Urban Fantasy

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---

Fujimura Hisako walked down the street. It was a nice day, that was certainly true. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun was high in the sky, and it was simultaneously warm but not too hot. Certainly, the ideal weather for a nice walk through the market district. Of course, Hisako didn't really know if she was getting anything... but the market district was always a nice place to take a walk. It helped that the scenery was nice.

That, and the large television screens on the bigger buildings were kind of fun to watch. Okay, maybe it was usually just the news, but... well, even the news was okay to watch while you were on a walk. It wasn't normally that entertaining, but to watch on a walk... Hisako didn't mind.

At the moment, the news was reporting on something less-then-cheerful.

The woman on the large screen, who appeared to be in her late thirties, continued to speak.

"Five men were found dead last night. Police have not disclosed details, but they are currently investigating the possibility of murder."

"Murder...?" Hisako inclined her head to one side. Someone killed five people? What kind of person would do that?

---

The hat came off. The knife flashed forward. She was faster. Her cane pierced his chest almost immediately. His fellow thugs drew back in shock, but she didn't give them a chance to attack again. Her cane was withdrawn and jabbed backwards, into the throat of another. Simultaneously, she drew a knife of her own...

---

The Happy and Carefree Witch who isn't Scared of Anyone was bored. Nothing had happened recently! She disliked a lack of things happening. On top of that, everyone she'd met recently just... hadn't been very fun. They didn't stick around long enough to be teased very much, they got angry if she pushed it too hard, and the last person had told her to go home to her parents! It was annoying. The lack of interest had left her unshakably bored. She needed something fun to happen, soon, or else she'd just collapse out of boredom! Okay, maybe it would be less dramatic then that... but the Carefree Witch really was very bored.

Adjusting her hat, she strolled out of the alleyway and into the light. Maybe she'd find someone interesting today... If she was lucky. Stupid... lack of interesting people. Of course, she'd mainly been picking on the... less aware side of society. Contemplating things for a moment, the Carefree Witch decided to see if she could find someone who was fully aware of magic to bother! Maybe they'd have a more interesting reaction. It had been a little while before she went out to tease some fellow magician or someone like that.

Her goals set in her mind, she went out to search! She didn't pay much heed to the news report on some murders last night...

---

... And thrust it forward. With a wet thunk, it entered the thug's chest and stayed there for only a moment, before she drew it out with equal speed. One of the remaining thugs, of the two remaining, made a frantic charge with a baseball bat. Her cane was driven directly through his throat, then pulled out just as quickly. The final thug pulled out a gun, a pistol, shaking in fear. That would be easy.

---

The hat came back down, and Victoria Valentine straightened. She had curtsied, with a smile, to the couple holding hands that had approach her. "Oh, it's wonderful to see two young people so happy together!"

They were evidently bewildered by this small foreign girl in such fancy clothing approaching and speaking to them in perfect Japanese. The girl offered a confused 'Thank you', while the boy looked too confused to speak.

Victoria smiled warmly at them.

"It's wonderful to see such love," she began, "But, in any case, I must be going. Good bye!"

She left the confused couple behind. She did have important business to attend to, after all.

---

The gun fired, and struck the barrier spell she had constructed. Without hesitation, she swung her cane up, the heart-shaped tip pointing towards the thug.

"Release."

A blazing wave of fire ripped towards him, engulfing him in and instant. He screamed in agony, and toppled to the ground. However, his pain did not last long. Soon, his body was still, the scent of burning flesh filling the alley. She sighed.

"Record."

The flames suddenly sucked themselves back into the head of her cane. Her hat settled back on her head, and Victoria Valentine walked out of the alley, leaving the corpses of five men behind.

[Roxas]

...Really wish I could be closer when I take these pics... hard to appreciate her looks when the pixels can't make anything out... Shujiko thought with some frustration as she went through her phone's photo album. There were a lot of pictures related to one girl in particular. A girl Shujiko clearly hated for valid reasons. Taken secretly, totally unlike a stalker. Shujiko had a good reason for the pictures, though!

...She just hadn't made one up yet.

With a sigh, Shujiko flipped her phone shut, pocketing it. It had been a while since she had updated her collection... maybe she could find Hisako and try to take a better picture discreetly...? Nah , that was stupid! She had better things to do! Like... well, running, or something.

Breaking into a light jog, Shujiko rounded a corner, hoping to forget about the clearly bothersome and un-likeable girl somehow. The girl suddenly walking from an alleyway up ahead and barring her path was a bit surprising, and the rushing teenager hurriedly side-stepped... and promptly tripped, falling to the ground with a surprised yelp.

------------------------------

"Heeeeey, I'm here!" Cyndy called as she entered the restaurant, pulling off her cap. She had just arrived at her place of work, Fumie's restaurant.

[Mahou Moerin]

"Kinda makes you worried to go out at night, doesn't it?"

Some people would think it rude to simply pop up behind a stranger and try to start a conversation like that, but Penelope Drake was... Not one of those people. Beside, it's not like the other girl was a stranger, right? They went to the same school and everything. Sure, she hadn't really talked to her all that much, but she at least recognised her (kind of hard not to recognise someone who looks like that, really), and she did know her name.

Um... Fujiwara, was it? Or Fujiyama... Fuji-something. Something like that. Point is, they weren't strangers. They weren't exactly friends or anything (really, Penny had only made one real friend since moving to Japan, but these days Ryuuzaki seemed far too focused on her training to goof off and have fun like they always used to), but they weren't enemies or anything. She was sure if she just talked to Fuji-thingy they'd get on just fine.

"Hope that gets solved soon, ahah!" she continued, not even pausing for breath or the gauge Fuji-whatever's reaction to her suddenly bursting out into full flow beside her. "I really hate it when people get away with such things. Justice needs to be served so the people can feel safe! I just know that whoever did this can't hide for long from the forces of good and, um... Righteousness and, uh... Justice, um..."

"...Oh right, um... Hey, Fuji!" The English girl finally greeted Hisako properly. "It's me, Penny! Y'know, um... From school, ahah! Fancy meeting you here!"

[Deleted]

The Carefree Witch flinched and took several surprised steps back when an 'older' girl nearly ran right into her. However, she instead... fell over. Where had that come from!? The Carefree Witch wasn't pleased with this, to say the least. In fact, she was considering postponing her plans just to tease this girl without mercy for blundering around like that.

For the moment, her shocked expression faded into a highly judgmental one as she folded her arms and looked at the fallen girl. "Hmph. You almost ran right into me! You should watch where you're going... I think I'll have to punish you."

The Carefree Witch reached into a small pocket, and withdrew a very clearly plastic green-with-a-ribbon-and-a-gold-star wand, which she used to swiftly tap the fallen girl on the head. It wasn't particularly hard, though it might twinge a bit. It was more a sign of the Carefree Witch's displeasure then a solid strike intended to cause pain.

---

Hisako blinked when she heard someone talking to her, and turned to face the girl. Oh, it was that English girl... She recognized her from school. Something... Pe... Pe... something with that sound. Her surname was Drake. That was an easy name to remember, really. What wasn't so easy to figure out is why the girl had chosen to speak to her. While Hisako wasn't unfriendly, they'd never really talked before. It was a bit surprising. Surprisingly enough that Hisako stared blankly at the Drake girl for a few moments while she spoke of fear and nights and justice before comprehension dawned on her. She was talking about the murders, which Hisako really had't realized until now. At least she had a name, now. Penny.

"Oh... the murders," Hisako looked back up the screen, which was covering the few details that had been disclosed to the news station. "Whoever did that kind of thing can't be a good person... But I'm sure they'll be caught soon."

She turned back to Penny, and adjusted her glasses, smiling now. Well, there was no harm in talking to her, even though she didn't really know her. "I was just out on a walk, Drake-san. I didn't expect to meet any of my classmates today, either!"

Hopefully that really was the right surname.

[Rain]

Fumie frowned, the scantily-clad alchemist walking over to her assistant and getting uncomfortably close as she stared into the dragon-girl's eyes... from pretty much level footing; Fumie was barely taller than Cyndy was.

"You ran here again," the restaurateur reprimanded, stepping back and offering a glass of 'juice' to Cyndy. It wasn't the watered-down stuff she freely gave to her customers to keep them in good health, either; it was the full miracle, bubbly and with strong undercurrents of pineapple in its orangey taste.

---

As usual, Ran was attracting way too much attention as she wandered around, looking for the criminal that blighted her home. Determined to be a magical girl as ever, she couldn't sit idly by whilst someone killed at will. The downside was that she had no investigative abilities to speak of... and stuck out like a sore thumb with the way she was dressed.

She did, however, see what had to be the most awesome thing ever, and rushed over to take a look at it, tripping over Shujiko on the way and having to do a handstand in order to flip back the right way up and land beside Merlin.

" Do you want to be a magical girl too, little girl?"

---

Honoria was lost. Hopelessly, inescapably lost. To make it worse, she had less than half an hour in the sunlight before she burst into flame, which was always a bother. Maybe hurrying to Japan like this without even checking to see if there were any descriptions of the purported angel was a bad idea...

Not really paying any attention to her surroundings, the vampire started slamming her head into a brick wall. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

The wall was noticeably cracking. If anyone was in the vicinity--or any group of people--they would probably be able to hear it.

[Roxas]

"...Huh?" Shujiko stared at the little girl that had tapped her head with the wand. Punishment? But... she's avoided a collision! "But... you just appeared right in front o-"

At that moment, something collided with Shujiko. Gasping in surprise, the young girl flinched as something seemed to fall over her. It took a moment or two to realise that someone else had apparently tripped on her.

Groaning slightly, she climbed to her feet. Well, the worst pain she seemed to have was in her knees, which didn't really appear to be injured... it would fade within a few minutes. Still... now that she wasn't running or falling, why were these two girls dressed a little like witches? Cosplayers? Was there some convention going on somewhere...?

"...Uh... anyway, I'm really sorry..." Shujiko said, "I'll, uh... I'll leave you two to your... magical girl... convention... thing."

-----------------

"Eh...? Well... yeah, I did." Cyndy replied, torn between keeping eye contact and looking away. On the one hand, Cyndy felt like her employer could see through her coloured contacts, revealing her strangely-coloured eyes. On the other hand, breaking eye contact would most likely result in Cyndy looking somewhere she really shouldn't be. Why did Fumie have to dress like that...?

Accepting the glass of orange juice, she continued, "It's no trouble, really... I mean, it's not like a little running would kill me... oh, um, thanks!"

[Rain]

"It's not that it would kill you," the alchemist chided as she lead Cyndy to the kitchen--and a change of clothes, "It's more that I don't want a hot and sweaty employee before we've even opened for lunch. Imagine how terrible you'd feel afterwards!"

In the kitchen,another cheongsam was hung up. Fortunately, it was much more concealing than Fumie's own. Unfortunately, if Cyndy's scales got any more noticeable, her employer would be able to tell (and then have to get a new dress, which probably meant bad things for her pay if she worked for someone other than the girl with the infinite source if gold).

[Deleted]

Oh, there as this new girl. She appeared to be older then the girl who had almost ran the Carefree Witch over... and on top of that, she had ran that girl over. And then did a flip. The Carefree Witch approved. She was even dressed in a fancy with's outfit, which added to the approval. As for asking if she wanted to be a magical girl, well...

The Carefree Witch proudly displayed her plastic wand. Oh, she could guess, sort of, that this girl was actually a magician of some kind. But why reveal that she was one herself? It might remove trolling options! That, and that other girl was still around... "I'm already a Magical Girl! I'm the Happy and Carefree Witch who isn't Scared of Anyone!"

She put on a cheerful grin. It was just like a regular child playing pretend, really, with the way she had introduced herself. However, out of the corner of her eye she noticed the first girl was attempting to flee... immediately, the Carefree Witch lashed out with her free hand and grabbed the hem of the girl's skirt, seeking to stop her.

"Oh, no you don't!" she cried, her grin becoming a far more stern expression. She wasn't losing a possible teasing target. She had two, now! "You still almost ran me over. This means you have to get me ice cream."

---

Victoria continued to stroll along, cheerfully smiling. Her cane's head gleamed in the sunlight. Now, inspection, inspection... where to go with this inspection? Those back alleys hadn't yielded anything. Well, not anything useful. It'd taken a little while to clean the blood off, and she didn't really like using her magic against those unaware of the supernatural. But she supposed it was necessary, and they were alley-prowling, thuggish scum. Her smile had faded at these thoughts... but soon returned. Oh well. No-one would care, after a little while.

More importantly, there was a steady thumping nearby. Following the sound to its source, now rather curious to see what was going on, Victoria came upon a nun. A nun who was repeatedly smacking her head into a brick wall. There was cracks. Victoria frowned and inclined her head to one side. That certainly couldn't be healthy.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I don't think you should continue with that course of action," she began, "You could hurt yourself rather seriously."

[Roxas]

"Wha- hey!" Shujiko yelled, grabbing the hem of her skirt. She was worried this weird girl was trying to flip it upward or something. With a tight grip on her clothing, the blonde replied, "...What are you talking about? I apologised! You weren't hurt! Why do I have to get you ice cream?"

I'm not going to get involved with weirdos, am I...? Shujiko wondered with some dread. Not that she cared if these girls wanted to play dress up and stuff, but what if Hisako saw her with them? She'd think Shujiko was weird or geeky or- wait, would she? that didn't seem right... wait, why the hell was she even wondering?!

"Um, look, I'm really sorry and stuff, but I gotta go..." Shujiko muttered, trying to pry her skirt from the girl's grip.

----------------------

"...Um.... guess you have a point." Cyndy laughed, drinking the orange juice as she followed Fumie. As always when she looked at her uniform, Cyndy couldn't help but grimace. It was certainly better than Fumie's, but it wasn't exactly an all-encompassing article of clothing. She'd be screwed if even a single scale was shown, and when it came time for more to develop... well, things had been good so far, with any luck she'd be able to keep her nature a secret for a long time yet.

"Well, gonna change now." Cyndy announced, taking her uniform. "Be right out!"
And with that, the half-dragon left for a more private place to change.

[dblade26]

Shinra glanced down at the strange sight unfolding below him. There were two foreign girls, one dressed up like a nun and the other looking like some sort of fancy gothloli stage magician. What was more, the incredibly loud thumping and banging noises that some of the passers-by had assumed was construction equipment or the like was actually being caused by the nun-girl banging her head against the wall with what was definitely an unusual amount of force.

Most people, when faced with such absurdities would either casually continue on their way stopping only to snap a few pictures or run away screaming after having clearly gone mad. However...

"Could this be...an Event Flag?!"

Shinra was the Protagonist! As the hero of his own story, he was more than used to dealing with things beyond the imagination of his many background characters. So, despite only just having entered high school, to him such an unusual sight was merely the potential start of a new adventure!

Hoping to encounter such a thing was exactly why he had been aimlessly running along the rooftops of the city just moments ago, even if he was just waiting for an overly convenient clue regarding the horrific murders he had failed to prevent last night instead of oddly dressed masonry-hating girls.

"U-umm, do either of you need help, or maybe directions!?" he called out cheerily, completely oblivious to how odd it would seem that a teenage boy had suddenly appeared from the rooftops.

[Rain]

Fumie sighed at Cyndy's skittishness--what was wrong with just getting changed here; why did she need to rush off like that? She would have to ask after they were finished for the day. Before that, though, she needed to open.

The alchemist changed the closed sign to open and went back into the kitchen, getting things ready one by one. She generally trusted Cyndy to deal with the customers, despite her... overly energetic attitude towards things.

---

"So cute!" Ran said, picking up the loli witch and spinning her round and round... and probably causing Shujiko's skirt to get damaged in the process. It was all an accident, though! And the little magical girl (she didn't doubt for a second that she was telling the truth... no-one had ever said Ran was the most sensible person) was so adorable she couldn't help it.

---

Honoria paused at the sound of voices, turning around and looking at the two people that had run up to her. Teen boy, girl in a suit... and she'd just been pounding a wall into dust. The vampire nun said nothing for half a minute before coming to a conclusion that acting like a proper nun just wouldn't be sufficient for this situation.

"Fuck, I broke a wall again?"

[Deleted]

"Oh, no you do-"

The Carefree Witch was a bit surprised to be suddenly lifted into the air and promptly spun around. This was not exactly on the list of things she had been expecting to do today, and it was enough to briefly stun her with surprise. However, her grip on Shujiko's skirt did not loosen, not even slightly. In fact, her grip tightened on the article of clothing considerably, mostly due to her surprise.

---

There was a light tapping as the bottom end of Victoria's neatly-sharpened cane came to rest on the ground. She rested both hands upon it and frowned, slightly, inclining her head to one side. Such language... and now the wall was terribly fractured. What's more, there was the implication that the nun did this frequently. Surely that was not safe for the structural integrity of her skull. The boy who had arrived was offering to help them find their way around. Victoria did not require this; she would know what she was looking for the instant she found it.

She could not, however, speak for the nun.

"I don't require any aid, though I thank you for the offer," said Victoria, turning to the boy and giving a pleasant smile. "I cannot speak for the sister before us, however. Speaking of which..."

Victoria's attention returned to the nun.

"Such language surely isn't fitting for a sister like yourself, but that is of little concern at the moment," she said, taking a step closer to the nun, her tone filled with concern, "More importantly, are you hurt? Hitting the wall that many times, hard enough to do so much damage, cannot be safe."

[Tachi]

Sayuri's stomach growled. The shrine maiden hadn't exactly had a filling breakfast and now that she'd spent the morning running errands and buying groceries, hunger was starting to catch up. Glancing around, she soon spotted a restaurant. Normally, she would just return home to eat, but she still had some business in town and didn't want to make the trip again.

Somewhat hesitantly, the girl opened the door and stepped into the establishment.

[Roxas]

"No, wait, stop!" Shujiko cried as the little girl was picked up and spun - still gripping her skirt. Unfortunately, the plea was a tad late, and Shujiko's skirt was ripped from its previous position, leaving a blushing, previous owner behind.

Luckily, Shujiko still had her shorts, so this wasn't anywhere near as disastrous as it could have been. Still, she had just lost her skirt! There were people around! It was still embarrassing to have that happen!

Groaning, Shujiko buried her face in her hands. Well... things could have been worse, no need to mope about. With a sigh, Shujiko glared at the other two girls.
"...Please don't do that to me again..."

-------------------------------------

Not too long afterwards, Cyndy had finished changing and had returned to the kitchen. A slightly more concealing uniform plus underwear could provide quite the confidence boost, especially when her... less than appealing attributes were hidden.

"All ready!" Cyndy announced brightly, just as a customer arrived. That was her cue! With a wide smile on her face, the half-dragon quickly rushed out to meet this person.

"Hi hi! Welcome to our fine establishment!" Cyndy greeted energetically. "Come in, sit over here, I'll get you anything you want!"
Cyndy indicated a seat at the nearest table. "We have only the best stuff here, so don't worry about quality, 'kay~?"

------------------------------------

This place looked nice, the kitsune thought, her wanderings coming to a halt. Plenty of people that should be gullible enough... yeah, a nice profit could be made here. Pandora's intuition was rarely wrong, and it's not like she was likely to repeat that little blunder from seventy years ago... yeah, next time she tried venturing abroad, culture was going to need to be considered.

Anyway...

Sitting her considerable amount of baggage on the ground, Pandora began unrolling mats. One for her to sit on, the rest lined with what appeared to be flashy, distinctive little charms. Each reputed to have special effects that would aid one greatly in their life... well, if one really had to press the fox, she sold humans the mindset to succeed! The charms were completely unnecessary, but hey, everyone had to make a living somehow!

[dblade26]

Well, if this situation wasn't an Event Flag, it was still strange enough to be important. Nuns didn't usually have the destructive power and durability of wrecking balls as far as Shinra was aware...although maybe they did since out of the very few people he'd known to attend Catholic schools all of them seemed completely terrified of nuns for some reason.

No, in the life of a Protagonist, explanations as mundane as all nuns secretly having superpowers were nearly impossible! Besides, he definitely knew that real Sisters weren't supposed to swear like that or go around causing massive structural damage to local buildings. At least not without the proper permits anyway.

So, with his friendliest smile on his face Shinra effortlessly jumped down from the rooftops and landed next to the Sister and the girl with the tophat and cane. "So umm...do you need help or anything, Sister?"

[Rain]

A customer already? Fumie was slightly surprised, people rarely came in this early. Still... that meant she had to fill the bottle of 'juice' so that Cyndy could give it to people whilst they waited. Heading over to one cupboard, the restaurateur checked that nobody was looking before filling about a fifth of the bottle with the Elixir of Life, and then diluting the rest with tap water. She always found it strange that the flavour managed to be so... unaffected. AKA: it still tasted strongly of oranges, it was just the pineapple stuff that got lost.

Briefly, she left her preparations in the kitchen to put the bottle on the counter.

---

"I couldn't do it to you again," Ran said, unsteadily coming to a halt and continuing to hug the witch to her chest, "You don't have another skirt on."

It was perfectly true, but probably not Shujiko was hoping to hear.

---

"I'm fine, I'm fine, it's not as if the wall's that hard or anything," Honoria said dismissively, punching it for emphasis and once again cracking the brickwork, "Nah, just lost and not sure where to find something. Say, have either of you two seen or heard of any angels around here? Came here from Italy and I'm trying to find... her? I think it's a girl."

She was somewhat surprised these two were actually respecting her position. Most people took one look at her bare legs and worn boots and assumed she was just a cosplayer or something. It wasn't her fault that the traditional clothing everyone expected was absolutely terrible for fighting in.

[Deleted]

Blinking, the Carefree Witch held up the skirt as she was hugged to the 'older' girl's chest. Well, she wouldn't complain about this entirely, it's not like it hurt or anything even if she didn't approve of being picked up. She didn't expect to actually pull the girl's skirt off. Well, okay, she planned to do that if the girl had continued to refuse to get her ice cream, but she hadn't planned on doing that yet. Really, she was disappointed that the girl was wearing shorts under her skirt. Among other reasons, this made it all far less embarrassing for her...

The Carefree Witch squirmed a bit, then reached back and placed the skirt atop the clingy girl's head. Then, she rather dramatically pointed at the girl who'd almost run her over.

"I'll take the shorts, too, unless you get me ice cream!"

---

Victoria bowed her head for a moment. As if the cracked wall and everything else hadn't already caused her to suspect the nun was, well, more then a nun, her punching the wall and cracking it was further confirmation that there was far more to the sister then there first appeared. Victoria was, in fact, rather certain that the nun was supernatural. The whole talk of angels was just additional confirmation, to Victoria. An angel... was that perhaps the source of the odd events she had been dispatched to investigate? It wasn't impossible... She glanced at the boy. Most people would have broken... something from leaping down from that height.

"Angels...?" Victoria asked, "I wouldn't know much of angels. I have only ever heard of them, I haven't ever seen one. I am afraid I am no help in that respect."

With one hand, she lifted her skirt, the other hand going to raise her hat off of her head. Her cane, miraculously, stayed perfectly upright.

"I am Victoria Valentine," she introduced herself, smiling pleasantly, "I'm here on business, from London."

[Tachi]

The shrine maiden was more than a little taken aback by the other girl's energy levels. Stammering and turning her attention to the ground, Sayuri mumbled a quick "thanks" before making her way to a table.

As she took her seat, the werewolf glanced around the establishment. It had been a while since she'd been to a restaurant. The girl tended to eat at the shrine most of the time, mainly because it would be really awkward to run into someone she'd seen in a different part of the country half a century ago.

[Roxas]

Shujiko stared at the older witch-cosplayer, unable to think of a retort to that. After all, she had a point... but that wasn't what Shujiko had meant anyway! And why the hell was that little girl just throwing her skirt onto the older one like that!?
Lack of patience with another person was rarely felt by Shujiko, and in most other situations, wouldn't be feeling it now. But having this strange girl treat her as the bad guy in this scenario, THEN steal her skirt, and demand ice cream on top of that?!

"...I'm going home." Shujiko sighed, walking towards Ran and plucking her skirt from her. "You should too, before you get in trouble."

Now if only Shujiko knew how to take threats from little girls seriously...

-----------------------------------------

"So, what would you like me to get you?" Cyndy asked fervently. "We have a large selection of food and drink to select from, so choose anything you like!"

[dblade26]

Shinra nodded for a second and struck up his most thoughtful pose.
"Angels, huh?" While outside he may have seemed calm and considerate, internally his monologue was going pretty differently

"WOW! luckyyyyyyy!~ While searching for clues to those murders I totally found a mysterious super-strong nun from the catholic church who's looking for 'angels'! This is clearly the start of an awesome plot and I, Shinra Banshou, future grandmaster of the Furinkazan-ryu, must do my best to steer it towards it's 100% Complete Perfect Ending!!"

That was what he thought anyway. What came out of his mouth was "u-umm, I'm Shinra. Shinra Banshou. I've heard of angels before but i'm not sure how much I know. I'm from around here, though. So, if you're lost and trying to find something I'd be happy to help and I could probably make things easier!"

[Tachi]

"I...um..." the werewolf paused for a moment to think. Somehow, she doubted a restaurant would serve the kind of food she ate at the shrine. Or at least, she doubted they'd serve it as a meal on its own. Finally, she spoke up, "Is there anything you'd recommend?"

[Rain]

"We don't really have a fixed menu," the alchemist said, coming through from the kitchen where she had finished setting up and leaning against the counter, providing an ample view of her cleavage, "I can cook most things, so long as you don't ask for obscure Western dishes, and I have plenty of ingredients in stock. Just pick something you like and I'll make it for you."

It wasn't an efficient way to run a business at all--but Fumie ran this pretty much as a hobby; the ability to convert any metal she so chose into something more valuable was a good way of providing income. And with the world's ever-increasing demand and the finite supply, she wasn't too bothered about majorly denting the economy by doing the impossible.

---

Curious about what would happen, and once more forgetting that the overwhelming majority of people weren't quite so laidback about randomly losing their clothes as she was, Ran put the loli down and urged her to go forwards, grinning excitedly. Maybe she was just a little interested in seeing more of Shujiko's legs; they seemed pretty interesting so far...

---

"Honoria Quinctilia," the nun said, stretching and turning to face the two, "Say, do either of you have somewhere to stay? I came here in a hurry and I... well, I kind of forgot to bring any money with me."

[Deleted]

Pleased to be put down, the Carefree Witch immediately moved forward and firmly grabbed both sides of the shorts-wearing girl's... shorts. This was, in a few words, perfect. She was having fun. This was hilarious, for one thing. This girl seemed so... easy to mess with. The Carefree Witch wasn't sure about the new girl with the witch outfit, but she would try teasing her soon enough. For the moment, she flashed a mischievous grin.

"I warned you!"

And then, she immediately pulled the girl's shorts down.

---

Victoria looked thoughtful for a moment, weighing her options. This was her first major lead, even after nights of investigation. Talk of an angel, especially... could that be the source of the odd occurances in the Japan? Most magicians had some knowledge of the angelic, and Victoria was no exception. Of course, the demonic were often more beneficial for research, as they were often likely to grant favors and such if you knew what to do. Victoria wasn't particularly concerned with such things, but it helped to know about them.

On the other hand, all Victoria had was a hotel room, which wasn't exactly the largest space. But still, there were likely benefits from extending the offer, and it would be nice to do so.

"I have only a hotel room, but you are welcome to stay there if you desire," she said.

---

"It's kind of fun, meeting a classmate while out on a walk when you didn't plan for it," Hisako continued, with a warm smile, "It's almost like a surprise party for you and the person you're meeting! ... Except... not really, but that's kind of how it is."

That... may not have made very much sense, but Hisako didn't mind. From what she remembered, Penny always seemed like a nice girl, and talking with nice girls was... nice. Besides, she liked to talk. She liked to talk quite a bit.

A thought occurred to her after a moment.

"... Unless they're murderers, then it's not so nice, but you're not a murderer, so that's okay," she added.

As she talked, she fiddled idly with her necklace. It was a small cowrie shell attached to a simple, strong length of string around her neck.

[Roxas]

"What?" Shujiko turned ehr gaze to the little girl, eyes widening when she realised what was happening. "N-no, do-"

And then her shorts came down. By some miracle, her underwear hadn't been dragged down also, but that didn't change the fact her panties were on full display. In public. Where anybody - Hisako as a random and totally irrelevant example - could see.

In less than a second, her entire face had flushed crimson as she stumbled back, trying to escape the girl's grip. Unfortunately, having shorts around your ankles was not good for movement or balance, and Shujiko collapsed to the ground in her attempts to flee, wailing loudly and scrambling to cover herself. Given her flustered state, it was proving exceedingly difficult to simply grab her shorts and pull them up.

------------------------------

"What the boss said!" Cyndy helpfully supplied, turning towards Fumie - and immediately turning right back round again with a faint blush. Did Fumie really have to lean over like that? She was worried the customers might think she was like that too. Or that the restaurant had 'that' kind of service! And then all the weirdoes would arrive and make impossible and embarrassing demands and then... and then... they would see ehr scales and realise she wasn't human and-

Cyndy had apparently become lost in ehr train of thought, given the way she blankly stared ahead.

[dblade26]

Shinra was trying his best to think things over rationally despite his internal squeeing at having found what he was now definitely sure was a living Event Flag that would lead him to a marvelous and dangerous adventure of some sort provided he followed up on it properly.

On the one hand, it was probably crucial to stick close to the nun in order to be involved in whatever adventure was sure to come, and it was also his duty as the protagonist to protect the city from unusual threats, which an Angel definitely might present or involve as well.

On the other hand, the nun was well, a girl who he was randomly opening up his home to even if she was bound up by faith and such, and as much as that was just another ordinary part of life as a protagonist he wasn't exactly sure how his family would react.

In the end being a protagonist won out over such petty concerns. "I have an okay-sized house, and my family is pretty generous about providing for strangers, totally. So I guess you have two options for a place to stay, at least."

[Tachi]

Sayuri turned to look at the source of the second voice and, moments later, was gazing intently at the table she was seated at, her face slightly red. "I...um...I-I'll just have a bowl of white rice..." she mumbled. Quickly realising that this could seem a bit insulting to the cook, the shrine maiden added "A-and some stir-fried beef and vegetables."

After a brief pause, she glanced up at the Cyndy. "Um, are you okay?"

[Rain]

"Oh, don't mind her, she gets like this sometimes," the proprietor said, emerging from behind the counter and depositing a glass of 'orange juice' (also known as dilute Elixir of Life) on the table before wrapping one arm around her assistant's midsection, "Enjoy the drink, it's free of charge. Your meal shall be ready shortly."

With that, she dragged the comatose dragon girl off to the kitchen and pushed her into a chair. Either she'd come to of her own accord, be woken by the smell of food... or Fumie would have to try something much less pleasant than her current methods to get Cyndy back into the real world and out of dreamland.

She wished that she knew why the dragon girl got like this sometimes...

---

Ran found herself laughing at the girl's response. Okay, the scream was pretty normal as far as she could remember, yes, but stumbling and tripping so that the clothing just pulled down was only wrapped around one ankle? Comedy gold! Since every crime-fighting group needed some sort of comic relief...

"Hey, do you want to join us?" the 'cosplayer' asked brightly, "It gets pretty lonely looking for criminals to apprehend, especially when you go for coffee afterwards. Oh, and, um, I'm Ran Shishigami."

---

"I... think I shall take the house; I would hate to take up the limited space available in a hotel room," the nun said, looking down at the bag by her feet. Clothing, books, newspaper reports, rather a lot of booze (it was wine and wine was holy, so that was fine, right?), and a mass of different melee weapons in case using her blood proved to be a bad idea. Really, the bag itself was a suitable weapon; she could hit muggers over the head with it and rest in peace knowing that they were sure to be out for a while. Or dead.

[Deleted]

"Now... if you want your shorts to be unmolested," began the Carefree Witch, pointing in the most dramatic way possible... at Shujiko's underwear, "You're going to have to get me some ice cream. You have no longer have any choice!"

With that, she folded her arms and smiled a very self-satisfied smile. The 'older' girl had absolutely no choice but to buy her some ice cream, now, or else the shorts would be stolen entirely. And if she refused after that, well... the Carefree Witch would attempt to get her arrested for public indecency. Maybe she wouldn't get ice cream at that point, but the girl would be getting what she deserved for almost running her over and refusing to get her compensation ice cream!

---

"Very well," replied Victoria, inclining her head towards the nun. At the least she had kindly extended her offer to the nun. Not only was this simply in her nature to do so, but it had other motivations; Not least of which was attempting to garner information about the possible situation in this city. "Regardless, I should like to speak with you if you are willing."

Victoria really would appreciate a conversation with this sister. There was any number of things she could possibly learn from her, even if she didn't know much more about what was going on then Victoria herself. There had to be something, a the very least.

---

"Anyway, since we've met up like this, we should do something fun!" Hisako suggested in what was possibly the most bubbly fashion possible. "Don't you agree?"

[Roxas]

Shujiko, finally managing to pull her shorts back to their rightful place, stared incredulously at the little girl. The teenager felt that the weird child was serious. If Shujiko didn't comply... oh god, what if she was stripped completely?! It - it would definitely happen! She had to run, escape, flee-

Dear god I'm considering running away from a kid. Shujiko realised with horror. How much more embarrassment was she going to end up piled under? As much as she felt it were horribly, horribly unfair... ice cream was most certainly the safer option to placate the demon.

Shakily, Shujiko got to her feet, face still flushed deeply. "...Fine. I-Ice cream it is."

She glanced at the other girl - Ran, she said? - waiting to see if she were going to tag along. If she was also going to extort ice cream from her, Shujiko wasn't about to refuse - the last thing she really needed was two girls trying to pull her clothes off.

-------------

It took Cyndy several minutes to calm down and return to the present. When she did, she was rather confused. Wasn't she just talking with a customer? When did she end up in the kitchen?

"...Uh... did I warp?" Cyndy asked herself aloud. It seemed plausible - she was a dragon hybrid, after all - so who knew? Maybe teleporting was a thing. Did dragons teleport? She should check the internet for that later...

[dblade26]

Internally, Shinra was pumped up and hyperactively congratulating himself for having cleared the first half of this new 'Event' by getting the mysterious girl to stay with him, even if it wasn't under the usual arrangements of moving into the house against his will and refusing to move out while throwing his home life into chaos.

"So, you two can talk on the way or in the sort-of privacy of my house, I guess." Shinra's family would probably have questions of their own.

The "house" in question turned out to be less of a house and more of an ancient complex that had stood since the late Heian period and been updated and maintained through the years, though it still looked ridiculously out of place in the city. As Shinra stood outside the immense wooden gate he shrugged apologetically at his two visitors.

"Well umm...it's not exactly as nice as hotel but I'm sure-"

The gate suddenly splintered and shattered as several human beings were flung through it to a cry of "AND STAY OUT, YOU WORTHLESS PUNKS!!!"

A huge, musclebound man covered in scars walked out past the ruined gate, just barely noticing the boy and the two oddly dressed girls as he did.

"Goddamn upstarts, can never get a real challenge around here and- Oh, Shinra! Finally managed to bring some girls back home, huh? Well, whatever you do is fine as long as it doesn't get in my way."

With that he picked up the unconscious dojo-breakers and walked off down the road, hopefully to get them to a hospital.

"U-umm...like I was saying, I'm sure you'll be welcome to stay as long as you like, eheh~"