Chevaleresse

"I'll take it!" There's a moment of silence. "Just, um, because you guys don't know what to do with it. I'm just getting rid of the problem." She screws her face up into something that she probably thought looked impassive, or haughty. After another moment, she held her hand out toward the body pillow.

"It's. . . You say that, and I know you mean well, but I am a god. Or, I was." She looked up at Jade without raising her head, through her hair. "My guardianship was small, for a divine being. And I could not protect even that. Imagine being entrusted with the care of a cat, and failing even to keep that animal alive when your peers are raising families. That is how pathetic my failure is." She sighed. "I am sorry. I am being horribly rude to you and your concern." She started to stand up, turning toward the exit and giving her face a final once-over with her sleeve - a gesture that did nothing about the obvious redness and dampness of her eyes. "We should go. Our companions await us."

Hiroki's initial response to Kagari's behavior was a small and vaguely confused-sounding noise. After slipping off her shoes, she padded forward a couple steps on stockinged feet. "Um. . . Kagari. I wanted, um, to talk. If, um, that's okay." She looked down, to the side, essentially at everything but right at Kagari and her moaning into her bed. (At least it wasn't the kind of moaning Blink had anticipated.) "I just wanted, um, to figure out what happened in, um, that match. . ."

Mitsurugi shakes her head, wiping at her face again - her sleeves were starting to become noticeably damp. "I am sorry, but you don't understand. I am a goddess of storms and other calamities, yes. But I am also a guardian spirit. For generations and generations of humans, they asked me to keep them safe from foreign threats, and I did. I watched lineages rise and fall and guided some of them myself. Some of them even carried by blood. And when they needed a guardian more than anyone else, when all of them were imperiled at once. . . I wasn't enough. They put their faith into me, even people who had sworn enmity and claimed me to be a demon, and even with all of that power I couldn't fight our foes off." Her tone took a sharp turn toward bitterness. "I don't even know why I continue to claim the title of a guardian deity. I'm certainly not a very good one."

Archer & James The Master frowned for a moment. "Could be. . . If they came straight from the shrine and are making this much noise already, they're probably our strongest opponent. Well, even with just the latter; they're either incredibly strong or confident to the point of stupidity. Or both." He started to walk in the direction Merlin had indicated, mumbling to himself. "That sound. . . Thunder? But there was no flash of light. . . some sort of explosives, maybe. . .?" He still stopped on occasion to draw out his sigils, but continued a steady pace toward the sound. Saber & Nadia "Got it. Just try not to get jumped by Assassin." There was an impression of activity for a moment without Masaru actually speaking."Although, maybe if you make yourself look weak and vulnerable, we'll pull out some of the nastier types. You know, bullies, the type that likes to prey on people." She got the feeling that Masaru would be shaking his head in disgust if he had a head or muscles to move it. "Really, I hope this whole thing gets resolved fast. As much as I like a good fight, this kind of thing isn't good for people around it. Plus I can't handle cities like this. I need a lot of room to fight without worrying about offing old Grandma Lissa."

It took several moments of Mitsurugi more of less blubbering incoherently for her to settle down enough to actually get a coherent response out to Jade. She stopped for a moment to breathe and wipe at her face. "The others did nothing wrong," she said finally, with a sniffle at the end. "It's just. . . Everything they say reminds me of my world. Of my failure." The goddess put her head in her hands and started to sob again. "They all died because I wasn't strong enough. . ."

Hiroki hesitantly walked in (and nearly tripped over her own shoes for her trouble), doffing her cloak after a furtive glance around the room. She slipped out of the accursed shoes a moment afterward, and then looked awkwardly at Kagari for a few moments before breaking her own silence. "Um. Hi."

"If you didn't wanna be center, I think Yuri should do it! This is kinda your style, right?" A small moment of realization dawns on her face. "Oh! And speaking of style, I think we should all go on the shopping trip? I was looking some stuff up earlier, and I found out that one of the super-popular idols here is the girl who sells Rhythm Next dresses. I bet if we got a bunch of those, they'd love us!. . . Even if they're not really my style. . ."

A second messenger runs out of the castle proper, slowing briefly upon seeing the first is still standing there, and makes a beeline for Isobel. "Lord Silef's diviners have ascertained the location of the ones you called Berserker and Assassin, as well as the fortification that recently appeared." He rattles off a set of directions to each one, then continues. "She would also like to extend an offer; she will personally fight alongside you on one of your missions, should you so desire, and will do so until this campaign is concluded." He bows. "Normally I would ask if you would like to send a reply back, but my fellow here seems to already be prepared to do so." The man in question shoots the one speaking a brief, but withering look, before smoothing his face over once again; the one receiving is already headed back to the castle. Some distance across the courtyard, a blue shimmer about three feet to the right of Lexiel announces the reappearance of Nobunaga. "Excellent! It seems that things are finally moving. I should mention, though, even with your support, my mana reserves are rather low at the moment. I'll likely only be able to join you or your soldiers for one battle, and perhaps not even the entire thing. Fighting is taxing, you know, even if you're a spiritual being. You should know this better than I do!"

Hiroki jumped once again; it was almost becoming habit at this point, as much as she mentally berated herself for being so visibly bothered. Her consternation was not helped as she was promptly glomped and knocked fully over, being a rather small teenager who did most of her fighting with a machine. She squeaked a bit on the impact with the ground, and took a moment to collect herself before replying to the robo-maid's (at this point she wasn't even questioning it) inquiry. "This is, um, Magna. We, um, met earlier, on the first world we, um, all got sent to."

"YEAH! HEAVENLY THUNDERING COMBINATION STRIKEEE!" Hoshiko shouted and struck a pose that brought to mind casting thunder magic as Terrin's bolt struck the fighter down, brandishing her own bow in a way that was simultaneously visually impressive and thoroughly impractical.

Mitsurugi sat, and took a long draught - probably more than was strictly healthy, but seeing as she didn't follow the rules of normal people, was probably ok - and handed the bottle back to Jade before responding. She opened her mouth to speak, but uncharacteristically, no sound came out. She closed it, took a deep breath, and tried again to no avail. The facade cracked; a tear ran down her face. And two, and three, and then it shattered entirely. The goddess started outright bawling, with a halfhearted attempt to cover it with one voluminous sleeve. "I just. . . Everyone . . . I couldn't. . ."

Ice let out a faint, nigh-imperceptible sigh. Serious Merlin had been nice, for the short time it had lasted. For her part, other than the sigh, her expression remained glacial as always - to the point that one might think they'd imagined the exhalation. She followed behind the other woman, eyes constantly scanning the area for potential threats. A question came to mind after a moment of this. "Merlin. What threats should I - we - prepare for specifically?"

Hiroki jumped again at the robot maid's call. After she took a moment to settle herself, she shook her head as she replied. "Um, no. I was talking, um, to Venus. . ." She trailed off, unsure of whether she could continue. He had confided in her after all, but what he had confided was worrisome, to say the least. "He said some stuff, um, that, um, was concerning. And he started laughing maniacally when he finished." Hiroki, looking about, briefly reconsidered taking her chances with the armory again, with the number of people gathered in the courtyard. "What's, um, going on?"

Mitsurugi There was a moment of silence as the goddess considered the man's offer. This place was hardly suited for one to relax and enjoy oneself - particularly when they were in the midst of a war - but. . . "Let us find a place to sit, at least. Anything of importance will be reiterated." Truth be told, she would rather not miss a briefing and was completely aware of how important such a thing really was to attend, but she would be useless if she couldn't get herself under control. Hiroki The girl slowly backed away from the artist as he burst into a fit of laughter. The man made her legitimately fear for her life, even if she hadn't done anything to set him off personally. Willing to murder his entire family over the suspicion they'd had something to do with his girlfriend's murder? Venus was a bit offputting, but apparently her unease had been well founded. She mumbled something mostly unintelligible about heading out to the courtyard, and then very nearly ran in that direction, brushing past Jade and Mitsurugi on her way out. Hiroki leaves the Armory.

i'm still here

J5, longbow the Fighter

Somewhat abruptly, a man dressed in the attire of a common soldier runs out of the fort and toward LOTUS and company. Normally, this wouldn't be unusual, save for the fact that his approach was rather urgent and that he came from the main entrance hall rather than the barracks or armory. "I have a message for your group from our diviners," he said as he slowed to a halt before Laver. He took a quick bow, though for a brief moment during the gesture there was a dubious expression on his face. "They detected something, uh, unusual." Given that they were being assaulted by beings created from the legends of another world entirely, "unusual" was probably something to pay attention to. "Some sort of fortification that wasn't there before, not far from here to the east. It's radiating a lot of magic; Lord Silef believes that it may be related to your group somehow, as it seems to have appeared at around the same time. The enemy seems to have noticed as well, as they've begun to prepare to besiege it. Finally, her advisers would like to suggest that you try to push the enemy force back from the walls, so that you can get your strike teams out without being surrounded." He bowed again. "Would you like to send a reply to her?"

Hiroki nodded, and started to walk out the door. She stopped about three steps into this, glancing back at the pile on the floor in which the various parts of her disguise had been haphazardly tossed. Looking thoroughly uncomfortable, she skittered over to it and donned it as quickly as she could manage. With that done and another look at Blink without saying anything, she moved onward toward the teleporter that would lead to Kagari's room; it was probably a good thing that these trains didn't have hallways for Hiroki to walk through at her slow and rather ungainly pace in the disguise.

Mitsurugi shook her head. "It's. . . No. Nothing happened. Just a conversation that I did not like." Mitsurugi wasn't usually much for extended speech, but her words were unusual. Terse, clipped; an expression of obvious discomfort that the Japanese woman would normally never allow onto her face. She sighed. "I'll return to the courtyard in a moment." It didn't surprise her that it was proving to be impossible to be alone even for a moment, even as it frustrated her.

"Alright, finally, somethin' that'll put up more of a fight than a wall! C'mere, if ya dare!" D4

"The name was Cu Chulainn? Very well." She waved one of her guards over. "Bring the names and descriptions that this Nobunaga provided to the diviners." The man bowed, and then hurried off through one of the doorways leading out of the room. Silef looks back toward LOTUS, and then at the rest of the group. "You should inform your troops of everything we have discussed here. My men will do their best to support your strike." She closed her eyes for a moment, and sighed. "If you help with this, I will allow you access to the vault that holds the Asterlux house's heirloom weapons and armor. It is only fair."

Saber & Nadia "Got it." The man faded into shimmering blue particles once more. He sort of mentally hummed to himself - doing it aloud would probably be rude. If the rest of this goes as well as it's gone so far, the Grail will be in my hands by the end of the week. He went ahead of Nadia in spirit form, ranging around the area a fair distance away from her and then tracking back. As much as he'd like to lay back and relax at the moment, they had more important things to do. Archer & James The young mage nearly jumped out of his skin at the blast, and then had to pick between that and nearly throwing something at Merlin when she scorched the ground in front of her with an involuntary spell. A small part of him briefly wondered how you could cast something like that unconsciously. A greater part was trying to figure out the likelihood that he was about to be exploded by any manner of unpleasant thing (was there a way to be exploded pleasantly?) After taking a moment to gather himself, he shook his head. "I don't know. It sounded like some kind of explosion. Can you feel any Servants nearby?" Unless there was some unrelated terrorist attack happening. . .

i believe i already indicated interest sheet here Soon(TM) Ganglari

The archer agrees with a somewhat confused look. Dackly's arrow arcs out toward one of the officers who happened to be on the edge of bow range; he swats at the arrow casually, as if he expected it to have little or no effect. He's somewhat surprised when the thing detonates, sending him flying and then rolling backward. Fairly quickly, the rest of them pull back a good fifty feet from the action.