FNG Lite

[Kosviel von Einzbern]

Consider this a practice affair. All House Rules except Posting Rules 1 and 2 remain in effect. The exception for Rule 1 A warm-up exercise before the real deal starts. All events in this thread will be considered non-canon to the actual RP, so feel free to do things you would never do in the actual war, like have tea with the Master of that Servant that tried to kill you the other night. Oh, and it is safe to assume that yes, this takes place in Lucca. Kapiert? Gut!



Kosviel woke up from a dream. It was a strange dream, indeed, probably the result of playing one too many different eroge in one night. If she had to explain the nature of this dream to somebody, specifically a normal person, not that Frieda-type maid who followed her around all day, then that person's face would go red very, very quickly. Fortunately, she did not have to explain this dream to anybody, because, as implied earlier, she would be accused of being some sort of pervert.

This Einzbern rose from bed, her feet touching the cold carpet that covered the floor, and proceeded to go through her morning preparations. Day in and day out for the past few weeks, she waited for the appointed day in this dreary mansion that had been constructed specifically for the sake of that ritual. Standing outside the room, always on the ready, was her butler, Klaus, already prepared with the day's agenda.

"The first order of business after breakfast, Meisterin, is the third phase of the city scouting operation."

"Hmm? Already? Which section?"

"Lucca Vecchio."

Her face lit up. There was an AniCon taking place there over the course of the week, complete with imported idol singers and whatnot. It wouldn't be hard to cough up an excuse to stop by for an hour... or three... or six... Well maybe six was pushing it, but hey. It was always a good idea to relax for a bit before starting something stressful... like joining a war you're fated to die in even if you win.

"Well don't just stand there, Klaus! Let's get ready to roam! Schnell!"

Half an hour later, a BMW pulled out of the garage and drove into town.

[Miguel Luria-Nova]

(Sorry for the loooooong post. Common morning scene and stuffs.)

The sound of the doorbell ringing, followed by the front door actually opening woke up the resident of this house, Miguel Luria-Nova. He knew who it was, he didn't really care if that person entered his house or not, since he didn't care for much these days. Getting out of bed, he headed down to the living room, in his black pyjamas, spotting the person who walked into his house.

"Baka! You're so slow! You have to be faster to reap the rewards, you know."

Tetsuro Yochi.

A fellow student and somehow Miguel's best friend, both of them going to Mariano del Rinascimento Scuola. Tetsuro is Japanese and he makes no attempt to hide it whatsoever. The clothes he wears to school is a Japanese boys high school uniform, otherwise known as a Gakuran. Some of the words he speaks are Japanese. He even brought a Japanese martial art to Lucca, to continue practicing, as well as show the rest of the school a bit of Japanese culture, Kendo. It's like swordfighting, but with a strange sword made of bamboo. Tetsuro is probably the best at Kendo here in Lucca, maybe the only one who does Kendo around here. He also likes Tigers, giving examples about them in everyday life. There's so much to explain about Tetsuro, but all will come in due time.

"Morning, Tetsuro."

"What's for breakfast?"

Today's breakfast was cereal. While it's Miguel's usual breakfast, Tetsuro would rather prefer a giant multicoure meal. Some would say his kind over there was spoiled. Before long, said breakfast was finished, and Tetsuro jumped out of his chair.

"Miguel, today I'm going to exclusively show you a rare oppurtunity of Japanese culture."

The black haired boy's eyes did not raise or lower, the dull expression never changing. "Oh?"

"It is called Anime and it's very popular all over the world. And it just so happens that a convention is being held in the vintage side of town, called AniCon. I bet it's going to be loads of fun! So, wanna come with?"

... "What about school?"

The blonde laughed, smirking at the question. "Haven't you forgotten? It's a student free day today. School's closed, well ours is. I don't think the institute would allow such things so consider ourselves lucky!"

The pyjama boy thought for a bit. Since there wasn't any school today, it wouldn't hurt to go to this AniCon with Tetsuro, after all, it would indeed kill some time. "Meh. I'll go." As if winning a tennis match, Tetsuro raised his arms in the air. "Thats the spirit! Now get changed and we'll be off in no-time!"

As he headed up to his room, Miguel thought on what to wear. Since it was an Anime convention, he'd probably have to wear something that would make him stand out. Then he thought of that outfit which made him look like some character from one of those shows. Black T-shirt, red and white short sleeved jacket, black fingerless gloves, blue jeans and to top it all off, a red and white cap, with a small logo to one side. Yeah, this will make him stand out alright. After brushing his teeth and what not, he headed back down. "Alright. I'm ready to go."

"Then let's not waste another moment! Hajimaru Yo!"

[Kuroboshi Kinou]

Somewhere...In the city of Lucca...

A young magus sleeps.

Morning light streams through her window like a cousin who visits without even calling first and came at the most inconvenient of times. Slowly, it crept down the windowsill, across the floor, and clambered up the sheets to deliver an explosion of good-morning sunshine into her eyelids.

But they were a super-heavy-duty-reinforced bunker that could survive a supernova, so the sunshine's attempts were entirely futile, even with the added help of chirping birds to carpet-bomb her ears.

Two abnormally large and shaped penguins with scarfs were outside. First, to check on the bounded field keeping the little cottage secure, and second, to kill the birds that were annoyingly chirping.

This magus that wouldn't wake up no matter what. The magus who's profile has yet to be completed so we don't even know what her origins are, and her reasons for coming here to Lucca. The magus who's probably going to go through a huge revamp in family history, personal history, equipments, and spells since the original idea was so confusing even the player himself couldn't fully understand it.

This magus's name was Kinou Kuroboshi. And apart from that, the only two things definite about her are that 1.) she is Japanese, and B.) she is female.

Everything else is subject to change, and depends entirely on whether or not the player actually figures out what the fuck he's doing.

Kinou Kuroboshi finally woke up.

In a glossy-eyed, bed-headed daze, she stumbled into the bathroom, turned the shower on, got naked, and stepped into the tub. After a few minutes, she got out, went into her room, dressed up into her morning cloths, and sat on the bed.

The two penguins from earlier entered the room as if on cue, bringing with them silver trays of cereal, chocolate milk, ice cream, and syrup.

She motioned the penguins away and they left. She carefully placed the first tray that had been placed on her bed in her lap. Ate. Then the second tray with the ice cream and syrup. Ate. The two penguins came back again when she was finished and took the trays away.

Leaning next to her on the bed stand was a Benelli M3 Super 90 shotgun. She took it, inspected it, made sure it was loaded, and put it back. She did the same for the gun underneath her pillow, a SIGSaur p226 automatic handgun.

She took apart the revolver on her bed stand, a Colt M1851. Took some oil lubricant and dabbed a little on the parts. Then she took the revolving chamber and inspected it.

It was not a revolving chamber. It was a prana singularity wrapped in a powerful bounded field, created by her ancestors in the Sengoku Period of Japan, and has been passed down from generation to generation along with the family Crest, encased in something that was made to look like a revolving chamber.

This thing she held in her hand was black. Blacker than even the steel black of the revolving mechanism that housed it. When the morning sunlight touched it, it seemed to suck the light in and dim the whole room.

This thing, which her family has kept and improved from generation to generation. This thing, which her ancestors created to benefit the empire of Japan.

This thing, which was fed countless victims over the centuries and centuries it's been in existence. This thing, which killed her most precious people indiscriminately.

"You are truly evil, aren't you?" She said aloud to the Eye of Harmony.

The Eye of Harmony. She stared into it, into the blackness. The endless, endless void that her ancestors created to bring the Akashic Records to this world. But those who have truly seen it would know. It is a world of nothing within nothing. A place that can only be called Hell.

Kinou loaded Hell back into her revolver and finished getting dressed.

She went downstairs and immediately left for the Brough Superior motorcycle parked under a tarp outside, without even saying good bye to the penguins, who were bickering over who got to hold the feather duster.

Moments later, she was riding down into Lucca Vecchio to attend an AniCon convention.

[Kosviel von Einzbern]

Most of the older people were dressed up as classics like Goku, Simon, Urameshi Yusuke, Ichigo... that ninja who wore orange, whose name kept escaping her somehow. Maybe, she intentionally had somebody cast memory interference to remove her memories of him, or something. This had to be the only explanation. After all, somebody like her... was bound to know a lot about the subject matter at hand.

Some younger people were also dressed up as classics, but more of them were dressed up as contemporary characters. Kosviel herself was wearing a more modern costume.

"Nice Lancet costume," said a Kurenai Reina, while doing a flourish in her equally red, but far, far more revealing costume. Kosviel couldn't say she was envious of that cosplayer's bosom. After all, as a Justica-type, she was impressive in her own right. Not that it showed, since Lancet-san's wardrobe wasn't a tight fit at all.

"Danke." The aristocrat curtsied in response, earning the Reina's smile in return. Around them, activity was at a real high, with people getting shots of their friends, the scenery, whichever band was up there on the stage... They were also busy fancying the 'authentic' Moorian cuisine. She had to hand it to the proponents. They went so far as to emulate food from a fantasy world.

"Everybody here is rather colorful, Meisterin."

"Naturally, Klaus. I guess that's part of the appeal." Kosviel continued to look around.

[Tetsuro Yochi]

"Take a look around Mig. It's like entering a whole new world."

There were a lot of things to look at. First of all there were the many stalls and whatnot selling various things, whether it be plushies, the latest anime releases, figurines, pillows, you name it. There were also rotating bands, playing songs familiar to otakus and anime lovers. However, the most common sighting was people dressed up as particular anime characters, some wearing very revealing outfits which just begged for a photo opportunity.

"See all those people, Mig. Those are called 'Cosplayers.' They go through a lot of time and effort to dress up as their favourite anime characters, some even go the extra mile and act like them too. Speaking of which, you look like someone who belongs in an anime."

"So do you.."

"True, true." The Gakuran was a typical piece of clothing seen in many anime shows, although not always black, like the one Tetsuro was wearing right now. Miguel's outfit would probably attract more attention though, especially with that hat on. Did they stand out, probably not. They would certainly fit right in amongst the rest of the cosplayers right now.

[Kuroboshi Kinou]

Kinou raced a black cloud to Lucca Vecchio on her motorcycle. She would've won except for a little bump in the road that shook her off balance and sent her rolling into the pavement.

"...Ow..." She said, rolling over and lying on her back, leaving both her and the motorcycle to the mercy of the road.

It was mercifully empty today. She watched as the black cloud rode on to victory.

"Ah...you okay, Hermes?" She asked in a whimsical tone to the motorbike.

The motorbike's name was Hermes. The SIGSaur's name was Marshal, the Benelli's name was Bowser, and the Colt's name was Cannon. Kinou liked to give things names and ask them questions sometimes. It was a personality quirk and not the result of any traumatic head injury during the accident.

After a few minutes, Kinou got up, helped Hermes get up, and, not even thinking about going to a hospital, went on to the AniCon.

It wasn't hard. She just wandered around until she found some weirdly-dressed people to follow.

After making sure Hermes was parked nicely, she entered the AniCon. In the face of all these costumes, Kinou, in her blue jeans, red T shirt,, sneakers, helmet and riding goggles, felt very plain.

[Isaak Friels]

The smell of stale coffe flooded the room with an unpleasent reminder. The coffee was stale. A crime of crimes in his eyes. He made a sour expression and turned to the source of the smell. How on Earth does coffee get so bad that it starts to smell so badly? Presumably a mad magus had created this. The decision to steal it had been hasty. In need of fresh coffee, Isaak had not hesitated to take the beverage with him when leaving the Tower. He opens the train window and promptly pours the foul liquid out of it. A brave sacrifice. Except that it was coffee and it stank to high heaven. A sacrifice but not a loss, such it was the world of coffee. A battleground of brave liquids and men of peculiar tastes who ought to be locked up in jail or in mental care facilities. It didn't matter much. Not much difference between coffee enthusiasts and mad men.

As he considered his own misfortune, Isaak pulled another thermos from within the box. He slowly opened it with care so that the heat wouldn't escape and quickly sipped it. Good coffee was indeed hard to create.
The train to the old Italian city was a slow one. An apparent accident had taken quite the while to clear and planes wouldn't get anyone there under this wheather. As quick as lightning, rain clouds had formed and poured themselves fully over the surroundings and the city itself. Heavy rain such as this was not very common. Might as well consider it a freak storm. Trying to reach the city itself at this point would not be easy. Time itself was not of the essence. There was much oif it until it begun. But necessary preparations should be done as swiftly as possible. Names, locations, necessary evils that should be set up. There was much to do.

Isaak sighed. The violent storm was reaching the train. As if a Spanish bull run, the train was battered and splashed with rushing water from everywhere. This wasn't natural at all. Such a storm would have long been detected by wheather measuring systems before it begun. This wasn't a storm, it was a hurricane of the type that simply doesn't happen.

Outside the cabin people rushed to and from, there was panic everywhere and no ammount of assurance of safety would deter it. A comprehensible feat. Humans are animals, mass panic or hysteria is to be expected. Of course, there was really nothing to fear. From the begining the train had had its covering reinforced with prana by several magi Isaak had hired. Not even the glass would shatter easily.

As the storm became stronger and stronger, the train was forced to stop. It had reached a small town where the storm itself was not so strong. It was easy to see why. It was the eye of the storm. Whoever controlled it was here.

Isaak exits the stopped train amidst protests of security. He is finalled let through, into the lonely station. No lights are anywhere, neither station or town.

"Well, this should be interesting." He walks off into the darkness, knowing not what to expect.

[Kosviel von Einzbern]

"I think that Morimoto should've just played for keeps. That would've been a whole new casino to add to his collection, if he actually took the bet seriously."

Klaus, the ever-enduring butler, for that was what he was coined to be, stood at the ready beside his mistress, prepared to answer her slightest beck and call. That was what one might call admirable of the Klaus-type models, but then one cannot really consider admirable a trait that was built into a design. Admiration has to be earned, not received.

In that sense, explained why this readiness was verily taken for granted. He was expected to be loyal and faithful. Others who did not realize that this attitude was built-in, would thus look at her balefully, as an employer who did not appreciate her servant's efforts. Of course, he could just be seen as a relative who cosplayed a generic butler very, very effectively.

"No, it's not in Morimoto's nature to do something like that. It's the reason why he gave the casino to Chiharu instead." The Rob Darligan took a sip of blue 'radioactive' Kool-Aid, in his fancy green suit, some fans say reminiscent of the Riddler, others say unique enough in itself by the lack of purple. "He promised that he'd get it back for her family, remember?"

"Oh, right. Typical shounen protagonist. I guess you really can make serious business out of everything, from Children's Card Games, to mini 4WD racing, to Mahjong, and now Roulette, of all things..." The aristocrat smirked. "But that's what makes them so appealing, I guess."

"Don't forget professional fishing."

"Oh, right. Well, at least it's not as absurd as writing in a notebook."

"That was a different thing entirely," The Darligan waved his hand, dismissing the particular title in question, catching what looked like a Pokemon Trainer and a generic high school student in the corner of his eye. "So, who's the butler supposed to be?"

"Klaus, from HnG," Kosviel replied. The light tone indicated a lack of seriousness in the matter, which the Darligan merely nodded to with disinterest.

"Sometimes, these guys are difficult to differentiate, unless they're a Sebastian, or something." He scratched the side of his head. "That Red is doing a pretty good job, though."

"Hmmhmm..." The Einzbern was, to be honest, more concerned about how a certain boy in very casual clothing stuck out from the cosplaying crowd like a sore thumb. "He's from Digimon, right?"

"Huh?"

"That guy over there. With the goggles. He looks like a Kazuki from D7, if only with the headgear."

"I don't think he's even trying. The thing about Kazuki is that he dresses plainly compared to every other preceding season. I mean, the dupe doesn't even have an iconic outfit."

"So you're saying he's not cosplaying?"

"That, or he's a Kazuki."

Kosviel muttered something about some uncreative, cheap people being lazy and exploiting an equally lazy character's appearance, before resuming the conversation about that crazy blasted shounen demographic. Whose idea was it to create a character with nothing iconic except headgear, anyway? Well, that really didn't matter. She had a few hours to kill before having to resume patrol, and this was how she was going to kill it.

[Celestina Barbieri]

"Wake up, wake up !!! Come on... wake up ! You promised !"

A faint voice reached Celestina's ears, digging themselves slowly into her consciousness and dragged her out of her precious sleep. "Umm..... 5 more minutes...." Or make it 5 hours. She really could sleep forever, and she was not willing to fight the drowsiness which pulled her back to rest.

"BUT YOU PROMISED ! No excuses, we are late anyway and you need to put on a costume." Soon Celestina thought that her body began to float on a new bed made up of clouds, but instead her body was lifted out of the bed. "Guh.. NGGG.... Heavy"

So many beautiful things. A flower garden. Haaaaah. Well I know that I am dreaming, but....... Hey, why does it rain ? "GAH ! COLD !" It did not take long for the young Barthomeloi successor to see the truth behind the rain, when her eyes flared wide open and stared into the opening of the shower head.

"........"

"Come on. Stop with that face and put a smile on. I am sure you can do it."

"You smile dumb enough for the both of us," the dark haired woman replied to the culprit of this uncultivated joke and glared Kyouko out of the shower room. Most people did not take more than a second to realize how stupid it might be to remain in her presence, once the difficult woman had reached a state of irritation.

There were not many better ways to anger someone, than pushing them out of bed and straight into an ice cold shower, but she was at least wide awake. A sigh came out under her rigid breath, still trying to adapt after the shock, while she began to undress and choose a more comfortable temperature for a morning shower.

I still cannot believe that I said yes.... Celestina was a woman of her word, proud, yet slightly egocentric and perhaps weird, but her word was in this situation the very important part, that drove a big painful needle into her stomach. She had really gotten her good. Under the cover of a cultural study for social activities, she had successfully been pulled into an Anime Event. HER OF ALL PEOPLE !! If her mother would see her, she could not even begin to imagine the end of the lecturing.

She honestly did not have such disregard of Japanese people, part of her heritage stemming from exactly that genetic pool in the east, yet her interest in Anime or cosplay were zero. No below that part, even lower than the temperature of her wake up shower, but she had promised under the false premise. That Kyouko could be so cunning was extremely miscalculated. A miss. Pure tragedy and while she finished up, the ever smiling 'idiot' who had been chosen as her room mate had already prepared everything to play with her Dress Up Doll.

"Okay. Now we can begin~"

Gritting her teeth Celestina underwent the cosmetic change from a sane person to a moron and it was hard to ignore the terror, after her eyes took the first glimpse of her flashy outfit. "What is this.... ?"

The answer came out of Kyouko like a shot out of an euphoric pistol, while the terribly enthusiastic room mate placed the final part, a wig on Celestina's head. "You don't know him ? Sephiroth !!!"

"Shou.... he ? Didn't you mess up ?"

"But he is cool, you will manage. Gender does not play a role in cosplaying and you do not wear the original outfit. It would cause some problems."

"What would that mean ? No... nevermind." I only want to get it over with. The only light in the darkness was the sword usually wielded by this character. A long sword, beautifully carved and forged, of course was hers the real deal. "Let's go." Celestina rose from her seat and picked the weapon with sparkles in her eyes and Kyouko followed obediently in her very own costume.

Maybe it won't be so bad, after all.

[Miguel Luria-Nova]

It turns out Miguel was very recognisable. There were plenty of people out there who wanted to get a photo of Red from Pokemon and Miguel didn't seem to mind. After all, how many people cosplay as Red these days, compared to those who cosplay as Ash Ketchum? Of course, he wasn't really cosplaying, this was just an outfit he wears from time to time, particularly at night.

Tetsuro was getting a bit of publicity of his own by showing off his Kendo moves. Those who watched were impressed and some were even taking photos or filming him practice. Being Japanese himself, he was proud to show it. His Gakuran was also of interest as he hasn't seen anyone else walking around the convention in one yet.

"Sugoi! This is so much fun!"

"Yeah..."

"Although, all this fun is making me hungry, is there a cafe around?"

The search was on. He recalled seeing a maid cafe somewhere around here, but since it was a big convention, it was a hard time looking, without asking for directions. Tetsuro said he didn't need to ask because they'll 'find it eventually'. It wasn't an absolute must to look for the maid cafe, as there were plenty of other things to see, like that section showcasing the latest anime, for example.

[Kuroboshi Kinou]

The convention was larger than Kinou had expected. It hadn't really crossed her mind that this many otakus existed in Italy. She was unaware of how far anime had come in terms of popularity around the world, and this was a wake up call.

Around her, the social lives of the Italian anime fans flourished. Conversations, debates, and speculations about everyone's favorite shows surrounded her. There were flashy costumes everywhere, some of which she recognized as belonging to characters off of video game boxes and passing advertisements in Japan. In some places, there were the demonstrations and mock battles. Character vs. Character fights, straight out of the imagination (not acted especially well, of course, but still entertaining to watch. You had to at least give them credit.)

The more she wandered around, the more Kinou felt like she was a person who just asked for steak at a vegitarian diner. Though she was never one to judge, she still couldn't help but snicker quietly as she passed by some of the more ridiculously-dressed people. The phrase "trying too hard" came to mind.

It was her players' great joy to remind her that she also had a couple of outfits that stood out from the crowd, and that totally wiped the smile off her face.

Walking around in a costume when it wasn't Halloween, talking about speculating about who would win in a battle between Cloud Strife and DiGi Charat if they had both become playable on Super Smash Bros and the BGM was "Saigo no Tatakai" from the .hack series, while the idol singers who, apparently having nothing better to do, decided in all their infinite wisdom and glory to come overseas and entertain some of their driveling fans from the U.S. to watch them stare in wide-eyed awe as they toss their sweat stained, XXL sized briefs onto the stage, wasn't exactly something Kinou considered "fun."

But let's not forget that Kinou herself is Japanese, and is aware of this side of her culture. Compared to the conventions they held in her homeland, this was just a small gathering in a basement. She understood that different kinds of people had different ways of having fun, it was just that she didn't consider these kinds of things fun.

Unless it involved shooting something.

Which is really what she came here to do. To shoot someone.

More specifically, to shoot targets revolving around someone dressed in a tattered costume made to resemble a demon with a spiral body.

The game was simple. Shoot all three of the revolving targets with a slingshot-like device made to resemble a handgun with a magical twist. Dunk the spiral monster into the tank of lukewarm water. Win the prize.

The prize was a model gun, authentic and to scale, that belonged to a main character in one of Kinou's favorite shooter games "The Last Message, Genesis Ark." Because, yes, even someone like Kinou is geek for something.

She hadn't gone to the hospital because she was focused entirely on trying to beat the line and get the prize, but it turned out the line had beaten her. She was now stranded behind a large, bald man dressed like a cleric.

Muttering something under her breath, she waited, making no attempt to conceal her impatience.

(The main character and the gun Kinou is trying to win looks like this: i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu247/ShiroTsukisan/dot%20hack%20stuff/Ovan.jpg)

[Kosviel von Einzbern]

The Darligan had long left, replaced by a Tifa who, for some reason, couldn't keep her mouth shut. Kosviel rubbed her forehead for the nth time. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

The Tifa paused for a moment, looked at the Einzbern with a tilt to her head, and yes, did repeat what she just said, in the exact same manner as she did earlier, in fact. This could have been the Italian equivalent of the dumb blonde American cheerleader, but then she was more brunette than blonde, being a Tifa and all. Of course, she could've just dyed her hair, but Kosviel didn't want to go into so much detail about some ditz who talked about nothing but her equally ditzy love life.

Having long lost interest in this girl whose only point of interest in the first place was her virtually perfect resemblance to Tifa, the vessel motioned for her loyal retainer to follow as she looked around for something else to do. Most irksome, however, was the fact that the Tifa didn't seem to get the message, and tagged along, flapping her mouth the whole time. The breaking point was quite near, and the only reason she didn't call on her Berserker, or hell, Klaus, who was already there, to put this cretin in her place, was of course the fact that she would make a scene.

Not that the other cosplayers weren't making their own scenes, what with absurd crossover duels, or even romances, but everything else was so badly acted that a scene would in fact, stand out. Specifically, one where an old butler were to go to a Beamer parked outside the Amphitheatre, open the boot, take out the M249 SAW, haul it back inside after knocking the flimsy security guards out, and use it to turn a blabbering cosplayer into a pile of meat.

Yes, that wouldn't make just a scene. that would make one hell of a scene.

Kosviel pondered the many other different ways she would be able to rid herself of this nuisance, and asked for the girl's address, on some flimsy basis like hanging out sometime. The words naturally flowed from the Tifa's mouth, and the alchemist made good note of that, for future use. That is to say, for when she would visit her in the night, go into her kitchen, and transmute all of the cutlery inside into walking killing machines from a slasher film, which would then march into the Tifa's room, wake her up with their metallic clanking, and torture her to death while Kosviel watched with glee. She continued on her way, blocking out the trash that was spewing forth from the Tifa like a waterfall of depravity.

At the moment, there had to be a non-lethal way to get this thing out of her hair. But what?

Catching a glimpse of those two guys the Darligan had noted earlier, an idea came up. Two seconds later, Kosviel pointed at the weird dunk-the-monster game that the Kazuki had lined up for, shouting out, "Look!" then shoved the Tifa into the Pokemon Trainer who was passing by before scrambling to hide behind the guy whose only claim to being Kazuki from Digimon was his riding helmet and goggles.

Klaus remained stoic as ever, and silently followed, walking so gracefully that he seemed to glide just above the floor. Despite the fact that she didn't want to make a scene, Kosviel von Einzbern just started one.

[Celestina Barbieri]

Maybe it won't be so bad, after all.

That was her last thought before leaving the dorms and it began to disappear during their ride in the smelly taxi, maybe already as she laid eyes upon the strange sight. While her ignorant tormentor hummed some song that could probably be part of some anime intro theme, Celes felt inclined to just rip the door open and jump out of the driving vessel.

She didn't know herself how often she had repeated the film worthy escape in her mind, before the taxi finally came to a halt and the voices of cheerful people began to reach her ears, but the vivid imagination managed to take her mind of the harsh reality and yet she soon realized that this was just a little taste about the tragedies to come.

The taxi was smelly, nothing compared to the elegant cars, Celestina had used before, well protected from the outside world... maybe in fact too well protected, now finding it difficult to interact with normal, human beings.

Yet, were those people outside really normal !? As much as she had wondered how one could produce this smell and have such a shabby car as their own, wishing to jump out just moments ago, the fake Barbieri now would prefer to remain seated. She would think it was a very logical change of opinion.

Unfortunately Kyouko already jumped outside and took Celestina's hand to get her out. Upon breathing fresh air and reaching steady ground, the young woman could now take a look at the full scale of the nightmare.

The amount of people who participated in this event was sheerly overwhelming, exceeding all expectations and was extremely difficult to understand. She felt like an unwelcome wave of insanity was spreading out into her direction and a brief glance at her companion's eyes showed that the infection had spread and claimed another victim.

Worst of all was that she herself was also part of this madness, and even a well made one thanks to Kyouko's handywork. How well known was the fact that Celestina's room mate was a good cook and seemed to be reliable and a capable technician with skills that she could repair almost anything. Maybe a bit too much praise, but she was in many ways quite useful as a room mate. Unfortunately it now felt as if these skills had been used for something extremely dark, tainted by ...... what was the word ?

Otaki ? It had slipped her mind, but played no role in this drama of her life. It was just a word, no matter how much it was slapped her face in an indirect sense.

The Noble kept her stone face, disregarding the inner uncertainty and a keen eye on everyone in her surroundings. Caution was an important part, despite just being in the crowd already proof of absolute carelessness and yet she dared to take the steps forward, diving into the crowd and parting it like General Sephiroth through his loyal Shinra SOLDIERs.

Maybe her skin had paled, not completely unfazed by the huge surprise, able to read the actions of the people around her, yet not able to understand their motives in the least. But her make-up and the natural skin tone of the character made this only better for her cosplay.

Even the cold eyes and equally strict and unemotional demeanor were quite suitable. Celestina had hardly any knowledge about the character, but it seemed like the role could as well had been written for her. Perhaps unknown to Celes the reason for Kyouko to choose exactly that costume. Maybe the girl who had just recently outed herself as an otaku knew more about the grail war master, than Celes about herself. A scary thought..... but it seemed that fate could top this off.

She had apparently paid too much attention to other people and lost sight of the only person, she could actually call something like an acquaintance. Kyouko had gotten lost in the crowd. How unsightly. The thought that she was actually the one who had gotten lost did not even begin to cross her mind, as Celestina Barbieri marched deeper into the mass of madness. There was no turning back now.

It was either taking the challenge and showing it who is boss or going under with honor. Turning heel and escaping like a coward was no option. But she was still somewhat glad about the well made disguise and decided to do her best to remain just some random cosplayer before getting found out by people who knew her. Having just recently moved to this area for the grail war might have benefits in this regard, but she just too often managed to stick out of the mass and this was just not the best time for this.

[Isaak Friels]

The small town is as deserted as it looked from the distance. So long as one does not consider unlife to be a presence at any rate. It was quite clear. The abandoned town was nothing but nest of
malign entities and discard undead entities. A town does not simply become as such. It was likely that it was situated on a leyline from the city itself and thus particularly prollific in this regard.

"This isn't going to easy..." He sighs. Spirits weren't much of trouble, regardless of their concentration but the undead were beginning their walk at this hour. If the faintest ray of sunlight were to be around, it was gone by now. Evening finally descended although Isaak had not realized this immediatly. The storm was such of ferocity that the darkened clouds blotted out even the sun, as if a gigantic aegis. But this was no shield for anyone but the undead themselves. As Isaak turned a corner towards the town square, it came at him.

A jagged and rusty short sword lunged at him. Behind it was simply the faint creaking of jointed bones and the smell of the faintest rotting flesh. Isaak grins and pulls out his sword from the box. The Yen Xing blade parries the rusty sword with ease. Before the undead beast could reel back its blade, Isaak swiftly slashed its head. Unable to pull back, it's rotting flesh and already shattered skull were nothing but if paper before the tempered mystic blade of the sword. The sword quickly slices the monster apart up to its spine and it falls. Its bones shatter and fade into the violent winds.

"Well, that was simpler than I'd thought." If such monsters were all there was, this would indeed be easy. Nothing short of a higher class spirit or phantom could survive against his Yen Xing. Although hardly the strongest of blades, the Yen Xing was an ancient sword with powerful history. It had been used as a phantom killer for generations and gained even stronged slaying capabilities as a result. At this point nothing existed that it could not cut or pierce. Th weakened bones of the beast might as well have been steel, it did not matter the least. So long as they contained the property of ghost or undead, this was of little consequence.

Isaak resumed his walk and reached the central square. The statue of a saint lied broken. It had not been broken accidentally. Someone had defaced it on purpose. Such statues often hold warding powers due to popular belief so whoever broke it must have had a special interest in doing so.

"Well, this is interesting." Isaak spots a faint trail of faded blood. It had been washed away in a rush, not long before the train stopped here. Someone had at least tried to hide what actually happened. Badly at that. either someone stupid or in a very big rush to get away. Why else would they bother trying to hide a trail of blood and not the roaming undead? It seemed stupid. Unless you had half a brain, he thought.

Then rumbling begun. The Earth itself shook as if tearing itself asunder. The foul air itself started to quickly disspate as if pushed aside by a large mass of somehting. Then Isaak realized why. From the crack in the groudn climbed a creature so foul a Magus would never be able to create. A monstrusity with seven limbs, tall as a truck and just as wide if not more. A rotting smell came from it, more disgusting than month old rotting fish and more nefarious than even foul coffee after a Magus had gone through it. As if a thousand people had collectively begun to decay and their flesh had been left in the sun. t had no mouth. A single nostril ran its face almost entirely and three rotting eyeballs were affixed to left side. Stitches ran all over it, connecting limb and flesh. But it was obvious it had not been correctly made.
The monster was made from dozens of people but its sytems had not been connected correctly. It was a formidable display of both ingenuity and ingorance. That such a beast was made despite such biological mistakes and that it yet lived despite being rotten and decaying was all the more impressive.

The thing swung a lampost at Isaak. It was a slow but thunderous swing, great strength was behind it. But power is worthless unless it hits. Seeing it coming, Isaak promptly dodged backwards and behind a building. It was an easy job. He bites his right indicator and smothers the front of his case with it. As the blood seeps, a mouth with needle sharp teeth emerges from the covering. It opens its lips to quicly drink the remaining blood and promptly disappears. The case unlocks and remains open. There was nothing inside the case. It was a normal empty container, as far as anyone could see. Then the void started to form. It quickly spread
to surround Isaak and from it two spectral shadows appear. They are formless but sentient, a cunning form of instinct possesses them. They take shape. Four limbs, a long necka nd head with sharp teeth and ears. Wolves. A mockery of such a form at least. They were not of flesh but of a composition of ether and prana, possessed by two lesser devils.

The noise rumbles to where Isaak is. He dodges backwarda again, this time not to avoid a direct swing but rather the roof of the house itself. He lands perfectly as he swings his hands in a strange motion. As if suddenly becoming animate, the wolves disappear into the surroundings. The monster towers over Isaak as if to challenge him. The mouthless creature displays its body, as if almost with honour, unaware of the foul terror it inspires. Isaak smiles.

"You should always mind you back." As he says this, the wolves appear from the mosnter's back. One of them rears its needle sharp razor fangs and promptly bites the thing's right calf. The bites pierces through the thick muscles and fat right to the bone. The monster trembles with pain, unable to give voice to its urges. It makes to swatch away the shadow but the other wolf bites and devours its hand. Stricken with surprise it falls backwards. Stricken with sudden fear, the monster realizes. This was never a fight he could win. As it makes to run, Isaak jumps on it. He kicks from the left arm to prevent a blow and uses the impetus to jump over the creature. At this point he draws Yen Xing. The blade makes a single motion as he jimps over the monster. He lands on his feet and sheathes the blade. The remains of the creature's head also fall, five seconds before the whole body also imitates it. The monster dies but the questions remain. The storm still continues and the rain falls.

"Will I find answers there?" He asks as he returns to the train.

[Miguel Luria-Nova]

One must take into account, that something will abruptly happen sooner or later. The chances of such things greatly increase if you go to a place where abrupt things happen all the time. The chances increase even further if you aren't doing anything in particular, which is what the Pokemon Trainer and his High School friend were doing right now, just walking around. That's when it happens.

In a complete instant a female, cosplaying as Tifa from some game that both wouldn't even know, crashes into the Pokemon Trainer, AKA Miguel. In that one instant, it was from walking, to lying on the floor. He didn't react straight away. Actually, he didn't really react at all. He was always the one to not really care about stuff in the daytime. No, the one who was reacting was his friend, the blonde hair high school student.

"Hey, are you both okay?"

Tetsuro helped up the Tifa, while Miguel slowly got up on his own. Through out the entire ordeal, his expression remained the same. As expected from someone like him. He just blinked and looked at the girl. As usual in a case like this, it was Tetsuro who did all the talking. He IS the one who usually wonders about people's safety and all.

"You alright there? What happened to you?"

[Kuroboshi Kinou]

It took 3 minutes after the fact for Kinou to realize what was going on.

This was because, standing there in line, she suddenly became aware of a small pain growing out of her right shoulder and the left side of her chest that intensified until it seared so badly it began to blur her vision.

She had no idea what it could possibly be. Had she been ambushed or shot? She felt her shoulder and saw that there was no blood. What was it then? Had her sheer rage at the long line reached the point where it physically hurt not to do something about it?

Then, just at that moment, it registered in Kinou's mind that she had been in a motorcycle accident. This was more than likely the cause of the searing pain.

She hadn't noticed it before because she was so focused on getting to the convention and winning that game, but now that she was here and forced to wait in line, her mind suddenly snapped into idle mode and found that, oh yeah, she had been in an accident.

From past experience, Kinou deduced that the pain in both her shoulder and her chest was due to having one or two pretty important bones fractured in ways that they probably preferred not to be.

But everything was okay. Everything was fine. She didn't need to go to a hospital. Her right arm would move if she yelled at it hard enough, and her broken ribs could whine and bitch all they wanted but she wasn't going to give in. All she needed to do was find something to distract her mind from the burning, numbing pain until the line was up and she could have a chance to win that gun!

That's exactly when she chose to notice there was a butler looming over her.

She turned around to face him, since he seemed like he wanted something from her, and was about to press a question to his stout, servant-y face when she noticed what the butler was actually waiting on. A girl with white hair that had, for 3 minutes, been cowering behind her.

Kinou pressed the question to her instead.

"Can I help you?" She asked, in her first speaking line since 11 posts ago.

[Kosviel von Einzbern]

"Totally fine!" Apparently, by sheer coincidence, the Tifa was made of equally hard stuff. Little did people know that she was a veteran wrestler, but that was another matter entirely. As such, she was in no true sort of trouble whatsoever.

The Tifa looks back and forth between the student and the Pokemon trainer, and then squeals. "Omigosh! You're that Red from the first generation! And you're... She pauses and tries to associate his face with anybody, and failing that... "A hero from a school story!"

Having said that, she begins to rattle on about how the first generation was awesome despite its lack of technology, how you all had to start from somewhere, how innovative it was for the time, and other unnecessary praise of those old school games. Which really, when you thought about how the day's Amber and Jade versions had support for multiplayer battle royal mode amongst other things, seemed to make it feel like an early 2000's gamer talking about how awesome Pong and PacMan were.

Somehow, she managed to slip about just as many praises for the high school story genre in between, about how it can create compelling stories without the need for a very serious tone. But again, she explained that she had nothing against the serious toned stories, and the like. What became quite evident of the Tifa, however, was the fact that she loved to talk. And that's exactly what she did.



"You just gotta keep me away from that Tifa," said this girl with white hair, dressed in the likeness of a certain visual novel heroine. "She won't stop talking, she can't take a hint that I want her to leave me alone."

And of course, she couldn't get into a fight with the Tifa either, though as stated earlier, that would have been worth the mess that would come afterwards. If you thought clearly about it, she could easily bust herself out of jail even if she did kill the Tifa and was arrested for it, but she wouldn't be able to go around during the day anymore. That was unacceptable.

Especially considering how most conventions were a daytime event.

As with everything, Klaus merely stood by, awaiting his orders.

[Celestina Barbieri]

The great amount of people and the smell protruding from their pores, intermixed with the faint odor of food and drinks was a new experience for the girl who was used to seclusion and air-cons. This environment was like a different planet and some dialogs that managed to transcend out of the loud, chaotic mix of random chatter sounded like another language to her. Did they really use Italian or was this special jargon actually not Italian !?

This all and the warm sun shining down made her wonder when she would also begin to sweat like crazy, but she managed to keep her cool ... for now. At least they were fairly well behaved and kept their distance, even parting for an easier path for 'his' excellency Sephiroth.

How nice, somehow they at least understand.

The reason might've been less her naturally given charisma and her well made costume rather than her piercing stare that made some of them believe that she could really kill with a simple glare, but she could not care less and gained some confidence, while marching through 'oddball-land'. The only question was how far she should go and more importantly what she should do ? No one had ever told her what those were good for. Celes had just by herself decided to head through this dangerous minefield of weirdness and then head home with glamor and the knowledge of having survived this battle rationalism versus insanity.

Nonetheless... the field seemed far bigger than initially expected and although people allowed her easy passage still took her view. Her average sized frame for a girl did not help, considering that guys were in Europe usually by quite a bit larger than your average girls and they were in Italy, after all. She could probably walk for hours and still find no end. "Porca miseria...," she uttered under her breath not allowing it to be carried over to the ears of others, if they could not call a very sensitive, selective sense of hearing as part of their positive, physical traits.

Well I'll survive. This was nothing compared to some of the teachings and trials she had to undergo for her advancement in the profession as a magus, although she knew the reason for those trials and this one was just pure torture. But craziness would not spring forth of normal reasoning, bound by logic. How in the world would she be able to find an answer to the question that was the only important thing right now. The WHY ME !?

And then another layer of the rose opened, allowing the gender-bent; now female General to step deeper into the core of this strange flower, and saw that the core was far more dangerous than the thorns outside. Some weird girl let go of a full load of remarks concerning something that might have been videogames. She could remember having heard some of prior conversations of those commoners around, but this still didn't increase her knowledge about them. Just hearing alien terms once more and feeling that her confidence got sucked away, like some Metroid eating life force.

Oh... I could remember one after all. Although it was a fairly strange sight to see 3 people wearing something like a core costume and over this a partly transparent thing that was supposedly the actual costume and called Metroid. Three people sharing one costume, now that was economic and for certain hot. At least hers did not force her to sweat more than necessary, the people around were already more than bad enough. The best part about them on the other hand was that they were QUIET !

Silence was something she'd like to demand from this talkative element, that might have jumped out of the deepest pool of insanity and yet knew that her request would remain unheard. Rather than adding another point to her list of regret, Celes just had a smaller selfish wish of people surrounding and containing this element like a hazardous substance and close her off from the magus' sight and preferably the ears as well.

A frown and another step forward. The trial had not ended yet. Somehow not too different from walking on a path, rows of armed people at each side and everyone wishing to cut your head off. Not much ill intent could be felt in the closer surroundings, despite so many different characters crash interacting with each other, and so it was supposedly safer, but it could not really calm her. Especially one showed disdain at the situation, probably more than Celes herself.

Some girl on the sidelines, now quite close to the Barthomeloi magus had just begun to complain to an older man that seemed to cosplay as a butler about the talkative person. Yes, perhaps she was not alone and now she could also see that some costumes seemed by far more normal than her more wild expectations had suggested. A guy with a cap and a butler. That could be used on a normal day as well.