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

[Malorius]

[X] Flow-only ofuda

Because Mobility is the King on battlefield, let's trust Lockhart in this regard. I assume that it excludes other choices.

[X] Consider any situation from as many angles as possible

Last time Shinji jumped right into the fight to save Rachelle without even considering other - more effective - approaches to help her. Maybe this time we will be able to vote before he places himself in an unfavorable, if suitably dramatic, position. Hopefully, it won't change his "Tired" debuff to "Tired. Sluggish." category.

Wait, aren't we just a sidekick for our hypercompetent sempai in this venture? It means that our ability to follow her orders fast may be more important here...

[Daiki]

[x] Warding Ofuda
[x] Flow-only Ofuda

[x] Consider any situation from as many angles as possible.

[Haunter]

[X] Flow-only ofuda

[X] Consider any situation from as many angles as possible

[sileaf]

[X] Flow-only ofuda
[X] Binding ofuda

[X] Consider any situation from as many angles as possible

[alfheimwanderer]

Choice 336: [X] Flow-only ofuda; [X] Binding ofuda
Choice 337: [X] Consider any situation from as many angles as possible

---

Choice 338: And so Shinji arrives just in time to keep from disqualified as a no-show, with some of the other Champions looking at him as if he really doesn't belong among them, and others looking at him with expressions of studied neutrality.

There are a last few bits of housekeeping to handle. First, all Champions are offered the option of an emergency return portkey that they can activate if they feel they are in over their heads or which can auto-activate if the individual is rendered unconscious against their will or greviously injured.

Does Matou Shinji wish to accept such a portkey?

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Choice 339: Further, this time, Champions will not be leaving by the gates. Rather, they will be teleported/scattered to random places on the island.

What is Shinji's first priority?

[ ] Finding a safe place to set up camp
[ ] Trying to orient himself
[ ] Determining if anyone is nearby
[ ] Taking a nap. Everything else can wait till he's rested
[ ] (write-in)

[Malorius]

I was under impression that we will start this run together with Elesa. Well, that somewhat changes things.

[x] Write in: Finding Elesa to get a nap under her watchful eyes.

This isn't going to endear us to her. But better look incompetent now than get ganked in the very beginning.

[x] No

Let's be honest here, Shinji will get his ass kicked during this adventure at least once. It's inevitable, there is no going around it. So.

Let's trust Sempai to take good care of Shinji's body!

...Yeah, I know what I've said.

EDIT.

Alf, does Shinji have a time to ask a couple of quick questions to Elesa before the start of the event? We really need to establish a way to meet up.

Portkey, scrying, apparition, at least a destination to reach. Flow ofuda possess a pretty short range, iirc.

[sileaf]

[x] No
Risky but getting teleported away during important fight will be troublesome.

How tired is shinji to require a nap?

[Skull Leader]

There are multiple champions that feel that he does not belong among the champions? Who are these people?

I thought Shinji has proven that he at some level is deserving his spot. Unless they are pissed at a champion that killed another champion. Mischa I can see being pissed here but I am having a hard time thinking of another person here that would show a response openly here. Ayaka, Elesa, Lestrange, Ramona, Ka'au and Sondrol are all people that I heavily doubt would react at all. Maybe Lib or Olu...

I like this safety question is mostly hey Board are you ready to wimp out and pick the safe option but 95% likely to get knocked out and fail the Sion mission. Or do you want to shut up and sign Shinji death certificate, and accept the painful reality that is the nature of the island? Either way we are screwed and will not be happy with what we picked. Thought I would not mind a portkey if it did not have an automatic feature on knock out, we are way way to prone to that.

Oh well not like our mission is to head to the most dangerous part of the island...

As for the Choice 339, I am confused why we are not assuming the plan with Elesa was Shinji to just flow to her. I guess she has air scouting abilities so in reality its not likely to take time for her to drop in on Shinji if she wants to. Or maybe the plan is that Shinji should be able to find the center of the island to met up with her without help? I don't know, but I can see this being her way of testing to make sure he worthy of rolling with her.

[X] Trying to orient himself

Sleep can god darn wait, you do not just start this championship by falling asleep in the middle of a unknown location at the start. Figure out where you are, make sure no enemies near by and then either make your way to the ruins to met up with Elesa or find a temporary base of operation.

[Daiki]

[x] No.
[X] Trying to orient himself.

[alfheimwanderer]

Alf, does Shinji have a time to ask a couple of quick questions to Elesa before the start of the event? We really need to establish a way to meet up.

No. This is what happens when you arrive just before the deadline. Also, he never passed an ofuda to Elesa, only Ramona and Lestrange.

[Daiki]

Already knows where to meet her, he simply needs to know which direction to go in order to reach the center of the isle.

[sileaf]

[X] Trying to orient himself

[apsalar]

So, I'm reading through the stuff that I missed during my ~year of hiatus, and came across this passage in chapter 78:

"Go. See what ingredients you can find, and I in turn, will see if what you retrieve will enhance the quality of the potion."

“And will you share what the ingredients might do for we lesser wizards?” Shinji joked. “Even if they won’t do anything for the potion?”

Was it intentional that Shinji refers to himself as a wizard? He's been very reluctant to do so in the past, so if it is intentional, it makes me wonder what's changed.


Edit: No problem. It just had potentially massive implications for his character, and nobody seemed to notice in the thread.

[alfheimwanderer]

Thanks for catching that, it was not intentional.

Edit: I think some may have written it off as him being distracted by his dreams and other such.

Choice 338: [x] No
Choice 339: [x] Trying to orient himself

---

Choice 340: Looking around, Matou Shinji finds himself standing upon a platform of weathered stone, covered in runes that have nearly been worn away by the elements. From what he can tell, he is deep underground, with stone above him and water all around, and faint, faint light coming from luminescent moss. The air stirs all around him, a chill passing through him as a thousand voices were whispering in a thousand forgotten tongues.

'Where am I?' he wonders. Could this...could this be the other part of the cave system he didn't explore? A pity he couldn't remember much about his explorations then... 'The only trouble is I can't really see what's going on around me. The light is really faint.'

Nor did he know how deep the water was, or have a sense for if there were stones he could walk on, or creatures beneath the surface.
And he didn't yet have access to fusion, as Zelkova had not yet recovered, or any of his elemental ofuda to do something like freeze a path for himself?

So what does the boy do?

[ ] Take Elixir of Fading - Shift into Spirit Form and find a way out
[ ] Sit down on the platform and meditate - maybe he's in range of a flow ofuda he left behind - or one near one of the other Champions
[ ] Strip down and try swimming - how bad could it be?
[ ] (write-in)

[sileaf]

I bet there's creature in that water. Shinji jinxed himself there.

[X] Sit down on the platform and meditate - maybe he's in range of a flow ofuda he left behind - or one near one of the other Champions

Getting clue of where other champion are sound useful.So for now, unless there is better write in

[apsalar]

Finally caught up. Boy howdy, were there a lot of decisions I would've disagreed with. Still, those choices have passed, and now we're on to a new one.

[X] Sit down on the platform and meditate - maybe he's in range of a flow ofuda he left behind - or one of the other Champions

This seems, on the face of it, the most intelligent choice; a logical continuation of our choice to orient himself. On the other hand, this has the potential to waste time fruitlessly, and to give the initiative to whatever he's sharing the cave with. Swimming is a terrible idea, but the Elixir of Fading could be a good idea - it would allow Shinji to see without pulling out the Phial of Light, would allow him to find an exit, and would protect him from the majority of attacks and spells. But it could also be a hindrance, as it would make him vulnerable to other attacks and spells, and we probably have a rather low stock at this point, so I think we should save it for later.

[Skull Leader]

I am just going to put this out here, but I do not consider the let's go mediate and jump away. One, Shinji has not lit up the room to make sure he is safe enough to do this action. Two, I would highly recommend us not jumping to Ramona without her calling us. She is not our friend, and frankly I think she is not going to take it well if Shinji jumps to her five secs after this whole thing starts. She could take that very much like he gave her the ofuda just to ambush her.

I am not for this action at this moment. We are better off lighting up the sun potion and finding a way out either by fading or by normal means. After all we did tell Elesa that we wanted to explore...so go exploring.

[sileaf]

Well, it is the most reasonable among the pre-made choice aside from using potion which shouldn't be used too frequently due to side effect

Meditate doesn't mean jumping to them right? It can be used to ascertain location or distance.

...i wish shinji carry a flashlight or lighter with him

Edit: transfigure the rock he is standing on or random object he owns into raft/boat?

I just remember shinji has a shield that can show what is in his surrounding

[alfheimwanderer]

...i wish shinji carry a flashlight or lighter with him

He does have a wand, which he could use to try and illuminate the area, as well as a nicely charged sun potion.

And yes, the shield will show him what's in his surroundings, but only as colored dots, depending on whether they have a heartbeat or not.

As for meditation, you don't have to jump right away, its just helping you try to find out if you even can to begin with.

Finally caught up. Boy howdy, were there a lot of decisions I would've disagreed with. Still, those choices have passed, and now we're on to a new one.

Any in particular?

[apsalar]

Any in particular?

Off the top of my head, the choices leading to the Bad End (not that those penalized us much, as they were undone), going to the Manly Picnic, and some of the lead-up to the First Jinn. Mind, once we found the First Jinn, I didn't have any better ideas what to do than the rest of the thread. Oh, also I would've picked either the mantle or the sandals, as we've made a number of choices for how Shinji fights that take both hands already, and using the shield makes them impossible.

That said, now that we have the shield, might as well put it to use; changing my vote to [X] (write-in) Use Perseus' shield to find out if there are any hostile creatures nearby before deciding what else to do.