Magical Lotus - Mahou Shoujou Byakuren - Episode 3, Part 4

[Oldmansour]

>It is difficult to do anything without knowing what they are.
>I wonder if the Metal Tiger might know something of what she meant? But attempting to contact Him again is probably still unsafe. In truth, I find the issue of Satori weighing on my mind at the moment. We understand much of the demons' objectives, their means, and their motives - not all of it, but much. But the nature of the danger at the shine of the Metal Tiger remains opaque, and worse, it keeps us from operating as freely as we otherwise might; it forces us to be wary and keep secrets that we might otherwise need not. And it may yet even be connected with this other matter in some significant way.

>Aye, like the Axe of Talik. Rin agrees, referencing the sword of damocles old Eire proverb of impending doom. An' if I understand you right, we can't just go up there and start asking questions, or we'll just draw the eye of... well, whoever or whatever's behind it all, right?

[DracoOmega]

>That is how I understand it to be. As a consequence, I am reluctant to bring more people into our circle that I do not already deeply trust; each new person is another chance that something may become exposed to the wrong people. I wish that we at least knew what we were dealing with; it is difficult to plan in absence of almost all information.

[Oldmansour]

>That is how I understand it to be. As a consequence, I am reluctant to bring more people into our circle that I do not already deeply trust; each new person is another chance that something may become exposed to the wrong people. I wish that we at least knew what we were dealing with; it is difficult to plan in absence of almost all information.

>I'm still worried about Kiku. Lily adds. Her living there and all.
>And she doesn't have an idea what the problem really is? asks Rin.

[DracoOmega]

>No more than I, as far as I know. I am not sure she's had much opportunity to investigate over the last couple days, and understandably she needs to do so subtly. She spent some time the other day preparing countermeasures to sleeping magic, as I believe I felt something of that nature being used against me on the last night I was at the shrine. Though Kiku said that none of the shrine maidens I dealt with should have been capable of performing such a thing. There is much we do not know, and who knows how many people at that shrine might have similar memory blocks implanted in them as Lily and Kiku had?

[Oldmansour]

>No more than I, as far as I know. I am not sure she's had much opportunity to investigate over the last couple days, and understandably she needs to do so subtly. She spent some time the other day preparing countermeasures to sleeping magic, as I believe I felt something of that nature being used against me on the last night I was at the shrine. Though Kiku said that none of the shrine maidens I dealt with should have been capable of performing such a thing. There is much we do not know, and who knows how many people at that shrine might have similar memory blocks implanted in them as Lily and Kiku had?

>And that ain't the sorta thing you can just ask someone about anyways. your kasha says with a faint nod. But we probably should talk about this with Kiku when we get back.
>Maybe after we tell her about this little chat with Louise? Lily ventures. She's gonna have a lot of questions.
>Oh yeah. But I do wonder if I should pop up there to have a look around. A person asking questions is bound ta draw eyes from someone, but a cat at the Cat shrine'd be a different story.

[DracoOmega]

>Kiku is best-positioned to investigate this. She knows the place well, and her rank means that she would have normal access to nearly anywhere in it without drawing suspicion. Plus she says that the Tiger is shielding her thoughts from notice. You might escape detection in the conventional way, Rin, but you do not have this protection. At the very least, I think I would consult her before suggesting this.

[Oldmansour]

>Kiku is best-positioned to investigate this. She knows the place well, and her rank means that she would have normal access to nearly anywhere in it without drawing suspicion. Plus she says that the Tiger is shielding her thoughts from notice. You might escape detection in the conventional way, Rin, but you do not have this protection. At the very least, I think I would consult her before suggesting this.

>Aye. It's her yard, I'd wanna ask her anyway.

[DracoOmega]

>She may be otherwise occupied tonight, but I wonder now if we should make this issue our priority over tracking down Fire and Ice once more. I hesitate on the possibility that others might come to harm from them in the meantime, but at least we mostly understand what we are dealing with in that regard. Here, I fear that some facet of the issue at the shrine may extend beyond it and undermine us from a blindspot. Perhaps I am mistaken, but it leaves me with a bad feeling.

[Oldmansour]

>She may be otherwise occupied tonight, but I wonder now if we should make this issue our priority over tracking down Fire and Ice once more. I hesitate on the possibility that others might come to harm from them in the meantime, but at least we mostly understand what we are dealing with in that regard. Here, I fear that some facet of the issue at the shrine may extend beyond it and undermine us from a blindspot. Perhaps I am mistaken, but it leaves me with a bad feeling.

>Rin makes a thoughtful noise. More eyes'd help, that way we could handle both. But we might be able to handle both anyways, if we could keep track of the demons. Make sure they ain't up to no good.
>But we can't find them that easily. Lily protests. We'd have done it by now if we could.
>Maybe WE can't, Lily, but Lotus might have an edge on us there. You sensed Fire coming before he arrived, didn't you, mistress?

[DracoOmega]

>Yes, but not Ice; her presence I could not sense at all before her arrival. I probably could have tracked Fire as he left, but at the time I felt it more important to try and communicate with Ice. And Air is still at large - I know not where she is, either. Probably I could find Fire again if I put my mind to it, but I would not want to divide our forces before we confronted them - not if we get to decide the terms of our second meeting. In truth, I would rather it be even more than just the four of us, if an opportunity presents. And here the matter with Satori is an interference, because it pressures me to keep our circle small; if there are subtle forces working against us through manipulation of information, the wider we spread, the more likely they will find out what they need before we find out who they are.

[Oldmansour]

>Yes, but not Ice; her presence I could not sense at all before her arrival. I probably could have tracked Fire as he left, but at the time I felt it more important to try and communicate with Ice. And Air is still at large - I know not where she is, either. Probably I could find Fire again if I put my mind to it, but I would not want to divide our forces before we confronted them - not if we get to decide the terms of our second meeting. In truth, I would rather it be even more than just the four of us, if an opportunity presents. And here the matter with Satori is an interference, because it pressures me to keep our circle small; if there are subtle forces working against us through manipulation of information, the wider we spread, the more likely they will find out what they need before we find out who they are.

>All the more reason to get this Satori problem sorted first. says Rin. Sooner we can stop worryin' about what's behind us, sooner we can focus on what's in front of us.
>Is that a line from something? Lily asks her.
>Nah, just something Konngara's father used ta say a lot.

[DracoOmega]

>This is also how I feel. The sooner we can eliminate some of these unknowns, the better we can plan for the confrontations that we know are coming. We should speak of this with Kiku once we return.

[Oldmansour]

>This is also how I feel. The sooner we can eliminate some of these unknowns, the better we can plan for the confrontations that we know are coming. We should speak of this with Kiku once we return.

>I sort of hope Satori can join us once we fix the problem. Lily says with a faint smile. She's nice. Sort of strange, but I liked her. Was a good strange.

[DracoOmega]

>I also hope things can end well, but we'll have a better idea of that once we understand what we're facing.

>Take a last look around
>Is there anything else you think we should do here before we return?

[Oldmansour]

>I also hope things can end well, but we'll have a better idea of that once we understand what we're facing.

>Take a last look around
>Is there anything else you think we should do here before we return?

>Lily glances back down the path towards the lake. I'd like to talk more to her about that hope thing, but I suppose  it can wait.

[DracoOmega]

>We'll be back again. And perhaps she'll have had more time to think it over by that point. More time to enjoy the peace and security that she has never had the benefit of before.
>A strange irony that a place created as a prison could end up in some way a blessing to the one cast inside it. I am glad things ended as they did.

[Oldmansour]

>We'll be back again. And perhaps she'll have had more time to think it over by that point. More time to enjoy the peace and security that she has never had the benefit of before.
>A strange irony that a place created as a prison could end up in some way a blessing to the one cast inside it. I am glad things ended as they did.

>Rin mutters something quietly, but you think she spoke Eire, which you don't speak fluently enough to catch.
>Lily however has a bigger reaction, smiling broadly. You said it, Byakuren. I was just happy we didn't have to kill her, but this is even better than I'd hoped. Now, if we can do the same for the other five, that'd be swell.

[DracoOmega]

>When the time comes, we'll see. I hope for some of them, we might not even need to.

>Let's return.
>Assuming no other comments, let's hold hands again and pull ourselves back to where we left. Use the keystone as the anchor to the outside world, just as we made it to be. As we do, hold the message orb that Louise gave us in our hand, and shroud it in our power. Allow it to pass through the barrier because we will it to do so. Because we carry it with us, as we did with Rin. And let's hope it works.

[Oldmansour]

>When the time comes, we'll see. I hope for some of them, we might not even need to.

>Let's return.
>Assuming no other comments, let's hold hands again and pull ourselves back to where we left. Use the keystone as the anchor to the outside world, just as we made it to be. As we do, hold the message orb that Louise gave us in our hand, and shroud it in our power. Allow it to pass through the barrier because we will it to do so. Because we carry it with us, as we did with Rin. And let's hope it works.

>Joining hands with Lily and White Rose once more, the three of you pool your will and send it outwards to find the touchstone you crafted in the physical world. After a moment's searching beyond the wall of the Oubliette, you locate the beacon. The effect is akin to spying the glow of a lighthouse through a dense bank of fog. Locking onto to it, you launch yourself upwards towards the beacon, your comrades right alongside you.
>You take close note of the barrier as you draw near it, to ensure that the message orb nestled in your hand survives the transition from pocket plane to physical plane. Shrouded as it is by your own energy, the Oubliette walls do not seem to react to it at all as you move through the magical wall. Pleased, you still keep an eye on the orb itself to make sure it doesn't become active once free of the Oubliette, but it remains as inert as it was within as you and your friends reel yourselves back through the rainbow corridor to to world of the real.
>You also feel Rin's hand tighten around yours just a bit as you move through the lights. The kasha clearly is still a bit overwhelmed by the experience. You give her hand a reassuring squeeze as you approach the wall of light marking the boundary into the Earth.

>As you make the transition from the Oubliette's passage into the real world, your eyes are momentarily overcome by a wall of white light. You also hear the sound of two voices coming from somewhere to your right. One's exclamation is in Moscovich, which you don't understand, though the intonation is that of a curse. The other voice, a rather familiar one, is definately a curse, as her accented tone yells, "Hell's Fire!"

[DracoOmega]

>Oh dear; who have we startled?

[Oldmansour]

>Oh dear; who have we startled?

>The deeper, louder foreign voice is strange to you, but the other one sounds like the Eagle.

[DracoOmega]

>Can we still not see well enough to tell for sure?

[Oldmansour]

>Can we still not see well enough to tell for sure?

>After a few seconds, your eyes adjust to the light of the sun again, and you turn to look at the sources of the voices. One of them is indeed the Eagle, clad in her faded blue jeans and a somewhat battered looking black windbreaker, with a guitar slung on her back. The woman standing next to her is a very imposing figure. She's even taller than the Dragonhawk was, and more muscular, too. Her dark red hair is styled into a sharp mohawk, and despite the chill in the air, she wears brown shorts and a black vest, her large feet stuffed into brown and white sandals which are plainly at least one size too small. The rest of her vestments are similarly bulging to contain the thick muscles of the intimidating woman. The only parts of her attire that seem to fit her comfortably are the blood red wristbands on both arms and the carved bear-head amulet around her neck.

[DracoOmega]

>Do they look more displeased or just startled?

[Oldmansour]

>Do they look more displeased or just startled?

>The Eagle looks simply startled. The larger one seems much angrier, her lips pulled back into a snarl. Even her teeth are larger than a normal persons, and her canines are unnaturally sharp.

[DracoOmega]

>Frown slightly
>"I'm sorry; we didn't mean to startle you. I didn't actually realize anyone was here."

[Oldmansour]

>Frown slightly
>"I'm sorry; we didn't mean to startle you. I didn't actually realize anyone was here."

>Bloody hell. Rin mutters.
>The Eagle recovers her composure before her companion, straightening herself with a flap of her brown wings. "And a good afternoon to you, too." she says with aplomb.

[Hello Purvis]

>Look around, to make sure we haven't trodden upon some of their stuff or somesuch.
>"Yes, good afternoon to you as well."

[DracoOmega]

>We'll be okay; don't worry.
>Return a polite nod back to her. "Likewise. I do hope we didn't cause too much of a disturbance."

[Oldmansour]

>Look around, to make sure we haven't trodden upon some of their stuff or somesuch.

>You examine your surroundings. Fortunately, everything here appears to be the same as when you arrived, apart from the new women who weren't here before, of course. And neither one of them appears to be carrying anything of note, apart from the acoustic guitar on Eagle's back, which you know to be hers.

>"Yes, good afternoon to you as well."

>We'll be okay; don't worry.
>Return a polite nod back to her. "Likewise. I do hope we didn't cause too much of a disturbance."

>Do you know those two? Rin asks.
>Lily answers, The one with the wings is called Eagle. I think the big one calls herself the Bear.

>"Well, it's not everyday a trio of witches pop up behind a bird." Eagle replies, straightening her jacket. Then she gives you a businesswoman's smile. "On the other hand, I've had far less pleasant surprises from far less pretty ladies." She gives you a shallow bow. "I'm called Eagle, ladies. An independent businesswoman." She extends her left wing out towards her burly friend. "My friend here prefers to be called Bear." The still-snarling hulk of a woman merely nods.