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You could just leave things be and let Gurio trigger the Tsukino crying self-defense mechanism to his detriment… But there’s no real reason to let things to get to that point when you could just toss Gurio away like a sack of potatoes right this instant.

And besides, you are standing close to Usagi and would be within the range of the cacophonous crying that was sure to bring misery upon your eardrums and on Naru’s too.

You reach and grapple Gurio who shouts with surprise when he feels your powerful bear hug on his waist and hoist him upwards. It is remarkably hard to get a solid grip on a human body, it isn't easy like grabbing a bag or how in Street Fighter, Zangief seems to effortlessly grab his opponent to do a screw pile driver. But your grip is solid enough that Gurio can't escape and you begin spinning him around. It is a slow start from a dead stop and takes a remarkable amount of effort and muscle strength but you pick up speed in your spin.

Faster and faster you spin, and Gurio begins screaming about you had better stop or you would regret it.

Stop? That was going to happen soon enough. Regret? Not going to happen.

You release your hold after a few more seconds and send Gurio flying. He doesn't go far but the sudden release takes him off guard and he lands on his back. The breath is knocked out of him and he does not get up for a good few seconds.

Usagi and Naru are impressed by your physical feat. The crowd of boys seem intimidated by your throw and back off a little.

"Oh wow Ruka-chan, you're so strong..." Usagi praises you with stars of admiration in her eyes. She's utterly thankful for your rescue.

"I'm so ashamed of you Umino... This isn't how you win Usagi over! I told you yesterday!" Naru scolds the fallen nerd.

"That's enough!" Gurio shouts as he scrambles back on his feet. He looks like he wants to fight you.

"Well I've had enough of your smarmy ass. Tsukino clearly didn't want you anywhere near her." You reply while glaring at the nerdy boy. It does not seem to deter him at all since he's so angry.

"When did you become such a hero? You think I'm ready to back down after that!? You can't take us all down!" Gurio blusters and waves at the crowd of boys to back him up. It is with great reluctance but some of the boys summon courage to try and back him up a bit. But there's a number of other boys who look amused and content to just watch like Tomio.

Was this idiot serious? Getting a crowd of boys to gang up on you because he didn't have a chance in beating you on his own? A cold anger builds within you and it radiates from your voice and posture.

"It's true, I can't beat all of you... but I sure can beat your ass black and blue before anyone can stop me Gurio." You are dead serious, if this is how it is going to go... then you are going to make Umino Gurio suffer for it. You take a determined step forward towards the boy and he immediately takes a step back.

>>4948276
Gurio spits on the ground in frustration before turning away.

"Pfft, not worth my time. Let's get going boys!" He shouts, the gang of boys walk off campus. Tomio doesn't even look back and goes off with them.

Lunchtime is over; the bell is now ringing to summon students back to class.

"Ruka-chan, we've got to get back into school!" Usagi says as she prepares to dash back to school. You feel utterly conflicted; you want to follow those boys to wherever they are heading off to but you need to get back to class.

Ultimately, the decision is made for you before you can decide.

The student counsellor, the physical education teacher, the vice-principal and Ms. Sakurada are walking towards you. At first, you don't quite comprehend that they are actually gunning for you rather than the crowd of boys who walked off school grounds.

Then it dawns on you. You were seen with a rock in hand earlier and had been with the boys. You are the most obvious and most accessible student that the school can punish at this very moment.

"Houseki Ruka, remain where you are!" The burly physical education teacher Mr. Oshio shouts.

Naru and Usagi realize that you are in trouble. They begin pleading with the teachers that they had the wrong girl.

"Wait, wait! Ruka-chan hasn't done anything wrong! She helped me!" Usagi pleads with Ms. Sakurada and the other teachers. Though it seems Ms. Sakurada believes, the other three teachers do not.

"She helped Usagi out! She isn't a part of this!" Naru also pleads. But it's pointless, the adults needed someone to discipline, you are the only obvious culprit in their grasp.

You can only conclude this... this sucked and was completely unfair but you should have expected it.

Azul nods with sympathy at your assessment of the situation. He follows you invisibly into the school as you are frogmarched through the school hallways. Mr. Oshio has a very strong grip on you, and students gawk as you are forced onwards.

"Oh wow, Houseki was a part of it too?"
"Heard she was seen throwing rocks!"
"She doesn't seem to be the type though..."

"Mr. Oshio, I don't think it's necessary to restrain Houseki like this. It's humiliating to see one of my students treated this way." Ms. Sakurada is in your corner to try to lessen the humiliation that you are being put through.

"Now Ms. Sakurada, when it comes to delinquents, you need to be firm. Or else, they'll think they rule the roost and do even more damage."

You haven't bothered to say a single word to the teachers. This seems to infuriate all of them, except for Ms. Sakurada.

It seems you are to go to the Principal's office to explain yourself. What are you going to do when arrive?

>Assert your innocence.
>Stay silent
>Criticize them
>Be sarcastic
>write in

>>4948277
>>Assert your innocence.
naru kissed usagi without her knowing or agreeing first, i'm pretty shure he's in the wrong, i also did not hit him in any way there we no punches or kicks thrown about, as for me being a delinquant it's a bit much to base this on ONE incidnet, isn't it?
also welcome back QM, how are ya?

>>4948277
>Assert your innocence.

>>4948537
>naru kissed usagi
Unfortunately, we're in a diffrent timeline.

>>4948277
>Assert your innocence
With any luck, the principal is made of better stuff than the other teachers looking for a convenient scapegoat.

>>4948277
>Assert your innocence.

>>4948537
>>4948547
>>4948562
>>4948590
Assert innocence...

Also... it was Gurio who tried to kiss Usagi. We're in mainly anime universe.

>>4948606
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, i got the names mixed up, i hate it when it happens wich is ALL THE FUCKING TIME
REEEEE

>>4948606
As for my condition, the stone hasn't left my body. So the pain is still there but I can endure it.

>>4948617
oof, i hope you can get it out sooner rahter than later

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There was no point in talking with the teachers at all. You could have reassured Ms. Sakurada of your innocence but she's just one teacher out of the mob and it wouldn't change anything.

You place your hopes that you can talk with the Principal and convince her that you were innocent of the accusations lobbed at you. Though if you were entirely honest, you are not too confident that you will succeed in that.

The door to the Principal Sakurai's office opens and you are forced through the doors. It had been a long while since you've seen the Principal and this was the first time you've been to the Principal's Office. You had never gotten into much trouble at school that you needed to be sent here. It is a simple office; the walls are lined with awards and other prestigious letters of commendations that Juuban Middle School had earned over the years. There are even old photos of previous Principals who managed the school up on another wall. All in all, it is the typical prestigious Japanese presentation to wow visitors of the importance and status of the school. You are left rather unimpressed because you know your school is rather bog-standard and typical.

"Principal Sakurai, we got one of them!" Mr. Oshio says as he lets your arm go and enters the office as well. You rub your arm to bring some life back into them and look around for the Principal. She's standing by a window, looking outside and down on the school grounds. You note that she is staring at the direction where Gurio and others had walked off to.

When at last the Principal turns around, you see the face and note with surprise it is the canteen lady you bought your curry bread from.

"It seems that some of our students have been unusually violent this morning." She drily observes the obvious and focuses her attention on you.

"The rest went off school grounds before we could stop them. Houseki Ruka is the only one we could catch." Mr. Oshio explains as he pushes you forward more.

"Catch? If I may point out, I stood still and let you take me. You didn't make any effort at all to stop the boys!" You angrily state, Mr. Oshio makes it sound as though he had to expend effort to get you and actually tried to get the boys when in reality all he did was grab you.

"You threw rocks at the teacher's lounge and broke windows with the entire gang. Did you think the audacity of staying on school grounds would help you get back to class as though nothing happened?" The teacher aggressively thrusts his face into yours with an accusatory glare. You simply glare back; you aren't going to back down.

"I did not throw rocks at the windows."

>>4948654
"I did see that you remained on school grounds from up here Ms. Houseki. Would you like to present your side of the story... in private?" The principal asks as she sits down at her desk. She gives a glance at the teachers who take the hint and exit the office.

"... I was framed by the boys, they forced a rock into my hand before they started throwing them. Also, uh, I had to stop Umino Gurio from doing something to Usagi. You'll get the same story from her and from Osaka Naru."

"Usagi? You mean Ms. Tsukino?" The Principal asks to clarify the name of your classmate... or maybe you should upgrade the status to tentative friend?

"Yes, she's a fellow classmate. Has those meatballs on her head." You answer.

"I see... And Ms. Osaka and Ms. Tsukino from your class will say the same thing I assume?" The Principal asks to confirm.

"Yes."

The Principal considers your words and sends you back to the care of Ms. Sakurada with instructions to send Usagi and Naru to the office to hear their side of the story. It is a good thing that the two girls had come along when they did and could back you up. Otherwise, you would have been totally screwed.

You return to class and don't feel like paying attention at all because of the events. It is much quieter since all the troublemaking boys have gone off somewhere. It is lonely knowing that Tomio is not right behind your seat. Azul has decided to occupy it to stick with you until the end of school.

The school is buzzing with rumors that you had fought a bunch of the boys and drove them off or other fantastical things. Combined with the fact you snuck into class without being noticed, your reputation at school is taking a truly bizarre form.

The school day cannot end soon enough.

What do you do during this time?

>Pay attention to class and take notes
>Talk with Naru and Usagi by secretly passing notes. DC 14 because Usagi cannot do sneaky, 3d6+2
>Ask Azul to prank Mr. Oshio in revenge
>Tell Ms. Sakurada you need to use the washroom, and sneak out of school. You need to hunt down Tomio!
>write in

>>4948655
>Pay attention to class and take notes
we gotta get our school marks up, we have rookie numbers right now

where is everyone? and i don't mean the DM

>>4949050
I wonder if I made my quest too boring. That I should hurry things along rather than linger on school things and go to monster/sailor moon thingies.

In any case, at this hour I must assume that paying attention to class is the only option.

>>4949194
eh, i personally don't mind also when do we become a guilty gear/street fighter char with all the physical fight we are going in

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You don't want to wallow in your hurt. What is within your power right now at school is to pay attention to class and take notes. Ms. Sakurada is working faster than normal to make up for lost time from the morning, and it takes all your concentration to focus and keep up.

You succeed, and manage to get a complete set of school notes for the day. You feel a bit more educated since it was actually an interesting mathematical formula on gravity and the energy of objects that were thrown or falling.

Class ends at 3:30 pm. You have no club meeting today and no obligations at school, you are completely free to do anything you want. You're pretty sure your dad will be late again coming home tonight. So you'll have plenty of time to do anything at your apartment alone or stay out late in town.

You signal to Azul that it's time to go and the blue penguin salutes an acknowledgement. You still wish that he could talk, it would make things much easier.

As you are packing up your belonging, Ms. Sakurada walks over to your desk. It is surprising, you aren't sure what she wants.

"Ruka, are you okay? It isn't like you to be late coming to school or getting into a fight with your friend. Has something been causing you trouble or concern?" She asks you, it seems your teacher is worrying about you.

"Huh? Not really?" You reply with a fake casualness. Plenty of things have happened but you aren't about to tell Ms. Sakurada about them. What is she going to suggest? That you should stop having Nightmares and Dreams?

"Just remember, that the school is here to also guide you as well as educate you. Okay?"

These are the moments you remember that Ms. Sakurada is in fact an adult and a teacher who does worry about her students. But you are itching to get going and out of school, you just wave her concern off. Despite the doubtful look on her face, Ms. Sakurada leaves you alone.

You are going to hunt down Tomio... and possibly beat the crap out of him for framing you. Just thinking about what happened at lunch time still pisses you off.

"RUKA-CHAN!!!!" Usagi screams as she launches herself at you and gives you a big hug. You are taken completely off guard; you didn't see her coming at all. You are a girl who prides herself in being observant, so it was a bit humiliating.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You're such a big hero!" Usagi shouts at full volume as she nuzzles you. Naru is looking very amused and approaches your desk.

"You are a lot braver than I thought. I would have totally ran away if I thought they were going to gang up on me." Naru notes as you struggle to get Usagi to stop hugging you so enthusiastically.

"I was super mad at Umino... I still can't believe how he acted today. Or how those boys who walked off. What is up with that." You manage to get Usagi off you, and the other girl doesn't seem to mind at all. She's still smiling happily at you.

>>4949324
"I was super mad at Umino... I still can't believe how he acted today. Or how those boys who walked off. What is up with that." You manage to get Usagi off you, and the other girl doesn't seem to mind at all. She's still smiling happily at you.

"Naru said she thinks they all went to the House Of Fortune in the Juuban shopping district." Usagi seems proud to provide you with information you didn't know.

"What, you mean that super gaudy new fortune telling place?" You can't help but be skeptical. Then you remember how Aya mentioned that Tomio and other boys had gone to the place as well.

"Oh you know about it? I think I remember Yuuji dragging Tomio to the place for a reading too." Naru says.

Well, it seems that chintzy fortune telling place is going to be your first target for your search. You wish you had time to case the joint yesterday evening but there's no time. You are going to skedaddle off to the place and investigate.

"See you later girls, I got to get going." You wave good bye to your classmates and start heading out to the shopping district.

You decide to run, the quicker you can get to the place, the better. When you do arrive, you aren't sure what to do. The place seems closed, there's no customers waiting outside and the place inside seems empty.

What do you want to do?

>Enter from the front, maybe the door is open
>Case the outside of the building, maybe there's another way in
>Wait somewhere inconspicuous and see who enters the place
>write in

>>4949194

Sorry, I was at work and couldn't post. For what it's worth, I also kind of like the slow pace. Though you might want to link in the last thread that we're migrating to this one, there could always be stragglers hitting the refresh button there.

>Case the outside of the building, maybe there's another way in
>write-in

Azul was interested in this place when we were passing by. Perhaps he can scout ahead and figure out a way to enter while we wait from afar and see if any suspicious activity occurs?

We should really try to figure out a way for him to communicate back to us. He could be a good scout if he could tell us what he was seeing without a language barrier in the way.

>>4949325
Good thing you linked this thread in the old thread, I would’ve probably taken a couple days to check the catalog
I’ll support >>4949449

>>4949050
>timezone differences in my case, in fact it's about half past 8 for at the time of posting this.
Wait somewhere inconspicuous and see who enters the place
>>4949449 >>4949654
I found this thread by accident because it was at the top when I refreshed the catalog

>>4949660
And I just realized I linked my vote to the right post, so just in case
>>4949325
>Wait somewhere inconspicuous and see who enters the place

>>4949325
>>Wait somewhere inconspicuous and see who enters the place
we are really sneaky

>>4949449
>>4949654
>>4949691
>>4949784
We have a tie. I will give another hour or so and if there is no tie breaker, I will roll a dice for the decision!

>>4949325
>Case the outside of the building, maybe there's another way in

Case the outside of the building has been selected with a bit of scouting for Azul to do... as a treat

>>4949888
azul is the best pet penguin even if he's horny, we gotta give him headpats sometime soon

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You don't know enough about the building and its layout, best to go and investigate the outside of the building and take note of other entrances and exits. You're tempted to just wait and see who goes into the place like a proper sneaky sneak but if you ever decide to enter the building, you want to know how big it is and possible routes to enter and exit.

You do a quick walk around the building. The alleyway to your left is incredibly narrow, but you are able to walk through it but the walls are very close. You can't even extend your arms fully out. It is so close to the next building, you realize you could access the roof of this rather dingy 3 floor building by simply climbing vertically up between the two walls. Though if you access the roof, you aren't sure there's a way into the building up there. And it is day time, you could be seen while climbing up. Though from your personal experience, very few people look up.

The other entrance was in the back, it was the emergency exit. Quick look around and you note there are no cameras focused on it. A tug at the door handle reveals, much to your shock, that it is unlocked. The security of this place is ridiculous, it's non-existent. Though you are tempted to go straight in, you decide to continue your casing by checking out the last side of the building.

There is a small window, no normal person can enter but a child or rather a penguin could slip easily in and start looking around inside. You look through the window and note that it is some sort of small room or office that was abandoned. There is a door directly across the small window.

"Hey Azul. You willing to do a bit of scouting for me? You can go into this room and open that door to look around." You ask your penguin buddy who nods happily at the idea of being able to help out.

You help him up to the window and he barely squeeze through to get into the room. He lands flat on his face when he gets through. He's not the most graceful flightless avian to walk the earth, you realize that while he's invisible to outside observers unless he or they touch him, he could make noise or not be able to manipulate things like the door handle. Luckily the door handle is not a door knob, so his flippers can grip it.

"Ouch... you okay?" You ask, and Azul picks him up from the floor. He looks unhurt and waves his flipper in reassurance. Then quickly waddles to the door and opens it to let you see what's behind it. You see from your vantage point that it opens into the hallway which is festooned with purple cloth hanging from the ceiling. The door creaked quite loudly when Azul opened it and it seems to have caught the attention of someone within.

"Who is there?" The voice of a young woman asks and you hear footsteps walking down the hallway towards where Azul is standing.

Whoa, bad news. Even if Azul is invisible from the sight of people, it's not a good idea to stand in the middle of the door where someone can bump into him by accident.

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>>4949941
'Hide Azul! Or at least, get out of the way!' You mentally order, you don't bother speaking since you could get overheard. You back away from the narrow window to not be seen by whoever was inside, but you can't see into the room anymore. Luckily that is easily remedied. You grab your tactical mirror and hold it at an angle to let you see inside the room.

Tools are important, you wish you had the foresight of grabbing the lock pick set in your bedroom but it's too late. You'll have to make do with what you do have.

There's a woman, you assume that she is the fortune teller of the place. She seems normal, there's nothing particularly noteworthy about her that would excite suspicion. You note that Azul is out of the way and sitting on a chair away from the door. It's a good thing, now to wait for the woman to leave the room.

You freeze, that fortune teller is staring straight at Azul as though she can see him. No, she can see your penguin buddy since she is walking towards him. You feel a tremor of surprise and trepidation; it seems you can get feedback from Azul's emotional state. You can mentally communicate with Azul, so it shouldn't be surprising you can sense something back from him. It is from the shock that the woman can see him. He remains utterly still, as though he is pretending to be a mere stuffed toy. There's not much you can do, you had better wait it out.

You feel sweat forming on your forehead as you watch the scene through the reflection in the mirror.

"A penguin?" The fortune teller sounds curious and she reaches out to pick up Azul.

Crap. Azul does not feel like a mere stuffed animal toy at all, he's too heavy and fleshy feeling. She's going to know that he's a living breathing blue penguin.

But disaster is very narrowly averted when the front entrance of the building opens. You hear a riot of boisterous boys entering. The fortune teller loses all interest in Azul and goes back out to the hallway to greet the boys. You can see from the reflection in your mirror that standing in the hallway is Umino Gurio and the other boys who ditched school today.

The group walks away and towards what you assume is the fortune teller's main room. It sounds fairly far away and you can hear a door shut a distance away. The voices of the boys are muffled now.

You and Azul let out a breath of relief. It was entirely unexpected that the fortune teller could see the usually invisible penguin. Could it be that she just has some sort of power to pierce Azul's invisibility? You don't know but that woman was not normal.

'Hey Azul, do you think you can sneak to the back entrance area or sneak quietly to the front entrance?' You ask him mentally.

There is a vigorous shaking of his head, and it doesn't surprise you. He's not sneaky like you, he relies on his invisibility power to get through most situations and is a very ungainly bird.

'Okay, stay where you are. I'll go and get you... or something.' You reassure your partner.

>>4949958

Well shit... what are you going to do?

>Sneak in through the roof, this will take time and there's no guarantee of an entrance there
>Go through the front door, you heard that it was rather silent and far from the fortune teller's main room.
>Go use the back entrance, you assume it is closer to fortune teller room and gives immediate access to spying on the them

>>4949958
>>Sneak in through the roof, this will take time and there's no guarantee of an entrance there

>>4949959
>>Sneak in through the roof, this will take time and there's no guarantee of an entrance there

>>4949959
>Go through the front door, you heard that it was rather silent and far from the fortune teller's main room.

>>4949959
>Go through the front door, you heard that it was rather silent and far from the fortune teller's main room.

>>4949997
>>4950066
>>4950141
>>4950148
Another tie, one going for high risk and the other going for the safe choice

>>4949958
>Sneak in through the roof, this will take time and there's no guarantee of an entrance there

Okay! We're going high and risky!

>>4950327
push comes to shove we can always make a distracting ruckus

Rolled 5, 4, 3 + 2 = 14 (3d6 + 2)

Rolling for someone

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The front door is the most obvious and efficient way in, there's no real reason to do something risky and completely unnecessary like get climb up the walls to get onto the roof and enter the building that way...

But it seemed the most surprising way in and most unnoticeable path in. The front would mean being seen by anyone on the street. The back door seemed too good to be true, and too close to where the weirdo fortune teller was.

You rush to the narrow alleyway and strap your schoolbag onto your back. It was time to climb. It is easy, your feet are planted firmly on the wall and your hands are placed perfectly to stabilize as you rapidly climb upwards toward the roof. You are swift because the walls are not only nice and close but the rough brick gives plenty of friction.

Your good mood with the rapid ascent is brought down like a falling rock when you hear a gasp from below. You look down and realize that someone has caught you climbing up the side of the building. You've seen the guy before from somewhere, he wears the fancy school uniform of Moto-Azabu High school.

"... What are you doing?" Mamoru asks shocked by how high you've managed to climb up the side of the building.

Oh yeah, it's that dark haired boy who big bro Motoki introduced at Crown Games. Urgh, why won't things go right with you? Most people don't look up but this guy did and caught you in the act. You are absolutely not interested in answering his questions.


"That's none of your business... Also, stop looking up my skirt." You flatly state. The only thing to do is speed up your climbing speed and get to the roof as quickly as possible. You can only hope that the high school boy wasn't looking up your skirt. You don't give him a second glance, thinking about it is upsetting. You have to hope he wasn't going to call the cops on you. The pressure to get quickly in the building has increased quite a bit. There's a chance that the police might arrive.

As you reach the edge of the roof and look over it, your heart sinks with disappointment. The roof does not have a stair bulkhead with a door that can easily be broken into; it instead has a roof access hatch to allow you into the building.

This was bad. If it's locked, you can't get in that way and you don't have your lock picks. The access hatch has to be unlocked or else. You push yourself over the edge and onto the roof. You rush quickly to the hatch and give it a quick pull.

It doesn't budge, the handle remains stuck. The thing was locked.

'Oh come on! This is so unfair! The back door and front door of this place were completely unlocked but the roof access hatch is locked?' You snarl mentally in your head.

>>4950465
You quickly look over to the street to do a quick scan, you can't see Mamoru anywhere. He must have buggered off somewhere, and you can only hope he decided not to call the cops on you breaking in. What does catch your eye is a very familiar blonde haired heroine in an alleyway right in front of the House of Fortune.

Sailor Moon is here.

Also... was that a black cat?

You don't have time to linger watching the scene because Sailor Moon is obviously about to charge through the front door. You need to get into the building.

Brute strength was not going to get you in, the access hatch was too solid. But you might be able to see if one of the third floor windows were open or unlatched. You go back over the edge of the roof and begin testing to see if there's one that can be open.

Out in the street you hear Sailor Moon enter the House of Fortune. You faintly hear the soft swish of the automatic doors opening. One of the third floor windows is partially open. You can get in through the window if you can slip your fingers under and slide the window upward while depressing the side locks.

You anchor your feet firmly on the walls and fiddle around with the window but it's no good. You can't slide the window upwards because of the locks.

You only have a few options.

>Break the window and get in. You have to be careful not to injure yourself or cut up your uniform. Also, it leaves lots of evidence and makes a lot of noise. roll 3d6 -2, DC 11 to avoid injury/cutting your clothing
>Keep trying this window to depress the side locks. You think with a bit more effort, you can get it open. Roll 3d6+2, DC???
>Look for another window to get in but it seems unlikely there's any other.
>Climb down and try the front door or back door.
>Write in

Rolled 6, 1, 5 + 2 = 14 (3d6 + 2)

>>4950466
>Keep trying this window to depress the side locks. You think with a bit more effort, you can get it open. Roll 3d6+2, DC???

Rolled 4, 2, 6 + 2 = 14 (3d6 + 2)

>>4950466
>>Keep trying this window to depress the side locks. You think with a bit more effort, you can get it open. Roll 3d6+2, DC???

Rolled 5, 6, 6 + 2 = 19 (3d6 + 2)

>>4950466
>Keep trying this window to depress the side locks. You think with a bit more effort, you can get it open. Roll 3d6+2, DC???

>>4950833
holy shit that's almost max

>>4950472
>>4950530
>>4950833
well well, we got a crit success!
In any case, post later on tonight.

For the rest of the weekday, I shall post once per day usually in the late evening.

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Frustration builds within as you fiddle with the window. It goes to show, that for all your love for sneaky sneaking, you are a rank amateur in this business. Your lock picking teacher, Master Leblanc, was right. Preparation is essential; winging it makes things needlessly hard. You must have looked like a complete idiot to that Mamoru guy who saw you climb up the walls.

The thought occurs to you.... why are you making such an effort? Sailor Moon is clearly on the case, and will take care of things for you. You could just kick back, relax and let her deal with all this weirdness!

A memory comes unbidden into your mind, you remember pretending that you were waiting for your mother to come pick you up from elementary school. This was after she had left for that stupid fucking cult, and you were still in denial about it. Your dad couldn't come to pick you up from school because of work, he had arranged that you walk home with a group of other students with their mothers back to the apartment. You hated it; it was unbearable seeing a bunch of kids with their moms and having to walk with them. You lied to them that someone was coming to get you until they went away because you'd rather walk home by yourself.

It would have been a really lonely walk home... But it wasn't, Tomio stayed behind with you until you were ready to go. The two of you always walked back together back then.

Doing nothing is essentially abandoning your childhood friend. That is simply not an option.

You press on the side locks that are keeping you from opening the windows once more and painfully attempt to depress them as you lift the window. To your amazement, it easily slides upwards. It is absurdly easy; you must have needed to get the right sort of pressure on them.

You're in at last! You scramble through the window and feel remarkably sweaty from the exertion. The room you enter is a dusty abandoned office. A dead plant lies in the corner of the room, giving evidence of how long it has been unused. Dust rises as your feet lands on the floor. It seems to be one of the many small abandoned business offices that dot the city, the stock market crash had been one those epic financial crisis that killed thousands upon thousands of businesses. You can see paperwork scattered throughout the room, old unused tea cups stashed away, chairs still waiting for their former occupants to return and old cluttered desks. Most of the valuables seem to have been claimed, there are no computers or obviously valuable items.

You got to get moving though, no time to dawdle. You grab your school bag strapped to your back to rummage through it for your knife. Or that was the plan until you saw your hands...

You freeze and take a closer look.

File: weird plant veins.jpg (36 KB, 931x496)

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>>4951901
You are wearing what you can only describe as water gloves that don't feel wet at all. The more you look the more you realize that there are waves and crests that ripple constantly on the surface. And occasionally there's even a gap to allow you to see the skin of your hands beneath the water, like sand revealed by retreating waves ebbing back towards the sea.

Is it time to panic? You shake your hands but the strange watery aura clings without dissipating.

Oh god, what is this? You shake your hand even harder to try and get rid of the water clinging on. As you do this, the water aura flies off your left hand and knocks over a tea cup that had been left on a desk. You felt that tea cup as though it was your actual hand touching it. The tea cup rolls about on the desk until it reaches the edge. Then it begins tipping. That cup was going to fall onto the floor and make a noise. You do not want that, you futilely extend your water encrusted right hand and rush forward to try and stop it from falling.

The watery aura on your right hand shoots forward and catches the tea cup before it hits the ground. The water hand is gently holding the cup, you can feel the weight and coolness of it in your right hand despite actually being a good few feet away from the cup.

You don't know what else to do. You manipulate your right hand as though to carefully set the cup on the desk, the water hand perfectly imitates your movement. After doing that, the floating water hand wavers and then dissipates.

Ability: Distant Hands: A watery floating hand that originates from your real hand. Lasts for a duration or until dismissed. You can control the hand to manipulate an object, open a door or container, retrieve an item, etc.

You are in shock.

There is a scream from below. It is definitely coming from Sailor Moon, it shakes you out of your shock. You don't have time to be standing around and doing nothing. You got to get moving!

You quickly grab the knife out of your school bag to arm yourself. As you do so, you see that your lapis lazuli gem is glowing an odd blue.

"Why is everything turning weirder and weirder?!" You grouse, you take the gem out of bag too. The light from the gem shines upon the office you are in and reveals a bizarre network of plant like veins that penetrate the wall, overruns the desk and chairs.

It as though you've been transported into another world entirely. How could you not notice them? Was it under some sort of illusion?

What do you do?

>Don't think, start cutting away with your knife! Roll 3d6, dc 10
>Poke around a bit, maybe you could figure out more. roll 3d6 -2, dc 14 since you have no clue what you are looking at!
>Open the door out of the office, maybe there's more weirdness in other parts of the third floor.
>write in

Rolled 6, 2, 4 - 2 = 10 (3d6 - 2)

>>4951903
>>Poke around a bit, maybe you could figure out more. roll 3d6 -2, dc 14 since you have no clue what you are looking at!
Well that’s a useful power

>>4951903
>Poke around a bit, maybe you could figure out more. roll 3d6 -2, dc 14 since you have no clue what you are looking at!

Rolled 3, 4, 6 - 2 = 11 (3d6 - 2)

>>4951903
Forgot to roll for >>4952157

Rolled 3, 1, 1 - 2 = 3 (3d6 - 2)

>>4951903
Poke around a bit, maybe you could figure out more. roll 3d6 -2, dc 14 since you have no clue what you are looking at!

Rolled 2, 3, 1 - 2 = 4 (3d6 - 2)

>>4951903
>Poke around a bit, maybe you could figure out more. roll 3d6 -2, dc 14 since you have no clue what you are looking at!

>>4951918
>>4952157
>>4952226
>>4952227
I am astounded that people voted for the high risk of failing choice. You literally needed to roll a 16, due to the -2, to pass the DC 14

>>4952697
thothing ventured nothing gained
now let's roll that extra dice

>>4952721
You can't, you don't have a Mental bonus dice which represents your knowledge base,

STATS:
Physical +1d6 (1 per scene)
Mental
Will +1d6 (1 per scene)

So I'm right now writing the next bit that you failed your roll and the time used up as you let Sailor Moon confront something down on the ground floor.

>>4952744
fuck oh well it was worth a shot, wasn't it?

>>4952697
>>4952744
As the other anon said, nothing ventured nothing gained

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What are you looking at? You've never seen anything like this before. How was this hidden from sight? The alien plant-like vines shudder and pulsate like a living being. They remind you of shivering veins pumping blood with each contraction and spasm. You feel nauseous at the thought, and the shadows of the abandoned office takes on a much more sinister and darker edge.

You feel it building in you again. Your old friend, fear. You could handle the pressure of possibly having the cops getting called on you and getting arrested or climbing the dizzying heights of the building or committing the crime of breaking and entering.

But experiencing the reality wrenching sight of this strange supernatural thing was triggering that primal instinct within you that wanted to hide somewhere or run.

It is harder to breathe now. You cover the lapis lazuli up by closing your hand, fingers cover it to prevent its light from shining; the result is that the unnatural sight of the pulsating sickly green vines fades away. You are back in the abandoned office; its mundane nature makes what you just experienced even more terrifying and unnatural.

Scaredy cat flaw activated. You no longer have a sneak bonus!

Not now. The damn supernatural thing didn't even do anything to you yet.

Logic is no match for the irrational fear of the unknown though.

It takes time and effort for you to force your hand open. You manage it barely, and the lapis lazuli stone shines brightly illuminating the room once more. The abandoned office fades away again and reveals the ugly supernatural plant vines.

The aura of the thing is sickening. You realize that the oppressive pressure is not just because of your fear but also from the thing itself. It is a bleak and despairing aura emanating from somewhere to make you feel terrible and afraid.

You rally your courage and try to find out a little bit more of this thing you're seeing. You reach out with your hand and try to poke one of the vines with a finger. It was a mistake to touch the strange thing. It was warm to touch and pulsed with something that wasn't life or blood. Worse yet, it moved after it felt you touch it and seemed to be straining towards you.

You feel sick. Curiosity is not enough to keep you in this damnable room any longer. You open the door leading out of the abandoned office.

It leads to a hallway, which is even worse the room you left. It is filled to the brim with twisted pulsating vines that are thrashing and moving endlessly. You are hit with the full force of the bleak aura you felt back in the room, there is an orb of raging energy by the stairs.

You don't know what it is, but you don't care right now. You feel overwhelming panic and fear, and it is making you stumble backwards to escape through the window you came through. Even though it's pretty clear you need to destroy that damn thing.

The two conflicting desires are battling it out for supremacy.

Roll 3d6, DC 11 to overcome your fear

Rolled 4, 4, 5 = 13 (3d6)

>>4953076

>>4953106
Oh hey, success right away. I might have time to write the next entry then!

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You stand your ground against the supernatural aura that is trying to scare you away. The thing was not attacking, it's not even moving that much at all. You could easily dodge the vines and press onwards to the glowing orb! You have to go forward!

You came here for a purpose, to help and find out more about what was going on. You aren't going to turn your back and run, not when you could make a difference!

Knowledge that there were strange supernatural things out there is terrible. But what is even more terrible is not doing anything at all about it.

Scaredy Cat flaw is lessened! Turns into "Fearful: You're getting a bit braver...". You can access your bonus dice and sneak bonus if you pass a Will check!

You traverse the hallway to reach the orb with your usual nimbleness, dodging easily the thrashing vines with complete silence. It is so easy without the crippling fear! You have your knife in hand and lapis lazuli stone to reveal the hidden.

The next part is trickier, destroying the thing.

Maybe if you stab it enough, it'll break apart? You don't know if you're strong enough to do that against something that was clearly not earthly but you are willing to try.

The black blade of your knife stabs forward into the orb. It makes a satisfying crack but the orb still holds integrity. So it seems that orb can be destroyed with brute force, you just need to keep on stabbing it. You don't hold back and begin hitting it over and over with as much force as you can. Bits of the strange orb flies off as the force of the blade sheers off pieces. The light of the thing almost becomes blinding but you don't care. At last with one final powerful blow, you hear a fantastic crack and groan from the thing. It unleashes all its light at once and then dissipates just as suddenly.

The thing must have been containing something, and you damaged it enough to release whatever it was.

... So mission accomplished?

You aren't sure, you haven't heard anything on the ground floor for a little while now. Could it be that Sailor Moon has dealt with that weirdo fortune teller?

What you do hear though, is rapid footsteps climbing up the stairs to where you are standing.

'Hey Azul! Is that you?' You mentally ask but you don't get an answer back. You do get a vague impression that Azul is making his way up the stairs to the third floor where you are but... Those footsteps are too heavy and fast to be your penguin companion. Who could it be? Was it Sailor Moon?

You don't know...

What do you do?

>Stand ready at the top of the stairs with your knife. You aren't hiding!
>Hide! You don't know who it is! roll 3d6+2, DC???
>Escape! Get back to the abandoned office and go out the window! Roll 3d6, dc 11
>write in

>>4953233
>>Stand ready at the top of the stairs with your knife. You aren't hiding!
We got a knife, they probably don’t, hopefully

>>4953233
>>Hide! You don't know who it is! roll 3d6+2, DC???

Rolled 4, 4, 2 + 2 = 12 (3d6 + 2)

>>4953233
>Hide! You don't know who it is! roll 3d6+2, DC???

We aren’t very tough, it’s probably a good idea to hide and see who’s investigating the ruckus first.

I would also like to comment... that I am willing to injure you pretty badly if you take super reckless moves and fail your roll, like attacking the Monster of the Week head on without gaining the requisite powers to do so.

You didn't assist Sailor Moon or find out what happened to your childhood friend Tomio on the ground floor because you took the less time optimal options.

Ruka would have realized if you had chosen the option to case the building on Monday that the roof was pointless as an entry point and note the 3rd floor window as an entry point instead. This in turn would have saved her a lot of time if she took this entry point as an option on Tuesday.

High risk options or time consuming options don't always have a pay off.

>>4953287
These are good points QM, though they are made from the perspective of someone with all of the information in hand. It’s easy to plan out an “optimal” route when you have all the notes and know roughly what is going to happen with each route. Not unlike playing a TTRPG module for the third or fourth time, or any kind of adventure game or even a VN.

But for someone doing a “blind” playthrough like us players, this might not be readily apparent. Not only that, but we have to think in terms of what would make sense for Ruka. There was a chance that spooky shit was going on in the fortune teller’s building, but it could have very easily been a red herring too, resulting in time being “wasted” by scouting out a building with no relevance to the monster of the week. In this case, we didn’t assist Sailor Moon directly, but you just said that you’d injure Ruka pretty heavily if she tried to take on a Monster of The Week without proper powers or preparation. So didn’t we do the right thing in the end?

While I do agree that players can get kind of reckless and rely on crits to save the day if they get too used to it, having a quest start out slow paced but then warn the players that they’re going to have to carefully optimize their daily actions to prepping for the monster of the week or investigations can result in drastic tonal shift. As players (and by extension, Ruka) start to become hyper vigilant, and not care about fluff votes (like spending the day with dad) or interacting with any cast member that isn’t directly related to the problem at hand. Or meta gaming and only interacting with important canon NPCs.

Not saying that we shouldn’t be careful, but at the same time there should be some room for mistakes or voting for Ruka doing normal things.

>>4953233
>>Hide! You don't know who it is! roll 3d6+2, DC???

Rolled 3, 4, 6 + 2 = 15 (3d6 + 2)

>>4953431

also when ruka meets somone like a cult leader things are going to go apeshit, i expet the finest of ultraviolence

Rolled 1, 5, 3 + 2 = 11 (3d6 + 2)

>>4953233
>Hide! You don't know who it is! roll 3d6+2, DC???

>>4953308
>You didn't assist Sailor Moon or find out what happened to your childhood friend Tomio on the ground floor because you took the less time optimal options.

To add to this, if there are set pieces or story beats that you really want the players to be present for, you can always shuffle around the encounters and fudge stuff a bit to lead to that moment. Players are well known for going off the rails and doing stuff that defies even the most byzantine of plans.

You may also want to beware of adding in default options that are nearly impossible to try and roll for. Players have a tendency to try and gather information before doing anything that can be seen as reckless, and they might not always pay attention to the numbers.

I'll have to keep everyone's advice in mind as I write the quest then.

In any case! posting time!

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You don't know who it is. Given the weirdness of what just happened, you decide on your age old first choice whenever you don't feel like dealing with something.

Hide.

Which is actually much easier said than done. There isn't a lot of hiding places in the hallway and the most obvious hiding space is the abandoned office right behind you. Except that there isn't any place in there to really hide. Indeed, this entire floor is not suitable for hiding, a quick search would reveal you. What will the unknown person coming up the stairs do?

You try to predict the likeliest course of action. They'll obviously poke around the fading shattered crystal slivers and vines at your feet for a few seconds. Then they'll look into the abandoned office because the door is open. Afterwards, they might search the hallway or the other office next.

You conclude you can't hide here on this floor because of a lack of hiding spaces.

You make a snap decision. If you can't hide on the 3rd floor, then you need get down to the 2nd floor somehow. If you can do that, hiding options increases or you can retreat straight down to the 1st floor. You just need to distract whoever was coming up the stairs long enough to have time to retreat down the stairs.

You cross the hallway towards the second office to your left, swiftly and carefully avoiding the slowly fading vines and crystal fragments at your feet. It is astonishing to see the detritus disappear before your eyes and into thin air. There's still a lot of it on the ground though, it seems it might take a few more minutes to fade away completely.

You try the door on the second office, it is unlocked and you open it. You don't enter into it, instead you open the door just wide enough to suggest someone retreated into it and leave it that way. Your hope is that whoever was coming up would be distracted by the obviously recently opened door and enter it to search that next rather than the hallway. In the time they are looking, you will have time to slip out of your hiding place and go down the stairs.

Your temporary hiding place is in between the two offices. It is very uncomfy and by an abandoned desk that had been left in a small hallway between the two offices. It must have been used as a temporary storage place since abandoned desks and chairs clutter it thoroughly.

This is the best you can do in such short notice. The searcher might be more thorough and cautious and check the hallways before proceeding to the second office. But that is a calculated risk you are willing to take.

You crouch by the desk, tense and ready to get moving as soon as you sense the unknown person comes to search the second office.

'Hey Azul, stay on the 2nd floor. I'm going to be retreating downstairs!' You mentally order your penguin. There's a faint affirmative feeling from below.

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>>4954649
The wait is the most difficult hard part of this. You listen carefully as you hear the footsteps stop at the top of the stairs. There seems to be only one person, feet scuff the floor where the remains of the strange supernatural orb you destroyed lies.

The second difficult part of this gambit was to resist the temptation of using your mirror to reflect around the corner of the desk and see who it is. You can't take the risk of pulling it out and looking because you need to make sure you're completely hidden.

You hear someone enter the abandoned office for a quick search and come out from it.

So now you have to hope that whoever it was would go straight to the second office. You keep your eyes peeled, you can see a bit of the hallway from your angle.

That's when you see him as he swiftly crosses towards the door you left open. It was that weirdo Tuxedo Mask guy. You hear his footsteps pause at the door to open it wider and then take a step in.

The second he did that, you rush from your hiding space as quietly as possible. You move far quicker than you thought, narrowly avoiding making any sound over the shattered crystal and vines that are still fading away.

Success! You are down now onto the 2nd floor. You quickly look around to see where Azul is.

You see a solitary blue flipper sticking up from behind a desk. He had been hiding within the old style Japanese office layout. The numbers of desks to hide behind is great, he choose a great place to wait.

You join by swiftly hiding behind the same desk he is at; the angle allows you to monitor the stairs. You wait for a few minutes, but Tuxedo Mask doesn't come back down.

You puzzle over that but then you realize that if he wanted to leave, he would just get out of the window you had entered from.

"Well buddy, I think it's safe to come out." You say to Azul, who nods vigorously.

You slowly creep out from your hiding place.

What do you do?

>Before going down the stairs, check out the 2nd floor door. Seems it hasn't been opened, maybe something weird is behind it?
>Before going down the stairs, go up to the 3rd floor and see if Tuxedo Mask is up there.
>Go straight down to the 1st floor immediately and see what happened
>Write in

>>4954653
>>Go straight down to the 1st floor immediately and see what happened
Let’s just find out what happened downstairs

>>4954653
>Go straight down to the 1st floor immediately and see what happened
Have Azul watch out back while we investigate. Maybe we can still catch Sailor Moon and have her investigate the unexplored area on the second floor with us?

>>4954653
>Go straight down to the 1st floor immediately and see what happened

>>4954653
>Go straight down to the 1st floor immediately and see what happened

Sorry for the delay everyone. I won't be able to post right now. Hopefully I'll feel better enough to post the next part tomorrow in the morning over here.

>>4956041
Take care of yourself, Crescent. We’ll be here.

>>4956041
be well! take care of yourself so the QM curse has less opportunity to strike

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If there’s no more danger or weirdness on the 3rd floor, then you can head downstairs right now.

‘Hey Azul, keep watch on the stairs to see if anyone comes down. I’m going downstairs to check things out!’ You tell your penguin through mental communication. The fact you can both verbally and mentally communicate with your partner in crime is super useful, if you had to always verbalize then everyone around you would start thinking you were crazy for talking to empty air.

There is a nod from the blue avian, and he trains his beady eyes on the stairs with an intensity that would have been hilarious if the situation had been a little different. You get up from your hiding place and speedily go down the stairs.

You weren’t sure what you were expecting to see when you got downstairs, but seeing that the boys of your school are all getting ready to leave building was not one of them. They all look rather baffled and had been talking amongst themselves as they were walking out of what you assume is the fortune teller’s room.

“Why are we here? I mean, I don’t remember coming here at all.”
“Can’t believe I got to see Sailor Moon! You think she’s single?”
“Oh I can’t believe I’m wearing a suit. And it’s so late! I got to get back home!”

That last bit line was by Umino Gurio who looks rather horrified at what he was wearing rather than his usual school uniform.

“Is that you Ruka?” Tomio stops mid step and is staring at you paused on the stairs. The boys turns to look at you on the stairs with confusion.

You cannot help but stare at the boys. They look different, hold themselves differently and seem much more relaxed rather than ready to fight everyone. Tomio doesn’t have that strange hard look in his eyes or angry scowl on his face. Instead he is bright, happy and rather oblivious looking as usual.

“Whoa, you’re super dusty looking.” Another boy notes.

You look down at your usually white uniform and see that there are smudges of dust and dirt on it from all your exertions. It seems you’ll have to clean you uniform tonight or else. You feel somewhat annoyed.

“I’ve been through some weird events…” You answer.

“Well can’t be as weird as ours.” Tomio opines.

“Yeah, we saw Sailor Moon. Like, she did a quick hi and then bye routine. Left us all alone in there.” Yuuji points into the fortune teller’s room. You walk over to look inside, you see that the purple cloth festooning the ceiling of the hallway is the same in the room itself. There is an empty throne-like chair and table at the back where readings were done.

“Hey…. Where’s the lady doing the fortune telling?” You ask, you remember the pale skin dark haired lady who could see through Azul’s invisibility. She is nowhere to be seen.

“That’s what we’d like to know.” A boy answers back.

>>4956621
“Whatever guys, I’m out of here.” Another announces and begins walking out. A number of other boys including Gurio joins them. But Tomio remains behind, he stands by the doors and watches you look over the place.

You notice a few odd things but nothing that really tells you much. There are strange and numerous cuts in the wall, like a straight edge had been stabbed into them with a great deal of force. As you walk around, you feel your feet disturb something on the floor. When you look down, you see that there are rose petals scattered about. The door has some sort of damage, there is a part that is flattened as though some great force had struck it to force it open.

“You notice anything weird?” Tomio asks with curiosity.

“Not much. Also I missed out on what happened, so I couldn’t begin to tell you.”

It seems that Sailor Moon had taken care of whatever was happening on the first floor while you were busy shattering that orb upstairs. Too bad.

“Hey, it’s getting late. We’d better get going too.” Your childhood friend says, he seems uninterested in continuing investigating.

“Aren’t you curious to find out what happened though?”

“I am… but me and the boys already searched the room and turned up nothing. I let you go on and search because you tend to notice stuff more than most people but I can see you didn’t find much either.”

Grrr… He’s right.

What will you do next?

>Convince Tomio to go check out the other floors and explain why.
>Walk home with Tomio, you need to clean your uniform at home. Call down Azul from the 2nd floor.
>Tell Tomio to go on ahead home, you need to check some things out here.
>write in

>>4956623
>>Tell Tomio to go on ahead home, you need to check some things out here.

>>4956623
>>Tell Tomio to go on ahead home, you need to check some things out here.

>>4956623
>Tell Tomio to go on ahead home, you need to check some things out here.

Now that I think about it, Azul showed interest in the fortune teller place when everyone was getting mind controlled or whatever. Maybe he can give us a hint if there's something spooky behind that 2nd floor door?

>>4956623
>Tell Tomio to go on ahead home, you need to check some things out here.

>>4956648
>>4956682
>>4957290
>>4957298
Okay, it's time to convince your childhood friend to go home!

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There's still the upper floors you want to investigate.

"I'll pass going home right now, there's something I still want to investigate here. Go home without me."

Tomio looks unimpressed.

"What? Something you still want to investigate? Like what?... Wait a sec, you were upstairs weren't you? What could possibly be up there that you want to investigate?" Tomio has once again demonstrated an unwanted flash of perceptiveness. Looks like you'll have to give him a reason to leave so that you can get on with your investigation alone with Azul.

Also you want to tell him the truth of what happened earlier today at school. You still wince to remember his venomous contempt of girls and being framed by him. It still makes you mad but it wasn't his fault, he seemed to have been brainwashed. It was like what had happened at Osaka Jewelry with that weird mind controlling jewelry.

"You should be more worried about what the school is going to do to you and the other guys tomorrow. You made Ms. Haruna cry, disrupted class, broke the windows to the teacher's lounge and ditched school for the rest of the afternoon."

"... What?" It was really the only eloquent response that the tall boy could offer.

"What do you remember about today? Do you remember anything at all?" You ask.

Tomio cannot answer, there is a dawning look of realization and a horror at the blank of his memory.

So you explain to him the events of the day in more detail. As you give more details, his face turns more dismayed and scared.

"Ruka, I don't think... I don't remember any of that. I don't remember what I did at all today." There is a note of panic in Tomio's voice. To be told he was doing things and not remembering them was incredibly unnerving. It's not surprising he sounds a bit scared too.

"I figured that, I wish the other guys stayed. I would have liked to give them a heads up too. Let me give you something. It's today's class notes, you can copy mine."

You reach into your school bag and grab the notes you had meticulously made to give to him.

"Here, copy these. Also get ready to get reamed by the teachers tomorrow for what happened."

He takes it out of your hand mechanically and puts it in his school bag. There is a parade of emotions running through his face.

"I think I can get catch up with some of the guys to give them a heads up." Tomio gets ready to run out the door.

"If they don't believe you, just ask them to try and remember what they did today. If you can't remember, then they probably can't either." You give Tomio a tip to help him out.

"Ruka... you mentioned that we walked off school grounds soon after lunch. Just what were we doing during that entire time we weren't at school or here?"

"I don't know. Sorry, I stayed in school."

There is a silence between the two of you. It is truly creepy to realize that some supernatural thing had hijacked Tomio and the other's memories and body for whatever reason.

>>4957522
"I'll see you tomorrow Ruka, good luck with your investigation." Tomio whispers as he dashes off to find the boys who left the building.

You didn't tell Tomio all the details. There was no reason to let him know that he insulted you or that he shoved a rock into your hand to frame you. It wasn't necessary.

You are now alone in the creepy abandoned office slash fortune telling den with Azul on the second floor. You don't feel excited at all, just weary.

'Azul, let's begin from the top of the building.' You feel a faint pulse of acknowledgement.

The third floor doesn't reveal much. The strange shattered orb and vines have completely disappeared. Not a trace of them remains. Even bringing out your small lapis lazuli stone does nothing. The stone is inert as though it hadn't been brightly shining a few minutes ago. Other details of the third floor are also not very interesting; you note from footprints in the dust that Tuxedo Mask had briefly searched the second office when you had made your escape to the second floor.

Also, it appears that you were right in your guess that he had left through the window in the abandoned office. It is now closed, like it had never been opened at all.

The second floor isn't all that exciting too. The place was mostly an open Japanese style office where the manager could oversee his workers from his desk. The papers were a year old and yellowed with age, there were no personal items or any valuables. The dust is thick and the abandoned air of it begins to creep you out.

All that's left now is the closed room and you don't expect to find much in there. After all, everything else in the abandoned office building is mundane. It's as if nothing supernatural had happened at all.

"Let's get this over with Azul and go home." You feel so frustrated, despite being so observant there was nothing that really stood out.

You get the brilliant idea of testing out something. Those strange watery hands, how did you manage to do that? You look at your down at your hands and then the doorknob.

You want to experiment and see if you can summon it again. Maybe test it out and have it open this doorknob. You take a few steps back from the door and extend your right hand and concentrate.

You strain and sweat but your right hand begins to shimmer. The sound of running water reaches your ears and you hand is covered with water. It is remarkably hard to summon, and you feel a bit exhausted. To get used to this, you'll need to practice. It is hard to get the water hand to detach from you and make its slow journey to the doorknob.

You feel the doorknob in your hand despite not actually touching it with your real hand. You carefully twist in the motion of opening the door.

Success!

But you are out of breath. That took quite a bit out of you. You take a few deep breaths as Azul widens the door for you to let you look in.

The sight surprises you.

Money.

File: yen.jpg (1.93 MB, 1500x1101)

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>>4957528
There is money carelessly strewn about in the room, as though whoever had stashed it in there couldn't care less about the bills and coins they had. There are small piles of yen coins and money bills laying about.

You are a low middle class kid, you've never seen a lot of money gathered in one place before.

Wait a second.... the fortune teller was charging 500 yen for each reading, could this money have been hers?

Azul looks eagerly at the pile of money before jumping into the room to begin scooping it up. His flippers are having trouble holding it.

Whoa, your partner in crime is actually committing a crime!

What do you do?

>Stop Azul! You're committing a serious crime!
>... Help Azul by looking for a bag or something to stash the cash.
>...Start taking as much money as you can put in your school bag.
>write in

>>4957530
Firstly, let’s see if Azul has some kind of hammer space that he can store stuff in. He doesn’t exactly have a backpack or something for all of those magazines he carries around, after all.

If he does, then let’s see if we can’t find a bag or something for the cash, and have him hold onto it. Even if we can’t access all of it at once, having a steady supply of change might come in handy.

>>4957530
I can get behind this >>4957662 although let’s grab a little bit of cash, around a street hustler’s amount, and put in our bra or socks

>>4957713
I realized what I wrote might be a little vague so just to be clear, while doing what anon said we should also be grabbing some cash ourselves to put on our person, just bills no coins

>>4957530
>write in
have conflicting emotions: on one hand, money on the other, this is a crime but the previous owner is dead so is it just up for grabs?

>>4957806
It was a legit business transaction, though with nefarious intent on the part of the fortune teller. Probably.

On the other hand, it could ease the financial burden that Ruka and her father might have. Being a single parent can be tough.

>>4957662
>>4957713
>>4957806
Seems like everyone wants to see how exactly Azul is going to carry the money and maybe taking a bit for themselves.

>>4957906
in any case if azul uses it all to aquire pornographic material we ARE going to kick his ass THOROUGHLY

File: yen briefcase.jpg (160 KB, 1300x953)

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There is something comical about the entire scene. You are watching a cartoonish oversized blue penguin running about in a room full of scattered money, flippers full of coins and bills without a care in the world. The avian is a blur as it runs about gathering the cash and putting it into neat piles on the floor. Inhumanly fast, you are standing and watching with fascination at how fast your partner can actually move when he wants to.

"...Azul... You're a penguin. How exactly are you going to go about spending that money or even walking out of here with it?" You actually can't help but be curious and conflicted about the entire thing. I mean, money is money but it isn't yours. It seems strange thinking how this theft is a serious crime in the first place. You already committed a crime by entering the building from the 3rd floor window, it was definitely breaking and entering.

The penguin pauses in its looting and stares at you. You could swear there is a madness in its eyes that was going 'how can you ask that! It's wealth! Loot! Treasure! Plunder! Our rightful claim to the capitalist pigdogs ill-gotten wealth through their illicit ownership to the means of production and lopsided allocation of resources'. If it was possible, Azul's eyes would be full of yen signs. He is panting with exhaustion from the sheer physical effort of swiftly gather all the money.

By all, you mean all of it. You realize that Azul has in the space of a minute seems to have grabbed every coin and bill in the room, and put them into neat piles that can safely be put away into some sort of bag or container. He raises his flipper to ensure you are paying attention to him as he deftly grabs a small roll of coins and then swallows it.

He ate the coins. And he looks proud of it.

"Wait... if you eat the money, how are you going to get the money out of your stomach when you want to use it!?"

Azul shrugs his shoulder and lifts with flippers in such a way that you realize... he can't get that money out of himself? Really? Don't penguins have the ability to swallow fish and vomit it back up when needed? Then again, he's not really a penguin but rather he looks like one.

Wait, did Azul eat the porn magazines he grabbed and then vomited them up when he wanted to give them to you? It was an amazingly gross idea but you don't recall him eating those magazines at all. He actually struggled with the length of the walk home by carrying them under his flipper or carefully balanced on his head.

He also ate those Nightmares, and surely they all go to the same place...

You immediately search out a bag or something in the room for Azul to store the money. You find an old worn black briefcase in the room with latches that still worked. It wasn't one with a combination luckily so you can use this to store the money.

>>4957937
Azul piles the coins and bills into it. It is now all in there, you are about to close it and latch it when you decide that a bit of cash would be super nice. You are going to have to go to the laundromat and wash some clothing today. You grab a few loose bills and coins for yourself and put it into your school bag. You don't know how much money was in the briefcase but the coins make the thing very heavy.

You close and latch the briefcase and Azul immediately grabs it. With a bit of help from you, it now rests on his head for transport. His powers of invisibility will be able to extend the briefcase to hide it from the sight of other people.

You have a briefcase of money

There's nothing else to do in the building, and it's getting late. You and Azul walk out of the building through the back door and walk through the alleyway to get back on to the streets of Juuban shopping district. When you do so, you feel something very odd. Azul also felt it.

You turn to look at the building, and realize that the large garish sign 'House of Fortune' on the front was gone. It had disappeared along with evidence that there had been a fortune telling service. The hallway no longer has the purple cloth overhanging from the ceiling and the smaller sign listing the services and cost of a reading is gone too.

You see a few customers at the front of the building attempting to find the fortuneteller business but are completely confused. It was a good thing you went through the back door rather than the front.

You make your escape and go back to your apartment. You need to get out of your school uniform and into something clean.

When you do so, you begin to take stock of the situation and decide that...

>You need to do mundane things first. You had enough with supernatural things for the moment. Cook dinner, meal prep breakfast/lunch, wash dirty clothing, etc
>Help Azul count his money, he's already in your bedroom and glorying in his newfound wealth.
>Chill and watch tv, you don't want to do anything
>Call up a friend. Tomio? Aya? Maybe Naru or Usagi?

>>4957942
>>You need to do mundane things first. You had enough with supernatural things for the moment. Cook dinner, meal prep breakfast/lunch, wash dirty clothing, etc
don't forget to headpat the penguin

>>4957942
>You need to do mundane things first. You had enough with supernatural things for the moment. Cook dinner, meal prep breakfast/lunch, wash dirty clothing, etc
> Call up a friend. Tomio? Aya? Maybe Naru or Usagi?

Maybe call up Tomio as we do mundane tasks that don’t require a lot of attention, he might need a sympathetic ear if he acted as weirdly in his home life as he did at school.

Maybe also ask Azul if he has any reasonable cooking requests. He did put himself in the line of danger today, he deserves something special.

>>4957942
>>You need to do mundane things first. You had enough with supernatural things for the moment. Cook dinner, meal prep breakfast/lunch, wash dirty clothing, etc
I hope Azul can keep the money secure, don’t want anyone to find it and start asking questions

>>4957948
>>4957958
>>4958051
You don't have time for supernatural shit.

>>4958401
I mean, I guess we could try flexing our phantom/watery hand while we’re folding laundry or something. It’d be good low stakes practice/dexterity training.

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After the events of the day, you don't feel like dealing with weird supernatural stuff or with the proceeds of crime. You want to immerse yourself in daily life and pretend for a few moments that you hadn't done some pretty outrageous things today.

But first thing first, you want to know if Azul would like to have pork or fish for dinner. You knock on your own bedroom door to announce yourself to Azul. You can hear the clattering of coins on coins in there and it isn't stopping.

"Hey Azul, I'm coming in. It's about dinner..." You say this as you open the door to your own bedroom and the words die in your mouth as you see what exactly your penguin buddy is doing.

He has scattered the coins and bills on your bedroom floor and is rolling in it with joy. He doesn't stop rolling in it despite your staring.

"... Uh... is that even comfortable to do?"

Your penguin stops rolling about at your question and stands up. He shakes his head to confirm a negative, it wasn't comfortable.

"... Can I try?" You ask. The penguin nods happily and get out of the way.

Despite the fact your penguin had just told you that rolling on the money was uncomfortable, you didn't realize that it was actually painful. The money isn't in an even layer, there are small piles of coins and the bills aren't soft when lying flat on the ground. The uneven pile dips and digs into your body in odd ways. You roll once and decide that it was enough that you don't want to do it again.

"Well I guess I can check off 'rolling in money' off the list of things I've always wanted to do. Anyways, Azul, do you want fish or pork. Raise right flipper for fish, left flipper for pork."

There is no hesitation at all. He raises his right flipper for fish.

"You want yours raw then? Right for raw, left for cooked."

Azul beams happily and raises his right flipper for raw.

You chuckle and give him a headpat.

"You were brave today, my friend. That fortuneteller could see you. I'm going to assume in the future that anyone who can penetrate your invisibility without you touching them is a weirdo with powers or an enemy."

You close the door to your bedroom. You're sure that once Azul gets tired of playing with his money, he'll pack it away and hide it. He did hide his porn magazines somewhere somehow.

You get back to cooking dinner. Your father is going to come home late tonight because of his asshole boss. Hopefully he won't be completely drunk. You set aside a small portion of dinner for your dad just in case.

Now what to do about tomorrow. You feel bad that you didn't wake up in time to make breakfast. You better pre make breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. It'll be easier on the two of you in the long run and save on time. It's a good thing you have cooking skills that are better than the average teen, otherwise you're pretty sure that the food you cooked would have been terrible.

Lunch and breakfast are prepared for tomorrow!

>>4958437
Azul soon comes out of your bedroom as you set down dinner. He is overjoyed to see raw sardines on his plate. Before he begins eating, sets down some money on the table.

"Huh? What is that? Is that supposed to be my share?" You ask as you pick up the bills and coins.

The penguins nods and begins eating. It seems you have some cash. It's enough to make pay for groceries this week and let you play a few rounds of Street Fighter. Maybe something extra like pay for the materials needed to give your knife a handle.

Man, having money is so nice...

Next is laundry, you have to get your uniform clean by tomorrow. You throw in your father's clothing too. His suit needed cleaning badly. The sour smell of vomit clings to his suit and it can't wait any longer.

It'll take about 40 minutes for the wash cycle to be done. During the time you're waiting, you better go and call Tomio to see how he's doing.

You pick up the phone and begin dialing. It doesn't take long before the phone is picked up. You recognize the voice is Mrs. Harada.

"Hello Mrs. Harada, may I speak to Tomio?"

The woman on the other end of the line sound upset, the way she greets you upon hearing your voice.

"Is this Houseki?" There is a hostility you did not expect at all.

How are you going to defuse the hostility?

>Cheerfully ignore her hostility, and confirm your identity.
>Ask if something happened, and note you wanted to check if Tomio has copied your class notes.
>Ask if something is wrong to Mrs. Harada
>write in

>>4958438
>Ask if something is wrong to Mrs. Harada

>>4958438
>>Ask if something is wrong to Mrs. Harada

>>4958438
>Ask if something is wrong to Mrs. Harada

I wonder if Ruka remembers that Usagi saw Azul

>>4958438
>>Ask if something is wrong to Mrs. Harada
>>4958755
she probably does i mean she DID yell about it

>>4958806
Only after Azul poked her. Which apparently breaks his invisibility to whom ever he touches. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if Ruka erroneously reached this conclusion without knowing about Usagi’s status as a magical girl.

>>4958864
Do we know for a fact that contact breaks the invisibility? I mean I don't think wee have had anyone else getting touched by Azur and seeing him

>>4958468
>>4958512
>>4958755
>>4958806
Try to ask what's wrong.

>>4958869

Nope. Usagi is the only person that Ruka tried it on, and we all know that she's the most normal person around.

Tomio's mom never did like you much. She had always thought of you as a bad influence on Tomio. Yet she had always feigned politeness whenever you spoke to her, you don't know what had changed.

... Actually given the way Tomio acted today at school, you guess that he had acted in a similarly shit manner at home due to the weirdness. In that case, you just happen to be an obvious source for it in the eyes of Mrs. Harada.

But to be polite, you had better ask the woman.

"Yes Mrs. Harada, um, is something wrong?"

You quickly discovered this was the wrong question to ask to the obviously upset woman.

"Wrong? WRONG?! My son has been getting up to trouble at school and at home! I hold you, Houseki Ruka, responsible for it! Why..."

In the background of the phone call, you can hear the faint shouts of Tomio.

"Mom, mom! Calm down! I can take the call! MOM!" It seems like a million miles of way, you don't hear any more because Mrs. Harada hangs up on you.

Beep... Beep... Beep...

You hang up the phone on your end. Maybe there was a way to convince and calm Mrs. Harada down but you can't really think of anything.

You go back to cleaning up the apartment, taking out the trash and bringing in the fresh laundry. It's about 8 p.m., you aren't sure where Azul is. You had taken a look into your bedroom and saw that your floor is clear of money but no sign of Azul and the black briefcase.

You did a quick search around your room but realize that Azul is not in and there's no evidence he had hidden the briefcase or his porn magazines in your room. What the heck?

What are you going to do for the next few hours.

Choose only 2

>Practice summoning 'Distant Hands' to fold the laundry.
>Update your journal about today's weirdness.
>Go out for a walk, maybe work out a bit outside
>Seriously search for Azul, he has to be around somewhere!
>Watch TV and relax
>Call someone, Aya, Naru, Usagi, Gurio, etc etc.
>Go do some night grocery shopping, today is Egg Discount day
>Spend some time and money at Cafe Leblanc, they're open on Tuesday evening for events

>>4958932
>Practice summoning 'Distant Hands' to fold the laundry.
>Update your journal about today's weirdness.

>>4958932
>>Update your journal about today's weirdness.
>>Practice summoning 'Distant Hands' to fold the laundry.

>>4958932
>Go out for a walk, maybe work out a bit outside
>Practice summoning 'Distant Hands' to fold the laundry.

>>4958932
>>Practice summoning 'Distant Hands' to fold the laundry.
>>Update your journal about today's weirdness.

>>4959007
>>4959013
>>4959025
>>4959158
time to practice weird powers and write about weird events

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It'll be time for bed soon. Going outside for a bit seemed a bit tempting but you've got some things to do first.

Like folding laundry.

You decide to do your father's clothing first since he won't have time until the weekend to really fold them and put them away. You've gotten used to the whole procedure but it is always a challenge to properly put your dad's suits away in their appropriate place in his bedroom. His bedroom is super small, just like yours, and there isn't a lot of space for superfluous stuff. You have to make sure you get the suits on the hangers just right and then maneuver them into the closet at the right location to fit them in.

There's no space for a desk in here, if he needs to work on something from work, he goes to the kitchen table and works there. You are lucky that your tiny bedroom has just enough space for a desk that you can write and study in private.

As for your clothing.... well, you want to test out your weird powers and finesse them. The last time you used it to open the door, it was tough.

Summoning the weird watery hands is easier this time. You just concentrate to summon them for both your hands. And then you get to work on folding your clothing while being physically distanced. You are surprised that the water doesn't wet the clothing or whatever you touch. A good thing too, you need to wear your uniform tomorrow!

As long as you concentrate, the weird water hands continue to operate but the moment you let yourself get distracted the entire thing disappears.

It was also odd, folding clothing from a distance. You can feel the clothing through the water hands but it's difficult to get exact folds. It must be the distance between you and the clothing, if you had everything in front of you, it'd be much easier and accurate.

Skill in 'Distant Hands' increases

You manage to fold everything.

And it was exhausting. You decide that it is best to take things easy tonight and just get ready to bed. While you were showering and brushing your teeth though, you remember you should update your journal.

It is going to be a long entry. You make sketches of the vines and shining orb, Tuxedo Mask, the brainwashed boys and the Fortuneteller while writing out the events. You even doodle Gurio wearing his suit. This Dream notebook is now pretty much your 'Dream and Sailor Moon' casebook. If you ever need to refer back to things that happened in the past, this was going to remind you.

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>>4959356
It is 10 pm by the time you are done. And Azul has not yet returned. Perhaps he'll appear again in the morning just like last time. You dad won't be home until after 10 pm again, there's nothing you can do now. But luckily things will be easier on the two of you because you got everything cleaned and prepped! No running out the door without breakfast again.

You turn in to sleep, all while wondering if you'll have a Dream, a Memory or a Nightmare.

The question doesn't take long in getting answered.

It seems you are having a Dream tonight. You are standing in a long hallway with chairs lining the wall, and on those chairs are a placard with a pointing hand telling you which way to go. It's a familiar door, the entrance to the Shadow Players' Theatre...

You guess the Shadow Players really don't want you to wander off again like last time, so they made directions super obvious. But...

>They aren't the boss of me! You go off in the opposite direction, ignoring the sign.
>You kind of deserved it, you better follow the signs and see what they want.

>>4959357
>You kind of deserved it, you better follow the signs and see what they want.

We just got done getting an earful of angry judgmental mom and had a full day of spooky shit and mundane chores. Let's just metaphysically relax a bit and see what the twins have in mind. Perhaps fate will be kind and have them be less cryptic about what they're trying to tell us this time around.

>>4959357
>>You kind of deserved it, you better follow the signs and see what they want.

>>4959357
>>You kind of deserved it, you better follow the signs and see what they want.

>>4959357
>They aren't the boss of me! You go off in the opposite direction, ignoring the sign.

>>4959423
>>4959378
>>4959369
>>4959367
Time to see a play! Hopefully less cryptic and more informative!

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You kind of deserved it when you decided going off on your own because of curiosity. The Nightmares are still out there too. No, it was best to go watch their show and hopefully you will not be completely baffled. Maybe they'll even be informative! You won't know until you get in to watch.

You follow the direction of the pointing and open the door. The sight that greets you is the same theatre that you had once sat in to watch their play. The same red chairs, the same strange playbills plastered on the back wall and the barebones stage where the performance is to take place. Once again, you are the only audience member. It would be nice if you had someone with you. Maybe Azul next time?

You take a seat but make sure you're close to the door, last time you were in here the place crumbled away and you had to scramble to get out of the place. There is no way that will take you off guard again!

The theatre darkens and strange music beings playing.

"Crash, smash, wash and boom!"

It has begun, there's a shadow pirate ship dominating the stage, a hand makes it bob up and down as though it is traveling through waves. Then it slowly pans out and gets smaller and smaller. You see that the pirate ship is being held by P-ko who is wearing a bandanna.

S-ko then gets on stage, dressed as a pirate with a hooked hand and nifty hat.

"Yohoho and a bottle of rum, my sweet matey! To the vast and raging unknown seas I go with my men! I as the Pirate queen search to plunder the treasures of the world! So much I have, yet there is still so much more to take." S-ko slashes the air with her hooked hand as she recites her line.

"But ma'am, oh dreaded piratey madam, just what are you truly searching for? All the treasures that pile up at your feet, all the jewels that glitter in your chest at home, all the gold that gleams cold and silent and yet we still rove these terrible seas! Are you not content? Do you not have all that you want?" P-ko says, she tosses the pirate ship out of her hand and begins rowing. There's a leak in the rowboat yet the two Shadow Girls ignore that their boat is actually sinking. Was this supposed to represent something?

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>>4959623
"What am I searching for? What do I want? Is that so very important?" S-Ko demands as she points a finger at the rowing P-ko.

"But ma'am, oh dreaded piratey madam, this is why you're still a pirate! To search and know! To want and satisfy! Otherwise why would we go amongst the lonely seas? Look at these rocky shoals and smoky fog around us, we do not know our way?" The boat they are on is noticeably getting low in the shadow water on stage. The two don't pay attention to that at all.

"What I truly want! Oh what do I truly want!?" The pirate S-ko makes a gesture to show she is thinking. Her hand is curled under her chin in puzzlement.

The shadow boat is sinking lower and lower until it is out of sight. When it does, the two Shadows spring up in panic.

"Avast ma'am, my dreaded piratey madam, the ship has foundered and sunk!" P-ko shouts and jumps into the water. S-ko soon follows after shaking her hooked hand in the air in frustration.

The two begin swimming in the shadow waves that spring up.

"I won't stop! This cannot stop me! I'll curse and struggle, fight and bite to get to what I truly want!" S-ko shouts as she swims.

"But what is it?!" P-ko asks once again.

At this, the stage goes completely dark. The sound waves and wind is all that you can hear.

....

Uh... how are you to interpret this play? Was this based on you? You can't really tell.

You should say something.

>Applause and comment "I don't get it, but it was entertaining".
>"Are you going to do a play every time I visit you?"
>"... I don't suppose you could answer some questions?"
>"... I conclude I am not a theatre kid. This was pretty boring."
>"BOOO! I want a play that's less allegorical!"
>write in

>>4959624
>"Are you going to do a play every time I visit you?"
>"... I don't suppose you could answer some questions?"
>write-in

>Politely clap with aqua hands before we ask our questions.

Are you open to constructive criticism? Not right now, but maybe at a later time after I've seen more of your plays? But at any rate, I think I get your meaning. Maybe. The bit about pirates was kind of random, unless you were talking about the money that we recovered earlier.

I just saw firsthand that whatever spooky stuff has entered my life is capable of stealing people's appearances, and overwriting people's personalities to make them little more than puppets. While that other sailor uniform girl and that other guy with the tuxedo seem to have things in hand, the pessimist in me tells me that things are just going to escalate from here. If I don't get serious and start cultivating whatever power slumbers within me, I might end up getting swallowed up by the sinister forces that I'm now very aware of. Am I somewhere near the mark?

So tell me, playwrights...

1.) In whose interests do you exercise your power?
2.) To whom are you accountable?
3.) Why are you interested in me over others?
4.) What do you specifically gain from helping me over others?
5.) How can I tap into whatever power I have and train it up so I can protect myself, my friends and my family from these forces that are terrorizing us?
6.) If I decide to fight back and this enemy starts noticing me, will my power be able to grow enough for me to handle whatever they throw my way?
7.) What would be the cost of such power?

>>4959715
that's good enough for me

>>4959624
>>Applause and comment "I don't get it, but it was entertaining".
stuff's going down and Ruka really do just be wandering around questioning herself
what is her goal? what is important to her? her family, her friends, her life, her knife, but would she give something up to know what's going on with Dream and Memory? she does want to know. it's the first thing the quest showed us. she wanted to know and it was only the years of Memory repetition that drove her to disregard her nighttime vision. and now they're changing. I think Ruka wants to know, more than anything else.

>>4959624
>>4959715 works for me

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Hm, well you should clap at least. Oh, you have an opportunity to show off too! You concentrate to summon the Distant Hands to form right above your head. Then you motion it to clap. It makes a sort of strange watery splash noise with each clap rather than a sharp hollow sound typically expected. It is still hard to get the movement right unless you move your real hands along with it, you tried to keep your hands still on your lap but the water hand didn't respond quickly.

The lights flash on and you see the two Shadows bow to accept the applause on stage.

"Are you going to do a play every time I visit you?" This is your second visit, and you got to watch a second play. So next time will it be the same?

"Oh, would you like us to? We can do that if you want!" The Shadows sounds happy, they must think you're open to watching only these sorts of plays every time you get to the Theatre. Did this mean they were going to do more than just their own plays?

"Whoa there, I mean, if you got other stuff planned that aren't plays then I'm open to watching those and giving some comment on them in the future. It's just, I don't know what to really think of this one you just did... The pirate bit, is that supposed to represent how I looted a bunch of money with Azul?"

"I wonder, I wonder, there are so many players on the stage outside the Theatre!" P-ko declaims, suddenly both P-Ko and S-Ko transform into what seems like a stereotypical prince and princess. They twirl and hum to show off.

"Princes and Princesses! Witches and knights! Friends and family!" They both proclaim. At one point, you think they take the shape of your dad's silhouette.

Wait, are they spying on everyone?!

"Can I ask you a few questions? Are you watching everyone who hangs around me?" You choke with indignation. You can't help but be creeped out too. It's one thing that weird spooky stuff is happening to you, it's another thing entirely to learn these Shadows are stalking your father or friends.

"Tis the ignoble part of being a playwright. Got to get our material, got to see and follow as shadows, got to play our part!" S-Ko explains.

"And your part is?" You press.

"To expound and to display! For Elysium, lost and found and lost once more, forgotten by all. Forgotten but not yet dead. The true actors of the World have been born to the play their parts."

The two Shadows are now still. They were answering your questions but man, are they cryptic as hell.

"So then... what's my part? I got spooky stuff in my life and there's spooky stuff happening around me. People getting brainwashed and made into puppets. Oh there's that Sailor Moon girl and that Tuxedo Mask guy running around but are they going to be enough to deal with the problems that are happening? Will I have to get involved?"

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>>4960904
"Why your part is simple. Whatever part you want! Your fate is your own, you get to write the play of your life. You don't have to be a hero! You don't have to be a villain! You don't even have to do a thing, though I must admit our material on you would be quite dull if you go that route."

"Hold up! Doing nothing is not possible. My friends have already gotten hit with the crazy supernatural stuff that's happening. I am not going to let myself get jerked around or let my loved ones get hurt when I can put a stop to it."

The Shadows turn to look at each other before turning back to you.

"Then play the part you see fit. We can't dictate to you what to do!"

Man, S-Ko and P-Ko are being super obtuse. Maybe if you get super specific they'll answer.

"Why me? Why are you interested in specifically me?"

"We didn't choose to get interested in you specifically. It's just that all the other Dreamers Awakened, they didn't stay long here. Oh how we miss having a bigger audience. But it was in and out for most, they weren't theatre going types. You are not yet Awake, so you can come into the Dreams. You might Awaken too one day, and when you do... Well... I guess the Theatre is going to be silent and boring again."

You feel it, so do the Shadows. The Dream is ending, already from the corner of your eye the Theatre is fading away.

"GAH! One last question! If I fight back, will I be able to gain enough power to handle the enemies!?" You shout as you rise from your seat and head to the exit.

"We aren't able to tell you that. But you do have more to gain, more to discover, more to suffer, whichever role you choose to take." Then S-Ko and P-Ko fade away from the stage.

You don't bother to hang around either, you open the door to leave. You just wish you could ask what cost gaining powers was going to have on you and so much more but there's no time left.

You open your eyes, surprisingly well rested despite the early hour. You turn your head towards your alarm clock and see that it is 7 a.m. School is at 8:30 a.m., you aren't going to be late today. You get up from your bed, and see that Azul is back. He is waiting in the corner of your bedroom... reading a porn magazine.

"Dude, I'm awake. Put that away please!" You beg Azul.

Your penguin doesn't ignore your request, he stops and simply tucks the magazine under his flipper. He does a happy wave to you as though to say good morning.

"One day, you are going to have to show me where you go off hiding. I didn't see you at all last night after dinner." You mutter as you get dressed.

Your dad is still asleep it seems. You don't know when he came home last night but he needs to get up soon for work. You figure you better go and wake him up now.

>>4960919
You cross the hall to your dad's bedroom, and give the door a light knock. No answer, so you push the door open and see your dad sprawled in bed. He's dead to the world, and wearing his pyjamas in a haphazard fashion.

"Hey dad, it's time to get up." You say to him. No answer.

Oh man, time for drastic measures.

What do you do?

>Shout at him
>Shake him awake
>Drop a wet towel on his face
>Loudly bang a pot and pan

>>4960921
>Shake him awake
>Drop a wet towel on his face

>>4960921
>>Shake him awake
Super tempted to go for the wet towel and shouting at him but that’s a bit mean

>>4960921
>Shake him awake
If that doesn't work then
>Drop a wet towel on his face

>>4960921
>Shake him awake

>>4960921
>>Shake him awake
noise might disturb the neighbors, water takes time to dry

It seems shake to see if he wakes up! And if that fails, a small wet towel on his face.

Hopefully I can get this posted soon.

File: 11-crystal.jpg (41 KB, 498x280)

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You don't want to make a lot of noise, after all the walls of the apartment is pretty thin and the neighbours might still be sleeping. So you try to shake your dad awake, it's critical he wakes up in time so he can get ready for work. You being late for school is unfortunate and the punishment is minor but your dad being late for work is extremely serious and gets him written up by the Ministry. The life of a Japanese civil servant is pretty harsh.

The shaking sort of works, your dad's eyes are open but are glazed over with sleep. It's hard to know if he actually sees you or realizes you're standing right in front of him.

"Come on dad, it's time to get up. I'll make you a coffee, so get dressed. And there's breakfast too!"

This seems to be in vain, he mumbles something unintelligible. Hm, I guess you'll have to make a cup of extra strong coffee to get him up and running. Plus warm something up for breakfast.

You leave your dad alone in his bedroom and go to the kitchen. It was time to brew up a strong cup of coffee, plenty of beans at medium fine grind, a kettle of hot water, a paper filter and pour over dripper. Master Leblanc's instruction on coffee preparation was pretty useful. You know that if you need to learn things like shimming out of handcuffs or learning some tricks to circumventing security or some other skills, he'd be the first person you'd ask for tips.

You pour 2 mugs of the coffee, strong and black. You give Azul a small sip of coffee but he seems to dislike it and refuses any further attempts to drink it. You can't help but feel that the penguin is missing out on the joys of a good cup of coffee. Azul is more interested in the small slice of reheated vegetable frittata with crumbled bacon.

Despite setting the table, you dad still hasn't joined you. Azul has already scarfed down his portion and is longingly staring at your dad's breakfast.

'Azul, if you touch that plate, I will never make you breakfast again.' You warn you partner, it seems that Azul understood that no matter how tempting a tasty treat is, he must never steal food from your dad.

You better go and see how your dad is doing. It seems strange he hadn't come out yet to the kitchen. You think you heard him in the bathroom while you were eating but then went to his bedroom. When you enter his bedroom again you see that he has barely gotten into his suit and is sort of lolling around on his bed. As though through the power of procrastination, time will slow down to enjoy the soft comfort of bed forever.

You didn't want to resort to this but wet towel to face is the only option left. You prepare your weapon of awakening and return to the grim battlefield. A quick toss, it accurately lands on Houseki Daisuke's face. For a few seconds, it does nothing but at last there is a sharp alert movement as he grabs the towel off his face.

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>>4962314
"Right, right. I'm up!" He announces. He goes to the kitchen, begins eating breakfast as fast possible, and gulps down the coffee. He's spent too much time lolling about to actually enjoy it but the caffeine was appreciated. You start cleaning up the dishes, you're lucky that school isn't that far away and you can always run to save time.

"Thanks my girl, I'm going now. Don't wait up for me tonight again, I'll be back late." He starts grabbing his suitcase by the door and putting on his shoes.

"Whoa dad, wait, I made you lunch!" You hurriedly pass him a small lunch bag full of sandwiches you made last night.

"Oh lunch too! You're such a great cook. I'm a lucky dad. Hopefully this weekend we'll be able to hang out for a bit." He says as he takes the lunch and goes out the door.

You also have to start getting ready. You dress for school. There's not enough time to write in your journal, you'll have to do it when you get back home.

How are you going to go to school though?

>Walk
>Run
>Bus
>The shortcut! DC 14, roll 3d6

>>4962317
>>Bus
We’ve got the money, might as well

I won't be able to post for the next few days. Next post will be Friday evening!

>>4962334
Take care Crescent, see you then

>>4962317
>Bus

>>4962317
>Bus

>>4962317
>>Run

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It feels strange to realize... that you have money. You don't necessarily need to walk or run to school like the poor student plebeian that you are. Was this the power of money? Convincing you to strip away the hard gains of endurance earned by poverty and tiresome walking. And replacing it with laziness engendered by convenient buses transporting your sorry ass to school effortlessly?

It's an easy choice. The chariot of the people calls out for your yen!

You lock up the apartment and head down to the bus stop. Everything is going great this morning, you have money, ate a nice breakfast with good coffee and didn't have a Nightmare.

It doesn't take long for the bus to arrive. Your blue penguin partner is fascinated with the bus as it pulls up to the curb. His focus is complete and he touches parts of the bus when it stops. The door opens and he jumps up and down with excitement before scrambling to board. This was a completely new experience for Azul. It appears there aren't buses in the Dream World. So Azul seems particularly fascinated by the driver and the operations of the bus. He is staring at the wheel, the gears and buttons pressed to get everything moving. There's no harm in leaving Azul at the front where he can observe everything, you pay your fare and go to take a seat.

As you're walking down the aisle, that's when you see him at the very back. Oh no, why is he on this bus? Wait, that uniform is Moto-Azabu High school, could this be the regular bus he takes to get to school then? What bad luck, you were hoping that you were not going to see Chiba Mamoru for a little while. You look around for an empty seat but realize that the back is only the place open. Maybe if you just stand and grab a standing handle, you'll be able to go unnoticed until you arrive at school.

It was a vain hope. He looks up and sees you standing and attempting to be inconspicuous as possible.

"Oh hey, monkey girl! Had fun yesterday climbing?" Mamoru asks, he sounds so amused. He also sounds super curious, like he can't wait to ask you more questions as to precisely why you were climbing up a 3 story building.

Also... Monkey girl? That was a new nickname, usually you got called ninja or even burglar. Points for creativity you guess but it's not flattering.

"Yeah, lots of fun. I enjoyed the view." You answer with sarcasm and a tiny bit of truth. The best lies are those that contain some truth.

"You mind as well sit by me, there's a few things I want to ask you." Mamoru shifts a bit to give you room to sit down.

You mind as well bite the bullet, you are curious as to why he didn't call the cops on you last night...

"Well I guess I can take a seat by you. But that doesn't mean I'm going to answer your questions. Just warning you right now." You grumble. He looks utterly amused by your pronouncement and just shrugs.

"I see that gratefulness for not narcing on you isn't in the cards."

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>>4965585
"If you did narc, I'd just say you were my accomplice trying to backstab me and get you into equal amount of trouble."

You see Mamoru attempting to keep a straight face at your answer.

"Wow I'm confronting a hardcore criminal. I'll have keep that in mind" He chuckles. There is a companionable silence between you for a few moments. Mamoru seems to choosing his questions very carefully since you aren't willing to give more details than you feel necessary.

"So... Were you successful at whatever you were trying to do?" Mamoru asks as he glances at you from the corner of his eye.

"Hmm..." You give noncommittal answer. You don't know what this guy is after. What was he trying to figure out?

"I'm going to assume monkey girl were trying to get into the building then. Why?" He presses.

It strikes you in that moment. Why was he always referring to you as monkey girl?

"You don't remember my name, do you?" You stare at him, you can't help but feel offended.

"... Motoki introduced us but at the time I didn't think it'd be so important."

Wow this guy is a fail. He forgot your name? Despite big bro Motoki going out of his way to introduce you? Heck, you remember Mamoru's name.

"You really don't know how to talk to girls, do you?" You then remember that Moto-Azabu is an all boys' high school, it wasn't co-ed. Did going to an all boys' school completely nuke this guy's ability to talk to girls or something?

"Actually I do but given..."

Words die away and you realize that Mamoru is staring straight ahead. You follow his gaze, and see that he's staring straight at Azul excitedly watching the bus driver driving at the front. He is sitting in an empty space just next to the bus cockpit where he has a full-unimpeded view.

This guy can see Azul. You mentally send a warning to the blue penguin who is completely oblivious that his usual invisibility power wasn't working

'Azul, don't make any sudden movements or panic. I need to warn you. The guy I'm sitting right next to, Mamoru Chiba, can see you.'

You feel a pulse of dismay from the penguin. Visually he seems to be still fully absorbed with watching the driver. Good acting skills there.

What should you do?

>Keep talking with Mamoru, pretend you don't sees Azul at the front. Mamoru is unlikely to do anything to Azul or mention him in conversation.
>Mentally order Azul to get off on the next stop, he'll have to get to school on foot. You'll meet up with him in the club room.
>Ask him "are you seeing, what I'm seeing?", pretend you don't know Azul but can see him and assess Mamoru's reaction
>Get off on the next stop through the back door, tell Azul to get off at the front of the bus. You'll walk to school with Azul to avoid Mamoru.
>write in

>>4965587
>>Keep talking with Mamoru, pretend you don't sees Azul at the front. Mamoru is unlikely to do anything to Azul or mention him in conversation. But if he does, we’ll distract Mamoru and order Azul to get off on next stop then we’ll get off on the stop right after and link up with Azul either close to the school or at school.

>>4965587
>>Ask him "are you seeing, what I'm seeing?", pretend you don't know Azul but can see him and assess Mamoru's reaction
Staying super secret is the 'correct'ish thing to do but this just sounds more fun to read.

>>4965587
>Keep talking with Mamoru, pretend you don't sees Azul at the front. Mamoru is unlikely to do anything to Azul or mention him in conversation.

You’re not inspiring a lot of confidence in your language skills, Mamoru.

>>4965587
>Keep talking with Mamoru, pretend you don't sees Azul at the front. Mamoru is unlikely to do anything to Azul or mention him in conversation.

>>4965603
>>4965621
>>4965715
>>4965880
I struggle trying to nail down dialogue sometimes for Mamoru. I mean Crystal Mamoru, 90s anime Mamoru and Manga Mamoru all vary in conversational skills. Since I'm basing stuff mostly on 90s anime.... he has moments of dickery that I try to soften,,,

In any case, I'm hoping to post later on tonight.

You let the silence grow awkwardly before speaking.

"Given... What? Don't leave me hanging. A little advice from me, when you talk with girls, it's really important to give your full attention to them."

Mamoru seems to accept that he is the only person who can see Azul, his faces no longer looks tense and the eyes visibly relax. He is surprisingly calm about it. When Usagi had the misfortune of breaching Azul's invisibility, she panicked.

"Given that you seem to be the type of girl willing to run around and do unusual things, it's hard to figure out how exactly to talk to you." Mamoru finishes his statement that he had trailed off from earlier.

"My thoughts on that... Usually the best way to go about it is to talk them as if they're completely normal." You keep an absolutely straight face as you said that line. If you had seen some guy trying to climb up a building during the day for no reason at all, you would either really want to try and climb the building too to see if you can.... or assume he was a criminal.

"In that case, as a totally normal girl, what were you doing?"

"Hm, no comment. I should ask if you saw anything inappropriate while you were down below."

"I get it now, you aren't really willing to say much about it. Though let me say this though, you're playing a dangerous game."

Mamoru seems to have given up pressing you for details... for now.

"I'm not playing." You flatly state.

You're almost at school, just a few more stops and you can ditch Mamoru. Azul surprises you. He gets off at a stop you know is 2 stops away from your school. It's when another passenger boards the train. Mamoru watches intently and then looks out the window but otherwise makes no move to also get off the bus.

'Whoa, hey man, what are you doing?' You can't help but mentally ask but there's naturally no answer as the bus pulls away from the bus stop. There's nothing you can do to stop Azul.

As the bus pulls away, Mamoru still has his gaze fixated on the penguin until he was out of sight.

"In any case, my stop is coming up soon. I guess we'll run into each other if I take the bus again." You take this opportunity to get up and get ready to disembark.

"Hey... if I'm going to run into you again, you probably don't want me to call you 'monkey girl'."

"That's true, but I'll leave my name a mystery for the moment. You can always, you know, try asking big bro Motoki again or try to remember."

>>4966878
With that, you get off at your stop. Azul is going to arrive in a few minutes if he walks straight to your school. You wrack your brains to think of a reason why the penguin decided to disembark earlier.

Of course, Azul is a smart penguin after all. It would be weird if both you and him got off at the same stop. There's no reason to give Mamoru any evidence that the two of you were connected in any way. The bus pulls away

'Good idea Azul!' You praise him, but you note that your mental communication is rather silent. You wonder if he heard you. There must be a limit to the distance you can communicate with your partner.

In any case, you got at least 30 minutes before class starts.

What will you do?

>Go to the sports field and play around a bit. Good exercise and you might run into some classmates!
>Look for Aya, she must be around somewhere. She seemed to have a rough time yesterday.
>Go up to the clubroom and loaf a bit. Might be something new in the Supernatural Research Department.
>Buy a snack for Azul, he remained calm and did something real smart! It's a good thing he got off the bus before the school stop.
>write in

>>4966880
>>Buy a snack for Azul, he remained calm and did something real smart! It's a good thing he got off the bus before the school stop.
I really wanna go for the exercising option but Azul needs a reward

>>4966880
>Look for Aya, she must be around somewhere. She seemed to have a rough time yesterday.

>>4966880
>Buy a snack for Azul, he remained calm and did something real smart! It's a good thing he got off the bus before the school stop.

>>4966880
>>Go to the sports field and play around a bit. Good exercise and you might run into some classmates!
Azul's gonna get fat(ter) at this rate.

>>4966880
>>Go to the sports field and play around a bit. Good exercise and you might run into some classmates!
2 thing
1: we can buy asul a treat on the way
and 2: WE NEED TO GET SWOLE if we hope to actually rumble in the jungle and not get thrown around

>>4966880
>Go to the sports field and play around a bit. Good exercise and you might run into some classmates!
Get the penguin that treat

>>4966886
>>4966936
>>4966992
>>4967131
>>4967185
>>4967246
Getting swole requires commitment to actually exercising.

You can always get a snack for Azul later. Heck, maybe he'll want to choose something himself from the cafeteria. You won't know until he actually arrives.

In the meantime, you think it's best to go and exercise a bit. You don't get strong and healthy by sitting around doing nothing. It takes time, effort and patience. The athletics field is small but serviceable, Juuban Middle School wasn't really known for athletics but rather arts and sciences. The number of famous actors, actresses, idols and media types from the school was rather unusual too, but that doesn't really interest you much.

You spy the pull up bar being completely unused and figure that three sets of ten is doable before the start of class. The first set was easy and you take a 20 second break before jumping up to do another set of 10.

All the while, you are overhearing conversations from students standing about in the field.

"Whoa, teachers are out for blood..."
"Have you heard about this radio program, Midnight Zero?"
"All those boys came back today school today...

You did your second set, time for a 30 second break. You notice that you see your classmate Yuuji standing around with some other guys, they seem utterly bleak and depressed. Tomio must have caught up with them last night to give them a heads up on their behaviour yesterday.

You jump up to grab the bar for your last set of pull ups. After this set, you can go and see how the boys' are and hear them out.

"Some clubs are suspending members because of yesterday..."
"There's some really romantic love letters being read..."
"There's a cat that comes on to campus sometimes..."

Well, you're done with your pull ups. The last set was hard, your arms were burning with exhaustion and you got sloppy near the end.

You wander over to the depressed boys and hear that they are talking low voices.

"I don't understand. Why would I break windows?"
"I am in so much trouble with my dad and mom, cops came to talk..."
"I've been warned by my sempais' that they are considering permanently expelling me from the Cheering squad!"

"Uh... hey guys, how are you feeling today?" It was a stupid question to ask but you couldn't think of saying anything else. There's nothing much you can do to comfort them or lighten the upcoming pain they were going to undergo.

"Isn't it obvious that we all feel like crap?" Yuuji groused. He looks like he hadn't slept last night, exhaustion is on his face

"Yeah, it is. I'm guessing Tomio managed to tell most of you what happened yesterday."

"Ugh, if only the day was over right now." Another boy sighs.

>>4967375
The bell rings. Students need to get into the school. The boys' get up like a squad of doomed soldiers bravely marching to their deaths. You don't where Tomio is or where Gurio is. They must be elsewhere on the school grounds.

Also... how odd, where is Azul?

'Hey buddy, you here yet?' You reach out with your mind to communicate with the penguin. There is no answer or sense he is anywhere near the sky. You are worried, did wander off somewhere? Or did someone see him and start hassling him? The guy was a pretty independent bird, maybe he went off to do something. There's nothing you can do about it but head to class.

Roll call is completely normal, but there's definitely some awkwardness from Tomio, Yuuji and Gurio. They sound so ashamed of themselves as they answer Ms. Sakurada. Your teacher sounds so confused by the lack of insolence from the three boys. It is as though yesterday never happened and it was just everyone's imagination. Class is slow and oppressive.

At times the school intercom would squawk to life and call certain students to the principal's office for a 'discussion'. Gurio, Yuuji and Tomio go out of the classroom, one at a time.

You manage to tell Tomio 'good luck', when it was time for him to go up. He gives a wan smile and quick nod.

None of those boys come back to class after being called up.

What do you do for lunch?

>Go off campus and search for Azul. You have time.
>Eat lunch with Aya.
>Eat lunch alone.
>Sneak up to the third floor and go to the principal's office
>write in


We'll end things here today! Next week friday a new thread will be made to continue things.

>>4967376
>>Eat lunch with Aya.
be there for her

>>4967376
>>Go off campus and search for Azul. You have time.

>>4967376
>>Go off campus and search for Azul. You have time.
Uh oh. Well even if the boys are getting absolutely destroyed by the Japanese disciplinary system, not much Ruka can do! Institutional power is not a thing magical-ish-kind-of girls usually have a lot of.
Her partner in crime, however, is missing. He better not be blowing all that money on just porn mags.

>>4967376
>Go off campus and search for Azul. You have time.

>>4967826
Don't worry, he's using it for upgrading to VHS tapes.

>>4967376
>Go off campus and search for Azul. You have time.

>>4967376
>Go off campus and search for Azul. You have time.
Where's the nearest adult video store?

>>4967927
>>4968786
Weirdly enough, I did consider this as a thing that Azul would do but changed my mind because I didn't want to make Azul a one note joke on being a fan of erotica all the time.

>>4969010
>didn't want to make Azul a one note joke
BASED, FUCK SHITTY MASCOT CHARACTERS AND FUCK JAPAN FOR CONSTANTLY FORCING THEM AND LIKING THEM

New thread
>>4974258