Skaia

With the test that one would've had to try to fail completed, Jun stood back up and saw two familair faces stride in. One was Souji, who seemed to be more focused on the girl who Hiraku had been dealing with then anything else. The other was the older girl, Elizabeth. Jun was a bit surprised as the woman seemed to be already familiar with Yushiro, but given her last show match, Jun didn't figure it was too out of the ordinary for underclassmen to flock to her now. With a great smile on her face though, Jun said, "well the captain's busy handling another tryout elsewhere." Making over-exaggerated hand gestures and suddenly becoming more emphatic tone, she followed saying, "one for a great and powerful and dark princess no less!" Chuckling to herself briefly, the girl then said, "but, he left me with the all important task of manning the fort and and holding back the floodgates against all applicants. Of course, I've only tested Shiro here so far and," she paused for a moment as if trying to figure out what to say before going, "well, he made at the very least." Before she could say anything else, she then was pushed forward as the familiar sensation of a tackle hug came from behind. Though the voice was confirmation as to who it was, Jun was fairly certain she knew who it was before it came out, giggling to herself with a smile on her face saying, "hey there Suji." As the girl mentioned the fortune telling club, Jun hadn't remembered ever hearing anything fond about the area, but she instead focused on the next question. "And club has been great. I got Gabby to come over here, I tried out Shiro here, but most of all. Well," she looked over Yusuji to see Souji speaking with the person she now understood why she thought looked entirely too familiar. With a smile on her face, she tapped her friend's shoulder and pointed in the direction of the two without saying anything.

With the other new people talking with each other, before Jacklyn could say anything there was a sudden pink floating ball, barreling its way through the air towards her. Though it was not particularly painful, Jacklyn was still knocked back as the force of the Hoppip pushed her head a bit backward. Keeping herself from fully falling back, the girl looked annoyed as the Hoppip in front of her seemed similarly annoyed. "You! Well, if you want to go, I still got Cherry to take you on and you will be-" it was then that she heard Ivan call out to the think, where she finally seemed to realize that this Hoppip belonged to someone else. Thinking on it for a moment, it was certainly obvious, but the main thing on her mind was her turning to Ivan. Looking at him, still a bit annoyed, she said,"not allowed. I get the next grass type!" Then looking back to the Hoppip she said, "well, if you want to battle why don't you just get your trainer to let you?" Looking at the other two she said, "so, which one of you do they belong to?"

As Angela introduced the girl to Xia, she looked over to the small dark skinned girl, saying, "oh it's nice to meet you Aurea. I'm Xia!" As her new friend Aurea mentioned about wanting to play games, Xia nodded her head. "Yeah, I came here to play some sport stuff! Like tennis. Oh," she looked to her two friends asking, "have you guys ever played tennis before?" "Tennis? No, but it's funny you should say that. There's a big match happening soon. That's why there's so many people around." Looking around to take note of the large crowd, Xia's eye shone brightly as she said, "really?" Looking to Angela she asked, "want to go see it? If you've never played tennis before I'm sure it'll be awesome! Oh, maybe I can learn from it too." Xia remembered that she still hadn't gotten better since her last bout against Valerie, and if she were to face her again she had to at least figure something out first.

Tsetseg seemed to be all the more thrilled about flying as Adelaide continued to explain more about it. Mentioning that her pegasus would get more tired in the rain, though, Tsetseg looked to the horse and started petting it saying, "oh, sorry sorry about having to do this." All the same, she didn't seem to have much reservations in getting on the pegasus and going atop the skies with Aleithe. "Of course I've wanted to fly, who hasn't wanted to fly? It's amazing. Woooo!" Looking down from the sky, the girl saw a small glint of light that caught her eye, though as she looked further she didn't seem to see anything. "Hmmmmm....hmmmmmm..." The girl continued to look around, before shaking her head saying, "I can't see anything useful. Nope nope." Letting out a disappointed sigh, the girl then looked saying, "I guess we should head back?" Alois was not too convinced at the notion of lighting a fire in their ramshackle shelter, but it was already too late as he could swear the boy had already made his way away from them. Sighing, he said, "well, maybe it'll light all the grime on his hair on fire." Moving out of the shelter, though, it seemed that everyone was getting ready to congregate for the night. With a meal being ready to be eaten, Alois was at first concerned with the combination of foods but found it to work out surprisingly well. This surprise goodness was a bit soured by Penelope trying to regale them with facts about mushrooms, though he couldn't help but add along with his own anecdotes about poisonous mushrooms, adding to the already discomforting topic. The next day, the group made their way out of the shelter and started to go moving across the river. When Licorice explained what she had heard about the village, Tsetseg merely shook her head. "I've never been out this far before, nope." Meanwhile, as Cat looked to him, Alois' mood only seemed to worsen as he said, "it sucks. And nobody likes it." Not saying any more on the matter, the boy merely walked with the others as they had managed to find a way across. Seeing the fixture, and looking at the beavers attempting to eat through it, Alois joked to Sienna saying, "maybe they'll get going if you bark at them." Seeing the wolf pup then do so, Alois chuckled saying, "see, he's got the right idea." Once the group got to crossing the river, Gunther had offered to go first. Watching the armored man make his way across rope and rocks, the whole set up seemed to hold and he was fine on the other side. "Looks like it holds up well enough." Shrugging, the boy walked over saying, "I'll go next. Probably good to have some strong hands on both sides." As Alois began his trek across the river, Tsetseg merely hung back. Priding herself to be quite the adept fish, she elected to go later than most of the others, but looked to the horse with them. She wasn't sure if this kind of crossing was the safest for them, but, she didn't say much on the matter and instead tried to think of alternatives. Naturally, the only thing she could think of was Remy riding atop the pegasus to make their way across, and simply seemed in awe of her own daydreams.

Edda continued to look away, though this time her suspicion and dismissive look was mixed with embarrassment, not making eye contact with either of the males before they finally left her to be alone. Once they had, the girl let out a sigh and seemed to try to remove the covers and get herself out of bed. Wincing in pain as she tried though, the girl let out a defeated sigh before slumping back into the bed. "This is the worst." Her stomach growled once again. Continuing to look at the ceiling, just passing the time doing nothing as the girl's attention was eventually brought back to the door as the wound treater boy from earlier had walk back in. While at first she didn't think to pay him much mind, her eyes were locked on the food that the boy brought in, glancing between him and the bowl but not managing to say anything. As he placed it down and left, there would be a brief pause before Layne heard what sounded like the equivalent of a starving lion feasting on its prey, coming from the room he was just in. As the boy was getting ready to begin his project of renovation underway, the demure Yonan beside him to help, he was suddenly taken out of focus as the girl mentioned something else. As he looked at Yue, she looked back to him and seemed to start denying that Rona was here. "What?" Leon was only confused by this, not sure what to make of what Yue was doing right now, as he hadn't so much as mentioned the Jouran. All the same, the girl looked to be nervous and he couldn't help but feel like she was hiding something, yet, merely said, "okay?" While trying to sort this out, he then figured that Rona probably would've been a good person to come ask to help him with this project. After all, she was there when he needed to make an addition for the other two. All the same, she was watching the new Jouran girl inside and it wasn't like she was just going to appear because he was looking for - "is that Rona?" Looking past Yue, or more in the direction she had been looking, he recognized the familiar form of the girl. Raising up his hand and waving he called out, "hey Rona." He then ushered for the girl to come over to the two of them.

Standing there, Ryia looked to Keres as she asked about her pain. The girl merely nodded, though was reluctant to receive any help at first due to the state everyone else was in. However, before the group could truly rest, they first needed to deal with the gate in front of them. As Keres moved to demonstrate how they were destroyed, Ryia became equal parts worried, horrified, terrified and nauseated. She could only imagine the feelings that Keres herself was feeling as the person interacting with it, but only stood still as the woman continued to push against it. Eventually, the orb shattered and all the feelings that were welling around her seemed to fade. What came next was a sense of worry as she made her way over to the water witch asking, "are - are you alright?" Ryia had no idea what she would even do for the girl were she not, yet she still kept close to make sure that she was able to move on her own and that there was nothing wrong with her. All that was clear to her now was what exactly they were up against, and why it needed to be stopped. Afterwards, the girl simply sat down and kept to herself for the time being, insisting that the others have their wounds treated first before her, seeing the varying burns and other wounds that they had sustained. Though Ryia could still barely move her arm, and doing so continued to bring her great pain, she figured it was still the far more manageable of the wounds. While resting around, though, the girl eventually noticed something off about the platform they were on. Walking over to it, the girl bent down and examined it further, seeing that it was some kind of opening pane in the rock. Placing her hand on it, the girl managed to pull it up, revealing it to actually be a trapdoor that lead further into the rocks. "Um, guys...I found something." Once she was sure everyone was good to go, and that it was advisable to actually go down there, Ryia took point in moving down the trap door. Once in there, the girl began to briefly examine the surroundings, seeing a few articles of clothing and a shield that stuck out to her, alongside the myriad of scrolls that littered the room. The last thing that stood out in the room was literally glowing. Staring at the glowing stone, Ryia pointed to it saying, "I...I think we found um..." The girl didn't really remember what to call it, but made her way over to it to pick it up all the same. The stone itself was warm to the touch and the light it shone was bright enough to light the room. Looking at it, she could feel her eyes begin to sting and water as she stared at it for too long, as if she had stared directly at sun in the sky. The stone itself also was comfortably warm, but she could slowly feel it heating up and knew that if she kept onto it for too long that comfort would give way to less pleasant feelings. All the same, she said, "we should return it."

On a more solemn and serious note, the group ended up leaving Lok's house and made their way over to go meet Gwen's. As the group continued to walk through the town, they eventually stopped at a place that was much larger then the other's. Nine whistled at the scale of it, Gwen explaining that her father was quite a big deal of this town, making Nine's already curious mind only wonder further about Alpha and Gwen. As they entered the house though, Gwen's mother leading them inside, as she spoke and as Gwen's sisters appeared, the same off feeling he had twice already came back. However, seeing Gwen both blushing and hiding her face Nine couldn't help but tease her. Walking closer to the girl, Nine then faced her sisters saying, "it's true. I'm not her boyfriend. After all, she turned down a date from me, so just friends for now." "Wait you wanted to date her?" Blair asked. "Why?" Sabrina added. Nine chuckled saying, "well, your sister is quite the woman out there in the world, so, how could I not try?" They look at each other, then Nine. "But we're totally cuter right?" They both said. Not skipping a beat as he entered this trap, Nine had a sly smile on his face as he said,"well, that's one question a man can't answer." "Why not?" Blair asked, pouting. "No fair."Sabrina says, sounding bored again. Ignoring the two's pouting, Nine looked Gwen's mother next. "I'm sorry if we've come at a bad time though, should we come back later?" She looks confused. "Bad time? How so? There's no need to leave." Nine looked around the busy and messy nature of the home. "Oh, I just figured you were busy right now. But if you aren't, then I'd love to see my traveling companion's home." "Oh please." She laughs a little. "I'm always busy." She gestures around "And here you go then, our sweet Gwendoline's home sweet home." Chuckling again at the woman's exuberance, he turned to Gwen saying, "it certainly is a sweet place." Looking to Lok he followed saying, "isn't it?" While Marie was attempting to teach the man manners it appeared that he was not the only one in need of doing so. Attempting to dodge out of the way of the thunderbolt, but with less warning this time, the girl was his by the residual sparks around the area causing the girl to wince in pain as she was shocked a bit. However, this was not where things ended. Instead, the whole area seemed to erupt to chaos as more people started to get into a brawl. With more gijinka ganging up on each other, Marie simply shouted, "hey- hey! All of you- no you stop too! Ahhhh!" Shouting in frustration the girl was then blindsided by a rampaging Rhyhorn that seemed to knock her to the side as collateral damage. Getting up, the girl seemed visibly angry as she said, "I said have. Some. Manners!" With the Rhyhorn turning to her, he was surprised as the little girl blasted him with a jet of water, causing him to stumble back. Cracking his knuckles, the Rhyhorn seemed ready to charge at her, only to be blasted with yet another water gun. While Marie was not the strongest of combatants, the rhyhorn himself didn't seem to be too big either, and from the continued barrage of water was knocked out fairly quickly. Looking to the rest of the crowd she shouted, "I'll teach the lot of you how to behave! Come on!"

Yuuka gave a small round of applause as Diana made her triumphant return with the badges in hand. With that done, they were now at a total of ten badges together, a bit disappointed that two of them were effectively stolen. Nevertheless, they had completed their task, and Yuuka merely said, "good job Diana." Looking the way they had come, she followed by stating, "well, we should probably get headed back now." Leading the way, happy with both her and her teammates passing of the exam requirements, the duo eventually found their way through the urban setting and back to the starting area. Upon reaching there, Yuuka had seen one of the teachers from before waiting, along with a small collection of students already there. Looking to Diana, she said, "well, it looks like we're far from the first done here. Though it makes sense." Looking to the rest of the students, regardless of the current atmosphere hanging around the area, Yuuka had simple smile on her face as she gave a small round of applause to them. "Great job on making it back everyone." Whether Itsuki was there or when he made his way back, the girl would look to the familiar looking boy saying, "and I'm glad to see that you made it back just fine as well, Watanabe."

Elise (Fates) Shiro (Fates) Helbindi (Heroes) Gunnthra

Alois's shock and confusion at looking towards the Pontic boy was only magnified as he made his statement about his hair. Unlike the princess next to him, Alois only stood their in stunned silence, truly beginning to learn how strange the mundane truly was. Once the princess had recovered from her own coughing fit and made her declaration towards the boy Alois could only look seriously to him. "And trust me, I don't want to be anywhere near you until you do, so keep it clean for the both of us." Alois was pretty sure that misery didn't come in many greater forms than what he was feeling now. His eyes were stinging from the rain continuing to flood over them, his legs were sore from the great amount of trudging in mud he had to do, and now his arms were sore from shelter building. All the same, they were done now and as the princess beamed with pride towards them Alois could only let out a sigh of relief from her congratulations towards them. As she asked who wanted to test it, Alois said, "don't mind if I do." Walking into the shelter and collapsing onto the ground for a moment to rest, it was still far from comfortable. "Well, I'm still wet. The ground's still wet. I'm pretty sure everything's also dripping wet too. But hey, I'm not getting poured on so, silver linings."

Kiyoko had a small frown on her face as the woman seemed to bring up her doubts on her own abilities. Naturally, she didn't seem to be quite as hesitant, or avoidant for that matter, as Leiko had to the whole concept of the signers. Yet all the same, she seemed to excitedly find a way to combat this. Unsure of it all, Kiyoko tapped her finger to her chin thinking for a moment saying, "well, I'm not entirely sure it's necessary. You should just be able to think you're chosen right?" But it was true that her not being able to pull her own weight would be an issue, and if it was within Kiyoko's power to right the issue then she was by all means obligated to do so. "But, if you think it necessary then sure." Looking to the man, admiring his blade work in dealing with the bagels, Kiyoko briefly thought for a moment before saying, "excuse me, Barbatos was it? Do you know of a good place to eat and have a duel at the same time?"

Having left the library Xia, now by herself, had looked for other places to go have fun at. Morgan didn't seem very keen on reading and she didn't know where either she or Cyan were going for the time being. Trying to think of some fun thing to do herself, the girl eventually remembered what Keres had said, and that Morgan had gone to the sports stadium earlier. With that thought in her mind, Xia remembered that that place was all kinds of fun the last two times she had gone, and she had met some fun people as well. So, with that in mind, Xia began to make her way towards that stadium. Walking towards the building, Xia was excited to see what other kinds of fun and games she could accomplish here, when her eyes drifted towards a familiar set of blue hair. Eyes lighting up, the girl shouted out amidst the crowd. "Heeeyyyyy Angela!" Jogging her way over to the girl, she said, "hi Angela. Are you here to have some great fun too?" Looking over, she saw that Angela had been meeting with someone else, the dragon girl looking between the two saying, "oh, is she a friend of yours Angela?"

Yuuka had merely smiled still as Itsuki pointed to the forming bump on his head, but was grateful for the information he provided to them. Looking to Diana the girl shook her head saying, "unfortunately, my quirk isn't suited for that at all. But I'm sure either of you could do it easily." With a look of reassurance on her face, the girl then looked back to Itsuki and said, "thank you again Watanabe. I hope to see you back at the entrance." Walking away from the boy she looked to the other two and said, "shall we?" As the group made their way to the building, along the way Yuuka had noticed something. The area they had passed by looked like it had been in a bit of a scuffle, and more then just something the test takers were likely to generate. Seeing a glint of light amongst the wreckage, Yuuka briefly wandered over to it, noticing it to be one of the pins they were looking for. Inferring that it must have belonged to another of the test takers and they simply lost it in the chaos of fighting something, Yuuka simply flashed it to the others. "Lucky us." Continuing their travels onward, the girl saw a mannequin standing next to a fire hydrant. The hydrant itself looked like it was ready to burst at any moment and it looked like the mannequin was in position to be shot at by the water that was bound to come out of it. The group managed to get the mannequin out of the way, and as they did the hydrant burst showing that it indeed would've struck the mannequin with high pressured water. When the water subsided, there was a small pin on the ground. Picking it up, Yuuka's count was now at four. With those distractions out of the way, the group managed to correct their course and finally get to the building that Itsuki had mentioned. Seeing that it was much more suited for someone with an athletic quirk, Yuuka gestured saying, "well, this is where you shine now."

While Leon continued to think on his issue, his thoughts were soon broken up by the voice of Yue. Looking to the girl, he slowly answered her first question saying, "well, I suppose I'm fine." As she mentioned the wood, he looked to the pile then back to the girl. Though she was stammering through it, she eventually got through her question, to which Leon gestured to the stables. "These were originally built to house horses, though from what I can tell not very many and it wasn't in the best of shape when we got it. Unfortunately," the boy sighed saying, "wyverns and kinshi are much larger than a worse, or at least wider. And now with a third unique mount here, I have to make sure it can house all of them." Looking at the girl, then back to the wood, he said, "I'm not the best at carpentry though, so if you'd like to spot me or give any tips while I work you're welcome to." Looking at the girl again, he realized that she probably wasn't a carpenter of any kind and was more likely to run away at the sound of a hammer striking wood. "Well, only if you want to. If you were busy before, I can manage here." Edda seemed to be a bit more sullen since her talk with Rona, and the girl had slowly shrunk into the covers of her bed only to then have another visitor speak with her. Not really keeping eye contact with the boy, Edda seemed to be actively trying to look disinterested in how she got here though looked to Layne with great confusion as he told her that she was brought to care by a local. The girl only seemed to get standoffish again, but as the boy asked if she needed anything. she looked away. "I'm fine," her tone was blunt and dismissive. "I don't need any food right now." The two would then hear a brief rumbling noise coming from Edda's stomach, as the girl continued to try and keep eye contact to a minimum, though her stoic expression was broken with a hint of embarrassment.

Nine smiled a bit as Lok's mother made her comment, simply waving it off saying, "think nothing of it." As his sister made her comment, the same offness that Kayla had pointed out to him prior was something he felt once more now. However, before investigating it, Nine continued to smile as the siblings conversed, but couldn't help but feel a gaze locked on him. It wasn't hard to tell, with the one eye, that Nine was the target of his father's gaze, and it did little to bring him any comfort. As Gwen introduced both Nine and Kayla, the latter of which who had dipped out to do her own brand of surveillance, it seemed that the meeting here was a bit bittersweet as Lok had to continue his journey. With their parting beginning, Nine felt the gaze of Lok's father back on him. With a lighthearted smile Nine said, "well, that's quite the responsibility. But, with how your sons been growing, it's fair to say that my life is just as much in his hands." Though his tone was jovial, as Lok's father looked and spoke with a tone of incredibly severity, Nine's expression became stoic as well. He locked eyes to eye with the Dusknoir, not confrontational like, merely assuring, saying, "don't worry. I have no plans on letting either of them be harmed." Keeping their gazes locked for a few more moments, Nine eventually broke from it, looking to the others of the family saying, "well, truly, it was a pleasure getting to meet all of you. I can see where the little scamp gets it all from." Looking to Gwen now, he asked, "well, you had a lot of family still here too, right? Wanna go see them?"

“I wouldn’t really call this ‘better’.” Yushiro groaned as he drew his card. Things were looking dire, with just one set card on his field. Hopefully, what he drew would be enough to squeeze a little life out of his deck. “But this might improve things for me. I play the spell card Cup of Ace!” A gold goblet appeared in the middle of the field, two cards sitting inside it. “Know how this card works, Juju?” With somewhat playful ignorance the girl, “oh, please explain it to me Shiro!” “Wow, really? It’s just like pot of greed, except we flip for the cards. You seriously never heard of it?” Yushiro was kind of surprised. Letting out a sigh, Jun said, “there’s a lot we’re gonna need to work on, Shiro.” Yushiro frowned as he fished his yen coin out of his pocket. “And would you stop calling me that!? I call heads!” With a flick of his thumb, the coin was airborne, landing squarely in the goblet, which flew over to Yushiro. “Guess I called it right. I’ll draw two cards” Yushiro’s next two cards, thankfully, gave him a play. “Alright, first I normal summon the Tuner monster Nitro Synchron, and then I activate the spell card Speedrift! This spell lets me special summon a speedroid from my deck, and neither of us can play cards in response to it. So, I choose Speedroid Marble Machine! Level: 2 “And for my next move, I play the spell card speed recovery! Which lets me summon Ohajikid from my graveyard. And with all three… I get to play a level 7 synchro!” Nitro Synchron’s pressure gauge redlined and a moment later it transformed into a synchro ring around ohajikid and marble machine. “Place your bets folks, ‘cuz I’m synchro summoning Nitro Warrior!” Out of the light emerged something not entirely mechanical, with horns and a jet engine for a tail. As if to call out its nemesis, Nitro Warrior raised a finger and pointed menacingly at Coral dragon. ATK: 2800 Letting out a few “ooh,” and “aah,” Jun gave a small round of applause as the monster was summoned. “What a big guy he is. Is he your ace card Shiro?” “He’s an old favorite, and I’m gonna show you why! See, since I activated a spell card this turn, Nitro Warrior gains 1000 ATK points during battle this turn. Oh, and I almost forgot, since He’s a Nitro Synchro Monster, Nitro synchron gives me another card draw when he’s summoned. Not bad right?” Nitro Warrior punctuated this with a round of flexing. “Now, lets get rid of COral dragon, shall we!? Nitro Warrior, take that thing out with Dynamite Crunch!” Using its engine tail for propulsion, Nitro Warrior launched into the air, both fists outstretched. ATK: 3800 “But that’s not all! I activate my set trap card: Graceful Skull Dice!” This time a massive six sided die, flanked by the gremlin from the old trap skull dice and his angelic counterpart from graceful dice, appeared on the field. “Depending on what I roll, coral dragon’s gonna lose ATK points, and Nitro Warrior gets the same amount. Let’s see what lady luck has in store, shall we? Roll!” The pair of them pushed the die over together, and it rolled and bounced around a few times before landing on the 5 side. “That’s 500 points! Coral Dragon loses 500 ATK, and Nitro Warrior gains 500! ATK: 3800->4300 ATK: 2400->2400 “Wait… Why isn’t it going down?” Scratching the back of her head, Jun said, “well, see, floating isn’t all my Yang Zings do. Depending on which one they’re summoned with, the synchro monsters also get cool effects as well. And, because of Bixi, Coral Dragon’s immune to trap cards.” “Seriously? Geez these cards are so overpowered. Fine, this is still gonna hurt!” Now allowed to continue on, Nitro Warrior slammed into coral dragon, knocking the beast into the ground. LP: 7500->5600 Clapping again, she said, “that was great. Unfortunately, you missed something else.” After having been slammed with the attack, Coral Dragon was still on the field, before it slowly picked itself back up off the ground. “See, because it was also summoned using Bi’an, it can’t be destroyed by battle either.” Yushiro was visibly agitated now. Between being outplayed and being patronized, he was starting to crack. “That’s the end of my turn. Go.” Her own energy dwindling at the sight of this, the girl said, “alright, my turn. I draw.” Looking at the card in her hand she said, “well, let’s see how this goes. I summon another Chiwen, Light of the Yang Zing in attack mode. Now, time for yet another Synchro Summon. I use the level 1 Chiwen with the Level 6 Coral Dragon.” As Chiwen turned into another ring of light, the dragon in turn turned into 6 blue spheres all lined up in the ring. “Corrupted dragon of the stars, bring ruin onto the field. Synchro summon! Level 7, Yazi, Evil of the Yang Zing.” As the summon completed, the ring and spheres were replaced by a column of black darkness in its place, a serpentine black dragon, dark aura flowing off of it appearing in its place. ATK 2600 “Now, I activate Yazi’s effect. I can target one card I control, and one card you control and destroy both of them. So, I choose my face down monster and your Nitro Warrior.” As she called this out, Yazi fired an orb of darkness into the sky, two black lightning bolts striking both Yushiro’s and her own monster as they came down. “Geez can’t I catch a break?!” As the two monsters were destroyed, the green wyrm Pulao was revealed to be Jun’s set monster. “Now, with Pulao destroyed, I can summon 1 Yang Zing Monster from my deck into attack mode, and with supply squad I can draw yet another card. So, come forth, Taotie, Shadow of the Yang Zing!” As she called out its name, yet another dark dragon, this being bulkier and with the form of dragon and demon mixed together appeared. ATK 2200 “And finally, when a Yang Zing of mine is destroyed I can summon Chiwen from my graveyard. So, come back!” On her command, the white and gold wyrm appeared once more. “Now, let’s go. Yazi, attack Shiro directly!” The wyrm reeled its head back, a dark sphere forming in its mouth before it let loose a blast of black lightning at the boy. The blast knocked Yushiro back a few feet. LP: 3900->1300 As she raised her hand to command Taotie to attack, the girl paused before smiling again saying, “hey Shiro. Do you want to see a cool synchro summon before we end here?” “What?” “I’ll take that as a yes. Feast your eyes and be amazed at your senior in synchro summoning. I activate my trap card, Yang Zing Unleashed! This thing does a few things, but the coolest one is this. By sending it from the field to the graveyard during either player’s battle or main phase, I can synchro summon a monster with my Yang Zings. So let’s go, I use the level 1 Chiwen to tune the Level 7 Yazi. A light that pierces all darkness and returns all to their origin, shine forth. Synchro Summon, Level 8, Baxia, Brightness of the yang zing!” As she called this out, the two wyrms she had called erupted into a large stream of light, bringing out a burly dragon in gold armor, two wings spread out behind it and a large brown mane stretching from its head. ATK: 2300 “See, isn’t that the coolest?” Yushiro was still confused. He wasn’t sure if she was rubbing the victory in his face or legitimately was just enjoying herself. Naturally, his response was a confounded “Uhhhh…” Sighing at the response, she flatly said, “alright. Baxia attack him directly.” The dragon roared as it let loose one final blast of light at the boy. This shot knocked Yushiro off his feet and onto his rear. LP: 1300->0 Tipping her hat Jun said, “and that’s the game.” “Well, you walked all over me.” Yushiro replied, a half hearted smile on his face. He took a second to switch off his disk, then continued. “Guess this means I don’t make the team?” “Well, with an attitude like that…” Jun thought for a moment before saying, “well, let me ask you a question Shiro. Was the duel fun?” It struck him as an odd question at first, but then everything clicked, and suddenly Yushiro felt a little bad for assuming she was patronizing him. “Yeah, I guess it was.” he replied. Surprised by this, Jun said, “well, then that’s perfect! Here’s my first lesson to you. Make sure you always have fun in a duel, because if you don’t well, then it becomes unfun for both parties, and you’ll just play really badly. You won’t be a starter, but, if you want to have even more fun, then,” reaching out a hand to shake, the girl said, “welcome to the team.” Yushiro took her hand, and gave it a firm shake. “Thanks, miss co-captain.”

Steel is my Body

Shinon (Path of Radiance) Tibarn (Path of Radiance) Forde (Sacred Stones) Vanessa (Sacred Stones) Say'ri (Awakening) Olivia (Awakening) Genny (Shadows of Valentia) Valbar (Shadows of Valentia)

Kiyoko wasn't bothered by the girl's invitation refusal and thus didn't really say anything as she kept walking. She then stopped briefly and looked back as the woman told her to wait, and then resumed walking as they caught up. The girl was a bit confused for a moment by her first question, but then seemed to be both confused and overwhelmed as Hypatia began to rapid fire questions at her. She had never experienced quite this volume of questioning before and thus she tried to sort through them one at a time, but had trouble remembering all of them exactly and thus could only really respond to the last one. That being said, of the questions she was asked Kiyoko was just as unsure how to answer that saying, "nothing?" Thinking on it she said,"I don't think I've experienced anything quite differently from you today, and though the people in question were strange, I don't think the goal itself is. After all, this is what we've been chosen for and working towards this whole time." Kiyoko wasn't very sure of the other's circumstances, Hypatia's even less so. But she was under the impression that they were all here for the same reason, and all were made signers with the same goal in mind. Of course, as social convention would have it, Kiyoko realized that she was now obligated to respond, "so. What is, um, up with you?"

Having eventually stabilized Gilly's wounds and making sure they were fine, Ryia was felt with a small sense of relief. This was only made to be a greater one as she saw that the fire atop the rock spire suddenly vanish. While she was unsure of what the truth was, she waited for a moment to see if it would relight, only to think that all was good now that it had stopped. Looking to Anis, the girl said, "we should...check on them too. Could you um...help with..." She gestured to Gilly and Hob. Regardless of her response, Ryia would put the halfling atop the the mule and with great effort and one arm attempt to move Hob over to the base of the rock platform. Once they were there, the girl would begin to climb up the rock spire, slowly and with each step causing a burning sensation to move through her legs until she had finally made it to the top. Her eyes were naturally drawn to the black sphere, the dread and unease coming from it only made plenty more apparent by the proximity she now observed it from. Looking instead to the battered and beaten, yet living team members of hers, she let out a huge sigh of relief. Concern crossing her expression next, she asked, "have we....did you guys defeat him?"

After sending the message out, Xia continued to sit in place, reading her book on shark life. Still fascinated by each new fact presented to her, but slow going in her reading, she eventually looked up as Keres asked her a question. With a smile on her face, the girl nodded, saying, "yeah. I was signed up to fight stuff and so here I am!" Xia then wondered for a moment before asking, "oh, but, what's a witch?" Keres looked uncomfortable. "Magic users of...certain reputation. Dark reputation." "Ooooh. Magic users. Magic Users..." Xia began to mull over this, trying to bring to mind all the female magic users she knew of. After thinking for a moment, she looked and asked, "oh, does that mean you've also made friends with Angela or Aria or Aurora or Morgan?" Keres looked confused. "I don't know those names." Xia began to think it over for a moment before listing off, "well, two of them have white hair, but one's way colder then the other. And one of them has blue hair and a tasty looking hat and the other has orange hair and really cool pointy hat." "Orange hair, pointy hat, that was the girl who came here." Looking excited Xia said, "that was Morgan." With a new message appearing on her watch, the girl looked over to it and then back to Keres. "Oh. That's her." Gesturing to her watch, the girl then read the message, saying, "apparently there wasn't someone at the sport's stadium and she wanted you to know that. " Bright eyed and curious the girl looked to Keres saying, "what'd you guys talk about?" Keres's lips tugged upwards a moment. "So she found nothing." She glanced aside at Xia. "She wanted to know about the fighters that came before you all. I told her where she could look." Taken aback for a moment, Xia asked, "whoa. There were other fighters?" "Of course. She's been doing this for a while. There were eight others. Before." "Whoooa. Eight others." Xia thought about it for a moment, smiling to herself as she said, "well, all the fighter's I've talked to now are such cool people, so I bet those guys were also really cool." Keres simply shrugged at this. Xia, clearly, seemed more excited about this then her literary companion wondering what the old eight must have been like. Excited to meet them one day, the girl happily went back to reading her book, spending some more time on it before finally letting out a big sigh. "Man, reading is hard work. But it was really fun." Standing up, closing her book she says, "thanks a lot for helping me out with this Keres." "You're welcome. I'm...glad you found what you wanted. Without yelling." Smiling, the girl waved back to Keres saying, "I'll see you again sometime and then we can read some more together!" With that done, Xia left the building, looking to start her adventure of exploring the city once again.

As Randy said that he was going to take on Heatran, a legend in the volcano, Marie sighed. "Well, I guess it's fine. I don't really approve of a challenge like this, but as long as you aren't picking fights with any random person, I won't stop you." Marie then thought about it for a moment, remembering the two legends they had encountered so far, and then sternly said, "unless of course it's too dangerous. Then I will drag you away by the ear if I have to." She then listened to Trevor as he spoke about Allie's siblings. Marie wasn't entirely sure why they were going out of their way to fight Heatran, and was even more confused by why Allie didn't want to. The girl already fought a legend that didn't want to fight, so fighting one that did seemed to make all the more sense to her. While Marie mulled on it, the only conclusion that she could come up with was that Allie was likely nothing more than a bully. A very strong one at that, but Marie was finding that to be all too common here in Adarid. Eventually, the group had made it to Trailsau proper, and were about to begin their search for the children. This was slightly hampered, however, by the sudden lightning that flew over head of them. Seeing the thunderbolts arc from a Maenetric, and striking at fire types nearby him, with a bunch of others unscious on the ground near him, Marie had already gotten a bad vibe from this place. Frustrated as a Fearow flew over head, Marie agreed with Trevor thinking that it would be very difficult to search the city with just stray thunderbolts being fired all around. Nodding and facing the Flygon she said, "you're right. It will be hard to find them like this." Walking ahead of the group, Marie shouted out to both the Fearow and Maenetric, saying, "excuse me! Just what do you both think you're doing in the streets here?" "What's this weird little girl doing here?" The Manectric jumped to the side to avoid the Fearow. "You wanna step up to?" "I do not!" With a defiant tone, Marie refused. However, she quickly was unsure if there was actually some kind of thing going on in town, and so without changing her tone she asked, "step up to what?" "You're in Trailsau little girl, if you're coming here you come to fight." The Manectric called out in alarm as the Fearow drives his beak into his side. He then bit down on the Fearow with a Thunder Fang before tossing them to the side. "So you in or not?" Marie pouted this, clearly annoyed that she was being told to fight. "I'm here to search for people, thank you very much. And you're making it very difficult with all the," she waves her arms around, "this." "Well then get outta the way kiddo." He called out, launching a thunderbolt in her direction. Shocked, figuratively, Marie took the man's instructions to heart and dodges out of the way. Very clearly frustrated at the man's demeanor, insistence to fight and the trouble he was causing to their search, Marie shouted out, "fine! If it's the only way to teach you manners!" At the end of her declaration the girl let out a sharp shout of pink energy that flew unerringly towards the Maenetric.

Jacklyn was fired up as yet another of the opponent's pokemon were taken down. Which left only one left to go. Rus looked to Po, a fierce look in his eyes as the Pancham began making its way over towards him. Looking to Ivan as well, she said, "it's just you and me! Now Rus, get ready!" Of course, by the time she gave the direction that attack was already upon them. With one arm thrust swinging out, Rus dodged out of the way of the first, though, sloppily, putting him in harms way for the next barrage of arm thrusts. Getting struck once, twice, thrice and a fourth time, Rus was beaten up quite greatly, causing the Lepash to grunt in pain and wince. All the same, still holding its own ground and now right in the Pancham's face, the Lepash had a defiant look on its face as he started to have a red aura glow around him. "Alright Rus, Ember!" With the same order that had come out the entire rest of the fight, Rus let out an empowered ember right at the Pancham, looking to bring it down. The Pancham took the ember straight on to the chest, the flames exploding in its face. However, with yet another command from Ivan to Arm Thrust, the Pancham struck out with yet another punch against Rus, uppercutting the fire bunny and then striking with a second fist, knocking into the Lepash. Though he was greatly injured, Po still stood which was more than could be said about Rus. With her own pokemon having been knocked out, Jacklyn said, "Rus!" Walking over to him and picking him up, the girl looked to the others saying, "I lost." Her voice was flat, and her expression seemed to be trying to figure out how she should process the defeat, before she loudly exclaimed, "well, way to go Ivan! I knew a member of my team could do it. But as your captain, I won't lose next time!" Giving a side eye to the Hoppip, she said, "and I'll get you next time."

While Alois was relieved he didn't have to cross this dreaded river for yet another night, this was only a momentary relief as the orders from the younger princess came. He had already had enough of moving for the day, so having to go forage and build a camp while someone else directed him around was not the most pleasant of notions. Nevertheless, he followed the orders of the princess and merely moved around foraging for supplies to help build their shelter after shortly finding the clearing to set things up in. As he did so, he mockingly mouthed along with the directions of Penelope, though was just as often berated due to not having the specific distance between two each piece correct. Wondering how the girl could even tell, he was stopped as she made her comment about the rain. Looking at her quizically, he said, "what are you talking ab-" it was then that he followed where she was looking to. There was someone new here. Or, rather, someone incredibly familiar looking. He was so familiar looking in fact that Alois was positive he knew this person. But they were blond. And the other person was not. Confused, Alois had next to no idea of what to make of this. Obviously, color shifting rain was not an ordinary thing, but the past week had been anything but. However, the only thing that Alois could possibly think to say was, "Eddy. Put your hair back on." Tsetseg was quite looking forward to figuring out how to hop or swim across the water. Yet, all the same, the group had elected to spend the night on this side of the river, and so she went along with it. As they were splitting up to go do other things, Tsetseg wondered if she would be best suited to also go forage things when her most familiar of group members came over to her. Electing to go scouting and offering for her to come along, Tsetseg smiled and said, "oh, sure sure Adel. Let's be scouting buddies!" Waking alongside the woman, as she mentioned flying in the rain, the girl nodded. "Oh I bet it is! Especially when you see the rain just go fwoosh," she spread her arms wide, "and spray everywhere off the wings." Thinking for a moment, the girl said, "but I bet flying normally is tons of fun too. Is it? What's it like Adel?"

In spite of the two ghosts trying to reassure him that there was nothing to worry about with the Enforcer, Nine couldn't help but feel the opposite way. As Gwen mentioned Lok going to see his family, the Accelgor besides him had moved over to talk about the situation with him. He couldn't help but nod, thinking the whole area was completely suspicious himself, as well. "Even before coming here," he whispered back to her, "there was something weird about her whenever I mentioned this place. And the Enforcer is...definitely different." Though he felt on edge since they had come here, Nine had felt it wouldn't do good to look that way, and thus tried to keep a positive expression on his face after he finished speaking with Kayla. It didn't take long for them to get to Lok's place of residence. Once there, it seemed that Lok was greeted with some kind of prank from his sibling, and both of his parents had come to the door as well. Looking between the three of Lok's family, Nine introduced himself saying, "I'm Nine, a pleasure to meet you." He gave a small smile towards Pumkaboo as Lok teased her, then looking back to his parents. "I've been accompanying these two," he gestured to Lok and Gwen, "for quite some time now." With a bit of joking smile on his face he said, "he can be a bit of a handful sometimes, but I'll say you've both raised a fine boy here."