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

[Skull Leader]

show her our hand as sign of our trust in her

I assume you mean show her his command seals as a sign of our trust in her; only they are on his upper arm and not on his hand. Also showing her our hand sounds like a marriage proposal, when read out of context and truthful showing Rin that you trust her enough to show a 'rival' family member his CS, would likely be interpeted as another act of courtship with her as its would be a very deep sign of trust. One at the level that close lovers have.

Overall, this kind of write in, is basically what I would like to happen; a frank discussion that covers a gambit of topics. But I afraid that, if we voted for something that is long, complex and with multiple parts, we will get a huge backfire because we did not focus on one thing to talk about. Write ins usually suppose to be of the same complexity as the other non-write in answers. They're not suppose to be an include everything and the kitchen sink choice.

Combat training is always good but what kind of training can Rin give Shinji really? Without circuits he can not use anything she knows other than her martial arts training (if she even has that at this point). Plus the skills she is learning are from Touko and/or Tomas, sources that Shinji has already had a chance to learn from. All Shinji would get with Rin is another sparing partner (which I admit is a good idea).

[skulkidcachi90]

I think than shinji need more combat training against a Magus, because for now all his experience come from his battlles against shirou, if Rin access to be shinji sparing partner they can improve their abilities and also improve their relationship.

And yes I want shinji show her his comand seals, she is the last Tohsaka so is kinda ovbious than she is gonna be involved in the grial war, so I think than she is gonna pareciate that gesture, it gonna show her than she is not a enemy to shinji but and important ally, mostly because do not want won the grail war.

I think than my write in only cover two things, our friendship with her and our desire of warn her about the future. Its really not that complex.

[ ] (write in): Tell her than she is a precious friend and we not want lose her friendship and than we fully trust in her even if we have problems, show her our Comand seals as sign of our trust in her, and tell her about the servant of the previous war , tell her for patience and not ask to the Priest about gilgamesh at least until we can get more data about the previous war and why archer is still here. Also ask for her help in combat training and if his possible spend more time with her and our others friends and be open to more important discussions than we need to have.

[apsalar]

I'm not trying to be rude, but it seems fairly complex to me. You make good points, but can you express it in ~6-10 words? Much more than that has, historically, not gone entirely as we wanted.

[alfheimwanderer]

Since there's a bit of discussion, I suppose I can leave the vote open for another 24 hours.

[saki]

The fact that Mashu is there will surely make things awkward. But lets open the gates to hell.

[ ] Who they are to one another

[alfheimwanderer]

[x] Who they are to each other it is then, I suppose.

Stay tuned for Chapter 22: Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts, in which Matou Shinji fights two duels, learns a few interesting things, and desperately gives his all in an attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat

[skulkidcachi90]

i wonder how much you people Ruined this (is a joke).

Hyped for the next chapter, I hope than at least shinji get into the level 2 of fusion.
Also alf shinji use potions in his actual battle style?

[Skull Leader]

..and desperately gives his all in an attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat

So it will be another Tuesday in the life of Shinji then?

Joking aside, considering that the Redwood wand turned down Shinji back in the third year during his wand search, I can't say that Shinji is very good at snatching victory from near defeat. That wand did not find that quality to be strong enough for it to pick Shinji.

[alfheimwanderer]

Also alf shinji use potions in his actual battle style?

Occasionally, he might use an explosive potion or something, but nowhere close to the extent the French Champion does, given her inclination towards aerosolized potions and such.

[alfheimwanderer]

Chapter 22. Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts

As she stood across from Matou Shinji in one of Mahohutokoro’s larger practice arenas clad in the white uniform of upper division students at Mahoutokoro, sizing up her opponent, Tsuchimikado Hokuto trembled with excitement at the thought of the match to come. Aside from her monthly duels against Peverell-dono, there were few things that truly allowed her to test her capacity.

Given her status as the granddaughter of the chairman of the Japanese Council of Magic, she was better trained than most of the students here, and the few who might be very nearly her peers often hesitated to oppose her with everything they had, as they feared the potential repercussions of any unfortunate...accidents, meaning she rarely encountered any serious challenge – her crushing defeats she suffered at Sajyou-sama’s hands on the rare occasion that the Champion wished to spar notwithstanding.

Those “duels” with the Champion of Mahoutokoro reminded her of just how much distance there was between someone like her, considered one of the best duelists in the City – and someone like the Maiden of the Tree, the ancient fusion-user who ruled the City in truth. And without others who were willing to challenge her, to push her to her limits, forcing her to use every ounce of skill and power she possessed, she knew she would never reach the same heights as the one in whose footsteps she walked.

That was why she hungered for chances to face people who used strange magics and techniques vastly different from hers, people who were not afraid to challenge her with all they had, people from whom she could learn. People, in effect, like Peverell-dono, a young man who not only knew the combat techniques of the distant West to a degree beyond anyone she had ever met, but who was able to adapt what he knew to allow him to consistently defeat practitioners of a style alien to his own.

‘Most would find such a thing…difficult at best, given that humans are creatures of bias and subjectivity, with our notions of what is possible – and what is correct – being shaped by our experiences. As such, most western practitioners do not bother learning arts beyond those made possible by wands, as wand abilities are the foundation of their societies. Indeed, from what I have learned, the wand itself is the symbol of their power.’

In the East, wands as the Westerners knew them were not given quite such reverence, though practitioners in Mahoutokoro were known to use them from time to time, as students found them a useful supplement for their ofuda and other more specialized tools, and it was necessary to know a few basics of wandcraft if one wanted to work with westerners. So it had been since the wandlore of the West (as opposed to more specialized gohei used by Shinto priestesses for channeling, cleansing, or exorcism), had been imported by Dutch practitioners like Toroi-san long ago.

Being a skilled onmyouji, not a western practitioner, she preferred her ofuda, her satori bond, and the techniques they made possible, with her skill with the wand being…adequate, but not comparable in any serious setting. Given her unfamiliarity with the wand, and what she considered its lack of flexibility and power, agreeing to duel Tomas Peverell had been a decision she’d made from simple curiosity – until of course, he’d defeated her – reminding her that victory in combat was not determined by who knew better techniques, but who could best apply what they knew to the situation at hand.

By now, she’d learned that most Western practitioners were not quite on Peverell-dono’s level, but then, many Eastern practitioners weren’t on hers either. And if he’d beaten her more often than not, he wasn’t utterly beyond her abilities, as she had proven by besting him every so often – which gave them both a strong motivation to improve.

The young woman smiled, but dismissed thoughts of other encounters and other battles, focusing her almond-colored eyes on the opponent before her, a certain Matou Shinji, clad in his school robes. He had appeared as she had requested, on Halloween, honoring her with a duel before his return to Britain.

Were Matou Shinji just an average boy his age, an ordinary student at Mahoutokoro or Hogwarts, without anything setting him apart from his peers, neither of them would be here, with him being too intimidated to face her, and her being quite uninterested in a match against someone who inevitably prove…uninteresting.

But the boy standing before her was anything but ordinary. He had been born in Japan, yet had gone to Hogwarts for his education, becoming so skilled in the Western Arts that he had become its Champion, being essentially the British counterpart to Sajyou Ayaka. He had obtained a kodama as his familiar – a rare and powerful spirit, and much like the Champion of Mahoutokoro, he had unlocked the spirit fusion ability at an unusually young age. He had learned the arts of the mind from Peverell-dono, was considered an honorary member of the Fujou clan due to his generosity in healing Fujou Kirie and returning Fujou Shiroe to the ancient family, and in his hands, instead of a wand, he held…

‘…that craftsmanship! Matsuo-sama’s…?’

…an exquisite staff, a length of wood so dark it was nearly black, with runes and traceries etched onto the surface of the implement in silver, and a pale, silvery metal capping both ends. But this was no mere melee weapon, nor just a wand writ large. It was like – felt like – a kodama’s…

‘A living weapon. He has a living weapon.’

The realization sent a shiver down her spine, given the rarity of such instruments of power. Only fusion users had ever been known to use them, given that the creation of such weapons did not require mere metal, wood, and magic. No – such a weapon contained a portion of the familiar’s soul, willingly given, and so, like fusion, was a symbol of deep trust and partnership.

‘He is not at the same level as Sajyou-sama, given how he reacted to the performance she gave at the Quidditch World Cup. Even so, if he is this powerful…perhaps I will finally have a challenge.’

Her lips curved into a secret smile as she heard the far-away instructions from Kaiduka Shiosai, who had taken it upon himself to oversee this particular duel, and bowed, much as her opponent did.

“Begin!” the kitsune intoned, and begin the two combatants did, as from both sides of the arena, a flurry of ofuda hurtled forth from the sleeves of their creators towards the one to be opposed.

In both cases, the wave of onrushing talismans, while effective if not blocked, were meant mostly as a distraction to prevent their opponent from focusing on their larger strategies – which generally involved the deployment – and concealment – of ofuda for field effects.

Given that Matou Shinji was trained in western techniques, she’d half-expected him to simply conjure fire and attempt to destroy her ofuda, but it seemed the boy had other ideas, as a wave of darkness erupted from his form, causing her attack ofuda to detonate prematurely when it struck them.

‘Yin manipulation?’ the Tsuchimikado heiress wondered, as a few of her ofuda appeared from what seemed like thin air, dark tendrils of power exploding forth from them and spearing through his oncoming talismans, with the shadows spreading from the point of contact to the ofuda as a whole and turning them pitch black as they fell to the ground.

As if in response to this, the Matou boy activated the elemental ofuda on his boots, with a thick black mist rose into the air, rich with prana, obscuring his form.

‘No doubt to give him a moment to prepare an attack of some kind.’

Not that such a thing would be enough to defeat her, as she wrapped the air around her body, using her abilities to allow her to disappear from sight as she flowed away to another location, but not before releasing three crackling spheres of wind into the mist.

With a whining siren-like sound, the spheres sped through their air, tearing through the mist and striking the figure at its center in an explosion of sound and cutting pressures, leaving the floor cratered from the force of the blow.

And yet, when the darkness dissolved away, the boy was unharmed.

Unharmed…but not untouched. For where Matou Shinji had once worn the school robes of Hogwarts, he was now clad in Japanese garments dyed a deep grey and a crown of horn-like branches, holding a scythe in his hands – and his eyes gleamed gold.

‘Fusion.’

A particularly dangerous form to face, as it could see through her basic wind abilities – and indeed, the boy leapt towards her, the earth itself rising to help propel him through the air towards her new location, though before he could hit her, she flowed away.

Behind him now, she unleashed a wave of dark ofuda, which exploded into dozens of shadowy threads, all of which shot towards the boy, who simply cut them out of the air with his scythe, before the very earth erupted around her, obscuring her vision, along with a ring of spikes which threatened to skewer her, save that once again, she flowed away – into a barrage of explosive ofuda, the force of which her reactive barrier of wind just barely turned aside.

Reacting on instinct, she flowed away once more, only to be met with another series of explosions, and another, and another.

‘But how…? ’

He shouldn’t have been able to predict where she would go. No one should have, given that she could have flowed to any of the invisible ofuda she’d scattered before.

And so he hadn’t.

Knowing he couldn’t, Matou Shinji had merely launched a vast enough number of ofuda into the air, so that no matter where she went on the field, some of his ofuda would find her, especially with his newly enhanced senses.

‘Tch. It is a nuisance, certainly, but if I stood still for long enough to conjure a whirlwind, he would be upon me.’

She couldn’t stop moving – not when fighting a fusion user, given their superior levels of speed and their ability to shrug off many of the abilities she was capable of using. So instead, she flowed back to the location she’d just previously cleared, appearing just long enough to deploy a shikigami, before flowing again, whereupon she was slammed unceremoniously to the ground, wave after wave of ofuda rushing at her barrier of wind and blowing them away, until there was nothing left of them.

Just a fusion user standing above her, his scythe at her throat to keep her from flowing away, his glowing gold eyes looking down at her dispassionately as she met them unflinchingly with her own.

“Gold…you’re a satori user?” the boy murmured, before shaking his head as if to clear it. “But the more pressing question is this: do you yield?”

“I…” she began weakly, before her form exploded into razor wind – followed by thousands of all-consuming threads of shadow.

This close, he had no ability to dodge or evade, as the mass of darkness immobilized the boy, wrapping itself around his limbs and weapon and torso, tendrils piercing his skin and feeding off of his prana as even more emerged, snaking down into his nose, his mouth, his eyes, and Matou Shinji screamed.

“Your first mistake,” Tsuchimikado Hokuto’s voice rang out a distance beside and behind him, as her form – untouched – appeared from the air, “was focusing too much on me and ignoring my shikigami. You saw it was no threat to you in fusion form, and so you prioritized me.”

She watched dispassionately as the boy’s body twitched and jerked, and Matou fell to the ground like a puppet with cut strings, the screams cut off as the dark threads burrowed their way into his throat.

“Your second,” she continued coldly, though he was too far gone to hear her, “was meeting my eyes. As a fusion user, your strongest ability, more than your speed, your resistance, or your command over the elements, is being able to see the patterns of the world. As one bonded with a satori, my gifts are more subtle in nature, with my strongest ability being to change how others see the world. The smaller the change, the easier it is to make.”

For instance, letting him see her as beaten, as weak, building up his feelings of confidence and his certainty of victory, playing on the sensation of power offered by a fusion – allowing her to switch places with her wind-clone shikigami without him noticing.

After nearly half a minute more, the shadowy threads receded, with Matou Shinji lying unconscious on the ground, no longer in fusion form, with the scythe having returned to its previous nature as a staff. It was a pity that her shadow puppet technique could not truly control a fusion user, since one mind could not truly dominate two, but then, she didn’t need to.

All Tsuchimikado Hokuto’s technique needed to do was tear away control of a portion of the consciousness, introducing enough discord into the union that the minds involved rejected one another, causing the fusion to break down – just as she had demonstrated.

“I suppose it was too much to expect to win against a fusion user without using my satori’s ability,” the girl murmured, looking down at her opponent’s vanquished form with a nod of respect. “That, too, shows me how far I have yet to go.”

Not that she would have held back against Sajyou-sama, but then, she didn’t think she could defeat the Champion of Mahoutokoro even if she were to go all out, given the other’s mastery of yin and yang. At present, Sajyou-sama was far beyond her capacity – even if she was using the fullness of her abilities.

She turned to the figure of Kaiduka Shiosai in the distance and bowed, as the kitsune called the match in her favor, though in the back of her mind, she wondered how Matou would do against Peverell-dono, and how a skilled practitioner of the Western Arts would do against Fusion.

---

Unfortunately for her, Hokuto would not get the chance, as Shinji had gone to face Tomas alone, after Kaiduka had examined him in one of the offices attached to the arena to ensure that the boy was physically – and thaumaturgically – capable of continued activity for the day, to say nothing of further combat.

“I’m fine,” Shinji had insisted, waving off the kitsune’s concerns as he sat up on the bed of the examination room. True, he was still unnerved, with the phantom pain of the Tsuchimikado girl’s shadowy threads invading him, violating him, seeming to rip his mind apart – which is effectively how it had disrupted the fusion – still lingering, but he could work through it. Past it. He could, he was sure. “Really. I did use up a lot of my ofuda in that last match, but I’m sure Tomas won’t be that bad to deal with.”

Kaiduka had just raised an eyebrow, before shaking his head.

“If you insist, Matou,” the fox had said reluctantly. “I will concede that you are physically capable of combat, but the mental feedback from the forced dissipation…”

“Yeah. I didn’t expect that,” Shinji had admitted, rubbing his temples with his hands, hoping that it would make the headache – which felt like white hot knives digging into his brain – better, though predictably, it didn’t. “Tell me something, Kaiduka. How did she do…that?”

“By ‘that’, I assume you are inquiring as to how she disrupted your fusion.”

“Yes,” Shinji had croaked. “Those threads…yin manipulation?”

“Yes. As you know, Yin manipulation is the basis of the sealing arts, Matou Shinji,” the kistune had explained. “Tsuchimikado Hokuto is very well versed in them, to the point that she can seal the consciousness of a human, turning him or her into a puppet, or as you have seen, disrupt an ongoing fusion. But then, her family has always been rather skilled at such things.”

“…the Tsuchimikado family is descended from Abe no Seimei, aren’t they?” the boy had asked, finally remembering something he’d been taught a long time ago.

“It is not for nothing that the head of that family tends to be selected as chairman of the Council, and the public face of the City,” Kaiduka had said. “The people seem happy with it, as does Hijiri.”

“You know, with how she controls the portals and is bonded with the Tree…” the Matou boy had mused, as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and gingerly began to put some weight on his feet, wincing at the sudden change in position. “She seems to have more power than is publicly acknowledged.”

“She prefers it that way,” the fox had answered. “The Council defers to her if she has specific concerns or such, and does consult her for advice from time to time, but in general, she finds it easier to allow the Council to handle the day to day business of the City. Best to let humans deal with their own affairs, and youkai with theirs, unless her presence is necessary.”

“Hm. Interesting,” Shinji had noted, shaking his head. “In any case, do I have your permission to see what Tomas wants?”

“If you insist,” the kitsune had allowed with some reluctance. “Have you asked your familiar if he is fine?”

At the mention of him, Zelkova had materialized from the air, looking rather less worse-for-wear than Shinji himself.

“More capable than Master, I would expect,” the kodama had replied. “I believe his mind took the brunt of the technique.”
And so it was that Shinji found himself walking through the door of the private training area Tomas used, shifting his staff to ground a stream of lightning the puppet had loosed from his fingers.

“…an interesting way to greet someone,” Shinji growled.

“Just wanted to be certain you were prepared, Matou,” Tomas replied rather languidly, the stream of lightning ceasing as he looked over the boy he had once trained. “I witnessed your defeat at the hands of the Tsuchimikado heiress today. You underestimated her.”

“Perhaps I did,” Shinji conceded, nodding his head as he brought his staff to a ready position. “But…I don’t think I underestimate you, knowing who you used to be.”

“Indeed?” Tomas inquired. “Yet you are here.”

“…you asked me to come,” the Matou boy protested. “Something about testing my abilities.”

“When your mind is in such pain that I can feel it radiating off of you?” the puppet asked. “You may be physically capable of fighting me. You may even have the prana to fight a long – though ultimately futile – battle, but your mind is nowhere near sharp enough for a match with one of your peers, let alone with me.”

“I can defend myself just fine!” Shinji snapped, perhaps a bit more testily than he should have done. “Even if you are a feared practitioner of dark witchcraft.”

“Well then, shall we test that hypothesis?” the puppet asked. Without warning, he launched a flurry of stunning spells at the boy, all of which Shinji deflected with his staff.

Matou Shinji retaliated with a number of explosive ofuda, which Tomas attacked with a wave of fire – only for the ofuda – now burning with black fire – to keep coming at him, with the puppet wordlessly conjuring a wolf of living flames which absorbed the ofuda into itself.

Shinji took a step back, surprised.

“Fiendfyre,” Tomas said casually, as the beast rushed to attack the boy. It was quick – too quick for Shinji to step out of the way, it leapt at him, with Shinji barely managed to interpose his staff between himself and the fiery wolf…with both Tomas and Shinji startled by how the living inferno disappeared on contact with the staff, with a layer of dark prana appearing around it.

“Huh,” Shinji blinked, stunned by the fact that the beast’s had been completely absorbed, to no ill effect. “I didn’t actually think that would work. How did you know I wouldn’t be hurt by that?”

“…I didn’t,” the puppet drawled, drawing a bone-white wand from his robes. “Still, I think we’re done with the preliminaries, don’t you? You’ve proven yourself somewhat competent, so I think I can get serious. Perhaps I will even use this, as I did against your friend.”

“I didn’t know you had a wand,” the boy inquired warily, his attention fixed on the bone-white instrument as he launched a stream of silver, blue, and red spells from his staff, all of which Tomas simply deflected. “What’s it made of?”

“Yew, with a phoenix feather core,” the other replied with a hint of dark amusement. “13½ inches in length. Found on the body of a fugitive on the run from the West, or so I hear. A certain rat-faced fellow.”

“A secondhand wand then?” Shinji asked, as the ground erupted under Tomas’s feet – only for the puppet to apparate away with a distinctive pop, leaving behind a few floating eyes that homed in on Shinji’s position – which the boy dispelled with a simple knockback jinx or two. “Is that really the best you can do, Tomas?”

“No,” a voice said from right behind him, with Shinji whirling around to face – empty air, as—

“AHHHHHHHHH!”

—the boy fell to his knees, screaming as the puppet unleashed an all-out mental assault on the hapless boy, tearing through his mental defenses as if they were tissue paper.

Pain.

Yes, Matou Shinji’s skill at Occlumency had developed to the point where he could ward off a casual probe, and perhaps something more pointed under normal circumstances – but these were hardly normal circumstances. Shinji’s mind was already reeling from what had happened in his previous duel, and Tomas was not using a casual probe, but applying all his skill and power as a legilimens to fight on a field the boy was hardly prepared for.

In a response that was almost instinctual, the boy transformed, fusing with his familiar and becoming more than he was, with the increased resistance protecting his mind from invasion by magical means as he became aware of exactly where Tomas was, and launched himself at the puppet with a speed born of raw fury.

A disturbing squelch echoed as the scythe arced forward, slicing through Tomas’ arm, with his right hand – and the wand held in it, flying off into a corner of the room.

With the thrill of battle rushing through him, and the pain stirring him to attack with everything he had, the boy rushed forward, slamming the puppet against a wall of stone that had risen behind him with enough force to shatter bones, knocking the air out of him in the process.

With the puppet unable to recover, Shinji pressed the haft of his scythe against Tomas’ throat with one hand, while grabbing onto the other’s clothes with the other so he couldn’t just get away.

This was it. Finally, he would win.

“Yield!” An enraged Matou Shinji roared, but there was no response, as the puppet could not speak, not with no air in his lungs, and no ability to breathe. “Yield!”

And then a sickly green bolt slammed unerringly into Shinji’s chest, the accoutrements of his fusion form dissolving into motes of light, staff clattering to the ground as the boy slumped lifelessly to the ground, leaving Tomas Peverell rubbing his throat in a room as silent as the grave.

‘I suppose I should be thankful he wasn’t a killer at heart,’ the puppet reflected, noting that even in the throes of utter rage, the boy’s first reaction had been to disarm him, and then to offer him a chance to surrender. ‘Not like me.’

---

Choice 65: As one might imagine, Shinji is not having a wonderful time on the train to Durmstrang, given that going to Hogwarts - and then to Durmstrang - follows the events of these chapters. Even after Sajyou-san surprisingly shows him some mercy and uses her healing abilities to soothe his mind, the headache from the first battle, coupled with the trauma from Tomas' mental assault, and then what had come after - jumbled memories of a「　」with no name, a primordial void where nothing existed - disturbed him greatly.

Yet, there is a full day to go through, and Shinji would seem rather out of character to his friends - especially to Pansy and Harry (with Daphne also present) - if he remained silent while nursing a cup of chamomile tea. It has been some time since he talked with either of them: two months for Harry and nearly half a year for Pansy, so he is curious about what has happened in his absence.

So with that in mind, he should (choose up to 3)

[ ] Ask how things have been in Britain & Hogwarts
[ ] Ask what they think about spending a year away from Hogwarts (due to Tri-Wizard Tournament)
[ ] Ask what Pansy was up to this summer
[ ] Answer questions about his grueling training for Potions
[ ] Take a nap, he's exhausted after the day of duels and could really use some rest
[ ] (write-in)

[skulkidcachi90]

[x] Take a nap, he's exhausted after the day of duels and could really use some rest

[mr_Trickster]

[x] - Ask how things have been in Britain and Hogwarts
[x] - Take a nap, he's exhausted after the day of duels and could really use some rest

Going for this for now as we could use the information update from a perspective outside of those in Ravenclaw as well as allow us to get some much-needed rest after what we just had to deal with.

[Skull Leader]

The best part of this chapter is the number of people, not from this board, who are hating the cliff hanger ending, because they are not sure if Shinji just got kill by Tomas. They do not know about the Fusion reaction to Avada Kedavra.

[X] Write In: Explain that Shinji is not feeling his best at the moment, due to the splitting headaches from his two duels combined with 'double day' he is experiencing with the time zone change.

Honesty is best policy here so that he can explain to his close friends that while he cares about them and is glad to see them finally, that he is not in the best shape or mood at the moment. They really need to know this fact so that understand why he is short with them. They are his friends, he can admit this weakness to them as a sign of trust. Bonus points if Shinji mentions suffering from 'jet lag' as Pansy might actually now understand that term now.

[X] Ask how things have been in Britain & Hogwarts
This out weighs asking Pansy about her travels in my mind even thought I really want Pansy to talk to Shinji about her travels but that can happen later. Shinji needs to know the charged climate that he is walking in. But I care more that we vote in my write in and the rest choice then this choice.

[X] Take a nap, he's exhausted after the day of duels and could really use some rest
Shinji really needs to, once he is sorta caught up with his friends, take a nap as he still has a very long day ahead of him. If I remember right he still has the hot springs meeting with the other champions that same day. He really needs the rest before he interacts with Durmstang. I think he will give the wrong impression if he does not get at least some rest before meeting them. PR is super important, good international PR even more so.

[alfheimwanderer]

If I remember right he still has the hot springs meeting with the other champions that same day. He really needs the rest before he interacts with Durmstang. I think he will give the wrong impression if he does not get at least some rest before meeting them. PR is super important, good international PR even more so.

He does indeed have the hot springs meeting and other intro to Durmstrang stuff to do, though at least the hot springs will be nice and relaxing. The stuff that happens later that night might well bring on another headache when he hears about it though.

[LeMagicien]

Oh my.

Well.

It appears we might've overreached. We just got savaged. Perhaps it might have been better to play defensively.

Alf, is it possible to know if the outcome of the Hokuto fight would've differed if we had chosen a different strategy? I'm getting the sense we would've lost anyway, although not as quickly, if we had gone a little less Leeroy
Jenkins-y.

The best part of this chapter is the number of people, not from this board, who are hating the cliff hanger ending, because they are not sure if Shinji just got kill by Tomas. They do not know about the Fusion reaction to Avada Kedavra

Honestly, I also thought this was going to be our first bad end. I was very relieved to find out it wasn't. Still, the curbstomping should be enough motivation for Shinji to continue improving. After all, if we can't beat some schoolgirl and a shadow of one of the most powerful wizards to ever live, how are we gonna look Shion in the eye when the time comes to stand beside her?

As for the choices,

[X] Write In: Explain that Shinji is not feeling his best at the moment, due to the splitting headaches from his two duels combined with 'double day' he is experiencing with the time zone change.

It does seem like a good idea to be truthful, this time. They're friends, no reason to keep them out.

[X]Ask how things have been in Britain and Hogwarts

[X] Nap time

I agree with Skull Leader; ask about the climate at the school and take nap. No need to start the new school year begging for trouble.

[apsalar]

Much though I want to ask about Pansy's summer, she might be more willing to talk about it if Harry and Daphne aren't around; I don't think they know about the Assassins, or that Pansy and Shinji are being trained by one. So, with that in mind, I'm going to echo Skull Leader's votes:

[X] Write In: Explain that Shinji is not feeling his best at the moment, due to the splitting headaches from his two duels combined with 'double day' he is experiencing with the time zone change.

[X] Ask how things have been in Britain & Hogwarts

[X] Take a nap, he's exhausted after the day of duels and could really use some rest

[Nephirin]

[ ] Ask what they think about spending a year away from Hogwarts (due to Tri-Wizard Tournament)
[ ] Ask what Pansy was up to this summer
[ ] Answer questions about his grueling training for Potions

[alfheimwanderer]

Alf, is it possible to know if the outcome of the Hokuto fight would've differed if we had chosen a different strategy? I'm getting the sense we would've lost anyway, although not as quickly, if we had gone a little less Leeroy Jenkins-y.

In all fairness, he did get the drop on her - he just wasn't able to finish things, given that he hadn't accounted for how dangerous her own trump card was. She does prefer not to use her satori abilities if she can help it, as she doesn't want to rely on them, but a situation like the one she was in is one where she will definitely use them - and he isn't at a level where he can effectively defend against such things.

A more measured strategy would have led to a more drawn out battle - probably without fusion, as they probed each other for a while, evading one another, until Hokuto moved in and beat him by outmaneuvering him using flow-walking + invisibility. If Shinji went purely defensively, Hokuto might have gotten annoyed, thinking he wasn't taking her seriously as an opponent, and so would have proceeded to shift to powerful elemental attacks, overwhelming Shinji.

Still a loss, but a different kind of loss - a slower, more gradual loss, as opposed to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Malgos]

Ask how things are in Britain and the school, ask them what they think about spending a year away from the school and then after hearing their answers tell them that he's not feeling well and would like to take a nap.

[skulkidcachi90]

[X] Write In: Explain that Shinji is not feeling his best at the moment, due to the splitting headaches from his two duels combined with 'double day' he is experiencing with the time zone change.

[X]Ask how things have been in Britain and Hogwarts