Grail Works, Ltd: A Scattering of Roses (TYPE-MOON Multi X-over)

[Kieran]

That's why I was asking for clarification on the matter. Him tumbling down those stairs is a surefire way to die.

Sorry, thought I'd replied already - not as of yet.

[Xamusel]

Thanks for explaining that to me.

[Kieran]

Origin: Tragic (Benefit: Capable of Anything – can re-roll a 1 once per scene)

Influences: Mugen Tenshin Graduate – Ayane belongs to the Mugen Tenshin Clan (Faction)

Hang-ups: Once per scene, when she fails a Skill Test, she suffers ↓1 on her next Skill Test as her equilibrium temporarily wavers.

Bonds: I was top of my class, except for my one and only rival. We have unfinished business to settle.

Role: Commando (Focus: Silent Weapons)

Level: 6

Ground-Based Movement: 30 ft.

Health: 2

Languages: Japanese (native language), English

Essences (Defences): Strength 3 (Toughness: 13), Speed 8 (Evasion: 18), Smarts 4 (Willpower: 15), Social 5 (Cleverness 17)
Faction: Mugen Tenshin Clan

Perks:

All Warfare Is Deception – Once per scene, after making a Deception or Stealth Skill Test, Ayane may reroll all her skill dice and take the new result.
Balance and Harmony – Once per scene, can use a Standard Action to remove a Condition other than Defeated and Conditions).

Blink of an Eye – Ayane can Attack twice, instead of once, when you take the Attack action with a Silent Martial Arts weapon.

Fluid Motion – Silent Martial Arts weapons gain Maneuver as an alternate effect when Ayane uses them. Silent Martial Arts weapons that already have a Maneuver alternate effect lose any penalty for using this alternate effect.

Into the Void – Gains the “Dig Deep” General Perk (once per scene, Ayane can ignore 1 damage by taking a Snag on all Skill Tests until the end of her next turn; once per scene, she can heal 1d2 damage by forfeiting her entire turn).

Projectile Dancer – Ayane moves like the wind, dancing around muzzle flashes and dodging bullets with the greatest of ease. Threats using projectile weapons suffer a Snag the first time they target her.

Razor Tongue – Ayane deals 1 additional damage when making attacks against an enemy’s Cleverness Defense, and gains +2 Cleverness

Shinobi of the 63rd Hexagram – +1 to Toughness and Willpower; in addition to her Role’s Equipment Training and Qualifications, you are Qualified with 1 Limited melee weapon and 1 Limited projectile weapon, both of which must have the Martial Arts trait, and Trained in all weapons with the Martial Arts trait. Ayane is Qualified with the Lightning Cycle, and rolls Driving Skill Tests to drive motorcycles without a Snag, even if she has no Ranks in the Driving Skill).

Two-Handed Assault – Ayane gains ↑1 on Attacks with two light Silent Martial Arts weapons (meaning instead of the usual ↓1 on one Attack and ↓2 on the other when attacking with two light weapons, she suffers no penalty on one Attack and ↓1 on the other.

Whisper Warrior – Ayane is Qualified with all weapons with the Martial Arts and Silent traits. Additionally, while wielding a weapon with the Martial Arts and Silent traits, th she can Defend as a Free action.


Skills (Specialisations): Acrobatics d4 (Specialisation: Gymnastics), Alertness d2 (Specialisation: Situational Awareness), Athletics d2, Deception d4 (Specialisations: Bluffing, Distraction), Finesse d4 (Specialisation: Martial Arts), Infiltration d4, Intimidation d2, Spellcasting d4, Survival d2

Training and Qualifications: Grenades, Finesse and Silent Weapons, and Qualified with Submachine Guns and all weapons with the Martial Arts trait.







. . . I have probably severely under-levelled her, but it's at least a rough sketch of how she'd look in the Essence20 system (i.e, Power Rangers). Sorry for the delay!

[Xamusel]

Could you... possibly explain all of what's being shared with this post? I'm not a player of Essence20.

[Kieran]

Essence20 is something of a hybrid between the d20 system and the Savage Worlds system. Like D&D, characters have classes (roles), with roleplay elements and bonuses (or minuses) added through the Origins, Influences, and Hangups; akin to what 5e D&D would consider "backgrounds." However, there are only four Attributes to the typical 6 (the eponymous "Essences"), and skills are bought in a stepped fashion, gradually increasing dice. Combat is centred around avoiding damage, hence the four separate defence scores, and low Health Points; most weapon hits will only do one or two points of damage, but as you can see, that might be enough . . .

Skill rolls are done by rolling a d20 and the die which represents the skill, and then adding the results against the stated difficulty. If a character has a speciality in something, they also roll every die below their Skill rank (so, in the event Ayane had a d8 in "Finesse," she'd also roll a d6, a d4, and a d2), and take the highest result among the die rolls (so if the d8 rolled a 3 and the d6 a "6," she'd take the 6).

Edges and Snags are basically "advantage" and "disadvantage," per 5e rules, and an up- or downshift (those little arrows) mean you roll the next die category in either direction, under those circumstances.

[Xamusel]

Thanks for the explanation.

[Arbitrarity]

Whoops, I'm a full week off an update, sorry about that.
Okay, so that's Akiha being moved by Aoko to the Moon Cell... to go after Godafrid? Either this is an indirect approach, or this has interesting implications for where Godafrid currently is.
Godafrid continues to try his best to not imply untoward things and continues to be challenged.
I'm a bit unsure why things are exploding, nor do I really know who the people in the last two segments are... wait a minute that's a GI Joe reference. Okay, that does explain the previous bit, but precisely how those relate to each other confuses me. Presumably Godafrid is our Spook, since he's the obvious "person who doesn't act like themselves".

[Kieran]

Whoops, I'm a full week off an update, sorry about that.

I did wonder - but it's partly my fault for not having it up as soon as I wanted to. For what it's worth, I did see you online as I was posting, so I just missed you.

Okay, so that's Akiha being moved by Aoko to the Moon Cell... to go after Godafrid? Either this is an indirect approach, or this has interesting implications for where Godafrid currently is.

Yes.

Godafrid continues to try his best to not imply untoward things and continues to be challenged.

Yup - and Ayane hasn't even started needling him yet. Never mind some of the other gadfly characters he might yet encounter . . .

I'm a bit unsure why things are exploding, nor do I really know who the people in the last two segments are... wait a minute that's a GI Joe reference.

I'd wondered if I was subtle enough to let it slide under the radar for a while longer, or somebody would catch on . . . What tipped you off?

Okay, that does explain the previous bit, but precisely how those relate to each other confuses me.

We shall see.

Presumably Godafrid is our Spook, since he's the obvious "person who doesn't act like themselves".

Given how he wound up with Godafrid's identity in the first place, it might make sense that Astraea's "karma-based reset" might put him in a similar situation, no?

[Arbitrarity]

I'd wondered if I was subtle enough to let it slide under the radar for a while longer, or somebody would catch on . . . What tipped you off?

Initially I was at "what the heck is this non-DOATEC organization in their universe" and trying to iterate through DOA characters to match description of the "ninja" and was finding nothing. Then I spent some time assuming the doctor was an OC of some sort and was confused because it was very specific. Then I searched his name generally (which in retrospect was the obvious thing to do), and that's a dead giveaway.

Given how he wound up with Godafrid's identity in the first place, it might make sense that Astraea's "karma-based reset" might put him in a similar situation, no?

Indeed indeed.

[Xamusel]

Well... this is bound to be a fun ride ahead of us. When do you plan to update again, Kieran?

[Kieran]

Initially I was at "what the heck is this non-DOATEC organization in their universe" and trying to iterate through DOA characters to match description of the "ninja" and as finding nothing. Then I spent some time assuming the doctor was an OC of some sort and was confused because it was very specific. Then I searched his name generally (which in retrospect was the obvious thing to do), and that's a dead giveaway.

Actually, that wasn't something I thought you'd do, for some reason . . . At least, not initially - but as I said, at the time, I was having a lot of things go wrong at once.

But yeah - given that DOA is the franchise of crossovers - including but not limited to Fatal Frame, Onimusha, and Azur Lane (which is Venus Vacation-specific, no less) - I figured this wasn't too much of a stretch . . . And might actually explain the setting!

(The fact that I managed to procrastinate long enough for the ninja sourcebook to get released is almost a bonus . . .)

Well... this is bound to be a fun ride ahead of us. When do you plan to update again, Kieran?

Soon as I can!

[Xamusel]

That's fair, Kieran. Thank you for sharing that.

[Kieran]

In the meantime, there's this to tide you both over.

[Xamusel]

I need to read the whole sequence of events leading up to the latest update... shows how much I prioritize these things.

[Kieran]

. . . OK, I am going to have to change my update day, because this just isn't working.

I typically spend Sundays working on the last 20 - 60% of any given chapter, depending on how much the chapter's fighting me or how much real life is meddling with me, and usually in the same time slot I now reserve for doing laundry - even if it's faster, now, doing it still breaks my focus too frequently and takes up too much time to make writing anything worthwhile possible. So, I'm going to aim for next Saturday, and see how that works, because I do need a routine to keep me going . . .

Sorry for the delays.

[Xamusel]

It's perfectly fine, Kieran. I don't hold it against you, and I'm sure no one else will at all.

[Kieran]

Still working on things - I hope to have the next chapter out tomorrow - but thought I'd put this here to let you get some idea of the aesthetics of Venus Vacation (and put a face and voice to Honoka and Misaki):






. . . Curiously, March will also see the release of an RPG sourcebook I could use - but I doubt you'll want to wait THAT long for a new chapter.

[Xamusel]

I'm a patient guy, or so I like to feel. I'll be more than happy when you release a chapter for us at any time.

[Kieran]

DISCLAIMER: Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night, and all related characters and concepts are the creation and property of Kinoko Nasu and the staff of TYPE-MOON. Exalted, Scion and all related characters and concepts are the creation and property of White Wolf/Onyx Path Publishing. Forgotten Realms and all related characters and concepts are the creation of Ed Greenwood, and presently owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro. Dead or Alive, DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball and all related characters and concepts are the creation and property of Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo.

This is a not-for-profit, just-for-fun project.


Writer's Note: Certain dialogue sequences in this story are lifted from DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball: Venus Vacation, but I trust in the intelligence of my readers and the (general) availability of the game to recognise them when they see them.








Avalon Castle, Phantasmagoria Island (Grail Works. Ltd. Headquarters)
Beyond the boundaries of time and space
















“Ilya?” Shirou interrupted her thoughts, reminding the Grail spirit that he was both still in the room, and that he’d asked her a question.

“. . . Shiki’s ‘sensei’ just abducted Akiha to the Moon Cell,” Ilya replied in a defeated tone.

Shirou opened his mouth to respond—and stopped, visibly recalling their other missing member’s notes regarding the “sensei” in question. They’d had a lot of back-and-forth when first joining with the Tohno household over their mutual histories and cross-checking the accuracy of the then-druid’s information regarding them. And frankly, the identity of a Magician who could allegedly defeat the White Princess (which Arcueid had reluctantly confirmed) was rather hard to forget. And it had been rather sobering, at the time, to realise that while the druid wasn’t always right—by his own admission—he knew a lot more than anyone really should . . .

At that thought, Ilya was seized by the urge, when they finally found their wayward acquaintance, to have business cards printed up for him with that statement on them—but she recognised the absurdity as an attempt to distract herself from her stress, and willfully beat it back.

(Though she did make a mental note to revisit the idea later.)

“. . . Why would Aozaki-san do that?” Shirou asked at last. “And what can we do about i—” His eyes suddenly widened. “Wait, the Moon Cell? I thought you put in protections against that happening again?”

“I did,” the Grail spirit offered. “If it had actually tried to snatch one of us itself—or from here—they’d have stopped it. But it worked through the Magic Gunner as a proxy, which I didn’t anticipate; and it was posed as a call for help, which I can’t really block, since it’s the whole purpose of the Works . . .”

“Tell me that we can follow, this time,” the redheaded magus said flatly.

“. . . Probably,” Ilya answered, after a moment. “I got a paradigm shield on Akiha-san, so I’ve got a more direct link this time. But it’s still a fairly limited connection; I can’t just send everybody after her at once, and trying to do too much would get the Moon Cell’s safeguards to try locking me out . . .

“As to your first question?” she continued. “Meaning, why Aozaki-san would do this? I’m not sure she did—not the local one, anyway.”

“‘Local . . .?’” Shirou repeated, puzzled.

“We know the Moon Cell can reach alternate universes on its own,” Ilya explained. “And we know that in at least two main variants, counting the version that Shiki-san went through, Aoko Aozaki is a resident of the Moon Cell . . .” She shrugged. “Unfortunately, I can’t say for sure—I wasn’t looking at her that closely, since I didn’t want to catch her attention. She might actually be the True Magician of Pan-Human History as we know it, or she might just be an analogue trading on her counterpart’s relationship.”

As the Grail spirit, she was also aware of Aoko Aozaki being registered on the Throne of Heroes as a Servant, of the Foreigner Class—she’d looked them up after encountering “Mysterious Heroine XX” (and rapidly decided she wanted NOTHING to do with them). Still, Ilya hoped she would’ve noticed if it was THAT version of the magus, and so said nothing about the possibility.

None of that, however, answered the most pertinent question—why? Why do any of this, much less this way . . .?

After reviewing the conversion prior to Akiha’s abduction, however, Ilya altered her list of priorities. Never mind the why, the real question was how: how was it that Aoko Aozaki—whether native to their world, the Moon Cell, or anywhere else—knew ANYTHING AT ALL about their absent colleague, much less to refer to “professional courtesy” regarding him. . .

Honestly, “Mysterious Heroine XX” was bad enough, implying a future time loop to deal with, but what would SHE, of all people, have to—

The Grail spirit stopped, as a stray fact suddenly occurred to her: while time travel was not the nature of the Fifth Magic, any more than it was the nature of the Second, it was an element of it. So, it was possible, Ilya supposed, that like the Servantverse Foreigner, the Magic Gunner had (or would? The appropriate tenses for time travel made her head hurt) encountered him in the future, somehow. Possibly even the same future event that the Foreigner had, though Ilya doubted it; the way things seemed to be going so far, she couldn’t possibly be that lucky . . .

But why was everything around him suddenly revolving around time trav—

“Even Jupiter is bound by the dictates of the Parcae.”

Astraea’s earlier words rang in her head. The Parcae, she knew, were the Roman name for the collective incarnations of Fate; something that, in at least one paradigm that they’d recently brushed against, Scions of the Gods, Roman or otherwise, were equally bound to. And Fate liked forcing them into patterns—and repeating those patterns to reinforce them . . .

Taking a moment to check what information they’d been given by the Norse God of Mecha about his past, Ilya felt both surprise and a quiet vindication upon finding out that he and his Band of fellow Scions had, among their abilities, influence over the “Stars Purview.” This Divine Authority, apparently, dealt as much with powers over time as with the celestial bodies themselves. And the being who would become the God known as “Krampus”—which the God of Mecha had identified their wayward colleague as an analogue of, of or something like that—apparently had the highest proficiency in it among them.

So much so, in fact, that he had been dispatched to deal with the Titan of Time, Zurvan, whose guiding intelligence was an avatar of the personification of evil, Ahriman—also known as Angra Mainyu . . .

Given that name’s association with the Avenger Servant that had corrupted the Greater Grail—both entities essentially being analogues of each other—the knowledge did not please Ilya in the slightest. Nor did the places those pieces of the puzzle slotted into form a picture she liked; not when she added it to the idea of repeating patterns.

“It’s a setup, somehow,” she murmured to herself, ignoring the others in the room.

“Someone—or something—is trying to force him to follow Krampus’ history, use ‘Fatebinding’ to . . . Recreate him, maybe? But Fate’s being a lot more subtle about it than it’s been implied is usual for it . . . And he’s not a Scion, anyways—I’d have known, he’d have known, and the Norse God of Mecha would’ve known. There’s just no way that at least one of us wouldn’t have picked up on it . . .”

(To say nothing of the elven gods whose attention he’d caught not too long ago; surely, at least one individual among an entire pantheon could’ve worked out what they were truly dealing with, if he had been . . .?)

Still, there were too many overlaps and coincidences for her liking, here. Particularly given the fact that, when dealing with the subject in question, there really wasn’t any such thing as coincidence—Fate just liked to make it look that way.

Ilya shook her head. It was enough data to see that there was a puzzle to be assembled here, but not enough to give her any idea of what the final picture was meant to be. She needed more information, both about present circumstances and, honestly, Krampus’ past. But barring a request for help from the world of Scion, there was very little she could do to get it, short of invoking the aforementioned God of Mecha directly (easier said than done, at this point), or allowing herself to ascend into a full Grail spirit, with all the near-omniscience the state implied—

Then her eyes caught a glint of colour, and she realised there was another solution—even as her anxiety deepened, because she simultaneously realised that the setup apparently ran far deeper than she’d thought . . .

“Shirou,” Ilya said solemnly, as she walked over to a table. She picked up what lay upon it—a weapon that was, improbably, longer than she was tall.

“This is the Sword of Mars, to us; the blade of Attila the Hun,” she began. “However, it was the ‘Sword of Atli,’ its equivalent in the world of Scion—and the personal weapon of the deity people think our missing member became. And despite the changes it underwent in order to be adapted to be part of our world, that part of its history should have remained unchanged.

“I need to you to see if you can read that history, Onii-chan,” she said seriously. “If someone’s trying to recreate him in Krampus’ image, then we need to know his story—both the major beats, so we can recognise where they’re trying to twist things, and where it all wound up, to see if we can figure out why they’re going to all this trouble.”

She looked at him seriously. “Do you think you can do that?”

By way of an answer, he reached out and took the sword from her grasp.

“Trace, on . . .”
















Somewhere in Romania
Another Earth entirely
Many years ago
















The Sword of Atli cried out as its blade was interposed, again and again, between its wielder and blows from an attacker’s blade, its metal shrieking under the force and speed of the impacts. Indestructible the sword might be, for it had been forged at the behest of the God of War himself to reflect his essence, it was not impervious to pain. Such things only fuelled the hatred and bloodlust that drove the Sword, after all.

Nevertheless, the assault persisted, with the silvery spatha, despite being larger and heavier than the Sword of Atli, nevertheless moving faster still than the xiphos—faster, indeed, than nearly any weapon imaginable. Such was its nature as a Relic of Hermes, hence its name, Ydrárgyros; or in English, “Quicksilver.” And in the hands of a warrior as skilled as its present wielder, with centuries of battle to his name, the gleaming blade was even deadlier than the poison for which it was named. All the more so, in fact, because the swordsman took a sadistic pleasure in using the thief’s own weapon in his effort to retrieve his stolen property.

And yet, despite his efforts, the Sword of Atli continued to scream as it was manoeuvred to block each strike—as though, despite the speed of the attacks, the would-be thief had all the time in the world to defend himself. . .

“Surrender now,” snarled the warrior, “and I will make end swift—continue, and your torment will last an eternity!”

“I wouldn’t—have—believed it,” Kieran Holt spat, pausing as he blocked each blow, “but—in the face—of this, I—actually miss”—instead of blocking, he chose to dodge—“fucking GOTHAM!”

Blue-white fire filled the blade on those last, viciously growled words, spilling out with a matching snarl—not the terrestrial flames which the Sword knew and wielded so well, but a corona of stellar fire, as poisonous as it was beautiful . . . And far more deadly to the vampire who had been the Sword’s previous wielder than to even the mortal life it scoured from the earth in its ignition.

The vrykolakas recoiled with a scream as the light struck him, blinded as a light equivalent to the Sun suddenly flared to life five feet from him—a scream which deepened as the spewing x-rays began to melt its flesh. Maddened with pain, it nevertheless began to rally itself, its undead resilience persisting even in the face of the horrific radiation poisoning destroying its corpus.

In the instant of its hesitation, however, the blazing Sword of Atli thrust forward, shearing through its neck like parting smoke—

And a hand snapped out to grab it.

Kieran panted heavily, watching as the grass which had ignited under his feet began to burn the headless body, even as it fell.

“You burn later,” the Scion informed the head.

He’d learned that much about dealing with the Titans’ vampire minions; even decapitated, they’d return to life the next night—only decapitating them and burning the head and body separately would actually destroy them. And it was, thankfully, a universal flaw among the vampires, despite the three or four different types he’d heard about in the mythos of the various Pantheons.

Still . . .

“VLAD FUCKING TEPES?!” Kieran demanded of the sky. “You couldn’t have warned me that the Sword of Atli belonged to COUNT FUCKING DRACULA?!”

There was, predictably, no response. He hadn’t really expected one. But it was further proof that, aggravating and dangerous as this whole “fetch quest” was, it was absolutely necessary. After all, Erik was descended from the Aesir, and Marcus had won the throne of Svartalfheim, one of the Nine Realms of their cosmology—but he had no such “in” with the pantheon, and they clearly couldn’t be trusted with his Bandmates’ well-being, if this was the kind of thing they’d get put through.

“Still,” Kieran sighed. “That’s the Sword of Atli, retrieved—combined with Laevateinn, that means I just need to retrieve one more Relic . . .Whatever the bloody hell it’s going to be.”

He turned to retrieve Quicksilver—and swore, seeing that the blade had apparently melted under the fury of his Starfire Boon.

“Everybody keeps telling me that Relics are basically indestructible, but that’s TWO swords I’ve managed to get destroyed on me,” he growled, glancing at the one in his hand. “You’d better NOT fucking break before I hand you over—”

His threat was interrupted by the ringing of his cellphone (a Relic which, thankfully, hadn’t been destroyed yet. Apparently, it was just swords that were at risk around him). He picked it up, and said cautiously, “Hello . . .?”

The voice on the other end of the line was, to say the least, entirely unexpected.

“Ms. Kane! I’m surprised to hear from you. What can I—wait, slow down! What’s happened at the Academy . . .?”

As the heiress explained, Kieran couldn’t stop the response from leaving his lips as he sheathed the Sword of Atli.

“Fucking GOTHAM . . .!”
















In the present (inasmuch as the term applied in an area outside of time), Shirou and Ilya snapped back to awareness.

“He fought Dracula before Trifas?” Shirou exclaimed.

“A version of him, at least,” Ilya agreed. “And under the identity of Kieran Holt—the name of the druid character whose identity he assumed as Kurai . . .

“This is a setup,” she said grimly. “There are too many coincidences for them to be a coincidence. I don’t know who, or what, or how, but someone is trying to resurrect a god who, from all we’ve been told about him, exults in causing pain and terror—”

“But only on bad people,” Shirou objected.

“Do you really want to take the chance that the intent is for things to stay that way?” Ilya countered. “According to the stories I was told as a child, Krampus either took misbehaving children away to Hell, or ate them.”

She shook her head. “Either way, we have to assume this is not something we, or anyone else, is going to like—and we have to find our client, a way to stop it, or ideally, both, as quickly as we can.”

“I have a question,” Tohno-san interjected. “What does Sensei, or Akiha, have to do with a ‘dark god . . .?’”

Ilya sighed. “I wish I knew . . .”
















Zack Hotel, Poolside
Venus Islands, South Pacific
November 15, 2017
















Beyond a certain time—and prior to its being cleaned for the night—the hotel pool was closed to guests, and available to staff. Misaki was taking advantage of this fact to cool off before dinner. She’d worked hard, and she was going to need a shower or bath after that, anyway, so why not . . .?

And as she swam, she reflected on her day.

The new Owner had done well, she thought—considering that Crazy Sunglasses Guy apparently hadn’t told him anything about how the Venus Festival or the resort were supposed to work, anyway. He apparently had a temper (and she shivered at the memory of it), but he apparently only got mad when other people were in danger of getting hurt, and he’d rescued a guest and found a Venus for the festival, all in less than a day!

(A very pretty guest, and Venus, Misaki thought enviously, before burying the thought.)

As it was, she thought things were off to a pretty good start, especially considering that the Owner had apparently been pulled out of an exploding plane a few days ago—or something like that, anyway. It was hard to say for sure, but considering the metal wreckage floating around his body, and the fireball . . .

It had been something like that, at least.

Misaki thought he was lucky just to be alive, never mind have come through with as little sign of injury on his body as he had—forget scars, he didn’t seem to have so much as a sunburn on those abs—!

Her face flamed as the sight of them floated up again in her mind—along with the gentleness of his smile. Misaki ducked down into the water to let its chill drive them out of her thoughts, shaking her head as she surfaced.

“No, no, no,” she told herself. “You can’t think of him that way—it’s not professional, and Onee-chan will kill him if she finds out . . .”

She might do that anyway—Nagisa had always had an overprotective streak, and something of a temper, herself. Misaki found it very easy to imagine her sister coming to the island and snapping at the Owner for being an older man working with younger women. Even if, compared to the horror stories Misaki had heard about bosses like that, he’d been a perfect gentleman so far—even Honoka-san, while obviously being very embarrassed about what had happened when Misaki had checked up on her, had gushed over his conduct under the circumstances . . .!

. . . Which was another reason not to develop a crush on the Owner: her affections would have very obvious (and ridiculously well-endowed!) competition—not that Misaki thought that Honoka actually realised that, yet. She was so naturally friendly, enthusiastic, and bouncy—

(Seriously, HOW had she been in danger of drowning, with floatation devices like those . . .?!)

—That she probably just thought of the Owner as a nice man, and new friend. But Misaki could tell.

And Americans like them big, after all—so why would he be interested in you, anyway . . .?

Misaki shrank back in the water at the thought, unable to deny the truth of it.

No, it was better to be co-workers, and work to make the Venus Festival a success. Less trouble for her, especially if her sister did show up.

Besides, she told herself, the whole idea of getting into a relationship with the Owner is ridiculous. Not only is he much too old for me, but I also don’t know ANYTHING about him, aside from the fact that Crazy Sunglasses Guy pulled him out of the ocean after an explos—

There was a sudden flash of light across the blood-red sky, accompanied by the most horrific noise Misaki had ever heard . . . And it was followed by a thunderous KA-BOOM, and a rising column of black smoke.

“What the heck was THAT . . .?”
















Rising from where he’d stumbled, Frid stared at the place where the smoke was rising from—because while the suddenly-appearing multiple columns of laser lights had been a surprise, he knew that sound. He had (thankfully) hazy memories of hearing it, from his perspective, only a day ago at most.

“Nero . . .?”
















Additional Writer's Notes: A little short, and even with Daylight Savings Time, I didn't quite make the deadline - I hope you enjoy anyway!

[Xamusel]

Okay, Kieran, that was actually still Saturday by less than three hours. I say you still made it by West Coast standards.

That said, I hope you give the girls some love, man. They all deserve it.