A Chain of Debt (A Matou Shinji AU Quest)

[Skull Leader]

Right I should vote for the plan that I at least help create. It might not be the plan I want fully but its the plan that seems to please the most while trying to reduce the overall damage. Granted, trying to cough up 3500 Galleons that we do not have is painful no matter how we slice it.

Alternatively there is a cheaper plan option where we cancel both of the custom rituals and leave only the Charm one intact. That plan is wayyyy easier to live with as its really cheap in comparison. But c'est la vie.

Plan This Is Fine~ (That is ok, things are going to be ok...)

-Knowledge of Matou Arts: worth 1000G
-Favors 3x: 1500G
-Genetic sample of last true Matou: 666G
-Life span: 400G for 8 years
Total is 3566 out of 3590: Owe 24 Galleons

Please add Mind Arts to the list of magic buffed in rituals. Also anyone out there is there any magic school that Shinji knows that maybe we should buff here cause soon there will be no turning back from things.

[alfheimwanderer]

-Knowledge of Matou Arts: worth 1000G
-Favors 3x: 1500G
-Genetic sample of last true Matou: 666G
-Life span: 400G for 8 years
Total is 3566 out of 3590: Owe 24 Galleons

---

Matou Shinji frowned as he made his selections, with Vivian oh-so-helpfully letting him know just what it would cost.

"...how much did you say it was again?" he asked, his voice cracking from the strain.

"Oh, four thousand five hundred ninety galleons," the proprietress replied, as if the amount was merely pocket change. And perhaps it was - for her. For Matou Shinji though...

"Guh..." The boy lurched backwards, nearly falling out of his chair as a wave of disorientation hit him, far stronger than anything he'd experienced before. It was like...like he had been struck in the gut, the chest, and the crotch by a car - by three cars at once. For a moment, the world vanished in a haze as he struggled to think, to breathe as the enormity of that sum just began to sink in. "Ah...haha...haha...I uh..."

He was just about to say that he didn't have that much money on him, when Vivian, as if reading his mind, helpfully pointed out that there were ways to pay other than money...

"...what, you mean with my body?" he asked slowly, looking over himself and thinking he couldn't be worth all that much.

"Nothing so tawdry as that," the proprieteress said dismissively, with the boy letting out a sigh of relief, though his anxiety spiked once again as he imagined what terrible things she might demand for her goods and services. "I prefer to deal in less...tangible things. Things that are rarer, more...refined than mere flesh."

"I see," Shinji noted cautiously. "What sorts of things, exactly?"

"Favors. Knowledge. Capacities. Memories," she listed, rattling them off, one after the other. "Oh, and time," she added, almost as an afterthought.

"Time?" the boy questioned, tilting his head curiously.

"It's true, that one is not so strange," Vivian commented, seeming to agree that it was a bit out of place compared to the others. "People are paid for their time on a regular basis. In fact, that one's time has value is one of the pillars of our society. Of most societies, really, whether that value is quantified in currency or not."

"Huh..." Shinji grunted. "I...I never thought of it that way," he admitted, "but you have a point. You...you're not expecting me to spend years of my life working for you or something though, are you? I have classes to take. Things to do." Debts to pay, he carefully didn't say, though he suspected she knew.

"Nothing so pedestrian," came the reply. "I would simply take the time from that allotted to you to walk upon this earth."

"...you can do that?"

"You would be surprised by what is possible for those with enough will, time, and vision," Vivian murmured softly, her lips curving up ever so slightly. "You won't be able to pay off all of the price in time though, as your time is not worth terribly much at the moment."

"How much?"

"A base rate of 10 Galleons per year," came the answer, with Shinji again reeling as if he was struck. 10 Galleons. Was...was that it? Were his years, his life worth so little, that in a hundred years, he would not be worth even the amount he borrowed from Tohsaka? "Slightly more than that adjusting for your current potential, and your karmic weight."

"...give me a number."

"I'll take up to 50 years for 50 Galleons a year," the woman noted matter-of-factly. "Anything after that, 10 Galleons."

"Hm. I'll definitely trade in some of my years, but before I say how many, what else can I use as payment?" he asked, since even if he traded in all 50 years, he would only pay off 2500 Galleons of the price. 'Only. It's more than double the amount of money Tohsaka loaned me...though only a quarter of what I have to pay back...'

"I highly value knowledge, so if you have any particular bits of information that are unique and...useful in the right hands, I would be willing to consider that part of your payment."

"...how about everything I know of the Matou family arts?" the boy offered. "I'm not one to boast, but I did read every grimoire that my former family owned - and I remember everything I read."

"Is that so?" Vivian noted, seeming to go still for a moment as her fingers made an odd motion, almost as if she was knitting something. "In that case, I can offer...oh, a thousand Galleons for that knowledge. What say you?"

"Deal," Shinji replied immediately, before she could change her mind. It wasn't as if that exchange would cost him anything - he couldn't use the knowledge he'd obtained from those books, and it wasn't as if he was a member of the Matou family any more, with an obligation to the patriarch of that family. Besides, this was basically as much money as Rin had offered him, and without being forced into servitude. "What else?"

"I suppose that if you offer the knowledge, a sample of your blood might do as well," the shopkeeper said, startling the boy at first, before she explained. "After all, if any of the knowledge is limited to those of your bloodline, it would be useless to me for any purposes besides the intellectual."

"And you want my blood..."

"So I have the option of crafting some sort of key, if it is necessary," she said, quite reasonably. "Don't worry, I don't mean to ask for it without compensation. Shall we say, an additional 666 Galleons?"

Shinji swallowed.

"Y-yes!" he all but yelped. "That sounds wonderful." But then he sobered. "That still isn't enough though, is it?"

"No, but...if you are willing to do me a set of favors, I am willing to discount most of the remainder of the price, so that you would only have to trade in say...a decade of time," the woman suggested.

"...what kind of favors?" he asked in a guarded manner, intrigued despite his instincts telling him that this was a very dangerous path. Still, for the promise of reducing the price by that much, well, the boy was more than happy to at least hear her out.

"Favors that will be determined by me at some point in the future," Vivian replied smoothly.

"At some point in the future?" Shinji questioned, narrowing his eyes. "But what if I never come back to the shop?" She had said it was more difficult to discover once one knew of it...

"That can be dealt with easily enough," the shopkeeper noted. "While I perform the workings, I can simply engrave this...debt, if you will, into your soul, by removing a portion and binding into an object. With each favor completed, some will be released to rejoin the whole. I trust that is a potent enough incentive?"

"How many favors are we talking about here?" Earlier, the woman had said she had no interest in making him spend years of his life working for her, yet now she was speaking of using a portion of his soul as collateral against a debt, until he worked it off, so...he needed clarification. "And how do you know I won't simply find someone else to free my spirit of this object? Or simply destroy the object myself?"

"Three favors," the woman noted. "No more. No less." Then she smiled, a disturbing expression that made the boy's blood run cold. "And should you try something of the sort, the contract between us will be broken, with you being the one to suffer the penalties."

"...the penalties?"

"You will immediately lose everything you gained as a result of our bargain, with the remainder of your soul - and even your magic - forfeit. You will long for the embrace of death, yet even after the expiration of your mortal form, you will be barred the release of oblivion, as your spirit is made into an unliving thrall for all eternity. But then, I trust that you are not the sort to go out of the way to violate agreements, yes?"

"N-no, ma'am!" the boy yelped, mentally making a note to not piss off the very powerful magus standing in front of him. "I'm not that sort at all," he said, his voice at least an octave higher than it was normally. "Uh...about a decade of life was all that was left, you said?"

"Indeed," the woman noted, as she waved a hand, and a scroll of something like vellum appeared in it, inked with...was that blood? "The terms of our bargain are written here. If you are satisfied, sign. If not, feel free to...negotiate, if you care to try."

She set the scroll before Shinji, who read through the provisions, found that they said exactly what she said they would, and put his signature to the paper.

Vivian took the scroll, examined it, and with a nod, had the paperwork file itself somewhere.

"Then let us begin," she intoned.

"Huh," was all Matou Shinji had the chance to get out, before everything went black.

---

Some time later, the boy opened his eyes in an alley in Hogsmeade, feeling like he'd woken up from a dream, with an amulet around his neck, and a rather study rucksack on his back. In the dream...he'd been shopping? Making tea? The mere thought of the word brought to mind images - knowledge he should not have possessed - about how to make a perfect cup of tea, with modifications for...any tea he could think of.

And on the ring finger of his left hand...

"What's this?"

...there was a simple gold band.

'3 Favors,' a voice murmured in his mind. 'Remember...'

And then the fog lifted entirely from his mind, with the boy finding that his companions, Miss Moore, and Miss Spencer, were beside him, with each having an interesting item or two he didn't remember them having earlier in the day?
He opened his mouth to say something, but his stomach, growling, prempted him, drawing the others' attention.

"...ah. Matou," Selina noted, her eyes brilliantly green without the glasses she normally wore. "Lunch then?"

"A capital idea," Ana agreed.

Where to for lunch?

[ ] The Three Broomsticks
[ ] The Hog's Head
[ ] Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop

And what to talk about?

[ ] His companions
[ ] Selina no longer has glasses?
[ ] The items they found themselves carrying
[ ] Wizards Unite
[ ] (write-in)

[skulkidcachi90]

[ ] Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop
[ ] The items they found themselves carrying

[Dracueri]

[x]The Three Broomsticks
[x]Selina no longer has glasses

[Skull Leader]

[X] The Three Broomsticks
[X] His companions

Tempted to pick Hog's Head cause its shady and we can likely get a card game. But we are with two girls I think would not like to slum right now. Tea shop is a bad idea given the places's nature as a date location. Plus its all pink and frankly I doubt Shinji will like the tea given he would know its not been brew perfectly.

[Malorius]

[x] Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop

Time to put our newfound tea knowledge to the best use possible: arrogantly turn up our nose on the plebean attempts at teamaking.

[X] His companions

Let's gauge the power of that Charisma skill. I'd prefer not to talk about the shop so as not to spark the questions of the nature of our set though.

[Daiki]

[x] Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop.
[x] Selina no longer has glasses.

[skulkidcachi90]

Change to [ ] Selina no longer has glasses?

[alfheimwanderer]

[x] Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop.
[x] Selina no longer has glasses. + [x] His Companions

---

Pink.

'What in the world?'

Bows and frills and ribbons and lace.

...and not in any way elegant or refined. Tawdry, perhaps. Pandering to the half-formed ideas of what a uncouth youth might think romance and decadence were.

Matou Shinji hated it.

This. This was the establishment that so many clamored about? That so many of his peers whispered about in hushed voices as if this was something special?

"We're going somewhere else."

The words were out of his mouth before he could take them back, causing his companions - and many of the shop's patrons - to turn their heads towards him at his tone.

"Hm?"

"There's nothing genuine about this place. It is merely an illusion crafted to imitate something...better. An inferior illusion that doesn't even put in an ounce of honest effort because it caters to students so drunk on freedom, they don't even taste the swill they imbibe here."

The boy's words, delivered as they were in cold, caustic tones, made a number of listeners flinch and look down at their tea, as they wondered for the briefest moment...did he have a point?

Only for a moment though, as those who had invested so much time and hope and expectation in Madam Puddifoot's rejected the notion that a first year - and one with a foreign accent, at that - might know what he was talking about. What did a foreigner - an oriental upstart - know of tea, the quintessential British establishment?

One of the customers - an older boy that Matou Shinji didn't recognize, said as much, with the Japanese lad turning his terrible gaze upon the one who had spoken.

"A British establishment, is it?" he repeated, in a quiet voice laced with venom. "It takes a certain amount of arrogance - no, ignorance - to claim that, when tea has been enjoyed in the East for thousands of years, long before Wizarding Britain was even a gleam in the eye of Merlin!"

"Uh, Merlin didn't found Britain. He was just a student at--" the older boy tried to speak up, only for Shinji to cut him off with a hiss.

"Silence, fool! I have no time for your delusions about the Magus of Flowers!" the boy interrupted, fury slowly blooming upon his features. "If you don't even have the sense to seek out an establishment that serves a halfway decent cup of tea instead of...whatever it is you are drinking, I see no reason I should believe you when it comes to weightier matters."

By now, Matou Shinji was in a full-blown rage, and his...diatribe had attracted the notice of Madam Puddifoot herself.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave," the proprietress said in no doubt what she believed to be a stern and intimidating voice. "You're disturbing my customers."

At this, the boy only laughed.

"No need to ask twice, you second-rate hack of a tea merchant. No, that's not right. To call you a tea merchant is an insult to others who have proudly worn the title. Swindler, knave, and cheat, I name you. Tricking impressionable young minds with this...dreck. Anywhere else in this village would be a step up from...this. Selina, Ana, lunch is on me," he said as he turned his back on Madam Puddifoot. "Oh, and if any of you want a proper cup of tea, just find me."

"And who in the name of Merlin's saggy left nut are you, firstie?!" came a jeer.

Shinji paused, and turned, very deliberately, to look upon the one who dared to question him.

"Someone with far better things to do than waste any more time with the likes of you," he said icily. "Good day, sir, and the Broker sends you his regards."

Explain what happened to companions?

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Where to eat?
[ ] Three Broomsticks
[ ] Hog's Head
[ ] Let Ana pick somewhere

[Dracueri]

[X]Yes
[X]Let Ana pick somewhere

[skulkidcachi90]

[X]Yes
[X]Let Ana pick somewhere

[Daiki]

[x] Yes
[x] Let Ana pick somewhere

[Malorius]

[x] No

Yeah, no. I know how such situations develop usually. The moment you try to explain yourself (especially so soon), the emotions resurface and you rant at another bunch of people. And I don't trust Shinji to be calm and rational about this.

After all... "What's so important about it, Matou? It's just tea."

[X]Let Ana pick somewhere

Time to save the mood.

[alfheimwanderer]

[x] Yes
[x] Let Ana pick somewhere

---

After Matou Shinji's little meltdown at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, wherein he had blasted the quality of the tea being served there, lambasted the arrogant sod who had dared to assume that tea was in some way a British institution, and invoked the name of the Vittle Broker, Ana figured that it might be a good idea to go somewhere else. Somewhere where a bunch of first years wouldn't stand out as obviously not belonging (aka, not the Hogs Head, with its dark and gloomy interior).

That meant the Three Broomsticks.

"So, Matou, what was that about?"

How does Shinji explain what happened?

[ ] (write-in)

[Dracueri]

[x]Sorry the room's decoration didn't agree with me. I guess the stress from shopping at Vivian's store combined with all that pink made me lose my temper. The atmosphere and crowd didn't help. Being surrounded by...people who found the decore/service acceptable broke the final straw. People whom have lived under such conditions that they have become dumb or blind to how lacking it all is.

[Addam]

[x]Sorry the room's decoration didn't agree with me. I guess the stress from shopping at Vivian's store combined with all that pink made me lose my temper. The atmosphere and crowd didn't help.

[Malorius]

[x] It boggles Shinji's mind that any explanation is necessary at this point. The nature of that... establishment: the defiance of common sense, of good taste, of tea quality - why, how could his companions not share his deepest distaste for the macabre showing before them? Are they not British, really? The travesty delivered to their cultural heritage should boil inside their souls into a true desire for vengeance - a crusade against everything this Madam Puddifoot person has ever created.
You will be willing to help them in this noble pursuit, of course.

Let's be real here, folks. No need for pretence.

[Skull Leader]

Going to add an addition to Draceuri's write in. Really I think if Shinji is being honest its not fully the decorations but him being surrounded by people from Britain that do not see anything wrong when their clearly is something wrong. Should score fairly well with this company.

[x]Sorry the room's decoration didn't agree with me. I guess the stress from shopping at Vivian's store combined with all that pink made me lose my temper. The atmosphere and crowd didn't help. Being surrounded by...people who found the decore/service acceptable broke the final straw. People whom have lived under such conditions that they have become numb or blind to how lacking it all is.

[alfheimwanderer]

Shinji was tempted - sorely tempted - to simply say that no explanation should be necessary, that the nature of the establishment that dared to pass itself off as a tea shop should have been apparent at a glance. In fact, the words were on the tip of his tongue when he remembered that they, unlike him, had presumably not been enlightened by the magus of the shop as to the proper techniques of brewing tea.

'I suppose I cannot judge them for being...ignorant,' he mused. 'No. Perhaps that is unfair. It could be they were not...ignorant, simply not in the mood to cause a scene.'

And a scene he certainly had caused, with him going so far as to publicly invoke the authority of the Broker, a deed which would no doubt have consequences.

"I...I was a bit stressed out," he said instead. "By the..." He trailed off, fumbling for words.

"By the tea shop's poor taste in decorations?" Selina supplied.

"That. Also by the poor quality of the tea it served - and the fools who had the temerity to challenge me. Have they never tasted proper tea? Never enjoyed a tastefully decorated cafe? Never..."

"...it was a bit gaudier than I expected," Ana allowed. "Still, you could have just left."

"I..." Shinji wanted to protest, but shook his head. "No, you're right, I could have. I...I just wasn't thinking clearly. Wasn't seeing things clearly. But after spending all that time in that suspicious shop of mysteries, can you blame me?"

"Well, I can't say I feel the same, given..." Selina tapped her gla--her bare face, with her gesture drawing attention to her lack of glasses.

Shinji's mouth grew dry and his face paled at this.

"...what....what price did you have to pay?" he whispered. There was no way a magus like Vivian would have simply fixed her eyes for free - and it was unlikely that she had enough on her to simply pay for such a procedure.

"A fair one," came the reply, as the golden-haired girl shook her head. "For four years, I needed something to help me see clearly. And so for four, my eyes will help her see outside her shop. A small price to pay for good vision for the rest of my life."

"...your eyes will help her see outside her shop," Shinji echoed, the implications of that statement being alarmingly clear to him. "You...so she could be looking through your eyes right now?" he asked, his voice decidedly not rising an octave. Did that...had Selina just become the familiar of a magus?

"She could be," Selina agreed, much more calm about things than Shinji felt she should be, given the situation. "Though I wouldn't know for sure unless I'm seeing something that should otherwise be invisible to me."

"Like what?" Ana inquired.

"Oh, like magic itself, before you weave it into a spell," the golden-haired girl replied, her hands tracing out the pattern for a basic spell. Wingardium Leviosa, if Shinji remembered correctly. "Huh. I guess she is looking after all."

"What do you see?" Ana asked quietly.

"The color of magic. It's...beautiful," Selina murmured, with Shinji thinking that surely, that didn't hold a candle to the way her face, and her brilliant green eyes, lit up with such wonder.

"The...color?" Shinji echoed. "It has a color?"

"Yes. Octarine, of course," Selina replied impishly, with Shinji raising his eyebrows, not entirely sure if she was being serious or if she had made up a word just now.

They continue chatting along those lines for a while, with Ana asking about the plain golden band on the ring finger of his left hand.

"I suppose you obtained a magic ring for yourself?"

"...you could say that," Shinji replied slowly. It did contain a sizable portion of his soul, after all, and would only release it once he had carried out the favors he had promised the magus who had created it.

"What does it do?" Selina asked, her eyes bright with curiosity.

"Oh...I guess...it keeps me from dying from my own stupidity," he said after a moment, not wanting to say more.

The rest of the day is a success. Shinji manages to acquire the goods he was interested in, and even learns some interesting things about Selina and Ana. Still, he has the sneaking suspicion that perhaps he had bitten off more than he could chew with this...bargain he had made with Vivian, whoever, or whatever she truly was.

'Surely, she's not actually the Lady of the Lake, is she?' he wondered for a moment, recalling that some had called that being such, before dismissing it. What would a powerful elemental like that be doing in a shop in Hogsmeade, after all?

In any case, the Winter Holidays loomed ahead...

[ ] Stay at Hogwarts
[ ] Go back to Fuyuki

[Skull Leader]

[X] Stay at Hogwarts

Free lodging (or at least one already paid for) VS Lodging that Rin will charge us for and require us to work for.

The choice is clear.