Skaia

Yuuka shook her head as Katsurou commented on his notes on her and said, "not really, no. I apologize, but for the most part, I only have notes on things I've seen or the things you've all said. But I look forward to seeing what you can do in the future." It was then that conversation had turned to Kessandra and how she had done with her answer. Yuuka put a finger to her chin as she thought about it, and said, "well, you have a point there. Most of the other answers were about helping others in some capacity. Hers however was more in line of defeating others." Thinking on it for a moment Yuuka the continued, "I suppose the end result is the same, and she certainly seemed as passionate as someone like Ms. Clark was. But, that difference in mentality and selfishness in approach, well." The girl closed her notebook as she finished, "it either leads to the worst kind of hero, or the most dangerous kind of villain." Her somewhat grim expression from their talk had made way to a more pleasant one as she gave a wave to Katsurou. "Well, I hope I may be of service to you then. Pleasant meeting you Yamauchi-san." Once that conversation had finished, Yuuka stood up from her chair and packed her bags. It had appeared that everyone else had already done so, and as per her own norm, Yuuka was the last one to leave her classroom. Walking outside, the girl got to her bike, unlocking it and getting aboard it. Pedaling down the street, the girl began her long trek home as she had the thoughts of all that had happened today. Speeding along, the girl muttered to herself, "what does it mean to be a hero?" Kessandra's answer hadn't been the only one lacking, she had known, it was just the one that had stuck out the most. As the other's answers continued to play in her head, the girl eventually gave up on the line of thought and merely smiled to herself. She couldn't wait to go back tomorrow. Opening the door to her home, a much more mellow expression on her face as she did so, the young girl simply called out, "I'm home." "Oh, home already Yuu-chan?" Yuuka had a look of surprise cross her face as, after taking off her shoes, she made her way quickly to the living room where the voice had come from. Looking at the silver haired woman in a suit, seemingly exhausted as she was lying face first on a table, she looked over to the young girl with a smile on her face. "Mom, what are you doing home?" "Well, I couldn't just miss my precious daughter's first day at a new school could I?" Sitting up, the woman's smile broke into a sigh as she said, "well, that's what I'd like to say. Really, my meeting just got pushed back to tomorrow so I had some free time." Though her face briefly broke with disappointment, it quickly righted itself to her usual smiling expression saying, "well, glad that you're home." Sitting down on the couch, placing her bag there, the girl sifted through it before presenting her mother a pen and the paper. "Here, I need you to sign this. It's for a class field trip." Taking it, the woman kept her eyes on her daughter as she said, "oh my, a trip in the first week? And here I thought my daughter was going to a dignified private school." The girl turned her eyes away from her mother, yet despite her teasing, the woman signed it without really looking further at the paper. "Here you are." Presenting the paper, Yuuka took it and simply stowed it away. "Sooo, are you gong to tell your mother about your first day, Yuu-chan?" Putting her finger to her chin, the girl smiled as she said, "well, it was fun. We just had an introduction to most of the subjects we'd be learning about." Sighing, the woman said, "sounds like loads of fun." Perking up, she smiled and said, "oh, how about your classmates. Any of them...catch your interests yet?" The woman raised an eyebrow as she awaited her daughter's response. Putting a finger to her chin she said, "well, there's a beetle and a bat. The bat can scream really well too." The girl figured they were the most unique of her classmates. Her mother, however, looked shocked, simply saying, "Yuu-chan, I think we need to talk about your taste in men." Yuuka merely tilted her head to the side, confused. The day continued to pass by as the two talked a bit and watched television, only for Yuuka's mother to make her way to the kitchen, and come back with two steaming cups of ramen. "Here you go, mother's house special!" Placing it in front of her daughter, the two went about their business, slurping down the cup noodles before the woman started again saying, "sorry I couldn't make something more grand for your first day. But they gave me extra hours to work in the morning, so I've gotta be up bright and early." While she seemed to keep up her upbeat attitude, the woman's facade momentarily broke way to one of fatigue. Perking back up the woman said, "I'll be out long before you have to go, so do you want me to wake you up?" With a smile on her face, Yuuka waved the notion off saying, "don't worry about it. I haven't been tardy yet, and I don't plan on starting to this year either." The woman laughed as she made a pinching motion at the air next to the young girl's cheek saying, "of course, my daughter is so reliable after all. Well, I'll be heading to bed now. Good luck with school Yuu-chan." Getting up from her seat, placing the empty cup of noodles on the table, the woman began to make her way to her bedroom, giving a wave to her daughter. Yuuka began reaching out her hand, but stopping short she merely smiled and waved back to her mother. Once the door had shut, Yuuka merely let out a sigh and took out her notebooks, flipping through the pages of each of them. Yuuka was certainly eager to begin the quirk evaluations that were going on. Not necessarily because she was eager to show off her own quirk - in fact it most certainly did not seem suited to her at all. However, this did mean that she would be able to see all of the hero-to-be's quirks at full display. Of course, being on a field such as this, the girl couldn't exactly tote around all of her notebooks out here. As such, the girl had an intense look of concentration on her face as each student went up to the different trials, examining each of them and trying to burn everything about what they did and how they did it into her memory. As she felt the pat of her teammate Diana, the girl smiled and said, "well, I'll do my best." Stepping up, it didn't particularly matter which order she did them in, and so the girl went with what would take the least time to most. As such, the girl was punching bag test. Stepping up to the bag, the girl took in a deep breath, cracking her knuckles as she would her fist back up. Throwing an awkward punch, the girl hit the bag as hard as she could, and the results certainly showed it. Pulling her hand back, shaking it out a bit after punching the bag, it was revealed that Yuuka did...as expected. Results - Average (for a female her age) Next was the shooting range. Looking at the targets, Yuuka thought about how she would go about this. There wasn't exactly anything for the girl to use as she was just to rely on her quirk, and so the girl decided to give it her best shot with just that. Taking yet another deep breath, the girl focused on the liquid in her palms, as it slowly turned to mist and slowly gathered into a small ball. Winding back, and pitching it like a baseball, the girl through it at the mock villain targets. The ball itself wasn't aimed at any of them in particular, nor was it aimed that great, but it didn't have to be. As it got to its destination, the small ball exploded into a cloud of mist, that lingered around the targets as it enveloped a large radius. Of course, as they weren't living villains, her mist didn't seem to do anything at all, but Yuuka still seemed to have a satisfied expression her face. Results - Hit All of Them (but didn't really do anything to them) Yuuka brought herself to the final trial in this evaluation. An obstacle course. Without saying a word, the girl merely got into a runner's starting position and began to sprint up the hill before her. While Yuuka didn't seem to be the athletic sort, her body was that of the honed academic. Having never been one to use public transit to get to place, Yuuka had always elected to walk or run places then take a bus or train. As a girl who prided herself on a perfect attendance record as well, this meant that she mornings where she had not waken up at the perfect time (more often then she'd like to admit,) were filled mad morning dashes. As such, her stamina was forged by the fires of the academia, with her legs having been honed to cross many a hill in record time. As such, when she took off to run up the hill at the start, she had managed to rush up it and clear the first of the obstacles in surprising (but not too impressive) time. As the girl continued onward, she had but the second obstacle to clear next. One that required the person to walk between two walls, using the whole body to keep themselves balanced between it and shimmy through. Naturally, Yuuka had the body of a honed academic. And so with plenty of stamina to go, she was in no danger of getting tired between these walls. However, the majority of her arm strength had been built up from carrying copious amounts of notebooks where she went and always writing down in them. As such, she had something akin to noodles for arms in terms of raw strength, as she attempted to keep herself suspended between the two walls. Her first attempt, she botched it, slipped and fell. Her second attempt, she managed to get her hands and feet between the walls, but it was clumsily done and so she fell once more. Her third attempt, she managed to keep herself stuck between the two walls. While this was certainly a step forward in the right direction, Yuuka couldn't actually move forward and so just hung there. Until she started to slip and fell down once more. Result - Failed at the second hurtle (but hung on admirably)

Katou Megumi (Saekano) Sakurajima Mai (Bunny-Senpai) Nanami Chiaki (DonganRonpa 2) Tsushima Yoshiko (Love Live Sunshine!) Kisaragi Chihaya (Idolmaster) Hayasaka Ai (Kaguya-sama) Meltryllis (Fate/Extra CCC) Mash Kyrelight (Fate/Grand Order) Kirisame Marisa (Touhou) Olivia (Fire Emblem)

With their goodbyes spoken, the group of Chosen had made their way back to the councils tower. Ryia sighed as their new companion made an audible scoff at the grandiose structure before them, and the girl didn't exactly blame him for it. The council hadn't exactly been the most welcoming to them the last time they arrived here, and she wasn't sure how they'd treat them this time around as well. All the same, stepping up, the girl looked to the gate and announced herself, saying, "Um, Ryia, Chosen of Earth. May we um, enter?" The girl felt incredibly awkward with just announcing herself to a building, but it had seemed to be heard as a portal opened up. Walking inside, the Chosen were met with three of the council members. While she had recognized Saleh, the girl wasn't sure who the two other were nor was she sure she wanted to. They had seemed generally demeaning and discontent with the current state of the group, which Ryia couldn't exactly argue about as their numbers had dropped a considerable deal. Not to mention they themselves were still worse for wear from the encounter, and even still with the daunting fact that there were seven more to still defeat. While her own doubts and the doubts of the council before them were starting to weigh on her here, she snapped out of it as Saleh asked for them to explain what had happened. Between the five of them, they had managed to tell the whole tale of what had happened. Their arrival at the outpost that had been filled with bandits and being attacked by sand sharks. Their trip to Sol. Their defense against the bandits and their raid on the bandit camp. Their travels through the desert. Their fight with the scorpions, the abandoned building and the lamia underneath it. Their trip to the rock spire and ensuing fight against the sharks, the fire mage and the demon gate. Their reclamation of the sun stone and the night sky, their new ally and their trip back here. When all was said and done, Ryia looked to Saleh and said, "um, there is uh, something else. The mage we fought - I don't really know much about it because um, I didn't read it myself, but um - he was - used to be? Um, a member of the council."

Making her way up the side of the volcano, the young girl continued to grit her teeth as she was being pushed back by the sandstorm. She looked at the Larvitar and shouted, "no, we'll talk about it now! Your father was worried about you and Allie, and we're here to make sure that you don't do anything stupid or dangerous and - get this stupid storm off of me!" Annoyed and not making much progress, the girl took a deep breath and held a long and soft note as she seemed to sing. As she finished it, storm clouds began to form overhead as the sand and wind was quelled with a sudden drizzle of rain. With the path cleared she kept going, one hand after the other, as she said, "now climbing in the rain is very dangerous, so stop and get down here." Nine's feeling about what had happened was more or less correct. In hindsight, he probably should've tried to keep the girl along with them, but she was a slippery one and he hardly doubt he could've stopped her from doing what she did best. Unfortunately, it seemed like she was in quite a bind now, and Nine was now certainly on edge with her life hanging in the balance here. Looking at them, Nine tried his best to stay calm as he said, "well, I assure you, she didn't mean any harm. She only means the best and I assure you, she didn't mean to break any of your laws or customs. As you said, we're guests and well," Nine looked to the building saying, "to me it doesn't look like a shrine at a glance, just something curious and different from the rest of the city."

One moment she had been on a plane to Germany. The next, she hadn't been any where. And now, all that the girl knew was that as she opened her eyes, she was met with a blinding light to contrast the pitch black void she had just been in. Shielding her face momentarily from the light, the girl took a second to realign herself, trying to make sense of where she was. The room didn't seem to have very much in the way of features, but the most obvious of them was not a "what" of the room but a "who." Stepping back and seeming cautious, the girl looked at the dapper woman who had come to greet her. While on guard, Ross eventually seemed to calm down a bit as she came to understand the situation. Ultimately, she was some kind of magic lady that had teleported Ross to a city on a planet that was not earth to become some kind of fighter in an arena of sorts. It was a lot to take in all at once, and while Ross had very many questions about what was going on, she settled down as she figured one of three things was happening. Ross was going crazy. This was all a dream. Or she was summoned here by a magic entertainer to partake in a sport based combat. Ross figured that two was the most likely, though there was something telling her that this thought was wrong. All the same, when the woman had finally finished her introduction, Ross's usual level expression had returned as she looked to the woman at the screen. "Well, I held down the same job for four years, so shouldn't be a problem. All I have to do is fight right? Anything goes?" "Only in the Arena, and only who you're directed to, but yes just fight...oh and no nudity, please." Ross was taken off guard by the last comment, stammering out a, "wha-" but stopped herself. Collecting herself, the girl understood that it was basically the same job, just a different boss. Needing to make sure that it was just indeed gladiator-esque combat, she asked, "and just other fighters in the arena. You don't have any demons that need hunting or anything?" Mauvache smirked. "No, though there are events you can take part in. But nothing outside of the Arena." "Got it." Ross nodded. Having a good understanding of her situation, Ross stopped herself for a moment as she realized something about that comment. Looking back to the monitor she asked, "um, this is going to sound weird but everything else has so, you wouldn't happen to have demons around would you? I have a special kind of...diet, to keep in mind." "Ah, that's right, those creatures in your world are called demons aren't they? Unfortunately those creatures don't exist here but fear not, I've already contacted a certain doctor who will be able to give you a synthetic solution that will help." With an expression that read, "of course she does," Ross shrugged and then asked, "alright. Where can I meet this doctor?" "He should be at the hospital right now. Though would you like to meet your fellow fighters first?" "I've got nothing else on my schedule. So sure." Mauvache thought about it for a moment and the smiled wide. "Why don't you message them yourself? Introduce yourself that way and offer to meet up. It could be a good way to give your own first impression after all." Ross looked down to her newly acquired watch, saying, "sure." The girl marveled the device on her wrist, both in the strides that seemed to have been made in watch technology and that it seemed to be fine on her arm at all. Getting acclimated with the device, the girl eventually found a list of contacts that were filled what she could only assume were the other fighters. To: All From: Ross Hey. I'm new to this arena thing and the boss told me to do some kind of meet and greet with you all. So, yeah. I'm Ross. I'm at the arena right now. Hi. Finishing her message, the girl then looked back to the monitor. "Well, if I wake up tomorrow and this is all still real, then I guess I look forward to working with you Boss." "Oh, don't be silly." Mauvache said with a chuckle. "Who's to say what is real or not anyway?" The woman then gave a short bow, heading for the door as she did. Ross sighed as the woman made her way out the room. Ross had worked with a very strange collection of people in her time with the DHG, but she had a feeling that this was about to take the cake for that.

The ride to the next city had settled down as the boat continued on its track. Looking at the horizon, as it came into view, Jacklyn couldn't help but be in awe. Taking her camera out, the girl took a picture of the view as the city came into view. Looking at it once over, the girl smiled before pocketing her camera away. As they made touchdown on the docks, Jacklyn took in a nice deep breath before going downstairs. "Alright lazybones, it's time to get a move on." Grabbing Belle, the girl hoisted her off the couch to her feet and had to start dragging her along. As she made her way off the ship, she looked to the trio they were leaving behind and waved saying, "nice meeting you guys. Hope we see you on the road again. And uh," she looked to Naomi, then back to Belle, then to Oswald and Kanon saying, "good luck with yours." Dragging the girl off the boat, the adventuring team had entered the city proper. With her eyes wide and sparkling, Jacklyn turned back to the others of her team and said, "you see this guys, we're here! We're finally in a new region! Well, I guess we always were, but now we're here in one proper!" With more enthusiasm in her voice she said, "and when you're in a new city, the first thing to go do is shopping!" Pumping her fist into the air, the girl pointed forward saying, "let's see what they have!"

Marie continued to power up the mountain, only to stop as she heard someone else calling for her. Looking to the side, she had seen that Nani was scaling the volcano alongside her. Pouting at her comment, Marie replied saying, "no, he's not coming, because he's too busy "watching" them from down there." Continuing to scale up the mountain, the larvitar that they were chasing after responded to Marie's call, and did so by throwing sand down at both her and Nani. With the wind making it much harder to climb, in addition to her eyes stinging now, Marie could only grimace as Nani made her comment. "It's lovely!" She practically shouted, sarcasm as well evident in her voice as she then grumbled, "when I get my hands on those little.." Working herself up again, Marie kept climbing as best she could as she shouted out, "I'm Marie, and I was sent by your dad to make sure you're alright. And you clearly aren't!" In spite of the air that Gwen's father was giving off, Nine felt himself able to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of the house. This was soon disrupted as the a Ghastly came to inform them of something Nine could only assume was Kayla sneaking around. In hindsight, he probably should've seen this coming, yet he wasn't just going to leave his friend high and dry here. As the Dusknoir decided to go and check on the issue, Nine got up from his seat. "Apologies for the commotion, but I feel like I should go check on this as well. Was lovely meeting you all and I hope to be back soon." With a smile and a wave, Nine made his way out of the house to follow after the two ghosts.

Edda waited where she was told to, sitting down as the cleric boy went off and got the supplies. When they had come back, Edda seemed a bit surprised that they actually had them, but didn't make any comment. Putting up the canvas, the girl wasn't exactly sure how to take being told to stay put, unsure if she felt like a prisoner, child or both. Not to mention that as Layne had left, she tried to call out to him, still reluctant to get any sort of escort. All the same, she knew it would cause more problems if she left and she didn't think she could possibly convince Layne to not talk about it(or catch up to him at this point.) So she stayed right where she was. Besides, she had something to do now. With brush in hand, the girl got a palette going of mostly different kinds of blues and grays, before going to work on her painting. Leon had looked confused and uncertain as Rona had made her comment about him using magic. The way she had seemed to be both mortified and scoffed at the idea, Leon wasn't entirely sure whether or not he should've felt insulted. She seemed to compliment him by telling him he was meant for the sword, well it sounded like a compliment at least, but he still couldn't get get off the comment that fast. Given that up until now he had been working with Aleithe for most of the bookkeeping, compared to the noble boy it made sense that he wouldn't have looked as studious an individual. But Rona had also seemed to think of it as dangerous so that caused it to wrap around to being a compliment again? Ultimately confused by the whole exchange, Leon merely looked towards Jouran duo, seeing that they were just getting ready to start reading. Before he said anything more to Rona, the duo was then approached by Layne, which Leon gave a friendly wave back. Leon began to mull things over as Layne presented his suggestion, thinking about what the best thing to do here would be. "I don't know how many escorts we could find for her." Looking to Layne he said, "there's not many people here who would be willing to help a Jouran out normally anyway, but with their being a bounty on their head currently I'd be hard pressed to find anyone I could think of who wouldn't just turn them in. We're the only mercenary company in Aeora that has Jourans in it, that I'm aware of, after all." Thinking more on it, he looked to the other two and asked, "but if that's the case and we can't just leave her alone...hm...How would you two feel about us taking on her escort request as a job then?"

As Stella had essentially strong armed Bianca into helping her, the latter seemed intent on turning Stella dragging her around to her dragging Stella around. All the same, they had made their way through the ship, trying to assess any damages that were on the inside. As the fighting continued on, the ship continued to rock and cause Stella's balance to be thrown off. Using Bianca as a crutch proved mildly useful to Stella for this reason, and much less so for Bianca's end of the deal. As she was a small girl, and not unfazed by the shaking herself, would have to use a great deal of effort herself to keep the two from tipping over. However, as the duo looked at the windows they could see the fight being displayed on the outside. Stella had a worried look on her face, as she looked at one of the recklessly charging mechs, and started to feel a bit frustrated as well. She could see that more than just Kelsey was fighting outside, and that they seemed to be going even, if not ahead, of the bandito mechs at the moment. All the same, they were students, and they hadn't actually even taken any lessons yet so the girl couldn't help but continue to worry. Still, trying to make herself useful, Stella instead starting observing the fight to look for any thing off she could see, as she called out to her impromptu partner, saying, "Bianca, tell me if you see anything strange with the bandits." The girl then realized what she said, and looked to Bianca, slightly apologetic as she said, "oh, um, sorry. That is, um, unless you'd rather not be fighting out there."

Though Damien seemed to be willing to come along with them, the girl couldn't help but continue to feel frustrated at the antics that he was putting on. In this moment, the girl wasn't quite sure if she would have rather him declined or not, though, she was certain that his tip toeing around his answer was only making things more irritating for her. As he walked past them and let them go to talk to the elder, the girl let out a small sigh, making her way in after Reinaan and had and giving a small bow to the Elder. As the two of them talked, Ryia nodded in agreement with Reinaan. With a more pleasant expression on her face she said, "I'm, um, glad that we were able to um, return things to normal. I hope for things to look up for you all."

Well this is certainly a toughie. I guess the first thing is just being able to randomly say shit in character about a topic and suddenly have it bullshitted into canon. This isn't really something that I think about doing on the regular, it's just amusing if it could happen. Generally speaking I guess if I could make a mentor-esque character that actually managed to do the mentoring thing and not just become the group leader that would be cool. I haven't done this often but it tends to go like that. For a third thing..hmm...I guess separating myself from the main group and going on a solo adventure. Technically speaking, there's nothing stopping me from doing something like this right now, outside of general etiquette and balance issues, and this doesn't apply to every RP. I don't know if this is what you were going for, but it required a great deal of thinking so there you are.

What would be your favorite environment to make a shark enemy for?

Well, we've gone through music, anime and radio, so might as well ask what your favorite kinds of games are, video, analog or otherwise.

Yuuka continued to write down in her notebook as she looked towards the group of Misu, Hibiki and Suda continued talking to one another. The girl was merely humming to herself as she seemed to be enjoying the conversation from afar. Tapping her pen to her chin, the girl seemed to be thinking about something, but as she went to go back to writing her thoughts were interrupted. Looking to the side, seeing the boy who had done so, Yuuka had returned the same pleasant smile he had given to her with one her own. Yuuka had made a habit of trying to remember all the names of her classmates so far, but this boy had been one of the easiest having given the second most unique speech that she had heard today. Leaning back and placing her pen down on her desk, the girl said, "well, it's been quite some time since I've heard someone other than a teacher praise me for that. But, something to that effect Yamauchi-san." Were the boy to look at her notebook, which she had gestured to at the end of her comment, he would see the page currently was being written on the subject of "Himura, Hibiki." There didn't seem to be that much written down, "fangs - sharp, likely easily capable of drawing blood," or "able to scream loudly - superly - probably very painful. Most likely dangerous in crowds." There were a few other notes on the different aspects of the girl's quirk, though Yuuka merely stated, "the lessons in class are all well and good, but I think there's also lessons that we can learn from one another that are worth taking notes on." Giggling as she said this, the girl pulled out a notebook out from underneath the current one she was writing which had dividers in it for each subject saying, "but, the notes for class are still worth taking as well."

Nine let out a sigh of relief as Lok had come to his aid and Gwen's father had let go of him. Even more thankfully, Gwen herself had come back from the kitchen. As the woman and her father spoke for a bit, Nine felt even more relieved as the man left the room. Looking to the woman he chuckled a bit saying, "no more trouble than - well, you've got a lovely family here." After that, he looked in the direction of the kitchen, saying, "oh, is food ready?" After a bit, the group gathered around the table, sitting down to eat the food presented before them. Taking some baked bread, Nine couldn't help but feel greatly awkward here, sitting with a family he had never met and eating a meal with them. Not to mention, regardless of what he was doing, he couldn't help but feel that Gwen's father was glaring at him. All the same, the Houndoom said, "well, thank you for the food and hospitality ma'am," he looked towards Gwen's mother smiling and nodding. Looking to Gwen he asked, "so, are things usually this lively around town and the home?"

As Hypatia continued to make her play, Kiyoko stood still and watched. And as she flourished, ridding Kiyoko of her tuner, the tail signer seemed to be on guard for what would come next. As Hypatia went for her final play, a look of shock then crossed Kiyoko's face. "What?" Dumbfounded at the play, she could only stare in confusion as the projections of their monsters vanished and the duel had concluded. This confusion then broke into an annoyed glare as the girl acknowledged what she had just done, saying, "what was that?" Kiyoko couldn't quite understand why the girl had gone through with surrendering. Even if the situation was clearly one sided, there was always a path forward to those who kept searching for it. For those who just gave up, "how pointless." Kiyoko muttered to herself as she went to go grab a seat. Sitting herself down at the table, the girl simply kept her eyes closed and the annoyed expression on her face as she awaited the others to come up for breakfast.

Leon continued to sit back against the tree, as he looked back to Rona. The boy cocked his head to the side, curious as she seemed to be examining him. As he did, he started to wonder if she was upset with him for wanting to take so long a break. It was hardly becoming of him as the leader to do so, and since she seemed so eager to go back to work, he figured it only made sense. Looking away, a bit disappointed in himself, the boy then looked over to see Raynor carrying a tome of dark magic with him. "Interesting." It was certainly an odd situation, and while Leon wasn't entirely the gossiping type, he couldn't but be curious. All the same, they were where the working was to be taking place, and he didn't want to keep Rona from getting back to work longer than he already had. Looking to her, he asked, "what do you think they're up to? Should we interrupt?" Edda was seemed to be taken aback by the boy's sudden eagerness at her asking for help for an escort, but didn't say much beyond that. As Layne then went on to speak about what to do around here, Edda tried to think about what it was she would want to do here. She wasn't really too keen on the prospect of training, and the thought of training with a group of mercenaries was not something that she found particular joy in. As she thought more about what she did in her spare time, a more uncomfortable expression crossed her face as she immediately mentally crossed off one thing. "I guess...art works...do you have any paints?"

With the group having decided to say their goodbyes to the elder, they began their trip to the man's home. While they had also talked about getting the aid of Damien on their side, Ryia could her nerves act up as they started their walk. She wasn't entirely sure how to feel about recruiting the man to their side, though, that was less because of how she thought of him as a fighter. Thinking about having to spend more time around him was...well. The girl let out a defeated sigh for seemingly no reason in the midst of their walk, only to eventually stop at the house. Before they could make their way in, however, the group was able to hear both the elder and Damien speaking to one another. Despite the tone he had had not moments ago, the boy seemed to be in his usual jovial demeanor as he answered Reinaan's question. Looking to him, as he was now and thinking about his plans, Ryia could start to feel herself get a bit uncomfortable. It wasn't the usual nervous feeling she got when socializing but, it was definitely something visible on her. And hearing his plans, that were what lead him to them in the first place, the girl couldn't help but ask, "will...will you keep, um...wandering into trouble?" He smirked in response. "Worried about me? Trouble does seem to find me often, though." Ryia glanced away briefly, "that's..." Well, it was certainly true but it wasn't entirely the point she was getting at. The girl didn't quite know what else to say to the man, though, and knew that simply skirting around the topic wouldn't get them anywhere with him. So, as bluntly as her less than confident self would allow, she asked, "then...would you um...want to come uh, with us?" "Guess that depends." He steps a bit closer. "Why're you asking?" Gulping as he did, feeling the same kind of nervous sensation she did the last time he had done so. Surprisingly, though, she did not seem to step back or shy away from him, instead merely stating, "because...because we want your help." "Hm, you do, do you?" He looked around at the group. "Seems like it'd be even more trouble than I'm used to." Ryia grimaced as he pointed this out, muttering "yeah...probably..." Looking down, she could tell she was doing poorly, but more than that she could start to feel something else bubble inside of her. He was a magnet for trouble. No, he probably looked for it. She knew that he was searching, if not for the demon gate still searching for something. And to search for something in the desert - anywhere - alone was.... Looking back up to the man she said, "but...it would be even more trouble for you to keep doing things as you have been, right?" He shrugged. "It seems to work out pretty well most of the time." He flashes her a smile. "I got to an enjoy a nice night with you after all." Ah, there it was again. That feeling that she knew was there. He was right, they had talked through a whole night once. They had spoken with one another, but more importantly, she wasn't just the victim of relentless teasing then. Despite his flirting nature, she saw how he talked to her, about her, to the animals. Even with a blade to her throat she felt like she knew he was just deflecting. Shaking her head, not shrinking away or blushing from his comment, she looked to the man. "it doesn't. It wouldn't. You wanted to help these people too, right?" "All I did was check out some problems is all, that it helped just was a bonus is all." He responded, keeping his grin on. Ah, there it was again. The feeling rising to the surface and somewhat clear in her expression. Ryia was annoyed.

Giving a wave to Aurea, Xia made her way into the stadium, in great anticipation to watch tennis be played. The girl had no end of enthusiasm for what was her, at least for the moment, her new favorite sport. Sure, she hadn't watched or played a single game since the first time she had played, but that just made watching this one all the more exciting. Making her way through the bustling crowd, the girl ended up eventually getting to the stands. Looking around, the girl marveled, now being a part of the same kind of huge crowd she had seen during her basketball match. Eventually, though, her eyes drifted to the court itself. As she saw the tennis court, the girl could marvel at how large and grand a field it was from this viewpoint. Looking down the court, though, Xia eventually saw something that caused her awe to turn to shock. Eyes going wide at the two people who were about to play against each other, Xia had a massive smile form across her face. Rushing through the crowd, getting as close to the field as the stands would allow and practically barreling through people by accident, the girl then shouted, "heeeeeyyyyyy! Vaaaaaaal! Caaaaaam! Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" Waving with both of her arms enthusiastically, the girl was very much trying and succeeding at drawing attention to herself.

While Stella was looking to help the girl to her feet, the girl herself seemed to be fine getting up herself. As she did, Stella could feel a strange sense of familiarity, looking at the girl's reddened face and didn't do much other than rise alongside with her. As the girl had thanked her in the end, Stella waved the girl's comment about her behavior off saying, "it's fine.My name's Stella." As she said this, her attention was then turned to back where she had come from, looking to see Kelsey waving to her. Waving back, Stella then looked to Bianca saying, "well, glad that you're fine. It's a bit difficult to keep balance right now, so watch your step." As she said this, Bianca would see Stella then begin to walk back towards Kelsey with a great look of determination on her face, as her pace seemed slow and the girl seemed to have a great deal of concentration in each step she made. Of course, by the time she made it back to her friend, something else had happened. With the sirens blaring and telling them they were under attack, Kelsey seemed eager to get to fighting and dashed off almost immediately. "W-wait Kelz-," the girl reached her hand out, as if to try to stop her as a look of concern crossed her face, but pulling back as Kelsey was already far away from her she said, "never mind." Stella stood there, watching as her friend sprinted off. Having a hard enough time walking as it was, there was no way she'd be able to catch up with her. Besides, it wasn't like she could do anything even if she made it there. Looking downtrodden, the girl then perked herself up as she realized if they were being attacked, there were still other things to make sure of. "Bianca!" She shouted back to the girl she had just helped out, or attempted to at least, and started to slowly walk over to her. "Bianca, can you help me make sure the other passengers are alright?" Stella was also hoping her newfound comrade in falling over would be fine being a crutch for her.

Kiyoko continued to just awkwardly stand there, clearly ready to duel, and watched as her opponent fiddled around with their own duel disk. Once it was on, the blonde girl's zeal seemed to come back to life as she said, "alright. Let's duel!' Drawing the five cards from the top of her deck, the girl looked at her hand. As Hypatia hadn't made any effort to do so, Kiyoko declared, "I'll take the first move." Granted, she had never actually liked going first, but seizing the initiative was always one of the most important parts of battle. All the same, she took the first two cards from her hand, placing them both face down. "I set 1 monster and 1 card face down." As the two card holograms appeared before her, she simply stated, "that ends my turn." Hypatia mimicked Kiyoko, drawing five cards of her own. Drawing another as a prompt on her duel disk instructed her to do so. She skimmed the text of the six cards in her hand before making a play. Half of them seemed entirely useless, but then she supposed that’s why she had a card like that one. “For my first play!” Hypatia said with a commanding voice, “I’ll set 2 cards face down and activate Card Destruction!” She sent Creeping Darkness, Prohibition, and Inferno Tempest to the graveyard, and her and Kiyoko both drew three new cards. “Next I’ll activate my first face down card: Allure of Darkness! This card lets me draw 2 cards in exchange for banishing a dark monster from my hand.” With a dramatic flourish she drew and placed a monster into her banished zone. “Then I’ll play Dimensional Alchemist. It’s ability allows me to banish a card from the top of my deck to increase its attack by 500.” She placed the card with the other. It occurred to her that she apparently knew what she was doing more than she had thought she would, and it seemed that she had taken control of the flow duel already. She chased that momentum. “I’ll activate my second face down card. Nobleman of Crossout lets me banish a face down monster.” A sword flew from the card and pierced Kiyoko’s Ryko, which vanished in a flash of light. “And because it was a flip monster, all cards with the same name are banished from our decks.” A prompt came up on their duel disks to look through the opponent’s deck to confirm. There weren’t any more copies of Ryko in either of their decks, but Hypatia popped an apple into her mouth and took the opportunity to get acquainted her new friend’s cards. “And now, I’ll make the first attack. Dimensional Alchemist, attack her directly!” It formed a ball of shadowy energy in its hands and charged at Kiyoko. Kiyoko didn’t seem to flinch, neither at the loss of her cards nor as the attack came at her, merely taking the damage head on with the same stoic expression on her face. Kiyoko LP 8000 ---> 6200 Hypatia smiled. “I’ll set two cards face down and end my turn. During my end phase, my banished monster’s effect activates. D.D. Scout Plane, return to the field! Your move.” “Draw.” Pulling the card out from her deck, Kiyoko looked at it before saying, “first, I’ll activate my trap card Glorious Illusion. It allows me to special summon 1 Level 4 or lower Lightsworn monster from my graveyard. And I bring forth the Garoth, the Lightsworn Warrior that was from my hand to the field.” As she called this out, a light shone from the ground a white circle seemed to form. As the light shone brighter, a warrior with a large lance appeared onto the field. “Next I summon Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn, and activate its effect to send the top 2 cards of my deck to the graveyard.” Summoning a man roguish looking man with two curved short swords in hand, he shone for a moment as two of Kiyoko’s cards went from her to her graveyard. The man’s blades lit up with golden light as yet another monster, a large wolfen beast-man with shining golden claws, to appear next to the others. “Because I sent him to the graveyard with Raiden’s effect, I’m able to summon Wulf, the Lightsworn Beast to my field and Raiden gains 200 attack points. Furthermore, since a lightsworn monster sent cards from my deck to my grave, Garoth sends yet two more from my deck and lets me draw a card. Now, battle! Raiden will attack your Scout Plane, while Raiden attacks Dimensional Alchemist.” At her behest, the two lightsworn moved in to strike. With Garoth bringing his lance down on the plane and Raiden leaving a cross slash across the Alchemist. Hypatia LP 8000 ---> 7400 Hypatia watched the scene unfold with a shocked expression. Neither of her set cards would stop Kiyoko. She managed to compose herself to say. “When my Dimensional Alchemist is destroyed I can add one of my banished monsters to my hand. I’ll take back my Chaos Sorcerer.” She had made it sound like a choice to protect her pride as she took the card into her hand. "I see," the girl muttered to herself. Looking at the set cards on her opponent's field, eyeing them curiously, Kiyoko didn't say anything and instead continued on with her turn. "Wulf, attack her directly!" At her behest, the beast man charged forward, raking its golden claws against her opponent and dealing a great deal of damage in the process. Hypatia LP 7400 ---> 5100 "My turn ends with that. During my end phase, Raiden and Glorious Illusion force me to send two cards each from my deck to my graveyard. Then, because of Garoth, I send another two cards to the grave and draw one more." Without missing a beat, Kiyoko drew six cards from her deck and tossed them into her grave. Despite having had to send ten cards to the grave this turn, though, Kiyoko's expression didn't seem to waver in the slightest as she drew the next card. "Your turn."

Getting back to her seat fairly quickly after presenting, Yuuka merely looked to the front of the classroom as she seemed to take a notebook out. Writing down as each and every student gave their answer, Yuuka merely closed it and stowed it away once that part of the class was done. Yuuka herself kept the same smile on her face throughout each of the answers, even when the most bombastic of them had gone up to talk. At the end of it all, Yuuka felt as though she had a good read on each of the students here, and so she didn't seem to react much once Kess was told she was expelled. The notion behind it didn't really surprise her much, though, as the first impression that Kess had made to the class was hardly a heroic one. This was just the official nail in the coffin. From there, class seemed to proceed on as normal. Which is to say, it proceeded on like one would expect of a normal high school. Initially surprised by this, the girl figured that at the end of the day, a hero still needed to know things, and it helped train them in other regards as well. Yuuka looked to the rest of the students, that had a typical mix of annoyance, apathy and some enjoyment for the classes that followed. Once they were done with, Yuuka gave a wave to Diana as she made her way home, and looked at the permission slip in hand. Mulling over it as she looked, the girl looked troubled as she did so. Her parents were already barely aware of what this kind of a school was, and she had only skimmed on some of the details of her entrance exam. Being thrown into the fire straight away was an entirely different matter, though. Thinking some more, the girl sighed, and then smiled saying, to herself, "well, it'll be fine anyway." Putting the slip away, the girl instead took out her notebook and looked at the rest of the students that were still in the room. With a cheery look on her face, the girl watched the conversations they were having, every now and then seeming to look at and write in her open notebook.

As Jacklyn continued looking at her opponent, she couldn't help but feel a strange off-putting feeling from the sheer lack of energy she seemed to be giving off. Confused as the girl seemed to be still falling asleep in the middle of their conversation, Jacklyn merely let out a, "uhhh. " Ivan then came over to chastise the girl with a similar, if not more annoyed, sentiment to her own. As Naomi gave her reasoning, though, Jacklyn couldn't help but feel this was entirely too true and looked to Ivan saying, "she's got you there." As Oswald stated that he would do his best to make something of Naomi, Jacklyn looked to the cabin below deck then back to Oswald saying, "and I thought I had my work cut out for me." Looking back to Naomi as she made her indecisive answer, Jacklyn said, "well, if you don't know what to do, then just pick adventuring!" Enthused by her own suggestion she said, "after all, adventuring is even better for when you're lost. See," she gestured to the open seas they were on and the horizons around them. "The world is a big place, so there's gotta be something out there for you, and adventuring is just the way for you to find it!" Pointing to herself she said, "then one day you too can be uh," she flapped her arms about in a confused but similar manner to the way Naomi had at her.

Ryia and Reinaan continued to have small talk with one another as the festivities of the party went on, only for the night to eventually die down. As they walked around Ryia saw Keres, who had seemed to be looking for them as well, and gathered around with her. It didn't take long after that for the rest of the group to find both Lindow and Anis, though Damien didn't seem to be anywhere outside for the time being. Once together, Keres spoke up asking what to do next. The girl looked a bit solemn as she looked around, and then up to the night sky above them. Though the festivities had been joyous and though the problems here in Sol had been solved, it was but one of many. The fact that there were plenty of demon gates still out in the world and as long as such vile things were around, then there would be no real peace to be had. Looking back down, Ryia said, "I um, I think we should probably head back. To Haven." They still had a mission to report and friends to help. Ryia hadn't seen Gilly since they got back, but she only took that as a worse sign then anything, and figured keeping the halfling in the desert would do them no favors as well. "But, um, we should probably say goodbye...to the Elder first?" While Ryia figured that they shouldn't spend longer then they had to here, she also didn't want to just leave without a trace. So she figured it would be good for them to give a parting farewell to the man and...someone else.

Shocking Choice