FujiwaraPhoenix

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

With a somewhat bitter smile, Misaki nodded her head in agreement with Narkissa's comments. Redefining a standardized system would take a great deal of work, but as far as the current situation went, it was less of a priority than the goal that they had in mind. Similarly, the fact that she knew the methodology but not the specifics with which to recreate a basic paper meant that there was a great deal of experimentation in order. With the load split and everyone moving to work on their own tasks for the day, the foxgirl was simply left to figure things out on her own.

A rather troublesome task, yes, but not one wholly impossible to do with what knowledge she had.

Bidding farewell to Narkissa for the moment, Misaki departed the town in pursuit of the bamboo-like plant she had mentioned earlier. The walk there was not without worry, of course—weaponless as she was, an ambush of any sort would likely not pan out well in the least—but by some miracle or another, no such worries seemed to befall her. Gathering the shoots would prove nice to test in terms of culinary value, but they afforded little value compared to the full-grown plant. The young woman found some manner of peace in her ability to at least snap the stalks and bring the longer plants down without a tool; trees, they were not.

Of course, that was where the foxgirl spent most of her time gathering; processing them here would be both inefficient and possibly add additional impurities, neither of which she wished for. But the slightest sound of something approaching caused her to stop in her tracks and look around in worry—

Only for the same deer she had befriended the day before to bound through the woods towards her. Momentarily taken aback as she was at its appearance, though, Misaki soon found herself understanding why it had come.

"...Oh no."

Panic gripped Misaki's heart as she immediately knelt down and grabbed one of the stalks of bamboo at her feet and lifted it up like a spear. She had no formal training, of course, but even a makeshift weapon like this would work better than nothing.

It was that thought that led her to posture aggressively towards the oncoming pair of predators, weapon in hand as she attempted to make them back off. If they approached, it would only make sense to try and swing back; if they got close, then the pole could work just as well to block... Right?

@Rune_Alchemist

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

"Specifications..."

To that, Misaki found herself glancing downwards, one hand upon her chin as she considered the possibilities in front of them. Obviously, scale would mean that something akin to a large wall scroll would have been ideal; resizing the paper would take extra effort regardless of which size they chose to make, but that size seemed acceptable enough to not have to worry about the logistics of the drying process at length. After all, it was far easier to cut something large down to size than vice versa.

"...Half a square meter... Maybe? That'd give us a proof of concept to present, at least," she concluded, nodding her head as she continued. "Not so big that we'd have to invest too much effort into creating it, and not small enough to write off as worthless. I think that might be worth it as somewhere to start, at least."

Of course, Lazirha's unusual discomfort regarding the situation did not pass by Misaki unnoticed, and the foxgirl silently took note of how anxious she was acting. As much as she would have liked to help her resolve that issue, given what she knew, there was nothing that she could really have done to set her mind at ease.

It was Narkissa's following comment that promptly brought the foxgirl's focus back from Lazirha's wellbeing, well-timed as it was to coincide with their host's hasty departure. Honestly, there was no reason to leave Narkissa out of the loop at this point—not when it was likely that everyone who was resting in this house would get wrapped up in this web of troubles sooner or later.

"With regards to the Kyrinth, though... Apparently, this village used to coexist alongside what I would be inclined to call... Hm... Well, native god may not be quite right, but I suppose that's the closest I can get to explaining the Kyrinth. The arrival of this 'God of Knowledge' split the village's faith, so to speak, and his attempts to unseal something here have only furthered that rift."

It was at this point, though, that the young woman paused, as if trying to figure out how to piece together what Lazirha had said upon her return with the situation she knew thus far.

"...And apparently, that if he was successful, this place would be flooded outright. Of course, we attempted to propose a deal to the Kyrinth to re-establish that bond by placing it in a more secular position in this town—namely, a teacher of sorts—but the details of the negotiations as they are to proceed today are yet to be seen. I suppose we'll find out how they went later, though."

With that, Misaki took a deep breath before glancing out the door, lost in her thoughts for a moment before continuing.

"Hopefully things should proceed without too much issue. In the meantime, though... I suppose we should get to work. I'm not particularly looking forward to pounding plants to a pulp, though; would that I could automate this with a waterwheel or something similar."

@Click This@Rune_Alchemist

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Misaki found herself slightly surprised at Narkissa's response, having half-resigned herself to work on her newfound project on her own. It was somewhat comforting to have her request humored, at least, despite her initial wariness regarding the situation as a whole.

"Thank you very much. In that case, I should introduce myself as well. Takeshima... Misaki. I'll be in your care," she responded, bowing again before taking a step back. What Lazirha had said did not escape her notice, of course, but given Narkissa's response, the only person who could possibly take up the role of bodyguard among their group would probably have been the warlord off to the side.

"...Right," she began, glancing towards the black-haired girl and nodding slightly before turning back towards her papermaking companion-to-be. "With regards to the process I had in mind... As far as I recall, there are two things to handle right now: the pulp and the frame. Both are issues, of course; though I found that there was a plant not too far off from bamboo that exists within this area, gathering and processing it to the consistency that we'd need to make even low-quality paper would be difficult, and with regards to the frame... Well, that still has yet to be figured out. I was hoping that we could split the workload somehow and try to get a basic prototype functioning, but..."

The foxgirl trailed off, scratching the back of her head nervously as her ears drooped slightly.

"...That's about where it ends."

Of course, she would give a synopsis about the events surrounding the Kyrinth if prompted—the terms they had proposed, the meeting, and so on and so forth—but given that everything was still being planned and how long they had until Mie left the town, the deadline hanging over her head to get something underway left Misaki somewhat anxious about whether or not they could finish in time or not.

@Click This@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

With a nod and a bow, Misaki watched as Haruno left, leaving both her and Nobunaga behind on the beach. To think that a race of people in the same make as classic oni, not too unlike those seen in old folktales, would be in such a state in this world...

It was intriguing to the foxgirl, of course; there were a lot of questions to ask and a lot more to dig into, but if she wanted to pursue this in its entirety, then actually getting to Chagawa was her top priority.

That, of course, led her back to the schematics she had briefly drawn out in the sand. The oni hadn't exactly reacted to them—whether that was a good thing or not was up for debate—which meant that she only needed to execute what it was that she had in mind. Of course, it seemed like getting her to help was out of the question by now...

Which, in other words, left few others she could attempt to ask for help. Most of the other residents of the town were unlikely to see the benefits inherent in making paper—not as they were now, at least; the caravan was even less of an option, really, given how much they would stand to gain after the fact.

In short, she could only ask Lazirha and the others living with her at the moment for help, and with them being out of the town at the moment, the most she could really do was detail her plans for the near future before wiping them all away as the sun began to set.

Being engrossed in her work as she was, the foxgirl found herself only now growing hungry, which in turn only led her to head back to her benefactor's home to see if the other group had returned.

And when they hadn't? That was cause for concern, but given that she had no knowledge of the lay of the land nor any actual combat capabilities, the only thing she could do was wait.

When the group (or, rather, pair) had finally returned , Misaki found herself listening to a rather hard-to-follow synopsis of the day's events. To be frank, the situation was one that she could only barely grasp the basics of. What was clear, though, was that some mess involving the god they were attempting to usurp on their end had taken place, which meant that they were at least on the same page.

Well, that and the fact that Lazirha was important regardless of that fact, which, given Enli's words, was not too much of a surprise anyhow.

Of course, Misaki did not fail to give them the far-less-eventful synopsis of the events on their end, either; it only seemed right, after all. The matter about the paper could be discussed tomorrow, when the other two were less worked up about the day's happenings.

---

After waking up after a night's rest, Misaki found that Narkissa was already up and about, with Lazirha nowhere to be seen. Though the latter's absence was a bit troubling, given how the same thing had occurred the day before, the foxgirl decided that it would probably be best to not worry about her for the moment. Instead, though...

"Ah... Excuse me," she began, calling out towards the white-haired girl before pausing and taking a deep breath. "...I'd like to apologize for being so curt with you the past few days. It's been... A bit difficult to adjust, admittedly, and being asked if I was from Earth so abruptly in front of so many people was a bit troublesome for me. There was another yesterday, when we went to see the Kyrinth, who was a lot more brazen about his origins and attempted to spread ours, and given how I have no idea about how that would affect how the people here would perceive us..."

The foxgirl found herself nervously scratching the back of her head as she rambled before getting up and giving a proper bow of apology instead.

"...I hope you might be able to forgive me. I am not particularly skilled at dodging questions, and so if I have insulted you in doing so, I apologize."

There was a pause as Misaki let the moment hang in the air before taking a step back; regardless of if a response came, though, after waiting a few moments, the foxgirl would move on to continue speaking once more.

"Shameless as this may sound, and despite the situation, I would like to ask if you could assist me in something today. I wish to create screens and frames for papermaking, but I'm not certain if I can do so alone. Of course, given what happened, I would understand if you were to decline in favor of searching for the one who went missing, but..."

A few minutes after she had made her request, Lazirha's return caused Misaki to focus her attention towards her words instead. There was undoubtedly a problem at hand now, though; that much was certain. But coupled with Enli's meeting with the Kyrinth today, this only seemed to bode ill for everyone involved.

"...I can... Sort of understand what you're saying, but I don't think we have enough information to try and find it without putting everyone at risk. You mentioned that there were people who were trying to kill you, right? I don't think that you can afford to throw yourselves into danger again—not until we know a bit more, at least," she finally said, glancing at Narkissa and Lazirha before shaking her head. "But if we have the Kyrinth's cooperation, it might be possible to ask him after Enli's meeting... Which would mean that would have to proceed without incident. I don't think I can be of much use, though; I'm not much of a fighter to begin with, so if anything was to happen, I'd likely end up a burden."

Making paper seemed like a far less productive way to spend her time, given the situation, but at this point the only thing she could think of doing that might have a chance of helping with regard to the more violent problems was experimenting with the plants she had gathered the day before, and even that line of experimentation wasn't guaranteed to bear fruit at the moment.

@VitaVitaAR@Click This@Rune_Alchemist

Fate/Eternum (Take 3)

Okay, late (and because you've reminded me of my grave error but recently):
@1Charak2: Quetz okay.

Edit: For the nightclub group, Vita's next post should set up the next sequence.

Fate/Eternum (Take 3)

Uehara Shou

Upon seeing the reactions of the other Masters in front of him, Takuya nodded his head and promptly pulled out his own phone. It would be no surprise to see the screen that he showed them afterwards—given how the application he had pulled up was indeed identical to the one that was on the now-subdued Master's phone, it seemed that he was telling the truth.

The only difference, of course, was the presence of pictures instead of names. A few, of course, would be quite familiar to those present, but to Takuya, none of them seemed to actually mean much of anything.

"Hey, piss off with that sorta talk; what sort of person expects to have to deal with a terrorist in this sort of place?" he shot back at the Chinese girl before sighing and turning towards the old man. "Look, all I know is that someone offered me a job to make some quick cash testing this thing. My phone freaked out for a while whenever that guy was around, though, so I'm guessing that might help in recognizing whoever the hell these people are."

With a frown, Shou glanced back at the phone in his hands before turning to reveal it to Takuya. The disjoint in information that he had and that he saw in front of him was... Mildly irritating, but given how whoever was making him 'test' this was playing games with him anyways, that much was to be expected.

"Hmph. Well, ain't that funny?" he complained, shaking his head before snatching the device out of Shou's hand and staring at the two. After a few moments, though, the phones vibrated in his hands, leaving both with the exact same information. The formatting made it clear that the faces and names did not match up, but having everything on both was a convenience he assumed neither party would want to complain about. Shrugging, he tossed the other device back towards Shou, leaving the young man to catch it again before both he and his Lancer turned to leave.

"If you want to ask more, we can do it on the way out of here; I don't feel like being grilled by both you and the CCF for the next 24 hours, and being stuck here without eating anything sounds like a shitty way to spend the day," he concluded, nodding to his Servant before walking out the ruined door.

@VitaVitaAR@KoL@Raineh Daze

Alter Ego — Meltryllis

The sudden appearance of guards of some variety was not all that surprising, given her obviously less-than-subtle entrance, but Meltryllis still found herself mildly annoyed that the first thing that they would have to contend with after entering was yet another threat to her Master's safety. She, of course, had little to worry about from such things—she could simply let the projectiles pass through her, after all—but her Master was still only human. Letting her get hit again would only complicate the situation in the long run.

And so, with little fanfare, the Alter Ego promptly shoved her Master to the side behind a counter before splitting off to draw their opponents' gunfire away. Her speed outmatched the pace at which those present could turn their guns onto her—not as if they would actually be able to damage her, of course—and without much effort, Meltryllis promptly kicked off of the wall and launched herself at one of the gunmen.

A hole through the abdomen courtesy of one of her legs was a bit gruesome, admittedly, but it seemed to have some effect in deterring those still firing.

Before she could proceed for a followup attack, though, the sound of someone else making orders caused her to spin around to look at the source, only for one of the gunmen situated closer to the entrance to be lobbed into the crowd like a ragdoll. Another Master and their Servant—and one that (tentatively) seemed to be helping them.

And another Servant seemed to follow suit, her white dress contrasting the brutality with which another pair of gunmen were summarily dispatched.

"Hm. Well, I suppose I won't complain about the extra help," she remarked, leaning her head to the side for a moment as a lance pierced through the air where it had been moments prior. With an eyebrow raised in mild confusion, the Alter Ego spun around, throwing the person who had attempted to stab her into a nearby table with the sheer momentum of her prosthetic legs.

"I could've sworn I felt something just now..." she mused to herself before shrugging her shoulders and continuing to clean up the rest of those present. Her Master could handle the thanks for the help after the fact; she was that sort of person, after all.

@Rune_Alchemist@Pyromania99@Rezod92

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