Chevaleresse

Once again, Hiroki's body lit up with pain, the feeling of whatever Watcher had just done radiating from her now-exposed face through her entire being. She gasped through clenched teeth, but didn't allow herself to falter for more than a moment. She'd been subjected to this over and over, and she refused to let the pain rule over her. This needed to end, and end quickly, because her armor wasn't enough to stop. . . whatever it was that Watcher did, that felt like it shredded things at the atomic level. Hiroki continued to squeeze down with her grip, doing her best to stop the man from escaping. She kicked off the ground and her thrusters came to life, creating a pinwheel of fire as she did a full flip in place to slam Watcher against the ground and drag him along it to stun him further. She wouldn't toss him as originally planned; she had no idea what his range was, and didn't relish the thought of allowing him to collect himself by opening the distance between them up. Her guns angled and tilted, straining to bring themselves in line with Watcher; if she managed to maintain that grip, she would hold him out far enough to get her shoulder cannons to bear while her "wings" wrapped around to barrage him in a wide arc.

Another pause before Remilia replied, though as before it was short enough to be barely noticeable. "I'm certain that any more otherworldly things like that will be brought to your attention before they can cause damage." The vampiress turned her gaze to Empi, a faint look of confusion crossing her face before she smoothed it out. "Of course humans live here. They've lived here since before the barrier, and will continue to live here. Do humans. . . not live in places near wherever you're from?" The confusion returns, and deeper as the vampire begins to recognize what, exactly, Empi is. Rory's response elicits its own confused glance, and an inaudible "Weirdos" muttered under her breath. Masako's comment on the lack of snacks elicits Sakuya, who had apparently moved directly adjacent to her at some point without anyone noticing, giving her the most polite and proper irritable glare possible as she held out a tray of tea cakes. Remilia, meanwhile, answered the last remaining question. "The Human Village is not large. It shouldn't be an issue finding anything unusual that might be there."

Heidrun jumped as Venus suddenly reappeared, emitting a sharp, startled squeak. She held a hand to her chest as she breathed for a moment, trying to calm herself down. "Aah, you. . . Please, pleasepleaseplease don't do that to me." She looked back at Navin to finally answer his question. "Umm, yes. I can defend myself, but only. . . Well, it's not a good idea. The only thing I've done in the past is use a spell that links individuals together so they share harm. So, umm, yes, not splitting up sounds like a much better idea to me."

Time seemed to slow as Watcher began to rip Cardinal's domain to shreds. Hiroki gasped at the sight, feeling more powerless than ever. Wait. That's what it always was, wasn't it? Feeling too weak and useless to do anything, feeling like she was going to lose what little she'd scraped together for herself. The fear of defeat and fading once more into irrelevancy. The thing she'd almost been consumed by time and time again. Not any more. The girl stood up as Cardinal cried out. By the time Watcher raised his arm, she was sprinting at him full tilt. I did the impossible before, I can do it again. She shot the God of Nil one last glance as she ran, eyes wide with the fear she pushed back for the action she took to break the stare. Hiroki leapt forward at Watcher, reaching for him with her left hand outstretched, and summoned her mech, it's dark metallic shell wrapping around her as she tried to seize Watcher and grab him, throw him, anything to fight back against him regardless of how futile it felt.

This is troubling. There were no detectable mechanical issues caused by the beam, and yet she could barely muster the strength to keep her weapon on target. Yet, as the Necromaster refused to stand down, she did so regardless of the effort, swinging the weapon's roaring muzzle over and raking him with a steadily intensifying barrage of electrified bullets. Fire Thunderlord at Necromaster for 2d8+DEX - 16

Remilia paused for a moment after Masako spoke, seemingly thinking about something. "First, I would thank you for helping my maid overcome the illness she was under. I'm sure it won't happen again." Another brief pause. "I know what you and Patchouli have told me, as far as your investigation goes. You will be able to find more information in the Human Village, and hopefully something else of use." The vampiress took a sip of her tea, and then most certainly did not burn her tongue or come close to yelping in pain, though her response to this definitely imagined event was graceful enough as she set the cup calmly back down. "Since you've been helpful, I'll overlook your trespassing on my property. I might even be inclined to let you visit again. . . but please give advance notice."

"Can we just not and say we did?" Scarlet said out loud to nobody in particular as she brought her gun up and snapped off a burst of three shots in her direction, aimed more to suppress attempts at return fire than to inflict actual damage. She turned to look at their client while she moved for cover. "What'd you do to make this many friends?" She'd assumed that anyone wanting to meet in that cesspit of a location had their share of enemies, but hit squads out in the open were another thing entirely. Though he didn't seem to have upset anyone with enough cash to kit said squads out with anything particularly powerful or exotic, except for that arm. Hopefully this one's ego would be as excessively large as it was. Fire Laser Rifle for 2d6+5 damage

"Then what, um, are you going to do?" Hiroki felt at her throat almost unconsciously. A part of her still said she should just take the easy way out and finish off Cardinal as both of the others there suggested. But then, both were her opposition, so why would she do what they wanted? "You said, um, you have nothing to lose. And. . . I can't do anything to him." It hurt to say that out loud, to admit her own weakness, but she couldn't deny it. "I don't, um, know what happens if nobody wins here. But I don't think it's, um, good. And I can't do anything any more." Hiroki sighed, and sat down. It really was lost, wasn't it? She couldn't do what Watcher wanted, and convincing Cardinal to stand up for herself hadn't worked. She was powerless, once again. Standing against Watcher herself would mean losing the only thing she had to hold onto. "It's up to you. But. . . sometimes, um, even if you don't think you deserve something, you need to push for it anyway. That's how, um, I got here."

"So. . . she's with you?" "That appears to be the case." "At least the story is consistent." Just as quickly as they'd prepared to strike, the residents of the manor had calmed down, and Sakuya walked out of the room after a brief visual assessment, presumably to fetch the beverage that gave the room its name. "Remilia should be right down." As if on cue, the doors to the room swung open, admitting none other than the mistress herself. Her demeanor was a far cry from her original appearance, being refined and regal overall. "Hello there. I haven't had a chance to properly introduce myself." Remilia performed a shallow curtsy, not actually breaking eye contact with the group. "As you already know, my name is Remilia Scarlet, and this is my mansion that you've invited yourselves into. However, you've done me a service, so I'll overlook that for now." She gestured towards the table; the number of seats wasn't sufficient for the entire group, but there were a few nearby at smaller, two-person tables that would probably suffice. "Please, sit for a moment. Since I think it would be mutually beneficial, I've decided to do you a bit of a favor in return for you helping with Sakuya." The maid in question came back from where she'd gone carrying a tray stacked precariously with teacups, as well as a pot that still steamed from the end. She offered the stuff to each visitor in turn, before leaving small containers of cream and sugar on the table between them. Remilia added quite a bit of both to her cup in a manner she probably thought was subtle, though by all other respects she seemed to be acting as the heiress she claimed to be.

Heidrun hesitantly followed Navin. "I, umm, I don't technically have a light, but I can do this." A look of concentration preceded her right hand beginning to glow brightly enough to serve as a light source as she held it forward. "And, um, maybe if they're hiding something, they put it in the less obvious place? The boxes seem like they'd be the first place to check, but it's probably more secure than those. At least I hope it is, it wouldn't be very good if it was just lying around, even if that would make our jobs easier." Heidrun closed her mouth consciously and deliberately to stop herself from rambling any more.

"You would be correct. My skillset has worked well to deter the odd vampire hunting 'hero,' I think, assuming they get past Meiling. Not that they're a frequent problem." She didn't really respond to the comment about fighting, but it did prompt what might've been a pensive look for a moment. "Well, if you can be helpful and avoid making a mess, then I look forward to it. Much better than my usual visitor. . ." The sound of footsteps sounded from behind them as Meiling caught up, patting Chen's head (who had been following with some measure of confusion for a while) and prompting an offended squeak from the bakeneko, which Meiling promptly ignored. Sakuya raised an eyebrow at her. "Done already?" "Don't look at me like that, it was just a door." Sakuya simply looked at her for a moment before turning to face forward again, then gesturing at the door ahead. Chen seemed to have stopped at some point behind the party, staring off into the distance as she occasionally did. Sakuya took a moment to glance at her before pulling the door open, revealing a well-stocked tea room with a blonde woman in what looked like some variety of black uniform seated at the table and looking somewhat disoriented. Evidently their hosts were not expecting her presence, as Meiling dropped into a fighting stance and an alarming number of knives appeared in Sakuya's hands. UB-65 is in!

"Hm?" She turned with a questioning look to Rory. "I'm not familiar with that term. I'm assuming you mean some sort of supernatural ability, which is yes, of course. Though I'm surprised you ask about Meiling now. That wasn't a particularly unusual feat, for her, and I don't believe she has used any sort of magical art to enhance herself." She turned to face forward once more. "I don't know what you expect of the servants of a vampire, though."

"No," she said somewhat flatly, seemingly ending the discussion. However, after a moment's contemplation. . . "Typically. Though I don't think anyone has ever asked. This is not a safe place for humans to be." Patchouli glanced at Lambda for a moment. "You can tell your. . ." She frowned for a moment. "Shikigami to calm down. Despite what I said, the only threat here is Flandre, and it's doubtful that she would cause an issue with both of us here." She gestured vaguely at Sakuya before pondering something for another quiet moment. "I could make an exception. If you bring in something to add to it, and don't disturb it, I will let you peruse the library. I am not, however, responsible for babysitting you in case Flandre gets bored."

Rory's inspection doesn't reveal much at first. No obvious aura or semblance ability - but at the same time, the power and precision of the strike was clearly in excess of what a human could achieve without some kind of supernatural means. Looking a bit closer. . . she still doesn't see much, but there's the smallest itch in the back of her mind, a feeling of something distinctly non-human and powerful at that. Of course, Meiling barely noticed the look, being more concerned with satisfaction at her own strike, followed by realization that she would have to clean up the aftermath, followed by continuing exasperation that it was necessary in the first place. Isobel's approach seemed to work at first. The hat slowly rose up to reveal blue bangs and then a suspicious set of red eyes evidently belonging to the mistress of the house. A look that looked alarmingly like a cat spotting a mouse flitted across them for a moment, incongruous on her innocent-looking face, until the even-more-incongruous action of a tengu landing upon her frilly cap offered a rather decisive distraction. While Remilia squawked irritably and immediately began to wave her arms at Masako as she rattled off her spiel, Sakuya approached and pulled Isobel slightly to the side. "You may want to be slightly more careful. As an outside human, you aren't protected by the agreements of Gensokyo." Patchouli, meanwhile, just watched the scene unfold, expression unreadable. Masako eventually found herself forcibly removed from Remilia's head, not by the gate guard as she may have expected, but by a rather startlingly strong grip on her leg by the mistress herself. A switch seemed to have occurred in her demeanor; while she hadn't physically grown in height (though the detective still hadn't found anything to solidly rule that ability out,) she seemed larger and more imposing. She found herself decisively set down (if by "set down" one meant "unceremoniously tossed," though likely not quite hard enough that a tengu wouldn't be able to right herself) as Remilia spoke. "Enough! I am Remilia Scarlet, the Scarlet Devil! You will not use my head as a perch or invade my bedroom! Sakuya!" The vampiress paused for a moment, realizing the decision she'd already made - which was enough to get her to change the following one. ". . . Please remove my 'guests' to the tea room." She took a deep breath. "I will be down momentarily." The maid raised an eyebrow, but elected not to push Remilia any further at the moment. "Thank you, Mistress Scarlet." She gestured out the door. "If you will?" Meiling stayed behind as Sakuya herded everyone out of the group and into the cavernous halls of the mansion once again, hefting the (visibly quite thick and presumably heavy) door and setting it in place while a gaggle of fairies in maid outfits approached around the corner carrying various tools and fasteners, most of which did not appear to be appropriate for the job. Patchouli, patently uninterested in home repair, elected to tag along with the group, falling in somewhat near Walmond and Lambda.

Scarlet prodded at her collarbone gingerly. Bruised, possibly cracked, but not so badly that it was palpable. "You look even uglier than usual, though." Unfortunately, judging by the man's statements and the fact that he had a personal shield, she couldn't fix his yawning chest wound quite yet. "The surface is the most obvious path; you sure that's a good idea?" While she spoke, she attended to their other companion's wounds for a moment, holding a hand close and allowing a small stream of nanobots to escape her body. "This is probably going to hurt." I really need to find some actual damn medical supplies. . .

"Remilia is upset. Don't be an ass." The profanity sounded distinctly odd coming out of the maid's mouth, as if it was shaped oddly. If anything, though, it just added to the impact. "Seconded. I don't know what kind of. . . weird tragic backstory you're bringing in, or something, but can you make fun of my boss when she's not in earshot, at least?" Not that she didn't agree, to an extent - Remilia could be. . . capricious. . .at times. "Also, is it really that weird to get attacked by fairies? I swear I have to kill a dozen every time I get groceries." "Remilia, as far as I can tell, she is correct. These people seem to be experienced in these matters, and my research at least lines up with her conclusions." "How am I supposed to know it's not messing with all of you too, huh!?" "Remi, you're being irrational, can you PLEASE just-" "Go away! And don't call me that in front of strangers!" All three of the heiress's employees sighed in unison. "I'm going in." "She won't appreciate that." "I don't have a better solution." "Well, asking permission isn't working. . ." The gate guard cracked her knuckes and stepped back from the door. "Must you destroy another part of the house? You seem to have misunderstood what a guard-" "JAOOOOO-O!" Meiling abruptly dropped into a powerful stance and struck the door with a powerful palm strike, causing the unfortunate portal to liberate itself from its hinges immediately and slam into the far wall, sailing directly over the head of what appeared to be a very spooked ten year old in the process. It seemed to stick where it struck for a moment before sliding down in a nearly comical fashion. Said individual would have looked familiar had one paid any attention to the various paintings they'd encountered; it was difficult to mistake pale blue hair and red eyes. "AAAH! Meiling's attacking me too! Sakuya, save meeeee!" She skittered backward on the bed, then spun and leapt off of the edge with a flap of the bat wings protruding from her back. It seemed as if she was going for where the door had come to rest on the wall, at least until she apparently processed that it was not, in fact, an exit, at which point she vanished behind the (rather oversized) bed frame, save for the top of her mob cap peeking above the headboard.

"Why?" Hiroki almost startled herself as he asked the question out loud. "He just, um, attacked you. He brought me here to beat you." "Whatever Watcher wants of you, do the opposite." If she needs to prove herself to the Planes. . . Why would defeating Hiroki do that? She was just a tournament fighter, not a god. And the gods certainly didn't fear her; she'd willingly become a pawn in their plans in order to get a chance to prove her own power. However, there was someone here they did fear, someone who both they and she were unable to defeat. "If you need, um, to prove yourself. . . fight him. You're the only one that can."

"Why would I do that?" Hiroki let the cannon fall to its resting position at her side. "I don't care, um, about glory. I just want to win, and I can't." Her voice faltering somewhat was audible even through the tinny filter of her mech's intercom. He'd already made that quite clear. Hiroki was stubborn and probably foolhardy by a few measures, but she wasn't stupid. If Watcher was goading her into attacking, then he stood to benefit from it; either the fight would be a sham and her victory would be meaningless alongside furthering whatever ends he had, or he would effortlessly crush her after ripping her power away from her forever. The Knight shifted in place, bringing Hiroki to face Cardinal once again. The woman had tried to kill her - but supposedly her life depended on it. If Watcher's intervention hadn't been quite so dramatic, if she'd broken free on her own, maybe she would have acted before thinking, maybe done the same thing. "I told you," she said to the False God simply. "I said, um, I didn't want to fight. And that he would do, um, something like this."

Hiroki coughed and gasped as soon as Cardinal was removed from her throat; she barely saw what went on afterward, although what she heard told her enough. She would have laid on the ground longer if her mech hadn't resummoned itself, defaulting to an attempt to hover that slowly brought her back up onto her feet. Even if her lungs still burned and her still ached, the Hellfire Knight was ready for battle once more, having come out of the temporary limbo it had been banished to none the worse for wear. The massive armored frame turned towards Cardinal; numerous indicators lit up across Hiroki's visor as her guns acquired target locks. They hummed ominously, preparing to fire as if Hiroki's shock, fear, and anger was powering them directly. Hiroki panted as she glared at her attacker through the visor; in the near-total darkness, the soft reddish glow inside the helmet itself was enough to make her face visible, if one were to look hard enough. "I refuse." Cardinal had just tried to kill her. She took advantage of the fact that her opponent was just a frightened girl who was in far over her head, both metaphorically and literally. But Hiroki had come here with a mission, and a goal. The mission had been given to her by someone she hardly knew, of course, but the one thing she'd never wavered in was her pursuit of her goals. She would keep fighting, and keep winning. Every single opponent she'd fought so far had been defeated by nothing but her expertise, her skill, and her will to win. And now. . . she was supposed to execute someone who wasn't even in a mech, someone who had been crippled by a third party, who was sitting there incoherent with fear. "I came here to save Tempest." She spoke slowly, deliberately, forcing herself to enunciate each word without halting. "I was going to defeat Cardinal. I didn't." She pointed with her main cannon at Watcher. "You ended this fight, so I . . . failed." A bit of heat entered her voice. "You took that chance from me."

Somewhat fortunately for Hiroki, her startled gasp as her mech vanished from underneath her filled her lungs. Or, it would have, if striking the ground (insofar as the ground existed) hadn't immediately driven it out of her again as Cardinal's hands cloased about her windpipe. The sudden, animal fear in her violet eyes was visible for just a moment as the remaining plasma sailed off into the nether and dissipated, plunging them both into darkness. It was like a nightmare had come true. Why - again with my mech-! Fragments of thoughts skittered through her head as she struggled beneath her much larger opponent. Her own tears leaked out of her eyes, tracing back along her chin or rolling down her neck to stop on Cardinal's fingers. Hiroki's hands, still soft and delicate and thoroughly untempered pushed against Cardinal's chest weakly as she kicked her legs. I-I have to - have to think - why is this - is this really how - but I tried so hard - Her physical scrabbling was matched by what happened in her head, as Hiroki tried to pull together her thoughts with a rapidly dwindling oxygen supply. The terror and the crushing feeling of defeat threatened to overwhelm her at this cruel reminder of who and what she really was beneath the armor. The pale-haired girl eventually managed to think enough to change her approach to trying to pry Cardinal's arms apart, make it harder for her to maintain the terrible pressure on her neck, knowing full well she had no hope of winning a physical altercation. She could merely delay the inevitable.

"The worst sort of beasts." Mitsurugi gazed out into the distance for the moment before turning her eyes to Ako. "A threat beyond mortal comprehension. They creep into the seams of the world and corrupt what they can, feeding and growing until they begin to feast on reality itself." The goddess paused for a moment; while it was difficult to tell, she was collecting herself. "I have fought them before."

Hiroki still wasn't quite convinced that this Doom person - the name might've been a tipoff but it's not as if there weren't people with equally menacing names at home - was someone to collaborate with, but it didn't seem that what Cicivexa was doing would actually do much. The only thing he would find out is that he couldn't retrieve the mask at this time. Plus, they had the stone now, so they could leave. That just left one issue. . . "Is, um, there another exit?" She didn't relish the thought of trying to cross that gap once again.

"Eientei is in the Bamboo Forest, not far from the human village. And. . . thank you." She returned her attention to the discussion the rest of the group seemed to be having. The maid nodded at Isobel's question. "Unless you have a better idea. You know more about these things than we do; your group is in the best position to voice for me." Meiling, meanwhile, was giving Masako a bit of a glare after being called "China" (or perhaps it was the slight around her tea-serving skills; Meiling happened to quite enjoy brewing, serving, and consuming the beverage.) "If this is really the plan, I should come with. Remilia is. . . perturbed. . . and would likely feel threatened by a group of armed strangers appearing suddenly in her house." The magician was confident that their combined power did not exceed that of her and Meiling, of course, especially if a fight were to break out in the library, but Sakuya was quite strong, and Remilia was aware of this. "I should come with too. Though, Patchouli, you have to know that Marisa is going to 'borrow' something while we're both occupied." The response was simply a long-suffering sigh with a small coughing fit following. "Well, if there are more of these things, we probably shouldn't waste any more time." Meiling gave Patchouli a last glance of concern, and as the indoorsy librarian seemed to be recovering, she started towards another large set of doors, which swung open with a light touch. "This way. And again, please don't wander around or poke anything." The walk through the Scarlet Devil Mansion was interesting. It by and large looked like one might expect, with that grim and regal feeling that fit a vampire lord's castle perfectly. At one point, they passed a set of paintings that seemed to depict a man some would recognize as Vlad III, and immediately next to it one of a girl looking about twelve. It looked like the girl was doing her best to imitate the painting's expression, but otherwise there didn't seem to be much resemblance; she had light blue hair and red eyes. The group made their way into a large hall seemingly meant to serve to receive audiences, or not-so-close friends; Meiling looked mildly annoyed that it stood empty save for a fairy in a maid outfit taking a duster to a table in it (which seemed to be doing more harm than good.) They eventually traveled into a room dominated by the large staircase in the middle, and the equally large stained glass window. The second floor seemed to serve as a sort of frame for the whole scene. Dark reds dominated the window, which seemed to depict the same girl as the painting earlier as well as another girl, slightly taller and blonde but with the same scarlet eyes, with what could have been a pair of wings if it didn't look like a string of crystals sprouting from her back. Meiling lead the group past the questionable architectural choice (given the owner of the house) and around a walkway which gave a different, but still excellent view of the window. A smaller but still slightly excessively ornate set of doors (part of their excessiveness being that they were a double door for what was clearly a one-person portal) was their apparent destination. The gate guard sighed, then knocked on the door. A muffled voice sounded from within. "Is Sakuya gone?" Another sigh. "No, Sakuya is not gone. You have visitors." "Visitors!? Send them away! Why did you bring visitors to my bedroom!?!?" The voice, already fairly high pitched, turns shrill. "Because you bolted here and wouldn't come out." "I. . . It doesn't matter, get rid of them! How am I supposed to trust random strangers? Or are you trying to stake me too, huh?" Meiling rolls her eyes at the door, then looks at the group with a look that said something along the lines of "do you see what I have to deal with?"

"I, that sounds good," Heidrun stood back a bit, nervously glancing behind herself as Navin started to wrench at the gate. She didn't want to place people in danger with her presence, but she didn't have much choice but to throw herself into the mix, either, especially if this was tied into something as big as everyone seemed to be saying. "I would say we should try to do this peacefully, but I don't think this is the sort of thing where we can politely convince them to stop doing what they're doing." She sighed, as if it had been on the table at all.

Great, an all-girl merc squad. Those types definitely weren't annoying. There was a 50/50 shot of them trying to recruit her, and it was better odds than that of them giving either the "men are evil" speech or some variety of "girl power." All-gender groups tended to attract a certain kind of person. Of course, they could be a squad of those "dolls," too, which made it less likely. Here was hoping. A quick assessment revealed her target priorities. The oversized handgun couldn't manage a rate of fire meaningful enough to make her anything something other than bottom priority unless that bulk was hiding a magazine and autoloader. The other handguns were threats, but the assault rifle could do some serious damage if left unchecked. Of course, that assumed they couldn't get away from them in short order. . . and she had an idea. "Watch your heads." In the chaos of the initial attack and the posturing of their assailants, she'd been reassembling her least favorite piece of gear. Now, the oversized railgun buzzed ominously as the magnets charged up. A loud boom reverberated down the tunnel as Scarlet let fly - into the ceiling. Scarlet fires her Archer into the ceiling above their attackers, dealing 4*DEX (20) damage to it and 5 to her.