<@Grysar> [Date: Tuesday May 25, 2004. It's been a hot and muggy day, so just as well you aren't going outside to adventure.] <@Grysar> [After some mulling of the alternatives, Taki decided to have the Empress over, despite not having fine china to serve her on. <@Grysar> [She has knocked on the door almost precisely at the stroke of the hour and when you open the door, you see she's wearing a darker colored though light long-sleeve shirt as well as a dress. As you might expect she's also a bit sweaty, though she's had a moment to try to pull herself together before knocking.] [Start!] * Taki has the AC turned on in the apartment because while it does get humid in the monsoon season, this Tokyo girl is more used to the cold. The style of the day is baggy and light with a long sleaved cotton shirt that's white with a couple of blue chevorns and an oversized collar over a pair of kahki pants that have been cut down to fit her short legs. "Good afternoon, please come in Ijima-san, before all the cold escapes." * @Yuki quickly does so. "This is wonderful." * Taki closes the door behind her. "It is, it wasn't even one of the things we were concidering when we picked this place, but now I'm thankful that we did. I'm a bit worried about how summer is going to go." * @Yuki removes her shoes and gives a quick bow and a automatic apology for the inconvenience of her visit. She ponders something for moment then asks, "Do you mind if I change? The cool is nice, but..." She gestures at her somewhat damp overshirt. * Taki gestures to the sliding door on her left. "Please, the bathroom is right through here. I'll set out some snacks while you change." * @Yuki heads to the bathroom and close the door behind her. "So, you've made your decision?" She calls out through the door. * Taki starts to walk to the kitchen but stops when she's called out to. "Kashiwagi-san says they've kidnapped at least six people. That's one of the things I said I couldn't forgive myself for ignoring. Of course I've only got his word for it right now." * @Yuki runs the water for a moment. "I understand." She's then silent for a bit as she finishes changing. * Taki goes to the kitchen and sets out a pitcher of ice water and a bowl of fruit, mostly oranges with a couple of apples and few early plums. * @Yuki emerges wearing a Hanshin Lions sleep shirt that's long enoug to go down to a bit over her knees. Her overshirt and her dress are tucked away in a freebie department store tote bag that's definitely seen its better days. "Thank you for the hospitality." She then thinks for a moment. "So..." I've made a list of the things he's told me, but I don't know if it's enough for you. And because I'm asking for your help, I'm agreeing to protect you as best I can until it's over. Thank you, and sorry in advance. * @Yuki walks over to Taki as she speaks and fixes her gaze intently as she listens. "Your promise will suffice. But it would be best if I know all you can share, if we are to do this together." <@Yuki> [Yuki listens intently, asking a few questions both about the briefing and Taki's bad old days experience during the Osaka raid. She does help herself to a plum and one orange as they go over it.] <@Yuki> So, it is time for me to share in turn. I understand little of the rules and risks of my traveling in dreams, but I can share what I know. Please. <@Yuki> First, to die is to wake. For us or for the dreamer we visit. As from a nightmare. * Taki nods. * @Yuki sighs. "Stress, regret, shame, these may linger. Not just for you and the dreamer, but for those with strong ties that appear as phantasms." ... Should we just try to ignore them? We're going to need a lot more than one afternoon for going through every regret in my life. * @Yuki frowns. "The choice is yours, but as you may recall, their help is real. As our the risks, we will carry our memories, but so may the dreamer." Her tone hardens. "I believe this is how the boy with the scythe knew to look for me. The phanstasms would fade from his mind, but you and I would not, if he recognized us for what we were." Ahh, that's complicated. <@Yuki> Yes. <@Yuki> I have learned a trick or two. I can disguise us as our predecessors, if you think that would help. ... Uhm... I think he'd be more likely to notice we don't belong, but less likely to know who we are... And I'm bad at stealth to begin with, so why not? Just have to avoid doing anything to wake him up. * @Yuki nods. "That is what I know." She rubs one arm with her other hand, stretching her tattooed skin and revealing another faded card, the armored man on a throne. "We should not tarry." * Taki looks at to see if he's holding anything that'd idenity which King that is. <@Yuki> [The king has a coin and a scepter. Yuki glances down at her arm and then casts her eyes down, self-consciously.] Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to stare, I was just trying to remember out whose card that was. * @Yuki nods and says quietly. "I'm afraid I don't know." I don't either... * Taki stands up and basically shoves the food into the fridge. "So, naptime... I'm going to give you my futon and take the floor, because it'd be too awkward anywhere else and we still can't afford to get a couch yet." * @Yuki stands up. "Are you going to be able to sleep on the floor? I'm used to awkward if it comes to that." * Taki smiles ruefully. "We've got a pile of heavy blankets that arn't going to see much use for the next several months." I knew it was going to be warmer down here, but there's a big differene between looking at a number that says "average high" and actually feeling it. <@Yuki> [Yuki agrees adamenently and they both bed down. Taki keeps her mind blank and swiftly shifts into dream and rises again in a similar but much more occupied version of her apartment.] <@Yuki> [Nicola catches your eyes first of course. She’s wearing a long white jacket with three glistening golden pentagonal buttons. Her shirt has centimeter wide alternate black and white stripes atop red pants with another four pentagonal buttons down each side which are tucked into her black boots. Her platinum hair is tied into two braids, each threaded with a red ribbon. She has a hard-sided roller bag with diagonal stripes that are slightly slimming in that it takes a moment for Taki to grasp just how large it is.] <@Yuki> [Next to her stands Mikage, wearing a floor length rustic dress colored muted orange and brown along with a white peasant smock. Her dirty blond hair is bound up in a green scarf with a leaf pattern, pinned with favored peacock feather brooch, all of which nicely matches her green eyes. She also has a set of dangling circular earrings, one gold, one ebony. She has a pair of gilded bracers with a matching pattern, each with a half-dozen links of chain hanging from them. She glances up from looking at her nails, unpainted but with a precise triangular trim, and announces that "the Knight of Cups has arrived at the foretold time." Her proud and toothy smile is one that had been largely eclipsed for the last few weeks.] <@Yuki> [Akari Toshibara again wears a red and blue racer's outfit with the zipper up to the middle of her chest. She paces back and forth across your dining room with a frustrated expression. While her bangs remain, her long braid trails after her and when it sways to far it is batted back and by the lower two of her six tentacles that emerge from her back. She pauses her pacing and looks to you expectantly as you arrive.] <@Yuki> [The only man among the group arrives at the same time you do and wears bold red sentai garb with golden-yellow trim over his lithe frame. He wears a matching ruby and gold domino mask that hides his face. Despite the bravado of his suit there are beads of sweat on his forehead and he takes a step or two towards the balcony every time Akari paces nearby, which does not improve her mood.] <@Yuki> [Shizaru is in a tuxedo, perhaps the most formal garb you’ve ever seen her and looking elegant, if oddly bulky. The whole ensemble is perfectly fitted, but on closer examination carefully disguises some sort of thin armored plates under the jacket. She has an empty scabbard by her side but no sword in view. Likewise she has a beaded necklace with an empty holder where its centerpiece should fit.] <@Yuki> [She holds a bag that is tied shut and adorned with an elaborate repeating chrysanthemum pattern. The object it holds appears to be thin, circular, and the way Shizaru nestles it in her arms, perhaps the most precious object in the world. The enthusiasm is still there in her blue eyes, but she looks somehow older than when you last saw her and is more deliberate in her movements. She glances down at an elegant timepiece. "To the minute Mikage. I’d underestimated your powers of observation." Mikage makes a tching sound and corrects, "Prophecy. Powers of prophecy."] <@Yuki> [There's one woman you don't recognize, she's older than the rest of your guests in her forties and wearing elegant aristocratic robes.] * Taki tears her eyes away from Nicola, she's somehow even prettier when seen on an even level, but admiring her girlfriend isn't what Taki came here for. "Not the sort to keep people waiting if I can help it." <@Nicola> Your punctuality is appreciated. * @Yuki speaks, which is to say the middle-aged woman pipes up. Her tone is maternal. "Sadly, it would probably be best if you chose one companion. Or perhaps two, but they may act in ways you do not intend." * Akari rolls her eyes at that. "She already sent away all the other real Arcana while you were showing up. You should pick me, not some cosplayers." [The rest seem to be taking Arcana talk in stride. Though there's some grousing at Akari's suggestion.] * @PastEmpress eyes Akari but doesn't contradict her statement. * Taki turns to Yuki, "Do you count because I think experience would be best guide here, and" she turns to Akari "... I should really go see if I can bring you along when it's time to go visiting outside of dreams." * @PastEmpress smiles. "I'm afraid I'm mandatory. The choice refers to the rest." * Akari contemplates this. "Okay, but you have to treat me as a real pro, not like some little sister to boss around." I wouldn't know how to treat a sister to begin with, so I think you're safe there, just please don't pick a fight you can't win. * Akari snorts. "Watch Matthias sometime. Everyone in the world is his younger sibling." She wanders over to the fridge, one tentacle opening it, another procuring snacks as she takes a seat. "Fine, do what you want. Just make sure Mom finds out you want to do some bonding things, she'll help pay for it." [Shizaru looks with puzzlelment and a little bit of worry at Mikage after listening to this exchange. Mikage shrugs. The Masked Man just seems happy that tentacle girl is distracting herself.] * Taki nods and then turns to the sentai. "Thank you for coming, though I do not know your face or your name. Your bravery is appreciated and heartening, even though I will not choose you today." She turns to Mikage "So, in this prophecy, in this dream, do I chose love over friendship?" * Sentai man seems to understand and gives a deep dramatic bow before slipping out the door when Taki turns her attention elsewhere. * Mikage puffs herself up as she contemplates that. "It is not my place to prevent your precious moments together, whatever the realm. But the choice need not be either or." * Shizaru appears to contemplate a response to that question and after a few moments adds, "Just take care, as your heart is prone to take the reins from your head." * Taki smiles. "Right, heart and mind. Mikage, thank you. You are also my friend but I cannot survive without love, and and I trust Shizaru's level head to keep us all safe. Nicola, Shizaru if you are willing, I would have you travel with me. If you have doubts or are afraid, you I will abide by your decisions, but Mikage may lord it over me for a bit." * @Nicola spins her roller bag, expertly turning it in the small space. "You will not regret your decision." * @Akari glances around confused the remaining distaff occupants of the room. "Wait, love? What's this love?" * Taki forces a grin because she cannot prove Nicola wrong seconds after a declartion like that. "I'll introduce you next time I'm in Tokyo." * Mikage's skirt for a moment began swishing reflecting excitement also in her eyes that quickly began to fade as Taki continues. "I did forsee your choice as well." * @PastEmpress listens to all this without comment but while listening intently. Once the choice is made she quickly gathers the three of you up and leads you out through the door. Here's my prophecy for you, some day there will be a knock on that door that I cannot run away from, and I'll have to face the things I've tried to keep hidden from you. But for now, good night and thank you. Feel free to talk with my sister while we're out, you'll both find it enlightening and have teasing foder when I return. * Mikage takes all that in. Her face twists in an expression you can't read and she takes a quick few steps towards you. "Taki." Too quick in fact, the twinned tips of her orange and white tails slip out from beneath her skirt as she moves. The past empress stops, but she had already stepped past the threshold and the world twists. <@PastEmpress> [Instead of the hallway, you emerge to a dilapidated streetscape, poorly lit and rundown. There are a fair numbers of windows and even doors smashed or boarded up. The only creatures about don’t merit the term streetlife. Indistinct young men and women shamble around, testing some entrances and rooting through empty stores. Their faces are vague and outfits show little sign of personality, you can barely tell one from another. They do not look friendly, but they don’t seem at all interested in you.] * Taki looks around the street and softly asks. "Which way?" * @Nicola seems to have no trouble towing the bag with her. * Past Empress thinks for a moment. "The greatest detail surrounds the dreamer." * Taki checks to see if any direction seems better or worse defined than the others. * Shizaru takes a few careful breaths. "We should talk about that. Before I forget." She then takes in the scene. Please, that's why I asked you along. <@PastEmpress> [The most defined building, and the most effectively barricaded building is down the street one block and catercornered. It seems isolated and well set up to observe approaches from multiple angles. That said, if you can get up to a roof of an adjacent building, make sure there's no one up top, and port over, then they wouldn't see you coming. If you want to do it without teleporting, the building to your right has some long planks that you could use to cross over, window- to-window.] <@PastEmpress> [Also, there may be additional options, if you knew what other people could do.] * @Nicola pulls a rope with a grappling hook attached to the end out of the roller bag. * Taki grins. "You are the best girlfriend ever... How about we cross on a middle floor? They migh have watchers on the roof and the street, but who would expect anything in the middle?" <@Nicola> I like this plan. But, before that. Shizaru? * Shizaru has been scanning the street intently and is slightly startled to hear her name."Yes?" You had something you wanted to talk about? * Shizaru nods. "The tails, before you wake." She frowns. "But for now we are too exposed. We should move." * Taki nods. "Nicola, do you know how to use that, or do I need to take it up?" * @Nicola swings the rope over her head a few times and then hooks it into one of the middle floor windows of the building adjacent to the target. <@PastEmpress> [And with Nicola's work done, you can easily get to the corresponding middle floor and then the opposite window without too much difficulty. Shizaru keeps watch and shortly after you prepare to take your step out she gives a word of caution. "Some of those walkers move with more purpose. There's something almost liquid moving in the shadows. On the far right side there is a blind drawn and a light that does not flicker in a spot that could observe the building without being observed. Our target would appear to have enemies more threatening than these walkers."] Us as well, we'll have to keep an eye out for the competition, thank you. * Taki looks across at the other building and says with less confidence than she's show so far tonight. "You know, being this close really drives home how much planning really goes into these things. I don't really know where to start looking, just, you know, not over there." She gestures at at the glowing window in the other building. * Shizaru keeps a tight hold on the thin circular object she carries within the chrysanthemum patterned bag. She loosens the tie but does not open it yet. She stands to one edge of the building and scans the window. "A few of the rooms seem more fortified." She points to one on your level, though a bit to the left. "The windows are thoroughly boarded, not just broken out." She then points up closer to the top and to the right. "The protection isn't quite as thorough on that upper level store, but it's a smaller window and perhaps more defensible as there's a seperate entrance and thinner subdivision." * Yuki in her older guise seems content to keep Taki between herself and the window. * @Nicola grips the handle of her roller bag, but is waiting on Taki's lead. * Taki looks between the two buildings. "Well, then let's see what they're hiding closest and if that's nothing or goes well we can sneak back out and try the higher one, and things go bad, running upstairs is probably not where they expect us to go. Time to build a bridge." * @Nicola unslings the grappling hook. "Ready." * @Nicola swings it across so that it hooks into the windowsill of the appropriate window. * Shizaru ties off one end to a standing pipe. Yuki blinks. "I might need more than that. Neither I nor the past empress were really acrobats." Well, I'm a little bit of one, and taller and stronger now. * Yuki looks over Taki. "Yes. Uh..." She blushes slightly, "So do you propose to carry me?" I'd like to try. I mean, I could just cheat us across, but the whole point is to do things that arn't obviously us, right? * Yuki walks over to Taki and as she approaches she blocks more of your vision than you might expect. She wraps her arms around your neck. * Shizaru easily walks the straight and narrow line between the buildings. She stands at the window ledge peering in for a moment before deliberating removing a single board obstructing her way and then ducking in. * @Nicola dances gracefully across. Somehow with a roller bag. Dreams! * Taki wraps one arm behind Yuki's back and holds her tightly as they start to cross the rope. Things go smoothly for the first two thirds or so, but then there's a noise from below, and somebody shifts her weight and then it all goes sideways. Taki takes a few panicked running steps - practically leaps- down the rope and throws Yuki through the open window as she falls... and ends up hanging * Taki upside down by her knees. "Well... damn." * Taki pulls herself up onto the rope and then inisde, where she spends a moment getting reorented. "Note to self, next time we do this piggyback." * Yuki yelps but lands with some grace setting down a hand and then rolling with it, though a chunk of her kimono caught on a nail and ripped, leaving her still half clad in kimono and half in hadajuban. Still decent, but a bit flustered. "Right." <@Grysar> [The wall to an adjacent hallway has been broken down, and you can see nough to grasp that the interior of the building has barricades and unintended passageways. Its once straightforward corridors now have blockades and labyrinthian. Neither would be as large of a problem were it not for a hodgepodge of homemade booby traps awaiting those who veer off the unmarked safe path. Shizaru is presently inspecting one, two tubes of differently colored liquids attached to a tripwire.] * @Nicola walks over to Taki. "You are all right?" * Taki climbs back to her feet. "I will be in a moment, for a second there I was worred I'd wind up leaving you in here without me." Also, I think I owe you a hug, would that be weird when I look like this? * @Nicola smiles. "Not at all." * Taki hugs her, and discovers that she's still not quite on eye level. She pouts for a split second and then impishly kisses her on the cheek and lets go. "Do you have anything to help Yuki in your bag? I feel bad about ripping her clothes." * @Nicola gives Taki a pleased grin and then looks in the bag. A moment later, she produces a deep blue robe and hands it to Yuki. Thanks. * Taki finally gets around to making her way over to Shizaru and asking. "What have you found?" * Shizaru coughs as Taki is on her way. "Small explosive devise. Entirely chemical and mechnical." Her frown deepens. "It seems detailed enough that I don't think it's just produced from your target's subconscious." Eeep. Wait, they're expecting people to break into their dreams, and get this far without them notcing? * Yuki takes the robe and heads to a corner. She strips off her kimono and covers her hadajuban with the robe instead. "I never thought adventure would be so fashionable. Does anyone have a mirror?" Shizaru glances over, "Yes, but not dress up." * @Nicola examines the device. "Or this is a reflection of something that actually exists." * Shizaru gives a curt nod in Nicola's direction. "When one dreams of school or home, the layout may not be exactly the same, but there are familiar objects." Oooh. Right. It'd make sense that he'd be good at chemistry stuff. We'll have to watch out for these traps in the real world. Meanwhile, let's be extra careful. * Taki looks for a way to get from here to the boarded up rooms that are somewhere to the left. <@Grysar> [Taki's sense of direction is up to the task. She finds a roundabout way, rarely taking the more direct route but nonetheless slowly spirally to the barricaded room she had seen earlier. In doing so she bypasses one room with floorboards that looked at risk of collapse, another with a heavy door ready to snap shut, and a third of what Shizaru called an "incendiary device." She finds herself at the cusp of the earlier room. There's a shut door with a peep hole and the intermittent sounds suggesting several people behind it.] <@Grysar> [The door is labeled. "Ballet Academy."] * @Nicola looks at the sign. "Dancing?" she mouths to Taki. * Shizaru holds her chrysanthemum bag with one hand and scratches at a cheek with another. Her eyes are flitting around the room and the gears in her head silently spinning. Yuki has fallen silent again, haing grown more melancholy the deeper into the building you penetrate. * Taki shrugs and then backs everyone away so they can plan with a smaller chance of getting found out "Well, we found them. Clever ideas on ways to see them wihout being seen? I mean, just kicking the door down's sort of a victory, but I'm greedy and want a better one." * @Nicola ponders. "I do not think I have something small enough to fit through." * Yuki looks at Taki, slightly relieved. "Maybe spy from above?" Shizaru hmms. "There are other hunters here. Let a few through and see what happens." * Taki shakes her head at Shizaru. "The enemy of my enemy isn't my friend. Took waay too long to work the unfairness of that one out. I like the going up a floor plan. Let's do that." <@Grysar> [You carefully work your way back and find a stair. You're almost onto the next level when the sporatic and flickering lights in the dusky building interior suddenly go out.] <@Grysar> [You're in a fairly tight stairway that went both up and down. There was an ajar door ahead of you before the lights went out. Marching order Taki, Nicola, Shizaru, Yuki.] * Taki whispers. "Please tell me you have night vision gear?" * @Nicola whispers back. "The good news: I do. The bad news: only one pair." * Shizaru reaches for something and curses softly when she remembers it isn't there. Give them to Shizaru so she can keep finding the traps, but tell me if you see anyone else, okay? <@Grysar> [You hear a strange metalic creaking sound from the ceiling and one of the walls. It's a not entirely strange to you, but not one you've heard in a while. A bit like an especially bothersome radiator on a night when you can't sleep.] * @Nicola hands a pair of goggles to Shizaru. * Shizaru agrees slips to the front and glances around the door. "There's a leak. Floor's wet." She whisper. She then glances back. "And behind us. At least one person." <@Grysar> [There's a smidge of light from the next room. Must be a window open to the dreary outside. Your eyes are starting to adjust but aside from the slight glisten, you don't see what Shizaru can notice.] <@Grysar> [There is not an immediate smell of gasoline or kerosene, for the record.] * @Nicola pulls something from the bag but doesn't move yet. * Taki whispers "You girls go on ahead and try to see down, I'll wait for our friend. Be careful of more traps." * @Nicola sets something on her head. A moment later, a red light clicks on. She's apparently wearing a mining helmet with a red filter. "Understood." She leads Shizaru down the hall. * Shizaru follows, looking intently for traps. The greater openness of the door brings a little more light into the room, which means you can see Yuki pretty clearly as she glances back hesistently standing in the wet hallway for moment, looking back at you. * Taki tries to find a spot to wait and listen from that won't be completly obvious if the person following them has their own night vision. If there isn't anything good, she may just wind up lurking behind the door with the rest of them. <@Grysar> [From below you can see the outline of a figure come into view. You can't make out much from him, his shirt has slightly odd dimensions, like a stretched out pentagon, two short top sides, two longer edges beneath that. There's what appears to be a set of kanji that glisten slightly on it, but it's too dark to read them. He doesn't appear to have noticed your hiding place yet.] * Taki wait for this oddly angular man to get closer, is he wearing anything on his head? <@Grysar> [He is not.] <@Grysar> [He keeps creeping forward until he's almost on top you. You can make out that his odd shirt reads something "lance."] <@Grysar> [The radiator-like rumbling is getting a bit louder. Perhaps related but the leaks are apparently spreading. There's a small crack in one of the walls and water flows down into the stair.] * The figure reaches the top of the stairs and says quietly. "Follow the others. They may be under his influence. We can't afford anyone getting in our way." He then listens to some strange blurbling sound and replies, "No, I didn't see anyone in the stair." * Taki steps onto the railing of the stairs, carefully up over and behind the beshirted man, and and then slides down behind him along the cracked wall, covering herself in water in the process. After she hears his report she follows her friends, trying not to leave too obvious of a trail of water. <@Grysar> [There's another blurble and the man replies, "Night vision?" He then snaps his fingers and the light returns. His figure still remains indistinct but his shirt now clearly reads "Promoted Lance." He continues down the hallway after you firends as water flows before him, expanding with the flow from other cracks in the wall.] <@Grysar> [He's visible enough, but his features are like those of a neglected background character in an anime. Black hair. Glasses. But that's really not a lot to go on.] * Taki thinks hard for a moment and then her posture and expression change. Smiling faintly as she calmly reaches into a pocket she's just remembered she had, she pulls out three thin throwing blades. She cocks her head to one side and almost lazily, maybe even haphazardly, throws them at the wall opposite. They don't land there of course, two of them are streaking for the Lance's throat, and the third for his lung. There's no point in going for his heart with these after all, they're too short and his ribs are in the way. <@Grysar> [As the three knives fly, suddenly water a series of jets up from the ground apparently seeking to form a wall to intercept them. Little good that does when the blades simply teleport past. The Promoted Lance's cry of pain is cut short when the first knife cuts. He begins to collapse when another jet of water envelops him. The second throat knife bounces off a suddenly icey shroud around his neck. The chill seems to have slowed the jets for now as the third lands where you think his lung should be. As he falls he gurgles something, you think you can make out the words "Knight" and "Time" but your attention is foused on his suddenly sparking hand which slams into the pool of water, arcing electricity in every direction before he body spasms and collapses.] <@Grysar> [The leaping sparks are not direct but Taki's soaking clothes are all too conductive nonetheless. She loses hold of anything of that she's holding and smells and feels burning. In a small mercy, the water had not yet spread so far as to endanger her friends.] * Taki coughs up smoke and half intentionally collapses into the water in hopes of extinguishing any parts of her that are as on fire as they feel. But her charge should still be safe. Crap. She has to get to him. Her. * Taki starts to struggle back to her feet. <@Grysar> [As Taki struggles the water suddenly gathers itself up and crashes forward, racing towards the area where the girls await.] * Taki tries to throw more knives at it, but her hand don't work. How frustrating. How vexing. How enraging. She cannot let him. Her come to harm. But, oh, there's a new option now isn't there. Two people can play the ice game. Her grin returns wide and showing teeth. <@Grysar> [The surging flow of the water slows as the air turns freezing and frost comes to fill the water. Much of this seems merely to come from pipes, and changing it anchors the flow but does not harm the other entity. But still Taki can feel her power surging and the effect accumulates, turn the whole of the flow turns to slush a meter away from her companions.] <@Grysar> [The slush burbles in frustration and solidifies into human form. A naked woman tattooed "Bishop" and standing between Taki and her friends. The woman's skin has a bluish tinge and she's shivering violently but this does not stop her from saying "Why are you defending him?"] <@Grysar> [Shizaru is further along the hallway by a larger hole; she’s taken a knee and is awkwardly stretching towards some sort of small mechanical device with two tubes of liquid, partially buried in a barricade in front of her. Beyond that barricade, a bit of light filters through from a window at the end of the hall.] * Taki speaks to the half frozen Bishop. "Because you are unfortunate enough to be in my way. Lament that you were not here sooner. Or later. Or save your regrets for your next dream. It doesn't matter to me." * Shizaru is almost entirely distracted with her present task. She glances back for a moment at the tattooed naked woman and gets that processing look she sometimes gives when you, Mikage, or one time even Kenji introduce new information that throws her for a loop. * Yuki has the bag previously held by Shizaru by her feet. In her hands she holds its contents. Purpose is not clear; the side you see is circular with an elaborate eight pointed star pattern at its center surrounded by concentric circles. It's large enough that she holds it with both arms. She is staying behind the barrier and looking to Taki for guidance. * Taki cocks her head to the side. "Compliments will get you no closer to what you seek. If you have a second friend, I'd suggest regrouping, you still might find it. Unless it's to join your friend the Lancer, in which case I suppose I must oblige you." <@Grysar> [Diagram of the 7th floor: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1RFLaABf7sYiZvzssB7KIfgByDgSjFoDRUZ0- 0rQu8iE/edit?usp=sharing ] <@Grysar> [The word 'Capture' briefly flashed above the Bishop. Her still frigid body shifts, filling in details and her face and its burn marks are suddenly is remarkably familiar, though not to Yoshiko aside from reinforcing her view that the bishop is tied to the priesthood.] * Yuki blushes and averts her eyes now that this woman is seeming both more real and more familiar. * @Nicola has very studiously not been looking in the direction of the naked woman and has been concentrating on her spying efforts. * Taki is watching her, because if she makes a move twords her friends, she's going to have to finish the less frozen woman off. * Bishop is still looking stricken but her tone has shifted. She lets her water fall to the ground and begins carefully walking past Taki. "I will regroup with the others. Would you prefer we attack now or hold off?" * Taki looks to Yuki for guidence, but assuming she's still averting her eyes, answers. "Hold off if you would, we are trying to be quiet about this. Of course if we draw their attention feel free to do as you wish. Take your vengence, ignore us, or gloat, but please don't fail again." * Bishop visibly flinches at that last line and it triggers more of her memory. "Oh no." She rushes past Taki towards her fallen companion and if uninterupted goes around the corner. * Taki lets her go and watches her turn the corner before walking across the puddle to kneel down near where Yuki is huddled. "Are you safe?" * Yuki looks up to Taki. "Yes." She shakes her head, trying to clear it. "Thank you. We heard a bit before you got here. Her allies have already clashed some. The guy down there got a call. 'Matsuhiro’ was able to force the 'Golden General' to retreat, but 'their Dragon King' just burst through a wall and bypassed them." I should have told her to fight then. My mistake. * @Nicola looks up from her work. "He has a collection of vials with different labels, the man down there. And someone else has just arrived. They are very fast. Much faster than a normal person." * Yuki looks to Nicola and whispers. "One of his friends or his enemies?" She then looks to Taki. "The clash hadn't reached here yet, so your choice may give us time to observe." <@Grysar> [There is a anguished cry from beyond the corner, but shortly thereafter the water largely flows out of this cooridor and you don't hear more from behind you.] * @Nicola whispers back. "An ally, I believe." * Shizaru grunts in frustration and removes her scabbard from her side and is using it to try to cautiously reposition the device that's not comfortably in her reach. * Taki nods. "Good. Gathering information is why you came, so the more the better. Althoug it sounds as if the bishop has failed to heed my advice and I will need to return to guarding the stairwell. Is there anything you need of me before I go?" This bomb. I'm not sure I can disarm it without stepping off this place. <@Grysar> [Now that she mentions that, you can see the section of floor that Shizaru is standing on is sightly depressed. It hadn't really stood out, given the large hole next to her.] * @Nicola has been taking another look into the floor below. "They are merely talking for now." * Taki stands and walks away from her master mistress and walks closer to Shizaru, avoiding any already marked booby traps. She whispers, "If another takes your place on the trigger, can you do it?" * Shizaru lets out a slow breath. "Three times out of four." In this dream, in this building, and in this moment: do you feel that lucky? * Shizaru thumps a fist against her chest which makes a quiet thud. "No, but I feel prepared. And you know what they say about ." Then be bold. * Shizaru gives a countdown with her fingers berfore stepping off the platform to disarm the bomb. * Taki steps on. * Shizaru works at it for about half a minute before the device makes an ominous click, but she's able to quickly yank away a key component with her hand. Her fine tuxedo sleeves are now stained with the explosive fluid, but no other damage is done. * Taki whispers. "Deftly done." She nods as she passes Nicola and goes to lurk near the corner in case whatever happened to the Bishop is curious. <@Grysar> [Around the corner there are no signs of struggle. The Promoted Lance body is now laying straight, eyes closed, arms folded. There's little remaining water in the hall aside from a few salty drops on the Lance's shirt.] * @Nicola lets out a quiet gasp and pulls back from the smaller hole in the floor. <@Grysar> [From her vantage, Taki is able to verify that there was no struggle here nor any sign of opponents from the back. She can also discern something in Nicola's cry, the largest danger appears to be that new arrival.] * Taki draws another set of throwing blades as she hurries back. * @Nicola looks up at Taki as she comes back around the corner. "The young man who arrived, the one who is fast... he transformed! He had been wearing normal clothes and then suddenly he is in a suit of black armor!" * Yuki steps back to give Taki room to spy. She whispers, "They seem to be arguing. The man in the hoodie is saying he's not a black card anymore. And that Ibara is doesn't care about him and is trying to implement 'the best defense.'" * Taki puts her knives away and nods and listens. <@Grysar> [The two continue to discuss. Taki can look down into a west or east rooms if she wishes, the hole is placed over the dividing wall and Nicola's mirror on a rod allows for easy spying.] <@Grysar> [There's the sound of someone standing up as a chair moves back. "Kira-kun, I’m not trying to win a war. I just need to bloody their noses." The sound of fist hitting wood. "Make them see I won’t come easy, that it’s not worth suffering their first loss for a nobody like me." A second voice responds dryly. "Big crew for a nobody."] * Taki does hope that these fools will continue to identify themselves, she's already learning so much about them. * Shizaru is watching the other hole. She's reclaimed her disc from Yuki and has also removed an upper piece from the barricade, giving a more clear view of the window at the end of hall. She still seems a bit jittery after the disarming, but is trying to play it cool. <@Grysar> [The western room is rather a mess. The side closer to you has a full set of stacked lockers and a long bench. However, the bench on the further west side has been ripped from one of its sets of moorings and spun at least 100 degrees so that it now has one end on its partner. On the misaligned bench rest various lab supplies, including one vial with a bioluminescent glow.] <@Grysar> [There’s someone in a hoodie standing behind a desk that’s crammed in at the only angle it’d fit. To even manage that, a few lockers were torn out of the far wall. Hood is up, so you don’t have a good look at the person, but probably male based on the voice. He’s talking to someone closer to the entrance of the room. The entrance section juts out a bit from the rest of the room with a door at a 90 degree angle that means that even though its open you don’t see much of the hallway.] <@Grysar> [The man wearing a knight's armor is slightly taller than average, built narrow and sleek, with tousled dark hair and long eyelashes. Dark eyes with a burningly intense gaze. Carries himself with angry confidence, and yet seems somehow young.] <@Grysar> [Hoodie guy retorts, "They all chose --" The armored knight scoffs at that. Hoodie turns away you get a quick look at his scraggly beared and the front of the hoodie, reading King. "They all get something. Most get to see their dreams. As for Sonoda, the Uptights left him drooling in a bed. I'm his only chance to have a life." The knight lets out a breath and doesn't immediately answer.] * Taki silently rolls her eyes. <@Grysar> [The King elaborates, "The only terms they offered are unconditional surrender. That means a life as The World's sniveling pawn or Strength's plaything. And if you think it stops with me, you overestimate their forgiveness." He collapses into his chair. "We're blood brothers man and you're my only hope. The least you could do is keep them from taking me alive." The knight stops leaning against the wall. "Fine. Get your ass out from behind that desk and we'll make a stand."] * Shizaru devotes a little more of her attention to staring down the hole. She whispers over, "The mirrors in this studio. They aren't right." * Taki looks into the other room and whispers. "Not right?" <@Grysar> [The eastern room is rectangular room, a bit smaller, and a smidge less dreary than the halls you’ve been wandering through because there’s an unbarricaded window. There’s a couch lying by the widow with an IV pole adjacent and small metal table adjacent with needles, pouches, and bandages on it. Towards the front of the room, there’s a rug and an open door. Between the rug and the couch there’s not much of anything except for four dents in the floor forming a roughly one meter by two meter rectangle.] <@Grysar> [There’s a woman around your age lying on a couch that’s elevated with books under each of the four legs, probably salvaged in all cases. She has a needle in her right arm hooked to a clear tube that leads to a pouch slowly filling with blood. Her hair is close cut in a style that recently came back into fashion and her violet eyes rest on a stapled set of papers she holds in her left hand.] <@Grysar> [She’s wearing a uniform-looking polo shirt and a pair of khakis. At first you thought the logo on the shirt was the crest of one of the local restaurant chains, but instead its the characters for knight, upside down. She’s heavyset but has a slightly anemic cast to her skin, and in her other hand holds a plastic bottle of cold tea that she intermittently squeezes. You believe you’ve seen her before, maybe at school and maybe elsewhere, though not in any of your classes this semester.] <@Grysar> [There's no mirrors of note in this room.] * Shizaru keeps her voice quiet. "They reflect the people, but not the room. I thought it must be a painting or a film projection, but it's not." * Taki moves to Shizaru's hole as quietly as she can. <@Grysar> [The room below clearly once was a ballet studio. There’s mirrors lining multiple walls of the L-shaped room, including the long north wall, part of the east, and what you can see of the shorter south wall. There’s been a few rugs and futons dragged in the room, a couch sitting on one near the hole facing a mirrored corner. Three of the futons are rolled out, one with another IV pole adjacent to it, another three futons are rolled up in the far corner. You can see one entrance to the room, nearby and south of the hole, probably leading to the hallway connected to the other two rooms.] <@Grysar> [The room is a bit of a mess, with takeout containers, bottles and cans from vending machines, instant noodle cups, and the like. They’re in a few different clumps, and largely have some food and chopsticks still remaining. A largely full trash can also has some litter surrounding it. The scent of some of the food reaches you, suggesting that some of it may have been hot when left; thankfully the trash is not that ripe. That said, there’s a rat helping itself to a set of spicy ginger noodles.] <@Grysar> [There’s two people in the room. They appearance is a bit sketchy, figuratively and literally, though they’re still much more detailed than Promoted Lance, let alone the people on the street. There’s a young woman sitting on the couch with dyed blond hair, a gaunt face, and a determined expression.] <@Grysar> [She wears a shirt with a reversed trapezoidal look with "Pawn 5" written upside down on it. The other inhabitant is a few years older, with dark shoulder-length hair and a scarred face. His shirt is much the same except that his number is 1. He is dancing in front of the mirror, actually quite poised and leaving space for a missing partner, quite the contrast to his dingy attire.] <@Grysar> [However, the squalid ordinariness of the room is not reflected in the mirrors. In the corner, you see another world reflected. The wooden railing and mast of a boat in the foreground, the ground a sparkling sea, and islands floating in the air above, one of which has a castle built upon it.] <@Grysar> [There are systems of nets, water buckets on circular ropes, and ladders hanging from some of the islands. A mirrored young lady sits in the reflection in elegant traveling gear with climbing equipment ready at her side a jeweled mace or wand strapped to her side. There’s remnants of her finished meal in the reflection, but no sign of Pawn 1 or the squalor of the room.] * Taki ducks back out of sight, because mirror lady seems like the sort who looks up, and the Chemist might still be talking in the first room. <@Grysar> [That first room is now empty.] * Taki whispers to Yuki. "Have you seen all that you came here for?" * Yuki nods. "Though I have not seen these mirrors." * Taki nods. "There is someone in them, but I do not recognize her or the lands behind her." * Yuki whispers back. "Should I look?" She seems torn between curiosity and her well trained caution. * Taki ponders and then nods. "She seems much more alert than the others, but if we have to run, we will run, and if we do not, we move up." <@Grysar> [Yuki carefully settles into observe. Not long therafter there's a swiftly moving sound down the hall. Taki is welcome to roll to figure a situation out to try to get the jump on the source or she can take another action immediately.] * Taki obviously pulls knives and gets prepaird to defend her master mistress's life as she spies on those below. Waiting around the corner in ambush it is, unless whoever is moving makes it there first of course. * @Nicola stands up, pulling a pair of chakram from her bag. * Shizaru readies her mirror. <@Grysar> [The knight comes rushing down the hall with long gauntleted fingers wrapped around a long staff of unadorned dark grey metal. Moves surprisingly fast - not a teleport, but maybe twice as fast as you might expect - in attacking the new arrivals with it. Taki, your master mistress is behind you. He won't get to her, but unless you charge forward with your attack, Shizaru or Nicola will take the brunt of the first hit. If you charge forward and protect the others, you can thow your knives but he'll almost certainly have the chance to hit you in return. What do you do?] * Taki doesn't even understand how this is a question, of course she attacks while rushing in. * @Nicola bounces on her toes briefly before throwing both chakram. One pings off of his staff. The other scores a glancing blow. Both return to her hands. <@Grysar> [Shizaru's mirror glows bright but not to immediate effect. She falls back to give cover to Yuki who leaps to her feet.] <@Grysar> [The mirror glow, incidentally, comes from the meager sunlight from the window, which somehow seems drawn in and intensified as it touches the glass.] * Taki doesn't even get to her ambush point before the knight appears and charges twords her master, mistress and the others. She throws her knives, but they're deflected by his heavy metal armor. He's still closing, nearly past her, but, also within reach. She grabs for his helmet and pulls hard. He doesn't wind up flat on his back as she hoped, but somehow flips and lands on his feet. Facing her now and empty handed. His staff caught in the debris clogging the hallway. * Taki doesn't have have have a weapon that can puncture armor, but there's only so much that a helmet can do to protect, and if she has to concuss this fool to the ground she will, with a a rapid one-two series of punches. * The knight laughs. "You've already wasted too much time here. You'll never find him now." He throws a series of kicks and debris tosses as Taki makes a furious chain of blocks and counter blows that penetrate even his armor and outmatch even his speed. The finishing blow though comes from the massive beam of light from Shizaru that rips through the armor, the outer wall, and the next building over. I can only do that once, time to wake up. Thank you. And so be it. <@Grysar> [End!]