FujiwaraPhoenix

Final Fantasy: After the Ashes

Once the last turret had been disabled, Derrick pushed himself back his feet before dusting himself off, the Conduits all returning back to his side without any further fanfare. The make of the machines were nothing particularly special, and though he might have wished to go bring them back for salvageable components, the three of them had a job that they came here to do. Anything extra could wait for the return trip.

"No injuries, then?" he asked, glancing at the two at his side before looking back towards the facility. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that someone was expecting us. But by all means, lead the way."

His job was to keep everyone in combat-ready condition, so there was no reason for him to be part of the vanguard on this team. If they got flanked, then it was the least he could do to block and stall for time as the other two moved to adjust—at least, that was how he saw things.

Fate/Eternum (Take 3)

@Rezod92: Yeah, sorry, can't try to fix the supply issue on my end.

I think we want to go for 1:1 for the sake of grouping though, so... Awkward. Hm.

Could just have the other Master offscreen doing... Things. Be relevant here and there?

Fate/Eternum (Take 3)

Uehara Shou

With the bomber's phone in hand, Shou turned towards his Servant as the latter moved to address him. The mention of a Holy Grail War caused the onmyoji to pause, though, glancing between the device and the two Masters across from him. Reasonably speaking, it would have been better to heed the Assassin's advice; putting his neck out for complete strangers was not something he had any reason to do...

But leaving things as they were could very easily allow things to continue to spiral out of control, especially given how there seemed to be a cover-up in place. The article about the dorm exploding that he had just reviewed came to mind almost immediately, which was more than enough reason to be unsure that the problem would resolve itself if left alone.

"...I don't think this is something we can let be," he said, shaking his head in mild disagreement. "At the very least, there might be something we can do to help resolve this without letting it escalate further."

As he spoke, another explosion shook the room, only for a clown (or what appeared to be one) to stumble into the kitchen, followed by the two Servants that had chased him out earlier. The young man's eyes widened slightly upon seeing the former, only for the Saber who had been holding him at bladepoint until then to threaten him with injury once more. There was a nervous gulp as his eyes darted between the steel at his neck and his (apparent) Servant, but the situation quickly changed as the blonde knight stepped forward to end the game of cat-and-mouse.

The result was swift, if nothing else; the blade seemed to slice through his body like butter, splattering blood across the floor in full view of everyone present. Even Takuya seemed to be grimacing slightly at the sight (though his Servant seemed more relieved that the job had been done), and the color draining from Alan's face as he watched golden particles begin to form around the mortally wounded Servant's body was more than enough to tell what had just happened.

Despite that mortal wound, though, the Caster seemed none too worried; in face, the smile on his face might have implied the opposite. As his eyes met his Master's, the Servant weakly raised one hand——

Only for the Lancer to walk up and slam her spear into it, tearing it out before dealing a more decisive blow towards her enemy's neck.

"Good riddance," she spat, flicking the blood off of her weapon before turning towards her Master. "So what now?"

Instead of giving her a reply, though, Takuya glanced at the other three Masters present in turn, waiting to see what their decisions would end up being. All the while, of course, the (now-former) Master seemed to lose any drive to bluff his way out of the situation. With his Servant dead, there was nothing that he could do to a single Servant, let alone the four who were present, after all.

@VitaVitaAR@KoL@Raineh Daze

Fate/Eternum (Take 3)

Uehara Shou

With most of the injured handled (and that one woman who had decided to try straining herself convinced to stand down), Shou found that he had enough leeway to follow his Servant into the kitchen. One of the other Masters present had already decided to do so, and given how there were no sounds of combat coming from within, the onmyoji was inclined to believe that it would at least be prudent to check how the situation inside was panning out.

To his mild surprise, though, the blade pointed at a blonde teenager coupled with the rest of the quips made clear how things had panned out. How things had played out seemed fairly self-evident, but whether or not interrogating the supposed culprit as the Master beside him would bring about anything meaningful was up for debate.

It was the Master of the Lancer from earlier, though, who seemed to take action first. As his pursuer was left unable to do anything with a blade at his throat, he was free to reach into his pocket and take his phone. With a glance to the side, he forcefully took hold of the teenager's hand and, after unlocking the device, threw it towards Shou.

The young man fumbled for a second before actually catching the phone, only to see why it was that it had been thrown to him. A single application seemed to be open at the moment—one titled 'Grail Match <ver. a>'. At a glance, it seemed to show the names of six other people, with an image of the teenager paired with his name—"Alan Bellavel"—at the very top. Among those listed, though, only one other seemed to have a face paired to it.

Namely, that of the person who had thrown him the device, one Takuya Funohara.

"H-hey, what are you doing with my—" Alan attempted to interject, only for Takuya to punch him in the stomach (regardless of how close his throat was to the sword at his neck) to make him shut up before speaking up himself.

"This shit's not worth the money for winning," he spat, turning towards the others who were filing in. "I'd like to clean up my own messes, but if you're going to force your way into my problems, you'd better be prepared to help too. That app you see there? Pretty sure we both took up an offer about 'testing' something and that we'd be given some compensation for seeing it through to the end. Honestly, I've had it up to here with bombs blowing up in my face every other day, so if you want shit answered, I guess I might as well do it instead of this psychopath over here."

Whether or not he was honest was up for debate, but even this much seemed to shed a surprising amount of light on the situation. The question now, though, was if the others were any more willing than he was to get involved in something that might have been a bit more than he had bargained for...

Outside the Restaurant

Artoria's new vantage point would give her a clearer view of what was going on below—namely, the series of explosions that the Lancer was rushing past in dogged pursuit of her target. As things were now, the Servant was most certainly trying to draw his pursuer away from the restaurant, and with the street growing closer by the second, his escape would most certainly lead to more carnage.

Of course, that would not come to pass; when the Saber promptly dropped down in front of him, the Servant in question—one whose appearance seemed more fitting for a harlequin than any Heroic Spirit—screeched to a halt. There was a nervous smile on his face as he sized up the opponents in front of and behind him before shaking his head.

"Oya? This isn't what I had expected for today's job!" he complained, barely ducking down as the Lancer's weapon soared narrowly above his head. "No, this won't do at all! Well, if a diversion isn't an option..."

As he trailed off, the Servant threw a few bombs towards the door next to him—one connected to the restaurant he was circling around. His Master had gone oddly silent, but with the thread of mana still connecting the two of them, he was most certainly alive...

Which meant that the time for fun was over. It was quite the shame, too—or, at least, it was for the bomb-loving Servant. Such wanton destruction was rare to come across, especially in this day and age as he saw things. A Master who was on the same wavelength as him would be a shame to lose, after all.

Of course, the sight of said Master one moment away from being beheaded was equally amusing to him, but given what was behind him, things most certainly did not look good for the pair at the moment.

@VitaVitaAR@KoL@Raineh Daze

Alter Ego — Meltryllis

The path to... Wherever it was that BB was directing them was unfortunately held up by people cordoning off the area. It was fairly certain that something had occurred to block their path off, but whether or not it was related to what they were supposed to retrieve was a different matter entirely.

Not like she really cared, though; the sooner that this job was resolved, the better.

Taking a quick glance over at Nanako's phone as she attempted to find an alternate route around the problem, Meltryllis simply scooped up her Master before ducking into a nearby alleyway and, with all the speed and grace that she was so proud of, bounded from wall to wall before landing on the roof. Without allowing her Master a moment's reprieve to ask what it was that she was doing, the Alter Ego began to bound from rooftop to rooftop, cutting a straight path through towards their destination.

The purple-haired Servant was not so careless to not make sure that she did not overshoot her destination—which, luckily enough, seemed to put them well past the blockades around the area. Their target, it seemed, had been moving as she had traveled—not so quickly so as to imply that their movements were known, but enough for her to know that it would likely not be easy enough to take the item and leave.

To be fair, though, since when was it ever that easy?

As the dot on the phone came to a stop once more, Meltryllis descended from the rooftop into another alleyway, letting Nanako down before looking towards their apparent intended destination—a nightclub of some sort. At a glance, it seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary, but when it came to jobs from BB, things like this were anything but.

"I'll lead the way; keep yourself out of trouble," she said, walking down the steps towards the entrance as her prosthetics changed into their usual spiked heels. "Ideally, you find whatever it is she wants and we leave. I hope you won't throw yourself into needless danger again, though."

Of course, entering a nightclub in the middle of the day—with one half of their pair notably underage for such a venue—would likely draw attention...

As would the ensuing gunshots, but for some reason, most of the passers-by—namely, those less aware of the bounded field that surrounded the venue—would fail to even notice such a thing in the first place.

@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist@Pyromania99

Fate/Eternum (Take 3)

Kitchen

Still with a smile on his face, the apparent bomber leaned forward, relishing in the frustration that he could see upon the other Master's face. If the old man didn't want to do more than throw words at him, then all he would have to worry about was getting out of this mess.

Or rather, it would have been, had the third person present—the one who had yet to speak a word this entire time—not slipped his mind. With the sudden gust of wind and sharpened steel barely pressed up against his throat, the blonde man's eyes panned down. The realization of what sort of predicament he was in now showed quite easily upon his face, and though he attempted to refrain from showing his fear, the slight quiver in his lip and beads of sweat starting to form upon his brow gave away his true feelings.

"H-hey, I think you'd better give me some room," he stammered, gripping the countertop tightly. "O-otherwise, I can't guarantee that the people outside won't be left intact."

@KoL@Raineh Daze

Outside the Restaurant

The sound of the bombs exploding overhead would draw the attention of a few more bystanders, but for the most part they had all done so well out of the range of anyone who could actually be harmed by them. By this point, the Lancer had managed to regain her bearings, bashing into the few bombs that remained scattered about with her shield to soak up the explosions before turning back towards Artoria.

"Tch... Hate sneaky bastards like that," she said, lightly dusting herself off before nodding her head. "Well, if you're so intent on getting involved, do me a favor and cut that dumbass off from behind. I'll just run him down from here."

Before the knight could give a proper response, though, the tanned Lancer broke off into another sprint, shield at the ready in case of any other traps meant for her.

@VitaVitaAR

Alter Ego — Meltryllis

"You don't have to look that annoyed, senpai," BB said, pouting as she leaned towards the screen. "I just wanted you to go and pick up something for me. Nothing too problematic, see?"

With another play of that all-too-familiar jingle, Nanako's phone would promptly ring, showing their future destination on the map—a nearby warehouse, not that far from their current location.

"See? Nothing too intense for you after your downtime, right~? The package won't be there for long, though, so I'd like it if you could hurry up and get out the door. BB-chan, out~!"

And with that, the TV turned back off, with nary a trace of the AI's interference to be seen. With a sigh, Meltryllis leaned back into her seat on the couch before shaking her head.

"Even I can tell that she was lying through her teeth. Let me know when you're ready to go," she said, crossing her arms. "And don't do anything stupid this time, okay?"

@VitaVitaAR

Final Fantasy: After the Ashes

As soon as the first volley of bullets had been fired, Derrick trained his gaze on the remaining mecha. It was easy enough to tell that they had refocused their barrels away from Freyja, and it seemed that his companion had noticed likewise.

"Switching!" he shouted out, the Conduits near Freyja quickly abandoning their barrier before flying over towards Cadenza. There were a scant few moments before the bullets would begin to fire, if their retargeting was to be believed...

But if he wasn't able to ward off the shots aimed at the mercenary, then all he could do was try and recover the damage afterwards.

Shaking his head, Derrick quickly poked his head out from behind his current piece of cover before aiming his two remaining Conduits at one of the further machina. A single Ruin would ideally be enough to offset the barrel should he fail to stop the damage in time, but in this case, it was likely better to cover as many bases as he could.

@VitaVitaAR@Wayward@Pyromania99

Fate/Eternum (Take 3)

Kitchen

In response to the old man's provocations, the blonde Master could do little but force a smile. Being called out as an 'amateur', while by no means untrue, left him slightly aggravated.

"That's rather rude of you to say, old man," he replied through a forced smile, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the wall. "Though I guess you wouldn't really get it in the first place. If I've got to get six other Masters out of the picture, then the fastest way to do so has to be the best! Heck, none of the people I'm aiming for are any less guilty than I am, either; like I said, we all signed up for this, so—"

"That doesn't mean you have to blow up a restaurant in the middle of the goddamn city, you dumbass!" the thug injected, almost taking a step forward before the blonde man shook his head with a smirk.

"If you had just died the first time, then this whole incident wouldn't have happened. I'm no 'dumbass'; I'm just pragmatic."

@KoL@Raineh Daze

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Misaki's eyes widened ever so slightly at Mie's initial response, the foxgirl having realized her blunder as soon as the shopkeeper mentioned what she was using to keep records. The scrolls that were in Enli's house had led her to expect otherwise, but the fact that Mie was using bamboo to keep tabs on her sales meant that technology on that front had likely regressed the the point of nonexistence—doubly so, given how Mie was surprised that she even knew of such a thing.

Before she could give a proper response, though, Mie left for the storehouse, and Misaki found no real reason to stay behind when she was offering to show them to her. As much as she desired to keep herself out of the spotlight, lacking something as fundamental as paper (or, well, fundamental from her point of view) was not something she could accept.

The bamboo slips that the shopkeeper revealed to her were about what she had expected while processing the matter mentally on the walk over. Compared to what she was used to, they were far from ideal; workable, yes, but given the high cost associated with them, Misaki was a bit disinclined to use them. As much as she wanted something to work with, these were still fundamentally a last resort for her.

With that said, this chain of conversations had put a spark of an idea into her mind.

"Ah... Thank you for the offer, but I must decline," she said, returning what Mie had given her with a smile. "Recordkeeping is essential in this line of business, and something like this is a bit too valuable for me to accept at the moment. Even so, I must thank you for the opportunity; you've given me a bit of inspiration for the rest of my time here."

Assuming that Lady Mie did not press her any further, the white-haired foxgirl would promptly leave the premises, making her way off to the side before deciding to take a detour to the beach. She needed somewhere to organize her thoughts, and even at this time of day, she could use light to illuminate the sand as she charted out what she needed to handle.

It'd be a troublesome road to make paper, but if she succeeded, then the theoretical return would be insanely high; if her cover as a person from another world was gone anyways, then there was really no point in trying to play coy, right?

@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Visiting the herbalist again was quite valuable, as Misaki soon found out; the old lady seemed more than happy to indulge her in her efforts to understand the flora in the region, and the presence of something that did fit her criteria for bamboo immediately put her on track for something useful. Even if she couldn't make paper out of wood pulp or something more in line with papyrus, scrolls made out of bamboo (or in this case, a bamboo-equivalent plant) would serve just as well for her purposes.

That was the emergency backup plan, though; as she dropped off what she had collected and bid the old lady farewell, Misaki made a swift beeline towards Lady Mie's entourage—and towards the woman herself.

"I apologize for my late visit, Lady Mie," the white-haired foxgirl began, bowing out of instinct as she spoke, "but this is less of a direct question regarding your wares. Do you by any chance have any paper or ink on hand I could look at? This is an odd question, I admit, but..."

Really, understanding where that set of things was technologically was just as important for the sake of production. There was no way to make massive amounts of paper in a village like this, especially given the situation, but if bamboo pulp paper made with screens was a viable option, then there was really no reason to not emulate that process. Even if the result was of lower quality than she might have liked, it was still better than nothing.

Ink, on the other hand... That was probably doable with charcoal or soot, but using quality control in situations like this never hurt.

@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

Fate/Eternum (Take 3)

Uehara Shou

Restaurant Entrance

"A-ah... Yeah, probably."

Shou's words wre somewhat unfocused as he continued to center his attention upon the group of Servants entering the kitchen with the long-haired thug before shaking himself off. His classmate was right, regardless of his own curiosities; there were injured here, and given what he had caught from the exchange between the Lancer and her Master, whoever had caused the explosion hadn't been reserved about getting more civilians involved than a bomb already would have. It left a bad taste in his mouth, but as she had said, the only thing he really could do was try to help stabilize the injured before proper staff arrived.

Shaking his head, the onmyoji carefully made his way over towards the ruined counter and opted move people away from the kitchen; it wasn't unthinkable that the source of this carnage would use them again, given the Lancer's earlier quip, which meant that keeping them from further harm was the only proper course of action to take. With a deep breath, Shou began to drag the unconscious victims closer to the entrance of the building, taking care to not injure them further along the broken glass and debris scattered about.

One of the injured—a woman whose body was covered in dust and blood from the explosion, it seemed—clutched at her arm in silent pain as she slowly pushed herself off of the ground. Despite her apparent injuries, though, it seemed that she was forcing herself to move about. Though she seemed to take a moment to steel herself mentally, her choice to try and help the Masters who were attempting to help the injured seemed a bit less productive—doubly so, given the blood streaming down her injured arm and from the gash above her left eye.

@VitaVitaAR@KoL@Rune_Alchemist@Pyromania99

Kitchen

The explosion had originated from within the kitchen, which made the fallout all the more apparent. A few sinks had burst, leaving water to spray out across the now-dirtied floor, and the stainless steel equipment that had lined the area was left blackened and warped from the damage. But what stood out the most in the middle of all of this carnage would be the blonde-haired teenager sitting casually on top of one of the assembly tables. His cheeky grin was by no means fitting for the scene, and his clothing—a brown jacket over a black t-shirt—would most certainly out him as someone who wasn't meant to be back here in the first place.

"Ah, guess that one was a bust too," he complained, spinning a key ring around for a moment before catching it and glancing back towards the massive hole in the wall. "You and your Servant are seriously way too..."

The teenager's words slowed down as he watched a small girl fly into the room, only to be followed by his target and, eventually, an old man. There was no doubt that at least one of them was a Servant, but...

Really, he couldn't help but hold back a laugh.

The thug glared at the person on the countertop, his fists clenched as he attempted to take a step towards him, only for the person of his ire to hold out a hand for him to stop.

"Take one more step, and that explosion's not going to be the last one you see today," he said, smirking as he hopped off of his seat. "Same goes for your new friends over there. But... Come on, now. The rules made explicitly clear to fight your own battles. What's up with the cavalry here? Cheater."

"Stuff it with that shit! With all the bombs you've set off, someone was bound to come after you sooner or later!" the thug shot back.

"Ah. Hm. You know, I guess that's fair. But what's the point of signing up for something like this if you're not going to have a little fun, right?"

@Raineh Daze@KoL

Outside the Restaurant

The Lancer had given Li little more than a slight nod of acknowledgement as she ran outside, the blonde Saber following after her as she swung around the restaurant's entrance and into a nearby alleyway. As both she and her apparent companion for this hunt would soon discover, though, the 'clown' seemed to have expected resistance. Just as she took a step past the restaurant's entrance, she would find something jumping off the wall towards her face. Out of hand, she swatted it to the side, but the moment that it made contact with her shield, whatever it was blew up. The recoil was enough to catch her off guard and cause her to blow her back into the wall, which in turn ended up revealing a few more as they came crawling out of the woodwork.

All the while, of course, the shadow of something purple sadistically staring at them from a distance with a smile on its face seemed to run further in.

"Shit...!" the Lancer swore under he breath, shaking herself off before rolling forward to dodge the bugs attempting to jump on top of her. "When I get my hands on you, I'm going to tear that stupid grin off your face with my bare hands——!"

@VitaVitaAR

Alter Ego — Meltryllis

Shrugging her shoulders at her Master's lack of response towards her remark, Meltryllis chose to make herself a bit more comfortable on the couch...

Or, rather, she would have done so, had that all-too-familiar jingle not started fading into the room from the television's speakers. As soon as she heard the words 'BB Channel!' chime in, the Alter Ego closed her eyes and sighed. It was about time for that stupid AI to come and make a mess of things; in fact, it was probably more of a relief that she hadn't up until now, given her Master's injuries.

Whether or not it actually was because of that or because of a lack of work to handle, though, was up for debate—one she was most certainly not interested in getting involved in.

"From the digital ocean straight to your little home, BB-chan is here to give you a news flash~!" a sickly-sweet voice chimed in as the TV seemed to turn itself on. "Senpai, I hope your arm's fully healed by now~! Seeing you be stuck in bed all day is sort of depressing, even for me, you know? Though I'm sure you kept yourself occupied on your phone, your devilish little kouhai has got a new request for you~!"

Of course, given their 'deal' this was less of a request than it was an order, but arguing that point with BB was an exercise in futility by now.

@VitaVitaAR