Double

World of Light

The Under ~ Holograd

The Climb

Word Count: 453
Level 5 Ganondorf: 32/50
Exp: 1
NEW EXP Balance--- 33/50

After getting mildly distracted by the conversation with the black coated little girl, Ganondorf decided he was no longer interested in her and proceeded to get ready for the climb he knew was coming. But before that, he made sure to double check that he had binded the Spirit he picked up and ensured it was a Striker as intended.

For Ganondorf

New Striker spiritbound:
Blast Hornet
A battle-ready reploid with a lower-than-average cooldown. He can perform three attacks: fly up and then divebomb with Stinger Attack, fly up and unleash a sextet of bee drones that drill into surfaces with their stingers before exploding, and Search Attack, where he targets an enemy for a second with holographic crosshairs before unleashing three seeking bee drones at a time, up to a maximum of 9 before the attack finishes. Blast Hornet takes (and confers) extra damage from gravity/force attacks

Ganondorf also decided he had no need for the Orb that Nadia found. He noted that the others were able to use to undo their Strikers and Fusions and effectively reuse the Spirits in other ways they saw fit. Certainly such a thing could be useful in the future, but for now the Gerudo accepted his Spirits the way they currently were. Well, no more putting it off, it was time to start climbing. The man looked up at the cloud platforms he would have to make use of and rolled his eyes.

"What a joke." Ganondorf muttered under his breath. But there was no other complaints beyond that. He knew it was better to just grit his teeth and get it over with rather than stand around grumbling. He had to jump from cloud to cloud, sometimes his weight kept him from jumping high enough and he'd have to grab an edge and pull himself up. He could already tell this was going to be slow and that he was definitely not going to be among the the first to arrive.

He was able to occasionally mitigate the climb by re-summoning the phantom horse and using it gallop upwards a distance. But its duration wasn't long enough for Ganondorf to ride it all the way up. Inevitably he did have to resort to the usual jumping and climbing rigmarole. All this blasted climbing served to remind him how much he hated it down in this Goddess-forsaken Under. The Gerudo was going to be glad to leave this hellhole and never come back.

World of Light

Suoh ~ Beacon Mental Hospital

@Lugubrious Painwheel | @DracoLunaris Midna

Word Count: 466
Level 7 Roxas: 2/70
Exp: +1
NEW EXP Balance--- 3/70

Everything turned to chaos all at once. The people Roxas and his group followed turned out to be Dexio and Sina. And then they turned out to be under someone else's control as they attempted to eliminate everyone in the basement laboratory. And that was about when Roxas became lost as far as who was doing what down here. He had no clue whatsoever who Brain Drain and Painwheel were. Really the only thing that the Keybearer did understand was that Painwheel was fighting Midna, Sina was targeting Luka, and that Sakura was going after Dexio.

That would just have to be enough information to go on for the time being. Roxas didn't want to stand around in confusion any longer than he already had. So when he noticed that Pit ran off to help Luka and that Gemma was backing up Sakura, Roxas finally had an idea of where to go. Though delayed, he at last sprang into action and ran in the direction of where Midna was holding off Painwheel. Just in time to see her fire some darts from her arm and then seemingly dash between them at high speeds. Roxas wouldn't be able to get there in time to help stop the assault entirely, but when he did get there he joined the fray in the only way he thought would be of use at the moment.

"Thunder!" cried the Keybearer, thrusting on his weapons upward and calling forth a downpour of lightning bolts around himself and Midna as soon as he put himself in front of her. The Thundaga spell would at least act as a makeshift defensive barrier against Painwheel's dash attacks, and give Roxas just enough of a chance to follow that up with a second spell, "Heal!" he cast the Curaga spell in order to undo whatever amount of damage the Twilight Princess had endured so far.

Roxas then dispelled one of his Keyblades and used his newly freed hand to call out his recently-acquired Striker. Burn Rooster appeared in a fiery flare and immediately used his powerful legs to launch himself into the air. The Reploid propelled himself into a fiery dive kick aimed for Painwheel. Even if she dodged him, the Reploid would simply kick himself off the wall and aim for her again until either his attack managed to hit her until he landed back onto the ground.

"Did I mention that I have no idea what's going on here?" Roxas relayed to Midna, "Did these people have anything to do with Peach or something?"

Disney & Dragons 5e

Action: None | Bonus Action: None

Shang simply pretended not to hear the question about why they would arm themselves. Instead he chose to continue addressing the peasant, "Maybe it would be wise to have some company for your trip? There's safety in numbers and I wouldn't want another mishap like this happening." he offered. Obviously the summons was for that man in particular and no one else, but that didn't mean the man had to travel potentially unsafe roads alone.

With a sigh, he reached into his own pocket, "Here," he said to the two other men with his hand held out. In it was two gold pieces, "It's what I can spare. You're welcome to it."

World of Light

Suoh ~ Beacon Mental Hospital

@Lugubrious Luka | @Yankee Pit

Word Count: 439
Level 7 Roxas: 1/70
Exp: +1
NEW EXP Balance--- 2/70

Roxas was very relieved to see that his plan had worked. Yuito was restored, and freed from Galeem's influence as a bonus! Yuito was rightfully confused, and while Roxas could answer the questions he probably had, now was not the time. "Shh, get down!" Roxas whispered to Yuito, "I'll explain everything later. Right now we need to get outta here."

"I used a Friend Heart on him." he said to Pit in a whisper in regards to Yuito while they were in the hallway, "Not sure if it would work twice, but at least we know it can save people from that fate at least once."

He stuck with the rest of the team as they crept their way out of the cafeteria and eventually regrouped with Luka, Hanabi, and Pit in a janitorial closet. Roxas half expected to be questioned heavily about how exactly he had been able to save Yuito. But for the time being it seemed like Luka - and especially Hanabi - weren't too concerned over the details just yet.

"Oh, Yuito?" Roxas said, holding out the Scarlet Guardian's sword for him to take, "I'm guessing you're gonna need it."

After that was said and done, Roxas only now started to look around. "Where are we now?" He asked, unsure what part of the hospital they had fled to, primarily because he had been more focused on escaping from Anima. But now that that tension was eased, he had to admit to himself that he was afraid they might have gotten themselves lost. Of course this was about when the murmuring voices could be heard.

Roxas put his ear against the closet door to try to hear them more clearly. But it was obvious they were going to follow the voices if they wanted to know anything concrete. The Keybearer slipped out of the closet and crept down the hallway toward where the voices were coming from. But unfortunately, by the time he might have caught up to them they disappeared into an elevator that was going down. All the way down to the basement.

Roxas looked around at the others, "Should we follow them down?" he asked. On one hand it seemed obvious that they should. But on the other they had no idea what was actually down there and could have been walking into some kind of trap for all they knew.

---

The Under ~ The Hive

The Wasp Queen

Word Count: 382
Level 5 Ganondorf: 31/50
Exp: 1
NEW EXP Balance--- 32/50

As it turned out, the "wasp" Queen turned out to be a fake, in more ways than one. Not only was the wasp itself just a mechanical contraption, it was also being operated by a Bee of all things. Well at least it seemed like her army of wasps were no longer swearing their fealty to her at least. But then she broke the floor and managed to drop the lot of the Seekers down into a hidden chamber with a lake of honey waiting at the bottom of it. The Gerudo managed to sheathe his blades away in midair, and good thing too because he would need his hands free for what he did next.

Ganondorf channeled his dark magic and used it to summon his Phantom. Or rather, his Phantom's horse. The phantom stallion appeared directly under the falling King and Ganondorf effortlessly positioned himself on the ghostly saddle. Then with a rear the horse in question began to gallop in midair. Meanwhile, the Bee had transformed herself into some kind of flying vehicle that flew around dropping bombs. Ganondorf drew the White Sword from its scabbard and spurred his mount into a charge through the air.

This benefit would only last a minute, and so the Gerudo would have to make sure he made it count. He attempted to keep pace with Bee, effectively challenging her to a midair dogfight where he on his flying phantom steed would trying to take swings at her with his sword with each time they passed one another. Either that or in a few other instances he would instead try to fry the bee with his Violet Flare flame breath.

Either way, Ganondorf could only keep this up for a minute at most. After that the phantom horse summon would pass its time limit and dispel. Then Ganondorf would have even fewer options to fight this enemy with. The rest of Seekers had better have tricks of their own to deploy, because Ganondorf was not going to be able to keep up this tactic for long.

World of Light

The Under ~ The Hive

The Wasp Queen

Word Count: 522
Level 5 Ganondorf: 30/50
Exp: 1
NEW EXP Balance--- 31/50

The big bad Queen, as it turned out, was little more than a gigantic robotic wasp. She commanded an impressive enough looking army, but then again, so did the King of Hyrule. And Ganondorf had reduced that army to cinders. These wasps would be no different. The Gerudo brandished his blades as the Wasp Queen offered the usual spiel about how she could never be defeated. Honestly if Ganondorf had a rupee for every monarch he had ever fought and dethroned, well, he'd have quite a few of them to say the least.

As the wasp swarms attacked and took their various shapes, most of the Seekers were quick to spring into action. Ganondorf, on the other hand, was content to take this more slowly. Instead he just calmly walked forward and let his lips curl into a wicked smile as a seeming storm cloud of wasps hovered above and began to close in on him. What happened next was a massive explosion of dark energy that Ganondorf had been building up in his swords ever since the Seekers first began their invasion of this hive. The wasps buzzed around him as they became engulfed in black fire and burned to ash. And at the center of it all stood the mighty King of Evil who began to laugh an ominous laugh, "HAHAHAHA!"

His sinister laugh thundered at the center of the remains of countless wasps now burnt to ash. He brandished his swords and only now did Ganondorf finally break into a run. He ran for a ledge straight ahead of him, slicing and cutting at any wasps that got in his way. At the edge he bent his knees and pushed himself into a powerful leap. Luckily for him the Potion of Jumping he had consumed during his fight with Blast Hornet had not yet worn off. The potion's effect allowed Ganondorf to make a great leap for the Wasp Queen herself. He even sliced his way through a sword-wielding heavy drone along the way.

Then with all his strength the Gerudo buried his blades into the Queen's armored thorax. Whether this did significant damage to the Queen, Ganondorf did not know. But he began to use his swords as makeshift climbing tools, stabbing them repeated into the insect's body in order for the man to traverse upwards in a climb that he aimed to eventually let him reach her head. Of course, the Queen's wasps wouldn't just be standing by and allowing this. But most were hesitant to attack, as if they were afraid of accidentally damaging their queen. But those whom did attack were simply met with Ganondorf's Violet Flare breath attack.

"Did you honestly think that you could rule forever?" Ganondorf taunted the Queen, regardless if she could actually hear him or not, "Monarchs rise and monarchs fall! I've seen it for myself, and YOU will be no different!"

World of Light

Suoh ~ Beacon Mental Hospital Residential Wing

@Lugubrious Luka | @Yankee Pit

Word Count: 805
Level 7 Roxas: 4/70
Exp: +2
Friend Heart used: -5 exp
NEW EXP Balance--- 1/70

"What the-? Yuito!" cried Roxas as he helplessly watched him be... devoured(?) by Anima. Right after this was when the real horror show started. Anima let out a shrieking cry of victory that caused all the tables to float up and then drop back down to form a maze of sorts. With the horrific monster floating about them above, this left the Seekers as well as the remaining Scarlet Guardians little choice but to hide until a better opportunity presented itself. By pure chance, Roxas spotted Yuito's sword on the floor near to his position. After what happened, Yuito's psychic control over the blade must have been broken resulting in the levitating weapon being dropped on the spot. The following victory cry and resulting shuffling of the tables must have knocked the weapon to its current location.

Hold on, Yuito. Roxas thought to himself as he scrambled forward and snatched the weapon up along the way. He now scurried in a low-crouch, making sure to keep himself well behind the tables to avoid being spotted by Anima. He'd dismissed both his Keyblades and was now only holding onto Yuito's sword, the hilt of which he clutched tightly in his hand. I'm not leaving this place until I figure out a way to save you. He solemnly promised himself. Just after this the tables rose back up only to drop down in a new formation. That meant that even if Roxas did start to get a sense of direction, Anima would likely just change it all up and effectively reset the entire board. Was navigating this "maze" really going to be so impossible? Or maybe Roxas was just thinking too linearly.

When the tables shifted next, Roxas was able to use the opportunity to glance around and gauge where everyone else was. He briefly glimpsed Luka across the room and the sobbing Hanabi in another position entirely. He also spotted where Yuito's body was shambling. All just before the tables came back down. If he wanted to regroup with someone without having to reorient his sense of direction every time the maze changed, then he needed to change the timing of when he moved! Luka! Roxas loudly thought in his head, hoping Luka could hear. We can track each other's position during the periods when the tables are floating. We can use that time to move closer to each other. Otherwise we'll just be wandering around this maze of tables forever!

After this Roxas made a point to glance around and double check where in the room everyone was during those brief moments when the tables were moving. It wasn't a perfect solution, but at least it was something. At the same time, Roxas began trying to think of a way to stop Anima. He had a feeling that Yuito might return to normal if Anima was defeated and destroyed. But even if that idea was no good, he did have another thought percolating in his mind. The other day during the return home from Suoh, he and some other Seekers had that brief run-in with the demons born from the redshift. Roxas could recall saving one specific individual from the infection by using a Friend Heart on him. Would it work on Yuito, too? He had no idea, but Roxas wasn't about to give up without at least trying.

So for the time being, Roxas focused not on regrouping but instead on closing in on Yuito. He knew he'd have to get closer to try using a Friend Heart on him after all. This was a huge, if it didn't work then Yuito's shambling body could just as easily attack him or worse, alert Anima to the Nobody's presence. Roxas was really hoping at this point that his black coat was doing its job in helping him stay undetected. He never thought he'd have to rely on it for a mission like this before. It wasn't too terribly long before Roxas spotted Yuito after a table shifted position. This was it. It was now or never.

Roxas moved toward Yuito from behind, remaining crouched and hopefully still out of sight from Anima. Roxas swallowed hard as he formed a pink Friend Heart in his free hand. Then he just held his breath and threw it at Yuito's back. This was either going to work, or result in a catastrophe. But Roxas promised himself he was going to save Yuito. If not with this Friend Heart, then perhaps by defeating Anima if necessary.

World of Light

The Under ~ The Hive

Kicking the Hornet's Nest

Word Count: 1,164
Level 5 Ganondorf: 28/50
Exp: 2
NEW EXP Balance--- 30/50

The debate between attacking or using stealth was surprisingly short-lived. Seemed a majority of the Seekers were of a similar mind as Ganondorf himself was. That suited him just fine. And while those such as Nadia chose to move ahead with stealth, Ganondorf was of course among those - particularly the royals - who chose simply to attack openly. On the surface of it they would seem rather foolish to charge into a hive and kick over a literal hornet's nest. But when the fighting actually began it became swiftly apparent that the royals were not exactly exaggerating their own abilities.

Ganondorf for his part, started things off by summoning a squad of moblin archers. He instructed them to use their fire arrows to try and pick off drones and other aerial foes so that the Gerudo himself could focus on the more grounded enemies. The Haste from Sectonia was unexpected-but-welcome boon. It allowed Ganondorf's twin great swords to become a speedy whirlwind of death to any of the wasps that came at him. And some did, appearing to wield swords of their own or in some cases spears or a battle flag. In the end it mattered not. Between the speed of Ganondorf's attacks thanks to Haste, and the dark strength that slowly built up in the blades - these bugs were just that: bugs.

"Come on!" the Gerudo bellowed after cutting down an unfortunate sword-wielding wasp, "You could at least make this a challenge for me!" he taunted with great confidence and outright arrogance. And then, as if answering his challenge, a small swarm of five robotic hornets buzzed behind him in a dive bomb attack from above. He whirled around and managed to slice all but two out of the air. But those remaining two latched themselves to Ganondorf's body and exploded. They were small, no larger than humming birds, and so the explosions they produced were not particularly large. But they did manage to knock the King of Evil off his footing for all the briefest of moments. The Gerudo then had to quickly roll over out of the way to avoid being skewered by a long stinger.

"I'll be your opponent, human!" spoke the voice of the robotic hornet that had just tried to dive bomb Ganondorf, "You'll regret interfering in our business, here!"

"We'll see about that." the Gerudo responded with a flourish of his twin great swords.

Blast Hornet was no fool. He knew his wings gave him the greatest advantage and he wasn't about to let that go to waste. The Reploid buzzed his wings and hovered in the air, making sure to stay out of the reach of Ganondorf's swords. He summoned swarms of his hornets to dive bomb Ganondorf with their previous Parasitic Bomb attack. Blast Hornet even mixed things up on occasion and would briefly lock onto the Ganondorf in order for his hornet swarms to home in with greater accuracy. But the Gerudo wasn't fighting by himself. His moblin archers were nearby and more than capable of picking off the smaller hornets, with Ganondorf himself managing to cut down any that avoided fire arrow shots.

But this little stalemate could only last for so long. Ganondorf soon gave a new order to the Moblins, "Forget the small ones! Focus your fire on the one summoning them!" the Moblins were unsure about the wisdom of this tactic change but they dare not question the King of Evil's commands. And so they began to ignore the summoned bees in favor of concentrating their fire on Blast Hornet. He was agile enough to avoid most shots, but still took an occasional arrow regardless. As for Ganondorf, he found himself less able to fend off the exploding bee attacks without the coverage granted to him by his Moblins. At least at first.

When it seemed like Ganondorf was about to be overwhelmed, something buzzed in to provide interference. Bees of differing sizes and shapes. That's when it became clear to Ganondorf. The Hive wasn't quite so unified as it first appeared to be. It seemed the Seekers had unknowingly stepped into a war of sorts between the bees and wasps. Blast Hornet's drones were intercepted by fast-striking Beedrill and Combee who were being commanded by a nearby Vespiquen. And this provided Ganondorf with a much-needed opportunity to turn the tide. And it started with him drinking one of the potions he had received yesterday. The jumping potion to be precise.

With it and the Haste from Sectonia, Ganondorf was able to largely eliminate Blast Hornet's aerial advantage. The Gerudo made a swift and powerful leap that launched him straight at the flying reploid. Rather than attack he hooked his arms around Blast Hornet and used his great strength to fling the reploid down to the ground. Ganondorf came crashing down shortly after and was now in a better position to unload a flurry of slices and slashes from his twin great swords. That finally did some real damage to the reploid. Blast Hornet went to take flight again, but his attention on Ganondorf caused him to not notice the incoming volley of fire arrows from the Moblins. Those kept him stunned momentarily, giving Ganondorf a chance to quickly grab hold of him and slam him back down onto the ground with a Flame Choak.

Blast Hornet's body began to spark with static from the damage he'd been dealt thus far. He tried to unleash a last ditch swarm of hornets on Ganondorf hoping their close proximity would make them impossible to dodge. But once a gain the bees ran interference, this time in the form of a volley of Pin Missiles fired by a trio of Beedrills. Blast Hornet struggled to get airborne but Ganondorf was too quick to seize the opportunity. He lunged forward and delivered a final x-slash of his great swords that cleaved Blast Hornet into exploding pieces. All that remained of him now was a Spirit that Ganondorf quickly scooped up.

With Blast Hornet defeated, Ganondorf found himself surrounded by the helping bees who appeared to be buzzing with gratitude. Ganondorf didn't say anything, not exactly having come here to liberate any oppressed peoples. But he also was not foolish to make enemies of both sides of whatever this conflict was. As such, Ganondorf just offered a silent nod to the bees and then went along his way. he figured they'd probably go look for an enemy elsewhere on their own something. He also figured he should probably regroup with the other Seekers, deciding it was probably unwise to wander too far off in this Hive alone.

World of Light

Suoh ~ Beacon Mental Hospital

@Lugubrious Luka | @DracoLunaris Midna | @Zoey Boey Sakura | @Yankee Pit

Word Count: 542
Level 7 Roxas: 3/70
Exp: 1
NEW EXP Balance--- 4/70

The last person Roxas expected to see was Gemma. He was that guy from the Anistar Gym who had sparred with Sakura. And when he said he thought Sakura wasn't a psychic, Roxas's heart nearly stopped beating. Uh oh, not good. It all came flooding back to him, Roxas's outburst and the fact that he had said Sakura wasn't a psychic. This little bit of awkwardness was indeed his fault. "Oh, uh..." Roxas stammered, trying not to panic, "See, I only thought that Sakura wasn't psychic," Roxas said, hoping this would be a good enough excuse, "but I found out later that I was wrong and she's actually psychic after all. That's, uh, totally my bad. Sorry about that."

After the exchange, Roxas put himself in Luka's group - mostly to avoid continuing the previous conversation with Gemma. Pit joined Luka's group as well, and afterward they set out for what seemed to be a residential wing of the hospital. The hallways were lined with numbered rooms intended for patient's stay in. The area was filled with this bubbly white stuff that Roxas was unable to identify. It kind of looked like wax, but what kind of wax just bubbled and boiled like that? And then Roxas started to notice the humanoid shapes lying in the stuff. He recoiled a bit as a kneejerk reaction, "Ugh, gross. Are those... people?" he wondered aloud. Luka explained that he wasn't sure if these were victims or just creatures waiting to spring to life and attack. Roxas really hoped it was the former. After what happened the day before yesterday with all those people succumbing to the redshift? Roxas had no desire to fight something that had once been a person.

In fact, Roxas tried to avoid getting near the things if he could help it. In one or two instances where he had no choice, he sliced them up with his Keyblades easily enough. But he was pretty unsettled by this place. Between this and the redshift he seriously wondered why anyone would bother living in these parts of the city. If it were him, he'd be doing whatever it took to move and live elsewhere. Roxas shook his head, trying his best to shake off the creeps that this place was giving him.

Eventually the team was faced with a head... tentacle... thing that seemed to be surveying the room like some kind of freaky security camera. Definitely looked like the sort of thing they needed to sneak past. And Pit was the one who asked the obvious question. Roxas didn't speak at first, guessing instead that if such was possible Luka would have suggested it himself. And in that case, well, what to do about this? "Looks like that has to twist itself around in order to see everything in room. Maybe we can watch it for a bit? Might be some kind of pattern we take advantage of." he suggested with a small shrug.

World of Light

The Under ~ The Arboretum

Word Count: 584
Level 5 Ganondorf: 27/50
Exp: 1
NEW EXP Balance--- 28/50

Just as he exited the castle, Ganondorf heard something in his ear. It was Therion's voice, thanks to the linkpearl Ganondorf last night by Primrose. "So they found an entrance? Well, let's get this over with then." he said to himself after he finished listening. He looked around from his current position. Therion said it was the building with a tree growing out of it, and sure enough it wasn't hard to spot. So Ganondorf made his way over in that direction. Therion had also warned everyone to watch out for the vines. Sounded like there was going to be plenty of plant enemies to deal with. Luckily Ganondorf possessed a newly-acquired fire breath power courtesy of Igos du Ikana's spirit. He had a feeling he was about to get a lot of use out of that one.

When the Gerudo was able to get a closer look at the Arboretum, he found that Therion's description didn't quite do it justice. "Tree" didn't even begin to describe what was seemingly growing out of this buildings cracks and seams. The tree part was mostly on the roof, but even the walls were covered vines and other foliage. The main entrance appeared to have some kind of roots or vines protruding from it and preventing anyone from being able to go inside. But Ganondorf was quick to notice some of the open and broken windows and figured that that was how everyone would be getting in. He climbed in through one and dropped down, almost immediately having to quickstep out of the way of an attacking vine. Therion wasn't exaggerating about this.

Ganondorf explored a bit, noting the sheer overgrown nature of the building's interior. Something about this reminded him greatly of the Forest Temple in his own world. He almost half-expected to find the quartet of multicolored Poes appearing at the center of the main chamber. But naturally, they did not appear. It took a bit more looking around before Ganondorf spotted what he thought might have been the way the others reached the lower levels. More vines growing out of a hole, but with a secondary hole that was dug next to it with considerably less vines writhing about. Looked like now was when he was going to get use out of that flame breath. Ganondorf inhaled and then exhaled his Violet Flare down into the hole. The purple flames didn't exactly burn or scorch away any ground or vines, but they did retract from it. That was the chance Ganondorf needed to more or less cleanly drop down into the hole entrance, which he did so.

And it wasn't long before the Seekers encountered obstacles. Ariel drones that looked like mechanical bees or wasps seemed to be buzzing about on patrol. Nadia tried to suggest stealth, but Sectonia was quick to point out that most of their members weren't exactly built for stealth. That unfortunately included Ganondorf himself. And then it was Primose and Kamek who suggested a diversionary tactic. Ganondorf was inclined to agree, "That's the strategy I would go with, personally." he chimed in with a shrug of his shoulders, "And more than enough of us have minions we can summon to perform just such a task." He added with a passing gesture indicating Kamek, Sectonia, and himself.

Disney & Dragons 5e

Action: None | Bonus Action: None

When the commotion finally died and tensions finally began to fall, Shang straightened himself and relaxed... somewhat. One of the men questioned why the red-haired girl started all of this, and her answer was... facepalm-inducing. From Shang's interpretation it essentially boiled down to her having a hunch and deciding to act on it. And while he might have had something to say about that, a different conversation also caught his ear.

This time it was between the lion man and the two "bandits" who turned out to just be peasants. The lion man seemed to think they could just venture out into the jungle and hunt for food. And when the two men rightfully pointed out that they weren't trained hunters, the little girl piped up with a response of her own. This... was also facepalm-inducing. Plus Shang had to fight the urge to notice that it was two young women making such naive-sounding remarks.

"Ahem, excuse me..." Shang finally spoke up, "...do kids your age commonly carry hand-held projectile weapons where you're from?" he asked, hoping he wasn't sounding too patronizing, "Because where I'm from, they don't. And I'm willing to bet that is true for most places. You can't just assume that everyone around you is as skilled or well-armed as you yourself are."

"And, Miss?" He said, now facing the red-haired lass, "What exactly did you find suspicious? Their weapons? I carry a sword myself, does that make me suspicious as well? Well, never mind that I suppose." he turned his gaze to the direction of the original peasant. In all of this he was now realizing that no one had bothered to ask what he thought of all this.

"Please forgive the sudden interruption your meal, sir." Shang said to the man with a polite bow, "But I must admit that I'm curious to know. Have you truly been summoned by your Emperor?"