You guys passed the diplo check, that last set of rolls was a clash roll on how well respected Gudako is which she passed. Anyways this turned out much better than I thought it would, (aka nothing happening) since luckily Gudako's stealth roll was lower than the perception roll.
And somehow I still missed the rolling. (well, atleast we rolled well this time instead of being saved by Rias dice again.)
Edit: Just gonna roll a dice for my own amusement and hopefully that'll keep my dice goblin wishes away until I get to play D&D tommorow.
Well would you look at that, well I'm glad that doesn't count.
You guys passed the diplo check, that last set of rolls was a clash roll on how well respected Gudako is which she passed. Anyways this turned out much better than I thought it would, (aka nothing happening) since luckily Gudako's stealth roll was lower than the perception roll.
Rias knew the feeling, but she silently promised to herself that she would become stronger along with her Peerage.
Just you wait Ritsuka, soon I won't need to hide behind my brother. I'm not going to stop until I become strong enough to stand on your level, then I'll-I'll…
Did- did Rias just become Vergil? But with Ritsuka as her primary M O T I V A T I O N -goal instead of just pure power? All the while the dice have seemingly decided that we should be antagonist with her to some degree by allying with someone who might be opposed against her, from what I understand?
Man, this quest is unironically off with a great start. I can't wait to see what happens when we throw in Ritsuka's alchemical production skills and Heroic Spirits into the mix.
Did- did Rias just become Vergil? But with Ritsuka as her primary M O T I V A T I O N -goal instead of just pure power? All the while the dice have seemingly decided that we should be antagonist with her to some degree by allying with someone who might be opposed against her, from what I understand?
Man, this quest is unironically off with a great start. I can't wait to see what happens when we throw in Ritsuka's alchemical production skills and Heroic Spirits into the mix.
Huh. Weird coincidence but early on Freed was intended to become an Ally rather than an antagonist, before they decided to make a female version(Lint) to play the role instead(harem addition. Basterds)
This is pretty basic it's outright normal human morality, against beings who can level continents threatening mutually assured destruction can allow negotiations to occur if they're hostile whether anyone likes it or not.
Spirits lifted, Ritsuka decided to investigate the church.
Challenging another Alchemist within their own domain was needlessly reckless, and the abandoned factory's surroundings weren't ideal, so with a powerful flap of her wings the Dark Young accelerated towards the neglected holy place at a breakneck pace.
Thankfully the pair of wings came with an instruction manual which proved invaluable to pull off a smooth landing.
For a first attempt it was excellent in her humble opinion.
"Okay now how to do this..." The alchemist muttered under her breath trying to formulate a plan.
Serenity for all her faults had given Ritsuka some tips on how to be undetectable when infiltrating, but admittedly the Magus never excelled at those lessons.
The unique advantage of alchemy combined with flight meant that was less of a problem now that she could enter the building from literally any angle desired.
Stealthily using the roof as a makeshift entrance was more than likely totally unnecessary, but it was better being safe than sorry.
Temporarily making a hole in the roof with a size suitable for her build was child's play with an alchemist's repertoire. Taking a peek into the newly created opening Ritsuka noticed nothing out of the ordinary, so she went through and quickly patched up the hole.
After taking care of that small detail the winged magus floated own and casually strolled through the halls taking in every detail.
Everything was covered in dust and there were ebon feathers littering the ground.
Looks like crows were nesting inside here.
If birds could get in that means there was an opening to get in that she hadn't spotted, not a dealbreaker by any means since it was an easy fix.
Wonder what a deeper look would reveal.
Brushing her hands against the walls while using structural analysis revealed something unexpected.
This church also had a spacious basement oddly enough.
"Are basements common for churches?" Ritsuka wondered aloud.
She had no clue.
More space for her workshop was only a bonus, but it would be prudent to inspect the area first.
Nothing barred the goat-like girl's way as she found and used the stairs leading down, but something alarming caught her attention.
Voices were coming from further below.
"-ment to kill this loser Hyoudou Issei because he might have a dangerous Sacred Gear." A feminine voice full of contempt echoed down the halls.
What were the chances somebody had already taken the best base in town?
She answered her own question, hadn't she?
Two other options were available, so this wasn't a significant setback.
"What a pain, is this going to interfere with our plans for Twilight Healing?" Whoever said this sounded painfully young, but Ritsuka was deeply familiar with childlike killers.
Jackie was a perfect example of an undeniably deadly cinnamon roll.
Murder wasn't the average conversation topic, so curiosity got the better of the intrepid Magus. Silently making her way to a grandiose wooden door left ajar she peeked through the crack to get a better view.
"I know right? Thankfully Asia will be arriving soon, so even if that nobody's death does attract attention we'll be finished here before it becomes a problem." The first voice responded belonging to a well-proportioned beauty in dominatrix gear.
Well used to such outfits due to Carmilla wearing similar and even more outrageous styles Ritsuka instead paid attention to the pair black wings sprouting from the woman's back.
So that's where the black feathers from upstairs came from.
Now that she knew they belonged to supernatural creatures the alchemist made a note to grab a few on her way out for research purposes.
A masculine voice coming from outside her field of view chimed in. "If Azazel is so concerned about that boy's Sacred Gear perhaps it might be worth taking?"
"No, I bet it's something lame like twice critical." The winged dominatrix refuted. "If it really was a strong sacred gear why wouldn't Azazel tell us to recruit the boy, or come here himself?"
Obviously, they were planning to assassinate someone over one of those Sacred Gears she had heard about, but it wasn't like Ritsuka had room to judge considering she had befriended worse.
Having heard enough, Ritsuka decided it was time to leave and check out the factory next.
When she turned to get up one of her tails hit both wings by coincidence causing them to twitch and blow the doors in front of her off their hinges and into the room with a boom.
Why couldn't anything go right today!?
"Who's there!" The violet eyed dominatrix demanded as she flew up along with three other feathered individuals who had spears made of light appear in their hands.
It seems there was another person in the room she hadn't noticed.
No pressure, this was still salvageable.
Instead of allowing her feelings to show like last time Ritsuka projected an aura of confidence practically strutting through the debris obscuring her figure.
"Hello!" The Dark young beamed up at them. "You can call me Ritsuka."
The four looked down at her before the wannabe dominatrix began to laugh. "Oh look, a foolish stray walking towards its doom, let's put you out of your misery."
More like doomed diplomacy, but yeah it seems like this new appearance severely hindered any attempt at a decent conversation.
Responding to the threat the only way she knew how the hardened combatant activated her magic circuits in preparation for some quick reinforcement in case thing went from bad to worse.
Normally this would give her a small dose of energy to work with, yet the moment she accessed her magic an avalanche of power unexpectedly flooded her body that she wasn't prepared for in the slightest.
It's too much to contain…
Without proper direction the unadulterated power escaped her grasp in one of the worst ways possible, by exploding outwards and flooding the room. Immediately Ritsuka clamped her circuits shut, yet it was too late to stop the consequences.
There was no way her mediocre circuits could produce this amount of power, yet in absolute defiance of that fact everything around her broke, furniture warped, walls gouged, and deep lacerations laced the four fliers as they dropped to the floor.
They didn't even have the chance to scream.
It didn't take long for the first to stir awake with a groan. "Wha-what was that?"
Rushing towards the blonde girl Ritsuka was relieved to see that the damage wasn't serious. "Sorry if I used too much power, but your friends didn't give me much choice."
Wide blue eyes craned up to look at her with a confused expression. "A-ah."
The child seemed a bit lost for words, not that Ritsuka blamed her. Wounds littered her body, and her frilly outfit was practically ruined.
Twice the mutated Master had hurt people without meaning to. Getting a handle on her newfound strength was quickly climbing up her priority list.
"Here I'll help you feel better." Ritsuka gave the blonde a pleasant grin. "So what's your name?
"Mi-Mittelt." The twin-tailed blonde nervously squeaked out.
Aww, she was shy.
Owning up to her mistake Ritsuka placed a hand on Mittelt's head and employed alchemy to close the wounds.
"See, all better." Ritsuka reassured the shaken child.
The blonde sported an anemic smile as she stuttered out. "Th-thank ye-you"
Patting Mittelt's downy head Ritsuka took the time to take a closer look at her patient's biology.
There was a strong resemblance to Akeno on the surface, but it wasn't identical. The biggest difference was that Mittelt's nodes were almost entirely concentrated within her feathered wings, and the nodes themselves were definitely not the same as Akeno's, but it was hard to put her finger on what exactly set them apart.
The feather's themselves were like magical pores that doubled as both intake and output valves-
A defiant voice interrupted her studies. "Even someone like you won't get away with this, we're the subordinates of the great Azazel!"
Oops, looks like she let her alchemical curiosity get the better of her again.
Refusing to let go of her research subject, Ritsuka picked up Mittelt like a teddy bear to face the apparent leader of this group.
"Azazel, huh?" That name sounded familiar, but where had she heard it…
The tight bits of fetish gear weren't doing the dominatrix any favors as the woman frantically nodded. "He won't forgive you if anything happens to us."
Wearing what amounts to strips of leather that barely covered anything around an impressionable kid was not okay, even if this lady was Mittelt's mother. There was a reason she had Atalanta help keep Servants like Kiara away from Jackie, Illya, Abby, Nursery Rhyme, and the rest of the kids when possible!
One thing was for sure though, this Azazel was all hot air. Not the person himself but his subordinate's claims, since Ritsuka knew a bluff when she saw one.
"Such a great man must be very busy." Ritsuka drawled, still trying her best to exude an unshakable air. "Even if Azazel cares about you, I wonder can he get here in time to find out who's responsible?"
Violet eyes shrunk into pinpricks, perhaps she was a bit too harsh when calling out the leader's bluff.
Putting on her best smile Ritsuka extended an olive branch. "There's no need to fight, we can be friends instead."
With that statement everyone seemed to calm down until another interruption cropped up.
"Have no fear fallen comrades, the cavalry's here!" A voice that constantly changed pitch yelled from behind. "Everyone let's cut this shitty devil apart Ze!"
Of course, more people assuming she was a devil.
Taking a quick glance behind showed dozens of people in priest robes led by another in a similar outfit who was either an albino or some type of homunculus. Combat imminent her ingrained reflexes made her reach for her magic once again which was a mistake.
Even letting loose the tiniest sliver of her power was enough to knock out all the robed men except Freed who wasn't deterred in the slightest. "Yeah~ now that's more exciting to exorcise!"
Glowing sword in hand the crazed man leapt at her with a grin. "Say goodbye, this is the end!"
Easily predicting his trajectory Ritsuka dodged to the side avoiding the sloppy overswing.
Ritsuka was no expert on combat, but she had watched battles between the greatest warriors of mankind on the regular. Freed's attacks were so slow and clunky by comparison that she wasn't worried in the slightest for Mittelt's safety.
"Freed you fool that's no Devil that's-" The winged leader's speech was cut off when Ritsuka's unruly tails tendency to move without input finally proved useful for once by seizing her assailant's leg.
"Hey, let go-" The second tail whipped him in the face. "Stop. Not. The. Face."
Stupefied Ritsuka watched as with each word her right tail viciously slapped the albino across the face while her second repeatedly slammed him into the ground until finally, they threw him away.
The leader whose name she still didn't know trailed off. "a God…"
What was it about her that made everyone assume she was a Divine Spirit?
Ritsuka really wanted to ask, but that might disrupt whatever delicate equilibrium was starting to take hold.
"Oh, so it's not a shitty devil?" Freed massaged his swollen cheeks. "Why didn't you say so, you know I don't care much about those Pagans Raynare."
"That's what I was trying to tell you before you charged in like an idiot!" The dominatrix, Raynare, hissed. "Apologize now!"
Freed's red eyes met her own as he shrugged. "You're alright for a shitty God I guess."
If looks could kill Freed would be dead ten times over as Raynare practically seethed in the irreverent man's direction. "Why must you…"
"I don't mind, he reminds me of one of my Servants Hyde." Chaldea's Last Master tried to cut off the potential squabble while also speaking the complete truth.
The albino resembled what she imagined a snarkier and more playful version of Hyde would act like to a T. While she preferred Jekyll over the assassin's murderous second persona, Hyde was still one of her treasured friends.
Just saying Hyde was her servant probably wasn't too convincing, so Ritsuka elaborated. "I consider all my servants friends."
"See, goat girl has good taste." Freed commented smugly, much to the ire of his allies.
Raynare glared at him before she turned to the Dark Young and bowed low to the ground, swearing. "We'd all be honored to become your servants, friend."
What?
How did this suddenly go from trying to establish friendly relations, to the hostile group's leader promising servitude.
Unbeknownst to Ritsuka the millennia old fallen hanging limply in her arms like a stuffed animal silently pleaded with her leader.
Raynare avoided meeting the other fallen angel's gaze and continued, completely oblivious to the eldritch avatar's internal confusion. "I'm sure Mittelt would also be delighted to help her new best friend with anything."
[] With this strange turn of events Ritsuka decided…
-[] She wasn't going to play along with whatever was going on here.
--[] Leaving this whole mess behind sounded like a good idea.
--[] Kicking them out of the church and ordering them to stay gone so she could set up her workshop in peace and quiet was for the best.
-[] Recruit them of course. Weak minions whose loyalty was dubious at best didn't sound great, but who could resist when they doubled as interesting phantasmal specimens!
--[] First things first was establishing her workshop, and these new minions were going to help.
--[] She was curious about Sacred Gears, so asking Raynare's group to lead to her that wielder they were talking about earlier would only help.
--[] There were plans about something called Twilight Healing Ritsuka wanted to know.
--[] Put a tracking rune on all of them and send them to gather materials.
--[] Find out why Mittelt's allies were horrible role models.
[] Write in?
[] Will Ritsuka keep studying Mittelt? (free action)
-[] Yes. (Roll a d100 for alchemical discoveries.)
-[] No. (No rolls d100)
A/N: That took much longer than I thought it would and I'm only posting this because I don't want to be stuck in rewrite purgatory, even though I'm mostly unsatisfied with it. Finished a while ago, but I felt the second half rushed through the interactions, so I rewrote it. Now I feel this chapter got away from me and I overdid it.
Plenty of voting options due to the prior vote suffering from a lack of them.
Gudako Stealth = 58, Gudako has an average stealth roll
Fallen Perception = 61, Not good enough and noticed by fallen.
Gudako Learning = 74, Gudako manages to learn about most of the fallen's plans.
Gudako Diplomacy = 63, The fallen are amenable or at least cowed by Guda's presence.
Fallen Reaction = 56, Not good, not bad. At least they're not going to run away or suicide into Ritsuka
Gudako Presence = 37, Guda manages cow them well enough but it's nothing permanent
Fallen Resistance = 28, Fallen are acting subserviently as they don't want to die.
Well, I'm not good at making plans as making choices so I will leave it to the others. I think we should keep being friendly with them though. Not only will it let us have some allies, but it will also help Gudako's mental state by allowing her to have non-serious and non-hostile interactions with others. We will also probably be able to divert their plans as well.
[X] With this strange turn of events Ritsuka decided…
-[X] Recruit them of course. Weak minions whose loyalty was dubious at best didn't sound great, but who could resist when they doubled as interesting phantasmal specimens!
--[X] First things first was establishing her workshop, and these new minions were going to help.
---[X] Do some small talk while working on your new workshop and learn about your newest minions. And Hyde Expy too I guess, maybe get him to go buy some food, it's not like we've eaten in a while.
Minions are just friends you haven't convinced that it is in their best interests to work with you. Also eating food with people seems to work like a great way to become friends with them. (We can honestly learn about the sacred gears later.)
Sacred gears are just like unusually weak noble phantasms most of the time anyway. (Yes some of them are really strong but others are just mediocre.)
Edit Note: Forgot to add this to the vote
[X] Will Ritsuka keep studying Mittelt? (free action)
-[X] Yes. (Roll a d100 for alchemical discoveries.)
Well hopefully we'll not do it in a bad way but knowing our luck we'll just figure out that fallen angel feathers just taste like birds.
[X] With this strange turn of events Ritsuka decided…
-[X] Recruit them of course. Weak minions whose loyalty was dubious at best didn't sound great, but who could resist when they doubled as interesting phantasmal specimens!
--[X] First things first was establishing her workshop, and these new minions were going to help.
---[X] Do some small talk while working on your new workshop and learn about your newest minions. And Hyde Expy too I guess, maybe get him to go buy some food, it's not like we've eaten in a while.
[X] With this strange turn of events Ritsuka decided…
-[X] Recruit them of course. Weak minions whose loyalty was dubious at best didn't sound great, but who could resist when they doubled as interesting phantasmal specimens!
--[X] First things first was establishing her workshop, and these new minions were going to help.
---[X] Do some small talk while working on your new workshop and learn about your newest minions. And Hyde Expy too I guess, maybe get him to go buy some food, it's not like we've eaten in a while.
lol, we really are just aligning with the bad guys.
we're on our way to making our own cult!
[X] With this strange turn of events Ritsuka decided…
-[X] Recruit them of course. Weak minions whose loyalty was dubious at best didn't sound great, but who could resist when they doubled as interesting phantasmal specimens!
--[X] First things first was establishing her workshop, and these new minions were going to help.
---[X] Do some small talk while working on your new workshop and learn about your newest minions. And Hyde Expy too I guess, maybe get him to go buy some food, it's not like we've eaten in a while.
[X] Will Ritsuka keep studying Mittelt? (free action)
-[X] Yes. (Roll a d100 for alchemical discoveries.)