Matou Shinji and the Price of Victory (HP/FSN CYOA)

[Skull Leader]

[X] Throw earth ofuda laced with prana to form a magically infused dust cloud to obscure George's vision. Use Shinji's fire affinity/ofuda to suppress the flammability of the dust cloud so it does not explode.

Ultimately we need to use flow walking to gain an edge of unpredictability against George to be able to strike at him. But at the moment the dangerous part is that George is reading everything Shinji is doing thanks to the Satori. So we need to blind it. Which is why I am suggesting we throw magic laced dust into the area so that it acts like a flashback against the Satori. Magic energy everywhere that will hide our next action. Spears might cancel some of this dust but dust fills in gap rather fast.

Anyways suggestions and improvements are welcomed.

EDIT

[X] Use a earth ofuda laced with prana to form a magically infused dust cloud localized around George to obscure his vision. Then flow walk avoiding the spears.

Since it was pointed out that Shinji's fire affinity was dragon based, I lowered the effect to being just around George to stop a massive explosive from happening. Lowers the dust clouds effectives down to maybe a one time thing but its better than nothing.

[skulkidcachi90]

[X] Throw earth ofuda laced with prana to form a magically infused dust cloud to obscure George's vision.
Hide anti spirit and earth ofuda in the dust of the ground to set up a trap
Use Shinji's fire affinity/ofuda to suppress the flammability of the dust cloud so it does not explode.

[Skull Leader]

New plan as the spears are spirit in nature.

[X] Throw anti-sprite yin Ofuda at the spears while Shinji makes an earth ofuda laced with prana to form a magically infused dust cloud localized around George to obscure his vision.

I don't think he got the fire affinity or ofuda knowledge to suppress the flammability. Adding that to a ofuda sounds like an ofuda array which we have not learned how to do.

Regardless we do need to deal with the spears as the pressing concern so since they are sprite based being obscurial, anti-sprite yin ofuda which we certainly have will work.

[Oregano]

[X] Throw anti-spirit yin Ofuda at the spears while Shinji uses an earth ofuda laced with prana to form a magically infused dust cloud localized around George to obscure his vision.

[Dracueri]

[x]Throw anti-spirit yin Ofuda at the spears while Shinji uses an Earth ofuda laced with prana to form a magically infused dust cloud localized around George to obscure his vision.

Change vote to new battle plan

[alfheimwanderer]

Choice 255: [X] Throw anti-sprite yin Ofuda at the spears while Shinji makes an earth ofuda laced with prana to form a magically infused dust cloud localized around George to obscure his vision.

---

Choice 256: For all that he had been caught off guard by his opponent, it was (sadly) not the first time that Matou Shinji had been surprised by an opponent he'd underestimated. But then, he'd been expecting George to have the capabilities he'd had the last time Shinji had fought him, not...whatever this was.

Still, he wasn't out of options. He had his wand, his ofuda, and whatever else he had on hand.

He'd done more with less. And if the spears were homing, well...

Fzzt!

...then all he had to do was flow, shunting himself from one ofuda to the next and see if he could find a pattern in their movement.

'They don't change direction instantly...so its not that the spears are tracking me. It's George. He's doing this somehow.'

And that gave the boy options.

Shinji smirked as he flashed from one place to the next, tossing anti-spirit ofuda at the spears as they came at him, and flowing away just a moment before they could hit, with the spears freezing in place as the ofuda hit them. The boy thought he heard a grunt of surprise, but didn't stop, continuing his efforts to stop the deadly spears.

"Confringo!"

The boy emerged from his latest flow-walk right into an explosion, with the blast slamming him into the ground with a sickening crack that he thought might just have broken a few bones. Or not. Still...touching the ground wasn't so bad.

After all, it meant he could infuse prana into the ground via the prana circuits covering his outfit, and then--

BOOM!

The ground erupted as his ofuda detonated, with a cloud of prana-infused dust obscuring the entire battlefield.

"Well-played, Matou," George's voice seemed to call from far away. The older boy seemed...delighted. "Well-played!"

Shinji had just a moment to appreciate the compliment before--

"Fiendfyre."

'Oh shit.'

What does Shinji do next?

[ ] Yield. Before things escalate any further.
[ ] Go for a knockout blow - try to flow next to George and hit him quick
[ ] Fight fire with fire
[ ] Try to absorb the fire and rush George down - wherever he is
[ ] (write-in)

[skulkidcachi90]

[ ] Try to absorb the fire and rush George down - wherever he is


Time to ahow what Shinji's staff can do, George doesn't know about that ability neither is recorded in any document.

[Dracueri]

[x]Try to absorb the fire and rush George down-wherever he is

[Skull Leader]

[X] Try to absorb the fire and rush George down - wherever he is

One of two things is going to happen with this choice.

Either fiendfyre is considered fire enough that it absorbs by his wand-staff, shocking George as Shinji showcases another trump spell of the British Wizard World failing.

...or Shinji about to feel PAIN. Cause Fiendfyre is nasty.

[alfheimwanderer]

Choice 256: [x]Try to absorb the fire and rush George down-wherever he is

---

Not for the first time, Matou Shinji found himself missing the abilities that the draconic part of his soul had conferred upon him - before he had sealed it away, given the negatives that came with such power. Whenever a wyrm was born, one might say a coin was flipped, after all - benevolence or malignance, genius or insanity. Back in the Ministry, tapping into the powers of a dragon had allowed him to laugh in the face of his enemies, defying the worst of their attacks, allowing their flames - what they thought a final trump that would burn him to ash - to restore him, much to their dismay.

...sadly, at the moment, he was unable to rely on that immunity to fire, as he was currently all too human.

Humans, who like most animals, had an instinctive fear of fire - especially when this fire was shaped into the forms of ravening beasts, hunting him, seeking to devour him whole and burn him to ash.

And yet...

...Matou Shinji was not afraid.

How could he be? His wand was still in his hands - the wand wrought for him of rare ingredients supplied by his mentors and teachers. Supplied by Sokaris. So long as he held onto that symbol of her trust, he would not - could not - accept defeat. Would not be paralyzed by terror. Would not back down even in the face of the most terrible odds.

The odds he faced now weren't so bad as that. His opponent, after all, was no avatar of an Outer God, or a Heroic Spirit, or Dead Ancestor.

It was simply George. And no matter how powerful his friend had become or what new tricks he had picked up, Matou Shinji knew how George Weasley fought. He knew the way in which the other boy's thoughts ran, what the other boy knew of him from their time fighting alongside one another - and the gaps in his strategies that resulted from what George did not know.

Matou Shinji smiled as he leveled his wand and extended it into a staff, charging forward as the flames surged towards him.

The beasts of flame leapt forward as one...

...and as one, disappeared the moment they touched his staff, the prana that sustained the living conflagrations ripped from their forms into the staff - empowering it.

No, empowering it's wielder, whose eyes and body blazed with gold as a thin burst of prana erupted from him, revealing all that was hidden, followed, a moment later, by the boy himself, as he surged towards George Weasley, intending to put an end to this once and for all.

"Wha..."

George Weasley, in the split second before Matou Shinji arrived at his location, shifted into spirit form in an attempt to avoid the blow, but to no avail, as the glowing staff made contact, the impact knocking him back to solidity as every nerve in his body screamed, and with a pulse of red light, everything went black.

When he was revived some minutes later, George was quiet, looking at Shinji in a rather thoughtful sort of way.

"You won," the elder Stone Cutter conceded.

"Did you expect anything less?" Shinji asked.

"Well, when you'd said you didn't have access to fusion or any of your other usual tricks, I'd thought..." But George shook his head. "It seems I didn't know your bag of tricks as well as I thought. Exactly how long have you been able to do that...just absorb fiendfyre, I mean?"

"As long as I've had this wand," Shinji admitted.

"...and you never told us about it?"

"It never came up."

George snorted.

"...well-played."

---

Choice 257: When Pansy returns to Albion, she bears interesting news - in light of recent events in London, Daphne Greengrass, daughter of the Minister of War, has lost faith in the Ministry's cause and is interested in defecting to Albion. Given that Hogsmeade and Hogwarts are sealed off from the rest of Magical Britain, this is somewhat impractical, unless of course, one uses the back door into Hogwarts left by Matou Shinji via a Vanishing Cabinet in his private office. Thus, any mission must have the cooperation of Matou Shinji if it is to succeed.

Will you allow that pathway to be used?

[ ] Yes, freely - if Daphne wants out, why not?
[ ] No - he is under no obligation to use his private assets for the good of Albion
[ ] Negotiate a price

[Skull Leader]

[X] Yes, freely - if Daphne wants out, why not?

Its between this or negotiate a price. I am not going to say no to this mission and have it be scrapped cause there is no way in without the use of the cabinets.

Some people will like Shinji negotiating and we will gain Rep there but others will believe that Shinji should do this free. So its a mix bag between reputation gains based on what we pick here.

Regardless if you go with Negotiating a price, I think we should ask for something small, give Albion a discount here. Do not ask for a large favor. Merely ask for some benefit for the use.

However, I feel like we should just do this freely. For the good of Albion. Shinji has talked big about his believe in their cause especially to the Goblins. If you don't back your words up here I think you just confirm that Shinji is not that loyal, by confirming what basically people been saying about him in the media the last year that his is just out for himself and to benefit from this war. In addition, getting out Daphne helps the war effort but more importantly it allows a spy within Hogwarts. Lives can be saved here in this action, and I just can't place a price on their lives here. If Albion wants to reward Shinji for the success of the mission, so be it but we should not tried to benefit from it.

And what seals the deal for me towards giving this freely, is that the Cabinet is just as much Luna's as it is Shinji's. She helped place it there. And asking Alf about Luna's preference here, he confirmed that Luna would prefer Shinji allowing the free use of the cabinet for this mission. So I will respect her wishes here.

[skulkidcachi90]

....
Pass

[Oregano]

[X] Yes, freely - if Daphne wants out, why not?

[Dracueri]

[x]Yes, freely-If Daphne wants out, why not?

[alfheimwanderer]

Choice 257: [x] Yes, freely-If Daphne wants out, why not?

---

Choice 258: When Pansy and Shinji go to Lockhart to seek approval for the plan, he agrees, on one condition. Given who Miss Greengrass is and her relationships to some of the notables on the other side of the ongoing conflict (the Minister of War being her father, and the Youth Representative being her boyfriend), as well as the security measures taken by the Ministry to isolate Hogwarts and Hogsmeade from the rest of Britain, her disappearance from the castle would no doubt raise alarm bells, causing them to suspect the presence of infiltrators, saboteurs, or backdoors. At the very least, they would likely step up internal security in a number of ways that would be...inconvenient for Albion when the time came to assault the Castle.

Thus, the First Citizen has made his approval contingent on adding an objective to the mission - instead of simply extracting Daphne Greengrass from Hogwarts, Albion should take advantage of the opportunity this presents to replace her with a spy (Emilia), with no one the wiser. This would not only preserve tactical and strategic surprise for Albion, as their enemies would be unaware of their backdoor into Hogwarts, but would grant them critical intelligence on enemy movements, training, and more - possibly even giving them the opportunity to neutralize key personnel prior to or during the attack itself.

Given these conditions, does Shinji wish to participate in the mission, knowing this? (if he declines, the mission will still happen without him and a replacement will be assigned for Emilia to compensate him for the loss of a squad member. If he accepts, he will be put in charge of planning the details for the mission, and may gain possible further rewards for success)

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

[Dracueri]

[x]No

Shinji still has to train with team and has other commitments. Putting him in charge of planning such an important mission doesn't seem like a good idea.

[Skull Leader]

[X] Yes

To be fair, everyone that could be grabbed to plan this also has a squad to train or have an important position even higher that comes with even more duties and commitments. Shinji has knowledge of a range of people abilities that could be tapped for this. Knowledge that I think Pansy is not as well versed in. For example George, given their recent fight. Its good experience for Shinji I think to plan this out. Anyone that plans this really needs to be from Hogwarts to begin with. So that is fairly limiting to begin with, in this case Shinji is likely one of the best candidates for the planning stage. Especially if he works with Pansy.

[skulkidcachi90]

[ ] Yes.

[Oregano]

[X] Yes

[alfheimwanderer]

Choice 258: [X] Yes

---

Well then, the time has come for you to come up with a plan, which consist of the objectives you want to accomplish during the mission, as well as what you will need to accomplish those objectives. This plan will be presented to Lockhart for approval, given the sensitive nature of this operation. All plans must include [x] Extract Daphne Greengrass from Hogwarts and replace her with Emilia, however, beyond that, you do have some degree of operational flexibility...

Choice 259: What are your objectives?

[ ] Just the extraction and switch - keep it simple
[ ] The extraction and...

[ ] Write-in

Choice 260: What will you need to carry out your objectives, in terms of material support?

[ ] (write-in)

Choice 261: Who will be on your team for the operation? Who, specifically, is needed for the ground team? Emilia is required, given that she will be switching with Daphne, but is there anyone else? Pansy Parkinson is strongly recommended, since she has been in communication with Daphne, but is not strictly required.

So, anyone besides Emilia?

[ ] No - just Emilia. The fewer people involved, the better
[ ] Yes - add Pansy and no one else.
[ ] Yes - add Pansy and (write-in)

[ ] Add justification here