But For A Stone (A Matou Shinji Series AU)

[Daiki]

[x] Tell her you'll answer her later, now is not the time.

Better time and opportunities will come up, if not during the rest of the school term, likely during summer.

[skulkidcachi90]

[x] Tell her you'll answer her later, now is not the time

[alfheimwanderer]

[x] Tell her you'll answer her later, now is not the time.

---

With his newfound power, the rest of the challenge is easy enough, with both of them finding their way to the destination as reality shifts around them. Upon reaching the village, the world fades away, with Professor Quirrell looking upon the two of them approvingly.

"...well, well, you have done well, it seems," he said, nodding, though a moment later, his eyes narrowed. "Though I wonder if you know the cost of what you have done. A wand is not meant to contain such powers, after all. Much more strain and it will no doubt cease to be."

Shinji looked down to find that Quirrell was right - that the tip and sides of the holly and phoenix wand he'd bought had been blackened, almost as if it had been burned out from the inside, though oddly, his other wand was completely fine.

"What...how?"
"There are things about wandcraft that very few know, yet most know that wands have a life of a sort," the man said gravely. "They grow with the user, but can be damaged or stunted, should the wrong sort of spell be used."

"The wrong sort of spell?"

"Say, if instead of channeling one's usual magic, one channeled something...else, eating away at it from within."

"Then..."

"Miss Moore is quite right. You are something of a warlock, aren't you?" the man smirked. "At least, from a certain point of view. I look forward to seeing what you develop into the fullness of your power."

Lost: Holly and phoenix feather wand
Gained: Partial Controlled Manifestation (Obscurus) - requires a wand

Where will you have this discussion with Selina?

[ ] Kitchens
[ ] Her Common Room
[ ] Astronomy Tower
[ ] (write-in)

[Skull Leader]

There is no way he would talk in her common room with just any Slytherin around to overhear this. He would clam up fast. Astronomy Tower likely starts rumors and gets Ernie worried more.

[X] Kitchens

[Daiki]

[x] By the lake.

A little bit of privacy, never hurts.

[shanagan]

[x] By the lake.

[alfheimwanderer]

[x] By the lake.

---

It was a pleasant enough spring day, with the two setting up for a picnic by the lakeside, assisted by House Elves laded with buckets of fried chicken, fried potato wedges, , and - a good contrast to their last experience with a great body of water, with trolls and other vile creatures popping out of nowhere to ambush them. Shinji mentioned as such, with Selina chuckling slightly.

"Well, it's not as if we would ever have to fight a troll while at school, right?" the girl commented wryly. "After all, this is supposed to be 'the safest place in all of Wizarding Britain.'"

"...and if you believe that, I have some ancient relics I'd like to sell you," Shinji replied, his voice just as dry. "Each capable of granting the user the ability to use great magic with a thought."

"Heh." Selina chuckled again, shaking her head. "That was something, huh?"

"...gave me more respect for Weasley, I'll admit," Shinji noted, remembering how the redheaded boy had somehow managed to escape the dangers of that scenario. "If I hadn't been able to..."

If he hadn't been able to turn his hatred of his grandfather and everything the archmagus represented into a terrible weapon, he would have failed. As it was...

"Hm, so did you invite anyone else to this picnic, or is it just the two of us?" Selina asked.

Well?

[ ] "Natsumi and Amber are coming too."
[ ] "Ernie, since he worked with us, and this is a debrief. Kind of."
[ ] "The Professor, since I have questions for him."
[ ] "No, its just the two of us. What I have to say...isn't for anyone else's ears..."

[Skull Leader]

[X] "Natsumi and Amber are coming too."

Might as well hang around with them and have this talk with all of them. Amber and Natsumi should help keep Shinji calm.

If we pick Ernie here, Shinji is unlikely to say much about the event in front of them. And Ernie here is just going to react poorly to Shinji saving the day again and getting 'close' with Selina. And I completely suspect that someone will mention the pair spending the summer together, which will set Ernie off.

Having a talk with Q is not bad idea per say but having at the lake seems like a stupid idea. If we want to have a serious talk with the man, we should just visit him during his office hours. I am sure Shinji can do that at somepoint. This doesn't have to happen on picnic. Quirrell does not feel like a person that would enjoy picnics with his students (unless he could mess with their heads).

Having the talk with Selina might sound like a good idea. But really this place while private is not subtle. Someone will see the two and rumors will start.

[alfheimwanderer]

They are one and the same, Shinji. Welcome to becoming a Sith. Nats must be proud.

Except one seems more the Sith Warrior, and one more of the Inquisitor.

[Daiki]

[x] "Natsumi and Amber are coming too."

I mean, it's nothing new for these two anyway, so having them around can't hurt.

As for Ernie, I'm pretty sure he is currently fuming not only about the fact that he couldn't do much this time again (because the other two overruled his suggestions) but he is also the only one to have failed on his team while Shinji, the guy who nearly succeed the previous challenge when paired with his mortal enemy and still complained about his performance, managed to pass this one alongside the girl Ernie is interested in. And now, Shinji is having a private chat with her.

No matter we do, he is going to be mad.

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] "Natsumi and Amber are coming too."

---

No matter we do, he is going to be mad.

It's true that Ernie won't be the happiest person in the world, but then, who is? Anyway, since the vote is in, Ernie will instead be talking to Quirrell during his office hours about how he can become stronger.

---

And what will he talk about once Nats and Amber are there?

[ ] His family - his grandfather, specifically
[ ] His family - more broadly
[ ] His "dark powers" - that he studies curses and soul magic
[ ] His "dark powers" - that he is an obscurial
[ ] His emotional control issues

[Skull Leader]

And these are the moment that Quirrell is happy to be a teacher, able to guide students towards a path of learning and self-discovery. Welcome to the dark side Ernie, we have cookies.

[X] His family - his grandfather, specifically

That is what started Selina having questions. So let us start there. Talking about the entire family just muddies the water and gets Shinji started on his sister or his still living biologically 'parent.' That will not go smoothly and frankly I am not sure Selina needs to hear about that stuff. His obscurial nature is fine to talk about in my opinion, but him studying curses and soul magic I am not so sure on. It feels such a small thing to talk about and a talk that would I think just happen with Natsumi or Amber one on one. And his emotional control issue...I am not so sure that Shinji would start this talk about that with Selina around. Sure he might admit that he has issues but anything more, I just doubt.

If we had to pick two here thought I would talk about his emotional control issues and his obscurial nature as they really go hand in hand together.

[shanagan]

[X] His family - his grandfather, specifically

[Daiki]

[x] His "dark powers" - that he is an obscurial.

Really think Zouken should be something selected few people know about (Only Luna and Rin are aware of him on the main route for example - and I doubt the latter knows half what the former does about him). I know that Selina is going to be curious about the old man but I don't think Shinji should talk about him to her just yet. Especially since it will be his first conversation about himself to Selina. Neither Amber, Natsumi no Miyuki have heard of gramps in detail either, so I don't think Selina gets a pass.

I could accept to tell senpai, but the slytherin isn't nearly close to that level of trust at this point.

However, I find it fair to share about his powers - and his unstable psyche as well - because he is going to spend a significant amount of time with her during the summer. It's only normal that he would give her a heads up about what could happen, thus offering her a chance to reconsider taking him along during the holidays. Even if I doubt he would hurt her, it's easy to understand that he could end up causing trouble.

[Malgos]

His grandfather.

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] His family - his grandfather, specifically

---

They talk, or Shinji does, anyway, though the topic is notably difficult for him, and as he speaks, a dark haze is visible around his body, almost making his image shimmer or perhaps sparkle in the afternoon sun. What he shares - it isn't everything, isn't even close to everything, but it is enough - enough that Selina gets an idea of the darkness in Matou Shinji's heart and the ancient pain he carries within him.

"I had no idea that was how you became a warlock," the bespectacled blonde murmurs softly. "You are stronger than you let on."

"...even if I am, I'm not yet strong enough," Shinji replies, shaking his head. "Even if I can erase constructs, unmake them utterly...it's not enough. I need to do more, to become more."

"More you say?" Amber asks quietly. "And what would be enough?"

"To possess a power that could twist the laws of cause and effect, reverse black and white, overturn the order of the World," the boy state solemnly, his eyes intent and intense with fervor bordering on madness. "To make what has been unmade, to unmake what is set in place. To reach the root of all creation and understand how everything is connected..." He shakes his head. "Impossible things like that. Impossible things a very few have managed to achieve. Most of them are forgotten - five remain today."

"Five...?" Natsumi echoed. "Like who?"

"Miss Blue, for one," the boy grunted. "The Master of the Fifth Magic."

"...the woman from the museum?"

"Yes."

"...she didn't look that scary," Selina murmured thoughtfully, "but you seemed terrified of her.."

"She is one of the five most terrifying wielders of magic in the world, unbound by any rules other than her own," the boy replied, shaking his head. "If she wanted to, she could have ended me with a thought, and no one would have said a thing."

"...she's that powerful?" Natsumi questioned, surprised by this revelation. "And how is it we don't learn about people like her?"

Shinji shrugged.

"Maybe the Ministry doesn't know. Maybe its terrified. Maybe it just thinks there's no point - I don't know, and I don't really want to find out."

Anything Shinji wants to say to Natsumi/Amber before they go in for the final exam?

[ ] (write-in)

[Skull Leader]

For the life of me, I can't think of anything to tell them that was not covered in their training together. Thought I semi want to tell them not to die, since if Shinji went berserk when Hermione died, then I shudder to think about what he would do if they died and he was under the mental effect of thinking it was real again. But Shinji seemed to not told the pair about his holly wand burn out so we might as well tell them about it.

[X] Inform them about his Holly wand's current state. He might have some trouble providing the group light and still be able to cast now.

[alfheimwanderer]

Chapter 43. Pay Unto Darkness

Matou Shinji could credibly be called quite a few things by quite a few people. Some of these things were flattering, others…far from it. Still, he rather hoped that no one thought of him as an idiot, (or in his native language, "baka"), even as unwise as some of his decisions had been over the last year, whether in life or in these…scenarios that Quirrell liked to whip up.

It wasn’t as if he’d tried to make mistakes – they just happened sometimes, because he didn’t have all the answers. If he could read ahead, knew what was to come in the book of life, then perhaps he would know what to choose so that everything would be perfect, but no one knew the future, not really.

‘Not all of it, anyway.’

And in this scenario…well, he liked to think that anything that went wrong couldn’t really be his fault, since he wasn't the one who'd come up with the plan. The architect of their fortunes this time around was Selina, with both he and Ernie deferring to her because she was the most experienced adventurer among them, something which no amount of roleplaying would let him surpass.

‘Though I wonder – does her experience work to her favor here? Or does it work against her?’

After all, in this false world created by the Book of Spells, the only rules were those that the Defense Professor imposed, meaning that it was possible that Selina’s expectations could lead her astray.

For example, did the weather ever change this drastically from day to night anywhere in the world? Could a place go from hot and muggy to bone-chillingly cold, with the heavens showing just how little they cared for those under them by carpet-bombing them with great orbs of ice that the boy was sure would kill him if they hit him anywhere sensitive.

'Speaking of which...where's Ernie? He went out to get mud and firewood, since Selina thought it was better for one person to work inside the hollow rock, while another gathered...'

Had the other Hufflepuff found shelter from the storm? Had he managed to get somewhere safe before the sudden onslaught of frozen death from above?

Or…had he…?

He asked this of Selina, but the blonde just stood near the door, her expression unreadable.

"He either did or he didn't," the Slytherin remarked, her voice devoid of anything like remorse or worry. "Either way, there's nothing we can do."

Shinji blinked, feeling a shiver go down his spine – and not just because his robes were damp, or the air was cold. It was almost as if Selina didn't care what happened to Ernie, if whether he lived or died was immaterial to her. Was she really that cold? Was this the person he was going to be spending summer with?

'Though, it’s not as if Beauxbatons will be dangerous,’ he told himself. ‘After all, it's a magical school - I'm sure that no one would put something dangerous at a school on purpose.'

Well...aside from something like the Chamber of Secrets, Cursed Vaults, the Forbidden Forest, and whatever lurked in the Third Floor Corridor...

'...well, ok, maybe that was a stupid thought.'

Speaking of stupid…was there something about their abilities that made users of witchcraft lose track of common sense? He knew that people who used curses overmuch tended to destroy their sense of humanity, so perhaps the arts of witches was something similar, changing them even as they changed the world around them?

He hoped not, though that did go a way towards explaining the eccentricities of someone like Headmaster Dumbledore. Not that magi were immune to such things either, which was why they tended not to use magecraft for everything, since the self-hypnosis that would require would change the way they thought.

Case in point, his grandfather, who had apparently thought it was a good idea to turn himself into a decaying mass of worms, but the quest for immortality twisted magi like nothing else, and he supposed it was better – slightly – than becoming a Dead Apostle and being hunted down by the Church for it.

‘But in changing himself, he himself was changed...or was he? Was he always a monster, with his new form better reflecting the truth of his being?’
Still, his thoughts were going wildly off-track.

"Isn't that a bit heartless?" Shinji asked, his brows furrowing. "He...seems to care a good deal about what you think."

"Maybe he does," Selina replied evenly. "But whether he does shouldn't change anything. His fate is his own in this."

"...I'm guessing you've lost people on adventures before then?" the boy hazarded, with the blonde nodding. "I see. This...all of this must seem so...hollow to you then. The danger – all of it. Fake. Like this world."

"Even if the danger is fake, and the world itself a lie, we are real,” Selina pointed out. “You, Ernie, and I – all of us exist, even here. Yet when we die here, that death isn't real, so it does no good to be upset. At least if he died, it was probably quick, and it wasn't at a critical moment."

"...I see," Shinji grunted. He was silent for a while, processing the fact that Selina thought like a magus, before he thought of something else. "This hail, you ever see anything like it?"

"A few times," Selina admitted, a wry twist gracing her lips. "Once I even saw rocks fall and kill an entire party of adventurers."

Shinji blinked.

"That...sounds unnatural," he commented.

"Oh, it was," the blonde agreed. "Rocks plummeting from the sky aren't something you see every day. In this case, a wizard did it."

"A wizard?" Shinji echoed. Well...yes, he supposed he could see Zelretch causing a swarm of rocks – meteors, he supposed the name would be – to fall from the sky. He'd famously stopped the moon from falling, so yes, him causing rocks to fall, leading to everyone's death was something he could see happening.

'I think he's better adjusted than that? Hopefully?'

Not that he knew Zelretch. He didn't know many Magicians in person, as he'd only met Miss Blue, which was not an experience he particularly cared to repeat.

"Yes. Or at least, some magic user," Selina said quietly. "I think the party must have angered them, though I don't know the exact details. Just that they all died."

"...you...you saw this yourself?" Shinji asked, aghast. "And you...you weren't killed?"

"No. Take that as you will," the blonde replied, with Shinji taking a moment to absorb that. "Also, I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel cold. It's getting a bit damp, and we didn't quite avoid getting a soaking. Let's get a fire going, yes?"

"You're not afraid of someone finding us because of the smoke?" Shinji questioned. A part of him – a very small part – was tempted to suggest that instead of a fire, they just huddle together for warmth, skin to skin, but...he thought better of it. She was, after all, the more experienced adventurer, so if she was suggesting this, it was probably the better idea.

"In this deluge? The rain will dampen the smell and hide some of the smoke. Besides, with all the hail, the only thing I can see wandering out there would be..." she trailed off, her gaze turning sharp as she looked into the distance.

"Would be...?" Shinji prompted.

"A troll," Selina supplied. "I remember that Phelan's party ended up fighting one. Maybe more than one, actually. If I recall, Phelan and Granger died. Only Weasley survived, because he ran away."

The Japanese boy swallowed.

"A troll..." he repeated numbly. "And all we have are our wands."

And an enchanted knife which glowed in the presence of enemies, though how useful that really would be, he didn't know. He didn’t know its range of detection, what it defined as an enemy, or any such things.

All of the sudden, an invisibility cloak sounded like a really good idea.

"If all we have are wands, then we'll find a way to beat it with our wands,” Selina reasoned, sounding utterly confident in their ability to do so. More confident than Shinji did at any rate, though he admitted that it wasn’t hard to be so. “Get that fire going, would you?"

"...as you wish," the boy growled, though he moved to do just that. "Wait, what about smoke?"

"We'll worry about that later. We didn't seal off the rock, so there should be a place for air to come in," Selina replied.

For the next little while, Shinji and Selina busied themselves with doing little errands about the shelter – getting the fire started, duplicating robes with the doubling charm, and other such, distracting him from his growling stomach.

While doing it though, they got to talking, with the boy wondering what lay ahead.

"What lies ahead?" Selina echoed quietly. "Something that we'll be able to beat, but not through force, unless you're hiding some dark power that can tear apart the world. Or well, a troll," the blonde amended, with Shinji shifting a bit uncomfortably at her comment but otherwise saying nothing.

He did indeed have such a power, but the cost, especially if Selina reacted like Granger had…

"Any advice then?" the boy asked. "You've done things like this more than I have..."

"Just that Quirrell probably wants us to second-guess ourselves," the Slytherin girl stated. "It's not an uncommon pattern to see a team break after one of their members dies. And if I know the Professor, he's included plenty of chances for us to get ourselves killed through our actions – or through our lack of action."

"...that sounds a bit twisted," Shinji observed.

Well, more than a bit, but it was what it was.

"So is everything else about this particular scenario," Selina noted evenly. "Making us choose only three items among the three of us, with no three covering all our needs. Making the land a hostile one – probably worse than what the original explorers found, if this was based on some adventure. Ensuring that we would waste time arguing – or at least, have no one to blame but ourselves – by giving us options for us to choose between."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that if there'd only been one choice for shelter, we could have blamed him for not letting us reach it in time if someone had died," Selina pointed out. "Or in what I've heard of Phelan's scenario, they only faced one troll at first - they could have run, could have gotten away if they were willing to take a chance."

"But they chose to fight."

"And so Phelan died, and later, so did Hermione, who also stood her ground," the blonde reflected. "In the end, they are the ones whose choices led to their failure, while Weasley succeeded because of his."

"...or how like here, because we chose Ernie to be the one to go out and gather dirt and sticks, he ended up dying," Shinji said quietly.

It did not escape him that once, long ago, Quirrell had asked him to make a choice between two people as well - to pick whether Phelan or Ernie would live if only one could be saved. Even if nothing had come of his choice, even if they'd both been saved, that choice had weighted heavily on him, much as he was sure those who hadn't faced that choice before would have been horrified at the consequences of their choices.

That because of them, someone had died, even if it had not been a true death.

"…probably dying anyway," the boy amended. "He might still be alive. Maybe."

Selina sighed.

“I wouldn't hold out hope," she commented. "If you do, you're likely to be disappointed."

"...something about the way you said that reminds me of my childhood."

"Oh? Did your family think of things in a similar way?"

Shinji's lips twisted into a grimace.

"Something like that. Not that it mattered what I chose, did it? I ended up here, not..." he hesitated for a moment. "Not elsewhere."

"Mm," Selina murmured. "Do you wish you could go back?"

"...not really."

After that, there was little to be said, with the two silently agreeing that it was time to turn in for the night, if they hoped to get any rest before the morrow. Shinji, being a gentleman, volunteered to take first watch, eliciting a small smile from Selina for the first time since the hail had begun, though as she drifted off, he wondered what he’d gotten himself into.

---

As the moments went by, one after the next, the boy realized just how long mere minutes – or were they minutes? – could be when there was nothing to fill them. No conversation, no writing, no studying – not even a book to read or music to listen to.

Only the quiet sound of Selina’s breathing, the crackling of the flames, and the white noise of hailstones falling from the heavens without end.
The combination was oddly hypnotic, and the boy almost found himself nodding off until something caught his notice.

‘I smell something…’

Something pleasant, too – something that wasn’t Selina's shampoo.

It was a smoky, meaty aroma – something like pork – and it made his stomach rumble. He hadn't eaten all day, after all, that he could remember.

‘It’s coming from…outside?’ he thought, rising to his feet and padding to the entrance to see if he could make out where just where outside it might be, only to find that the source was smoke coming out of the hole in the ground.

'Huh...' Something was clearly down there, and they had food.

Food would go a long way towards keeping up their strength on the journey to the extraction point. On the other hand, it could well be that whoever or whatever was down there didn't feel much like sharing or would kill him on sight if he wasn't careful.

Still, the hail was also petering off, with only the rain left now, so maybe he could head for the hole in the ground, or...

‘No. That’s a terrible idea, and I’m not thinking straight.’

Realizing this, he kept himself from going outside at the last moment, and instead turned back to the shelter, thinking to shake Selina awake so he could get her opinion on all this. After all, in his mind, the presence of more people – or maybe trolls, if trolls knew how to use fire – so close by probably boded ill, but she was the experienced one.

Moments before he touched her, though, he realized that she might end up screaming or making some other noises that would lead to them being discovered by whoever was down there, so in one of his more brilliant moments, he decided to cover her mouth before shaking her shoulder.

...perhaps, had he thought about it some more, or been used to dealing with sleeping girls, he would not have ended up on the ground when she woke up swinging, with a wild haymaker breaking his nose and sending him sprawling.

‘…oww…’

Like a cat, she rolled to her feet, snatching her glasses from beside her head and putting them on, her leg poised to step forward and step on—

"Oh, god, I'm sorry, Matou," the girl said, realizing what she'd done. Drawing her wand, she pointed it at his face and called out "Episkey", with Shinji's nose feeling very hot, then very, very cold, catching the boy's attention. And then he noticed - the pain was gone.

"Huh," he said to himself as he got to his feet gingerly. "Healing is that easy?"

"Well, small things, yes. Larger things I can't do yet," the bespectacled blonde replied. "You alright?"

"I was before you hit me," Shinji grumbled. "What'd you do that for anyway?"

"I woke up with someone covering my mouth and reaching for my clothes. What was I supposed to think?" the girl answered, with Shinji taking a moment to process that before going very, very red.

"I...I wasn't. I mean, I would never..."

"You would never, huh..." she asked meaningfully.

"I uh, that is to say..." The boy glanced around for something, anything he could seize on as an excuse not to have this conversation right now. "There's trouble," he managed at last, looking towards the entrance.

"Oh?" Selina asked, before she noticed the smell too. "Ah. Cooking."

"Pork, I think."

"Or human," came the reply, one that had Shinji feeling vaguely nauseous. "They call it long-pork for a reason."

"Oh." The boy's thoughts came to a crashing halt. If Ernie had disappeared earlier, and this was weather only a troll could be out in, then…his thoughts trailed off, with Shinji finding himself growing nauseous. ‘Don’t tell me…they’re…they’re not cooking Ernie are they?’ "I'm not an expert but...let's get out of here?"

His last words came out as a strangled squeak.

"It’s not a horrible idea,” the blonde replied slowly. “Even if it’s still raining. Still, where would we go? All we know is the copse of trees, and that wouldn’t be great shelter."

“…point,” Shinji allowed, shaking his head.

In the end, there was really no good choice to be had.

They could head off into the cold, rainy night, trusting that no one would ambush them when they used their wands to light the way, or they could stay in the room and catch what sleep they could, while hoping that no one would come up and check on what was happening on the surface, in case this hollowed rock happened to be some kind of crude equivalent of a refrigerator.

Shinji, unnerved by the smoke and what it could mean, argued that they should leave as soon as possible - that they should not wait for whatever fate might be coming for them. Selina, however, disagreed, stating that as neither of them were well rested, or had any idea what awaited them outside, they should at least wait for first light, so their wands wouldn't draw the attention of every even slightly curious creature in the area.

"Fine, we'll do it your way," the boy agreed, deferring to the blonde's greater experience in such matters - though not to her proposal that she take watch while he slept. Instead, he insisted that he would be fine, and said he could simply wait for first light with her, as three wands were better than one. "And about the fire?"

"We can bank that, so we don't cripple our night vision," Selina said decisively. "We’ll just have to huddle against each other to stay warm though, if you're fine with that."

"I, uh, yes," Shinji agreed quickly. Perhaps too quickly, leading to him receiving a look from the bespectacled blonde. "I mean, that sounds like a good idea."

It wasn't as if he was happy to have the chance to warm – and be warmed by – a pretty girl. He was just happy she was taking the danger seriously and didn't mind doing what was necessary.

So, they banked the fire, huddling together on the wall opposite the entrance, wrapped in robes, with their wands ready and waiting for any threats to their safety.

Because they were ready, vigilant for any threat, the pack of gytrashes that came upon them towards the end of the night was dealt with easily enough, with Shinji and Selina using pulses of the wand-lighting spell, Lumos, to dispel them.

Yet…even that was anti-climactic, given they’d expected something worse, something…more.

Nothing else of note happened that night, except that sometime during it, the smoke stopped, and soon enough, first light came, with neither of the feeling particularly well rested.

---

In the morning, they departed, heading towards the village which was allegedly only an hour away by broom, but which, on foot, seemed like some ever-distant utopia that they could walk and walk and walk towards, yet never reach. They had gone for about an hour before the mists rolled in, in the meantime managing to swing by the copse of trees where they found some delicious looking berries.

Selina pointed out that they looked edible, and Shinji, all too happy to seize on any excuse to get something to eat, picked and tried some.

She was right, it seemed – or maybe just lucky – as the berries were not only not poisonous, but delicious, more so than anything he’d ever tasted, or so he thought to himself.

Sadly, they didn’t manage to find Ernie, but well, if they’d been right about the smoke the night before…

‘It’s just as well.’

Continuing on from there, they eventually reached the edge of a sunken bog, with the compass pointing for them to continue through it if they wanted to reach the village. Going around it – if they could, would no doubt be an ordeal that would make their journey far longer than it had to be. Yet, going through it seemed just as bad, as the place was likely filled with insects and other dangerous creatures, and Shinji didn't really think the village was hidden in the bog.

---

In the end, they chose to go around, thinking that they’d rather take their chances with distance than whatever lurked out under the water. It was bad enough to not be able to see very far in front of one's face due to the fog – to not be certain what one would be stepping into would be even worse.

Bogs had quicksand, after all, in addition to savage beasts – horrible ones, he imagined, from the strange sounds emanating from the bog, the cries of animals and the sound of heavy steps.

So they walked onwards, with the mist obscuring any true sense of the passage of time, continuing on and on and on, until they stumbled to a halt as they nearly ran into a troll – or at least, the blasted ruin of what had once been a troll, with great spikes of ice protruding from every orifice, and blood pooling on the ground around it.

‘What the hell?’

What could have done something like this? And was it worth sticking around to find out?

After all, if there was one thing that Matou Shinji had learned over this entire year of dealing with Quirrell's scenarios, it was that the old adage that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" was not always accurate. That was, the enemy of his enemy was his enemy's enemy – no more, and no less. Presuming otherwise in this place was not only naive, but foolish.

Yes – something killed this troll with what seemed like great ease, speaking of the power of the troll's enemy, but that was no reason to assume that whatever had done this was necessarily friendly to practitioners of witchcraft – or in general, to intruders.

"Let's not stick around," Shinji whispered to Selina, with the blonde only nodding as they pressed onwards without tarrying, only to run across another mangled troll corpse after about an hour, killed in much the same fashion.

"Huh," Shinji grunted.

"Huh, indeed," Selina agreed. "Any ideas?"

“…well, I don’t want to stop for this one either, but maybe I should draw my knife? That way, if anything dangerous is coming our way, it should glow, right?”

Such was the theory anyway.

“Sounds like a plan.”

So, as they moved, the boy drew his knife, hoping that its metal blade would be dark, but as the steel sang free of the sheath, it disappointed him by glowing with a baleful blue light. Enemies were about, it seemed, though how near – and how many – Shinji had no idea, as the only thing the note on the scabbard had said was that the blade glowed in the presence of enemies.

Though...perhaps he wouldn't have to imagine for long, since, as he looked on...

'...is the glow getting brighter?'

"Do you see that?" Selina asked, tugging on the boy's sleeve so that he came to a halt. "Whatever the blade is reacting to, we're walking right towards it."

"...or its coming towards us," Shinji replied, noting that the brightness of the blade was indeed increasing, with what had been a faint glow now blazing as brightly as a newborn star.

His eyes darted wildly about, but with the fog about them obscuring visibility beyond a few meters and muffling sound to a degree, none of them knew what was coming for them – only that something was.

It was blind luck, really, that they managed to catch sight of their pursuer lumbering out of the fog.

"Wait...isn't that..." Shinji asked, recognizing the form of their enemy. "But that...it was..."

"Undead. Undead troll," Selina whispered, drawing her wand, her complexion ashen as she looked upon its mangled form and the way the ice riddling its body seemed to pulse with an unearthly light.

Its gait was ungainly, and it didn't seem to be able to see them, though it didn't have to see them to be a threat, as it lumbered right for them.
Was it smelling them? Or...

'...is it the knife?'

Thinking quickly, Shinji placed the blade back in the sheath, hoping that if the troll wight was indeed tracking them via the enchanted blade, it would lose interest once the blade wasn't out anymore. Sadly, things were not that easy, as the troll continued towards them.

Perhaps it was just continuing on its previous course, and he could just evade it then?

The boy changed directions, tugging Selina after him as—

“[------]"

A blast of icy wind sent him sprawling, with his blade falling out of his sheath to land by his feet – and as if noticing it, the troll changed direction until it was coming at him once more.

‘No. Damnit, let it have the knife. I’m out of here.’

It was with some regret that Matou Shinji left the knife behind as he got to his feet, but such were the necessities of survival. Obviously, something about the knife was catching the undead troll's attention, so if he had to sacrifice it to lure the creature away from him while he and Selina fled, he would.

...and it worked, as the troll lumbered over to the knife and stopped, giving Shinji the chance he needed to grab Selina and run before it changed its mind.

They ran. They ran and ran and ran some more, their feet carrying them far and fast, not really caring where they ran, as long as it carried them away from the deadly creature that had stalked them through the fog.

Eventually, they came to a halt, with the mist seeming denser around them somehow. Where they were now, neither of them knew for sure, only that they'd lost sight of the bog and that the ground was dry and flat.

"...I..." Shinji panted, his face red as he swayed back and forth. "I...we...got..."

"We got away," Selina murmured. "But now..." she paused, shaking her head. "Where are we?"

"Does that...does that compass tell us?" the Japanese boy asked, his heart pounding away in his chest as he glanced at the blonde girl, whose face seemed...flushed.

"Let's see," she whispered breathlessly, taking the aforementioned device out of her robes and setting it to work. She looked at the two hands, and to where they pointed, frowning. "We went north-east, when we need to be going west," she said after a moment.

"Oh."

"We could rest here for a bit, if you want. Or we could go north for a while longer, maybe get clear of the bog entirely...or..."

"Or?"

"Or we could go back towards the bog and keep following it. Up to you."

“North,” Shinji said quickly. “If we go back towards the bog, we might run into that…thing again.”

“…point,” Selina conceded.

Seeing no better option, the duo moved slowly north, making their way as best they could as their breathing recovered, and the relief that they had escaped certain death at the hands of that troll wight finally seeped in.

"What...could do that kind of thing?" Shinji asked quietly. "Using ice to reanimate a troll."

"...some kind of necromancer?" Selina suggested as she walked beside him. "Or maybe a shaman of some kind, if the corpse is being possessed by some other spirit?"

"...you know a lot about this," the Japanese boy stated - not accusingly, just stating a point of fact. "Dealt with the undead before?"

"You could say that. Usually helps to have a cleric around though..."

Shinji grunted.

"...that is about one of the few things the Church is good for," he muttered to himself.

"Hm, what was that?"

"Nothing," he said evasively.

Fortunately, they didn't encounter anything else that seemed too hostile, save for the pogrebin which Matou Shinji utterly obliterated with an overpowered knockback spell, with Selina commenting that she didn't know that Flipendo was capable of such damage.

Eventually though, as the day began to draw to an end, the mist began to clear, revealing three things...

...to the North, a weathered ruin, something like a tower, or perhaps a wall.

...to the north-west, a grove of trees.

And just to the west of them, some kind of odd mound.

All of them seemed as if they could be reached in about an hour of walking, but at this point, the two were wary of the weather, knowing that as soon as it was dark, rain and hail might follow. Thus they headed north, in the belief that the ruin would probably offer decent shelter.

From the distance, it seemed like a watchtower of some kind, or perhaps the end of a wall, but as they approached, they could see it was more than that. It was a half-buried pyramid, perhaps something like a temple, with the outside weathered and cracked, and nary an entrance in sight.

Well, not quite...

As they walked on, they stepped on something, with part of the stone of a platform they stood on sliding forward with a click, revealing something like steps leading down into the darkness.

“Shall we?” Selina asked, raising an eyebrow, with Shinji nodding.

“Why not?”

So they went inside, with the boy holding up one of his wands for light as they descend the worn stairs. As they descended, the boy glanced back, just to confirm the way was still open, only to find that the opening had sealed itself behind them. Unless they found another way out, they were trapped here. They could only advance, only head down.

Eventually they stepped off the stairs onto the ground, in the very center of an ornately carved chamber which seemed to chronicle the history of what seemed like those who had once lived around here, if the images of war and death were any indication. There were old mounts for what seemed like torches about, and dark tunnels stretching into the distance.

Shinji, thinking that perhaps Selina would be better served carrying a torch so he could use both his wands for spell-casting if needed, used his free wand to cast Incendio at one of the mountings on the wall. And as if in response to his spell, the space above the ironwood mount burst into flame, as eerie green light illuminated the center chamber, with torches lighting up one after another down the tunnels, revealing what the darkness had once hidden in all of them, save one.

At the end of one tunnel, there seemed to be a mirror-smooth wall.

At the end of a second, there was a flash of metal.

At the end of a third, there was something like a stone wall - perhaps there was a dog leg somewhere?

At the end of fourth, there was only darkness.

“We could go down one of these, but…I’m tired,” Shinji grunted. He hadn’t had any sleep, after all, and even Selina, who had gotten some sleep, seemed worn out as well, which was only to be expected after being made to run for her life.

“Agreed,” Selina conceded. “We’ll save the adventuring for after we rest up, hm? Can’t be running on both an empty stomach and a sleep debt.”

"At least we had those berries."

"Yeah..."

The conversation mostly died after that, as there was little to say.

Shinji, noting that it seemed warm enough down here, didn’t see a need to duplicate robes, and suggested that they just sit against a wall and sleep that way.

“Can’t hurt for one night, right?”

“Fair. You want to sleep first?” Selina offered.

But Shinji shook his head.

“No, I woke you up – I’ll finish out this shift, and then sleep, so I don’t have to be interrupted,” he said with a weak smile.

“Suit yourself.”

“Oh, I will.”

He thought of it as being a gentleman, someone senpai would be proud of – or at least, he thought she might. He didn’t know really, and she’d never
really know what he did in this scenario unless he told her – and he wasn’t about to, since that would be fishing for praise a bit too obviously.

He was tired though, so he walked to keep himself away, going round and round and round the central chamber, his footsteps painfully loud in the silence. Down here, in the bowels of the earth, there was very little else that could be heard, save for Selina's cute little snores. Asleep, by odd green torchlight, the fearsome adventuress seemed so frail, so vulnerable, yet he knew that if anything disturbed her, she would awaken with a vengeance.
His nose throbbed with phantom pain as he remembered the sure swiftness of her blows – just about the same as he expected of a magus.

'Why is it that all the girls around me are so...formidable?' he wondered. Was it just chance, or was it perhaps fate? Or a curse of some sort due either to his actions or those of his ancestors? 'Well, maybe those or my ancestors. My karmic weight shouldn't be heavy enough to affect my destiny.'

Though speaking of destiny...

He whirled about, thinking he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, only there was nothing.

'Am I seeing things now?' he mused. He was quite tired, but that tired?

All he was looking at was a scene of what looked like leaner, hardier trolls with vicious looking weapons, standing over the beheaded corpse of some strange being.

...one of the trolls was roaring in triumph, holding up the head of their vanquished foe, but the head...was smiling.

Shinji felt a shiver go down his spine, as something told him that the victim's killers had not met with a wonderful fate.

Such seemed to be the case on the next mural, with the trolls in the painting shifting into something much more...monstrous, their forms splattered in blood as they left the corpse behind.

And then...

Shinji didn't understand why the next few scenes were of trolls killing one another, or why they seemed to be rampaging in the ruins of some vast city.

Covered in gore, the berserker approached the pyramid at the city's heart...

The other walls were blank or so damaged he couldn't see what had been painted on them.

Movement.

He turned again, but there was nothing there.

Or was there? Was something moving just out of sight whenever he turned?

He glanced all about, but there was nothing there. He...

There!

...no, that was only his shadow.

The green light was making him see things, as it flickered and waved like fire. Still, there was nothing dangerous here, he thought. Perhaps it would be worth it to just go to sleep? Or maybe he should wake Selina, say it was her time to go on watch?

‘…no. That wouldn’t be right. I already interrupted her rest once. I don’t have the right to do it again. Not if it isn’t actually an emergency.’

Whether it was due to him putting chivalry over reason or simply due to him not wanting to get his nose broken by Selina's surprisingly powerful right hook, the boy decided to tough it out, his footsteps echoing on stone amid the crackling of the verdant flames. Though...he wondered, as he passed them time and time again if they were true flames.

'If they are real flames, is there enough air for both us and the torches?'

And if not...what were they burning? Was this pyramid structure drawing energy from ley lines? Was it perhaps burning the life energy of those who entered this place?

For that matter, what manner of place had this once been? A palace? A temple? Something else entirely?

As the hours dragged on, the boy found his thoughts wandering so, with him trying his best to focus on the present by examining his surroundings more closely, attempting to puzzle out if there was a pattern in the randomness of the flickering, and if something really was moving, or if he was imagining it entirely.

That was when he noticed that as he came closer to the torches, the crackling of the flames almost sounded like whispers - well, if one tried to imagine what the whisper of a troll might sound like.

Atra. Noshraka. Nifle. Ait. Ushara.

Was that really there, though? Or was he only imagining it, his mind giving meaning to meaningless noise in an attempt to make sense of nothingness. The mind abhorred a vacuum, after all, and would do what it took to fill it with something, no matter how strange that something sometimes was.

Atra. Noshraka. Nifle. Ait. Ushara.

He was tempted, sorely tempted, to repeat the nonsense words and see what happened, but he managed to shake off the impulse.

‘What am I doing? Why did I even think about repeating those words, not knowing what they are?’

Thinking that perhaps getting away from the chamber would help him to clear his mind, the boy made for the stairs, proceeding to climb them slowly, forcing himself to breathe deeply as he did so. Yet as he stepped, as he breathed, he felt the world itself shifting and wavering around him, as if there was some kind of odd boundary he was walking through - and as he stepped above halfway, the green firelight seemed to wink out, with the boy finding that the world had twanged.

'What?'

With a mutter of Lumos, he peered downward, only to freeze as he saw that the central room was mostly in ruins, and that against the wall - which he'd missed - somehow, there were sarcophagi. Some closed, some open, some cracked with bits of white bone peering out.

'What on earth...'

This wasn't a temple.

It was a mausoleum. And none of the murals he'd seen before were there at all.

Had it been an illusion? Or...

...was it the dream of the dead?

‘I think this counts as an emergency. Selina needs to hear this.’

---

The blonde seemed somewhat grumpy when woken, with it being evident that she hadn't gotten an excessive amount of sleep, though thankfully, she didn’t break his nose this time.

"What is it?" she asked, glancing up at Shinji in the dim glow of the flames. "Is it my turn on watch?"

"No...there's...a situation."

"What is it?" she repeated.

"These torches – this central chamber – none of this is really here."

Selina blinked, glancing around, her eyebrow lifting quizzically.

"Explain."

"I went up the staircase a bit, and after a while, the torchlight seemed to die. I lit my wand to see what happened, but what I saw..." He shuddered.

"What?"

"Bones. Rubble. Dust and ashes. There are no torches. The walls covered by the murals are caved in. We’re in the middle of a mausoleum." The boy swallowed. "A troll mausoleum."

"Well...that's something," Selina murmured. "But if there's nothing, then..." She gestured to their surroundings. “An illusion?”

"An illusion, I think. Or a memory playing through our minds."

"A memory? From—"

"The dead," Shinji intoned. "Something is here with us. Something that isn't dead, even if everything else is."

"It's showing us this place?"

The boy nodded.

"There has to be a reason then..."

"Does there?" the boy asked. "What if there is no purpose, no reason at all?"

"There aren't many things for which there is no purpose or reason at all," Selina noted, with Shinji nodding reluctantly. "But if things are as you say, perhaps we are being shown this place for a reason. Perhaps we are meant to explore one of the side passages?"

"Or maybe we should just leave while we can," Shinji suggested. "The hail must have died down by now."

"Maybe," Selina related. "Still, we've come this far, it would be a shame to fly away from here, leaving it unexplored."

"...do as you like," Shinji grunted, knowing that his judgement was impaired, and trusting Selina to do the intellectual heavy lifting, since she had actually gotten some amount of sleep. Well, that and she was the one who'd grown up going on adventures, much like him, as the closest he had come to being on an adventure was being sent to boarding school in Britain during the Fourth War.

He watched as the blonde stood, snatched a torch from the wall, and headed towards the lone tunnel shrouded in darkness - the tunnel along which there were no torches, oddly enough.

"Why there?"

"Because if you're right about this whole area being under an illusion, I'd wager that the darkness is where the illusion doesn't reach," Selina reasoned, with Shinji nodding slowly.

"That...I guess that makes sense," the boy replied. "You sure you want to go into there?"

"Well, it would make me feel safer if I had your wands at my back," the blonde answered, with the Hufflepuff sighing.

"Let's hope you're right," Shinji grunted, gesturing at the pitch-black mouth of the tunnel, ringed by torches. "Ladies first."

They walked into the darkness, bearing aloft a torch of green. In this tunnel, there was something thick and cloying, with the darkness less the absence of light than something almost tangible, just beyond his ability to reach out and grasp.

Slippery, oily threads sifting through his thoughts like a metaphysical skein.

They walked.

They walked.

They walked.

They—

The boy reeled, the world spinning around him, as the darkness is torn away, with the two of them finding themselves standing amidst...

'No...'

Shinji felt his nerves begin to run backward, his emotions frozen and red hot all at once, as the room around him was not empty. All around him – around Selina – there were worms - innumerable worms. A great rotten living mass of worms, writhing and squirming and slithering about.

'What.'

What was before him was impossible, and yet...and yet it was before him even so. Worms, hissing. Worms, burrowing. Worms, screeching. Worms...taking the shape of a man. Worms forming misshapen feet, skin, ankles. Worms burrowing into worms, with a sound that he found familiar yet terrifying.

Not a mere handful of worms. Not a mere dozen. Not hundreds. Not thousands.

Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. So many that if a human were to be swarmed by the black carpet, they would not last even a minute, with all their bones and meat taken by the worms, skin melted away, leaving nothing. This...this person, this being, this thing could not be here, his mind screamed, but humans weren't really rational creatures, for all they pretended to be.

And so, the boy shivered, staggering as worms entered the mass, as mad laughter filled the room, with the one laughing being an old, withered man, a man that Matou Shinji called...

“…grandfather.”

The abomination looked at him, through him, past him, not even acknowledging him, as if he was invisible, looking at...

...looking at Selina.

"Die," growled the worm that walked, and its servitors – an infinite swarm of worms – surged forward to devour them whole.

But Matou Shinji had had enough of being ignored. He'd had enough of being dismissed. He'd had enough of being thought of as no threat at all - as nothing even close to a threat.

Yes, it was true that compared to Matou Zouken, he was nothing – for what worth could someone like him hold next to an archmagus who had devised a way to control existences on the order of Heroic Spirits?

But this thing before him - it wasn't Matou Zouken.

It might look the same. It might sound the same. It might even hurt him the same.

But in the end, it was only a fake, an illusion, a memory given form and substances by the power of the tome he was exploring, bound by its rules.

'That's right. You're not real. You're only a fake pretending to be something you aren't.'

...much like Shinji himself.

The boy's wands came up, a cry of Verdimillious Tria already on his lips as purple-black lightning hissed across the distance, flash-frying any worm which dared come near. They were weak, feeble at first, but as the boy reached deep inside himself, drawing on what reserves he had and pouring everything into his desire to erase the being before him, the jagged lances of power sped forth with a ferocity exceeding anything he’d done before.
Forks of lightning raced forth from one wand, then the other, then between the wands, with a wave of darkness surging forth from that union that erased that which was before him as his blood pounded in his skull.

Destroy. Destroy. Destroy.

Perhaps the world might crush him, might tear him apart with its careless disregard for human life, but he would not lose to something in his mind – to a mere memory trying to make him the same as it.

"I will not lose to a memory. I will never be a memory," he snarled, reaching into himself, taking his fear and tempering it into anger, taking his anger and refining it into hatred, taking his hatred and turning into power, pure and unrestrained. "I will be someone!"

Before his onslaught, the worms – and their originator – shattered, as lances of shadow tore through what was left, ripping the space itself before him to shreds as Shinji laughed and laughed and laughed.

How long he stood there, laughing, his magic tearing at the world, he didn’t know, only that when he returned to himself, he was still standing, with the wand he’d obtained from Mahoutokoro hand, and…a blackened husk of a holly and phoenix feather wand in the other.

Selina stood beside him, her features impassive.

"Was that a monster?" she asked him. "An enemy from your deepest nightmares?"

"...no, that was my grandfather," the boy replied tersely.

He said no more, as this was not the time for it, but promised they would speak again on the matter after this was all over.

And soon enough, it was.

With his newfound power, the rest of the challenge proved simple enough, with both of them finding their way to the destination as reality shifted around them, and obstacles were simply erased as if they had never been.

Upon reaching the village, completing the objective they’d been given, the false world faded away completely, with the two finding themselves standing in the classroom, where Professor Quirrell was looking at the two of them as if he couldn’t decide if he was pleased or not.

He seemed to come to a decision soon enough, however.

"...so, it seems you have completed the scenario, though not without damaging it irreparably,” he said, amiably enough, shaking his head. "When I first learned of what you were capable of, Matou, I did not expect you to develop your abilities to this extent – though…you should know that a wand, however mighty, was never meant to contain that sort of power.”

Selina glanced at the boy, but Shinji just stood there, gripping both the wand of cherry he’d obtained from Mahoutokoro and the burned-out husk of the wand of holly he’d bought from Ollivander, which felt like it would crumble to ash if he used it any further.

“At least a wand not designed for…those sort of abilities,” the man intoned silkily. “What a curious person you are, Matou Shinji.”

"What do you know—"

“More than you imagine and less than I hope,” Quirrell answered, cutting him off. “I know, for instance, that wands are a sort of echo of a living thing. That they grow with the user and have a will of their own, animated by the magic channeled through them. Yet, if they are forced to do something they cannot endure, they may be damaged – or destroyed…say, should the wrong sort of spell be used."

"The wrong sort of spell?"

"Say, if instead of channeling one's usual magic, one channeled something...else. Something far more powerful, far less…restrained. I believe you know of what I speak…”

"Ah..."

“In any case, Miss Moore, you are quite correct,” he said, turning to the bespectacled blonde. “You called Mister Matou a warlock, did you not?”
Selina nodded, glancing over at the boy.

“It seems you have some measure of insight into…characters like him,” the man noted. “In any case, congratulations. I wish you luck in your final exams and look forward to seeing what new arts you may learn by summer’s end. I’m sure that your colleague, Macmillan would have wanted to congratulate you, but alas – he seemed to fall ill.”

“Oh no!” Selina said, bringing her hand to her mouth. “What happened?”

“Oh, I’m not sure exactly,” Quirrell replied. “Perhaps he didn’t care for the sight of worms.” He smiled, very thinly. “I let him observe, you see, so he could know what a successful adventuring couple looked like.”

“Um, w-we’re not a couple or anything,” Shinji stammered. “D-don’t get the wrong idea.”

The man laughed.

“Oh, I’m certain I won’t,” the Defense Professor intoned. “The question is, will Macmillan?”

---

Final choices

1) Does he use his...special ability in the Water Temple, or does he hold it in reserve for the doppelgangers?

[ ] Use it to make the passage easier
[ ] Hold it in reserve - he only really has maybe one more shot before his holly wand crumbles entirely

2) What is his strategy for dealing with doppelgangers?

[ ] (Write-in)

[Daiki]

[x] Hold it in reserve - he only really has maybe one more shot before his holly wand crumbles entirely.

Could very well be the trump you need to defeat the bosses. They have their combined knowledge (including one that reached the boss room) to go through the temple. This ought to be enough since Natsumi will use Mopsus on top of that.

As for the strategy, I suppose we could go with a specific formation to confront the shadows.

[Skull Leader]

[X] Hold it in reserve

It is the wiser move for the reasons Daiki stated, but the biggest argument I have for holding back is because this is not Shinji's test alone. You can not outperform the entire group and expect a good grade for all. He needs to hold back and let his two girl...friends show their skills as well. This is test being taken by all of them so everyone needs to shine here. Sokaris did not just win on her own but helped Nigel shined enough to overcome the challenge as well.

[X] Blast Shadow Shinji off the bat with his...special ability, as he will be the most dangerous if he is left alive. From there Shinji will support Natsumi and Amber on their Shadow forms to outnumber/overpower them. Suggest that Natsumi to use her luck potion for the end bosses.

I am not sure how detailed we need to go here for a game plan but that the heart of the gameplan in my mind. Shinji needs to conqueror his form. One can say that Shinji will be taking revenage for it killing Hermione. It is Natsumi's call to make about the Luck potion use as its her's and not Shinji's call to make so I just made it a suggestion for her. Shinji with his semi controlled power likely is enough to win here because of their good teamwork especially if they can eliminate a shadow form off the bat.