Matou Shinji and the Broken Chains (HP/FSN CYOA)

[alfheimwanderer]

Choice 275: [x] Agree, and volunteer to take point.

---

Choice 276: Despite how uneasy it made him feel, if his team members were committed to this course of action, then Shinji was resolved to see it through with them. After all, they were a team, and frankly, if there was malevolent something deep within, they stood a better chance against whatever it might be together, rather than alone.

"Agreed," the boy stated. "I'll take point."

If there was one thing he was pretty confident about, it was his ability to take attacks that would kill most other people, at least in fusion form. He had no idea exactly what Ramona's shifting patterns and the spirits she'd breathed into herself let her do, though either way, it probably wasn't a good idea to let the brewer face the brunt of the danger.

'And where would my pride as a man be if I let a beautiful girl take point?' he asked himself, remembering all too well the encounter with the tanuki, and how powerless he'd felt when the creature had ambushed his party in the frozen wilds, with Rachelle Lestrange left to fight it off - only losing because she hadn't been trying to kill it. 'Besides, this time I have an idea of how dangerous it is.'

"I, ah, just hope you have something you can turn into that isn't a bird - or a whale," Shinji said to Ka'aukai.

"I do, at that," the Polynesian Champion replied mildly, as his form elongated and shifted, becoming something like a small ape with large, black eyes and long, silky hair.

"A demiguise, huh? Been a while since I've seen one of those," Ramona remarked, before shaking her head as Ka'aukai's new form faded from view to conventional senses. "Let's go."

She extended her hand, and through senses other than sight, Shinji could feel the world around them ripple and twist, as if convincing itself that they were not there, just empty air and untouched earth.

They moved together, with Shinji taking point, Ramona in the middle, and Ka'au playing rear guard, in case something saw past them. All around them, trolls shuffled and moved, not seeming to notice. There was little light inside, though for Shinji, and his comrades, the darkness wasn't exactly an issue. They all had other senses, senses which screamed at the wrongness of the place, not least because trolls here were like none they had seen before, looked different, with their forms twisted almost beyond recognition into grotesquely swollen masses of flesh, shot through with black, web-like veins running through their bodies.

'They're blind.'

The trolls had no eyes, seeming to find their way around by smell, hearing, and touch.

'Though how they deal with the incredible stench, I have no idea...'

It wasn't the stench of wild trolls - or at least, not the type of troll he was used to. It was sickly-sweet scent of blood, of dying, of death. Death clung to the walls, the ceiling, the floor of the ruins, with the bones of victims arranged here and there in "artful' stacks or things like runes. Skulls of all shapes and sizes. Long bones. Ribs. Vertebrae casually scattered across the floor.

Black blood was pooled here and there, mingling with streams of red.

There were splatters on the walls. A twisted gurgle-scream that echoed, echoed echoed through the world.

Ramona was visible straining here, her body trembling and wavering as patterns from outside - dark patterns, patterns of corruption and decay - tried to encroach on their sphere of protection.

'It's like an infection. It festers here, in the trolls. In this temple.'

Some sort of corruption of the natural order which became stronger as they moved closer to the inner sanctum, only to pause at its boundary as they felt - saw - smelled - perceived a corrosive miasma within the final chamber.

There was something inside.

Something that looked like...

'A horse?'

No, not a horse, though perhaps it would pass for one in a gibbering nightmare, with every dimension stretched beyond what should be. Yes, there was an equine head, with a gaping mouth from which the miasma flowed and a single scarlet-eye that glowed like a burning flame, but there was another head as well - a head and face that was utterly indescribable, about a meter in diameter, mounted atop something like a human torso that emerged there the tail would normally arise.

'What the hell is that thing?!'

Two of its legs, monstrous appendages that rippled with pale sinews, were broken, and it--

'Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. It has...it has...'

It had no skin. With his senses, Shinji could see yellow veins pulsing and throbbing with black blood - the same blood which spilled out onto the floor and walls.

It was...it was...

'This must be what corrupted the trolls...'

I SEE YOU.

A terrible pressure erupted from the creature, and the ruins began to shake and tremble as--

'Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. He's calling the trolls.'

--miasma rushed out at them, with Shinji gamely interposing himself between Ramona and the onrushing darkness, feeling pain lance through him as it ate at his form, with stone and earth peeling away where it hit, leaving only pale flesh.

'What.'

With a thought, the boy attempted to raise a wall of earth between him and the creature. There was resistance - more of it than he expected, between the temple liking its shape and the black blood smeared everywhere, but with a scream the boy managed to raise a barrier all the same, just in time to ward off an orb of corruption and decay.

Behind them, the trolls charged, the thunder of the footsteps rattling the temple - only for some monstrous beast - something like a plumed serpent with claws clear as ice, and teeth that gleamed like molten steel - to lunge at them with a ferocity that set even the trolls aback, claws, teeth, and more ripping into them in a berserk frenzy.

'...is that Ka'au?!'

Ramona, in the small space between them, trembled, almost falling to her knees as the area she is protecting from the corrosion of everything from without, shrinks to encircle just her - no longer shielding Shinji. Her hand clutched a pouch around her neck tightly, as she poured power into it in an attempt at doing something - not that Shinji could see what it was.

The barrier won't last long. Even now the darkness is eating away at it in a relentless tide.

Ka'au is fighting valiantly, but the trolls keep coming and coming. There seems to be no end to them.

In this chaos, what does Shinji do?

[ ] Join the frenzied beast that might be Ka'au in killing the trolls, while the barrier holds
[ ] Vault over the barrier and assault the monstrous 'boss' of the trolls with his scythe
[ ] See if he can use decay abilities against this monstrosity - his water ofuda must be good for something
[ ] Try to break open the ceiling - there must be a reason the monster took shelter in here
[ ] Grab Ramona and run, clearing a path - Ka'au can take care of himself
[ ] (write-in)

[Skull Leader]

Well this is going swimmingly.

[X] Try to break open the ceiling - there must be a reason the monster took shelter in here

I think the choices says it all. Plus the hole would be an escape point.
But we could also just retreat with something like Write in: Grab Ramona and retreat to Ka'au and together quickly cut a path back out of the ruin.

We need not slay the monster in the first encounter, we can get out. The monster does not leave the ruins for a reason so we do not have to make a last stand here. Retreat and deal with the trolls. And then with planning and teamwork as well as I suspect destroying the ceiling, find a way to deal with this monster.

But I think I rather try the ceiling thing, it seems to not like the outside since it never goes there. I am sure it misses the sky. Let's help it remember it.

[neophyte]

[x] Try to break open the ceiling - there must be a reason the monster took shelter in here

Let's make one more escape route, as our spiritist obviously needs assistance.

[fallacies]

[x] Try to break open the ceiling - there must be a reason the monster took shelter in here

[alfheimwanderer]

Choice 276: [X] Try to break open the ceiling - there must be a reason the monster took shelter in here

---

The sounds of battle and unbridled rage issued from all around as evil-shaped trolls made war upon the monstrous form of the Polynesian Champion, their blows raining down upon its nigh-metallic hide with cacophonous gongs even as they screamed as their arms were torn off, throats torn out, stomach ripped into, genitals gouged out by teeth, by claws, by a bladed tail. Whatever Ka'aukai had done, whatever he had become, he was far more deadly than any troll, though...

'No...he's slowing down, isn't he...?'

Yes, even as the plumed serpent ripped and tore and slashed in a mad frenzy, dealing a mortal wound for every blow it received, the attacks of the enemy were having some effect as more and more kept pouring in each moment, an endless tide of flesh and black blood racing to the slaughter, seeking to overcome through the weight of numbers what they could not through raw power.

'I could join him,' Shinji thought to himself, considering his options even as he poured his will into sustaining the barrier of earth he'd raised to protect himself - and Ramona - from the monstrous creature behind it: a beast of blood and corruption that sickened and twisted everything it touched with its blood.

Its breath had pushed back the sphere of the world's might Ramona had carried with her from without, forcing her to shield only herself - something that Shinji only realized once he felt the black blood on the floor - which he stood on - begin to leech at his prana, to eat away at his fusion, to tug at the strings of his soul.

'The hell is this thing?!'

Whatever it was, he could feel it getting harder to breathe, see spots forming in his vision as the rate of draining increased - in time with the assault on his barrier.

'I can't hold it.'

At least, he wouldn't be able to for much longer, not without it draining every bit of his life away - his power to resist however it was doing this.

Ramona, he could see at a glance, was just as badly off, with the brunette's body swaying unsteadily her eyes closed as she clutched the pouch around her neck and mumbled something under her breath, something he couldn't quite make out. Her patterns though - they were shifting again -as in his vision, the solidity she'd gained began to vanish, returning to the void.

'I could grab Ramona and run...'

Yes. He could that, since the spiritualist was in a rather sorry state, but if he did that the barrier would quickly decay, between the temple stone's desire to return to its normal shape and the corrosive power of the fell creature's breath. Ka'aukai, caught up in battle against countless trolls, would be caught unprepared - certainly he wouldn't be able to disengage.

'I could attack. Jump over the barrier and use my scythe, or my ofuda. If I can just...just cut off its head, then we have a chance!'

But if he moved to attack, it would no doubt hurt him with its breath - its breath, which had worn away the stone skin fusion had bestowed upon him.

'And if it takes out my living wand, what happens to Zelkova?'

The only way he saw that might end with all of them alive was if he could negate the corrosive effects of the blood and mist, and that meant opening a path to the world outside.

Using his power over earth to open a tunnel through the ceiling to the seething storm outside.

Slowly, he shifted his power, forcing his awareness into the stone in a way that felt unnatural, as it fought him.

NO! the stone of the temple seemed to scream, resisting will and prana weakened by the black blood of the fell creature he warred against. NO. NO. NONONONONONONONONONONO.

"YES," Shinji snarled, baring his teeth as he launched ofuda filled with the corrosive power of water at the ceiling, with stone melting away as the paper talismans released their cargo, the stone of the temple crying out as if he was hurting it - as if it was a living thing he was torturing. But Shinji didn't care. Whatever pain it might have felt, whatever it might have wanted, neither of these mattered.

It would do as he commanded, he resolved, as he poured everything he had into opening a path, thrusting the extensions of his power deeper, deeper, deeper into the stone. This was different from raising a wall from the floor - and even that had been difficult - it knew of walls well enough; this was a violation of the purpose of this place, to provide shelter from the elements.

In his mind, the stones seemed to beg. To plead. To demand him to stopstopstopstopstop!...but he'd gone too far to stop.

The barrier of earth collapsed.

Miasma came rushing out towards the party, and as if in a trance, Shinji blocked it with his body, as every nerve lit up in pain as the power of corrosion stripped away the defenses that up to now had protected him from death over and over.

He was close, so close.

If he could just...

YES!

With a sound like the world falling to pieces, he finished opening a shaft to the outside, with fresh air and rainwater falling through it - and the effects of the beast's fell breath ceasing to matter as it did, as Ramona's sphere of protection expanded to envelop him once more, shielding him, where he had shielded her.

'Wha...?'

Standing tall, she stepped forward, beside him, her form solid once more, as a line of power connected her with the world outside.

In the temple, the wind began to blow, rushing in from without to disperse the miasma, carrying with it the rain.

Black blood hissed, burning away at the water's touch.

The trolls stumbled to a halt as if bound all of a sudden - or if the strings which bound them had been severed - even as the rainwater burned them, heavy droplets splattering against their skin and carving deep furrows.

"Let's finish this," Ramona intoned as she stepped towards the creature at the heart of the nightmare, drawing from her pouch a single item: a delicate feather, glowing with a powerful golden light - a light which repulsed the darkness it tried to bring forth. "Pitiful creature," she murmured. "Shadow of the seas. Beast which embodies death and decay. This is the end of your story."

The spiritualist walked forward, thrusting out her hand and flinging the feather forth.

There was a powerful cry that filled the air, a trilling of phoenix song, joined by a wail of absolute anguish as the glowing feather struck the fleshless horse-shaped thing and burst into golden flames that burned through the monster from the inside out, as an empowered symbol of life overcame a creature which was death, leaving no trace that the beast - the nuckelavee - had ever existed.

Well, except for the misshapen trolls, which in the absence of their dark master, collapsed bonelessly to the ground as golden fire burned through them, erasing the power that had kept them bound - kept them in this twisted state of near-life, the light burning away the black blood, as wind swept through the shrine as a whole.

"It is over," Ramona declared with a breath.

And so it was, as Shinji finally, mercifully fell to his knees and Ka'aukai, with every troll dead and no more trolls before him, staggered, shifting back into his human form from whatever the thing he'd become was - and shuffling to a wall as he fell unconscious.

You have claimed the ruins for your own and defeated the nuckelavee which sought refuge there long ago after it had been wounded. Ka'aukai will need at least an hour or two to recover, between the damage he took and the strain of actually using his tanifa combat form. Ramona is capable of continued action, now that the corrosive influence of the nuckelavee's blood has been burned away by what she confirms was a phoenix's purifying flames.

"Not that suitable phoenix feathers are exactly common, so I would prefer not to have to use that again."

Does Shinji decide to...?

[ ] Take an hour to rest - with the storm raging outside, its not as if his competitors will be moving about much anyway
[ ] Head outside and look for ingredients - he might as well take advantage of the conditions
[ ] Set up some defenses while Ramona goes out foraging
[ ] (Write-in)

[fallacies]

[x] Head outside and look for ingredients - he might as well take advantage of the conditions

Resting would probably be for the best, but that can wait until after the work is done. Similarly, defenses can be established once ingredients are obtained.

[alfheimwanderer]

See bottom for Votes

---

Chapter 75. The Horse You Rode in On

For Matou Shinji, it was an odd thing to not have much to do during the day, given that for the last week, he had thrown himself into Championship preliminaries, research, and experimenting with potions, with precious little time left for anything else.

Odd, but not unpleasant – and sorely needed, to boot, after the night he’d had.

A night where he had come very close to dying any number of times, due to foolishly overestimating his capacity for alcohol, much as he imagined Tohsaka had done.

‘I made a fool of myself.’

It wasn’t the first time he’d done so, but this time was different in that he didn’t really remember what he’d said, what he’d done. He just had to live with the consequences.

…like knowing that if it wasn’t for Luna, he might very well have died.

Thinking that he’d be a complete idiot if he took this second chance at life for granted, he decided to spend the day with her, doing whatever it was she wanted to do, since he didn’t really feel up to competing in an optional preliminary when there was a mandatory overnight survival challenge coming up tonight, and he wanted to make up for the mistakes he’d made, if only just a little

They the two spent the day together, doing all manner of things.

They read together from a book called The Alchemist, which contained with its pages the story of a young shepherd boy with odd, recurring dreams, who set out on a journey to find a treasure – and his destiny – amidst the swirling sands of Egypt, and after trial and tribulation, managed to find that and true love, with the aid of a wise alchemist.

(The story, Shinji thought, had a number of parallels to his actual situation, which he wondered if Luna realized.)

They cooked together, with Luna mentioning that his skills in the kitchen had improved – which meant a lot for Shinji, given that she had witnessed his earliest (bungled) attempts to cook anything at all, even somehow failing to prepare instant ramen.

They walked the wall, with Luna making sure to heal him when he felt tired.

And through all this, they talked.

They spoke of things like the future and what it held – or might hold.

Of home – and how for Luna, home wasn't about where she lived. It wasn’t not the land that was important, or the language people spoke, but the people themselves. Her friends and family. Where they were, that was where home was, not the land in which she was born, or of which she happened to be a citizen.

Of ambitions – and how for Shinji, his would very likely carry him away from Britain – even if, as Luna pointed out, the Ministry would likely ask him to stay and help them make Britain great again if he did well enough in the Championship.

Of dreams, and how they both had such odd ones, some of which ended up coming true, some of which never had, and some of which they would have no way of confirming for themselves.

And of course, they spoke of the what-ifs of life. What would things have been like if he’d been sorted into a different House at Hogwarts? If he’d been born with magic circuits, as the heir of the Matou family, and Matou Sakura not…

‘…actually, Zouken would probably have adopted her anyway,’ Shinji realized with a frown. ‘There’s no way he would have passed up a chance to add her qualities to the bloodline.’ The old man would have betrothed the two children, meaning that Sakura would have been… ‘My fiancée,’ he thought with disgust.

What a horrible fate that would have been.

There were other what-ifs too – like what if he’d asked Tohsaka for a loan all those years ago when he’d first gotten his letter, turning his back on his family like they’d turned their back on him? Or what if he’d obtained a familiar other than Zelkova?

‘Or what if I somehow had found myself in a relationship with Gr—with Hermione? Or…with Tohsaka?’ It might have happened once, had his attention not been elsewhere, or if he’d given in to temptation, but where those choices would have led him was something he couldn’t quite imagine. ‘Would I even still be potions champion? Would I even recognize that Matou Shinji as me?’

Who knew, really?

What he knew was that here and now, he had been shaped by the choices he had made, the hardships he had gone through, the people he met, and had become something more than the sum of those parts.

‘When I first got my letter all those years ago, I never imagined there would be a moment when I carried the hopes and dreams of an entire country. How could I? I was nothing then. Consumed by my obsession with become the heir of the Matou family, and by my despair when I realized I could not.’

Because of the letter, everything changed.

Because he met Sokaris, and found a goal to strive for, he had grown far beyond what he thought was possible.

Because he met Luna…he had learned that someone not of the moonlit world could accept him, could look upon his actions and choices and see him as someone good and noble, not as the fake he often thought himself to be.

So many turning points in what had become a fairly remarkable life.

‘Let’s hope it continues. This life of mine. This story. I’m sure there will be surprises yet.’

“Yes, but hopefully only good ones,” Luna murmured, as they stood together on the wall, watching the sun sink beneath the horizon. “It’s time.”

With the sun setting, the survival challenge would soon begin, with every Champions on the island asked to report to the amphitheater, where the rules for the event would be laid out.

“I should go,” Shinji murmured, turning to look at the petite blonde by his side, whose form seemed so frail – yet so determined, despite that. “Thank you…for today. For reminding me of what’s important.”

“Thank you,” his lover whispered, brushing her lips against his cheek for luck. “Go well, and good luck,”

---

The boy was thoughtful as he made his way to his dorm, changing into his wyvernhide battle robes before heading to the amphitheater, with an invisible Zelkova in tow. Unlike him, his familiar had spent the day in the Archives, dutifully continuing the research his Master had assigned him.

‘You are prepared, Master?’ the kodama queried.

‘Well, if I’m not, it’s a bit late for that, isn’t it?’ Shinji thought sardonically. ‘We’re going…out there. Out beyond the wall and the barrier into who knows what. We’ve both done our research, but there’s no substitute for the real thing.’

‘Yes,’ his familiar replied simply.

‘That’s it?’ Shinji wondered. ‘Just “yes?”’

‘There is little to say other than that, Master,’ the kodama related.

The two walked in silence for a time, with Shinji nodding to an Olu Akindele in his adventurer outfit – though the African Champion looked like death warmed over and didn’t notice him – and a Rachelle Lestrange, clad in a non-descript grey dress, who returned the nod, but said nothing.

They arrived at the amphitheater without much trouble, noting that most of the others had already arrived, with each sitting in a chair labelled with their respective school – or so Shinji surmised after seeing the chairs that were unoccupied were labelled “Hogwarts”, “Beauxbatons” and “Uagadou.”

Not surprisingly, Mischa Stukov and Parambir Agarwal looked…relatively out of sorts.

‘Perhaps they too, misjudged their capacity?’ Shinji wondered. It would be fitting after how much they’ made him drink. Well, how much they must have, since he didn’t remember how much he’d drunk or what he’d said, really.

And then the judges arrived, led by Yumi Suzuki, the reigning Potions Champion of the world, with Tomas and the rest not far behind.

“Greeting, Champions. You have undoubtedly heard rumors of what tonight will be like,” the Japanese woman began without preamble, her eyes hard as she looked from face to face, seemingly searching for something, and not quite finding it. “Whatever you have heard, put it out of your mind. Tonight will be your first true taste of the dangers the isle has to offer. The first true test of your abilities in a setting that is not as…constrained or free of harm as the rest of the preliminaries.”

“Some of you will do well in this exercise,” Yumi noted quietly, her gaze seeming to linger on certain Champions just a hair longer than the others. “Some of you…will not, no matter what you might wish, or how hard you try. Either way, let there be no shame – simply do your best, and no one can say you are less than true Champions.”

She chuckled, turning to Tomas, who stepped forward.

“Those from the Centre who come here for individual research prepare themselves extensively for what they know is coming over months of efforts. But you have had no such opportunity, no such preparation, so it would be unfair of us to expect the same of you, as you have not had the chance. As such, we do not expect you to go out there as individuals – but as teams,” the automaton declared, with the announcement causing a stir among some of the less-informed Champions. “Teams we will put together, based on the skills and strengths you have demonstrated in the preliminaries to date – and those otherwise publicly known.”

“That is not say that we do not wish to have your input, however,” Yumi continued, nodding to Tomas. “As you are the ones who will be working with – and scored as a team with – your teammates.”

“So,” the puppet intoned, flicking his wand as two slips of paper and a pen appeared in the laps of each of the Champions. “You may provide us with three names. Yours, the name of the person you would most like to work with, and the name of the person you would least like to work with, in that order. Every team – save one – will be composed of pairs, with teams to be evaluated on teamwork, performance during survival, and the potion you end up brewing by sunrise.”

‘Sunrise, huh? That’s not a lot of time.’

“Are there any questions?” Yumi questioned, proceeding to field one or two.

Yes, the guests on the island would have the chance to view the Champions in action, so long as they were outside on the field, due to several transfigured items that functioned almost like cameras, though this could not be guaranteed in case of inclement weather.

No, requests that Champions made for specific pairings would not be guaranteed.

“After all, there would be more than one person asking for a pairing, or a requested pairing might unfairly unbalance the playing field, so while we will take your requests into account, don’t be surprised if you end up being paired with someone you hadn’t considered. What we take more seriously is who you do not wish to work with, as we do not want to see teams that tear themselves apart before the environment has a chance to do so.”

She left them to consider who they wanted to work with, giving them five minutes to jot down what names they would names. Some wrote down three names right away. Some took a moment to look about the stage, to see who the others were, before slowly, deliberately writing a name or two. Some began to write, before pausing, considering whether what they had begun to put on paper was the right answer.

Still at the five minutes, everyone had written something down, with Shinji noting that he would very much like to work with Sajyou Ayaka, as she had taught him so many things and was an undoubtedly skilled Champion (and more importantly, probably wasn’t annoyed at him), while he had no wish to work with the Champions of Koldovstoretz or Tamirsthana, which he remembered – vaguely – as having pressed many, many drinks into his hand.

Perhaps it was petty of him to dismiss them for what had probably been an attempt at being friendly, but he’d almost died – twice! – because of that stupid ‘manly picnic’. Indeed, his head throbbed in pain as he looked at the Russian, so he wasn’t feeling inclined to be particularly charitable, or to give them the benefit of the doubt.

In the end, after the slips of paper had been collected and the Judging Committee given the chance to deliberate briefly over assignments, the teams were announced.

Rachelle Lestrange & Rachelle Sondrol
Olu Akinele & Libatius Müller
Ramona Ahgeak, Ka'aukai Kapule & Shinji Matou
Ayaka Sajyou & Elesa Labelle
Parambir Agarwal & Mischa Stukov

Some were excited. Some were vastly disappointed. Some were indifferent.

And Shinji, well…

‘I wanted to work with Sajyou-san,’ he grumbled, though he was at relieved that at the least he wouldn’t have to work with either Agarwal or Stukov. ‘Also, I’m not sure that the judges really know what Elesa is capable of if they’re putting her together with Ayaka. Do they…?’

It crossed his mind that with how the American had been giving everyone the impression that she was merely a model and socialite, that the only way to give her any sort of chance was to pair her with the favorite to win.

‘…she did that on purpose.’

Well, that much was obvious – the reason why, however, wasn’t.

“Champions, gather in your teams and report to the exit gate of the village,” Yumi instructed, not letting the group have a chance to discuss too much. “What you have on you now is all you will be taking into the wilds for this exercise, so I hope you came prepared. We expect you to have passed into the forest in oh…half an hour. Good luck.”

Shinji, as he walked over to the Polynesian Champion and the Inupiat girl, found himself feeling a bit uncertain, as while he’d met them – briefly, he’d never really talked to either of them in detail, and of course, he hadn’t made a spectacular showing so far.

‘Well, neither have they, but still…’

In some ways, the fact that he was on a team of three disturbed him, since why would the Committee feel it was fine to put the three of them together unless they thought that only with three of them could they match the achievements of a pair of the others.

‘Master, that’s probably not—’

‘I know,’ Shinji thought irritably. ‘I know, but it still rankles. I just…after everything I’ve been through, being thought of as weak—’

‘Master, you are the youngest person here, and you have not been demonstrating your full set of abilities.’

‘True but…’ the boy sighed. Whatever his familiar said, whatever the logic, it still stung. ‘Though I guess that means I should remember that the others might have been hiding their abilities as well, since being underestimated is a perfectly valid strategy.’

He, at least, was stronger than most would think, at least in combat, given his abilities with Fusion, which he hadn’t revealed, even when it seemed he was falling to his doom the night before. So who knew what others were hiding?

Speaking of hiding though…there was the matter of his familiar.

Specifically, the kind of role Zelkova should take, and how visible or independent the kodama should be during the event. There were a number of possible options, each reflecting ways in which he had worked with his familiar in the past, and each with tradeoffs.
Certainly, he could keep Zelkova with him (and unfused), effectively extending his own ability to look for ingredients or sense danger while benefiting from the fact that he would have an extra set of eyes who could see through most disguises and glamours – and an extra being who could attack his enemies, if need be. Though, given that Lestrange and Labelle could both sense his familiar in spirit form, it wasn’t as if could rely on the element of surprise…

He could fuse as soon as practical (e.g. out of sight of his competitors), though that meant revealing some of his abilities to his temporary team-mates, and he wasn't sure how comfortable he was with that. Fusion, of course, granted him access to a tier of power he could not otherwise access, boosting his speed, strength, magical power, and resistance to the energy of others, while granting him a firsthand awareness of the patterns of the world.

‘Fusion is my trump card.’ Yes, but as powerful as it was, it was not invulnerable, as previous encounters had demonstrated, and it meant that he couldn’t really send Zelkova off to scout or harass an enemy.

Speaking of which, he supposed he could do just that, an advantage that he didn't think other teams would share – except perhaps Sajyou-senpai's, since he was sure her familiar Yatagarasu was somewhere about, even if he hadn't seen it during his time on the isle. Of course, in this case, in case something happened, he wouldn't have his familiar's powerful defensive abilities to fall back on – or fusion – for that matter, if his familiar had not yet returned.

Further, if he were to ask his kodama to harass and sabotage one of his rivals for the duration of the challenge, causing convenient "accidents" and the like, the familiar wouldn’t be available to scout the area, and there was always the risk of losing him in enemy action.

He could assign Zelkova to guard one of his teammates (such as the brewer) at all times, providing an extra layer of protection to whoever was in charge of making their team's potion – as it wouldn't be him, though he might have to explain this to him or her....

'Or maybe I'm over thinking this...' he thought.

Since he was part of the only group of three, he supposed he could simply leave Zelkova with Luna and go into the challenge without the safety net of fusion or the bonuses to his perception or defense abilities. In theory, it should be safe enough, and not demonstrating talents he wasn't capable of alone would make sure that during the actual competition, no one would know he had such abilities.

‘No. That would be stupid. There’s was a time for hiding what I can do, but that time has passed. Without fusion, I can’t hope to match some of the others, and I’m not going into a survival challenge without my trump card.’

With this bit decided, the boy greeted his teammates, and after exchanging some pleasantries, headed towards the exit, since half an hour really wasn’t that much time.

---

On entering the forest, stepping beyond the bounds of the village into the island proper, Shinji was almost overwhelmed by how heavy felt, as if the world was exerting an extra degree of pressure on him. This place, it was…

‘Alive…’

His awareness of life all around him, of the currents of the world, of energy and flows was stronger here than almost anywhere else Shinji had ever known, except maybe near the sacred spring of Shiretoko. He hadn’t thought the history of the island while in the village, but here, outside its walls, he could feel the age of the place, its nature as a relic of the past hidden in the present.

‘My powers…they’ll be more potent here.’ Certainly, that was true, but… ‘Then again, so will anything else that uses magic. Even the plants and animals…’ The boy breathed, inhaling and exhaling several times, since the air felt particularly thick here, almost thick enough to choke him. 'Are you feeling this too, Zelkova?'

'I am, Master. It is pleasant, is it not?’ the kodama replied in his mind, sounding perfectly comfortable. ‘Hearing the whispers of the trees, feeling the quiet patterns of their echoes in the very land itself. It reminds me of…of being part of the Great Tree.’

Shinji sighed. He forgot, every once in a while, that his familiar had a very inhuman way of looking at the world.

As if by mutual agreement, once the individual teams left the confines of the village, they split up, heading in all different directions, as if they knew that the greatest threats to their success were one another. Or at least, they wanted a chance to strategize and plan without the opposition hearing them, which might or might not be the same thing.

Once they were about a kilometer out from town, with no other teams in earshot, by Shinji – and Zelkova’s – reckoning, the Polynesian Champion decided to speak.

"So, it appears we are working together, Matou," Ka'aukai Kapule said as they walked. "Ramona, I know, and have worked with before, but you are something of a mystery to me. Now, I am a scout and forager by inclination, while Ramona prefers a more defensive style, as that better suits her skills. What of you?"

"I can do either," Shinji remarked, noting that neither had mentioned their brewing abilities. Best he did so now so there were no misunderstandings later. "Though I will say I am more of a fighter than a brewer, so if you can help it, don't put me in charge of making the group's potion."

He smiled wryly, though he wasn’t joking.

"Making a potion I can handle, so long as we have a fortified camp to work with," Ramona noted, glancing over at the boy with a nod. "In fact, I think locating a suitable place to establish ourselves should be our first priority out here."

"I would prioritize gathering reagents and ingredients, with us setting up camp only when we finish. Setting up camp site does tie us down to a single location, after all, which we will then have to commit to defending," the Champion of Nu'utea Kohu pointed out. "At this early stage, I would rather collect what rare and potent ingredients we can before another team does so. What of you, Champion Matou?"

Shinji couldn’t deny that what Ka’aukai sai made sense, but…
"I think that we should prioritize finding a good campsite, though we should of course, gather materials as we look for a good place," Shinji replied after a moment. "Staying on the move might help at first, but I don't want to be caught unaware when I'm tired towards the end of the night. And well, what good sites there are might be taken if we delay."

He remembered the Wiggentrees that everyone claimed as bases for Snape’s potions challenges, after all. If there were such things here, on the isle, or things of similar strategic value, no doubt they’d become battlegrounds, favoring whoever had claimed them first.

"...ah, from what I hear, you did have quite a night, didn't you?" the Polynesian commented, to which Shinji shook his head.

"I don't really want to talk about that right now," the boy from the East said rightly.

"As you will. Well, since it seems we’ll be looking for somewhere to set up camp, are there specific things you would like to have at a…at a base?" the youth asked, taking the decision good-naturedly.

"A wiggentree," Shinji responded immediately, thinking that something that could protect against attacks – or even detection – from Dark Creatures, could be quite useful. "If they grow here, that is," he amended, given that he didn’t remember anything related to the wiggen in his study of the ingredients catalog.

"A wiggentree?" Ramona repeated, her tone curious.

‘Heh. She hasn’t heard of it?’

"It’s a kind of tree that protects those near it from Dark Creatures," the boy explained, his lips twisting as he realized he might have to explain what ‘Dark Creature’ meant. It was so easy to forget that not everyone had the same background, even if they could all speak the same language, or something like it. “It’s native to Europe, and I remember that during my training, I was taught that having one of those around was invaluable."

"Such a thing would be useful, eliminating some of the usual protections we would need to emplace, though I do not recall hearing of them on the island,” Ka’aukai acknowledged. “In the event some exist, those who know of such trees may well search for them as well – possibly fighting over them, if they find them. We may be better served looking for a site without one of these Wiggentrees. Somewhere...better hidden."

"Well, whether there’s a specific tree there doesn’t matter much to me," Ramona remarked. "Though I would prefer something with ruins about, if at all possible. Or in a ruin."

"Ruins?" Shinji echoed, finding this a curious choice. "Why?"

"Places with history make it easier for me to evoke my abilities," the Inupiat girl replied. “And since I’ll be brewing…”

“Fair enough,” Shinji conceded.
The brewer would be the one whose safety relied on most on the camp's defenses while they were brewing, unlike the scout or defender, who, being more mobile, didn’t benefit as much from the camp, unless they chose to sleep for a time.

‘Not that I’ve needed to sleep during a challenge before, but since this is overnight, it might be a good idea to take shifts on watch.‘

Still, whether or not Ramona’s suggestion was practical depended on whether there were any such ruins nearby, and if any of these were…not places that become mass graves over the years, where many an unwary competitor met their end.

After all, it wasn't as if only humans could grasp the basic concept that shelter was more useful than none.

‘And given that the area they were in isn’t actually cut off from the rest of the island, I should be careful. Technically we could wander deep into the heart of the isle, though I don’t think that would be the wisest idea. I guess I’ll ask Zelkova what’s around.’

Shinji himself had focused on what ingredients might be found and their general range and had mostly gotten his head around what ingredients did what, even if Budge warned him that simply checking in a book was no substitute for experimentation, especially with several of the rarest plants or animal parts which had never officially been used in a potion before.

'Zelkova, are there ruins near here?'

The kodama’s reply was immediate, though whether it was encouraging was another story.

'There are two, Master, both about three kilometers from this point,’ his familiar detailed. ‘One lies towards the center of the island, and the other very close to shore.'

‘Which one would be a better shelter?’

'The one that is more central,’ Zelkova replied. ‘It is not only mostly intact, but is fairly well concealed as well, according to most records, as it is surrounded by a grove of old trees. However, it has been the site of several deaths in the last century. It is suspected that some creature has made those ruins its lair.’

‘And the other one?

‘The one by the sea is almost entirely exposed to the elements, without much in the way of cover,' came the response.

"So, what are we most concerned about as a team?" Shinji asked out loud. "Our fellow competitors? The environment? The wildlife?"

Ramona and Ka'aukai shared a look, even as the girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"The environment," the Champion of Qausuittuq said after a moment, as she brushed a strand of brown hair from her eyes. "There's going to be a storm tonight. Not a small one either."

"...and how could you know that?" Shinji inquired, narrowing his eyes. Was this a magical trick he could pick up somewhere, or...?

"...I just have a feeling about these things," the other replied lightly. Shinji doubted that was really the case but decided not to make an issue of it. "Best we find shelter and set up camp quickly, before the elements make that...a more difficult exercise."

"So, a well-sheltered ruin then?” Ka’aukai suggested. “I don't particularly care where we go, so long as it is under shelter, since storms can get fairly bad on islands like these. If we can’t find a ruin, then a cave or a particularly dense copse of trees, perhaps.”

“Matou seemed thoughtful – I think he has something in mind,” Ramona observed, with Shinji blinking as she called him out. “Did you have something to suggest, or should we begin moving? Storms can come quickly in the parts.”

For Matou Shinji, the decision is simple - if there was a storm coming, and never mind just how Ramona knew that, they needed to get under shelter quickly, and thanks to Zelkova's research, he already knew the location of somewhere that should be fairly well-protected from the elements, so it would be foolish not to use it.

At least, he thought so.

"There's a set of ruins about three kilometers from here," he said out loud, with an expression of surprise flitting across Ka'aukai's face as the Polynesian Champion heard this. 'So he didn't look this up, huh? Wonder what he looked into.' “…though a few Champions did die there some years ago, so there might be something else there."

"I see," Ramona noted, nodding. "That's useful to know." She glanced at Ka'au. "How fortunate then, that we have a scout acknowledged by Lady Yamato herself as worthy of the fleet.”

Shinji thinks he can see the Polynesian Champion flush slightly at the praise, though he wonders just what a Killer Whale Animagus–

'No. He can take on more forms than that,’ the boy recalled from the opening gala. ‘I think he turned into a series of birds. Huh, that’s weird, I thought animagi were limited to one form, but well, Luna did say he wasn’t exactly like an Animagus, but more like me when I’m fused.’

"Matou, which way?" Ramona asked, with Zelkova helpfully indicating a bearing and distance in Shinji's mind, and the boy relaying the information onwards. "Well then, Ka’au, would you kindly?"

Ka'aukai nodded, his body lengthening and twisting even as he did so, his arms becoming wings, his legs becoming claws, his form changing into that of one of the largest birds he'd ever seen. An eagle of some sort, and a wickedly curved beak which shot into the sky - in the direction indicated – with a mighty beat of its broad, sweeping wings.

"Let's follow," Ramona directed, setting off herself – her steps much lighter and quieter than Shinji would have imagined.

"Right."

"You said you were a fighter, right?" Ramona questioned before they had gone too far, with Shinji nodding. "You might have the chance to pull your weight then, if there’s really something there.”

“Mm.”

“Also, can you handle scouting from the ground – possibly going into the ruin, while Ka'au covers the air to map the area around it, or should I handle that part?"

“I can do the scouting,” Shinji offered.

While it was tempting to hang back and see what Ramona could bring to the table in the way of scouting abilities, Matou Shinji knew that if he did that, he would be expected to contribute more greatly in terms of combat and foraging later on. And well, he had a perfectly serviceable ability for such purposes – even if it did mean revealing fusion.

‘Because I’m not sending Zelkova into an ancient ruin alone.’

He breathed, pulling the world into him, letting his consciousness – his self – sink deep into the darkness of his mind, where he opened the door separating himself from the rest of reality – from his familiar. Two minds blended. Two souls, reinforcing each other through constructive interference to create something greater than the sum of its parts, as the body of Matou Shinji, the boy from the east, was replaced with something else.

His horned fusion form, clad as usual in a gray Japanese garment, with skin hard as stone.

His awareness expanded, seeping into the earth around him, so that he could feel the moisture within it, the flows of prana underground, the location of every tree and beast rising from it ground, and…Ramona, who seemed rather less like a person to his spiritual senses than a person-shaped void waiting to be filled.

‘Wh…at?’ He’d never seen anyone who looked like that before, at least not someone who looked so normal to his more mundane senses. Was she…was suppressing her sense of self or…? ‘No. I had a job to do.’

Shaking his head to clear it of distraction, the boy stretched out his senses further, synchronizing himself to the flows and patterns of the world, letting his sense of self fade in a way rendered him invisible, imperceptible, because for all intents and purposes, there was no Matou Shinji, just another piece of the natural world.

At least, until he gathered the will needed to attack, at which point, he’d reassert his individuality.

"Ah, Fusion and one of its higher arts," Ramona noted thoughtfully, seeming not particularly surprised by the boy's display. Then again, he had shown off fusion on his very first day on the island, and had been there when the World Champion had called him out as a fusion user… "I suppose you saw?”

“Saw, you say?” Shinji repeated, though he had a good idea of what she meant. That she seemed…hollow.

“Watch. I wonder, will you understand what I'm about to do?"

Then she too, breathed, and the world – or at least, pieces of it – rushed in to fill the person-shaped void that was Ramona, as what was without flowed within, her emptiness filled by something like spirits of air and earth, her weak outline growing stronger as more and more entered her, shifting her sense of presence and nature from simply human to something...more and less all at once.

‘Her patterns. They’re changing. Shifting, even if she looks completely normal to my eyes.’

That was…very odd. He’d heard a bit about shamans, but…

"Let us go," she said, and Shinji, seeing no reason to refuse, fell into step behind her, both of them moving with speeds faster than most humans were capable of, crossing the distance between them and the hollow in which the ruin was hidden in almost no time at all.

A good thing, too, as around them, the wind was already beginning to rise.

The first thing they noticed was that it was indeed surrounded by a grove of titanic trees, each wider than if Shinji, Ramona, and Ka'aukai all joined hands and stood side by side. The trees whispered, sang, laughed among each other, seemingly unaware of anything else, though when Shinji opened his consciousness to them, he felt—

BLOOD

'Blood?'

DECAY. DEATH.

'Huh?'

The image came of a ruin that was almost like a temple, with something like a clan of trolls – something like trolls – within, and something…else. Something the trolls…worshipped? Something that lurked deep inside where the trees could not see, and whose presence was death.

The aquiline form of the Polynesian Champion dropped down next to them, with the man shifting effortlessly to his human form as he touched down, not a hair out of place.

"Aside from a number of Swooping Evils which left this place just a few minutes ago, there are signs of trolls in this hollow, even if none are outside." Ka'aukai reported, wasting not a word with unnecessary banter. "These ruins seem largely intact. A shrine, perhaps."

"Good work," Ramona acknowledged, with a thoughtful nod. “A shrine, you say? Well that would explain the flow of prana here. Gentlemen, surely, we can handle a few trolls between us?”

"...if it were just trolls, then yes, they would be trivial to handle," Shinji agreed, fading into view, as he thought it might be impolite to just be a disembodied voice. "But there's something else there, inside the ruins. Something far more dangerous than any troll."

"Oh? You sensed this?" Ramona questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Or...?"

"I asked the trees," the boy from the East explained with a grimace and a deep exhalation. "They've been here far longer than any of us. Whatever the...thing inside is, they..." He tilted his head as he listened. "...they keep watch for it. It cannot pass them. Not while they sing."

"Do they know what it was?"

"They...they cannot describe it, except as death. Blight. Decay," Shinji whispered, feeling a shudder run through him as he gave voice to the observations of the trees. "It was wounded when it came, and the trolls came after it. But now the trolls worship it, feed it. And the islands – the trees – they seek to seal it. Something like that - I'm not sure we should proceed. At the very least, we can't just attack blindly."

At his words, the Kahuna of Nu'utea Kohu and the Champion of Qausuittuq looked at each other, their faces taking on grim – matching – expressions.

"It cannot pass them while they sing?" the Polynesian echoed, his tone seeming to harbor some deep suspicion. "That sounds like something else of which I know."

"...indeed it does," Ramona agreed, shaking her head as she breathed again, and to Shinji's senses, her patterns seemed to ripple. "Though if it were that, I think I would sense it. I’ve seen things like that before.”

“Ah.”

“As for you, Matou, you have a point about blindly attacking, but you would not object to proceeding cautiously, would you? We are here, after all, and..." The girl was interrupted as jagged streaks of lightning raced across the sky, the dull roar of thunder crashing over them almost immediately afterwards, with heavy drops of rain beginning to fall towards earth. "Well...I think the weather speaks for itself."

"All three of us seem to have scouting abilities," Ka'aukai Kapule pointed out. "So, let us scout. Trolls we can dispatch quietly. As for whatever they worship..."

"Best we learn, sooner than later," Ramona added, with Shinji startling as he noticed that her eyes now glowed with an unearthly green sheen. "I can go alone, if you wish. But I would prefer all of us join forces. What say you, Matou?"

“Well…”

Despite how uneasy it made him feel, if his team members were committed to this course of action, then Shinji was resolved to see it through with them. After all, they were a team, and frankly, if there was malevolent something deep within, they stood a better chance against whatever it might be together, rather than alone.

"Agreed," the boy stated, nodding. "I'll take point."

If there was one thing he was pretty confident about, it was his ability to take attacks that would kill most other people, at least in fusion form. He had no idea exactly what Ramona's shifting patterns and the spirits she'd breathed into herself let her do, though either way, it probably wasn't a good idea to let the brewer face the brunt of the danger.

Where would my pride as a man be if I let a beautiful girl get injured when I can still do something?' he asked himself, remembering all too well the encounter with the tanuki, and how powerless he'd felt when the creature had ambushed his party in the frozen wilds, with Rachelle Lestrange left to fight it off - only losing because she hadn't been trying to kill it. 'Besides, this time I have an idea of how dangerous the situation is.'

And knowing was half the battle, wasn’t it?

"I, ah, just hope you have something you can turn into that isn't a bird - or a whale," Shinji said to Ka'aukai, thinking that neither of those would be particularly useful on land. Especially in the confines of a building.

‘Even if a whale thrashes about…’

"I do, at that," the Polynesian Champion replied mildly, as his form shrank and grew more compact and hairy, turning into something like a small ape with large, black eyes and long, silky hair.

"A demiguise, huh? Been a while since I've seen one of those," Ramona remarked, before shaking her head as Ka'aukai's new form faded from view to conventional senses. "Let's go."

She extended her hand, and through senses other than sight, Shinji could feel the world around them ripple and twist, a sphere of power rising around them that carried part of the power of the earth with them and concealed those within it, as if the spirits within were convincing those without that there was nothing there but empty air and untouched earth.

While they walked in the sphere, they left no footsteps, betrayed no trace of their presence. They were but part of the world.

Shinji took point, with Ka'au playing rear guard, and Ramona in the middle, since neither of the young men were foolish enough to let the party’s shaman/brewer go unprotected.

They crossed the distance from treeline to shrine, slipping through the doorway and out of the rain silently.

Inside…it was like another world.

All around them, trolls – something like trolls – shuffled and moved, not seeming to notice the unwanted intruders.

There was little light within the hallways, though for Shinji, and his comrades, the darkness wasn't exactly an issue. They all had other senses, senses which screamed at the wrongness of the place, not least because trolls here were like none they had seen before, and the sounds of the world outside could not be heard even just a step or two past the door.

‘But the trolls…’

They looked different, with their forms twisted almost beyond recognition into grotesquely swollen masses of pale flesh, shot through with black, web-like veins running through their bodies.

'And…they're blind.'

Indeed, these “trolls” had no eyes, seeming to find their way around by smell, hearing, and touch, well, so much as they moved at all, since they seemed unnaturally still. They barely even breathed, from what Shinji could see.

'Though…maybe that’s how they deal with the stench.'

It wasn't the stench of wild trolls – or at least, not the type of any troll he was used to. This was something worse, something sickly-sweet like the scent of blood, of dying, of death. Death clung to the walls, the ceiling, the floor of the ruins, with the bones of victims – some new, some aged – arranged here and there in "artful” stacks or things like runes.

Skulls of all shapes and sizes. Long bones. Ribs. Vertebrae casually scattered across the floor.

Crushed pieces of what he swore was a pelvis.

And all around him, there was a coating of black blood, interwoven with flecks of red and mottled brown.

There were splatters on the walls. A twisted gurgle-scream that echoed, echoed, echoed through the world.

Ramona was visiblly straining here, her body trembling and wavering as patterns from outside – dark patterns, patterns of corruption and decay – tried to encroach upon on their sphere of protection, with her influence repelling it, for now.

'It's like an infection. It festers here, in the trolls. In this temple.'

Some sort of corruption of the natural order which became stronger as they moved closer to the inner sanctum.

‘What the hell is inside?’

The boy was beginning to wonder if they should turn back when they arrived at what had to be the heart of this darkness, pausing at its boundary as they felt - saw - smelled - perceived a corrosive miasma within the final chamber thicker, more potent, than the stuff from before.

There was something inside.

Something that looked like...

'A horse?'

No, not a horse, though perhaps it would pass for one in a gibbering nightmare, with every dimension stretched beyond what should be. Yes, there was an equine head, with a gaping mouth from which the miasma flowed and a single scarlet-eye that glowed like a burning flame, but there was another head as well - a head and face that was utterly indescribable, about a meter in diameter, mounted atop something like a human torso that emerged there the tail would normally arise.

'What the hell is that thing?!'

Two of its legs, monstrous appendages that rippled with pale sinews, were broken, and it--

'Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. It has...it has...'

It had no skin. With his senses, Shinji could see yellow veins pulsing and throbbing with black blood - the same blood which spilled out onto the floor and walls.

It was...it was...

'This must be what corrupted the trolls...'

They had to…they had to…

I SEE YOU.

A terrible pressure erupted from the creature, and the ruins began to shake and tremble as—

'Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. It's calling the trolls.'

—miasma rushed out at them, with Shinji gamely interposing himself between Ramona and the onrushing darkness, feeling pain lance through him even through the sphere – the buckling sphere – as it ate at his form, with stone and earth peeling away as flecks of darkness struck him, his stony skin melting with hiss to leave only pale, unprotected flesh.

'What.'

Feeling a sense of panic coming on, the boy attempted to raise a wall of earth between him and the creature, only to find that there was resistance.

More of it than he expected, between the temple liking its shape and the black blood smeared everywhere.

‘Rise. Rise, damn you!’

The sphere of protection shrank, no longer shielding Shinji, and the boy screamed as the living darkness ripped at him, pain racing through him as if he had no defenses at all. Greater, greater, greater the pressure built, as more and more of the miasma came at him – until, at last, the ground broke, and a wall of earth rose up between him and his enemy, cutting off the assault.

‘Shit…I can’t take another hit like that…’

Behind them, he could hear thunder – the thunder of charging trolls rattling the temple, coming right for them.

‘This is it. I can’t…’

He thought that maybe he’d make some futile last stand, deploy his scythe and cut, cut cut until either they fell, or he did, but before he could do so, a monstrous beast – something like a plumed serpent with claws clear as ice, and teeth that gleamed like molten steel – appeared out of thin air, throwing itself at the trolls with a rage that shook the world itself.

‘The hell?!’

Rage great enough to set even the trolls aback, as claws, teeth, and bladed tail ripping into them in a berserk frenzy that halted the charge in its tracks.

'...is that…is that Ka'au?!'

It was the only thing that it could be, but how…what was he? What kind of beast…?

But the boy shook his head.

This wasn’t the time to ask what hell was going on, not while the Polynesian Champion’s latest transformation was the only thing keeping an army of enraged trolls from barreling over them. And well, the earthen wall he’d raised wouldn’t last too much longer.

‘Shit. Ramona…’

He glanced down to see Champion of Qausuittuq, swaying back and forth on her heels, her body unsteady, her breathing pained, with barely within a much-reduced area she was protecting from the corrosion of everything from without.

‘She…she can only protect herself…’

Her hand clutched a pouch around her neck tightly, as she poured power into it in an attempt at doing something – not that Shinji could see what it was.

Not that he had time to see what it was.

Not as the sounds of battle and unbridled rage issued from all around as evil-shaped trolls made war upon the monstrous form of the Polynesian Champion, their blows raining down upon its nigh-metallic hide with cacophonous gongs even as they screamed as their arms were torn off, throats torn out, stomachs ripped into, genitals gouged out by teeth, by claws, by a bladed tail.

Whatever Ka'aukai had done, whatever he had become, he was far deadlier than any troll could hope to be, though...

'No...he's slowing down, isn't he...?'

Yes, even as the plumed serpent ripped and tore and slashed in a mad frenzy, dealing a mortal wound for every blow it received, the attacks of the enemy were having some effect as more and more kept pouring in each moment, an endless tide of flesh and black blood racing to the slaughter, seeking to overcome through the weight of numbers what they could not through raw power.

'I could join him,' Shinji thought to himself, considering his options even as he poured his will into sustaining the barrier of earth he'd raised to protect himself – and Ramona – from the monstrous creature behind it: a beast of blood and corruption that sickened and twisted everything it touched with its blood.

Its breath had pushed back the sphere of the world's might Ramona had carried with her from without, forcing her to shield only herself - something that Shinji only realized once he felt the black blood on the floor – which he stood on – begin to leech at his prana, to eat away at his fusion, to tug at the strings of his soul.

'How…how is it doing this?!'

Whatever the method, he couldn’t deny its effectiveness, as the boy could feel it getting harder to breathe, could see spots forming in his vision as the rate of draining increased – in time with the assault on his barrier.

'Shit. I can't hold it.'

At least, he wouldn't be able to for much longer, not without it draining every bit of his life away – killing him without him getting in a single blow.

‘I refuse.’

Ramona, he could see at a glance, was just as badly off, with the brunette's body swaying unsteadily her eyes closed as she clutched the pouch around her neck and mumbled something under her breath, something he couldn't quite make out. Her patterns though - they were shifting again -as in his vision, the solidity she'd gained began to vanish, returning to the void.

'I could grab Ramona and run...'

Yes. He could do that, since the spiritualist was in a rather sorry state, but if he did that the barrier would quickly decay, between the temple stone's desire to return to its normal shape and the corrosive power of the fell creature's breath. Ka'aukai, caught up in battle against countless trolls, would be caught unprepared – certainly he wouldn't be able to disengage.

He would die.

'I could attack. Jump over the barrier and use my scythe, or my ofuda. If I can just...just cut off its head, then we have a chance!'

But if he moved to attack, it would no doubt hit him with its toxic breath – its breath, which had worn away the stone skin fusion had bestowed upon him.

'And if it takes out my living wand and scythe, what happens to Zelkova?'

The only way he saw that might end with all of them alive was if he could negate the corrosive effects of the blood and mist, but how?

There was nothing he could do while he was inside to…

‘Wait. That’s it.’

Opening a path to the world outside.

The bubble that had protected them was a bubble of the world, so if he could just make some kind of opening, use his power over earth to tunnel through the ceiling to the seething storm outside, then maybe…maybe, he could save everyone, even himself.

Slowly, he shifted his power, forcing his awareness into the stone in a way that felt unnatural, as it fought him.

NO! the stone of the temple seemed to scream, resisting will and prana weakened by the black blood of the fell creature he warred against. NO. NO. NONONONONONONONONONONO.

"YES," Shinji snarled, baring his teeth as he launched ofuda filled with the corrosive power of water at the ceiling, with stone melting away as the paper talismans released their cargo, the stone of the temple crying out as if he was hurting it – as if it was a living thing he was torturing. But Shinji didn't care. Whatever pain it might have felt, whatever it might have wanted, neither of these mattered.

Not in the face of what he wanted.

Mere stone could not resist him. It would do as he commanded, he resolved, as he poured everything he had into opening a path, thrusting his power deeper, deeper, deeper into the stone. This was different from raising a wall from the floor – and even that had been difficult enough here. The shrine knew of walls. It knew of its shape. It wanted to be whole.

To just open for another will was a violation of its purpose, for it was meant to provide shelter from the elements.

In his mind, the stones seemed to beg. To plead. To demand him to stopstopstopstopstop!...but he'd gone too far to stop.

The barrier of earth collapsed.

Miasma came rushing out towards the party, and as if in a trance, Shinji blocked it with his body, as every nerve lit up in pain once more, his voice an incoherent scream as its power stripped away the defenses that up to now had protected him from death over and over, and then began licking at his soul.

He was close, so close.

If he could just...

YES!

With a shriek like the world falling to pieces, he finished, his power finally pushing through to the outside, leaving a gaping shaft behind, through with fresh air and rainwater fell.

After that, the effects of the beast's fell breath ceased to matter as it did, as Ramona's sphere of protection expanded to envelop him once more, shielding him – healing him, where he had shielded her.

'Wha...?'

Standing tall once more, the brunette stepped forward and past him, her form entirely solid to his spiritual senses, as a line of power connected her with the world outside.

In the stale, fetid air of the temple, the wind began to blow, rushing in from without to disperse the miasma, carrying with it the purifying rain.

It splashed on the walls, on the floor, and black blood hissed, burning away at the water's touch.

The trolls stumbled to a halt as if bound or confused all of a sudden – or if the strings which bound them had been severed – motionless as the rainwater burned them, heavy droplets splattering against their skin and carving deep furrows.

"Let's finish this," Ramona intoned as she stepped towards the creature at the heart of the nightmare, drawing from her pouch a single item: a delicate feather, glowing with a powerful golden light – a light whose glow repulsed the darkness it tried to bring forth to oppose her. "Pitiful creature," she murmured. "Shadow of the seas. Beast which embodies death and decay. This is the end of your story."

The Champion walked forward, thrusting out her hand and flinging the feather forth.

There was a powerful cry that filled the air, a trilling of phoenix song, joined moments later by a wail of absolute anguish as the glowing feather struck the fleshless horse-shaped thing and burst into golden flames that burned through the monster from the inside out, as an empowered symbol of life overcame a creature which was death, leaving no trace that the beast – the nuckelavee – had ever existed.

Well, except for the misshapen trolls, which in the absence of their dark master, collapsed bonelessly to the ground as golden fire burned through them – racing through the connection that had once bound them, erasing the power that kept them in this twisted state of near-life, the light burning away the black blood, as the wind carried it through the shrine as a whole.
Light and water, and wind blazed, brighter, brighter than the very sun.

And then once more, it was dark.

"It is over," Ramona declared with a breath.

And so it was, as Shinji finally, mercifully fell to his knees, barely aware of what was going on around him, and the monstrous form of Ka'aukai, with every troll dead and no more trolls before him, staggered against the wall, shifting back into his human shape from whatever the thing he'd become was.

He breathed once, twice, three times, and then, like the trolls, slumped to the floor, leaving the trio exhausted, but victorious and the defiled shrine reclaimed.

---

Choice 277: You have claimed the ruins for your own and defeated the nuckelavee which sought refuge there long ago after it had been wounded. Ka'aukai will need at least an hour or two to recover even following Ramona's healing, between the damage he took and the strain of actually using his tanifa combat form. Ramona is capable of continued action, now that the corrosive influence of the nuckelavee's blood has been burned away by what she confirms was a phoenix's purifying flames.

"Not that suitable phoenix feathers are exactly common, so I would prefer not to have to use that again."

Does Shinji (no longer in fusion) decide to...?

[ ] Take an hour to rest - with the storm raging outside, its not as if his competitors will be moving about much anyway
[ ] Head outside and look for ingredients - he might as well take advantage of the conditions - 1
[ ] Set up some defenses while Ramona goes out foraging
[ ] (Write-in)

Choice 278: Also, do you have questions for Ramona?

[ ] (write-in)

[Daiki]

[x] Set up defenses with Ramona.

Let's look at the situation for a sec. Ka'au is unconscious and the two others are pretty tired from that encounter. Going out alone would be stupid, especially with the storm out there. It's a good opportunity to lay down layers of defenses while the Polynesian rests. Doing it together has the benefit to share the energy strain between Shinji & Ramona as well. Shinji can then recover a bit until Ka'au awakes and the two of them go out foraging. Also gives us some room to be better acquainted with one of the teamates.

[x] Inquire about the 'something else' she mentioned earlier.

[Skull Leader]

[x] Set up defenses with Ramona.

I am not completely against this but She is sitting on the very area that she wanted to make a defense at. She got this. Its ruin of old history and has more magical energy than a lot of the already supercharged island. Not the highest but still. The place is protected by trees from site, and even then she is underground and will for the most part have some kind of warning.

She totally got this covered. But if you have to have Shinji stay with Remona than why not send Zelkova out to collect something, and/or scout for suitable location for Ku or Shinji to go to at a later point. But then I am not convinced that Shinji adds much to the overall defense of this place even if he places Ofuda when compared to what Ramona will be doing. The only reason I see for Shinji to stay is the muscle in attack.

The bigger issue at the moment is that storm is not going to get better. By the time Ku wakes back up, it might be harder to find good ingredients. We are on a ticking clock at the moment and need to go find something to turn into a potion.

Shinji is not useless on his own and with his ability to blend into the environment, I think we can risk Shinji going out to collect potions before coming back around the time Ku has recovered. Heck we could even hand Ramona an ofuda to alert Shinji to flow back if we also left behind a Flow Ofuda. It would cover I believe all of our bases.

[X] Head outside and look for ingredients but leave one of his Flow ofuda for the purpose of coming back when he is done and/or an emergency

[X] Ask about her void nature and her ability to absorb sprites and/or elements into her being

[Perverse Transcriptase]

If any of the competition is looking for an opportunity to assault our team, this is the time when we are the most vulnerable.

The storm started really soon after everyone headed out (~30 minutes) and we didn't travel very far away from the starting point. The location of the ruins should be treated as public knowledge and they are a desirable location in a bad storm. The competition's starting angles were all different, but it is not likely that our route continued on a straight path away from everyone else. Also, all the light, noise, and magical energy generated during our fight would've broadcasted our location to anyone close by that is willing to take advantage of our weakened state. Lastly, a team may have decided to track us from the start.

Besides the competition, who knows when the Swooping Evils or some other creature (e.g. trolls returing from a hunt) might come back.

[x] Set up defenses with Ramona.

Ask for her assessment of the competitors.

[Haunter]

[x] Set up defenses with Ramona

[alfheimwanderer]

Choice 277: [x] Set up defenses with Ramona.

Choice 278: [X] Ask about her void nature and her ability to absorb sprites and/or elements into her being; [x] Ask for her assessment of the competitors.

---

Choice 279: In the wake of the nuckelavee's defeat, Shinji and Ramona set to work ensuring that the rest of the shrine really had been cleansed of the demon's influence, with the Champion of Qausuittuq using rainwater that was somehow glowing with the faint echo of golden flames to scour the walls and floor, and the boy leaving a number of ofuda in her wake.

"You don't need to do that, you know," Ramona noted mildly, though she didn't bother stopping him as he laid a few around the doors and ceiling, manipulating the prana within them so they would not react to his teammates - and so he could seal any breaches if necessary, or teleport to a place at need. "We're not likely to be attacked."

"Better safe than sorry," the boy replied, shaking his head. "If anyone else knows about this ruin, they might decide to come seek shelter from the storm here."

"Don't you have your familiar asking the trees to hide the pattern of this place from prying eyes?" Ramona asked, with Shinji blinking.

"...admittedly yes, but such a thing might not defeat someone...with abilities like mine," the boy said, choosing his words with care. And it was true, he didn't think that Sajyou Ayaka would be deterred for more than a moment by whatever defenses he set up - or that Elesa Labelle would be, for that matter.

"Not that I think that the Japanese Champion would particularly need shelter from the storm," Ramona noted after a moment. "She doesn't seem the type to be inconvenienced by a bit of inclement weather."

"Also true," Shinji conceded, with something of a wry smile. "Unlike us."

"Heh. People like us are limited compared to those without limits, its true," the Champion of Qausuittuq admitted. "But that just means that we turn our limits into strengths. Perhaps we don't have the raw power others might, or the sheer array of abilities. That doesn't mean we can't triumph with skill."

"...speaking of raw power," Shinji began, glancing at Ramona as they reached the entrance of the shrine, finding themselves looking out upon the sky, where towards the center of the island, a vortex of...no, coils of azure lightning bridged ground and sky - one of the only things they could actually see, through rain so heavy it was almost a solid wall. "...you know, I've never seen lightning act like that before. This island is...strange."

"Well, it could be there is something special about the ruins at the center," the Inupiat girl shrugged. "There's an ancient serpent that guards it, they say, centuries old at least. And not so easily beaten as what we fought."

"That reminds me, how did you beat that thing?" the boy asked, raising his eyebrows. "You were suffering pretty badly until I opened a hole through the ceiling--"

"--thank you for that, by the way."

"--and then after that, you stood up and threw...something like a feather at it. And it just burned up. How...?"

"At a high enough level, magical combat isn't about how much power you can bring to bear, but the concepts you employ. Just as the Nuckelavee was decay given form, bringing death to all living things, the phoenix is a symbol of life after death, of rebirth and purification. Against its power, even death may be defeated, and so it was."

"Huh. Conceptual warfare, huh?" Shinji muttered. His former Master spoke about that often enough - and it wasn't as onmyouji didn't use such things against spirits. Though... "But you're not a phoenix, so how...?"

Ramona chuckled.

"I am what some would call a shaman," the young woman noted. "One who touches the world of spirits and borrows their power."

"...so that's what happens when your...when your patterns change. You borrow their power - and that changes you, doesn't it?"

"Yes. My body is a vessel for spirits," Ramona explained. "I gather the fragments of their inchoate powers and bind them, giving them purpose. I took in the power of the air and channeled it into a phoenix feather I carried, awakening the echo of a phoenix's might it carried within it. Things remember what they were once part of, after all, and with a strong enough...stimulus, that memory can be brought to the surface." She smiled slightly. "Not high-quality phoenix feathers are exactly common - or cheap - given how wand-makers like to snap them up, so I would prefer not to have to do something like that again. I have a very limited stock in my pouch, after all."

"You have anything else that might be useful in there?" the boy asked.

"I do," the brunette noted, but said no more. After a moment she sighed. "Let's go back inside and check on Ka'au. He'll probably be waking up soon, after sleeping off the strain of entering tanifa form."

"Tanifa?"

"A guardian, I suppose," the young woman explained. "It's not an exact translation, but it will do."

"How...?"

"We both borrow from the world. We just have different ways of doing it. Different ways of expressing our abilities," the girl noted. "So, are you feeling a bit better now? I know that you took the miasma of that creature head on..."

"I'll be fine," the boy said, shaking his head. "That's...well, it hurt, but we were all hurting. My familiar got the worst of it, honestly."

"He is a rather powerful spirit, with an affinity for the trees."

"Yes. He doesn't particularly fear death, but neither does he like being surrounded by it."

"Few things do, Matou."

Ka'au has begun to stir, with his wounds treated by Ramona's healing magic. Shinji's injuries have been healed, and he is a bit more "together" in mind, though Zelkova is somewhat wounded. The shrine has been purified and the trees are actively hiding the pattern of the area from outsiders as thanks for what the party accomplished. Time, however, is passing.

Time to sunrise: 8 hours

"So, shall one of us go and gather some ingredients?" Ramona asks, as she sets up a cauldron in the spot the beast had once been, filling it partway with pure rainwater.

[ ] Yes. Shinji will.
[ ] Yes. Ramona should.
[ ] Yes. Send Zelkova.
[ ] No. Shinji will go with Ka'au once he awakens.
[ ] (write-in)

[fallacies]

[ｘ] Yes. Shinji will.

[Daiki]

[x] Go with Ka'aukai & Take a dose of Felix Felicis (Let Zelkova rest)

FF dose so that he can sorta compensate for the absence of the familiar. Leave Zelkova time to recover (in case the camp is assaulted later). The Isle is saturated with dense mana and the tree area should help out. You can even order Zel to keep watch until Shinji and Ka'au come back. The two of them going together increases odds of survival and allow to warp back with ofuda (minimizing travel time) once they are done.

[Perverse Transcriptase]

Partial write-in:
[X] Yes. Shinji will.
Meanwhile, Ramona should harvest any useful ingredients from the bodies of the dead trolls and anything else within the defensive perimeter.

Our focus on awareness and movement training along with a stockpile of offensive ofuda and flow ofuda coupled with a fortified escape route should be more than adequate (without felix felicis) to keep us alive as long as we are cautious. We should flow ofuda back to base when we've collected enough ingredients in order to save time and prevent others from following us back.

Once Ka'au awakens, he should assume his demiguise form to prioritize his safety (at the cost of decreased holding capacity) while looking for ingredients. Ka'au can assume his human form after he recovers enough of his defensive capabilities.

Our priorities should be to first gather enough ingredients for Ramona to get started on a potion and then to find specific types of ingredients requested by her once she has figured out what she can make. Beyond ingredients, we'll have to rest enough to remain functional during the night and ready for a pre-dawn attempt at sabotage while we are returning with our finished potion. Lastly, we might want to learn by observing/assisting Ramona and socialize with our team.

Goals of this trial:
Survival of the whole team
Perform well in the trial
Learn more about potions and ingredients
Gain respect of teammates
Gather intelligence

[Skull Leader]

[X] Yes, Shinji will. But hand Ramona an alert Ofuda to recall Shinji back when Ku is ready to head out so Shinji can flow back so they can work together.


I kinda hate making another variation here rather then just seconding someone elses vote here so we have a good marching order but I am not a fan of using the luck potion at this moment as Shinji will certainly need it during the main event. But I do like having Zelkova to rest but at this point Shinji needs to go collect ingredients and should not go out their fully alone in a storm, so I feel somewhat forced to take Zelkova at the moment.

The Ramona write in is all good but I feel like its an order that will likely happen if she stays without being said. After all she is a champion and can figure out what she wants to do. Its not like we can really order her around. Now if that write in was just suggesting to her what she should do, then fine. But more than anything I just want Shinji to head out and do something but I do want Shinji to really wait and work with Ku in collecting ingredients so that is why I decided to go with my write in where Shinji will come back when Ku feels ready to head out. And if Ku feels like he rather head off on his own...well its not like they are obligated to use the Alert Ofuda to recall Shinji back.

[Daiki]

^^I would not harvest anything that has been in contact with the corrupting monster, tyvm.

I am not a fan of using the luck potion at this moment as Shinji will certainly need it during the main event.

He has some leftover FF from before (think it's just one dose since he spent some for the Fading Potion) which is about three hours worth. Remember that for the competition itself, each champion will be granted one full vial.

[alfheimwanderer]

Choice 279: [X] Yes. Shinji will.

---

Choice 280: As he left the circle of trees behind, Matou Shinji turned around, curious what effects Zelkova speaking to the trees would have, finding himself more than mildly surprised when all he saw was a dense, unremarkable copse of trees, with no sign that there was anything past them but yet more trees.

'A simple illusion, but its one people would expect to see. I might even be fooled, if I didn't have my flow ofuda back in the shrine.'

Since he did, and could sense where some of them were, it was a bit of a moot point, but regardless, he felt a bit more secure knowing that others wouldn't be inclined to come here, if they didn't already know it existed.

'Especially not on a night like this.'

A night where the winds raged violently enough to lift a man off his feet, with heavy raindrops crashing down so closely together it was like a wall in and of itself that painted everything that wasn't the ground or a tree a strange grey-white, with the only hint of actual color being the coils of azure lightning in the distance. Or well, what had been coils of azure lightning, since when Shinji looked over, he couldn't see them anymore.

'Huh. That's weird.'

What kind of natural phenomenon would cause such a thing? Was there some kind of rare element towards the center of the island? A concentration of prana so dense that it affected the world around it? Was it the work of some magical beast?

Shinji didn't know.

'Well, at least wandering about in a rainstorm is familiar, I suppose.'

He'd done something like this in his final Potions Challenge at Hogwarts, when he'd faced off against Harry for the privilege of representing Hogwarts in the Championship. He'd won, too, and without the benefit of fusion, though admittedly, he'd had Zelkova harry Harry for the duration of the challenge, keeping the Boy-Who-Lived off balance and only able to react.

Something that probably wouldn't be the case here, though at least with all the water around him, he could probably do something ridiculous like rain down a hundred spears of ice on someone, or a torrent of black sludge, enough to kill someone unprepared for such a thing, or at least enough to cause a distraction that would let a grey phantom disappear into the rain.

'Heh. It's like Lockhart designed this for blending into fog or rainy days,' Shinji mused, finding the thought amusing, since the History Professor so loved to stand out - but on second thought, it was probably true. The man was an Assassin, after all, and the very fact that he wore such outlandish robes most of the time only made it more likely that someone would overlook him if he was dressed in something plain, say a dark grey robe at night, or robes in off-white when he was wandering in a desert. 'I could stand to spend more time learning from him. I mean, just look at how he trained Pansy. She's...something else now. More dangerous than before in...more than a few ways.'

Still, there would be more than enough time for his mind to wander later, no matter how nice it was to distract himself from the absolutely miserable weather outside.

'Focus. I have to focus. Someone needs to get ingredients. I told Ramona I would go out for them, since Ka'au wasn't awake yet.'

Right. But where should he go?

[ ] Head towards the center of the island
[ ] Head towards shore
[ ] Walk in an ever expanding spiral from his position
[ ] Call for Zelkova - he can't do this alone, in these conditions

And what approach should he take? (if Call for Zelkova isn't selected)
[ ] Search for a cave of some kind, where odd things might grow
[ ] Use his earth-based senses to see if he can sense something moving - maybe he can find (and raid) a camp
[ ] Take out the Book of Potions and ask Budge for ideas
[ ] (write-in)

[Perverse Transcriptase]

Right now I'm leaning towards calling for Zelkova, but I want to know what others think. I'd also like to save any felix felicis for our own use (e.g. during the real competition or when we're going to do something really dangerous).

Here is how I see the options now:

Where should he go?
[ ] Head towards the center of the island
Bad idea depending on how far away the lightning coils and ruins are.

[ ] Head towards shore
Relatively safe since our initial path took us away from this direction and we are less likely to run into a competitor's path.

[ ] Walk in an ever expanding spiral from his position
Staying close to base while we're weak would be a good idea as long as Ka'au can use our flow ofuda on his own. Otherwise, it might be best to save this path for him when he is just recovered enough to go out.

[X] Call for Zelkova - he can't do this alone, in these conditions
Zelkova should be alright for anything other than combat (which we'd avoid anyway), so this should be safe as long as he is with us. There will be more opportunities for recovery once Ramona gets started (ingredient prep-work, simmering, experimentation, etc.), but we do not want her to just be waiting around and she shouldn't sleep while Ka'au is still down.


And what approach should he take?
[ ] Search for a cave of some kind, where odd things might grow
Caves would also shelter competitors and beasts from the weather. We should avoid this until we're more combat ready.

[ ] Use his earth-based senses to see if he can sense something moving - maybe he can find (and raid) a camp
I'm against any offensive raids.

[ ] Take out the Book of Potions and ask Budge for ideas
We surpass Budge in knowledge of the specific ingredients present and the layout of the island. Revealing our book and diverting our attention from our surroundings while outside of the base is overly risky.

Write-in:
[ ] Use his earth-based senses to track and avoid any nearby competitors or predators.

[Daiki]

[x] Walk in an ever expanding spiral from his position.
[x] Take out the Book of Potions and ask Budge for ideas.

It's good to know what surrounds your camp, in case you have to make an emergency sortie. Also, Budge certainly would enjoy being consulted. Just cast an impervius charm/slap a protective ofuda on the book so it doesn't get utterly soaked.