to charity. I do not know of your circumstances with that merchant caravan you claim to have arrived with, but if you would be willing to aid me as assistants I might be able to figure something out."

"Princess, I do believe that is called embezzlement—"

"I'm not embezzling anything! I'd be giving them legitimate tasks and paying them accordingly! Ahem. Well, there you have it, then. Of course, you're free to refuse; I'm not crazy enough to strongarm you into helping, and I won't make you do anything too crazy... Probably. So how about it?"

And there it was, the request for assistants, but really it was free labor. Fran pouted in a huff. She didn't like it, but she understood that this was a necessary evil if were to make any make progress in Nieve.

"Indeed, Her Highness speaks wisdom, Ambassador, fufufu~ Yes, we accept with great honors! Now, shall we depart to the castle at once?"

U-Uh! Ah!, the berserker protested, snapping her head to the little vampire with an, due to her bangs, unseen glare. She can't just make a group decision by herself like that! And did she really think that this was enough to gain an audience with the capital's ruling monarchy!?

"It's a fair offer, though if we're being legitimately hired then I'd prefer an agreement in writing. You're okay with it too, Fran?"

"...Yes.", Fran replied to Anne, sighing with resignation.

Sher didn't like it...but if it means getting things done around here, she can tolerate it.

"Well, if you put it like that, I really can't overlook it..."

Despite the very air around them feeling like it was weighing her down, Sanae could do little more than try to psych herself up before following after Qing'e. The overbearing pressure was not enough to deter her by any means, but there was only so much she could do to guard herself against the miasma in what little time they had before closing in. The very least she could do before entering, though, was set up a barrier around the brothel before the three of them proceeded inside the building proper. It wasn't likely that anyone or anything would attempt to enter, granted, but making sure that whatever was inside didn't get out seemed just as important to the situation as actually clearing up the root of the curse.

Once they had entered, though, and witnessed the presence of butterflies within the abandoned building, however, Sanae wasted no time in firing out a cluster of ofuda towards them. When more began to replace them, however, it became clear that those were going to be the biggest obstacle in getting to their target. While dodging them might have been easier in open ground, this was a brothel...

Which, obviously enough, meant that there was only so much space that they had to work with.

"Guess we're just going to have to muscle on through. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that those butterflies mean death, given past experiences... Well, that and the fact that butterflies usually don't live in places like this. Either way, I'm going to say that 'kill on sight' is probably the best way to proceed from here."

Unfortunately, it was likely that they would have to comb every inch of the place to find their target; with any luck, they would do so before anything got too bad...

And if they did reach that point, calling Kanako-sama in didn't seem like too bad of a plan B.

@DracoLunaris@VitaVitaAR

---

Despite their role as the city's protectors of the peace, the guards that had moved to apprehend the white-haired swordsman, adamant in she was at her refusal at going peacefully, could do little more than watch as she simply flew away. The ensuing hasty attempt at chasing after her only went so far, though, especially when they only had eyes on the ground and the group and had escaped towards a veritable maze of streets and back alleys.

Mokou would be the first to encounter company once more, as the blonde girl that she had been speaking to had failed to get too far on foot since they had last spoken. There was a slightly annoyed look on her face as she noticed the white-haired woman floating overhead, but that irritation seemed to stem from how much the woman stood out by flying on top of looking so thoroughly out of place from the rest of the populace. Landing, at least, seemed to help stifle any follow-up reaction on that front.

"I suppose that 'friend' of yours also fled, then?" she asked, refusing to stop for even a moment as she continued to walk through the streets. "Probably for the best. Musashi told me she was going to lay low for a while, which completely defeats the point of her becoming my bodyguard... But I digress. I don't suppose you wouldn't mind working with me for the moment, would you?"

There was a moment of silence before the girl, now having realized she had been so crass so as to never actually introduce herself, acted to resolve that issue.

"Carol. Carol Malus Deinheim. At the very least, being able to refer to each other by name would be far more effective than not."

Whatever the result of their pseudo-agreement was, the pair would continue to weave through the back streets and alleys before the sounds of guards milling about had finally become inaudible. With the immediate problem at hand out of sight, the pair eventually came to a stop after finally breaking through the veritable maze they had been in for who knew how long, and in so doing found themselves facing the entrance to a cemetery filled with mausoleums. In direct view of the pair—and Youmu, who had apparently managed to exit the maze from a slightly different path—were a pair of figures who seemed to be arguing in broad daylight.

Or, well, one of them seemed to be arguing.

"Look, I'm just asking if you know where——"

"This is no place for the likes of you to enter!"

The former, a young man garbed in Buddhist robes, seemed markedly irritated as the girl in front of him cearly refused to listen to any words coming out of his mouth.

"...What am I even doing, trying to communicate with a walking corpse...?" the man sighed, shaking his head briefly before glancing briefly at his palm. As he did so, though, the three girls who had come across the scene would notice that something else was amiss in the cemetery. Odd, malformed creatures seemed to be staring from them from within the bounds of the walls in front of them, and the monk-apparent, in turn, would turn to face them as well.

"Hm. You three, over there!" he called out, "I don't suppose you would happen to know where this place is? I'd hazard a guess to say this is some place in Europe, maybe...? Should I try and restate the question in English...?"

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

---

Serena gave Remilia a slight look of disapproval when the vampire had immediately insisted that they head to the royal castle, but simply chose to ignore it in favor of speaking with Anne instead. It seemed quite apparent that the offer was taken positively, and if the only requisite was that the agreement was committed to paper, who was she to argue?

"Of course we can get that in writing," the princess replied before looking towards Bren with a smile. The minister, who was still a minister at the end of the day, let out a small sigh and nodded.

"...I'll go prepare the necessary documents. If you'll excuse me..." the man sighed before exiting the room, leaving the four girls behind for the moment. Soon thereafter, though, Serena's attention focused towards the box that Anne had produced. Any sense of half-playful polticking was promptly thrown to the wayside as the princess promptly accepted the container and placed it onto the desk to examine the contents proper.

"Hm... The vial's out of my realm of expertise, but I could send this to some botanists..." the princess mused before picking up the necklace and watching it point towards the distance—a reaction that would be familiar to Anne, given how she had seen it firsthand.

Opting to now grasp the accessory by the pendant rather than the string, Serena began to twist the object around in her hand before placing it back where she had found it.

"This one's a tracker... And it seems to be one attuned to a person, no less? Things like these aren't simple to make without an imprint of the magical signature or something approximating it, but I have no clue as to what that could be. As for the jewel..."

With that, the princess took the object into her hands and began to examine it in much the same way as she had the necklace, though with extra care taken to view each glyph so painstakingly carved into each facet of it. Slowly, though, her reaction turned from one of curiosity to once of mildly meaningful concern.

"How to explain this one... Right, okay, how about this, then? In layman's terms, you can think about this object as if it is linked to a person... Whoever that is. Whenever that person dies, the magical bindings on it—the runes you see carved here—will glow. At that point, the intended 'inheritor'—let's call them that—can release the binding by injecting some mana into it, which will then cause it to release the spell inside of it. As for what that spell might be... Well, I wouldn't be able to tell without breaking the jewel open, but there's a self-destruct mechanism inlaid here so that's not exactly an option."

With a sigh, Serena calmly placed the jewel back in its place before turning towards Anne.

"You said that you received this from a commander? The vial would make sense, but the other two..."

@VitaVitaAR@Drifting Pollen@Rezod92

"Fujiwara no Mokou," was the equalling answer, the white-haired girl following along. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do--and sure enough, sticking with the alchemist brought her back to Youmu. No sign of the other swordsman, though, but she had gone into hiding...

In the cemetery was an... odd sight. Like most people, she had no idea who the man could possibly be, but the girl seemed a bit familiar, from spending more time in the human village since the incident with the balls.

"Isn't that the hermit's jiang-shi?" Mokou asked, the question obviously directed at Youmu.

That made five of them now. Was the entirety of Gensokyo here or something?

---

I still don't understand what the problem was. But I wasn't about to stay there when all they did was insist on taking Roukanken and Hakurouken.

What kind of person just demanded family heirlooms like that, over some damaged cobblestones?

---Erk.

This... is a graveyard, isn't it? It's not entirely familiar to me, but the differences are probably because it's a different world. It's not that dissimilar from the graveyard in Gensokyo, especially when it comes to atmosphere.

It looks like Fujiwara-san, and that blonde little girl, both made it here too. I suppose we must have followed a similar route from leaving the main street, even though we didn't run into one another until now.

I'm relieved, honestly. It's not as if I can't handle myself, and I don't particularly know Fujiwara-san beyond having fought her before. But I'd rather be around someone familiar here then attempt to find my way around alone.

I can't help but feel that trying to find my way around alone would simply be more frustrating than anything else.

At least there's no---

Nevermind!

One of the figures in the graveyard is familiar, and the other definitely isn't. The former is so familiar that my heart sinks a little.

Miyako Yoshika in and of herself isn't really a problem. She's slow, and has the kind of thought processes you would expect from a corpse. But all she really does is remain in one place. I've never heard of any incidents of her biting anyone, which would be the worst outcome.

The problem is the person that is inevitably here if she is.

A certain someone I'm not very eager to deal with.

"It is," I respond, my shoulders slumping as I can't help but let out a sigh, "There's no mistaking her. Which means her Master is probably somewhere around here, too."

Even in this state, I can beat her if she tries something. I know that much. And I don't think Miyako-san will try anything aside from telling us to leave by herself.

But---

Who is that Buddhist talking to her? I'm not familiar with everyone from Myouren, but he doesn't look like he came from there either. Is he another person from somewhere else?

More then that, though, what are these things lurking around the graveyard? They're not ghosts, thankfully. I don't want to deal with ghosts.

But their presence is sickly. It's as if they're rotten. I'm not a miko or a monk or anything like that, but as a half-phantom it's hard not to notice.

It's like they're as malformed on a spiritual level as they look.

My fingers tense. My right hand drifts a a little closer to Roukanken's hilt, as my phantom half drifts behind me.

But they're not attacking, they're just watching.

Aah, I really don't like that either---!

But they're not ghosts. So I can deal with them. It's fine.

I suck in a deep breath, then exhale. I'll worry about them when I need to.

The Buddhist is asking about Europe? Europe is one of the places in the outside world, isn't it? Aside from knowing a handful of the more recent residents of Gensokyo come from there, that's about all I know about it. But this world definitely looks more like the Scarlet Devil Mansion then anything else.

"I don't think this is Europe," is all I can really say. If it's another world, it probably doesn't have Europe at all, "Though, since I've never been there, I can't be completely sure..."

Maybe this was this world's version of Europe?

@FujiwaraPhoenix@Raineh Daze

---

---

The butterflies struck by Sanae's ofuda instantly dissipated.

But that only caused more of them to appear. It wasn't just a few, either. The golden butterflies were beginning to fill the hall ahead.

The heavy, oppressive feeling was now so strong that Rayne would almost certainly be able to feel it as well. The walls almost seemed darker, but not because of shadows---

It was as if there was soot clinging to them.

Had it been there moments ago? It didn't seem like it, the building had definitely been fairly clean and there were no signs of recent fires.

"Hmmm. Those butterflies are probably some manifestation of the curse," commented Qing'e without much concern, "In that case---"

She raised her right hand. There was something clutched in it, but it was hard to tell what at first.

But then a shape manifested from it.

It was blue-tinted and hazy, but certainly a human-like shape. It lacked many details, but for a miko like Sanae it would be easy to discern what it was.

It was a human ghost. Or at the very least, a piece of one. It certainly didn't seem to have any sort of intelligence as it seemed to hang there, limply, in the cloaked woman's hand.

As the butterflies approached, Qing'e lazily tossed the spiritual fragment towards the growing swarm.

Almost immediately, the butterflies alighted upon the ghost, and the previously-still, hazy shape suddenly began to squirm.

It was starting to break down almost immediately. Pulled apart, crumbling, and being sucked into the butterflies that had landed on it.

In a matter of seconds, it was already completely gone.

"Mmm, so that's how it is," Qing'e said, still sounding far less concerned then anyone in such a situation should, "Don't allow them to touch you, for even a moment. They'll suck the life out of you. That explains how the victims ended up."

If anything, she sounded almost satisfied. As if she'd been curious all along at how the curse functioned.

Though at the very least, it was unlikely that was the sole reason she was here.

"We'll probably have to go through them to reach the origin of the curse, so---"

It was at that very moment that the golden butterflies began to emerge from the walls around them.

@FujiwaraPhoenix@DracoLunaris

Upon hearing the monk's question, Carol's gaze quickly sharpened—no doubt due to how the question being presented now was not at all unlike what she had asked Mokou before their prompt escape minutes prior. Given how he was speaking, there was little reason to believe he had been here long; in fact, it might have been apt to assume that he had arrived far too soon to gather himself.

Not that the strange beings that seemed to be monitoring them from within the cemetery grounds were any reason to lower her guard. The two white-haired girls, after conversing with each other, soon led to Youmu responding in kind to the monk, who seemed to be... Less than pleased with the answer.

"Fair enough, I suppose... Though if you answered in Japanese, I suppose that's one less thing I have to worry about," he replied before slowly walking away from the jiangshi and towards the exit where the others stood. "That being said, I don't suppose you can see them too, can you?"

The smile on the monk's face quickly faded, replaced with a dead-faced seriousness as a massive, grotesque worm-like thing burst out from the space behind him. At the same time, the smaller creatures that had been lingering around the area began to move, flailing and grasping at the girls—one of whom was already on guard against him.

"Aah, I should've figured that those bastards would send more sorcerers after me," he complained out loud, cocking his head to one side as he stretched his neck. "You'd think that one death would be enough, but I guess it really isn't..."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

---

See them?

I don't understand what this monk means. I was about to ask him what these unpleasant-feeling creatures were. They didn't resemble any disembodied spirits or---

A chill runs up my spine---

---ghosts that I could recognize.

But why wouldn't we be able to see them?

"What do you---"

They're moving.

Roukanken leaves its sheath in my right hand, the sound of steel on wood ringing out through the graveyard. Something shaped like a human twisted into the form of a dog is reaching for me, teeth gnashing.

A single slash across my body, an arc of silver light.

It falls apart in two halves, spurting purple-toned blood.

I don't understand. What's going on?

Fighting just for fighting's sake is one thing, but this isn't danmaku, is it?

These things are some sort of spirit, I think. That's how their presence feels, no matter how distorted it might be.

My left hand flies to my lower back, fingers wrapping around Hakurouken as I draw it smoothly from its sheath.

I don't understand what's happening. I don't know what these creatures are.

But I can cut them, and that's all I need to know.

When danger you can't even understand arises, the only thing you can do is slash through it.

The next one is bigger, looking almost like a muscular, green, warped infant, its fists crashing down towards me---

But it won't hit!

I push off the ground and backwards, swinging Hakurouken up in the same movement and severing one of its arms.

It sails through the air, trailing purple.

I land a meter back, catching myself and raising both of my blades.

There's plenty of these monsters. The monk mentioned dying before. Is he some sort of immortal? He's definitely a kind of magician if he's controlling these things. That one he just summoned is bigger---

Why are they all so ugly?! I'm so glad they're not ghosts!

"Fine, if you want to fight, then I'll kill every one of these monsters!"

I inhale deeply as I spread my feet apart, squaring my legs as my blades catch the light.

This is a lot of opponents. And they're all different, not like those strange cursed black things at the village. But something about them almost feels similar.

Grandfather would have said to shave off their numbers. Cut through as many of the smaller ones as possible in order to make the biggest threat more manageable.

And against an opponent like this, that didn't necessarily mean the largest monster under his command.

If that monk is controlling them, then pinning him down and stopping him is the end goal.

But I'll need to slash my way through these monsters in order to reach him!

The air whips past me, catching my hair and skirt as I move forward.

Something like a centipede rises in my way, and Roukanken slices it apart down the middle.

I'll slash through his monsters, reach him, and end this quickly!

@FujiwaraPhoenix@Raineh Daze

---

---

If my arrival in this world hadn't been so painful and unbecoming, this would be the most irritating thing I experienced so far.

I'm nobility. I have plenty of prestige to my name! Certainly, this is a different world, one that doesn't know my name, one where I don't actually have any sort of rank---

Don't dare mention I don't have any rank in Gensokyo.

Ahem.

Still, they should be able to tell I have plenty of authority! So how can she just ignore my request? She didn't even deign to reply with a denial! That still would be infuriating, but at least it would be an answer!

I can feel heat bubbling up in my chest, the sensation of my irritation surging higher the longer I think about it.

I can't help but feel as if my kindness is being abused, here. I accepted the deal she offered, but now she's ignoring my request?

"Hmph!"

I cross my arms over my chest, making my displeasure evident as I turn away.

"To think, I accepted this offer with no preconditions of my own and you chose not to reply to my request. If I wasn't so generous, I might have reconsidered!"

---Still, it would be foolish to actually step away from the deal we've been given. But I'm not about to hide my annoyance with her refusal to answer me.

I've had to endure far too much shame since arriving here. But assisting them won't just get us money.

It might get me something else I'm desiring as well.

@FujiwaraPhoenix@Drifting Pollen@Rezod92

"Like I said, I don't know their true purpose either." Anne seemed lost in thought as she answered the princess. With her eyes fixed upon the small box and its contents, she gingerly picked up the necklace by the chain and watched it float again in the air, still pointing off in Aventon's rough direction. Now that she'd confirmed its function... It was as good a proof as any that Millie remained alive and safe.

Safe. She set it back down, breathing a deep sigh of relief to herself even as Remilia launched into another childish outburst. Until she secured official aid for the town, the Knight could check on the tracker at regular intervals, and be ready to respond if it ever stopped working or drifted too far astray. In short, she could stay here and see her task through to the end without breaking her promise to protect the young girl.

Even as she realized this, however, the second part of the mystery lingered like a haze in the back of her thoughts. The jewel could be activated if a certain person died—did that make it a failsafe, a way for the Heralds to get whatever they wanted out of Millie in the event that she died? Or was Millie the 'inheritor' Serena had mentioned, meant to receive the jewel's spell once the time was right? Neither option sounded like good news, but at last a clearer picture was forming in Anne's head, a reason behind the Heralds' seemingly inexplicable actions.

She'd keep quiet about it for now. Until she had proof that the royal family could be trusted, she would investigate further herself, and find someone to crack the final piece of the puzzle. With everyone's attention momentarily drawn away by Remilia, Anne silently closed the box and stashed it safely out of sight in her coat.

Now, before our noble Lady gets us all executed... The Knight cleared her throat. "Um, I apologize. I must have distracted her Highness at the wrong moment, so that she missed your obnoxious demands—" Oops, slip of the tongue. "—I mean, your request. Anyway, I'm sure everyone will hear of your magnanimity once you succeed at the Princess's, uh, important mission." Five more minutes of this and she was going to physically grab the vampiress by the hair and drag her along on whatever errand they'd agreed to do. For the moment, she simply made meaningful eye contact with Serena, hopefully enough to convey that it was best to simply move on and talk business.

@Rezod92@FujiwaraPhoenix@VitaVitaAR

“This place is definitely giving me the creeps if that is what you mean” Rayne agreed to the suggestion that she'd feel what was off, but as it turned out Quin was entirely correct, and was so even sooner than she might have guessed. As they moved into the building the miasma within rippled along the edges of the almost always invisible radially extending chains of her Link. In doing so it made her ever so slightly more aware of it, and the connection to the distant villagers it linked her back too, as miasma and spiritual bond brushed against each other, creating a slight resistance to her movement that was noticeable if not in any way actually obstructing.

Like pushing through a thick fog.

It only got worse from there, the ‘fog’ thickening in a way, tugging at the Link in a way she found incredibly unpleasant. She was certainly already sick of it by the time her eyes also got to see the corruption’s influence, be it the black soot or the golden butterflies. Those to her seemed like a rather disjointed pairing to her, nor did she have any real experience with their sometimes relationship with death, so while Sanae thought to shoot first Rayne had herself been hesitant to do so.

The subsequent ‘demonstration’ with whatever the hazy shape Qing summoned answered any questions she might want to ask, and so she was then very much on board shooting part of the plan.

Just in time too, as they started coming out of the walls all around them.

“Ah!” Rayne gave a panicked shout, blinking back and promptly blasted one, but there were far too many for her piddling firing speed to manage. Fortunately after the moment of panic she got her tactical brain in gear, pivoting and activating a spell card. This one burst into a cloud of purple miasma all of her own, shrouding an entire side of the entry room with it as she cast cloud of darkness upon it, one that attempted to smother the golden butterflies as they emerged from the walls.

“That’ll sting you too!” she warned as she emerged from the cloud, though if it looked like they were being overwhelmed it’d probably be preferable to dive into said mist if the butterflies were as bad to have touch you as Qing said. Still, for the moment she’d prefer to hold her ground, specifically because with the cloud devouring butterflies made her next spell incredibly potent. The spell was garbage collector, which caused each and every single butterfly destroyed to give her a pip of mana.

Suffice to say, this put her generally reserved amount of spellcasting into overdrive, as she no longer had to worry about managing her mana. She did still have to worry about friendly fire however, leaving the lighting strike spell clogging up her hand while garbage collector took up the other while it was active.

The remaining slots however was then rapidly cycled through, the witch knight first launching a trio of seeking swords that swatted more butterflies, gained a shimmering barrier of magical armor that might block a single butterfly, gaining a single entirely irrelevant extra pip of mana, and generating a little turret that fired her own magic bullets at nearby butterflies, all within more or less a second of each other.

The next spell however sealed the deal: ghost gun. This little number turned her one shot a second peashooter into a rapid fire machine gun that spat out twin streams of ghostly blue bullets that not only pierced through walls, but also relentlessly hunted down the closest hostile. Suffice to say, no longer needing to aim, and being able to hit the butterflies before they even emerged from the walls, was very handy.

After that, however, with the bullet upgrade sticking in her hand till it timed out as well, her mana spending spree came to a n abrupt end even as mana continued to roll in.

Still.

Who needed spells when you had a magical homing machine gun?

"You've died?" Mokou asked, focusing on what was the only important part of the statement… at least to her. The strange… things were a surprise, but monsters were monsters. Gensokyo really was an outlier, when you thought about it, or knew much about the stories at all.

Which, like the giant centipedes, meant that it was fine to just immolate these ones too.

Hmm, and weren't there some centipede-like creatures here, too? And there were those blobs on the road, but that was a stretch. There certainly seemed to be something spiritually wrong with this world, if that was such a problem. But she was neither a god nor a shrine maiden, so that didn't really affect Mokou, either.

And most of these were simply more… odd. Why were they bleeding purple when the half-ghost cut them? Not that the one she'd grabbed got the chance to do that, there wasn't much chance for bleeding when you were shrouded in fire.

"So, why did you come back?"

Mokou's advance wasn't as rapid or as hectic as Youmu's, that was for sure, but it was about as aggressive. While she was simply grabbing hold if the opportunity arose, that didn't change that Mokou's preference was for kicks. And, as usual, she was almost entirely indifferent to taking incidental damage if it let her deal any. Why worry about dodging whatever they were spitting if that let you detonate an explosion on the one ahead?

@VitaVitaAR @DracoLunaris @FujiwaraPhoenix

"To think, I accepted this offer with no preconditions of my own and you chose not to reply to my request. If I wasn't so generous, I might have reconsidered!"

Unseen due to her bangs, Fran rolled her eyes at Remilia's statement. Ever since the start of this particular adventure, the vampire was unintentionally trying her damnedest at making Nieve's upper echelon of hierarchy not give them the time of day, let alone listen to the information the trio brought. Thankfully, the efforts of the berserker and Anne ensured they weren't immediately kicked out and blacklisted.

"Um, I apologize. I must have distracted her Highness at the wrong moment, so that she missed your obnoxious demands—

"Pffft."

That wasn't a slip of the tongue.

I mean, your request. Anyway, I'm sure everyone will hear of your magnanimity once you succeed at the Princess's, uh, important mission."

Fran could tell Anne was reaching the limit of her tolerance to Remilia's bratty behavior and, honestly, who would blame her? The Servant herself was about pick up the little aristocrat again....and maybe give her a spanking if that's what it took for her to behave.

While being surrounded by butterflies of death wasn't a particularly novel experience to her at this point, the sheer density of them as they came pouring out into the hallways in front of them did not leave Sanae feeling any more comfortable about the situation. Being in the Netherworld was one thing, but there was a level of malice at play here that the shrine maiden had never once felt in her past encounters with the nearest possible equivalent force in Gensokyo.

Her recognition of what Qing'e had chosen to throw to the proverbial dogs in front of the three of them quickly confirmed her suspicions about the insects, and that her decision to shoot them on-sight had been correct. Unfortunately, that didn't really matter as much when there were so many blocking the way.

Of course, when they began to pass through the walls to get to them, things only went from 'bad' to 'worse'. Rayne, at least, was more than prepared to start firing now that the butterflies had demonstrated their ability to both drain them dry and pass through walls as if they didn't exist. All the better, then to start moving once the way was cleared...

Or so Sanae had hoped to do, had the butterflies, seemingly unfazed by the swathes of them that had just been destroyed, simply continued to fly through the walls towards them. If there was any time to try and get moving, though, it was now, before her companion's homing shots stopped being able to clean up the opposition before they even got close.

"Ah, what a pain! Rayne, I'm going to make the call here to just break through! Keep your feet off the ground and shoot at anything that moves... Excluding us, of course!" the green-haired girl called out as she floated ever so slightly off the ground before flying through the path that the halfling had carved through for them. With her gohei at the ready, Sanae began to fire clusters of frog-shaped bullets towards the floor and the walls, leaving them ready to blow up the second that they encountered even the slightest hostility.

The problem now was to track down the source of this curse... Which, in all honesty, really just meant that she had to find where the suffocating feeling was getting worse and just follow that until they found something interesting. Nothing too unusual.

@DracoLunaris@VitaVitaAR

---

The monk gave the pair of girls approaching him a half-hearted shrug as he took a step back, almost as if he was trying to make a little bit more distance between them—as one would have expected from someone who seemed to be a summoner to begin with.

"Believe me, your guess would be as good as mine," he replied to the one approaching him at a slightly more measured pace than her companion. "But the fact that I'm alive now means more than that—and I'd like to keep it that way."

Rather than engage in further conversation—at least, for the moment—the man seemed to be spending more effort in attempting to gauge the opponent. The short-haired girl looked to be a more immediate threat, if only because she seemed to be more focused on taking him out of the picture immediately. The other's apparent disregard for her own safety, coupled with the fact that even the slightest injuries were being healed as they were made, however, meant that he couldn't just discount her from the equation entirely.

"...Hm...?"

A curious expression briefly passed over the monk's face for a moment as he seemed to consider something, but that was quickly replaced by a slight smirk as he turned his focus towards the swordswoman barreling towards him. With but a little time afforded to him thanks to the summoning of a certain being to occupy the other one, the sly-faced man figured now was a good a time as any to try and deal with his opponent while he could. It wasn't the first time in recent memory he had to deal with a swordfighter, after all.

A strange worm-like spirit soon materialized upon the monk's shoulders, and from it's mouth he slowly withdrew a three-section staff dyed in red. With a weapon now in hand, the monk quickly adopted a combat stance and readied himself to fight.

The strange white spirit following the girl around did seem to pique his interest, though, insofar as he seemed to be treating it as something to be aware of throughout the fight instead of simply as an odd accessory.

While the monk had moved to engage Youmu in combat, however, Mokou would soon find the area around her strangely bereft of enemies... Or anyone else, for that matter, The area around her would seem dark, but the voice of something calling out to her from the darkness would let her know that she certainly wasn't along.

"Hey."

A brief glance towards the source would reveal an emaciated feminine figure garbed in a long overcoat, whose numerous eyes peeking out through long, black, unkempt hair paired with a medical mask to cover her face might have brought to mind another familiar face... Though not quite in the same way as the other residents of Gensokyo had.

"Am...
Am...
Am I...
Pretty?"

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

---

"Well, to be quite frank, letting strangers into the royal castle on a whim is more than a simply national security risk, regardless of their station. Even I am not so foolish so as to let guests in without having them vetted, after all; my life might not be worth much compared to my father's, but I had intended your earlier comment as a simple jest. Unless you truly did mean to do something that might pose a risk to the people who lead this country...?"

While there was a bit of frivolity in her voice, the undertones running through what the mage had said were difficult to ignore. Under the assumption that Anne had Remilia's selfish desires under control soon thereafter, though, Serena gave the glasses-wearing woman another nod and let the facade she had been putting up for the moment slide for the moment by ever-so-subtly laughing at the plain irritation upon the woman's face.

"Of course, I'm not mad enough to try and rope you all into political struggles—though some part of me feels like you'd find them falling into your lap regardless. More likely than not, I'd have you retrieving goods for me from somewhere or another, or maybe just gathering samples. For example, there's been an odd illness that's begun to—"

"Princess, I've returned with the paperwork you requested."

With that, Serena found her statement cut off by the minister she had sent to retrieve the paperwork she had requested, and after reviewing the contents and handing them off to Anne to sign, simply waited for her to check them herself. It was, as she had said, a simple contract that emphasized only what needed to be done while in her employ.

"By the way, Miss Mayer, you mentioned that you had a golem among your companions?" Bren asked before glancing towards the nearby window. "Would they happen to be accompanied by a rather frail-looking blonde child? I believe I saw one wandering the streets outside earlier looking for something..."

@VitaVitaAR@Drifting Pollen@Rezod92@Lugubrious

---

The enormous green fist splits the ground when it slams down, a tombstone crumbling from the impact.

It has a misshapen, humanlike form, three arms and an eyeless face with a wide, grinning mouth.

My feet alight on its massive fist before it can raise its arm back.

It doesn't have a chance.

I won't let it.

I thrust Roukanken forward and drag it upwards, piercing through the monster's chest and then splitting its upper body in half as it attempts to move, a shower of purple blood spurting into the air and raining down to the earth below, its insides spilling out briefly before fading into nothingness.

---It's disgusting. These things feel absolutely disgusting. Whatever they are, it's something terrible. There's this sickliness to them that I can't describe. As if they're some sort of illness in and of themselves.

My feet leave the creature's body as it falls and fades away, carrying myself upwards and into the air.

There's plenty of other monsters, but now I think I have a clear path---

There!

He's taken out some kind of staff weapon, but I have a clear path right to him! If he's controlling all these creatures, just forcing him to surrender should be the end of it!

I reach down into the very core of my being, spreading my spiritual energy from within my center and outwards, drawing it through my limbs as I sheath Hakurouken on my hip.

"Human Sign---"

The energy throughout my body builds upwards and outwards, surging to its peak---

"---Slash of the Present World!"

By reinforcing my body with spiritual energy, I can mitigate the blowback from the injury to my soul, if only for a brief moment.

But that's all I need to reach that monk.

The entire world is nothing but a blur, the air erupting behind me as I reach the earth and my target in a single instant, raising Roukanken up over my head.

This is my true capability, the speeds I can obtain without worry for tearing myself apart. Even if only for this single moment, despite my situation, I can feel my heart rise merely from regaining what shouldn't have slipped away in the first place.

The colors cease to blur as the world snaps back into focus.

He's there.

My grip tenses as I bring Roukanken down, the silvery blade flashing through the air towards the monk. Even if he tries to defend, unless his staff is magically-reinforced there's no doubt in my mind it'll split in half!

I'll do whatever it takes to force him to back down and call off these sickly monsters!

@FujiwaraPhoenix@Raineh Daze

---

---

The drifting butterflies were easily in the thousands in numbers, but the quick efforts of the miko and the witch were able to suppress them. At least, for the moment. Each time they attempted to emerge, now, the mine-like frogs created by Sanae destroyed them. The ones in the air were suppressed, too, by the combination of projectiles thrown ahead.

To put it simply, despite how dire the situation may have seemed it did not appear impossible to cut through and reach whatever was causing the curse to occur in the first place.

"My, I barely had to lift a finger," commented Qing'e, calmly, her hooded head inclining to one side for a moment, "I really did make the right choice."

Despite her previous warning, the woman appeared entirely unconcerned with what was occurring around her even as they advanced.

And yet, with the butterflies currently seeming less effective then desired, whatever was causing the curse seemed to be switching tactics.

The hallway suddenly appeared to stretch, extending forward further and further until its end appeared at least four times as distant as it originally appeared.

"Space distortion?" wondered Qing'e aloud, "It's hard to see through it if it's only an illu-ah."

One by one, the lamps lining the walls started to light.

One by one, they began to fall, shattering as they landed and splashing oil along the floors and walls, the fire swiftly beginning to set the hall alight...

@FujiwaraPhoenix@DracoLunaris

"Yes, he's one of ours." Even if so-called golems were a known quantity here, the streets Anne had walked through on the way here hadn't exactly been teeming with them. The odds of there being two of them carrying blonde children around were small enough that she was willing to chance it. "We can meet up with him once we're done in here. If we're lucky he'll have found some more leads for us to look into..."

It was good to know that Lewa had kept the young girl safe, but right now Anne's attention was mostly occupied by the contract Serena had handed her. She didn't exactly like paperwork, but running a trans-galactic research institute had given her plenty of experience in putting together formal contracts and agreements. Specifically, she knew all the underhanded methods people used to try and trick one another in the small print—mostly because she'd employed all those tricks herself. All in the name of world peace, of course.

However, by all appearances this document was exactly what it purported itself to be. Ideally she'd have had more time to familiarize herself with the local legal systems, but... It'll do. The benefits of the agreement easily outweighed the risks, and in the worst-case scenario they could just forcefully twist the arms of anyone who tried to use it against them.

"I'm satisfied with this." After neatly signing her name, she handed the papers across to Remilia. "You can look over it yourself if you want, but I can vouch that there's nothing shifty about it. We thank you for your patronage, Princess." She flashed Serena her most charming diplomatic smile, with a graceful nod of her head. Laying it on a little thick, but she did genuinely owe her for the help with the magic items, and for putting up with the stroppy vampire.

@Rezod92@FujiwaraPhoenix@VitaVitaAR

The sudden blackness—well, this was annoying, huh? Something to keep her out of the way, and she didn't really have a good way out except for dealing with… whatever this was. It was definitely ugly to look at, all emaciated and especially the multitude of eyes.

And she wanted to know if she was pretty? Well, this seemed familiar, like one of those urban legend things… but, well, she'd been out of the loop for most of that incident and her interest had really been on the balls more than anything. With the way stories went, it was probably a bad idea to say no. Or yes. Or anything at all.

"Not really."

But what did she have to lose here? Making whatever this was angry would be the fastest way to get it to fight.

The revealed gaping mouth and jagged teeth, now? That had worked. And the all-too-familiar feeling of blades slicing into her body. Possibly the first time it had been scissors, though, and she didn't want to have to stick her limbs back on to hurry it up this time, so—

Funny thing about metal was that it was easier to warp when it was hot. And if the fire got so hot that it burnt her? Well, aside from the minor damage to her shirt, that didn't matter to Mokou. And with that free, now she had room to manoeuvre and take flight. Avoiding giant shears that came from everywhere and nowhere wasn't easy at all, but at least danmaku prepared you for that sort of thing.

As for retaliation—fire was the obvious one, but this was something youkai or youkai-adjacent, and that really brought up the advantages of an exorcism. Just throw ofuda in between trying to not get too chopped up and—

Well, they'd explode anyway, too, but they'd always been handy in the days where Gensokyo was a lot more violent and she had nothing to do with her time but kill the youkai that were causing trouble in the forest.

“Don't have to tell me twice!” Rayne called over the magical machinegun of whom’s proverbial trigger she was holding down, firing and firing and firing like there was no tomorrow. Because when the little timer on the card powering this firepower ran out, there might not be. All she could do was eye the garbage collector card, and hope…

“Death ray? Well. Still don’t have to aim I guess” she said as the mana from kills spell ran out and was replaced with a new card. It was really meant to be a big bot killer, intensifying in power the longer it was locked on, but if the butterflies went down fast… well.

A moment later two things lit up the room. The first was the way forwards going on fire. The second was Rayne activating death ray, prompting a laser light show as an orange beam lanced out, latched onto a butterfly, exterminated it, vanished, and then repeated the process for another butterfly all in less time than it took Rayne’s adrenaline pumped heart to beat.

“Collection, I don’t need you right now the house is on fire” she told the spell that had replaced the spent ghost gun, before making a pained face and saying “if it’s coming down anyway” before casting lighting bolt instead.

The bolt in question slammed down from on high, passed harmlessly through her, and then went down even further till it earthed either in the floor or in any basement. The shower of splinters that rained down on her was less harmless but her hat caught those fortunately enough.

“If the source is up or down we have ways that aren't on fire now!” Rayne called out, before popping collection to grab all the dropped mana and then ending up with a hand full of useless floating rocks and a death spiral, none of which where any good unless Qing could bullet dodge the same way Sanea could.

Between her and Rayne's combined efforts, the soul-sucking butterflies seemed to be kept comfortably under control, which meant that they had at least some leeway to keep pushing forward. As they did so, though, the shift from 'butterflies of death' to 'infinite hallway' did absolutely nothing to help the situation. While the young woman assumed that it wasn't actually endless, she had no desire to test that theory—doubly so when the hallway was promptly lit aflame. Her first instinct was to prepare the same spellcard she had used back at Aventon to quell the flames, but it seemed that Rayne had a different plan in mind.

Instinctively, Sanae shielded herself from the debris of her companion's summoned lightning bolt as it carved a hole straight through the building. There was a brief moment of consideration as she glanced between the fire and the hole before nodding.

"Then down we go! It's probably a better idea than cooking ourselves alive!" she called out before diving down into the hole. It was possible that Qing'e wouldn't be able to follow them regardless, but if the flames that threatened to consume the building were magical in nature it was quite possible that putting them out for any reasonable amount of time wasn't exactly an option.

In other words, they were now on a bit of a time limit to exorcise whatever was causing problems here; hopefully that wouldn't take too long to do...

Maybe the other woman had some other tricks up her sleeve to get out of this mess? Hopefully that would be the case.

@DracoLunaris@VitaVitaAR

---

With the fire-wielding woman occupied by a cursed spirit, the monk turned his attention back to the swordswoman—who, despite any immediate expectations, shouted something that sounded vaguely like the name of a technique before disappearing from his sight in an instant. A bevy of emotions crossed through his face in an instant—anxiety chief among them—before he attempted to scan his surroundings for any attempted sneak attacks headed his way. When the girl reappeared overhead, however, he could do little else than block the attack. With both hands now occupied as he caught the blade with the center of his staff, the monk gritted his teeth and pushed back against the downward momentum of his opponent's weapon and took a step to the side while releasing his grip on the weapon with one hand. With the slash able to follow through towards where he had been standing, the next course of action would be a counterattack—in short, whipping the weapon around to try and catch his opponent where she was left unprotected.

Out of the corner of his eye, though, the sight of the other woman who had chosen to answer the curse's question as she was summarily chopped up into little pieces by the shears that manifested themselves—and the pieces promptly lighting themselves aflame as she seemed to casually regenerate from complete dismemberment—before dodging through any that appeared soon thereafter and cleanly annihilating the spirit caused him to pause, at least for a moment. It would hav been obvious to anyone watching that he was at a disadvantage, but given that the alternative seemed to be fighting to the death yet again...

"Well, I can't say I expected that," he quipped as he moved to take a step back the instant his weapon whipped back around to him. "Sorcerers in this day must've come a long way since mine. I couldn't have been dead for that long, right?"

As he mused to himself about the current state of affairs, though, a black spiral of energy seemed to begin swirling over his head, aimed—naturally—towards the two women bearing down upon him.

"That said, I'd rather not get sliced in half today. Once was enough."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

---

After the trio had signed off on the paperwork, Serena promptly marked the paper with her own signature before gesturing for Bren to take it elsewhere. There was little else to handle on that front, at least, and with the confirmation that their contract wasn't anything that abused either of their positions it only made sense to make sure it stayed that way.

Granted, it only really applied to the three of them at the moment, but that offer could always be extended if need be.

"Well, in that case, I've got something for you to do now, then," the princess said, responding to Anne's smile with one of her own. "I need you to retrieve some goods I ordered from a shop on the north side of the city. I usually get updates on the shopkeeper on their status, but he hasn't sent his usual correspondence. As this is a bit more of a personal matter, I'd like you to go see if everything's prepared, and if they're ready, to bring them here."

With that, the princess handed Anne a letter marked with what appeared to be a seal of some sort—one marking it's origin and importance, no doubt.

"If he questions you, just hand this to him and everything should be settled. Payment will be given on your return."

@VitaVitaAR@Drifting Pollen@Rezod92@Lugubrious

"I've been able to do this since the capital was Heijō-kyō," Mokou offered. Maybe he had been dead that long, she'd met that Mononobe girl and she had been sealed away since before Mokou was born. But if he had been dead for so long, would he even know what the capitals had been? Maybe that was a pointless question.

Well, that black spiral looked unpleasant to be hit with. The gardener ought to be able to deal with it, right? Matching it with a big explosion—well, she hadn't really had to worry about having allies to hit, most of the big things she could do were indiscriminate in the damage they dealt to everything around them.

"If you don't want to get cut in half, you could just stop fighting," she added. It wasn't like there was anything riding on this fight and Mokou, for one, was used to not wanting to be bisected. Honestly, she had half a mind to find something else to do anyway; having limbs cut off was really painful.

His weapon resisted Roukanken---

Since there's no physical material alone that its edge can't cut, that has to mean there's some sort of magic or spiritual energy imbued into that staff!

The earth is under my feet once again, and I shift my stance, twisting my body in the same moment to take aim at his hands. I'm not planning on cutting them, but if I can disarm him then that'll be the end of the fight.

---The other side of the staff is careening right for my head. Intercepting it is no problem, I can deflect it easily with Roukanken, but the impact of the blow---

The world around me blurs again.

"Nnng---!"

I lean forward to catch myself. That was strong enough to nearly knock me off my feet, and he's opened a gap between us again. It's not that I can't close it, but if he summons more of those creatures to get in my way it'll delay the end of the fight again.

He keeps talking about having been dead. But he definitely seems alive again rather then being some sort of revived corpse or other creature, like that jiangshi. Was he some sort of immortal in his original world, and he just didn't know it?

Aside from that---

"If you don't want to get cut in half, then just stop fighting?!"

Isn't that the obvious answer?! Not that I mind taking him down, and I'm not planning on killing him, but he definitely raised his chances of being slashed by fighting in the first place.

Ugh, and that thing forming over his head---

It's nauseating. Just being touched by it could kill someone. I don't know what it is, but I'm sure of that. It's just like all those creatures all over the cemetery, but concentrated into a single mass. It's almost like a seething orb of decay and corruption.

Perhaps it's not just 'almost like'.

He's ready an attack, and if any of those spirits get in the way I don't know if I can reach him in my current state before that.

---But it's fine.

I don't need to reach him to stop him, at least for a moment. If I can disable him from here, that could end it.

I don't need to hit him, or to disarm him. I'll force an opening and stop him from unleashing his attack.

I suck in a deep breath, filling my lungs, and slowly shut my eyes.

My body is human. My soul exists both within and without. I'm a half-being, someone between life and death from birth.

Phantoms can perceive and touch those things that don't exist in a physical sense. Feelings. Sound. Line of sight.

It's not as if I can see them all the time. But if I give myself a moment to concentrate---

I can see it.

It forms in my mind as a white strange, extending outwards from his gaze.

Despite being a half-phantom, I don't think I could mount a direct attack on it just like this.

But the blades I wield certainly can. The swords possessed by the Konpaku family don't just cut material things.

Hakurouken leaves its sheath.

He can't aim that mass of corruption, if he can't see.

"Sense-cutting Slash - Sight!"

Hakurouken's edge flashes. Even with my eyes closed, my body dulling the rest of the world around me, I can see the sliver of moonlight that is its edge passing through the darkness, intersecting with the line representing his sight.

Like a thread, it snaps.

I open my eyes.

I don't know how long it lasts. Not really. Cutting a target's senses is usually plenty of time for me to attack, but with the injury inflicted on my spirit---

No.

Grandfather wouldn't want me to think like that.

So I'll reach him.

No matter what, I'll reach him, and stop this now.

@FujiwaraPhoenix@Raineh Daze

---

---

The trio descended into the darkness.

But when they landed, they were greeted with a surreal, impossible sight.

"My, my," Qing'e commented, placing one hand to her cheek, "Now this is certainly a surprise."

It was sunset.

It shouldn't have been possible for it to be sunset in what had to be the building's basement, but that was what they were faced with.

There were no visible walls. Suddenly, they were outdoors.

Specifically, they were on a street. But nothing like a modern street, nor the ones above them in Nieve. To Sanae, it might remind her of the streets in the human village, only more aggressively flashy.

It was certainly a Japanese street, flanked by angular multi-level buildings and eyecatching tree plantings. For Sanae, if she thought of her history lessons, it might remind her of the Taisho era at the latest. There were brightly-colored banners hanging from the buildings, balconies overlooking the street, and larger trees planted further down the street.

The setting sun stretched the shadows longer, the trees almost looking like hands clawing towards them.

There was no-one else around.

Or rather, no-one else alive.

Ahead of them was a golden glow, a thick and sickly sensation hanging in the air as it approached.

It wasn't just butterflies, though the source of the glow was certainly surrounded by them.

There were figures. Burning, feminine figures, clad in fine kimono. At their head one carried a lamp, nothing more than a blackened skeleton beneath its unharmed clothing. It was followed by two figures no larger then young girls.

But the figure behind them---

Her face was concealed by a paper umbrella, carried by another skeletal maiden behind her. But her elaborate, patterned kimono was far more opulent and far more layered. Unlike the ordinary geta worn by her procession, these were tall with three thick teeth elevating the woman above her skeletal attendants.

"Mmmm."

The paper umbrella moved, and revealed the woman's face.

It could only be described as beautiful, a lady in bloom. The pale makeup and red lipstick made it stand out even more against the crimson fabric and golden flames. Her hair shone, wax and various decorations holding it up in a complex bun.

But the whites of her eyes were instead black. Her irises were yellow and red.

"---Ugh."

The immediate reaction when she laid her eyes upon the three intruders was disgust.

"Worthless. No matter how you flaunt your looks, you're nothing but third-rate whores," she idly commented, flicking a fan open, "But you can rot and burn away for me, regardless."

A smirk crossed her red lips.

A distinct sensation of nausea would already be setting in already, as if affected by the early stages of an illness.

Of the three, Qing'e showed no reaction, and Sanae would feel it most weakly.

But if there was no effort to stop it, there was no telling how quickly it might worse, as a cloud of golden butterflies began to approach once again.

One thing was certain.

The horrible miasma originated from the beautiful, smirking woman.

"Well now, we've found the source of our curse," commented Qing'e, reaching into her cloak, "There's no need to be gentle towards a woman with that attitude."

@FujiwaraPhoenix@DracoLunaris

---

---

Tch.

Even if I'm weakened, can't she tell?

Why would she assign someone like me to something so menial as retrieving some ingredients.

Hmph. I guess it's easy, so it's not like it's all that annoying when it comes to fulfilling the task in the first place. But isn't it disrespectful?

"Fine, let's get this over with."

There's no real need to hide my feelings. Regardless of the disrespect, or anything else, there's simply the obvious fact that this kind of task is banal in the extreme.

If I have to be stuck in another world, can't I at least have something exciting to do?

---That doesn't involve anything like those centipedes.

Some lazy shopkeeper forgetting his correspondence is the sort of task I'd assign to one of the fairy maids. And then they'd forget, and then Sakuya would end up doing it, and so it would turn out I might as well have just asked her to do it anyway.

Still, hardly the sort of thng I should be bothered with, but I guess at the moment---

Well, I'll just have to demonstrate my nobility to this princess in one way or another. And once she gets it, she'll be ready to apologize.

"Come along, let's not waste any more time then we will already."

---Besides, it's for the best we meet up with Lewa again, anyway. Hopefully, that girl is still doing alright. Her blood didn't taste as if she was suffering from any sort of illness.

It's probably an affliction in her mind, more than anything.

But for now, I just want to be done with this.

---

---Is this the right place?

It doesn't look shabby. Frankly, it is the sort of place that looks like I'd probably send Sakuya to pick up supplies from as needed.

But it's dark. Not that it's an issue for me, but I can tell all the candles and lanterns inside have burnt out. It look dusty, through the windows, and there's no-one at the counter. It's a fairly large, free-standing building, so I'm guessing it's also where the shopkeeper lives.

I can't help but be irritated, feeling my fingers curl into fists. He doesn't have the decency to be around?

"Hmph, is everyone intent on wasting my time?"

If he knew someone of my status was here, surely he'd be around.

Then again...

"It looks empty, did he leave without fulfilling standing orders? How rude."

How---

Wait a moment.

It's faint.

But I'm already pushing the door open before I can even realize it.

The scent is very faint, but now it's clear that he probably didn't just abandon his shop.

I look back over my shoulder, towards my companions.

"I can smell blood."

@FujiwaraPhoenix@Drifting Pollen@Rezod92@Lugubrious

For some time after the church turned out to be dead end, the Toa of Air just wandered Nieve. He didn't stumble around like a drunkard, overcome with despair, but the jungle ranger still lacked the urban experience to plot anything resembling a purposeful course through the city as he searched for Rayne the Knight Witch. Considering that the mage couldn't do much about the little one's condition during the cross-country trip, Lewa didn't exactly have high hopes that the news about the girl's heritage would allow Rayne to whip up a solution from nowhere, but any idea was better than none. Besides, he reasoned that the more he saw of human civilization, the less of a mystery their daily life would be to him. This line of logic turned his brisk stroll through Nieve into something of a tour, his bright green eyes wide open as he strove to observe every detail.

Not everyone liked having a 'golem' observe their day-to-day activities, but the average citizen didn't seem to mind Lewa as long as he maintained a respectful distance. He certainly got his fair share of curious stares as he walked around, what with the little girl in his arms at all. The questioning looks thrown Lewa's way almost amused him; these people had no idea just how happy he would be to be rid of this impossible burden. That said, the toa could not bring himself to resent the stolid fae enough to leave her in any danger, so unless he happened upon any magical orphanages (and learned about the whole concept of orphans in the process) his charge would stay right where she was. Of course, the possibility of Anne or another otherworlder taking revenge on him if the girl came to harm had not vacated his mind.

Together, the two of them observed all kinds of ordinary things, united in their lack of understanding. They watched couples argue, professionals like smiths and bakers at work, haggling at market stalls, inspections, artistic signs and lavish storefronts, and so forth. Lewa regretted that his unfortunate circumstances had dulled his sense of wonderment, last whetted when he set out to explore the jungles of Le-wahi for the first time. With death and devastation as his tutorial in this world, the sight of mundane, peaceful scenes set him at ease a little. Even if much of what Lewa saw seemed alien to him, he could also see elements of Matoran society at work here, too. Maybe this world and his own weren't as impossibly different as they first seemed. Still, he couldn't stop thinking about Mata Nui, and the Le-matoran. Their fate could hang in the balance right now, and here he was watching merchants arrange their produce.

Eventually, a little luck came Lewa's way. He happened to stumble into a couple of his fellow otherworlders outside a building known as the Mage's Guild. A local who'd heard a little of Lewa's plight had directed him this way in the hopes that the arcanists here could help him somehow, and the toa was happy to see some familiar faces. Unfortunately Rayne wasn't among them, but Anne was. Before he learned just how bad his prospects had been, he'd been aggrieved by what he viewed as sabotaging his efforts, but while he still felt a little annoyed by her presumptuousness, grudges just weren't in his nature. "Oh, hello," he greeted them, his manner subdued. "What have you all been up to?"

He followed along with the others, listening to the details of their assignment on the way. This group seemed a bit excessive for the task of fetching some materials, but it wasn't like Lewa had anywhere better to be. On the way, he explained what little he learned about the girl in his care--after trying to give her back to Anne, at least. "The person I met-spoke with said that she is a Fae, a long-lived being of a 'magical' nature," he told the others, the unfamiliar word strange on his lips. "She is not hurt-sick, but has something amiss spiritually. Would that a Turaga were around to speak-offer guidance." Nobody was more in-tune with the Great Spirit than each village elder. After a moment, he cleared his throat and continued, his tone a little more pointed. "I am not fit to be the caregiver-guardian of a normal child, let alone a Fae. Please do not leave one's wellbeing in my hands."

Eventually, the members of the group who knew where they were going led the rest to a certain street in the city's northernmost district, where they found the shop indicated by the woman named Serena. Unlike most of Nieve, where the scarcity of real estate made space a hot commodity, this establishment shared no walls with any neighboring structures. It also seemed...well, for lack of a better word, dead. Lewa couldn't make out any sign of light or human activity within its windows. Still, the impatient Remilia quickly admitted herself, albeit with an atypical expression. Something was evidently wrong. "Blood?" Lewa, naturally, couldn't smell anything. "I guess you're the one who'd know." He carefully stepped inside after her, peering around. Even here, people were getting hurt? "I thought this city-place was safe? Was there some kind of accident...?" His lime-green eyes scanned the darkness as he conducted a careful search for any signs of danger. While nothing suggested the presence of any enemies, and he didn't want to alarm any shopkeepers, his hand never wandered far from the shaft of his axe. After the centipede ambush days ago, he was determined to err on the side of caution.

Even for a princess, it seemed a little overkill to send a trio of otherworldly warriors to go and collect her shopping. Did she not trust her own servants with the task? Anne supposed it could be a test, a way of verifying the new hires were reliable—or maybe Serena just wanted to get back at Remi by bossing her around a bit. Either way, the Knight had little choice but to accept the proffered letter and the work that came with it.

After a brief request for directions and a polite assurance of their success, the royal's three newest minions left the Guild behind and hit the streets. Anne had planned on asking some of the locals if they'd seen a golem wandering around, but it turned out she was in luck: Lewa found them practically the moment they walked out the door. She wasted no time in hurrying over to greet him, and gladly took the silent girl off his hands.

"Thanks for keeping her safe. Were you able to find anything out?"

They took their time filling each other in as they walked, and by the time they neared the shop everyone was just about caught up with what the others had been up to. That still left a few unaccounted for, but Anne trusted they could take care of themselves... The girl was the one who needed protecting right now. That she was afflicted by mental illness didn't surprise the Knight, but the revelation of her Fae nature only made things more confusing.

"Is that right?" She looked down at the child, raising an eyebrow. "You're a Fae? Fairy? Fair folk?" She didn't look anything like the fairies Anne knew, but the Gensokyo group had mentioned a race of the same name. Given its roots in old legends, the word was probably used to describe numerous subspecies across the various worlds. "So where are you from...?" she murmured, still speaking to the girl but not truly expecting an answer. Once again, she'd have to dig up the truth herself.

In her distraction, she barely noticed that they'd reached their goal until Remilia spoke up. The Knight blinked, and squinted at the empty windows through her glasses. "Maybe the Princess got the hours wrong..." Even as she said it, she knew that wouldn't be the case. She had a bad feeling, and when Remilia caught the scent of blood Anne muttered a quiet command to her DC coat. Shimmering hexagons briefly glittered in the air as its barrier extended to wrap around the child as well, a direct layer of protection should anything nearby seek to do her harm.

"If it was an accident, someone should have noticed by now." She carefully stepped through the door and glanced around, visibly reluctant to take the lead so long as the golden-haired girl was still in her care. "Ugh... This already reeks of a trap."

@VitaVitaAR@Lugubrious@Rezod92