Festival: The Plant that Ate Dirty Smocks

Clothing are gone. Missing from various houses in the shadow of Fort Ouph and Shibuya both. This has been occurring across a larger period of Thyme. But Adventurers who've taken off clothing and left it outside of their inventories, and Landers who were drying and washing their clothes have complained. And a party has been deployed in order to deal with the miscreants that got away with their garbs, undergarments, and overclothing. There's even a sword, shield, or piece of armor missing here and there.

A good thing too, as those heavier things have ensured that the scouts have managed to Stalk these thieves along long winding paths. Those traveling from Shibuya have had it a lot harder, coming up this close to Fort Ouph, until finally, the group manages to find an old disheveled hut in a clearing. The entire lawn is filled with clothing, as well as these small walking plant-like creatures.

On Inspect, it is revealed that they are called Little Audreys, and very clearly monsters. They're not ranked to be difficult, but there sure are a lot of them. Some of them have taken 'Root' in the ground, while others are Leafing about. In general, the plants aren't roaming too far from this area however. They're Sticking together.

That's when the door suddenly opens, and an enormous venus-flytrap like plant comes out of the hut, and throws its head forward, scooping up multiple pieces of clothing, throws them into the air, and then begins to chomp them down! It Wood seem this is the team's challenge - to defeat these plant monsters, and retrieve their clothing!

     What a weird event.

     But hey. It's a crime, right? There's something going on that's 'threatening' people. It wasn't something that caught his notice at first, but then armor and weapons started going missing, and that's a fair bit more noticable than just some panty raids and shirts being stolen right off people's backs. That's something that can hit everybody (well, except him - gear is for other people). And what if it steps up to stealing things more important than just gear? Nah, better investigate.

     So here's Shin, out and about, one hand in his pocket.

     He's handsome, in the way that an anime protagonist is handsome. He's got that Isekai Hero look to him - unruly and untamed brown hair, glasses, a scarf, a sort of empty-minded cheer, a trustworthy and good-looking face, a nice and open grin, and a lankiness that borders on beanpole if not for the obvious suggestion of muscle under his clothes. And they are clothes, too - he's not wearing any armor at all. He has no armor equipped, nor any weapon, nor any visible equipment at all. Inspecting him reveals him to be a Were Fang Godhand member of Plant Hwyden.

     When he shows up, he introduces himself as a matter of course, one hand giving that lazy two-finger salute people in that sort of show often give, that wide, trustworthy grin on his thin, handsome face. "Hey. Nice to meet you."

     "I'm Shin Heno."

     "I'm a Hero of Justice."

     With that, he mostly settles into a leading role in the party, taking one of the vanguard positions - unsurprisingly, since he is, after all, a Godhand.

     They arrive at the Audrey base, and Shin lets out a low 'fweet-fwoot' non-whistle. Yes, he actually says it. "That's something, alright."

     "I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that!"

     He laughs, an easygoing laugh.

     And then the monster comes surging out of the hut, smashing and swinging. Shin slides forward, one hand snapping up to catch its arm, the other punching outwards for its stomach. A quick stun, to let someone else grab aggro and give him a chance to do his real thing.

    Akatsuki's kimono has gone missing.
    It was the only one like it that Akatsuki had.
    Aside from this very special, very important, very delicate and very pretty kimono that Akatsuki had... Akatsuki has no cute clothes.
    This is a travesty. An injustice the likes of which cannot be tolerated.
    Akatsuki was going to wear that for her Master.
    Needless to say, a cold fury burns frigidly in the ninja's breast as she stalks the neerdowell that stole her cherished clothing.
    Only for the true planty mastermind of this devious and heinous crime to reveal itself... And start eating clothes.
    Cold terror grips Akatsuki's heart.
    Is her cherished kimono among the devoured? There is but only one way to find out, as a dark shadow casts over the ninja's face, expression set into an unreadable expression of stone.
    "..."
    Tapping her fingers to the center of her palm, in an instant several shuriken and kunai appear in her grasp, which she immediately hurls for the bit clothes eating plant without mercy nor remorse.

    "That's not great! It's trying to eat the smocks," Merek mentions, then he nods a bit to the party. The man takes a moment to draw Shadow Eclipse, he tries not to think about the weapon, he then speaks to the folk in the party, "I wish that it was the Killer Tomatoes," the man notes, while he takes a moment to lift up a hand, beginning to summon a firebolt, striking that into the ficus while he nods, "I will support!" he notes.

Here's a question for you to ponder: Does a Venus flytrap really come from Venus?

Okay, here's a better question: Why are there so many of them here and why are they moving around? But most of all, what is with that HUGE one?

And why are they eating everyone's clothing?

Unfortunately, Kotono's not exempt from having her clothing eaten. Her gi is eaten as well as her shoes, leaving her in a one piece undergarment and black stockings. "How embarrassing!" Kotono says as she looks at herself with a scowl. "Now my stockings are going to get dirty right after I washed them!" With a shrug, she draws her blades and stares at the Big Ficus and then the Little Audreys. "I guess it's time for a little weeding!" She says as she attempts to go after the smaller plants.

It is a shame that Whiskey Sour would never remember what parts of her gear had gone missing during the lead-up to this event. Her entire inventory - and fashion sense - consisted of 'whatever piece had the best statistical value' with hoodie hermit aesthetic. Was it her socks? Her smocks? Her bows? Who knows.

Joining Shin Heno as he announces his Justice Heroism, Whis takes a far lower energy approach to the whole situation.

"They're weird plants eating clothes, is this really an event? Maybe they'll turn dirty clothes into treasure... Hey, which, in that case--"

Whis cups her hands to her mouth so everyone can hear her. "Hell, I'm Whiskey Sour, a support player, please take care of me!"

She lets her hands fall to her sides. "Heh. Now I'm set. Alright."

She makes a gesture like she's pinching a garden hose nozzle at one of the Little Audreys, and a coil of water snakes into her palm and jets out at the tiny meanaces to discourage them from eating any MORE clothes.

"Hey. Stop it. Cut it out."

Plants subsisting entirely on stolen clothing? How unsanitary! How awful and positively perverse! How... loathsome...

Prophylaxis, the Doctor of Tolbana, may be somewhat biased in his perception of these peculiar plants.

                                  EARLIER                                  

Prophylaxis, the Doctor of Tolbana, is muttering sullenly to himself about needing to be more careful around rotting woods full of swampy marshlands and evil goblins and all manner of other terrible things. Sure, they managed to get away with a promising and potentially dangerous artifact, but that doesn't help the fact that he TRIPPED OVER A BRAMBLE on the way out and managed to fall directly into a great big sloppy pile of mud! It got all over his pants!!!

But at least he managed to hole up at an inn in Fort Ouph for a little while while the things dry off. Surely, nobody would ever think to steal a man's pants right out of his window, would they?

                                    NOW                                    

"I," Prophylaxis, the Doctor of Tolbana, is wearing a labcoat, a hat, and what appear to be a pair of bright blue, bunny-print boxer shorts. "Am going to absolutely incinerate these chlorophyllic cretins." His hands (and eyes) are ablaze with literal, actual fire-- because he's literally, actually casting a fire spell. In fact, many fire spells. He's hurling fire bolts out of his eyeballs and palms and aiming each and every one of them indiscriminately into the posse of plants, but the barrage is centered particularly around the largest of the group. "Justice! I shall have justice for this transgression upon my trousers!"

Goldenblade appears just after Merek arrives. "Hey. Fancy seeing you here." She chuckles. "Guess we were headed the same direction after all." She just didn't understand the actual destination until now, it seems. Now here, she watches Shin advance the way he does, and sighs at people who understand this game that well. She just gets more and more confused as time passes. She peers at the Little Audreys and the enormous boss monster. "That looks like it's going to be a problem."

She rushes in with the others, looks like it's going to be a mob rush, and she strikes the huge monster with a fierce blow from her two swords, hoping to stop it before it eats more clothes. Has she had something eaten? Almost certainly, but she's replaced it before coming out here, it seems, because she's got extra of everything. That's just what you do. Anyhow, it's just newb gear, it's not like it costs a lot.

    Yuuki stumbles upon a flyer from the Hunter's Guild advertising a quest to help resolve the Mystery of the Stolen Clothing. At which point Yuuki just stares for a moment, before remarking out loud, "Wow... Though I guess I wouldn't put it past the devs to program in some pervert mobs." Still, a quest is a quest. So Yuuki accepts it!

    Some tracking, followed by some travelling, followed by some turning around once realizing she was a little lost and running into the group that was heading this way, Yuuki finally reaches the old hut with the others.

    Yuuki stares at the sight. Before scratching her head, "This is... A little weird." Still, they're mobs. And Yuuki is an Adventurer. They're natural enemies!

    Yuuki draws her sword as a few of the others are already going after the big one. Yuuki helpfully adds, "The small ones could be a problem too, if we let them swarm us!" So the Imp charges in, starting to hack and slash at the Little Audrey plants with her sword like some green protagonist in a sprite-based RPG game.

    Miyako arrives just in time to see her second-favorite pair of boots shredded in the plant-monster's jaws. "Oh, that really does it." A swipe of her hand produces her naginata, and she talks angrily forward, the blade already sheened with her familiar shadows.

    "Now then, you scrofulous heap of rotten garbage that ought to be dumped in a cesspit and forgotten. YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THOSE!"

    She lashes out viciously with the pole-arm's blade, in a scythe-like attempt to separate the body from the roots. "DIE!"

Clothing has gone missing in several location and that had got her attention. She may have had a few things of her own go missing in this whole affair too what else might get her out of the forge or dungeon crawling. So the Salmander was here tail swishing as she looks the little Audreys over for a moment.

"This wasn't quite what I was expecting however Shin Heno, either. The name's Miho Mithril Scale."

She looks back and then to the monsters.

"Well I know what to do here."

She draws her Katana.

"It's time to be a weed eater."

With that she'll throw herself at the mosnters to hack and slash away.

     "Ah, you can just call me Shin," Shin says to basically everybody around his strike.

Proteus scowls. "Why are all the problems erupting out of the Fort Ouph area lately?"

As one might expect, where there is an odd situation, the Archaeoimp is there. Her strange mechanism is quickly pointing out the various objects, highlighting the trail for anyone particularly inattentive as they track things along to the planty bastion.

It only takes once glance before Proteus is shaking her head, tucking away Golau Chwilio. "This is absurd. I hope this isn't a weird plot for Gwen to get people to buy clothing from her or something." She mutters, her eyes gleaming under the hood for a moment. "Shin. Whiskey. Let's do this." There is a little sharktoothed grin that splays wide as she chuckles for a moment. "I'll..." She raises a hand, and then pauses as she sees the incandescently angry Prophylaxis use fire at the same time Whis blasts them with water. "Oh no." She whispers, grimacing as the predictable thing occurs.

"Let's just... move right along." Proteus states, an input box opening and her hand flicking. V X

Her hands gleam with an edge of amber as she leaps into the battlefield, her hands lashing out and creating gleaming divots and carvings as the fists slash out as if they were made of steel, leaving gleaming lights of damage in the aftermath of her swift steps.

Shin Heno is the first to break from the pack, rocketing across the field and blowing away a few Little Audreys on the way right before he manages to grab one of its many giant 'leafs' it is using as its method of ambulation. It jerks its leaf back - but Shin still manages to rip a good piece off of it, before he punches for its bulbous lower body. He can feel his punch plunge into its soft tissue, and gets the sensation of a thick region of moisture behind it, as his hand is forced to bounce back. It resisted the stun, but he still notably did some damage to it!

In the very moment he is bounced back, Kunai ripple into its body, stabbing into its green body - riddling its body. The thing bounces backwards for a moment, letting out a hissing sound... and then bulges its belly forward again, sending all those weapons to the ground - perforating a few of the Little Audreys. It then presses in its belly again, and sprays green goop up in the air, intermixed with a few socks, right into Merek's Fireball - diminishing its size just a little before it impacts on it!

The Big Ficus begins to run around left and right, waving its leafy arms and storms towards the crew while trying to put out the fire - as it ticks damage onto it. Kotono is forced to dodge out of the way, before her blades find the Little Audreys, cutting into their stocky plant bodies and rips a few of them apart - sending the light of detonating monsters outwards. A few of the little menaces begin to run around in circles, flailing their arms up similarly to the Big Ficus, as Whiskey Sour begins to spray them with damaging water snakes - cutting a few of them down. Unfortunately, the snakes end up detonating into steam explosions as some of Prophylaxis' firebolts hit them. And his big bolt - while it does impact the Big Ficus - isn't as effective as it was already on fire!

And it seems like eating pants is allowing it to heal through some of the damage.

It seems to stare at Prophylaxis for a moment. Almost like it was intentional - though this may just be Prophylaxis' imagination. As it slurps his pants up like a cup of cheap ramen noodles. SLUUUUUUURP-AH...

However, Goldenblade to the rescue! She slams her sword against its belly first, then its head, causing its maw to open, and the pants to go flying through the air! Only for Yuuki to come down, slicing the piece of clothing in her way on her path down towards the Little Audreys. Like some kind of Pants Ninja, it's sliced into twelve distinct and useless pieces, which fall to the ground and are quickly eaten by the Little Audreys - right before they are destroyed by Yuuki's powerful blade swipes.

Miyako rushes past Yuuki, cutting her blade down and rips through another one of those big green leaves of the Big Ficus, chunking its health finally down enough to lower its health by a bar.

Miho joins Proteus on their assault on the smaller creatures - one using claws, the other her blade. Working together to rip more of them down. But they're also the first who notice that more of them are arriving, with more clothing! Some of them holding shields - and Proteus at least on one occassion gets blocked by the shield it is holding, only for Miho to get under it and cutting it down!

More plants come out of the Woodworks, armed with shields and pieces of armor they are 'wearing'. Slamming into people at high speeds. There are barely any slashing attacks involved - it almost feels like a game of bumpercars - were it not for the /FLAMING BIG FICUS/ running through and throwing /BURNING/ flying leaf attacks at the speed of steel cutters!

     Less effective than he'd've liked for sure. Some damage, but the squishiness doesn't bode well. Its response - a knockback - sends him skidding backwards, sliding along the ground. One hand comes down to balance himself. He stands.

     "Sheesh. Alright, I guess I'll take this seriously," Shin says, waving his hand around his wrist at Proteus's call. "It's pretty ridiculous, but..."

     Something appears in his hand. "Oh well!"

     It's some kind of...stone belt buckle? There's a large red gem in the center. Shin slaps it around his waist. A belt grows around him, clicking into place on the other side.

     His left hand goes up above his head at twelve o'clock. His right, sideways at nine. His hands rotate slowly until the right hand is at twelve and the left is at three. Then, his left hand snaps outwards, curls into a fist, and comes back against his waist.

                                "Transform."                                
                        0 01 0
                      1 /----\ 0
                     0 /      \ 0
   ARMOR BEETLE    ====|  /\  |====  CODE: ALGOL
DEFENSE OF DESTINY ====|  \/  |====    COMPILE
                     0 \      / 1
                      1 \----/ 1
                        0 10 0

     Shin is engulfed in a constellation. Points of light shine all over his body, at every joint - at his knees, at his legs, at his neck. Two shine from his eyes. One shines from the belt.

     The one at the belt is a bloody red.

     The constellation walks forward, steel blades bouncing off of it with every step. Slowly, it peels away, trails of starlight fading. When he emerges from the light, well...

     He's not Shin Heno anymore.

     Black chitin glints. Red eyes gleam and glow. Black blades stick out of the wrists and feet. A yellow mandible-crest emerges from the head. Where there once was a nerdy-looking Isekai Protagonist is now a fearsome beetle-man. Where once there were dorky-looking clothing, now there's only the belt, the muscled chitin. The white scarf has been dyed a bloody red.

     The beetle-man walks forward amidst the swarm of blades. He raises one hand.

     "Masked Ranger, Algol."

     "The Demon Star will light your way to Hell."

     His fingers snap across the belt as he runs forward into the blades, batting them aside with every step. There's a loud noise, the belt lights up, and...

     It starts playing a theme song.

                              GO GO THE LIGHT                              
                             LIGHT UP THE NIGHT                            
                       THE PATH AWAY IS FULL OF TEARS                      

                                CLOSING DARK                                
                               FADING SHADOW                                
                             THERE'S NO ESCAPE                              

                              FOLLOW THE STAR                              
                            FOLLOW THE RED STAR                            
                     THE BLOODY GUIDE KNOWS WHERE TO GO                    

                                 RED SHIFT                                  
                                  SHIFT UP                                  
                BREAK THE CODE AND FOLLOW THROUGH THE LIGHT                

                              GO GO THE LIGHT!                              

     'Algol' snaps his hand across the belt again. It sings out, "CODE: RAGE". Glowing red lines trace from the belt along his body; he gets faster, stronger, *better*, hammering against the Ficus over and over, faster and faster, until his fists are nothing but a rampaging blur around the insert song.

    "Kotono!" Miyako shouts. "Leave the small fry for later and help me kill this thing! I want my boots back!" She keeps on hacking away, dancing from side to side to avoid the plant-monster's strikes, going prone and rolling to evade one particularly close shave.

    As she hops to her feet, one hand leaves a trail of runes behind, and the naginata's blade starts to take on a blacker sheen.

        ./~ Axes flash, broadsword swing
        ./~ Shining armor's piercing ring
        ./~ Horses run with polished shield
        ./~ Fight this bastard 'till he yields
        ./~ Midnight mare and blood-red roan
        ./~ Fight to keep this land your own
        ./~ Sound the horn, and call the cry --
        ./~ HOW MANY OF THEM CAN WE MAKE DIE!

    Yuuki ends up slicing Prophylaxis's pants into itty bitty pieces with her sword-fu.

    NO REGRETS!

    Yuuki is chopping the Little Audreys into diced cabbage when her sword suddenly meets resistance in the form of a shield. Being worn by one of those small plants. Yuuki has to admit, "That's kind of cute!"

    But then the Little Audrey tries to ram her with the shield. Yuuki raises her sword to meet it, halting its charge, "Hey watch it!"

    But unfortunately Yuuki is the one who isn't watching it. As another shield-wielding Little Audrey comes from out of nowhere to slam into her legs. Yuuki falls to the ground, only to be swarmed by a bunch of the small plants.

    "NOOOOoooooo..." Yuuki's cries are muffled by the onslaught of leaves.

    Until they all just scatter, running off in different directions. Yuuki blinks, lying on the ground. HP down a bit, but not much worse for wear... That is until-

    "My headband!"

    Yuuki bolts upwards, her hand feeling around on her head, "No! My stylish look is ruined!" She quickly reaches behind her back, pulling a new headband out of her inventory before wrapping it around her head and tieing it off.

    Yuuki breathes a sigh of relief, before standing up and eyeing those Little Audreys, "Time for some payback!"

    Yuuki goes back to cutting and slashing at the Little Audreys once more. But this time with more fierceness!

"Yes! Burn. BURN! Ahahahahaha-- eh?" That's not the sound of fire. That's not the sound of fire at all! There's a lot of smoke-- steam??-- but there's no scent of cinders on the air, no crackling of plant-matter turning to ash and char. And most importantly... "Where's my earth-shattering kaboom...?" Prophylaxis pauses as his boot sploshes in a puddle of fresh water, then slooowly looks toward its source, finds Whiskey Sour standing there, and looks...

Bafflingly befuddled?

Particularly peturbed!?

Distressingly downcast!?

"...Your deluge put a damper on my devastation," he says with a voice that sounds like it's coming from a hollow man-shaped shell of a person. Is he truly so distraught by the natural and inevitable loss of fire against water? Or perhaps he's just... sad at the prospect of having his revenge revoked. But at least it prevented him from setting his own pants on fire.

...But all that did was to assure they fall victim to a much crueler fate.

"Hng!?" An impulse of sudden awareness crackles through his brain with an unusually familiar chime. Prophylaxis stares at the Ficus. The Ficus stares at Prophylaxis. The Ficus... chomps on his pants.

And in that moment, the Doctor of Tolbana's face is frozen in a rictus of rage. "My-- my pants..." And then-- And then Yuuki chops the thing up! Dices and decapitates! AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, TURNS HIS PANTS TO SHREDS! "MY PAAAAAAAAAAAANTS!"

There plants are on the march, and Prophylaxis does not care. The Ficus is on fire, and so escaped his burning barrage, but two can play at that game. The air around the Doctor ripples amidst an overpowering heat-haze before bursting into flame! Audreys slam against him in a futile race to their own smoldering ends! Flaming leaves smash into his shield and ignite completely, turning into scattering fragments of overdried ash. "GRAAAAAH!" The might of the earth surges into his limbs. He feels as though he could wrestle the planet itself! Prophylaxis does not do this thing. Instead he turns to the nearest Audrey.

...Reaches over...

GRABS IT BY THE STEM-THROAT

PLUCKS IT OUT OF THE GROUND!!

And chucks it, bodily, and with all the strength his buffed out mage-body can muster, straight at the devil-plant named Ficus which has duly earned so much of his ire...!

    Merek looks to the flaming creature, then he nods a bit, "Not the best decision for me to make," the man notes, then he draws the sword forward into a slash, trying to swing along into that flame. There's a shift while he draws an Aero Shield to protect him from the strikes of the creatures. Dark mist follows the blade while it afterimages with the swing, telegraphing. "Come on, you're so useless when I need you!" He watches Shin with amusement.

Goldenblade jumps clear of the flying leaf attacks from the flaming big ficus, tumbling back to her feet and landing in a momentarily clear area. She's not as acrobatic as some of the acrobats here, but she's pretty agile, and now that she's no longer debuffed, she's in very good shape. She steps in again and strikes, thrusting with both blades, hoping to strike deep and prune this monster. Her blades flash as the light catches them, thrusting deep into the plant and dropping it's health bar just a bit more, her efforts to contribute to the frantic melee at least effective as she buries her blades in the monster. As to whether it's eating her plants or not, she doesn't spare the attention. She's fighting with everything she's got to make sure that whatever pants it eats today, that is the last it will ever eat.

After performing a swift triple somersault (yes, she can do it in real life too) to avoid being caught, Kotono nods to her friend. "Right on, Miyako!" She does a spin with her blades held up. "Let's cut this weed down to size!" She gives a smirk. "Who says gardening has to be boring?"

A backwards somersault and a forwards roll, then she suddenly leaps upwards with a slashing motion.

    "Gust Step!"
    One moment Akatsuki was there. The next she is not, as the flaming ficus scrambles around hurling burning leaves everywhere.
    In the chaos she desperately scanes for anything that looks like it could be made out of dark purple silks with a floral pattern, but she has so very little time.
    And... Admittedly has to briefly pause when Shin Heno transforms.
    "..."
    He... He has a themesong.
    She can only look on for a long beat somewhere between bewildered, perplexed, and COMPLETELY ENTHRALLED.
    That. That just happened.
    But her concentration is only broken for the appropriately dramatic amount of time it took for that henshin to complete, and then the ninja is back in action.

    "Accel Blade!"

    "Stealth Blade!"

    "Death Stinger!"

    She declares her attacks, a deadly flurry of blows as her kodachi flashes in her hand at the flaming ficus.

Proteus, Masked Ranger Algol, and Whiskey Sour all look cool in a team pose for five, maybe ten seconds. It's really cool! And then, disaster strikes. Reality comes crashing down.

While the First Verse of "Follow The Star", smash single insert track for Masked Ranger Algol, plays: Whiskey is chased around by plants that have learned pants (and melee weapons).

Her path away is full of tears, but you can't hear her cries, because the insert song is REALLY GOING.

During the Second Verse: Repeatedly kicking and throwing and punching plants for being STUPID PLANTS and probably saying very rude bad curse words. However, There's No Escape from the end of the second verse.

Third verse, and it's chorus time, with Whiskey hiding behind a building with multiple large bites taken out of her robe, and bruises on her ankles and feet and arms from putting the boots, Medium style, to plants. Without a bloody guide - or template markers - Whis pauses in her attack to wait for an opening.

Fourth verse, Whis begin gathering power in her hands of a bright blue. One could even say - a red shifted color. Shifting up.

"At this rate, we'll have to call more than a Tailor - we'll need a healer!"

Whiskey Sour normally says something really cool during this part, but unfortunately she's drowned out by Algol's belt sound shouting GO GO THE LIGHT.

It's still appropriate, as she rips off a giant magical beam attack at the flying, flaming, sock-eating venus flytrap.

Miho aids Proteus in fighting the smaller adds, she's well aware these things could swarm the people going after the boss. She intends to keep these things off them as best she can. She looks to Proteus for a moment nodding at her once. Before diving back into the fight, this time her blade catches fire as she channels something else.

"HEAT SABRE!"

She seems to be almost laughing at this, There are Rider transformations, people are singing. This is quite the fight now with a burning Katana she once more dives into the ranks of the monsters.

Proteus is doing what she can to try to play crowd control, but the planty infestation is simply too intense to manage to interpose herself between everything desiring tasty Whiskey clothing. The mismatched ones taste the best, apparently. One of the ones who tries to block her strikes simply gets... stepped on, the boot crashing down onto the shield and smashing down onto the plant before it twists to one side, kicking it to one side before her hand dives down to cleave it in half. "Plant logic, huh." She mutters.

It's when they surge back in, the next wave marshalling themselves as Masked Ranger Algol unleashes his true power, that Proteus takes a leap backwards, even as the burning massive plant begins cleaving. "Oh, this is absolutely absurd." Her hand flicks again. + < S

A moment later, she's engulfed in roiling flame as she tucks and rolls right through the attack. Is she abusing i-frames or is she just being that precise to miss the assault? Who knows. The scorching boosted roll ends with Proteus skidding to a halt beyond on one knee, and she looks up at the attack. "They seem to be doing all right..." She says to herself. "Maybe I can afford to..." Another input: ( * #

An Arcane Eye pops into existence behind Proteus, and she begins trying to get to a good position to scan the monsters with it, trying to analyze where they might be coming from or if there's anything special about them outside of just 'being a particularly weird monster spawn'.

Shin Heno transforms! Dazzling the stage like some kind of galactic pretty boy. Except, he's a bugman now. Crossing the distance between himself and Big Ficus, avoiding various dangerous flaming shearing leafs, he begins to hammer away at the flames. Each blow blasting away another shred of its fire, slowly putting out the fire!

Miyako rushes in to support Shin Heno, cutting at the creature with their Naginata, but they're halted by two of the Audreys suddenly stepping in the way. Her weapon comes down ringing on their shields at the tune of her own song, but they are refusing to let her pass. One of them is about to strike back rather dangerously, when Yuuki suddenly slides in along the ground, chasing one of the Audreys that had stolen her Hairband, coming in low and cutting them to pieces - before she continues her run chasing them down, swinging her sword. It probably looks comical to the onlookers. But to the Little Audreys she cuts down while chasing it - it's probably like a monster is coming their way!

Audrey is about to chomp down on Merek in order to continue its retaliation, when suddenly, SLAM! It's whapped in the face at high velocity by a flying Little Audrey, which explodes as its HP reaches zero. There's a big red welt on Burning Big Ficus' head where Prophylaxis had just hit it! Still, this knocks the creature out of the way as Merek's swing comes down - causing him to whiff and cut down a Little Audrey instead!

Big Ficus wants to attempt to attack Merek again, but this time, Goldenblade steps in the way. Both blades coming down on its belly, carving a fierce red cross against it, and causing it to spring a leak for a moment... until a beanie hat plugs the hole and forms a black welt-like form that makes it look almost like Burning Big Ficus has a bellybutton.

Kotono joins Akatsuki! Almost like they are in sync, the triple-attacking assassin and somersaulting assassin start executing attacks on the Big Ficus. Red streaks carvign across its bulbous bottom and its stocky stalk leading up to its massive maw! Coming down to finally land behind it, both kicking it forward and finally dispersing the fire! The Burning Big Ficus is just Big Ficus once-more.

Then suddenly, a big beam rips across the battlefield, flaring and searing across the Little Audreys! Right in the path of Miho's downward flaming strike! The light beam intersects the blade right as it finishes falling on another Little Audrey, before it is 'cut' out and spears seven other ways, ripping even more Audreys apart - but forcing Miho to remain to direct the attack - until the light fades finally. There's a very short moment of calm before the storm, allowing Proteus to get a better look at everything...

Before more plants come! And with the previous wave not fully cleaned up, it threatens to overwhelm the team this time! There's 'hisses' and 'screes' coming from some of the plants, as they put more shields into position. Almost like they learned from that dual-technique between Miho and Whiskey Sour... as the /planted/ Little Audreys suddenly begin to shine bright light, making it harder to see, before they /beam/ those lights at the various shields presented by the Little Audreys that are coming from the edge of the forest - and begin to cast blinding light into peoples' eyes.

At the same time, another series of the 'planted' Little Audreys begin to puff up pollen and poison smoke into the air, as the Big Ficus takes up position in the middle of them all, and begins to burrow into the ground, almost like it's preparing for something!

     It's actually stunning how little 'Algol' is like Shin. Shin exudes dorky Isekai Protagonist energy; he looks clumsy, he bends forward in loose grins like the fun sibling from a slice-of-life game, he fights largely like a boxer - bouncing on his feet, decisive blows, parries.

     'Algol' exudes none of these things. 'Algol' is presence. 'Algol' is *power*. Compared to Shin, 'Algol' fights like a demon. He ducks under Prophylaxis's grab-and-strike, lending his own foot as a fulcrum to help the other man throw. He spins out of the way of Kotono and Goldenblade, his foot coming up into the thing's back to throw it off-guard for them and knock it into their blades. When Akatsuki strikes, he's right there in the middle of it, working around her blows (literally between her and the flower) to make sure it can't get away, to make sure her strikes land as deep as possible.

     The plant's counterattack is hard parried. One hand snaps up, in a similar style to Shin's earlier, but this time, the parry swings around into an actual counter, bringing the fist sliding along the arm until he can punch it in the side. He steps back, ducking under another attack from Akastuki in what looks like a too-close-for-comfort dodge, and smashes his hand against the top of the belt.

     CODE: THORN

     The creature's trying to run.

     'Algol' brings his foot up as the lines of green light run from the belt down to the end. It hangs there in the air like a guillotine blade. The mandible slasher at his ankle only increases that effect.

     Then his heel smashes down.

     Thorns explode from underneath the plant. They shoot upwards into the sky like Jack The Giant-Killer's beanstalks, twisting and turning as 'Algol' moves to pull the plant straight out of the ground for everyone else to pile onto.

Proteus gets some... feedback from the Arcane Eye while it lasts, but that doesn't mean she's not being subjected to the ongoing plant shenanigans. The reflected beams of light drive her back, and she grimaces, recoiling not because she's a vampire or anything (honest!) but because of the blinding brightness. "Gggh..." She begins sketching another input... V . S M

But it looks like she took too long, as a bloom of poisonous spores began blasting outwards, poisoning her moments before the Stone Catapult launches her away... But not into the fight proper.

No, it's sending her towards that little hut. Proteus, coughing and gagging, begins trying to slip into the hut to see what other odd thing seems to have come up on her 'radar'. ^ - O

Her investigation is led with a seething crackle of an Electrical Fuzz spell lighting the way ahead, the sizzling burst of light dancing along her hands as she pokes her head in.

    One sometimes makes odd friends in the heat of a battle. Working with a fellow assassin like Kotono comes naturally for even a loner like Akatsuki. It's Shin Heno who, once again, surprises and dazzles the ninja as the masked hero of justice works to enable her every strike.
    It is not an opportunity she will waste.
    Even as retaliation comes, in one instant she is there-- in the next she vanishes, re-appearing in the air above the great big ficus, blade gleaming ominously.

    "Fatal Ambush!"

    Gripping her kodachi in both hands she freefalls for a beat, before somersaulting forward, adding her momentum to the slash intended to further hack away at the ficus.
    She will rescue her cherished kimono yet.

    "Alright, thank you Golden, this should work, I would ask people to spin a little water magic for me, if you would, although I will make it a little bit safe," Merek notes. The man then begins sheathing the sword while he takes up both fists, swing them together with a nod along to the Ficus. "I don't need a blade which to fight you with!" Then he begins to launch into the ficus with his fists swinging, "ORAORAORAORAORA!"

How did someone manage to program-- and keep-- enough macros to set up something like a realistic Toku Transformation? It's not like they're able to build those kinds of things anymore! Are they? Is that still a thing that people can do...!?

"H-how d'you like that!?" Prophylaxis pants, having exacted his revenge for the untimely demise of his pants. "I'll chuck as many of you damn things as I'll need to! You want to eat so bad, I'll stuff your friends down your throat and set you all on fire! DO YOU SMELL WHAT PRO IS COO-- eh?"

Something in the air... Smells wrong. Prophylaxis realizes it too late to stop it. He chokes, falling into a fit of coughing and gagging and overall just not having a good time. A quick wind spell is enough to scatter the spores that still linger-- but comes far too late to eject the pollen that's already taken root in his lungs. His throat feels as though it's on fire...!

But if these little bastards want to play that game, then...!

He's not going to be the /only/ one who's going to suffer through some heartburn today! The Doctor of Tolbana clenches his teeth between spurts of hacking, coughing and generally suffering, but his hands are clasped together none-the-less. Ruby-red light gathers there, building mote-by-mote as he weaves together that which shall spend the beginning of the end for the pants-pilfering plant. Heat and light force his palms apart, his fingers, once interlocked, now part around a glowing, red-orange globe. Flame leaps and arcs from the burgeoning fireball, casting ominous shadows across its caster's. "Open wide," he mutters, fury dripping from every word. "It's time for your medicine!"

The medicine is fireball.

It smells and tastes like fireball.

    Yuuki has been chasing after the Little Audrey that stole her headband for a while now. She's been running around the field, jumping over holes, ducking beneath fireballs, zipping around falling ninjas. The chase has also allowed her to avoid those blinding beams of light.

    But she's not making any ground on it!

    But then Yuuki gets an idea. She skids to a halt and sheathes her blade. Yuuki turns away from the Little Audrey that stole her headband, slowly walking off and whistling non-chalantly. Pretending to no longer be interested in it as she tries to lull it into a false sense of security... Let it feel safe... Secure... And then...

    SUDDEN SWORD DRAW!

    Yuuki cuts through the air to slash at the offending Little Audrey.

Goldenblade easily evades the beam coming across the battlefield, hopping clear of the Little Audreys and their lights. They're a menace, but she's dealing with the ficus just now, and she's pressing her attack as hard as she can. She prefers to attack from stealth, but she doesn't mind delivering a faceful of whupass when the time is right, and she picks an opportune moment to drop the hammer, so to speak, planning the perfect moment, when it seems to be concentrating on the other party members to step up, and deliver absolutely devastating attacks, like the fist of an angry god on the plant monster, each hit costing it another sliver of it's HP bar. Slowly, it sinks.

Try as you want, there's no catching Kotono so easily. She takes to the air and spins around like she's dancing on air.

"Can't let up now!" Kotono says as she drops into a crouch to assess the situation. "I've got to keep wearing it down with the others, or I'm gonna need some new clothes!" She attempts to use a flying kick this time for a change of technique.

"Agh, I've never had that backfire!" Whis complains, shielding her eyes and simply slapping aside and shouldering through the glowing chaff. "Not once! Not ever! I'm done, this is the worst."

Chunks of her clothes are missing, she's burned, and she's miserable.

"I know, I'll--"

The Fwoosh of Merek's bone-searing flame drowns out her calliut.

"How about--"

Algol beltsounds.

Whis, gathering water into her hands, forms a large hammer and starts swinging it into the little chaff plants. She's so done.

God, bring her a bus to double isekai someone with loud effect sounds.

        ./~ Follow orders as you're told
        ./~ Make their yellow blood run cold
        ./~ Fight until you die or drop
        ./~ A force like ours is hard to stop
        ./~ Close your mind to stress and pain
        ./~ Fight 'til you're no longer sane
        ./~ Let not one damn cur pass by
        ./~ HOW MANY OF THEM CAN WE MAKE DIE!

    Miyako laughs and sings as she dances about the plant-monsters' blows, her naginata flashing as she slashes at the foes. The little beasts have gotten in her way as she attempts to deal with the boss monster, but she ignored them at first as she focused on it.

    Twisted about and left several yards away from the boss by her series of dodges, however, the little ones are all she can see. Especially with the blinding light some of them are casting on their attackers. Oh, that just won't do at all.

    . o O (( Oh, come on, Kotono, I'll buy you new damn clothes, I just want my boots back. )) O o .

    "Dark Ball!" she yells out as she invokes another spell, casting a sphere of darkness that blasts out amongst the smaller audreys, trying to blanket the light-blasting with her shadows.

Miho falls back for a moment something has cut her off from her prey she'll wait till things clear up as more plants come. She sees they don't like fire much and that gets a smirk out of her as she keeps going with her Katana using it as a blender.

"This makes cutting the grass back home seem a lot more enjoyable!"

She calls out as she bounces about the fight and she'll look at the smoke that the little ones are giving off.

"I am a Salamander! Fire it's what we do and I'm not particularly good at it as some I know. I'm not even warmed up yet!"

Miho halts with the Katana for a moment takes a deep breath and then lets out a gout of fire from her mouth at the assembled plant monsters. She seems to like to be able to breathe fire, she likes it /a lot/.

As Proteus sneaks around and into the hut that the massive Big Ficus had come out of - smashing open the door when it had - she spots something on the table. She doesn't need to use any kind of magics to spot it, though she is unable to analyze the item itself. It is there. A small... rubik's cube like structure? Its colors are constantly moving across its body, the patterns never halting its movement, constantly moving itself. Almost like it was trying to solve itself, but failing.

In the meantime, behind Proteus, Akatsuki refuses to let up the assault! She chases down upon the large plant's back, ripping her blade down and carving against the back of it, carving a fierce red light along its body and causing it to stumble and roll for a moment as it loses its balance! This gives Merek all the chance her needs! He halts the large boss plant with a series of flaming strikes! Blast after blast of flames sets the plant alight again, and by the time it's upright and Merek finishes his hips, that 'belly button beanie' bursts and green goop comes falling out, along with remnants of pants and even an acid-bitten helmet.

It seems to open its maw in pain, which permits Prophylaxis to get in his attack - jumping high enough to deliver his fireball package! The Blazing Pill is slammed into its gullet, and the creature's head immediately goes red. Not just from damage, but from how hot the fireball is as well! It sways its leaf-arms about and begins to storm forward faster! Almost bowling Prophylaxis over, but Yuuki pulls him out of the way just in time - in the midst of her lull-into-a-false-sense-of-security-then-SLAAASH attack on the Little Audrey! The attack is super effective, and she retrieves her headband! Now she has... two headbands.

Goldenblade is waiting for it as it keeps storming forward, and with a critically fierce blow, burying her blow against its belly with such fierceness, following it up with a movement up, that the fireball /detonates/ within the Big Ficus before it can spit it out, or becoming Flaming Big Ficus again. It finally finishes its roll, and begins to bury itself in the midst of the field - while blowing out a massive black circle of smoke. Pwaaaaaah!

Then, as it is still attempting to recover, Algol's Thorns hit! Right as the Big Ficus is about to bury itself into the ground. Each movement it makes to dig in, the thorns bite deeper down into its body. Others grabbing and rolling around its 'shoulder's and large stalk, attempting to hold it into place! Kotono already rushing in to cut at some of the stalks - ripping more pieces off of it.

On the field, Whiskey Sour is rushing from Little Audrey to Little Audrey. Slamming water hammers down on their shields, and silencing their sunlight beams that are attempting to follow her! A Dark Ball suddenly slams near Whiskey Sour, halting one of the blinding light beams and splashing away poison, as Miyako assists her - evaporating a few more Little Audreys on the way. Flames in the distance show that the team is starting to really take advantage of the situation. Burning away the poison - Miho roams the field and setting more things on fire! Luckily, the Little Audreys don't become 'flaming little audreys'.

Finally, Big Ficus has burrowed itself into the ground. And that's when tactics suddenly seem to change. As the Little Audreys that are left - in largish numbers - begin to throw clothing into its maw. Some of them putting shields down where its body was harmed. The massive plant grabbing some of the Little Audreys... AS IT BEGINS TO HEAL TO FULL! It increases its defenses, and then begins to spew heavy purple-pink mists into the area!

Each breath a different status effect! POISON! STUN! PARALYZE! It's a constant hell of status effects, until finally, one more BLAST of air hits everyone, regardless of their attempts to shield or evade. NIGHTMARE HALUCINATION!

People see sparks of red across their vision for a moment, intermixed with green, as the enormous Big Ficus becomes momentarily harder to see... and people are forced to see their worst Nightmares.

     The thorns land. 'Algol' stretches back, his hand hovering over the bel-

     Cherry blossoms.

     Bug eyes widen.

     The cherry blossoms swirl around them. Above, the great pink tree, branches reaching over the school. Armored fingers twitch to find themselves unarmored. His body, just himself, just himself in his old school uniform. The badge on the chest. The tie around his neck. It's loose. Graduation.

     Graduation.

     Yuriko's smile is dazzling. Her hand reaches up. Her black hair blows around her in the sudden breeze.

     No.

     'Hey.' She steps up next to him, arms around his, breasts pressed up against it. 'Why don't we meet back here in four years? We'll both be through college with good jobs, right? Then we can...' Her face flushes. 'We can talk about starting a family.'

     No.

     Her fingers coil into his hands. 'Will you wait for me, Hayate?'

     No.

     'Let's make a promise, here, under the cherry tree. We'll seal it with a kiss. And we'll be together forever.' Another dazzling smile. 'I promise...to wait for you.'

     'I love you, Hayate.' She leans up, and her lips touch his, and it's the perfect graduation. Right out of an anime.

     No. No. No. no no no no no no no no no no no nononononononononoNo

     No.

     'Algol' hits the ground, face against the dirt. The anguished scream prompts toku sparks to explode off him as he tries to hide from the hallucination, from the screaming, hellish nightmare. From her smile. From her promise.

     Because...he knows what the next words are.

     Because he's there, at the cherry tree, in his sharp salaryman suit. He's there, eager, checking his watch every five minutes. He'd called her. She'd be here. She'd come.

     No!

     She's on her way now.

     Not again!

     "Not again!" He howls, and the howl is one of agony that pierces through the battlefield. "Not again...!"

     'Sorry I'm late, Hayate.' She brushes her hair behind her ear. She looks so beautiful in her suit and skirt. He's so excited. His heart leaps into his chest. He holds out a hand-

     'I had to drop my son off at school.'

     'He's two years old, and it's kind of rough to find time to myself, but I told my husband this was really important to me. Oh, yeah! I hope I get to introduce you two some time. I've told him a lot about you.'

     'You were really important to me.'

     Were.

     Were.

     Were.

     Were.

     'Algol's screams only get worse. They're walking through park. His heart is dead. He's numb. Nothing matters. She's talking about her family. About her job. About how she met Ichigo and hit it off instantly. About how she knew he was the one. She's so excited to hear about his salaryman job, she says. His words are echoes without feeling. He had the job. It was great. He was ready to start a family.

     'You'll find someone for you someday!'

     The screams pierce through everything else - through the battlefield, through the noise, through the chaos. The body wavers, the armor flickering on and off, the belt chimes going up and down.

     'I have faith in you.'

     No.

     I can't do this again.

     And then the cherry blossoms blow, and he's standing in his uniform all over again...

     'Let's meet back here in four years...'

    Yuuki now has two headbands? Hahahaha. Yeah no. She has more than that. No one headband goes with every outfit after all. And she's been holding on to any that happen to drop during her adventures, rebuilding the collection she used to have.

    Yuuki tucks the recovered headband back into her inventory, satisfied.

    Yuuki turns around, only to find that the big plant is puffing out large clouds of gas into the air! Yuuki quickly drops down into a roll to dodge out of the way. How does this help against a cloud of gas? Who knows! RPG logic at its finest.

    Unfortunately, Yuuki's dodge rolling doesn't keep her from being struck by that follow up blast. Yuuki's vision becomes obscured, the Imp rubbing her eyes for a few moments. And when she opens them again...

    She's no longer in some silly fight with some perverted clothes-stealing plants. She's in the middle of a barren, completely flat landscape. A gloomy grey sky stretches out in all directions. Yuuki looks around in confusion for a few moments. Where is she? Where did everyone go? Was she teleported somewhere?

    Suddenly feeling very isolated, Yuuki takes off. Just a jog, at first, as she looks around. But she starts running faster as the panic begins to set in. But no matter how fast or slow she runs, no matter how far she makes it, her surroundings don't change.

    There's just nothing... No one...

Goldenblade blinks in surprise as the Ficus is buried in the ground, and she backs up as the debuffs keep piling up around where it's buried, sinking to her knees. Did she get clear fast enough? Doesn't look that way! She rises up again in shock, gasping, "Hanako?!" in disbelief. Then, as she approaches arms outstretched, she halts suddenly, and wails plaintively, "Hanako, please!?" and she's nearly in tears from her tone, sinking to her knees, now, and shuddering. Rejected, by her wife of 50 years, back from the grave just to reject her. What the hell kind of game is this, anyhow? She's beyond sense now, just shaking, tears running down her cheeks.

The hut turns out to not nead an Electrical Fuzz to see what's up, obviating the need... But not her energy expenditures. Proteus grunts as she lets the light die... Only to see a shifting cube, pulsating and rotating, struggling to work with some kind of unknown energy. "This puzzle... Could it be... Enigma!?" Proteus says, her eyes widening. She reaches out towards it... When there is a sudden feeling of /wrongness/. The thing pulsates, dimming... And the Archaeoimp grimaces. "The Law of Alba... This thing is something that breaks it...?" She clenches her teeth. Before she can do anything else, however, there is that strange, terrible smoke. Proteus turns towards the incoming wall, and flicks her hand: + U K

There is a ringing noise as she slams her arms together, the hidden bracers under her clothing resonating as she swings her arms out with a yell. There is a burst of rushing air from the force-parry, driving the smoke back. Even so, she brings a hand to her head at the scent of the strange smoke and visions begin to swim before her eyes...

"Gggh...!" She shakes her head, banishing the shadows and darkness. "This... isn't... happening!" She scowls for a moment, her eyes swivelling back to the puzzle... And she looks on the thing. "An Enigma... That wants to be solved. What is the answer...?" She says, reaching out to the puzzle and bringing it up between her hands, examining it for a moment. Her hand flicks once again as she summons up another Ability: # 8 =

Time slows... Or rather, Proteus's mind speeds up as her senses expand, her consciousness unfolding as she works to analyze the puzzle from multiple angles and attempt to understand the purpose. "Here..." She flicks her hand. "And here...." Another movement, attempting to guide and rework the puzzle towards the solution. "Let's push this to its conclusion!" But can Proteus manage to decipher this piece?

    Merek looks to the hallucinations while the status effects begin to shift along into his data. In a red shimmer haze he sees something, he then begins to draw rocks from the ground to bring about a shield to keep away that mist. "ARRRRRRRRRGH! THEY'RE HALLUCINATIONS!" There's only one thing that lets the man keep going with the knowledge of what he saw.
    That's rage, the man seems to keep on and would surrender into that rage, "NO! NO MORE OF THESE HALLUCINATIONS! I AM TIRED OF WATCHING THEM BE KILLED, AGAIN AND AGAIN!" What is up with the entire forest event, every single one of them seem to be crazy. For someone that likes gardening, he's really beginning to dislike the wildlife of the world. With that, he begins swinging the sword hilt first into the ground, while he tries to swing a fist into it, then his magic, it was angry about instruments, though when he needs the weapon... It was just a weapon, all the same he tries his best to wake up whatever was within, through force. Then he notes Goldenblade, "Goldenblade, it's not real, wake up!"

    Akatsuki lands and braces, readying for the worst of reprisals- only to watch on in confusion as the thorn-bound plant begins... "It's... It's healing...!" She hisses, rising to her feet, readying her most powerful attack at her disposal.
    She doesn't have the time to use it.
    Forced to dodge, tumble, and roll aside and away from the belching status breath attacks, she pauses as... Something about that last blast of air feels so completely, heinously, -wrong-.

    Shizuka Hanekura doesn't get to reflect on this wrongness for very long before she finds herself... Back in Tokyo. She's dressed in a plain brown coat, a thick skirt, and stockings. It's winter. The snow is falling and it's very pretty as she's making her way home from her classes for the day. College isn't easy. Her coursework bears down on her every night, but through rigorous study and hard work she stays afloat.
    She barely notices the little boy that had been following her for the past few blocks before she reaches the cozy little park and the youth makes his move.

    "Excuse me?"
    "Hm?"

    Shizuka pauses in her tracks, turning just in time to catch a view of the setting sun. It's a gorgeous sight, briefly distracting, before her attention turns to the boy. He must be about fourteen. Maybe fifteen.

    "I like you."
    "... I'm... I'm sorry, excuse me?" Shizuka blinks, unsure of what she just heard.
    "I like you! A lot! Wanna be my girlfriend?" The boy asks more daringly.
    "Wh... But... I..."

    "I'm 20." She tries to say, but the words don't come out. The shocked college student can only turn away, every movement stiff and wooden as she leaves the boy behind and trudges the rest of the way home. Crawls into bed.
    And does not move.
    She does not budge.
    She cannot move. Cannot think. Cannot feel anything except for the absolute crushing depression that overcomes her entirely.

    All while Akatsuki the ninja curls into fetal position in the grass, utterly and completely destroyed by one crushing admission from a middle schooler comes back to haunt her.

Did you know that Prophylaxis was a doctor?

That's not just a profession he's got sitting under his name. He is, in fact a doctor. Graduated with a degree from Tokyo University and completed his residency well ahead of anyone being thrust into a virtual world with little hope of ever finding release.

Though maybe by his demeanor and ability to balance his consciousness on the razor's edge of alcoholic stupor and caffienated hyperactivity when the need so often demands, that much was obvious.

Did you know that he had a patient die in his arms on the very first day of the job?

KURAHASHI TO EMERGENCY ROOM--

A purple haze tugs anxiety and swells desperation. Heartbeat races, numbness in his left-hand-fingertips. Hyperventilation. Visions rush around on all sides, a flood of images. A hallway snaps into focus. He pushes into the ward, there's child on the gurny, spasming and choking on his own stomach contents. Training takes over, turn the head, clear the mouth-- incessant beeping screams in his ears, cardiac dysrhythmia.

Clear the patient for defibrillation. Clear. Clear. Electrodes discharge with a pop and the sting of ozone mingles with the acrid-sweet stench of vomit. No response. Charge-- clear-- discharge. The boy struggles to breathe, struggles, struggles-- Dysrhythmia to flatline. Start chest compression--

--report the cause of the 'Flash of Death' virus is still unknown--

No time. No time they say. He's gone, go save the ones you can. Second patient, suffered grand mal seizure and collapsed, severe lacerations, multiple broken bones. Administer blood transfusion, begin sanitization, stitching. Triage. Triage. No time to fix what's broken, just keep them from dying and move on. Move. Third patient, hemmoragic stroke, nothing you can do. Apologize to family, move on--

No.

Not this.

Not again.

Not again.

Take it one at a time. You've done this a thousand times. A million times. How many times have you repeated this in your brain, Akira Kurohashi? How many times have you lived through this torment?

One more won't hurt.

WHAT'S ANOTHER FEW DOZEN DEAD BODIES ON YOUR HANDS?

"Final round." Whis groans, as the Big Ficus starts gobbling up the little ones to become Largest Ficus. Is it really a ficus? Thanks to HERBOLOGY, Whis can reflect distantly on the actual nomenclature here, wherein--

Whis draws both hands up in a cross-block as the Bad Ficus Breath starts to pour onto her.

Switching to a half-guard, Whis starts deliberately quaffing and discarding cureatives as she checks her status info, until--

<NIGHTMARE HALLUCINATION>

She watches for a tell. There isn't one. She spots a safe zone. No time to get there. Her eyes droop as static and red sparks play across her perception. For a moment, she felt sleepy.

For a moment she heard the sound of a garbage disposal except digital, like a yawning void she was falling into.

Snapping the top off of a wicked and smoking stimulant cocktail, Whis rallies, thumb cut and dripping digital red lines off the shattered top of her phial.

"It's just a debuff! Proteus, do something smart! Algol, uh... Go Go Gackt!"

"Merek, you're the biggest sword idiot here, do the fire thing again! I can't tell Haseo to do it!"

Miho is able to fend off most of the physical attacks coming here way so far from the plant thing are going pretty well really. The adds are being cut down, the big boss looks like it's going to be taken out pretty soon. All things are going well until it starts breathing. This thing may be kin to one of the most hated monsters in Circlesoft's library.

The world fades from Miho she's somewhere else, somewhen else. She's not a Salamander in this vision either.

She's in a crashed car she pulls herself out she starts calling out.

"Mother?"

She struggles to get free the city seems greyed out there's no real colour save for the red of the blood on the driver's side of the car.

"Mom?! Oh god Mom!"

She tries to call for help nothing happens the phone is dead.

She tries to get her mother free of the wreck.

"Hang in there I'll get you help keep talking mom...."

Her mother looks at her with hallowed eyes and stares right at her.

"You did this... to me...you killed me Miho..."

Miho just starts blubbing futilely trying to save her mother in this hallucination. Then her mother's hands reach out from the wreck wrapping them around Miho's throat.

    A shaking finger touches the 'answer' button on the celphone, and an unfamiliar voice comes from the device. "Alex Black?"

    "That's me." Oh no. Not this. It's been so long.

    "We need you to come down to the hospital. It's - "

    The voice is cut off by the reply. "I'll b - be there - " A shaking finger presses the red button, ending the call, and -

    No. Not real. It's been years.

    Screaming, Miyako is on her knees, pushing herself up, picking up her naginata. "No!"

    She looks around at the others, how many of them are motionless, or letting out their own screams. She rushes over to Kotono, shaking her and yelling in her ear. "Wake up!"

Shin is heard screaming through the clearing with enough force that the grass beneath his feet moves, and the Little Audreys nearby avoid him. Everyone is still taking these status debuffs. Slowly draining away their health! Yuuki is seen running around, frantically moving her arms about as if blind, barely avoiding running into trees. Goldenblade is on her knees, crying out. Proteus is inside the hut, figuring out her own thing - luckily able to push away the halucinations; much like Merek. The latter of the two whom starts trying to wake people up. Loud enough to break through some of their halucinations that they can hear that voice telling them it's not real.

Akatsuki is difficult to find, curled up on the ground - with Miho tugging on her body, as if she could somehow 'save' Akatsuki from her position. Prophylaxis' hands move, as he reaches across the field. As if chasing down that one person he could save. Whiskey Sour's voice soon ripples through some of the silence of those still wrapped within their halucination. Go Go Gackt!?

Another call out. Wake up! Miyako's voice echoeing through the forest. People slowly snapping out of it? Or is it too late. The Debuffs continue to tick. Health levels continueing to go down... The Big Ficus' health going up!

For some of them, it feels like minutes, hours have passed. But those who are awake know that it's only been seconds. Precious seconds passing by!

Another fog of pink and purple ruptures through the region, as the Little Audreys rise up and make little 'scree!' sounds and start rushing towards people in the hopes of beating those who are down.

Everything stops existing for moments as the intensely complicated object is shifted, twisted, pressed. An alteration here. A slide there. One piece is out of balance, adjusted, shifted... And the world shifts around her. For those moments, she is deaf to all but the mystery arrayed before her.

Her hands twist, and the object begins to move into a proper configuration. This feels... right. A little more. She feels a latent power there. Something deep within that is demanding to be released... But at the same time, her senses catch up to the screaming.

Shin. Whiskey. Merek. Goldblade. Maybe even Prophylaxis even though the shady doc doesn't seem to be screaming out in emotional agony like the others. Her friends and allies, suffering amidst the horrible smoke. Even if she was mostly shielded, they were suffering... And if they were debilitated, they might be about to lose more than their pants... They were absolutely capable of dealing more than just clothing damage.

Proteus looks down at the object, uncertain for a moment. The consequences of this puzzle... One more move, and it would be solved. And then... Everything it contains, would be released into the World. But with it... Power.

Power enough to change things.

"Puzzle.... solved." She says, twisting the Enigma piece into its completed configuration. The power releases, expanding, reaching as she takes hold of that ephemeral power, turning towards the source of their suffering... "Destroy the Audreys!" She commands, her call backed by an imperative, a potent welling legendary force that demands obedience from that which is directed at.

One moment Kotono is stuck in a nightmare of some kind.

"No... not like that..."

Kotono babbles incessantly about being forced to leave something behind, about how she'll never be able to do acrobatics again... about how her body is giving out on her...

And the next thing she knows, she's being woken up by Miyako shaking her. "Ungh... Miyako... is it..." She shakes her head as she looks around before wrapping her arm around Miyako. "It was just a bad dream. Miyako!" The girl looks like she's about to cry, but then breaks away and says, "Never mind, we have to do this!"

As Proteus holds out the twisted cube, it rises up from her hand, pointed at the Big Ficus. The cube rises just a few centimeters up, before it begins to spin and interlock its various parts. Before Proteus' eyes, the cube begins to solve itself... further. Becoming smaller and smaller, solving itself impossibly into nothingness, until a sudden white line sears from her hand to the being.

The Big Ficus halts all of its motions, and that sense of something breaking the law rises again amongst those who have the ability to sense it. For a moment, on the inspect window, the 'hand' icon appears over the monster. Just for a moment, before it disappears again. But amidst that moment, Big Ficus raises its leafy 'arms', and then spews a vile splashing purple mist at the Little Audreys. Avoiding the members of the team.

The moment the substance touches them, it /melts/ them. Their health bars detonating in moments, while its many poisons become poisonous to the Little Audreys instead of the Adventurers present. Ripping them apart one Little Audrey at a time. It's like a chain-reaction of detonations, sparkling light blasting off of the pink-and-purple misted ground!

Until there are no more Little Audreys. Only the Big Ficus, reeling, touching one leafy 'hand' to its head, confused.

     The screaming just gets more intense. Any attempt to reach him fails. People trying to snap him out of it can't reach him. There's no way to grab him, no way to touch him, no way to reach into the past and shake him from this nightmare. The voices of the present cannot reach this moment.

     Nothing can break this moment.

     Because it is the moment that broke him.

     'Algol's head rams against the ground. Over and over and over the beetle head smashes against the rock and the grass. Toku sparks. Red lines. His HP dwindles as he thrashes. He's hurting himself to drag himself back into the present, dealing damage to himself to try desperately to break the loop, to rip the dagger out of his heart and stave off events years prior. He tries, so desperately, to move Heaven and Earth.

     'I love you, Hayate.'
     'Sorry I'm late. I had to drop off my son.'
     'I love you, Hayate.'
     'Sorry I'm late. I had to drop off my son.'

     'I love...'
     '...my son...'
     'Hayate...'
     '...late.'

     Too late. Too late.

     In the present, 'Algol's self-inflicted berserking fades. He sits back on his legs in a kneeling position, staring up at the sky. The belt chimes.

     "END OF LINE!"

     The insectoid form flakes away, leaving Shin staring up at the sky, his eyes dead and empty, the wind of the battle blowing his scarf around his neck. He is not crying. He already cried for this.

     But there is no world around him right now. He's a casualty of this battle in all but the physical. His heart has been pried open with the same knife once again.

    Merek does take a moment to look to Goldenblade and people he was trying to wake up, with a nod. "You all will be alright," he notes, then he takes a moment to lift up his sword while he points that forward. With a shift of the hands upon it, the man begins to focus, then he draws a flame upon the blade. With a shift forward, he swings along into the creature, that ficus. Swing, parry, the man seems to be enraged while he keeps fighting.

"Gotta keep going!" Kotono says as she rushes at the giant plant and attempts to strike it with her daggers. "You won't get the best of me so easily!"

Unfortunately, she's knocked away just as she's about to hit, sending her skidding across the ground and landing in crouched position. A look of frustration is on her face as she says, "No! That wasn't supposed to happen!"

Goldenblade is buried under the weight of despair, unthinking, incoherent, when Merek's words filter through. How long has it been? Weeks? Months? "What's going on?" she asks. She'll take a handup, and she realizes it's just been moments that strange things have been happening. But the world seems different now. "All right?" she asks Merek. Then he's off to smack down the monster, and she snaps out of it a bit more. Yes, yes. She picks up her swords, from where she'd dropped them, and she scowls. That monster is going to pay. She's furious now, and seeing red. She steps up, slamming blades down on it, burning her best attack and pounding it hard, over and over, and over and over, smashing it as hard and as often as she can raise her arms, beating it with every ounce of grief and despair.

Knit the wound, clean the filth, excise the pencil from a punctured lung. Fix the bone, administer the medicine that makes the brain stop and the pain go away. Next patient, restart the heart, apply the sedative. Sedative. Sedative. How many has he saved? How many more has he failed? How many families have gone home without a parent, sibling, child? How many kill themselves after?

How close were you, Akira?

Too close.

The haze disperses. Prophylaxis' hands fall to his sides, his heartbeat pounding against the inside of his skull like a hammer beating against an interior drum. His fingers twitch, it's a familiar motion. He could do it in his sleep. He does. He has. Hundreds of hundreds of times.

Prophylaxis, the Doctor of Tolbana, stares at the Ficus with eyes clouded with tears and anguish but behind it all is something cold and hard and cuts through all else like a freshly sharpened scalpel.

Hatred. Fury. But there's something more, something beyond even that. He's utterly silent as he raises a hand to the Ficus... And clenches it into a fist.

There's no ceremony, no flash, nothing but the sudden crackling of ice spontaneously forming around, upon, within the ficus. A plant dies in winter. A plant withers in the cold. This is cold beyond cold, a fervent wish for total and fatal stasis that would consign the Ficus' very being to absolute zero if it could.

His hand falls. Below the anger and the antipathy, that hollow, empty feeling shines clear as day for the briefest of moments.

How many times has he seen that nightmare?

How could he not feel this... utter resignation?

    Yuuki is still running. She has been for a while. Looking. Searching. Trying to find someone... Anyone...

    And then the debuff ends. Suddenly thrust back into virtual reality once more instead of that Nightmare Hallunication, Yuuki stumbles, tripping over her own feet. She crashes down into the grass, groaning quietly.

    The Imp picks herself back up, still breathing quickly from the panic of her completely isolation. But as she begins to realize it wasn't real, her heartbeat begins to settle. Her eyes focus once more...

    And Yuuki looks on in confusion at the sight of the Little Audreys all exploding into pixels from the larger plant's gasses. A mob attack other mobs... It's got to be a Confusion debuff.

    Yuuki slowly rises to her feet once more, trying to shake off the feelings that had been running through her moments before. It's alright now. Everything's back to normal. Everyone's here. It wasn't real.

    Yuuki walks over, retrieving the sword she had dropped in her confusion. She takes in a deep breath, centering herself on the reliable feeling of that weapon in her hand...

    No longer quite so amused with the situation, Yuuki starts running towards the Ficus. If it is indeed suffering from Confusion, it won't last. They need to defeat it before it can break free!

    Yuuki sweeps her sword out to the side, the dark blade beginning to glow with light. She then leaps into the air, swinging the sword up over her head, trailing light behind her as she arcs through the air, coming down towards the Ficus. Yuuki brings the Absolute Sword down upon the large plant with a single, mighty blow, unleashing a concussive force of air from the impact point.

    Akatsuki... Doesn't want to move.
    So crushed by that young boy's earnest admission, the ninja is rendered little more than a depressed, destroyed wreck. She wants to stay in bed for a week and not do a thing and there's not a damned thing anyone can do about it.
    Save for Miho.
    No one was there to shake Shizuka out of her funk when her heart was so cruelly stomped by her own petite figure. But here, and now, the repeated shaking from her own guildmate slowly gets Akatsuki to stir.
    Lashes flutter. The smell of the grass hits her. She's not in bed. She's... She's on a battlefield. On a hunt for her damned kimono.
    Slowly, slowly, the Imp sits herself up, a dark shadow shrouding her face as the last vestiges of that horrorterror nightmare of puppy love from her past fades, mentally brushing the crushing incident away like cobwebs and fog, she clenches her teeth into a scowl.
    Now... Now she's angry.
    Akatsuki is legitimately furious, and a cold, controlled rage burns within her chest as she reaches out and puts a hand on Miho's shoulder.
    "... Wake up. It was... A status effect of some kind."
    The ninja's bedside manner is utterly absymal as she feels something -wrong- with the world once again at Proteus' behest.
    All she can do is reach for her kodachi and take a cold, cleansing, steeling breath.
    All she can do is pick herself up and start striding for the ficus as the other rain down their righteous fury on the beast that brought such terrible pain, horror, and agony to the fore.
    The ninja leaps...

    "... Assassinate!"

    Her voice is a glacial hiss as her kodachi flashes in her grasp, as simple, lethal declaration of utterly murderous intent as she channels every ounce of her killing desire for this beast into a single, all or nothing, blow that maximizes her DPS in one stroke.

    "Oh, Jazz," Miyako mutters as Kotono finally gets up. She turns her head, wathcing the others recover, lifting her blade to slash at an approaching Audrey... and then they just all burn away. Good.

    "Right," she tells the other spriggan. "Let's finish this thing off." She returns Kotono's embrace, her free hand slid around her friend, while she lifts her naginata with the other.

    A few quick jabs carves runes into the air with the blade's tip, while the two spriggans lean against one another. A ring of light expands from the tip, spreading wide as it rises into the sky, clouds forming as it rises.

    "ICE RAIN!" she shouts, and the spell triggers, the clouds it called up raining daggers of frozen condensation down onto the plant creature.

        ./~ Guard your women and children well
        ./~ Send these bastards back to hell
        ./~ We'll show them the ways of war
        ./~ They won't come here anymore
        ./~ Use your shield and use your head
        ./~ Fight 'till all of them are dead
        ./~ Raise the flag up to the sky
        ./~ HOW MANY OF THEM CAN WE MAKE DIE

Miho is still lost in her own nightmare at first as Akatsuki wakes up and will seek to try and wake Miho out of the nightmare. As the ninja touches hwe shoulder Miho seems to start snapping out of it and she looks worn, exhausted mentally as she's just been through a wringer. %
"I...I AM GOING TO KILL THAT THING AND USE ITS REMAINS AS TINDER FOR MY FORGE!"

She will slowly get up, she'll draw her bow and level it right at the thing. She'll take a moment to breathe and then lets the shot go.

"BURST SHOT!"

Some are left behind in order to assault the Big Ficus - some wounds take longer to heal than a 24 resurrection cycle. And some scars are burried far deeper than even an Enigma Piece can possibly heal. Merek stands at the front of that attack, having avoided the Halucinations. Bringing his blade forward, he cuts part of the Big Ficus open by its belly. Dreckish clothing drools out of its body where it is cut. It tries to swipe at Kotono as she gets close - but Merek blocks its attack with his blade.

This allows Kotono to get down and manage a few swipes, before they're both forced back! But Goldenblade ducks under one of the swipes as she herself steps in, resuming the assault. Its health stops climbing! It's going down, now that everyone is focusing on the creature! Its regeneration slowly to a halt thanks to Proteus' earlier 'command'.

It reaches its head up, and looks like it's about to bellow out another wave of some kind of status defect when...

CRICK.

A cold ice ripples across its body, flash-freezing it in place as Prophylaxis grasps onto that bond. Feeling that searing cold at his throat once again as his fist bites down, directing that magical might. Those beads, he will no doubt see their cold scars against his neck again for another day, as he forces out the power of Ice upon that being. Earnest pain biting into him, but in turn, also flooding out upon the Big Ficus. It reaches its plant-arm out, freezing in place.

Yuuki comes down like a meteor! Her blade cuts through its frozen arm, and her body slams down to the ground. The wave of icecold mist blasts out from her position, freezing the ground around her as the shockwave follows. The slice firms into a crack - the red line following over its belly, ripping it open and causing it to start spewing green blood - which quickly freezes in place as well!

Assassinate! Akatsuki falls upon its head, ripping out one of its eyes and tearing its head in half with a second swipe that makes the 'top part' of its venus fly trap head seperate from the bottom half - and explodes into light particles. Only for the bottom section of the head to be constantly assaulted by more and more shards of ice - ripping into its body. Stabbing through it, and further turning the creature into an icy statue!

Miho's bow hits its stalk, causing it to shatter, and the top portion to entirely seperate and detonate. The bottom bulbous part all that is left. Before Prophylaxis' fist finally closes. A little bit of blood seeping out...

And the Big Ficus shatters in a shockwave of ice particles and light, creating a beautiful small rainbow in the air for a few moments.

Proteus exits the hut in time to see the Big Ficus shatter into particles and light... And her head bows, surveying the wounded, the suffering present as she takes in the devastation of the aftermath. She doesn't ask if people are okay. There are wounds here that have been reopened that won't show on flesh. Instead, she moves to help scoop up Shin. "We're here, Shin. Everything is going to be all right." She says to him, supportively as she works to help get him off the field along with Whiskey. She doesn't say anything regarding whatever else... for now.

     The monster dies.

     Shin's eyes focus, slightly. Slowly, he heaves himself to his feet. His hands dangle in front of him. His fingers twitch slightly.

     With an inexorable and excruciating motion his right hand slides into his pocket. His back straightens. He adjusts his collar with his left hand.

     The smile slides onto his face, easily. That isekai protagonist smile.

     "Huh?"

     He tilts his head at Proteus and smiles. "What do you mean? I'm fine."

     "We should go, though. Looks like the job's done. You get what you came for?"

    Merek looks to the creature while it's decimated by all of them, then he takes a moment to step back, shifting the weapon from the position he was defending from. The man sheaths the blade while he nods to Kotono, and looks then to Proteus as well as to Shin. "Thank you, you saved us," the man notes to the woman, then he would try to adjust his beltcape while he finds a hat to place it upon his features. "I will be satisfied when this special limited promotional thing is finished. And when we escape..." Then he finds a place to lean back onto a tree. There's a look to the skies, the man seems pretty distant.

    It's... It's over.
    With the mind-fudgery done with and the ficus destroyed, Akatsuki lands on her feet as cool as a cat, expression stony and unreadable as...
    Something floats by her, carried by an errant wind.
    Akatsuki snatches it out of the air on pure refle before she actually takes a look at what it is.
    "..."
    Purple eyes widen as realization dawns.
    "!!!"
    And just like that, a blushing ninja vanishes from sight entirely.

    Straightening with a smile as she watches the plant monster explode into pixellation, Miyako leans on her naginata and looks briefly over to Kotono. Her voice lowers to a whisper as she sings.

        ./~ Dawn has broke, the war has come
        ./~ Move your feet to the marching drum
        ./~ We've won the war, we've paid the toll
        ./~ Fought as one in heart and soul
        ./~ Midnight mare, and blood-red roan
        ./~ Fight to keep this land your own
        ./~ Sound the horn and call the cry
        ./~ How many of them can we make die.

    And then it's time to make her way up to the pile of stolen clothing and see if she can find her boots. "Ko-chan, any sign of yours?" she asks.

After a little bit of frustration and sorting, she finds her gi and slips it back on. A few moments later she finds her shoes which she slips back on. Then she looks to Miyako with a sigh. "I just washed these stockings, now I have to wash them again!" She sighs a little but then shrugs. "At least we made it through!" She smiles and gives her friend another hug.

Miho's shot was on the mark and was the final blow on the monster. She looks tired she looks to Akatsuki for a moment then the tiny ninja is gone. She'll have to talk to her later, she does find her missing clothing. She'll turn a bit red shove it in her inventor as fast as she can. Then she's turns to leave. "I ... need to go be alone for a while. Thanks for your support..."

Goldenblade looks up as the creature dies, exploding into pixels, and she continues to hack and slice at the stone beneath it for several moments, just for the burn of muscular exertion, stopping only when she finds herself fatigued enough that it's tough to go on. She's hanging onto the ragged edge of coping now, and she wonders, "Is the rest of this damned game going to be like this? If it is, I'm going to sit out, I think." Not that she could, of course. But that was pretty brutal. She looks around to the others, nodding agreement with Miho about some alone time, and to Merek about being glad to escape. She hadn't minded the game up to now, it's better than stuck in a 75-year old body. But this ... makes her want to be able to log out and go back to 12-hour days laying bricks.

    Yuuki slowly rises as the plant explodes into pixels. She sheathes her sword, though keeps a grip on the weapon.

    Looking around for a few moments and seeing the effects on everyone else, Yuuki sighs quietly...

    Then then slaps her cheeks, "No! Not going to let that stupid plant win."

    Yuuki starts walking away from the hut, calling out, "Hey everyone! Time to go collect our reward. Then, I think, food! I could really go for something sweet right now."

Prophylaxis' throat burns, frostbite nips a blackened ring around his neck like a permanent stigmata for an ancient but unforgotten sin. The monster dies a cold and broken thing, its remains scattering into a flurry of diamond dust. Finally, he closes his eyes and lets the tension flood out of him. Fatigue crashes into him like a freight train, but it's a welcome change from what it replaces.

He looks to Yuuki with an expression that says 'I am approximately 99.99% done with everything today,' but over the course of a singularly crushing sigh, even that too exchanges some of its sharpness for concern. "...You okay?" He asks, voice creaking out of his throat like a rusty door hinge. Then, as she seems to perk up, he says: "...Are you up for replacing those pants you owe me too?"

...Says the man with in the baby-blue bunny-print boxer shorts.

    Yuuki is questioned about pants. She laughs sheepishly, looking away and asking as she rubs her neck, "Pants? What pants? Last time I saw pants was the big plant chewing them up into little pieces!" She continues on walking.

    Miyako hmms to herself. Food. That does sound good. It's been a stressful few... minutes? Yeah, the fight really was that short. Dang. Well, there was still the search before it. That was most of an hour. Or more.

    So she keeps on digging. And... "Well, there's /one/ boot..." She tosses it into Inventory and keeps looking for the other. A minute later she finds it, with several holes along the length of it.

    "... sigh. Wonderful. ... Well, maybe I can have it repaired? What do you think, Ko-chan?"

    She waits a moment for an answer, then adds, "Well. We should probably go for food. Up for a burger? Or maybe somebody's figured out taco sauce?"

Looking to Miyako, Kotono nods. "I'm sure they can repair it while we get something to eat." She grins. "Always got to make the best of things!"

It's over. Her clothing torn, her mood ruined, and her night near-literally cast into the great Recycling Bin in the sky, Whis collapses to her knees.

"Is it over? Thank goodness."

She barely manages to bring her fingers together to sign a heart. "Nice... laundry, everyone. Yeah."

"Shin if Proteus ever, and I mean ever, asks for us to come along to a quest, we need... like... six more people. They're not allowed to pick. Even if they do cool stuff. Agreed, everyone?"

     Shin laughs and runs his fingers through his hair. "Sure. Sounds like a plan to me."

     He sounds so earnest. His hand scratches the back of his head, exactly like you'd expect from a derpy isekai protagonist.

     And his smile looks so real.